Stormy Weather Projects

Like many others in the Central US, we've had very stormy weather for the past two-three days and we have two more days of the same still ahead of us.

Rainfall to date is over 6 inches (or as Lynne put it "that's over two feet of snow") and they're predicting another 3-4" of rain on Saturday.

SO . . . even though I had planned to quilt Repose, I've been doing other things.

(I don't like to use Max during thunderstorms - and yes, he's on an updated surge protector, but why tempt the fates?)

First up was updating this vintage frame from its former pale flat lavender chalk paint finish to this new fun look.

I used the updated frame to showcase this colorful and studio-appropriate page from a Pete the Cat book.

Next up was dealing with a box full of glass beads I've accumulated over the last several years.

The finished string doesn't photograph particularly well but this photo gives you a sense of its scale.

Here's a detail photo - the two largest beads in this group are some I made during a class at the Folk School.

I ran across a You Tube video for ways to use vintage slides in junque journals.  

I used bits of tea bags under the postage stamps for this test group, but I have other things I want to try with the next batch from a large box of abandoned slides.

(there are several YT videos on the subject, but this one should give you a good idea or two)

I strung the second group of purchased beads with large holes (from a long abandoned project) onto a length of sari yarn.

Here's a detail photo.

I'm very happy to have both sets of beads out of their boxes. 

Finally, I made my shipping tag for Week 13 of the Full Deck Challenge 3 (you can find the playlist for this ongoing challenge on You Tube - Shanouki Arts).

The prompt was crazy colors with black marks.

This is the back side where I used one of my black pens to draw around the circles.

Week 14's prompt is Turquoise with something stapled.

Back at the very beginning on the challenge, I made a whole group of tags and this was one of  them.

I added the stapled quote and the front was complete.

This is the reverse side with the week's number sticker.

Not shown here - I plan to add a fun focal point of some sort on top of the turquoise pieces salvaged from the inside of a tea bag box.

* * *

Hopefully once this storm system moves on, I'll be able to get back to my free motion quilting.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Sometimes, carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement."

Albert Camus

Small Challenge Projects

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been following along with Brooke Henry's BB Bash 2025.  She structured the series with five prompts.  I used those as jumping off points and made four small journals.

The first prompt was MESSY.  We all know I'm not a very messy person but I totally get the idea of letting go and getting into the zone.  So instead of paint and markers, I used a leftover mailing envelope, a long-stashed piece of wallpaper, and some papers from my stash to make a tall but skinny soft-cover  journal named NOT SO MESSY.

I filled the pages with random stuff from the stash.  There's an oblique connection between the items on each page - some are more obvious than others.

The second prompt was REPETITION.  

I grabbed a small drawing pad and used it to create an index of the different patterns on my security envelope stash.  I named it SNAIL MAIL in honor of the random sticker I found in my box.

I was actually surprised at how many different ones there were.  On each page, one pattern repeats from the previous page and the other is new.

There's room in the spiral pad to add more if they happen to show up in our mail.

The third prompt was SCRAPPY.  We all know I'm good with that concept.

I used this as an opportunity to make an envelope journal named THIS IS A TEST and fill it with scrappy stuff.  

Each of the ten envelopes holds a floral postcard with scraps glued on the back.  

The watercolor swatch pieces were from a long abandoned project.

The fourth prompt was DETAIL and the fifth prompt was COMBINE.  

I incorporated lots of details as I combined a lot of random bits and pieces into a finished junque journal that I named ABANDONED (inspired by this snippet from the selvage of a Tim Holz fabric).

Ah, yes.  It IS all about the process.

I don't know that I learned much new information from the prompts/videos/handouts, but I had fun playing in the paper stash - so it's all good.

Quiltdivajulie

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"It's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

Marilyn Monroe

Dragon Fyre - the Quilt

I really wanted to take the finished quilt outdoors for photos but the excessive amount of pollen prevented that.

Quilted with Glide thread in Nickel using my liberated all-over nested free motion spirals.

(thankfully we will have rain off and on for the next few days which will help clear the air and wash away the worst of the pollen)

I folded the quilt with its back side out before Young Man arrived for his sleepover.

This was his immediate reaction when he walked into the sunroom.

Daddy lifted the quilt up and this happened.

One super happy boy.

Afternoon TV time . . . 

Before dinner story time . . . 

* * * 

Conclusion:  Dragon Fyre was totally worth the effort - another perfect example of WHY we make quilts.

Quiltdivajulie

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"To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with."

Mark Twain

It Was One of Those Days

First up - before the not-so-good stuff started happening - this is card number 12, part of my series inspired by the Full Deck Challenge 3.

The prompts for week 12 were "holes and drippy paint"

This is the reverse side of my shipping tag.

(one of these days I'll learn to leave the back blank - or NOT)

DH has been doing spring yard work over the past week or so.  

For the second time (click here for the first time), the string trimmer threw a rock and broke one side of the sliding window panels in our sunroom.  Thankfully it is a double pane window and the rock damaged the outside layer only, meaning we don't have to worry about leaks while we wait for the replacement window.

DH's new rule is NO string trimmers within 75 feet of the house. (translation:  it can be used down by the street/mailbox and part way up the driveway but that's it).

By the end of the day, the window looked like this - truly spectacular in the sunshine.

* * *

And while knocking a dirt clod off an old plant, DH smacked a hand rake tine against his left thumb knuckle.  By mid-day, we were on our way to the ortho walk in clinic.  They suggested we come back at 4 so we didn't have to sit and wait all afternoon.  He was seen about 4:45, given an initial assessment (possible fracture), a tetanus shot, a round of antibiotics, and an appointment with the hand specialist first thing Tuesday morning.  

* * *

Dragon Fyre was quilted in between the day's other adventures.  I'll work on the binding today since Young Man will be here for a sleepover Saturday.  It will be such fun to see his reaction to the finished quilt.  

Quiltdivajulie

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Duende (noun):  

the mysterious power of art to deeply move a person.

The Colors of Spring

Three springs ago, DH purchased two scraggly crabapple trees for $1 each at the local big box nursery.

This year they are flowering beyond our wildest hopes.

Meet our over-achieving hosta - we were thrilled when it appeared as last year was the first time we'd tried over-wintering the hostas in large above-ground pots.

This is much more typical of the rest of our hostas - in pots or in the ground.

Of course, all of this green beauty comes at a price -- we are in the midst of the annual "green season" with pollen coating every single surface and making it hard to stay outdoors long without wearing a mask to filter the air we breathe.

Costco has started selling flowering plants - these 16 Gerbera daisies now live at our house.

Last weekend, Young Man and a friend of his spent a solid 30 minutes figuring out how to climb this very large tree.  His parents relayed some of the maneuvers the two boys made before they accomplished their mission.  The parents had more fun watching the teamwork and decision making than perhaps the boys did.

Indoors - both of my cactus plants are still blooming.  This one is also growing quite a few news leaves.

The second one has only a few buds left to open.  Time will tell whether any more will appear.

* * *

Thursday (as of right now) is a clear day on the calendar so I am going to do all I can to get busy quilting Dragon Fyre.  

Friday - not so clear but I should be able to work in 2 or 3 hours in the studio.

Fingers crossed!

Quiltdivajulie

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"Those who contemplate the beauties of the earth find reserves of strength."

Rachel Carson

Bookish - Follow Up Post

There hasn't been much any studio action since my last post, so I'll share the follow up post on my recent Bookish journal finish.

(you can see the first post here)

The term was new to me, too.

Interesting word and fun interpretation.

Yes, yes, and yes.

With no calories.

True.  

Story absolutely matters.

Guilty of being a procrastireader.

Well said.

Now we know why old books smell like home - it's the vanilla.

Emerson's quote makes me feel better since I cannot remember the names of ever so many books I've read.

Gotta love it.

* * *

My big goal this week is to get Dragon Fyre quilted and bound.  After a quick consult with Young Man, we're going with the swirly fans and a neutral thread.

I'm also in the midst of some sort of evolutionary phase with regard to scraps (fabric and paper), project lists, storing stuff, re-evaluating what brings me the most creative joy, and the like.  Not sure if this will remain a mental clean out or whether it is starting with the mental and later moves into the physical world.  

Either way, it's all good.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Books are a refuge from the vulgarities of the actual world."

Walter Pater

End of a Busy Week

Once the Zoom presentation was done and we put away the set up, I spent the afternoon cutting rectangles for Macnas-inspired quilt number 11, Morning Fog.

There are lots of light blues and quite a few shades of gray so it will be a subtle but pretty quilt top (someday).

Next, I pulled out the already-cut strips for Fandango, Macnas-inspired number 7, and sub-cut them into rectangles.

Finally, I spent an afternoon and evening sorting and pinning the pairs for Enchanted, Macnas-inspired quilt number 9.  

I intentionally overcut because when it comes time for the design wall, many of the KF prints will be edited out depending on which part of the print shows up in any given rectangle.  

The extras will go in the project box for what may become quilt number 12 featuring extra blocks from the earlier quilts in the series.  

(this could change if the mix is all wrong or I come up with another great idea between now and then)

Paired, pinned, and clipped in sets of ten - I need 250 pairs and there are 340 pairs in the box so I know I will have lots of latitude when the time comes.

The extra un-paired rectangles (on the right) will certainly go in the Holus-Bolus (number 12's) project box.  

(holus-bolus - adverb - all at once, altogether)

* * *

Dragon Fyre is still waiting for me to sit down and start quilting. I'm still debating with myself between using horizontal wavy organic lines or my beloved nested spiral fans.  Need to make a decision . . . 

Quiltdivajulie

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Another of the quotes from the Bookish journal:

"Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack."

Virginia Woolf