While I'm at it....

I do have a picture of an actual Nadelstern quilt which I haven't trotted out lately and which is seasonally appropriate:



(And the blurriness is appropriate for my state of mind right now. I really need to go to bed.)

Hope everybody's holidays are going well!

Falling off on the job

Lovely thing. I suppose you have to call it a Paula-Nadelstern style piece, wouldn't you? Be sure to click over to the large size so you can get the full effect.

The quilt above, which is called "Opulence", was made by Deborah Tilley of Edmonton, Canada; shown in the judged show (category: Innovative Pieced, Small) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

The Big Bang

Made by Joyce R. Hartley; from the exhibit "In the American Tradition V" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Snow Light

Quilt above made by Toshie Hida; from the exhibit "Prize Winning Quilts from International Quilt Week Yokohama 2005" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Here's a detail picture for this. Take a close look - it's tiny hexagonal log cabin/pineapple type blocks. Amazing.

Here There Be Dragons

This quilt is "And Dragons Too" by Suzanne Marshall of Clayton, Missouri; shown in the judged show (category: Innovative Applique, Large) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival. I wrote down - presumably from the posted notes - that this is based on late 19-century designs by William de Morgan.



(I don't have very good detail pictures of these, I'm afraid - this was part of a batch of pictures that were rather blurry. Usually that means that I've knocked the camera around and messed up the settings. So I didn't upload the biggest version because it was also the blurriest.)

Suzanne Marshall seems to be fond of fairy-tale motifs, and so am I, so I have a number of pictures of her quilts. (Here, here, and here.) And here is her website - turns out that she also did the Bedbugs quilt, which I remember admiring a lot, way back when. (Before I started taking pictures, apparently!) Be sure and take a good look at it - it appears to be a very traditional quilt, but it is a little deceptive.

Key Lime

Sandy Bonsib made this quilt, which surprised me. I took a class from Sandy sometime around 2000, and she was very much into the folk art quilts at the time (this quilt of mine came from that class). You can see some folk-art influences in this (the scrappy look, lots of plaids) but this is not really what I'd call a folk-art quilt. Not at all.

Here is the whole thing:


(This seems to be Sandy's most recent book - I'm guessing that this might be a quilt from that book. Or it may just be a pattern and not from a book at all.)

Made by Sandy Bonsib; from the Faculty Showcase at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Happiness-Peace-Love

Quilt above made by Janet Henshaw; winner of 1st prize in its category in the Hoffman Challenge. Exhibited at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.


Another thing I took a lot of pictures of was pieces with oriental influences, and quilts made in Asia (these are primarily Japanese, it seems, with the exception of a few Korean quilters). The one above was apparently made by an American quilter. There were a couple more with kanji (the Chinese characters used in Japanese writing) which I am apparently rather fascinated by. Here's an example:



This piece was made by Yu-Ju Chen; from the exhibit "Prize Winning Quilts from International Quilt Week Yokohama 2005" shown at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

(Enlarge that picture so that you can see the kanji if you're interested. It's lovely work.)

Do You EQ

Quilt above is "Let Your Light Shine" by Linda MacDougall; from the exhibit "Do You EQ?" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.


I showed this picture to somebody who wasn't a quilter, and they liked the quilt but they didn't understand the name of the exhibit. I had to explain that it was an exhibit of quilts designed with a certain type of design software. I forget that not everybody knows these things!

Firey colors, and Wal-Mart fabric

The quilt above is "Circle of Fire", made by Patricia Wolfe of San Diego; shown in the judged show (category: Innovative Pieced, Small) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Have y'all noticed how many quilts are being made lately in this orange/yellow/pink colorway? And I probably took a picture of every one. I love it.


The only other quilt "news" I have is that somebody posted to the quilting community on Livejournal about how Wal-Mart is supposedly shutting down their fabric departments, for real this time. Or so this person says - I've been hearing this for years, so I'll believe it when I see it. I wouldn't be terribly surprised, though, since it can't be something they make a lot of money off of. My main thought about that is that I really feel for anybody who doesn't have anywhere but Wal-Mart to buy fabric, anyway, 'cause their selection has always kind of sucked and I sure don't think it's gotten any better in recent years.

Going In

Quilt above made by Lisa S. Binkley; from the exhibit "Small Wonders VIII" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Journal quilts

Two small quilts (approximately 8-1/2 x 11") made of recycled materials by Norma Schlager. From the exhibit "Journal Quilt Project 2006: A Page From My Book" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.


I knew I'd have trouble with my promise to update daily, and sure enough, I forgot yesterday. I was going to post two pictures and four quilts to make up for it, but I forgot that I'd already posted one of the two pictures. So here are two quilts by Norma Schlager, and the other two are down below.

The Corset Quilt

This is a detail shot of the quilt "Madame A", which was made by Yukiko Hirano of Kanagawa, Japan and shown in the judged show (category: Art-Whimsical) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival. The whole quilt is here.

We have nicknamed this "The Corset Quilt" for reasons that should be obvious. Note the hand-sewn-on zippers on each corset!

Daily updating?

The quilt above (called "Caliente") was made by Cory Volkert of Normandy Park, Washington; shown in the judged show (category: Art-Abstract, Small) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.


I have been updating my Livejournal daily this month (for Holidailies) and it occurred to me that I've been really neglectful over here, so I'm going to try to start updating daily over here, too. I haven't done any quilting to speak of lately since my mother has been in the hospital, so, I may not have a lot to talk about, but I can at least make sure there's some pictures to look at! Think of it as my Christmas present to you guys.

(My mother is somewhat better, by the way, and has now been moved to a rehab hospital. I'm sure she would appreciate cards - if you want the address e-mail me at quiltsgalore(at)gmail.com.)

Transformation

Quilt above made by Nancy Dickey of Magnolia, Texas; winner of second prize in the category Innovative Applique, Small at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Incidentally, I have finally run out of pictures from quilt festival. Everything I have is now on Flickr.

Sea, Stone, Sand & Sky

Quilt above made by Ann Ferguson; from the exhibit "Culture of my Country" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

I love this quilt. The colors are so wonderful. (Its full name is "Sea, Stone, Sand & Sky - Darwin Cliffs" - which might give you a little more of an idea where the color scheme came from.)

Global Warming

Quilt above made by Susan Goeddeke et al. of Harrison Township, Michigan; shown in the judged show (category: Group) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Autumn Leaves II

Taking a one-picture break from IQF quilts - this is my little autumn leaves wallhanging that I finally finished a month or so ago. (And here is one where you can see the back, which I really like.) I'm sorry you can't get a good look at the edges in these pictures, because I really think they came out nice, too. I am really pleased with myself about the whole thing, actually. I have said most of this before but to get it all in one place: it's 36 of the little 3" paper-pieced autumn leaf blocks (the pattern is on the small-expressions website and it's called "maple leaf" there, I think) and I did the same concentric sort of arrangement that I did on the bigger quilt that I made out of these blocks. Then I used a chinese-coin border that I started making for the big quilt and abandoned - I cut it in half lengthwise so that I had two identical 2-1/2" strips, and I used those for the border. Then I finished it by turning it, using Melody Johnson's technique from this month's Quilter's Newsletter. I have turned quilts before, but her technique of cutting the back open and then fusing it closed again makes it so much faster. (It only really works on quilts intended to be hung, though.)


We're always focused on IQF here in the Houston area, but the new Chicago Quilt Expo was also good, by all accounts. My friend Karen has two sets of pictures up, and dquilts also has some over on Webshots.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!

Journal quilts

Quilts above made by Norma Schlager; from the exhibit "Journal Quilt Project 2006: A Page From My Book" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

I really got carried away taking pictures of journal quilts - although I really didn't even get as many as I intended to, because I ran out of room on my memory card before I finished. I particularly like these by Norma Schlager, which are made out of recycled materials.

Maze

Quilt above made by Keiko Hasegawa; from the exhibit "Prize Winning Quilts from International Quilt Week Yokohama 2005" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

This picture is dizzying if you stare at it too long. (Click through to a bigger version to get the full effect!)

Blogger is changing over to Google - I guess Google has owned them for a while, actually. So this is partly a test to see if flickr (which is owned by Yahoo) will play nice with Blogger any more. -- And it failed. I had to manually post the picture. (The horror!)

Tradition

For the Celests
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Sandi McMillan; from the exhibit "In the American Tradition V" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.


I am sort of amused at myself for saying I'm uninterested in traditional quilts when I had just said I love Hawaiian quilts - I mean, what's more "traditional" than that? But nobody has called me on it so I think maybe y'all understood what I meant. I am tired of the same old same old stuff - traditional quilts done in traditional ways. This quilt - which was on the cover of the IQF program this year - is pretty darn traditional, and yet it's gorgeous. It took me a while to realize that there is something non-traditional about it; take a second look at the placement of colors in the central lone star. I think that's what makes it so stunning, and yet it's subtle enough that it doesn't leap out at you. (Or it didn't at me, anyway. But sometimes I'm a bit unobservant.)

Styles

Searching
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Sherrie Spangler; shown in the exhibit "Celebrate Spring!" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

I'm funny about what I like. I was talking about liking Hawaiian quilts the other day; I also love abstract quilts like this one. The thing I seem least interested in right now is traditional quilts, but I like some of those, too. I am nothing if not eclectic.

Just about all of my pictures from the judged show are up now - almost 200 of them. (I have got to quit taking so many pictures.) But I'm still working on the special exhibits. Lots more of those to come!

Hawaiian Applique

An Expressive Breadfruit Tree
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Kazue Saso of Kanagawa, Japan; shown in the judged show (category: Merit Quilting, Hand) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Sometimes I forget how much I love a good applique quilt. (No, I still don't do applique. But I really do like looking at it!) There were several of these gorgeous Hawaiian-style quilts in the Merit Hand Quilting category. I think this one is my favorite - that green is so luscious.

Agent Orange

Orange Rain
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Gayle McKay of Sandy Lake, PA; shown in the judged show (category: Art-Pictorial) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Another quilt related to Veteran's Day. I believe the silhouettes were felt underneath mesh. It had a very interesting texture.

Poppies for Remembrance

Remembrance
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Pat LaPierre-McAfee of Naples, Florida, and members of her quilt guild; winner of 1st prize in the category Group at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

This seemed like a good quilt to post for Veteran's Day. Besides, I think it's my very favorite of all the large-scale floral quilts that were around this year. My friend Columbine commented that he didn't really love the very photo-realistic floral quilts, and I do see his point about that. This one is fairly realistic, but you can also still see that it's a quilt.

Illuminations

Illuminations
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Carol Taylor of Pittsford, New York; winner of 3rd prize in the category Art-Abstract, Large at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Gosh, Carol Taylor only won 3rd prize this year. She always seems to win 1st place every year, although that may just be my imagination! (Anyway, I love the colors in this one.)

I guess I ought to give you the links to all the pictures (which are still being added, by the way):
judged show
special exhibits

Geraniums in Chinese Pot

Geraniums in Chinese Pot
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Kathleen Campau; from the exhibit "In Full Bloom III" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Quilt festival preview

Friendship Web
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

The quilt above was made by Harumi Asada; from the exhibit "Hands all Around XXII."

I'm starting to get quilt festival pictures up on flickr now - at the moment exactly 3 of the 400-odd I took are there, but they will be trickling up during the day today. I started taking pictures in the very back corner on Saturday and this was the first thing I came to. I think it's gorgeous.

Dia de Muertos

Dia de Muertos
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Sharon Walton of Louisiana, and shown at the 2003 International Quilt Festival.


The quilt festival prize-winners are posted, by the way. I didn't look at the pictures since I'm going this weekend and I don't want to be "spoiled" - but there appear to be pictures of all the award-winners already there.

One more Halloween quiilt

halloween door
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I forgot all about this one! This is one of my mom's little quilts that she hangs on the door.

Happy Halloween!

Martha's Pumpkin Men
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

The quilt above was made by Kathy York of Austin, and shown at IQF 2003.

(I adore this quilt, so putting this picture up has more or less become an annual event. As I recall, the pumpkins have something to do with Martha Stewart, thus the name!)

Devil's Night

Tall Trolik
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Shown at Lakeview Quilters Guild's Mayfest quilt show. (That pumpkin looks pretty devilish. Seems appropriate!)


I want some serious applause, because I finished my wallhanging!! I will post pictures in a couple of days, once it's gotten to the recipient. I used sort of a version of Melody Johnson's technique to finish it - except I was going from memory and I don't think I really did it right. But it worked, what I did, so hey.

kleine hexe

kleine hexe
Originally uploaded by sew-mad.

I went looking for Halloween quilts on Flickr, and I'm happy to report that I got a lot better results than I did last year. Here's one of them. Very cute!

Not quite Halloween

Webs in Heaven
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Fumi Kido of Japan; shown at IQF 2003.

This is one of my favorite not-quite-Halloween quilts. I don't think it's really meant as one, but all those spider webs SEEM really Halloween-ish, don't you think?

Out to Lunch

Out to Lunch
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Sandra Thompson. Shown at Lakeview Quilters Guild's Mayfest quilt show.

Owl's Light

Owl's Light
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I'm still in a very autumy mood. I am really looking forward to seeing actual fall foliage next week - or, uh, this week! - when we go up north. (In case I don't get around to posting again before I leave, I am out for a week. I might put some more pictures up before I go, though!) I will be back well before Halloween - and Quilt Festival! - in any case.

(Oops, somehow failed to give credit: quilt above made by Nancy Murty of New York; winner of an Honorable Mention in the category Art-People, Portraits, and Figures at the 2005 International Quilt Festival.)

Red Leaves

Red Leaves
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Kyung Joo Kim, South Korea; from IQF 2004.

I thought I would post something autumn-y, and I like this quilt a lot. It would never have occurred to me to put a center panel into a Katie Pasquini-style fractured landscape like that, but it definitely works.

Enticement

Journal Quilts
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

("Enticement" because I figure I need to put up pictures to entice some of y'all to come to IQF. The quilts aren't all traditional, really they aren't!)

Pictured above are journal quilts by Patti Gamburg, from IQF 2003.

Show time

Number Nine dream
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

The quilt above is "Number Nine Dream", made by Natalia Manley, Oxfordshire UK. From IQF 2004.


Apparently I have Quilt Festival on the brain.

I just made a reservation (non-refundable, so I can't change my mind) to spend the night of November 4 at the Hilton Americas in Houston, adjacent to the convention center. I've never spent the night for IQF before, but we stayed there for the marathon last year. I *highly* recommend it, just for ease of collapse at the end of the day. (The next closest hotel is the Four Seasons, where I have also stayed and also highly recommend, but it's several blocks' walk, and that's going to seem like a lot after you've been on your feet all day.)

Anybody going to the Quilt Festival on November 4 or 5 and want to meet for lunch?


I have a finished top for the autumn leaf wallhanging, but I'm not posting pictures here until it's sent off. Remember how I was going to do a Chinese Coin border for the other one, and I changed my mind? I had started putting it together before I decided not to use it, and it got re-purposed for this. I cut part of it down and used it and it worked perfect. I really like the way it looks.

Fabric co-op

Alexander Henry "Paloma"
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Over on Livejournal they're trying to get together a fabric co-op. I've never done one of these before, but I think it's a great idea, especially if I can get the Paloma fabric pictured above or some of my beloved skull fabric out of the deal. (Everybody go sign up for the co-op right now so it will get rolling, ok?)

Added: For more incredible fabric - unfortunately not available until 2007 - see here. Yummy!

Star swap blocks

Star swap blocks
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

So, here's all 12 of my swap blocks. They're arranged like they are because I think I'm making 2 things out of them: a 9-block wallhanging/lap quilt, and a table runner. The main reason for doing it that way is that the only way to make my block look right is to put it in the center - thus, 9 blocks. And I like the idea of having a table runner. They divided up fairly neatly into 5 blocks with green backgrounds, 4 blocks with gold backgrounds - plus the one that's equally green and gold. The outliers are the one with the red background and, of course, mine with its pink background. But I think sashed with cranberry it will all work together fine.

Swap blocks!

Christmas swap block
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Here's a preview of the swap blocks.

It's funny, the blocks I got back don't look a thing like mine, even though we all followed the rules. They are all mostly green, cranberry, gold and pink. Mine is definitely the pinkest. They will all blend pretty well, though, I think - I am going to put them up on my mom's design wall tomorrow and take pictures of the whole group.

Favorites

Teacups
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

(Quilt top above made by me, from Jan Mullen's pattern "Cuppaz")

I happened to notice today that this is my most-favorited quilt. (Of my own quilts, I mean - my most favorited picture is of somebody else's quilt - one of the IQF ones, I think.) Anyway, it made me think that I never did make the wallhanging out of these that I meant to make when I started. These blocks - the ones in the picture, I mean - I gave away, and I took a few more of them and made a small wallhanging for Karen - but I never made one for myself, which was my original intention. I need to figure out how many of "Cuppaz" blocks I still have, because I have no idea at all.

I got a few more leaf blocks done this weekend, but I had left my glasses behind, and trying to see well enough to stay on the line was giving me a headache, so I quit. (I complain about those bifocals, but apparently I really need them.) No word yet on the swap blocks; I'm really interested to see what I get back!

Added: I looked and I still have 23 Cuppaz blocks. I gave away 9+4 = 13, so that means I've made at least 36. That's a good many blocks! (They're fun to make, though, I think that's why I have so many.)

Finished swap blocks

(If you're in the swap with me, avert your eyes!)


cranberry star swap blocks
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Only four of my 12 swap blocks are pictured, of course, but they're done, done, done! (And in the nick of time, too.) I'm meeting the swap leader sometime today to hand them over, since I'm not going to the retreat this year.

Speaking of the retreat, I expected to feel regretful about not going, but so far, nada. I do always get a lot done there, and I will miss that part - well, I will miss all of it, really. But I'm not pining about it.

The Paisley Bug

Turns out I'm not the only one with the Paisley Bug - Sharon has it too. (And unlike me, she actually does research!)


(Random paisley fabric above is from FreeSpirit's "Fleurish" line.)

Ooh! Sale!

Don'tcha love sales? Chronicle Books has 30% off everything (through Sunday), which means that both Sublime Stitching and Amy Butler's In Stitches are on sale. I may be buying both.

Added: Denyse Schmidt's book is in there, too, if there's anybody left in the quilt-blog world that hasn't bought it already. And when I started adding items to my cart, I found out that orders over $40 get free shipping.

(Found via the always-fun Daily Candy.)

Flash!

Protozone pattern
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I love little flash applications you can play around with, and this is a good one - it's not really terribly flexible but you can do some fun things with it. (Try hitting the red button - which I guess is Autodraw - and then switching back & forth between "repeat," "reflect" and "rotate.") Good for inspiration purposes!

(My brain immediately breaks into the Flash Gordon theme when I look at that title. Hope everybody else doesn't have the same problem!)

Water Quilt

Water Quilt: Reflections
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

The quilt above is from Mayfest. There's a link to the online show back an entry or two. (It bugs me not to give the maker credit, but that's guild policy. Go figure.) Added later: After a conversation with one of the guild members who was present for the discussion of the "picture policy" I am going to start posting names again. Apparently it was not their intent to keep people from posting names; that was my misinterpretation when I read it. (In my own defense, it's not very clearly written.) Quilt above made by Cyndy Martin (and the full name of it is "Water Quilt: Reflections").

In other news, I made a myspace profile for no good reason - it's here. Now will somebody tell me what to do with the thing, please? (I already had to delete one random guy that wanted to be my friend - possibly because your profile defaults to single. I did figure out how to fix that, at least!)

In other other news, I have enough subunits to finish the swap blocks, and I have three weekend days left to work on them. (Two Saturdays plus Monday of Labor Day, I'm figuring.) Hopefully it won't take that long, anyway! Then after that I have to finish whipping together my little leaf wallhanging, which also needs to be done very soon. Then maybe I can go back to normal quilting. I have promised myself not to start any more swaps until after such time as I make quilts out of the swap blocks I have already. That ought to keep me out of them for a good while!