MONDAY MADNESS

 It was a busy day.  First a nice morning walk - it was almost 60 degrees this morning and no rain.  First, it was get a package ready to ship (a return) and take it to UPS in Burien.  Then off to Tukwila to deposit all that money from the sale of Eduard.  109 Benjamins, 4 Jacksons and 2 Hamiltons.  

Then on to Renton to Sewing Machine Service from where I'm purchasing the new Q24.  I needed to drop off some paperwork and see about a new fancy magnetic metal bowl - but they don't make them.  Boy, downtown Renton is a mess with all of the street re-construction going on - neverending.

On my way home, I made a trip to Harbor Freight where I could buy a new magnetic metal bowl for my longarm straight pins.  It wasn't until later, after I bought the fancy red one, that I began to think the reason Bernina doesn't make one with their name on it - like all of the other manufacturers do - is because the longarm frame is aluminum and the rollers are a hard plastic.  No sticky.

After lunch with D, I went up to the studio to visit with my Brave Patch friends.  We had a nice talk while I was working on my old Pi project - Clocks.

BUT OF COURSE

Benedict Cumberbatch reads Sol LeWitt's letter to Eva Hesse

In 1960, pioneering American artists Sol LeWitt and Eva Hesse met for the first time and became close friends. In 1965, Eva found herself facing a creative block during a period of self-doubt, and told Sol of her frustrating predicament. Sol replied with this letter.

EDUARD GETS NEW HOME

 Unfortunately, I had to let my A-1, Eduard, go.  I've purchased a new Bernina Q24 and I needed to sell Eduard.  I placed an ad on Longarm University and was contacted the next day by someone in Snohomish that wanted to come check him out.

I think he has found a very good home with the people that bought him.

They came today and tried him out, paid me cash, disassembled him, packed him up and drove away with him hanging a bit out the back of their covered pickup bed.

Good luck to you Eduard!  I'll miss you!  You were a good friend.

THANKSGIVING BREAKFAST

 I made a Ham and Cheese (with broccoli) Quiche for breakfast.

Let the eating begin.

The family is coming over for dinner.  I'll be making roasted turkey, which has been brining since yesterday, green bean casserole, Italian sausage dressing (gf), and Darrell will mash the potatoes.  

Mom is bringing apple pie and pumpkin pie.  Julie is bringing yams.  Nicole will bring rolls, including gf rolls.  I also made some bacon, jalapeño and date appetizers.

HOW MUCH? WHAT?

Last Thursday I went to the NW Quilting and Crafts Festival in Puyallup.  I talked with the Bernina folks about the Q24.  I got to take one for a test drive, asked a lot of questions and checked it out.

It's a very nice machine. I'm opting for a 9' frame.  The only other options were a 12' or 13' which I don't have room for.

Today, I went to Sewing Machine Service in Renton and purchased one.

I had to call my bank to raise my spending limit for the day.

I almost wiped out my savings account.

Now to sell my A-1 to make room for it.

And the wait begins...

THE BACKGROUND OF THE BIG FLOWER

 I pulled out a pile of low-volume fabrics for the background of the big flower of Amity Prime.  They are mostly old tone-on-tone whites and creams, leftover from the 1990's.  I had put them into a 'going away' box to be removed from my stash.

I'm making pieced squares of odd sizes for now.  I'm having a hard time not putting more variety into them.  I want to keep them plain and simple with the occasional spot of color, but my 'instinct' is to add more.   It goes against my grain to make them plain.

SHALL WE CALL THEM THORNS?

 Another 'row' on the petals.  I made these 'thorns', but I can't sew everything together yet.  I need to start working on the background that will be pieced in between them.

MORE SCRAPS AND MORE

 Cutting out all of these curves and strange shapes produces a lot of scraps.

And trying and rejecting different colors does too.

Here's how it ended today.  The last few rows are not sewn on yet.

IMOGENE CUNNINGHAM EXHIBIT

 For Darrell's birthday we attended the member preview of the Imogene Cunningham Exhibit at Seattle Art Museum (SAM) this morning.

The opening statement about exhibit

'Magnolia Blossom'  1925

'Tower of Jewels' 1925

'Hens and Chicks' 1929

'Banana Plant' 1925-1929

Afterwards, we went to Cafe Con Leche and picked up Cubano sandwiches to go.  Then we stopped at Daniel Smith where it's the last week of their retail store.  They've been discounting everything in the store for the last month or so.  Everything still there is now 50% off.  I didn't think there'd be anything worth having, but surprisingly there was still some good things left!  I managed to spend over $100.  Darrell even picked up some colored pencils that he uses to hide repairs to his furniture.

ANOTHER COLORFUL ROW

 I've cleaned up and added the next 'row' on the petals of Amity Prime.

I'm not really happy with it - it's sort of reminds me of a circus or something.  It's a little too much for me.  I'm thinking that when I start to add the blues and greens it will tone down a bit.  Of course, flowers are very colorful and beautiful.  I just need to get over it.

I'm starting to get concerned about how to put it all together!

WINDY DAY

 We went for an early walk in Lincoln Park this morning because the rains were expected at 8am.  It was very windy.  Lots of leaves, twigs, small branches and cones were every where.

It was a hang-onto-your-hat day.

Then it was up to the studio to work on my Amity Prime.  I made some parts for the next round.  It's been a fit as you go process.  I'm still not sure how it will all work out.  I spent a very pleasant afternoon with my Brave Patch Monday gals and I managed to get a lot done.

This was my original idea (all of the circles are not appliqued yet)

This is how it looked at the end of the day.

LOTS OF CIRCLES

 I'm hand appliqueing circles onto my flower petals.  Lots of circles, nine for each petal.  I think that makes 45 circles.  Oh, my.

LITTLE TINY PIECES

 Seems to have been a while since I pieced such tiny pieces.  It's not my favorite thing, but it's not bad.

These will be the parts for the next row on the petals.

Its the time of the year when our big tree in the front yard starts dropping a million and half catkins - and pollen.  Green pollen everywhere.

MORE PRECISE PIECING

This project is supposed to be about improv, but I've started out with a plan and I want to make it just so.  The original drawing was improv, does that count?

In order to get the look I wanted, I decided paper-piecing was required.

 

PETALS

 I made the beginning of some petals for my workshop project.

CHOREOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

 I'm attending a 4-week workshop with Irene Roderick every Tuesday this month.  I was distracted by the 'Trinity' project the first week, but I've started on a new project that comes straight from one of my daily doodles (homework she has us doing). I'm calling it Amity Prime.

It's a stylized flower.  My doodle has five petals, so I drew out one petal onto freezer paper so I would have a 'pattern' to get the sizes correct.  Hopefully, it will all fit together.

I'm not sure about the colors yet.  I'm going to play it by ear, picking colors as I go.

I'm not even sure how I'm going to piece this...or how the background will look.  It's a project in motion.

MONDAY SEW

 I meet with the Monday Brave Patch zoom folks.  We had another great time, solving the world's problems and sewing up a storm.

I managed to finish and square up my improv project from Saturday's workshop with Sherri Lynn Wood.

SEW MODERN

 The Sew Modern Connection meet today, the first Sunday of the month from 11am to about 3pm.

I finished sewing on my Trinity quilt - got it all together.

It's bigger than my design wall and draped down onto the floor.

MAKING DO-ODLE WORKSHOP

 I attended a workshop with Sherri Lynn Wood today from 8am until 1pm - long day.

We worked on making an improv project.  Sherri Lynn likes to 'make do' using recycled garments and fabrics from your stash.  I made do with a few things from my stash and pieces from my scrap bin.

Sherri talked about changing up the way you think about making a quilt.

For instance:

Change the value placement, instead of balancing the values all through the quilt, try putting all of one value together.

Change the shapes, using different kinds of shapes in different areas.

Change the sizes, use small pieces in one section and large ones in another.

Change the color, introduce an unexpected color in a section.

After the workshop, there was an Open Sew.  Several of us attended and had a great time talking and working on our projects.

FREEZER PAPER SEWING

 I didn't think about reversing the pattern when I drew it out on the giant freezer paper, so now I'm having to add the registration marks on the front (in the seam allowance).   This is the opposite of how I've done it in the past.  Live and learn.

I've settled on the colors and started cutting and sewing.

and it begins

Half way.

PATTERN MAKING

 Using the giant roll of freezer paper, 48" wide, I added more to make the 62" width.  I found a heat proof tape (golden) that make this process a lot easier.

This quilt will be 63" wide by 84" length.

I drew the pattern on the freezer paper, using a trammel to draw the circle's arcs.

It worked great (other than having to tape it to the floor because I don't have a table big enough).  Of course, the dogs wanted to help and I had to keep chasing them off.

MUSHROOM LOG

 Seen on our morning walk in Lincoln Park:

BACKING PROBLEM

I ordered three yards of black and white fabric with numbers for the back of the Nine-Patch Pi quilt.

It arrived with a small hole in it.

I thought about complaining since I wanted to use it in one piece for the backing.

But, I will be piecing parts in because there isn't enough for the complete back.

I don't need to worry, they would probably only send me a quarter yard anyway to make up for the hole.  More trouble than it's worth.

BIG LEAF

COLOR CHOICES

 I started a new project.  Oh, no.  [Terry!  What about all those unfinished projects?]

I'm not going to worry about all those unfinished projects.  

I drew this pattern a few weeks ago, and I can't get it out of my head.  I have to make it.

I put up some fabrics on the wall to decide on which ones to use.

Pecan in the back with light blue and grey

Changed the Pecan to Carmel

Changed the light blue to that print.

Which ones?

JAPANESE MAPLE

 Here is a group of photos showing the progression of the loss of leaves over a few weeks.

I started taking daily photos as homework for my upcoming workshop with Irene Roderick.

We had a big windstorm at one point and the tree lost a lot of it's leaves overnight.

Then you can see, a few days later, where we cleaned up the leaves and debris.

This has been a very interesting project.