Cutting up the pretties

Our friend, Pat Pauly, has long admonished those of us who hoard our beautiful fabrics to cut into them and put them to use. So it only made sense that she would take some of her latest shibori-dyed fabrics and see what she could do with them.

She cut two yards of fabric into triangles and resewed them into squares. This generated 24 squares - 4 rows of 6 squares each.





She really wanted to make a square composition, which would require 25 squares. She had enough scraps to make one more triangle and considered cutting into a different fabric for the last triangle.







But then she created this design with the original 24 blocks.
Changing the squares around generated some interesting secondary patterns.











She cut into another yard of her hand-dyed fabric to finish the piece.

Pat's Show & Tell

Our friend, Pat Pauly, has been keeping busy creating lots of beautiful hand-dyed fabrics.

Some of the fabrics have been overdyed, and several fabrics were created with shibori techniques.

It would be too hard to pick favorites -- they're all gorgeous!


Pat will be selling her fabrics at the Genesee Valley Quilt Show which will be held in the RIT Gordon Field House in Rochester June 5 - 7, 2009. (www.GeneseeQuiltFest.com)

Marcia's latest effort

The evolution of design is a process that continues from start to finish on a project.

The blocks were made originally by "stacking and slashing" three fabrics. This early version included adding wide strips of dark brown and turquoise to the two columns destined to be separate pieces.










Further refinements were made when the blocks were sewn together, including using strips that are more narrow.










The quilting was done on the long-arm machine, and the Dainty Ditcher ruler was employed to help guide the spacing of parallel stitching lines.











After consultation and advice from friends, it was decided that the composition was stronger when sewn together as one piece. There is still some discussion underway as to the better way to hang the quilt; i.e., as shown or with a 90-degree rotation. What do you think?

Ren Vasiliev - paper and fiber collage

Ren is a teacher and head of the Geography Department at SUNY Geneseo. She is also a consumate fiber artist, and you can see her work at http://www.thecrazyatomorbit.blogspot.com/.

This is a class project she assigned her cartography class and also completed as an exercise herself. A left click will bring out more of the details as the book unfolds and each page "charts" descriptive representation of her activities and personal space during the semester duration of the course. The sum of the story is wonderfully well done and shows her creative nature perfectly!








We have her stuffed cat and red stool as visitors, on their way back to her from posing for a drawing class.

We don't know their history, but they add a nice visual accent to their corner of the studio. Best of all, the cat requires little care, but does appreciate a little pat now and then as one passes by!









We thought that Inspector Suki might enjoy, or at least respond, to the visitor. But after a short perusal, she ignores the transgressor. Here she assumes her watchful pose perched on soft piles of fabric as she watches Marcia at work.

Another Priscilla project adorns the design wall during her last visit to the studio. It will be interesting to see what her final result is.

The Zebras are ready

The Zebra quilt is loaded on the long-arm quilting machine. Marcia adjusts the tension of the quilt layers on the rollers. The top, batting, and backing fabrics are fed together from their rollers and pinned to the back roller.








The stitching part of the process begins as Marcia creates parallel line patterns along this part of the quilt. After fighting with a rayon thread that kept breaking, she settled on cotton threads to get the job done.









The completed quilt poses on one of the design walls. As previously announced, it will be donated to the Women Helping Girls fundraiser.














A close-up of the stitching shows the results of the long-arm quilting. A left-click will display finer detail.

Lancaster Bound

These two Jet Trails quilts have been accepted for judging and exhibition at Quilters' Heritage Celebration in Lancaster, PA, April 2 - 5, 2009.



Jet Trails #5 ( 88" x 58"h ) will be in the Pieced-Innovative section.









Jet Trails #6 (46" x 64"h) will be in the Wall Quilts section.

Studio work day

World traveler Priscilla takes a break from her trips to Las Vegas, Sedona, Phoenix, and Chicago, before leaving for a sojurn to SouthEast Asia, and settles in for a session at the studio.

Marcia would like to "requisition" her turquoise necklace, recently acquired on her trip to the South West.








Art quilter Priscilla continues the construction of her newest piece. She had started assembling some of the sections while she was in Pheonix for classes at Quilting in the Desert.

She is auditioning border ideas, and will probably settle on a thin strip of black, then a black and white print, and then some Ricki Tims multi-color fabric. As usual, we like the pattern and color choices she has put together.




Beth brought along some newly dyed fabric pieces that she created using her "snow dyeing" technique. The fabric is covered with snow and various dyes are poured over it. The end results are these spectacular serendipitous, impressionistic combinations of colors. How wonderful and so much fun to see the results of the process. The dyeing diva triumphs again!












Beth's latest tracing of and planning for a "lily" quilt takes shape. The choosing of the fabric and the placement of it will follow. We bet this project ends up on a wall of Beth's beach house in North Carolina!

Quilts for Women Helping Girls

Nancy pins up one of Pat Berardi's quilts that she is donating to the Women Helping Girls fundraiser auction. Several of the area quilters are working on projects for this cause.










This is another of Pat's quilts that was started from blocks she won in a block exchange. It will also be donated for the cause. Money to support the activities of Women Helping Girls in the Rochester school district is well spent. Those of us who spent years mentoring students know from personal experience how important and meaningful to both parties this relationship can be.









Marcia works on her quilt for the Women Helping Girls auction. Although she did not invent the "over the shoulder" technique for quilting, she is pretty darn good at it!!

Suki installs the new HP printer

Inspector Suki is at her best when something different happens in her space. She calls forth all her skills as she dominates the process. While the humans empty the shipping carton and place the new unit on the table, Suki checks to make sure nothing was left in the wrapping.

She guards the USB connecting cable while her staff reads and follows installation instructions. She is patient as the next step will require her full attention.






The new machine whirs and clicks as Inspector Suki searches for the best vantage spot to look things over.






Not satisfied with a cursory inspection, she decides to stick her head into the business end as the pre-test of the new printer continues. Once she checked out all aspects of her favorite office machine, she moved on to other callings -- i.e., rest and relaxation.

RAFA meeting

Today was the first meeting of the year for our RAFA (Rochester Area Fiber Artists) group, and the Show & Tell portion was the highlight.

Beth Brandkamp showed her completed Bird of Paradise quilt, which now lies flat after being spritzed and stretched.








Beth showed us the results of her first attempt at "Snow Dyeing" -- where the snow acts as a resist. It's a very nice piece, and Beth is ready to try the process again.

To see the process, check her blog at http://www.quilterb-bethsblog.blogspot.com/ .













Nancy Hicks showed the piece she made for the Women Helping Girls fundraiser.










Janet Root (who is hiding behind her quilt) showed us the baby quilt she designed and made for a friend.

In the bottom right corner of the photo you can see Deborah Pope's soft sculpture.

RAFA Show & Tell

Mary Rankin made this piece for her daughter, who wanted it to replace a similar banner on her barn. Mary made her promise to keep it in the house!












Donna Patrick showed us the progress she's made on a jacket she stared in one of Priscilla Kibbee's classes. She's incorporating some silk fabric that was shibori dyed by Elin Nobel.











Pat Faulkner is close to finishing her quilt based on a photo her husband took on his last trip to Africa.










Anne Fischer showed us her most recent quilt featuring a thread-painted blue heron.