Perfect Pears and a Punchneedle

Today the sun is streaming through the dining room window, and I had to record the pears that R brought home. They are tiny but perfect. the color on them is amazing.



(I took my new little punchneedle mat there to photograph, and got side-tracked by the pears.)

Re. the punchneedle; it is about 5" x 9". I did the punched thread part a year or two ago and it has been lying in a basket of unfinished things. It seems that January is a time when I go through these baskets and finish some of the projects. Sometimes I do something different than what I had initially intended with the project.
That's what happened with this punch-needle mat. I had intended to frame it, but lately I have so many things that are for the wall that another just isn't needed around here. Instead, I decided to make it into a little mat. So, all I did was trim the extra fabric to about 3/8" from the edge of the punched part and turned it to the back, using stitches to tack it in place. Then I basted it to some felted wool and stitched it down and removed the basting. I used my little ripple blade on the rotary cutter to trim the edge of the wool to about 1/4" from the punched part. And voila!
So, having finished a project, it seemed only logical to start another. Right?
I had a stack of reproduction fabrics, 1930's -1950's, that is in all sorts of candy colors. I was debating whether to use them for another log cabin or maybe even start a double wedding ring quilt.... then, it occurred to me that I had always wanted to do a postage stamp trip around the world. That was it. I enthusiastically pulled out the fabrics and started cutting strips. After sewing for a while I have realized that I have about 60 or 70 strips too many.

Hmmm. I suppose it is an opportunity to use the extra ones to do something to add to the American Jane panel that I've been saving. But!, I didn't really intend to end up with two more projects today.
And this is one of the roses on the dining room table, which is very beautiful.