Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Sewing Inspiration and Symbolism

This week I finally made it to Open Sew at Intrepid Thread in Milpitas. Wow, Julie has outdone herself with the brick and mortar shop. Loved every single bolt in the place and all of those display quilts -let's just say my to do list just quadrupled.

I brought my paper piecing block for F+F2 Bee so that Anne could coach me through it.  Since I had packed fq's rather than my scrap buckets, it didn't really seem practical to make them. 60 different fabric bits - that just screams scrap stash.  I mostly took notes and pieced a few parts to get the idea then went home with my head wrapped around the concept. Several days later and a few lessons learned - here they are:
Pattern designed by Shape Moth
Rather than assigning us color combos we got to choose a month for inspiration.  I chose November and explained on my flickr picture it was to represent the reddish color of the buildings and the gorgeous blue sky at our SBAMQG 1st Annual Fall Retreat.
Although green would've been an obvious choice for the 3rd color to symbolize the redwood trees, I didn't want it to look christmassy so I opted to batik bomb the center with grey for the foggy skies of Capitola left behind that weekend.  We also joked that it could be the grey hairs that I got from learning EPP from a lefty at 2am.  We visiting possible venues for this year, yippy, here we go again!

Can you guess what the three colors in the other block are all about? On flickr Linda commented it might be grapes and bananas and got it half right, sort of.  Think of crushing grapes - like the episode of I Love Lucy.
I'd like to try one without the inside grey - what do you think?
On several occasions, I've used my birthday in November as an excuse to go visit my friend Ann and her family at their winery in El Dorado Hills, Wofford Acres Vineyards.
Not only is the wine award winning, but the view at sunset is spectacular.  I've taken hundreds of photos and played around in photoshop - here are a couple of favorites.
My crystal block is not the first time WAV has been a quilting inspiration. This one is titled "CRUSH" made using Cheryl Malkowski's pattern shown here. It originally transitioned in the center to green blocks but that didn't quite translate as I'd hoped so instead there are little sliver hints instead.  If it looks familiar, it's probably because the design for last years F+F quilt and block tutorial for Tassels was inspired by this quilt. 
my Crush Quilt
The yellow ring represents my birthstone Topaz - stealing the idea from Linda Beth's green block Peridot.  When I was browsing pictures of the winery I stumbled across this lovely shot of the tree I sit under to drink my morning coffee and realized it could have been the source of inspirations as well.

DON'T trim while the strip is folded down - OOPS
I'm including my lesson learned photo - to remind myself not to repeat the mistake.  Picking out 1.6 stitch size is challenging.

Our South Bay Area MQG is having a Negative Space secret swap due in August so I worked on that project at Intrepid Thread, completing the top. Here's a little peek:
Negative Space secret swap
Moby-style Wrap
The baby shower is a couple of weeks away and I finally finished up one of the gifts.  Hopefully I'm not spoiling the surprise by posting a sneak of the Moby-style Wrap. My SIL invited me over to use my niece's serger to finish off the knit.  I have only used one once at Sewing Summit and had forgotten how much fun they are.
Yesterday we had our 30th Anniversary. 
Signing off with these two pictures from when we said "I do" 

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday 

Finished:
moby style wrap 

Progress:
2 bee blocks (paper pieced f+f2 July) parts made
SBAMQG Negative Space secret swap -top done
Sparkle Punch - layout sketched 
Fall Quilt Retreat  - visited venues, decisions made!

Still To Do:
Tire Rotation aka: Taffy in Ride (need back, etc..)
Ring Around the Briar Rosies (need to FMQ, etc..)
Two fabric basket covers (change of plans...)
baby shower bunting and runner (change of plans...)
21st Bday Quilts (x3!)
more curtain panels (yawn-should get on this)
Cradle Quilt (back and binding chosen)
Rip Curl Backing
sandwich, quilt and bind Fruit Salad
X-Plus quilt for the SBAMQG show
more Zakka 2.0 Patchwork Please SAL
Sewing Room ReDo -forever in this category

10 comments:

  1. First of all, LOVE the wedding photos! Congratulations to you guys! And again, it's great to see the inspiration photos for your blocks, too. In the spirit of full disclosure I was not the one who guessed grapes for the second block, but WOW.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Writing this post with mention of Anne and Ann, then Linda and Linda Beth.... it's like I was trying to be confusing! Thanks for the congrats - it was fun to look through our wedding album and share these.

      Delete
  2. Happy Anniversary!! (At our last BAM meeting, two members were each celebrating their 30th anniversaries, as well! Must have been a very good year!)

    I love seeing your work, and your inspirations -- your crush quilt is gorgeous!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy anniversary!
    Your stars are wonderful!
    Esther
    esthersipatchandquilt at yahoo dot com
    ipatchandquilt dot wordpress dot com

    ReplyDelete
  4. These blocks are stunning. Love all the different fabrics, and the inspiration behind them. Glad I stopped by, from the WIP linkup :-)

    Congrats on 30 years!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy anniversary!!
    Your stars are just beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your stars are just gorgeous! Just love them. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congratulations on 30 years!!! And I love the paper piecing.

    No sew-in for me, but I will be at the next (and my last) meeting. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy late anniversary! I'm so jealous you get to go to the Intrepid Thread and sew! Your blocks are lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely to see your wedding photo's, gorgeous dress! I love those paper pieced hexagon blocks! :-)

    ReplyDelete

Let me know that you stopped by - leave a comment and make my day!