Five things

Sometimes you have to work on life stuff instead of creating, sigh. Every moment seems to be filled, but I don’t have a lot to show for it yet. Three life things have taken my attention and I’m working on two creative things in between:

Life:

Shoes. I’m working on shoes. Shoes that don’t hurt my damaged feet. We are way beyond the “shoes that are cute” phase. Now it’s shoes-that-are-cute-and-don’t-hurt-my-feet-and-have-room-for-inserts phase.

Comfort shoes that work for others do not work for me. I have re-shoed 3 times in the last 2 years. Until these 2 successes, I had 1 athletic pair and 1 regular pair that worked with my current foot status. I almost don’t look at the price anymore. I did refuse to try on a pair of Paul Greens that the older, wise sales guy said were fabulous for my issue. They were $450; I do draw a line.

Oh the time I have spent on my shoe search! Please, please, no recommendations. My issues are unique and 99% of shoes do not work for me. This has been a huge time suck. Seems so silly, but when you’re down to 2 pair, it gets serious. I do have other shoes I can wear for a few hours, but I will soon be back to traveling and I need shoes to take me through a whole day.

And….

I continue to study for the quilt judge certification process for the next year or so. I am absolutely enjoying it! But it does add a whole new level of time.

BTW, NorCal peeps can take a fabulous 2-day class through the Quilt Judge Training course, Feb 23 – 24, 2027. This will be the last time it will be offered for a while and it will probably fill. I took this in-person class and it was excellent, practical and hands-on.

And then there’s this guy. My new I17 Pro. Still ohhhhhhh so much to learn! Just when I think I can function, something new will need to be conquered. I need a 14 yr old boy to move in with me to get me over the hump. Iphones are a foreign language and it takes time. I’m proud of how much I’ve figured out so far.

On the creative side, I’m working on two things:

I am working on several trapunto projects, this being the first. I hope to develop an on-demand course for Creative Spark to add to my intro to free motion quilting course. BTW, that course has been very well received. Write to me if you are interested; I do have a surprise for you.

I don’t know if trapunto will end up as a course. I plan to make it one, but time constraints may foil that plan. This first project started with appliqued heart squares from….I’m not sure where. They are imperfect and a bit wonky. It is my policy to honor the maker of a vintage piece, so I left them a bit wonky. I had to cut down the blocks to conform to the smallest one; there was a 1/2″ variance in the size.

I will trapunto the hearts and the borders. It will be a sweet and traditional piece, a direction I don’t normally take, but how could I resist those hearts?

It is fairly common to have accidental cuts into the background as you prepare the trapunto. This one is a doozy and kind of inexcusable for someone of my experience. But I am going to roll with it because I will show how to mend and quilt this so that you won’t be able to tell.

Project #2:

Yes, this looks like the photo I posted last week of my Improv English Paper Piecing class from Michael Eason. I used the wrong paper last time and over-glued. I wrote Michael and he kindly guided me to the right paper and right way to glue, real basic stuff.

This was soooo much easier and more successful! I still need to join the two sections of this subsection, but my intersection are vastly improved as is my stitching. It looks dirty because you can see the shadowing of my markings through the cloth. Once the paper is removed it will look much better.

If I completed this whole section and added/mirrored 3 more…

it would look like this. Cool! I am not promising that I will make the other 3, but I do intend to finish the one section. It was an intriguing class and concept!

I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday