This is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Time marches on. Every day is a new adventure. Some days I feel like mountain climbing, other days I want to climb back into bed!

When I started this blog several years ago it was with the commitment that I'd ramble once a week....last year it was more like once a month (sigh). I'm repenting.

Typically between Christmas and New Year's I take time to quilt my own quilt. This year was a tad different....our Christmas came late, celebrating with our sons and their lovely ladies on 12/30 due to conflicting work schedules...the following morning we headed to west Texas and on New Year's set up a new quilter with her A1 Quilting Machine.

Our return trip was to include a stop over at a cousin's in San Antonio for a little relaxing time. That was cut short as we drove straight from San Antonio back to Houston, without going home but straight to the ER. My husband's father was being admitted for double pneumonia, fluid on both lungs, and a blood clot in one lung.

Prior to our belated Christmas celebration I had loaded a personal quilt, thinking it would just take a day or two to complete....that quilt became my therapy during the 8 day hospital stay....in the evenings I'd try to quilt for 20 or 30 minutes just to unwind. Needless to say, the quilt was on the frame much longer than my previous "between the holidays" intentions. But quite honestly, it would have been difficult to try to focus on a customer quilt, so I continued to quilt it a little at a time. I took a lot of close ups as this was the first time I tried out this new border design

Personal Projects 2011

Here's a link if the slide show doesn't work.

Sometimes boo-boos make for creative flow. I had originally planned on curly Amish feathers in the outer border, quilted in the circle spines and then discovered I had the wrong ratio - no way would I rip out seams...so I decided to use the circles for my feather puffs - if I messed up, oh well, it's only fabric and it's my quilt!

Finally things appeared to be normal again, my father in law came home to recover, my personal quit was finished and I quickly loaded up a customer quilt to try to redeem the time....but who am I fooling?!?!?

My youngest son is getting married! They have been engaged since the fall and are having what I call a "planned elopement" - they are going to the justice of the peace (by themselves) and having a wedding reception afterwards to celebrate with friends and family. Did I mention that this is happening next week?!?!?! Somewhere between now and then I will find time to alter her wedding dress. What a privilege to be included in this special time of their lives!

Yep, now you know my excuse for being AWOL from my ramblings. As soon as I catch my breath and get caught up on customer quilts I'll return to my chatty little self, at least that's the plan!

I'm excited as I look forward to a new year - lots of beautiful customer quilts already lined up, some personal quilts that I hope to squeeze in, especially before the next show (will have an A1 booth at the Dallas Celebration in March), along with sprinkling in some fun classes this year (my favorite tote bag, piecing a quilt using the AccuQuilt Go Cutter, design ideas on the longarm)....oh, and I am soooo looking forward to warmer days so I can enjoy my hammock again!

But right now, it's time to reflect and be thankful for all that God has given me - a wonderful family, a future daughter-in-law, supportive friends, and just the joy of living. Today IS the first day of the rest of my life, and I will rejoice in every breath!

Taking time to enjoy the journey!

karen

Pixxie is Famous

My sweet little forever pup has her photo in the November 2010 issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited.

That's right, Pixxie the Professional Quilt Model has been moonlighting as a Professional Batting Model for Legacy Pellon, how be it, just in my living room... but all those late night photo shoots have finally paid off (grin) and her photo is in print!

Seriously, I'm on cloud nine today as I received in the mail the November issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited which contains my article on What to Do With Left-Over Batting Scraps.

If you are a machine quilter, either with your domestic (home) sewing machine or any form of short-arm/mid-arm/longarm quilting machine you really really need to subscribe to this magazine - and not so you can have your own photo of Pixxie, but because it's a fabulous magazine.

Vicki Anderson does a fantastic job of covering the quilting scene - sacrificing to go to as many quilt shows as she can to give us the inside scoop - including "down under" when she recently went to the Australian Machine Quilt Festival (wish I could have been her bag lady, I would have gladly carried the luggage to be able to go!)

Okay, so besides being some what jealous (in a good sort of way) concerning Vicki's travel adventures, I really do love this magazine and have subscribed for years. I love seeing the award winning quilts, I enjoy the articles - especially the ones with regular columnist Kimmy Brunner; and I always come away inspired. This month's cover quilt and feature quilter is Lisa Calle - oh my, do I drool over her quilts and have loved her DVD Feathers of a New Generation. Of course, I love it that she quilts on the same machine I do, an A1 Quilting Machine. Anyway, there's lots and lots of eye candy and inspiring articles in this November issue so if you don't already subscribe contact them and tell them you want the November issue!

Oh, and did I mention that Vicki is generous? When she read on a longarm list that I was putting together a gift basket for my A1 Quilting Machine booth at the upcoming Houston International Quilt Festival she was one of the first to respond and offered a full year gift certificate for Machine Quilting Unlimited to the winner of the drawing! (More on all this in a day or two about the upcoming show and other generous sponsors - so stay tuned)

Okay, so there's my unsolicited commentary and endorsement for Vicki's wonderful magazine, the one that I will never let my subscription expire! And the one who made my puppy famous (grin).

Oh my, I need to get a bigger box of doggie treats, all this fame has gone to Pixxie's head and she's demanded an increase in salary!

Flowers, Quilts, and Pixxie

I was awakened this morning to a bouquet of purple flowers, my husband said when he saw these he knew it was the right bunch. In honor of this being "Daytona Sunday" (as in THE Daytona 500 NASCAR event) I clipped the stems and arranged the beautiful flowers in our pop corn bucket to be enjoyed in the man cave as the race was run. Yes, while the rest of the world celebrates Valentine's, in our household it's NASCAR all the way (grin). Of course I've taken a little time out to work in the studio, after all, Sundays are my afternoons off.

So here's what has been going on since I last posted....

First of all, thank you for all the feedback (positive and negative) about my first You Tube. I know the quality and contrast were not good, but the video was made by a special request to "watch me while I work" and that was what I was working on at the time. I may consider doing more videos in the future, but that's not my primary focus, just a pleasant distraction.

Once the quilt on the frame was finished I decided I wanted to continue playing around with these feather puffs - this time on a larger scale and as an all over design. I really needed to work on a personal project as part of my play, and my therapy. Sometimes a girl just has to do what a girl has to do - me time is a part of a balanced quilter don't you think?

Sometimes on my Sundays off I work on piecing, and more times than not it's what I call a "throw down quilt" - just something simple to satisfy my urges to play with fabric. Last spring I pieced a top from a pattern on the internet called Wickedly Easy My goal was to use up fabric scraps from quilts made several years ago, you know the fabrics that bring back wonderful memories? Like the fabric from a quilt finished at a beach retreat, or fabric from a prayer quilt or two, or just fun prints that I've woven into several scrap quilts...

Well, I pieced the blocks and somehow it just didn't look right. Son #2 loves to call it "fabric throw up", he's rather descriptive sometimes, but in this case he was absolutely right. I didn't want to waste the day or my fabrics so I figured out a way to fix it by replacing a center piece in each block with lime fabric to give the quilt some continuity as well as a place to rest the eye. I called it When Only Lime Will Do, and placed it in the Quilts in Waiting category...you guessed it, the perfect personal project to practice more feather puffs.

When I place a personal quilt in the Quilts In Waiting drawer it could be months, even years before I get around to quilting it. Because of that I always prepare the back and the binding to store with the project, that way any leftover fabrics that 'match' can be recycled back into the scrap drawer to find their way into another project. As you can see behind Pixxie, I ran out of binding fabric. Sigh. I'll be digging in drawers later to find more, or using the trim from the backing to finish it off. Sometimes things like that happen in life, connections are missed, but life goes on.

These two photos show a close up of the all over quilting, of course I had to use lime thread! The orange scrap is from a quilt I made Son #2 when he graduated from 6th or 8th grade, I can't remember which as he did graduate from both. He's now 21 so it's been a while. The tropical flowers are from a quilt that he and I did together as a mother son project. His was from a pattern called Turning Twenty (as he was 19 at the time it was appropriate) and I used the same prints in the pattern called Turning Twenty Again (yep, I'd done that twice). We had them on display at a local quilt show that year and I couldn't have been prouder. In the photo below is a strip of blue floral that once graced my living room. I've redecorated since then. Things have a way of changing over the years, yet somehow remain the same. Yes, fabric holds memories...

As much as I love the wild assortment of scraps on the front, I have to say that I love the back of this quilt as much or more - when the light hits it just right you see all this beautiful texture of the quilt designs.....Ta Da....All Over Feather Puffs! The quilt only measures 68 x 84, the perfect topper for a queen bed, or a cuddle quilt for the couch, or a nice beach blanket or picnic quilt for that walk in the park. I used almost 4,000 yards of thread! If I were charging for this it wouldn't be at my all-over price that's for sure! Lots of dense quilting and many hours of deep thinking.

So, what else have I been doing with my time? How 'bout an 80 mile road trip (one way) to a local quilt show? Yes, 80 miles IS local if you live in the Houston area (grin). I had two main purposes for the 160 mile round trip (not to mention the toll fare) One - I had a customer quilt that would be in the show....

And I couldn't be more pleased. I told her when she picked it up last month that it would be a ribbon winner. Her colors in this quilt are stunning. And this was actually my first attempt at Feather Puffs, or rather a variation. For the complete story and more close ups click here to check back in the archives

The second reason for the road trip was to visit with my friend Tom Russell who was the featured artist at the show. Many of you may know Tom's quilts from Alex Anderson's Simply Quilts TV program or may have viewed some of his quilts on exhibit at national shows. The photos don't do the masterpieces justice.

Tom has spoken at several local guilds in the Houston/Galveston area and he keeps the ladies entertained with his stories of how he became a quilter and how he comes up with his designs and unique style. Everyone that has heard Tom agrees that he inspires them to try new things and loves that they have learned that it's okay to make little quilts!

Quilting is best shared among friends. Sometimes it's with fellow quilters as we learn together and discover new things or enjoy a quilt show together; sometimes it's with non-quilting friends who just appreciate the warmth and beauty in the creative process of quilting; and sometimes its just sharing with a cute puppy who very well may be my biggest fan - that or it's just all about the treats that is her payment for being my professional quilt model!

So, that about catches me up on the quilting side of my life....thanks for spending some time with the Quilt Rambler! to be continued (grin)

Painting Play Day

All work and no play....well, you know the saying!

Yes, yesterday was Labor Day and most folks had the day off -- well, I decided to work some yesterday and finished the Island Quilters Guild's raffle quilt so I could take today off to be with Son #2...he works shift work and today was his day off. We'd been hoping to get together and try our hand at painting the quilted fabric I did several weeks ago.

That's the raffle quilt on the longarm behind our art table. Just wanted to prove to everyone that I really did finish my work before I took time off to play. And as you can see, Pixxie is still working hard at being my Professional Quilt Model. She is tireless, doesn't matter what time of the day a quilt is hung, she's ready, willing, and able to do her part in the online show and tell.


By the way, if you want tickets, email me for my address and send a SASE with a check made out to the guild....details when you email... karen @ quiltsnkaboodle.com

Okay, back to our play day...
This is as close as I could get to Son #2's attempt at painting his piece ( on the right hiding behind the pink soap). He did not like the way it turned out and since he doesn't live here any more he couldn't threaten to run away...but he did say he'd be really mad if I posted a photo of what he did...

This was the rejected one. I had quilted two of his art design, he started to paint in the purple with acrylics plus textile medium and didn't like it so went to the second one and did it in the fabric markers. My friend Trish came over for a little while so she played with us too. She tried her hand at the colored pencils on the leaves (bottom ones), didn't like it, and switched to good old fashioned crayons...this is as far as she got before she had to leave for another appointment. She voted for the crayons.


Now remember, we were just playing and trying to see what medium we thought we liked best, and to see how the colors played together.


I started out by painting the pink rosettes in the corner (not pictured) and quickly found that the acrylic wasn't going to do very good at layering, so I switched and worked in the star and did some wet blending to get the shadowing effect I wanted. I quickly found out that paint on a brush wasn't easy to use on poofy quilted fabric. So I switched to the markers... in the photo above I'm laying in my shading.


Here's the same feather plume finished...and the green design is also done with the markers.

Then I decided to play with the crayons. I did the bottom pink one. I liked the control I had on the shading, but seems so pastel. I guess I could color harder but I was ready to move on to try the colored pencils in the blue and green feathers.

Here's another shot showing two that were done with markers. I found that I couldn't wet or dry blend very well so figured I wasnt' going to use the yellow highlight in any future project. The light feather in peach is done with colored pencil.


And here we see my whole experiment, including those nasty corner pieces. My favorite look is the star in the center with the acrylic plus textile medium, but it's stiff and up close it's not all that great. My next favorite is the feathers done in the fabric markers. I think I can go back in and layer some to achieve a softer look, but quite frankly I'm ready to move on to a different practice piece.


I do want to try my hand at this again and do something "real" but I have to say, I'd rather be quilting than coloring. I'm disappointed as I thought this was going to be my next new thing.....Had visions of Son #2 designing his original art, me quilting it, perhaps having folks ask for patterns....okay, so I was dreaming....but it was a nice dream.

Time to get back to work! It was a great play day, and I loved spending it with my son.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood AND in My Bathroom!

This photo was actually taken yesterday morning when hubby and I decided we needed to support our local donut shop...after a week of being healthy with the Vita Mix we gave in to temptations -- and we took Pixxie with us to enjoy the neighborhood boat dock as we indulged in the sinful pleasures of a freshly made cinnamon twist.
Have to admit the scenery was breathtaking, I enjoyed the company and of course the donut was fabulous!


When we headed home we reclaimed our bathroom! Yes, after a week and a half of parts and pieces being all over the house as it was occupied by our skillful painter we finally were able to put things back in the cabinets and start decorating again. Added the final touches today as I found this beautiful poka dotted shower curtain that I just had to have. What do you think?


Believe it or not, the room is actually a little brighter than the photo - the yellow is called Buttercup. I just call it sunshine. This was taken at 8 PM and the lighting just doesn't do it justice. It is bright and beachie looking and I love it! Which shouldn't surprise anyone considering how much I love the beach! By the way, the jar full of sea shells were collected by my grandmother in 1993 when we took her to the beach for the first time at age 81 (George Island FL). When she went into the nursing home I inherited them. She's now 96 and everyday I think of her as I enjoy the shells.


We are still babysitting Son #1's fish, so it's a tad crowded at the end of the counter. We've been grandparents to these little beauties most of the year. Son #1 lives with our painter fellow -- they bought a foreclosure house back in February that needed a lot of work, a real fixer-upper. So due to the construction in their living quarters it was decided that the fish tank would occupy space in our bathroom, temporarily. (Yeah right, I've heard that one before!)Have to admit, they are fun to watch and are placed "before the throne" so there's plenty of opportunity to watch them (grin) and be in wonder of God's creation.


In this photo you can see the hand carved whale my dad made and our "window" to the beach outside. The poka dots on the real window are just fabric and not curtains yet. Complements of my neighborhood quilt shop, Pinwheels and Posies. I was thrilled to find something that would match my new decor.

So to celebrate, we made Toll-house chocolate chip cookies and are settling in for a Friday night movie at home.

Ah, life is good!

It's a Dog's Life

It's been a long day, a good day, a good week, just busy and tiring. As I was reaching above my studio couch to turn off the shop light to call it a night guess what I saw? One tired pup!

I almost didn't see her. Typically the purple quilt is tucked into the back of the couch and the orange quilt is tucked into the bottom cushion- my version of a quilted slip cover...occasionally Pixxie likes to pull out the covers and burrow her way underneath -- but this is the first time I think I've ever seen her "covered up" like this!


Night nite Pixxie. I guess you really do think I make all the quilts in the house for your pleasure! Oh but the pleasure is all mine, this pup really makes me smile. Hope she brighten your day too.

The Princess and The Pea

The picture says it all!