The Amish Quilts from the Stephen and Faith Brown Collection will be leaving the DeYoung on June 6. TFQ bought the exhibit catalog and, before even looking at the whole thing, slammed the book shut and made plane reservations to come down. I am glad she came down the weekend of the 15th, because I have been sick as a dog the past few days and if she had come this past weekend, I would have been no fun.
I love looking at exhibits with TFQ. It is fun seeing an exhibit through someone else’s eyes and pooling our knowledge about pattern and design. I also love looking at exhibits a second time. I always see things I didn’t see before. Sometimes TFQ and I see completely different things in a quilt.
DWR Flower
One thing I saw that made my day was a small double wedding ring. It was made with the same color of fabric at each end of the arc. This technique made the piece look like there were flowers all over it. The quilt is in the book (plate 38, pg.88), but the “flowers” don’t glow like they did in the real piece.
Roman Stripe Variation
I am not sure why I didn’t notice the little Roman Stripe Variation (plate 73, pg.123) in the corner of the exhibit the first time I went, but I didn’t. I really like the way the stripes almost match up, but not quite. This would be a great and not-too-difficult quilt to make. However, where we think of the non-matching stripes as charming, anyone making this quilt today would just be considered a poor piecer.
Sketching the Amish
There was a contained crazy (plate 13, pg.620 that had some really nice embroidery stitches. That little bow stitch in the drawing above was in each block. Those arcs were some quilting designs that I also liked.
One unexpected joy was that the exhibit catalog was $10 off. I lashed out and bought it along with a book of postcards of Amish quilts in general. When looking at the book I am struck by how the quilts look the same, but do not have the glow that do in person.
After leaving the exhibit, we went up to the Tower. From the outside it just looks strange, but the view, even on a foggy day, is fabulous and I love going up there. On the way up, we saw a sculpture star in the elevator lobby
Wire Star Sculpture
The lobby had a number of these wire sculptures and I think they were designed with the shadows in mind. This one would be a wonderful Christmas decoration, if an expensive one.
Window Screen
I liked the way the ferns looked through this window screen. It is made of metal and soldered to the window frame. I think they put it there so people in the garden wouldn’t stare inside. TFQ pointed out that they didn’t really think about cleaning the window when the design was being discussed and implemented.
Every year there is a decorator showcase house in my city. This year I was offered free tickets to visit when TFQ was here.
The house is in a neighborhood called Presidio Heights. It was a jewel of a house, not what I would call a mansion, but not small either. The house was laid out really well – the flow was wonderful. The rooms weren’t stupid either.A real family could live there. The ‘bones’ of the house were good: nice details, good sized rooms, plenty of bathrooms, great storage.
I am a big sucker for entry halls.It had a really nice entry hall where people had space to take off their coats and shoes, put their gloves and packages down before being in the house and having to deal with stuff.
It was fun going with TFQ as well, because she has a really rich art background. As we were standing in the dining room, she made a comment about the Rothko on the wall! Yes, indeed, there was a Mark Rothko painting in the corner of the dining room!
Rothko Yellow
I am not sure that this was the painting, but it looked similar.
Bird Painting
The above painting was for sale and the hosts at the house were supposed to have all of the information about them. They couldn’t find the info on this which TFQ was interested in. I am still waiting to hear back. My arm has been bothering me, so I didn’t bring my good camera and the cell camera in combination with the art lighting really makes the bird look skeletal. In reality, this was a very appealing looking painting.
Quilt Block Floor
I see quilt blocks everywhere and this marble floor was no exception. It would not be for the faint of heart, but I imagine the center rectangle being one color and then the elongated hexagons flowing into each block because of the color.
Moroccan Table
This Moroccan Table was in a room at the top of the house, which was described as an aerie. This room was designed by Benjamin Dhong and he was really nice to us. He designs rooms with neutral colors, but we did not find the Aerie to be boring because of the neutrals. He had added some color that added a lot of interest. The colors did not stand out, but really kept the room from being too neutral. I think the man has a gift with neutrals.
Moroccan Table -detail
This detail shows different motifs that could also be used in a quilt. I think it would be another that wouldn’t be for the faint of heart, but perhaps Jane Sassaman’s technique could be used to make the work a little easier.
Moroccan Table -detail
The middle with the rectangles as a circular border is really effective as well.
We went out into the garden because we wanted to see everything and TFQ also loves to garden. I thought they could have done more with the garden, but there were some plants that were interesting colors and shapes.
Perfect Camellia
This may be the most perfect camellia I have ever seen.
Columbine
I have heard of Columbines before, but don’t think I have ever seen one. There were a number of different specimens in different colors. I was really interested in the layering effect of these flowers.
Blank Wall Covering
This piece made a blank wall more interesting. I thought it was a gate, but it really wasn’t. I like the waves.
I volunteered to go and help demonstrate quilting at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco last Friday with the East Bay Heritage Quilters. I took the Chocolate Box with me so I could show how quilts are finished. I had done this “stunt quilting” at the museum before – when the Esprit collection was being displayed at the museum. That experience was wonderful. This experience was MUCH better.
BackStage Pass
Renee and her staff treated us like glitterati. I was greeted at the door and immediately given the above pass. There was a performer’s area away from the hubbub of the event where we could rest, partake of food and drink, and chat.
Children's Quilt Project Quilt detail
One of the things some of the ladies did was work on the CQP quilts. This one was tied with the help of some interested visitors. CQP is project where the guild makes quilts to donate to children in need.
Sewing CQP Blocks
A couple of the ladies worked with visitors to lay out blocks and then sew them. Some of the children were very interested in this aspect of the work and helped quite a bit.
Cutting
We demonstrated all aspects of the quilting process, including cutting. Many, many people had never seen a rotary cutter and were quite fascinated.
Hand quilting
Two ladies brought their hand quilting projects. Jean, working on the attic window quilt, brought several of her quilts. Many of them were a lovely combination of purples, blues and greens.
Tie quilt
This is another of Jean’s quilts in a lovely group of purples, blues and greens. She made this quilt from ties. I think it is one of the best uses of tie fabric I have ever seen. I like the combination of colors and patterns. I also like the block layout.
Godzilla & Mothra
Edi does gorgeous applique’. She had several in progress pieces with animals, which intrigued the children. The Godzilla quilt was a birthday gift for her husband, Jay (we were both a bit confused when we met!). He designed the quilt, Edi appliqued and then it was quilted with different Tokyo motifs by Laura Lee Fritz. This quilt drew in a lot of people in. Edi and Jay told the story of the quilt dozens of times. It was definitely a lot more interesting than my binding!
Hand quilting
This evening was one of the most fun experiences I have had in a long time. My mouth hurt from smiling when I got home. Two readers/friends stopped by: Kathy from Everyday Bliss and Lisa from LisaLizaLou. Some people who talked with me wanted to buy quilts, others wanted to commission quilts. Some were genuinely interested in the process. I even told someone my process for washing a quilt (toss in washer with Dreft and then toss in dryer on very low setting). There were a few people who were really interested in my quilt and the binding. Chocolate Box was, actually, a good quilt to bring with me. It is a pretty modern looking quilt and lots of young people were interested in the fabric and the design.
I went to the Cartier exhibit with my MIL on Friday. The exhibit will be leaving in the next few weeks and I didn’t feel like I had seen enough the last time I went. I wrote about going a month or so ago. My mom and I were scheduled to go, but she worked so much this past week, she wanted to rest before she had to go to her weekend job. Instead of just thinking “oh, I’ll go by myself”, which probably would not have happened, I immediately called my MIL and asked if she wanted to go. I am glad I did, because it was great to go again and it was great to spend time with my MIL. Yes, I love my MIL and she is not, in any way, shape or form, evil like books and comics imply about MILs.
Jaye's Tiara 😉
Ok, I am totally lying about that being my tiara, but if I had a tiara, it would look just like that and I would wear it all the time. This is the tiara of a princess of Belgium. It was my favorite piece in the whole exhibit. The thing that really attracted me to it was the swirls in the center. They reminded me of the P&B fabric I used for Spiky Stars some time ago. I would like to perfect that design for quilting on the longarm.
I felt really inspired by the pieces in the show.
Liz Taylor's necklace
I can’t help but do a lot of drawings when I am at an exhibit: read, look, draw. It is my mantra. I felt especially inspired yesterday as I could really look at things. Nothing was a surprise, because I had been before and I was able to focus on the details.
Different design ideas
One thing I noticed is that all of the lines were doubled. In the the infinity type design above, I didn’t draw the double line in my book. It had a double line where I have drawn one line. I want to play with that drawing a bit and the above work is just a reminder.
Designs from jewelry
The oblong/square I have drawn on the page above was really intriguing to me.It wasn’t quite square or rectangular. I think it was officially rectangular, but I really had to look at it to figure out why it wasn’t exactly square. It had a kind of Trip Around the World look to it and I would like to explore the shape a bit more on some graph paper.
Flamingo Brooch
I was not supposed to be taking pictures, which the guard told me nicely, but in no uncertain terms. The lighting was not conducive to photography, which is why the two pictures I took are so crappy. I posted the flamingo to show the way the artists put the colored stones on part of the piece. This was a good reminder that coloration in a quilt does not have to be symmetrical.
Also, the contrast between the types of pieces shown (tiara above vs. flamingo) was quite striking. It really showed the breadth of work that Cartier did.
I really enjoy seeing other types of work. Not only am I inspired, but feel very appreciative of the wide variety of artistry available in the world.
Jennifer at CraftSanity is running in a race for charity in May. She is part of a special training group called the Road Warriors. The Road Warrior team members get training mentors, have a blog and train together. She has been paired with a domestic violence shelter. In order to be part of the Road Warrior team, she needs to raise a certain amount of money for a charity. Instead of going door to door to gather donations, Jenifer is organizing an apron exhibit. To do that she needs aprons. I decided to make and send her one.
Apron Right (Tarty view)
I had listened to the Patchwork and Pacifiers podcast just before listening to Jennifer’s newest CraftSanity podcast that mentioned the apron contest. The P&P podcast is one to which I just started to listen. On that day, I heard Jennifer Ruvalcaba (P&: host) briefly mention a petal skirt her daughter had. Then, when Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood (too many Jennifers doing podcasts??) mentioned the apron contest an image formed in my mind. Then, I was looking the One Yard Wonders book. That combined with the various other sensory inputs and I was off and running.
The Kitschy Kitchen Apron from One Yard Wonders was a big help with sizing and length of the straps. I had a good time working on it as well, though I found it to be quite a solitary endeavor.
Apron Front (Supermodel view)
One of the requirements of the exhibit is to add a piece of tie fabric to the apron. I wanted to put a flower made from the tie fabric on the apron, so I had to go and find a pattern, which, through the power of the ‘craft’ web, I was able to do quite easily. I found a site, Tip Junkie, which had a number of different patterns. I ended up using Pink Paper Peppermints Rounded Petal Fabric Flower pattern to make my flower. The tie fabric frayed quite a bit, so it wasn’t a particularly fun process, but I learned how to make fabric flowers. I could have used Fray Check, but I was afraid it would stain the fabric.
Apron Side
I spent most of the weekend working on the apron. I had actually been thinking about making one for awhile for no particular reason.. This was the perfect opportunity. It isn’t a quilt, but it may have gotten that particular wish out of my system.
I didn’t take pictures of all the steps. It just didn’t seem right. I feel good making the things I have for charity lately. I feel like I am doing some good in some small way. I hope you will join in and send an apron to Jennifer at CraftSanity as well. If you can’t make an apron read the post to find out other ways to help.
Mom and I had museum day last Friday. We first went to the DeYoung and saw the Amish Abstractions exhibit. This is an exhibit of Amish quilts from the Stephen and Faith Brown collection.
I could look at Amish quilts for years and never get bored. I went to the Esprit exhibit at the DeYoung back in the Dark Ages and I even demonstrated handquilting during one of their free evenings through a quilt class I was taking at the time. That was in the old museum building and before they charged extra for the special exhibits. Times definitely change!
I really tried to look at each quilt for more than 30 seconds (which my mother tells me is the average time that someone looks at a piece of art in an exhibit.
Shutter Block
I liked all of the quilts. The ones that particularly stuck in my mind were a small crib quilt with two vertical rows of 3 Jack’s Chains* and a small 6 block crib quilt using a block I had never seen before. I am calling it the “Shutter quilt.” Do you know the name of the block?
The hidden complexity (quilting) in the simplicity (piecing) fascinates me. The piecing designs are often (not always) relatively simple. As the viewer gets closer, s/he can see the complexity of the quilting designs. Many of the quilts had feathers quilted into the border. A quilt using the Bars design had a feather wreath in the middle surrounded by an octagon of straight line quilting design with little quilted clamshell stitching accenting the octagon line. This detail was invisible unless I got up very close to it.
One thing I particularly noticed this time was the deft use of their limited color palette. They use certain colors, which I knew. The glow that I have noticed in some of the quilts comes from the colors and how they were put together. This must seem obvious to you, but somehow it struck me as I was comparing some of the quilts that had this glow to the more subtly shaded pieces. I noticed that the more subtle quilts did not use the salmon, turquoise and lavender colors. I think, based on this quick trip, that this is the case.
I was drawing the shutter piece block from the crib quilt when my mom sat down on a bench nearby and began talking to the lady next to her. My mom talks to everyone. They were talking about a 9 patch quilt made partially from 4patches when I heard the lady said “oh this is the man that owns the quilts.” A nice looking, white haired man in his mid fifties to early sixties wearing a blue Oxford shirt was standing there. Of course, my mom started talking to him!
She started in asking him how long he had been collecting (since the mid-1970s) and how he stored the quilts at home (acid free boxes) and did he display them at home (no). I decided to mention the Jack’s Chain, which was listed as “pattern unknown”. I have had that pattern on my to do list for years and originally saw it at a shop in the East Bay as a class. Even then it was called Jack’s Chain. He said that he would look it up and made a note. This made me think that he provided all the information about the quilts and the museum didn’t do research. I don’t know for sure, however. Then my mom asked me to give him my quilt business card. No, I do not have a quilt business!, but I do have a card that lists my blog address. He actually looked at it and commented on me having a blog!
Marie over at Z Quilts had a long review of the quilts and the exhibit catalog in which she posted some photos. My favorite, though I liked all of the quilts, is the one mentioned above I call the Shutter quilt. The pattern had no name according to the card next to the quilt. I want to look it up in Barbara Brackman’s book, or int he new Jinny Beyer block book, but haven’t yet. Stay tuned for that info.
I overheard some guys commenting that it looked like the shutter of a camera closing or opening. It is the 5th image on Marie’s page.
The museum had a boatload of stuff in their regular gift shops and they had a full shop right outside of the exhibit. One of the items that really drew me were wooden boxes with quilt designs inlaid on the top. They were form Quiltboxes.com (about $125) and were absolutely gorgeous. I liked the one with the Dutchman’s Puzzle design.
After the DeYoung, we went over to the Legion of Honor and saw the Cartier and America exhibit. This was a jewelry exhibit. I enjoy seeing different types of art and craft exhibits because I enjoy seeing the commonalities with quiltmaking. I also enjoy getting inspiration from other media. Of course, the jewels were fantastic. There was one stone that over 143 carats. Can you imagine? This type of jewelry is so out of my realm of possibility that I just looked at the designs and admired the artistry. There was one tiara of which I wish I could have taken a photo. The swirls would have made excellent applique’ designs. That tiara was in the exhibit catalog, which I didn’t buy. I may buy it later and if so, I will show it then.
Stomacher Broach detail
I was also very interested in the historical aspect of the exhibit. The exhibit cards said who bought the piece, who owned it and, in some cases, whether it was purchased for a gift. Some information mentioned changes to designs with the times. The meager information made me think that such an exhibit would be a good way of getting people into the history of the era. There were obvious changes in the jewelry designs as times changed. Flappers, for example, didn’t need stomacher broaches.
It may be that pieces for the exhibit were selected for their relevance to SF, because there were a lot of pieces owned or purchased by prominent people in local history.
I did, finally, learn what a pave’ diamond setting was. Apparently Ms. Wallis Simpson loved pave’ settings for her panther broaches.
Some of Princess Grace’s jewels were there as were Elizabeth Taylor’s. Sadly, I was very tired after all this visual stimulation, so I didn’t look and read as carefully at these as I would have liked.
I was very annoyed and disappointed with the selection of postcards. None of my favorites were available as postcards. It was probably a good thing as the postcards were poor reproductions anyway. Not the high quality to which I am accustomed. The exhibit catalog was wonderful, but times are tough so I didn’t buy that either. It is on my list. I think you would enjoy it as well!
*No affiliation with this site; I just think the picture of her Jack’s Chain is a good example of the pattern.
I meant to write about this sooner, but it just didn’t happen. I saw this Flowering Snowball quilt when I went to Back Porch in October.
Back Porch Flowering Snowball
I have to admit that I was shocked, because I thought that nobody was making that pattern except for me and here was a semi-local quilt shop teaching a class. I have to admit that I was disappointed, because I thought I was doing something unique. Call Back Porch if you want to sign up for the class.
When I went to the Kaffe Fassett lecture, we also went to the shop, where we bought a few things.
Back Porch Fabrics
I wanted to restock up on the Lonni Rossi fabrics. The line was long and as we stood in line, I saw this quilt on the wall.
Back Porch Log Cabin
I know TFQ will like it, but I also like the cheerfulness of it. I think the background is dots.
Yesterday, I wrote half a post for you as I got called away to do boring stuff.
Spiky Stars
For a long time, at least 4 years, Spiky Stars hung on my office wall. I love this quilt. It is one of my, if not my absolute, favorite(s). I made it using a technique I learned and modified in a Doreen Speckman class in the mid-nineties called Interlocking Triangles. She never did anything with this technique, probably because it is pretty labor intensive. I used templates to make this quilt and a lot of the patches are on the bias. I have a lot of designs to make additional quilts in this series. They just haven’t made it to the top of the list yet.
Seeing Red
Seeing Red now graces my office wall. It is also a bullseye quilt. It started out as a round robin block exercise with Julie Zaccone Stiller and Adrienne Acoba. The exercise was inspired by a different bullseye project done by the Quilt Mavericks quilt group. We sent each other squares of red fabric and proceeded to add circles to them in the bullseye pattern. The interesting thing about this pattern is the way one can play with color. It is interesting to see the colors change as additional layers of fabric are added. When the blocks were complete, we cut the squares up and kept some of each block and sent other parts to the others, so the quilts are truly ‘sister’ quilts. The arrangement of the blocks is my own design. Julie and Adrienne arranged their blocks differently. Colleen Granger did a masterful job quilting Seeing Red. The project, as I mentioned yesterday, has expanded to the point where we are working on creating a bullseye quilt for each of the rainbow colors. Feelin’ Blue was the next in the series and, again, as I mentioned yesterday, Purple Passion is in process.
Seeing Red in context
We actually hung the quilt twice. The first time, it was much higher up. We were outside my office (there is a glass wall in the front) looking at it when one of the name partners walked by. We must have looked odd, because he stopped and looked and told us it should be lower. He was right! We moved it down out of the shadow of the sofit (sp??) and I think it looks better.
One of the good things about putting up a new quilt is that I am actually seeing it. I had gotten to the point, I realized later, of not even seeing Spiky Stars anymore. I need to remember that and change the quilts out more often.
Seeing Red is a much smaller quilt than Spiky Stars, so it startles me a bit when I walk into my office. There is just a lot less fabric and a lot more wall. I don’t know if I will keep Seeing Red up, but it will be there for at least a week. Nobody has commented yet, but I will be interested to see who notices and what they say.
I am racing to get you some content before I head off for, essentially, a week and half of work travel, and (YAY!!) vacation. I won’t be able, probably, to post much during the work travel as I will be in a conference all day and then enjoying good food and drink with friends. We’ll see how the Internet connection is in the conference center this year. Perhaps I’ll be able to post some clips.
I have been thinking of viewing artworks in every day life and surrounding myself with artworks, lately. I looked at the back wall of my office this week and said to myself “huh! that quilt has been there for 4 years; time for a change.” Then I went into my Assistant Librarian’s office, saw two more quilts and decided that one of them also needed to be changed out.
Feelin’ Blue, Too
This quilt has been on her wall for awhile and she really likes it. She says it has a calming effect on her. It is the second in a series of quilts in the JAJ Bullseye Project. In each round, the three quiltmakers, Julie Zaccone Stiller, Adrienne Acoba and I each makes one quilt in the agreed upon color scheme. In this case, blue. This quilt was shown at 2005 Marin Quilt & Needle Arts Show.
You can read more about how to make a bullseye quilt here. I am sure there are other directions on the web and in books. You can also see my most recent attempt, a quilt top (not a quilt yet), in the series here.
Feelin’ Blue, on display
This is the quilt on display in my A.L.’s office. You get to see the trappings of our (well, her in this case) work. I could have cropped them out, but thought you might enjoy the quilt in context.
FOTY 2008, on display
Here is the full view of FOTY 2008 (although I think you have seen it 12 times in the past 2 weeks, right?) hanging in my A.L.’s office. She has a much bigger office than I do, and I have my degrees hanging on the only other available wall for art, so she gets two quilts and I get one.
FOTY 2008 in context
Here is the quilt in context. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to change out the quilts sooner, but it didn’t. My quilts were rejected for display in the public parts of the office, because the Art Committee couldn’t get past the ‘craft.’ Instead they chose some baby puke brown paintings that I wouldn’t hang on my street much less in my house. I am probably bitter and don’t understand the concept. 😉 Now the quilts are up on walls I control and on display for all to view. I am happy.
I have to run off and do some stuff, like laundry, so I will post the quilt in my office later or tomorrow.
I went to the preview for the Pacific International Quilt Festival 2009 this evening. It was only 1.5 hours long, so I didn’t get to see everything. Some first impressions:
There were a lot more bolts of fabric than in previous years, as opposed to kits and fabric packs. I was pleased to see that I would be able to buy some yardage, if I want. There were still fabric packs.
Many of the vendors from past years were there and I saw a couple of new ones. I was nervous that the vendor hall would be empty because the Quilt Festival in Houston is on at the same time.
People didn’t seem to be buying much and I heard a vendor say that most people just look on the preview night. I bought one FQ. 😉
I went to the preview to take photos when it wasn’t busy. I intended to take as many as possible, but I started taking them and just felt depressed about it, so I stopped and, then, only took pictures of quilts I really liked. I still managed to take a few hundred pictures. One thing I learned from this experience was that I need to make quilts – at least show quilts – that are interesting. I need to make quilts that people haven’t seen before. That is if I want to show quilts in the future. That is not to say that I have to show my quilts and that I can’t make any kind of quilts I want. I think if I am going to show quilts they have to be special and interesting.
Lots of landscapes and realism type quilts. There was one with a castle (Rheingau?), a triptych of big leaves, another of redwood trees, an Italian Piazza, etc.
The colors used in the quilts are a lot brighter; the quilts are not as depressing as they have been in the past. A few tree quilts, but not as many as last year.
The World Quilt Competition Quilts were very interesting as usual.
Reef Quilts/Patterns (not sure of the name) has some tote bag patterns that I want to look at more closely. They look like they are large, have plenty of pockets and interesting detailing without being too strange.
by Debbie Bosio & Yvette Ebaugh
There was beautiful machine work again, especially sheer types of embroidery. I am not sure of the name, but it is the kind of embroidery that the newer model machines do.
Pamela Allen's Cinderella Making her Getaway
Pamela Allen had a Cinderella quilt, which I thought was great.
There are some pretty Christmas fabrics with fun motifs in non-traditional colors such as turquoise, soft green cream and a light pinkish red.
FOTY 2008 at PIQF
FOTY 2008 was there and it didn’t look like I thought it would.I like the location where they hung the quilt. That wave on the bottom makes me crazy. Perhaps I am just nervous about having two quilts there? I didn’t see the Nosegay yet.
Tomorrow is Sept. 11. I was thinking about the event more than usual this year. No sure why. One thing that came to mind after Sept. 11, 2001 was the phrase “what if?” As a result, the desire developed to write about the quilts I made after that notorious day. I thought I would give you a mini tour of two of my older quilts.
What Comes Next is the quilt I really wanted to make for the America From the Heart quilt project, which was put together by Karey Bresenhan for the 2001 International Quilt Festival exhibition. I couldn’t process my thoughts and feelings fast enough, much less construct this quilt, to make the deadline. Once I sent off Fireball I could relax a bit. Not having the pressure of a deadline helped me come up with the design for What Comes Next. I can definitely finish a quilt under pressure, but not design a quilt.
The message I wanted to communicate with the quilt is that people are people and I would like them to treat each other better. I stamped words like consideration, kindness, caring, etc on the quilt. Pretty obvious method rather than being oblique, but I didn’t want there to be any ambiguity with what I wanted to say.
Fireball the quilt that went to Houston and is in the book, is part of a series of woven quilts that I have been making on and off over the years. It was fast to make on short deadline. I chose the colors – they were a fat quarter pack – because they looked like fire, smoked and charred wood. This was one of the first times I used dotted fabrics.
I went to the San Mateo County Fair on Saturday. I was really pleased to discover that The Nosegay had won a 3rd place ribbon.
Third place isn’t first place, but I am so happy that I won something. It has been awhile since I won a ribbon. I couldn’t have done it without Colleen of Sew Little Time Quilting. She is a fabulous longarmer. She also sells fabric, teaches and designs patterns. Her longarm work is out of this world.
Anyway, I am reinspired to enter this quilt somewhere else. We’ll see if I can get my act together.
In general the Fair was fun. I ate two, yes 2, frozen, chocolate and nut covered bananas. I love them so much!! They just say fair to me. We saw fireworks, got free ice cream, watched hucksters and hawkers, and some people rode rides. I didn’t have as much time with the quilts as I would have liked, but got some nice pictures and will have some time to look at them carefully later.
I have been slack about posting my various holiday adventures, but, with this post, will try and redeem myself. One of the great things I did on my break over the holidays was go to the SFMOMA with friend Julie. My goal was to see the actual journals from the 1000 journals project in person. Julie has posted a great set of narrated photos about our adventures.
The 1000 Journals project has, for some reason, captured my imagination. Faithful readers will know that I have posted about it, gone to see the film and have been trying to get my hot little hands on one of the journals. The film depicted a lot of back and forth with the SFMOMA about this exhibit because Someguy wanted to allow people to add to the journals. A great idea, but the curators aren’t used to allowing people to touch the art. I was really happy that they finally were able to work everything out.
They ended up putting the project in the Koret Education Center. There are people there to watch you, somewhat, working on the journals, so it probably made them feel ok about touching.
Stupidly I didn’t plan ahead and bring an art kit like I had planned, so I rummaged through my purse to see what I had:
an old temporary drivers’ license
breast health center “how to get your results” sheet
pink pen
Golden Gate Ferry schedule from 1997
With the pencils, glue sticks, pens, etc that the SFMOMA provided my theme turned into bureaucracy. I was able to make a page with which I was pretty satisfied. As Julie said, it was hard to make art standing up. Not very comfy. Other viewers of the exhibit also have a different sense of personal space than I do, so I had to glare at some people who were just too close, and ask them to step back.
I was disappointed to see that some contributors had basically defaced the books with a message of anger and hate of their own. If I had had colored paper, I would have glued it over those messages, which, I guess, is defacing the books as well, in a way. There was a lot of 13 year old boy potty humor as well. Sad to think that people aren’t enlightened enough to think up something that they would be proud to have endure through the ages. Perhaps I am just being a snob because what they wrote doesn’t fit my idea of ‘good’.
I had fun. I found that I actually can do a visual journaling piece. It made me think that, perhaps, I have too many options at home.
I am happy that I got to spend the day with Julie (no children/young adults=freedom) and that I got see and write in the journals. I feel like I made a contribution. The journal I wrote in was number 754.
PICT2941 Originally uploaded by jlapac As I mentioned, the quilts were much more cheerful. I don’t think there were enough of them to think of ‘cheerful’ as a theme. However, I did notice two themes: leaves and hexagons.
I would say there were at least 30 quilts that incorporated leaves – full leafy leaves, colored Autumn leaves and thin, spiky leaves. I found most of the leaf (and by association, tree) quilts to be quite calming.
After breakfast and before we headed back to the show, we went to visit the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. They had three exhibits on. he major exhibit was a group of Radka Donnell quilts. Many of them were from the 1970s and had been used. They were all bed sized and I think it was hard for me to appreciate what she had accomplished, because there was nothing to compare them with. Many of them look like the backs of quilts I make now. They were all best viewed from far away and that is the good thing about the new-ish space. The galleries were large and enabled us to stand back. My favorite was So Bubbly and Clear. TFQ liked some elements of The Pool of Nazzissos. The other gallery had quilts from a variety of artists including Faith Ringgold (prints) and Laura Wasilowski. A log cabin quilt by Terrie Hancock Mangat kept our attention for a long time as there were lots and lots of interesting fabrics. Finally, the last gallery had 8 Double Wedding Ring or wedding quilts. Most were the normal DWRs, but one looked like a cross between the Winding Ways and the Flowering Snowball. I wasn’t able to find a reference for it yet, but will post it when I do.
Back at PIQF, another theme I noticed was that many quilts used a hexagon shape. I don’t remember any of the traditional Grandmother’s Flower Garden type layouts. I saw one that used the hexagon shape for the base of a Crazy quilt and one that used hexagons to make flowers.
It was really interesting to see themes pop out.
We visited the vendors. I did buy a few fabrics, but passed many of them up. Best vendor award goes to: Erica at In Between Stitches from Livermore. She was friendly, funny and willing to have someone bring us Moda swatch packs of the Fresh Squeeze fabrics from their store. I love vendors who don’t complain and have a great attitude about customer service.
TFQ and I went to the PIQF Preview tonight and it was wonderful. Apparently, most people who attend, attend to shop. I saw two ladies leaving with Jem Platinums! We have started to attend the preview in order to take photos. I barely looked at the quilts, but just shot photos (http://www.flickr.com/photos/artquiltmaker/sets/72157608068541986/) so I wouldn’t have to worry about the crowds. It was great! And I know I will be much less cranky tomorrow when I can just look at quilts.
I am thrilled to say that people entered cheerful quilts. Not exclusively, but my overall impression is cheerful. I am so happy, because after EBHQ and APNQ, I was getting worried about the state of quiltmakers’ psyches. There are also a lot of quilts with a ton of details on them, so I think people have just been sititng in their studios for the past four years waiting for Nov.4. I didn’t look much at the vendors, but will work on that tomorrow as well.
Eddie’s Quilting Bee is about 2 miles away. We went there before the show opened and looked around. I bought an 8.5″x4.5″ Creative Grid ruler and a pattern for a tote bag from Gail Abeloe for Tracey Brookshier Design Studio. It is similar to the Eco Market tote, but has a square bottom and no side panels. It will be interesting to try it out.
The tree quilt above is called Leaves on a Tree and it is, coincidentally, by Gail Abeloe. Gail is the owner of Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove. Nice work!
