Questionable center

I've finished quilting the piece I started here and here half a year ago. Saved the center for last.

I'm very happy with the quilting everywhere but the center. Is it the quilt lines or thread color? Or both? So I'm setting it aside. Allow time and distance for a fresh view. Or a clue to redo.

Crazy eight

The monthly solids club at Pink Chalk Fabrics will morph into a new version debuting in January  2012 (less than a week away!). They'd feature a charm pack of prints with coordinating solids. Don't despair yet fellow solids fans.

"A Solids Stack of the Month will be available for purchase each month in the shop similar to what is being offered now in the club - it just won't be an auto-ship."

Let's hope they'd offer the stack in 1-yard cuts.

With no shipment in December, and especially with the holidays, I needed my monthly fix. So I picked eight Moda Bella Solids. Here's what I got from top to bottom: Fig Tree Apricot, Lime, Betty's Orange, Tan, Rust, Horizon Blue, Stone and Kansas Troubles Red.

Hmm - not so pretty, eh?
What about this group?

Prettier restacked. Presentation does makes a difference, doesn't it?

Choices at a brick-and-mortar shop might've been different from these chosen online. I'm adding to my stash, not using them together. Otherwise I'd go crazy picking the perfect eight.

No bargain

batting was stacked atop of solid black fabric.

bunnies under the table after sandwiching the quilt.

I’d picked up the batting at the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse for a bargain. Soft, silky and lightweight. No packaging, no brand. I suspect a bamboo blend. Turns out this was no bargain after all. 

blue masking tape frame around test square to contain the lint

underside of quilt top

I cleaned up the lint as best I could and re-built the sandwich with another batting. Back to tried and true. Save the experimentation and unknown for another day.

Backward progress

Steps backwards to move forward.

I’m lounging about in my pj’s eating bon-bons and watching day-time soap operas. Not!

The first month of retirement past quickly. A week handling personal business. One week out of town pruning an almond orchard.

Another week of deferred housekeeping.

The rest zoning out, recovery and r&r. Where did that time go? Haven’t seen that full time studio artist yet.

Plans are afoot to be a stationary nomad. Rooms will trade spaces: studio with the guest bedroom, and my bedroom with the home office. The bathrooms are slated for a long overdue remodel. Retiring means making changes in other areas too.

Though I still haven’t cleaned up after Hurricane Elena, the state of domesticity allows some guilt-free time in the studio.

Four years after my very first quilt top, I now have a lap quilt.

Just in time for the guild’s annual Show-and-Tell in November. Orange Rhyme also got another moment in the limelight. A slide show will be posted here.

Just a peek at another project in the works.