I started quilting in 1984, and also started collecting fabrics! In the beginning I was mostly doing traditionally based things, but with a slant toward something a little different, artsy, maybe. Fabrics were pretty calico-y for the most part, back then. Some of the stuff I bought then is still on the shelf today taking up valuable space. Those fabrics will never fit into the things I am doing now and more desirable fabrics are living on a chair for want of shelf space. The sensible thing to do is to get rid of some of that old stuff so I decided to make some charity quilts for my guild. They are always asking for kid’s quilts. One of the agencies is for the homeless population and every child gets their own quilt.

For some reason, probably because it wasn’t calico, I bought this whole line and have, over the years, only used a little of it. There was enough to end up with this almost twin size quilt that a teenager might like. Four different black and whites will make up the back and this is next in line to be machine quilted.

These are smaller, baby or toddler size. The smaller one on the top features a red truck print along with an abstract which is also on the back. The one below that has a very old teddy bear print with plaid and an an early Virginia Robertson print with plaid and two orange prints on the back. The larger one started with the Noah’s Ark animal print and attempted to use up the leftovers from the preceding ones, with an African print on the back. It is quilted but still needs a binding.

This one started with an old circus print. The back is black and white stripes, I quilted it yesterday, and have yet to bind it.

This endeavor was not fun.  I did use up a lot of fabric, which was good, but not enough to warrant the time I spent away from what I enjoy doing. I don’t think I can stand to do anymore and will probably just donate some fabric so people who enjoy this sort of thing can use them. I do feel good about having some quilts to donate that I hope someone will enjoy, but that is time gone, that I will never get back, and I do have art quilts that I am anxious to work on!!

“Snow Buddies” formerly known as “the dogs quilt” is finally finished! It measures 48 x 48″.

Quilting it took a long time due to the size of it and the density of the stitching. These are my dogs, a Komondor, 145 lbs and a Shepard mix, 165 lbs!

I took the photo several years ago and have wanted for some time to make it into an art quilt.   Komondors are a fairly rare breed and it is not easy to find them in art so I was especially interested in doing this for a special exhibit that will take place at International Quilt Festival in Houston in the fall.

For those of you who are not quilters, my work is entirely pieced by machine from bits of commercially printed or hand dyed fabrics and then machine quilted.I love the search for just the right fabric to portray my vision.

Koms are always white and are usually shown with long cords to the ground so they resemble a big rag mop. I don’t show this one so I keep his cords cut back so as to lessen the amount of stuff he can collect outside.  Still he can bring in a lot of trash as he loves to roll in leaves and dirt.  They both have huge feet and I dread mud season!

The Kaw Valley Quilt Guild met yesterday and I learned that my quilt “The Merchant’s House” won First Place in the Viewer’s Choice voting in the show last weekend.

A little over a week ago it was 87 degrees here and I spent the better part of two days working outside, trimming, weeding and transplanting! Now we are covered in snow again, I have never seen snow as deep as this on the branches, at least 7 inches!

It only lasted an hour or so until the wind and the birds knocked it off but it was pretty neat while it lasted.

The whirligig thing looked pretty, too, until the wind came up and the drifting started.

It was the kind of day you want to stay inside and hunker down with some fun project. I finished my 12 inch square for the SAQA auction which I was hoping to get finished in time to send it to them before the April 1 Early Bird Deadline.

In the past my entry has always been in the A group. but I am slow this year and it will be in the B group, I think. “Northern Cardinal” is from a photo I took after the last snowfall, and it came out even better than I expected! I want to keep it!!

The background fabric is a batik with a subtle tree branch print that I purchased especially for this piece. I highlighted some of the print with the quilting lines.

So this is what it looked like the last time I posted. I was working with fabric that was not exactly what I wanted and was not happy with the results.

I liked the idea of the large scale white on blue leaf print for the foregound, but the reality of it was not so good. It was too busy, too demanding of your attention.

Saturday I taught an Intro to Picture Piecing class at a local shop and found a batik with possibilities. It was one that I had rejected earlier because It was a clearer blue than I wanted and it had muddy brownish areas. Since that time, I had added some browns around the dogs’ feet, so that became a possible asset and I purchased a half yard which cost more than a full yard did back when I started his crazy journey!

I used the new fabric to replace the large leaf print and I like it much better. I finished the sewing yesterday and spent a couple of hours watching “The Way We Were” and removing all of the hundreds of little bits of paper. Today I hope to put away the fabric and begin the layering and quilting process. This piece has already taken way too long!

Yesterday we awoke to a winter wonderland; about six more inches of snow on top of the 11 inches that was already there. It is heavy and wet and much appreciated for the moisture that we so badly need.

Yes it is pretty, but perhaps not so much for those who have to deal with it up close and personal! For me, I’m staying inside because I can!

The birds appreciate the feeders. This one is only a few inches away from the window by my sewing machine so I am treated to their antics all day long.

Speaking of windows, the new ones were installed just before the first storm hit and the workers will have to come back when the weather warms up to paint the outside trim that had to be replaced. Inside, I am slowly getting things back in order. I’ve washed  and ironed the curtains and rehung those, and got the furniture back in place. I am working on cleaning all of the venetian blinds so they can be donated to  the ReStore since the new windows have blinds inside the panes of glass.  Hopefully these will be the last blinds I will ever have to clean!

Waiting his turn.

I sewed most of yesterday, having given up on the right fabric, and I am struggling to “make it work” as Tim Gunn would say.  It is so not what I had envisioned.

I really did think that someone, somewhere would know where some of that Wheat batik was when I posted it to the QuiltArt list with thousands of members. It was gratifying to see the number of quilters who responded with offers of similar fabrics. But I already had similar fabrics and was holding out for THE one. Along the way I followed all of the leads and even ordered a few that I thought might work as it became apparent that the right one was not going to surface. The one on the left is the one I wanted and the others are possibilities. But they are mostly lighter in color than what I wanted. The current trend with the blues is less grayed than the one I was looking for, But the white dog contains some beige-y blues so maybe these will be even better.

Thanks again to all who tried to help!!

So now, I guess I am ready to carry on and reconnect with the cutting and sewing using the fabrics that I have. With my luck, once I cut and sew the “right” one will come along!!

In the interim I have been busy with tax prep, designing some new work and hand quilting on the Oak and Acorn quilt. I have entered some more shows and shipped some more quilts.

My contract for teaching a five day Picture Piecing Design workshop at Empty Spools, Asilomar a year from now has arrived. So for those of you who are intrigued with this process, I hope you will consider signing up for that. It will be a wonderful place to spend a week in February 2014!

Monday it was just beautiful here, with a record breaking high of 77 degrees then yesterday it was 0. We went on a fabric quest but with no luck. I used this batik in the shadowed areas of the Kom’s coat and when I was working on the background, I decided it would be just perfect there, too.

Unfortunately, I have only a little left and it is old. I have searched in vain online, so now I appeal to you. have you seen it anywhere? There must be a shop somewhere that still has some they would love to get rid of. It is a greyed blue mottled background with lighter frosty looking wheat. Kind of large scale with the wheat portion being 3-4 inches. I’d love to find a half yard or a yard somewhere. Please let me know if you have seen it anywhere.

The newest issue of American Quilter just came with a nice article on Seasonal Palette and one of the quilts they showed was “December Dawn” Both as a nice full view and as an installation shot. Great coverage!!

Good news, two acceptances. “Colorado Kids” will be going to AQS, Lancaster and “Who, Me?” to “Celebrate Spring” at the IQA shows starting with spring. “In The Bleak Midwinter” is currently showing at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery and we had a great crowd last night at First Friday in spite of the cold.

The success of this technique, I think, depends a lot on the fabric choices. You have to be willing to audition and reject those that just don’t quite do the job.

All of those little bits at the upper left are some of the pieces that weren’t quite right for the spot they were cut for. They may work somewhere else later but they may be too small to re-cut and will end up in the trash. That’s OK.  Better to trash them than to use them if they are not right.

Yesterday I finished the piecing of the dogs and put away all that fabric. The cutting table looks so much better and I have room to play with the big background pieces. I have a wonderful hand dye, bought at Festival in Houston with the background of this piece in mind. It is gray and white and will work great, I think, for the snowy background. But it is only one yard, probably not enough. Challenges like that keep things interesting!

2012 has been a wonderful year for me, and I hope for you as well. Best wishes for a very special 2013 for everyone!

Christmas was a blur from the great Grandson tearing into his gifts

to the delicious dinner topped off by this made from scratch cheesecake made by my Grandson. Everyone agreed he can be the official cheesecake baker as it was every bit a good as it looked!

With Christmas out of the way and all of the evidence cleaned up, I was able to get started on the newest art quilt. It is always so exciting to start something new. Here is the progress after about three days of sewing.

This is going to be pretty good sized, what you see here is about 8 x 12″.  I’ve spent a couple of hours online looking for some more of that McKenna Ryan fabric that makes good fur, but it is too old and unavailable. No problem, I’ll just use something different, and it will be even more interesting! We are expecting more snow today so I will be happy to stay inside and sew.

You can scroll back to see the photo that I am working from, of our dogs in the snow, taken a few years ago .  WordPress has made improvements (?) and I just lost my entire post during the uploading photos stage. I should learn to “save” more often…..

Ooops, it’s been awhile, and I was doing so good!

Last Friday was First Friday and I attended the reception for “Inspirations”, that collaborative exhibit of art inspired by photography. This year we had the main show of new work at the Classic Bean in Topeka and my entry “Prairie Power” won first place in the “People’s Choice” voting. It’s always gratifying when a quilted piece is recognized as art amongst paintings.

We also had an exhibit of some of previous years’ entries at another venue, Nexlynx in Topeka and “Majesty” received a Second Place there.

The Boxer is finished and I am happy with how it turned out. I always prewash all of my fabrics because I still do find some that will run, and when I wet this piece to block it one of the hand dyes did run in spite of that. It was a green so any bleeding it may have done on the front is not noticeable, but can be seen very slightly on the back. Luckily it was not a problem, but it does reiterate the need to prewash.

This shot has too much pink showing, because the morning sunrise was hitting it. Adding green helps but makes the background greenish.  It is nice and sharp though and shows the quilting nicely.