Quilting and other Things

I'm getting back to my quilting so am joining up with One Monthly Goal (OMG) again.  Had a fun time at a guild retreat on the weekend and got all the components for Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery quilt completed and made atleast one of each of the blocks.  My goal for March is to make all the blocks, the sashing and the border units.  Ideally I'd get the top assembled but I'll be happy to have the blocks made.  Its been about 5 years in the works.  I didn't like the green checker board I made originally and on the weekend they got remade with pale greens.

As I mentioned previously  a goal the last several years has to been to learn Photoshop.  I realized this year that part of my problem was I hadn't really defined what that meant so came up with a high level idea.   Through my library, I get access to Lynda.com  In January, I watched Julianne Kost's classes on Lynda.com called Photoshop CC 2019 Essential Training: Photography and The Basics.  While watching these I realized that I needed to step back a level.  

I do basic editing in Lightroom, having learned some formulas but I don't understand why they work or what to do when they don't work.  I'd like to understand all the panels in the develop modules of Lightroom (or camera raw) and know how and when to use the tools.  Then when that still hasn't gotten the photo where I want it, how to continue in Photoshop.  

So I stepped back and started watching her course on Camera Raw.  While its not Lightroom itself, the develop module there is the same so the concepts…

Friday I posted about this year, today its about next year.Yvonne is hosting a planning party again.The new year sees a number of changes for me so I’m in the process of planning that as well.  Some of that will take a few months so for now I'm focusing on the recurring items.
Quilting:

1.  Clean and organize quilt room (and office since they are in the same area).  Its gotten so messy, I've no desire to go down there and work on my quilting or anything else for that matter.

2.  I’m going to continue with the Motivation Monday ideas.  I'm still working on the list I created for 2017.  The goal at the time was to move things forward.  I think that will still be the goal for some things as they are quite large.  The list still includes


Canada BOM from Guild 2015/16Stainglass Manger - Quilt and bindABC AppliqueOne Block Wonder - Quilt and bind Common BrideLove EntwinedWinter WallhangingBonnie Hunter Mystery 20143.  I’ll also look at the list of tops waiting to be quilted and …

Last year, I posted goals as part of Yvonne at Quilting Jet Girl’s planning party.The year didn’t go quite as I planned but that's OK.
Quilting:

1.  The Motivation Monday worked well when I used it early in the year.I wanted to make progress on Common Bride.The star blocks are done and the centre assembled.  I thought I had a photo up on the wall with all the applique done but I cannot find it.  The stars still need to be added to the centre.  I’ve done some prep work for the next round.I looked at several other quilts but there wasn’t a lot of sewing after the first few months.


2.  I only got out to use the long arm machine once this year but did get two tops quilted.

Photography:

1.  Learn Photoshop.  This still didn’t happen.I’m beginning to wonder if this is something I really want to do.I’ll probably leave it on the list and try one more time.

2.  Tidy up Lightroom.  This is still a work in progress. It’s a good thing that you can get a long way when you take enough baby steps. 

Wa…

Back in April, my stretch goal was to complete the top Patti Carey had donated to our community outreach program.  It didn't get done and sat all summer waiting for me to get to it.  There wasn't much sewing this summer especially after a lot of things got stored downstairs for a few months. 

In September, I went to a Sit 'n Sew at Elaine's with a plan to complete this top and then work on another project.  Its good to dream.  Even with the prep work done, I took three full sewing days to insert the strips and a few hours the fourth day to prepare the binding.  The two panels were already stitched together, the border added and the lines drawn on the back. 



 I stitched colour pieces and black pieces together, measured the line and inserted the pair into the top.  It was fun to make. 
I'd like to try this again with a floral in the background.  Elaine took the top, added some of the Northcott fabrics from the same collection as a backing and quilted and bound it.  I…

I’ve had a membership at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) for almost 10 years.  Each season, they offer a free exchange weekend with other museums and galleries which don’t have exchange privileges with the ROM.  A few years ago, I took advantage of those to visit the Aga Khan Museum and the Bata Shoe Museum (both are well worth a visit if you are in Toronto).  I did blog about the shoe museum here but apparently not about the Aga Khan.

A few weekends ago I took advantage of another exchange.  It was a visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).  When the ROM announced the date earlier this fall, I added the date to my calendar, so I’d remember this time.  Saturday morning I met Karen at the Gallery and we spent about 4 hours roaming around. 

The first stop was downstairs to visit the model ships gallery.  The first thing to catch my eye was a shadow.  It’s cast by a tiller from a Viking Ship which hangs nearby.  They also had a large collection of models made by French POWs during the lat…