I had a bit of an adventure on Friday that took me away from my current front burner project, but when the sun rose on Saturday, I was ready for a crochet adventure, and right now the adventure is focused on tricking out the center panel of my 2016 North Carolina State Fair project.

When I began working on it last year, I had a very different idea of what I would be doing, and while I since jettisoned all of the pieces I had thought would be central to the project, I have been delighted with the journey I am on.

At times I do wish the journey were faster and that there were fewer things outside of crochet that had a claim on my time, but the panel will not be hurried, and since wishing doesn’t make it so, and doing does, I got out a darning needle, my array of yarns, and the as-yet-to-be completely completed pieces and got to work embroidering on the surface of the crazy quilt pieces I have crocheted.

One of the first things I tried was adding a bit more decoration to the fan. I had worried that it might be “too much,” but when I finished adding the feather stitch along the line of a color change, I decided that “too much” was just right for this motif:

Next, I decided that this motif (which is one of three I have already joined together) was insufficient as it was, so I added arrows and zigzags along the edges as well as a spider web inspired circle:

Satisfied that the piece was now actually done, I moved onto a motif I had made from what is now vintage Red Heart Super Saver magenta.

I have a total love/hate relationship with this color, and I wanted the decorative elements to elicit what I love about it, and after a few missteps here and there, I finally had something that I thought worked:

I was particularly proud of the flowers which are a variation on the same spider web embroidery motif that I used to good effect earlier, and using a variegated yarn added a lot to the overall design:

In addition, I also finished work on three more pieces, shown here with the magenta with flower basket motif:

With the sun preparing to set on what little was left of the weekend, I decided I needed to get an idea of whether the pieces were working together, so I laid out all of the ones that are either decorated or nearly decorated:

and decided that they are working together pretty well.

I don’t have nearly as much time as I thought I would to get this done, but in the three or so weeks that remain, I will simply have to focus like a laser on this project and not allow myself to be distracted so that I can continue moving forward, one stitch at a time.