Midnight Mystery, Editing, & Wandering Camera

Cheryl's Midnight Mystery Quilt Along was a rip-roaring success!  She had more than 100 people complete their quilts in time for the grand finale.  We've been getting peeks at a few of the finished quilts on Facebook and there were some incredible quilts and quilting to feast your eyes on.  I can't wait to see them all in the big parade today at Meadow Mist Designs!  

This was so much more than a quilt along and quite the social event in Quilty Blogland, so make sure you don't miss the 2016 Meadow Mystery quilt along, which will begin in July. Thank you Cheryl for putting this one all together for all of us and for your ever ready support and enthusiasm!

My quilt top was finished just barely in time, but I strayed from the plan.  I was one of the people who preferred to have a sneak peek. (I love that we can choose to do that!) I wanted to try fussy cutting Cheryl's fabulous blocks and using Parson Gray fabrics, for kind of a modern and more masculine quilt.  The Midnight Mystery block looks so cool done up like this and I loved how it turned out!  It reminds me of looking inside an old fashioned flash bulb:

Midnight Mystery Quilt 24" Block - Meadow Mist Designs

There is a lot going on in the block because of the fabrics I chose.  My family thought my quilt would look too busy with a whole quilt full of blocks like this one.  After making up a strip of three blocks, I could see they were right.  So I did something different with the three blocks; setting them in a column, bordered by wide swathes of Parson Gray "Seven Wonders Settler".  Cheryl was totally cool with that!  

Midnight Mystery Quilt - modified - 72" square

The above shot was taken in the basement with the light filtering through the glass block window.  I thought it looked pretty and mirrored the effect of the quilt blocks.  It still has to be sandwiched and quilted.  I was thinking of doing something plain and simple, like matchstick quilting. 

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Editing at Last!

This past month I didn't get much time for visiting friends or for sewing.  That's because my book Crafted Applique - New Possibilities went into the editing stage.  You might wonder why it took so much work.  The manuscript I turned in was a good one, except it was for a 168 page book with patterns designed for CD.  They decided it would be more marketable to make it over into a 96 page book, patterns included.  It was no picnic to convert.  I feel more than a little burned out.  We have all our kids coming home this weekend, but after that I'll be doing my best to catch up with everyone and make up for lost time. 

Just before the editing started, I did finish Eden's first baby quilt.  I'll share that in another post.   What you get to see this time are the photos of the trimmings.  Yup, that's right.  I think the trimmings from a quilt are pretty and sometimes I have trouble throwing them away, LOL.  Do you ever hate to toss out tiny scraps?  They look even prettier when they are piled into a sweet little thread catcher, which coincidentally is something I purchased from Cheryl's Meadow Mist Designs Etsy shop.  (I bought a really cool pincushion too.) 

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Wandering Camera

Last month in Soma's Wandering Camera group, she taught us about light and encouraged everyone to play with different lighting effects and experiment.  So, when I saw how beautifully the sunshine was filtering through the lace curtains onto my ironing board and nifty thread catcher, I couldn't resist taking photos.  It was a good thing I did, because that was the only chance I got to play with the camera. 

First, I took the photo backlit by the sun, which is usually a no-no, but the effect was really neat.  It proves that sometimes rules are meant to be thought of as merely guidelines:

Backlit thread catcher with quilt trimmings

Next, I turned on the flash and let that light up the foreground.  I usually try to avoid using the flash because it changes the colors.  Do you find that to be the case in your own photos?

Evenly lit thread catcher with quilt trimmings

It has quite a different effect, doesn't it?  Last of all I tried a shot in close up view.  Which of the three photos do you like best?

Close up of thread catcher with quilt trimmings

It was a lot of fun to do that little bit of experimenting and I'm looking forward to what Soma has us doing in March!  Everyone is welcome to join the Wandering Camera Group so stop over at Whims and Fancies and see what it's all about!


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