BANKING

Of course I waited until the last day to file our B&O quarterly taxes.  And, I'm behind on the bookkeeping and had problems to deal with.  So, I had to go to the bank so they could help me sort them out.

I was surprised that there was a line at 10am when they opened.

I was only there for 45 minutes and they solved a few problems for me.

SEWING ROWS

I got down to the bottom of my design wall.  I can't add any more rows.  So, I'm sewing the rows together.  I want to put several more rows on the bottom still.

MORE ROWS

I added a few more rows to my Bars quilt.  

Then I did a 'value' check:

I ran back to the pet store to get another fish tank - the plan being to get some cleaner water going in that tank and then transfer my poor fish out of the green water tank into the cleaner one.  The water is so green now I can't even see the fish - I haven't seen the Plecostomus - I fear for him.

CAT PORTRAIT

Bentley was hanging out on the picnic table, snoozing.  So, I did a sketch of him, of course.

He stayed there just long enough for me to finish then he was off.

He was hot, but enjoying being a cat:

FISH MONDAY

I went to the pet store today to get a plecostomus.  Maybe he can help with the build-up of algae in my poor little fish's tank.

It was too hot today, didn't do much - watched this happen:

That was about it.

MOVING THINGS AROUND

First thing this morning I started looking for a new iron, since mine died yesterday.  Can't do much sewing without an iron.  I thought about getting a 'tank' type iron - but they are expensive and I decided against it mainly because of the way my ironing board is set up.  I don't know where I would put the tank and have it be accessible yet out of my way.

So, when I found the professional Rowenta model I settle on I found the best price on Amazon.  I ordered it and was surprised to see that it would be delivered today, before 6pm, still free shipping.  Amazing.  [And it was.]

In the meantime, I cut out pieces and put them on the wall.  At the end of the morning, I wasn't really happy with it and spent some time moving a few groups around.

I was amazed when I downloaded these pictures of the quilt and the flowers - the colors are very similar.  Hmmm.

I took a picture of the Coneflowers so I could paint them into my journal.  It was hard to get the deep red/orange of the flowers right on this paper.  But I like it.

TARA WORKSHOP

I was lucky enough to get into Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's Zoom Workshop with Tara Faughnan.  It was limited to about 24 people.  

She talked about her approach to color and some of her strategies.  

We worked on making our own "Bars" quilt.

We started by putting two fabrics together to evoke an emotion - happy, calm, etc.

 She talked to us as a group for the first part, then we were sent off to work on our own.  We met back in small groups of about 7 participants so she could talk to us each individually about our palettes.  After that we all met back together to wind things up.  Overall, it was a good workshop. 

[My iron stopped working about midway through the day.  It didn't just quietly fade away either, it had to spew some horrible yellow water everywhere.]

FINISHED LEAF TABLERUNNER

I took the Leaf Tablerunner off the longarm the other day and put facing on it.  Instead of hand sewing the facing down on the back, I decided to sew it down by machine.  It looked really nice and I decided to continue with the echo lines quilting all over using the walking foot.

I put it on the table in the entryway.

LAVENDER WANDS

I moved a Lavender plant when we expanded the deck.  It seems to be doing better where its at.

I cut some and made a few wands:

BAD TUESDAY

I quilted some more on the Leaf Tablerunner.  I outlined the leaves with an echo, then I really screwed up.  I thought I'd put a motif in the background.  I marked it with chalk and then quilted one row across before I realized I was quilting over the echo around the leaves.  The background is dark and I didn't see the previous stitching.  Now I need to un-stitch all of that.  I just left.  I didn't feel like doing that.  It's not going to be easy because the Essex Linen background is a loose weave.  Bummer.

Instead, I painted in my journal.  That was satisfying.

QUILTING TABLERUNNER

I loaded the Leaf Tablerunner onto my longarm and got the top row quilted today.  Well, I did the outlining of the 'leaves'.  I'm not sure about what to put in the background yet.

CHALLENGE DONE

I got the Challenge quilt trimmed and binding made and finished it up today.  It looks better than it actually is.

QUILTING CHALLENGE

I've been working on the Echoes & Curves Quilting Challenge with Angela Walters.  I'm almost done.  I got the body done and started on the borders today.

DAISY PLAY

I'm not sure how to proceed on the Improv Daisy I started in last weekend's workshop with Sherri Lynn Wood.  She said to take just one step at a time.  But, that is difficult for me - I see the project as a whole and get overwhelmed.  But, I'm trying to just go slow and do just a little bit at a time.

100 DAYS OF SCRAPS

Today is the 100th day of #100dayproject2020.  I made it!

I think I'll keep going though...

99/100

Darrell's been busy in the shop:

Kitty has been enjoying the garden:

98/100

97/100

Day Two of the Zoom Workshop with Sherri Lynn Wood - Bias Strip Daisy.  

I'm having a hard time with getting things to be flat.  Sherri says, just 'one step at a time'.  But, I get a little overwhelmed thinking about the whole project and have a hard time thinking about just doing one step.  I need to work on that.

I got this big insert for between the petals done and then put it up and I don't like it.  It's not what I envisioned.  Now I'm frustrated.

Overall, it was a fun workshop, but I'm still frustrated.

So, let's do something else:

96/100

Gotta get these out of the way so I can attend the Sherri Lynn Wood Zoom Workshop, Bias Strip Daisy I signed up for.

I took my computer up to the studio and tuned in to the workshop.  There were 86 attendees.  We learned how to make improv continuous bias strips first.  I've made so many continuous bias strip bindings that it was second nature.  The only difference being not marking lines for the 2-1/4" wide strips.  Instead, we just cut the strips with scissors, making them as wide or narrow as we wanted.

After class there was an optional free-sew which I attended. I wanted to make some more strips and get some 'petals' made.

95/100

Friday!  I got 13 triangle blocks made today.  

I finally decided to go ahead and get some little glass pieces made with ashes of Moe in them.  I had thought of doing this when I first lost her, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  Now I wish I had done it then.  I like having a little bit of Moe in my pocket.  She can go with me everywhere again now.

94/100

93/100

I started quilting on the Angela Walters, Echoes and Curves.  The Challenge has been over for a while, which means the videos are all up on YouTube.  However, I wish they would list them in coherent way.  It's basically search through all of her videos one by one.  And they are not labeled with a number so you know which order to view them in.  Also, they started in the middle of the little quilt.  I'm having a bit of trouble with that, but so far, so good.  We'll see.  I need to get a method for keeping the quilt taunt while floating the top and back.

Then it was on to working on my 100dayproject2020.  I made seven more triangle blocks from my scrap bucket:

92/100