Fun with Color Wheels.

I've been working on some specific color wheels for hand dyed fabric.

Here's my favorite group of 30 steps. They have a deep saturation, lots of texture, and are jewel tones. 

These 21 were created by combining the same three primaries that I used for the 'jewels' above. They are more muted and earthy looking. They still have a lot of texture, somewhat like cracked ice. 

I also put together a small group for a customer. She wanted a special color collection for a project she is working on.  

It's so encouraging to have clients that request a color palette be made for them. They know I will be very meticulous with the record keeping. If she decides she likes the top one but wants a more subtle blending of colors I will be able to make those for her this week. The 'dye lab' is always calling my name, and I love answering the call. 

On the more mundane side of things, I purged a large basketfull of clothes that wear just 'hanging around' and 'taking up space'. It is such a mood lifter to get rid of unused items. BTW I love the hat sitting on top of the pile, but in SC it's too warm to wear it. 

That's the update for this week. 

May God bless the work of your hands,

Luann

Remember to post a comment for another entry into the giveaway. 

Making Progress

This week has been quite productive in my sewing room. 

First:  Before and after of my Wisteria challenge piece. 

Not finished, but I am pleased with where I am. 

 

 

Second: 

Top picture has all the pieces pinned to the design wall, but nothing was sewn together.

Then I have larger pieces and many smaller ones stitched in place on top of a batting and backing. 

Last two pictures are my thread sketching and free motion quilting, both of which need improvement. 

 

 

 

 

Third: I started working on my Princess piece. 

The top picture shows the portrait piece I made during Lola Jenkins workshop. 

 

 

In the picture above, I have placed two different blacks along the sides. The one on the left has very small gold dots. The one on the right has black dots and a more mottled background. I am thinking about using one or both as borders, if I keep it at the present size. 

Perseverance Paid Off

 

Yesterday, before and after Yoga class, I was in the sewing room. I decided that I should be able to figure out why my machine wouldn't do the free motion quilting and thread sketching that it was capable of. I started by going back to the beginning,,,

First I set my machine up as though I was going to be piecing a block together. This meant changing the foot, lifting the feed dogs, changing out the thread, and removing my Supreme Slider. I even changed the needle to a different brand entirely. And as you might guess, I was back into sewing nice even stitches and straight lines without any thread shredding, skipped stitches, or broken needles!

Then I proceeded to change one thing at a time. In the end I was using a different free motion foot and a different brand of needle. Things looked like they were going to move along as desired. And they did!

I am very unskilled in FMQ. Same is true for my thread painting. I just know that I enjoy the process and that I am making this for myself! I only finished off the center printed block, but I'm happy with it. 

 

My background fills will get better as I invest time into this process. I don't have a stitch regulator on my machine so stitches to the inch is variable, which doesn't bother me at all. And the darning foot that I ended up using was a closed toe and I had been using an open toe previously. 

I also noticed that the amount of stitching has drawn the piece up a bit. I was able to press it flat, but I know it will want to 'shrink' back. So, I will be doing a fair amount of stitching on this piece, hand and machine, before I consider it done. This is where I wish I had a machine designated to this work, and another one for piecing. I picked up an old Singer awhile back. It weighs a ton. I need to put it into service and see how it performs. Maybe it can become one of the designated machines. 

My favorite section, so far, has to be the tree roots I put into this area.

 

I am so glad that God has given me the patience to keep trying to figure things out. 

I was ready to take the machine in for a check up, when all it needed was a change up!

God has certainly blessed me,

Luann

And then it quit working,,,

Yep, that's what happened late Tuesday evening. I had been working on putting an art quilt together when out of the blue, my sewing machine decides it isn't going to do any free motion quilting. First it wouldn't make the loop between bobbin thread and upper thread. Finally got that working and she decided to shred the thread coming through the needle! I wasn't getting upset, just perplexed. I finally just put the walking foot back on, rethreaded it with new thread, put the feed dogs back into motion, and gave it another go. Yep, go figure, it would work again!! Well, I wasn't going to be outwitted by my sewing machine! I just decided that I would quilt this one with an interesting stitch pattern. I used one I call 'heart beat'. I do like how it turned out!

 

 I'm not sure what the next step is going to be, but I found a quote that refers to what was going on. 

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

HELEN KELLER”

Isn't it amazing that if you just go with the flow everything turns out fine. 

Off creatin' some more lovelies,

Luann