Firefly and Kingfisher Update

Phase 3 of my Kingfisher Stitch-along is in progress and moving slooooowly forward. Phase 1 was hand-sewing the flowers; Phase 2 was cutting out the background diamonds and deciding on a placement design. 

Phase 3 is preparing the flowers, then hand-stitching them to their diamonds. In the picture below, blue checks are finished blocks; red checks denote flowers that are starched, pressed and glue-basted onto their diamonds, ready for hand-sewing tomorrow. With 46 diamonds total, not counting the borders, I still have a ways to go.

If anyone had told me, even a year ago, how much I’d come to enjoy hand-stitching a quilt, I’d have called them absolute nutters. Joke’s on me - I love English paper piecing. For a while I considered only doing EPP and not going back to machine-stitched quilts. Then I saw this . . . 

and remembered I had this in my stash*.

Almost overnight, that became this -

then this -

and most recently this -

 6 done, 10 to go!

I remember watching, chasing, catching lightning bugs with my sisters while growing up in the South and the memories always make me smile. How could I not make this quilt??!?

 

The Firefly quilt-along runs through the end of July and I might finish on time, if you don’t include long-arm quilting and binding. So far, I’m keeping up with the group (6 blocks last week, 5 more in each of the next 2 weeks). Kingfisher stitch-along continues till the end of August and I’m slightly ahead of where we’re supposed to be. Knock on wood, I think I might make that deadline too. (I just jinxed myself, didn’t I . . .)

* This is my collection of lovely, lovely Grunge, originally purchased in Colorado during our eclipse watching trip.