Many Moons fini

Grand baby quilt #2 is finished.

Why moons? Well, when Clara's mommy was a very little girl, I would take her to daycare on my way to work very early in the morning,... so early that the moon was often times still out. My daughter would sit in her car seat in the back and look out the window at the moon. I would sit in the front seat and make the moon talk to her. "Good morning bumblebee". And she would have whole conversations with the moon. So when it came time for a quilt for my little girl's, baby girl, I thought
moons.

Found an article in a recent Quilter's Art Magazine by Jude Hill. I usually just skim over magazine articles, so I was skimming this one and saw the word "weaving" which stoked my old weaver's fire (I have been thinking recently of pulling my Mirrix down from the closet and doing a little weaving). Unfortunately, the magazine disappeared before I had a chance to read the article, so the only words I remember are "weaving" and "backing cloth". I decided to just go with those two words and had a lot of fun with it! Jude Hill hand sews her quilts, which I can't do anymore because of arthritis in my hands. So I took my little woven strips to the sewing machine and played around with the free motion quilting foot. Making really cool, random sort of blocks? No measuring and rotary cutters? Yes please! This may be my new regular Saturday night thang.

Boababs and finish lines

I am finally beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel with Many Moons. Doing wonky stars with free motion quilting for the pattern. When next I post about this quilt, it will be completed which should be by the end of next week. 

Driving home the other day, I saw the sun setting behind this big wonderful Boabab tree that I pass almost everyday, and thought I would share. I'm not sure how it got where it is, which is sandwiched in between the traffic of US 1, the railroad tracks and the Fort Lauderdale airport. Wedged into this noisy, bad smelling place. It doesn't belong here. I know how it feels. I wish I could rescue it but I can't even rescue myself right now from this noisy, bad smelling place.  

Pain to discovery

About half way through making my moon faces, my hands decided they have had enough of embroidery. They were killing me. So I finished the last remaining faces by free motion stitching and fabric paint. And do you know, I am loving it! I love the way that they look like my illustrations instead of sewing. I feel more comfortable with that. Now I wish I had done the whole quilt top this way. 

Sometimes pain can lead to good things... like birth. I'm sure my little Dreamboat Annie won't mind that grandma experimented with her quilt. 

To face or not to face

I finally resolved the dilemma of whether or not to give my Madonna a face. I really struggled with this for a while in my mind. Finally I decided yes. She should have a face. 

Meanwhile ... this little face makes me smile everyday

Organization

Well, feeling a bit more organized. I've put all my projects in order by deadline on an all year 2016 calendar. It helps to be able to see everything laid out that way. 

And the first project finished for 2016 is the Twitter Art Exhibit postcard.

Precious Waters

His tiny highness has arrived

And grandma is in love

He looks like an annoyed little Roman senator

While up in Jax helping to birth babies, I took along a technique I've been wanting to play around with. This is Miss Ivy. She is an old sketch from a couple of years back that I drew at a Doctor Sketchy session. I was the only woman artist there. Surprised? I wasn't... not really. 

So I traced the sketch onto white cotton fabric and am presently doing a black embroider around the lines. I want to add color in a different sort of way, using a combination of fabrics and stitches. So we shall see. 

I feel a bit unorganized since I've been back but we only got back in town last night so I guess that's normal. The first thing I am going to do is finish the Twitter Art Exhibit card and will show that here in a day or two. Then Many Moons must be worked on as grandchild #2 will be here in April.

I think I need to get a bit more organized.

Gee... I'm not sure about that Boris 

Block play

My life now is consumed with waiting for this reluctant little grandchild who will not be born. He is a boy after all, and I'm told they are lazy. However, I did manage to get some work done in the studio yesterday, finally. 

I finished the top and bottom borders for Many Moons. Now working on the sides. While slowly waking up this morning, I decided to do each corner in the above yellow fabric (with a crescent moon in each block) and a sort of back and forth flying geese pattern for the sides in above two colors. 

I also started thinking about my story quilt again. I'm thinking I'd like to add some sawtooth star blocks. 

Also, I originally thought I'd do a black and white small block background, but the black and white made me feel a bit overwhelmed...

...so I played with black and purple, in an Amish sort of way, and really liked the results. You can see the difference in the above sketch. 

Well, my daughter went to the doctor and was told there is no dilation, even though she had a show. So there's no change