I finished the piece that I was working on

when last I posted.  Here a look see.  And yes the facing is on as well as the sleeves.

It measures about 30 x 42

Everything I've  painted  is  quilted except the one large piece  on the easel  so  I went back to it on Saturday and finished painting it along with painting three smaller pieces.  Not knowing which piece I would quilt first I painted all of the small pieces so they would fit the 12 x 12 inch requirements for the SAQA Auction.   There is lot of stuff SAQA does that I don't participate in but I like doing this.  I guess maybe because both times I have done so in the past the pieces sold, which makes me feel good.  They are not due until April, but I wanted to get it off of my to-do list.

Here is a look at the three little pieces.

They are of a image I have used before so other than painting them in different for me colors they were quick and easy. I started quilting one today after lunch and got it done by the end of my studio  day. 

I tried out a new to me way of finishing the edge and back of this piece that required no hand work, not even for the sleeve.  To do this, the piece was quilted without the backing fabric.  I was zooming along then clunk, clunk, clunk, which I ignored and did it twice more before I stopped and investigated why my stitches were off.
 
I have sewn my needle threader to the back of a quilts before, and each time I've cursed and vowed never again but as you see I did it again.

 

I was down to less than a yard of the wool/rayon blend felt I use in my work so a trip to Joann with a 50% off coupon was what I did first thing this morning.  Got there and luckily it was not on sale already, but my goodness the cost is sky rocketing.  I know, I know the cost of all things quilt related is increasing.

 

Not sure if I will finish the two other small pieces or start on this larger piece tomorrow.  These long stemmed poppy like flowers are my favorites.  I always enjoy painting them and quilting them.

 

 

My Christmas Cactus is blooming like crazy.  What joy.

 

 

I continue to take a picture of the sky

 

each morning as I enter my studio space for the day.  For the last eight days the sky has been, for the most part. sunny.   It has been a  little nippy here in Central Florida, but I am not complaining when so many others are getting snow and really cold weather.

Why you ask are you showing three lite candles?    Well... last December on the 10 I think  I went to the Dollar store and brought 12 of thm for $1 each and some really cheap AA batteries.  I put them in the  windows thinking that would be the extent of my making merry.  Then as I told you my neighbor offered to hang lights from the roof for me.  .I put a wreath on the front door and called it done. 

As  I put the candles in the windows I thought I'd be lucky if they lasted until Christmas, cheap batteries and all and  then I wondered how many batteries I'd go through if I wanted them to stay lit until New Year' s Day.  I was so glad that  all 12 were still glowing on Three Kings day or Twelfth Night or Epiphany, (Jan5th). 

ey were all still burning bright on January 6 when I took them out of the windows.  But I couldn't bring  myself to turning them off, so here they are, continuing to glow on Valentines Day. .   Now I am wondering if the batteries will last until Easter.

 

 

Finished the piece on the left yesterday. Even though the picture doesn't show it, the left one is twice the size as the one on the right.  It is complete with facing and sleeves as I promised myself, 

And I have started on a new piece. ( about 20 x 44 inches )    Sorry about the poor lightening.  I took this picture at the end of the day yesterday as I was turning off the light in my studio space for the day.  Will give a better look see in my next post.

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentines Day.  

All the sleeves are done

From now on I have promised myself that as I finish quilting each piece I will not put off adding the sleeve especially since I have  about a month left before I go off to vend in Venice.  All of these small pieces will  be added to my inventory closet.

I have un-sewn a section of quilting where the tension was off.  And did some quilting on this piece.
which is twice the size of the one pictured on the right that I finished earlier.

 

 

I know some of you are having Winter weather with some of that white stuff falling from the sky but here, the flowers are blooming.in my little garden outside and blooming inside too.

I am not sure why my Christmas Cactus has decided it wants to continue to  bloom two months past the time it should,  Looking closely I can see it has far more pink buds now than it did in December. 

. 



I've had a favorite quote

about how to end a day for many years.  I found it on the Wall Words website and had it on the wall where I lived in Louisville.  I had them make me another one for my bedroom wall in Columbia, MO but never used it because the wall had a flat paint finish on them.  I brought the wall quote with me and affixed it to a wall in my apartment when I moved to FL  I am thinking of ordering it again now that my wall here in the condo are painted with an egg shell finish instead of the flat that was here originally.  Here is the quote.

"Finish the day and be done with it.  Tomorrow is a new day, begin it well." Emerson.
Today I found a quote I like that speaks to a day's beginning. 
"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning." J. B. Priestley
Now I am really tempted to place an order for both.

    This quote about  new day  spoke to my heart.  From the first days of the year I've  made a conscious effort to look at the sky.  Take note of what I can see of it through each of my three little east facing  windows in my studio space.  The middle one with the palm tree to the lower left allows me the best view of the sky.  The movement of the palm or lack thereof tells me if there is a breezy or not.  Because of this view I have begun to take a picture each day as I begin my studio day.  Here are the last six days.

   As I have said before the weather influences my mood and my level of creatively on a given day.  I  have written about that on this blog.  What I have not acknowledged is the fact that  my  tendency to be a  hermit is  more pronounced on sunny days.  You would think it would be the reverse, but I really don't want to leave home, run errands and lose time when the light is good.  I paint on sunny days.  I quilt on bright days when it is a little overcast and I have to stop as the day light fails..  I do hand work, facings and sleeves on days like today when it is raining while sitting close to my lamps with daylight bulbs and try to find something interesting on TV.  What would a sewer's  life be without Ott light bulbs and other daylight lamps.

Here is the pile of small pieces I have made for my vendor booth that still  need sleeves.  Two more larger ones are also waiting.  I am vending at  a quilt show in Venice, FL in March.  The only one on my schedule this year. 

      Like everywhere else in the world, the day can start off really sunny and full of promise  only for the sky to cloud over and pour rain.  So I set aside the painting and the quilting and started sewing on sleeves.

 

    You noticed the un-sewer did you... yes I have more than a few stiches that need undoing.. (blasted top tension) but on another day.  That chore, un-sewing white on white is best done with good light.
     
**** To my friend Karen.  I guess you could say my whole condo is sort of my studio, as more and more of my footage is being used for my art.
Part of the garage is used as wet studio space.  That was set up shortly after I moved in, but best used this time of year until about May, then put on hold until October.   The pantry in the kitchen holds my dye and dying supplies that  which isn't in the garage. Of course I use the kitchen to make my soy milk and I store it in the refrigerator.  And I have been known to keep soy milk soaked silk in the refrigerator too when I can't get all I've soaked  hung up and dried in one day. 
     The  Front bedroom, is now used for painting, squaring up larger works and for my not nearly as large as my previous fabric stashes have been.  Especially the one when I lived in MO.    The rolls of batting live  in the Murphy bed bedroom closet along with a still in the box,  yet to be assembled,  easel until I have a guest who needs the space for its intended purpose, then the batting gets moved to my bedroom closet. 
     The living room, dining room combo, is my primary studio space, but it is also used for  sitting, TV watching,  office/and desktop computer use.
     I had to laugh at your comment, two days ago  I was serious thinking of setting up two fold up leg tables on bed risers  in the middle of the third bedroom, the one with the Murphy bed so I would have a space I didn't have to clear off before sandwiching a piece.  Instead, now that the weather is not too hot and humid, being in the garage is not uncomfortable, so I opted to set up the two table out there for now.  After all my car (a mini cooper) doesn't need nearly half of the space available out there.