CUTTING ORANGE PEELS

 I spent the morning cutting the 'orange peel' shapes from the black with white 2-patches for the Crushing It quilt.  It was slow and monotonous work and I had to pay attention to the accuracy of my cutting, too.  I'm glad that's over with.

Today was a meeting of the Brave Patch Finish It Friday group.  I worked a bit on my DWTW2 that's been on the design wall all week.  I did make one block and got some great ideas.  But, I had to take it all down because tomorrow I'll need the wall for a workshop.

FINDING RHYTHM

 I've been making parts and putting them up on the wall, trying to find a rhythm.  

It's coming along slowly, but nicely.

TURNED AGAIN

 While talking with the Brave Patch group it was decided that anyway orientation of my new Dancing With The Wall quilt top looks okay.

None seem to be better.  Here's another way:

ALL TOGETHER NOW

 So, the latest Dancing With The Wall project is sewn together.

I'm not thrilled with the orientation I made it in, so I'm going to turn it.

Now to figure out which way is up.

Here's one version.

TWO ROWS TOGETHER

 I went up to the studio this morning, despite the heat.  I had the fans going, one coming in the shaded front windows and a small one pushing hot air out the other side.  It didn't help much.  With the iron going it heats up pretty quickly up there.  I had to leave by 11am.  The thermometer inside said it was a little over 80*.  

But, I got the bottom two rows sewed together.

Do you see what I see?  I may have to turn it when it gets put together.

GOT MORE DONE

 Only because I spent the afternoon with my buddies on Brave Patch today did I get all this accomplished on the current Dancing With the Wall project from Coupeville.  Otherwise, I would have left the studio because of the heat.  But, I perservered and stayed up there sewing.

Look, I have very little left to do, besides sewing all of the 'blocks' together.

BACK AT IT

 Okay, I'm back working on the Dancing With the Wall project.

I'm concentrating on adding more of the darks.

NO SASHING

 I jammed the 'blocks' together.

I'm looking for ways to get them to bleed together.

REVISING THE DANCE

 I've been unhappy with my Dancing With the Wall project from last week.  It was too chaotic for me.  

So, today I decided to do something about it and head towards my bliss.

I'm going to change them into blocks and a grid....or something.

First I'm making them into 10" blocks.

Some need adding to.   

Some need cutting down.

This is more fun!

BACK HOME

 We took a morning walk in Lincoln Park first thing.  It's nice to be home.

Afterwards, it was up to the studio to unpack all of my stuff and put my project up on the wall.  It looks a little different then it was yesterday - I don't know why, because I had pinned it all to the flannel and then unpinned each piece and put them up on the wall piece by piece.  Oh, well.

FRIDAY WORKSHOP

 It was a productive day.  This is where I ended up.

WORKSHOP DAY THREE

 Day three with Irene Roderick in Coupeville - we had a critique this morning which was very informative.  She first talked to us about how to look at a piece and think about what you like and why and what is bothering you.  

Then it was back to working.  

This is how I left it at the end of the day.  I was burnt out.  I think I want to expand it and put blank space in between some of the pieces.  I think it's too busy, chaotic.

So, too tired to start that, I left early and went out for some fun.

First, I stopped across the street to sketch this rescue helicopter.

While I was there, the operators showed up and wanted to buy my sketch to use for a card or something.  I told them I'd bring it to their office tomorrow.

Then I went down to the waterfront for some ice cream.  Half way through my big bowl of ice cream, I thought I should probably get some dinner first.

There was a little hotdog vender truck by the wharf, so I got a bratwurst with sauerkraut and sat at a picnic table and really enjoyed this beautiful afternoon.

It's so nice here.

SECOND DAY OF WORKSHOP

 It's the second day of the Dancing With the Wall Workshop with Irene Roderick in Coupeville.  I got up early and thought I'd go back up to the Ebey Landing Lookout and walk the loop trail up there.  But, it was too windy and cold.  So, I headed back into Coupeville, where it wasn't windy and walked around there for a bit before class.

It was a beautiful morning!

The wharf in Coupeville.

I walked up the trail next to the wharf.  This is looking back down to the wharf.

Looking back down to the main street in Coupeville.

The workshop starts at 9am.  We started right in working on our projects again.  Irene came by one time and we got to talking about shapes and particularly shapes in the negative space of things.  I noticed the ironing boards legs and the shapes they created.  Life is interesting.

Here is how my project looked at the end of the day.  I made a lot more progress today.  

I'm using mostly Kona fabrics, Espresso, Snow, Medium Pink and Oyster, along with a Kaffe shot cotton in the orangy-pink.  I also threw in that Raspberry fabric that I've had for years (probaby 30 years).  It's dull, but somehow it works.  Late in the day, I added the Yarrow, a golden yellow.  It works very well with the Espresso.

DANCING DONE

 While hashing over world problems with the Monday Brave Patchers, I finished up my Dancing With the Wall project.

I have nothing but small scraps of the lighter fabric, Kona Limestone, left over.   I need to order some more.  I like it.

BLISSFULLY DONE AND MORE

 I finished the quilting on Blissfully - it's done and off the machine.  It looks great.  I love this quilt.

Now I have to decide whether it wants binding or facing?  Hmmm.

After that, I went to work on the Dancing quilt.  I'm trying to work out how to sew everything together.  I should just be making pieces that fit in between and connect things.  But, I'm making more components, too.  It might be getting a little too busy.  Or not.

STILL WORKING ON IT

I spent the morning quilting straight lines onto the Blissfully quilt.  I got tired of that and moved on to something else...

I went back to work on the Dancing With the Wall quilt from Irene Roderick's workshop last weekend.  I'm still adding parts and pieces, and sometimes moving them around.

Here's what it looked like at the end of today.

MORE DANCING

 I worked on my Quilt Dance a bit today during the Monday Brave Patch Sew-In.

DANCING

 I finally got into an Irene Roderick "Dancing With the Wall"  Workshop this weekend.  She's a great teacher.  This workshop was about learning her different components that make up her famous style.

The weekend was spent making components and adding them. 

It's a 'start in the middle' , observe, then make the next piece.

Here's where I was at at the end of Sunday.