IN WHICH MY GOLDFINCH SPRINGS TO LIFE AND I THINK ABOUT NATURALIST'S NOTEBOOKS.

Block 2 of Sandra Liechner's Naturalist's Notebook is completed.  Here are some detail shots.

The only method to complete these blocks is to break them down into the individual elements of each block and look at that alone and complete it-they are not so difficult and then, presto, before you know it, you have a lovely Goldfinch.

I searched high and low for some time to find the right background.  The original background was similar fabric and I felt this was an important design element for these birds as the series is a "Naturalist's Notebook" which of course is a written record.  It reminds me also that I have my own Naturalist's Notebook which I began in 1975 when we lived on our zen farm. 

 My notebook and a couple of my favorite bird books

I am not sure if Missouri just has many many wonderful birds and I just never noticed the California birds when I was growing up. Maybe our farm was quiet and serene so one noticed more.  Whatever the reason, Missouri is filled with wonderful birds.  In my Naturalist Notebook, I began recording all the birds I saw, when I saw them, and what they were up to.  I have a page for each bird so I can record sightings made at different times and places and seasons.  A record of my life for over 40 years.

I have begun the next block in this series-the Purple Finch.  We have these all year as well as the pretty shrub the bird is pictured on.  

I believe 

these are the same flowers as in the block.  My purple finches love this shrub but no matter how long I sat there with my camera, I only came up with a female finch.  It is also a favorite of the bumblebee  who also has a place on this block. 

We have had a special year for bird sighting at our bird feeder this year.  In spring we always have some transients on their way to greener pastures.  This year for the first time (I saw anyway) we had a blue grosbeak and a pine siskin.

Isn't this a lovely bird?!!!

He was scuffling along the ground looking for fallen sunflower seeds.  It was thrilling to see him.  I took lots of photos.

On the right is a pine siskin.  They are about the size of a goldfinch.  I did not take this photo-just cloned it off google images.

Above is a Rose breasted grosbeak.  Sorry I chopped of his head.  He has been a spring visitor for several years now.  He is a cousin to the blue grosbeck and a lovely bird with the most perfect coloration.

AND NOW.......YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN!

This is an airplane bone yard where old, unloved planes go to wait for their fate. While they wait, they make a very pleasing image for us to see.  At first glance this looks like an ancient hieroglyphic. This image has rhythm, great color combo, structure and depth.  I love accidental beauty in the world.  It is so reassuring.

Happy quilting until we meet again!

I am linking up with:

Slow Stitching Sunday, Bambi's Blog, Making Monday,  Em's Scrapbag, Esther's Wow, 
Midweek Makers, Whoop Whoop, Finish or Not!, and Off the Wall Friday.

IN WHICH MY NEW BIRD FLIES

 AND I WORRY ABOUT THE END

 OF NET NEUTRALITY

Many of you will recognize the fourth bird in Helen Godden's series "Feathered Friends".  All the birds in this BOM are Aussie birds.  Pictured above is a blue wren which is a tiny little bird common in Australia.  This is such a great series. 

Helen is a great teacher who is not hide bound with rules-girl after my own heart.  She stresses consistency rather than perfection.  Consistency is pleasing to the eye and quilting is as individual as one's handwriting.  Helen has different classes and books on improving your quilting on her webpage https://helengodden.com/#.  

This block was quilted on my new Tiara II.  There has been no real learning curve to quilting on the new quilter.  The moves are the same as on my old Juki but now I have more room to maneuver, to see what is happening, and keep better control over the quilting. It is also much more comfortable to work on-no more cramped arms and sore back muscles which, at 70, I already have plenty of aches and pains without adding to it. I am a lucky girl to have this in my life.  I have been practicing for about 45 minutes a day as if I were learning to play the piano.

~~~~SOAPBOX~~~~

Net neutrality is defined in the google dictionary as "the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites".  Beginning June 11 in the US, internet providers will create different levels of internet speed and charge accordingly instead of the equality of service that exists now.

What does this mean for bloggers?  What does this mean for small quilt shops who sell on line?  What does it mean for those of us who spend time flipping thru screen of images of fabrics or ideas?  Nothing good, I fear.  

Free platforms provide the means to post blogs.  Will we be forced to pay a monthly charge to blog so we don't stream at the speed of a glacier?

Small quilt shops provide a huge service for quilters.  We see new fabric lines, can search for several hours until we find that one bit of rare fabric, we are presented with creative ideas.  It is a wonderful relationship.  Selling on line gives an economic boost to small quilt shops and provides quilters with good prices, ideas, and hard to find items.  Will small quilt shops be forced to pay more for adequate internet speed?  Either those sites will be frustratingly slow or we will all pay more for goods and services thereby providing internet corps with more revenue.

AND NOW........

YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN

(we need lots of these moments if we are to 

keep our sanity)

This beautiful flock of about 2500 white paper origami doves is an art installation by artist Michael Pendry in the nave at the beautiful Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire, England. The doves fly the length of the nave and are reflected in the pool below.   The installation is part of a healing process after the nerve gas attack there in March and offers hope and peace.

This is Salisbury Cathedral as seen from the east.  Construction began in 1220 and  is one of the most wonderful examples of English Gothic architecture.  It lies just 8 miles from that other ancient religious site, Stonehenge.

Happy quilting until we meet again!

I am linking up with:

Slow Stitching Sunday, Bambi's Blog, Making Monday,  Em's Scrapbag, Esther's Wow, 
Let's Bee Social, Whoop Whoop, and Finish or Not!, Off the Wall Friday.

IN WHICH APPLIQUE PAINTBOX BEGINS 

ITS THIRD YEAR OF BLOGGING

And here is what I have to show on this anniversary.  Progress on Nature's Notebook.  Veining on the leaves and petals, french knots, touches on the goldfinch, and some stems for wheat.  The petals were particularly troublesome.  I began with 60 wt sewing thread as recommended by the designer to detail the petal but I thought it was too coarse looking. I ended up (arggghh!) pulling out this detailing on 2 flowers and replacing it with a blue-gray 100 wt silk thread.  It was worth it.  

Here is helper kitten doing important quality control work.  She thinks her eyes look pretty next to the petals.  I included this photo as the petals are detailed in the 60 wt which you can see looks to heavy. (so hard to capture the correct colors).

May 1 will see the release of the new Aussie painted bird block (Yay!) and the appliqued color block.  2017 was without doubt the worst year of my life and for most the year my design wall was empty.  It is coming to life like the world in spring which makes me start happy dancing.

Three wonderful projects.  The gray and orange fabric is just an idea for developing the color scheme for the Imaginary Garden quilt by Yoko Saito. After the two BOMs, I will resume feathering the Goldfinch and planting the landscaping.

We have, of  course, had lots of Goldfinches at our feeder but my attempts to capture them on film is somewhat lame but you can see the pretty color. I like the texturing in this photo.

Practice has not made perfect yet but I keep working on it.  Here are some practice pieces from Angela Walters Free Motion Challenge Quilt Along on the exquisite new Tiara II.

And the next bit of practice on gridworking. Pinned and ready to stitch baste. It will be 50 and 60 wt for me.

One thing I have discovered is that I like finer wt thread.  I like denser quilting and finer thread has less build up.  I tried some 40 wt glide which worked really well but the look was to heavy for me. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From our walk on the wild side:

Mossy path thru the spring woods

~~~~~~~~~~~

Lastly....your moment of Zen

The lovely flowered walkway in Hong Kong at the Un Chau Estates

HAPPY QUILTING UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!

I am linking up with:

Slow Stitching Sunday, Bambi's Blog, Making Monday,  Em's Scrapbag, Esther's Wow, 
Let's Bee Social, Whoop Whoop, and Finish or Not!, Off the Wall Friday.

OH! THE JOY OF A NEW QUILTING MACHINE

A sixteen inch throat sit down quilter! She is so pretty and so much fun to use.  I have been quilting on a juki which is a very good quilter but I wanted some elbow room and room to maneuver.  The block I am quilting is my first outing with my Tiara.  This block is the third in the Helen Godden painted birds series "Feathered Friends".  Right now I am experimenting with different size needles to see what works as it is my understanding that long arm quilting machines generally call for heavier needles.  The above was done with a size 16 and I am going to try a 14 next on the more finely detailed quilting.  The 16 needle makes a big hole in the painted fabric.

Free motion quilting practice projects are now in my project list.  First is Angela Walters FMQ Along which has 9 lessons covering basics with great videos.  

https://quilting-is-my-therapy.myshopify.com/collections/free-motion-challenge-quilting-a

Second is this WOW fabric from Hoffman. 

 If you follow Margaret Solomon Gunn on her blog:

http://quiltsoflove.blogspot.com/2018/03/bitten, you will see what she has done this this panel.  You should look-it is pretty awesome! She outlines each petal and  quilts a different motif in each.   I have 2 of her books.   "Dense and Dainty" provides motifs for this panel.

And the third learning project is this panel is available from Spoonflower.com.  It was designed by Margaret to use with her classes on gridwork and to accompany her "Beautiful Backgrounds" Grid based fill book.   I much prefer free form sorts of designs but I ordered this book in error and thought I might as well make use of it.  This is a wonderful book also.

So, my friends, that is the GRAND PLAN.  You can see there is lots to work with here so my new Tiara and I will be good friends by the time I finish all this.

~~~~~~

Block number four of Morning Glory Designs BOM

Blue and yellow is one of my favorite combos and I love the graceful, swirly flowers.  They took forever to make and stitch down-all those little pieces.  These blocks might make a good quilt-as-you-go project.

~~~~~~~

I wanted to show you some photos of my beautiful daughter in India.  Mary lives in Northern India in Rishikesh. 

These photos were taken late January, early February.  

~~~~~~~~

AND NOW..........YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN

These are photos from above looking down from a plane of terraced rice fields in China.  The first one especially is so abstract it is difficult to decide what you are looking at but how exquisite!

HAPPY QUILTING TO YOU UNTIL 

WE MEET AGAIN!  

I am linking up with:

Slow Stitching Sunday, Bambi's Blog, Making Monday,  Em's Scrapbag, Esther's Wow, 
Let's Bee Social, Whoop Whoop, and Finish or Not!, Off the Wall Friday.

IN WHICH I POP MY HEAD BACK 

INTO THE BLOGOSPHERE

I have been a busy little bun working on my projects and thought I would bring the world  up-to-date with my doings.  The Wren block from Sandra Leichner's Naturalist's Notebook is finished.

I am happy with the result. Batiks are difficult to capture with a camera but you can get a sense of the color variations in the fabric.  I searched for a long time to find some "perfect" background.  This is called Garden Splendor by R Kauffman.  The fabric is a pretty sharp white so I have tea dyed it to tone down its brilliance.  The writing is mostly french gibberish but the effect is perfect-writing in a naturalist's notebook.

I have begun work on block #2-The Goldfinch.

The bird and the leaves are already stitched down but the petals are basted as I am still reviewing them to see if their color is right.  This block has lots of background embroidery and detailing on the bird, leaves and flowers.  Here is a photo of the pattern so you can see what is going to happen.

Pretty challenging!

I have developed a bit of a rhythm over the past couple months for working on my projects.  I am participating in 2 BOM programs.  I talked about Helen Godden's  Feathered Friends quilt last post.  Each month she releases a new block depicting an Aussie bird to be painted and then quilted.  The other BOM looks like a rainbow of color!  There is some piecing so I have to concentrate on this part and the rest is applique.  The BOM is from Morning Glory Designs.  She releases a new pattern each month which is posted and available for download during that month.  Here is a drawing of the quilt :

and a link to the site:

https://www.morningglorydesigns.com/free-block-of-the-month.htm

Here are my versions of the first 3 blocks:

I love the color, the way the diamonds and squares form up, and the movement of the applique.

Helen Godden's new birdie block was released today tho I am on hold for now as the printer ran out of ink (what a racket!) and I ordered a couple new colors of paint.  Here is the finished Feb block:

And March block:

I just cannot say enough good about this project.  It is so fun to mess around with the paints and then do the quilting!  Helen has videos with instructions on the painting process and another on the quilting process.   I am learning about the paints which are Jacquard Luminere and about different FMQ stitches.  Link at:

http://shop.helengodden.com/index.php?route=common/home

So anyway, back to rhythm.......The BOM's come out the first of the month and both are completed in a week or so apiece which gives me then 2 weeks to work on the major and challenging Naturalist Notebook which is a very time consuming and intense project.  I am pretty happy with my project line up-there is lots of variety in materials, style, difficulty, and color.  I also do some FMQ practice during the month as this has morphed from being the terror of my creative life to being a favorite thing to do.

FROM OUR WALK ON THE WILD SIDE:

Signs and sings of spring in the Missouri woods:

AND NOW........YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN!

This artist makes temporary works of art out of natural objects.  His vision of the world is awesome.  If you want to see more of the beauty made out of our ordinary world, check out his webpage at:

http://www.jamesbruntartist.co.uk/

See the charming outer ring of rock people!

HAPPY QUILTING TO YOU UNTIL 

WE MEET AGAIN!  

PURPLE, BIRDS, AND FLOWERS ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS!

I am linking up with:

Slow Stitching Sunday, Bambi's Blog, Making Monday,  Em's Scrapbag, Esther's Wow, 
Let's Bee Social, Whoop Whoop, and Finish or Not!, Off the Wall Friday.

IN WHICH IT LOOKS LIKE MY WREN 

REALLY MIGHT FLY!

It feels so good to be back at work!  I am pleased with my birdie.  Applique involves so many stages: searching thru fabric, ironing fabric to freezer paper templates, starching down the turned edges, lightly gluing down the pieces with Elmers, then tacking all down with basting prior to any stitching.  That part is completed-now I get to do the stitching!  After stitching, there is some embroidering of stems and leaves and feather-work on the bird.

Here is my wren next to pattern so you can see what embroidery will be completed.

Before I started working on the wren, I pulled out a couple of my bird books to refresh my memory as to the feathering of wrens.  It occured to me then that tho this pattern is called the Naturalists Notebook, the birds are somewhat impressionist-that is not an exact copy but rather evokes the bird. 

I use 100 wt silk thread for applique work.  I have used other types and they all have their pros and cons.  Aurifil 50wt is the current favorite being pushed as the go-to thread for appliquers and I am sure it is just great.  I am going to stick with silk because I am tired of changing-as I said, they all have their pros and cons-no one of them is perfect.

 Here is another view-I am having a hard time capturing the colors.

A couple of the bits on the bird were hi-lighted using Caran D'ache Neocolor II.

I know most of you follow the wonderful Esther Aliu @  http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/  .
She has begun an exciting new group on facebook.  You can find it at: Stenciled & Painted Quilts Group to sign up.  She is demonstrating some beautiful stenciling work right now.  The idea behind this group is for us all to share our experiences with textile paints and help each other learn.  I know most learning is done by playing but helpful hints from other's experiences might set a person in the right direction.  For instance, I have trouble with the Caran D'ache appearing to dull out the fabric so the new color may be correct but the overall look is meh! Any ideas?

On Feburary 1st, Helen Godden will release her pattern and video classes on how to paint Aussie birds using Jacquard Luminere acrylics.  I have all my paints, brushes, and black Kona ready to go!

The Sweet William pattern I mentioned last post has morphed from reproduction fabrics to a "Liberty of London" feel.  Liberty of London, as you know is lovely colored, finely printed, small florals-very expensive here in the US.  There are some clones available such as Regent Street by Moda and Garden Delights by In the Beginning fabrics.  After having lived thru the hardest year of my life, I found I did not want to use the toned down reproduction fabric.  I want sunny!  Tho subject to change, here is kind of what I am thinking of:

 Instead of yellow gingham, maybe this mottled yellow with the basket blocks picking up the lightest tones.  I have ordered a charm pack of the Garden Delights and am thinking of mixing them with Kona cotton pastels.  I can tell more once I receive the fabric.

AND NOW

YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN 

These are computer models of weather patterns.  I was struck by the similiarity to Van Gogh's swirlings.  It must have been hard on him if he saw the world like this:

 That's all for now!  Happy quilting until we met again!

I am linking up with:

Slow Stitching Sunday, Bambi's Blog, Making Monday,  Em's Scrapbag, Esther's Wow, 
Let's Bee Social, Whoop Whoop, and Finish or Not!, Off the Wall Friday.