Karen Stone visit

Karen Stone quilt...

This week my guild has Karen Stone in town for a lecture and two workshops!

Karen Stone with quilt during lecture

Her lecture on Monday night was wonderful...I think the title was "Joyful Quilting"...covered a lot about her process for selecting fabrics, designing and then making her quilts.

Also a bit about how her quilt choices have evolved over time.

 It was both informative and fun...highly recommend this lecture!

Yesterday about 25 members of the guild took her Wild Women Don't get the Blues workshop.

 This was new territory design-wise for many of them.  

I think it is great to stretch yourself sometimes!

Quilt Day!

I know I am a few hours early but thought as I am on the computer...

Happy National/International Quilt Day!

Usually my guild gets together and has a sew in but next week we have Karen Stone coming for a trunk show and two workshops!  So we will "celebrate" later...

We also just met on Thursday...one of our guild members shared how she used photos for inspirations for her small applique and embroidery pieces...she does nice work!

I really liked her idea of keeping "doodle-clothes" to test out new stitches and to save them for reference later.

All the photos in this post are from the show and tell...always good!  (Thinking I may make one of these bags tomorrow!)

Another basket weave...

Brownie claiming the latest quilt...

I started a quilt not on my list for two reasons...first, a friend had asked me to make a quilt for her daughter and second, an artist had asked how to construct this diagonal weave.

Dobby overseeing the new quilt construction....

This is a simpler ( though still at least intermediate level) way of sewing the "basket-weave" and I worry that it may still be too difficult for someone with no sewing experience...Instead of piecing the woven pieces this time I just used striped.  Wow, cut down about 60% of the piecing and still get a similar effect!  Also, used larger squares for the center...twice as large!  Needless to say this is coming together so much faster than the first one!

I got another "new to me" quilt this week.  I'll have photos of the entire quilt later this weekend.  I love the Dogwood and Blondie (US cartoon characters)  fabrics in it!  Need to do some research but I'm thinking 50's...

Also have done some fabric cutting for Bonnie Hunter's 2014 challenge.  I changed up the pattern a bit...I'm using 3 1/2 by 8 inch cut rectangles instead of 3-1/2 by 6.   I made some test blocks and I like the longer block...For this I am cutting a bit from all my repro stash...gives me a chance to actually see some of my fabrics in a quilt instead of on a shelf!  Even with the extra 2 inches this is going to take a lot of blocks....

And sewing, cutting, typing, well, just about everything is slow right now.  Left arm is not cooperating and goes between numbness/uselessness and wicked pain (think of how it feels when you leg goes to sleep and you take your first step...)  Anyway, I can still push fabric around but not doing anything too fine....but this too will pass!

Aunt Tiques and Uncle Junk

A few weeks ago I was send some info on facebook about an antique/junk store that is only about 20 minutes away from me.

I've had a bad cold for the past few days and have been feeling like I just needed to get out of the house (heated seats don't hurt either!"  So we did a quick run down to Aunt Tiques and Uncle Junk in Thomson, GA.

For any of you familiar with Tonya Rucucci (Unrully Quilter)....this is her type of place.  Lots of southern folk and outsider art.  This includes utensil sculptures, bottle trees, and chicken paintings.

There were a few quilts and I was tempted by a circa 1900 bowtie quilt but condition was against it...though as a folded piece it is nice.  I did bring home a little red drop leaf end table

perfect for next to my quilting chair!  There were also several nice pie chests...would be good for storing quilts...

May need to do another trip when I am feeling better...

Clean Quilt!

Well my latest "new to me" quilt is nice and clean...just in time as a new arctic blast is due to hit in the next 24 hours!  phew...we had two good quilt drying days in the middle of winter...for that I am grateful!

The quilt cleaned up nicely...the water marks, the rust stain, and the general haze is 90% gone.  I didn't want to soak it any longer for fear of either harming or fading the fabric.  I know it is clean and that is the main thing!

I also learn a lot about a quilt while I wash it.  The workmanship on this quilt is very good.  Most of the piecing is done by machine but the yellow circles I believe were appliqued down...at a minimum they were hand sewn.  I think applique because the seam allowance of the red and blue arc pieces is so much larger than the yellow seam allowance.

  I only really noticed that while the fabric was wet and the darker colors showed through.

Dry (and clean) feedsack backing

I also learned the backing was made from feedsacks.  There are at least 9 pieces of fabric sewn together to make the back.  The printing of the feedsack was only easily visible when the quilt was wet.

Wet feedsack back

Though I still cannot quite make out what it says!

This quilt will join my other quilts with circular motifs like this Mariner's Compass

And my "Pie" Quilt!

A bit of everything...

Distracted stitching would be the best description of today's activities.

I'm trying to finish up this Quilt of Valor top (requested by a Navy Vet who wanted sea colors...)  One more row to sew on and the top will be done!  (this is from Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trip Around the World Pattern...a great way of using up scraps!)

And this bag from a recent magazine...I was looking for a project to use this fabric with the sheep knitting!

I'm using this little pincushion made for me by my friend Rachel!  (it is made from a bottle cap!)  Just realized it matches my bag!

And while doing this I have to repeatedly change the water in the bathtub where the quilt above is soaking.  It was pretty bad...(photo is much better than real life!)  I've changed the water about a dozen times...let's just leave it at that.  Fortunately it is supposed to be a good "quilt drying day" tomorrow too...

and on the Dobby front...he is doing a bit better.  At least he can open his eye.  We gave him three doses of him eye drops yesterday and one this morning.  Even with two of us handling him using a blanket my arms and hands look like I fell from the sky into a blackberry hedge...I'm wearing gloves while washing the quilt!

Wheel of Chance

A "new to me" quilt arrived today.  I bought it about a month ago on ebay...took the slow train here from Canada!

Right now I am really drawn to quilts with circular motifs so no surprise I bought this one.  The fabrics are nice but it is in dire need of a long soak!

That may have to wait a few weeks as the weather right now is a bit unpredictable...rain..sun..rain...and that is just in the morning!  By the end of March things should settle down enough that I'll have a full day for quilt drying.

We are still doing a bit of clean-up after the ice storms.  One more tree out back needs to be cut up and removed and I want to dig out the roots of the tree that up-ended so I can replant next month.  Yesterday we did the big shopping trip to refill the freezer...so things are almost to normal...

That is until Dobby got sick...urgh.  Poor babe has and eye infection.  He spent last night crammed into the corner of the closet head-first!  I got up for a 7:15 am appointment (difficult because I don't drive well in the dark!)  Even at that hour the vet ran almost 30 minutes late so Dob was in quite a state for the exam...
Luckily it is only conjunctivitis and not a "war wound."  Should be back to himself in a couple of days...if I can get those eye drops in three times a day that is!  Yikes!

Electricity is back!!!

Electricity is a wonderful thing...I just went through 80 hours without it.

Funny, it doesn't bother me to go camping and not have electricity for days...but somehow in my own house it is different.

My favorite Pepper Myrtle tree came up by the roots...

I am from Boston so I know Northerners laugh a bit at Southerners and storms but this area looks more like a tornado hit than a snowstorm.  We had ice falling from the sky for about 20 hours...then it got even colder and the trees began to fall...all night long we heard the snap and crash of the trees out in back of our house.  Tough to sleep that way...even if you are covered with 6-8 quilts and 3 cats!

This tree just brushed our house...the other side of that brick wall is my sewing room!

We are lucky that our hot water is gas and we have a gas fireplace.  The temp in the house never went below 50 degrees.  After day two the ice on the roof melted to we got all the way up to 55...liveable, but just!

 I did get a bit of exercise using my hand crank Singer...need to get an iron that isn't electric before the next black-out.

In the middle of all of this we had an earthquake...I was almost asleep when the room shook and there was a loud bang.  I was sure a tree had come down on the house!  (we just hand another smaller quake...who know they had them in South Carolina!)

Brownie spent a good bit of time hiding in any pile or bag of quilts she could find...

My front room gets lots of light during the day so I cut scraps and future projects...

Still trying to get organized after it all...just finished cleaning the refrigerator for the second time...

Another storm warning and warm quilts....

Can you believe it?!  This morning the weather folks said we may get more ice and snow tonight!  So of course my DH says we have to go out and buy more cat food...like the case of 48 we have in the closet would leave out 3 cats in desperate straits for a few days....

But on a slightly different storm tangent...it has been colder this year than most so many quilts that don't usually make it out of the closet are in regular use.  One of these was an ebay "disappointment" that now is an ebay success.  What?

Well, I stopped on ebay about a year ago and saw this quilt just minutes before the auction was due to end.  I love this purple fabric in the sashing.  I didn't read the entire description before I bid (so the fault is all mine and not the seller.)  When it arrived I was surprised and a bit disappointed to see it had only recently been quilted  (so no longer a circa 1900 quilt) and the quilter used a thin, mainly poly batting.  The quilt went into the closet.

Forward to a cold night in January.  DH takes this quilt out of the closet and asks if it is ok to put it on the bed.  Sure I said, thinking it would not be used for any programs, etc.  Anyway, the next morning I looked at it and decided I really like this quilt.  For the same reason I bought it in the first place...love the fabrics.  On the bed it is very graphic,  My DH likes it because the fabrics are a bit masculine (don't tell him there are flowers in that purple fabric...he hasn't realized that yet!)

So the good news is this quilt is being used as a quilt should.  Keeping us warm.  I've also started to gather some shirtings, indigos, and some grays  to make a repro of it for a nephew...if only I could find that purple fabric!

A few finishes...

I haven't been as good sticking to my list of projects this year and I'm not gong to let it bother me!

"Cherry Churndash" - finally cut into some of my Cherrywood fabrics

MS is nicknamed the "snowflake disease" because it has so many symptoms and those symptoms can vary so much from patient to patient...or even during the course of a patient's disease...or how about for one patient in the time from breakfast to lunch.   It sort of reminds me of New England weather...

Last week's snow on our Nandia bushes

So it is difficult picking projects to work on...yesterday my hand was too clumsy to applique so I played with fabric; the day before my arms were too weak to handle the quilt that needed to be quilted so I cut strips from my scrap pile; today my eye is to wonky to handle a rotary cutter or thread a needle but I think I can run some squares through the sewing machine....

Not being able to quilt or sew is dangerous for me...

I go on ebay...(this Egyptian applique was listed as a "vintage Scandinavian textile?"  )

or I bake...these brownies did not last long....

BTW...did anyone else notice they changes the size of the Baker's Chocolate squares!  Now it takes and entire package to make a pan of brownies where it used to take half a package.  The package is the same size only thinner!  They need bigger notices on the box.  I've made these so often I don't even read the recipe...I just tossed half a box into the double boiler with the butter.  Luckily it didn't look right when it was all melted together and I check the box! (ok..not about quilts but I consider anything about chocolate a public service announcement....)

Did any of you work on the waverunner project with Victoria Finley...must have been about 4 years ago!  Anyway, I dug out mine and gave it a good press.  Think I'll machine quilt it later this month!  Already have a plan and for me that is half the battle with machine quilting!

Finally, with the recent cold weather we have had some really interesting birds at the feeders.

I put a suet feeder out when we had the ice storm and was really happy to see the woodpecker that I hear all the time but rarely see, come to the feeder!  I looked him up online to see what kind and borrowed the photo as he is very camera-shy and very fast!  The wings are really beautiful!