Ambitious April

For the title, I looked up descriptive words that start with the letter A, because all my brain could supply was Amazing which seems like a lot to put on a month that has just started. Ambitious seems much more Accurate, (hah!) at the start of a month.  April Fools! Did you play any jokes or pranks on people today? 

This monthly marker was brought to you by the editing and combining of two photos I took in March.

First photo was this one of the train intersection shadows from San Diego.

Which I edited in Percolator. Love all those blues and grays and blue-grays.

Then I added this second photo of one of the blocks from the Bohemian Wife quilt in SnapSeed.

Here's my 31 seconds of 1SE, One Second Every Day in a short video.

 Monthly I-Did-It List for March

1. I stitched down the binding and added a label to the Blue Squares quilt for a quilt finish!

2. I re-started making blocks for the Bohemian Wife quilt and finished them all.

3. I did a lot of hand stitching on Snake In The Garden.

4. I did some more stitching on the Village/Japanese Houses quilt.

5. I made and submitted a Wearable slap bracelet cover for Project Quilting 15.5

6. I made a slap bracelet cover for friend Jaye.

7. I designed a quilt in EQ8 and posted it on the EQ Design blog.

8. I made and submitted a table runner for the final Project Quilting challenge of 2024.

9. I kept up with my 100 Days project and kept adding to the Scrap Tape throughhe month.

10. I did a new tool review.

11. I did some watercolors while I was in San Diego.

12. I worked on my Kawandi also while in San Diego.

I traveled to San Diego with my DH, and did some family and friends visiting stuff.  I continued going to PT for my knee with a little improvement and got an MRI.

I took an online lecture class, attended a BAM Meeting online, blogged here 31/31 days whoohoo!, I  instagrammed 8 times,  threaded 16 times, facebooked 0 times and Blue-sky-ed 5 times. Perpetuating my streak of being somewhat semi-social in definitely a few too many places to keep track of at once!

This month was a pretty productive one given the week off in San Diego.

Marvelous March

Welcome to March, which is blowing in with a nice winter's storm here. Well, they're calling it a Snow-pocalypse but we'll see about that.

This monthly marker picture is a mash up of two edited photos.

First this picture of the grape hyacinths was edited in Percolator.

And then second, this picture of the corner of my last Project Quilting submission, "Muddy Hours" was overlaid in Snapseed

Here's the One Second Every Day video for February which is all of 29 seconds for 29 days.

 Monthly I-Did-It List for February

1. I finished the August column for the Temperature Quilt and cut out more pieces.

2. I made six more blocks for the Pantone Project.

3. I made and submitted a small quilt for the third Project Quilting challenge of 2024.

4. I finished and sent in my new art quilt, 5-4-5-7 to be displayed in the SAT24 exhibit.

5. I did some more stitching on the Village/Japanese Houses quilt.

6. I made my largest ever paper pieced block, a dragon for the lunar new year.

7. I cut out and made myself some more Swamp Blocks.

8. I made and submitted a small quilt for the fourth Project Quilting challenge of 2024.

9. I removed and then replaced the elastic on my bathing suit.

10. I started my 100 Days project (on 2/18) and kept adding to the Scrap Tape through the month.

As per usual I did some family and friends visiting stuff, and one long walk with family. Still no hikes as my knee is recovering. The new PT person I'm seeing has really helped, so far so good.

I attended a BAM Meeting online, blogged here 28/29 days, I  instagrammed 9 times,  threaded 26 times, facebooked 1 time and Blue-sky-ed 4 times. Perpetuating my streak of being somewhat semi-social in definitely a few too many places to keep track of at once!

This month was a pretty productive one given the power outages, etc.

First Month Review

So that was January. I'm writing this on the last day of the month and scheduling it to post on 2/1 just in case our power goes out as there is a giant storm incoming and it's Very Windy right now.

This monthly marker is again created in Percolator and then in Snapseed. It's a combination of two photos. 

The first is an in-process detail photo from my SAT 24 quilt.

After playing with it Percolator, here's how it looked.

And the second photo that I combined the Percolator edited photo with in SnapSeed is of an in-process Swamp Block.

Here's the One Second Every Day video for January which is a whole 31 seconds for 31 days.

 Monthly I-Did-It List for January

1. I finished the July column for the Temperature Quilt and cut out more pieces.

2. I made more Pantone Project blocks.

3. I made and submitted a small quilt for the first Project Quilting challenge of 2024.

4. I finished the Made It Work quilt and dropped it off at BAM.

5. I finished the quilting on the Village/Japanese Houses quilt.

6. I added the binding to the Village/Japanese Houses quilt for a finish.

7. I cut out, made and sent 8 Swamp Blocks.

8. I made and submitted a small quilt for the second Project Quilting challenge of 2024.

9. I hemmed up the edges of an embroidered piece of fabric for a small tablecloth.

10. I made two enormous blocks for the community giving quilt for BAM

11. I worked on finishing my new quilt for SAT24, quilted the background, placed and stitched the shapes and created the centers for the shapes.

12. After starting it in 2019, having it ready to be quilted since then, Kaffe Blue Squares is finally in the to-be-quilted pile at the long-arm quilter's. Woot!

I did some family and friends visiting stuff, but sadly, no hikes as my knee is truly messed up. Wish me luck as I start another round of PT.

I attended a BAM Sew Day, a BAM Meeting (in person even, blogged here 28/31 days, I  instagrammed 8 times,  threaded 11 times and I spouted 1 time, facebooked 0 times and Blue-sky-ed 1 time. Continuing my streak of being barely semi-social in probably a few too many places at once!

Feeling pretty good about my efforts this past month.

Happy New Year and New Month

Wow, it's a New Year! Happy 2024 to you and yours. I hope we all have a productive, creative, healthy year ahead. That's the plan, right?

This month's monthly marker picture was made in a new way, instead of combining two photos in SnapSeed. I first manipulated this photo of part of my Temperature Quilt 

in the app, Percolator. Then I brought that result over into SnapSeed to crop, add a frame and text.

Very different, but I think I like the combination.

Here's the One Second Every Day video for December, which is a whole 31 seconds of course.

Monthly I-Did-It List for December

1. I put up the month of July for the Temperature Quilt and cut out more pieces.

2. I made more Pantone Project blocks.

3. I made a top with the Make It Work bag.

4. I made a back and binding for the Made It Work quilt.

5. I quilt sandwiched the Made It Work quilt and the Trinket quilt.

6. I designed a quilt in EQ8.

7. I repaired and two of my Christmas pillow covers.

8. I made a pincushion for the BAM swap.

9. I reviewed my new Oliso project iron and the Bulky Seam Jumper.

10. I made binding and bound a community giving quilt for BAM

11. I sketched out a new quilt for SAT24 and made the background.

I again did a whole lot of family visiting stuff, and went on one hike with DH.

I attended a BAM Sew Day/Meeting, blogged here 20/31 days, I tweeted 0 times, instagrammed 6 times,  threaded 4 times and I spouted 1 time, facebooked 0 times and Blue-sky-ed 5 times. Continuing on with being barely semi-social in probably a fewToo many places at once!

Happy December

Happy happy December! The above monthly marker SnapSeed collage is a combination of two pictures and lots of filters.

The first one is a picture that I've shared before, this is one of my single dye bath flag-folded dyeing yardage efforts.

The second is of a pincushion that I'm finishing up making to trade tomorrow at the BAM meeting. More on that later.

Here's the One Second Every Day video for November, which is 30 seconds of course.

Monthly I-Did-It List for November

1. I did the second part of the third unit for the Dye Mastery class.

2. I did the fourth unit for the Dye Mastery class.

3. I did the first part of the fifth and final unite for the Dye Mastery class.

4. I did more dyeing for the Temperature Quilt.

5. I made more Pantone Project blocks.

6. I dyed clothing and a lining for my Y.E.S. coat.

7. I designed a quilt in EQ8.

8. I won a prize of purple threads.

9. I made a back for the Trinket quilt.

10. I  cut out more pieces for the Temperature Quilt and finished the May and June columns.

11. I repaired and improved two of my pieced couch pillows.

I did a whole lot of family visiting stuff, cleaned our house enough to host Thanksgiving and went on one hike with DH.

I attended a BAM Sew Day, blogged here 22/30 days, I tweeted 0 times, instagrammed 8 times,  threaded 4 times and I spouted 0 times, facebooked 1 time and Blue-sky-ed 4 times. Continuing with being semi-social in Too many places at once!

Oh, Hey Hi November

We'll open with a message from LeeLoo who's latest obsession is walking across my keyboard: "ewswq222222, ][[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[" Very important communication, right? The above monthly marker picture is a combination of these two photos in the app, SnapSeed.

A selection of recently dyed fabrics.

The nice and sunny dyeing containers.

Here's the One Second Every Day video for October, 31 seconds of course.

Monthly I-Did-It List for October

1. I did the first unit for the Dye Mastery class.

2. I did the second unit for the Dye Mastery class.

3. I did the first half of the third unit for the Dye Mastery class.

4. I dyed fabrics to use in the Temperature Quilt.

5. I made 5 Pantone Project blocks.

6. I finished assembling the Metro Twist quilt top.

7. I took a class at PIQF with Uzoma Samuel.

8. I dropped off and picked up my two quilts for display at PIQF.

9. I took an online class with Christina Camelli on Wedge Quilts.

10. I cut out more Temperature Quilt pieces and started in on the next month's column.

I did some family visiting stuff and went on one hike with DH.

I attended an online CQFA meeting, blogged here 25/31 days, I tweeted 0 times, instagrammed 6 times,  threaded 5 times and I spouted 0 times, facebooked 2 times and Blue-sky-ed 6 times. I'm being semi-social in Too many places at once!

Summer's Ghost aka September

 

• "We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost." -Henry Rollins

September has arrived, foggy and cool, which is quite a nice surprise really. This monthly marker is two photos combined in the app SnapSeed. 

This is the first photo, a closeup of the back of the Stitch Happens quilt.

The second picture is of my new studio assistant Korben Dallas murtalizing one of my paper tassels.

Here are my 31 seconds of August, that's 1SE or One Second Everyday.

 Monthly I-Did List for AUGUST

I did a video of this years ICAD pieces.

I did a product review in two posts about a pair of new quilting gloves.

I finished the back for the Stitch Happens quilt, layered/basted it, and began quilting it.

I cut more pieces for blocks for Metro Twist.

I made 6 paper pieced finisher blocks for the back of the Trinket Quilt and made a video about it.

I quilted a BAMQG donation quilt.

I made binding and stitched it on two donation quilts for BAMQG.

I helped make a donation quilt top at Sew Day for BAMQG.

I made some Pantone Project blocks.

I cut more Temperature Quilt pieces, and finished piecing the March column and pieced the column for April.

I did some family visiting stuff and went on one hike with DH.

I attended Sew Day for BAMQG, blogged here 30/31 days, I tweeted 1 time, instagrammed 7 times, threaded 6 times and I spouted 9 times.

That's a pretty good assortment of stuff I got done for August.

That Was July

July is gone by in a **whoosh**, it's always the fastest month, even if I don't necessarily go anywhere. Maybe it's a holdover from school days where those summer days off doing nothing were never ever long enough.

The monthly marker picture is as usual a mash up of two of my photos, edited in SnapSeed.

The first is the center of my Lone Round Robin quilt. One of the quilts that got photographed the other day.

The second is one of my ICAD pieces.

Here are my 31 seconds of July, that's 1SE or One Second Everyday.

 Monthly I-Did List for JULY

I did the quilt photography I had been putting off for months (years) and stored the quilts afterwards.

I did a second month's worth of ICAD pieces for the last month of the index card a day event.

I learned how to use my Quick Curve Ruler and started cutting and sewing blocks for Metro Twist.

I discovered the joy of painting Swedish Tracing paper scraps.

I made sleeves and labels and hand stitched them on to the Sightlines triptych.

I assembled the Trinket  quilt top

I made another piece for the Y.E.S. coat.'

I started a Make It Work project for BAMQG donation quilt.

I began quilting a donation quilt for BAMQG.

I did more quilting on the Japanese Houses quilt.

I made some Pantone Project blocks.

I cut out and started sewing a top for Garment Sewing Academy.

I made a curtain rod topper out of leftover blackout curtains.

I cut more Temperature Quilt pieces, and began piecing one monthly columns for March.

I completely finished the Orange Bullseye quilt including the binding, sleeve and label.

I did some family visiting stuff and went on one hike with DH.

I attended Super Sew Day for BAMQG, blogged here 28/31 days, I tweeted 26 times, instagrammed 7 times, threaded 8 times and I spouted 5 times.

That's a lot, so I'm feeling pretty good, especially for July.

July, July

 July, July is here. That's the title of a great song by The Decemberists, the first line of the song is: There is a road that meets the road that goes to my house And how it green grows there." June was fun and all, but now it's over and we're hurtling forward through the year.

The monthly marker is as per usual, a combination of two of my photos in the app, SnapSeed.

The first picture is one of my favorite most recently made Trinket blocks.

The second picture is of the layout of the Trinket quilt:

Here is my 1SE video for June, one second everyday recorded in the app, 1SE:

 Monthly I-Did List for JUNE

I returned to dyeing (after quite a hiatus) and dyed fabric and clothing.

I made a table runner/mini quilt for the SBAMG word challenge.

I did a month's worth of ICAD pieces for the first month of the index card a day event.

I made 5 Trinket blocks and cut out the background squares.

I made 6 more Pantone Project blocks and passed them on to friend Jaye.

I cut more Temperature Quilt pieces, and more out of the newly dyed fabrics, and pieced two monthly columns for January & February.

I started quilting the Japanese Houses quilt and the Orange Bullseye

I did a lot of family visiting stuff and one hike with DH and DS.

I blogged here 23/30 days, I tweeted 21 times, instagrammed 7 times and I spouted 7 times.

Good enough for me for such a comparatively busy out-of-the-house June!

June WooHoo

June is here, and it's heating up already. The monthly marker is a mixture of two of my photos in the app, SnapSeed.

The Peony

and The Foot Pedal

31 Seconds of my May using 1SE.

 Monthly I-Did List for May

I finished my entry for the BAM group display at the San Mateo County Fair, Burn,Grow,Slide

I stitched on my kawandii 

I made 15 Trinket blocks.

I made 4 Churn Dash blocks for the BAM charity quilts

I finished the two backs for Slopes and Stitch Happens

I added a pieced border to the Stitch Happens quilt top

I made 5 more Pantone Project blocks

I re-made one of our outdoor triangular sunshades

I actually started cutting out the Temperature Quilt pieces

I spray basted the Japanese Houses quilt and iron fusible batting basted the Orange Bullseye

I attended the BAM sew day

I blogged here 23/31 days, I tweeted 27 times, instagrammed 8 times and I spouted 6 times.

Good enough for me!

May Oh My Oh

 

Mighty mighty month of May has arrived. This is shaping up to be a good one ahead, I'm looking forward to it. The monthly marker is a SnapSeed edited photo mashup as per usual.

The first photo I started with was this paper pieced block from the Trinket quilt.

The second is of one of the beautiful Columbines I've got blooming on our deck this year. We have three color combinations. They change from year to year so you never know what will come back up the next year.

Here's my monthly 30 seconds total of one second every day, using the 1SE app. It's all over the place as is normal.

Monthly I-Did List for April

I finished assembling the Slopes quilt top and also pieced a back with the leftovers.

I helped begin the assembly of the SJSA quilt that BAM is working on finishing.

I paper pieced 15 blocks for the Trinket quilt and SAL.

I finished Checkerboard-ish for the SBAMQG challenge.

I made 7 Pantone Project blocks and delivered all of the recent ones to friend Jaye.

I started a new art quilt for the BAM Climate Change challenge exhibit at the San Mateo County Fair.

I made more paper pieced letters for the YES Coat and pieced other bits for it too.

I made a back for the Stitch Happens quilt.

I sewed down the facings on the Sightlines triptych.

I kept going on the Temperature quilt.

I kept going on the Secret Lives of Color quilt-a-long.

I very occasionally added to my Visual Journal aka Ephemera Journal.

I blogged here 30/30 days, woohoo 100% I  Instagrammed 8 times, tweeted 18 times and spouted (on Spoutible) 8 times.

I traveled to San Juan Bautista for the BAM weekend retreat. 

I virtually attended both SBAMQG and BAM meetings, and I attended the BAM sew day in person.

That's a lot! I'm pretty happy with how productive I managed to be.

February Surprise-ish

 
February is coming as a bit of a surprise this year, as January was such a weird month with the storms and power outages and yet another trip. 

The monthly marker photo at the top is a mash-up of two photos, this one of the Color Collective blocks.

And this one of the sunset as seen from the plane I was on.

This year I've continued on with doing One Second Everyday just because it's fun and I really like seeing little snippets arranged like this. This is my video for January.

Monthly I-Did List for January

I caught up on making more blocks for the Pantone Project and made eleven total.

I continued to update my  spreadsheet/database for the Pantone Project.

I made two more blocks for the first month of the Color Collective and a bunch for the second month.

I made a kind of fancy drawstring gift bag and a matching card for a friend.

I kept going on the Secret Lives of Color quilt-a-long (but still haven't posted it here yet). At some point I will share it, once I catch up.

I very very occasionally added to my Visual Journal aka Ephemera Journal.

I blogged here 22/31 days and Instagrammed 8 times and tweeted 34 times.

I traveled by air for the third time in years to participate in a medical trial and did a bunch of hand-stitching on an older project.

I went to the movies for the first time in years to see Avatar 2 with my parents for their anniversary.

I See January

Hey, hi there Happy New Year! Our New Year's Eve was a wild one with the big storm keeping us stuck in town for a day because of slides and trees down, etc. We ventured out on New Year's Day for the traditional hike with my SIL's family. It was a very muddy trail, but very clear and blue skies and fairly warm. Even though we weren't house-bound for too long, it was still really nice to get out in the world and move around.

January's monthly marker photo is a mixture of two photos edited in SnapSeed.

The first is a picture of one of the printed/quilted pieces I made in December:

And the second is of the San Francisco Bay as seen from the shores of Alviso on our New Year's Day hike.

Here's my One Second Everyday video for December:

And my compilation video of all 365 seconds for 2022, it's more than 6 minutes, which is a very good reminder that all of those seconds add up!

My monthly look back at what the heck I did in December is as follows:

Monthly I-Did List for December

I kept making more blocks for the Pantone Project 

I updated my  spreadsheet/database for the Pantone Project.

I made another block for the first month of the Color Collective.

I made 20 blocks for my 5x5 quilt top.

I printed on my hand-dyes with several techniques.

I made three small quilts in a triptych with my hand-printed and hand-dyed fabrics.

I kept going on the Secret Lives of Color quilt-a-long (but still haven't posted it here yet). At some point I will share it, once I catch up.

I very very occasionally added to my Visual Journal aka Ephemera Journal.

I blogged here 18/31 days and Instagrammed 7 times and tweeted 10 times.

I traveled by air for the second time in years to participate in a medical trial.

For a December where I was recovering from being ill all November, and traveling, and doing all the holiday things, not as bad as I would have thought.  ie not zero! Ready to go in January...

So, December

 

So, it's already December, hard to believe! Already? In the first good news of the month, I've gotten more than an inch and a half of rain so far for my birthday today. 

As per usual this is my monthly marker photo, a combination of the following two photos in the app SnapSeed.

A picture I took at the SF airport of raindrops on an interesting window panel looking outside.

An arrangement of fallen cherry tree leaves on my deck.

Here's 30 seconds of my November.

And finally, the very short Monthly I-Did List for November

I kept making more blocks for the Pantone Project and sent the ones I've made to Jaye

I made a spreadsheet/database for the Pantone Project and discovered duplicate colors in my postcard box.

I made one block for the first month of the Color Collective.

I watercolored and hand-wrote and sent 20 postcards to voters.

I kept going on the Secret Lives of Color quilt-a-long (but still haven't posted it here yet). I guess it's remaining an actual secret for now. Such a cool book.

I very occasionally added to my Visual Journal aka Ephemera Journal.

I blogged here 13/30 days and Instagrammed 6 times. Including celebrating the 18th birthday of this very blog.

I traveled by air for the first time in years to participate in a medical trial.

I took an online class with BAM, not live, but recorded as I was traveling.

Not absolutely zero, but pretty close, but hey, it was essentially a lost month due to the stupid fever. But I'm coming back raring to go this month.

Onto Outstanding October

 

No way, it's October?! I honestly feel like that every single month, you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but time slipping away month by month, week by week is still somehow astonishing. It's nice starting out the month having the big rain we got in September all soaked in, the outside world doesn't seem so direly dry. Fingers crossed that we get some more at some point. 

The monthly marker picture is a combination of two photos, manipulated and mashed up in Snapseed.

I used a photo a manipulated in Percolator 

and one of a chestnut.

Here's my One Second Everyday video for September:

And last but certainly not least, here's my list of: What The Heck Did I Actually Do In September???  aka The Monthly I-Did

I completed the Ruby+Bee challenge quilt top and made the binding.

I kept making more blocks for the Pantone Project 

I sewed a backing and made a binding for the Japanese Houses quilt.

I completed the quilting and binding and label for the Kitchen Sink Quilt.

I started and almost finished the four green living room pillows.

I kept on hand stitching on an older collage quilt.

I designed a quilt in EQ8 for the MQG Ruby+Bee challenge.

I kept going on the Secret Lives of Color quilt-a-long (but still haven't posted it here yet). I guess it's an actual secret or something!

I occasionally added to my Visual Journal aka Ephemera Journal.

I blogged here 23/30 days and Instagrammed 6 times.

I attended an actual in-person quilting event, Super Sew Days at BAM and a virtual meeting and lecture with BAM as well.

I virtually attended two quilting lecture events, Quilters Take A Moment and Global Quilt Exchange Sampler.

I took an online FPP design class from Melissa de Leon Mason.

Pretty happy with my doings this past month during all the weather extremes.

Sublime September

September is usually our hottest month, and this year there's a "heat dome" in the area, aka a heat wave. The meteorologists coming up with new terms like atmospheric river and heat dome just to keep us interested/entertained is funny to me. I'm not that read-in on the subject, so maybe they're new actually new concepts taught in meteorology courses or something? Anyways...enough about the weather. When it's hot hot hot, I tend to spend more time inside, watering the garden early before it's not worth it because the water evaporates so quickly. So hopefully this September I'll get some good work done.

This month's marker photo is the usual mash-up of two photos from the preceding month, edited in Snapseed.

A combination of a zoomed-in section of the completed Orange Bullseye quilt: 

and this ever-so-perfect curl of madrone bark I brought home after a walk with the dog and DH:

The One Second Everyday video made with the 1SE app is here:

And last but certainly not least, here's my list of: What The Heck Did I Actually Do In July???  aka The Monthly I-Did

I arranged the orange bullseye blocks, sewed them all together into a completed top.

I kept making blocks for the Pantone Project (but haven't posted the new ones yet)

I sewed the rows for the Japanese Houses quilt into a completed top.

I completed the quilting for the Kitchen Sink Quilt.

I re-started hand stitching on an older collage quilt.

I finished the quilts I'm submitting to Quilt National but haven't photographed them yet.

I carved a few new cork stamps.

I designed a quilt in EQ8 for the MQG Ruby+Bee challenge.

I kept going on the Secret Lives of Color quilt-a-long (but still haven't posted it here yet).

I steadily added to my Visual Journal aka Ephemera Journal.

I put all the new ICAD pieces into a photo page book.

I blogged here 24/31 days and Instagrammed 7 times.

Not bad for the "dog days" of summer and all.