Quilting Inspiration While Traveling

There is no sewing progress from me to display. I have been working on a gift quilt and cannot reveal it until it's been given, but a post about it is in draft form to be published soon. Additionally, last week, September 15-22, I have been out of my sewing room on an annual vacation trip with two couples from our college days. The trip however, did not keep me from finding fabric and yarn delectables, visiting a quilt store, and admiring quilts. I managed to find quilt associated attractions Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in our destination of Minneapolis, and also in my home town of Livermore the Sunday after our return. That is six days out of nine! All I had to do was be attuned and keep my eyes open. Let me share what I spotted and enjoyed.

On Tuesday 9/18 we visited the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis where there was a visiting exhibit titled A Colourful Universe featuring artist/designer Gudrum Sjodén.

Her designs are inspiring and full of the pattern, hues, and pops of color I love. Here is my husband Frank peeking between two paint brushes of one of the displays.

Doesn't this basket of painted balls just make you want to smile, reach out, and touch each and every one of them?

Her fashions are dyed with natural vegetable colors. The following photo is of a garland of color samples made in 1960. Some of the plants used to make the dyes are birch leaves, alder buckthorn, indigo, and turmeric.

Gudrun's designs also include housewares. This display was set out in the adjacent Turnblad  Mansion associated with the American Swedish Institute.

After a tour of the American Swedish Institute and the Turnblad Mansion my five gracious non-quilting companions were patient with me while we zipped a few miles away and I dashed into a quilt shop in Minneapolis called Glad Creations. I added to my collection of quilt store license plates with this colorful coral plate.

The shop owners were cheerful and great fun and willingly posed for a photo upon my request.

At first I selected only items unique to Minnesota or to the shop. First was this pattern book titled Minnesota Memories. My husband was bemused that the book author even had the sense of humor to add a mosquito as one of the pieced blocks.

Then there was this pattern designed by the shop owners. I like that, as its title Just a Bit Modern says, it is modern but not too much so - just as much to my liking. I am not a fan of a great deal of "negative space". It is too scary to try to quilt all that open area. Plus, piecing is my favorite part of quilting.

But then, not content to limit myself to strictly local wares, I bought a bit of fabric. This roll of 8 fat quarters caught my eye.

It had four ivory background and four black background fabrics of four fine-feathered-friend-themed designs: birds, eggs, birdhouses, and feathers painted in a watercolor type fashion.

I also selected two patterns. One was of a Christmas tree, For Evergreen, simple but cute, with teeny tiny bells on the tips of the boughs and a clever name.

I caved and bought Elizabeth Hartman's North Stars block collection. The samples made up in the store were so precious that passing up this pattern was impossible. 

On the next day's outing Wednesday 9/19, at the gift shop for the Mill City Museum,  I snagged these adorable button pushpins to use in my sewing room.

On Thursday 9/20 we visited the Mall of America. Besides the amusement park within and an assortment of generic mall stores I found this crochet shop replete with luscious yarn.

Ooh... more colors!

On our Friday 9/20 outing, I found this quilt displayed in the Minnesota History Center's exhibit of weather. It commemorates a man who represents the Pony Express of Minnesota. Per the display description...

This quilt honors John Beargrease, a member of the Grand Portage Chippewa band, who used a dog train to deliver mail between Two Harbors and Grand Marais from 1887 to 1900. The words "The Late Great John Beargrease Marvel Mail Musher" are appliquéd on the sides of the quilt. Amy Cordova, who designed and created the piece is of Hispanic and Native American ancestry.

Although our visit with friends was ending, I could still look for quilting inspiration at the Minnesota airport on Saturday 9/22. Across from our gate there was a exhibit by the Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists. Encased behind glass, it was lovely to look at but not at all optimal for taking photos. I did take a few pictures of those works that were intriguing.

This 2016 statue by Karen Brown was appropriately titled Attitude and the folded arm stance shows it off well. Also notice the kitty faces on the knees, the spiked hoop earrings, and the glitter on the finger nails.

This abstract sculpture reminded me of a 3-D version of quilts I have seen at shows. A 2018 creation of Susan Feigenbaum, it was named Passage to Adventure.

Along the ceiling line of the terminal was this stained glass mural. It too screams hand-dyed ombré fabric quilt to me. The white lines are not part of the design but the reflections of the ceiling lights do add a bit of movement and interest.

My husband and I returned late Saturday 9/22 night – 11:30 pm California time (1:30 am by Minnesota time) – and I needed to rise and shine to volunteer at my 8:30-11:00 am Sunday 9/23 morning shift at Livermore's Alden Lane Nursery's annual Quilting in the Garden show. My assignment was to help little kiddos pick out backing fabric for a hands-on appliqué block project our guild hosts for newbies call Budding Beginners. It is enjoyable watching the young crafters seriously ponder and decide on their choice for block background and then beam with delight at the results after the cut out pieces have been ironed on. After my shift, I did a quick tour of the show with my husband. Perhaps I should say "short" rather than "quick" because by now I was draggin' just a bit.

The ambience is one I enjoy every year and could not pass it up entirely in spite of my travel fatigue. I snapped just a few photos of quilts that had a particular appeal to me.

Number 70 by the Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild was curiously named Orchard Through Time.

I did like how it transitioned from neat and tidy in the upper left to more random pixellation in the lower right. The warm palette was welcoming but I found the name to be puzzling.

This next quilt Number 293, was Eleanor Burns of Quilt in a Day fame, the featured artist of the Alden Lane show. As I studied the quilt I noted that there were two log cabin blocks for every other type of block pattern. The orientation of the light halves of the log cabins gave this diagonal appearance. The scalloped edge was a great finishing touch. It was titled Forty Fabulous Years Queen 1930's.

I made only one purchase at the show and it was from Eleanor Burns' booth. I bought a package of 42 2½" strips in textured prints that read like solids. It was 50% off and a staple I can always use.

This quilt of Kaffe Fasset fabrics, Number 8, was by local guest artist Gail Sims. If you check out her website you will note this is not her normal style, so much so that I questioned if my program was perhaps in error. It is titled Summer Delight. I took note of this quilt because I was drawn in by the checked sashing and the on point configuration. Its design inspires me for a methodology I might try in the future to showcase my large print fabrics. I have a penchant for cheery checks.

Before we left the show my husband snapped a final picture of me showing off that watermelon sized pincushion perched atop a bright yellow measuring stick post. Now I need to chill and connect with other folks at Let's Bee Social #243 as I recover from my travels.

One Fine September Day

A crafty friend and I started out our day Friday, September 7th by going to an Open House held by Sandy Klop, Moda designer of American Jane Patterns and fabrics. She holds these in her home quarterly and I love to see her collection of quilts and her new fabric lines hot off the press. I told myself I was going mainly to visit, that I'd cut back on impulse purchases and avoid buying novelty fabrics. After all, realistically, every novelty fabric usually becomes the focus fabric for yet another quilt.  I would grade myself a "B-" on sticking to my resolutions. I did visit and I did refrain from any novelty fabric purchases. I bought only versatile multi-use fabrics to enrich weak areas of my stash, mainly pales. The mini-dots, pin-stripes, and bold-checks in the following photo total six yards, one half yard each. I rationalized that I had restricted my buying to my version of neutrals, i.e. light colored fabric that I tend to use instead of white as backgrounds when making blocks. I added one yard of the diagonally striped fabric because it will make a darling candy-cane style binding that I will not need to cut on the bias. Those blue jelly roll strips ... do I need to justify everything? (On second thought maybe my grade should be "C+".)

We then visited Wooden Gate Quilts in Danville. It was on the way home and my friend had a gift certificate that was burning a hole in her pocket. I had no such certificate so I was "safe". Hah!

Upon entering the shop I encountered a clearance bin of one-yard rolls of fabric for $8. I really enjoy using stripes for binding and that luscious green one the left, with flecks of gold, would certainly add interest to the quilt edges and would also make lovely sashings. I preach that each novelty print is another quilt and smugly had not bought any. But it just occurred to me that if keep buying stripes for "binding", and each quilt only has one binding, isn't that a perpetuation of quilt generation in another sense? Rationalization Alert: Maybe not; I rarely make a quilt just so I can bind it and that stripe can be used elsewhere also.

Then my resolve fell apart. These cute critters called to me. I have two billion and one panels in my panel drawer(s) and had sworn not to buy any more. But how could I resist these? They will make adorable pillows. There are eight squares to a panel, ⅝ yard.

Then I noticed that four of the eight of the images are a reversed so they could even be shaped pillows. How cute is that! I think I will keep them square though because I like the blue snowflakes.

I should have steered clear of the Christmas section but this three figure nutcracker panel was so whimsical. I was going to buy just one panel but then realized if I bought two panels I could make three double sided themed pillows or six single sided pillows and give away some. After the clerk had cut the second panel for me there was one ⅝ yard panel remaining on the bolt. I got the third panel at end-of-bolt prices. I now have nine figures that I could make into a quilt/wallhanging. Hmm. Maybe that lush green with gold flourishes would make a great sashing. See how each novelty becomes another quilt?

I will admit that I have a bit of buyer's remorse for the next two panels. I melted, much like one of those ice flows, when I saw the colors and whimsy of these polar characters.  Maybe if I make it up soon into a small quilt, it will never have to be crammed into my overstuffed panel drawer. I can visualize this with black and white pinstripes so maybe I can finagle something. (See how useful stripes are?) But sigh – my assertion is validated once again – one novelty fabric equals one quilt. Because of its orientation and being ⅝ yard, it does not lend itself easily to a pillowcase without some strategic fabric additions. A standard pillowcase typically needs to be cut 27" x 41".

For the next panel, each of the twenty-four of advent stockings could be backed and have a loop added. I already own a set of buttons I could deploy. This project needs some designing. Maybe I should have refrained from getting this one. 

I think that my self assigned "C+" grade may need to be lowered to a "C". But wait a minute, if a teacher can awards point for effort, I should be allowed to award points for fun, joy, and pleasure. Shopping, especially with a friend for companionship and sharing, was an "A" banner experience.

When I arrived home after a pleasurable and perhaps a bit too fruitful shopping experience, some online purchases I had previously made were waiting for me, having arrived in the mail. There were these two velvety soft rabbit pillow kits to whip up. I bought them from Renaissance Ribbons, a vendor whose wares come from France that I discovered at my Road to California trip last January 2018. My special needs adult son, Alex, is very fond of rabbits of all sorts. He has a live bunny of this own. A long stay in the rabbit building at the annual county fair is mandatory for him. 

There was a kit version where the rabbit is carrying a pocket watch and wearing a red coat and one where the rabbit is wearing a black coat. The red coat is more striking in my opinion. 

The black one reminded me more of the White Rabbit who is on rollerblades from the 90's TV Series Adventures in Wonderland (Wikipedia link) of which my son is very fond, so I bought both colors to have a pair.

So avid a fan of the show was he, that the introduction to the Adventures in Wonderland TV Series still rings in my ears. Here is the White Rabbit skating around the Red Queen. The image is low resolution because it is a frame capture from an episode of the show on YouTube titled The Missing Ring Mystery. I hope these rabbit "pillows" bring back the same recognition and fond memories for my son.

I also bought a trio of kitties of the same type of velour kit. The colors and little bow ties won me over. I just may keep these for myself once I make them up. The turquoise one goes with my decor. That is, of course, unless a grandchild winds up toting one or more of them around my house when he/she visits. Then of course I will send one or more of them off to a new home with that grandchild.

This is not my first experience with these velvety soft kits. They were so successful I will buy more of them when I find them to be available. I made a pair of them once before from this vendor and they came out precious. Two distinguished looking cats named Gaston and Paulette have a daytime persona on one side and a night time persona on the other. You can see more details and read about their construction in my post for April 28, 2018. 

I'd given Gaston and Paulette to my granddaughters for when their new baby brother arrived to help them report to their mom when he is sleeping and when he is awake. (As if she wouldn't know... ) William came last April; he is most definitely awake in this meet and greet photo taken at the hospital with big sisters Vivian and Lillian.

I am crushing on shopping trips with friends, fabric purchases, soft velour cuddly projects, and grandkids so I am linking up with Main Crush Monday #129.