Week in Review 2013 - 01/18

My plans for the week ending January 18th were a struggle to meet. Several times this past week I have had to take a deep breath, exhale slowly and remind myself of my own mantra that "Perfection is a journey, not a destination. Let go!"

Several weeks ago at the tender age of 59 I developed a case of eczema. Not a small patch at the elbow, but nearly full body involvement. It took days to build and it is taking weeks of doctor's visits and experimentation with this or that salve and lotion to break the cycle and start to mend. In the general scheme of life this is a minor irritation. However, the time consumed applying meds and the trouble focusing on my work and not the incessant itching has made reaching goals difficult. Under the circumstances I did well. Plus, I have made noticeable improvement this week. Next week has got to be better.


My goals for the week ending January 18, 2013 and how I met them were:

1) Shore's Edge:

The ocean panel from Shore's Edge

The beach panel from Shore's Edge

a) Add the beading to 14 more shells on the beach panel. I am under deadline pressure with this!

Honestly, I lost track. I think I did 12 shells versus 14, but I was hoping to exceed this goal versus fall short.

b) Machine quilt the ocean panel.

Detail of the machine quilting and thread painting used in
the ocean panel. I purposefully only thread painted the shells twice.
I want them to look as though they under an inch of so of water.

Did it!

2) Pictorial Painting - paint the leaf for real. No more practicing!

Did it, even the no more practicing part.

Pictorial Painting
practice piece AFTER
the leaf is painted.

Pictorial Painting
practice piece BEFORE
the leaf is painted

3) Express Your Love - Do the echo/foundation stitching in the globe.

Progress made on Express Your Love as of January 18, 2013

Leah echo stitched the land in her globe using the same white thread that she had outlined it. I figured that if my ribbon could have a turquoise background, why not use lime green variegated thread for the land in my globe. So, that is precisely what I did. I planned to echo stitch the water in blue thread. However, Leah was thinking paint. She painted over her white stitches with green and then painted the water blue and formation stitched on top of the paint. I opted not to paint the land, because I don't have a good green paint. I did paint the water. I didn't have any issues stitching in through the paint.

Detail of the Globe in Express Your Love

My goals for the week ending January 25, 2013:

1) Shore's Edge:

a) Finish beading the remaining shells on the beach panel.
c) Seam the beach panel to the ocean panel using the quilt as you go method.
b) Design the foam section.
d) Start quilting the foam section.

2) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the next segment of how to paint the Calla Lily piece.
b) Paint the next section as instructed.

3) Express Your Love - Do whatever Leah comes up with next.

Tip/Technique of the week is this YouTube of Ricky Tims demonstrating a novel way to make a single seam, not on the bias, dimensional Flying Geese block.