On Monday the 17th, Kate, Kathy and I met at Kate’s house in Bowdoinham to share and celebrate the season. As I mentioned earlier, Hannah’s daughter was down with a fever, so she stayed home, and of course our dear Deborah is living on the dark side of the moon a.k.a. Dallas (sorry to all Texans…but you’re a loooonnnnggggg way away from here! it seems that far!). Deborah’s box was delayed in the mail, so I won’t share the goodies that the three of us exchanged, since not everyone has seen their holiday gifties (I will share AFTER Christmas!). We had a wonderful time in Kate’s old (maybe early 1800s?) house, which is remarkably sunny and light. It has the small rooms typical of New England, which hold the heat well yet let in lots of light.

First we shared. Kathy has almost completed the glorious art bed quilt (yes, it is possible to make art for the bed and Kathy has just proved it!). The quilt is a commission for a friend, who wanted the quilt to celebrate the favorite places she and her husband have been in their long marriage, from the Caribbean to Maine, Mexico, New Zealand (I think it was), Newfoundland and beyond. I am in lust:

I shared my Naiads quilt, which alas I can’t share here for a couple of months…sigh… but it was such a thrill to have MADE something that is art!

I loved this view from the dining room:

I loved this view even more… lunch with my friends! The only thing that would have made it better would have been Hannah and Deborah. We had Kate’s panini, my potato-turkey kielbasa soup (thank you Janet! I use that recipe a LOT), and Kathy’s treats for dessert (they involve graham crackers, butter, sugar, chocolate, nuts…heavenly).

Then we decamped to the living room for prezzies under the tree! On the far side of the room is one of my favorite paintings, which Kate did for an art class in college:

On the shelf underneath was this lovely vignette… Kate’s home is filled with these wonderful little suprises and joys… We have so many cats (and cat hair and dust) I don’t do stuff like this, and I should!

Then, goodies made by friends… could it be any better?

You’ll have to wait to see the contents, though… but Kate and Kathy, gifts have already been pressed into joyful service!

Well…. it’s tough not being able to share my latest art quilt! But it is done (except for the label, of course!). It is 18×45 inches by ab out 1 1/2 inches deep (you’ll have to wait to find out the why and how until March!). But I have been working, and will share this wicket little tease…the last part quilted. It is of the riverbank area, with reeds made of yarns twisted and combined in various ways to make the reeds:

The narrowest of the reeds is one of my favorite embellishing yarns, Lion Suede (from Lion Brands…an inexpensive acrylic yarn that is round…many of the chenilles are fluffy but flat) twisted with a tufted decorative yarn. The thicker reeds are three strands of Lion Suede or a similar variegated Plymouth yarn) wrapped in a ribbon/tape yarn that is like a checkerboard. Finally, the shorter grasses are made from a single yarn—that one ball cost about $12! But if I could find more of it (I tried in vain a few years ago and it is long gone), but no luck, so I hoard it and enjoy the wonderful color and texture.

I’m thrilled to be able to share a wonderful new book about art quilting written by Deborah Boschert about our Frayed Edges Project called 5 Artists, 5 Views:

and yes, I’m in it / a part of the book. Some of you may remember that in August, The Frayed Edges (my mini-group) had an exhibit at the Camden Public Library (to see more, click here and here). For that show, I had an idea to create a group project: each of us would contribute one photo, then we would each make a small quiltlet based on those five photos. The project was SO successful that Deborah Boschert wanted to create a small book discussing the project and how others might do something similar.

Deborah has finished the book and blogged about it here, and best of all, the book is ready for sale in her Etsy shop for a modest $20 plus shipping; these books will make wonderful Christmas gifts (I’ve already ordered several!). I hope it will also be an inspiration for all art quilters, and would be art quilters who are looking for a way to start!

Deborah designed the book to be interactive. You open the lovely embellished vellum envelope (above) to find a book with interviews, hints, tips, ideas and inspiration, and a stack of photographs

including the five original inspiration photos (Kathy’s umbrella photo is on the bottom left) plus a photo of each of the 25 pieces in the 5 x 5 grid. When you read the book, you can sort through the photos to look at all five of the umbrella pieces, or stack all the ones by a given artist, or lay them out in the 5 x 5 grid we used to display them.

The booklet, half-page sized, is (I think) 30 pages. It includes:

• About the Project
• About the Photographs
• Artists
  • Hannah Beattie
  • Deborah Boschert
  • Kate Cutko
  • Kathy Daniels
  • Sarah Ann Smith
• Suggestions for Similar Collaborative Projects

I’m so thrilled Deborah has prepared this book, and that I am a part of it, and that we are all a part of The Frayed Edges! Wooohooo! I hope some of you will order and enjoy the book…and as always, ASK QUESTIONS!

I just love our little guild chapter here in the Camden region! As I’ve probably mentioned many times before, the Coastal Quilters are a chapter of the statewide Pine Tree Quilt Guild. This year we decided to have a test-run holiday bazaar during our regularly-scheduled Second-Saturday meeting. WOW!

It was packed for the first 90 minutes, and I actually make some money, sold a totebag, a small piece (At Anchor, mounted and framed), a pattern and some glass ornaments (of which I would like to sell more, rather than have them in my basement!). Next year we are thinking we should start at 9:30 or even 9, rather than 10!

As we approached lunchtime, the crowd eased up and we sat and ate and knit:

I am also in serious lust for this woman’s jacket–the plum and greens in the center.. I totally love love LOVE the colors!

My friend Betty and I shared a table, and (lucky me!) I snapped up one of her pieces before we opened. Now I have my very own Betty Johnson!

This photo shows the right side of the room with Betty (in navy blue in the center), Jan P. (big tote, burgundy top), and Polly Schuessler (blue top, on right), who had some glorious rag rugs. If my bathroom walls weren’t so awful to paint (wood siding) I’d have bought the white and lime and yellow rug and re-done the bathroom that weekend! Maybe if I have cash in summer and she still has the rug then……

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We all decided it was worth doing, and worth doing again, perhaps with more advertising!

I’m not that great at drawing the human figure, but I guess I’m getting better. A while ago I bought some artists figurines (here, at Dick Blick). I posed the female into the positions I wanted for the naiads and sketched them. I then outlined the sketches with dark pen, taped them to a work surface, placed plastic over (acetate sheet), placed PFD (prepared for dyeing) white cloth over that and painted them, minus hair (which I’ll do with free-motion threadwork).

My first attempt, using Tsukinenko inks, was a bust. Somehow I can never get the blending I want with those inks, whether using the sticks or a brush. So I tried So Soft paints, from a kit put together by Bonnie McCaffery. They WORKED! The paints are very creamy and soft, leaving a fairly nice hand to the fabric afterwards–not stiff and board-like! I ended up appliquéing the figures to the quilt by hand, and it looks good! In the interest of keeping things sorta secret, I’ll only show you part of one of the ladies, appliquéd and with thread-lace-hair: