Celebrating Rain, Green and Beading..

The colors were clear and bright this morning after a couple days of rain.

The mix of greens, yellow greens, reds into oranges is delightful.

See the rain drops? Lovely.

Shrub with berries.

Blue Gum Eucalyptus does its flower thing.

Beading  accomplished here.

It's rained here the last couple of days, it was fairly respectable too. This morning the sun was out

shining and the air was clear and clean. I had to get some photos of the colors to share. So thrilling.

I got some beading done. My needle threader broke, my beading needles are almost impossible to thread without them. I had three more beads to sew down and needed more thread on my needle and the threader wire broke, oh no! So tediously I worked and fiddled and finally got the beading needle threaded by eye and hand. I sure didn't want to run to the store so late just to get a threader!

That's what I've been up to today. I also made dinner and it's on the stove, home made pea soup with lots of veggies and left over roast beef.

Have a great day!

Making more Blocks Arranging Auditioning...

String blocks on a fabulous orange batik.

Remember the four-patch 12" x 12" blocks I took apart? They're rearranged and back together.

They're calling to me....I just have to figure out what they're trying to say.

More hand quilting done in turquoise embroidery thread.

Adventures in color and design and happy Friday! 

Most of the fabric, from the fat quarter bundle I wanted to use up, has gone into 'liberated' blocks and now I'm shuffling the blocks around and auditioning sashing, border fabrics. The orange batik is very bold and eye catching, but it will need a contrasting 'friend' to enable it to play well and not totally over power the other 'players'. There are certain colors like certain personalities that need a handler.

The theme or score with this quilt is that it's a 'liberated' sampler. The liberated blocks take center stage and sashing and borders have to work with the blocks.

More hand quilting has gone into my Citrus Rose quilt. It's got a heavier cotton batting, making hand quilting more work. I've been using Warm and Natural. I'm going to look around for a lighter cotton batting for other quilts.  Mountain Mist makes a light cotton batting. Do any of you have a preference? What is your favorite batting and why?

Rearranging 'Liberated' blocks, sewing strip fabric...

Strip fabric pieced, four square borders etc.....

'Liberated' blocks rearranged. I think I'll use the foursquares as borders.

I began the process of arranging my 'liberated' blocks as in Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston, a few days ago. Usually I change my mind several times in the design process and take something out or add a little of this in. Originally I had the foursquare blocks all sewn together in a 12 x 12" square block, that just wasn't working the way I wanted it to. So the foursquares are now separated into borders. I sewed up some strip fabric today and plan on having a little fun using it in borders and or blocks to add to the liberated blocks. 

In keeping with Sherri Lynn Woods ideas in the The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, about improvising from a score or framework and setting limits, I limited myself to using the 'liberated' blocks I had already made from a set of fat quarter quilting fabric I wanted to use up and adding bright, knock your socks off, batiks just because I can't stay away from them. The black and white got added as neutrals, wow, so much for limits, or shall we say as the infamous Captain Barbosa said, 'They're more like guidelines?'

I'll be sharing more design adventures, see you soon!

Improv projects and 'Liberated' block arranging, AHIQ Linkup #2

'Pacific Blues' #1 & 2 close-up, I like the colors together.

'Pacific Blues' #1 mother of pearl and 'star fish' added.

'Liberated' style blocks arranged in sampler style.

Pacific Blues #1 needed a couple of 'star fish' and some mother of pearl pieces sewed on, I decided.

I want to have 3 in this series to show the moods of the Pacific Ocean. Of course the many moods of that ocean are endless but I figure three, one for relative calm and bright, one for darker, moody and restless and three for a late summer sunset. That will keep me busy for a while.

I've taken some of the blocks I have sewn together going through Gwen Marston's book, Liberated Quiltmaking II, and laid them out on a piece of fabric I'm using as a 'design wall'. I'm going to use that fabric for sashing and flying geese borders. I wanted to get a feel for how the blocks could go together and what I might want to add to fill it out. So this is my progress on improv projects so far.

I get a lot of encouragement and inspiration from all of you other improv designers/quilters at
Ad Hoc Improv Quilters Link up #2

Long live the challenge!

San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.. Found/Made

Quilt top made from double knits.

Quilt tops displayed hanging from clothes line.

String quilt

American flag in log cabin blocks by Luke Haynes

Entrance display quilt.

Friday I drove to San Jose to see family and the San Jose Quilt Museum exhibit, Found/Made, a quilt collection including quilts from 1940-current. I went with my daughter-in-law and we enjoyed ourselves looking around and talking about fabric, quilts and the memories of vintage fabrics and quilt patterns in our lives. Good time! 

The song, 'Funky Town' reminds me of San Jose. It's a colorful mix of hustle, bustle, palm trees and a beautiful rose garden, San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, right in the middle.

Enjoy something beautiful this weekend, it keeps you young!

Fun with Square in a Square blocks and Valorie Wells' Greta Pattern..

Square in a Square blocks I've been sewing together.

Greta quilt pattern by Valerie Wells.

I've been sewing up 'liberated' Square in a Square blocks as in Gwen Marston's book, Liberated Quiltmaking II. That intuitive method really speaks to me. It says, "Relax and have fun!"

Valori and Jean Wells at The Stitchin' Post have put out some good modern quilt patterns. Staying up on patterns and color trends is one of my favorite interests. In the current Keep Sake Quilting catalog,

Valori and Jean both have designed stunning kits, Colored Happy and Color Work Table Runner, on page 40 and 41. 

Enjoy your Tuesday and share a smile!

Square in a Square Blocks and Hand Embroidery Added

Four patch blocks for center block.

I'm skipping ahead to work on Square in a Square and Cabbage Rose blocks.

Hand embroidery added in contrast color.

Machine quilting practice using different tensions..

 In working through Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston, I skipped ahead to Square in a Square and Cabbage Rose blocks, just because. I decided to use some fat quarters that I won as a door prize at one of the quilt guilds I belong to. The prints, colors in the fat quarters are not something I would choose  to work with, but I thought that it would be good practice in making due and using what I had on hand. Adding some other fabrics to the mix for pizzaz, I made up a lot of four patches. I'm going to use them for centers in Square in a Square and Cabbage Rose blocks. Then I'll sew them together with other Liberated Quilting II blocks into small quilts and use them to practice machine quilting. I want to work at that until I get results I'm comfortable with. However, big quilts will still be sent out to a long arm quilter because they do such a great job.

Today I've been hand embroidering and working on machine quilting, experimenting with different tensions. 

Also, good news, Sujata Shah, who wrote the book, Cultural Fushion Quilts, will be moving to the West Coast soon, in case you hadn't heard. Very exciting, she is booked to speak at one of the quilt guilds I belong to. It'll be good to see her there.

That's all for now, have a great day!