by Sandra | July 12th, 2010
I have to admit I enjoyed having complete time off (a true holiday) from everything way too much. It was the first time in years I have taken so much time away from the working side of my quilting. Sometimes I have to fill up the well again when it is running on empty.
I am buried in emails from the time away and I will answer all of them as soon as I can so be patient.
I did work some more on the Goldfinch block as you see. Are you tiring of seeing this all the time yet? I am just about ready to begin the embroidery transformation process. The magical part that brings it to life.
I wish you could see it in person because the colors are so much better. My Nikon seems to pick up on the blue too much and I am too lazy to go and fuss with the manual settings. Another thing I have to take time for and learn more about. sigh.
As to Michele’s astute question and observation of the fabric I used for the Goldfinch, yes I did use that same fabric I used for the pumpkin flowers on Jason’s quilt. It worked beautifully for the yellows of the Goldfinch.
For those of you who don’t remember, forgot, or whatever, it is the gradient Avlyn Batik in yellows “Cascade Gold”. It is reaaaaaaally hard to find now, but I did find a shop that still had some in stock: Mountain View Quilt Shoppe.
Sara, I did see that the one petal was too dark behind the head of the Goldfinch. This would be too tedious, even for me, to go back and remove and fix so I tried (not as successfully as I hoped) to lighten up the petal with some pencil work. I know I can also use embroidery to help make the Goldfinch’s head stand away from that petal later on in the process too. Embroidery work can also help correct too close of values between applique images with fabulous results.
There is always a fix to these little irritating faux pas in judgement and it can sometimes lead me to a new discovery. So no tears are shed and no having to resort to the use of a seam ripper. 
The one thing about taking time off is that there is usually a bigger pile of work to come back to! Oh my, where does one start?
Welcome back ! Glad you had a good vacation. I missed seeing new blog entries whie you were away. The petal behind the head definitely looks lighter now. Everything is beautiful. One can never tire of seeing your work in progress.
“American Still Life” is the quilt of the week on AQS site and there is a short video featuring you and the quilt.
I am glad to hear that you had a great vacation, everyone needs it occasionally to re-charge their batteries. ButI had withdrawals and checked your blog almost everyday to see if you had written anything. It was really totally sick on my part..
Your goldfinch and coneflowers are absolutely beautiful and I can’t wait to see them after you have added the embroidery. Your work is just gorgeous and keeps me enthused so keep those fingers nimble!!!
WELCOME BACK!
Welcome back, the progress on the goldfinch is fascinating and beautiful. We all need to get away from the “working grind ” part of quilting sometimes to appreciate how much we truly love it! I am busy with shop class samples and not loving them so much at the moment, but you inspire me. Thanks.
Sandra, So good to have you back again. Really missed your posts. I’m glad you took some time off though. Good for the soul.
Love the Goldfinch! Can’t decide if I like the flowers more than the bird! LOL. Just gorgeous.
Do you know if your new book will cover basic things like points and circles?
Sara,
I always wince when that comes up because I was so bloated from my meds at the time. Not even the makeup artist could help my appearance!
Chris,
I hear you, sometimes we just have to plow through the disenchantment phases huh? It happens to me too.
Why thank you Miss Frances!
Melanie,
Yes I do cover the points and circles in my book, well at least it was in the manuscript. I have not seen an edited copy yet.
I really like the flowers too. The nice thing about these is you can make the petals almost any color you would want. In the beginning I was going to go with white, but then saw the Osteospermums and went……aha!
Stitches,
LOL, Glad I could give you a “fix” this morning.
I will NEVER get tired of any of the projects you post!! LOL, I love this finch! Geez I can’t wait to get your book in the fall….I’m in the pre order group …. and don’t ordinarily want to hurry time ( I’m getting old quick enough)- but in this case, the fall can’t come soon enough. sandy
Good to hear you had a nice break ! I just came here and starred a lot ! : ) Now I can stare some more , LOL !
The Block is looking fantastic . I can’t wait to see what you do with the embroidery !!
Welcome back, so glad that you had a nice break, hope that you did some fun family things. Thanks for the site with the yellow graduations. Good excuse to star rebuilding my stash (started off with 4 half yards including the yellow). The following is another site from whom I have bought gradations “sewbatik.com” Not sure if the manufacturer is the same. Can’t wait to see the Goldfinch block finished, it is going to be awesome.
Welcome back, I have really missed reading your blog. I “had” to buy another pair of Dovo scissors to cheer myself up!!!! The goldfinch block looks fantastic already, even before the embroidery magic.
Denise,
IMO, you can neeeeeeever have too many pairs of Dovos!
Thanks Brenda!
Thanks for the extra link. For some reason when I mention a fabric link……the fabric sells out quickly!
Boop,
I really wish you could see this in the flesh. I showed it to my mom yesteday and she really really liked it. She was surprised by the size too. Think legal size paper approximately.
Love seeing the goldfinch come to life. I’m also fascinated by the magic embroidery can to so I’m lookinf forward to that!
Kathleen,
My goal is to show that if you look at the process step by step, it will take the *mystery* out of it and not look so intimidating (multiple “ah-ha’s!”). I am glad you find the instructions so useful!