Monica in Michigan

Art project #2--Hawaiian petition against annexation

2012-02-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

This quilt (40" x 40") is pieced, stenciled with blended paint sticks, hand echo quilted and machine lettered with the 1897 pettition against annexation text submitted by women of Oahu. Completed in about ywo weeks, it represents some very concerted work each day. Phew! It will be submitted in class today and I intend to enter it into the GVSU Women's Center Art Show.

The text reads:

Petition Against Annexation
To His Excellency WILLIAM McKINLEY, President, and the Senate, of the United States of
America.
GREETINGS:-- WHEREAS, there has been submitted to the Senate of the United States of America a Treaty for the Annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the said United States of America, for consideration at its regular session in December, A.D. 1897; therefore,
WE, the undersigned, native Hawaiian Women, citizens and residents of the District of Kona Honolulu, Island of Oahu, who are members of the Women’s Hawaiian Patriotic League
of the Hawaiian Islands, and other women who are in sympathy with the said League, earnestly protest against the annexation of the said Hawaiian Islands to the said United States of America in any form or shape.

Kiwi's Nocturne in Beneath the Southern Sky exhibit

2012-02-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

What an exciting week! My 40cm by 100cm work called Kiwi's Nocturne: Stargazing through the Veil was accepted into a juried exhibition called Beneath the Southern Sky that will be visiting at least 8 shows/galleries/conventions. Do have a look at the Facebook page for the exhibit for the teaser pictures. The online gallery is coming soon.

I also managed to finish my mother-in-law's quilt (in the picture here) and get that in the mail. It is called Springtime.

Meanwhile, in class I've been busy on the background and stenciling for the next assignments (this time I'm working a Hawaiian theme). I've been stenciling using huge freezer-paper cut in the style of Hawaiian applique quilts. The studio smells like paint sticks.

By the by, I've been using Fuziboo lately (fusible cotton and bamboo batting) and I have had good results.

ART 340 sampler

2012-01-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

I'm auditing a textiles course this term (well, the Mondays because I can't go on the Wednesdays) and we've just completed a tiny sampler to practice some embroidery, beading and quilting. I played with some "chicken feet" fill a la Brenda Gael Smith, some big stitching with pearle cotton in the busy border, lots of echo quilting at different intervals, 4 different kinds of applique...

Next we're working on one of two bigger projects so I was busy last night knocking back the color on my background fabrics with some diluted bleach.

Snowman Thread Painting

2011-12-13T05:25:00.001-08:00

This Snowman is a thread painting based on a piece of clip art. I worked on this at the recent quilt retreat and now he's on my office door. I like the marled effect on his scarf that came from using white thread in the bobbin and red on top. This technique is intended to be worked in a hoop with just dissolving stablizer, but I like to add in a used dryer sheet for a tiny bit of extra stability.

I want to take you to Rome

2011-11-15T07:18:00.000-08:00

A couple years ago, my son said I want to take you to Rome. We did indeed go last summer and I was busy taking pictures of floors in places like Pompeii which inspired this quilt. Not yet done--a couple rows will be added when I get more of the dark batik fabric. I had fun using the green fabric as both a dark and a light in different blocks.

2011-11-15T07:17:00.000-08:00

This top was completed at a recent retreat. It's for my mother-in-law's twin bed.

Tendonitis Woes

2011-09-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

I'm in self-imposed non-sewing mode due to some, well, "quilting and keyboarding elbow". Certainly tennis had nothing to do with it.

I'm in the middle of a cool project and the studio is in pretty good shape so ...if wishes were stitches I'd be getting a lot done!

Thread Painting Experiment

2011-08-22T13:09:00.001-07:00

Thanks to an article in the online Quilting Arts magazine (Vol 4 I think), I had fun experimenting with thread painting on hooped dissolvable stabelizer. I didn't have the thicker type so I doubled some medium thickness that I had on hand. Next time I might throw a layer of bridal illusion in between the layers.

The only part that didn't work out is that with so many thread spools lying around, I knocked some on the floor and the depicted dog chewed one up. Life masticating art!

Studio makeover step 2

2011-07-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

Stage one of 'making the studio better' involved shelving. Things have improved, but some of the storage in my ironing area was still cheap and nasty, and I thought the use of space was far from optimal. Stage one also involved the decision to try to buy storage boxes and accessories in either black or white (or both) to give the room some sort of coordination and not compete with the fabric.

So as an early anniversary/birthday present, we purchased a couple of the 36 inch tall Closet Aid sort of cubical storage units and a 24" by 48" pine table top that will be covered to use as a big ironing surace with the storage units as its legs. I'm tall so the 38" height will be fine. I believe I'll have better access to my design wall, too.

I suspect that the storage units moving out of the room will be easy to redeploy in the basement. Win win.

Quilt made a visit

2011-07-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Our next door neighbor popped by yesterday with her 2 year old daughter in the stroller. It seems that Sadie, now quite a talker, is quite partial to the quilt she had with her. "See, it has my name," she reported, flipping it to the heart-shaped label on the back.

"I know," was my reply, "I put it there when you were born."

Flag in sunshine and shaddow

2011-07-12T12:02:00.001-07:00

Talk about cutting it close. I finished this one, after having it in the frame for most of the year, on the morning of July 4. This one is a stretch for me. I don't own many of these countrified, "browned", homespun sorts of fabrics, and I'd never pushed the limits f what would read as a light before. Just goes to show that maroon on cream is "white" if you try hard enough.

The design comes from a very old book of patriotic quilts that I bought used.

About 3.5' x 4.5'

Learned something today

2011-07-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

Reversable binding--see: www.thequiltshow.com/os/blog.php/blog_id/3901

I don't tend to make reversable quilts, but she also shows a way of using your binding as your label which is worth tucking away in the back of your mind too. Thanks, Sharon Pederson!

great rolled edge on serger

2011-05-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

I'm making a dress for an upcoming formal dinner. The fabric is a very slinky, stretchy synthetic knit so one has to think long and hard about how to finish the sleeves and hem. I decided to use a serged, rolled hem using wooly nylon on my overlocker.

In the construction of the dress I used quite a bit of clear swimsuit elastic in the serged seams (worked great!). No gaps in the cross-over neckline, no stretched shoulder seams etc. The instructions didn't call for it but it might have been hopeless without it.

So now it is time to roll the hems. On a practice piece I found everything was working correctly except that I was getting a slightly wavy result (not what I wanted). So I tried a test using a thin strip of water soluble stablizer beneath the fabric. Fantastic result. Fed really well and the rolled hem is flat.

By the by, I had thought I'd do some of the construction on my sewing machine. I put in a fine ball point needle and couldn't get it to cooperate. It stiched perfectly on a woven cotton sample piece but was skipping stitches like mad when I tried the jersey. I gave up and constructed the dress entirely on the overlocker. Anyone with an explanation is encouraged to speak up.

Queensland Dreaming in Tasmania

2011-03-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

My former work colleague Cath recently had twins. She lives in Tasmania these days and was able to take a snapshot of the quilt I sent to her which is now in situ in the babies' room.

This rather wild outing is called Queensland Dreaming.

Lone Star in progress

2011-03-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a class at Smith & Owen on Lone Star quilts. I've picked up a few great techniques (particularly a way of doing Y seams that is much better than most I've seen) and had fun working with batiks.

I bought the book on little Lone Stars , too.

Tulips and Lemons

2011-03-04T12:04:00.000-08:00

Another Piece of Cake design turned up in a magazine while all the applique supplies are still out in the studio, so I used some fabrics that went into a recent quilt (that one I designed a few years back but they are similar in some respects). Might turn into a table topper.

Now I'm preping for another class (on a Lone Star), and I've decided to use batiks, so "now for something completely different!"

Applique Month

2011-02-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

The applique class at Smith & Owen is 2/3 over and I've had a month of making "whimsical" garden blocks (Piece O' Cake design). I think that for quilters "whimsical" is a code word for nothing having to match. I'm imagining that having these blocks will one day save my bacon when I need a baby quilt to come together fast.

The method we are using can be traced to Pearl Pereira. It involves freezer paper, starch, stilletos, etc. Must say that it does produce sharply pointed leaves that I have a hard time with by other means. Good tips include using thread a bit darker and duller than the applique, using a starch alternative rather than flacky real starch, and using a travel size iron that gets good and hot.

On another note, I recently bought some Spot fabric. Not fabric with dots, but rather fabric printed with the character from children's books by Eric Hill. My son is almost 13, but when he was very little, Spot was very important. So I thought I better get some of this fabric now, lest I repent at leisure some day.

Projects completing

2011-01-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

"Anne's Garden" made it safely to Sydney and now resides on my sister-in-law's bed. "Sunburnt Country" (the retreat quilt top depicted 2 posts ago) is now quilted (on my home machine) and proudly owned by my husband.

A friend in Tasmania (she & hubby own Foxhunters Return--a B&B and now bookstore too) is having twins so I finished a long-in-progress baby quilt (called "Queensland Dreaming") and a more recent project making felt baby booties.

I also had the opportunity to teach a very capable professor friend to hem pants. Funny how the little skills can drop by the wayside while acquiring the big ones.

So now nothing is under deadline and I can decide what I'd like to do next. Saturday I'm off to yet another needle-turn class (I'd like to be really good at it one day!).

Starting to look a lot like Xmas...

2010-11-19T11:24:00.000-08:00

At the retreat, I found some time to work on some hand and machine stitched felted wool projects. Top left is a felted wool needle case; below is a retractable tape measure cover; and to the right is my take on the mistletoe project in the recent Quilting Arts Gifts mag.

Retreat 10 quilt top

2010-11-17T05:33:00.001-08:00

I finished my Australianized "African Fire Flower" quilt top at the retreat last weekend. Now must decide on the quilting--probably a wavy pattern echoed over the land and something airier over the sky. Haven't actually measured it but it is about 5 feet (and a bit) by 7 feet-ish.

I also made some small wool projects at the retreat but haven't photographed them yet.

Retreat!

2010-11-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I have a 1hr and 46 min drive to the quilt retreat. For the show-n-tell, I'm bringing Laddie's Garden, Kieran's blue & white quilt and the finished project from last year. It was a big year of big quilts. Looking forward to lots of sewing, no cooking and just looking after myself (if you are a mom and have a dog, you know that's a bit rare). The boys will be fine and Subway will get a little extra business.

Fall leaves

2010-11-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Using a technique adapted from the most recent Quilting Arts Gifts article (they made mistletoe with 2 fused cotton fabrics), I fused a batik to a wool blend felt. The "patterns" were collected off the ground while walking the dog in our neighborhood. Mostly maple and oak, but also one I'm not familiar with.

I use a low contrast pastel crayon to mark the leaf edge on the batik.

Then stitched with variegated thread.

The trick is not to cut it out until afterward, using smallish sharp scissors.

Cutting Up

2010-10-15T11:24:00.001-07:00

In preparation for the Smith & Owen Quilt Retreat next month (my second), I've been doing a lot of cutting (well, some shopping was actually involved prior to the cutting) in order to make the pattern provided as part of the retreat. The pattern is African Fire Flower (see) but I'm going to Australianize it.

I get to make use of some Australian fabrics given to me just before coming to Michigan by my Australian quilting buddies in the NSW Guild as well as some aboriginal fabrics I got at Smith & Owen. And anything sky blue, gum green or ochre or iron-oxide red that I could find in the stash. I've got quite a stack of 3x9" pieces now.

By the by, Jill Ker Conway (who wrote The Road to Coorain) spoke on campus last month. Helped me get into the spirit of the project.

This year my big "lesson learned from last year" is to bring a decent sewing chair with me. All the ladies who were veterans of the retreat knew to do that.

Krakatoa in situ

2010-09-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

"Krakatoa" is now, I just learned, rather prominently displayed in the Women's Center at GVSU as part of their annual art show. I was near the center yesterday for an event and see that it is clearly visible from outside their glass-walled office. There's something weird and thrilling about seeing one's work displayed somewhere other than one's house.

"Krakatoa" is a storm-at-sea pictorial quilt made up of 800 pieces.

Can't seem to find the picture I have of it.

2010-08-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

This purse is a somewhat ironic wink at the impending soccer mom season. Probably better than having my leather bag out in the elements--and if it gets cold, I guess I could shove my hands in--it is quilted after all...

The projects one gets up to when cleaning the studio.

Major studio improvements

2010-08-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been losing myself in some of those magazines about other people's studios. I'm in no danger of adding onto the house or laying down new flooring, but I have just purchased a small bookcase to better house my magazines and a large commercial grade shelving unit (60" wide, 77" tall, 24 inch wide shelves) to hold my stash. I was really tired of getting under tables to haul out fabric bins and taking far too long to sort out left-overs after projects were done.

The magaine bookcase is assembled and populated, and Costco says my commercial grade shelves are in transit.

Something about all this possessed me to even put a quilt top in the frame.

Finally!

2010-07-26T07:47:00.000-07:00

How long have I been promising a photo of the blue & white quilt? It's so huge it will take 2 shots! This one is off to a professional quilter today because I just can't imagine handling one this size myself. In fact, it's larger than my arms could reach on the biggest bulletin board I could find, so the "southern end" with the penguins is out of shot. This was a drafting and math extravaganza. It'll be great to see it on my son's bed in a couple months.

Made a purse, too

2010-07-01T13:26:00.001-07:00

Recently I also made this quilted purse. The fabric is the "In The Begining" panel from the Folklorica line. The pattern name is not with me as I write, but some will recognize it by the distinctive use of curtain grommets (which, by the way, are not hard to put in).

Laddie's Garden

2010-06-28T12:37:00.001-07:00

Nothing like some time at home to get the hand quilting done. This one is 50" square. Inspired by a class in 2008 by Gwen Marston. All the flowers are my own design from hand-cut paper templates. Needle-turn applique and hand quilted.

It's called Laddie's Garden as a nod to our dog who saw me through the process.

Hand work and surgery

2010-05-04T11:24:00.001-07:00

I'm going to have surgery on Monday and get a kick out of the reaction of quilters who seem to have no concern whatsoever about the stitches going into me but are very concerned lest I have not enough to do during my recovery. "I hope you have enough hand projects!" they say.

Well, I do. I have a quilt half hand quilted and a Hawaiian applique project underway.

These days the medical establishment sends you to surgery class. You get to ask questions such as "how long until I can drive?" Of course, what you really want to ask is how long until I can use the sewing machine. I guess the line is less in terms of when you get off the heavy pain pills and more about when you feel less fatigued.

Birds of a feather

2009-12-18T13:29:00.001-08:00

I really like making things for Paula (a coworker buddy of mine) because she genuinely gets a kick out of them. She also has some identifiably favorite things (in this case, crows) so it isn't hard to select fabrics.

I've made a pair of predominantly pink ones for Bob and Marie and a blue one for my son. It's been a varitable aviary in my sewing room.

Bird finds favor

2009-12-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

My son and husband were not impressed by a phase I went through some time ago making enlongated Christmas elves. In fact, they find most dolls eerie so I moved on to other things. No use freaking the family out.

This little bird (pattern in the recent Quilt International magazine) has passed the family test. They like him and have okayed the production of more.

Quilt retreat top finished

2009-12-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

This top is from a pattern (name not in front of me)--not someting I do very often. The pattern was the project for the Smith & Owen quilt retreat 2009 which I attended a couple weeks ago. Lessons were learned--some great ones that will improve my handwork (I know how to start and stop blanket-stitch properly now) and that you need to bring your own proper chair to retreats or risk back-ache by plastic stacking chair.

Doll Quilt

2009-10-14T07:02:00.001-07:00

This simple doll quilt is approximately 20" square. It's a gift for a student worker in our office who is having a baby soon and has decorated in green and ladybugs. That makes something like 6 baby gifts in the last 18 months. Phew! I'm still making progress on the blue & white quilt promised to my son. Really I am.

Boutis Booties

2009-09-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

These boutis booties will bring to mind for some the cover of a great issue of Inspirations magazine from some years back. As this is almost my first try with the French technique boutis, I simplified these a little. Less difficult than I thought (quicker), but I would not use pencil again--a water soluble marker would have been a better idea.

These are for the frist grandchild of a coworker of mine. A little girl is expected in November.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds

2009-08-10T10:40:00.001-07:00

This fun border fabric inspired this 45" square baby quilt depicting the children's rhyme about 4 & 20 blackbirds baked in a pie. The cherries are inspired by the cover of a Fons & Porter magazine, but otherwise the design is mine. Machine quilted. Rickrack in the binding.

This is, I think, my 10th baby quilt (4th in the last year!). Time to get back to the one for my 11 year old!

2009-06-12T05:39:00.000-07:00

1930s Reproduction is about 4' square. Next weekend it will be presented to a young couple expecting an August baby. The proud grandma is one of my workmates. It's handquilted on about a 1-1/4" grid in pink cotton. Finding that 1930's pink was the real challenge!

2008-12-18T13:22:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to photographing "Fat Tuesday" which is up on my office wall. About 4' x 6'. This quilt is in honor of the holding of Mardi Gras in the year after Katrina. I'd hoped they would. The line is a water line (hand sponged with opalescent paint) and the "beads" are fussy-cut from a fabric called Mardi Gras. It may be possible to see two masks in the quilting.

Lately Ladybugs and Pears

2008-10-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

Now that the annual work film festival that I run is over, the quilting begins again in ernest.

Yesterday I finished quilting a baby quilt for a woman at my office expecting #2 child. I used the stitch regular on the Bernina Aurora purchased more than a year ago --for the first time. How silly was that? I freemotioned vines, leaves and flowers all over the surface exept for on the applique ladybugs and flowers. Something about the surface or the ability to release the pressure of the presserfoot a great deal--whatever it is, I can freemotion a lot easier on this machine than on my last (but I loved that Janome anyway).

I'm also making a lot of pears from a pattern I found in a magazine. I've finally tried out my paint sticks (you see the trend--more stuff than time!) on some green fabric and these will become funky pears also.

Ned and the Very Land Itself

2008-08-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

Finally, here is a picture of the quilt I made for my husband Terence for our wedding anniversary. If you are Australian it should be fairly self explanatory. If you aren't, this is meant to be a nod to Sydney Nolan's painting of bush ranger Ned Kelly in his homemade armor. The grey green rectangles are eucalyptus leaves and the white and yellow parallelagram is a sulfur crested cockatoo. In the center of Australia, the sand really is that color.

Polyester, silk, cotton (on the back facing and backing) and several different weights of variegated and solid color thread.

It's about 18 x 36" (guestimate).

Blue and White Quilt

2008-08-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

My son is ten-and-a-half and ready for a new bed quilt. His existing one is for a smaller bed and seems a little too young in his current bedroom. Yesterday he told me he wants it to be blue and white. Later in the day, of his own accord, he came into my studio and pointed out some fabric that he liked. It's a slightly deeper shade than sky blue.

Unlike my friend Erica who has an impressive collection of blue fabric, the blues I have are left overs from a project that needed a lot of different shades in small amounts. I was buying blue in 20cm pieces.

White I have. I'm a white person (not cream) . So the hunt is on for a variety of that shade of blue and some inspiring block that will not be the end of me when made double-bed size. I'm leaning toward Hunter Start or Birds in the Air or a big mariner's compass and a couple borders.

Mere Words, Pix Soon

2008-08-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

Despite my lack of blogging, there has been no lack of quilting activity now that the studio is in some kind of shape (thanks to supportive husband who installed shelves for me).

In fact, I've opened a couple new chapters.

First, I'm restoring a Road to California scrap quilt that I found at the local antique store for $12. I think it is from the 1920s. It isn't a masterpiece, but I like it, and would like to keep it "alive" for the foreseeable, so I'm appliqueing replica patches over the shredded patches. The original is there, underneath, but my efforts should stop the filling from coming out and prevent any ripping of the backing (so far intact).

Second, I'm making an anniversary art quilt for my husband (who doesn't read my blog). It's a sort of abstracted nod to Sydney Nolan. Silk, and poly with linen backing. It has been a chance to do some intensive quilting on the Bernina.

Pictures of these projects soon.

And a co-worker is having a baby so I'm having fun working on the baby quilt. Lots of flowers and ladybugs.

Crab Apple in Bloom

2008-06-06T07:07:00.001-07:00

Since moving in almost a year ago, we were waiting for the blooming of the crab apple tree. The neighbors told us it was a spectacle, and last month we could finally see for ourselves.

As a marked contrast, here is my great-grandfather's house in Ireland.

Baby Applique Quilt

2008-06-06T06:50:00.001-07:00

This quilt started out as something to Show and Tell in my quilt group for Valentine's Day. Then the woman next door announced her pregnancy and it became a a race to hand-quilt hearts and feathers in time for the arrival. Sadie was born recently and our neighbors are delighted with the quilt.

I like giving baby quilts because they are so well received (almost always).

A Bowl of Red

2008-06-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

This one is a testament to the value of imperfect fabric. This bowl is made from one fabric that became an accidental ombre when one of the ink colors failed to print. I bought a 2 metre piece in the remnant bin marked "as is".

This one will tomorrow be presented to my co-worker Paula.

Control and creativity

2008-05-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

My office is moving. In fact, the movers have picked up some boxes today and one of my quilts is inside. It's only going a few buildings away, and I've moved them internationally before this, but that sense of having to trust the Fates kicks in anyway.

This same feeling (albeit at greater intensity) occurrs during childbirth and surgery.

I suppose that most of the time I enjoy a sense that I'm at the helm of my ship. Taking a hand off the tiller and going with the current becomes necessary sometimes though. You risk loss to gain something else.

And yet, letting go for the purpose of creativity doesn't seem so risky. Sure, you could end up with a strange result that uses up some favorite fabric, but there is always another process you could subject the result to. Overlay, scorch, paint, chop, fuse, gild, or sew a bead over. I think of this as being diverged from my intended path but still on a road to somewhere.

How the Bowls are Made

2008-05-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

Erica asked how the bowls in my past post are made. There are a couple books out and Fons & Porter did a recent show on this technique (in case pictures work better for you than words). The gist is that you cut one inch wide strips (don't even need to be bias) and you wrap them around clothesline. To start a new strip you overlap slightly and keep going. Sliding the wraps down the clothesline until they are a bit taut helps. Use a binder clip or a clothespin to hold the strip end to the clothesline (a sort of third hand for you).

Obviously, starting and stopping take a bit of finesse. To begin, you need to cover the end and then get going on an angle as you start winding.

To start sewing, you need not wrap the whole length--even one strip will do. With a denim needle in your machine and sturdy top thread (though I have successfully used rayon embroidery thread on the top), use a zig zag or that utility zig zag that is used on elastic in lingerie. Start your coil (you begin at the center of the bottom of your bowl and work up) and make sure you push the leading edge of your rope toward your coil and catch both as you zig zag along. Needle down position will help a lot.

You'll soon find you have something that looks like a drink coaster. To get the sides of the bowl to begin to slope up form the botton, you need to hold the bottom at an angle as you sew on more rope.

Changing colors is the same as adding a new strip--just overlap a little and keep winding.

To end is tricky. Cut the clothesline a bit ahead of where you intend to finish. Cut the wrapping strip a bit beyond that and taper and tuck in the raw end so the last part of your zig zagging will catch it. I'm still working this part out.

Bowled over

2008-05-12T05:53:00.001-07:00

Yep, more bowls. This time these are a gift to a colleague at work celebrating a birthday. She recently introduced me to etamame (young soy beans in the pod) and that was the inspiration for the green one. The birthday girl has a 1-1/2 year old daughter so the pink one is for her.

Everyone says to use cotton clothesline for these. I had trouble finding any so one bowl is made with polyester and the other with nylon clothesline. Both worked.

The pink bowl is made largely from the strips I trimmed off the backing of a small quilt I'm making.

Stretching the definition of bowl

2008-05-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

I am involved in my first series--candy dishes for the office on seasonal themes. I keep at it because the "out of season" one on the front desk sort of nags me as I walk past. This current one is meant to cover "Spring" and perhaps early Summer.

As may be obvious, it started out square and I sort of pinched and squished until it bowed into a semblence of a bowl. Luckily, the office favors wrapped hard candy which doesn't roll.

Meanwhile I am hand-quilting feathers on a baby quilt. It is almost done. The hopelessly girly pink hearts appliqued on it probably represent my natural optimism because I don't know the gender of the baby to be born to my next door neighbor. So it will be either right on time or really early for the next girl baby I encounter. If it is a boy, I have another quilt top that could be machine quilted in a hurry, if necessary!

Mini-demos for the preparation-time starved

2008-03-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

I started a quilt group on the college campus where I work and a small band of us have kept it alive for our one hour meetings every 2nd Tuesday of the month. Generally, I come up with a small demo and the rest is talking or show-and-tell.

If you've ever tried monthly demos, you know that the idea factory can run dry of easily transportable things so I thought I'd share a list:

Molas. I gave a background on this reverse applique style complete with a "kit": 10x10" stack of Kona solid cottons in characteristic mola colors so everyone could have a try.
Yo-Yos. After showing a yo-yo garment in progress and talking about other uses, we all made a few. As it turned out, the whole group let me take theirs home to use in my, uh, our project!
Ruching. People seem to get a kick out of ruched flowers on Baltimore album quilts and wonder how they are made. I cut bias strips in a small buttercup-and-white lightweight gingham. The little squares made it easy to sew the sawtooth pattern without marking.
To create a nice handout, I searched the internet for free download sites for graph paper of all kinds and provided URLs and images so everyone could see the range available out there (even honeycomb ones which could come in handy for planning grandmother's flower garden quilts or whatnot).
I let everyone have a look at my samples from a wonderful course on bindings I took a couple years ago from Narelle Grieve. The samples we came out with are great reminders. Our group used them for inspiration and discussion (because I don't believe in wholesale using the courses of others without permission!). By the way, you have permission to use any ideas in this post.
I showed a quilt that makes use of the fantasy fabric I learned to make from Chrissy Sheed. I also showed a piece of fantasy fabric at a much earlier stage of preparation and we had a good talk about all the things one might use in quilts. It made a good jumping off point. We did a lot of "I saw a quilt once that had..."
I have a faux chenille vest made from a commercial pattern which I broght in for everyone to see. I also brought in a stack of charm squares with the chenille in various stages --partially stitched, some channels still closed and a couple already clipped. This made it very easy to explain the process.
We've talked about fusing and stablizing a fair bit so one day I hope to bring in samples of several types and weights so people can feel them. I'd like to make a big labeled sample cloth with several different fusing agents on it and run it through the wash as a test.

Aussie Opal Comes Home

2008-03-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

This is a shot of the center of a 50 x 70cm challenge quilt that has made it home from a couple years of wandering in Australia. The Fantasy Fabric in the colorful parts are thanks to a class I took from the wonderful Chrissy Sheed and I learned the elongated Mariner's Compass drafting methods from Stephanie Knudsen. Steph doesn't have a blog yet, but will be absolutely dangerous once she does.

2008-03-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

Erica wants me to be a more consistent blogger as a trade off for listing me in her Blogs I Read list. She's using logic on me. Now I'm in trouble.

The above bowl is meant to be festive and hold the office candy up through St Patrick's Day. I do know that shamrocks are three lobed (to symbolize the trinity) and that this is based on the four-leaf clover, but there are some three-leafers in the quilting so I'm covered. Not what we'd call my best work, but fun anyway, I think.

Yikes--Tagged

2008-03-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

Well, after knowing what a "tag" is since about Wednesday (when I saw it on Brenda's blog), I discovered today that I've been tagged by Erica. Do you also get the impression that the earth spins faster than it once did?

Okay. If I've got it right, I need to tell you this (thanks for the cut and paste, Erica):
These are the rules...1. When tagged, place the name of the person and URL on your blog. [check!]2. Post the rules on your blog. [check!] 3. Write 7 things about yourself. [see below]4. Name 7 of your favorite bloggers. [hard to do because I read about 3 religiously]5. Send e-mail letting those bloggers know they have been tagged [I suspect my bloggers have already been tagged--is it okay to tag a Facebooker in a pinch?].

My seven things:
1. I've been to ten countries (I don't count a couple which were airports or passing through on a train only)--used to be 12 but China, Macau and Hong Kong all count as one these days. The others are in rough order: USA, Mexico, Australia, England, France, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Belgium and New Zealand. I've also been to Detroit which is pretty close to Canada and to a stone's throw from the Cambodian border as well as rather near Burma and Laos.
2. I'm a dual US/Australian citizen as is my son (who'll be ten on Monday). Husband also has two passports (Aussie/Irish).
3. I have a B.A., MA. and PhD from Berkeley in Rhetoric.
4. The two strangest things that have been on my resume are costuming a drag show (two actually) and an article in the magazine Inside Karate.
5. I've had dinner with a Nobel laureate and a guy who was Cosmo's bachelor of the year once.
6. I voted for Hillary and sent her $50. I'm so in her demographic! Like many of my buddies, it's been a case of "I want to see a woman president in my lifetime". I even had a dream that Bill Clinton got into our family car to talk to us about the campaign.
7. I'm struggling a bit with the age thing this year (I'm 48-1/2) because I had a tooth pulled and my well controlled diabetes got a bit less well controlled and the change seems to haveme in its sights. This just has to be a design flaw. I mean, who would plan this?

Okay, there you are. Now I have to figure out somebody to tag. I'll think on it. And in the mean time, shouldn't Erica add me to her list of Blogs She Reads if she tagged me? Seems like natural justice...

Valentine's Bowl

2008-02-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

At the office we had a large package of conversation hearts and nothing to put them in. I said I'd make a bowl. By tomorrow. Despite a new Prison Break episode. And a meeting that lasted until 6. And it isn't a good idea to sew after my son goes to bed at 9. So here is my testament to what can be done during the commercials!

Ice and Snow

2008-01-02T11:56:00.001-08:00

It's back to work on a cold day after about 10 days off. While they were testing the building's fire alarms, I snapped this great icicle hanging off the roof of the porch.

Despite all that time off, all the quilting I have to show for it is buying and pre-washing some fabric and making about 6 "berries" ahead of time before a class to be held on January 22. The class is to be taught by Gwen Marston on Classic 4-Block Applique. I read her book on that subject. Very unlike the remnant bin diver that I usually am, I bought glorious Hoffman jacquard fabric for this project in colors that will actually look nice in my living room. If the berries are an indication, I think it will applique well despite the slight texture it has.

Fire and Ice

2007-12-18T10:59:00.000-08:00

If variety is the spice of life, my job is providing a pretty spicy ride. All universities provide an array of diverse wonders on a regular basis, but not everyone working there has quite the E ticket that I do—it is my job to document such things.

So today, dressed like a Christmas cupcake in red velour pants and a Christmas sweater covered in happy little snowmen, I entered the extremely blokey underworld that is the sculpture room where metals are cast. Armed with my glorified point-n-shoot like some kind of hybrid between Martha Stewart and Persephone, I took pictures of the process involved in casting bronze statues. Three men completely covered in safety gear like welding masks, leather aprons and footwear only a vulcanologist could love hefted the molten bronze in crucibles glowing orange as lava. The mold is preheated to 1000 degrees so it won’t shatter as the liquid metal is poured.

My cheeks were still glowing from the heat as I snapped up my down jacket and headed back through the snow to my office through an unsuspecting campus devoid of students at the end of the term.

First Christmas

2007-12-17T07:16:00.001-08:00

Yesterday our local pet supply place had free pictures with Santa. I was washing Laddie there (can you tell he’s still a bit damp?) and swear I am not enough of a crazed pet owner to have made a special trip for a Santa photo, but I am glad to have this cute shot. Amazing how much a creature can grow in less than six months. The tornado has become a wonderful family member with a very agreeable disposition.

He enjoys the snow in such a direct fashion (face first, shake off later) that you have to laugh.

2007-11-29T10:42:00.000-08:00

One day long ago I started, with great energy, to explain something to my grandmother. She was about 80 at the time. I don’t remember what it was I thought so important to explain, but I do remember her reaction. She stopped me abruptly and said, “I don’t want to learn anything else, unless it is a card game.” As a fairly enthusiastic student of everything, I was appalled.

Yesterday, I offered to teach someone at work how to do something and she declined.

All I could think was, “Please God, never let that attitude overtake me.” The appendices to that prayer include, “may the higher end magazines never dumb themselves down to capture the beginner market (they have plenty)” and “may there always be classes and books teaching techniques I haven’t tried” and “may at least one new gadget or fiber or dye come out each year”.

Enough for Cocktail Parties

2007-11-02T13:29:00.000-07:00

Another quilt (called A Rose By Any Other Name) with no relation to this post.

My English teacher in my senior year of high school made us all learn to recite the first 3 lines of Beowulf in old English. He insisted that one need learn no more than that to get by at cocktail parties. This gave me a rather strange notion of what adults were up to at these functions. But he wasn't done-- my teacher allowed us the additional wickedness of "making it up after that because nobody would know."

It was, in a sense, license to dabble, to get the first steps right and then improvise, to join the club legitimately and then break its rules.

I can still quote those lines and it gave me a sort of relationship to that text that has me reading it again now.

And come to think of it, there probably is a relationship between that quilt and this post...

Blessed are the Well Timed Teachers

2007-10-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

A translinear edition of Dante’s Inferno given to me by my Latin teacher at the end of my senior year in high school now has pride of place on a shelf in my office at work. It reminds me of both the value of hard earned abilities and of teachers who appeared in one’s life story at just the right moment for maximum benefit.

Another such teacher is now my boss. That’s a rare twist on this theme, but I certainly benefit from finding a way to keep the lessons coming long after college.

At the little quilt group at the university where I now work, I recently did a demonstration that was more of a glorified show-n-tell. I gathered up the finished products and the various constituent parts of two classes I took a few years ago in Australia from Chrissy Sheed and Susan Matthews. I wasn’t teaching other teacher’s techniques (I don’t do that without expressed permission) so much as letting our group have a close look and feel and a chat about ways to extend the possibilities. It’s nice to honor the gift one has received from one’s teachers.

Eventually, I’ll be teaching as part of my job, though only once every couple years. I’m looking forward to making peace with some new pedagogical directions that are now all the rage and will have the enormous luxury of reflection between teaching stints. I’m also a dozen years older, so I’ll bringing different tools to the task this time. Here’s hoping I’ll be well timed for somebody.

Where the heck have I been?

2007-08-17T06:47:00.001-07:00

If you were wondering why no blogging has gone on since July 25, well, the answer is to the left. Better photos will come, but he's a very wiggly subject.

Laddie is the 9 week old blond tornado (Golden retriever) who came into our lives 10 days ago. He's sleeping through the night 2 out of 3 times now so normal life can resume. He's quickly becoming a family member and is part of everything--including phone calls. I phone my 9 year old son at midday from work and our conversation is punctuated by forceful exclamations of "off" when my son's toes are being attacked.

I did sew the back for my "inspired by Gee's Bend" challenge which is due by 23 August. Getting that quilted by next Thursday may be a bridge too far!

I did see a magazine cover with a foundation pieced Golden Retriever puppy on that. Now that seems relevant!

Before is My After

2007-07-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

I’ve recently moved into our new home, a 50 year old house which does a good job of the nice features of older houses (like woodwork, arches and coved ceilings) while having a lot of the nice points of newer homes. Now I have the aforementioned studio. The cardboard boxes are empty and have been removed so now I have a lot of stacked plastic boxes holding my stash and tools.

The general plan is to preserve one wall as a design wall and then to make good use of the rest of the space—I’m tall so vertical is good. A few months ago, I acquired two long tables which are arranged in an L in one corner. Monday I got a snap-together very rugged 5 shelf unit that will hold the majority of my stash. All this stuff is hefty plastic—not one’s dream sewing room, but cost effective and useful in a garage or basement should I ever find myself in the position to upgrade some day to purpose built tables and cabinets.

As if to rub my nose in it, I saw a makeover of a sewing room in a recent magazine and the “before” table is just like mine! But then again, their “after” look seemed entirely impractical to me. One must have priorities!

Oh, and a tip: if you have large amounts of miscellaneous batting (wadding), get a huge vacuum storage bag and shrink it right down for storage.

Mounting Textiles and A Room of One's Own

2007-07-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

Paula, a co-worker of mine, found this very useful site on mounting and displaying textiles. Some of it is well presented received wisdom you may already be aware of, but a few of the entries are especially engenious and might have relevance for quilters as well as people who display rugs, tapestries, and other textiles. The page is attributed to Marla Mallett: http://www.marlamallett.com/mounting.htm

This week, my family takes possession of our new home. This includes bigger bedrooms and other desirables, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that having my own studio is overshadowing almost all else. Design walls and purpose built shelving are dancing in my head. Not that I'm getting either any time soon, but at least they are possible now. Studio space is all about the possible!

Learning from other quilters

2007-07-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

Some friends (see Erica and Brenda's blogs) and I are finding inspiration and lessons from the quilts of the Gee's Bend area of Alabama which have toured museums in the USA in recent years and have been the subject of postage stamps, books and great critical acclaim. See www.pbs.org/.../july-dec03/quilts_07-01.html for a nice news piece that you can watch or listen to on-line.

The picture (right) is my "etude" based on one of these quilts by Nettie Young. Hers is freer and more elaborate, but I learned a great deal about the formal relationships of the colors and shapes by trying a portion of the composition for myself. I rarely work in anything using fabrics that read this "solid" so it was interesting for me from that perspective too.

Please rest assured that once this quilt top is quilted and bound, my label will make the inspiration of this little exercise quite clear. I'm a big believer in attribution.

It Really Isn't That Hard

2007-07-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

When I arrived at work (GVSU is the largest of the comprehensive universities in the Midwest), I expected to find a quilting group on campus. I mean, it snows here so you could hardly avoid it, right? Instead, a well established group fo knitters came to light and a few individual names.

So inspired by a friend, Stephanie, who had moved from Sydney to Perth not long ago and was absolutely diving into the local scene, I decided that I should get the ball rolling.

Everyone was very helpful:

the director of work/life balance helped to get us off to a good start,
the local fabric store provided door prizes,
the quilters were supportive, and
three beginning quilters took the plunge at our first meeting.

I learned some things. Find a room that is accessible to people who need to avoid stairs. You need not have door prizes with number tickets--we had the names of quilt blocks and that was fun.

Quilts you can't have

2007-05-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

Those quilty jars got me thinking--how can I have more quilts in my life, especially ones by friends, even if these quilts are elsewhere and owned by others? Well, why not find ways to integrate more pictures of these stunners into everyday life.

I just got a Rolodex with little plastic-covered card holders. I put one up front with a picture of a great quilt by Brenda Smith that is on her blog. The link is in the Quilty Jars posting below.

This would also work with vintage quilt postcards or magazine photos, of course.

Spring

2007-05-04T05:50:00.000-07:00

Shakespeare in Spring

2007-05-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

Bear with me. I'm going to have to go on a bit as one does who is coming from a climate with only two real seasons (and subtle transitions between them) to a place with dramatic seasonal change. These are picture taken just outside my office window in the Shakespeare garden (the flowers are all mentioned in his plays).

Graduation purse

2007-05-03T05:55:00.000-07:00

Most academic regalia does not have actual pockets. Some robes have a slit so you can reach pockets in your clothes; but if you are like me, not all of your outfits have pockets and I want more stuff with me than pockets comfortably hold.

I saw the foundation piecing pattern in the back of a magazine, enlarged it on the computer and made a simple purse that fits the digital camera, my keys, a bit of cash, Kleenex, safety and bobby pins--the stuff you need at graduation.

The strap (worn across the body) hangs at exactly the right level so that I can reach it through my robe slit--instant pocket.

I made the tassle. The button is actually a matching blue color (despite looking black in the photo).

Quilty Jars by Friends

2007-04-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long absence. My family and worldly goods arrived and I got a sewing machine (phew!) and we had a late snow and any number of other excuses.

Brenda (http://serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog/) has asked that I put my latest project up. This one is sort of quilting by proxy.

But let me begin at the beginning. A couple weeks ago I issued a Gee's Bend theme quilt challenge to my friends. I've been following their progress in their blogs (because they are more loyal bloggers than moi) and loved the results. (See also Erica's on http://www.creativedabbling.blogspot.com/) So I printed out their pictures and inserted a round excerpt into the lid "window" of these cool little canisters. I got them for a dollar each at the Target here. Very shallow and have a magnet on the bottom. Good for thumb tacks or rubber bands or buttons and they stick to the fridge.

I think they look pretty good and I'm enjoying my friends' beautiful work each day at the office.

Cherry Potholders

2007-02-11T14:46:00.000-08:00

I have now officially been to a fabric store in Michigan (Joanne Fabrics, not a proper quilt shop, but it was close). Five $1 fat quarters later, I have appliqued a plain potholder with two cherries with stems and leaves attached. It seemed the right motif for Michigan which is quite the sour cherry capital of things. Could have done blueberries as well for the same reason but speed shopping with a non-quilter meant I didn't think to get any blue. The stash arrives in a couple weeks, so any local produce becomes possible from that time onward.

The Nostalgia Diet

2007-02-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

Expats can engage in conversations about food that would put a gourmand to shame. Our ties to a place and its special comforts become a passionate yearning, best shared, for a particular condiment, confection or lowly breakfast cereal.

So returning to the USA means sudden access to every sort of food that one remembers with any fondness and into the shopping cart they go: Life cereal, graham crackers, bagels, the liverwurst that mom used to buy for school lunches, more bagels, New England Clam Chowder, A1 Steak Sauce, a Heath bar. Luckily some fruits and vegetables have also found their way into the shopping, but these indigenous comfort foods become the basis of my intake. So much for Atkins or South Beach, I’m on the Nostalgia Diet.

Luckily it has not been the undoing of a year’s weight loss because simultaneously added into the mix are extreme cold, more walking at work and several staircases in the house.

Snow Prints

2007-01-31T08:30:00.000-08:00

Beyond the hackneyed “blanket" metaphor, snow and quilts have some things in common. For one thing, they tend to capture a moment in time by providing visual signs of something that took place. For snow it might be the passage of a squirrel and for a quilt it might be the Suffrage Movement or Uncle Bob’s 80th birthday.

In the lovely snowfall we’ve had in Michigan recently, I’ve been enjoying the footprints of dogs walked in the early morning hours, the squirrels bounding between trees, ploughs, snowmobiles and hand-shoveled channels to the mailbox.

Looks like a church

2007-01-29T04:01:00.000-08:00

After finally closing a technological gap, I'm able to provide a picture of the house in which I now live. I sent this picture also to my son. His reaction was that it looks like a church.

That was a theme this weekend as I also picked up a call for entry for the 34th Annual Juried Spiritual Art Competition to be held next month. Is any of my quilting spiritual? By intent or just by-product? Not sure.

I sent a short story to a friend whose opinion matters a great deal to me. She tells me she cried (in a good way). You write to get a reaction, but when it comes you feel a bit bashful about having done that to someone.

Finally a Picture

2007-01-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

Finally--access to a camera. This shot of the GVSU campus here in Allendale, Michigan managed to capture the reflection of the flash on the falling snowflakes.

The days are getting noticeably longer. It is still cold, of course, but they had a snowstorm in Malibu so that distinction is being shared around.

Today I received (in a somewhat soggy box due to the snow) Michigan Quilts and a poster of the same title depicting a predominantly red Bethlehem Star quilt. This poster was only $5 (US) and would be a nice gift for any quilter. Michigan State University Museum's online store was my source (in the Traditional Arts section).

At least three Rs

2007-01-13T07:21:00.001-08:00

My husband, Terence has great experience in IT and has distilled some of it into a set of simple rules. Most of the time, one of the rules will solve your computer problem immediately. Trying all of them in turn will establish fairly decisively if the problem is outside your competency to solve. Either way you get a result.

They all seem to start with an R.

Reboot. Nothing like allowing your computer to solve its own problem. A fresh start is something we can all use from time to time.
Reseat. Don't just wiggle the power cord--take it all the way out of the outlet (and the back of the computer for that matter) and then put it in again. It is another sort of fresh start--just more mechanical than electronic this time.
Refresh. Especially when browsing the Internet, you have to remember that you are not always looking directly at the most immediate truth about what is there. Computers like to cache (remember) things and show you the memory rather than what is actually out there to see this very minute. I know some people like that. Living in the past because it is easy. So refresh the screen before you find yourself with old info.
Right click. All the good stuff you really need is available when you right click (such as Properties). Some people never right click--there be monsters out there. They hunt through only the known and don't find what they are looking for.

This has a lot to do with moving to Michigan too.

I'm going to be getting a new sewing machine before too long--that's always a new perspective. And seven weeks may be longer than I can stand to be without any fabric. I found myself happy that the hem came out (completely!) from a blouse I brought in my suitcase, and I 'm delighted to hem it. Good to have a needle in hand. Looking for excuses to sew is a sure sign.

Time to locate a fabric store in bus or walking distance--a button came off my jacket and must be fixed--tee hee.

Warm Welcome

2007-01-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

As I was leaving Sydney, Australia for our new life adventure in Michigan, dear friends in the Quilters Guild of New South Wales encouraged me to undertake a blog. Please visit their blogs on http://creativedabbling.blogspot.com/2006/12/power-of-friendship.html (Erica Spinks)
and http://serendipitypatchwork.blogspot.com/2006/12/farewell-quilt.html (Brenda Smith).
Among other treats, you'll see the wonderful Farewell Quilts they gave to me.

The global community of quilters should make us all brave about the changes in our lives. At one end you get a great send off and at the other a willing group of friends with a common interest. I haven't actually met these quilters yet, but I'm confident.

East Grand Rapids turns out to be a very lovely neighborhood of classically American homes which are currently decorated both for Christmas and in flags and bunting in honor of the passing of President Ford. In fact, I'm living a few doors away from a long-time family home of the former President.

Most of the basics have been accomplished such as basic kitchen set up and phone and internet access. My heavy coat arrived just in time -- we are due for some snow on Monday.

The rental house is great (so many rooms). The only bed was set up in the finished attic and I've bumped my head a few times, but the quilts are on the bed and it is starting to feel like home.