V-day and I love a hexie!

Happy V-day! 

I'm going to tell you what I learned making this year's valentine quilt but let me start with a little story.... 

I make a Valentine quilt every year since our marriage.
One year I didn't finish and my husband cautiously asked if that meant something.
LOL! Yes it meant I lost my way somehow in the finishing.
I've been going through my UFO boxes, some projects go back to my quilting beginning in 1984!
Here was the old V-day quilt, all crinkly and buckling from an overabundance of quilting, circa early 2000's

step one: decide not to throw it away
step two: block it by spraying with water, lining it up, and weighting it down to dry
step three: remove a lot of weird quilting (metallic thread is hard to unpick)
step four: add in appropriate quilting to balance the the load
now that it was flat, square, and evenly quilted, I put on a binding

It isn't my favorite by a long shot, but I'm glad the 25 years of quilts is continuous again!
what I learned: my tastes have changed, and if quilting is going wrong it probably won't help to just add more...
Not everything should be saved, but even ugly quilts can sometimes be salvaged if they are important

Back to this year's work.
I did a post on the making of this see it here
since then I added in more hexies, and joined them after quilting.

What I learned
whatever size hexie you want, make the backing 3/4" larger on all sides. I laid the print on my background and a ruler on the 5/8" or 3/4" line and cut adding this on all sides.
use your stiffer batting,  a wall hanging done this way needs body
take your time with pressing  the backing to the front, as this is your finished edge.
I used this project to try different ways to sew this edge, zigzag, straight stitch near the edge, specialty stitches. I like the look of a matching thread and straight stitch.
When all the little quilts were quilted and bound, I put them together experimenting with  two different stitches by hand
1. whip stitch like I connect EPP hexies... not as smooth as it takes up a tiny bit of seam, not important before quilting but this is after quilting and that pulled the edges a bit.
2. ladder stitch
A. little hexie quilts facing each other, then take stitches along the top
B. hexies laying flat but next to each other, take small stitches pulling taut each time.

The flat alignment worked the best of all, no thread showing and secure without distortion.

I stitched on tiny star sequins at the end, see?
then hung it on the wall. DH even said he loved it there so it may stay for a while!

 

I'll try this technique again with my cow collection, to make a bed runner. I might keep the whole background the same in that one however.

Since this is Paint Party Friday, I'm sharing my painted face quilt, and the start to a new painting... so pretty I hated to start inking over it! DH said, maybe you can just paint something to ink... I said, that's what this was to be!

 so I might actually use tissue paper and experiment with flowers before inking...

Linking to
Pink Saturday!
lovelaughquilt.mondays

off the wall Fridays
https://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/
http://www.sliceofpiquilts.com/2020/02/to-my-valentine-tgiff.html
Rain's artdate
wendysquiltsandmore peacock party (quilts)
can I get a whoop whoop Fridays   

I Like Thursday #180

I like this V-day quilt on my picture easel in the family room

Welcome to Thursday's list of likes
As the kids say, I'm not gonna lie.... it's been a very difficult week and I'm about to dig deep to find likes.

the week has been about distractions mainly

TV
some good shows on right now, Project Runway, New Amsterdam, The good doctor, This is Us, the bachelor (altho I yell at the tv a lot when that's on), Biggest Loser, Say yes to the Dress ( national wedding)

streaming
Time Team, Murdoch Mysteries, Mrs Maisel, Grace and Frankie, Great British Baking show, Reel history with 6 celebrities in England going back to survive 4 days of Victorian times, Restoration House where they restore castles and ancient buildings, Donna Reed show, That Girl.

this is a copy of a draw along page copied from the book, and we add in pencil, then go over in pen

youtube drawing videos
still learning from Johanna Basford's "Inky school" videos... she's my new friend lol
Doing some sketching and drawing along with her

DVD's

Outlander current season now on disc at the library, binge watching as they don't let you keep DVD's for long. I read all of the series in book form, and it's very condensed but the show is awesome.

books
listening to Susan Wiggs in the studio, and reading Ellie Alexander series in bed. Requested a number of  library books on quilting, beading, and drawing, so I can send them back.

eating
what's easiest?

I love fresh organic pears!!

 Fabric news

love these new ones and gifted flamingos

sorting UFO's and a post to come on that process and what it's taught me

Sewing
finished this year's Valentine quilt and hung it up. Finished a V-day UFO as well. Hand stitching on some tumbling blocks, made more improv log cabins in green.

puzzles and games
I have favorites on the ipad like spider solitaire, backgammon, mahjong, marbles. I also love doing kakuro math puzzles. I go to jigsawplanet for puzzles of quilts.

Music
xfinity has a swing music channel on cable, and I also like the 70's channel there (#947??)

It's been snowing for over a week now, gray, piling up in the streets because our part of Colorado doesn't seem to find value in plowing. Oh our car insurance rates are sky high... correlation? I am stuck in the house because I can't risk falling on hidden ice and my car is older and not 4 wheel drive. Or a tank. I've had major nosebleeds that slow me down too (I like afrin to stop it and Ayr to heal)
 Can't meet anyone if I can't leave the house, but I've been very happy to have email chats, and a couple phone chats with friends.

To go along with my newfound love of baby elephants, here are some more babies...
Absolutely the sweetest animals taking care of each other.... awe....

Misadventures of Milo

 sorry to say y'all but I'm bored. SO bored.  Oh I walk with mama during the day but no one's out. I love heading out and running into pals but, it's too cold I guess. Not for me, I live by the postal carrier's code... "neither snow nor rain nor dead of night will stop me from my walks"

At night, I take Daddy for his last walk, and to help him exercise I have him throw the ring toy. 
Degree of difficulty right now? 10 because it hides under snow. When I eat snow I fro up. Still... a Daddy's got to be  kept exercised or he gets testy. 

now sit, stay! visit mama's friends who wrote lists too!
craftscaviescontras 
  https://whataboutrheema.blogspot.com/
http://littlepenguinquilts 
http://homesewnbyus 
https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/
https://scrapatches.blogspot.com/    
maryinpeoriahandmade.blogspot.com
http://imworkingonaproject.blogspot.com/
http://3poodlesandanana.blogspot.com  
https://knittingquilter.blogspot.com/     
http://www.piecefulthoughts.com

spiralj2
https://julierosequilts.blogspot.com/  
  https://www.justletmequilt.com/

LINKING TO

Pink Saturday!
 http://backroadstraveller.blogspot.com/
Thursday Thirteen

http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com
http://itsasmalltownlife.blogspot.com/

sewing Saturday improv log cabins

Welcome to this week's sewing round-up

These are some cool log cabins done in an improvisational way.


When looking through my orange scrap bin to keep with the color of the month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, "Orange" , I noted a lot of strings.


thin small or long, strips, often ragged often fraying and uneven.



Perfect!







Off to the white and beige bin for similar strips, sit at the machine and piece the puzzle pieces together

don't overworry size of blocks, keep pressing between strips, let the centers vary, allow for it to be perfectly imperfect because the odd  tilts are more interesting to me than straight little soldiers.

Oh let's make a couple more blocks...

and move them around on the wall.
 Fun!
I think I'll go back and do this with the bright greens from last month!

Linking to
Midweek makers wednesdays
design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays
oh Scrap Sundays 

 scrap happy Saturdays

paint party Friday Blue Bird

Here we are again, watching paint dry!
I enjoyed learning from Johanna Basford, Ceeceecreations, and Shayda Campbell this week, along with sketching a flower from someone's blog photo.
Want to see what I've been doing with ink and paint?

Well, I got out a new tablet of  Fluid brand paper gifted to me at Christmas, and painted a background with KOI paint and a large flat brush. The style of brush makes a big difference in effect.

mixing colors, blending, watching them dry into new colors is meditative.

 Pencil lines, then .05 pigma black ink, white gel, dabs of blues and greens, a bit of ochre for the ground. I like the dashes of white and black on top to look like ground cover. Dots to add shade.

sketchbook for three days, see the idea of a little bird there?

I liked how the little border of fishes surrounding the words looked

On this day, Johanna was demonstrating how to draw in pencil, a basic shape to sketch around, leaving it open for words

 I was reading a blog bemorewithless and saw a close up of a flower that inspired me.

I loved the idea of tiny blossoms creating the center.
I also like to take notes after a sketch to remember what I learned.

I did very little pencil first, basic petal shapes, two circles to give an idea where to do the inking, then erased (or tried to) pencil guidelines.


I love the current look of this year's sketchbook.
I love black ink in a bold line, don't you???

LINKING TO
https://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/

I like Thursday #179

roosevelt park in Longmont CO

Welcome to this week's list of likes. It's been a good week, and a hard week both, but we're here to list the things I found enjoyable this week. I wrote about connections made on Tuesday's post, and would love you to read about them too:together-tuesdays.

I liked seeing red long-johns hanging on a line to dry

then looking closer and seeing pink flamingos too!
speaking of flamingos Diann gave me the greatest flam. fab that same day!

I liked seeing a chandelier hanging from a tree outside

loved the crystals hanging from the watering can, to represent water

These people made a sign post of their important destinations, and miles to it. I liked seeing GA tech, Purdue, and beaches! Great idea I thought, as well as seeing the dog statue

I liked glancing at this house and noting the curving staircase inside the lovely window

I loved the homes in this historic area and that so many had signs that said they were about love and acceptance not hate and walls.

I liked this tree sculpture made with wood and bike chains

see the chains?

my fascination with elephants and humans continues....this is the piano man playing with a baby...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKuhsSrR2TI

then there is this tiny baby who is playing got your nose, or wondering why this woman doesn't have a trunk...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5MQVBaqVkA

MILO"S MOMENTS

 I liked finding this toy at the local farm store. And I liked sniffing all the bags there too.

It has a really good squeaker and it flops around when shaken

 

Now sit!! Stay! visit mama's friends to read their lists!

 https://www.su-sieeemac.com/2020/02/a-fine-day.html

craftscaviescontras 
  https://whataboutrheema.blogspot.com/
http://littlepenguinquilts 
http://homesewnbyus
https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/
https://scrapatches.blogspot.com/    

http://imworkingonaproject.blogspot.com/
http://3poodlesandanana.blogspot.com  
https://knittingquilter.blogspot.com/     
http://www.piecefulthoughts.com
spiralj2
https://julierosequilts.blogspot.com/  
maryinpeoriahandmade.blogspot.com
https://www.justletmequilt.com/

LINKING TO 

cheesy photos at ched curtain https://comedy-plus.com/ Awe Mondays

Pink Saturday!
http://goodrandomfun.blogspot.com
http://itsasmalltownlife.blogspot.com/

together Tuesdays

Longmont CO

welcome to together tuesdays, where I tell you of connections I made last week.

Longmont CO

I made three memorable connections last Saturday, more nice interactions than that but three that stuck with me and made my heart swell.

 We three decided to drive up and retrieve my lunch bag I left at the quilt store when I met Mary in a town called Erie. (It held an important ice pack) If you remember, I wanted to join a friend group there but it's too expensive. I asked about this high price and found out they have other cheaper or free friend groups also meeting there. One is handwork too! Okay then!

1. Since we were going that far north, I called our friends Diann and Mike to meet for lunch. They were free and drove down to meet us in a midway town named Longmont.
Ahhhhh seeing them is like doing a dance you know well, like hearing a happy song, like putting on a soft sweater. It's easy and comfortable. Conversation is smart and lively, and they are so nice to Milo.
We enjoyed catching up a bit, the day's sunshine before the next storm, and a good meal.


After lunch we wondered what to do. We thought we had seen the town of Longmont, but Diann said there was a wonderful section of original homes to walk around. Hmmmm my goal was to see some area I hadn't seen, but no towns nearby interested us.
We found the more active part of downtown Longmont that we missed last time, and walked around there for a bit, shopping at a cool shoe store.
No shoes but I had an interesting chat with two ladies, both had beloved dogs and loved Milo in his freshly bathed and groomed haircut.

2. We walked around Roosevelt Park, built by a woman who moved to Longmont when it started in 1860's

for some reason she's shown as a giraffe???

She loved it enough to finanace a park, and went there to hear a speech by Theodore Roosevelt! It was a nice size, open with a pool and skating rink, and half mile path around.

bronze embedded in rock in honor of the donor

 I stopped to look at an odd sculpture, as a smiling woman was taking a picture of it. We began to chat. She was visiting the town with her husband who was working, and they live in the upper peninsula of Michigan. As it turned out we had so much in common!
We are both artists
we both paint and work with fabric
There were other excited moments where we said, "so do I!!"
We probably could have happily visited each other's studios if we lived in the same town.
Isn't that amazing? And we shared our artwork from our phones. Her quilts were lovely, long and narrow, vegetables made with long roots, very brilliant colors. She paints them on fabric with colored pencil and oil pastels.
The 15 minutes we talked was like fuel to my soul.... a quick ephemeral meeting. Another one of those meetings that felt like I was meant to meet her and hear her wisdom.

She told me to consider that I'm meant to write and illustrate books.

3. Buoyed by these lovely interactions, we then set off to walk around the old homes.
I felt such an attraction to the neighborhood. Lovely old sidewalks of slate, wide lawns between streets and sidewalks, lovely porches, great views of the mountains. Architecture from Victorian to Edwardian, my favorites for this country.

We walked all around but as dusk approached, and we had an hour's drive home, we began to reluctantly head back to the car. Home lights glowed yellow as people settled in for the night.

Stunned by a magnificent sunset we stopped to take pictures. I felt such an affinity for this area, so like where I grew up, so lovely that I was reluctant to leave.
Turning back to the car, I spied two women and a mini aussie on their porch swing.

We all exclaimed over the mild temps and that sunset. They put the dog in the house and happily came over, arms outstretched to shake hands, and introduced themselves. A woman and her daughter, who lived in many places but now own this house, built in 1891,  with one owner who kept it as it was and left it to the historic society. The current owner bought it from the society and has been slowly repairing it to original shape.
She was a bright light in the evening... happy and sunny. Her dog was a service dog for her daughter who had seizures, and therefore not as stranger friendly as other dogs.
(you never know what people are dealing with do you?)
I loved this woman from the first moment she reached out her hand to me and smiled.
I loved her bright  happy daughter who was so open and friendly.
We all chatted about moving around, settling in an area, what it's like to rehab an old home. She loves antiques and old architecture, she grew up in England and suggested the show Grand Design, she makes the trek down to our area regularly to the children's hospital for her daughter.
She said she loves her neighborhood but when a house does go on market there is a crazy bidding war and prices are very high. She said if we ever come back to visit or buy, to make sure to stop in for another chat.

She also shared a bit of wisdom. She said to take heart, to use the next few years to go through our belongings and find the next place to move, not to mire down in the discontent of having moved where we did.

I felt like we parted as old friends.
You can't ask more of a meeting than that can you?

Linking with
https://comedy-plus.com/ 

cheesy photos at ched curtain
Our World Tuesday
Travel_Tuesday
https://grammysgrid.com/