watercolor

Winter Watercolor Studies

Pursuing a new direction is always tough.  Stepping out of the comfort zone and finding the time to work on new ideas is also a challenge.  I managed to do some works this winter that I had been thinking about for  while.  I am not sure where it will take me.  

 

Bedroom Scene – Reading
Bill and Pete Watercolor
Marcia and Pete Morning Media
Marcia and Pete After Walking
Quilting in the Kitchen

 

 

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kitchenquiltMP19

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Checkerboard border and Quilt top

Marion Making a Checkerboard Border

 

Step One cut 3 inch stripes of black and white.  Sew them together in two patterns.  White Black White and Black White Black.

Marion is cutting three inch blocks

Cutting the 3 inch stripe sheets into three inch blocks

Three Inch Blocks

Black White Black and White Black White strips ready for sewing into the checkerboard pattern

Sewing lesson for Marion

Marion sews the checks together

Checkerboard border and Quilt top

A section of the checkerboard border is complete and laid against the existing body of the quilt top

It took quite a while to assemble this border and then attach it to the quilt.   Once it was complete I took it to show it to the Cedar Grove Quilters.  They invited me to have it quilted at a much faster rate than I could do on my own.  It is very exciting for me to see it finished this spring.  Who knows how long it would have taken me working by my self.  Group quilting or “the Quilting Bee”  is so much fun and interchange of ideas is invigorating.  So much knowledge and experience is passed back and forth.  It is a great experience!

Pieced and hand quilted

“Harbor Lights” Machine Pieced and Hand Quilted 94″H x 102″W

The Cedar Grove Quilters are helping me quilt this piece.  When we stretched it out in the quilt frames the checked border did not lay down properly.  It was bunched up in places.  Before we could start quilting I had to work on the quilt top and do some repairs.  I had to take seams apart and then fold  the seams inward so that each square fit better.  Some of the square are now varying in size but at a glance it is not that noticeable and the quilting details make it work much better.

Cotton Pieced Quilt

Harbor Lights

 

Harbor Lights

Pieced Backing for Harbor Lights

A New String Quilt 2018

The Blue and Yellow color scheme is a favorite of mine these days. After an inventory purging and reorganization of my quilting scrapes I am ready to start. I have come up with a pattern and I think I can pull it off with Four different string blocks. I am using a paper piecing technique. I like to use tissue paper because it is easily torn off.

What a process.

Blue and Yellow

all my blue and yellow fabric scraps

Blue and Yellow

Fabric Scraps to be ironed

Blue and Yellow Scraps

making strings from fiber scraps

My sketch of the pattern and the number of squares I think I will need: 16 yellow patches, 76 blue and yellow patches, 12 light value (pale) patches, and 28 dark blue patches

This sketch today will help me to make some more adjustments as I get on with my design, while I am making the squares. At the present I have made 21 squares. I have enough to layout the center section and I can see that some adjustments are in order.

The corner where you see the B’s I will add the light blue strips. So I need to make 8 light+dark blue squares. This will provide a nice border in both the inner and the outer bands.

I have now added the dark blue and yellow string blocks which surround the lighter blue string blocks. Next I think I will add another row of lighter blue blocks.