Maria Elkins

Month: April 2012

  • Product Review: Why Quilts Matter

    Product Review: Why Quilts Matter

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    Maria
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    I’ve had a few very early mornings the last couple days. I woke up around 4 AM for no reason and couldn’t get back to sleep. Usually I go out to the living room and put in a movie that I’ve watched a hundred times, hoping I will be bored back to sleep. This time…

  • Quilting is done!

    Quilting is done!

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    Maria
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    Hooray!!! I’ve finished all the quilting, and we’ve celebrated with Dairy Queen! Now I just need to label it, sleeve it, photograph it, document it…what else? I’m afraid all that is going to have to wait a bit since I have two other deadlines to work on first. BUT, I did finish it in time…

  • Background beginnings

    Background beginnings

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    Maria
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    I had a few available hours today, so I dove in and made a start on the background. The basic outlines are now in place. Tomorrow I finish it off! This was the fourth month of SewCalGal’s 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge. This month guest teacher was Don Linn. He introduced a method of tracing your…

  • Stuck on the background again

    Stuck on the background again

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    Maria
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    I gathered up my courage and finished quilting the mom’s face and hair. It is a small, but important area. I really wanted it to look nice. I tried giving myself some convincing self-talk so I would quit procrastinating and get it done. In the end, it took the motivation of an impending deadline for…

  • Best part of eleven hours

    Best part of eleven hours

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    Maria
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    Eleven hours, minus breaks and meals. What a luxury! I was able to lavish most of the day on my quilt. I finished the baby, his baby quilt, the arms reaching for him, and his mom’s clothes and hands. Tomorrow morning, when I’m fresh, I’ll tackle the mom’s face and hair, and then I need…

  • Basting and preparing to quilt

    Basting and preparing to quilt

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    Maria
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    I was able to squeeze in an hour or so this morning before church. I spent the time adding some brown background to the right and left of the baby quilt. I also added some additional shadows within the quilt to try to emphasize the idea that it is bending over the edge of the…

  • On backgrounds

    On backgrounds

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    Maria
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    Backgrounds. I’ve never liked them. Like I said before, backgrounds are boring. Maybe it’s because I spent so many years just drawing with pencil or Conté crayons, concentrating on just the main image. Somehow that seems fine for a simple drawing, but it doesn’t work so well on painted images. So, I always end up…

  • Making progress

    Making progress

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    Maria
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    Today was a wonderful day for working. I put in “Cinderella” and worked steadily while the mice sewed a ballgown. Then I popped in “Tangled” and continued my adventure while Rapunzel went on an adventure of her own. It was so nice to work uninterrupted for several hours at a stretch. I decided the baby…

  • Two more hours

    Two more hours

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    Maria
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    I squeezed in two more hours today. I wanted more of a tonal difference between the mother and baby, so I adjusted the colors of the clothing. Then I finished putting in the arms. I wanted them to be rather vague, sketchy, and somewhat translucent. Now I have the dilemma of what the baby is…

  • I’m not patient

    I’m not patient

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    Maria
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    I always shake my head when people see a quilt I’ve made and remark, “You must have a lot of patience.” No, if I have a choice, I’m not patient. But, life often requires patience. Monday was swallowed up with more doctor appointments for DH, and an errand with DD#1. Tuesday was snatched away with…