29 August 2010
Knee Update
Just a quick post to let you all know that I am still here. Hubby had a total knee replacement last Friday so I've been away, sitting in waiting rooms and then the hospital room. When we can get back to a normal schedule, I will probably have LOADS of handwork to show off.
22 August 2010
I bought FABRIC!!
This happens to be the first fabric that I have purchased (in any sizable quantity) since fall 2009. Yes, you read that right. It has been almost a year of a fabric diet. I have been shopping the stash, doncha know. But yesterday, ah, yesterday. I went to The Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival on both Friday and Saturday.
Friday I test drove all the long and mid arm machines that I could. What fun! I know what I want and now need to start saving pennies and dollars. I also scoped out some booths for a re-visit. I did buy 1 yard each of these three Robert Kaufman fabrics:
Then on Saturday I bought this kit: Pieceful Garden by Mary Sorensen. Pretty cool, huh?
And then the icing on the cake was the discovery of this fabric: Prayer Flag by April Cornell on the Fat Quarter Shop's web site. I had a gift certificate (thanks Suzan!), added a bit of $$$ and was able to buy 6 yards of this luscious fabric.
I did my bit for the economy this week end. Now I need to get busy sewing.
Friday I test drove all the long and mid arm machines that I could. What fun! I know what I want and now need to start saving pennies and dollars. I also scoped out some booths for a re-visit. I did buy 1 yard each of these three Robert Kaufman fabrics:
And then the icing on the cake was the discovery of this fabric: Prayer Flag by April Cornell on the Fat Quarter Shop's web site. I had a gift certificate (thanks Suzan!), added a bit of $$$ and was able to buy 6 yards of this luscious fabric.
I did my bit for the economy this week end. Now I need to get busy sewing.
16 August 2010
12 August 2010
Filming The Quilt Show
Have you visited Tonya R at Lazy Gal Quilting? Her last two posts have been on her experience at the filming of The Quilt Show. She was filmed on Saturday and I, unfortunately, had to work both Sat and Sun.
Are you back yet? Good.
I was in the audience on Tuesday for the filming of AAQI with Ami Simms. When we walked onto the set they had part of the new Alzheimer's traveling exhibit on the walls. I sat in front of the names strips, one of which was quilted by Becky Goldsmith and the other by Diane Gaudynski. This is the first time I have ever seen Diane's quilting -- o my! Yes, she uses silk thread and quilts these tiny motifs. O my!
It was difficult to see the set because of all the cameras and people and booms around but we got to watch it on one of the monitors. We had been asked to bring a Priority Quilt to present to Ami and those who did not bring one were handed one that was donated on one of the other days. At one point we were asked to raise our quilts so the camera could catch them. More on this later.
During one of the breaks, Ricky Tims came out to the audience and asked if anyone had a story to tell of Alzheimer's and/or the Priority Quilt we had made and brought. I raised my hand. I told of the three people I know who have this disease and about one of them who went to the front office for a pencil and was found 45 minutes later wandering main street. I told of how none of these people have that spark of recognition in their eyes when they see me. And I cried. On camera. Yes, I was filmed. No makeup either. And I got everyone in the audience teared up too as they were passing the tissues around.
Afterward, Ami came up to me and gave me the biggest hug. She said that she liked my quilt and that when we lifted them up her eyes went right to mine. She also said it was too bad they already had the quilts for the traveling exhibit because this would have been one she would have put it. And according to her, I need to make more of this caliber!
There you have it. It was a very emotional experience.
Are you back yet? Good.
I was in the audience on Tuesday for the filming of AAQI with Ami Simms. When we walked onto the set they had part of the new Alzheimer's traveling exhibit on the walls. I sat in front of the names strips, one of which was quilted by Becky Goldsmith and the other by Diane Gaudynski. This is the first time I have ever seen Diane's quilting -- o my! Yes, she uses silk thread and quilts these tiny motifs. O my!
It was difficult to see the set because of all the cameras and people and booms around but we got to watch it on one of the monitors. We had been asked to bring a Priority Quilt to present to Ami and those who did not bring one were handed one that was donated on one of the other days. At one point we were asked to raise our quilts so the camera could catch them. More on this later.
During one of the breaks, Ricky Tims came out to the audience and asked if anyone had a story to tell of Alzheimer's and/or the Priority Quilt we had made and brought. I raised my hand. I told of the three people I know who have this disease and about one of them who went to the front office for a pencil and was found 45 minutes later wandering main street. I told of how none of these people have that spark of recognition in their eyes when they see me. And I cried. On camera. Yes, I was filmed. No makeup either. And I got everyone in the audience teared up too as they were passing the tissues around.
Afterward, Ami came up to me and gave me the biggest hug. She said that she liked my quilt and that when we lifted them up her eyes went right to mine. She also said it was too bad they already had the quilts for the traveling exhibit because this would have been one she would have put it. And according to her, I need to make more of this caliber!
There you have it. It was a very emotional experience.
10 August 2010
Alzheimer's Priority Quilt
Tick tock, tick tock. I work well with a deadline. Did you know that? It has always been so with me. This deadline was given to me on July 10: I needed to take an Alzheimer's Priority Quilt with me to the filming of The Quilt Show on August 10. Four weeks, that's all the time I had, and one of those weeks was for registration. Gulp.
What to do? I wanted to reflect the chaos an Alzheimer's patient must feel, but how to do so? Over breakfast on Monday July 12, the design started to coalesce. Sometimes I don't have to draw a design to have it work, but most of the time it is a good thing to do so the bugs can be worked out.
The first thing I did was to find the Dover book of copyright free silhouettes in my library. After thumbing through the whole book, I found one buried amid all the others on a page.
The silhouette was sized in Adobe Photoshop and then printed, transferred to a paper backed fusible web (yes I thought about printing directly to the web, but I have a very temperamental printer), fused and cut from some black/gray fabric.
For the background, I used commercially printed 100% cotton fabric that resembles the marbled end pages in an old book. The fabric was just too bright and rich for the look I wanted so I used the reverse side.
I needed to construct a new 'silk' screen so I purchased some wooden canvas stretchers and a bit of polyester chiffon from a local craft store. Here the frame is build and the chiffon is stapled on; the next step involves a lot of duct tape (wonderful stuff) and scrubbing with cleanser.
Et voila! The screen is ready for use.
I love words and letters on a quilt and this one is no exception. I found that I still had the dexterity to wield an Xacto knife with the skill needed to cut the stencil. When cutting a paper stencil for screening you need to think through what to leave and what to remove. Do you see the bars I left? I removed those once I had the stencil in place and ready to use. Love the font, it was perfect for this application.
I pulled two screens onto paper and then did the screening on fabric. Ah, success! Once the fabric paint dried it was heat set with the iron and the silhouette fused on in the same session. The silhouette was stitched down using an ekg-style free motion stitch. Then the quilt was sandwiched and ready to quilt.
Finished!
What to do? I wanted to reflect the chaos an Alzheimer's patient must feel, but how to do so? Over breakfast on Monday July 12, the design started to coalesce. Sometimes I don't have to draw a design to have it work, but most of the time it is a good thing to do so the bugs can be worked out.
The first thing I did was to find the Dover book of copyright free silhouettes in my library. After thumbing through the whole book, I found one buried amid all the others on a page.
The silhouette was sized in Adobe Photoshop and then printed, transferred to a paper backed fusible web (yes I thought about printing directly to the web, but I have a very temperamental printer), fused and cut from some black/gray fabric.
For the background, I used commercially printed 100% cotton fabric that resembles the marbled end pages in an old book. The fabric was just too bright and rich for the look I wanted so I used the reverse side.
I needed to construct a new 'silk' screen so I purchased some wooden canvas stretchers and a bit of polyester chiffon from a local craft store. Here the frame is build and the chiffon is stapled on; the next step involves a lot of duct tape (wonderful stuff) and scrubbing with cleanser.
Et voila! The screen is ready for use.
I love words and letters on a quilt and this one is no exception. I found that I still had the dexterity to wield an Xacto knife with the skill needed to cut the stencil. When cutting a paper stencil for screening you need to think through what to leave and what to remove. Do you see the bars I left? I removed those once I had the stencil in place and ready to use. Love the font, it was perfect for this application.
I pulled two screens onto paper and then did the screening on fabric. Ah, success! Once the fabric paint dried it was heat set with the iron and the silhouette fused on in the same session. The silhouette was stitched down using an ekg-style free motion stitch. Then the quilt was sandwiched and ready to quilt.
Finished!
05 August 2010
A Quick Giveaway
Do you want the pattern for the 27x35" quilt in the previous post? Be the first to comment on this post and I'll send it to you.
WE HAVE A WINNER: FINN who responded via Facebook.
WE HAVE A WINNER: FINN who responded via Facebook.
03 August 2010
Slice of Summer
This Thimbleberry kit was a door prize that I won at my guild's retreat two years ago. Figuring that it had aged long enough, I put it together at retreat this year. It hung on my design wall during the Quilt of Valor quilts marathon and then it was time to finish this one.
I added hand painted 'seeds' which just seems to complete the quilt. Because I wanted this to be totally washable since this is a table topper, everything is done by machine except the seeds.
The backing is a soft homespun that washes up beautifully.And here for your enjoyment, is my first attempt at quilting feathers. BTW, I do not have a stitch regulator on my machine.
It is just too cute! On another note, did you know that today is National Watermelon Day? I didn't either but learned about it over at Wednesday's Child.
02 August 2010
Recent Knitting
Bet you thought I forgot all about you. Well I didn't.The end of July and all of August are very busy times for Casa del Quilter et al. I've been sewing, but have nothing to show yet. I've been working on a process post for you. What I DO have to show are some socks and a shawlette. I've been stashbusting yarn, can you tell?
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