August Cornucopia

August was undoubtedly a hot one! Hopefully I was outside in the garden or walking my dog. I was probably inside reading or enjoying something online for part of the time. Here are some links to those things I think are worth passing on to you. 

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Here's a useful explanation for those who have noticed coconuts and palm trees in people's signatures on social media, it's all in support of Kamala Harris, but why? Now you know.

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I can't even quantify how much I want these indigo dyed shoes, so beautiful. And the picture with the indigo dyed hand holding the shoe is gorgeous as well.

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You've heard of ice dyeing, but how about bubble dyeing? What a cool idea, I think I might need to try this out, but not on a super windy day. Although that could be another technique entirely.

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I really like this Kamala design from Modern Quilt Studio, with all proceeds going to the campaign.

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Be sure and check out the auction preview for SAQA's annual benefit. Over 440 pieces are available.

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This interview and the accompanying pictures with Beatrice Mayfield: The Queen of Beads are terrific. She beaded one of the pieces in the HBO show House of the Dragon. So interesting to see her other work.

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Hmmm, maybe I should actually clean my iron proactively. Not a thing I've done, but I'm going to try it.

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Amazing news in Science, UC Berkeley researchers have discovered a possible solution to the ever-present Plastics Problem.  Kind of hopeful really, let's hope it can work at scale.

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A new song from a favorite band is always an unexpected pleasure. This video though is super interesting and I'd love to learn how to do this sort of digital art. Don't Get Me Started - The Smile

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New to me podcasts: From The Smithsonian - There's More To That. and Factually! with Adam Conover.

Essential listening that I still recommend, the latest season of Rachel Maddow's Ultra, it's the context setting that will help you to understand what's going on in the country right now.

The Last New and Circles

 

My order from Sewtopia for additional Ruby+Bee fabric to finish my challenge quilt arrived. And of course while I was there (on the website, not in the actual store in Utah), I had to order some sale fabrics, a pin and some checked webbing. That's it, no more fabric buying for the year. I'm officially full up of fabric now. 

I love Happy Sew Lucky patterns and was so happy to see this pin which I will wear during the next few months as I write my political postcards.

Two Ruby+Bee solids, Rain Cloud and Turmeric, two Carolyn Friedlander prints to add to my collection. Someday I'll make a quilt with just those fabrics, maybe one of her patterns. A button print in the oddest colors, the background is almost a match to the Turmeric solid. And a very cute tossed calendar print to use on the back of my calendar quilt.

A trip to a LQS with friend Jaye, The Granary led to two more fabrics getting tossed into the final new fabric purchases pile. One a really interesting layered print by Valori Wells, and a fabric that I'd resisted buying earlier, the completely made-up just-for-fun Crytptids of the National Parks. This will be the backing for my National Parks panel when DH and I go traveling when he retires.

An interesting table runner pattern from Atkinson Designs. I'm pleased to see it offered at the same price online and for the .pdf version too. Not sure which month this will be for in my monthly table runner rotation, depends on which fabrics I choose.

From Sue Spargo online, after resisting the Toned Down Circle Sampler pattern several times I broke down and got it. It is sold with a kit, which I didn't buy as I have a lot of embroidery threads and I don't need to exactly replicate the pattern's colors. That led to me making a database (of course) of which embroidery threads I do have on hand. That was quite a fun diversion to look through all of it! And yes, I have plenty to do this pattern. 

This wool/acrylic Ellana thread was the only type I didn't have so I bought the kit pack. I already have the Sue Spargo book, Creative Stitching, that explains the stitches that are combined in each circle.

Two More Stamps

 Two more blocks made for the Stamp Quilt. I decided to make the version of this quilt with various sizes instead of all the same size.

The original Disco Kitty looking so cute.

The Frog Prince, I apologized to him for cutting off his knees.

27,000 Photos! That's a whole lot isn't it?

A Stamp Block

Finally cutting into my Stamp Block fabric for the Stamp Quilt.

Still working on figuring out the special ruler.

Two sides attached. The rabbit looks so patient.

The other two sides attached.

 And then the first miter. Woohoo! It worked!

There it is, all done, and looking cute. I'm going to have to use a different thread to sew these I think as the stitches show through a bit.

Big Blocks Sewn, Un-Sewn, Re-Sewn

 I spent some time sewing together the pieces that I could while they're up there in the right places.

Wow, look at those sharp corners! Lots of pinning happening. That one solid looks so grey, but I swear it's blue-grey.

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I love looking at the wrong side, those cute little intersections when line up just right..

Of course that one big block is put together exactly wrong though....so it was time for some un-sewing.

There, thaat's so much better! And totally worth the un-sewing. This picture really shows that the one solid (that I ran out of)  is really blue-grey, not grey.

As Yet, Still Untitled

 

This is how things look for the Ruby+Bee challenge quilt as of the start of this morning. Nothing new sewn together, but more cut out. And the removal of the Temperature quilt from the design wall. All of those columns need to be measured and trimmed up and I don't want them up there for too long in case they stretch out and get wonky (er).

Getting to look more like the design now, the eight square that looks like a nine square.

And now I've come to the absolute end of the "light" blue I'm able to cut out.  All the rest of the remaining space is supposed to be that color. And now that I can look at the actual colors, as opposed to the much clearer and less greyed-out versions I chose to represent them in EQ8 I might want to consider switching things around. The "making visual decisions visually" advice is always always true.

And that's all of it that I have left. 😭 😭 😭 😢 😢 😿 And wow does it ever look grey instead of blue in this picture 

Guess I really should have thought about fabric amounts when I was doing the design in EQ8. Sigh. Back to the drawing board for a potential redesign while I wait for more of it to arrive. The color is Rain Cloud, and now it's making me sad that we had potential rain clouds today but no rain.

Maybe that's a possible title: Running out of Rain Cloud

Untitled So Far

I'm working on making a quilt to submit to the Ruby+Bee fabric MQG challenge this year. This is what I'm starting out with from a design I did in EQ8. It may change a bit due to the amounts of each color of fabric that I have to work with. Also the outer edge is a much much darker color in real life. This is an 8 patch design which I really had fun with stretching these "normal" quilt blocks to fit.

I've just gotten started on cutting and piecing the top and I am really Loving The Color palette soooo much this year. This super wild color on top is called Turmeric. And now I want to make a Grellow/Turmeric quilt.

So far so good on the piecing. Fairly big simple blocks in odd sizes/shapes.

I've already gotten three of the blocks done and I'm cutting out the pieces for the rest of them.

Now to start thinking of a good title.

All Twelve Months

Last day of assembling the December column for the Temperature Quilt.

Barely different blues. A few days in December the thermometer barely budged.

The Final Low Temperature piece is added. 

And there it is finally finally finally: December.

Of course, I had to get out the other months and hang them up too for a group shot.

Closer view of the column's top 1/3.

Middle 1/3

And finally the Bottom 1/3. Yes it's as uneven as the top is because I didn't take a huge amount of time lining them up as I pinned them to the design wall. Now I guess I'll have to go and watch the final assembly video that Jaybird Quilts put out with this pattern (last year!) 

I'm so happy right now!😼😼😼😼😼

December Partial

Here's 19 out of 31 days worth of the December column of the Temperature quilt is now sewn together.  Ahhh...so close. I actually had to un-sew one of the pieces because I got interrupted by a phone call and picked up the wrong piece when I got back to the sewing machine.

On the right is some of the Pantone Project blocks which I'm still playing around with several design ideas.

December Plus Extras

 

I finished sewing together the November column of the Temperature Quilt, and put up the pieces for the final month left to assemble: December (2023). This is a picture of the state of the box of pieces sorted by temperature range. There's a lot left! I think I cut out a lot of the extras before I'd thought to count up how many I needed. The five empty Wonderclips clipped onto just the paper labels show which temperature ranges I didn't over-cut for.

On the left is the finished November column. When it came down to putting up December, I had to cut exactly one piece for the 51-55 range to finish it off. And finally there's the 68 left-over half-hexies arranged in an interesting but improbable manner.  Well, they'll at least make for an interesting pillow sham or maybe just a part of the quilt back.  

I'm feeling like the end is in sight with this project!

On Tabby Road

 

Another fun box arrived from Pink Door Fabrics chock full of the latest Tula Pink re-release or "Deja-vu" of a previous line. Several of my faves from Tabby Road are included, like the cat food cans print and as usual lots of other fun stuff for making a bag.

The FQ on the bottom is one of my top 5 favorite Tula Pink fabric designs. That giant stripe is going to be quite hard to use as just another fabric in a quilt. Several of these FQs have super strong patterns that are challenging to use. I don't feel it with the included pattern of kitties in cups, so I'll have to come up with something else for these. Maybe I'll combine them with the Best Besties? Cats and dogs and other animals all combined, why not?

I really like these coordinating solid fat quarters, such a nice cheery palette with good names: Freesia, Taffy, Key Lime and  Julep. The DecoBob Wonderfil coordinating thread is going to work really well with these fabrics. 

The bag pattern this time is a By Annie pattern called  Hot and Heavy, an iron carrier or a purse? Looking at it more closely, this would actually make a pretty good purse. There's webbing included in Disco Stripe, two By Annie zippers in an incredibly deep hot pink, and iridescent zipper pulls and D rings to complete the bag. 

Partway through November

Starting off on the November column for the Temperature Quilt.  I really like this great color combination here at the beginning. Please disregard the yuck on the black.

This is a great look at the different colors close up and next to each other. Those blues really are different, so are the purples. I'm happy to see it going together.

The mini-Oliso iron is lighting the way.

Lunch break, a bit more than a third done so far.

All those purples and greens together make me very happy.

A good range of the colors this month so far.