Home from the Fair

My lovely piece Forest Violets (2018) toured for two years with a SAQA sponsored exhibition. She came home a few weeks ago.

She was immediately purchased and is now flying out once again to a new home.

What Next...........

As the clues for the Mystery quilt only arrive every 2 weeks, I need something else to get my teeth into. I think I stumbled across it the other day.

After I wrote a note to accompany the Forest Violets piece that's now on its way to BC, I enfolded the note in one of the Lino/stencil print cards I made last fall. It re kindled a desire to work in that field. There are things I'd like to try and I have about a month before house guests arrive for the rest of the summer.

At supper time, every evening, my husband and I look out into the garden and comment frequently on the intensity of the colours this year. High heat and a good amount of rain these last few weeks have pushed a lot of blooming times together.

But it seems every year the Echinacea win the prize with their sheer overwhelming colour. I did try some different varieties but the old fashioned original does best in my garden.

I spent a lovely warm afternoon in the shade sketching. This might be my first subject.

pen and crayon

My Kids thinks I can sew anything......

"We bought a new Dog carrier for my bike.

Can you make an insert for it so his paws don't get caught?"

Thanks Mom

💖

Green Quilt - Part Deux

Mystery Quilt ......#2

As I won't get another clue for another week and a half, I decided to go back to some discarded materials, namely greens and make a copy entirely from the green scraps. I'm not going to pay as close attention to the designations a,b,c,d etc as I know I will run out of some fabrics. Instead each round can have a different set altogether. Can't get much scrappier than that.

Mystery Quilt - Clue #2 - Rows 3 and 4

This section certainly tested the accuracy of my 1/4 inch seams. (You don't need them in most Art Quilt work)

Fortunately I know this quilter that will fix all the wobbles when she quilts it. HA!

When I was laying out the fabrics I wasn't sure about some. I did switch some in and out.

Now I'm glad I added a few brighter colours.

Mystery Quilt - Day 2

 This morning........ I brought in the garbage cans, made a Banana Peach loaf, (made the breakfast oatmeal cookies yesterday), did my exercises, collected the mail, drank the last cup of coffee in the pot while I watched the rain .........and generally lay around till after 11...... Then I tackled the next two clues.

Slightly brain dead I glanced at the directions and went ahead and made 4 flying geese............instead of the illustrated Square in a Square. I tossed those and started over. Glad I have lots of scraps for this part.

So I just finished the 36 little blocks. To morrow I'll add them to the medallion.

Mystery Quilt

My local guild is working hard through this pandemic to reach out to its members via Zoom meetings, sharing interesting sites and for the summer, offering a mystery quilt.

I wasn't going to participate in this at first, but I find myself creatively stymied. I need to visit a fabric store for a project that's been on the burner for awhile. But I am loath to venture out right now.

I sewed dozens of masks for my family and for various groups.

And then I woke one day and decided to join in the Mystery quilt.

After about an hour I almost threw in the towel. The tripping point was the first on the list.........3 metres for a main fabric.

While I do have several packages of 3 metres they are fabric really only suitable for backs. Not interesting enough to be a focus fabric. .

Except for 3.

Now I'm gambling here (that was another day or two to make this decision). I have 3 yds of several possibles. I'm gambling I won't run out of fabric. This is based on the number of kits I have done in the past where there was leftover fabric, sometimes a significant amount. If I run out..........

It became a toss up between Green ( dark and heavy but I think I have 100+ FQ, a lot of that colour.)

OR

Blue ( a really old fashioned looking print suitable for my mother's living room.)

OR

Tan/beige.

As I worked to match them with the necessary extra fabrics my mind settled into a Blue/orange/brown combination.

I rejected the Blue as the main fabric as I just didn't like it.

The Tan was left, and as I pulled more FQ in browns and blues it started to jell (though this morning I traded a couple of the FQ for some pizzazz and added a blue green and a orangy batik.

Today I made the first block, the centre medallion.

Now I have to wait another week? for the next set of instructions.

Christmas Themes ........... at 32C.

For a complete chance of pace......

This current quilt sat patiently while I finished two Spring/Summer pieces. But it's turn came.

This is for a lap quilt in Christmas colours.

Holly is the theme.

After scouting for images of Holly I settled on one small drawing and adapted it for a centre piece and a wreath. This is not being 'traced' but stitched free hand using the paper patterns as a size and spacing 'suggestion'

As usual...... the design takes longer than the application.