Quilts-on-the-Bed

Quilts on the Bed

Elizabeth E.5 Comments

I started quilting my Valentine Quilt yesterday and it’s coming along.  Marking it with pencil makes life a whole lot easier.  But here’s two other quilts on the bed currently: the back of my patriotic quilt (the red and white toile), and a cousin to a quilt I made for Heather, a good friend.  It used Lakeside cherry prints and is lap sized.  I love the pillow, purchased on my first anniversary of being married to Dave, my heart-throb of a husband.

I didn’t find him first–but despite the presence of my ex-husband (who, by the way, is divorcing his fourth wife and is writing a book about relationships–just so you know), Dave raised my four children, giving me good support and encouragement.  When we were dating, there was always this realization that our marriage came out of loss, and that perhaps a future splintering might possibly occur.  When I saw this pillow (over 21 years ago), with its sentiment of Real Love Stories Never Have Endings, I had to buy it, because it described my love for Dave.

Okay, that’s the February/Valentine bed.  What’s on yours?

WIP

WIP–Valentine Quilt

Elizabeth E.5 Comments

Many thanks to Lee of Freshly Pieced Fabrics for hosting this Works In Progress posting frenzy, commonly known as WIP Wednesday.

So last week I was unpicking this quilt.  The thread was too skinny on top (although I like a thinner thread on the bottom–Bottom Line by Superior is my favorite), I was using PolyNeon on top.  I have sewn many quilts with this thread, but it just wasn’t cutting it for this Valentine Quilt.  I’d picked up a spool of tone-on-tone red that I had in my thread stash, and thought it might work because King Tut is a heavier thread.  I like that look.  [Wait.  What?  You don’t have a thread stash?]

I overlaid some of my trusty-dusty wax paper on the quilt, sketched an idea–liked it.  Now how to get that design onto this quilt.

So I cut out a punch of petals and pinned them on, and while listening to This American Life proceeded to stitch around this little shapes, impaling myself on the pins.  This wasn’t going to work.

I mean–it worked because I liked the design with the thread, but it wasn’t going to work being pricked to death.

I realized that all the petal shapes were merely overlapping circles, so I cut out a circle, did some research on marking pencils.  I went to my pencil stash (don’t tell me you don’t have one of those, too) and grabbed Quilter’s Choice in silver.  I also pulled out a soapstone marker, for the deep reds, but ended up using the silver most of the way through.  Apparently it will wash out.  Stay tuned.

I finished teaching today, and fairly skipped to the parking lot.  It is one of those days that makes people in Wisconsin want to move to California–warm with a slight breeze, but not overly hot.  A lean-your-arm-out-the-window-while-you-drive sort of day.  I teach Mondays and Wednesdays and one of my friends and colleagues coined the term WedFrinesday for what we feel.  We generally work all week long, but it begins Thursday morning with our stacks of grading, continues through the weekend, and ends on WedFrinesday, when we yes, skip to the parking lot.

So, working on the red and white is going to be on this sunny day’s agenda–listening to a new book on the computer (my mother and I listen in tandem, although she’s always faster) and stitching away.  I keep calling this the Valentine’s Quilt.  I think I’d better get to it!

UPDATE: I drew up some loose instructions and have it for you at its new home: Revisiting the Red & White Pinwheel.

What else is on my list?  Too many things!  I received some Malka Dubrawsky’s fabric that needs to be washed up, ironed and caressed.  I have a stack of things from my purchases at Road.  I still haven’t spent my son’s Christmas Gift of a Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate, and that certainly needs to be taken care of.  Quickly.

That same son gave me the gift of my own web address, so if you want to reach this more quickly, type in opquilt.com. It refer back to here.

Thanks, Peter!

Quilt Shows · Something to Think About

Road to California–In Perfect Harmony

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

I’d Like to Teach the World the Quilt in Perfect Harmony
Bert Garino, Florida

Before I get to the wonderful quilt above, made by a friend of mine, I’ve had some interesting responses on my posts about Road.  I hope I made it clear I was not denigrating any of the quilters who made the snazzle-dazzle quilts.  They’ve spent hours and hours on their creations and while I may moan about the proliferation of these types of quilts at this particular show, my observations should in no way imply that their quilts are deficient in any way.

Bert notes that: “Bling” was the keyword for winners at Houston this year too.  I find it interesting that so many of the prizewinning quilts show up at so many different shows.  It seems to be a business for the winners, and the rest of us lifelong quilters just go to see what they have come up with each year.  I’ve been a “quilt angel” in Houston the last few years, and so I got to hear a lot of comments from quilt viewers.    It seems that a lot of the quilts are more intimidating than inspirational to a lot of quilters.

Rachel says: I think your observations have really been spot on.  Perhaps the reason we are more inspired by the vendors is because they are making/selling the kinds of quilts we want to make.  I’ve noticed the trend toward show quilts.

Kris made the comment that: I agree that show quilting has gone to a whole different level, but I think that it is worth mentioning that the “bling” quilts you are showing were designed for the art or non-traditional innovative quilting categories.  They were specifically not made as traditional quilts and as such really can’t be compared to them.

Now back to this quilt.

Bert Garino, who served as President of the Mt. Vernon chapter of the Quilters Unlimited Guild in Virigina (a HUGE guild of 11 chapters) shortly after I left DC, made this quilt for the guild’s quilt show in February 2009, where the challenge was “All the World’s a Stage.”  She says that she “loved this little quilt so much, I thought more folks should see the message written on it,” and she enetered it into Houston where it was juried it as “Art – Whimisical.”

“The letters written across the earth were done with a permanent pen, and then I quilted around each of the letters.  The legs, arms and quilts were done with fabric pens.  Each of the little quilts was then quilted individually before being appliqued to their little person in the larger quilt.  On the sun I trapunto-ed the Chinese symbols for harmony and the doves flying in the sky are carrying various thread bits.    The quilt was made to bring a smile to people’s faces and to share in the joy of each quilt maker’s journey.”

Bert writes “It just smiled on the wall hanging amidst all these ‘thousands of work hour’ quilts, wondering how it got there.  I think we all need to just enjoy the art and hard work of all the quilters, and know that we all have our favorites that we would like to emulate.  For me, the favorite quilts that I’ve made have been given to soldiers returning from Iraq, families in shelters or given to new babies, family and loved ones.”

Thanks, Bert.  Sometimes we get all wrapped up in the business of quilting, that we forget its origins as a necessity, as well as a way for early quilters to express some of their creativity.  I love that Bert sent me these pictures and the last one with her radiant smile helps me to remember why I quilt.

Happy Quilting!

Quilt Shows

Road to California, 2102–part 4

Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Sorry about finishing up the last Road post so abruptly.  I was headed out to have lunch with my son (a monthly event that had gotten sidetracked by my surgery) and to visit Purl Soho’s location in Tustin, California.  It’s sort of a non-fabric, fabric store, meaning all the inventory is there, but it’s warehouse style.  The ladies there are cheerful and helpful and I visited with them as I looked around.  They have a whole room of fabric and a whole room of yarns–so beautiful.  My fat quarter in Friday’s post was from there.  I bought it as much for the Purl Soho ribbon as the colors.

I’d like to finish up Road in this post, so forgive if it’s photo-heavy.

Mabel-A 1952 REO, was pieced and quilted by Susan J. Cane and is a depiction of the first antique truck that she and her husband purchased.  The techniques in this quilt came from a workshop by Katie Pasquini Masopust and include edge-turned machine applique and textile paint.

A View from Above, by Sheila Frampton-Cooper of Van Nuys, California began as a small color study, but began to grow.

Terrific, with fabulous quilting.

I call these two quilts “tablecloth” quilts as they are basically old lacy linens laid over a backing fabric, then quilted.  They are both by Cindy Needham of Chico, California; this one’s titled The Nuns Quilt as the linen was handmade by nuns in the 1900s.  This was hand-quilted and beaded.

Infinity (below) has beads and pearls added (no sparkles!), as well as a doily added to the center for embellishment.

Detail of Infinity.

I turned off the flash on the camera so as to show the quilting and detail better, so it might be slightly blurry.

I was getting tired by this point, so many of these I have no names for.  This was an interesting black and white quilt in Ricky Tims’ curated exhibit, which also included a whole passel of fabulous brilliantly colored quilts.

This is from the faculty section and this quilt is Karen Eckmeier’s: Seeking Balance.  Quite of few of our little quilting group head to this show, and at this point, I was walking with Laurel–this was her favorite.  We got up very close to see how it was done.

All these little houses are raw edge applique, overlayed with tulle, then quilted, a technique that’s been on my radar for some time now, but have never tried.

FriendLilyBlossoming, by Cynthia Neville, Karen Fitzpatrick, Mary Kay Runyon of St. Louis Missouri, and was quilted by Cynthia Neville.  These group of friends got together to create this quilt, a stunning pictoral image of lillies.

This glorious crazy piece quilt made a lot of us stop in our tracks because the colors are so un-typical of that type of quilt: bright greens, pinks, purples instead of the browny reds, navies and gold of antique crazy pieced quilts.

The title is Crazy for Flowers, and is made by Allison Aller.  There was a grouping of interesting crazy quilts in an exhibit, much like the faculty exhibit and the Ricky Tims collective of quilts.  I saw more of these at this year’s show, including an incredibly mediocre collection from a shall-not-be-named quilt guild from another part of the country, which was Sponsored By a retail establishment which shall also not be identified.  From there, I draw the Award Winners for The Ugly Quilt, a tradition on this blog.

Ugly #1.  This poor little quilt has nothing going for it: not design, fabric, balance, nor technique.  The overly plump flower petals distort the backing, pulling it out of square.  I can forgive some of this because this was her first quilt.  You’ve all seen mine and if I were to exhibit it in a Road to California setting, I could surely have won the Ugly Quilt award.

But Ugly Quilt #2 surely has no excuse: a hideous use of fabric/textile/yarn/whatever along with an edging that makes you scratch your head and wonder what was going on in HER head?

And here comes my bit of sour grapes.  Ahem.

When I see valuable floor space given over to these “Sponsored By” exhibits, I begin to wonder what in heaven’s name was going on the organizers’ heads (?) to admit these quilts onto their exhibit floor.  I’ve talked it over with a few people and it probably all comes to down to two things: time and/or money.  Time–it takes time to look through all our applications, sift through them, write us back, but all of that has been streamlined by a process where we upload online, pay online, type in our own blurbs by ourselves.  Money–For each quilt submitted, there is a ten-dollar fee, so Road extracted thirty bucks right out of my pocket.  That’s the game if you want to enter, and I get that.  They also took 20 more dollars out of my pocket (two days of entry).  So all told I “donated” fifty bucks to them even before I bought anything (of which the vendors pay rental, and if I’m not mistaken, a percentage of their sales to the Quilting Establishment).  While we think of this as a Quilt Show, it’s really a Business.  Fair Enough.

But when my quilts don’t get in, or the quilts of my friend Leslie, or the supposedly hundreds of other quilts that applied and were rejected–and then I see Ugly #1 and Ugly #2 in a “Sponsored By” booth–I begin to realize that these quilts are in here because somebody sponsored the group they came from (think $$$) which allowed them to claim floor space at Road.  I see the same thing at Long Beach–a really sparse exhibit, filled in only by groupings Sponsored By someone or another, but theirs is not a juried show.

Some exhibits are fascinating.  Some are of a single quilt artist, like the “quilt” of a foreclosed house by Susan Else, and are worth having.  But I saw too many in this show that, while there were some standout quilts, the bulk of the exhibit was a waste of my time and my money.  Is this the direction quilt shows are going?  They have to stay alive, as does any business, but when the value given is not worth the cost of the part of the consumer, the balance shifts.

For me, the balance has shifted to the vendors and their booths.  That’s where I am getting my ideas for quilts.  That’s where the “heart” of the show is now–with bright sunny smiles like that of Eleanor Burns–who understands the balance needed to keep the customer happy.

And I have to say, that the allure of shopping at a quilt show–with its variety of booths and vendors and different types of fabrics, has diminished now with the availability of fabrics over the internet.  Indeed, two of my favorite vendors didn’t make an appearance this year, but no worries– I’ll go and look them up online to peruse their wares.  And while nothing can substitute for seeing the quilts in person (and the reason I will probably always go to this show year after year), I can get a lot of this online from Flickr sites, blogs, and from magazines.

One favorite is Susan Gower of Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods, who comes with her van all the way from the other side of the country. I have a couple of her button and bead bracelets.

A new one: Traditions at the White Swan, all the way from Maryland.

Jillily Studio, with her clever and fun watermelon quilt pattern and a new line of fabrics.

And while I didn’t get a photo of their booth, with their fabulous quilts and ideas, I always stop at Superior Threads to say hi to Bob and Heather and see what’s up with thread.  (In fact, look for a giveaway from them later this month!)

Well, rant over.  I want to continue to go to this quilt show without feeling like I’m being sold down the river, or taken advantage of.  Perhaps the Powers That Be need to understand what a lot of our local quilt shops have figured out: customer service, good value and attention to the local clientale.

I’m leaving you with a few more photos, then will intersperse more over the coming weeks as needed.  Hope you’ve enjoyed a trip to the quilt show!

A Time for Healing–The Wannabees 1,000 Crane Quilt was made by a group of quilters from San Mateo California, in response to the tragedy of the tsunami in Japan last March.  They had all their friends from all over make and sign cranes, and were able to raise money to send for relief efforts.  It is truly a work of love and skill, and carries such a powerful message.  I could never find a time when someone wasn’t standing in front, reading the names on the cranes.

Detail.  I focused on this because I was gimping around, just after surgery, hoping to regain my health, but the idea of healing and hope and the thousand cranes is a resonant message, bringing solace to many.

And I’ll close with another image of me with a friend, a perfect bookend to the opening shot of Leisa and I standing together at the beginning of the show.  For over a year now, I’d been following Cindy on her blog, Live a Colorful Life.  I had first contacted her because of her pin cushions made out of selvages, offering her up some of my selvages.  I sent off a little package, glad that someone was using some of my fabrics in some way, and a few weeks later, she sent me a little box, with a sweet and wonderful pin cushion inside.  Through comments and emails, we moved from a more casual conversation to that of “pen pals,” if you can do such a thing electronically.  She wrote saying she was coming to Road, and I was able to meet up with her and her husband for lunch, and then we walked the floor for a while before I left for the day.

For I think we quilters really do like the community of quilters–we read and comment on each others’ blogs, we take ideas from one another, we link up for Works In Progress, Scraps, or various other online “bees”–a modern adaptation of the more traditional potluck-tie-a-quilt gathering of pioneer days.

Keep On Stitching!