Last Week ... Next Week

Last week, I spent two days in a workshop with Jane Sassaman.



Some time ago, I just happened to surf past the web site of the West Michigan Quilt Guild--a large guild an hour's drive away--and noticed she was teaching. So I attended their previous guild meeting, taking two friends along, and joined ... so that I could sign up for the last spot in the workshop. It was well worth the trip and we also got to see a fantastic trunk show by Pat Sloan, too.

My (still unquilted) Allium quilt was the product of my last workshop with Jane. Here's an early work in progress photo of my abstraction of an Agapanthus bloom.



Next week, I'm headed to Columbus for the National Quilt Association annual show ... and more workshops ;-)

QSDS is also in town (with an associated show). Do you think that there's such a thing as quilt overload?

I haven't decided whether I'll swing down to Quilt National before returning to the mitten state or plan another road trip to Ohio, later this month so I can also see the Sacred Threads show.

Nudged by 7 Things

I've been nudged back to blogging by Kate, who tagged me with the 7 things meme.

So here goes . . . and here are 7 things people probably don't know about me:

1. I play the flute.
   
2. In most interactions, I am happy to be the listener--I think this may be why I read a lot more words on other people's blogs than I will ever write in my own.
   
3. As a toddler, I rode my tricycle down a flight of stairs--I wasn't injured, but I am still a little afraid of stairs and will usually opt for the elevator.
4. I have moved 27 times since college graduation. I'm not sure where my tumbleweediness comes from--my mom still lives in the house that my parents bought when I was 4.
   
5. Before I injured my back about ten years ago, I spent nearly every weekend in winter on a ski slope somewhere ... I started quilting several years post-injury.
6. I gave up eating meat for Lent earlier this year and am still not eating meat. I don't miss it which really surprises me. (I still eat fish)
   
7. I have always opted to fill my life with too much of everything. As an undergrad, I took all the required classes in my curriculum, then piled on others that interested me and still managed an active social life. I graduated a year early, with honors, at the ripe old age of 20. Since then, if any interesting opportunity for an adventure comes my way, I always say yes and figure out how to do it all later.
   

I haven't had much success with the tagging thing, but if anyone reading this has become an infrequent blogger like me and needs a nudge to write ... consider yourself tagged--it's an interesting exercise.

Earth Day

For Earth Day, I made these fiber postcards to swap with friends on the quilting forum on quilting.about.com



The design for birth cards came from a doodle of an Aspen leaf ... I'm happy with both interpretations. Next we'll be making and swapping fiber postcards for orWorld Turtle Day on May 23.

Please Bear With Me ...

Can I blame this on the vertigo? A blonde moment? I updated my template and, of course, lost ALL my ring code (and everything else from my side bar). Ugh ... suddenly this feels too much like work.

Please bear with me ... I will get it sorted out soon.

Through the Camera Lens

Does this happen to you? Sometimes I don't see something until I look at it through the camera lens. Like Joyce Murrin's quilt, Artisan Gate: Architectural View, from Tactile Architecture 2006.



I was so involved in looking at the detail, that I didn't see the door knob and hinges in the border that make it a door ... until I was framing the photo.

You can see the rest of my photos from this show, here: Tactile Architecture 2006.

Sometimes, I don't see something until I've uploaded the image to the web or printed it ... like the owlets in Out of the Northern Forest: The Great Horned Owl Family by Grace Errea from the Celebrate Spring! quilts I posted earlier.



I completely missed those little guys until I was looking through my images on Flickr to make sure all the descriptions and artists' names were there.

It works the same when I take photos of my own work-in-progress--which is why I'll be disassembling my little Carolina Byways quilt and fixing something I never noticed before I started auditioning borders and taking photos before I add those borders ... sigh ...

Quilt (show) In A Day

I've attended IQA's Spring Quilt Festival in Chicago since its inception. In the past, I've stayed for the duration, from preview night to Sunday afternoon. This year, I decided to join my friends on the local quilt guild's one-day bus trip.

We left Lansing, Michigan at 6:30 AM (EDT) and arrived at the Rosemont Convention Center just as the doors were opening at 10 AM (CDT). We left just as the show was closing at 7 PM and arrived home around midnight. It was a long day.



I was slowed down a little because I woke up with vertigo like I've not experienced for a couple years (since my spectacular auto accident), but I came prepared--with a list, by booth number, of must-see vendors and a spare one-time-use battery for my digital camera so I wouldn't run out of juice ... unfortunately that spare came out of it's package DOA, so my photo-taking was cut short. I did manage to take a few hundred photos before that unfortunate moment--the first of which, the quilts from the juried show, Celebrate Spring! I've uploaded to the Flickr set Celebrate Spring 2007.

It would be hard to pick favorites among the fabulous quilts in this exhibit, but two quilts by Barbara McKie had me walking away and wanting to learn more about disperse dyes. The disperse dyed polyester fabrics in her quilts were amazing.



Duel for my Dahlias won an Honorable Mention ribbon.



Detail from McKie's quilt, Afternoon Seduction.

The range of interpretations of all the quilts which celebrate the season is impressive. Make yourself a cuppa and enjoy the show ...

Quilt Show

Two years ago when the Capitol City Quilt Guild's show came around, I was brand new to the area and the guild and noticed that certain names kept appearing on my favorite quilts at the show. Last weekend, when I attended the show, I was still drawn to quilts by those familiar names--now associated with familiar faces and friends from the guild. You can see all my photos from the show in the flickr set CCQG Show 2007.

I think this show really showcased the best thing about this guild--the many, active small groups. There were many quilts created as the result of small group block exchanges and challenges. Here are some from the Charming Ladies. They dyed a rainbow of fabrics together then challenged one another to make quilts from their hand-dyed fabric.

(click for larger images)

GASP (Grosbeck Appliqué Support Providers) made journal quilts in which a block was made for each day or week of the year during 2006.


(click for larger images and to go to the album to see the whole quilts)

Linda's quilt is named One-a-Day. The blocks contain capsule-shaped I-spy type fabrics that represent the events of the day. Everyone journaled their year on their quilts. I really loved these.

There was a bit of drama in the silent auction corner of the show . . . no, not because of the last minute bidding and re-bidding on Sunday afternoon--although there was plenty of that, too--but because some auction quilts that were sold at rock bottom "sell it now" prices in the first hour of the show on Saturday morning. The idea to sell off some auction quilts this way was one person's decision made after all the quilts had been made and donated with the understanding that they would be auctioned. The cowboy quilt, Home on the Range, that the Wacky Westerners made was long gone by the time I got to the show. It was especially frustrating because at least two of the Wackies came to the show with plenty of cash and expected to outbid all comers and bring home our quilt.


(click for larger image to see quilting detail)

Probably my reaction to the missing Cowboy quilt is why I bid and came home with this small wall quilt from the GASP small group. The stylized daffodil block in the center of the top row was my contribution. I think it will be a sunny, happy piece of art for my cubicle at work.

More from Blue Ridge Quiltfest

We were a small group--made smaller because of some last minute cancellations--but that didn't stop us. We had workshops. We shopped. We won door prizes, lotto blocks and Lou won the featherweight.



Becky Davis' handpiecers were focused and after class, they continued to work on their blocks all weekend.



Janet's Carolina Byways class was fun. I think everyone had a different vision for their quilt. Krista made a mini; Ellena brought wonderful Civil War repros; Lou had wonderful fabrics, too ... I brought pieces from my scrap bin. Krista finished her mini quilt the next day. I brought home a pile of light half-blocks and dark strips ... but I have since made some progress. I'm auditioning border fabrics now. You can tell that the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains made an impression on me.



Friday night we had Show & Tell in the Living Room.



Click the photo of Dorothy and Becky (with the vintage quilt top that Dorothy is finishing) to see the rest of my Show & Tell photos.

On Saturday, a bunch of our crowd headed to the galleries and quilt shops in Asheville, while three us spent the day with Meg Manderson making miniature landscapes.



Meg is a local fiber artist who creates beautiful landscapes (and other interesting work.)



Saturday night, we gathered for more door prizes and the block lotto drawing. I still can't believe I won.



Afterward, Krista pulled out her big box of fabric and made a few baby quilts from some I-spy swap fabrics.



The first top went together quickly and after a bit of excitement with a shattered needle and some EMTs, a second top was completed.



By the end of the evening, two quilts were "birthed," and ready to be quilted and a third top was almost completed.



On Sunday, some of us were on the road early, some spent a leisurely morning at the country club, packing up, checking email and saying goodbye.

I was a little worried when my suitcase seemed quite full when I'd only packed the fabric. Everything fit ... just barely.



Janet and Dorothy and I headed into Asheville to check out a possible venue for next year and lunch before I headed to the airport and home. On the way to the airport, I picked up a new pair of travel scissor so I could work on my landscape.



The longer my flight from Cincinnati was delayed, the happier I was to have handwork to do.

Blue Ridge Quiltfest

I came, I saw ... I won the lotto blocks ;-)

It was a great get away for me. Janet and Donna picked me up at the Asheville airport and after minimal shuffling--to put the wonderful fudge which all the participants received in a cool place and to pick up Dorothy along the way--we headed to the legendary Mary Jo's Cloth Store about two hours away in Gastonia. Krista and Colene had left Virginia earlier that day and with no planning at all, we all arrived at Mary Jo's within 5 minutes of one another. How's that for synchronicity?



Everything you have heard is true--they seem to have every fabric in every line and it's all irresistably priced. I went looking for Asian prints to make Oriental Lantern blocks for Kate's swap and found an entire aisle of them.

Later that night we travelled back to Asheville for greek food and then on to the country club to check in and unpack.


Most of us stayed in the main building, but four forum members opted to share the villa. I never actually saw them rocking and stitching in those rocking chairs, but I like to imagine them there. For the weekend, quilters happily co-existed with quilters ... though on at least one day, some of us were awakened by the sounds of these two guys chatting beneath our balconies.



I thought it would be fun to pack up with golf cart with sewing machines, fabrics, quilting supplies and quilts, but ... we just ran out of time.



Inside, the place had the feel of a comfy lodge. The living room was one of the public spaces--we held show & tell there Friday night and and after Becky's handpiecing class Friday morning, many of the students hung out and continued to work on their sampler blocks.



One floor up there was another space, which turned out to be a great place to sew together in the evenings. Dorothy brought a quilt stand, so we even had our own design wall.



Yep, those blue & white stars are some of the lotto blocks that *I* won. It was so unexpected and will make a beautiful quilt filled with memories for me. The design wall also came in handy when Janet brought out the blocks forum members made to celebrate her first anniversary as the quilting guide on about.com.



Of course the best part of the weekend was putting faces and personalities with names from the forum.



Mark your calendar for next year:
Blue Ridge Quiltfest - March 7-8, 2008 in Asheville.

Blue Stars for the Blue Ridge Quiltfest

I have no one to blame but myself for this one ... I suggested a block lotto for Quilting Forum members at the Blue Ridge Quiltfest. We are making blue & white star blocks. Here are mine:



Maybe it's the locale, but I seem a little stuck in blue land . . . The florals I am taking for Janet's Carolina Byways quilt workshop are predominately blue and I found this Blue Ridge Mountain photo to use as inspiration for the landscape workshop on Saturday:



I think a blue-gray gradation I dyed last summer is going to be perfect for this project.

(Tedious) Work in Progress

A few years ago, I sorted through all my stash and started storing things by color ... which made it so much easier to use (and also to see which colors I always buy and which colors I never buy). For a while, I've wanted to sort my scrap bin and I've finally made a start. Already I know this is going to be so much more usable ... but the sorting is tedious!



On the not-so-tedious front, I'm about to attach the label for the Quilt Studio charity quilts--thanks, Jeri, for getting the embroidered labels to me so quickly. I should be able to send this quilt on it's way this weekend.



Check out the pretty flannel fabrics Deb used for the backing ... and her wonderful, whimsical quilting.