Photoshopping a Quilt

I am getting accustomed to what my next 9 weeks will be like, slowly but surely, and whether I want or like it or not.  The sad reality is that I will have little to no daytime quilting.  My 3 kids are like fleas, always in different locations, and just when you think you might do something productive, they run in demanding something else.  If they do come in, I find that they leave behind a path of destruction - toys left here, a shoe there, and the bathroom, Oh Lordy, don't even get me started there.  Next week my boys go to a day camp, and I am thinking that I'm going to sign my daughter up too just so I can have a week of peace.  I will have a couple of client quilts to then, unless I miraculously get them finished and then I can work on this quilt (or another I have started!).

This picture shows the 24" center on point, as it is in the quilt, with the 4 corner units (making it about 34-35" square) just sitting there.  I'm working to finish the ivory and orange appliques before I assemble the unit.  Appliquing with a smaller piece is easier than always having a 35" block on one's lap.  This is especially true since we have upper 80's coming in 2 days.  Yea, the beach is in my future!

The 3-1/2" terra cotta border is getting appliques in orange, just to bring the orange color out a little bit.  It's a bold and rich pumpkin-like orange, and I love it in the center.  I just thought it needed a little accentuating.  From a distance, I suspect it will appear mostly monochromatic, but up closer, the detail will be evident.  I saw a similar type design on a floor in Italy.  I'm currently stitching the orange applique on the 2nd corner.  They take a few hours to sew.  Just to see what it'd look like, I Photoshopped the corner onto the other locations.  I haven't pressed this at all - It will look better when it's done.

Here's a peek at the corner, again, not pressed.  I am toying with either trapuntoing the filigree, or running a thick yarn through the applique to help poof it just a little.  I'm a bit gun-shy of real trapunto because I snipped my quilt top the one time I did it.  That would make me livid.  Each of these corners have about 8-10 hours of hand applique beyond the hours spent piecing the star and florette.

I work on this when I can, but mostly at night.  I have a monster 117" quilt on the machine right now, nearing that done point.  My husband took the kids a bit this weekend so I could quilt, but during the week, I get only about 1 hour in the early morning, and things don't get finished quickly at that pace.

Time to look into that daycamp!...my piece of aqua silk arrived so I can get the silk quilt all together.

New Adventures

I have been scattered lately.  I have been trying to finish off a show quilt that had been doing it's best to put me in a grave, and my focus on all other things has suffered.  Usually I only have a couple of projects going at a time, but I've completely let myself go recently.  I have a pieced split carpenter's star all in it's diamonds, ready to make the last 16 setting blocks, then it can be assembled.  It is getting a good bit of applique, which I have been sketching out the last 2 months, but the basic background of the quilt is pretty far along.  I have another mostly all applique quilt that I started a couple months ago in the works too.  I just about have 3 of 4 primary blocks finished.  You haven't seen any of this.  It will probably get worked on this summer when I can't go downstairs to my studio on account of having 3 kids in the house.  Then at MQX I bought some silk and started designing a 40" (or slightly smaller) quilt.  I started that one this week.  If you neglect the fact that I miss-cut one of the fabrics, it probably would be done before next week.  Today I put the center, a Mariner's star together.  It's in 2 large pieces.  Well, the entire star block is only 10" square, so large is clearly relative!

But 2 weeks ago, it would seem I went through a mild mid-lifer and decided I wanted to make another mosaic floor quilt.  I thought I might get more of it pieced before kids are home, but, I always think that.  I am happy with the quality of the piecing and that is what counts.  The mosaic on point is 24" square.  With the additional 4 corner triangles added (and 4" more of the coral fabric) the block will be up to about 35".  The entire quilt is really fun and repeats some of these motifs. It will be around 68".  

I love to design piece-work, but sometimes it is just much better accomplished with hand applique, as is the case with these triangles.  The scallops are all hand appliqued.  They are about 7/16" wide, finished.  Each of those florettes in the triangles will be outlined with the wide bias in ivory as well.  This is a great task for me because I can sew this in the evening.  The only thing done on machine on the triangles are the paper pieced black-white-brown florettes (seriously, they are not broccoli, but what is a better name??!).

Though I like the intricate details of lots of piecing, I have to think hard about leaving some open space for machine quilting.  My preferred style of quilts is hard to be competitive in machine quilting shows because I don't leave enough "show off" space.  It is a happy medium.  I don't want to make a large quilt out of minimal piecing because to me that is boring to make, even if it has plenty of room to be made beautiful with quilting.  But I want all of my efforts to be rewarded at the shows I enter too.  Happy middle ground...always in search of it.

A Pukey Week

This week has stunk in terms of just about everything. My daughter is barely walking (with good chocolate bribes and under pain). My younger son was home 2 days with it running from both ends. Ewww!.. He admitted to eating a berry off of a Barbery bush on Monday, but when Sophie got the symptoms a day or 2 later, I learned that the berry was basically benign. So my husband was busy worshipping the porcelain this morning - actually I caught him sitting on the porcelain, puking into a trash can that he had to dump onto the floor. Poor guy! Now my tummy is not sick, but it is not happy either. I haven't really quilted in a few days because it was too hard to stop when I heard one of the kids on the monitor, and run up 2 flights of stairs to see what they'd produced for me to clean.

I've been puttering on designs for a new quilt to start - kind of a long term project intended to be finished next year sometime, and using the new Northcott Stonehenge fabrics I got recently. I want it to resemble some of the mosaic work I have seen on Italian marble floors. This is probably nowhere near my final layout, but an initial concept anyways.
Managed to get these blocks sashed in a soft butter yellow. The picture stinks, but I think it will be nice quilted.

And I cut into some of the new greens to finish off this set of blocks too. I was very luke-warm about them a week ago, but after pulling out a few of the more kelly-colored ones, I am really feeling the greens. I have ivory for the sashings. So many people gravitate for the white, but I just hate the harshness of white unless the colors dictate that level of crispness. These all have tones of ivory in them so it seems like the logical choice.

I have a lovely applique & block sampler on the LA right now. It's sweet, nicely colored, and really pretty fabrics (from LakeHouse Dry Goods I think). I worked on it for a little this morning while Sophie actually went to her last day of preschool until September, but this afternoon I couldn't get into it. WHen I feel crummy, my creativity suffers. It was better to chip away at some of my Bee blocks which are more mechanical than creative. Afterall, the end of the month is fast approaching.

So here's my question of the week...

Next weekend we are having my 6yr olds birthday party. What do I do with these kids (5-6 total)??? I've never had parties at home - we've always went to a museum or ChuckECheese, or this year, bowling. I have no idea what type of game(s) to do with these kids. HELP!!!