Quilt Show, Museum, and Gallery Visit

Yesterday I went to the Colorado Valley Quilt Guild Show. It was a coordination of events including a new exhibit at the Texas Quilt Museum and a fiber art exhibit at the Copper Shade Tree gallery.

There were too many people flocked around this quilt to get the big picture. It is a fascinating quilt made up of people the quilter felt were significant to America. Louisa May Alcott...

Davy Crockett...he's important to us here in Texas. The quilter also included people like Lucille Ball. It's a fascinating concept to me. She had to research all these people and gather pictures that would work.

Red and white. Simply put, I'm obsessed. Each star has a variety of reds in them.

Prairie points to finish the edge. I need to attempt that sometime.

One of the few contemparary quilts. The label said that her husband wanted "one of those Gees Bend type quilts." She used shot cottons. Great colors.

A lovely traditional quilt. The picture doesn't do it justice. The quilter did a great job of picking colors with some surprises in the background. You probably notice some squares that stand out. I wonder if that was intentional.


Lovely applique.

More lovely applique on another quilt. Birds and pears...love them. A friend tells me that my attraction to pears in art is some Freudian issue with my mother. Wow, that's deep!

More red and white. This one was striking. Another one that the pictures don't do justice.

Then I headed off to the Texas Quilt Museum. I wish I could have taken pictures there. I highly recommend a visit. They are showing quilts from Lone Star Quilts III.

It was a fun and inspiring day.

Hearts a Swooning

Isn't nature fascinating? I had to buy this bleeding heart plant. Note that the stem that holds the bloom on the other stem is pink. The swoosh of color in each bloom is amazing. This makes me want to make an art quilt...if only I knew where to begin.

Another swoon block done. Today I'm going to cut the remaining blocks so I can do an assembly line approach. I have so many projects going that I spend lots of time recalling how to do things. It's time to get this one finished.

I'm off to quilt my tumbler top. I have 2 machines set up. One will be for my Swoon production line. The other for whatever whim I currently have.

Free Motion Quilt Challenge- Dish Cloth

I've joined the masses in the Free Motion Quilt Challenge at SewCalGal. Just like anything, we are better if we practice regularly. There is even a Facebook group. What a fun way of getting me to do what I need to do.

I came across a great idea from Sew Inspired: http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/2012/01/ffmq-guest-post-amy-from-amylouwho.html

She made dishtowels rather than just quilt sandwiches that get discarded. Smart. I copied her using a fat quarter, batting, and chenille on the back. Spray basting to make it all stick. I finished off the edges. Now I have a new dishtowel from a fat quarter that was never going to make it into a quilt...and I did my daily practice.

The back is pretty funny looking. It would look better if my bobbin had white in it but I didn't want to deal with it showing through the top.

Sure was a fun way to practice!

Tumbler Quilt

While vowing to start a project and finish it, the log cabin quilt, I started another. I fell in love with the Little Gatherings fabric. Just love those browns with a splash of black every now and then. Here it is all pieced together and ready to trim and quilt.

I couldn't wait to order a template for the tumbler so my hubby printed one. Prior to that I tried to use the cardboard from the charm pack but I kept cutting into it. I went old school and just used a paper pattern. That's what impatience does for you.

Then my hubby cut a template from MDF. So nice of him. I have a few odd tumblers due the the variety of successful and unsuccessful templates.

It's January and we have blooms. I love this mass of petunias that used to be in the urn. Now they have created a bed at the bottom of the urn. They needed more dirt and found a better way to survive.

And roses are blooming. This rose bush had a tough time during the drought. Now is it's time to be showy. These roses represent resilience to me.

I love the details in something as common as a petunia bloom. Wouldn't that make a lovely art quilt? Look at the veins and the contrast of the stamen. Just lovely. Some day.

Joanna

The Art of Making Simple Things Complicated

I've been away for quite a while. Some sewing happened but not much accomplishment to post. Have you ever been just depleted? Feel like you weren't giving what was needed in any area of your life but had so little left to give? That was me. Something had to change. So, I got a new job and started focusing on myself. Life is much better.

So I decided to use up some beautiful civil war reproduction prints. I bought them to do the Civil War Diaries but never got very far. I need a big couch quilt and thought a log cabin was a great idea. I also didn't want to take on a complicated project. A log cabin would be just repetitive sewing of strips. Very theraputic.

I got the Marti Michell book and ruler. Notice that the ruler helps you measure strips in the lengths you will need. Very efficient and simple.
Except, I made it so hard. For some reason I started making blocks with strips all the way to "n." That's 14 lengths of strips. The blocks were huge. Also, I didn't have enough light fabric. Lots of trips to the LQS were required. I ended up with huge, uber blocks. I really can't explain what I was thinking. Clearly I wasn't. So I unsewed so that I had 11.5 inch blocks. I think they should be 12 inches.

I'm going to arrange them in a barn raising layout. I've changed out a few blocks after looking at these pictures.

This is an audition of a sash with the gold. The border will be the brown. I think I need something dark between the blocks and the gold. Still thinking about that. I hope your 2012 is off to a good start. I'm looking forward to a year in which I meet my obligations but also have space for myself.

Joanna

Swoon Block 2 and Replying to Comments

Still in love with Swoon. Block 2 is done. I wonder if I can get them all done by the end of September. I'm going for king size so I need more blocks than the pattern suggests. I have to be careful while cutting since it uses most of the fat quarter. There is little room for error. Of course, I know that from the cutting error I already made.

I don't think this picture shows the fabric is the star very well. It is elegant. William Morris knows pretty.

My project for this weekend is to figure out how to reply to comments. I've always just gone over to the person's blog. I tried to reply but I was led astray. I hate techy stuff. I want things to just work. But I'll tackle it this weekend.

I'm off to the LQS to buy supplies for the class I'm taking tomorrow, Dancing with Threads. It is based on Ann Fahl's book.

Swooning over Swoon

I love this block. I fell in love with the pattern the first time I saw it. Love, love, love. I didn't realize how big the blocks were until I observed others in blogland as their blocks came together. It is big and so much fun to make.

I chose Willam Morris Tapestry because it would be perfect in my bedroom. I don't know how some of the other color combos are going to look next to the white. We'll see. The blues in this block are so soothing to me.

Iris has taken up crochet. I put it away because I was so lousy. Apparently, she found it.

She has trouble finishing her projects...just like me. Wish she would get it done because that blue would look great in my bedroom along with my Swoon.