Quilting and other Things

This morning I saw a badge on Elaine's blog.  Normally I read through a reader and don't see the badges.  Planning what to complete or atleast to progress over the next year sounds like a good idea.  I use lists when I have deadlines or at work to keep track of what needs doing.  Quilting I like to keep track of my projects. The list is long and has gone back to more undone than done. This is the top part of the spreadsheet. There are 53 54 things on the in progress tab. The completed tab has 47. I enjoy moving items to the completed tab.  1.  I've pre-purchased 10 hours of quilting at a new long arm quilting store called Whirls and Swirls and completed the training program. In January I'm going to go quilt the my first quilt there. The goal is to get at least 8 - 10 tops quilted next year. Actually 12 would be ideal (one a month) but I'm not sure that will be practical. Some will be from this list and some will be tops that Mom had comp...

The guild speaker and workshop teacher this month was Al Cote . The class was on making a quilted rug. On Saturday we layered up the fabrics and trimmed it down to the size of the batting. Did some doodling then stitched lines and started removing fabric. I meant to take a photo before I started the removal process but forgot. So this is taken after the first round of removing fabrics and part way through the second round. Near the end of the afternoon he had everyone put their project down on the floor for admiring. It was a fun day and we certainly had a great collection of rugs in progress.  It was a really fun day.  Karen came too so it was even better because I got to stitch with my sister. The next day I continued removing fabric stopping every once in a while to throw it on the floor and look at it to see how it was looking. By the end of Sunday, this is how it looked. I still have a few pieces to remove before continuing with the quilting and final s...

On Monday evening I went to the first of three workshops on low light photography at the Aquarium. It was a lot of fun. There was a talk at first about the exposure triangle and settings that might be useful then we went down into the display areas and tried what we had learned about. At first I was having problems getting the photos light enough. Talked to the instructor for a few minutes and suddenly realized that at one point when I was reading the book about my camera, I had limited the auto ISO setting so it couldn't go above 6400. When in and removed that and the pictures were much better. 1/15 sec at f5.6 ISO 6400 95mm 1/15 sec at f4.5 ISO 6400 42mm  The octopus was curled up right out front against the glass.  1/200 sec at f3.5 ISO 12800 18mm 1/200 sec at f3.5 ISO 10000 18mm The sword fish was just hanging out on the roof of the tunnel.  The ray swam past at intervals.  So did some sharks.  This was the best of the group.  ...

While up visiting Dad this month, I saw a boat being lifted by crane onto a flat bed truck. The marina is being closed for the season. According to the newspaper the boat is 22000 lbs and 40 ft long. From the angle I was sitting at to snap some of these photos it looked like it almost hit a sign and the building. Since none of the workers looked panicked, I think everything was actually well clear of the obstacles.   It was interesting watching this come out of the water. Previously I'd only seen (and helped) when the trailer was backed down a ramp. Also adding a link for bloglovin. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

This month the guild speaker was Elizabeth Dillinger . On Saturday she taught her Zen Free Motion quilting class. I had been on the wait list but got a call on Monday that there was a spot for me. It was an excellent day. In the morning we learned about setting up our machines and practiced some skills -- some free motion and some thread painting for drawing lines and where to look. After lunch we started in on a practice piece. She provide a larger floral print sandwich and we quilted/thread painted a flower then did some embellishments. All to add dimension to the flower. She's an excellent teacher and speaker. This is the practice piece. I forgot to take a photo before I touched it so this is after some work is done. I've started to do some marking on this flower in pencil but on the whole its how the manufacturer printed it. This one I've started to prepare. This one is stitched and then had ink and glitter added. I came home with several page...

. I taped the centre section of the pattern together yesterday. Then I started to lay out all the bits that I had prepared for the last month. Now it is ready to be stitched. Still have to make the zigzag parts though. Linking this up with Esther's WOW

After stitching the flowers around the centre and adding their stems, Love Entwined has sat waiting for me to prep the next step.  Its waited a long time.  Over the last month I've prepared a whole baggie of bits for parts 2&3.  I still haven't tackled the zigzag part but I know what I plan to do so I'll get to it shortly. (The black lines are just stitched lines to help with the placement.  They mark the 8 points of the top.  Eventually, I'll remove them) After trying the applique tools and various interfacings, I traced two pages of shapes that I needed and printed them on the wash away stabilizer and then prepared the shapes. Last Sunday I was suppose to go to Elaine's for an applique day. When I went out to head over we were having freezing rain. I cleared the windshield, got in the car, couldn't see out the windshield for the freezing rain so got out and cleared it again. After the third time clearing and still not being able to pull out of...