July Cornucopia

 

A beach sunset over the Pacific as seen from the Oregon coast. I'm sure it's been an extra sunny and hot July, so I was definitely inside a lot distracting myself with all sorts of things, so here they all are in a big cornucopia post for you to hopefully enjoy.

🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤

I enjoyed this fond remembrance of quilter Faith Ringgold written by Bisa Butler.

🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤

A great video from Alison Glass on how to make a Stamp Block with her new "Stamp Stripe" fabric. Also a great demo of mitered corners.

🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤

Quiltfolk magazine is doing an issue about Cats, and are looking for Cat Quilts  or Cat Photos or Cat Stories to be submitted.

🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤

I had no idea that there was an art exhibit of that year's Olympic athletes. What a cool idea! Speaking of Olympians, I'm enjoying the US Women's Rugby player: Ilona Maher. She's an amazing athlete of course, hysterical on her Instagram, and an advocate for women with Big Shoulders.

🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤

This is a very clear tutorial and directions for a backpack organizer.

🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤

Another great Printable Finds video from Margarts. She finds so much interesting stuff with great texture and pattern.

🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤

After the attempted assassination at the Trump rally, this essay by A.R. Moxon really put the growing threat of political violence into perspective for me.

🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤

One of the Substack newsletters I read is Abortion Everyday by Jessica Valenti. This particular piece about abortion and Project 2025 is a real eye-opener. 

🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤🌞🌻🌤

City Sampler Addition

 

Added on one more row to the City Sampler, and one more piece of sashing. 

Here's how it looks now before I iron the seam. Only two more rows left for me to sew on.

Eeee! I'm so psyched this is almost together!

October Temperature Column

 

Back to working on finishing up on piecing the Temperature Quilt.  The October column has been up on the design wall for a while. And I finally made the decision to put it together.

I used the wooden clapper on each seam sewn and it really helped to keep it flat.

I like how it looks on the back! The Wonderclips really work well to hold it together and out of the way when it's almost done.  Less stretching and holes in the fabric.

Here's how July through October is looking. Two more months left to piece together now.

Here's a closer look at the columns. After the summer introduction of hotter colors, I'm liking this more and more.

The Word of the Day is Ombré

 

I only made two purchases at PIQF, the small bundle of Tilda FQs, and the Fibonacci's Fancy quilt pattern from Material Girlfriends. On the right is a purchase from Stash Fabrics that I got in the mail of the very last two ombrê confetti colors that I needed for the Ombrê Triangles quilt.

Here's the same picture with the Tilda FQs spread out a bit. This is more from the Bloomsville group which I really do love a lot. What do you think, another sort of ombré fabric for the blue/green in the Fibonacci pattern? Might be too much.

And now that I have a rainbow's worth I had to take a group picture of course before they get all cut up!

Others at PIQF

 

I didn't take too many pictures at PIQF, but here a few of them. First up in the New Quilts of Northern California exhibit is "Mixed Box" by Karen Bolan. The transparency effect is so great in this one, achieved by using a jelly roll. The pattern is available here and I think I have just the jelly roll waiting around to be used for something like this.

Next in the same exhibit, "A Traditional Block Revisited" by Susan Dague, quilted by Sue Fox. Why this isn't a picture of the complete quilt I'm not sure, but I hope you get the general idea. I really liked the colors in this one and the super interesting and vibrant composition. It reminded me of my Kitchen Sink Quilt, and yep, she'd also taken a class with Maria Shell.

This is a detail of a quilt that used word fabrics and I think selvedges with phrases on them as a sort of sashing in-between QST blocks. I didn't get the name of the quilt or maker for this one. A very fun idea.

This very excellent use of ombré fabric is "Mobius Meets Ombre" by Helen Klee, quilted by Martine Zaun . It was made with a paper piecing technique taught by Audrey Esarey (Cotton&Bourbon on Instagram). 

I thought the choice to use an ombrê fabric on the border also was just perfect. Great visual impact.

I was happy to see Therese May had a quilt in the NQNC exhibit too. This is a detail of one of her digital sketches that she's had printed on fabric and then made into a quilt, "One Hundred Twenty Cat Faces." It's a very different look, but still instantly recognizable as hers.

I really liked this interesting block, I think it was EPP? Great maximalist colors and patterns in the fabric choices.

Here's "Getting Pickled" by Suzan Lynne Peterson, from an interesting group exhibit, Talk Ten Travels, based on a vintage household magazine from the 1940's, Household & Poetry in Cloth. I loved the vibrant mustard yellow to go with the Coleman's label and the energetic hand-stitching. This one just made me laugh with delight, I guess I was surprised at a perfect giant pickle.

I noticed that there was a whole lot of allover matchstick quilting happening on many of the quilts. It's kind of like the new version of allover stippling. Matchstick quilting gives a flatter surface with a very different texture. It almost becomes like an overlay of a not-so sheer fabric. There were some quilts with even more dense stitching than this quilt. I really like the spacing between groups of close together three lines of stitching on this quilt.

PIQF- My Version

 

Today was the day I was able to go to PIQF with friend Jaye. I was glad to get to visit the SAQA booth where some of the Prism Play show rejects were all displayed together. I thought it was quite fun to see them because these aren't the ones I've seen in the actual traveling quilt exhibit photos. Two of mine are in this first picture. 

This was a lot less quilts than the traveling Prism Play exhibit which has 62 quilts , but still got all around the color wheel pretty completely.

I think really good choices were made by the local SAQA exhibit group and I was happy that two of my quilts got an outing.

It's always good to see any of the Social Justice Sewing Academy completed quilts displayed, they had a whole row of them this year. I was happy to see that there were two quilts that had blocks that I'd embroidered. This block is one that I stitched on way back in 2018.. I wish I'd taken a picture of the whole quilt because it looked so good. Look at that beautiful quilting and the great piecing in the sashing. Gorgeous! 

And here I am cheesing it up in front of my Safe At Home quilt in the New Quilts of Northern California exhibit. Photo credit goes to friend Jaye. I neglected to take a picture of the other quilt I had hanging in the Stretching Art and Tradition exhibit, but it looked pretty good. All in all, a fun visit to PIQF, less quilts than the pre-pandemic normal, no international quilts😞, and a different group of vendors to choose from. Even m ore fun was running into friends from CQFA and BAMQ.

Back To Boho Back

 

There were still a lot of scraps left over from all the strips that made up the Bohemian Wife quilt top, so now I've gotten a lot of them sewn together into this piece.

Here's how the "made fabric" looks along with the other bordered blocks that will eventually make up the quilt back. It looks a mess doesn't it? The pattern for the quilt top really corrals all the print and pattern.

And then one more "made fabric" piece added at the bottom. Still not enough to make up a quilt back of course. All of those small blocks that I made from the teeny-tiny HSTs still need to be sewn into something useable. I'm thinking of setting them in solids or reads as solids chosen from the quilt top fabrics. That will translate into a lot of area to make up the quilt back.

Wandering Wednesday - Portland Japanese Garden

 I made another visit to Portland last week, this time with my DH, and after enjoying showing him around the recently visited beautiful Rose Garden, we went across the street and visited the Japanese Garden.

It's a completely different experience of course, and it is a whole lot shadier thankfully as it got pretty warm. After you walk up a fairly steep hill on a well done shady trail you cross a glass bridge over to the garden proper.

The paper lantern display in the central courtyard was beautiful. There was a great exhibit of embroidered works Painting With Thread - The Art & Culture of Fukusa. Tremendously detailed textiles that are draped over gifts but then end up being precious gifts in and of themselves.

I was excited to see some great examples of bonsai in a courtyard off the main building. Some of them were hundreds of years old! I'm trying to get DH to take this up as a hobby for retirement.

The view of Mt. Hood was pretty clear.

The shoji pavilion was gorgeous, and I loved the peaceful raked gravel garden off of the deck. There was a sale of Japanese goods inside which were fun to briefly peruse, but it was very crowded.

There were a lot of great details like this metal top of a wooden bridge entrance post.

The reflection in this pond was quite striking.

I was enchanted by this arrangement of stone and cement pieces in this walkway. I think a wall hanging with this design would be really effective.

There were a whole lot of koi in one of the larger ponds, they are always so fun to watch.

Another similar pathway arrangement. I like those edging tile with the slight curve.

And here's another interesting one, with those same tiles stacked together on edge. This would be a cool quilt design.

And so would the shapes and colors of the bark of this tree.

I was really taken by the separateness of the leaves of the Japanese Maples when seen against the sun. Each leaf has so much space.

Travel ICAD

 nonexistent

Another week away, another week of travel-version ICAD. 

any of the above

These aren't the best of the best of what I've done this year, 

Krispy

but I'm really glad that I put in some time and did them every day. This one in particular was a bunch of things I saw on our way up Highway 5 through Oregon.

to the deep

I'm just happy I didn't give up and quit on finishing the project this year just because I was lucky enough to get to go on two trips this month.

GETTING THERE

Rule

Congratulations