Saturday, November 30, 2013

5K- I did it!

Not related to quilting, I know. But, I accomplished a major goal today- I completed a 5K
Here I am crossing the finish line-


And a few seconds later...
My mom and my sister joined me.  My sister has more running experience- she's already done a half-marathon.
 
Here' my mom on the home stretch:
 
This is extra-special because two years ago today she was one-day post-op from a hip replacement.  Go Mom!
We're planning to make this an annual tradition.  Next time I hope to do a little more running and a little less walking :)

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Why finish one quilt when you can start another?

Designing and starting new projects is my favorite part of quilting, so I tend to have a backlog of unfinished projects (hmm...I guess that is not unusual among quilters, though!)  I'm enjoying Tree #3 so much that I decided to do something very similar for Tree #4. This time I'm experimenting with using some bigger pieces of fabric.  I fussy-cut motifs from some large scale prints to get started.



Here's how it looks after filling in some pieces. 

It's been challenging to use larger pieces, because its harder to blend the colors together smoothly without one piece jumping out and being too obvious.  Also, it is harder to judge the value of a motif from a large print, because they usually have a range of values.  So I'm filling in the areas around big motifs with little snippets to help them blend together.




I did find one spot where the shadow I wanted under a branch was about the same shape as a darker area in a leaf motif I'd cut from an Amy Butler (?) print.
 
See the triangle with the D and the half circle marked DD?  These are areas I plan dark and very dark values (hence the D's, to help me remember). By placing dark values there I will hopefully make it look like a shadow under the tree branch. Well, this leaf shape continued the shapes in the fabric above it, and even though it is not the exact same shape as the shadow I originally planned, I think it works well.
 
To help the large leaf motif blend with the fabrics around it, I trimmed the black off the edges.  Here it is after filling in some more pieces.
 
So for now, Tree #1 is the only one in the series completed.  I'm still quilting Tree #2, need to finish the edge and do a sleeve on Tree #3, and Tree #4 is underway.