Our newest grandchild arrived via emergency C-section, accompanied by a strep infection which he shared with his mom, but after a week in the hospital, they both came home and seem to be recovering nicely. His name is AMITAV DJANGO WALEN. Go figger. I'm madly in love!!!
But let's go back to quilting, since this is a trunk show...........
I took a one-day course on making a variant of a "pineapple" block, and decided to use the shelf of floral fabrics which I collected when I'd just begun making quilts. I barely made a dent in this stash! I started out making scrappy blocks, but soon determined that they looked better with just a one-color pattern, with variations of fabrics of that one color. When I put them up on the wall, I realized they could form a pattern, a diagonal line of one color, and then another. So here's the top, at the point where I stopped adding to it (full view and detail):
I've also been slowly working on Dave's 70th Birthday Quilt. I'd sent out squares of white fabric to all his children, grandchildren, "adopted" children, and his older brother, and asked them to decorate their block with sharpies or paints or whatever they wanted. I love kids' quilt blocks, and I think my favorite on this quilt comes from the youngest...almost 2 years old (upper right). I'm slowly hand-quilting it,and if Dave's lucky, it'll be ready by his 71st! Please forgive the wrinkly photos!
And a little closer view...
Since I'm still in full-avoidance mode of my UFO's, I started another project I've wanted to do for a long time. Dave and I took our honeymoon to Japan, and we brought back many photographic souveniers. One of my favorites was of a tiny toddler, whose parents got her to pose in front of some "hello kitty" type of posters. I snapped her picture too, and always wanted to make a quilt of it. I'm making the flat-colored background up first:
I'll show you the finished product in my next randomly occurring entry.
Finally, let me tell you about my first ONLINE COURSE...at Quilt University. I'm taking "Realistic Fabric Portraits" with Marilyn Belford. For this, I selected a little picture of my granddaughter, Ana. It's a wonderful feeling to study and study and study a face you love, as you decide how to illustrate it in fabric. Marilyn is a generous teacher, with fulsome handouts and lots of daily feedback, but working as she does is very exacting. I'm ever more impressed with her work as I stumble along making my Ana.
Here are some shots of the Ana piece in several stages. Right now, I'm stuck on how to show her lovely curly blonde hair, but I'm sure Marilyn will come to my rescue..... BTW, I highly recommend trying the Q.U. courses; I know I'll go back.
First, here's my mischievous Ana around age 6:
Here's my working drawn pattern of the photo:
And here she is after several weeks' work, with me stuck on the hair problem:
So much to do, so little time......
