Progress is such a relative term...

and this time of year, as we ramp up to the holidays and all they entail (school parties that must be attended and partially catered, showing teachers, bus drivers and mail persons the appropriate seasonal gratitude, the pursuit of the right gift at the right price without the knowledge of the recipient, etc) progress on other things tends to slow. Shoot, I don't even have the tree up because it would be lost in the chaos that exists in the living room and I haven't done the slightest bit of extra baking because I am still clearing paperwork off of the counter tops of the home office, uh, I mean the kitchen. So, I have made progress on the wreath quilt from last week's design wall. More than I hoped for actually, but there is still much to do and my husband, pessimist that he is, does not expect this to be finished in 2011. I have hope.

I finished the machine applique on the ribbons pretty quickly and decided to add some machine trapunto to the wreath and ribbon area before quilting. This was accomplished, despite the dog chewing up the brand new large spool of cotton quilting thread I bought for quilting this project. I then decided that I should further enhance the ribbons by adding some stuffed trapunto before doing the final layering. They are all stuffed and the slashes on the backside stitched up so nothing leaks out. I also managed to make the backing earlier in the week. The proportions are not ideal but there was some fabric shortages to work around with the fabrics I had chosen. It was intended to look like a wrapped package... ah well, good thing it is a BACK and will be facing the wall. The label will be a gift tag embellished with a tiny piece of the stripes in the border fabric from the front. I have no idea what I am going to put on the label, but it is made! Hopefully by next week it will be at least partially quilted! To see other people's progress head over to Patchwork Times.