The Art of Vacation

My husband and I are members of Disney's Vacation Club, and we go to a Disney resort about once a year. We are celebrating our 15 yr wedding anniversary this week at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Other than the nerve-wracking journey to the Kansas City Airport amidst the first significant snow storm of the winter, it has been a lovely vacation so far.

Why did bad weather hit the one day I needed good weather for flying? Murphy's Law, I guess. Nevertheless, we both made it here in one piece.

We are focusing on relaxing and pampering, this time.

Usually, I bring some hand sewing with me when I travel. It's a great way to pass time quickly on planes. I also like to work on projects while lounging by the pool. This year, I did not bring a project - I don't have anything I wanted to work on. I have been in the mood to do embroidery, but I don't have a project in the works and I didn't have time to pull one together.

It's easy to be inspired at Disney World. Things are very colorful and artful here. When browsing the stores of Downtown Disney Marketplace, I found the books shown above. Flipping through The Imagineering Workout, I was intrigued - it contains "exercises" for your creativity, collected from the imagineers at Disney.  We all experience creative doldrums from time to time, and creativity exercises would sure help find a way through it.

I could sure use this kind of help for the KC Modern Quilt Guild's latest challenge to make a wall quilt inspired by one of Kandinsky's abstract paintings. I need all the creativity I can get.


As usual, on vacation, I forget to bring one thing or another. I forgot the card reader to download digital pictures from my camera to my computer. Of course, Disney has one for sale - they have nearly anything you could need in their stores. Since many people take lots of pictures while vacationing here, they do offer a nice selection of photo equipment. This is the cutest little card reader ever!

Cheap & Easy Way to Hang a Quilt

It's Christmas and you want to hang up your special Christmas wall hangings and quilts, but darn it! The quilt doesn't have a hanging sleeve and it's such a pain to drill into the wall, put up a rod, yadda yadda yadda. Here's a clever way to hang your quilt quickly and easily without wall damage and without damaging your quilt.

Hanging is achieved using 3-M Command Strip hooks and office binder clips.  Each hook cannot hold very much weight, but all together, they distribute the weight and can hold up something as big as a quilt.

1. Figure out where you will want to hang your quilt.
2. Figure out how many hooks and clips you'll need. You want the clip every 6 to 8 inches. The hooks look better if they are roughly evenly distributed across the quilt.  You want to use a good number of them because it will keep the floppy fabric straight.
3. Get your level out and lightly mark a straight line. You could just make small marks where the hooks will go.
4. Clean the areas and affix the hooks to the wall per the directions on the package. Make sure you line them up with your marked line the same way on each one (e.g. match up the top of the hook backing with the line, etc).
   
   
   

   
   
5. After the waiting period (usually an hour), hook your binder clips to the hooks.
   
   
   

   
   
6. Hold your quilt up to the wall, and clip go down the line one by one attaching the clips.
• You should hold most of the weight while you're hanging it - one or two hooks will probably not be able to hold the whole thing, and it will tear off the wall (potentially damaging your wall!)
• If your quilt is large, you might want to have someone help you with this step.
   
7. You can adjust the hooks where they clip onto the quilt to make it straight.

When you're ready to take it down, remember not to let only one or two hooks hold the weight of the quilt, and remove the Command hooks according to package directions to avoid damaging your wall.

Even cheaper - you can use pushpins instead of the Command hooks. They will leave a small hole in the wall, of course.

I borrowed this idea from a gift shop in North Carolina, back when I lived there. It is a nice technique for apartments, where you may not be able to drill into a wall.

Bev's Quilt: Coming Together

I'm quilting like mad on Bev's quilt. I came up with a little design for the "negative space" which has turned out to be really fun to quilt. It's easy to do and it is a forgiving pattern - does not have to be precise to look good.

Bev's Garden Quilt

The design was inspired by Leah Day's many free motion quilting project designs. I had a perception that free motion quilting had to be feathers, large designs, etc. but her work has been inspirational to see quilting designs differently.

Here's a closer look.

Close Up of Quilting

I'm intrigued by giving pattern to a blank space through the quilting. Remember that charity quilt I did a year ago? I basically superimposed a nine-patch pattern on the quilt top through the quilting. That one was crazy fun to do.

For Bev's quilt, I am using variegated thread (Gutterman 100% cotton), not something I use very often. It looks good on the plain green background. 

In the center of the "plus mark" shape,  I'll put a center design (flower, spiral, or something).  Within each vegetable pattern square, I'll quilt a design (so it doesn't puff up) but it's less important because the fabric pattern will obscure the quilting. 

New in 2012

I'm evolving again...

Thinking about this blog and what I want to do with it, what I want to give to the world through this blog,  I am getting ready to change things up. I still like its name, and I'm sticking with the artsy theme - but now, I want to broaden it. The Etsy shop is closed, selling my handiwork is over. What's next?

Creativity.

What's it mean to live creatively? I think all people have an inborn need to create, and we express it in diverse ways. Some paint pictures. Many build families. Some write books or poetry, or build websites, or decorate rooms. I sew, knit, quilt, write essays (here in my blogs), garden, cook, perform music, and take pictures. Every once in a while I branch off into a totally new creative outlet, like writing a story, scrapbooking, terrarium building, crochet, or paper arts. It exercises a different part of my brain.

So let's explore the theme of creativity this year. What can I make? What can I share with you? What can I teach you?

Christmas Rush

I have been working on Bev's quilt. I haven't had a chance to photograph it yet, though. The top is done and it has turned out cute. I used the Moda free pattern called Hullabaloo but made it two rows bigger. The quilt ended up larger than I thought it would be. It's a good size for wrapping up in and napping on the sofa.

Now I need a backing and I need to layer it for quilting. I don't think it's going to get done in time for Christmas.

Habitat Challenge: My Design

Last weekend, the Blue Valley Quilter's Guild had a day-long retreat in the country. We arranged for use of a church hall, catered lunch and supper, and we got together and sewed all day.

It took me a week to post about it - it has been one of "those" weeks, if you know what I mean.

I had a lovely time at the retreat and got a lot of work done. My main accomplishment was the completion of the top of my Habitat challenge submission (by Jay McCarroll). Modern Quilt guilds from around the country were invited to participate. You received a pack fat 6 fat eighths and you had to use all 6 in the quilt (could be the back). In our challenge, we were allowed to add more of the habitat line, in the same or a different color way, and/or solid fabrics of any line.

I came up with this original design. Here is the top when I finished it at the retreat.

This design resulted from an evolution of ideas. At first, I thought of appliqueing "kerfuffle" on a white background, with a patched border that slowly fell apart (thus making the quilt a "kerfuffle"). But for some reason, that idea lost its charm for me.

I was still fixated on words. Somehow it evolved into a ransom note, in which the letters were "clipped" from magazines and newspapers. "We have your quilt." But then....then, I thought of how many letters that would be. Too much work, because by then, I was down to 2 weeks before it's due.

The design of the fabric that is behind the "s" above made me think of the late 50s and early 60s style. That led to the idea of strip mall signs from the late 50s early 60s. Something like this picture but in which each letter was its own sign on its own pole.  That's what I ended up with.

The letters are machine appliqued using a fusible web and edged with a blanket stitch on my machine in a matching thread color.

When I finished the piecing, I put it up on the design wall. So many quilters at the retreat said they liked it, but wondered why it said "still." Admittedly, it is an odd word to have all by itself. I was attempting to be freely creative and modern...but I really also want to be understood.

Here's why I chose it: the Bible verse "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46: 10) was stuck in my head, and I was feeling a bit agitated when I was completing the design. So, I focused on "still." Additionally, there are only 5 letters to applique and I could use 5 out of the 6 pieces of fabric on the background! Bonus.

I was tired by having to explain the origin of the word...so I decided to quilt in the "Be"

Habitat Challenge, Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild, a photo by Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild on Flickr.

Here is the quilt (sans binding) being shown at the guild meeting.  You can see the "Be" in the upper left corner, if you look closely.  I still have to explain it, but it makes more sense to people.

Didn't quite finish the binding.  Oh, and I designed the lettering by using 5 different fonts on my computer. The "still" letters are about 350pt font. The "Be" is like 450pt font. The gray fabric was a practical design decision - I had a bunch of it in my stash and I really didn't want to go buy more fabric.

The quilting turned out much better than I anticipated. I used a design called "Broken Glass" which is published on The Free Motion Quilting Project,  a blog by Leah Day (in Raleigh, NC, my old stomping ground...hey, y'all!). This pattern represents scattered anxiety and stress, to contrast with the calming message of the words. It was quite easy to do and very effective. As an added bonus, it de-emphasized the piecing lines, thus adding continuity to the whole piece. Thanks, Leah!!!

Nope, didn't win the guild's challenge. But, it was quite original and I got some nice compliments.

Here's another look at the top:

I highly recommend viewing all the designs from our challenge on flickr.

A Date with Martha

Martha Stewart came to Kansas City last night, promoting her new book, Martha's Entertaining A Year of Celebrations.  I decided to go. I'm not usually much into the celebrity chef/author thing, but lately I've been rather taken with Ms. Martha and her magazine.

Of course you wouldn't know that, looking at my house right now, but that's beside the point.

It was a delightful presentation. The evening was sponsored by Rainy Day Books, a local independent book seller. They do a lot of these events, and I think it's working for them. They attract some really good celebrity authors (and non-celebrity authors) in to promote their books at these events. You get an autographed copy of the book, a presentation, lecture, conversation with the author, and maybe some special things, too.  At this event, there were many giveaways from sponsors:

• Hen House, a local grocery store chain
• Prydes of Westport, a local gourmet kitchen & housewares shop, 
• Vita Craft, a cookware manufacturer right here in Shawnee, KS, 

So, what did I think of Martha?

I was afraid she'd be aloof or cold and it would undermine my impression of her and diminish my enjoyment of her magazines. I was so wrong. She was poised and engaging, professional, polished and kind.  She does not look 70 years old at all and however she does it, it works. The evening was an interview-style conversation between the president of Rainy Day Books and Ms. Martha, in the main hall at Unity Temple on the Plaza in Kansas City. It lasted about 50 minutes. Most of the conversation focused on Martha's favorite things, memories, the gatherings described in the book, and other little anecdotes from Martha's recent history.

It didn't occur to me to bring a camera. Everyone else seemed to think of it... I snapped a few shots on my phone, but I doubt they turned out to be any good.

The book is huge and heavy, filled with beautiful photographs of her soirees and homes. Each chapter is a different event, and many of them are themed on a holiday. The spotlight is on the food, but there's a good amount of space devoted to the table setting, the venue, and her coordinating decor. 

All of the recipes are in the back of the book. There are simple recipes and complicated recipes, for any meal of the day. A selection of cocktails is a part of the mix.

This is not a book I would pick out on my own had I not gone to this presentation. However, I'm glad I have it now. Because it is different, it will make me think "outside the box" for entertainment, decorating, and menu ideas.