It was a good day!   Eli came in early to snag Pigwidgeon (the pug) who had snuck out of Eli’s room and come into ours, and when I said hello, his first words were Happy Mother’s Day.  When I asked what he wanted for breakfast, he said “whatever you want, it’s mother’s day!”  What a sweetie!  Since it was a bit late, we decided on Blueberry pancakes.  YUM!

Paul and Eli had gone to the store and suprised me with a balloon this year, and the flowers…two!  A beautiful soft pink, lovely-scented lily (in the back) and a bouquet with my favorite yellow (I think Eli likes the spider mums, too)

and some of the coolest roses I’ve ever seen:

Then we went to the early show (less expensive) of the new Star Trek movie, which is AWESOME!  I’m not a rabid trekkie, though I did enjoy the original show (which was hoakie even back then).  But this new/re-do, which tells how Spock, Kirk, Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, Bones and Scotty all met, is as awesome in its own way as Casino Royale (which is probably the best Bond movie of all time).  Anyway, it was a wonderful day.  Thank you to all three of my boys… I love you all!

Well, I forgot my camera!  So despite the fact that we celebrated Kate’s birthday, I’m afraid I’ll be short on pictures.  We met at Kathy’s house; Hannah was a bit under the weather and couldn’t make it, but Kate, Kathy and I had a wonderful time celebrating nonetheless.  I do have pictures of the gift I made for Kate.  I’ve submitted a sibling project to a magazine for consideration, but I think it will be OK to blog about this variation on the theme:  an accordion book/frame/memory project. 

Kate likes hands so much she picked them for her first theme for our round robin book-pages swap, and hearts for the second round.  So I updated quilting’s traditional heart-in-hand motif for the end pages of this small keepsake book.  The hearts are actually pockets for photos…the opening is sized to fit the wallet sized school photos.  I’m guessing her two kids will be in here, and if they are, she can also use a fabric pen to write their names in the heart in the hand.

Here’s the back side of the book:

Each pocket contains a “memories” card.  I thought it would be fun for the kids to add who their friends are, favorite songs, colors, clothes, sports/activities, books, movies, things to do with the family….   and I gave them two each of the cards (when kids goof sometimes they get really upset, so they got one for practice, one for real!).  The heart tag is the cut-out from the window-frame on the other side.

If the magazine doesn’t want to publish this, I may just turn it into a little pattern for sale, with all sorts of ideas and variations on the theme:  different ways to join the pages, different page shapes, different frame styles, using the pages as door banners (think of a photo frame page on the top, then a page for each letter in a child’s name, linked vertically to hang on their bedroom door).  Could be fun!

Lily Kerns, who knows all sorts of computer stuff and teaches it at www.QuiltUniversity.com, shared the following:

Here is a tip you might find useful.

Pencil drawings are often very hard to see  on the web.  If you open the image in any program that uses layers,  copy and then paste the image as a new layer.  Use the Multipy blend function and adjust its intensity if necessary.  This increases the contrast to make it much more visible.  You may need to combine the layers before saving…

You can use a program’s contrast functions to increase its visibility, but the Multiply works better.  I don’t know if you would want to do this yourself for images that come in or just share the information…but for whatever it is worth to you.  <G>

Lily

Thanks Lily!  I’ll try that with my next drawing posts!

Hi everyone!  Thanks to the wonderful response to my posts over on the Quiltart list, I have set up a new blog— See*Draw*Quilt*Learn (link is also on the left) — for anyone who wishes to join in working on improving their drawing skills.  To begin, I’m planning on working through the companion workbook to the New Drawing On the Right Hand Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.  If you’d like to participate, and/or if you ‘d like to be a contributor to that blog, surf over there and sign up by contacting me (but please read the first post to find out the general guidelines).

I thought I’d start things rolling by sharing my “pre-instruction” drawings from both the first time I did the workbook, in 2003/4, and the current one.  As I mentioned earlier, here, I think I could learn more by doing the exercises again.  The picture above is the 2009 drawing of my hand (photos are clickable for a larger view)… I deliberately worked (relatively) quickly, and didn’t do shading.  I think when I did my 2003 version, I had read ahead about shading and whatnot…. here is that one:

We were also to do a room/corner.  Since we moved, I couldn’t do the same corner.  Here is the living room corner in 2003:

and the corner of my studio in 2009:

The piece on the wall, next to the window, is this totally cool (and really challenging to draw) 3-D ish wool “window” by Frances Caple, who lives in the Hebrides.  She asked about a trade, and loved my Rites of Passage quilt.  I loved her windows, so she made this one special for me, and we swapped!  I’ll have to take a picture of my mini “art wall” to share with you… next post tho, want to get this one online.

The first time I went to International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, was the first year for the Journal Quilt Project.  Two series in particular grabbed me and wouldn’t let me forget them:  Maria Elkins’ feathers and Suzanne Riggio’s rooftops.  You can see Maria’s here, and Suzanne’s here (hers are the second row down in the first “bank” of journal quilts on that page).  To see more of that first year’s journals, click here.  I didn’t know at the time how many glorious quilts Suzanne had already made, and clearly with more to come.

Recently when I posted to the QuiltArt list about my drawing, Suzanne saw my post and must have remembered my San Domenico quilt (here and here plus additional blogposts in late June 2006) and sent me this jpeg of her quilt for St. Mary’s school.  Since she doesn’t have a blog, online album or website, I asked permission to share it with all of you and the quiltart list by posting it here:

What is astonishing is that during the eleven years this quilt was in the making, Suzanne had severe back problems, surgery, is now in a wheelchair, and STILL the art will come out, and come out stupendously well!  I just get goosebumps thinking about the quilt, her affection for her school, her art…the whole kit and kaboodle!

Suzanne wrote to me that the quilt “will live is a two-sided glass case with oak surround in the new atrium at St. Mary’s School.  (The names of the graduates and the history of the school are on the back.)”   The new wing will be dedicated on May 31, with archbishops and all.  I expect there will be MANY looks of awe and dew-y eyes!

Addendum:  some new information from Suzanne:
FYI, St. Mary’s is not my school.  We came to St. Mary’s Church in 1996 from West Virginia (36 years).  I had a solo quilt show at St. Mary’s in 1998, and that was the inspiration for the commission to do a sesquicentennial quilt for their school, due in 2009.  I knew nothing about the school at the time and had to do lots of research.

It was a school started by the School Sisters of Notre Dame who got their start in Bavaria in 1833.  Milwaukee was mostly settled by Germans, especially Bavarians, and was a good place for a “mission.” The sisters continued to sponsor the school until 1913 when the parish took over.  But the sisters continued to teach and administer.  The last SSND principal was Sister Betty–the quilt is dedicated to her.

In the course of my work, I applied for and received a couple of grants from the Wisconsin Arts Board to make this work of art.

The work contains historic stained glass (prismatic foil), maps, buildings then and now, lots of text giving the history, a quartet of kids representing 1859 and 2009, the sacraments kids receive, monstronses, gardens and orchards, sunrises, the names of graduates on the back, and a lot more.

Thanks Suzanne for letting me share this incredible work!  The photo is (theoretically) click-able to view slightly larger.