Furlough day 12 Starfish

 I am totally addicted to starfish images. 

pics from Carrissa  Rideout.

Furlough Days 9 & 10

 Yesterday we took a mental health ride up to Warm Lake.

 It's still winter in the high country.

 Since we're eating lunches from the saddle bags, I decided to up the sack lunch game.  Today's theme is rolled up foods.  These are salads wrapped in rice paper wrappers. Inside are peppers and carrots.  These pansies taste like grape koolaid.  So I added some lemon balm and made an orange dipping sauce.  Froot Loop Rolls.

 Made sushi for the first time in a decade.  But with smoked salmon for food safety.

Back to quilty things tomorrow.

Furlough Day 8 Covid Selfie

I have been working today on the second panel of the Covid quilt.

This is the Selfie that Chris sent me.  She assures me that she was looking relatively good at this point and things went downhill from here.

Still needs ears, oxygen mask tubing and some under-eye details.

Motivates me to STAY HOME.

Lungs Done

So happy to have this feature panel of Chris' Covid quilt done.  It's 20x 28".  Represents my friend's experience with the coronavirus.  She says that it feels like there were "shards of glass in my lungs".  I worked hard to represent that, and the lighting on this picture does show that all the shards are 3-D.  Top of the trachea is left open lest intubation needed.

I  had a different grey/black background picked out, but when it was time to do the cut, realized it was piece of double wide fabric I'd bought for a backing.  Couldn't bear to cut into it.  Black textured fabric to the rescue.

Throughout the quilt, I plan to add the Covid Pom Poms.  They represent the virus.  And will show up randomly.

Next up.  Sorting out the other panels, primarily for size.  Pic with Chris wearing an O2 mask is the next biggest panel.  But several smaller panels to represent her experience. 

Furlough Day 6 Lungs

My plans for the day got flipped around and I ended up working on the Covid19 quilt instead.  Prepped the second lung and got most of it stitched down.  Need to make more of the large white glass shards.  This is part of a quilt for my friend Chris who survived the virus.  She says it felt like her lungs were filled with shards of glass. 

Furlough Days 3-5

I've been busy the last few days.  On the quilting front, I asked a Face Book group of scuba divers for ideas for a pillow, thinking I'd make one to go with the octopus.  They shared hundreds of pictures with me.  I narrowed it down to 7 that I thought would translate well to quilting.  While I promised myself I wouldn't start new projects until I finished a bunch of the old ones.... I also committed to having only one project per category going at a time.  I just finished the purple machine quilting piece.  The jellyfish is just quilting.  This one goes to the photographer Bridget Perry and I have one prepped for me.

We packed a lunch and took a couple Mental Health rides.  Being a sparsely populated state has its advantages (size of the UK with only 1.7 million people, half of whom live in or near the capital city).

I completed another repeat on the crochet project and it is very clearly not the right scale with this thread.   I do have some finer in the stash, so time to start over.

The late daffodils are still blooming and the early tulips fading.  Time to do some deadheading when the rain stops.   Garden shops here are now open (with face masks & distancing rules) so that may be part of today's events.  It's my civic duty to help keep them in business.

Purple Finish

 Here's the finished quilt in the morning light so you can see the texture.  This was machine quilted on a cheap Singer.  I transferred the deign onto the center panel using Crayola Ultra-clean washable markers.  None of the fabrics were pre-washed, so the final step of washing this in hot water, combined with the cotton batting makes the yummy texture.

 This photo taken from the opposite end.

 This is a wedding quilt for my Niece Denise.  Years ago, I started a tradition of making a Groom's quilt "because we know you'll be sleeping on the couch".  Typically it's made with scraps from the Bride's quilt.  This time it was a practice piece to see how the FMQ would work out.

 This is Jaxson's quilt from the back side.

 Denise's quilt from the back.

And a bonus one since it's easier to see the design on the green because of the contrasting thread. 

Furlough Day 2

The past 2 days have been phenomenally productive.  I spent about 8 hours more on machine quilting, bringing my total for the project up to 26.  The binding is on and it's currently in the washing machine.  I will post reveal photos tomorrow. 

What I had hoped would be the perfect solution for sourdough muffins fixed 1 problem but created a new one.  I am hoping that the 5th time will be the charm.  Fortunately they are still delicious.  And my starter is getting stronger since I am feeding it every other day and using it weekly.  Once I crack the code, I'll post about it on my Nutrition Blog  MarjorieRich.blogspot.com 

Yesterday, I picked 2 bouquets from the bounty of bulbs I put in last fall during the beginning of my garden overhaul project.

With my daughter's help, we cleared this section of the overgrown front garden today.  I am looking forward to reclaiming and remodeling this section.  I also discovered that I don't have the endurance for hard physical labor that I used to have.  Good thing I stocked up on Tylenol in case of Rona. 

Furlough Day 1 Granny's Brassiere

A  year ago, my friend Barb was going through family heirlooms and posted this amazing piece of fabric art which was part of her great grandmother's wedding ensemble.  I instantly fell in love with the crochet.  And may or may not have drunk offered to reproduce it.

Fast forward to today.  I enlarged this photo and tried to decript the original crochet pattern. 

This was my initial transcription in crochet code.

I was very concerned with the trial round on the top.  Too loose for the lace and too big of scale.  That was 5" with #10 crochet cotton and #10 hook.    I was counting pictures from the photo for the first round.  The second sample is my adjustment.  Reduced each chain by 1 stitch and simplified the pattern.   Still 4" wide.

Called Barb to find out her intent.  She would like a shadow box of a reproduction.  It should include the rest of the bodice since the draw string around the bottom is really significant.  The original is silk.  We are debating if it was always ivory or aged white.

I was happily on my way to progress when I realized I have to admit that the original used much finer crochet cotton.  Which annoys me because it's harder to work with.

This story isn't over.

Furlough Day 1 Planning

Today is day 1 of my 3 month Covid Work Furlough.  It is also 1 month from when we started following distancing/ stay at home measures either voluntary and mandated.    I have to say I was a little like a kid on the first day of summer vacation.  My husband is confused as I turned down a motorcycle ride to stay home and launch my plan.

I started with the WIP/UFO list that I started in January.   The left are the 20 quilts in various stages of completion.  The right are other sewing or crochet.  Clearly I like the planning stages and not the doing ones.    Decided to pick one in each category and TRY to focus for a finish.

Hand Quilting:  Oorah!  Pictured at the top of the post.  Started in 2012 after meeting an inspiring Marine at the Ride To The Wall event in Washington DC.  It's stalled out because of debates about how to finish it.  Ideas have included quilting Marine emblems in the center of the rings.  I have decided to go with traditional hand quilting with a cotton/wool blend batting.  I will be giving it to my good friend (and retired Marine) Fred, who's wife taught me to quilt.

Machine Quilting:  Purple.  This is a wedding quilt.  I am about 80% finished with one section of background fill and the borders to go.  Hoping to finish this one over the weekend.

Applique:  Covid 19.  Making this for my friend Chris who was in the first wave to get it in the US and described the experience like having shards of glass in her lungs.  We have identified several symbolic things to capture her experience.

Piecing:  My Alaska quilt center is finished, but i need to add borders and prep it for quilting.

Crochet:  My childhood friend Barb posted this picture of a family heirloom about a year ago.   I offered to try to reproduce it for her.

We all know I'm going to get distracted by bright shiny objects.  Even my to-do list includes another applique and an a piecing project.   Am also helping my daughter fill in her income gap by making masks, making her kits since I can prep so quickly with the rotory cutter/mat which she doesn't have.

I am on round 4 of trying to make the PERFECT sourdough English Muffin. (Round 3 on top, 2 on bottom...so clearly getting closer to the solution)

One of my other New Year's goals was to work on my garden more.  I have really let it go over the past few years, spending those sunny days on the motorcycle instead of the garden.  Here's the result of last fall's gardening binge.  I am also helping some friends design their gardens as well.

So expect lots of fabric art posts with some food and flowers mixed in.

Purple Progress

 Here's where the quilting was after 15 hours and nearly 4 spools (250m each) of thread.

 A closer look at the top section

And the bottom left with the background fill done. I think that brings my total quilting time up to about 18 hours.  I was able to buy 3 more spools of thread in this color at Joanne's with curbside pickup.   It is my goal to finish up the fills today and move on to the outside borders.

Today is day 29 of Boise, Idaho's distancing policy.  The mayor issued limits a week before the rest of the state.  First 2 weeks was closure of non-essential business and limit groups to 10 with 6 ft distancing.  It ramped up to masks 10 days ago.  Our curve is looking pretty good and the governor will be issuing new guidelines today.  I work in healthcare, but in an outpatient specialty clinic which has had a decline in follow up of non-urgent patients.  Subsequently I will begin a furlough at the end of this week.  Expect a lot more blog posts as I work through my endless supply of UFOs.

Purple

 I finally got around to sandwiching this quilt.  It's my least favorite step, made more so by it's large size 90x100, requires moving some furniture. 

 The center panel is all free motion quilting inspired by zentangles.  I stitched the borders and the diagonal lines that splits the design into 3 sections with the walking foot.  My goal for Saturday was this corner.

 Mission accomplished.  There's still fill to do, but I'll finish up with that.

Doing this all on my Singer Patchwork, which I bought in a middle of a project when I discovered it was cheaper to buy a new machine than a new free motion foot for my old machine.

Octopus

 I just finished this quilt for a family member who is about to make a new start after some trying times.   She requested something with an ocean theme.

 The quilt finishes about 70" x 90", sized for a twin bed.    Because there was a quick turn around from when the request was made, to when it's needed, I did raw edge applique with fusable.  And did the stitching in place as part of the quilting. 

I was aiming for a lot of texture, and felt it was quite a success.  Now back to all the unfinished projects, plus a new one...a quilt for a Covid-19 survivor that captures some of her experiences.