Hues & Cues: A Game about Colors

 

At Quilt Class this week, we spent the first hour playing a game called Hues & Cues.  

It starts with a game board where colors are mapped up on a grid.  There's a deck of cards where one player picks a color and attempts to describe it to the other players enough so that they can locate it on the board.  They can use 1 word on the first round, and 2 words on the 2nd round, but you can't use the most basic color words to describe it (ie red-green-yellow-blue, etc.)   Even if you say grape or tomato, these fruits and veg come in a variety of colors, so even those specifics made it difficult to pin down.

It was fascinating and challenging!  Yes -- Harder than you might think it would be!

I have new appreciation for going to a quilt shop and asking for any given color, looking for the match in the vision of my mind, but not finding it on the shelf amid a sea of colors in that family--and at a loss to adequately describe it well enough to find it.  I know it when I see it, though!

 

The game board reminded me of dying the color charts in the Candied Fabrics Dye Class years ago.   

These are the Earth & Sky Triads.

We dyed all those colors from 3 basic primary colors -- the colors in the corners.  

We never actually named the resulting colors, but there's a tiny tag in the corner of each square with the color recipe indicating how much blue - yellow - red make any given color on the chart, making them easy to recreate at any time the need arises.  Just look at all those lovely purples in the Sky Triad!

There were days this chart was hanging up in my sewing studio, on the design wall.  Some days, I just liked to sit quietly and BE by my colors.  Soak up my colors  ;-)  My Happy Place 

Some dyers actually bother to name  all the colors they develop.  That's a huge challenge -- and then getting other people to agree that those colors are accurately named!

A Little Bling in Late Winter

I bought this black fleece jacket recently and decided it needed a little sprucing up, so I added this teal ribbon on the collar.   My friend J picked up the ribbon n Saudi Arabia a few years ago.  It does the trick! 

 

Quilt Jam #1: Thank You, Girl - Thread Sketching For the Love of a Good Dog

I've been wanting to get back to doing regular journal quilts, to test techniques and practice my art.  I've been seeing these line drawings on Pinterest -- I think they might be for tattoos?  And I thought they'd be good for thread sketching, too.

 

This one could be entered into the Quilt Jam Challenge for the Fly In Quilt Show later this summer.   This challenge is to make a quilt based on a song.  The song is John Hiatt's "Thank You Girl."  He wrote it for a girlfiend / wife, or maybe a car (?), but I always pictured it being about a K-9 friend instead.  ;-)   I've always loved this song, and I always thought it was about a dog -- Probably because I had my own wonderful Keba-Girl at the time I discovered John Hiatt, and yes, we were "rolling in clover" then!  

This could also be #4 of the Stolen Moments Series depicting John Hiatt songs.  

Here's a bit of the lyric:

Thank You, Girl by John Hiatt

You're a little on the thin side, but that's all right 
You stood by my me baby when I didn't think I'd ever see daylight ...
Now we're rolling in clover ...
We didn't see this in no tea leaves ...
My fate was sealed before I met you, Darlin'
Still you took the little love I saved
I wanna thank you, Girl

 John Hiatt's "Thank You Girl."

Some notes on the making of this quitlie:

I traced the line drawing to tracing paper, and then sewed through it.  

The words were trickier -- I had to bone up on that again.  I wound up doing some thread calligraphy / embroidery for the words.   Could use a little more practice, but it worked in the end.

I used some leftover Dream wool batting, because it puffs up so nice even without washing it.  

 

For this little quiltie, I decided to use a facing instead of a binding.  So here is a video from APQS about how to do that:

 Late edit: Turns out this little quiltie isn't big enough to qualify for the Fly In Quilt Challenge.  It needs to be 16 x 36 in.  It was still a good exercise, and I will definitely hang it up in my house!

Hunter Star: Quilting Classes at the Senior Center

Hunter's Star

Yes, I already know how to quilt, but there is always more to learn!  And this is a group of more advanced sewers.  I did order Quilter's Academy Book #4 by Harriet Hargrave, which is the text we're using in the class.

This week, I was sewing together the Morningstar as a trial run for the Lonestar.  It took me most of the morning to sew all the pieces together.  We used the Lemoyen Star method which uses a painless way to do Y-seams.  You work from the outside into the middle of the star to finish it -- which seams a little counter intuitive.  It worked, and subsequent stars should go faster.

The points are all nice and sharp--and they match.  Hurray! 

Near the end of the class, Liz showed us the electric AccuCut tool that the Senior Center has, and helped us cut out fabric for a Hunter's Star block.  She wanted us to experience a much easier star than the lone stars we'd been working on this month.

She ran the fabric through the machine over the die cut, and we had our accurate and fully cut fabric pieces in about 3 seconds!  It was remarkably fast!  And the electric version is so much easier than the the manual cranking it through by hand.  

 

Left block is the correct way to sew the quarters of the Hunters Star.  

The right side is the WRONG way to put them together.  

When I got home, I sewed the pieces together ...  If there is a way to do it WRONG, I will do it wrong until I have a model to follow.  It should not have taken all afternoon, but it did!  By the forth quarter, I finally had it figured out!  Put it down to learning something new ...

Lone Star Lessons at the Senior Center

I retired from my job of the last 27 years this past February with no regrets!  With my new-found time, I am checking out the offerings at the local Senior Center.  Lo and behold, they offer quilt classes (Only $10 for 4 classes this month!), run by one of my fellow Quilt Guild members.  The project this month focuses on Lone Star blocks as laid out in the Quilter's Academy Book #4 by Harriet Hargrave.  Even though I've already done a giant queen-size lone star quilt, there is always something new to be learned -- and projects, and fellowship.  

Here's the other layout.
 

This is what I did on Week 1.   It doesn't seem like much, but the directions were a little wonky, and we spent a fair amount of time re-interpreting them to get the desired result.

This is what it should have directed us to do: Make the 45-degree cuts in the same direction.

Once these stars are complete, I think I might add them to a canvas tote bag ...  Or a jean jacket?   

Stay tuned ...

 

Seaside Wedding: Double Wedding Ring Quilt is Complete

A double wedding ring quilt has been on my lifetime bucket list of quilts I've wanted to make.  After 20+ years quilting, I must have enough experience because it wasn't that bad with Donna Jordan's tutorial and the right template set.  Will I make another one?  Maybe someday ... 

I put tulips in the borders -- 74 tulips to be exact!

 

Here's another look at the quilting in the "empty" spaces.

The Dream Wool batt puckered up nicely, giving it a nice antique look in an otherwise brand new quilt.

  

 Here are the other posts about this project:

Progress on Quilting the Double Wedding Ring Quilt

The Double Wedding Ring Quilt Top is Done!

Progress on The Double Wedding Ring Quilt

Missives from Quilt Camp - October 2025

So Many Possibilities for a Wedding Ring Quilt

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woven Towels - Waffle Weave and Twill Towels on 8-Shafts

 

  

8-Shaft Waffle Weave 

This was a kit I bought several years ago ...  The towel was wider than the loom I had at the time, but I set it up on the 8-shaft Mary Meigs loom last summer and got 'er done.  The original towel kit was for a waffle weave.  The kit was designed for 2 large bath towels, from Lunatic Fringe several years ago.

 

Washed and wet-finished but before hems.

  

 

 This was the first project on the Big Loom, where I used all 8 shafts.    

All that extra "horse power" no longer seems so over-whelming!

 

  

I got tired of this pattern after the first towel, and discovered how versatile this 8-shaft twill threading is!   I picked this pattern -- It's the same threading with a change-up in the treadles.   I liked it so much, I wove 4 towels in this pattern, without even trying any of the other options.

 

 

I think these are BEFORE wet-finishing,  The texture is still kind of "flat."

 

 

This one is AFTER wet-finishing where you can see the refeif in the texture.  

This may be my favorite part of weaving!  

 

I am amazed at the interplay of the colors between the warp and weft threads.  The green comes out as a darker green against the blue!

 

 

 

  

I do want to run another warp and tie it on to the ends of the last warp, so I can try out the other options some day ...  

 

Other Posts About this Project:

Running a Cotton Warp for an 8-Shaft Waffle Weave Bath Towel Project

Re-programming the Loom to Make a Different Pattern

Progress on Quilting the Double Wedding Ring Quilt

I stitched the rings with a matching multi-color thread.  I started using the 1/4-inch foot, but it was tohard to keep the rings straight ahead -- Too much turning of the fabric, so I switched to the free-motion foot instead.   I think that used up about 130 yards of thread just "tracing" the rings, according to the bobbins I burned through. 

 

Now it's time to figure out what to do for the "white" parts of the design.  I was trying to remember what I did the last time I quilted a wedding ring quilt ...  Did I use clear thread or a matching thread for the quilting on top?

I am using a matching creame/beige thread that blends in with the background.  I want the emphasis to be on the texture of the stitching, not the color.  The Dream Wool batting puffs so nicely for this application!

 

 

I re-sized the motif and copied it to tracing paper.  It's transparent enough to accurately pin the motif on the football shapes in the quilt.  Then I can free-motion stitch it down.  The tracing paper tears off easily afterwards.

Now for the stretched square blocks: 

 

I LOVE how the Dream Wool batt puffs up so nice to show the relief in the quilting. 

I'll admit: I'm a little stumped as to what to do with the border ...  I'll have to think about that for a while longer. 

AI'ed Art Quilts

 

Gemini AIed image

So I did a thing ...  I tried Google's AI tool Gemini to see what it would come up with for one of the ideas I had for the Quilt Jam prompt for the Fly-In Quilt Show this summer.

I asked it to "create an art quilt based on John Hiatt's song "Thank you, Girl" featuring a dog."  Yes, I always thought that song might be about a faithful companion vs a girlfriend / sweetie.

This is what it came up with:

 

Gemini AIed image  

[Janna -- Is that Charlie-Girl?] 

It pays to be specific, so with a few extra revisions to the prompt, I got this:

 

Gemini AIed image 

I have had several beloved Newfies,   and although I like what it did with the highlights on this Newfs fur.  Black dogs are really hard to illustrate or photograph!  I also appreciate the free-motion quilting lines in the background.  In the end, the proportions on this image are not quite right for a Newf ...

So I tried one more revised prompt requesting a Golden, and got the image at the top of this post, which seems to work a little better.   My first thought for this idea involved a Golden ...  though I would not have included the musical notes, or the wreath, I do like the title text.   

I'm not saying I will ever make these in real life, it was helpful for brainstorming and idea generation.  And it was certainly instructive in that I can recognize AI'ed art quilts now.  They seem to use the same palette for colors and textures.  They all look the same somehow (not just these) -- Too good to be true fabric and stitch.

Someone recently sent me a Temu-like link for a shop that sold "art quilts."  When I saw it, they were fantastic -- impressive, but they didn't quite look right to me either ...  Sure enough, they were AIed.   I'm also pretty sure that if you purchased one of them, it would come printed on a shitty polyester fabric optimized for printing, not a quilt at all.   Reddit post about these scams.

I know enough now NOT to order anything advertised on  Facebook, because most of those things are not in real life what you see in the pictures.  Some things I had to learn the hard way.  Sigh!

If it's looks too good to be real, it might be AI.  In the end, I have another REAL idea for my Quilt Jam Challenge ...  Stay Tuned! 

Quilts Inspired by Songs and Music

The challenge for the 2026 Fly-In Quilt Show this summer is "Quilt Jam," where we're supposed to create a quilt based on a song.  It has to be a new one, not something we've already made.

Looking back, I'm a little surprised at all the quilts I've made that have been based on songs.  Songs / Music are wonderful inspiration for quilts!

Most notably, the John Hiatt Stolen Moments Series:

Mama Let You Lick the Spoon

Read more about the making of this quilt.

Based on John Hiatt's song, Angel.

 

Spark in the Back of my Mind

Read more about the making of this quilt.

Based on John Hiatt's song, Back of My Mind. 

 

 

 Northern Lights / Rivers of Light

Read more about the making of this quilt.  

Based on John Hiatt's song, Seven Little Indians.

There are a few more Hiatt-inspired quilts that are still in the works! 

But there are others ... 

 

Eddie Vedder' Tattoed Everything (Black)

For this challenge, I am mulling over the possibilities, collecting songs -- hearing and seeing songs in whole new ways in light of this challenge!   Stay tuned!

Purple Socks

I finished this purple pair of socks.  It took about a year-and-a-half from start to finish these.  I started them on a trip to Idaho to see Janna and usually only worked on them when I was traveling, waiting in airports or on planes ...  or it was too cold to be upstairs working on other projects.  It's a good thing to do by the fire in the evenings.

 

The purples don't quite match.  I think I knitted 2 balls of wool yarn into 1 tube and then dyed it in the crockpot in the hopes that the color and patterning would match better than it did.  Instead, I think there was an inside and an outside to the knitted item, and the outside sucked up more color.  Hence the darker and lighter shades for each respective foot.  The yarn is Chic Sheep which I bought a few years ago ...  It makes a thicker sock -- more like a cabin or a boot sock.  Great for slippers, too. They are too thick to wear in my regular shoes.

I used the larger oval sock knitting looms from CinD Wood.  It has a few more pegs than the ones I was using previously (These are 1/4 inch with 60? pegs).  I thought I might tun out of yarn sooner because of the extra stitches with every round.  But it all worked out just fine.  They are a little roomier than previous socks, so I'm hoping they will snug up once I do the wet-finishing.