Secret's Revealed

While visiting the National Gallery of Art I learned about an interesting little machine called the Camera Obscura:

 "Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside where it is reproduced, upside down, but with color and perspective preserved. The image can be projected onto paper, and can then be traced to produce a highly accurate representation."

Many variations of the camera obscura have been used for centuries.

These artists were getting their basic outline by TRACING. 

And it wasn't cheating.

I love this revelation as I have traced photos (cameras are just a modern Camera Obsecura with a way of keeping the image) to get basic shapes and perspectives on drawings and I thought I was cheating.  Turns out I was just following in the footsteps of  Canaletto and Leonardo Da Vinci!

Happy Birthday Sistah!

My sister's birthday present is almost finished.  Just a little more quilting and a binding.  I hope she enjoys it!

Organizing

When bolts of fabric come in to Whimsy Cottage, the quilt shop I work in, we slice off an inch or two of fabric from the bolt.  This approximately 2" x 42" strip has a number of purposes:

• The bolt is often crooked and cutting off this strip straightens the end up
• We place the strip in the bolt to allow us to cut off a small piece if a customer needs a sample to compare to things at home
• We also cut a 1" piece of the strip & glue it to a piece of paper so we know what has come in recently 
• And finally when a bolt is finished we can use this piece to find the fat quarters that are left and mark them down

Once this strip of fabric has served it's purpose it goes into a bin and one of us takes them home.  I've been collecting the strips for about a year or so and have been anxious to make some String quilts from them.  The quilt(s) will be truly scrappy and I plan to make them a bit wonky as well.  But before I can use them I feel the need to organize them.  I asked my youngest to put together some bins for me using some grids we've had laying around for sometime.

I only had enough grids to make 6 bins but they have helped immensely.

I put all of the oranges, reds and pinks together and ended up putting the browns with the yellows.

Of course Mister Eko had to help out.  He tried out each bin.

As soon as I started sorting the strips he decided to plant himself in the purple bin and enjoyed having strips thrown all over him.

Now that the strips are sorted I am very excited to start a project with them but I need to finish a few things first.  Having this project on the horizon will help me get the other projects done!

It's Trying

Spring is trying to come.

It snowed yesterday, but melted as soon as it hit the ground.

The weeds have a great head start on me.

I'm afraid my knees are going to let the weeds win.

Spring Retreat

I just spent a very fun week with friends at the Super Spring Retreat put on by Pie Plate Patterns owners, Bonnie and Brenda Bailey. I spent a few days with my friend Sylvia and then we spent a few days at the retreat.  The retreat was held at a cosy place called Fairview Retreat.  

Thanks to such wonderful hostesses and no need to stop sewing to prepare meals I was able to get a lot of sewing done!  I made a number of headbands, covered 5 books (see this post), made 76 quarter circle blocks, a travel ironing board, 4 charity blocks, and finished quilting my Farm quilt.  I'll be posting photos of my farm quilt as well as the circle quilt soon.  In the meantime, here are a few photos of the fun I had.

Paula and Marilu chatting and sewing while Sandy (below) knits. 

Louise, LaVon and Kathy from my Farm Quilt class.

Marilu, Sandy and Sylvia in the breakfast nook.

New friends, Julie and Kathryn, sewing up a storm.

Bonnie Bailey working on a sample for Spring Market.

Wonderful Charlotte.

Marvelous Marilu during the Farm quilt class.

I think Kathryn got more accomplished than anyone at the retreat.

Do you like her headband?  Adorable, huh?  She made it from the pattern I taught at Midnight Madness, which actually started at 10 and was done by 10:30 because. . .well. . .we're old. 

This is Kathryn's quilt too.  

She made a simple quilt top first that she then cut apart using a special ruler to get this beautiful design.

Four of the five ladies who took my class with their first finished blocks.

They did a fabulous job and made some of the cutest blocks. 

I decided to demo the project using 40's reproduction prints and I love it.  I think it takes the quilt in a whole new direction.  I have to make more blocks like this for a whole new quilt.

A Little Covering

I watched a fabulous tutorial for covering books on Lyric Kinard's blog and I knew I had to give it a try someday.  Then yesterday my friend, Sylvia, and I were out shopping and came across this great pleather.  One looks like a snake skin and the other like tooled leather.  Sylvia bought the pleather so that I could practice on some journals and a sketchbook she has.  I got the experience and she got some covered books! 

I really liked the way they turned out and they are so easy I will definitely be making more.