More bits and pieces:

Alzheimer's Quilt Auction for August is different, and special.  They're auctioning the quilts that traveled in the exhibit Alzheimer's:  Forgetting Piece by Piece.  Many of these quilts were made by well known quilters.  Check out the link and bid if you can, starting tomorrow.

This obituary, of Ardis James, whose donations started the University of Nebraska center for quilt studies, appeared in the New York Times a few weeks ago.  I knew about the center, but nothing about its founders.  What's interesting is how much her life experiences as a quilter were like those of many of us.  She loved fabric:  who doesn't?

Recently I bought a small painting from my friend Libby Fife, who blogs about her painting and other creative endeavors here.  I'm so happy to have it framed and on my wall.  The frame came from Dick Blick, very nice, very inexpensive.

I've been working on ribbon medallion centers for my guild show:  here's the first batch, the white ribbons.  The rosette and streamers will be the polka dot fabric with ribbon accents.

And finally, I got a new haircut, the shortest I've had for years.  Apparently it makes me look slimmer, which I am, but no one had noticed before.  Unfortunately, as Nora Ephron says, "I feel bad about my neck."  I also feel bad about my glasses, and my teeth, but one can't dwell on that stuff.

Not So Much...

That would be my answer to "What have you been doing?"    I spent two weeks staying at my sister's.  She had eye surgery which required a week in a facedown position afterwards and another week of very restricted activity.  My role was to take over the responsibility for my mother who lives with her, as well as help with housework and cooking.  I didn't take any handwork, and away from my usual computer access, I was limited in following what other people have been doing.

I've been home a week now, and am catching up around here.  In the heat, our basement is a good place to be, and I've spent quite a few hours updating mailing lists for my guild's upcoming show.  These little bags for the member boutique are the only creative thing I've done.

The pattern is the Cash and Carry bag from Atkinson Designs.  It seems odd to use a pattern, since I made and sold so many little bags like this, with no pattern.  But for this, I didn't see any reason to reinvent the wheel, and it's nice to have all the thinking and measuring done for you.  This pattern has very clear directions, although there's really nothing except the zipper insertion method that you couldn't figure out for yourself; that gives very nice results.  The results would be even better if Janome had a zipper foot with a clear stitching guideline.  Why don't they?  And why is the accufeed foot designed so there is no easy way to figure a quarter inch seam? 

My next project will be the medallions for the center of our prize ribbons, and then maybe I'll work on the Greek Key quilt, fast becoming a real UFO.  Stay cool if you can everyone, and if you can't, be careful.

Remember Paducah?

Long ago, I said I would post some more photos from the AQS Show in Paducah.  So here they are, better late than never.  I've put off this post for several reasons, one of which is that I don't have many pictures.  I'm impatient, and photograph only what really catches my attention, and so finish without much to show.  Accordingly, this is a very personal set of photos, not intended to be inclusive, and you're also going to get my opinions, not necessarily so humble.

There are certain popular themes or styles in the quilts at this show, one of which is the Baltimore Album style appliqued quilt.  You'll see no pictures of these because I have none.  I find the design so static and predictable I tend to pass these quilts by quickly.  This is unfair to the beautiful workmanship, I know, but they get the admiration they deserve from many other people.

Another popular type is the medallion quilt.  They're also static, by definition, but here's one I loved.

The Lily Bloomed

Fusako Takido

 She's created movement with the curving stems of the lilies and the pattern on the fabric in those tiny triangles.  The soft color scheme sets this quilt apart too, and grabbed my eye.

I love the way the Japanese quilters breathe so much life into these regular designs by their fabric choices and fussy cutting.  The colors are subtle usually, it's the pattern that does the work.

Brilliance

Yaeko Noguchi

In the Future

Hiroko Miyamoto

I love the op art effect of this one.

A Beam of Hope

Kayoko Hata

Then there are the landscape quilts, not a favorite of mine, but this one was stunning.  Unfortunately it was at the back of the booth, so I couldn't get close to it to see how it's done.

Winterberries on a Winter's Green

Patricia A. Bruno

The color of that sky is glorious--a perfect winter dawn.

And there's whimsy:  I love this one.

A Day in the Life of a Diner Booth

Linda Cantrell

Finally, here a few done with special techniques that appeal to me.  An effective use of altered photos in this one, along with beautiful quilting.  Could it be that I'm partial to winter scenes?  Hmm.

Feel the Chill

Nancy Sterett Martin

She really has a created a feeling of chill.

The fabric designs of the animals and plants in this one are screen printed and stamped.

Memories of Edgewood Farm-Hinton, Iowa

Hallie H. O'Kelly

And a painted fabric piece by Inge Mardal and Steen Hougs.  This one is notable for the totally unsentimental, almost disturbing quality of the image.  It reminds me of a Magritte.  As my sister said, "What are they going to do with those little boys?"

Separate Ways

And finally in no particular category and for no reason except it's such fun:

Some Assembly Required

Margie Engel

Click to see the embellishments.  As well as hundreds of buttons, there are zippers, snaps, hooks, etc.  A totally delightful quilt!

I hope you've enjoyed this totally biased selection of the best of the best.  As you see, sometimes the judges agree with my choices, and sometimes they didn't.  Quelle domage.

More Catching Up, or a Data Dump

How's that for a catchy title?  If you're still with me, I'll start with the quilting things.

Several weeks ago I started this crazy quilt piece for Alz quilts, and finally finished it before leaving for my trip to Washington, D.C.  I think this will be the last one of these I ever do.  Although I did lots of embroidery years ago, I no longer remember any of the stitches, and have to constantly look them up, and the work isn't very good. This one has more embellishment than I can usually stand, all handwork except for Debra's machine embroidery motif.  The fabric is scraps of kimono silks, left from other projects.  The orange fringe in the upper left is actually selvage from one of the fabrics.

I like the hanging ring.  In the spirit of crazy repurposing, I've used a copy of the "one ring", complete with magical runes, saved from an old Lord of the Rings bookmark.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally went back to the Greek Key quilt, and made a bit of progress.  Something clicked and I finally understood Bonnie Hunter's beginners and enders concept, so I also made a pile of triangle squares for my endless scrap quilt.  Maybe I can get the Greek Key blocks done this week.

And here comes the data dump:  What I liked best from my trip to D.C. and northern Virginia.  For the first time, I took the Tourmobile that goes around the National Mall, and was able to go to the Tidal Basin to have a look at the Jefferson Memorial and the new memorial to FDR.  The view back across to the Washington Monument is spectacular.

The FDR memorial is beautiful, a small park of its own, with sculptures illustrating him and his presidency, and quotations from his speeches.  I hope you can click and read the inscription here next to the relief depicting men in a bread line.

I also visited the new Museum of the American Indian on the Mall.  As you can see, it looks nothing like the other buildings, and is landscaped so that it's not visible from the center of the mall.  Their artifacts are stunning, and the cafeteria serves delicious native food from various regions of the country.

  At the National Gallery, I skipped the big Gaugin show for the regular collection, and found this wonderful painting by George Bellows.  Bellows is one of my favorite painters.  He's one of the Ash Can School of early 20th century realists, and this painting of NYC fits that description.  I love the way he reduces part of the figures so that they're almost abstract shapes and makes others jump out with splashes of unexpected color.  Although this photo I took with my cell phone isn't very good, I think you can get an impression of his work.

Last, but not least, we had a wonderful visit to old friends, highlighted by a trip to wineries in the Blue Ridge.  We had a delicious picnic lunch and wine of course on this deck.  Beautiful scenery, and even better company.

A funny P.S.:  While we were out to dinner one night, my cosmetic bag decided to tumble off the shelf into the toilet.  It turned out that the nearest CVS where I could buy replacements was in the Watergate building. How's that for an unexpected visit to a historic site?

A Visit with Ami Simms

Hee-r-e'-s Ami:

Her talk was hysterically funny.  She described her early quilting adventures: not knowing about seam allowances, so the Lone Star Block came out much smaller than expected, not knowing how to miter a corner, so each one was bad in a different way, the sheets (including the label) used for backing.  A memorable line: It's easy to get small quilting stitches.  Use cotton thread, fabric, and batting, and boil it.

And here's a selection of the guild's quilts for the Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative:

A fairly small percentage of the members participated, but still the quilts made a good display, and will certainly sell well and help the cause.  The color challenge is a good idea; it forces people to stretch, and not choose the currently popular colors.  This was one of our best meetings ever.

Hello Again

I never thought I'd be one of those people who say, "I can't believe how long it's been since I posted," but here I am.  No interesting excuses.  I've been traveling, doing family things, entertaining house guests, and trying to keep ahead of the Center of Entropy which is my house and yard.  Thank those of you who emailed to see what was up with me.

On the family front, my grandchildren came for the Memorial Day weekend, and here they are using Grandma's glue and fabric scraps to create a multi-media work of art.

And in the housekeeping area, I'm gradually moving part of my stash to this old cabinet my husband salvaged from the chemistry labs.  If it's good to re-purpose fabric, it should be equally good to re-purpose furniture, even though the resulting studio doesn't look like an article from Quilter's Home.

The only thing happening creatively is this little piece for Alz Quilts.

Ami Simms is speaking at our guild tomorrow night, and in preparation, everyone drew a crayon from a basket and is challenged to make an Alz Quilt using that color predominantly.  My color was red orange, and as you see, I'm barely within the rules.  Art has a mind of its own, right?  The binding will be orange, and the backing too.  Maybe that counts.

I hope there's a good response to the challenge and a large turnout for the meeting.  It's terrific that we're having an outside speaker, and especially such a notable one.

Blogger's Spring Festival

Having been out of touch for a while, I just discovered this festival in progress, so here's a quick post.

Unintended Consequences

37 x 35

Machine pieced, machine applique, machine quilted

This an oldie.  I made it in 2005 or 2006. When I heard that environmental activists in California had put bumper stickers with this slogan on SUV's, the design for the quilt popped into my head.  It was fun to make; creating the design and planning the fabrics and measurements to make it all fit together kept it interesting, and I was happy with it when it was finished.  I'd do things differently if I did it again, but that's not surprising.  The part that usually gets the most comment is the button wheels on the SUV's.  Ironically, I hated those wheels after I put them on, thinking they look kindergartenish, but left them on because I didn't have an alternative.  You never know.  The quilt won Honorable Mention at the IHQS, and was accepted for show at Road to California.  

Click on the button above to see the other quilts people have posted.

Fast Paducah Report

I'm back home, but I really was at Paducah.  To prove it, here's Best of Show, Paisley Peacock, with its maker, Pat Holly.  I like the rich oriental colors of this quilt, and her machine applique of the tiny, tiny, pieces is fabulous, of course.  It was also fun to talk to her about the machine (Bernina) and thread (silk) she uses.

And here is Sharon Schamber's piece, Mystique, with a closeup.  The black and white is made by machine quilting in black thread on a white background.  Amazing.

The show was held under difficult circumstances.  Flood gates at Paducah had to be closed because of record high water on the Ohio River, making the Convention Center unavailable.  Show venues were shifted around, with a Baptist church and the defunct Circuit City building being used.  In addition, some hotels in nearby towns were flooded, causing problems for visiting quilters.  I don't know how this affected the economic success of the show for vendors and for the city; it couldn't have been good.  I saw all the quilts, but skipped the Circuit City vendors and exhibits,  partly because I was making a flying trip.  I bet I'm not the only one who did that.

 I'm so glad I went.  It was a thrill to see my quilt, my host family (arranged through the Paducah Visitor's Bureau) was wonderfully hospitable, and the quilts were beautiful.  The winners should be posted on the AQS web site by now.  I'll be back in a day or so with a few that I thought were particularly interesting.

Right now I'm trying to make the house presentable to host my book group tonight, and planning for my younger son's move into an apartment in Chicago.  He just started a new job--better news than any quilt show!

Traveling

This is where I'll be tomorrow.

I have only a limited time because I'm combining a trip to the show with a family visit and have to be back by the middle of next week.  My plan is to spend Tuesday visiting the Quilt Museum, Hancocks of Paducah, and some of the art galleries and shops in downtown Paducah.  Tuesday evening, as a contestant, I can attend the awards ceremony free of charge, and see the stars win their prizes.  (I wonder if there's a Red Carpet...) Then I can go to the preview evening for two hours, and spend part of Wednesday back at the show.  That will have to do it, but it should be enough for a good look at the quilts.  I find I can only take a short time with the vendors before sensory overload sets in, and I'm not in shopping mode anyway.
Should be fun!  Photos next week.  

A Test

I am spending this week as a substitute nanny for my grandsons, and then hope to drive to Paducah and then on to Missouri for another week. So blogging may be a bit irregular for a while. As a computer I have brought along my new iPad, which I find has some real limitations.

One is the weird keyboard, with its only sometimes helpful autofill. Also I don't know how to upload photos or even if that is possible, and finally, Apple does not like Google apparently, so reading my regular blogs is a problem. It's frustrating to be away from the familiar, but new things have their joys too; and who can complain about having the latest cool tech gadget!

So this post is a test of how everything works. Thanks for the comments on the elephants. I'll see you when I can, and please don't think I'm ignoring you!

Six Elephants

Road Trip

41" x 41"

Machine applique, machine pieced, and machine quilted

Finally, the "punch line of a joke" quilt for a guild challenge can be revealed. When I first heard this challenge, I immediately thought of this joke because my husband has always thought it's hysterically, laugh-out-loud funny.  (This tells you a lot about him, probably.)  I also immediately thought, "I can't draw that."  However, as time passed, I kept thinking about it, and thinking about it, and with the help of Google images and how-to-draw web sites, here it is.  I got lots of inspiration and tips from Mary Lou Weidman's wonderful books, and the Hoochey Mama monkey wrench blocks in the border are hers too.

I loved every minute of making this quilt; I had been in a creative slump, and this was the jolt that got me out of it. The bright colors brightened the dreary weather, and I loved the silliness of it.   I'm not much for embellishment usually, but for this quilt, even that was fun.  My favorite is Mama E's version of a flag pin.  She's patriotic, of course--an elephant, after all.  Currently, I'm still looking for an appropriate charm to put on a bracelet for Sister Elephant!

Back from Darkness

We've had no internet service here for 12 l-o-n-g days.  Our internet provider (a local broadband company) stopped working, there was no way to contact them, and we were stranded.  After several days of denial, we decided they had gone out of business, and over my husband's groaning, bit the bullet and contacted AT&T for the bundle of internet, cable, and phone.  A week later, we've got it!

Total excitement!  Not only is it wonderful not to read and answer emails on the tiny phone screen, but this is the first time we've ever had cable TV.  And of course there's the new wonder of DVR!  (I've already set it up to record Glee and Dancing with the Stars forever.) And maybe we'll have faster internet for better streaming videos.  And caller ID!  And the I-pad I got for my birthday is not just sitting in its box.  I could go on, but you get the idea.

Ironically, as the AT&T installer arrived, the old internet came back.  But I've written them a letter...  So much for shopping locally; we tried.

Design Wall Monday

I've gone back to working on my Athena's Puzzle quilt.  This is only a small part of the blocks I've finished, and there will be many more.  If anyone has seen this design completed, you know that they actually are set on the diagonal.  However they're sewn together in straight rows and then trimmed.

There will be lots of waste, but I'm sure I can find a use for the partial blocks.

It's an easy pattern; the only tricky thing is sewing the strips in the right order and orientation, but now that I have worked out a system, it's going fairly quickly, and has reached that nice, relaxed, flow state of sewing.

A Satisfying Finish

Once I went back to the nine-patches, the addictive quality of these little blocks kicked in.  I had only intended to make a few more, and then go back to another project.  Instead, I finished this, which can be a lap quilt for the veteran's hospital where one of my guilds sends quilts.

It turned out to be quite a stash buster; when I started cutting the longer sashing strips I was no longer using tiny scraps and had to use larger pieces.  That's a good thing.  The final outer border used up a piece of amazingly hideous dull green and brown fabric, and I pieced the back, using up even more fabric which seemed a bit dated to me, but works perfectly here.  So I'm very pleased with the whole thing.

I'm also happy with the batting I used.  I like polyester batting for service quilts because of the easy care, and this time I bought a new product from Mountain Mist called Quilt-Light batting.  It's very low loft, which makes it light, non-bulky, and easy to manipulate for quilting in the Janome, and I had no problem with the fabric creeping and producing tucks.  It's soft and drapey when finished also.   The king-size batt I bought should make three more quilts.

A few other things to be pleased with:  Peppermint Stars is packed and on its way to Paducah, I have a place to stay when I go there, and all my Alzheimer's quilts have sold.   If anyone reading bought one, thank you so much!

More Nine Patches

When I made nine-patches for Debra's American Cancer Society auction quilt a couple of weeks ago, I was reminded of a scrap reduction nine-patch project I've had going for a while.  So this afternoon, after the joke quilt was all finished, I got it out and made a few more blocks.

As you can see, this neutral, earth tone palette is very different from Debra's.  The blocks are larger too, finished size of 4 1/2 inches. I love the softness of various browns together, and this quilt will make a good gift for someone else who does.  The pattern is a double nine patch block, with triple sashes and nine patch cornerstones making a chain of small squares throughout the quilt.

Nine patches are much more fun to make since I stumbled on Bonnie Hunter's directions.  I never could get my head around how many and how long the strip sets should be when you make strip sets with three fabrics.  Bonny says to use one kind of strip set about four times the length of the cut squares, and then just cut one extra square from the fabric that goes in the corner.  Slice your strip set into four pieces as though you were going to make four-patch blocks, add the extra square to the end of one piece, and put the block together.

I intended to link to Bonnie's instructions, but I couldn't find them on her site, so this picture should give the idea.  Maybe everyone else already knew this, but it was new to me.  Thank you, Bonnie.  This is just one of many wonderful ideas on her web site.

P.S.  Here's the link to Bonnie's instructions, thanks to Amy of the Calico Cat.

Showers and Flowers

There's a soft spring rain coming down today; maybe it will turn the ugly grass green and bring out more spring flowers.

I made these two postcards for a local school's silent auction.  I'm hoping they'll bring in a tiny bit of cash.  Also for a good cause, two of my Interpret This! pieces, Spring Dreams and Saratoga Ovals are for sale on the Alzheimer's Art Quilt site.    (If anyone is interested in Spring Dreams, please note that I had to crop it for the Alz Quilts size limit, and check the size on their web site, not the IT! blog.)  Now that the AAQI has little quilts for sale all the time, not just during the auction at the beginning of the month, it's interesting to browse that page from time to time.  There are some beauties.

I have my joke challenge quilt completed except for the binding and embellishments.  I can't show the whole thing, but here's another peek.  The colors in this quilt make me smile.  I  particularly love this blue striped fabric in the binding.

Have a good day, everyone.  Spring is coming!

It's in the Genes

My sister sent me this photo today, one I've never seen before.  That's my mother, sometime in the 50's, I'd guess.  She's found a fabric treasure, and isn't she happy!  I don't recognize the other ladies, and I'm not sure I know the place, but I know the feeling.

Some Old Beauties

An interesting item came up at guild last night.  Apparently about 20 years ago, our guild helped register quilts made/residing in Indiana before 1950.  Photographs and information was stored in the Indiana state museum.  Now the museum would like to put this information in digital form to be included in the Quilt Index.  There is no state funding available for this, so the museum is asking guilds for contributions, and since we were one of the earlier guilds instrumental in collecting records we were asked to contribute $250. Some members felt this was too much, but after discussion, we voted to contribute the full amount.

It was gratifying to see how strongly people felt about this: the importance of the project (although no one seemed familiar with the Quilt Index), and pride in being a group who made a contribution to quilt history.

By coincidence, last week I visited the Wylie House museum in Bloomington, Indiana, and saw these old quilts, part of their collection.

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the information cards, so I can't add to the pictures.  However, I do know that the Grandmother's Flower Garden at the top of the page was bought from the Henry Ford Foundation.  It is English, made from drapery fabrics of the 1840's and is lined but not quilted.  Isn't it contemporary looking?  It could be Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

Tara Lynn Darr of Sew Unique Creations also attended this exhibit and took many excellent pictures, with close ups of the information cards.  From her web album you can see these quilts and all the rest.  Thank you so much, Tara.

Briefly, the pink and green quilt, called Ships Wheel dates from 1850-1875, the crazy quilt was probably made by Rebecca Wylie in the 1880's,  and the Cherry Basket quilt dates from 1860-1880.  As you can see, there is only incomplete documentation on these quilts, reinforcing the importance of labeling ours.

So here are a few of the Indiana quilts that may someday be added to the Quilt Index. Thank you, River Bend Quilt Guild, and all the other quilters who will help.