7.26.17

 More dress forms!

I loved this one. It seemed sort of Edwardian.












Then there was this one! It sold every scrap of the lace I used when I pinned it together. The last bride bought it right off the dress form, including some unusual gathered lace I used to build the bodice. That is such a gratifying thing.

How about something from SISTERS?

Not many quilts with traditional colors, let alone 9-patch
cornerstones

This is Marsha Savage's Home and Heart. She did machine embroidery to make these blocks! 

I was so surprised when I found it this wasn't one of those
hand embroidered journeys.

7.25.17

TEA TIME TUESDAY

After my meal at MOLOKO, I walked around in the Alberta district, then ended up in my favorite tea shop, Townshend's.

BUBBLE TEA!!!

7.24.17

MONDAY MANTRA

Trying to get one of my nieces to adopt this mantra:

"I am a strong, capable woman. I am loving and caring and worthy of love and respect."

I am also trying to get myself to use it. I am venturing out, being bold and solo. I went into a bar by myself for the first time since I was 14.  Yes, well, that's another story for another day but let me just say that episode did not involve alcohol or inappropriate adults.

Anyway, I found myself walking around in the metro area (in the Alberta district), and I was drawn to MOLOKO because of the giant saltwater tanks. And the air conditioning.  

Had my first mojito and a charming dinner of cold salmon, with an onion caper relish, black and green olives, and delightful chevre cheese. 

I am not sure what delighted me most; my first mojito, being alone and ordering a drink and a meal, eating at the bar next to the calming, graceful fish. I expect I will do it again.

7.22.17

Another beautiful 3-D quilt from Sisters. GOING FOR WATER is made by Kathy Chism.  I'm not usually a fan of Bargello style quilts, but I love the way the sun and the heat seem to press down on the women.

It was inspired by Yaa Gassing's book Homegoing.

Detail of Chism's qult shows 3-D skirts and baby!
look at the bricks and mortar. Painstaking.

7.21.17

More dress forms. I love to dress them!!!

 

I call this one Zelda. She is circa 1890 something, probably original to the store. She has a square of bathing suit fabric tied on in that old way we used to do in the 1980s.

We have a number of fluorescent laces and this drape is one of them.

This is embroidered black netting over gold charmeuse. It is just pinned on but I think it looks pretty good.

This is a fairy. Can't ever have enough fairies!











Something whimsical from the Sisters Quilt Show:

SELF PORTRAIT by Denise Applegate-Schober

Close up, so you can enjoy some of the 3-D aspects!

17.20.17

When I signed the mortgage and bought the place I have been living in from my middle brother, I gave him this turtle wall hanging I have been working on for two years. It's about 20" X 20", give or take. It is the first one I have done that has been finished with facings. It was a lot of fun to experiment with the Kantha style/ primitive Sashiko style of quilting.

Even though the hand applique' went pretty quickly, I hand quilted through 2-4 layers of batik fabric, with garment fleece in between the layers. This is tremendously labor intensive and I could only work on it a few hours every few days.

Hanging sleeve shows pleat

Some of the last stitching included adding small snail shells, beads, turquoise (to honor his bride) and some small twig beads we bought when he comforted me on a particularly difficult day.

The only machine work on it is the application of the facings and the seaming and hemming of the hanging sleeve.

Here's another something special from Sisters. This quilt, made by Diane Ottenfeld, was inspired by the book Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, particularly the Akan proverb on the first page.

"The family is like a forest; if you are outside it is dense.
If you are inside; you see that each tree has its own position."

Exciting raw-edge choice for the fronds in this quilt by Diane Ottenfeld

7.19.17

I'm back to playing with my elephant applique'. 

Applying the ear

I started with some colorful pachyderms on gray fabrics, but ran off on another tangent and did this brown paisley on batik. 

Better, but back to the PENDING box

It totally got lost, so I embroidered around it. The elephant's ear is made of the very first piece of batik fabric I ever bought, making it about 25 years in my stash. 

I'm not sure what's next for this guy.

Die Beem (Trees), by Lindsey Neill. It is 47" X 64"

Neill says this quilt, "combines two favorite sewing techniques (drunkard's path and bias tape applique')" She attributes her Pennsylvania Dutch heritage and love for Dutch design for her inspiration.

7.18.17

TEA TIME TUESDAY

Guess whose quilt?

 Yes, Sue Spargo

7.17.17

MONDAY MANTRA

I will try to play, every day.


Ungrammatical Thought for the Day:

There is always time for the things that are important enough to make time for.

Something from Sue Spargo to inspire you to play a little every day.

7.15.17

Another featured artist at Sisters was Tula Pink

Made from Tula Pink's SLOW AND STEADY fabric line
featuring the tortoise and the hare

One from our group carried around a special piece of Tula fabric, found the woman, and got her to autograph it! 

Close up shows what I believe is probably the Eleanor Burns method
applique', with machine quilting to anchor the down the hearts.

I have bought one or two of Tula Pink's pieces when they have fit into my elephant applique'. 

You can find a lot of them at BLESS MY STITCHES in Murphy, NC. 

7.14.17

More from Sisters.

Sorry, no close-ups on these!

The tour buses loaded at 5:45 a.m., and everyone was ready to go. It was about a three hour drive, with a stop at a rest stop half-way through. 

The town's elevation is 3,182, but the high dessert means NO MOISTURE.
It was hot. Still, at 99 degrees, we could look up and see snow.

Our group added 164 men and women to the 10,000 visitors who were willing to walk around under the unrelenting sun on the high dessert.

One of the larger Spargo quilts

Another teeny Spargo, with lots
of room for trying out stitches

I had a hard time getting close to this Sue Spargo. There was always
a crowd. I visited it twice and got a few close-ups

Wish I'd gotten the entire gator, but at least I got the elephants

Check out those bullion stitches on the bee!

7.13.17

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, 2017

This was the 42nd annual show, which is always held the second Saturday in July. The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show is the largest outdoor quilt show in the world. There were over 1,300 quilts adorning every fence, railing and building.

There were more than 10,000 visitors there that day, and wouldn't you know, I ran into a woman from SC and we determined that we had been on the same Shop Hop and visited Country Stitches in Blue Ridge on the same day.


HEY APPLIQUE' BEE!!!!!

One of the featured artists at the Sisters Quilt Show was  Sue Spargo.

YUP, saw it up close and personal. See the clothespins
at the top? This is a very small quilt.

As soon as our bus pulled up, I knew I was headed to the block of stores featuring one of my favorite wool applique' artists.

Spargo quilt with MACHINE QUILTING! Who'd'a thunk?

I was surprised at how small Spargo's quilts are. It inspired me to pursue some of the little applique' exercise projects I have piled up.  

Spargo's stitching reminds me of stumpwork.
I'll find my book and share the title later.

Her butterflies, birds, and leaves are marvelous to look at up close because you can see how playful she got in her experimentation with different stitching embellishments. 

Another tiny Spargo quilt

I will share some photos here, because I got to see them in REAL LIFE, but the photos you can find on the internet and in her books are professional and show the colors better. Most of the pictures I took were over-bright and some I could fix a little in editing, but sadly, my photos don't do her quilts justice.

Sue Spargo made this and I got to see it in REAL LIFE

Sue Spargo shows us how to play

Sue Spargo combines wools, cottons, rayon ric-rac,
beads, thread, and found embellishments.

7.12.17

Look carefully, and you will see me and my portable coffee drink (still trying to be one of the cool kids) taking this picture! GO DAWGS! Even in Oregon. This is not my car. I have not, nor will I ever own a Lexus. (See below about mortgages.)

Yes, it has been a long time since I spent the day writing and editing for the blog. 

A lot has happened. I sold my Georgia home with the help of QuiltyFriend and countless others who helped behind the scenes far back beyond October, when the whole adventure started. 

Then my mortgage company for my Georgia home sold my mortgage the day before the money from the sale processed, so my paperwork and phone call time doubled. Then there were the hoops to jump through for the current purchase. Well, it's all done now and I THINK yesterday was the last day I have to spend all day on the phone or scanning and emailing things to this person or that person. I can't believe how many times I've been asked if I have a FAX MACHINE. 

I feel FREE. 

Except debt. 

During all that mess, I took a day off from and signed up for the bus ride to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, and I have some pictures to share! I hope to publish some of those over the next few days.