The Stitch Up

Stitching the Infanta

I've been spending a lot of time on this latest square for my Spanish Quilt Project.  

 

She's based on the Las Meninas painting by Velazquez.

I found a coloring book page that just had the little Infanta and used that to make a pattern.

My insane decision to fill in these designs instead of just going with an outline meant a lot of tiny long and short stitches to fill in her dress.

 

I had planned to just do the suggestion of a drape although I'm looking at it now and thinking that I might add some more "material" to the draoes just to balance it out a bit.

She fits right in with the other squares I've stitched so far -

These take a while and I was thinking to just end with this square and start putting them together with some pieced quilt squares and maybe some photo squares.  But I'm thinking now that 5 squares is going to make a more even quilt.  I'd also like to have a little homage to Queen Isabella in my collection of Spanish ladies, so I'm thinking of making a pattern based on this street sign:

I won't be starting this too soon as these squares seem to take me forever.  This project has already been something I pick up and put down for the last couple of years so I figure there is no rush.

It feels good to have this completed and to be able to start a few other projects - hopefully a few that I can wrap up quickly!

 

Fall Fun

We've been continuing to enjoy Fall, the best season in the mid-atlantic.  We took a trip to Occoquan, which is a quaint town on the Occoquan river.

We meandered around the downtown area a bit.

We ended up at a cute tea shop (my choice obviously!) called the Pink Bicycle.  It was charming and the owner made delicious scones and sandwiches.

It was a relaxing way to spend the day. 

I also FINALLY finished the third square in my Spanish Quilt Project.  Ta da!:

It involved a lot of little stitches, but it was so fun to do.

I've also gotten a jump start on some Christmas crafts.  I'll start posting some of those projects after Thanksgiving.  Until then, I hope everyone eats their fill of turkey and mashed potatoes and has a great Thanksgiving!

Spanish Quilt Block 3

Unlike the previous two squares in this project, I did not make this pattern myself from a picture.  I had a few photos of flamenco dancers, but they did not make for good patterns.

It's difficult to catch the flamenco dancer's movements in a photo and not being an artist, I really could not sketch out a great representation.  I DID find a great vintage pattern on the Hoop Love site however and I think she is a beautiful representation of the graceful flamenco dancers I saw in Spain.

So square number three is under way. 

 

I have a red and green color scheme planned for her dress which I hope doesn't end up looking christmasy.

In addition to the ongoing Spanish Quilt project, I wrapped up the scarf I was making for the Husband.  It matches the gloves he bought in Latvia pretty well.     

This is actually a fairly timely project - finished before the cold weather hits.  Usually I'm wrapping up knitting and crocheting projects in the height of Summer.  There may be time to finish a couple more cold weather projects before it's even officially Winter!  

After this square is finished the Spanish Quilt project will be on the back burner again as I get a few things done ahead of time for Christmas.  In past years I get the bug to do a TON of Christmas crafts sometime after Thanksgiving - and that's just not enough time to get anything done in time for the holiday.  This year, I'm all about the planning.  We'll see how it goes!

Focus

I've been reading around a few blogs that are choosing to pick a word to inspire them for 2011 rather than making a list of resolutions.  I thought this might work better for me as well.  I'm realizing that I've been a little scattered and my plan is to try and focus on one thing at a time and hopefully accomplish more.  Hence my inspirational word for 2011: Focus.  

Case in point: my craft projects.  I've got 4 or 5 going on at once:

 

The Mountmellick project I started about a year ago.  I figure that if I went all the way to Ireland to learn the technique, I should actually follow through and finish.

Technically, this is my travel project.  Something simple I can shove in my purse or Carry-On when the Hubby and I are off on another adventure.  But this has been my travel project for quite a while and I think with all the time I've spent on airplanes over the last year I should have made a little more progress.

Yeah, this is a recent project as you can see.  But this time of year I feel compelled to knit or crochet something.  This will be a scarf and it should be a quick and easy project.

I did take stock of my 2010 resolutions.  My first resolution was to finish a quilt and enter a competition.  It's possible that I bit off more than I can handle within a 12 month span.  I finished one square and just finished the second...today.  Yes, my first attempt at focus was completing embroidery on the second square for my Spanish Quilt...a year after I started the first square.  Ahem.

This is a big project and I think that in addition to focusing on one thing at a time I need to set realistic goals.  It's ok if the entire quilt takes longer to finish than I'd originally planned.  I will however focus on completing each square once I start it without distracting myself with three or four other projects at the same time.  Keep a look out for Spanish Quilt Block #3!

My other 2010 resolutions to improve my Spanish and to run more, did get some attention in 2010.  I made progress on both, although I also slacked on both at the end of the year.  I'll be continuing to focus on both of these in 2011 as well, but I'll be keeping my goals realistic: to improve, but not necessarily have to be speaking Spanish like a native or running a marathon by 2012 in order to feel like I'm accomplishing something.

Focus is difficult for me in that I have about 10 ideas running through my head at any one time for new projects.  So step one in my quest for focus is writing each of these ideas down so that I can come back to them when the crafting above is all done.  I'll keep you posted!

 

Spanish Quilt Block 2

It's taken a little longer than I expected to finish off my first Spanish quilt block and start block #2 but I've finally gotten there.  I described my over all plan for this quilt and my inspiration for block #1 here. I now present finished block #1:

 

 

 

I'm really happy with the way it turned out!  

The inspiration for quilt block #2 is a mural on a cervezaria I used to pass by every day on my way to work in Madrid.  

 

The restaurant had closed by the time I started walking past it so I'm not sure what type of restaurant it was but I think given the fishing themes in the mural it was probably some type of seafood restaurant.  My favorite part of the mural is the fishing girl panel in the middle:

I took the picture and ran it through a photo process on Sporkforge to turn it into a sketch like the last quilt block:

 

I then cleaned up the image, moved a few things like the fish basket around and expanded the clouds and scenery to make a complete background, transferred the pattern to fabric and voila - I'm good to go!

I'm excited to start on this!

An ongoing project I'm also focusing on is getting my embroidery tools organized once and for all.  My thread is a mess.  For those of you stitchers with sensitive stomachs, please do not look at the next photo.  This is how I currently store my thread:

 

 

I know.  It's criminal.  So I have started getting my act together.  Baby steps:

 

The pace of this quilt and my organization plans are a little slower than I would like, but I'm getting there.

The summer weather has turned nice again so there may be a little more delay while the Hubby and I hit the pool.  I hope everyone is having a great summer.  Soak up the season!
 
 
  
   

 
 
 

New Year Resolutions #1 - Complete a Quilt and Enter a Contest

Oh yeah peeps - I'm taking on some mad challenges this year!  Resolution #1 - Complete a new quilt.  But that's not all - I plan to enter my first quilt contest!  I don't imagine winning any prizes, but I think it will be a good motivator to complete the quilt and fun to be part of an event.  I have taken the first step of deciding what my quilt theme will be and what contest I want to enter. 

First, I want to do a quilt themed around our time in Spain.  There were a number of awesome street signs I saw around Madrid and I want to turn them into embroidery designs that will make up the bulk of the quilt.  The first street sign and design is obvious.  There is a street in Madrid just off of Puerta del Sol that has a decent Thai restaurant we used to frequent quit often.  You can see why I loved it:

That's right - it's Embroiderers Street!  Awesome.  In order to turn the pic into a pattern I used a program online that will take a photo and transfer it into a sketch.  I think there are a few different programs out there but I used Sporkforge which can change a photo to a sketch, charcoal drawing or even a cartoon.  It turned out like this:

It obviously needed some cleaning up, but it's a good jumping off point for a pattern.  After cleaning it up I used a transfer pen to trace it and ironed it on to some basic white fabric:

I've started some outlining and I plan to keep the colors true to the sign.  I'll update with additional street sign patterns as I make them and load up the pics of the completed squares as well.  I have an idea of how I'm going to finish/border the quilt as well, but I'll post that later after I've played with the idea a bit more.

As for the contest I plan to enter - it is none other than Quilt Contest at Lake Metroparks in Kirtland, Ohio.  You may remember that posted last year about our trip to the quilt contest at Lake Metroparks and how awesome it was.  The contest is at the beginning of the year - so technically I will be entering the contest in 2011, BUT that gives me the whole year to finish the quilt, so I think it's perfect.

O.k. - that's my first resolution.  I look forward to sharing my progress with you throughout the year!