Wordless Wednesday - 12-30-15

 Monterey CA, 12-31-08

Monday Browsing on Tuesday 12-29-15

How about using fabric instead of paper?   I’m trying to work out a method for fusing.

http://www.stampingwithbluemooncreations.com/my_weblog/iris-folding-instructions-and-video-tutorial.html

Separating eggs tutorial:  http://www.handimania.com/diy/egg-yolk-trick.html

Make a tiny bow:  http://www.handimania.com/diy/tiny-bow.html

Nature photographer:  http://www.tmurphywild.com/

Dad becomes an artist:  http://distractify.com/culture/coloring-in-kids-drawings/

Cat lovers:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/dogs-terrified-of-walking-past-cats_n_4276499.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Women’s History:  http://www.makers.com/blog/day-womens-history?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D415880#/blog/day-womens-history/9

I am ashamed that I had not heard of some of these women.
 
Paper piecing from Germany:  http://www.lenzula.de/en/

Paper piecing expert  Debby Kratovil   http://www.quilterbydesign.com/lessons.html    or Google her name.

Scrap quilt ideas from Martingale Press. 

http://blog.shopmartingale.com/?utm_source=Stitch+This%21+blog&utm_campaign=25348a9f54-Daily+Email%2C+Quilting&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ab6bb44864-25348a9f54-296416441

Santa Slumbers 12-24-15

 

Hope you all have had a lovely Christmas Eve and have a grand Christmas Day. 

Wordless Wednesday 12-23-15

 

 

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Monday Browsing 12-21-15

TED talks about Depression:

https://www.facebook.com/TEDEducation/videos/1098052813541257/?fref=nf

Melody Johnson’s booklet about FMQ designs:

http://www.meliscellaneous.com/misc/fibermania/Free_Motion_Machine_Quilting_Designs.pdf

Melody’s galleries of her work.   Be inspired!

http://www.wowmelody.com/Pages/Galleries.html

Here is something spectacular from China.  No English translation:

Chinese Kaleidoscope Christmas Tree 
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8oqPR5-GLuA?rel=0

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Revisiting a tiny quilt by Terry Grant 12-20-15

This is such a charming image and reminds me of my childhood in Oregon where the Juncos stayed all year.  With the change in climate I'm not sure what they do now. 

The snowflakes are each two tiny white stitches.

You can read the first post of this quilt at:

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3236658054810119404#editor/target=post;postID=5706419291257398161;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=23;src=postname

 

"Oregon Junco"  Terry Grant  2007  9" x 9"

 

Saturday Stories 12-19-15

Saturday Stories  12-19-15

Diane and Marie were fortunate to grow up with relationships with both of their grandmothers.  In California Grandmother Ella worked as the director of lunch programs at some Los Angeles schools.  Grandfather Wilce was disabled and did not work.  In Oregon Grandmother Marie lived on a farm outside of SE Portland with her second husband Matt – they had milk cows and chickens. 

In Los Angeles when the girls visited they took day trips on the Red Cars and saw many different areas of the city.  Society was different back then and there was no fear that two young girls would not be safe.  Grandmother taught them a mnemonic for traveling in the city and returning to Figueroa, the major cross street near their grandparents’ home. 

In LOS ANGELES from MAIN we SPRING to BROADWAY and over the HILL to OLIVE with a GRAND HOPE of picking FLOWERS on FIGUEROA.   The capitalized words are the streets in order. 

Favorite places were Olvera Street, Chinatown, and the main library.  They also went to the beach and Grumman’s Chinese theatre, developing a real sense of the city.  Which came in handy for Diane when she moved to Los Angeles after high school and worked downtown. 

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Friday Feet or maybe Friday Fido!

I have a houseguest for Christmas!   KoKo is staying with me while his mommy and family all go cruising to Mexico.  I hope they have a great time, I know KoKo and I will.

 

 

 

Thursday Threads 12-17-15

Recently I was asked which original quilt that I have made is my favorite and why it is so. I couldn't decide on just one and sent two images.  I like both of these quilts because of their color and because I enjoyed making them. 

 

Parrot Percussion has parts of parrots in each center square, I made the blocks and moved them around on the design wall until I had an arrangement I liked. I also like it because it can be hung either vertically or horizontally. 

 

"Parrot Percussion"  Del Thomas 1996 30"W x 85"L Machine pieced and quilted.

 

Cactus Flower was started in a Ruth McDowell "Designing from Nature" class at Asilomar.  It languished for several years until I took the design and all the fabrics I thought I might use out to a house in the desert and worked on it exclusively for four or five days.  For me Ruth's techniques are very logical, until it comes to fabric selection and like everyone I know I find that to be a struggle.  This quilt is all pieced using both her straight line and curved line piecing techniques.  It is such a bright, happy quilt.

"Cactus Flower"  Del Thomas 2000 61.5"W x 48"L  Machine pieced and quilted.

 

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Wordless Wednesday 12-16-15

 

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Monday Browsing 12-14-15

There are, I suppose, millions of quilting tutorials online.  Here are just a few sites that have free tutorials and/or classes.  Anytime you are stumped for a new project or idea check out one of these.
 You might even find a project you can still finish  by Xmas. There are also tutorials on Pinterest.

http://www.allcrafts.net/quilting/quiltinghowto.html

https://www.youtube.com/user/MissouriQuiltCo

http://www.craftsy.com/classes/quilting/free?ext=SEM_G_Quilt_Lesson_FC_NS_GAL&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=Keyword%20Targeting-Registrations&adwad_id=45542078137&adwadgr_id=7756382857&gclid=CI6_y_yq3ckCFQ6OaQodS3YCDg&adwmtch_id=e&adwtarget_id=kwd-148703037&adwd_id=c

https://www.pinterest.com/eled/quilting-tutorials/

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Repeat View of a Quilt by Polly Bech 12-13-15

This quilt came from the SAQA online auction 2008.  It is made in 16 small blocks using sun printed fabric made by the artist.  

"Breaking Through" Polly Bech  - Pennyslvania  2008 12" x 12"

Purchased from SAQA 2008 online auction

Polly Dressler Bech specializes in sunprints and stamping on her quilts.  As you can see she has also used raw edge slices to expose the color underneath the top layer.

 

 And she has added hand stitching for additional color.

 

Great backing fabric and a very simple label.

www.pollybech.com

 

Friday Feet 12-11-15

One of my favorites, photographed at a Starbuck's in September 2011.

 

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Thursday Threads 12-10-15

I'm resurrecting some quilts that I have done over the years.  This one is from 2003 when we were all doing Journal Quilts and Mars was passing closer to Earth than it will again for many years.

 

Journal Quilt  "Passing Mars"  8.5“W x 11”L     Pieced and fused and beaded.

Beading is not my forte, but Mars needed some texture.  Also, the windows are holograms from credit cars cut into tiny pieces. 

"Mars Passing"  2003  36“W x 40”L   Del Thomas  $700 
Cotton fabric, cotton batting,  pieced, embellished with beads and sequins. 
Here is a larger version as a triptych.  The colored verticals represent the buildings. 
 
And here are the lessons learned:  Don't name quilts that are similar with similar names - I can never remember which is which.  I should have used "Mars Passing I" and "Mars Passing 2".   Also, keep a list of the quilt names you have used.  There is one quilt in TCQC that has the same name as a previous quilt made by the same artist.  I let her know I was calling it "_____ 2".  There is also a "Walks in the Woods" and a "Walk in the Woods".  And I had already made and sold a quilt named "Walking in the Woods".  So, it is a good idea to keep track of the names you use. 

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Wordless Wednesday 12-09-15

Monday Browsing 12-07-15

This looks like a fun project:

http://weallsew.com/free-motion-quilted-scissors-pincushion-tutorial/

What’s for dinner exhibit at Houston

http://play.smilebox.com/SpreadMoreHappy/4e444d7a4d7a6b784d44673d0d0a

Quilt by Dijanne Cevaal is part of TCQC 12-06-15

"Kiwi Fun"  Dijanne Cevaal 2003 16"W x 32"L

Cottons hand-dyed by the maker, Machine pieced, appliqued, quilted.

This has been in the Collection since it was made, but I have not posted it previously.  I love the colors and the busyness of the motifs.

 

 

 

Dijanne does amazing machine quilting and comes up with many new designs which she shares with others in her book "72 ways not to stipple or meander".   Self  published and available directly from her.

 

 

 

Dijanne moves around quite a bit so this address is probably not valid.

Check her blog www.origidij.blogspot.com

 

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Friday Feet (on Saturday) 12-05-15

Art Gallery openings are always a good place to look at what people are wearing on their feet.  These pictures were not at an opening, but the memorial for Peggy Timmons last Sunday.  Everything from verrry casual to verrry dressy.  I long to wear those heels, but my feet object to such punishment.

 

I think this lady was visiting from Death Valley!

 

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A Memorial for Peggy Timmons 12-02-15

On Sunday I attended a lovely memorial showing of the quilts of Peggy Timmons.  Artist, writer, designer, teacher, friend, Peggy was 82 and died of a blood disease.  In her career as a quiltmaker, which began in 1981, she made over 200 quilts, taught workshops, lectured for guilds and created many patterns.  I have always loved Peggy's work and especially admire the way she adds tiny details to draw the viewer closer in to see the beauty of the quilt.   Here are some pictures I took a the memorial showing some of the details on her quilts.   Following these are a few people pictures.

Peggy could hand applique the tiniest pieces of anyone I know.  This little cat is about the size of a nickel. 

That cat is on the bottom corner of this four block quilt of trees in all seasons.

This is typical of her original designs, which were all hand appliqued, embroidered and embellished....

...and this is the little cat in the lower right corner.  This one is about the size of a quarter.

The flowers are hand embroidered with sewing thread. 

 

This pattern has a number of names, I am most familiar with the name Christmas Cactus. Peggy added the little yellow stamens which add a lot to the design.   

Here is one of her more modern designs, machine pieced and with hand embellishments.  There is a tiny red heart button on the point of the hand appliqued heart.

This is a lovely wedding quilt made for Peggy's daughter Linda and her husband.  It is a very simple pieced background with signatures in the snowball blocks which are alternate with the nine-patches.   The addition of the poppy bouquet makes it a knockout.

 

Like any good teacher, Peggy never stopped learning.  She took a one day class with Freddy Moran and created this quilt, despite the dozens of house quilts she had made previously.  This is a somewhat muted version of Freddy's style.

I don't know if this is one of Peggy's designs, but it is a wonderful, fun quilt that she made, putting her own "signature" on it.

Cute bunny on top of a basket of flowers.

And silly birds in the border.

 

 

One of her larger designs.  Note that the appliques are all outlined in stem stitch using one strand of black embroidery floss.  Peggy was the first person I ever saw using this technique which is now found in many quilts by many different quiltmakers.

 

If you can enlarge the image look closely at the flowers, many done with sewing thread, and see how she has used the background fabrics to her advantage.   Tiny dots and printed  flowers under the embroidered blooms help create the look of hundreds of flowers.  

Here is another example of taking advantage of the background print.

Here she has used large flowers cut from a sunflower print and appliqued in the broidery perse technique.  The little flowers in the foreground are circles of yellow fabric with straight stitches with sewing thread to hold them down.   If you can enlarge, look at the many foreground flowers done with detached chain and (perhaps) a French knot in the center of each.

 

 

The DAX gallery in Costa Mesa is an art gallery, a lovely space with tall white walls and many floor to ceiling windows.  The quilts were hung on the solid walls and also on moveable walls.

Here you can see more of the about 60 quilts that were hanging. Many of the people who came wore black - they didn't compete with the art on the walls! 

Here are old friends from the early years of the Orange County Quilters Guild. 

Juanita Swarts, Claudia Redfern and Nancy Ota.

Also from OCQG current membership were Pam Schoenbachler and Kathy Hall.

 

It was a lovely event, the only missing piece was Peggy herself.  I wish she could have seen her work shown in such an elegant way.

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