Day of decision

It's a beautiful Monday morning here after a long, cool spring (after a long, cold winter) and I've decided to stare procrastination directly in the face. So I've just photographed my four AAQI quilts from pastel hand dyes so I can register them and get them in the mail asap. Tonight is my guild's wind-up party, and we're doing two fun things: a dinner potluck and a block pot-luck. For the past year, a metre of my fabric has been circulating among eight others in the group. I've been making blocks for each of them and they've been making blocks for me. Tonight is the big reveal. Stay tuned, it's going to be interesting!

Super nova and more

I made two more priority quilts from hand dyed pastels for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative this week. I keep using bits of one for the next one. This one I'm calling Super Nova. It's a wonky star that's fading away. The middle is made from leftovers from the two I made last week. This one is mostly outline quilted with a aqua blue thread.
Then I took all the bits I cut off to make the star and sewed a string quilt, using a few light green strips to unify it. I handquilted it with freehand fans. I haven't figured out a name for it yet -- maybe something like Fractured memories.

I've just returned from my closing reception for my quilt display in a college library. I brought the AAQI quilts, as well as Ecumenical Squares, below, the quilt that's on my bed.

And the librarian loves my Advice from Home, which is still a flimsy, but we hung it up for the afternoon anyway.

I've got all my quilts back and I'm happy to see them at home again. Next project: quilting my Words Fail Me top.

Spinning out of control or fading away

Here are two little quilts I finished for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative from the hand dyed pastels my mom gave me a few weeks ago. (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

The one on the left is called "Spinning out of Control" and the one at the right is "Fading Away." I've been studying spirituality and aging for one of my MA classes (yes, I'm supposed to be writing term papers now!) and from what I understand about Alzheimer's, some people just sort of fade away, while others feel their life is totally off the tracks.

Both quilts measure under 9 by 12 inches, and they're hand quilted. I cut 1.5 inch strips off some of the pastels and strip-pieced them together, and made the Chinese coins and then the whirly gig one. Fun little projects, and if you've never tried one, really fast too. Click on the button on the sidebar to the right to see the guidelines for making the quilts and how to register and send them off.

Fading away

I shouldn't be sewing at all, and I've even removed my cutting mat from my table and spread out my books on it because I'm supposed to be writing term papers. A couple of years ago I picked up an MA where I had left off too long ago to mention, and this term I took two courses. It's crunch time, but I'd rather be sewing. So I snuck my little mat on one corner of the table and cut 1.5 inch strips off some of those pastel hand dyes. I had a different plan when I started, but I ended up with this little top (8.5 by 10.5) for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (see sidebar) which I'm calling Fading Away. These pastels aren't my favourite colours, but I like how this is turning out. It's going to be a little handquilting project for when I need breaks from my paper-writing.