New Additions to Quote Quilt

 

I'm still adding more things to the quote quilt, as you can tell from the title. These are the new additions this week.

I added mostly decorative things this week. No deep meanings behind most of these. In the photo above, I  added the boy sleeping under a crazy quilt. The quote and the moon were there from previous additions.

This sun quote is on one of my index cards drawings. I got it from an art journal page I saw on YouTube. I really like the confidence of this quote.

I have pi on the circle quilt, and thought it would be nice to have here as well.  The diagonal lines kept distracting me so the pi is at an angle. I could fix it, but I think it still looks like pi.

This quote looked like it had some space for a little something, and since it said heart, I added hearts. The things at the bottom are supposed to be flowers, but if you thought paintbrushes or torches or faces something else, I am fine with that.

2020:  Weeks 48 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

We had a short, virtual Thanksgiving gathering, and a stay at home advisory. Since I had a long Thanksgiving weekend, I had plenty of time to add lots of things to the quote quilt.

I also soaked some walnuts to extract some dye and dyed some fabric for a little fabric booklet.  I didn't heat set it before I washed it so most of it washed out.  So I have soaked them in coffee and this time, I will heat set it before washing in vinegar, and hopefully some of the color will stay.

 

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 280 out of 334 days

Success rate  = 84%

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Week 47

 

 

Since I've added historical events in the quote quilt, I have been trying to think of significant things that happened during the 2002 and 2020 time frame. Please let me know what big things happened in this time frame.

 

One of the things I remembered was the mini tornado that happened in the neighborhood. You can still see some effects of that tornado today. Then I listened to the news about the record breaking hurricane year.  I decided to add something to the quilt to represent all these weather related issues, and global warming in general.

I looked for the symbol for hurricane, and this one isn't the standard symbol, but I like it because it can also represent tornadoes and typhoons and monsoons. It also looks like a good symbol to show that one thing effects another. How we are all interconnected.

 

 

 

Since I didn't do anything else noteworthy on the quilt, I want to show you the button I added to this collage. I found it in the basement and added it a couple of weeks ago. 

This one too is from a couple of weeks ago. I found a purse my daughter had when she was young. The strap was broken and I decided to save the bow for the quilt.

2020:  Weeks 47 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

I added the hurricane symbol to the quote quilt this week.

 

I also made a quilt sample of a double layer of the fusible interfacing I am using and a double layer of the sheet I am planning on using as a backing to make sure that it won't be difficult to quilt through. It worked out perfectly. I am not planning on doing a lot of quilting on the quilt - just enough to tack the three layers together, but since I had heard that sheets are hard to quilt through and I will be tacking by hand, I wanted to be sure.

I had an unexpected day off work this week, so I took an online art class. There are a lot of art classes showing up on my Facebook and this one let you choose a donation amount instead of specifying a certain amount. I was late in signing up so I saw the recording instead of the live version but I didn't miss anything. Instead of just watching, I participated by cutting out shapes like Matisse. I used envelopes and quilt catalogs instead of plain paper.  It was fun and interesting.

 

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 273 out of 327 days

Success rate  = 83%

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Still More Additions to Quote Quilt

 

 

When I took the photo of the bird in front of the red tree last time, I apparently wasn't done. She kept chirping to me to take her photo.  She didn't trust my photo skills so she didn't pose - she just sat very still so I could take a photo that wasn't blurry. Thanks, Robin!

After I did that, the crow let me know he was next, but I couldn't see him and he wasn't willing to come any closer. Maybe next time, Crow.

2020:  Weeks 46 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

Even though this bird also stood very still, my photo of her is still blurry. I was supposed to have started the quilting process at the beginning of the quarter so I could finish by the end of the year, but I keep wanting to add things. Good thing my word of the year is laid-back!  There is already a bird on the quilt, but I couldn't resist adding this one. I am really happy with how it turned out. I traced the bird on typing paper, pinned it on the quilt, and stitched through the paper, and then pulled the paper out. 

 

I shouldn't have read the quote, because it made me think of a candle that I just saw during a quiltalong.  Then I read the quote more carefully, and it is the torch that is the topic of the quote.

So I added an Olympics torch. It is in honor of the delayed Olympics in Japan, as well as all the other Olympics we have watched on TV. The fire fabric has been asking to be in the quilt for a long time. It has metallic in it and I didn't really want to add it until now, but I think it is appropriate for a flame.

 

Now the feather tells you to look down, but the torch makes your eye ricochet up to the right. This quilt will let you get your eye exercises in for sure.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 266 out of 320 days

Success rate  = 83%

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Week 45 of 2020

 

When I let Zeus out yesterday afternoon, I noticed a bird beautifully silhouetted in front of my neighbor's tree with the orange leaves. We have had fabulous colors this year, and this tree has never stood out to me. I ran inside to get the camera and when I came back, it was still there.When I zoomed in, I could see the bird clearly.  In fact, the bird stayed there and posed for me until I had more pictures than I could ever need. Most of them came out sharp and clear.

Work on the quote quilt continues. I decided that I do want to add another layer of fusible behind the quilt to hide the stitches, but before I did that, I wanted to make sure I was done adding as much of the big things as I could. I decided to add a blue moon. Before I had decided on the quote, I was going to add another moon to show that this is a moon and not just a blue circle, but then realized there was already another moon nearby.

The quote helps too. I am glad I found this quote to add for my moon. It is actually one I have been thinking about a great deal, as it reflects my thoughts on the coronavirus situation from the very beginning. Aim to eradicate it. I am thinking of adding a small Halloween motif since it happened on Halloween.

The fact that it is a circle makes me think of the Circle 365 quilt I have been making during the time period of the quilt, and  the fabric is from the Story Maze quilt so this block represents my former quilts too.  There are plenty of other references of that throughout the quilt too.

 

I added the virtual cemetery booklet to the quilt. I used the elastic from a disposable mask. The button on the left just hides the strings. The string loops around the button the right to keep the booklet closed. I added the yellow ribbon to hold down the pages. It isn't necessary but hopefully it helps to avoid stress of the weight of the booklet on the quilt. Underneath the booklet is a pretty ruffle from a bed sheet. I haven't sealed the outside so right now, it forms a pocket. I don't think anything should be added inside it though, since it would add more weight to this block.

When I saw this quote from Maya Angelou, I knew that it just had to be on the quilt.  I typed it and tried to see it in different fonts, and one of the font uses all capital letters. I think this quote is worthy of being in all caps.  The fabric was my first attempt at water-coloring the virtual cemetery booklet. I decided to use the watercolor underneath the block and let the colors shadow through. I put a light yellow fabric in the middle to hide the original [duplicate] quote. 

I had pictured other floral designs around the quote, but just let myself do whatever I felt like doing, and this is what happened.

2020:  Weeks 45 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

This week, we voted in person at the polls. Everyone was very friendly, and there was a festive atmosphere there.

 

I worked with my mother on a project. One of my distant cousins was buried this week and we were able to attend the memorial virtually.  I hadn't met him, but maybe I will add something to put in the pocket behind the booklet.

 

I tried to get my space ready for working from home again. I added more motifs to the quote quilt as I showed in this post.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 259 out of 313 days

Success rate  = 83%

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Week 44

For a while now, my washer and my dryer have been competing in a race to see which one will need to be replaced first. Sometimes the dryer won't dry all the way through. Sometimes the washer will make a strange noise or have smelly clothes at the end of the wash and need to rewash.  This week, we have declared a winner. 

 

The winner? The hot water heater. It came out from nowhere. Second place? the shredder. I knew with all the shredding I was doing for the basement cleanup, it would need replaced at the end. I was hoping that if I spaced out my shredding enough, it would make it until the end, and I could reward myself with a new shredder. 

 

And now the computer has joined the race by making noises. I opened the case and cleaned out all the dust, which did make it better, but I think it is still in the race.

2020:  Weeks 44 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

I got a job offer to work for a month so I will be working most of November and a bit of December.  This means I won't have as much time for quilting as I thought. I was thinking about sneaking in a mini quilt for October, but decided I should dedicate my time to the quote quilt and the basement. 

 

I have put away the Sunshine in Winter blocks so that I can focus on the quote quilt.  I kept it the box by the machine so I won't promise you that I won't sneak in a seam or two this year.

When I put a stabilizer on the back of the quote quilt, the stabilizer wasn't as wide as the quilt. It was off by just a couple of inches. Since I wouldn't be adding any stitching that close to the edge, I had decided to let Future Me deal with it. I think at that time, I was tired of always catering to Future Me by cooking and freezing meal.

This week,  I added that row of people holding hands.  I also added the stabilizer to fill in the rest of the back of the quote quilt. You see both of those in the first photo. I am thinking about whether I want to add another layer of stabilizer to hide the threads or switch to a darker backing that will not show the threads.  It isn't as much as I have done in previous weeks, but I did manage to eek out the minimum.

15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 252 out of 306 days

Success rate  = 82%

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