Intercession

Do you remember January break during college? Either you could take a mini course or spend 4 weeks at home doing nothing, hanging with your friends, or getting on your parents' nerves. As an adult, I now view January as Intersession and an opportunity. Being away from home frees me from all the routine and mundane chores of regular life, leaving extra time for enrichment.

I always try to do something new and different. Sometimes I stick it out, sometimes I don't. This "intercession" I've signed up for three classes! I'm hoping I find the discipline to follow through, because I'm also trying to launch a new quilty product (Woo Hoo!).

I'm taking Painting Bootcamp at The Studios of Key West with Rick Worth. The first class was yesterday. You walk in empty handed and leave with a painting. This was my blank canvas and my paint ( in the upper right corner).

Rick is a self taught painter and has quite a unique technique, not the least of which is using high gloss latex house paint in only 5 colors - red, blue, yellow, black and white!

He uses his clothes as a rag, during his demo, which I of course found endearing.

And I can't believe this is what I left with after 2 1/2 hours.

And, of course, I had to wear my work!

I'm also taking an on line class at Sketchbook Skool called How To Draw Without Talent with Danny Gregory. It is broken down into 26 very short videos. The mini promo video was sketching a dog. How could I resist. My goal is to be able to use a sketch as a jumping off point for a quilt. I really want to be able to do collage type dog quilts. (Bailey and Abby, are you listening?)

The third class I am taking is also an on line class with Abbey Glassenberg, of While She Naps. The topic is email marketing. Growing my newsletter subscribers is my goal. (If you haven't yet signed up, it would be a good thing for me if you did, by clicking HERE, or sharebthis with a friend.) I'm sure to some of you that sounds very boring, but it is fascinating to me. There are so many facets and parameters to this topic. It is so essential to my business of sharing my quilts, techniques and products. The behinds the scenes goings on of the quilting business is certainly fascinating to me. It's a small industry with lots of intertwined relationships. Some segments are shrinking while others are growing.

I'll try to share my "Intersession" experiences as the month progresses. Do you take classes other than quilting?

 

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Convertible Backpack

Is it a backpack

or is it a crossbody bag?

It's both!
I think it's my favorite Curvalicious pattern.  Some of you may have seen it either at my quilt guild or at the Syracuse AQS show.  I created it for my river cruise to France last Spring.  In the country I wore it as a backpack and when we hit Paris, I switched it to a crossbody bag.  Either way my hands were free.

There is a hook on the strap and a D-ring at the bottom of the bag.  To make the change, lengthen the strap and connect the hook to the d-ring.  Abbracaddabra!

To change it from the backpack back to a crossbody bag, unclip the swivel hook and then shorten the strap.

Since I designed it for travel, there is a pocket big enough for my tablet on one side and then pockets to hold my phone, a couple of pens and ???? I made it the right size - not too big, not too small - to also carry my camera, sketchbook, wallet (of course) and my passport.

There have been so many pattern requests, that I have been working on one for about a month.  The owner of the Round Bobbin,

a great quilt shop in Ambler, PA saw it on a recent shopping trip and twisted my arm into teaching it this Fall. I wanted to make a sample for the class that used fabric from the shop.

There's a class preview party this Saturday.  I think that's when sign ups begin.  The class will be two sessions - 11/21 and 12/6. If you're interested you should call the shop for the particulars.  The number is 215-367-5596.

I apologize for the lack of color in the photos.  The anemic looking fabric is my favorite color chartreuse.  The same thing happened with the backpack to follow. I don't think my iphone likes green. Hrmph.



























In the meantime, there's a wonderful quilter and friend that is testing the pattern. She finished in record time and gave me a bunch of notes.  After I make the  changes/clarifications, I will send it to the printer.   I will post it as soon as it's available for sale.I will put it on my etsy shop and it will include the backpack hardware.

Wednesday's Wanderings #40 - ConKerr Cancer

Pillowcases?

The Pennsylvania National Quilt Festival is a wonderful quilt show.  It's a local show for me.  My quilt guild acts as white gloves in order to sell raffle tickets to our fundraising quilt.  I was planning on going to the show for a quick visit on Saturday with a very dear friend, Miss H.

Then an e-mail came to my inbox asking for volunteers to sew pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer on the same day.  This is an organization that was started locally about 5 years ago.  Cindy Kerr's son, Ryan, was battling bone cancer.  She made some fun pillowcases for him while he was in the hospital to brighten his day.  Then, other kids wanted the pillowcases too.  Cindy began making pillowcases for them.  The need became so great that she enlisted local organizations, like quilt guilds, to help fill the need.  I was the community outreach person for our guild at the time.  I was approached by a member of our guild that was a member of Cindy and Ryan's church.  (Thank you Doris.)  That first year, my quilt guild made over 350 pillowcases for Cindy to distribute and we had the privilege of having Ryan visit our guild to share his story with his inimitable charm (and red high top sneakers).

ConKerr Cancer, a case for smiles, shot to national fame when Cindy was nominated and became a semi-finalist for The Martha Stewart Show's contest, Dreamers Into Doers. In 5 years, 115 chapters have been formed around the U.S., Britain and South Africa.  Unfortunately Ryan was not able to see how he inspired his Mother and hundreds of sewers to bring a smile to the face of thousands of children with cancer.  Actually, in 5 years, over 560,000 pillowcases have been donated.

I just knew that I NEEDED to go and sew pillowcases, just as I KNEW, I did not need to buy any more fabric at the quilt show.  And of course, much to my delight, the GOODest person I know, said "what time do you want me to pick you up"?  (Oh I love her!)

A room full of pillowcase makers

Cindy Kerr taking a new volunteer under her wing

I loved this serger.  It is a speed demon that helped me to construct 30 pillowcases!

We filled 3 bins.  The goal was 500 pillowcases.

September is Childhood Cancer Month.  Cindy's goal is for ConKerr Cancer to make 44,000 pillowcases in one month.  And why 44,000?  I am sad to say that is how many children have cancer. It costs a lot of money to buy the fabric to make that many pillowcases.  If you are in the Philadelphia area or know someone who is, Friday night is a big Pajama Party fundraiser at

The Please Touch Museum.

Kids will have the run of the museum as well as dancing and crafts and celebrities. 

And you can make a pillowcase or two.

Or if you want to make pillowcases on your own or with a local group, there are chapters all over the US.  Click here to see if there is a chapter near you.  There are other ways to help. 

 Visit the ConKerr website.

So let's get back to my Wednesday's Wanderings. 

 I knew I had to share all of this info so my weekly block is full of mini pillowcases.

Here's a close-up of one of the cases:

and here's the wonderful logo I printed on fabric and attached to the block.  (Note those red sneakers.)

 

Quilters have the biggest heart of any group of people I know. 

I am proud to be a member of this group.

We do good things.

Wednesday's Wanderings #37 - Eat, Drink and Be Married!

I came across this quote recently. 

"Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when I was six

 and my biggest problem was what kind of dress to put on Barbie.”

I never played with Barbies because I was a tom boy growing up.  However, I appreciate the idea of the simplicity of youth.  My mother bought  Barbie and Ken dolls for me and proceeded to make a wardrobe closet and fill it with clothes.  She must have enjoyed Barbie, but I did not.  This dress looks like it was made for Barbie, except it has no back!

My week has had a theme of dresses.  While in Washington, DC, I visited Hillwood.  I mentioned it in one of my posts last week when I shared the flower photos.  It was the former estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post and is now a museum open to the public.  You could spend a lot of time there wandering the gardens and find lots of inspiration in her decorative arts collection in the mansion. 

I visited Hillwood to see a special exhibit, Pret-A-Papier, which featured paper dresses created by  Belgian artist, Isabelle de Borchgrave.   She uses special techniques with paint to turn paper into these amazing period dresses.  Here are a few photos I took:

I just wanted to re3ach out and touch them to see if they felt like paper or fabric,

but I saw many museum guards.

Dresses have also become a frequent topic of conversation with the Quiltinis, my quilt group.  During the year 2012 - 2013, we will have married off 5 of our children.  My son was married last June.  And this is really crazy, one of us is going to be having 2 of her children get married in one year.  So you can understand why "what to wear?" and losing weight are our hot topics.

This week we had a fashion show.  We got to ooh and aah and help to accessorize.  This was such a fun girlfriend day.  I was itching to take out my camera to take photos, but I thought I would get my hands smacked!  So I decided to create my own Mother of the whatever dress - definitely not one I would wear, but I know someone else would. 

I beaded the bodice and the bottom.

For those of you that are new to my Wednesday's Wanderings blocks, they are part of a yearlong challenge where I create a 6 1/2" x 8 1/2" block each week to document my wanderings that week. My plan is to make them into a quilt at the end of the year.

I create each block in the same way.  I start with fabric and batting - no backing.

I quilt it.  This is a great opportunity to experiment and have some fun.

  It's little, so it's manageable.

This is a close-up of my loopedy loop free motion quilting.

Then I usually create my design and fuse it to the block, stitch around it and embellish if desired.

This is how the back usually looks. 

I create without a backing fabric, because the stitching can get pretty messy and ugly. 

This one is not that messy.

 When I put the blocks together as I celebrate New Years Eve, I will put use a backing fabric.

So I want to wish the best of luck to my friends with upcoming nuptials.  You will all look gorgeous when you celebrate your children's marriages. 

Eat, Drink and Be Married!!

Wednesday's Wanderings #35 - Quietude

I received an e-mail from a reader a few months ago about my Wednesday's Wanderings. I don't want to share her name, but I hope she is reading this, because she really touched me.  She is a faithful follower of my WWs and  she made me stop and think about the simple things in life that we often take for granted, by sharing some of her thoughts.

She wrote about how she was housebound taking care of her ill husband. She was not complaining but she wanted to let me know that she did not get out much and hasn't done any traveling for a while.  Although she enjoys reading about all the wonderful places that I have recreated with these small blocks that are sometimes vignettes, her travels are limited.  So she decided to think about the places she can go and loves.  One of her favorite places to visit is her comfy chair. She will head there with a good book for a bit of escape.  Another is a view of her majestic oak tree in her yard. This made me think about stopping along the way in my hurried life to breathe in the small pleasures.

We are spending the week at our lake house in the mountains.  It is a wonderful place to slow down and take pleasure from the simple things.  I wish we got here more often but it always seems like such a chore to pack everything up, including sewing projects and leave regular life behind.  

We have a dock that sits right on the water at the edge of our yard.  In the morning, I love to go down to the lake and be with the quietude.  I have to take a towel with me to wipe the dew off of the chair that has condensed overnight but that is part of the ritual.  I sit down with my early morning beverage and my buddy, Bailey, and survey our small piece of happiness.  The lake is like a sheet of glass in the early morning and there is no sound except for the occasional splash of a jumping fish.  I can't help but think about the majesty of nature and how lucky I am to have this special place in my life.



I love the blanket stitch. 

Check out Bailey's 3-D ear and the curly fabric for her fur.



There are no rules that say you can't use the wrong side of a fabric. 
The reverse side has a more weathered look which I thought was better for the dock.

 

So, sometimes I think about why I blog.  Initially I think it is because I want to share my creations and techniques, but perhaps the interaction with others is really what is more important - how I touch them and they in turn touch me.

So, thank you, my faithful readers for inspiring and sharing bits of your lives with me . 

Do you have a special place?