Snowflake Shimmer...AKA Snowflake Blizzard Blindness

Hurry up and wait.  Word synonymous with US Government and the US Military.

I had the fabric idea as soon as Tish and I decided to do a dual quilt.  If we were smart we would not have posted any pictures and left it for the people to decide who pieced which quilt.

Yvonne gave us this free pattern and we pushed forward with choosing fabrics. Tish had a little bit harder time deciding on her fabric.  The link I have posted is the finishing part of the snowflake shimmer QAL.  No offense to Yvonne, but I was not anywhere near sold on the dark background.  Tish decided she was going to stay with the original intent of the design, but I wanted something different and in the end, something different I indeed had.

So this was my palette.

Little did I know I had my work cut out for me.  So the cutting instructions came.

  Over all, the color cutting process was not to bad.... the background on the other hand was quite difficult.  Having a standard size ironing board and a 3 foot cutting board made for a tough process.  Ironing went slow.  With the white on white print it was not only hard to iron, but the stiffness of the fabric led to reoccurring wrinkles.  Once I was done with my cutting I felt a sense of relief.  However, work got very demanding...busy...and I had some "occurrences" happen during this time frame that not only burned me out mentally, but also exhausted me physically.

Piecing....my first attempt at square in a square...it was not easy Tish helped with explaining a folding a process and how to nest them together to get good points though it was time consuming and I had to rip a few, due to my lack of attention...overall they turned out well

This last picture has a real Nautical Flag feel!

So then I had to sew rows. this was tough.  Why, you may ask?  Because Tish was sewing at the same time and we have an approximately 6 foot dinner table with two sewing machines on it. Two machines running near high speed....vibration....it was like a small earthquake. Tish wasn't stopping her process and neither was I.  The dueling Husqis were in full swing...cue the dueling banjos song and see us standing waiting in between on each other to iron....sigh.  It really is here space...she was here first...Squatters rights and all.

Rows!!!! and there was a small snag on the last row I pieced the red and blue backwards...Tish caught the simple fix of ripping at red (which is now where the blue is) and flip flopping them!  You can see a bone to the right there is a vent there. I had to shut the AC off to get a good picture. This was where the day had to end, though I was excited to get this baby together.  A completed "chassis" was in my sights.

Friday eve....Tish allowed me to stay home from the HS football game to get this one together.  It was LATE when I got it together and I had just a glimpse of sunlight to grab a couple pics with my cellphone....

I intentionally took the angle picture to capture the descending sun into the background.  I have another shot but I like the exact placement.  I really hope when I get this thing sandwiched you don't see the seems....Sigh
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So, Saturday we had a fabric dying class.  I am going to do a separate post which will actually get posted prior to this one, but getting the fabric done....which was a major process, we took the fresh fabs and this flimsy....(uhm yuck, I mean chassis) outside for some pictures...Flimsy just doesn't taste good rolling off my tongue.

Let there be light!!!

This was taken in the day time, though it still looks dark.

From my iphone

Tish took these.

You can almost see the white on white stars in this last one.

Tish's for comparison again...she took this one. Two totally different reads on the same pattern.

So, why did I call it Snowflake Blizzard Blindness???
The white background can represent a blizzard or full blanket of snow.  If you have ever been out in the snow in a total white-out/blizzard condition...or you have been out in the bright sunlight in snow, the amount of snow causes a big disparity on Rod/Cone function of the eye and many things will appear dark or shadowy because your sight has been "blown out" by all the white...it is referred to as snow blindness. From a distance my "flake" appears dark or shadowy......

I also toyed with the name Firework Shimmer for the patriotic colors.  Needless to say, mine has turned out more different, than anyone else. I do march to the beat of my own drum.  I am not sure how I am going to quilt it....it feels huge!!!!! I was thinking simple meandering in the white to keep it soft and supple.  Not sure about the other.

Thanks for stopping by...Hope you didn't go snow blind.

Also, I forgot to put in my blog yesterday...Get kids involved!!! I think they would love fabric dying and any that are detail and goal oriented would love quilting...Kids need to be producing something with their time....not so much wasting it online!

Today I am linking up with Beth at Main Crush Monday