CHURN DASH SO FAR

 I've been enjoying working on the Churn Dash - making more blocks, moving them around, finding the best place for them.

This is how I'm leaving them for now.  Although, I might still move some.

ROUND ROBIN QUILTED

 I made the backing for this old Round Robin quilt top yesterday.  Today I loaded it all onto the longarm. I picked an easy pantograph and got it started.  More than half was quilted when I joined in with the Brave Patch Monday Sewcial group.

I finished the quilting and got it off the machine.

This quilt top was probably made in the early 1990's.   A round robin is a group project where each participant adds a row to the central 'block' and then passes it onto the next person. It goes back to the person that made the central block.

CATS IN PAJAMAS DONE

 I made the orange binding for the Cats in Pajamas quilt and sewed it on.  This is an Elizabeth Hartman pattern.

It's done!

THREE STOOGES DONE

 I made purple binding for the Three Stooges quilt and got it sewn on today during the Brave Patch Finish it Friday get-together.

It is done!

THREE STOOGES QUILTED

 I got out another of my UFO Challenge quilt tops and loaded it onto Erik, the longarm, yesterday.

Today I programmed the machine with a pantograph and got it quilted.

Now, I must confess I think this is a really ugly quilt and I'm a bit embarrassed.  But, it is what it is.  I don't know what I was thinking when I made this years ago.  But, my husband is a fan of the Three Stooges and that's why I bought the fabrics.  But, geez whiz, this is not my best work.

Whoopie!

TREE TOPS QUILT TOP FINISHED

 I made the last bit for the bottom of the Tree Tops quilt and added it on.

It's basically finished and ready to be turned into a quilt.

CONTEMPLATING THAT LAST ROW

 I started making that last row on the Tree Tops.  I thought it might be good with more yellow.

Once I got it on there I didn't like it.

Luckily, I hadn't sewed it onto the rest of the quilt, it's just pinned there.

So, I took that down and tried it in different colors:

Then I wasn't sure about these dark colors.

ONLY ONE ROW TO GO

I've been working on the Tree Tops project off and on lately.  I'm down to just one big row left to sew together.  Then it will be finished. 

MAKING PERFECT

 I wasn't going to do this!  I had planned to make some pieces for each of the monthly blocks of the Brave Patch "Improv That Block", set then aside, and then at the end or the sessions mash them all together into one quilt.

But, today I couldn't help myself, I squared up the smaller Orange Peel blocks I made yesterday, adding and subtracting fabrics as needed, and made a nice little group.  I really like it though.

IMPROV-ING THE ORANGE PEEL BLOCK

 I joined the Improv That Block Squad and Sherri Lynn Wood this morning.  We worked on improv-ing the Orange Peel block.

Here's what I had done by the end of the day.

TREE TOPS MORE ROWS

 I've squared up the Tree Tops and started sewing everything together.

REDUCTION CUT

On Watch.Learn.Play. we talked about printmaking and the different ways to do it.  I got excited about doing a lino reduction cut and was off and running.  

I still had some leftover linoneum from days gone along with other supplies I'd need.

I made a drawing of my favorite teacup:

The next day I transferred the drawing to the linoleum and got to work.  I had to get out some inks.  I still had some Akua Inks from years ago.  They needed stirring up, but seemed to be okay.  They all went on okay except the Hansa Yellow, which was still a bit lumpy, but I was able to break that up when I mixed it on the palette (glass). 

So, first I cut away the background and rolled on some off-white ink I mixed.

Then  cut away the white 

and rolled on some yellow

Here's one of the prints with the white and the yellow.

Then I cut away the yellow parts and printed some orange.

I didn't get pictures of the rest of the process.  Next would be cutting away the parts I wanted to stay orange and inking on some green and printing that.  Then cutting away the parts to stay green, roll on some blue, printing that, and the last color was a brown in the cup for the tea (or coffee).

And they were done!

That was fun, but I don't think I'll be doing it again soon.

The poor linoleum looks pretty bad when this process is done, and is spent. 

 

MORE TRIANGLES AND ANGLEs

I've been working on my Tree Tops and Angles quilt the last few days.  At times it's great fun and others its frustrating.  I seem to be working with smaller and smaller pieces as I go along.  That wasn't really the plan!  But, you're going to make scraps when doing improv.