More Quilt Sharing

My, but my friend Carla has been busy. With Gayle's help, here are three more of the quilts she shared at our last gathering. That's what happens when you retire, I guess, you actually get time to finish your projects!

We are really enjoying our lovely weather. It's great to have some daylight to be outside in the evenings after work. On the coast there are lots of clouds, "May gray" and "June gloom", but this is the best time of year inland. The clouds, if there are any, burn off quickly and it's not too hot yet.

When I'm not at work, I've been getting the house and yard ready for visitors since this coming weekend is the baby shower. Some people have this funny idea that I keep everything spic and span all the time, but really it's just because I clean the dickens out of everything before we have guests.

Besides the shower, we have our son's visit this weekend to look forward to. I have done "empty nest" before, but this time it seemed to hit me harder. We 've started to talk about downsizing our home and planning in earnest for retirement. I guess we really are getting ready for the next phase in our lives.

More quilts to share

Here, Barbara helps Andine show her cute ladybug quilt. You can't tell from the pictures, but the quilting details supply the antennae. Andine made the top and Barbara did the quilting.

Here, Carla helps Gayle show her new bedroom quilt, done in cool and crisp shades of aqua, green and white. I love the simplicity and calm of this quilt design, so perfect for a bedroom. Gayle quilted this one herself. Carla has a longarm for her own use and is teaching Gayle how to use it.

I'm glad I have my friends' quilt pictures to share since I haven't been doing too much in that area myself this week. Instead, I've been spring cleaning and planting some colorful annuals to spruce up the flowerbeds. My flower quilt is still on the design wall, but with luck I'll get in there today to work on it.

Flower Quilts

Here are some of the flower quilts we made in our quilt group. Still on the design wall at home, my quilt is a lot like Barbara's (above) with a green background and bright colors. It looks like everyone liked my idea of staggering the blocks. They do look more lively that way. Doesn't my friend Gayle's quilt look great in her kitchen?


Here, Andine and Carla show their quilts.

We had a fun day of sewing and sharing. Great food, of course. Our project this time was making postcards for soldiers. They will be handed out rather than mailed.
My soldier's quilt is still a work in progress, too, but I have until the end of June to get it mailed. Regardless of my feelings about the war, I think it is important to support the troops.

Finally checking in...

Hey everyone, I'm finally back in blog land, hoping to catch up a bit. Thanks so much to everyone who emailed or left comments, I've missed you too! Life has been a little crazy busy, as it is for everyone at times. Above is a little experiment with fabric painting and stitching, something I love to do. I am holding out on sharing some of what I have done because I haven't yet selected which piece will be the "journal quilt" for this year. I have been hanging around reading "Quiltart" and have committed to submitting a journal quilt in 2007. As an art quilter, sometimes I feel like I am just "dabbling", but really it is where my heart is and one day I will be able to give it the time it deserves.

Here are a couple of pictures of my handsome and talented son ( totally unbiased opinion of course) at his graduation party. Yes! he is a college grad now and I couldn't be more proud. (And no more tuition checks, yay!) The mug says " Be the change you want to see".

The world is his oyster, really. I hope with all the love in a mother's heart that the world doesn't leave him cynical and disillusioned. He has a giving spirit and great idealism. He hopes to work for a non-profit.

And, last, here is a picture of me with a couple of sister-in-laws and neices after a long day of making "baby shower' decorations. We are giving a baby shower for my neice Amy on June 2. The little bassinets will serve as serving baskets for our lunch and the "diaper cakes" as centerpieces. We are all so excited to be welcoming a new baby into the family!

I have been working on my "quilt of valor" donation and have improved the layout greatly by setting the blocks on point and adding more stars. Honestly, it was boring the heck out of me before, but now I think it is getting better. No pictures yet, but soon, I promise.

WIP Wednesday

I haven't really dropped off the face of the planet, it just seems that way if you've stopped by my blog lately. Here are a couple of quilt projects I have in the works. The patriotic quilt is part of the "40 quilt service project" and will be sent to Walter Reid for a female soldier. I'm still working out what to do for the border. The backing is a whimsical floral fabric in red, white and blue. I'll post pictures of both sides when I get it finished.

Here is a spring quilt I'm assembling. At my last quilt group gathering, this was the group project. We all brought fabric to trade, although I chose to plan mine using an all green background and contrasting brights.

Last Saturday I joined in on a "girl's night out". We had delicious food at Panda Inn and saw the "Menopause the Musical" at the Lyceum in Horton Plaza. It was a wonderful evening spent laughing with friends.

Working In A Series

"The Listening Eye #1", Dorothea Rockburne, 2001

"The Listening Eye #2", Dorothea Rockburne, 2001

"The Listening Eye #3" , Dorothea Rockburne, 2001

"The Listening Eye #4", Dorothea Rockburne, 2001

I loved this series, so I thought I would share. I also liked the way copper was incorporated into each piece.

The artist's statement:

"Personally, as part of the creative process, I always title a work before I make it. In that way, from the outset, I know exactly what it is. I try to work with inspiration, intuition, knowledge and magic. It is a journey, inward and outward, deeply personal and yet having a commonality. And when I am through there is a painting, an object with dimension, and yet the real object exists as the experience I have gained in making the painting. The painting itself then contains everything I know and am at that moment and since I am always changing, the paintings are always changing."© Dorothea Rockburne 1989

This artist's statement interested me. How many of you start with the title before you even begin the work? For me it is entirely the other way around.

Spring

I stepped outside and took these pictures day before yesterday. I love spring here in Southern Califoria. Notice that right behind that magnificent cactus, the mulberry tree is leafing out. Pines and palms and citrus don't lose their leaves, but the ones that do are coming back to life. Our citrus trees are blooming, and the fragrance is amazing.

If you don't have spring in your part of the world yet, hang in there. It's coming.

More quilts

Here I am, up in the middle of the night and still struggling with crummy cold symptoms. Not that I feel sorry for myself or anything :) Thanks for your get well wishes, I do appreciate the positive thoughts.

Here, to change the subject, are a few more quilty projects.


Here my friend Cindy shows her "big giant star", always a favorite fast gift quilt to make. You can make it even easier by using huge half square triangles. The second quilt is from a "Buggy Barn" pattern, Hearts and Stars.
Here is the same quilt pattern done in brighter colors and shared by our friend Kathy at the Jan meeting. You can guess which ones I like the best.

Traditional Quilt Content

Here are a few pictures from my little quilt group's last get together.

Here is Jerry's quilt, finished except for the binding, which is still in progress.

And here is the back. I particularly like the scuba "photo" fabric I found to use for it. You probably can't see the quilting, but it is done in blue waves.

Here is my friend Pam T's basket quilt.

Joan shows off her wool applique.

This is Pam B.'s lovely bright quilt, started in a Road to California workshop. (Sorry, I don't remember the instructor's name.) Lots of paper piecing. Naturally I love the bright colors. We talked quite a bit about some of the quilting possibilities for this one.

That's it for me today. I am home with the flu/cold thing I have been fighting so it's back to bed for me.

New Design Wall

Here is my finished "kid's quilt" for the 40 quilt service project. I will be mailing this out to Amy some time this week. Keeping the pattern simple helped me to complete the quilt and enjoy the project. I love the cheerful brights, they are so uplifting.

The little quilt is attached to my new portable design wall. Assembling it by myself was a little like making a bed with an old fashioned sheet that has shrunk slightly. Get one side on, the other pops off etc. Still, I finally got it together and I'm sure it will go more easily next time. The little poles reminded me of my old camping days when we used to put together our North Face tents. I remember when these light weight poles were quite the innovation for backpackers. Yes, this was long ago, and the memories are fun but they do make me feel older than dirt. My days of willingly sleeping outdoors on the ground are long gone.

Back to the design wall, I'm still deciding, but I think I like it. I love the portability aspect, and expect to get a lot of use out of it.

Wool

These beautiful artworks are by Ramona Sakiestewa, done in wool. See more amazing work here. This artist also does beautiful works on paper, but I thought some of you, especially those who have fallen in love with wool, would be interested in these. After all, we're all about the fiber.

I feel like such a neglectful blogger, but things have just been crazy busy. I had good intentions to show a little piece on Quilt Studio, but didn't get it photographed in time. I also wanted to share a little about my quilt group gathering, but didn't get those photos together either. I DID manage to get together some photo CDs done as gifts for all my quilt group friends. I take pictures at every gathering, so I had something from every meeting over the past year. I used a mounted photo of each person as the cover for their CD case, and I put one at each place at the table. Kind of a party gift and place card in one. It took a lot of time, but it was worth it. Everyone loved their gift.

Quilt group was fun, and I was really happy with how the food turned out. I found gorgeous flowers, including tulips, at Costco, so that saved me a trip when I was running around getting ready. We had some very summer like weather last weekend, so eating on the deck in the shade was lovely and relaxing.

I'm mostly finished with binding my donation "kid's quilt". I bound by machine this time, attaching the binding to the back and folding it around to the front. I used a zig-zag stitch and rainbow thread on the top, and monopoly in the bobbin. I usually don't like machine bindings, but this one looks pretty good. The monopoly is light years better than the old nylon stuff, and it really doesn't show. I hate binding by hand (impatience talking), so I may try this again.

A Family Quilt

Things have been busy since I last checked in here at the blog, and since I don't have any new pictures to show you right now, here is our Christmas quilt presentation to our neice Janet (lower left, second one in). In our family, we do "group" projects to make quilts. We have a variety of skill levels, but a great deal of enthusiasm. I have learned to pick easy "forgiving" patterns, so the projects turn out well and we have a blast making them. My sister in law just sent me these pictures last week.

Since I last blogged, I have participated in a quilt "shop hop" as well as a group sewing day. (I will share after I can get some pictures made.) I finished piecing the "diver's" quilt front and back and am having it quilted in blue waves. The bright "kid's quilt" is also coming back to me this weekend and will receive its binding in time to make the deadline.

This weekend I am hostess for my small quilt group, so I will be busy on Saturday cleaning and decorating. I've alread found some great spring tablecloths at Linens and Things, and I plan to pick up some tulips at Trader Joe's. Lunch will be lettuce wraps and fruit skewers, maybe vegetable rice. Someone else is bringing dessert, but the rumor is that it will be chocolate cheesecake. No calories in that, right?

A very big thank you to Dee for her generosity is sending me the book "Fried Eggs With Chopsticks". It looks like a fun and relaxing read, upbeat and funny (kind of like Dee's blog sometimes :)

WIP Wednesday

" Sunshine Pier" 12 x 12, mixed media

What have I been doing? This weekend I refinished a new wooden table for my sewing room. In a perfect world, I would have been able to cut a hole in it and make a place for my machine to drop in. Unfortunately, Jerry is not handy with this sort of thing and neither am I, so I will have to wait until I get someone else to do it. In the meantime, it's still an improvement.

I spent some time painting, thread sketching, and fusing. I made lots of things and ended up liking this one. "Sunshine Pier" was created by first thread sketching on a fabric "sandwich", followed by painting and fusing. I used Tsukineko inks at first, including the technique of blending them with aloe vera gel. I just couldn't get them bright enough, so I went back in with dye paint and acryllic. After all the paint was dry, I still wasn't happy with it, so I added fused pieces. This is what I love about working improvisationally. You can always do something else. Of course, sometimes you go too far and have to start over, but that's ok too.
I am really happy with this one. I got the watercolor look where I wanted it, the brightness of more opaque paint where I wanted it, and the solid shapes to help the design where I wanted them. Yes! I will be using this approach again.

And here is Jerry's quilt, coming along. I got rid of the angel fish blocks, increased the number of light blocks, and found some great "coral" fabric to make more of the alternating nine patches. The border will be next. I don't know how well the colors are coming across, but they are just wonderful "in person", and I am happy with my progress.

WIP Wednesday

Here is the quilt I am making for DH Jerry in progress. I have about half of the blocks finished. He loves scuba diving and taking underwater film. He also sails, but once I started auditioning fabrics I decided to stick to the underwater theme.

I don't have quite enough of that batik with blue fish, so I am going back to the batik stash to look for something else. I would like to find something that looks like coral or seaweed. It could still change, but I've pretty much settled on the nine patch and snowball blocks. They look like little windows into the sea, at least that's what I'm after. Those angel fish are looking kind of like "op art", do I like them? Not sure.

I've made lots of quilts for everyone else, but somehow never one for him. His birthday is next month, so I hope he likes it. Don't worry, he doesn't read my blog, it will still be a surprise. He's also kind of oblivious to what is going on in my studio, he just knows I spend a lot of my free time in there.

Nice and Neat

Well, it probably won't last, but I have the sewing studio nice and neat once again. I went through almost every bin of fabric I have and (gasp!) gave some of it away. My SIL Diane is selling on ebay to raise money to participate in the breast cancer 3 day walk. She will also be having a garage sale, so I have had lots of motivation to clean out closets as well. It feels great to be organized, even if I know it's only temporary.

I was happy to get my cutting table raised to counter height by adding some PVC pipe to the legs. Works great, and no more back strain. I view my current space as temporary since I will move to a larger room once our son moves out again. I want to plan it thoroughly and look into a better fabric storage system as well as better furniture

Check these out.
You Tubes for Book People:

Introducing the Book

Banned Books

Baghdad Day to Day: Librarian's Journal

Read about the war from the perspective of someone who is still trying to live and work there.

WIP Wednesday

"Blue Tulips in the Garden of Evening", handpainted silk and commercial cotton.

Nikki decided she needed to be in the picture. She is my sweet and quirky little border collie, thirteen years old this year. I put area rugs in my sewing room so she would have better footing. Actually, we have put rugs all over the house, even where the placement looks odd. She just can't keep her balance on the slippery wood floors anymore.

Here is a closer look. Handpainting silk was a new experience for me. (I used silk charmeuse from Dharma and the Dharma Pigment dye paints. There is also a little Tsukineko ink used in drawing.) I love the colors, the shimmer, the stitching. I am using lots of delicious hand-dyed embroidery threads and perle cotton to make very big textural stitches. Next time I paint silk, I want to try the "resist" and work for a better focal point and more control. I'm definitely having fun.

My donation kid's quilt is almost together but I haven't worked on the pineapple blocks again since last week. I started a new gift quilt for Jerry that features lots of tropical fish and sailboats since his favorite leisure time activities are scuba diving and sailing. It will be a simple "nine patch and snowball" quilt that showcases the fabrics. I would like to give it to him during his birthday month (March), but it will be a nice surprise any time he gets it. I have a trunk full of quilts in the family room that we all use to wrap up in when we watch TV, but I still think it will be nice to make one that is just for him.

Between work, water aerobics, and the daily household stuff, there are just not enough hours in the day. Good thing I am needing less sleep as I get older.