Something new to grab

   You meet the greatest people in blog land.  I am so blown away with the complete kindness and generous spirit of quilters here.  Such  a blogger is Mrs. Techie Claus,  Dana at Stormy Days .  She offered to "play" around and see what she could come up with for a button/logo for the Mrs. Claus project for me.   And overnight, she sent me a selection of buttons to try.  Note:  She is in sewing machine withdrawal right now, waiting for parts for her best machine....so little stitching time was lost, even if she pulled out her hair over this for me.  Do drop over and thank her...and enjoy her blog while you are there.
  I could not make up my mind on just one....so wonderful Dana created both for me.   Isn't he the cutest reindeer!
 And the tree is so me!  So feel free to select your favorite and spread the news about the doll quilts.  


   The buttons along with the grab code are on my side bar.   They will directly link to the Get Your Mrs. Claus On page where all the photos and details of the project are.  I'm so excited over this.  Many thanks to Dana  for her hard work.
I'm going to stitch a little bit while I watch some more Olympic trials.....I love all the courage and determination that our athletes have.  They inspire me.  Happy stitching.

Do you like Pina Coladas?

     You know those fruity drinks with the little umbrellas that remind you of the tropical islands.  Pina Coladas are the one drink I do like.  Anyway,   Cheree at Morning Latte  shared a recipe for  Pina Colada Zucchini Bread  a while back.  I thought it sounded good and stored it away for the future.   When Sir Old Man picked up a bag of aging bananas at the store this week....very aging and very cheap, I knew what I could do with about half of the bag.    So I sort of blended my favorite banana bread recipe with Cheree's recipe and came up with Pina Colada Banana Bread.

   The changes I made were few.  8 mashed bananas for the zucchini, reduced sugar to 2 Cups, 1 C shortening for the oil.  The pineapple is a great addition to the bananas.  I ended up with 2  regular loaves and 3 mini loaves from this recipe.  This  is a keeper---and will be great to share with others.    
    Thanks, Cheree, for the inspiration from your garden.   I wish you could smell and taste this one.....so good.    

Use it or lose it

 Adage:   Simple words of wisdom often passed down from mothers to children.  I have a treasure trove of them from my Mom.  Today's is  Use it or lose it....in  a couple of  ways. 
   Muscle memory----I keep hearing that over and over, from free motion quilting to the therapist.  So let's get that out of the way first.  Day 67:   PT put the hurt on yesterday.....lots of stretching and the good news the rotor cuff is not frozen but the muscles have shortened.  Tears flowed but I got the arm up and managed to touch my head!  That sounds strange, but  to me it was a miracle.  Now to revive the memory in  the upper muscles. My brain says move to them and nothing happens;  they need to "learn" or relearn the action I want.  That is muscle memory.
  Second form of muscle  memory is free motion quilting.  This is the year of the Free Motion Quilting Challenge.  I got through April before the injury and I completely missed May.  And now it is the end of June.  I worked so hard to learn muscle memory and improve in this area, I just have to try again.  This month is taught by Cindy Needham  and repetitive designs are the focus.  She also has a great discussion on disequilibrium---teaching the brain a new trick causes an unbalance.  That's me right now!   Even if you are not participating in the challenge, it would be worth the time to check out the lessons.

    I spent a couple of days working on the tutorial for this month.....the results are not great.  I have not used it and have taken a couple of steps back.   I am not in full control doing repetitive lines.....need work there.  

But I will be brave and show what I ended up with. What I do know is  that I need more practice, and I do not like doing the pebbles or the geometric designs.  I love seeing them on quilts....I just don't like stitching them.   So another practice sandwich will be prepped and I will do this one again.  Use it or lose it.   

Mrs. Claus and the quilts

Two boxes of doll quilts arrived today.  The first 15 from the quilters at HGTV Message Board.

The second box of 30 doll quilts came from one wonderful quilter, and all from her stash.  

Each one was similar in style, and so filled with color.  I ran out of floor space to show them all.  

The stack of new arrivals.

The stack----with all the doll quilts----drum roll and cymbals-----130!

To all the wonderful Mrs. Claus around the world,

Last November I never dreamed this small project would touch so many hearts.  In the grand scheme of the world , it is a small project, but has an amazing effect on each of us.  Our work to create a small doll quilt of our stashed and horded fabrics, or of our leftover blocks and strips, has become an amazing journey.  Your hand work may inspired a young girl to become a quilter one day, or to learn to sew.  She may try harder, love deeper, feel stronger because you cared.   The quilters who have participated   have learned new techniques, improved their skills, and spread their love of fiber and thread.  They seek to leave a legacy in their giving and caring.  Others have donated fabric, and batting and been such an encouragement to the entire project.   So, even though I may not know each of you, I am sending hugs and blessings to each of you.  Thank you.

And just wait till those elves hear about this!  And there are more to come...... Happy stitching.

You have to squint....

  Day 65---Slightly stiff  today...probably the heat and humidity.  I am looking forward to PT this week so they can manipulate and relax some of those muscles around the rotor cuff that are frozen.
    I managed a little sewing over the last couple of days.  So I have 3 runs completed and have 3 more stacked up to sew of the floral braid.  This is just a temporary arrangement until I get the rest done and then I will play with the runs and see what happens.  You have to squint or stand back a bit to get the real blended effect.  
The braid is about 30 inches long, so this will be a small one.   I will finish off the points with triangles.  

 Have you noticed or seen the Winter Olympic banners?   I am intrigued by them....blending and bold colors.  Good inspiration here,  maybe a couple of seasonal banners based on them?  Not sure, still playing around with this in my head.  My first impression was 1000 pyramids , but not so.....diamonds in various sizes, a piecing nightmare!   But I bet we will be seeing quilts inspired by them all over soon.
Happy stitching.

Dinner guests

We spotted a visitor in the back yard just about dinner time.  She was just calmly nibbling away under the Maple tree by the garden shed.  

Oops!   I think I made too much noise trying to slip out onto the path the take a photo.

And a small friend watched the whole thing and enjoyed a few greens.

The heat and humidity have set in on us for the next week.  Stay cool and sew.  Happy stitching.

Selecting fabrics for watercolor

 Two more questions  came about selecting fabrics for a water color quilt and for a blooming 9 patch, which uses  the blending technique to achieve a similar effect.   For the blooming 9 patch, whether you are using  5, 7, or 9 fabrics, fabric selection is important in the beginning.  You need light, medium, and dark values in the  fabrics that will blend together as you add each row outward.  So here  are a  few photos to show some of the fabrics  I  use.   I will try to give a better explanation of why they work for this technique.  

  On the right are the "light fabrics".  There is more background color---from white to light tan---showing and the design or print is light or faint looking.  Note the low contrast between the background and the print.   These can be hard to find, so when I do discover them, I buy a lot!
  Update note:  Janet reminded me that often the backside of a fabric will work for a light.  When you have a difficult time finding the right fabric, flip it over and see what the back side looks like.  It could be just what you need!  Thanks, Janet.  
   On the left, are some light medium fabrics.  Again, the background is light, but the print is stronger and has more contrast with the background.  The one on the far left is a great example of a "sprigged" print.  A 2" square of this one can blend into a very light area like a sprig the extends from a branch of a tree.

 The above photo are a collection of medium fabrics.   These are the work horses in watercolor.....they often bridge from a lighter  area to a darker one....as well as being the most used.  The background may range from light to darker cream, or  tan....maybe a light green even.  The design is darker and in good contrast with the background.  Usually there is less background that shows, making them "closer packed".  

And the dark fabrics......give the watercolor depth and life.  The background color is dark.....black, brown, blue, green.....and the design has strong contrast.   The areas of light and dark on the dark background provide the way to blend and merge the squares for a water color.  

  I talk so much about the right fabric, I thought I should also mention the wrong ones.  These are great fabrics, they just don't work well for blending in a watercolor.  Why?   Mainly because  they are one or two color fabrics.  Either they "read" as a solid or a polka dot from a distance.    Step back from the computer and look at them again.   The second fabric---purple paisley---fooled me when I bought it.  I thought it would work, but just does not blend well because the design is so evenly spaced.  So save these fabrics for another project or turn them into backings.                 Thanks for the questions, hope this will help with your fabric selection for a watercolor project.  

   Happy stitching.