Lots and lots of Poppies! Although it may not seem like it to you, I thought they went relatively fast.

The only stumbling point where I moved at a snail’s pace, was the applique-ing of the large poppy center black “spokes”. I am afraid you are most likely going to send some colorful words my way when you get to this bit. Just use a batik and all will be well.

If you are a Masochist, then by all means, use a cotton woven material–wha ha ha ha

I have moved along on the birds and am trying to figure out how to do Jason’s Grasshopper justice in embroidery. He keeps asking me if I have got it done yet. He certainly handed me a challenge.

Grasshopper photos give me the Willies so it has been hard studying them for ideas on how to approach the embroidery. I never realized how gross Grasshoppers looked up close and personal. ewwwwww

Here is the fabric list for the Poppy flowers. What a job that was trying to identify the fabrics!

The complete fabric list to date can be found by clicking on the Asilomar 2013 Info tab above just below the header photo. I used oranges, yellows and reds that had a tinge of coral to them if that helps you out any on going it alone.

When choosing blacks, especially for the birds, try to steer towards blue-black. The green blacks aren’t pretty here. I am trying to identify the bird fabrics and will get them up as soon as I do. It can take many hours and days.

Which leads me to a question, “why don’t the fabric companies that produce the batiks keep an ongoing archival catalog?”. With each new line (season), they upload photos so why not create an archive? It would be so much easier to identify these little buggers.

ASILOMAR 2014

In case you were caught unaware, registration for Asilomar 2014 is underway already! Due to popular demand, I am going to pattern the center design of  ”Unexpected Beauty” (smaller wall size version however) for our workshop project.

I will be teaching in Session III and the dates are Mar 14 –19 (Friday-Wednesday). For those of you (like Miss Jody) who hate birds, there are no birds on this design.

Back to my cave….

The one drawback with the process of doing all of my leaves first when I applique is, I find myself questioning the color choices I have made.

It doesn’t help that my workload (personal and applique) is such that I am working as fast as I can to complete it all on time. Meaning, I am not taking as much time to think choices through as I normally would.

This means, I am creating many of those Tim Gunn moments of, “Make it work!”. This is a hair pulling way of being creative.

Anyhoooo…I have learned from experience in the “questioning of one’s choices” at the beginning to just trust the overall plan. And yes, once the poppies started appearing on the background, I was rewarded for my patience and successfully preventing myself from starting over and over again.

One thing I do want to mention is that just because my block may use a particular fabric does not mean I am happy with the outcome. Especially when I am working on the fly like this. I usually find the ideal fabric that would have been perfect AFTER I complete the area.

Why am I mentioning this? Because when I give you the fabrics in this list below, I make sure you have those better choices for your block. Why would I have you create the same mistake? That would be mean!

I know some of you want EXACTLY the fabrics I used, but I won’t let you make the same mistake on your block as I did on mine. In other words, I refuse to give you the rope to hang yourself with. There are a couple of my leaf fabric choices that make me cringe every time I look at them.

And yes, I would go back and change them but I just don’t have the liberty of time right now so they stay. You have no idea how much they torment me.

Remember, the fabrics I use are not law and you can find many more fabrics that will work just as well or better.

The applique orders I *suggest* in the patterns are not law, feel free to change the order if you wish, no one is going to burn you at the stake–especially not me.

Combine pieces to make one easier piece if that works better for you. Do what makes you happy and don’t make your applique an exercise in self torture.

I will not hunt you down and make a public example of you if you wish to make changes that are more comfortable and agreeable to you. I often wonder if students were literally whipped into submission in their learning experiences mentally and or physically.

The fear I see in their eyes when they ask to change or do something different with their applique design and technique is really quite disturbing to me. I often wonder what their previous experiences have been to produce such a fearful look.

Applique Myth: There is only one way to do hand applique.

BAH! There are many techniques and varied levels of designs that can use many combinations of a myriad of techniques out there to produce the desired result. If you are told, “do it my way, which is the only way” then you are already at a disadvantage to learn what you need to be successful.

As I find the style numbers for the fabrics I have used to date, I will update the list for you. This can take up many hours of several days to find sometimes so I ask for your patience please.

Back to the Abyss….

Let me start by saying thank you for all of the great feedback and responses over my interview yesterday with Pat Sloan on American Patchwork and Quilting Radio. Wow, did the time fly! I sure do like radio much more than video.

I found I can listen to myself much, much easier than watching myself. You knoooow how I feel about pictures! If you missed it and want to hear it, there is a link on the right side of this page that will take you to it.

The Hudson River Valley Art Workshop

The Hudson River Valley Art Workshop was fabulous! I couldn’t have hand picked better students who were so much fun to be around and were eager to soak up what I was teaching. Were we ever not laughing?

It was quite strange traveling to snow and cold when at home it was warm and sunny. I couldn’t help but find humor in this shot I took of the pool (in the background) and the sign on the gate. I wonder if anyone ever tried to use it in winter?

My first trip to New York was wonderful and I loved observing the new and different landscape features that we do not have in Oregon.

I wish I could have stayed longer and seen some more sights around the area. They laughed at me (yes laughed and you know who you are!) when I got excited about seeing a frozen over pond(s). I had never seen one frozen over and I was absolutely fascinated.

It was a big class and everyone in it added to the fun of the whole experience. We had some kick arse Margaritas generously provided by our uniquely accented friend after class was concluded for the day which made the evenings a hoot even for those who don’t imbibe. (I will discretely keep you anonymous master Margarita supplier-LOL)

I feel as though we all left friends. As always, it is sad to see everyone go.

I like it when workshops are like that. This is one of the reasons I love to teach multi-day workshops so much. There is a wonderful social element as well as a really warm and congenial learning environment. A win-win you might say.

Thank you ladies again for a great time! You made my job so easy.

Asilomar (Empty Spools)

The great thing about the snow was I could take reference photos of the white stuff. For Asilomar 2014, the project is going to be a wall size pattern of Unexpected Beauty’s center image. Reference images/photos are great for showing how much color is really in shadows and also that there is more to “white” than white.

Next stop other than Quilt Market is Asilomar 2013 at the end of May. I have updated the front page of the website with a link to the revised supply list and I have created a tab above here on the blog with a devoted page for information as well.

Please check the blog tab for any updates because that is where I will post them.

For now, I need to kick into high gear to get the block done for you!

I will be interviewed on American Patchwork & Quilting Radio  hosted by Pat Sloan on Monday April 1st.

Click on the link above or on the Logo to the right of this page to access the information to listen to the show.

Show times:

4pm eastern

3pm central

2pm mountain

1pm pacific

I think Pat has such a fun persoanlity so this should be fun!