I’m glad to report that the poppy is coming along very nicely. This poppy looks red-orange because of the fabrics. The actual photo is really red-pink. It’s really more pink than red. These are the only fabrics I had to work with so I took a lot of “artistic liberty.”

Here are a couple detail shots. I did a lot of thread painting, trying to give it more depth. I find free motion quilting meditative…it’s like doing yoga. I loose myself in the stitching and then it’s midnight….where did the time go?

Here is my latest project, the poppy. I worked most of the weekend cutting out the pieces to be fused. I still have a few other pieces to add to the petals but that should be easy to do. Last night I took a break from the piece. I hope to start thread painting later this week.

I’m happy to report that I got 45 rose blocks at the guild meeting and 3 blocks were sent to me. 48 total blocks. A big thanks to all the ladies participating.
I’m planning a sit-n-sew for October or November to put the 3 applique’ blocks together.

It’s so much fun to see everyones blocks and how different they look.

Things are pretty hectic at work and there are lots of deadlines and headaches. This daffodil is what I work on late in the evening as a stress reliever. I REALLY look forward to working on it every night. I actually can’t wait to get to it each evening.
Actually, I’ve just recently come back to it. I stopped working on it for several months. Personally, I usually don’t work on just one project at a time. I work on several at a time. The daffodil has been up on my studio wall for many months percolating. I think I’ve just about completed the applique’. Next is the fun part. Bringing it to life with thread painting.

Do you work on several projects at a time or do you work on one until it’s complete?

Kitty cat pic of the day….my pretty Daphne.

I now have to hand stitch the facing down on the back and it will be done.
I had a lot of fun with this piece. I did a minimal paint job on the lily and did a lot of work filling in with stitching. I also really enjoyed doing all the background quilting.

Here is a detail of my favorite background quilting stitches.

And, Alzheimer’s is a bitch.
But, Saturday was a good day. Mama knew I was her daughter. I can’t ask for more than that.

Magnificent magnolia is finally done. I think I’ve been working on it most of the summer. Especially since I did the small study. To be honest, I’ve never done a study before and I really learned a lot.
I changed the center area a bit, the paint is lighter and the quilting is more pointy, on the petals the quilting follows the shape of each petal and the leaves are more subtle.

I like the center much area better, the detail is more what I was going for.

A few important things I learned.
1. TWO AT THE SAME TIME: Work on another piece at the same time. I worked on my lily doing the intense quilting as a warm up for the large piece.
2. YOU’RE COMMITTED: Always do warm up quilting because when you stitch on a painted area you CAN’T take it out.
3. KEEP GOING: I find that I get half way done and I HATE the piece. I think it’s the perfectionist in me but, you must keep working. Keep going and finish.
4. YUCK: I find that I’m never happy with the final piece and want to fold it up and put it away forever. Take some time off from it, look at it in a couple of days. I find I like my work after I’ve had some time off from it.

Here’s my kitty girl Daphne. She is the princess of the house and knows it.

I’ve been teaching my niece to sew. I got her a jelly roll several months ago and now that she’s on her summer vacation we’ve had 3 intense sessions. She’s done so well especially since she’s never done any type of sewing before.

We stared by learning the basics of the machine and stitching the jelly roll strips together. The best thing about this machine is that it has special 1/4″ foot that has a metal edge on it. So 1/4″ seams are a snap especially for a beginner.

Our lesson this weekend was a 4 patch. With all the strips together we trimmed the selvedges and cut the pieces to make 4 patch. Here is Meg with her favorite patch.

I spent a lot of time free motion quilting this weekend. Here’s the reason my stitches are a bit off.

It’s tough stitching with an 17lb cat on your quilt

I’m thrill to say that 46 tulip blocks were turned in this past Wednesday evening. I had several ladies tell me how fun the block was and they were looking forward to working on the next block. Keep up the good work ladies!

Here is what I’ve been working on lately. I painted this lily in a very sketchy manner. My goal was to do a lot of thread painting. I’ve also been working on the background quilting. Instead of the same pattern for the background I wanted to change it up and and do different patterns. I tried this technique on a project last year and loved it. It added so much variety and was much more interesting to look at. What do you think?

And, I’ve been working on the super-sized magnolia. I painted it over a two-week period and now I’m working on the quilting.

Finally, a kitty pic to enjoy. Tootie reclining.