What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

so I chose my own color, my neutral, "LIME GREEN" 

the back after basting and  hand sewing unit

I would rather have 12 colors, instead of 4 months to put the quilt together. Actually finishing a quilt isn't always my plan, I like to just look at color each month, use it, learn from it. So I plan to use these as my next 3 months focus colors

fuchsia

Gold

Gray

and went through my scraps to find ...

I signed up for a free online workshop called Art Soul Gathering. There were several teachers, but I wasn't inspired by more than two. I'll show you what I learned... 

the quote is not attached yet, just trying out locations

after it was done and dry, I added ...

It's bright and pretty and done, It was a monumental task in my weakened condition! Yea! 

While in there I found scraps that could be cut into raw edge petals...

here it is made, with some hand stitching threads....no beads

Obviously I made my own pattern, it's so wonky!

(never sew when you are in the pain I am)

I sewed some free form geese, used abstract piecing, sewed some squares and rectangles. Then put them together int the table topper above. 

in this pic of the flimsy before it was quilted,you see the one I did in blues last month compared to this one

It's 13" X 21" and fits on my bedside table. I quilted it in metallic threads. Mylar ...

I dithered over blues for this background and finally chose this turquoise ish blue but have to wait til I can use a rotary cutter to set it

thank you to those who gave me feedback, you were all right... hugs!

the big this this week ...

living the creative life... so many decisions... I considered the background in sparkling blue for this blue garden of roses piece. It's just pinned to the wall to think about... what do you think of it? 

I chose scraps for my feathered star RSC project in blues... got the foundation piecing accomplished despite the ongoing physical limitations... My wall ...

this method uses a rotary cutter... but I can't press down a cutter because of my nerve pinched spine so

I had ...

on the sewing front, I needed to see color sewn to color, repeat. I got out the blue scraps that are exceptionally small and started sewing...

the log cabin logs finish at 1/8th inch

I thought, I love foundation piecing, why not just do some really small (2") blocks, mindless right? I didn't count on the intensity of dealing with such small seam allowances and strips of fabric 1/2" wide. I completed two blocks and moved on. 

sewing to paper is a good idea for me now, can't use ...

and just loved her... my paints, simple waterbrush, and flip notebook were by the computer so I painted a version. I wanted to not draw hard lines first, no sketch, and to provide all features with shadows only

I liked her, her lace dress, her features but something was off. Just like in real life, hair color makes a difference. I went back and added darker brown paint, which suits her skin tone...

Imagine ...

It was that kind of week for me. Physical limitations meant I couldn't use a rotary cutter, couldn't sew with machine much, had trouble painting as sitting at the table hurt.

We have a mama bird sitting on eggs in the gutter just below Milo's perch. When I joined him in window watching this week, I looked down into two little black eyes blinking up at me, begging me to stop ...

The first is a sketchbook painting, a self portrait of sorts. 

If I was Queen, you've all heard that phrase. I tried to paint someone sticking out their tongue in disgust. 

ever feel like that? 

I had a very painful week, making sewing difficult so I sort of planned my feathered star hoping next week I can sew at the machine

I sewed on a border or two on this

I sewed ...

I did that then laid out the pieces on my portable design board, the way they'll be sewn together into a whole.

so I can carry it around and try out background fabrics to applique it to... I cut the pieces a bit big when cutting the kit to carry downstairs ...

There are videos of people teaching versions but none gave me a pattern... I found one on line

SunCatcherStudio.com

at first I cut it out large since it was drawn to scale. Too big for a pin cushion but great for a box... so then I cut it out as shown. 

I used pink felt scraps since the color of the month at rainbow scrap challenge is pink! yea! It looks wonky in these photos but it's a precious little sturdy ...

 The Guardians 

a painting, just a quick painting to see colors dance with each other on paper, moving, spreading, blending and creating lines. 

I might be superfluous in the process

I lift the paper, let water guide the lines as it will, amazed at the life in a painting. I think of how life moves and blends and resists too, how the colors so pretty on their own, look when next to other colors and that each living thing has it's own colors, and how each living thing changes a bit when it's near another.

will they blend ...

copper paint, tested on a yellow scrap, perfect! Dab paint on with sea sponge

then went over with gold paint on the test scrap... maybe... I like stenciling a lot

these blocks are paper pieced (foundation) from this book

 so stenciling was easy with the paper backing. Iron when dry makes it permanent. I also shaded that one with brown prisma color pencil

the four colors ...

got the idea from https://thecraftycreek.com/2023/07/16/owl-and-hare-hollow-hqal-2/.

four epp circles done... haven't decided what color to put them on yet

here are three yellow scrap pieces I'm working on at the same time... the design wall is sunny! 

When I'm stressed I like to sort fabric scraps then take the smallest of them to the machine and make order out of the chaos. My scraps are all shapes, all sizes, all color values and patterns. The focus color of April is yellow, so I pulled out the yellow scrap bin, and started sorting. 

In my bin was a bag of blocks, improv starts, left overs. A treasure chest! I ...

16.5" square

 (scraps from scraps)

I made this 5" X 7" something...

5" X 7"  so far...

here are the three colors so far...

I like how the tula pink background blends together

I use a foundation paper piecing pattern from this book

For this month's Table scraps challenge I used scraps from last week's PQ irish chain quilt

I layered them on a ...

It  required all my creativity!   

Click on images to enlarge them

Let's start with the Project Quilting piece. The prompt was "hourglass" and we had one week to design, make and finish it. Here is my finished project

It will hang in my studio, reminding me of the speed of time (tempus Fugit ) that artists are happy when they are creating

I started with cutting two triangles of peltex stiff stabilizer, covering them with backing brought to the front

choosing which of my ...