Shop Sample almost complete

So, the doctor out me on prednisone again so I was awake at 3am.  I am sleeping in the guest room because of my cough so i could turn on my light.  I checked e-mails, Read my section in The One Year Bible, got up quietly and made coffee, went into the studio on tiptoes and cleaned 1/2 of it.  By then the cats and dog were awake so I let them out and in, stripped my bed, put sheets and mattress cover in the wash, ran the dishes and remade my bed.  By then it was 6am and Greg was up.  He was going on a bike ride with his friend so I took advantage of the quiet and did what I had been dreading for a month-drafted a pattern for a 12 petal Dresden plate to use as a flower on the front of the journal we are making in the "Exploring Color Class"

I haven't used a compass in over 20 years, but I dusted off my old art supplies box and there it was.  I have the book, "Thoroughly Modern Dresden" which showed me how to make pointed ends on my petals-so I finished my flower and made a paper template.  Then the scary part-to see if it worked-and it did-surprise surprise.  I will finish putting the cover together tomorrow as now the hard part is done!  I actually enjoyed the process-my first pattern:)  I made the button from a circle fabric.

I think this is why I bought EQ7 but this was less scarier

6 petals short of a full flower

I used an Australian B&W for the background -it is printed a little off kilter but I really like the movement.  Stem is yarns and ribbon all stitched down with mono-filament.  I think I have to add leaves-didn't want to but . . .

This is my class demo cover that I posted awhile back.  It was originally going to be the Store sample but then I thought people would be less likely to take the class if they didn't have border trimmings so i am using it for the demo to show them what other possibilities are out there.  My blogging friend, Helen, made a different version of a notebook cover and you can see it over at her blog, Aunt Henny's  Helen is in Australia and it hit 109 degrees there this last week-Happy Sweating new Year:)

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I hope I can sleep tonight :O

Exploring Color with Selvedge

I have been cutting off the selvedges of my fabric for awhile.  I have a couple of things I would like to make with them and this is the start of one of them.  The sample for the Exploring Color Class I will be teaching in February is a notebook with a Dresden plate flower on the front and the petals are the color wheel.  Sew, since this will be a quilting journal, I thought it would be fun to use the strips for it.  I then wrote sewing/quilting themed sayings on the sides of the manufacturing data.  Seriously-is that not cute? Ha!  I will have to make a solid cover as well so potential students won't be turned away because they didn't save 50 yards of B&W selvedges.

I also sewed 30 more block number 1 for the Bonnie hunter quilt.  I have decided to do half of the assignment which should give me enough for a nice fall table topper or wall hanging. 3"inch squares are killing me-there is no room for error and I have noticed that I will lose a few points on clue #1. 
I forgot to share what I got at the Back Country Quilters Christmas part White Elephant exchange-this baby was traded 2x before I got to take it home.  A very nice White Elephant I must say.