Last weekend was fun…TWO quilty things! First things first: on Saturday, Art Quilts Maine met in the usual spot in Augusta (the state capitol, it’s on I-295, and is therefore fairly centrally located for most everyone…they say it’s an hour’s drive to anywhere in Maine, and they’re about right!). AQM is a state-wide chapter for art quilters that is part of a State-wide guild, the Pine Tree Quilters Guild. There are regional chapters throughout the state, plus a couple state-wide chapters…one for art quilts, one for crazy quilters, and not sure if there is another or not.

The first part of the meeting, a mini-workshop let by two AQM members had most folks working on free-motioning dragonflies on sheer fabric. Since I’ve done that sort of thing, I took advantage of being in Augusta and zipped over to Michael’s, where I was happy to find a few remaining bottles of Liqui-Fuse (see Terry Grant’s blog for a fabulous tutorial) and an Aleene’s repositionable adhesive that looked intriguing. If you think you’d like to try her method, you can use either the remaining Liqui-Fuse or the “new” Liquid Thread by Beacon (same item, different name, smaller bottle, same price…sigh). Then, a dash into Barnes and Noble, which also has a Starbucks! Venti Latte, whole milk, lots of chocolate powder, please!

The next part of the meeting was business, but went fairly well, and Anne Walker shared her contribution to the AQM “Clothesline” challenge. She was inspired by the outdoor art shows where artworks are displayed on clotheslines….she made each of those little pieces hanging from the line, and each one is smaller than a postcard. Fun! (that’s her behind the quilt!)

Then, well…guess what. I think I’ll post about the Frayed Edges in the next installment since this has gotten wordy (sigh…can’t help it….. as Voltaire said , or at least I think it was Voltaire, forgive me for writing a long letter since I don’t have time to write a short one).

Hi all…. just a quick note for those of you in driving distance of Maine. I’ll be teaching my starting Machine Quilting, Fine Finishes (bindings) and Machine Applique classes in both Nobleboro (in the mid-coast on Route 1) and Auburn (just of I-295 north of Portland) in the coming 7 weeks. Here’s the schedule:

June 17: Fine Finishes: learn a minimum of four ways to finish the edges of a quilt at Cote Brothers bindings, in Auburn. You’ll learn how to do perfect straight grain and bias double-fold how to use a facing on the edge of a quilt (needed to do prairie points), make piping, and see a selection of 16 other edge finishes. Time permitting, you can pick any one of the other finishes, and I’ll teach you how!

(Photo Coming! I’ll have to take photos, and won’t be able to do that until tonight…but will show pictures of close-ups of the binding and edge-finish samples.)

June 24: Machine Quilting: Machine quilting is like painting a house: you need good tools, good preparation, good materials, and good skill to get a good result. I’ll tell you about the first three in the first half of the class, then the second half of the class is hands-on practice in using the walking foot and the darning/quilting foot for free-motion quilting. You’ll receive the stitch patterns to make this sampler, but you can just wing it if you’d prefer! The class is at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro.

The pink sampler is from the More Machine Quilting Class, where you learn to use decorative threads and take on more challenging designs. I hope we’ll be able to schedule this class somewhere in Fall!

July 15: Machine Applique: Also at Maine-ly Sewing, this is an intro to machine applique class. Using my Blue Gingko pattern (if you click on the link, scroll down), you’ll learn satin-stitched fusible applique, freezer paper applique and reverse applique, and stiff-interfacing underneath applique (similar to freezer paper). Use your blocks to make a wall-hanging as I did, or a small wall-quilt, placemats, pillows, on a sweatshirt jacket…lots of uses!

If you live close and would like to take one of my classes, let me know and I’ll see where we can schedule one. In Maine, I need at least five students at Maine-ly Sewing, ten at Cote Brothers, and number-varies depending for other locations (depends on distance). Outside of Maine, contact me for my teaching fees and other requirements. Thanks!

Sometimes you don’t get in. In this case, I entered two quilts in the special exhibit “In the American Tradition” for Houston, but neither was accepted. The e-mail said they had over 100 quilts to consider…26 were accepted. That means 1 in 4 got in. I know that I am not an expert traditional quilter, but I had hoped my log cabin would get in, not because of the piecing, but because of the quilting. And this time, my photos were MUCH better, and you could actually see the quilting. Sigh.

Here are the two quilts:

From Sea to Shining Sea (51×51 inches, machine quilted) and detail:

Oceans Alive (93×93 inches, hand quilted) and detail; pattern by Mary K. Ryan, original quilting design by me:

So I’m kinda bummed. I’m at least getting into the second tier shows, but can’t figure out why I’m not getting into the top tier. Is log cabin just to boring, no matter how good the quilting? I was thinking that if this were a wholecloth, it might have gotten in, but maybe because it was an old fashioned (well, not really but you know what I mean) log cabin, this didn’t get in.

Anyway, with my misgivings about the nativity quilt, and these “declines”, I’m wondering if my work is any good at all…. and wondering what it takes, and why I don’t seem to have it….. getting juried into a show (and not throwing away the entry fee money) would be nice about now….

Oh well. Back to quilting the nativity quilt. Since Tableau is an odd word for most folks, and they won’t know the link to Fra Angelico, I think I’ll title the quilt after one of my favorite Christmas stories, They Followed a Bright Star by Joan Alavedra and Ulises Wensell. The illustrations are lyrical, and it tells the story of the first Christmas simply and beautifully.

I’ll get over it. But I still wonder…..

Deirdre asked…silly me, I’ve forgotten to add a few key details!

The Sea Dogs WON! It’s way fun when they do, or when one of them hits a homer: a lighthouse pops up from behind the centerfield wall and gold sparklers come out of the light tower! So we got to see the lighthouse at the end of the game!

The nativity quilt is large: once I get the final borders on it will be about 54×72 inches. It grew. I didn’t intend for it to be that big, but if the figures were much smaller, you’d lose all detail. So the buildings had to grow to be in scale with the figures. Then I decided it really needed a border… the plaid inner border was initially going to be appliqued on after the quilting was done. But there were too many figures that would have been covered (or interrupted the border), so that didn’t work. Plus it needs the dark all the way around. Stay tune…you’ll see!

Cheers, Sarah in muggy, drippy Maine!

Yesterday I basted the Nativity quilt, and today I began quilting. Here’s what it looked like first thing this morning (I love Thursdays…don’t go to Curves or anything else…it’s my “entire day to quilt”):

I got a lot more done today than I expected, thanks to having done a lot of the stitching as free-motion embroidery (which also means fewer threads to bury!). I began with the slightly wonky gray building on the left. I am not happy with the way it looks, but it would require major surgery to straighten it, and that’s not going to happen. I’m hoping it won’t bother me as much when all is said and done. Unlikely, but anyway….

I quilted the words of the Prophet of the Shepherds (a verse from Luke I think it is… the one about the shepherds tending their flocks, hearing from the angel announcing the birth of the Savior in the city of David….) into the outside of the building, contour stitched the columns and Corinthian (oh dear…what’s that architectural element called…the one at the top of a column….) capitol (?), and the inside of the archway. The verse is continued on the walls of the interior building and on the ground below it.

I also managed to quilt the sheep, the goat, the wood of the stable, the hair of the various figures (which was really just a few lines each), the snow on the mountaintops, half of the mountain area, the cat and the manger. Not bad for a full day!

But why is it that I always like the backs of my quilts better than the fronts? Here’s a so-so photo of the back (color is off, but at least it shows the quilting ….. At least I know that the quilting is working… now, if I could just be sure that the front of the quit is working, too, that would be oh so comforting. Sigh….