Wow, it's been quite a while. But what better way to reintroduce myself to the blogging world than to do a WIP Wednesday entry and link it to Kati's guest post at Freshly Pieced?

In mid-June I made a point of finishing up some big projects in order to get ready to leave town for a few weeks. I had some quilts to complete and pack off to send to Sisters, OR (more on that in a later post) as well as fulfill some Etsy orders.

A good chunk of my trip away from home was spent taking an amazing 5 day workshop from Jane Sassaman. I got the pleasure of not only meeting and learning from this lovely, down-to-earth, creative powerhouse, but also met some wonderful ladies from around the world (there was one woman in from Sydney!) and best of all, hanging out with my mom! The workshop is entitled Abstracting From Nature, and though Jane adeptly describes her techniques and freely gives input on compositional and creative choices, each student's piece had a very different style and feel. Some examples:

Pixie's anemone

Cindy V.'s crocuses

Kim's chicory flowers

Donna's (my mommy!) kaffir lily

Judy's peonies

and I suppose I should show some of what I was working on too...

I still have lots of work yet to do on this puppy (or rather poppy), but am happy with the progress I made while in Greenville, NY.

And coming back to reality, my only time in the sewing studio since returning home was dedicated to finishing my June bee blocks for Eileen, in the Friends + Fabric Bee. She chose a paper piecingtutorial from Nydia who blogs at The ADD Crafter, Basketweave Braid Star Block.

Though not complex, this block is definitely a time-sucker. But on the plus side, it was TRULY a scrap-buster as well - I could work exclusively from my basket of strips up until adding the white background pieces.

So, I feel like I've been taking a summer hiatus which began about a month before summer. And it may continue longer than I'd like, but 'tis the season for family visits, gardening, cycling, and making up for a Vitamin D deficiency from the last 8 or 9 months! But do please bear with me and I promise to get back into the swing of things and hopefully find new inspiration to share soon!

Ever have one of those weeks (or months) when you seem to be pulled in several directions at once, but then you look back and can't figure out why, or what might have gotten accomplished? The last few weeks has been kind of like that for me. One of the things to end up on the back burner here was my project for the I *heart* the '80s Swap. But a few days ago a "check-in" discussion thread was posted, to assess who was still actively involved in the swap, and make sure people are on schedule for the August 1st mailing deadline. That was kind of a wake-up call for me.

I've been working on a rainbow sampler, each block an icon or imagery associated with that decade, or our experience of that decade. I've now got all the blocks EXCEPT orange (though I have had in mind what I will do for that one since the beginning - just a matter of getting the right materials for it). Here's where I'm at:

imagine this without the pom-poms along the top... just the ones by the "laces"

words to follow

a little Frogger

this one needs no explanation, I hope ;-)

and though this isn't specifically an '80s icon, most of us (my secret swap partner included) were still relatively young during that decade, and what little kid didn't love seeing this face??

The Pacman and Kool-Aid blocks were my first attempts at using Wonder Under. Might be one of my last, too. I've had a little experience with Steam-a-Seam, but tend to stay away from the fusible webs in general. However, at this scale, the applique bits needed it. I should have stuck with what I know, though - the Wonder Under was nearly impossible to separate from the paper backing once I had fused it to the applique piece, even after I had tried to separate the two in advance. That's why my little ghostie is looking worse for wear (and he was not the first ghost I cut out, either). Lesson learned.

I've started playing with settings and layout, but I'll have to wait until I do ORANGE before I settle on anything. So far, this is where I'm leaning:

Now for the extras!!

I'm keeping it a secret what this will become, but I hope she likes it, and won't be too embarrassed to carry it around. I found the adorable pink and green elephant fabric at Jackman's Fabrics on my last visit back to St. Louis, and it screamed out to me for this project! And just yesterday I picked up the coordinating dots when I went in to work at Cool Cottons, with the help of Marie. Just need a couple more things to get this piece under way....

and then there are just the fun little goodies. We'll see if I come across any others before the package is ready to go out. I'm glad to say I feel a little bit more on track than I did just a week ago. I'll be cutting it close with my dad's visit coming up and some of my other obligations, but August 1st is a doable date now.