off to Denver yesterday morning to take down a quilt show -- I was worried about the road conditions after a day of blizzard conditions just prior to our little journey, but the roads were not a problem
some of the drivers? a whole 'nother question entirely -- as we sat in a traffic jam for over an hour
that much time on the road means a lot of afghan square knitting however
two more for that box after the quilt take down, we went by my sister's to pick up the computer for the DH
that my brother in law (our family "Computer Doc") had repaired for him
she also gave me this pattern (and two others that will fit Mr Cute) -- picked up in one of her excursions to the second hand store --- cool!
and there is a new box of yarn for the yearly Christmas sweater sitting here just waiting for me to start on that project the next two pieces for the Visioning Project are now ready for the quilting
this lesson had to do with repetition and how shape can tie a piece together while still conveying action
I've decided to exercise my word for the year --- be brave --- and do the quilting on these two on the machine
the beaded box is in the final stages, so it's time to think about the next piece this is the first drawing --- I have to order a few things to have everything to make this happen, but I'm excited about it!
have to go to Denver this morning to take down a quilt show --- time to go!
setting it together was a challenge since it was not planned ahead of time and I rearranged the blocks several times before I settled on this arrangement
I now have three charity quilt tops from that one little piece of red, white and blue patchwork --- pretty cool it's Monday, the laundry is calling.....
last night I finished the bead work for this project
looking good!
the next step is to create the lining for the box, and I want to shape the lining to support the bracelet that will go inside the box
when I first started thinking about the lining, I was thinking it needed to be green, but when I went through my stash of satin fabric I found some gold that looks really great, so I'll be going with that instead
and here is where all of my experience with dressmaking and decorative stitching and the creating of three dimensional forms in fabric (in my former life making collectible teddy bears) will all come together to create this formed liner
here's hoping it goes together the way I see it in my head!
time at the sewing machine yesterday afternoon grew the log cabin blocks some more
these are looking very good
I still need to add two pieces on each of these before I can start with trying to figure out how to set the whole group together
our journey yesterday to the store was successful! earlier in the week the fabric I had ordered to use for the peacock piece arrived and turned out to be totally unusable for the purpose, but these two pieces, which were selected at the store with the other fabric I will be using for it in hand, are perfect so here we have a yard of a lovely batik sky and a half yard of batik to use for the tree branches now we can begin! we woke this morning to cold, windy and snowing again --- BLEAH! glad there are no long journeys required today
I actually started quilting on this piece on Tuesday, right after I had pinned it, but until I had worked on it a while it didn't look like much had been done
that big three dimensional tree was not easy to quilt around -- and it really needed to be first in the process -- I quilted right down the entire edge of it on both sides before I branched out to the little sections I'm pleased with how this is going -- right now in this section I've only quilted the sky -- I still need to quilt around the leaves and put in the veins of the leaves with green thread -- the next step! time at the sewing machine yesterday and there are a pile of these partially completed log cabin blocks
I still need to add a couple more pieces around the edges of each of them before I can set them together into a finished top
this has been fun -- its a much more complex pattern than I usually do for a charity quilt, but since there were only little pieces of that red, white and blue patchwork left, I thought this was the best way to use them up
we've been asked to create some pieces that might be more appropriate for some of the teens that come through Safe Passage, and I think this one may just fit the bill
I got it!
after fiddling with this part of the bead work for a couple of days, I finally figured out the right amount of decreases to make that creates this gradual slope shape for the lid
I hope to have the beading finished today so I can start on creating the lining for the piece
this has been challenging, but a lot of fun
and I'm now at the "are we there yet" stage on this, because a new idea for the next piece is beginning to form
all good!
the knitting has continued on the sweater I'm making for the DH
the body of the sweater is now at the stage where I'm knitting out of three different skeins of yarn because I'm knitting the back and both fronts at the same time
looking good!
this morning we're going to venture out of the house -- we're supposed to get snow again starting tonight, and I want to pick up some groceries -- the street in front of our house is still gutter deep in ice since we never see a snow plow through here, so getting in and out of the driveway will be, shall we say, "interesting"
not only did we have a lot of snow, we had some wind and later in the day we had enough sun to create some interesting icicles
this is what the north west corner of our house with a really interesting shaped drift hanging off the edge in the meantime, the snow/sun/wind combo creating these cool icicles on the big pine tree in the back yard
we went out into the cold and cleared the side walks and the drive way of the snow yesterday morning -- we've learned through unpleasant experience that if we wait too long there is a nasty layer of ice under the snow that is much harder to remove than just getting out there and shoveling the snow
at least this way we can go out to get the mail and the newspaper without needing boots on
I spent more time in the studio yesterday and completed another charity quilt top
more of that red, white and blue theme here -- and I have enough of it to do at least one more
quilting continues on the big trees piece, and I have started on another pair of pieces for the Visioning Project which are coming along nicely
meantime, I've managed to get only the first four or five rows of the lid for the beaded box done even though I've stitched at least a dozen more --- and taken them back out --- the shape I want to create is not just flat, so I'm having some issues with the placement of the decreases to get there --- hopefully I get this soon --- I'm getting close to the deadline on this piece time for breakfast!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
it snowed last night
a lot!
this morning the DH dug out paths on the back patio for the dog
there's about a foot of snow out there
since I stayed in the house yesterday I spent some time in the studio at the sewing machine
a couple of years ago I got a piece of red, white and blue patchwork in a UFO exchange, and it's been sitting around waiting for me to figure out something to do with it
I decided it's been hanging around long enough --- I cut it into 6 inch squares and stitched it up with some solid blue fabric to create this charity quilt top
there's probably enough more of that patchwork to do a couple more quilt tops --- we'll see what other things I can work it into
while I was at the machine I got this piece all stitched together
now I just need to make the sandwich and do the quilting -- and maybe some embellishing too
I thought I would be starting into the peacock project today when the mail man brought the package, but it turns out they shipped me the wrong fabric, and there's no more of what I had actually ordered available --- nuts --- guess that project is going to wait until I can make the trip to the fabric store --- probably not for a week or so
we won't be going anywhere today either -- I don't feel like clearing a foot of snow out of the driveway, and there's really nothing we need that bad!
in this case, it's actually having enough space to do what I needed to do
and we're sending up a small flare here in celebration that after 3 years I have finally gotten this piece to the quilting stage!!
it was wonderful to be able to pull together several tables and do all of the pinning while being able to walk all the way around this
(and yes, it's laying on the floor here in this picture, but that was the only way I could high enough above it to take a picture that shows the whole piece!)
I still need to applique a single columbine on this piece, but I'll have no problem doing that even though it's all pinned (and the first quilting has begun)
doing a very happy dance here even after being gone for the morning to do that quilt pinning and otherwise hob nob with my fellow quilters, I did get some work done on this project yesterday afternoon
this is the bottom of the box, and it's almost finished -- just a couple more rows of green then a band of gold beading above that to go
of course then I'll need to make the top, but I'm pretty pleased with how this is going
that big storm that rolled through Northern California yesterday is supposed to hit us this afternoon and the various forecasters are saying anything from 2 inches to over a foot -- depending on which one you listen to -- not to worry, we are set to just stay in for a couple of days --- maybe I'll get more studio work done!
real progress made yesterday afternoon on this project
the more I work on it the faster it goes
just a little more on this part (which is the bottom) then it will be on to the top
meantime, while working on this, I've begun to figure out how to do the inside of the box so it looks nice and so it actually holds the bracelet in place when it is in the box
the house parts are ready to be set together, and because this piece has been a sort of a "happening", I needed to figure out I'm going to set them together
this dark blue fabric is what I'm going to use to put them together, so I just spread it on the floor and tried a couple of arrangements
I'm going to use the bottom one -- it would have been nice if I could actually hang them at different levels, but this is as close as I can get for this one last summer the west side of the valley I live in had a fire
a really BIG fire
while it was burning we could see the flames and the air quality for quite a while was awful
but after that it was hard to see exactly where the burn was
until it snowed
now every little bit of snow sticks on that burn scar and I can really see it
amazing
I'm going today to use a bigger space than I have at home to pin the big trees quilt (and hang out for a while with some other quilters) -- time to get going
its amazing just how long it takes in "beading hours" to create something that is less than an inch deep around a piece that is about 3.5 inches in diameter
considering I didn't even have any idea how to begin to do this on Saturday morning, however, this is good progress
today I need to do laundry and run an errand or two before I can start working on projects
thanks to the willingness of a fellow beader to share some information,yesterday I was able to create this much of the "box" that I want to put the latest bracelet in
after posting a question on one of my facebook groups, I had responses that gave me enough "how to" to start into this project
this is not quite big enough in diameter, so I'll be adding some more rounds of beads before I start working my way down the side, but I'm very pleased with the outcome so far
my daughter sent me this picture of her little dog wearing the sweater that "grandma" made it's pretty clear that the sweater fits perfectly what's not so clear is how the dog feels about wearing it uh, maybe not so much the picture actually is pretty hilarious! yesterday's work in the studio included drawing out all the patterns for the peacock -- the fabric for the background of that piece has been ordered, so I'll be able to start on it toward the end of the week when the package arrives I've nearly finished the backgrounds for for these three panels -- I've been working from the outside edges in, and right now there are only a couple more pieces to add to the center block before I can set them all together --- cool
last November the guild was the beneficiary of many tubs of fabric from a local sewer's estate
last night was the final night for the last of that fabric to make it's appearance, so I came home with quite a bit of fabric to add to charity quilts
as I write this, these pieces are already in the dryer after taking a little spin in the washer earlier this morning and of course, while I sit and listen to the program part of the meeting, I can knit afghan squares
another one is done for the box!
it's cold and gray this morning --- BLEAH!
looking forward to getting into the studio and creating something
the bead embroidery portion of this idea is all done
in fact, I've already painted the back of these with fray check
so when I head into the studio today, I need to go through the box of leather and upholstery velours to pick out the appropriate backing for these
I'm pretty excited about how fast this came together --- now we'll see if I'm happy with the end result when I get it finished remember this drawing?
this morning I blew it up
that is I used one of my software programs to print the drawing out on multiple sheets so it is the size I need it to be -- or at least the size I think I want it to be -- 25 pages later of that 8.5 by 11 inch paper and I'll be spending some time with the tape and scissors later today
I need to do some experimenting with how I'm going to make the feathers that are the tail of this piece, so we'll see how this all goes last night's knitting time included finishing up this project
now I'll be looking for a "squishy" envelope to mail it off to my daughter
I'm hoping she'll get a photo or two when she puts this on the little dog
that I can share with you later
I'm watching the weather today --- this evening is the local quilt guild meeting, and I'm hoping that it doesn't get to ugly for me to drive to it
an hour of time and there are now two links complete and almost another one
meantime, yesterday in the studio, I put the finishing touches on this (long) ongoing project
which means that next Tuesday when I go to one of my local quilt groups I'll be taking this piece, along with the fabric for the back and the batting and two boxes of safety pins and getting it ready to be quilted (at long last!!)
as I write this it is taking a cold bath in the washer to remove any remaining chalk from the markings I made for the quilting this is actually done a full week ahead of when I had originally planned which presents it's own dilemma -- my original plan was to take it to my quilt guild meeting next Thursday evening then mail it off to my daughter but I will have the chance to just hand it to her this weekend, thus saving the postage (and the interim concern about it's safety while in transit) my guess is I'll probably just give it to her and skip next week's "drag and brag" maybe
after I looked at this for a while yesterday, I decided it needed something at the top to sort of "frame" the peacock I think this is the final drawing but of course there may be changes made as the creating progresses! yesterday I stopped by the local fabric store and picked up what I needed to finish the cushion cover that is the current project on the work table --- I hope to complete that today so I can get on with other things onward!
off to Denver yesterday morning to take down a quilt show -- I was worried about the road conditions after a day of blizzard conditions just prior to our little journey, but the roads were not a problem 
after the quilt take down, we went by my sister's to pick up the computer for the DH
that my brother in law (our family "Computer Doc") had repaired for him
the next two pieces for the Visioning Project are now ready for the quilting 
