QuiltCon Shopping

 The shopping was great at QuiltCon, we spread it out over several days, and hit up all the booths.

 A great Echino bundle and some cute #putabookonit stickers from Crimson Tate.

 I loved loved loved the The Patpourri/Heartway International booth, so much great Japanese fabric.

 Have I made this "The Cube" bag yet, no I have not, but that's my plan for these too cool fabrics.

 A lot of fabrics with words again, and black and whites.

 I love this font so much, I can't even express how much.

 There was a new company called Culcita, a modern quilt fabric subscription box business, so I signed up, here's the stuff I bought in their booth. I loved the orange-ness of their booth by the way, that may have had something to do with my signing up--just saying. They have all sorts of options and the fabric choices so far this year have been great.

Post washing picture of a grab bag of Kaffe plaids. I almost didn't want to iron them they were so scrumptious and full of texture.

Here's how they looked before washing, see--so much more interesting.

Pasadena for QuiltCon again

Way back in February, I was lucky enough to get to attend QuiltCon again with friend Jaye in Pasadena.

It was crowded at first when we registered, but the line went very quickly, they have things efficiently planned out. In the main halls the quilts for that year's donation exhibit were hung so that was fun to look at as we waited.

 There was a selection of Aids Quilts on display, they were terribly impactful and moving (and huge.)

 It was nice SoCal winter weather.

 The ceiling in the main lecture hall was interesting, just something I noticed while waiting for Carolyn Friedlander's great lecture.

Especially after putting it through a filter or two.

 The selection of Modern Quilt Guild branded merch was great this time around. I've gotten a lot of use out of the project zip bag.

 There were even more vendors this year. Isn't this a lovely display to show off those solids?

Interesting shadows in the convention center.

Impatient Gardening

 Waiting very impatient for the tomatoes to ripen. It's been such a hot summer, but they're still taking f...o....r....e....v....e...r!

 So are the peppers, but at least they have cute little flowers while we wait.

 And wait....

and wait.

Oregon Haul

 After hitting up the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, we also took a day to travel to Bend to quilt shop hop. There were some good places, Bend is pretty lucky to have three well-stocked quilt stores.

First picture is the fabric I snagged from the new Tula Pink "De La Luna" collection. Those eyes---can't get enough of them.

Quite a smorgasbord, huh? The fabric with the words and definitions is great, it has one of my favorite words: DISCOMBOBULATE so it had to be purchased.

 Numbers, letters, words, lines.

I'm really liking the interesting selvedges these days.

All of these got used in the quilt I started in the Rosalie Dace class, yes...unwashed...gasp.

Skinny Strips

One of my favorite things about occasionally taking quilt classes is the opportunity to have techniques I've always wondered about explained clearly and demonstrated. And then getting to then try the technique out myself to make sure I understood the instructions. That's what works for me, I guess I'm a visual and kinetic learner.

In the Rosalie Dace class I was lucky enough to be in she shared one of her signature techniques that she calls: Skinny Strips. I won't go into the details here (go take one of her classes!), but here's the first one I finished in class that I'm very thrilled with. I'll definitely be using this technique in some future quilts. I just measured and the skinniest bit is about 1/32" wide, so in a quilt it'll look something like a quick pen stroke would in a drawing. And using a bright contrasting color like this orange against the blue/green changes how much impact the small bit of color has on the overall quilt design.

Three Done

Here are the three blocks all together right before I sent them back to Social Justice Sewing Academy. 

 This one had a Lot Of Glue to hand stitch through which was a bit hard, but it was necessary for those skinny fingers. I started with this block because it was the most immediately galvanizing and moving.

 I used different thread colors for each word to emphasize the "good word" of EDUCATE. I like how much character and energy the individual letters have when free-hand cut like they are. Slight imperfections are sometimes preferable to precision and perfection.

 I'm not exactly sure what this one is about, maybe the size and color difference in the badges is meaningful? Or maybe it just refers to the recent issues surrounding the police in Baltimore .

 I went through several needle threaders until I found one that really worked well (ie didn't break) with the embroidery thread and needle I was using.

I did so much of the stitching while on trips, but I finished the last one out on my deck.

I hope I get to see more of the SJSA quilts on display, maybe even with one of these blocks. They are profoundly impactful when you see them in person. A very worthwhile project I feel very lucky to have had the chance to participate in.

Wandering Wednesday - San Diego

San Diego in March was a great visit, while my husband worked at a conference, I got a chance to see a bunch of museums as well as the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park.

 Great door into the garden.

 I want this door knocker for our house.

 I think this was an arrangement of stones that was under the eaves of a building so it would catch drips of water. Just thought it was a beautiful solution.

 There was a very cool bonsai display.

 The convention center roof.

 I visited a very cool area of repurposed Navy base, Liberty Station, a great re-use of buildings, all kinds of art spaces and small vendors, pop-up food market, but still right underneath the airplane path. I went there mostly to see the Visions Art Quilt museum, no pictures allowed, it was really worth the visit.

The Little Italy part of town was fun, I had an awesome lunch at a very authentic Italian restaurant and enjoyed the Vespa riders passing by.

Thunder Shirt

Meg gets a little too crazy when the deer herd (up to 4 or 5 at a time this year) come browsing around our apple trees. She's convinced she needs to run them off every single time which gets very old.

So I got her a Thunder Shirt and wow does this thing ever work. It uses a couple layers of velcro to kind of swaddle/hug her around her whole body. She instantly gets so quiet and mellow, pretty much zones out, and then she's kind of sleepy when we take it off of her. We also used this on the Fourth of July while neighbors were shooting off fireworks which was upsetting. I kind of wish they made these for people, maybe they do, or perhaps those weighted blankets do a similar thing. Oh my goodness they make one for cats. I can't imagine Spike letting me put this on him, I wonder if it would even work...