Stop and Smell the Roses

I've fallen a little behind the pace hand quilting my Dutch Treat #2 due to some doctor appointments and other interruptions.  I have three more blocks left to finish on row #10.  I've tried to do two rows a week and had been keeping that up until the last week.  But with only 4 more rows after this one to do, I still hope to finish it, including designing, appliqueing and quilting the borders before year end---  "hope" being the key word.

I've also worked on a few other things in the last week.  Block 3 of Raggedy and Friends

Block 4 has already been posted so I need to get started on it.

I've worked on a couple of other projects that I can't share just yet.

And last but not least I helped Tom with a project.  A couple months ago he spotted some black flowers at Wal-mart and came home with them, a couple yards of fabric and an idea for a Halloween wall hanging he wanted to make.  Little by little he got it designed and pieced.  Yesterday he had testing done to confirm the need for carpal tunnel surgery on his right wrist and he finally realized he wasn't going to be able to quilt it himself, at least not if it was to be done by THIS Halloween.  So he surprised me by asking me if I'd quilt it for him (he does not usually appreciate my offers to help).  I quilted it yesterday afternoon and put the finishing touches on this morning. 

Here's his Halloween Art quilt called "Stop and Smell the Roses"

Since he wanted a curved edge I suggested a "birthing" method of finishing the edge.  That allowed me to roll a bit of the contrasting back to the front and stitch in the ditch to give the appearance of a very narrow piping.  I like the effect.  It did present a bit of a challenge to deal with the bit of extra fabric on the front from doing this but I was able to quilt it in.   

Kind of cute, don't you think?  Happy Halloween!