A few months ago, I did a trunk show for the Assisted Living unit at Quarry Hill, the retirement community near me and where my mom now lives.  It went so well, they invited me back already!   Patty took pictures this time, so I have a few to share of me in action.

I began with my very first quilt (photo above), from Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! by McClun and Knownes, which is still one of my favorite beginners’ quilting books.   The quilt is a Wild Goose Chase variation…for those not familiar with traditional quilting, the triangles are thought to look like geese in flight.  This quilt was made TWENTY (shriek!) years ago, and is still in regular use in our living room.  It has a few rips and wear spots, some fabrics are more noticeably faded than others, but it’s still a good quilt.

I progressed through my journey as a quilter, sharing a 51×51 inch log  cabin I made for an exhibit (it didn’t get in!).  This quilt used four EXPENSIVE (but glorious) yards of Judy Robertson’s hand dyed fabrics (click here to visit her website, Just Imagination)

This fabric is why I decided to learn to dye my own fabric!  Tho, as Judy says, dyers are some of her best customers…they understand what it is that she does that is so special, and why it costs so much!

I also shared my two-sided quilt Koi:

The Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner, which I designed, our group made (I did the top border, a fair part of the center and the quilting), is a perennial favorite, with folks identifying various local landmarks…the person who spots Beech Hill preserve’s blueberry barrens wins brownie points!

Like my rudimentary PVC pipe quilt rack?  Very easy… two 90 degree elbows, three long pieces of pipe, two “T” Connectors and two more small bits of pipe (four would be better) for the feet….   It was fun to go and share…now, to get ready for Houston!!!! Festival starts next week!

I’m thrilled to be able to share that I will be demo-ing leaf printing at in the Open Studios part of the Make It University area( — more info is at Make It University (MIU)) at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, currently scheduled for 8-10 pm Wednesday on sneak preview evening!  MIU is sponsored by Quilting Arts, LLC, and is part of their mixed media branch of things (along with the magazine Cloth Paper Scissors which also has a cool article on sketching / journals in the issue featured on the current webpage).

For my I-hope-to-finish-it-in-this-lifetime-manuscript my last project to make is for a small quilt I’m calling First Frost.  It will be either a table runner, a wall-hanging or both.  Finished dimensions will be about 15×60 inches.  I wanted to offer a project that would entice folks to play with all the glorious metallic and holographic threads currently available….   so I dyed two-plus a bit-yards of cotton in these beautiful clear, light blues and lavender.   Then I collected leaves …..

The first time I did leaf printing I simply used a sponge paintbrush, daubed on the paint, then pressed the leaf with my fingers.  This time I have better supplies and technique (I hope).  I wanted a smooth, clear print.  To get that, it works a lot better if you pour paint on a piece of glass, roll a sponge brayer, then  roll the paint onto the leaf.

Notice there are TWO brayers in this picture…the one on the right is actually a black sponge brayer with gold paint on it.  The one to the left is a “soft” rubber roller.  In the top photo, you can see a piece of parchment paper on the side.  Place the leaf on the cloth, paint side down.  Cover with the parchment paper, then roll with the soft rubber brayer to get a smooth even print.  It is important (ahem) that you not have wrinkles in the plastic underneath and not be on the crack in the table, else they will show up in the leaf print.  Guess how I remembered that one.  A couple of times.  Ahem. (grin!)

Here’s the 30×60 inch piece of cloth…I will split it down the center to have a two-sided runner/hanging:

The paints are all metallic…blues, silver and gold (mixed with pearl).  Then I plan to quilt from both sides…with metallic in the needle and a matching heavy poly in the bobbin… then when I outline the leaves on one side, it will make a skeleton “print” on the other side…. Can’t wait to see how (if?) this works!)

Here’s a detail:

I’ll be demonstrating how to do this, how to preserve leaves for leaf-printing in winter when the trees are bare (I have just harvested leaves for this coming season!) and maybe some Shiva paintstik techniques as well.  Evening is not exactly my best time of day (think snooze) so I’ll bring some chocolate…please come and help me stay lively and say hello!

To my utter astonishment and delight, one of my newest pieces–Fields of Gold– (finished in the nick of time) has been juried into Art Quilts XIII at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Chandler, Arizona.  Actually, if I tell the total truth, the facings weren’t even completely sewn down when I took the photos for my entries!

I am mind-boggled to find myself in the company of so many of the leading art quilters today…. the list of those in the show is here.

A little bit about this piece:  I had designed the center part, which I called Sunset Trees, for a project / exercise for the applique section of my manuscript.  It is 9×12 inches (or thereabouts) and I intended for it to finish at that size…small and easy to manage as a learning exercise.  Then, I was able to help my friend Lisa Walton of Dyed and Gone to Heaven (Sydney, Australia) get an entry into the IQA / Festival at Houston when she unexpectedly got a quilt finished and photographed in time, but not enough time to mail reliably (i.e. quickly) from Australia to Texas.  I told her not to send anything, but she did anyway…a metre of her glorious hand-dyed fabric that ranged from rust to gold to green.  I pinned the fabric up on my design wall, next to Sunset Trees, trying to figure out how to make a journal entry for this year.  I couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t trite (the black silhouette of an Aussie cowboy and outback house against the glowing sun…been done well by others, and too many times).  Then I realized that if I used one section of the piece, it meshed PERFECTLY with Sunset Trees’ background.

Then I mulled over the quilting… at first I thought of blowing grasses.  Then, in the back of my mind, the song Fields of Gold by Sting came to mind.  I knew I had seen a quilt named after that song somewhere…and when the Frayed Edges got together in early September I mentioned it.  Deborah piped up:  it was on my blog!  I did one!  So here is Deborah’s version!  To me, the wheat fields of late summer /autumn are Fields of Gold, so I googled wheat images, learned that some wheat has the really long whiskers, other varieties have shorter, fewer whiskers, etc.   I think my favorite part of this entire quilt is the wheat quilting!  Once again, I seem to be moving toward nearly wholecloth pieces that are drawn with thread…. Here’s a detail:

Enjoy…now back to working on the Elusive Crested Batiki Bird, a small piece I’m doing for another Lark book on small quilts.  Cheers!

On a warm summer Sunday, I made my way from the Tsongas Arena, site of the Lowell Quilt Festival, to the Whistler Museum of Art.  The museum is normally closed on Sundays, but the gallery with the art quilt exhibit was open (the rest of the museum wasn’t…rats!) for quilt lovers to stop and savor the work.  This wall is what greeted you… I enjoyed the interlaced sheer panels and the shadows cast on the wall.  If my photos are in order, this piece is called Microdctyom Stechellianum by Nancy Crasco. (Note:  photos in this post are clickable for a larger view.)

January Blooms by B. Sullivan, above,  is one of the most eye-catching pieces in the show.  The weekend I saw the exhibit, local floral arrangers had constructed pieces to go with the artwork…what a cool idea!   A detail photo reveals the modest and effective use of beads to enhance the floral print fabric:

Hibiscus is another piece playing with color overlays and sheer fabrics; this piece by Margaret Anderson won the Whistler Award (one of two awards given when I was there…the viewer’s choice was still underway).

One of my favorite pieces (and the one that got MY viewer’s choice vote!) was Wen Redmond’s Winter Tree.  She has printed photos onto fabric.  The center panel–the darkest, small part in the center– is sheer, and the surface piece is affixed to stretcher bars.  A second printed photo is behind, attached to the back side of the presser bars, so you get this cool window / show-through effect.  Wen had an article a winter or two ago in Quilting Arts magazine that I believe discussed this process, but I didn’t quite “get” it then…It’s hard to see the depth in photos. I’ll have to go back and look for the article now that I’ve seen one of these pieces in the real:

Bozena  Wojtaszek of Poland received a Juror’s Choice for her piece, My Way.  In my quest for art quilts with effective beading, this one is definitely a good one…. I’ve only seen one of Bozena’s pieces in the cloth before; I’m so glad she went to the expense to send this all the way from Poland to be in this exhibit!

a corner detail:

and a detail from the center…. I love the fabrics, the threadwork, the beads….

And one last piece, The Good Earth by Nancy Schlegel, shows how effective large stitching and beads can be in creating texture:

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Well, I’m TOTALLY bummed.   BOTH my entries to the Journal Quilts exhibit were rejected this year, the first year that it has been juried.  There were 150 entries, 48 got in, none of which were mine.  They were GOOD.  Sigh.  I’m just depressed.  I know rejection is part of the game, but I’ve had so many rejections for so long, and the journals mean so much to me, that I was really hoping to get one in this year.  Guess not.  Sigh.

The journal quilts debuted in 2002 I think… the year I joined the QuiltArt list.  I have participated in the non-juried exhibit every year since.  This is the first year there were limits on how many quilts.  Karey selected FIVE of my journals for the Creative Quilting:  The Journal Quilt Project book, and even opened one section of the book with three of my journals because she liked them so much.  So I know my work isn’t awful.  Sigh.

I won’t share the rejects yet…. someone online is going to organize a “latecomers” online exhibit to debut about the time of the real exhibit, so I’ll send mine in to that.   Sigh.  I’m just bummed.   Really bummed.  Kinda makes me want to not quilt and not work.  I’ll get over it {grin}!  Actually, since I first wrote this I’m doing better… I’m going to enter them somewhere else… off to look for a venue!