Grand National Quilt Show

Tomorrow afternoon, 21 April, 2013, the Grand National Quilt Show opens in Kitchener, ON at Homer Watson House and Gallery. I was fortunate enough to have both of my entries accepted for the show and will be attending the opening. If you look carefully, you will see that I also had the honour of having my quilt, Red Iris, chosen for the photo on the official invitation to the show! This was hugely exciting for me .

There are over fifty works in the show apparently, from all across Canada illustrating each participating artist's "take" on the theme, "Local Colour". I am really looking forward to seeing what others did. You know me! I am a literalist and a realist so my two pieces, Red Iris and Smoke Bush Leaves are both representations of the glorious colours I am surrounded by so close to my home.

If you are in or near Kitchener, ON, DO drop in and see the quilts. The show runs till 23 June, 2013.

A Week of Surprises!!!

This has been an interesting week! A few weeks ago, I submitted three pieces of work to two quilt shows- two to the Grand National in Kitchener and one to the Wee Quilt Challenge in Cambridge. The GN was in touch very smartly to say that both pieces I submitted to them had been accepted- YAY! BUT, I heard nothing from McDougall Cottage in Cambridge. I waited patiently, surprised that they did not even acknowledge receipt of my entry form , and then called them. I was told I SHOULD have gotten an email , but that I would be informed as to whether my work was accepted or not. More waiting. Deadline for entries came and went and I just put it out of my mind. No prob! BUT, two nights ago, just at supper time, I got a call from them asking when I would be bringing my quilt to them??!! I was flabbergasted, to say the least. To make a long story short, I WAS accepted but the emails had been sent to an incorrect address. Easy error to make, I guess. Anyway, patient DH drove me to Cambridge yesterday with the quilt so now three of my babes are out for public scrutiny!

Last evening, I got a lovely surprise from Remy, one of six really FUN ladies from Guelph ON who took my Urban Cubes class last fall, with a nice attachment- see below- of her finished piece. It is so nice I really wanted to share it with y'all.

Didn't Remy do a lovely job!

This is not a pattern , per se. I taught them how to make each of eleven cool, 3D blocks and then they arranged them as they liked. Remy chose the hexagonal shape similar to the one I used as my teaching sample. It is on my blog somewhere I think. The blocks are a combination of ones by Sara Nephew, Maxine Rosenthal and Joy Pelzmann. Great fun to do and a very effective little wall quilt.

The pieces I submitted for jurying into the two shows are Red Iris, Smokebush Leaves and Tangy Glen Bluebells. See below...

Smoke Bush Leaves 

Red Iris

Tangy Glen Bluebells

The top two are at the GN , this year's theme being Local Colour, and Bluebells is the late arrival at the Wee Quilt Challenge.

Now, here is the last nice surprise. I have JUST learned that the Red Iris has been chosen to be used as the photo advertising the opening of the Grand National - 21 April at Homer Watson House and Gallery in Kitchener,ON. The Wee Quilt Challenge opens 10 April at McDougall Cottage, Cambridge, ON. Maybe we shall see you there? 

It DOES make a difference!

I have been playing around , trying to get an accurate photo of the Red Iris piece, fairly unsuccessfully till now. I was at the camera store yesterday talking about proper floodlighting etc and the man I spoke with ( actually LISTENED to!!) reminded me that I have a custom white balance setting on my camera- Canon S100. So, DH and I came home and figured it out and - voila- I have pics now that accurately represent the colours of this piece. At the risk of boring you all to tears, here they are . Have a look back at some of the Iris posts and see the difference. I can see a HUGE diff. Can you? Look at your cameras and check your white balance. I had been using the auto settings but this is MUCH better!

Accuracy at last! Try it! You'll like it!!

The pretty, The practical and the ZOWIE !

A few days ago, I treated myself to a bunch of five little tight budded bright yellow tulips. I have really enjoyed them. I LOVE tulips. I love the sound tulips make- go figure! Have you never noticed that when tulips are moved against each other , as in while they are being arranged in a vase, that they make a lovely little hollow, squeaky, popping sound as they rub against each other? Well, I have - because that is the kind of a strange woman I am! Anyway, these buds opened up and I noticed, to my great delight , that there was a tiny, fine red line around each petal. As the blooms opened, that red bled down into the yellow, eventually turning the yellow tulips coral-y orange. LOVELY As they opened further, I saw that beautiful slatey blue star shape in the base and the stamens were bright orange! LOVE IT! I could help myself no further. I had to take a few pictures to share. Here are a couple ...

 Now, the practical-I am finally finished the Red Iris and have used the wonderful instructions on Elaine Quehl's blog to create a strip facing. This is not a great photo but it DOES illustrate the finished product. The hanging sleeve is in place too as you can see. All it needs now is a good label.

And , finally- the ZOWIE part! I ordered some dyes from Pro Chemical and Dye and they arrived on Friday AM. One of the colours is called Eggplant! LOVE that colour- not so keen on the taste, but I took the dyes down to my subterranean dye shop and wet a piece of paper towelling and then opened one of the little pots of dye powder to try the colour. I dipped a tiny brush into it and just sprinkled the powder over a spot on the wet towel. INSTANTLY , the gorgeous Eggplant purple bloomed- but then-
because it is a mixed colour, and the component parts of mixed colours strike at different rates, began to travel!!!! I was VERY VERY excited, ran upstairs for the camera and here is the result!

Look at THAT! I say Zowie! Cannot WAIT to try it on cotton. That is it for today. Now I am off to adjust the white balance on my camera so I can get more accurate pics of my quilts. Enjoy the rest of the day :-)

I MAY be finished with this now!

I say MAY because I want to see it in the daylight tomorrow before I decide for good. I have done a lot of metallic stitching today and stopped before dinner so I did not overdo. I THINK I am happy with it now. I introduced the reddish-purply colour over the big blue petal in the foreground and if I like it in the morning, I plan to use Elaine Quehl's instructions for doing a strip facing to finish it.

This is as close as I am to finishing now. It does not crop to 4X6 very well but you do get the idea.

Just the centre part to show some finished detail.

These  two are basically the same  but you may see one better than you see the other. There is a LOT of metallic stippling on this blue petal in Slate and Cranberry Metallic and Fuchsia Glitter thread- all Superior products

 I HAVE to say once again - and I am NOT selling it or anything like that- that Superior's Metallics and Glitter lines are marvellous to work with. I crank the upper tension back to .75-1.0 , put in a fresh #90 Titanium needle- and never have a moment's grief. It is really great stuff. I only wish you could see the shimmery flush of red  and slate across the surface of this petal better. I guess it has to be seen in person to truly appreciate it. You are all cordially invited to tea for a good look.

BTW, for the strip facing instructions, see Elaine's blog at elainequehl.blogspot.com and see the sidebar for the Strip Facing post.

Making good progress

This is fun! I am quilting like a mad fiend and am fairly pleased do far. This is beginning to look nice and crusty. The little bits of metallic thread really sparkle it up too. I LOVE the crystalline look of iris petals. Other flowers have it too- Impatiens is one - spectacular in certain lights.

The big red petals are getting the heaviest quilting- bordering on thread painting , but not exactly.

Note the line of metallic along the orange-y edge of the petal.

Having fun with shadows and veining.

More fun with veining - reminds me of Fun With Dick and Jane! They never had THIS much fun!!!

There you are - I think the metallic shows better here.

This is an exciting project. My greatest regret is my lack of different  colour values. As soon as I am finished this, there will be a huge dyeing session! Remember, you heard it first here!

At the risk of boring people to death, I am going to post this at needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com
There is always something interesting going on there. Check it out! 

FINALLY QUILTING :-)

At long last! I am quilting again. I have not done any for a long time now , so guess where my shoulders spent the afternoon?? Yep! Right up under my ears!! I finally relaxed just a few minutes ago but then had to stop to get dinner ready. Don't you think we all need staff - to cook and clean etc for us when we are heavily engaged in our art? Anyway, even without staff ( except DH) here are a few peeks at what transpired this afternoon with me and my Bernina and a whole bunch of pretty threads...

The very centre of the piece

One section of the veining started

All the same centre bit but different views

Bit closer

And the bigger picture

This is going quite happily. I may need to go shopping for some different threads- good excuse anyway! I am thinking of using a bit of metallic here and there- you know how iris petals look crystalline in certain lights? Maybe , if I can find a medium lilac metallic.... Stay tuned. 

Getting there!- slowly

I have been working all day again and finally feel like I am beginning to see the end of the beginning. I have all of the background fabrics, some detail done and am now puzzling my beard! (tee hee hee )- Don't be skeared, It's only a beard! And- it's on an iris. As it stands now, it is a callow youth- beardless.

This was where I was last night when I went to bed. I did not really like the bottom half of the left side . Looked too much like a red tiger ! So... this morning , I ripped the stripes off and finally replaced it with a solid piece of fabric with built in striations.

Not sure why this shows up the way it does but - there you go! Anyway, I am going to post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com

This is not perfect colour either but maybe better than what I used first. I will get DH to photograph it for me . He does EVERYTHING perfectly!

Basics finished- almost

I worked all day yesterday and all day today and my back is killing me . The dining room table really is too low but it is all I have. I have the basic red iris project completed except for the fuzzy yellow beard. That will stay unfinished until everything else is done as it will be the final step. As you can see from the pictures, I have made a lot of progress and am fairly pleased so far. I will be happier when more detail gets added but I AM pretty happy with the big purpley petal in the foreground. I really was just lucky with the fabrics I had. I am especially pleased with the look of the highlighting on the blue bloom on that petal.

Here is my original photo divided up into components and numbered to keep them straight

And here is my pattern drawn and enlarged by the printer

Here I have taped my muslin base in place and I will sketch my main sections. Sadly, I forgot to use a pencil instead of a dead marker so some of my guidelines show through , especially on lighter coloured areas. Pretty sure I can detract from that with stitching and some other little tricks!

There we are! Some of my guidelines sketched in 

Some of my base pieces added

Auditioning fabrics for the top right hand corner

Top right hand corner added and some detail in place

This picture is a funny colour because I stopped the camera down to use a flash. The flash washed the colours out but I hope the foreground petal shows up well enough. I am smiling about it :-) It will not change much from now till the piece is finished but the rest will morph quite a bit over the next few days.

Well, folks, it is a start but there is a LONG way to go yet. I am fired up now! Christmas, birthday all shaken out of my head and now it is full of fabrics and batting and machine quilting. There is a big spot in there for my darling kids who came home last weekend and a little spot where nasty cold weather is lurking too. Hope you are all warm, dry and being creative!

At LONG last!!!

A NEW project. I am still plugging away on the Layers piece slowly but needed a new piece to get me rolling again after Christmas and all that it entails. I am TIRED! My 70th birthday really hit home and today, I feel every single year. Never mind. I am well, happy and HERE! What more could one ask? Thank God for all of His mercies.

We had a lovely visit with our daughter and son in law this past weekend and had a wee party for them in our tiny house. It was like a church meeting here, chairs lined up in rows in the living room:-) Maybe I should have taken a collection! Guess I missed my chance. Anyway, we DID enjoy it. They came home for my 70th birthday, very very much appreciated as it is a 16 hour drive from their house to ours.

Now to this new project. I believe I HAVE shown you the photo before  but just in case- here it is. It is a very close up centre of a spectacular red and purple iris taken by me at the Royal Botanical Gardens a few years ago. I am aiming for a sort of Georgia O'Keefe effect only not so huge as her work. It will be about 24" x30", more if I decide to border it.

I have begun to choose fabrics and to see which ones I still need to dye more of. More yellows , more lighter values and more very deep purply blue for the veins.

I have further cropped the photo as I want the nicely abstracted centre of the flower for my subject. Talk about "up close and personal"!

There , you get the idea of size as it is all sitting on my big gridded cutting board, one inch squares. I will dye a bit more fabric today and then get a start. I cannot wait! I have been chomping at the bit to get creative again. Sitting about is NOT my bag. I hope to post this on the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com

Little addition- I have eight fat quarters batching as well as a metre of intense blue/purple on the floor in the living room. Wish me luck!

All Ziplocked on plates waiting to get nicely soaked in and melded together. Stay tuned, folks!