Frustration

The past couple of weeks have been somewhat frustrating.  Last weekend I taught a two day Machine and Free Motion Quilting class that went well.  As there always is, there was one troublesome student, but she had been e-mailing me in the weeks leading up to the class and I knew she might have problems.  

I have come up with an idea for a project, my own design, but using some techniques borrowed from a well know teacher.  I treated myself to an internet class she teaches, to see what I could learn about how she approaches these techniques, as I have only read about them. I have been following along the class project, and am finding that I haven't been this frustrated in years.  Now I have to figure out if it's me, or if the techniques are not as easy as she makes them out to be.  Some of the difficulties may also be my unfamiliarity with some of the materials used.  

One good thing to come out of the class is that I was forced to buy some commercial fabric.  I haven't bought commercial fabric in years, but off I trotted to the LQS.  What fun!!  I had no idea how the quilting world has changed in the past few years.  It was like a combination of "Alice in Wonderland", and Christmas, all in one day.  I rationalized the whole thing by telling myself that the fabric might also be useful in the planned project

A bit of fun.

This piece was just an experiment, mainly about how to handle and finish something with a very loose form and raw edges.  I ended up stabilizing with an iron on stabilizer, especially after deciding to add the buttons, as a focal point.  The raw edges baffled me for quite awhile until I happened on a mention of felt.  While it isn't quite finished, the plan is to stitch it to a double layer of felt, leaving about 1/2" of the felt showing all around the edges.

I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network

Derailed Intent--finished!

This is a relatively small piece-only 19" by 21".  I loved the way the mandala came out of the dye bath, but have been having difficulty figuring out how to quilt any of the ones I've made.  I decided that this would be a good size to experiment with.  It is faced rather than bound, and will fit my new hanging systems quite nicely.  The title comes from the fact that the finished piece/design is not at all what I had planned, or expected, it to be.
While working on the quilting, I decided that the centre portion needed something more, and decided to bead it in a "sunburst " configuration.  Now, having seen it in the photo, I'm thinking that I need something in the very middle.  Not sure what that may be but I'm leaning toward a group of maybe three larger blue beads, as are around the edge of the sunburst.  The marking lines are obviously a problem, but aren't nearly as prominent as they appear in the photo.  I'll know to use a different method, if I do another.

I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network 

Cleaning Ritual

Having finished a piece, I have a ritual of tidying the studio.  I'm a messy worker, so this is also a very necessary step.  Because we're in the middle of renovations, there was also a lot of extraneous stuff in the room.  I was clearing out a pile of project boxes and came across a loose pile of 33-1" hexies, cut, but not yet basted.  I also found two boxes of already basted 1" hexies, so decided to baste the last few and put them in with the others according to colour groups.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that, the ones I basted to cardstock today, weren't compatible with the ones in the boxes, which had been made by the circle method with no cardstock involved! The cardstock ones are just a "smidge" over 1" and the circle-based one just a "smidge" under.  

        I guess I'll have to figure out something else to do with them, maybe a new draw-string bag for my Rune stones?