Fiber and Pulp

Last Chance

Here's a word from the group to whom I donated this quilt-let:

The third and final week of the Alliance for American Quilts’ Crazy for Quilts eBay auction begins Monday, November 9 and ends on Monday, November 16. Auction begins and ends at 9pm EDT.

 

View all 85 of the quilts (including the quilt above that I donated to the auction), download full-color auction guides and find instructions on bidding at the AAQ website: http://www.AllianceforAmericanQuilts.org/. Or go straight to the auction on eBay by clicking here.

 

The opening bid for all quilts is $50. Add to your collection, find a perfect holiday gift and support the nonprofit dedicated to documenting, preserving and sharing the rich history of quilts and quiltmakers.

 

Many thanks!

Windows on Busy!

  What a busy weekend this has been! I had to work on the sales floor in my store both days (with Alice M) -- Saturday was crazy busy (well, compared to what has become 'normal'). Today poor Alice had to work on the floor alone (with my husband to ring the register) for two hours while I taught my Hand Piecers to make Cathedral Window patchwork. :) Above you can see the small piece I made as I taught -- four base 'squares' that finish about 1.5" each and a tiny 1' square pink window. ;) I used batiks and I really like the way the striped gray came out on the back:

  This little unit could be the front of a needlecase, the top of a pincushion, an ornament ... whatever. :) 

I"m getting somewhat frantic as the Quilters Quest gets closer -- there is SO MUCH that remains to be done to prepare. :P

A Slice of Baltimore

This afternoon I've been working on a project for a friend of mine who is moving away from Baltimore after I-don't-know-how-many-years of living and working here. A group of us who are her friends decided to make her a going-away quilt .. so one of us took a photo of the Inner Harbor buildings (iconic Baltimore institutions:), sliced it up and handed out the pieces (we got to choose our own:). You can see part of the piece I got below. I"m pretty happy with how my piece came out -- it is an abstraction of the National Aquarium in Baltimore from the water side. My family and I have spent many happy hours there, enjoying the slice of a different kind of life. :)

 This is the section of the photo that I chose to make ... none of us have seen the completed top as the coordinator is working on it right now. :) I"m eager to see how it all comes out. Fantasy City, I"m sure. :)

I have any number (at least a zillion!) of other things to work on  .. so I'm glad to have gotten this piece done. (whew!) It is late (of course) and I will mail it off to the maker this evening on my way home. 

Here, just for reference (for those of you who know nothing about Baltimore:) is a picture of the actual Inner Harbor area, courtesy of the Sun newspaper:

ONWARD AND UPWARD, as my Dad used to say. :)

Distant Cheers

Did I get down to Gaithersburg today? No. (sigh) However, I DID finish the Quest quilt top!!! Here it is, lying out on the table in our small classroom. Those cheers you hear in the distance are me, dancing around Catonsville. :) LOL

Now to find a batting, backing, the binding and some nice quilting threads. Oh, and to call the quilter. Off to the quilter tomorrow and then down to Gaithersburg (got too late a start today). WHEE!!

Catching Up

I was out a total of 8 days over two weeks. :P Now, necessarily, I am struggling to catch up. I'm so far behind, I can see my tail in front of me (as the saying goes). LOL

 My current 'millstone' is the mess above -- at long last, I got all the compass circles framed with bias and now I am in the process of trimming the bits to size so I can assemble them together. Off to the quilter after that!

Do you see those little rainbow-colored thread snips at the lower right (on top of the acrylic ruler)? Those little babies saved my bacon with this assignment (attaching bias around the edges of each compass). I have a pair of similar snips but they have straight blades -- this pair has _curved_ blades which kept me from cutting into the background print as I snipped off the threads and frayed edges from each block. What a great tool! Worth every penny I (haven't) paid for them (yet). :)

I hope to get this top finished tonight. Tomorrow I have to drive down to Gaithersburg to Capital Quilts to get a bunch of stuff for Quilters Quest (that I did not get at the scheduled meeting on 10/15 when I was in bed). I am thinking (since tomorrow _is_ my day off) that I might try to stop in at Pearle Art Center and maybe even at The Container Store. We'll see -- I tend to run out of patience with traffic quickly when I am driving on Rockville Pike. :P

Shaky Update

 I have been home in bed for four days (since Monday night, 10/12). :P  Can't be the flu 'cause I've had a flu shot already, right? :P 

Today my husband took me with him to my store ... I don't have a fever any more, but am very tottery. :P Probably stay home again tomorrow. Down for the count, as the saying goes. :P

I always know I'm _really_ sick when I can't even think about quilt designs. :P

The Die is Cast

For good or ill, I am finished working on my leaf quilt and have completed and paid for entering it in the SAQA show. (whew) I decided on the title Grace Notes ... because of the marginal notes all around my leaves (wanted the piece to look like a couple pages from a field journal). Here are some close-up photos:

 

 

 

 

I don't think I've said everything I really want to about leaves, yet...but I am going to let the subject 'compost' in my 'backbrain' for a while! :)

Tomorrow, back to finishing my Quest Quilt!

Progress

I am making real progress on finishing my leaf piece. I have quilted the parts together and it is pinned to finish the outside edges as you see it above. I am going to do a Kleeman Edge (well, my interpretation of the way that Cathy Kleeman finishes her art quilts:). I  have been giving some thought to possibly inserting some edging between the wool outer surface and the cotton/batting piece ... we'll see. :) 

I also have not decided whether to applique on the beaded leaf diagram I showed you in my last post ... or maybe I will save it to use with the last two leaves I have in progress? :)

Skip and I are working at the shop this evening (we closed at 5 p.m.) -- he is paying bills and I am thinking about what to do next (being completely honest here). Do I want to go dyepaint some very wide rickrack to edge this quilt ... or sew on the Quest mariner's compass piece ... or just play solitaire and eat bon-bons. (LOL at the last ... as if!:). I"ll let you know how it goes. :)

Meditations

I finally managed to take a more-or-less acceptable photo of this piece I'm working on now. This is an embroidered and embellished diagram of the cross section of a leaf. :) I need to block it (the black background fabric is boiled wool) and then work it into my larger quilt.

  I am taking a break this evening from my more-usual chores and duties at the shop to read --- actually READ -- the text of this new book. I am fond of Lyric Kinard's art quilts and this book is WONDERFUL (I expected it to be so:). She has many good things to say that need to be read and heard by all prospective artists, no matter what the medium they want to use for expression. :) I think of myself as an 'artist' and have done for about ten years ... but much of what she has to say is good for me to hear, too. :)

I look forward to reading more of this book over the coming days! Tomorrow is my first self-imposed 'day off for my own quilt making' -- wish me luck at sticking to that plan. (grin)

First Leaves

Hmmm, maybe that wasn't quite the right title? These are the first COLORED leaves of the fall, for me:

My store is about 10 miles farther north than our home and 100 feet higher in elevation (according to the US Geological Survey - I don't own an altimeter to check those numbers:). The weather is always slightly different in Catonsville than on the south side of Columbia where our house is located. We have oodles of trees in our yard, including several kinds of maple tree. None of them have started turning these lovely colors, yet! 

I picked these two leaves up this morning from the front lawn of the Catonsville post office -- they are the first colored ones I've seen this fall. So pretty! :)  I put them in a vase in front of my computer monitor so I could enjoy their beauty for a few days. :)

Many, many things to do and so little time to do them. (sigh) I still have 'busy-work' to do here at the shop and _still_ need to find the top of my desk (buried in delayed chores from my vacation) ... and I _have_ to get back to finishing our Quest quilt so it can be quilted in time for the Quest in November. :)

Still, it is good to pause and enjoy the season -- there is something lovely in each season, but fall might be my favorite (closely followed by spring ... or maybe it's spring first and fall second. Depends on when you ask me:)