Charity quilts

Pardon my dark picture... Blogging from my phone...

This week's project (along with 8 other women from my guild... Thanks to Lori, Patsy, Pam, Angela, Lauren at Sew Modern, Lisa, Latifah and Tanya!) is to help the folks at Sharefest (a non-profit where my sister, Victory, works) assemble 6 quilts.

You can read about the kids who drew the artwork for these squares and their amazing camp experiences this month here: http://www.sharefestinc.org/blog/art-for-others.html

Favorite Sewing Books - post 2 - Bend the Rules Sewing

This sewing book is literally so dogeared and worn from being taken to the beach and played with that it has to be #2 to be shared.
I actually have made a number of projects in this book. They're fun, fast, and really inspiring.

Highly recommend.
Amy Karol is candid and whimsical and I love this book. Even if it has sand in the creases.

historical serenity

My friend Alison took this photo as she toured a historical home this summer.
There are about 10 things in this photo that make me happy.

Long Beach Quilt Show

I was able 2 weeks ago to attend the Long Beach Quilt Show. It was my first time ever attending anything of the like.  I really enjoyed running into a couple of my guild members - and I especially liked seeing the demonstration of new tools - that's always what I like!
I have to say that there wasn't much represented in the way of the modern quilter a la "Modern Quilt Guild" - just a few little snippets. For the most part there seemed to be a huge divide between two well represented groups - the traditional quilters and the art quilters.
(I'll post some fun things I saw, I tried not to take any pics of ones I wasn't supposed to, so if you see any ones that I shouldn't have, please let me know and I will remove them)

Now of course, you know I loved loved loved touring the art quilts. The way that those artists manipulate fabric was mind boggling to me. And I for sure could see how I could fit into their camp with what I love to do on my art/collage side.  The traditional quilts didn't do much to inspire me, though there was CERTAINLY talent on the side of the quilters themselves. I just am an artist at heart and only snatched a few pics...

But I also really love the idea of a usable, washable, stainable, lovable quilt that doesn't just hang on the wall. I love the humility of a work of art that you end up sleeping with or using to cover your kids or have a picnic on.  There's just something about that to me.

(Look at how tiny these yoyos are! 

The owner of it said that his mother made it - It covered his entire 6 foot table, top and sides... it's amazing)

So I left, a little confused for sure - confused about where I belong. But I think that was good. Because I love the idea that there is a place somewhere in the middle for me. I haven't quite exactly found my voice and I don't think I fit particularly into any one box - but I love the dialogue I had with myself (you already knew I was crazy) on my way home in the car.

It's continued for a couple of weeks. And I know that I still have years and years to figure out my style. I loved my art professor in college who told me that my 20s and 30s were just about figuring out my artistic language and that my 40s were when I should expect to really be flying. That gives me 5 more years of experimenting!

Oh, and I'll leave you with this image that I saw outside on the pavement - which I found nearly as inspiring as what I saw inside the convention.

Inspiration is free - take some ideas!

Isn't it great that we can get inspiration anywhere? Here are a few places I recently found some inspiration:

1 - A child's palette. I was making hair wraps with embroidery floss on the 7 little girls on our camping trip recently and one of the 7 year olds picked this color combo. And it was great on it's own, but when I put it down to photograph and think about later, I only had my pants to use to set it down on, and then this green was there with them. Even as I am typing this now, don't you think this entire photo would make a great quilt?

2 - A child's painting. I feel like Z has such a beautifully abstract sense of creativity.
He wanted me to leave this painting at the museum where he made it, but I couldn't. I needed to chew on the layout and amazing color choices he made. I so could see this being a quilt, too.

3 - Just messing around. While Z was painting the above masterpiece, Mimi was painting mermaids and I was just messing with the paints. I hate this page that I did below, but I love the idea of using it as a study in color, or isolating little sections to find as my Collage professor, Franklyn, says "little moments" that work for further study.

Favorite sewing books

I have a thing for books with pictures. Actually I have a thing for books. But lately, sewing and craft books have been really a passion for me. I love the inspiration, the photos, the ideas - often I don't even follow the patterns - it's more about seeing the items and making things based on my inspiration from them.

I probably have 30-40 sewing books alone. (The first of which was my Denyse Schmidt book!)
That is not mentioning the 50-60 crafting/sewing/quilting magazines I also hang onto.
Now here's the problem. I have all of them, but have I really made something from them? Inspired by, yes, but wouldn't it be good to actually use the books? (I think so)

I have been wanting to challenge myself lately to make at least 1 item from each book, magazine, etc - that I've bought. Just one. So that puts me out at um. well - if I gave myself a month for each project - well, I guess I would be busy for about um (I hate math)... wait a sec... a decade or two? oy.
Okay, not going to do that.

Instead, I'm going to just share with you some of my favorite books and resources. If I had time to sit down and not chase a little baby tornado around (today I caught him trying to throw Z's snowglobes from a stool) - I would review even the top 10.
I'll try.
But I don't really have much time.
So instead, I'm going to just point you to them and when I get the chance, I'll write reviews. And you'll have to trust me that if they weren't my favorites,  and really worth buying... well, I wouldn't share them. ok? (not that you asked)
One of the cool things about being in the LAMQG is that I've been able to meet a number of the authors of the books that I love as they are either fellow members or speakers who visit our meetings to give talks.
That said, I have to start with Denyse Schmidt's book.

I bought this book YEARS before I ever thought I'd really make a quilt. I would periodically look through it and drool.  I can't say I have actually made any projects from it - but I can say that I still consider buying this book a valuable part of my quilting journey.
A fellow member and acquaintance of mine, Jenny, is actually working her way -Julie and Julia style through the book... woot! What a great idea!
Here's her finished quilt.

I have the coolest friends - Tori writes another book

My friend, Tori, rocks.

But if you're a long time reader here, you know that. Tori and I met in college - we had our painting studios next to each other, and then when I was a textile designer vacating my Santa Monica position for the same job in Chicago, she was my replacement. So we sat next to each other, two engaged girls, planning our weddings and traveling together as little textile designers to exotic locales - like sweaty mills in Georgia, meetings in Seattle, conventions in Chicago and one fun trip to Vail.
The next few years, we were peers - working with each other over a long distance... both loving design, but rapidly growing more and more tired of corporate life and we both ended up leaving our jobs and starting our own design businesses within a year.
Tori started her stationery company which has really done some amazing things over the past 5 years.
In her journeys, she's also been able to meet some other incredibly amazing stationery artists and after realizing how the word about them needs to get out, she wrote her first book - Today's Top Stationery Designers. It's great! What a beautifully published book and a great resource for both inspiration and some fun places to shop.

Tori has followed up her first book with a second now. And it's equally as wonderful.
I really loved reading about the artists - their inspiration, how they got started and seeing the images about their design spaces - aren't we all wanting to peek into creative studios?

Don't I have good reason to be proud of this creative author?
I think so.  She's always been the one to keep me inspired and informed about design trends she sees... Now she can inform you too.

Neighborhood quilt is done!

It's done!
And there are far more than 12 women represented here. My bee gals made the amazing blocks, but it feels iike about 20 other people helped too. A friend gave me many of the fabrics, a neighbor gave me the binding fabric, my LAMQG gals helped contribute pieces for the final block at one weekend sew and at another sew I found many hands helping me baste as time ran out against the clock.

I stippled the entire thing on my small machine at home. I won't win any awards for how the stippling came out, but I am also not ashamed of being a newbie to the process of machine quilting a queen sized quilt on a tiny home machine.

I love this urban neighborhood.
My husband is begging that we switch the current quilt off our bed and he's promised to help make the bed if we put this one on it instead.

Here's one Alissa took of me presenting it at the guild last night too. It felt so fun to share it with the people that it really means something to. I feel so supported by my guild friends.

Charity: A great way to donate and also to win!

Check out Alissa's blog today. She's got the scoop on an amazing way to really contribute to the lives of women in the Congo who are learning to sew to support themselves. Last year, they raised $10,000 to help these women.

Contributions give you opportunities to win some really sought after collections of fabric.
Talk about a win-win-win.

Old Artwork - post 4

I'm not sure if this is a tree or coral, or what. But I loved using an old burlap coffee bag and sewing semi-precious stones onto it. I called  it the "Carnelian Tree" and it still makes me happy to look at this.