BLACK FRIDAY

Yesterday I started sewing the scraps from Unexpected Visitor onto a 6-1/2" strip of lightweight cotton fabric that I originally used as backing for drapes I made a long time ago. That was great fun. 

Then I went down to the Sodo Pacific Fabrics where everything was 30% off after 2pm.  Woohoo!  I bought enough fabric to finish the back and I splurged on some Kai scissors, thread and a few other things. 

 Today I cut another strip and cut it in half and  made two more shorter strips with the scraps.  I used up almost all of them.

I added a label and then finished up the back.

THANKSGIVING

It was a cold and clear morning.  We went for a nice walk in the park.

I spent the rest of the morning finishing the last few seams on the Unexpected Visitor top.

Then, we met up with the rest of the family at Rock Creek Restaurant in Renton for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was me and Darrell, Mom, Julie and Jeff, along with Aunt Marlys, Leslie, Collin and his fiance, Steve, Carolyn and all of his kids and grandkids, and Rick and his wife.  It was quite a crowd, 35 all together I think.

There was a banquet with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, green beans, green salads, ham and prime rib and other things I wasn't interested in.  Then there was a dessert table with tiny little pies, and other bite sized goodies.  I brought a baggie and scooped up some of the leftovers for the doggies - they loved their Thanksgiving dinner, too.

EASY PROJECT

I started this yesterday and worked on  it for a short time.  Today I finished cutting out the parts, making a few fabric changes along the way.  I sewed them into blocks, then sewed the rows together.  I've got all but three seams left to do.  Easy peasey.

(It doesn't look anything like I thought it would when I started it.)

This picture is before I sewed the blocks together.

WATERCOLOR MONDAY

Our weekly Watercolor Class at Daniel Smith is Monday this week, instead of Tuesday.

FACED

Got the facing on and flipped to the back and ironed.

While ironing I noticed that darn oil spot that I thought I had cleaned off yesterday is still there.

I cleaned it again with Sew Clean, but not before I had inadvertantly ironed it.  I hope it comes out.

So, you will see in the photo the upper left still has a wet spot.

Jax was not happy about the damn explosions after the Seahawks game today.  It scares him.  He wants me to reassure him that we aren't going to die.

OFF THE LONGARM

Seasons is done and off the longarm.  I might make the deadline.

Darrell and I went for an afternoon walk with the dogs.

NUMBER 98

I'm determined to get to 100 donations:

ALSO SEEN

More sights from Lincoln Park from our morning walk.

WINTER LIGHT

The light is so low and intense at this time of year.  

It makes everything so beautiful.

ALMOST HALFWAY

I'm almost halfway done with the quilting on the Seasons quilt.

DARRELL'S BIRTHDAY

We had a nice day, starting out with breakfast at Biscuit Bitch.

SUNDAY LUNCH

Nicole treated Darrell and I to lunch for his upcoming birthday tomorrow.  We went down to Alki to the Cactus restaurant.  Luckily we got there early enough to not have to wait for a table.  By the time we left there was a line out the door.  Great food.

PRESENT FOR ME

Before I left for the retreat, I ordered a big set of Aurifil threads. 

I needed more colors if I was going to use a thread to match the fabrics on the Seasons quilt.

Look what I got!

I'm using Westalee's ruler "Circles on Quilts" to do the half circles quilting at quarter inch arcs.

JOE RETREAT LAST DAY

Friday morning.

Today is a very short day.  We need to pack up all of our stuff, clear out our room, stripping the bedding, and load up to leave.

We had our last breakfast together where speeches were made and good-byes were said.  It was very emotional.

Patricia had arranged for us all to bring some mustard as a thank you gift for Joe.  He was very surprised and I think, very pleased.

I jammed everything back into my car and headed out for the Southworth Ferry.  I was home by lunch time.  [They sent us home with a sack lunch again.]

JOE RETREAT DAY FOUR

Today will be our last day of all day sewing.  Joe gave us a pep talk, reminding us to just "Cut, Sew, Repeat."  He gave us all stillettos that his friend had made for us with the instructions to focus our attention where the pointy end is pointing.  Patricia was videoing the talk, which Joe has since turned into his Quilt Report #40.

It was a day to try to finish up our projects.

I'm way behind and somewhat frustrated.

I'm not really happy with the way it's looking.  Joe says this is normal at this stage and to push through.  I realize that if I was at home doing this, I'd probably give up.  Being here, with nothing else to do, I feel like I might as well keep working on it.

All week, while all of us are working away, Joe entertained us with his guitar.  It's one of the great things about being at a Joe Retreat.

My new friend Patti loved picking through the garbage looking for usable chunks of fabrics that others have cast away.  I'll admit to grabbing a few of these myself.

Another participant, David, was really good at taking portraits.  He wanted to take advantage of the natural light coming through the window, next to my sewing station, to take a portrait of Joe and Patricia.

Here are some closeups of things I've been working on.

Here's what my project looked like at the end of the day.

JOE RETREAT DAY THREE

Here's what our workroom  looked like after a few days of hard work:

Joe gave us some instructions:

It was a beautiful day, but we couldn't do more than look - it was sew, sew and more sewing.  All day.

I'm making a little progress - I needed to start sewing things together, even though I don't have enough parts made.  Thus, another problem arose - how to sew them together without straight lines.  It took some figuring and head scratching.  Sometimes my head would be swimming and I'd just have to stop and relax and breathe.

At one point I took the top left section down to work on it, and I realized the whole thing looked better without it.  So, I turned it upside down and put it on the bottom.  I remade the top section.  I'm a lot happier about the whole composition now.

Here's how it looked at the end of the day:

JOE RETREAT DAY TWO

The day started with a talk by Joe outling our project for the day.  I made a blind contour drawing of Joe.  That was fun.

Along with a great amount of fabric, the supply list said to bring a picture of a piece of art that we love.  I picked this painting by Kim VanderHoek, "4th Avenue Span."  I do love it.

Joe wanted us to write down 2 or 3 words to describe what we love about it.

I said, 'muted colors' and 'lost edges'.  I had to explain what I meant by lost edges to Joe.

Then, we were given our assignment, which was to make a 48" by 48" composition focusing on the word or words from our work of art.  I wanted to figure out how to make 'lost edges' from fabric.

I started by sewing three pieces of fabric together, then cutting them into strips and sewing them back together and staggering them to get uneven lines.

I made a bunch of them and just put them up on the wall.  Everyone else was already sewing things together and I was still making parts.

Here's the palette I choose: 

Included are a few beautiful hand-dyeds by Judy Robertson, some I dyed and/or printed and one of the fat quarters I bought on Sunday.  Oh, and a Kona solid.

Here's all I had done by the end of the day:

It was a little stressful - I had to take a break or two to stretch my legs and enjoy our beautiful view of the canal.