Stretching

Today was a long quiet day at home. I quilted borders on a quilt for Mom (no picture) then decided I better get to work on the Birthday Swap block for Helen. I was unsure about the fabrics I bought, as they didn't exactly fit her color choices. So I found a few in my stash to add to the group and sent a picture to see if she thought they'd fit in. Meanwhile I did some looking at African art to find some inspiration. This was way outside my usual comfortable box. In the end I decided to use some of the fabrics, not use one and send it to Helen along with the block I did do. Her guidelines were African or African feeling fabrics:brown, orangey brown, blue, green and some black. Block size divisible by 2", at least 10", doesn't need to be square, and has to include applique of any type. I decided to do an African Mask with a pieced, mitered frame aroungd the block. I'm pleased with how it turned out and I sure hope Helen likes it. My new machine does a nice satin stitch. I've not worked with mitering much in the past, and haven't done much applique, so it was a good thing to try some unfamiliar techniques.