Thursday, October 27, 2005

Sorry, but I don't know how to turn this the right way. Anyway, a friend showed me how to make this purse from one 18" square. In the end you have a center pocket and two matching pockets on each side under the flaps.  Posted by Picasa
This small purse was made to go with a jacket I made last year.  Posted by Picasa

Quilt Exhibition>>>>>>>>>>

I finally went to Walmart to get some prints made of my digital camera and will post some of them this morning.

On Wednesday, my friend Cindy and I went to Frankfort to view the Many Cultures quilt exhibition. It was a cold drizzily day, but we had a good time anyway. The show is held every year at the Kentucky State University. Probably not more than 35-40 quilts featuring quilts from the Chicago Needles and threads guild, and the Renegade Quilters of Main. There were also some local people in the show. The main attractions for me were the Diane Hire quilts. She uses such lovely colors and her style is so haphazard one can not pass by one of her quilts without stopping to examine it more closely. In any event we had a nice outing and of course stopped at Jo Anns on the way home to see if they had anything we haven't seen before. It is a bigger store than the one we frequent in Lexington.

Our local guild is going to present a show at the local library next month featuring a Garden Theme, and I am in charge of hanging it next Tuesday. I will be showing my "Sisters" quilt that can be seen on an earlier blog. Also several other small quilts.

Ok, I am going to try and transfer some of the pictures onto this blog. I can never remember exactally how I do it, so when it works I am always surprised.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Explanation*************

In June of 04 at a Quilting conference I fell down a flight of stairs and broke my right pelvis and three bones in my left foot. As a consequence I was off my feet completely for 6 weeks, and then there was a lot of physical therapy, and it was some time before I was able to start doing any new quilting projects. It took me at least a year to get back to some kind of normal state, and this quilt signifies my freedom to be able to do the things I could do before I fell. I am so lucky!!!
because I didn't have to have any surgeries, and a fall like that could have been soooooo much worse. The other thing that was so wonderful is that you find out how wonderful your friends really are and for all that outpouring of kind acts I will be eternally grateful.

On a happier note, this quilt means a lot to me and I am happy to have the chance to share it with those of you who see it in Houston and on my blog.
This is the "Free at Last " Quilt that will be shown at the International Quilt Festival next week.  Posted by Picasa

Friday, October 21, 2005

Back to Normal++++++++++

What ever that is? This week has been taxing as my husband went to visit his family and I had to take over the responsibilities in the business for him.

However, he is back home now and I can take the time to think about my quilting again.

I am working on a sample for a class I will teach in June of next year, and once that is completed I will start on the new quilt that is next in my mind. In fact I already have the pieces drawn, so it won't be any effort to get started once I find a block of time to contemplate the composition.

Yesterday on Melody Johnsons blog she talked about acceptence of Art Quilts. That really got me to thinking, because although I think of myself as a maker of Art Quilts, but in reality I think I fall somewhere in between. There is this competition between the traditional quilts which prizes perfection in piecing and quilting. These attributes are the standards by which quilts are judged in shows. However, here we are in a whole new realm which have no defined standards, and we are competing with the first set of standards. Very confusing!!! When I was making my Free at Last quilt I was hoping to enter it in a show, and really hesitated when I made the decision to add polka dots with fabric paint. These hand stamped polka dots could not possibly be perfect everytime. So my thought is that it would be interesting to have some feed-back from you (out there) as to whether you think it added to the design of the quilt or if you were judging would they have had a negative impact in counting points towards placing in the show. It did get accepted in the Houston show but did not win a prize. I would appreciate your comments.

So, what is an Art Quilt? I think it is a design that is different than what other quilters are doing, and it should be something that stretches the imagination. How you get to that point has to be different for each quilter. The hardest part is trusting in your instincts.

So if you look back in my blog you will see the picture of my Free at Last quilt and I will look forward to your comments.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Weekend Trip!!!!

Well, the weekend was eventful, to say the least!!!

We got in a traffic jam on the way to Louisville, Ky. and were 20 minutes late for the Libby Lehman class. I knew they were going to be working on Bernina sewing machines, and felt alright because one of my friends would be sitting next to me and she sews on a Bernina. However, I didn't realize how slow it was going to make me, because I didn't know where ANYTHING was at. I even had to figure out how to turn the darn thing on and off!!!! Anyway, it went well even though I was not able to complete any of the samples, I learned a lot. Also, it was great to meet Libby. I also was curious to ask if she had judged the Houston show. She said yes, and I told her I had a quilt in the show and thanked her for that.

From there we drove about 20min to Bardstown, and just a few miles from there we went to the Catherine Spalding conference and retreat center. There were 14 of us, some of which were art quilters and some were not. We spent Friday night, Sat and part of Sunday working on our own projects. The center is run by Catholic nuns, and I must say it is so clean and the food was very good. The only thing is that they were very strict about the time for meals. 8:00 am for breakfast, 12:15 for lunch and 5:00 for dinner. If you arrive at 8:30 am you are out of luck. Everything is gone. Of course they always have coffee and cookies, so you would not starve!!!
We really did have a good time and I got a lot done. The grounds are beautiful even this time of year, and we walked all around and saw the museum and the church and the graveyard. I forgot to take my camera, but a friend promised to e-mail me her pictures, so perhaps I will be able to post some pictures later.

So, now I have to get serious and finish my sample for Get-away this next June (06). Too much going on and it is hard sometimes to find the time to Create~!!!!!!!

I must say I am really pleased to now be one the web ring. I don't know what I did right, but I finally got on, and I would like to thank those of you who sent me e-mails that were very supportive.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Getting Ready

I am really looking forward to this weekend. I am going with 2 friends to Louisville to take a class from Libby Lehman. For those of you who might not be familiar with her work, she teaches threadplay. Another words she makes the design on her quilts with thread rather than bits of fabric.

Anyway, we are going to take a day class on Friday, and then going on to a retreat week-end. There will be a lot of other Art Quilters from the state organization, and it should be a fun and relaxing week-end. So, I have been going thru my sewing room and trying to decide what to take. Some of us are going to be working on trading cards, and since I have no idea what I am going to do, feel like I need to take the kitchen sink. I just hope with three of us in one car we can get it all in. Amazing how much stuff it takes to quilt!!!!!!!!!

I also have been working on presenting a workshop to our local guild this month. Each lady is going to bring in a jacket or shirt she already ownes and I will help each lady make something different . Should be fun for me as I have a background in garments and enjoy sharing my ideas. Hope to get some good pictures to share. Then I also have had to get my information in to teach a class again at Get-Away which is the state organization. That doesn' happen untill next June, but there is keen competition these days so don't want to be overlooked. Pepper Cory is going to be our main teacher for 2006.