Week in Review 2013 - 04/05

Express Your Love - a preview of what is to come. The design
and quilting patterns for this piece come from Leah Day. What
to quilt where,  with what thread and quilting are by
Gwyned Trefethen.

I'm back. That is I have returned from a multi generational family vacation on Treasure Island, FL.  I find transitioning from home life to vacation and back difficult. I do best with routine. Vacation and returning from vacation with the inevitable backlog of things to attend results in difficulty focusing and a greater propensity to drift. The result was that I didn't manage my accustomed three full studio days this week. I did spend three partial days in the studio. Here is what I managed to accomplish.


1) Pictorial Painting

Canyon before any paint is applied.

a) Mark the fabric for painting. - Done!
b) Watch the portion of the lesson that demos how to paint the Canyon piece. - Done!
c) Bonus - I started painting.

Canyon after the foot hills have been painted.

2) Express Your Love

a) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. - Done! 

Leah has gotten back in the groove of providing assignments. I managed to try my hand at two of her spiral variations. The first being Wiggle Wiggle Spiral and the second Hot Hot Spiral. I checked in with Leah this morning and see that there is yet another spiral pattern to explore. 

Close up from Express Your Love. The aqua ribbon has been
quilted using Hot Hot Spiral.

b) Finish quilting the hair. - Done!

Close up of the hair from Express Your Love. The design
Wiggle Wiggle Spiral was used in the upper of the two red rays.

Express your love was my primary focus this week. I am really wowed by how it is coming together. Leah's original line drawing and her quilting patterns produce a fascinating image. What is especially fun is to check out how Leah's other groupies are executing this same piece. 

3) Reflection (Absolute deadline April 23, 2013)

a) Finish stitching the facing. - Done!
b) Make and attach the sleeve. - Oops, could have done this.
c) Make and attach the label.
d) Add Reflection to my website.

I had forgotten when I assigned myself the finish work on Reflection that my husband (also my photographer) would be out of town. I wanted a "formal portrait" taken of Reflection to use for submissions to Calls for Entry, the quilt label and for my website. Not being able to move forward on Reflection I started planning my next quilt...

4) Adoration (Shooting for a deadline of June 1, 2013)

There is something about Madonna and Child paintings
with loving gaze and focused light that has appealed to me
since I saw my first one in a history of art book of my mother's.
This painting is Adoration by Correggio. 

a) Selected and cropped the image to use to guide the quilt.

Yes, that is me gazing adoringly into the eyes of
my first grandchild. This is the image I am using
as a starting point for Adoration.

b) Created a traced line drawing of the image.
c) Used the line drawing to create a to scale pattern.
d) Selected the fabric.
e) Painted the fabric to be used in the grandmother's blouse.  

Hand painted fabric to be used as the base fabric for the blouse.

Tips, Techniques and Thoughts...

An issue I have with fabric painting is that so many blends of paint must be created with various amounts of gel medium that may be needed later in the day, the next day or even next week. It is easier to create all the blends I need at once, but then the problem is how to store them since the left over paint resides solely in the dimples of my palette. I have found that by covering the palette with Press 'N Seal the paint lasts at least a week without drying out.

Clearly I have some catching up to do next week. This is what I plan on accomplishing between today and April 12.

1) Pictorial Painting

a) Continue to watch the portion of the lesson that demos how to paint the Canyon piece.
b) Finish painting Canyon.

2) Express Your Love

a) Finish quilting Hot Hot Spiral Ribbon
b) Do a ribbon in Loopy Doopy Sprial
b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

3) Reflection (Absolute deadline April 23, 2013)

a Make and attach the sleeve.
b) Make and attach the label.
c) Add Reflection to my website.
d) Submit Reflection for consideration in "The Eye and the Needle," a SAQA IL/WI exhibition.

4) Adoration (Shooting for a deadline of June 1, 2013)

a) Mark the background fabric as a guide for where to place the appliqué pieces.
b) Start cutting and positioning the appliqué pieces.

Apology - recently Blogger has started to put a white background behind anything I cut and paste into a post. I have tried numerous fixes, but haven't found the right one yet. Please bare with me.

Week in Review 2013 - 01/25

Can you guess which project this belongs to?

Rather than finish with my tip/technique/philosophy de la semaine I thought I would start with it. I am a firm believer that to be creative and to live life well the mind, body and soul must be fed. One of the ways I do this is through yoga. Not that I immerse myself in all things yoga. I do take a twice weekly class at our local YMCA. When I am stressed, stiff or pushing myself running I turn to the lessons I have learned about posture, relaxation and breathing through this class. You don't need to tie yourself into knots or do handstands to derive benefits from yoga (although my knots are looking better and I've done a handstand against a wall.) My favorite one minute break at home, in an airport or standing in line waiting is Mountain Pose. (If you skim down the link there is a visual along with a description of how to assume Mountain Pose.) The fabulous thing about Mountain Pose is that as long as you can stand you can do it. A standing ovation in Mountain Pose to my teacher Joanna Dane whose blog A Terminal Case of Whimsy shines an eye on what it is to be human and laugh about it.

Taking a deep breath, shoulders down and shoulder blades moving towards the spine, heart center raised - OK, now I'm ready to look at my goals for this past week and how I did.


My goals for the week ending January 25, 2013:

1) Shore's Edge:

The last shell to be nestled with beads
is in the upper right corner.

a) Finish beading the remaining shells on the beach panel. - I'm 1.5 shells shy.

c) Seam the beach panel to the ocean panel using the quilt as you go method. - Oops! Missed that one all together.

b) Design the foam section. - Done!

The foam has been quilted and prepared
to be added to the quilt.

d) Start quilting the foam section. Done! Actually I finished it completely.

2) Pictorial Painting

The Calla Lily BEFORE
the stems were painted.

a) Watch the next segment of how to paint the Calla Lily piece. - Done!

The Calla Lily AFTER
the stems were painted.

b) Paint the next section as instructed. - Done!

I have definitely gained confidence with my brush strokes and how much medium to add to the various values of paint. The next area of focus needs to be how to blend the paint to come up with the hue I need.














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

Loving the golden rays done with MacTavishing

Loved this week's assignment to add MacTavishing to some of the rays in Express Your Love. In the colored version of Leah's quilt she selected two values of blue for her sun rays. On her black quilt she quilted them with white thread. Since I have been using various hues of thread to fill in the ribbon and earth I choose to stick to colored thread. My plan is to quilt alternate rays with the yellow/orange variegated thread you see here and do the in between rays in a deeper yellow/orange/red variegated thread. Should be smashing. I am really enjoying how quilting with colored thread looks against the black background fabric.

An undocumented goal for this past week was to show marked improvement with my eczema. That has been achieved as well. Thank goodness.

My goals for the week ending February 1, 2013

1) Shore's Edge

a) Finish the beading on the beach panel.

b) Seam the beach panel to the ocean panel.

c) Applique the foam panel to the quilt.

d) Add a scattering of beads to the foam and ocean to indicate bits of foam and spray.

2) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the segment on how to paint the flower.

b) Paint the flower.

3) Express Your Love

a) Finish MacTavishing the final six rays.

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

I can't wait to get started.

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.

Week in Review 2013 - 01/11

The goals I set and how I met them for the week ending January 11, 2013:


1) Shore's Edge:

a) Begin the beadwork on the beach panel.

Bead work has begun on the beach panel.

I love beading. It takes me back to the days when I used to quilt by hand. The repetition is so soothing.

b) Baste the ocean panel and thread paint the seashells.

The ocean panel is basted and the seashells have been thread painted.

2) Pictorial Painting Class:

a) Practice the painting techniques one more time.

Practiced painting the leaf from the Calla Lilly project.

I am pretty pleased with how this turned out. I felt I got the right blend of blue/green and yellow/green paint  for the fabric I chose. I managed to create a sense of shadow under the veins and one side is slightly darker than the other, suggesting a light source.

b) Start painting the Calla Lilly.

OK, so I missed one of my goals. Each practice piece has me more and more comfortable about how to blend and apply the paint to achieve what I want. They also show areas where I need more practice.

3) Leah Day assignments:

Express Your Love was marked, basted and the marked lines quilted.

a) Mark the quilt.
b) Baste the quilt.
c) Quilt along the marked lines.

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I could actually see well enough through the black fabric to trace the lines of Express Your Love.

I promised I would share tips this year. Here is one. I have taken to hand basting my quilts before machine quilting. Why? Although it is more time consuming, I believe it has three advantages. First, I find that the shifting between the top, batting and backing is less than when I pin baste. Second, without pinmoors or safety pins the quilt is more pliable for manipulating under the machine. Finally, I like the control I get since my hands rest on the quilt with no pin interference. I find it very easy to snip the hand basting as I come to it. Those odd turquoise threads, predominately on the left side of the quilt are the areas that are still basted.

I actually accomplished more on Express Your Love this week than I thought I might. I opted to thread paint my mantras in script. Leah Day, designer of the quilt, used block letters. I felt the curvilinear flow of the quilt suggest cursive and it also gave a more gentle, less dictatorial sense to words. The next step was to echo quilt the mantras. I opted for micro-stippling instead. Why? Once again I felt it softened the message.

My goals for the week ending January 18, 2013

1) Shore's Edge:

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

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

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