Hello-

Being busy seems to be the way of my world.   I am still excited from the Art Quilting Group meetings I went to on Tue.  The  Quilt Exploration Group was full of lots of talk about summer events and creative doings.  Then I went south toward  Ithaca and dropped my sewing machine off of a cleaning at the quilt shop on the way.   I picked up Susan who is just home for the summer.  We talked, laughed, shared and caught up with each other as we rode to the Diva Meeting.  She showed off her pieces  of Mexican historical figures that she  is creating .   The meeting its self was very lively with lots of show and tell. Ruth showed us her work in progress about for a breast cancer event.  Sally  presented a great quilt that I really love.

Her layers and style are so inspiring to me.  The last work I want to show is Alice’s.  She showed  about 15  beautiful scroll paintings she had done.   I really enjoyed this fox that she had painted.     This turned out to be a little bit of a for shadowing for Susan and myself.  For as we  drove home through town – what did we see walking down the middle of the street, but a little fox.   He passed by us with no concern and I watched him continue down the center line into the night.    It left wonder in both of us as I can say I have never seen a live fox that was not in captivity before in my life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress Report:   Slipping Through   This project is  coming along slowly as I seem to uncover more problems with it along the way.   I have done other quilts where I had openings like Oranges Slices and even quilts with parts passing though.  But the size and weight of this one pose  a few different challenges.   First I am going to explain the process of creating the openings them selves.   First I decide where on the surface I want the openings to be located .  Then on the top side of the quilt I place a small piece of fabric right sides together.  I mark the size of the opening on the back of the scrap. Then I sew around that line and create a box shape.  Next I make a cut in the middle of the box. Slipping the scissors through that opening one needs to cut away as much of the facing fabric and the batting as one can without cutting the thread and the top layer.   When this is completed flip the quilt to the back side and pull the facing through the opening.  Now one presses the fabric in place gently pulling to make it as flat as possible.  Next the facing is pressed to the back of the quilt and slip stitched down.     This step is followed by additional pressing and top stitching around the opening. At this point I insert boning on the top and the bottom of the opening between the batting and the quilt top.  Then I stitch  around the quilt opening  through the top ,boning, batting and backing all in one step.  This photo shows the top side with a piece of  boning  resting on top.   I push the   boning as close to opening as I can get it before I quilt around the opening.   The last image shows one of the strips passing through a completed opening and a finished whole to it’s right.   There is a bit of turquoise fabric behind a second  opening so you can easily see it.

Nick’s Graduation Quilt   I continue to make crazy quilt blocks for this project.  I have six done at this time.

New Top- Untitled   This top is coming together and I like what is happening.  No name yet.  I am just going to live with it and see what quilting and or embellishing techniques seem to be operate and hope that tells me what to do next and what to title this quilt.Regular Red/ now titled Triangular Trails   I have really enjoyed working on this quilt.   The red paperclips where the inspiration and their shape needed

to be reflected in the name, hence the title change.   The quilting reflects the paperclip shapes too.  This quilt makes me feel happy. Dandelion : This top is inspired by the fabric.  I have always been attracted to the flower and the image of the explosion as well.  I used the fabric image as the inspiration for the quilting too.Blue Blocks    Lastly I continue to work away on the blue blocks.   I hope summer is visiting all the folks in the northern hemisphere and fall is beautiful for all the rest of you.

Keep Creating- and if you are not a creator- I hope you are a supporter of those who do.

Hugs

Carol