Wandering But Not Too Far

For this week's Wandering Wednesday post, here are pictures from this last Saturday's annual car show in Scotts Valley, called Cops n' Rodders. Mostly vintage hot-rods, American muscle cars with a few vintage police cars and a helicopter thrown in for good measure.

I had fun noticing all kinds of details and taking pictures. A lot of the shapes, especially the curves were worth capturing. The chrome springs on this trunk caught my eye.

 There were some amazing hood ornaments.

 This one was really eye catching, about 2 inches off the ground and looked like a grounded space ship.

 Even the interior arm rest was space-age looking.

 Look at this beautiful curve and point in the top of the window edge.

 This perfect front end grille work was so beautiful.

 I love the shape of the turn signal assembly.

 Thunderbird? Jet airplane? Both?

 Hey! Some actual stitching in the engine compartment.

 I think this was a Model A, I liked the idea of having a flower vase for your passenger.

 The entire thing was covered in Real Tree camouflage screen print. Even the tiny kid-sized roadster on the trailer. Why? I couldn't say, but they were really committed to it, that is for sure.

 We were thinking this was added on LED on the top of the headlight assembly, sometimes if vintage cars are actually driven, they have to figure out ways to increase the illumination to the modern standards.

The chrome work on this front-end was really great.

 Hey there I am taking the picture in the reflection. I loved the art deco era font on this Buick Roadmaster.

Product Review: Spagetti

 As promised yesterday, here's a short review of this new thread by WonderFil, Spagetti. 
I have an aversion to misspelled-on-purpose words, especially for product names, so I had to get over that quirky hurdle of my own to even order the stuff. But it was totally worth it!
I ordered it through MassDrop, which has been a fun way to be introduced to new products at good prices. There were two color choices offered, and of course, I got the bright rainbow.

This is a very substantial thread, 12 wt Egyptian cotton. The color is intense and brilliant. It feels strong and resilient and very smooth. I used the recommended 100/16 topstitch needle which worked out very well, my machine handled it with no problem.  It doesn't have that waxy coating that tends to build-up and gum up the works of your machine so it flows through without getting stuck. It unwound off the spool very well (I used it vertically.) It is "double-gassed" which means the lint is burned off of it twice, so there wasn't any lint build-up in the bobbin compartment either. That's been a problem for me in the past when using threads like this in the sewing machine.

I only did a straight stitch while quilting this small piece and a zig-zag on the edge. Both stitches show up quite strong and graphically against all the prints and colors because of the heavier weight of this thread.
I could see using it with a longer stitch length to mimic hand-embroidery, or even some of the fancy stitch patterns on my machine. I also look forward to using it for hand-stitching on wool.

Two thumbs up on this stuff, it's great! Uh oh, I just checked, it comes in 60 Colors.

Fourth Study Square

Here is this week's Study Square Quiltlet. 

The words of the week were:

money	eradicate
wicked	cake
delight	deafening
football	repel

 There's been a lot of sewing activity happening in my work-room, so I had a ton of scraps to choose from. I tried to separate out the stuff from previous weeks, but a little of it ended up in there. I'm looking at it like it's a continuous flow of scraps from week to week.

I stitched this with a new WonderFil thread that I just got called Spagetti (yes it's spelled that way) which is a 12 weight cotton, a heavier weight thread than usual, so I had to use a topstitch needle and sew a little bit slower. My machine had no problem with it at all. I love the more graphic, impactful look of it and how it sits on top of the fabric instead of blending down into it and disappearing. I also like how it made the zig-zagged edge look. More on this thread in another post...

Italian ABC's

 I have a new small quilt project going for my nephew that is based on a panel of Italian ABC squares. (ssshhh it's a surprise) Each one has beautiful illustrations of things that begin with that letter and the Italian word for them. It might be super confusing to him, but I bet he'll learn a few Italian words.

I used my handy-dandy color wheel to find the corresponding triad colors based on the background color of each square.

I selected an array of my hand-dyed fabrics that matched up with the colors that I needed to carry out the triad color scheme.

The Italian ABC's now brought to you without the letters J, K, W, X, Y.  One of those things one never considers, that other language's alphabets aren't the same as your own.
 I still have to assemble the blocks together and am considering borders/sashing options. Especially to highlight the horizontal strip of illustrations that I haven't used yet. I think it's going to be pretty cool, and I hope he likes it.

Keep Looking Up

Just a reminder to my self, and maybe you too. Keep looking up.

 It is always beautiful.

 Moment to moment it changes.

 Never once the same.

 Beauty, drama, color.

 All there even at twilight.

 When the moon is still low.

Or it is high noon.
Keep looking up.

Choosing a Palette

Friend Jaye has been playing with a fun online color picker called Palette Builder. You upload a picture and chooses various points to pull colors from and matches it up with solid fabrics that are available.
I gave it a try with this picture:

The initial pick was so drab and 90's looking compared to the dynamic colors of the photo. But then, I hadn't noticed that these kind of boring colors are indeed there in the photo.

Save matches with palette

  

Bella Solids Kansas Green 9900-149

  

Bella Solids Soft Finish Black 9900-199

  

Bella Solids Prairie Green 9900-102

  

Bella Solids Rose 9900-62

  

Bella Solids Brick Red 9900-229

  

Bella Solids Baby Pink 9900-30

But adjusting where the colors are being chosen from in the photo can really alter the look of the palette.  Now this palette I could actually imagine myself using for something.

Match: Moda Bella Solids

Save matches with palette

  

Bella Solids Betty's Orange 9900-124

  

Bella Solids Geranium 9900-258

  

Bella Solids Christmas Green 9900-14

  

Bella Solids Peach 9900-78

  

Bella Solids Cheddar 9900-152

  

Bella Solids Kansas Green 9900-149

And you can add on additional choice points too, to get even more of a variety:

Match: Moda Bella Solids

Save matches with palette

  

Bella Solids Betty's Orange 9900-124

  

Bella Solids Geranium 9900-258

  

Bella Solids Christmas Green 9900-14

  

Bella Solids Peach 9900-78

  

Bella Solids Cheddar 9900-152

  

Bella Solids Kansas Green 9900-149

  

Bella Solids Geranium 9900-258

  

Bella Solids Pewter 9900-239

Lots of fun to be had here, and good way to use a photo as a jumping-off point for a quilt.

Magazines How Many Are Enough?

I have a whole bookcase filled with magazines. And I'm trying to get rid of a lot of them, selling them on ebay, giving them away, leaving them at the library just to make room for the new ones that keep on arriving every month.

After my time in China, I've found that digital magazine subscriptions are a great option, especially not to have the bulk and the paper to keep around. But you do have to remember that you have them available to read. I haven't managed that quite yet...

How much input is enough though? That's what I keep coming back to as I sort through all these magazines. Do I need all of the new product info, new technique instruction, project descriptions, etc.? I need some of it, because it supplements what I get online and in the books that I own or read. It's more immediately accessible, so yes, I still need some magazines. But not ALL of them.

So, here are the Magazines that I'm really glad I can subscribe to:

Quilting Arts is still interesting and inspiring and I'm glad I've been subscribing all these years. It has changed somewhat over the years, but that's to be expected.

From the same publisher , Cloth, Paper, Scissors is great too, although I no longer subscribe to it.

Surface Design Association Journal - Even though I haven't been doing much dyeing or surface design work lately, I still am a member of SDA, and this magazine is still top-notch and worth the price of membership.

Selvedge - oh goodness it's such a splurge as it's printed in the UK, but it's so very worth it, the writing and the photography are so high-quality and the editorial bent is very different than US magazines which is refreshing. I've just recently economized and gone to receiving the digital version only.

Machine Quilting Unlimited is a newer magazine, I subscribed to it when I was at the Houston IQF a couple years ago. It's got a lot of great information about the subject, great up-close pictures and clear directions. There are of course, quite a few articles about long-arm or computerized quilting which I'm not interested in, but the rest of it is worth it to me to subscribe.

Fiber Art Now - I think they were initially attempting to replace the very-much-missed Fiber Arts Magazine, some of the first few issues approached it, but overall they hadn't quite gotten there, so I stopped subscribing, but I've just renewed. It has really improved and is a very interesting quarterly publication.

I have to say, I'm a little sad about Quilter's Newletter Magazine going out of business, but I haven't subscribed to it in a very long time. I do miss Fiberarts a whole lot more.

Wandering Wednesday: Scottsdale, AZ

SF Giants Spring Training in Scottsdale, Arizona was so much fun, now I get why people love to go every year. My parents invited me to tag along with them and we had a ball (haha.) Even my dad who has never really been much of a baseball fan enjoyed himself. Pretty much all of the seats in the small stadium are good ones. You're not miles away from the action on the field. The crowd is quite a bit smaller and much more mellow.

 Okay I'm terrible at selfies, I'll admit it. But at least I got my parents in here.

 We got to see several of the Giants new players, like pitchers Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzijia.

They had very nice palm trees in Scottsdale.

To fill up some of the extra time we weren't hanging out at the ballpark, we went to Museum of the West which was pretty cool. They had this great setup to have your picture taken with a horse, pretty great illusion, huh?

I was quite taken with the displays of spurs, the shadows were amazing.

This is the same picture but with one of the Instagram filters. I want to print this out on fabric and use it somehow.

One of my favorite things in the museum was the Navajo Chief Blankets, so tightly woven, and beautifully graphic. I could imagine a design based on these easily winning awards as a "Modern Quilt"

 The courtyard sculpture garden had this weeping wall that used water collected from the roof. Gorgeous marks left behind as the minerals stay and interact with the metal surface as the water evaporates.

 We couldn't resist taking pictures with Mark Twain since he was just hanging out downtown.

 I thought he'd look good with the sheriff's star badge from the museum.

 The one night game we went to we were on the other side of the field, so the opposing team was working out right in front of us.

 It was amazing how different the stadium felt at night, and it was much more pleasant to sit out in the perfect night temperature.

 Pretty sure that's Angel Pagan on third.

 Mom and I after the last game we went to. We were sad to leave.

Across the street from our condo was "World Headquarters" which was super mysterious and we made up all sorts of conspiracy theories about what was going on in this anonymous building.