PIQF - Day 2

I had one of the most fabulous classes of my life today, learning all about hand quilting with Dierdra McElroy. Didi is one of the best teachers I've ever experienced - she approaches the skill of hand quilting from a scientific perspective (she has a degree in Veterinary Medicine) and has done incredible amounts of research into the elements of hand quilting regarding ergonomics, and has come up with some remarkable techniques to make it a totally enjoyable procedure. The entire 3-hour morning segment of class was a riveting lecture on basting, fabric, batting, thread, hoops and frames, thimbles, needles and quilting design. Whoa!! You just don't sit down and stab a needle through a quilt sandwich and wind up with a quilting masterpiece! So much to consider... it's downright, damn awesome, and Didi presented it in an exciting, learned and totally professional manner.

The afternoon session was the "lab" portion of the class, and did, indeed, feature a lot of stabbing of needles through quilt sandwiches, but, armed with the massive amount of knowledge we'd been fed in the morning, it was a pretty exciting experience. It was a little hard to get a grip on it at first, but after a few frustrating fits and starts, most of us grasped the concept with varying degrees of competence. I actually managed to rack up a count of 10 stitches/inch - pretty good for a beginner. The fact that the stitches went like /\/\\///\/ didn't seem to be important... we were promised this defect would clear up with practice. I've done a bit more since returning to my room this evening, and am beginning to think I'm actually getting the hang of it. Now I just need to toughen up the index finger of my left hand so that it can deal with a bunch of needle pokes until I REALLY learn how to do it properly.

Okay, as promised, here's some more quilts...

The winner for "Best Use of Color"...

'Ice Poppies' by Grace J. Errea


One of the Judges' Choice winners, and, unfortunately, this photo doesn't do it any justice... this piece was quilted to within an inch of its life... it was simply drop-dead amazing!

'Montana Tigers' by Karlyn Bue Lohrenz


Another Judges' Choice award, this one for exceptional hand work, which, alas, isn't visible in the picture, but it was incredible!

'Georgia On My Mind' by Nancy S. Brown


Yet more cool pieces...

'Rain Dance" by Ann Horton


'Just Doodling' by Loretta Armstrong, Pat Dicker & Sandra Harrington


'The Tsar's Decree' by Megan Farkas


'Begonia Picotee Lace' by Pat Durbin


Are you ready for this???

'Jack' by Sandy Curran


Last, but not least, a few more critters...

'Dogs' Day Out' by Barbara Confer


'The Squirrel's Speech' by Barbara Barrick McKie


'Ringo' by Helen M. Bruke


'First Kisses' by Kathy McNei


'A Simple Touch' by Pat Rollie


Tonight's dinner plans went to hell in a hand basket, so I spent a quiet evening in my room, editing photos and whacking out a few more hand quilting stitches. My "under-the-quilt-finger" is pretty banged up from being repeatedly stabbed by my untrained needle hand, so I've soaked it a couple of times and it's feeling marginally better. Didi says the best thing for this problem isn't Bag Balm, or Vitamin E, or any of a bunch of other healing ointments, but... dig this... Preparation H!!! Hmmm...

Rosalie will be arriving any minute, and I expect we'll be up most of the rest of the night laughing and scratching.

Tomorrow is another day with Dierdra, this time for Hand Applique... another skill I've been dying to learn how to do RIGHT!

PIQF - Day 1

It's that time of year again - my escape from Kansas to Oz... four days of creativity and of being surround by people who are as passionate about quilts as I. I arrived yesterday afternoon at the Santa Clara Hyatt Hotel, checked into my large, comfortable room with its view for days, set up my internet connection, poured a nice, stiff Jack Daniel's, and crashed.


At 7:00 I headed downstairs to the convention center for the show's preview. Open only to those who have registered for classes. it's always the best time to see the show, because the rampaging hordes of people one encounters throughout the rest of the week haven't arrived yet, and it's possible to take pictures of quilts without spoiling the images with floating heads.

As usual, there were some absolutely wonderful quilts, and I noticed people took a special interest in "critters" this year...

'I Spy' by Ruth Bloomfield


'Lucy' by Alexandra Tsubota


'Raptor II' by Betty Busby


'Siesta' by Tanya Brown


More pictures later... I have to go down to the Starbuck's for my latte, and then head for class... Hand Quilting with Dierdra McElroy.

American Canyon Open Studios

I recently participated in The American Canyon Arts Foundation open studios weekend. I had a wonderful time, met some fantastic people and saw some very excellent art. I've really missed being part of an Artists' Group ever since the Vallejo Artists' Guild went up in flames several years ago. I'd dearly love to see the group rise, phoenix-like out of the ashes, but I'm not the person to make it happen... it's a job for a younger, more patient, flexible, and tolerant individual than this old fart. But, I digress...
I was delighted with my experience with the ACAF, and immediately joined the group so I can be a part of future events put on by this talented, energetic group.
There were four locations throughout town where art was displayed. I was fortunate to be in the Palby's Junction building, which was recently remodeled from the ground up, and converted into a pleasant, spacious, airy and light space, from the once tacky, run-down restaurant. Here are a few of the artists who exhibited in this space...

Incredibly beautiful wool capes, vests and jackets by Jae Song:


Exquisite silk scarves and elegantly painted duck eggs by Maridee Hayes:



Ceramics by Brendah DeBow, Acrylics by Cleven "Goodie" Goudeau, and one of Jae Song's beautiful capes:


Fountains by Brendah DeBow:


Jewelry by Linda Staib:


Whimsical ceramics by Renata Allen:


Faces by Renata:


Pit-fired ceramics by an artist whose name I don't know, unfortunately. They were beautiful, though... I love this art form.


My favorite piece - a Napa Valley picnic, by Gary Stutler. Some friends of my parents had a car like this when I was a kid waaaaaay back in the '40s... alas, theirs was nothing like this fabulous color!!


My quilts:


Food...


...and drink... along with another painting by Goodie and a quilt by me:


I'm really looking forward to the 2012 show!!

Dye, Dying, Dyed...

A couple of weeks ago, I, along with a bunch of my fellow Vallejo Piecemakers, had a fabulous fabric dying experience with Marjan Kluepfel.


We spent a lovely day outside at the Solano County Fairgrounds, under the trees, in front of McCormack Hall, experimenting with all kinds of dying techniques and letting the creativity run amok.



Jan fixed her famous Taco Salad for 100 (or is it 1,000???), and we stuff-faced midway through the day, and then got back to work.


We did a six-stage "gradation" project using two colors of our choice - I picked magenta and turquoise. First, put a couple of cups of the soda ash concoction in each of six separate baggies, then add varying combinations of the two dyes, add fabric, let it sit in the sun for a couple of hours...


Rinse it out, throw it in the washer and dryer, iron, and, Voila! Look what you get...


Soak another piece of fabric in the soda ash solution, spread it out on a piece of plastic on top of a table and, using 2, 3, or however many squirt or spray bottles of different colors, create your design on the fabric, use a paint sponge to spread the color around, then roll the fabric up in the plastic and let it sit for 3 hours, rinse/wash/dry/iron, and get something like this:


Do the soda ash treatment with another piece of fabric, wrap it around a 15" long tube of 4" pipe, scrunch it tightly towards the center, secure with rubber bands, squirt two or more colors alternately around the circumference of the tubed fabric, wrap in plastic, let sit, rinse/wash/ etc...


More soda ash mix on another piece, stuff into a generous plastic bag and squirt the dye directly from the squirt bottle into the baggie, moosh it around a little, then do the finishing routine again...


I also did a bleach resist procedure, but, alas, I didn't use a strong enough bleach solution, so it didn't come out well. Dang! It would have been so cool! Oh, well, that's one for the future, when I get my dyeing studio set up in the garage.

Speaking of the dyeing studio, I've talked about it long enough, so I've quit talking and gotten to work getting crap out of the garage to make room for it. I got rid of the old organ the other day... sent it off to Mike Kendall, an incredible Benicia artist, who will, hopefully turn it into a sculpture of mind-blowing proportions!

Decisions, Decisions...

Here's the next area of the yard that needs to be addressed, but so far, I have no idea what to do with it. I don't want to deal with any more labor-intensive veggies... it gets way too much sun for me to plant the Hosta garden of my dreams... it has to be attractive because I want to start using this patio more. It would be nice to have a fountain and some trees, though I don't know if I can convince my neighbor that trees are a good idea, since they'd have to be on the upper level, and would be so close to his house. Maybe some fruit trees, so Chris can take advantage of the fruit-hanging-over-the-fence rule! If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to any and all!

Succulent Garden

I love succulents! Well, in all honesty, I love just about everything I plant, but, succulents are my second favorite plants, after roses. Last week I finished preparing the third of the raised beds in the front yard, and have planted it with succulents. This endeavor is a test of my faith that I'm going to live for quite a few more years! These plants are very slow growing, so I have a goodly few years to wait for most of them to come into maturity. For now, I get to molly-coddle them, and, like children, watch them grow microscopically. I'll give you two views of what I've planted so far - the first picture is what the plant currently looks like in my garden, and the second is how I can expect it to look in a few years...

Aloe plicatilas - "Fan Aloe"



Agave cornelius



Echeveria 'afterglow'



Beaucarnea stricta


Graptoveria 'Crested Form"



Aeonium hierrense



Aeonium nobile


I'll be adding a few more in the next month, but they'll be small, spreading ground-huggers to fill in the wide open spaces. Stay tuned...