Another Quilt University class

I seem to have become a professional QU class taker! Currently I'm taking a class with Karen Combs on Patchwork Illusions. I really love quilts with the illusion of depth so Karen's work has always appealed to me.

Today I stitched up my first Illusion block and I think it's kind of cool. The colors in the photo are a bit washed out.


More years ago than I can remember I purchased two packages of fabric - one orange, one teal - that were 8 step gradations. The packages contained only 1/8 yard of each fabric and I never really found a use for them, but they were perfect for this class. I will make another block using 3 more of the fabrics. Unfortunately I don't have enough to make a 3rd block.

Karen will be visiting Charleston next spring when she comes to speak at the Quilters of South Carolina spring meeting. I'm looking forward to seeing her quilts in person.

New Currency

I saw one of the new dollar bills today...

Challenges

Our guild Cobblestone Quilters will be celebrating its 25th anniversary at our October meeting. I agreed to head up a challenge for the anniversary. The guild's logo is a basket



and after some discussion with fellow guild members I decided to use the basket as the theme of the challenge. I didn't want the members to have to make an exact replica of the basket, but just to use the basket as a starting point for their designs. It looks like we're not going to have very many quilts, so I decided to make 2. Here is one of my entries.





When the TTT gang was in Pigeon Forge earlier this year I purchased some fabric with shirtless construction workers on it. I threatened then that I was going to use the fabric in my challenge quilt, but I didn't act on it then. Last week after finishing my first entry I decided I needed to make the joke quilt I'd said I would do. Hopefully this won't offend anyone at guild!

Around the house

I've said before that I feel like each blog post should have a photo and when I don't have photos of recent work to share I tend not to post at all. My friend Del dropped me a note recently and said I could post photos from around my house if I don't have anything fiber related to post. So...per Del's suggestion here are a couple of photos. (Click photos for larger view)

Shortly after we moved here Jerry built a deck addition with a pergola/gazebo type structure at the far end.




The intent was to grow a climbing vine there. We started with a trumpet vine that had a pretty pink/red bloom. It didn't survive the winter. Last year we found a climbing vine with a blue bloom. (I don't remember what the plant is called) It climbed the pergola fine but didn't fill in very well. We thought it died off this past winter but it came back to life this spring. It filled in wonderfully this year and just started blooming in the past couple of weeks.






Here's a view of the golf course from under the pergola.

Journal quilts

I've been absent from blogging for a while. I always feel like I should post a photo with every post and since I don't have anything new I haven't been posting.

Instead of new work, I'll post photos of a couple of Journal Quilts I made several years ago. While Karey Bresenhan wasn't the creator of Journal Quilts (little works made the same size as a sheet of notebook paper) she was the force behind them becoming so popular. For several years members of the QuiltArt email list were invited to submit a series of Journal Quilts for display at the International Quilt Festival held in Houston every fall. I made several journals one year but never submitted them for exhibit at the show.

This first one utilized Sue Benner's fused quilt technique.



This second one was the first of what I'd planned as a series of bridge quilts - depicting bridges in places where I'd lived. In case it's not obvious, this is the Golden Gate.



I actually did make a couple more bridge quilts, including "Amazing Grace" a rendition of the now dismantled Cooper River Bridges here in Charleston, SC. A photo of that quilt is in my blog header.

I never did make the quilt of the Ambassador Bridge over the Detroit River, or any of the bridges in New York (I lived closest to the Throgs Neck Bridge and would Have probably done that one.) Maybe those are for future works.

It's broken

A couple of weeks ago I fell when I missed a curb cut in a parking lot. (I talked about it here)

On Tuesday I went to the doctor because my foot was still bothering me. He sent me for an x-ray "just in case" although he thought it was probably just a ligament injury. It wasn't. Turns out I have a fracture in the foot. I was referred to a podiatrist and finally saw him this morning. (why do referrals take so long??) The podiatrist said that if I happened to be an NFL player he would use a screw to put the bone right, but since I'm not I can just wear a boot cast for the next 6 - 8 weeks.

Jerry has been wearing a cast just like it for the past 3 months because of a torn Achilles tendon and I've been giving him a hard time about it all this time. Guess payback is hell. Luckily Jerry is now wearing his boot part time so we can trade cars. My car is a stick shift and there is no way either of us could drive it with the boot. Jerry's is an automatic so I'll just have to figure out how to use my left foot on the gas & the brake!

Aren't we cute?

Strip party

The TTT gang (Trailer Trash Tuesday) has been accumulating strips of fabric for some time in anticipation of making sting/strip quilts. We decided we'd meet on Saturday and Sunday this weekend at the clubhouse to make our quilts.

The construction method for strip/string quilts involves sewing the stings onto a foundation -usually muslin. It's a great quilt method for using up scraps.

Betsy wasn't sure how she'd like just using random strips to make a quilt block so she controlled her quilt a bit by making each block in the same color family. She also was concerned about putting blocks together without seams matching. Using this rail fence setting solved that issue. (all photos clickable for a larger view)



Maureen used a beautiful autumn color palette. She didn't fish into the string stash much. Instead she brought a lot of her own cut strips in order to achieve the look she wanted.



Frances found a book with a quilt she really liked and used that photo as her guideline. Once the blocks are joined together she will add rick-rack along the seam lines. It will make a wonderful baby quilt.



Virginia was our sewing star this weekend. She actually finished the top completely! I believe her initial plan was to make dark and light blocks, but after getting several dark blocks made she decided she really liked them and continued with the darks. It is a very rich looking quilt.



Somehow I missed getting photos of Joanne's and Jolene's quilts. I'm hoping that Karen will have some photos on her blog (here) Since I don't have quilt photos, here are photos of the actual makers.

Here's Joanne...



And here's Jolene (with Virginia in the background)




Karen and I both saw a quilt pattern in the current issue of Quilter's Home and independently we each decided to use that for our quilt. Instead of sewing strips to completely cover the foundation, the strips are sewn along the sides and the top. It was Karen's idea to use black and white squares as the foundation and bright colors as the strips. Here's Karen's.


After spending day one sewing my black&white/bright blocks, I got to thinking that I might want to try using a bright as my foundation and use black & white strips. I cut some brights at home that night and on Sunday made three big blocks that way. I then combined the two types of blocks together in this quilt. I think I would have liked using the bright foundation with b&w strips for the entire quilt, but I decided to just leave it like this. I think I'll call it tic-tack-toe.


As usual we had a ball. We all work so well together!

Fabric Fun

I took a rag rug class recently and have been cutting up excess fabric for the crocheting. Today I cut up a bunch of one inch strips and thought I'd share them with the kids before using them. Hayden enjoyed having the strips thrown on top of her head!

She laughed every time a pile of strips landed on top of her.


Noah got into the act and was having fun just throwing the fabric up in the air. I love this action photo catching him in mid-throw. That's Craig there in the background at the dining table playing with one of the Lego sets Noah got for his birthday! (click on photos for larger view)

7 Years Old

Yesterday (8/22) was Noah's 7th birthday. It's hard to believe he's growing up so quickly. He had his birthday party today at the House of Bounce. The building is filled with various jump castles and the kids go wild jumping all over. They almost literally bounce off the walls!

Then 2001:

Now 2008:


HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOAH!

Big scare

Today was the first day of school for Noah. (what ever happened to starting school after Labor Day?) I went with Chrystal to pick him up this afternoon.

We were sitting in the pick-up line and Hayden was pretty fussy in her car seat, so I got her out of the car and walked around with her. As I was walking back to the car with her, I somehow missed a curb cut and fell. Thankfully we landed in an area with dirt (and mud) rather than on the concrete. Hayden screamed and screamed and I wasn't sure at first if she was hurt or just scared. Thankfully she was just scared and other than being a bit muddy and dirty she was fine. I was crying almost as hard as she was just thinking about how she could have been badly hurt. My crying probably didn't help her fear, but I just couldn't help it, I was so frightened. I kept apologizing to Chrystal about letting it happen, and I hope she'll forgive me.

I scraped up my leg a bit and did something to the top of my right foot. It's very swollen and bruised and it hurts to walk on it. I suspect I'll be sore tomorrow, but as long as Hayden is okay, I'll deal with it.

Pinehurst, NC

My brother Ed, who lives in the Detroit area, made a short golfing jaunt to Pinehurst, North Carolina this past weekend. Joining him were his son Eddie and one of Eddie's friends. We drove up there on Friday afternoon to see them. It had been several years since I've seen Ed, although Jerry has seen him more recently since they like to take a snowboarding trip together every year.

Ed has never met a stranger and is always looking for fun. This time was no exception. We had barely sat down to dinner when he started joking with the waitstaff. The joking somehow evolved into one of the waitresses actually cutting up Ed's salad and feeding him a forkful. I missed the actual feeding, but here they are while she was cutting up the salad.



Here's another shot of Ed.


Here's Eddie. He's 16 and going into his senior year in high school. He's trying to decide on his college choice and is thinking of University of Michigan.



It was nice seeing them even if only for overnight.

It was my first visit to Pinehurst and it sure is a nice town. Of course, it's geared to the golfer, but the downtown is very charming with lots of beautiful old homes.

Quilt University Class

I'm taking another Quilt University class called Painted Landscapes. I finally started working on Lesson One today.

The class uses setacolor paints. These paints are kind of cool because you can do sunprinting with them.

Lesson one has about 8 small exercises. I only got 4 of them done today because I was working out on my screened porch and it was WAY too hot today to spend much time out there. (it got up to 100 today and I'll bet the humidity was way up there too.)

Exercise one was to paint in a bucket. My piece ended up just looking like mud. I suppose I could use it for the ground or dirt in a landscape quilt - except it might have a bit too much red in it. (all photos are clickable for larger view)



Exercise 2 was to use Pollack techniques. I think I used a heavy hand too much on this piece and the right side of the piece just looks sloppy. I do like the sparkle the gold paint gives though.



Exercise 3 was to do a sunset. I used the colors the teacher suggested, but I don't think they work well. Also, my orange didn't turn out orange enough. I'm going to have to work on mixing the colors better.




By the time I got to exercise 4 I just wanted to get out of the heat so I didn't bother to mix any new paint for it and I don't really like the colors in it. However, I do like the technique. Once the fabric was painted I sprinkled coarse sea salt on the fabric and the salt made the interesting texture. I could see using this techique to get big flower blooms. That's what this looks like to me.




The actual sun printing is one of the exercises I haven't done yet. I'm looking forward to that. I did have a few pine needles on the first piece - the bucket painting - while it dried and if you look you can see where they were.

Hopefully the weather will break and it will be more comfortable working on the rest of the exercises!

Long time no blog

Apparently Blogger thought my blog was a spam blog and blocked me from posting while it investigated. Blogger has an automated robot program that searches all the blogs to weed out the spam blogs. I don't know what in my blog would have triggered the robot, but today they gave me voice again.

Several others on my quiltart list also got blocked this week, so maybe the robot suddenly doesn't like quilt content!

Tuesday 7 of us in the TTT gang took a trip up to Charlotte, NC for a visit to Mary Jo's Cloth store. Mary Jo's is renowned around the Southeast as 'the' destination for fabric addicts. It's probably a good thing that it's about 3 hours from here or I'd be spending $$ there on a regular basis. It was a fun day for all of us.

Slip & Slide

The kids were here on Saturday so we pulled out Noah's slip & slide and set it up on the grass next to the driveway. When Noah first used it last year he kept trying to slide on his knees. It was hard to describe to him about just flopping on his stomach to slide so Jerry got in the act and demonstrated. That was a site to behold. From this photo it's obvious that Noah figured it out. (photos are clickable for a larger view)




Hayden watched Noah for a while and then she proceeded to crawl down the slip and slide. When she reached the end she would crawl off and back up the drive to the start and do it again. I guess she figured that if Noah would go back up the drive to the start she would too. The driveway was tough on her knees. She is walking but is still more confident crawling so she sticks with that mode of transportation most often. You would have thought she'd want to walk on the driveway instead of crawl.


Both kids had a great time and it was fun to watch them.

More beach retreat

Every year our beach retreat has a theme. This year's theme was travel. We were issued a challenge during retreat to make a post card - an obvious travel related item!

We voted on our favorite and the winners each received a big bundle of fat quarters. (click on photos for larger view)




Many participants raided the scrap table for their creations!

Beach retreat projects

I spent most of retreat working on this paper pieced daffodil wall hanging. I've had this for at least 10 years and finally pulled it out to work on. Since this photo was taken I've added a small 1" border (which will finish to 1/2") in the darkest yellow. I still need a wider outside border, but will have to go shopping for just the right fabric. The pattern is by Eileen Sullivan. I've done a couple of her other paper pieced patterns which look complicated but aren't really all that hard. (photos are clickable for larger view. If you enlarge the daffodils you might notice the registration marks showing through the fabric. Those marks are on the paper pattern and were to assist in getting each segment joined to the next correctly. The paper-and the registration marks-will be removed)


After I finished the daffodils I cut out two more four patch swirls. This first one is out of some incredibly cheap fabric that I stumbled across in the stash the other day. I was going to donate it to the silent auction, but decided I'd see if it would work as a 4 patch. It actually made some interesting blocks but the fabric is still really cheap!


I then cut out this one. These blocks are smaller than the other blocks because the repeat on the fabric was smaller. I haven't decided what to use as sashings for either of these 4 patch swirls, but I expect a shopping trip is in order!

Back from the beach

As always, the guild's Beach Retreat was great fun. We had some ugly weather on Friday, but the rest of the weekend was beautiful. Saturday was a rare South Carolina summer day - the humidity was down and it was pleasant to sit outside and enjoy the soft breezes coming off the ocean.



Here we all are lined up in our retreat t-shirts. It's hard to get this many women lined up in such a way that everyone's head is showing, but they managed to do it! (clink on photo for a larger view)

Lots of beautiful work was done at retreat. I think everyone had a great time and we're already looking forward to next year!

Retreat Weekend

Friday morning I leave for our guild's annual beach retreat held on Seabrook Island at Camp St. Christopher. Craig attended camp there a couple of times when he was a kid and really enjoyed himself. I'm glad our accommodations are better than what Craig had when he attended! There are about 50 of us that attend each year and we spend the days working on whatever projects we bring along. We all set up together in one big room and have a good old time. I think we'll see a number of the swirling 4 patch quilts as it seems like EVERYONE is working on one! I'll be back on Monday and I hope I have good photos to share.

Photos finally

I've been busily working on various projects.

A couple of weeks ago a teacher from the upstate of South Carolina (Lynn Buske) came to our guild and taught a couple of classes on her "Four Patch Swirl." The pattern is a lot like a stack & whack. This is a photo of the quilt I started in her class. We were supposed to have a focus fabric with an approximate 24" repeat but my fabric ended up with a 15" repeat. Because of that, I didn't have as many blocks & ended up setting them on point. I actually like the on point setting better.
This photo makes the quilt look less brown and more green than I think it looks in real life. I'm pleased with the way it turned out. I may have to send this one out to be quilted, but haven't decided for sure yet. (click on photos for larger view)


Lynn warned us that making this pattern is addictive and she's right. It's so fun to cut up the fabric and then rearrange the blocks to see what the result is. Our guild was recently given a bunch of fabric from a sewer's estate. A box of the fabric was brought to our mini quilting group meeting a couple of weeks ago with the hope that some people would use the fabric to make donation quilts. One of the pieces had the necessary design repeat so I took it to make another 4 patch swirl. I like the soft colors in this. I did some simple quilting on this and only need to bind it so it will be ready to donate.


One of the sample quilts that Lynn brought with her was a striking black & white. I ran across a black and white with a bit of red fabric at the quilt shop and had to buy it. Here are the blocks I made with that fabric. Now I need to decide on the sashing. I'm auditioning both a black & red and a black & white. I'm leaning toward the black & red but will certainly entertain comments about which should be used!



Finally, I finished quilting the faux log cabin from our quilters day out and once I bind it I'll donate it to one of our charities.

Asilomar

One of the highlights of my years living in California was being able to attend the Empty Spools Seminars held at Asilomar in Monterey, CA. I even attended two sessions the last year I lived there because I was afraid I'd never be back.

This year when I got the brochure I shared it with the TTT gang. (TTT stands for Trailer Trash Tuesday. It's a group of us that meet to sew at Karen's double-wide trailer/studio on Tuesdays.) By the end of that day 4 of us decided to go to Asilomar in April next year. Two others have since decided to attend so there will be 6 of us. Some of the people going have never been to California before so we want to do a little tourist stuff while there as well.

I'm really excited to be going back to a wonderful seminar held in one of the most beautiful areas of the country and it will be even better sharing the experience with friends. Of course my huge fear of flying may present a problem, but that's what they make booze for isn't it?