Sunday, June 28, 2015

QUILT? WORK?? THIS WEEK

I wasn't able to get much piecing done this week on my 'bright' quilt, as I needed to attend to quilt business.  I'm basically retired from the business side of quilting, but occasionally I get a request I feel a need to fill.  
A little back story -- we grew up in the 1950s in a small farming community in SE Colorado.  At the time it was a thriving community of 5000 people with lots going for it.  But, alas, over the years the economy has deteriorated to the point that it is sad for us to return and see how the town has gone down hill.  However, there are a dedicated bunch of inhabitants working hard to reverse the trend.  One of the things they are working on is to promote the arts.  They have taken an old building on Main Street, and with grant money have restored it to usefulness turning it into offices for start-up businesses, a meeting place, and an art gallery.  They asked me a year ago if I would consider mounting a one-woman quilt show for them.  I finally said yes as we received such a wonderful education and had such joyous growing-up years in that small town.  I hope my quilt show will help in some very small way. The date was set for the month of August 2015.  Over the years, I have curated and worked on many quilt shows.  I've always tried to elevate the quilts to an art form in the execution of the display.  This one is going to be a challenge, as they haven't had enough money to install a proper hanging apparatus.  They prefer that I don't put any nail holes in the walls either.  As you can see in the two photos below there are ledges to hold framed art work, but are not very conducive to hanging quilts especially large ones.
 I have some ideas -- hope they work!  More on that in a future post.  For this week, I've been working on layout thinking about sizes, colors, etc.  I made drawings to scale of the eight walls I will be hanging quilts on.  Then I did scale drawings with pictures of 39 quilts of mine that I intend to hang in the show.  This way I can move the little quilts around on paper to get a pleasing arrangement.  I seem to still have to drag out quilts to check colors with their neighbors.
My dining room is a mess, but things are looking up.  I'm about ready to make lists of boards and hanging rods we will need to supply.
I'm going to get back to my patchwork project, and let the quilt show ideas simmer in my brain for awhile.
When attending a quilt show, what do you enjoy besides looking at quilts?  Do you like info on the inspiration for the quilt?  How about statistics such as techniques, number of pieces, hours spent in making, etc.?  Do tell!!

I'm joining the following:
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday

Sunday, June 21, 2015

ON MY WALL - NEW QUILT IN PROGRESS

I made some progress on my new adventure into brighter colors this week.  See previous post for details.  I finished three rows and am starting on the fourth.
 I don't know about it -- the verdict is still out.  But, I will finish five rows, put a couple of borders on it, and see if it warrants hand quilting.
Maybe it will just end up in the box marked "quilt tops"!!!
I'll let you know next week.

I'm joining the following:
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Sew Can She for Show Off Saturday

Monday, June 15, 2015

OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE!

I'm going to start a new project today.  Actually, it is a take on an old project.  Back in 2005, I made this quilt for inclusion in my book, "Traditional Two Block Quilts" published by AQS.  Because of the time crunch for publication it was necessary to send this top out for machine quilting.  I've always regretted that even though it was expertly machine quilted by Judy Case.  I'm a hand quilter - to me one of the best parts of quilting.  So, I've always wanted to remake the quilt in different fabrics, and hand quilt it.

"Retro Rockets", 2005, 46"x 46" 
 I'm going to start on it today which necessitated a trip to the quilt store over the weekend.  I've always favored the reproduction fabrics, plus those with a more muted, grayed look.  Well, it's time to step into the 2015s, and try some of the brighter fabrics by designers such as Kaffe Fassett, etc.
This is what I came home with --- some fat quarters and a little yardage.  I'm going to use the blue for the background print to help ease my transition into the "bright life".

To give you an example how muted my quilt life has been -- I have 49 assorted plastic boxes of fabric scraps organized according to color.  And, only one small shoe box is marked BRIGHTS with all of the colors combined.
I'll be using these scraps to fill in with my new purchases.
I'm off to begin my new adventure "out of my comfort zone"!!

I'll be joining:
love, laugh, quilt
cooking up quilts

Saturday, June 6, 2015

AFTER TEN YEARS, IT'S FINISHED

This quilt was started in 2005, but then life happened -- our daughter had a very serious health issue.  A lot of my time was spent helping with the care of our grandchilren, who were four and nine at the time.  The quilt, "Merry-go-round", was pushed to the back of the priority list.  I decided at the first of 2015 that this was the year to finish it.
The top was rotary cut and fussy cut by hand, machine pieced, paper pieced using hand piecing techniques, hand appliqued, and hand quilted every half inch.

I loved every step of the way -- from fussy cutting the motifs to produce secondary designs down to the last hand-quilting stitch.
 The statistics:
The quilt is 67"x 67" square and has 40 whole blocks, 16 half blocks, and 4 quarter blocks.
100 sashing strips with 61 corner squares
Contains 1675 pieces
250+ different fabrics
Way over 1000 total hours spent over a period of ten years
Innumerable lessons of patience and perseverance
The most fun ever playing with fabric!!

Since I finished the quilt a couple of weeks ago, I have spent some time revamping this blog.  I have added tabs below the header to make it easy to find pictures, information, etc. about my quilting life. I have been quilting for 65 years, and it was time to get organized!
Hope you enjoy this revamped blog; and I would love to have you visit my lifestyle blog, Salmagundi (click here).

I will be joining Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Friday


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

CHANGES

THIS BLOG IS CURRENTLY UNDER RECONSTRUCTION.  CHECK BACK SOON FOR CHANGES.