Crop Circles and UFOs

So here's the art (remember art?) I've been working on lately. I finished the piece I blogged about last month, doing a ton of machine-quilting to begin with, while contemplating how on earth to tackle those four big blanks in the center. After a couple of false starts and do-overs, the pattern emerged: Crop circles. So that's what I'm calling it. You can see the hand and machine stitching I did by clicking on the photo to the left to enlarge it. Ditto with the detail shots.

I unearthed a fragment of striped Kaffe Fassett fabric that I thought would be perfect for the binding (I love binding with stripes) -- maybe a tad too bright, though I figured I could get away with it. Unfortunately, that fragment -- no more than 2" x6" -- was all I had. It's been discontinued, natch. But the Glorious Color web site still lists the stock number (NS-17, if you're curious), and with that I had a hope of Googling a source. Maybe some little fabric shop, somewhere in cyberspace, still had a supply. Yup; found it. But when they went to look for it in their brick-and-mortar store, it turned out they were out of stock, too. No, wait; they had a few fat quarters left, though it might not be quite the same color. A different dye lot, perhaps; a shade more muted, for sure -- and of course, perfect for my binding. Here's a shout-out to Mama's Log House Quilt Shop in Huntington, Arkansas. Lordy, I love the web.

Speaking of crop circles, I'm determined to deal with my UFOs (unfinished objects) this year. This last photo is the "after" of a quick-and-dirty quiltlet (maybe 15" x 18") I did several years ago to be sure I had the basics of fusing down before a workshop with Melody Johnson. I didn't put much effort into the composition, to put it mildly. So I fused on a few more shapes here and there, overlaid a couple of areas with scraps of dyed and discharged organza, and quilted the beejeezus out of the sucker (as we ladies say around the sewing circle). It's more presentable than it was when I started, which isn't saying a whole lot.