WIP Wednesday

I feel like there's a lot I want to share recently but I'm going to break things down and not flood the blog all at once.  Right now this is what I'm enjoying most:

Now that summer holidays have officially arrived, it's 100% craft and "me" time - swoon!  Since I don't have an extra bedroom to use as a craft space, I like to set up my sewing machine out on the balcony when the weather is nice.  There is something particularly lovely about stitching outside with the sunshine and a light breeze, watching the trains go by (just behind the fence in the distance).

My current WIP (work in progress) is a Ricky Tims Harmonic Convergence wall hanging.  I made the top about two years ago during a sewing project day with friends but I was never happy with the inner border - it was decidedly blue and didn't really go well with the rest of the colour palette.  Then one day at quilt guild, a vendor had this fabric that I snatched up:

Isn't it just yummy?  And scrapbookers, look carefully - yes, that is a MME fabric!  I'm in total love.  So a few months ago I ripped off all the borders with the plan to replace the inner blue border with this lovely turquoise one but never got that far.  Yesterday I sat down and began the process of adding the borders back on and it's looking so much better now.  The top border is giving me some issues, however.  Despite everything being squared up properly, the border and cornerstones aren't matching up well but I'm sure I'll get there in the end.

Here's a general layout view for you (along with Oskar, who is 'snooper-vising'):

You can see that I've made the borders directional so that the cups look like they're hanging.  The folded fabric in the top left will be the backing fabric.  I haven't decided on the binding yet - probably either that luscious turquoise or the brown.  I may also fussy cut and applique one of the teapots onto the design, too, but that's still being debated at the moment.  For quilting, I'm thinking swirls to mimic steam throughout the body and possibly waves along the borders and maybe concentric circles in the cornerstones.  My machine doesn't quilt well, though, so this might end up being a hand quilt project...

Next up, I sat down today and made a belated Father's Day card for my step-father.  With all the bustle and stress of end of school work, Father's Day just sort of hit me out of the blue.  I was a good girl and made a point of ringing him up but thought I should send along a card, too.

A lot of my inspiration for this card came from working with the MME Oxford Lane papers when putting together my Gaelic Girls LO - the colours are of course masculine and a wee bit retro and I liked how well they paired with both the Maggie Holmes gold glitter Thickers and the Webster's Pages Composition & Colour neon yellow washi tape (seriously, if you love Oxford Lane, invest in this tape, too - they are the perfect match in both colour and style).

I also had some inspiration from this week's Stash Busters Challenge at 2Peas, specifically prompt #1 (use something shiny) and prompt #2 (use something natural).  I recently found these lovely kraft corrugated die-cuts at my LSS and decided to try them out and I knew I wanted to use one on this card.  The MME papers are all white-based, however, so I decided to pull in a little more kraft with the matting and I made a border of the yellow washi tape to remove some of the over-powering white and help draw out a little more pop of yellow in the process.  The button is made of coconut wood and sort of reminded me of a suit button, which would compliment the necktie.  I think the few sequins and the glitter Thickers are just enough bling without going overboard and still works well together with the kraft elements.  If you'd like links to this project's shopping list, you can check it out here: #1 Dad card.

That about wraps it up for today.  What are your current WIP?