that I began my quilty life as a traditional (well, sort of) quilter.  My very first quilt…the one I began first…was a Mariner’s Compass (!!!!).  However, it was too hot in Central Africa, even sitting by the air conditioner, to sit under the quilt for more than 30 minutes so I gave up trying to quilt it by hand until we got back to the Washington, DC, area.   Pretty soon I started playing with colors, quilting designs and themes, though.  Maybe ten years later, I fell in love with Judy Robertson’s hand-dyed fabrics; I spent a small fortune buying two multi-light yards and two multi-colored dark yards and made this quilt, From Sea to Shining Sea:

The colors reminded me of the words from America, the Beautiful, so they song is machine quilted into the quilt, with an American eagle (from the US quarter dollar coin) and a sorta-traditional vine.  I tried…but just couldn’t get a truly traditional feathered vine to look  right on this quilt!  Detail:

That purchase of hand-dyeds started me on learning how to hand-dye myself.  Then I started selling my hand-dyeds.  I wanted to show folks that they could combine hand-dyeds and lookalikes with print fabrics and make fun, contemporary quilts based on traditional blocks.  This quilt is, I think, North Winds, and came from the Quilts from the Quiltmaker’s Gift book (link here) or More Quilts from the Quiltmaker’s Gift (link here…forget which one).   They are both lovely books, with great illustrations to show how the quilts will look in different colorways.

Anyway, this quilt has an official title, but to me it is the Anti-January quilt.  I lived in the Pacific Northwest of the US at the time, where it is gray and dreary from late November until at least February.  I found myself yearning for bright cheery fabrics every January, and made this one at that time of year.  I set the colors to look like the blazing sun surrounded by the green islands and tropical blue waters…..:

and a detail…quilted with tropical seas, palm trees with coconuts, waving beach grass, tropical fish, seagulls……..

Then as a quickie quilt to help sell MY hand-dyed fabric (which I no longer do really), I grabbed some purple (four fat quarters I think) and a very girlie yellow-purple print on my shelf and made this quilt using the Road to Oklahoma block:

Since it is hard to find the block, I did up this photo.  There are nine blocks of 12 inches each in the center of the quilt, which is about 42 x 42 inches (about a metre square).

Hope you enjoyed this trip into medium-ancient quilt history!

As you might have guessed by the lapse in posts, I was busy/away.  Last weekend was fun… on Thursday evening I gave my Decorated Quilt lecture for the Merrimack Quilt Guild of Plaistow, NH (about a stone’s throw from the Mass. border, literally!) and on Saturday taught Fabric Postcards,

which is really a play-day with an introduction to a bunch of art quilt techniques.  Instead of having to buy a zillion things and stuff, I HAUL a zillion things and stuff and folks can try fusing to collage their postcards, Angelina, fabric stamping (I demo stamp carving, so they can see how easy it is, but too sharp tools, too many distractions to do that in the class with so much else going on), fabric rubbings, using found objects as stamps, resists and rubbing plates,  freezer paper stencils, assorted paint techniques, and finally couching yarn as an edge finish. (PS… given the costs of shipping, this class is now available only within a 2-day drive of home…..)

Because it was just a wee bit too far to drive home on Thursday getting home at 2 in the morning on Friday, then get up at 4 in the morning to drive back down on Saturday , my gracious host Cathy Harnish invited me to stay with her, and on Friday—oh joy of joys–we went to Ikea!  I’ve been to this one about three years ago (for a one hour zip through en route to somewhere), and the one in Seattle maybe 8 years ago?   The first time I drove through Boston after we moved to Maine, I just about flipped out…this bridge had NOT been there when I was in grad school in 1981-3!  Since I was a passenger this time, I got to snap pics.  It is supposed to echo the shape of the nearby Bunker Hill monument (an obelisk) and the sailing ships of the days of yore.  It is GORGEOUS…there is a great abstract quilt in this bridge’s lines:

I did pretty well, buying not much–a bamboo placemat for rubbings in the class (which I forgot to unpack and USE in this class…next workshop!), a small lamp for the hall at home, and some shadow boxes in my quest for more ways to display and sell small quilts.  BUT, I saw this… I WANT THIS KITCHEN.  I WANT LIME GREEN COUNTERS!

On Friday night, Cathy invited over a table full of guild members, with her dear hubby braving the table of women.  We had show and tell after, too.  While I was there, Cathy shared this commissioned quilt she did for someone made of ties and shirts.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this border, and think it may be one of the most effective I have seen anywhere–it may have been dictated by the size of the embroideries on the shirts and the leftover scraps, but it is brilliant:

On Saturday, we had a quick set-up time, and then got going.  The morning on this class is learning to use fusibles, especially my favorite  MistyFuse (light hand, easy to use, never any “issues”).   The class was great, and enjoyed the “art smorgasbord” in the afternoon when I set out all the goodies to enjoy.  Everyone always enjoys something different… there are a few things I don’t use hardly ever, but every time I think of eliminating them from the class, there is someone who finds it to be “THEIR” thing, so I keep the materials and techniques included.

I’m afraid I didn’t get names for the makers of all these cards, but thought I’d share them with you… great variety!  Clearly the upcoming Valentine’s Day was on a couple of minds….

Thanks to all who attended the lecture and came to class… it was, as always, a gas!

Yes, I’ve been AWOL (Absent WithOut Leave) again…..  I plead the holidays, kids, exhaustion, and needed to re-charge.  So what does one do?  Quilt of course!  I spotted the panels for this quilt on eQuilter a while back and loved the motifs so much I ordered up a set.   Then in late October I saw a quilt in the Maine-ly Sewing booth at a small regional show made with them and decided that’s what I needed to do…make a colorful lap quilt (like we need another for the sofa…NOT! …but when does that stop a diehard quilter?).

So I bought a bit of fabric from Maine-ly Sewing.  Then I saw more of the line at Alewives Fabric, and bought MORE.  Ahem.  I had some serious “Visa Accidents” this past 45 days….. books and fabric!  (like I need more books and fabric…NOT! …but when does that stop a diehard quilter?)  So just before Christmas, to prevent implosion and breakdown, I started!   Thinking to make a quilt similar to one I saw at Alewives, I cut MANY 2 inch squares, thinking I’d make two rows of checkerboard sashing between the blocks.  It turns out the blocks are a weird size, so I edged them in the perfect hand-dyed rusty orange I had, but decided they also needed a SECOND fiddly, skinny outline in black.

The checkerboard:

UGH.  It was even worse the more I added……

So I looked at what fabric I had, and said “green it is!”

I went out and bought minkee (a lovely creamy yellow) for the back.  THen discovered I had only one quilt batt anywhere near big enough, and that one I needed to save for something else.  So I decided to quilt without a batting…just the top and the minkee.  To compensate for the slipperyness of the minkee, I spray basted a bit heavier than usual.  Mistake.  Even though I used a combination of threads that has been flawless in the past, I had snarls and fits everywhere with the black thread quilting.  I tried every trick in the book.  I changed needles, I changed tension (top and bottom), I changed the placement of the thread.  I still got the occasional thread clots.  I gave up and just kept quilting.  This is clearly NOT going to be a show quilt!   But it will be snuggly despite the appearance of some not-so-nice moments on the back.  Of course, I haven’t taken a picture of the finished quilt, so that’ll come later…

Happy New Year Everyone!   May the good stuff from last year continue, may the icky stuff go away…as simple as that!

Someone on the QuiltArt list asked what our “word for the year 2010” would be.  I’ve not really done that before—I tend to be NOT introspective and don’t make specific long-term goals, and quit making resolutions years ago.   [I resolved that I would no longer make New Year’s Resolutions, but instead would make them when they needed making!  I’ve done that, and it is the first New Year’s resolution I’ve managed to keep for years!]

Anyway, after thinking, de-clutter, de-stress, and a few other similar concepts, I came up with

Simplify.

I need to simplify what I do, how I do it, and reserve more time to make art and allow myself to re-charge.  Since I got back from Houston in late October, I’ve been playing a catch up game, feeling that I’m in a fallow period for art.   I need time to restore myself, so I’ve been reading novels, spending time with family, and generally trying to not kill myself with work!

Along with the theme of simplify, I thought I’d share these fabric postcards, many of which I make for an online swap.  The theme was Art Nouveau/Art Deco, and I think the design is nice, straightforward, and fairly simplified!

Here’s how I made them.  First I carved my own stamp, based on a design from a Dover book (copyright-use OK).  I simplified the design which was too intricate for carving in a stamp that is just under 3×3 inches, then added a frame of vine-branches. You can see some test-prints on paper, and some test-swatches of the paints…mostly Jacquard Lumiere and Setacolor Pearlescents.

I printed onto my own hand-dyed cloth with Ancient Page archival ink:

The cards were then quilted and painted:

Next, I painted some of those leaves.  It actually took longer to paint the leaves than to quilt the cards!

Finally, I added a couched yarn edge-finish:

Here’s a close-up of two of the silvery-white roses, one with just the pale green-gold leaves, the other with two-tone leaves:

I have mounted three of these cards and will be offering them for sale, but need to take pictures.  Hopefully I’ll get those posted soon…in the meantime, welcome to 2010, to the snow that is falling turning the view out the window into a white and grayscape wonderland, and to making art!

Yippeee!  It’s time for the winners of the Double-Giveaway here and over at Susan Brubaker Knapp’s Blue Moon River blog and website.  Yesterday, Paul’s minor surgery  (the reason for the delay) went well, we got home last night, he’s doing great, and this morning I asked both him and our younger son to pick to a number between 1 and 64 (the number of comments by deadline time yesterday).  Eli was first, and he picked the number for Carolyn who therefore wins Applique Petal Party

Carolyn wrote:

“I have been crazy in love with her bohemain bouquet for a long time. I may just have to take the plunge and go for it! Love the new petal party as well. I would be thrilled to win any of the great give aways! Keep up the good work!”

Paul came downstairs next, and he picked the number for Jane who will win Susan’s Pinata Purse pattern , who wrote:

quiltsmiles.blogspot.com

“Love her Bohemian Bouquet pattern, and I thank both of you for your generousity. Love your blog and I do enjoy stopping by to see what you’re up to. Thanks for sharing.

Jane”

I agree with them both…Bohemian Bouquet is one of my favorites of Susan’s, along with Round Red Barn and Glasgow Rose… I love more traditional quilts that combine circular designs with geometric/squared.  I also LOVE LOVE LOVE that quilt she is wrapped up in for her photo on her home page…great photo, great quilt!

Susan has picked the winners over on her blog, and I truly hope the winners enjoy ThreadWork Unraveled and my Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul pattern.  The prizes will be in the mail post haste!