In my studio...

I am so glad that I'm back in the cycle of making quilts!

I can say that last week has been very productive...

Not just with quilting, but otherwise too.

I plan to start quilting full time soon, and so needed to get back into the habit of finishing the housework before I enter my studio. I have been doing that for two weeks now and I am proud to say its been a real success!!!

Yes, it means that I get up at unearthly hours - way before sunrise! But it sure is worth it!

Yup! I wake up at 4.15! Spend 45 minutes on the treadmill, before I prepare lunch (more like snack as he's home at lunchtime!) for my son to take along to school... and wake him up to get him ready for school with 15 minutes to spare. We then spend those 15 minutes learning English. My son goes to a Marathi School - that's my mother tongue. And he learns English as a second language. But I'd like him to be well versed in English and speak it with confidence. After he leaves for school I finish off my housework till 10. And sharp at 10 I enter my studio and do not leave it till lunchtime - 1.30. Post lunch, I work again while my son finishes his homework, before I drop him off for his classes at 3.45! After that I'm back to work till 6.30.

Spending about 6 hours a day in the Studio has really helped me get back on track and finish a lot of work.

The first has been cleaning out my studio - thoroughly! I went through ALL of my fabric - one shelf at a time - and really thought before I put it back on the shelf if I loved it! I gave away a lot of stuff! And now I'm ready with a studio where I know what is where!

After that came a totally fun filled evening with my friends' kids!!!

We were doing the canvas wall art with crayons and hair dryers!!!

Here's how it all began... We had to go one at a time, since every time we turned on all the hair dryers, the MCB would trip shutting off the power to my studio!!!

Here's some progress shots...

After about 10 minutes, the kids had had it! Plus the heat from the dryers was making them pretty uncomfortable... So here's what happened after 10 minutes!!!

The kids found sanctuary in Aadi's room!

While the moms continued to work on their pieces!

Here's how far we got by the end of the day!

My kid was on a different  level altogether! An ardent Angry Birds fan - currently every thing that he has must have angry birds on it! Here's what he did...

I'm a proud mama! He sure has inherited my drawing skills!

Here's what mama finished after everybody went home! I have Saturday evenings to myself as DH goes out with his friends and DS sleeps with his grandparents!!! I spent some quality time in my studio - with some crayons, embroidery floss (and I thought I'd never use that!) and some tulle!

I'm in love with this one!!! Already planning the next!

Meanwhile...

I started my quilt to use up the hexies that I was working with while my FIL was in the hospital one and a half year back. I framed them at the point where they were and just added a grayish linen on the outside.

Here's the top while I was basting it...

I really love how the hexies look with this layout!

For the quilting, I marked the linen with hexagons using the Hex n More ruler...

And then I (once again) bit off more than I can chew and decided to quilt EACH hexagon with a different design!!! 

I even tried my hand at quilting a circular feather. I can see I need a lot of practice!

But once again, the quilting got overwhelming and the project got kept away - for a while.

And I took up another one.

I have wanted to do this one for a long time now. I need to put up a board when I exhibit my stuff. I just thought that instead of getting oen of those printed ones, I can make a quilted one!!!

It was a simple Applique and machine embroidery projects and was done in 2 days!!!

Here's all the text written down. I actually traced it from my computer screen! I know its is a really crude method, but I just taped the tracing paper to my screen and turned the contrast to full and used a sketch pen to trace the text!!! No wasting ink and paper by printing stuff!!!

And here's my Babloo (that was the name of the Royal Elephant in Sangli who passed away a few years back) fused down! 

Then I just FMed over the letters, using a layer of batting under them. After I was done, I tore off the excess batting from under the letters.

Here's the quilt, waiting to be basted.

And here it is, hanging in my Studio!!! I love it!!!

Detail of Babloo...

And the trapunto-ish letters!!!

Do you have a board that you made to hang when you exhibit your works? What does that look like?