Hooray! Top done!

Good morning, superfriends!

I've finished another top!  This time, it's Molten Glass.  I mentioned it a little before, and put the hammer to the forge and knocked it out.  Here it is, sprawled out in the yard outside the forge, relaxing after being put together.  It had a hard time, you know, being wrestled around the forge between the layout board and the machine!  When I laid it all out in the sun, the batiks looked like damask, and made the entire thing look almost shimmery - which is fabulous! 

The black offsets the red corner squares nicely and gives it a little separation that it needed.  It's all of 123" x 123".  Should provide plenty of drape for my bed once it's all quilted - having an 18" mattress can sometimes be a pain!  When I am done with Boston Molasses, this one will go on the hand-quilting rack to be done.  It's too big for Frank!  Besides, I am going to quilt phoenixes into it - that being a theme with me.  So hopefully I can get Boston Molasses done faster than a snail laying tracks and get this one on the rack. 

In addition to Molten Glass, there was yardwork this Sunday, trimming down the great green wall to allow some breeze through.  We left the honeysuckle alone, but took out a lot of the trash trees that are growing up through it.  We've still got work to go in the weed garden, but we made a good start.  (Oh, golly, the weed garden... low growing cedar that's in terrible shape, some kind of monster shrub that just eats up everything, a few small oaks, a few small pecans, and lord only knows what else!)  If the light is good later, I will try to take pictures. 

Today it's all rain and storm - the sun is usually up by now, and it's as dark as night right now.  Rain is a good thing in Texas during the summer, though, so no complaints from me!  (Does make me want to be out in the forge, doors open, working away).

This week will be working on the next top - Crop Circles - and trying to start work on Bostom Molasses Flood again.  And trying to track down quilt pattern publishers.  Or go to etsy.  We shall see.  Etsy might be the first and easiest way to go. 

And - on the 23rd - Class #3.  So there's prep for that to do still.  I am always excited about the classes!

Oh!  This past weekend we made a few more quilt stores we hadn't hit before, too - those that are a little further afield.  And most of our travel was backroads, which was nice.  Saw lots of horses and cows, and a handful of goats.  Found some goat fabric - been looking for some for a while, now, and was thrilled to get some finally!  And took a few pics.  If I'd remembered to upload them, I would post them!  (So, tonight, then!  Along with pics of Crop Circles layout, at least!)

Until later, superfriends!
S

Quilting Class again!

So, it's getting on to time for another quilting class...  Time to start thinking of the next thing to teach our lovely group of ladies who are of all different levels.  (I love it).   Fortunately, the thinking is the easy part.  The planning of the rest of it - not so much.  (The when, the fabric, the writing out of instructions for those who prefer to have written cheat sheets, the step-by-step versions to put on the design board....)

This time, we're going to cover quilt as you go projects.  Starting with a nice basic one.  Table runner/bed runner...

Here's a little sample I whipped up tonight: the semi-kinda-patriotic-colored thingamajig!

It's dirt simple and not bad looking for something I didn't spend too too much time on.  An hour, maybe?  And a little time for the back binding by hand?  The ones we will make in class will be bigger, but the technique will be the same.  An easy-peasy project!

Obviously I spent time in the quilt forge tonight.  It felt good!  And in addition to this little sample, I worked on Molten Glass.  I've got half the rows pieced together.  Just need to finish the other four rows and then add the sashing between the rows, and I will have the top done.

Which I guess means I REALLY need to finish Boston Molasses, so I can bind it and then get Molten Glass on the rack.  *sigh*  And so on.  (I need to quilt faster, or piece slower).

Here's the first four rows (well, some of each row, anyway).  There will be horizontal sashing in black as well, to separate out the red blocks a little bit more.  When done, it will be just over 10' square.  So far I am greatly liking it... and hope that the trend continues!

While stitching, I have been watching/listening to/laughing at Japanese giant monster movies.  Right now I am working my way through a three-disc set of Gamera movies.  Giant flying turtle, anyone?  (Which is great fun... although makes me want to make a hexie quilt of Gamera, complete with jets coming out his legs).  It certainly passes the time well, and keeps my brain occupied on several levels.

Now I curious, though, and will have to check: did Gamera ever fight Godzilla?  Seems like they should have... I will poke around and see, and post later.

Here's Molten Glass lines from the side.  It shows a bit more of the size, if nothing else.  It's only 64 blocks, but with the sashing, it's big. As mentioned before. 

 At any rate... wanted to give first looks at Molten Glass.  I like it.  And ultimately, since it's for me, that's the main thing.  I get to make it to MY desires, and I like the flame and heat and warmth of it.  The black in no way diminishes it - just breaks up that large chunk of red. 

I look forward to seeing this one done.

Guess I better get busy, then!

See you later, superfriends!

S

Three Month Hiatus??

It feels like I've been away forever.

Well, in a way, I have!  Scarborough Faire started up, and so my sewing time went down the drain.  Any evening time was eaten up by the day job, where we had testing to do.  Lots of testing.  New costuming, and then add to that the fact that I made a chemo quilt and 5 quilts to raffle for fundraising for the friend for who the chemo quilt was made... there wasn't much time for doing other stuff.  We spent last weekend cleaning up the forge, and now we're back at it.  Finally. 

If anyone out there is stuill reading this, I apologize for the long period of silence.  If not, no biggie.  :)

I've managed to get all 64 blocks pieced for my next (Personal) quilt.  For me.  Hah!  For my bed, no less!  It's based on the same pattern as Sea-Glass, but it's in phoenix colors.  And will have black sashing - that's my goal for tonight, cut out all that blasted sashing!  And start sewing again!

And since the forge is now clean again, we can start gearing up for the next class.  We're going to do a quilt as you go project, to introduce new skills.  Hooray!

This is one of the quilts made to be raffled off.  It is made of every kind of material and every weight, backed by a silver-gray moleskin.  The blocks are from costumes from Scarborough Faire (because it's all for one of the women out there).  The back contained more blocks that weren't quite the right size and would have been hard to adapt. 

The woman who won the quilt wanted it VERY badly - and I was thrilled she got it.

The other quilts were less spectacular, but no less wanted by people.  My Binary quilt went - quite popular, which made me smile, as well as three log cabin variations in several colorways.  Those were pieced by a friend who said "Here.  Add these in."  So I backed, quilted and bound them.

I was greatly pleased to do it, and I hope it helps out my friend.  But it SURE did take up the time!!!

So now I can get back to the normal updates, and back to the quilting and designing!  And tonight I will pull Boston Molasses back out and see what I can get done.  And start looking at other people's blogs again.  I feel like such a slacker.

Cheers!
Shay