Books in Bloom 2025

This amaryllis which had taken so long to bloom is now in full bloom. It looks lovely against this quilt piece that I made way back in 2009. Three months after I retired, I flew to Italy for a workshop with Esterita Austin in Tuscany. It was a wonderful week. This wall hanging depicts the view from an upper window at the villa where the workshop took place. This piece was started at the workshop and completed when I returned home.

Speaking of flowers, after a fun lunch with friends yesterday, I visited the “Books in Bloom” exhibit by the Weymouth Garden Club at the Tufts Library in Weymouth. It will be up until tomorrow. In case you are not able to see it in person, let me show you a few of the displays.

Out of Africa

The Children’s Room also had some delightful displays.

It was a lovely break from the onslaught of horrible news coming from the Oval Office. I recently wrote that politics would not be a part of this blog, but this is not the time for any of us to keep silent. Today’s shameful, disgraceful treatment of President Volodymyr Zelensky was just the latest outrage in what has been a horrible few weeks. 

Slava Ukraini/ Glory to Ukraine!

Hibiscus Quilted Wall Hanging - Progress

Well, part two of my hibiscus wall hanging project is almost, nearly, not quite totally, but pretty darn close to being ready, and I am pleased with how it looks at this point.

The yellow stickie in the top left corner has a note to remind me to add the stamen and pistil parts. The leaf in the upper right corner is there because I'm still working on the bottom section. You can see what is left of my pattern. As I indicated in a previous post, I do tape each piece back in place because I never know whether I will want to make changes or not.

I have been tweaking this piece for the last few days. I thought that late on Wednesday or Thursday I had it the way I wanted, but the next morning I made changes. I'm most creative late at night when there a fewer distractions. When I was in college many, many, many years ago, I wrote the majority of my essays between 12:00 and 4:00 am. I still like working that way. Emma is asleep, there are no errands to run or things to do, so I like to work then though I usually make myself quit by 2:00am.  When I am in the midst of a project, I tend to get a tiny bit obsessed.

I have not done any stitching yet as I am still making changes. It's currently in my dining room resting on a batting covered piece of fiber board. As I walk through the room, I glance at it and may decide to make a change or two.

It won't reach my sewing machine for another week or so as I like to live with it at this stage for awhile. Once I am satisfied, I will do a skinny zigzag around all of the raw edges of each piece.  Then I'm thinking that I will do some thread painting as I have purchased some luscious variegated threads that should work well on this piece. I'll want to practice thread painting on a smaller piece first.

The yellow and the orange  fabrics on the outer edges were pieces of fabric that I painted. I wrote about that process here. I also used this batik fabric. When I see fabric such as this that I think I might use at some point, I will buy a half yard or more.

This is what it looks like now . . . swiss cheese . . .  but there is still plenty to work with at another time. :-) [I became aware of using fabrics such as this after taking a wonderful class with Esterita Austin ten years ago. She is a terrific teacher and the workshop involved an absolutely incredible week in Tuscany!!!]

Here's hoping that you have a wonderful, colorful, lovely week.

Starting a New Quilted Landscape

    This photo was taken on our camera club's 2012 trip to Tuscany. At the time, I knew it would make an interesting subject for a quilted landscape. Actually, I've been debating between this photo and another taken in San Gimignano. Okay, not so much debating as just plain procrastinating, but finally, I've begun working on this new piece. Documenting my progress here will hopefully keep me focused on finishing it.
    First, I printed out my 8x10 photo. Next, I taped a sheet of clear plastic over the photo and used an extra fine point permanent marker to trace the edges of the key elements in the photo. At the copy center in Staples, I asked for an enlargement of this plastic sheet that would be 18" in length. This seemed to be a good size, but eventually I returned to get the piece enlarged to 24" in length as some sections of the first enlargement were just too small.  Here is the enlargement.

Isn't that cool? You don't have to be an artist to make your own pattern. Even better, the enlargement costs only a few dollars. This is my master copy. I taped it to the window, placed a sheet of freezer paper over it, and traced over all the lines to make a working copy which I will then be able to cut apart as I work on each section.

    Next, I put down a piece of black fabric and over it a piece of Transdoodle, chalk side down. (Don't you love that name? It's works like carbon paper used to, but this is intended for fabric. One side is smooth and the other side has a chalky surface. The same sheet may be used many times.) I taped my working copy over it and once again traced all the lines with a pencil. When done, I removed the working copy, the Transdoodle sheet, and here's what I had.  The black fabric clearly shows where each fused appliqué piece will go. It's magic!!!

     To fuse the individual pieces, I will use Misty Fuse.  I learned about using Transdoodle and Misty Fuse and the process of creating a quilt landscape at an incredibly fun  Quilting under the Tuscan Sun workshop in Tuscany with Esterita Austin back in 2010.  

So that's how it starts. The process isn't difficult, but it does take time.