The First Annual Deepwood Ascension Festival and Golden Arrow Tourney

Evil abounds in the Deepwoods of Akron, as creatures from the Wastes find their way through the Forgolonian Wall to raid and pillage the villages of Akron.

This evil is held at bay through the courageous efforts of Akron's Deepwood Rangers, who dedicate their lives to protecting the people and forests of Akron.

These valiant Rangers work tirelessly to rid the forests of evil bandits and wastelings.

Upon victory over the bandits, the Rangers celebrated with the Deepwood Ascension Festival. The families of Akron once again were safe!

An archery contest drew the finest archers from the surrounding kingdoms.

And a Grand Melee was held to determine the fiercest warrior of them all.

Local nobility donated a vast treasure of amazing prizes to be awarded, honoring the Rangers for their efforts.

There was food and fun to be had all around, and we are hoping that the Deepwoods Acension Festival will become an annual Akron event.

(Most photos are credited to Jessica of the BoldEgoist)

WIP Wednesday

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and Let's Bee Social

I have been blessed enough to sneak in some quilty time this week.

First up was the quilt for Baby Matt. I originally attempted a variegated thread and concentric circles around each square but the variegated thread had some purple in it and it just looked too odd. After about a dozen squares I tore it out and opted for white thread with pebbling and yay! I am so very happy with the result. It will take a long time to quilt but its GOR-geous! 

The other project I have been working on is the Scattered! quilt. I filled in all the sides with blacks and grays from my stash. I think I'm going to sneak in one more column in the center to give my self a slightly larger quilt and more appealing ratio. It will currently finish at 58.5" x 81" and one more column will put it at 63" x 81" or roughly 3:4. I *know* it doesn't really matter except I will be happier with it if I add another column. 

As far as the belt flags that I said I was going to work on last week - well I did. And they didn't get done because I kept getting bird nests beneath the stitching. Still working on it, I'll let you know if I make any progress.

Sew Mama Sew's Community Match: Dragon Drawstring Bag

Sew Mama Sew  runs the Super Online Sewing Match where several stitchers compete in a series of projects for top prizes. Part of this is the community match where the blogging community that has been following along can post similar projects and enter to win prizes themselves. If you stitched a dress, bag, pajamas, top, or coat, between June 24 and August 28, you can enter to win! Just add your link to the Sew Mama Sew Community Match Linky party.

Normally I wouldn't have anything to enter but it just so happens that I finished a bag the other day!

This bag was made with a Craftsy Class (Kristin Link's Bag Making Basics: Drawstring Bag and Bucket Bag) and an Urban Threads free standing lace pattern Fierce Dragon.

I am really very happy with this bag and I did make a couple changes to the pattern. Because I was going to use free standing lace as a decoration, I opted for reinforce the front with medium weight fusible interfacing.

I also decided not to make my own drawstrings and instead used some drawstring that I had on hand.

My favorite part about this bag is that the wings of the dragon are movable - how cool is that?

So that is my entry into the Sew Mama Sew Community Match contest. If you haven't already popped over to check it out, you should. There are some really great entries. Better yet, enter yourself!

Why Procrastinate?

I've been putting off a couple things that I *need* to get done craftywise. Jack has requested two embroidered belt flags for the Deepwoods Ascension Festival that our Dagorhir group is sponsoring. The event takes place in approximately a week and I haven't stitched the flags out yet.

I've found everything to do except these flags, including another medic flag, this one for myself

and a drawstring bag to offer as a prize at the festival.

But I still haven't done the belt flags and I spent a lot of time mulling over why I've been procrastinating and (confession time) I think it is because I'm not certain how to do them. You see, they are going to take some techniques that I haven't attempted yet including software manipulation, I am worried they won't look even half way decent, and also vaguely concerned that  my embroidery machine is going to have another one of its hissy fits. 

I think it also has something to do with lack of direction, being not sure where to start or how to plan it out. 

Therefore, the only thing I can do is sit my reluctant butt down and give it a shot, so tomorrow that is what I will be doing after work. Belt flags or bust!

What causes you to procrastinate and how do you get over it?

Scattered!

House guests over the weekend meant that I had to clean out the Spare 'Oom. Now that they have departed, I have a perfect design floor.  :) Win for me (extra large design floor) and win for Jack (who won't have to put up with me taking over the living room for my quilt layouts.)

Of course,  as is natural, I had to start a new quilt. You know, to test out my new design floor.

This quilt is inspired by Scattered by Rebecca Bryan. It can be found in her book Modern Rainbow.

I started by sorting my lights, mediums, and darks.

Colored pieces in a randomish arrangement and surrounded by whites.

Then I added the grays and blacks. Uhoh... not enough blacks.

I'm going to delve into my stash and see if I have any black fabric I can chop up into charms to make up the difference.

Quilt-volution

I thought it would be fun to see the evolution of my quilting journey. These are more or less in order of finish, but not in order of when I started them. It would be a little difficult to sort by start order. For example, the Penrose Square quilt near the bottom was one of the first that I started.

Given to my niece - I think she uses it to keep her slippers on :)

Project Linus

Tree skirt

My own personal mug rug

Project Quilt Lemonade

Wall hanging in my computer room

Project Linus

Project Linus

Given to Nana

For my niece - first side of two sided quilt

For my niece - other side

Donated to nursing home

Wall hanging in my living room

Gifted to a friend of the family with chronic illness

For baby cousin

For baby cousin

For a little girl at my church

Wall hanging in my sewing room

To my sister in law

Here are the projects I am still working on in no particular order. Some of these are intended as gifts, some are just for me, and some have no plan yet.

Maybe eventually, you know, in my spare time, I will put them in order of start. I think that would be fascinating.