A shop-hop finish!

This year I had a goal to finish at least one           old shop-hop                                                                                                                                                   Here in Washington we have a yearly event called a Shop-Hop.                                                      

Where 20-30 stores, along the I5 corridor and west side of the sound, all participate in picking a theme.

Each store makes a pattern to that theme 

which draws in quilters for miles around, even internationally!

We have two weeks, 

to gather in groups of excited revelers, to visit all the shops we can get to, 

gather the patterns and any extra fabric we may "need" 

get lunch and eventually, put together a quilt.

Don't try this in one day!     

It's loads of fun and we gather together to take turns driving  the rout.

Sometimes we go for the day sometimes we do more, It's an arduous journey 

that takes you from Bremerton to Vancouver on the east side to Port Townsend    

Lots of beautiful scenery and lots of yummy, yummy fabric!   

This is my completed 2022 Shop-hop top

I didn't get to all the shops in this one so 

I made up some of the blocks myself      

                                                                                                          And here's my sewing space after a couple days of fooling around

It's bound to get worse I've two more sets of blocks to get to!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Gold work update and some sewing stuff

Here Mr. Snail has gotten his body                                   antennae to come

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      I'm working on the stems now.                                                                                                                                                                        It's very slow going mostly because working the stems is fiddly.                                                                                                               More fiddly than clumping them all together, as you can hide some mistakes in the mash potatoes.                                                                                                                                                                             You can't hide a single strand of Purl Purl when it's all alone.        It's lumpy af all by it's self.

And any mistakes are going to trumpet their ick everywhere                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Doesn't look so bad this way

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The bottom of the stem didn't look thick enough                                                                                                                                                             I added some more smooth Purl, cut small and threaded at an angle                                                                                                                                 Which gives the lower half more definition and makes the stem look more able to hold up the rest of the assembly.                                                                                                                                                                    I will all add gold sequin berries at intervals and I'm wondering               if I should add some smaller leaves or would that make it too busy?                                                                                                                                That's a ponder for later.

I have also been working on a bunch of old shop hops                                                                                                                                                       On tap right now is the 2022 featuring homestead type imagery                                                                                                                                       canning jars and labels, pick-nick baskets, pies etc.

                                                                                                                                                                        The blocks are mostly done,                                                                                                                       just the hand work to finish up on a few of them,                                                                                        I will give the blocks a lattice setting,                                                                                                     then use up as much of the rest of the fabric as I can in multiple borders                        

                                                                                     Gearing up for this years Rainbow scrap challenge                                                                                      sorting out the scrap bags, I need to make that yellow one bigger.                                                      I also need to make an orange and a teal bag, those two are way to small now                                                                                                                              And how is it I end up with all that blue?                 As a rule I don't use all that much in the way of blue, yet that bag is always over full to falling over.                                                                            I don't understand.                        

                                                                                    The state of my sewing space has become a bit on the Idea laden side                                                                                                                                          I keep wondering if I should clean or leave it                                                                                                The new studio is coming along and will probably be ready to move into after the first of the year.                                                                                        So clean or pack up? Leave it until I have to move it?                                                                                                                                                                As none of it is especially in the way,                   it's just cramped, 

                                                                                                                           or do I preemptively start moving to storage, I.E. the garage,                        the things I know I don't need now?                                                                                                                                                                                                  Do the lazy bit and leave it make some room                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              I'm Feeling                                                                                                                         Meh right now, though I do see the efficacy of doing a bit of a tidy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Goldwork on damask

 I have embarked on this goldwork adventure

the way I embark on most of my adventures

by doing the research, buying a bunch of books,

These are two of my favorites

 

watching a bunch of videos and pictures, 

inhaling the the knowledge within, 

And then trying out the techniques, 

through small projects and kits 

that is to say 

enthusiastically jumping in with both feet

SO far, so good

Gerry's Block

It was past time for my own project

So I took an old Embroidery Idea I used for the 

False gold Round Robin with Crazy Quilting International

In which we used all the cheep left over christmas ribbon, 

gold lame and what-not we could find. 

This was the block I did for Gerry Kruger,^  somewhere around 2012

re translated that block for this project and

Working from the goldwork masterclass book

Using actual tools and techniques this time

I am coming up with much better results

outlined in gold passing thread the pomegranate and leaf 

looks much better It's such a tiny detail but it adds so much

Mr.Snail got his Shell using 1 strand of  a 3 strand 

silk wool, I don't know which brand 

this is a remnant that has been kicking around 

for a decade or more.

I needle wove it separately with a simple stumpwork Detached Buttonhole  stitch

Then tacked it down around the batting shape and stuffed it a little more

12 Point Star

Here she is!

The star quilt is done.

She is 98"x 96" Squarish

In spite of the tension snafu at the beginning that had to be picked out 

and the timing going wonky on the last yard of quilting, 

Necessitating the need for an emergency visit to the vac&sew

with a 4 day wait whilst the machine got fixed 

My Husband started to call it the Quilt of the damned as 

Every damned thing kept happening with it!

In spite of part of the back looking quite awful from the picking 

and some truly terrible decisions in design at the beginning 

It looks quite nice on the bed.

 

A Goldwork start

Today I start a goldwork journey

We will be following some of the instructions in

"A Gold work master class" by Alison Cole

Starting with the basics, stretching your base layer of muslin fabric on a frame.

then pinning and stretching your main fabric over that, baste it to the muslin.

Marking the back and basting stitch the outline through the layers.

add your underlayment of padding,many different types!

Here I have flat padding, board padding, layered padding, 

lofted padding, sculptured padding and stuffed padding

Each will have a different technique

Here we have started with a couched flat gold filament

Here's what it looks like on the back so far

 Ladybug is in a colored hollow wire and beads

So that happened

Life sucks when the tension is wrong

*Sigh*

This is going to suuuUUuuuck

 

On the bright side I now have a new pet!

What should I call them?

Fribbls maybe, feeling a little like Rimmer right now

They really need a set of googly eyes

the 12 point star

At the beginning of august

 I experimented with a paper piecing block

And took the seminar my quilt guild recommended

Don't one and one make two?

Apparently not.

The stars are all the most flashy fabrics I could find

The centers were the last of the orangy yellow from my daughters quilt

And the between points is all low definition ecru

The only thing I had to buy was the buff color 

That held the whole together, I ran out at our quilt retreat

And forgot to bring it with me

I used  a lot of my scraps and as is usual, barely made a dent

But we keep trying right?

I made enough of them to make a  vEry large quilt

30 whole 12 point stars, and 17 - 4 point stars for the edges 

Now I need to find a back for the quilting