QUILT RETREAT REPORT

After 3 wonderful days at the first annual PTA Quilt Retreat.....I'm home, fat and happy!

PTA originally stood for - Piecers - Talkers - Appliquers -  after much discussion, the group now will be known as: Professional Teachers for the Arts.  The folks at the retreat center had wondered what PTA stood for and came up with this title....we thought it was so good, we stole it.

This is the view we had of of Lake Logan from our sewing room.

Three of us made eye-spy quilts.....pooling our fabrics.  The quilts consist of 4 1/2"square  fussy cut conversation print fabrics.....we probably had about 200 to select from, surrounded by strips of brightly colored fabrics.  This is some of what was left after 5 quilts were produced.

We had piles of 2  1/2" wide strips precut to make the piecing go faster.

This is my make shift design wall and my completed blocks.

And....ta-da......3 of the 5 completed quilts.  I added borders of some leftover strips. 

Well.....I'm totally pooped....having fun is hard work.....I'm off to bed to recover!

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

Ya, I KNOW Christmas is over......but out there in the big wide world there are magazine editors already planning their Christmas issues for next year.

I've been contracted by one well known magazine to design a couple Christmas ornaments.....I'll alert you faithfull readers when and where the article will appear when I have more publishing details.

While I have other irons in the fire......naturally, I immediately got enthuastic (you should see my studio...yikes!) and began playing with several ideas all at once.  Here's one:

It's based on an old paper cutting method, to create a star ornament from white paper. Basically, one cuts a square, folding it diagonally in half, then again......next, cut several slits, nearly up to the single fold through all the layers.  This is what it looks like opened.  I used freezer paper as a cutting template so I could adhere the pattern onto felted wool (since the felt is too thick to cut from a folded state.)

  

Once my felted wool was cut, I pinned each of the corresponding corners together, alternating the direction the corners were folded.....first to the right then to the left.  This creates a spiral effect.  When using paper, the corners are taped or stapled.  Paper of course is stiffer and provides a much sharper appearance.

My idea was to attach the corners using beads......clear seed beads didn't show up enough, so I used pearls instead.  I hid the knot between the layers....see above.....then stitched a seed bead to each side, the ends are tied off and tail clipped.  

A ribbon will be attached at the top for hanging.  When using paper as a kid, we hung 6 units together.....like a 6 pointed star.  Felted wool is too floppy to show the definition of the star.....but I sort of like this as is.

However, I'm going to experiment by adding more pearls to this one, and play some more with smaller sizes, narrower strips, and other materials. This one began with a 6" sq.  

I'll be silent for a few days......as I head off to a quilting retreat with my fiber art group.....no phones (cell or otherwise) , no tv, no computers.....good thing we are all great friends.  I'll have my camera ready as I know the talent in this group must be shared....not to mention the fun! See ya!

MORE WOOL QUILTS FOR SALE

My post yesterday generated A LOT of email to me.......there seems to be interest in purchasing small wool wall hangings..... Here's a few more examples of what I currently have in my inventory, priced much lower than usual. I can bill you with Pay Pal if desired.

The first 3 are published in my book, "Embellishing With Felted Wool".

Line & Circles 15" x 15" - SOLD

Button Flower Pot 16" x 16" - SOLD

Grid 25" x 11"

SOLD

Free Floating 11" x 11" SOLD

One With Nature 21" x 17" - $ 200 (includes shipping)

Peacock Pride 13 1/2" x 18"

SOLD

BEADED WOOL QUILTS SOLD

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Priority Quilt Auction in October at Quilt Festival in Houston was a smashing success.....to date this organization has raised a total of $267,000!!! To learn more please visit here.

These two quilts were my donation.....and examples of the many bead embellished felted wool small quilts I have for sale.  Contact me by using the link at the upper right of my blog,  if you are interested in other similar works, prices vary.

Around & Around -   8 1/2"  x 9"     SOLD FOR $350 to benefit AAQI

Woodland Fern - 9" x 12" -  SOLD FOR $350 to benefit AAQI

FAA MEMBER'S TALENT

Earlier this week I attened the montly Fiber Arts Alliance meeting in Asheville.  This group of talented fiber artists share eye popping work each meeting.  Here are two examples which of course caught my eye because of the beads!

Julie creates wonderful inspirational pieces which usually include a bible verse.  See her work here.

Carol experiments in all types of surface design.....see her work here.

The photo I took of Jan's work was too fuzzy to post.......what a shame....her landscape pieces are so nice.....see her work here.

SOUTHERN BBQ

'The husband' loves the availability of good Southern BBQ that is found everywhere here, especially pulled pork.  He's in hog heaven.....get it??   Oh well....just an attempt at humor....

One problem though is that we live about 20 mins. (one-way) from town.....the price one pays for living the rural mountain life!  So, 'the husband' has been experimenting with smoking his own pork.

This started out as a 6 pound hunk of pork butt/shoulder??  Now that I write this....I'm not sure of the cut....just know it was cheap, big, and shrunk down to about half its size after being smoked in our Big Green Egg from 11:00 AM one morning to 7:00 AM the following day.

Using two forks......you pull the meat, shredding it into small pieces.

TA-DA....  Sadly, it's basically wasted on me......I'm not all that fond of it, but we'll be eating pulled pork for weeks!

FEELS LIKE SPRING!

First.....thank you to everyone who took the time and trouble to guide me in my pitiful machine quilting attempts.....read the comments in the last post for some good ideas.

While the rest of the country has had storm after storm, we've had spring like temperatures here.  The  high has been in the low 60's the last two days.  

It stays darker longer here in the mornings (than I'm used to or like) on the Western part of the Eastern time zone.  But, we often get really beautiful morning skies......taken at about 8:00 AM yesterday.

GRRR!!!

I must take the time to learn to free motion quilt......grrrr!  I spent the last two days trying to come up with plan B to quilt the outside borders on my current Ace of Diamonds quilt.

Hand work simply didn't achieve the necessary texture....so after trying various patterns and colors of thread.....I'm now struggling to repeat the diamond quilting pattern I hand quilted in the center.  Doing this by machine means starting and stopping a LOT.....and pulling the thread ends to the back, tying them off, and burying them.  

This will take forever!!!  GRRRRR!!!!  

BOVINE THEME IS BACK

The small and fabulous fiber art group I belong to (PTA) is in the midst of creating an exhibit with a deadline is March 1st.

The exhibit is based on a word; to be disclosed later.  Each of us pulled an individual letter of that word from a bag. Our rules are fairly simple.....quilts should be fairly bright and cheery, 32" square, & the letter should be very visible to enable the viewer to spell out the word.

As you can see.....I got the letter A.  After several false starts....and numerous reminders lately from those who follow my work....that I hadn't featured a cow in a quilt in a long time.....I decided my "A" would be the Ace of Diamonds and incorporate a Holstein cow somewhere.

Because I don't draw, I use my design wall to experiment with colors, backgrounds, general component sizes.  Pinning layers together, letting the composition speak to me, and repeating the process can take a day or more.  When I'm lucky......it might only mean an hour before I have a plan.  

We've all heard it before.....we must let our quilts talk to us.....tell us what it wants to be.  This sounds so new age......but it really works.  When I rush the process, I'm always sorry I didn't allow enough time for the design to develop into the best it could be.

So, I've concluded I'll use a black/white print for the borders, a white on white center rectangle, an appliqued (happy & cheerful) cow, & machine appliqued red motifs.

It's now coming along nicely.  After appliquing the A and the diamond, I decided to bead the surfaces....detail photos will follow when I finish.  Beads outline the yellow diamonds in the border.  Due to the concentrated beading, I decided hand quilting was the best method for the center block.

After the center was quilted, I began hand quilting the borders and wasn't satisfied......ya couldn't even see it!  So I'm now on Plan B.....I just don't know what Plan B is to get these borders quilted.  It's times like this I lament that I've never learned to free motion quilt....constant turning for straight line quilting is not only a pain, but difficult to keep the piece pucker free.

So.....I must sign off now and begin experimenting......more beading is planned after the borders are quilted......and of course that's the part I want to get to, so I can't dally.

FLYING THE FRIENDLY SKIES

Thanks to our super son (the perfect child).....5 of our 7 Christmas holiday flights were upgraded.  If every one of my flights was like our San Francisco/Chicago leg.....I'd travel teach once a week till I'm 100!

We flew on United's refurbished 767 (generally used for international flights)....you can view photos of the amazing business class comfort here.  Among its many virtues, the iPod connectivity was swell.

This remote provides on-demand programming.....no kidding.....it was like having your own personal DVR with probably 50+ movies choices, sports, news, and selected TV programs.  I watched a movie PLUS 2 episodes of Gray's Anatomy.  The husband watched a movie and HBO's Entourage.

AND.....it's viewed on your very own 15" widescreen video monitor!

The seats can be adjusted horizontally, 180 degrees flat....plus so many other options that you never tire of just sitting in one position.  This was living!!!