NEW BRICKS

 I was excited  making another Bricks type quilt.  I cut a bunch of 3-1/2" by 6-1/2"rectangles from the plaids in my stash and started arranging them on the design wall.

Here it is so far:

ROOMBA WITH INDIGESTION

When I came up the stairs to the studio this morning I heard talking.  Was there someone up there?  Did I leave the computer on with a video going?

No, it was the Roomba, complaining that it needed to be recharged.

When I leave the studio at the end of my day, I sometimes set the Roomba to vacuuming the room, as I did last night.

Unfortunately, some of the blocks on my design wall fell off and the Roomba sucked one up causing it to cease operating, unable to continue and call for help.

I flipped it over and there was the block, wound around one of the brushes.

I gently removed the brush and unwrapped the block.  I think it will be okay.  It's a bit dusty and wrinkled.  And that can be remedied.

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.   

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.

SEWING SNAKE BLOCKS TOGETHER

 I'm sewing the Snake blocks together then sewing them into columns. 

Got two done today.

I'm really starting to like how the arcs don't match up.  It gives the quilt more energy. 

MAKING SNAKE BLOCKS

 I cut out all of the center pieces of the Snake blocks and put them up on the design wall, moving them around until I like the way they flowed.

The I cut out the corner pieces and put them up.

Then I added the green arcs.

Everything needs to be sewn together now.  Easy peasy.

SQUARES FROM THE SCRAP BUCKET

 I've been making 4-patches, 9-patches and 16-patches from the scrap buckets.  

These are from the Purple, Magenta and Grey buckets.

This picture of my design wall also has part of the Sunrise blocks in it - ignore those.

TWO COLUMNS DONE

 I got the second column of 7 blocks done on the Playcation 2022 project today. That makes two, 5 more to go.

DAY TWO OF VOLTRON

 More strip sets to make.  

Charan and Nikki

Some started cutting theirs into triangles and putting them up.

I kept making strip sets into the afternoon.

Then I thought I better start cutting and designing.

We stopped a little early and all drove out to the studio of Marcia Derse.  She graciously invited us to visit and shop her fabrics.  She gave us a tour and showed us how her fabric designing process works.  

WORKED ON COMPUTER

 I worked on the Q-Matic computer, trying to quilt this little quilt.  It was frustrating to say the least.  I got a few rows done before I quit to attend the Joe Talk.  This is my first time with him because he used to do it later in the day, making it difficult for me to attend.  Today's meeting started at 2pm PST.

During the time with Joe I was working on the 1-2-3 Blocks.  I cut out some plain flower blocks to mix in.  It's definitely better now, and I started sewing them together.

WORKING ON IMPROV DAISY

 Our Brave Patch community is currently working on their Improv Daisy patterns.  So, I got mine out and started working on it again.

I had stopped because I was stumped on  how to proceed.  I got some advice and decided to just do one bit at a time and not worry about the whole thing.

That worked better for me and I was able to make some headway.  I've got the top left quarter sewn together.

SEWING ON A HOLIDAY

 I spent the time between breakfast and an early dinner finishing putting rows on and putting the blocks up on the design wall.

SATURDAY WORKSHOP

 I'm signed up to take a monthly zoom workshop with Joe Cunningham called Quilt Freedom Workshop.  This month was about two color quilts, or two fabric designs.  I started out thinking I would use black and white.  Then when I saw the project I changed the black out for a print with black and white.  (it's not actually white, it matches Kona Oyster which I used as my white).  

Here's how it ended up at the end of the day:

I want to spend more time moving the pieces around before I settle on the final.

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.]

72/100

I had enough background triangles done, so I put them up on the wall again to see how they looked.  I'm glad I did because I don't like how it looks.  

I decided that the 'background' triangles were too dark and the pattern got lost.

I think it needs whiter, plainer triangles around the red ones.

I made  them and exchanged eleven of them out - it does look better.

32/100

We didn't get a lot done on the deck today.  Darrell set a few more short posts.  I moved the pile of rocks to under the deck.  He had to go pick up the last piece of treated lumber - a 16 footer.

So, I had time to work on my 100dayproject2020.  I finished the one from yesterday, and made more.  I went back upstairs after lunch and made even more.

That finished off the foundation squares I had cut out, 120.

So I put them up on  the wall to see how they looked.  I put them up in order.  I like how the colors and fabrics kind of flow.  Now to sew them all together before they fall off the design wall.

ABSTRACT FLOWER DRAWING

I worked on drawing the Abstract Flower for my Design Class.  This is one fourth of the flower design.

I have no idea how I'll make this in fabrics.

Since I'm stymied, I worked on a mindless project - sewing the blocks together on Plaidish, which is taking up my design wall.  I got two rows sewn together.

(I have no idea what happened to that missing block either.  I've looked everywhere.  It was up there a few days ago.)

A QUILT OF VALUE

After I finished the five blocks on value for my Design Class, I figured I'd just continue on and make them into a quilt.

I have to leave them in block format until after class next month.  But in the meantime, I started planning out the rest of the quilt.

This is it so far.  I'm thinking I will add a few more rows of mostly dark on the bottom.  But first, I've got to sew them into bigger chunks and mark them so I can take the top rows off and move the whole thing up.  I don't have any more room at the bottom to add rows on the wall.

FOUND!

Hey, I found the templates I was missing!  

Do I have to admit that I found them under a pile of fabric in my studio?

Now I can get started on the Pi quilt - but first I need to finish up the Modern Fans quilt I started yesterday.  I got all the parts sewn together from yesterday, put them up on the wall, then cut out some more parts and put them up on the wall.  I'm short a few pieces, so I ordered some more of that fabric.  It will be here in a week.

Here are two iterations:

Fabrics randomly placed.

Fabrics placed in color squares.

THE FUN BEGINS

I have all of the parts of the blocks sewn together.

The idea was to have the blocks in more managable parts so I can move them around the design wall easier.

So, here we go...

The design wall

A beginning

Adding more

Trying to get the colors to flow

Looking for problems

Tweaking

Moving a few offensive parts

Okay, where do I stop?

Don't think I like that bright one in the center...

A few more adjustments

Are we getting close yet?

Here's where I stopped because I was satisfied.

Don't hold me to this plan....I could change it completely tomorrow!

But at least now I can start making the blocks....lots of curves yet to sew.