Day 202. Nature Abstracts with new camping pics

I'm not sure I really like these, but it's a good start

Day 199-201. Works from Vacation

We had such a good time, if you haven't been early spring camping, it's definitly something to try.  Boy it was cold at night!  Luckily there was a propane heater in our cabin.  We actually saw someone tent camping-I don't think I could be that bold.

Here's a synopsis of our mini-vacation:

Day 1, Monday. We drove up from Chicago to Kalamazoo, MI where we had a lovely lunch with my parents along the river.  Then we drove on to the cabin where we immediatly built a fire to keep warm.
Day 2, Tuesday.  We woke to a beautiful sunny day.  The first photo is the first thing I saw in the morning.  We hiked almost all morning-afternoon and soaked up the sun and natural beauty.  We returned to build another fire and made a gourmet camping dinner.
Day 3, Wednesday.  We cleaned the cabin and loaded up the car.  Then we went for our final hike and got lost. It's funny how the state parks wouldn't include a lake on their hiking map...Then we had a great lunch at Duda's with real homemade peanutbutter, chocolate pie..mmm...and then came home.

Wildlife we saw:

Eagles, hawks, herons, cranes, swans, ducks, cardinals, robins, chickadees, woodpeckers, crows, one black cat, red squirrels and gnats.

Here are some of my favorite images:

We saw two sets of hunters and heard gunshots the whole time-guess they don't look at these signs with the dates...

Update for the next three days

I'm going on vacation! Yay! My husband and I are headed off into the woods where we've rented a cabin.  There will be no internet or electricity.  My plan is to keep a journal and to take lots of pictures.  When I get back I'll post some of this work.  See you on Thursday!

Day 198. The top piece is completed!

Okay so I didn't get to finish the whole thing this weekend, like I'd hoped, but at least the top piece is done.  What's left is to sew the back piece, attach those two and make a border edge.  I don't think I'll do any actual quilting since the front is so fat with material.

Day 197. One strip at a time...

Made this border strip

Option 1

Option 2

 I don't know why it is so difficult to do more than one strip in a day! Oh well, guess that's just how my cookie crumbles.  I'm having trouble deciding what to do for the final strip around the edge.  There's option 1 and 2 and honestly, I don't like either.  But I'm out of fabric choice, so it's 1 or 2.  Or maybe I could both.  A thin line of the lighter color with the darker on top maybe?

Day 196. No excuses...except Drunkeness

Oops! Totally forgot Friday's post- went out on a very nice date with my hubby.   Peruvian food is SO good and the drinks are SO strong!  Then we met up with some friends for a REALLY great Dance Party. So needless to say, I got home and practically fell in bed with my clothes on and didn't even THINK about making any artwork or post.  Maybe I can make it up with some extra credit work this weekend?

Day 195. Today was fraught with problems

1st sewing that had to be removed

2nd sewing that had to be removed

Finally! 4 pieces successfully sewn down.

Moral of the story be: Don't drink and sew

Day 194. Today was my Last Quilting Class....):

I did get some work done however sad the last class was..Decided to finish off the border in a log cabin fashion of thin stripes. This stripe looks fat, but it's just the first one, I'll add more fabric on top of it.  More to come in following days.  I was hoping to finish the pillow before I see my mom on Monday. The pillow is to match the quilt my grandma made for her.

Day 193. Squared off the pine burr quilt

I'd show a picture, but I'm too tired to take one.  But tonight I took my pine burr circle and added triangles to the corners to make a complete square. Tomorrow in my class I'll add the perimeter of the piece-I'm thinking stripes with the remaining fabric.

Day 192. It was a weird dream...

Day 191. Two more rows completed

Today was a mess of taxes and fruitless trips downtown. I only was able to complete two more rows on the pine burr quilt and didn't have enough energy to photograph it...
I got stuck thinking about how I want to finish it off.  I have to make the circle into a square...hmmm....
I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Day 190. Lots of Progress on Pine Burr Quilt

I guess that happens when you're still sick with a cold...nothing to do but stay at home and cut, iron and sew fabric. But I'm totally happy with the progress I made today and TOTALLY HAPPY with the way it looks- I think it's awesome.  I have one or two more rows of triangles then I'll begin the border.

Detail

Day 189. Pine Burr Quilted Pillow cover begins!

This will be the first ring-will sew these down and add more on top

These are some of the small triangles I cut and folded today, still a lot to go

Day 188. Commisioned by Grandma

So this week I got a package in the mail, I was SO excited! I look in the box, there's a letter, some fabric remenents, some really nice quilting thread, pins, scissors and a whole bunch of other goodies.  I was elated! Thanks Grandma.  Then I read the letter.  Well more like detailed instructions.  In all good intentions (I imagine) it was requested of me that I turn these remenents into a pillow to accompany the new quilt my grandma made for my mother.  She described in detail-none of which I could really follow-about how precisely to quilt this particular pillow.  Gee thanks Grandma...
But of course I am a duitiful granddaughter and will willing, or rather somewhat grudgingly, obey.  But lucky for me I could not understand her directions and thereby get to make my own design! My favorite part. 

The fabrics are not ones that I would ever pick out for myself, or really for my mother..but there are some interesting qualities, namely that there are pretty pictures of birds on one that I am going to use as a centerpiece.  I was really taken with the novelty quilting piecing, Pine Burr, that I learned about in class yesterday.  I think it will make a nice throw pillow and it also looks, you know, kind of, grandma-ish so should fit in nicely with the blanket she made. (I can only imagine what it looks like, because she didn't bother to send me a photo of it!)

This is what the start of the quilt will look like, the center is the background fabric (the pretty bird fabric for me) leaving a nice star shape.  then the remaining triangles will be added to the perimeter, covering the stitching.

Here are the fabrics, at second look there doesn't look like there is enough of the bird fabric to be the center of the star, but maybe I'll use the black butterfly fabric as center instead.

Day 187. Oops I forgot!

Well today is Thursday, I skipped a day.  I totally forgot! Who knew you could do something everyday and then one day just plum forget?

The day wasn't lost though. Here's a recap on Wednesday March 16 (artistically speaking):

I went to my quilting class (only one left next week).  I laid down my cells on my background and played around with the placement of them while looking at pathology images.  I got some really good feedback from my teacher, Sarah (who is an artist and quilting artist).  I realized by looking at them that I am missing a dimension from the final look and from the pathology images.  In the pathology images, the cells swim in a river- the background is like the shore or land.  I am missing the water of the river...So I am going to have to pillage my fabric reserves and see if I can find a good color or print.

Part two of class, Sarah showed us and taught us how to make novelty quilts.  Yo-yo quilts, pine burr quilts, paper-piecing quilts.  It was all so inspirational! I want to attempt the pine burr quilt for a commissioned pillow.  It is made out of triangles that lay over top of one another-working from the center out.  Here's an example of a pine burr quilt:

After dinner I will make a post for Thursday...

Day 186.

It's a miracle! I finally finished appliquing the cells today! Yay for Me!  I still have to put them down to the background.  Tomorrow in my quilting class I will place them down and see how they should look all-together.

Day 185. the applique saga continues

This is getting pretty boring to write about.  And because all the pictures look the same, that's boring too.  But anyway, today I worked some more on the applique of the cells.  The last two nucleus' are now finished and all I have left is to attach them to the cell.  Well then there's a whole lot more of attaching each cell to the background and then there's the quilting of words into the piece.  I'm begining to think this is the piece that never ends..It just goes on and on my friend..And to boot I've got some tendonitis that's sprouted up in my sewing hand and fingers...Yikes!

Day 184. I feel like I'm on constant repeat or like my needle is stuck in a groove

FINISHED THESE TWO TODAY!!!

LAST ONE TO COMPLETE-Outer Membrane already attached

Day 183.

Today I continued my applique process that never seems to end... The nucleus' are almost finished I have but two nucleolus' to sew down and the nuclear membrane (on the right side).  I still have the double layer outer cell membranes on four of the cell walls.  But I have plans to meet up with the quilting ladies tomorrow and get some work done, I think I'll finally be finished with these cells, well anyway I hope that's the case...

By the way, I found myself forgetting names of all the parts of cells, so I thought I'd also post a diagram in case anyone else has so thoroughly forgotten high school biology.

Day 182. New Quilting idea

I made the inital design the other day at work, but tonight I was thinking it would be great to integrate lots of stripe patterns in various directions.  Very op art, no?
I like it!

P.S. Sometime between today and tommorrow, I'll be 1/2 way done with 365 days...

Day 181. More Applique

There's applique mania in the air! finished the nucleus of two cells today! Once those nucleus' are finished, it's a cake walk. the outer cell linings are fast and easy.  Can't wait until these are finished so I can put them down to the background fabric I picked out.

Day 180. 4.5 cells down, 2.5 more to go

Tonight in my quilting class I worked on these cells.  I finished the one on the left and started the one on the right.  Sorry for the bad quality images, I used my photo booth camera.  I was feeling lazy, but I won't do it again because they look pretty bad...

Day 179. More Applique on the cells piece

Tonight I spent some good time appliquing some cells from the pathology piece I'm working on.  I'd show you the progress but it looks the same as the others I did this past weekend and what I'll probably show tomorrow.  Too much of the same thing, must get boring to look at..

Day 178. Worked on ideas for Amazonian Mythology Piece

There's no image today because the sketch I made is so laughable I couldn't bear to post it.  But what I did today was brainstorm ideas for the Amazonian Shamanism Mythology piece I'm working on.  My wonderful husband verbally translated some creation myths of the Tucano, Uitoto and Ingas communities in Colombia.  Then I thought of how I could incorporate them in image and how it could relate to what I want to wish for the earth.  The next step is find some images from my cache and weave them together, but I'll leave that for another night. 

Day 176-7. Saturday and Sunday-Back from my quilting weekend

detail

I had such a good time in Danville quilting with the ladies!  We drank wine, we laughed ALOT, we stayed up to 2am quilting, quilting, quilting...This is what I got accomplished. It doesn't really look like a lot, but let me tell you! It is very time consuming hand stitching applique.  So I have three cells down and four to go.  I wish I had another quilting retreat to get'er done too.

weekend update

So early tomorrow I'll be heading to Danville, IL to go on my first quilter's retreat.  I know, I know..I'm a nerd -capitol N!  But I'm so excited!  Anyway, I don't plan on taking along my trusty laptop (although I do plan on quilting, quilting, quilting) So I'm going to make my post for Saturday on Sunday. Have a great weekend!

Day 175. More on the Yakut Mythology Piece

It gives me the chills...

Day 174. More Applique Piecing

It wasn't that much to see so I didn't include a picture.  It looks like I'll be doing this hand stitching for awhile.

Day 173. Applique pathology piece

I appliqued for 2.5hrs and this is as far as I got...

Day 172. New Project Started

Started working on this new piece based on the Yakut Horse Mythology.  It's far from being done.

Day 171. Edited More Michigan Walkabout Pics