Be*mused

Put your feet up

 

Chuggin' along here and love-love-loving this project!  As I mentioned in my last post, I'm using the current Beyond the Cherry Trees block, #11, as a starting point for this small piece.  However, I've moved some design elements around, adapted some of the quilting designs into the appliqué and have a few other tricks up my sleeve that I'm hoping will turn this into what I'm visualizing in my imagination.  One of my challenges in choosing fabrics has been trying to keep the prints somewhat in the repro range while color/value wise having them luminous enough to pop off of the black background.  So far, I'm happy with my choices.  We'll see how the bottom of the block develops.

Here's something I want to share.  Recently I noticed a quilter in our group working on her appliqué with a pillow in her lap.  When this subconscious observation surfaced several weeks later, I high-tailed it over to ask her about it.  She explained that it was more comfortable as the pillow provided a place to rest your arms and brings the work closer to you.  One night at home, I thought of it as I was doing some handwork and just grabbed a pillow from the couch to give it a try.  Wow...what a difference!  Do you work like this?

I'm out of prepped hexagons so I need to give this project a little time this weekend.  I'm heading east next week and the hexes are a much more portable project than appliqué, for me, at least.  As you can see from the shot above, I need my ottoman (and my comfy chair and my Ott-light and my threadcatcher and my side table to lay out my cut pieces and array of thread colors) for optimum appliqué stitching comfort concentration.  But everything I need for the hexagons can be zipped into a little take-along bag.  I can even work on them in the car...or could, if I wasn't going to be driving.

Speaking of which, between packing and travel I'm going to be pretty tied up the next couple of weeks so I'll be back around Labor Day.  (Labor Day!  How'd that happen?)  Enjoy the rest of summer and I'll see you again in a couple of weeks.

Veering off the path...a little

Last week, Block 11, the newest of the free patterns available from the Beyond the Cherry Trees series, was posted.  The block it was traced from in the original quilt was pretty much decimated so I was anxious to print out the pattern to be able to see the actual design.  Wendy at Legend and Lace has written about it in her current post and has already made it up!  I urge you to go check it out before you continue here.

As you can see, it turned out to be a very simple potted floral appliqué, but the quilting designs that fill the blank spaces surrounding it are absolutely wild!  My heart was racing as I assembled the four sections...I had to do something else with this block!  The idea came together quickly and it's been consuming my free time since mid-week. 

 

I played around with quite a few fabric options and settled on these.  And then I drew out my own block design using much of the original design but incorporating and adapting some of the wonderful quilting motifs as well.  No reveal on that yet...sorry!

 

Next I did what I know horrifies some of you.  I started cutting out actual size fabric pieces to audition on my paper pattern.  They're tiny little pieces, people!  And it was so worth it in the end.  Which I haven't actually gotten to...the end, that is...but I've seen enough to know.

Here's all I can show you now...but that's a big clue, isn't it?  Since this will be a stand alone project, not part of the sampler quilt, I am making it in the original suggested size of 16.5".  It may work out to be even a little larger, because I've left extra inches around the perimeter on the base fabric.  Just in case a little wild stitching wants to wander across the edge lines.

I'll be back soon with more.  I can't put this down so I know I'll have something to show in a few days!

Catching up

My hand started giving me a little problem as I worked on my hexagons last week so I decided to give it a rest and use the time to work on my Beyond the Cherry Trees blocks. (Number 11 should be out this week.)  I've accumulated all of the downloads but as I've mentioned before, decided to reduce them in size from 16.5" to 14.5" so some prep work was in order. 

After printing out the smaller versions, I like to trace the patterns onto an actual size paper block for a more complete reference.  I line up and overlap the downloaded sheets, securing them with the tiniest pieces of tape, and trace with a mechanical pencil onto a sheet of 14.5" square sketchbook paper.

I then retrace the pencil lines with a Micron pen. It may look like a lot of work but I actually find it all very meditative.  A lovely afternoon, with Paul Simon crooning away in the background.

 

And a new little treat.  Have you tried the new M&Ms?  Pretzel.  Molly put me on to them.  Aside from that *can't miss* combo of salty and sweet, they're only 150 calories a bag.  A clear plus considering the large number of my summer clothes from last year whose zippers have felt an extra strain this year. *ahem*

I use one of these circle templates to even out the little berries when I'm doing the final ink tracing.  You can find them in the drafting section of any art supply store.  A handy little tool!

 

I had to work a little more color into this post so here are some fat quarters I picked up over the weekend when I ran into a local quilt shop to find the new issue of Quiltmania. (The best quilt magazine out there, IMHO...it never disappoints!)  I am not usually interested in commercial prints of batik patterns but these Marcia Derse fabrics caught my eye and I ended up leaving with a few from her large available range.  I see that she sells the entire range from her two lines from her website and noticed while grabbing the link that Glorious Colorcarries one Derse line as well.  How'd I miss that? 

Westward ho!

 

My sewing room is part of a somewhat recent addition to our home and is accessed through another bedroom.  For some families this might be a problem, but since we use the adjacent room for guests (Molly's room, when she's here!), it isn't a problem because when we have visitors, I'm not sewing.  Over the past months, my quilting projects have unintentionally bled more and more into that space.  The portable design wall and several rolling drawer units can usually be found there and the bed, as well as the Ikea Poang, often serve as layout surfaces.  

Over the last 5 days, we've had two family visits; my sister, BIL & pooch, heading to California, followed two days later by another overnight visit from M's sister, BIL and niece, driving to Denver.  Happily, we're well placed for those coming through from the east coast.  The new stagecoach stop!  In preparation, everything got pulled back into the sewing room and when I went in this morning, it looked like this.  Both shots taken from the same vantage point, nothing moved except for the dropping of a table leaf for an unobscured view. 

I decided to post the shots because you often ask about projects that haven't made an appearance for a while and I reply that, yes, I'm still chipping away at this or that.  Everything I'm still working on is somewhere in these shots...many familiar and perhaps if you do a *where's Waldo?* scan, you might find a few things you've never seen.  Clearly, I am forbidden from starting anything new...for quite a while!!
 

In the meantime, I continue to add hexagon blocks to the pile.  Frankly, I'm surprising myself with my stick-to-it-ive-ness on this quilt.  I just can't get enough! 

Ok, the towel and sheet washes are done so I'm off to make up the beds and then putter around among the fabric stacks. (Translate: Bring things back into the guest room.)  It's been such a busy month that I haven't yet printed out the new Beyond the Cherry Trees block (#10) and I need to do that before it's no longer free and the new one's posted, sometime next week.  That and catch up on some blog reading and answer some email.  The house is nice & tidy, the fridge is full of leftovers and...dare I say it out loud...it looks like it's going to be a quiet week. The lazy days of summer I was looking for?  Maybe!