Around the bend again

I've been saving pictures of my Quilty 365 'circles' for the February 1st linkup, so that a) I'd have something to actually link up, and b) y'all wouldn't be sick of looking at these here orange peels.  Because I'm certainly not sick of looking at these here orange peels.

I jumped into this project hoping to find out if I could sustain a long-term applique project.  It's been years since I did anything but machine piecing, so I really wasn't sure if I could get enough enjoyment out of the handwork to keep myself focused and going.  But I've been having a bad case of applique-envy, looking at other folk's beautiful work (chief among them Audrey herself), and want to play, too.
One month in, I'm really enjoying sitting in the evening, handstitching while I watch a movie or listen to music.  I think I like it!

Here's a photo I took of progress through January 23rd when I had enough squares done to reach a corner again.

You can see the partial seam at lower left, which is left open so I can add squares to the end of that running strip.

You can also see where I labeled my starting squares - New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
And here we are sewn together and ready to go round the bend again.

I could have sworn I took pictures of adding the squares to the end - squares for the 24th through the 26th - but I can't find any.  Oops.
But here's where Quilty 365 stands today.

The January 27th square is the one in the upper right hand corner, with its partial seam, and the last few days of January ready to link onto this row.
This one, for Jan 30th, cracks me up.  I was digging through a bag of scraps that my sister-in-law had given me when I came across this pink backgrounded loopy floral print that is so NOT ME that I had to immediately cut an orange peel out of it.  I slapped it onto a brown background and loved it to bits.

And then I got home and read that Angela had announced the February RSC color - brown with pink for the accent color.
Maybe I should have run right out to buy a lottery ticket?




Linking to Audrey's Quilty 365 February linky party.  Come see the incredible variety of happy stitching!