Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI)

I've been involved with a group of 12 quilters for the
last 10 years or so. We are so very fortunate to share
a love of quilting and the companionship of each other.
Years ago we started recognizing each other's birthdays
with a Fat Quarter of fabric........as we became better
acquainted the gifts kept getting bigger and bigger.
This year we decided to donate a gift to charity since none
of us really NEED more fabric (yes we still WANTED it! lol)
We celebrated Mary's birthday last night and Mary's wish
was for each of our group members to make a mini art
quilt to donate to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.
What FUN I had designing this little quilt!
The idea for the quilt came from a single line from the
book "High Season" by Jon Loomis which I read several
months ago.....
"Now you see me, Now you don't."
I sat down a couple of nights ago with this
pad of paper, a pencil and a BIG eraser!
This was my initial design.
I wanted to portray a women who was fully present,
and then the same woman as *gone*.
I had lots of ideas, but was having trouble with the execution
of those ideas.........
and then I decided that I could just omit the eyes
and cover the mouth and achieve the feeling I wanted.
Here is what I came up with:
I've since added the words "Now you see me, Now you don't"
and still have to quilt and bind this.
Click on the above title to learn more about the AAQI
and the wonderful work that Ami Simms has done for
research for Alzheimer's.
I'll post the completed quilt in a few days.....with any luck that is!


Friday, September 11, 2009

A Fish out of Water

While in Juneau Alaska I went into a quilt shop
and saw this wallhanging made up and I really liked it.
So I bought the pattern and this is the result............
This is one of those patterns where you START with
your quilt sandwich and lay the pattern pieces
(which you have made from freezer paper)
onto the quilt sandwich and sew them down
with a STRAIGHT stitch leaving the edges raw.


I decided to just put it on the longarm and sew
the pieces using it instead of the DSM.

Now, you may remember in an earlier post
I mentioned that I DID NOT like that this salmon
was jumping out of the water and I intended to
re-arrange these fish and put him IN the water!


How silly!
Fish don't jump out of the water!
Well..........they do!
I just looked and looked at all of my Ketchiken pictures
and I can't find a single one of the fish fully jumping out
of the water............But that doesn't mean that they didn't
jump.........it just means that my photography was quite
good enough to catch them!




So on my wallhangings the salmon
jump out of the water as well!
This little quiltlet will be sent off soon for
the Good Ol' Summertime swap.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Design Wall Monday


Oh man! It's Monday already!

How did that sneak up on me?




This week on my design "table" I am working on
"A Fish out of Water" pattern that I bought when I was in
Juneau Alaska. This little quilt will be for my Summertime
swap. I REALLY need to get this done SOON so I can ship it off.
I'll post more pictures as this quilt comes along.
I think it is really going to turn out nice.
Well, I hope it is anyway!





Okay folks, I've gone and done it again!

I've entered the All People Quilt Journal contest with my friend Carla.

Please go and have a look at this link:
http://my.allpeoplequilt.com/photos/quilts-and-more-quarterly-challenge/challenge-3/1123500004/?photoId=1122800006&firstPhoto=true

The contest does not really start until next week when they announce
the 10 finalists, but the finalists are chosen by the "ratings" at each
contestant gets during this coming week.
You can "RATE" our journals by moving your cursor over the "Rate This"
and clicking on the amount of stars you think our covers deserve. (5, hint, hint)
Oh! and you can leave a comment as well!

Thanks so much for your kind support and I'll let you know if we make the finals!

I am still working on finishing up this halloween wall hanging.
Here I am auditioning borders.........I'm pretty sure that
this is what they will end up being.
My good friend Katrina wanted "butt blocks"
for her birthday, so this is what I came up with.....
I used one of the ladies in Barbara Lavalle's
"A toast to Issiac Newton" pattern that I also got in Alaska.



My creative daughter wanted to make a block for Katrina
as well. She always comes up with far-fetched designs that I
just KNOW won't work, but she keeps pushing and pushing
until she makes it work. (or gets me to make it work lol!)





Oh, and last, but not least........we celebrated my daughter's
24th birthday last night. I made a nice dinner and then we
played marbles. Such happy times. This marble board was made
by my dad and is a replica of the one that my Great-Grandmother's son had made for her. I played many a game of marbles with my great-grandma. I couldn't help but think that she was looking down on us
last night and smiling!