PLUGGING AWAY

 I spent the day plugging away on the Dalek.  I started in on the top of the head. I got the 'dome' maybe half way done.  

Cheryl was a no-show again today, so no Playcation improv block.

CATCHING UP WITH PLAYCATION

I drafted the top row of the Dalek onto tracing paper, making sure everything lines up.  I redrafted the middle part and started thinking about what colors to use.

Then at 1pm I tuned into Instagram to join Cheryl Arkison for this week's Playcation.  But, she wasn't there.  She left a note that she would come on tomorrow at 1pm.

So, I made the blocks that I missed in the last two weeks.

 

NEXT DALEK BLOCK DONE

I finished the block I started yesterday.  That makes three completed blocks.

After, I started making tracing paper overlays to help with making sure things are the right size and in the right place.

CONTINUING ON WITH DALEK

I spent most of the day working on this little piece.  There was lots of sewing, unsewing and resewing - again.  This is a bit frustrating.

DAY FIVE OF SKETCH TO STITCH

 I woke up not feeling well.  I think it's the over-fragranted room and bed I'm sleeping in.  Good grief.  I feel like I didn't get much sleep.  But, I got up and went into the school early.  I was there at 6:30am since I was planning on leaving early to beat the traffic.

I did get to finish the second block, which I made a block and a half because of the long strips.

My total finish is 2-1/2 blocks for the week.  A few of the folks will have theirs completely finished and sewn together.  Mine may take a bit longer. 

That's Leeanna's on the left. 

It was a great workshop.  I really enjoyed myself.  It's always a pleasure to be in a classroom with Irene Roderick.  She's full of great ideas and suggestions.  She makes the best recommendations without being pushy.  Thank you Irene!  See you next year.

I left at 11:45am and still got into a very long backup on I-5 after 175th NE.  Waze had me get off at 85th and head over to 99.  There was a slow down there too starting at the Aurora bridge, but it cleared out by the tunnel and it was smooth sailing after that.

It's always nice to come home.

DAY FOUR OF SKETCH TO STITCH

 Sewing, sewing, sewing, picking out another seam, resewing, etc.

Lots of measuring and fussing.  I need to get my project very close to the drawings so it all matches up.  This isn't what this workshop should be about.  I'm sorta wishing I'd done a different kind of sketch.  But, I'm thoroughly enjoying making this Dalek.  It is so cool looking!

After class, a bunch of us went out to dinner.  I sketched a bit.

DAY THREE OF SKETCH TO STITCH

 It's the middle of the week already.  I feel like I'm not making much progress, too much tiny piecing.  But, I'm really liking how it's looking.

I made the decision to redraw some of the squares and make some of the curved lines straight (getting rid of those unnecessary curves!)- so that means a lot of it will have to be undone and resewed.  Oh well. 

At 4pm, we all loaded into our cars and headed to Marcia Derse's home and studio.  It's such a thrill to visit with her and hear her talk about her designs and fabric lines.  We get a peek into what her upcoming fabrics will look like and the inspiration behind them.

Then we go wild buying fabric.

DAY TWO OF SKETCH TO STITCH

 I woke up early and drove up to Ebey Landing Pratt Reserve and went for a great morning walk.

So beautiful.

Back to work, I started on the very small piecing of my drawing, making very little progress - it's all so fussy.  I feel like I'm unsewing and redoing every seam. 

After class, we were all invited to a potluck dinner at the rental home where three of the participants were staying.  One of them had brought crab cakes that she had made along with berry crumble and ice cream for dessert.  It was wonderful and very nice to spend some time with the other quilters.

CHECKING INTO ROOM

 After class, I headed to my room.  This year I'm staying in a Vrbo.  It's a very nice, but small room with a view looking out over the main street of Coupeville at the water.  

DAY ONE OF SKETCH TO STITCH

 I headed out for Coupeville on Whidbey Island around 6am this morning.  It's Day One of Irene Roderick's Workshop "Sketch to Stitch".  I drove north to Mukilteo to catch the ferry.  I didn't have much of a wait and got right on the ferry.

I was early to the Pacific NW Arts School and picked a table at the back of the room.  I saved tables for my Brave Patch friends, Mickey and Leeanna who soon arrived.  We got busy setting up our machines.  

Irene soon got us busy drawing out our sketches onto twenty 12" by 12" papers and pinning them to our design walls.  Now we just need to reproduce the drawing into fabric.   And so it begins.

SPIDER WEB

We've been watching Quiltfolk Magazine's Block of the Month for 2024 called "Break the Rules".  Every month they talk to Roderick Kiracofe about his book Unexpected and Unconventional.  Roderick talks about one (or sometimes more) quilt(s) in the book.  This month was the Spider Web quilt.  

That reminded me of the Spider Web quilt I made years ago.  I got it out and took pictures.

Back in the late 1990's at Pieces Quilt Shop, a group of us had gotten together to make some quilts with lots of different plaids.  Everyone contributed fabrics, so there was a lot of plaids.  We'd throw the pre-cut plaid pieces in the middle of a big conference table and we'd all set up our machines around it and pull out pieces and sew, sew, sew.

This Spider Web was made from strips of the plaids from that time.  I didn't finish it until January of 2004.  I quilted it on my domestic machine, a Bernina 1230. We use this quilt.

I had this really great weird fabric that was perfect for the backing.

4-PATCHES ARE NOW A TOP

 I pushed through and finally got all of the 4-patches into rows and the rows sewn together.  They now are a quilt top.  And I don't have to worry about them falling off the wall and getting mixed up!

I need a name for it though.

FODDER FOLDER

 This month's Handmade Book Club's book is Buttonhole Binding. 

I decided to make a Fodder Folder using in this style.  I used file folders and sewed vinyl sleeves into them.  Then I covered book boards with some fabric I've had around for a while.

I got it all assembled today.

IT'S HOT UP HERE

The weather has been consistently in the 80's for a while now.  It gets hot up in the studio in the afternoons.  I've had fans going in the windows trying to push the hot air out and pull the cooler air in.  But, it still gets too hot to work - especially if I need to use the iron.

So, occassionally the 4-patches fall off the wall.  This made me very nervous.  So, I decided to sew all of the rows together first before sewing the rows together (which I had done for the upper left corner.)

I've spent the last few days getting everything into rows and now I'm sewing the rows together.

This is how the wall looks now.   

NEED MORE 4-PATCHES

I realized yesterday I would need more 4-patches.  I had sewed together some strip sets and this morning I turned them into 4-patches.  But, I still needed more.  So, I picked some more colors and made more.  (I thought I had enough when I put this project away last year.  But, somehow I was short).

I kept making more until I got the wall all filled in.  Then I cut some squares and turned them into triangles for the outside.  Afterwards, I realized I did that wrong.  Now they are all bias on the outside.  I should have cut bigger squares and sliced them diagonally twice.  Oh, well.  I can deal with it. 

Then it was time to sew the rows together.

 This may take a while.

INKY FINGERS

 I refilled the fountain pen I use every day.  I cannot do this without getting ink on my fingers.  Oh, well.

BACK WORKING ON 4-PATCHES

 I took a workshop with Tara Faughnan about a year ago.  I made a lot of 4-patches.  I had them up on the design wall, but at the end of the workshop I took them down and put them away for another day.

Well, today is that day.  A year later and I'm all fired up to get this puppy made.

I got out the 4-patches, separated them into piles and started putting them back up on the design wall.

This is as far as I got today.

REQUILTING SUNRISE

 I loaded the Sunrise quilt back onto the longarm this morning.  I'm using 100% cotton batting this time. And then I quilted the first couple of rows.  

I'm using free-hand 'straightish' horizontal lines across, about 3-4 per inch.  This time they are not overlapping.

SEATTLE BOM BLOCKS FOR JULY

 I made the blocks for the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's Block of the Month for 2024 today.

This month was about Half Rectangle Triangles (HRT).  There are three regular sized blocks and one double sized HRT.

BOOK COVER

 This month's Handmade Book Club's book is the Buttonhole Binding.

I cut the covers and spine boards and glued on the cover fabric today.

UNQUILTING SUNRISE

 I spent my time with the Brave Patch Monday Sewcial taking out the quilting I had done on the Sunrise quilt.  Luckily, I hadn't done too much quilting on it when I decided I hated it and it had to go.

This is the last of it.

PLAYING WITH NEW TRIADS

 I played with my new set of Season Triads from Art Tool Kit today.

SNAKE BLOCKS ARE A TOP

 I got all of the Snake blocks sewn together.  It's now a quilt top.

It is 70" by 84".

WEEK 26

 Here is week 26's improv block for Cheryl Arkison's Quilters Playcation 2024.

We are using up some of our scraps today.