A Quilting Kind of Week!

We had to bring in the begonias as we have had a couple of frosty nights. We decided to see if we could get them to winter over inside in pots. Warren grew them from seed and they were spectacular with huge blooms. This one is about 5 inches across.

This is the famous kitchen jungle. Warren has now built a frame 4' x 6' where all the hibiscus and assorted house plants spend the winter months. This year he is going to put in an automatic watering system as well. These hibiscus were cut down quite a bit before he brought them inside but are still over five feet!

The Mola Challenge quilt is done which is why there hasn't been any posts as we can't let the other participants who might see my blog know what I have done. It was fun but I question why I take the long road and piece things rather than just fusing away which would have been easier probably in the short run (except that I am a terrible fuser and would have had to do more machine work probably). It is okay although technically, it could have been a whole lot better. When I get near the end of a project like this, I just want to be done, done, done. This was my inspirational mola which I got from Priscilla. It comes from Panama and she purchases them directly from the makers and many times still on the blouses. You can see the hint of my quilt in the background.

Ah, but the current project is a lot more fun for me -- it is another pieced nature inspired wall quilt taken from one of my photos at QBL two or three years ago. They had the most gorgeous day lilies everywhere that year and I took lots of pictures knowing they would end up in a quilt some day. Of course I am using the Ruth McD techniques and am getting more of a handle on it with each quilt.

You can see the beginnings of the background getting placed.

Of course, the trick is to be able to abstract the image so that it can be pieced. Taking those drawings and making them just the "right" level of abstraction is the trick -- too abstract and they look like cartoons, too detailed and they look like photos!

Practice, practice, practice....

The background has almost all been placed and a few of the lily petals are starting to take shape. I actually managed to get two corners sewn together.

The process involves first making your drawing, tracing it to freezer paper and then use the freezer paper as the templates. I finally ironed on freezer paper to the back of my tissue paper as well as it was just too flimsy to work on. The tissue paper is the master pattern. I seem to remember that I should have made another copy but have decided to make individual copies of each section instead -- it is pieced in sections. This is about 3 feet by four feet long -- the biggest size that Staples can copy to!! It would be great to be able to make major progress on this over the weekend.