Cotton Candy Quilt Finished!

My Guild's semi-annual Quilt Show is April 8 and 9.  We're to deliver our quilts on April 6.  So I am working right down to the wire.  Of the four quilts I am entering, two have been hanging in our house for over a year.  But two are brand new.  Cotton Candy is what I am calling this pink quilt, which will be sent later in April to a baby girl named Bridget who lives in Virginia.  I usually have my good friend and super-expert quilter, Judy Steward, quilt my quilts for me for compensation.  Cotton Candy, however, was not pieced in time for Judy to quilt it.  So with much fear and trepidation, I did the machine quilting in the quilt's center, and then did some hand-quilting in the wide borders, using Perle cotton and the so-called "big stitch" or "utility stitch."   I did this quilting randomly, going around most of the motifs in the border fabric.  I've done the stitch before, in a baby quilt for one of our grandsons, and learned that it is much faster and easier to do than the traditional quilting stitch.  Too, it is easier on arthritic hands!

Here are some pictures of Cotton Candy:

Here's Cotton Candy, pinned to my design wall.  All that's lacking
is for me to steam it, to encourage it to hang straight and flat, and attaching
the hanging sleeve and a label.

A close-up showing both the machine stitching in the quilt center
and the big stitch hand-quilting with Perle cotton thread #8.  When you click to
enlarge, you'll see a "B" that I have embroidered in the bottom
border; this is for Bridget, the baby girl who will be
receiving this quilt soon.



Here you can see that in the pale pink setting triangles in this quilt
which has its block set "on point," I used a machine
serpentine stitch around the edges of the setting triangles.

Here you can see in a closer view the straight-line machine
stitching that I did, with two lines of stitching in each small block, zig-zagging across the width
of the quilt.



Quilt Camp 2011, Part Two--Phillippa Naylor

The three other teachers at Quilting Adventures during the week I was there were Rose Hughes, Phillippa Naylor, and Kim Diehl.  All of these, like Carlson and Stein, were gifted and creative quilters and teachers.  Not only that, but all three (like fellow-teachers Carlson and Stein, too) were wonderful public speakers and each had a great sense of humor.  Because I have so many photos, this posting will feature Phillippa Naylor.

Phillippa is, first of all, a master machine quilter (having won awards at the International Quilt Festival in Houston for "Machine Artistry" and "Merit Machine Quilting") but also her designs are most unique.  It's difficult to describe her work precisely, so I'll quote from her website a statement of how she herself describes her own work:  "I consider myself to be a 'contemporary' quilter rather than an 'art' quilter, and by that I mean that my quilts are very much a modern interpretation of traditional quilts of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Inspiration often comes directly from a traditional quilt, the design being updated by the use bright hand dyed fabrics, by curving all the seams and then stitching the three layers of the quilt (the top, batting and backing) together, by machine, with free flowing patterns."

Phillippa is a beautiful woman who dresses like a model in clothes we all suspected were her own designs.  AND she gave a make-up lesson in the application of lipstick that lasts all day to her students! She could pass for a woman in her early 30s, but given the age of her son, we all figured she HAD to be in her 40s!

In addition to the awards mentioned, Naylor has won three other "big" prizes in Houston.  Her work is breath-taking, and you have to see it up close to appreciate it fully.  I'd urge you to go to her website to see more of her wonderful quilts and to check out the many awards that have been presented to her.  Below are some quilts she brought for us to see at Quilting Adventures:




This quilt illustrates the "skewed" nature of Naylor's quilt blocks.




One of Naylor's quilts




This shows the entire quilt from the close-up above.  AND you can see how
lovely Phillippa is and how stylishly she dresses!




Here Naylor is showing the "whole cloth" quilt for which she won a major award.
It is quilted extremely closely and intricately, and the thread she used on
this white quilt varied in pale colors.



No, this isn't a quilt!  This is a photo of a slide taken from Naylor's Power Point Presentation.
It shows one of the many unique Halloween costumes that she and her son have together concocted over the years!

Quilt Camp 2011, Part One

My fourth time at Quilting Adventures in New Braunfels turned out to be as delightful and productive as the other three sessions were.  This time I was in teacher Marcia Stein's class.  We worked from photos, which we first traced, then enlarged, and then used our enlarged drawing to make templates.  Marcia taught us her method of machine applique, but most of us chose to use the faster method of fusing.  I hope we didn't disappoint her!  If we did, she never let us know, and she was wonderfully helpful to each of us as we worked.

One of Marcia Stein's quilts.  Yes, the man
portrayed really DID have on a shirt
that looked just like this!

The appliqueing on my quilt is now done, but it hasn't yet been sandwiched and quilted.  Once that is done, I'll no doubt post again to show it.  Meanwhile, here are some of Marcia's quilts, as well as the quilts of one of the other teachers, Susan Carlson.  I bought a book from Susan, and I hope one day to try her marvelously innovative approach to quilting!  I plan a Part Two to show some of the other teachers' works, as well as some of the quilts constructed by fellow students.

Marcia often portrays
people from the back in her quilts, and she
encouraged us to bring similar photos!

Susan Carlson's rhino, inspired by one of
16th century artist Durer's black and white woodcuts.





Another of Carlson's--demonstrating
how beautiful and fanciful a
beetle can be!

Carlson's son--when he was in
his John Lennon-look-alike stage!

Having all grandchildren currently playing soccer, I
particularly loved this one!



With my passion for blue and white
china, I loved this one by teacher Stein!



Cotton Candy Quilt Top

This is a replacement for the photo that I had up at first, the
one where which was turned top to bottom!  Sorry!

For the past week two weeks I've been working on a crib quilt for a baby girl to be born in April, the daughter of our dear friends Erin and Michael.  Good friend Patty and I traveled to Ft. Worth to check out the wonderful quilting fabric store Cabbage Rose  two weeks ago yesterday.  There I found some wonderfully girly fabric that I fell in love with and decided to use for this quilt.

The block was the super-simple Rail Fence block, but these are a small 3", so it took 54 blocks in all.  The sewing of the blocks went fast, but the sewing of the on-point blocks into diagonal rows took much longer.  As of this morning, though, I attached the last two borders.  Because the Waco Quilt Show is fast approaching, I've been unable to find a machine quilter to quilt Cotton Candy (as Bee friend Hilary christened it!) for me.  So I will attempt, with much fear and trepidation, to quilt it myself.  I plan to use simple, straight-line quilting in the quilt's center and then do some much more-fun-for-me hand-quilting in the borders, using the fabric's print to guide me around some of the bigger, bolder flowers.

I just turned around quickly and looked at my quilt.  Lo and behold I saw a mistake--a block that is turned the wrong way!  This happened the first time I made this quilt.  That time, though, I only discovered the goof after the quilt had been machine quilted.  Then I decided I would call this block my deliberate mistake.  Click on that link to learn this interesting bit of quilting history!  This time around, however, I've found my error in time to remove that block from the quilt and put it back in correctly.  I don't need to make a deliberate mistake in order to demonstrate humility; there are always plenty of minor goofs in my quilts!

Hmmm, maybe I should offer a prize to the person who finds my wrongly placed block.  Actually it's pretty easy to spot it, so I'll offer the prize to the FIRST person who finds it.  If you're a quilter, your prize will be quilt-related.  If not, I suppose I'll have to come up with something else.  Happy hunting!  As always, remember to click on the image to vice it bigger.




I decided not to crop this one, so my far-away friends can
have a little glimpse of my design wall.  Note the banner to the
right, my first attempt at paper-piecing, a banner that
I use in this blog to introduce myself.  Also one friend, if she looks carefully,
can see the first fabric postcard I ever received, a card she sent to me!  To the left,
of course, are my Elfa drawers, which hold my stash.

The China Dolls Meet Again!

I believe I've written at least one blog about the new quilting bee that has formed in my neck of the woods, the China Dolls Bee.  I didn't know how I'd manage with yet another meeting to attend, but I have loved being in this Bee.  The women are a fun, talented bunch, and we help and advise one another each time we meet.  We meet usually twice a month, taking turns hosting.  Yesterday it had rolled around to be my turn again.  Each bee member brings something to work on.  Many of these women are machine embroidery lovers and true experts, so often they bring their amazing embroidery machines.  Some bring handwork to do, applique or hand embroidery or perhaps sewing down the binding on a just-completed quilt.

The hostess usually prepares lunch for the group, and, oh, the wonderful meals we've shared!  Soups of all sorts this winter usually, but yesterday I decided to prepare a much-loved chicken wild rice casserole, plus two congealed salads, tomato aspic and pineapple/lime.  The aspic, I would say, got the most raves!

The last time we met, at Lynne's, was on Valentine's Day, which also happened to be her birthday.  She had made a delicious chicken chili and huge tossed salad, but also some beautifully decorated Valentine cupcakes.  Lynne invited the editor of the weekly paper for the two communities of China Spring [thus our name] and Bosqueville to come learn about this new quilting bee in China Spring.  This charming man is not only editor but also photographer, and as a graphic artist himself, he was fascinated to learn more about quilting.  He tooks many photos, some of which ended up on the front page of The Enterprise, his paper, under a huge headline reading "Queens of Quilt."

Below are two of the pictures Clint took:

Here I am, embroidering  my first Japanese embroidery, Sashiko. 
Am I right, fellow blogger LinLin, that I was the one who
got you interested in Shashiko?  I'm wearing
a little felt heart pin.  I made all of my Bee friends these pins; you'll
see them on many of them below!

From left:  Dodie, Hilary, Priscilla, Rita, Sandy, Alice B., Alice E., and Lynne, our hostess.  Lynne is the
maker of the quilt under which we are sitting.  When I saw this picture for the first time yesterday, I said
to the gathered group:  "You know what?  We are a pretty darn good looking bunch of women!"

And, just for fun, my aspic recipe:

1 box of lemon Jell-O
1 can of stewed tomatoes, any flavor, but preferably peeled, sliced tomatoes
1 tablespoon vinegar

Heat the stewed tomatoes to boiling.  Pour in the Jell-O and stir until dissolved.  Add the vinegar.  (Rice vinegar is mild, but I used red wine yesterday, and that was good and tangy.)  I have a large Tupperware ring mold that I use, and for this, I triple the recipe.

Pour into a small oiled mold or a small square Pyrex dish.  Chill until firm.  Serve with a dollop of mayonaise on a pretty lettuce leaf.

Book Buddies February Meeting

I made these stuffed fabric hearts for my book club friends.  We met at our house last week for a discussion (led by Rosemary) of the book OLIVE KITTEREDGE, a book most enjoyed, but admittedly it wasn't a particularly "hearts and flowers", Valentine's-Day-type book!  There was a chapter that touched us all, though, that focused on the deep love of a long-married pair.

  I decided in honor of Valentine's Day to serve a light supper and to give the Book Buddies their fabric hearts then.  The women seemed to enjoy the hearts and the meal!  I prepared tomato aspic, a chicken/wild rice casserole, and Cherry Carnival cake for dessert.  Of course the aspic was red, the casserole had red peppers in it, and the cake, naturally, was made with sour pie cherries.

The fabric hearts each had a pocket at the back, into which I tucked a little sachet.

Here are the Book Buddies at the table with their hearts!

From the right, Rosemary, Jo, Thelma, Ibby, and Genie showing off their
stuffed fabric hearts.

And from the left, Faith, Sharon, Judy, and Mona with their hearts.



Part Two--More Snow Pictures

Alas, I looked at the thermometer and saw that it was 36.  I looked outside, and sure enough, our lovely snow is melting.  BUT the sun is out and we have one of those gorgeous blue Texas skies!

So here are snow pictures several hours later, with the sun shining, shadows, and a blue, blue sky!

The same tree pictured in the previous post,
but the photo taken
 farther back.

Brave little pansies, peeking
through the melting snow!

Not a particularly good bird picture,
but it's the only one who was
out when I was.  Do my bird watching
and feeding friends know what
sort this is?

  Some people consider these nadinas "nuisance" plants,
akin to bamboo.  But the dwarf ones don't seem to be
as unruly as their full-sized cousins,
and only time will tell if they are
as invasive!



Here is Bill and Thelma's house, before the sun
came out--and their beautiful native
live oak tree.  We get the benefit
of both next-door neighbors'
trees.  All of these lovely trees were one
of the things that drew us to this
new development!

 Not to mention the lovely
cluster of live oaks across the
street from our house.



Snow in Central Texas!

I know well that snow in other parts of the country is causing great misery, so it made me feel (just a tad bit) guilty that I felt such a thrill when it began snowing here in Texas last night about 9:30. We just sat and watched it for a long time, with the room lights off and the yard lights on. It was beautiful, falling softly and gently, sometimes tiny flakes slanting down in the wind, other times big fluffy ones. In the night I got up to check to see if it was still snowing, and I was delighted that it was. This morning we got up at 5:30; it had stopped snowing, but I would imagine we’ve had more here than we’ve had in years, though I have no clue about how much.  The temperature is hovering in the low 20s.

So I dressed in my warmest fleece pants, heaviest socks, a light-weight fleece jacket underneath my heaviest parka, and wore my fleece-lined Merrill boots that I bought to have in Michigan when we visit there. The photos below are of our house and yard. Dear friend and neighbor Thelma stuck her head out of their door to say her camera wasn’t cooperating and asked if I’d take pictures of their house, for her to use on this year’s Christmas card. I’m sure mine will appear on ours, too!  I'll put pictures here, though, of our house only.  Thelma will get her photos via email, and I'll post all of these and hers and more on Facebook!

I love the way the spiral junipers look
bedecked with snow!

Side yard, right outside our bedroom



Our Sago Palm (most likely NOT native to Texas!)
was damaged in last year's hardest freeze, but it survived.
I wish we had remembered to cover it this year! 



Just over our backyard fence is this native live oak tree--these trees areone of the glories of Texas.  No one lives yet in thishouse that burned on Nov. 1, 2009, but it is
now totally and beautifully restored, and we
are hoping that we have new neighbors soon!

Valentine Hearts: Little Felt Pins, Bean Bags, and Sachet Holders

Friend and fellow blogger Linda sent me links to two great blogs, both of which had really fun fabric Valentine projects.  I printed off the instructions, and when I went to my Bee yesterday, I took along some handwork to do.  I stitched and stuffed the little felt heart pins, and I cut out some larger hearts from various fabrics.

Last night I worked some more on the heart pins, and today, I've made one heart filled with lavender for a sachet for my granddaughter Lia, and then three heart bean bags for her brother Locke, and for my other two grandsons, Malcolm and Dawson.  Since Lia will get both the sachet AND the little pins, I've also decided to fill one of the "boy fabric" hearts with lavender for Locke.  He loves this scent!  Once I noticed he had some hand lotion by his bed that was so scented, and he told me that he loved it.  So this one will be good for him to put in the drawer where he keeps his pajamas!

As always, click to enlarge the pictures.  I turned over one of the little felt heart pins so that you can see the little saftety pin that I sewed on it so that it can be pinned on to a dress or shirt. 

I decorated Lia's sachet heart with insertion eyelet with a narrow blue ribbon inserted.  For the boys, I ironed on some appliques, some of them purchased and a few felt hearts adhered to them with Steam at Seam.  In making the bean bags I learned that they need to be loosely filled with dried beans, so that I could then reinforce the edges with zig-zag stitching, which also served to close the opening I left to fill with the beans.  Lia's sachet is also rather loosely filled with the dried lavender.  I plan tomorrow to make some fatter, more solidly stuffed hearts to use as pin cushions.  These flat hearts aren't quite as cute as the plump, fully-stuffed ones!  All of these hearts are made with two fabrics, one for the front, the other for the back.  I turned the boys' hearts over in the 2nd photo so that the back fabric can be seen.



The purple with the eyelet trim is Lia's sachet; the three little felt heart pins below are hers
as well.  The green heart with football fabric will be Locke's lavender sachet--it's not yet finished.   The other two are beanbags for the other two grandsons.  



Here the boys' three hearts are turned over so you can see
the fabric on the back.  .

A Winnie the Pooh Throw

I loved it that our 10 year old granddaughter wanted a Winnie the Pooh throw for her recent birthday!  I had made all 4 grandchildren throws some 4 or 5 years ago for Christmas.  And I knew that Lia had long ago lost interest in the Disney princesses, which were featured on the throw I made for her then.  For her to ask specifically for a Winnie the Pooh blanket, though, warmed my heart. She seems so mature and grown up to me now, but perhaps she has at least one foot still in childhood!

Her mother searched the Internet for a blanket already made, but every image she showed her, Lia thought was "too babyish."  Then, searching for Pooh fleece online, I found this fabric, her mom showed it to her, and she loved it.  So of course I was delighted to make it for her.  The fleece came incredibly quickly, and today I bought the yellow fleece to back it, did the cutting of the fringe, and tied it.  She and her brother like to cuddle in these throws after their baths, while they watch a little TV before the bedtime tooth brushing, reading, and singing routines!

He now has two as well--the transportation-themed one that matching his bedroom, and a big boy one that features all sorts of sports balls!  His first he decided to cut to turn into a sleeping bag, so I made the second one with an open end for him.

I think Lia will like her Winnie the Pooh and the Starry Night throw!

Here's a close-up of Pooh.  The fabric
was titled "Starry Night Scenic"

Here's the entire throw, spread
out on our bed.