Here's how I often begin....

I always see pictures of other people's sketchbooks and art journals where they tidily record their thoughts and ideas... It's not that I don't have such journals and sketchbooks but they're never around when I am having an epiphany...but pads of good old sticky post-it notes are everywhere in my house.

So that's what I use and so I wouldn't lose them by putting them away, I'd stick them on bulletin boards, walls, door jams etc... and even then I'd lose some.. Now instead of sticking them on walls I scan them into my computer and make notes while my thoughts are fresh and put them in a file on the computer.

After I posted about doing a piece for the Alzheimer's Quilt Project I started thinking about it after I went to bed and finally had to turn the light on and grab the pencil and post-it I keep on the bedside table.... Not that all my night time ideas are brilliant but if I don't write some things down during the night I forget them by morning...and I'm doing a piece about memory loss?? Right!! LOL

I cannot begin to tell you how much I adored my little MIL.. She was totally sweet to the core...truly a gentle soul. She used to come visit us every summer and loved to sit and tat by the window watching all our birds... She'd ask me names of all of them but as the years went by and her mind faded, she stopped asking and ALL the birds became just "canaries". At one point she had to stop coming because the flight was confusing, stressful and scary.. Thinking of her always brings warm and loving thoughts...

So in doing a charity piece for AAQI, it had to be about Mary and the birds... After she passed away I did this watercolor with her recipe for sour cream rolls and a couple anecdotes about her for my husband.. It is framed and hanging in our kitchen... I later made copies for siblings, grandchildren and great grandchildren...

Near the end of her life DH went back to ND to see her and they had a really nice long visit... As he rose to leave she said "You're such a nice young man... Is your mother still living?"

AAQI is a worthy cause... check out all the options they have to offer to raise money for alzheimer's research. Doing a hummingbird on felt is a good "on the plane project" and I can fit the flowers right in with Allie's workshop in CT...

And off it goes!!!

Well for better or worse it's off in the mail to the Alliance for American Quilts Fundraiser... It is hard to photograph all the black on black texture on it.

This is the first of three charity pieces I intend to do this year... I also want to do a wall hanging for the CQI cancer project and one for the Alzheimer's charity quilt project that Kerry has posted about... I'll have to check the deadlines before I decide which to do first.. I have both of them pretty firmed up in my mind...




This is the back of the piece with lace on the rod pocket for hanging. I included my artist's statement (75 words or less) on the back.. Allie was a big help and answered a lot of questions... It's going off in a pizza box. It will be in a lot of quilt shows around the country as part of a traveling exhibit and then they are auctioned on e-bay in the fall with the proceeds going to AAQ.





ps.... I have not been overrun with suggestions or names for the little clip I'm searching for...

And I need a name again....

This thingy came at the end of a retractable badge holder. The little metal bar in the center slides either way so you can release either end... It is 1 3/4" long...not very big... It is perfect for attaching small scissors to things and easily removing them... With no avail I have been searching google images using keywords....

lanyard clip

lanyard attachment

retractable badge attachment

clip with slider I want a LOT of them...

Does anyone know a proper name for it and if not suggestions for keywords to use in searching..

Also anyone trying to reach me through my gmail address is out of luck because I cannot access my gmail no matter how I try... it used to at least give me the html option to enter but that is gone now too... Please use olderrose@yahoo.com. This happened once before and lasted for several months and then one day I clicked it and it was back....

Helina's "Seams Only" Block & a recap of blocks

This is my last block in this RR. Doing just seams is a challenge because you have to make them strong enough to add interest to the block since there's nothing else. I posted a couple days ago about Helina's block which has only three long seams and my decision to use wide seams which expanded into the block. Well it was one of my projects I worked on while Cathy was here and now it is ready to pop into the mail. This has been an interesting RR for me..

Helina asked us to limit ourselves to colors in the block and to do very wide seams when possible. Upper left I used a wide lace and embellished it with the block's colors.

The middle seam I chose to treat as two different treatments. I used the gold scallop treatment to tread lightly as I didn't want to overpower the lovely green fabric. On the inside curve I used the stronger colors of the fabric.

But the bottom seam against the white patch was the "ta da!" of the block.. I adapted this seam from on in Miss Carole's treasury and used the templates with the triangles. With all the beads and visual activity it becomes the focus of the block.. and I'm done.

Now here's a recap of the blocks I did in this RR. The first was Cathy L.'s and it was a delight because she had a definite theme to her block - apples and I added pictorial seams which carried out her theme.... including apple cores and my favorite .... worms..

The second was Ritva's and she had eleven patches in a 6" block..ELEVEN!! So you can easily see more patches, more seams and more interest .. Some of these seams were only 2" long and I loaded every seam. I love this block... I know I already blogged about this but in the lower left there was an orange patch which I was not fond of so I literally buried it in daisies...

But the absolute opposite happened with Jeanne's block. It had an orange patch and I celebrated it. This 6" block also had a lot of patches - nine... so lots of seam opportunity.

Meg's patches were so homogeneous that I didn't want to introduce any other color. And if you follow my work you will notice I am almost religious about limiting my colors choices on other people's block... You just can't go wrong...

So what did I learn...? I learned how important the seams are to the composition of a block. Since I was limited to just seams I really experimented and learned that I just LOVE seams..

Will I do another "seams only" RR? Probably not because I still love doing motifs

more...

My advice to you? If you do a "seams only" make a lot of patches.....

I confess................

The tie was found and Morris had been falsely accused. I had actually cleverly hidden it from myself... But I found it the day before Cathy came so I was able to piece my second block for the Sharon Boggon workshop with my lovely tie as the inspiration colors.. As a beginning for my embellishment bag I have Theresa Rapstine's ribbon flower, Janet's trim, a great chenille rickrack I found in the barn, some yummy new ribbons purchased on Estsy... and a few other goodies....



I realize that with time I will get faster with Allie's "chunk, dump and clump" method but it took me the better part of an afternoon.

So for my second block I reverted to my usual paper piecing... also covered in Allie's book.


But since piecing is my least favorite part of the whole process and paper piecing is fast and easy (and mindless), I have used it exclusively since I started CQ.. Not only THAT I have to confess using the exact same pattern for every single block for all these years. I don't think anyone has ever noticed or if they have they have been too polite to mention it...



And besides that, I "stack and whack" and do several blocks at a time so I always have a basket of extra blocks ahead... Not too creative I admit but I make up for it in the embellishment.... Right?

So now I'm ready for Sharon's workshop... Next on my list is the label for the AAQ piece and getting it in the mail Monday along with the last block in the "seams only" RR.