May Cornucopia

 

Well, that was certainly a merry merry month of May, wasn't it? At least I hope it was! Regardless, here's a cornucopia post of links to all the things I enjoyed online this past month.

 I had to look up where the "merry merry month of May" thing came from in my brain, and yes of course it's Elmer Fudd and not the 15th century poem.

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This interview with author John Green about his newest book, "Everything is Tuberculosis" was really worth listening to, and now the book is on my Libby hold list.

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This combination of two comedians I greatly enjoy, where Mike Birbiglia is interviewing Josh Johnson was super entertaining.

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I can't wait to watch this movie, "I Know Catherine, the Log Lady," which is about the actress who played my favorite character on the tv show, Twin Peaks, "The Log Lady." Yes, I absolutely went as the Log Lady for Halloween one year.

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A good illustrated breakdown on using directional prints in making Flying Geese.

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The MQG challenge this year for Windham Fabrics color palette is really great. I've got some fabrics ordered, and I'm starting in on a design.

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Another podcast to check out, Handmade History. I found this via the Folkwear newsletter as they've sponsored a couple of episodes, like this one on Indonesian Batiks.

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This artwork by Lithuanian artist, Severija Inčirauskaitė, of beautifully done embroidery and cross-stitch on cast-off rusted metal pieces is deeply affecting.

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Be sure and check out Material Girlfriends free 3-yard quilt pattern, this month's is called 3 YD Papa. Download it by June 2nd.

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Definitely on my to-watch list on Netflix, The Quilters.

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I don't know if this video will still be available in June, but just in case it is, here's a link to the on-stage interview with author Percival Everett at UCSC the day before he was announced as the Pulitzer Prize winner for his truly amazing book, James. Very enjoyable interview, deep, thoughtful and funny. Just like the book which I highly recommend reading.

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Really wonderful exhibit in Washington DC, Freedom to Be.

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Will this be the summer that I make myself a bucket hat? Maybe so, especially with this free pattern.

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Diné weaving has always fascinated me, so I enjoyed this interview with Marilou Schultz about her weaving process and adapting it to be able to make pieces that depict the intricacies of computer chips 

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Last May Flower Friday

 

One last Flower Friday for May. The Watsonia finally bloomed.

These tall flower spikes are pretty long lasting.

They look a bit like hibiscus don't they?

More of the peonies are opening up.

They really are beautifully extravagant.

The roses on this Peace rose bush, which is at least 40 years old now, are bigger than ever this year. This is due to us putting a whole lot of homemade compost on it over the winter.

The flowers are about 6" wide.

A small yellow flower on a new succulent.

I was so surprised to see this peach colored iris in a planter on my deck.

This type of iris always reminds me of flamenco dancer's dresses.

No real contrasting flower parts on this one, completely monochromatic, just like the more common purple ones. I wonder if this is a mutant of some kind? Apparently sometimes bees can cross-pollinate and a seed pod will develop, drop into the soil and then sprout the next year. There's a lot of bees around so maybe so.

Metro Curves

Now that I have finished the vertical and horizontal and edges of Metro Twist, it was time for some trimming before doing more quilting. There wasn't a whole lot extra left over on this one, but it all worked out well.

The first line of curves following the edges of the print sections.

Looks pretty good.

Did the whole thing, but does it need more? One the two edges I did additional echo quilting lines to see if the density would work.

I think it works. This is a close up of the extra quilting lines on either edge of the quilt. One more echo quilting line would fit in the shape.

Selvedges Showing

Another year means another challenge from MQG, and this year's palette is pretty great. Using six colors of Windham Artisan Cotton. These fabrics are really lovely to work with, so I'm looking forward to sewing with them. They're now available in 90 colors. Along with the challenge fabrics I got the two prints in the picture from Sewtopia.

Because of how they're woven, (cross-weave)  I really love the look of the selvedges. I'm going to try to find a way to utilize those in the design. I would probably not use the blue and pink fabric's selvedges as that bright white might be too much.

I started playing around with a design in EQ8 with some fairly simple blocks.

I'm trying to imagine this design if it was pieced so that some, but not all, of the seam lines would have the selvedges visible on the front of the quilt. Not a thing I can sketch out in EQ8. Just a starting point design idea here, not likely to be the final one I go with.

Metro Gridded

The initial quilting is done on Metro Twist. Just a kind of in-the-ditch, vertical and horizontal 

I have an idea for quilting the strange blue background curved diamond shapes. I just have to sketch it out before I try it. If that works out, I may leave the print fabrics as is without quilting within them.

 

Metro Sandwich

Time for some sandwiching. Metro Twist has been up on the design wall waiting for the quilt sandwich treatment for many months (since November last year).

After stretching the fusible batting and doing a bit of ironing on the front, I turned it all over and tacked down the back.

Definitely a good arm workout. I tried to switch off hands so both arms got the benefit.

Flipped back over and re-ironed the front to really make sure it's held together. Now it's ready to be quilted.

Slowly but surely working through my 2025 UFO challenge list. Yes that is a Color Coded Spread Sheet. I figured I was hanging it up above my worktable so it might as well be colorful and pretty. I'm happy that progress has been made on all but the Temperature Quilt, and one out of seven UFO's is now finished (Slopes). It was good to only pick seven projects to help narrow down the universe of things to work on getting finished.

Just Barely A Box

 

My final subscription box for the Pink Door Fabrics Tula Pink club arrived. The box itself was still barely still taped together on all sides, yikes! I was a little worried for the contents inside.

But everything was safe and sound, and there's as usual, a whole lot of goodies. This is the newest Tula Pink release of Full Moon Forest II line of fabrics along with all kinds of coordinating stuff. I love the Emperor's Wheel pattern example done in these fabrics.

The coordinating Tula Pink solids are great. and the webbing has a beautiful tree print on it.

There are a lot of FQ's and it's always so hard to untie these beautiful rainbow bundles.

A Bob-Sled was the most clever new notion I've seen in a while. It's a bobbin holder that has a little front part (like a bobsled) that lifts up and you can put needles in there. So cute, and I love the Deco-Bob pre-wound coordinating threads included.

A Tula Pink neon pink bee key fob, Renaissance Ribbons sampler pack of the coordinating ribbons,  and a long 72" of ByAnnie zipper with contrasting hardware.

An interesting bag pattern, 1"hexagon papers and these clever plastic mini bolts for organizing fabric. They included an idea of making feature parts of the fabric you'd use for the bag out of hexies which I thought would be very cute. Especially with using that printed webbing and color coordinated zipper.

The Tula Pink solids are really nice color choices.

A better view of the print FQs, quite a wide variety of big and little prints. 

A lot of these will be really easy to use in block making.

And the more interesting detailed prints will be used elsewhere in bigger pieces.

I like the inclusion of the light greys and white prints too.

Peony Day

 

It's finally Peony Day in my garden! After more than a week of buds not quite opening, today it happened.

Woohoo, so beautiful!

I'm always so surprised how exuberant they are. It might be time to plant another color of Peony. Maybe.

And they timed their blossoming so perfectly with the irises again this year. By the way, that's rhubarb leaves in the foreground.

And the Angel's Trumpet is Out of Control even though I'd pruned it back at least by half. But it smells so good so it's staying until DH cuts it down. 

Okay that's enough about flowers, back to sewing now.

Slopes Finish

 

Ta-dah! An actual quilt finish, now presenting a completely finished: Slopes. 

I started this back in 2023 when I did the Color Collective with Tara Faughan. She would choose the fabric palette which would be sent to us from Sewtopia, and then she would present them in a video class being used in a pattern. In this case, a diagonal half-rectangle design.

The brilliant thing about these color palettes was mixing the Kona solids with Robert Kaufman Essex Yarn Dyes. That combination of the true solids with the textured yarn dyes is really visually striking. 

I really enjoyed making this one, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Even the back!