Houston!

We have arrived! This is the first road trip my daughter and I have taken together in years. She agreed to come with me to the International Quilt Festival in Houston.
We had an uneventful drive and spent most of the time counting the 'Buck-ee' reststop billboard sightings. There must be something like 50 billboards along the route and we plan to stop to visit Buck-ee on the way home. We had fun catching up on politics from the perspective of a 20 something vs. a middle aged something.
I terribly underestimated the location of our hotel so we are somewhere off of highway 10, roughly 30 minutes from the convention center. Anyway, we are here.
To our delight, the hotel has a happy hour each evening with 'drink specials' and 'free appetizers'. We decided to partake of the merriment and the entire experience made for great comic relief. We headed to the bar, making our way past what we thought was a closed lunch buffet. In the distance we spotted a buffet table filled with delicious looking finger sandwiches, chicken wings, fresh fruits and vegetables and other tidbits that had us salivating. We decided to start at one end and make our way to the fully stocked bar where we would order a nice blush and enjoy our food. -- That was until a really, really nice waitress quietly came up to us as we picking up our plates and asked if we were 'with the group'. Group? My first thought was - 'we could be' but I decided to keep my mouth shut. Apparently, we walked into a corporate happy hour and the 'closed lunch buffet' we passed when we walked in was for us. These 'free appetizers consisted of left over cheese cubes, a sleeve of crackers, a jar of salted peanuts and a steam tray we were afraid to open. All we could think to do to hide our embarrassment was to quickly hide at the bar and order a drink. Gulp! Slurp! We were done and out of there.
Somewhere in this story is a moral but I will post it later, after I figure out what it is.

ATC Swap

Tonight, the Dallas Area Fiber Artists will have an ATC swap as the mini workshop. Aside from meeting the size requirement of 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches, the only other criteria is 50% fabric. I decided to try a technique that is new to me - Discharge Paste mixed with fabric paint. I used a hand dyed piece that I wasn't in love with and added images with a stencil of a butterfly and texture with a couple of text stamps. I then ironed the fabric using lots of steam and the result is a very interesting piece.
I fused it to Peltex, added some thread sketching and cut it to ATC size. A little foil and a backing and I was done. I am very happy with the results. I have an extra piece of discharged fabric that I cannot wait to use. Here are a few pictures - the first one is a shot of the ATCs pinned to my 'design wall'. The 'design wall' in this case was the back of my desk chair - what can I say, it is padded and fabric and the correct height for the fan to reach it to dry the glue.

cut to ATC size and pinned to 'design wall'

after foiling and before treating the edges with black paint

here is the extra piece and what the fabric looked like before stitching and foiling

One of the Employee Resource Groups at my place of employment is sponsoring its second annual art show. The show is for any and all employees who wants to show their creative side. There are not real rules just different categories and an opportunity to donate your work to raise funds for the Special Olympics. I decided to enter this year and submitted the following pieces.

'Marsh Grass' is one of my favorites

'En Pointe' displayed with the Twisted Stitchers special exhibit at the Dallas Quilt Show 2010

'City Lights' displayed with the DAFA special exhibit at the Dallas Quilt Show 2010

When I dropped my piece off, it was wonderful to see how many boxes were lined up with submissions from employees and/or family from around the country including Alaska and Mexico. They will hang the works October 3rd and I cannot wait to see the show. I did get a glimpse of a piece from an associate in Mexico that was painted tile - it was wonderful! I will post pictures ...

We Will Never Forget

Deborah Boschert Inspires the Dallas Quilt Guild

Today was a good day. My friend Deborah Boschertwho used to reside in Texas and who is a member of the Twisted Stitchers friendship art quilt group, presented the September program for the Dallas Quilters' Guild. She gave a wonder talk on the 12 X 12 Quilt Collaboration project, sharing her inspiration for interpreting the various themes the 'Twelves' were presented with. Here is Deborah with her set of Color Play quilts. Today was the last reveal for the Color Play series. The lower right hand corner is Deborah's interpretation of the color orange - Hibiscus. I like her use of 3 dimensional embellishments and the abstract nature of her work. I always enjoy visiting the 12 X 12 blog on reveal day. To see Deborah's work and the works of the other 'Twelves', you will have to visit the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall. There is a link to the 12 X 12 blog on the left.

Donation Quilt

I finally finished binding the quilt I am donating to the Frisco, TX Firefighters Association Benevolence Fundraiser. I purchased the quilt top at an estate sale a couple of years ago and my friend Carol Morrisey quilted it for me. The pattern is either a stack and whack or a one block wonder. Either way it is fussy cut from fish fabric. The woman who made the top passed away and her daughter sold off some of the dozens of quilt tops her mother had created. Carol quilted some pebbles and outlined the center designs. It is a nice quilt and I hope it raises enough money to help the recipient family. I will post a picture tomorrow.

Hello Again

The sleeping quilter awakes. Ahhh - it has been what - 2 years since I last posted? What can I say, I have been busy, very busy and very tired. Almost every day I think about adding a new post to let my friends and followers know I am still in this world. Today I vow to change from an every 2 year update to at least once every two weeks.
A brief synopsis - I went on a quilting cruise with my lovely mother in 2010 and I received an Honorable Mention at the Dallas Quilt Celebration this past March - that's it. In reality, I have done much more but I won't take up precious blog space covering every detail now. In time...
Right now I am making meatballs and spaghetti. I was watching a show called 'Cooking Yourself Thin' or something like that, where the hosts take a calorie laden dish and redux it using less fat, less sodium, less creamy deliciousness while keeping the flavors. I'm no food stylist but yummy..........

Getting back to art and artistic endeavors...for a while my creative mojo went on vacation. I believe my brain was so full of work 'things' there was no room for creativity to flourish. I struggled to come up with ideas and my motivation was absent. I challenged myself during Lent to either create a piece of art each day or finish a UFO. I was somewhat successful and pleased that some pieces I have had for years were finally quilted.

Here is a piece that has been around for 4 or 5 years.

I was also able to work out a few ideas I had floating in my head. The Lenten project idea came from my friend Deborah Boschert, who by the way is having an excellent year. I will show pictures later because of course I cannot find these gems right now.

The one thing that did not change was my desire to purchase fabric and gadgets, gadgets I haven't used and cannot find. My daughter has instructions to not let me buy one more inch of fabric, yet I manage to sneak in a fat quarter or half yard every now and then. I think this is my crack.

I have been dying to dye for some time now. About a month ago, I took some time and dyed a 12 step gradation.

I love it! I have no real plans to use the fabric but the whole idea of playing with color makes me happy. I'll just pet it for now.