Back in the studio

And it feels good!

A string block became the center of a new pillow sham

A whole chain of diversions had conspired to keep me out of the studio for about three months, but in the past couple of weeks I've gotten back in the studio and am having a great time.

The first evening I went back in to work I turned on the new air conditioner and just looked around. I didn't even know where to start. I spent a couple of evenings just taking stock, seeing what projects were in progress, and what I needed to finish them. I still wasn't ready for anything too challenging, so started by taking a string block, setting it on point and quilting and finishing it as a pillow sham for our new apartment. Along with that, I pulled out some already quilted string and crumb blocks, which I took to the apartment and finished as potholders.

These string block pot holders add a colorful touch to the
kitchen and are useful

Then it was back to my art quilts. I do a lot of my pieces in components, preparing backgrounds, and making other parts separately, then applying them to the background. I had quilted this lighthouse, plain white fabric layered on felt and heavily quilted with variegated thread, but it didn't work with the background I originally planned. So my first project was to create and quilt a background. I love this orange fabric with stars and it worked perfectly with the bright threads of the lighthouse. The original background, pieced and painted with a sunrise, became the background for a palm tree.

This lighthouse is closely quilted
using colorful variegated thread.

With those done, I went through the stack of nearly finished pieces and picked out and cut binding fabric for each one, and this weekend did a marathon binding session. Not my favorite part, but now I have a stack of handwork I can work on while watching TV or visiting with friends.

With several of the quilts nearly finished, I decided it was time to start some new work, sea turtles! Here's the first herd of turtles. For these I fuse the top fabric to felt, using MistyFuse, then quilt and paint. After I cut them out, I paint the edges to seal them. More on the turtles soon, but for now I have other work to do.

More later!

This palm was appliqued to the painted
background

A herd of turtles! I fuse fabric to felt, then quilt and paint. After cutting out, I paint the edges to seal.

Photo Friday – back roads

I know it's not Friday, but I don't want to wait another week before I get my blog back on track.

I enjoy traveling back roads. There's less traffic, less stress and more interesting things to see. A couple of weeks ago as I was traveling home from North Carolina (more about that later) I was driving down U.S. Highways 321 and 301. I couldn't help looking at all the old motels and relics of the days when these roads were the way to travel. Beginning in the 1930s, automobile travel became more and more popular, and roadside accommodations grew to serve the travelers. From campgrounds to cabins to motor courts, the lodging evolved and following World War II, the major north-south highways were lined with motels to serve vacationers.

After the Interstate system was begun, most of the travelers changed routes and the boom days were over. In the more prosperous towns the roadside motels were torn down for other growth, but in some areas they still exist. Along the stretch of 301 and 321 I traveled, there were some that are still in business, while others are dusty ghost towns.

I found the Vintage Roadside site to be full of interesting information on the history of motor lodges, as they were first known.

Here are a couple of pictures of sights that caught my eye.

A large motel, appears to be still in business

The Interstate, which apparently was a large truck stop and restaurant complex. Now a ghost town.

A great sign on a roadside restaurant

And another great sign on an old motel

A couple more projects

Exciting news, I sold one of my art quilts last weekend. The quilt, Log Cabin Lighthouse, was one of my earlier pieces, so I'm happy to see it go to a good home. Of course now there's an empty spot at the restaurant, so I need to pick out another quilt to display there.

I'm still not back to serious work on my art quilts, but I've made good progress on the decorating front. It's still being creative, right?

Here are a couple more projects that are finished. For the kitchen curtains, I made the trim using the invisible seam technique I learned for pillowcases. It worked great, with no raw edges left showing.

I had several sets of decorative window shutters tucked away in my storage room. I thought the small ones would be great decorative pieces, but I made them useful, too. The coral one hangs in the kitchen as a key holder. The blue is in the bathroom. The hooks are from the hardware store and I found the glass shell ornaments at one of the local stores.

More later.

A few befores and afters

Well the sewing is still in progress, but I've finished working on several pieces of furniture and decorative items at our new apartment. I thought I'd share a few befores and afters.

4-drawer chest found at a used furniture sale

after painting

wicker chest found at furniture sale

after painting (needs second coat)

another wicker chest

painted and ready to use

one of a pair of table lamps found at a thrift store

second lamp after painting. I spray-painted with blue,
then sponged on an ivory to add interest

pair of tables my sister found at a yard sale

after painting, used as coffee tables

I forgot to take a before of this 60s sewing machine cabinet,
but the after adds a bright spot of color to the living room

The case of the missing quilter

I know, it's been more than a month since my last post. Where have I been? At the beach. Well, kind of...

At the beginning of April we got an apartment near our business on Tybee Island, GA. So I've spent most of the past month furnishing and beginning to decorate it. It's amazing how much "stuff" you need to furnish an apartment from scratch. Of course there's some stuff I've been able to bring from my house, some quilts, a few decorative items and of course some sewing stuff. But like most people I don't have duplicates of all the everyday stuff you need.

Now that the basic stuff, dishes, pots and pans, sofas! have been taken care of, I'm working on decorating. Through a combination of used furniture sales, thrift stores, estate sales and so on, I found most of our furniture. Several pieces were in good shape, but needed a new finish, so I've been painting furniture - in fun, beachy colors, of course. So far I've finished two small tables, a small chest of drawers and a couple of small wicker trunks. An old sewing machine table, to be used as an end table, is in progress, and another chest of drawers waiting for paint.

I'm also sewing, of course. I've finished a shower curtain and the curtains for the living room. I have fabric for curtains for the other rooms, bed skirts, cushions, quilts and so on, which will keep me busy for quite a  while. I've set up the guest bedroom with a Singer 15-30 treadle, so I can work on all the decorating projects while I'm there.

One of my finds at a furniture sale was an old sewing chair, which opens to provide storage. This one is not getting painted, but it is getting used.

Unfortunately, all this activity means I haven't done much with my art quilts over the past month. But I've been working on them almost exclusively since the beginning of the year, so a break is okay.


I'll post some before and after pictures of my projects soon. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still around.

Plein Air treadling

Sorry for no posts last week. I was busy with work, life and mostly getting ready to have an artist's booth at a local arts festival. ARTsFEST, at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA, is an annual art and art education festival with tons of hands-on art activities for kids. They also have an artists' market, and artists are asked to demonstrate their work.

The wind kept blowing our display board down, so we rearranged.

So I spent last week finishing and framing several art quilts and hand-dying bandanas, gathered them up, plus some mixed media jewelry, fabric postcards and a few glasses cases and little drawstring bags, loaded them with a tent, table, sewing machine and cabinet, chairs, display board and all my sewing stuff. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

A beautiful day to sew outside

Other than the loading and unloading – and the sunburn – it was a blast. I worked on several small pieces, thread sketching and thread painting, as people stopped by. The reactions were so much fun. Some of the older visitors talked about learning to sew on a treadle or having a mother or grandmother who sewed on a treadle. Many had a family treadle tucked away at home and I gave them information on cleaning and taking care of them. A lot of the men were interested in the age of the machine, how it worked and sewing machine history. A number of women who do sew were interested in the actual sewing, as well as getting their own treadles to work. Since the university has a fashion design program I got a lot of interest from younger people who sew, or are learning to sew. And the kids were interested in how the machine worked.

I think the most common comment was that people had never seen anyone sew on  a treadle, or didn't know anyone still sewed on a treadle.

On the art side, I got lots of compliments on my quilts and many people said they'd never seen anything like them. It didn't seem to be much of a buying crowd, so I didn't sell any bigger works, but I did sell a few small items, at least enough to cover the cost of entering the show. My sister came along to help, and handled most of the sales and kept an eye on the merchandise, which let me concentrate on my demo and talking about sewing and machines.

It was great fun, I got some good exposure as an artist and saw a lot of friends I haven't seen in a while, since I worked in Statesboro for years. And I even got the basic quilting/thread sketching done on several pieces while I was there.

And I learned a lot about having an artist's booth. I need a better display, mine kept blowing over in the wind. I forgot to bring cards, next time bring cards and handouts with references on sewing machines and art quilting. And if I do ARTsFEST again, I'll bring along a handcrank sewing machine and let people try it.

Have a great week, more later.

Photo Friday – Wisteria

I was away from home last weekend, and got home to find my yard draped in lavender. The wisteria is blooming. At this time of year the wisteria is as beautiful as something out of a fairy tale. The shades from lightest to dark lavender, the way it drapes so gracefully and shimmers in the lightest touch of wind.

The rest of the year, unfortunately, it's more like something out of a horror movie, strangling trees, creeping under the siding of the house and sneaking out to snare a foot or the lawnmower blades.

But for now, beautiful. I've wanted to make a wisteria quilt for a while, so I took lots of photos to help me capture the look.

Enjoy. More later.