Started quilting The Dinsk
More quilting...
Whiskers!!
Officially finished
Oops!
DCMQG Destash
Got my first Covid vaccine!
Re-done. See Apr 8th journal entry.
Jazz quilt started
Sewing squares together and SAQA Conference
Tongue out of control
Remodeling bathroom
Getting closer. Still not happy with the face.
Tongue under control
More progress
Quilt top finished!
Pin basting. Ready to quilt!
Today I layered The Dinsk and started quilting it. At first I was at a lost about how to quilt his fur but after some Pinterest browsing, I got an idea. The backing fabric is a cute mouse print. I finished quilting all the gray parts and I have an idea on how to quilt the rest.
Today I finished all the quilting except for the whiskers. Its going faster than i thought. I guess free-motion quilting goes a lot faster than walking foot straight quilting I did on the Mango quilt. I'm leaving the jaw part without quilting so it stands up from the rest of the quilt. I worry that this may be unstable because it is right in the middle of the quilt and it is a pretty big area with no quilting but I'll see how it hangs and decide. For the background I quilted straight lines echoing the major diagonal seams. I like the contrast of straight lines against the curvy lines of the fur.
Took the day today to finish what I had started and was really closed to finishing. Its always those little details at the end that aren't as exciting to do so you leave the unfinishe quilt and start a new one. So today I did all the hand sewing on the back to attach a hanging sleeve, label and any loose binding sections I didn't caught by machine sewing. It is officially finished! I present to you Mango Strawberry. After a quilt is completely finished, I take the official photos to enter shows and for my website (and general online bragging...) and wrap it up in a swim nooddle. Then I put it in storage under my bed with the rest of my finished quilts.
Also got The Disnk finished today. I got a comission to make a quilt so before starting that, I want to finish everything I have close to finishing. Here is the photo I used as inspiration to make The Dinsk.
I'm so behind in my journal quilt. I usually do my journal quilt bllock on Sunday and this Sunday was Easter and I was spending it with the family. So here I am on Thursday making my block. This week nothing special happened but in current events this week was the start of the George Floyd murder trial. I am a news junkie. I'm listening to news on Sirus XM all day. So I have been listening to news about it all day. Whenever they play the video of what happened, I have to switch stations. It hurts just listening to it. I haven't even watch it. So the block this week says "I can't breath" and then someone told me I misspelled it and it should be "I can't breathe" I'll have to redo it.
Got news today that my quilt Uniting States of America has been accepted in the National Juried exhibition at The Delaplaine Arts Center in Frederick, MD. I live in Frederick. I always go there to see exhibits or go to events and I have always thought how nice it would be to have my work there. Now it is going to be and it is exciting! I see it as an introduction of my art to the Frederick art scene because eventhough I have lived here for 13 years, I haven't been active as an artist. So this is my coming out party. Hello Frederick, here I go!
Also I am happy the Uniting States of America was the quilt selected for this show. The show I had designed this quilt with an exhibit in mind and it was rejected from that exhibit. I was feeling down on Uniting. Too traditional... Too brown... It is not what I usually do so I was feeling like maybe i wasted my time. You can be your own worse critic.
Today I went to the first event of the DC Modern Quilt Guild in person. We gathered with masks in a parking lot. It was nice to meet everyone in person. We showed some quilts we are working on and traded quilting stuff people were ready to get rid off. One person's trash is another person's treasure. I came home with so much fabric, I kind of feel guilty. It made me think about how much quilters buy that they end up not using. In theory, quilting seems like a very environmentally-friendly hobby. You are making something useful out of scraps of fabric. In reality it is not. So much fabric, notions, tools are produced. Most quilts are made out of new fabric. Oh well... I'm reading a book on reducing waste in your home and I have this on my mind.
I was comissioned to make a quilt after someone saw my Dinsky quilt. They want a quilt of her doggies that have passed, Jasmine (nicknamed Jazz) and Tugg. Jazz was the leader of the pack so she should be the star of the quilt. This is going to be fun even if it is a quilt about dogs... I'm kidding. The dogs are more intimidating than the background so I'm startng there.
Today I got an email that my quilts were accepted in the Vermont Quilt Festival. It is good to be accepted but since this year the show is a virtual show, they are accepting all of the quilts entered so it is not a sign of how good or bad the quilts are. So it is not as exciting as it would regularly be.
Yesterday I almost filled out most of the background. Today I am starting the dogs. Since this is a commissioned quilt it has a specified finished size, 24" x 20". When I did the Dinsky quilt I just made it without thinking how big it would end up. I printed the pattern with 3" squares. I cut the squares at 3" and after sewing they ended up 2.5" squares so the quilt is smaller than the printed pattern. This time I wanted to make sure the quilt ended up the size the client wants so I printed the pattern the finished size which ended up having 2" squares. So I cut the squares 2.5". Now that I'm laying the squares on the pattern, I'm having a problem. Because the cut squares are bigger than the squares in the pattern, they cover part of the neighboring squares. Therefore it is hard to see the parts that are covered up. So today I'll have to reprint the pattern with 2.5" squares and move all the squares that I have already layed out. Ugh.
Today I reprinted a bigger version of the pattern and because I didn't want to move every square individually, I started sewing squares together. Today was also the start of the SAQA Conference and I have met virtually quilt artists from all over the world. It has been pretty interesting. Here are some slides on a lecture about growing as an artist.
I stopped being intimidated by the dogs face and started piecing his face. It is looking good but the tongue is out of control. I need to reigning it in an it needs more contrast from the dogs body. It is amazing how much slower the putting the face together than the background was.
The most important thing that happened this week and this year is that I finally got the first dose of the Covid vaccine. It was a relief and when I got in the car the first thing I said to myself was "I made it". So that is my journal block this week. Yes I realize I misspelled "ouchie". Forgot that final "e" again for a second week in a row. This time I don't care. It is staying that way!
Also watched a virtual concert with my favorite band The Decemberists with a couple of friends and individualy wrapped snacks. Closest thing to a concert experience in the Covid-era.
Not too happy with Jazz so far. The word that comes to mind in tortured. Maybe it needs to be simplified...Maybe I'll work on Tugg now and come back to Jazz later.
After some tweaking, I'm happy with the tongue. Not happy about the rest of the face. Nose, eyes, ears... need work. Why is this so hard? It must be that I don't like dogs... Everything else is sewn together but I see some things that can be fixed so I may be doing some unsewing.
I'm making more progress on the Jazz quilt little by little. Now it is all the squares are joined in two big sections. There's still some sections that can be improved.
Today I did some work on the journal block by trying Inktense pencils for the first time. It was a total mess but I can't expect to be good at something on the first try. I started using plain water for blending and discovered that it bled like crazy. Then I used textile medium and it was more managable. There is potential so I'll keep practicing.
I'm finally pleased with everything! Now it is time to start quilting. If I use Dinsky's quilt as a guide, this will go pretty quick. I haven't given any thought to the quilting tho.
