My Quality Inspector

Last night I shortened the sleeves of a ladies' undershirt, so they wouldn't stick out past the sleeves of my blouses. Not very quilty, so today I present Millie, my Quality Assurance Inspector. She makes sure all the quilts I make are filled with love and kindness. She also adds that little je ne sais quoi.

The Wall

This is the wall in my dining room where my quilt "Letters From Home" hangs. While the quilt is away on a "working vacation" the wall is empty, and ugly. I've lived in this apartment almost 26 years, and it's in an old building. Many years ago I covered the wallpaper with the cheapest thing I could find, burlap. You can see the fake flock wallpaper through the little hole where a smoke detector once was.

You can also see the outline of the wallpaper underneath. Before I hung the quilt on this wall, a piece of artwork hung there, and you can see its outline too. I'll hang "The Quick Brown Fox" on this wall when it's finished, but that will not be for a couple of months.

I hate big blank walls. I asked myself what could I do to improve its look. Covering it up was the obvious solution, but with what?It didn't take me long to figure out a solution! So last night I stapled up some white flannel. It looks better, and I can use it as a design wall.
The brown fox is jumping on the wall today. It's a good place to store the components while it is in work, and it's a great way for me to study it.

(I haven't done any more work on the fox. I had to clean the house, do the groceries and the laundry. You all know how it is.)

Almost a Fox

The fox is coming along. Right now the fox is in about four large pieces, and the tail isn't even finished.

Looking at this photograph, I realize his head needs to be tilted a bit lower, the angle of his neck at his body is too sharp. An easy fix. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it.

And yes, dear son, he is a quick brown fox.

Little Foxes

Here is the original fox (on the right), and the beginning of the new fox (on the left).
And the new fox so far. You can click the photo to enlarge.OK, I admit, I'm being pretty fussy about sewing it together. That green eye is a button. I've given myself the weekend to get the fox sewn together, then I have to set this quilt aside. My godchild's christening is in March, and I want to get his quilt finished before the end of the month. (I hate rushing.)

Got Fox!

OK, the fox I started sewing over the weekend DOES look like a reindeer. LabMom, I agree with you. I didn't think it looked like a real fox either.

Oh, to be cursed (blessed?) with an idea that won't let go.

Yes, Ma, the quilt doesn't NEED a fox.... but Deborah is right; it would look SO AWESOME with one.

Angie, this is an art quilt, and would go on a wall. I can't see the point in putting a fox on the back where nobody would see it.

Tonya, you and Gwen Marston have taught me to GO FOR IT. So I'm going.

My problem was that I was trying to free-piece a fox without having a concrete idea of what I was doing. Driving home from work last night I thought, "Lynne, you dope! You're an artist. Draw the damn thing out first!"So I had to do the usual research. I found this picture of a jumping fox. The picture is blurry, as the fox is actually jumping, and the light is behind him, so it is all in shadow, so no color hints there, but the pose is perfect. I'm happy with this, and my drawing is the right size for the quilt.

Even though I have this really nice drawing, I will free-piece the fox, so he's bound to look a little funky by the time I am through.

Of course, next I have to find a lazy dog. I might already have found one.

As Oscar Wilde is reputed to have said, "Oh, the anxiety. I only hope it lasts forever."






OH! Did you know the phrase "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is an example of a pangram and has been around at least 100 years?

A Very Little Project

Last week we all got new security keys to the building where I work. The keys are business-sized cards with a computer chip in them. You wave it in front of the security panel, and the door unlocks for a few seconds. Sounds good, right?
Not when it's 10 degrees and windy, and you've got the thing in your wallet, in your purse which is over your shoulder behind your laptop bag. Have to stop, put everything down, remove gloves (remember it's 10F with VERY STRONG WINDS), find card, gather bags, wave card, open door.
Ergo, a lanyard. Leftover piece of binding, metal clip from stash of findings, and about ten minutes at the sewing machine. I made the thing extra long so I don't have to take it off to wave it in front of the security panel (which is mounted just above my eye level).

Works like a charm.

Heh!

Five Feet

OK.. I know you can only see two feet. But I am five feet tall, and when I buy pants, this happens a lot.

Sure, I can sew. Sure, I can hem a pair of pants, but to tell the truth, this kind of sewing has zero appeal to me.

And I just bought four pair of pants, and they all need to be shortened.

(Sigh)

Fox and Flowers

I made a couple more flowers for the Quick Brown Fox. I haven't finalized the layout yet. I'm thinking of a row of flowers between "jumps over" and "the lazy fox."
I also tried making a fox. I'm not thrilled with this, the white is too bright, and the fox is too big, and I have decided not to use it. The quilt is about the letters, not the animals.

Flower For Fox

I tried another of Mary Lou Weidman's flowers. (still haven't got the book yet...) Here it is near the letters for the Quick Brown Fox. I'm not sure about either it or the idea of adding a fox and a dog. But I'm going to keep working to find out for sure...

Flowers

i have long admired Mary Lou Weidman's wonderful, whimsical creations. I particularly enjoy her flowers, as seen in this quilt in her new book, Out of the Box. I ordered it by mistake, but I won't return it, because it's got a lot of great ideas. I really wanted the book about the flowers, which I have ordered.
In the meantime, I tried one of the flowers last night. It looked simple enough, but I think it would have been a bit easier if I made it bigger than 6-1/2".I can see a lot of flowers in my future.

Cleaning Up

Whenever I make anything wonky, my sewing room gets really messy, with fabric strewn all over my worktable.For the last few nights, I've been ironing and folding fabrics. I'm almost finished.I've got to make a Gizzy Quilt for a special cat in "Fur-ginia" and then I want to get going on the fox and dog for "The Quick Brown Fox" quilt. I also have to finish "Devon Town" by the middle of March.

Inspiration

Inspiration pops up in the most unusual places.


Yesterday, it showed up in my bathroom.

As you know, my bathroom is painted school-bus yellow. My bath towels are a brick red, maybe a burgundy. this particular hand towel is a purple. The washcloth is an orange sherbet.* I tossed the damp washcloth up on the shower edge to dry, but I missed, and it fell down and landed near the towels on the rack.

WOW! What an eye popping explosion of color! I can't wait to try it. It reminds me of some advice I read in a book about needlepoint once. The author wrote that she never sorted her needlepoint yarn by color, because this allowed colors to fall next to each other and create color combinations she would never expect.

The intense colors don't even show up in this photo. The orange is too light, the purple too blue.

Anyway, these colors excite me.


*I hate color names because they're subjective. The bath towel is really a dark warm red, the hand towel is a dark blue-violet and the orange is a light, bright orange-yellow.

DQS8 & Me

My little quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 8 is all finished.

Now I get to hang it in my house and enjoy it until I have to send it to its new home.

Yesterday was sunny and mild (for January) and I decided to take a drive out to my favorite quilt shop, Quilted Threads, for a little retail therapy.

I didn't need anything in particular, but I decided I could buy up to ten yards of fabric. I was looking for things that were a bit out of the ordinary.

I bought half yards of these, a purple, and two blues...I bought half yards of each of these tweed looking fabrics, a brown, green and blue. They are hard to photograph, but very beautiful.
I bought fat quarters of these yellows.
I bought half yards of these two very different pinks.
I got three yards of this batik, to use to finish up the Quick Brown Fox.
I also bought half yards of four different WOW (white on whites), and I bought my sister (who came with me) a yard of batiks she was eyeing.

I'll finish up the Four Seasons Doll Swap Quilt later today, while I watch the tennis at the Australian Open.