A Star in Miami!

Many have followed my progress since October, when I started this piece at the Fall Quilt Escape Retreat hosted by The Country Quilter. I have many post as I worked along the way, with the first post back in November, here.

Well Raven...  I hope your Google Reader sends you an alert on this piece, but here it is finished and hung....  I know, it doesn't belong here... it has to make it's way to Miami, but I had to hang it to take a picture.

 

It needs to be hung properly, so that the waves continue gracefully across the 3 pieces of the tryptych.  But I really enjoy the way it looks.

Ricky Tims and Libby Lehman, a huge Thank You! for teaching me how to do the ribbons when I attended the Ricky Tims Super Seminar!  I will use this technique over and over again :-).

My friends are telling me that it shouldn't go to Miami just yet, that it needs to go to a few shows first, but we will see.....

P.S. I have started quilting my initials in my quilts...  really making me feel like an artist...uh oh :-)

Ricky Tims Concert

Ok.. so I promised more on the concert Ricky Tims gave at the Super Seminar. Well neither my friend Ashley nor I knew quite what to expect. We knew he played the piano, I knew from The Quilt Show that he had a CD out. But that was it.

Well were we in for a surprise! He not only played the piano magnificently....and a toy piano from when he was 21 months old (poke him on Facebook and ask him to tell you that story :-) ).... but he also played a Didjeridu, a native Australian instrument played by the Aborigines. If you have never heard one before, it almost reminds me of rain falling ever so softly on a bed of pebbles :-). He moves the Didjeridu to the beat, so that the melodic sounds truly made you feel as if you were floating along a river bed. He also played an Indian flute... didn't catch the name, but it only plays 5 notes, and only one pitch. The song he used the Indian flute for was in honor of Indian warriors who had once inhabited the lands by where he lives in Colorado.It was a wonderful evening. He writes all his own music and lays down all his own tracks. He has a new Christmas CD coming out this fall, of which he played one of the songs.

I did capture about 1 1/2 minutes of the concert on video on my camera, but I don't know if I would be breaking some law by posting the video here, so you are all going to have to go out and buy his CD or go to a Super Seminar to hear him play :-).

Ricky Tims Super Seminar: Frederick, Md

Oh what a weekend! Go... Run... full speed ahead to the closest Ricky Tims Super Seminar you can get to. Oh My Gosh.... I never anticipated that I would enjoy myself soooo much! First, we all know that Ricky is a talented quilter and show host... I had heard he was a gifted pianist... but I never knew he had such an entertaining personality and that he was an exquisite story teller (oh yeah, one great soft shoe salesman as well :-)).





I went with my friend and quilting buddy Ashley. Here she is with Alex Anderson and myself...
Both Alex and Libby Lehman (the thread play lady) were quest speakers at the Seminar. What a treat.

The seminar was extremely well organized, each session was 90 minutes, with 45 minute breaks and everything started and stopped on time... to the second. Ricky seems to have a thing about being on time, which for me is just wonderful!

We had sessions on designing quilts (convergence, klaidescope and rhapsody's) from Ricky. Using threads in the bobbin and ribbon painting from Libby, who broke her ankle Friday night :-(. Choosing fabric, hand quilting and choosing quilting motifs from Alex. Ricky also presented on Applique, pipings, bindings and machine quilting... including showing us how he does those phenominal feathers! I thought it would be overwhelming... like brain overload by the end of the 3 days but it wasn't. It was paced just right and Ricky was like a Stand-Up Comedian for quilters. He had us in stitches all weekend long... Whoo Hoo!

Of course, there was a market to buy Ricky's fabric, books and patterns. Both Libby and Alex had their books their as well. There was a Superior Thread supply with the signature threads of all three artists. Nice thing was they included time in breaks and lunch hours for autographs and book signings.

But best of all was to be able to see their quilts up close and personal. Each quilt on display was referred to in the seminar, with reference material in the Seminar handbook that related to a particular quilt. It was great, because during break you could go look at the quilt to get an understanding of the concepts covered in the lectures.

Ok... so here are some of the pictures.... Of course, I don't remember all the names, but you can tell whose they are by the styles :-)....



This piece was a collaboration between Ricky and his father. Can you believe after Ricky's grandmother passed away, both he and his father picked up quilting the same week, without ever discussing the subject with each other?















The Lone Star was done by Ricky's father and Ricky did the broken rhapsody. All the quilting was done by Ricky.

Totally amazing!


Here is another of Ricky's Rhapsody's with some close up shots....


















The detail on this piece is amazing. If you have any of Ricky's Rhapsody books, you will recognize this quilt from one of the covers. He talked about how to achieve accurate machine applique stitching on your sewing machine and his favorite feet to get these results.

If you have ever seen any of Libby Lehman's work, then you will recognize this piece right off. I love the way the thread plays with the light and really keeps your eye moving around the piece. In the closeup, you can see that she uses three different threads in each color way, to give the effect of highlights. I was glad she had samples out on the hands on display table so I could get an up close view of the type of stitching and the amount of each color in proportion. I tried this after I got home. Not bad, but I do need practice.... alot of practice :-) (No this isn't my work... lol)

Lastly, before I call it a night, here is a picture of me with Ricky and Libby. Thanks guys for a wonderful 3 days!!!!!

Next post will have photo's of the concert Ricky performed for us on Friday night.

'Til then... sleep tight :-0