Quilting Information: Tackling the International Quilt Festival 2014, Houston

Quilting Information: November 5, 2014

Tackling the International Quilt Festival 2014

DAY ONE:

I flew on Thursday–having driven to Portland, Maine, from Camden (two hours) on Wednesday and having stayed in the Comfort Inn, which lets me park my car. In Houston, I was swished from the airport in a car (Bettini)–arranged by friend Gina Caceci–who, as it turned out, was in Houston on business at the same time. She extended by one night, and we had the best visit. We ate at The Grove, a nice restaurant on the green that sits just in front of the Convention Center and which is less than a block from my hotel, The Four Seasons. (Don’t gasp as I got a special festival rate when I made reservations back in January–and it is LOVELY to be here.)

Here’s a picture of the deck at The Grove, where Gina and I ate:

DAY TWO, FRIDAY:

My plane connections Thursday were in Atlanta, and there were quilters on that flight. One was Shelley Kirk, whom I met again at breakfast on Friday, and we tackled the Festival together. Shelley is from coastal North Carolina, the Cape Fear/Wilmington area, and is a new quilter. This show is her FIRST big show.

Shelly and I did about half of the vendors and, maybe, three rows of quilts–all of which were for sale. Gorgeous quilts. I especially liked Russian quilter Olga Milovanova’s “Peasant Yard”

Of course I did–it was of a rooster. (This quilt is copyrighted, so I could not take a picture.) Olga is from the old Russian city of Kovrov, and I could not find an on-line picture of this very special quilt.

Alex Andersen and Ricky Tims of The Quilt Show have a booth, and Shelley and I met Victoria Findlay Wolfe demonstrating her newest quilts. Victoria’s first book is a delight: 15 MINUTES OF PLAY. Since then, she’s been making innovative wedding ring quilts (some of which we saw), and that book will come out in January.

The table they were using had a white covering with names of people that have been on the show. I saw one of our local quilter’s names among the rest: Dianne Hire. That was a fun moment.

We also saw Eleanor Burns at The Quilt Show booth (Quilt in a Day quilts) and later at her own booth.

And it’s always fun to see Deb Tucker of the “rapid fire” templates. She is so amazing. The quilts in her “Studio 180 Design” are so interesting, colorful, and beautifully quilted.

Then we went to The Grove for a late afternoon meal and back to the quilt show for about an hour. After walking about five hours, I was tired and settled into my wonderful room for the evening.

DAY TWO: SATURDAY

Shelley took classes all day, and I walked all day. It took me about three hours to see the rest of the quilts. And that didn’t include stopping to admire each one separately. There were so many… And so many that were so beautiful.

Here are a few favorites–though I could have taken pictures of every single quilt there. Sometimes I take pictures so that I remember something about the technique in a quilt, and I’m afraid that’s what I mostly brought home in terms of pictures.

When NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg was on board the International Space Station, she made a quilt block. Her block pattern was combined with star-themed blocks made by quilters from all over the world. The blocks were sewn into quilts that look like this one and displayed in this exhibit: ASTRONOMICAL QUILTS! BLOCK CHALLENGE. There were about a dozen of these quilts. And, isn’t this whole idea just so…quilty?

In the exhibit WHAT’S FOR DINNER, 3-D dinners were exhibited, each on its own placemat. They were so much fun!

Of course I fell in love with the exhibit IT’S RAINING CATS AND DOGS.

Here’s “Summer Camp” by Barbara Bates Beasley:

And, also, Beasley’s “Can We Talk About the Steak?” Don’t you love her use of purple and green?

I have been drawn, for some time, to different color variations of one image.

Here’s Deborah Yates’s “A Warhol Zakoosa”–Zakoosa is her dog, a boxer.

Here’s a log cabin by Mary Cammizzaro. I’m in a log-cabin moment,and what I liked about this quilt is that the use of one fabric for the dark side of the block. Interesting…

Here’s a Lucy Boston variation by Suet-Fern Lee of Singapore. This block is pieced as an elongated hexie, called a honeycomb. I am playing around with this block piece as well, but with bright fabrics. I’m using pre-made paper pieces to make it. The blocks are linked together with an assortment of different shapes, including the tiny squares you see here.

Here’s a close-up:

Here’s a very different use of the New York Beauty block by Carol Anne Ludington. I LOVE the New York Beauty block.

Here’s “As American As…” by Laura Fogg, shown in an exhibit highlighting American-made fabrics which are, for the moment, all solids.

Here’s a gorgeous hexie quilt by Miyuki Hamaba Sanda of Japan.

Here’s a close-up:

I took a break after the quilts in the food court–which was HUGE. The camera could not take in the whole thing. This is about a third of it.

I sat with a coffee for a while with a group of four women from the Houston area. They were gracious and funny and it was a delight to visit with them for a bit. Then I tackled the other half of the vendors. I kept running into this group of women with shark hats.

I found two patterns for little girl short skirts, a special ruler with a rotary cutter attached that does not slide away from you when you cut, the two log cabin rulers I wanted (I’m long cabin mad at the moment), a plastic widget that sews curves when attached to your machine, and some chicken fabric for a new bow-tie purse as my current one is wearing out.

DAY THREE: SUNDAY

Bonnie Hunter posted pictures from her quick visit to the show before going to Galveston for a cruise. She saw Edyta Sitar–one of my favorite quilters–and I did not realize that Edyta and her Laundry Basket Quilts had a booth. I sought her out, had a lovely visit with her, which included her telling me about seeing Bonnie. I bought her newest book, HANDFULS OF SCRAPS. She GAVE ME two of her journals, one for me and one for my local quilt group, Coastal Quilters. The new book has a gorgeous hexie quilt pattern that I will likely make my winter hand sewing project. Best of all, I saw many of her beautiful, beautiful quilts up close and personal. There was one especially that is haunting me and for which I may have to order the pattern.

Edyta, like Bonnie Hunter, likes complicated quilts with small pieces. But they use entirely different color arrangements, and Edyta does a lot with very innovative and gorgeous applique borders. I might have the courage to try one of these borders if I do the hexie quilt. My only problem is going to be choosing which color scheme to use: Edyta’s rich warm colors or brighter contemporary colors.

So, I quit about 2:00 p.m., too tired and too overwhelmed to see or think about another thing. I got a coffee at Phoenicia foods and sat around the Four Seasons pool and read Edyta’s book–and tried not to think about the blizzard raging back in Maine.

Dinner will be a salad from Phoenicia as well. And, the maid changed the room’s clock for me so I will wake up on time now for my 5:30 a.m. pick-up.

It’s been a fun and enriching trip, but I am wild to go home and sew, sew, sew.

Turkey Tracks: Bonnie Hunter’s Annual Mystery Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 15, 2014

Bonnie Hunter’s Annual Mystery Quilt

It’s started!

The first posting has come for Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery Quilt.

This first posting describes what inspired Bonnie. This year it was her stay at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, where she has taught for several years now. The quilt’s name is “Grand Illusion.” Bonnie gives, in this initial posting, detailed instructions about fabric choices–and provides numbers to paint chips available at Loews.

Quiltvilles Quips & Snips!!: Grand Illusion Mystery!.

The first clue will come the day after Thanksgiving. And every Friday morning thereafter, Bonnie will post the next clue–or what to do next. Bonnie makes her quilts in units that combine to make a quilt. There will be from 6 to 8 weeks of clues. Bonnie will reveal the quilt sometime between Christmas and New Year’s.

I have been rounding up fabrics and pawing through my stash since this post came in, and I’m assembling some really nice fabric choices. I’m excited!

I’m going to keep my neutrals to the white end of the neutral scale, which will pop the other colors out. Bonnie says the yellow fabric will be the constant in this quilt.

Last year, you may recall, I did this annual mystery quilt, “Celtic Solstice.” And I learned so much from reading Bonnie’s detailed instructions and from interacting with other folks around the world making this quilt. (There is a Facebook group you can join.)

“Grand Illusions,” said Bonnie, will be less intense than “Celtic Solstice.”

The information on “Grand Illusions” will come off Bonnie’s web site sometime in June, I think. And the quilt will go into an upcoming book.

GO BONNIE!

Turkey Tracks: “Isn’t This Fun?” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 8, 2014

“Ain’t This Fun?” Quilt

Look what’s on my long arm today.

“Isn’t This Fun?”

I made the blocks last March when I spent a week with my long-time quilting friends in Williamsburg, Virginia. We’ve been quilting together for close to twenty years now.

For years I’ve been clipping the selvage edges of new fabric and ripping a strip. And, saving uneven strips left over from cutting or ripping a straight edge across the top of fabric. I gathered up the HUGE MOUND of these strips and took them to Virginia and about 100 blocks came home with me at the end of the week.

Here’s the resulting quilt top–the lattice work and border treatment ideas came from Bonnie Hunter’s quilt “Tulip Fields” in her book STRING FLING.

Here’s a close-up of some of the blocks:

I’m quilting with a lime green thread…

I’m really enjoying this project.

Turkey Tracks: Acadia Quilt

Turkey Tracks: May 12, 2014

Acadia Quilt

“Acadia” started as a leader/ender project–pioneered by Bonnie Hunter who now has TWO books of her own leader/ender projects. (Basically, you keep a pile of blocks near your machine while working on another quilt, and when you need to cut the thread on the primary quilt, you run through a “leader/ender” block instead.)

AND, I ve long had a yearning to make a red and green quilt.

This quilt is BIG, heavy, warm, and I absolutely love the way it came out. It’s built on the “Contrary Wife” quilt block, but I split some of the larger blocks into four-patches.

(My rug is out to be cleaned–hence the dark pad on the floor.)

I love the way the secondary pattern developed in this quilt–forming not only a trellis, of course, but squares inside the light squared an inside the trellis center with dark and light centers:

Here’s a corner and the inner and outer borders:

The back was really fun because I did not have enough of the wild green Kaffe Fasset floral I used on the back, so I used more of the bright red remnants I had and every orphan block I could find that would work in this quilt:

Here’s the backing turned to the front, and you can see the bright green binding:

I used a Kelly green thread and a pantograph entitled “Arcadia” from Urban Elementz. It has nice gentle curves and just the right amount of coverage for this quilt.

But this quilt is “Acadia”–no “r” added–after the famous national park just north of Camden, Maine.

Blog Readers’ Quilts and Quilting Information: Bonnie Hunter’s NEW BOOK is out

Blog Reader’s Quilts and Quilting Information: April 4, 2014

BONNIE HUNTER’S NEW BOOK IS OUT!

MORE ADVENTURES WITH LEADERS & ENDERS

It came yesterday!

I had been haunting the mail box all week.

So, I made a cup of tea and sat down to ENJOY leafing through the pages:

AND, the book is a treasure.

You can see the quilts in the book for yourself in the url below:

Quiltville’s Quips & Snips!!: More Adventures With Leaders & Enders! Pre-Order Time!.

Turkey Tracks: The Red and Green Quilt Is Taking Shape

Turkey Tracks: March 25, 2014

The Red and Green Quilt Is Taking Shape

Looky, looky:

I’m loving the interesting secondary patterns that are forming.

This quilt started as a “leader/ender” project–an idea pioneered by Bonnie Hunter as a method to work on two quilts at once. Basically, when you get to a point while sewing where you might cut your thread, you feed a “leader/ender” block through the machine instead. So, for some time I sewed together dark and light green half-square triangles cut from my 3 1/2-inch strips–until I had sooooo many of them. Then I fed through four-patches of light and dark reds and greens from the two-inch strips. This quilt is being made entirely from my stash that I cut up this summer.

The block is a “Contrary Wife” block–and was inspired by Bonnie Hunter’s “Blue Ridge Beauty” quilt, which I made in green shades last year. (It remains one of my very favorite quilts in the whole world.) I think I had a lot of light/dark green half-square triangles started so just continued to make this quilt. I’ve wanted to make a red/green quilt for some time.

You MUST have the light square in the upper left corner when you put this block together for the light and dark rows to line up within the lattice pattern.

I’ll do some borders, of course. Probably a dark red thin border at first–and maybe a wider bright red border next. Who knows? The fabrics will come out of my stash.

Turkey Tracks: “Sails Up & Flys Flying” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: February 2, 2014

Sails Up and Flags Flying Quilt

This little beauty got mailed last Tuesday and is now in its new home–with a beautiful and healthy baby boy–Giovanna McCarthy’s first grandchild!

The parents wanted BRIGHT–and when I saw this bright boat sails fabric, I knew what I wanted to do with it.

And the parents didn’t want to know the sex, so I could not use pink in case the baby was a boy…

The neutral fabric with the flags begin to solidify the quilt in my mind.

Even though I grew up living land bound, we had sayings in the family about “flags flying”–to indicate excitement, anticipation, happiness…

Here’s a close-up of the blocks:

And, of the corner block–I like how this fabric is working in the quilt.

Here you can see the pantograph pattern and the yellow thread a bit better.

I was a bit stumped as to what color thread to use to quilt–and settled on this very nice yellow. I might have been able to make pale blue work, but what if the baby were a girl??

The pantograph is Denise’s Spirals, and I ordered it from Urban Elementz, which has the most amazing selection of pantos.

(I love the binding on this quilt–it’s just perfect.)

I had originally thought to use this muted blue stripe as the binding, but it found its way to the quilt’s back instead–interspersed with the sails fabric as I didn’t have enough of the blue. Again, the yellow thread is working just fine on the back of the quilt.

I think the backing works nicely with the front:

Finally, here’s where the quilt lived for the nights it took me to bind it. You can see how BRIGHT it is in contrast to its surroundings.

I had so much fun making this quilt, and you can expect to see more versions of it as it really lends itself to fun interpretations.

Indeed, I have two versions in mind already…

And it’s a good thing as I have THREE family babies coming into this world soon.

The idea for this kind of setting came, for me, from Bonnie Hunter’s first book, LEADERS AND ENDERS, and the first quilt in the book: “Sisters’ Nine Patch.” This setting is traditional, but it’s always good to be reminded how something will look. Bonnie used cheddar orange blocks with red and neutral nine patches.

Turkey Tracks: Quilt Projects

Turkey Tracks: January 19, 2014

QUILT PROJECTS

I promised you pictures of the blocks I’m (mostly) hand sewing for a quilt–from Material Obsession 2.

Here are two blocks finished:

And here’s one in progress:

They are so much fun to work on.

Here is what my design wall looks like at the moment–now that Celtic Solstice if down:

The red and green quilt and the brown quilt at the top are leader/ender projects. And, for play, I made a fish block yesterday and cut out a few more blocks…

When I finish quilting “Sails Up” and “Celtic Solstice,” the fish quilt will become a primary task.

The trip to Alewives’ BIG sale (quilt store) was fun yesterday. Lunch out was, too. We got home just as the snow started coming down in earnest.

I bought two greens and 7 yards of this ORANGE backing for Celtic Solstice. The dark green will be a border, and the light green the binding. The orange just seemed…to fit the quilt.

So…one more border for Celtic Solstice and then, quilting.

What a fun project this Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt has been.

Turkey Tracks: Friday Night Update

Turkey Tracks: January 17, 2014

Friday Night Update

It’s 4:04 p.m., and it is not pitch dark yet.

But, soon.

And, soon, spring will come, too, as the days are growing longer.

We have been having a January thaw for the past week. We can see green grass again, and there is still lettuce in my cold frame. Imagine that… Beneath all that snow…

I HAVE TO ORDER SEEDS!

The chickens are laying again. Rosie, the Copper Black Maran, laid her first egg since, I don’t know, October? The Americaunas molted in the fall and started laying again a few weeks ago. They are, once again, looking posh with all their new feathers. Beauty, who is so ugly I called her Beauty, laid all winter–though the shell to her eggs is very thin. She is so friendly and sweet.

The Diva, who I think is Queeny, is in the kitchen, resting, healing (one hopes). Her neck still looks pretty bad, but her eyes are bright, and she’s eating.

The brother of my friend Linda, who house sits for me and cleans, was standing beneath the edge of a roof with lots of ice on it. A slab broke loose and hurt his arm, side, and leg and broke his foot. Last Tuesday, in the middle of our January thaw, Linda went to get into her minivan, slipped on hidden ice next to the van. Her face is all bruised, and she broke her wrist. She drove herself to the emergency room.

Of course she was not looking for ice; everything had melted off. And that’s when the ice is the most treacherous. When you think it’s gone. Now she and her brother visit each other, each nursing a broken bone, and laugh wryly.

I talk to her every few days to see if she needs anything and to remind her to go slowly. The loss of income is very serious for her, of course, and I will pay her same as always, work or no work. She is so good to me in so many ways–I can’t even begin to tell you all she did for me when John was so sick and how she has cared for me this past year.

Today I went to Belfast (about 40 minutes north) to the big Coop for ground chicken for the dogs and green things for me. AND to pick up this amazing herbal powder from Dr. Herzig, a holistic vet, that keeps Miss Reynolds Georgia bright and busy tailed. She thinks she’s a puppy again, which is great since twice now I have been sure she was not going to live through the night. For about three months this summer I had to gently force feed her. Anyway, it was nice to get out a bit.

Celtic Solstice: I put on the white border yesterday. And got one triangle border on when I realized that I had TWO blocks with the orange going the wrong way. Mercy! I took the rows apart and turned the blocks, and the job was easier than I had expected. When I finish here, I’m going to make a cup of tea and put on the other three borders. Tomorrow I’m going to a big quilt fabric sale to get some green or blue to finish this amazing quilt. And, the backing and binding. There are so many seams that I do not want to piece blocks for the back. It will be so hard to quilt if I do.

“Sails Up and Flags Flying,” the bright orange quilt, is loaded onto Lucy the longarm, and the great yellow thread has come in the mail. So…. Tomorrow, maybe…

Here’s a block to remind you…

And one of the really fun things I’ve learned from Bonnie Hunter is to take the time to “swirl” your seams on the backside of a block as it cuts down on bulk when it’s time to quilt the layers. See the little tiny squares in the middle of each block–that “swirling” means two layers of bulk, not four. Bonnie has detailed instructions under the four-patch unit “clue” of Celtic Solstice on her quiltville.com blog. Look for the “Celtic Solstic” mystery information.

I have been hand-sewing blocks for this great quilt–pictures below–from Material Obsession 2 by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke, both from Australia. I have not decided which layout to use yet.

I am kind of leaning toward the second one, but maybe making it a bit bigger. I have almost finished two blocks and have cut out pieces for the third and chosen fabric for a bunch more. I am getting obsessed with the beauty of these blocks. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow.

BUT, if I do the first layout, it might make a great quilt for the red guest bedroom…

Who knows? It’s a work in progress… And I’m just having fun.

It’s dark now. I’m going now to lock up the chickens, fix dinner (stuffed green peppers and baked squash), make a cuppa, and sew. And to listen to what is likely the final part of P.D. James’ Devices and Desires, which has been wonderful, wonderful. James is a master of murder mysteries. This book is so full and rich and so full of depth.

Tonight after watching two Castle episodes from season 2–which is really all about watching Nathan Fillion whose Firefly series got cancelled way, way too soon (Josh Whedon, and the movie Serenity kind of finished off that series)–I’ll read another big chunk of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, which I’m really enjoying.

And, oh my gosh!, when checking spelling for Fillion, I realized he’s also in Buffy the Vampire Slayer just a bit, which Josh Wheden also did!!! I’ve always wanted to check out that tv series…ever since Julie Powell wrote Julie and Julia (from her blog about Julie cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking) and spoke of her delight in Buffy…

If you don’t have dog-eared volumes of Child’s Mastering the Art of…, you might want to get at least the first one and cook around it a bit.

Life is so full of wonderful surprises some times…

Turkey Tracks: “Songbirds in My Grandmother’s Garden” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: January 6, 2014

“Songbirds in My Grandmother’s Garden” Quilt

I began to realize sometime during making this quilt that it reminded me of my grandmother Louise Phillips Bryan of Reynolds, Georgia.

Although she had fabulous gardens with flowers of all colors, Grandmother loved the color brown best. She had brown eyes and fine, curly dark hair. Her laugh was HUGE–a belly laugh from deep inside. And she knew how to have fun and to laugh. She loved life and loved her life. She sewed and she knitted. She gardened, as I said above. She put up food and set a nice table. She welcomed guests.

I am named for her, and I spent a lot of wonderful time with her at all stages of my life–especially as we were an Air Force family and moved a lot. When my father had an overseas deployment, mother took us back to Georgia, to Grandmother and Pop. And, as I make this description of her, I am realizing how much of her ways I have adopted and believe are good ways to be in this world.

I had a lot of fabric pieces left over from the “Earth” quilt–and I wanted to keep them together as I was enjoying how they played with each other. And, to tell the truth, I have enough for one more quilt besides “Songbirds,” especially as I have lots of fabrics that will work well with this bunch already cut up in my stash. I am working on Bonnie Hunter’s current “leader/ender” project with what’s left of these earthy fabrics–a block with light and dark sides–allowed by strategically placed half-square triangles. Here are four of these blocks–and they can be combined in countless ways.

(A leader/ender project lets you work on two quilts at once–the one you are piecing, and when you need to cut your thread, the one that’s your “leader/ender” project. You always have blocks for the second quilt ready to stitch so you do not break your thread but just keep on chain piecing. Sometimes I make the half-square triangles and when I have enough, I make a few blocks as I sew along.)

Well! here’s “Songbirds”:

It’s another “Dancing Nines” from Bonnie Hunter’s web site, quiltville.com, where she has tons of free patterns. I made this one with 2 1/2-inch squares though, as that was the size of the strips I had. Bonnie’s pattern starts with 2-inch squares. The piano keys border though is from 2-inch strips.

Here’s a close-up so you can see why Bonnie says these blocks “dance.” They are off-set. The pantograph is “Check and Chase” by Lorien Quilting. I ordered it from Urban Elementz which has a huge selection of pantographs.

I love the borders on this quilt. the binding is a very, very dark muddy red.

And, here’s where the “songbirds” came from. I fell in love with this very contemporary fabric–and think it works with the more traditional front of the quilt. These little guys make me want to cup them in my hand.

Here’s a block close-up:

I loved making this quilt–which reminds me so much of my grandmother.

	lynettecw on Muhly Grass
	jamitysmom on What Is This Bird?
	louisaenright on “Garnish” Table To…
	celiamalm on “Garnish” Table To…
	Marcia Strykowski on Four Days of Rain=Quilting…

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