Quilts On My Mind

South Florida Fair 2012

2012-01-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

This year was the 100th Anniversary of the SOUTH FLORIDA FAIR. A quilt block contest was made for that event, with "South Florida Fair", as the theme. I designed and entered a block into the contest, and was honored to win. My block was called the "SWING RIDE" (which is one of my favorite rides).
The bodies of the riders were made with embroidery thread and the heads made with little wooden jewelry balls. The red and yellow fabric in the trunk of the ride came from fabric I purchased South Africa. Geometric shapes are popular there, maybe because they are so dazzling.

On my last blog message I mentioned, that I was looking for ways to RESHAPE A QUILT FOR ACCURACY IN PREPARATION FOR PHOTOGRAPHS. I had heard that photos entered into contests can make or break your chance of winning. One interesting article I found is listed here:
www.ehow.com/how_8008993_square-quilt-top.html
But this article talks about resizing just the top of the quilt, before it is combined with the batting and backing. But chatting with other quilt guild members, revealed that it can also be done on a completed quilt, but that you need to pin the damp quilt (stretched to size) on your design wall. I would put towels on the wall, before I pin the quilt on it to dry. Also, it is recommended to use "T-Pins".
Let me know if this works for you.

Using SILK YARN in the border Of the CHORAL QUILT

2011-10-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

Many time after the main part of a quilt is finished I ponder the border. The first idea for a border for the choir or CHORAL quilt, came from a photo in the "Quilter's Newsletter Magazine" December 2001, No. 338. I have collected those magazines for years for reference and ideas. The piece I admired was called, "Shed a Little Light", by Shelly Burg of Lincoln Nebraska. I liked how the border emanated from the center piece. This may represent sound emitting from the choir. But it turned out looking too casual for the formal choir. It needed something with a more classical look, with a hint of keyboard. Then I saw an article in the AQS magazine "American Quilter" September 2011 Vol XXVII No. 5, called Sweeping Bars: Suspension Engineering for Quilts", by Barbara E. Lies. I was inspired to do a border with a similar look, but using black silk yarn from Scotland instaed of bias tape, as in the article.
I went to use the Husqvarna/Viking 3 Hole Yarn Foot, which I learned how to use at the Mancuso Quilt Show in West Palm Beach, FL last fall. The class was taught by Carol Taylor. I loved that class and wanted to put the lesson to work, to help seal it in my memory. But it turned out that the Viking Foot did not fit in the Janome Machine that was available for my use. So I needed to buy a new foot. Searching online I discovered the Creative Feet "Sequins 'N Ribbons" foot and optional yarn guides, that would feed my small silk yarn. Well it worked wonderfully and I am thrilled I got it, as it will be useful for many projects, and works on all machines.
So now the choir quilt is finished and named, "The Robert Sharon Chorale: Joined in Harmony". The back of the quilt is not a typical backing, as I fused an applique design of the treble and base clef intertwined into a joined form.
The quilt really is square (though it may look off), but now I need to learn how to photograph them better. Will let you know what I learn about that next.

The photo at the above shows the first design idea I had for the quilt that did not work seem to work for this design. Borders are so important, like a good picture frame. A useful tool is to cut out a piece of paper, to use to view the design.

Chorale Quilt

2011-07-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

The Chorale Quilt is a quilt in its beginning phase. It has grown from my active participation as a Soprano 2 in the Robert Sharon Chorale located in Palm Beach County, Florida. We just came back from a wonderful concert tour trip in Austria & Slovakia in June.

I had been thinking about doing such a project for a long time, but was not sure how I wanted it to look, that is, until I took a quilt class at the Mancuso World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach, FL in 2010. The class was taught by Robbi Joy Eklow. In her class, fusible webbing is an active part of the quilt pattern construction. I chose one of her patterns that I used, and altered a bit. See the picture of the "Bursting Sunshine" at the top. The circular motion it has, gave me the inspiration to make the CHORALE QUILT in a curved shape. Like music it flows!

Believe me I have a lot more little hands to applique, and many decisions to be made on how to border it. Just waiting for more inspiration while I work away at it. Singing while I sew is great, too!

Splendid Rose Quilt for Scripps Research

2011-05-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

A new, twin bed sized, quilt named "Splendid Roses", has just been finished. This quilt was made for a charity raffle coming up in 2012 to benefit a fundraiser that Frenchman's Creek Women for Cancer Research will hold for the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida.

The roses in it were made using my Geometric Rose Pattern #1. Two of the rose blocks were made by students ( Norma Glazer & Robin Goodfriend) that volunteered to learn how to make the rose block, knowing that the quilt made using the block they made, would become a raffle quilt. Making this quilt block, was the first experience that Robin had ever had using a sewing machine, and making a precision pieced block at the same time, with great success.

I rented the Gammel longarm sewing machine at Quilter's Choice in Jupiter to quilt this beautiful quilt. Everytime I use this machine, I try to learn more, and also speed up my work. It took a day and a half for me to quilt this piece, which may seem slow. However, I was using some more intense quilting designs and different colored quilting threads, so that ate up some of the time.

I also bought flannel graft fabric there , to use on my design wall to help me make sure that my quilts are geometrically in proportion. It has always been difficult for me to proportion large quilts, but this tool should make that easy. For a King sized quilt you would need 6 yards of it. Then cut it in half and sew them together, matching the grid lines. It is easy to get it on and off my design wall, that already has a plain colored flannel on it, if I need to move it around on travels.

Rag Quilt Class at the Oakwood Center

2011-02-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

My textile class at the Oakwood Center, in which I'll be teaching, how to make a RAG QUILT, is coming up soon. The art teachers at Oakwood were recently honored during the 40th anniversary gala event. Here is a photo of it from the Palm Beach Post.

Now that my class is quickly approaching, I am gathering up supplies. Gold Coast Sew & Vac Center will lease sewing machines daily, to help out.

The name of the class has been changed from "sewing" to "textiles", to attract male students. It seems the word "sewing" makes them think of it, as a woman's class. Personally, I have always thought that using a sewing machine was similar to driving a car (since you press the peddle with your foot to go faster and steer with your hands). What man doesn't like that? I hope they give it a try.

This year we will be making throw sized (40" x 56") quilts. They are fast and easy to make, and fun to snuggle up with, when finished. Since the class time is so limited and I want the students to have a finished product. They will each get a prepared kit (I use a raffle to distribute them as the color combos are various). The kit contains 35 squares of 9.25". Each square consists of a 9.25" back square an 8" square of batting and another piece of 9.25" for the front. Each square is numbered with stick-on paper for its location in the quilt. Also, a design sketch of the pattern is included. The students creativity will come out when they learn to free form quilt each block with the feed dog down. Then the blocks will be pieced together with the raw edges all exposed on one side of the quilt. We will then use Fiskar Scissors for clipping into and around the raw edges, for the fuzzy effect. I think they will love it.

Quilts for the Yemin Orde Youth Village

2010-12-17T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Yemin Orde is a youth village on Mount Carmel in Israel. It was recently damaged by wildfire. Most of the children’s living quarters were destroyed . The age of the children there range from 6 to 18, and there about 500 students living there. Luckily none of them were physically hurt.

As a quilter, I would like to sponsor the postage to mail twin sized quilts to the Yemin Orde from the South Shore Stitchers Quilt Guild in southern New Jersey, and the Palm Beach Quilt Guild in West Palm Beach, Florida. The quilts should be approximately a standard twin bed quilt of 65” x 88”. Their rebuilt living quarters will not be ready for a year and a half, so I would like to put the deadline on quilts to be 14 months from now. Then, perhaps when they have the grand reopening, we can add to the excitement with these beautiful quilts.

Is there anyone out there who would like to help?

Please contact me if you would like to help, so that I can arrange for the shipping of the quilts.

Please check-out their website for more information: www.yeminorde.org .

The photo over to the right, of myself, my daughter Jessica, Chaim Peri, and my husband Michael, was taken in front of an administration building in 2007. On their website you can see it after the damage.

2010-09-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law sent me an interesting article from

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational, which once again invited

readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding,

subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Making a fictitious word sounded fun to me. I was craving a creative release, I guess. A word such as “crelease”, could apply. (my spell check is freaking out)

So, I checked out Wikipedia, when searching online for the names of colors. I found out that there is such a thing as fictitious colors, which made me smile, as they are real words. A fictitious color, is a name for an imaginary color. I had never thought about that idea, so I pondered the idea of making a fictitious word, and I came up with “squilting”. Definition is: to be singing while working on a quilt. It does not really seem fictitious as it is something you can really do, but the word has not been recognized, yet.

Lyrics can help me remember things, so lately I have been thinking about lyrics to old songs that could be changed to describe quilt lessons and tools. Take the song “Row, Row, Row Your Boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, life is but a dream”, and changing the words to “Sew, Sew, Sew Your Stitches evenly every time. 6 to 10 stitches per inch, that would be just fine.

This squilting song, is a great duet.

But this just gets me started as here is an idea for another song.

How about the song from the sitcom “Green Acres” TV theme .

Green acres is the place to be.

Farm liven' is the life for me.

Land spread-in' out so far and wide.

Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.

New York is where I'd rather stay.

I get allergic smelling hay.

I just adore a penthouse view.

Dar-ling I love you, but give me Park Avenue.

...The chores.

...The stores.

...Fresh air.

...Times Square

You are my wife.

Good bye, city life.

Green Acres we are there.

Changed to:

Seam Ripper is the tool for me.

Rips the thread out where it shouldn’t be.

You wish you never needed it,

But when you do, you ‘ll start fresh without a fit.

Sewing errs can really make you mad.

But those times should not make you sad.

You work will pay off at the end.

Beside your side, it turns out to be a true friend.

...Mistakes

...Errors

...Ripped out

...No Fray

Fix your mistakes.

No burden to bear.

Seam Ripper, will be there.

How about this version of the song “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”.

Change the words to:

Patterns keep coming to my mind.

But that doesn’t mean that there’s a pattern I can find.

Drawing is for me.

Graft paper helps you place the lines where they should be.

Then it’s up to you.

There’s nothing you can’t do.

So if these lyrics make you smile, keep squilting! The picture is of the Robert Sharon Choral that I belong to in Florida.

Twirly Russian Dress

2010-09-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

The fabric I bought in and from Russia (mentioned in a previous Blog), was put to good use only yesterday when I took a class to learn about using a Baby Lock Serge Machine to make a Twirly Dress. The class was at the Dollard Baker Sew & Vac Store in Marmora, NJ. The teacher was the highly experienced Lydia Krueger.

I was thrilled with the amount of stitches the machine can do, even though I only used the "Three Thread Overlock Stitch". The machine can even do a simple straight stitch, as a regular sewing machine does.

In this class you cut a pre-made tee-shirt to the length you want, and add the skirt section of the dress to it. The skirt section is made by joining 5 or 6 cone shaped sections (depending on how twirly you want it to be) of the fabric together, and then joining it to the tee-shirt. I even added a long strip of fabric along the bottom of the dress, for a nice look. Many alterations can be made in size and shape, as well as adding a belt or bow tie. What a great way to whip out a dress in one day!

Merry Mystery Solved

2010-08-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

These photos are of the Merry Mystery Quilt and pillowcase (made from scraps), before it was finished. This quilt began from a "Mystery Quilt" class taught by Merry May through the South Shore Stitchers Quilting Guild in South Jersey. The class took place last summer at the Upper Township Community Center in Tuckahoe, NJ.

The pattern resembles a "Drunkards Path" or "Grandmom's Fan". But it actually a short-cut method of forming a square from 2 different fabrics and then appliquing the arch on top of it by using twill tape to cover the raw edges and then machine stitching the tape down. This action, may be referred to as "couched-on".

The mystery to the story is how these classes take place. The teacher gives you instructions to a project, one step at a time, but does not give you a clue of what the final outcome will look. As you near the end, you see your work come together to from a beautiful pattern. I really the surprise part of quilting.

What happened with my quilt, is that I had more of these fabrics, than was needed for this class (which was to make a crib sized quilt). So, instead of finishing the quilt top in class I decided to take it home, altering the design layout, and making the quilt a twin bed size. It has since been finished and shown at a Palm Beach Quilt Guild, FL meeting.

2010-08-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

On the first day in St. Petersburg, Russia my husband arranged for our tour guide “Luba”, to take us to a fabric store. I can’t write the name of the store, as the Russian alphabet is a combination of Greek and Latin letters. It almost seems as if the people that designed the alphabet had dyslexia, as the letters appear upside down, backwards, lower case, and capital letters, all scrambled together. But that would not have stopped their creativity, of dealing with such harsh weather, and very short winter days, as the sites in St. Petersburg are spectacular. There were very few cotton fabrics in the shop and about half of them were Russian (about 10). They were manufactured in a town outside of Moscow, where local rumor has it, that men should go there to find a woman, as that is where there are plenty of them. Luba told me that even though there seemed to be so few fabrics, it is much more than they used to have. So the market for it seems to be growing. Perhaps the warmer than usual weather is creating a higher demand for cotton. There has been an extreme heat wave in Russia this summer. It has been fatal for some, as there is no air conditioning (as it is rarely needed). Here are photos of the 2 Russian fabrics that would be great for a kaleidoscope design. One has symmetrical designs, and the other is a paisley print that would be great as a background blend.

Trip to Sweden

2010-07-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a busy life collides with my desire to make quilts. As was the case, when I did not have time to prepare the "Wine Quilt" for the trip. Time just ran out, as just a week after my daughters wedding, my husband scheduled our departure for a 2 week trip to the Baltic Sea area. This included a stop in Stockholm Sweden, with a day trip to Norrkoping. I wanted to check out Norrkoping, because my Great-Grandmother was from there. She was a seamstress that immigrated to the USA in 1890. As it turns out, Norrkopping was then a fabric manufacturing town. In the 1960’s the manufacturing business went through a hugh overhaul as things became machine operated, rather than using human manual labor. (One sign said that a machine could do the work of 20 people.) Also, the labor expense was much lower in other countries, so those jobs were exported. This caused whole economies to go through an abrupt evolution.
My husband grew up in Woodbine, NJ where there was also clothing manufacturing factories at that time. It was a thriving community. When the industry closed down in the 60’s, the factories were torn down. In Norrkoping, Sweden however, the factories were not torn down, and have since become educational facilities, museums, and a gymnasium.
In Stockholm we did find a fabric store called Iosef Frank. He was a Jewish designer who came from Ausrtria in the 1930’s. They still reproduce his designs today, as the designs have come to represent the culture, as a form of art.
One of the designs is a simple white elephant repeated over and over on various basic background colors. They say that Iosef Frank was inspired to create the design from a trip to Africa. I suppose the Swedish were in awe of the animal. I got a red apron with white elephants on it for my mother, who is a devoted Republican. The elephant does not seem to have any political meaning in Sweden.
For my own use, I got a meter of Frank’s cotton fabric (shown in the picture). The plants on the fabric are quite large (approx. 6”) and great for an applique quilt. This design was created in 1940.
Fabric is quite expensive in Sweden, with one meter of this fabric costing $100 US dollars. Maybe, that is why quilting is not a popular hobby here, as the cost would be outrageous. However, quilts would be very useful in the climate, as well as blend right in with the Gothic/Barque architecture style.

Excitement Overload

2010-07-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

Today I just emerged from zombie mode. The definition of a zombie is: a will-less, and speechless body (where things seem to happen out of your control). I had become a zombie for a number of reasons. First, from being a virgin stick shift driver, and deciding to lease a stick shift mini Cooper during the busy summer season in New Jersey. On top of that dealing with the stress of preparing for my daughters wedding, and having shingles emerge from that. You might not believe it, but I can even top that, with the fact that I left my shoes behind at the house, instead of taking them to the wedding, and then accidentally spilling a whole glass of very good red wine on my golden Spanish lace gown, which is lined in white (having not even had a sip of it, no less.) Would you not call that a zombie?
My sister Carol and cousin Cindy saved the day by applying Oxy-Clean immediately to the stain. We watched it disappear, right in front of our eyes!
It made me think in my head, of a cute little song about Oxy-Clean, using the melody from the USA Coast Guard Medley.
That melody is frequently sung by the Robert Sharon choral, which I sing with in Florida. Try to imagine these words to that melody.

Oxy-Clean will save the day!
From Stain to grimey goo.
Soak and seep
No stains too deep
OH, Oxy-Clean is there for you!

The day after the wedding was successfully over, I finally had time to relax for an hour and do something I enjoy. Quilting, of course. It's my therapy. So I worked on my Orange Peel Pattern quilt.
I want to finish the top of the Orange Peel Pattern quilt to take on a cruise trip coming up soon. I plan to do the hand quilting while in the Baltic Sea area. The only problem is that the orange peel pattern creates many bulky seams where the blocks connect. So this quilt may have denser seams, than I would like. Most of the piecing has been done by machine, but now as a last resort, I am trying the invisible hand stitch.
If anyone has hint of how to deal with this issue, please let me know.
The picture is of the "Wine Tasting Table" quilt made using the Orange Peel Pattern, that I am working on. It is attached to a flannel design wall.

Colors of Petra, quilt

2010-06-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

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.