One of a Kind for Inspiration

Yesterday, I was in Toronto for a meeting with a group of women I know, and I stopped by the One of a Kind Christmas Craft Show and Sale. I went for a big hit of inspiration in general, and to see the fibre artists specifically. I came away with much more that I anticipated.

I had a nice little chat with Maggie Vanderweit, whose wonderful work you may see here. She works out of a studio in Fergus, and I saw her trunk show at our Guild meeting last March. Her journey and work are amazing. I've seen her and her work around the region, but usually in bits and pieces. Seeing a large number of her pieces yesterday in her booth really gave me a sense of what is possible for a fibre artist.

There were a few other fibre artists as well:

• Diane Stewart glues various bits of fabric onto a background into a landscape. Though she uses no sewing to accomplish her work, it is really something to see.
• Kalyna Pidwerbesky uses felting, beading, handstitching and wonderful colours to create pieces from her heart and soul. Her work is featured on her website here.
• Valerie Page actually had quilts for sale. What a treat. She uses vibrant colours to create warmth under her quilts. And she's designed a tea cozy to keep your pot of tea warm for three hours.
• Noelle Hamlyn does a variety of fibre art, which you may view on her website, along with her very cute pocketbook purses. Very clever.

Several other artists also caught my eye:

• Andrew Collett's landscape photography is very striking and beautiful. Photos of beautiful scenery from all over Canada. Makes me wonder how he gets those shots. His work is right up my alley.
• Stephen Yau paints nature in a slightly dreamy style that I really enjoyed looking at. I was looking closely at his technique to see how I might use it in my own work.
• And finally, Marie-Joel Turgeon, who makes ceramic quilts. See them here. Fantastic artistic interpretation of quilts in a ceramic version. I loved it.

Cold November Rain

Ok, so it's not that cold for November here, it's actually fairly mild (11C), but raining all day today. Yesterday was sunny and also warm, so we put up our Christmas lights out in front of the house. I am old school in using energy hogging incandescent lights, instead of the new led ones, because I like the way they look. I put a giant string on the boulevard tree which pretty much lights up the whole street! Being the eco nut that I am, we also put everything on a timer so they go on at 7:00pm when the hydro rates drop in half. We have one of those lit up deer that I especially like.

This rain today is perfect for sewing. I've been working on some Christmas stuff, that I can't disclose for a little while. But I can say that last year I made a bunch of table runners out of Christmas fabric. I was pulling out Christmas stuff from boxes, and there they were. In my usual fashion, I only ran a few straight lines in for the quilting stitches.

I must say that being in Houston with Cindy and Leanne open my eyes about those quilting stitches. Leanne has a long arm quilting machine, so I was able to see quilting through her eyes. We all saw so clearly, that it is the image or pattern or colour on a quilt top that draws us in, and then we would all see the quilting stitching when we looked closer. We all really enjoyed looking very closely at all the different types of stitches, and all resolved to get better at that part of our quilting.

So when I saw these table runners, they looked nearly naked! And I decided to lay down some free motion quilting stitching. It came pretty easily, actually. It was good practice. Mostly, I followed the lines in the print, and added some infill around the buildings and gingerbread people. This is just the first one, I may be doing the rest as well. Maybe not this year! There are a lot of things to do, all of a sudden.

New York's Architectural Detail

These are a few of the many photos I took along the streets of New York City. Everywhere I looked, the doorways had been carved, or were decorated with bricks. Very interesting. It was a feast for my eyes.

Looking at these photos now, or in the future, would provide much inspirations. As if I might ever run out of ideas. . .

It was easy to get a sense of the history in New York, the age of the buildings, some modern, some older, a great soup of architecural styles. I haven't included photos of the more modern buildings here, but they live in New York too, right alongside the older classic styles.  It is as if anything and everything is honoured here. There is history, new stories, many styles, many different kinds of people, all have a place here. All honoured as having a place here. It was a treat to take it all in. 

Classic New York

I wanted to include a few general photos of my trip to New York City in March 2011.  I was quite taken with the city. It felt quite familiar, because we've heard of all the landmarks in movies and on tv. And there were all the landmarks, right alongside my travels. Central Park, Macy's, David Letterman studio, Broadway, Fifth Avenue, the Chrysler Building, Yellow Cab, etc, etc. It seemed comical in a way. I flew in on a clear bright morning, right after sunrise, and noticed the shadows from the highrises as I landed, snapping photos all the while. Quite a sight.

I was also quite surprised by the straight streets and avenues. Seemed very orderly. One can stand in the middle of the avenue, and see pretty far, with no obstructing buildings in the way, or curves in the road to mess up the view. And New York is built up, so many of the street level views are like concrete canyons. It is quite different from anything I have seen before, so it was quite intriguing.

Most people get around New York by walking or by cab. It is not far or expensive to travel in Manhatten by cab, so I did that a few times. It seemed most of the vehicles on the roads are cabs. It is also not far to walk anywhere, so I did a lot of that, along with many, many other people. New York is very heavily populated, and there were an uncomfortable number of people out and about.

There also isn't much greenspace around, so it is no wonder that people hang out in Central Park. It definitely is a concrete jungle. New York certainly made an impression on me.

New York: 300 Years of Red & White Quilts

I've been wanting to write about a trip I did to New York City, specifically to see quilts, in March 2011. I've had the photos on my computer for all this time, and I was just looking over them, after my Houston experience, and realize now that it was an amazing journey that changed me forever.

I found out about this Red and White display when I was looking around on the internet one day.         It was put on by the American Folk Art Museum. Check out the link here.  Once I knew about the show, I had to go, I knew I would forever regret not going. All these quilts, 650 of them, had been collected by one quilt fan, and she generously decided to share them with the public all in one display. She had collected more quilts, but these are her red and white ones.  Many of them are very old, dating up to 300 years old, and some are more modern.

The amazing thing about this display was the way the quilts were displayed.  Many quilts you see in a variety of displays are hung all on one level, and you walk around to see them one at time.  In this display, the building was vastly huge and dark, and a professional stage lighting company had been hired to set up lighting specifically to highlight the quilts.  The other amazing thing about this display was that the quilts were hung on many levels, sometimes three or four layers up, with an intense circular spiral thing going on in the centre. 

So when I entered the huge vast room full of quilts, it took my breath away. It was stunning to stand inside the entryway and take in the enormity of the project. Wow. I was just in awe. People walked softly and spoke in hushed tones, and for the most part moved around in near darkness, because it was only the quilts that were lit. It felt somewhat surreal, but very effective.  It took some time, taking in each quilt, giving each piece its due.  I spent most of a day there, taking in the quilts, taking photos of nearly all of them, absorbing as much as I could, since I was aware that this was a once in a lifetime experience.  

There were other quilt things going that same weekend in New York, which I will write about in other posts.

Laptop Case

I decided before I went to Houston, that I wanted to take my laptop with me. Heavy, doesn't fit in my backpack, but it might be useful for looking up stuff in the hotel at night. It's fairly new, and I hadn't yet acquired a case for it. I had in mind a zippered colourful neoprene thing. That's what I had in mind. What I ended up with is colourful all right, but not zippered, not neoprene!  I looked around the house for another UFO I knew was somewhere. . . I found this.

I had this quilted piece around, one of the first things I made, before I knew anything about quilting.  Looking at it now, I didn't know how to do bindings or applique. It all seems pretty unorthadox now, but I really like the colours, and the second chakra design I worked with at the time.  And I didn't have much stash to work with!  My stash has improved immensely by now, and I probably wouldn't have stuck that turquoise on it.

Anyway, it didn't have any quilting on it, so I did some quick free-motion work to it, joined the corners together, added some velcro for a closure, and voila:  a brand new laptop case. And it makes good use of an old piece that wasn't seeing any action before.

More on Houston

 When I was in Houston, one of the quilt displays I saw was a selection of Texas Star Quilts.  It was an amazing display of a variety of pieced, appliqued and art quilts, mostly with a star or Texas theme. All were made in Texas by Texas residents.  Here you see the front and back covers of the book, Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1986 - 2011, by Karoline Patterson Bresenhan and Nancy O'Bryant Puentes. Images reproduced here with written permission.

There were two previous books about earlier Texas quilts, and this third book represents the more recent history of quilts in Texas. It was a very impressive display. I think I've said this before, but to see the quilts in print is one thing, but to see them on display is quite another. You get to see the stitching and pieces up close, and get a real feel for the piece in person.

There was no photography allowed in this particular exhibit, so I bought the book. I am pleased to do so in any case, since it is the best representation of the show, and is a good memory keepsake of my trip to Houston.

Houston Project #2

This afternoon, I spent some time making a scarf out of the exquisite yarns I bought in Houston. I stretched them out between two sheets of water soluble plastic type material, then stitched across the yarns to stabilize them. Soaking in water dissolved the film, and now I have a brand new scarf. All the yarns are wool, or silk, or a blend. A couple of them are silk chenille. How yummy is that.

I wanted mostly dark blue, purple colours, with a bit of pink mixed in, and this is what I got. Surprise, surprise, though, I thought I had enough yarns for two or three scarves, and alas, this one used up all the yarn. Now I have some leftover water soluble film for another project.

New Projects

When I was in Houston, we were talking about which project we each would start first, from all the goodies we bought. I wasn't sure, I think I said I would finish a white Winding Ways quilt I already have going. Well, I have been so excited about a ball of hand-dyed yarn I picked up, that I just had to start knitting a scarf. I had one in progress, but did not like the way the yarn was knitting up, so just now I cast that one off. It will never be finished up anyway. Maybe I can use that small piece somewhere else.

This casting off was soon followed by casting on the new yarn. It's not like I don't have other yarns to knit, but you know how it goes. Something new is always  more exciting than something old. So far, I love the way this looks, and feels. It is a blend of mohair, silk and wool. And all those pretty colours, with a loopy  texture, what's not to love? I'm not a superfast knitter, though, so it may take me a while to finish my scarf. I'll keep you posted, when it's finished.

In Houston. . .

So I spent the weekend at the Houston International Quilt Festival, with two of my friends from Alberta.  I've known them for a long time, from way back in my tailoring days, and we are all quilters now. Anyway, they are both a lot of fun, and all three of us had a blast in Houston.

We will never be the same again! Seeing so many amazing and beautiful quilts all in the same place is spectacular, and changes the way you see the world of quilts. It also changes the way you see your  own place in the quilt world, and the way you create your own work, so I'm very happy to have been there. We all feel now, that there is room to improve our own work. If nothing else, seeing all the fabulous quilts will make us better quilters.

Seeing the quilt displays was one thing.  The quilt market was quite another!  HUGE. Did I mention it was huge?!  There were so many vendors, it was hard to cover them all, but not impossible. And cover them we did. We all bought a lot of fabric, gadgets, patterns, and other cool stuff that we can't find in our corners of the world. At the end of each day, we would all lay out our purchases to show and tell. So much fun. Now we all have enough projects to keep us busy for a while. Can't wait to get at it.

Marmalade's First Snow
by David Taylor

I want to include a photo of a quilt that I particularly love. A cat of course, and there were a number of cat quilts, and being a cat person, I especially like this one. When I was looking at this quilt, I feel like I've known this cat for a long time.  Plus, I really like red tabbies, so that caught my eye, too. This quilt is by David Taylor, called Marmalade's First Snow.