I had to move my Amaryllis back to the kitchen so it would get enough light. This is light from a west window in the morning. The blooms are just spectacular.
I'm working on cleaning the basement since the art quilters are supposed to come next Monday (fingers crossed that we don't get any snow). That means cleaning off all of my design walls. I wanted to get a good photo of this colorwash before I took it down in columns in case I dropped any pieces. In the background is the pieced quilt top that will be my daughter's when I finish it.
I'm always talking about the disposable aluminum cookie sheets to store my colorwash squares in and there are a few bloggers who don't like them because they are too flimsy. Well, I finally realized why I have no problem. This photo is 2 up on edge so you can see the one on the right, which I have many of is much deeper and a stronger aluminum than the newer one on the left and they are from 10+ years ago. I found that the 2/$1 variety from the dollar store are flimsier than the 2/$1.98 at another store also. It is the end of the month and I have only finished 2 wallhangings and one table runner. I have to decide if I'm going to finish anything today or just be happy with that. I'll do the monthly recap tomorrow.
I cut 20 more fabrics into 2.5" squares for the project I talked about Sunday and cut 2 butterfly blocks. There is only one finished because I cut two pieces a half inch short on the other one so it is only half sewn.
I wanted to show the full photo of the table runner that I sold in my pop-up shop. I took a lot of new close up photos of all of the items listed for sale. I thought you should know that in case you want to see more of each of them than I have previously shown on my blog. If you click on a product, it takes you to a new page. If you click on the large photo on that page it opens a slide show viewer with an arrow at the right so you can scroll through the new larger detail photos. There are still 5 more days after today until it all goes away...............when the shop closes on Sunday night.
The Amaryllis is blooming! It only has 2 flowers but what beauties they are. I have never seen this coloration before.
My smaller red cactus is blooming again and there is a pink and white bloom behind it on another plant.
I needed a day of rest yesterday so I pulled the Kaffe fabrics for the next batch of squares but I didn't do any cutting or sewing. One of these prints may make it into a butterfly block too. I have a package to mail (another sale from my pop-up shop) and a run to the grocery store and then I hope to cut and sew today.
I am looking for more butterfly fabrics so I stacked the finished blocks with a little showing of each so I won't cut any duplicates. I laid the photo from the pattern there too for inspiration.
I decided to be cutting for 2 projects so I needed to start in bin #3 for the other project.
This is what is in that bin. The pieces are folded approximately 9" wide and the folded 11" direction goes top to bottom in the bin.
The other project is the 2.5" squares of the Kaffe fabrics. You can read about it here. I have an inventory list printed with the name and number of every Kaffe fabric. I am writing down the colors that I cut of each fabric. I'm not cutting the large prints into the little squares. This is Potentilla which is #64. Kaffe's fabrics current fabrics are up in the 160s so you can see I have a way to go. I have 196 different fabrics cut into squares so far.
The batik bricks quilt top is done unless I still decide to add 2 more rows to either the top or the bottom. It is 72" x 92" right now. 2 more rows would make it closer to 98" long.
My sister in law gave me an Amaryllis for Christmas and it is getting ready to bloom.
It looks like there will be some red in the flower.
Last night while I was doing a load of laundry I started looking for an in progress project to work on after I'm done sewing the bricks quilt top. I have 19 more butterfly bodies made and quite a few background pieces cut so I think I should concentrate on this butterfly quilt. There will be sashing between the butterflies.
I had a great response to my pop up shop yesterday. This table runner is one of the things that sold. I just finished it Wednesday afternoon. At noon EST the shop is open for everyone. Here is the link to my website. Then you just click on SHOP and it will take you to it. If you try before noon EST it will still ask for a password.
Yesterday afternoon I finished sewing section 3 (the top one) of the batik bricks quilt and designed section 4. I have 49 bricks left over so I am trying to decide whether to add 2 more rows at the bottom.
I decided to start sewing it while I ponder that decision. I can't wait to get all of the sections sewn together and take them to the design wall in the basement for a photo. This quilt is so much richer in color and value changes than it shows here. Even these 2 photos aren't alike in color. Today is the day the pop-up shop opens at noon to subscribers. Tomorrow noon you will all be able to visit if you chose not to sign up.
This colorwash is 33" square and is one of my favorites. I finished the hand stitching on the binding last night.
This time I chose a batik binding fabric that was easy to push a needle through. My first choice was a tough one so I put it back on the shelf and kept looking.
The backing fabric on this colorwash is a little bright but I doubt the wall it leans against will complain. It is a pretty mottled batik.
The dust on my felted pincushion has really been bothering me so I started transferring the pins to a pincushion that my friend Mary from TX gifted to me when she was in the area and stopped to see me. That was 5 years ago, how time flies.
After I got the pins transferred I took a lint roller to the felted pincushion and now it looks nice and clean, ready to use again. There were a couple dozen needles on it that I discarded since they aren't types that I use any more. One more reminder....the next pop-up shop opens tomorrow at noon, the early access for the subscribers. It will open at noon Friday for everyone else. If you haven't signed up yet and want to, here is the link to the sign up form.
I basted another colorwash and have it ready to quilt.
I love the texture created by all of the designs in the batiks.
This is what is on my design wall in the main floor studio. I took down the top 2 sections and sewed them together. This is the 3rd section half sewn. I still need to create a 4th section. My friend who goes to AZ in the winter came home for a few days and we worked on the layout of 2 of her quilts and then went to lunch yesterday. One more reminder...I know not everyone reads my blog every day and some may have missed this the last 2 days....my pop-up shop will open at noon Thursday for subscribers to my mailing list..here is a link to sign up if you haven't done it already. The shop is open to the public noon Friday.
I finished the binding and sewed down the hanging sleeve and sewed on the label yesterday on this rectangular colorwash. I have been making mostly square colorwash wallhangings the last few years so this one was a fun change.
I used a batik on the back too.
I took a couple close up shots.
I think the binding fabric looks good with all of the edge fabrics. I did more photography and more descriptions for my pop-up shop which will open at noon Thursday for the subscribers on my mailing list and noon Friday it will be open to the public. Haven't signed up yet? If you want early access sign up here.
I finished the quilting and then cut the binding and sewed it on the rectangular colorwash. I have hand stitched three sides and am just starting the 4th side, the top edge. This is one of the tough batiks to hand stitch through.
It is always hard to decide what color binding to use when every color touches the edge of the quilt. Still working hard on my pop-up shop which we will open Thursday at noon for subscribers of the mailing list. They will all receive an email with a password for early access. Everyone else will be welcome noon on Friday. Sign up form is on my right sidebar.
I haven't finished anything yet this month so last night I started basting this colorwash piece. I got the ditch quilting done on 6 of the vertical seams so hopefully this will get finished today. I have been working on my next pop-up shop so there have been lots of trips to the basement for photography and then back up to the computer to see if I have to re-shoot any of the photos.
My best photography wall was covered with something else so I put these on a poorly lit design wall. The nine multicolor blocks work pretty well together. I noticed my pile of blue and purple blocks on the table so I put them up like a border. I will not be sewing this together but I took a photo of it anyway. I had other tasks yesterday and didn't get to the sewing machine at all to make more blocks.
In this little basket are trimmings from previously made crazy pieced blocks. I thought about throwing them away a few times but didn't follow through.
This is the group I pulled out and pressed to use as centers for new blocks.
Here is block 1 before trimming..........
and this is after trimming.
Block 2 before trimming..........
and after trimming.
This is the next four blocks.
Number 7 and 8.
Number 9. I will put them up on a design wall today and see how well they work together.
I designed section 3 of the neutral bricks quilt but I didn't feel like sewing it last night. Instead I started sorting through a group of batik scraps, pulling out the ones that are too narrow to sew. I think there is some multi-color crazy piecing in the near future.
It seems like the camera wants to emphasize the gray today. It really is prettier in real life. I sewed the second section of 8 rows last night after I got home from my great-grandson's 4th birthday party.
I added these three fabrics after I had already sewn the first section. I don't think it is noticeable that they aren't in the top section. The center fabric looks a little blue in this photo but it is a nice gray.
I do my knitting while I watch Wheel of Fortune and again while the 10 o'clock news is on. This is my January output so far.
I didn't get to the sewing stage but I did get the next section designed. The top 8 rows are sewn, the next 9 are not. I'll check this again this morning to see if there is anything I want to change before I sew. The snow started in the late afternoon and it sounds like there might be 2 or 3 waves of it with as much as 4-5" by the time we are done today. It is light and fluffy so it will be easy to shovel off the sidewalk.
I am so happy to have blooms in the winter. It can help me forget how cold it is outside. This is the second bloom on this cactus and there is one more bud.
The white ones are so delicate and pretty. Questions from NO REPLY people: my stash....there is a label on my label list with lots of photos of my stash from the 10 years I have been blogging. My studio: there is a label on the label list for my studio which includes lots of photos of both studios, the main floor and the basement, plus photos of my cabinets. Don't see my label list? Maybe you are getting my blog as an email and you don't really come to my blog....you are missing a lot if you don't see the right sidebar. If you read on your smartphone you can click on "view web version" at the bottom of the post and you will see the whole blog page.
The batik bricks quilt top is done unless I still decide to add 2 more rows to either the top or the bottom. It is 72" x 92" right now. 2 more rows would make it closer to 98" long. 
