Montag, 29. Juli 2013

MQF, MMSC and other WIPs

The title does look like I have the acronymitis, must be a left over from the heat of the weekend.

Phew, finally back from Aschaffenburg. And didn't manage to write anything on Sunday. We've had the hottest weekend in Germany so far, and the weather people say, that we even beat Italy and Spain on temperatures. It was... bad. At least for me. At temperatures of 100° plus with a humidity beyond 85 percent, I'd love to crawl down into some cellar and never come out again.
Air Condition? In Germany? Not really, only in big hotels and convention centers. So, fortunately for me, the Aschaffenburg Convention Center where the Main Quilt Festival was held had bearable temperatures.

I spent my Friday happily working at a Crazy project under the tutelage of Rita Schaffer (www.crazyaboutcrazy.com). Here's what I managed:

Of course there's still a lot to embellish and sew... I decided to call it "Walking on broken glass" - yepp, another quilter with the habit of calling her quilts after songs.

After my composing adventures I decided, I need something easy. Besides that, I still needed an anniversary gift for my wife and the idea came my way in form of a mini-wholecloth stencil that will make a great cuddly pillow. I asked her to choose a colour and she went for a bright turqoise.
I managed to quilt about two thirds of the center on Sunday while hoping on the couch that the heat will go away (which it did, btw).
The entire stencil measures 18"x18"

 That's the overview - okay, not much to see here.









But there's the detail of what I managed. Unfortunately the photo-light of my camera changes the colour quite a bit. I'd say, the truth is somewhere in between the two pictures.


And, not to forget, the Mystery project. It's MMSC with Jessica at Lifeunderquilts (Thank you so much for your encouragement, by the way!) and I've got at least a small success to show. I've added another 25 pieces, bringing the piece count up to 66, leaving 281 to go. Gotta work more on it this week.

 In case you wonder, I've added two 36° triangles that are not visible in this rendering but necessary to stabilize the whole thing before quilting and squaring.

Edit on Wednesday 31st: Also linking this post up with WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced since I don't have any new WIP :)

13 Kommentare:

  1. Such beautiful projects! I'm intrigued by the mystery and look forward to the big reveal.

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  2. The broken glass is beautiful. I love the way that the borders are used. Looks like good progress on your mystery project too. What a great idea!

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    1. After I had spent an hour silently cursing the fact that I had to get small gray strips between the laid-out crazy pieces, Rita confessed to me that she already had bought gold ribbon for just such an effect, but she always postponed it because... tadaaaa! It takes so much time and effort :D
      The longer I look at it, the more I feel, though, that the stitching has to go. The colour of the chain stitches is okay, but I don't like the placement.

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  3. What fun to see all these shapes together...and how the 3-, 4-, and 5-sided pieces all fit.

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    1. That's what fascinated me too about the possibilities. The secret is the somewhat unusual angle of 72° paired with its 36° half-size child.

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  4. My friend just got home from Germany yesterday and she said it was horribly hot! YOur crazy project looks great. What program did you use to draw the diagram with?
    Stay cool!

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    1. Cool's coming to an end. Today we're up to 28°C, and by tomorrow we're hitting above the thirties again... it was the sunniest July since 2006 (which still is fabled for the heat waves rolling), and it does not look like the weather's going to change.
      I'm really looking forward to our Birmingham vacation with the hopes that it's cooler there.
      The EPP diagram is simple Power Point. (blush...) I realized that it's fairly easy to draw up the geometrical shapes needed for EPP and it permits me to carry my designs everywhere since I also can work on them via my Windows Phone.

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  5. Love the mystery quilt. Your crazy quilt looks like stained glass. Beautiful.

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    1. Thanks. I'll re-do the stitching so the stain-glass effect is going to be enhanced.

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  6. Hi Julia,
    thanks for your visit at my blog. :-)
    Your stained glass looks great, I like the colors. But to be honest, I like it a little bit better without the stitching, too. Hate it when this happens and you have to rip out your hand stitches...
    Yesterday it was so nice, cool and grey, but today it seems to get really hot again. So not my kind of weather!
    PS: habe gesehen, daß Du eine deutsche Adresse hast und auch in D lebst. :-) Also noch ein kleines "Hallo" auf deutsch.

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  7. I'll rip out the stitches and then wait until true inspiration strikes. I can understand the weather problem... they say we're getting up to 35C today and up to 38C tomorrow. Ugh! Hallo zurück aus Ludwigsburg!

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  8. You have my curiosity peeked with your mystery. I can't wait to see by it. I hope your weather is more comfortable at this point in the week. I loved living in Germany, we were there for 3 years(Ansbach) when my hubby was in the service.

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    1. I so hope to be able to keep up the tension until October, if I make final thirty. Ansbach is a very lovely city, I can imagine you liked it. I'm living somewhat to the north-west from there, close to Stuttgart.
      Unfortunately, the weather is getting hotter with every day again. At first, everyone's hungry for summer. When we finally have it, everyone complains about it being hot.

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Thanks for dropping by. Even more thanks for sharing your thoughts and feelings. Have a nice day!