So finally it was time to square up the quilt.  Oh dear.  The standing woman was not standing up straight!!!!!!  And if I didn’t get her straight and centered, then she would look like she was listing sideways when I squared up the edges, where I REALLY needed there to be EXACTLY even background on either side of the woman with her leg up.  So I carefully pried apart the figure (from the waist up) and repositioned her and did some insertion of yellow to fill in the gaps.  Problem solved!  Next, time to fuse the entire top to the batting, baste all of that to the backing and quilt!

At the machine.... Rubeus Hagrid (aka Janome Horizon 7700!). Decided I needed to use up some of my print fabrics that I no longer use, and had enough of this beautifully colored Fossil Fern for the back.

Here is the entire quilt:

Finished!

A close-up of the two figures at the top in “mermaid” poses:

Notice the pale pink and pale peach women at the top, with arms reaching towards each other

A view of the bottom:

Two figures at the bottom..."warrior" on the left and "pretzel stretch" on the right

And a bit more of the middle:

center--close up. Interestingly I used some No. 100 (same as size 60-wt) silk for the background quilting. The part on the yellow is a variegated yellow, and sure enough Bob Purcell of Superior is right... the variegation doesn't show. I ran out of my 220-yard spool of variegated, and had only a section the size of my hand left to quilt, so used a medium-yellow 60-wt silk from Superior to finish...and even up close I can't find where I switched threads! So I guess I can skip the variegated silk (even tho it is so beautiful on the spool) for the way I use thread.

I hadn’t used silk for background quilting before, but I very much like the way it handles and looks, so when I want the thread to be fine and disappear into the quilt, I think I’ll use the silk.

When I was done, I had intended to put a facing on the quilt, as most of my art quilts are faced.  But I missed that darker edge.  See I quilt so much, I have to make things that are to finish at a specific size at least 2-3 inches larger because I don’t know how much “take-up” or shrinkage there will be from the dense quilting.  And I ended up needing to trim off some of the darker edges, and I missed them.  So I used a traditional bias double-fold binding in a deep purple batik.  Just right!

Now, here’s to hoping it makes it into the exhibit this year!

Got some great news this week, made official with the arrival yesterday of semi-finalist information from AQS (American Quilters Society):  my 20 1/2 by 20 1/2 inch quilt that I made for the Coastal Quilters Grocery Challenge, From the Schooner Coast, has been accepted in the miniatures category at Paducah! The smallest squares  finish at (shoot me!  WHY? did I do this…and believe it or not I could actualy see doing this again) 1 1/8″.  Yes, scarcely larger than an inch.  For those of you not in the U.S.  that is about 2.6 or 2.7 cm.  Small.

From the Schooner Coast (click to see a bit larger)

This quilt is a hybrid of a 9″ square art quilt depicting Camden Harbor and miniature storm at sea blocks.  I talked about the Grocery Challenge here (part 1) and here (part 2), but in a nutshell (this was something I thought up…imagine…an original challenge idea!) take a food or beverage from the grocery store as your inspiration.  You had to use at least 4 colors from the package (adding black and white was allowed), but so that folks just didn’t troll the aisles looking for a package with colors they liked, you had to add at least one motif or element inspired by the packaging.  For example, if you picked corkscrew noodles, you could quilt with a corkscrew design; or, if you picked Tabasco sauce, you could use a chili-pepper fabric.

I chose Shipyard Export Ale because I love woodblock prints and I love that the image is so “Maine.”  However, I thought the picture on the label looked like Wiscasset, not Camden, so I changed it a bit to look like OUR town and feature one of the local schooners (with permission of the captain). Here’s the bottle and carrier:

Shipyard Export ale, my "grocery" inspiration for the 2011 CQ Challenge

SO…. if you are lucky enough to be headed to the big show in Paducah, hope you get to see my little quilt.  I harbor NO hopes that it will win any awards…the piecing isn’t quite perfect and this is the quilt where I learned that I should have used the hopping foot to free-motion quilt, not the one that skims the surface.  Why?  The “skimming” foot got hung up on the thick intersections for those blocks.  And when I pulled/tugged/etc. to get the quilt under the foot, the stitch length became inconsistent.  But I love this little quilt of “home” anyway!   And I learned something new that I can share with my students and all of you!

For the third year, I’ve been lucky to be invited to submit a quilt for consideration for a special exhibit to debut at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach (and which has moved on to Houston and beyond for the past two years).  My earlier entries were the portrait of our son, Joshua, for the “Beneath the Surface” challenge and a self-portrait for “The Space Between.”  Curated by Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal of Dinner@8Artists, this year’s theme is “Rituals,” but the size has changed to a more challenging 24″ wide by 60″ long.

Fairly early in the fusing process for Strength and Calm

My first thought was to do a triptych of sorts:  breakfast is tea at my laptop with oatmeal (Irish oats), lunch is dog walkies, evening is decaf tea and a good book.  But I was bored with it before I even began.  And I was stumped.  I don’t feel like I really have any other rituals.  I’m sure I do, but what?  And could I make ANYthing of interest to ANYone?

While mulling over my lack of ideas, I signed up for a class at the local Y called Bodyforging.  This class combines some yoga positions, Pilates and other exercises to develop core strength, flexibility, and I’m sure there is something else.   One day while working on a “mermaid” pose, I was watching a classmate thinking how beautiful the shapes of her body are while doing these stretches and the idea for a “yoga” quilt was born.  At first the idea was just to do a figure, perhaps with some ghosting of the movements through the sequence.  But then I realized I could use this theme for Rituals, as this class has become an essential ritual in my week.  After a nearly 20 month hiaitus in exercise thanks to too much life happening, it was time to get serious and do something about my increasingly weak and flabby body.

Good news:  the body is getting stronger, flexibility has returned, I love the class, AND I morphed the idea for a “yoga” quilt into this project.

To fill the long space, I decided to use a woman in “Mountain” pose: standing straight with arms above her head, but with a closed fist and an open hand, since our teacher closes each class with the thought of the fist for strength, the open hand for calm, as we go into our days.

But a single figure like that would be boring, so I thought about layering figures and poses.  I loved “Mermaid” and “Warrior” so knew I would use those.  I needed another vertical image, so in googling yoga poses, chose the figure with the lifted leg.  Checks with a few friends indicated they didn’t like the pose with the arm extended in front (and therefore cut off from visibility on the quilt), so I moved her arm up for balance which is a challenging variation on the pose.  And I love what is known to me as the pretzel stretch.

I began by assembling various generic photos to use to create my sketches; when done, I outline using a fine black felt-tip pen.  The paper used below is medical exam table paper which is cheap, fairly thin and can be cut long—a lot more thrifty than tracing paper.:

Full-size pencil sketch of one of the two main figures--I later realized that the arm in front is disproportionately long and fixed that.

Then I decided to begin with the two main figures in cloth, starting with the hardest parts:  the faces and exposed body parts.  I picked a bunch of pre-fused (I love Love LOVE MistyFuse!) skin tone fabrics:

Skin tone fabrics--with skin tone being very loosely defined, since some of these include lavender and green and burgundy--cut into collage-able chunks.

I started with the face:

Blocking out the shapes. I cut to approximately the shape I need, then fine tune after "fuse-tacking" in place. Here I've moved the in-progress piece to the green mat to improve contrast for a photo

A bit more fabric added, blending done. You can see underneath the nonstick press sheet the ink outlines on my inked sketch. I position the fabrics on top and fuse them to each other. If you look at the very first photo, you'll see the head and arms UNDER the sketch. I will position them under the inked outline and add transfer paper to transfer the final edge and trim.

I’ll go through several building stages, starting with face/neck, adding head shape then more hair, then exposed body parts.

Refined a bit more; the fabrics on the left are ones used to cut slivers for more hair

The garments go together a lot more quickly, and use much larger segments of fabric:

shirt made, pants in progress

Then there is the lady in the Mountain pose:

Working on the face...looks kinda creepy with the eyes not yet inserted under the openings.

Checking fabrics for her pants. I wanted the garments for this figure to be darker and more toned in color than the woman in the foreground.

I didn’t want to use an exact replica of the photo I found on the internet, so I kinda made up this figure and her face.  I can tell.  For the hands, I used the camera on my laptop to take pictures of my hands in the position I wanted.  I struggled with the face getting the eyes and pupils and whatnot “just right.”  Now that it is done, it isn’t perfect, but it is improved one tiny sliver and trim at a time.

Here are the two mostly-completed figures pinned up on the wall:

Mostly done and on the wall to review: there isn't enough contrast between the standing leg of the woman in front and the woman behind, so I revised the fabric on the standing leg. The accuracy of shading isn't right any more, but it works better overall.

I wanted to have the color radiate out from behind the figure with the lightest color like an aura/halo behind the standing woman, merging from yellow to coral and pink to plum.  I could have pieced it, but all those seams are lumpy and bumpy to quilt, and I wanted something fairly jiggedy-jaggedy.  So I fused it.  I prepared but using my stash of pre-fused fabrics and fusing up some larger chunks to cut into sorta-square-ish shapes.

Ready to start on the background. I cut the shapes then sorted them into a color gradation.

Then I started working my way out, as seen in the photo up top, which I’m repeating here:

Fairly early in the fusing process for Strength and Calm--note the tan press sheet on the wall and see the text and link below.

For the next post, I’ll show the some photos of working out the background, then deciding what to do for the additional figures.  At this point I still didn’t know if I was going to use fabric–either collaged or silhouette or sheer, or simply quilted outlines, or what.

And a plug:  that long tan bit on the design wall is a ginormous non-stick applique press sheet.  It is pretty much the same thing which MistyFuse uses to make their nonstick Goddess press sheets, but really BIG.  I ordered it from art quilter Valerie Hearder, in Canada, here.  After several years of dithering and waiting to have some savings in the bank, I bought TWO pieces each 36″ wide by 72″ long!  One covers my big-board ironing surface, the other is pinned to the design wall.  It was totally worth the expense, and really easy to order from Canada–passing through Customs and international mail was easy peasy.  Valerie sells it in either 18 or 36 inch wide bits, and sells it by the yard so you can get just the length you need for your available space.

Hi all…great news this week:  I’ve been selected to be on the Faculty at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas…as in: I’m teaching at the best show in the world! (I taught there are few years ago, and am thrilled and considerably less terrified now return… I know I can do it!)  I will have full-day classes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, will participate in the Machine Quilting Forum on Thursday morning, and may well do a 30-minute “Meet our Teachers” demo on the quilt show floor (schedules permitting)  and participate in the “Friday Sampler” from 10-Noon.  If the scheduling for the latter two works, I’ll be demo-ing my fused collage technique at the “Meet our Teachers” and on Friday will share/demonstrate free-motion quilting!  And as always, Janome-America will be able to lend me a machine for my demos…yeah and thank you Janome!

Here’s my Festival schedule:

• Monday, October 29:  Fine Finishes–edge finish techniques; full day class
• Tuesday, October 30:  Birch Pond Seasons–fused collage landscape; full day class
• Wednesday, October 31:  Decorative Stitch Applique–learn to use all those fun stitches on your machine! Full day class
• Thursday, November 1:  Fun with Fancy Threads–the trick to metallics, holographics an other fussy thread; 9-Noon
• Friday, November 2 (tentative): Friday Sampler–free-motion quilting; 10-Noon
• Thursday afternoon or Friday afternoon (tentative)–a 30 minute demo at the Meet the Teacher area on the show floor
• Thursday afternoon or Friday afternoon (likely)–demo(s) at the MistyFuse booth again… love MF and Iris (the owner)!
• Saturday:  PLAYTIME!

Not sure yet if I’ll stay and see the show on Sunday, too… I just may given how busy my schedule has become!

I sure hope to see some of you in Houston and, even better, in my classes! When the show/class catalog comes out, I’ll post to the blog with pictures from the classes and links to previous classes I’ve taught so you can see student work.  FUN!

AND….. drum roll…. the portrait of my son, Joshua, has been juried into the AQS Lancaster show (March 14-17)!

The quilt is too small to fit into the categories for Paducah (must be 40 inches wide, and this one is 36 inches wide by 48 long), so this is the show for which it fits into a category.  I’m thrilled, as I think this is probably the best quilt I’ve ever made.

The Quilters Heritage Celebration show (now defunct) used to take place in Lancaster in March, and it was the first major quilt show I ever attended, driving up from when we lived in the metro DC area.  I love going there and hope some day to be able to teach at AQS Lancaster (which picked up the show-in-Lancaster after QHC ended/retire).  If I can just get my schedule clear for March then I can apply (currently there is a conflict with son’s wrestling season!).  Anyway, it’s been a good quilty start to the year!

PLEASE send our quilts home!   This past summer, Anne Copeland of the Fiberarts Connection curated the exhibit  “Then and Now”  that was on display at the Mancuso shows in New Hampshire (World Quilt Competition) and California (Pacific International Quilt Festival, PIQF, Santa Clara).   The Mancuso show folks returned all the quilts to Annie, who in turn packed them up to return to their owners.   All but four have made it home; alas, it appears that two of my quilts and two of Wendy L. Starn’s quilts are currently lost and unaccounted for since about October 11th, over a month.  If you see these quilts for sale anywhere (or anywhere or any way else!) PLEASE let me know!!!!!!!

As far as we can figure, Annie shipped out most of the boxes on October 11th at an Office Depot near her home in Lomita, California; they are a postal acceptance facility.  Those quilts were packed in Flat-Rate Medium USPS (US Postal Service) boxes; all of those for which she has a receipt and tracking numbers were delivered.  Several days later Annie made two trips to the US Post Office in Lomita.  One trip was for the international shipments (to Canada and the Netherlands) and another was for domestic mail.  Annie had tracking numbers for six of seven boxes known to ship that day, and all are marked as delivered according to the USPS Tracking and the seventh box the recipient has said she received her quilts.  Of those who answered my e-mail, everyone had opened their boxes and received only their own quilts (and with the size of the box it would be pretty hard to fit in extras).

That leaves the four quilts–shown above in small images and below full size–missing:  “Fields of Gold” and “Dogwood::Dawn” made by me, and “Shady Lady” and “Economy” by Wendy L. Starn.

Fields of Gold by Sarah Ann Smith. Size: 18 x 20 1/2 inches. 2nd place winner in Houston 2009, featured in Award Winning Quilts 2011 calendar. This is my only Houston-ribbon-winning quilt (so I guess I'll have to try and make another), and would love it to come home...

Shady Lady by Wendy L. Starn of LA. 26 3/4 x 27 3/4 inches. Included in Lark Book's 500 Art Quilts.

Dogwood::Dawn by Sarah Ann Smith. 33 x 27 inches. Previously on sale at Ducktrap Bay Trading Company in Camden, ME.

Economy by Wendy L. Starn of Louisiana. 19 1/4 x 19 1/2 inches.

I have posted my information to the Lost Quilts website, and gone through everything Annie and I can think of to try to figure out what happened to the boxes.  Annie remembers  packing and labeling boxes with Wendy’s and my names and addresses, but due to a lot of pain from knee surgery, her memory isn’t clear about what happened with those two boxes.  She thinks they might have been taken to the Office Depot, but there are no records.  Without tracking numbers, the postal service can’t do a thing.  I even suggested Annie check her bank records for  purchases so we could do the math and it appears no postage was paid for the missing two boxes.  I am still hoping they will turn up eventually.

In the meantime, going public via the internet seems to offer our best hope for recovering these quilts.  If by chance you see them (HORRORS) on Etsy or Ebay, or anywhere else, PLEASE let us know.  As Annie is also having to move (while still in pain from the surgery) to a new home, please contact me.  In turn I’ll share any info with Annie and Wendy.  Annie is, I am certain, more stressed about this than I am!  She has always been SO careful in the past, and I know that her pain was a major factor in this issue.  Please send her healing light for her pain, and “good move” thoughts–and “come home quilt” thoughts for Wendy and me.  I am still hoping that maybe they may be walkabout in the US postal service…perhaps with no postage and have yet to be returned to sender…..

Thanks for your help!