Allie's "Chunk" Method

While Cathy was here I pieced the two blocks I'm taking to Sharon Boggon's 3-day workshop in April... One I wanted the inspiration focus to be this photo taken by my granddaughter in Morocco. I shared a couple days ago the steps I took to edit it a bit...

Then the search began for fabrics for fabrics... The printed piece was a scarf I found Tuesday in a thrift store... Cathy K. and Maureen F. donated some of the oranges... the greens I had. I will add blue accents with stitching and beads..

Last year when I pieced my AAQ entry I used a method on Allie's blog and she called it the "the chunk method" and it's in her new book which is rapidly selling out.... I loved it because I ended up with lots of irregular patches and endless seams.. The first step is cutting lots of "chunks" as seen in this photo... I arranged them on the block about where I wanted them and of course not one ended up where I planned. Then you start seaming them in pairs and then pairs of pairs, etc... My patches ended up all about the same size so the next time I try this method I will strive for more variety in the size of the patches..

But after it was done and basted to muslin foundation I was happy with it... The random irregular look is so different from what I've always done... So now I have it set out and will begin collecting embellishments to use on it.... I intend it to be a wall hanging with a lush fringe of beads and brass bells. All the seam treatments will be geometric..

Although Allie calls it the "chunk" method I refer to it as Allie's "chunk, dump and clump" method. The second block I did my usual method and I will share that tomorrow.

The Visit aka as the "Creative Surge"

Our Miss Molly immediately attached herself to Cathy and the feeling was mutual.. She literally abandoned DH to be Cathy's constant companion... night as well as day.. Any worries I had about Cathy adapting to over-exuberant Morris and neurotic Molly were quickly dispelled.


The long awaited visit was one long creative surge. We threw ideas out so fast we almost collapsed with laughter when we got ahead of ourselves. Oh oh oh what if?.........


I had watched the long range forecast for weeks willing decent weather.... only the have the coldest, hardest storm to hit Spokane in 18 years... My day to take her to Coeur d' Alene for lunch with a view ended in a blizzard with zero visibility and we were trapped for over an hour because of a pile-up on the freeway. So we ended up not getting a walk in the forest.

On Monday I tried to get a picture of her in focus in the barn going through large bins of fancies and lace but she was a constant whirl of activity...tossing fabric right and left. We spent two days doing fancies, one day doing lace, and one day doing just trims. She kept saying "Oh Gerry! Do you know what this would be worth on e-bay?" Obviously not, as it is still in my barn but she has me convinced to start listing stuff in lots later this spring... and also convinced I can make enough for my dream trip to England. That's the one where you stay in stately mansions, have workshops by the RSN, and are treated like a queen...all for about $7500 (flight extra). Well even I know I don't have THAT much stuff.....

On this day it was about 30 degrees and with the big propane heater going it was quite pleasant. I discovered lots of things I had quite forgotten I had.

But on Thursday the temperature was only 8 degrees F. outside and, even bundled in layers and the big propane heater, we were cold but determined to get through the bins of ribbons, braids, cordings etc. We didn't get to the little bins on the wall or the embroidered linens but made great progress otherwise... Most of the stuff we sorted through were items I collected in my doll-making years....and lots of it. She went home with her suitcase stuffed and a box for me to mail and left me with a lot less to cope with when I start selling on E-bay.

Besides going to all my favorite thrift stores, we poked through the coolest antique mall. We didn't leave any dollars at the antique mall but got lots of ideas for the use of cutter linens (which bins we didn't get sorted). But we found treasures at ALL of the thrift stores including great jewelry we divided to share.

I did cook every day but DH did all the dishes which allowed the maximum time to stitch and stitch to the max we did... early morning and all afternoon every day and late into the night...

It was one of the best vacations I've ever had and I didn't even have to leave home... What a great and treasured friend and sorely missed already...

Tomorrow I will show the progress on the CQ blocks.

Madison's Photo

Everyone is sleeping this morning including Miss Molly who has moved into Cathy's bed to sleep. I will take a few minutes to show the steps in creating the focal point for my block for the Sharon Boggon workshop.

I loved this photo my talented granddaughter took in Morocco in December and wanted to use it on that CQ piece and I'm preparing the block today...

I needed to simplify the photo a bit with a little photo editing. I wanted to crop out the door on the right and I wanted the cement blocks gone... So I made a couple copies of the photos..

On the first copy I edited out the bike all together. But as you can see the little bit of blue of the bike is vital to the composition of the photo .. Also the bike adds the human element of the photo... So I definitely wanted the bike back in the photo but without the cement blocks.




On the second copy I isolated the bike and began erasing the cement blocks... Since the wall and street are so rustic it does not have to be too precise.

Then I dropped the bike back into the photo and still need to do a little fine tuning.

The final step will be to set the photo on a bigger block of orange to create a seam allowance.

Sorry No Posts...

Cathy and I are too busy and having waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much fun!! Check back Saturday for wild recap or just pass time looking at new entries on my http://www.etsy.com/shop/olderrose

Cathy and the barn!!!

This is me skipping about singing "Tomorrow, tomorrow!"

And here is pretty much the dialogue between DH and I about Cathy's visit...

DH: "Are you taking Cathy anywhere special while she's here?"

Me: "Of course I'm taking her out to the barn. I never let anyone into the barn."

DH: "Be serious I was thinking like going into town to see the falls or to Mt. Spokane."

Me: "I am serious...There are faithful readers of my blog that would die to get into my barn.. It's filled with treasures."

DH: "Gerry your barn is filled with junk.... Do you mean that she's buying an airline ticket and flying all the way from SLC and the highlight of her trip will be going out to your barn...."

Me: "Well no... I'm taking her to two of my favorite thrift stores also.."

Then he is rolling on the floor laughing uncontrollably..

DH: "Most of the junk in those thrift stores is junk from your barn...."