Solstice Eight

 Here's the eighth block for the Solstice Quilt. It's a big one compared to the others, so it was fun to choose fabrics tat work well on a larger scale. I like how the layered hearts look in the reds and greens that I chose. I noticed that the contrast of those complementary colors works differently in these more muddled batiks, it's a much softer look that still has a lot of contrast.

I'm starting to like how the blocks all look together, some of them being high-contrast is okay as long as there is more than one.

Twenty-Eighth Study Square

 This twenty-eighth Weekly Study Square Quiltlet is one of those that I wish was a wall-size quilt. I really like the materials and design of this one. But the scale of the various fabrics wouldn't work as well on a larger scale piece. The fringe-y edges and yellow polka-dots would be so much smaller in comparison to the whole.

 That's one of the challenges in translating from these small study sizes (8.5" square) to something say 36" square. I would have to use some type of thick yarn to achieve the same impact of the fringe edges on a 36" square sized wall quilt. Good to remember that.

The edges trimmed off when squaring up quilts are one of my favorite kinds of scraps to use. That and dyed selvedges. Both showing up here in this close up.

Words of the week:

• breakfast


• staff


• sticky tape


• hygiene


• India


• leisure


• courier


• plastic bag

Solstice Seven

Here's the seventh block for the Solstice Quilt. I'm not sure about my fabric choices here, brown is always always a challenge for me. Pretty sure there wasn't enough contrast between the two brown fabrics.

I do like how the blocks are looking against my orange wall. The black/off-white block is looking less off to me now that there a few more with off-white in them.

Twenty-Seventh Study Square

I've been continuing to work on my weekly study square quiltlets between rainstorms and power outages and road closures, but I got off-track sharing them here. Time to catch up with the twenty-seventh in the series!

As you can see, a lot of embroidery stitches were used on this one, including some text. Never Ever Ever

Words for the week are:

horsepower

• bullfight


• cow


• vitamins


• hair


• memory


• printer


• store

Sixth Solstice

Here's the sixth block in Pat Sloan's quilt-a-long Solstice Quilt. I like the imbalance of the rectangles in this block.

All six together are not looking too cohesive, but I'm going to see how the rest turn out. I like each block separately but not all together. The setting options Pat is giving us might help with this issue.

Twenty-Sixth Study Square

The twenty-sixth Weekly Study Square Quiltlet is made from the scraps left from my efforts at the CQFA retreat the previous weekend. As part of unpacking from that trip, I was going to mix these scraps in with the rest of my scrap basket but I decided to limit myself this week and just work with this smaller subset. I like the results.

 All the fuzzy raw edges get to stand out on this one.

 The texture of the wool and a detail of the stitching.

The words for the week are:

• eyebrow


• faith


• paranoia


• taxi


• prison


• pimple


• carousel


• smile

Starting With a Title

Last week I made a small quilt (18x36") for a show that had a loose theme of Vision.  Here's where I started out.
Well, no I actually started out with a title: Dream Vision and a sketch:

I free-motion quilted several sections.

And zig-zagged the edges of the "hills" along with some quilting in various colors.

And then I pinned the rest down securely, packed it all in my car and drove up Highway 1 to the CQFA retreat in Half Moon Bay, taking pictures as I drove (I know, I know) and what do I see when I look at them when I arrive (and am no longer driving)??

Look familiar?

The color and shapes of the coast side hills and vegetable crops right up to the edge of the sea.

I had no idea, truly.

Closeup of vegetation edges and quilting.

Wandering Wednesday - Hong Kong

As seen in the Hong Kong Airport last week, an enormous floral display. All photo credit to my husband, Marc who knows how much I love orchids.

All because of the New Year, Happy Year of the Rooster!

 Unclear what the central decoration is there, but it is flanked by two trees decorated with red envelopes, traditional New Year's good luck gifts.

I finally spotted a rooster, in the midst of all the day lilies.