Yes, it has been a while.  As usual, that means there has been more than the usual chaos around here.  We happened on to a house for sale ad in August, which started a ball rolling that we hadn’t anticipated.  We found a different house just a couple miles away (same school district, next town over), made an offer on it, and have been maniacally (sp?  that looks weird but not getting a spelling error notice) sprucing up our house.  That means little art and quilting have happened.  Until this week.

In the midst of getting the house onto MLS, I started a new sample piece for my Intro to Machine Quilting Class which I’ll be teaching again on Sunday at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro.  I was prompted by two things:  this post over on Jenny Bowker’s blog and the fact that some students find free-motioning into the vastness of empty space –i.e. the 18 inch square quilt sandwich I have them bring– is intimidating.   I use this sampler as my basic teaching tool (it’s also patterned in my book–click on picture to see it larger):

Some students like to make it just as is, sewing the grid, then filling in the squares, since a small square is less intimidating that a large one!  Others feel too confined in the squares, so I tell them to just go for it on the sandwich without creating a grid framework.  I’ve also long counseled them to use a large print as a guide for learning.  You can put the print on the back of the quilt and use that as your design, or just in the borders but repeat the shapes and motifs in the center of the quilt.

If you haven’t yet visited Jenny Bowker’s blog, DO!  She is one of my all time favorite quilt artists.  Her work is always inspiring and amazing.  While you are there, be sure to click on the link to her website and view her quilts.   Jenny has combined the two methods I use into one piece…take a square of big-print fabric in the center of the sandwich.  Jenny has her students piece the top, I think, but I’ll try fusing instead…faster for a class room setting?  Then use various motifs from the print fabric plus fill patterns for the rest.  In looking at hers again, I think I need to make MORE of these little pieces; I also am thinking a bed quilt of assorted big print squares with wide, solid-fabric sashings quilted all over like this would be GORGEOUS!

So, I decided to adapt her idea by fusing an 8 inch square into the center of an 18 inch square of white.  I also received some spools of thread from Gilbreath Threads, fairly new to the quilt thread market I think–their stuff is available here.  They found my website, asked if I’d like to try their threads (the cottons are made at the same factory in Italy as the Aurifil cotton that is so luscious Correction!!!!  Gilbreath claims the cottons are as good as Aurifil…see my clarification posting dated October 11, 2010).  I said sure, and they sent me a variety.  In the next post, I’ll share more about them, but I think I am in LOVE with the 12-wt wool and the 12-wt silk.  I am re-thinking my aversion to bobbin work…these are too wonderful NOT to use!

I began by quilting on the print square, then spilling over onto the white.  Next, I continued with the variegated green (a Rainbows thread from Superior Threads), with relatively easy quilting (requires less precision than many designs) for the four different “waves” coming in from the sides.  I then decided to repeat the yellow color of the heavy wool used to outline the flowers, but using Gilbreath’s 40-wt. Poly.  The latter handles and looks much like Superior’s 40-wt poly threads, which are my favorites.

Once the colorful stitching was done, I decided to try the two cotton threads Gilbreath send:  a 40-wt ecru and a 50-wt white 2-ply.  I used the ecru to stitch a small leaf design in the center of the remaining open areas:

Finally, I used the fine white thread, which appears to be similar to Superior’s MasterPiece thread, for some background quilting.  I like to contrast curvy with linear in quilting, so I chose a checkerboard fill patter.  I got out my ruler (who me?) and drew a grid with wash-out blue pen (see above).  Then, because I am easily confused, I colored in the alternate squares so I wouldn’t go off-track, and stitched on top of the blue (yes, this is the picture from the top, repeated….):

Here’s the back:

You’ll notice some thread blobs…I left those on purpose since this is educational.  The point on this one is read the thread description FIRST.  I tried using the 12-wt silk and the 12-wt wool through a topstitch needle (both size 14,90 and 16/100), with limited success.  I then read that it is intended for use in the bobbin or by hand.  I simply cannot describe how heavenly that heavy silk is….. I can see doing handwork just so I can use it.  The sheen, the thickness….GLORIOUS.  I think I will take a very close up of that spool for the next post….drool!   Anyway, that’s for next time.  And you’ll see it with the blue washed out…mo bettah!

As if I didn’t have enough to do already, we are thinking of moving to a different house in the area–same school district, though.  So in addition to selling off mom’s household stuff, trying to keep up with my quilting career, raising two kids (one of whom is a teenager…’nuf said), eat, sleep, walk the dog, et cetera, we are getting the house spruced up.   The dear, departed Yeti-dogbeast (read about him here and here) left his marks on the house literally:  major scratches on the door from the garage to the house, so I needed to fix them.  Alas, there was so much to do that wood filler the color of the door wasn’t gonna do it, so I went to regular wood filler:

Yep.  That light stuff is ALL wood filler.  I didn’t get the molding done perfectly, but it is a whole heap better than it was.  Then primed:

And finally painted to match the interior walls…mo bettah!

So does this mean I have time to sew?  Alas, no…. life is happening in a major way, but at least the house is looking better!  And keep your fingers crossed that we find a buyer for our house SOON!

I am THRILLED to be able to share with you a snapshot of my article in the just-out Quilting Arts Gifts magazine!   Here’s “my” page / article:

And here is the cover of this year’s project-packed issue!

Since there are copyright issues, I won’t share more pics of the issue than that, but I can say you MUST check out Susan Brubaker Knapp’s mistletoe!  I think I shall make some for this  year!

A little background:  last year I was fortunate to win a second place ribbon at the IQA World of Beauty for my quilt of our  pug; the prizes in my category, Art Quilts-Miniature, were sponsored by none other than Quilting Arts!  So as a thank you for the sponsorship of the prize, I wanted to send publisher and editor John and Pokey Bolton a little something beyond the ordinary thank you note.  So I made them a frame (color coordinated with their pets hair colors {grin!}).  Pokey wrote to say thanks, and would I consider patterning it for the magazine?  YOU BET!

I have made two other frames using this technique of assembly, so I thought I’d share pictures with you to give you ideas for different “looks” if you decide to make one of these frames!

The first one I made as a holiday project, to go on the table or mantle over the fireplace/woodstove:

This shows the “photos” side of the accordion “book” with stencilled winter trees and stars.  The next photo is the reverse side of the “book.”  I traced each person’s hand, then reduced it to 75 percent on the copier to fit on each page, which is about 7 inches wide and 10 inches tall at the peak of the roof. I wanted to stick to the blue batiks, so I used an underlayer or “shadow” of white fabric to accentuate the shape of each hand.   I used freezer paper stencils to paint on the “paper snowflakes”:

And here are two close-ups:

The second was a gift for my friend Kate, and I blogged about it here:

There is a heart frame to hold pics of each of her children.  On the back, there are pockets to record their favorite clothes, teams, sports, books, songs, on a card.  Here is the back side:

As you can see, you can get a LOT of different looks…just go play! To order your copy of Quilting Arts Gifts, go here, or head to your nearest big box book store which will likely have it on the stands now!

The ruins and ball court as seen from the short trail from the visitors center.

At long last, this is the final of my Arizona posts.  There was so much to see on our family vacation after teaching there…LOTS of fodder for quilts, quilting designs and color inspiration.  My husband loves to research things on the internet, plan vacations, and do all that sort of thing.  (I’m more the sort that would plan about half of it, get the hotel reservations, then rely on serendipity about where to go and what to do.)  Well, while waiting for Paul and the boys to arrive in Flagstaff, *I* got on the internet to see what was there to see (yes, late in the game I know).  I read about the Wupatki ruins, which are in the middle of a fairly large, empty space northwest of Flagstaff. Fortunately, they were near Sunset Crater which Paul wanted to see, so we were able to add this stop, which ended up being one of the highlights of the trip for me.

The view of the ruins as you walk from the visitors center; to the right are a ball court and another outdoor facility probably for games and rituals.

The National Park Service summarizes it this way:

Less than 800 years ago, Wupatki Pueblo was the largest pueblo around. It flourished for a time as a meeting place of different cultures. Yet this was one of the warmest and driest places on the Colorado Plateau, offering little obvious food, water, or comfort. How and why did people live here? The builders of Wupatki and nearby pueblos have moved on, but their legacy remains.

and:

The people who built Wupatki and other pueblos here were ancestors of the Hopi, Zuni, and other puebloan peoples of today. Archeologists recognize different cultural traditions based on differences in pottery styles and architecture. According to these classifications, most of the monument’s sites are called Kayenta Ancestral Puebloan; others are Cohonina, and Sinagua. But these are modern terms.  We don’t know what people called themselves or how different groups related to each other.

The NPS website tells us that there was more water then than today, but it still sounds as though it was a challenging environment.  We were there in late April, and it was already hot and dry:

The landscape as seen from the back side of the ruins: wide open and arid.

It was absolutely fascinating to see there ruins…with only a little bit of modern reconstruction and re-inforcement.  Imagine….these buildings have been there fore EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS!  Europe was in the Dark Ages… Columbus hadn’t “discovered” the North American continent… WOW!

The boys wanted me to take a picture of the lizard:

Then more about the desert creatures:

On the path down there was a petroglyph, a carving of a snake in the red stone.

The buildings fascinated me, along with the shapes and patterns in the stone:

a closer view

Paul & Joshua on the near side...

Look at the quality of the stone cutting, wall construction, shapes... and then think about quilts and design...oooh!

In addition to the new table and drawer unit, I added one other small but wonderful detail:  a portable caddy for my tools!

Slugger the Sea Dog (local minor league team mascot) keeps watch over the tool bin

If you don’t “do” the drop-down flaps on your Perfect Caddy, there are options for a number of bins that you can attach to the outside of your caddy.  Now, I have been using a 99-cent white plastic cutlery caddy from the local drug store to hold things like my seam ripper, brush (for cleaning lint), ruler, skewer, etc.  You can see the corner of the caddy on the top left corner of the photo above.  I knock it off the table WAY too often, spilling the contents that then roll hither and yon, leading to much swearing on my part while crawling on the dusty floor looking for errant sharp things.  Ahem.

When I saw the Large Portable bin, I realized I had a solution, and one that looks really nice!  I called up The Perfect Caddy folks to add the bin, and yes, they could indeed sell me a second mounting strip:

To the right of where I sit at my new tables, I used some “L” brackets to secure this wood mounting strip to the edge of my table.  Notice those two “U” shaped things?  That’s  where these well-designed, secure pegs go; they stick out from the back of the portable bin (also with customizable inserts, just like the drawers) and fit snugly into the slots.  I can then MOVE the caddy depending on where I am sitting/which machine I use!   I can take the caddy over to the other machine (the one that I’ll buy next year), or set the caddy on my work table or by my spot on the sofa.  Perfect!

Well…almost perfect.  The Small Portable bin is too shallow to hold pencils, the large is so deep that they go down to be almost hidden.  I’m going to make inserts for some of the compartments for shorter items like the seam ripper so that they are above the surface, not down in the hole.  I’ve asked if they will make a “medium” bin which is a height between the two currently available.  They are thinking about it, but no plans.  Yet.  When they DO make a medium portable bin, I’ll buy one, re-assign the large one to paintbrush duty, and use the medium with the machine tools.  NICE!