Is it the Thought . . .

. . . that counts? I tried to organize a comfort quilt for a friend . . . and failed. And after being attacked for my failure, I confess that, to me, it feels a little more like "No good deed goes unpunished."

Here are Kate's Pineapples, made by her friends last fall. I thought this comfort quilt effort needed about twice as many of these 9 inch blocks as these and once thought I could make them . . . but my health issues stood in the way.











They are in Kate's hands now, at her request, and a few people have rallied and sent her some more. If you'd like to help, I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

Doll Quilts

Yesterday was the mailing deadline for Doll Quilt Swap II on the forum on quilting.about.com. My quilt is on it's way. I named it Baby Steps, a reference to it's size and the traditional block on which it was based. Here's a detail showing the quilting and batik fabrics I used . . . the last hint before revealing the quilt. The small squares measure 1/2 inch.



I haven't yet received my quilt from the swap, but a doll quilt from another of the swappers did land in my mailbox.



I think Peni was one of the first to finish and mail her quilt. Afterward, she shared an in-progress effort of an earlier, abandoned idea. I offered to give her teeny weeny basket blocks a new home and use them in a different design. Peni was inspired to re-hab them herself and this was the result. Isn't it incredible? The feather wreaths in the alternate blocks are 2-1/4 inches across.



Peni said that "these little guys said they wanted to g live with you because you believed in them all along. You knoew they could become more than a failed project." She hoped they would bring a smile to my face when I looked at them. How could they not? I love these happy little Party Baskets.

Art & Life & Walking in This World

This is my check-in for week 8 of Walking in This world.

Morning Pages: every day

Walk and Artist Date: didn't happen. This week zipped by and, although I had a plan, before I knew it, I was out of time.

The Rest: The reading and exercises turned out to be more about work than art for me, which surprised and intrigued me. My creative monster was based on people from my professional life--I created it a la Flat Stanley and ran it through the paper shredder . . . and thoroughly enjoyed that task ;-)

In Progress

My sewing space still looks a little like Santa's workshop.



Altering some of my Christmas swap blocks has become a slippery slope . . . and now, all except 8 of the original blocks that I made or received have become Dewey's Victory blocks like these. A couple of these have new centers pinned on, being auditioned.

Another of my blocks from Kate's Birthday blocks swap arrived today, from Christine.



The only progress I've made on the alternate appliqué blocks is photocopying the pattern.

The block lotto this month has made great progress; more than 100 blocks have been entered already this month. Here are mine.

It's All About MEme

Sara, of Odd Dotty Dollmaker, tagged me with the 7 random things meme.

1. I gave up eating meat with feet over a year ago and have never looked back. These days, it's veggies or meat without feet.
   
   
   
   
2. I start most days with a glass of freshly juiced green lemonade. Yes, that green lemonade.
3. I've never really had a favorite color for more than a season . . . there are just too many great colors in the world, you know? Lately, it's bright lime green . . . do you suppose it's because I am yearning for the bright green shoots of Spring?
   
   
   
   
4. I am fascinated by how things work and how they are designed and made. My undergraduate degree is in Physiology–the study of how we work–and, for fun, I have made hats and boots, stained glass, paper . . . and sewn lots of things.
5. I have always been an accessories girl. Currently, I am infatuated with the shoes with the funny-looking soles by BMT . . . because when I wear them, they make me (and my back and hips) feel so good.
   
   
   
6. I've lived on both coasts, Northern (Michigan) and Southern (Texas) borders of the US and in France. Now I don't live close to mountains or ocean . . . sometimes I miss them.
   
   
   
   
7. I enjoy the meme-thing, but I never tag anyone. If you haven't yet shared 7 random things about yourself on your blog and feel like playing, please add a comment to this post and link it.
   

Quilts and Human Rights

This quilt, The Holocaust, made by Natalia Merentseva of St. Petersburg, Russia in 1998, is part of the Quilts and Human Rights exhibit at the MSU Museum, This exhibit explores the role that quiltmakers have played in raising awareness of human rights issues around the world and the power of textiles to communicate important ideas and information. The quilts were inspiring and provocative, made to document and express transgressions of human rights, to educate others about human rights issues, and to pay tribute to leaders of human rights movements. One might try to focus on the design and workmanship of these pieces, like the interesting use of zippers on this quilt . . .



. . . but the messages embodied in these quilts are undeniable. I left the Museum with a physical reaction to these messages. Topics ranged from the global to the very personal. This quilt, After the Party, was made by Helen Pedersen and Janice Dowdeswell of Wanganui, New Zealand in 2007. It refers to Pedersen's own escape from domestic violence.


You can find the rest of my photos in the Flickr photo set Quilts & Human Rights.

My Quiltathon Report

The L-word, LIFE, intruded on my plan for uninterrupted quilting all day Saturday, but I made the best of the time I had on Sunday afternoon and evening.

I put away some other projects that I knew would distract me, took everything that was on my design wall down, and pulled out some Christmas themed star blocks from Christine's swap last fall.

I pulled out the blocks and sorted them into a few groups:

Sawtooth Stars.



Blocks made from other patterns with white backgrounds



Reverse Blocks (white stars on dark backgrounds)



Margaret's Choice blocks (in which the star points sometime get lost.)



and blocks which don't have white squares in the corners.



I started with the last four, giving them white squares in the corners to make them a little more like the others.



Changing the corners created a duplicate. I ended up with two other matching blocks from the swap. I decided that I wanted all the blocks in my quilt to be unique . . . but these three could become an interesting tablerunner or throw pillows.



My original design idea was that I would put the blocks on-point and alternate white background and non-white background blocks, something like this. I would need 16 blocks with white backgrounds and 9 of the others.



I made the two white background blocks first. I liked the pinwheel shape in the Dewey's Victory block, so I decided to make more of those.



Here's the group of 16.



These were up on the design wall while I started work on the reverse star blocks. They started to grow on me set this way . . . except for the two blocks in the bottom corners which were not like the others.



So I turned them into Dewey's Victory blocks.



I made a couple Two-Patch Quilt blocks in white on red, but I may be shifting from my original plan. The end of my Quiltathon came at a good time. I need to think about it some more. Right now, some of the blocks are on the wall like this.



All in all, I made progress and maybe by the time of the next quiltathon, I'll have decided which way to go.

Walking in This World, the Meme

This is my check-in for week 7 of Walking in the World.

I thought the Geography task looked a lot like the memes that bounce around blogland and the questions are interesting to consider (and share). Whether you are reading and working the book or not, you might consider your answers to these questions. Here are mine.

1. What culture other than your own speaks to you? Navajo
2. What age other than the one we’re in resonates with your sensibilities? Arts & Crafts period
3. What foreign cuisine feels like home on your palate? French
4. What exotic smells give you a sense of expansion and wellbeing? Indian curry and spices
5. What spiritual tradition intrigues you? Buddhism
6. What music from another culture plucks your heartstrings? Navajo flute
7. In another age, what physical age do you see yourself being? 30
8. In another culture and time, what is your sex? Female
9. Do you enjoy period movies or movies, period? Yes ;-)
10. If you were to write a film, what age and time, what place and predicament, would you choose to explore? The present, the reality of what our tax dollars at work looks like.

Morning Pages: every day

Walk: between snowstorms, I parked off campus and walked to the MSU Museum. The trip there was quite pretty; but when I left about an hour later, the sky had turned gray, it was snowing and the wind was blowing . . . I pulled up the hood on my coat and was pulling it close around my face. I thought about how, when I was an undergraduate there, we referred to walks across the open areas on campus as trips across the tundra.

Artist Date: I went to see the quilts in the Quilts & Human Rights exhibit at the MSU museum. The exhibit explores the role that quiltmakers have played in raising awareness of human rights issues around the world and the power of textiles to communicate important ideas and information. The quilts were inspiring and provocative, made to document and express transgressions of human rights, to educate others about human rights issues, and to pay tribute to leaders of human rights movements.

I will share more photos later, but here is a detail photo from 9/11, made by an unidentified artist or artists in South Africa in 2002.