Quilt Show entry #4 - All because of Trudy

My friend Trudy is a remarkable soul.  Her Birthday is today and I feel privileged to have her as a friend and a mentor.  This quilt otherwise known as Dragonfly Carnival, my fourth submission for our quilt show is the result of this friendship and came to be all because of Trudy.   I will hang it with love for all to see. 

 

To explain, here's a short narrative of this wall hanging.  I think it was in 2010 our circle of friends quilting group gathered at Trudy's house on Lake Champlain to work on a Ricky Timms' style Convergence wall hanging.  Yes, she's very hospitable and gracious that way.  We all brought fabric to work on and Trudy was teaching us since she had made several of these already.  Yes, she's an excellent teacher, so wise and can read people intuitively.   My fabrics wouldn't work well enough and Trudy gave me some of her Ricky Timms fabric to make mine, yes she is that generous and she had just returned from another of Ricky Timms conferences with another friend Cathy.   So we sewed, laughed and shared our day each making most of this.  Now during that time in my life I was still trying to "work with " all the medicines I need to take for the spinal cord injury and my brain was and still can be in a fog at times.  Not too many troubles though with sewing on it this that day and like all other days it came to an end. 

Life goes on... you know the drill.  Anyway, fast forward to the next year and while at a quilting retreat in Odgensburg I brought my wall hanging to work on since it languished as a UFO. Thankfully, I was sitting next to Trudy.   I assembled the center top and knew something was wrong with it but truly couldn't figure it out.  I pondered for about half an hour and  finally mentioned that I knew something was wrong it but with the Rx's and health issues I was just going to let it be and continue on with it having it represent the struggles I was dealing with.    She also noticed something amiss but didn't say anything and asked if she could look at it to figure it out.  Yep, she's that kind of person that knows yet doesn't force herself on you until asked.  Well she found the err in the construction and kindly offered her insight.  Being receptive to it, we ripped out the problem and I continued on sewing it together and being much happier now it proceeded.  Another weekend of sharing wonderful times with close friends.  That brings it to the next year when I finally made the time to lay out the fabrics to align colors best so it could be finished with the borders.  I know, I'm a slow stitcher and finisher but that truly is okay with me.  It was sewed all together and there it sat again while I  dreamt on about it.  There it was as a top, now what to quilt on it? 

 

 

 

 

Ahhh, finally inspiration came, dragonflies! A spirited symbol that  she and I both admire. Off again on my merry way until the time to quilt the borders and there it sat. So I registered this wall hanging in June for the October quilt show to push me to get 'er done and stop this dalliance.

 

 

The above photo shows a dragonfly head that I wasn't super happy with and was working on.  It looked like a derriere(or breasts) with eyeballs stuck on it!   What's that phrase I use lately?  oh yea,  "perfectionism is a very crippling agent to creativity".  Anyway I progressed along with the deadline looming ever closer.  The next photo  shows a couple of the dragonflies and you can click on any of the images to get a better glimpse of the details if you wish.

 

Next came the finishing touches, piping and binding on it.  Here's where I shared a peek about it in a September post.   

 

 

The label was made when I was feeling silly I guess, it really stretched out my artist's skills, lol.

 

So here she is- the fourth quilt show entry and it's all because of Trudy- the Dragonfly Carnival.

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Thanks my dear friend and Happy Birthday!  I Love you loads!

Jane

Plodding along and some friends think I'm nuts!

The list of four tasks were pretty much completed by this past weekend. 

With DH's Batik Reprieve aka his 40 Diamonds Quilt,  (one for each year of marriage) I am on my fourth side handstitching the binding onto the back.  What a bugger it is to stitch through that minkee backing.  Found a new trick about stitching on Minkee, so do you want to know what I figured out?  Use Joan Shay's petal play Appli-bond needle.  It works much easier than a traditional quilting and sewing needle.  I even made a bright green piping by machine to edge this quilt and it seems perfect.  With the quilting I did an echo stitch on all the sashings & cornerstones and then outlined stitched the diamond shapes by turning back the edges on those "on point diamonds" just like you do for a cathedral window effect, thus 20 shaped diamonds and 20 stitched diamonds making the 40 Diamonds that's also now in it's  name.  Crafty aren't I?  lol    The only bits I need to do on this project after handstitching the binding is to make the label and then attach muslin sleeves for the show that will be held on the weekend of October 12th and 13th.  Piece of cake!  Those muslin sleeves will be pinned on and not permanent after I finsih using them for all the machine quilting.  This finished at 103" x 85", a very nice size.

The Dragonfly Carnival is totally done and I love it.

Ripped out one of the horiontal rows on the Tweet Camping quilt and was able to get all the borders on her.  Also  got it layered this morning and used another pieced minkee backing for this one too.  I just love the fliudity of a quilt made with the minkee backing.  SO cuddly and has a nice weight and drape.  Tomorrow I'll  start machine quilting it.  I plan on doing circles in the white background areas, for the blue borders- a meander of right angles and I am still pondering what to quilt in the bird fabric (may just do a worm-y meander in that part) and finally for the dark brown sashing perhaps a 1/4" echo stitch or a swishing back and forth design flowing along those frames.   The boxes I'll be leaving alone at this point.  I may do a stitch in the ditch quilting for that area.   This will finish at an 88"  x 88" in size, perfect for the camper's master bedroom.

For this next week my list of four are:

1. Totally finish DH's  40 Diamond/ Batik Reprieve quilt.
2. Quilt the Tweet Camping Quilt and Pipe? / bind it by machine- hand stitching to finish next weekend.
3. Make the Jack in the Pulpit wallhanging.  I think this will end up becoming a pillow to compliment the Adirondack (Radiant) Star Quilt that I still need to finish for this show too.  I'll be making this in a more slip shod manner and tear it apart after the show.  AM thinking of doing a pillowcase method for the edges and then a quick quilting with water soluble thread to just  call it done since I filled out the registration form saying it wouldbe a wall hanging not a pillow.   
4. Wash and iron the backing for the Adirondack Star and perhaps get it layered by Friday, yup, that's only 4 days away.    This will need to be totally done in one week's time after that.  I was thinkin gof trying to trapunto some assymetrical diamond in the second border on two corners and the opposing two corners traputo a pomegranite vine but then I won't be able to totally quilt it before the show.  I just may continue on this way and save much of the feathering and stippling for afterwards since it's not a judged show.  Time will tell on this one.

I am pushing and will be getting these all done with one day to spare.  Uh humm...That's my plan and I'm sticking to it!!!  Thank goodness we have a hot tub to soothe my aches and pains in my neck and shoulder areas.  I swear while hand stitching I can do about 3- 5 stitches then I have to rest my arms with the pins and needles from my pinched spinal cord and arm and feet nerves bothering me.  After resting for 4-5 minutes then I can resume and do another 4-5 stitches.    On and on, sew on and sew forth...... but I will prevail and it will be done.  Amen and Alleluia.

Stay well and have fun creating,

Jane

 


 

It continues

"Orange" Phlox bloomed this year and loved them.

 

I will share a snap of the Dragonfly Carnival wall hanging with the piping treatment she got.

Am loving how this looks, NICE!

I also am progressing on the quilts I need completed by the 11th of October. 

My list of 4 "chores" that need completion this week are:

1. Label the Dragonfly Carnival and finish sewing the binding to complete it.
2. Finish quilting the 10 minute block quilt I've named the Batik Reprieve.
3. Make binding and get it machine sewn on the Batik Reprieve and a small label done for it too.  Then next week I can start attaching the sleeve.
4. Rip out one row on the Tweet Camping, aka the camper quilt.  I have been hesitating putting all the borders on this one because it just didn't seem right that it was so long.  This will allow me to have all four sides with borders and with the top and bottom borders being narrower in  width than the side borders.  Hopefully by Friday I can get this layered at my grandson's preschool where I don't have to move that much furniture or crawl around on the floor to do it.  Just move a few chairs in the dining hall area and slide a couple of tables together.  Now why didn't I think of using them before? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the angel in the swing shot photo?  Guess what he did?
 

 

Yep!  He gave himself a HAIR CUT.  God bless.  He knew he did was wrong quickly.  You can tell by this expression that he got in trouble too.  So it went from a nicely style hair cut to a buzz cut given to him by his Papi.  His Dad didn't want him to feel bad so Papi cut Daddy's hair too,  (that's something I would never do unless a severe illness and then I would do it for solidarity to help with the healing).   

 

 

His sister had her first day at school.  For a minute or two that morning I thought, then asked if  McKenzie would be going with her.    And this was the answer I got. 

 

 

 Talk about an angel flipping her switch.

Meme, I am not bringing my doll to school!

On Wednesday, Papi and I were able to go on one more field trip to the local orchard.  This will be the last time for this younger generation with preschool.   We had a nice time and all the preschoolers were very attentive about the grandfather "snow" variety tree in the orchard when Brian explained it.

After the field trip we enjoyed a picnic near Lake Champlain, at the Samuel D. Champlain's monument with another activity of feeding the ducks afterwards.    The lake near the mouth of the Saranac River was a hive of activity with all the seagulls swooping down towards the water.  We think there was a hatch of lampreys just floating by since one seagull landed on a concrete abutment near us and had a 4" long resilient worm-like creature he was trying to kill for his dinner.   We should have grabbed the camera and snapped that photo.

 

Also I'm sharing a couple of the finished projects that PGD#1 completed.  She started these with her cupcake kids sewing circle group. 



10 minute table runner for her bedroom

 

We had a modeling session and both of us had a blast.


 

Anthology bag I shared on my blog previously without her.




 

 

She adds her own bit of style with the bag though, it's so much cuter!






Notice the band aids.and I'm not sure why she's closing her eyes,
perhaps her attempt at being coy.



Don't know what this pose was all about.

But it brought out a big smile though

 








 

 

 

 

PS: I'm smiling right now just remembering our shoot.  I Love you Girl!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your blessings, I do mine.

Jane

Also PGS#3 just started his speech sessions and I'm impressed by his willingness & attentiveness to go every time. 
Can only hope this trend lasts.