More MCQ June meeting...

Above Nancy Eha ( http://www.beadcreative.com/ ) talks about her Tiara Challenge.

Sarahs beautiful effort to copy me...but she only got to 8,100 pieces!

Sarah and her Mom showing a quilt they made together.

Contemporary Quilters June Meeting

Sharon and Holly explain what NOT to use to hang your quilt.

You can't use a feather duster...

You can't use a tube from your papertowels...

Marilyn helps Sharon try to see what will work to hang your quilt with.

Do you suppose Sharon bought that hat just for this little skit or is it part of her wardrobe?

I have a really great shot of Sharon that she asked me to delete off my camera.

I'm going to save it...I might 'need' it some day. :-P

Imagine this...

It's a beautiful sunny day and you're out driving around getting errands done.
You're sitting at a red light.
A Harley pulls up next to you, all shiny and sleek.
The Hog Owner is a 'big boned' guy in his 40's, muscles, jeans with frayed holes, a t-shirt, boots and headrag printed with dozens of US flags.
Snug behind him is his sun-tanned girl in jeans and a tank top, long brunette hair blazing.
She's doing her best to hang on to him and the cardboard flat tray of 4" annuals and perennials she just purchased, one of them in an 8" pot and about 2 feet tall!
I wish I had the camera, it was a beautiful slice of American Pie!

Sofia Englund

I'm not a reconstructive surgeon so you'll understand when I say that it took me atleast 1/2 hour to figure out how to do this.

Minnesota Quilters Duluth Quilt Show

MQ had their yearly quilt show last weekend, this year in Duluth.
I went up on Thursday with Sarah Gannett and Sharon Englund.
We had laughs all the way up and all the way back.

I added a slide show in the right column of pictures from the show (The slideshow has been removed, see this link instead: 2009 MQ Show in Duluth  ). Apologies for the quality of the pictures first off...there were a lot of people at the show and it was difficult to get straight on shots of anything, and even if I had a bay to myself it wasn't for long. And I didn't take pictures of everything...not even enough time to see everything before knees and feet start to ache.

Switching to more positive notes, the show was absolutely fabulous! There was a huge amount of absolutely gorgeous quilts to see. It was very inspiring. There were so many vendors, but I was good and only bought two quilting necessities, no fabric, no impulse purchases. That has more to do with the fact that I'm cash poor than being a savvy spender. I hope the vendors made lots of money off other people!

Next years show will be in St. Cloud. "Quilting in the Quarry" June 17 - 19, 2010.

Joan died this morning - June 9, 2009

My own tribute to Joan Skalbeck:

The devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind 'cause he was way behind: he was willin' to make a deal.
When he came across this young woman sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot.
And the devil jumped upon a hickory stump and said: "Girl let me tell you what.

I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too.
And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, girl, but give the devil his due,
I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, 'cos I think I'm better than you."

The girl said: "My name's Joanie and it might be a sin,
but I'll take your bet, your gonna regret, 'cos I'm the best that's ever been."

Joanie rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard.
'Cos hells broke loose in Georgia and the devil deals the cards.
And if you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold.
But if you lose, the devil gets your soul.

The devil opened up his case and he said: "I'll start this show."
And fire flew from his fingertips as he rosined up his bow.
And he pulled the bow across his strings and it made an evil hiss.
Then a band of demons joined in and it sounded something like this.

When the devil finished, Joannie said: "Well you're pretty good ol' son,
but if you'll sit down in that chair, right there, and let me show you how its done."

Fire on the mount’n, run boys, run.
The devil's in the house of the risin' sun.
Chicken in the bread pan, pickin' out dough.
"Granny, does your dog bite?""No, child, no."

The devil bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat.
He laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Joanie's feet.
Joanie said: "Devil just come on back if you ever want to try again.
I told you once, you son of a snitch, I'm the best that's ever been."

And she played fire on the mount’n, run boys, run.
The devil's in the house of the risin' sun.
Chicken in the bread pan pickin' out dough.
"Granny, does your dog bite?""No, child, no."

Intuitive Quilting

This evening I went to a class by Janet Hovde about how intuitiveness can affect your quilting (or art in general).
After having a terrible day and a complete meltdown this afternoon, her class brought me back to center! I have had tremendous joy in the past by listening to my intuition while I create a piece. She will be having more classes, and I recommend taking them!
http://www.janethovde.com/

ANOTHER Blue and White Quilt

When I first threw myself into quilting back in the late 80's I LOVED blue quilts. This is one of those old projects from the early 90's that never got finished. Like other projects way back I had sewn badly, made mistakes, ripped, re-sewn, ripped, re-sewn...etc.

It was a class I took called "Nine Patch Variation" by Linda Dixon in Idaho. The class was set up so that you came with a whole ton of your strips of 5 fabrics, and then everyone in the class exchanged equal amounts of strips so that everyone went home with a wide variety of blues.

It's no fun when you get to the point that you don't enjoy it anymore. This is one of those UFO projects that I thought I would give to the Textile Center Garage Sale, but I didn't want to let it go. What was I thinking? It's 2 different sizes of 9 patches, 3" and 2-1/4" with rectangles in between that set them all together. I cut everything terribly, sewed the 9 patches awfully, and then at some point in time attempted to sew some of it together, with puckers, no points matching, etc.

Then at some other point in time I ripped that section out and was left with hundreds of wrinkly miss-shapen 9 patches; the edges are getting raggy, and the white rectangles aren't so rectangle anymore. I put it all away for another day.

Now it's 'another day'. I can't stand to just try to sew it together without straightening out the blocks, 9 patches and white rectangles. I'm wayyyy to anal to let that go. Removing all the threads from ripping, ironing them straighter, and heavily starching them so they don't go askew again. It's taking time.

Then the other problem is I have enough 9 patches to do about any size, including 2 double bed size coverlets...but I don't have enough of the white. Twenty year old white fabric isn't really white anymore, and it's going to be obvious if I add another white. I could do 2 double bed size, use the white on one, and use a new white on the other. Or I could just have 2 different whites in one huge quilt. I've separated the blocks to do 2 quilts but I'm not at the point of no return if I should change my mind.

I sewed a small stack to their white rectangles just to see how it's gonna go. I'll be ironing for days...