COORDINATES #9 and 10

 I'm excited again.  I took that darn 30 Minutes of Play down from my work wall - I was so tired of looking at it.

I pulled out the box with the Coordinates blocks and fabrics.  I made the block that I didn't make with the Monday Sewcial group from a few weeks back.  And, I drew some numbers at random.org and made another one.  Ten!

I put them all up on the wall and realized I love it!

LAST DAY OF 2023

 It was a beautiful morning for a walk in Lincoln Park.

Good bye 2023.

BINDING DIAMOND FLARE

 Got the binding on Diamond Flare, sewing it by machine on both sides.  So, it is done.

I used almost all of the scraps from the front on the backing.

DIAMOND FLARE QUILTED

 I finished up the quilting for the Diamond Flare quilt.  It's a pantograph called 'Streamer'.  

QUILTING DIAMOND FLARE

 I got the backing finished for the Diamond Flare quilt, the block of the month of 2023 for Seattle Modern Quilt Guild.  I loaded it onto Erik, my Bernina Q24 longarm, and set up a pantograph called Streamers.

I got several rows done before I had to quit for the night.  Unfortunately, I shut down the machine without saving the program.  I'm in for a headache tomorrow trying to set it up again so it matches what I've already done.

#SEAMQGBOM2023

 I finished my version of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's mystery Block of the Month for 2023 called Diamond Flare by Taylor Krz of ToadandSew.com.  

The pattern as presented was to finish at 70" by 70".  I prefer rectangular quilts.  So, I added another border on the top and bottom to make it 70" by 90".

Here is the finished top:

I used mostly scraps and old stash.

KITTIES! AND COLORS!

 I got those first three cats I started for Cats in Pajamas done, finally.  There was some unsewing and changing of the background color, some resewing, some cussing and more unsewing and resewing.

But, these three are done.  Six more to go.

Pantone announced the Color of the Year for 2024 - it's Peach Fuzz.

And, Kona announced it's Color of the Year for 2024 - it's Julep.

Please, oh please, let's not go back to pastels!

COORDINATES #8

 We didn't get around to making another Coordinates block yesterday.  So, I pulled my own set of numbers and made my 8th block.

SLOW MONDAY

 Not much accomplished on this slow Monday.  I only got this one little block done:

COFFEE AT STARBUCKS

 We wanted to go to Starbucks this morning and drink our coffees and have breakfast.  He wanted to work on his new iPad.  I wanted to sketch.

We're just like the other people we see in here now.

NYC QUILTED

I finished the quilting on the NYC quilt today.  Erik was a great help.

 

COORDINATES #7

This is the Coordinates block I made today on Brave Patch Monday Sewcial.  There were some bigger rectangles, so this block is the biggest, so far.

 

STILL QUILTING ON IT

 I've been quilting every day for several hours on the NYC quilt.

Almost done.

THANKSGIVING 2023

 We had dinner at Julie and Jeff's this Thanksgiving.

It was great.

WONKY WEDNESDAY

I started out quilting on NYC, doing straight lines with a ruler.  But, I started making stupid mistakes after about an hour, so I quit before I it got really bad.

I went back to painting the Little Houses.  

 

BUSY MONDAY

I got a lot done this morning.  I was out in the studio before 5am painting the next batch of Little Houses, giving them a base coat on both sides.

Then after our morning walk, I got a couple of hours of quilting on NYC.

After lunch, it was Brave Patch Monday Sewcial.  We started out by making another Coordinates block.  Here's mine:

Then I made last week's Art East Quilting's Mini Block.  This is number 46, The Toque.

 

QUILTING ON NYC

 I'm doing a lot of straight line quilting on NYC.  Every which way.

ALL ABOUT THE DETAILS

 I spent some time today working on the Little Houses.  I painted in more details and added some bits of ribbon and sewed on some buttons.  That gave me a reason to sift through my Grandma's button jar.

QUILTING STARTS ON NYC

 I finally got the NYC quilt loaded on Eric the Longarm.  

I did some horizontal straight lines in the 'background' today.

ROOTED 2 IN PROGRESS

 I worked on Rooted 2 while watching a Tom Cruise movie tonight.

COORDINATES 5

 It was back to normal with meeting up with the Brave Patch Monday Sewcials.

Some of us made another Coordinates block.

Here's mine:

SUNDAY IN SF

 We met Darrell's friend Ron in the lobby of our hotel, The Clancy, for breakfast.

Afterwards, they went for a walk to do some sightseeing.  Darrell wanted to look at the architecture of the city.  They also made it up to Coit Tower.

While they were gone, I sat in the lobby and watched the people come and go and did a bit of sketching.

I was using a baggie to contain the art supplies I brought on the trip, but I transferred them all to this cute little bag I bought yesterday at Blick.

When they returned we left the hotel and walked down to a Starbucks where we sat and talked for another couple hours before we had to head to BART and the airport for a late flight home.

The weather had been wonderful in SF, sunny and about 65-70 degrees daily.  It was raining when we arrived back in Seattle.  But it was beautiful too.  It's always nice to come home.

SATURDAY IN SF

 Darrell would be teaching all day at Shaper Origin and I'm on my own in San Francisco.

I took the #5 bus to Golden Gate Park with the idea to go into the Conservatory of Flowers and do some sketching.

It was a beautiful morning.  I decided to not go into the conservatory (it was too hot inside) and instead walked down to the McLaren Lodge to sketch.

As it got close to lunchtime, I took the bus back to the downtown area and had lunch.  After walking around a bit and a quick stop at a big Blick Art Store, I went to SFMOMA.

I sat in the lobby of SFMOMA for a while and enjoyed the music and space.  I tried to do a little of the embroidery on my Rooted project.  But, it wasn't a very comfortable place to sew.

Darrell stayed at Shaper for dinner.  I got something from the restaurant in the hotel.  It was a long day.

Nicole has been staying at our house to keep the cats and Jelly company, making sure they are fed and loved.  She sent me this picture.

FRIDAY IN SF

 We got up early, boarded a flight to San Francisco, and arrived in San Francisco at about 8:30am.

We rode the BART into downtown, dropped our bags at The Clancy Hotel and walked to Shaper Origin's headquarters where Darrell will be teaching tomorrow.

We were greeted and introduced to everyone there.  Darrell took a tour of the operations while I sat in their courtyard, in the sun, and sketched for a bit.

They treated us both to lunch.  Afterwards, Darrell went back to talk some more with them and I took an Uber to Fisherman's Wharf (my first time riding in a Tesla).

I walked down to the San Francisco Maritime Museum and National Park to get my passport stamped.  Then I sat down outside and sketched an old wooden ship with Alcatraz Island in the background.   It was a beautiful day.

LITTLE HOUSES

 I saw the free patterns and directions for making these little houses in Quilt Mania.  

I got some of them sewed together and today I put some chalk paint on them.  

They still need a lot of details.

ANOTHER SOLSTICE BLOCK

 Seems like about every other quilt I make has Solstice in it's name.  But, I didn't name this one, it's called the Solstice Sampler, a block of the week, by various artists.  And I couldn't resist it.

Here is this week's block:

MONDAY CATCH UPS

 Seems I'm always trying to catch up with my BOMs and BOWs on Mondays.  So, today I got two of the Art East Quilting's Mini Sampler Blocks done.

Here is #44 The Reconnection:

And, #45 The Propeller:

Then, on Brave Patch Monday Sewcial we played another round of Coordinates.  This is my block for the week.  I incorporated a new fabric for the filler, Kaleidoscope Charcoal.  It's a lovely fabric, easy to work with and the color is excellent.

SOMETHING EASY

 In response to the angst of putting together the 30 Minutes of Play improv quilt, I bought Elizabeth Hartman's newest pattern Cats in Pajamas.  It will be something easy to do.

Sometimes I think I've lost my mind.

I'm waiting on a delivery for the background fabric.  But, I did find some wonderfully colorful plaids and stripes in my stash that I'll use as the pajamas.

HOUSTON SHOW

 My friend Nikki went to Quilt Festival in Houston this year.

She sent me pictures of my quilt, Rhythm in Blues, which I'm honored to have hanging there.