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.

A Saturday To Dye For

Alice Brinkman, a local fiber artist periodically holds Days to Dye For on Saturday mornings in her studio. Yesterday, we played with discharge, using Jacquard discharge paste and a Thiox bath. I started with some black Kona cotton, turquoise hand-dyed cotton and a commercially dyed purple silk scarf.

Is it because Halloween is around the corner that the pole-wrapped shibori piece on the left looks a little a skeleton?

The piece on the right was clamped with a pair of wood rectangle shapes. Both went into the Thiox bath, along with a purple silk scarf with was also clamped. The scarf when back into the bath, after it was unclamped to produce the gradated effect in the circles.

I also screen-printed both kinds of cotton fabrics with the discharge paste using a silk screens. Here is the black Kona cotton, screened with the kanji for Peace.

A Walk in the Park

I've been walking with a friend in a nearby park. The leaves are falling, the colors are fading, but it is still quite beautiful. (Click images for larger versions)







It has been a beautiful October here, from beginning to end. I took these photos on October 2 (on a walk back to the office from a meeting)



It's kind of amazing considering the 2-day snow storm that happened mid-month. France took some nice snowy landscape photos.



They're so much nicer than the one photo I snapped.



(yes, those geraniums DID survive the snow and are still blooming ;-)

1820 Quilt

This quilt is said to date from 1820. It came from Maine and hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, in the Folk Art room.



It's made from cotton fabrics with wool embroidery that looked like punch needle. The motifs range from flowers and animals to portraits thought to represent family members to soldiers on horseback. (click images for larger versions)



I'm not sure anyone would consider this an Art Quilt today, but I think that the quilter who designed and made it in 1820 was surely an artist.

Works in Progress

When I was packing and moving and unpacking last month, I realized just how many UFOs I have–suddenly my stash didn't seem so large because I seem to have just as many boxes of finished and almost finished tops, sets of swap blocks, unfinished class projects and other works in progress.

Here's an oldie but goodie.

60 inch square throw

The scrappy 4-patch stars were from a swap I hosted another time that *life* happened to the swap hostess . . . me. The blocks arrived at my house in California not long before I had to drop everything and fly to Michigan because my dad was in the CCU with a mystery illness adn was failing fast. Although I did send a note to my swappers letting them know what was going on, and another, the following week, when I was still in Michigan, one swapper kept insisting that someone return her blocks immediately. At the same time, she sent accusatory emails to the powers that be and so I was getting demanding email messages from them, too, adding to my already frightened and stressed out existence.

Yes, sometimes *life* happens to the swap hostess.

The backing is also pieced and ready to go. Can I finally finish it in time for the holidays and leave the memory of that selfish, mean-spirited person behind?

Before & After

Swapping fabrics is one of the most fun ways to build a stash. I started swapping fabrics online almost as soon as I started quilting. I swapped 4-inch strips, 10" squares, Fat Eighths and Fat Quarters.

These are the FQs I sent for Teresa's recent swap of Amish Solids FQs . . . and look at the rainbow of fabrics I received in return.

I joined this swap, once again, to begin to build a stash, this time of solid fabrics. It's a great start, isn't it?

Work Interrupted

This is technically more work interrupted than work in progress. It's a detail of my class project from Bonnie McCaffery's face painting workshop in Houghton Lake last month.

The same weekend that I was there, enjoying quilts, vendors and great teachers, events at home would lead me to the decision to find a new home and move ASAP and that has been my priority since ... in the meantime, this woman patiently waits on my design wall, until my focus can return to more creative pursuits.

WIP Wednesdays

Since I'm not very good about blogging regularly or sharing my work in progress, I thought to start checking in, once a week and sharing whatever it is I'm working on, in whatever state it exists.

In June, I swapped some Stretched Stars blocks and, last weekend, when a friend invited me over for breakfast and a day of sewing, I thought the time was ripe to make the extra blocks I wanted to make a small quilt.



Here they are on the design wall at the end of the day. I had decided to add some yellow, some green and some more red stars and I like how it looks . . . except now I think it needs more yellow more green and maybe some orange stars added to the mix. This small quilt is growing . . . and I haven't even decided whether to sash these blocks or not.

Anyone want to join me for WIP Wednesdays and share whatever they're working on or thinking about today?

Houghton Lake Show

Despite a few organizational glitches and a lack of promotion that produced a small crowd for the vendors, last weekend, spent at the Houghton Lake quilt show, Out of the Box, was a pretty perfect quilt weekend.

I drove up with a friend and stayed in a hotel on the lake that was only minutes away from the show and workshops.

Besides the Debbie Danko quilts, the travelling exhibits of Woman of Biblical Proportions and Men of Biblical Proportions were there, as well as about 100 quilts made by local quilters. I was impressed with how much hand applique, hand piecing and hand quilting I saw in these quilts.

This quilt, Beauty of Milan, is based on a photo of an 19th Century Aubusson carpet and is made entirely by hand.

The description says that it is only the SECOND completed quilt made by it's maker--the first was another show-stopper based on Cinderella--and that she worked on it, off and on, for 14 years. Quilters joke about their forever projects. Here's proof that some forever projects are finished.

For detail photos of the applique, Broderie Perse, trapunto and quilting, as well as the rest of my photos from this show, hop over to my Flickr set, Out of the Box 2006.

Fabric Gardens

One of the nice surprises at the Out of the Box quilt show in Houghton Lake was an exhibit of Debra Danko's wonderful flower quilts. This is a detail from Hibiscus.



I've seen many of these quilts before, but this was, for me, an opportunity to really look beyond the beautiful images and examine the details of the artist's alchemy and how she uses fabric, textile paint and thread (after taking a class with her and with a better understanding of what to look for).

Here is another detail photo, from Yellow Rosebuds.



In a show where few quilts were hung well, it was fantastic to see Danko's Trumpet Lilies hung so that you could see the transparency in the dark chiffon background--at least you could in person.



All my photos from the Fabric Gardens exhibit are featured in the Quilt Show Flickr badge in the side bar. You can also find them in my flickr album, tagged with fabricgardens.

Why We Quilt

This weekend, I went to a small regional quilt show in Houghton Lake, Michigan. The artist statement for this hand pieced, hand appliquéd, hand quilted quilt, made by Connie MacAllister, made me smile.

It said: I made this quilt while waiting for our new house to get done. It helped me keep almost sane. All done by hand in 2003.

Sometimes it's as simple as that, isn't it? Keeping almost sane.

This quilt reminded me of Becky's hand piecers on the Quilting forum--who are currently working on lemoyne stars. I thought they'd appreciate it, so I took a couple detail shots for them.




(Click images for larger versions)

What Kind of Flower Are You?

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

12 times 3 is (not) 48

Last weekend I finally started on my blocks for Kate's half-square-triangle sampler swap. I started with the black and red blocks, so that I could include Kate and Michelle's blocks with the sets of June lotto blocks they won.

Each of the sawtooth square blocks contains 12 HST units and one large one ... I started doing the math and realized I'd be making 260 HSTs by the time I'd finished my blocks for the swap. It was daunting ... so much so that when I started making HSTs for the three red blocks, I multiplied 12 times 3 and came up with 48 ;-)

After recovering from that mistake, I proceeded to sew right side to wrong side when making the pink block, decided I was too distracted and put the blocks away until today.

Things in the studio went smoother today ... and I'm happy to report my new status: 169 HSTs done, 91 HSTs (in blue and neutral) to go.





With each color I find myself saying, I wish I would have decided on this colorway ... these are going to be very pretty quilts, I think.

It's Only a Paper Moon

I discovered a wonderful set of vintage photos on Flickr --> Only a Paper Moon. Check out the clothes, the hair, the hats, the expressions--both on the people and the moons. I loved them.

Flag Day

Yesterday was Flag Day and I planned to mark the day by starting work on my interpretation of this element of an antique quilt that has captured the imagination of the hand piecers on about.com

The original photo comes from the book, The American Quilt A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950, by Roderick Kiracofe and Mary Elizabeth Johnson.

But ... it was a perfect spring evening here last night and I had dinner outside on the deck and lingered too long, enjoying the cool air, the meal, my glass of wine ... and catching up on blog-reading on my wireless laptop.

Flag MONTH continues through July 14 and, by executive order, the Governor urges Michigan residents to observe Flag Day and Flag Month by flying the U.S. flag from their homes and other suitable places to honor America and celebrate our national heritage. Do you think I might observe and honor by having my own flag pieced by then?

Seen the USA?

"Red states" are going to mean something entirely different in a few months, but for the moment, look where I've been:



How about you? Create your own personalized map of the USA (There's also a world map, a Canadian Provinces map, a European countries map ... )

Life Imitates Art

This morning, I left the house in such a rush–I was late and I was distracted, already creating a mental checklist of everything I wanted to do before I ran to a meeting starting almost as soon as I would arrive at the office ... Once I was out the door, the sight of my Clematis vine in bloom briefly brought me back to the present.

I planted it less than a year ago when I moved into this place (I'm the Johhny Appleseed of tumbleweed renters and plant flowers wherever I go). It didn't seem very happy last year. I wasn't sure I'd see it again. I wondered if I'd made a bad choice for this zone and the location next to the porch. When it started to come alive in Spring, the resident expert gardener told me there was no way it would bloom for a few years.

In spite of all that, this morning, when I walked out the door, I was greeted by a half-dozen deep purple blooms and lots of buds holding out the promise of more. I think this little-plant-that-could deserves a trellis this year ;-)

I came home for lunch today–to grab something I had left behind in my earlier, distracted rush–and took a minute to take these photos. While I enjoyed some sunshine, before heading back to the office (and another meeting), I remembered a quilt block I'd made for a friend several years ago, long before I'd even thought of moving to this area, that bears an uncanny resemblance to the blooms in my yard .



Isn't it interesting how we're drawn to the same shapes and design elements over and over again?

Crazy Aunt Purl Explains It All

Lately I've been thinking about how how best to share my life's journey over the past month ... when I have been woefully absent from the page and disconnected from friends. After reading Crazy Aunt Purl's astrological forcast for June, I think it might be easier to blame it on the stars.

About scorpios, she says, in part:

I heard it through the Pissed-Off-At-Astrology Grapevine that Scorpios were really unhappy with the way most of last month went.

That would be an understatment. But it does feel as I've come through it and my life now has some of the qualities of a fresh start--or as Aunt Purl notes:

The best thing about you and June is your real willingness to try new things to revitalize your life. It's rare that ya'll don't dissect through the consequences or results of all your actions, and this month you will feel liberated and (mostly) care-free, willing to travel to a new place, meet new people, all of it with a who-knows-what-could-happen attitude.

If you're a knitter--or even if you're not--check out Crazy Aunt Purl ... she's a very entertaining writer and wise astrologer ;-)