Pathways Program for Pine Belt Quilters

I enjoyed giving a PowerPoint presentation program on Pathway designs at our Pine Belt Quilters May 13 meeting. This is what I call several "pathways" crossing a background. I have been in love with this type of design for many years from admiring Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry's remarkable quilts. Of course, hers are intricately challenging pieces, but I began trying some simple designs in 2008 when my niece in Colorado asked me to make a 35" x 55" piece for her wall. She had no specific design in mind--but I knew from her professional photography skills that she loved brilliant colors. I made "Marilyn's Pathways" and she was delighted that I had captured her admiration of the mountains and Canada Geese she saw on her morning walks.

Marilyn's Pathways,  2008, 35" x 55"

Later I purchased a pattern from Caryl called "Square Dance," which taught her Applipiecing® technique for joining curved pieces, and realized this technique was the answer to many of the challenges encountered in Marilyn's piece. Then in 2009 I attended a four-day "Beyond the Grid" workshop at Caryl's Paducah studio where we learned to draw and construct our own designs. I will be ever grateful for Caryl's inspiration and generous sharing. Her website contains a wealth of information and I encourage quilters to avail themselves of her patterns, articles, and instructions (www.bryerpatch.com). Learning from her was a dream come true I will always remember.

The piece I started in her workshop and later continued and completed at home, Galaxy, is one of my favorites. The background is Caryl's gradated fabric, with the blue pieced pathway of hand-dyes by Mary Nell Magee and the two solid pathways my own (one-time foray!) hand-dyes.

Galaxy, 2011, 37" x 24"

Since then I have made several other quilts I could not have made without her marvelous Applipiecing® technique. Sharon Shamber and perhaps others use a similar method but I have only read about these.

Ribbons of Change, 2010, 25" x 29"

Ribbons of Change was made in 2010 and donated to the AIDS Services Coalition auction, and you can see Caryl's influence on my color choices of the mountain/valley pathway. She often gradates the mountain peaks and the valley peaks in the opposite direction (one from light to dark and the other from dark to light).

My guild has recently purchased a camera and projector, which makes it much more possible for members to see and enjoy a program featuring items that we no longer own.

I'm looking forward to teaching a Pathways workshop in two weeks and helping quilters make their own design, thanks to Caryl's Applipiecing®!I have drawn four designs that quilters may choose from. These can be oriented different directions, and everyone will decide on her own pathways and fabrics, so no two quilts will be alike.

Meanwhile, my foster kittens from Southern Pines Animal Shelter are seven weeks old and running to greet me when I go into the garage. They love to be picked up and purr loudly; they are getting near their required two-pound required weight for their surgery and adoption. My house cats are still terrified of them and will be glad for them to find forever homes!

May in Mississippi

This amaryllis is about seven or eight years old and produces some of the largest blooms I have ever seen. It was a gift which I later planted outdoors in a flowerbed on the east side of the house (so I could see it from the kitchen window). This year it has two stalks with nine blossoms. The second stalk can be seen low on the right.

The maidenhair fern survived the winter in the garage; after trimming all the old fronds, it has put on fresh fluffy greenery.

 My rosemary bush was unfazed by the cold winter temperatures.

My foster kittens are growing; their mama, Caboodle, has weaned them and gone back to Southern Pines Animal Shelter to get spayed and adopted. She is such a beautiful and sweet little cat that I'm sure she'll find a home quickly.

The kittens are almost to their two-pound weight required for their surgery and adoptions; meanwhile, they are having a good time in my garage and a delight to watch. Below is George Clooney, named for his handsome face! The other gray one is Christopher, who is just as handsome. 

The one with the white face climbing up my leg I first called Crybaby for his constant meowing. Now I interpret his voice as singing and have renamed him Josh Groban. I didn't want him labeled with an unpleasant name.  My three inside cats are terrified of the little furballs and will be glad when they are gone, but I will miss them. I've been letting the babies explore inside the house, hoping my cats will learn there is no danger from them. No progress on that score.

Our "Shapely" Challenge

Our Pine Belt Quilters guild enjoyed the Round Robin Challenge that Dianne McLendon organized for us last year, with very interesting quilts resulting. I called it a "selfish" round robin because we kept our own piece from start to finish. You can see the finished pieces here along with the assigned fabrics and rules.

She has organized another challenge for 2015-16, called a "Shapely" Challenge. We paid $10 and received a packet of five fat quarters, which have to show up somewhere in the finished quilt. No two packets were alike. We can add any other fabrics we choose. Every other month we will be assigned a shape and will make four different 12" blocks using only this shape. The first shape is a SQUARE--think of a nine-patch made up of nine 4" squares. Some other possibilities are sixteen 3" squares, four 6" squares, thirty-six 2" squares, or a whole block of 1" squares! We will be assigned a shape (sometimes more than one shape) in March, May, July, September, and November, and then have four months to complete our project, to be revealed in March 2016. This activity offers a different set of challenges in that we can plan our color palette from the beginning and also know we will always be making 12" blocks. Every time we approach a quilt from a different standpoint, it can be a learning and growing opportunity.

Here is my starting packet--at a glance I see that I have mediums and lights so will have to be sure to add some darks and background solids. I love these fabrics--rose, coral, lime green, butterscotch!

My starting packet of fabrics

Old Quilt Repair and Growing Kittens

I finally finished repairing the old quilt I agreed to do back in November. My goal was not to make it look new--just secure or replace the loose patches and stitch and/or quilt to get the quilt back to a usable state. It is a dear and precious piece made by the owner's grandmother and it had cotton tumbling out and ragged places from years of loving and use. It was more difficult than I anticipated because the cotton was hard and packed from washing and knotting. Luckily, the original quilting design was straight lines or L-shapes about 2" apart, so there was a minimum of quilting needed.
Here are some "before" pictures (click to enlarge):

After the repair, I didn't want the owner to be able to tell my work from her grandmother's. A few patches were added to hide noticeable dark stains. She did not want the fraying edge replaced, so it got a few stitches just to prevent further damage. Here is the quilt after repair and washing:

 My foster kittens from Southern Pines Animal Shelter are three weeks old now and beginning to walk about. Mama has moved them again, to a shelf away from the side of the garage. I think a thunderstorm caused her to want to move away from the windows, so I put a fleece blanket under them and she seems content. She gets nervous when they don't stay with her, but in a few days they will be all over the garage. I've already begun leaving my car outside!

Springtime and Baby Kittens

What a beautiful springtime we are experiencing in South Mississippi. My azaleas have exploded with color, and I have put out a few bedding plants. The grass is beginning to show green, even under a fine dusting of yellow pine pollen. 

A hungry bumblebee

New geraniums to replace frozen ones

My most unexpected news is that I am fostering a small mama cat and her four babies! Southern Pines Animal Shelter called saying they needed a quieter place for several litters of kittens until they were old enough to be adopted and could I help for about eight weeks? I decided my garage could accommodate the large crate and I would enjoy watching the babies grow.

Caboodle and her four kittens--3 days old

Caboodle is beautiful and a very protective mama. In fact, my cats are terrified of her. She enjoys being held and brushed and purrs loudly. She hates the cage and keeps trying to move the babies to a darker place--like maybe this bucket. . . .

She finally agreed on the floor between a cabinet and the wall and seems very content here.



 

Displays

I always enjoy showing my fiber art. The person who arranges the display window in the hallway of my church asked to use some of my work, so we put put seven pieces there for December through March. (It is hard to get a good picture with the lights and glass.) Click any picture to enlarge.

We changed the display for April to feature an Amaryllis quilt with a children's book about the resurrection.

Last November I participated in helping a student create a quilt square for the Stone County Community Quilt Project (see details here). J. Marcus Weekley assembled the squares into a quilt, and the quilt was displayed in the Stone County Art Center along with several other pieces of fiber art. My Cabin in the Woods (a collaboration with Mary Nell Magee) is on the right of the Stone County Quilt below.

The three pieces on the far left are mine, as well as the two on the far right.

Round Robin Challenge

My guild, Pine Belt Quilters, had a year-long challenge led by Dianne McLendon ending at the February 18, 2015, meeting with the reveal of the finished quilts. Every two months we were given one or two 6" strips (width of fabric) with a size instruction. I called it a "Selfish Round Robin," because we each did all the work on our own piece rather than passing it around. I did not have mine finished by the reveal deadline, but I blame carpal tunnel and knee replacement surgeries. The instructions for the rounds were:
Round 1: 18" x 24"
Round 2: 4"
Round 3: 3"
Round 4: 3"
Round 5: 6"
Round 6: 8"   making the finished quilts approximately 64" x 70".
Dianne's and the 12 finished quilts are shown under Guild Activities/Round Robin Challenge tab on the guild's website. The fabrics and instructions are listed after the quilt pictures. Susie Jackson, Ellen Cox, and Debbie Davis won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd viewers' choice awards. All 13 quilts were amazingly creative and different. The participants agreed that designing these pieces really caused them to stretch and grow.
Here is my quilt pictured after quilting; next is with the black binding.

before binding

With black binding

Decisions for Round 6

Decisions for Round 6

I had lots of help at every stage. If Tarbaby wasn't in my lap, he was on the quilt.

Little Free Libraries Coming to Hattiesburg

I had a wonderful afternoon attending two events, the first one an exhibit of Little Free Libraries at the Hattiesburg Cultural Center. These have been designed, constructed and painted by residents and will be placed in various locations about the city. The variety of types was amazing. Here are only four of the dozens on display. The little houses were displayed on pedestals with information about the builder, painter, and where the house would be placed.

The second event was an exhibit, video, and talk by Rosemary Wells, a children's author and illustrator whose work has spanned more than 40 years and 120 books. In 2002 she received the USM Medallion, an award for distinguished service in the field of children's literature, awarded for her total body of work, rather than for one particular work. 

January Winter in Mississippi

It's the end of January, and winter in Mississippi is quite different from in other parts of the US. I have really enjoyed the beautiful snow pictures posted on Facebook by friends in places like Massachusetts (Holly Knott, for instance), where the temperature dropped to -10 degrees.
My yard shows dead orange trees (we did have some days of 16-18 degrees which killed these and the Meyer lemon tree), lots of dry leaves and pine straw carpeting the ground.

Washington Naval Orange tree

Blood Orange tree

Crotons survived (in the garage) but pitiful

Rosemary thriving--even blooming! Also parsley below it.

Nandina putting on a show of colored leaves and red berries

There has not been much quilting activity this month. It's amazing how much emotional and mental energy is required just to deal with healing and physical therapy three times a week. After seven weeks I am glad to be driving myself again and looking forward to the time I can say there's no more pain.
When I did begin to want to stitch again, I began repairing an old, well-loved quilt for a friend. It was not creative or challenging, but there was pleasure in holding a needle and thread and knowing I was giving new life to a treasured quilt a grandmother had made many years ago.

 (Click to enlarge and see the wear and age damage.)

Of course, when I was taking pictures, Tarbaby and Elizabeth thought I had spread the quilt out for them.