Thursday, October 29, 2009

More Beading

Last night I added this gold-toned stem beading stitch to the sampler piece...


It really looks more like a rope and it's one of my favorite stitches. That button may be a little close, though. Here's the whole piece again...



The button's definitely too close. I may replace the large button with a smaller one. Perhaps I'll try something new with the shell shapes. It needs more bugle beads too. Humm. More later.


Is it just my computer, or is blogspot really slow this week?

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

More Beading & QAA Meeting



I added some beads to this piece tonight...

I love this little raised picot edge which I applied, not to an edge, but to a line on the fabric. It's hard to see, but it's yummy in orange and multi-red.


This afternoon our Quilting Arts Alliance met at the Lyndon House in Athens, GA...


Paula Tanner (second from left) of Apalachee River Trash gave us a program called "Drafting Your Quilt Design". Paula is a commercial artist, among many other talents, and taught us how to use a proportion wheel plus some geometry tricks I have never seen before. It was a wonderful program. Thank you, Paula!


Show-n-tell included this piece by Paula which has a lovely cross-stitched center...
The flowers at the bottom are appliqued beautifully.


These sweet post cards were made by Mary Ann...


The one on the left is thread painted and the one on the right is colored with Paintstiks. I missed Frances' stairway quilts, but you can see one in her blog archive by clicking on her name.

Oooh, look what I found on Frances blog...

...some flesh-tone fabrics I dyed for her latest quilt. Thanks, Frances. I had forgotten to take a photo before giving them to you.

Monday, October 26, 2009

My Favorites in Houston

I was on a walker for the whole trip to Houston, so I was only able to see a small portion of the quilts in the quilt show. Here were my favorites.

Topping the list was my friend Joyce Cobb's quilt...


This next quilt, entitled Australian Bushfires and made by Fenella Davies of the UK, drew me in from across the room...


The small green segment at the bottom of the quilt represents new life following the fires.

I was so astounded by this next quilt that I forgot to take a photo of the whole thing! My hand was just 2 inches from the front of the quilt, so each piece in the quilt was only 1/4" wide!!!!

I also forgot to take a photo of the description sheet to record the maker's name. She was from Japan, I'm sure, and the quilt was amazing!


This last quilt in my favorites was also Joyce's favorite...I'd love to have this in my living room because it was bright, beautiful, and the perfect canvas for lots of bling...


It was called "Feeling Groovy" and was made by Candace West of Florida. I'd guess that it was about 5 to 6 feet long. Here are some of the details...



Finally, Houston Day 6

Day 6 of Houston was our last, but it was filled with classes and trips to the quilt show floor. The first stop was a lecture by Lyric Kinard on the Elements of Art. Sadly I had to leave before it was over to get to the next event which was the Friday Sampler.


This year's Friday Sampler consisted of 34 teachers in a double-ballroom. For those of you who have never attended one of the samplers, here's a list of the teachers: Esterita Austin, Maggie Backman, elinor peace bailey, Linda Ballard, Anelie Belden, Karen Kay Buckley, Melinda Bula, Linda Carlson, Darlene C. Christopherson, June Colburn, Melody Crust, Colleen Davis, Marilyn Doheney, Lynda MH Faires, Gyleen X. Fitzgerald, Marlene Glickman, Daphne Greig, Renae Haddadin, Nancy Hinds, Faye Labanaris, Peggy Martin, Dixie McBride, Stacy Michell, Margaret, J. Miller, Susie Monday, Gina Perkes, Linda M. Poole, Nancy Prince, Noriko Schmidtman, Mary Sorensen, Janet Stauffacher, Valerie Vavrik, Kristal Wick and Sheri Wood. That's quite a lineup, yes? Here are some photos of the setup and teachers...






The samplers are 2 hours long and participants can visit any teacher's area in those two hours. As I have said before, best bargain of the Festival at $30!

After lunch I had a wonderful class with Colleen Davis entitled Artsy Knitting Bohemian Style. Unfortunately, my knitting skills were not up to par, but I very much enjoyed the class.



Next up...my favorite quilts of those I saw in the show.





Sunday, October 25, 2009

Current Events

I decided this week to take the remainder of 2009 "off" to let my body heal from this hip injury...which also means that I'll be able to spend time sewing, beading, organizing, machine quilting, visiting Asheville, NC friends again. I'd also like to visit with my friends Catherine (in Virginia) and Joyce for days of sewing fun. It's good to take time off!

This is my current handwork project which will be a sample for my Beading on Fabric class...


It's an exercise in using the fabric design as the beading design. This fabric lends itself to beading designs because the lines and elements are well spaced and interesting.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Houston: Day 5 (Thursday)

Thursday of Quilt Festival week started with a Kristal Wick class on making fabric beads. It was called Silky Beads with a Sassy Twist, and it was loaded with information and fun. One of the students brought this small quilt to show her cotton fabric beads...

We painted silk, embellished it with foil, Paintstiks and other items, and then cut up the fabric to roll into beads!
This is a promotional sheet of Kristal's beads...

Later that afternoon, Kristal was also teaching at the Mixed Media Miscellany Sampler. A Houston sampler consists of a ballroom full of teachers who teach unique ten-minute segments over and over again. Students can go to all of the teachers in the ballroom that they'd like to see for two hours! It's the best bargain of the show!
June Colburn also taught at the Mixed Media Sampler...


...and here's a sample of one of her beaded, silk screened pieces...
I must tell you that the classes at the Houston Int'l Quilt Festival can be more expensive that those at your local quilt shop, but they are always well worth the price.
Day 6 coming up soon...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Houston: Day 4

Our 4th day in Houston was the biggest...Wednesday is always the opening day of the Quilt Festival at 5:00. IQA Members and those taking classes at the show are allowed in for a preview from 5:00pm to 7:00, and then the doors are open to the public until 10:00 pm. The line is so long that it usually reaches to the 3rd floor and it takes quite a while for that whole line to get onto "the floor".

During the day I had an all-day demo class with Ann Johnston, the author of the books Color by Accident and Color by Design. Ann has a great sense of humor and we all enjoyed her Color by Design class about painting with dye...


It was nice not to be elbow deep in dye just before the show opened, so the demo-style class was appreciated.

This was one of Ann's finished quilts using her paint-with-dye method. Are the colors wonderful?!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Houston Int'l Quilt Festival, Days 2&3

My first days of classes were filled with lectures and a luncheon. The first event was a luncheon with lecture given by Marti Michell, and the topic was Quilting in Sections. It was a different way to quilt in diagonal sections that I had not seen before... I'll have to try it.

Next was a 3-hour design class by Carol Bryer Fallert on Eye-dazzling Foundation Piecing...



This was Carol's Best of Show entry in the quilt show...

...and it's called "On the Wings of a Dream". The bird shape is created with quilting only and is lovely.


I didn't get many photos in the first days, but the classes were excellent. Later in the evening was a business-type lecture by Hollis Chatelain about "Following Your Passion" and marketing your work, whatever it may be.


Day 3 started with another business class by Morna McEver-Golletz, the editor of Professional Quilter Magazine. The title was "Turn Your Quilting Passion into Profit". All of the classes will help my fiber arts business, and these lectures were right on target for what I wanted to learn.


The afternoon of day 3 started with some of the fun, hands-on classes: June Colburn's "Finding Hidden Treasure in a Silk Blouse" was messy and fun as we screen printed with shaving cream and Colorhue instant-set silk dye. June's classes are full of information and are very relaxing...I call her classes my "yoga" classes because of her quiet, soothing voice and calm demeanor.
More about the remainder of Houston week coming up soon...

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Houston Int'l Quilt Festival, Day 1

Last Sunday, with rolling walker and cane in tow, I boarded a plane to the Houston Int'l. Quilt Festival with my lovely friend Joyce C. who had a quilt hanging in the show!


What could be more exciting?! Joyce won a piece of Ricky Tims "fire dragon" hand-dyed fabric several years ago and it was the inspiration for this fabulous quilt. New York Beauty blocks are at the corners of the borders and there are more NYB-like blocks throughout, some of them with tiny piping around them. This is Joyce's original design. Outstanding...and the judges thought so too, because she was a finalist!


We were able to meet Ricky Tims the first night in town...



...and Joyce told him the story of her quilt. She was one happy lady!


This was my 5th trip to the Festival so to enter the George Brown Convention Center...


...we crossed the walkway from the Hilton Americas Hotel to the convention center so that Joyce could see the enormity of the building. This big baby is 1/3 mile long (there's more to our right and back) and 3 stories tall, and the Festival uses it ALL. That's the Houston Astros baseball field at the end of the street, and behind us is the Toyota Center where the Houston Rockets (NBA) play. Oops, and don't miss a relaxing coffee on the GRB center's outdoor terraces...


Not to neglect the Hilton Americas, let's check out one of the Chihuly glass pieces in the lobby...




This is one of a pair and it's huge. I'd say each ball is a little smaller than a soccer ball... and on the third floor ceiling is another amazing Chihuly piece. Check out his ceiling pieces on the link above. Anyway, don't miss the hotel if you go there...have a nice cup of tea and take in the marble, sculptures and glass.
It's true, everything in Texas is BIG. More on the quilt show coming right up...

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Fall Blogger Quilt Festival Entry

Park City Girl is hosting a Bloggers Fall Quilt Festival and this is my entry...



My son Bryan was deployed to Afghanistan in 2007 and sent beautiful digital photos home when it was allowed. This was one of my favorites, and I decided to make a photo quilt with it.

Bry set up the photo and handed his camera to a buddy to take the photo, so the soldier in the quilt is actually my son. His troop had been out for a long time on foot patrol and had run out of food, so they turned to their Army survival skills to eat. When Bry saw the quilt he told me that he had been eating some of the ants from the tree that hangs over him in the photo.

Luckily, Mary Ellen Kranz was teaching a photo-to-fabric class for the Asheville Quilt Guild and taught us how to print our photos as posters. This photo is printed in four pieces and joined at the center.

When building the quilt around the photo, I had no clue what the rest of the valley looked like, so I improvised. The soldier's lower body is painted. My husband posed for a photo wearing his work boots and squatting down so that I could figure out how to sketch the legs and feet. I also had to go online to find a photo of the gun so that I could paint the base of it.

I have no formal training in painting, but PBS painting shows helped a lot. I knew that the bushes in the landscape would look natural if I used a sponge to apply the paint. The rocks to the left and right are layers and layers of fused fabric which were then painted.

The quilting is not my best, but it was the first time that I had free-motion quilted a piece, so I practiced on the leftover rejected photos on fabric. I had to paint some of the pieces to see if my machine would quilt through them.

The label shows the faces of the honored men in his troop who were killed during that deployment.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Forced Relaxation

On Monday evening at 9:30, I fell in our dining room, full force, on my right hip (r. wrist is fused so it couldn't break the fall). After a little ambulance ride to the hospital and x-rays, there were no breaks (YES!), but I certainly messed up my hips and lower back...so it's been an "interesting" week. I'm getting on a plane Sunday to fly to the Int'l. Quilt Festival in Houston. This could get very interesting. Humm.

Anyhow, I spent most of yesterday resting and working on beaded necklaces for the Houston trip. Here are the fruits of my labor...
The larger beads are black-blue and the crystals are turquoise (bad photo colors).
This one was made with yummy beads from the Native America store in downtown Athens, GA.

This necklace was a choker for a long time. I took it apart and added some beads to make it longer.

The colored beads in this necklace are metallic cylinders mixed with black glass beads.

It was a good day's fun.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Workshop and Reducing Glass Trick



Yesterday we had a wonderful workshop with the Lake Oconee Quilters in Georgia. The topic of the day was String Quilt Blocks and the ladies were sewing up a storm!



As per the usual, I forgot to get my camera out when we were oohing and aahing about the finished blocks.

Here's a quick review about why we should use a reducing glass or camera to check our block layout before sewing. I was taught my my wonderful long-time quilting friends in Pensacola that we don't want our "eye" to land on any particular spot on the quilt and stay there. If we have a spot like that on a quilt (like a bright color that is too obvious compared to the rest of the quilt), we should change it or move it to a better position.

Well, here is my red quilt which you saw the other day...

...I gave it a new layout, but when I looked through my camera, my eye kept being drawn to the light blocks at the top left of the quilt. I chose to move one of those blocks ...

...and it helped my eye to move around the whole quilt. Can you see the difference?

Monday, October 5, 2009

String Quilt


In preparation for tomorrow's program/lecture and Wednesday's workshop at the Lake Oconee Quilters, GA, I made these scrappy red string blocks this weekend. My scrappy quilts seem to migrate to other homes after I make them, so the class samples were lacking...but that has changed.


The blocks will become a little sample quilt later today...too small to sneak away to someone else's home as a bed quilt.

Friday, October 2, 2009

At Home

The big quilt show vendor booth has passed and my fabric, what's left of it, is home and in its place where I can admire it...

The design wall has lots of color and is a happy space...


Now the bags are being filled with strings in the dining room in preparation for the upcoming Lake Oconee Quilters program and workshop...

The "string kits" (6 - 8 yards of tapered pieces of fabric with no particular color scheme) are made up of some of my fabric stash, and a lot of hand-dyed fabric. When I cut fabric to dye, I always allow extra fabric for strings which end up in these kits or in my quilts.
I've been staring at this quilt for weeks, wondering how I'm going to quilt it...


...and I'd like to have it done by the time I go to Lake Oconee Quilters. It has been sandwiched and I finally have some ideas. Just wanted you to see it before I wreck, I mean quilt it. From what I've read online, most quilters who have practiced their machine quilting (like I have), get the cold sweats about actually quilting on a quilt. What if I wreck it? One quilt teacher says, "That's why they make seam rippers!" Ugh. Anyway, you'll see this one again soon.