Piecing, Jurying, & even a few Hexi's in the mix....

I apologize for not posting in a while.  I gave myself a few days to rest up after the trip to Arizona.  I didn't mention in the previous posts that I flew to SoCal from Phoenix to spend time with Jamie for a few days before I returned to Texas.  We enjoyed our time together.

We have a construction project underway on our property:  the demolition of the old pool cabana (a useless, if cute, structure), and are progressing toward a covered-porch and outdoor kitchen.  Many setbacks along the way due to some unforeseen issues (hello, septic system located in an entirely different place from the original house plans).  The resolution of this rather large hiccup has lead to even better plans that are now unfolding.  Below is my husband, standing in front of the framing for the poured concrete that will house the wood-burning pizza oven.  He is pretending to shovel a pizza in and out of the oven!

I've been back in the studio with quite a number of plates spinning, or at least wobbling in the air...

I have been revisiting my love of piecing.  I started this right after the holidays. I had a major stressor in my extended family that sent me into the studio for what i would like to call "comfort piecing".  It was perfect therapy, resulting in a lot of pieced things that need some finishing.  I'll show you.

At least 3 different things rolling along on the design wall...

Late last night I pulled the pieced blocks down and started messing with them.

I'm trying to decide what to use as "filler" blocks.  I'm still not certain.

The dog is not certain, either, and she is really bored with me.

eh...I just don't know about any of this.  Black with white print?  White with black print?

Both? None of the above?  I'm not feelin it.

Biz has just about "had it" with me.  Just after this shot she started stealing things off the floor.

This is her trademark maneuver for distracting me away from my work.

Also in the mix:  some hand-basted hexi's!

These, believe it or not, are going to be configured into the shape of an ovary and a fallopian tube.

They will be, theoretically anyway, appliqued onto a background for a quilt that is to be donated to 

MD Anderson for an ovarian cancer research fundraising event.

All the more poignant since I now know 3 women who are battling this awful disease.

And, I'm jurying an exhibition.  It is a process that takes time.  So between sessions at the computer, I'm piecing, sketching, writing, and thinking.  Oh!, and I'm playing with Bizzi.

Musings From a Weekend Retreat with the SA Mod Quilt Guild

I've been in love with quilt making of one sort or another for, well, a very long time.  I grew up watching my paternal grandmother, a seamstress in a small Kansas town, piece, then quilt by hand on a frame, all sorts of quilts.  I fell in love with quilting when re-acquainted with it by Edith York, a nurse-colleague of mine in the labor and delivery unit where I used to work.  I fell in love again when I started creating things of my own design, and when I learned how to dye and print my own textiles it was icing on the cake.  All this spans over (ahem) quite a few years.  I took it up myself in the early 80s.
I had never gone on a quilting retreat until I fell in step with the San Antonio Modern Quilt guild.  Now I have been on three!  The latest was this past weekend at a place called the Deep Woods Retreat Center, near Smithville Texas.   It is really sort of perfect:  nice sleeping quarters right off the work-area, and a dining room on the opposite side of the work area from the sleeping quarters.  It has a covered loading area to move all the stuff in and out of vehicles without risking the weather.  Not that we get much rain.
I drove up on Thursday afternoon, set up my machine, and got down to it.  Here are some images from the weekend.

Everyone had a lot of design wall space because there were only 16 of us.

It was great!  I had 3 4x8 sections, and managed to take over 3 more.

 I made the rounds and looked at everyone's pincushions.  Here are a few:

this just makes me laugh.

I purchased a set of Marcia Derse fat quarters in Long Beach and 

I wanted to create something paired with Kaffe Fassett shot cotton solids....

This is as far as I could get since I ran out of the dark charcoal solid.

It will have a narrow, then wide border in the gray with some additional 3.5 inch squares 

sprinkled in.

It makes me think of a birds-eye view of a cityscape:  the rooftop elements.

I became reacquainted with how to set in corners.  The right half is much more reasonably 

organized than the left, which is kluged together.  Lots of right angle corner sets.  Ugh.

I'll tidy it all up later....

Then I pulled out and added to these blocks.

My friend Kim played around with the swatches in the center of each block.

I need to add that this was happening about 3 am.

I'm thinking of adding circular elements in some or all of the central squares.

What do you think?  Add something, or leave them as is?

Here it is, completely joined.  It is big!

These 2 tops took most of 3 days.  It was a wonderful time!

You know me and circular stuff...I had to snap this stacked wood: