hi from Long Beach

Greetings from the Long Beach Quilt Festival! I am having a wonderful time. I took a fun gelatin monoprint class yesterday with Pokey Bolton, and this afternoon I white-gloved at "The Space Between" special exhibit which by the way, is fabulous. I have many favorites. Now I have my feet up before the SAQA/Quilt Art reception and dinner with "The Space Between" artists. It's been fun spending time with friends.

Just wanted to put out this link to the See How We Sew blog, which posted about the Alzheimer's auction which starts on August 1. They include a photo of my quilt, "Gaps," in the post. Yay!

seehowwesew.wordpress.com

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead to upcoming events. I can't wait to go to the Long Beach Quilt Festival, which begins later this week. I'm there Thursday-Saturday. I'm taking a gelatin monoprint class from Pokey Bolton on Thursday. I'm docenting at the "Space Between" exhibit on Friday - look for my quilt there, too. It's called "Between the Air Conditioner and the House," and it features my desert tortoise, Gramps. Quilt detail shown below. Then I'm going to the SAQA/Art Quilt List reception on Friday evening.

Hope to see you in Long Beach!

The AAQI auction is coming up in early August, with my "Gaps" quilt in it. I have all the info in a recent post.

I am also teaching two more classes at Flying Geese Fabrics. On Saturday, August 6th from 1:30 to 5, I'm teaching how to make my flannel baby ball. If flannel and baby toys aren't your thing, I can teach you how to make any style ball that floats your boat. Here's a photo of the one I made for my grandchild:

Then on August 18th I'm teaching my Holiday Cookie Stocking. You can make individual cookie ornaments with the same pattern, so I can teach them, too. This is on a Thursday, from 3 to 7.

If these classes interest you, you can call Flying Geese Fabrics in Tustin at 714-544-9349 and say, "Sign me up!"

The Art Quilt Experience catalogue

The catalogue for The Art Quilt Experience arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. I'm excited! I can't see the exhibit in person, but it's a great catalogue.

That's my "Go With the Flow" on the left. Too bad they mislabeled it with someone else's name. My name is on the previous page with another quilt. Oh well. There are lots of names I recognize in this exhibit, so I am pleased to be part of it.

I just had to share a photo of this cedar mini-shed that I bought for my husband for our 41st anniversary. Can I call it a shed? It's more like a closet, and a tiny one at that. It arrived from Illinois in a flat box. We had a handyman put it together and stain/seal it.  Now my husband can store garden tools, etc., here instead of the garage, which is at the far end of the house. We live in Irvine, where yards tend to be on the small side, so we couldn't have a regular-sized shed. I think it's kind of adorable.

Auction for Alzheimer's themed Quilts

My quilt "Gaps" was part of the "Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece," a nationally touring exhibit about Alzheimer's sponsored by the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). It traveled for 5 years and more than 300,000 people had an opportunity to see it. After the exhibit retired I donated the quilt to the AAQI and they are offering it at an online auction August 1-10 at:
http://www.benefitbidding.com/listings/categories/index.cfm?category=965774286


You can see my quilt here right now:

http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html


 I am a huge supporter of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. They are an all-volunteer national charity whose mission is to raise awareness and fund research. They spend no money on fundraising and all their profits fund Alzheimer's research. They have raised more than $550,000 for research...one quilt at a time.

Please pass this information on to quilters and quilt-lovers everywhere.

new quilt photos and other current fabric projects



Recently I sewed together the six wedges of my snowflake quillt. I'm excited about it. Notice that smaller snowflakes are going into the circle shapes, also done with different techniques. I still need to add fabric at the corners to turn it into a rectangle quilt, not a hexagon quilt.

Here it is with crocheted and tatted snowflakes added in the circles and center. I will sew them on later if I use them. I made these in the 70's!



Here's a detail of the sunpainted mini snowflake. I made it by first cutting out a paper snowflake and placing it on wet painted fabric (Setacolor), then letting it dry. Presto!

I made each wedge using a different process. I used freezer paper templates, both positive and negative, to enable each process, including applique, sun painting, discharge, glue resist, and stenciling. This is an unusual way for me to make a quilt, and I must say I'm enjoying it.

I had a huge urge to sew baby clothing this week, in between quilting and other stuff.

As a last minute impulse, I embroidered around one bird in the middle of the pocket. I think it's a nice little touch.

I don't know what possessed me to dab extra fabric dye onto this t-shirt for Sam. I wonder if they'll actually put it on her?

I also am putting together this little sundress. Notice there is piping. This is an experiment in attempting to enlarge the tiny sundress pattern from last summer. I hope it will fit Samantha, fingers are crossed.

Award ribbon fixin's for the upcoming Flying Geese Quilt show.

More of same.

Lastly, here is a fabric postcard made by Del Thomas. I bought it at the AAQI auction, and it arrived yesterday. It reminded me of my Grandma Noble, who loved to grow flowers, and her favorite color was yellow.

doggie coverup tute

I never thought I'd be sewing dog clothing, but our grand-dog Ginger has a bald patch on her back (from a brown recluse spider bite from a few years ago). So she wears coverups to hide the bald patch, as well as to prevent sunburn and skin cancer. Besides, she looks pretty darn cute in her little outfits. This pattern was adapted from coverups that my daughter made - I didn't have velcro, so I made straps to tie in a bow. This coverup is nice for summer - it's lightweight and minimal.

I took these photos a while ago, so I figure it's high time to do a dog coverup tutorial! Since dogs come in all shapes and sizes, think of the first try as an experiment. You might need to make adjustments to make it fit better next time. ;-)

The shape of the coverup should be something like this. To figure out the width and length, measure the dog from her collar to the tip of her tail. Then measure the dog's waistline. The coverup will go most of the way around the waist, minus 2-3 inches where tabs attach. Make a freezer paper template, and cut two, allowing about 1/4" all around for the seam allowance.

Cut two strips at least 18" long and 1 1/2" wide. You may want yours longer. Keep in mind that my dog is a miniature dachshund. Then cut a rectangle to make two tabs - this one is 4" x 11". Make it longer for a bigger dog.

For the two longer strips, fold under 1/4" at one end, then press them in half lengthwise. Then foldand press the raw edges towards the center lengthwise, to make long narrow strips about 3/8" wide.

Then take the 4"x11" rectangle and press under 1/4" at both short ends. Then press it in half lengthwise. Now fold and press the edges towards the center lengthwise. You should have a smaller rectangle about 10 1/2" long and 1" wide.

Edge stitch all the way around all three pieces, going through all layers on the machine.

Cut the third piece in half as shown, making two tabs.

Take the the two pieces of fabric that you cut out for the main part of the coverup, and place them right sides together. Slip the long ties between the two layers, with the raw edges at the top end of the coverup (shown here on the right), pin down. Pin the tabs at the wide parts of the coverup, raw edges out and finished edges inside. Pin the two coverup pieces together all around, making sure you don't catch the tie ends.

Stitch all around the coverup, leaving a 1/4" seam allowance and leaving an opening about 3" wide.

Turn right sides out through the opening, and it should look something like this. Press neatly and whip stitch the opening closed if you wish. Topstitch all the way around the coverup along the edge.

This is what it will look like on the other side. Did I mention that it's reversible? Try it on your dog, threading the ties around the collar and figuring how where to place a buttonhole on one of the tabs and a buttonhole on the other tab. You can certainly use velcro if you prefer.

Ginger is modeling her new coverup while snuggling in a leopard robe at the Solarmar in San Diego a while ago. I actually made it in mind for 4th of July. Ask me if you have any questions, and have fun!

review of the art quilt experience

There's a good review of The Art Quilt Experience in a Syracuse, NY paper. I hope this link will work. I only mention it because I have a quilt in the exhibit.

http://blog.syracuse.com/cny/2011/07/exhibit_in_cazenovia_celebrates_new_world_of_artistic_quilts.html

winter quilt in progress

I'm excited about this snowflake quilt I'm working on. It reminds me of the Hawaiian quilting that I used to do. Each section was done in a different technique, starting from left, clockwise: positive applique, stencil, discharge (with liquid bleach cleanser), sun painting, and negative applique.

This is the sixth section, done with glue resist. I had to wash it some more to get rid of all the glue. I'm having so much fun with this quilt! I'm going to add smaller snowflakes in the circle areas. Did I mention that this quilt is for Noble Seasons: Winter?

I thought I'd share this photo of Ginger with her new bff, Gramps. Just kidding, they really don't interact much, except that Ginger steals his food.

Here's Ginger in her 4th of July outfit. I have photos for a dog coverup tutorial - I'll try to put that up next time.

birthday pix

Here are some highlights of our granddaughter Samantha's first birthday party back in mid-June. No, we couldn't be there, but we were there in May.

This is the pretty dress that her great-aunt Pam gave her when she was born.

A great way to keep cool this summer!

She has four teeth now!

How many people can do this?!

Even the goose came from across the street. As you can see, she's very friendly.