CAT Scan and late summer garden photos

Anyone need a CAT scan? Or perhaps a quilt inspection? Rosie's your girl!

My purple oxalis looked so sad at my office, but after repotting and a vacation outside, I think it looks fab.

Bi-color budlea (butterfly bush). Just starting to bloom at this late date.

I used to cut off the coleus blooms because they aren't so pretty, and I heard cutting them extends the life of the plant. But guess who likes these teeny tiny blooms? The hummingbirds! 

AQS 2013 Grand Rapids: See Rock City

Do any of you remember those signs painted on roofs and sides of old barns that told you to “See Rock City” as a vacation destination? Well, those barns and signs were the inspiration for this quilt. (As it turns out, Rock City is in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. I guess my folks thought that was a little too far to go for a trip with 4 kids.)

I was looking forward to seeing this quilt in person, because I had read Julie’s play-by-play process of making this quilt, documented on her blog in the last year or so.

 Julie is a quilter from Tennessee, but originally from Michigan, with family in West Michigan.  She managed to make it to the Grand Rapids AQS show to see her quilt hang (among other things at the show) and to see a nephew get married the same weekend.

There is a lot more to this quilt than meets the eye (especially since the ropes at the show kept everyone back a good eight feet).  Here’s what I know about the quilt:

• Each barn was free-pieced. No pattern used.
• There is one barn per month of the year, with details near each barn to hint at the corresponding month’s weather.
• The quilt was put together with sashing between the blocks, but not finished, because a voice in her head told her something was not right. She took the quilt apart and realized that the fabulous free-pieced barns needed a free-pieced sky to go with the barn’s season. Much better!

Click here for a link to the whole process and back story.

And I got to meet Julie ever-so-briefly in the lobby of the DeVos Place (where the show was held). Nice to finally meet you, Julie. And thanks for letting me share your quilt with people who didn’t know about you before now!

AQS 2013 Grand Rapids Highlights

Here are a few quilts in the AQS show that caught my fancy. More to follow.....

Great use of color.

Reminds me of an M.C. Escher metamorphosis drawing.

Shown at the Karen K. Stone lecture. Love her color sense.

Color inspiration everywhere

A few shots of color from the Holland farmer's market yesterday morning, before the place was mobbed!  Not much stitching lately, because my spare time has been spent outside enjoying the great weather.

Love the blue pails. Looks like everything goes with blue.

Sunflowers mean summer.

I'm thinking fajitas sound good with all the  pepper colors included.

Radishes, anyone? 

Sunset a couple nights ago. After this shot, the sky kept getting pinker and pinker, but I was in my car and couldn't stop for another shot.

Why I Quilt

My quilting started in a roundabout way. My biggest sewing and quilting influence was my grandma, Hazel Millard. She sewed everything. She had a fancy brown Singer with all of the cams (I'm not sure where that sewing machine ended up).

My grandpa Ace and grandma Hazel, about mid-1960's.

Here's a few fun things about grandma:

• She LOVED turquoise. See the trim on the house? See the dress fabric? She also had a turquoise couch and walls of light turquoise.
• Those retro cotton prints (fancy coffee pots, cups and saucers in turquoise and brown) you see nowadays?  Those were grandma's kitchen curtains.
• She sewed her own clothes. There were few plus-sized stores to shop in. And, she didn't drive.
• Her house was small, but that didn't stop anyone from stopping over and filling up the house. There were times the grandkids had to crawl over each other in the living room to get to an unoccupied piece of carpet to sit on.
• One year grandma made all the men and boys in the family corduroy long-sleeved shirts for Christmas. All different colors. And with the scraps, she made a couple of baby-sized throws to use when babies visited her.

Corduroy throw; each square about 2.5 inches, randomly pieced.

• Grandma wanted to sell this throw in a yard sale one year. I told her I would buy it from her, but she said "why would you want that old thing?" "Because you made it grandma!" She gave it to me.   It needs a few repairs, but I love it.

Well-loved (and many time washed) little throw.

• Grandma gave me my first folding cardboard cutting board. I used it for years.

So grandma, thank you for the inspiration and encouragement for the life-long hobbies of sewing and quilting!

A Shot of Color

Pretty window box in Douglas, Mich.

Part of a street planting in Douglas. I don't know the name of these, but they look like mini hollyhocks. They stand about 18 inches tall.

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