6-6-16

I have so much to share with you!  May was another busy month....and where did it go?   It seemed to just zoom past me!

I took a class that I've been wanting to take for a long time, at the local art gallery.  It was Fabric Printing with Linoleum Blocks.

The actual block carving was much more difficult than I thought it would be.  It was very hard work, and very tough on my arthritic hands and wrist.  As a matter of fact, my wrist (that I sprained 2 years ago) is still giving me pain after 3 weeks.  Above is my first test print on paper.  It showed me that I needed to carve away more background material.

And here is my best print on the fabric.  Not perfect, but OK.  I have 3 prints from the class and now have to decide just what to do with them.  

I learned that this process is not for me!  Always good to know, but a disappointment to me.  I guess I will stick with rubber stamps for printing on fabric.  I have yet to try carving one, but I'm pretty sure it will be easier than the linoleum block.  And I have a lot of purchased ones to play with before I need to worry about carving one, so that's good.

I taught my 3rd bag class 2 weeks ago.  Probably my last one for while.  I had 3 repeat students out of four...they said because they had so much fun in the first class they took that they wanted to do it again.  And we had a lot of fun! 

V's bag

S's bag

C's bag

J's bag

I also made a bag as a gift for my sister, but totally spaced on getting a photo of it.  It was really cute.  You'll have to take my word for it until I can get a photo, I guess!  LOL

I went down south to visit my sister for 5 days.  We had a lot of fun.  Visited a couple of quilt shops, saw my niece and nephew who are both living in the area again, and went to dinner a few times.  But mostly we sewed!  I made a block for the BOM and then some other random things.  

This is the sample block for the June Block Of the Month for the Tacoma Modern Quilt Guild.   It is a pattern by Bonnie Hunter called Pineapple Blossom.  The colors for June are lemon yellow, cerulean blue and white.  

By the way, I found a fun website!  It's called "Color Palettes", and it's a lot of fun to play around with.  And I can see it being very helpful for planning a color scheme for a quilt.  Just pick a color or two and pages and pages of suggested color schemes come up.  Whee!

But mostly we made bags.  Sally is making some to sell, and I was making them "just because".  I've been using Noodlehead's Open Wide pouch tutorial, but decided to use a Missouri Star video this time, for doing the zippers a little differently.  I did use Noodlehead's dimensions for the pouch though, as those are good sizes.  I didn't do the zippers perfectly (wrong both times!)  but the pouches came out good anyway.

smaller pouch

I used some fabric I've been hoarding for years on this one!  It finished at 11 inches wide by 7 inches tall.

and the lining

the larger pouch

And for this pouch I used some new fabric that I love!  (my sister loved it too and had to order some for herself) This one finished at 12 inches wide by 9 inches tall.

And the lining

I don't know if you can see in these photos, but I added ribbons and beads on the zipper tabs, so they're easier to open.

I forgot to get photos of the bags my sister was making.  Her bags were very sophisticated, with linen and batiks.  

We had some fun playing with Zoe, my sister's tuxedo cat.  

Zoe was modeling for us on a vintage quilt that my sister owns.  It only took about 60 photos to get one good one!

And here is Zoe begging for her breakfast.  She does this sitting up pose all the time.  What a silly kitty!

I hope you have time to be creative this week!

At Long Last . . .

I have something to show you!  Yay!  I've actually spent some time in the quilt studio and have gotten some things done.  My friend Candy came over and helped me get the quilt studio picked up and organized again, so I had room to sew.   I'm finally feeling more inspired, and have been sewing.  Now the room isn't as picked up as it was.  That's the way it goes, isn't it?

Apparently, I still cannot take a picture straight.

Here are all my blocks, so far, for the Country Threads On-Line Sampler.  I am all caught up now.  Yay!  I actually have June's blocks done at the beginning of the month . . . . amazing.

The blocks for March

March had 3 blocks, 2 at 12 inches and one 6 inches.

April's blocks

All of the blocks, so far, have had a 12 inch block and a 6 inch block.  April's block was the easiest so far.

May's blocks

June's blocks

By the time I finished May's blocks and the 12 inch block for June, I was pretty tired of pinwheels!   (Seven of 'em, if you're counting)  That 6 inch block was supposed to have pinwheels where the 4-patches are.  No way was I making 5 pinwheels that finish at 2 inches!  I really like this little block with the 4-patches.  Keep it simple.  The 6 incher looks washed out next to the indigo in the big block, doesn't it?  I'll have to do a few more in those muted colors to balance it out.

There are going to be a ton of half square triangles in this quilt, and I'm afraid that they're being saved for the last step.  Not looking forward to that !  I'd rather do a few every month instead.  I have been saving whatever HST's I have left over from the flying geese units.  Maybe that will help!

One of the ladies in my guild really liked this panel.  So much so that she bought a whole bolt of it!  She passed them out at the last guild meeting, and we're supposed to make it big enough for a Quilt of Valor and it needs to be done in time for the quilt show in October.  I'm still thinking on what I want to do.

A couple of weeks ago, I was the lucky winner of the giveaway over at Pinkadot Quilts blog.  I won some of Kelly's hand-dyed fabric scraps and this darling pincushion!  Don't these make your mouth water?  Ooooo, not sure what I'm doing with them, but I'm enjoying petting them for now.  Maybe I'll take them to play with in my class with Gwen Marsten in a couple of weeks.

Here is Shade getting in the way helping me in the quilt studio yesterday.  He stubbornly insisted on sitting on the very end of the ironing board.  He really didn't fit very well, but he was gonna do it!  Silly kitty.

Yesterday I saw this squirrel laying on the fence outside of my kitchen window.  He lay there long enough for me to get the camera and take about a dozen pictures of him.  This is the best one.  He had been lying kind of behind that sprig of lilac so that he was obscured, but eventually he turned around and I could get a good shot of him.  After a bit, he grew tired of the paparazzi imitation I was doing and got up and left.  I wondered if maybe he was sick.  I don't think I've ever seen a squirrel lazing about like that!

We're supposed to finally have some warm weather this week.  It's about time!  But I think I'll still be sewing.  I've got more in the works and I have the time to sew this week.  Happiness is a busy quilt studio.

I hope you have a creative week!

Random Bits

Time has gotten away from me, and it's been too long since I posted anything.  I've been so busy, but I did manage to squeeze in some sewing.  Now that the darn taxes are done, and I can manage to deal with the heaps of paperwork in the office, hopefully more sewing and blogging will happen around here!

Here are a couple of string blocks that I made for the Half Log Cabin Challenge over at the String Thing Along blog.  They were fun to make because I got to use some of my bright strings.  Jeanne will be putting them into a quilt for a domestic violence shelter in Southern California.

Here are my March blocks for the Country Threads On-Line Sampler Quilt.  I'm all caught up now, and looking forward to doing the April blocks.  Sorry about the wonky photo - I seem to be completely unable to put the blocks up on the design wall in a straight line!

Here are the blocks for my Low Volume quilt.  There are 80 blocks here!  I'm hoping I can get these put together into a top next week.  I'm excited to see these done.

I finally got started on my color challenge quilt for this year!  Yay!  My color is orange, which has to be the dominant color of the quilt, and we have to add an accent of the color that is opposite on the color wheel, which in this case is true blue. And we're supposed to use either white or black as the neutral.  I hope these are all close enough to a true orange to work.  They look a little closer in Real Life.  The blocks will finish at 4 inches, so not a big quilt.  There are no size requirements other than "at least 9 x 12 inches".  I like the way these look!  They remind me of how 50/50 ice cream (vanilla ice cream with orange sherbet) taste in my mouth.  Just that juicy burst of orange!

Here are my rejects.  I got the center square wrong in the upper right block, the upper left and bottom blocks are too reddish, and something about that center block just disturbs me.  Somehow it reminds me of a spider!  Eww!

I got new glasses the other day and can finally see the TV from my chair.  And even better, I got new computer glasses and can see the computer screen without squinting or sitting too close.  What a difference!  

This And That

I've been working on a little of this and a little of that for the last week or so.  My Quilter's ADD was running rampant for a while there, and I couldn't focus on anything.  So I did just a little clean-up in the studio (found the top of my desk!!) and it seemed to help tame that ADD beast.  There's still a lot of clean-up/straightening up to be done, but after that exhausting experience I just wanted to sew.  And now the cat doesn't have to surf across the desk to sit by me.  We're both happier!

My third Woven Treasure Bag/Cell Phone carrier has been finished and gifted, so I can show it to you now.  This is sized to fit the smaller flip phones, not a smart phone or i-phone. These are not my usual colors to work with, but I enjoyed working with some different colors.  I knew C. would like them.  So this bag is now hers.  I'm working on supposedly making bag #4 for me.  Haven't actually touched it in weeks.  But it is "in process".

I found out about the Country Threads On-Line Sampler Quilt quilt along from Cathy over at Big Lake Quilter blog and decided that I wanted to do it.  I've always loved all the C.T. patterns and books, but haven't really made many of their patterns.  So this is the year!  I'm off to a late start, but still have plenty of time to catch up.  Lots of piecing and no applique - right up my alley!

Here are my blocks for January.  The blocks are 12 inches and 6 inches. I've decided to go with a "circa 1900" vibe/color scheme for this sampler.  You can see some circa 1900 quilts here, here, here and here.  I'm thinking lots of blues (both indigo and medium blue), reds, claret, some black and olive green and the occasional cheddar and chrome yellow, with shirtings and lots of plaids and stripes.  A little brighter and more colorful than the Civil War look.  

And here are my February blocks.  This was the suggested look for this big block, and I'm not too sure I like it yet.  I'll wait and see before I make up my mind, but this may get changed to the more traditional configuration, like the small block.

I'm starting my March blocks now, and I hope to have them done before the month is over.

The local art gallery is going to be doing a yarn bombing in their neighborhood and is asking for help.  When I was looking for something in the studio the other day, I ran across some yarn and my crochet hooks.  So, I'm attempting to remember how to crochet!  I used to do it a lot, but then had to give it up because of arthritis in my hands.  

My brain is feeling rusty again!  You can see that this is not a perfect example of how to crochet! I can't quite remember what to do at the edges (and it shows!) and I think I was not really doing a double crochet stitch there for a few rows.  But whatever - it doesn't have to fit anyone and it's not for close scrutiny!  I don't think the tree, or whatever it gets put on, is going to care much about my technique!  And I'm also sure I won't be doing much crochet in the future.  It still doesn't feel very good and I can only do one row at a time before I start feeling it.  But it's fun to play with yarn again.

Have you tried something different lately?