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This is a top that I made in preparation for a workshop with Ruth B McDowell in 2009.  I wasn't happy with the composition, so it never got quilted.  However, for several reasons that I won't mention just yet, it is time to become a real quilt.  

Yet, it will have to linger a bit longer, as I am off to the great north west to visit friends in Seattle and my daughter in Portland.  Got my bags pack and early to bed, since I'll be getting up in the wee hours of the morning to catch my flight.  I will tell all when I return.

 I am soooooooooooooooo excited.  

Collaboration

Last fall my daughter, Casey, suggested that we might collaborate on a project, and since it involved quilting I readily agreed.  Also, to collaborate with my talented daughter and learn from her was exciting.  She had several ideas and sent me sketches.  After a bit of back and forth on the sizes, colors and design, we were off and running.  Her ideas were based on bringing the outdoors in by using constellations, but in a very minimalist style.  That style was a challenge for me, as I tend to over do it, just a bit, (wink)  

However, we were able to agree on the designs and once completed, I felt that they turned out quite well. Click here and here to see the photos of the completed quilted blankets  They are hanging in Tanner Goods shop in Portland, OR and are for sale!    

a long winter's nap

First of all I want to say a very heartfelt thank you to those who have checked in with me the past few months that I haven't been blogging.  It is so appreciated and so nice to be remembered even though I haven't been "out there".  All is well, but sometimes life just throws up too many obstacles for one to always what one wants to do.    

 So tired of our exceptionally cold, dreary, wet winter, I just returned from a walk in the most welcome sun, some pre-March winds, and warm temperatures.  It was inspiring for me, to say the least.  After 5 months of not posting, and with the holidays past, it is time to shovel out of the rut.

One of my projects included a collaboration with my extremely talented daughter, Casey. Check out her Pinterest boards.  It was such a great experience to work with her on 3 pieces.  I can't share details or photos of these designs quite yet, but it is coming soon. 

Meanwhile here are a few photos of some of the experimenting and quilts I've been playing with before and after the collaboration.  All are unfinished, my normal way of playing.  

14" x 27"

64" x  78" for Chase & Andrea

Twin size for Evie
(remember those chenille bedspreads of the 1950?)

twin size for Silas

16" x 22"

Now to settle down and get some things finished, right?  

out of commission

It began with my photo of Dad's hayrake as it lay rusting behind the shed.  As always, these old things bring back a flood of memories.  Dad is no longer here to hook it up to the tractor and it has been out of commission for years.  The old farm implements intrigue me in their complicated simplicity.

All wheels keep turning in some respects,
 whether out of commission or not.  

University of Florida vs University of Tennessee

ready to be quilted with orange thread perhaps

Free for All

Sometimes I just must take a break from free motion quilting and the piecing of tiny, intricate curvy slivers of fabric.  So, I started a list of projects that have been on the back burner for far too long.   Several of the projects are free for all pieced blocks intended for some of my family members.  I can intermittently play with basket full of scraps rather than spending my time on non productive activities.  If ya know what I mean.

These blocks are for a young great nephew who, despite living in the middle of Big Orange University of Tennessee football land, prefers to cheer for the arch rival, University of Florida. Okay, so UF colors are orange and blue.  UT colors are orange and white.  I began with orange and blue four patch for the centers.  Next I pulled random strips of solids for the basket and started sewing them on in a sorta log cabin rotation.  A few times I might forget which comes next in the rotation and haphazardly sew a strip wherever it happens to land.  It's a free for all fun way to brighten up a rainy day.

Oh, and just in case he might change his mind one of these days, (or earn a scholarship to UT) I began to throw in some bits of white near that orange.  We won't mention that fact to him, so mums the word.  Hmmmmm - note to self - add more white...........

Issues

I've been practicing a bit of self discipline the past few days.  It seems I have a stockpile of quilt tops that are screaming to be quilted.  I am certain that none of you have this issue that you feel that it must be dealt with.  (pants on fire) That issue along with some health issues have prevented me from being too productive as of late.  So I am determined to spend a bit of time doing some sporadic free motion quilting to clear the slate, deal with the onset of other issues and get ready for the holidays.  Thus, I have nothing new to show.  But wait.  I have some old things to show thanks to Mom.  She bought this delightful crib quilt years ago.  To my mind it is SO SO Fresh Modern.  Doncha think?

Fresh Modern Crib quilt from @ 1940s

block from crib quilt

block from crib quilt

block from crib quilt

OH, how I would love to find the fabrics that were used in this sweet quilt.  

Twin one

No you are not seeing double.  These are the lovely twin quilt mates.  

Probably from the 1940's as well.

Twin two

What fun, huh? Although I am not normally drawn to these styles,
I am hard pressed to keep at my free motion quilting and not begin something new.   There is something to be said about this fresh new/old look.  I am re inspired.
Thanks Mom
What inspires you these days?

Explorations

just to much chaos for me, today

which will calm the chaos a tiny bit?

pink/orange silk won out as the flavor of the day for a 58" x 68" finish

Pulling out all my books showing Gee's Bend quilts, browsing the web for Anna Williams, as well as some of my favorite quilters, it was time to just get on with it.  Make a decision to complete this one as best as I could.  It was not going to be an Anna Williams masterpiece, nor a Gee's Bend masterpiece, it will just be what it will be.  It has been a love/hate affair of sorts, always depending on my mood.  There has been difficulty separating the mind and the moods.  Try as I might, I was not able to view it with a detached eye.  As usual, the emotions won out.  It is what it is, I am what I am.  Finish this one up and keep exploring. 
What have y'all been exploring lately?

Portland visit

Hubby and I have returned from parts west recently.

We had a fabulous visit with our daughter and her hubby and at long last got to meet  our grandpuppy. Our first trip to Portland was delightful and seems an enticing area to live.  There is so much happening, so much to do and see.  Exquisite restaurants to satisfy whatever mood you may be in and acres of city parks, trails for hiking and biking, to work off the excess calories.  Lots of accessible shops within walking distance of their home, to walk off more calories.

a hike near Mt Hood with Jevan, Casey & Winston

Lots of other shopping districts to explore throughout the city, like this great little shop.

Check out Tanner Goods Retail shop.
Guess who provided the interior design for this hot new spot?
If you guessed that it was my designing daughter, you were right on!
She even designed and made the light fixture for the shop.
tres' cool, eh?  
She & her equally talented hubby,
 along with their partners design, create, market and sell 
top of the line leather items.  
Casey & Jevan sweetly accommodated Mom & Dad by giving us a grand tour of Portland.  Even the touristy things I wanted to see.  Like the Chinese Gardens and the 
International Rose Gardens, to mention a few. 

Sad to say I didn't take pictures of some of the delightful restaurants we enjoyed, nor the lovely home cooked meals.   Guess that means I will have to return, huh?


Oh, yes, a blog post is not complete without showing a picture of a quilt.  Am I right?


Vanilla Bean has a new home.  And here she is with the proud new owners.

I think they liked it. 

The wedding weekend

It was a wonderful weekend.  I could not have captured it more delightfully than my daughter, Casey.  If you would like to see why I haven't had a lot of time to blog or stitch recently, jump over to

www.thekidcollective.com 

for the weekend update

And click here as well. 

for a look at her new favorite old quilt.

I suspect that she will have more to show in the coming days.  I know that she took tons of photos, so I am anxiously awaiting what she might have for us.  Casey is an interior designer working in Portland, OR.  She also works a full/time part/time job her with partners at 

Tanner Goods 

creating lovely items. Their flagship shop just opened, 

and guess who designed the interior as well as designed 

and built a creative chandelier for lighting this new shop?  

Needless to say, Mom and Dad are very proud of her many accomplishments.

And I would like to shamelessly suggest to anyone in her area in need of an interior designer, you couldn't find anyone more talented than my daughter. 

Navy Airman

My nephew just graduated from Great Lakes Navy boot camp this weekend.  He will be an asset to the Navy and to all around him.  He is a very intelligent, responsible young man and will be a leader in his field very soon, of that I am certain.  

Carter W. Hancock second from right with his new mates

I cannot express how proud I am of my sister's youngest son and I know that she is proud of him as she looks down on him from above.  

Carter and his lovely friend, Sarah



for Mallory Kate

Quilt label (front)

Mallory Kate (front)

Mallory Kate (back)

machine quilting closeup

quilt care label

  Mallory's mom chose the fabrics to coordinate with the nursery decor and asked for a simple quilt that could grow with her into her "big girl" bed.  I made it into a twin size so that Mallory will enjoy using it for years to come.  She is a month old now and is a beautiful, sweet baby. 

A Southern Bridal Shower

After the storm, life is returning to normal for many of us.  My niece, Sarah Beth, will be married in June.  To celebrate the upcoming event, I hosted, along with my cousin, Lora, a bridal shower at my home.  We decided on a very traditional, southern style, girlie party with all the fixings. Mom and I polished up the silver and washed the crystal.   I washed and ironed the linens.  Lora and I made made yummy finger foods and champagne punch.  I trimmed the blooms and leaves from the southern magnolias and dogwoods for decorations.  It was so much fun to do something special and girlie pretty.  It was a such a sunny, happy day.

 

Lots of lovely ladies dropped in bearing gifts for the bride to be.

the bride and her grandmother

And of course quilts were involved. The bride and groom were happy to finally get their hands on this quilt that I had custom made for them.

  I do think it was a huge success.   And now we are all looking forward to the wedding.

And while I wait, I guess I will fill part of the time getting back into my studio and getting my hands on some fabric.

a foto-less friday

Even after all the encouragement from everyone on my neutral state of mind, I just kept spinning my wheels today.  I made a couple more blocks, then began another peacock block,  then couldn't even muster up the courage to quilt some more on my log cabin posy quilt.  So I decided it was time to clean up my studio.  That always helps clear the cobwebs.  Then I also decided it was time to rearrange my studio.  Sorry, no studio pictures of the before.  I started dragging things around before I thought to take a quick snapshot.  I am still not completely happy with the new arrangement, but as my Mother was quick to point out, I have too much stuff in this room.  I bit my tongue and did not mention to her that I had been planning to move my studio to our spacious basement apartment where she now resides.  Ah, well, it is all for the best.. Anyone want to buy a gently used sewing machine?  Or actually three?  Or a nice little featherweight, which has only been out of it's travel case  a very few times in the last, er, perhaps, uh, 30 years?  Indeed, I do have too much stuff.  

And I am so happy to have Mother close by.  She will be celebrating her 91st birthday next Tuesday.  Can you just imagine?  She is 91 years young, still driving her own car, doing her own thing, but yet complaining that she just can't understand why she isn't able to do as much as she used to be able to do.   We should all be so lucky.  We will celebrate her birthday with her favorite meal.  Meatloaf, macaroni & cheese, green beans, sweet corn, fried okra, mashed potatoes, cornbread, ~ all done southern style of course.   Many of  the items which were frozen and canned from the summer garden.   Oh, and apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream and cheddar cheese for dessert.  This is a sample of the meals that I ate almost every day of my life for 18 + years.  All from our dairy  farm and vegetable gardens. 

On to other  things.  Baby Evie arrived today, a bit early, but healthy and beautiful.  So I really should get back to work on her peacock quilt. Her momma will be much to busy to collaborate on any quilts for a few months.  At any rate, she was happy to see what I had started and gave me the go ahead on having my way with it. 

Tomorrow I will be meeting a small group of ladies who want to organize a Modern Quilt Guild in the Chattanooga, TN area.  This is so exciting, let me repeat, so exciting, for me to be able to meet others in my area who have similar interests.  

And last but not the least.  I received delivery of a wonderful gift.  Snow falling on Cedars.  From Sujata.  It is on my design wall.  Awaiting my  inspirations.  But radiating such emotion.  I feel from our communications that we have so much in common.  Receiving this piece from her connects us in even more ways.  It is a gift from her heart and I will treasure it.  Isn't it a wonderful world?  Just like Louis Armstrong sang:

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you.

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.

Songwriters: Thiele, Robert;Weiss, George David

My family tree

A while back, a new friend suggested that we do a block exchange.  I would make a block and send to her and she would make a block to send to me.  We would then each complete the other person's block as a finished quilt. As both our families are environmentally conscious, we decided to use trees as the theme for our block.

I have never done anything like this and to be honest, I was very intimidated.  She is such a skilled, talented designer and quilter.  I am not sure that I could make something that she would appreciate or even like!  Even though she said, "no stress, no time limit, just when ever the mood strikes".   Still I had an immediate brain freeze. 

It was almost Thanksgiving.  Family holiday dinners and celebrations are coming along quickly, but wait! I had a vision.  I was compelled  to make this block in the midst of all this helter skeltered activity.  It took almost no time at all to make my sketch, grab some scraps and do some quick free piecing.

The holidays passed and I had not mailed this off to my friend. One day as I was critiquing the block, still hanging on my design wall, a thought suddenly occurred to me.  I realized why I was so compelled to get this completed in the midst of frantic holiday preparations.  You might notice that there are four tree trunks in this block.  One block for each family member: father, mother, daughter, son.  The tree on the left is spaced slightly apart from the other three.  The branches from the three trees on the right seem to be stretching out toward the tree on the left.   My daughter lives across the country from the rest of our family and would not be home for the holidays this year.  She would be spending the holidays with her husband and his family.  Was this a subconscious effort on my part?  All the while I was making this block, I wanted to extend it to include many more trees to complete the picture. But we had set a size limit.  I would have to save this idea for another day.   In the mean time ~ this block has gone to my lovely friend to share a part of my heart and my family.  And I am looking forward to receiving her block.  A gift from her heart and her family. 

Do you ever have those moments, when you look back at something you have created and realized that there was a deeper, unconscious force that causes you to create ?  What colors to choose, how to relay to others what you are feeling?  

Thursday thoughts

Having offered to make a quilt for a baby due in a few short weeks, I asked Momma-to-be for her thoughts on colors, fabrics, theme and so forth.  I was excited to hear of her choices.  First of all she asked for dots, stripes, paisleys using the colors of kelly greens, turquoises, soft yellows and browns.  The next request not only excited me but challenged me.  Her family has peacocks and she has always loved those birds and their colorful plummage.  So she suggested that I might perhaps use a peacock symbol of some type on the quilt - nothing complicated, maybe something similar to the NBC peacock.  WHOOOOAAAA  Momma!   What am I gonna do?  I first thought of using my hand dyed solid fabrics.  Something abstract and free along the lines of Gwen Marston.  But maybe that is a bit too intense.  So back to dots, stripes, paisleys.   After many, many sketches, the best bet is go to the machine with my scrap bags.  Begin with the "eye" of the peacock feather and work my way through a block.  

Here is the result of my intuitive process, placed on a piece of fabric that I had batiked last summer, when it was so miserably hot and I was wishing for cold weather.  

(When will I ever learn ~ be careful what you wish for.)

I think the best way to continue this is to make a few more blocks and see where it takes me.  Lots of ideas swirling around.  I think I know where it will go, today.  We'll see what happens.

Happy New Year

I spent the better part of  New Year's Eve cleaning up my studio.  Although I didn't finish all those UFO's in 2010, I am still resolved to get them completed by the end of 2011.  (HA!)  Famous last words, eh?

I pulled out this quilt .  It is a mystery quilt from Electric Quilt.com that my quilt guild did several years ago.  We were even featured on the EQ website with some of our almost completed quilts. I am thinking to myself about what could I do with this quilt if I finished quilting it.  

I realized that even though I never make New Year's resolutions, I could challenge myself to make more cuddle quilts.  There are far too many children who live in shelters without any parents or siblings.  This is something that they could have as their very own.  Something that they can wrap around themselves and feel that they are being hugged and loved. 

So I got this one all ready for quilting.

But wait, while I was cleaning up a stack of fabrics I found a fat quarter that I didn't know what to do with.  It was just rows of  kittens. OH!   Why not cut out each kittie and free-piece strips of fabrics all around each one.  The first block took around 15 minutes, maybe less.  So part of New Year's Day was spent piecing this quilt. 

  Now to get it sandwiched and ready to quilt.  This is a first for me.  Making a quilt in less than 6 hours. So  I should be able to make one each month.  What about you?  Can you do a quilt each month?

I hope that each child who will receive these quilts will feel the love that I felt as I sewed each and every stitch.  I hope that it will help to make them feel more secure and know that they are cared for.  I hope that it will give them hope for a happy and bright future.  I wish for them a happy and bright future.  So now, I know what to do with all of my other unquilted tops.  There are far too many children of all ages who need to feel love. 

Progress

It makes the world go 'round.  I think?  If one does not progress then one will surely die a lingering death. Progress always makes me think of a Joni Mitchell song;  Big Yellow Taxi.  "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."  She is one of my heroes.  An artist.  A true artist to my way of thinking. Anyone who can write such exquisite lyrics and music, as well as paint incredible images is just brilliant in my book. Which brings me 'round to this.  In my somewhat smallish hometown, we are progressing.  In a couple more years, or less, we shall have a new airport.  Not a large, commercial airport, just one to accommodate private jets.  It will accommodate the captains of industry who must travel from far away places to our small city.  New industries that will make solar panels, cars, appliances, even shipping all those "cannot live without items" from Amazon, to name a few.  It will assist in providing new jobs for our depressed economy.  All those things that we need to progress. So, why am I spouting about all this?  The airport will encompass the land where I grew up. 

I took a walk over the property a few days ago.  The huge equipment has already uprooted the trees where I used to play as a child.  A huge, old oak tree, with roots extending on all sides had been cut down and hauled away for prime lumber.  As well as all the other oak, hickory, walnut, cedar and poplar trees.   These roots had provided the "house" for my acorn family when I was 8 or 9 years old.  I would "dust" out all the leaves and debris and have a glorious, multi-level dwelling for my entire acorn family amongst those huge oak roots.  This walk caused quite a few tears.

The farm where I grew up, where my brothers and sister grew up, where my mother grew up, where my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, great grand-parents lived is no longer a family farm.  This is one of the few structures standing and will soon be gone as well.   This project will assist in the progress of our county and region.  It is progress. Ann and Lucius moved from Clay County, NC to Bradley County, TN.  Many of their descendants are still here.  Including me.  

And progress we must?   Reproducing my great grandmother's quilt. And in doing so, I am progressing in my own way.  I can only hope that it is the right thing that we are all doing. 

"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."