Actually sewing again! 01-05-21

I decided that I would just pick anything to sew.  Not worry about how it might fit unto the "agenda" of what is important.  First I mended some undies, about a ten minute task.  Yes, I do mending, it is just part of my DNA I guess - I have just always done it, by hand or machine.  

Then I took off the shelf a box with small quilts I purchased at the 2015 SAQA conference in Portland, OR.  There is always a written bid auction at the conferences and I do enjoy the action at those auctions.  So, I bid all over the place and came home with a dozen 8" X 6" lovely pieces for the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection.   Each one is a little jewel and came with a white mat making them about 10" X 8".  But I don't want framed pieces, so I removed the mats.  Nothing was ever said about finishing the edges of the little works of art, so some have very raggedy edges.  It has taken me all these years to find time to tidy up the edges and mostly do a tiny zigzag around each one.  Some are very nicely finished and don't require anything more.  These four are complete as is.  But all the others need a little tidying. 

"At the Market"  Terry Grant - Oregon 2015  6"W X 8"L 

Stitched from drawing placed on the reverse side.

"Roof Lines"  Geri Patterson-Kutras  - California  2015  8"W X 6"L

Fused with house edges finished using very fine machine blanket stitch. 

"Eucalyptus Leaf"  Sue Dennis - Australia  2015  6"W X 8"L

Sue intended this to be horizontal, but I much prefer it in this orientation. 

"What's Next"  Deb Cashatt - California  2015  6" X 8"

This is fabric with a button, a part from computer innards, and a painted broken arrow.  The label is the small piece on the right, but I don't know what orientation Deb intended.  I like it this way.  

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Geri Patterson-Kutras quilt from Fiberlandia auction 05-31-15

I love this little quilt with the random houses and the lettering in the background.

 

"Roof Lines" Geri Patterson-Kutras - Morgan Hill, CA  8"W x 6"L

Cotton fabrics, fusing, machine applique/quilting. 

Commercial fabrics with small patterns and color variations to give depth and interest to the houses and background were Geri's fabrics of choice. 

Geri's statement: "Flying high above the tiny village, roof lines create a series of new silhouettes and forms.  I wonder if the residents of the village below know what an unexpected patchwork of form and color lay in the shingled gables of their dwellings.  Gazing out a window of the silver bird carrying me home, the landscape becomes a lasting souvenir my holiday."

This quilt is based on a photo Geri took in France while attending Patchwork Europe 2014.   

DETAIL

A label with  contact and signature.  Very nice.

www.geripkartquilts.com

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A few more pictures from Empty Spools 04-21-12

Oh, dear!  They are messing around with Blogger again.  Do you suppose they are trying to get rid of all the little out ladies who must struggle to keep up with the changes? 

 

 
These top two pictures are an array of fabrics that Ruth McDowell added to her fabric library while in Pacific Grove.  My selections are still in the bag, but some are the same as hers - twenty-one years of exposure to her fabric "eye" has definitely influence mine.

 
This is the nicest "tuna can" pincushion I have seen in many a year.  It belongs to Annabelle Treacy of Hawaii.

 
Suzanne Cox is one of the owners of Empty Spools Seminars along with Gayle Wells and the now retired Diana McClun.  I will never be able to thank them enough for the great experience I have had with them at Asilomar. 

 
Geri Patterson-Kutras
Every session there is an Artist-in-Residence who has a space at the back of the large meeting hall (Merrill Hall) to hang her quilts, set up her machine and work while talking to the students who stop by. I've been in classes with Geri in past years, so it was extra special to see all she has accomplished.   

PIQF #17 The last post of PIQF quilts. 10-31-09

This is a very long post for me and I'm not sure I can stop posting pictures from PIQF '09 - I have images of some really wonderful quilts that I haven't shared. Maybe later in November when my brain and my life dry up and I have nothing else to talk about!

"Spontaneous occurrences" sounds like what I would like to have in my quilt making. But all those decades of traditional quilts just keep me UNspontaneous. This quilt makes me yearn to try for it again.

To me this looks like many colorful images shattered into many different shapes and then reassembled. Such fabulous color. And all the little refractions make the sparkle.


What a great combination of fabrics of all kinds. Surely the blue with the white "fingerprints" is an original of the artist - painted? discharged? maybe even screened?

Glowing red - fire? blood? sunset? Really a great quilt that would take a lifetime to discover every detail.

My good friend Mary submitted her 50 word essay about this quilt, but the powers behind the exhibit didn't print it for the viewers. As they didn't quite a few other artists' remarks. I am still wondering why. Some quilts transcend themselves when the viewer knows just a bit more about them and why they were made.

"Oliver is a wild caught Blue and Gold Macaw that was imported through Florida around 1971.
After the owner died Oliver ended up at the Peninsula Humane Society where Mary and her two grandgirls went to see him. He was in terrible shape, but the grandgirls and Mary's daughter thought he could be nursed back to health and they took him home in July 2004." He is now a healthy, talkative bird and quite beautiful, so Mary decided that a quilt was in order. She started it in Susan Carlson's class at Asilomar last spring. The wonderful realistic face with the thin black lines was created using that black and white spring onion fabric of a few years ago.

The fantastic machine quilting, including around each of the loose feathers, was done by Sharon Winters who sometimes teaches at Back Porch Fabric Shop in Pacific Grove.

There were a lot of painted quilts or quilts with some painting this year. The painting on this one is very effective. There is a lot of depth looking out over the grey ocean.

The children are nicely represented against the water.

I love the story behind this quilt, especially with the handwritten correction at the bottom of the label. After nine years work what an insult to have that glaring mistake for everyone to read.

The blue ribbon is for Best Handwork in the Traditional category. Even with my pink prejudice I think this is a sensational quilt.

And just look at the background quilting - each hanging square has a perfect little puff across the center, showing how even the stitches and the tension are. Amazing!