Hoffman Challenge Finished!

Hi all -

My Hoffman Challenge quilt is finally finished and entered into the contest. At least, I hope it's entered. Somehow I got to the payment part before I got to the registration part so I hope they're able to match up my payment with my quilt! I'm sure it'll all work out.

Here is the picture of the final quilt:

I had thought about adding a line of twilling stitch (a knotted embroidery stitch) using black perl cotton between the circle and the border quilting, but there was a spot where the border quilting was too close to the circle for that, so I punted. I think that would have looked good, but I'm also pleased with it the way it is. I also thought about adding some 3D butterflies but decided that the beauty of this quilt is in the simplicity so skipped those, too. Here is the detail shot I submitted:

I decided to name the quilt Taijitu, which is what the yin-yang symbol is according to Wikipedia. I thought that was a more interesting name than Yin-Yang. I do still need to add the label and the hanging sleeve. I'm waiting to see if this gets accepted into the challenge before adding the sleeve because I use thumb tacks in the hanging sleeve to hang quilts at home so like a flat hanging sleeve for that, but would need to add slack in the sleeve if it's going to be hung in the show. Either way, I'm happy with what I did and also happy to move on to other projects.

Speaking of other projects, I've made good progress on the African dance quilt for my niece. I've cut and fused all of the applique pieces:

I'm really happy with how it looks so far. Now I have to sew the applique pieces to secure them. I want to do that while doing the quilting so I don't get any extra thread build-up around the appliques. Some of these pieces are tiny so I'm really concerned about what's going to happen when I sew over them. For example, the neck pieces are about 1/16" wide and 1/2" long. But I'll just use a monofilament thread and as thin of a needle as I can get to work and just go for it. I'm sure it'll end up working out fine! The original pattern doesn't have a border, but I might want to add one. I don't want to handle the piece too much before the small applique pieces are sewn down, so I'll just sandwich it with an oversized batting and backing so I can add a border quilt-as-you-go style if I decide I want one. I should be able to get started on that this weekend. It's exciting to have a project that is moving along this quickly!

I've also done a little knitting. This is the Spiral Hat pattern by Marci Blank from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders:

It was a quick and easy knit. It ended up a little bit small because the instructions said to knit until it was 5" tall, and then start the decrease rows. But this pattern squishes up a lot so I wasn't sure how to measure it. Do you unroll the rolled hem? Do you smooth it flat? I should probably of done a few more rounds before doing the decreases, but it's still cute and will fit someone. It doesn't fit Lance:

The last couple of weeks have been a bit hard on me because it's been pine pollen season up here. This time of year we get a thick layer of bright yellow pine pollen all over everything:

It's hard to get a picture of the pollen, but you get the idea. I kept the windows closed in the house as much as possible, but, of course, we had a heat spell at the same time. It even got up to 90 degrees at my house up in the mountains! In June! But I survived and am appreciating being able to breathe again. Happily, we had a couple of little rain storms this week so the deck has been cleaned off pretty well for me now and I look forward to spending some time out there again this weekend.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Nancy