Beginnings of Creative Play

 

 

A new project has been started in BAMQ by our new president, (friend Jaye) which she calls Creative Play. It was inspired by a comment in a newsletter earlier this year from Libs Elliot:

 " I have made a promise to myself that I will make time for creative play in 2026. Because, when work gets overwhelming, I find joy in taking even just a bit of time for myself to experiment and try something different without an end goal in mind."

There are two of these started off already, but this is the first one I've gotten my hands on. And I'm the first one to get add something, or do something to what's handed to me. There aren't a lot of rules, it's a very open and free chance to play and be creative. Above are the starting point blocks that Jaye made. 

I thought about just piecing them together, or maybe cutting them up somehow and piecing them back together, but that didn't strike me as the way I wanted to go. After looking at the blocks up on my design wall for several days, I realized that the blocks already had so much color and pattern happening, that the direction I should go was to add EVEN MORE. 

I was inspired by the open scraps box that was near my work table, all filled with leftovers from making my City Sampler quilt blocks. In it were quite a colorful collection of strips, either Tula Pink prints or my hand-dyes. I thought there was enough print happening already with that very strong red/white plaid. and the rainbow/black stripe (which I think is a Tula Pink print). So, I went with the more "reads as solid" hand-dyes, adding them onto to one or two side of each block. The strips of various widths will help break up the look of the bigger rectangles.

I can't wait to what the next person does with it (go Melinda!)

Community Giving HST's

 

I sewed twenty-six HSTs for a Community Giving quilt. We're working on another quilt at Sew Day today, but I'll be turning these in to the organizers, hopefully they'll remember which quilt they were for.

Almost There Flying Geese

 

The Lupine Mystery pink Flying Geese got ironed, along with a note to myself so I'd press the seam in the ideal way.

All the remaining triangles for the other side of the Flying Geese.

And now ironing the other triangle, with another note to myself to iron the seam in the other direction.

Stacks and stacks of Flying Geese to trim to the correct size.

More Green Snake Stitching

 For the last time, I traveled to Spokane and back again for the last appointment in the medical study I've been participating in for the last few months. And once again, I arrived Very Early to the airport for my flight home and got in some stitching time while waiting for my plane to arrive.

 More green stitching in what I call the vernal pool (which is a seasonal, ephemeral pool) in the lower right hand corner of Snake in the Garden. I think this is just about the last bit that needs stitching, I'm so close to finishing this!

Wandering Wednesday: Bear Creek Redwoods Preserve

 

On the way home from a family lunch, we missed being able to go to the gym, so we stopped off at Bear Creek Redwoods Preserve for a little hike. I was at first reluctant to do it as I was full from lunch, but we were happy to find there was an easy trail on the other side of the road from the very steep trails.

Turns out it's the site of a former Jesuit school.

They've done a great job with planting out new native plants.

It was fun walking through this, we drive by this so often, all without ever knowing that it was even there!

This was the site of the old mansion, which burned down and was knocked down by the 1906 earthquake. There was a picture of it, and the boulder in front made a lot more sense.

A former parking garage/living area for the Jesuit students. 

Looks like they built around an enormous oak tree, you can see the trunk remains in the cutout, and on the corner of the wall, there's a piece of one of the trunks surrounded by bricks. It grew into the wall!

I don't know why, but this cracked me up, the different bunches and types of grass growing on the top of each brick column.

A plant possibly related to Jasmine.

The clouds were super pretty looking out over the Lexington Reservoir hills.

The top of the trail we hiked on came out on an overlook over Highway 17.

It got very cloudy and muggy as we hit the halfway point. The sun was going too, and the park gates lock at dusk (which is when exactly?)

Surprise daffodils (narcissus) along one of the "ruins" brick walls. This was far away from the rest of the buildings on the Radio Hill trail.

Might oak roots vs. brick wall.

More oak root action on walls.

A teeny tiny lizard in the crevice.

Story of my life, beautiful poison oak, absolutely everywhere, and even growing out of a brick wall!

There are so many more trails for us to try out, I think we'll be stopping by many more times.

Halfway Pink Flying Geese

 

First thing that I got sewn in March is the pink and white Flying Geese for the Lupine (no longer a) Mystery quilt.

I really have a large variety of pinks going on here, from very pale all the way to very dark. I really hope it works!

A closeup of the action, using the back of the black polka dot. 

So far I've gotten through all of them, but only on one of the sides.

March To-Do

Here's how my design wall is looking on the first day of this new month of March. Pretty un-busy and un-crowded compared to last month. That's because I had to take everything down in order take the picture of the enormous City Sampler quilt. The Patchwork Palooza blocks are now a top awaiting a border (maybe?).  The untouched blocks for the BAMQ Creative Play project are on the right.

Note: the use of 🥏👽  by a project name indicates that it's on the 2026 UFO Finishes challenge list of six projects that I committed to finishing at the beginning of the year (more on that list later). Note, this is not the same list as the UFO Challenge for BAMQ, that UFO will have this next to it on the list:🌀🌐

QUILTS

Design & Begin

Design and make a quilt for the BAMQ Challenge Modern Art to Modern Quilt display at the SMCF - No picture yet

Design and make a quilt for the BAMQ library display for The Wizard of Oz - No picture yet

Work on and finish my addition to the Creative Play for BAMQ before Sew Day so I can pass it on.

Pantone Project - work on an overall design, either in EQ8 or up on the design wall.

Lupine & Laughter Mystery Quilt - keep making units following the clue instructions

BAMQ BOM - make monthly blocks of varying sizes through the year.

Continue Assembly

Patchwork Palooza - Decide on borders, make backing & binding

Keep working on Sour Grass Grace from Jane Sassaman class.

Old Town Mystery Quilt - make a backing & binding, decide on whether to have it quilted

AG Stamp Quilt - continue to make more blocks using the final group of fussy-cut stamp block centers from Tula Pink fabrics.

Continue the piecing of Selvedge Candy (maybe the name) quilt originally designed for the 2025 MQG challenge.

🥏👽 Sew the last 6 columns and sashing together of the 2023 Temperature Quilt together to make the quilt top.

🥏👽 Bohemian Wife -  Sandwich this and start quilting it

                                      

Quilting

leaving this category right here so I don't forget to use it next time

Final Steps 

HANDWORK/BAG/CLOTHING PROJECTS 

Make a Cotton Candy pouch for myself.

Make a Charlie's Aunt wool purse for myself, first felt the wool from Pendleton Mill.

Toned-Down Circle Sampler - now that I have the appropriately sized grey background felt, arrange and appliqué the circles, start embroidering.

Y.E.S. Coat - continue making pieces/blocks. assemble on foundation, cut out lining pieces from the fabric that I dyed

Snake In The Garden - Finish hand stitching

Kawandii - Finish hand stitching/assembly

Hey! This Is All Finished!

🌀🌐May You Ever Return - Finished for the BAMQ UFO Challenge

🥏👽City Sampler- Wow! It's so big and beautiful and done!

Oxbow Tote - all done, I love it!

Actual finishing happened...again, that makes two months in a row. Feels like a good start to the year.