NEBULA TOP DONE

 I finally got this huge (97" by 98") quilt top done!  Yoo-hoo!

I really don't like having to sew on things this big - they are hard to keep straight in the machine, always wanting to slip and slide off the table.  Jeez.

Anyway, it's now folded up and waiting for a backing (another even huger thing!) and waiting for my new bigger, longer quilting frame before it can be quilted.

I got a surpise in the mail today.  It was a letter from my friend Sabine, who lives in Germany.  She sent me a really nice card with a piece of fabric as a frontispiece.  And, inside there is a needle - it's in Germany, but I think it will come in very handy when burying quilting thread ends.  I'll have to have google translate some of it, that will be fun.

I love the stamps, too!

BELONGING

 I spent a good hour fussing with the color choices to do this last part on my Transparency block.  It can be quite frustrating not having the exact fabrics colors you want - and I have immediate access to more than most do, I imagine. 

I ended up changing every piece at least once.  I wish I had taken pictures of all of the different iterations.  But I did get these two.

Then there was a lot of pinning to get some of these pieces together.

Here's how it ended up.  I wish that one part had been just a shade darker, but that was the best choice I had access to.

I tried a lot of different color placements and ended up with a pile of rejects for the scrap bin:

TRANSPARENCY AND CURVES

 I took a zoom workshop from Carolina Oneto today called Transparency and Curves.  It was about transparency and curves.

She had a great presentation about the 'Chromatic Circle' and how she achieves 'transparency' effects in her quilt making.  I gleaned a few pearls from her.

I was already familiar with the technique she uses for sewing the intersecting curves together and I sort of jumped ahead and made a more difficult block then she was teaching.  [I was the rebel student].

I'm using the palette of colors for my 'Gifts' quilt - that added a degree of difficulty also.

Here is what I had finished by the end of the workshop.

Nicole took Darrell and I out to lunch for my birthday at Smarty Pants Garage restaurant in Burien.  We had a great time.  We haven't eaten in a restaurant in a loooong time.  We had to sit outside and it was a little chilly, but we really enjoyed it and the food was terrific.

When we got home I did a little more work on my project:

CONNECTIONS

 I made a little quilt block about Connections.

I drew it out on freezer paper and cut the pieces out and ironed them onto the backs of the fabrics.  I inserted the 'Cedar' strips as I put it together.  Then I hand appliqued the blue (Windsor) circles over the intersections.

I want to make a quilt that I'm going to call "Gifts". I hope to make more blocks in this palette to go with this one.

Stay tuned.