Embellishing challenge

Back in February, our friend Elena prepared some little blocks for each one of us in our sewing circle as a Valentine’s Day gift. The blocks are all the same, and her idea was that we all finish them to our liking. In the end, these blocks symbolize the thread of friendship that binds us together. This was the basic block:

Knowing the way I am and the possibility that this little block would get stuck in a drawer for years, relegated as a UFO, I decided then and there that I needed to finish it right away. So I quickly blanket stitched the hearts, machine quilted the piece, bound the edges and hung it up on the wall next to my computer desk. “What a neat idea,” I thought. “I can look at this often and think about this special group of friends.”

I was feeling pretty proud of myself, since I was the first to actually finish the piece. Several weeks later, however, our friend Susy walked in with her finished block. Now this woman doesn’t hold back! She had decided to experiment with different embelishing ideas… Wow!

One of the great things about being a teacher is to live into the day when a former student overdoes me. I think Susy did such a wonderful job on this piece; it is really lovely.

I, unfortunately am not too terribly competitive. In spite of the teasing and goading, I didn’t buckle in to dedicate as much time to embelish my block. (Susy told us she spent an entire day on this piece.) She did manage to shame me enough to add a few little touches, but this is as far as I’m going. As it is I don’t seem to have enough time for sewing, and still have a pile of UFOs to finish!

It will be fun to see what the rest of the group comes up with and I can’t wait to see their finished blocks.