Quilting Arts likes us!

I just received the June/July 2011 issue of Quilting Arts, and there's a lovely review of our Twelve by Twelve book!  Thanks, QA!  I am so looking forward to sitting down and reading the rest of the issue.

Elusive but Beautiful

Shhhh.  Keep very still.  There's a smiling teenager nearby. 

This is sort of like spying a gorgeous butterfly in the garden -- if you move toward it too fast, it'll fly away.

I moved cautiously,and after a moment of consternation...

she relaxed and let me take some pictures. 

I think she even liked it.

Such a lovely creature.

Old Things

Here I am!  I've been absent lately due to a host of little things ... you know how there are some days when you set out to do one thing and you never even get to that?  It's been like that around here.  One of my tasks has involved upgrading the operating system on my computer, which has meant a whole lot of little glitchy computer things ... but I think I'm back up and running now.

My mom and dad are in the process of moving out of the house they've lived in for 40 years, and so I've managed to bring home boxes of stuff from my life in that house.  My brain tells me to PURGE PURGE PURGE but there is the sentimentalist in me and, despite the fact that I've not even seen these boxes for 20 years (and I should just chuck them unopened), I can't resist opening the up to dig through some old memories.

So here's what I found this week.  Does anyone remember Marriott's Great America?  I worked at the Great America in Santa Clara, California (right across to the convention center where PIQF is, btw) for a summer and a spring break or two.  It was the perfect college-student job, with a whole lot of fun if you didn't mind the incessant noise and crazy people (we used to swear that they checked their brains at the entrance gate.)  Finding the park's event buttons which we were required to wear brought back a lot of memories.  I worked mostly on the park's flagship attraction, the double decker carousel right at the front of the park.  And yep, from time to time people got sick on that ride, even.

In the same box was my beloved Barbie, who is showing serious signs of aging.  Her mascara sure needs a touch-up, and she's got some serious neck issues.  Note the cracks   wrinkles in her neck.  She needs a good turtleneck ... or any clothes at all, really.  (They'll turn up in some other box, I'm sure.)  But the curl in her hair has held up for 40 years, which is something, and there's not a strand of gray.

And then there's the troll doll.

Strangely, I don't remember naming him... her... well, it.  And my sister and I played with them endlessly, in their shoe-box houses.  This little guy ... girl... thing seems to have aged better than Barbie, I'd say. 

I can't wait until my parents get into the storage area above their garage, where my Barbie dream house and my sister's Barbie's Dress Shop have been hiding all these years. We're already looking forward to a Barbie play day.

Using it Up

 If you've been to a quilt shop, or a quilt guild meeting, or read a sewing or quilting magazine in the last few months, then you might have heard about the American Patchwork and Quilting drive to collect one million pillowcases for charity.  It's an appealing idea: corralling quilters and seamstresses to make a simple item that can be useful to lots of people, and encouraging them to donate them to their local charities.  My local group provides pillowcases to a camp for children whose lives have been touched by cancer -- each kid gets his or her own pillowcase and then takes it home with them.  It's sort of hokey -- and yet, it's a lovely, cheery way to touch someone's life.

Last week, I had another burst of energy in the get-stuff-out-of-the-closet kick I'm on, and I pulled a stack of fabric down from the top shelf to get it out of there.  I had a big stack of bright flannels -- I think I bought them years ago thinking I'd make a few of those rag quilts... or maybe it was for those make-your-own-chenille throws... I don't even remember.  But as I was setting them into a bag to give away, it struck me that they'd make a good bunch of pillowcases.

Using a "roll it up" pattern my friend Pat had given me that makes for a really quick and fun pillowcase (and you can see it demonstrated with instructions here) I started cutting hunks of flannel and next thing you know, I had 11 pillowcases.  AND an empty shelf in my closet.  It felt great.

By the way, is this a middle-aged thing?  That it feels better to get stuff out of the house then it does to go shopping for new stuff and bring it home?!

Gotta Share

Improv Everywhere is at it again -- and poking fun at some people sharing everything, every minute...




I keep grinning at "I can't wait to share that with my cat ... Wait, is there an app for that?"

A Random Thursday

I'm having one of those random thursdays, where the day ahead promises to have me ricocheting back and forth among all of the little things I have to today.  Nothing horribly pressing, but just a random collection of stuff that needs to be done.  You know -- call the doctor about an appointment.  Pack up some riding pants that I ordered for Miss C online and have to be returned.  Take the load of stuff to the Salvation Army.  Pick up dry cleaning.  Clean the vegetable bins in the fridge.  Exciting stuff like that. 

I tend to get distracted when I'm working down a list like that -- there are other, more fun things to do around here.  Like what's on my design wall, for instance -- I have made big flying geese with a bunch of scraps and I'm assembling them as shown.  It's fun and so pinky which I always want to be sewing with in the spring.  My lovely Bernina (do you all name your sewing machines?  This one seems so grand that she deserves a name but I've not settled on one yet.)  had a thread jam in the bobbin case that I wasn't unable to untangle at home, so she's at the dealer's for a thorough poke through her innards.  I've set up the trusty Juki so I can piece away at remarkably high speeds.

Oh -- one more random thing.  Thanks so much for the suggestions on how to photograph big quilts!  Sadly, Kristin, I don't have an upstairs balcony but I am amused by your bungee cord-rigging suggestion.  I think I'm going to try Terry's method of pinning quilts to the garage door.  I save my old sewing machine needles for tasks like that, as they don't make large holes in the quilts but they work like sturdy push pins.   Hey! Maybe I can do that this afternoon! 

Ta ta!

Dotty

I should be spending my fabric time figuring out what I am going to do for the upcoming 12x12 challenge which requires that we use a "spice color" palette.  So far I've not had any appealing ideas come to mind, so I'm just letting it be, hoping something good will float to the surface of my distracted mind.

But meanwhile, I've been continuing my mission to use up fabric in the closet.  And that explains this quilt, which I made from a bundle of Moda "layer cake" squares I found on sale a few years ago.  I do love polka dots and these fabrics are so bright and cheerful!  This ended up almost twin-bed sized, to my surprise, but as my goal was just to use up the fabric I'm glad it did.  This is destined for the Valley of the Moon Children's Shelter, my favorite place for donating quilts.

By the way, I always have a hard time figuring out how to photograph large quilts -- my design wall isn't nearly big enough. So this morning I pinned the quilt to a big roller shade that comes off of the patio arbor outside and gave that a try.  Hardly what the Quilt Photography experts would recommend but it got the job done.  (I have heard of people using their garage doors.  Perhaps I'll try that next.) 

Ladies, Start your Machines...

 

Unless you haven't stepped into a fabric store in the last few years (and I feel sorry for you if you haven't), then you might not know that the tidy roll of fabric above is known as a "jelly roll."  It's made up of 40 strips of fabric 2 1/2" wide, usually some assortment of colors or prints designed to look quite nice together.  It makes for a delicious bundle of color, and it's not surprising that because they've become so popular, bunches of projects that use them have proliferated wildly.

Which leads me to the concept of a "Jelly Roll Race."  I'd read about it on someone's blog some time ago, and it involves using one jelly roll to construct a quick quilt top that measures 48 x 60 inches.  The race aspect just makes it silly and fun -- so when I learned about it, I figured it'd be just the sort of goofy thing that would be a fun retreat game.

The directions for making the quilt top are really easy.  You essentially sew the strips together end to end, so that you have one long strip 1600 inches long (which explains why this is also sometimes called the "Jelly Roll 1600" quilt.  You then fold it in half, sew, cut and fold it in half again, until it is quilt sized.  You don't worry about fabric placement -- the strips themselves make the pattern. And it's a whole lot of straight seam sewing, which even a beginning sewer can do.

You can watch a race here, courtesy of Heirloom Creations:

So that's what we did one evening at the retreat last week. It was loads of fun and led to lots of giggling -- AND a gorgeous bunch of quilt tops:

You can find the detailed directions on making one of these here.  Be careful, I think they might be addictive.

Wanna Play?

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, and to all of the great moms out there -- and of course to the great kids who've made us the mothers we are!

And because I'm celebrating Mother's Day by, among other things, NOT doing the tidying and house stuff I would normally do, I thought I'd share a scene from the dining room yesterday.  When I came home from the quilt retreat, I piled the two quilts I'd machine quilted on the dining room table -- and Willow immediately made herself right at home.
 

And Willow up on the table meant that Gemma, our black lab mix, was circling the table, thinking that Willow might want to play.  NOT.

"I said, NO."

Wait, where'd she go?

Is she over there?

 

She's down there again.  NO, I don't want to play.

I think it'll be a stand-off.  Or make that "sleep-off."  (Excuse the blur.)

Back from the Ranch

 

So remember I told you that I had to use that cowboy fabric in a challenge quilt for my ranch retreat?  Well, here's what I did.  

I started thinking about how, at the Bishop's Ranch site of our retreat, our group is known as the "Ranch Hands."  And that led me to think about what a cowboy would expect if he heard that the female ranch hands were putting on a show, which led me to suspect that he would NOT show up for a quilt show.  So I settled on the idea of putting a confused (and disappointed!) cowboy in the middle of one our show-and-tell shows.

Over the years at ranch retreats, I've taken tons of pictures during our show and tell.  I started working with photos in Photoshop, to scale my friends up to a size that would work in proportion to that rather large cowboy.  Once I had the images scaled, I printed them onto fabric with my inkjet printer.  I still find my inkjet printing results to be pretty muted in color no matter how I boost the saturation before I print, so I took Tsukineko inks to paint fresher, brighter colors onto everyone.  That cowboy is pretty garish (not to mention, ORANGE) so I was trying to make the colors a bit more compatible with his tones.

Then I fused everyone into position -- arranging the quilt show was the most fun part, I think -- and then stitched it all down with monofilament thread.  And yes, I put myself in it:

That's me, holding up the black and white quilt.

I even fired up the embroidery part of my machine and figured out how to add the caption, which reads "Tex heard that the ladies at the ranch were putting on a show... but this wasn't what he imagined."

The quilt was a big hit when we revealed our challenge quilts -- but I'm most pleased that I've created a wonderful souvenir of my great friends and fun times at the retreat.

Happy May Day!

It is May 1st!  There are so many things I could be doing today.  Setting up a May pole, decking the patio in ribbons and decorations, having a May Day luncheon.  Basking in the beautiful sunshine outside, enjoying the flowers blooming in the garden -- well, okay, enjoying the THOUGHT of flowers that WILL be blooming as soon as I weed and sort out the mangy flowerbeds and pull all of those weeds... Or I could do a burst of spring cleaning, clearing out the old clutter to make things organized and tidy.

Yep, I could do those things today.  But I won't.  Instead, I'm packing up my sewing gear to head over to Bishop's Ranch this afternoon for our 2011 spring retreat.  And (although I'll be home to sleep in my own comfy bed each night), I'll be escaping to the retreat for most of the week.

So there is much fun, laughter, activity, production, and good food ahead.  What better way to celebrate spring?!  I'll see you next weekend!  Hope you celebrate May's arrival in with your own fun adventure!

Quilting with Cowboys

I have finished a quilt this week, but I can't show it to you.  And it involves this "Cowboy Hunk" fabric.  Nope, I'm not kidding -- but I can at least add that I didn't choose this stuff.  (If you must have some for yourself, you can find it on Equilter.com by searching "cowboy hunks."  I'm not kidding.  And you can even get it in different colorways.)

This coming week, I'll be off on my twice-yearly quilting retreat at the Bishop's Ranch.  A few years ago, we started doing a challenge for the spring retreat, and last April someone chose THIS cowboy fabric as the challenge fabric.  So our task was to use it in a quilt, any way we chose.  It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do, and I came up with an idea I love -- so I've been finishing that up and I'm delighted with it.  I can't wait for the reveal at the retreat, which will happen at the tail end of it all.

I'll show you the quilt when I'm back.

BUT I can say that I had some new and exciting adventures with my Bernina 830 which I am continuing to love.  I had a good experience sewing with monofilament thread on it, even sewing through fusibles with it which can be tricky on any machine.  I incorporated some lettering in the quilt which I machine embroidered, and figured out how to embroider a long sentence and make it all line up despite having to move the hoop.  So the whole thing was a fun experience, and isn't that what it's all about, after all?

A Walk in the Sunshine

 

It's a beautiful day in Sacramento, where Miss C and I are visiting my friend Beth for the weekend.  We thought we'd take a walk on the abandoned railroad track path near Beth's house.

 

Beth's dog Emmy is sauntering along with us, enjoying the smells.

 

 I keep falling behind, because I'm enjoying the wildflowers.

  

...and enjoying photographing the flowers.  There are tons of California poppies around here.

 

Emmy wants to know if I'm coming.

 

So do Beth and Miss C.  Okay, okay, I'm coming!

  

I think they've had enough of the pictures.  I'm just doing my job as Mamarazzi, but I get the point.  

 

I'll go back to just enjoying a walk in the sunshine with my daughter, my best friend, and a very mellow dog.

Those Same Tricky Questions

In our homeschooled World History course, Miss C is learning about the Renaissance.  I ordered this DVD set, called "DaVinci and the Mysteries of the Renaissance" because it not only addressed the life of Leonardo Da Vinci, but also because it included several other videos on the arts and sciences of the time.  Today, we watched the video titled "The Artists."

And here's what struck me.  Looking at the art of the 14th and 15th centuries raises the same questions artists ask themselves today.  What is art?  How does culture impact art, and art reflect society?  If a patron enables an artist to make new work, what does the artist owe the patron?  To what extent would or should an artist vary his or her vision to please the audience?   It's really rather humbling to recognize that artists like Michelangelo and Da Vinci and Bruneleschi and Titian stumbled over these same issues.

If you can find The Artists video part of this series (check your library!), it's well worth watching.  There are lots of comments by current artists and art historians, talking about how artists of the period help us understand why art is important.  The video doesn't just address art history -- it addresses art's place in our lives regardless of the age in which we live.

La la la, yak yak yak, yum yum yum

The wisteria is in bloom all over the neighborhood, so it must be spring! 

Today's an action-packed Sunday.  The Healdsburg Chorus is heading into our final concerts of the season, and this afternoon will be the busiest one, I think.  The music is so pretty  -- including Shenendoah, Once Upon a Time, some Gilbert and Sullivan, some silliness, and a rousing medley from Sound of Music which is so fun to sing and always gets the audience's toes tapping.  It's a shame to have to stop singing the songs just when we have gotten good at singing them!

Today is an auspicious birthday day -- Happy Birthday to my dad and my friend Pat! 

Various friends are coming into town for the chorus concert, and then we'll celebrate by a fun dinner out this evening. 

So that explains the title post -- it sums up the day.  Hope you have a beautiful Sunday ahead!

Leaf Dissection

Yesterday we revealed a new set of quilts over at the Twelve by Twelve blog.  The theme was "chartreuse," and this piece above was my contribution.  When I finished it, I was happy with it -- and yet, I have some ongoing ambivalence about it.

I think it comes down to my mixed feelings about using realistic images in my quilts.  There's obviously something that draws me in that direction -- my literal mind, surely, but also a real pleasure in seeing something real depicted in fabric and thread.  I love the work of artists like Marcia Stein and Velda Newman
It's a direction I've taken often in our 12x12 challenges. (Here, and here, and here, for example.)

And, when I think about it, I enjoy developing the skill to translate an image into fabric and thread.  I think it was my favorite part of working on this Wisteria piece, actually -- the process of really looking, and fine-tuning the values and contrasts, getting the highlights and shadows in there, finding and adding bits of subtle color. So all of that felt good and I really did have a grand time making this.

At the same time, I have a sort of "So what?" reaction.  Perhaps the more realistic a piece is, the less appealing it is -- after all, why recreate a photograph when you have the photograph?  In some ways -- aside from the technical aspects -- creating the most realistic interpretation may be the easiest route.  Abstraction of an image -- capturing a sense of the image as well as the emotional tone and energy -- is a lot harder.  It's what I love love love in the work of Sue Benner and Patty Hawkins. Ah, well, it's clear I've got a long way to go if that's what I'm aiming for.  And, I suppose that's the question:  what AM I aiming for?

In any event, that's not a question I can answer today.  Instead, I'll show you a bit about how the wisteria leaves piece developed. I started with this base, hand-dyed green fabric fused to the lavender base.

From there, I started thread-sketching.  I discovered that what looks good up close may look too bland from a distance.  I'd add what seemed a dramatically contrasting thread -- say, red -- and then I'd step back and it would almost disappear.  At one point, thinking I was nearing the end, I got to this point:

But when it was up on my wall for a bit, it just didn't have the punch of the original photo.

Too little contrast, too many medium to light values.  Too much of the same color of green.  So I went back in with more thread, and a bit of shading with my beloved Neocolor II crayons, to darken things up.

I suppose I could have fiddled with this for a lot longer, adding some blue here, some yellow there.  But it was time to stop. 

I'm going to try to make myself head in a more abstract direction next time.  Oh, heck, it's all about having fun, right?  So I'll do whatever appeals at the moment. 

Chartreuse, Revealed!

Over on the Twelve by Twelve blog, we're revealing our chartreuse-inspired quilts today!  Head on over to see how I used this photo as my inspiration, and to see what everyone else did, too!

Ten Cents!

If you haven't tried a) watching one of Interweave/Quilting Arts' video workshops, or b) downloading a digital workshop to watch from your computer's hard drive, then TODAY is the day.

Interweave is offering two digital download videos for TEN CENTS each.  That's two hour-long workshops for twenty cents! 

One if the video pictured above, Lyric Kinard's "sampler platter" of surface design techniques.  The other is Malka Dubrawsky's video workshop called "Shape Shifting: Using Shibori to Mimic Pieced and Appliqued Designs". 

 
I've seen Malka's shibori workshop and it's great instruction.  I've just downloaded Lyric's on surface design and will look forward to watching that one.  It's really easy to download these... and practically instantaneous.  C'mon, it's twenty cents.  You won't be sorry. 

(I'm not affiliated with QA or Interweave, just a big fan of the dvd workshop and delighted at getting anything for ten cents!)

Before Your Very Ears

Go grab a beverage and head on over to Annie Smith's Quilting Stash website. Her newest podcast features an interview me and Helen Conway! We sat down with Annie last October, at PIQF, to talk about 12x12, our book, and Helen's first visit to PIQF.

If you hurry, you might be in time to leave a comment on Annie's blog and win a copy of Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge, too!

(By the way, it's easy to subscribe to Annie's podcasts for free via Itunes.  Search "Quilting Stash" and it'll pop right up.)  Thank you, Annie, for sharing this interview with Helen and me with your listeners!

And now I wait...

I had an unexpectedly open morning, so I took the opportunity to play a bit with something I've been wanting to do.  I've been laying out masking tape on fabric ...

and I've stencilled in color using Shiva Painstiks.  This has not only been fun and relaxing -- it's also been feasible with minimal input from the left hand, which is still surprisingly sore.

I was thinking how much fun I'd have machine quilting when all of the color was added, but then I started thinking about how these paintstiks have to cure ... so I looked it up.  And they are supposed to cure for 3 to 5 days! 

Darn.  So much for an instant gratification sort of project.