On Crazy Quilting

Wow! It has been way too long since I've blogged but I'm going to make a concerted effort to begin again and blog frequently.

Since I last wrote I have fallen in love with the art of Crazy Quilting. I love the hunt for trims, threads, ribbons, etc. and the beautiful results that can be achieved with a minimal amount of practice. Of course, the more you do, the better you get... so that's the hook. Always looking for new ways to use the many items that you've hunted down. 

And then there's fabric.... The funny thing about Crazy Quilting is that the fabric is secondary, just a means to an end. As opposed to "sane" quilting, which I also love, where the fabric is the main event.

And best of all, there's the fellowship. We have a small group of crazy stitchers that meet once a month. We almost always have a Round Robin project in progress. A Round Robin is essentially a group project. There are many ways to do a Round Robin but recently we settled on the following method.  If you want to participate you must piece together one block for each participant. Then you embellish a "seed" block that sets the tone (colors, style, scale, etc.) for the rest of your blocks. Each month you embellish someone else's block and bring it to the meeting. This continues until all of the blocks have been embellished. The finished blocks are returned to their owner who turns the blocks into a finished product, usually a wall hanging off some sort. It's tons of fun and encourages you to do your best stitching. 

At our monthly meeting we always have time to share the projects we're working on, besides the Round Robin. Apparently we are very lucky to have such a group, we've heard that Crazy Quilting groups are few and far between. I cherish these friendships and have learned so much from them. 

Recently I was invited to the wedding of the daughter of our long-time friends, Bruce and Leslie Norton. The bride's a very feminine girl, a tall and lithe dancer whom I immediately thought would enjoy a small, crazy quilted purse. BUT I had never made one before, is that a problem? Not in my book. It did require a fair share of un-stitching and stitch lifting (copying another's stitches) and a large share of anxiety but it turned out lovely and now I want to make more. 
I'm so glad that I challenged myself to make that little purse, a feat I later learned that even my more accomplished crazy quilting friends had not undertaken.

Here is my first Crazy Quilted purse. I'm like a new mom, full of pride and joy at what I've created😁

Heading Back Home

We are heading home tomorrow and I just can't believe how quickly this month in Florida has gone by! I’m not sure if it has been the wonderful weather, the two and three hour walks on the beach, being able to Skype my sweet little granddaughter or, say it ain't so.... maybe I am getting older and time is just passing by faster. Noooooooooooo!

Regardless of the reasons, we'll be leaving soon and I have such mixed emotions. I love the peace and quiet here and I am able to do things I never find time for at home. Out here I can do jigsaw puzzles, read all day long, peruse all of the wonderful blogs that I find on the internet and I even re-organized my files on my laptop - something that I had been meaning to do for over a year!! PLUS the phone rarely rings – yahoo! Since we are renters and the Cape gets terrible cell phone reception, we rarely get a phone call, land line or cell phone. It is marvelous!

BUT I do miss my home... my bed, my sewing room, my kitchen supplies (there isn't one spatula here!), all of my stitching buddies and my girls (my daughter and granddaughter). So I guess it is a toss-up!
I am just so grateful that I get to have this time away from the COLD, SNOW and GLOOM of a Kansas City February. This year, in particular, I am super appreciative since my friends and family have had to put up with TONS of snow since we left Kansas City. I think in total I have heard of about 12” – 16” of snow – unbelievable and unheard of in the last decade! It proves the old adage that there is no place like home. The time away always makes me appreciate how much I love my home and the many wonderful things that go with it. 

 Before I left Kansas City I decided to keep track of all of the things that I make this year. In the past, when I look back on the year it feels like I didn't do much at all. Then I wonder, what the heck did I do with my time this past year. Well, I have a pretty good idea that I am not accounting for lots and lots of projects that were done so I thought it would be interesting to see what I actually do get done in a years time. I am keeping track in a notebook and I will post pictures and processes on here so that it will be documented. It will be fun to post the first few things that I made this year and just didn't get a chance to post!!

Well, I'd better rest up because there will be so much to do when we return, but it is all worth it. I can’t wait to get back to my studio and get cranking on the many wonderful ideas I have read about on the blogs I have been reading.

Kansas City Here We Come!

Just So Proud!!!

Many years ago I met a very sweet and funny gal at quilt guild. We quickly became quilting acquaintances and every month we would get caught up on what was happening in our lives. And then she started Machine Quilting like a demon and rubbing elbows with some pretty big names in the quilting world and now I never see her - at least in person.

This woman is Angela Walters and I am pleased to say that I knew her back when she hadn't even bought her first Longarm quilting machine. The other day I saw her - on the side of a semi truck!!

 Every time I turn around now I see that she is teaching a class at a national quilt show or teaching a new class on the Craftsy website or she is designing a new quilting pattern - this gal is always in the quilting news lately. This week she is lecturing at the Quilt Con event in Houston, TX - the newest big quilting event and it's for Modern Quilters. Of course, she's involved since she is a premier machine quilter for modern quilt makers (and traditional ones, too)!

Angela posts frequently on Facebook and it is so much fun to see what she's been doing and what famous person she has befriended this week! Also, she has a terrific blog that covers a lot of ground. My favorite takeaway is her discussions about why and how she has quilted a top in a particular manner. Since I do my own machine quilting, on my domestic sewing machine NOT a Longarm, I love the abundance of information that is available on Angela's blog.

What amazes me is how humble and sweet Angela has remained in spite of her new found fame. Her blog is NOT a brag-fest, telling us all about how she has done this great thing and that great thing. Rather, she shares what she has learned by trial and error so that we, as readers, will be able to make better quilting decisions and thus, be better quilters. This is so typical of Angela and what makes her universally appealing to so many people. 

I have no idea how she has time to see her husband and three sweet children but she does, and does it well. I truly admire this young lady and all that she has accomplished and I am so proud to say that I knew her back when.....

Her blog is http://quiltingismytherapy.com/ - take a minute and check her out and look her up on Facebook.

Process Pledge

I just added a badge to my blog that says "I took the Process Pledge". It is the brain-child of Rossie's blog    http://r0ssie.blogspot.com Basically the pledge states that as a blogger I will post more about the processes involved rather than posting a finished product. I totally understand this concept because I love to look at other artist's journals or idea books that contain the sketches and notes that contributed to the design choices that were made along the way.

So by taking the Process Pledge I will be posting more about the beginnings of a project and also the various steps along the way with copies of my sketches or photos or books I read that inspired me to take a certain direction in my project. I think it is a wonderful idea and hope to be able to hold up my end of the bargain!

Fall Outing and AQS Quilt Show

Last Friday was one of those perfect Fall days so we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. My daughter, grand-daughter and I went out to the Deanna Rose Farmstead and roamed around for several hours, just enjoying the company of each other.There is so much to see and do there, most of which revolves around life on a farm so there are lots of animals, tractors and hay. It is days like this that make me so happy that I have a grandchild so I can go and do things like this without looking foolish. As you can see by the pictures below, a good time was had by all!!

Saturday I went on a bus trip to Des Moines, IA for the AQS Quilt Show/Des Moines Area Quilt Show. What a fabulous show - we go every year and I never get to see it all because there are so many quilts and vendors. The quilts are so fabulous that I have to examine each one with my nose almost touching the quilt to see if it is done by hand or machine or to see if it is pieced or painted or to see a particular technique up close to figure out how it was done. That is why it takes me so long - well, and also I have to visit each vendor to see what wares they can tempt me with (which isn't always very difficult, unfortunately).

The first quilts we looked at were done by 50 up and coming Japanese quilt artists and boy, were they something else! I definitely had my nose close to several of those. Not all of them were done using the typical taupe and beige hues, these flamboyant new quilters are using more of the red/orange/yellow hues. But, as one would expect from the Japanese quilters, the technical aspects were perfection and the math that had to be employed was astounding.

I like to get up close to the quilts to see what machine quilting patterns they are using and I wasn't disappointed this time as I found two new patterns that I believe I can use often. One looks like the Cathedral Windows quilt block and the other is a daisy chain. I just need to sit down at my sewing machine to figure out how to quilt them with the best flow from one motif to the other. The daisy chain is relatively easy, I think, and I believe I know how I will do the Cathedral Windows but both will take practice to get them perfected to the point where I am comfortable using them on  a quilt.

Lazy Daisy quilt pattern

Cathedral Windows quilt pattern

A lot of the vendors were selling wool patterns and products so I just had to purchase several little wool projects, well, more than several. Put it this way, I can't leave this earth for many, many years because I now have at least a 50 year back log of projects that I want to make.

I also bought an adorable red work pattern of a small child rising in the morning to put at the head of my granddaughter's bed. I found some hand-dyed floss that is a reddish/pink (red just wouldn't go well in a room with pinks and purples) that will be perfect for this project! I know you are supposed to use RED floss in RED work but I have a very hard time following the rules!The pattern is already traced onto unbleached muslin and ready to start.

Aren't Quilt Shows great? It doesn't get much better than 40 quilters, many of whom are my closest friends, piling on a bus and heading to a place that is filled with beautiful quilts and friendly vendors. Wandering around for hours until your feet won't let you go any more and then getting back on the bus with your head filled with ideas and inspiration. The night after I have been to a quilt show is always a restless one because I am creating so many quilts in my mind that it just won't let me rest. It's great.

Since we are going to be doing some extensive traveling in the near future, I have been stockpiling hand work projects to take along to keep me busy in the car. It is the only way that I can sit in the car for 8 - 10 hours at a time.

Well, off to put a very small dent in my quilting projects. Thanks for tuning in for today!!

A Snap-Shot of our glorious day at Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park, KS.....

My girls on the hay ride - aren't they lovely??

Farmer Kayla

Yum! Chocolate Ice Cream. We are all crazy for ice cream!

Free Motion Quilting Challenge - March

Another post for a long completed FMQ entry.  I did the March challenge in May but since I am the world's worst procrastinator I did not get it posted until now - bad, I know.  Since I have been planning on doing all of the tutorials at some time before the end of the year, it really doesn't matter what order I do them in OR what order I post them in!

The March FMQ tutorial is by Ann Fahl and, boy, it was loaded with information! Ann shares my passion for quilting with variegated threads - I just love them! My favorite way to use them is in combination with some rich, luxurious solids- you just can't beat that combination. She preferred Superior Rainbow and YLI, I haven't used YLI but will give it a try now! I will be reading Ann's book Coloring With Thread in the near future so that I can learn more from a fellow thread-aholic.

Ann uses a titanium coated topstitch needle from Superior Threads - use the appropriate size needle for the thread that is being used. I have been using a universal needle but I am learning that there are better needles to use (Paula Reid uses a denim needle for its sharp point).

I found the section on 'Order of stitching/quilting to be invaluable - it is quite similar to the method that Sandi McMillian presented at my quilt guild in May and her quilts were spectacular with large motifs quilted on her domestic machine. It is too lengthy to include here so I have copied this section and put it into my Machine Quilting notebook for future reference. If you are interested in it, add a comment here with your email address and I will email the information to you.

To move the fabric under the quilting needle, Ann also uses a version "Stuff & Fluff" or whatever you wish to call it. The quilt rests on her chest ready to be pushed under the needle. She then fluffs the quilt off her chest and pushes the free or loose edges toward the needle - thus only moving the immediate area rather than the entire quilt. Also, she pays particular attention to all four corners - always knowing where they are will prevent you from inadvertently folding a section under and quilting it, too. Seems to be a common theme amongst most of the machine quilters who use their domestic machines to quilt larger quilts.

Here are my samples from Ann's tutorial:

It is so heartening to learn that there are so many large quilts being quilted with domestic machines because after all, not all of us have the space and/or money to make use of a long-arm quilting machine. These tutorials at SewCalGal have been invaluable to me for solid and tried & true techniques that have been used over and over again.

Free Motion Quilting Challenge - September

After some absence, I really am hoping that I will post more regularly. I think about what to post here often but the leap from my head to my blog just doesn't happen!

I am participating in the Free Motion Quilting Challenge at Sew Cal Gal's blog. Each month there is a video by the featured quilter with machine quilting tips and techniques as well as sharing some great machine quilting patterns for us to use. This has been in place since January 2012 and I have learned so much! Haven't always submitted my "homework" on time but it is the learning experience that counts.This is one of those rare months when I have completed my homework and submitted it in time to be eligible for the monthly prize package - yippee!

September's featured quilter is Paula Reid and she has shared her "Fluff & Stuff" technique for quilting large quilts on a domestic sewing machine. This woman has quilted more than 1400 quilts on her domestic sewing machine NOT a long-arm quilting machine - amazing - and she said that 3/4 of them were queen or king sized. So good to know that it is possible to quilt the larger quilts without using a long-arm!! Basically, Fluff & Stuff is what I have been doing myself, although I might not be as deliberate in my "fluffing" but I will be working on that. Paula is suggesting that you fluff the quilt up on to your chest and then stuff the quilt through to get quilted. The fluffing is what helps to keep the quilt from getting hung up while feeding through the needle and keeps things moving smoothly.

In addition to the video Paula had several great tips that I will definitely be trying like working in 90 minute increments and then making yourself stop and do something else for awhile - anything to help maintain good stamina and focus is good for me! She also suggests using a straight-stitch throat plate - I haven't tried it yet but her reasoning really made sense to me and since I have such a throat plate I will be trying it out. Also she uses a jeans needle instead of a universal needle because the jeans needle is sharper which allows for straighter quilting lines. The one suggestion she has which I won't (or can't) do is to put your sewing table in a corner so that the back and one side of the table are against a wall thus keeping larger quilts up on top of the table so you aren't fighting them all the time. I can't do this because no matter how I configure my sewing room I just can't get my table in a corner and still be able to open doors or move about the room so I must pass on this suggestion, although it sounds like an excellent idea!

Finally, Paula shared a quilting pattern with us and I quilted it up using the transfer technique that Don Linn taught us earlier this year. I don't know how often (if ever) I will use this pattern. It was not specifically for continuous quilting and so there are a lot of lines that must be re-traced which made it very difficult to quilt.

 Here is how mine turned out:

Another trip

We are off on another trip - Upstate New York this time. My family has a summer cottage on Skaneatelas (skinny-at-lass) Lake. It is one of the Finger Lakes that stretch across Central New York. The cottage has been in our family for three generations now and it is a treasure to us all.

I guess I won't be doing much quilting because the belt is broken on the lovely old Singer sewing machine that is here and I just can't seem to remember to get a replacement!

When I return to KC I will have 1 1/2 days at home and then it is off again for a Crazy Quilting retreat in O'Fallon, Illinois for six, yes six, days of free-for-all crazy quilting. We went last year and had so much fun we just had to go again this year. I like to go to retreats where there are classes but I would really rather just do my own thing. This particular retreat will have many "teachers" who will show me plenty of new things while I am there!

So while I am here I will be doing some work on my crazy quilted Winter Scene - I would love to finish it so I can have some show 'n tell at the retreat! Also, there is an intriguing book that I want to read called "The Creative License - Giving Yourself Permission to be the Artist you truly are" by Danny Gregory. I hope the book is as interesting as the title.

In addition to those two things above, I should read up on the June Free Motion Quilting Challenge tutorial so that I have the reading portion done and can, hopefully, get the sewing portion done before the end of June so I qualify for the June prizes!! June's featured quilter is Cindy Needham. If she is like the other featured quilters she will have lots of great quilting tips for me - can't wait to hear what she has to say.

Picture below is of our family cottage in Upstate New York followed by a shot of the Judge Ben Wiles, a lake tour boat that comes by each Sunday afternoon.

Free Motion Quilting Challenge - May 2012

I have been participating in the Free Motion Quilting Challenge at Sew Cal Gal (http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com) Each month a well-known machine quilter is featured. They do a tutorial about machine quilting that is full of their own tips and tricks. The tutorial is followed by some exercises that are done to incorporate the new information that has been presented by the featured quilter. These exercises are uploaded to the Sew Cal Gal website. Although this challenge has been going on since January, this is the first month that I have had it all together in time to submit. Eventually I will submit all twelve months but won't be able to win the monthly prizes for the late months but I will be eligible for the grand prize if I have all twelve exercises updated.

SO..... May's featured quilter is Leah Day, a sweet, down-to-earth quilter who had some great advice for us. Since I have been machine quilting for 15+ years I have the basics down but there are always new products and products I haven't thought I needed to use.

One of the products that I actually had on hand but had never used because it is kind of cumbersome, is the Supreme Slider. The Supreme Slider is a Teflon sheet that sits on top of the sewing machine bed and has a slightly tacky underside to keep it in place. It creates a very smooth surface which assists with moving your quilt around under the needle while you are quilting. I pulled my Super Slider out of my closet and tried it - the jury is out... maybe I already had a smooth surface so I didn't need it as much as other machines. I mentioned cumbersome, it makes it inconvenient to change your top-loading bobbin out since you must remove the slider to get access to your bobbin case. I will probably keep using it until I get tired of it being in the way....

Another new product Leah talked about is Bobbin Washers. They are wafer-thin Teflon circles that go under your bobbin, inside the bobbin case. Because they are Teflon they help the bobbin spin freely and will help eliminate backlash and birdsnests from the backside of your quilt. Haven't tried them because I haven't found the correct size for my machine PLUS they are rather pricey - about a dollar each for a wafer thin circle of Teflon!

One last product that Leah mentioned that I was interested in was a brand of polyester thread called Isacord. I have never heard of this thread before and couldn't find it at the quilt show I just attended so I guessI will have to wait to try it out. Leah uses this thread exclusively. I looked at the prices on her website and it looks to be about the price of Superior threads - $6/1,000 yds for solids and $9.95/ 1,000 yds for varigated thread. It would be worth trying.

Leah had a great idea to help with machine quilting "practice". She has you make up at least 12 "layer cakes", or "sandwiches" as I call them, and keep them near your sewing machine. I like to make large layer cakes (at least 10" square) so that by the time I have completed the practice session, I really can remember the motions that were required to make this pattern. I will try to practice a quilting pattern as often as I possibly can - it can be a new pattern that I saw and liked or it can be one I have already practiced and had a hard time with and so I still need the practice. When I know that I will be using a particular set of quilting patterns on an upcoming project, I will practice them for a few days before I use them. This improves the "muscle memory" for these patterns. There really is a "memory" of sorts in your hand and finger muscles -I have definitely felt this to be true when I am making small circles or pebbles - the first circle I think about but the second circle just happens because my muscles remembered the motions of the first one. IT'S TRUE!! Another reason Leah has for practicing often is because we may go for months and months and not quilt anything and this keeps our machine quilting fresh in our minds.

I really liked the tip that Leah had for hiding dangling threads - although my thread cutter cuts off the thread so close to the fabric it is hard to make this work on my machine but I could use it on the beginning threads. First you pull up the bottom thread so that you now have two threads in hand. Thread a self-threading needle with those two threads and then take those threads between the layers of the quilt to hide them. I thought this was a nifty way to do this!

The exercises that Leah had us do were two "overall" patterns that she said she used a lot. The first one is called Double Stippling (below on right) and the second one is called Railroad Tracks Stippling (below on left - basically Double Stippling with a twist). They are double stippling because you lay down a stretched-out stippling line and then stipple across it - thus, double stippling.

My samples are below. If you would like to participate in the Free Motion Quilting Challenge, just click on the icon in the upper right hand corner of my blog.

Thanks for reading and Happy Quilting!!

I love a Quilt Show!!

Last Friday was my birthday and I celebrated in the best fashion I know - I went to a quilt show with my quilting buddies. We went down to the Machine Quilters Showcase in Overland Park, Kansas and it was well worth the drive.

I am completely blown away by the quilts that are coming off the beds of our sewing machines these days and what I truly am amazed at (and inspired by) is the fact that many of them are being done on a domestic machine, NOT a long arm quilting machine.

I took tons of photos to show the different quilting patterns that were on display and some of the great top designs. I do this at all of the quilt shows and now I have a pretty good dictionary of quilting patterns on my laptop. Of course it isn't organized in any manner but by plowing through all of my photos I may find one that unexpectedly jumps out at me instead of the pattern I was looking for.

This particular quilt show, Machine Quilters Showcase, is one of my favorites because there is so much emphasis on machine quilting designs and I am currently working diligently at improving my machine quilting skills on my Janome sewing machine. The abundance of quilts done on the smaller sewing machines has really given me a boost of confidence and great hope that more quilts, including mine, will be done on domestic machines.

It bothers me when I see a beautiful quilt that was pieced by one person and quilted by another because the credit is given to the person who pieced the quilt and often the quilt is spectacular because of the quilting NOT the piecing. We never had this problem when both processes were done by the same person. With more machine quilting being done on our domestic machines, maybe we can get back to the way it used to be - a quilt that is pieced and quilted by the same individual. Then I won't be so bothered.....

Let's hope that this is done sooner rather than later!!

National Scrapbook Day - Virtually!

I have been having a blast participating in an online celebration of National Scrapbook Day that lasts all week long - April 27th - May 5th! This event was just what I needed to give me a boost to get going on some long awaited scrapbook pages. 

Each day there is a challenge posted online, you make your page(s) and then upload them to the Creative Memories Home Page on Facebook.  You can see all of the other pages that have been done, too, which is wonderful to gather new ideas. Today's challenge is to make a page with a picture from childhood and journal the memory that goes with it. Well, I have lots of pictures right here by my desk waiting to be scanned in to my laptop but the hard part will be deciding which one(s) to use on a page! I have been able to do two out of the four challenges posted and I really hope to get today's done - I have until midnight!!!

Challenge #1 - Use Colors that were given to us - I used Orange, Grey and Baby Blue

Challenge #3 - Use tags in an unusual way - as you can see I used them for the bunny's ears and for journaling - not the best bunny around but it works  :)

Spring Cards

I have to admit this.... some of my "Christmas" cards still haven't been sent. As the month of January marched on and on and I still hadn't sent out some cards it just became too embarrassing to send them out so I didn't. 

For the past several years it has been mid-January, or so, before my holiday cards were sent out. I have seriously thought that I should send Spring cards in March or April. This year I did it on a small scale. For the remaining ten or fifteen holiday cards that weren't sent, I am sending the Spring cards pictured below. 


Next December it just makes sense that I should send my cards out in the Spring. It will be a rather strange feeling because the card making process is always foremost on my mind throughout the month of December (even though nothing ever gets accomplished). 

I may have to send some holiday cards because I still have 20-30 hand made cards leftover from this past year that I just couldn't let go to waste. Maybe I could donate them to one of the many charitable auctions that I participate in each year.....
 
These cards came out so cute I just love them, especially the 3-D butterflies. It will be interesting to see if I get any feedback on this new tradition. 
 

Meghan's Bull's Eye Quilt

OK - where is she? who has kidnapped Mary so that she can't write in her blog???? No one - well, I guess that means that Mary has been neglecting her little ol' blog lately... sorry.

First of all, my beloved Kansas University Jayhawk's basketball team lost in the NCAA Men's Finals last night. Even though they lost they played their heart out for the entire tournament and are winners in my mind. It has been so much fun watching the team go so far in this year's tournament and now I can finally grow out my fingernails that have been chewed to nubbin's in the last two weeks. So many close games!!

A lot has happened since I came back from Florida hopefully most of the high points will show up in subsequent blogs. I had two quilting retreats in March, yes two retreats. It was great and I definitely could do that more often because I just love getting away for the weekend and quilting, laughing, shopping and eating junk food with my girlfriends! Our preference is a 4-day retreat : Thursday - Sunday. You can really get so much more done when you have two full days to sew.

For several months now I have been working on a quilt for Meghan, my 28 year-old daughter. The main body of the quilt is the Bull's Eye block with 4-color squares for the border. The fabrics are from Amy Butler and, because I needed so many different fabrics, some just closely resemble her fabrics. The reason this quilt has taken so long is partly due to the fact that the colors and patterns are very wild and vivid and it has been a struggle to keep things in line, so to speak. It has been a huge learning experience for me and not everything has been done exactly to my liking but I think the end result will be a fun and colorful quilt.

With such wild blocks I felt it was necessary to put a sashing in to give the eyes a rest while viewing the quilt. I looked for over a month for the perfect sashing and finally found it when I was about to give up and use something predictable like a plain green or orange. The sashing is a slightly darker green background with small stripes that match the colors in the quilt perfectly. It is a little muddier than I would like but it works - as with life, not everything is a perfect match.

Ironically, I did end up deciding upon non-patterned fabrics for the final border because I didn't want to introduce a new Amy Butler fabric and didn't want to use any of the fabrics that were already in the bulls-eye blocks. I am using 4-color squares, or quarter square triangles, not sure what to call it using the colors of burnt orange, green, orange/red and periwinkle. Sounds weird but I think it will be just the ticket for the last edges of the quilt. I will add a picture of the border squares as soon as i have one made up.

When I asked Meghan if she wanted it professionally quilted or if she wanted me to quilt it she said that she wanted it quilted by me - so sweet but it is a very large quilt to do on my domestic machine. I have done a queen sized quilt and know that I can manage that so what I am going to do is quilt it before i add the border so that it will be smaller. The batting and backing will be the actual final size and I will have to roll and pin them to keep them out of the way. We'll see how it goes...

Close Up of Meghan's Bull's Eye Quilt

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Well, we just returned from a month long trip to Florida and I really enjoyed the getaway BUT it is always great to come back home where everything is familiar. It was so great to see my little 3-year-old granddaughter and her mom, my daughter. Also was fabulous to get into my studio – I missed it so much!

I have a relationship with my studio and when I get back to it after a long absence, I really do appreciate it more – much like a marital relationship.

When my studio gets too cluttered, it is difficult to see all of the good things that the room holds, much like when I throw too much clutter into my marriage and then I can’t remember why I fell in love in the first place. When that happens in my room I get very frustrated because I can’t find anything and spend all of my time hunting for stuff and then I start throwing things around – argh! When that happens in my marriage, I can get very frustrated and start throwing verbal bombs that can land and be destructive to both of us.

The one difference is that I always try and resolve issues with my husband before we go to sleep… my studio, not so much.

Take some time today to appreciate your studio for all of the wonderful things that it gives you and, take some time to appreciate those people that you tend to take for granted.

And now that I have reacquainted myself with my studio, I am off again - heading out to Valley Falls, Kansas for a quilting retreat - fun, fun, fun!!!

Florida Fog

 Unbelievable! It has been "thick as pea soup", as my Mom used to say, for the last several days. I am thinking about renaming Florida to the Foggy State instead of the Sunshine State! Before the fog it was extremely windy. If you were to walk on the beach you were blown out of your shoes! I really don't mind a few days of down-time where I can just stay inside and do jigsaw and Soduku puzzles, read and work on my crazy quilt but now it is time for things to clear off and give us some nice SUNNY DAYS!!

Look at that surf - it was wild and very LOUD!

Here are what the battered shells looked like the next day....

Crooked Island trip

Photography is one of those art forms that travels easily. All you need is a camera and a laptop! I love to post photos, especially travel photos, on Facebook and share my adventures with my friends. When we're in Florida, I really love taking pictures of the birds. From those big, graceful Pelicans to the little sand pipers that chase the waves, I love to photograph them all.

I took a jaunt last Thursday to Crooked Island beach (on the northern edge of Mexico Beach, Florida). It is supposed to have great shelling, especially sand dollars. It was a 60 mile round trip so I was a little peeved when I arrived and saw that the forestry people were there doing a controlled burn and had the access way blocked with their truck. Grrrr!  SO... I stopped in Mexico Beach to check out the beach there because I had never been on that beach before. Not such a great beach but lots and lots of birds, probably because there weren't any people around. I got some great pictures - my favorites were of the little terns (like a sea gull) with their tufted heads. They looked like they were having a very "Bad Hair Day" - just might have to do a scrap book page featuring those little birds!

A Little More ....

SO... to summarize the long post from the 8th -- once I determined that it was OK to have a large number of artistic interests I was able to move on and enjoy each one of them for what they bring to the table.

Now I strive to CREATE something artistic, beautiful and meaningful as often as possible. I would never say that I try to do it each day because life gets in the way of crazy goals like that and then I could be right back to where I was before -- feeling guilty!

Genuine CREATIVITY is looking at things differently and to make "art" using this new found perspective.  All the more reason to pull ideas and skill sets from all of the art genres that I love so much.

Finally – I’ve got it figured out!!

I have always thought that I have too many artistic pursuits for my own good and that I really should buckle down and pick one or two. NOW I know that I was looking at it all WRONG! Rather than thinking of each craft as an individual pursuit I now think that they should be viewed as one -- all merged together to make “My Art”.

Honestly I can’t say how many times I have tried to decide which pursuit I should give up and it was just impossible to come up with a satisfying answer…

Could I stop making cards? Never! I could not ever stop giving those little artistic masterpieces (as one of my friends calls them) to my friends and family. Maybe I could get rid of my scrap booking supplies and stop scrap booking? Never! I LOVE documenting events, emotions and people that touch my life and mean so much to me. Well, I don’t make very many little books – maybe I should stop making my little books? Never! For one thing, most of the supplies I use to make my little books are the same as card making and scrapbooking so there isn’t much to be gained there. AND I would be lost without the little books I have made for myself and I have seen the joy that the books I make for others can bring so who would want to stop that craft?

So let’s say I keep all of my paper crafting pursuits and I give up my textiles (cotton and fancy fabrics) and sewing supplies that I use in quilting; art, traditional and crazy? Never-Never! Embroidery was my first love at the age of 10 or so and fabric was my second (after I recovered from my HS Home Economics teacher!). I have been actively quilting since 1990 and when I need to feel better I just go upstairs and “play” with my fabrics. Me quitting that pursuit - that will just never work so forget it!

Maybe I could give up making wool projects? I know that my husband would love to see all of those bins of wool that I have collected (about 12 huge bins)…Never! Wool is the easiest and most versatile textile to work with and can be utilized in so many different ways – wall hangings, rugs, clothing embellishment, handbags and small carry-alls, oh! the list goes on and on….

Well, maybe I could do away with my cotton, silk and wool dyes and dyeing supplies? Well, if I do that I will be eliminating a crucial surface design option which I use for EVERYTHING so, that will Never! work. 

I also could consider putting my camera away and and not try and capture those once-in-a-lifetime pictures that I love to take. (see photo of the Sandpiper below). It is still a learning experience for me but I really enjoy it so much so no... Never! gonna give up my efforts to capture wonderful moments in time.

SO – after this very long self-examination I see that I CAN NOT eliminate any of my many artistic passions…Never! They are all inter-related and fused into each other. When I learn to make a pretty paper flower, that same flower can be used in a scrapbook, a card or a book and with some stabilizer it could be made out of fabric or wool and used on a textile.

However..... lately I have seen some really cute hats and scarves that have been KNITTED and would be adorable on my granddaughter….. better stop while I am ahead. I think I have enough projects to keep me busy for now.

See the little creature that is in the Sandpiper's bill? How did I ever get this picture!

New Look - More Posts

I PROMISE to improve my blog to make it more interesting and visually appealing!!

A Long Time Coming

Well, it has been quite awhile since I have posted - kind of the same way I do paper diaries... I think I see a pattern here!

Since last time I posted, I have taken up Crazy Quilting (CQ) - yes, another craft, but I love the creativity of CQ and the fact that there really are not any RULES.

I also have discovered Pinterest - great website to post to and to browse around. Beware, you might get lost in pinterest-land for hours on end.