"Rainy Spring"...Raindrops and Some Sun...

Two trips to the bead store later.....

I've been making it rain and then this morning the sun came out!

The first gust of rain has blown over the quilt...  ;-)  I think some misty secondary lines will have to be beaded on next.  But before I add that, I just had to see some sunshine peeking through.

Mmmmm....sunshine....

I used the teeny picot edge around the outside of the center circle to space my stitching with this nifty Kreinik holographic 1/16th" ribbon. The color I used is called "Solar Flair"!

This is much, much easier than marking, which I would have had to do because these stitches can't be uneven.

Some pearly gold crystals went inbetween the stitches.  When the quilt is lit properly, they really glow.

Here we are overall as of today....do click on the picture!

After the sections have been assembled and the rain is all done, the next "layer" to add will be the golden green growing things along the outer edge.  That will be fun too, lots of leaves...

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In my last post, Arlene left a comment asking about the subject of crazy quilts in competition.  Judging is a touchy subject and it's important, I think, to have the right attitude towards it.  I plan on writing about that soon...I've had lots of experience not getting into shows, getting into some, and even snagging a few ribbons, so I have thought about all this quite a bit.  More soon.

"High Summer"...Flystitch Marathon

I decided to keep a tight rein on the seam embellishments for this piece, as I wrote in my last post.
I have always loved those old crazy quilts that use the same stitch on all of the seams...so I tried that here. Fly stitch and more fly stitch!
The colors were also kept under control...green for the outer border, blue for the inner one.

First a close up...

I varied the weights, fibers, and thicknesses of the threads so there was some choosing to do as I worked...but those parameters were pretty strict.

Overall, I hope this approach helps unify everything, and not detract too much from the central focus...

What's left to do is some couching of some cording between the borders and a smaller thread couched around the central image, between it and the lace. This after I block the piece and hopefully get it all straight and square.
Then on goes the binding and it is done!

Vintage CQ...Outer Blocks Finished

A tour around the blocks!
There are 14 of them, and I'll just post them in order as they go around the center section of the quilt.
I won't show the whole view until it is all sewn together, though. You'll have to wait to see....

Believe it or not, there is a lot of structure built into this quilt, to counter the randomness inherent in it too. Hopefully that will all be apparent in the end....
As always, click on the pictures to get a larger view.

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Block 4

Block 5

Block 6

Block 7

Block 8

Block 9

Block 10

Block 11

Block 12

Block 13

Block 14

And yes, a few of those butterflies landed in the center of the quilt, too.

I really couldn't stop them.

It feels good to be coming down the home stretch on this quilt, although there is still that outer border to go....

Vintage CQ...Butterfly Invasion

I have been working on this project off and on during this spring-into-summer. Slowly, a seam here or there between other goings-on....

I've let this gradually unfold....

But all of a sudden a giant cloud of butterflies has alighted onto this quilt!

I am "catching them" with this nice old black perle cotton that the lovely Freda sent to me awhile ago.

Here are two more! That third one in the upper left is waiting for the blocks to be all sewn together before it will permanently land on the seam between them.

When they are all sewn on I'll post more pictures. I'm so glad they showed up....!

Class Samples, Continued..and Gulch Radio!

Thanks to you lovely gals who suggested I teach online sometime. The thought had never occurred to me to do that...but maybe someday I will. You honor me. ;-)

To be frank, the whole idea of beginning to teach professionally has me filled with excitement and yet also some new questions. Up until now I have always put my work out there for all to see....and I surely don't want to have to learn to hold back now (unless contractually obligated to do so) . That would take the fun out of blogging for me.
I contacted the Program Chair of the guild who hired me to ask her what she thought about me posting my class samples. Blogging can be tricky when you involve other people, however tangentially, in your posts, so I wanted to be sure I wasn't crossing any "line" with the guild.
Graciously she replied that she thought her guild wasn't hurt by this in any way, but I might in future want to consider protecting my designs. Nice of her, wasn't it?

So all that said, here are my class samples underway....

This is slow going but very satisfying, in that I get to do three variations concurrently. There are some subtle compositional differences that are fun to explore...and I want to give my students enough examples that they will see that there is no one "right way" to go...

On another note...literally....I want to share my newest listening discovery!
My friend Leigh's husband Rich runs his own radio station (with a buddy) out of his home. It is a bona fide NPR affiliate, but most of the programming is homegrown. I guess there are several online radio stations out there. Rich's is about 1 watt over the airwaves, but streaming online to anywhere in the world.

There are no ads....little news...in the mornings there is the "Word of the Day" feature which is fun...and we get to hear the weather for Jerome, Arizona, the home of Gulch Radio...
Tunes, tunes, tunes there are in abundance. This is for Boomers, no doubt about it. But the mix is eclectic and the hits obscure. I've heard stuff on there that I haven't heard since I was a little kid stretched out on my towel on the sand at Michillinda, soaking up the sun after swimming for hours, with WLS on the transister crammed to my ear.
Particularly wonderful is Rich's Sunday afternoon show, "Geezer Rock" where he takes email requests for those favorite hard to find oldies from the 50's and 60's.

Do check them out here. It is great stitching music....(you may have to register, but that is easy and you only have to do that once.)
And Rich has such a great voice. He sounds like Robert Osbourne, of Turner Classic Movies....

Alliance Medallion...Finished!

I wanted to get the center section done before leaving Mexico...and aside from some final tweaking with stash from home (little beads I didn't bring), I succeeded!

I still think that maroon flower needs its fifth petal. I'll add that at Point Bonita.
And a note to Esther...that white flower is to tie in with the black and white fans in the quilt's corners. You'll see!

Now off we go on our journey to the States....next stop, Point Bonita!
(I think I am going to really love Januaries from now on....)

Adios, Condominio Pilar!

Alliance CQ...Center Medallion Progress

Thanks so much for your comments! I love hearing from you way down here.

One of my favorite parts of crazy quilting is That Moment when you start to feel a "critical mass" happening. All the stitching starts to coalesce into the effect you are hoping for.
Such is the case with my medallion center and I am tickled! (Not to mention, as always, relieved).

I've added that ribbon flower on the left, buttonhole stitched more of the leaves, satinstitched some white highlights on the daffodil in the center, tweaked the outline of the pink rose on the right, and put more work into the large petaled red flower in the center. (This flower might turn into an homage to the Oaxacan embroidery before it is done.)
This medallion needs to be loud and proud to stand out from the rest of the quilt!

We have three more glorious days here in San Carlos.
Yesterday was the highlight of the trip so far...we were out kayaking on the bay and found ourselves in the middle of a feeding frenzy of pelicans, gulls, other birds....and dolphins!

I took this is morning (yes, running along the beach in my jammies to get the shot)...it gives you an idea of what we were in the middle of yesterday, the dolphins leaping in the air and then gliding right under our boat , the pelicans dive-bombing, the water sparkling...oh, it was divine!

We journey home Wednesday, and I leave for Point Bonita Friday...the whole traveling thing will be a continuous blur. But I've just learned that Point Bonita will have WiFi for the very first time. Huzzah! I plan on donning my "cub reporter" hat and bringing you feature posts live from the scene.
And it is quite the scene...quilters' heaven.
Of course we say, "What happens in Point Bonita, stays in Point Bonita"...but I'll try and scoot around that edict!

Alliance CQ...Background Stitched

Good morning!
This is the view from where I am typing...I know, rough, isn't it?

I'm so glad you all enjoyed Leigh's gorgeous embroidery. I must say, it makes me look at my own with new eyes....as in, let's "pump up the volume" a little bit!

But first, I had to get all the stitching on the black background for my Alliance quilt done so that the patches would be defined. I also wanted to go for that classic crazy quilt "look".

I forced myself to keep to one colorway...blue/purple. I thought this would set off the flowers a little better than if I went multi-colored in the black section.

And as for those flowers.....
This IS an experiment, embroidering over Broderie Perse. I've put in one day so far (it was rainy yesterday), and this is where I am so far.

...and here is a detail....

For me, this is the "iffy" stage. This section is nowhere near fully developed so all I see when I look at it is how much work needs to be done to get it to look right.
Faith in the process is a good thing at this juncture!
We'll see what happens....

Cottage CQ...Surgery

It's funny how design decisions will reveal themselves slowly on a long-term (and experimental) project like this.
There was one section on the grassy area that didn't feel right to me, and hasn't for awhile, but I wasn't sure what it was or what to do about it.
Then this morning, bingo, there it all was in my head, so I decided to act on it right away.

It's the light colored grasses with the bullion seedheads. They stick out too far to the right.

I put a piece of tracing paper in place to see if the solution was to straighten out that edge and instantly thought, "Oh yes that's it".

I pinned the new fabric patches in place and whipstitched them on, right over what was under it.

After carrying over the French knotted flower motif from the patch to the right, I decided the background fabric was too light. Prismacolor pencil to the rescue.

Then some yarn got couched along the new seams, creating some more of those "seam driven motifs" I've been trying out with this project.
Surgery complete!

I did add the same couched yarn treatment to the other side.

I like how this reads so much better. Those vertical seams forming the oval will eventually have cording couched over them to define them...

Nothing like designing on the fly. But it's getting there.....

Cottage CQ...Hydrangea Shrubs

AveryClaire asked on my last post what inkAid is.
It is a coating that you brush onto fabric--and then you let it dry--before running it through your printer. My experimental goal for this treatment was to get sharper, more saturated imagery on the fabric than would have been possible with it untreated.
I found this to be the case. The detail is in high focus and the colors are vivid. But the stuff makes the fabric stiff and each push of the needle requires much more pressure than normal. My fingertips are actually quite perforated these days.

So that is why the moaning and groaning over the inkAid. I do think it's great, just not for stitching through.

Fortunately, I didn't have to on my last bout of motif stitching.

I used an idea from Helen M. Steven's Embroidered Landscapes for my hydrangea shrubs.

However, as I got going on this the temperature outside plummeted, and my sewing room became too cold to work in.

That is snow comin' down outside. This room has lots of windows and just a little space heater, and I can't get it above about 50 degrees F on days like this...too cold for my fingers to work properly!
So I set up a card table and moved on into the living room where my guys hang out on their computers.

May likes to hang out here too, looking out the window right next to me. She also attacks my threads if she gets a chance.
(That is "Summer Lake Day" hanging to the left there.)

So back to the hydrangeas...

I made one on each side. This shows how one of them looked before the silk ribbon leaves and French knot flowers went on.

And here is a finished shrub....

I may add to them to fill them out a little more, but for now I've had enough!

Here you can see them "in situ". A line of something wonderful is going to have to go between them to "ground" that section. My guess is it will be rocks and lucky glass...actually, if you enlarge the picture above that has "Summer Lake Day" in it, you can see the rocks that were sewn on that Lake Michigan quilt. I do love sewing rocks.
I posted a tutorial on that here, on another little cottage piece.

But that is going to have to wait for several days, as I have to seriously get my Christmas preparations underway.
Hoping you all are getting in the spirit of the season!

Cottage CQ...Tree Stitching

There has been a technical issue that I finally attended to over the last few days.

The large areas in the trees section that are printed using the inkAid needed to be secured to the foundation fabric. They were puffy, not lying flat (and you know I hate that), and needed some texture anyways to blend in with all the stitching going on around these large "patches".

This view of the back illustrates the tactic I took to fix this. You can see all those lines of stitching in the plain white areas. I may have to add more, but this was enough for now.
On the front it looks like this:

I didn't want the stitching to stand out too much, so I matched it to the background. This is all backstitching.

I decided there was no need to outline both sides of the branches and trunks....this stitching is essentially acting as quilting; it isn't there as a design element so much.

In the pine tree sections I just made little stitches to blend in and hold the fabric down.

Frankly, this was boring work and that inkAid is a beast to stitch through. But I had to see if this would work. It's a good thing it did, because once you make a needle hole in this treated fabric, that hole is there for keeps.

I will say that on normally photoprinted fabric that is soft, stiching over it to augment the image is really fun and so much easier than you might think. It is just like painting by numbers, and is a most forgiving technique.
I'm glad the cottage isn't printed on inkAid!
But I'm not ready for it yet.....think I'll play with some bushes and little flowers as my reward for all this scut work.