One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

I have created nine fish now, and have three to go.  My design wall has a decidedly fishy flavor right now.  I had no idea these fish would take me so long to make.  I just couldn't make them plain, I guess.  I still want to sew some water around most of them, and some of them still need eyes.  My goal is to have them all done and ready to mail by Tuesday.

 Joyful quilting, everyone.



Design Wall today

This is my design wall today, July 1, 2011.  The Mola in the bottom right was one my mother bought many years ago.  Today, I rescued it from a broken frame.  Lots of WIPs right now.  I need to get at least four of these finished soon.
Have a wonderful 4th, everyone.

Sunday and the design wall

This being my 100th post, you would think I would have something really important to share, or at the very least, a giveaway.  Alas, nothing earth shaking has gone on today in the studio, and I really don't have anything to give away.  I think I may try and do a giveaway on my 65th birthday in December, but not today.
I did put the star blocks together and added the sashings and first border.  I am at a standstill until I find fabric for the wings on the flying geese border that is next, as well as a border outside of that.  I am happy that my measurements have worked out so far.  I expect they will be fine because I have done the calculations very carefully.  I enjoy coming up with my own quilt designs, or at least I think they are my own.  There is nothing new in quilting, though, is there.
As you can see from the design wall, I have not settled inside any particular quilting box.  I love trying new things.  I would be really bored if I did the same thing all the time.  That is the beauty of quilting, I think.  There are so many ways to cut up fabric and put it back together again. 
Speaking of cutting up fabric and putting it back together again, I have joined another challenge at 15 Minutes Play.  This time, we are to take a painting and interpret it into a 15" quilt using solids.  At first, I was going to use this painting by Diebenkorn called Berkley 23.

After playing around with it for a couple of days, I decided it was not going to work for me.  So then, I took a look around my inspiration board and found this.

This is Three Russian Dancers by Degas.  I love the colors and the fluid lines.  I think this will really work for a free-piecing  fabric piece.  Now, all I have to do is find solid fabric in the colors I need.  I just don't have many solids.  Of course, I may keep looking for an inspiration piece that is more perfect than this.  After all, I do have until the first of August.
I am with Bella on Monday and Tuesday this week.  On Saturday night, I am actually going to sing on a stage with a very small group (four of us), and I got the hat done for that.  Wednesday, my sister is coming over and we are going to load her first large quilt on the frame and fire up Priscilla.  It looks like a full week ahead.  I will be back here on Wednesday.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

In search of quality fabric on sale

I put all the cut up pieces of the D9P on the design wall.  I played with them for a while, and I think this is how they will be sewn together.  One of the things I don't like about working with charm packs, when I am working with more than one, is the number of repeated fabrics.  For some reason, it really bothered me with this project.  I like the way it looks now, but I was really struggling with it.  Now, all I need is to sew it together and find some border fabric and backing.  No easy trick for someone on a budget.

I set off early this morning to go to SewExpo 2011.  I wasn't going to go because I really don't have money to spend, and it was a bit of a hassle to get there and find parking.  I decided to go at the last minute because I foolishly believed that since sewing machines would be at special show prices, so would fabric and thread.  Boy, was I naive.  The prices were outrageous at almost every booth.  I enjoyed looking around, seeing all the new fabrics and quilt ideas, but I didn't buy much.  I did, however, meet Ricky Tims and buy his book about convergence quilts.  Now that I looked up the Amazon site for the book, I wish I hadn't purchased it at the expo.  It is $5.00 cheaper on Amazon.  Live and learn.  I did get to talk to Ricky for a few minutes about his Rhapsody quilts.  I have the start of a pattern for the background pieces.  He gave me some good advice.  Maybe I will do this after all.  Of course, that would mean purchasing fabric.  I will just have to keep scouring the sales.



The oldest UFO

Today was the first full day back in my studio for about a week.  I decided to finish my 30+ year old UFO.  It has been hanging on the wall, unfinished, for a few months.  Then I listed it on my UFO list for my guild, and when the number was pulled, I had to finish it.  When I started it, Honey (my Bernina) was brand new.  I was doing a little bit of quilting, but fabrics were not what they are today.  What prompted me to use the fabrics I did when I really wanted an elegant piece amazes me today.  It was what I had back then.  The bead work center was from a 1920's dress that was falling apart.  The lace was also from vintage clothing that was beyond repair.  The beaded flower was from a neck wrap that was made of a whole mink pelt from the 20's or 30's.  Unfortunately, the applique work was done on all the old fabric, and I didn't want to redo the entire piece, so I decided to go with what I had to honor that young woman I was who created this piece long ago.  I chose fabrics for the last three borders that picked up colors in the bead work and the lace.  I am pretty happy with the new look.

Here is a detail of the old bead work.

This afternoon, I loaded the top, batting, and backing on Priscilla with the intention of getting it finished today.  Priscilla had other ideas.  Every time I start to quilt a new project, I have some sort of problem.  Today, it was the bobbin and a broken needle.  I don't really know what caused either problem, but I am becoming very familiar with the workings beneath the sewing plate.  I have had to remove it a few times to untangle threads, clean out lint, and remove broken needles.  I am sure this is happening because of things I am doing wrong, but I will get it all sorted out one day.  I made my repairs, and am ready to forge ahead.

My design wall is filled with several projects in various stages of design.  I have several orphan blocks that I want to do something with, my challenge block for 15 minutes play, another intuition style quilt, and Coming Home.  There are also several other projects stacked in baskets on my work table.  Tomorrow morning, I will start again.  I do love to create quilts.

This is what my new design wall looks like today. I am very happy with the size and the holding power of the felt/flannel.

I spend a good long day in the studio today working on the D9P and my intuition quilt. I got all the 9 patches done, cut, rearranged, and sewn together. Then, I cut the sash pieces, put together the rows, and celebrated with a piece of dark chocolate. I really love the colors in this quilt. I wanted to use a darker sashing. At first, I was going to use a solid brown, but an end of bolt piece of paisley jumped out at me. I has dark brown, golds, greens, and oranges. What could be more perfect. I am going to add a border of this paisley, then a lighter border of a gold tone. It appears I have broken some rules here of combining traditional patterned fabric with modern prints with batik. I didn't know there were rules about this sort of thing, and I am glad. I just look at the colors and see if they will go well together. I've never been much of a purist in art. Below is a detail so you can see the sash.

I have been looking at my intuition quilt for a few days without getting back to it. I decided to add a light border around the focal square, and then add the flying geese to two sides. I used the light fabric because I thought the quilt needed a place to rest your eyes between busy units. I find that I think about adding things I really like to this quilt. I am going to make some house blocks because I enjoying being at home, or in someone else's house. I am also going to make some applique bird blocks because I really like wild birds. I may even stick in a sunflower or two, and definitely some moons and stars. There will also be more wonky blocks like the center, only smaller. I think this may take me a while, but I am enjoying where it is going.