Say Ahhhhhhhh...

In January I spoke to the Lake County Quilters Guild in Florida. The members were SO welcoming and friendly; I had such a good time. While I was there, I gave a talk about my journey from traditional quilter to art quilter. I brought LOTS of quilts to show examples of each quilting "stage" I had gone through. I recently received an email from a friend telling me that one of the guild members had made a piece that was inspired by one of the quilts I had shown. I knew I wanted to do a blog post about the quilt as soon as she sent me a picture.

Lately, there has been a big discussion of derivative work, work "inspired by" the work of others, and copying work. I wanted to do a blog post showing you a great example of a piece INSPIRED by but not COPIED from another. This is Kelly Woodworth's piece called "Open wide and say Ahhhh. Okay, I see it. You have a frog in your throat."

Kelly explained to me that she made the quilt for a guild challenge based on a saying and said she almost went with a quilt based on "drinks on the house" until she saw my piece. The size of her quilt was dictated by the rules of the challenge and is 10" X 17". Kelly says, "When I saw Spike's black and white top, I knew it could be my hair or hat. It just talked to me. I took a picture (with permission of course) and then went home to start my challenge. It was the perfect inspiration! I got a blue ribbon with my little quilt and at the end of the show I also won Viewers' Choice! Thanks Beth!!" Well, I have to say I was REALLY thrilled to have been the inspiration for such a wonderful piece.

So that you can see what she saw and used for inspiration, here is a picture of me with "Spike" when I gave my talk to the quilt guild. (The real name of my piece is "Brain Freeze," but I have always referred to her as "Spike.")

(I didn't realize, till I saw this picture, that I wore an outfit that matched "Spike!")

As you can see, Kelly did a great job of using "Spike" as inspiration--not a copy--for her piece. Congratulations on your well-deserved awards Kelly!

If you would like to see other quilts from the Lake County Quilters 2015 show, click here.

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You Have to Remove All Those Little Pieces of Card Stock

I met with one of my stitching groups yesterday afternoon. Guess what I worked on? You're right...my never-ending hexie project! English paper piecing is the only way I'd know to do this project, so there comes a time when all those little templates have to be removed. Yesterday was time to start taking out some of the templates on the middle section. I like to leave them in for awhile for a couple of reasons--it gives the piece a bit more stability while I'm dragging it everywhere and it gives me time to make sure I haven't placed one of the colored hexies in the wrong place. (With a pattern as difficult at the one on which I'm working, that is a distinct possibility.) If I remove the templates and THEN find the mistake, it is much harder to rip out the offending piece and replace it with another. Ask me how I know!

I worked for 3 hours and 37 minutes to take out this many templates.

First, all the basting threads have to be removed, then all the little cardstock pieces have to be taken out. Some people reuse a template numerous times, but mine are so beat up (because I drag it everywhere I go) that I can only use them once. That means I have to spend quite a lot of time cutting out templates too. (I print them onto cardstock on my printer and cut them out by hand. I know, I know...I'm a glutton for punishment; but I didn't think ahead when I started this project. I printed out my first batch of templates and used those BEFORE I realized how many I'd actually have to cut out. Now, I'm afraid to use preprinted ones, because I'm afraid they wouldn't exactly match these in size.)

It is a REALLY long process, but I hope the finished product will be worth the time involved. I'll be posting an updated project picture before too long.

 

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Working on the Go

Last week was spring break week for my grandchildren; we made a trip to Branson--Silver Dollar City. I am still working on my never-ending hexie project, so I got some hexies ready to baste while I was traveling. Here are the fruits of my labor (done in the car). I spent about 2 1/2 hours basting these hexies.

Of course, I'm also going to have to include a couple of "gratuitous" pictures of my grandchildren. I always feel that time with them is precious.

This is a picture of the older kids--left to right Holland, Sebastian, Bianca, Lula, and Cade. (June Beth, my youngest granddaughter, wasn't interested in being in this picture--she doesn't like to share the spotlight!)

This is June Beth.

I'm already looking forward to spending spring break with the kids again next year. I AM hopeful, however, that the weather will be a little better. For the last two years, the weather has been in the 30's and 40's. That's a bit nippy for spending the day at an amusement park. We never let that put a damper on our fun, though.

 

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Ahhhhh...Retreat!

I feel very fortunate this week; I got to attend another retreat. This is a bit different from my usual "quilt retreats;" though, it is more of an art retreat. This is a retreat with some friends from my LAFTA (Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists) group. This is such a diverse group; each of us really has very unique areas of emphasis. There is some machine sewing that goes on, but there is a wide variety of activities going on--haiku writing, knot tying, beading, hand stitching, computer designing, stenciling, fusing, sketching, piecing, painting, drawing up patterns, etc. I always feel like I learn SO much and get SO much done when I attend this retreat.

Each time we get together, we update each other on the progress of our work. Some people have quite a show and tell of work they have completed since we were last together; others show current work. Some have pieces in progress and would like a critique of their work. I don't photograph these things because many of these artists will be entering shows where the pieces cannot have been shown ANYWHERE before. I certainly don't want to screw up anyone's chances of getting into a show because I inadvertently posted a picture of their work.

When I put up my "show and tell," I finally had a chance to take a picture of my hexie project progress. I have been putting in a lot of work on this project and finally reached a point where the two separate pieces could be joined. (I won't actually be joining them until I am TOTALLY finished with ALL the rows in these sections.) You can see that I have some work yet to do on them.

I happened to take a picture of my work space. You can see what is important to me by taking a look at what is on my table.

You see my hexie project on the chair and the pieces in the green boxes scattered over the table. Of course, I have my iPhone, iPad, keyboard, and books handy. I have a beading project and task lamp at the ready. And who can do without coffee, wine, and Atomic Fireball candy?

Here is a picture of the room we had to work in.

What a nice space it is! The large room is well lit (with extra table lamps if needed). Extension cords, irons and ironing boards, rotary mats and rulers are provided. There are also two large design walls and smaller individual design walls available. Each workspace has a nice large table and a comfy, padded, swivel chair.

What a pleasure it has been to visit with friends and work on what we love. I can't wait till next year.

 

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Finished!

I have been pretty good about posting my most recently finished "Penguin Cheer" Block of the Month block. Thanks to a recent guild retreat, I have finished the quilt top. I know it is a "cutesy" pattern, but I had a certain little girl in mind as I made it. My quilting group (Stitch & Bitch) decided we would do it together. We were supposed to have our blocks done in time to show at each of our monthly meetings. I don't think any of us actually had the blocks done each month, but two of us HAVE finished our quilt tops. This is mine; I'm happy with how it turned out. Now, just when do I think this will get quilted?

If you are interested in purchasing this pattern, you can find it at FatCat Patterns. Right now (for this month) it is $10.95; the regular price is $14.95. (I am not affiliated with this website in any way.)

Do you have a little one who would like a quilt like this?

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Progress!

I have really been working hard on my hexagon quilt and wanted to show you an updated photo. Because this is a SLOW project, there isn't much progress to show from day to day. I work on this piece all the time--this quilt goes with me everywhere. It has gone with me on every trip/vacation for the past two years. I think I have enough done, now, that you (and I) can see a bit of progress. The top picture is my progress to date; the bottom picture was posted on November 22, 2014.

I know it is hard to tell from the picture, but the width of the quilt is 70+ inches. It will be a large piece when I finish it. (Notice I said WHEN and not IF!)

I am no longer adding the hexies to the piece in entire rows. (I WAS piecing an entire row of hexies together and then adding that long row to the big piece.) I have found it is easier for me to add around eight to ten hexies at a time. I have found there is less chance of making an error. I'm following the pattern I drew up almost like you would a cross stitch pattern. I also am no longer using silk thread. I LOVE how the silk thread was almost invisible, but I kept unintentionally unthreading my needle because the silk thread is so slippery. I am now using a 50-weight So Fine thread and/or a 60-weight Bottom Line thread (both made by Superior) in neutral colors. I like both of these--they, too, are almost invisible, and I have no trouble keeping my needle threaded. I'll continue to pass along what I'm learning as I'm making this piece. If there is any progress to show, I'm going to try to post every week.

Just for fun, I got an app that can be used to keep track of how much time I spend working on this piece. It allows me to clock in and clock out, and it calculates the accumulated time for me. I have been faithful about keeping accurate records for this piece since February 5th; and since that date, I have spent 58.54 hours on it!

 

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