Posts….

Houston Bound!

The heck with Sandy. We will see what becomes of her over the next day or two but I am focusing on the other end of this week:

My first trip to the International Quilt Festival ( IQF ) in Houston, Texas!

Long on my bucket list, Timmy decided it would be an awesome Christmas present this year. ( I tend to agree. Both that it IS an awesome gift, and that HE is an awesome husband!Red heart)

Unfortunately, he didn’t give me very much time to squirrel away money to SHOP! I think I may be going for the show (ie, LOOKING at the quilts) and for the friendship….meeting up with 50,000 like-minded souls.

(OK, and the tiniest bit of shopping, but lots of looking and plotting and planning…. if only I could sell my first-born, alas she is a bit old for that…Smile with tongue out)

 

I will be going as well to see two of my photos that were juried into the photo show that is on display at the quilt show, in a special Exhibit called Favorite Things.

“Hovercraft”

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“The Stories They Tell”

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And I will be bringing along a small pile of ATC’s and Mug Rugs to trade!  I have never made either, but I have had a lot of fun working on them (and feeling they may not be worthy, but that is a post in itself, isn’t it?)

I have been on a kick lately of just using up scraps. And using them in a very organic, no-thought kind of fashion, stitching them together until they resemble something large enough to cut into a shape of something else. I did sort a few tubs of scraps kind of by color, so some of the new pieces of fabric have a feeling of ‘unity’, but a good deal more are simply random.  Here is a lap quilt top using some of that ‘new’ fabric.IMG_2058

The ATC’s began as the leftovers of a Drunkards Path quilt called Emails from China that I made.  Very neutral colors, taupe and such. (Very NOT me, but I love it, and it hangs in my bedroom, probably the calmest colored room in the house) An in progress photo of the quilt. Yes, I am feeling too lazy to go take a new photo! of the finished product.

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After arranging scraps on Peltex and stitching,  I decided they needed some color. Out came my wild variety of paints, fabric and otherwise.  I keep saying the one thing I will NOT get sucked into is hand-dyeing fabrics. But over-dyeing and painting on commercial fabrics is fun!

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I made one set of these, and haven’t completely decided if they are finished yet….(but time is growing short, I know….)

Next, mug rugs. Using some of those new pieces of fabric I made with scraps, I then added some fun ribbons, and practiced some really awful machine quilting…. I also am trying to get myself to admit defeat, so I took a rather unsuccessful holiday wall-hanging, and have ‘repurposed’ it into mug rugs. (Think a washable, overly large coaster, where you can place your hot chocolate or coffee on one side and a nice big brownie on the other.)IMG_2495IMG_2498

Last but not least, I made myself a funky fabric covered button, announcing to one and all that I am a Quilt Art online member! (oh, and I got new glasses yesterday!)

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See you in Houston!!!

Scrappity scrap scrap! (quilts!!!)

I am not a quilter who worries overmuch about rules, or about precision (except where REQUIRED and UNAVOIDABLE), nor am I afraid of color, or colors matching, or….well, I think you get the idea….

Earlier this month, I had a revelation about my studio, and so enlisted DH to take a trip to IKEA….sigh…

We came back with the perfect solution to the chaos that WAS the studio….

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We bought the insides of kitchen cabinets, white, wall mount sized, that would fit those wonderful scrapbooking containers.  Mounted one set on legs, to make it the proper height to iron on, tossed the ironing board in the Goodwill corner, and mounted an 18x 48 piece of wood, with batting and Teflon covering.  The other set is without legs so it would slide a bit under the cutting table.

So, now that I have such an organized space, I need to make some quilts, right? Prove to myself that what was stopping me was disorganization?

Enter the scrap quilt. (Wow, did I find a LOT of scraps.) During the Olympics I dumped all those totes into a pile and sorted, very loosely, into color groups. (i.e., all the teal/blue/aqua/greenish into one pile)  I didn’t agonize. I just went with my gut.  Then, I took a container to my quilt meeting, ironed all of the scraps, and loosely sorted by size.

Next, I grabbed a handful and started sewing together in strips. As you see below, there is NO organization. They aren’t the same size. The widths are different. The colors are all of a feeling of belonging, however. I didn’t square up anything, so if it was 2 inches at one end and three at the other, well then it starts to get wonky is all.

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I took a square ruler, and began to cut out 9 inch squares.  (The scraps from the cutting will be sewn together and made into another quilt.)

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Next, cut into diagonals. And choose another fabric to make an equal number of 9 inch squares. *(six, this time)

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Pin those stretchy bias edges like a mad fool and chain piece!

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Press, with lots of starch, and lay out on a design wall.

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All that is left is to settle on a layout, and what color sashing I will use. (Probably black.) Add a nice wide border with some other large-ish piece of fabric that I haven’t chosen yet, and Viola!!! A quilt!

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And, a completely different, yet scrappy project, is another baby quilt!

Spoiler alert:    This is my signature baby gift.

My theory being if the quilt is too ‘precious’ the parents won’t let the child barf on it, so I choose 42 (the meaning and purpose of life) colorful 5 inch blocks, sewn together 6×7 rows. Then half of a length of fleece, a package of satin blanket binding, some fancy stitches to hold it altogether, and a test run through the washing machine later, we have a baby quilt! (Complete with baby’s name embroidered on the edge)

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No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth…(Now with photos)

Nothing so dramatic as all that. Sadly all it seems to be is a lack of anything interesting to say. The fact I am writing is because suddenly  we are heading into our 6th month of the year and I need to figure out—what have I got to show for it?

Because really? I FEEL like I’ve somehow lost the past 5 months. This year is flying by. If they say times goes faster as you get older, all I can think is I’ll be eighty before I blink!

DID do my 10k. That was pretty much my last post, (which was something just like this post, a whine and complaint about WHERE IS THE TIME GOING???)

Layla-bug now has 5 teeth and is crawling! (So, SHE at least is taking my word of the year—MOTION– to heart) Talk about time flying!

Two of three shows I was going to do are in the record books. Did good at one (even got second place, Judge’s Choice) and pretty stinky at the other. C’est la vie.

The third is coming up on June 8th. That is a one woman show on the mezzanine of Butterworth’s/PRAC.  I JUST hit the order prints button on that one! Talk about holding my finger over the panic button.  I culled 61 photos from the 2500+ that I shot over the course of last year down at the Appomattox River.

And, then the fun stuff. The day after the show, it’s VACATION! And it couldn’t come soon enough. Time to get my head somewhere other than work, to establish a better plan of attack for the remaining half of the year, because the next thing you know, there will be Christmas stuff in the store again.

Here, just for the sake of it, are some photos! This is a musk thistle, found on the edge of Henricus Park.

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One of the Magnolias at Maymont.

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Quilt wise, I DID get a quilt on the bed! Our wedding quilt, renamed our 10th Anniversary quilt.

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Many other quilts in MIND. Not on the cutting table yet. Maybe I need to move my focus….hmm…

Happy Memorial Day Weekend. The official kick off of summer (although we’ve been feeling it for a while), REMEMBER to Think about WHY we have this weekend, and THANK a soldier…