Thursday, December 30, 2010
Random Facts about Me
Random is pretty easy for me, because I am a pretty random person. My thought process never runs in a straight line, but hops, skips and jumps around from topic to topic. Our family conversations run like this, too. You just never know what will happen next!
I love art. I could spend hours in museums just looking at paintings, sculptures, and any kind of interesting creations. Unfortunately I live in a small town, so just can't get enough of it.
I don't have a musical bone in my body. I joke about it, but would seriously love to have a musical talent transplant. Or even a little gracefulness sprinkled in, because I'm also quite a klutz. I really think these two facts are related somehow.
I talk to myself. All the time. Especially in the car when I am alone. It's a little scary.
I have a hard time choosing a favorite anything. My husband easily rattles off lists of top 10 movies, foods, football players, things he's done in his life. For me, my favorite thing is the one I am doing right now. Even my favorite color changes as my mood does. And a favorite movie list? Makes me nervous just thinking of trying to rank them!
When I am upset and unhappy I clean. Guess I must be happy this week cause my house is a disaster area!
I think if I could choose an alternate career, it would be fun to be a stand up comedian. I love to make people laugh. Humor is a great antidote to the trials of life. In reality, the pressure of coming up with new material would probably erase any hint of humor from my life, though!
I love chocolate. Any chocolate.
I am a huge science fiction fan. Ray Bradbury was one of my favorites growing up. I love the idea of space and exploring the universe.
I am a clutter monster. I hate to get rid of anything, but am working hard on this. On the other hand, I absolutely adore modern design with it's clean uncluttered look. Guess I need to seek a middle ground somehow, right?
I am very competitive. Must win. I'm not a poor sport and do lose graciously, but believe me, I will ramp it up for next time and get you back!
And I guess if you read much here, that I love to write. I hope to do more of that this year, as well as being more disciplined and focused. I feel like much of the time I fly by the seat of my pants, while that is a fun and exciting approach it is not always the most productive. I really would like to take some of the energy I have and use it in a more concentrated manner and see what I can really do instead of just dreaming. I guess that's the New Year sneaking up on me, it's a good time to set goals and make changes. It's like starting fresh, anything can happen!
Now I will go put some of these thoughts into action, and clean up my house a bit. Hope you will join me in 2011 and see what we can accomplish!
Joyfully,
Pamela
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The Last Quilt of 2010?
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (or Why Santa loves the Postal Service!)
A Gift for a Quilter
Twas the night before Christmas
And thought Santa tried
Not every present got delivered
Due to a rough ride.
The lightening flashed brilliant
And thunder did rumble,
Our lead reindeer Rudolph
Took quite a tumble
The magic sack Santa grasped,
But out of the top
Several packages slipped through
Before He could stop.
Those packages were filled
With Fabric and notions
For a quilter who lived
By the side of the Ocean.
Oh no, Santa shouted,
They cannot be lost
We must retrieve them
No matter the cost!
On Dasher, on Dancer,
He cried out in a fury,
This is important, you
Really must hurry!
They raced through the rain,
And cut through the wind,
And retrieved those packages
For their quilting friend.
Though daylight had broken
And Children were at play
Santa knew all was well, our quilter
Would forgive the delay,
So he sipped tea by the fire,
Satisfied by a happy end,
Wrapped up in the quilt
Made by his dear friend.
Santa sighed, knowing that
He had given his all,
Wishing our quilter the most
Merry Christmas of all!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Eggnog Cake Fail
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Christmas Fun!
We had planned on spending the evening at the zoo, but as it was cold and rainy decided not to do that and had a wonderful time just hanging out, laughing at the grandsons, and eating goodies. It could not have been any better! Now we are back home with our girl from Boston, just taking it easy and enjoying a few days of holiday fun. I made fudge last night and it is way too good to resist. I guess that's why the diet always starts after the New Year comes!
Today, we plan on tackling the annual baby quilt marathon. We have three to make, but we have several days to work on them. Today I have assigned the quilter in training to press all her fabric while I go to work and finish the newsletter. Then we will do the cutting and start sewing this afternoon. Should be fun - at leat for me. I think it's a little stressful for her - but she gets better every year!
Merry Christmas to all!
Pamela
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Crossing the Finish Line!
So, now, my main goal is to get my sewing room cleaned up. I can see some free-cycle posts in my future as well as a few Salvation Army runs. I am asking myself if I really want to work on all of the projects I have piled up. And if I really WILL work on them in the near future. I have a drawer full of tops to quilt, a drawer full of fabric waiting to be made into tops, and piles of fabric waiting for an idea to strike. Not to mention the bin of strips for string blocks. I suppose most of us quilters are like this, too many projects, not enough time!
So with that deep thought I am off for the day, I am looking forward to entertaining some friends later this morning and showing my work space to them. (They are non-quilters, but all are creative so they know how the projects pile up!) I am grateful for sunshine today, for friends, and for finished projects and some free time!
In stitches!
Pamela
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Larger Than Life
This project had it's beginning in February of 2006 - I was exploring the idea of making journal pages. Unfortunately this was the only one I did that year, but I was really happy with it and always intented to come back and do more. This quilt was a self portrait - me standing in a cold windy Oregon rain. I purposely used a blue fabric for my skin because that's what I remember about that winter was it was cold, wet and windy. I put a New York Beauty block on the back of it, then embelished this side with some sparkly fiber. I quilted it with a lot of McTavishing and echoing. I brought it in to the quilt shop and it ended up hanging with a group of other self-portraits - and is still there!
Fast forward a few years, I was out walking on one of those perfect, beautiful fall days and looking up at a clear blue sky through brilliant colored leaves I had the idea to make another quilt using the same basic layout as the first one. After my walk I found the templates I had used for the first piece (after a bit of searching, of course!) and pulled fabric from my stash that reflected the lovely colors of the day. This quilt was more simply finished, just basic outline quilting and no embellishment. I enjoyed it for a while, then decided to add it to my Etsy shop for sale.
One more skip forward and we come to the present, and the larger project! I had a request on Etsy to make a larger version of this to cover a futon. Not being one to back down from a challenge, I readily agreed to make it, thinking that with the help of EQ7 it wouldn't be too hard to import my first quilt and creat templates for the pieces. In reality it was more challenging than I thought it would be, but totally worth it!
The image was very easy to import into the program. Tracing the pieces was a bit tedious, but not overly difficult. What was hard was making the proportions work. Luckily my daughter was able to assist me so that my face doesn't look like I could have beat Quasimodo out for the crown of King of Fools!
This picture is my quilt at the end of the fusing process, before quilting. Another thing I didn't realize when I started it was the challenge that merely handling these large pieces would end up being! Luckily I have a pressing mat for my large cutting table, so that helped immensely, but in order to make my templates for the pieces I had to tape quite a few pieces of paper together, then trace them onto fusible web, then iron the pieces to fabric, cut them out and put it all together.
It took me longer than I thought to get it all together, but I am really pleased with the end product! This will definitely be a statement in my customer's room and I am so pleased that my larger Than life Autumn Winds quilt will be enjoyed and appreciated. Does this mean that I might really be able to call myself a "Quilt Artist" after all? Frankly it doesn't matter what I call myself, as long as I enjoy the process I will continue to challenge myself and enjoy what I do - whether it means making traditional blocks, or creating unique works of quilted art!
In Stitches,
Pamela
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Snails Trail Twin #1
I'm taking a quick break before stitching on the second quilt to work on the other project. The second involves me taking a small quilt I made and translating my idea into a larger format, and changing it to a landscape version! It is fun, challenging, a little frightening (fusing large swatches of fabric is definitely not what I am used to doing), and altogether enjoyable! When I finish the large one I will post pictures of them both and let you all tell me what you think of it. And tell the whole story behind the piece as well.
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