Sugar Sand top finished

For my great-niece whose baby girl is due in June.

She lives on a dune near Lake Michigan. So I used one of my favorites, a light brown linen that looks like sand[paper] with her favorite baby colors hot pink and yellow. The sand along Lake Michigan is so beautiful they call it "sugar sand."

Hanging next to it is the backing fabric. Many of the fabrics are from my stash sister Nancy, including the framing fabric with pink leaves (which I love!). Nancy loves pink, so she gave me tubfuls. I purchased the ones with pink and yellow combined. I must say I like this combination.

So much fuzz and fabric dust

I really love this book. I was inspired for this quilt by Jacquie Gering's alternate grid Scandia Crush (second photo below), using variable framing. The idea is to "float" the blocks in various positions within blocks. It was a very pleasant, creative, improvisational process.

Portofino placemats & napkins

My great-niece is getting married in Florida soon, so we Michigan aunts are giving her a shower, for which she is flying in.


I "shopped" for fabrics to make placemats and napkins in the stash Nancy has given me from her travels in South Carolina and Michigan. The bride and groom have chosen red accents for their kitchen. Their taste is elegant and traditional.

My love affair with printed linens like this deepens. It's like a toile, but is it?

I thought it would make magnificent napkins.

And I think I was right.

We'll see if I make it with these and the chicken salad to the shower tomorrow since I came down with a hum dinger of a cold last night. Don's chicken soup (from the chicken for the salad, yes) is soothing my raw throat. In fact, he is helping with all the prep and will even drive the stuff across the state in the morning if I am not up to going.

I hope Emma has chosen as much of a winner as I did nearly 36 years ago.

reds of winter

With all the cold and snow, color and heat are necessary.

Two projects for gifts. The blocks above are for a baby quilt I'm calling "sugar sand." It's for a mama-to-be who lives on a dune. The beautiful sand of Lake Michigan is called sugar sand. The mama loves hot pink and yellow. This is a subtle interpretation of those colors. The tan linen reminds me of sandpaper, and I adore it.

Below are fabrics for placemats and napkins for a bride-to-be. My stashy sister Nancy gave me all but the ochre with Swissy dots. The linen on the left is more of the stuff that I have loveloveloved from her. She visits shops in Myrtle Beach and gathers remnants for a song. I will make reversible placemats with the reds, binding in the ochre, and napkins from the linen toile-ish print.

Here is the arrangement my siblings sent for my mother-in-law's funeral. They have dried so beautifully, even the orchids. Sadly, I bumped them as I walked by and some orchid blossoms fell atop the roses. 

imitation and inspiration

Everyone borrows inspiration. It takes a while for artists to find their particular niche.

I'm not into representational quilts ... at all. I appreciate the craft and skill! But I am not drawn to them aesthetically.

Yet I created this little piece for James's third birthday. I spontaneously copied the wrapping paper I used for his gift and pieced this small wall hanging. I needed to create something. But as a rule, I don't set out to design representational quilts. Could I create these little quilt pictures to sell? I probably could, but it's not what drives me.

At this early stage in my quilt design life I am drawn to many styles and patterns of modern quilts, improvisational or otherwise. I have always loved busy quilts, but I feel myself also drawn to low volume quilts. I love wonky ones with uneven edges and simple ones with clean lines.

I feel like I'm in a creative crisis — a fun one, but my head is spinning. As I pin quilts at Pinterest each morning, with now 1,688 quilts pinned (!), each one inspires for at least one element — color, fabrics, pattern.

Copying someone else's pattern exactly doesn't appeal to me, even with different fabrics, and yet I am so drawn to people's patterns and styles! Of course the question is how to take inspiration, and make designs that are my own.

Whatever my own is.

I have a lot to learn about design: color, value, movement.

I received more quilt books in the mail. I can't wait to share those inspirations with you.

New York inspiration

The Calmady Children, Sir Thomas Lawrence
oil on canvas, 1823
Metropolitan Museum of Art

My friend Heather and I went to New York City for a long weekend to explore museums. The Brooklyn Museum and MoMA Friday, and the Met Saturday.

I was just thrilled to find Sir Thomas Lawrence's The Calmady Children when I entered one of the galleries in the vast Met. It's the cover image of my sewing kit, inherited from my mom (blogged in the last post, about my studio)!

Another panel of my sewing kit, Degas' green dancers were nearby in another gallery.

Dancers Practicing at the Barre, 1877, Edgar Degas
mixed media on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The main event we went for was the Matisse Cut-Outs at the MoMA. I was moved beyond my ability to express it. I know that I will be inspired for a long time by his simple graphic use of color and design. Because the Met didn't allow photographs to be taken of pieces they don't own, I don't have my own images. I'll share a couple from their site so you can view more if you want to explore.

This is my phone pic of a Matisse painting from the MoMA's permanent collection.
Dance, oil, 1910

I bought the catalog of the exhibit and have begun reading the stories behind the cut-outs and the exhibition.

Unfortunately, the book was in my carry-on bag, which stood on the baggage cart in the rain for some time. I think I may need to invest in a water-proof carry-on.

The living room is now the studio

One of the prettiest rooms in the house was rarely used, except as a walk-through. We had it set up as a living room with pieces of furniture I'd inherited from my parents and grandparents, as well as Lesley's piano. The light has always been just beautiful here, with windows that face both the rising and setting sun.

So when I set up my new sewing machine in this room last year on a folding utility table, we started making plans to turn the room into a studio. We took Grandma Olive's beautiful sofa to my sister Nancy. We moved the piano to a bedroom. And we moved in a harvest table Don had "slapped" together a few years ago for eating al fresco to be a dining / project table. (He sanded it thoroughly to remove glue and other unsightlies.)

We don't have a dining room, so when holidays come, now we can clear off sewing stuff and set the table for dinner. We used it for the food when the kids came for Christmas.

Don picked up a bulletin board via Craig's List for $10;
it's now my design board.
On it is the top of a shelter quilt ready to assemble.

Don plans to put "real" table legs on, probably using porch posts. But if you ask me, these saw horses work fine. I suppose they are not terribly elegant, but they are very sturdy.

This was my mom's waste basket in her study.

Two pin cushions are indispensable; my daughter-in-law Andrea made me this argyle one.

A collection of baskets for storage;
the tin on the right was my mom's sewing kit,
and it may have been her mom's too, I don't know.

I only just noticed after loading this photo of Mom's sewing kit that it has Degas' dancers;
I'm sure I had seen it but had forgotten; I've been inspired by Degas' dancers
for the past week, imagining a quilt in his soft shades of turquoise and orange.

I remember the inside looking very much like this when it was Mom's.

stash of homemade binding

for Christmas I got a new quilt book:
Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000, by Roderick Kirakofe;
the turquoise with brown dots is tissue paper for wrapping products before shipping;
oh! and you can see I have fabrics out in turquoise and tan dreaming about Degas dancers.

Peter made Santa in school one year.

It was fun choosing just what to keep in the studio, and no doubt this will evolve over time. Don picked up this old wooden desk and chair at a yard sale. He is the absolute king of yard sales. The spool rack was a gift from Don's sister, from her MIL's farmhouse in Pennsylvania. I did not notice "Honor Student" until I took this photo.

A box from my box collection, with sewing feet and tools

Don found three, three of these caddies that he'd gotten
from my dad's garage when we cleaned out their house;
Dad seems to have made them from an old dresser.

I put out the Radko ornaments this year for the first time in a very long time.

The design board with a shelter quilt top ready to assemble

This barrister had classics in it in the family room,
books we've already read; so we packed them up
to pass on to the kids, and we moved it in for my first fabric storage unit;
I'll show you the one at the other end of the room
when it's empty of dishes.

Another of Dad's tool caddies, with fabric scraps;
I'd like to think he would be tickled pink if he knew I was using these.

Soon I have to put away Christmas. Don's mom died Saturday after a six-month illness, and we are mourning the loss of a sweet, kind, gentle woman. When I met her in the mid-1970s I was just about to join the quilting revival that was going on, though I didn't know that's what was happening at the time. I read about it in my new book, Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000, by Roderick Kirakofe.

setbacks or just new material

i can't type much but i have to post something. i had carpal tunnel surgery and my laptop died. one of these at a time would have been all right, thank you. together they were a little much.

before surgery i made ornaments (similar to above, plus a tree), sold a set, and want to keep adjusting them to sell next year.

i promised myself after ten birds of the air quilts sales i would make a shelter blanket for project night night. (my tenth sale was the set of ornaments.) i love what they do: give kids age 1-10 a bag with a blanket, stuffed animal and book. i want to make a simple 5" or 6" block quilt using lots of fabrics from my stash. jane brocket's book is inspiration. so colorfully happy!

i must say, my sadness over [possibly (not sure yet)] losing all my photos and poems if data can't be retrieved from the deceased laptop, when compared to what one must feel losing a home or livelihood, is not much. here i am on a new laptop, provided by the university, sitting by a fire, recovering in the comfort of my home.