Boy, my life is boring! I spent some time straightening up the studio after finishing the last of the customer jobs. There was a scare with my fragile back when I sneezed a bunch of times and got a severe pain up high in my back. Thinking I had another fracture, I went to the doctor and then to the hospital for xrays. No broken bones, but a muscle strain and small tear. I'm not supposed to do things with my arms in front of my body...what? Don't we do everything with arms out front? So I am taking things easy and recovering. I managed to finish a repair job and have another well underway. Most of my time has been spent sewing the wedding quilt for Mr Wazoo's nephew and his bride.
Remember how it started? These were the fabrics I chose.
The HST blocks made, auditioning the layout on the design wall
After two days of sewing, the top was done. On the third day, I got it quilted. On the fourth day, the binding was made and applied. On the fifth day, all the hand sewing was finished and the label made and applied!
All finished and sent off to the newlyweds!
A look at the quilting. Panto: Espalier.
I like the subtle touches of the slate blue to liven up the otherwise dull neutrals.
A peek at the back.
One morning I came down the drive to the studio, and when I rounded the corner there was a deer a few feet away eating the petunias!! Penny went berserk, but when told to sit, she obeyed and the deer simply stuck her nose at her for a sniff, then walked slowly away. No fear of me or the dog. Deer are pretty big up close! Her babies were coming up from the ditch to join her and they all went back into the woods.
I think I told you our guild longarm group has a challenge for the members. We are to quilt a whole cloth quilt for the August meeting. I figured I had better get on with it, so that's what I did with another four days of my boring life. I had a couple of tie-dye pieces of fabric I got at a show somewhere, and fished one out for the challenge. The 29 center designs are from Karlee Porter and all fit into a circular area. I thought they would look cool on the swirly tie-dye fabric. After a bunch of math and placement marking, I started in the center and worked my way out. Some mistakes along the way had me picking out long stretches of quilting, but most of it looked okay. I used 29 different colors and followed there color wheel starting with a dark red in the center. If I do this again, I will use one color to save me the repositioning woes. On the back I used King Tut Cleopatra variegated thread for the center and dark gray for the background fill. The background on the top was done with Tut in a variegated blue thread.
Moving along with the design elements, following the printed pattern.
This is as far as I got the first day
Day two and three finished the digital part and a couple of hours mimicking the designs in my free motion background fill. Digital done on the HQ and free motion done on Big Gammill.
Here you can see the divide between the digital and my blue background fill
The back
The gray thread is my free motion quilting.
The 29 colors I used
Babiy deer are all over the place! Keeping them out of the gardens has been a losing battle. Yesterday, we had the whole family here. 8 point buck, a couple of doe and several babies. I shewed this brave one away before it could start on Mr W's shrubs!!
Even Bigfoot didn't bother it...
I had better quit for now. It is very late and I have watched Olympics all day. I have enjoyed every sport and was intrigued by some I had never seen before. Team handball is crazy!! The kayak racing with three boats at a time is brutal, as is rugby. Everything is exciting and I'm ready for another week of it.
I'll try to post more often, even if I haven't done much to talk about. Thanks for tuning in! Now, go quilt!!
