Studio Kit

I had all my posts for this week planned and just as I was ready to hit "publish" this morning, I said to BSP, "Is it Wednesday or Thursday today?" I was going to publish Thursday's post. And then I couldn't find my Wednesdy post. But it turns out I forgot about Wednesday. Poor Wednesday!

So would you like to take a walk with me instead?

We'll start by walking over this little bridge - perhaps we can stop on the bridge, and look into the water, searching for turtles and little fishes and look at the watermoss on the rocks waving in the current. We can talk about things quilty or not, or sing.

Once we cross the bridge, we'll go into the trees, following a path that's just barely there - or wandering under the trees, being drawn in deeper and deeper. (Don't worry, if you're scared, I'll hold your hand, and we'll be sure to find our way back.)

We can play hide and seek amongst the trees, look up in wonder at their trunks:

Or dance like a wood nymph!

And then we could have a picnic in a leafy glade...

before making our way home, tired but happy.

Thanks for coming on my walk with me!

Tomorrow, I'll show you the beginning of the construction of my quilt for The Bloggers' Quilt Festival which begins on Friday. Are you ready? I am!

Yes, that really is a 14/90 needle that I managed to sew THROUGH my finger.

The staff at the hospital described it as "cool", "interesting" and "weird"; said things like "I've never seen THAT before" and complimented me on my calmness. (I am, actually, remarkably calm in emergency situations.)

When we looked at this on Monday, there was a big fluffy, 5 year old tree on a painted sky background. It was developing, but it still wasn't the vision I had in mind - too juvenile.

Because I can't seem to concentrate on one thing at a time lately, I went back to work on that flower:

I was bored with it as I quilted it on that cream background, so decided to overlay it with four different 6.5 inch wide stips of coloured tulle.

So you may remember this supposedly finished piece that I called "June".

This weekend, I was working on that other piece I showed you last week, and this one literally fell on my head (off of a shelf where it had been precariously balanced).

Hopefully, this doesn't look too familiar to you, but you may remember (if you used to follow me at Coneflowers In Leslieville) that when I was "done" this piece, it looked like this:

Look what I did!

I actually finished a quilt, can you believe it?

I barely can! :) If you remember this top from several (or more) months ago, then you may be thinking, "Hey! Wasn't that a lot bigger before?" (I mean, a LOT bigger?) And you'd be right.

*cough*

See, first I somehow managed to quilt the whole damn thing without noticing that the last, outer edge wasn't lined up properly with that good ol' quilt sandwich - and so fully 8 inches of of one section of one side, had no batting. Another part of the same side had no backing fabric (about 3 inches) and all in all, I figured the best thing to do was to lop off the 8 inches on that one side - and then a length along the other side - whatever it took, for the design to be balanced.

That should work, right? Right! Except, for some bizzare reason, I couldn't manage to get it trued up after that! So, I'd shave off an inch along one side, and then shave off an inch on another side, and shave of 1/2 an inch on another side, and shave off an inch and 1/2 on another side - and before I knew it, I was standing in an ever-mounting pile of quilted strips.

Before it reached my knees and I had a doll quilt on my hands, I decided to quit before I got futher behind.

I put a very nice binding on it, and I must say, it looks great on our grey couch, and I swear, even I can't find that one wonky side, even though I know it's there.

So there. :)

But I think I need to get back to practicing quilting big quilts again.

*hee*