A Pole And A Piece Of Fabric - Day 2

This is the palette of dye colors we are working with in this class. Aren't they luscious?


Here Jan is explaining a new shibori technique she developed.


These are some of the fabrics I dyed today. I love them.


This is my very favorite piece of fabric I dyed today. In fact, it may be my all time favorite piece of fabric I have dyed.

Of course the food today was exceptional as usual.

A Pole And A Piece Of Fabric - Day 1

We started class today.
I can not believe all the different ideas Jan has come up with for us to try.
It is going to be a great week if today was any indication. And from previous experience I know it will be - any class at the Barn is just the best.


To start the day we learned many ways to wrap the fabric around the poles. We use PVC plumbing pipe for poles. This is just one of the poles I wrapped waiting for it's turn in the dye pot.


This is the first group of dyepots being stirred by the designated stirrers.


These are my first 3 pieces of fabric and they were dyed in the first dyepots.


This was today's lunch - delicious!


We had warm freshly baked cookies for our 3 p.m. snack, along with other interesting delicious fruits, nuts and candies.


Dinner was wonderful and concluded with a blueberry dessert.

What more could a girl (or for that matter even a guy) ask for? Great company, excellent instruction, great finished product and meals to please the discriminating palate.

A Pole And A Piece Of Fabric And More

Tonight we had our orientation dinner at Nancy Crow's barn before we start our week of classes.
The quilt you see here was made by Pauline Davy from fabrics she shibori dyed.
We are taking another shibori class from Jan Myers-Newbury called "A Pole And A Piece Of Fabric". I hope I produce something half as nice as this gorgeous quilt Pauline created.


Here are most of the participants who will be taking either Jan's Class or Nancy's class this week at dinner. The dinner was fantastic.


This is Margaret Wolf, our chef for the week. She is a creative cook who feeds us lunch, homemade afternoon snacks and dinner. Her cooking alone is enough to make someone become interested in fiber arts so they can come to the barn and take a class and eat Margaret's cooking. And yes, she is just as nice as she looks in this picture.


This is John, Nancy Crow and Nathaniel who have created this wonderful place we all keep coming back to for the wonderful classes and the whole farm atmosphere.

Keep watching as I share more as the week progresses. I am looking forward to it.

Why Did I Go Missing And Where Am I Now?

These baskets contained the last things I shipped on eBay last Tuesday. That is one project that kept me busy, along with all the other purging and organizing of my house the past several months. That is why you have heard little from me.

I'm hoping to be back each and every night this week if the internet cooperates.




Do you know where I am when you look at these pictures? You may have seen this on someone else's blog recently and then you will know where I am!

Soc-tober in Wisconsin

I decided I needed to knit a pair of warm wool socks before the weather changes for the season.


I love what is happening with them. What I don't love is the amount of time it is taking me to knit them. I am using Emily Parsons's Sophie's Toes sock yarn. The color is Christmas Lights. I love the names she picks for her yarns.

This is over one weeks work!


I am knitting these on Size 0 double pointed bamboo needles. I am getting a gauge of 7-8 sts per inch.

I am quite certain these will fit me perfectly.

The last pair I knit ended up far too big so I just use them to put on my feet while I sit around if I am chilly in the evening!

Introducing ALEXANDRA

I have a new quilt and I did not make it.
My long time friend Mary Stori created it and if you read her blog you may have seen it.

She is hanging in our breakfast area. It seems a perfect place for her as the kids drink their milk in Wisconsin, the dairy state!


One of the groups Mary belongs to did a challenge that was to be inspired by an artist, but not a copy of their work.
She chose Alexander Calder and this really is recognizable as being inspired by him.

I fell in love with this work early on in it's creation and contacted Mary. I agreed to purchase this long before it was finished. She certainly did not disappoint me in the piece. The entire piece is an artistic triumph.
Her quilting stitches are unbelievably small and even. The beading is a delight for the eye. The polka dots you see in the binding are beads.

My friends and family who have seen this have been just as enthusiastic as I am about it. It really IS getting rave reviews.

http://marystori.blogspot.com/2011/08/alexandra-separation-anxiety.html

The above is a link to a better photo of the quilt at Mary's blog and a few words from her about the quilt.

She is a perfect subject for a puzzle.

Great News - My Real Live Studio Assistant

Quilting Granny loved to flaunt the fact that she had quilting on her lap, but she really never lifted a finger in the studio. I don't think she wanted to mess up her hair!


Now I have a real live studio assistant who does an excellent job at anything I ask her to do. I am happy to have her working here any time she is available.
She wrapped fabric on 6 more poles today for me to take to Nancy Crow's barn when I take the Pole Dyeing class the middle of October. I did one myself and she put me to shame with her skill so I let her do the rest.


Jan Myers-Newbury recommends you hang your fabric to dry after prescouring it. She said it takes the dyes better.
I did another load of fabric and Heidi hung it to dry. With the heat on and the dehumidifier running in the laundry room it is almost dry in about 3 or 4 hours.

One of the next things she'll be doing is pasting up dye samples for me in the personal color palette I dyed last year about this time. She will thoroughly enjoy that. I started playing color with her when she was 7 days old. They say babies can't distinguish color at that age, but I don't believe it. She has a fantastic sense of color and color arrangement.

She says of all her jobs (and she has others) this is her favorite. I am so lucky to have her to help me. I could keep her busy for months or longer. Sure wish I could take her along to Florida!

Blog Post Number 800! 3 years and 3 days!

I just realized this will be my 800th post on this blog. I started blogging exactly 3 years and 3 days ago. That doesn't make one post a day but it's still "respectable"!


Other than the header on the blog, this was the very first quilt I showed you.
It is one of the 8 king size quilts I made for my 8 grandchildren for the Millennium, each with 2000 different fabrics.


Cubic Jubilee is another one of the quilts I showed early on. It is made from hand dyed fabric.


In Living Color is another quilt I showed you in that first month.


Bodacious Blossom was another quilt I showed you in that time period.

I think it is quite evident when you view these quilts why I call my blog "Quilts + Color".

When I started this journey I had no idea where I was heading. I now know it was a way to document not just my quilts but some of the activities that are a part of my serendipitous life.

Thanks for coming along on my journey and I hope you'll be back again soon.

Miniature Log Cabin Quilt

One of the quilt guilds I belonged to has an auction of quilts at their annual show.
This was a fantastic way to aquire some wonderful quilts and donate to the guild for expenses.


This is one of the quilts I purchased. It was created by Barbara Wessel.

The strips that create the log cabin blocks are 1/4" wide and the completed quilt is 21" square.

Technically it is not a "miniature" quilt as a miniature quilt is 1:12 scale. If this were enlarged by 12 it would be 242 inches!

It is made up of miniature blocks that create a wall quilt. She does precision work with her electric needle. She even did the quilting with her electric needle and it is perfectly placed on the blocks - not an easy way to get perfect placement.

It is reminiscent of an antique quilt.

I am so happy to be the owner of this wonderful piece.

Fall In Wisconsin - I LOVE It!

I'd like to share a bit if fall in Wisconsin with you.
You can't see it yet, but you can feel it.
The weather is cooling off...that is until the next warm day.
You pile an extra quilt on the bed since it is not time to turn on the heat yet.
You wake up in the morning and snuggle under the covers, not wanting to get out and face the chill in the air.
Once you finally make the move the air is invigorating.
You choose something from the closet that you haven't worn since last year and delight in the cozy warmth.
You head to the kitchen for a hot beverage and a hot breakfast.
You are now ready to face the day which can turn warm again before it cools off in the evening.

It's a wonderful time of year as you anticipate the colors that will soon be changing and the leaves that will be falling. It makes you think about football, pumpkins, corn stalks, taffy apples, cider and how fortunate you are to be spending fall in God's glory in such a perfect setting.

It's also perfect quilting weather.

It's my favorite time of the year in Wisconsin.

This just in: I gave up and turned on the furnace!

Studio - Putting Fabrics Back On Shelves

This is my main quilting fabric collection.
I take fabrics out, buy new fabrics or find fabrics put in another part of the shelving.
I have been putting them in a pile on the bookcase so they can be put where they rightfully belong.


My granddaughter Heidi is working for me in her spare time doing all those things I can use help with. She works 2 other jobs, but this job is made for her.
When she was about 3 she could arrange the crayons in a box of crayons in color flow order. I trust her to put each fabric in the correct space.

I know it looks like this is FULL, but since I took out all the batiks and some of the novelty fabrics there is space in certain areas. We can spread out and condense things to make them all fit.

Patriotic Puff Quilt

Years ago I taught many sewing with knits classes.
The first project in the beginning class was a T shirt. Since I taught this class over and over (at least 100 times) I had many scraps of t shirt fabric.



So what does a sewer do with scraps?
Make a quilt of course.

T shirt fabrics did not lend themselves to traditional style quilts.
I made a puff quilt from some of the red, white and blue t shirt fabric scraps.

It was a time consuming proposition making and stuffing each individual puff. I didn't make this for anyone in particular. My oldest granddaughter fell in love with it and I gave it to her over 10 years ago.

I am in the process of trying to document as many of the 361 quilts I have made over the years as possible. I believe the list I have includes them all. When I started making quilts a lot of them were given away before I took pictures. I am attempting to track down as many of them as possible to photograph.

When Heidi was over recently I told her what I was trying to do and she just happened to have this quilt in her car. I've photographed it and I washed it for her. It washed well.

As we remember 9/11 this is a fitting quilt to showcase our patriotism.

I'm Back After A L O N G Absence

I've been busy doing a lot of house things.
I've mentioned them briefly before and I am still working on them.

A few days ago I received this hanger for this long narrow quilt. I had ordered it over a month ago, but it was on back order.


I think it really shows off the quilt.

I still am working on my home projects. It is a good feeling to see how much has been accomplished to this point.

I have taken giant steps getting rid of things and organizing things that I have kept. Even if no one but me can see the difference it has been well worth the time and effort I have spent doing this.

I have had a question about where I got this hanger for the quilt.
This is the link to it at halycon Yarns:
http://halcyonyarn.com/products/miscellaneous/70803200.html

Sisters' Lunch

Yesterday we enjoyed a Sisters' Lunch at my sister Karen's house on the lake.
The weather was perfect and we were able to eat outside on the patio.


I remembered to take a picture of the beautiful delicious salad. Doesn't this make you want to help yourself to a bite?

I did not remember to take a picture of the appetizer or dessert.
Mary made a delicious Mexican Dip served with chips and Judy furnished one of the very best cherry pies I've every tasted - not too tart and not too sweet.

We had hoped to get one of the men to take a picture of all of the sisters but they were on their way to their own lunch, and then returned to golf a few holes.

What I did get pictures of are some of the beautiful flowers and plantings in the yard. My brother in law Clay has a knack for choosing and nurturing wonderful flowers and plants.


The geraniums were in full bloom and added a great punch of color.



Each year Clay does something different with this planting bed you see as you walk to the house. It always is magnificent.


This is a closeup of the coleus in the bed.

After lunch we had a great girls gabfest catching up on what is happening in our lives and our families lives.

We always try to fit in one lunch each summer with all six of the sisters.

Mary, Robin and the rest of you who love the puzzles - this ones for you!

Scan of Calendar from Anderson Art Center 10th Anniversary

Last night after Shelley and I went out for dinner she spent some time in my studio.
When she left I gave her a copy of this calendar and also some magazines my quilts and I had been featured in.

She sent me this scan of the calendar and it is much better than what I have done with it so I wanted to share it with y'all.

I also thought this would make a good puzzle.

Ladies Who Lunch Do Dinner

Last night my friend Shelley and I had a great dinner at the Lighthouse Bistro in Kenosha.



We were so busy talking I never took the "food pictures"!



While we enjoyed our dinner at a table on the grass feet from the water, we were also able to enjoy a PBJ concert on the other side of the channel by the band VO 5.

Since we both have lived in the area for a long, long time we were able to appreciate the positive changes taking place in harbourside of Lake Michigan in Kenosha.

Beautiful condos, museums, and many activities in the area make the location such a vibrant lively area.

New Floor In Office Finished

One of my projects this summer is a new floor in my office.



I hadn't expected the installer would be able to do it until the end of the month or sometime in September. I heard from him yesterday and he said he could do it today.

I was thrilled. I had most everything out and ready for him to work. My grandson arrived a little before he did this morning to help move the heavy file cabinets with him.

In about 5 hours it was done and I absolutely LOVE it.

The picture shows it before I started putting things back in it.

After seeing all those clean and neat offices on HGTV, I'm going to put a little thought into this and see how I can make it look as good as it does now even after everything is put back in there.

I guess that means keep everything Black, White or Woodtone.

I'm off to Walgreens to get some Black and White folders, etc as soon as I finish this.

Colorful Puzzzles Today

I know many of you are addicted to my puzzles and I have been neglecting you recently. To make up for that I am giving you 4 puzzles today.
Each one has the same subject, but the level of difficulty increases as you go down the page!
I'd love to hear how y'all do with them.

Playing With Color - Mandala Fabrics

I have collected quite a few of Judi Yakab's Mandala fabrics.
One of my goals was to collect a color flow of fabrics that flowed through the rainbow and inclued some neutrals.



This is my collection as of today.

I can see some areas where I could use a few more.

I also look at the pattern on each one when I am deciding what to purchase.

If is not necessary for the pattern to be perfectly symetrical for me to chose one.

The way the colors blend and the textures they create is also a consideration.

To date I have only had time to piece on quilt from these.
More will follow as my time opens up.

I have so many ideas what I can do with them. I am looking forward to creating some freeform assymetric pieced designs.

Another Potato Chip Quilt by Sue Scheckel, a former student!

When I was shopping last week I saw one of my favorite former students. Sue is the kind of person who always has a sincere mile on her face and makes you feel glad to see her.

She told me she had made the Potato Chip Quilt from the directions I posted elsewhere on this blog. I asked her to send me a picture. She wasn't sure how to do it. I suggested she ask a grandchild! She said two of them would be there the next day. I'm not sure whether she figured it out or she got help but I got the picture the next day.

The yellow spacers are a great contrast to the mostly blue fabrics. The addition of some green fabrics takes this to a whole new dimension than what it would have been without the acid greens.

Sue took classes from me for years, starting way back when I taught clothing classes. She is now active in the Lighthouse Quilters guild. I have always enjoyed that guild and have given many lectures and classes for them when I was still doing that. Many former students (and even some of my high school and grade school friends and classmates) are members of that guild and it is so much fun to see them again.

She said she really enjoyed it and plans on making more of them.

Miniature Log Cabin Quilt - WIP

This was started many, many years ago.
I've finished everything but the binding.

I think the reason I haven't finished it is because I am concerned about matching the color changes on the binding to the same clor changes on the border.

I really should get it done and add another quilt to my finished list.

The strips I used on the log cabin blocks finish 1/4 inch.
The finished quilt will be 11 x 13 inches.

After I took the picture I removed the basting stitches. There was no reason to leave them in there as the quilting was finished.