No Brainer and Big Concentration Projects

The photo above is the no brainer project. I love making these strip pieced and raw edged fused appliqued fabric postcards. I have made many and was in the autumn mood and plan to send a few to my friends with fall birthdays. I found the fun felt buttons in a leaf shape at Joanns. They came in three colors and I sewed one of each to the postcard for a bit of texture and dimension. I added some  orange glitter/glue to the eyes and to make it look like a nose piercing.

Then the other photo is a teaser of my entry in the 2011 Joann Fabrics Quilt Challenge. It is the huge brain buster project that I only do 2-3 times a year because i want it perfect for a conpetition. I was one of the top 20 last year and my goal is to be in the top 10+. The rules for the quilt size is 36" x 36" minimum and this one is horizontal at 53" x 43." I have this attraction to orange since gardening season began and it's overflowed into my quilts as well. I wanted to work in the blue and orange color combo and it was a "challenge" finding fabrics that I liked at Joanns that had  prints with these two colors in them and finding enough batiks to do at least the face. I also was trying to find florals in blue-not easy! I went to the Madison East, Green Bay and Escanaba MI stores and finally felt like I had enough fabric selctions to work with. I'm used to going to my stash and/or purchasing extra at the local quilt stores and not relying on just Joann Fabrics for my fabric choices-perhaps that's part of the challenge!! I have all the applique pieces stitched in place and I am quilting the orange background in a circular "bullseye" pattern at the moment. I have plenty to do but the deadline isn't until January 2012 so I'm good. I setnit aside and do the no-brainer sewing. I plan to make another hat soon and more cards and the list never ends...!! I am never bored and that's a good thing