Nancy Brown class - Sanderling Beach Scene

June 10, 2017

I really wanted to take a class from Nancy Brown after seeing her at the Concord show this year where she was the featured artist.  Her work is fabulous. I really like her Baltimore applique with animals.  She has a 5 month class that several of the women in the area go in on and I hope to get into the next one that is to start in August.

The class was sponsored by the Mt Tam quilt guild and Mom and I went to San Rafael for the Saturday class.  It was exactly what I wanted as a needle turn, hand applique class to add to the methods of appliques I'm learning in what I'm calling "My Year of Applique". 

There were two version of the bird pattern.  One a bit more simplistic (less pieces) which mom did.  The technique where you build the applique in sections and cut away the access after having sewn two pieces together is really great.  The applique is build independent of the background is different then other techniques. Also the object looks like blobs until the end in the way this is constructed. Mom isn't a huge fan of the technique and probably won't be continuing with it but I still want to take her 5 month class starting in August if there is room.

Here is what I got completed in the class .... really doesn't look like much. Bottom blob is the lower part of the body, head, beak and legs.  The top left blob is the wing.  The two section will get joined together.

Jan 2018.
I've decided not to complete this project.  First because I'm now into the third month of the Village People group and doing The Bog and enjoying it so much.  Second, I'm not really liking what I did so far on this project so if I did want to do this Sanderling Beach Scene in the future, I would start over. 

2018 Trip: Road to California

Thursday: arrived in Ontario at 1. Sister picked Mom and I up.  Went to lunch then tried to check-in to hotel but room not ready near convention center so we went to the show.  Used the two free passes I got!  We went through the small room of vendors then I checked us in.  We could use a walker with a seat!  Tried to rent one but they only rent motorized scooters. 

 Friday: went to quilt shops.  SewNSew and purchased sale fabric for backing of a quilt that mom is currently making. Tried a couple of other shops before getting to Upland SewNVac.  From their sale fabric got a couple of backings and three of the smokey/fire fabrics of a previous quilt as mom want to make that again in remembrance of the Sonoma fires this past Oct. Going to use a fat quarter bundle purchased at the show from Connecting Threads. I think the houses will stand out a bit more then in this one mom did last year.

Went to Quilters Cocoon for the first time.  Sale fabric $5/yard.  Good selection and bought a couple of more backings.  Had lunch then back to the hotel and show.  Went through the tent of vendors.  Back to the room.

Saturday: went to M&L fabrics, Long Beach library then back to the hotel & show.  Got a couple more quilt backings. 

Sunday: flew home.

Personal challenge in quilting - year 2

This will be the second year of which I will attempt to quilt a quilt each week, Oct 2016 to Dec 2017.

October

#1: Gift for baby shower for woman at work

#2: 9 Patch Pizzaz with fabric of autumn lane
72x76

#3: A River in the Meadow by Carolyn Mock (Fabric Manufacturer pattern) - Mom's

58x85

#4: Inspired by Stack-n-Whack ipdedia Crossroads on page 33
52x68

November

 #5: Accent on an Angle
55x55
June 2017 Sold $200

#6: Arcadia Avenue pattern
72 x 90
June 2017 Sold $440

#7: EQ5 designed; Noah's Ark with Snail Trails
52x70

#8  Reflections - Sold at Sisters
63 x 68

#9 Spot On / I'm seeing Spots

#10 (Dec 26, 2016)
 Avitrix Medallion
80 x 80
June 2017 Sold $300 at Santa Rosa
(Burned in Oct Sonoma County fires)

#11 Jan 2017
46 x 72  $130 SOLD at Sisters

#12 Feb 2017  Lake County Fires
64x66
June 2017 Sold $250 at Santa Rosa

#13 March 2017 (Walker Creek Retreat)
18x20

#14 March 2017 (Walker Creek Retreat)
31x17

#15 March 2017 (Walker Creek Retreat)
35x35

 #16 March
Sold Wine Country Quilt Show Boutique $75

#17 April

#18 April (Bishop's Ranch retreat)

#19 May Over & Down Under 56x56
June 2017 Sold $130

#20 May 2017, Community Quilt that required quilting.

#21 May; Given to Lil for 50th

#22 May; 46 x 67;Turtle Trek
Given to Mary Mc for baby gift

 

#23 Jun; 68 x 84

#24 June; Given to charity: Community Quilts

#25 June

#26 June

#27 July

#28 August

#29 Sept

#30 Sept

#31 Sept

#32 Oct

#32 Nov

#33 Nov

Mostly Modern Group -- Charity / Pasadena Modern Show quilt

#34 Nov (sold $50)

#35 Nov (given to Lily N.)

#36 Dec

#37 Dec

#38 Dec

I quilted each house differently and large paving stones for the road/background

Awesome Ocean -- color value exercise

August 2017,

I wanted to use the Elizabeth Hartman pattern Awesome Ocean to do another study in color value.  I have sorted my scraps by 7 colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black-gray- white) and multi-colored prints.  The pattern has 8 color ways and I don't want to use grays ... so I plan to make an aqua (blue/green) and xxx to get 8 color ways.  I choose a gray/blue background.

Here is blue color way.  What I would change, the eyes on the turtle blend too much with fabric 6.  The Manatee fabric 2 blends too much into the background.  I may re-do the blues, depending on what I learn with the other colors. 

Sept
In selecting the green scraps for this I used more fabrics then I did with the blue.  I did try to use one fabric in two blocks to pull in a bit of consistency but not sure it is needed.  For instance the dark green in the manatee flippers is the same as the octopus and the light green in the octopus is the same as the puffer fish.  

Sept
I did most of these (reds) at the Walker Creek retreat.  I complete with the sea horse at home.  I did discover I made a mistake with the whale mouth in the green and blue (missed the step to trim down) so fixed that on the previous blocks.  Finding the face of the manatee to be the most error prone for me.  At the retreat everyone thought it was a sea otter.

While at the retreat someone mention they had seen Forest Friends done all in greys for the animals except for the eyes which were red.  Sounds cool.  Maybe I'll try something like that.

Oct
While at Bishop's Ranch retreat I did all of the Awesome Ocean blocks in yellow.

Oct
Did the orange set one weekend.  Also re-did the eyes on the blue turtle as the black did not stand out enough.  Made the eyes dark grey and much better contrast.

Nov
While at Colleen Granger's retreat I got the purple set done.

Nov, Thanksgiving weekend

I don't like the seaweed in the pattern, so I decided to make an applique seaweed (after all this is the year of applique for me).  I made the first one in green and really like it.

Dec, quilting by committee concluded that the 8th color to be a magenta/pink.

Put all the animal blocks to get the major color placement done with my quilting friends.  Still need to make seaweed in the other colors and then to do the small color changes as suggested in the pattern.

Dec 2017, completed the quilt top.  I do like my applique seaweed better!  Also how some of the small fish are facing different directions which was a mistake but I like it!