Retreat-Third Day

 

On the third day of the retreat I pieced together the rest of the backing for the Bohemian Wife quilt. I’m happy with how it looks and that I got to use up so many of the extra blocks and scraps left over from making the quilt top. Thanks to friend Jaye for taking the picture.

It’s just as loud and wild as the front of the quilt, which is what I wanted.

I also made a lot more of the hourglass blocks for the Old Town mystery quilt.

I got a start on my entry for this year’s challenge quilt for BAMQ.

As you can see it’s made with a lot of the fabrics from the Bohemian Wife quilt.

Here’s what it looks like all at once, hanging up on the post in the workroom of the workshop.

I started out at this end, specifically with that big flower. The challenge is to make a quilt without any 90 degree angles on the corners. We will see where I end up with this…

Burn Grow Slide

As I posted about earlier, I prepared to make a 24"w x 36"h art quilt for the Climate Change Challenge that Bam is going to show at the San Mateo County Fair.  Going off of this sketch of "Burn, Grow, Slide" I packed some browns, red-browns and black fabrics to use.

This was the last project that I worked on at the retreat, I packed up my machine and made space on my table to spread out. As you can see I used A Lot of pins and filled in one of the three columns.  This is the one representing "Burn". 

My sketch in this section was based off of this screenshot of a video of the burned redwoods in Big Basin State Park from the August 2020 CZU fire. The tree on the left is the one that I zoomed in because of the interesting charred/not-charred shapes and sections.

I took several pictures showing the details in case pins shift or pin out.

I had stitched the rough outline of the three columns on the batting/backing already.

Here's how it looks up on the wall, and I'm pretty happy with it. I'll work on stitching down these pieces before I move onto the other two columns.

New Quilt New Fusible

 

I decided to try out a new type of fusible batting, when I ran out of my old faithful Hobbs. This is Quilter's Dream fusible, which is also 80/20 cotton/poly. As I unfolded the batting from the package I noticed that it wasn't sticking to itself...at all. It turns out that the fusible is only on one side. There's even a little stapled-on paper label on the fusible side. The Hobbs is (I don't really know), infused with fusible, it's not really apparent applied, it's just there, and thus it really sticks to itself. And it is not a big deal to separate it, even for the larger batts.

The fabric behind the batting package is this really lovely Chinese clouds fabric that I got a deal on, I like using this for backings because it's pretty.

Here's the start, it's going to be a 24 x 36" quilt, so that it will fit in with all the other quilts Ive made in that size for Stretching Art & Tradition shows. It's for the Climate Change Challenge that BAM is entering in the San Mateo County Fair. So it's due pretty soon. I have a sketch and I have a title, "Burn, Grow, Slide." I have all the fabrics chosen and I'm going to be working on it at the BAM retreat this weekend. I really hope that the fusible works! More on this later.

Library Reading Challenge for 2009

A reading challenge has been issued by book blogger, J. Kaye, with a twist.

The twist is to commit to reading a certain number of books from your library.

You can sign up here if you want to join in.

I really use my library a lot, reserving books online, renewing stuff online, downloading audio books, checking out movies, and cd's. The one in my town is really comfy and low-key and the building is beautiful. For the most part the librarians and staff that work there are super nice and fun to chat books with. I hope that your library is as accessible and well-stocked as mine is, it is impossible for me to imagine our country without free public libraries.

This will be a post that I edit and add the books in a list as I read them over 2009.

My goal is to read 50 books from the library in 2009.

Library Books I've Read in 2009:

1. Astro City Vol.3:Family Album - Kurt Busiek

2. Atro City Vol. 4:Tarnished Angel - Kurt Buseiek

3. Civilwarland In Bad Decline - George Saunders

4. Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
5. The Garden in Winter - Suzy Bales
6. A People's History of American Empire - Howard Zinn
7. The Harvest Gardener - Susan McClure
8. The Tofu Cookbook - Becky Johnson
9. The Iron Hunt - Marjorie Liu
10. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
11. The Dark Side - Jane Mayer
12. Just After Sunset - Stephen King
13. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
14. On Guerilla Gardening - Richard Reynolds
15. The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith
16. Pruning Fruiting Plants - Richard Bird
17. Beader's Color Palette - Margie Deeb
18. Bloodsucking Fiends - Christopher Moore
19. Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris
20. 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women - Gail McMeekin
21. Quest - Denise Linn
22. Four Acts of Personal Power - Denise Linn
23. New Moon - Stephanie Meyer
24. Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris
25. Club Dead- Charlaine Harris
26. Eclipse - Stephanie Meyer
27. The Neddiad - Daniel Pinkwater
28. Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris
29. Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris
30. Definitely Dead- Charlaine Harris
31. All Together Dead- Charlaine Harris
32. Bite - Laurell K. Hamilton
33. From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
34. Blue Shoes and Happiness - Alexander McCall Smith
35. The Beekeeper's Apprentice - Laurie R. King
36. Bee Season - Myla Goldberg
37. Fast Fit - Sandra Betzina
38. The Good Earth Beauty Book - Casey Kellar
39. Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer
40. Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
41. Wildly Successful Plants Northern California - Pam Peirce
42. Water Garden Idea Book - Lee Anne White
43. Creative Serging - Nancy Bednar
44. Lisey's Story - Stephen King
45. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
46. The Forgetting Room - Nick Bantock

Where do you want to be

Right now.
Where do you want to be?
Are you lucky to be there already?
Have you been previously?
Have you even thought about where you'd like to be? I mean physically, in real time, meatspace (an ooky yet accurate term!).
Why am I asking all these crazy questions?

I was flipping through some pictures on my phone, and figured out how to get them over to the computer (hooray for technology that is somewhat comprehensible). It practically takes tweezers to get the teeny tiny card out of my phone, and then put into the sd card reader. I'm so worried I'll break it, or put it in sideways and snap it in two. Something so delicate and small, can do so much.

Anyways, I encountered one of the first pictures I'd taken ,and it is of Tuolumne Meadows where we went camping this August. And I suddenly flashed on the memory of taking the photo and then some realizations came which I'll share with you.

I was sitting in the car waiting for my husband and two boys to finish scampering about on one of the granite domes. This is one of the shorter, easier ones, so they were actually scampering (not like rock climbing). While I waited, I figured out how to use some of my phone features, like taking a picture and playing some music. Our camera battery had run out the day before, and we hadn't worked out a way to recharge it quite yet. So phone cameras were our backup of for documenting that particular day.

Thinking about me taking this picture, and how it came about that I was in the car there, for like 45 minutes. Then it struck me like a 2x4 upside the head! I now realize I was in the middle of one of my very favorite places in the entire world. And I was ignoring it completely. I was shutting it out, almost pretending I wasn't there.

Oh, I had plenty of excuses of course, some of them more valid than others.I was tired, beyond tired and nearing exhaustion or collapse really. I was dirty and smelly from camping for a week in the summer. I was bored because I was by myself. I was getting impatient waiting for them to come back. I was feeling sorry for myself that I wasn't having fun running around on the dome. So instead of getting out of the car and flopping in the meadow or something completely simple like that, I was trying to tune out with technology. And my drug of choice wasn't available (hello computer), so the new-fangled phone was it. I couldn't believe it! To have wasted the precious time in this place with wonking out. Sad really! Wish I had realized that in the moment and chosen more wisely.
How's that for a true regret?

So now I wish I was back there.
In that moment.
In that place.
I would have done it differently.

Freaky Fish

A longish while ago, friend Becky found what she called the strangest fabric ever at Walmart (I think I have that right), so she cut some up and sent it out to several quilty friends to see what we would do with it. Some made quilts, or purses. I made nothing, until now!

I felt I needed protection when approaching this freaky fish fabric. So I unrolled a brand new copper scrubber and slipped on my hand.


Arranged some of the likely fabrics together.






Sewed the four inch squares together with the other challenge fabric Becky sent. All into a nice little background for the fish critters.

Added one fishy at the bottom, but he looked lonely (and hungry). Added number two fish, but then they looked like they were planning and plotting something. Adding number three, who looks like he is leaving to go find someone or something to eat seemed right to me.














After quilting was added and some outlining stitching too, it started to look a little more together. But those fish are still too free, they worried me!














Now it was time to contain those critters with the coppery mesh. I bravely cut it up and stretched and pulled and distorted it, while smelling that coppery (reminds me of blood!) scent. My machine went right over it like a champ and the fish are now trapped. Here are a couple of details and the closeup view too. Some with flash and some without. The title is "Ancestor Fish?", it is about 20 x 20".

Not Forgotten

Ohhhhh Becky, I haven't forgotten about the challenge...

Isn't this a mysterious and tantalizing picture???

I'll show you tomorrow what it is....