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...

Hammering Out the Kinks

Crazy diamonds from the stash!  Colorful - no measuring!

Started two new quilts this week.  One won't be any sort of problem - it's as much a way to relax from my own designs (particularly when those designs fight back!)  It's a Crazy Diamonds quilt - simple and easy.  No measuring required once I got the base squares cut out.  100 muslin 12.5" squares.  Yay for stash of muslin!

Only 96 more to go!  It's a great way of using up the smaller scraps in our scrap bin.  We have so many scraps, I needed a way to clear some out.  Now I can make smaller scraps (in some cases).  For those really small pieces, I shred them and stick them in a mesh bag outside for the birds to make nests from.  I can only assume that we have some of the most colorful bird's nests in the area, based on the fabrics that go in that bag!

The other quilt I started is the one that's fighting back.  I shouldn't be surprised (and I'm not.  Not really).  It's an applique quilt - part of a series of Texas-themed quilts I've got planned.  At any rate, it SHOULD have been simple.  Except that it's applique, and my fusible stuff didn't want to fuse, and pieces fell everywhere... which is why I started on the Crazy Diamonds.  But.  I figure a picture of the quilt in progress - or at least a small section of it - is nevertheless called for.  So here it is.

Moo?

This one is an unfinished applique - he still needs horns and his tail, and a little detail work.  Then he will need details to the field he stands in.  The quilt itself is to be called "Texas Daycare" (as a working title).  This little guy will be a longhorn baby hanging out in a field in Texas with prickly pear and mesquite, just like a lot of the cattle in the area I was born in.  (Yup, born and raised in Texas, just south of the Hill Country).  He's the first in a very diverse series of Texas-themed quilts.  None of them will be Texas flags, and none of them (at this time) are going to scream Texas, but to me, it's Texas that links them all together.  They are sights and scenes from the Texas that I know. 

 So, today I'll go back into the quilt forge and start working on this guy again, try to hammer out the kinks in the applique process.  There will be more pictures to follow!  I hope everyone had a fabulous Fourth of July, and came through it healthy and ready to head back into work.  (Yeah, right).  If I am really motivated, there might actually be pictures of the outside of the quilt forge: see the mesh bag for the birds, the bird baths, the bird feeders....  And maybe some of the stained glass-type designs we're working on for the quilt forge windows...  just to take some of the glare out of the evening sun! 

As ever, busily!

Shay