Cloth Creativity

Thread Tails and Vapor Trails: A Navy Quilt Challenge

2010-10-01T05:34:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's difficult to find common ground in a marriage when your hobby is quilting and your husband's hobby is working. He loves to go to aircraft shows though. On on more than one occasion we have gone to the Sun and Fun air show in Florida and the Department of Defense Open House in Maryland. So, when I saw the Thread Tails and Vapor Trails 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation Quilt Challenge, I thought this had to be a perfect match for us.

After researching Naval Aviation for months, I was drawn to the Osprey, a helicopter that could convert into an airplane during flight. While the Naval Aviation Centennial next year celebrates the influence of flight on a seafaring military, it seemed to me that the Osprey also represented a little of the future of naval aviation: an airplane able to set down as easily on land as on an aircraft carrier. I selected two photos from the Navy's Osprey web page:

It took a while to figure out how to use Photoshop to create a design I could live with. My first attempt didn't really look like an Osprey to me at all.

Then I remembered that I had ordered some Transfer Artist Paper (TAP) from Leslie Riley a while back. So instead of printing directly on fabric, I printed the Osprey picture on the TAP and ironed the image to the fabric. Other techniques tried during this challenge were: using Organza to represent the wings of an Osprey bird, using some shiny halloween fabric to make the windows look translucent, adding charcoal netting to the aircraft carrier runway to make it look gravelly, and stippling in stripes. Here's my attempt:

Usually, when I photograph my quilts, I take them outside on my deck to catch the sunlight. Unfortunately, the entire east coast was socked in with rain yesterday. And, of course, I waited until the last minute to finish this quilt. So, at the Friendship Star Service Project Workshop yesterday, I caught the flourescent light from the ceiling and had a friend hold the quilt for my pictures. It's not the best picture to send in, but I'll hope for the best. I should hear from the challenge sponsors by October 8th whether my quilt will be accepted as one of many from all around the country to celebrate in cloth the 2011 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation. If it doesn't make it in....I've learned an awful lot to improve my quilting skills. Wish me luck!

Dad gets an award!

2010-09-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday nite at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, Virginia, my father, Bert Robbins, received a plaque declaring him a Stock Car Racing Legend.

Old Dominion's website tells the story: Over the years, the Old Dominion Speedway has provided the area with exciting NASCAR Racing Series action, Saturday night style. This is where the local driver can come out, try his hand at driving a powerful stock car, and maybe, just maybe, move forward into racing as not only a hobby, but as a way to make a living.

Many drivers who have competed on the 3/8 mile oval have went on to make it big in the top rank Winston Cup Circuit. Drivers like Darrell Waltrip, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Morgan Shephard, the Burton brothers, and of course the "King" Richard Petty. By the way, 2 of Petty's official 200 wins are at the Old Dominion Speedway. Other Winston Cup drivers who have visited victory lane include Ned Jarrett (a 500 lap event), Junior Johnson, and the late Elmo Langley.

Dad is now 79 years old and doesn't race anymore. He did race at Old Dominion speedway, however, with many of the drivers mentioned above. I get a kick out of this one race result from the October 1964 Nascar Newsletter. Dad came in 5th behind Ned Jarrett, David Pearson, and Richard Petty.

Here's a photo of one of his first race cars and his last.

Okay, so what has this got to do with cloth and creativity. Nothing! I did make him a single bed quilt once with these pictures in it, but forgot to take a photo of it before I wrapped it for Christmas. I guess that just makes me a proud daughter!

Shameless Plugs

2010-08-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

It's so exciting to finish a quilt you've been working on for almost a year. Alright....so it became a temporary UFO for a few months. I confess! Here's my America quilt which I named "We the People".

The pattern is by Debra Gabel. And, speaking of her design expertise. Check this out! Amazon has listed Debra's new book due out early next year.

One more shameless plug....One of the quilt guilds I belong to is having a quilt show next month.

Hope to see you there!

Who knew?

2010-08-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

At my mother's 80th birthday party in April, a woman in her nineties was admiring the quilts hanging around my house. When she indicated she used to quilt in the old days, I asked her if she had any stray blocks around she'd like to get rid of. Then I didn't think anything of it. A month later my mother hands me a Woodward and Lothrop box with quilt blocks in them. All the the blocks were hand-pieced. A note included said that she'd made a mistake by combining cotton and polyester fabrics in the same blocks. If I could make a charity quilt out of any of the blocks, I was welcome to them.

I added some sashing, quilted them so that the hand stitches would never come out and ...voila! Two Linus quilts have been donated to my guilds charities. The guild is sending her a thank you note along with the picture above. It makes my heart feel good!

Is anyone out there?

2010-08-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

I've been waffling this summer on whether I should continue to blog or not. Ok, so my old computer's hard drive died a slow death....enough so that I could get most of my data off.   Unfortunately, some of my old programs no longer work on Windows 7. So, I've been spending my time trying to learn Photoshop instead of relying on my old standby, Picture It!   Aaargh!

Some good things have happened along the way. Of course, my cache of pictures of the charity quilts I've created is now too many to post, yeah.   But, at least I have a visual record.

I entered a block in the Alliance for American Quilts New From Old Contest and didn't win a thing. It was satisfying, however, to know that my quilt was shown with all the other entries at the American Quilter's Society Knoxville show. All of the contest quilts will also be shown at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expos in Chantilly VA, Atlanta GA, Kansas City MO, Minneapolis, MN. So if you're going to any of these shows, please take a look at my block and let me know what you think.

I entered a block in the EAA Airventure Quilt Block Contest and received 4th place. While my hubby and I were unable to fly up there during the Oshkosh, WI airplane show due to a conflict with my son's attendance at the Otakon Conference in Baltimore the same weekend, we might make it up there later this fall weather permitting. The block will hang in the Airventure Museum for one year.

I entered a quilt I titled "Natasha Robbinski" into the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza and just received a letter that the quilt has been accepted into the show.

Finally, I'm not sure whether this is good news or bad yet.   My 17-year old son just passed his driver's license yesterday. Advice and sympathy welcome.

Emmmmmbarrassing Secret Sister Encounter

2010-06-10T06:50:00.000-07:00

This past week the Friendship Star Quilt Guild had it's year end party. All the secret sisters were revealed. So, what's so embarrassing about that? The day before the party, I took a Capitol Post Card class from Eileen Doughty. I don't know what came into me, but I declared before all the class members that I knew who my secret sister was and proceeded to talk my way into an embarrassing situation because one of the persons I was talking to was my secret sister and it wasn't who I thought it was! Ha ha on me! I have to admit, however, that I was pleasantly surprised to finally meet my real secret sister. I've been in awe of Betty's work and admired her courage in establishing a long-arm business.

By the way, the post card class was a blast and I highly recommend Eileen as a teacher and lecturer. She helped each student make their project their own. Here's my 5x7" post card quilt:

I'll be dropping by the Annapolis Quilt Show this Saturday afternoon before I take my Dad out to dinner for a belated birthday celebration. For my visual record, here's the Linus quilts I completed for our June 3rd workshop:

Paint Chip Challenge

2010-06-02T11:28:00.000-07:00

What is that? One of my quilt guilds handed out those paint cards you can pick up at any hardware store. I was assigned:

Purple, green, and yellow. At first, I thought I'd hit the lottery. I imagined making a New Orleans mask with these colors. Alas, after much research and several drawings, the colors were so muted, I would have been ashamed to associate them with the bright New Orlean's Mardi Gras. Back to square one!
I started playing around with shapes in my photo enhancing software, bought the materials, and made the following quilt:

How did I make this? First I printed out my pattern to the size I wanted it and taped together the pages to make a between 30 and 40" around quilt. I used wonder under to cut out the pieces and iron them onto the background. Next, put a piece of stablizer behind the background and satin stitched all around the edges of the pieces. After tearing off the stabilizer, I made a quilt sandwich and quilted it. Voila! Quilt Done! Today, I brought the quilt to guild and showed it with all the other entries. Surprise, surprise....for my effort I was given a certificate:

I've never been a great namer of quilts. And, when I get stumped, I rely on my backup method....pick one of my favorite cartoon characters and go for it. I already have a quilt named "Boris Badenov" after the short soviet spy in Rocky and Bullwinkle. This quilt didn't look Rocky and it certainly didn't remind me of Bullwinkle. So, I named it "Natasha" after Boris' spy partner. Since I couldn't remember ever hearing a last name for Natasha, I took my maiden name and added a "ski" to the end so it sounded Russian. This quilt's name is now "Natasha Robbinski." People who know me from my past life will know that I have used this name before...but retired Natasha when the cold war was over. Now, she lives on.

Some Quilting for Me!

2010-05-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

The Beatles handbag I've been carrying around for probably a year now was getting rather ratty looking. While I had fun making it and even sang "All You Need Is Love" while I was sewing, it's so dirty even the washing machine isn't going to save it.

So with no looming quilting deadlines, I decided to make my next purse. I fell in love with Debbie Mum's Tuscany fabric last year and went in and out of Joann's to get enough of the four coordinated fabrics to make my next purse. Some quilting friends of mine have had great success with the Bow Tucks pattern (ps008), so I purchased the pattern at a show.

I'm really pleased with the outcome. Of course, I had to make a matching book cover, too. Why do I like it? My favorite colors are peach and green. The fabric line celebrates olive groves in Tuscany. My Italian grandmother used to tell us at every spaghetti dinner to have an olive...because it makes you passionate. So, I guess this little project will help me to become even more passionate about quilting!

Dresden Diskette

2010-05-20T05:20:00.000-07:00

The Alliance for American Quilts has "New From Old: A contest for quilters of all ages that celebrates the past in the frame of the present". I figured, what the heck, and sent in an entry yesterday. When I found out about this contest, I was perusing my email while I was getting some old 3.5" diskettes ready to be thrown out. I must have hundreds of these in my study, the result of a Sony Diskette camera that's now obsolete. Since everything on them has been converted to cd-rom, there's no use in keeping them. But, I just didn't want to throw them in the trash as is because while most contain pictures, some contain personal information. The best way to dispose of these is to pull them apart, throw away the plastic, and remove the disk inside to shred. Hmmmm, what if that disk inside could be used as an embellishment on a quilt? Could it be sewn? I took one to my quilt cave and sure enough I could sew all over it. So, for the contest, I decided to take an old Dresden pattern and modernize it. Here's my attempt.

It was a quick 16" x 16" quilt using 30s reproduction fabric and yes, those black rays are cut from a diskette. It kind of reminds me of patent leather the way it reflects the light... and since my patent leather shoes from when I was a child were my "happy shoes," I guess this makes this quilt a "happy quilt," right?

According to the rules of the contest, members vote for the winners. If you're a member, please vote for "Dresden Diskette."

It's a bird, it's a plane...yes, it's an SR-71

2010-05-18T05:46:00.000-07:00

My creative streak was in full bloom this week. I found a quick, fun challenge to create an airplane block no larger than 12"x12". Since I've previously made a larger quilt with an SR71 on it, I decided to create a small one.

I must say that appliqueing in miniature at this level of detail is tedious (especially the satin stitching). Still, I'm pleased with the results.

It seems as if I'm on a neverending quest to create Linus quilts.

But, I finished a convergence UFO that didn't work quite right. The fabric was so bright on a black background that I got to experiment with Neon quilting thread. Hopefully someone will love it!

I finally remembered to make my Alzheimer's quilt

2010-05-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love it when an idea takes fruition and results in a finished product all in one day. Nimble Fingers Quilt Guild in Potomac, MD is collecting Alzheimer's quilts. Here's my finished 9"x12" quilt:

Here's how the creative process went: I went to Wikipedia and found some text on Alzheimer's symptoms and copied and pasted that text into Word. Then I went to google and searched for "word cloud". A word cloud is a program that takes some text and represents that text in a picture. The more a word is used the larger it appears in the word cloud. I found ABCya! word clouds and pasted the text into the program. The word "SUCH" turned out to be the most used word. So, I went back to Word and deleted all the SUCH's and added some "Alzheimer" here and there. Since I decided to use the Word cloud on an elephant, I selected a grey pallet. After I saved the word cloud, I printed it out on fabric. The next step was to google "royalty free elephant clip art" where I found a coloring page with the outline of the elephant. I brought the coloring page into my graphics program, sized it to 8x10, and printed it out on paper.

In my quilt cave, I traced the elephant onto a fusible and ironed it onto the back of the word cloud fabric, cut it out, and ironed it onto the background. A little satin stitching and binding completed the quilt. This little quilt was fast, fun, easy, and creatively satisfying. Woohoo!

I guess it must be Spring Fever...

2010-05-10T06:24:00.000-07:00

because I've been lax in posting my efforts. Here's a few cheater panels quilted for charity in March.

In April, one of my quilt guilds, Friendship Star, had their quilt show. Surprise, surprise. A couple of years ago, Sally Collins came to our guild. I bought her book, "Mastering Precision Piecing" and started doing her projects. When it came time to put quilts in the show, I had none because I've been working on school quilts and challenge quilts....so I decided to put in the two Sally Collins projects I completed. They won first and third prizes in the Viewer's Choice miniature category. Click here for a look at my efforts: FSQ 2010 Viewer's Choice Miniatures

It's been over a month since my last confession...umm....posting

2010-04-21T06:19:00.000-07:00

No excuses...ok...maybe one.   I cleaned my house from top to bottom in preparation for my mother's 80th birthday party. Thirty of her closest relatives and friends descended upon our home on April 11th. I enjoyed meeting her friends and seeing some relatives I haven't seen for a while.   A fun time was had by all.   I did learn something interesting...

My mother's friends were pretty loud at a few points.  In passing, I heard..."Ok, let's talk about sex" more than a few times.   After the party, my husband asked me why all those older ladies always seemed to be talking about sex.   So, I told him.   They can get themselves into a funk real quick when others approach them talking about those who have died before, funerals, and other depressing topics. So, everytime the conversation in their groups starts to go down that path, they change the topic with their declaration. Pretty clever, huh?

A couple of days after the party, my husband and I flew to Florida for a mini-vacation.   My thread-painted quilt was hanging in the Florida Museum of Natural History

I must say I felt honored to be a part of this exhibition after viewing the quality in the quilts posted here. It included over a hundred quilts depicting flora and fauna in Florida. Here are my favorite four:

Secret Sister Sends Spectacular Surprise...

2010-03-05T13:16:00.000-08:00

It's always fun to get surprises in the mail. Today, I received a box in the mail from my secret sister wishing me a happy March and a happy birthday. Who couldn't be happy with these gems? There's an Egret Needle Minder, 12 fat quarters from Lyndhurst Studios in my favorite pallet (peach and green with some beige thrown in for fun) and a half yard of Hoffman's Merry Merry which served as the wrapping paper. How exciting!

Sometimes serendipity steps in...

2010-02-24T05:51:00.000-08:00

When you work long and hard on a challenge it becomes a part of you. Right now, I'm feeling that whoosh factor...you know, that sigh of relief when your creativity actually becomes a thing.

This quilt is special because Misty--our dog log, our weiner dog, our dachshund--is a part of our family. But, the finished quilt doesn't qualify for my guild's challenge. Yes, it has at least 10 diamonds. Yes, it has a black background. No, it's not between 35-40 inches per side....closer to 28-33 inches per side. Oopsie! So sad, too bad!

Actually, it's not bad at all. Now I can just put it in the regular part of the show and start working on other more interesting challenges.

Five months and a blizzard to completion...

2010-02-12T05:59:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a quilt nagging you for months thinking it might become a UFO if you don't take some action? I love putting letters on my quilts but hate satin stitching them. I designed this one in October. The blizzard made me finish it.

Here's the design from October:

The quilt will be donated to the high school on March 1st to auction off for their Grand Celebration fund raising event. At my last guild meeting, our speaker asked the question: What's the difference between an art quilt and a regular quilt? Regular quilters know when their quilt is finished. I should probably work on the Madonna some more to make her more realistic. I'm just not advanced enough in my skills to figure that out. Oh well...onto other March 1st deadlines. Happy Quilting!

Snow and a birthday present for Brooke...

2010-02-08T05:31:00.000-08:00

Lots of birthdays in February...My grand-niece, Brooke, turns 2 on February 9th. My son, Mike, turns 17 on February 11th. My sister, Arlene, turns 56 on February 13th. The grand celebration party for all three is on Sunday February 14th. So part of my time during the Maryland snow-in was spent making a gift for Brooke.

This gadget is for hair bows. Just hang the 8x10 inch Brooke quilt on the wall and clip those little hair bows all down the ribbons. All I have left to do is embellish with a few lady bug buttons and wrap it with some tubs of playdough.

We're dug out here in Laytonsville, Maryland. The snow plows came yesterday afternoon. Hubby and son attacked our decks and 300 foot driveway with the trusty snowblower. Here's a picture of our deck rails just before the snow stopped:

and here's one of our back yard this morning:

It's pristine (no coyote, deer, or fox tracks). If you can see the red globe on the left side of the picture...that's sitting on a bird bath pedestal. With 8 more inches of snow due tomorrow, perhaps that globe will be covered by Wednesday. Until Spring, I'll just keep sewing.

Snowing time is sewing time...

2010-02-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

Yup, I did too much. I'm supposed to be working on my challenges....and I am....but those charity quilts are too easy to make. It's been a little over two weeks since our last service project workshop and in that time I've made:

19 preemies, 4 quilt tops, 2 pillowcases and 3 Quilts As You Go (QUAYGOs) ...and...

quilted 5 cheater panels. I guess my priorities are a little skewed. I'd love to start exploring some new artistic methods with cloth....so if you have some tips for me....I'm all ears.

Soccer baby on the way...

2010-01-29T11:38:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, my family is getting together for a baby shower. My niece, Emily, is expecting a boy sometime in early March. My birthday is March 5th, so I've told Emily that if she starts labor before the 5th, she must keep her legs together so her new son will be born on my birthday! Now, we all know this isn't going to happen because my sister (Emily's mother) tried to tell me to do the same when my son was born. Her birthday is Feb 13th and Mike was born on Feb 11th. But, you know fair is fair and now Emily (gosh I hope she doesn't take that seriously) has to bear the family joke.

Good little quilter that I am....I made her a baby quilt. The father is into soccer big time, so I went a little overboard on the soccer theme. Here's her quilt:

It's a simple pattern...bright, and colorful. Hope Emily likes it....and if she doesn't...well it might make a good blanket to bring to those soccer games in five years or so....and there's always the gift certificate that goes with it to help curb the cost of diapers.

Sometimes you win and sometimes you really, really win...

2010-01-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

Look what arrived in my mailbox yesterday:

It's some colorful hand-dyed eye candy. I didn't just win one package of 4 fat quarters....there were two more packages besides. Hmmm...I guess that means I'll actually have to cut into at least one since I have two more to put in the "I'm not touching that fabric with scissors" pile.

I won these by participating in the Candy Cane Quilt Block Dash in December. The fat quarter bundles are available at Ann's Fabrics & Crafts.
What ever should I create with these?

Gotta get to that guild challenge...

2010-01-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

I guess I'd better get sewing. Our Friendship Star Guild challenge this year is titled "Diamonds are a girls best friend". It's due March 1 if I want to have it considered as one of 8 quilts that may go to the Knoxville AQS show this year (that is if all 8 are good enough to be accepted by AQS)...a little later if I just want it in our yearly show in April. The rules of this challenge are: (1) black background (2) must have at least 10 diamonds.

It may still be a little hard to discern but the left side of the picture consists of some khaki shorts, two knees, two blue and white argyle socks, and a pair of tennis shoes. To make sure there were at least 10 diamonds, I started by sewing diamonds on the background in copper metallic thread. There's also a hand with a dog bisquit at the top. Some feedback I received suggested I make the hand and biscuit bigger and maybe oversized, perhaps add some real shoe laces, and I've got a dog tag that'll hang from Misty's collar that says "Spoiled". My name for the piece will be, "Say Please". This is the phrase my son taught her to start her begging routine.

All it needs now is a boat load of satin stitching, a little thread painting and/or shadowing with paint sticks, and a ton of quilting. Regardless of the outcome, my husband and son have already laid claim to their Misty quilt. I'm getting psyched up just thinking about stitching and embellishing this one.

A rare look inside my quilt cave....

2010-01-15T07:34:00.000-08:00

I've seen so many of you organizing your quilt rooms since the new year that I felt I had to do something to mine. So, I started with the stash:

Doesn't it look wonderful?

Before I show you the rest of my quilt cave, I thought I'd warn you....organizing your stash sometimes results in a bigger mess elsewhere.

I just love the shiny silver walls and wood rafters to hang stuff from. All of you quilters that have quilt caves understand my love of hybernating here....well, and it being the only large part of the house I could comandeer. Here's a look at my ironing table:

with a couple of preemie quilts hanging from a laundry hanger. And no look at my quilt cave would be complete without a view of my design wall:

There it is, my $5 Wal-mart tablecloth that was attached to a drainage pipe with duck tape. I know it's falling down, but it's my design wall. OK, so my resolution this year is to tape it back up. Seriously, all is well with the world now that my stash is organized. Anyone who wants to come over now and help me organize the rest of my cave....go away....I'm sewing....I mean hibernating.

One more minute of daylight a day...

2010-01-13T06:02:00.000-08:00

....at least that's what I keep telling myself that to beat winter hybernation. After Christmas, I went into panic mode...worried about guild challenges (3 of them) due by March, getting the house back in order after the Christmas stampede, and moving my Mom by January 31st. Notice what's first on my worry list? I try to be a half full type of person, so I'm delighted that I've designed and glued fabric on one of the first challenges. The Christmas stuff is all boxed and may stay that way for a long long time thanks to my niece volunteering to take over the Christmas stampede next year. And, moving Mom in 15 degree weather...priceless! At least I can use my sewing as therapy to get me through it. So far, I've completed a few quilts for our service project workshops....2 Quilt As You Go Linus quilts, 2 tops, and a bunch of preemie blankets:

I'm not ready to share my challenge progresses here yet. But, I finally got to my first meeting of the Metrothreads group and was able to get some welcome feedback from a group of local quilt artists. In fact, if there is any tiny bit of fame in this vast internet blogging world, I got mentioned in another quilt blog: Check out Zebrapatterns weblog. It is such a joy to create!

I received one of those little notebooks from my hubby for Christmas and haven't transferred all my blogs over to it yet. He thought it would be a good idea for me to keep up with my favorite blogs by following them while I'm watching TV at night. It was a great idea because I'm finally able to keep up with all the blogs I like on a regular basis. So, if you're following my blog regularly, please leave a comment on what's going on in your world, so I can be sure to keep up with your creative endeavors.

Our Annual December Date...

2009-12-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

Not sure how this tradition got started....but....every December hubby and I go out on an afternoon date. The past few years, we went to Strathmore mansion to view the Miniature Art show. That was closed today.....soooo.....we went to Brookside Gardens. Of course, I had an ulterior motive for picking Brookside Gardens this year. A local talented group of women...aptly named Cloth & Chocolate, have an exhibit there until February 5th, 2010. So, if you happen to be near Wheaton, Maryland, go take a look. Richard and I enjoyed the exhibit, then walked over to the greenhouse.

We just had to get a picture of Percy to show our son. Of course, he's 16 now and definitely did not appreciate our humor in reminding him of how crazy he was for Thomas the Tank trains when he was little.

We took a walk around the grounds. The snow is gone, but the lake is still iced over. It was beautiful day, almost 50 degrees, clear, clean, and crisp. We weren't the only couple there walking hand in hand and we weren't the oldest couple there walking hand in hand. The big surprise of the day, however, was

YES!!!!! That's a robin! Spring is on the way! Wooohoooo!

The weather outside is frightful...

2009-12-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

but the decorations are soooooo delightful.
Yea, they're up again!

The only thing unique about my Christmas decorations is that the tree and the bulbs hanging from the fireplace all rotate continuously. So the Christmas ornaments hanging from the tree all sway a little as the tree moves around.

With all the stuff to be done, I've been remiss in posting my record of service quilts. Here's a bunch from November and December

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanuukah to all.....oh and lots and lots of spare time in the New Year for your favorite quilting projects!

2009-11-16T06:46:00.000-08:00

I entered the Quilty Pleasures blog tour last week and won a copy of Quiltermaker's 100 Blocks magazine. It arrived at my home this past weekend. The blocks included are fabulous including the Butterfly Cabin block designed by Jackie Robinson of Animas Quilts. (I won the magazine by visiting her site). Almost makes me want to do a Dear Jane with a bunch of these....ummm, maybe next year. The magazine is definitely a keeper so look for it at your local quilt shop or bookstore.

And.....wooohooo.....I received mail from the Quilters of Alachua County Day Guild. This guild is sponsoring Quilting Natural Florida II, an exhibit in the Florida Museum of Natural History from February 6 - April 25, 2010. My quilt, "Blackened Palmetto" was accepted. Hubby wants to go to Sun N Fun in April, so we'll be able to go see the exhibit in person as well.

Quilting Therapy for a hectic life....

2009-10-28T05:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Mom went to the hospital for a week in October and dutiful daughter that I am....I spent every day visiting and fetching stuff from her apartment. She's home now with new meds recovering from her stay in what she thought should have been a four-star hotel...but alas was just a hospital room.

Charity quilts completed this month included 4 quilt tops with fabric donated by Liz (left column), 2 cheater panels quilted and bound, 2 quilts made from donated blocks, and a bunch of preemie blankets with fabrics donated by Kathy. This bunch of charity quilts completes the use of fabrics donated by Liz a few months ago.

I wanted to call attention to this charity quilt. The blocks were donated by Diane Heller, who obtained them by participating in an Internet block exchange in 1995. All of the blocks were signed. Here are some of the contributors: Marilee Sherwood, Jessica Drennan (Ithica, NY), Pat Newbon (Pagelcyn, CA), Sue Trandt, Colleen Gaskin, Sari Goldbaum, Karen Kutzner, Miriam Siebenthall (San Jose, CA), Lynne Capehart, Cathy Slater (Little Rock, AR), L. Obetra (Chicago, IL), and of course Diane from Wheaton, MD. It really is a small world, isn't it?

On a final note....Imagine my surprise when my senses woke up last week and I discovered that Fall had arrived in our neighborhood. I just love the crispness of the air.

Quilt Festival: Fall 2009

2009-10-09T05:43:00.000-07:00

In November 2008, Friendship Star Quilt Guild sponsored a class from Jennie Rayment titled Tinkering with Texture. I barely finished this piece in time to submit it in our annual quilt show. I couldn't think of a name for it, so I relied on one of my fallback naming systems. I named this one after one of my favorite cartoon characters: Boris Badinov (the short soviet spy in Rocky and Bullwinkle). But, instead of just using his name, I called it Boris Bad Enough. Why did I pick him? Well, I had just retired from working at an Agency where I belonged to a quilt guild named Undercover Quilters. Having worked there for 37 years including durng the "Cold War", it just seemed fitting to pick Boris.

The lull before a new project

2009-10-02T04:18:00.000-07:00

This is a quilt I completed last year for an auction at my son's high school. I learned a lot from this quilt....okay so I paper-pieced the building and then had to sew all over it to make it look right...big mistake. I understand it was a big hit at their Grand Celebration event. There's another grand celebration this year and I've got until March to complete it. Yesterday, I designed the new quilt:

Today, I'm going to the Sewing Expo near Dulles Airport in Virginia with my friend Chris. I'll be looking for some of the fabrics for this piece. I received permission from the school to use this photo, that was taken by staff members for some of their publications. I hope to incorporate some of the thread painting I learned on my last project to create the "grey" gradations in the statue.

There's a giveaway on the Quilts etc. blog. Why not check it out? http://karensquilting.com/blog/a-give-away/comment-page-1/#comment-2730

Cutting it close....

2009-09-28T12:02:00.001-07:00

Here's my quilt with lots and lots of thread painting (see previous post for picture I took in Florida in 2008). Images of entry must be postmarked on Oct 1st and I still need to bind and add sleeve and embellishments. Here's some close ups of the threadwork.

Yes, it's pretty much threaded to death. I think I used close to twenty different thread colors, not including the three variegated threads.

Check out http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com for the upcoming Blogger's Quilt Festival.

In addition to thread painting...

2009-09-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

The following were handed in at my guild meeting this evening. Two quilt tops with Liz B. fabric. Four pillowcases and a bunch of preemies (most of them made with Kathy F. fabric). One quilt as you go yellow/blue unfinished blocks contributed by a guild member. Another snoopy cheater panel (oh so cute).

I've been thread painting all week.....weeewww....is that a lot of work. I haven't ruined it yet, so only time will tell (see my previous post on Creative Challenges.) I'll post an update soon. Our guild is taking a bus trip to the PA Quilt Extravaganza in Oaks, PA on Saturday, September 19th.....can't wait.

Creative challenges...why oh why?

2009-09-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I thought I was a better quilter than I am and decided about 6 months ago to enter a quilt in the Quilting Natural Florida II (QACDG.org) Spring 2010 exhibit. A picture of the quilt is due to them on October 1st....nothing like waiting until the last minute, is there? Anyway, I was born in Florida and my husband and I visited in Spring 2008 where I took some interesting pictures. Here's one from a hiking trail at Fort DeSoto Park:

When I came upon this scene, it looked like a fire had destroyed a bunch of palm trees. When I got home, I found out that the park regularly does this to keep the palm tree population to a minimum. What struck me about this picture was the contrast between the blackened tree trunks and the vivid green new growth from those charred trunks. Here's my Phase I interpretation of that photo:

The green crocodile batik on the left hand side will be the border for this quilt. I still have a long way to go with thread painting and other artsy techniques for making it look more like the quilt in my head. If I could start over again, I'd have done a lot of thread painting on the sandy area in the lower part of the quilt....hindsight (oopsy). So, I'll just have to do the best I can with what I have and go from there. If it doesn't get ruined while I'm thread painting, I'll send the picture and hope for the best. If it does....well then I've already learned alot. Your suggestions for saving this creative mess (I mean challenge) are welcome.

Getting back in the groove...

2009-09-03T04:22:00.000-07:00

Affectionately known as my 100-year project, the applique in this quilt top was finished at small group (Spoolgirls) on Tuesday evening. It actually only took about 9 months to do the hand applique (only at our every-other-week meetings). Even though my stitches are too big, I'm pleased with the results. This pattern is from from Pacific Rim http://www.prqc.com/patterns.htm. Now, all I have to do is sandwich, quilt, and bind. Let's hope it doesn't get waylayed in my quilt cave and really become a 100-year project :-). So, it's time for decisions....how am I going to quilt this one?....what's my next applique project to do at the meetings?...and, what's the meaning of life anyway?

I'm reading a new book: "A Lion Among Men" by Gregory Maguire. This is Volume 3....volume 1 was an allegory on the life of the Wicked Witch of the West (yes, from Oz)...volume 2 was aptly named "Son of a Witch." This one is examining the life of the Cowardly Lion in Oz before Dorothy happened on the scene. I just thought I'd share a question from this new book that sort of describes how my mind seems to be working now that I'm experiencing the later part of my fifties: "Who knows when memory, unbidden, will burst out and take hostages?" I suspect all the chatter in my guild about losing memory as we grow older is really just selective memory that hides when we need it, but allows us to remember things we haven't thought of in years. Woah, that was deep....maybe too deep for this quilting blog?

Here's my contribution to this week's Service Projects Workshop....a bunch of preemies, one quilt top with donated fabric from Liz, one cheater panel from Ellen (the snoopy dogs on the panel feel like real fur), and a Linus quilt (made with UFOs donated to our guild.)

Surviving Universal & Disney

2009-09-01T07:31:00.000-07:00

Finally....I'm starting to get over my hiatus (I mean, vacation) to Universal & Disney in Orlando, Florida. Hot was the operative word! But, my son, Mike, and his friend, Mason, enjoyed themselves immensely. Just a quick punny point....my son's last name is Dixon...so these two are affectionately known to me as "Mason and Dixon" :-) Making them get up early in the morning paid off because they were able to ride their most-prized rides several times before the waits got too long. Here's a picture of Mike and Mason in front of the Universal globe and Mike and me waiting to have lunch at Bubba Gumps.

After two days at Universal, we were ready for the crowds at Disney. If you read my previous post, you'll know that my one goal was to get a picture or two of my son, who happens to let me get lots of a picture of him with his hand in front of the camera. Teenageship is definitely NOT one of those times that pictures are welcome. Hopefully, he'll look back at these sometime and appreciate his youthfulness. In the following picture of Mason and Dixon having lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, Mike looks like he's trying to say to me....enough of the pictures already (at least a close up of this one is my souvenir of his new braces! Oh, and I got the bottom two pictures as I accidently spotted them hurrying to take one more trip down Splash Mountain.

So, what did I do? I attended all of Disney's musicals, rode a few rollar coasters, shopped without hurry, enjoyed myself watching people, and took pictures of flora and fauna. Here's a few of my best pics of the flowers in Universal and Disney:

The three pictures of lily pads on the right were taken right after a rainstorm in front of the China pavilion at Epcot. Wow, I'm just going to have to make a quilt of that last one with all the glorious veins and the water droplet at the center.....someday. My final pictures are of birds. I found myself in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom taking pictures of birds, who didn't seem to mind the crowds around them.

Off to Disneyworld with two 16-year-old boys...

2009-08-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a few quilts I'll be dropping off at our service project workshop on Thursday.

The left column has a hot balloon cheater panel made into a Linus quilt, 2 Linus quilts made from UFOs donated to our guild, and a bunch of preemie quits. The right column has three fat quarter Linus tops made with fabric donated by Liz B.

...then it's off to Disneyworld. My son, his friend and I will be avoiding blisters, afternoon thunderstorms, and sunburns to be entertained by Mickey Mouse. We haven't been there since my son was 7 years old, so this will be an interesting trip. I'm getting too old for those rollercoasters and I've been to theme parks with teenagers before....so I'm prepared to enjoy myself watching every show and generally enjoying the parks. The miracle of cell phones will allow them to ride themselves silly while I do my own thing. My only goal will be to take one picture of my son (preferably with his new braces showing :-) and his friend . Hubby is staying home (that lucky guy) with the dog.

Lancaster Always Gets Me

2009-08-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

After I got it all together and laid it out, it is a lot of fabric! Who can resist Hoffman batiks at $6 a yard? Obviously, not me! :-) For just a little excuse, I've already started designing (roughly) my guild challenge which is not due until March. The theme is "Diamonds are a girls best friend" and the quilt must have a black background and at least 10 diamonds showing on the quilt. Just a little peek at the design....my dog, Misty, will be in it. Hence, I bought a lot of reddish browns in Lancaster. Here's Misty in her favorite pose:

My quilting guild, Friendship Star Quilters, in Gaithersburg, MD kicked off a new quilting year on August 3rd. I brought the following charity quilts to that meeting:

On the left side are a bunch of preemies, and two linus quilts. The sunny yellow quilt and one more like it were donated to the guild by Kathy F. The three quilt tops on the right were made with fabric donated by Liz B.

Hershey Quilt Odyssey: Exquisite

2009-08-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful weekend for an outing! My friends, Chris and Diane, and I drove to Hershey, Pennsyvania this weekend for Quilt Odyssey 2009.

We met a bunch of fellow guild members for lunch at the Hershey Grill and had some very sinful desserts....Creme Brulee and Reeses Peanut Butter Pie (Wow!)

The quilts were so exquisite at the show (aren't they always exquisite here?) that I had to go back and look at the quilts twice. Here's a sampling of a few of my favorites:

No trip to Pennsyvania would be complete without a visit to Lancaster's quilt shops. We spent the night there and shopped all the next day. I guess I'm going to have to get busy making some more quilts because I bought enough fabric for several quilters. Don't we all?

Knoxville: The Good, The Bad, and The Interesting

2009-07-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

The Good:

The American Quilter's Society (AQS) Quilt Expo in Knoxville, Tennessee was held this past weekend. Knoxville is beautiful, affordable, and a nice place to visit. The convention center was easy to find, the parking was nearby, and the Market Square two blocks into the city had fabulous sandwiches on homemade bread. There were plenty of people at the show to help us find some excellent non-chain restaurants nearby. We went to Peerless, Chez Guevara and Aubreys during the evenings we were there.

I enjoyed myself immensely with a fellow guild member, Marie Q. and her daughter, Mickey. Marie and her daughter graciously allowed me to tag along to view our Guild Challenge quilts in the show. While the guild didn't win a ribbon, it was still an honor to be chosen. I, certainly, got a big kick out of seeing my quilt there and will remember it the rest of my life, even if this is the only time. Here are pictures of Marie and I standing next to our quilts:

The Bad:

I try very hard not to be a complainer. That said, there were just a few "bads" I thought might be worth mentioning. (1) Even white glovers weren't allowed to touch the quilts. No one at the show was allowed to see the backs of quilts or have their own straightened. Presumably the reason was that the poles were faulty and would fall down. (2) The number of guilds allowed to show their challenge quilt in the show rose from 8 to 18. This makes it easier to get in the show but harder for your guild to compete for a ribbon. (3) This show was recently moved from Nashville to Knoxville. Having not been to the Nashville show, I can't say whether this one was better or worse. I do know that for some reason AQS opted to have this show on the same weekend as the International Quilt Show in Long Beach, California. I can't help but think that our better national quilts went there instead of here. The rainbow in this "bad" is that the show did not attract a large crowd and most of the classes had openings. A local waiter even told us his wife, who is a quilter, hadn't even heard about the show until the day before it started.

The Interesting:

After viewing all the challenge quilts, Marie and I defintely agreed that in order to get a ribbon or honorable mention, the guild quilts must have a lot of quilting and a lot of embellishments. It also doesn't hurt for the guild to establish a reputation with the AQS judges by entering the challenge regularly and constantly improving quality.

Finally, I must mention a little observation in the air travel arena. Now that airlines have started charging you to check even one bag, more and more passengers are opting to bring their suitcases onto the plane. Once the plane fills up with suitcases, the airlines take the suitcases that won't fit under the seat in front or in the overhead bins and puts them in the hold with the checked bags (no charge to you). As a result of this practice, people seem to be lining up at the entrance to the plane with no regard for what zone was called so they can store their suitcases with them. Even so, those who have to have their suitcases checked, get to pick them up right outside the aircraft without having to go to the baggage claim. I can't help but think these new practices are an accident waiting to happen. I'm now rethinking my August trip to Florida with my son and his friend. $15 one-way for one bag will pay for an awful lot of laundry detergent. I'll save $90 ($45 each way) if I can get the three of us to all do the same.

Getting ready for Knoxville

2009-07-21T04:09:00.000-07:00

I'm abandoning my hubby and teenage son to go to the Knoxville Quilt Show http://aqsquiltnews.blogspot.com/ tomorrow. As much as I love my family, I'll just have to leave them to their own devices for a few days. (To be truthful, the only one who will probably really really really miss me is our daschund, Misty :-) Hope my son remembers to at least let her out a few times a day. Before I get on that plane though, I'll be bringing the following to Charity Quilts this morning.

The top left picture shows 14 preemie quilts made from fabric scraps. Top right picture are 10 preemie quilts made from Liz and Jane's fabric scraps. The middle left picture contains two quilted tops using fabric from Liz. The right middle picture has a QUAYGO (QUilt As You GO) made from a donated center panel and more scraps. Finally, the last picture shows 4 quilt tops made from Liz's fat quarters. Three fat quarters and a border = one charity quilt top.

Quilters: The Musical

2009-07-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

My friend, Chris, and I drove to Annapolis, MD last night to see "Quilters: The Musical" at the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre. I first heard about this production at the Annapolis Quilt Show in June. The producers collaborated with the Annapolis Quilt Guild http://www.annapolisquiltguild.org/index.html and a historian at the Smithsonian Institute to create the quilts for for the show. Quilters: The Musical is a joyous and moving celebration of American Womanhood – as told through the eyes of a pioneer woman and her six “daughters” -- combines music, dance movement and interrelated scenes of vivid dramatic intensity. Its initial smashing success in Denver was followed by six Tony awards when it reached Broadway. QUILTERS is a rich mosaic which captures the sweep and beauty, the terror and joy, the harsh challenge and abiding rewards of frontier life. And the quilt itself brings an additional theatre surprise.

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre http://www.summergarden.com/ is an outdoor theater in the heart of downtown Annapolis. We were informed that the theater was once under water (the left brick wall was where ships in the 1700s docked). Read more about the site at http://www.summergarden.com/buildinghistory.html.

I must say that I enjoyed the show and the experience! And, the quilt made by the Annapolis Quilt Guild was exquisite.

Sometimes a quilted-to-death cheater panel works

2009-07-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

I was looking for a long narrow quilt to bring some summertime joy into the house. I purchased a cheater panel a few months ago and just finished quilting it.

Okay, so I know it's the middle of July....but I must say these colors on my wall are already spreading magic. Why just this morning, I asked my 16-year old son to bring the garbage cans back to the garage and he did it (truthfully, I had to hold his lunch hostage). But, he did it and that sometimes is a miracle in itself....you mother's of teenage boys know what I'm saying. Anyway, I like to quilt cheater panels to death. Here's a close up:

It's great practice and....if I mess up.....it's only a cheater panel. Also, I ordered Quilter's Dream Green batting from connecting threads (http://www.connectingthreads.com/tools/Quilters_Dream_Green_Batting__D20984.html

and tried it in this quilt. The website says: Dream Green is a soft, cozy batting made 100% from recycled plastic bottles! Finished quilt may be machine-washed and dried with little to no shrinkage. This unique eco batting is wrinkle-resistant, and allows you to stitch up to 12” apart! This size keeps seven plastic bottles out of landfills.

I must say that I like it! There was very little distortion with this much quilting. I'm going to try the bamboo batting next.

Finally, to keep up with my fellow quilters (just the ones who include garden pictures on their blogs), I feel I must include the following picture of the Black-Eyed Susans that have just started blooming in my Maryland yard.

Beautiful, aren't they?

Summertime is quilting time!

2009-07-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

There's nothing better than a morning walk (before it gets too hot)...some chores...and then afternoons of quilting...

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, Liz B., gave me a bag full of material she decided she didn't need anymore. Here's what I did with it:

She had lots of fat quarters. I found out quickly that three fat quarters and a 5" border would make a charity quilt top...sort of using a stack, whack, and shuffle approach. Six quilt tops were made and I still have a pile of FQs in my quilt dungeon....uhhhmmmm... quilt cave, I mean. The tops will be taken to our service projects workshop on Thursday, where they will be sandwiched, tied, and bound.

The middle two pictures represent two QUAYGO (QUilt As You GO) quilts I made. Liz supplied the center sections. Next I took all of her baby fabric and incorporated it into 12 preemie quilts. Preemie quilts have a top and a flannel bottom (no batting). These will be donated to the Holy Cross Hospital Preemie Unit in Silver Spring, Maryland. Finally, Liz'a material was used in 5 pillowcases for cancer patients. Okay, I was having way too much fun, because I also made the following in the last two weeks.

The top two pictures show preemies made with donated fabric. The ones on the right were made with remnants of pre-quilted fabric donated by Jane. Two QUAYGOs are in the middle, each made out of donated center panels and batting scraps. The left bottom picture is a quilt top made with 3 fat quarters (with high heels and pocket books on them). Finally, there are 10 pillowcases waiting for someone to love. Hopefully some cancer patient will appreciate the Simpson and New Orlean Mardi Gra fabric. At any rate, I understand that Children's Hospital needs teenage boy pillowcases more than any other. Now, I have one of those (teenagers, that is) in my home. He's 16 and likes everything plain or black, black and black. No wonder they have a hard time getting ones that teenage boys like! Your suggestions are most welcome.

My first watercolor kit

2009-07-07T04:42:00.000-07:00

I just finished the robin watercolor kit I purchased at the Quilting Unlimited show in 2007. It's only about 11" x 15", but it'll make nice wall candy in my home. Robins are special to me. My grandmother, Beulah Gertrude Robbins (just love her first and middle name :-), made pocketed beach towels when we were young. Every beach towel she gave to family had a Robin appliqued to the pocket.

I've got to get a life!

2009-06-24T05:04:00.000-07:00

But, making these quilts really satisfies my creativity urge.

Last week, my sister and I attended the Annapolis Quilt Show in Annapolis, MD, of course. Lots of beautiful quilts and great vendors! My sister is NOT a quilter. She is, however, a hair dresser and massage therapist. Many years ago when she first started her profession, I went to a few hair shows with her. Since she lives near Annapolis, I decided that she owed me an afternoon at a show of my choice (Hey, any excuse for an outing with your sister is a good one, right?). She did enjoy the show and we also shared a nice lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.

Thanks to a fellow quilter, whom I respect immensely, I'm going to the Knoxville Quilt Expo sponsored by the American Quilter Society at the end of July. I'm going to see my Florida Quilt hung at the show (a first for me). It will be one of eight quilts submitted to AQS for our guild challenge. Whoohoo!

Hobo backs

2009-06-12T04:40:00.000-07:00

What a stash buster.....making hobo backs for charity quilts! What's a hobo back? It's a quilt back pieced from scraps. My quilting scraps are sorted by size and color. Scraps are cut to the inch and sewed to rolls of like colors. For instance, all blue 2" wide scraps are sewed together end-to-end and put into a big roll. Here's a charity quilt I finished this week using a cheater fabric donated at our quilt show.

See how the back is composed of mostly blue scrap fabrics. This is what I call a hobo back. I simply took the blue roll of scraps, cut one the length I wanted and kept sewing the lengths to the together. The quilt was constructed by first sandwiching the blue part of this back with the donated dog strip. I quilted those together, then added two strips of dog fabric to each side in order the make the charity quilt the desired size (at least 36" x 36"). For the bone strips next to the donated dog center, I pinned a scrap strip (right side to the back) and the bone strips (right side to the front) and sewed a quarter inch seam. After pressing the front and back open, I added a strip of batting in between (pinning so that the batting abutted the quilted center. For this strip, I simply sewed a straight line every inch or so to secure the batting in place. To add the next row, simply trim the piece and keep going until the quilt is big enough.

Here's another charity quilt with a hobo back. You may think that the horizontal rows are difficult to construct. Not so! I'm working on a formula for figuring out exactly how much is needed. For instance, the horizontal rows above are constructed using alternating orange, yellow, and green scraps. These particular scraps are 2" wide. Therefore, one repeat (when three 2" strips are sewed together) measures 4.5". Divide this number into the length of the strip, in this case 42". 42/4.5 is 9 and some decimal places. Round up to 10. Multiply 10 times the desired width of the horizontal stripe. These strips were 8", so 10 x 8 = 80. We need three strips, so i then multiply 80 x 3 = 240. For some reason, adding 20" to this total seems to give me very close to what I need. If you know why this is so or have a better formula, please reply. To construct the horizontal strip then, just measure out the first color to 260". Sew the second and third colors onto this strip. Lay the strip on your cutting board and cut 8" segments off. I usually square each segment too. Then sew these strips end-to-end. Voila, horizontal stripes for a hobo back!

Mark Lipinski and another day on the Chesapeake Bay

2009-06-10T03:32:00.000-07:00

The Quilter's Unlimited show in Chantilly, VA was fabulous as usual. On Saturday night, my friend, Chris and I went to see Mark Lipinski at Chantilly High School. What a hoot! And, to top off the trunk show, I won a Sidewinder by running down to the stage with a four-leaf clover (the one printed on my business card, that is).

My father's 78th birthday was the reason for this fishing trip. The fish were not so big, but my father and his three daughters (including me) had a blast!

Cats, horses, and patriotic fun

2009-05-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

This charity quilt is simply constructed from alternating strips of cat fabric (black and white) and some rich blue patterns. I sandwiched the black strip in the middle and used one of those fancy stitches on my sewing machine to secure the layers. I pinned the next two strips to the top of the sandwich and two backing strips to the back of the sandwich and sewed them on. Next, I added a batting strip between the back and front and used the fancy stitch to secure. Repeat four more times and a charity quilt was born!

What rich colors for the horses! I must admit that I would never have used these colors together in a quilt of my own, but they go together great! Some child is going to cherish this charity quilt made out of donated horse fabric strips.

A donated UFO (the center block including the green strip) was the foundation for this charity quilt. I added a border and practiced quilting circles in the blue strips!

A few charity quilts...

2009-05-21T05:36:00.000-07:00

I strengthen my quilting skills through charity quilts. Here are a few of the charity quilts I put together in the past two weeks. Some are simply panels donated to our guild (www.friendshipstar.org/service). Others are (unfinished objects) UFOs also donated. I love the challenge of deciding how best to quilt a panel or transform UFOs into finished charity quilts.

While I was being entertained by Ricky Tims...

2009-05-14T05:04:00.000-07:00

Who's Ricky Tims? He's a nationally known quilt artist http://www.rickytims.com/seminars.html. To anyone who love's quilting, this seminar is worth every penny....you will laugh for 3 days (woohoo!) and learn lots.

I digress....while I was being entertained by Ricky Tims... my husband and son went fishing on the Chesapeake Bay (Friday, May 1, 2009). Now, I know people who fish love to tell "fish stories". But, I think this photo says it all!

Cloth Creativity

2009-05-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

Here I am, a year into retirement ... worried like everyone else whether I can afford to remain retired ... but believing in an optimistic future. The purpose of this blog is to document my quilting journey. Here are a few of my recent quilts.

This quilt is named Florida: Gateway to Space. It was completed in response to a guild challenge to represent a state and use the colors red, white, and blue. I based the design on my guild's http://www.friendshipstar.org/ 2009 raffle quilt. A mini group named Loose Lillies designed the border. The Florida patchwork was constructed by taking a picture of the raffle quilt and printing blocks which were assembled and cut out in the shape of Florida. The images of Florida from space and the space shuttle were obtained from http://w ww.nasa.gov/

The quilt to the left is my sister's wedding quilt. She married a Montgomery so I duplicated the clan's seal. The wedding invitation is in the lower two corners and the thistle symbol on the invitation is in the upper two corners.

For a little levity, I put my sister's picture on the face of the lady and her husband's picture on the head she's holding. The quilt was a hit at the wedding.

That's it for my first blog.