WIP Wednesday

Today I have a whole slew of goodies to share with you so let's get started and dive right in.

First of all, I've been making (slow) progress on my embroidery quilt.  I didn't realise when I bought this quilt, which is actually suppose to be a BOM (block of the month) that there were nine months included, each month consisting of two panels of six squares to stitch - if you're keeping count, that's 108 squares altogether - yikes!  Anyway, I've been working on month #6 blocks recently and this little teddy bear turned out super cute.

Each of these picture blocks has a co-ordinating saying that will go on the backside.  They're not quite as much fun to stitch, since they're all text and they take a lot longer but I've been portioning it out by doing one picture block, followed by the matching text block so that I don't get too bored or risk leaving all the text blocks to the end.

Next up, I'm heading off to the cottage with friends tomorrow so I've spent the day preparing my next project to take along with me - those super cute citrus felt coasters I pinned on Sunday!  The website provides a printable template page but as I don't have ink in my printer, I decided to make my own templates using various glasses to trace around, which has the added, handy bonus of ensuring my coasters will fit my glasses.  I've done all of the cutting and matched up embroidery floss for the needed colours so now I just need to do the stitching - can't wait!

I also did a bit of scrapbooking work today, but the layout is far from done.  Yesterday I pulled a variety of papers but wasn't quite ready to work on it beyond that.  Today I got some good inspiration for the top portion of the page, including mixing up some homemade texture paste - such fun!  I also made my own little triangle/arrowhead template to use with the paste and it's turned out great.  I will definitely be using this more often.  I pulled out some vellum today, too, along with my Mr. Huey's mist and the sewing machine.  Here's what I have so far:

Incidentally, I ended up with such a large number of papers that I was having trouble weeding down which ones I wanted and I resorted to this:

Yes, that's right, I had to move to the floor to lay them all out so I could mix and match.  Someone please tell me I'm not alone in this and you've found yourself here, too?  I've set the rest of the layout aside for now while I process the bottom part of the page in my head for a day or two.  I know how I want it to feel, I just haven't quite figured out how to get it there yet but I'm challenging my inner Janna Werner and Wilna Furstenberg and perhaps a little Michelle de Leon, too.

And lastly, something that is not a WIP but actually complete - tetra-pack chooks!  I'm so ready for Easter now!

These little gals are so easy to make - literally two stitch lines - although placing the bits (especially the comb) was a little tricky.  If you want to make your own, check out Red Ted Art's Juggling Chooks.  There isn't a template for the felt bits but they're very easy to make - one triangle, a three-hump cloud-like shape and a heart folded along the line of symmetry is all you need.  If you're a papercrafter and have the Martha Steward heart punch, that's probably about the right size, even.  I made the eyes with a colonial knot (slightly larger embroidery knot) or you could use a standard French knot.  Oh, and since these will be decoration only and not for juggling, I left out the rice and filled them just with stuffing, although a bit of rice or sand would give them good weight to sit, too.