All is Fair

This week another tree was thread painted, again using the method from Nancy Prince's book, Thread Painting with Style, with two layers of tulle sandwiched between two layers of water-soluble stabilizer. (I almost typed 'fertilizer.' What the...?!)

It's a fair effort, not great, but hopefully each time they'll turn out a little better. Still don't know if I'll use this tree, along with the first two, for The Overlook quilt. If not, they'll likely turn up in a future quilt.

Not to mix fall with spring, but earlier this week there was some good news from the Kentucky State Fair. I had recently retrieved a finished quilt from the closet, figured out how to bury the remaining knots on the back, and taken a shot at entering it in the 2015 competition, since this state fair has used professional quilt judges in recent years and they give feedback. Thanks to Bobbie Gross for taking the photo and sending it to me.

Still Waters, 2013

For details and challenges of making this quilt, see blog entries dated June 27, 2013 through September 21, 2013. The Sept. 21 blog (linked) shows several 'before' and 'after' closeups.

That's it for this week. (Actually another sweater went into the Lucy drawer, but my good camera is out on loan, so I'll share a photo of the sweater another time.)

Linking up with Whoop Whoop Fridays. Sarah has a winner for the giveaway, and has made some very pretty coasters.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Linda

Just a Frame-up Job

No progress to report on the landscape quilt these last few weeks, but 24 blocks (tops only) are done for the next quilt for The Center for Women and Families (Louisville, KY).

It's kind of a scrappy/crazy quilt, and since each untrimmed block can sometimes be a bit bigger (or a lot bigger) than the final size, there are of course options as to where to cut the finished square.

The trouble is, for me at least, it's difficult to visualize the finished block while staring through all these lines, dots and numbers. Does anyone else find this challenging?

So it occurred to me to make a 'frame' to audition the final blocks. No doubt this has been done by other folks, but since I've never seen the idea anywhere, I wanted to share it. (I'm still pretty new at making quilts other than the landscape type.)

I placed the 12-1/2 inch ruler in the middle of a piece of white poster board, drew a line around the ruler, then cut just outside those lines, so that the cut-out would end up slightly larger than the ruler.

After moving the frame around on the block and settling on a position I liked, I dropped the ruler into the cut-out, lifted the frame away, and cut the final square.

This way of auditioning works so much better for my eyes and brain! Hope it'll help someone else who might never have thought to try this.

It was especially helpful on blocks that started out even bigger than this one did.

Also reorganized my thread, which had become a total mess. It's kept on the shelves VVHH (very versatile handy husband) made years ago for our son's Hot Wheels. Almost everything gets re-purposed around here!












Off subject, there are two new additions to the Lucy drawer:

This was made with Deborah Norville Serenity Baby acrylic yarn (slightly chunky) in the color called 'Sleepytime.' I love self-striping variegated yarns, and the little almost flower-like motifs that appear in the spaces between the colored stripes. I almost got the sleeves to come out looking the same. (Didn't plan ahead as well as I should have.)

The sundress is knitted from Deborah Norville Everyday acrylic worsted in the color 'Pond,' and Martha Stewart Crafts acrylic worsted for the solid green. The dress turned out a bit on the heavy side. The pattern called for cotton yarn, but I had thought the acrylic worsted weight would work okay. We'll see.






Here's the little love that makes me want to spend so much of my quilting time knitting instead. She just turned 5 months old on the 18th.

Lucy's shirt came from the Etsy shop of Lannie B. Handmade

VVHH and I now have the pleasure and privilege of watching Lucy (our first grandchild) for two days a week. She loves to watch me knit, by the way. And as soon as this kiddo can glue, I hope to have her in the studio making landscape quilts right alongside me!

Linking up with Whoop Whoop Fridays and WIPs Be Gone. Check them out, you'll be glad you did!

Have a great weekend~~

Linda