Deb & BG #5 tumbling blocks, long arm practice

I was so excited to tell you about the tea that I forgot a few other neat things that happened with our tumbling blocks pattern.  Many of you know that we ordered hand dyed fabric for this project (Michael and I picked out the colors together) and the woman who dyed the fabric asked us to send a picture of the finished project.  I did, and you may see it on HER website at the following address: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ruby-Mountain-Dye-Works/193108204037670.  Just post that in your browser and you can see comments on her facebook page.  And this was her comment:

“Oh my goodness, that is stunning, Deb! I love your placement of the blocks, and I especially love the negative spaces, because they emphasize the 3D appearance of the blocks. It's so easy to see which blocks are supposed to be behind other blocks. Some really appear to advance and others really look like they're receding! It's amazing!”

Also, when I first started to sew the blocks, I had some questions and wrote to the woman who wrote the book (Marci Baker).  She also asked for a finished picture, and her comments after seeing it THRILLED both of us:

I can see you are enjoying your quilting.  This is really cool! The longer I looked at it the more I saw. Would you mind if I made a pattern based on some of the concepts you incorporated?

So…you never know, our names might be in her next book giving us credit for inspiring a new pattern!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled day!  It was raining Saturday morning (5/31) when we got up, but Michael left for golf here at SCCL anyway and managed to only get rained on for one hole on his way to an 83!!  I had hoped to ride my bike to the library, but wasn’t going in the rain, so I drove up to pick up a book they were holding.  Once I got home, I buckled down and actually tried to work on the long arm on my own.  I got one pass done before Nancy got here.  My tension was awful, and my guiding skills were worse, but I got better and better, especially with Nancy’s helpful suggestions!  She was thrilled by the time she left before 1, and also thought I had come a good way in the short amount of time we had.  She gave me some suggestions on how she does things, and they also worked well for me, so that’s what I’m doing.  I had a quick lunch and headed back to the studio.  I completed my #5 tumbling block,

I might like this one best of all!

 

And BG also finished her # 5:

and she likes this one best of all!

 

Loree is already done with her #5 (I posted that earlier).  Now (believe it or not) comes the hard part....the layout and putting in background fabric (which none of us has picked out as yet).  It will probably be quite awhile before you see the finished layouts....I may wait and post all of them at once so that you can see how different they all look!

When Michael got home, I fired up the long arm again and showed him what was going on (it's hard to believe these 2 pictures are the same fabric...they look like totally different colors...maybe I used a flash on one??) 

you may be able to make out the word 'doggy'

this is just swirling 8's.  Notice I've gone over it twice, and now will
make another pass and try to fill in between what I already have.
That's how Nancy showed me to get more use out of my practice,
and also how to improve my motor skills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had been wasting a lot of my practice area until Nancy showed me how to get more practice over the same piece of material…but even so, my 3 yard piece of fabric was almost all quilted/finished by dinner!!!  The machine started stuttering again (I sure hope that happens when Kay ((the store instructor) comes by on Wednesday….but I really think it is OPERATOR error  J) and I got frustrated and shut it off.  I was going to do just this long piece of material and then load up the first of my charity quilts…but the practice went WAY TOO FAST….and Nancy has some batting that she is willing to sell me VERY cheap, so I think I will load up another couple of lengths of fabric before I move on to an actual quilt.  Michael and I got cleaned up around 5 PM and picked up Gale & Phil and 15 of us went to THE GREEK ISLES for dinner.  They were running a special: a glass of wine, soup or salad, a choice of 7 – 8 entrees, and a choice of 3 desserts for 20 bucks….yum!!!!  We were both stuffed and brought part of our entrees and desserts home.  I read for a bit while Michael finished watching the first of 3 episodes on the WORLD WARS before heading to bed.