Text on Textiles Contest

International Quilt Festival in Houston is having a contest for THIS year called Text on Textiles. Before I include some of the details, note the part that says no part of the quilt may be published in BLOGS. So you gotta keep it secret.

An international juried and judged exhibition of quilts

Explore the use of text in this contest and exhibition from International Quilt Festival. Entries are quilts that speak to the theme. Any techniques—piecing, appliqué, embroidery, photo transfer, wholecloth and/or manipulated fabric, etc.—may be used as long as they are appropriate for the quilt (consisting of three layers) and the theme. Quilts must be made specifically for the contest and must not have been published in books, calendars, magazines, newsletters, websites, blogs, or any other form of publication prior to November 2011.

Each work must measure at least 48 inches (122 cm) and no more than 92 inches (234 cm) on each side.

Registration is now open. The last day to register is July 1, 2011.

Me again. Eek that's not much time. Last year there weren't any UnRuly Letters. How about this year?
More info is available here.

 

Love and Lily

For months I had my quilt Rumspringa hanging up on the wall directly facing the front door. Figured it would look great to whoever comes to visit if that's the first thing they see. Well, to heck with that - I want to enjoy it myself! So I moved it up on the wall, next to the tv and directly facing the recliner. Ah, now I can enjoy it all the time.

I am so behind on blogging so many things, such as my wonderful teaching trip up to the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild and how I finished three quilts and then unfinished one of them, and wanting to post a tutorial on Playing with Scissors. Agggh, too much. Plus, I spent the whole day sewing - been a long time since I really got going like that (thank goodness the horrible allergies that were making my life miserable have subsided somewhat).

So instead, I'll try to hold ya'all over with kitty photos. You can see the beautious Lily as well as some of my freehand fan quilting:

This came up the last time that I showed this rug. No, I didn't make it myself. It came from Egypt and was made by the women of APE (a horrible acronym that stands for the Association for the Preservation of the Environment ) located in what is commonly known as Garbage City. I only know of one place to buy it in the States and that's from the fair trade store Ten Thousand Villages. It's called a Shaggy Rag Rug, but unfortunately is only sold in black and white with a little bit of color.

Hope that tides you over. Ya'all take care.

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Quilts

I've been admiring the work of Andrea Balosky for sometime now - seeing mentions of her on the blog Wonkyworld and elsewhere. Andrea made a series of small doll quilts, with hand quilting. I love them and even bought the Small Wonders catalog, even though I wasn't lucky enough to see the show.

So when I found out that Andrea had six quilts available at the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, I dithered a bit (almost too long) and then sprang into action and purchased Confetti Sandwich:

It's a win-win situation buying from AAQI. I donate to a worthy charity AND get a fabulous quilt in return. Woohoo. Okay, and the real reason I just had to get it? The Bart Simpson in me loves the name Mungpoo, which is where Andrea lives in India. Mungpoo, Mungpoo, Mungpoo. There is a wonderful article on the AAQI blog about what Andrea had to go through to send her donations.

Having it inspired me to make a quilt for the AAQI myself. I started with UnRuly 9-Patches but I ended up making it too big. So I added a border and I'm going to keep it for myself. Although now I'm wondering if that border is strong enough. That's my quilt on the right. I made my friend Kathy try one too and look at the fabulous job she did. This was all without rulers or measuring.

Kathy surprised herself by enjoying making this quilt. And wheee, look at the red she added - makes her quilt so much more dynamic than mine. That fabric is auditioning as the binding.

So since the 9-Patch was too big, I made a One Patch. What do you think? I've even got it quilted already.

It was all made ruler-free. It's a mix of Cherrywood, hand-dyes, and regular solids. looks very art quilty to me, so I wanted to see what a similar quilt would look like made with repros. I wanted it to look like a child's first quilt, made for her doll from many many years ago.

Whaddaya think of this one? Did I succeed in making it look antiquey? Would you ever have guessed I made this? Think it's worthy of donating to AAQI?

Would anyone be interested in doing something similar? I'll do a Playing with Scissors UnRuly Challenge for AAQI and give ya'all some guidelines etc (over on the UnRuly blog) if you are.

Ugh, I've run out of time to add anything more to this post. I'll try to get the next one done sooner!

 

Ya'all take care!

P.S. I've somehow turned into a crazed Doctor Who-phile (Whovian???) this year after forcing myself to watch episodes during the BBC America Who Year's marathon. I once read that you had to try a food nine times before you could say you hated it. I'm not willing to go that far (tuna casserole? anchovies? liver?) with food, but I know so many folks whose opinion I respect and have great geek creds that I just had to force myself with this show. I had it on in the background while I sewed and when I was really bored I didn't finish the episode (daleks, zzzzzzzz). Fell in love when I saw the episode "Voyage of the Damned," then "42" and "Blink" nailed it. It might just be my favorite ep ever.

Can't stand the first season of the reboot (except for the WWII creepy face mask children eps). I hate Rose, her mother and Mickey, really like Martha Jones but wish she weren't so mopey about the Doctor. Donna was great but I love love love the current Doctor and Amy and Rory. Anyone want to come and discuss the show with me, become my friend on Facebook! I don't want to give anything away here about the AWESOME latest episodes, The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon. The Silence? So darn creepy.

okay, that's really it this time. cheers!

One Step Closer to UnRuly

I finally did it. I ditched the rulers and am making a quilt using only my scissors and rotary cutter (and sewing machine and thread and fabric - did I need to add that?). Woohoo getting more UnRuly all the time. At first I admit it was scary. But now?

Love, love, love it. Very freeing.

There are other quilts and backings and bindings class write-ups that I should be doing. For a few weeks there I froze. Couldn't figure out which one to do, struggled, didn't have enthusiasm for any of them. And as a result did nothing.

Finally broke myself free from the stagnation by rebelling.

I've been wanting to go ruler-free for awhile, but haven't had the courage. Okay, I tried it once on a very small One Patch Quilt - and I even hand-pieced that one. But I didn't push any further.

(Yes, I am a hypocrite. I'm always trying to convince quilters to get liberated, to try the UnRuly Letters and get wonky, and yet here I am trapped inside a box as well. Maybe a bigger box than some folks, but a box all the same.)

You know how I love Anna Williams. I read that first article about her in 1997 and there was a photo of her working with scissors. That was the first time I ever heard of a quilter working that way. I wasn't even tempted to try it back then - waaaay more than I could handle.

I finished this quilt top last spring: Love Anna Williams Style (aka LAWS) inspired by one of Anna's quilts.

but is it truly Anna Williams-style? sigh. Not completely. I used my rulers. I wanted straight lines to sew with, even though I wasn't measuring.

But this time? I'm going all the way, baby! or at least, getting closer...

 

Okay, I'm still using a rotary cutter, cuz I like it and it's fast, but no rulers, no perfectly straight edges. um, well, that is.. okay I'm not cutting any NEW strips but I am using old strips that were cut perfectly straight. c'mon. I've got lots and lots and lots of fabric already cut. I gotta use it! That's all the solids, hand-dyes and Cherrywoods. Of course I have to wrestle them away from Lily first.

I'm also using shirts. I've got lots and lots of them and for the most part they're not already cut into strips.

I did quite a few joins where I laid two pieces of fabric right-sides up and then cut through them both, with a gentle curve or two, so that they'd match up. That's not how Anna would do it, I'm sure. But it was  a place for me to start where I felt comfortable. I suspect I'm still straightening out too many edges, but I am getting looser as I go along. Baby Steps.

This love block in particular was inspired by Nifty Quilts. She's working on a quilt with 52 virtues (you're all invited to play along and make your own Virtues Quilt.

But Anna and Nifty are not my only inspirations.

The talented Victoria (who blogs as Bumble Beans) made an incredible ruler-free quilt back in 2009. I've learned so much from reading the WaveRunner Tutorial even though it's taken me way too long to try some of the techniques. She shows cutting and sewing wavy UNMATCHED strips (ie, those gentle curves don't curve the same say) and then steam ironing the heck out of them.

It looks so much scarier than it is. Really and truly. In fact, it is way fun. Great place to dip your toes in...

Another fabulous quilter I admire is Sujata of The Root Connection. Last year she made a wonderful quilt with, as she calls them, "bubbles and bumps." Using only scissors, she added and subtracted fabric to create this quilt, very intentionally letting the fabric speak to her and not worrying about flatness. Whee!

But the last straw that finally pushed me over the edge into madness freehand cutting? I discovered Sherri Lynn Wood's blog Daintytime. Whee, another kindred spirit. I've read her whole blog and it pushed me into action. I highly recommend her Mod Mood Quilt Along and in particular the posts about cutting fabric without a ruler, sewing together the puzzle pieces, and curve piecing.

Additionally, I love her Passage Quilting (insert little trademark symbol here) in which she sews (and teaches others to sew) together meaningful clothing items. Very moving. And wow, daring. She goes much farther than just using cottons. (Anything but leather? Wow, that is adventurous.) She has a Mini Passage Quilt Tutorial and it is wonderful. It really inspired me to use the curves of the shirts, instead of just hacking them into straight strips and squares.

So are you all inspired to try freehand cutting and piecing too? 

That is enough for one post. Gotta get ready to watch Fringe... Too bad we're not going to get any more of Anna Torv channeling Leonard Nimoy. She did it fantastically.

Later, gators!

I'm Still Here

Once again I have neglected my blog and am now so far behind I barely know where to begin posting. aagh. I want to write a thoughtful post about the project I am currently working on, but if I do that, I'll never get this written. So here's a hint of what I'm working on:

No, everything up on my design board does not go together. These are Mary C's Hallowistmas blocks

I love the jolly Christmas house set among the black and white tombstones and spooky mansions in particular. I also received a set of Hallowistmas Bordertown Houses from Julie. I fully intended to have fun making these houses but have to admit I haven't been able to get into the swing of it. ugh. So I'm going to push the deadline on that one for all of us. It will be easier to make these the closer we get to the holidays.

Speaking of which, wheeee more Bah Humbugness. I do believe I have all of the blocks now. These fabulous ones came in from Cherie, Marge and Amy.

I haven't laid out all the blocks for the quilt yet - I need to move furniture around in order to get the floor space first.

I squealed when I opened the package from Marge. Wheeeee more robot fabric. I'm absolutely thrilled.

Habibi loves the fabric too.

Alright, quick dip of the toes back into the blogosphere accomplished. Hopefully it won't be so long before the next post. Ya'all take care.