It's Ready to Quilt

Well, I finished the "Ladies" quilt hanging top this afternoon--did all of the blanket stitching. And now it's ready to pin--but that won't happen until AFTER Dancing With The Stars tonight (one does have to keep one's priorities in proper order). Of course, NOW I have to figure out how I want to quilt it.
Just another quick note--for those of you who are on Vitorin for high cholesterol, be sure to check with your physician. As you may already know, studies have shown that it most likely is not effective in removing plaque. I called my doctor today and she is requiring all of her patients to come in for consulation in deciding which medication to try next.

Progress--Slowly But Surely

Sometimes I wish I were one of those highly productive quilters who seem to churn out piece after piece of wonderfully orginal work in hardly more than a day or two--but I'm not. However, for me, that may not be a bad thing. As I've gotten older, I've been learning to slow down and NOT rush through things (at least not as much as I used to do). Anyway, as I said in an earlier post, I found 2 potential fabrics in my stash in the mountains for the background for my Angel's Trumpet quilt hanging. And, as it turned out, I decided that my husband's #1 choice was the best. I tried mine first (of course) but had to admit that it really didn't do it. I still have a good ways to go before finishing this hanging, but I'm beginning to get excited about it now. The background fabric is a hand-dye by Ricky Tims that I got when I went to Houston and I think it is going to be perfect. Whew! Since Angel's Trumpets are known for the wonderful and alluring scent that they waft into the evening atmosphere, I've decided to call it "Ladies of the Night."

Refunds Are Great!

I was supposed to go to a Jenny Haskins seminar about 2 weeks ago in Hendersonville, but I had to cancel because my doctor had put me on ice and excercise therapy 6 times a day for my shoulder. And that just wasn't going to work out well in a weekend class. What I told the owner of the shop was that instead of getting a refund, I would just take a store credit. And today was the day! I KNOW it's not free shopping but somehow it kind of felt like it. I spent about two hours there and certainly had a lot of fun--especially in the fabric department. I got a couple of feet for my machine and topstitch needles (not always the easiest to find), but it was mostly fabric --as you can see. And even better--when I checked out and everything was tallied up--I had a coupon for 25% off. That's almost as good as it gets in the quilt shop shopping life! On top of that, because of the discount, I still have some credit left. Now, what ELSE do I "need"?

We were going to go up to Wytheville, Va today to go to Batiks, Etc. to look for a better background for the Angel's Trumpet wallhanging I'm working on; however, I went through my stash here of batiks and hand dyes and came up with what I THINK is the perfect fabric. Time will tell, I guess. But I did make my husband a happy camper when I told him we didn't have to get back in the car at 6:oo a.m. this morning. Last evening, I had about 8 possible fabrics that I was auditioning and then called him in to give his opinion. Although the fabric I had chosen wasn't #1 on his list, it was #2 and his #1 was my #2. Pretty close, I'd say. (ALL of my batiks and hand dyed fabrics are going back to Charleston with me on Friday--I NEED them)

Coming up to Hendersonville, we decided to stop in the Riverbanks Arboretum in Columbia. We hadn't been in about five years and I wanted to see how it had matured. I was hoping for a lot of blooming plants and wasn't disppointed except for the roses. So we'll go back again soon--before it gets hot. We saw some interesting plants and I think I got an answer to one of my problems in my yard. This plant at the right is a mahonia. The leaves are prickly like a holly and it has beautiful purple berries. The plant I have has never bloomed and my mother-in-law had planted it in the shade. The one at the arboretum was in full sun and it was covered with beautiful berries. So . . .I guess I know what I need to do.

All of the plant life there is so lush I really have to wonder how much of the "Zoo Doo" goes on it.

Two "decorative" things that we especially enjoyed were the stone face laying in the woods and the gigantic hanging basket. This was so large that there was a blooming camellia growing in it. All in all, it was a great stop to make on our trek up the road.

A Day To Remember

Well, I hope that everyone had a good Easter yesterday. It certainly was a beautiful day--a good day to be outside. For us, having a family meal was not really an option because my mother-in-law is wheelchair bound and we couldn't get her into our house because of my husband's ganglian cyst and my torn rotator cuff--neither of which is great for lifting heavy objects.

So, what we decided to do was to take her on a driving tour of downtown Charleston--specifically Hampton Park and anywhere else she wanted to see. Hampton Park is one of the great treasures of Charleston and has been there for a LONG time. As you can see from the picture with the trailing oak limb, the trees are very old. When my son was little, they also had a zoo and, I think, it was there when my husband was a boy. This was before the days of safety consciousness and the alligators were VERY accessible to the the general public. The otters were great fun to watch and the monkeys were loud. That's really about all I remember about it, but it was a place that we all enjoyed visiting--and it was free.

Now, the city has developed it into a really nice place to spend a Sunday afternoon. There are great places for picnics with tables in the shade; there is a paved path around the entire park for skateboarding, biking, strolling, etc and the flowers in the spring and summer are incredibly beautiful. Yesterday, the azaleas were in full bloom.

After we left there, we rode through my mother-in-law's old neighborhood and then down King Street, the Waterfront Park area and the Battery. It was really fascinating having her in the car acting as a kind of tour director. She can't remember what she said or saw an hour ago, but she could describe in great detail how all of these places were forty years ago--or longer. It was a wonderful way of seeing the places we passed--having the old image superimposed on the present reality--because both of them are important components of the whole. It was a great afternoon and one that I hope we won't wait too long to repeat.

How I Quilt

So many people have asked me whether I use a longarm to quilt my large quilts that I thought I'd show how I actually do quilt them. This is how my quilt lives while on my table being quilted. One of the "quilting theories" is that the sides should be rolled up neatly so the quilt can go into the machine more easily--or something like that. It never has worked for me--just didn't feel comfortable--so I use the "big pile' method. The whole thing just seems to move better and I don't the feel of a carpet hanging off the end of the table.

Here you can see me actually quilting. I have a large flat space for my quilt to rest on--two Horn sewing tables with back extensions; however, depending on what part of the quilt I'm quilting, I don't want the it to spread out too much because it will pull on the area where I'm working and could cause problems.

And then I've included a couple of closeups to show what I do with my hands while being surrounded by all that bunched-up fabric. The idea is to keep the area you're working on taut so you won't have any puckers on the front or the back. In the second picture, it's kind of difficult to see so you might want to click on it to enlarge it, but I have the quilt actually crimped together in my right hand so I can pull it where I want it to go a little more easily.

Well, this is what works for me. You can see that I have a light directly over my work. I have very good lighting in my studio--true color flourescents--but you just can't have to much light when you're quilting.

Moving On

Well, today has been a computer day, but I'll show my next, best choice for a background for my angel's trumpet background. This was the very last batik that I had left to try--and I kind of like it. I'm not fusing anything down yet though because I'm going to Batiks, Etc. next week and I definitely want to leave my options open. I won't be too unhappy if I don't find anything else though.

I didn't realize it until a couple of weeks ago, but I LOST my Internet Explorer Address Bar. It wasn't until I tried to access my new website and realized that I had nowhere to type in the address. Using Google or Yahoo wasn't doing the job because it hadn't been hit on enough to be in their search engine (at least I think that was the reason). I have tried everything I could figure out and then had planned on calling Geeks On The Go when I got back from the mountains next week. Well, I tried one more thing and I'll pass this tip along to those who might need it. When I looked in the Tools menu, Address Bar was checked, so it SHOULD have worked--but it didn't. I read something on the internet that said that it might be there but was hidden by other tool bars. It said to go back to the Tools menu and uncheck the Lock Tool Bar item and then to move the present tool bars around to see if the one I wanted was hidden underneath. Well, lo and behold, I did that and there it was. I am a happy camper. I'm sorry if I bored you with tech talk, but I really do get excited when I learn something new and I want others to have that knowledge.

The other computer thing I want to talk about is just to recommend the Homestead company that does my website. It's nothing fancy, but it was something I could do myself and their back-up help has been tremendous. I was having trouble yesterday trying to figure out how to add another page to my site and knew that it was really just a matter of somehow linking it to the other pages--but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I emailed them and they called me back and together we made it work. It is so very refreshing to deal with anyone today and have things go the way they should. Yea!

Tillie

Well, yesterday was a very sad day us as we had to say good-bye to our little Welsh Corgi, Tillie. We loved her with all of our hearts and it was a difficult decision to make. Having a pet is very much a two-edged sword because the chances are great that at some point you're going to have to make the decision that we did yesterday. But to avoid that sadness, one must also avoid the joy, love and just plain fun that comes with having a Tillie--or a Rex or a Cooper or a Bella--as a member of your family. So, although I just plain hate what I feel right now, I celebrate the life of one great dog who gave us 12 years of unmitigated joy.

Never Enough

Well, here I am starting on a new project. I bought a beautiful Angel's Trumpet plant this summer at the Biltmore House nursery in Asheville and knew that I would have to make it into a quilt. I do have a larger quilt planned that will incorporate the Angel's Trumpets but I decided to start with a wallhanging first. I have been working with a greatly enlarged photo (16x on my home printer) and deleting portions and moving parts around. My problem is: a large part of my stash is in North Carolina and I can't get there to get it at the present moment. So far, I have tried about 20 different batik backgrounds and nothing is just right so far. The one pictured here is the best of the lot. I have a lot of hand-dyes and other things in Hendersonville so I guess I'm going to have to work on that delayed gratification issue. As I've been working on this, I've been thinking about Ruth McDowell's line in her most recent book where she says that you can't just go out and buy the right fabric for your projects; you HAVE to have the stash. Boy, is she right!

And, of course, when you have a stash that means that later you'll also have scraps--lots and lots of them. I finally finished quilting my tumbling blocks quilt--called Stumbling Blocks. I don't have a picture of the entire quilt because I haven't put a hanging sleeve on it yet (don't know if I will) and it's too large just to have someone hold up. So you get a partial view. It's hanging over the rail of my sewing studio. I was pretty pleased with the result and the piecing wasn't near as tedious as I had thought it would be and I enjoyed the discipline of working on accuracy in joining awkward corners. I have friends who are far more acomplished at piecing than I am but every so often I just have to prove to myself that I can do it.

The last thing I have tonight is a second version of a sunflower hanging. I wanted to do a smaller, less complex version that I could offer as a one-day class.

I Was Potted!

In my former life (at least one of them) I was a fulltime functional potter. I made hundreds of mugs, thousands of mini-vases and countless minibaskets (which were my trademark). I made lots of other things, too, and generally enjoyed it. Like most A-type personalities, I took a nice hobby and made it into a business. I really enjoyed the people that I met--the shopowners and the customers at craft fairs--and learned a lot about pleasing myself versus keeping up with the current market demand. Fortunately for me, they didn't often come into conflict because I think that with any craft--or art--you need to be true to yourself and your personal vision and the rest will follow. Every so often, I would throw some porcelain clay and carve into the pots--almost always flowers. It fed the soul while filling the coffers with mug sales! And other times, I would push the envelope on my strength and skills. These pitchers are an example of that (sorry about the less-than-good photography). The taller pitcher is 17" high and was made in 2 sections. When I picked it up to photograph just now, I was surprised at the heft of it. I guess I used to be a lot stronger than I am now.
My hands eventually gave out and I was facing some fairly serious surgery--and so, I quit. After manually moving literally tons of clay and then tons of finished pots, my husband requested that in my next life could I please be a jeweler. Well, quilts aren't quite as light as jewelry but, for me, creating a quilt that expresses my inner vision is just about as good as it gets.

Sometimes You Just Don't Realize

The April program for our Cobblestone Quilt Guild is going to be digital tours of various quilters' sewing studios. I volunteered to be one of the studios on tour as long as I could have time to do a "little" straightening first. So, after thinking about it for a fair portion of the night and mentally re-folding yards and yards of fabric, I got up at 5:00 a.m. and started the actual process. There's something therapeutic about the folding process and you get to touch and feel each piece once again and dream about the quilt it may be a part of SOMEDAY. Very nice. However, after working for a while, I realized that the rest of the shelves looked pretty bad. I guess it's a study in contrasts--you have to experience both sides of the pendulum for either to have meaning. And now I have a major hint as to why a friend who came to my studio a couple of weeks ago commented on the disorder of my fabric. I hadn't even noticed.

Just A Quick One

I have built a small website with Homestead. The address is: www.judithheyward.com. If you would try to access it and let me know if you find it, I would appreciate it. I can't access it on my computer and the company says that it's there. So, I need to know. Thanks. By the way, if you can access it, I hope you enjoy it!

Whew!

Well, our Cobblestone Quilt Show 2008 has come and gone and I would say that it was a wonderful success. Sometimes it seems so wierd that you can work and work in preparation for someting and then, almost in the twinkling of an eye, it's over. I guess it's kind of like getting ready for a wedding. My own tasks for this one weren't so difficult, but there were many who put in untold hours in order that our show should be great--June Bohac, the chairman, had a particularly difficult time this year because the entire method of setting up and taking down the show changed from previous years. What a challenge that was! It all worked out though--and that's what is important.

I was excited to learn that my Swamp Hibiscus quilt won Best of Show. There were so many truly wondeful quilts there that I was especially honored to have received it. I spent about 2 1/2 hours standing by the quilt on Sunday and really enjoyed talking with people who came by. When you hear people comment about your work, it can help you to see it in a new way. Everyone was so gracious and I really appreciated all of the comments. One thing that a couple of people told me was that they had seen this quilt on my blog and had NO idea how big it was! They suggested, and I agreed, that it might be good to include the dimensions in the future. I was really pleased to hear so many people say that they follow my Blog. I had no idea. Well, I hope you're not disappointed!

I also won a first place ribbon for my Althea's Waltz Quilt and I won a 3rd for Hidden Potential. I really enjoyed making both of those quilts and they both are a departure from a pure depiction of a realistic image. Although I have thought that most of my quilts are unlike from each other, one person told me at the show that she can now identify a "Judy Heyward" quilt. Well, how about that?

Before the show, our judge, Anita Shackleford, spent several days teaching classes. I took her class that was on needleturn applique. I went because we were encouraged to boost the numbers on the poor signup statistics, but I'll have to say, I was very happy to have gone. I came away with two significant things to improve my hand applique and that's more than enough to have made it worthwhile. The first thing we learned was how to make the sections of a ribbon or other like shapes come together without bulges and bumps where the two different fabrics touch. The other was another method to make narrow stems and then to stuff them to give some dimension. Both of those things were areas that had given me some difficulty and I was excited to have a solution. As you can see, we also made a ruched flower. That was fun. Anita was a very low-key teacher, very encouraging and just generally nice. Two of us took her out to dinner afterwards and had a nice time learning about her home in Ohio and her love of gardening.

So, that's just about all about this past week. I have also pin-basted two quilts. The one shown here is a Wheel of Mystery that is from a class I took with Lyn Johnson several years ago. I finally got the blocks joined and borders added and it is now ready to quilt. At present, I am quilting my Tumbling Blocks scrap quilt that I pieced when I ran out of projects here. I have dug a pretty deep hole for myself in that I chose a method of quilting that is ridiculous--way too tight for a quilt I'll probably give away. Oh well--one lives and learns almost everyday--at least I hope so. Now, if those dag-blasted blocks would just stop multiplying while I'm quilting them! I'm going to name the quilt Stumbling Blocks.