FRIDAY DINNER

I love Indian food.  I stopped by a local Indian restaurant/grocery and picked up some ingredients and some premade dishes for dinner.

I made some 'bread' topped with tomatoes from our garden, jalepenos and cilantro.  It uses fermented rice and lentils as the base.  

 

Mine didn't look quite like the picture but they were very tasty.

HUGS BACKING

 I made a backing and label for Hugs and Kisses using that fabric I bought yesterday.  I used the leftover parts from cutting the 4" squares from the front to make a long strip. 

JAKOB TWO TREES

 I drove out to Issaquah this morning.  I wanted to see and sketch Jakob Two Trees, another troll by Thomas Dambo.  Jakob lives a short walk down the Rainier Trail.  He is very popular, with a steady stream of admirers and folks that wanted to see him.

Then, since I was in Issaquah, I stopped at Gossypium Quilt Shop.  I brought along Hugs and Kisses and NYC.  I was looking for fabrics I could use on the backings of them.  You know how you have something in mind when you go into the store?  Yea, I can never find that.  But, I did find fabric that is acceptable.  It's only the back anyway.

THE LEAF AND THE CAT

 Here are two more Art East Quilting Mini Charm blocks:

The Leaf and The Cat:

HUGS AND KISSES TOP

 I got the last two borders sewed onto Hugs and Kisses while visiting with the BP-Monday Sewcialites.

Its a top!

THIS MONTH'S UFO

 This month's UFO Challenge project is another old one, called Hugs and Kisses.  It was probably made in the late 90's.  I hand-appliqued these Xs and Os onto the squares.  The fabrics are a heavy flannel and woven plaids, all of them from Clothworks.  I usually really dislike flannel, but these are pretty nice.  Found along with the top was a pile of the fabrics I had  used.  There were big pieces, maybe one third yard cuts.

The top was 44" by 56" as found.  I want it to be bigger.  So, the easiest way was to add another border.  I decided to cut all of the extra fabrics into 4-1/2" squares and add them around the outside.

I was only able to sew the top and bottom rows on before the dogs insisted on leaving.

FRAMPTON-COOPER WORKSHOP

 Today I attended a zoom workshop with Sheila Frampton Cooper from 9am to 3:30pm.  It was about Appli-Piecing.  

What the back looks like

My finished project

FINISH IT FRIDAY

 Before our Brave Patch Finish it Friday get-together, I worked on making another improv block.

Here's one that was inspired by an event in my life.

Then I managed to get this NYC project finished.  It's a quilt top!

LUNCH WITH MOM

 I took Mom to visit with her friend Kim.

Then we went looking for the Pizza Hut in Renton to no avail.  And they won't answer their phone to tell us where they are.

So, we went to the Indian Restaurant.  Mom has never eaten Indian.  She was game for it though.

She enjoyed it.  So, did I.

WORKING ON OLD PROJECT

 I got out an old project from 2018.  It was a workshop with Joe Cunningham.  He had us make 'gates' using two fabrics, all sizes and shapes.  I was limited on my fabric choices, and I wasn't really happy with them.  After we made all these 'gates' everyone got a photocopy of a Franz Kline painting.  He told us to make something that looks like that.   I hardly worked on it after the workshop.

So, here it is, five years later and I feel like I really want to finish it.

ALL OF THEM!

 I got busy and finished all of the blocks of Playcation 2022.

Here is blocks 49, 50, 51 and 52!

Now what!?   It's definitely bittersweet.  I've really enjoyed making these blocks and am sad it's over.  But, I'm excited to move on to the next step of putting them all into an interesting arrangement.

USING SCRAPS

 We are now trying to use up some of the scraps we've made while making the improv blocks of Cheryl Arkison's Playcation 2022.

Here is the latest block I made:

MORE PLAYCATION BLOCKS

 I worked on reducing the fabric in the 23-24 Scrap Bucket making Log Cabin blocks.

Then, I made three more Playcation 2022 improv blocks.  

QUILTING PROBLEMS

 I setup a pantograph and started Erik quilting on Tractor Beam.

Then it was one thing after another.  First of all, Erik really hates quilting right-to-left, so he shredded the thread every chance he got.   I even changed from Aurifil to Wonderfil thread because it's 3-ply and a little thicker.  That reduced the number of shreddings a bit, but didn't eliminate them.

Then the sew-head went black, the lights went out and it stopped. That scared the heck out of me!   So on a walk-around I discovered the plug on the back had worked its way out.  I plugged it in, restarted, and got him working again.  Phew.

THEN, the darn hopping foot, #74 with a plastic cup, broke!  Good grief, I guess I'm lucky the needle didn't run over it and jam up the machine.

I gave up for the day, and went to join the Brave Patch Finish it Friday get-together.

I made this week's Art East Quilting Mini block, #35, The Thread.

EDITED VOLTRON!

 The more I thought about it, the less I liked my solution from yesterday regarding the Voltron! project.  

I liked the idea of the darker section being on the bottom, but lazily turning it upside down disturbed the composition I had worked so hard on.

So, a solution would be to take the dark top section and move it to the bottom.  That involved un-sewing.  I feel like I did as much un-sewing on this project as I did sewing.  So, what's a little more?

I think the solution worked really well and I'm much happier with the way it looks now.

And, I have found a name for it.  It will be called Tractor Beam from now on.  I started thinking about backing for it and pulled some teal fabrics from my stash. But, I'm too drained to work on that today.

Then, as a palette cleanser, I made another improv block with the Playcation 2022:

VOLTRON! IS A TOP

 I completed the last big triangles in the bottom corners.  And had everything sewn into big chunks that were ready to sew all together.

It is now a top.  Once I got it done, I felt the top was the darkest part, the heaviest part, making the composition seem top-heavy.  So, I flipped it upside down.  It looks better.  But, I may change something, like taking the dark top off and sewing it onto the part that used to be the bottom.

Well, I'm all done and here is the pile of scraps and leftovers.  omg, it never ends.

STILL WORKING ON VOLTRON!

 I'm still spending the greatest part of my days working on my Voltron! project.

It's still a puzzle.  I'm still editing as I go.  I've had to make more strip sets, too.

I've sewed some of the bigger pieces together and moved it up on the design wall, so that I can work on the bottom to make it a bit longer.

But, it's coming along.

TROLL IN THE PARK

 The Danish artist, Thomas Dambo, has installed one of his trolls in Lincoln Park.  We've been watching the construction process over the past week.

Today we walked down to the beach (along with hundreds of fisherpeople).  

This is Bruuniden, playing her flute in homage to the Orcas.  She is wearing jewelry of shells and tree bark, made by local artist John 'Coyote' Halliday.

I sat down to sketch her.