Finished! String of Pearls Remixed (lap quilt)

I'm so happy with this! My String of Pearls (as per Christa's pattern) Remixed (the print is Remix Ovals by Anne Kelle for Robert Kaufman)

The striped back, made from solids from Spotlight

I stitched in the ditch around the squares and the links.  You can't see them very clearly on the front, but inside each square I've quilted a couple of 'lazy' ovals - I didn't want to compete with or distract from the ovals in the print by putting lots of lines inside them.

I've filled the background with 'organic' lines, some run side to side while others run up and down.

Bess just wasn't keen to smile today...

My helpful hubby was finding his arms were getting sore holding it up for me...bless him...was all of 30 seconds...

Welcome to my visitors from Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday and Crazy Mom's Finish It Up Friday!!!

Holiday Works in Progress update...

Saturday: Getting closer to finishing this...all the background filler quilting is done but have decided I need to put a couple of ovals into each square for a bit of detail, then I can do the binding.

Holiday Works in Progress!

Linking up with Lee's Freshly Pieced Work In Progress Wednesday...

No school for a couple of weeks means I've been getting my String of Pearls Remixed quilt stitched in the ditch around the black borders. Tomorrow I'll be starting on the filler quilting within the grey background spaces. 

A sneak peek at the colourful stripes on the back!

Pre-basting! 

And prepping the fat quarters for my next project...a Fat Quarter Fizz large lap quilt, using the Fat Quarter Shop's FQ Bundle of the Merry Little Girls Stonehenge set by Deborah Edwards and Linda Ludovico for Northcott Fabrics. 

No to mention having read three books, tried three new recipes (one was a disaster as a slice but made a darn good dessert!), enjoying having no alarm clock (except for the sunrise as we have no curtains at the moment after putting in the new windows) and feeding the new calf D.D. (a.k.a Dinner Date 2016)...

Pillowcase prizes x16

My nineteen Year Six pupils are working their way through a Happy Hundred reading challenge (aiming to read 100 chapters, which for some is easy-peasy but for others is definitely a challenge.) They've got until the end of the year, but some have already reached one hundred!

Pattern is the Roll It Up pillowcase from the APQ Million Pillow Challenge

 For fifteen chapters they get a sticker pack, for thirty they get a chocolate bar, the prize for 45 chapters is a chapter book of their own to keep.  What to do for the 75 prize? I almost went to a fat quarter bag but figured the boys would not be quite so thrilled, so decided on pillowcases as I was in Spotlight and they had a lot of sale fabrics to choose from.  The 100 prize will be a giant rocky-road cupcake. 

My class is two-thirds boys, so I will have to keep an eye out for some more 'boy' fabrics; it's easy to get 'girlie'  fabrics, and the girls of course tend to be the more avid readers so most of them have already reached the 75. I've got a bit of time up my sleeve to make some more male-style pillowcases...

I love this Paris fabric!

And I bought three metres of this birdcage fabric - I can see a bag in the future as well as a quilt backing!

This 'world' fabric is cool too!

Hi to everyone visiting from Lee's Work in Progress Wednesday or Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday or Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday!