Blue Muse Update

Erato Finds the James

Blue Muse Takes the Waters

The Lyric Muse Was Here

My piece for the VCQ Minds Wide Open challenge progresses!  These are my three practice pieces, and attempts to include the muse of Lyric Poetry, Erato.  She’s sometimes shown with a wreath of roses and myrtle in her hair, thus the rose petals. (In case you can’t tell what those pink specks are!)  Not sure which, or if any, of these approaches I will use.  I welcome your feedback!

Here’s where the actual challenge entry stands.  I’ve done some of the quilting – more still to go.  The tree branches, like the muses in the practice quilts, were printed on organza prepared for inkjet printers, Extrav Organza by Jacquard.  I’ll do some stitching over them – not sure yet how much.

Montpelier – Country Quilters Show

Susan, Maren and Paula

Tie One On by Estelle Porter

View from the Cemetery

Yesterday representatives of the Bags quilting group took a field trip to the Monpelier Center for Arts and Education.  This is wonderfully renovated old county schoolhouse that serves as the library and cultural center for the area.  The Country Quilters, a chapter of the Richmond Guild that meets in the building, have up a 20 year retrospective of their work.  The show is excellent – it helps that members of the chapter are some of the most talented quilters in the Richmond metropolitan area. 

My favorite was Tie One On by Estelle Porter.  You may be familiar with her amazingly detailed home portraits that she does on commission.  I’ve seen numerous tie quilts, but this one is very original and caught my fancy.  Maybe there’s hope for the suitcase full of ties languishing in the closet…

Montpelier is a charming wide spot in the road out Staples Mill Road/route 33 northwest of Richmond.  The feel is very rural, tho they do have a brand new tastefully done strip mall where we dined at the Bamboo Chinese Restaurant. There’s a general store with Amish cheeses and a hardware store that appear to be in original 19th or early 20th century buildings and a lovely white frame church with graveyard.  A pleasant 1/2 day trip from town.

Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival!

My Buddy and Me

Quilt Notes

Detail

I may have to switch quilt chapters.  Thursday I tagged along with the Hospitality Quilters on their bus trip to the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, Virginia.  We were walking into the Convention Center, with wristbands already in place at 9:45 am – after a delightful early morning chatter with quilting buddies and without having to drive, park, or stand in line! 

The machine quilting was even more sophisticated than last year, and faded into the background of the excellent design and color work.  I was afraid after the trip to the Houston International Show last fall I would be jaded, and not appreciate the Mancuso show.  But that wasn’t the case – it’s just the right size for a day trip, with plenty of inspiration and great shopping opportunities.  And I got to visit with so many quilting friends, and even my Aunt from Palmyra!!

My personal favorite was the quilt shown above, My Buddy and Me, by Barbara Barrick McKie.  I’ve included her notes for your info.  Over the next few posts I’ll put up some of the other great quilts we saw – traditional and innovative.  Enjoy!  Even better, if you get the chance, go to the Festival!!

Then this morning, as I was taking an out of the ordinary breakfast break at Micky D’s, one of the ladies from the bus came in and we compared notes.  Their president who organized the bus trip is stepping down this year, but they’ve added a new position for the chapter: travel coordinator!  That’s my kind of group.

Virginia Consortium of Quilters and the Piedmont Arts Association

Marty’s Quilt

A Walk in the Woods

Detail: A Walk in the Woods

I’ve just returned from Collinsville/Martinsville, site of our quarterly Virginia Consortium of Quitlers meeting.  We journey to Martinsville in even numbered years so that we can attend the opening of the Piedmont Arts Association’s biennial invitational Art of the Quilt show, curated by Linda Fiedler.  The show, tho small, is always excellent.  Shown above is just one example of the high quality and innovation displayed in the selections.  This one is by Yolanda Ann Reardon, titled “A Walk in the Woods”.  Her note on the quilt: “..shows the many treasures of nature.  When you walk, remember to look down from time to time.  Fabric: cotton, pieced, appliqued and quilted by machine, hand beaded.”  I have several of those intricate plates sluffed off from old turtle shells….

At our meeting we presented out outgoing president, Marty Moon, with a quilt made by members of VCQ.  You see it displayed above in a pieced together photo, held by Kitty Bull on the left and Elaine Myers on the right – ringleaders of the effort!  I didn’t get a pix of Marty accepting the quilt – just as well, she was all teared up.

Houston Favorites

Acorn of the Bur Oak

“Nature Vivante”

“Nature Vivante” detail

You see here my favorite quilt from the International Quilt Festival, and the item that captured my imagination. 

The quilt, by Leslie Gabrielse, is titled “Nature Vivante.”  Leslie’s comments on the quilt: “techniques: hand sewn and painted; Design Source: a vist to Rome’s Campo Di Flori; A handcart filled with huge pumpkins inspired me to make this piece. A woman was loading up the pumpkins. A window suggests and indoor situation. I used the color gray as backdrop but the color slipped into the pumpkins and her face.  The color gray became part of the image.”  What appealed to me about this quilt, in addition to the subject matter, was the vintage nature of the fabrics.  They’re very different from what I see currently in our quilt stores.  I also felt the face was very well done, and the view thru the window had a very European feel to me.

The item that caught my attention in one of the vendor booths was a huge acorn!  When I stopped to stare, the vendor was kind enough to take it out of the jewlery case where it was adding a bit of ambience so that I might more closely examine it.  And then she pulled two more from another case!  I was entranced.  After doing a bit of research yesterday, I learned they come from a Bur Oak, alternately spelled Burr, a type of White Oak seen most typically from the Appalachians thru the mid West.  If you happen to have a couple in your back yard, would you swap for fabric?!

Musings on Saturday

Storm Approaching

Sun!

After the Storm

Yesterday was a full – birthday party for our 2 year old granddaugher, Richmond Quilter’s Guild biennial quilt show, and storms off and on throughout the day.  I got photos of all of it, but my favorites are these of the storm clouds as I headed home for the show, around 5pm.  I love the blues.

What I didn’t get a pix of was the gas station sign – $1.97 a gallon!  Actually, I would have had to take that photo Friday night when huband and I saw it on the way home, after the station had closed, because by yesterday afternoon when I got there to fill up, it had changed to $2.19 a gallon.  So what do you think – was it really $1.97 a gallon, or was that just a come on to stoke up business for Saturday?!

On another topic, I love WordPress.  Each morning I check my blogstats to see who might have discovered these postings, and how, perhaps, they came to them.  Yesterday someone searched on ‘”but is it art” poem.’  They got a hit on this blog, since I’ve included a verse of that title.  But I couldn’t imagine that’s what they were looking for.  So I tried the search myself, and came upon an excellent poem by Rudyard Kipling, The Conundrum of the Workshops: – http://www.bartleby.com/103/50.html  Check it out – I think you’ll enjoy.

Red Zinnias and Blue Bottles

Zinnias and Blue Bottles

Zinnia ATC

Zinnias from My Garden

I love red zinnias. Its a toss up whether they’re prettier waving in the garden, or gracing the inside of our home. I missed them this year – I planted a mixed selection instead. They came up mostly pinks, which were attractive but lacked the vibrancy of the deep reds. And I only planted a small patch – not a full row. But next year…!

I’m also fond of blue bottles, particularly the way the sun shines thru them. I think I may have enough now – they’re all around the ledge of our screened porch! Put them together with the zinnias, and it’s a winning combination.

At least that’s my hope – the small quilt shown above will join the ones I posted yesterday for our local quilt show, and will go to the State Fair later this month. The Fair, drawing from across the state, has strong competition in the quilt division, but we’ll see how it does. It was based on the photo, minus the third bottle.

The ATC is from a series I did in September 2005, the first year of our community garden. The quote on the back is from Georgia O’Keefe: “Nobody sees a flower, really – it is so small – we haven’t time, and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”

Almost Ready for the Quilt Show

Treadle On Sewing Basket Blocks

Garden Delights

Lily’s Menagerie

The bi-annual Richmond Guild Quilt Show is coming! Show will be October 24-26, 2008 at the Cultural Center of India in Chesterfield County. The deadline for entering quilts, however, is coming up week after next! The Menagerie quilt is finished, and will be returned to granddaugher Lily after the show. The Garden Delights and Treadle On Block Exchange have been quilted and still need bindings, hanging sleeves, and labels. Maybe today as the rains from Gustav pound down!

From the Studios

Gourds, 2008 Editions

Yo Yo Pincushions

Floating Homes Quilt

Here’s what I’ve been working on recently. Still a ways to go on that third gourd – plan to hinge the top on this one, and skip the pine needle border. We’ll see how it turns out!

The pincushions were just too cute – I had to try them! Pattern came from cloth-paper-scissors’ 2008 special issue on Studios – stuffed yo-yo pincushions by Michele Muska. (http://www.quiltingarts.com/shop/StudiosMagazine.html) Very easy and fun. I used scrap silks and velveteens, with a bit of newly purchased ribbon. So mostly from the stash.

I’m proudest of the third item above – based on the photo to landscape quilt class that I took in April, and based on a photo taken by Nick Stooke in South America. Click on the photo for his details. Finished quilt measures approximately 14″ x 16″.

Vending Experience – South of the James Market

The first thing you might have noticed is – no photos!  I was too busy setting up, demonstrating sewing on the handcrank, working with crank-powering kids, and even selling a bit.  Overall much fun, tho verrrry hot.  So this Saturday one of my good quilting buddies has loaned me her collapsible umbrella.  I’d stopped by her house to help with a cutting bee for our chapter’s charity quilts.  As we were relaxing after our efforts under her new pergola over their back patio, I mentioned in passing that I was on my way to Big Lots to get an umbrella.  “Here, take this one – we don’t need it now that we have the arbor!”  What a friend.  It breaks down and fits nicely in the craft mobile.  And handy-hubby figured out how to make it tilt.  The base even has small wheels (think heelies in those kids shoes) to make it easy to maneuver.

Back to last Saturday.  Several men came by and said “my mother had a handcrank sewing machine just like that.”  On asking where their mom was from, I got Viet Nam, Turkey, and Russia.  So my dad’s theory is maybe handcranks were easier for Singer to ship than treadles.  Any thoughts?  Also got a lot of “my mom had a treadle that looked like that one.”  Next time I’ll have to ask those folks where they’re from.

The Viet Namese fellow was here from Houston visiting his son and family, who shortly came by en masse.  A couple older ladies didn’t speak English, but managed well enough with the help of others in the clan to buy a small fairy and a Japanese flower bag.  Business as usual.  But then they wanted me to autograph the tags.  I was flattered, and even more so when they requested a photo of them with me and their recent purchase!  Never a dull moment.

If you’re in the area, come by Forest Hill Park this Saturday, 8am til noon, and check out South of the James Market.  Hope to see you there!