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Archive for March, 2010

Luggage for Traveling Quilts

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Have you ever sent a quilt off to a show, only to have it return home without the bag you sent it in. Or have you ever hung a show and tried to keep track of the packing materials for each quilt.

My art quilt group is getting ready to send out our 2010 show, Bird’s Eye View. Each quilt will be in a special cloth bag with a label attached to the bag that has a photo of the quilt and contact information. Each quilt will have a hanging rod and again, we are asking that those be labeled for easy identification.

Today, I made bags for mine. I sewed a Ziploc bag to the outside of the bag. I printed the label with the photo and my address and put it in the Ziploc bag. Using the ziploc bag allows the bag to be reused for another quilt. I roll each quilt around a foam swim tube cut to the size of the quilt and stash it in the bag with the hanging rod.

I finished the quilting on Mother Lode. I am quite happy with the result. I have to trim it to size and attaching facings to finish. I have to do some major housecleaning tomorrow as I have the jurying committee for the show coming on Sunday.

M & M are spending the night. It is their Dad’s birthday tomorrow and Steph is treating him to a nice dinner sans children. We will all celebrate tomorrow.

We took them out for fusion Asian food tonight.

Let the Quilting Begin

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

I finished fusing Mother lode to the batting and found a great batik for the backing.

I had to run to Fabric Depot to find some thread for the unusual color palette of this quilt. Several dollars later, I was back home and started the quilting.

Tonight, I had a wonderful time at a Literary Round Table at Trinity. We listened to some Leonard Cohen music and discussed the meaning, poetry and spirituality of his lyrics. So now I have Leonard’s music running around in my brain. One of my favorite lines is from Anthem: There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in. This has so much meaning for me, an imperfect and “cracked” being.

Finally, the pink season and pink snow has come early to Portland.

Mother Lode

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

I have the pieces for the BIG quilt cut and fused to a large sheet of Teflon. I have cropped out some areas for sneak peeks. The title is Mother Lode. Heh!

I just love how the different fabrics interact with each other — sometimes my choice and sometimes, serendipity.

Of course, those who know me, know it is all about the fabric.

So, that is what I have been doing today. Tomorrow, I hope to get it fused to the batting. I may have to run out to get backing fabric for it. I am not sure if I have anything large enough in my stash. then the quilting will start.

I meant to post this link last night and forgot. There was a lovely interview with my daughter, Steph, here.

The Twelves in Print

Monday, March 1st, 2010

I think I have mentioned that the Twelve X Twelve quilts are going on tour down under. I just received a copy of Down Under Textiles magazine that has a lovely article about us and a photo of a quilt by each of us.

Kirsten, one of our down under members, sent me a copy (one for Terry, too). It is quite exciting to see us in print. Can’t imagine what it will be like when our book comes out.

Thank you so much to everyone for your lovely comments about my Winter Night quilt. It is very much appreciated.

Winter Night

Monday, March 1st, 2010

The Twelve X Twelve theme selected by Francoise was Blue/White and a Bit of Black. I just had to dip into my indigo scraps and do up one of my indigo moon landscapes. I used lots of scraps which I fused together with raw and frayed edges showing. Here are some detail shots.

I used a piece of silk with shadowy indigo coloration for the snow. I cut strips of silk indigo shibori for the shadows of the fence posts.

This piece looked very different at one point. I had quilted it and thought it was done. It wasn’t.

This photo was taken before I screwed up the fence with some terrible quilting. It was an ok piece before then, but after the quilting it was a dog. I went at it with sharp implements and pulled off the fence.

I then added the printed indigo fabrics which were given to me by Kristin and made the fence look more like a fence. I couldn’t remove the shadows so I ended up making a wonky split rail fence that works much better.

If you haven’t done so yet, go over to Twelve X Twelve to see the other great pieces.