Happy Mother’s Day to everyone. Yes, many of you are mothers and grandmothers, but I know a couple of you who have no children but provide much learning and support to us quilters and sewists in motherly fashion. So Happy Mother’s Day to all of my readers (even the guys). My oldest son Ken has already called to talk with me, and my youngest son David, who shares my home with me, is going to cook a steak dinner tonight. Lovely!
My side yard
It’s gorgeous here in Ashburn, Virginia. About 65 and totally sunny with not a cloud in the sky. I just spend about an hour out back enjoying it all. The back of my house looks out into a small woods, just thick enough so I can’t see over to the next part of the neighborhood and thin enough so developers won’t come and build back there. The wildlife is delightful that live there…birds of several varieties, bunnies, turtles, squirrels, chipmunks, and even foxes. I feed the birds so I can see them and they pay me back by keeping down the gnats and flies and singing to me.
My youngest son David on the upper deck.
Sew I had hoped to finish the quilt I am making in memory of my wonderful mom, but though I have made great progress, I still have a ways to go. I have finished the quilting on the central part of the quilt and am working on the borders. I put freeform feathers on the bottom border, and I plan on doing the same on the top border. I got some new stencils and am have marked a beautiful vine with leaves coming down both sides. Since I quilt everything to death, except my snuggle utility quilts, I have a lot of quilting to go yet. And then I will have to wash it to remove the markings, and paint some of it. So there is much to do still. I had thought it would not be pretty enough on the back to be a good show quilt, but I just turned it completely over and was surprised to find it is beautiful. Yes, there are flaws, but it is still beautiful. The flaws don’t seem to show much on the front. Some of them will be removed, others will maybe go under a label or two (I’m thinking of writing a little biography of my mom in a simple text label in addition to the who made it when and so forth label).
What’s Next?
Sew I am close enough to being done with Mom’s quilt to think about what my next major project will be. I actually have three going now. One is my own personal snuggle quilt for my bed using Sue Nickles applique blocks that I just use to work on when I want to do something that is just relaxing sewing, one is a fairly extensive project of wool applique by machine that I am simultaneously writing a book about.
I have found that there is a slight bit of room in the art quilting world for books that people with advanced machines may want to have. There are a lot of how to quilting books for beginners, piecing books, and yes, even some advanced art quilting books, but I think while there are some books out there for people with all these wonderful stitches and feet and other attachments, that area might still have room for some skill building books for using these advanced machines many of us have. Wool applique by machine is my first of these skill-building books I am working on (I just bought a second camcorder and will be making videos too).
Another book I am thinking of is multiple deep space quilts using a variety of methods in homage to the magnificent deep space scenes you can find many of on NASA’s website that are copyright free. Here I have some credentials in the quilting world, because I have won several nice ribbons on my deep space quilts and I have many more to make. So I thought this would be a good book and already have it underway using photos I took while creating some of these quilts. I plan on making several more, some step outs and some small ones to sell for people who may want one of these for their wall, or to give as a gift. Of course, I will be producing show quilts from this project also, giving my work double, or even triple use (I will be making some videos too).
Sttitching Spiral Quilt 3 with a reference picture. I gave this quilt to Ken and Beth.
I guess maybe that is all I can do this year, but it doesn’t stop me from planning other quilts, and thinking about how I can incorporate them into books and videos. I may speed up, and some of these books are nearly written and only need a few samplers. so it might not be as overwhelming as it sounds.
I would love for my readers to tell me what they want me to teach by book and video (I am not going to do much travel for a while), realizing that I have been sewing for more than sixty years, having even once owned my own fashion design business, and quilting since 2009, with ribbons and other awards to my name.
One of my most prized awards that may sound unrelated, but is not, is a simple honorable mention I won in Kanazawa Japan decades ago. I studied Ikebana there, receiving my fourth year Sogetsu School Ikebana certificate, the next one, had I continued, would have been a master certificate. While there, I entered a flower show and made an arrangement using great big sunflowers, chrysanthemums, and swooping curls of broomstick. It won an honorable mention. Theoretically, it was anonymous. But there were some magnificent arrangements there. It’s something I have never forgotten. Nor have I forgotten a single bit of my training. I have sketch books with some of my arrangements too. A flower arranging quilt would be fun.
Kanazawa Memories, with machine stitched sashiko and a fabric Ikebana arrangement I made by printing individual flowers on fabric and appliqueing them into an arrangement. I lived in Kanazawa Japan for three years as a young woman. I no longer own this quilt.
In the stitching/sewing world, I can probably teach almost anything except piecing and hand sewing. I can do those things, but only at about an intermediate level, whereas clothes, tailoring, and now art quilting, I consider myself to be at an expert level in many of the techniques. Please comment and send me your questions or suggestions either here, on Facebook or send me an email/message, realizing it will be a while before I get the answers to you, unless it is a simple answer I can put on my blog. Also, what do you think of my planning to write books for people with higher tech machines?
Sew happy everyone! I hope you get to go out and enjoy the great beauty of spring or fall wherever you are.
I retired on January 1st of 2012 to become a full time fabric artist. When I think about it, it is a surprise to me that is 8 years plus a few months! During this time I have developed a loosely professional approach to ordering my day and I have found it really makes me feel right about the day. I guess it is because I spent decades working in sometimes pretty intense situations in my work life and got kind of use to having to put order in the day by necessity.
A couple of days after I got home from California I came down with a monster cold that has totally shut down my work for weeks. I am finally emerging from that, though I still have a cough here and there. Coughing, even though it is far less, does not work well with precision quilting. LOL. So for a few more days I will do a little video watching, a little writing, a little planning, and a little design work. Still, it is progress for me to get back to work finally. It is my sincere hope that you, dear readers, do not catch something like this. Apparently it is going around, since a lot of my quilty friends seem to have had it too. It’s a bear and antibiotics do nothing for it.
