Pelham Quilters Round Robin 2013 - Round 1

So we once again started a Round Robin as part of this years guild programs for Pelham Quilters.  This year we are following a slightly different format.  Since there are only four of us participating, we decided to do four tops, where after the round robin we all get our own tops back.

I don't have photos of all four centers only two.  The one I made and the one I work on first.  We each get a top to add a round to every two months.  Cheryl has Doris's center and Donna has Cheryl's.  I'll share pictures of those when it is my turn to work on them.

Here is the center for my top.  I have adapted my dancing ladies to make a group celebration.  Doris Green is working on it now.  I wonder what will happen to it next?

Here is the center I am working on.  It was done by Donna Chambers:

Donna used both her mosaic technique as well as texture magic for the female dancers skirt. Which means I have to make sure I live up to her artistic level...  ouch, not easy to do :-).   I have already ripped out my first attempt.  It didn't measure up.  But my next idea is really working out well.  It has advanced from the paper and pencil phase to the first level of execution.  Hopefully I will get the chance to work on it this weekend.  Wish me luck :-).

Sew Inspired Road trip

So, I have been running like crazy the last few months, so when the year-end madness was over and I found myself with a few days off, DH and I decided it was time to get away for a few days.  I will update you on some of my quilting over the last 2 months later, but for now I want to share with you my time today.

I have had a couple of folks tell me about Sew Inspired in Simsbury, Ct and the cute little town, so we decided to book a room for a night and take a drive. Of course, our first stop was Sew Inspired. It is situated in a small indoor mall called Fiddler's Green, so we had lunch first at Joe's Wood Oven Pizza.  It is an old building that houses a couple of restaurants and shops. The pizza was great, nice thin, crunchy crust, although none of the locals were eating pizza.  Instead they had sandwiches and huge salads.

I really like Sew Inspired. It is a large, bright shop with fabric to fit all tastes.  Lots of batiks, Kona solids, a children's fabric section, an Amy Butler section and on and on.....4,000 bolts to be exact.   They carry Quilter's Dream batting in all types, including wool, as well as Superior Sew Fine, Rainbows and Razzle Dazzle thread. They also carry some Aurifil thread in neutrals for piecing. But Mettler is their primary thread.  They carry a good selection of notions and tons of patterns for bags with some really cute coordinated fabric bag samples. They even have a clearance section with 30 and 50% off fabrics. 

Downstairs they have a studio with their long-arm business as well as a Studio version of Go! that is used when they have BoM and classes requiring tons a cutting. 

The staff is extremely pleasant. They offered help when I first arrived, but backed off and allowed me to browse until I needed assistance. Once we engaged in conversation, they were very helpful helping DH and I plan our 2 days in town. 

Yep, definitely a place I will return. In fact DH overheard them mentioning Fat Tuesday Madness, where FQ's are on sales. Buy 10, get 10 free...buy 20, get 20 free, etc...  This is an annual event in which one year a woman brought 100 FQ's, getting 100 free!  Anyway DH wants to come back then, hoping to see the area without the snow. Oh yeah, Fat Tuesday Madness is on Fat Tuesday every year...the day before Ash Wednesday. 

We'll see.....

He Loved the Monster!

Yes, I shared with you the piece I was quilting at the request of a friend for her friend.  Yes, it was months ago....here.  I have never worked on one piece for so long.  Yes, it was on and off, yes, I was out of town quite a bit and yes, my machine was in the shop for 5 weeks.  But 6 months...  that's a long time!

Well I am happy to announce that he picked it up last week, and LOVED IT!!  I must say it did come out quite nice..

Here it is laid out on the table.  It is quite large 130"x130", so only part of it fits on the table.

Here is a close up of one of the centers...

The gentlemen who was giving the guilt as a wedding present, asked me to quilt the names and date from the invitation into one of the rings.  The date is based on the Jewish calendar :-).

I am sooo happy he loved it, but even happier that it is done :-).

Cheers,
Renee

Country Quilters Retreat, Fall 2012

Had a wonderful time this weekend at the Fall 2012 CQQ Retreat!  Unfortunately, I left my camera home and my phone went on the blitz, so no pictures :-(.

I used the weekend to progress a couple of pieces and while I didn't get anything 100% finished, I made a lot of progress  :-). But as always, I spent Friday night creating an original piece.   It was not what I had in mind at the outset and while ok...not really something I really like   Oh well, every piece is a learning experience. :-).

 53 quilting ladies, good food and laughter over 2 1/2 days.... Ahhh heaven! 

Lola Jenkins comes to Pelham Quilters!

As a TQS (The Quilt Show by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims) Star Member, I get to watch all the available shows.  To be honest I watch some and not others, all depending on how interesting the subject 'sounds', or if I know the featured quilter.  Well, when I saw the intro for the show featuring Lola Jenkins, I almost didn't watch it.  In fact, I think the show had been available for a couple of months before I did.  Boy,  was I glad I did!

First, Lola was a very entertaining guest on the show.  She is energetic and bubbly, with this interesting voice. Yes, interesting is the only way I know how to describe it :-).  But what really got me was her personal story, how she came to quilting and how she tackled each step along her journey.  It is a very moving story!!  Please watch if you can.

But what got me to reach out to her, was when she said she had a goal of visiting every guild in the country.  So I emailed her and asked if she wanted to visit our small, casual guild in Pelham, NY.  She responded immediately, saying she would LOVE to come and that she was presently scheduled to be in NY in September, 2012.  So we booked her, and boy was that a smart move.

Yesterday, Lola taught her Fantasy Landscape workshop to the Pelham Quilters, or at least 9 of us and 3 guests.  We had a ball.  Lola shared her secrets of looking at fabrics with an eye for the scene we have in our minds, vs what fabric as a whole.  She shared the 1/3's principle of design and guided us to our own, COMPLETED, top of the day.

That is right, everyone in the class completed a landscape top and earlier than we had expected!

Let me share with you some pictures from the day....

First, pictures of the quilts she brought with her as inspiration...

This first piece is from Lola's online Art Deco class.  She uses it as a sample for the class.  It is a whole cloth style quilt, with black thread as the basis of the design and then the fabric is "colored" in with colored pencils and other coloring aids.


Each of the following pieces are done using Lola's collage approach.  I tell you, I will never look at fabric the same again!

It is amazing to see what can be done by clipping pieces of fabric from many different pieces of material and pasting it down!













Here are some of the pieces that were completed in this one day workshop...

Barbara and her Apollo Jazz scene.  To you recognize her sky from one of Lola's quilts.  Funny they had a lot of the same fabrics!

Cheryl's piece with her fire sky...




















Donna's, City meets Africa cityscape...  As always Donna listened to the instructions and thought out of the box.  This was supposed to be a 'fantasy' landscape.  I think she captured the essence of "fantasy".

Doris, one of the doll ladies joined us and did a serene, calming landscape...

 Doris Green and her gorgeous water scene. I love the boys running by the river bank.  Sorry Doris, it is prettier than you think....


















Dorothy's inspiration fabric had these gorgeous fall tree's...



















Jacqueline another of our guest for the day, did a wonderful desert scene...



















I love Lorraine's New England scene with a lighthouse and sail boats...



















Here I am with my second Sister Chat piece or as I will call it, Sister Chat II !


















And a former member of Pelham Quilters, Gwyn, a doll maker and Doris's sister as she adds the last rock surrounding the river.

 Now, the queen of landscape collage, Ms. Sandra herself. Her birds are lovely as usual.  Sandra and Donna would ruin the class curve if this was a real art class :-). 

I love June's farm scene.  It looks like a little bit of Tuscany. 

It was a wonderful day, with a wonderfully group of talented women.

A special THANKS to Lola for traveling all the way from Oklahoma City in her PT Cruiser, with her sister Darlene as her co-pilot!

Mermaids and Merwoman in Black Folklore: A Fibert Art Exhibit

Well I am back from the Artist Reception and our little vacation to Charleston and Savannah.

Oh was it a wonderful experience.  First I want to say Thank You to Torreah "Cookie" Washington, for letting me participate in such a wonderful exhibit, full of magnificent quilts and dolls, made by some very talented artists!  Second, I want to Thank Donna Chambers, who pushed me to get my piece done and submitted by the deadline.

But, I must say, the exhibit was AWESOME!  There were 109 pieces of art, made by over 70 fiber artists.  I took tons of pictures and have them all loaded on Shutterfy.  I will post a few here, but if you are interested in seeing all 82 pics, you can try this link...  http://mermaidexhibit.shutterfly.com/pictures#n_5.  Not sure if it will work, if not, just post a comment with your email address and I will add you to the share site.

Besides the quilts and dolls, there were 18 poets who wrote new, original poems on the same theme for the exhibit.  All the quilts, dolls and poems are included in the book, "Black Mermaids in Vision and Verse", edited and conceived by Torreah "Cookie" Washington.  The book includes both pictures and artist statements of all the quilts and dolls in the show.  This is the first time a compilation of poems, quilts and dolls has ever been published for a gallery exhibit.  And to think, my work is included!!  So exciting :-)....

Here is the piece I submitted...  the Pelham Quilters Round Robin quilt that I did the last round on and then quilted.  I submitted it under all 3 names:  Donna Chambers, Doris Green and myself..

 I posted close ups of the piece in my last post.

Here is a picture of my friends, Donna's submission.  Tell me it isn't awesome :-)...

These two were also done by NY quilters, although the artists were from all over the country.

This piece by Bianca, is exquisite.  It is mostly painted, but look closely at her mermaids tails.  They are real fish scales that she got from the fish market and then cleaned and glued each scale on one by one....

Doesn't it look like her hand is coming right out of the quilt top?  ..

Wow.. is all I can say....
















Look at the fierceness in this mermaids eyes....  don't mess with those souls :-).


I have decided to make an effort to learn how to do faces after this exhibit.  So many of the quilters had such strong emotion in their pieces, all expressed through the facial characteristics.













And I have to share with you some of the dolls that were made.  The details....

I was truly amazed that you can ask 50 artists to submit their work around a single theme and end up with over 100 pieces that were all so different.  Each artist interpreted the theme as individuals and the result was one FABULOUS show.

If you want to see the exhibit for yourself, it is open until October 28th at The City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, South Carolina.

Hope you get a chance to see it....

I know you will enjoy it!!

Renee

Sneak Peak !!

I have been busy finishing up both my round on the Pelham Quilters 2012 Round Robin top #1 and since I was fortunate enough to be the one who got to keep the top (Thanks Donna and Doris :-) I was anxious to get it quilted.

At our May meeting when I shared my progress with the guild, I had most elements pinned in place, but not all, and nothing from my round was pieced in or appliqued down.  It was just truly a concept.  Since then, with the possibility of it making it into a gallery show, I had to steal all the minutes I could to get it finished.

Well I submitted the photo of the unfinished top and told myself if it was accepted, I would get it done.  If not, I would prioritize some other projects that I have going on...  boy is my studio a mess :-(.  Well it was accepted...WooHoo...  but wait, be careful what you wish for.  I had no idea how or when I would get it done!!  Well for the last two weeks, I had to burn the mid-night oil, cutting sleep to a minimal, but I made it. 

I posted bits and pieces on facebook as I went along, but have refrained from posting the entire quilt.  Why, because I want to drive as many of you as possible to the exhibit.  It will be a wonderful exhibit made up of 50 or so fiber artists who have chosen to take on the challenge of the folklore surrounding the Black Mermaid...  Mamiwata or the Mermaid goddess Yemaya.  There will be over 100 pieces, both quilts and fiber dolls, depicting black mermaids and the folklore which has been passed down over the years from the slave women who were taken from Africa during the slave trade era. 

The exhibit, entitled "Mermaids and Merwomen in Black Folklore: A Fiber Arts Exhibiton"  takes place at The City Gallery, in Charleston, SC.  The exhibit runs from August 28th thru October 28th, with three days of Opening Weekend festivities, September 6th - 9th.  Interestingly enough, the old Afro-Brazilian women celebrate "Boa Morte" on Wednesday, August 15th.  What is Boa Morte or the Sisterhood of Good Death Festival?  It is the celebration of the old ways and cultures, cultures that slaves were forced to denounce when brought to Brazil.  It mixes the Assumption of Mary from the Christian community with the "Good Death"...  those slaves who died free.  Well these women believe in the existence of the Black Mermaids who were the watch guards of the dead souls, those who did not make it across the seas and were thrown overboard by the slave traders.  So, guess where I will be on that day?  In Brazil!  It is as if I was meant to participate in this entire experience!

Won't you join me?  You can find all the details here...  "Mermaids and Merwomen in Black Folklore: A Fiber Arts Exhibiton" .

To tempt your fancy, here are a couple of snippets of my entry, Sirenias, A Pelham Quilters 2012 Round Robin.  The center square was done by Donna Chambers and it was two fish appliqued onto a white sparkling background.

Doris Green added the seaweeds floating around the fish on a light green background.

I then added another round of a darker green batik, with more seaweed, starfish, etc on the bottom and the mermaids on the top. 











Of course like many of my newer quilts, I doesn't have straight borders. But you will have to wait to see the quilt once the exhibit opens to see how it is finished.

Once the exhibit opens I will post a picture of the completed top :-).... 

Did I tempt you ???  I hope so!