So, you might ask, what have I been doing?  OK, no, you probably haven’t been asking.  But it has been insane here.  We are hoping to buy a new house and move in January, so there have been MANY (way too many hours) doing real estate related stuff.  The good news is that our house got a contract on it in 12 days, in this economy!  The bad news …well…. I’ll share when all is said and done (you won’t believe the story when I can finally tell it).  Let’s just say EVERYTHING is on track, and we do expect to move (so much for January as making quilts time!) in January—yeah!

In the meantime, I’ve not been able to concentrate a lot on art quilts.  But I liked that use-a-big-print sampler I made for my free-motion class  so much that I decided to make a bed quilt, possibly as a project piece for a future book (yeah, shoot me again please!). Here are the squares pieced with the sashing into rows:

Big prints with white sashing (vertical pieces)

Adding the horizontal sashing....it has been a LONG time since I've done precision piecing!

And the first of the rows with the horizontal sashing added..I am going to LOVE this quilt.  But it’s a good thing I am probably buying an HQ16 sit-down machine early next year as I will need the space:  this quilt will finish at about 100 inches on each side!!!!

The top three rows now have the horizontal sashing....

And I’m getting ready to head out on Nov. 2 for the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  I will have four quilts and two photos on display!

Cookie? PLEEEZE Cookie! is in Art Quilts-Miniatures in the juried show

Joshua is in the Beneath the Surface Exhibit

Koi and A Sense of Place:  The Wall are in the 500 Art Quilts exhibit, where the quilts are from the Lark Books book of the same name.

and in the Eye of the Quilter Exhibit, I will have two photos!  I’ll post those photos in a post in a few days!

But here is the pile of “getting ready to take” stuff, including some in progress postcards for a swap. I’m going to take some of this round’s swap cards for my demo in the MistyFuse booth!

Nearly two years ago, someone on one of the lists I’m on posted a link to this video… I am thinking it must have been someone from Australia who had seen this on television there.  Anyway, it is a moving and powerful song, and  having just watched it again felt the need to share.  I hope you enjoy:

It occurred to me that I ought to update my teaching and whereabouts schedule…including here on the blog.  I now dimly recall that I actually started the blog as a way to share what I’d be teaching where!   I’m not teaching at Quilt Festival in Houston this year (I’ll apply again, probably for 2012? as I’m booked next year), but at Festival next week I’ll be a somewhat stationary target at several points.

2010 International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas

Friday, November 5

10:15-11:15 (ish) I’ll be demo’ing in the MistyFuse booth

12:40-2:40 I’ll be doing at the Open Studios in the Quilting Arts area, showing the surface design techniques I used in my project in this year’s Gifts issue (blogpost here)

5-7 Attending the QuiltArt reception

Saturday, November 6

10:15-11:15 (ish) I’ll be demo’ing in the MistyFuse booth

In 2011 and 2012 I’ll be teaching all over again!

March 2011 – Cape Cod, the Bayberry Quilters

May 2011 – Chelmsford, MA, the Chelmsford Quilt Guild

May 2011 – Lebanon, NH, the Northern Lights Quilt Guild

June 2011 – Harrisonburg, VA, the Shenandoah Valley Quilt Guild

June 2011 – Floyd, VA

July 2011 – Kearney, NE, QuiltNebraska 2011

November 2011 – Nashua, NH, A Quilter’s Gathering

March 2012 – Kennebunk, ME, Evergreen Guild (PTQG chapter)

April 2012 – Little Rock , AR, QUEST quilt guild

April 2012 – Hot Springs Village, AR, HSV Quilt Guild

?May 2012 – Wellesley, MA, pending contract
Wow…I can’t believe I’m booked that far out! I’ll probably take three more bookings (including the May one) for 2012, the close that year and start in on (SHRIEK!) 2013!

If you live anywhere near those places and would like to come take a class, I’d LOVE to meet you in the real!   I’ll post more information as we get closer to the real dates, or just drop me a comment and I’ll reply!

Last weekend I taught my intro to Machine Quilting at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro, Maine.  The class was the first one in Maine where I’ve used the digital projector and “slide” (digital) presentation that I use for the national travel-teaching classes, and it worked as well here as on the road.  I believe fervently that new quilters need to understand that you must have the proper foundation to quilt well—it is more than just doing the machine quilting!  I use a painting analogy:  if you don’t sand off the cracking paint, spackle and prime the window frame, then it doesn’t matter if you have the best paint, painter and paintbrush in the world.  The paint job won’t be well done.  Similarly, you need to understand your fabric, batting, needle, thread, basting, and machine set-up if you are to achieve good results.

I used the new floral sampler in class (which I shared here and here), and several of the students gave it a whirl.  As usual, the class went by in flash–before I remembered to take pictures.  Students came from far and wide…as far as Bangor and Farmington, plus one visitor from Ohio, so I really appreciate the effort the ladies made to come take a class with me.  Distances here in Maine are longer than the miles because the roads are 2-lane country roads!

This student was following the grid sampler for free-motion patterns that I have taught the past six years (click to view larger) and is included in my book:

She is doing the perfect thing….tracing the design with her pen prior to sewing to get the feel of the design and how her hands will move:

Then, the actual quilting process:

And trying out the flower/big print process (I liked the fabric she bought so much I went up and bought some, too!):

I’ve decided I like the way my sampler turned out so well I’m going to make a BIG bed quilt using these colorful fabrics and white sashing.  I think the piecing will be easy, it will be colorful and pretty, and would be a perfect project for a future book…heh heh…..just don’t hold your breaths, there is WAY too much life happening here for me to get to writing a book soon.  Sigh!

I seem to be congenitally incapable of making abstracts.  Using Kathy Schmidt’s Cell Block Blues pattern, from here Rule-Breaking Quilts book (see my post here reviewing the book), I started working on a quilt with a selection of ten blue and white fat quarters purchased at the AQS Tennessee show, where I was teaching. The picture above shows the beginnings…my first ten blocks, along with the recently returned (after a year away at shows) Field of Gold and the ribbon it won in Houston and a table-runner that needs to be quilted.

This AQS-Knoxville show was my last big away-teaching of the year, and I thought I’d treat myself to some fabric and totally unlike-me quilting, possibly as a project for another book.  I thought it would be fun to help support friend and fellow-author Kathryn Schmidt by using one of her  projects, and thought it would get a good stretch for me.  So what do I do with this fun, easy abstract?  I make it into more work (splicing in those bright colors) and into leaves—I just can’t seem to make something if I don’t relate it back to reality!  Anyway, I went to the Batiks by Design booth and made my own assortment of ten fat quarters and, amazingly enough, forgot to take a picture before I started slicing them up!   By the time I got the center of the quilt done, I was left with less than a fat eight total out of all ten!  Fortunately, I found them online and have ordered more for the borders and binding (that’s a wicked teaser!).  Most of the batik designs we see are from Bali, but these designs are from Java and are more like the old-time designs.

In Rule-Breaking Quilts, Kathy Schmidt teaches how to stack and slice, then swap, fabrics for an improvisationally pieced block. See my review of her book for more information and where to order!

Here I'm auditioning a bright yellow-hand-dyed that I intend to splice into the seams

In this photo, you can see that I've stitched the first side of the inserts. On the left of each block, the piece is ironed, on the right the seams are as-stitched.

The right hand side of the blue block assembled and pressed

and the yellow block in process; you'll note that the edges are uneven and will require smoothing out with the rotary cutter

Sometimes (often!) after sewing the first seam, I like to fine-tune the shape of the spliced-in color to match the next bit of batik

The yellow block with the "leaf veins" sewn, but the center stemline needs to be refined and re-shaped

The stemline has been trimmed and smoothed, and now I'm getting ready to cut the yellow for that inset

Same process, but for a light blue block; here I have already trimmed the wonky edges to create a smooth space for the center stemline

Blocks sewn but not yet pressed or squared up

Pressed blocks, looking a bit more presentable!

After I made my blocks I squared them up.  Most were able to come out to 8 inches cut, but a few were smaller.  As you’ll see when I get to showing you the way the quilt came together, this really didn’t matter as I filled in odd shaped rectangles with strips and rectangles of batik (talk about a LOT of partial-seaming…erg!  I NEVER seem to do anything easy, but I must say I’m pleased with the outcome so far….)