Rocky Mountain High - ready to be quilted

When I used the word "adventures" in naming my blog, I knew I was using it in a facetious manner.  This week in the studio has been anything but adventurous.  However, it has been productive.  There are a lot of seams in Rocky Mountain High, but it is ready to go to T and F Quilting Studio.  As Weeks and Bill suggest in their book Quilts Made Modern, where this quilt design is from. I'm going to ask Terri and Frank to do some circular or spiral quilting to contrast with these strong vertical lines.   I have also created a corner in my studio with my laptop and a scanner in preparation for involvement with the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  More on that later.  I'm ending this week with a smile.  In Martha Stewart's words:  a good thing.

RockyMountain High - Process Post

This quilt, based on Weeks and Bill's Sea Glass is labor intensive. When I was teaching research papers, the kids were terrified. And I reassured them that we would do it step by step and bit by bit until the paper came together. That's exactly the kind of thinking I've had to use with this construction. The directions in their book Quilts Made Modern are specific and designed to reduce bending and curving in these looooooong vertical seams. Eve though I've only done a couple - see the right side of the photo - their construction method is working beautifully. Steady and slow wins the race - or finishes the quilt.

From sets of strips to blocks to...

The long strip sets in the previous post were cut into 6.675" blocks and then joined to another block. These 6.75" blocks of varying lengths are now being cut into 2.25" strips. The background I'm thinking of using is similar to the color of this work table. I think I'm beginning to see this although I have no idea what size this quilt will be.

New Project Takes Shape

In Jasper, Alberta, there was a charming quilt shop, Stytchen Thyme. And of course I had to buy something there. The US is where almost all quilt stuff comes from. So the best I could do is buy something that "reads" Canadian Rockies. I bought a jelly roll of fabrics by Moda (which interestingly enough was manufactured in South Korea). Then the creative angst of what to do with this began. Finally I decided to pattern this new project after the cover photo on Quilts Made Modern by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. Their quilt is Sea Glass - mine will be Rocky Woods. My sense of proportion isn't fine-tuned, and I'm really leaning heavily on these directions. This project will also be a continuation of my attempt to work light - the background for these rich colors is a Kona bone or white - still to be determined. It always feels good to get a project underway!

Brandon is 13!

All seven of the grandkids are terribly good-looking and well above average.  Brandon is the #5 of the seven.  And he was so incredibly cute that I just wanted to lick him.  He's still incredibly cute, but I am finally over the licking stage. I am, however, not over wanting to bake for him for his birthday.  His 3-layer coconut cake is the first of a two-baking installment.  Cinnamon rolls later this summer are yet to come. 

Here he is, almost two years ago, helping me sort and organize scraps.  In the words of Charles Dickens:  a remarkable boy.

A City Adventure

Fellow Chicago Modern Quilt Guild member Jacquie Gering just published her first book, along with Katie Pederson, Quilting Modern. Jacquie is doing a book signing at a shop in the city. AND this shop, The Needle Shop is in Bucktown, the neighborhood my husband grew up in. So I have my copy of Jacquie's book, neatly packed in an over-the-shoulder shopping bag I just finshed, and we're ready for John's blast from his past.

This is the last of my black-and-white striped bags.  Ebony got the prototype, and I mailed one to Jen, my dancer-niece in NYC.  Past CMQG president Beth has one, and this final one is for Jen Benoit-Bryant, last year's treasurer and this year's programming chair.  I'm keeping the one on the right. 

Back from the Canadian Rockies

 Our trip to the Canadian Rockies was lovely.  Jaspar, Banff, and Calgary were all well worth the visit.  Here we are at Lake Louise on June 1.  That's a glacier behind us,  And parts of the lake are still frozen!

With every picture I took I thought "landscape quilt."  I love this one because of the mountains, trees, grass, and especially the reflection in the water.

Unpacking today put me in the studio, and scraps kept leaping into my hands.  I don't know what this is.  But it's 12" by 18".  

And this little pouch is on its way to a guild friend who is finishing her school year, just as a happy June present. 

Excellent trip.  But good to be home. 

Up for Auction

Joyful Noise, the art quilt I made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative will be up for auction starting June 1.   I'm honored that out of all the quilts submitted in the past month, mine is one of 30 for the monthly auction. 

My guild has its own page of quilts. Look at them. Several of them have been purchased, mostly by another another. Sarah S bought Holly's, Ebony bought Jacquie's and Sue's and Emily's. I had to buy Eileen's. The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is a grass-roots fundraiser, headed by Ami Simms. What she's making us so painfully aware of is how pervasive this disease it and how much attention, research, and funding is needed.

Tomorrow is my 30th Wedding Anniversary. John and I are going to the Canadian Rockies for a week. I think it'll be a great place to clear out some cobwebs, look for inspiration, and recharge for what is to be.

A Different Kind of Rich Life

 

                                                                                                                                                                     Rich Carey was the Athletic Trainer at LT for years and retired in 2005.  His wife Linda saved all of Rich's t-shirts.  The two of them created this layout.  I was surprised at how involved Rich was in the process.  At one point he looked at this quilt and said. "This is my life."  And it is, one in which he interacted and impacted thousands of students.  My trusted long-armers Terri and Frank did the quilting.  I supervised and added the binding.  This is a 60" x 80" wall hanging.  Credit goes to Linda for being the project's impetus!

PS - I don't often get a picture of a gift quilt when it's given to the recipient, but here's a very happy Rich. Nice!

Beauty is Truth

This is Dawn Blossom, and I must quickly say it's not mine.  Bill Winkler gave me this quilt of his wife Lois to finish.  Lois died in 2002.  This was a quilt she designed and pieced in 2000.  (Please remember that you can click on any of these pictures to see the detail.)

I met Bill 7 years ago when he gave me a quilt top to quilt and bind.  I was honored that he entrusted me with his wife's work, and I did work hard to honor the spirit of that quilt.  At the time he said he had another quilt top.  Just last month he contacted me about it.

Dawn Blossom is a master quilt.  These wonderful radiant New York Beauty blocks are paper-pieced and there is some fabulous layered applique in the quilt.  One look at this quilt, and I knew it was out of my league.  But my trusted long-arm quilters Terri and Frank Karls I knew could handle it.  And sure enough, they did.  Look at some of the detail, both of Lois's work as well as Frank's quilting:

For years I taught John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" in Brit Lit.  And this quilt has given me a new image for the "beauty is truth, truth beauty,' – that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."  This quilt by Lois is beautiful.  It is a truth that was a part of her life.  And that is all we need to know.