I've Been On The Road

I shared my new lecture last night with The Village Quilters of Catonsville, MD. It was their end of the year meeting and the tables were beautifully decorated. It was a potluck lunch that had 2 long tables of savory and 2 long tables of sweets. Yes, SWEETS!!! I began to salivate.

There was one tiny issue. It was warm and the air conditioning units were stolen the night before. Everyone had makeshift fans and thankfully there was some air flow. I was so glad I wore deodorant.

The title of my new talk is "Turn Travel Into Treasures ". It was the perfect talk for their end of the year meeting and the beginning of many summer vacations. Lots of my quilts were inspired by my travels, both near and far. It was a walk down memory lane, looking through my quilts and photos, while preparing this lecture.

My quilts fell into two categories. There are realistic quilts - those that look the inspiration and the other are quilts that are more abstract. Photos of lots of wrought iron from a trip to Barcelona

 

 

were the inspiration for "Filigree Fantasy".

The ladies loved my travel books. This one I made after our trip to Israel.

That's the cover. This is a peek at the inside.I use Pelltex to make it stiff so that it stands.

This is a travel book I created after a bike n barge trip in Holland.

I like using an interesting shape for the cover. For this book it was inspired by the amazing buildings in Amsterdam.

This is a peek at the inside.

I like including some type of map in each book to document the places that were visited. Here's the map from Holland.

Each location we visited is named and can you see the bicycles that I printed on organza? I also used the blue and white fabric that I bought at the market in Amsterdam.

When I create these books after a trip, it helps me to revisit the vacation and cement the memories. Instead of all the photos stored on my camera or in the cloud, they are a visible reminder.

 

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Inspiration From Key West

This week I am focusing on houses.  I walk or ride my bike with my buddy almost every morning and the scenery here is just fascinating.  The architecture is so unique.  There are several typical styles that are located on the main roads and all the little lanes.  I love them all.  And the colors can be just amazing, but if you want lots of space between your neighbor, this is not the place.  Land is expensive, so you can practically reach out and touch the house next door.

A few years ago, I played with these house designs to make this fun folding fabric book:

There is a very stiff interfacing inside that makes it rigid enough to stand.

Key West Houses

I have Key West fever. I decided that I had to make some of the typical conch houses that are all over the island, out of fabric. I went to The Seam Shoppe, which is the local quilt shop. It's actually the only quilt shop for 150 miles. I bought a charm pack and a few quarter yards and some sky fabric. I also had some fabric that was usable from another project.

This is a photo that I took of one of the house styles that you see everywhere. The hard part is getting a clear picture without cars or foliage blocking the view. The roof is metal.

This is my rendition:

It's small, about 4"x6".

Here's another house style,

and another.I made 15 of these little pieces. I couldn't stop. I turned 8 of them into a fiber book. The cover I made separately. I did the printing using WordArt with the computer. Timtex was used as a stabilizer to make the book rigid. It's constructed accordion style so that it can be displayed on a table or shelf. I plan on doing some beading along the top edge.

I am making the rest of the houses into postcards. I have also gotten carried away and started making postcards out of the fusible scraps. Stay tuned.