Training Week or Piecing Week?

Thanksgiving is over; we spent the day with great friends and good food.  Today, I drove to Sacramento for a week-long training for my day job.  Got to the hotel where I'm staying and realized that the furniture arrangement wasn't working for me.  This is what I found when I got here:

This is what it looks like now.  Better, eh??

Now when I get back from class at 5, I can piece all evening while watching television, checking e-mail, etc.  The only good thing about being here for a week is the freedom to work on my stuff without any guilt.  Its not like I could bring my longarm with me!!!  The bad part...I'm already homesick!

Autumn Leaf Wallhangings

This last Saturday, our guild had a class wherein we were supposed to bring leaves and black fabric.  We discharged the black fabric using a solution of 50/50 bleach/water and a spray bottle.  The original leaves were placed on the fabric in whatever pattern we chose and held down with tiny rocks.  As soon as the fabric was sprayed, the leaves were removed and we watched the color leach from the fabric.  When satisfied, the fabric went into a "stop bath" (1 part hydrogen peroxide to 8 parts water) for a few minutes, then clear water rinse.

The next step was to iron the fabric until it was dry (if you were at home, you could just let it air dry) and then trace the leaves we'd used for discarging on Steam-a-Seam for a pattern.  That pattern goes on the fabric of choice--usually fall-colored batiks--and then you cut around the leaf.  Finally, you press the leaves onto the discharged fabric after deciding which way you want your shadow to go.

My first attempt was with this huge leaf.  I chose the easy way out and made two small "quilts."  This one used the large leaf...

And this one used several. 

Here's a close-up of the leaf so you can see how its supposed to appear to float above its shadow. 

I got home that afternoon, put a border around the black fabric, threw some muslin on the machine and did this really simple quilted design.  Feels good to actually have something so close to being done!

Just in the Nick of Time...

The weather  report yesterday said that we were in for big winds and rain today.  So this morning, before the weather had started, we moved the horses from the pasture into the barn.  I know this doesn't sound like a big deal; however, for us it is.  We've been married nine years in February, together for almost eleven, and this is the first time we've moved the horses before the storm.  Yep, the very first time!!!

This is what the doppler shows.... (we're under the white; east of Redding and south of Alturas--our entire County is in white and we're pretty much directly under the pink area)

And this is what it looks like outside now....

I'm planning to spend the rest of my day quilting (while we have power) and sitting by the fire when it goes out.

I forgot to share this with you...

It's Shannon...she's having a block of the month on her blog.  That girl is just a little too talented, if you ask me *vbg*  Click here to see the first block.  She's posting one every month on the second Monday.  I won't be doing this quilt right now, but I'm saving the instructions.  I know it will be beautiful when she's done!

Then...in another blog, she was commenting on her iTouch and the fact that she found some quilting applications at iTunes.  Since I now am the proud owner of a Samsung Rogue, I had to look at Verizon to see if they have any apps that will work.  Guess what I found when I did a search for "quilt"?  Nothing...a big fat zero!!  *shrug*  Oh well, maybe they'll get something eventually....

Finally...Finished Two Quilts in ONE Weekend!

Although I usually have three days off every weekend, I rarely get two quilts entirely done.  This weekend was different in many ways.   I had a holiday on Wednesday, which was spent quilting.  But then I ended up working late on Thursday and working almost all day on Friday!  So Saturday and Sunday were spent quilting and doing housework too--and I still got them both done. 

This one was custom for a friend.  Billie did a great job on this quilt and I love purple and green together.  Have a look and remember, if you click the picture, you can see it bigger.

Close up... I used Quilter's Dream Puff batting; the interlocking design in the middle is supposed to be puffy and the edges will fray when its washed.  QD was the perfect batt for this one.

The back...multi-colored strips from the front, but the solid shows the quilting.

And I have to give a shout out to APQS...I adore my Millennium!  I have come to know him quite well, I know what threads he likes and which he doesn't.  With this quilt, I used my customer's thread in the small loops in the multi-colored borders around each block.  Mel handled it like a champ.  APQS makes the best machines!!!

The second quilt was a panto on a really nice batik quilt with maple leaves.  No pic yet, my customer still hasn't seen it, but it turned out great!  I used My Favorite Leaves by Judy Allen and Rainbows Brass Band thread by Superior Threads.  I hope my customer likes it as much as I.