Quilting plumeria

I have always thought the Plumeria flower looked a bit like natures pinwheel so quilting the petals will be done to express that spinning type movement. I have at first chosen 3 HOT threads in pink, orange and yellow. It's wonderful to have a large thread stash.
Starting with hot pink.
Moving next to HOT orange. I try to 'lock this thread into the previous thread where possible. It makes a easier viewer transition from one thread to another. My old watercolor teacher used to call this technique "KEYING" .. ie locking one thing into another for cohesiveness of design.

Sandwich making...

I have a bunch of projects to get done and sometimes one already in progress has to wait... I need to quilt this class sample for the Hawaii quilt cruise. First, while I seldom use temp sprays to make a quilt sandwich I will on small things like this. When I do, I prefer the Sulky KK2000 product in that pretty small canister... you know... the one people are afraid to buy because compared to the big cans most other retailers sell, this small one LOOKS like your getting much less for your money. I don't think thats it at all.. and I like this one.... here's why:
there's much less propellant in the can ( I didn't say less glue) so when you spray, it goes only where you are pointing it... NOT all over the table, your fingernails, etc.I can't tell you how many times I'd used other sprays and walked away with sticky nails that picked up threads, etc.
Because there is less propellant and it is without odor, you also don't get 'high' smelling it. Now to get to the quilting part.

Working up samples for Hawaii Cruise.

If you haven't noted on the NEWS link, I'm teaching on a cruise to Hawaii in September ( someone has to do it so it may as well be me :-) ) I'm working up samples for classes that 1) require very few inks ( I think students would like to spend their money on shore) and 2) to capture the feel of the islands. My favorite tropical flower is a plumeria.... so here's the plan..... Now to quilt it.I have some other classes on the same cruise and am working on project samples on those too. Will post when samples complete. The next one... Hawaiian applique without any applique. I bet those that know me know what I'm planning.

(C)

INFO from News link: Okay... how bad could life be?.... quilting and cruising to Hawaii at the same time. $1695 for 2 weeks. See www.worldofquiltstravel.com (Deb Roberts) She shared this cruise is usually well attended and tons of fun. ALOHA!!!! Other teachers include Melinda Bula and Marie Straight.

A really dirty job

Below is an earlier photo of the unquilted but painted image... Now.. the center is pretty well done... and I am quilting DIRT..... this will take some time as this type of repeated quilting can freeze ones brain and then you begin to make crazy mistakes. So to keep the scale consistent, I try to break about every hour.

(C) copywrited image
There's a lot of dirt in the background of this piece (not all shown in above pic.) It will take a good while to complete. The area you see in this pic is about an hours effort (appx 22 square inches covered... appx 4.5 inch x 5 inch rectangular area) I quilt pretty slowly on purpose. The variegated thread going from black, to light brown, to greyish works pretty well and helps add a bit of interest to an area that otherwise with 1 solid thread, would seriously bore the viewer.

A viewer asked the origin of this piece so I'll try to be brief albeit it difficult on this subject. Last summer on a Mission trip to two orphanages in Ecuador, I and others went to an open market in the capital Quito. By North American standards, it was a sad place all on it's own. So many poor and lost children mostly unclean, dead and live animals for sale, fruits and vegetables some nicely presented, others thrown about... and as in any poor country thievery ever present. This child at least had parents. Her only toys were this empty box and a piece of paper. Children in Ecuador seems to be very afraid of foreigners. This young girl had just spotted a caucasian out of frame of my original photo, and was afraid for unknown reasons. I regularly wonder even today of this young girl and how life may be treating her now. Ecuadorean children are really quite beautiful physically ... smaller in stature, round faces, and very expressive, but usually sad eyes. The visited orphanages were in both Quito and Latacunga... established and managed by a beautiful American couple as residential homes with loving local Tias (aunties) .

My baby boy is done

I finished my pastel portrait class last week and decided I am as done with this piece as I ever will be. Here's little Max at age 1 cuddling his baby giraffe. Pastels are messy but a kinda fun too.

Sometimes.. Change is Good

I am still working in an area of debris lying haphazardly on dirt. Remember, I'm doing this piece from a photo I took last summer in Ecuador. Some things, I know what they are.. example a deteriorating banana stalk, what we would call lima beans, string beans, corn husks etc. Other things, I'm less sure. In any event, I've quilted parts of things I know what they are using textures that seemed to fit. Many of these are quilted in a more linear pattern. So for those things I wasn't sure of, things I 'think' were either paper or colorful plastic bags, I decided we needed a change of pace... so I chose small circular motion which softens the overall effect.
Here I 'think' this was plastic bag trash....

Overall... it's looking okay for trash!!!!!

Something goofy at blogspot

Hi all.... Something seems to be happening ( or rather NOT happening) with display of already posted photos at blogspot.com. Here's hopeing they get it fixed quickly.
Patt
Update.... dunnoh why it broke nor how it healed but all seems well now. Thanks for your patience.