Current Projects and Friday Favorites

I didn't get much browsing done this week.  My lunch breaks are now being taken up with exercise (I am dieting) and my evenings are full of sewing.  I have started a new quilt following principles I learned at Nancy's Barn.  I think I might enter it in a show so I can only show  you the pile of fabric I am using.
The fabric is mostly the 10 shades of fuschia  and the 5 shades of chartreuse I dyed in preparation for Nancy's workshop but didn't use there.

The second project is also leftovers from Nancy's.  Rather than throw away all my scraps from the quilts I made there I toted them all home.  Now I am using them to create some improvisational blocks that can hang separately or together.  Here is the first one in  progress.  The white fabric is from a dress shirt my husband just ruined. (Ruined as far as him getting to wear it but perfect for me to use!)  I might call this series "What does Nancy Crow's Scraps and My Husband's Shirt Have in Common."  LOL

Friday's Favorites

I am loving these tutorials posted by Lyric Kinard at The Sketchbook Challenge.  I think I will print them out to keep them in my sketchbook.  Usually tutorials are on a specific art technique but these are on art principles that art quilters need to know.  Love them!

Well, you know I  love tutorials in general and Amanda Jean has a very nice one on sewing circles.  She points out in the tutorial that her method is not the only method used for sewing cirles.  It isn't but it is a very good technique and I think the best one for beginners to use.  I started there but am  now comfortable with finger pinning as I ease the pieces together.  Anyway, I think the results from her efforts make a darling baby quilt.

And also working with circles, LuAnn Kessi shows us the screen printing that her friend, Virginia, is producing. Beautiful circles!


Clare Wasserman at Threads of Loveliness is trying a new technique near and dear to my heart--burning up fabric.  She is making postcards by covering transfoil with organza, quilting it heavily, and then burning the excess organza.  Here is a post with in-progress pictures and here is the finished product.

Last are some videos. Here is one from Muppin on thermochromic textile paint.  And another video on India Flint teaching a workshop in Belgium.  After watching it I went back to Goodwill to get the crockpot to use for dying.  And while I was at Youtube I found Arlee!