The shower on Sunday was, by all accounts, a big success. The shower ended at 5pm and everyone was gone by 5:10, however, including the guest of honor, so I am not so sure.
The delight to the left is my creative effort of the week. I saw an article in the SF Chronicle a few weeks ago and knew it was the perfect thing for the party. Apparently, cupcake cakes are all the rage these days. I read that people are even using them instead of wedding cakes. The theory is that they inject a dose of fun into the event, are easy to eat and bring people’s senses back to when they were children. Very interesting!
The quilt squares were also a big success. More on those when I can post the photos. I am pleased to say that nobody complained about not be able to draw and some lovely squares were produced.
Otherwise, I have been buying, receiving and washing fabric. St. JCN is coming for a visit. Saint, I say, because she offered (I did ask!) to iron about 3 million yards of fabric that I have bought and never washed. Talk about a true friend!!! In preparation for this miracle, I have started to wash it. This was the first load. As you can see, there is plethora of dots and icky green.
The dots are for the Thoughts on Dots piece that I have been fiddling with. As you can see I have cut more squares. Some of the fabrics I added are from the washing pile. I did press some of them on my own.
This picture is a great example of what I was talking about when I mentioned heavy and light. I have a theory that no fabric is set in stone until the quilt is quilted and the entire quilt has the binding on. I have been known to take apart a back in order to get a piece of fabric out of it. At the moment I am trying out these pieces. I want this piece to look like sherbet… light and fluffy, perhaps a bit foofy; happy. NOT rainy. NOT depressing. The Terri Mangat fabric in the middle is dots, but it might be too heavy. As well, the green dots on the left next to the light aqua Kaffe Fassett design. The fabrics with the white backgrounds are also an issue. I don’t want the viewer’s eye drawn to the white. I do love the fabrics, though, so I will play with placement quite a bit before I decide. I have a feeling that whether they stay or go depends on the amount of yellow I put into the piece. We’ll have to see as I cut more fabrics.
Since, after washing that first load of fabric, I seem to have nearly every dot known to quilters-kind, I have no business buying more. Too bad TDOTNB drove me to shop online. I received the first shipment a few days ago and as you can see: more dots. These are not washed yet, but hopefully will be this weekend.
I also got a squares pack of April Cornell’s Poetry Collection. I felt that my other attempt at sewing a whole collection of squares together was very successful. I loved the fabrics in the Poetry Collection, but didn’t feel that I wanted yardage. This was a good solution. I haven’t sewn them together yet, but will do it soon. Who knows? Perhaps another table runner is in my future!
It occurred to me that I am getting so many dot fabrics with white backgrounds that I may just have to make one of these 6.5″ squares quilts with all dot fabrics with white backgrounds. It is a thought. I don’t want to bore myself, though. Such a limited project may drive, even me, batty.
Go to your studio and make stuff!
AQ on the Edge 
ahhh – the cupcakes! i think it was 2 years ago that cupcakes were just starting to get huge in new york — and now they are indeed ALL.THE.RAGE. The cupcake plate you made looks lovely and i’m sure it went over well. i don’t know what to say about everyone leaving on time except that maybe they had to pick up children, pay for a babysitter, who knows. and HOORAY that none of the guests did the “i can’t draw” thing. that drives me batty. my MIL does that w/the kids. THEY don’t care what you draw, just draw! 🙂
and the fabricses — oooooh the pretty dots….and OH what a good friend! is she the same friend that ironed happily at the first craft day i attended (when irene was pretty new)?
Thanks for your nice comments on my cupcake cake. I think it was a nice option as the cupckaes don’t seem a guilt inducing as slices of cake.
Re: people leaving. It was a Sunday and people have to work. I am sure none of them were bailing because of hating to be there. I have decided to stop worrying about it and think of it as an interesting phenomenon.
Re: drawing. IMO everyone is creative. They may have not had or taken the opportunity to explore and practice their creativity. I told people that so that may have been the reason that nobody complained. The blocks came out well.
Re: pressing. No JCN has never been to Craft Day. She is a good friend. The pile is getting quite large and I am feeling a bit guilty, so I may press some. I have been pressing the ones I want to cut from right away.
Thank you so much for arranging the shower so that you could join us for Lunch ! I’m so glad that we finally found you! You know – your FRIEND JULIE – would have let you just sit in the bar picking up guys! LOL
Looking forward to seeing the progress on your quilts – looks like a good bit of inspiration – I love the dots/circles/bubbles!
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Deirdre,
I know JulieZS would have left me at the bar. I would have left before that happened, but you guys showed up and the lunch was saved!
Having the blog makes me think about my stuff and gives me an incentive to work on my quiltmaking. If I don’t sew, I have nothing to write about. I have to admit that I have suddenley taken a much greater interest in Cloth Paper Scissors lately. Fortunately, I had a few unread issues (if you saw the ‘to read’ pile by bed, you would not be shocked), so I have used them to get a fix. One thing is that a lot of the art in CPS is messy. The completed efforts look messy. I haven’t been able to reconcile myself to that. I guess the bottom line is that if the design is good and the technique is good enough not to be distracting, then the messiness shouldn’t matter. A blog post for another day.
I happened across this blog: http://chockylit.blogspot.com and was enamoured with the love of cupcakes the writer has! What artistry. She has lovely number of great recipes with wonderful pictures showing products and how to do steps. Check it out if you like cupcakes. Blogs are so wonderful, because they allow people to delve into their loves and show off. Nice work!