WORKING ON SMALL WORLD

 In between Improv projects, I got out an old project, Small World.  I started this in a workshop with Tara Faughnan at Quiltcon 2023 in Atlanta.

I had already cut out a lot of the needed triangles.  But, they've been crammed into baskets and needed a bit of pressing to get the folds and wrinkles out.

The triangles have been separated into lights and darks.

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.

DAY TWO OF 4-PATCHES

 Day Two of the 4-Patch Workshop with Tara Faughnan.  We talked about how to put the whole thing together, among other things.  It was fun seeing everyone else's projects.  They were all very good.  It always make me feel like mine's not.  I started having second thoughts.  Mine is the only one with a dark background.

Anyway, I started fussing with it.  But, it got late, and I ended with it like this.  I don't think I like it any better than it was before I fussed with it.

Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to take it down and put it away.  I need to work on this month's UFO project because I'm very busy and I need to get onto it as soon as possible or I'll not be able to finish it.

Before the workshop started, I did manage to get week #17 of Playcation 2022 made.  

LOTS OF 4-PATCHES

 I spent some time yesterday and most of today cutting strips, sewing them together, slicing again and sewing into 4-patches.

I have almost all of the 'stripes' done.  I need more 'background'.  I cut the strips for those and sewed them together.  But, I had to leave them for tomorrow.  I'm done for the day.

So, here is what it looks like at this point.  I may move things around here and there.  Or change out some colors.  I don't know.  I'm going to sleep on it (figuratively).

FOUR-PATCH WORKSHOP

 I attended a Four-Patch zoom workshop with Tara Faughnan this afternoon.  I hadn't done any of the prep work.  I haven't been feeling well and I was uninspired to make a Four-Patch.

But, Tara is so passionate and inspiring.  I went ahead at the end of workshop and picked some colors and cut some strips.  I was excited when she said she loved my picks - until I realized she had said that to everyone!

I'll start making 4-patches tomorrow.  She suggested that if I want to make a dark background, I should put up some black fabric on my design wall.  Great idea!

FIRST DAY OF QUILTCON 2023

 I spent my first day at Quiltcon 2023 in the Small World Workshop with Tara Faughnan.  Quiltcon is being held in a building right next to the hotel.  It was about a 10 minute walk.  Some of the signage left a bit to be desired though.  It was a winding path up stairs, down escalators, down long hallways and through lobbies and more escalators, turn here, turn there.  Follow the crowd.

It was a super workshop.  I loved every minute.  The nuggets of information from Tara were coming almost faster than I could write them down.  

When people asked me after what I thought of the class, my response was, "It changed my life."  And I meant it.  It has.

Wow.

And, the other great thing in this workshop was I finally met some friends I've only known on zoom.  We hugged - it was great.  Ethylene and I agreed to make one section of Small World every day for the #100dayproject.  We're already behind since that started a few days ago.  I'll have some catching up to do when I get home.

Afterwards, Ethylene and I walked through the show a bit.  She left me alone for a few minutes and I went into the Vendor Mall.  I broke my vow to not buy any fabrics.  I couldn't help myself!  I don't get a chance to buy African fabrics very often - and it was only 4 FQs.

Then we went looking for my quilt, Blissfully.

Later, a lot of us from Brave Patch meet for dinner at Sweet Georgia's Juke Joint, a short walk from the hotel.  It was fun meeting everyone, but difficult to talk - the music was too loud.

MOVING THINGS AROUND

First thing this morning I started looking for a new iron, since mine died yesterday.  Can't do much sewing without an iron.  I thought about getting a 'tank' type iron - but they are expensive and I decided against it mainly because of the way my ironing board is set up.  I don't know where I would put the tank and have it be accessible yet out of my way.

So, when I found the professional Rowenta model I settle on I found the best price on Amazon.  I ordered it and was surprised to see that it would be delivered today, before 6pm, still free shipping.  Amazing.  [And it was.]

In the meantime, I cut out pieces and put them on the wall.  At the end of the morning, I wasn't really happy with it and spent some time moving a few groups around.

I was amazed when I downloaded these pictures of the quilt and the flowers - the colors are very similar.  Hmmm.

I took a picture of the Coneflowers so I could paint them into my journal.  It was hard to get the deep red/orange of the flowers right on this paper.  But I like it.

TARA WORKSHOP

I was lucky enough to get into Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's Zoom Workshop with Tara Faughnan.  It was limited to about 24 people.  

She talked about her approach to color and some of her strategies.  

We worked on making our own "Bars" quilt.

We started by putting two fabrics together to evoke an emotion - happy, calm, etc.

 She talked to us as a group for the first part, then we were sent off to work on our own.  We met back in small groups of about 7 participants so she could talk to us each individually about our palettes.  After that we all met back together to wind things up.  Overall, it was a good workshop. 

[My iron stopped working about midway through the day.  It didn't just quietly fade away either, it had to spew some horrible yellow water everywhere.]