2020 Finish a Long Quarter One List

 The Finish a Long is now completely Instagram based, but I'm posting my list for quarter one here also, mostly for myself. I kept all the unfinished projects from last year, because they're out in my workspace and I want/need to get them done.

1. City Sampler - All 100 blocks are done, I have the background fabric ready to go. What's been stopping me is that they all need to be squared up. I just have to get in the mood to cut and maybe re-do some of them. 

2. Living Room cushions- the fabric is collected, the zippers and threads and pillow forms are all there.

 3. Color Box - This ones fairly big and needs to be squared up, the binding is made and needs to be sewn on. Then a hanging sleeve and label.

4. May You Ever Return -  The top is half sewn, half pinned, then quilting, binding or facing, sleeve and label.

 5. Stripes -  I have a plan, the "blocks" are mostly done and I have a plan for the setting. It's small enough for me to quilt and then binding, sleeve and label.

6. Celestial Round Robin - the top and the back are ready, the batting is pieced, it needs to be basted. I'm planning to quilt this one myself since it's small enough for me to manage. Then a binding and a label.

 7. Kaffe Blue Squares - The top and backing are done, the binding is almost ready. I just have to get it to a long-armer and then get the binding sewn down and a label added.

8. Griffith Park Skirt - needs to be hemmed and the waistband needs to be done. Just in time for spring a swirly purple skirt.

Fourteen Years Later

Fourteen years later, it seemed like the time to work on this round-robin project again. I dug it out and got it ready for the CQFA retreat. While I was there I added the final borders and pieced a back together. I had intended to baste it but the batting I brought was the wrong size.

So now I'm home and I have plenty of batting so no excuses, right?! I'm going to quilt it, it's just at the upper range of the size of quilts that I'm able to do, but I'm going for it.

It was wild going through all the fabrics I had gathered together for this quilt, they're allll "celestials" so they have suns moons stars, etc. You really don't see these much anymore.

I'm basting it today and then it's off to my machine get this baby quilted.

How Could This Possibly Need More Color?

 After writing here about the CQFA Round Robin, I decided I wanted to work on mine a little bit more. The central embroidered motif didn't get colored in or messed-with as I'd hoped, and it looked a little out of place to me, so now it was my turn. I got out my Inktense blocks and pencils to add some colors.

 Here's how the embroidered linen looked before I added water with a soft paintbrush.

Here is how the whole thing looks after the water has done it's blending work and dried.

Now to figure out how to proceed next....

CQFA Round Robin

 As part of the most recent CQFA meeting some of us participated an instant round-robin. We made a  starter piece that would travel around the room getting added to in each round. Maureen picked an inspiration word for each round. So here is my start of Juxtapose. Three of the pieces of fabric were selected from the FabMo bins that surrounded us.

And here is how mine ended up looking at the end of all the rounds. It's very freeing and fun to do these exercises with CQFA, there's not a lot of pressure because it's not meant to become anything, although sometimes it does. It's all about the improvisation and the just-do-it experimentation.

 I tried to take before and after pictures as I received each piece but I wasn't always successful, getting caught up in the creative spirit isn't good for that sort of thing. But that's okay.
So here was Jen's starter piece that was inspired by Juxtapose. I was the first to work on it using the word Motion.

 I ironed random folds to make a mountain range to travel up and over, somehow going up and over seemed to go with the amount of motion that was already in the piece. I inset it into Jen's piece and then had to stabilize it on the grey background that I added.

 I just had to hope it made some sense to the next people...

Here's how it ended up after all the rounds.

This one was really fun to work on.

This is how it ended up after all the rounds. I added the green polka dot and the blues for the word Symbolize, meant to symbolize ground and water features.

 

 I added the bottom section for the word Fragments, this piece came to me already looking like a house, so I added on what fragments of ancient cultures might have been built over.

 A close up of the embroidery stitches I did.

I love how this one turned out in the end!

 I added the pieced border on the bottom for the word Geometric.

 And here was one I didn't even get a chance to work on.

One of the best parts was the piece of paper that went around with your piece that everyone wrote on explaining what they did and why for each round. Fun to get a glimpse into other artists' thought processes.  I glue-sticked in bits of the fabrics that I used in my starter piece.

Thanks for walking us through this fun round robin Maureen!

Details of Round Robin In A Day

 Just some detail pictures of this Round Robin In A Day quilt that resulted from the recent CQFA meeting.  I think I like it even better now that I've quilted it.  And I certainly like it better than what it started as before the four CQFA artists got ahold of it.

 One of the edges had this pink border, but I added all these details to tie it together with the rest of the piece.

An interesting mix of fabrics, embellishments, and quilting lines.
I'll post an overall finished picture of this when I get the binding done.  Hopefully it will have a name by then too, because Round Robin In A Day 2 is not doing it for me.

Round Robin In A Day

First quilt finished of 2012! This is from a CQFA workshop called Round Robin In A Day.  We each started out with a small piece (the center windmill-ish square) and it gets added to and passed on several times.

 Quick, improvisational and no pressure, the whole room just explodes in creativity as everyone rises to the challenge.  Such a fun activity.  This is what the piece looked like before the quilting.

 Some closeups of the embroidery stitches I stitched on each seam, I used a lot of the ones on my machine, but not all.

We just did this activity again at our January CQFA meeting, so I'll post about that another time!

Green is the Word

The big box of green has arrived back home from its year long travel around the country.

Note: This post has scads of pictures so be prepared for that.

As you may or may not remember I participated in a round robin journal project based on colors (we got the idea from the book True Colors) with a group of artists from Traveler's Hart. The Big Box o' Green is a fabric covered giant Altoids tin.
These are the sign-in cards that everyone made.
A closeup of the messy edges of the box. Some glue is more "clear-drying" than others. ahem.
A detail of the beading I did on the outside of the box. The green moon bead got broken sometime during the traveling around, oh well...
One side of the card from Pam Thomas.

And the other side from Pam Thomas.A window effect from Vivian Montre.

Lots of texture from Vivian Montre.
One of the cards I did, how do you like the drink coaster on the bottom?
The reverse side of the card by me.
The insdie of the tin, on the left is the library pocket with all the sign in cards, on the right the green tissue paper and glitter.
The bottom of the tin.
The other card I made, one side.
And the other side, that picture of the native Alaskan costumed people still really pleases me.
A fabric covered card, love those mahjong tiles, from Pat Pleacher.
The other side of Pat's card showing the nice stitching she did on the edge, and the dangly beady bits off the bottom.
Lots of layers and depth on this one, says thank you on the central circle. By Megan Murphy.
The other side of Megan Murphy's card, showing the dangly beady bit on the bottom.

Shiny foil, embossed side by Emily. And the other pop culture influenced side by Emily, showcasing the Grinch, Kermit the Frog, The wicket witch of the west from Wizard of Oz, the Hulk, Marvin the Martian, Frankenstein, Jolly Green Giant, one of the Teletubbies don't ask me the name I thankfully missed that phenomenon with my kids (pshew), and the one eyed guy from Monsters, Inc. The words say: "Green Is In Style". Indeed!
An all fabric card, with a fun button and ric-rac, made by Misty.
One side of the card by Michele Merges Martens.
And the other side, the stamped words say: "green gree it's green they say on the far side of the hill", also by Michelle.
A harlequin window side by RedDog Scott.
All the same images are reused in this collage side by RedDog, very cool to have that relation as you flip the card over.
Here's what the box looks like when you open it up, card bundled up on the right with green ribbons.
Lori Z Art Maniac did this very dimensional card.
And there's the other side from Lori Z., aren't those fun postage stamps?
A painted side from Teresa Bailey.
The other side of Teresa Bailey's card with Buddha and a karate guy.

wow, did you make it to the end? That was a whole lot of pictures, hope you enjoyed checking out my box o' green.