hollyart

2012-02-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

Just finished taking a workshop yesterday and today with Lyric Kinard
The Surface Design Sampler was presented by the Cotton Patch Quilt Guild in Athens. Organized by Deb Henderson, the workshop was a complete tour of pretty much any kind of technique that can be used to enhance and embellish a piece of fabric. The group was an great mix of people with all kinds do unique skills with things fiber and paint and the like.
Lyric is a gifted and very experienced fiber artist. Her knowledge and experience and her artistic view is a true talent. She communicates her instruction with clarity and thoroughness.
The class was enjoyable and I learned lots of new tricks and have a better understanding of some of the other techniques I have done before.
More samples of the work that I started in the class will follow.

After the class in Athens ended I drove to the FFA/FHA Campground in Covington where my CES Quilt Guild is having a retreat. I got there while they were eating dinner. When I walked in it reminded me of "Cheers" when Norm would walk into the bar. All of the ladies shouted my name and started clapping. There were about a hundred high school music students eating in the dinning hall and they all started clapping. I had to take a bow. What a reception!

So, I'm here until sometime tomorrow and will leave in time to get home and see the end of the Superbowl I hope.

After I get back home I will need to schedule a trip to Atlanta Sewing Center. On my way out of town to Athens I stopped there to drop off my new Bernina to have it serviced. The machine keeps telling me that the upper thread is broken when you can see as plain as day that it is still going through the needle. I was quilting a machine on my frame and had to take the machine off of the frame to get it looked at.

At Atlanta Sewing I also took time to look at their fabric for a piece to use as the border on a piece that I did in a Melinda Bula workshop in October. Well, I found the fabric I needed for the border and a couple of other piece I liked, bought them and went to Athens. That night when I started unpacking I couldn't find my piece. I had left it at the Sewing Center. When I called then the next day they told be that they had found it and that they would hold it for me until I could come by and pick it up. That is the piece I planned to finish this weekend at Retreat. Better luck next time.

I'm having fun.

2012-02-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

Quiltin' Jenny has been reorganizing her stash using collector comic book inserts.

Two weeks ago I ordered a case of 100 of these and have been doing the same thing. She and I are friends and both are members of the WannaBees but we have not talked about what we are doing in our studio. I read on her blog that she is using these inserts

Another friend from Fiber Art Fusion, Lynn R. had told me about using the inserts as opposed to the plastic sheets sold by Polar Fleece. In Houston last November I ordered 100 of the Polar Fleece organizers and paid about $60 for them. These comic book inserts were $50 for 1000 but I did pay $30 shipping. Quiltin' Jenny found the same inserts at a local comic book store and save the cost of shipping.

So far I have blown through 300 and still have fabric in drawers and storage bins.I'll probably use about 500 if I take all of the fabric out. I also have not arranged the fabric by color. I've just been putting it on a shelf just to get things off of the floor. For the first time in months I can see the floor in my studio. I still have a lot of organizing to do to get everything in place. Pretty soon I might be able to use the space as I envision it. It sure looks better.

Wes Settles in at Home

2012-01-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

Big Brother Owen welcomes his Little Brother Wes home from the hospital as they pose for the paparazzi of family photographers.

All was calm, all was bright and then...

the devil made him do it and Owen could no longer stand to pose for pictures the way the old folks wanted him to.
He starts clowning and before you know it...

Little Brother looses his pacifier and starts to scream.

Today, Owen decided that Wes needed the protection of a few stuffed animals, so he proceeded to surround him. If you look closely you can see a little head underneath all of those animals.

It's really important for Owen to play the roll of the Big Brother right now. He loves it most of the time.

Christmas Wishes (late as usual)

2011-12-28T19:06:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to send everyone a Christmas wish.

Mine was great and today was the cherry on top. My daughter gave me another grandson.

Wesley Hollingsworth Parker was born at 12:42pm weighing 7 lbs. 7 oz. and measuring 19.5 inches long. He is healthy and the delivery was easy and uneventful. Mother and baby are doing fine. Wes was cooing like a dove and was sent to have some added attention to help clear his breathing but it was just a safety thing.

Owen is a proud big brother and is excited about getting his new brother home. At least that's his story for now.

They will be going home on Friday which is Erin's birthday. What a gift!

Ginger and John and Vickie, Chaz's mom are here for another week or more. We are having great fun.

Exploring and Curiosity

2011-12-20T13:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was spent finishing some details in the bathroom and clearing a path for our guests who are coming this weekend. I have been rounding up pieces of art to enhance my remo and stocking the toilet paper stash just to make sure I'm ready.

One of the things I moved got me started thinking. You know that can sometimes be dangerous.

When Jackie and I got married a friend that I taught with gave us two chairs out of the restaurant that her husband had recently closed. These bentwood chairs were very beautiful in design. They were bentwood barrel chairs. In the early 90s I recovered the seats with a blue-green decorator fabric.

Out of curiosity I decided to look for information about them on the internet so I did an Image search using Google. I find that it is easier to find exactly what I'm looking for if I can find a visual image that is posted on a website. That usually give me pretty accurate results. I typed in "bentwood barrel chair".

Right there on the first page was a photo of two chairs exactly like mine as far as design but a different color. I have painted the rails on mine an ivory color as an accent. The ones listed on the internet were stained brown over the whole surface.

here is the link to the site that I found.

The chairs were made in Polland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and a few other Eastern European countries starting in 1869 by Jacob and Josef Kuhn and John Mundus using a technique for bending wood that was invented by Michael Thonet. In 1869 Thonet gave up his fight for the patent on the bentwood process and Jacob and Josef Kuhn took the patent and joined John Mundus and together they manufactured bentwood furniture until 1924. Sometime later Thonet became a part of the company which still manufactures furniture today. Their makers mark is stamped on the rim of their chairs as well as a paper labe attached to the seat bottom.

This piqued my interest and so as the hands on the clock creep toward 1am, I go back to the basement to investigate.

There, underneath the edges of the fabric I had stapled into place when I recovered the seats was a label like the one I had found images of on the internet.

Are mine worth that much money? Probably not, but I don't care. I am going to keep them. I'm just glad that I didn't take them to Goodwill.

Party Week

2011-12-10T08:25:00.000-08:00

This has been a week of parties and eating. It's been fun but this crazy rush of eating frenzies has got to end.

The week started with my big event of the year for CES. I was responsible for coordinating the meal, decorating and serving about 70 quilters. Each member who attended brought something to add to the meal. We did a "Stone Soup" and Salad Bar. I spent most of the day on Sunday and Monday preping and getting the soup stock ready. On Monday I made an edible arrangement of red, yellow, orange and green peppers, leeks, cucumbers and onions (pictured above). Erin came over both days and helped. She washed spun all of the greens for the salad bar. We prepared iceberg lettuce, red lettuce, romaine, and spinach.

To tie in with the Challenge Quilts that we had made the previous month, I chose to call the party "Celebration of the Greens". For the decorations I decided to use my collection of birdhouses. I also whitewashed an old gate that I had stored in my basement. That became a backdrop for gardening things. I collected small potted plants, gardening tools, a wreath made from vines, gardening gloves, pine straw and potting soil along with some gourds and a vine basket. It made a nice vignette at the entrance for the food serving area.

As the ingredients came together we made a pretty good soup. Our biggest problem was trying to get it hot in the crock pots we were using to serve the soup. By the time all of the ingredients were added the soup was a little "fresh" as my mother used to say (meaning, it needed more seasoning). The Salad Bar was very successful and we ran out of some of the greens.

After two rigorous days of being on my feet I was feeling the pain. On Monday I had scheduled a follow-up appointment for Tuesday morning with my podiatrist to check on my plantar fasciitis. In the mean time I had developed an ingrown toenail. So early Tuesday morning I was sitting on a surgical chair having surgery on my toe.

Tuesday night I was sewing labels on blankets at church. We made 100 blankets that will be delivered to Pine Street on Saturday by a group from our church. We also got two new sergers and I helped set one up and get it threaded.

Wednesday I spent most of the day at the Alpharetta Adult Activity Center working with a group of quilters who are making the Raffle Quilt for our CES guild. We had about a dozen folks and about half of them were sewing while the rest of us were pressing and cutting and whatever else we could do since I am not good at paper-piecing.

I took some of the fabric home so that I could practice my paper-piecing in the privacy of my sewing room. I succeeded in completing one block on Wednesday and another on Thursday. Not that it took that long. The first one took a little over an hour and the second one took about 40 minutes. At least I was successful this time.

Thursday the WannaBees had our third annual Holiday Brunch at P. F. Chang. We had a great time getting caught up on the latest with everybody and we enjoyed a great lunch.

After lunch I made a trip to Intown Quilter to use a Groupon that I bought several months ago. It was to expired at the end of December so I needed to use it or loose it. I found a few more fabrics that I can use in the quilt I am making for my grandson who is due in a couple of weeks.

Thursday night I attended the Alpharetta Historical Society Holiday Party. Another feast!

Friday morning was the annual Holiday Party for East Cobb Quilt Guild. We had our usual meeting with the addition of installation of new officers and some other business and then Show and Tell and Golden Scissors and finally another feast!

Friday night I met my friends Ruthie and Alan at Ichiban for dinner. We looked a pictures of their new grandson Charlie and I showed them the latest pictures I had of Owen and Jonas. Again, another feast!

Today I went to a funeral for Sarah Letchas, the mother of Arthur who is the mayor of Alpharetta and also a member of my Sunday School class. She went to have some stents put in and died either prior to, or during surgery. It was a real shock.

Whew! What a week but it's been fun and filling. I have got to get myself settled on a regular diet in order to control my diabetes. At least the blood glucose number tonight was better than it has been since I started checking it. That's amazing after this week of feasts.

Over the past week when I wasn't partying I was working on some pieces to use for my exchange with other Fiber Art Fusion members at our party on Tuesday night. The photos you see here are what I have finished and I will choose one for my exchange. These are made from some pieces of quilted fabric that I did to practice my quilting designs. They were dyed, painted, and stitched.

Sad Weekend But Thankful

2011-11-30T16:09:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, one of the most tragic things that can happen to someone is to loose a child.

The past few days in our family have been filled with emotion due to that very tragic event in our lives.

My son Biff and his wife Kate were planning for the delivery of their second child by C-section tomorrow, December first. The day before Thanksgiving Kate went to her OBGYN for a routine checkup. The routine became far more unreal as she was examined and the nurse listened for a heartbeat. After a few moments of curiosity the reaction became more frantic. There was silence where there had once been a steady heartbeat of an embryo of a little boy. Nameless at the time the embryo had ceased his existence.

Kate's call went out to Biff who was working over half an hour away. He quickly made his way to the doctor's office not knowing the fate that awaited. Kate's next call went out to a very close friend who was also pregnant and due a couple of weeks later than Kate. She was sitting in the waiting room of the same office for her appointment to see the doctor. She was able to stay with Kate until Biff arrived.

Kate also called Erin and Erin called me to report the shocking news. Now, if you know Erin you know that she is an emotional person. This emotional propensity is magnified by the fact that she is also pregnant and due to deliver her baby at the end of December.

Later Wednesday the doctors did a C-section to deliver Theodore Mulhollan.

After talking with Biff several time over the next few hours he and I decided that I needed to go to Durham. We decided that it would be best for me to wait for them to get home and that I would go on Saturday.

Jackie's sister, Ginger, is in Durham for a few weeks visiting her new grandson Luke. Her husband John had just arrived to spend Thanksgiving with them. She and her family visited Biff and Kate on Saturday afternoon and took dinner to them. I arrived a little before eight o'clock.

Their emotions were very calm. Kate had written on Facebook about how she had focused on how thankful she was and not so much on what she had lost. They seemed to be in a pretty good place.

The greatest realization to me was that this process is one where there are no directions. You just have to take it as it comes and follow you heart. I think that they were doing a pretty good job of doing that. Everyone has their own way of dealing with something like this and there are no right and wrong ways to work through it. You have to take you time and make your decisions as you go.

I know that this will be with them the rest of their lives and there will be some very dark days, but I hope that the we will be able to find peace and comfort as we go.

One of the little bits of comfort we found on Thursday was with our longtime friends Don and Eileen and their girls and their families. We have been friends since we moved to Atlanta in 1973. For years when I kids were growing up we would have monthly dinners with their family and we have shared many things as friends and family. We established many traditions which our children now carry on with their children. It's a beautiful thing.

In addition to our traditional activities on Thanksgiving we were also able to seek advice from Eileen and Katie who both have had experience with loosing a child. Eileen delivered a stillborn baby prior to having her three girls. Kate gave birth to a son who survived for a couple of months after his birth. This gives them a viewpoint that helps to offer us comfort.

One of the moments that we are grateful for was offered by Katie. We were standing by their car as they were leaving and we were all sobbing when Katie said, "Well, we all know that Miss Jackie was there to give him a big hug when he arrived in heaven. You know that was probably the first time that she was someplace early." She was known for being late.

As I go through each day I will be thinking about Biff and Kate and their son Jonas. I hope that they can find peace in living and that they will continue to be very thankful for the life they have together.

Ben and the Bee Babes

2011-11-19T08:59:00.001-08:00

Here I was again with my harem.

Well not exactly. Bettie C. invited me to show my quilts with her bee group from Chattahoochee Evening Stars. They use to be the called something boring like the Tuesday Bees or something but Sherri changed their name to the Bee Babes to be a little more provocative.

We were presenting to the senior adult group called 54 and More at our church. They meet every month on the third Tuesday for lunch and a program.

Jeannie showed three quilts and an applique pillow. The most fascinating one was her Grandmother's Flower Garden made with 2000 pieces. As an example of English paper-piecing it was hand pieced and I believe, hand quilted.

Cheri showed her quilts but I didn't get a picture. She had a beautiful applique with some incredible detail.

Sharon showed her diversity by showing a quilted jacket that she made, a stuffed Santa and a table runner. Her craftsmanship, especially in clothing is beautiful.

In a previous presentation I had shown the group my one block wonder top, so today I showed them the finished product quilted.

I also showed them the quilt that I had made for Biff and Kate. My final piece was the latest - my Green Challenge quilt called Everything Old is New Again.

Spotlight on The Chattahoochee Evening Stars

2011-11-09T13:28:00.001-08:00

WOW, what a group!

Monday night was the regular monthly meeting of the Chattahoochee Evening Stars and boy were the Stars out to shine.

First, our attention was called to the newspaper article about one of the activities of our guild. This year we made gift bags for the ladies who live temporarily at the Drake House. These ladies are going through a struggle in their lives and need a chance to get back on their feet. The Drake House provides them with a place to live as they make this transition. The Guild made gift bags filled with items that might not be expected in a shelter but make life a little better.

The Alpharetta Roswell Revue article can be viewed by clicking here.

Next, a big announcement was made regarding our last year's "Storybook Challenge" quilts. These quilts were made using a children's book that featured a story about quilts. This project is the brainchild of Janie Stokes one of our members who is a retired teacher. When Janie was teaching she would frequently base a lesson on one of these books. She developed lessons about math, science, social studies and the history of quilts for her students to study. The quilts provide a meaningful avenue for learning. Janie has collected almost 150 children's books with quilts as the subject. For the 2009 challenge there were 32 quilts made by members of CES.

Janie's Dream was to have the books and the quilts that accompany them, travel to schools in our area so that teachers may use them with their students. The idea was for a trunk of quilts and books to arrive at the school library and students would be able to come in and wrap themselves in the quilt while they read the book. Janie did not want them to be on display and the students not be albe to touch them. That was an important consideration.

Eventually, the members of the guild spread the word and several schools became interested.

A committee was formed to handle the business of the Storybook Quilt Project. A logo was created, a website developed and things were starting to happen. The logo was designed by a fellow Fulton County Art Teacher, Patty Hambrick. A image of the loge appears above.

Earlier this year the committee decided to make an application for a grant from the National Quilt Association. They were notified several months ago that they would receive one of the grants. This grant was used to publish a proper brochure to circulate to schools and educators to promote the project.

First, the good news. This year The National Quilt Association is celebrating their 10th anniversary of giving grants. For their Spring Show in Columbus, Ohio they are recognizing ten groups that have received grants by having a special show of work being done with the grant money. The Storybook Challenge will be one of those organizations honored.

You can read about that at this link.

Now for the better news (well, not necessarily better but good too). The Storybook Quilts were recently on display at the Georgia Quilt Show in Duluth. Through contacts made at that show one of the producers of "Sewing With Nancy" on PBS contacted Janie and said that Nancy wants to do an interview with her on the show. How about that!

As a result of these happenings and the fact that we have a show coming up in September, we have juggled our schedule a little for the coming year. We typically have our challenges due in November but for 2012 they will be due in August so that they can be displayed in our bi-annual guild show.

There will be another round of the storybook challenge.

I have my book. It is called The Patchwork Farmer. It's a great choice for me. It's a book with no words, only pictures. The story is about a farmer whose pants get torn and tattered while working on the farm and he patches them with fabrics he has around the house. The pants become nothing more than a patchwork of fabrics. I've already started getting some ideas for my quilt.

Isn't that great news from a great group!?

The Best of The Best

2011-11-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

Quilters from all over the world have gather this weekend in Houston.

There is too much for a human to see it all. Every time I go back to look I see some more quilts that I haven't seen before. Since my time is a little more limited this year I am trying to get photos of as many of the quilts as I can so that I can look at them later. I've done pretty well and have downloaded most to my computer and backed them up.

One of the things that I am really enjoying is to see the work of some of the teachers I have had classes with over the past year or so.

Today I saw Maria Elkins with her prizewinning quilt "Windblown". I was in her class last Saturday and she told us that she had just found out that she was one of the top eight winners. She won $5000 for this quilt. She also had another in the show called "Embrace 1".

One of my other favorites was the quilt of a worn and tattered flag made by Melinda Bula. It is awesome.

I had a chance to speak with both of these ladies and congratulate them for their work.

These two pieces share something in common. I'll bet you can guess what it is.

Late this afternoon I heard Nancy Prince talk about her process of Thread Painting. I had a workshop with her a few months ago and want to do some more thread painting soon.

Tonight Lene, Jennifer and I went to dinner and had a fun time talking about our experiences at the show.

I have a few more hours tomorrow and hope to see a few other pieces that I haven't seen yet.

I'll be back in Atlanta this time tomorrow.

Seasonal Time Out

2011-10-31T06:39:00.000-07:00

For the past few days I have been concentrating on getting my pieces ready for our CES Guild challenge and finishing my UFOs.

Over the weekend I had to take a little break. In preparation for tonight's important event, I needed to help get together a costume for my grandson to wear.

Just as his interest last year was focused on good guys and bad guys (he was a policemen and we, his family were the prisoners.) this year his attention is on Star Wars. And his favorite character in Star Wars is, of course, Darth Vader.

Erin had bought shirts, pants and masks. She gave me some old helmets that I could use for his Darth Vader helmet. I found images of the costume on the internet that were very helpful . I made a cape, ironed on a belt and power pack on the t-shirt, made shin guards and most important - a light saber.

The costume turned out well. The most important part... Owen had a huge smile on his face when he saw it.

Made my day.

Presentation/Workshop @ SEFAA

2011-10-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did a presentation/workshop for Southeastern Fiber Arts Alliance in Atlanta. All went well and I believe that those in attendance were pleased with the information and ideas that they received from the class. Here is a link to the announcement about my workshop.

I was flattered to have a group of eleven ladies participate in the class. There was a good assortment of crafts represented as well. Most of them were quilters but there was also a weaver and a knitter in the group.

Two ladies came from Fitzgerald, Georgia and two came from the Tryon, NC and two others came from Fitzgerald, Georgia. The rest were from the Metro Atlanta area.

We are very fortunate to have the Southeastern Fiber Arts Alliance in Atlanta. This organization serves as an umbrella organization for "intertwining" the fiber arts community. They offer lectures, classes and workshops, exhibits and have space available for meetings and studio space for rent.

Thank you to Suzi Gough and Linda Fetter for giving me the opportunity to make this presentation to the members.

Link to SEFAA website

2011-10-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

The Alien never landed and the red one was over priced a little.

We went down a different road.

The cars that were supposed to be delivered on Saturday never came. That is, not while I was there until almost 3:00.

By that time I had already made the decision to buy ......drum roll....... the Moss colored Soul ! (that's pronounced Exclaim).

I didn't go into this process with the thought of trying to copy what some of you have done with your selection of transportation but it turns out that what I got is similar to what you recently have purchased.

This this has it all. It will take me a few months to learn how to use the electronic features.

Hope to see you soon in my new ride.

Something New is Coming to Hunter's Oaks Lane

2011-10-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

Very likely this time tomorrow one of the vehicles pictured above will be residing at my house. It's a Kia Soul.

The red one was sitting on the lot last night. The green one (Alien is the name of the color) will be on a load of new ones delivered tomorrow. If I can get to Duluth before they are sold out I will have my pick of the ones pictured here.

I am excited about not having warning lights on all the time.

Which one do you think I will get?

All In The Family

2011-10-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Ginger, Vera, Jackie and D. C. Yearwood @1951

Edith Christine Wallace Hollingsworth, @ 1921

Christine Wallace, @ 1940

D. C. and Vera Yearwood, @ 1990

Ben, Jackie, Clint and Erin Hollingsworth, @ 1984

I've just got to say some things about FAMILY tonight.

For the past few days I have been wrapped up in the thoughts of family. It seems that every activity has been related (pun intended) to family.

As you can imagine, over the past few weeks and days many of my thoughts have been about Jackie. When I think of her, most of my thoughts eventually lead to thoughts of other family members who are with her and no longer with us physically. I think about how we are connected by our blood relationship and by our personal relationship while in our physical body; about how strong that relationship can become when we marry and have children; about the kind of relationship between a mother and her child that develops in the womb.

I also have been thinking about how groups of people have a family relationship based on a belief or a common interest.

That was a significant part of our CES Quilt Guild meeting tonight. Melinda Bula from California was our program tonight and conducted a workshop for us yesterday. The underlying theme of her lecture tonight was how similar guilds are all across the world because of the family relationship that they have as a group. She said that next year she would be going to Australia and that the guilds there would probably be the same as all of the ones she has attended here except they might talk differently.

It has been very uplifting for me to hear and see these ideas in action. My families are very important to me. They have been very supportive and I am grateful.

REJOYCE

2011-10-01T05:59:00.000-07:00

You'll never guess what's sitting on my couch right now.

I had a great experience this morning at my East Cobb Quilt Guild meeting.

During our break there was an unusually large number of ladies lined up inside the ladies restroom and more lined up outside the men's restroom. Thinking that I needed to go before the program started I checked the line several times. Finally I decided i needed to seek out another option. No, I didn't go outside. I went to the basement where I heard that there was another restroom.

When I returned I saw one of the members holding something and she headed straight for me. As she neared I was hesitant in recognizing what she was holding. She came over to me and said that a couple of months ago that someone found this after a meeting and put in the storage area where our Library stores its books.

IT WAS MY BOOK BAG!!!!

Everything was still in it.

I was almost speechless. I thanked her and told her that I had looked for it for a couple of months. Then our program started. I was sitting by Deborah Jones who knew that I had lost the bag so I had to tell her what had happened. Her husband Randy had worked with me on hanging the show and we had talked about my loosing the bag. I had told him that what I missed most out of everything in the bag was the sketchbooks. I didn't realize how many there were. I had five all together and four of them were significant to me. One was from my college days (hard to believe I know). It had drawings that I did for the arts and crafts store that I owned with my friend Marijane. These were logo designs for the Sow's Ear, a craft store where we made wooden purses. Another one is one that I filled with my line drawings based on things from nature. I love the drawings I have in that sketchbook. Then the third one was the one I've used since I retired. It has some more of the same type of drawings as well as notes from classes and drawings for quilt projects (even my original drawings for my Sunbonnet Sue quilt). The fourth sketchbook was a graph paper sketchbook that I had planned several quilts in and there were 20 - 30 drawings for a class and quilt with Ann Andeberg. Those were almost irreplaceable. The final sketchbook had very few drawings in it but it was a model for a sketchbook I want to learn how to make so that I can teach a class on how it's done. It is made from hand dyed paper and has a bamboo closure.

Just to let you know how significant these sketchbooks are to me the other things in the book bag were a Acer laptop (tricked out to look like a Mac), a Canon Elph camera, my iPod, a new mixed media book, two flash drives (one unopened) some magazines and numerous pens and pencils.

Here are some pictures of the contents.

In the big picture of things of importance, especially this weekend, I know this is a trivial thing. I know that we have all lost someone who was very significant to all of us in one way or another.

That was put into perspective a few minutes ago when a friend called to let me know that she was thinking about me this weekend and I immediately started crying. It puts the whole thing in perspective.

I'm very happy but at the same time I'm sad because of the greater loss we've suffered.

OK, I gotta stop because I can't see the screen any more.

I'll be fine but it will be a difficult weekend.

Ben

Returning from North Carolina

2011-09-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

After a great weekend visit in North Carolina I returned on Sunday evening and are trying to get back to some of my unfinished projects.

We left on Thursday morning and spent Friday and Saturday visiting my son Biff and his wife Kate and son Jonas. We also were able to spend some time visiting Ginger's new grandson Luke and his mother Amy. There were some great moments as well as some pretty chaotic moments with this crowd gathered in one place. Luke, like most six week old babies pretty much eats and sleeps and in between does a little crying. He can take it up a couple of notches.

We are a pretty active bunch and on the go most of the time. Between shopping and eating we stayed busy.

While Kate worked a 12 hour shift at the Veterans Hospital, Biff had the day off on Friday and shuttled us around between the newly re-developed American Tobacco area in downtown Durham and a tour of some historic and notable homes. We had lunch at a great barbecue restaurant called "The Q Shack".

Saturday we all went to the NC Life and Sciences Museum for most of the day. This museum is very "kid-friendly" and has many exhibits that intrigue both kids and adults. Biff, Kate and Jonas live within walking distance of this museum and have a membership. That allows them to walk to the museum and spend a short time just to keep Jonas busy.

Speaking of keeping Jonas busy! That boy is motion epitomized. If he's not moving you'd better check his pulse. Biff is a great dad and has learned to anticipate most of Jonas' actions and keep him corralled.

Here are a few of the over 350 photos that I took at the American Tobacco and Life Sciences Museum.

Santas Visit CES Quilt Guild

2011-09-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

At our September meeting, in the midst of a possible storm, we had a visit from everybody's favorite guy.

The recent Santa Workshop taught by our own Lene Neesbye-Hansen we had about a dozen ladies make their own quilted Santa.

Here is the show and tell moment when they were unveiled. It brought a smile to one and all and the presentation of a Santa charm from Lene to each Santa elf brought a smile to their faces as you can see

More Favorites from ECQG Show

2011-09-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

I'm still on a high from the Quilt Show. In going through my pictures I have found more that I really am intrigued by.

One of the quilts was a very low-key piece. Now in the art world low-key has a different meaning. The term key refers to value. A high-key piece of art has colors that are fully saturated, so that would mean that a low-key piece has very muted and light value color.

The quilt on the left above is one that would be considered high-key and the one on the right is low-key. Erin liked the one on the left and I liked the one on the right.

What I want to try is a low-key quilt but at the other end of the scale as far as value is concerned. I want to do a black on black quilt where there is a subtle difference in value or texture (almost like a tone on tone fabric). This idea came to me while looking at the border of a quilt that had two types of black fabric. The effect was very cool. So, watch for that from me.

I Think I Survived the Quilt Show

2011-09-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

The culmination of almost a year's work was last week's Georgia Celebrates Quilts Show of the East Cobb Quilt Guild at the Cobb Civic Center.

My job was to lead a great group of volunteers in the set up, hanging and eventual take down of the 350 quilts in the show. It was a beautiful show and all of the planning payed off.

Since Sunday night when we finished returning all of the hanging hardware to the storage unit I have been trying to give my body a chance to recover. My arthritis, especially in my hands and knees has been the biggest problem. Yesterday I could barely pull on my socks. Today I have had enough flexibility to type this post without too much pain.

I think that my tenure with the job of hanging the show is coming to an end.

Here are a few of my favorites from the show.

Beth Brady's Red Forest is the one that I am most intrigued by and I have studied how it is

done and want to know more. It is layer after layer of pieces that give the quilt the look of a post impressionist painting. The visual effect is very powerful.

The Cat by Jane Broaddus is another quilt created with layers but this time with layers of ribbon. Along with the thread work the ribbons are a perfect medium for the fur of the cat. It is a great piece.

Fran did it again. She is the hand quilting diva.

Every year she shows this bunch what hand-quilting is all about.

Her quilts are both inspired and inspiring. She has the patience that is valuable for a hand-quilter. If something is not right she will rip it out and do it over.

Her "Mom's Log Cabin in the Woods" has patchwork evergreen trees and the quilting has deciduous trees shapes quilted into the background in a tone-on-tone effect. In addition she has included five images for the viewer to locate in the background quilting. She has 5 geese, a cardinal, and her dog as well as few other surprises.

K & S Wedding Quilt

2011-08-20T15:18:00.001-07:00

Here is just a little tease of what I've done on the wedding quilt. There is a little subliminal message hidden in the drawing. I hope that it is not visible without know where to look.

This pays homage to Al Hirschfeld who was the greatest ever illustrator for New Yorker Magazine. After his daughter was born he would hide her name in his drawings. Her name was Nina. It was always fun to look for the hidden name.

If you look closely at the detail view you will find some names and a date.

Very Productive Week

2011-08-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

Over the past two weeks I have been getting closer to finishing som of my UFOs (unfinished objects). Each year we make a list of several pieces we would like to finish from our collection of unfinished quilts. One of the ones that I have been working on is almost three years old and another is pretty close to that as well.

My niece Katie was married at the end of May in 2009. I promised to do a signature wedding quilt for her and Steve. I set up a table at the wedding reception and had people write a message and sign a piece of fabric which I would work into a quilt pattern. I helped a little on the graphics for the wedding and planned to use some of those as well as a few photographic images taken at the wedding and reception. The top is done with the exception of the border. I am using a border called a cable border. It is surprising how long it takes, but of course I made it more complicated than it needed to be. That's par for the course for me. The final step will be to come up with a back for it and that may be simple if I can find enough of the fabric I want. I think I have an idea of what I want to do with the quilting. Let's see how it turns out.

Another project that needs to be finished is the one for Kate and Biff. It's been finished and ready to quilt for at least six months. The thing that has been holding me up is who, what and how it is going to be quilted. My first thought was to buy a pantograph and take it to Red Hen and quilt it myself. The pantograph that Biff and I decided to use is too large to work on the rows in this quilt. Next plan was for me to print out my own pantograph in the right size for the quilt. Between Kinko's not being able to tell me if they could print the panotograph on a roll as I need and my procrastination it has not happened. Another factor is that I a have been going through some investigation of quilting frames. I have one that has given me some trouble. A friend has offered to let me try one that she is selling and there is one that Bernina sells that goes with my machine. Last week I bought that frame for use with my new Bernina. That should be the solution to some of my quilting problems. Last night I finished drawing the pantograph for the pattern so now there are fewer excuses.

I also submitted Jonas's unfinished portrait in the East Cobb Quilt Show. It has to be delivered on Sunday, September 11 so that give me three weeks to finish it. It is almost done.

Two weeks ago I finished my OBW top. Now I need to finish the back and it will be ready to quilt.

Currently I have been working on another OBW that Jackie started about three or four years ago. We lost about half of the quilt blocks and she couldn't finish it. A few months ago I found the missing pieces and started working on a layout. The problem with this quilt was that it didn't have a focal point. Everything was about the same pattern or color. I decided that I needed to make a few 3D blocks from the second book by Maxine Rosenthal. I am doing that and it does make the composition much better and more interesting.

I am looking forward to finishing these projects so that I can get started on my guild challenges. I have two guilds with similar challenges and I plan to do three quilts to enter. One is very unique and I have it started. The others are going to take some time.

Happy Quilting

A Mind is Terrible Thing to Waste...

2011-08-13T19:47:00.002-07:00

I think that used to be the slogan for some college loan program. Well, now it's mine.

A few weeks ago (and that's the sad thing, I don't remember exactly when) I lost my new book bag. It seems that I would have noticed it missing when it was lost. Another sad thing is, I don't know if I left it somewhere or if someone took it out of my car. It may have disappeared from my car after I shopped at Trader Joe's in Marietta and then went to eat around the corner at Willy's.

In the book bag were several sketchbooks. One was the one that I take everywhere and I have drawings, notes from various meetings and workshops, bunches of ideas for pieces. There also was a pad of graph paper that I had done about a dozen scale drawings for my memory quilt for the workshop Anne Andeberg taught for CES. Another sketchbook was a really neat Asian style drawing book with hand made paper and a bamboo closure.

Another loss was the little kit of Zentagle supplies I got in Knoxville a few weeks ago and in the kit was the three pieces I had finished. I can replace the supplies but not the drawings.

Also in the bag was my PC laptop. You know that one that was "tricked out" with the apple on the top and vines all scratched into the surface. I bought it so that I could use some quilting software but it turns out that the software doesn't work for the kind of quilts I do. It's typical of most PC based software that I've used. It does a good job of layout of traditional style quilts but I don't do that very often. For me it's quicker to use a piece of paper and a pencil.

Oh, I also had just started carrying my camera and all of the memory cards in a pocket on the strap of the book bag. I lost that too. It was a pretty big hit.

BOLO for a Dell computer with a tricked out top. Somebody owns it now and they will have to replace that to keep it from being recognized.

I miss my sketchbooks.

Been to the Cotton Patch

2011-08-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday I gave a presentation to the Cotton Patch Quilters in Athens. I had a great day and they were great hostesses. The presentation was after their business meeting which started at 7pm.

I left home at around 10am so that I could stop at a great little quilt shop in Watkinsville. I discovered the shop about four years ago when I accompanied Jackie to the Georgia Music Educators Conference in Athens. While she was attending workshops I was out exploring. It took me a while to find the Dragonfly Quilt Shop but when I did I was very pleasantly surprised to find a small shop with a great collection of beautiful fabrics.

It was there that I met Deb Henderson who I have run into on several occasions at quilt events and shops over the past few years. I don't remember what quilt I was working on at the time but I was asking for advice and she was very helpful. Deb was very involved in teaching at Dragonfly and with Cotton Patch Quilters. Jackie and I went to their quilt show in 2008 at the Oconee County Civic Center in Watkinsville. Of course we had to visit Dragonfly which was just down the street and around the corner.

I was invited to speak to Cotton Patch by Deb. I believe that most of my engagements come about by word of mouth. I have done about three or four presentations since I started a little over a year ago and I know that three of the bookings I have came from a very brief segment of a meeting of the East Cobb Quilt Guild. I was one of three people to do a 15 minute presentation for the Member Spotlight.

Some of the great friends I have made through the East Cobb Quilt Guild have been responsible for passing my name on to the other guilds they are also involved.

My next presentation in October is for the Southeastern Fiber Arts Alliance in Atlanta. This one is a little different. I'll talk about Breaking Through Creative Block. This is a more philosophical view of how we think and what traits are good for creative people to nurture. There are also some activities that can be used to promote developing new ideas and ways of thinking.

Thanks again for the great hospitality from the Cotton Patch Quilters in Athens. I had a great time.

Then

Beginning Protrait Class on Saturday

2011-08-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

This is short notice but I would appreciate any help in spreading the word about a class I will be teaching on Saturday at Thread Bear Fabrics in Cumming.

The class is for any level of quilter and will teach the basic process for creating a portrait from a photograph. We will begin with how to select a good photo (you may choose from some stock images of pets that I will furnish or you may bring a digital image). It needs to be a good, closeup of a face with clear shadows and highlights and should be at least 5" x 7".

We will alter the photograph using Photoshop and then print it out. From the printed image we will make patterns for the pieces of the image. These will be fused to a background and then quilted.

The class is from 10 - 5, Saturday, August 6 and the quilt will be finished by the end of the class.

Supplies needed for this class are three fat quarters in light, medium and dark values and a half yard of Wonder Under fusible web. The fat quarters should read as a solid but may contain a small, subtle print. Continuous prints work better than batiks or splotchy fabrics.

The class currently has two people enrolled. I would like to have one or two more participate.

One Block Wonder: Top is Finished

2011-07-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

Several months ago in my guild's Tuesday Evening Bee I started my second One Block Wonder. This popular workshop was led by the guild's gurus of the OBW, a husband and wife team, Beth and Dave Ashmore. They have made dozens of these beautiful quilts with Beth doing the sewing and Dave helping with design of both the front and back of their quilts.

Beth and Dave originate from Arkansas and unfortunately for our guild they are moving back. About 2 months ago they put their house on the market and it sold very quickly. As a matter of fact they are closing on their house tomorrow and the contents of their house on the way to Arkansas as of yesterday. They will be leaving tomorrow and traveling in their RV to Arkansas.

Each day as I worked on my OBW I would think that I would be finished in another hour or two. On Friday I finally got the strips together. Then It was time to finish the border. This afternoon I finally got the border added. Now it is ready to be quilted.

I want to post a photo of the quilt so that Beth and Dave can see the finished top. I'm going to call it Goldfish Bowl

Beth and Dave will be returning to Atlanta in a few months and I hope to be able to show them the finished quilt.

Thank you Beth and Dave for helping me with the design and some gerat tips on construction. I'm very pleased with the results and I hope you like it.

Baseball Hall Of Fame Memory

2011-07-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

I know that this is not an art related post but I was just reminded of a very cool incident that we experienced about 15 years ago that I reflect on as a great memory.

My family and I were visiting Jackson, Mississippi and decided to attend a Jackson Mets game at Smith-Wills Stadium. This site has several fond memories to me. First, it is built on the same sight where I played Little League baseball when I was 14. I was a center fielder and the position I played is now about where the left-field foul pole is now. Secondly, the stadium is named for a guy that I graduated from high school with who was a super athlete. Doug Wills earned a letter in four sports, all four years of his high school career. He was fast, strong and an awesome athlete. He was the running back on our state champion football team. He played basketball as a guard and was a middle infielder for the baseball team. On the track team he was a sprinter and help our mile relay team set numerous records and win the state championship.

Sometime after high school he was killed in an automobile accident. It was such a tragedy for his life to end that way.

Back to my story.

The game which holds such treasured memories for me was the Jackson, Mets (a New York Mets affiliate) was playing the Wichita Pilots (a San Diego Padres affiliate). Throughout baseball there was great anticipation about a young player on the Pilots named Sandy Alomar, Jr. Biff and I were collecting baseball cards at the time and a Sandy Alomar card was being projected as a very desirable card.

As it turns out, Sandy had a brother who was on the same team. His name was Roberto Alomar. Sandy was a tall lanky catcher and he had a long and free swing at bat. Roberto played shortstop and second base. He was remarkable in the field and a strong hitter.

After the game we approached the Pilots dugout and most of the players had gone to the dressing room. Roberto was sitting on top of the dugout facing the fans seats. He had removed his game jersey and had on a t-shirt. His pants were very dirty because he had played a scrappy game. There were very few fans still around. The small crowd had cleaned out pretty quickly.

So we had a chance to talk to him and get an autograph. He also called his brother over to sign for us as well. He was very friendly and relaxed.

Today Roberto Alomar was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. His brother Sandy and his father Sandy, Sr. and his mother and sister (also named Sandy) were also there.

It was great to see him after a very successful career and to think back to that day where he was just like any other boy playing the game he loved.

Have You Seen This?

2011-07-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

Leah Day's Free Motion Quilt Project has a new look. She has completed 300 designs so far and plans to do 365 in a year. The new look on her website shows many of the designs she has done.

You can buy her book at the following link

In my dreams I hope to be able to quilt like her someday. Someday...

Hello Knoxville, Finally!

2011-07-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

Well I'm here.

Everything went great until about 45 miles from Nashville. I stopped in Summerville to eat around 6/5 pm. Had to have some BBQ.

When I got back in my car I thought about my experience about 2 years ago when Jackie and I were on our way to Cumberland Co. Tennessee. We stopped in Dunlap to get gas and when I got back in to start the car - nothing.

This time I started the car and hit the road to Knoxville. A few miles along the way I notice that the AC was not cooling very well. Then I noticed that the electrical warning light on the dashboard was on. I also notice that the steering seemed different.

As I neared the suburbs of Knoxville I decided that I needed to stop and see what was going on. I got off and started looking for a Sears or Auto Zone. Of course it was now after 6 here in this time zone and most service places were closed.

I asked for directions to an Auto Zone or service center and found an Advance Auto close by. The guy checked my battery and it was OK. (It's a good thing because I shut the engine off.) He said that it was probably my alternator and that I could drive to Knoxville and get it repaired somewhere close to the hotel.

OK, now off to Knoxville. Somehow I got a little turned around. I ended up going back toward Chattanooga. By the time I discovered my mistake I had gone almost 10 miles before I could turn around.

Then as I got to the downtown exit I took the exit before the one I was supposed to take. Fortunately, I was able to turn around within a mile or so.

When I use the term "turn" you have to remember that I am now using "Armstrong-Power Steering". It was a little bit like turning a tank.

Now I'm checked in and have Internet service and a cool, huge room and I am waiting for AAA to tow my car. I got the name of a shop from one of the girls at the registration desk. She just got a VW Passat and she had a card for a Volkswagen service recommended by the food and beverage guy who works at the hotel.

All is good.

The winners were announced today and I'm not one. Once again I see that AQS likes things that are very traditional.

One of my favorite up and coming quilters won an award. Leah Day has a snowflake quilt that looks very simple but I'm sure has incredible quilting. That's her thing. Last year she did a different quilting pattern everyday for the entire year. I can't wait to see that one.

I am looking forward to a great show and some great time looking and getting inspired.

I'll report more as days go by.

Final Piece for "Taking Flight" Show

2011-07-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

Gyrocarpus is the genus of wind-dispersed seeds from some plants. That was one of the choices for what I was going to make for the Fiber Art Fusion upcoming show called Taking Flight

After the theme was announced I was walking down my driveway one day and one of these things fell out of the sky and landed on the driveway in front of me. I picked it up and studied the surface. Then I thought that it might be a very interesting shape to make out of fabric.

So, I went shopping for fabric (my excuse was that I need some sheer fabrics to overlap in order to create that surface texture). I also bought some yarn.

Then for a few days I let the idea process for a while. During slow times each day I would ponder what it would take to create the look of the seed pod.

Originally, I wanted it to be light enough to fly like the real ones do. I didn't accomplish that. I used a coat hanger to make the thing hold it's shape. That was too much weight but it worked.

I covered the coat hanger with polyester batting and glued it in place. Then I place some of the yarn on the batting surface and covered that with a golden/copper colored metallic fabric and then a layer of brown wedding veil voile.

The next step was to stitch along each side of the yarn to make the yarn areas stand out like veins. The last step was to add color with paint sticks or oil paint finishing with some gold metallic paint.

The two pods will hang similar to a Calder "mobile".

I was really happy when I showed then for show and tell at our June FAF meeting. Most people recognized what they were immediately.

My other two pieces are Up, Up and Away (the hot air balloon) and Fall; With a Spring Kind of Attitude.

The opening of the show is Thursday night at 7 o'clock at the Art Place on Sandy Plains Road south of Shallowford Road.

I am suppose to be in Knoxville that evening but I may go to the beginning of the Reception and leave early. It takes about three and a half hours to get there.

Highlights Along The Way

2011-06-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today we did some traveling and sightseeing. God was our co-pilot.

Leaving Horseshoe Bend around noon we drove to Calico Rock, a small town along the White River. After a stop at a new Mexican restaurant for lunch, at the recommendation of several people, we set out to find the bluffs overlooking the river. We took a few wrong turns and traveled about 20 miles all together but never found any of the fantastic views.

Our ultimate destination was Blanchard Springs Caverns in Fiftysix, Arkansas. We discovered that these caverns have been rated number one as the most dramatic of all caves in North America. They have three tours to choose from. One is wheelchair accessible, one is an hour long and you walk and the third is a 4-5 hour challenge where you crawl, climb and squeeze through the cave. The worst part of the third "Wild Cave" Tour is not that they put you through all of this torture but that they charge you $75 to do it. We choose the one hour walking tour.

It was glorious. Both beautiful and dramatic. Our guide was a lot of fun. Out of about a hundred photos I think that one or two are worth sharing. They were pretty bad for the most part.

After seeing the cave we drove a couple of miles in the same park to see the springs coming out of the other end of the cave. It was a short walk with beautiful views of the stream leading out of the falls. Some of the adjustments I made on my camera in the cave caused most of these photos to be over exposed. I had a few that could be shown.

On our way back is when some of our adventures became more scary.

In looking for the bluffs, we had an encounter with a deer on one of the roads. Erin was driving at the time and we were going about 40 miles per hour when Chaz and I gasped and pointed out a deer along side the road. As Erin braked quickly the deer broke and ran in front of us and jumped a fence and was off. The photo shown here was taken as we traveled back along the road in the same location. As we approached the same deer was beside the road and as we slowed down he ran into the weeds on the bank of the road. I took this photo just as he was disappearing into the weeds. You can see his back and hind legs in the enlarged oval.

We were blessed that we didn't hit the deer.

Our final scare came as we were traveling back to Horseshoe Bend. We were on a state highway approaching a stop sign at the junction with another state highway. The intersection had recently been redeveloped and widened a little approaching the intersection. As we got closer to the crossing Erin didn't slow down. I said, "You are going to stop aren't you." It seemed that she increased speed a little. So, I said in a loud voice, "YOU ARE GOING TO STOP, AREN'T YOU!" and Erin slammed on the brakes and was able to stop before going through the intersection. Neither Erin or Chaz had noticed the stop sign which sat back about 15-20 feet off of the side of the road. I never looked to see if anything was approaching from the left or right but we made it through again without any trouble. Blessed and protected again.

When we got back to the resort Erin, Owen and Chaz went to see an Elvis Tribute at the clubhouse and then they played baseball for a few minutes.

Now everybody is asleep except me but it's time for me to hit the hay too.

We are thankful for a wonderful and save day.

2011-06-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

In our first day at Horseshoe Bend we rose early. Erin went back to bed and slept for a couple of hours. My morning buds and I had the experience of a beautiful beginning of the day on our front porch. Chaz and I had a cup of coffee while Owen kept us entertained and helped wake us up.

We at lunch at Mecham's Family Diner in Ash Flat and then spent an hour or so shopping at the local Wal-mart. We got a weeks worth of supplies and Chaz and I got our fishing licenses. We are now ready to catch a few for dinner one night this week. Wish us luck.

It is beautiful here. As Chaz said, it's hard to believe that such a beautiful place is this isolated. We checked out the marina and the golf course this morning.

Chaz, Erin and Owen are swimming and just decided to checkout a kayak. They are trying to wear Owen down so he gets to bed early tonight.

I'm try to recuperate from a bad night of sleeping on the couch and in the recliner. We will probably have some different sleeping arrangements tonight. They tried to warn me last night that I needed to sleep in the bed and let them have the living room.

I had a good nap but have decided to take it easy this afternoon.

We'll send more pictures of our activities during the week.

The Music Got Me Again

2011-06-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

Out of my usual routine today because it is Saturday, I was listening to a contemporary country music station and this song came on. After about four lines it got my attention. It had a great and touching message and very emotional impact.

The song is by Justin Moore and it is called "If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away".

I don't think anyone can listen to this without becoming teary-eyed. It got to me.

Listen to the song here.

Just Breathe

2011-06-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

Finally I have a few hours to relax and take a few deep breaths.

Yesterday afternoon I got my entries into the mail by the deadline for the East Cobb Quilt Show. For the last month I have been almost anti-social because I was trying to finish several quilts for this show. There were two that I just had to push away and concentrate on the ones that I could finish enough to enter.

In my previous post I was intending to finish the M. Matisse's Chambre la Louer. That was unrealistic. There is so much involved in that piece I'll be doing well to have it done by the end of the year. I also have eight other quilts started as well as new ideas I have every day.

Another deadline I had to meet was Tuesday night. Fiber Art Fusion is having a show next month at the Art Place in Marietta. the theme of the show is Taking Flight. The show opens July 14 and runs until July 24. I have three pieces that will be in the show. One is my little leaf print quilt. It needs a name but I haven't come up with that yet.

The second piece is a balloon similar to the one I did for the Pacific Rim Olympic Quilt Block that I did for the Olympic Quilt Project 2012. I made some extra (mistakes) strips and just had to make three or four more in order to complete another balloon. So I made a small quilt with the balloon with two passengers in the basket. This one also needs a name. I'll have to give those some thought when I walking. That's when I get my best ideas.

The third piece is actually two pieces. They are two seed pods. You know the ones that spin like a helicopter when they fall. I think that they come from a sycamore tree. I was walking down my driveway one day after I learned the theme of the show and I saw one of these seed pods and thought that it would be cool to make a large three-dimensional one using fabrics.

I have been truly blessed to have the time and health and the skills to quilt a lot.

I just have to remember to do the big boy things of paying bills and doing my chores. Those things have been ignored for the past few weeks and it is time to catch up.

M. Matisse's Rooms for Rent

2011-05-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well I may have to submit a Photoshop version of my latest quilt for entry in the East Cobb show.

Magically I have pieced together most of the blocks sot that the potential final image can be viewed. The rooms still lack the magic of staging with furniture and decor. This decor is now being developed and will soon become a room ready for occupancy.

A few days ago I remembered that I have a set of color blocks that I bought for an art ed workshop on color. This workshop was very informative. These color blocks are used by graphic designers when developing their color palette for a project. There are over 300 cards with a huge range of colors.

I think that I may have develop a new system for quilters to use for designing and color selection of fabrics for quilts.

After I test it a little more myself I want to present it to some of my WannaBees group and see if it works for them.

This might be something that I could do a book on. It is something new and I think it is easy and successful.

M. Matisse's Chambres à Louer

2011-05-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

The framework for the new studio apartments to be leased by M. Henri Matisse has been completed and the decoration has started. Within a few weeks some of the rooms will be finished and ready to rent.

Anyone interested in seeing the rooms as they progress may follow here.

Watch for a posting very soon showing the basic framework. At this point the final image has been created digitally as an illustration to follow in the final stages.

How will we know?

2011-05-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

OK, I may be struck down for this but you know it may not matter after tomorrow. So here it goes.

If I wake up dead tomorrow, how will I know if it is the end of the world for everybody or just me?

If somebody else dies tomorrow, how will they know if they are the only one?

I'm just sayin'...

Sunbonnet Sue Ready to Hit the Road

2011-05-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

While I was in Mississippi I received a fat envelope from AQS. You know the difference between the skinny envelope and the fat envelope? When you enter something in a show you will receive either a skinny notification envelope or a fat envelope. The skinny envelope tells you that your work was not accepted. The fat envelope tells you that your work has been accepted and includes all of the instructions for submitting the piece.

I got the fat one.

"My Sunbonnet Sue Goes to the Museum" quilt will be appearing in the AQS Show in Knoxville in July. I have already made my reservations to go. Now I just have to finish redoing the binding. I have been told a few times that I need to make the binding a little better so that is my intent.

Great Mother's Day Weekend

2011-05-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

Our first Mother's Day without Jackie was wonderful in spite of her absence. We paid our respects to her and her role as a mother to two wonderful children who have grown ups to be a great young man and a great young woman. I believe that their greatest characteristic is caring for others and by that I especially mean their children. There are wonderful parents. Each of them has a son and I am very impressed with how great Erin and Biff have parented them. I certainly am!

Jackie's sister, Ginger is retiring this year. She is an awesome teacher, like Jackie, but in her own way. She was a special education teacher and really was great with her students.

On Wednesday, Ginger's school had a reception for her and Erin, Chaz Owen and I were invited to attend. I could not go because I had a presentation to do for the students from Brown Elementary School at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art.

John had organize the surprise and he also had arranged for Katie and Josh, their adult children to fly in from California and North Carolina. Katie came on Wednesday and Josh came on Thursday. John picked up Katie at the airport and they stopped by Ginger's school. When he went to the office to ask if it was OK to visit Ginger the secretary in the office told them that she was involved in State Testing. Most of you know that those days are sacred in public schools. The students and teachers may not be interrupted. The secretary realized what was going on and called the school counselor who went to Ginger's room and called her out and told her that her husband was there in the office. Ginger met John in the hall and told him that they were doing State-wide Testing and that she shouldn't be interrupted. He told her that he had taken her car to pick up something important but Ginger insisted that she needed to get back to her students. John said, "Don't you want to see what I picked up?" Reluctently, Ginger agreed to look. When she got to the office Katie was sitting there. Ginger of course lost it then.

The next day Josh came and again Ginger was once again surprised.

There was a surprise party that had been discussed several weeks ago and we made plans to go so that we could surprise Ginger. So, Erin, Owen and I planned to leave on Thursday and drive over, hoping we could arrive in time for the surprise. We found out before we left Woodstock that there had been a mix up about the party and that it had not be planned as expected due to a conflict. So instead of a party the event was change to a dinner out at a Mexican restaurant. (It just happened to be Cinco de Mayo.

As Erin, Owen and I drove we were updated on where Ginger was and when she would be at the restaurant. We were afraid that we would be so late that Ginger would not go because she had to teach the next day. Everything worked out though. We were notified by our informant that the dinner party group had arrived at the restaurant and that the wait was about 20 minutes. Not bad for a Mexican Restaurant on Cinco de Mayo. At that time we were about 15 minutes from the restaurant.

Erin, Owen and I started planning a strategy for our arrival. We decided that if Ginger's party had been seated when we arrived we would send Owen in with his sunglasses on and let him find the group at their table and yell surprise. However, when we arrived the group was still sitting outside of the restaurant waiting to be seated. We parked on the side away from the entrance and sneaked up to John, Ginger, Josh and Katie who were sitting on a low wall in front of the entrance. When we were right behind John I picked up Owen and stood him on the wall. Ginger turned to see what was happening and she saw a little boy being lifted and she had the most stunned look on her face. It was almost expressionless. She was so surprised that she was stunned. She could not talk.

Ginger wanted reassurance that this was the last surprise. She didn't think that her heart could survive another surprise.

We had a great visit with them over the weekend and it was great to be around family as we celebrated our first Mother's Day without Jackie. It was an emotional celebration but having this group together made it easier for all of us.

We returned to Atlanta on Sunday after a brief visit to Van Winkle UMC which has been the Yearwood family's church for over sixty years. The church is a beautiful traditional setting. One things that makes it special to me is a huge painting that hangs behind the choir loft. The painting of Jesus in the center of a crowd healing a man was done by my art teacher at Mississippi College, Sam Gore. The painting is 10-12 feet high and 25-30 feet across. The church's enrollment has dwindled to an active congregation of about 40 people the youngest of which is the pastor's son and the next youngest is Ginger. That means that the future of the church is very short lived and the destiny 0f the building is uncertain. The paint will be moved soon.

After a stay at the Parker home place so that I could pickup Owen from school on Monday afternoon I finally returned home on Monday afternoon.

I had to focus on finishing my presentation for my Fiber Art Fusion group on Tuesday night.

This was made a little more complicated by the fact that my Mac Laptop is showing signs of crashing. It is operating very slowly and has some anomalies in the display. This has happened before so I know the warning signs.

I had done this very complex slide presentation using an Apple software called Keynote which is like Powerpoint. So, I had to save the presentation in Powerpoint format and then transfer it to my PC laptop. Of course not everything was saved. The fonts were different and many of the transitions and animation were gone. It took about half of the day on Tuesday to get it back up to the point where I had finished it on the Mac.

The presentation we off as well as I could expect under the circumstances. I had to spend a few minutes looking for the correct file on my laptop and lost my audience for a few minutes. We had a good discussion about How to Break Through Creative Block.

Today I can concentrate on getting my house in order. It has become a pig sty because I have been so focused on meeting the deadline for this presentation last night.

After I clean house for most of the day I can get back to quilting.

I'm ready.

Four Workshops in Three Weeks

2011-04-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

Georgia Quilt Council - Karen Combs
Thursday, March 17 was the beginning of my surge of great quilt workshops. That day I attended a workshop on Optical Blocks taught by Karen Combs through the Georgia Quilt Council. It was hosted by the Etowah Valley Quilt Guild. There were four of us form the East Cobb Quilt Guild in the workshop.

This basic 3D style block can be used in multiple repetitions to create a number of great optical illusions in quilts. I made two blocks in the workshop and hope to make at least 5 more to use in a quilt.

The first examples shown here are blocks done by each member of the class showing the possible combinations that you can be used to make the illusions.

The orange and teal one is mine.

When I finish more blocks I can create more variations.

East Cobb Quilt Guild - Frieda Anderson's Fusible Applique and Machine Quilting Workshops
Thursday, March 24 I took the first of two workshops with Frieda Anderson. This was her fusible applique class. The kit for the class was one of her patterns. In addition I bought the fabric I needed for this class. They were pieces of her bright hand-dyed fabrics. They were all gradations with one from bright yellow to a bright but dark tone red, a second one was dark green to bright lime green and then another was bright light value blue to medium green.

The blue and green piece was suppose to be our background but after I had my flowers and stems made the background was too light for them to show against it. When I got home I selected a dark blue batik fabric for the background. That made the colors appear more vivid.

I hope to add a few more whimsical details and do some more with the border. Then I'm ready to quilt it using some of the tips I got from Frieda's second workshop.

East Cobb Quilt Guild - Frieda Anderson's Easy Machine Piecing Workshop
A very valuable tool from this workshop is a folder of all of the designs that Frieda showed us. These designs are very achievable with some daily practice.

The most impressive part of this class was that Frieda walked around the room and picked a machine to sew on and then did these designs as if she used that machine everyday. You know that we get so comfortable with the quirks of hour own personal machines and it is difficult for me to adapt that quickly. I was impressed! I also was happy that my machine didn't try to fall apart. I actually had very little down time.

Chattahoochee Evening Stars Quilt Guild - Pat Speth, Nickel Quilts Workshop
This lady is a genius and it is very evident that she loves what she is doing. She has a very strong work ethic and a very creative mind. She has been 'playing variations on a theme' for almost a decade now and it is all still fresh and exciting.

She started off the workshop on her knees demonstrating how to make a very inexpensive design wall.

Then she started her campaign to lead us into the wonderful world of Nickel Quilts. She described how her quilting journey began while she was still working a full time job. Eventually she was able to quit her day job and begin her book publishing and pattern design. Throughout the story this woman loved what she was doing. She also talked about her now adult children and you could tell that they are a very strong nuclear family and they sincerely care for one another.

I had the good fortune to have dinner with Pat and several other guild members on Sunday night at Sharon's house. It was a very lovely evening and we all had a chance to get to know one another. Pat got a full dose of kidding about living such a cold area, but she was very good natured about the kidding.

The workshop on Saturday was fantastic. We learned so much in the class. We got more than our money's worth. We even got a free "Blue-Dad". (that's like a doo-dad that is blue). I won't spoil the surprise since Pat may want to eventually want to market them on her own.

We worked with what Pat calls Small Wonders. It's a basic half-squared triangle which is then cut in half horizontally and vertically. Using our fabric pairs we could then create numerous variations of designs.

The Art of The Quilt - Art Walk

2011-04-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends did not get the email I sent that referred to an article in the Marietta Daily Journal last Thursday Morning. I sent the email on Thursday morning and it was not received until Monday morning.

Several have asked me how the presentation went. Well, it didn't quite go as we had expected. I expected for a group to gather and then at around 6:30 I would greet them and proceed to lead them around and talk about the quilts on exhibit. At 6:30 there were only two people in the museum and the visitors trickled in in groups of 2 to 5 people at a time. So, I became a mingler. I kept hoping that people wouldn't think that I was a stalker or that the women would think that I was trying to pick them up. At least I had on a name tag that made me look official.

Our ECQG president, Robyn, who set up the exhibit said, "If I do this again next year that will be twice."

I enjoyed being able to walk around and meet people and talk to them. Their comments showed that they really admired the skills of the quilters. There were between 75 and 100 people who attended. I would guess that about half of them were quilters and a few were closed quilters. Also, about a third were men.

In the past when I go to a quilt show I was aware that most men tend to finish looking at the quilts a lot sooner than the women do. I was able to sit and observe this on several occasions.

A surprising thing that I did notice is that there were several young men who attended. A couple of them were about high school age or possibly college age. That seems to suggest that the makeup of quilt guilds in the near future may include more male members.

Pacific Rim Balloon Finished

2011-03-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

It is finished. The piece I have been working on for the past month for the cover of the book, "Around The World: A Quilt Block Travelogue". The Olympic Quilt Project guided by Holly Anderson and Anita Weintraub who were also responsible for the 1996 Olympic Quilt Project has passed another milestone.

For now I will just sit tight an wait to see what develops.

The deadline for this project coincides with another event that I have been working on. Friday night I will be conducting an Art Walk through the exhibit of award winning quilts from previous East Cobb Quilt Shows, "The Art of The Quilt".

On Saturday I will be taking a workshop conducted by Pat Speth called "Small Wonders". It is a 'nickel' quilt workshop. We will be using five inch squares to make one of seven different quilts. I have spent the last two days choosing and cutting fabric for the class. I haven't decided yet which quilt I want to make. I have most of the fabric cut for three or four of the quilts. I will have to see the designs before I decide which I want to make.

Tomorrow is the WannaBees meeting. I look forward to seeing everybody and seeing what they are working on.

Last Thursday Jodi and I took a workshop with Frieda Anderson. We learned how to make one of her fun fusible pieces. Even though we all traced the shapes from the pattern Frieda designed all of the pieces looked very different. Jodi has finished her piece and mine is ready to fuse when I get time.

Bulloch Hall Quilt Show and Mary Kerr

2011-03-21T20:10:00.001-07:00

The Bulloch Hall Quilt Show ended yesterday and I went for a short visit. It was my third time to attend.

My primary reason for this visit was to meet Mary Kerr. About five years ago Mary started a quilt block challenge called Vintage Revisited. She collects old worn quilts and salvages as much as possible from it. She then gives the blocks to a group of quilters who take the block and transform it into a 24" x 24" block. They can use any part of the vintage quilt that they want. In 2oo8 Mary showed the first group of Vintage Revisited challenge quilts and they toured several quilt shows across the country. Last year she published a book called, "A Quilt Block Challenge: Vintage Revisited" in which she documented the challenges that have been done over the past few years.

Bulloch Hall has shown Mary's Vintage Revisited Challenge Quilts for the past three shows. The variety of approaches and techniques that are used by the artists are amazing. There is very seldom any two similar pieces in the show.

I had two quilts in the show. My "Show Me The Way to Go Home" and "Jackie's African Coins". They were well received.

I plan to finish the Pacific Rim Balloon for the cover of Holly Anderson and Anita Weintraub's "Around the World: A Quilt Block Travelogue" book. All I need to do is the head of the dragon and then attach it to the balloon. I looks good and I think it will show up well on the background.

Once I have these little details taken care of I can get back to work on some of my other projects that I have put aside for the last two months. I have at least four other things that I need to get to work on.

Keep stitching.

Cotton Patch Quilters

2011-03-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

This is the weekend for the Cotton Patch Quilters show in Watkinsville. Since I have commitments on Saturday and Sunday I needed to go today.

After a rather late start due to being a dead head and sleeping until 9:40 I was on my way around 11:30.

As I left my driveway I noticed that I had an array of warning lights on my dashboard. Two of them I have had for some time now but the check engine light was a new one. It is one of those that comes on if the gas cap is loose or the windshield washer tank is low on water or any one of about 1100 different things on the car. This has been a problem since about the time my warranty expired. It's usually not a serious problem, just annoying.

So, just to give myself some reassurance I stopped and got the oil changed. It was due.

Well they did find some moisture in my oil and flushed it to remove the water and any sluge that had built up over time. It was pretty gunky. They also checked out all of the fluid levels and whatever. I had five people hovered around my car poking and prodding and giving it the once over. When I left I felt pretty secure that all was fine so I headed off to Watkinsville. That's about 5 miles west of Athens out highway 316. It took just a little over an hour to get there.

By now I was ready for lunch so I did what I usually do and sought out a local restaurant. I found Rachel's Restaurant which seemed to be popular with the locals and a couple of groups of quilters who had gotten an early start and finished their tour of the quilt show and were having lunch before going home. It was all in all a pretty good meat and two dinner. I had a perfectly cooked pork chop with turnip greens, blackeyed peas and cornbread. I skipped the sweet tea.

Then I was off to the Oconee County Civic Center next door.

The show had a great variety of quilts and styles. There were quite a few traditional appliqued samplers a la Baltimore Album. There were a great selection of pieced quilts. Every time I picked my favorite one I would round the corner and find another favorite. There were many wonderful quilts there. I eventually picked one that won the first place award for Group Quilt. It was called "We Remember Mom". The quilters had each done a posterized sepia tone image of their mothers and then placed it on a crazy quilt background. The background colors were coordinated to keep the piece unified. Each quilter had also included some personal items of their mother's to embellish the quilt. I was a very beautiful and sentimental piece.

After I shopped with some of the vendors and cast my ballot I was finished with the quilt show. So not it was off to one of my favorite quilt shops - Dragonfly Quilts. I had seen Debora the owner of the shop at the quilt show. She had left a few of her friends in charge of the shop while she took a little break to see the show. One was Deb (yep, Debora and Deb) who I fist met about three years ago when Jackie and I stopped by the shop after the Georgia Music Teacher's Convention in Athens. I had asked her for some advise on one of the quilts I was working on at the time and she was very helpful. I have seen her at the Sewing and Quilt Expo and at a couple of other shows.

When she asked if I had been to the Quilt Show I said that I had and we started talking. I told her that my favorite quilt in the show was the one called "We Remember Mom" and she said that she was one of the quilters who did that piece. What a coincident.

If you are ever in the Athens area and have some time stop by and visit Dragonfly Quilts. And if you are not busy Saturday or Sunday go see the show. It's worth the drive.

Upcoming Exhibit

2011-03-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

One of the welcome outcomes of our involvement with the Marietta-Cobb Art Museum in our Quilt Show last year is the invitation we received from the Museum to show some of our award-winning quilts from past shows.

The Art of The Quilt show will open on Saturday, March 19 with a reception for quilters and members of the East Cobb Quilt Guild. This show brings together 30-40 quilts that won awards as the cream of the crop from our past 10 quilt shows. The show will run through May 15.

I have been asked to do a gallery talk for those in attendance on Friday, April 1 at 6:15. My goal is to discuss the trend over the past couple of decades for quilts to be considered more art than utilitarian object. The working title of the presentation is currently "From the Bed to the Museum Wall".

For more information on the exhibit go to the following link to Marietta-Cobb Art Museum/Upcoming Exhibitions

M. Matisse's Chambre de Louer

2011-02-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

The templates are made and the fabrics picked so now it's time for me to get some more of the rooms cutout and sewn. I love the fabrics that I am working with. As a matter of fact I mave enough to make 10 or twelve of the rooms. That will have to be reduced to 9 for the final piece. I'm sure that I can do it. It seems that there are too many of them that have yellow-green and pink in them. I am working to change that.

Photos to follow shortly.

Today I have been working on getting my entry form mailed for the AQS show in Knoxville. It is due no later than next Monday. I took photos today and edited them in Photoshop to the right size and now I just need to burn them to disk and complete my application. That shouldn't be a problem.

Thursday we have our WannaBees meeting and I am looking forward to that.

The Quilt Shop Hop is also this weekend. I may go to a couple but I sure don't need any more fabric. I have spent most of today getting things ready for our first annual CES Yard Sale. Believe me I have plenty to sell and I think I have materials for everyone's GREEN project for the CES Challenge this year.

Update on Olympic Quilt Project

2011-02-19T06:07:00.000-08:00

The blocks are finished. They were delivered last Wednesday.
I am very pleased with the results and I'm pretty sure that they will be very different from most of the other blocks. I was a little bit worried that they might be too different, but I was reassured that my approach and style was the reason that I was asked to get involved in this project.

The contract for the book has been signed and will be published. The design for the cover art is now being done. The working title is "A Trip Around the World" and will feature five hot air balloons on the cover. Each balloon represents a group of countries who participate in the Olympics.

Holly asked me if I would do one of the balloons. I agreed and chose the Pacific Rim group. Now it is time for me to start working on that design.

I feel honored to be able to be included in this project.

Hoping to Be Published

2011-02-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago I was invited to participate in the 2012 Olympic Quilt Project. This is the same group who did the 1996 Olympic Quilt Project which was a great success and was published to sell at the Olympics. The two leaders of this group are Anita Weintrab and Holly Anderson.

Holly lives nearby and she and I met three or four years ago through our quilt guilds. She is the past president of the Bulloch Hall Quilt Guild.

When Holly and I met to talk about this project she told me that she needed help and that she had about 20 countries for me to choose from.

I chose American Samoa, Belgium, Vietnam and Denmark. She admitted that someone had promised to do the block for Denmark but somehow it was back on the list of unfinished quilts.

I set out on my research and very quickly came up with ideas for American Samoa and Belgium.

The block for Belgium started with an image of the "Atomium" sculpture in Brussels. This was a sculpture constructed for the 1958 Worlds Fair. It is huge and reminds me of the St. Louis Arch. Each sphere is 18 meters in diameter and has tubes connecting them together. The supports look like ladders on a space ship. People can go inside and look through windows to see the surrounding landscape.

For the quilt block I did a radial design with the sculpture in the center in a hexagon. The second design element was Diamonds to indicate Antwerp as one of the largest diamond producers in the world. Those are place inside and outside the hexagon. The final element was a derby hat to signify one of Belgium's most famous artist, Rene Magritte. He was a surrrealist and in one of his self portraits he is shown dressed in a suit facing the viewer and there is a derby hat floating in front of his face. So, I used the derby around the hexagon as if floating in air.

For American Samoa I used a island beach with mountains in the background, a grass hut, a Samoan dancer and a Samoan ukelele player in a batik fabric shirt. I found an inspirational fabric which was a yellow fabric with green and purple palm trees. I'm going to use it for the sky and then use coordinating colors for the mountains and trees and then batiks for the people's clothing. It's going to be bright.

The block for Vietnam will be a view of the rice terraces along the mountains of the Mekong River. There will be figures in the rice field wearing the pointed cone shaped hats.

I asked my friend Lene who was born in Denmark to give me some ideas of what to use in the block I was making. Fortunately she had been collecting postcards with images on them so that she could do a project in a workshop coming up next week. After talking and making some sketches I decided that I was going to do something abstract showing a Viking ship, the little mermaid that sits in the harbor in Copenhagen, a row of old buildings and boats.

Today when I emailed my ideas to Holly she replied that the quilt block for Denmark had been completed and sent to her. Now I won't need to finish that block.

That will make it easier to meet my deadline of February 15.

I spent most of the day yesterday looking for my shiny white and silver fabric and then ended up at JoAnn's at 8:00 looking to by what I needed.

While I was getting my fabric cut I was talking to the cutter and a lady who was getting her fabric cut at another station. They wanted to know what I was doing. After explaining the basic details with them the other customer asked for me to give her some contact information so that she could tell her husband to do a story about my work. He works for CNN. You never know.

Jackie would be proud of me.

Enough for now, I need to get sewing.

Back From My Weekend Retreat

2011-02-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

Over the past weekend I was in Covington with 23 wonderful ladies. We had our annual CES Quilt retreat.

Sewing and talking most of the day was the first priority. We only took a few minutes to eat and when we were completely exhausted we would sleep for a few hours and then do it all again the next day.

It was a beautiful weekend.

I had a chance to resurrect several unfinished projects and now I have new eagerness to finish them and get on with a few new projects.

Having a few extra opinions and input helped me get a good handle on my first major project of the year. This is my "M. Matisse's Chambres à Louer". I am creating an apartment house in which each room is decorated using a line of fabric by different fabric designers. These rooms are fashioned after some of Henri Matisse's paintings of rooms with a floral decor.

The image in this post shows the fabrics arranged in the layout I will be using. Each room will have the perspective of standing on a balcony across the street from the rooms. Today as I was unpacking some of my fabrics I found a few fabrics that I may consider using in place of a few of these. In addition to the floral walls there will be a floor and ceiling in a simple organic pattern. There will also be furniture and people in most of the rooms. The center room reflects the Matisse painting called "The Red Room" which is one his most famous.

One of the rooms will be "Woman In A Purple Robe". This will represent not only the painting but also my wife. A few weeks before she died I took a photo of her that just happened to imitate the paint by Matisse. There is an Edible Arrangement on the table beside her chair and it has the same appearance as the bouquet of flowers on the table in the painting of Matisse.

Thank goodness I have until September to finish it in time for the East Cobb Show.

I have several other things to work on.

A Big Surprise Chapter -The Reveal

2011-01-27T06:27:00.000-08:00

OK, here is the final clue (dead giveaway).

I am the proud new owner of a Bernina 820.

It is really exciting. I have lots to learn but it's like owning a sports car that can deliver as much as I can or want from it. I just have to learn how to drive it.

A Big Surprise Chapter 5

2011-01-26T18:17:00.001-08:00

There are only a couple of clues left. I'm sure that you will start to see the message more clearly very soon.

Here are the next clues.

A Big Surprise Chapter 4

2011-01-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

Images four and five. Each one represents something different but related.

A Big Surprise Chapter 3

2011-01-25T21:35:00.000-08:00

OK, here is the third and fourth clue for my big surprise. There is a connection between these two images.

Pretty soon you may have some ideas.

What do you think?

Tune in tomorrow morning for the next clues.

A Big Surprise Chapter 2

2011-01-25T06:29:00.000-08:00

Here is the second clue about my big surprise.

A Big Surprise

2011-01-24T19:06:00.000-08:00

Here is the first clue about a big surprise I have.

Check tomorrow morning for another clue.

It's a great surprise and I'm very excited about it.
Ben

Some Unfinished Business

2011-01-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

Up until her death Jackie had many projects going. Of course, her Tom Sawyer ways got us involved in her projects.

Three weeks before she died she made her last trip out of the house and went to the Preview Party for the opening of our Chattahoochee Evening Stars Quilt Guild Show. I believe that she now holds the record for the number most fat quarters purchased from one vendor. It was around a hundred I think. Of course she was buying them for me. She sat in her wheelchair and directed us to move the bins into her lap where she could see them and then she would get Owen to hold them up to see if I wanted her to buy it.

Between the fat quarters from one vendor and trying to get around to see all of the vendors and hanging out with the food outside in the hall she stayed very busy. She barely had time to look at the quilts. We had to drag her away from the food to see our WannaBees win a blue ribbon for best group quilt and another blue ribbon for best original design. Then, back to the food.

The week before Jackie died, Erin, Ginger and I made about 30 pillowcases for which Jackie had bought fabric. Erin had a great opportunity to learn how to use the sewing machine. Some of those pillowcases Jackie had promised to friends and she had for the most part picked specific fabrics for those individuals.

So, as you can imagine, when Jackie died there were several things that she had started that were not yet finished.

Each year CES has a UFO/NESTY Challenge for members. UnFinished Objects are UFOs and projects that you have Not Even STarted Yet are NESTYs.

Last year I made my list and Jackie's list. We are allowed to list as many projects as we would like to work on as we wish. Our goal is to finish at least four of the projects. Our reward is a special pin that we can put on our name tag. Wooo=hoooo! It's amazing how this motivates some of us.

This year there were two projects that Jackie and I worked on together or with a group. The first was a quilt that we made for our daughter Erin and her family. They bought a new house last Thanksgiving and wanted the quilt to match the decor. Jackie and I started buying Civil War fabric everywhere we went. We bought a bunch at MaryJo's in North Carolina. The rest we bought at our local guilt shops and shows. Erin went through all of it and picked the pieces that she liked. Erin had seen a pattern she liked in our last quilt show. It was done by our friend Lynn and it was a simple half squared triangle done in Civil War fabrics.

During the spring and summer I cut and Jackie sewed the blocks together in a four-patch block. Four four-patches with sashing between made the next blocks, then four of these together with wider sashing made the next blocks and this progression was continued once more.

The original design we were using came from a book which featured this design for a miniature quilt measuring 25 inches square. It was made with 3/4 inch pieces. We used 2 inch squares and our finished quilt was 92 inches square.

The other quilt we worked on as a group was our WannaBees guilt bee group.

For the UFO/NESTY Challenge Jackie and I each got credit for those two quilts.

Out of the ones that were left on my list I had a quilt that will probably not be shown in public again. I had to show it in order to get credit for making it. This was the first quilt I started before I took quilting lessons from Helena. I call it "Optical Blocks" it is an optical illusion of stacks of blocks in rows where each row is shifted left or right. I had marked some of the quilt for quilting using a watercolor marker and I needed to wash the marker out. So I washed the whole quilt and the normal puckering around the quilting looked great. The problem was some binding tape that I used to emphasize the lines between rows had come loose and unraveled over most of the top. The quilting was also pretty sloppy because I was having problems with my quilting machine.

It is finished.

The other quilt on my list that I had finished was the "Ode to Bridget Riley" piece that I displayed in the Fiber Art Fusion "MOTUS" show. All of our pieces were done to express Movement in some way.

On Jackie's list of UFOs/NESTYs was a quilt that she started two years ago at our CES Fall Retreat. She bought the kit called "African Coins" at our quilt show in 2008. In January she had finished putting the color strips together and I had cut them into four pieces for the coins in the quilt. She also had put together most of the blocks to form the alternating direction line (almost like a Greek Key).

In the three weeks after Jackie died I finished three quilt tops that Jackie had started. The first was one for my son and daughter-in-law. Jackie had taken them to the fabric shop early in the summer and helped them pick out the fabric and the pattern that they wanted. That top is finished and when Biff was here after Christmas he picked out the quilting pattern for me to use to finish the quilt.

The second quilt of Jackie's that I finished was for someone who was very special to Jackie and it is a surprise for her.

The third was the "African Coins". Finishing the quilting and binding was done on the weekend before the UFO/NESTY Challenge. Over the last three months I had researched designs to use for quilting. I had done pages of drawings and looked at designs available online. I finally decided that I was just going to spread out all of my drawings and ideas and just improvise the quilting.

When I got to the Red Hen to quilt the quilt I got everything set up and then started looking for my sketchbook and drawings. I had left them at home!

This called for a decision. I decided to just go for it. I was going to use a meandering stitch and try to work in some of the symbols that I had found, but without the drawings I had made. Hold on and lets get to it.

I am more than pleased with the results. The black is black and the variegated thread I used looks great on the black.

I believe Jackie is smiling.

I Never Showed You The Way To Go Home

2011-01-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago I was checking my blog and I discovered that I have posted an article about my "Show Me The Way To Go Home" quilt when I was working on it, but I never posted a photo of the finished quilt. There was a lot going on when I finished the quilt and I just never got a round tuit. (I have one of those on my desk.)

I finished it just a few days before our CES quilt show in September.

This is one of those quilts that you have to read the description and then take a look at it for a few minutes in order to understand what's going on. I think most people are looking at the design and the technique and didn't take time to read what was printed in the program.

First of all, you need to know the words to the song of the same title as the quilt. It's an old one. The words are posted in my earlier blog about the quilt.

There is a PUB in the upper left corner. That is where our subject starts with 'a little drink about an hour ago' that 'goes straight to his head' and now he's 'tired and he wants to go to bed' but he needs a little 'help to find his way home'.

You see, the path from the Pub to his home goes through the park and the path is complicated because of the pattern. In the beginning the path is pretty clear but as he goes through the park it becomes more complicated. He must be careful not to take the wrong path which will lead him to another bar called "Last Call" or to the Police Station. He needs to get home where his dog is waiting for him to take him for a walk. There is only one path that leads home.

For several years I have wanted to make a drunkard's path quilt and I wanted to do it with optically interesting fabrics. I found some great black and white designs that I thought would be very good to use. From this point things sorta evolved. I 'wonky' cut each fabric to add to the disorienting effect that I wanted.

When the drunkard's path blocks were joined I set them into the design at an angle, also to add to the disorienting effect. The space around the the drunkard's path is filled with some of the same fabrics that I used in the drunkard's path section. These pieces were cut one at a time by overlapping my fabrics and cutting a wavy line across the fabric. they were stitched together using curved piecing and then the seam was pressed in one direction.

After these wavy pieces were together I cut them according to a large paper template I had made. All of this had to be fitted together with the four corner blocks and end up with a rectangle that had square corners. The corner blocks are raw-edge applique with some embroidery stitching done to emphasize the details.

The binding is from a piece of wavy black lines printed on a white background. The lines are not all going in the same direction as a straight line stripe would. I used wide black rick rack to outline the park like a fence around the park. Another wavy line, don't you know.

Each building has something sitting next to it; a fireplug, garbage can, street light and a dalmation with his leash waiting for his master to come home to take him for a walk. There is also a light on in the bedroom where his wife waits for him to explain where he has been.

Missing the Point

2010-12-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

Last year for the first time IQA sponsored a new aspect in their International Quilt Festival in Houston. They displayed photographs taken by quilters. The philosophy behind the show was that many quilters use photographs as inspiration for their quilts. The show was named "Eye of the Quilter".

I entered three photos, of which two were selected for the exhibit. I was very pleased to have my photos to be a part of the exhibit. They were very nicely printed and mounted for the show. I believe that the photos traveled to several of the IQA venues to be shown. I was not aware that we would get these photos back but they were made available for us to pick up at this year's show in November. I now have those photos to display in my home.

This year they called for entries for the November show and I sent in three entries. From my three entries only one was selected. That was my best work called "Not Paula Nadelstrern's Star". My previous post discussed the motivation and process I used in the image.

When I went to Festival and sought out the "Eye of the Quilter" exhibit I was very disappointed to see what had been done with the image. Instead of being printed in the same square format as my original image the photo had been stretched to fit the format of the rectangular mounting board. That completely ruined the point of the image. It was obvious to me that whomever printed the photo was not aware of the concept of Paula's kaleidoscopic images.

I hope that this does not reflect negatively on me. There was a reason for the image to be square and that is totally lost in a rectangular format.

I was very disappointed.

Maybe next time.

The Unfolding of Not Paula Nadelstern's Star

2010-11-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

One of my photo entries was accepted in the Eye of The Quilter Exhibit in Houston.

This post will show the steps I used in creating the image.

I started with a photo of the lobby of the Hilton of the Americas where I stayed last year for my first visit to the International Quilt Show.

There were several things that happened this past year that led me to select this photograph and to manipulate it in the way I did.

At the show last year I learned about the copyright infringement of Paula's quilt designs that were used for the carpet in the Hilton and the crosswalk to the Convention Center.

In April the program for the East Cobb Quilt Guild was Paula Nadelstern and she spoke about that situation. Prior to that I was not totally sure that there was a legitimate violation of copyright. Paula showed photos of her quilts and then a section of the carpet that was an exact copy of her design. I am now a believer.

So, for this image I chose a section of the Hilton architecture that I had taken last year. From this image I created a design in the style of Paula Nadelstern. It is called Not Paula Nadelstern's Star.

First I sliced a 45 degree section of the photo that had a good composition. Then I copied it and flipped it to create a mirror image of that piece. After rotating the image 45 degrees I then copied those two parts and duplicated and flipped the duplicate to create a mirror image of the first pair. This made a complete square.

From this point I tinkered with the color and created a very colorful design. To get more depth and detail I made a copy of the completed design and rotated that 45 degrees and then adjusted the opacity of the top layer. I also added a outer glow effect to the main layer.

That is how I created this symmetrical star design.

If you look closely at the original image you can see a sign in the park across the street from the hotel in the original image. It says The Grove.

Good News for the WannaBees

2010-09-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

"Stars 'N' Stitches" Quilt Show opened with a special Preview Party for members and their families on Friday night.

My amazing family took over the responsibilities at home with caregiving for my wife Jackie so that I could be independent for the weekend. They arranged everything so that Jackie could be transported to the Preview Party for the evening. Jackie had a wonderful time seeing everyone again.

Our bee group the WannaBees were all present and we were in for a real treat when it came time for the presentation of awards. Our group quilt won the blue ribbon for Group Quilt as well as the "Best Original Design" blue ribbon.

Under the Sea with You and Me

2010-08-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

Our group quilt is almost a reality. We put together six of the eight panels today and we are close to seeing it completely together.

Each member of our WannaBees took one section of the design and picked our underwater subject. One of our members has an awesome stash and found a piece of Nancy Crow fabric that was perfect for the background. It was a water ripple that was lighter on one side and gradually went to a darker tone on the opposite side. The background fabric was selectively cut so that the pieces closest to the top would be lighter than the ones at the bottom. Then we went shopping at Intown Quilters and purchased a fabric which we each had to use so that the quilt would have unity. That fabric was a brightly colored Kaffe Fassett design called Planets. The fabric contains concentric rings of pastel blue, pink, lime, purple and brown. It was a great choice!

Each piece was to be done in our own choice of techniques and then quilted leaving enough fabric around the edges so that the pieces could then be put together. After the quilt is assembled we will then finish the embellishments. We plan to use an floating binding that doesn't show from the front so that the complete quilt will appear as a borderless panel.

The photos here are a photo of the parts we put together today at Lynn's house and a Photoshop version of the way the finished quilt will look.

Show Me The Way To Go Home

2010-07-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

For a while I have had this crazy idea about doing a Drunkard's Path quilt using fabric patterns that are difficult to look at without your eyes twitching. I also wanted to do this with the patterns skewed to add to the effect of disorientation.

Well I've finally started one using all black and white fabrics, many of which have some sort of optical design pattern.

Then I decided to put the pieces together in an overall design that had many paths and many curves but only one path that leads from one side to the other side. The path begins by being pretty clearly discernible because the contrast of value and simplicity of pattern makes the path clear. Along the way the path becomes more confusing by either being made up of two complex patterns that are very similar in value. There is only one path that leads from the Pub to the home.

There's an old song that goes,

Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went right to my head (or it's gone straight to my head)
Where ever I may roam
On land or sea or foam
You will always hear me singing this song
Show me the way to go home.

My latest idea is to make the path begin in front of a Pub that is still well lit so that the beginning of the path can be seen well. The path on the other side of the quilt will end at a house that is sitting in total darkness except for the one porch light and a bedroom light that is still on and the silhouette of a woman waiting for her mate.

Here is one of those "divine" moments that I have every now and then. I had done some sketches of a Pub and a split level house that I might use for the quilt. Then for some reason I thought, why not make the house and the Pub more whimsical? So I redrew the images quickly and put it aside for the day.

That night my daughter and grandson were spending the night and when it came time for him to go to bed Erin told him to pick out a book for me to read to him. He chose... "The Cat in The Hat".

On the first page of the book there was a picture of a house. It looked quite a bit like the house that I had just drawn for my quilt.

WannaBees Group Quilt - Jackie's Design

2010-05-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good start on my block for the group quilt but I haven't done anything on it for a few weeks. There were a few other things that became priorities.

My block is an octopus who is wrapped around a treasure chest full of gold, jewels and coins. Here is a photo of what I have done so far. I have made most of the pieces and just need to stitch them down and quilt the block. I'll get back to that pretty soon.

For the last few days I have been getting the pieces for Jackie's block ready for her to applique on her background. Jackie's block will have an angel fish, a hermit crab and a conch shell with sea weeds in the background. A part of her block joins mine and I want to take advantage of that and have something that overlaps.

WannaBees Group Quilt

2010-05-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

My bee group, The WannaBees is doing a group quilt. It's an underwater scene and we each are doing a block which we will guilt when we are finished and then we will put the blocks together. Each of us chose something you would see in the ocean and we are using any piecing or applique process we like to complete the scene. One of our members, Lene had a piece of fabric that looked like water and it was gradated from dark on one edge to light on the other edge. We are using that for the background with the darker pieces being at the bottom and the lighter ones at the top.

Here is a copy of the grid we are using.

As you can see I am doing an octopus. His tentacles are wrapped around a treasure chest overflowing with gold coins and jewels.

The WannaBees went shopping together at Intown Quilters and we picked one fabric that each of us would use to unify the blocks. It's a piece of Kaffe Fassett oval shapes printed with orange, lavender and brown as the dominant colors. We are all finding unique ways to use the fabric.

In another of our outings we went to Little Quilts and Red Hen and we found the fabric that we will use for our back.

Our goal is to have the quilt together in time for our CES guild's quilt show in September.

I am about two thirds finished with putting mine together and I hope to start quilting in the next couple of weeks.

Quilters in Stitches Presentation- Grayson, GA

2010-05-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

Tonight I did a presentation called "Altering Fabric For Use in Quilting" for the Quilter's in Stitches in Grayson. I was very happy with the reception. They are a great group and they were very interested in what I was demonstrating. I also saw that they were ready to apply some of the things that they learned. Several of them came to me and showed me what they had done in the short time that we had after I finished talking. Yeah, I talked too much again.

I had way more to show than we had time for and I hope to be able to go back and do a longer workshop so we can get serious. There is some real interest there.

I left home at three-thirty and stopped to eat once I got to Lawrenceville which is only 5 miles from Grayson.

Considering all of the things I had in my car I think I did pretty well on having the things I needed. Somewhere, somehow I didn't get there with the worksheet which would have helped them understand what I was asking them to do for design. I had also meant to stop along the way and get copies made of the work stations that I had set up and a list of sources for supplies.

I hope that some of them will read my blog and that they will be able to find some of the things that I didn't have with me. I will contact their program chair and get her to send the info to the if they want it.

To the Quilters in Stitches of Grayson, I salute you and I thank you for your warm reception. I hope to see you again soon.

Quilting Ben

"Reflections" In Another Show

2010-05-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

I was notified earlier this week that my landscape quilt, "Reflections Along the Chattahoochee" was accepted for exhibition in a special show of Tree Quilts at the NQA (National Quilt Association). The show is June 17-19 in Columbus, Ohio. The show is limited to only 40 quilts from across the country.

I am very pleased and feel honored to have my quilt in that show. Even though there is no cash involved in this recognition I will receive a certificate of participation and a ribbon. This is on of those "bragging rights" awards.

In case you haven't seem the quilt here is a photo of it.

Also here is a link to the National Quilt Association website NQA

Follow up to Portrait Quilt Workshop with Ginny Greaves

2010-04-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

Two months ago the Fiber Art Fusion Group had a workshop with Ginny Greaves. Ginny is a master art quilter who does faces in quilts. She has had Quilts in several national and international shows over the past few years. Last year she had two pieces in the Houston International Quilt Festival. You can see her work here.

Here is my post about the piece I did from that workshop.

The week after Easter I started a portrait quilt of my grandson Owen. Yesterday was his birthday party and I had the quilt on display at the party. Here is a link where you can read a post I wrote on CaringBridge about the party .

Here is a photo of the quilt.

Milan, Paris, London, New York, Kennesaw?

2010-04-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

Jackie and I were out shopping a couple of weekends ago when I had a hilarious moment in the restroom at JoAnn's. I know that's a very unique place to have a funny thing happen.

I'm sure that if I had run into anyone as I came out they would have thought I was strange or perverted or something.

As I turned to wash my hands before leaving I noticed that above the sinks were the names of the fashion capitols of the world. Milan, Paris, London, New York... Kennesaw???? JoAnn's of Kennesaw has put themselves in the ranks of world-class cities known for their exquisite fashion.

Wouldn't you be laughing too.

Meeting with Lori and Pat

2010-04-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

This is a post I wrote several weeks ago. I thought that I had posted it. There must be some excuse for not posting it but I don't remember why right now.

My longtime friends Lori and Pat met me for lunch at Alpha Soda last Friday. We taught together for umpteen years in the greatest Art Department you can imagine. Our students were awesome and we achieve the highest level of art work possible during those years that we taught together.

Pat retired three or four years before I did and Lori took time off to go to RIT for her Masters. A few months ago Pat fell on a concrete walkway and had a serious concussion. She has recovered very well and she says that she is about 80 percent back to full capacity. She has not painted much since the accident but has some great ideas of what she is going to do when she is fully able.

As we discussed our vision for the work we plan to do Lori pointed out a quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt. She said that great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. I think that we were stroking our ego that we were discussing our ideas for projects that we want to do. That's probably not true because none of really has much of an ego. That was the primary reason for our successes working together.

On Monday night my Chattahoochee Evening Stars Quilt Guild met with a program presented by Charlotte Angotti, an nationally recognized quilter and teacher/presenter. From everything we had heard she was a funny lady. It was all an understatement. She was hilarious! She talked about people. No matter how genius a person may be they need some down time to have some fun. What better way to have fun than to talk about people. I think it is more fun when the people your are talking about are stupid. Now this may backfire on us because I'm sure that the first chance she gets Charlotte will talk about some of the people in our guild who asked some dumb questions or did some stupid things. We probably deserve it.

I took part in an all day workshop last Saturday and she was a great teacher. Her humor is a component of the over all package. My opinion of the presentation is that Charlotte has developed a nearly perfect experience for her workshops. I think that her process and presentation are genius. After picking fabrics the workshop participants begin by making the simplest quilt pattern, a four-patch block. Then they are shown several variations using that block. Then another block pattern is presented and more variations of quilt designs that can be made using a combination of the two blocks. Each new block that is presented increases the design possibilities exponentially. The particular blocks that she presents are some of the simplest yet they yield some amazing quilts designs.

As we worked the significance of relative value relationships became more and more obvious.

I believe that with the basic knowledge of sewing and drafting my own patterns that I learned from my first quilting class with Helena Krapp and the valuable things I got from Charlotte Angotti, I have a great foundation to do many, many successful quilts.

Our Own Personal Shop Hop

2010-03-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

For one reason or another we missed the Shop Hop last weekend. Between going to Bulloch Hall a couple of times and babysitting for our grandson and having Jackie's sister Ginger and her husband John visit with us for about 30 hours I guess we had an excuse.

So..., yesterday was such a beautiful day and I needed a few pieces of fabric for my next project and Jackie wanted to buy fleece that was on sale we did our own Shop Hop. We started out at Tiny Stitches in Marietta where we ran into several friends. Suzanne and her mother Kathy were there for the Saturday Sampler class. Betsy was there shopping. Melinda works there most days. There were also several others from East Cobb Quilt Guild. It was a 'hopping' place. I found several great fabrics for my project and Jackie enjoyed looking at the fabrics and patterns and books.

Next we had lunch at John Boys on Canton Highway. What a place. We fit in just right.

From there we went to Hancocks Fabrics which is nearly next door to John Boys. Jackie found one piece of fleece and bought the whole bolt for the Blanket Ministry at our church. I just bought three or four pieces of fabric for my project.

We got directions to JoAnns at Town Center from a young lady and her mother before we left Hancocks and headed out.

The traffic around the Mall was insane. We sat through four lights for anywhere from two to four cycles. This is the area where Barrett Parkway crosses I575 and the traffic off of I575 was merging with the crossing traffic. We would have turned around if we had not been trapped in the middle lane.

Somehow we found JoAnns. I got home from there but I don't think I could ever find it again. It is off of, off of, off of a street somewhere over there. It is hidden behind all of the other buildings. Maybe I should have left a bread trail.

It was a huge store. We found a few things that we were looking for.

Then it was time to head home. We got here between games and spent the next couple of hours watching West Virginia beat Kentucky. I had West Virginia picked in my bracket and Jackie was pulling for Kentucky because they were loosing. West Virginia played an awesome game. In the first half they were 0 for 16 in two point field goals but they had 8 out of 15 three point shots and four free throws. Kentucky struggled to get the ball through the rim, especially in the second half. My team moves on to the Final Four and probably will play for the championship next weekend.

I couldn't wait to get all of my fabrics out and see if I had all of what I needed. I started out with quite a collection before I went shopping. Now I think I'm ready to get started with my project.

I'm not ready yet to reveal what that project is, but here are some photos of the fabrics that I hope to used.

As I learned in the FAF workshop with Ginny Greaves a couple of weeks ago, I need to have the fabrics with a good range of values. One of the tricks I learned from her was to take a photo of the fabrics in black and white to see how the colors appear as value. This is a good way of checking the range of values as well as the sequence.

Here are some photos of what I have to work with.

What a Distinction!

2010-03-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

If you have a keen sense of observation you will notice that my Sunbonnet Sue quilt has another ribbon on it.

I started off the week with one ribbon on it and was notified on Sunday night that it had won the Viewer's Choice award.

As Jackie and I visited the show on Monday and again on Thursday, we couldn't help but notice that it was attracting lots of attention.

We saw Jennifer from the WannaBees on Thursday and she said that when she looked at my quilt some of the docents for the show said to her, "He's in the building....". She said, "Yes, I know. He's a friend of mine."

Thanks, Jennifer for relaying that to me.

I am very excited about the honors that this quilt has received. There were some incredible quilts in the show. I am really happy that they got the concept of the quilt. Sometimes people don't understand the idea.

It was one of those inspired quilts. I really enjoyed making it.

Bulloch Hall 2010 Qult Show

2010-03-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

Jackie and I made time in our schedule Monday to attend this year's Bulloch Hall Quilt Show in Roswell.

We got off from home in such a hurry I left my complementary ticket and my wallet at home. (I've got to find that ticket by Monday. It is with my receipt to pick up my quilts.) I found my wallet on the floor upstairs.

When we got to the ticket office for Bulloch Hall I realized that I didn't have my wallet. We paid with Jackie's credit card but didn't get tickets and didn't get my senior discount. We found out later that the lady selling tickets got scolded for not giving us our tickets. It was our fault because we got her so confused.

So, we start where we usually start and look at the Vintage Block Challenges in the first room. They were amazing for their variety of interpretations. Fascinating. The second room, the Dining Room was filled with brightly colored quilts. My Batik Challenge quilt with the tie dye back was in that room as well as a beautiful quilt by Colleen Regan. It was also made of batik fabrics. She said that she chose colors that she thought were ugly and they ended up looking fantastic.

By this time we both need a potty break so we ran outside to the restrooms. No, they are not outhouses.

When we came back there were some ladies from the assisted living center nearby who had some questions about my Sunbonnet Sue quilt. As we walked into the room to talk about it I noticed something hanging on the side right by the block that we were talking about. It was a blue ribbon inscribed with "Sponsor's Choice, Atlanta Sewing Center, Duluth and Marietta".

What a great surprise!

I am very grateful for the recognition. The only other quilt with a ribbon in the show had two ribbons. It had another Sponsor's Choice award and the Bulloch Hall Guild Choice award. It was a beautiful applique quilt called Pomegranate Quilt by Susan Hunston from Seneca, SC. It had some incredible machine quilting in the background. The background was off-white and looked like a whole cloth quilt. The machine quilting was amazing! I am showing a detail of that quilt in the photos that I have posted.

My favorite quilt was Ollie Jane's Flower Garden by Sandra Gilreath of Bonaire, GA. It was a traditional paper pieced flower garden quilt but it had large flowers appliqued on top of the background and a beautiful floral border. I have another photo of that quit posted here too.

We also ran into Virginia Whitehead from our guild. She had two quilts in the show. We had seen them at Show and Tell several months ago. Virginia usually does huge quilts. One that she had in the show was a wall size applique quilt. It was lovely.

I have to wait until Thursday afternoon to post this blog because the WannaBees are going to see the show tomorrow morning and I want it to be a surprise for them.

After Jackie and I left the show we also realized that we forgot to vote for our Viewer's Choice. We had a pretty crazy day but I am very pleased with the end result.

Hangin' With the Dawg - or - Doing What Ginny Does

2010-03-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday night the Fiber Art Fusion group had a workshop with Ginny Greaves. We learned how she does her portrait quilts that have won her recognition in International Quilt shows for several years.

I really enjoyed discovering how she brings about the fantastic portrait quilts. Her technique is somewhat like what I have done in the past but but much more organized and thought out.

The image of a dog is Ginny's image which she edited and presented to us to use so that we did not have to spend the time on design that is required. I have come to understand how time consuming this process is as I have started working on images of my grandsons that I can use on a quilt of my own. More on that later.

Last Tuesday we started transferring the images from our tracing of the dog onto fusible web and then ironing down the fusible and cutting out the fabric for each part of the picture. I got the first color/value cut out and ironed it down when I got home. Then I finished the second color/value and got it ironed down the next morning.

Somewhere along the way I got confused and thought that there were only three colors plus black and white, but there turned out to be four colors. When I got confused I ended up making all of the third and fourth value pieces the same color so there is a color missing in my piece that would probably have added more detail to the piece. It seemed to work out OK.

I didn't decide to add the frame to the piece until after I had quilted the picture. Then it was harder to put the frame on and quilt it.

For my first attempt at this process I am pleased.

Here is what I did.

Hannah's Quilt with My Tie Dye Back

2010-02-25T05:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I received an email from Lynn B. with some photos of a quilt she just finished quilting for her daughter Hannah. Several months ago Lynn asked me if she could buy one of my tie dye fabrics to use on the quilt. She had made the quilt top from Amy Butler fabrics in a simple square in a square pattern. It was beautiful and very colorful.

We pulled out some of the fabrics I had done and there were several that used the same types of intense colors. The design was most impressive. The fabric that Hannah and Lynn picked was about 6-8 inches smaller than the finshed size of the quilt would be. So that meant that the back needed to be extended with a border. We picked Hannah's favorite color, lime green, and I made an additional piece of tone-on-tone dyed fabric to use for the border of the back. It was OK.

A couple of months ago the WannaBees went shopping at Intown Quilters Lynn and came across a hand dyed fabric that was made to be the border on the back of Hannah's quilt.

In January Lynn finished the quilt and was ready to quilt it. So for the past three or four days Lynn has been quilting the quilt on Lene's longarm quilter.

I haven't seen the finished quilting, but Lynn says that it looks like she quilted it from the center out. That's a difficult look to achieve on a long arm machine. I'm sure that design on the back helps to emphasize that look when you look at the back but she quilted it from the front.

I can't wait to see it when she finishes the binding. I hope she has time to finish it by Monday night for the guild meeting.

Here are the photos.

The Master Artist

2010-02-12T14:50:00.000-08:00

Everybody loves the beautiful scenes they see when snow blankets everything.

We are having the most beautiful snow today. It didn't start until about 1:30 but very quickly there was a beautiful blanket of white covering everything.

It is absolutely beautiful.

Here are some of the photos that show scenes around our house.

Awesome.

It's still snowing and tonight it should get colder. That means we will still have some snow tomorrow. I hope to get out and get some more photos tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted.

Late Bloomers

2010-01-24T15:45:00.001-08:00

My wife and I were both late bloomers.

Now we are owners of plants that are late bloomers.

We have had these small Christmas Cactus plants for a number of years. Earlier in our life we killed off several. These plants are beautiful when they bloom and it is such a unique thing for them to bloom at Christmas.

My daughter and I were talking about how much is required to keep a Poinsettia alive and have it bloom again the following year much less several years. The problem is that you have to duplicate, almost exactly their native environment. I believe that the Christmas Cactus must be just as fussy about its climate and care as the Poinsettia. The strange this is that we have done nothing that we are conscious of, differently this year.

The blooms started a little after the first of the year. They have been so amazing.

The beauty of nature continues to be awesome to me. The paint brush of the Master....

Sunbonnet Sue Photos

2009-12-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

For some reason I thought that I had published photos of my Sunbonnet Sue quilt.

Here is a shot of the whole quilt. There are 12 different famous pieces of art and each is framed and then all 12 are framed together in a large quilted frame made to look like an old hand-carved wooden frame.

There are also some close ups photos of some of the blocks in the quilt showing the quilting details.

A few months ago I wrote about the discovery of another Sunbonnet Sue Quilt in North Carolina by Linda Cantrell.

My quilt is called "Sunbonnet Sue Goes to the Museum". It takes the traditional Sunbonnet Sue image which is shown in the bottom left corner as a little lady in Crocs and a dress with a Henri Matisse style print and she is looking at a painting by Henri Matisse called "The Dance". Each dancer in the painting has been given a hat or "bonnet". Throughout the rest of the quilt each artist's work has bonnets added to each person in the artwork.

The artists and their work are from left to right on the top row: Andy Warhol-"Marilyn", Marcel Duchamp- "Nude Descending a Staircase", Pablo Picasso- "Girl Before a Mirror", ; second row: Andrew Wyeth-"Christina's World", Roy Lichtenstein- "In the Car", Alfred Eisenstadt- "V.J Day in Times Square", Grant Wood- "American Gothic"; third row: Henri Matisse-"The Dance", William H. Johnson-"Jitter Bug", Edvard Munch- "The Scream", James McNeill Whistler- "Portrait of the Artist's Mother".

When I was a child I read a book that had great illustrations in it and anytime I think about the story I think of one of the illustrations from the book showing Johnny Appleseed spreading apple seed all across the countryside. My basic concept with this quilt is to consider the thought that if Sunbonnet Sue had the same zeal as Johnny Appleseed, what might happen.

Mary Jo's Cloth Store - Featured Artist

2009-12-28T14:36:00.000-08:00

Hey, this is pretty cool.

I just received an email from MaryJo's and I am the featured artist on their blog this week.

Last week they asked for art quilters to send them examples of their work. Mine was selected to be spotlighted.

The image used for their logo has my one-block-wonder quilt "Year of the Dragon" as the background. There is a story and there is of photo of me with my landscape quilt in Houston and a link to my blog.

I am thrilled with the opportunity to show my work on the Mary Jo's blog site. Here is the link to the blog.

http://maryjoscloth-design.blogspot.com/

Finished Landscape quilt

2009-12-18T11:54:00.000-08:00

This is a quilt that I started as a sample in a demonstration at the East Cobb Quilt Show in September. In the demo I showed some of the techniques that I use when I make my landscape quilts.

The first technique was done using Shiva Paint Stix to capture the texture of the bark on a tree. Since I was working on a small image I had to scale down some of the things I would typically use in a larger piece. I used a branch of a sweetgum tree. These rubbings would be my two big trees and some of the branches in my quilt.

The second technique was using freezer paper as a stencil for the grass in the field. I used a rotary cutter to cut a ragged edge on the freezer paper and then ironed the top part to my fabric. Then I used a stencil brush to pick up oil pastel color from a Paint Stix. This was then brushed lightly over the edge of the freezer paper stencil.

I also used a freezer paper stencil to make the signs that would be put on the trees.

The background of the quilt was done just by painting with the PaintStix and a large easel brush to create the sky, ground and some distant trees or hills. I also used the PaintStix for some tree foliage for trees in the middle ground of the piece.

Once all of the PaintStix parts were dry (a few days later) the fabric was ironed to remove some of the wax and to set the color in the fabric.

The tree trunks were quilted some before applying them to the background. This was just the black textured fabric with batting. There was no backing fabric. The trees were then attached to the background and stitched around the edges.

I added a border to create the effect of a picture frame. The outer part of that frame was embellished with PaintStix using an old piece of weathered wood.

Then I was ready to quilt the piece. Most quilting was done using my free motion foot on my Viking. There are parts of the inset border that were done using the walking foot for the leaves adn vines. and the woodgrain on the outer part of the frame was also done using the walking foot.

My final embelishment was the small shrubs in the foreground beside the trees. These were done by couching a DMC thread which was split where the limbs forked. The foliage on these shrubs was made from clumps of thread from the washing machine when we washed some fabric for another project. These clumps of thread were stitched together between layers of hand dyed cheesecloth and water soluble stabilizer. Then the stabilizer was washed away and the pieces were quilted into place.

This piece is a fairly small piece. It is approximately 20 inches high by about 28 inches wide.

GarageBand

2009-12-04T18:50:00.001-08:00

GarageBand

Posted using ShareThis

Going For the Gusto

2009-11-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

We are blessed.

We had a wonderful day today with our family and longtime friends the Nahsers. When our kids were all very young we would get together once each month to have dinner and just enjoy one another. There were four families and sometimes some of each family's close friends.

As reminder of this our friend Don brought a photo of the mob, we were referred to as "The Motley Crew" which we didn't really like once we became aware of the rock group of that name. They had an entirely different image than any of us ever thought about being. Our friend John, who now lives in California, took the photo and it is great. We decided today that the photo must be at least 20 years old. The youngest child in the photo was Nancy (now Liz) who appears to be about 7 in the photo. She is now twenty seven. The only ones from the photo not present today were Liz, John and his wife Alice, Tom and Vickie who live in Tennessee. All of the kids are married now except Liz.

I was responsible for bringing a veggie dish and a fruit dish to the lunch. I decided to use my gift of art and make edible arrangements. Believe it or not, I got the idea in Houston at the Quilt Festival. There were several people there demonstrating mixed media techniques that could be used in quilting. One of the demonstrations was making a floral arrangement out of vegetables. I saw a few minutes of the demo and go the handout.

When I got the idea to make the arrangements I went online and looked at some videos of people making arrangements out of fruit and veggies. I thought I might try it.

I got started last night with cutting and steaming some sweet sliced potatos, ruttabagga, and zucchini. It's a good thing I started last night. When I got up this morning I went straight to work on the arrangements and worked from 7:30 until we left to go to Ball Ground at 11:20. I barely got finished.

I think I learned a lot. I know I need to allow more time.

Tonight the remains of the arrangements have been made into soup along with a ham bone from the lunch.

Life is good.
Ben

New Drawings since Houston

2009-11-10T05:04:00.000-08:00

My sketchbook is with me pretty much everywhere I go. Several years ago I started some drawings in a new style for me. In the process of presenting a lesson to my students on cubism, I discovered a new way of drawing from a variety of inspirational sources.

Cubist art takes a shape or form and rearrange it parts. I discovered that the best way to teach that to my students was for them to do contour drawings of the subject from different points of view and then take different sections of several of the drawings and move them around and put them together in a new order. I gave them two procedures to try.

One was to develop a simple framework on their paper by using straight or gracefully curving lines to break up the space. Then take the contour drawings they had made and place them into the framework. They would draw a line until they came to one of the framework lines and then stop that line and find another line from another drawing and use that in the next space.

The second process was a bit more intuitive. They would choose a line and start drawing it and then at some point stop that line and begin a new line from that point on.

We used this process on things like musical instruments and the human form. This was the beginning of a mixed media piece where we would use some painted areas, some collage, some drawing and possibly some writing.

I made several demo pieces that i really liked.

From there I became interested in the Art Deco design and my drawings from that point reflect that period.

Before I retired I even converted some of the drawings into ceramic pieces. They were fine until I glazed them and then they were a complete mess. I still want to do some more of these but right now I don't have a kiln to use.

After I started quilting I pulled out some of these drawings and started some quilt blocks. Even though they were not finished I would like to pull them out and work on the some more soon.

While I was in Houston I had the great fortune to attend a demonstration and lecture of Melanie Testa. Her book "Inspired to Quilt" along with what she said have been very inspirational to me. I have been developing some plans for pieces that use some of that experience.

So far there are just the drawings. But I do believe that they will become finished pieces of art someday.

here are a few pages from one of my small sketchbooks.

Decorative Quilting Workshop

2009-10-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today I had the great pleasure of attending a workshop with Linda Feidler. She is a master quilter and her use of decorative quilting is amazing.

This was a class for Advanced Machine Quilters. I learned that I am far from an advanced quilter. The ladies in this class define ADVANCED. They jumped right in and took the information that was presented and made it theirs. Their practice pieces were as good as what Linda was done and she developed the techniques.

What I learned is that I have many long hours of practice in order to get to the level of intermediate quilter. My curves were not curves. My stitches were extremely inconsistent in length. My straight lines were not straight. I had trouble with my poor pitiful machine. I was all thumbs and embarrassed to show what I did. I came very close to being a dropout. When I stopped to think about where I am in comparison to the Advanced quilters in this class I had to convince myself that what I needed was another 10-20 years of practice. That's the only way I'll get to that level.

So I guess for now I still have to rely on my creative solutions to quilting and keep working on my techniques.

I still have lots to learn.

Trying to Finish Challenge Quilts

2009-10-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

This is copied from Jackie's Caring Bridge site.

For the last two or three days I have been concentrating on finishing two quilts. They are both challenge quilts for our November 2nd meeting of the Chattahoochee Evening Stars (better know as Ben and the Hoochie Mamas). The first one I finished this morning. It is a quilt illustrating a children's storybook about quilts.The story I chose is quite appropriate for me to do. I have to thank Suzanne H. for switching to another book after I discovered the book and the story line.

The book, Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt, is about a man named Sam Johnson who discovers that he likes to sew because he has to repair the tarp over his pig pen. He then decides to join his wife's quilt guild but they don't allow men to join. Sam decides to start his own guild for men.

The town where they live has a county fair every year and one of hte contests is the quilt contest. Sam and the men's guild make a quilt and Sam's wife and her guild make a quilt for the fair.

On the way to the fair there is a storm that blows the quilts away and they are tattered and torn and trampled in the mud.

The men's guild and the women's guild decide that if they are going to have a quilt in the fair they must take what is left of each quilt and put them together in order to have an entry in the fair.

Their joint effort wins the blue ribbon.

Good story, right.

That one is finished.

Now I am quilting the second quilt. This one is a Batik Exchange Challenge. We had 12 people participate and each month we would bring 12 ten inch squares each of two different colors of batik fabrics. After 10 months we each had 240 ten inch squares of a different batiks. Then our challenge was to make a quilt using the fabric.

I started quilting this one before we left for Houston. Tonight I got back to work on it and got quite a bit done. I think I will be able to finish it by Monday. Knock on wood.

Sense of Accomplishment

2009-10-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got about three quarters of my Children's Book Challenge Quilt quilted. I hope to be able to finish the rest today. I am getting a late start because I slept late. It is so rare for me to sleep past as late as nine o'clock but I did it this morning. Jackie's alarm clock woke me up. She was asleep on the couch in the other room. Jackie is still recovering from our travels and her treatment.

We got great news this morning that Erin and Chaz have had their low ball offer accepted by the bank on the house they offered to buy last week. They are very excited about movingn into a bigger place. We hope to be able to see the house today.

Now it's time for me to return to my sewing.

Hope to have good news later today that the Book Challenge quilt is finished.

All Falling Apart

2009-10-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

We got home very late Tuesday night. One o'clock or so.

The past week and the flight and drive home have taken a toll on me.

Just before leaving to go to Houston I discovered that an Additional Extension to File Income Tax for 2008 was no longer available. Our final tax return was due on October 15. Unless I spent a week or more getting all records to file before going to Houston I could not meet the deadline. I sent a letter and a payment. Now I have to get the return complete as soon as I can.

One of the nineteen messages we had on our answer machine was from the U. S. Census Bureau asking us to call. I'm sure that it was to hound us about getting our Census completed. I haven't done that.

Wednesday morning at 10:15 Jackie had an appointment for the 14th round of chemotherapy. I took her and we met Erin and Owen there. It was great to see them after ten days. When Jackie started her treatment Erin left with Owen to go to our house to wait for us to get home.

We had set up an appointment to have our HVAC system inspected. We also were having trouble with our upstairs cooling system and it was also time for the inspection. Erin called while I was at the doctor with Jackie and said that the heating and air repairman was on his way our house at around noon. I took a food order for Jackie and stopped by Wendy's on the way home to get food for Jackie, Owen and myself. The plan was to pass off the food for Jackie to Erin and let her take it back to the doctor's office for Jackie to eat while she was finishing her treatment. I was going to take care of Owen until Jackie and Erin got home. Owen was going to help me move our plants indoors.

When I got home the HVAC tech was ready to start the inspection. He could barely find a path through the house to the stairway where he could access the upstairs AC unit. After a pretty extensive inspection he came back to tell me that our nineteen year old unit could no longer continue effectively. The bad news is that we will need to spend about $5000 on a new system. The good news is that if we get an energy efficient unit then we will qualify for an Energy Tax Credit of $1500.

Owen and I started moving our houseplants from under the deck to the sunroom. After three trips down and up the steps Owen wanted me to carry him. That was enough moving plants. I understand that Owen was very proud of the work we did so it was worth it to me for him to be so pleased.

When Jackie and Erin got home from Jackie's appointment it was 2:15. I was suppose to be at my cardio rehab appointment at 2:00. When I went to my car to go to the appointment I found that the battery was dead. OK, I'm not going to rehab. I have missed five days of rehab now.

Thursday update - Finally made it to rehab today. I had to take the quilt I brought home from Houston just to show my therapists why I was gone last week. They were mighty impressed.

Tonight I finally got to quilting the Children's Story Book Challenge quilt I have fought for so long. I have whipped it into submission but not without taking a few prisoners.

I can't wait to get to the final stages. I have some unusual plans for the quilt and that should even the score between me and the quilt.

Hang around to see the results.

Another Ending of Another Show

2009-10-18T06:13:00.000-07:00

Today ends the most enjoyable week of the International Quilt Festival in Houston.

It is an end to my first foray into the adventure of competitive quilt shows. This has been a great ride for me. I have met and heard some quilters who are Divinely inspired and who serve as an inspiration to me. It is that inspiration that makes me eager to get back to my quilting machine and back to work on some of the many projects that I now have in mind to create.

I am posting a few photos of my quilt hanging in the show and some of the most memorable things I have seen while here in Houston.

This afternoon the show closes at 5:00 and sometime between 6 and 7:30 I will get my quilt back.

We have had a luxurious stay in the Hilton of the Americas. I is is a fabulous hotel and the decorations are a big "wow".

The lobby of the hotel has two of Dale Chihuly's Chandeliers and the 4th floor entrace to the Ball Room has two banks of his ceiling pieces. Each contains five clusters of the flower like shapes. They are beautiful.

There are some great views from the hotel windows overlooking Discovery Green a new City park.

We have had a grand stay here. It's hard to belive that living in such luxury and comfort we are eager to get back to our own comfortable "shabby" home.

BIG- How Big?

2009-10-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

I told you this was a big show.

We've been here for two days now and spent at least 10 hours in the Festival Show and we have seen about 70 percent of the Exhibits and about ten percent of the vendors. We have three more days and hope to see everything that we want to see.

For those of you who are familiar with the people involved with quilting you will recognize the names of some of the people we have seen here. We have seen Alex Anderson, Ricky Tims, Eleanor Burns, Laura Woslowski, John Flynn, Pokey Bolton, Melanie Testa, Lyric Kinnard, Linda Taylor from the Gammill advertisements and many more.

I have become a Melanie Testa groupie. Yesterday I attended a session called Mixed Media Miscellaney and saw her do a demonstration on mono printing with thickened dyes using freezer paper. This morning I saw her lecture on using journal entries as inspiration for quilting. She is a amazing. I am terrible about remembering names. I did not recognize her name, although it was familiar to me, until I saw that she is the author of the last book I bought. It's called Inspired to Quilt She has a great approach that is somewhat like mine. She is inspired in her work and inspiring to listen to.

Here is a link to her website.

Got to get busy now it's almost time for the show to close for the day and there is much more to see.

Pictures to come.

Lots to see.

Ben

Quilting Capitol of the World

2009-10-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

We are there. Houston.

For the rest of this week Houston is the Quilting Capitol of the World. This is a really big show. Last year there were 52,500 people who attended the International Quilt Festival in Houston.

There are 4 pages of Special Exhibits. Each a grand collection of quilts.

Tonight we are staying with our niece Katie and her husband Steve. Tomorrow morning we will go into the city and check out the convention center and check into our hotel. We are excited that we will be able to stay at the Hilton of the Americas which is connected to the convention center. We will be able to go back and forth without any difficulty.

We look forward with eager anticipation to the many wonders we will see in the next few days.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhh..........

Another Sunbonnet Sue Quilt

2009-10-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

Last week Jenn mentioned that she had seen a quilt that had a theme similar to my Sunbonnet Sue Quilt. She said that it was something about Sunbonnet Sue and Musicals or Broadway but she couldn't remember where she had seen it.

I decided to search for other Sues with a similar name.

I came across Linda Cantrell in Fletcher, NC who has done a quilt called "Sunbonnet Sue Does Hollywood - The lost screen test - now playing."

In Linda's quilt there are 33 blocks put together like strips of film. Each block is a scene from a movie with Sunbonnet Sue as one of the characters. Some examples of the blocks are Jaws, The Wizard of Oz, Saturday Night Fever, Gone With the Wind, Superman, Blue Hawaii, The Birds, Casablanca, Carrie, The Exorcist, King Kong, Bus Stop, E.T., Titanic, The Sound of Music. The image I found on the internet is not very detailed so it is hard to recognize some of the images.

Here is a link to Linda's site through the Southern Highland Craft Guild.

I think it is very unique that the concept of Linda Cantrell's quilt and mine are so similar.

A second quilt I found is one that is a block of the month that features 10 different block of Sunbonnet Sue through the decades.

"The Century Quilt with Sunbonnet Sue" is available in a kit from The Quilt Company.

New Landscape

2009-09-19T20:48:00.001-07:00

Today at the Quilt Show I started an new landscape quilt.

I am recreating a watercolor that I did about 15 years ago from a drawing I did when I was still living in Mississippi. I think it was done right after I finished college and was teaching art in Jackson.

The scene is a piece of property that is located near the Natchez Trace and the intersection of Old Canton Road near the Madison Airport.

I am working almost the same size as the painting which is about 16 x 20 inches. I will eventually add a frame around the picture so the finished size will probably be about 24 x 36.

Today I did the sky using PaintStix applied directly and blended with a stencil brush and my fingers. In front of that I stenciled a group of trees and in the foreground a straw island. I use some freezer paper stencils for these. To keep the edges of the trees soft I tore the edges of the freezer paper and after I removed it I softened the edge even more by rubbing with a brush. The straw island was stenciled using a rotary cutter in a random rocking motion to create points like blades of grass or pine needles.

My favorite part is the tree trunks. I took in my "best" stick. Why would I want to take my worst stick? That's an old line from Marijane. I had a trunk of a small tree that I had cut down. I used the stick to create a rubbing on fabric that looks just like bark. I started with the back of a piece of tone-on-tone black fabric. I first added some dark tones of various colors (green, red, umber, ochre, gray) while the fabric was flat on the drawing board. Then I put the fabric around the stick and held it in place while I rubbed it with more colors, mostly lighter in value. The effect is very realistic.

I had hoped to do some quilting on the piece tonight but I haven't been that ambitious. It will wait until later.

I will continue my demo tomorrow afternoon at 2:30.

The show comes down at 4:00.

It's been fun and a lot of work.

Joy,
and Ben

Hangin' On

2009-09-17T13:34:00.001-07:00

The "Show" is hung!

It is incredible, too. I am proud to be a part of a show of this calibre. What a talented bunch of quilters. I want to get to know more of them and talk to them about what they are doing. I hope that I will meet most of them this weekend.

Mary Ann Henderson won Best in Show at the last show and has outdone herself in this show. Her quilt of a dragon is as awesome on the back as it is on the front. In the last show she used over 20,000 crystals to embellish the quilt on the back. Her dragon probably has more than the last one did.

I have a dragon on my One-Block-Wonder. She has a DRAGON on her quilt.

We have had a great day today. The rain did not start until after we had unloaded the quilts from the trailer and it stopped raining just afternoon and looks like it will be clear for the evening and our Preview Party.

Come see our show.

I'll be demonstrating some all three days. On Saturday and Sunday I'll be woring on a mixed media piece that I have started and will continue for each session I do.

Beauty Along the Way

2009-09-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

Once again I was struck by the beauty of nature as I walked along the trail at Wills Park. Back in the early summer I got some great photos of some honeysuckle. One photo was a pair of blooms that create a nearly perfect heart.

Monday the flowers were along the fence by the Mansell House. I have seen them from a distance but never gotten close enough to see what they really look like.

The most beautiful ones in my opinion were the ones with the small petals and the purple bean pods. They had vines with purple tendrils that wrapped around the white fence.

It was a beautiful sight and the rain added to the effect.

God's paintbrush is the most masterful of all.

Drawing with FAF and Mary Akers

2009-09-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

Last week our Fiber Art Fusion had a drawing class with Mary Akers.

It was a great opportunity to get back into the process of drawing. I haven't done any studio drawing since I retired. I was a little bit rusty.

We did several activities culminating with an extended still life drawing of our choice of several arrangements of flowers.

My point of view was from the dark side of the room and I saw a very dark background against the translucent flowers under the bright light. I chose to create an almost silhouette drawing of the flowers. The finished drawing turned out much more complex than I had envisioned. I saw in my head a very graphic interpretation of the subject.

When I got home I put the drawing aside for a few days. Over the weekend I decided to do a drawing from my drawing that was more like the drawings I am doing these days. They are much more graphic and approaching a cubistic style.

Her are samples of the drawing done in the studio and the new version I did at home.

Ready to Quilt Batik Challenge

2009-09-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

I have pin basted my Batik Challenge Quilt with one of my tie dye fabrics for the back. Last night I experimented with some different quilting threads. I tried orange, green, purple and teal. I think I like the teal the best for the tie dye side and maybe the green for the batik side.

What I am going to do is to quilt with the tie dye on top and follow the design. I have been thinking about doing this on a piece of my tie dye fabric but with a solid color on the back. Then last month I saw a magazine cover for Quilting Arts that took that idea and went to another level. They cut out shapes form the tie dye and quilted those individually and then put them together to make a wall hanging.

Here is a sample of the quilting I did on some scrap pieces.

WannaBees Go to Intown

2009-09-11T04:41:00.000-07:00

We started our day yesterday with a field trip with our WannaBees to Intown Quilters in Decatur. That is a great place to uplift your spirits. Especially when you are shopping.

Our group is doing a group quilt and we needed to pick our fabrics so that they would be coordinated.

We decided to use Lena's background fabric which is a Nancy Crow ripple fabric that is lighter on one edge and gradually changes value across the width. Our subject is and underwater scene. We are going to use the darker part for the background of the bottom pieces and higher parts of the design will be done using the lighter sections. We are doing a modular design made up of eight pieces. Each person will do a scene of something in the ocean.

We also decided to pick a focus fabric or anchor that we will each use to unify the design. We picked a print that looks somewhat like fish eggs or eyeballs. It has several great colors that should work well with all of our subjects.

Jodi found some great pieces for her sea turtles shells. I think she decided to do all alike except one that will be the alpha male of the group.

Lynn was looking for some bright patterned designs to use for her school of fish she ended up with a number of good candidates that will look great with the focus fabric.

Jenn found some cool textured pieces to use for the section she is doing. She is not sure yet if she is doing sea anemones or jellyfish. She is wanting to create a corner that looks like it has been undisturbed for quite some time.

Jackie let me pick out her fabric. She (with my help) is going to make an angelfish. I found a very light marbled lavender and a great leaf batik that I think we can use so that the pattern of the leaves doesn't standout.

Jackie spent most of her time looking at samples of aprons as well as some fabrics that she could use for aprons. She was just getting started shopping when everybody else had finished and was waiting on her to go to lunch.

I had already bought most of my fabric at MaryJo's in Gastonia, NC. when we went to our niece's wedding in May. I'm doing an octopus wrapped around a treasure chest.

We went to lunch at Applebee's at North DeKalb Mall. It was a good place to talk and help Lynn solve her "school" dilemma.

Our missing members were Caroline, Vickie and Lene. They all had good excuses but they sure missed a fun outing.

Lene, in addition to finding our background fabric will be doing an image of either a dolphin or a whale in one of the upper sections of the group quilt. She chose the top because she wanted to have the dolphin or whale jumping out of the surface fo the water.

Vickie is going to be creating a mermaid in her block. She already has a good collection of fabrics that will go well in the piece.

Caroline is going to be making a Neptune figure for one of the center panels in our design. I'm sure she will get to Intown sometime soon to get her fabric.

This group effort should be really great when we get it finished.

We had a joyous day.

Hoochie Girls

2009-09-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

Two years ago while a group from CES was at retreat we were discussing the fact that our guild name was very long.

Our president suggested that we need to be called the Hoochie Mamas but then realized that I was also a part of the group. We would have to be Ben and the Hoochie Mamas.

At our next guild meeting I presented all of the ladies who had attended the retreat with an honorary membership card as members of "Ben and the Hoochie Girls" (girls instead of mamas in order to show a little more respect to the title).

This is a copy of the card.

Each time we go on retreat if there is a new member of the group they will receive their own membership card as a member of the "Hoochie Girls".

East Cobb Quilt Guild "Quilters Spotlight"

2009-08-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

Friday morning I was honored to be one of the members of East Cobb Quilt Guild to tell about our journey as a quilter.

Friday evening I was not so honored. That is I was a real dummy. I'll get to that in just a minute.

*Disclaimer
This tome has become quite long. You might need to come back when you have plenty of time or read it in sections if you are very motivated to read it. These are some things that I have needed to write about for some time.

My presentation honored some of the people who have influenced my journey to where I am today.

MY MOTHER

Christine Wallace Hollingsworth. She deserves most of the credit. She was faced with raising three small children after the death of my father when I was eight and my two younger sisters of six and five. She gave everything to us. She provided all we needed materially and emotionally. But for me she also provided an atmosphere that nurtured my creative spirit.

One of the things that I talked about was that I was not afraid of failing. That is one of the most important things my mother did for me and it is also one of the most important things for an artist. In order to grow or improve as an artist you must be willing to try things and many times you will fail before you get better.

Just before me on the program was Sharon Ahmed. She is a quilter, guilt and art teacher and she works at Tiny Stitches. Sharon is also a member of Fiber Art Fusion. The primary theme of her presentation was to encourage people to try new things and don't worry about failing the first time.

Throughout my teaching career I often told students that they had to move out of their comfort zone in order to get better at making art.

PAT DREW

The second person I credited for my success in my journey was Pat Drew who I taught with at Chattahoochee High School. She taught high school art for 42 years and is now painting and showing her work all over the country. She taught and Art History course that wasphenomenal. Her students use to say that she talked about the artists like she knew them personally.

It was her philosophy that there is a "thread" that runs through all of art history. With artist taking a thread of what has been done and following that thread to see where it leads and creating their own twist on some other technique or process. She said that it is like each artist gets permission from the ones who have gone before them.

I thought that the tread would be an appropriate analogy for a group of quilters.

I talked about the quilts that were used on the beds in our house and were made by my mothers and her sisters. I showed a traditional Sunbonnet Sue that my mother made. I showed a smaller Sunbonnet Sue and Straw Hat Sam that she made for Erin and Biff to commemorate their birth. These items are now treasured in our home.

Having been brought up with so many beautiful utilitarian objects in our home and my mother and everyone of my aunts and sisters involved in many different kinds of crafts created an environment that feed my creativity.

BROADMOOR BAPTIST CHURCH

In my church I was the one that everyone turned to when they needed something artistic. My choir director, the youth minister and the minister were all allies and encouraged me to go to college to major in art. They even helped me get financial aid.

SAM GORE AND BOB ALAN DUNAWAY

I had two great art professors at Mississippi College. They were as different as day and night. Sam Gore was the Leonardo and Bob Alan Dunaway was the Donatello. Dr. Gore would fall asleep between words. He never spoke without thinking through what he was going to say. At the same time he had a wonderful dry wit. On the other hand Bob Dunaway would say anything without thinking most of the time. He was incredibly inventive. I learned much from them both.

VERA CATHERINE EADS YEARWOOD

My presentation continued with my admiration of my mother-in-law, Vera Catherine Eads Yearwood who was a splendid seamstress. She also was a quilter. I showed a Flower Garden quilt that she hand pieced when she was 13 years old. When Jackie and I got married Vera pulled out her quilt and had it quilted for me and Jackie as a wedding gift. It has always been very special to us. As a side story about her quilting, last year I discovered in our stash, the quilt that Vera was working on when she died. It was machine pieced and she was hand quilting it. I found the template for her quilting design inside of a magazine. It was a dogwood design. Vera's needle and thread were still in the quilt where she had stopped. That was very special to me but especially to Jackie.

GEORGIA STATE GRAD SCHOOL AND BULLOCH HALL

At this point in my presentation I showed some of my art. I had a watercolor that I did when I first started grad school at Georgia State. It was a traditional style landscape. Then I talked about my professor asking me to step out of my comfort zone and start exploring some new colors and even some new techniques in my watercolors. I told about a painting that I did that had a section that was done in small squares and how that painting led me to a breakthrough to working in a new way. I showed two examples of pieces that I had done using watercolor paper and paint to create a color design on the paper. The pieces of paper were then cut into pieces like fabric in a quilt block and placed together in a quilt pattern. These pieces were shown in the Bulloch Hall Quilt Show in 1992. Jackie's and her mother and I used to go to quilt shows at Bulloch Hall every Spring and get very inspired.

CHATTAHOOCHEE EVENING STARS QUILT GUILD

Then in 2004 Jackie joined the Chattahoochee Evening Stars Quilt Guild. She suggested that I join but I wasn't ready. The Guild held their biennial quilt show that year and we attended. After the show Jackie asked if I was interested in joining the guild and I said that the people I met at their show were very fun to be around. So in 2005 I joined CES as that only male member. As you can tell from what you have read I spent a lot of time around women. My mother had 4 sisters and only one brother. My father died young and I had two sisters. I have been a school teacher in schools that were anywhere from 50 to 95 percent female. So I learned how to get along with women.

Two or three months after I joined the CES the vice president who was in charge of programs for the guild meetings called me in a panic and said that the person who was suppose to do their program for the next meeting had canceled. She asked me if I could put together a program in three weeks. I agreed to do a program on using color in quilting.

HELENA KRAPP

When asked what kind of compensation I wanted for the presentation I said that I would like to have some instruction in quilting techniques. So they arranged for me to have my first class with Helena Krapp. Helena was a member of the East Cobb Quilt Guild and had been the teacher of the vice president of CES.

EAST COBB QUILT GUILD

After retiring from teaching art for 32 years in June 2006 Jackie and I joined the East Cobb Quilt Guild. This time I was not the only male member. Ray B. was already an active member and avid quilter. I got pretty involved and helped to hang their 2007 show. I guess that was the reason that I am now the co-chair of the Hanging Committee for this years show.

MY MOMENT OF EMBARRASSMENT

As I referred to at the beginning of this epistle, I went from a high on Friday morning to a low on Friday evening.

Around six o'clock Friday evening my neighbor Tammy called to say that she had a gift for Jackie that had been left at the church for several days. She asked if she could bring it over after dinner and while she was there she wanted to see my latest quilt that she had heard about form somebody in the church.

About half an hour later Tammy and her mom Lena show up to give Jackie her gift and then they want to see my quilt. When I came home from the guild meeting I had just piled everything in the floor of the dining room. I had not gone through things or put anything away. I started looking for my Sunbonnet Sue quilt and couldn't find it. The more I looked the more panic set in and I started getting frantic. I looked through the stack four times and still I didn't see the quilt.

Tammy and her mother realize that I was getting very worried and they quickly left. Jackie and I both got on the phone calling members of the East Cobb guild to see if someone had picked up my quilt accidentally. Jackie called Jan and I called Pam, Sharon and Muriel who had all been involved in the program. Each one of them checked through all of their things and did not have my quilt.

I emailed Barb the webmistress for East Cobb and she put out the All Call to all guild members to see if anyone had picked up the quilt.

I started to rest a little easier thinking that with everybody on the look out for the quilt it would show up somehow.

Around 10:30 I decided to look one more time before I went to bed.

Low and behold, right there in the stack of things I had brought home from the guild meeting was a pillowcase with my quilt folded very small and stuffed down in the bottom of the pillowcase. It looked very different from what I expected it to look like.

Can you imagine how awful I felt at that moment?

My apologies to all who worried unnecessarily for me.

I am sooooooooo relieved.

Weekend in the Woods with 11 Ladies

2009-08-24T15:30:00.000-07:00

Now that I have your attention...

From Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon I was at a quilt retreat in Covington, Georgia with 11 ladies from the Chattahoochee Evening Stars Quilt Guild.

I have been to four retreats now and they are great for getting things done. We can sew all day with only a few interuptions for eating, sleeping, taking a walk or taking a nap.

It is a real treat for a quilter. It just so happens that I was the only one of the group to finish a quilt top. Everybody was doing some beautiful work. I was able to get some help with the design from the ladies who attended. I had about five different ideas of a layout but I didn't like any of them. I put up the last arrangement that I had done on my design wall. Then I asked for some suggestions. I got some great input. Jodi suggested that I repeat the design from the block that I was using in the pattern of the quilt. I liked that and started but got stalled because so many of my blocks were light in value. Lynn suggested that I create an echo or reflection of the design in the opposite corner. I liked that. Once I got that done I had a bunch of blocks left that were random colors. Lynn suggested that I use them in a very random pattern. That worked but it took suggestions from everybody there to pull it off. So last night I said that all suggestions had to end and I strated sewing them together in rows. Today around 3:00 I finished sewing the rows together. I do have a little more to add for a border. Then I will need to quilt it. It is a challenge quilt for our Batik Exchange. It needs to be finished by our November meeting. I have several major events taking place between now and then and don't have long to get finished.

The first big event is the East Cobb Quilt Guild August meeting on Friday. I will be one of the four Spotlighted Quilters who will show and talk about their journey as a quilter. I have to get some samples ready to show and organize my thoughts a little.

Two weeks after that is the East Cobb Guild's bi-annual Quilt Show at the Cobb Civic Center. I am the co-chair in charge of hanging the show. That is going to be a big job.

Three weeks after that is the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I have to go and see my quilt and the photographs that I have on display. That is going to be fun but I sure it will also be exhausting. I'm looking forward to staying with my neice Katie and her husband Steve. I may be able to take the quilt I am making for her and do some work on it while I am there. I really hope that my best cheerleader feels like going with me. I would hate for her to miss it.

Got work to do.

More later.

show in three weeks

Fiber Art Fusion

2009-08-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

What a group!

I am honored to be a part of this amazing group of diversely talented people. Their creative genius is inspiring.

Tuesday night August 11, I attended the meeting of Fiber Art Fusion at the Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs. The meeting was all Show and Tell with most of the members showing pieces that they are creating for a show called "Dimensions" to be held at The Art Place in Marietta during the month of September.

Most of those in attendance were making something for the show. I was one of the few who did not make a piece for the show. I can't wait to see all of the great pieces finished and on exhibit.

Becca showed a fabric box she is making. The shape she had created for the basic box was very unique and the fabric she chose was very pleasing. I can't wait to see the finished piece.

Hellene's hand dyed silks proved her mastery of the craft while her whimsical creatures were fascinating and visually intriguing. She has a great imagination.

One of our newest members and also a relatively new artist, Diane has been taking classes from Hellene and she is becoming an accomplished artist. I remember seeing her first attempt at watercolor, which is one of the most difficult mediums to master, at a meeting two months ago. For her dimensional piece Diane had taken a very simple image from the watercolor and produced a very inspired three dimensional still life. Her solution to the creative process overcame her inexperience with media. It was delightful.

Denny's tribute to Martha Stewart was as much fun as her rock wall was beautifully crafted. The subtle images on the faces of the stones and the embellishments achieved an amazing sculptural effect.

Suzanne's use of images and found objects in creating the facades of homes she had lived in showed how she is pushing the limits of her experience and being very successful in the process. There are several directions the piece might go between now and the show. I like that flexibility.

It was interesting to see inside the head of an artist as Ginny described the creative process she is using to create her piece. Her description help to create a visual image for me that was very vivid. I can almost see it finished now. Also, congratulations again to Ginny for having two pieces accepted in the International Quilt Festival in Houston. That's quite an achievement.

Wendy demonstrated her writing skills in addition to her textile talent with her expression of what it is like to have a migraine headache. Her piece was constructed with great imagination and expressed the feeling she described.

Ann had two pieces to show but I was most impressed with the piece that showcased her beadwork. She had purchased a hand dyed piece of fabric that was beautiful and it was the perfect complement to her beading.

Patty's piece was also inspired by her life experience. She was motivted to create an image of pink cherry blossoms. She worked on manipulating the images digitally first and then printing them out and embellishing them with french knots and other media. She even had a puffy fabric which had been stamped with "Pink Snow".

A new member, Mary Kay, brought two peices to show her work. Her quilting was awesome. Irt was very intricate. I especially liked the print with the reproduction of the football game ticket and her photo from her military days.

We had two new members who did not bring work to show but they were very thrilled to be in the group. We look forward to seeing their work at future meetings.

Mary Ann talked about the workshops that she will be teaching at the Hammond Drive.

Margaret described the piece she is creating using her beadwork. We share a common trait of having things in process and getting lost in the process.

The "Dimensions" show opens Thursday night at the Art Place in Marietta with a reception at 7:00. Hope to see you there.