At the end of April, barely returned from our winter home in Texas and not yet unpacked I turned around and headed for Quilt City with four quilting friends. After four days of stimulation from beautiful quilts, quilt fabrics, quilt classes and all …
April’s “T” block is a popular alphabet block. I especially like the versions that are arranged as tessellations so chose the block called “tea time”. I am not fond of tea but do remember my first drink of the beverage at a very young age. …
Feeling the end of winter in Texas. The sewing room is probably not going to be at the point we wanted when we started the winter in December but, having done all the work ourselves it gives a sense of accomplishment. Yesterday I painted the second coat of paint, sanded the wainscoting and trim. It is feeling good. Then, I look up and see the ceiling that has yet to have a coat of varathane for sealing, oh my! That will be Monday’s agenda if I can get some sewing time in today. Another rainy, cloudy day which seems to have become more like the norm for this year.
A Spot of Color It was such a gray and gloomy day for south Texas but a good opportunity to try my newly purchased Dye-Na-Flo paints. Practice comes first before making the “real” project. Checking out the colors on a practice scrap of the canvas …
The Rockport quilt guild, Piecemakers by the Bay, held a workday for making “quilts for kids”, one of the many charitable projects they support. It was my first time attending this work day and it was an inspiring event. Over 50 women gathered with sewing …
My first garden had pansies. I got them planted late and my grandmother said they wouldn’t do well because they liked cool weather. I didn’t know details of planting a flower garden. I just liked the bright colors and never mind the details–like watering, weeding and something about dead heading. I didn’t plant pansies again for a long time after that first summer garden. Now we plant them as winter Texans and then take them back to Hannibal and they last all summer. My best luck, however, is with fabric flowers and I love learning new ways to portray them in quilted projects. This pansy was started in a class with Lenore Crawford at Quilt Week Paducah, 2014. It’s not quite done but I am happy with the progress thus far. Full picture when I finish it but the lack of accessibility of thread close by will mean putting it away until later.
Since March is my birthday month I looked for a block that represented birthdays. My first thought was “cake stand” but I also found “Happy Birthday”, “Birthday Cake” and “Birthday Parties”. Spring Daffodil is adapted from “Happy Birthday” as identified in Jinny Beyer’s book, The …
Remembering: Under the Quilt I grew up knowing that when you were going to a “dress up” or public event proper ladies wore nylon hose. I learned about hosiery when playing under the quilt as my grandmother and her friends quilted at the country church. …
I belong to guilds in three states and probably enjoy show and tell as much as anything. Each guild varies in how show and tell is treated and when it appears on the agenda. Regardless of when it comes in the meeting it deserves the respect of all members choosing to view. One guild, in particular, does a good job of capturing the full attention of the membership with minimal sidebar conversations. I wonder if the full attention of that guild is based on the timing of the event. Committee reports have been given, program is coming up and people are settled in–that may be the key–settled in but not ready to go out the door for home or other obligations. Whenever the guild has show and tell I know that I need to be supportive of the quilter and their project so those who have not shared will be encouraged to share. I know there are a lot of quilts made in all of the guilds that I belong to that never get displayed for various reasons. I will be more attentive to those sharing so that I can continue to gain ideas and learn of new viewpoints in the world of quilting. I want to see all kinds of quilts–simple, complex, traditional, artistic and everything in betwee. I pledge to be better at respecting the making of quilts and the maker of quilts as they are shared in my guilds.
Blue Ridge Landscape Internet connections have been frustrating this past week! I’m glad I have a smart phone so that I can use it to get the basics but connection on it is also not the best so I look for excuses to go into …