Playing with photoshop

So, this is what happens when I'm on leave from work. Blogging, more then once a month. Fancy that!

I seem to be on a massive roll at the moment - I have ideas coming out of my ears and I'm not even finishing one project before I move on to the next. By the end of this month I'll have a WIP list as long as Father Christmas's naughty list! Why did I pick the naughty list?

At the back end of December I received an order of Valentina, by Valentina Ramos for Robert Kaufman fabrics. It's lurvly. I don't know why, but even when I was looking at the fabrics online, I'd already decided how I was going to use it - bold blocks outlined primarily by the skinny vines prints. This is the top, finished and ready to sandwich.

Valentina Ramos - Valentina Quilt

I'm going to be brave with the quilting on this one, and rather then an all over pattern, try and do it block by block. I want to try this year and make the FMQ I do as much a part overall design as the fabric I use - sometimes an all over stipple will be best - but I want to take my time and consider it as part of the design process.

To that end, I've also (this morning) started a smaller, lap sized throw - it'll probably end up about 58 - 60" square - and I'll use this (eek) to hone some FMQ designs. I say eek - because to make this small quilt I have cut in to my stash of The birds and the Bees by Tula Pink.

Oh my goodness - is that....a design? Pre planning??

I've also been playing with Photoshop this morning. I said in my last post that I wanted to try and improve my photography - light is difficult indoors over a UK winter, and the weather isn't reliable enough to try outdoor photography most of the time. Plus, space - hmm, there's never enough space to take an uncluttered shot. So, see what you think to this:

It's exactly the same shot as the first, but I've cut out the background. Then again here:

I need to play with it some more, and start taking shots that I can crop more effectively.

Before I do anything else, I've promised my fabric stash that I'll reorganise. No doubt during the process I'll manage to convince myself ooh, for at least a day that I've got too much fabric and must use every last scrap before I buy any more.

 Oh look, there on the horizon,  is that a squadron of flying pigs I see?