Friday, March 15, 2013

Subtle Messages

There are days when I am juggling so many things that my brain hurts.  Sure I'll drive you to your play rehearsal.  Sure I'll order some more ballet shoes.  Sure I'll run to the music store to get new reeds for your saxophone.  Sure I'll reschedule dinner because you have to work late.

Everyone deserves help.  But some poor souls just don't nag loud enough.  Like this plant.  Seriously, it is right in the middle of a main traffic area.  I see it 100 times a day.  I remind myself I need to water it every single time.  But obviously, I'm slow.  Poor thing.  It always perks all the way back up as if nothing happened.  Definitely the most forgiving of my naggers.

Then I found this:

Apparently I have been very negligent about baking cookies or muffins or anything for the cake stand.  There is now a rubber dragon in there with a plastic drumstick.

I think it's some sort of hint.


Thursday, March 7, 2013

Back from the woods

I had a wonderful time at my machine quilting class at Asilomar.

This is the first mini-quilt I worked on.  I need to get the binding on and then I can wash out all the marks.  It's about 18 inches on each side.  Not very big but a lot of work.  I used "Radiance" fabric which is about half silk/half cotton.  Slippery to work with but the finished piece is pretty.  I also used silk thread for the first time.  Took a while to adjust the tension on my machine just right but now I feel like I know how to do it.  Sort of a mixed blessing because silk thread is really expensive.  But if you're going to make something heirloom-quality, better to use the good stuff.

This mini quilt I did manage to finish and bind and rinse.  It's my first trapunto piece, and now I'm hooked on using this technique.  I never looked much at whole cloth quilts before but this class really gave me an appreciation for them.

This is also a change for me because I really love quilts that have a riot of color going on.  Now I'm going to keep my eyes open for fabric that's pale and demure to show off the stitching.  My shopping options just expanded.

Of course, even though my goal was to come home without another unfinished quilt to work on, I just couldn't resist starting another much bigger trapunto quilt.  I had a big piece of this soft pink fabric so I just dove right in.  Yet another project to divide my attention.

I met many wonderful women there.  I even met a blogger I've visited online before!  Go visit  Tami at Lemon Tree Tales.  She's wonderful.

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