I've been steadily working on the butterfly quilt blocks. I have a lot of them appliqued (haven't been counting), but still need to add the antennae. I think I'll embroider those on with black embroidery floss. I still need to pick out a few more fabrics for the backgrounds. I'm planning a total of 90 blocks, so it is a big project. I watch basically no TV, except for the Brewers baseball games. This is time that I can do handwork -- thus a quilt such as this.
Something else I've been working on is some mug rugs.
In May, Mark & I, and some friends since back in his GE days went up to Westby, Wisconsin for a weekend. Westby is a little town not too far from La Crosse. It is also the home of Branches Winery, owned and operated by another former GE friend, Gene Burgholz & his wife, Therese. The winery has only been in operation 3 years, but we were quite impressed. And there wasn't a single wine that we didn't like. If you get the opportunity to visit, I would definitely recommend doing so.
Besides the winery, Gene took us out to his house to see his 'collection'. Apparently over the years, he has gone hunting in Africa a number of times. He has a large room filled with his prizes from the hunt. And center stage is the head of an elephant! He explained to us the process of mounting it -- quite an undertaking. I wish I had thought to take some photos.
So, back to the mug rugs. I wanted to send a thank you gift to Gene & Therese, so I made them each a mug rug. I thought an elephant would be perfect for Gene, so I searched for a silhouette online, and then adapted & simplified it to work for an applique. This one is machine appliqued and hand quilted. (Don't look too closely at my quilting stitches.) Here is the elephant (front and back).
Since Therese is a quilter, I used a quilt block on hers. The hexagon flower was an extra from the quilt top that I finished last year (that still needs to be quilted). This one is hand appliqued and hand quilted.
Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today. Have a wonderful day.
