Wedding purse

Another exception to the no new project rule - a bride's purse for my neice. I used some lovely heart shaped beads in the handle. There are more photos on my Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kim_in_fargond/

Wedding quilt

Even though I had resolved not to start any new projects until I've finished off my WISP inventory I had to make an exception for a wedding quilt for my neice. I've made quilts for all the neices & nephews as they were married and I couldn't bear to miss this one just because I'm behind on other projects!

The bedroom in the new house my neice and her finance are decorating is ice blue and chocolate brown which is my current favorite color combination. And the style throughout the house is slightly vintage with Asian touches.

As she and I chatted by email about design ideas, she said she wasn't really fond of "quilty quilts"so that gave me the ideato try something outside my comfort zone -- no applique, no little fussy pieced blocks. This design is very modern and minimal. I started with this wonderful Asian inspired print I've been hoarding for years. I cut big blocks of coordinating fabrics and I plan to quilt each block in a sashiko inspired pattern. Her wedding is in a month, so I have to get stitching like mad.

Woo Hoo

I'm on the final stage of a long overdue birthday gift for my sister. I can now say unequivocable that I HATE piecing. I just hate it. I'd far rather applique a queen-sized quilt by hand. It might be much slower on an inch-by-inch basis but since I go to ridiculous lengths to avoid piecing it takes a lot longer to get a pieced project done in the long run. I also find that I don't like stained glass style applique. I think the thing is I just don't like working on a machine. Unfortunately several of my WISPs are going to require machine sewing. I'm just going to have to get over it. Maybe it will help when I get my machine serviced. I've had my Bernina for almost 15 years and it's worked like a top but with this project I noticed it's starting to make some pretty funny noises. As soon as I finish a couple small mending jobs I'm going to take it in to the shop.

But this quilt top is now finally done thank goodness. After much sweat and seam ripping, I finally have the top pieced, the same number of blocks on both sides of the unicorn and the bias tape applied down securely. And it's even almost square. Off it goes for quilting ... tra la. Hopefully it will be done in time for me to give it to her at Thanksgiving.

CQI Roses purse completed

Another WISP done. I love the ease with which it went together. No gussets is a GOOD thing. This is the first purse design I've come up with that didn't give me problems twisting or being lop-sided. I'm definitely doing more like this instead of the rounded shape I first experimented with.

These are the front, back, and side details.

Pincushion contest winner

I was thrilled to learn that my mermaid pincushion won First Place in the Quilted category of Piecework Magazine's 2008 Excellence in Needlework Pincushion Contest. I received the email notifying me of my good luck and proceeded to call and email everyone I could think of. The ironic thing is that at the last minute, I almost didn't send it in. For one thing I was a little nervous about sending off a piece I really really loved and not get it back for a two months. But frankly, all my insecurities popped up and at coffee the day before deadline, I told two friends I wasn't going to submit it because it wasn't good enough anyway and I had this horrible mental picture of the jury taking one look at it and laugh at me. My friend Kim looked at me and said "Don't be stupid. No one's going to laugh and it's probably going to win." Kim and Virginia complete conviction shamed me into sending it so imagine my shock to learn it won the category. 

When the magazine came out I was thrilled. As Virginia said, I'm now a nationally published quilter. Pretty cool. Plus I won a prize donated from Quilting Arts Magazine. A copy of "100 Artist Trading Cards", every magazine published by Somerset, and a complete set of DVDs from Quilts Arts television program.

Is it ungrateful to say I wish the photographer had picked a different side to feature? I liked the seahorse and mermaid best.

Fundraiser crazy quilt

This block was made for a crazy quilt being made by members of the online yahoo group Crazy Quilters International as a fundraiser for breast cancer research. The direction was to use recycled bridal gowns for fabrics and decorate it with a theme of hearts. Although we were to use only white and cream colored fabrics, we could include touches of pink in the embellishments. Other members of Crazy Quilters International are contributing blocks which are looking more and more beautiful as they go along. I wish I could see it in person.

A Mothers Love completed

I'm awfully glad I went with my obsessive impulses to add more beading after this piece was in a small show. It's much more like my original vision.

I heavily beaded the halos using sew-on Swarovski crystals, embossed sequins, and czech glass beads.

The frame is covered with a beaded cross hatch that serves to quilt the border. I added more beading to the onion domes using silver and gold lined delicas and faux pearls and more pearls and brass filigree to the penultimate cross (which I know isn't the correct kind of cross for an Orthodox icon but it's my quilt and I can do what I want.) I added two layers of bought beaded fringe to finish it off.

First WISP completed

Since my New Years Resolution to complete all unfinished projects before tackling any of the two hundred ideas in my head, I've actually completed one. This pincushion is titled "An Octopus's Garden." It's not living with me at the current time, as I entered it in Piecework Magazine's Annual Pincushion contest and had to send it off to them. It won't be back until the judging and photography is finished. BUT the key thing is I finished a WISP. Woo Hoo!

It started out I intended to make a fairly simple crazy quilted piece but the embroidery definitely took over. The top is a piece of hand dyed silk velvet. The sides are various silk, brocade and velvet scraps with couched specialty fibers and bead, silk ribbon, and silk floss embroideries.

Boc Choy

This small quilt is part of a series of vegetable portraits I've created that combine painted and hand dyed cottons. Work remaining to be done: quilting and binding.

Steadfast Tin Soldier

I participated in a Crazy Quilting International Round Robin with a fairy tale theme. I selected my favorite -- Hans Christion Anderson's The Steadfast Tin Soldier. I pieced an oversize block that will be used as one side of a project tote bag. The work on this one is beautiful. Most of the elements of the story are there. I love the ballerina and tin soldier together on the left side. You'll also see the goblin that cursed them in the upper left, the creaky old tree outside the window ledge from which the tin soldier fell, the tin soldier adrift on a paper boat in the center, a wonderful fish swallowing him up center right, the melted tin heart lower right, and in the lower left you can see the castle the ballerina danced before.

Work remaining to be done: Fill stitch the castle. Add a swan swimming on a mirrored lake. Fill in the few blocks without motifs. Sew together the tote bag. Use and love.

Go Gentle Into That Good Night II

This piece was inspired by a long night talk sitting on the beach with my youngest sister who was having a tough time. At the end of the day, the gulf becomes very still and even though it was getting quite dark there was still enough moonlight to give form and substance to the waves. Work remaining to be done: paintsticks, quilting, beading and binding.

Go Gentle Into That Good night I

Losing my dad three years ago was life changing for me. He had a devasting stroke just after he and my mother got to their Florida condo in January. My sister, brother and I drove straight through from Fargo to Florida to help my mom make the final decision and to say our goodbyes Respecting his oft-spoken wishes and living will, we did not permit the doctors to continue life support and after 10 days he passed away quietly. I'm working through my feelings in a series of quilts that represent the 24 hour drive but also the stages of grief. This piece came from our first evening in Florida as we sat on the beach at sunset and I accepted for the first time that he was not going to get better. Work remaining: Quilting and binding.

How to fix a failure.

I have this quilt pinned and ready to quilt but the truth is I don't like it much. I used Ricky Timm's Convergence Quilt technique but I somehow missed the boat. Too much contrast or not enough slices -- whatever the cause it doesn't work in its current incarnation. And I'm not willing to pick it apart and try again. And I'm not going to pitch it because I love the colors and the borders so I'm going to try to ressurect it. I have some vivid hand dyed red fabric that has veining like a close up of flower petals so I'm going to cut out some large hibiscus flowers to applique over the not-quite-nice center panel. If you can't fix it, hide it I always say. 

The second photos is where I intend it to look like when I'm done with it.

Work remaining to be done: Quilt background, threadpaint the hibiscus then raw-edge applique them down. Bead the stamens. Bind.

Kathy's birthday quilt

I had started the practice of making quilts for my nieces and nephews as wedding gifts. My sisters pointed out how unfair it was that they'd have to divorce their husbands and remarry just to get a quilts. Sigh. So I made sister #1 a quilt for her 50th birthday. This is the quilt for sister #2. She loves fantasy so I found a lovely stained glass pattern of a unicorn that I've appliquing onto a simple pieced background. I found I hate piecing bed quilts. Too much math. And you can see how accurate my arithmetic is. After all the cutting and sewing. I started laying it out on my design wall and found that I'm 9 block short. Grr. More cutting and piecing ahead. One life saver tip I read online was to buy a double needle to stitch down the bias tape around the unicorn. It's been tough keeping the stitches straight enough with all those curving pieces in the tail and mane. Work remaining to be done: Piecing more blocks (grrr), stitching down remaining bias tape, quilting, and binding.

City Lights

This quilt was inspired by the view of downtown Minneapolis from my sister's downtown loft. At sunset, the light off the skyscrapers is just luminous. The fabrics are all hand dyed. It's all pieced but I'm a little stalled on whether it needs a border or not. And what to do about the wavy part on the bottom. Right now it's a little top heavy.

Textured fabric

This quilt is an experiment with fabric manipulation. The center panel is given dimension by running cording through quilted channels. I plan to add beading, non-representational embroidery, and other embellishments in the flat areas. On either side I think I'm going to piece folded, crinkled, and shaped fabric bits. Work remaining to be done: Piecing the side panels. Embellishing the center panel. Quilting and binding.

Wool crazy quilt

I'm constitutionally incapable of buying stuff just because. There has to be some sort of immediate use and with fabric that means a WISP. I wanted a crazy quilted lap quilt to snuggle under for our drafty winters but didn't want to have fragile silks and fancy fabrics to stress over. At least that's how I justify buying gorgeous wool. It also gives me a chance to revive my interest in crewel embroidery. 30 years ago I used to do a lot of wool embroidery but kind of lost interest because how many samples and pillow tops does one house need anyway? So far this WISP is limited to a box of cozy hand dyed wools and one completed embroidery. This raspberry spray is from a pattern in Inspiration magazine. Work remaining to be done: Lots and lots of embroidery then crazy piecing the whole thing.

A Mother's Love

I belong to a quilting group called Designing Quilters that has a yearly theme challenge. Two years ago the theme was Motherhood. I had just begun production on a documentary project called Prairie Churches and had been filming a dozen beautiful old Orthodox churches in Manitoba. I found the beautifully decorated interiors -- and especially the icons -- very touching. I printed a copy of a beautiful old Russian Madonna on silk, made her a frame with an onion dome and got busy beading. The piece got to this stage (which wasn't enough beading to suit me) by the project deadline so I mounted it on Tyvex and sewed a backing on. But the minute the show was taken down, I ripped it apart and began adding more beads.

I intend it to be heavily beaded all over to be true to the encrusted icons that adorn the Orthodox churches. This project is my priority because I've worked a trade with a friend. My Madonna piece for one of her exurbant fabric collages. She thinks I'm nuts but since I'm not religious I'd feel funny hanging it in my home and this is going to be too gorgeous to sit on a shelf. She'll be happy in Virginia's madonna collection. Work remaining to be done: More beading. Then backing.

CQ Hearts WISP

This is an accidental Work in Progress. I read about an international crazy quilters' group heart exchange and got all excited about it. I printed off the pattern and went to town turning out hearts. After I'd done 15 of them, I realized the pattern didn't print correctly and I'd made the darn things too small for the project guidelines. That'll teach you to verify the dimension of an Acrobat Reader print job and not assume it's printing to the correct size. Darn. I made several into needle cases but decided to hang on to the rest and make a wall quilt from them. Some day. Thankfully this is a WISP I feel no guilt about since I didn't intend it to be a project. Work remaining to be done: Figure out some kind of background or setting for these hearts. That might lead to the need to finish one more heart.

CQI Roses purse

These pending projects are added to this blogin no particular order.

This project is a crazy quilted purse. I pieced the block for a Rose themed round robin I participated in with four other members of the Crazy Quilt International group. Embellishments were added by each member in turn and then returned to me.

Work remaining to be done: Add a couple of small embellishments to the front flap of the purse, move the lovely lavender rose center top because (unfortunately) it's right where the snap fastener has to go), attached the fabric cover to the purse form I have already created, and line the whole thing.

Family Tree crazy quilt

I'm going to be years finishing this crazy quilt and I'm OK with that. The center panel is a design in an Australian quilting magazine that I've made in silk on a silk velvet background. That is the first and last time I try to applique on velvet. What was I thinking? Everything slipped and puckered and distorted and rippled. I eventually ended up fusing the velvet onto muslin and was able to finally get it to look nice. I plan to embroider the names of my family and ancestors on flowers that will be appliqued on the branches. The crazy quilt blocks around the border are being embellished with motifs that represent events or ideas that are important in my life. There are close ups of some of the blocks on my flickr site.

Stalled on the road

In my journey to whittle down my WISP inventory (works in slow progress) I found the first hurdle was getting the photos I've taken off the memory card and into the computer. I confess. I'm a reluctant tool user. Anything more complicated than needle and scissors is just not interesting to me. Unfortunately there's a long list of technological tools I depend on. Computers rank right near the top of the list. When they work, terrific. When they don't, shove them in a closet and hope that they'll work next time you plug them in. If they still don't work my impulse is to go out and buy a new one. That'll teach it.

Even though computers are crucial to the work I do in my day job as a television producer, I don't really like them. 95% of my day is spent using computers. I edit video using computers, I build websites with them, I write scripts on them. But when something goes wrong I have no interest in understanding why or fixing it. During the day, I call up the computer guy and he comes in and magically fixes things. At home (where the situation is exacerbated by the ridiculously complicated Windows computer I have) I walk away from the stupid thing grumbling and ask my husband to fix it when he has time. Could be an hour. Could be a month. Then I have to get around to trying to use the crumby thing again.

Well, ladies and gents he got around to installing the reader a month ago and today I've finally worked up the nerve to try again. Turns out once the hardware is working right, the download process is pretty darn easy. So I'll start again blogging my process to WISP inventory clear out.

Starting a journey to the mythical state of Caught Up

I've sworn all along that I wouldn't blog. I've never been interested in journaling. Or diary keeping. Or letterwriting for that matter. And I have a hard time imagining that anyone's interested in what I'm doing, except for my poor spouse who must be tired of conversations that start "Say, I might not have told you but I'm going out of town tomorrow for a couple days."

But my 2008 New Year's Resolution is to reduce the ever expanding pile of unfinished projects in my studio. And I know enough about myself to know it won't happen unless I announce my intentions to the world and have (or at least think I have) people watching over my shoulder to make sure I follow up on it.

So, Mysterious Reader, you will keep me honest. I'm not expecting anything from you -- heaven knows we all have too many obligations we didn't ask for -- but I am hoping you will be Fair Witness to follow my efforts to clear out the old before bringing in the new. My 2008 mantra -- No New Projects. No New Projects. No New Projects (repeat as needed).

My first step on this journey is to photograph all the projects currently cluttering up my life. That will keep me out of trouble for a couple of days while I round them all up, take pictures, and then figure out how to use that download thingy that goes with my camera. Wish me well.