The CQFA meeting last Saturday went really well. We laughed a lot. Nancy, one of the members, is on a quest to improve her art. She took a long course (certificate program??) in Seattle that ended last year and is diligent. When she comes to the meeting she brings works that are very different from what the rest of bring. She often has interesting construction problems that make us think outside of the box. We were helping give her ideas about what she could use as a form and that led to extreme silliness as many great ideas were generated.

Everyone looked at the two Lark Books I received last Friday thoroughly and Terri said that she thinks Lark sold at least 10 copies by sending me those books.

Maureen’s ATC exchange was a raging success. I showed mine last week in the Saturday post. I liked them, but they didn’t seem to be that popular. People made wonderful pieces, so perhaps it was just hard to choose.

March ATCs

The ATCS I Received

Below are the others that members brought. The lower left is one of Sonja’s. Originally I picked a different one, but when I saw the chair, I switched!

Maureen's

I didn’t get one of Maureen’s. I did get one of hers last time that I keep where I can see it all the time.

Bron's

Bron’s have a very New Zealand look to them. She doesn’t do a lot of fiber, so I was glad I chose one of hers.

Caroline's

Caroline’s jacket was in these same colors. I think she works in them a lot.

Dolores'

I was also sorry not to get one of Dolores’. She did a great quilt at the retreat in January and I admire her dedication to her work. How do you like that one curved corner? Clever, don’t you think?

Sonja's

Sonja’s are very subtle this time.

Diane's

Robin's

Sue's

I think this is the first time that Sue has participated. I didn’t get one of hers either. The flowers really attracted me.

Debbie's

Debbie hasn’t been to a meeting in a long time, so I was pleased to see that she brought ATCs. I was also pleased to see that she used her signature style on them.

Yesterday I drove to Monterey to attend a Kaffe Fassett lecture. It was put on by Back Porch Fabrics, a local Pacific Grove/Monterey quilt shop. I have written about that shop a couple of times, most recently on November 4, 2009 after my late October visit.

During my last visit, I saw that they were selling tickets to a lecture by KF. I decided to buy 2 tickets and just go. I knew it would be after a 2 or 3 day holiday extravaganza, but I decided the opportunity was too good to pass up and that I would worry about who to take later.

Signed Books

I left in time to arrive before 2pm, which is when the book signing started. I got about 6 of his books signed and he didn’t mind. He said that I was supporting him and he was glad to sign. I don’t know why getting books signed thrills me so much, but it does.

Quilt Road Signed

My SIL went with me and she was pleased to see and shop at Back Porch Fabrics. She bought a few fabrics for another Infinity block project she is working on. I bought a few of the Lonni Rossi fabrics so I could make another bag. I bought some FQs there in October and used them all up on Marilyn’s Multi-tasker.

The lecture wasn’t until 7pm, so we had time to hang around Pacific Grove a little bit. We spent a fair amount of time in the shop, partially because it was REALLY crowded and the lines were long. One thing I love about my SIL is that she makes me slow down in quilt shops. She really looks at things, which is a good reminder for me to do the same. Not much else in PG was open, so we went out to eat and then to Home Depot to find some paint colors for MIL, and to Borders to look at books.

After some technical difficulties with the projector and the Powerpoint, the lecture got started at about 7:30. Things I didn’t know about Kaffe Fassett:

• He found the name Kaffe in a children’s book about an Egyptian boy he thought looked like him. He took it to replace his boring given name, which he is trying to forget. He refused to tell us the boring given name. I imagine it is Joe or Rod.
• He was born in San Francisco, grew up in Big Sur and is now living near the Camden and West Hampton (Hampshire??) sections of London in Kilburn.
• He went to a museum studies program in Boston
• He learned to knit and purl in 20 minutes on a train, which was followed, later, by another 20 minute lesson from his cleaning lady on weaving in the ends and casting off.

He feels that color is in instinctive, that people have to work hard at conquering their fear of color and to learn to listen to their instincts. He enjoys going to places where there is intense color such as South Africa, India and Guatemala. He feels that color is life enhancing; it can make something elegant. He finds color to be a gift that people can give to themselves every day for a very low cost.

He thinks that there is a lot of visual pollution in the US, such as concrete parking garages, and hideous buildings. He thinks that the buildings in the US are very drab. Every morning I go to a horrifyingly ugly concrete parking garage and wish that someone would add some color to it or embellish it with tiles or mosaics or something, so I have to agree with him. He finds developing countries o be filled with intense color, which he calls visual poetry. He showed a number of slides of buildings in various countries, which were painted and embellished in a different ways.

As you may know, Kaffe started as a knitter. He said that knitters are never bored, are happy in their own company and make things that are very personal. He also said that anyone who says they can’t do what he does hasn’t tried. This is the point where he said he learned to knit in 20 minutes on a train.  His point was that people certainly cannot make what he makes if they sit and whine. People have to go to their knitting needles or sewing machine and try, then try again. He said that he makes simple things and spices them up with glorious color. I am not sure his needlepoints are simple, but I get his point, which echoes one that TFQ says:

Go to Your Studio and Make Stuff!

InKaffe’s career trajectory, he moved on to needlepoint after knitting. Some of the chair covers and cushions are just wonderful. I love his vegetable cushion and chair covers. He also create rugs and does quite a bit of needlepoint commission work.

He finds knitting and needlepoint to be slow, so was amazed when he discovered patchwork and saw how fast quiltmakers can cut up fabric and put a piece together. He loves teaching quiltmakers and commented several times on how he loves seeing how people put his fabrics together in new ways.

His adjectives of choice were ”thrilling and ‘exciting’. He uses those two terms a lot when he talked about fabric. He said that making books and fabric allowed him to give part of his creative mind to others and he commented again on how thrilling it is for him to see how people put his fabrics together.

For him, the different media are all about manipulating color and the knitting, needlepoint, fabric design and patchwork all are ways that he can work with color. He said that he painted white on white still lives for a long time, because he was also afraid of color. He continues to be fascinated by neutrals. He talked about how he enjoys putting colors and textures together so they almost merge (you can see what he is talking about in some of his vegetable needlepoint works, in the shading, especially the Lichen Auriculas at Ehrman Tapestry , which is part of the needlepoint slide show). He showed the Vegetable Rug Border Pack in the rug form and also made into cushions. He makes me want to take up needlepoint!

He got around to talking about stripes as well. He said that he is thrilled by stripes and finds that lots of ordinary stripes put together become extraordinary.

He talked about hanging an exhibit of his quilts in France, where he was thrilled to find that the quilt stands had shocking pink background drapes/curtains. He was thrilled and said that he would never find such an occurrence in the US. He finds mostly black and, the most ghastly color against which to hang quilts, white in the US. “Ghastly” was his description and I immediately thought of TFQ.

Philip Jacobs and Kaffe Fassett are now working together. Apparently, Philip Jacobs does large realistic paintings, which Kaffe then recolors in different colorways. One of the recent collections includes some very large sea shells.

Someone asked about creative waxing and waning. He said that life serves up the rhythm and since he travels quite a bit he gets quite hungry to get back to his studio and work, especially when he has been surrounded by inspiring views. He often will see something and go to his studio and make something from the inspiration. This is a piece of advice that I also like.

He hangs up projects which have gotten stale and works on something else. Leaving the stale project around so he can see it affords him the opportunity to be reinspired.

He doesn’t usually plan his projects from beginning to end, but makes the color combination up as he goes along. He also keeps looking at it from different views and angles to see what the piece needs.

Kaffe’s theory about fabric design is that he is working with a palette of color and continually works with those ranges so that newer fabrics work with some of his older fabrics. He is also working on keeping fabrics in print for longer by recoloring them and adding older designs to new collections. He doesn’t want to create a line that is in today and “so yesterday” tomorrow. I completely appreciate this and whish more fabric companies would take this advice. He seems to be going for more of a classic look/feel. I am not sure if that is the right description,  because I am not sure I would characterize his fabrics as having a classic look. Perhaps they are the ‘new’ classic?

He said that he is basically a shallow person who likes pretty things. He claims not to have much depth. I think he was saying that we should make things that we like, things with which we want to surround ourselves and I think that is wonderful advice. He encouraged people to just start playing and put something into repeat to see how it looks. He also reminded us to work with simple shapes.

Kaffe finds inspiration everywhere and said that in England the gardens are where the passion is hidden. Aside from this, I think the best advice he gave was that ‘manifesting’ was vitally important and that having the confidence to make the statment [with your work] and enough energy to make the thing in the first place are the most important parts of the battle. Finally, he said it is important to surround myself with other positive people. This advice is stuck in my head and I think the confidence part is particularly pertinent.

His next book will be out in the spring of 2010 and will be called Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts.

It was 2 hours each way and I didn’t get home until 11:30 pm, but it was totally worth it and I am glad I went. I am now very interested in taking a class from him.

First ATCs

While you were sipping your cappucinos this morning, I was finishing the edges of my very first ATCs – Artist Trading Cards – and dashing off to meet with my fellow CQFAers.

Maureen had suggested that we do a swap of ATCs. In the spirit of the Creative Prompt project, I decided that making them would be good for my creativity. And it was! I did them when I came home from work on Tuesday after one of the most grueling work days I think I have ever had. Immersing myself in some fiber took my mind off of the lunatics downtown. I didn’t have much brainpower and, thus, didn’t overthink the design. All of the fabrics came out of my scrap basket. I wasn’t sure what to use for the center so I used two layers of Pellon Stitch and Tear, which I use for stabilizing machine applique’. The ATCs felt right in terms of stiffness and I didn’t have any problems with sewing through the 4 layers. It all seemed to work just fine.

ATC backs

The ATCs are 2.5×3.5″ inches and I know that there are a zillion sources for instructions all over the web. Typical of me, I didn’t look at any of them.

Sometimes I just need to do the work. I figured they were small enough and I could toss them if I didn’t like them.

I grabbed more fabric out of my scrap basket for the backs. The red dots and the Denyse Schmidt flowers are my favorites. One of my criteria was that I had to be able to write on the back, so my favorites weren’t ideal. The other plainer fabrics were better. I tried to use the stitch lettering that I used to use for labels on these ATCs, but my machine is starting to act up and I couldn’t get it to work.

MPL's ATCs

Maureen’s ATCs include the car in the group. Maureen is a quiltmaker I really admire, because she is constantly trying new things.

Her ATCs were a revelation, because they were all different! Mine are sort of different, but really the same. Maureen created different designs on each card. WOW! Not sure why I didn’t think of that, but perhaps I will do something similar next time.

Terri let me know that Diane and Nancy’s ATCs were mixed in with Maureen’s. I didn’t pay close enough attention to know whose are whose. Sorry ladies!

I thought I would make more of the same for next time, but after doing the swap, I think people will be looking for something new and exciting.

Terri's work

Terri is a mystery writer who incorporates quilts and quiltmaking into her stories. If you haven’t read Ocean Waves, Old Maid’s Puzzle, or Wild Goose Chase, get yourself to the Library or bookstore! Her ATCs had a mystery theme and were business card size. Terri used the business card sized advertisements as the backing! Clever!

In addition to paper and fabric, Terri also added 3D ribbon and rubber stamping to her cards. I have rubber stamps! Perhaps I will drag them out for the next round.

LC's Work

Linda’s ATCs look marbled to me. She is a talented machine quilter. She produces lots of small works frequently by participating in such challenges as the Fast Friday Challenge. She has recently been doing succulents, which she says are too dark for her tastes. Most of her work is very bright – lime green, fuschia, bright blue, etc as Linda uses lots of hand dyes.

Linda talks about her ATCs on a blog post from a few days ago. It looks like she made a big piece and then cut it up. Another great idea!

Bron's ATCs

I haven’t seen very much of Bron’s work and was really excited when she laid out her ATCs. Bron’s raven piece and her stamp piece both caught my eye. I couldn’t stop staring at them during the entire swap. I am not sure why. I guess Amy over at the Creative Mom podcast is on my mind both because of the ATCs and because of the birds.

Bron also chose to make different designs. Her media varied quite a lot as well. She used fabric, paint, paper, beads and different ephemera such as stamps.  I picked up the stamp card from Bron’s offerings.

Bron's Stamp ATC

The colors drew me to this piece. They were really vibrant and attractive. I am like a bee in spring, I guess. I really liked the textures on this card as well as the airmail stamps.

VS works

Virginia is a quiltmaker I really admire. She has a quiet presence that smolders. When she finishes a quilt or a set of placemats or something, they set the room on fire: excellent stitching, perfect corners, wonderful fabrics and a great design. I really wish she lived closer as I would try to spend more time learning with her.

Virginia did photo transfer with fabric, paper and stitching. I wasn’t as excited about them because of the black and white. I did love the stitching around the edge.

Diane brought some as well and somehow I missed photographing them. Perhaps next time.

While I am not particularly interested in ATCs, I found this to be a good exercise. Not so much in what I made, but in seeing what everyone else made and getting inspired by their work. I may have a chance to try out some of these ideas as Maureen suggested that he group make this activity a regular part of the meeting. Hhmm…

Summary: This post talks more about how the Pamela Allen class with CQFA  will inform the Tarts Come to Tea.

I find that a good class will inform my work in a way that other experiences don’t. I don’t see quiltmaking in a vacuum. I see it related to other art and that is one of the benefits of taking a class from Pamela Allen. She really brings her training in art to the quiltmaking/fabric collage world. Her comments about artists in other media really enrich my quiltmaking experience.

After sleeping on my class experiences I went up this morning to look at the Tarts. There are things I like about it and things that really need improvement. I actually wonder if I should just start over and make the piece in the style I worked in over the past couple of days? I am loathe just to toss all the work I have done, so I came up with a different solution.

When working with Pamela, she suggests putting a background down (which has already been layered with a back and batt) quickly and then cutting pieces to put on top of the background. One of the things that I liked about this method is the layering. I have had layering and the way it creates textures on my mind lately and the class experience solidified some of what I was thinking about.

With the Tarts, I think I will finish my plan so that I have a solid top. Instead of, then, sending it out to be quilted, I will put some kind of stabilizer, or additional stabilizer on it and then add another layer of fabric to the top in the Pamela Allen style. I think that will add movement to the piece and make it more interesting.

Tarts Kettle

I have always wanted to add some stitching and embellishments and will do that after I get the piece quilted.

The Tarts, as they are now, reflect my A type personality and I want to move the piece beyond that buttoned up feel to the piece. The motifs are interesting and the fabrics are fun, but it really needs movement.  I took another photo of the entire Tarts and plan to print it out. Once I do that I can take notes on how I want to add layers.

The second CQFA Retreat was the weekend of January 25, 2009 (read about the first retreat here). What a great weekend for sewing. You have already seen my completed top, FOTY 2008, but I thought I would share some of the highlights of the trip and other people’s projects with you. I highly recommend going on a weekend retreat once in a while, especially if you normally don’t get several hours of uninterrupted time to do your sewing.

On Saturday, I went out for a walk and to get some food and saw this flower, which I thought might make a nice sketch or a “Big Idea” for a quilt.

Terri, a talented writer whose books you should go out and buy right now, is also a talented quiltmaker. Above is her Kaleidoscope project. Since I had recently completed the Eye Spy top, I gave her some unsolicited advice on putting the top together. One of the things that I enjoy about the retreat is that I like seeing what people are making. Terri uses a very different color palette than I do, but it was great to see how she worked on the hexagons.

CQFA has a free fabric connection. Julie went and got some free fabric and made the above couch throw out of it. I love the cabbage rose feel that this top has, mostly because it is not too sickly sweet.

I didn’t crop the photo above, because I wanted you to see the set up. Julie and I were working at the table on the left side of the photo. You can see FOTY 2008 on my portable design wall in the background. Dolores was working on the right. We had nice big tables to work on.

Dolores, the organizer, had a goal of getting to know everyone better. Last year people did introductions and everyone talked about how they got into quiltmaking. This year she asked everyone to talk about what inspires them. Above is a picture of everyone gathering around one person’s work.

Debbie talked about taking a summer course at Cabrillo College with Richard Elliott. The class was called something like Frankenstein Fabric and they learned to manipulate fabric in new and interesting ways. The fabric above has been manipulated so that it has little puffs all over it.

The fabric has a high polyester content. Debbie does really interesting things with fiber and is very involved with SAQA.

All in all, the weekend was a big success. I certianly got a lot done and was pleased to be able to spend some extra time with Julie.

Here are some general shots of the meeting and the shop.

Above is the work that my group did on the longarm. After the general demo, they broke us into smaller groups, had another little lecture on actually using the machine and then we were allowed to try it. I stepped up to the plate and tried the machine out first. This means that I set the tone and you cannot see my work. It wasn’t that interesting – just a bunch of loops. Linda and Mom went after me and you can see their work is a lot freer and a lot more individual.

Here is the big computerized machine that they program to do create certain designs in certain areas of a quilt. While nobody actually said, it sounds like they don’t do very complicated free motion quilting. I think this means that while I may do some longarm quilting on my own, I will still use Colleen for the quilts I want done a certain way.

Here we are at our worktable sewing. We had to share the room with the Strip Club who were meeting on a day that they normally don’t get to meet. We weren’t that happy with having to share the room, mostly because we weren’t expecting it, I think. The two women closest to the camera in the middle of the table were from the Strip Club. Justine, in red, actually knew one of our members and may join the group. The big arrow points to my machine and my piece. In the lower left you can see Mom’s machine and in the lower right you can see Julie’s hands working on her DH’s Snidely Whiplash cape.

I went to the CQFA Meeting yesterday, which was held at Always Quilting in San Mateo. One of the reasons we went there was to get a demo of their longarm quilting machine and find out about learning to use it. I took the above video at the demo.

I tried out the machine as well and found it very easy to drive. Kit, one of the shop owners, had already loaded the machine with fabric for us to work on. She gave us a lecture on preparing the quilt for the machine and how their program of learning to load and use the machine worked. I thought she was a good lecturer and gave many good hints for preparing a quilt to be longarm quilted.

I have worked with a longarm quilter for awhile and know how she wants things prepared. I was surprised to hear that Always Quilting likes things a little differently done.

After the demo, we went to the back room, had lunch, worked on projects (see later post for pics of my work) and had our regular meeting.

I ended up signing up to take their their longarm quilting training in January. Their policy is to take the training and then you are allowed to rent the machine. I don’t expect that I will quilt all of my quilts myself, but I think it will be good to quilt some of them myself, and perhaps, less expensive. In any case, education is always a good thing.

All in all it was a fun day.

Bill Kerr is now on my list of best quilt lecturers of all time. I left the Peninsula Quilters Guild meeting last feeling excited and inspired and that I needed to sit down and make something fabulous. I ended up looking through and reading the two Kerr/Ringle books as soon as I got home. What a lovely experience!

I thought both Kerr and Ringle would be there, but it turns out that they have a 7 year old who is traveling with them and Ringle was on kid control. Bill said having a family and your won business was a challenge (definitely!) and they solved the issue with a lot of ‘tag, you’re it.’ Weeks is teaching the class today, which I am, sadly, missing.

I am particularly sad to miss the workshop, on color, because he said that they are so busy with their design work that they rarely visit guilds and hardly ever teach. I am hopeful that I will get to work with them, because he mentioned that they teach a week long, intensive design course. It is now on my list of things to do when the work situation simmers down. It is not listed on their workshop page, so I will have to inquire.

Peninsula Quilters

I have never been to a Peninsula Quilters meeting before, though I have been to a couple of their shows. In general I found the meeting interesting. They start the meeting at 7 pm and have guild business: reports of the board and committees, announcements, all of which is followed up with show and tell. There was lots of show and tell, which was fantastic. Lots of cheerful quilts. Not too many depressing quilts. Some of the show and tell quilts they hang around the room, a la the clothesline at CQFA, but others are just held up as the presentor reaches the front of the line. Each person presents very briefly. Some of them were so fast that if you looked down and wrote some notes, you would miss the quilt! Some of the quilts were the product of their mystery quilt program, which was a Sawtooth Star with another Sawtooth Star in the middle and an Irish Chain/Jewel Box-like alternating block. Get the idea here. Donna Allard made one with a yellow background and soft, but clear colors for the stars and chains that made me really happy. It reminded me of the Jewel Box pattern TFQ and I started.

The business portion of the meeting was followed by a break until 8pm at which time they introduced the speaker and Bill Ker started his talk. From the one hour+ lecture, I really like Bill Kerr. He was cheerful and confident and delighted in the guild business as well as all the show and tell. I liked his forthcoming attitude and cheerful manner with which he approaches quiltmaking.

His way of picking out fabric is to find an idea then express that idea by choosing colors that evoke what you are trying to express. For example, if you want to make a quilt that evokes a hot fudge sundae, the colors you would choose:

• white white (ice cream and whipped cream)
• scarlet (cherry)
• toasty brown (nuts)
• brown-black( chocolate sauce)

I might add this idea to my Basic Quilting Class notes as well as their Quiltermaker’s Color Workshop book.

Bill said a lot of interesting things related to visual arts. He suggested that people think you are born Picasso or doomed to mediocrity. He believes this to be wrong and that visual arts take work, like anything else, and that you can be successful if you work at it. I like this sentiment, because it is hopeful. I wasn’t born Picasso, but I think I have some ideas to contribute to visual arts world.

On Collaboration

Kerr said that he and Ringle collaborate completely and that the quilts that come out of their studio are the product of a combined effort. One may start with the idea, but as the idea gets tossed around and changed, it gets reshaped. He also said that the collaboration in visual arts is undervalued. Other art forms/artists such as dance/dancers and music/musicians have a long tradition of collaboration, but the visual arts don’t. I am not sure this quite true. I think a lot of artists like Rembrandt and Chiluly have people that they work with. However, this may be more a master-apprentice relationship than a true collaboration and not quite what Bill was getting at. His feeling is that the right collaborator can make the work very special.

When he talked about working with someone else, I immediately thought of the collaborations that TFQ and I have done. We haven’t collaborated as much lately, but, perhaps, bouncing ideas off of each other about the tote bags is also a kind of collaboration. there is always a possibility of starting something new.

FunQuilts/Their Work

FunQuilts is the design studio Weeks and Bill started 10 years ago. Before that both worked in the corporate world. You can find a bio and photos about Bill and Weeks at AllPeopleQuilt.com.

Most of their work is in design. They do commissioned work for clients, design fabrics and write books. It is only recently that the quilt world has found them. They have been published in Time, the New York Times, O: the Oprah magazine and major design publications. The April 2007 and April 2008 issues of the American Patchwork and Quilting have also had articles on them.

Until recently they designed fabrics for FreeSpirit, but have recently moved to RJR. Not all of their fabrics are still available, but you can order some from Kerr and Ringle directly. their newest line, Wild Bunch should be out this week.

Vision

I think they have an interesting vision. They look at the icons of the era (usually current) and make their quilts evoke their era. They often start with the questions: what are the icons of daily life around us? Some of their quilts reflect this:

• Tankini (a popular new type of bathing suit available for the past 10 years or so)
• Great American Roadtrip

Tankini, which is by Weeks only, is an example of this. Tankini (sorry, I couldn’t find a pic online-check the QN ‘07 catalog) was accepted into Quilt National 2007.

Bill thinks that if you can articulate your idea it will inform the piecing, the quilting etc.

They like to cross-polinate their quilts with other types of images and visuals. He recommends susbscribing to some non-quilt magazines in order to see non-quilt images and be inspired by those images. I’d like to know the non-quilt magazines to which YOU subscribe.

Other

Zanzibar, pictured on the cover of the Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop, the quilt that TFQ and I admired at Black Cat, was inspired by the spice markets in East Africa, where Kerr lived for many years. I thought the fabrics were dull and boring in the book*, but the backstory makes the color choices more understandable. He, also, gently reminded me that color choices are very personal. I have never been to a spice market, but I don’t imagine that there are fuschia and turquoise spices?

Kerr and Ringle are also not in the habit of slapping on long strips of borders (hooray! kindred spirits!). Actually, they cut off parts of the quilts/blocks in order to assist the viewer’s eye in travelling around the quilt. They want to engage the viewer by enabling, through design, the eye to travel all over the quilt discovering different parts. This idea kind of validates my self-bordering practice.

Kerr’s quilt (Ringle told him to make it himself), Some Settlement May Occur, started as a large piece of black fabric. Kerr cut circles out of the black and inset the colored circles. If nothing else, this endeared him to me, because I love the idea of insetting circles and have ever since I heard about it from Ruth McDowell. I haven’t actually tried it, but will someday. I think of this kind of piecing as a type of freedom.

Kerr continued to cut out fabric and inset colored circles until he was happy with the design, then he cut off pieces from the edge to make the design pleasing. What Kerr things makes this technique work is that they press their seams open so that the quilts are really flat. He didn’t want to applique’ because he didn’t want the black to change the color of the circles. Kerr acknowledged that he could have cut out the back, but thinks that the quilts are flatter if the circles are inset.

They use the very lightest weight cotton batting by Quilter’s Dream, because they like the drape. they do most of their quilting by longarm machine and use rich tone-on-tones or solids for much of their work. They use the tone-on-tones because of the way the seams are easily hidden.

All in all, it was fabulous to hear him and I can’t wait to get the opportunity again.

*Kerr what shocked when he saw the cover of my book because of how dull the color reproduction was. We, then, had a long-ish discussion of color reproductions in books.

I hope the above describes some of my work lately!

I spent the better part of 4 days in Monterey at a conference (for my other life). I have gone to this particular event for a number of years, particularly when it is in Monterey (some years they have had it in Palm Spring, San Diego, etc.). One of the nice things is that I stay with friends rather than staying in a hotel (no late night Law & Order sessions for me!). This year their house was under construction and my friends were sleeping in *my* bedroom! The nerve. They shuffled me off to his sister’s house a bit down the road where I was treated fabulously and helped out as well. Sis’ hubby went in for hip surgery after my first overnight, so I kept her company. I had my own ensuite bedroom and bath. The bath had a heated floor!

Back Porch Fabrics

Back Porch Fabrics is a wonderful quilt store in Pacific Grove, which I have visited and written about before. It is light and airy and the people are friendly. The absolute first thing I did when I got to the Monterey Peninsula was head to Pacific Grove. I didn’t think there could possibly be any dot fabrics I didn’t own, but I was mistaken.
Not only was I able to find more dots (and a few other fabrics), but the lovely Quilts Japan mag as well. There was another issue that I liked, but I really only liked the cover, so I didn’t buy it. The quilt store staff didn’t leave me alone long enough to take a picture of the cover, so I will have to try and find it online.

The quilts they had hanging up were not in my colors, but they went together really well, were graphic and well made and that made me like them. Unfortunately, the staff would not let me take ANY photos in the store. I knew they wouldn’t let me take photos of their class sample quilts, but I wanted to show you some overall pictures of the store so you could get a sense of it. No dice. Sorry, maybe next time.

Sherri e-mailed me and was kind enough to offer the two lovely dots above, which arrived while I was away I’ll need to cut some strips and add them to the piles. I probably won’t be able to use the grey in the Pineapple quilt, but, as I have a few more dot quilts in me, I will find a place for it. Thanks, Sherri!

Finally, I have been neglecting the Flowering Snowballs (Cross Blocks), but sat down in front of bad TV last night and finished this one. I only had the two middle seams to finish, so I can add this to the stack.

I also attended the CQFA meeting today. We spent, probably, 1.5-2 hours on show and tell. It was a lot of tell and that was great. I showed the Nosegay and the sleeve on Sharon’s quilt, which is now finished. Hooray!

I was looking for the Quilts Japan issue when I came across Little Shika blog. It has a Yarnstorm kind of feel with my dogged resolve to show all the steps in a project. (Suppose I should rethink that, e.g. how much information is too much information???) Great photos, too.

Stay tuned for a report on my new iron!

Today was the CQFA meeting. There are six meetings per year and they are held in Santa Clara, which is about an hour from my house. It is always a big effort (I usually stay up too late the previous night and am tired from the week of racing around) for me to get the to the meetings and I have missed a number of them this year. I was richly rewarded by attending today as the show and tell was fantastic. Also, nobody was being an attention hog or annoying me. Everyone was wonderfully supportive of one woman who is experiencing a series of losses in her life. Not only was the work wonderful, but inspirational as well. Check the website for the meeting and I am sure the photos will be posted soon.

The workshop was put on by Virginia Schnalle, who is a wonderfully creative quiltmaker. I admire her work, her fearlessness in art and her quiet manner. She has taught a couple of workshops for the group and they always yield wonderful results for me. It was in her class that I made the Eye of God. That quilt is now in the collection of another quiltmaker, but I consider it to be one of my most successful quilts.

Today we worked on getting started when your muse has gone on vacation or your well has run dry. First VS gave out a basket of words, from which we each chose three. We weren’t able to tell what the words were before we chose them. From these words we had to draw simple drawings that came to mind when we saw the words. My words were:

After the CQFA Steering Committee meeting at KAM’s house, we did fabric painting. KAM organized the whole thing and it was a nice ending to the meeting.

This is my first attempt:
After my first attempt, we watched a five (or so) minute segment of Simply Quilts. It was good to watch after, because I wasn’t too influenced by the demonstrator.

Here is the piece that I finished after we watched the segment.

One thing I got out of the segment is that simple shapes seem to be better, so I worked on this one:

My final piece is the best one IMO.

It was GREAT not to have to do any organization for the project but to just start painting on fabric. KAM was so generous with her paint, fabric, etc. It was wonderful. As you may know, I am not a big fan of messy work. I did enjoy doing this project as I could just play and not worry about making a masterpiece.

I plan to try the presentor’s idea of doing some curved strip piecing through the middle of my piece. I don’t want to make these the center of a piece. I just don’t think they could stand up to the scrutinty.

DCM and I discussed not having enough time to just play and wreck fabric pieces. We are both having a hard time getting over the feeling that each piece we make must be perfect.

A topic for another day….