Urbanologie Show and Tell

 I'm not even sure where to start with the show and tell. I seem to have problems remembering if I posted the homework or if I didn't. I checked the blog, and I see that April was the last time I posted homework for this group. Sigh..................

Well, that's the bad news. The good news - you get two months' worth today. It's a small group, so there's not a ton of photos. 

These are the dreaded feathers! They were a lot of work, and I'm still working on mine. However, I LOVE this block, and the participants have chosen some amazing colors!!!

Gisele

Lorraine

Cathy

Here are more blocks from this quilt. These are my blocks, and YES - I ran out of fabric to finish making the pear. I did what I could with what I had. I do not like it, so hopefully, I can find that same fabric and remake the outer edges of that pear. 

My pear blocks

And I swear I was trying to get that face in this next block to appear UP, but it ended up sideways! In hindsight, it actually looks neat like this. And I almost like the pink stripes in the top half of the tall house block better than when I tried to use the same fabric in the bottom half. But, yes - I ran out of that fabric as well. Hmm - I MIGHT substitute that pink strip in that block. It adds a bit more interest. Oh boy -- and this is why I don't get things done because I go back and change them. But I'm OK with that. It's how I learn. 

My house block

I think that I just don't like all those super busy prints. They don't do a thing for me. OK -- enough about that. Lesson learned, and move on!!

Oh -- here are more feather blocks. These ones are from Dana. She's a wee bit behind, but not by much. 

Dana

And her trees are done as well. 

Dana

Now let's look at the blocks from this month. 

Gisele

Have a look at Gisele's houses and then look at mine. Those busy prints are "cute," but as far as value and contrast? They are a nightmare! It's a challenge to work with them. I guess that's why one is supposed to add solids and such. Maybe that's what I need - I need to get a couple of fat quarters of the solids to make this project work. OK - another lesson learned. Well, I knew this lesson, but PRE-CUTS suck! I know that many people have made quilts with pre-cuts, but it sure helps if you add a lot of other stuff to it to get the contrast necessary so everyone can appreciate what you're making. 

Gisele

Oh, shoot - Lorraine's houses are sideways. You can't see in this picture, but she's added some stitching in the windows and doorknobs!! I love it!!!

Lorraine

These are Lorraine's pears. See how much nicer they look with the SAME fabric for the entire pear. I MUST change mine. 

Lorraine

And these last two pictures belong to Cathy. She's mostly using solids and has wonderful contrasts happening with her blocks. 

Cathy

Cathy

I think I need to put all my blocks on the wall and see what's going on. Then I will cut everything I can for the future blocks to see what I'm missing to make this quilt better than it is. Now that stores are more open, it's time to do something about this quilt. There's a shop not that far away that sells a lot of Tula Pink. I shall be paying them a visit next week. OH -- maybe not next week, maybe the week after. I don't know - I'll see how the schedule goes. 

My calendar is much more open this coming month, and I'm afraid I'm going to fill it with stuff. But I need to get my nose to the long arm. There are a few customer quilts, and I have to get some more community project stuff done. And let's not forget my MIL - I haven't had a chance to do anything about prepping stuff for her. 

I have to share this with you. Google Maps is EVERYWHERE. I'm near Killington Ski Resort in Vermont (on my Virtual Challenge on the Appalachian Trail). I always take the little Google avatar (the yellow guy on the map) and see the terrain near me. 

Killington Ski Area

HEY -- the ski hill is mapped. Seriously????  Yep --- I'm guessing this is a ski trail as there can't be that many roads on the hill. 

A ski trail from Google

And how did they map that? Why on a snowmobile, of course!!!  Was that Google or someone else who did that? Google maps are incredible - EVERYTHING is mapped. 

Mapped via snowmobile

I got a lot accomplished yesterday on Monday sewing. I added the sides to this background for the art quilts. I MUST get myself back to that. OH - that task is NOT in The Task Master, so that's why I keep forgetting it. I'm so focused on that list. 

One more background ready for embellishing

I got the second row of trees completed for the All in a Row quilt. I'm determined to get caught up on that quilt. 

The second row of trees for All in a Row

I'm making two quilts, and I have four of nine rows complete. The other rows haven't been assigned yet, but this gives me hope that I won't fall behind! 

And these blocks are for my second quilt. I'm almost done with the small flowers. 

Small flowers for the second of the All in a Row quilts

Yes - one of the leaves is going in the opposite direction. Actually, there were supposed to four going left and four going right, but that didn't happen. So seven will go left, and one will go right. There's one in every crowd!!!

And the large flowers are partially cut and organized on the mini design board to make sense of it. 

The bits for the large flowers

I have to say that it feels good to get that somewhat organized. I still have to cut the flower fabrics, but they are already sitting on the cutting table. 

Oh my --- there's a lot of FOMO (fear of missing out) in the quilt world. One person used this book to make the final border on their Long Time Gone quilt, and I think everyone went to look for it. Unfortunately, the book is long out of print. It was going for a ridiculous price online, and I don't know if any copies are available other than used. 

A book on borders

I searched through the ENTIRE length of my bookcase, trying to find this book. And YES -- it was in the very last section that I looked. I thought I had missed it, but I rarely miss a book when I scan the titles. It just takes a few minutes because there are so many. I really do need to get them grouped by category. 

And I knew I had other border books, so I pulled all of them so I could have a look as I'm still trying to figure out what to put on my Long Time Gone quilt. I don't want to fuss with it, and I don't want something that's going to detract from the quilt. So it's going to be randomly pieced but very subtle colors, so it's not noticeable. Well, I might change my mind too - no idea. I'm waiting for it to tell me what it wants. 

A quilt border book

Another quilt border book

And yet another quilt border book

A quick note about books - I'll take an OLD quilt book any day over some of the new stuff. A lot of what you see today is NOT new - it's just regurgitated from some of these old books. And the old books gave you options; they showed you how to resize and change things. Today - it seems to be all about buying the SAME line of fabric as the designer and making the same quilt that they did. That's not me! So thankfully, I learned to quilt at a different time. Much more options. 

HOWEVER -- if making the same quilt as the designer encourages people to sew and keeps them sewing, I say GO FOR IT!!!  The beauty of this hobby is that we all have our levels of what we want to achieve, how we want to learn, and what we want our quilts to look like. Thank goodness the quilt police are extinct. 

The bottom line -- KEEP ON SEWING!

And on that note, I'm out of here. Today is wide-open EXCEPT for the Facebook live event tonight. Be sure to stop by and say hi as Claire, Paul, and I chat with Carla about the Spectrum Quilt A Long. 

How do you access the live event??  Go to Facebook and search for the Quiltsocial page. Then click MORE on the tabs, and you should see one marked LIVE. That's how to get into the LIVE event. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!