My New Grand-Niece!

Addyson Fate Kirkland

Dec. 15, 2008

Addy is our new baby! She was born Monday, at 1:28 a.m. weighing 6.5 lbs. and 18.5" long. Her parents are (my niece), Misty and James Kirkland. She is very diminutive and doing well with eating already! It's made this Christmas very special!

Old UFO Moves to the Front. . .

Pastel Pinwheels

EQ6 Rendition 12/08

These blocks, which I cannot believe, are 20 years old. It seems almost yesterday when I started them--I remember where, when, and with whom. Ha, but that shall remain a secret! Needless to stay, the best part is still around--these quilt blocks!

I was a new quilter then--life intervened--and all the blocks didn't get made at the time. I had found I needed more, which I cut, but never sewed together. Now I am making the last 7 blocks. Since I now have EQ6, I created a rendition in order to check border and setting square colors on it. The actual quilt is more pastel than these colors look, which means the borders and squares will likely be soft colors as in the drawing above.

It'll probably be early summer before it gets totally finished. I'll be sure to post it.

Every Day Should Be All about Thankfulness

In Green Pastures.

Copyright 2000

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I'm thankful. Thankful for another day. Thankful for eyes to see it with. Thankful that I'm not hungry. Thankful that I'm not sick. Thankful for my family and friends. Well, you get it. I'm thankful!

The piece you see above was titled In Green Pastures because it's about the 23rd Psalm. The 23rd Psalm is my favorite Scripture. My Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Jettye Barton, made us memorize it. Some nights praying it is the only thing that enables me to go back to sleep.

That's because some nights I wake up scared, especially now. I'm worried about my family. I'm worried about our country. I'm worried about the status of worldwide Christianity and the increasing pressure against it. There are a lot of days that are tough, and we are really facing some now. It's frightening and scary to watch the news. The tensions and pressures are growing, and I'm worried about the results.

Well, we just don't know what's going to happen and it's a good thing we don't. But I do know God is still in control. I do know that my Father said He makes me lie down in green pastures, and leads me beside the still waters. Without exception, I know He always brings good things out of bad. I'm trusting He will continue to during these troubled times as well.

So this quilt is about the cool pleasantness of tree shade, pretty flowers to look at, the lazy antics of sheep carefully watched by their Shepherd--an environment of peace and calm and trust. It's circled by the words,

"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures."

It's About the Shadows

Winter at Woodson Bend, KY.

copyright 1999

I don't consider this piece a tremendous success because there are now such wonderful, skillful landscapes out there. By comparison, this one seems a little primitive!

However, it was a learning experience for me, and it did win 1st in the medium category in our guild show in Torrance, CA. It's also the largest landscape piece I've done. It was made from a photo I took and I worked on it off and on for several weeks. Finally, I got to a point that I was pretty much finished, but something was wrong!

I went to a class--forgot which one--and came back knowing the problem. It was "flat!" There were no shadows! The concept of light wasn't working because there were no shadows. So I went in with black tulle and added the shadows for the trees. Even so, this piece isn't perfect; the shadows should likely all fall in the same exact angle of direction. However, if there were an obstruction of the light (such as the mountains), the light rays could get skewed, and I guess that's the way it is here.

Some of the design techniques in this quilt include: hand-painted fabrics for the sky, hand-dyed pieces for the mountains, layers of tulle to create a foggy-like water up-front (as opposed to normally being further away--came from the pic), and tiny snippets to replicate the fallen leaves. Also behind the tree on the mountains, I used yellow tulle and then stitched with gold thread, trying to replicate the sun shining through that cleft of hills and onto the water. I'm not sure I was totally successful there.

One technique was used here which I learned from Natalie Sewall, and that is ragged cutting. Note the bushes in the front. The piece of fabric was scrunched up into a point and lopped off with my scissors, to make holes. They and the trees were cut free-hand without a lot of correction. Nature is wild! There isn't any precision about it.

There are some things I don't like about this piece and to some degree have corrected. I don't like the greenish sky fabric behind the green trees on the upper right (not corrected). And I never liked that green fabric for those trees, so now I have filled in with a dark green fabric marker to make them look more like evergreens. It gives more contrast and I'm happier with it.

In this pic, which is several years old, you will also see behind the large tree, that I used some iridescent tissue fabric to re-create the water shining from the sun. For some reason, I didn't continue it all across to the shore in front. That was a mistake! Accordingly, a few years back, I appliqued on some more of the iridescent stuff and now it looks right.

So, yes, you can correct your design to some degree! I don't know that this one would win any prizes, though, if it were to be judged. . . .

One more note: the colors here are important in carrying through that concept of cold. There is subdued blue, gray, gray-brown, violet, and soft colors for the most part. I included some rust, because out in nature, there are trees that don't drop all their leaves in winter. And note the little bit of purple bush to the back right of the large tree. In left front, and right back, there is green, and some orange in between--the secondary colors! They always make a piece more interesting.

This piece is on my wall in my studio, and I enjoy it because I remember the original scene as well.

New Quilt--99 Years. . .

"99 Years. . ." c. 2008

Our guild held a challenge recently, devoted to "9's." There were some rules to follow:
At least 9 fabrics
The number 9 in the quilt
At least one fabric 9 years old
A 9-patch in the quilt
Our hope is to get our group of quilts accepted for showing in 09 at the new AQS Show in Knoxville, TN.

My quilt, above, came about first from hunting a 9-year-old fabric in my stash! I have many I know, but couldn't remember which! I found the star block which I knew was that old, and the light solid in it was from my early quilting days. So I started from there.

It had that little print in it, and I found I had more that would coordinate. The theme came from working frantically all summer in the studio, and everyday praying, Oh Lord, what all can I get done today? (This comes from having been gone most of the spring, and the fact that we spend over 3 months in Fl each year!) I don't have access to all my stash and stuff all year, so I wanted to take full advantage of my time. And none of us know how much time we have, right?

The challenge for me in this quilt was all those letters! I hand-drew them all and cut them out, then they all had to be applied somehow. That wound up to be with a fusible on the back, and then blanket-stitched by machine. I never was so glad to get that task done!

By then, I saw it was taking on this "Mary Englebreit" look. At the end, I went to my stash and the fabric which looked best for the back was a surprise. In the selvedge, there was "Mary Englebreit" (forgot which fabric line); so I guess that was meant to be.

To further the theme about time, I went online and got images of clocks. They were applied with a fusible as well. On the left is a charm made of letter beads, which reads "more time, Lord."

It was a challenge because I took more pains and did some new things I hadn't done (because they take more time!). I didn't win the Viewer's Choice, but I really liked the one that won. Karen Barger did a quilt that showed her sewing room in applique and "possession is 9/10's" being the problem! I identified totally.

But I really like my quilt and we are very hopeful that we will get to show them all next year.

Adding 3D to Your Work

"I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto the Hills" c. 1999

First let me say that the sky fabric was my inspiration. When I looked at it, I saw dawn. Then I remembered those wonderful flowing spaces of the Southwest. That's how this piece evolved. It's really another example of my previous post--"Sometimes the fabric does all the work"--but this time the tree becomes the focal point and the sky secondary.

Often a tree comes forth in my work and a recent class I had taken helped to create this one. If you could see it up close, you would see that it has some puffiness to it, meaning that it doesn't lie flat on the fabric. In quilting, we call that trapunto.

It's not hard to create a 3D tree, or anything else really, that you might want to create. Take a piece of muslin, lay a piece of batting (not high-loft) over it, then the fabric (right side up) you are using with a design drawn on it. (Or to really cut loose, use your sewing machine needle to sew it free-motion!) Sew around all the design on the design line. Then trim it out your new motif leaving a 1/8" allowance. Place it on your design piece wherever you want it. It might be good to temporarily "baste" it on with some spray adhesive. Then either straight-stitch, or zig-zag stitch it on with matching, or nylon thread. Another option, which I did here, was to use the cording foot of my sewing machine, and stitch down all the edges with a matching yarn.

Lest you think all those branches you see were done this way--no. The biggest thickest branches were done this way, then I used matching thread to free-motion stitch all those little feathery branches you see on the tree, after I had attached the tree to my piece. Please note: when you are sewing on objects and embellishing by machine stitching, it is best to have your background fabric in a machine hoop and maybe even use some tear-away stabilizer. Otherwise your fabric will pull and get wrinkly. Not good. This piece was done mostly out of batiks, which are stiffer, but tear-away stabilizer never hurts. (I use Tear-Easy by Sulky and it is very easy to take off.)

The three shrubs were done using this process as well, but they were just stitched on with nylon thread--no cording on the edges.

You might ask why I did not do the mountains using the 3D effect. Because I wanted them to have that far-away look (remember my earlier post about perspective?), I chose to keep them flat. Any dimension would have brought them closer in. So the lesson there is, if you are doing a landscape, likely any 3D work would need to be toward the front of your picture.

If you study the composition on this piece, you might wonder why there are several things on the left (a tree, 3 shrubs, and a fence in the front), and none on the right side. In asymetrical design, the weight of one side visually equals the other. The right side had a really striking light sky drawing attention, as well as a light sand dune. To keep the greater interest on the tree (which was my design plan), there are more "things" on the left side to hold your interest there. That way, I didn't have two equally-competing focal points.

Finally, the title of this piece came from the 121st Psalm: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth."

This piece helps me remember that.

Sometimes Fabric Does All the Work

New Mexico Twilight

copyright 2003

I have talked already about the things you can use for inspiration. Here's another example of being inspired by a piece of fabric. I hand-painted the sky fabric after I had taken a class from the famous Mickey Lawler of Sky Dyes.

With this piece, that wonderful sky was created from using purplish blues and a strong orange (those secondary colors again!). It reminded me immediately of the strong twilight colors out in the West. It didn't take a whole lot more fabric or "doing" to come up with a piece that catches the essence of New Mexico and Arizona--that is, amazing colors and vast spaces. Perspective also came into play here because to create a lot of desert space in front, those mountains had to be small.

When you are designing landscapes, sometimes you will also find serendipitous things in the fabric that can play into your design. If you look at the moon above, you will see that the fabric behind it has a light or whitish area. That was a perfect place for the moon! It makes it look like the moon has lit up the sky just like it does in real life.

The desert space was created from a great piece of batik which had lots of coloration, including some light areas, like on the left. This creates a feeling of reflected light and adds interest.

It didn't take a long time to make this piece, but it makes me happy every time I look at it!

Newest Landscape--"Traffic Jam"

"Traffic Jam"

c. 2008

Last week, I attended Paula Reid's class at Sew Many Ideas. The class was about using your machine to add embellishments such as cording, ribbon, yarn, charms, etc. Paula is a machine quilter and has quilted about 30 or so of Alex Anderson's quilts.

I took a beautiful hand-dyed piece (mine!) of blues and purples. It already looked very "underwatery" and very luminous. I added some ribbon, cords, and yarns in similar colors and in very random designs.

When I got home, following up on that underwater theme, I found these wonderful little wooden fish buttons! I was on a roll. I had lots of shells and I also found a piece of irisdescent tissue-type fabric which would make some great underwater creatures of some sort. These I free-cut very serendipitously from things I remembered from tv shows, aquariums, etc.

I made a "base" of tangled hand-dyed threads and went from there. At the end, that got some additional beads, as well as the shells. There are also some specifically-placed crystals, as water would get glints of light.

Make particular note of the colors used here: the lime green in almost the center, the orange threads, and the purple--comprising all the secondary colors! There is color repetition as well; some purples in the fabric, the fish, and down in the threads, the green fish and those "thready" things in the lower right center, and some white in the fabric and the shell in the lower right. Repetition of the colors leads your eye through the piece.

I had great fun with this piece, and it was done within the week! Ye-ha!

Landscape Post No. 6--About Backgrounds

Different people use different ways of constructing "intuitive" landscapes or pictorial quilts. I started out by using some sort of foundation to design on. When I first started, I used a piece of muslin cut a little bigger than the size I wanted, and I used that as my "canvas." And that is one way. However, it adds an extra layer to quilt through.

Another way is to use the sky fabric (if it has one) or "background" fabric as the whole piece to build on. The problem with that is that I don't want to waste my great fabrics (like hand-dyed or hand-painted) by hiding them behind other things in the bottom half of the picture! As a result, I started planning out where my sky stopped and earth began and cutting fabrics accordingly. I overlapped them and stitched. The seam got hidden by trees and other things. The cottage piece above is an example, except in this case, it looks like the middle ground fabric actually got added on to the front of the background row of trees.

Another way I have tried is using a piece of batting to construct on. This works pretty well and it "holds" the pieces to it. It needs to be about 3" bigger on each side than your anticipated size; this gives some room for error or to get a little bigger if you need to.

In the end, they all work! All pictorial and landscape artists have their own technique that works for them, usually gained from trial and error.

For me, the secret has been to do a little more planning, a little more sketching and designing up-front. Obviously, that is what the award-winning experts do. Once you have your design worked out, how best to construct it may be the easier part.

Landscape Post No. 5--An Example of "Inspiration"

I mentioned in an earlier post using something for inspiration, like a picture, etc. In this quilt, "Along the Woodland Ride," my inspiration was my love of buttercups in spring. They make me happy! The title came as I was working on the piece. It's from a favorite poem.

In starting this piece, obviously the first choice had to be the fabric for the buttercups. It was going to be all about them! I had some lovely variegated yellow, hand-dyed, and I proceeded to take it and cut them free-hand. You would be surprised what your intuition will do if you try that. Besides, it's just fabric and you can cut another one and use the best! And nature is not perfect, therefore your cutting doesn't have to be either.

In this piece, the second thing to come was the background. I wanted it to display buttercups as you find them--anywhere out in nature! Here, there, all willy-nilly, they are. It's hard to see in the pic, but I stitched outlines of trees to give the impression of the forest behind. This piece was constructed very intuitively. By that I mean, I started, did something, then evaluated what the next step was to be. . . .

In the end, there were two things which "made" this quilt. I wonder if you know what they are? (It's a test!)

First is the choice of the batik for the rock. Its light color gives the impression of the light in the piece. (Look for the other things that seem to reflect some light also.)

Then, this piece needed some sparkle. What do you think did it? It's that little touch of purple flower, which is a complementary color to yellow, and it's right up front, but not so much of it as the yellow.

Also in this piece, I did use both hand-dyed and commercial fabrics. I even used the back of the fabric to look like more reflected light (see the foliage to the right that's flipped over and pointing down).

When I look at this piece, it gives me joy! And that's enough.

Post No. 4 on Landscapes: Some Good Examples

Here's a fascinating site on how this lady actually illustrated a book by creating landscapes. They're really great. Plus she used techniques she learned from Jo Diggs, a wonderful landscape artist particularly skilled in the use of light (see some of Jo's work at www.mainecraftsguild.com/diggs.html and also at www.skydyes.com ).

www.aghines.com/whistling/whistlingprocess.htm

Also, here's a great fiber artist who's used large stone formations as her inspiration:

http://www.labadiefiberart.com/links.php

Making landscapes in fabric is really no different than creating landscapes in other media; it's the fabric as the medium that creates problems to be resolved--as is true with any medium.

Landscape Post No. 3

There are two more art concepts that are important with landscapes: perspective and scale. For instance, perspective means things look bigger close up than they do far away. Like in real life, a man we know to be 6' tall when he's close by, looks only an 1" tall when he's half a mile away.

Perspective also involves the use of scale. Scale is flexible, because it all depends on the particular size and subject of your art piece.

For example, if you are using commercial fabrics in a landscape, the scale of your fabric needs to match where it is appearing in the picture. A flower in the front of the picture would be a bigger scale, or size, that one in the back of the picture, because of perspective. A flower also needs to approximate in your picture size, what its size would be in its surroundings in nature. For example, if you are making a 24" x 36" landscape, you wouldn't use an 8" rose (even in front) because it would be out of scale for your landscape size. However, if your piece is actually about a closeup of a rosebush, the scale of an 8" rose might be fine.

One other rule you should know about perspective is that colors get softer (lighter and less detailed) and grayer as they get farther away. That means your darker, brighter mountains should be in front and lighter, grayed colors should be used for the mountains in the back. This is where dyed gradations come in handy. But this rule applies to everything really. The most detail and brightest color of a tree, for example, would be in the front and the detail and color lessens as you move toward its rear. Study the picture above as an example of how these concepts play out. Note the brightest color and clearest detail in front and the graying colors and reduced detail in the distance.

If you study your favorite fabric landscapes, you will likely discover that one of their charms is that they have appropriate perspective and scale.

I'm Simplifying!

I picked up a good book at the Goodwill (I have a number of great book finds from thrift stores!) called Wherever You Go, There You Are. That's one of my favorite sayings actually, so it made sense to pick it up. This book is about the art of Mindfulness. Kind of being where you are when you're there!

The first thing it's made me realize is that my studio is keeping me distracted. I have a large studio this time (luckily!) but it's full! I had enough stuff to fill it up when we moved, such as my window treatment padded table, and two commercial sewing machines in addition to my regular ones.

The problem is that my Gemini nature (the "twins" sign--except in my case, it's more like sextuplets) keeps many interests going all the time. So my table is full of 2-3 cutting projects, my large rolling lining dispenser straight across currently displays fabrics for an unfinished upholstery project, a "landscape" vest, the "vegetables" quilt top, and the 17-year-old "tiger" quilt top. On the nearby floor are fleece lap quilts, hemmed and unhemmed, for the Sleeping Bag Project. Below and on the old telephone table are 6 new (i.e., this year) projects in boxes or containers. At the corner are the stack of books I'm "letting go," either on E-bay or to give away. Then there are the bunches of new fabrics on the floor that I haven't worked into the stash closet yet.

On my "office" table are my genealogy notebooks and recent information to organize.

Is this making you tired? Maybe this is why I'm waking up at 6 every morning--there's so much to be done! I can't walk in here without becoming discouraged and confused. "What do I work on now?" The answer all too frequently is: the one that's the most fun! That means things get dropped by the wayside, and like the tiger quilt, don't get finished for years.

So this afternoon, I'm simplifying! I'm putting away projects that are hanging around visually, so I don't look at them when I look up. I'm keeping out the one or two I'm working on, and want to finish. I think this will greatly help my creativity and increase my energy. I'm going to try that rifle thing, and stop my usual shotgun approach.

But right now, I've had a long day already. Gotta have a short nap. . . .

Try This for Comfort Food

I read cookbooks a lot, and they help me when I have to come up with something on the spot, which I did this week. This recipe turned out to be great comfort food, was good as a leftover, and easy! I keep packaged chopped ham on hand for use in salads or omelets, and I needed to use up the package.

Ham and Noodle Casserole

1/3 of a 12 oz. pkg. of wide noodles
1 1/2 cup chopped ham (from a pkg. or leftover)
1 c. frozen green peas, thawed
3 boiled eggs, chopped
1 can cm of celery soup (or mushroom)
1 can milk (add more if needed when mixing together)
1 1/2 c. shredded cheese, cheddar or other mixed
Black Pepper
1/4 t. salt (to taste)
1/4 c. chopped onion (optional)

1+ c. bread crumbs
1/2 stick butter, melted

Cook noodles in boiling water until just done, likely 5-6 minutes (they will cook some in the oven also). Microwave peas and onions, if you choose to use them, in a small bowl in the microwave for 2 minutes only. Mix soup with milk and stir in cheese. In mixing bowl, or your large pan from cooking noodles, mix everything together: cooked noodles, ham, peas, onions, chopped eggs, salt and pepper, and soup/cheese mixture. Pour into a round, 4" deep, greased casserole.

Mix bread crumbs with melted butter and pour over casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until bubbly around edges. Good with a salad or tomatoes. This would be a nice casserole for a potluck as well. 6 servings.

Post No. 2 about Landscapes

There are two secrets, I think, to landscapes. One is the adherence to a good composition. Without a good composition, the work won't be as interesting as it should be. There are books which describe classic types of composition; if you become committed to making landscapes, you'll need to study those.

Another secret to good landscapes or any piece of art is called the Golden Mean. There is a mathematical calculation, I believe, that goes with it, but I have a simpler description. If you put a large "plus" sign in the middle of your piece, the center of interest or focus point should fall somewhere in one of the corners created.

Once you have studied these concepts and gotten them into your head, they will come naturally to your thinking as you design landscapes. You will find yourself checking for them intuitively.

The other concept, which I found by trial and error, is the presence of light and shadow, or light and dark (the Masters called it chiaroscuro). Ignoring shadows isn't true to life and will make a work flat and two-dimensional. The best landscape artists make good use of this concept! Light and dark can be implemented first in the fabrics you choose, but can also be added through fabric pens, dye, or paint, and see-through fabrics such as tulle.

To start your first landscape and implement these concepts, try drawing the major lines of your inspiration picture on a sketch pad, and with your pen (you can use a Sharpie) jaggedly fill in the shadows you see. See how you have implemented these two concepts. Is your picture interesting? Then make changes as you need to.

Remember, it all comes with practice, so let loose and just have a good time with your work.

Post No. 1 about Making Landscapes

Friends ask me about how I make landscapes. First I have to say that I have studied everyone out there who has specialized in making landscapes. Second, I have followed those that seem to fit my personality! I'm not into intricate piecing like Cynthia England or Ruth McDowell, although they do wonderful pieces. I'm much too impatient and I work kind of intuitively as I go.

Specifically, I fell in love with the work of Natalie Sewell of Wisconsin because her technique uses raw edges, ragged cutting, and intuitive designing. Her work gave me confirmation that my way was ok! (See http://www.nataliesewell.com/)

So if you want to do landscapes, first I would say--assess how you like to work. Do you like to plan and do intricate piecing or designs, or are you more impatient? You may do like I have done--that is, try some of each and let time determine what you like to do.

My best suggestion for starting is: get something for your inspiration. In the quilt above, my inspiration was the background batik forming the sky. I really liked the combination of the cool and warm colors in it. Deliberately, I put it on my planning wall and looked at it for two weeks, thinking what I could do with it. I almost took it down, but told myself, no, this is a challenge to myself and I'm going to figure out something to do with it. It wasn't long after that that I had the concept of a cool morning in a marsh when you have the bright sun coming up but still all the dark colors in contrast. It was kind of that yin/yang thing. It's amazing what your subconscious will come up with, when you give it an order. This piece wound up winning 1st in the Miniature Category in the South Bay Quilt Guild Show in 1999.

Your inspiration could be a picture that you want to create, a fabric that you love, or maybe a pattern that you purchase. With a pattern, you will learn some specific techniques that the author has perfected. There are a variety of techniques you can use in making landscapes and learning a few of them will help you along the way.

Everyone starts somewhere so make the decision: "I'm going to make a landscape."

Sewing Outside--and other stuff

On Sunday, we took it easy and it was a nice fall day--a little overcast with a breeze. I decided to get out my sewing machine to work on the project I brought along. And where better to sew than outside!

I love to sew outside! There was a picnic table beside the coach and with a pillow on the seat, and an extension cord for the plug, I was in business. My project is a very easy one called the Honeycomb pattern. It's a colored square on the right top, a light background square on the bottom right, and a matching colored rectangle on the full left side. Two seams and a block is made! I got two of the color groups done--the yellows and greens.

Then Sunday night we went to the Mickey Gilley Show. That man still looks g-o-o-o-o-d! And he is 72! It was an entertaining show and he sang some of his No. 1 hits.

On the way here, at a truck stop, I found a book that I really love and would recommend. The title is A Treasury of Christian Prayer, selected by Oliven Turchetta, copyright 2006, by Lion Hudson. It is a compilation of beautiful prayers through the ages and I have found it to be a wonderful resource for a daily meditation. I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more I need to pray! (Maybe that's because the older I get, the more I worry.)

Living Large in Branson!

We are in Branson, MO, where we are with an RV group we have joined. Very nice people and some live close to Jackson.

Our sites are up on a hill and at night we can see the lights from the "strip." It is a beautiful day with temperatures in the 70's, sun, and a light breeze.

I made my second (this is becoming a habit) trip to the Quilts, Quilts Country Store this morning. It's a pretty large shop, lots of traditional quilting stuff, but lots of everything basically--books, patterns, fabrics (although not newest collections), and embroidery transfers (the biggest selection I have ever seen, not that I use them). Anyway, yesterday I bought a Layer Cake group from Moda of all bright 30's prints. Very cute. Then I decided to make it easy and go back and get one of the books they had for them as well. Luckily, I got out with only that as my second purchase.

I then drove "downtown" as well--think Gatlinburg. It was full of people and had all the typical shops like fudge, souvenirs, t-shirts, etc.

Tonight, some of the guys are cooking catfish! Ye-ha. This bunch loves to eat, which is good and bad news! Tomorrow night, some of us are going to the Mickey Gilley Theater.

A Neat Trick I Learned on the Blueberry Hill Quilt

After I had finished the blocks for the Blueberry Hill quilt top, Michele G. from my guild gave me this tip! It would have been brilliant if I'd used it.

Whenever you sew squares onto corners of another square, before you cut those triangles off behind, sew another seam 1/2" outside the first one (toward the point), then cut in-between them. That way, you have assembled half-square triangles when you cut them off! Isn't that smart! Too bad I didn't know to do it, but I did save all those triangles for sure.

Our Japanese Quilted Bag Class

This past Saturday, I taught this Japanese Quilted Bag at our Guild here in Jackson. The Library has a nice room they let us use once a quarter or so. We had about 19 people who made the bag and this many got them done pretty much. They all turned out very pretty!

I'm in the right front. My bag has pics of lighthouses on it and the inside is yellow with small white sandpipers on it. I love it. We had a good time and I enjoyed teaching again.

My Grass Valley Civil War Fabrics Quilt Top

Here's my story on this quilt. In April, we arrived in Grass Valley, CA (a gold rush town--very charming) where we were going to trade our RV. During a break, my husband and I were out driving and of course, I had surveyed where the local shops might be! We found one, but I knew my opportunities were limited with him waiting in the car!

When I went in, they asked me if I was there for "Gold Rush Day" (like our Shop Hop) and I said no, I was just visiting. But they very nicely gave me a door prize too. (Well, I was in a rush due to him waiting). I went blasting through that shop quickly snatching things I liked because they really had a unique selection of fabrics. And I picked up one of the Strip Club books.

Then, I actually went back later when my husband was busy (I snuck out actually) and bought this great selection of Civil War fabrics. I'm not usually into them, but this year I am, I guess. This group was really neat because there are some pretty, modern-looking ones, like the black/yellow polka dot on the outside border AND that great strawberry pink. So this top is "A Touch of Pink."

Did I say I went back the third time? Once I decided what I was going to do, I went back for a background fabric. They were really neat ladies there--very friendly--and they sure had a good laugh at me skirting around my husband to get to the quilt shop.

Plus I used a new diamond-shaped ruler to cut the blocks on this top. Loved it.

Blueberry Hill Quilt Top Finished

Before we left for our trip to FL, I had finished two quilt tops. Unfortunately, I have had trouble with my new printer reading my card and transferring my pics (this after working perfectly for a week or two!) so there's been a delay getting them on here.

This one is the "Blueberry Hill" pattern from a mag. That's in a previous posting so you can look for it in the list. I really like it. I made it a little brighter than the one in the mag. Those lights really are beiges and tans but they look almost white in this pic.

I liked the "sew a square on the corners" technique for the making the flying geese. And this pattern was easy, easy! (Sew a neutral square on one corner of four squares, then sew the four squares together with the neutrals in the center.)

(I guess I will show my age if I say that it reminds me of "I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill." My Aunt Linnie had that on the juke box in her cafe as I grew up.)

And Life Goes On. . . .

The last post described the condition of my mother-in-law, Elizabeth Stewart. It got worse with gangrene setting up in her right foot and leg and her right hip (which was repaired in June) coming out of joint. With her multiple issues, the end result would be that she would a total complete invalid (and in FL in a nursing home). The dr. did not recommend continuing, and, she also had a living will stating her wishes. Thus the decision had to be made to let her go as painlessly as possible. The guys said their goodbyes and she passed away almost 3 days later on September 2, 1008. Due to impending hurricanes, we returned home quickly.

It's always hard to lose your mother . . . .

Life Takes Over

I am in FL for a fast trip this week due to my mother-in-law's illness. She is in a Ft. Lauderdale heart unit in very bad shape. The doctor says there can be improvement but it will be improvement just to go into a nursing home here--no traveling, and no move to Erie to be near the other son. It's pretty heartbreaking--89 1/2 years old, about 75 pounds, a ventilator now transferred to a tracheotomy, on a feeding tube, a purple foot, big skin tears in her very fragile skin, and two large stapled incisions, from one defibrilator coming out, and a new one coming in. Then there is the raging staph infection. This is the consequence of modern medicine.

So this week, I am crocheting on a long scarf for my tactile "fix," and reading new quilt magazines. I did get to have lunch with my dear quilting friend, Judie, whom I haven't seen since March. That was a great thing. And I went to an art store to get more wonderful Schminke soft pastels for when I get home and back to my art.

Everything here is green, green, green from all the rain they got with Trop. Storm Fay. Now there are two hurricanes coming, but we'll be gone by then.

Two Tops Done!

Well, the blue quilt got done by Friday--no pic yet! But it is very pretty and I really like how easy it was to put together. I've made the binding out of lots of strips of the blue fabrics.

The Civil War fabric quilt ("A Touch of Pink") also has gotten the two side borders it needed.

Now there are two quilts needing to be basted and marked (my new intention to put more planned designs on my quilts). I'm back to the red and green log cabin to make the final 9 green strip blocks for the outside border.

I also have been frantically working this weekend to sort and re-organize my genealogy materials, which have been untouched for a few years. Lately, I joined ancestry.com and have been fascinated by what's on there! So stacks of family records (like censuses) have grown amidst my quiltmaking in the past month.

Some of the records I have accumulated along the way have actually proved out in light of all the new info on the Internet. My W.A. McCartney 1850 Census record actually proved out to be my W.A. McCartney. That was exciting! And my Bible page from my Aunt Linnie from 1933 helped prove a connection to the right Solomon Cates recently. That was a yippee!

This morning I cleaned out and reorganized a file cabinet in the garage that has been untouched for about six years. I'm on a mission! Full steam ahead!

The New Blue Quilt Project

I spotted an easy blue quilt recently (at top) in American Patchwork and Quilting (June 2007), one I could put together quickly with the oodles of blues I have. I liked the geometric and modern look of it. In my usual excitement for starting quilts, I plunged in by gathering lots of blues and preparing them to take to the shop for cutting into squares, along with the neutrals for the corner squares. (Mine is going to be a little brighter than this one, with more dark teals and some brighter blues here and there for pop.)

So far it's easy and simple! I did go to the trouble of putting a pencil line across the middle of the neutral squares for straighter sewing lines. In the second picture you see the neutral squares stitched on and not pressed up yet. At the bottom you see how it looks when the square has been pressed up to the right corner. This top might actually get together this week!

AND here's the good part--I trimmed the back two triangles (one blue, one neutral) away to get rid of the extra bulk, so now I have a bunch of new blue and neutral triangles for another project. Saving more of that green stuff. . . $!

How Much Money Are Your Scraps Worth?

Fabric is expensive! Since most fabrics are now at least $9.50 per yard, those bits and pieces we pitch are literally money we're throwing in the garbage can. That's why I've been working on "reclaiming" scraps that I have saved but not "organized."

At the top, you'll see my finished stack and the bottom picture shows the pieces I started with on the left. I used Judy Martin's Scrapmaster to cut the triangles--it worked really great.

Now here's what that finished stack of about 180 triangles is worth--$3.25! I calculated the square inches of the triangle; used the number of 1512 sq. in. in a yard of fabric and divided it by the triangle area, giving me the number of 536 triangles per yard. Then I divided $9.50 by 536 to get the value of each triangle--1.8 cents.

Plus I have the beginning of a "snowball" quilt because all these triangles will be perfect to sew on the corners of squares. 180 will do 45 squares. I'm working on more green scraps. . . and saving my "green" while I'm at it.

A Quilting Math Lesson

Do you have a young quilting daughter or granddaughter who needs a practical math lesson?

Today I needed to figure out how much fabric I needed to cut for the 165 3.5" squares I needed.

Here are the steps:
1. I multiplied 3.5 x 3.5 to get the square inches of each piece = 12.25 inches.
2. Then 12.25 x the 165 squares I needed = 2021 sq. inches.
3. How many square inches in one yard of fabric? 36 l. x 42 w - 1512 sq. inches.
4. Divide 2021 (amount needed) by 1512 (amount in one yard) = 1.34 yards

But I messed up! I calculated 36" square, forgetting that the width is more like 42-43". Thus I cut 1.6 yards and got more than I needed.

Using a Cutting Machine for Fabric

Today I decided to go and use the new cutting machine Trish has at Sew Many Ideas. Yee-ha!THAT is a great thing! I needed to cut 165 3 1/2" squares for the Honeycomb quilt I've started cutting. The other pieces are all scraps so I'm cutting those at home,but the background square is all one color. So I took 1.6 yards with me, wound up with 191 squares in 15 minutes, for a total cost of $5.00 plus tax. I'm into saving time wherever I can in order to make more quilts!

If you decide to use a cutting machine, call beforehand to see if they have the template size you need and if you need to cut your fabric into strips before you go.

Embellishing with Jewels/Sequins and the Bedazzler

In the new quilt, Jewels in Batiks, I realized at the end that the center of the light squares needed a little pizazz. Since the quilting looked like a flower, it made sense there would be a center. I thought of the Bedazzler Stone Styler I had purchased but not used yet, and my small collection of jewels. It took a while to find them all--part of it here, part of it there!

I had used the jewels before but just with an iron--which does work. It is much easier with the Stone Styler however because the tips which are included fit the size of the jewels you are using. So you just vertically set it over a jewel, pick it up, let it heat for several seconds, then set it down vertically where you want it and hold for about 15 seconds. The jewels won't come off!

In the top photo you see I matched the jewel color to the block color. Last night with the light on overhead, some of the jewels looked like they were lit--kind of like tiny Christmas lights inserted from behind! A serendipitous ending to this quilt!

Using Fabric Markers on Quilts

Over the years I have accumulated a lot of fabric markers. I keep them in this plastic container which helps to keep them from drying out. I've used them in a variety of ways like adding shadows in landscape quilts. In this new quilt, "Jewels in Batiks", they played the purpose of shading down a fabric. This one square of fabric had a very bright orange in it in an area that was supposed to be dark. When I looked at the quilt, all I saw was this one block over-shining the "jewels." I got out the brown markers and went over this square. If you look at the post with the finished quilt, you'll see it's really toned down, allowing the "jewels" to shine!

Fabric markers are also great to color bright stitches that are showing up in your seams, but you have to use a very pointed end to just touch the thread.

This Week's Finished Quilt

In all these years of quilting, I haven't been very good about seeing a quilt in a magazine and actually making it. But while we were on our trip to CA. in April, I had mags with me, a limited amount of fabrics (well, that kept expanding along the way), and a limited amount of space. I did have my sewing machine and basic quilting supplies as well. Plus I picked up some used mags along the way and this quilt (top picture) was in it in an article by Nancy Elliott MacDonald (see QNM issue December 2001). I liked it because it was made of batiks, which I had with me, and it was a small piece and easy to do on the RV. I didn't like the kind of washed out look of the "tiles."

The bottom picture shows my finished quilt "Jewels in Batiks." It's brighter and I love it! I was going to name it Traveling Tiles but someone at Guild said it looked like jewels and I decided they were right. This was the first piece quilted with my Bernina Stitch Regulator and I 'm very happy with that! (see "machine quilting")

See Embellishing Quilts and Using Fabric Markers posts for techniques I used in this quilt.

I really like this pattern because it's simple but can look very different. In the article, Nancy has a series of quilts using this pattern and the others look like a bed of flowers in various settings.

Using the Blanket Stitch on Quilt Bindings

I had a small success today! For years I have always done my bindings by hand, even though it now is difficult because my fingers fall asleep (I'm sure I have carpel tunnel; I just try to manage it). Previous attempts at using my machine to straight-stitch down the binding didn't look very good.


However, today I decided I would give it another try with my Bernina Artista 200E. I'd never used the blanket stitch on it; in fact, didn't know where to find it on the machine (this after owning it almost 5 years--did I say life has intervened in the process?)! It took a while to track it down (it's in the quilting stitches). I pinned down quite a ways on one side, put in some Sulky thread on top, and went to it.


It worked great! I did in 30 minutes what would have taken me a couple of hours on this smallish wall hanging. It's very flat, looks nice, and is very sturdy, which is good enough for me! I think I'll be doing a lot of mine this way, especially bed quilts.


This piece was also quilted using my Bernina Stitch Regulator. You can see the stitches are nice and even. I really love free-motion quilting.

Hanging My Art Quilts in My Studio

I wanted an easy way to hang my quilted landscapes so that I could change them out whenever I wanted. Here's what I came up with. The pieces can be hung just with needles. The secret is the kind of material that's used for the covered board.

Three years ago, I built a table for making window treatments. A window treatment table has to be pinnable. They sell a special material for this, much like cork, but lightweight. I had some pieces left, so I cut one (well, two actually) and covered it with lining material. The art pieces I'm hanging are lightweight; I just put the strip up on the wall with velcro.

Yesterday I was at Home Depot and saw that they had 2' square pieces of a similar material, basically drywall board, for $3.99. This would work because it's easy to cut and pretty light-weight and certainly pinnable.

If you want to hang heavier quilts on a strip like this, make it longer (mine are about 24") or use multiple pieces across; and find the studs and put in screws to hold your board.

I had mine up in an hour and have been very pleased with them.

A Favorite Quilt Artist Now Blogs Too

Some of my friends have lots of blogs they read and I happened on one yesterday by one of my favorite quilt artists, Melody Johnson. Melody has won many awards for her fused, bright modern originals (for example, "Hot Summer Fun" in about 1989). Now she's moved to Palmer, TN. from the Chicago area and has moved back into painting as well! (You also might remember that she was a former co-owner of Artfabr!k.)

You can view Melody's work at www.fibermania.blogspot.com or www.wowmelody.com. Plus, she has some instructional segments on the use of WonderUnder and hand-dyeing. She is an inspiration, so check her out! She also sells her paintings, if you are looking for an original art piece.

Great website for machine quilting videos

http://sharonschambernetwork.com/free_area/free.html

Thanks to fellow Peace by Piece quilters, this is the address for free videos on machine quilting.

Sharon Schamber is the winner of several major awards and now she has her own Network for video instruction. You can register and access the ones she has free; they are very good! If you like to machine quilt, you definitely should watch them. They gave me some great new ideas, although I don't have a longarm. However, I have purchased the Bernina Stitch Regulator and it's giving me much prettier stitching than I was able to do before.

My Antique Store Find

My quilting friend Diann loves another blog which shows yard sale finds. I had an antique store find last weekend that you might like to see. . . .I found this interesting little statue at a reasonable price ($7.50). I think it's resin but it's nicely done. I bought it for a friendly reminder at my sink.

Let me tell you where it was--Tunica, MS. We went there to get the coach out for a weekend and because they have a nice RV park for the Harrah's casino. We aren't interested in gambling, but it was an easy 2-hour drive. Plus, they now have Paula's Restaurant there! We had a late lunch/early dinner there and it was really good. The mac and cheese was great!

However, it is pretty dull there other than the casinos. Miles and miles of flat land planted in crops. Plus it was hot as blue blazes! On Saturday, I decided to drive the 10 miles into Tunica since I'd never been there. And there isn't much reason to go there! The income from the casinos has upped the county's standard of living considerably and enabled the town to build some very nice buildings.

But most of the businesses haven't made it. There was only a combined drug/gift store open (where I found the Vera Bradley cookbook on sale 35% off) and an antique store, owned by the lady who formerly worked for the city for 30 years. She shared the particulars with me about the income to the city from the casinos, which is a very good thing because before they had nothing! It was very poor there. It's a little sad that the only way they could become successful was through casinos.

I guess it's a little ironic that I should find "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil," in the midst of Casino Land. . . .

Do You Like Beets?

In my continuing quest to include more vegetables in my diet, this week I tried BEETS. I've eaten the canned ones before and like them but I had never cooked fresh beets. Have you?

I checked all my cookbooks for recipes, and they are all pretty simple. I actually peeled mine, but the books say you can roast them without, then peel them afterwards. Anyway, you just wash the beets, trim the tops off, wrap each one in aluminum foil, place them in a shallow pan, and bake at 400 degrees for an hour and a half (yes, that long--they are really hard and dense). Then I sliced them into 1/2" slices. They are really tasty just like that because they have a slightly sweet flavor.

However, my husband needed "sweeter" so I made a sauce of about 1/3 c. white sugar (or use Splenda!), 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar, 1 1/2 T. cornstarch, and 2 T. butter. If it's too thick, add some water. Once it's cooked about 5 minutes and gotten smooth, add the sliced beets and turn the heat down, so they will warm but not keep cooking.


We ate them kind of like an appetizer; they were a little addictive! If you were going to use the oven anyway, they'd be great to add in a side pan and no trouble! Then you refrigerate them and use when you like. They'd make a great salad for lunch on greens as well. Plus they're that wonderful purple color!

What's on the Board Right Now

Here's a lap quilt I'm making called "Roses in the Woods." When Judy Snyder gave away strips, I was lucky enough to receive some of them, and I divided them into colors. There were quite a few greens and reds, which I have added to. I love red and green, even if they are Christmas colors! And I love log cabin quilts, so this is what developed. It's not original; I know I've seen this somewhere. There'll be a total of 24 rose blocks--4 wide x 6 long--with a green strip row around. The good thing is I can sit down and make a strip block in about 5 minutes and a rose block in ten, then leave it until the next time!

Also you might notice the "planning" board it's mounted on. It was easy and pretty fast! I bought a 4' x 8' piece of 1" thick styrofoam building insulation. I had them cut it into 3 pieces there because I needed to get it in my car. Unfortunately it was blue; I had to put two coats of white primer on it to keep it from showing through my flannel. Then I covered it with pieces of white flannel and taped with duct tape on the back. I mounted them on the wall with strips of Velcro. Since it's going to stay up there a lo-o-o-o-ng time, I wasn't worried about the paint job behind.

It's Thursday Already?

There is a problem when you are retired. You become aware that life is not forever. . . so everyday counts as to what you get done!

I keep wondering about how to earn money again with all these things I do. I really liked that part of working! The problem with earning money is that it requires some regularity of activity and I'm not very good at that anymore.

In retirement, my "Gemini" has really sprung her top. She has gotten the "gotta get this done, and this done, and this done before I'm gone" bug. I mean, we never know how long we have, right? So everyday I get up, determined to make a dent in all the things I want to do. Sadly, my energy gives out sometimes before my "want-to." The good thing about retirement is that you can take a nap and go again! Yes!

My days are full of jumping from one thing for a while to another. I do try to put some time in each day for the "necessities." My husband considers that to be cooking, so I do make that concession. My definition of "necessities" are quilting, reading, and right now, working on window treatments for the house. Granted, my definition changes frequently, but quilting is always in there!

This is my first post, so I'm not quite finished with set-up. I'll be doing pics and various things, but today one of our tasks is getting a scanner and different printer set up on my computer.

The Perfect Apple Pie. . . .

This week I made an apple pie and my husband said it was perfect! That's going a ways for him.
Here's the recipe--see if you agree. It's not hard; you can get one in the oven in about 10 minutes.

Perfect Apple Pie
2 refrigerated pie crusts (I don't make my own, but you can!)
7-8 large apples, mostly yellow delicious, a few tart like Jonathan or Granny Smith
1 1/4 c. white sugar
3 T. corn starch
2-3 T. plain flour (if you're making smaller, go with smaller amount)
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2. t. allspice
3/4 to 1 stick butter, cut in 1/2" sections

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Use a large pie pan--I used glass. Place one pie crust in bottom and pat to remove air.

The secret I've learned is mixing up the type apple. It lends a lot of flavor to use two different apples. Peel and cut apples up into about 1" chunks and place into pie crust. (Some people mix the apples and dry ingredients in a bowl and then pour into crust, but it's not necesssary. You can also toss them in lemon juice, but if you work quickly in peeling, they won't turn brown.)) Mix all the dry ingredients together and pour over apples. Put dots of butter all over the top. Place 2nd pie crust over the top and pinch together the edges. Put a couple of slits in the top with a knife. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour. Check with a knife at 45 minutes or so to see if the apples are soft enough; if not, bake longer. It should be really bubbling and seeping through the seam a little. If your crust starts to get too brown; put aluminum foil around the edges or one of those pie pan edge covers you can buy at a kitchen store. They work!

Note: If you are making a smaller pie like with 4-5 apples, adjust the ingredient amounts downward by about 1/4.