Texas Bluejay Summer

Here it is - Texas Bluejay Summer!  The bluejays,. courtesy of D., survived the washing machine well, and  the 'heat wave' quilting came out nicely.  Overall, I am pleased with it - a lot more pleased than I am with the ACTUAL summer here!  Hot hot hot!  But the bluejays are still outside in the trees yelling at us for not putting out more peanuts, and everywhere there is green.  I know Texas isn't really well known for green, but we have our fair share.  Sometimes.  In that vague period we call spring.  I will probably do a spring version of this quilt someday, but I do want to do an autumn version first.  So, it's off to think about what says Texas in autumn to me.   Well, after a few updates on other things!  I am also considering doing a tutorial on my little trees.  They are certainly not difficult, but people seem to like them!  So there's that to consider, as well as what makes a Texas autumn...  I will say that this quilt fought me all the way - it didn't want to be quilted, the marks didn't want to stay, and then they didn't want to go away... and one of the trees tried to escape in the wash.  Overall, I am content, though, now that the battles with it are over!

But no resting on my laurels (or my bluejays!).  We're gearing up for this Saturday's quilting basics class.  I've got syllabus, handouts, and my ever-growing list of things to have prepped.  Two quilts in progress are waiting on me, D. has got two she's working on now, oh, and the little sample I am working on.  I started a miniature Disappearing 9 Patch last night.  The entire thing should measure out to about 6" x 8" and have 12 blocks total.  I should be able to get most of it done tonight - I cut out all the strips and got the layout down like I want it.  More pics on that one tonight, hopefully!

I'm not very good about taking pictures, I know... it's a hurdle I have to overcome.  I don't like taking pictures all that much, and I certainly don't like pictures of me!  So that's my next big non-quilting project - get better at pictures.  Wish me luck!

Thursday on the Anvil

Hey, look at that!  Stuff actually done - totally completed and all!   Here's a hopefully halfway decent shot of Isaac's Storm, complete, bound, and hanging out with a quilt my Great-Aunt made for me years ago.  Hooray done! 

Managed to finish it late last night, but too lazy to find good light and take pics.  I need a better camera, quite frankly!  And to get my picture-taking set up finished.  Maybe this weekend, in the ridiculous Texas heat!

However, the Texas heat has also let me get this done:  here's a relative close-up of one of the two bluejay appliques for Texas Bluejay Summer.  He's pretty, isn't he? (Excsue the weird color on the background fabric... that's not so good...)  I'm remarkably proud of the duo of birdies, and can't wait to get this one on Middie Frank so I can quilt some heat waves into it and bind it and - hooray! - have another one done! 

 I spent a few minutes this afternoon after the day job piecing the back of the quilt - because I'm just like that, so it's all ready to go.  Just have to load up Frankie, and away we'll go!  Oh, yeah, and here's a shot of the whole top I took this afternoon, too.  Yeah, I need a better camera!

At any rate, there's the Thursday on the Anvil update!  It's nice and steamy, like a forge should be.  So, back to hammering out the next quilt.

Oh, but before I go.  I got to thinking while I was pressing seams (like I tend to do... my brain wanders).  Why do I quilt?  It's a question I want to ask the people who attend the first quilting class, so I should have an answer.  I have several, and have heard several in various areas... all of which are valid.  For me, it boils down to this: I can't paint, nor can I draw.  I CAN, however, get images from my head onto a quilt correctly.  It is the only medium I have discovered where the finished product IS what I see in my head.  Plus, I just can't seem to stop!

In the process of following this train of thought, my brain said "Oh, and besides... it's a useful skill to have come the zombie apocalypse.  People will still need bedding, and it would be a handy skill to barter!"  ... ...  Sometimes my brain makes me wonder. 

And now I am planning out a zombie apocalypse quilt....

*sigh*

Eh.  Back to the forge!

Shay

Sunday Finish Line (Almost, Anyway)

Today was a day of finishing things (or getting close, anyway).  Yesterday was spent rampaging around East Texas, hitting estate sales and quilt shops with abandon.  Some success was had, and some non-success.  Got ignored at a quilt shop by two employees.  Completely ignored except for a glance up at us.  Really?  Are we too young??  Eh.  We didn't buy fabric there.  Bought it elsewhere, where the clerks were nice and said hello and such.  No big loss, really.  Found some lovely material for D's next quilt - she's designed one of sea life, and found the perfect material for the background.  Hooray!

So today D. worked on the sealife while I finally got a quilt on the mid-arm (my Middie Frank) and got busy.  Mind, this is my FIRST quilt on Frank.  It's definitely a learning experience!  But I could tell that by the end of it I was already more skilled than when I began, so that is very gratifying!  Here they are, Isaac's Storm and Middie Frank, hanging out together.  Oh, and look!  Scissors!  (I can NEVER find them when I need them.  I think I own a dozen pair, and STILL lose them all the time!).

So after four hours of standing and sewing with Middie Frank, Isaac was complete!  Hooray!  Except... I forgot the binding.  And don't have enough of the wave border fabric to make binding.  So... that will have to wait until tomorrow.  But that's okay.  I actually got work done, and ALMOST finished!

It's uneven in places, but here's a close-up of my very first attempt at Middie Frank.  Since this is Isaac's Storm (named after the book of the same name about the Galveston, TX hurricane of 1900), I thought I would quilt a spiral - the whole hurricane/cyclone thing.  It went PRETTY well.  Some of my arcs are a little flat, and some of them twitched a little, but since it's my first go, and I am not entering Isaac into competition, I am not concerned.  I finished a quilt on Frank!  That alone makes me almost giddy!

Tomorrow will be working on Texas Blue Jay Summer.  All I lack are the bluejays... they are in progress, and when I have them done, I will show them off!  I promise!  And I need to get a good pic of the other colorway for Isaac's Storm up, because of the OTHER thing I almost finished!

My first pattern is done, complete, printed, and so forth!  It's actually for Isaac's Storm, and I am hoping to get it to distributors soon.  So wish me luck!  (I don't expect to get rich, but it would be nice to have some patterns out there that are recognizably ME).

Wednesday Workings

As promised, I did take pictures!  Here's the best - a picture of the as-yet unfinished top to Blue Jay Summer.  It's very simple, just the way I intended it.  This shot makes it a little hard to see, but some of the pine trees are made from a novelty fabric with a pine needle print.  My favorite tree is the dark one down in the lower right hand corner. 

All this lacks is the blue jays.  They are so small that my applique skills would need a boost to do the way I intended originally.  (That and my glasses prescription, too!)  So I am looking into alternatives - think I've found one, but we shall see.

Blue Jay Summer is a little wrinkled right now because it's on my design board.  I wanted it up where I could see it, vertically, the way it will be displayed.  I can't wait to get back into the studio and finish it up!  I have enough of the background fabric to do the back, and MAYBE enough to do the border.  If not, I may look at the dark green, or one of the other trees.  We'll see.  I am hoping I have enough of the ground.

If I can get my act together and get some restful sleep, I can get out in the studio again and get some things accomplished!  Right now, though, I just want to crawl back into bed.  Not that I didn't GET sleep... apparently I just didn't get enough!  Tonight, painkillers and try again. 

In the meantime, I am planning the details of our first class - it doesn't happen until the 11th of August, but I want to be prepared.  Maybe even over-prepared.  I can always not use something if there's no need or no time, but I can't always make up relevant stuff on the fly.  (Well, I could, but I want this to be useful to all the students).  Maybe a handout...

It's Tuesday Already??

Wow!  The weekend FLEW past!  Yesterday was a 12 hour day at the day job, so yikes... here it is Tuesday already....

I WILL have pics up tonight of Texas Bluejay Summer (which has everything except the blue jays so far).  I have decided I will stipple this one... mostly because it reminds me of heat waves rising off the ground, which is ENTIRELY appropriate for Texas in the summer!  

We went estate sale-ing this weekend and I picked up something that reminded me of Texas summers in a whole different way.  To me, Texas summers have a definite smell - something of dried and dead grass, and something else that I've never been able to identify.  Maybe heat.  :)  But I picked up some oil lamps that smelled like Texas in the summer to me.  I had to have them.  Now I just have to go get oil and wicks and I am in business!  (There were 12 of them, and I got them and a LOT of books for $15.  This is why I love estate sales). 

This weekend also looks good for estate sales!  (But I promise I will try to sew and quilt more!)

We DID get Frank (the mid-arm - does that make him a Middie?) set up this weekend.  A few bobbles and thread adjustments, and we are up and running.  Here's D, helping with the threading after I stomped off in a huff.  (Well, not really, since I am there taking pictures, but at first it was frustrating).  The piece on Frank in the picture is a test piece - an old pre-printed length we got at.... big surprise... an estate sale. 

I got in plenty of practice this weekend, and there will be more practice this week.  I want to get my first quilt done on Frank.  Number one on the list is Isaac's Storm.  I marked my pattern Sunday, so it will be ready when I think I am.  :)  Which should be this week, if I take it easy when I start sewing.

I am excited.  Which means I will have to be careful!