Finished Pieces

          The Piecemakers had their show last Sunday.   Now we are on break until the fall.   We had a great end of  the year meeting to decide projects for next year for ourselves and for our community give a way.   I'm torn about that because often times I just want to do what I want to do and not what the group wants.  Still I enjoy seeing the things the group does, but I'm just not one for doing the same block 30 times for a full size quilt.  Well we'll see what the new season brings later.

The Pineapple trial kit

the final finished  quilted
fabric photo, 

TWO deer stopped by to eat flowers and pose in yard/

My friend' Sandee's " Birthday Card.

It always feels good to finish up a piece, no matter what.

Piecemakers annual quilt show

     The Huntington WV Piecemakers had their annual show on May 22, 2011.   To see some lovely quilts, go to  Huntington WV Piecemakers  and enjoy.   It was a rainy day, but we had a wonderful turn-out, good food, and joy and appreciation by all.

Amy's Creative Bloggers' Online Quilt Festival:: Spring 2011

Hellooooo Amy's followers.

Below you will find my entry into this year's Bloggers Online Quilt Festival. Since this is my first entry, I am very excited.

The quilt is titled Mountain Mama's Garden. I've done several quilts focused on the hills of West Virginia; the earlier ones were wall hanging sizes, but I've wanted to do a big quilt using this theme for quite some time. Last fall, I took a class in crazy quilting and decided to try a crazy quilt landscape. And VOILA!

The Process

I love the effect of light caught in facets of space that is created by the crazy block form and the mix of color values. I enjoyed making this quilt. Piecing the blocks was exciting and I couldn't wait to finish that part. A few weeks before I began this quilt, I'd purchased some gold and silver thread at a yard sale that seemed perfect for hand quilting the sun and a few rays.

A closer view.

My sun center rather resembles a bird.  Hmmmm, maybe a phoenix.

 I debated back and forth between hand quilting and machine quilting. I have a fairly new Handi-quilter 16 and decided quilting this piece would give me more practice in using it. So I machine appliqued a few clouds in the sky and  echo quilted around them. Then, I quilted the hills, and lastly the flowers. The machine quilting went well until I got to the hills and changed threads. It seems the tension went haywire. It didn't return to normal  even stitching until after I'd finished that section and changed treads again.  I learned that I need the same kind of thread on the spool as in the bobbin for smooth quilting.   Each time I use my handi-quilter, I learn new things. My handi-quilter is the sit down model, with the table, so all quilting is hand guided.  As I am still learning to machine quilt, tips and suggestions are very welcome.

Mountain Mama's flower garden.

I am so happy blogger is back up and I can participate in this spring's Blogger's Online Quilt Festival.

For Springtime is Your time is My Time...

                                                  In the cracked pot

                                                   on the front patio;
                                         where no one but I could see them
                                           Bloomed the sweet hyaccinth.
                                                          

WIPs

 

            
 I am determined to finish up these WIPs this year.   In addition, I have some other projects that I want to get going, but I refuse to start something else until these are out of the hopper.  A couple have been in that bin for over two years.  Does anyone else get started  excitedly on something new, then something immediate, like Fall Bazaare or Christmas cards or a new commissioned portrait takes you off-track, then you can't quite get back to finishing up what you wanted to do or began earlier?

        

I started this one last fall.  It's part of my WV Hills Series and I'd planned to enter it this year in Sacred Threads, but alas, it wasn't finished in time.  I'd changed name from Mountain Mama's Garden to PEACE IN THE VALLEY.  The sun looks like a bird, so I'm going to have to edit that some and I want to hand quilt the rest of it also.   I love hand quilting, so I'm not worried really about finishing this one.

This quilt is made up of African themed fabrics and originally (in 2007) I had decided to make it out of strips.  When I put it up on the wall, I felt the strips looked terrible so I let it set a year as I pondered what to do with it.
 A year or so later, I cut up the strips (with trepidation) and began a mandala or medallion like design.  I like it better, but again I got so far and didn't quite know where to go next.  Now I'm determined to finish this up.   The fabrics are beautiful and I hate it just laying around unfinished.


My sister retired from teaching in 2008.   I told her I would make her a bed quilt for her retirement and asked what she wanted.  Sometime in 2009, she brought me a huge bag of T-Shirts,  her favorites and requested I make her quilt from those shirts.   I'd never made a T-Shirt quilt.   Got me a book, read it,  and cut out all the logos. Somehow I missed the part about ironing them to a stabilizer. Then came the hard part of arranging the logos and figuring out how to size them so they'd work out in blocks I could sew together.   Whew, finally figured out sizes and  numbers of sashings I would need.   Now to just get started with that step.

While visiting my daughter in Michigan, she took me to Haberman's fabric shop.  Lord, Fabric to die for.   I brought this piece of Merrimako and decided to quilt it and practice using my Handi-quilter.
It started off fine, but then, the thread started breaking and I became quite frustrated.  Working through a machine problem takes patience and time and I didn't have much of either then, so I hung it up to keep it in sight, and forgot about it for the past six or seven months ( maybe 9 or 10 months).   It's such a gorgeous piece.

 In the fall, I took a class at a local quilt shop called Quilt-as-you-go-Crazy-Quilt.   It was fun.   I loved it and was asked to teach the technique to our local quilt group.   In the process, I made quite a few blocks and decided to start sewing them together into a quilt.  After teaching the technique though, I became a little tired of flip and sew and put it down.  The  PEACE IN THE VALLEY quilt uses the CQ design for the blocks and I was finishing up that landscape about the same time.   I'll get back to this, because it does move fast and I've a ton of scrap fabric I want to use up, plus I get to practice quilting by machine with these blocks.

     And finally,  my good friend Beth's son got married in April, or May of last year and she asked that I do a fabric portrait of the new couple as her wedding present to them.  Wellllllll, that didn't happen.  It's almost done and will be done by the time of their first anniversary (God Willing).   What I learned is that it is difficult for me to do a portrait without having four or five pictures of the person or either knowing them very well.  I discovered different pictures present key features and characteristics quite differently from a real life view.  I'm working on compleitng this one now.

       And then there are all the quilts in my head, . . . . . . just waiting in line.

Fairy Godmother

Bless our WIPs and U.F.Os

  to sweet completion!

Altar Cloth

     On Sunday, February 27,  St. Peter Claver celebrated Black History Month and the onset of Women's History Month with a presentation by Brother Michael McGrath on the life and times of Sister Thea Bowman.  Through his art, Bro. Mickey, as he refers to himself, created a series of paintings which represented key events from her life.   Bro. Mickey is a well known artists,  whose sacred paintings are spiritual  meditations and teaching stories in themselves.

Brother Mickey

Sister Thea Bowman

 In his presentation, he spoke of being inspired by a film of Sister Thea Bowman's life at a point of deep grief in his own life. Shortly afterwards, he created a series of nine paintings representing her life.  His book This Little Light   is a result of this work and appreciation of Sister Thea Bowman, who is  now being considered for sainthood.   My altar covering  is a representation of the painting of Sister Thea that appears on the cover of his book of her life.

May your joy increase

May your love and work be blessed

 May you be happy.

New project beginnings

Colors?    Fabrics?    Patterns?  Textures?   Values?   

Why is it that every time is the first time again?

May your new beginnings be blessed.

Ms. Ida's Boys and Girls

Made by Ms. Ida Murphy of  Thoomas, WV

      This quilt was appliqued by Ms. Ida.   I love it.   It is tied.  I love the girls and boys representing a period of time before African Americans were free.  Still here is a quilt of beauty depicting an ugly time .  This is what I love about my people who have consistently in the face of the inhuman and unloving, created of it a thing of beauty and dignity and love.  

      Ms. Ida, the mother of my friend, Ilene Evans, is in her 80s, recently quilted the civil war quilt that is being raffled off  by Ilene's organization, Voices of the Earth.  She amazes me.

May you be inspired!

THE PRESENTATION

The fabric portrait I made.

Close up of portrait

Ken and Elaine Blue

Carolyn, Dolores Elinore and Victoria (selection readers)

ON SUNDAY, February 6, the Huntington Museum presented "THE PRESENTATION" of  Elaine Blue's art  at the gallery.    There was a full auditorium of people and a short program  of readings from selected plays she wrote and from her books of poetry.   Afterwards, there was the exhibit ( which I should have taken some pictures of) and a reception.   It was a wonderful tribute to a very talented lady.

MAY INSPIRATION BOWL YOU OVER.

Free Motion quilting

I've decided to practice everyday freemotion quilting until I am able to control my movement more.  I'm having trouble with the HQ machine.   The thread keeps breaking.   Don't know what the problem is, but I keep working with it.

May you learn lots of new things.