Catching up

Symposium is over and I've had a week to recover.  I don't know why it tired me out so much.  :-)  I enjoyed being a fanner for the judges, very much enjoyed winning a ribbon, and attended three great classes.  The Friday class was with Eileen Sullivan on drafting asymmetrical log cabins.  All we needed was color pencils, paper and glue sticks and had a great time.  She's lots of fun and very clear in her instructions.

All day Saturday I had Pepper Cory's class, The Swartz Creek Scrap Quilt (say that three times fast!).  The vintage top is fascinating with all it's wonky piecing.  Even some of the small triangles are pieced from bits.  There were unexpected seams everywhere.  I guess no scrap went unused!

Pepper is a hoot.  I brought a collection of thrifted shirt fronts and sleeves for most of my "scraps" and Pepper spent the morning eyeing them up.  She finally asked if she could cut into some of them for herself and I said sure!  She used her large apple core template and when she realized I had some shirt fronts with the pockets still on them she fussy cut so the pocket would be in the center of her apple core blocks.  Pepper got very excited and has decided to go thrift shopping and make a "pocket quilt".  We had fun thinking about what could go in all the shirt pockets and I nearly fell out when she suggested a geek quilt with pens and pocket protectors.  Like I said, she's a real hoot!

Pepper gifted me with a fat-eighths bundle of her fabrics in exchange for the shirt pieces and I was able to incorporate some of them into my quilt.  I got the first two rows done on a lap size version.  Pepper made me hold up my rows so she could point out that I make scrap quilts to match what I'm wearing!  :-)

Sunday morning I had a class with Frieda Anderson.  Poor Frieda was suffering from a bad case of no voice but we all managed fine and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  We each chose three pieces of her yummy hand-dyed fabrics and were given the pattern for "Sister Trees."

Frieda showed us her method of fusing and though it was a little awkward as we had to share just a few irons, we learned plenty.  The pattern colorway for Sister Trees is the pink, blue and green with the yellow border below.  Mine will look more like the one above.  With so many color choices in our strips of fabric it was so hard to choose!

This week I completed another t-shirt quilt top for Patchwork Memories.

And I started working a few hours a week at American Art Editions.  This week I learned how to stretch canvases......and I only pinched my finger in the stretching machine once!  :-)  The company is owned by one of my quilting friends and her husband.  The art their clients send them to be printed is amazing.  The canvas, the toner, the printers, and especially the papers are so expensive and I'm a bit nervous about messing up.   :-)  But it's fun.

Also this week was doll club day.  Heera has finished her mermaid and it's spectacular. 

Cindy showed off her  Zozie doll from a Susie McMahon workshop.  What a cutie!

Selena is busy making Cabbage Patch dolls.  This is the one she's keeping for herself.

This week we were working on pancake dolls.  Mine isn't exactly a pancake but I had it all gessoed and ready to paint.  I used the Spool bird pattern.  I had no idea what I was doing but at least it's painted.  It's pretty boring though.  Maybe I'll Zentangle all over it.  And if I ruin it, so be it!  :-)

Do you think they have enough toys?  Maisy is sleeping...apparently comfortably...on top of at least six of them.  Nut dog.  Ngaire has one under her back and one between her paws.  :-)

Ivy has absolutely no use for the toys, and anyway she sticks to the nice cool tile floor in the bathroom.

Say goodnight, Ivy.