This is a blog about my quilting. Picture is Celtic Solstice a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt from 2013
I spent a couple days sewing with friends at the retreat center. I had lots of fun but didn't get as much accomplished as I'd hoped. I think I will add the road by sewing segments into quarter circles instead of all the road as one big circle added to one big circle of houses. this was something I saw on The Quilt Show forum. It is very helpful to see how others are tackling the BOM
During this time of covid isolation, I have enjoyed taking classes online. I have taken several though the Mancuso Shows https://www.quiltfest.com/
Two recent ones were very good. Phyllis Cullen taught Put On A Scrappy Face. She is an excellent teacher and I enjoyed it so much I also bought her book. I am looking forward to doing more portraits. This is my progress so far - I need to add leaves for a headress and then layer with tulle and quilt
I also took Mixed Media Graffiti with Margarita Korioth as the instructor. She was a great teacher too. We went over many techniques.
I especially liked learning how to make cheesecloth skins. Her class kits where well supplied and generous. She included the label above for us to put on our projects.
Taking classes last week, one teacher said I might see better if I worked vertically. Also I had a backache from being bent over working on this project. So I ordered an easel and splurged and ordered a flat light screen. I don't have the screen yet, but I am looking forward to being able to trace things by putting the screen on this easel.
Retirement is interesting and wonderful. 15 months ago I stopped working even part time. Then Covid came. I have done a lot of sewing, improved my organization (still a long way to go) and housekeeping.
I have really enjoyed online quilting classes. Tuning into Zoom for instruction has lots of advantages. I am sitting in my sewing room - no regrets that I didn't bring purple fabric to class. Also, there is an up close view of the teacher's demonstrations.
This last week I have taken 2 classes from Mancuso's Spring Quilt Festival https://www.onlinequiltfestival.com/ I have a third today. I will, hopefully blog about them and other things I have been working on.
So Friday was a great class with Phyllis Cullen http://phylliscullenartstudio.com/ She is an excellent instructor. I will show my progress soon. Even though she had us stretching regularly and I even got on the floor and rolled the kinks out of my back I still ended the day stiff from being bent over my sewing table picking tiny pieces and putting them onto my project.
Now that I have been vaccinated, I plan to sew one or two days a month at the Retreat Center My goal for this year is to do more. I can get caught up in browsing the internet, reading or playing games. I often sew a half hour in the morning but frequently don't go back and do anymore later. Taking a sewing machine and setting it up at the retreat center ensures more productivity and some socialization.
I thought that for the month of May it would be a good goal to do ART 3 hours a day. I think I can commit to sewing, quilting, or learning each day. Today is easy - I have a 6 hr class. I plan to count watching teaching videos in my time too so if I'm stiff or it's dark and not easy to see my work I can review or learn something while sitting in my comfortable chair.
But...this post is about "flow"! Let me tell you about my morning flow. I woke at 3 am unable to get back to sleep. I can't just take a nap later as I have a 9 am class. So I meditated in bed hoping I'd fall back to sleep. Didn't sleep. Got up at 4:15.
I browsed the internet. Another teacher from this week, Estrita Austin had recommended working vertically if it was hard to see the pattern you were tracing or painting. I browsed amazon and found an/easel drafting table drawing/sketching board. It sits on your desk but would enable me to work vertically. I put it in my Amazon cart. Next I browsed for one of the large flat light tables. A couple friends got them and I have been struggling in the last year with tracing patterns. I put it in my cart, knowing I'd like it but I had no extra money until the middle of the month.
I really wanted to lay back down and sleep for a couple hours but I still couldn't. I was browsing the internet, again. I thought I'd play a few games on a social casino. Legal in that you don't gamble, but can win sweepstakes prizes. So here is my serendipity. I had $9.74 on that site. I started playing. I won $50, then I won $120 then $360 up and down it kept mostly going up. I cashed out $1000 and bought my easel and light table. It was a wow! morning.
Well I have been sewing, but I haven't been blogging. I am just going to start where I am and try and be more consistent.
I have enjoyed the https://thequiltshow.com/ for years and I fell in love with 2021 BOM designed by Wendy Williams. I wanted to use the same background fabric "Art History 101" by Marcia Derse. I had to wait a while to start as that was on back order.
I am caught up until Mar 31, and will be starting to sew the trees to the houses. In the picture below the houses are not sewn to each other.
I don't think I ever blog about this quilt. I made it in 2005 or 2006. It is a free pattern from Bonnie Hunter. I started following Bonnie's blog when several people at the guild I belonged to showed quilts made from her patterns
It was the first time I really did scrappy and I put in black sashings to break up the blocks. I mostly had brights but tried to include all types of prints. It was fun but a little stressful not in the construction, but in all the fabrics. I was tired of it and add a striped print into the black border to try and make it look like I worked more than I really did (ha!) because I just want it finished.
I had mixed feeling about this quilt but it has been used for years in my living room.
I quilted it on the grace frame and it's my first or close to my first quilted on a frame quilt. It has clear thread on top and black on bottom. I tried to use one of those stick down papers and follow the lines for quilting.. it has tension issues with black thread poking up from the bottom. One thing to realize is no matter how problematic it may have seemed at the time it has been used for 14 years or more and no one noticed or mentioned the quilting.
Both Brick House Quilts are done. Measuring approximately 48 by 72 I quilted them one after the other.
As I wrote before some straight lines and swirls in the first one.
The second one was quilted with swirls
Here's another pic of the first.
