Radiance and more Radiance

Happy August!

It's hard to believe that summer only has a few weeks left (especially considering it has just gotten warm here).  Kids go back to school in a little more than 3 weeks.  It's almost hard to keep a straight face knowing that.

Quilting has definitely taken a backseat to everything else.  But I am feeling anxious about diving into the custom quilting jobs that I have waiting for me.  September and October are going to be busy work months!  It's not that I have done nothing this summer.  I have quilted, a little.  I have done some client jobs and I just taught at Hershey. It just feels like I have spent way too much time treading water and overthinking what I want to do.

A few weeks ago, I was laying in bed and decided to sketch.  Now, this is not an uncommon occurrence.  I draw constantly.  In fact, the week before, I had resurrected part of a whole cloth pattern, played with part of the design for quite a while.  It was nice, but I soon discovered that when enlarged to the desired size of the pattern, the quilt would be about 30" larger than I was hoping for!  DOH!  One little scaling boo-boo lead to a ditched design, at least for now.  

Backtracking...The morning after I sketched in bed, I pulled that sketch, drew and manipulated it a bit.  I liked where it was going.  Long story short, two days later the design was fully enlarged for a 40" wholecloth and marked on the silk Radiance.  Now there's progress.

 I had been trying to find this particular shade of green to go with this quilt I was also working on.  I was having a hard time finding the right green silk.  I ordered 2 yards of two different greens, hoping one would match.  Nope.  It was apparently an older color.  It wouldn't work for that quilt, but it would be a great whole cloth.

I should also note, and this is no surprise because many of you know how much I love Kaufman Radiance, but this gorgeous fabric has been discontinued. I have used it for 2 previous whole cloth quilts and many others - this post from May shows two, but there are at least 3 others that have the fabric in them.  When I was in Hershey, I spoke to Gail Kessler (she has a shop in PA that I often order it from).  She confirmed it's a done deal.  When I got home from the trip, I went on a shopping spree to accumulate several large 3-4yd pieces as well as smaller pieces of many colors I don't have. I also got 4 yards of ivory to go with the colors below.  It's hard to buy fabric when you don't know what color you may want or how much you need!  I just know I don't want to not have any of this stuff!

 The day I got home from Hershey, I started quilting on the green whole cloth.  I get a couple hours every morning before the kids stir.  I am still not sure about what I am doing.  Remember, every quilt brings its share of "quilter's remorse" - in other words, I ask myself now "Why did you think that using 3 colors would look right?"  Hopefully when all is said and done, and all fills are added, I won't ask myself these questions.

It's my typical, very traditional and very structured designs.  I do love feathers and template work!

 Two days ago, I started some of the fills.  I am happy to report (despite an initial screaming fit over the silk thread), it is running pleasantly and without too much incident. That makes me excited to bring the orange-pink applique quilt (another show quilt in-progress) back to the frame for finishing.

 I have a few more days to quilt fills.  I won't finish this, but it will be in good shape to be done in time for the Paducah entry, assuming I do a binding that is not completely overthought!

...one last shot from my garden.  This is my absolute deepest cone flower.  I don't know how it got to be this color since I think they just self-seed each other, but it sure is pretty!