Back from Retreat

I returned Sunday from our State Guild's annual retreat. As always it was a wonderful weekend, even though we had quite a storm on Friday night. The wind was bad enough to uproot a huge oak tree on the grounds of the retreat center.

I brought my own projects to work on for the weekend rather than taking a class. I had several projects but ended up working only on this seasonal calendar quilt. The lady holds up the different mini-quilts depending on the season. This is not my normal type of work and I didn't realize how LONG it takes to do the machine buttonhole stitch on applique like this. I spent the entire weekend doing the stitching on the woman and on the 6 mini-quilts on the bottom. I finished the stitching on the 3 on the top row today. Now I have to quilt all of them. After that is done, I'll sew buttons on for eyes. (photos are clickable for larger view)



This was our sewing room - with Jolene, Maureen & JoAnne in the photo.




We had a special art car display on Saturday and Sunday (after all the bad weather had passed through). What fun it was to see this quilt covering a PT Cruiser.

Here's the front of the car


And here are the 2 sides. I noticed that the kids are not in carseats!



Unfortunately, I didn't get the whole story on this so I don't know if it was made by just one person or was a group effort.

EDITED TO ADD - Thanks to Kristin's comment, I learned that the maker of the car quilt is a woman in her 80's and that she made it all herself! That's quite an undertaking. Thanks Kristin.

Retreating

I've been lax in blogging for the past week or so. No excuses for it, just lax!

I leave on Thursday for out state guild's annual retreat. It's held at a church camp facility in about the middle of the state. Classes are conducted by teachers from within the state. Some are part day, some full day, and some are all weekend. Rooms are also set aside for those that want to bring their own projects. It's always a fun weekend. I'll be in the BYOP room - I don't need to start any new projects.

I'll try to get photos while there, but in the meantime, I'll just have to post photos of the cute grandkids.

Noah likes to climb in the door frames. He thinks it's fun. I think it's crazy!

Hayden LOVES her riding toy. She's not very good at steering yet, so gets frustrated when she ends up somewhere she didn't intend to be.

Hayden also loves to be outside. She's always asking to go out. She even likes to nap outside. I think grandpa was almost asleep with her.

Chrystal decided that Hayden would be a pumpkin this year for Halloween and asked me to make this dress. The pattern is for a little criss-cross sundress, that I've made for her before. She'll be wearing some sort of top under the dress. I think Chrys said it would be black.

I was able to find pumpkin buttons for the shoulders.


See ya after retreat!

25th Anniversary challenge

My guild, Cobblestone Quilters Guild, celebrated its 25th anniversary last week. I was in charge of the challenge. The theme for the challenge was the basket that the guild uses as its logo.



We had about 20 entries - including an actual basket! My intent was to photograph each quilt individually; however, I didn't get around to doing that until after they had been pinned to the drapes and the ones up top were really too high to get a good photograph. (or maybe I'm just too short!)

We awarded first, second and third place ribbons all based on viewer vote. Two of the quilts were hanging for exhibition only as they exceeded the size requirements.

Here are the quilts hanging (click on photos for a larger view) My personal fav was Virginia's at the upper right of this photo. It has a dimensional basket and the background actually had a cobblestone road. It's unfortunate that the photo doesn't show it very well. My almost naked man is also in this photo.


My second entry was the basket on blue in the middle right (underneath the actual basket).


First place was Lynne Turner-Liro's whole cloth. It's kind of hard to tell that this is a light pink color.



Karen Kendo took second with her whole cloth. Both Lynne and Karen quilt professionally and have lots of ribbons attesting to their beautiful work.



Third was Donna Walters' original design. She used a combination of paper piecing and traditional piecing.



It was fun to see how each participant translated the theme.

TTT gang gets dressed up

Last night most of the TTT gang attended the wedding of Sheila's daughter, Julie. We decided to go sans spouses and acted as each other's dates.

The wedding was held at the Charleston Maritime Center and was supposed to be outside. Unfortunately Mother Nature did not cooperate and they had to set up inside. The weather did make for a really cool looking sky though.


In spite of the weather wrinkle, it was a beautiful wedding with a radiant bride. I was very impressed by the flower girl and the ring bearer. So many times the young kids get stage fright and do something unexpected; however these 2 did their jobs beautifully. During the special dances - bride/groom, bride/dad, etc the two youngsters stood patiently watching - holding hands the entire time. They were so cute!

Here are the TTTers - left to right - Janice, Maureen, Joanne, Betsy, Karen, Frances & Virginia. (click photos for larger view)



Another guest took this photo for us and caught Frances with her eyes closed.
Front row - Frances, Betsy, Joanne, Karen, me. Back row- Janice, Virginia & Maureen.


It was a wonderful evening and it was fun to see everyone without threads hanging off their clothes.

A second block

This afternoon I made a 2nd illusion block out of the remaining fabrics from my small packages of 1/8th yard gradated fabrics. I really like the illusion these blocks give.

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.