International Quilt Festival, Houston 2010

Got home yesterday from the festival, it was entirely too much for my mind to comprehend. My Mother flew down from Wa state to go with me, and from my house we drove drown. Spent Sat and Sunday at the show

This is a picture of a smidgey of the vendor booths, before they opened on Sat. I took this picture from a little bubble window above the floor~ Saturday there were so many people, I saw all sorts of new things on Sunday, that I didn't see the day before cause if a booth had a hoard of folks in it, I kept going! All day Mom and I felt like a fish swimming upstream, always seemed like we were going against the flow of people. It was definitely an experience I will always remember. Sunday was perfect~ Id say a quarter of the amount of people than Sat. The isles were numbered up to 1600 I think....with everything under the sun available. I was disappointed a little, for me... as I am a traditionalist, and was looking for 100% natural silk and linen threads and fabrics, and there just weren't too many, matter of fact, of all the vendors there, I could count on my ONE hand, ones that had yardage, never did find anyone with linen thread. If I had to sum of the show in one word, it would be "Technology" ... ok, maybe two words, the other being. ..." bling" I have never seen so many rhinestones and sparklies on a quilt before in my life! I had no idea that was the 'in' thing now a days....and I saw only one booth with hand quilting frames....everything I saw was computer aided quilting and sewing....technology technology!

I have also never seen such tall buildings this close ever in my life! I am behind the times, I know, and it doesn't bother me a bit :)

It was a pleasure viewing the quilts, so many wonderful ones, and getting to meet friends and fellow quilt makers. I bought a wonderful early block print fabric as a souvenir, and brought home my quilt, now hanging once again up on the wall behind me. I have missed it.

Off to Houston....

I am off to Houston early tomorrow morning to pick up my Baltimore Album quilt, 'History's Humble Servant' from the International Quilt Festival show. It was a finalist, but didn't win anything~ that's OK with me, I am happy with it, and I have been missing it these months it has been gone and my wall has been standing empty. Am looking foreword to seeing the Baltimore exhibit too, but wont be able to take any pics of it for you, as it is one of the listed exhibits not allowing pictures to be taken. Mom is here from Washington and going down with me, just the two of us...so we can wander and wander till our legs give out, without anyone saying....'can we go yet, can we go yet???'

Dreams really DO come true.........

I have been so busy, I am late in announcing that my Baltimore Album quilt, 'History's Humble Servant' has been jurried into the International Quilt Association's fall show in Houston as a finalist! I am more than honored, and just cannot even begin to express how excited I am, and humbled at the same time. I made my first quilt as a very early teen, and have always looked in awe at the quilts that were included in the big International Quilt Festival down in Houston each fall....I never thought that anything I would ever make, would be even remotely good enough to have its face shown together with such outstanding company. The show is Nov 4-7, 2010, at the George Brown Convention center in downtown Houston, Texas. I am not positive yet, as to which days I will be in attendance, but I will be there, so please do stop by and see me, and all the beautiful quilts and vendors! ( I will post my days as soon as I have confirmed them). You can read about the IQA and the show here http://www.quilts.org/

This year is extra special for all of us Baltimore Album Quilt lovers, as there will also be a special exhibit of 40 modern Baltimore Albums, 12 of which are Elly Sienkiewicz's friendship albums. There will be much to do and to see~ hope to see you there~ Ill be the overwhelmed one, standing by my quilt, with a smile from ear to ear :)

Speaking of busy, the bees have also been busy! They are doing so well, we have added a second super, and they have already started capping off combs of honey for the winter. We have lots of clover around, so it is nearly clear as water, and sooooo wonderful...but RICH! Jayson gave me a taste, and it was so sweet I just couldn't nearly stand it. He is really enjoying them, and to keep them busy, has a honey super on order, to add to the hive, making it 3 stories tall now.

And! As you can see, the fundraising goal for this year has been met! OHH my gracious, I can not thank everyone enough, I was in dire need of archival materials and storage supplies....you have no idea of the stress that can be accumulated, by knowing that such important artifacts are under your own responsibility and care, to remain for future generations. I have had sleepless nights, worrying that the precious bits of history that I care for, are being treated, and kept in a way that will add to their longevity on this Earth, vise detracting from it. It is a responsibility that I take very seriously, and hope to blog about in the near future. Until then, there is the happy business of the fundraiser giveaway to deal with! I am swamped right now (when lately does it seem that I am not?), so have set the date of Aug. 1st, to have the drawing and announce the winner~ this years premium, is a custom made dollye of the winners choice~ Good luck to all that entered, I hope you are as excited as I am!

Ugggggggggg........

I am trying, I really am.. but I just cannot get myself motivated to quilt this Baltimore....I have found that I really hate quilting....no, no....I loathe it. It is coming out nice, but sooooooooooo slow~ I am on just my 4th of 25 full squares, and then another 12 half ones after that, and I just cannot make myself want to work on it. My fingers and hands hurt so blasted bad after just an hour or so, and then if they are whirling along, my back is not cooperating. Y*U*K! My wishes for the quilting fairy to come complete it when I am not looking are not working either.

Perhaps it is because I have so many other things I am working on, I don't know. As you can see above, I am learning to make do with a thumble,(ha ha) and a thimble or two, or three! I have not quilted in many years, but when I used to quilt more often, I never used a thimble. I had bought a slew of leather ones on a sidewalk sale, but never liked the bulk of them, so threw them in one of my trunks and forgot about them....until this past December, when I was madly digging around for them like crazy. Nothing hurts so bad as when the needle pokes thru ones skin, or breaks thru our coveted calluses we build up so carefully~ even the leathers don't help after a while, as I found my needle poking thru again quite often, so I would turn the thimble to a different position and it was just really driving me crazy! My Ma brought me back a really wonderful seal skin leather thimble from Alaska, and I have never used it cause it was so precious....but, it is also thinner than paper and wonderfully strong, so now, I slip that one on my thumb, with a larger leather over that, and a horribly clumsy metal thimble on my middle finger....akkkkkk~ if anyone knows where I can find the leather thimble with the little circular metal piece in it, let me know PLEASE! I cant find one anyplace

CURSE this quilting~ it will be the end of me!

Have Mercy.....

I finished my sample hoop of quilting this Am, and of coarse, I love how it looks......May God have mercy on me, and give my poor middle finger the strength it needs to endure. I may indeed, have to learn how to use a thimble after all these years. I have decided to discipline myself as with the last of the construction, to quilt quilt quilt every morning for a few hours. I will try a comfortable pace this next week, and then see how I have progressed, and try and estimate the time that I will need to finish....to adjust my time to be well and done by March. Yes. March is IT!
I am on to dollys today, finished a gorgeous gorgeous Polichinelle that I am so excited for you to meet~ if I can get it to hold still enough for a picture :) Happy Sunday!

64 Square feet o' Baltimore....


Golly I have been soooo busy! I could blog on something different every day of the week, except I don't have time! The gorgeous fall days are here and as usual, I have a million things going on, and have to nearly make myself go outside to enjoy the crispy air....my favorite time of the year. I have been meaning to post about my Baltimore ever since getting the top finished on the 23rd of October! I still can't believe I have finally finished it.....looking back, I can honestly say it was a horrible way to assemble the top~ horrendous even! I must be insane to have done it this way. Looks good, yes, but do I recommend this type construction to anyone else? Definitely not.

The sashings are what made this top so inconceivably hard to make up~ each point of my weensie little dogteeth is applique, not pieced. So first, I connected them into rows, and then, as you can see above, pinned and appliqued the rows together. Its a good thing my dining room table is a 12 footer, I could have never done this on the floor. The rows took nearly an hour to pin each one, with each point getting its own little pin

The technique I have used for the entire top is simple needle turn applique, with between 15-22 stitches per inch. The hardest thing was dealing with the bulk of it all~ I had to carefully plan what rows to do first, so that I would carry the least amount of bulk in my hand. I carefully folded and rolled the top and bottom, and towards the end, it was really h*a*r*d and slow and I could no longer get my hand around it, so I had to resort to holding my fabric from underneath, like a big mitten..........it wasn't pretty

BUT! I am stubborn and hard headed as my husband says, and I prevailed! Now my next step is to decide weather to quilt it, or not to quilt. I do really like and prefer the look of the coverlet type that so many Baltimore Albums were made up as. I am planning to do up a sample quilting with backing and fill, to see how the quilting will look...I got the frame you sent Ma~ so will be starting that el moi pronto!

My top is set on point, and I had not appliqued the edge half blocks before I assembled it.....I wasn't sure I wanted anything in that space, but once everything was together and I could stand back and look, yes....they didn't look right empty! So back to applique I went, and each half block got a special design, all from original Baltimore Album Quilt blocks as in keeping with the others, and I also made sure each one had at least one butterfly...some of them got two! Each butterfly was also taken from original blocks. This block is the squirrel from the Sliver quilt, with 2 butterflies from the Ruffner Baltimore, before making up. I like to cut my pieces and set them together in my design so I can see how it will look~ then I can make any changes before stitching if I don't like it.

Same cutie patutie squirrel all made up.

This white rose is also from the Sliver quilt

I have kept meticulous records of every minute I have spent stitching, haw many pieces each block has ect ect ect.....one of these days I will tally everything up and give you the funky details~ I love things like that. Every stitch done by hand, finished my top is 8 foot square ...could have been a bit bigger~ its not big at all compared to some Baltimores....I will let you know how the quilting question turns out!

Golly!!!

Tis the season to be BUSY! I have been working like a mad woman to get my Baltimore Album quilt top finished and ready for quilting. I finished the sashings.... ahead of time, and thought, after 10 years, I was finally done with the top, only to stand back and say....'uh, nope...... not finished yet'. I have set it on point, so I had 4 corners and 12 half blocks on the sides that were empty....so back to stitching I went! I finished the sashings on the 21st of September, and set a goal to have all the additional applique finished by the end of October. I have just 4 more half blocks to go, so hopefully I will be able to get them done by then! Thankyou SO much to all who have emailed to see how it is coming on~ I say" Beautifully"

We took a little time out yesterday to carve pumpkins....what a mess! Our early Sept snow killed the vines, so the children's punkins they were babying along stopped growing and were still a bit green inside. Emma carved hers and somehow it ended up on her HEAD! I could hear muffled giggles and couldn't believe it when I saw her~ in all my life I have never once thought to put a real punkin on my head! Well, she liked it so much, that she took it off and carved an upside down face on the bottom of it, so she could see, and now, after months of tribulation and finally coming up with the Gothic vampire costume...she has thrown that aside and wants to wear her punkin head for her costume! (I would have appreciated this idea months ago)

Lil Pip would not be still from hopping up and down until she got to try on the punkin...its SO heavy tho, Emma is helping her hold it up


And when she let go, you can get an idea of how heavy it is! I love this picture tho, I may have to get it blown up for my studio....cause I can certainly see a dollye that needs a punkin head in my future!

Enjoy the Season!!!

No.76............

I wanted to post about my Baltimore again today for a couple of reasons~ I know~ I know I promised you pictures of Tascha, and those are coming~ maybe even later today~ BUT! I want to say a HUGE THANKYOU! to all who have posted comments, emailed me and even phoned me about how my UFO post has inspired them to go and pick up a project that has been sitting a bit and to finish it~ so CHEERS TO THE FINISHERS! WOO HOO! I am now up to sashing number 76, and have been connecting my blocks into rows~ I must say its very exciting to see them coming together. Certain blocks have sashings appliqued on all 4 sides, while others have none~ kind of like a checkerboard. I pick from the 2 piles of blocks to make the rows, then am planning on attaching the rows to each other from the center out to lessen the bulk I have to carry in my hand while stitching.

Here is row 1 & 2 layed down together so you can see how they will fit.

I apologize for the comments section not working~ I cant figure out why its acting up. Several folks have told me there comments were not accepted, or blogger wouldn't accept their passwords. I do have comment moderation 'on', as I get a ridiculous amount of weird spam comments....but if you leave a comment, I will approve it! Here is an email I received yesterday ~

"Hello, my old friend! Just had to laugh and then comment on your blog posting. Wasn't it many moons ago when I was helping you count those insane little "teeth"? Actually, I love the fact that you've never finished it....it only makes you more human, my dear! I mean, do I, myself, have a finished Baltimore? Do I even have a finished top? Do I not have the beginnings to at least four....all on different backgrounds, and different sizes so they cannot even be combined? Tis a sickness, of course...but I am DETERMINED to not leave this earth without at least one finished one hanging on my wall! So determined that I'm even taking a Baltimore class here in Phoenix, to, hopefully, give me that push I need.
So, I will check in with you (or up on you) from time to time via email (your blog doesn't like my comments...says it doesn't recognize my password).
So, didya' do your three hours today??
Big Baltimore hugs from someone who totally understands!
Pam

And to answer you Pam~ YES~ I got it done!!!

My Sanity in Question......


Have you ever had one of those moments when you question the sanity of the task you currently have at hand? As in "How on earth did I get myself into this?' I have had several of these moments as of late. In trying to reinforce the commitment I have made to myself to resolve my current issue, I would like to share it~ so all will know my weakness, and please feel free to continually nag and poke and prod at me to ask how things are coming along.

So the issue? well. Its not really an issue, but more like an obsession. I have for years and years....ahem, even dare I say, decades, admired and studied Baltimore Album quilts...even to the point of teaching this beautiful art of hand applique to others. I love the history behind the designs, and stitching up individual blocks! My weakness comes in actually 'doing' anything with the blocks I have stitched. I have drawers of blocks....all carefully wrought faithful reproductions of original c1850 Baltimore blocks. I have stacks of drafted patterns~ for blocks and whole quilts, ready and waiting to be stitched as I write this!

I have always had and KEPT my rule, for as long as I have been alive on this earth, that I will not, and cannot start something new, with an olde something not finished yet......except when it comes to my Baltimores. I don't know why this is? It has actually kept me up nights thinking about it. They nag at me and wont get out of my mind....yet I can never seem to find the time to get them together into an actual quilt top. For example....my latest set of blocks...have sat dormant since I had Pip nearly 4 Y*E*A*R*S ago! akkkkkkkkkkkk

Golly I just cannot get myself to work on getting the blocks stitched together~ the thought of it makes my skin crawl in dread at times. Its all due to the fact that when I was designing this particular Baltimore, I had just seen a wonderous c1850 album that had the blocks put together with these particular sashings....wonderful I thought. It will be superb! I thought. I paid no never minds to the teensy weensie dog teeth I was drawing on my strips of beautiful red cotton....and no never mind that the original quilt was crib size, and only made up of 4 blocks. What could it matter I thought?


Well , now,~ all I can think of is that I must have been absolutely INSANE to do this! These things are crazy! I set up my blocks on point to top it off.....which is all just totally mind boggling to me now~ that I could have been that naive or stupid! But, being a virgo~ I am a perfectionist, as well as a bit pig headed...so once I start something, I WONT go back and change it for anything.....which leaves me with this headache I am in now. Unfinished business. nag nag nag nag nag nagging at me all the time!

SO! In one last valiant effort to rid myself of this unfinished beast, I have swore an oath to my self, a solemn promise, that I will work on and complete ONE sashing a day, until this is finished! Each one takes me about 3 hours to hand stitch, so I am trying to do it first thing, before I can work on anything else in the day! PLEASE feel free to write and ask how they are coming on~ the stitching isn't hard really~ just very tedious, and I am finding that the bulk of the top as its coming together is very hard to work around. I am on no#70 of 128, not including the outside border, that in all honesty, will most likely end up being left off!