Tag Archives: inspiration

Patterns in the Sand

Patterns in the Sand

I am NOT a morning person, but I try to be at the beach. I love to go walking barefoot in the surf in the morning before the sun gets out its frying rays. (I still slap some moisturizing sunscreen on this old face. I’ve had two Moh’s surgeries to remove basal cell carcinomas from my face. Ow.)

I take my phone (camera) and look for patterns in the sand. Quilting lines?

One morning, I went stalking these little clams: When the tide recedes, just for a second, the ripples left behind look like little v’s. They make me think of the “flying geese” quilting pattern, and there’s got to be an idea in there somewhere!I also have an idea for those little clusters of bubbles that float in the surf.Of course, there are treasures to be found.    Laura had bought some, “rusty bits,” mixed media embellishments when we were in Saluda, and I found her another:

I’m glad I found it with my eyes and not my feet!

And there’re always critters!This is a cannonball jelly. It’s more disgusting than inspiring, but it reminds me that I’ve got a jellyfish inspired art quilt to finish.

The WNCQG Show

The WNCQG Show

Back on May 6, my friend, Laura Sheaffer, and I attended the Western North Carolina Quilt Guild Show in Flat Rock, NC. It was held at Bonclarken Conference Center  where we also attended the NC Quilt Symposium in 2015. The following photographs are of quilts I admired, there. NONE OF THESE ARE MY WORK. The quilter will be identified.This is the first one that took my breath.Its’s no secret that I love crazy quilts.I love that this one is just one block, beautifully embellished! i love the quotes ,buttons, and butterflies! It is called Bloom, and the creator is Barbara Ruff.

This is another by Barbara Ruff. Again, I love the handwork and embellishments. I like the linear layering and how the black and white inner border mimics the monarch’s wings. I love that it celebrates a place. (Mountain and seashore ideas!

I love this one because, well, it’s a volcano! It’s by Trish Hendershot and looks like it was done with Cynthia England’s picture piecing method. I just barely caught the way the lava pours off the edge! Awesome!!!

Here’s another one by Trish Hendershot (How cool to be Ms. Hendershot from Hendersonville) I love the wonkyness of the piecing and the asymmetrical edge. I like the wire embellishment, too. It looks like she did this quilt in a workshop by Didi Salvatierra, who took first place in the category. Her entry is below:

Once again, I love the lace and embellishments! This one has a feather! The edge is either pillow cased or faced. (I hate binding!) This one is called, “Remnants and Relics.”

This one was absolutely stunning, and beyond anything I could ever achieve. It’s called, “Symphony of Colors,” by Natalie Rockley (another great name!) I prefer quilts done by mere mortals, but I couldn’t leave it out! It’s paper-pieced and has embroidered applique. Did I say, “Wow?”This is a smaller stunner by the same artist. Amazing! Note the African mask button and the tree silhouette!

I was tickled pink to find a ribbon on this one! The quilter is Margaret Wills, but the pattern is by my friend, Ellen Guerrant! I have that pattern. It’s called, “Happy Houses,” and I have one picked out, along with the fabric, for a mini-quilt.

These butterflies are brilliant batiks on beige batik backgrounds. The bodies are batiks, too, but the antennae are hand stitched. this looks like a good project for my ScanNCut. It was made by Margaret Wills and is simply called, “Butterflies.”

These last two are very similar, I admit, but I’d like to try my hand at both techniques:

The top one is, “Carnival” by Jane G. Kennedy. It’s a stack, whack and swap kind of quilt like I’ve seen Ricky Tims do. I think the butterflies above it could be done that way, swapping out the bottom wings.The bottom  Quilt, “Out of Africa,” by Mary Hinkle, is a favorite because of the colors, the sashiko stitching, and the use of African buttons as embellishments.

Other quilts from this show can be seen at the Western North Carolina Quilters Guild website, as soon as they post their 2017 show gallery.

it was good to see quilting icon, Georgia Bonesteel, working the ticket table for her guild. (I told my son-in-law, it was like going to Comi-con and seeing Stan Lee working the door!)

 

 

About Mama’s House

About Mama’s House

Mama's House (2)When my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2012, she told me she was leaving me her most valuable possession, her house. She asked that I not sell it and not rent it. She hoped that I would move there. It’s a ranch house, and I made it fairly accessible when she shattered her ankle in 2006. My husband has MS, and she thought it would be a good place for us. She reminded me that it was part of Daddy’s family homeplace, (great-grandparents buried in a family graveyard nearby,) and he said it should stay in the family. I suggested my brother should have it, since he bears that family name, but she said he’d sell it, again letting me know she didn’t want it sold.

My husband wasn’t, and still isn’t, interested in moving there. What to do?

Enter Susan Sorrell. I had seen her on one of the craft shows I watch, probably Quilting Arts. I loved her work and was delighted to find she was from South Carolina. I started following her blog, Little House Art Studios. I was also jealous of Susan Sorrell because she had inherited her grandmother’s house and turned it into her craft studio! Bingo!

srsorrell_Littlehouse2009_1  I have since friended Susan on Facebook and let her know she is the inspiration for what I’m doing with my mother’s house! I’ll also let her know I’ve blogged about her.

Mama’s House is only two miles from my current house. It is right next to the old community school I attended as a child and where I later taught for 25 years. It’s located in the middle of my peeps and my kids! Perfect!

To be fair, Mama left what little money she had to my brother, and my daughter, her only grandchild. Now what to do about restoring and maintaining the house? I had some ideas about that, too, which I’ll blog about in a future post! Till then, K<3.

 

 

Christmas Came and Went!

Christmas Came and Went!

and I still don’t have everything done! I met my friend Laura in Martinsville, VA today. We took in the last day of the Piedmont Art Center’s “Art of the Quilt” exhibit. It was divine! When we got home, I called Laura, and we compiled a list of all the ideas we got from the exhibit. I need to get out my sewing machine right away!

This is Scott Murkin’s Strata X: Spring has Sprung, exhibited at the Piedmont Arts Center: