WELCOME, GRACIE BEE!

My Gracie Bee floor frame for quilting arrived today!  For a while now I'd been yearning for one of these, and I finally broke down and bought one. I'm thinking that if I wind up not enjoying it, I can always pass it off to daughter for her studio, where group quilting bees might be very much a thing. But I'm gonna give it a good try first.  

I used to have a floor frame -- years and years ago -- but it never was a very well constructed one -- or maybe the problem was with me -- and I finally gave it away. Settling into an easy chair with a hoop frame certainly has its appeal, but after a few frustrations with hoop wonkiness, and the inherent problem of not being able to see the whole quilt while the quilt is hooped, I decided to try the floor frame again.

Obviously, I've already started to put the thing together. The hardest part so far has been getting all the parts outta that long, skinny box!

Oh, that vintage top draped over the chair in the background is slated to be the Gracie Bee guinea pig quilt.  Okay -- if you prefer "inaugural" ...  But don't hold your breath, 'cause I plan on finishing a couple of other projects before I attack the Gracie Bee in earnest. Stay tuned.

HOME FROM MISSISSIPPI ... FOR A SPELL ...

Arrived back home in Georgia yesterday, having spent several days out in Water Valley, Mississippi, at daughter Coulter's YaloRUN Studio, where I taught the first half of a workshop on the Rail Fence quilt pattern -- to beginners.  The class sold out at 7 participants -- the number of sewing machines at YaloRUN -- and a good time was had by all!  I've never had such a completely focused, hard-working group as this one.  For real!  And all the different design and color choices were terrific!  Everybody finished cutting strips and sewing long strips together. A few even got started assembling blocks. I was particularly impressed with all the creative designs and color choices.  We'll all meet back in two weeks, theoretically with finished tops, for the second half of the workshop when we'll make quilt sandwiches and begin to hand quilt.  

Here are a few photos from the workshop:

I look forward to going back out to Mississippi for the second half of the workshop on January 24. Can't wait to see what everybody's made!

IN PROGRESS ...

I usually try to keep at least one machine-focused project going at the same time that I have at least one hand-work project going. That way, when I get tired with one -- or physically challenged -- I can switch to the other.  Here's my current machine work -- 

I don't know yet exactly what I'm going to do with it -- how big it'll be or how  I'm going to join all the squares -- but I do know that I want to keep the squares, and in their various sizes -- so we'll see ... 

I really am enjoying the fine-line piecing. It's tedious and slow, but fun. The plaids are left over from the plaid shirts I used to make the cityscape quilt titled "Virgo."

Here's the handwork I'm currently working on -- a twin-sized quilt titled "Nautica" --

I do love to execute some free-flowing lines of big-stitch quilting.  It's sorta my Zen thing.


I'm leaving tomorrow morning to drive out to my daughter Coulter's studio in Water Valley, Mississippi -- YaloRun Textiles -- to teach a workshop on Rail Fence Quilts.  I look forward to working with Coulter and to meeting new students. 

A little Rail Fence piece I made the last time I visited YaloRUN.

2015 DRAWS TO A CLOSE

I've been a b-a-a-a-d blogger this past year. (A whole year since my last post! Yikes!) But I'm determined to do better in the coming year, so here goes --

Here's a photo of my studio, all spiffed up and serving as my gallery, at last month's Swift Mill Lofts Open Studio and Art Sale. 

Well, this is one wall of my studio. This is about half of the quilts that I offered. Sales were good, I am happy to say! Many thanks to everybody who visited, and very special thanks to those who purchased. I hope you enjoy your quilt!

Last month’s sale was the first time I’ve ever really truly offered quilts for sale, but it won’t be the last. In fact, I’ve added a sales component here on my blog.  Check out the “SHOP” tab at the top of this page.

But back to 2015. Here are some my quilt accomplishments –

·         I completed 25 pieces and made significant progress on 3 more;

·         I taught two workshops – one here in my own studio and one at daughter Coulter’s YaloRun Studio out in Mississippi. I also gave two lectures – one here and one there.

·         I had four quilts accepted into juried shows -- 

1.      “William Faulkner’s AS I LAY DYING Graphic Novel Version” into Studio Art Quilt Association’s SOUTHERN ACCENTS exhibit at Ruth Fun Center for Textile Arts in Melbourne, Florida.

2.      “Abby’s Quilt” and “Livi’s Quilt” into Bulloch Hall Quilt Show, Roswell, Georgia.

3.      “Hillsides of North Alabama” into Quiltcon 2015 in Portland, Oregon, where it won second place in hand-quilting.

4.      “Satsuma” has been accepted into Quilting 2016 in Pasadena, California, where it will be exhibited in February.

·         I received a “celebrity commission” which I cannot write about yet.  More to come later this year.  (Apologies for being so secretive, but …)

·         I joined Studio Art Quilt Association and attended my first SAQA conference – in Melbourne, Florida. It won’t be the last. Many thanks to my quilting friend JoAnn Camp for encouraging me to join SAQA!

·         My quilting and I were the cover story for the December issue of ART CURRENTS magazine.

·         I committed to making a Carson McCullers quilt for an international literary conference, celebrating Carson McCullers’ 100th birthday, to be held in Rome, Italy, in the summer of 2017. (Can’t wait to get started! Can’t wait to go back to Rome!)

·         I continued to work on my studio and now have it near-perfect.

·         I ordered floor frames for hand-quilting and look forward to their arrival within the next few days.

·         I created this website.

 

Maybe it’s time for some resolutions:

I hereby resolve –

·         To continue to hone my skills and to explore new means of artistic expression in fiber.

·         To maintain this website.

·         To work toward settling the lighting issues in my studio.

·         To teach a few more classes and reach a conclusion regarding balance of time between teaching and quilting.

·         To continue to keep my detailed quilt journal.

·         To travel to at least one major art quilt exhibit.

·         To give more consideration to the creation of a quilt series. (My work is all over the place; some would say I need to focus my work by creating a series.)

·         And, of course, I have a number of quilt-specific goals already – for instance, “to make a xxxxx quilt,” “to make a yyyyy quilt,” “to make a zzzzz quilt” … but I won’t get into all those details here. You’d better believe they’re in my journal, though!

 

 

Salvaging a Tulip

One of the current projects I'm working on involves this tulip quilt top, which I bought off ebay. At least, I think it's a tulip. Maybe it's a poppy -- or some other flower?  At any rate, I bought the top because I liked the colors and the flowers and the vines and leaves.  I wasn't wild about the big blocks of solid red, though ...

So I took the thing apart and started playing around with it ...

Well, that didn't work ... So I played around some more and came to this "four-block" arrangement, which I really love --

Next step (after I work out a few piecing kinks) is to decide on borders -- and there are lots of examples from vintage quilts.  Plus, I have all that leftover red to work with! Stay tuned ...