Season's Greetings

This humble little tree is lighting our home with birds, nests, and crystal, tempting Oliver and bringing Christmas joy and peace.  It has been put away for several years, but Oliver is now mature and only gently touches the crystal ornaments and watches them move and reflect the lights, and he doesn't seem to notice the birds perched here and there or some of the fallen nests from storms brought in to save and treasure.  Perhaps if the birds actually moved he would start stalking them!

We've had snow, mountains of it, and frigid temps, but are happy to be snug and warm inside.  I've been cleaning, decorating, and baking just a few big yummy oatmeal cookies.  I have long since stopped doing anything fancy, and keep it simple and delicious.  

Below is another look at my Delectable Mountains wall quilt, showing some of the quilting and the richness of the colors.  I like the heavy old rose sateen as a background color, but the fabric weight was a bit much for the lightweight piecing fabrics.  The large triangles are a rich mud color hand dyed sateen so there was quite a bit of weight in the piecing junctions. 

I quilted the backgrounds with gold silk thread (not metallic) and that added an overlay of rich color to offset the cool rose in the fabric.....I like it!  I did do a sample with matching rose thread and it sort of died and looked flat and lifeless.  There is nothing, repeat, nothing like quilting a sample with your choices before beginning on the actual quilt.  It has saved me from making major mistakes so many times.

Oliver is helping me with all this exciting activity, and his favorite new thing is my lovely Polar Bear snow globe, a mother and two cubs.  

I've always loved snow globes but never found one that was just right.  This one jumped into my line of sight recently while I was shopping for something entirely different (probably something way too practical to recall), and it enchanted me.  I didn't realize until I had it a few days and tipped it over to read about it that it had a key on the bottom, which I turned and now can hear Silent Night tinkling away as the bears sit in a whirlwind of snow. 

At first Oliver watched the bears, then checked out the snow when I shook it, and finally the music, and now simply sits and watches, enjoying it.  He is a gentleman of a cat.

Thank you all so very much for the incredible comments on my last post; they warm my heart and make me realize anew how special an experience I had as a quilt teacher.  

May your holidays be happy and bright, the New Year everything you wish it to be.  Peace,

Diane

Winter's Silence

It is that time of year again, when the darkness of winter nears, the silence is all around.  Oliver waits at the windows for birds, and the festive lights of houses begin to glimmer and celebrate the holiday season.  Flocks of huge wild turkeys visit at least once a week, and the heavy feeling in the air means snow is on the way.

It has been a long time since I visited this blog; my days have been filled with things other than quilting, but recently my interest in it was nudged just a bit by several things.  In June I was asked to appear on a new Wisconsin Public Television program, "Treasured Quilts of Wisconsin."  Nancy Zieman of "Sewing with Nancy" hosted it, and she also invited me to be a guest on her program in the Nancy's Corner segment, below.

After the taping the crew gathered around me to look closely at my quilt and ask me excited questions.  It was so fabulous to see these young people so amazed with quilting, so interested in everything!  Plus, it was a joy to work once again with Nancy.  Our conversation takes place in her Sewing With Nancy program "Patchwork Patterns Inspired by Antique Quilts with Julie Hendricksen."  It has aired recently and will re-run nationally for three years.

The quilt I was holding is "Delectable Mountains," below.  Quilted with YLI Sparkle thread (silk and metallic), it still gives me shivers when I remember how difficult it was to do, how it was tossed onto the UFO pile for a long time, then I persevered and finished it, only to have the hand dyed mud color bleed in the center of the quilt, ugh.  In the interview Nancy mentioned my use of color, especially my term for dull fabrics (below in the large triangles) that I called "mud."  

It never made it to the auction, I made a different and better quilt with the challenge fabrics.  I had this poor little quilt hanging with the back showing for a long time, and finally tried it with the front to the front, and can look at it without reliving the agony of piecing and quilting it.  The monstrously thick seam joins with very heavy sateen caused some minor breakage in my presser foot assembly, springs flying or dropping every now and then, repair shop needed.  But....it's probably good for the soul to have to suffer through a project every now and then!

  

It also took me awhile to brace myself and watch the television shows I was in.  I was afraid I had said "ummmm" too much, or started every sentence with the usual Wisconsin "yah".....but no, all was well, and the editing took care of my wandering thoughts.  It was not easy "talking quilts" again after several years of retirement, but I found it all came back quickly and easily.  

This led to trying some quilting and I have to say even though my sewing room was a storage room and had boxes and stuff piled everywhere, I found my machine, and can still quilt well, and it felt good and looked beautiful.  Now I have to consider what I want to make, some small project that will let me experience that lovely contentment and joy that machine quilting can give. 

I'm teaching quilting to a great-niece, such a delight, and Oliver has had near escapes and great cat adventures, plus I'm still going through years of accumulated quilt things.  I found a fun article I wrote on color for Quilter's Newsletter Magazine a long time ago, and will share that with you soon, especially since Nancy Zieman brought up the whole MUD thing!

I think of so many of you often, the quilters, the classes and things that happened, the travel and the places quilting took me.  Going through my years of memorabilia has brought back so many lovely memories.   Stay warm, and more soon,

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day,

Diane  

Sifting and Winnowing

Labor Day has passed, and finally there is some cool fall air, rainy days, perfect for cleaning the sewing room, sorting through mountains of "stuff," and tackling the stash.  I will do a little a day so my back doesn't give out, but it is overwhelming.  A lifetime of fabric, scraps from quilts, and I hate to admit I have a hard time saying goodbye to any fabric.

However it is time to get organized and make some decisions about all this.  Fortunately there are people who need fabric and will put it to good use.  My sister is already on her way to a beautiful star quilt that she calls a "stash buster" and more is on the way to her.  Every day I feel a sense of accomplishment as a drawer is cleaned, books are sorted and organized and designated for keeping or giving away.  Piles are formed, my life in quilting is passing in front of me.

I found books or magazines that I wondered why I had kept them, and after paging through would find an article I had written or one about me, or a photo of one of my quilts.  I had forgotten I wrote so much and said "yes" to so many publications.  

And, I've taken time to pause and read notes from you, quilters I've met in classes, or from quilters I've never met.  So many of you took the time to leave me a note at the end of class, give me a little gift, and I've kept them all and treasure them.  I love these, and it was so nice rediscovering them.

As I sort the fabrics, and I've only begun, I realize I am still drawn to the same favorites, whether by color, print, or style.  I lovingly pick each up and fold it neatly and admire it.  Some I do wonder what was I thinking, or why did I buy it, but not many at all.  And oh the scraps!  Each one brings back the memory of the quilt it comes from, the making of it, the finished result.  Most of them I no longer have, so .......should I keep the remnants?  Probably not.  I must be practical.  

Before I began there were so many stacks and bins and piles of things I couldn't walk into my sewing room, or see the floor.  Now the outer hall is clean and tidy (that took a few days) and my room beckons, with shining floor, even a rug for Oliver and a stool by the window for him.  I have a new ironing board cover (grey with ivory Diane-shiko), and only three sewing machines.  I need to pare that down to two as well.  

The cutting table is clear and has a wall quilt on it resting and getting de-creased.  I will hang it soon.  It doesn't have a sleeve as the hand sewing with my painful hands was too much so I'll put it up with a few straight pins nailed into the wall.  

I found one sewing pattern I had saved, and it has to be from the 80's when I was still sewing clothes including long riding skirts as shown in this pattern:

Yikes, the shoulder pads!!  I plead Guilty, I wore them.  I could whip out a skirt in wool gabardine or silk in about an hour and it fit me perfectly.  This pattern was never used; I went up in size and sort of gave up on sewing for myself, but it would work now, so.....I am keeping it.  You never know.

In August Oliver turned six!  We went out to eat to celebrate and raised glasses of iced tea to our lovely boy.  Despite my shock when our new vet suggested it might be good for him to have some wet food added to his diet, he has taken to it perfectly.  He is now NOT a Vegan, but a true carnivore cat, although he does not like any people food except raw veggies and corn silk.  He isn't allowed to eat corn silk but he sniffs it out with black-eyed excitement.  He is still a little bi-polar and OCD, but that is very typical for a cat.

He has mellowed a little and is very happy.  His thunder purring is amazing, and it's the little things that he loves:  both of us at home, clean sheets and the making of the bed, an empty paper bag, Mom washing things in the sink with lots of running water, us keeping to routine, the usual cat pleasures. 

His birthday included a stack of canned cat food with 6 candles atop, and a card from his godparents in AZ, below.  He was a happy boy.

My email is working well again, still haven't tackled new software and a website update, although just getting the software was an accomplishment!    

Many of you are emailing me with questions about quilting, and I try to answer as best I can.  I still maintain that with every quilt project you do, you encounter new problems and must come up with a way to work it out.  You think you know it all, but you never do.  It keeps things interesting.

So  Happy Fall and .....keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day,

Diane

Practice

Prototype for mini quilt "Return to Provence"

I have been quilting a little every day.  I am practicing, warming up, getting back in routine. Sometimes it seems impossible to get it all right, the way it used to be, but it is coming along nicely. 

The sample, above, was an unfinished prototype to try out design, fabric, threads for a mini quilt I made for the AAQI online auction almost two years ago, the last quilt I made, made with silk fabric and quilted with silk and metallic/silk threads.  I found this unfinished prototype after many hours of practicing, and decided to try and complete it, see if my "new" quilting looked good enough to merge with my previous quilting.

Happy to say Yes!  My quilting blended in perfectly, I had no trouble at all replicating the designs, scale, and quality from two years ago.  I am ready for a new project, and have been digging through books, fabrics, sketches made, samples quilted, notes here and there.  I will begin with something small on fabric I love.  I am still deciding.

While I was practicing and it all came back to me I realized that many of you have to do this often.  You are interrupted in projects, you have illness or injury or moves or crises that keep you from quilting.  Maybe you have long fabulous vacations or travels where you never even think of a sewing machine, but want to pick up with quilting when you can.  

First, be assured it does come back, and it comes back fast.  I had stiff sore fingers and hands briefly at the beginning, and sore shoulders from sitting with tense muscles as I was so not relaxed.  But, each day I relaxed more, muscles were better and more limber, and everything fell into place.  I have to use my left hand for a few things due to a bad right thumb, but now I am used to that too.  

Some things that I discovered while practicing:

• Muscle memory is a wonderful thing.  Even if years go by, your body will remember how to quilt, your brain knows what to do, it simply needs you doing it to get it back.  Repetition, correcting errors, then repeating it the right way until it flows easily and is natural.
• Use the right needle!  I started quilting and didn't realize I had done some alterations on jeans or something, or sewn on a knit fabric, and had a #80 Universal needle in the machine, not my usual #60 Microtex Sharp.  I was having no end of ugly quilting until I realized that oops, needed a better needle.  I was practicing at first with #50 Aurifil cotton thread on a muslin sandwich with wool batt, and cotton batt in the other half from some sample done for a class.  I used a #70 Sharp needle and it looked a ZILLION times BETTER, and as a result of my work looking better all due to the right needle, my quilting improved and I relaxed.
• Cleaning and oiling the machine was necessary even though I hadn't used it for awhile.  It made a happy purr after all this, and I sewed on some folded cotton and used feed dogs to warm it up before I tried quilting.  
• Work up to the hard stuff.  Start practicing with some simple wavy lines, echo them, or do a motif you can do in your sleep.  Then add some challenges, like trying to fit the background motif around an actual design.  
• Play with thread colors, use some pretty fabrics for practice, and the correct tension and needle.  This all makes a huge difference; if your work looks nice as you practice, it makes you a better quilter.
• I had to slow down the motor speed on my zippy Bernina.  I usually don't, and love its power and responsiveness, but because I was so out of practice I needed to shut it down to 3/4 power so I didn't tromp on the foot pedal and quilt 50 stitches, in one spot, in one second.  Sometimes even now when beginning to quilt each day I will slow the motor and later when I am warmed up put it back to full power and rely on my foot to get the speed right and be IN CONTROL.
• I almost forgot to add The Slider so my quilt moved easily under the needle.  I didn't use it the first few days and kept thinking that this was harder than I remembered, my stitches weren't even, and it jerked and stuck when I tried to move the quilt.  Whoa, put the Slider on, and everything was easy again, like moving the quilt on ice.
• When I was quilting the muslin sandwich for awhile I thought there was something wrong with my machine, the noise was so loud when the needle went through the quilt.  Then I noticed I was quilting in the area with the cotton batt, not the wool batt.  It was noisy, the puff of the design was very low and flat, and it was stiff and more difficult to move.  Oh yes, now I remembered why I like wool batt.
• I am glad I have lots and lots of samples to look at, things I've quilted for classes, articles, myself just to see how something would look.  It really helps to have something to see to get ideas going again.  Inspiration is all around you.
• 
   
• Don't be afraid to make something again, something you made once and loved, but try the same pattern or motif in a different color or fabric.  I might make the mini quilt design part of a larger quilt with a chintz border.  It's something I've always wanted to make, something to see and enjoy hanging on a wall in my home.  And then too I'd love to replicate some of the quilts I no longer have, like "Blossom's Journey," below.  I love Trip Around the World and I love the border quilting, so much fun to do, very extemporaneous.

Border Detail, "Blossom's Journey"

Meanwhile.....Oliver needed brushing!  He was shedding like crazy, and I found a round hairbrush I had tried for blow drying my hair but it pulled way too much of my hair out, ouch.  I had to cut that brush out of my hair, ugh.  

Oliver loves being brushed, so after a few days with this brush it was filled with Oliver fur, and I carefully used a comb to remove it from the brush.  Gosh it looks just like a great little quilt batt, so I saved it and may add more and give it a try.  I shall make Pioneer style Quilt Batt from Oliver!  It's softer than wool and we'll see about loft, but very lightweight, like down.  And of course I know it is washable...........!

It is snowing hard here in Wisconsin today, and we are snug and warm at home, time to turn on the machine and see how my quilting is today.  I shall have to plan a trip to a quilt shop for the sort of Chintz I need and then begin my new project.  I hope the NE storm isn't as bad as they say it will be, and you all stay safe from its danger.  

Keep quilting, your work gets better every day!

Diane

Little Treasures

Lately the most delightful surprises have been appearing in my mailbox!  Quilted postcards from far-off places, feathers that are beautiful, messages and drawings on the back that touched my heart have arrived, all showing me the spectacular results of my tutorial for SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilting Challenge!  They are truly an unexpected delight.  

The first one, above, appeared in a stack of bills and sale fliers, hidden away, and when I sifted through the stack I almost yelped when the colors, texture, beautiful feather in the postcard were revealed, WOW!  This one is from Tina Gilly in Pensacola, FL, USA,  and I thought it was a "group thank you" card......until......gasp.....another one arrived!

Postcard #2, above, is done on a champagne colored silk, and is the only one that picked up some smudges from the mail sorting machines.  It is lovely, and is from Liz Gates in New Zealand.  I shall try and clean it.  Great pearls in the spine!

Then there was a bit of a pause, until the THIRD one arrived!  Below, a beautiful feather from Marelize Ries in South Africa, quilted with a shimmery silk thread in a soft teal on a deep teal fabric, love the color choices, which look deeper and more mysterious in real life.

On the same day, a fourth card also arrived, this one in a tiny striped fabric and accented with coloring to make it visible.  It's tough quilting feathers on print fabrics, but yet we tend to use many prints in our work, so using art supplies to highlight them is a good option.  Below, card #4 from Dorothy Matheson in Texas, USA.

Then some time passed and I thought that might be the end of feathers-in-the-mail, but no!  Postcard #5 appeared, below, a beautiful feather variation with curls in each feather and a string of "pearls" on the spine, very nice.  It is from Alice Ridge in Virginia, USA.

And.....the next day.........Postcard #6 was delivered by my now admiring mail woman, who probably wonders why, how, what are these beautiful things!!!  It is on the loveliest citron shade of fabric, quilted with chartreuse thread, so pretty.  Thanks to Barbara Crumpton in Malaga, Spain for this one!

When you look at all of these feathers and quilting styles, it is the way it was for me as a teacher to go from student to student in class and see all the differences in work, how each feather is unique to the quilter, much like our handwriting.  Even if feathers were traced using a stencil, same one for each person, the results would vary, reflecting the style of quilting and of course color choices with threads and fabrics.   You are the artist here and you make these a reflection of yourself in quilting.

I am so pleased that so many used my tutorial and learned on their own, without verbal help or even videos, without a teacher there to help with any problems.  You all forged on yourselves and came up with amazing results, and I am very proud of each of you.  Thank you so much for the postcards, they will become a treasured collection for me.  

Summer is here, but it has been gloomy, damp, dank, cloudy, rainy, icky here.  My hands stick to the laptop, the dishes do not dry in the rack.  We entertain ourselves with bird seed on the front step, which I did for the birds all winter, but now for the rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels, as well as the occasional sparrow.  They feed every morning, oblivious to Oliver peering with killer intent through the glass, tail thrashing.  Ah, the life of retirees.....

Geeky tip:  I am now used to Windows 8, no problems at all, fast and easy now that I have figured out its rather convoluted ways.  I use Google Chrome for my browser and like that better than IE.  I set the zoom on my new HP laptop at 150% to view my blog, and at 125% for all other pages with no problems and bigger everything for these older eyes.  

Hope you enjoy seeing these quilting samples, and are inspired to get back to working on your own quilting, making it better every day.............!

Diane

Autumn Leaves already?

 

Every year about this time the leaves turn glorious shades and begin falling, and I begin a quilt project inspired by the colors around me.  Above, detail from "Shadows of Umbria," made "just for me" one autumn, because I simply had to dig into my fabric and work with these colors.  I always do.

 

It has been so long since I've posted that I almost forgot I had a blog, but today I have some spare time and decided to check in and see what's going on in Blogland. 

I've been enjoying retirement, although it seems life is as busy as ever, but no travel deadlines for me now, no packing stacks of quilts, samples, and handouts.  Life is at my pace and that is good.  I'm keeping up with quilting, what is going on, new machines, fabrics, styles, people.  And every now and then Oliver and I spend some time at the machine doing a bit of quilting too.

 

 

 

Oliver turned 4 in August, and we celebrated with a bowl of fresh guacamole which he loved helping to prepare (he adores fresh veggies, especially sweet corn this year, the silk, of course).  His godfather visited and brought him a playstation that he uses many times every day and loves it. 

 

 

 

And adventures he has had!  He made his escape from the house for an entire hour one day by figuring out a way to slither through the opening in the sliding patio door.  I came down to see him OUTSIDE, looking IN!  He couldn't get back in on his own, and how he squeezed himself into that opening I'll never know, but now that has been revised and I believe he will stay in the house from now on.  I had a few new grey hairs from that little escapade, and perhaps his innards are slightly compressed too.

 

I visited Bigsby's Sewing Center in Elm Grove to see what's new, and had a great time with Riley, their saved kitten, now a large sweet cat, who showed me how to work an IPad.  He has a game where he chases the pink mouse and he even knows how to swipe the screen to go to the next game.  Ah, cats.  Smarter than we knew.

 

 

 

Recently I held a small class for two professional quilter friends and it was wonderful to experience teaching again.  We quilted, laughed, shared and had two good days at our machines.  During that time there were many things that came to mind about quilting and I will list some of them here for you to consider too:

 

I know this is something you have heard over and over, but clean and oil your machine (if oiling is appropriate for your brand/model) frequently if you quilt or sew often - I do it every 3 or 4 hours.  After a big project, be sure and do this thoroughly.  The bobbin area is especially important, get rid of lint and gunk, shine a light in there, and gently get all the lint, threads, "stuff" out.  Clean thread guides on top too.  Then add a drop of oil where metal rotates around metal in the bobbin/hook area, slowly run the machine to distribute it, and remove excess.  Quilt or sew a bit on a sample to work out any excess. 

 

 

Above, using my microbrush (or a cotton swab, and a brush is good too) to clean the hook area.  After all lint and gunk is removed I add a drop of fresh sewing machine oil here.  Note the warning on the machine telling operator to close the door!  I have to remind those in my classes to do this all the time.  Just shut this door and things will be good.

 

If you hear strange noises in the machine or suddenly your tension is not right and no matter what you do can't be adjusted, you might have something damaged in the bobbin area.  Stop; don't continue quilting if a noise alerts you or if stitches look bad.

 

In our class we discovered a metal part on the bobbin case had been damaged on an older Bernina.  Once it had been repaired the machine worked perfectly.  Many quilters have an extra bobbin case on hand or perhaps one comes with the machine and you can try that to see if it solves the problem.

 

Bobbins can become damaged or bent through use, over time.  Try a new one, wind it, see how that works before you assume the worst.

 

Don't always blame your skill level or inexperience for something that isn't working right on your machine.  It can be something very tiny, maybe that you can't see, that could be causing the problem.  Many times the simply re-threading top and bottom of machine, checking to make sure the bobbin is in correctly and wound correctly, cleaning in the bobbin area, all might fix the problem.  Replace the needle, try another spool of thread if you have one, a new bobbin wound with fresh thread.  All these things are tiny tiny problems but added up can cause huge issues with free motion machine quilting.

 

When you are shopping and see new exciting products, make sure they can be used in the way you plan.  That gorgeous thread might not work in the top of the machine, only the bobbin if at all.  What needle will work best with it?  Ask the people at the store for advice; a specialty quilt/sewing store will have trained people to help you. 

 

We had fallen in love with an assortment of threads, but Rosemary said it did not work well in the machine even though it would thread ok, the "twist" of the thread caused problems.  So we put that back and looked for other delightful choices.

 

Try something new with your quilting.  Set yourself a challenge to research and come up with a new technique or design that you can add to your next project.  This not only adds interest to the finished quilt, but keeps you interested in your quilting.  It's so much fun to draw something, figure out how to quilt it, make some samples, practice it until you are proficient, and use it in a real quilt. 

 

We tried some grid-based designs, zentangle ideas, freehand florals.  You need more than loopy backgrounds for quilting designs; some focal point motifs are important too.  Many floral designs can be done with some sketched in guidelines or a starting point, then add  freehand petals, details, leaves, echoes.

 

Below, a grid-based background I tried around a feather.  It appears to be on-grain squares, but in reality it is on-point squares stitched first, then each filled, one at a time, with a log cabin style spiral technique.  It was a bit tedious, went faster the more I did, and I love the finished look, so definitely will be adding this to my projects.

 

 

 

 

I hope you are taking some time for October's bright blue skies, and autumn leaves if you have them where you live.  It is one of the highlights of living in Wisconsin, the vistas of color as you make the turn in the road and see nature's glory for a fleeting time each fall.  Even a bright red leaf fallen on the sidewalk is a chance to marvel at color, composition, design. 

 

Enjoy, and keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.

Diane

 

Quilting Again

 

Yes, quilting again!  A deadline approached and I entered the Forbidden Room with Oliver where he camped out nearby to help me with a quilt project.  Marking is never fun, but new markers and an old clamshell tool from www.thimbleworks.com did the trick beautifully.  Oliver knocked the markers off the table several times and watched me search and retrieve with that intensity only a cat can have.

 

Two weeks ago as summer finally arrived I realized that the small quilt I promised to make for this year's AAQI Celebrity Auction is due very very soon, yikes.  The auction will be online this November; I'll give you the details later when I make sure of dates, etc.  But trust me, from the list of names making quilts I know you will want to bid and bid early and often so you can claim one of the beautiful quilts.

 

 

Above, my 15" square miniature quilt, marked, layered, and pinned.  Ready for the machine!  The top is a beautifully luxurious gold silk dupioni with minimal slubs, very smooth and pretty, and I used YLI #100 silk thread for the quilting, which is tiny and exacting, and yes I needed a magnifier. 

 

I used Pellon Legacy wool batt, and a scrumptious perfect dusty teal Moda cotton from the Wuthering Heights 3 Sisters Collection.  I'll try and get a photo of the back of the quilt, as I like it equally well as the front.

 

I did make a small prototype, practiced my feathers, checked thread colors.  I'll write about that a bit later when I get more photos taken.  It helps so much, not only showing you in real life how the thread color looks, the one you were planning on but now can see isn't quite right after all.  My muscle memory woke up, and quilting was easy and beautiful, the best news I could have after not working on a real quilt for over a year.  This skill does not go away. 

 

Oliver got into more trouble, hiding from me and making me search the house for half an hour, wondering if somehow I had let him outdoors?  I sensed his eyes on me when I went into the kitchen, turned, and saw the white spot of his fur in our wine cupboard that for once had an empty shelf!  Perfect spot to fit his body, a 2009 Oliver, smooth and sweet with that hint of smoky naughtiness!

 

 

I quilted a few hours a day for a little longer than a week.  There are designs marked on this miniature quilt, the vines and animals, but I did all the feathers freehand as always.  It is based on my miniature quilt A Visit to Provence.  My sketch of the feathers and vines in that quilt has been lost so I referred to my photo and came up with something similar, with the addition of my Rabbit, and signature sleeping cat instead of the urn from the original.

 

There was no room for an outer border so I filled the corners with delightfully tiny clamshells, 1/4" Diane-shiko, and some very tiny stippling for the odd spaces.

 

It is bound and finished, titled Return to Provence.  I love it.  I look at it and like to keep looking at it, for me the true test of a successful design.  I hate to ship it off for the auction and say goodbye, but I know it will go to a good home and give others pleasure.

 

Below are some details of the quilt, and I'll post the full photo soon when my camera battery recharges.  I used one line of echo quilting around the main designs with Sparkle Silk thread for a hint of gleam.

 

 

Clamshells in upper right corner, above.

 

My hands are sore, but better, and it was wonderful to be at the machine again.  I hope to make more small projects soon, in a leisurely way.  Thanks for all your comments on "retirement" - it's good not to have the travel and pressure of teaching, but I do miss seeing all those talented bright funny students.  I hope you are all doing well with your work, sneaking in some quilting time when you can. 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.....

Diane



 

Is it REALLY 2013??

 

It is frozen "everything" here in Wisconsin, frozen windows, frozen feet and hands and face, frozen food being used for meals as it is too nasty to venture forth to buy fresh.  After two mild winters we are getting hit by cold and ice and snow and rain and frozen rain.  I slip and slide to the mailbox only to find its frozen side is smashed in and snow has sifted inside on my letters. 

 

Fortunately Oliver and I are cozy and safe and warm inside, with no trips to worry about, no flights missed. I've been cooking some marvelous meals, rediscovering some simple pleasures of home.   However, cabin fever could be looming, so we are hoping for some spring-like days soon.  Ha.....

 

I have meant to catch up here and post some information for you quilters but days go by and we are hibernating and I forget all about it.  I had an injury to my wrist/thumb from doing something dumb, sweeping the floor, and it's better but not great yet.  I try to be careful but I think it's going to be one of those things that flares up all the time and keeps me reading books or watching TV and not quilting.

 

 

One of the most exciting things recently was my trip to the pet store where I found a pot of wheat grass for Oliver.  I had to go next door to the import shop and pick up a pretty basket for it too.  I brought it home, wondering if he'd even know about grass, being an indoor boy his entire life, but wow he dived in and sniffed and nibbled and got big eyes and a pink nose. 

 

The first pot lasted 3 weeks with his nibbling, and I gave the grass daily showers in the sink.  Then we discovered it is available for people at the grocery store.   I bought the next batch there, organic, fresh, 3 times the size of the cat stuff.  I guess I should be eating this???  When I trim the tips it smells like freshly mowed grass.  Really?  I should be eating this?  Oliver is eating it and likes it a lot; not quite as much as that which was designated especially for cats, but still, he likes it.

 

So.....Happy 2013!  Sorry to be so long in posting; I am keeping track of things quilty, but enjoying some time off from it.  I do have some things I will post soon, and hope all of you are making use of this time of year and quilting something you love.

 

My best wishes to everyone for 2013 and I hope our paths will cross.

 

Keep quilting; your work gets better every day!

Diane

 

 

Merry Christmas

 

As snow falls and deep dark winter descends all around us, I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!  I cannot thank all of you enough for your love and support as well as your continued enthusiasm for the art of home machine quilting, the excitement you bring to this blog, the depth of your commitment and knowledge.  For all of you I wish the very best this holiday season and many blessings and much happiness for the future. 

 

Oliver is well and happy.  I took a wild chance and moved things around in the house, and put up the small faux Charlie Brown tree decorated only with birds and small nests and eggs.  Many of the nests were found in our yard, exquisitely and intricately constructed, a delight to examine and save on my little tree.  How they can construct these so perfectly whereas I have a hard time threading a needle I will never know. 

 

 

 

I carefully added several strings of clear lights to glow in the window and light up our long evenings and even the dark days. 

 

Oliver noticed it of course, and mostly wondered where his table by the window had gone and what was this big thing sitting in the way instead.  So far he has not noticed the birds, the nests, any of it.  He did nibble the end of a faux branch but that was not worth doing again, blech, so we have been safe for a week. 

 

Any time now I fear he will tilt his head as he tends to do when thinking about trouble, and notice that there are BIRDS on this tree with real FEATHERS on them and he might have a wild and wonderful time stalking and attacking them.  Until then, if that day comes, we enjoy it together.  He gazes at the lights reflected in the window and is content. 

 

Below, he joined us on the side table when his Godparents visited from far away AZ and enjoyed some Wisconsin frozen custard and coffee, and good conversation.  He settled in and was happy we were all together.

 

 

Merry Christmas from Oliver!

 

I hope in 2013 to bring you more information and tales of quilting, life in the home of a quilter with a cat.  Until then, keep quilting, take some time to enjoy your passion, but relax and enjoy the holidays.  Merry Christmas!

Diane

 

 

Combining our Knowledge

Ann and Diane at her book signing 2011

 

Recently Ann Fahl and I were discussing the angst of quilting over triangles on our home sewing machines.   The thickness, the foot getting hung up, the pulling on the quilt, large stitches, tiny stitches, broken needles, hair pulling, all of it.  The STRUGGLE!

 

Ann is busy on her end writing about this issue and will blog about it in a series of posts about quilting her red triangle quilt.  She has lots of info after working on this quilt and I will be posting my blog in a few days, so watch for hers and mine as well. 

 

We hope our joint effort will help with your quilting, because quilting in a home machine is definitely a challenge at times.  All of our experience and knowledge both in quilting and working with students and the wide variety of machines should give you the tips you need to make things go so much more smoothly.

 

I hope to publish more informational blogs in the upcoming months, maybe even another tutorial.  Thanks for all your well wishes; Oliver and I are doing well.  He is worried the weather is so very cold so early in the season, and he wondered about the snowflakes in the air the other night.  Oh no....

 

 

Above, Oliver the first week at our house.  He chowed down in my bathroom and now that I look at this I see why I thought his tail was so long; his body hadn't grown yet!  He was 6 months old.  He is still as sweet as ever, maybe even sweeter, but I am so biased.

 

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day....

Diane

 

 

 

AAQI Auction Continues

Mom, is this a new pillow???

 

Oliver is back ruling the house, now from his new pillow that quite possibly could become a horizontal scratching post as it is needlepoint and the texture is exciting all his scratching sensibilities.   He has his tail up, he is running and squeaking and doing all his cute routines. 

 

The purple pillow was purchased by moi because I did like it, but it shows my Celtic Bubbles designs done in concentric circles with a small satin stitch.  However, the building of the design, the overlapping circles, is exactly how I teach mine.  Very pretty!

 

I am doing much better, have had lots of time off resting and getting better, and tried a very tiny bit of quilting the other day and it went well, although my machine needs oiling for sure and was a bit noisy starting up after several months idle. 

 

I have an Ask/Answer column at the very last page of each issue of American Quilter Magazine, and just wrote a column for the March '13 issue about "Where is the Puff?"  so had to try and quilt some samples where the puff disappeared. 

 

This was not easy.  I have worked so hard to get the right combo of quilting ingredients to create puff that I had to scrounge around my recently purged sewing room and find a scrap of a flat batt to use, and really it was not nearly flat enough.  However, that and a few other tricks made the puff go down substantially, and it was fun to get it back again with all the right techniques on a flat batt.  When I quilted on Pellon Legacy Wool, wow, the puff was back again :-)! 

 

I did get a flatter look even on wool batt by doing some things wrong on purpose, so I hope this column will help all of you who are looking for more filled very small designs.  Not easy to accomplish.

 

 

 

It is dreary here in Wisconsin.  I believe November is the month with the most cloudy days, and it is also cold and wet.  Oliver looks for anything at all moving in the quiet yard outside the windows, and even a small bug will interest him for awhile.  Then there is always a nap to fill the day.

 

Thanks for the incredible support for my little quilt on the AAQI auction page, it truly is overwhelming to see bids come in to support this great cause.  To see all the quilts, go here.  There are a few days left to call one of these special quilts made by very special quilters your very own.  Good luck everyone, and thank you.

 

Diane

 

 

AAQI Celebrity Auction is ON!

 

"Joy Remembered"

 

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Celebrity Quilt Auction is now online!  I am proud to be part of this extremely talented group of famous quilters who have made special quilts expressly for this online auction to benefit AAQI and their amazing, and I mean AMAZING, work to help find a cure for this horrendous disease.    

 

Please do not hesitate to bid on any of the beautiful pieces, knowing you will be getting something wonderful and your dollars will be doing so much for this cause.  Click HERE to go to the auction page, it's easy, and you can browse the quilts and think about it for awhile yet.

 

For a YouTube video, click HERE.

 

 

Here is a detail shot of the approximately 19" square quilt, with a penny.  I used Gradations Benartex fabric in the center by Caryl Bryer Fallert and that's why there are variations of beautiful autumnal color.  This is a rich piece, saturated, glowing.  I hated to see it go, but I know it will go to a great home and will earn some money for a cause so close to my heart.

 

The border is gold silk dupioni.  I used Pellon Legacy Wool batt, YLI silk threads for the quilting, and a touch of YLI Sparkle (silk and metallic) to outline the central design.  The design is one I used many years ago called "Joy," and it was reduced in size for this small quilt. 

 

Artist's Statement:  The remembering joy, happiness, even the little things in life is slowly lost for those with Alzheimer’s.  I chose to fill the entire quilt’s space with an abundance of flowing designs, adding one small bird singing just for the joy of it.  It reminds all of us to embrace each moment, look for joy in life, and help work to find a cure for those who no longer can remember joy.

 This was the last quilt I made before being injured while rescuing Oliver from a dire situation.  I still am unable to quilt for more than a few minutes, but I am optimistic I will regain full use of my hands as healing takes place. 

 

I want to thank everyone for their wonderful messages and comments and emails; it has made all the difference to me.  I am doing well, Oliver is doing well, we are almost back to our old selves. 

 

I am so very disappointed that I was unable to teach my fall classes.  I know many of you planned a year in advance and I do hope to reschedule the NQM class in Paducah if they can find a time that will work.  A huge thank you to Joanie Poole who subbed wonderfully for me at Des Moines on extremely short notice.  

 

Life goes on, we are OK, I hope to get back to blogging and giving you information about quilting very soon.  Again, my heart is filled with your caring messages, cards, and gifts,  and I believe that the power of all of your thoughts and prayers helped carry both of us through this successfully.  Thank you, thank you.  You are all special to me.

 

Hugs  and love from Diane and Oliver