Best Use of Color!

First, thanks go to Carol Taylor for letting me know about my ribbon at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA, this weekend.

The quilt on the left is my "Doormats 1" and the one on the right is my "Broken Squares," which won the Best Use of Color award in the Innovative Quilt category.




SAQA's "Fibrations" traveling exhibition is also on display at the show and includes my "Jet Trails" quilt on the right. Fibrations will go on to the Quilt Fest of New Jersey and then the Denver National Quilt Festival.

Winter Storm 2010

Marcia cleans the area in front of our postal delivery area. Despite the heavy snow, both our daily paper and mail were eventually delivered.


The horse pasture fence and adjacent pine tree
were covered. We were spared the high wind gusts which piled up the snow in nearby areas.












The front walk was well covered. We had about 18 inches on level ground after having been spared large storms earlier this winter which targeted coastal areas to the south of our location. It was our turn!








Our neighbor plows our driveway in exchange for storage space in one of our barns. He made several passes in the last 24 hours. The trees in the background are about 12 feet high.

Sewing Day

The middle of winter limits outdoor activity and encourages our artist friends to concentrate on work days at the studio.

Here, Nancy Hicks assembles more pieces for her work on the display wall. She won a basket of Kaffe Fasset fabrics at QBL last summer and is using it to create a bargello quilt for her bed.












Pat Pauly has two daughters away at college and has been very productive this winter. She is hand sewing the facing on one of the quilts she recently completed.












Pat has experience at museums where she has produced displays of exhibitions of various types. She has received a commission from a local collector to prepare a selection of his Navajo rugs for hanging. She is hand stitching reinforced strips on the backs of the rugs for the hanging system.







We think these rugs are from the American SouthWest from the early 1900's. They were made for the tourist trade by local artists and further research could probably identify location and perhaps even the weaver/artist. The natural (non-dyed) wool in this rug indicates that the rug is older, as it was probably made before dyed wool was widely available.

Shipping Quilts

Today was the day to pack up the quilts going out to two shows.

"Yellow Brick Road" was selected to be exhibited at the International Quilt Festival/Chicago in the IQA judged show, Celebrate Spring! This quilt was made from hand-dyed fabrics and is 54h X 50w.


The show is April 16 - 18, 2010.







"Sea Kelp" is also going to Chicago. It was inspired by the tall sea kelp in the Monterey Sea Acquarium.

This quilt was made from hand-dyed fabrics and is 32h X 53w.






These two quilts were selected to be exhibited at the Quilt Fest of New Jersey VI, "Tri-State Quilt Competition."

The Festival runs from March 4-7, 2010.

This quilt is "Storm Clouds at Sunrise." It was made from hand-dyed fabrics and is 34h X 66w.



"Five Squares" is also headed to New Jersey. This quilt is made from discharged, hand-dyed, and commercial cotton fabrics. It is 52h X 52w.

Quilts on the move

Two quilts are on their way to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival XXI.

This show will be at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, VA, February 25-28, 2010.

This quilt is "Broken Squares" and is 56h X 52w. It is comprised of discharged, hand-dyed, and commercial cotton fabrics.








The 2nd quilt going to VA is this "Doormats" quilt. It was completed recently and is 49h X 67w.












This Jet Trails quilt will also be at the Mid-Atlantic show. It will be on display with the special exhibit of the SAQA Fibrations quilts.

Suki in the studio

Many of the readers of the blog indicate that they enjoy the quilting images, but really "tune in" to check on the exploits of Inspector Suki.

A recently acquired piece of hardware, a Drobo to provide automatic data backup, provides her latest warm perch.













Here she hides in her favorite basket, hoping that her partially hidden figure will allow her to spring into action on a new mission with a surprise pounce!

















Retreating to the bottom of the basket will provide even more cover. Maybe something interesting will drop into her lap.









A cardinal sits on a bush just outside of Nancy Hicks' kitchen window. Suki would love to visit the next time someone stops there and join Nancy's kitties in watching the birds from her window.

Another Jacket Day

Most of the gals from the last jacket class were back in the studio for another day of sewing and working towards finishing their jackets.
Even though Priscilla couldn't join us, everyone was working hard and kept their noses to the grindstone!







Caris has the back panel finished and embellished with hand stitching, and her front panels are ready for final stitching.











Donna finished one her front panels and has the fabrics laid out for the other.













Caren made some wonderful purple seminole strips that will be the focus for a new vest, and Caris has a strip she made but then decided not to use in her jacket. I think that means she'll have to design another jacket to make use of it.....

Sewing Day

Priscilla found this wonderful leaf print fabric that might become a focal point for a new jacket or quilt. Although she's hard to see, Suki is on Priscilla's chair and looks like she's checking out the fabrics.
















Beth brought in all the fabric strips she made from some of her old fabrics while she was away on vacation. They might end up in quilts, totes, or other projects.










Priscilla started auditioning fabrics to coordiate with the colorful cross stitched piece she's using as the focal point.



















These are the panels for a jacket Priscilla started a little while ago, that are on the agenda to be finished soon. We noted that the color palette looks a bit similar to the new pieces going up on the design wall... :-)

RAFA meeting

The Rochester Area Fiber Artists' group had its first meeting at a new location in East Rochester.

The large room accommodates setting up the tables in a large square.

Beth Brandkamp is home from her travels in FL and NC and is sporting a wonderful tan.

Beth showed us one of the Hmong story quilts she just purchased from Priscilla.

Priscilla showed us her Vegetable Man quilt.

This is one of the three pieces that Mary Wieser completed recently and shared with us.







Mary Rankin finished this quilt for her grandson, which involved watching a lot of basketball on tv to get information for the player's pose and his uniform.

Sarah Terry just finished this quilt which incorporates pieces of metal that she burnished.

Karen Rakowski made this one-block wonder quilt.

Kimono Exhibit

The Rochester newspaper, the Democrat and Chronicle, announced the new exhibit at the Memorial Art Gallery -- a nationwide touring exhibit of kimonos from the Montgomery Collection in Lugano, Switzerland. "Fashioning Kimono: Art Deco and Modernism in Japan" will be at the gallery from Jan 31 through April 4 and features 100 examples of traditional garments from the 1890s to the 1950s.






The opening exhibition party had a huge crowd and waiting lines for the timed admissions to the show. A volunteer in the gift shop estimated that over 1600 people came for the evening's events.









Although many of the visitors were dressed in their kimonos, I think this young man was a gallery volunteer. He said his attire was typical of that of a shogun's.














My blurry picture is from the ballroom, where people were enjoying dancing to music provided by Rochester Brass and Electric. The event also included sake tastings, tea tastings, jazz music, line dancers, origami demonstrations, ikebana demonstrations, and more.