There's been a change

If you remember yesterday's photo of the project for my free motion class in October, I've made some changes to it.  I took it over to a quilting friend whose reaction when she saw it immediately told me she didn't like the background fabric for the circle or the entire block.  So I've made some changes.  The beige background is still too pale, I think, but I'm not going to go out and buy new fabric for it.  One thing this has taught me is to buy fabric in larger pieces--fat quarters aren't going to do it.  This is not good for my pocketbook but should be better for my work I think.  

Not sure in what order the next photo will appear but I'm on to my second block for the class.  Right now I'm not liking it, but there are only so many decisions I can make in a day...so I'm leaving it to work on tomorrow. I'm going to add more arcs to it.  At the present time the pieces are only tacked in place, not permanently sewn so I can move things around or just replace the whole thing if it's not going where I want and I suspect that's the case.  Anyway, tomorrow is another day... It's not as if I don't have enough projects to keep my busy tonight.

Back on track

Those of you who follow my blog (and there aren't many I'm afraid) are probably sick of looking at the previous post.  So finally I've gotten around to writing another.  Our local quilt guild will be having their show in September  so I've been busy putting bindings and sleeves on quilts I've done in the past few years.  For some reason once I finish the actually quilting I consider it done, despite the fact it will needs a sleeve and binding.  Probably because I live in an older home with only 7' ceilings and lots of windows and furniture that prevent hanging larger quilts.  So they stay wrapped on a swimming tube, unfortunately out of site.  Anyway, this quilt was made about three years ago from a class I took called "Six Minute Circles" (I think from the book of the same name).  It's become my favorite way to insert circles into a quilt.  

The smaller piece is for a class I'll be taking at a Nancy Crow retreat in Baltimore, Ohio in mid-October.  The class is with Sandra Ciolino on free motion quilting and we are to bring three similar pieces for quilting.  I may have mentioned that I love circles. This is my first one for the class.  The three pieces are to use fabrics with similar colors.  I have yet to do the other two.  I agonized for several weeks on what pattern to use and decided to go with my favorite circles.  Til next time (hopefully sooner than two months...)

Effort at framing

First I want to give myself a big pat on the back for figuring out how to add photos in a relatively easy, quick manner.  Seems I've been choosing the option of "pictures" versus "photos" on my Mac.  Who knew!  I've been successful at sending photos via e-mail so I guess I've finally gotten the hang of it.

But, I digress.  A few days ago I got a newsletter from Quilting Daily in which they advertised a free pdf on 12 ways to bind a quilt, articles written by 4 or 5 fabric artists.  Of course, I'm addicted to all quilt/knitting lessons of any kind, particularly if they're free.  So I immediately took myself to the site and printed off the article.  Later that night I decided to read through the information more thoroughly and in the information written by Lyric Kinard  she discussed framing your work.  I am not a big fan of wall hangings, though I do make them because I have enough large bed-sized quilts, and my list of quilts on my want to do list is ever-growing, so I do find myself making wall hanging sized work.  But--I just don't like the way they're kind of limp against the wall.  So--above is my first effort at framing a piece I just finished.

 The frame was purchased at the local OddLot for the bargain price of $8.00.  Yes, I had to chop some of my work off.  And, no, it doesn't have non-glare glass and there is no space between the glass and the work itself, but I'm pretty pleased with the final effect.  Since the success? of this effort I've been investigating cutting mats myself, different frames, shadow boxes, etc.  There's a whole world of options out there it seems.  I started the search for materials to do my own matting and framing came about after I was quoted $480 for matting and framing a piece that measures 29" x 35".  Needless to say the piece came home with me, unframed while I investigate my options.  Maybe I'll end up having to have it framed by someone else, but in the meantime I'm going to see what solutions I can find to doing it myself.

If anyone has any recommendations or advice I'd love to hear it.

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.