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.   

LAGERTHA FINISHED

 I finished Lagertha and we took some photos.

At times I struggled with the Improv Quilting.  It's somewhat of a new technique for me and I had a hard time coming up with interesting patterns and variations.  Some days I was in the flow, and others were very frustrating.

But, I am pleased with the results and glad that I got it completed.

FINISHED THE QUILTING OF LAGERTHA

 I finally finished the quilting on Lagertha, the Playcation 2022 improv quilt.

I procrastinated for quite a while on this one.  I'm doing improv quilting for the first time and I'm not very confident.  So, I procrastinated.  But here it is!  It's done and off the machine.

It's 91" by 93" big.

At the last second I added my initials to the quilting.

I also trimmed it and sewed the binding onto the front and pressed the binding to the back.  I started on the hand sewing of the binding onto the back, but didn't get very far.

BINDING READY

 I made the very long continuous bias binding I'll need for the Lagertha quilt from Kona Everglade today.  

The quilt is 91" x 93"  that's a 368 inch perimeter.  

I haven't finished the quilting yet.  I didn't get a chance to work on it today.  But tomorrow looks promising.

ART DAY

 I joined with Andrea Chebeleu's Watch. Learn.Play group yesterday and today to make art.

Here's what I did Under the Influence of Ruby Silvious.  She uses a lot of used teabags, and other discardable things in her art and paints tiny little objects or scenes on them.  She's amazing.

GETTING BOLDER

 I decided to go ahead and sew together that bold yellow section.  At this point I'm liking it and it will stay.

I got to work on the next row, too.  Bigger pieces.

Then it's back to re-organizing those scraps.  There is no end to the scraps - the more I sew them together the more I make.  

ADDING YELLOW?

 I worked some more on the Tree Tops quilt top.  At the end of the day I added a bigger section of that yellow.  I'll leave there for now and think about it.

PUT A SPIDER ON IT

 I'm still doing improv quilting on the Quilters Playcation 2022 quilt.

And I put a spider on it.

MORE TREE TOPS

 More fun making Tree Tops and Angles, improv style.  I've been sewing together the smaller bits of the 'background' to make larger chunks to work with.  That takes up a lot of time.  But it is relaxing and enjoyable.  I like using up scraps.

And, its maybe a third of the size I want it to be.  I'm going to go about it differently with the next area.  The way I did it this time is painfully more difficult than I think it needs to be.  We'll see.

QUILTED LADY

 I've been a bit worried about quilting Lagertha's hair.  I've been stalling.  But, I couldn't get much farther on the quilting until I got to it.  So, today was the day.

Here it is - it turned out okay, too.

I've been quilting the whole thing in an improv-style.  It's been terrifying and yet fun.

GETTING BIGGER

I've been working on the Improv Tree Tops quilt a little bit each day.  It's getting bigger, but I'm a long way from the size I'd like it to be.

 

IT IS COMING ALONG

 I 've been working a bit on the Tree Tops and Angles.

IMPROV SCRAP PLAY

 A bunch of us joined Sherri Lynn Wood on BravePatch for an Improv Scrap Play workshop today.  We made Tree Tops and Angles.  

I thought it might be a good plan to use the scraps from the recent finish, Playcation 2024.  I started out with those, but soon realized that the project needed more variety.  So, I got out the Blue Scrap Bucket and the Yellow/Gold bucket and continued on.

What I had done by the end of workshop.

And at the end of the day.

INTO SEATTLE

We took Quinten with us into Seattle this morning, in the rain, to have breakfast at Lowell's in Pike Place Market.

Afterwards, we walked around the Market a bit.  I stopped in the Starbucks for a coffee and bought a Pike Place Market mug, too, to add to our collection.

Then, still raining, we drove up on Capital Hill to the Blick Art Supplies store.  I bought some needed watercolors and some marking pens and other bits.

The Jimi Hendrix statue is in front of the store.