My design wall is right at the bottom of the steps in the quilt cave. I walk by it many, many times a day. Waiting for the dryer to stop, I took 3 minutes to pin up the first 8 string-pieced blue diamonds into a star shape (I seriously need a real design wall instead of my icky pink college thermal blanket, bought in 1978, don't you think?...).
Then, taking a "standing break" from sitting and drafting final applique block patterns came the first broken star setting ring.
Later, I stopped on my way upstairs with freshly folded laundry to add a second broken star setting ring.
I still have a stack of finished string-pieced diamonds to play with...I wonder what will come next...
Meanwhile I ponder plain inset neutral squares versus two, more interesting options...
I am almost through hand-tracing the final copies of the first 19 "Baltimore Rhapsody" music applique blocks. I work on a large square of heavy white paper where I've layered my working pattern under a fresh square of tracing paper.
I use the flat clips to hold everything in place as I work. Simple, yet time consuming.
My husband kicked the table leg as he leaned in to kiss the top of my head last night...doh! I had to start that one over...(but it was worth it!).
I pick up pattern covers from the printer later today and drop off the block patterns...it is all very exciting (and a little scary...).
If this venture is successful, I will someday have a scanner and the proper drawing software to do this more high tech. I feel a little like the ape throwing poo at the monolith at this moment in time (cue the music from "2001: A Space Odyssey").
In stitches,
Teresa :o)
Quilting is progressing better now that I can actually SEE again. I've really had trouble lately seeing what I was hand quilting on my music quilt. I blamed it on bad lighting, etc., but finally had the 'duh!" moment...I needed new glasses! My bifocals were failing me, and my non-bifocal hard contacts were TOTALLY failing me. I just bought my first pair of $9.95 drugstore reading glasses, and I feel like a new person! I wear them with my contacts and I can see to read and hand sew again. This will work until I can get to the eye doctor. Yahoo!
Between sessions of hand quilting, I have been doing some mindless scrappy piecing. My bulging scrap bins needed some reducing, and I have a couple of baby and graduation quilts to make.
I've been playing around with the blues strings and the bright chunks...very cheerful! While working on "Baltimore Rhapsody," my poor sewing machine has just been collecting dust.
I filled a dozen bobbins, and off I went. It's good to give the fingertips a little break from the constant pricking of the hand quilting.
The choice of color by my niece for her graduation quilt was blue/maroon, so I'm trying to decide between two scrappy projects, one using these paper pieced diamonds, the other based on one of Bonnie Hunter's fabulous scrappy designs from Quiltville.com.
Also, every now and then I get out my collection of Wonky Stars and make a few more. They are so much fun to make, and I am using very happy, chunky scraps to make them. Directions for making Wonky Stars is also on Quiltville.com.
I'm not sure exactly how they will end up being used, but as the number grows I think of possible arrangements in my head as I dreamily chain piece the star points on the 2.5 inch scrappy neutral squares.
I love the mindlessness of this ongoing project. My sewing machine is 6 feet from the washer/dryer, so it is a good project to leave out so that I can sit down for just a few minutes and get something accomplished without much thought.
I don't think too much about what colorful scrap goes where, and since the "background" is scrappy, I don't have to think about that either. This is another good, mindless project to balance the hand quilting of the music quilt (where I DO have to think...).
And until I got the reading glasses, accuracy was not an issue with this chunky, imprecise project. Ahh... I should care that I ended up with two checked white neutral pieces right beside each other...but I don't care enough to fix it, LOL!
I am alternating between the border and outline quilting of blocks on the music quilt. What was I thinking when I drafted this border? It's taking more time that I thought it would, but it is worth the effort.
It's still fun to make all the fruits and flowers come to life with a little quilting attention.
My almost-16-year-old daughter is keeping us plenty busy with end-of-the-year outings. Final band concert, being inducted into the National Honor Society, a dance, International Dinner, Korean Dinner, meetings about planning for college and looking for scholarships, field trips that need parental chaperoning...wow! And she was in the school play with a big part playing a nutty mother, Penny Sycamore ("You Can't Take It With You") - she was awesomely crazy. I hope she wasn't modeling her OWN mom...
So, I will keep on hand quilting this monster...hopefully I am getting close to done. I forgot how cumbersome hand quilting a 95" x 95" quilt can be with a hoop.
In the meantime, me and two quilts are off to the Shipshewana Quilt Show in June (Indiana)..."All Around the Town" and "Life of Riley - Mom's Civil War Bride Journey" were accepted into the juried show. That should be a lot of fun!
I am hoping to post more often and catch up on reading all of YOUR blogs, in addition to answering emails and comments.
In stitches,
Teresa :o)
