January, July, February, October, April, May Cows

 

This week my husband and I got optimistic and started Spring Cleaning our spare bedroom.  This room, aka, Tessa's second bedroom has ended up storing all the odds and ends we're not quite sure what to do with.  (are we the only ones with rooms like this?) Of course, it got worse when Tessa moved out since her odds and ends are now in there too.  Included in this menagerie of stuff, are my UFOs.  A while back I did actually weed this group down to pieces I  wanted to finish but still, there is a nice pile of them....since...ya know...I'm the squirrel of quilters.  Like who wants to finish anything when there are so many great pieces to start?

Included in the pile was my husband's favorite project, the Calendar Cows.  I started this project wayyyyyy back in 2009, when my then 11-year-old was obsessed with cows.  The idea behind the project is that each block would have a monthly themed cow all designed by me.  At the time, it was the first time I had tried to design anything figuratively that complex by myself.  Each block felt like a little triumph.  Somewhere along the way, I lost steam at "August". (You can read the story behind it on that post!)  It was all designed but not sewn.  And there it sat.  For 14 years. (Yeah, I have no idea where the time goes, truly!)

August

tiny zigzags

At my husband's encouragement, the calendar cows came out into the studio.  He's right ... the project is pretty cool.  Plus now I have a better idea of what I'm doing.  For August, it's vacation cow with her cool shades and beach bungalows. In 2010, I was using a rough edge applique technique taught by Joan Colvin where she would design her piece and put pins in them, then stitch them all down with a little zig-zag stitch.  I like the technique but the pins are a pain and my old machine couldn't adjust the 

zig-zag down to where I want it.

Jump ahead 14 years, and I now can use little dots of glue baste and a proper size zig zag compliments of my Janome Horizon.  Also, a new addition is the Deco Bob for thread which makes the stitches basically disappear.  I did get some time to sew today and it's already looking great.  It's taking a while to get back into the hang of slowing down and stitching perfectly along the edge but I find that relaxing for sure!

The Thread disappears

Of course, I got to record all of this in my journal.  It's nice to have a record for this project as well as any other future Rough Edge Applique pieces.  Plus I want to do a palette study on this piece.  When I started, I was just kinda winging it, and now I know that having a set palette will make the whole piece stronger!

my art sketchbook, ya gotta start some place!

It's weird to be this excited over a 15-year-old project but there ya go... the life of a quilter!

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?