Mandala's Applique is Complete

Yesterday was an amazing day for my applique!  I hand stitched all of the smallest applique circles as I had finished the larger circles the night before, so now it's time to spend a bit of effort thinking the thin border around the large center circle.  Should it stay raspberry as I'd originally intended?  Should I demo another color?  Green perhaps?  What do you think?

All Applique for Mandala Quilt is done

Mandala Quilt Progress

I've been working on my Mandala Quilt!  Currently I have the center as well as the two large Spirographs in the upper corners fully appliqued.  I plugged the pictures of my real work into the layout so you can see how that's coming along.  All of these circles are being appliqued by hand and I've been surprised the going isn't as slow as I feared it would be.  Currently I have five other large circles pined and ready to stitch, so I'm ready to sit and sew this evening.  Anyone want to read my book aloud so I can sew and enjoy my book at the same time?

A block for Myra

Have you heard about Myra?  She is a quilter in New Zealand who is currently fighting her own battle with cancer.  Now the way I read it her friend Karen also went through the same thing a couple of years ago and all of their quilting buddies collected and made an applique heart quilt to for her.  So now Karen is putting it all together to make one for Myra as well.

Are you in?  If so all the details are here at Selvage Blog it is requested that all blocks be applique hearts.  Any form of applique and any embellishments you want are fine.  It's only a 6.5" block on white on white or cream on cream so even if you do hand work it sews together in a jiff.  Hearts can be pastels of pink, purple, or blue.

Heart for Myra

So here's mine.  I started with a scrap of paper as I really wanted it to reflect who I am.  First I thought perhaps I could do something with water and a palm tree within the heart, but then when I stumbled upon the idea of a Bandaid I had to do it.

My heart is white on white with a blue heart that has a little Bandaid on it.  The Bandaid is a tube of floral fabric that I managed to find a spot of plain print just big enough to make the Bandaid and then I hand stitched the little dots over the padded area.  For the applique I took two pieces of the same fabric sewed them together cut one side open turned it and then carefully stitched the hear down so that my stitches only show on the back.  If you know what method that is tell me and then we'll both know.

I still need to add my name and location and then true the entire block to 6.5" but after I do it will be off to Karen in New Zealand for Myra.