Curvy Challenge

 

I switched over from mystery quilt piecing to work on quilting my challenge piece,"Spring Speaking to Summer" that I started at the retreat. The first thing I did was to put some interfacing on the back of the rectangle of yellow fabric with words because it was too see-through. I didn't like how the fabrics behind were showing through, and now that's not a problem. I used the same iron-on interfacing as we were working with in the Jane Sassaman class as it was handy and I knew it would work.

The second step was zig-zag stitching around each raw edge with light grey thread to nail down all the elements. I may go back over the edges with other colors.

I had brought all of these fabrics with me to the retreat where I finished the backing for the Bohemian Wife quilt. 

So it's a mixture of all Kaffe Fasset fabrics and L's Modern Basics from Lecien. 

To my eye, they go together very very well. 

Here's how it looks after all the edges are zig-zagged down including the outside edge. I haven't trimmed the backing away yet as I want it there for stability while I do all the free motion stitching. The whole thing is quite long and skinny, with no square corners. This will end up being a table runner at some point for sure. The BAMQ challenge for our group exhibit "It's Hip Not to be Square" at the San Mateo County Fair is to make something with no square corners. Now to finish it and get it entered.

Wandering Wednesday - Fort Mason

Another WW from my stay in San Francisco, after my DH was done with his conference activities, we took the long way home and stopped off for a little walk about in Fort Mason. We parked right along the water in the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.

 It was absolutely gorgeous out, clear and warm, hardly any wind, just perfect for walking right on the San Francisco Bay. This was a little mosaic piece which was on one of the old closed piers. It was so mysterious, I really wonder what (if anything) the symbol and colors mean??

As you near the top of the short hill, there's a great view where you can see the Golden Gate Bridge with the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture down below. This was formerly the U.S. Army embarkation docks and has been repurposed for civilian use like so many other military installations.

The trails are lovely and the park is well maintained. I really enjoyed this Madonna statue by Beniamino Bufano.

Really affecting artwork, we are really lucky that the whole city is filled with his works, the SF Chronicle did a video where they have photos of 58 of his public pieces.

We were surprised to find that there's a really lovely little place in the International Hostel at the top of the hill, Cafe Franco. Yes that's a view of the Golden Gate Bridge from their back porch. The coffee and sandwich that we ordered was great and very cheap. Just remember, you have to do your own dishes, it's the hostel-way. How fun would it be to stay in this hostel though?!

We checked out the big wide views from up on the hilltop. DH is there on the right doing his own panoramic photo.

All the blues, ahhhh.

Got a very good view of the old curving walking pier that's unfortunately too earthquake and ship crash damaged to be open for walking, and there's Alcatraz Island in the distance. Someday I'll go there!

and of course DH had to pose with the cannon battery. 

and then we walked back down the hill through the Black Point Historical Gardens. This is a community project where volunteers are removing invasive plants and re-planting the gardens with California natives and other plants. 

The lovely California state flower was well represented.

Even tucked into the stone walls.

It was hard to pick which direction to go, there were so many choices.

Some very fancy irises were blooming.

Here's one of my favorite natives that I keep meaning to plant at home, California Flannelbush or (Fremontodendron californicum).

 Isn't it beautiful? The ants sure seemed to love it.

It's a very steep hillside so the terracing and criss-crossing walkways were really welcoming instead of a long set of stairs straight down.

I have always wondered about this cute little round (and closed) building. I think it must have been a snack shack situation for the aquatic park area at some point.

What a zillion $ view, right from our car! Honestly, it was hard to leave.

 

Flying & Long Geese Varieties

Well look at this, I actually got all of those sashing units sewn together. And I only messed up repeating a blue fabric once.

Because I took the time to trim the smaller units to size, everything went together very easily.

I got really excited with this once I started pressing the most recent seams. The combination of the hourglass block with the two smaller flying geese and then the two longest geese is great. Especially when I managed to keep the points pointy.

They're all so pretty together and I'm really looking forward to making the blocks that will be surrounded by these sashing pieces.

I went a little crazy taking all these pictures, so here they all are.

So many distinctive fabrics when you see them up close.

And then from farther away, they blend into a nicely varied wash of somewhat matching colors.

Onto the actual block making next...
 

The Long Flock

I spent time on Sunday cutting out the rest of the parts for the remaining Long Geese left to be constructed.

I decided to do the rest with the drawn diagonal line on a square method instead of using the ruler.

The completed flock of Long Geese look kind of like little rows of beach cabañas to me.

And here's the next step with these units joining together with the two Flying Geese plus an Hourglass blocks to finish the "sashing".
 

The Longest Geese

 I think I like calling this block unit the Longest Geese. And isn't this an interesting arrangement of the twenty Longest Geese? 

Now to go cut some more blue/aqua strips to use in making the rest of these.

Long Geese & Lilacs

 

I'm working on the final clue for the mystery quilt, Old Town making these Long Geese. Just a rectangle with a Flying Geese situation at one end. They're going together pretty quickly, especially because they're meant to be scrappy. I'm using the Simple Folded Corners ruler instead of drawing a diagonal line and it's working out very well.

And just in time for Flower Friday, here are the lilacs all blooming. I contrived a reason to be out underneath them (weeding) just so I could spend more time smelling their heavenly fragrance. I don't know who to thank for planting these as they were already well-established when we bought this house way back in 1994. But they've been a garden reliable stalwart and I'm always so thankful for them every year.

Hourglass+Flying Geese

 

Before beginning the first joining-together of units for the Old Town mystery quilt, I decided to do some trimming. This is the result of trimming all of those hourglass units. Doesn't really add up to much! That means I did a pretty good and accurate job of making those hourglass blocks. (pats self on back and is thankful for good directions) 

So...was the time I took to do the trimming worth it? I think so, as you can see, some of these trimmed-off bits are a lot more than mere slivers. That means in the next steps of block making, I would have started out well on the way to inaccurate and wonky. After all the work of making the block ingredients, to me, that means it is worth it to trim before proceeding.

On to the next step, adding coral/melon and white/neutral Flying Geese units to two of the sides of the hourglass. They went together pretty easily.

I tried my hardest to not have any repeating fabrics in these units, and only messed up twice.

And there they all are together! And, that's one more of the clues completed.

Wandering Wednesday - SF MOMA

 Time for a Wandering Wednesday, this time to SFMOMA. I really enjoyed my visit, going to see art in person, especially when it is so much larger than on one's computer screen or in a book is always a big part of the excitement. 

I've always loved Yayoi Kusama's work, especially her love of pumpkins and polka dots. Getting to see her enormous, exciting, Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart    in person was so great. 

Couldn't get the whole piece in my picture, because it's rather wide and there were a lot of people.

Finally got to experience one of the infinity rooms by Yayoi Kusama.  Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love (2023)  All I can say is wow! And that the pictures truly do not do this justice.

You get let into the cube with a small group, and you have exactly two minutes. It's completely worth the wait in line.

Glad I remembered to "always look up".

The Alexander Calder exhibit with many of his mobiles is always so peaceful. I just love watching the movement of the shadows.

Ended my visit with a late lunch at the museum cafe, including this lovely mocktail with butterfly pea blossom powder.