Odds & Ends (& beginnings)

In the three weeks since finishing The Visit, the Kentucky Derby has come and gone, my sister came to visit, and the studio got cleaned. Everything but this in-progress lighthouse project was tidied up and put away, a process that also helps clean out the cobwebs in my brain and get the creativity flowing better.







While my sister was here, we stopped in at the antique/consignment/thrift shop just around the corner from my neighborhood, and found this pretty wooden wine rack with a drawer. Obviously, I had another use for it (although it's been pointed out to me that there are still a couple of spaces available for wine ;). All of the things stored here get used at various times during designing landscape quilts, and were originally stored upright in a tacky corrugated box with dividers (that kept collapsing). This drawer is the perfect size to hold marking pens and chalk, as well as gluesticks and masking tape.

Speaking of great finds, after finding those 5 beautiful yards of cotton/poly blend (mostly cotton) in the basement a few weeks back, I used it for joining-strips and binding on the quilt-as-you-go blocks. The color could not have been more perfect, and running across this fabric after having stashed and forgotten it years ago was surely no coincidence.

The backs of the blocks aren't arranged exactly the way I'd like, but after two hours of switching them around, the front of the quilt started getting out of balance--too much orange in one area, or all the purples in one corner, etc. So I went with this. It's just for us, anyway. I wouldn't give this to anyone else, with all the wonkiness in it (which I like). Plus, two seams already popped during washing and had to be appliqued over. Apparently I didn't always pay close enough attention to the underneath seam allowances when I was laying down the strips. Yikes! I'll be watching for more. Lesson learned.


Another project, just begun, involves these two fabrics...

1980s abstract upholstery fabric, by Dupont Teflon (!!)

Lewis & Clark journals print cotton

...and this image, first enlarged on 1-inch graph paper and then traced on tear-away stabilizer.

The original plan for the upholstery fabric was to make it a stormy sky in a landscape (turned sideways, it looks like rain is coming down). But when I turned it the way it's shown in the photo, something entirely different popped out at me. Eh, we'll see how it goes....

Hope all you moms are having a wonderful Mother's Day! I received these two stunning gifts. I don't normally blog about my gifts, but these are original works of art and deserve a shout-out.

This hand-blown wine glass from my son Alex and his wife Shannon, made in Hebron from recycled glass, came from Just Creations, a shop here in town that is a "not-for-profit international crafts marketplace." They "provide marketing assistance to low-income craftspeople in more than 30 developing nations."  How cool is that? The glass is opaque in the shadows, translucent in the light. If you put it in a window, you can see the sunlight glowing through it. Just gorgeous!

And this incredibly beautiful piece on the right, a resin pyramid encasing recycled metals, rose petals and crystals, among other things, was made by my younger son, Aaron. The base is about 5 inches square. He has just begun working with resin (can you believe it?), and has several other ideas on the burner for more pieces. This one changes appearance depending upon the light it's in and what it's sitting on. Every time you examine it, you see something different. I'm fascinated by it, and can't wait to see the other pieces he crafts.



That's it for now, except to say, for those of you who asked me, I've decided to enter The Visit in the next AQS show, which happens to be in Chattanooga (the deadline was extended to this Wednesday, May 14.) I won't know until late June or early July whether it's accepted. Please cross your fingers for the girl (no longer) in the drawer.  :)  A lot depends on the quality of the photos I submit, which is a little nerve-wracking. Oddly enough, the photo that started this whole project was taken in Chattanooga, at Point Park on Lookout Mountain. Think any of the locals would recognize it in the quilt? I wonder...

Linking up with Leah Day's FMQ Project blog. She's binding her 365 quilt, AND she and husband Josh are heading to Pittsburg PA for Spring Quilt Market next week.

Have a great week!

Linda