Thanksgiving 2010--Michigan--Part Two



 Both of our daughters and their families started a new Christmas tradition a few years ago.  One of Santa's elves hides in a different place every night, and the next morning the children race around, looking for him.

On the evening before December 1st, I read Dawson and Malcolm the book that cleverly explains this tradition.  Another habit of ours is for the grandparents to give the grandchildren their presents early, on the alternate years when we spend Thanksgiving with them.  One present that we gave the boys, which they particularly loved, were snow globe night lights.  Below are some pictures of the boys with their new night lights.  Also, below the night light pictures are my promised pictures of Ace and Twist, as well as a photo of Scott with his broken leg!  Too, one picture of Malcolm after the first soccer game we attended, the one his team won so handedly that we quit keeping score!

Malcolm with his Xmas tree night light





Dawson with the snow man
night light








The very sweet, very elderly

border collie Twist--Rob's beloved
companion

 

A victorious Malcolm after his
soccer game











Scott, his broken leg, and the usually
very rambunctios, very lovable Ace, a
Labradoodle, who will be 2 years old in March, on
Dawson's 7th birthday.

Thanksgiving 2010--Michigan--Part One

The skies in Michigan in the winter are often gray and overcast.  But the Monday after Thanksgiving we awoke to clear skies and a beautiful sunrise.  I am a sucker for taking sunrise and sunset pictures, as my

followers can no doubt surmise, given the picture I've chosen to headline this blog!

But now on to Thanksgiving.  We had a delicious meal and a lovely day.  Our son Rob from St. Louis, and his dog Twist, joined our daughter Susan, son-in-law Scott, and grandsons Malcolm and Dawson for the holiday.   Below are a few pictures from Thanksgiving Day.  Soon I'll post another blog with more

doings from my week in Michigan, that will include pictures of the other two important members of the family present on this occasion:  Rob's border collie Twist and the Gaynor/Baird's young Labradoodle Ace!  If I can get it from Susan, I'll also include a picture of the photographer, absent in the photos below--me!



Granddaddy carves the turkey, supervised
by Susan.

Malcolm, Dawson, Susan, Scott

Uncle Rob at the end of the table,
Malcolm, Dawson, Susan, Scott, and Granddaddy.
You can clearly see our delicious menu:
turkey, two kinds of dressing, green beans, mashed
potatoes, and rolls!  All very yummy.  When we went
around the table, from youngest to oldest, saying
what we were thankful for, both of the Gaynor boys
said "our family."  Son Rob said, "My mom's dressing!"



Dawson (6)
and Malcolm (9), admiring the pumpkin,
pecan, and buttermilk pies!  Susan
made the pecan and buttermilk
pies "from scratch."



Festival Quilts--Especially for Jo, Sharon, and Rosemary!

My friends Jo, Sharon, and Rosemary share my passion for blue and white china.  (We often threaten to "borrow" something blue and white from one another's homes--borrow permanently, that is!)  I've admitted to this passion in my "About Me" at the right, where I explain the "Alice" wall hanging.  A quilt in Houston made me think these friends.  It was in a section I almost skipped--the quilts in "Merit Hand Quilting."  Having long ago abandoned hand quilting, I thought that was one I could pass by.  But then this quilt caught my eye!  Not only is it totally hand quilted, and beautifully and intricately done, but it features blue and white vases and pitchers, all different, each holding a lovely appliqued bouquet.  The containers were obviously designed by the quilter and carefully constructed and appliqued, not an easy task with those delicate handles on many!  The flowers are hand appliqued.  So above is that gorgeous quilt, which as you see won a blue ribbon, and below, some close-up views of it:

This is a close-up of the lovely border design.

Here you can see close-up views of
the variously-designed containers. 

I studied each one to choose my
favorite, and this one won--perhaps
because I so love tulips!

International Quilt Festival and Kaffe Fassett

One of my true heroes in the quilting world is Kaffe Fassett.  I won't repeat his biography here; you can read it at the link.  He himself doesn't sew quilts, but he designs them.  He also designs out-of-this-world fabric which his able associates use to make his quilts.   This year in Houston there was a special exhibit of his quilts from one of his latest books called "Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts."  This was one of the first exhibits that we saw, and we returned to it several times.  I have many Fassett fabrics; enough, in fact, for two quilts.  I also own many of his books and am eager to get his latest.  Someday I will make these quilts for which I have the fabric--soon, I hope!  Below are some of the pictures of Fassett's spectacular quilts from Houston's Festival.  For some reason, I didn't always take a picture of the whole quilt.  I regret that!  I suppose I chiefly took close-ups as a reminder of how simply many of them are constructed.  Fassett's designs are an outstanding example of letting the fabrics themselves be the stars of the quilt:

This diamond quilt demonstrates the "simple shapes" principle.  The spectacular

nature of the quilt comes, of course, from the spectacular fabrics.

Here's a close-up which better shows his
fabrics, as well as the way this quilt is constructed.
No doubt, after "framing" the diamond-shapes, you sew
this quilt together in diagonal rows.  But this is a guess on
my part!

Again, simple shapes--framed squares, with an interesting and intricate sashing and cornerstones.



This shows the myriad of fabrics Fassett uses in a quilt, and the variety of those
fabrics.  I love the pinwheel cornerstones!



I love the "Indian Blanket" look to this quilt.

Circles, a simple shape, perhaps, but not so simple
to construct!  I'm sorry I took only close-ups of this, so
you can't get the full effect of this one, which I believe is
called Bicycle Wheels!

More Festival Quilts



This pink ribbon winner (honorable mention) had all sorts of charming
farm animals.  See the close-up of the dog below!

A friend expressed that she didn't care for animal portraits rendered in fabric.  I think she said that no cloth portrait could do justice to an animal.  Well, I hope to dissuade her with these animals in quilts that I particularly liked at the recent International Quilt Festival!

I thought the dog was particularly well-done.

I was most impressed with this cat, because NOTHING is quite as hard to render in
fabric as a black animal! 

And now my favorite--a well-deserved blue ribbon winner!

Easy Christmas Stockings!

My new quilting bee met at my house this week, and Rita showed us how to make Christmas stockings.  I mentioned this to a quilting and blogging friend, and she suggested I post the directions.  So here goes!  Thanks to Rita for the clear directions.  And I believe she got them herself from yet another person!

I use the larger rotary cutter
for the long straight edges of the
stocking and then switch to
the smaller one for the curved
edges.

I don't know how I can duplicate the pattern here on this blog, but it is easy enough to draw off a stocking pattern.  Ours is 16" long from the top cuff area to the lowest part of the foot; the cuff area is 8" wide; and from toe to heel measures 11".  You can get 2 stockings, front and back, from 1/2 yard of fabric, if the fabric doesn't have a directional print.  You need a bit more for 2 if the print is directional, as my snowman fabric is in the demonstration photos below.  For the lining, you need the same amount.

Cutting:  Cut 2 from the lining fabric, 1 front, and 1 back (these can be different fabrics or the same, as my snowman stocking is).  Also cut one cuff 16" x 8".  And cut one loop 8" x 2 1/2".  I used the lining fabric for the cuff on the snowman stocking. 

Sewing:



Here the lining and the
stocking fabrics have just been cut
out.



1.  Stack the front and back right sides together and the lining right sides together.

2.  Stack and pin all 4 layers together.  Sew from cuff edge to cuff edge.  I used a seam that was a bit over 1/4", to make sure I got all 4 layers included in the seam.

Sewing around the stocking

3.  Reach into the stocking between the lining fabric and turn the stocking so that the lining is on the outside.



4.  Fold the loop in half lengthwise and press.  Then fold the raw edges into the fold line and press.  Put these pressed edges together and edge stitch.

Pinning the loop to the stocking, with
lining on the outside

5.  Pin the hanging loop at the heel edge seam, raw edge placed at cuff raw edge.  I put my loop to the side of the seam, opposite where the seam allowance is, to reduce bulk.

Seam on the cuff pressed open

6.  Sew the short edge cuff seam and press open.  You will have a tube.  Turn and fold so that the seam is on the inside. 

Pinning the cuff to the stocking lining;
stocking front and back still
on the inside.

7.   Place the cuff over the stocking (still with the lining on the outside) and pull it down so that all raw edges are even.  Pin the edges together.

8.  Sew around the top of the stocking.  I always reinforce the area where the loop is with another line of stitches. 

Sewing the cuff on

7.  Turn the stocking ride side out and turn the cuff down.  Voila!  Your stocking is finished!

Festival, Part One: Some Portrait Quilts

The International Quilt Festival in Houston every fall is the largest quilt exhibition in the world, and it is Houston's largest convention.  Since I began quilting in earnest in 1998, I've attended almost every year.  Sometimes taking classes, but often not--often just feasting my eyes on the hundreds of quilts.

This year I attended with friend Carolyn from Dallas.  We spent two days and one evening at the Festival, not only viewing the quilts, but also shopping. 

It is difficult to do so, but I've tried to narrow down the hundreds of pictures I took to some of my favorite ones.  Some are traditional, some are art quilts.  All are inspiring!  Because I'd like to comment on the quilts, I've decided to break my remarks about Festival 2010 into several different postings.  Today's post focuses on portrait quilts.





This quilt, a blue ribbon winning quilt in the "Group Quilt" category,

is an outstanding example of using fabrics creatively to depict the
shadings of a face.  These 10 women from Australia each did
self-portraits, with the daunting challenge of using
Kaffe Fassett-designed fabrics,
 not flesh-colored, plain, ones! 
A close-up will demonstrate how successfully these
quilters met the challenge!



A close-up from the group quilt.  Click to enlarge to better appreciate the unusual
choice of fabrics, yet the creative way this portrait "works"!

A close-up of the book
reading girl, showing
how artfully this quilt
artist has depicted the shading
on the girl's face with appliqued
fabrics of different values.

  This quilt appealed to me also because of my own love of reading and my memories of how, as a young girl, I would get lost in a book, as this lovely young girl is--so lost that the horses from
her book are literally leaping from its pages!  Another thing I love about this quilt is the way the artist has used traditional quilt blocks, skewed, yes, but still traditional, to depict the sky and in the green quilt (or is it green grass?) below the girl.  Most definitely this quilt and a few others I'll discuss later was in my "top 10" or maybe "top 5" favorites!

Here's a close-up of another portrait quilt.  This is a
lovely example of another way to render portraits in fabric--this beautiful
young woman's face has been painted with fabric paint.

Here's the painted quilt, which is called "The Solace of Persephone."

Art from Nature--Nature as Art

Here Bob is looking inside--a photo which
gives you some perspective on
how large these are!

Yes, still more art in Central Texas!  Saturday Bob and I went to Cameron Park, the 461 acre park in Waco, one of the largest urban parks in the state.  A generous grant was recently awarded to the City to do much renovation work on this park, which was founded in 1910 on land given by the Cameron family.  During a recent arts festival in town, Patrick Doughterty and many volunteers began work on a series of stick scrulptures, a grouping of vessels in the area of the park known as Pecan Bottoms.  These vessel sculptures are truly amazing!  Yesterday was a beautiful day here at the end of October, a month that tends to be our nicest, weather-wise.  I am including pictures of the sculptures and some select few of various veiws from the park.



Stick Sculpture by Patrick Dougherty in
Cameron Park





A close-up view of how the willow branches are woven together

to form the sculptures

A closer look at the top





\

Lovers Leap--Cameron Park (of course,
there's a legend about two Indian
lovers, forbidden to marry by their
families, who leapt to their death from this cliff.  Wonder
how many locations in the US have such legends
about similar cliffs?)

Looking down the Bosque
toward where our
house is located



The Mouth of the Bosque (in Waco, the Brazos River and the Bosque
come together here.



Art-Filled Morning

I met two friends today to see a special exhibit at Baylor's Mayborn Museum.  The exhibit is called "Sacred Texts, Holy Images" and is an extensive collection of works by Georges Roualt and Marc Chagall.  The Roualts are his Miserere series; the Chagall's, his Bible series.  Words are inadequate to describe either one of these collections.  After about 20 minutes, I realized that to do them justice, I needed to come back and spend much more time than my friends and I had allotted.  In fact, I left the Roualts at that point, having seen perhaps only a fourth of them, and moved to the Chagalls.  Having just been steeped in recent Bat Mitzvah services and activities in our family, I found that these etchings and lithographs resonated powerfully with me.  (Not that the others didn't, but the Roualts were so moving and often disturbing that I felt I needed to be alone to take more time to ponder them.)  The links I've provided are excellent; the one for the Chagalls has a slideshow that includes most, if not all, the ones on display at the Mayborn.  Likewise the link for the Roualts has many of the Miserere series, too.

From the Mayborn we went across the street to the Martin Art Gallery.  Patty had seen a notice of two exhibits there that sounded intriguing.  Well!  What a surprise.  I had not heard of either artist, but all three of us were blown away by them.  One of the artists who had works exhibited was Makoto Fujimura.  His huge, abstract, brilliantly colored works were an anecdote for the black and white etchings and ink paintings in the other museum.  The other artist was Dornith Doherty, who currently lives in Dallas and teachers at North Texas University.  Her works are primarily photographs, but photographs unlike any I've ever seen.  Again, words cannot capture what she produces; only going to her website or Googling images of her works will suffice! 

Of course, photography was not allowed at either museum, so I have no pictures taken by me to display here.  I did, however, scan the brochure from the Martin Museum, which I will add below.  But these small images don't do justice to either artist.  Please click on the links to see much better representations of their works!

Our Halloween Baby: TWO Journal Quilts Honoring Her!

Forty-six years ago this week we were impatiently awaiting the birth of our first child.  She was due on something like October 15, so by this point, she was nearly two weeks overdue.  My mother had come on the due date to help out after we brought the baby home from the hospital, and needless to say, she was getting impatient, too!  Finally on Halloween night, our baby girl Kathy was born.  It was fun for all of our family through the years for her to have a Halloween birthday!  Many, many combination Halloween and birthday parties resulted.  I like to say that all three of our children have "special" birthdays.  Our son and youngest daughter share the same birthday, with Susan arriving on Rob's 5th! 

This year I decided to commemorate both Halloween and Kathy's birthday with a journal quilt.  Actually, the third try has proved to be the charm for this little quilt.  The first one I made, I goofed up by using a damp press cloth while fusing down some ink-jet-printed appliques, and of course, the ink ran and ruined the little quilt.  The second one turned out too"busy" and confusing looking, with just too much going on in such a small space.  But today's worked out just fine!  Actually I used ideas from each of the failures:  the printed words from the first one and the cupcake and little girl witch from the second!

The third journal quilt--my favorite!

After writing this, I checked my emails.  Several friends to whom I sent a picture of my journal quilt #2 seemed to like it!  So I am posting a picture of it, too, for comparison.  I told them that the picture looked better to me than the quilt in person!  I did like what one friend wrote:  Halloween is such a busy, fun-filled holiday, and the "busy" background on this quilt seems to capture that spirit!



The 2nd quilt--first rejected, now included!