Inspiration in Salt Lake City

I am in Salt Lake City this week waiting to meet my new granddaughter.  The only thing I can work on is some inspirational photography.  Luckily for me all my friends have wonderful gardens!  I have been working on improving my close up photography.  I think that the fuzzy cactus would be fun to interpret into an art piece. Maybe using some dimensional thread work.  I will see what I come up with when I get back to my studio next week.  Click on the photographs to enlarge.

On another note, the magazine challenge that I entered posted the finalists and I am not on the list.  The victory for me was in actually entering.  I really need to put myself out there more.  I am glad that I made the effort to finish the piece and submit an entry form.  It was a learning experience.  My piece was very emotional for me, I am not quite ready to share it here.

This is my Off the Wall post for the week, check out what everyone else is up to at Nina-Marie's blog.

Design Wall Monday

Parts

Completed blocks

All caught up!

My quilt group in Wales is doing a block of the month.  The leader this year is Brenda of Pie Plate Patterns. She and her daughter, Bonnie, have a lot of cute patterns for table runners, baby quilts and a couple books on using layer cakes.  They also put on a fun retreat in the Spring.  Brenda has designed this block of the month.  It has been fun so far, different sizes of blocks, and making more than one of each, sometimes 2 and sometimes three.  I am all caught up, ready for this month's pattern!

Leftover triangles

I love the bonus triangles from making square in a squares and flying geese.  I use them as leaders when chain sewing.  It is amazing how many get sewn together without even trying!  I then will use the HST units to make mini quilts.

I love the method of making half square triangles by adding an inch to the finished size, drawing a line down the center, sewing 1/4 inch on either side, cutting along the line and squaring up the 2 HST units.  I always get a perfect unit.  Some time in the last few months someone on one of my online quilting lists went off on a rant about quilters who use this method.  She said something like "just do it right in the first place and you don't have to waste fabric and time to square up the units".  Ouch.  In quilting math there is the magic 7/8th of an inch.  Add it to your finished size and cut your triangles to sew HST.  Well, guess what?  That measurement is rounded to the nearest eighth of an inch.  So if you cut and sew exactly right, your HST is not quite right.  There are so many different ways to achieve the end result.  Using the method that works best for you is the right way to do it.  If I take a class where a specific technique is being taught, I will try it out in class.  But if it doesn't work for me, I will use the method that does.  I would be interested to hearing what some of your favorite methods are and why.

This is my Design Wall Monday post.

On the Schedule

Road to California

Next on my teaching schedule is the Utah Quilt Guild Quilt Fest in Midway Utah at the Zermatt resort.  It was held at this venue a couple of years ago and was wonderful!  Right up next to the mountains and with the colors changing in October it is quite scenic.  I will be teaching Road to California on Friday, October 11th in the morning.  I will be team teaching with Florence Evans  our class,Walking Foot Wonders, on Saturday, October 12th.  WFW is a fun class about getting your quilts finished using various designs all with your trusty walking foot.  You would be surprised at the variety of designs that can be done.  Florence is precision and I am the freeform.

I had gone to Karen's house yesterday  for knitting and coffee.  She has a lovely garden.  I love to take inspirational photographs while I am visiting her.

We had a wonderful sunset last night!  I just happened to glance out the window at the right moment.  

The last 2 days I have been working on a piece for a magazine challenge.  I submitted the entry this afternoon.  My first try at entering something other than a local- to-me show.  I don't want to jinx it, so will hold back showing any photographs of the piece or the process until I find out if it is a go or not. Just entering is a big step.

This is my off the wall post for this week.  Check out Nina-Marie's blog to see what everyone else is up to.

Design Wall Monday

Tangled

3 bonus squares

one more set of swap blocks

This week I am working on a Block of the Month that my local guild is doing. I was a bit behind, now I have all the back blocks finished and just need to cut and sew the pattern that is due next week.  Last month at the meeting I cut 2 month's worth of blocks.  I have been sewing on them off and on since.  So where did these 3 extra squares come from?  For the blocks I needed 8 of them.  Weird.  Oh well, they will go into the 3-1/2" squares box.

I also just finished up another set of swap blocks.  I just need one more set.  I really need to get them in the mail before next Monday.

This is my Design Wall Monday post.

Off the Wall and into the Herb Garden

Volunteer in a crack

I had planted these cute little pansies last year in the planter boxes.  It always surprises me when volunteers pop up the next year in bizarre places.

Sage, working up to blooming

Thyme

My herb garden is in its third season.  It is a work in progress.  The Thyme has spread out well.  There are some deadwood I need to get cleaned up. My Sage is doing really well.  I love it when it blooms!

Garlic infused olive oil

I love to upcycle things.  I loved the shape of these bottles.  I used one to infuse garlic in olive oil.  It is getting strained into another bottle.

Straining the oil

I use a coffee filter to strain oils and vinegars.  I am really enjoying the herbs and infusing.

Thyme Vinegar

I had cut too much Thyme for a recipe.  So rather than tossing it, I put it in a bottle with vinegar.  This is the strained vinegar.  Again, a reused bottle (Rose's Lime Juice).  Note the fancy pants label!

I love it when the chives bloom!

The real project of the day.  I had remembered that I saw a blog post about chive blossom vinegar last year.  At the time, my blossoms were past their prime and dried out.  So when I saw my chives getting ready to burst open I did a search for Chive Blossom Vinegar.  There were several different blog posts on several sites.

Rinsed then spun dry

I took heed of one post and soaked my blossoms in water and then rinsed and spun them dry.

Packed into a jar

Vinegar added

Only one of the blogs talked about using hot vinegar.  I decided not to heat my vinegar up.  It is difficult to photograph the liquid in the jar.  I set it on my window sill and we will check back in 2 weeks and see how it turns out!

Brutus

I had received a package on Tuesday containing my brand spanking new Kitchen Aid mixer!  I have wanted one of these big boys forever!  I am going to use him this afternoon to mix up some banana bread.  I am going to have to completely rearrange how my kitchen counters are filled to make space for this guy.

Some weeks you find a lot of inspiration in the studio.  I found none there this week.  I found a lot of inspiration in my herb garden.  I love the various greens and purples that are showing up this week.  I love to brush my hand against the plants, the scent of the herbs is so wonderful and soothing.

This is my Off the Wall post for the week.  Check out what everyone else is up to at Nina-Marie's blog.

Inspiration in a small town

Connie

Connie's art piece

Close-up

Connie's crayon piece.

Show and Tell

Wonderful quilting

Project of the day

New idea for stitching bowls together

I belong to a quilt group in a smaller town about 15-20 miles Northwest of here.  My town, the big town in the area has about 6500 people.  Wales has maybe 250.  The group in Wales has members from several of the small towns in the area. They are a fun bunch.  They welcomed me with open arms when I first moved to the area. A lot of them are traditional quilters.  That is where I began my quilting journey and I still enjoy making traditional quilts even though my focus is now more on art quilts.  Last month I had brought my round robin fabric with me to show.  I talked about how I had started the piece with rust dyeing.  Well this month I had 2 ladies tell me how inspired they were with the idea.  They went home and did some rust dyeing with muslin they had on hand and bits of rusty junk that is widely available in Rural Utah.  Then during show and tell Connie said she was inspired by me to bring some of her more arty pieces to show.  I love the window scene with the lilacs.  Connie is wonderful!  She drives the school bus for the town (the kids go to nearby towns for school) and always has a humorous story to tell! And always has a smile!  I find myself inspired to smile after being around her.  I had showed how to make clothesline bowls at the last meeting.  I forgot who brought their bowl, but she had sewn it together using a 3 stitch zigzag, how inspiring!  I would have never thought to do that, I will have to try that on my next bowl.

I have read some blogs recently where some of the arty type quilt artists feel that they are shunned and don't fit in with some of the traditional quilt guilds. That makes me sad.  I have been lucky to find some wonderful groups in my quilting life. Everyone is welcome and all styles are appreciated.  I am thrilled when I have inspired someone, and am equally thrilled when I am inspired by someone else, especially when it comes from the least expected avenue.  I also believe that the more you give of yourself, the more you get back.  To make a group successful, everyone needs to share and contribute.

This is my Off the Wall post for this week.  Check out what everyone else is up to at Nina-Marie's blog.

Craftsy Free Class day!

Craftsy is offering to give you your first class for free today!  Click on the link.  If you are new to Craftsy, it is free to sign up. The offer for the free class is only good today, May 18th! You can watch the class whenever is good for you and as many times as you like.