Walking & Urban Wildlife

My quilting project is out and I enjoy looking at the parade of color draped across the sewing desk.  That said, adding to that parade has been a bit elusive the last couple of weeks.  No worries.  Progress is being made in other avenues.

In addition to the desire to bring quilting back into my life, I also have wanted to resume my long absent exercise.  Finally, the last couple of weeks, the weather has been cooperative enough to allow me to start walking.  I'm not doing too badly.  If I do miss a day, I don't let it cost me momentum - as such interruptions have done in the past - I just keep at it, resuming the next day.

I live in an apartment complex, in a group of apartment complexes.  The landscape set up between them makes it easy and enjoyable to get out and walk - a meandering path around this large water feature.  The pond comes complete ducks and geese - and much to my surprise, these baby goslings.

The mother wasn't overly perturbed at my picture-taking.  No squawking or flapping of wings.  Just a warning hiss, that seemed like a fair deal in exchange for my proximity. 

Actually, the wild birds here seem almost completely lackadaisical about the human presence.

A Little Bit at a Time

I did manage an hour's worth of cutting this week, between work and school. At this point if I can manage an hour in the quilt room once per week, I will be a happy camper.

Quick recap: I started my MBA in January, moved March 11th, and started a new job March 25th.

The MBA was initiated because my former employer was strongly encouraging instructors to get our Master's degrees. Ironically, I left that job due to the long hours (I taught morning and evening classes three days per week - three 14 hour days in row), but kept the Master's. I will be done December 2014.

I moved because I was paying a lot of rent for a house so I could have a garage, only to have my car hailed on while at work. My apartment is significantly less expensive.

And the new job? I am selling life insurance. I get to set much of my own schedule, which is nice. But I am still trying to get a handle on it - and getting used to working on commission. 

So what is the nature of my new project?  I am making a wall-hanging from the same braid pattern from which my mom made an entire quilt.  I'll make one braid.  One.

In the meantime, Max's quilt inspecting duties appear to have him all tuckered out.

Shhhh!

Every time I have tried to re-commence quilting in earnest the last couple of years, sooner rather than later The Fates intervene, and I get derailed, the quilting mojo slipping through my fingers like so much sand.  This time..., this time will be different.  I'm trying to sneak up on it.  Oh sure, I've got full sized quilt tops that need quilting.  I've got a small wall-hanging that I've bound and begun to quilt.  Just one problem, I haven't yet located it since the move.  I know it's here somewhere....  (Yes, I moved again - but that's another story.)

So the plan is to start with something completely brand new and small - so as not to attract the The Fates' attention.  Shhh.

Max is helping.  He's hiding the cutting mat.

Those teals are a pretty start aren't they?  



Common Threads Quilt Show Continued

While I don't dislike my job by any means, I have discovered that leaving the house at 8:30AM and not returning until 11PM, three days per week, cuts in to my quilting time, blogging time, and blog reading time.  It appears I'm destined to be a weekend blogger for the foreseeable future ~ unless I can get far more organized.

To continue with the Common Threads Quilt Show photos from last week, I bring you these:

I found the color scheme in this quilt rather unique.  Not sure how much I like it, but I don't dislike it.  The feature that drew me to it is the setting of the appliqued flower blocks.  The dark sashing around those blogs really makes them pop.  They look almost 3-D

There were two heavily embellished wall-hangings.  Fascinatingly ornate!  I tried to get overall pictures of them, but if I got back far enough get the entire wall-hanging, the dainty embellishments were lost.

I stared at this wall-hanging for a long time, trying to figure out how it was made.  The swirls appeared to be folded fabric, but I'm not really sure.  How this was done remains a mystery to me, despite having the opportunity to stand before it and study it.  One of the most enticing pieces of the show, in my opinion.

But this is not all!  More to come.

Common Threads Quilt Show ~ Wichita Kansas

Along with my mom, I attended the Common Threads Quilt Show in Wichita KS this morning.  Featuring over 500 quilts, it is the biggest quilt show that I have ever attended.  I am glad it wasn't any bigger.  As much as I enjoy looking quilts, I found that I reached a point where I just couldn't take any more in.  Quilt saturation?  Who would have thought it?

When I got home and surveyed the pictures I'd taken, I tried to decide what drew me to some quilts more than others.  I'm very partial to certain colors, but that's far from the whole story.  So much is in the design ~ both of the quilt pattern and the quilting.

Glad some quilters somewhere have been busy.  Despite my best intentions, I haven't sat down at my sewing machine yet.  So over the next few days, I'm going to share some of the quilty eye candy, and be glad I have something to report on my quilting blog.

First Storm at Sea.  Aptly named, the "motion" of the design never ceases to intrigue me. I've liked it in every color combination in which I've seen it done.   

Hard to see in the overall picture, the quilter used a lot of circular quilting which only served to accentuation the sense of movement.

I took the next group of pictures with Shay at Quilting in My Pyjamas in mind, since I know she has been working on a selvage quilt.  (I've been so long absent, she may have finished it by now.)  My apologies that the picture of the overall quilt is rather blurry.  There was a very slight breeze that kept the quilts subtly in motion.

Fortunately, the close-ups below do the quilt justice.  Isn't the quilting fantastic?

I'm not much for quilts in subdued tones and old-fashioned colors, but the design and quilting in this piece fascinated me.  This quilt is so subdued that you might be liable to think that the lighting at the show was bad, or something was wrong with my camera.  But no, these are the actual colors in the quilt.

Stay-tuned!  There are more quilts to come.