Knit One Quilt Too

Lecture in the Park

Friday wasn't over after the Camp Sherman quilt show.  We still had the lecture in the park.  We went back to Mom and Dad's for a nice dinner then out for the lecture.  I also discovered that the Stitchin' Post was open until 10 pm all week.  I don't think I knew that before.  Definitely better to do that shopping while it's less crowded.   So we went to the lecture, then shopping, to round out a very long, but really fun, day! 

The lecture in the park is free if you don't mind sitting outside the main dinner area.  You still get a fine view because the quilts are carried around the gazebo.  The speaker this year was Katie Pasquini Masopust.  I knew absolutely nothing about her, but she was a really entertaining speaker and her quilts are really amazing. 

I can really appreciate the technical expertise involved.  She is also a master of color.  At our quilt guild meeting the week after the show, we talked about classes we'd taken during quilt week.  Several had taken classes with Katie and talked about how they studied color.  It seems she was a great teacher.

The log cabins are interesting because she says she likes to do one every year.  These were made for her children as they graduated from high school.

Well, I still haven't gone through the quilt show photos, but I plan to show them as soon as possible.  I hope your week is going well!

The Pine Needlers

Cheryl and I went to the Camp Sherman Quilt Show right after leaving class.  It was a treat to see so many pretty quilts in this small space.  The Pine Needlers are a small quilt guild, but they make a splash here.  The husbands are called the Pine Nuts and they are in charge of the food!   The quilt above was the first one as you walk in the door.  The exquisite hand quilting stopped me in my tracks.  One thing about this show was that there was a lot of hand quilting, something you see so rarely these days.

This next one is their raffle quilt and I just love it!  The green is actually more lime green in person and is one of my favorite green fabrics.

I guess I didn't get a full shot of this quilt, but I thought the border quilting was very unusual.

This is Sue Spargo's pattern, Ginger Grove.  I love the central bird block.

There were many antique quilts in this show, including this gorgeous string quilt.  Lovely hand quilting too.

This folded log cabin is based on a technique that Sarah Kaufman teaches. 

 

The show had a special exhibit by Tonye Belinda Phillips, author of the new book- Hand Appliqued Quilts.  I took a class with Tonye at last year's Quilter's Affair and had a really good time.  I knew at the time that she was working on a book, but forgot about until a couple of weeks ago when I ran into it at the Stitchin' Post.  I had to get it and I highly recommend it for the inspiration.  It's really a beautiful book. 

Anyway, the whole loft portion was filled with Tonye's quilts and it was fantastic.  She almost always hand quilts too.  I love her whimsical, colorful style.  I like the scallop applique border on this pitcher quilt.

I really, really love this one.  I was especially drawn to the squares.  It was funny because Tonye is known for her circle applique.  When I asked her about the squares she said she started doing them because she realized how much quicker and easier they are than the circles.  Here they are so unexpected that they add a great whimsical touch.

The red quilt below is the one that we worked on in the class last year.  I got inspired to work on mine again.  I've got two vases down and I'm working on the third. 

I love all the different basket styles here.  Also the irregular triangle border.  I also like the flower shape on the bottom row.  I think she told us last year why she didn't do another basket, but I forget why.  Perhaps she was just tired of them!

Cheryl and I got a chance to have a good chat with Tonye.  She's very warm and friendly and remembered me from last year.  I wish her continued success, her work is really stunning.

More to come!

Quilter's Affair

The week before the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, is a frenzy here in Central Oregon.  All the quilt shops have special hours and special classes.  The Stitchin' Post (originator of the show and all around best quilt shop I've ever been to), puts on Quilter's Affair which is a weeklong set of classes featuring teachers from near and far.  If you are interested in attending next year, you must pay a small fee to be on the mailing list and then send in your registration almost before you even get it just to get into your preferred classes.  Next year, Gwen Marston is coming and I'm bound and determined to get into at least one class with her. 

Anyway, Cheryl and I signed up for Project Patchwork with Jane Davila, co-author of the Art Quilt Workbook.  This class is based on the same idea as Project Runway, which I'd heard of, but never watched.  The gist is that we would get three challenges and have two hours to complete each one.  My sis was a real trooper to sign up for this one with me, she had never even seen the Art Quilt Workbook and had no idea what was in store.  In addition she prefers handwork, but it's hard to do hand work when you've got only two hours.  She ended up trying several new techniques including curved seams, bias tape stems and her first free motion machine quilting!  One of the biggest challenges was- what to bring?  I ended up bringing my whole batik stash, figuring they'd all go together.  I also had lots of batik pieces that already had some fusible on them to make things quicker.

The first challenge was to choose a color from a bowl with slips of paper and a letter from another bowl.  With that inspiration we had to make a quilt with at least a small amount of the color and an alliterative title from the letter.  I liked this challenge, but with only two hours you basically start sewing before you even know what your title will be.  Cheryl got "black, T".  She did Two Time Twist.  I like the twist she added with hand sewing some felted wool strips on.  She even managed to get her binding done!  Be sure to click the photos if you want to see some detail.

 

I got "Blue, R" and did Running Rivers Rise.  The stars were orphan blocks, so were a bit of a cheat.  I tried couching on the bottom border and machine quilted the title in the right hand border.  I don't think this one was very successful contrast-wise, but it was fun. 

Here are some of the other students' artworks.

 

Challenge number 2 was to blindly choose a postcard of artwork, then create a quilt inspired by the form, composition, color or even just the title.  I didn't care for the art work, so went with the title, "The West Wind".  In the end it turned out I did have some similarities in color and form as well.  The yellow one is mine.  The quote is from Picasso, "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."  I went with the western sun with cactus spines and wind shapes.  I did some beading on the suns, but need to do more.  The quote is stamped on with fabric ink.  The one is my favorite of the three I did, notice there's no binding at all!

Cheryl got this lovely postcard and had no difficulty being inspired by trees.  She did some rubber stamping of the letters, "NATURE".  She also did some hand work with embroidery floss and beads.

Challenge #3 was to blindly choose a fortune cookie fortune and interpret it any way.  There was also a special word on the back and you were to try to use the word in the quilt.  Cheryl got "Love goes nowhere uninvited".  Her special word was taste, which was hard to include.  She made this adorable house quilt with a door that opens.  The smoke is rubber stamped.

"Prosperity is a way of living and thinking, and not just having money or things".  Special word- fish!  This is mine.  I got the house idea after Cheryl did, but mine is free pieced while hers is appliqued.  I finally got the binding done!  And I just happened to have some fish fabric. 

"You are going to have some new clothes".  This one is so cute.  Look at those jeans!  I also like the ricrac binding.

"We can admire all we see, but we can only pick one."

"Every man is a volume if you know how to read him."

We were completely exhausted by the end of the class!  But we weren't done.  We went to the Pine Needlers Quilt Show out at Camp Sherman.  This is a sweet little show and well worth heading out to.  Photos from that next time!

Summer Swap Quilt

Sorry for disappearing for a while.  My sister's visit was fabulous and really, really busy.  I've still got loads of quilt show photos to go through.  In the meantime, here's my Four Seasons Summer Swap quilt, done and already received by Stephanie at Scraps by Stephanie.

I ended up taking the courthouse steps and adding some appliqued yo-yo's.  Then I found the perfect border fabric.  I'm glad Stephanie likes it!

I also sent on some tea, a couple of postcards (from the Sisters Quilt Show) and a fat quarter. 

Now, I've got blog fodder for the next two weeks probably!  Once I get myself organized here (had to take care of the bills first!), I'll start posting quilt week photos and a new FO too.  Be back soon!

Postcard Update

In my blog post yesterday I forgot to post these photos from the Sisters Quilt Show quilted postcard silent auction.  I sent in about 10 cards altogether and found out later that three of mine were chosen to be framed for the silent auction.  Those that were not framed are for direct sale all week at Sisters High School, which is where all the classes are being held.  I was pretty shocked to hear that three were framed.  I think 70 were chosen for framing all together.  I did think that my Survivor Goddess might be chosen, but I never thought the others would.  I went over to check them out when I was in town on Monday.  These were all framed by a local art gallery and the quality is fabulous.  There are so many beautiful ones available.  I just realized that this is technically my first art gallery showing!  What a thrill.  The proceeds from the sale of these cards will go to Wendy's Wish Appeal in support of the St. Charles Cancer Treatment Center here in Bend.  

Fireworks

The 4th of July turned out to be a lovely day weather-wise.  We started off with the tradtional pet parade.  Chloe decided to ride her scooter in the parade and Ryan decided to sit it out, so Scrabble watched along with Ryan and I.   The dogs are everywhere at this parade, including this hula girl.

  

This "zebra" was quite noticible and when I went closer I realized she was handled by Liz, one of my chemo nurses.  She hasn't seen me since then and was happy to see me with hair!

After the parade there were popsicles all around.

In the afternoon we had a bbq with my parents and there was some ball play and a Scrabble game. 

For dinner we went out to Thai food, my favorite!  Then I had a bit of sewing time and fireworks.

The fireworks were inside as well as outside because I got a lot of sewing time over the weekend and finally got to play with my solid scraps.  What fun this was!  It all started with this.  I hadn't yet started a quilt for the Lazy Gal Summer quilt along.  When I came up with this idea, it was to repeat Ryan several times, then it exploded!

There are more here too.

I haven't decided yet what the setting will be for these (any thoughts?), but I'm excited to have so many done.  I love the colors too.  Now the solid scrap bin is just whites, blacks and a bit of brown.  Sounds like a Gee's Bend combination to me. 

Yesterday I volunteered at the Sister's Quilt Show office.  I didn't get to see as many quilts as I would have liked because most of the sorting was done last week, but it was still nice to get in there and see behind the scenes.  What a ton of work goes into this week's festival!  Today I sold raffle tickets for our guild's quilt at one of the local quilt shops.  Tomorrow Cheryl comes!  I've also found out that Quiltville Bonnie and Marathon Quilter Cher will be at the show as well as Celtic Knots Cathi who I already knew was coming.  It would be fun to meet some of you in person, so if you happen to see me at the show, give a shout out!  Posts may be sporadic over the next week, but I'll be around.

Liberated Stars

For Independence Day.  This is one of the projects that I managed to nearly complete during our trip.  I really enjoyed these all over free hand fans even though I had to go through some tough seams.  I completed a tiny bit of quilting upon our return this week and got the binding on yesterday.

These stars are inspired by Gwen Marston's Liberated Quilting and the free hand fans are inspired by Lazy Gal Tonya.  Tonya's big news is that she is working on a book about her free pieced letters and it will include these free hand fans.  I really look forward to seeing that one!  I also see that Gwen is working on a new book with abstract quilts in solids.  This is right up my alley. 

I've been dreaming of the day I can retire to my sewing room for a long session of piecing with my solid scraps and my stash of solids.  I've a few more obligations to take care of and, of course, the Sisters Quilt Show next week and then I hope to have a breather and some time to work on that.

For the mean time I hope those of you in the US have a wonderful, safe Fourth of July holiday and I'll see you round the bend.

Whew!

A Few of My Favorite Things was delivered to the Stitchin' Post today!  Yay!  This one really took many hours that I had to sqeeze in over the past week, but I did it.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my trusty quilt holders here today, so I had to make do for the photo.  I hope to get a better one after the show.  This will be hanging as a sponsor quilt in one of the shops in Sisters for the whole week prior to the show on July 12th. 

This quilt measures 36" by 39", is machine pieced, hand applique, hand quilted and hand embroidered.  I took my greatest inspiration from Gwen Marston's book, Classic Four Block Quilts.  Later on, when I added more applique, I got some ideas from Mary Lou Weidman's books, Whimsies and Whynots and Quilted Memories.  Even though blue is not a favorite quilt color of mine I really like this one and I'm sure it will come out every spring from now on. 

The back story on this one is that I started it last year intending to enter in my quilt guild's challenge- blue and yellow.  I managed to get it basted just in time to get my breast cancer diagnosis.  I wasn't able or willing to work on it after that and it was shelved for many months.  I decided to get it out again this winter to have it ready for the Sisters Quilt Show.  I'm really glad I did.  Sometimes it takes a deadline to make me finish things. 

And just in time too.  We're leaving for a 10 day camping trip with the kids along the Oregon/California coast to the San Jose area to visit friends.  It should be loads of fun.  Tomorrow we're loading up the trailer.  I don't know if I'll be able to be on line at all for the trip, so if not, I'll be back in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, I am coming up on my 1000th comment in the next month sometime, I would guess.  I feel a giveaway coming on!!

So Close

I'm very close to finishing this one.  I keep thinking when the calendar seems free that I might actually have several hours to work on it and then stuff comes up, every single time.  I suppose I should be used to this, but it's still frustrating.  Anyway, this one really is close to being done.  I've a bit more background quilting to do on the center portion and a bit of embroidery.  I hope to get the binding sewn on tomorrow.  We'll see. 

Meanwhile, we're enjoying the first long stretch of nice weather all spring.  It really feels like summer now.  Chloe is in her training camp for being a teen volunteer at the High Desert Museum.  Ryan is happy that the other kids are finally out of school.  I've got tomatoes growing and a bunch of new perennials.  I've just discovered the joys of peonies  The frogs in the pond are singing a chorus every night.  It's a nice time here in Central Oregon!

Double Nine

Here's a quilt that I don't think I've ever taken a photo of, let alone talked about on the blog.  I started this one in Hawaii, using my uglies, as I called them.  These were the browns, beiges and purples that came in prints I didn't have a fondness for.  Most had come in fat quarter packs.  A few are fabrics that I did like.  I really enjoyed this pattern though and adding the triangles to set it all on point was amazing. 

I then brought it back from Hawaii and had it quilted at a shop in California.  This was before I knew about custom machine quilting.  I actually think it's quite nice and I hope it will appeal to someone, so I have it for sale in the Sisters Quilt Show this year.  One new thing they are doing is showing photos of the sale quilts ahead of time.  You still have to buy them on quilt show day, in person.  However, if anyone's interested in it and it doesn't sell at the show, I'd be happy to work out a deal.  Time will tell.

In other news, Lazy Gal Tonya is on a mission to have Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking reprinted.  This is my absolute favorite quilting book of all time, the very one I'd take to the proverbial desert island.  If you don't have a copy and aren't willing to pay upwards of $50 to $200 for one, head on over to Tonya's blog and leave her a comment.  She's going to take the case to the publisher to have it reprinted.  A grand idea if ever I heard one. 

I'm still busily hand quilting blue and yellow, now called "A few of my favorite things".  I'll post photos soon.  Meanwhile, have a great weekend and a very Happy Father's Day!