Ivy Arts

We took a trip to see my folks this past weekend to celebrate a few birthdays… my mom, dad and sister-in-law all have birthdays within a week. It was a nice visit – eventful in an uneventful kind of way. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. There were cupcakes and cousins playing tag. There was also some sickness with all manner of bodily fluids that we won’t get into here. There was very little sleeping but not in the rockin’ good time who wants to sleep kind of way. My mother (who is not an early riser but is an awesome gramma) was up both mornings before 5am. All I can say is that it’s a good thing those boys are cute.

So I’m getting back into the swing. I have quilting class again tonight after the holiday hiatus and I’m anxious to show the ladies the quilt design and get some opinions. Let the sewing begin!

So I’ve spent a little time with this and have moved some blocks around, breaking up some repetitive colors. I’ve even simulated a half-square triangle border, since I will be using the remaining ones from my math blunder in the border. The scale really changes and I think it will work, even though the fabrics will be different from those pictured here. I’m getting a little bit excited. I think this crazy WWYT quilt is going to be pretty cool. Be prepared to hail my genius. Don’t they say that there’s a fine line between genius and crazy? HA!

All blocks are complete. Now I have to nail down the layout. I did a very preliminary placement of the blocks. (I haven’t been super careful of sizing or color correcting the blocks, just trying to get the idea. This also shows a cool kaleidoscope effect that I won’t get because each block is unique.)

Kind of a mish-mash. So I put the window pane borders on and it really comes together.

More work for me but a better quilt I think. I have to really work on my quilt math to get the brown tone-on-tone figured correctly. I think I have the last 2.5 yards available anywhere. (May have to Google again just to be on the safe side.)

I’d really love some feedback on this so please comment if you have any thoughts on how this is coming together. Many thanks.

I’ve only got 10 blocks to go and this is where I’m at.

I’m still playing and turning the blocks. But the digital method is infinitely better than any manual method I could envision. It’s so much easier to get an overall perspective of what’s going on. (Thanks again Jen.) I can see already that I prefer the “star” pattern in the blocks that have the dark tone-on-tone brown triangles. The “center square” version is not nearly as good. For some reason I keep seeing a pig nose in the center of it. Weird, I know. But once you see something like that, you can never un-see it. You know it’s true.

I once had this Thomas McKnight poster of the Boston Public Gardens. Look in the center between the trees to a fountain with two streams of water shooting up. There’s something dark behind it. Then there’s a dark curve underneath of the base of the fountain. It looks like a monkey face and I will forever see it that way. Ruined a perfectly nice poster for me. It’s stuck in a closet somewhere.

So you’ve seen Block #1, Block #2, and Block #3. And honestly, I’ve been in denial about how this will all come together. I separated the pattern into 5 major color components and made each one of the 38 fat quarters fit into one of those hues. And due to my (ahem, cough) stellar math skills, I’ve boxed myself into an even bigger corner. Sigh.

So from a Flickr contact, I came upon Jen’s blog and I realized what I should have know all the time. Use my design and computer skills to tackle this challenge.

I have a digital camera. I know Illustrator and Photoshop. I can design the entire thing on my laptop. Yay! I’ve photographed all the blocks I’ve completed so far and and made note of how many of each I have. I’ve got 32 of 56 total so far. Now I can twist them and turn them and see how this crazy thing might come together. Since I don’t have a design wall or nearly enough floor space to lay it all out, this is brilliant. Thanks Jen for leading the way.

Is it just me or is this one just a little plain? HA! Relative to the others it may be. But it’s also the best to show off the beauty of this pattern. The asymmetrical block lets you create different looks depending on how you turn it. What do you think? (apologies for these pictures… late afternoon winter light and bad set-up. A lightbox is in my future.)

You’ve seen Block #1. (And thanks for your encouraging comments, by the way). Well, here’s #2. Until this quilt top is completely sewn and I can (possibly) proclaim my own genius, I will heretofore refer to it as the “What Were You Thinking (WWYT) quilt.” I managed, after an exhaustive search (exhaustive in this case means that I sat on my butt and delved 15 pages deep into a Google Search), to find a few yards of the tone-on-tone brown that is in this block. I’m thinking that using it in the border will somehow tame all of these crazy colors and patterns. If not, I may have to entertain the thought of a window pane approach and border each block with it. Not really thrilled about that idea. Too fussy and I’m too impatient. Once again, all I can say is we’ll see after I sew some more.

Dinner for me. (Hubby was out.) Homemade pizza topped with pesto, a mix of parmesan/asiago/romano, chicken, kalamata olives, goat cheese (I’m having a love affair with goat cheese right now) and a bit of mozzarella to hold it all together. Damn it was good. (That’s a little bit of plain cheese pizza in the background there for the kids. I do feed them too, regardless of what the previous post may imply.)

The pediatrician told me something that I never thought I’d hear about a child of mine. The small boy needs to get more calories. He needs to gain weight. My people have never had a problem with that. It must be from my husband’s side.

Pediatrician: He’s losing ground in the height and weight department. He needs to get more calories.

Me: (looks dumbfounded)

Pediatrician: Does he like yogurt?

Me: Used to but now boycotts it.

Pediatrician: Does he like ice cream?

Me: Too cold.

Pediatrician: Does he like pudding?

Me: Yes! He likes pudding.

My son is on a pudding diet. Pudding… with bacon… and heavy cream… with a side of brie.

I made two loaves of this yummy Honey Wheat Bread two days ago and this is all that’s left. It’s amazingly soft in texture, like sandwich bread when you were a kid, but still whole wheat (actually it’s King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour). I love win-win situations. I think it has to do with using evaporated milk in the recipe. The loaf below is Cheddar Cheese Potato Bread and also uses evaporated milk. It has the same texture, perhaps the potato has something to do with it also. (The recipe for the cheese bread is from an ancient Bon Appétit article that I have copied and saved. If anyone wants it, let me know.) I’ve made bread with scalded milk before but it’s not quite the same.