My Backyard

It's springtime in Kentucky and it is beautiful.  The daffodils are blooming and the birds are making their nests.  I think this woodpecker is building a nest.  

I've also had time to finish a quilt top, my KINGSIZE 1.5 inch hexagon quilt, Tillie's Mosaic.  That is the name of the pattern.  I changed the quilt somewhat, certainly making it bigger to fit my bed.  So, maybe I should name it something different.  After I quilt it I'll think of something.  Sewing hexagons are the best portable project you can do.  I made this while Jennifer was getting her treatments for cancer.  She is doing so well now, I am so grateful.  Losing a year out of a young person's life, tied up with a vicious cancer and the treatments seems to last so long.  I am glad it's over and she's trying to get back on track with life.  

This quilt I made to enter in the Home quilt challenge at our Quilters Day Out event.  The words around it say "Finish what you start, a quilters dream at heart".  ''

I'm having a heck of a time loading my pictures on my blog.  I keep getting "Bad Request Error 400".  Does anyone else get that message?

New Camera and Quilters Day Out

I finally got a new camera.  I liked my old one so much, I got it's newest replacement.  I'm a point and shoot kinda girl.  SLRs intrigue me and maybe some day I'll invest the time, money and effort to get one.  I like the 18X zoom on this one, the Panasonic DMC-FZ28.  Here are some night pictures of my great white hunter making short business of the bad winter damage this part of Kentucky has seen.  Notice his silhouette by the fire.  I like to play with tricky things like that.  The jonquils are blooming in my backyard and the creepy neighbor behind us.  

This is last years entry for Quilting in the Bluegrass, quilt challenge at Quilters Day Out.  This is my new entry that I need to put the binding on.  The words surrounding the quilt border say, "Finish What You Start, a Quilters Dream at Heart".  I used variegated thread and made it a little difficult to read, so maybe it would "soak in" to the reader when they read it.  It's a a pretty hard thing to live by.  There are too many beautiful fabrics, books and patterns not to be compulsively inspired.  

Quilters Day Out is what we call National Quilting Day, which is this Saturday.  I hope all of you are celebrating.  If you ever needed an opportunity to party, here it is.  Talk quilter this weekend, fat quarter, rotary cutter and the uses of 1/4 inch tape are understandable by a select few.  

I joined another quilt guild!

Yes, it's happened, I didn't have enough quilting in my life, so I joined another quilt guild.  The guild is Y Knot Quilt?.  We meet every other Thursday at the Buckner, Kentucky YMCA.  This is where the young quilters can have babysitting and go to quilting.  The Y offers lots of tubes and toys and responsible watchers for the kids.  The maximum they can stay is 3 hours and guess what, that's how long quilting lasts.  

This quilt group is predominanty beginning quilters.  I don't mind this, because the pattern we are currently working on is easy.  I have so much fabric, that it's nice to have some sit and the machine and sew and not think too much about it.  Making something with your hands and seeing the completed top is a wonderful thing.  We are making a Christmas quilt pattern, and I've started 2 Christmas quilts I haven't finished, so the fabric is prepped and we traded squares for a charm quilt scrap effect.  

In the past this quilt group has made many charity quilts.  I happened to have some connections at Kosair and so they gladly gave me 7 quilts to deliver for distribution or possible sale to benefit the hospital.  I machine quilted this one and the rest were done while the quilt group was learning .   Jennifer went with me to deliver the quilts at the Cancer Research Center in downtown Louisville.   

It's always a good thing to suppliment your quilting and it's not uncommon for quilters, who recognize a good thing, to go out and find another group to join.   

Jennifer's Gallery Opening Night was a huge success

The opening of the Bone Fractured Fairy Tale, My Year Lost in Cancer Land was a huge success.  What would a fairy tale be if not starting with "Once upon a time", which gives people a place to start to read the story within a story of the nightmare that becomes a happy ending, for us at least.  The show is composed of essays and journal entries that circle the room and progress through the many stages of frustration in diagnosis and the subsequent treatment.  Between the written words are photos and paintings of the surrealness of the experience and reality of the experience.  

 The success of the Art Show was a small "compensation" for the awfulness the treatment of cancer.  But, it did turn into a bright spot in the roller coster. 

 Jennifer got to sign some of her artwork for $25.00 a picture and the wonderful people in attendance supported this local hospital that does so much good, Kosair.  

Before cancer, Jennifer had long blond hair.  My daughter started the night with the wig on.  Like a curious security blanket she held on to the perceived "normalcy".  By the end of the event, when she was feeling more confident and off went the wig, or what remained of it after a year.  Long blond monofiliment fibers found around my home, were not invisible quilting threads, but, the cover that prevented her for being herself.  Out came the purple hair, that is my beautiful creative daughter.  

This is Jennifer with her nurse friend that shaved her head bald when Jen lost all of hers, notice the picture on the wall behind them.  You really do meet some amazing people in times of difficulty, both on the treatment side and the reality side.  

Today's Woman has Jennifer's Art Show in it

Today's Woman is a local free magazine that highlights some interesting women in the community.  This is the cover of the magazine.  And inside Jennifer's exhibit is the #1 thing to do in Louisville this month!  In all seriousness, art therapy helped her through this horrible time.  There is no better way to channel your energy in a constructive way than through art.  Whether its making a quilt, taking photos or using Photoshop, creativity is a wonderful nonmedicating release that makes you feel good.  

Make Art!  Make Art! Make Art!   It's so good for the soul in so many ways.  

Home Block Complete-Now Embellishing!

Yes, two posts in one day, that's a productive day. Especially when you think I've also completed this wall hanging.  I worked out a little at the "Y" today, thus the disheveled quilter look.  Although, I like to quilt in my disheveledness....smile.  

Yep, I went with the lighter border on the audition.  

The dimensions have to be 21 inches wide.  The length is a bit longer, but, I hope that's okay,  as that's what I filled the form out to enter the challenge.  

Now on to my flowers in the window boxes and words on the banner next to the house.  Then to embroider some cutesy saying that will garner giggles from the quilt judges and maybe I'll win first prize, $50.00!  Probably not, but, I like the quilt anyway. 

Auditioning Fabrics and Jennifer's Art Showp

This is my house block and my light, medium and dark fabrics I've chosen for the outer border.  Thisi is called auditioning fabrics.  A digital camera really helps when you have to make the choices.  Another method I like to use is looking at the quilt in a mirror.  It allows a better perspective for auditioning.  You can also look through the wrong lens of a pair of binoculars.  

Lest you think it a little boring, I intend to embroider "Finish, Finish, Finish, What you Start, A Quilters Dream at Heart".  Or something like that.  The blank rectangle to the left of the house is going to be embroidered, "Quilt Show Today".  And then there needs to be a bar embroidered about the quilt in the middle of the top of the house.  I'll probably put a few flowers in the blank window boxes.  This will be my entry into the "Home" quilt challenge that our Quilters Day Out 2009 quilt has thrown the gauntlet down to us.  

Jennifer went through a pretty awful time of chemo and through it all I took a bunch of pictures, that she then took and used photoshop, pastel pencils, and paints, and different things to make her feel more in control and creative about the situation.  The result was the art therapist at Kosair, liked what she was doing so much, the hospital is sponsoring her art show, spending thousands of dollars printing and framing 80 of these photos/art works.  

This is the postcard advertising her show.  She also has invitations printed for a private cocktail party prior to the opening night of the art show, which will run through April 30.