Just a Smidgen of Stitchen'

I can't really claim more than that since my last post. The sum total of my sewing can be seen in this photo of the progress on the 4" blocks for Lynn's class. 

The color is off in this photo. I tried to correct it, but not sure I improved it much. Interesting story about the tree block in the center--Lynn gave us a chance to take a photo of his tree block, then told us he wasn't going to give us a pattern.  That is Lynn's block below.

Just wanted us to go home and try making it, and report back on what we decided and how it worked. I love a challenge, so even though I should have been doing a hundred other things, I went right home and dug into it.

 

I decided to construct my tree as a 9-patch block.  So I printed out the photo, drew a grid to create the 9-patches and went to work. I knew I wanted a little more green in my tree, but I also wanted to retain the original design. My first attempt involved a soft green replacing the background in the 4-patches. When that didn't click for me, the second attempt was removing the plain background blocks and replacing them with a medium green, as shown below, right.

Attempt #3 (below, left) was scaling back the medium green to just the blocks that touched the trunk, and I liked it better than numbers 1 or 2, but wasn't quite sure it was the answer.

So I added two more medium green blocks to the third row of that color of block (above, right), and decided to call it final.

Got this sewn together and started second guessing, but was done playing with it. This is the final answer, and that's final!!

The next block we had been assigned has been named by Lynn "The Martian Block". Lynn's current iteration of this pattern is being made in very bright fabrics. Here is a shot of the photo of Lynn's block next to my block laid out and ready to be stitched. You may notice a slight variation in the way I am doing it.

The above photo makes my fabrics look brighter than they actually are, but the finished block in the photo below looks darker than it really is.

The flying geese in blue and green don't have enough contrast, though I thought they did before I sewed it all together. I am going to deconstruct this block and use a lighter green for the goose body, and then hopefully get a photo in truer light. I hope that brings the block to life.

This is a rather rushed post, without much variety, but it is all that has happened in the sewing room. 

Fall is in the air, and hubby and I are headed out on another adventure--we are not sun-seekers, so we go when and where there is a nip in the air, if we have a choice. 

Village Dry Goods, the shop over the mountain, is finally able to have a retreat again, for the first time since COVID hit. I am so excited, I can hardly stand it! They used to be January events, but this one is the middle of October. After that I should have some quilting that I can share. I stay pretty focused at retreat, so I actually get something accomplished. Are you a talker or a sewer when you attend a retreat--or are you able to attain that elusive balance, and accomplish both?

Until next time, be creative and be kind!

Janet O.

p.s. Blogger's messing with my font size again. I give up. You don't need glasses--the letter size varies in the last few paragraphs.

The smoke from forest fires in states north and west of us makes for really dirty air at times, but also beautiful colors at sunset.