Productive? Much!

 I may seem to be working on lots of things at once (because I am) but I am also very productive. At the moment I seem to be busy  making quilts to donate, on the sewing machine, but not having as much time to work on my projects. I have enjoyed hand piecing so much recently, when I made the Joseph's Coat with Buttons, that I decided to change from machine piecing these Sunflower blocks and do them by hand instead. Believe it or not I can make more time for hand piecing at odd moments than I can machine stitch. Even if I'm not piecing I can take these little moments to draw around templates and cut out pieces so that when time allows I am able to get my hand piecing done.
   I have a liking for metals tins for hand work projects and I bought this one full of Christmas shortbread. The shortbread tasted OK but I really wanted the tin as it has a flat lid with no raised decorative bits other than the name at one end. I like to use a tin as I often use that to rest my hands on when I'm hand piecing and it also makes a great little table to use when marking fabric with the templates. I cut a piece of fine sandpaper to fit the tin and then turned the tin upside down and taped it underneath. Now when I want to draw around templates I only have to flip the tin over and I have a non-skid surface which is ideal when I'm in the car or waiting for appointments etc. I had two visits to Dr's rooms this week- not for me but for other family members, so I took the tin with me and marked quite a few fabric strips while I waited.
  To get started I chose the focus fabric on the far left which has many different colours and shades in an autumn theme. Then I selected fabric in similar shades and with a good mix of different prints, as well as some hand dyes. I make some of the blocks and then look at them together to see what colours I need more of. I have made 9 blocks now and 3 of them just need the centre circle appliqued which I will make when I have to make several rather than just making one at a time. I haven't decided which fabric will be used in the centre for all the fabrics so I won't cut them until I have almost finished the piecing. I cut the fabric I've selected into strips wide enough for the templates as it's an easy way to carry what I need as well as allowing me to see which colours I need to add. These aren't colours that I would normally use but I liked the focus fabric and I thought it would be good for me to try something new, remembering that colour gets the credit but tone does the work!
  Oh and I have used enough scraps to make them into 3 star blocks but that will be a project to work on when I am at the sewing machine again.
 I'm off to work nights again for a few days but I hope to have some more hand stitching progress to share soon.
Hugs Jan Mac