A brief detour from the Arizona trip…..

I’ve been a  part of Postmark’d Art’s last two swaps.  This time, I used one of the exercises from my Lino-Cutting class (blogged about in January and February).   I rooted through about (no kidding) 20 years of old photos to find this one of a farm in southern England, which I snapped in about 1984.   It was funny, I thought I used to be a good photographer, taking good and artsy shots.  Hmmm.  Not so much.  Some were good, but most were….ummm…boring!   It appears I have trained my eye for composition somewhat in the intervening decades!   Anyway, this one was good, so I used it to cut a lino-block.

Here are the assorted prints drying on the floor:

Some blurred a bit, and will be cut up, tossed, or printed over.  Others turned out great!  I used three fabrics:  a pale baby blue fossil fern (the one that looks grayish), a commercial sky print (the bright one), and a blue fabric I painted and fiddled with (and used some for the mermaid I blogged about recently).  There are also two guardian Owls for a friend whose husband passed away recently.  Owl’s are a favorite of hers (I carved the block during the class with her in mind!), and decided that she and Lou needed a guardian Angel Owl.

One difficulty I have had with the class, is that the teacher–Dijanne–is from Europe and Australia, and not so familiar with US brands.  The Speedball water-based printing ink that I find makes the best prints is, shriek!, not wash-fast!!!!!   So I have begun doing some testing.  Here I took prints (heat set with the iron and not) of a sun, then treated each with various things like soft gel medium, a varnish for textiles, GAC 900 (a compound for using paints on textiles), and nothing. I also want to run another test where I treat the fabric FIRST, then apply the Speedball ink.   I don’t like how on a couple of these the color of the fabric changes so much (not to mention how stiff it got)!  I also have tried using Krylon Spray Fixative, an archivally safe spray fixative; it is often used on top of pastels so they don’t smudge.   Anyway…here’s a picture of the test, in progress.  I next need to soak these and see what happens.  Stay tuned!!

And here’s a shot of all the postcards in the swap:

At long, LONG last, I am able to share the fun time I had teaching for the Arizona Quilt Guild in mid-April.   As a matter of fact, the day I took these photos was the day my old laptop gave its last blink and died!   I have to tell you it was SO MUCH FUN!

To back up a couple days, I flew in to Phoenix, and taught in the greater Phoenix area the first day, my Fine Finishes class.  Alas, I was SO busy, that I utterly forgot to take photos.  My host was also the program Chair, Tari H., who signed up for all three of my classes, which were scattered about the state. So, she ended up also being my driver!  We loaded up the back of her car with her machine, suitcase, and stuff (for all the classes) and then all of MY suitcases and stuff!   The second day of teaching was sponsored by the guild(s) (both with Copper in their names) in San Manuel, a former small copper-mining-town which is roughly in a line between Phoenix and Tucson to the southeast.

I have to tell you walking into the church hall felt like going home….. the folding tables, the happy ladies, the hum of sewing machines, potluck (YUM) for lunch….   it was such a wonderful day!    One of the best things about quilters is that they are friendly and welcoming, and it really did feel  like going home.

The class in San Manuel was my Applique three (and a half) ways class:  Turned edge (over freezer paper or water soluble paper), Turned edge over interfacing (left in), fusible, and (the half part) reverse applique for those three techniques.   I use a Gingko leaf because it has every shape you will encounter:   inside and outside curves, inside and outside points, and a straight line.  I’ll admit that skinny stem is challenging as are the skinny inside points, but I figure if students to something hard in class, they’ll be more likely to tackle it at home.  If we only do easy stuff, they might not!   Anyway, we had a GREAT assortment of fabrics and looks.

As you browse through the photos (sorry about the odd placement…there is only so much I can manage in the format!), notice the thread choices, how the stitch and thread selection change the appearance of the threads.  In the black Indonesian batik, the gold thread just sings!  In the last photo, notice how different the leaf looks on the stitched side compared to the not-yet-sewn side!  In the photo at the top of this blogpost, compare the look of the different appliques.   Trying out different techniques an threads and stitches will help you decide which combination gives you the look YOU want!   And also notice in a few shots how the students have tested out stitches on scraps.  Don’t imagine what the thread and stitch would look like–try it out!

That evening we had a looooonnnnggggg drive (poor Tari!   drive 90 minutes to San Manuel in the morning, all day class, then about 5 hours back past Phoenix and up to Flagstaff for Friday’s class and Saturday’s lecture at the semi-annual guild meeting).  However, we did drive through quintessential southern Arizona territory and what was effectively a sajuaro cactus forest.  Because it was late, we were both tired, and had a long trip, I didn’t ask Tari to stop so I could snap pics, so this will have to do:

MANY thanks to the ladies of San Manuel for such a great day, and especially to Tari for being such a trooper and shuttling me across the state from south to north!  Coming soon:  Fussy threads and Flagstaff!

This year my local quilt chapter, the Coastal Quilters (part of the state guild, the Pine Tree Quilt Guild) decided to change our annual challenge (now in its third year) from 10×10 inches to 12 inches wide by 9 inches tall.  The reason?  So that after the challenge participants can, if they wish, donate their quilt to Ami Simm’s Alzheimer fundraiser.  The donations are auctioned and the proceeds go to benefit Alzheimer’s research.

In past years we were challenged to interpret a photo (Here–scroll about halfway down to see the ropes and buoys quilts and here for my buoys quiltlet) or use a little bit of EVERYthing in a grab bag (Here and here).  This year, we each received a fat quarter of a black and white print:

Obviously, this is AFTER I got to it with the fabric paint and scissors….ahem.

Once the challenge debuts at Maine Quilts (in Augusta, Maine, last weekend in July), I’ll share the others’ pieces, but for now you can see how I painted the fabric (above) and  used it.  My quilt consists of white fabric (painted blues), the challenge fabric (painted blues, green, and blond-brown hair colors), beads and sequins (mermaid’s tail) and yarn (couched to the top to “frame” the piece).  Actually, this piece shows her swimming UP; when our guild president held up the quilts, she held the mermaid with her swimming down (second photo) and I think I actually prefer that way!  What do you think?

And swimming down:

And a close-up of the tail:

It was fun to do.  Although Mama doesn’t have Alzheimer’s (that we know of ), she does have deepening dementia.  She can’t remember how to work the remote for the TV, and sometimes when she can figure out the phone she’ll call and say “Sarah, this is your sister.”  I think I shall donate my mermaid to Ami’s fundraiser…I’ll let you know more when I get it sent off and donated.

You know summer is here (at least in spirit, and some years in the weather….other years not….) when Memorial Day weekend arrives.  Hubby’s birthday is late May, and we start the season with a Sea Dogs game.  The Portland Sea Dogs are the minor league team associated with the Boston Red Sox (Go Red Sox Nation!).  Now I’m not really much of a baseball fan, but I do love going to the Sea Dogs games.  This is baseball the way it OUGHT to be…. where you can actually see the players’ faces without binoculars (or taking out a second mortgage to buy tickets).  Our usual seats are $7 each (ayuh…about as much as the movies!), and this time we had a treat and got “box” seats, a whopping $9 each…second row on the first base line, directly behind home plate.   The team obliged by hitting MANY (eight!) runs, including a homer (the arrow points to the lighthouse that pops up and honks when a Sea Dogs player hits a home run) that brought in three runs:

I don’t know that I’ll ever do a baseball quilt, but I always take “reference” photos anyway… I may just use these for practicing drawing the human figure:

It was warmer than predicted, so we had a lovely low 70s, sunny Sunday afternoon.  Here is the happy couple (the row in front of us had four generations in one family including a delightful-cookie-smeared toddler, who arrived and departed at various points in the game…this was late, when they’d all called it a day):

And of course, I am always on the lookout for interesting patterns, repetition and whatnot:

Hubby’s b-day is about this time of year, too, so I made the pilgrimage to Market Basket to order his favorite:  a cheesecake!  I’ve made them, but they are a ton or work and cost almost as much to make (and my results are not as predictable as ordering), so here is the birthday boy’s treat:

As you might gather by my absence (provided anyone noticed it… I know jq did…but anyone else out there as insanely busy as I am?), I have been busy.   Sufficiently busy that the blog has been sadly neglected!  Among other things, this is what I have been doing:

Yes, that is 1172 new photocopies, added to about 300-400 leftover photocopies, all handouts for my classes in June and July, plus my “teacher’s binders.”  Many pieces of paper, many pounds, many dollars–and about 14 inches across from handle to handle!   I’ll be teaching at the National Quilt Association show in Columbus, Ohio (next week) and then at the AQS show in Knoxville, Tennessee (mid-July).  Enrollment in the latter is low…the economic recovery must not have taken hold as firmly down South as in other parts of the country…so DO come and sign up!

I’ve been busy with family stuff…yesterday was SO much fun!   It was the end of 6th Grade Spirit Week (also known as what to do with the kids the last week of school so everyone stays mostly sane), and the “Dance Through the Decades” program.  The brainchild of Mr. Morse, possibly one of the best social studies and 6th grade teachers EVER, and a colleague whose name alas I don’t recall (she was a substitute teacher 6 years ago when he came up with this one, and volunteered to help, and she has every year bless her!), the kids dress up, learn dances, and put on a show…all in a week.  It was a GAS!  This photo is the 50s, with my younger son in the front row, far left.  Way cool!

I have also, miracle of miracles, been able to do some quilting, after returning from teaching.  Here  is what my design wall looked like earlier this week…colorful!   Busy!  I’ll blog about these plus the fun time I had teaching in Arizona and later Massachusetts in April and early May.  I got seriously slowed down blogging because while in Arizona, my laptop DIED–utterly deceased–two days before the slide show lecture.  We limped through and did fine, but my what stress!  Then when I got home I had to restore everything (thank heavens I had good back-ups and Macs are easy!), then get back in the swing.  Anyway….here’s the wall…stay tuned for more!