I have been pretty busy this week so I thought I'd better take some time to record what I'm doing before it escapes me into the great Mind Void.
Back to school stuff is starting to appear in the local office supply stores here ... and I am a sucker for paper goods. :) I bought a hand full of 'composition' books the last time I was out to get things for the store - now the familiar black & white covered 'essay' books come with fancy colored covers and a choice of three kinds of paper (1/4th inch gridded, wide and narrow ruled).
The one I got for myself is gridded so I can doodle quilt designs when I'm not taking notes and such. One thing I've done ever since I bought my shop is to keep a daily 'business' journal - I just jot whatever happens down in it ... phone calls, questions from customers and staff, things needing to be done, etc. Recently Kathy Shaw had a nice tutorial with pattern on her website for a crazy quilted journal cover and I thought it would be nice to cover my gridded composition journal with one. Anything to keep it from getting lost on my desk! :)
The photo at the top of this post shows how my cover started out. I have some 'yukky' print-on-fabric-with-inkjet fabric and thought I'd use that for the purpose - stabilized, piecing guidelines, etc. :) I embroidered the little floral posey right onto the fabric (and colored in bits with my Copic - alcohol ink - markers). Stupid me, forgot that you are supposed to sew the fabric on the BACK of a foundation. :) Really, how could I forget that? LOL!!
Anyway, I crazy pieced coordinating fabrics on the front of the foundation instead, using Kathy's pattern as a loose guideline (had to make the cover larger for one thing:). I'll show a photo of the finished cover tomorrow - still have to sew the flaps shut. :) I like the colors I used on the front - and dipped into my scrap box to get bits for the back ... decided to add not one but two different OWL prints (to remind me to attempt to be wise:).
Last Saturday I went to Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA with my friends Barbara B. and Patty S. What a great trip! :) Lovely weather, no traffic tie-ups, great quilts, fun shopping. Great day out. :) I haven't been to the show in Hershey for a couple of years so it was fun to go again.
There was an extensive exhibit of Civil War Era antique quilts (enhanced with some very nice CW women's garments and other antiques) - including one I'd like to make a copy of for myself. Photos weren't allowed of the exhibit, so I hope I can retain the idea (didn't have a graph paper along to take notes:).
There was no prohibition against taking photos of the competition quilts, so I thought I'd share some that I particularly liked:
I have long loved the 'broken star' quilt design - this one is likely beyond my abilities as it was made - it is only 12 INCHES square!
Yet another quilt I will most likely never make! :) I love the borders, all of them, on this work. :)
I am passionately fond of the Tree of Life motif ... and so glad to see nice hand embroidery being done on quilts.
Not a very good photo of this quilt - which is a tribute to the Tile Works in some town (sorry, bad memory). The colors just made me feel good. :)
I thought this was a memorable quilt for two reasons - first the colors are meant to represent Amber ... and second, this is a classic Madelbrot fractal design that I quite like. :)
This quilt was, hands down, my most favorite in the entire show. I love the curve pieced background sky, the farms spread out below, and the elegance of the flying sandhill cranes. Gorgeous!
This piece was a close runner-up for me. Heavily thread painted, very realistic and botannical, covered with beads and stitching. I loved this! It isn't easy to portray something as ephemeral and delicate as ruffled petals ... and this quilter did that quite well imho. :)
Not very well focused ... I love the color scheme and the subject matter (I have very fond childhood memories of a flock of guinea fowl that lived up the 'holler' from my grandmother - gosh they are good watch animals and they make a helacious racket when disturbed!).
This quilt showed a heavy influence by Katie Pasquini .... I love the subject matter and the colors (orange/blue are my favorite color complement pair:). Would like to see the original geography some day. :)
Besides going to the show and working on my journal cover, I met with the MetroThreads SIG on Sunday afternoon and learned to make 'people' figures from Cindy W. - will share a photo of my girlie later (forgot to take one and she's at work right now while I am at home) ... am knitting on a shawl for my sister ... and managed to get quite a bit of work done today on my shop's quilt for Quest this fall. Here is a teaser pic of what I am making:
And another angle:
I have been looking at this design for so long (well, since early March) that I have no objectivity left. (sigh) This often happens to me when I have worked on something too hard. :P It still needs borders and to be quilted ... maybe I'll be happier with it when it is 'real'? :)
Tomorrow I have to drive to Hagerstown (about 2 hours away) for a meeting of the shop owners' committee for Quest, then work on the sales floor and sew with a friend and ... life is almost never boring (leaving aside Tuesday - yesterday - which I slept right through).
:) Linda
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