Wishing I Was Still On Vacation

Haven't posted a self-portrait in a while. Well really, it's a selfie from our trip to Hawaii, put through a filter on the app Prisma. (Super fun, and kind of addictive, you should try it out!)

Recent Flora & Fauna

 Meg lying down in the bed of naked ladies (Amaryllis Belladona) before the green leaves turn brown.

 Good to see Bucky is growing up strong. We name the deer something different every year, because it's hard to tell them apart. Bucky likes to stare down Meg while she's barking at him.

 Acanthus flower spike.

 Crazy out of control butterfly bush, it was a cutting I stuck in the ground to see if it would grow. And now it's fifteen feet tall and wide. We cut it back by half every year. Boy do the butterflies every like it.

 And the many shades of wild sweet peas. I enjoy these, I really do, but they are so invasive and such a bully in the yard, taking over and blocking out the plants I'm trying to grow. And they don't smell too great (compared to the mannerly cultivated ones.)

Closeup with an instagram filter.

Anotherr Bunch of ICAD

Some more of the ICAD, Index Card A Day. Having a lot of fun doing these. As you can see, I returned (Somewhat) to the original idea of having a word or two appear.Just a reminder to myself. Online classes, they seem like such a great idea, but then you forget that you bought them and never take them.... At least they don't expire I guess.

 When that spray bottle of sparkly ink doesn't work anymore, drips will have to do.

 No idea what this is, maybe you can tell me.

 I rediscovered my Pitt Pens that are in shades of grey to black.

 Just like dyeing clean--up rags, sometimes the underneath it all index card ends up being the best thing you've made in a while.

Another Bullseye

 Another bullseye quilt is done, well off to be quilted because it is king-size plus. The center of this one features blocks made by QuiltMavericks friends.

 There are a couple borders made with Swamp Blocks that QuiltMavericks traded over the years. Swamp Blocks are so named because of a very auspicious typo Swap became Swamp which cracked us all up so we kept it. The black background ones are "wonky romans."

 These are "Bento Box"

 There's a huge variety of fabrics.

 Some of these I made by myself to make it large enough.

This is going to be fun to have on the bed, I can't wait to see how it turns out when it is quilted. I'll get an overall picture of it then.

Solstice Fifteen

The fifteenth block for the Solstice Quilt, I didn't get them all done by the solstice, sigh, but I'm still working on them.

Thirty-Fifth Study Square

 Here's the thirty-fifth weekly study square quilt-let. This one features a couple of color catchers colored from washing new fabrics.

 I love the wrinkled and soft quality of them. Almost papery, but still very flexible.

I left it to be very dimensional instead of stitching them down a lot, I like all the folds and shapes.

Solstice Fourteen

For an appliqué block, I quite like this one. I like the subtlety of the prints I used on the nine-patch in the center.

ICAD Again

 Here's ten more of my 4x6" index card pieces, one per day for 61 days aka ICAD- Index Card A Day.

 I've been using lots of art supplies that I haven't touched in years, like the sparkly watercolor inks.

 Believe it or not the color is Crayons, Color Twistables.

Recent Acquisitions

 Recent purchases that I thought were worth talking about here. Aurifil Thread acquisition has reached maximum for me, mostly because I ran out of room in my thread box! Only a few repeats with colors I already owned. If you like this thread, try the Cotton Club's thread club.

 There were so many color choices for this cork fabric, and I couldn't pick so I went with a neutral near natural one. This will be made into a bag, It's fairly thin and very flexible, the backing is poly-urethane. I'm interested to see how it sews up. Sew Sweetness carries many choices. And they have a video on how to sew with it which should be useful.

 RFID blocking fabric to be used in bags and wallets, etc. (A tin-foil hat too perhaps?) The only instructions that came with it was to NOT iron it ever, so that'll make it kind of tough to use in sewing a bag or a wallet, hmmm. They sell it at Nancy's Notions in case you're intrigued.

 A rather crazy selection of fabrics (even for me) I bought at Golden State Quilting. Guess I was needing some color that day or something. I have been challenged to use these all in one quilt. Hmmmm.

Who knew you could buy Cherrywood fabric scraps at your LQS? Too fun, huh? Such a nice selection, I really love how this fabric feels.

Wandering Wednesday - Curiodyssey

 This month's CQFA meeting was a wonderful sort of field trip to a kid's science museum one of our members works at, Curiodyssey in San Mateo on the shores of the San Francisco Bay. We had a great turnout and a super meeting and then set out to explore the place. In the immediate foreground at the top of this photo are red pinwheels that are set in a metal structure along the edge of the building to catch all those ocean breezes.

When you're with like-minded friends, it turns out no kids are required to enjoy. I love this picture of Bron as seen through the kaleidoscope.

The texture wall was fun, I really liked the design of these lined-up pencils.

 I could have played with this thing all day, I promise I didn't knock any little kids over to get to it. What a great way to illustrate the result of gear size differential.


I really want to make this quilt! I wonder if there is a design program that would be able to replicate this? Seems like there should "be an app for that."

Fun with mirror-symmetry and colors and shapes. this was another fun thing that would be useful for quilt designing.

The small garden and zoo were very enjoyable too. What a lovely and inspiring place, I think I need to get my nieces to come here so I have a good excuse to come back. 

Solstice Thirteen

 The thirteenth Solstice Quilt block, eh not my favorite. Those little triangles in the corner aren't working for me.

I am liking how all the blocks look together so far.