Studio Update - Jan. 10

Obviously all my creativity has been soaked up in my studio and I have none left for creative blog titles.

I'm still working on the paper-piece Indian Orange Peel. I've made it to the stage of piecing and preparing the centers for the blocks.

I'm using a tone-on-tone white fabric paired with a light blue. The four-patch is first pieced in 5" strips and then cut into 5" sections, that are then pieced to create the final 4-patch.

Next the freezer paper templates for the centers are ironed on the four-patch and excess trimmed away. I'm saving the trimmings for potential use in the borders.

This is a example of what the finished block will look like, although these are not yet sewn together.

On the knitting front, the sock block has been broken! All of last year I had this particular yarn on my needles that I just did not like. But the practical side of me just would not let me pitch it out, even though I had no motivation to work on the blinkin' socks. So that one pair of socks took me about a year to complete! Now that they are done, I'm a happy sock knitting fiend once again.

These are the latest off the needles and I already have another patterned pair almost finished.

So let this tale be a lesson to you - sometimes you should just pitch the uninspiring project/materials!

Happy 2012

January and February are always two of favorite months because that is when I have the most time to spend in my studio.

I also use the time to do a bit of reorganizing, as usual. Things seem to pile up in the studio through the year and there comes a time when you just have "clear the decks" to be ready to tackle the projects for the new year. To this end, I ordered a 14-drawer tower that I plan to use for embellishment supplies - beads, ribbons, fancy fibers. I'm waiting for it to arrive.

In the meantime, I'm still working on the paper-pieced quilt. I finished piecing all of the arcs and the next step is the center portion, around which the arcs are attached.

This is the mountain of scraps (at least 12" in height!) produced by this process that I'll be mailing off to a quilter who does scrap pictures. She said the color combination sounded perfect for night skies.