What I've been up to

I've finally started prepping  the rest of my first block for the Roseville Album quilt.

The fruit bowl looks like it's made from different fabrics, but it's not. I got this fabric in a fat quarter bundle I bought from http://www.equilter.com/ a few years ago and I just like it. I do my hand applique the Piece O'Cake way, so those white shapes are my templates.

This is my pile of fabric that I've pulled for this block. Most of it is Kaffe Fassett, but I'm using others as well. I'm going to go with whatever works.

In other news, it's very quiet here on the home front. I'm upstairs in the studio, DH Mike is in NYC with the Scouts, marching in the Greek American parade, and Keri's at work. I love when the house is like this; all I hear is the sound of my thoughts. Today, they're very good-it's Sunday and Father Ben served Mass this morning. He's from Nigeria and is studying at Seton Hall University for his doctorate. He makes us think; he is so enthusiastic about God, it's great.

It's been a tough winter here. Sometimes I feel like I'm holding on by a thread. Today it's a thick piece of rope. I'm very grateful. Enjoy the rest of your day and many Blessings!!

It's done!

Here's the completed Lone Star quilt. As you can see, the 46 blocks from family member fit around the border with a little help from some spacers in the colors from the star.

I freehanded continuous curves in the center star to give it some movement; I used Ocean Mist thread from Signature throughout the entire quilt. Figured it was appropriate.

Below is the motif I quilted in the corner blocks. The client didn't want a lot of quilting and she didn't want anything to compete with the center star and the border blocks.



I have to say I really enjoyed making this quilt. I normally love applique more than piecing but, for some reason, I felt good about this quilt.

Happy 80th birthday, Jimbo. I hope you enjoy owning this quilt as much as I enjoyed making it.

AQS Lancaster show

Here are quilts from my two favorite applique artists. Their work is over and above perfect to me. You can click on the pics to make them larger, if you wish.

First is "Tea with Miss D" by Sandra Leichner; http://www.sandraleichner.com/index.html She is my hero when it comes to applique. I'm definitely a groupie.

Second is "Euphoria" by Deborah Kemball, http://deborahkemball.posterous.com/ . She's a British applique artist living in Santiago, Chile. Her quilts are so unique-plus she hand quilted this one! Notice the blue ribbon for Best Hand Workmanship.

I didn't take many photos, the floor was crowded and I just wanted to stand and stare. However, here are a few more quilts from the show.

This is "The Return of the Grackle" by Diane Rusin Doran of Glenelg, MD. I loved the way she did the wings on this bird. So iridescent!



This one is "Monstera" by Betty Busby of Albuquerque, NM. The quilting is fantastic on this quilt!

These next two are from the Spirit of the West exhibit. The first is "Red Rock Canyon" and the second is "Olympic Sunset". All the artists in this exhibit belong to the Association of Pacific West Quilters. Aren't the colors spectacular?

Thanks for visiting. Maybe we'll run into each other at a show soon. My next one is MQX East in Providence, RI.

Almost done!!

Here are a few shots of the signature blocks on all 4 sides of the quilt. I used spacer strips to bring the borders up to the right size. Each block is from a family member with something relevant to the recipient's life. 

Looks like he may be a martini man. :)

On the left is the coat of arms to one of the schools he attended; on the right is a picnic on the beach.

If you look closely at the sails, they're 1932 and 2012.

Of course, he's a Yankee fan!

Each and every block was a labor of love for this family. I'm so grateful that I got to make this quilt. It's now ready to go on the longarm tomorrow. I have to make the label and apply it before I load it. That way, it can't be pulled off.

Waxing philosophical?

No pictures tonight; maybe tomorrow. I just wanted to talk about life right now. My mother recently had a health scare; come to find out her cholesterol is over 300, she has a Vitamin D deficiency, and she's pre-diabetic! Holy cow! How does this happen to an almost 93 year old? Everything can be fixed-she'll be taking Lipitor and Oscal with D. I'm glad she's going to be around longer.

A friend's father was taken off his breathing tube the other day. He surprised everyone by breathing on his own! Imagine that. For her sake, I'm glad he'll be around longer.

Another friend's mother is in the hospital with congestive heart failure. She's not doing so well, but we're praying for her.

What's going on? Is it the time of year? Why does God decide that two people's work here may not be done yet, but another may be almost ready to go home to Him? It's puzzling to me, I guess. I don't try to understand His reasons, I just wish my friends didn't have to have the pain of loss.

I'm exhausted; I think I'll go to bed now.

Sleep well, everyone. Say a little prayer for your loved ones.

Progress

Here's the center of the quilt I've been working on. It's a commission for an 80th birthday gift. The recipient lives on Hilton Head Island so I made the star in the colors of the water-from shallow to deep, back to shallow. It will be surrounded by signature blocks created by his children and grandchildren.  I feel pretty good about this so far, but I don't want to jinx myself. :-o. Right now, I'm sorting the siggie blocks to see what's going to go where. Wish me luck!

Hope your weekend was as good as mine-went to the first St. Paddy's day parade of the year, and then to an Irish pub for dinner and a concert by a local Irish style band called Shilelagh Law. It was quite loud, and I did feel a bit like a chaperone, but they were very good.

That's it for now, but I wanted to share my progress with you.

A couple of quilts plus

This is a quilt I just made for a friend's new granddaughter. Her nursery colors are pink and brown, and her Dad, (a big, strong cop) wanted butterflies for his new little girl. So, the design I quilted is a very stylized butterfly from One Song Needlearts. Isn't it gorgeous? I used a King Tut variegated pink thread called Red Sea. I hope they wrap their princess in this for a long time.

This is one of the diamonds of a Lone Star quilt I've been commissioned to do. The recipient lives near the ocean, so his family wanted the quilt to reflect the colors of the sea. How'd I do? I'll post more photos as I progress.

I chose Achieve as my word for 2012. I haven't given up on that, but I'm percolating several ideas. I'll keep you updated.

This is a new pic of our grandson, Tyler. He's got a cookie in each hand, each with a bite taken out of it. He was at a birthday party and was eating his way through it. He'll be 3 in April, can you believe it? I can't-it seems like yesterday I held him for the first time. Of course, it still feels like yesterday when I held his Dad, our son David, for the first time. It all goes by so fast.

Well, that's it for today. I'm going to do some hand stitching while I sit and watch NCIS. So long for now.

My word for 2012: Achieve

There are so many things I want to talk about, but I don't have pictures to go with it. Everybody knows you have to have pics or people won't bother with your blog. Should I go with gratuitous photos, just to make you stick around? Not today, anyway.

My word for this year is ACHIEVE. It encapsulates everything I want to do in 2012. Time will tell, won't it? One thing I want to achieve is to keep this blog going. Wish me luck.

More soon.

This is profound!!

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."- Charles R. Swindoll

This is a pic of my Dear Jane and Quilted Diamonds 2 blocks. I had it in my mind that I wouldn't be able to make these quilts-too much work. Well, I've come to the realization that I've just got to reset my mind-having the IQ on my machine is a great opportunity for me to do hand work while it's quilting. This is no longer an impossibility for me.

You'd think that, at 58 years old, I'd be able to figure this out on my own. Heck no!!! I need those slaps up side of the head. :) So...onward and upward!

Yeah, I'm still alive and kicking

The Oxford Dictionary defines "desultory" as "skipping from one subject to another, disconnected, unmethodical." It may be an unmethodical method, but it's a useful one. Here's why: Our minds are capable of far more multi-tasking and multi-tracking than we think. The critical sense that goes with the processes of art-making moves forward on both prior experience and intuition. Quick looks and automatic decisions, devoid of long-term contemplation and recrimination, often produce decent results. Going from one project to another heightens the faculty.

I got this definition from Robert Genn's biweekly newsletter. It describes me to a tee! I'm not bragging, mind you. I don't look at this as a good thing but it's the truth.

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The photos are of some of the stuff I've been working on. The heart vine has more detail now. I'll try to post a pic. The abstract is from a class I took last year with Katie Pasquini-Masopust. I finally finished it. The last quilt is for my 2 yr. old grandson, his birthday was in April and the panel's blocks are alphabet blocks.

To stitch or not to stitch...?

I love to applique by hand!! If I could just sit and stitch all day, I'd be in heaven. Unfortunately, life must go on and I have to make a living. Plus I currently have 3 projects I'm going to work on this year: my Roseville Album by Kim McLean, Ruffled Roses by Sue Garman, and Magical Medallions by Karen Kay Buckley. You'd think that would be enough, but NOOOOO...!!! The Civil War Bride Quilt keeps calling my name. Isn't it awesome? I'm going to apply to the blog so that when (notice I'm not saying if) I'm ready, I can get going on it.

I'm taking a class at MQX on machine applique. Maybe that will help me complete some of my projects. They won't be done by hand but the prep work will be. I'm thinking Magical Medallions may be my machine project. What do you think?

Week 3, 2011 Stash Report

I'm hand appliqueing the heart from last week's Design Wall Monday, so nothing new there. I needed a backing for my blue/orange quilt so I used some there.

Used this week: 1.5 yd
Used year to date: 3.5 yd
Added this week: 0
Added year to date: 16 yd
Net used year to date: -12.5 yd

At least it's going down ;)

Design Wall Monday

This is the center block for the TQS block of the month. I haven't put it up because I'm still cutting. I'm going to hand applique this block. Check back soon.

I didn't contribute for the Stash busting yesterday because I didn't really use anything except 1/2 yd.

Design wall Monday

So now, all the pieces are cut out and I'm continuing to turn the edges. Let me know what you think; this is the first abstract I've ever done.

I'm searching for a name. I've thought of a few but I'm open to suggestions.

Stashbusting report 1/2/11

Well, I'm starting out well, NOT. I went out today and bought 16 yds of background fabric for 2 applique projects I'm going to be doing this year.

Used this week: 2 yards
Used year to date: 2 yards
Added this week: 16 yards
Added year to date: 16 yards
Net used year to date: -14 yards

Design wall Monday

I don't even remember the last time I got to show anything! This is an abstract quilt I'm working on. That's all I can say for now. Maybe later in the new year I'll be able to share more.

Merry Christmas!

My wish for everyone is a very Merry Christmas and a safe holiday.

We'll be with family both here and at Mike's brother's home. That is what means the most to us at this time of year.

Since I decided to stop worrying about making t-shirt quilts for customers, I feel like a heavy weight is off my shoulders. While the machine is working, I can do some of my own stuff, hopefully. I'm planning on 2011 being a more productive year for me personally.

Check out Judy L's blog http://www.patchworktimes.com/ for her 2011 UFO challenge. I'm participating and will get even more done!

UFOs for 2011

I forgot to list my UFOs! So here they are:

Group 1-need quilting and binding

1. Harvest Spice
2. QFAH

Group 2-need minimal work

3. Piece O'Cake 4 block quilt
4. Mini applique
5. Tulip wallhanging

Group 3-more than 1/2 done

6. Shoebox (quilting group club quilt)
7. Project from Robbi Joy Eklow class
8. Project from Micky Depre class

Group 4-started
9. School of Philosophy art quilt
10. Project from Carol Doak class
11. Floribunda BOM
12. Magical Medallions

UFO Challenge 2011

I'm putting it on the line here. I'm going to take part in the UFO challenge that's being set up by Judy Laquidera http://www.patchworktimes.com. Hopefully, I'll get some of my own work done in 2011 that I wasn't able to do in 2010.

I'm going to find them now and I'll list them in a few days.

Mellow

DH Mike is watching the Jets/Ravens game and I'm sitting next to him on the sofa listening to Pandora Radio. I've got it on QuickMix and it's going back and forth among classical, pop, Christmas, Irish, and classic rock. I'm on the laptop, reading blogs by longarmers, appliquers, and art quilters.
Who could ask for more? Go Jets!!