Sarah's Revival Update

Happy Valentine's Day!

In honor of the day, I thought I would share some red and white.  It has been a while since I've done an update on this project.  That is probably because it has been a while since I've had anything to share!  But as I mentioned last week, I have a goal for the Olympics to get the four center blocks done.  They are identical blocks and the only ones to use red and green.  Before I could work on them, I needed to finish the other two blocks I had underway.  I usually only applique one at a time, but I also have one all basted and ready to start.

I drug this poor block around for months working on it a bit here and there.  Needle-turn applique is like other things--the more you work on it, the better it gets.  This block really suffered because each time I worked on it, I hadn't touched it for probably two weeks!

This was the block I already had basted.  Before I began it, I basted the red fabric on the four center blocks.  With back-basting applique, I find that the longer the basting is in, the easier it is to applique.  I can baste and immediately start the needle-turning, but giving it at least 24 hours makes a noticeable difference.  

Betweeen these two blocks, I crossed a milestone--the top block was the 18th out of 36 blocks.  The second block is the 19th, so now I'm more than halfway done with them!!!!!!

I decided to lay them all out to admire them

So far I've gotten the red done on two of the center blocks and have the green basted over the top.  I'm now working on the red for the third block.  I'm excited to see how a finished block will look--that and the fact that I'm spending lots of time watching the Olympics is really helping me keep focused!

I hope everyone has a "sweet" day!
JoAnne