Weekly Report 2013 - 12/27

Florence Trefethen,
the blog author's mother.

Family lore has it that during the depression my grandmother, Emma Newman, would take her two daughters to the department store to look at dresses. They would point out their favorite dresses. Then Emma would whip out a notebook and pencil from her purse, draw a quick sketch or two and make some notes. Next they would head off to the fabric store to pick the fabric necessary for Emma to recreate the selected dresses. 

The picture to the left is of my mother, Florence Trefethen circa 1945. I don't know if Emma made Florence's dress or not, but it wouldn't surprise me. The Newman sisters were known for being fashionably dressed despite economic hardship and post war deprivation. Flossie, as I called my mother told that story about Emma as an example of how her mother would embarrass her. I suspect she also told it with pride. When I was a child Flossie would periodically whip up a suit from a Vogue pattern. However, as the books in the photo attest she was more academically inclined and as money became less tight bought all her clothes. I have made a few clothing items but I never mastered the art of fitting clothing. Honestly, it doesn't call to me, especially since it is less expensive and much more time efficient to buy clothes these days than in generations past. Yet this week I realized that I inherited Emma's ability to look at a pattern and recreate it!

If you read last week's posting you might recall I was in desperate need of a Christmas miracle. It came, at least in my not so humble opinion. This freed me up to relax and just enjoy my studio time with no pressing need to do more than play and test theories. Here is how the week went:

1) Jazz Trio - Resolve the curtain debacle. - Done!

Jazz Trio with a new set of curtains.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments:

a) Foundation Piecing - 

i) Baste the face to the quilt. - Not yet.
ii) Finish  piecing the goddess's body "fabric" with the basted hexagons. - Done! 

The next set of hexagons pinned to Express Your Love II's
quilt top. They still need to be turned under around the
body template and then positioned with more accuracy.

b) Free Motion Quilting - Done!

After struggling to rectify the curtain debacle it was pure joy to create this tangled string of Christmas lights. Of course it could be untangled and quilted on a Christmas tree quilt. Wouldn't that be fun?

Tangled Lights in Leah Day's latest FMQ motif.

3) Visioning Project - Do the final assignment from my Photoshop Elements class and take the final exam. - Done! I even have my certificate to prove it. If you need further proof check out the picture of my mother at the top of the blog. I used the elliptical tool and set it  to circle to select the portion of the picture to include. Next I selected the inverse of that and cut it away. Finally, I sized the picture to be web friendly. It took just a couple minutes.

4) Enjoy a traditional roast beef dinner on Christmas. - Done! I took Christmas Day off. I didn't even handle e-mail. The prime rib with glazed brussel sprouts, baked sweet potato and panna cotta for dessert was a rare and delicious treat.


5) In the spirit of the holidays I decided to give in to my urge to make a tumbling block quilt. I knew I didn't want to deal with all those Y seams and thus began the great google search to find that easy method I just knew existed. The method was easy to find, but not the measurements. This is when I put on my Emma Newman thinking cap and by the second try I had the math worked out.




Tumbling Blocks I - with approximately 20%
of the blocks cut, partially seamed and
tentatively laid out on my design wall.
It will be a crib sized quilt when it is done.

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Marci Baker has written ABC 3-D Tumbling Blocks and she has a YouTube Video where she demonstrates this technique but does not give the math. My tips are that the light strip needs to be cut 0.5" larger than the medium and dark strips AND that the finished hexagon size (or cube/block size) is the same dimension as the light strip. So, if your light strip is cut at 2" then finished block is 2" and the medium and dark strips are cut at 1.5".

My heart is tugging me to work on Tumbling Blocks I, but I have an obligation to finish Jazz Trio. I am also starting my LifeBook 2014 class on the first of the New Year. With so many projects I am going to have no problem keeping myself busy next week. Here is the game plan:

1) Jazz Trio - Add the figures to the stage.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments:

a) Foundation Piecing - 

i) Baste the face and body to the quilt.
ii) Start piecing the arms from hexagons.

b) Free Motion Quilting

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do this week's assignment.

4) Tumbling Blocks I - Cut out more of the blocks.


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Weekly Report 2013 - 12/20

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

My attempt to capture light and shadow fails.

Did you ever have one of those days when everything goes wrong? Today was one of those days for me. One of the disasters was an experiment gone sadly awry on my latest quilt. I was very tempted not to share this boondoggle, but then I thought it might be edifying to learn that I do make mistakes, sometimes some real bloopers. It isn't the mistake that marks one, but how one copes after the mistake is made. First I do some ranting and whining. Next I might procrastinate, indulging in a computer game or two or twenty until I have calmed down. Finally, I assess the damage and brainstorm ways on how to fix it.  I believe I have a solution that may just hide this nightmare. It is definitely going to be time consuming. Fortunately, I have the time. 

The week wasn't a total washout even if the paint couldn't be washed out. Here is what I accomplished - the good, the disastrous and everything in between:

1) Jazz Trio - finish quilting the background - I finished the floor and backdrop. Then I thought the curtains would look better if I painted them first. WRONG! I did test this theory off quilt first and the test looked good. However, a line of paint to determine that I had mixed the right color was insufficient to get a sense of the overall effect that would be created. Not good at all. 

Jazz Trio with the floor boards and backdrop
successfully quilted and the curtains painted
less than successfully.

This morning I had the brilliant idea to wash the quilt since I hadn't heat set the paint. True a little bit of paint washed out, but not enough to change the appearance one iota. 

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments:

a) Foundation Piecing - 

i) Baste the face to the quilt. - Not yet.

ii) Start piecing the goddess's body "fabric" with the basted hexagons. - Done! I have pieced a little more than 50% of the body "fabric." It is coming along nicely. There is nothing like repetitive hand stitching to sooth one.

b) Free Motion Quilting - I tried two new motifs this week.

The Garden Maze motif reminds me of primitive artwork.

After my painting debacle I was determined to lighten
my mood with something uplifting and easy. The
Open Feather motif done in a fanciful variegated
thread was just the ticket. 

3) Visioning Project - Do the next two assignments from my Photoshop Elements class. - Done! Each lessons includes a couple of projects requiring using some of the tools and settings in Photoshop Elements. This was a fun one.

The original photo provided by the teacher.

The same photo after I had manipulated it by "adding"
four more apples.

Will next week be another nightmare or a Christmas miracle? The answer remains to be seen. One of the advantages of a game plan is that when the going gets tough there are choices, perhaps a slight detour for a scenic view or just gritted teeth and determination to push past obstacles and continue the journey up hill with the promise of a 360 degree vista at the top. My plans for next week include:

1) Jazz Trio - Resolve the curtain debacle.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments:

a) Foundation Piecing - 

i) Baste the face to the quilt.
ii) Finish  piecing the goddess's body "fabric" with the basted hexagons.

b) Free Motion Quilting

3) Visioning Project - Do the final assignment from my Photoshop Elements class and take the final exam.

4) Enjoy a traditional roast beef dinner on Christmas.


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.