Knitting competes with quilting and horses

Last summer I picked up a book called The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. In addition to it being an engaging story, it also inspiried me to try to knit again. I have always been pretty good at crocheting since my Mom bought me a kit for Christmas to make a window pane vest when I was about 12. Remember those? I could never knit anything I liked because I hated purling. Also, on my last attmept to knit a few years ago, my granddog dachshund Frank kept running away with my needles and yarn. Crocheting can be rescued and repaired from the jaws of a mischievous wiener pet but knitting is a lost cause. This time around I first attempted a scarf and then got really brave and bought $75.00 of yarn at an amazing yarn shop in Basking Ridge, N.J. called Down Cellar.

This is the leftover yarn. It is hand-dyed wool, alpaca and silk and feels amazing. I used two strands at a time with size 11 needles and it took me about two weeks to make.

And here is the almost finished sweater. I just need to find a really cool button to put at the neck and a shirt to layer under it and I can wear it. I acquired two new skills while making it, using circular needles and double pointed needles.

Even though my husband is probably right and I'm nuts, I would love to see at least one of our pastures change from horses to alpacas. He's had horses and I've helped him and the kids with theirs for the last 30 years. I think I'm entitled to an alpaca if I want! Now I just have figure out how to come up with the cash. These babies don't come cheap and they have to be kept in pairs or they get neurotic or something. The only good news is I like the less expensive breed, the Huacaya which is shown in the picture below. They are supposed to be very friendly and gentle and they don't spit like llamas. Yet another maybe someday.

Paula Nadelstern on National Quilting Day

Through searching blogs on Quilting Bloggers (see link on right border), I discovered the Empire State Quilt Guild Show at FIT which was held this past Saturday and Sunday. When I saw that Paula Nadelstern was the speaker on Saturday, I said I don't care if my husband hates it when I go into the city, I'm there! Her talk was very interesting, informative and amusing. I was surprised to hear her say that she didn't consider herself a great artist, she can't draw that well. She was not a great technical seamstress, her points don't always match and she isn't very neat. I was so happy to hear all these things because I have all these traits too! The other great assertion that she made was that in her book she did not consider any method whatsoever of constructing or quilting cheating.

She showed this picture of a rug in a very upscale hotel in Houston. Many people at Quilt Market noticed it and told Paula how much it reminded them of her kaleidescope quilt designs. When Paula checked it out she knew they had stolen her design. It turned out that a decorator had photocopied a picture from her book, taken it to the rug company and asked them to make a rug out of it. At first, lawyers told her she didn't have a prayer against suing a big company, but Paula persisted and she won! The lesson that she wanted to share with us is that it is well worth the $45.00 to register your original designs if they are not published in a book. She won her case only because she had published them and that was her copyright.

This was a quilt Paula had on display from her Puzzle Quilts book. There are pairs of blocks that are constructed exactly the same but I can't tell even after she revealed which ones they were.


Here are pictures of the other quilts on display at the show that really caught my eye for one reason or another.

I always love the horse themed quilts. This was done by Diana Berthold for the Hampton Classic. I must have a hundred pictures of my daughters jumping fences like this at local shows that I'll have to turn into quilts. The paint horse below is called No Hour Lost by JoAnne Powell. It reminded of a horse named Kaleidescope that we used to see showing on the New Jersey circuit.

This is called Undulating Swirl. The metallic thread quilting on this piece was amazing! I also loved the movement the placement of the black half circles created.

This is a blooming 9 patch done with Kaffe Fasset Fabrics by Jody Beitzel. I am always on the lookout for quilt designs that are relatively easy construction wise but have alot of visual impact.

This is Marty's Ties by Renee Kane Fields. It was made for a colleague of hers on his retirement out of all his ties since he wouldn't be wearing them that often after he retired. It reminded me of those skirts we wore in the seventies and one of the first quilts I made. My niece lost her fiancee in a tragic accident a few months before they were supposed to be married. She brought me his boxer shorts and wanted me to make them into a quilt. I thought she was nuts at first but in the end I was glad that I was able to make something that brought her comfort.

This New York Beauty titled Fortune Wheels by Anna Sinitsyna was awesome. These blocks seem so difficult to me, I'll have to try it to challenge myself someday. There's that someday again.



This is Monster Mash by Lauren Dietrich. I love the bight colors and whimswical monstoers. It reminded me of the two Eric Carle quilts I'm making for my daughter's kindergarten class.

Purple Jane by Debra Bevin





Blue Sky and Sunshine by Anna Krassy

While waiting for Paula to start her lecture, there was a slide show of a number of quilts inspired by Brenda Papadakis' book about Jane Stickley's Dear Jane quilts. The two quilts above were in the slide show and also on display at the FIT show. Another was done in all blue and white so I bought a pack of fat quarters to make my own once again to save for someday. I think I love just about anything that is blue, it is definitely the predominant color in my stash.

This was a wonderful day, well worth the admission fee. The icing on the cake came at about 3:30 that afternoon as I was buying my late lunch in a deli on 7th avenue. My daughter Kelly called to tell me that her boyfriend had proposed to her! Now I get to make that other wedding quilt (see Wedding Bell Blues from 3/12) and I get to plan another wedding! The only thing more fun for me than shopping for fabric is shopping, planning and making stuff for a wedding. I better enjoy this one while it lasts 'cause I won't have it again until granddaughters!

Chemical Inspiration

I am continually amazed at the unusual places I can get inspiration for quilting if I keep my eyes and mind open to them. Who would ever think you could find it in Chemistry class in crystalized cocktails!

This is Dave Foster. I was the In-class Support teacher with him in Chemistry last year. He is a brialliant, hysterically funny man who makes Chemistry fascinating and fun. One day the pattern on his tie seen in the picture attracted my attention. He told me it was a crystallized representation of scotch and water.





Later that day I found the website for the company that made the tie and I was amazed at all the beautiful images. Here is a sampling of the ones that visually appealed to me and that I thought I could interpret in fabric. Even though some of the compounds have negative connotations to me, I still liked the images. Check out the website and see which drink, drug (legal or illegal) or chemical inspires you.

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/galleria/index.html

wine

novacaine

caffeine

lasix -we used to give this to our race horses to make them run faster

vodka and tonic

Interferon

There are many, many more on the website. I guarantee you will be amazed and enthralled!

Irish Village Project

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Even though I'm only 1/4 Irish, St. Patrick's Day is always special to me. I grew up with my 100% Irish Grandma living in our house, my husband is 1/2 Irish and his nickname is Red and most of all, I named my strawberry blonde twin girls Kelly and Colleen.

Last Spring I visited a new quilt shop in Howell N.J. named Mouse Creek Quilts. I signed up for a block of the month called Irish Village. I got a few of the blocks in the mail last Fall but put them away and forgot about them. Last week there was a package on my kitchen table when I got home and it was the kits for the remaining blocks to complete the quilt. Since St. Patrick's Day was this coming week, I decided to start the first block and make a block or two throughout the coming year and finish the quilt for St. Patrick's Day 2010.

This is the first block of the quilt. It's a river going under a stone bridge. I do raw edge machine applique with double fusible web. I haven't got the patience for needle turned applique.



This is a picture of how the finished quilt will look. I especially like the wishing well and the church block. I'm hoping the goal of next St. Patrick's Day will prevent this from becoming a UFO.

If you're ever in the Howell neighborhood on Route 9 in N.J., check out the store. The people are super nice and they have a nice mixture of traditional and contemporary fabrics. Their website is http://www.mousecreekquilts.com/. Enjoy!

Wedding Bell Blues

Thank you for all the positive feedback that I got from my fellow members of Common Threads Quilters of Long Valley. They are an amazing group of talented craftspeople and they inspire me every time I see them. They really encouraged me to continue blogging.


If anyone has a wedding or shower to go to this Spring or Summer, here's an idea if you think you don't have time to make a quilt by then.

This is the quilt I made for my daughter when she got married a year ago last November. I only had the top completed at her wedding. We displayed the top and I had made 4X4 blue and white blocks for people to sign. After dinner was over, the blocks were put out on a table with permanent markers and everyone signed away. After all the excitement died down and I recovered from post wedding planning withdrawal depression, I sewed the blocks together for the backing. Later that year I quilted it and finished the binding and gave it to them for their first anniversary.

This is a section of the back of the quilt with the signatures. Some of the comments the kids at the wedding wrote are absolutely priceless. I'm hoping to start on one soon for her twin sister but she needs to get engaged first and I need to recover financially from the last one!

Kindergarten Quilting

Thank you Hannah and Sarah for being my first commenters. Now I really feel official.


If you haven't seen or read this book, you should, even if you're not a quilter. The story teaches a great lesson and the illustrations are a feast for the eyes.

My daughter Kelly teaches Kindergarten at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, N.J. Last year I visited her school to do a quilting activity with her children. It was really fun for me because it took me back to my days as a preschool teacher at Christ Church Nursery School in Short Hills. The book I read to the children that day was The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau and Gail De Marcken. I was so taken with the story and the amazing illustrations that I designed and made a quilt based on the blocks in the story. The order of the blocks follows the story and I brought it with me this year for the class to see.



One of the things that really intrigued me in the book were the blue waltzing Siamese cats so I made an applique block to include in the quilt. I also did something different with the quilting this time. I tried to let each block sort of speak to me and determine how it should be quilted. I really tried to get away from just outlining or stitch in the ditch so I tried curved motifs in angular spaces. The other thing I used for ideas was to relate the quilting to what the block was about such as the quilted threads on the spools block.





Each year I make a class quilt with them. First, the kids color on muslin blocks ironed onto freezer paper. Then they chose their favorite material block from a big selection of novelty prints. I had the kids take turns placing each of their blocks in the layout and finally we talked about design, not having the same blocks too close to each other. The kids suggested changes in layout and we made them. Then I took it home and quilted it for them. Last year we tied the quilt instead but I didn't want to have to use a second personal day. Here is this year's quilt. I think they did a great job!

Their artwork was really amazing for kindergarteners and the fabrics were all bright colors. It lifted my spirits every day that I quilted it.