PAISLEY CITY SAMPLER SOLD

 My Paisley City Sampler, a quilt made from the blocks in Tula Pink's City Sampler book, sold on Etsy today.  It will be living in Florida soon.

Good-bye and good luck, I hope you are well loved.

ART DATE 4

 I drove around -  and around - until I found a house I wanted to sketch close to our neighborhood. I was attracted to the porch on this one. I struggled with getting the perspective correct - lots of erasing and starting over.  It's still not quite right, but I'm learning.

I polished it off a bit, once I was back home.

HOW'S IT LOOKING?

 I had to put up the  borders I've already made to see how they go with the new center Medallion block.

Needs some tweaking, but I like it.

NEXT BORDER

 I got the next border on and the corners, too.  Woohoo!

WELL THAT WORKED

 I was pleasantly surprised to see this all work out and have it go together relatively easy.  There was a lot of pins and I couldn't have done it without the glue stick.

SK PLAYLAB 8

 This is a repeat of a previous Sketching PlayLab - one that I hadn't attended.  It was about not putting your sketches in a 'box' format - leaving them with indeterminant edges.  I love this idea, and I think I use it, but I found at the end my sketch was still rectangular!

Painting water, especially waves, is particularly difficult for me.

NEW CENTER SQUARE

 I really didn't like the way the Celtic block was looking so I re-thought it and started over.    I got out my compass and trammel and drew out a big round interesting block.

Then I had to pick out fabrics - I pulled out my batiks drawer and rifled through them and came up with some winners.  And I made the decision to do this the hard way with y-seams and everything.  Here we go.

First I made the Lemoyne Star that goes in the middle.  Easy.

Then on to the next circle:

Don't know how to put this circle around the Lemoyne Star, but I'll figure it out.

LITTLE SKETCHBOOK

 We were in the grocery store, waiting in line, and I was taken by these little sketchbooks they had on display.  So I bought one - it was only $2!

It will fit in my pocket and go with me - everywhere.

FIBONACCI SWIRL TOP

 I finally pieced together the last block for the Fibonacci Swirl top.  This one was 34" square.  It was a pain to handle.  But it's on there - it's far from perfect, but it's on there.  Ta da.

It is 34" by 55" and that's as big as it's going to get.  

SALSA CENTER

 The Seattle Modern Quilt Guild is doing a medallion type quilt for this year's Block of the Month.  The first few months we made borders, February was lines of your choice - I thought I'd use the adding machine tape strips made of scraps from Seasons.

March was about making triangles in any fashion you choose. I first made some triangles from scraps, but I didn't like them - they were too big next to the small borders of 'lines' and the colors were wrong. So, I got out some multi-colored hand dyed by Judy Robertson from 2001 and made some spikey triangles. 

This month is about making the center block.  The center block of a medallion quilt is usually something special.  I thought I'd make a Celtic Knot type block.   I cut up some more 20 year old Judy Robertson hand-dyed that I've been hoarding and used some light blue-ish solids for the background. 

I'm not too sure I like it.  I haven't sewed it down yet, it's just pinned and it doesn't really look like what I had in mind.  Maybe I'll let it stew for a while before I commit to it.

ART DATE 3

 I headed out this morning to the Alki Lighthouse wanting to sketch there.  But, alas, it was closed and no way to get near it.  So I continued on down Alki Boulevard towards Luna Park, thinking I'd paint the cafe.  But, no, there was no where to park, so I continued on.  I headed down to Delridge looking for something to sketch.  There is a lot of construction on Delridge Way SW with detours and traffic cones everywhere.  When  I spotted this crew working, pouring concrete for the new road, I did a u-turn and went back to sketch them.

CAT ON DUTY

 

YELLOW ARC

 Over the last few days I've been piecing together the convex part of the 34" drunkard's path, the final block for my Fibonacci spiral.  Today I sewed the small yellow bias strip onto the arc.

OUR DAFFODILS

 The daffodils in our front yard have been in bloom for over a week.  The flowers were starting to show wear and tear.  I picked them, put them into a vase and took them out to the back deck to sketch.

I spent a pleasant time studying and drawing each petal then applying watercolors.  I used my new Molotow Blackliner pen - I really like it.

BACK AT PARK

The weather has taken a turn for the better.  This week we've been getting consistently warmer every day.  Yesterday was the first time since October that it has gone over 70 degrees.

This morning we went for a walk before breakfast at Lincoln Park.  It's been a while since I've done that and the sun was even up.  It was very nice.  There was lots of bird song. I love hearing Varied Thrush and I even heard a Loon.  Life is good.

BINDING ON SHATTERED

 I got the binding onto the Shattered quilt - it's now really done.

SKETCHES

 I went up to Wallingford this morning to get an injection into my knee.  It will be nice to be a little more pain free for a while.

I sketched while I waited for my appointment.

Then in the afternoon I did a little more sketching of some stuff that came in the mail.  

BACK AGAIN

 I made the backing for the Equinox quilt today. I used up all the extra Drunkard's path pieces I had cut out, plus some. 

It's all ready for quilting now!

FINISHED SHATTERED

 I finished up the quilting on the Shattered quilt.

SKETCHING PLAYLAB PARTY

 Today marks the one year anniversary of Suhita and Paul's Sketching PlayLab.  They had a party.  We sketched things you'd find at a party - balloons, party hat, cake, flowers, a tea pot and an alien pet.  

I wasn't really happy with my sketches, but when I cut them up and pasted them to the page I like them a lot better.

MQG RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBIT

 Today was the opening of the Modern Quilt Guild Retrospective Exhibit at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah Kentucky.  The exhibit runs from April 9, 2021 through July 27, 2021.

My quilt, Seasons, is on exhibit there.  

Here's their description of the show:

Modern quilting has existed in many forms throughout the 20th century, its growth in the early 2000's was aided by cultural shifts recognizing quality design, the changing fabric industry, and the rise of social media. Modern quilters began coalescing online, sharing images, design ideas, and tutorials, forming virtual quilting bees, and swapping handmade items.

Founded in 2009 by Alissa Haight Carlton and Latifah Saafir, The Modern Quilt (MQG) gave the burgeoning online modern quilting community a chance to form in-person connections with other modern quilters. The MQG supports over 15,000 members in 39 countries around the world and seeks to foster a vibrant and inclusive organization built on encouragement and mutual respect where all feel welcome.

Modern quilts are primarily functional and inspired by modern design. Modern quilts work in different styles and define modern quilting in different ways; however, several characteristics often appear which may help identify a modern quilt. These include but are not limited to the use bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, expansive negative space, and alternate grid work. Modern traditionalism, or the updating of classic quilt designs, is also often seem in modern quilting.

The exhibit provides a glimpse into the evolution of quilts made by members of the Modern Quilt Guild during the past twelve years. Many have been exhibited at QuiltCon, the largest modern quilting event in the world, presented annually by the MQG.

There are 35 quilts on exhibit.

ART DATE 2

 I had a lot of things to do today, one of them being to take some returns down to the Amazon Return Center in Sodo.  So, after I did that I found something to sketch in that area.  I stopped and sketched this odd building on Airport Way.

I probably should do simpler buildings.  This was a little difficult.  There was a lot of sketching and erasing then sketching and erasing.  I didn't finish it on site, but took it home to add color.  I used my new "Molotow Blackliner" pen that I received in the Urban Sketching Set I won from CretaColor.  I love this pen, it has a great line,  smooth and easy and the ink is waterproof.

I stopped sketching at lunchtime and went over to Cafe Con Leche to pick up some take out.  I took our lunch home where we enjoyed it outside on the deck.

I had a Cubano sandwich and he had Puerco Asado, yum.

SHATTERED ON LONGARM

 After I finished the Equinox top, I moved right into loading another quilt on the longarm.  Next up is the Shattered quilt.  The back was ready to go, but I needed to piece together some batting.  This quilt is 48" by 64".  I had 60" x 60", and then they jump up to Double 72" x 93".  So I pieced some scraps together.

I'm stitching in the ditch around the plain boxes (on point), then I'm having Eduard quilt a simple pattern in each box.

EQUINOX TOP DONE

 Finally, after waiting three weeks for the Jade Green fabric I needed to finish this quilt top, I was able to put it all together.

Yoohoo!  I love it.

TABLERUNNER DONE

 I finished the quilting on the tablerunner, made the binding and got that put on while zooming with the Monday Brave Patchers.

It will be in the entry for a while now.

I got my hair cut this morning.  It's been over a year since I got it cut.  I think it was the longest it's ever been.  If it wasn't such a pain and always getting in my way I would have like to have really long hair.  But, since it is a pain and is always getting in my way, I had to get it cut.  I told the stylist to cut about 5" off, but.... I thought it would look shorter.

Before

After

TABLERUNNER ON THE LA

 I got the backing made, the batting frankensteined and got the tablerunner loaded onto the longarm machine. 

I got a little quilting done.  The poor thing has ruffled borders and isn't the greatest of square.

I had to stop early because I had a zoom meeting with Sew Modern Connection.  While listening to them talk I got the binding made and put on Suspended - it's really done now.

Then I started making improv triangles using fabrics from the scrap bin.  These are for the March instructions of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's BOM for this year.  I haven't been really invested in it yet, but there wasn't much else to do.