Due to Technical Difficulties ...

My laptop didn't want to talk to my wireless modem yesterday so I couldn't post on WIP Wednesday.

I smiled last week at Rian's comment of the old-fashioned look of my sampler in progress because it is exactly what I'm going for with this one. I consciously chose toned down medium values for the blocks--since these are not the fabrics that normally attract me, I thought it was a good way to stash bust, too.

Putting the blocks on the wall last week, inspired me to make more and to edit out a couple that weren't working ...











Anyone who has been making lotto blocks may recognize most of these and wonder what happened to Hope of Hartford and That 30's Thing. The latter, a paper pieced block, just didn't seem to have that old-fashioned feeling (despite it's name). My attempt at Hope of Hartford was too contrasty and ended up being added to the reject pile, along with my first Broken Arrows block--rejected because the blue-violet color felt wrong.



It feels like progress even though I still need a bunch more of the alternate blocks.

Sampler in Progress

16 months ago, I re-started the monthly block lotto. Along the way, I made an extra block for me with plans for a sampler quilt. I decided on an alternate block and made some of those, too, but somewhere along the way, I stopped making time for it and my sampler quilt stalled.

I also had plans for a pillow cover for an oblong pillow, made from these three blocks, probably turned and put on point.

I usually spend a day playing in my studio over the Thanksgiving weekend--last year it was at the house of a friend in Texas. This year, it will likely be a solitary day ... I just need to decide WHICH WIP to work on ...

Thank You Libby

Libby replied to my whine earlier today about the forgotten camera battery with a link to her photos of the quilt show.

Here's one of her photos of my favorite quilts of the day, Invitation to a Flower by Kazue Tukayama . I fell in love with the bunny in a kimono.


Here's a detail


Everyone be sure to check out Libby's photoset of Quiltfest 2006 on Flickr. She has some great photos of the show.

I have to share one more quilt, Manitoba Medley by Judy Morningstar.


This quilt is one that gives you a very different experience when you approach it and get up close. Each of the cream squares contains a small landscape, constructed from subtle tones of fabric and lots of wonderful threadwork. It won a blue ribbon for best machine workmanship.

Thank you, Libby. See you in Rosemont in the spring?

What a Quilter Sees ...

What a non-quilting person sees when they looked out the window, while waiting for the elevator, at the hotel where I stayed in Cambridge, Massachusetts last month.



What I saw.



I walked across that pavement many times and wondered if all the people travelling across it or sitting at one of the tables outside the cafe noticed ... I figured the quilters did ;-)

Good news, bad news

Good news. Yesterday, a friend and I drove to the Mancuso show in Schaumburg, Illinois. I enjoyed the international quilts and the special exhibits, especially Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece, curated by Ami Simms, and the quilts from PAQA's Water Challenge.

Bad news. My friend showed up early to pick me up ... just when I was about to switch to a smaller bag and pack it. I ditched the plan to switch bags and just grabbed my camera on my way out the door. I forgot to grab the battery from the charger. We even took a break from the show to ride the trolley to the mall to pick one up at Circuit City, but no luck. So I have no photos to share.

A Tale of Two Compasses

I had hoped to spend more time quilting this evening and even imagined that I'd have the beginnings of the hand-pieced Mariner's Compass block that I'm working on along with Becky and many of the hand-piecers on Quilting to share as my WIP this week. Sadly, while I did make some progress this evening--I went to a copy shot and had Becky's templates printed onto cardstock--it doesn't rate very high on the eye candy scale.

(click to enlarge ... and you can see the line drawing of this very interesting, traditional block)

As I was thinking about a color palette for this block, I remembered some other compass blocks I made many years ago for a challenge on Quilting. The challenge was to create a quilt from 12" blocks using no templates, at least one curve, and using a split complement color scheme.

I loved the improvisational compass blocks I made, though they have languished as a UFO because I never had an inspired setting idea. Now I feel I have to put these blocks into a quilt, if only to illustrate the range of my quilting interests ... this two interpretations of the mariners compass are so completely different.

I am thinking of using the same color scheme in the hand-pieced compass. The color isn't good in these photos, so you probably can't tell that I was aiming at the split complement of yellow-orange, yellow-green and violet.