February Always Flies By

Sid and Gwyn enjoying some long awaited snow

 It has been quite an eventful month for me.  I have been working away on several quilts for Kerry of Commaworkshop.  I also attended three quilt events/guilds which were all very fun.  I have been working on a quilt for my aunt for 2 years now.  It is all hand applique block-of-the-month and named Empress Ohashi.  It is the type of project that I enjoy doing on cold, snowy days when I don't want to move more than three feet from the wood stove. 

Gwyn helping arrange Empress Ohashi

I just finished all the applique and pieced together as a quilt top the other day.  As you can see in the photo, my master of balance was helping me arrangement.  It is too funny how she sits in chairs like humans or the cats.  Now, I have to quilt it. 
I am, of course, nervous about this last step.  It is such a gorgeous quilt top.  So, yesterday, I had a play day.  I loaded the machine with pretty tie-dyed fabric and just played.  I think I learn more on a play afternoon than I do in months.  It is truly important to take the time to play/practice. 
I also just started taking a Zentangle drawing course.  I think it will really improve my skills as an artist.  I have never been good on paper, just give me fabric or frosting!  So, I thought it was time to learn.  The Zentangles are great and the style really translates into quilting quite nicely.  It is fun, relaxing, and educationally skill-building all at the same time. 

Bogie under pile of blankets

It is dumping snow on us today (finally!).  So nice and pretty looking out.  Starting to wonder if we should move the car to the bottom of the driveway.  It's about time.  We were really overdue and fire season just stinks of fear and anxiety around here in drought years.  Thank you for the snow!
Well, I am going to try to clean my house up today. I've been ignoring it for the sake of work lately, but let's face it, I'd rather be quilting any day of the week versus cleaning.  Glad my hubby keeps on top of things and I just go for the deep clean every few weeks.
Keep Creating and Quilting!

Threadplay Breathes Life into Quilts

A dog named Bailey gets new life.

I was given this cute dog quilt to do something with.  It was already quilted with the binding firmly attached when I got this quilt.  The quilting was done well.  It was invisible thread holding down the edges of the applique pieces.  My client's desire was to have it look less flat.  It was a wonderful little quilt already (and this client happens to be my grandmother's), so I began with a little trepidation honestly.
It was such fun though and I quickly learned all the stitching looked great.  I kept changing thread colors and designs depending on where I was in the piece.  When I was finished, this dog had so much more character than before.  The texture of the hair was what was really missing on those fabrics.  The back of the quilt looks really cool now too!  I hope Nana loves it.

Here is a little food bit for you all.  Now that I am home again for the winter, there will probably be more postings of recipes.  This is just an idea that I know I can not have been the first to come up with.  So, I made a box of mac & cheese the other day and then while reaching for the parmesan cheese, I spied the leftover bacon.  Oh, what a delight!  I am so glad I sprinkled the cheese and the bacon crumbles onto the macaroni!  Delicious but Dangerous is the board I am creating on Pinterest for all these recipes.
I am blessed with work and would love to be doing the next quilt (I have 7 to do this week).  Sadly though, I woke up though with a seriously swollen thumb. (arthritis?)  Hopefully it will go away soon and I can get back to playing on my long arm.
 I wish you all a beautiful fall filled with inspirations!

Quilt of the Week

This is a close-up of the one of the center motifs I quilted into this weeks quilt of the week.  I had so much fun working on this quilt, I used almost every technique that I know.  This client loves my freehand quilting, in fact she thinks it would be a shame if I went computerized!
 I choose to go with many custom designs to compliment each of the sampler designs.
 Shown in the close-up is one of my original Celtic knotwork designs that I quilted using my laser followed by free motion fill-in.  I used the follow-the-laser then free motion fill in for a complex pinwheel block throughout the quilt as well.
In other areas, I did free motion pinwheels and feathers.  The border is all free motion using my Leaf & Scroll design.  For the gridwork in the checkered spot, I pulled out my acrylic rulers so I get them nice and straight.
It is great to know a lot of different quilting techniques and designs to employ in the quilts I do.
 I always try to do justice to the quilt.  That means listening to what it wants to look like and following through.  In this quilts case, I could easily have done an all over pattern.  Instead, I had to listen to the quilt tell me every block was special and worth the custom quilting and tucking of few thousand threads. (Yes, thousands!)

It was worth it though as I am proud of the quilting (difficult for this perfectionist).  It will be picked up soon and I hope the client likes it too.  That is always one of my heart-wrenching fears is that my client won't like what I've done.  The people that seek me out truly love my quilting, I fear it is my blood to be a worry-wort.
Okay, I have to go make cinnamon rolls now for the blacksmiths that will be showing soon!
Keep quilting and cooking!

Seeing Stars

Psyche- delic Stars that is!

I have been so consumed with worries and frets and all sorts of stuff I couldn't get a hold of. Well, certain things have been happening for me lately. I am still not going to divulge everything, but I will say my pack of tired angels came to the rescue again. Frets and fears calmed down enough that when I had a day off yesterday, I actually decided to play. Work-play in a way as these pieces will be for sale at some local stores, but still play. I have so much fun quilting over my husband's stars and flowers. It is like.........coloring outside of the lines, or adding the lines to someone's coloring. We are newly inspired recently. We have plans of challenging ourselves to create daily. For husband (Sid) this means dyeing at least one awesome designed piece each day. This means they will pile up so I must quilt one each day. I think this will not only allow us to build up stock but hone our skills. Practice makes perfect (or better each time!) We'll see how this plan works out amidst all of our other works. I don't care so much about age, but if anyone has found the store that sells "spare time", let me know.