Designing Fun

As I said in the last post, it was time to get serious about the corners of the Color Wheel quilt and there was no better time than a Sunday night, sitting with my Sweetie and watching “Lord of the Rings”…..

I started playing with lots of different design ideas…..

….and then came upon the idea of turning the 1st grey “border” into a big circle…..

Then it was back to the design sheets to figure out what to put into the circle. This is my final idea…..

….make the big circle in the medium grey, the next layer in the lighter grey and the final triangle in the light grey (as in the very middle). I am thinking to make the “spoke” circles in colors that match the squiggle.

My last thought is to put 1/4 of the color wheel in each of the corners to finish it off as it began.

I played with it in Powerpoint and got a reasonable picture of what I am thinking…..

The next step will be to draft it out full size and see if I can make all of the details work, but that probably can’t happen until after my studio is back to a semi-normal state!!!

I know that these plans may change MANY times before the actual quilt is finished but it sure was fun to start out with a few ideas and see those morph into something that I really like!!

Quilting in a real big empty….

Well, the construction started out going great guns, but then as projects often do, it came to a screeching halt as we wait for the Drywall guys to come in and close in the new wall.

But, today I had time to do some more work on the Henna Girl and I was not going to let a big open space deter me!!! I swept the area well and moved my machine table out of the corner and got everything set up……

I couldn’t figure out why it was so cold in the room, but Michael reminded me that there was an area that was open to the attic…..

……so a space heater was added to sort that out!!

I spent the next few hours happily quilting along and dreaming of when this room would be completely finished!!

I am pleased with my accomplishments for the afternoon, finishing the bottom portion of her shirt…..

…although when I cropped this photo, I realized that I have the top portion to do as well!!!

I was going to work on her arms, but didn’t have the right color of thread. Instead, I added some to her head scarf…..

Also, last night I finished all of the applique on the Color Wheel quilt so now it is time to get serious about figuring what to add to the corners. I took one of my photos of the finished portion, pulled it into Powerpont, and added the corners……

Now I have printed out a bunch of copies and hope to spend part of this evening playing with possible ways to finish the corners. Originally I didn’t have any ideas, but now have several in mind. Sometimes that makes it harder!!!

Now to get off of this computer and get to it!!

Gone too soon

On Thursday evening I was told that my friend, Cleo, had passed earlier in the day. This was definitely a case of someone being gone too soon.

Cleo was a fighter. In the 10+ years that I had known her, she had fought cancer twice and worked so hard to recover from severe edema in her legs. She was starting to get back to her life, and for a quilter, that meant new projects! She had borrowed a number of Scrap Quilting books and had already picked out a few that she wanted to make.

But, alas, she was beset with a stroke and then learned that the cancer had metastasized further into her body. She passed while surrounded by her loving family.

I know that I had met Cleo before, but my first true conversation with her occurred at a Quilt Show….where else!! She was working behind the scenes, keeping the kitchen organized and running. We talked for at least an hour and I was struck by her interest in my life and the way she would assimilate what I had said and then ask further questions. I knew that she was retired at the time and made the assumption that she must have worked in a mental health area. Instead, I was to find that she was a banker!! I guess that they have to ask probing questions too.

She carried that ability to listen and ask questions to her quilting. She could critique a quilt in a heartbeat and was always gracious in her presentation so that you actually thought that it was YOUR idea and not hers!! When she and her husband, Richard, would come to our house for dinner, we often ended up with the guys on the deck and Cleo and I in my studio, with her patiently looking at each of my in-progress pieces and making wonderful suggestions that, eventually, made it a better quilt!

She was part of our Cre-8-tive group and, when we presented our challenges, she would ask what we liked about it and what we hated about it. One of our last challenges was handwork. We each presented a basic piece and then passed it around as others added to it. Cleo presented us with this….

We each did some work and handed it back to her looking like this….

And she finished it into this magnificent piece…..

And, her portion of this challenge is what inspired me to make these Quilt Show Badges….

In July of last year, Michael and I met she and Richard for lunch and she proudly showed her latest project, a photo quilt for her Granddaughter……

….It didn’t matter if we were standing in the middle of a parking lot!!!

She always inspired me!! At one lunch she was showing me the results of a workshop that she had taken and I decided to go home and try something similar. I got this far before life took over again…..

I am thinking that it is time to pull it out and get it finished!!

Cleo was a believer in Jesus Christ and in His saving grace and I believe that she is in heaven now. I can only imagine what heaven looks like for a quilter but I can hope that…..

there are no broken needles
needles never come un-threaded
thread doesn’t tangle
bobbins never run out (especially not 2 inches before you finish sewing that binding on)
you can always find the pin that you dropped
steam irons have an infinite water supply, and don’t cut off at just the wrong time
half-square and quarter-square triangles are always the perfect size….straight off of the machine
fabric is available in any pattern and any color
and most importantly…..seam rippers don’t exist because they aren’t needed…..EVER!

You will be missed my friend!!!

Quilt on dear Cleo…..quilt on!!!

Wall down…..wall up (almost)

]The construction crew arrived early this morning and immediately started pulling up carpet, knocking down walls and starting on the new wall!!

The only thing that they ran into was an exhaust pipe mysteriously hidden in the wall that was coming down. The plumber is coming tomorrow to re-route it!!!

At days end, this is where it stands……

….dang that pipe!!!!

I am already thinking about the fun projects that will happen in here!!!

Weekend Progress…..

Well, the studio and sitting room are now empty, waiting for the contractors to come tomorrow and tear down the adjoining wall!!! And, most of the stuff fit into the bathroom…..

Having said that, my books and book shelves are in another bedroom and my sewing machine table is still in the corner of the room!!

It was interesting to think thru all of my “stuff” as I was moving it. I know that I did a pretty big purge last summer, but I am thinking that I may need to do some more!!!

I was amazed at how many pins I had on my design wall……

I have struggled to find pins that work well on my design wall. I kept thinking that I needed longer ones but they tend to bend easily so I am going to see if I can find some that are shorter and sharper….any suggestions??

On the sewing front, I have continued working on the “Color Wheel” applique and now just have one more set of circles to sew down. They are basted in place here….

My plan from here is to add triangles in the corners (make it a square in a square) and add another (yet unknown) design element!! As I look at it, I feel certain that it needs more swirls of some sort.

Finally, I have been quilting on the Henna Girl…..

When I first started doing the echo lines, I wasn’t sure that I liked it, but as I have done more, it has grown on me.

Finally, the weekend was made even better by ……

SNOW!!!

We don’t often get it in Georgia so this was a nice change. Even better, it was gone within 12 hours!!!

The last excitement of the weekend was learning about the iPhone app…..Marco Polo!! You can record a short video to send to someone and then, when they have time, they can video back. It’s like a video chat but you both don’t have to be on the same time schedule. My excitement today was getting to “talk” to our friend Ruth and see her sweet twin boys (that I haven’t met yet) and the ever sweet Bo……