Well so much has happened since my last blog. We left Manchester NH on a cold Saturday morning with a bit of snow and rain on the ground to fly to record temps of Florida. A record heat of 90 for the day of March 3rd. We typically go to Disneyworld this time of year. We celebrate my husband Mark’s birthday and recover from the snow season. This year there was not much to recover from, since we had record low snow totals in New Hampshire. Seems the only time we get snow is when I’m getting ready to go on vacation. Last big storm for NH was at Halloween, as I was getting ready to leave for the Houston International Quilt Festival. The storm in March was nothing compared to that Halloween one. We never lost power but a lot of people in the general New England area did including some of my fellow travelers who were glad to hit the Hilton of the Americas and power in Houston.
A trip to Disney for us is not so much about the rides, it’s more a resort for us to relax, a bit of fine dining, the kick-start of our spring power-walking program and some quality time to be alone without the stress of everyday work and home life. I usually bring along some handwork to keep me busy in case we get stranded at an airport or if it’s a rainy afternoon in Florida. I did some sewing on the plane on the way down but my little bag of pieces were left in the carry on for the duration of our week. Those pieces were not pressing so I had fun taking pictures, people watching and relaxing, all good things to do on vacation.
I will post pictures in the coming days of flowers, inspirational shots of color and the beautiful gardens that Disney presents in Epcot during the Flower and Garden festival. I love to see the flowers and see how talented they are when it comes to displays. I prefer to put all my color in my quilts. A few self-sustaining plants in the summer is all I can muster. I just don’t have the time or the desire to play in the garden when I would rather play in the studio.
Now for the exciting part of Out of My Head Studio. Miranda decided to jump in with both feet into the FatQuarterly offering of a challenge to take a couple of fat quarters from designer Ellen Baker for Moda and make something with them.
After receiving the fabric she got to pick first since it was HER idea and run with it. We did much research into what kind of bag to make, what fabric to add to the final product and of course how best to show off that lovely design.
We are both trying to teach ourselves to machine quilt and her choice of the triangle fabric made it a little easier to follow the lines and quilt the entire piece before making her bag.
I kept playing on the design wall pinning up pieces I had from other projects to coordinate with Ellens colorful design. Finally we were nearing the deadline to finish and after a Sunday afternoon of sewing with Miranda (me helping and encouraging her with the machine quilting) the Miss Betty bag was done.
I still had mine to finish but I could do that on my own the following week. Once done we needed to organize our pictures, do a write up and email to Katy.
I seem to work well under pressure and given a goal/deadline urges me along. My next deadline is a baby quilt I need to finish (2 blocks left to free motion quilt) and a mystery quilt that is 88×88 that I have yet to start machine quilting. Did I mention we are teaching ourselves to machine quilt?
So far I have learned that 80/20 batting is FAB. That 505 basting spray is my new best notion in the quilting world. My Janome 7700 is a great machine Ya and Miranda is now in love with it too.
While Mark has not added any of his art to the website and Nicholas is still behind the scenes updating the website, Miranda and I have enjoyed our first joint venture. Mark has helped me a lot especially when I needed extra hands and a large shop to spray baste that monster quilt. He also is the best babysitter when we needed that Sunday afternoon to work on the Miss Betty Bag. The Josie/Sir relationship is very close.
I hope you take a look at the Fatquarterly website.
http://www.fatquarterly.com/quilt-blocks-a-designer-challenge-day-7.html
Will try and post pictures from Florida the inspirational ones when I have a chance.
Thank you for reading.
denise