Quilts & Writing on Blackboards

 Our PTA group had a field trip for our meeting last week to downtown Asheville - always such a great place to spend an afternoon. First stop was an exhibit by the Asheville Modern Quilt Guild at Handmade in America. It is a lovely exhibit with a wide range of styles - some modern, some traditional.

The green white and black quilt is by Emily Coffey and quite striking. The quilt to the right was created by Amy Anderson...another lovely piece. 

This is the raffle quilt made by members of the group and one of my favorites.

 This next piece is by Connie Brown and my personal favorite. Connie is a well known bee-keeper in Asheville; this piece is so personal and represents Connie's love of bee-keeping

 The main part of town has several large blackboards ground to around 7' high and little bins with big pieces of colored chalk. It says Before I die...I want to...........

Make a difference....be cool....

 

 This one caught my eye - use up all my fabric and right underneath it someone wrote - I want to do what she's doing with an arrow pointing up.  Looks like some quilters were here.

I would love a day in my studio without interruption....sigh....
Til next time....

Scrappy Quilt finished

I finished my scrappy quilt the other day and it was a good feeling to cross it off my list as well as being happy with the results. As I've mentioned so many times, I'm not a good piecer so something like this is more of a challenge to me. On close look, you'll see seams that don't line up but the overall effect is bright and happy and that pleases me.

 Some of you had asked about the overall dimensions, amount of blocks etc so you might do it with your fiber group.  I will say it's a lot more fun to do with others as everyone can contribute to the pile of fabrics giving you more of a variety. There were 4 of us from our PTA retreat last year who made this quilt.  We did all the cutting at home and brought them to retreat ready to go.  We set up our machines in a quandrangle and arranged the cut fabric in piles - in the middle.  The small squares were stacked according to color and the longer strips divided into blacks and whites.

 The finished quilt is 60" high and 42" wide finished.
Each unit is made up of one long strip (black or white) and one small 4 patch.
There are 14 units across the top and 6 units going down for a total of 84 units.

 All meansurements given include the 1/4" seam allowance.
You will need:
42 black with white print strips - 7 1/2" x 3 1/2"
42 white with black print strips - 7 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Small 4 patch  - 336  2" squares - should have pairs of color
We cut a lot more than was needed to give us lots of choices - what was left over will get used probably by our "resident piecer" - Kate who is faster than the other 3 of us put together.

 We did lots of little 4 patches and than randomly attached them to a longer strip - not too much thought - just grabbed and sewed.

We stitched the units going across and as you can see in the top picture the 1st unit has the 4 patch on the top; the next unit, the 4 patch was on the bottom, staggering them all the way across. We staggered each row like this. We attached the 1st row to row 2, then 3 and 4 together and then 5 and 6. Last we attached 1 & 2 to 3 & 4 and then to 5 & 6. This made it easier to handle.  The quilt is so busy, it doesn't need elaborate quilting so I quilted in the ditch. I then decided to go back and add some wavy rows of hand stitching using 2 strands of black embroidery floss.  I like doing this kind of stitching and thought it added a little extra something.

Our 2014 retreat is coming up soon and we're busy looking for some fun and easy quilts we might like to do, Can't wait!
Til next time.....Judy

Our Adventure in Boone, NC

My PTA group planned a trip to Boone, NC to see a fiber art exhibit at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. We were off and running in 3 cars and arrived in Boone around 11 am - just in time for lunch!
and the second half of the group minus Janice (the top of her head can be seen).

We drove to the Turchin Center where this very nice lady offered to take our group picture. I don't think she realized how many cameras were involved - click, click, click, click. She was a good sport.

The exhibit "12 Voices", sponsored by SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates) is a traveling exhibit featuring the works of 12 fiber artists and members of SAQA. Each artist submitted 4-5 pieces for the exhibit. My only disappointment was that I hoped to see all the works, not realizing that each gallery due to space limitations could only display just so many. None the less, it was still wonderful and inspiring. Some of the featured artists included Linda Colsh, Joan Schulze, Judith Content, Susan Shie, Clare Plug, Angela Moll and others. There was "no photography" but you could purchase a book of the exhibit featuring all the works, the artists and a short synopsis of how they work. I've poured over the book many times since yesterday and it's wonderful, beautiful photography and an interesting look into the personalities of these incredibly talented women. The show was hung beautifully, paying careful attention to those pieces with great "back" interest, allowing them to hang in a freestanding manner. One could walk around these pieces with a view from all angles.

After the exhibit, we ventured downtown, a charming college town with the usual hustle and bustle of student life.

And then onto Cathy's condo for beautiful views

and interesting table tops; don't you love the leaves!

We had our usual Show and Tell which is always inspiring. Mary Stori made a small piece for Connie having to do with a Pelican story Connie shared with us a while back. Mary is great for doing this, listening carefully to our stories and then surprising someone with a small and very personal piece she has created to depict that story. So now we are all trying to think of our best stories to casually drop in Mary's presence in hopes of getting one of her fantastic pieces.

Here is the wonderful piece and notice the beading on the edge!

And another one of Mary's pieces completely beaded!

Kate Weston did this next piece for a challenge for the Quilters of South Carolina conference this weekend. Kate marbled her own fabric and did a great job. The first step in marbling is to drop the paint which makes the "stones" pattern. This can be raked into another pattern or printed as is. Kate took a stylus and ran it through the stones (circles) to make the indent at the top and pulling out at the bottom to make the point at the bottom of the heart. I think it's fantastic. The binding still needs stitching but I'm so glad she brought it to share.

Kate covered the outside wide border with a gauze type fabric which subdued the marbling and gave it incredible texture. What a clever idea!

What a wonderful day, my mind is still spinning with inspiration from the exhibit and time spent with good friends.