First few blocks

Here are the first three blocks of the quilt. It occurs to me that the crochet lace background is waaaay to busy to be a backdrop for these fabrics.




17 more to go...

What? I can't hear you, my quilt is too loud!

Here are some mock-ups of the block from my new quilt. The pattern is from Kaffe Fassett's Kaleidoscope of Quilts. The block will be 12 inches by 12 inches, pretty large. I cut out most of the pieces for one block, and then laid them on a large section of different fabrics, to audition different backgrounds. It is interesting to me to see how the different backgrounds affect the interaction of the rest of the fabrics. This one highlights the center piece.



This one highlights the pink squares.

In this one, the background is too dominant, but also merges too much with the center part.

I think I will cut out a bunch of pieces and then spend hours making various combinations until I find 20 I like..... which might take a long time.

Next up .... another quilt

Here is the fabric for my next project. It is from Heather Bailey and is called Pop Garden (the florals) and Bijoux (the small prints).

I still haven't decided which pattern to use, but I am currently poring over all the Kaffe Fassett books for inspiration. That man is a genius!

This could get addicting!

Original photo:



Cutout tool:


Stamp tool:

I was working, really!

Yesterday I was working on a graphics project for a faculty member that required me to use Photoshop. If you know me, you'll know that I am not skilled in the graphic arts. I was working on a complex yet uninteresting photo, and was having trouble seeing what effect the changes were having. So, I picked a simple image that I took last weekend, and manipulated it instead. What fun!

Here is the original image:


This version is bas-relief:

This version is the stamp tool:

This is the photocopy version:

And this is the cutout version:

Pretty neat what you can do with the click of a button! It reminds me of a conversation I overheard at an art gallery recently, where a woman said she never looked at photography anymore, "because it is all Photoshop now." Upon hearing that I scoffed, but I guess she has a point

Oops!

Well, I had planned to post again on October 8, to have a nice and even two months between posts. Since I am a Libra,


I am all about balance. But that didn't happen, so now my posts are two months and five days apart. Not nearly so balanced.

Anyway, in the past few months, I have traveled to the land of sunshine, rollercoasters, and rampant consumerism. Yes, I am talking about Orlando. We made the rounds of many of the parks, starting with the big one, The Magic Kingdom.



Another park had the best animals, including these fruit bats, which have a wingspan of six feet, how cool is that?


My personal favorite was at yet another theme park, and yes, I did get my picture taken with The Cat in the Hat, who wouldn't?


Back on the home front, I have ordered LOTS of fabrics for lots of quilts I plan to make. I will post pictures of that soon.

I have been away from the internet for much of this time, and it was nice. No web surfing, no email. Peace and quiet and in-person interactions. Of course, now I am back to the web, like a fly on honey. There is always something new to find, like this blog, by a woman who is very clever with her crochet. Or the satellite sites at ICanHasCheezburger, such as Funny Look-Alikes, whic gives us "Furbie totally looks like Gizmo"


see famous look-a-like faces

or their web site Engrish, which gives us a new take on bottled water:


more the engrish!

And I am sure there is more where that came from....

Happy October!