What A Weekend!

This past weekend, our annual State Quilters' Retreat was held at the Baptist Conference Center, White Oak, near Winnsboro, SC. And what a weekend it was! We had glorious weather when I arrived on Thursday--just the right touch of cool with a show of color in the leaves. And then the next day, the skies opened up, the winds spent their fury and trees were uprooted. But NOTHING can stop a group of quilters from their appointed rounds at the vendors' booths. The great thing about White Oak is that all of the buildings--except the motel rooms--are connected with covered walkways so, we could shop, eat and sew without getting TOO wet.
I taught my wallhanging, A Taste of the Lowcountry, to 12 great women. We all had a really good time and all of them were able to get their projects done to the point where they could take them home and, hopefully, keep right on working on them. Didn't they all do a great job?
One of the students from last year came by the room and showed me her almost-completed quilt from that class. What a nice surprise that was and she had done such a great job. She changed the color-scheme and added elements of her own--and that is what I LOVE to see happen. One picture that I don't have to show is the student this year who was REALLY original. Instead of a palmetto tree, she choose to use a merganzer duck and put it in a horizontal setting. She left on Saturday so I wasn't able to get a photo of her progress but I'm looking forward to seeing it next year.
I really like to teach classes that last two or three days because you have such an opportunity to get to know the wonderful people who choose to take your classes. Everyone has a story and in learning a bit of their story while you spend time with them, you really come to appreciate them in a way you couldn't have otherwise. I feel that I came away from this weekend with 12 new best friends. What a blessing.

Lemonade

I had a great day sewing with the TTT Gang earlier this week. When I left, I forgot to bring home the sewing machine I had planned on using to finish my project. "Well," I decided, "I DO have other machines at home--so no big deal." The next evening, I got out my Janome 6500 to piece the rest of the blocks I had started the day before. I got it set up and then realized--NO POWER CORD. I looked around for at least an hour but it was a no go. So, I pulled out the Baby Lock, set it up and--no 1/4" foot. The force was definitely not with me. And I didn't want to use my Bernina because I had it set up for something else.

What to do? Well, if you can't sew, then you certainly can fuse! I started looking through some books and came across Home For The Harvest by Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan. I have made several projects from this book over the years and this was one that I made for my son's family (this picture is scanned from the book itself). I didn't want to do this again--especially if I hope to actually finish by Halloween--so I decided to do the witch alone. I decided to increase the size by 140% and ended up having a fun evening figuring out how to do that with my printer and then tracing and fusing. The next morning I went out to PPQ and got a new power cord (they very nicely took one off of a machine for me and ordered another one for themselves) and pieced the background. Last night and this morning I fused the pieces to the quilt and NOW it's on to the blanket stitch.

The bottom line? I am going to end up with a cute Halloween wallhanging that wouldn't have been if I hadn't had the problem in the first place. Definitely lemonade.

It's In The Bag

Anyone who knows me can testify that I'm not exactly a fashion diva (an understatement). So, I usually have one purse that can go with most everything and I use it until it wears out. Well, it wore out. I was in T.J.Maxx the other day and decided to give the handbags a perusal. I saw the perfect one--it was black (goes with everything)--it was huge (holds everything)--BUT--it wasn't cheap--$140.00. Now, I just don't go out and plop down that much money on the counter for a handbag so I didn't buy it. However, when I told my husband about it he said, "Go back and get it." So, a couple of days later, back I went and guess what? It was gone, of course.

Back to the drawing board.

I came to my senses and started thinking about all the fabric I'm surrounded by daily--beautiful fabric!--fabric that could be made into many purses for the cost of one. So, here is handbag #1--with more to follow. I just am going to have to be more fashion conscious and use more than one in order to sort of coordinate from time to time. And, as part of that goal, I have lightened the load in the bag itself. I had at least 7 keys on my keychain that I had no clue as to what they might fit. That's a start.

On another note, my neighbor was in a craft show at the Omar Shrine Temple on Saturday and we decided to go check it out. She makes lovely one-of-a-kind clay pieces and is a great example of beginning a new craft later in life. There was a nice crowd and I hope she did well. While we didn't buy anything of hers (I can, after all, buy from her when I need it and have a nice chat at the same time) but we did buy a sweet grass basket from Elizabeth Masyck. We wanted a basket that would do for serving bread and this was was tightly woven and just the right size. But the best part was talking with Elizabeth. Most of you know the story about sweetgrass baskets and I'm so glad that these women are now getting prices that reflect their artistry and effort (we all, after all, want to receive adequate compensation for our creativity and labor). A lot of the credit for increased respect can be given to Mary Jackson, who recently won a major award for her work over the years and has worked tirelessly to raise the level of her work and others to be recognized as art. Some wonderful examples of her baskets can be seen at the Charleston Airport. In the meantime, I'm really going to enjoy the one I got from Elizabeth.

Relieved

Have you ever spent months on a quilt and got down to the wire of finishing and realized that it just wasn't going to be a keeper? Well, that is what happened to me with my quilt, Shady Ladies. This was the finished top. I went on to quilt it and was pretty happy with that.

Here is a detail shot of one of the leaves. And a detail shot of the beadwork on the petals.

The problem came when I was finished with all of that. I blocked the wallhanging and then squared up the corners before sewing on the binding. I THOUGHT everything was copasetic--only it wasn't. When I finished all of those steps, I ended up with the "waviest" border that I have EVER done. I, of course, not wanting to admit this, went ahead and sewed on the rod pocket. But when I hung it up, no miracle had occured.

So then I was faced with a decision--Should I leave it the way it was and just admit defeat and move on--OR--do I try to do something about it? I left it up for several days hoping that inspiration would envelop me. Well, it kind of did. I was looking for something in a drawer in my studio and came across some pre-done beadwork I've had around for a while. Eureka! I removed the rod pocket and all of the binding. I then cut away as much of the border as I reasonably could. There was still some waviness so I then sewed a running stitch along all sides and GENTLY pulled the threads to ease out the remaining fullness. I then attached the beads and then the binding.. And NOW--now I'm a happy camper. I'm still not exactly sure why I encountered all of the waves that I did because I generally had even quilting across the entire surface. But I may have used the crosswise cut of fabric for the borders--I just don't remember--however, you can be sure that I'll be more careful about that in the future. At any rate, I now have a smooth quilt--and the work was worth it.

On a smaller note, I spent several hours with my friend, Pam, the other day. She provided the pattern and the fabric for this miniature fall wallhanging. It was a fun way to start thinking about decorating for Halloween. I agree with Karen that I prefer autumn decorations over Christmas ones--probably because fall is my favorite season. It's a time to wind down from the gardening and heat of the summer and just enjoy the cooler air.

Music-Music-Music

Tonight I had the wonderful experience of going to the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul in downtown Charleston. Now, I've been there many times, but tonight was something very special--an ecumenical hymnfest which not only included many christian churches in the area, but also the Jewish community. Sitting there, listening to the prelude on their magnificent pipe organ, it was so uplifting and not at all difficult to believe that one was hearing a hint of what the music of angels must sound like.

The music was so very diverse: There was a black choir that literally belted out "Wade in the Water" and had the entire congregation moving and clapping to the rhythm of their music. There was a Jewish choir that sang in Hebrew with words so evocative-sounding that you really didn't have to understand their meaning. The Citadel Men's choir was there and so was an ensemble from Sea Coast Church. And there was a group of shape-note singers. Each one was different and each one was outstanding. And the fun part was that WE got to sing with them, along with that pipe organ and the brass instruments.

What an evening.

Jacksonville Quilt Show

We had a great trip to Jacksonville to the Quiltfest Quilt Show held annually at the Convention Center. It was, as usual, a large show with many beautiful quilts and lots of vendors to tempt you. I took some pictures there and will share a few of them. This quilt was Best of Show and was very well done. The one on the right was one of the stars of the show, however. It didn't win any awards but it certainly drew a lot of attention. The entire surface of the front was covered with beads --as was the BACK of the quilt. The quilt actually shimmered and drew you in to see just what was causing it. It certainly had that wow factor!

The next quilt was Best Machine Quilting. You can't really tell it from my photo, but the quilting was quite interesting with a lot of different motifs throughout the surface of the quilt. And the design of the flowers was nice, too. I'm sorry about the angle of the shot--I guess I kaddy-whomped the camera!

The quilt with the chair was kind of interesting as it was a play on words (which it took me a second pass to really GET it--a big "Duh" for me!) Instead of "Life is just a bowl of cherries" it says, "Life is just a chair of bowlies."

And then there was the quilt that seemed to have "Florida" written all over it. It had a lot of three-dimensional things attached to the surface.

This medallion quilt was very pleasing to the eye. The colors were nice and the work was excellent.

The vendors had just about anaything you could want and there was a booth that had the brand-new Bernina so one could drool over all the wonderful features. I'll have to admit that it presented a very tempting opportunity to buy-buy-buy.

During our second day in Florida, we went to a quilt shop in Ormond Beach--over 6,000 bolts of fabric. I don't really like to buy yardage at a quilt show because there are always so many people either waiting to get fabric cut or it's too cramped in the booth to really look. So I was glad to go to this shop and I did manage to make a few purchases.

What an effort.

The last thing we saw in Jacksonville was an exhibit at the Contemporary Museum of Art. There was a series of statues made from some kind of polymer--or something synthetic--that were so lifelike that you had a hard time not believing they were real. Please take a look at this link to see one of them for yourself. It's incredible! http://www.mocajacksonville.org/current/m-sijan08

Jacksonville is a nice city to visit and I can hardly wait for next year.

I'm Dyeing To Show You!

For the last few years, I have drooled over hand-dyed fabrics. That was one of the major highlights of my trips to Houston and Paducah--especially the Ricky Tims hand-dyes. To be able to see stacks and stacks of those beautiful fabrics and take home ones that were too beautiful to resist.

Well, as much as I love hand-dyes, I have mightily resisted the urge to do my own. I viewed it as just one more thing to interfere with my quilting. However, the desire to have a piece of red hand-dyed fabric just when I want it has overcome my better judgment and, so, I signed up for a class on Quilt University. I have had all of the supplies for several weeks but have been unable to start because all of the things that have occured in my family of late.

BUT, yesterday was the day. I began with the first lesson(I'm having to remember that thing about baby steps first!) . This was about using primary colors and just doing solid dyeing. Those are the 3 on the left. And then, after that was done, the colors on the right resulted from mixing the primary colors into secondary colors. These are more on the pastel side because the first pieces took up most of the dye. I really like both results.

The next lesson was on scrunching the fabric and producing a mottled effect. I REALLY liked this lesson. The paler piece resulted from mixing all three secondary colors together.

I realized after yesterday that it was very reminiscent of my days as a potter. I would mix the chemicals together to make the glazes for my pots; I would then apply them to the pots and put them into the kiln. After many hours in a VERY hot kiln, I would wait for it to cool down and then the hour came when I could open the door and see what magic had been wrought when the glazes turned from powder into flowing color. Most of the time I was very happy and other times there were some surprises. The process of dyeing is very much like that and I am so happy that there have been only good surprises so far.