Sibling Revelry!

I was thrilled one of my quilts was exhibited at AQS in Des Moines.  This was my first opportunity to exhibit at a 'big' show.  I was even more honored by my family who drove from Minnesota and several different cities in Iowa to converge on, for most of them, their first 'big' quilt show too.  Here is my fan club with my quilt in the background.

Stephanie, John, Jane, Lloyd, Julie, me, Beth, Judy, Jo

Stephanie and myself

Julie, me, Jo & Judy

Here is a photo of me with my quilt.

High Trestle Bridge Quilt

I traveled to the eastern part of Iowa with my sisters after the show and stayed with them for the rest of the week.  This is where the sibling revelry begins.  I'll just touch on a few of the highlights.

Julie, me, Jo & Judy

They took me to a wonderful quilt shop' Helios Stitches N Stuff, in Mount Vernon, Iowa.  The owners are so nice and very knowledgeable about their fabric.  We learned some fun facts about the origins of some of the fabric designs.  I bought quite a bit of fabric to bring home and play with in the coming months.

Christmas is coming!

The next day started out a little drizzly so we had a mini quilt-in with show and share as well.  I brought supplies with me to make blocks for the 70,273 Project.  

supplies

I borrowed this explanation from Jeanne Hewell-Chambers blog as she explains it best.

"Between January 1940 and August 1941 (before the Holocaust began), 70,273 physically and mentally disabled people – men, women, teens, boys, and girls – were murdered by the Nazis. Though they never even laid eyes on the disabled person they were evaluating, the Nazi doctors read the medical files and, if from the words on the page, the person was deemed “unfit” or an “economic burden on society”, the doctor placed a red X at the bottom of the form. Three doctors were to read each medical file, and when two of them made a red X on the page, the disabled person’s fate was sealed. Most were murdered within 1-2 hours."

This month and November there is a sibling challenge.  I put one X on a square and one of my siblings puts the second X on a square.  If you need a refresher on the 70,273 Project you can find more here.  There are three different sizes of squares so I made one of each for each of my three sisters who were at the 'party.'  I'll have to mail some to my fourth sister(wish she could have been there too) and maybe my brothers. We figured three of the four of us might have received red X's and sent off on the buses never to return.

Julie's blocks

Jo's blocks

Judy's blocks

snacks and provenance forms

hard at work

We let the guys join us for dinner!

One of the reasons I might be on one of the buses is because I have lymphedema.  Last Sunday I went to a 5k to raise money for lymphedema awareness, education and research.  My husband and I are on the far left in this photo. 

Emma's Lymphedema walk/run 5k

We are all members of the Minnesota Lymphedema Advocacy group working to get the Lymphedema Treatment Act passed in Congress.  Please consider contacting your Congressman and urging them to support this bill.  Here is a link to send a prewritten letter to your Congressman.  Quick, easy and painless.  Thank you for your support.

Just before I left home I finished piecing and quilting this small quilt for the project.  Eventually there will be 70,273 squares with two red x's in over 1,000 quilts.  It isn't quite finished in this photo but I guess I was so excited to send it off in the mail I forgot to snap one when it was done.

Two of my sisters brought their inherited antique quilts for show and share.  Enjoy the show.  They are beautiful.

We also did some antiquing around the area.  One of the places we went is called Sisters Garden and Bloom in Kalona, Iowa, so of course we had to take a photo of ourselves in front of their sign.

When you see anything with blue type that means you can click to link for more information.
Have a Creative Day
Janet

Art Quilts Around the World - Vision Board

The theme for art quilts this time was vision board.  I have made a vision board before, but not for along time.  I have to admit it took me some time to figure out what to make.  I guess I do tend to overthink these things.  Here is a vision board I made a few years ago.

Mostly it is a collage of words and pictures from magazines.  It's fairly large though and since these art quilts are only 11.5" x 16.5" I went with only one subject.  Travel!  Who doesn't want a vacation right.  My husband and I want to take a trip to Iceland and Scotland.  His mom's family is Icelandic, my mom's family was Scottish.  So it's a trip to our roots.

I decided to collage my fabric.  I cut bits from each of these fabrics to use in my collage.  Can you figure out what came from which fabric?

Here is the collage of pieces.  This has paper cutouts of the plane and the words so I could see how it would fit.

Here it is after the quilting.  I should have made the letters in a more contrasting fabric. I was influenced by some photos I have seen of Iceland and Scotland.  Can't wait to find this waterfall when we go there, or see a castle or two surrounded by trees in Scotland.

And finally with the binding. 

 Now the idea is I hang this somewhere we will see it everyday and the potential will be realized before you know it.  Can't wait to make quilts from our photos.  Don't forget to hop over to the Art Quilts blog to see the wonderful vision boards created by these very artistic people.

Have a creative day
Janet

Playing catch Up!

Spring/Summer is always a difficult time to keep up with my blog.  I am too easily distracted by the view out my window.

or by the Row by Row Experience

This one is from Sew With Me in Woodbury, MN.  I need some names for the book titles yet.

Had to get the license plate too!

My sister sent this one to me!

I've been doing the Minnesota Quilter's Mystery Quilt designed by Kristin Lawson.  I won't be able to show you the completed quilt because she uses this mystery with other groups.  Here are my blocks for January-July.  The background is dark brown, I really like my colors for this one.

I also did a mystery quilt with a Facebook group designed by Gyleen X Fitsgerald.  You can purchase the pattern for this one.  It is on my longarm right now so I can't show you the whole quilt.  It was all done with scraps.  It's called Bricks, Cobblestones and Pebbles.

I'll have a new quilt for Art Quilts Around the World next Monday.  Be sure to check back.

Of course when I go to look for the row by row patterns I can't just get the patterns can I?  I bought this pattern at Sew With Me in Stillwater, MN.  I am almost finished with it, have to sew the ruching and the flowers by hand and than I can make the pillow back.  I think it will really brighten up my house for the summer.  This is called 'Slice of Summer' by Kimberbell.

And last but certainly not least I did enter The Cherrywood Challenge.  I am proud of myself for finishing.  When they had the Wicked challenge I bought the fabric but never even made anything with it.  So, I was determined to get it done this time.  It didn't make it in but I have seen a few of the ones that made it and Wow!  I can't wait to see them in person.  I still have much to learn in my journey but am enjoying the process.

I have also entered a quilt for consideration in AQS Des Moines.  Wish me luck I'll find out in August.  This is a first for me so I guess it is good just to try something new right.
Have a Creative Day
Janet

Kitschy - It's all Relative

I had a hard time deciding what to make for the Kitsch challenge for Art Quilts Around the World.  I had several ideas but as I was working on my family genealogy the photos of women in amazing hats inspired me.  My photos were just black and white so I added my own color choices for the hats.

I printed the photos on fabric, cut out just the outline of the women with their hats and fused them to the background.  The largest one is my grandmother.  Her hat is made of pleather and lace and big beautiful feathers.  The bottom right is my great grandmother's sister.  Her hat looked to be fabric with a spider web of ribbons.  I used some drapery fabric and a small part of a doily,  I added some flower trim and of course a small feather.  The woman on the top right is the daughter of the woman below.  Her hat is made from felt and sari silk ribbon, a few silk roses and more feathers!

I decided to make it look somewhat like a picture frame or an album page.  I quilted double ovals around each and colored in the ovals with inktense pencils.  I just used straight line quilting in the background to hopefully make the photos stand out more.

I learned something while making this quilt.  My husband kept telling me my relatives probably contributed to the decline in certain bird populations in Florida.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  

I looked into it though and discovered he was very right.  Birds were being slaughtered to the point of extinction for their feathers.  Two women led the crusade to save the birds and the first Audubon society came into existence.  It's kind of amazing really and you can read more about it here.

I maybe should have added more color to make it more kitschy but honestly I thought the hats alone are pretty kitschy whether you add color or not.  Now I want to make a hat for myself!

Be sure and stop by the Art Quilts Around the World blog to see the other kitschy quilts.  They are very fun and creative.

Have a Creative Day

Janet