Jelly prints

jelly printLast month’s EBHQ workshop was jelly printing with Lisa Thorpe. I took a few real ginkgo leaves to print with, rather than using her stencils. She also had a couple combs that I used, as you can see above. We used a kind of acrylic paint that has the word, ‘open’ on the label. This means that the paint dries slower, so you have more time to work with it.

I’m really excited about the September EBHQ workshops with Maria Shell, from Alaska! One of them is called Kitchen Sink Quilts. It seems a lot like Gwen Marston’s Parts Department quilts. It will be interesting what the difference is. The homework for this class is to bring in 9 orphan or leftover blocks. I have lots more than that. I have a lot of UFOs from all the workshops I’ve taken.

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Look at all these hamsas!

HamsasMy friend the hamsa expert in Israel sent me this photo of an exhibit of “Khamsas,” at the Museum for Islamic Art, in Jerusalem. it’s there right now. Unfortunately I’m not there to see it.

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I didn’t need a new project…

Today I went to the Social Justice Sewing Academy to help with an embroidery class for teens. They had lots of help, so mostly I sat and embroidered one of the fabric collages that kids had glued. They get volunteers to embroider all the fabric pieces down before they are sewn into a quilt. Sara, the founder of SJSA came up to me and asked if I could find embroidery volunteers for 6 blocks made by Lakota youth. They want this quilt finished by the PIQF quilt show, so these blocks have to be embroidered by Sept. 15. I am so busy right now that I really don’t have time for this. I said yes anyway. I’m not going to embroider any of the blocks myself, but if I take them to the EBHQ meeting on Mon and the EBMQ meeting on Tue, I should be able to find 6 volunteers. It’s too dark to take photos now, but I’ll try to post photos of the blocks soon.

An update: At the EBHQ meeting on Aug. 27 I managed to find 6 people willing to embroider speedily, and take the quilt blocks home. However, I never got a photo of the blocks. I hope to post a photo when the blocks are done.

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Quilty trash cans?

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I was in Oakland, and saw this very quilty mosaic star on the side of a concrete trash can. Here’s another one:

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I can’t decide which one I like better! They would both make good quilts.

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What I’ve been working on

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This is the basket quilt I’ve been working on. It was a secret until last night when I gave it to the past president of EBHQ. She likes to make pine needle baskets when she’s not making quilts. I received so many blocks that my basket is on the back. Actually I really really like the back!

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My block is the one on the right with two baskets. Here’s a close up of it. There are directions on how to make liberated baskets like this in Gwen Marston’s book, Liberated Quilting II.

2 baskets on one block

 

I forgot got to take a photo after it was quilted. The label on the back was a basket that I hand appliquéd on, with the signatures of the quilters who contributed baskets.

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New disappearing pinwheel variation

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Look at this new way to rearrange a disappearing pinwheel block! To me it looks like a wrapped piece of candy. One of my students made it in the class I recently taught at HelloStitch. I’d like to see four of these blocks in rotational symmetry. (Isn’t that a good word?)

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I’m teaching 2 classes at HelloStitch on 6/10

old cathedral window
The first class is Cathedral Window Quilt Blocks
Sun, Jun 10
Jun 10, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Hello Stitch Studio, 1708 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94703, USA
Cathedral window is a beautifully intricate quilt block pattern. Learn how to make this dimensional, multi-layer quilt block that doesn’t require quilting and is perfect for using scraps of fabric. Although traditionally sewn by hand, there are ways to make them by machine.
Sign up for both classes here: HelloStitchStudio
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The second class is: Beyond the Disappearing 9-Patch
Sun, Jun 10
Jun 10, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Hello Stitch Studio, 1708 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94703, USA
Discover the myriad possibilities when you cut traditional quilt blocks into pieces and rearrange them into intricate new blocks. Amazing variety is possible from this simple technique. These blocks look complicated, but are easy to make once you learn the tricks!
Here is an example of what you can do with Disappearing Hourglass. Here is the starting Hourglass or Broken Dishes block:
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Next it is cut into nine equal pieces:
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Then you move the pieces around:
imageI know nine ways to rearrange this one. Here are a few more.
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If you want to see more examples, look for my blog posts that have “Disappearing” in the title.
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Some quilty tiles in Berkeley

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This is the tile floor of an Indian restaurant in Berkeley called Nameste. It’s also a quilt pattern called the exquisite.  I think it’s more interesting when it’s made in a wonky fashion with the triangles all different sizes.

I’m surprised to realize that I let a whole month go by without a single blog post.  We arrived home from France on May 1st. We dashed to pick up our guinea pig, Milkshake, from where he was being boarded. He must have caught pneumonia there. By the end of the week he was gone. We buried him in the back yard under a large heart shaped stone, found years ago on a beach. He was at least 6 years old, which is a lot for a guinea pig. Here’s a photo of Milkshake:

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He was a wonderful piggie, with a lovely loud purr when he was being held. I worry that I’ll never find another one like him. Many guinea pigs don’t like being held.

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Some nice star patterns

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The photo above is from the wall of a couscous restaurant, on our penultimate day in Paris. It has my favorite 8 pointed star.

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Heres another. Same star, different pattern, from the same restaurant.

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This was part of the sidewalk. I stopped to take a photo of the chocolate store across the street. I looked down at my feet, and there was this lovely pattern.

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Here’s the chocolate store I was taking a photo of.

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I saw this in the Musee d’Orsay. It was an example of using images from nature in art nouveau. Note the octopus on the bottom in the middle. It was in a display in the stairwell.

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More tiles that could be quilts

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Both of these are tile floors at the Paris Opera Garnier. I enjoyed seeing my favorite 8 pointed star there. There’s even a nine patch! And here’s the ceiling by Chagall, just because.

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