Art

     When we go to a quilt show we take photos of the quilts we like, right? Some quilts speak to us and some don't. Sometimes it's the workmanship, the overall look, the colors, the imagination or ingenuity. Maybe you're with a friend whose taste is opposite yours.  She may like modern, you like traditional. They may like art quilts and you don't so much.  Art quilts are certainly a medium no different than paints in a tube but sometimes that's disputed.  Personally, I am a believer. As a medium art quilts are important. I just could never make one.

     I fall into the traditional. I like to think I maybe could do what I'm looking at so the art quilts don't generally ring my bells. Maybe they do yours.  That's what we call variety.  

     Today I went down to our arts council building because Friend Barb reminded me they had an exhibit I had overlooked. 

     It was a three part show.  Some quilts, some representation of blooms in photos or paint, some sculpture in fabric. 

     I'm including in the first three photos the philosophy of the sponsor of the quilt part of the exhibit, and the explanation of the theme.  It looks like a lot of reading but I learned a lot by taking the time. Put your reading glasses on and take a minute.

    After you read the sign board titled Emerald Green all becomes clear. 

Since we take photos of the things we like or that speak to us, these were the ones I took a photo of. All of the quilts required at least a spot of green in them.

I love blue.  The quilting on this was amazing and I had to really look for the green.

I've spent many a sunset standing on the lake bluff at our house when we lived in South Haven looking for the elusive green flash. This quilt made me smile and wish I'd have thought of it.

This was just pretty.  Poison ivy in the fall, those red leaves. Other than the hint of green in the ferns the white flowers have a teeny french knot of green in them.

We are seeing political statements in quilts lately and being hung in shows and I applaud them. This one really made me stand there and read what this quilt had to say.

I shrugged and walked past this.  Didn't like the colors. But I stopped and read the maker's statement and went back to get my nose closer.  

The embroidery is the quilting stitch and then I decided "wow." Maybe, too,because this one was done by hand.

I didn't care for this quilt (the green is embroidered in the pictures of the sunflowers.)  Then I read the statement and thought otherwise.  The picture shows VanGogh licking his brush. Explanation below.

This was done by the quilter who quilted Charlie's quilt. 

So, out of 34 quilts hanging in this exhibit, these were the ones that personally spoke to me and so I took a photo.  There were others I just didn't "get" but that's art.  And it was a lesson in first impressions versus taking the time to take a second look. 

Show and Tell part 2

 

OK, show and tell from retreat last weekend.  I apologize for where we were standing to show. You can clearly see we were competing with a work station so the quilts don't necessarily star in the pics, but you get the idea.  

I'll just name the stitcher and let the quilt work speak for itself.

Sally

Sally

Sally

Lisa

Lisa

Lisa - this is the same pattern as the one above but one for grand boy and one for grand girl

Barb

Barb

Barb

Barb

Barb

Ginger

Ginger

Colette

Colette

Colette

Colette

Colette

This was a challenge Barb set up.  She brought five fats and we were to bring one piece that we thought would work well with what she brought.  Then we each got a piece of all five she brought to make a 6.5 inch block then and there, using five of the pieces, no thinking allowed.  Sheesh!  Making me do math off the top of my head? Really? AND remember, I don't have a machine with me.  AND she timed us! I used Barb's machine, one of those that could launch the space shuttle.  Mine is on the top.   Then we picked a number from 1-10 and the one who came closest to the number Barb wrote down took the lot.  Sally won and the other part of this is she brings something back to next retreat with all of these in the finished product.  

Show and Tell

 Ha!  You thought that meant I was going to show you pictures of the quilts everyone brought to retreat last weekend, but I decided to save that for another day.  Instead I'll show and tell about the place we were and the people we are.

One thing we are NOT is a member of Scrub Stitchin' and while I will never be able to make that carousing weekend retreat ours fell on the same weekend and we had a beautiful time together. 

This is the place.  You know how when you walk into a vacation rental or your own cottage or pull your RV into a spot for a rest you can actually feel your heartbeat relax?  That's this place.  We are well taken care of.

Our weather was almost perfect. We had some rain but also one perfect day and another wanted to be perfect, struggled a little but it worked out.  There are ponds. Pine forests. Meadows. 

On the perfect day that turned into a perfect evening sitting outside for a bit just listening to the bullfrogs and peepers and geese - well, who could sit inside and sew?  

Our beloved innkeepers retired.  Luckily for me they moved very close to me so I can and do see them a lot.  These are the new innkeepers and they all passed the test.  But then they are the niece, nephew and husband of the former innkeepers so they knew the ropes and here were asking for our feedback.  Did they pass, they asked?  Indeed.

So, while we are a much smaller group than the Scrub Stitchers - good things come in small packages - and not nearly as rowdy we had SUCH a good time.  

This head dress is about as crazy as we get.  After showing Jenny's photo of her as Ursula everyone was quite sure they'd never dare!  Good for you, Jenny!

We were a little worried for this year.  We were down to just four of us but two new people joined and we couldn't have asked for two nicer additions.

Barb is our organizer

Colette was a new addition this year and she fit in immediately. She does phenomenal work.

You've heard me talk about Sally, who does teeny tiny piecing.  

Lisa is a Master Gardener, that title is hard won. She is the 'youngest' of the group.  Or are we the oldest?

Ginger is our other new addition.  It's amazing how completely she and Colette fit right in. Like we've known them forever.

Another time I will show some of the work everyone brought for quilt show and tell.  

Learning Something New

 Our library offered a free program on learning Sashiko, specifically the mending stitches.  I've done a couple of things as car projects and like how portable it is but I also knew I was doing it wrong.  The back is supposed to be as neat as the front and, well, it's a good thing I backed and quilted my projects so that wasn't seen.  I also didn't quite know how to travel the pattern and did want to know how to do that.  Jenny sent me a Sashiko project that I didn't want to start till I learned to do it right. 

We had two presenters, the talker and the helper.  Both were so patient.  It was a full room, and as I listened to the chatter around me I was surprised at how many people couldn't thread a needle.  In my head I applauded them for being there and trying something new. 

We were given this project.  A tote bag, water soluble small patterns to stick to our bag and our choice of embroidery floss, a needle and needle threader.   I know that embroidery floss is much less expensive than perle cotton and the range of colors is huge but it DID make for more difficult stitching.  I have not been quilting for a week or so to let my hands and fingers tame down a little before retreat but getting the needle through that gummy stick on pattern undid what I had been letting my hands rest from.

BUT I did learn.

The room was all set up for us, we just chose our thread colors and found a seat.  

This was an example of the patterns we were going to learn.  The red squares were what I wanted to learn how to do, the layering, the travelling.

We had good visuals and our presenter/teacher was SO patient.  I had to smile, though.  The class was for one hour and at each step she timed us.  "You have seven minutes to do this step." And when that seven minutes was up she moved on.  No one cried.  

This layering pattern was what I wanted to learn the most and I did have my "ah Hah!" moment.  So the hour was worth is just for this. 

Here are mine.  The circle patterns are called "steam," as in steam rising, and the squares were the layered stitching. We were told to arrange our patterns, stick them on and NOT to copy our neighbor!  That made me laugh.  So I positioned my steam to be coming out of the cups even though the bottom pattern was intended to mimic old Japanese money.  You know, the coins with the square cut out in the middle.

I thought the embroidery floss was too thick, we used all six strands, and the needle gummed up immediately from the sticky backing stuff and it confirmed forever in my mind why I don't use glue or fusibles in my quilt/sewing.  This is the part that made my fingers rebel. Pushing that needle through the gum and pulling it back out.  

But I did learn what I wanted to learn and it was a fun evening.

This was Library Friend Jessica's.  She was making such nice stitches! 

It was a full house, take this photo and double it for the second half of the room. Everyone's looked different because of their placement of the patterns and the color choices of embroidery thread.  There was even one young man there.  He might have been a son, brother or date but he was working diligently and learning something new.

Thank you to the library for sponsoring this event!