Distracted again...

Deadline for the MQA 25" Celebration quilt is this Saturday... And what am I doing?? Learning a new lace making technique.

Someone posted a YouTube video on one of the fb pages I follow that caught my eye. The artist is Turkish, but the videos are fairly clear without language. The maker calls it "iğne oyasıI" which my Google translated to "needle lace". I followed that video to this one: Needle Lace 

and it was my undoing. This work is gorgeous, I just gotta learn it!!

YouTube video I am using to teach myself.

 I have made progress on the MQA quilt up until my needle lace distraction. All the main quilting is done and I'm working on the fillers. Usually when I allow my work to get interrupted it's because I'm not pleased with something and I have to let it work itself out in my head. But I am really stumped on this one. Tomorrow, I'm going to have to sit myself at the sewing machine and get it done as planned. Maybe the solution will become clear. If not, I think it pretty good as is :).

 A few things I want to mention....
I REALLY like this Sewline Styla marking pen. It draws a fine line with hardly any pressure needed. This will be my marking pen of choice from now on.

Next, I must remember to flip the design when using paperbacked fusible web for applique. Ugh, twice I traced from the right side, cut out my pieces, only to realize the pieces were backwards and unusable.

Correct way. Trace from a reversed image.

And, iron the paperbacked fusible web to the wrong side of the fabric, not the right side of the fabric!! I'm not sure how i managed to do this step wrong twice too, but I did. I'm hoping that if I blog about it then I will NEVER do it wrong again!

Paper backed webbing fused to wrong side of fabric

All in all, I've enjoyed this project. I've learned a lot. Seeing how it has evolved from my original design. It is a piece of me. It's crazy colorful, has whimsy, and I believe anyone could see the love for what I do.

One last thing to mention...

Sometimes I need a little encouragement from friends to push me out of my comfort zones. Much thanks to my quilting friend Terry for nudging me to "write" on my quilts. I had to add that trick into this quilt... So much fun!!

Close up of my "writing".
In this photo,I haven't erased my marking yet
But it does come out easily with a damp cloth.