Colors of Petra, quilt

This past spring on a trip to Israel to celebrate a niece's Bat Mitzvah in Jerusalem, we decided to check-out Petra in Jordan. Jordan is the country east of Israel. Petra is considered to have one of the 7 man-made wonders of the world. WOW! It is worth it.

The wonder of Petra, can be seen in the movies. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, starring Harrison Ford. Petra consists of elaborate rock carved tomb structures in the middle of a desert canyon, somewhat like the Grand Canyon, in the USA. The colors you see are not the usual desert tans, but rather Amaranth Pinks, Mauve, Burnt Umber, and Persian Red. They were similar to the colors in the fabrics I was using at that time in a queen sized quilt bed set with 2 pillow shams. The batik fabric in the quilt also had the texture design of the desert sandstone. I decided to name the quilt "Colors of Petra", to remind me of that fascinating l trip, when I see it.

I hired "Sara Quilting Longarm", in Stuart, Florida to quilt the queen sized bed cover, while I tried to match their quilting design on the pillow shams, using my Husqvarna/Viking sewing machine.

Photo of quilts in a shop in Jordan made by women from the country.
Photo shows the beautiful colors in Jordan.
Photo of the "Colors of Petra" quilt
Photo of pillow shams.

Crystal Search

While in Montana I spend everyday being involved in the quilt process in some way. But today I took a little break to go crystal mining in Crystal Park. It has been so rainy in Montana, that the search was difficult for spotting shimmering crystals in the mud. The best strategy for a wet day seems to be to look on the surface for crystals that may have been washed clean by the rain.
After being cold and wet all morning, it was great to get back to the cabin to work on a quilt that I plan to enter in the National Quilt Museum contest called New Quilts from Old Favorites. For information check out, www.quiltmuseum.org/contest. This year the pattern is the Orange Peel. I am so excited about this project, as I feel the design plan was like finding a beautiful crystal, which involves some hard work and some luck, too!
When I first looked at the Orange Peel pattern, I did not have a clue of what to make from it, so I sat back and meditated on the idea. I have a tendency of seeing geometric shapes in everything around me. It is somewhat of an obsession. A feature that attracted me to quilting. Then at the time of learning about the contest, my life was also revolving around the wine industry, as my husband is involved in the wine business through Vermeil Wine. Somehow the ideas seemed to click together and it dawned on me that I could make a quilt of wine glasses and a decanter using the "orange peel" pattern.
I must say that I am thrilled with this design, and it is hard for me to leave it (though little breaks are healthy), as it is like watching a child grow. Amazing to see it transform from a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, into something tangible and meaningful. Can't wait to show you!

Quilting in Montana

I am in Wise River Montana for a few weeks this summer. I knew before arriving out here, that not everyday was going to be a fishing day, and that there would be plenty of time to quilt. But first I needed to make my sewing area efficient. I had listened to Lois Hallock speak about this on the International Association of Professional Quilters MP3 download of the "Create Your Perfect Quilting Studio", teleclass. Applying what I learned to my quilting room in Florida, and seeing a great improvement in efficiency, I could not wait to put it to use in the Montana home. There is so much less wasted time looking for things. The pictures of my space show the basic layout of the ironing board to the left of the sewing machine, and the raised cutting table to the right. I have also created a hanging design board, by pinning an outdoor tablecloth underside up (as that has the fuzzy flannel texture underneath), to the backdrop frame I purchased to display quilts. Fabric just sticks to this material without pins, and you can easily move the fabric around to see the effect of placement.