Looking Forward . . .

Holy Week has begun and it is busy in our household, but in two weeks I will be on a four day retreat with my quilting friends. I have been making plans for what I will be working on while I have the time. Several years ago I started a project inspired by a line of fabrics based on William Morris wallpaper designs.

As I was working on the quilt, I encountered a problem and designed some appliqué pieces to “solve” the problem, but they “grew like Topsy” as my mom would say, and no longer will work in that application. I found a stained glass window designed by William Morris and translated it into fabric using the inspiration fabrics (above) for color selections.

Here's my interpretation of the design:

Actually, I made it into two panels:

Here are some details.

(Click on any of these photos for a closer look.)

Notice, I put the girls on a diet to slim them down and gave them both nose jobs!

Saturday I stopped by one of our local quilt shops where I have signed up for a William Morris Block of the Month. I had my appliquéd ladies with me and the owner took me to the back room where she had some gorgeous William Morris fabrics set aside. I purchased some of the fabric to complete this project . . .

and was inspired (again) to create a companion wall-hanging from another window pattern.

I have just started the process for these panels, but I am excited about these new pieces. Lots to do on Retreat!

Look what I got in the Mail (and email)!

I have been emailing back and forth with my Bead Soup Partner, Angela May at Lady Hawthorne about our bead soups. We were both having a bit of a time getting it together and, come to find out, our soups crossed in the mail. I have not heard whether she has received hers from me yet, so I will not show what I sent, but I will say that the color scheme of what I received is very similar to what I sent. Yes, we do have a lot in common -- maybe we are telepathic too, who knows!

Here is a close-up of that gorgeous stone bead -- this digital images does not do it justice! Crack quartz, glass and Czech beads with silver end caps and a lovely filigree clasp. I cannot wait to begin designing in my head. I already have some ideas.

Also, there has been a flurry of activity on the Bead Soup yahoo Group with several of the participants making Etsy Treasuries. Here is one by Hope Smitherman of CraftyHope where my amber and honey quartz earrings have been featured. I just LOVE that! (click on the image to enlarge)


Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Hop has a reveal date of September 17th, so go on over to her blog and check out the list of over 360 participant's blogs.

Other than that, I have been busy trying to prepare for next weekend's four day Quilt Retreat. I usually end up bring almost everything but the kitchen sink, but I am trying to pare it down this time. We shall see if I succeed.

THANK YOU, Thank You, thank you!

I was hoping to get back to the Bead Soup blog list and finish reading all the reveals, but it just "ain't gonna happen". Thanks to all who visited this blog, #95, in the middle of the list and thanks especially to those who commented and added to my followers list.

I did this with my mom (#96) who had a blast! We both were pushed outside our comfort zones and challenged to produce something completely different from our usual pursuits.

So, life goes on.

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My Applique block for our Raffle Quilt 2008

This week I will be going on a four day quilt guild retreat. This involves hanging out with my creative sisters of the thread: sewing, quilting, laughing, eating, and laughing and eating some more. This is a time for me to "fill the well". I do not get to quilt much between retreats and so this is my only dedicated creative time. I will also be taking on an office in the guild, president.

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I know . . . "What was I thinking?"

One of my Retreat Quilts -- the top was started and finished in 4 days.

I have been part of this guild for 16 years and it is my turn to serve. I know there is a really short and effective word I could have said, but I could not seem to make it come out of my mouth. The guild has been my sanity and my support through my personal trials these last few years and I love the members as sisters.

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This retreat I am looking forwards to working with Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts inspired designs. I am quite taken my the works of Margaret MacDonald and her husband Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Maybe I will end up with some Mackintosh Roses similar to these:

What do you do to "fill the well"?

Do you have a community of like-minded artists you "escape and create" with?

Do you have a dedicated creative time?

My New Camera

After a couple of false starts, I received my new camera in the mail -- actually, "Brown" (What can Brown do for you?) attempted to deliver twice and my sweet husband went to the local depot to collect it on the second day. I was away at a four day quilt retreat and picked it up later.

I still have to learn the tips and trick to this new camera -- it is kind of like my old one (may it rest in peace), but I will just have to play with it. This is the first photo I took with my new camera -- a two-color quilt I started and finished in the last four days at retreat.

It is for a National Fabric and Craft chain's challenge and all will need to be completed by December 18th to be considered. I was a semi-finalist in a similar contest for the same chain several years ago. As I get closer to completing the work I will give more details. And here is a detail of a photographic nature:

The block pattern is an off-centered square in a square called "Happy Hour" but I drafted it myself to be an 8.5" block. The setting and borders are of my own design and I wanted two of the squares to have "runaway centers". I will need to applique these in place.

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Speaking of running away, my husband and I will be going away to the gulf coast for a few days. I will not have internet and so will probably get very far behind in my reading of blogs and certainly in my writing of them. I will post photos and details when we return, but I sure am looking forward to quiet walks on the beach and hours spent reading and beading.

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If you were to run away, where would you go and what would you do?

Color, Colour,

If you have been reading along the last few posts, you will know I am about to jump into the artistic abyss – with glee!

Color has been on my mind lately. I love color, I could not really tell you which color is my favorite one, I love them all. Part of this thing with color comes from a presentation at our local quilt guild. The speaker gave us a basic talk on color the other day but I know there is a lot more to it. She spoke about how the printers of fabric help us match fabric colors with the little colored dots in the selvedges and she spoke briefly about the color wheel.

I have another method for squeezing out the color from an image. I open the images in “Paint” and then I “select all” and grab a corner and manipulate it until the image is pixilated into large blocks.

I plan on using these rendered pairs to create interesting textural pieces. Exactly how they will look once I have finished, I will be as surprised to know as you. Now, I have to get in the studio and let the muse guide my hand. I am really looking forward to that!