Rooster Quilt... Finished!

Woo Hoo!  Today I finally finished my Rooster Quilt!  I'm glad too because I'm about DONE looking at it... sometimes when I am focusing on the same image for so long, I start to question every decision in the process.   I would have liked to hand quilt this one, but alas... after getting ready for a long haul in hand stitching, I found out I couldn't run the needle through all the layers of the appliqué.  So ~ it's machine quilted, and I think it turned out fine.

The face turned out pretty good ~ here is an up close shot.  I am so happy to be finished because I already have 2 new ideas for more art quilts!  One is a Cancer crab design I did for my daughters tattoo ~ I think it'll look great as a quilt too.  The other idea is a squid quilt... we'll see how those ideas pan out.   I love accomplishment!

Summer Solstice

I'm excited to see the sun today... finally.  Here in Portland, we've had winter all through springtime which means grey, wet rainy days.  So having the sun out makes me smile :)

I haven't been sewing the last few weeks... I've been moving my sewing room.  I'm hoping with a new set up that I will be able to be much more efficient with my time.  I also had to oil my machine.  It was getting real tough to turn the handwheel, so I found some machine oil and fixed it right up.  I learned that 3-in-1 oil is not to be used on a sewing machine... you are supposed to used a "white mineral oil".  I wonder if that's true or if the sewing machine guy was just trying to make a sale?

Currently I've also been watching World Cup Soccer!!  I'm pretty stoked that my husband is so into it that he'll wake up every morning at 4 a.m. to hit the record button on the VCR.  Then we wake up normally and get our necessary work done and then sit down to watch some games.  I can't sew and watch anything... so my sewing time is disrupted a bit ~ but the world cup is only once every 4 years.  I think I can make some exceptions!  I don't root for any particular team... so I pick the underdog in each team to root for.  I'm really enjoying it.

So not a lot to report... I did finish the front of my rooster quilt and added the edging.  Here's a picture of the back of the patchwork before I sandwich it into the batting and backing.  Kind of cool from the back too!

Rooster Work: Appliqué

I have progressed to the next step in my Rooster Quilt adventure!  Over the last week or so, I've been doing the applique of the rooster, it's feathers, and a little barn.  It's a machined satin stitch, and I used some beautiful threads from Gütermann.
I have only just started doing applique... I've worked on 3 other small things and that is what inspired me to create my rooster! Here is the finished applique work:

And here are a couple of up close shots:

The color on some of these are a little off... but you get the idea :)

Right now I'm working on the edging to frame the work, then it's time for batting, a backing fabric and I'm off the the proverbial quilting races!   I would love to hand quilt the entire thing, but I think I'll have to use a machine to quilt through all the layers of fabric and stabilizer of the actual rooster.  Every step of the way has taken a little time to figure out and plan out my next move.  My next dilemma is figuring out how to hold the piece in place with all the backing to quilt without puckering.   I hope I can do a good job with it.  

Who Knew...?

The last few weeks here in Portland have been rough due to the lack of sunshine.  The rain and chill in the air in JUNE is more like March weather... and it has a tendency to get me a little down.  On top of all the grey days, my health has dipped a little ~ raging headaches with nausea, sore lymph glands, bloating, sore throat, swollen ankles and tongue, achy joints - super achy back pain, heartburn and higher sensitivities to noises and smells. 

I just got back from my Naturopathic Doctor and we worked up a plan to retest for candida (I've been on an anti-candida regimen for 2 months) to see if that's better, and then after that test is over, she is going to do a food allergy test on me for 111 foods.  She's thinking there is something else I may be allergic to and this is the best way to find out.  The bad part is I have to wait a month before doing the test.  It's okay though... I'm just happy to have found someone who doesn't look at me all spacey-like when I talk about my symptoms, and then says something like "well, you have had stress in your life... maybe you're just depressed ~ let's put you on anti-depressants and see how you feel"... as if it's ALL IN MY HEAD!

Since these symptoms started showing up again, I have been actively re-checking everything in my house for gluten.  Low and behold... most of my make-up had wheat derivatives in them!!  WHO KNEW!  So I tossed out a bunch of make-up and my eye oil and just ordered new Gluten-Free makeup from a company called Afterglow Cosmetics.  It's much more expensive than I'm used to...  BUT it's 100% gluten free, and I really don't use that much make-up anyway.  I haven't received my order yet... patiently waiting... but I will post my feedback when it gets here :)