I have no will power

What's the first thing I do in the morning after making my cup of tea and taking the dog out?  Reading my emails, of course, and following links that seem interesting.  Yesterday's emails included one from The Quilt Show featuring an on-line class with Carol Ann Waugh.  I followed the link, was hooked, signed up for the class (you can preview her introductions to some of the sessions).  I watched all 8 lessons in the class and was so long at the computer that when my neighbor knocked at my back door with a question she asked if I was ill because I was still in my pjs and it was noon.  How time flies when you're having fun!   Today I hope to get started assembling, cutting and sewing.  Not that I NEED another project.  This class just seemed like a nice fit at a time when I need some diversion.  Later that day I went to The Quilt Show again and Carol Ann was the featured fiber artist.  

Anyway, the two photos (and I seem to have gotten the knack of uploading photos) are two fabric selections I'm considering.  If you take a look at her work, which ones do you think would work best?  Of course, I could always make two...

The classes are run by Craftsy, I think, and there are others offered.  Once you've paid for the class, there is no end date, so you could choose to do the project now or a year from now.  A good deal, imho.

Can I do it again?

In an effort to see if I really can continue to upload photos to my blog, I made another attempt.  Success!  Maybe this isn't so hard after all.

The above quilt photo was taken on my patio several weeks ago.  I am in the process of taking photos of all my quilts and documenting them.  Unfortunately I have no area in the yard from which I can display my quilts so you can see the entire quilt.  This particular quilt is hand appliquéd and each of the blocks were designed and drafted by my husband.  They are all replicas of blocks from antique quilts.  At the moment I cannot recall which book he used as a reference.  It is especially important to me because of his involvement in its design.  We had great fun decided which blocks to include.  The fabric choices were up to me.  The entire quilt took about 15 years to complete, from drafting to completion.  The quilting was done on a longarm machine (but not by me) using a design based on the designs by Karen MacTavish.  I managed to complete it before my husband passed away two years ago.

I think I've got it

Good grief!  I think I may have actually figured out how to easily add photos to my blog.  Hoping this works.  In any case this is the beginning of a piece I made as part of a challenge offered by my local quilt store.  We had to use the Kaffe Fassett print you see in the middle of each flower petal.  I used Barbara Olson's technique of constructing each petal.  Eventually the piece had a center that I made by closely satin stitching using the tailor tacking foot on my Bernina.  Then I snipped the loops so they're kind of fuzzy.   Unfortunately I have yet to take a photo of the final project--it's now at the shop waiting for the results of viewer's voting.  Not so much interested in winning ( well, it would be nice) but I enjoyed the challenge.  Have never done a challenge quilt before.

Instant art quilt results

I signed up for an on-line class with Ellen Lindner called Instant Art Quilt.  What fun.  We were to select one of our fabrics from our "I can't bear to cut into this fabric" pile and cut it up in a prescribed manner and then rearrange the sections into a pleasant background.  Then add focus pieces.  One of my favorites themes is trees (along with circles) and this is what I came up with. I've since free motion embroidered the branches and added some twigs to the branch ends.  Knowing my problem with adding photos to this blog, you may or may not ever see the finished project.  I loved this class and it was just what I needed at this point in my creative life.   I first was introduced to Ellen's work on one of Bonnie McCaffrey's vid casts.  Love those also.