Asterisk

Of course I decided to take the longest most difficult route to get the Asterisk quilt to completion as a top.  Of course.

But I like it.  It looks way different than the idea that started in my mind in January 2016  when took on the Rainbow Color Challenge that year.

I hit all the colors each month as she called them out, until August.  That was the month the flood hit.  So all colors stopped there.

When I picked up the challenge to finish a UFO for May in my River City Guild I chose  Asterisk.  The challenge only requires it to be finished to the top stage, but i am going to try to actually finish it. 


Maybe.  We shall see.  I feel particularly overwhelmed at the moment right now.

 I have the Girl baby quilt to put together for Carrie to gift to her friend. 

That top row is together so that is how wide it will be a lap size.

And Pinkie.  All Pinkie.  All over.

I like it.





I put the Green Boy Quilt on the Long Arm this afternoon and quilted the first pass.  I was going to quilt it with long straight lines down the quilt.



Best laid plans, and all.  I loaded it sideways. 

Why did I do that????????



So the straight lines would have gone across the quilt rather than down the quilt. 


I didn't want that.  So I went to Plan B.  We always have to have a Plan B, right? 




I had watched Angela Walters in a video doing some swirl quilting and decided that would be my Plan B. 






Not perfect, but all free hand.  This is the first pass. 

I am sure tomorrow by the time I get to the bottom of the quilt I will have mastered how to get around the swirls and how to echo myself out of all the spots I get myself into. 

Feels good.  Machine is cooperating.  Looks good.  All is well.

I am sure something will explode soon.

Not Your Momma's Asterisk

Ok, so I didn't exactly use the numbers like I said.  I went another way.  More work, more stuff.  More more.  Not sure what the center will be just yet.   Maybe more white.  Maybe the circles or dots.  I will test and see.

And here is something on the weird side.  We had lunch at Chicken Salad Chick.  They have chicken salad 14 ways.  And only chicken salad.  And it's not bad actually.  I don't know if they are a chain or just a local store. 

 But they are pretty good and not any fried food and french fries.


Frank was home Wednesday so I suggested he go in the pool with Sawyer for his Swim Class.  Sawyer was not happy about that change out however.  You would have thought we had switched him out with some random stranger who was trying shatter his universe! He kept looking at and me and back at Frank and saying MAMA emphatically and pointing to me.  He screamed and cried the whole class.   And I couldn't pretend he was someone else's spoiled kid, he was all mine! 

He was curl his body up when he was supposed to be floating and he would push the ducks away when Miss Erin would push them to him to distract his tears.
 
I didn't bring my bathing suit because I didn't think it would be such an important thing, you know.  So he was kinda stuck with Papa for the class.  And he let the whole facility know he was not happy about that one bit!

I had no idea I was so pivotal to world peace!


 So we took him home, fed him some sticks and he was fine.

The Numbers Have it!

Yes! Numbers fabric win!

I have several things I need to work on this week, the Asterisk quilt being one of them.  I need to get it to the top stage at least.  I am hoping it can get further than that, but it may not make it by the River City meeting.

And I need to at least start on that Challenge quilt.  You won't believe what I pulled in the bag.  Me! The most modern person in the room.  I get the least modern fabric in the room.  I am going to need help that one for sure!


In preparation for retirement, Frank has been making some bold strides.  He bought a computer and I made him get the Geek Squad support package on it since I refuse to get frustrated with him trying to help him understand what he doesn't know and I don't know.  Now he can just call the Geek Squad 24/7 and he can be polite and they can be polite and they can have a sweet fest all night now with each other whilst they figure out his computer!

The other thing is to get Netflix.  And to practice, we are binge watching our first program.  OJ Simpson Trial.

 It took us a while to figure out how to get the controls to work. And we still have our moments.

The weather across the nation was bad for most of the weekend.  Ours was Saturday.  We had a tornado nearby between Carrie's house and ours.  No one was hurt.

This is where the flood waters came  up from.  You can see it is clear and nearly dry, so we are safe!  Barb made Dale go out and check it twice during the storm.  The rain was coming down so hard you could barely see the trees. 

Temperatures fell to 38 last night and will again tonight.  It
is almost May!

About 4 1/2 inches of  rain fell in 45 minutes.  Then for the rest of the afternoon we had another 1 1/2 inch on top of that.  We were never in danger, but the street in front of the house did have standing water.  Something we have not seen before.  I am guessing it is because of  the 4 inches in the 45 minutes.





After the weather cleared we were able to get to Denham Springs and spend a few minutes at the Artist Reception for the Juried and Emerging Artists Exhibition at Livingston Parish Art Council. 


Here is my piece called Speechless. 

Don't you love to see your work hanging in a gallery somewhere!

Asterisk Quilt Comes Together

I know you are all asleep right now, but I need you to wake up and look at this and tell me what you think.

I have good ideas occasionally, but I don't always know how to bring them home.

So tell me what you think.

I have these Asterisk blocks that need to get finished for May.  And they need one more buddy in black.  He will happen tomorrow, hopefully.  That will give me 8 of the big guys.

I created them myself after several tries.  I say several tries because I had to work out the problem with bulky seams meeting in the center.  You will notice that none of the seams meet in the center now. 

I worked that out.

And all the seams meet other places now.  And that is better than when it started out.  Believe me.

So anyway.

I was thinking that the Asterisks were plain and boring looking on white background, but that is all I had ever pictured them on.  Then I noticed a black dot fat quarter and thought that might be a nice center block.

Which led me to think that I could use more of that to go around the outside but I didn't want to buy more fabric.  So I looked around the shelves and found this.

Click on the photos  to make them larger








And under that were these numbers.

I don't know if the scale of the numbers make them wrong for the Asterisks blocks. 

I like the numbers.  But I also like the quilt to be one that you say, what is your favorite color, red?  Purple?  Orange?


 Maybe it is all too much and I should go back  to all white.........

OMG for April 2018

The OMG for April has to be the Asterisk Quilt.  I didn’t get it done in in March and I really need it done for April or I will fall off the face of the earth and all life will end.

I am linking up to the OMG at Elm Street Quilts.  Go check out the other OMG people and then come back at the end of the month to see who made it.......and who didn't. 

AND ..... I have to win this month......Violet Craft has a pattern in the gift bag that I just ADORE.  Keep saying that, must win, must win, must win!

I have one more block to make, a black one.  The center will be plain white.  Borders will be white, of course, and will expand the look of a vast white background.

Well, not that vast.

Vast enough.

Frustrated By Asterisks

Yesterday I cut out the white for two asterisks.  What was I thinking?

It is paperpieced and I cut the white pieces not only backwards but just the size  of the piece.  Anyone who paperpieces will tell you that yo need to cut the pieces larger than the size you need!

So I struggled with two sections of the two blocks before it hit me what I did.  Remember I have limited amounts of that white on white left.

Right.

So I need to make a plan like I said yesterday.

Maybe this.....maybe not, maybe needing more thought.
 

RSC15 at Mid Year

I am loving the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015!

Of course my productivity does not show it, but I really have been working on the RSC15.  I have several good bases for some baby quilts with the fish and the geese that fell by the way side.  Yeah, I left them behind in the dust, literal dust.   I have an idea for the fish that will be cute.  Grouping in schools with a momma fish should use more scraps up..........that is my current plan, anyway.



Here are my foxes, I think there are 36 of the cute little guys.  They will need some spacing in the final set but I am still thinking they are fabulously cute.  They are 6 wide by 7 long so they will finish at 5.5 x 6.5.  Who knows how big the final quilt will be. 

The color for July is red so I need to sit and make some red foxes.  Finally a natural fox color!  LOL

The reds should definitely brighten things up.  These are tending toward the cool side of foxy.









And this is the Asterisk.  There is a fourth one made but of course I can't find it.  So I will have to fill in the colors I am missing and do the July red.  Four more, then. 

This will be a fabulous quilt!  I definitely love the idea of 12 asterisks dancing along the front of a fun quilt.

hmmm...I wonder where that errant asterisk is? 

Mental Note:  make easier blocks next year for RSC16.  

That is OK, when I clean stuff up looking for it, I hope to find the circle templates for the long arm I bought at QuiltCon.

I guess I am off to make foxes and a lot of asterisks!

RSC Pink Foxes and Asterisk Gumby

At the retreat I finished some foxes and another asterisk.  However I think the Asterisk is morphing into Gumby.  And just wait until GREEN is called!  LOL

Here are photos:

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I must be feeling better with this cold thing because all of a sudden I  can see 15 ways to join in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I feel like I have too long sat on the side lines and watched others have fun and create those wonderfully smart blocks that I do so admire.

I want to be the one who creates those wonderfully smart blocks so everyone will admire me and my ability to sew down all the scraps in my quilt room in just under one year!  I want to  be that icon that everyone aspires to become.  I want to be that person who has walked where no woman (or man) has walked before, in the cluttered spaces of my overstuffed quilt room!

I spent the day looking for just the prefect quilt block that will take me through the year, in rainbow delighted-ness and will still be the perfect block in December when I am STILL working on the sparkly rainbow goodness.  

I have narrowed it down to 15 block.  I think i can do 15 blocks in a month.  Ok, you may be right, I will narrow it down some more.

How about 8?  More?

Ok, Ok.  2.  No, 3.  I just have to have 3........pleeeeeeease?

A fox.  Gotta jump on the fox bandwagon.

A tree.  Love love love my modern trees.  Maybe it is more like modern chopsticks......

And a "asterich" as my co-worker from long ago would call it.  "Put a asterich there and we can go to press with."

And just to prove to Frank I have not been just laying around doing nothing all day, I pushed the button on the Roomba and vacuumed the den.

glen