More blooms................

I didn't sew again yesterday but I did some more die cutting and organizing scraps.  I also cut batting for 2 quilts but didn't feel like doing the quilting.

I like to document the order that my cactus plants bloom on my blog so I can go back and check at a later date.  This is the one I call white but you can see it has the faintest pink tinge to it.

This red one usually blooms at Thanksgiving and the other 2 bloom later, closer to the end of December or early January.

Pink and white...........

I did some cutting, sorting, straightening up yesterday but no sewing.  I'm just documenting blooms here on my blog.  This is the oldest of my pink and white cacti.  I have it sitting up on the mantel temporarily.

This is another bloom on the same plant.

This is a new plant but at least 4 years old.  The blooms are getting bigger every year.  

I have a white one just opening and the champagne color is almost ready to bloom.  I love my indoor winter garden.

6 blocks...........

I made 2 more blocks and rearranged them many times before I was happy with the layout.

Here is the edge to edge layout.  They will finish at 10" each so this is only 20" x 30" with this layout.

When I got home from the Thanksgiving trip my pink Christmas Cactus was really blooming.  There are at least 20 more buds so I should have pretty pink for awhile.

Winter is here...........

I was in Omaha NE from Thanksgiving day til Sunday morning.  We headed home with blizzard warnings with high winds in our path.   Luckily we only hit one area of about 90 miles that was pretty treacherous and were home by 3 p.m.  The real snowstorm and strong wind in our area started after 6:30 p.m.  Around 8 p.m.  I heard a noise that sounded like it was on my roof.  About an hour later a policeman came to my door and told me my phone line might be interrupted for awhile.  The tree across the street came down and hit the pole which jerked my phone line off the connector on my garage and that is the noise I heard.  This is just excess length of cable laying on the ground and the phone is still working. The city crew put road closed signs right in front of my house at midnight Sunday and no phone repair people have come yet.  The temperature dropped to the 20s yesterday and won't be warming up today.

I have some good sized limbs down in  my backyard.

I added some more pieces to the African crazy pieced blocks and cut them into 10.5" squares.  Here they are with spaces between them and.........

here they are edge to edge.  I'm going to make 2 more blocks and then make some decisions about them.

Thankful for My Amazing Students

A Recent 'Live' Q & A Session

Thanksgiving was filled with lots of family fun, but the season of thanks wouldn’t be complete without sharing what we’ve been up to the past couple months behind the scenes. 

The first session of Colorwash 360 launched on October 1 and we spent the next 40 days walking together through the course material with students from across the world. 

Each week we had Live Q & A sessions from my studio. I never thought I'd be on live video, but I discovered it was really lots of fun.

But probably my favorite part of all was seeing what my students were accomplishing in their own home studios. Many students shared their progress with me and a few were kind enough to allow their projects on the blog today. 

Students worked in a variety of fabrics. These first student artworks were made in all Batik fabrics.

by Linda Swanekamp, USA
https://artinsearch.blogspot.com/

by Mary Powers, USA
https://hillcountryquilter-mary.blogspot.com/ 

by Pat Graham, USA

The work below is made with hand dyed fabrics as well as commercial prints.

by Susan Gardner, Canada

Another favorite fabric selection for Colorwash was Kaffe Fassett prints sometimes pure Kaffe, other times Kaffe Collective and other prints.

by Donnie Brownsey, USA

by Marnie Haines, USA

 by Julie Sefton USA
htpps:quiltdivajulie.blogspot.com

Kumi Fisher USA
@kumifisher

Many more amazing works were made and are in the finishing stages now. Perhaps we'll show more student works later, if you'd like to see more.  I'm so proud of all of them and hope you'll cheer them on as well!

Do you want to learn to make a Colorwash too? CLICK HERE to sign up for our Waitlist...we'll be offering the online course again early Spring 2019.

Turkey dinner............

We had our Thanksgiving meal yesterday and the turkey was delicious.  So was the ham and the apple pie and French silk pie, and all of the rest of the dishes on the menu.  The little great-grandsons loved the variety too.

More blooms and family..........

I have so many blooms to be on this plant.  There are over 30 buds on the cactus.

I spent Thanksgiving with this little super hero.  He knows all of the moves of Spiderman and he's only 2.

Here is the almost 5 years old big brother super hero.  They are so much fun to be with.

Future blooms....................

I bought a $5 Amaryllis bulb already planted this year and I made sure to get one with a bud peeking out.  After 2 weeks I was pleasantly surprised to see a second bud started.  This is supposed to be a deep red bloom, darker than any I have ever had.  I'll know in a couple weeks if the package is telling the truth.

Happy Thanksgiving day!..............

After I finished baking and cleaning up it was playtime for me.  The meal isn't at my house so I didn't have to clean house too.

I had lots of odd shaped scraps left from cutting the half hexagons last week from the African fabrics.

I decided I would do some crazy piecing and see if they would work well.

I was afraid they might be too wild looking but I think they came out okay.

Right now the largest square I can cut from them is 7.5" so I think I'll dig into the larger scraps and add on to all of them.  I won't get back to them for a few days though.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all who celebrate it.  I know I have a very long list of things to be thankful for and I'm sure many of you do too.

More baking and cutting...........

Yesterday I made Kringlas and shortbread cookies.  Today I will make frosted creams, the family favorite dessert.  That will be the end of the baking and then it is party time.

I am continuing to cut scraps into 2.5" and 2" squares with just little bits left to put in the dog bed stuffing bag.  I am cutting some Brandon and Philip fabrics now to add to the Kaffe squares for another colorwash quilt.

It's all about the food this week...........

I get to make the fun stuff for the Thanksgiving get together.  I started out yesteray with 3 batches of home made Chex Mix.

Next I mixed up the dough for Kringlas but it has to refrigerate for several hours so I'll bake those today.

Then it was on to pumpkin muffins.  The recipe says it would make 24 but the paper liners are so short that I got 27 out of the batch.  I remember when the paper liners were taller and when it said to fill 3/4 full it used up all of the batter.

More cutting............

I finished cutting all of the 3.5" squares and then concentrated on the 2" squares from the leftover piece.  At the top left is a pile that needs the fold mark pressed out before I can cut them.  The tiny trimmings will go in the dog bed stuffing bag.

We got a little snow overnight Saturday night but it melted off the streets within a couple hours.  We have lucked out with just an inch again where south of us had many inches of snow.  It is cold though but warming up for Thanksgiving, back to normal temperatures in high 40s.

A day of cutting...........

I have some large scraps left from cutting kits of 6" squares of batiks.  The pile on the right is waiting to be cut.  Top left is 3.5" squares, below that is a pile of 2" squares and bottom left is the pile waiting to be cut into 2" squares.

I just checked the birthday post that my daughter wrote and there are 262 happy birthday wishes on it.  Thank you all so much!  It made this birthday so special.

Rectangle top sewn.......

With 2 hours of TV watching I got the last seven rows sewn on this quilt top.  It ended up 51.5" x 72".  It had borders in the magazine but if I just finish it now I can use one of those 60" Kaffe prints on the back and not have to seam it.  I have enough of the red Belle Epoch print.  I'll think about it a couple days and then decide.  I need to start making smaller quilts.  I said that last year and I still kept making them at least 60" x 80" or twin size.  I remember Pepper Cory at a workshop called her quilts one person quilts and two person quilts.  This one is sufficient right now for one person.

For inquiring minds, the rectangles are 4.5" x 8.5" and I cut them with my Studio die cutter with a GO! die and adapter.  There are 111 rectangles and 12 squares 4.5".  I used 14 fabrics and there are 8 pieces of most of them.

The next quilt.............

I finally started the layout of this quilt.  I think I ended up with 13 fabrics.  They are all Kaffe collective (Kaffe, Philip and Brandon).  I had to cut a bunch more 4.5" x 8.5" rectangles yesterday and added one fabric to my original group.  Then I had to cut the 4.5" squares to fill in the top and bottom.

Last night I got the first six columns sewn together.  There are 7 left to sew and this should come out about 52" x 72".  It has 2 borders in the magazine so I'll consider that too.   I used some of the same fabrics as the one in the magazine and added some of my favorites to the group.  One of them may be the outer border.

I went back and edited yesterday's post with the size and number of half hexagons used.  I try to remember to do that when I'm writing the post but sometimes forget.

Many thanks, and a quilt top.....................

My daughter really surprised me with the second post yesterday and I was blown away by the number of birthday wishes.  Thanks so much to all of you who took a moment to comment and wish me a happy birthday.  I loved all of your comments and am so happy so many people love my blog.

I found a few minutes to sew in the afternoon between lunch out with family and pizza brought to my house last night.  The top is finished and now I see 2 of the same fabric just one half hexagon apart but it is going to stay there. (bottom center one row up from the bottom)  It ended up 58" x 80" and has 208 half hexagons in it.

Now I can start putting the rectangles of the Kaffe collective up on the design wall and then determine which fabrics to cut more of.

It's Wanda's Birthday!!!!

Wanda in her Garden - Summer 2018

Shhhh….(Vicki here…Wanda’s daughter) I’m sneaking onto the blog today to tell you that it’s Wanda’s 78th Birthday.  

Let’s show her how much we appreciate her dedication — over a decade of daily quilting inspiration!

Post a ‘Yes’ below in the comments…(or write a short note) if you read her blog.  

I know she has more readers than she realizes...let's show her the love:)

xo,  Vicki

All of the rest of the rows...........

I sewed for three hours last night and got all of the rows assembled but didn't get the last two sewn onto the rest of them.  One more day and I should be able to take a photo of the whole top.  After I finish sewing I need to press it and trim the points off the top and bottom and then staystitch around the perimeter of it.

Designing done, sewing started.........

I cut lots more half hexagons from my African fabrics with my die cutter and finished designing it late yesterday afternoon.  This quilt is just a joyous riot of colors with all of the different fabrics.  I think I cut about 15 more fabrics (several pieces of each) so there are about 74 different fabrics.

This is the small amount of pieces leftover.

The 6 columns on the left are sewn together.  I stacked the rest of the rows after I took this photo and pinned them back on the wall in order.

Cutting...........

While my granddaughter worked on her sewing project I pressed and cut half hexagons from my African fabric stash.  There are 65 different prints cut so far and a total of 159 pieces.

My design wall isn't tall enough so the last 2 pieces in each column are pinned to the last piece on the wall.  I need to cut 49 more pieces and they need to be dark and light.  I have plenty of medium value prints already cut.

Sewn together..............

I started sewing this rectangle colorwash 2 nights ago and finished it last night.

It is 24.5" x 38.5".

I had to flip it and see if I like it better that way.

Then I figured I needed to see it as a landscape orientation.

And then I had to flip that to see if that was better.

I will have to make a decision so I know which edge to put the hanging sleeve on.