Threads of Resistance 3 (and a link party)

Third entry for the exhibit... and a lot of secret progress too

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Growing Up QAL - new blocks coming out on Monday! (cannot share)
2. Splendid Sampler - finished all "filler" blocks (see below)
3. Charity quilts - no progress
4. SK project - designed two blocks, ready to stitch
5. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - paused until May
6. En Provence QAL - no progress
7. Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - report on my journey on Monday!
8. 70273 Project - 4 blocks done (see below)
9. Book binding - no progress
10. Twilters! Bee - paused until May
11. 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge: entries will be open from May 19 to May 29. My piece is ready since January :)
12. Threads of Resistance exhibit: project 3 done

--

More blocks for the 70273 Project. If you are curious to see some of the beautiful quilts made with all these blocks check out this Pinterest board!
--

Finally the piece that I had in my mind since I heard about the Threads of Resistance exhibit: 

A WALL WILL KILL YOUR LOVED ONES

 23'' x 20''

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Scientific discoveries and technology advances won't be stopped by a wall. 

Diseases and death won't be stopped by a wall either.

Scientists and innovators have been left scrambling for their own fate with new immigration policies and closed borders laws. Scientists are forced to leave U.S. and start from scratch their research in foreign welcoming countries: this will set back humanity discoveries path years and decades.

Will scientists find the cure for cancer and other deadly diseases? Sure...

Will it be soon enough to save your loved ones? Probably not. 

* Final note...

I expressed similar ideas before, and I received an aggressive comment that read something like 

"the wall and immigration laws are there only to keep drug dealers and criminals out of this country. If you are not a criminal immigrant, you will be fine"

This mindset is dangerous and absolutely wrong.

... Dangerous... because it shows how the rhetoric of few people is just repeated with blindfolds, without the interest of checking if what some media say is actually true

... Wrong... because while some big plans (like the wall) are making their way to the media, many many other changes happen in the policies and those changes affect EVERY SINGLE immigrant, independently from their criminal status... I pay taxes (I can share my tax returns if interested), I support US economy, I never broke the law, I contribute to cancer research... despite all that, in few months I may be kicked out of this country. This is simple reality. If you want to know more because you are really curious about the issues, don't hesitate to contact me! I am always happy to discuss the truth.

--
Thanks to my monthly goal of completing the fillers block for my version of the Splendid Sampler, I completed my last 15 blocks! I completed a total of 33 filler blocks!! (goal setting, link 4)

Since this monthly goal has been so successfull for this project, I set my May goal to be the same project: now I want to complete the Splendid Sampler top! All assembled ready to quilted by the end of May... let's do that!!

--
How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Slow week (and a link party)

Slow week

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Growing Up QAL - finished second block with special tool! (cannot share)
2. Splendid Sampler - cut almost all the pieces for several "filler" 
3. Charity quilts - no progress
4. SK project - stitched one block (see below)
5. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - paused until May
6. En Provence QAL - no progress
7. Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - started moving out of this journal... more on May 1st 
8. 70273 Project - four blocks done (see below)
9. Book binding - two little books done (see below)
10. Twilters! Bee - paused until May
11. 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge: entries will be open from May 19 to May 29. My piece is ready since January :)
12. Threads of Resistance - designed the third piece

--

More blocks for the 70273 Project. If you are curious to see some of the beautiful quilts made with all these blocks check out this Pinterest board!

--
Few more little notebook to practice my book binding stitches

--
And another quote from a Stephen King book (The Plant)

--
How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Threads of Resistance 2 (and a link party)

I completed two projects and made good progress on a third one!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Growing Up QAL - finished one bonus block with a new tool, so fun! (cannot share)
2. Splendid Sampler - completed several "filler" blocks (see below)
3. Charity quilts - no progress
4. SK project - designed a new block, ready to stitch
5. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - paused until May
6. En Provence QAL - no progress
7. Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - progress every day and new projects to share next month!
8. 70273 Project - blocks ready to sew, but not completed
9. Book binding - no progress
10. Twilters! Bee - paused until May
11. 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge: entries will be open from May 19 to May 29. My piece is ready since January :)
12. Face scrubbies - so easy and so useful!! (see below)

--

A while ago I made the piece below for a Project QUILTING challenge. It was not completed because the I was waiting for the right inspiration to finish the quilting and the binding...

And the right inspiration came last week!

So let me introduce the first piece I will submit to the Threads of Resistance exhibit: DRESS CODE... (read the story of the piece in this post)

 21'' x 30''

I have to write up the artist's statement, but I am really happy with the final look of this piece!!!

By quilting vertical lines over the embroidery and applique on the left I learned that quilting lines do not distort or distract from those elements! Until now, I've always avoided quilting over embroidery details because I though the stitching will compromise the readability of those quotes: with this piece I didn't really care if those quotes on the left would be less readable so I decided to give it a try and it worked just fine! Everything is readable, but the quilting added the desired texture and made that part sink to the background while the quotes on the right (unquilted) puff up and grab your attention: the perfect effect I was hoping to get!

Then I framed the right part with a nice grey binding with gold accents... and I felt that the left part didn't deserve to be framed... that's why I enclosed the edge with a rough zigzag stitch that keeps the unravelling of the fabric exposed in some spots and the batting is partially visible. 

--
Thanks to my monthly goal of completing the fillers block for my version of the Splendid Sampler, I had the incentive of completing 10 blocks! They are super easy and super scrappy but they have a ton of pieces so they take some time to complete... but I am on a good track to fulfill my goal!!

--
And finally a useful and easy project!
I hate using cotton makeup remover pads because they leave some lint behind and they are too tiny for the way I use them, so I need to use at least two every day... So I switched to makeup remover wipes, which are bigger, but now they are too big for me... and both of them are disposable so I contribute to create more garbage every day... why??? especially considering that with the material in my house and my skills I can create soft, right-sized, cute, cotton pads that are reusable :)
So that's what I did!!

These can be just thrown in the laundry with everything else and when they are completely used and ruined (which will take months and months) I can throw them away and make more!

There was a very difficult part of this project... and it was getting the label off the vitamin container that I use to store my face scrubbies :) so much glue on that label!! but the container is great and now it adds a touch of decor in my bathroom :)
--
How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Back into my thousand-projects groove (and a link party)

With the more consistent use of my daily planner, I can keep up with the many projects I like to work on!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Growing Up QAL - working on bonus blocks with a fun new tool! (cannot share)
2. Splendid Sampler - working on "filler" blocks
3. Charity quilts - no progress
4. SK project - no progress
5. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - April block done (see below)
6. En Provence QAL - no progress
7. Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - progress every day!
8. 70273 Project - more blocks done (see below)
9. Book binding - no progress
10. Twilters! Bee - completed April's blocks (see below)
11. 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge: entries will be open from May 19 to May 29. My piece is ready since January :)
12. Mouse pad - the easiest project ever!! (see below)

--

More blocks for the 70273 Project. If you are curious to see some of the beautiful quilts made with all these blocks check out this Pinterest board!

--
Some blocks for the Twilter's Bee exchange (I didn't take the picture of the actual colors :) )

--
I am keeping up with Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" blocks. I am using a Disney/Cartoon theme for this project

Stripey Stripe Block by Audrey

--
The easiest project ever... a useful mousepad!
I just picked the fabric I wanted and glue it on a piece of corkboard! :)

Don't you love when something is beautiful and useful at the same time?? :)

--
Updates on old projects:
-1-

I added the applique on my piece to cover the red bleeding... then I washed the piece with Synthrapol and that helped washing away probably 80% of the red bleeding! There is still some pink shade all around, but the big spots are either covered or gone, so I am happy about the final result!

-2-

A while ago I made the piece below for a Project QUILTING challenge. It was not completed because the black areas next to the rainbow were empty as I was waiting for the right inspiration...

Which came last week!

So let me introduce the first piece I will submit to the Threads of Resistance exhibit: IMAGINE...

I have to write up the artist's statement, but I am really happy with the final look of this piece!!!

--
How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Getting things done, mostly in secret (and a link party)

I have been doing a lot of sewing, designing and planning... but most is for future secret projects so I can show just few of my weekly accomplishments! :)

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Growing Up QAL - completed two May blocks, (cannot share)
2. Splendid Sampler - working on "filler" blocks
3. Charity quilts - no progress
4. SK project - fantastic project, thanks to monthly goal setting (see below)
5. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - waiting for next month block(s)
6. Project QUILTING - challenges are over! I didn't win anything, but I had fun participating!
7. En Provence QAL - no progress
8. Journaling into my Quilter's Planner - see yesterday's post
9. 70273 Project - more blocks done (see below)
10. Book binding - no progress
11. Twilters! Bee - waiting for next month block
12. 2017 Pantone Quilt Challenge: entries will be open from May 19 to May 29. My piece is ready since January :)

--

More blocks for the 70273 Project. If you are curious to see some of the beautiful quilts made with all these blocks check out this Pinterest board!

--
Thanks to the incentive of Elm Street One Monthly Goal I finally put together "The Dark Tower" bookshelf for my giant Stephen King Project.

Back story. A couple of years ago I thought: wouldn't it be wonderful, as a super fan of Stephen King, to honor his 70th birthday (this September) by designing and making a quilt with all his books (cover and opening line)? Of course it would be wonderful and I was starting with plenty of time, right? (wrong :) ).
If you don't know, Stephen King wrote A LOT of books... so I decided to make my job easy and focus on 50 books... with book cover and opening line this would make 100 blocks.
Now...
Let talk about the blocks... they needed to be big enough for me to avoid madness in stitching micro pieces of fabric or micro letters... but they needed to be small enough so that 100 blocks wouldn't end up as a quilt that covers the entire neighborhood :)
And of course I cannot just make the blocks... I wanted to put them in a "book" setting and assemble them in a "bookshelf" layout.
I really like to make my life easy :)
I then started designing each block and sewing them up. I initially used Paper Piecing to make the covers, but I soon realized that with a 6''x7'' block, the details in those cover were driving me crazy... that's where raw edge fusible applique came to save the day!
The embroidery quotes are pretty easy and I really enjoy making them... I already have about 95% of them! For the book covers, I am quite behind.

That's why the incentive of the Monthly Goal was just great!
I decided to give myself a reachable goal: pick the 8 books of "The Dark Tower" series, put them in their book layout and assemble them in the bookshelf layout!
The result is what you see above!

Now I am very happy and terrified at the same time... While I have all my final design with the 100+ blocks in a digital format, I didn't realize how big this project will be!!
This is just 8 books. EIGHT... and it is 29''X 40''
I was already planning to assemble different sections with a Quilt-As-You-Go method, but now I am pretty sure that this is going to be my life project (maybe I could have it done by Stephen King's 80th birthday in 2027... for sure not this September).

Thanks to the Monthly Goal at least I have a great start and I have motivation now to work every week a little bit on missing blocks so that the project will (slowly) advance.

Speaking of project that I want to move forward...

My project for APRIL ONE MONTHLY GOAL is related to the Splendid Sampler.
I designed a layout that only uses 43 blocks and I have about XXX "filler" blocks that I need to make. They are blocks assembled with postage stamps orphan blocks collected in a swap I was part of few years ago. I loved their scrappyness but could never do anything with them... now they are the perfect fillers... except that I need to add a border on each of them so that they reach the correct size (and I still need to make some extras).

So my goal for April is to complete all those blocks! I don't think I will assemble them as a quilt top, but who knows! I want to set myself up for success so let's just focus on the blocks first!!

--
How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up