Some finishes

   Maybe having an extra day in February helped with finishing up some projects.  The 5" squares mentioned in an earlier post had 1" strips of ecru sewn as sashing, making the piece five blocks wide by six blocks long. There were four more blocks, so I added a 5" border with these four blocks as cornerstones. Deciding on how to quilt it has me in a dilemma.

  

 There were two quilts for our Pine Belt Quilters community quilts. I quilted and bound the tops that someone else had stitched. The little flying geese piece got bits of maps glued around the edges for finishing of Flying Geese Over Lake Michigan. I had fun making this dog portrait from my niece's photograph.

Flying Geese Over Lake Michigan

It was fun hosting some of the USM international students last week for food and fellowship. Elizabeth and Rahrah had an especially good time and got lots of attention.

Renata with Elizabeth

Rahrah loves all this attention

The Meistersingers of Mississippi will present Mozart's Requiem this Sunday afternoon, March 3, at 3:00 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Hattiesburg. The rehearsals have been so rewarding; it is a deep pleasure getting to participate with a group of dedicated musicians for this classic composed in 1791. A reception will follow. 

Sandra Sider at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art

Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts, featuring quilts from the American Folk Art Museum, New York, is at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Miss., until April 21. Dr. Sandra Sider, a studio quilt artist, author, curator, and past president of SAQA, presented a lecture "Centennial to Bicentennial: Quilt Making in the United Sttes, 1876-1976" last week. She told of the rich history of quilts and how they document events of our lives. It was an honor to have my Cross Stitch Treasure Chest (made by Linda and me) as part of her lecture. 

Black fabric with white embroidery stitches

Educational display

My favorite--2" squares

Detail showing hand quilting stitches

It will be my privilege to talk about quilts and how they have moved from bed covering to art as decoration for our homes at the THIRD THURSDAYS artTALK meeting at noon on March 21 at Lauren Rogers. The artTALK programs are free and open to the public, no reservation required. Bring a brown bag lunch (beverages and desserts provided) for "Beyond the Blanket: Creating Art Quilts." Appreciation is expressed toWest Quality Foods for sponsoring the artTALK programs. 

February

This month is flying by. I've quilted and finished the Square-in-a-Square 32" x 32" wall quilt from the found 6" foundation-pieced blocks found in my closet. The quilting is in a rosy-colored thread in loopy Es and Ls instead of my usual meander. No progress on the stack of 5" square-in-a-square blocks, but the plan is to sash them in muslin/ecru-colored strips. 

Square-in-a-Square, 32" x 32"

Back and binding is a Jeffrey Gutcheon fabric

Katie Pasquini Masopust's Artful Log Cabin technique is a favorite of mine and I have made several art quilts by her method, the most recent shown here. The inspiration photo is a Mexican market in Austin, Texas, I took several years ago while visiting my brother.

Inspiration photo

Austin Market, 32" x 25"

Austin Market, detail (lemons and limes)

Austin Market, detail

Austin Market, detail

Showing at Pine Belt Quilters meeting with inspiration photo
Enlarge to see grid over the photo

More foundation pieced tiny houses were added to an 8" x 10" quilt for Michele Martin in our Southern Fiber Artist group. Dawn Seymour showed us how to make faux fabric backgrounds using papers  sandwiched between two layers of fusible interfacing. I used torn map pieces for my backgrounds and stitched more flying geese.

Tiny Houses, 8" x 10"

Flying Geese over Lake Michigan, 9" x 11"