Recent Thrifting Find

Thrifting Fun for $2.98!

This little Guatamalen bag was found amongst the children's accessories at my favorite thrift store.  It bears the original tag from Ten Thousand Villages - a free trade zone store in Charlotte.  My DIL found an authentic Coach bag for $14.99!  She researched it online on her iphone before buying.  Pretty swift.  My niece, who works for Coach, verified Suzie had found the real thing!

Gardening Rewards

I love perennials.  I love the way they grow larger each year, eventually forming lovely masses of color.  For my DH, it's veggies and herbs.  Here are a few of the things currently blooming/bearing in our gardens.

Raspberry Bee Balm

Black and Blue Salvia

I don't know the name of this rose.  It's very much like the yellow knock-out rose purchased this year.

Soon and very soon!

We've had fresh green beans several times.  Divine!

Blue Ridge Quilt Festival

Gimme Shelter Workshop

Friday, June 18, 10-5

Wacky Nines Workshop

Saturday, June 19

Next week I'll be teaching in Blacksburg VA for the Blue Ridge Quilt Festival.   I'm so excited about being there.  In addition to workshops, there will be a vendors mall, quilt show and other activities.  For more information, click here:  http://www.brqfestival.com/

Today finds me busy with all the big and little details of travel teaching.  My lists include those for workshops, what to wear, food, directions, GPS settings, camera, cell phone, battery charging as well as counting patterns and hand-dyed fabrics.  Hopefully, I shall leave no tern unstoned.

Be Still My Heart!

This awesome old VW bus/truck with fold-down sides (OK - I don't know the proper name for this type of VW) was spotted on I-277 Monday.  My DIL was about to pull along side so my son Matthew could get a better photo.  To see it, go to his facebook page and scroll down to May 7.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/matthew.guerrant

Lacey Blossoms

This lace cap hydrangea grows in the yard of a home for sale on our street.  When we moved here many years ago, the house was occupied by its original owner.  Although it has sold two or three times since then, it will always be "Mrs. Lake's house" to me.

Garden Gate

A charming gate opens to this lovely garden.

Love the purple coneflowers.

My DIL Suzie and I took advantage of an open house yesterday.  The house (for sale on our street) is beautiful, but we were enchanted by the little garden out back.

Constructed of bark-covered posts and fencing, the small garden has two raised beds divided by a path.  A wonderful Boticelli bird bath greets those who enter.

Light on the garden was too harsh for good photos, but I shot these anyway.

NCQSI Best of Show

A tiny portion of Release Your Light

by Leah Day

You must go to the website of Leah Day, a phenomenal young quiltmaker from Shelby NC.  Her piece, "Release Your Light" is spectacular!   It won first place in Studio Art Quilts, large, as well as Best Of Show at the NC Quilt Symposium.  Congratulations, Leah! 

To read about Leah and her creation process, click here:  http://www.daystyledesigns.com/releaseyourlightquilt.htm

NCQSI

Salt Water Taffy

2nd place - NC Quilt Symposium

1st place - Party on Duval Street - Detail Shot
by Kim Frisk

Charlotte is home to the NC Quilt Symposium, going on through Sunday at Johnson and Wales University. The campus is beautiful, just west of uptown.  In addition to classes and lectures, you'll find a beautiful quilt show and a great array of vendors.   http://www.charlottequiltsymposium.org/

My piece "Salt Water Taffy" won 2nd place in its category.  First place went to the stunning "Party on Duval Street" by Kim Frisk.  I'm only sharing a detail shot.  The quilt was started in a Carol Taylor class.  Carol is another whose work I really love.  Congratulations, Kim!

Finished!

I replaced the broken beads on my DIL Suzie's sundress with patchwork. 

I've been working on this project for most of the last four weeks.  Well, I've been thinking about how to work on this project for most of that time.  My quilt work is abstract and usually does not require exact matching.  So this was a challenge!

I tried several things before acknowledging I'd need a curved edge mirror-image template which matched the formerly beaded area.  Once I drew the template, I marked it for paper foundation piecing.  About half of the piecing was done on the foundation.  I used a different method on each quarter-inch cream colored strip. 

Once the patchwork was sewn, I resorted to dressmaking techniques. The inner neckline was sewn with wrong sides together and the seam allowances understitched.  To finish the straps, I used wide bias tape, sewing it to the patchwork and straps which were then understitched and hand stitched to the back side.  This is the same technique one would use in facing the armhole of a  sleeveless blouse.  Seam allowance for the center front of the patchwork were pressed under and then hand stitched in place.

The blue tie-dye like fabric was left over from the kids' wedding quilt.  The chocolate linen was formerly one of Suzie's blouses.  The mottled cream cotton was in my stash. 

Current Challenge

Beads, sewn to black netting, once adorned this dress.

Sans beads.

My DIL found and fell in love with this soft orange dress at a local thrift shop.  It was decorated with tons of beads, some of which had come loose.  She thought a patchwork of blue, cream and brown fabrics would be a great substitution.

The beads were fairly easy to remove, as they were sewn to a net base.  Once I'd gotten them off, I noticed the triangles weren't uniform in size.  My solution?  Print a copy of the beads themselves and use it as a guideline.  

Bead trim

That idea proved impractical.  Next, I cut a paper pattern for the proposed patchwork and folded it into equal segments.  Not a winner either.  After fooling around with ideas for a while, I decided to do my own little Project Runway!

The dress was draped on a dress form (also found at the thrift store years ago).  I was amazed at how much easier it was to design the patchwork on the actual dress.  My prototype was finished tonight.  After a bit of tweaking, I'll do the final stitching tomorrow.

This has been a challenge, as I don't usually work within certain parameters.  But I enjoy figuring out how to make things work, so this has been fun. 

Film at 11.

Saving a Quilt

"Ray of Life" top - unquilted

Very visible pencil lines!

Marking Pencil Remover

When I finished the top of the large New York Beauty made for my son and daughter-in-law's wedding, I knew I could not quilt it myself.  It was huge and I was having problems with trigger finger and carpal tunnel.  So off to Pennsylvania it went.  Of course I worried about my "baby" the whole time it was gone.  When it came home, I was heartsick.  The quilter had marked it with lead PENCIL!   Everywhere!

I tried various erasers to no avail.  I tried removing the marks with a dampened  cloth.  Nothing. I was frantic, to say the least.  Since every fabric used in the quilt had been prewashed, I felt fairly safe in taking it to a laundromat.  I put it in their largest drum washing machine (which does not agitate in the traditional manner) with a little bit of Orvus paste and a little bit of Synthrapol, said a little prayer, crossed my fingers and waited.  Although most of the marks came out, the pencil remained in some areas - mostly on the lighter oranges.

Marking Pencil Remover from Quilter's Rule (thanks, Patty) worked very well in removing telltale pencil lines.  But one block needed serious repair.  It was an area where the deep indigo blue bled/crept into the orange from the seam allowance underneath. 

What to do............what to do?  I finally decided on paint, a tip learned from a friend years ago when hand-dyed teal silk bled all over a yellow fabric.  The trick is to not just paint the small area where the bleed is, but to paint several areas so that it appears "planned."

I tightly taped off the area around where I needed to paint.  Using a dry-brush technique and a very small amount of diluted acrylic paint, I dabbed the fabric lightly and let it dry.  There was still a bit of shadow-thru from the indigo seam allowance.  I used an orange Caran d'Ache neocolor watercolor crayon over the dried paint to correct this.  That was the magic fix!

Most Favorite

Cluster Roses and Baptisia

My most favorite rose in the McGill Rose Garden was the cluster-like plant shown above. I really like the way the 2" blossoms gradate from palest pink to lavendar.  I'd love to have one near our blue baptisia.