A Melody Johnson Wall Quilt

Blocks on Parade, 17" x 23"
by Melody Johnson

I have long been an admirer and blog reader of  Melody Johnson's art work. She uses dramatic colors which fairly sing and vibrate. Recently when she posted a couple of pieces for sale I sent an email with my purchase request, hoping I would be early enough, since most of her pieces go fast. I was the lucky buyer, and the piece arrived just before our quilt show. I wanted to show it as the ultimate achievement during my Creativity lecture at the show. Now I will share it here; it's called Blocks on Parade.
Melody is an avid gardener, knitter, decorator (furniture rearranger!), and owner of two darling pugs. Her blog covers all the above. What she can grow in a backyard garden is amazing. I love having a piece of her art to hang in my home!
After Elizabeth's inadvertently getting shut up in the filing cabinet drawer for several hours, she spent most of the next day cuddling and sharing face baths with her sister, Rah-Rah. Tarbaby was unconcerned.


Rah-Rah and Elizabeth

What to Do When the Quilt Show is Over

Well, for starters, unload the car. Next, begin putting all those pieces I used at my lecture back in the closet or on their nails on the wall.


I had a houseguest and after we enjoyed eating out all week, I was ready to cook a proper meal instead of refrigerator findings, so a grocery shopping trip was necessary (the cats did not eat out all week). Then there were some emails to catch up on and more pictures and the winners page to post on the guild's blog.  Finally, I had a week's worth of checks and credit card charge slips to record. Pot plants needed some attention.

After seeing all the inspiring quilts at the show, several of us talked about how eager we were to get to our sewing machines! I keep lots of strips and squares cut and ready to sew. If I don't keep them covered, the cats bring several pieces to me during the night.

Tomorrow, to the sewing machine!
Elizabeth got closed up in one of these file drawers this afternoon and I hunted her for about seven hours, so she is sticking close to me.

Our Show Opens!

 

After all the receiving, judging, hanging, labeling, decorating, printing, and lots more . . . we had an entry hall full of people waiting to see our our show when the doors opened, in spite of a wet, humid high 80s morning. And they were not disappointed.
We have 340 quilts plus a Hoffman Challenge exhibit. We have a silent auction, boutique, 20 vendors, hallway display of quilters' other activities, free lectures every hour, door prizes, even chairs placed about the exhibit hall to sit and rest your feet.
It was rewarding to see ribbons on four of my five entries (pictures in yesterday's post). I presented a lecture on Creativity, where I enjoyed showing more of my work and discussing what inspires me.

White glove duty is my favorite quilt show task, because it allows me to circulate and see friends and also answer questions asked. It is quite satisfying to help people understand techniques they see, as well as how the quilts are categorized. For instance, TA means Team Applique; THMS means Theme Small; ART means Art (easy one); then there's ME/S/WC/O, which means Machine Embroidery, Stitchery, Whole Cloth, Other (needs explaining). 

A day at the show leaves my feet and knees screaming, but after a meal and visit at Patio 44 with friends, I still was able to catch part of Back Door Coffee House at University Baptist Church to hear Oh Jeremiah (local singer) and Laura Dragon (author of Hurricane Boy). All in all a most enjoyable day! And there are two more, especially nice because of a cool front with 59 degrees and bright sunshine.
The cats are not pleased; in fact, I hear "Oh, rats . . . she's leaving us all day again!"

Tarbaby and Rah-Rah

Countdown to Show Time

Our Show Catalog

Our guild's show, Pine Belt Quilters 15th Biennial Fiber Art & Quilt Show, opens tomorrow in Hattiesburg, MS. Lake Terrace Convention Center's exhibit hall is filled with 340 judged quilts plus a Hoffman Challenge trunk show.
Linda Flanders prepares an 8-1/2" x 11" first-class show catalog which contains descriptions of all the entries plus sponsors, vendors, some guild history, and map of the show. My responsibilities have been helping to proof this catalog and to solicit sponsors and ads. My last task has been to prepare the winners pages, which can't be done until the judging is completed and all awards selected. Keeping tabs on all the numbers, quilt names, makers' names, and awards is a daunting task, but lots of checking and cross-checking gets it as accurate as possible. 

I have five entries in the show. Here they are.

High Rise, 2nd in Pieced-Small Category

Leaf Study: Crotons, 2nd in Art Category

Color Bars: Yellow, HM in Pieced-Small Category

Tribute to Tigger, HM in Zoo Challenge Category

Fish Out of Water

The show opens tomorrow and runs for three days.

Turning in Quilts for the Show

Quilt Show week is here and my car is loaded, ready for check in of quilts.

The judge, Lorraine Covington, will begin judging this afternoon. All advance preparation has been done, but there is much work left to keep 340 quilts in their place, judged, and hung with ribbons awarded.

Silent Auction Piece

The cat finished her bath, and I finished the binding on the silent auction piece. The colors are fairly true here:

Top by Florence Peyrifitte, quilted by Martha Ginn

Gail Bachorik taught a class for Pine Belt Quilters a couple of years ago, and Florence Peyrifitte used Gail's kit to make this top. Gail drew the pattern from an orchid she had photographed. Florence handed her top off to me as a possible boutique or silent auction contribution if I would quilt it. Since quilting is my favorite part of the process, I was glad to take it.

Below is the piece I made in that class using my own fabrics.

By Martha Ginn

Finishing Up Quilt Show Entries

The fun part was making these pieces; the boring part is sewing on labels and sleeves. But it has to be done to finish the job. I usually locate a slat the right size and mark it with the quilt's name so it is ready to hang. But these are going into our Pine Belt Quilters show in a couple of weeks, so no slats needed yet.

The piece I am donating to the silent auction is nearly ready, but I gave up finishing the binding until Rah-Rah was through with her bath.



I'll need to use lots of painter's tape to remove all the cat hair.

Brookhaven Class

The Brookhaven (Mississippi) Piecemakers hosted a workshop this week where I taught a class called Pathways, a.k.a. Flying Geese. We worked with my patterns that featured three "pathways," utilizing Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry's Applipiecing construction technique. This is a method whereby curved seams can be joined by turning one seam allowance over and stitching it onto the adjoining seam allowance with a tiny zigzag stitch. These quilters are excellent cooks and had an enticing spread out for lunch at the Bogue Chitto Baptist Church fellowship hall, a roomy place for our class.
The class was based on my "Ribbons" piece that was donated in an auction several years ago (pictured below).

My friend Linda Flanders (center, above) helped me by circulating among the 17 quilters to assist where needed. The patterns had blank pathways which the students could change into flying geese, large/small blocks (we called them piano keys),  or spiky points.

To get farther along in learning the Applipiecing method, I suggested that they could make pathways from solid fabric, which Kathy did.

It was a busy and exciting day with lots of beautiful projects started. They promised to share pictures later.

Retreat at Lake Tiak-O'Khata

I just spent three delightful days at a quilters' retreat at a beautiful lake near Louisville, Mississippi. About 20 of us brought whatever projects we wanted to work on, some food to share, and enjoyed stitching and visiting. Some of us only see these people at this annual event.

 

 

 

Of course, there was show-and-tell, and it was great to see the finished works that we had seen in progress at previous retreats.

It is so much fun to spend some relaxing time with other quilters. But my kitties missed me and are happy to have me back home.

In Praise of Water

Water--how precious it is! How thankful I am to have clean, abundant, convenient water. We admire its beauty, stand in awe of its power, and delight in the feel of it on our skin. A friend invited/challenged me to post three positives a day for five days. My first thought was, "how can I limit it to just 15?" The next thought was, "what is the order of importance?--they are all most important!"
This morning our pastor's sermon dealt with Noah, the flood, the rainbow and God's promises. We sang a (new-to-me) hymn, "In Water We Grow," words by Brian Wren, Hope Publishing Company, 1993. I liked many of the pictures the words conjured up.
"In water we grow. . . ."
"In water we wash the dirt of each day, its trouble and rush are carried away. . . ."
"In water we dwell, for by its deep flow through bloodstream and cell, we live, think, and grow. Praise God, love outflowing, whose well of new birth baptizes our knowing, and waters the earth."
So my first list of positives has to include Water. Several years ago I made quilts of the four elements--Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. Though a calm lake is what most often comes to mind when we think of water, a wild sea was more exciting to interpret in fabric.


The Elements:  Water

Later I depicted the Pacific Northwest coastline from a picture I had taken while visiting in Washington state. The quilts don't do justice to the sight and sound, but they can call up memories for us.



Pacific Coast

Giant Wave, gift to DalianVocational School, Dalian, China

Summer's Over--All But the Heat

 

 It's been great having fresh tomatoes from my yard and peppers from my friends. There is nothing quite so good as a bacon and tomato sandwich, and these little cherry tomatoes work just fine even though they're challenging to keep on the sandwich. Having my wrist in a splint for 10 days really stopped any sewing and quilting activities. I can type with one hand, but that other hand is essential for any needlework activities. I missed sewing!

So now it's time to finish up my entries for our Pine Belt Quilters 15th Biennial Fiber Art & Quilt Show. Our three-day show is October 3-4-5, which is barely a month away. Entry deadline has passed, so we're on the home stretch. I had to keep removing Rah-Rah from this quilt as I did the last of the machine quilting. Now it just needs the facing, sleeve, and label--good TV watching activity.

Labor Day Weekend was a nice surprise for daughter Linda and me. Son Mark called saying he was driving over from Dallas. We always have a list of odd jobs he helps us with when he comes. My list was empty, so he took care of her split fig tree and a security light. On his previous trip he solved a drainage problem for me by building a little bridge from my driveway to the back yard over a low spot containing a French drain.


 

Before



After

On this trip he took a selfie in front of the bridge.

SMAA Exhibit at Lucile Parker Gallery

I attended the opening reception of SMAA's show at the Lucile Parker Gallery on the William Carey University campus this evening. The exhibit, featuring watercolor, oil, and acrylic works, will be open through September 18. JoAnn Adams won best Watercolor; Cheryl Beasley won best Oil; Sheri Hoem won best Acrylic, and Kim Whitt won Best in Show. What talented friends I have! I must get out my watercolors and have something to enter next year.

Lunch at the Back Door Cafe

Yesterday I rode with friends to Columbia, MS, to see the Art Colony show and enjoy lunch at Fran Ginn's Back Door Cafe on Main Street. What a treat! My favorite artist, Dana Stratton, is one of the artists featured in the traveling exhibit. The Back Door has an excellent reputation for down-home Mississippi cooking. Fran Ginn is an artist and chef and I am honored to have people get us confused since we share a last name. Her restaurant doubles as an art gallery, with beautiful works always on display.
My guild, Pine Belt Quilters, is fast approaching its 15th Biennial Fiber Art & Quilt Show (October 3-4-5). I still have a little quilting to do to finish my entries, but have to do it in short bits until my hand is better. Computer work is somewhat easier than sewing machine work, and Rah-Rah is happy to keep me company. She has grown since her first appearance here appproving of our new website.  

9 months old

4 months old

 

Shipping Artwork With Fewer Creases

My SAQA region (LA/MS/AR/AL) had an exhibit called Southern Voices in Little Rock, AR, this spring, and we have another venue for the exhibit--the Gadsden Museum of Art in Gadsden, AL, September 1 thru October 4, 2014. I am packing my piece to send, using a casual-looking folding method which actually eliminates crease lines.

I fold any corner, then another corner, then a side and another corner--in other words, anywhere but middle fold lines. I also insert crumpled plastic bags into folds to give a little ease.

 

The folded quilt goes into a large white bag to protect from rain. I also include a copy of the show information and a return address label and postage. I managed this in spite of a wrist brace after carpal tunnel surgery. I read and saw a picture in theJuly 2014 American Quilter magazine where Ted Storm didn't let a broken wrist keep her from finishing her Best of Show quilt "ElaTED." So I decided I'd better stop being such a wimp.

Body Maintenance and Baby Lemons

Parts wear out and have to be replaced or maintained, and it is necessary though not always convenient to take time out to get work done. I'm going to have carpal tunnel surgery in a couple of days and will be in a splint for a week, so I'm trying to get all my two-handed activities done. Hmmm...nearly everything is a two-handed activity--computer work, sewing, quilting, organizing fabric shelves, driving, taking care of the kitties.
I am trying to finish the quilting on one of my show entries, and doing it with a cat on my lap or, worse yet, on the quilt, really slows the progress.

Tarbaby insists on being in my lap when I'm at the computer. His body is longer than my thighs, and he likes to hang his head off between my knees, knowing that I won't let him fall. Of course, this takes at least one hand off the keyboard.

My new Meyer lemon tree has 13 baby lemons on it! Last winter's freeze killed my other tree and this one has only been planted a couple of months--I'm thrilled.

As if this were not enough excitement, I finally lost my one remaining baby tooth today. Not surprising, since other original parts are wearing out!