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Sometimes it all comes together and your work gives you a gift. Last night I found myself hand basting the layers of my larger Lily quilt together. The house windows were open, the Delta breeze kicked in-the evening was lovely. Outside I heard the breeze rustling the leaves and the sounds of a train. The air was heavy with the perfume of Sweet Broom and Mock Orange. The pond across the street had a bevy of toads in full chorus. I was alone working so I could fully hear and appreciate all that was going on around me. I’m hand basting this…
The Pine Tree Quilt Guild’s show, “Springtime in the Pines” was just spectacular! It’s about an hour’s drive for me but it was so worth it. It had to be one of their best shows-it seems like I took a hundred photos. They have a vibrant nest of art quilters and there was even a nice selection of tasteful garments.This was the nicest touch: they had a quartet playing both days I was there.Yesterday there was a flute quartet and the day before, a woodwind quintet. I can’t tell you how lovely it was to be viewing the show with their music in…
I tried a different method on my second rayon scarf, hoping to avoid the wrinkles, fading and fraying of my first scarf.I saturated the fabric in undiluted starch and ironed it flat before stitching. This worked beautifully, creating a board of fabric that held the stitches well and kept the fabric from drawing up. The marks you see are the very basic markings I used for placement of the daisies using a heat erasable Frixion pen.By putting the unwashed scarf next to the first one, you can clearly see the dramatic color fade and wrinkling of the first scarf-huge difference!Dang, when…
I also participate in Superior Threads “Superior University“, a monthly project club that highlights different threads or techniques.This month’s project was to make a hedgehog pincushion using their King Tut thread to embellish as desired. It’s just the cutest thing! I decided to embellish mine by using Bernina’s “Tailor Tack” foot #7 to make the fuzzy guys on his back. I really do like my Bernina feet and who but Bernina would make a foot just for tailor tacks? There is a bar in the middle of the foot and you basically zig zag over the bar and that forms the…
April’s project for the Free Motion Quilt Challenge used Don Linn’s method of transferring quilting motifs using tulle as a transfer agent. It worked pretty well except the unavoidable problem when marking-what to mark with. Don’s method uses a Sharpie to trace your desired motif onto a piece of tulle. Once you heat set the tulle, you then place the tulle where you would like the design to be. You transfer the design by tracing over the tulle, using a water soluble marker. Just to keep it simple I used my lily motif as my focal point. I don’t have much tulle lying…
Thursday was a cold, rainy, long-sleeved kind of day here in northern California. I started to head out the door to run errands and at the last minute popped on my Daisy Fill Vest to see if it would work with my jeans and t-shirt. It did! There surely are better choices for the layer underneath the vest, but I think this was a decent combo.I have this problem-truth be told, I don’t always end up actually wearing the clothes I make. I don’t always hit the target-I may not like them after they are made, they may not fit into my normal…
This last week has been a mix of successes and misses but I’m confident that the misses will enrich my “learning curve”. I’m really trying to get outside of my normal box and when I do that, I’m bound to have some misses. This is a bit of an ADD post since I worked on three separate projects this week, so stay with me! I wanted to try the Daisy Fill motif on a scarf-I thought that would be easier and faster than a vest-wrong! It took me 4 days to make this simple scarf out of rayon batik.I like the basic look…
I have been a devoted attendee of the Foothill Quilt Show since 2003 when it first came on my radar. Foothill Quilters Guild has a wonderful balance of exceptional piecers, traditional, applique and art quilters. It’s a diverse and talented guild and I love their show. And really, it has nothing to do with those killer marbled brownies they serve every year…. Christine Barnes is a member of the Foothill Guild and does that girl know color! She had several quilts in the show but “Black Opals and Ribbon Candy” just knocked my socks off-I would love to understand color the way…
“Just show up”-that’s the conventional wisdom regarding what to do when your creative juices have evaporated. I was feeling a bit blue about spending Easter without my boys and my creative mojo was gone. I was aching to create something wonderful, but it just wasn’t happening. So I was obedient to the “rule” of what I’m supposed to do at those times: I just showed up in my “studio” (that mini-space I share with my DH’s office) and just started working on bits and pieces. I Misty Fused some light weight denim together for another Daisy Fill Vest. The Misty Fuse will tame any errant…