FINISHED FIRST BLOCK 3, SARAH

Still needs a border.

Paperpieces.com got back to me, and they have made the pieces I asked for to do the borders with.  I ordered a big pile of them today.  They should be here on Friday or Saturday.

WORKING ON BLOCK 3

GLUE BASTING

I glued basted all of the pieces in my to-go kits today (two blocks).

BORDERS!

This is the first block with the borders on.

A PIECED BORDER FOR EACH

Okay, I've come up with a plan for how to put together my "New Hexagon Blocks"....

I opened up Electric Quilt and tried fooling around in there to determine how many blocks I'd need and what size.  But, Electric Quilt is not that friendly for trying things using hexagons.  Their program has just the bare minimums for figuring hexagon quilts.  But, I was able to come up with a rudimentary plan.

I'm going to put a border around each hex block, just like they are doing in Katja's Project.  But, I'm not going to be doing it the way they are.  I'm going to paper piece the border on - which means I need the paper pieces.  I did some calculating and figuring and drew and cut out some pieces to see if it would work.

Each block will have one of a different taupe, beige, tan or gray fabric that is in the group.  So, I went ahead and cut a bunch of strips off the fabrics to set aside.

Then I sent off an email to paperpieces.com to ask about having those pieces custom made.  We'll see if that is affordable or not.   Considering I need almost 600 pieces, it will probably be very worth it.  We'll see.

MAKING LITTLE TO GO KITS

I thought I'd make up some little to-go kits to take to work with me next week.  I'm hoping I will have some time to work on them a little there.

BLOCK 16

I'm still working on the blocks for this quilt a little at a time.

It only takes about 30-40 minutes to make a block.

Here's number 16:

Here's all of the blocks on the design wall, half done:

HEXIE BLOCK #2

This is going faster than I'd have thought.   The glue basting is a big time saver.
It's also nice that these have been big pieces.

In Katja's project, she has you applique these finished blocks onto a quilt sandwich and then hand quilt them.  Then you can sew each little finished quiltlet to each other and make it any size you wanted. 

I've gone round and round about this and I've decided I don't want to do that, so I need to come up with another plan. 

FIRST HEXIE BLOCKS

I stopped on my way home from work and bought some Roxanne's Glue Baste-It, which made everything go so much faster!

I made a copy on thick paper of the first 20 or so patterns.

Here's my first two of Block One:

STARTING CINCINNATI QUILT

I've been charmed by the interesting English Paper Piecing quilts that people have been making lately.  So, I'm making the big commitment to do my Cincinnati quilt in that style.

I choose Katja Marek's book The New Hexagon and the Quiltalong program Blocks on the Go at paperpieces.com.

So, I sent away for the book and the first two sets of paper pieces.  

I want to make more copies of the Hexies so I can make multiples of each block and decided to cut the spine off the book and put it into a binder, thus making it easier and more accurate to photocopy the pages.

The Cincinnati Fabrics!

FINISHED YOT GOAT 2015

Almost a year late, but they're done.  

I had to make the same image onto a different plate...it is very similar, but not exact.  So, I have two editions; the first one of 15 prints, the second of 21 prints. 

I'll be holding on to them and will send them out with this year's Monkey.

DIDN'T HOLD UP

This acrylic plate did not hold out long enough to finish the edition.  It started breaking up on the edges, and eventually cracked through the middle in several places.  Those cracks started showing up in the print, so I had to quit using it.\

The plate after about 15 prints pulled.

The cracks were showing up on the print.

DIFFERENT ACRYLIC PLATE

I finally started printing my Year of the Goat (Sheep) print from last year, well this year - 2015.  It's time to start thinking about next year's Year of the Monkey print, so I thought I'd better do this year's first.

I had already had the image scratched onto an acrylic plate.  I'd used some thinner acrylic then I'd ever used before.  If I remember right, it was all they had at the hardware store at the time.

Before I wiped the ink off - don't want to spoil the surprise!

It seemed to be okay, until I started running it through the press.

Sorry for the blurry image.

Sorry this one is blurry too.

As you can see in the pictures, after about only 25 prints, the edges are starting to deteriorate and break up.

I stopped for the day.  I hope it still prints next time I start up again.

BINDING DONE

ON OTHELLO STREET

Here's an ink and watercolor sketch I did of a neighborhood house.

QUILTING DONE - BINDING ON

Finished the quilting on this little quilt today.  [72" by 48"]

Here's a picture with the binding on, but not turned to the back yet.

Quilting close-up

FREE MOTION QUILTING

I had to break down and buy some new fabric for the backing.

I got it pinned on Monday and started free-motion quilting it on Tuesday.

On the front side I'm using a bright varigated mult-colored thread and on the back it will just be gray,

Here we go...

STARTED A NEW QUILT

It's not like I don't have a dozen or more unfinished projects I could work on....

But I've had this group of fat quarters for the last 15 years or so and I finally got inspired to do something with them.  Maybe I could consider the collection of fabric an unfinished project.

I made one block.  I'm thinking there will be 30.  There are 64 fat quarters and I'll pair them up to make one block.  It may be a long time project, too.

Here's the first one.  Easy-peasy to sew, but it's a lot of sewing.  1-1/2" finished squares.  

100 little squares per block.

Here's the pile of fat quarters, on the selvedge is written:

Moda Fabrics 1999 "Floral Trails".

QUILT TOP TOGETHER

With the papers gone, it went together very quickly.

I bought some fabric for the backing already.  Now I don't think I like it with the top.  Does that give me permission to go fabric shopping?

I made the binding since I ran out of things to do.  So I better get a back and get it quilted before I misplace the binding.

PAPER-PIECING IS MESSY

I got the last part of the block finished and sewed to it's mate.  I sewed one whole block together.

I realized it would be easier if the paper was gone.  So, I stopped and removed all of the paper from the back of the blocks.

What a mess.  I love being able to make a big mess in my studio and walking away....

But...I'll have to clean it up eventually.

ANOTHER BLOCK DONE

I sewed them together and then called it a day.

PAPERPIECING

I made a little progress today.

I cut out all of the pieces that I will need (I was worried I wasn't going to have enough gray).  I still have enough of the gray left to make the binding from - so that worked out good.

And I made the extra parts to replace the two blocks that got damaged and made them.  So, I'm all caught up.

I also changed my mind about the order of the colors.

This is how it was originally planned.

This is what I changed it to.

ME AND CEZANNE

Darrell and I went to Seattle Art Museum today to see the "Intimate Impressionism" exhibit.  It features quite a few smaller paintings from the collection of the Mellon Family on loan from the National Gallery of Art.  
I got up close and got a very good look at Cezanne's "Still Life with Milk Jug"  that I had recently painted from a very bad newspaper image.  The actually painting was much darker and richer in color than I had expected (aren't they almost always?!).  I enjoyed looking at the way he laid down the paint and trying to figure out exactly the process he used as opposed to how I did it.  I'm jealous of the folks that can sit in the Louvre and gaze at the masterpiece as they try to replicate it.  And I understand now how much one can learn by doing so.

Me and Cezanne's "Still Life with Milk Jug"

My painting 

HALF DONE

I worked on another of the paper-pieced parts of this block.  

I realized this means I'm half way done with the block parts...

That's encouraging.

OIL ON CANVAS

So here is my attempt at the same painting, Cezanne's "Still Life with Milk Jug" using oil paints on canvas:

After the first day

Finished on the next day.

I think the painting I did on the fabric is nicer than this one on canvas.  The fabric seemed to take the paint better; there is no gesso on the fabric.  On the canvas you can see the texture quite obviously.

STARTED A PAPER-PIECED QUILT

I saw this pattern in a magazine and couldn't resist making it.

I ordered the gray fabric and the backing from Fabric.com.  I had the other colors needed already.

I think I'll make it as a Christmas gift for someone.

Here we go:

The first quarter done.

Half of the second quarter

Lots of waste with paper piecing.

OKAY, FINISHED IT

Here's the finished product. 

This was painted on masonite covered with commercial cotton fabric which had metallic outlines on it.  If you look really closely you can see those lines.

So I decided to paint another one on canvas.

FIRST OIL PAINTING

I recently acquired some old tubes of oil paint that someone was tossing out.  They were still soft, so I hoped they'd still be viable.

I've never painted with oils.  I've always wondered about it, but didn't see the point in investing a lot of money into purchasing a whole new medium.  Geez, I've got enough art supplies!

But these were free.  I thought I'd just check it out.

So, I saw this Cezanne on the front of the Arts section of the Seattle Times.  There's an article inside about the opening of the "Intimate Impressionism" exhibit at Seattle Art Museum, in which it will be on display.  I love Cezanne's still lifes.

I need to do a little touch up tomorrow.