Monday Updates: Spirit Song Quilt, Frankenwhiggish Applique, a New Fabric Shop, and a Puppy Portrait

Hello and happy Monday!  The "little one" (my 6' tall 16-year-old son) is back to high school today, but I still have my 19-year-old son home for a few more days before he heads back to college.  Now that it's Epiphany and Christmas has officially ended, Bernie is taking down our Christmas trees today.  I've been sewing 4" Birds in the Air blocks together over the weekend for my Spirit Song quilt (whose color palette was inspired by the contemporary choir dress code colors for which I never have anything to wear).

First 16 inch Block Sewn Together for Spirit Song Quilt

I'll need twelve of those 16" blocks in a 3 x 4 layout for this throw-sized quilt.  This is a total procrastination project, by the way.  I have no intended use or recipient in mind for this quilt. But, since it's Design Wall Monday, here are all of the blocks (before I started sewing them together) laid out on my design wall:

192 Four Inch Blocks on the Wall, Final Layout

Colors are weird in that photo because I took it late at night and then tried to correct shadows and yellow cast from incandescent lighting, etc.  But that's the photo that I printed out to use as a placement guide as I'm assembling the blocks into a quilt top.  

I'll be working on my never-ending Frankenwhiggish Rose needle turned applique project this afternoon with my SouthSide Stitchers Bee amigas.  I feel like I've been making little green leaves FOREVER...

Hand Stitching for Today's Sewcializing Bee

Colors in that photo are weird, too.  Here's the first completed block:

Block One of Nine for Frankenwhiggish Rose Quilt

Colors are more accurate in this photo.  I completed the first block in its entirety to see how I liked it, and then started making eight more identical blocks assembly-line style: all of the stems, all of the large petals, all of the circle centers, and now I've been bogged down with putting sixteen leaves on each block for aeons...  I am so looking forward to finishing the leaves and moving on to the reverse appliquéd tulips, stuffed berries, and broderie perse rosebuds at the center of each block!

One of my quilting friends and I checked out a new local shop yesterday afternoon, and I came home with some goodies:

Shopping Treasures from a New Local Shop, Stash Charlotte

The store is called Stash (located in the Plaza Midwood area, for those of you who are fellow Charlotteans), and they used to sell only yarn and knitting supplies until they were bought by new owners who decided to add fabrics and Janome sewing machines.  I found out about them at the Charlotte Quilters' Guild, because Stash is one of our sponsors for our upcoming March quilt show (they've donated a Janome sewing machine as a raffle prize) and I've been meaning to check them out ever since.  It turns out that they are the ONLY non-chain quilt shop near Charlotte that is open on a Sunday afternoon, a crucial piece of information that I will be storing away for sure...

Stash is a very small shop and they have a lot more yarn than fabric...  BUT...  the fabric that they do carry is an interesting mix with an aesthetic that I like, and the manufacturer names on the bolts were kind of off-the-beaten-track, not the same lines that are carried by other quilt shops in our area.  I noticed a few Japanese fabric companies that I've only seen in online shops before, and OH MY GOODNESS, y'all -- they carry LIBERTY OF LONDON!!!  I have eyed those fabrics online, but with a skeptical eye due to the higher price point.  Now, having seen the fabrics in person, I'm officially a groupie.  

Liberty's Strawberry Thief Print on Tana Lawn

The crisp clarity of Liberty's highly detailed prints reminds me of the magnificent (and stratospherically expensive) screen prints from Scalamandre.  And the cotton lawn fabric that Liberty prints on has the softest hand and drapes like silk charmeuse.  I know that Liberty is a favorite with quilters and crafters, but I'm thinking of using it for a light-as-a-feather blouse, skirt, or dress -- maybe in Spirit Song colors so I'll finally have something to wear to church!  :-). Wouldn't this fabric be luscious for a blouse like this one from the Danish pattern designer Personal Pattern?  

Blouse 4253 from Personal Pattern, available here

You might have noticed some yarn in that photo of my shopping treasures, too, even though I have never even considered learning to knit.  I picked two of the thinnest, most interesting variegated wool yarns because I couldn't stop petting and squeezing them like I was that crazy lady in the "Don't Squeeze the Charmin" commercial!  I'm planning to experiment with them in my bobbin with decorative machine stitches, and if that doesn't work, I'll play with them in my serger loopers, and if THAT doesn't work, well, I might have to sign up for a knitting class at Stash!

I have one final picture to share with you before I wrap up this post.  I have to show you what one of our pastors surprised me with after church yesterday.  He had seen my Facebook post about losing our dog Otto to cancer just before Christmas, and he painted this for us from one of my photos:

Painted by Drew Goodson, Associate Pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Charlotte, NC

I was so overwhelmed.  I had no idea that Pastor Drew was gifted with artistic talent in addition to his gifts for ministry.  I so appreciate the outpouring of love and compassion from my blog readers as well.  Thank you all so very much.

Well, once again I've lost track of time while writing a "quick blog post" and I'm on the verge of being late for my sewing bee!  

Linking up today's post with:

·       Slow Sunday Stitching at http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/  

·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com

·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

·       Moving it Forward at Em's Scrap Bag

·       BOMs Away Katie Mae Quilts  

2014 New Year's Greetings: Odds and Ends

Hello, everyone, and Happy New Year 2014!  I just finished reading The Hobbit with Lars, and have a few moments to spare before the dryer finishes up and the clothes need folding, so I thought I'd share a few photos briefly.

iPods and Kindles as Pattern Weights

I've been plodding along on the center applique medallion for my Jingle BOM quilt, and discovered that my family's assorted iPhones and iPods make fantastic pattern weights in a pinch, holding my fabric in place over the paper pattern while I position and glue baste my applique shapes.  I'd be able to see the pattern through the background fabric better if I went upstairs to the studio and used my light box, but I'm only gluing a few leaves at a time and it's more convenient to just squint and fudge it on the kitchen counter.

 

Sewing all those stems down was tedious work, but now that I have the center poinsettia stitched in place and my branches are sprouting leaves, it's fun to see the whole thing coming together.  I'm really enjoying the mix of emerald green fabrics with those crimson reds.  However, now that I'm nearing the end of the project and looking at all of my blocks up on the design wall, I'm not sure that I want to finish the quilt exactly according to Erin's directions:



Erin Russek's Jingle BOM Layout, patterns found here

I have auditioned so many green fabrics with my blocks, and I just don't like any of them well enough to use that MUCH of it in my quilt.  I also feel like too much time and effort went into the individual blocks to just add plain setting triangles and borders and call it a day. 

 

I really love how another quilter, Pam of Hip to Be a Square Podcast, a.k.a. Pantsfreesia in the Jingle Belles Flickr group, substituted pieced setting triangles for the large green setting triangles around the center applique medallion.  (Much thanks to Janet L for helping me find her blog so I could credit her and link back to her blog.)  I think Pam's Jingle quilt is just gorgeous and I HAD to share it with you:

 

Completed Jingle Quilt made by Pam of Hip to Be a Square Podcast; read her post here

 Isn't that gorgeous?  You can see more photos of Pam's quilt, including detail shots of the machine quilting, in her blog post here.  This quilt got me thinking about ways I could personalize my own Jingle quilt, maybe adding pieced setting triangles around the center medallion similar to what Pam did, or perhaps adding some pieced borders to the quilt if I can figure out the math so everything still fits together at the end.  I also have a couple of pieced blocks that I really don't love, and I'm considering replacing them with different star blocks instead.  Adding borders might end up enlarging the quilt and requiring two more blocks, anyway, so we'll see.  There's a lot of stitching still to be done on that center medallion.

Kings of Nintendo Playing 3DS Games

Meanwhile, Lars and Anders have been enjoying their Christmas break from school immensely.  Lars got his Science Fair data analysis and conclusion completed, as well as an independent novel project for Language Arts class, and Anders has been working with his dad to get his Dragon Naturally Speaking software to play nice with his little laptop for school.  There has been much practicing of violin, piano, and trombone, and much more playing of video games, as seen in the blurry photo at left.  Here's a better shot of them at Best Buy, scrutinizing the secrets of the LEGO Marvel PS3 Cheat Book as they wait in line to exchange duplicate video games:

Anders and Lars at Best Buy

To my great appreciation and delight, Bernie finished and installed the doors for the built-ins in the living room a few days before Christmas, hiding much of the clutter that has been on my nerves for YEARS:

Living Room Built-Ins Today

Doesn't that look great, just like it has always been that way?  He built the doors from scratch, perfectly matching the paneled cabinetry in the kitchen and throughout the house.  The bookshelves on the sides were original to the home, but the whole center section was missing except for two weird boxes at the top.  Here's what this wall looked like before we bought the house, with the old carpeting and the previous owners' furnishings:

Same Living Room, Before We Bought the House

Bizarre, right?  So I had Bernie subdivide those two oddly proportioned boxes by adding shelves immediately, and he built the base cabinetry at the same time so the built-ins would frame his gigantic television.  There were always supposed to be doors on the bottom, but there are so many things to do when you move into a new home and you get sidetracked with other projects.  After awhile, you get used to the way an almost-finished project looks, and you don't notice it anymore.  So, here's what the wall of built-ins looked like for the last SEVEN years, waiting for those doors:




Unfinished Built-Ins with Lars, Bernie, and Puppies

Scroll back up to see the way it looks with the doors installed again.  HUGE improvement, don't you agree?  It's one of those things that makes you think, "Why didn't we do this a LONG time ago?"  Thanks, Lover!  :-)

Another fantastic gift I received were the completed puppy portraits that my mother finally agreed to paint after much badgering, whining, begging, and insinuation that dog portraits equal love.  Do you remember when I posted about this idea here back in April?  I asked my mom to copy a couple of Renaissance portraits I had seen in the Louvre on one of my trips to Paris, but with my Rottweiler pups' faces instead of the somber humans in the original portraits. 


The Originals in the Louvre



Lulu and Otto, Painted by Mom

 Didn't she do a great job?  I LOVE it!  My puppies will celebrate their 3rd birthday in four days.  It seems like we just brought them home a few months ago, doesn't it?

Says Lulu, a.k.a. Princess Puppy, "Rub my belly, slaves!"

Says Otto, my Sweet Baboo, "PLEASE throw my ball!!"

Oh, and I had one other fun surprise.  My sister Susan sent me this coffee mug that she bought at a Starbucks on or near the Great Wall of China when she was there running a marathon last year.  Doesn't it look great with my granite?  Best of all, I love that it is stamped MADE IN CHINA.  The Starbucks mugs sold at the Louvre say PARIS on the front of the mug and MADE IN CHINA on the bottom, so they are not nearly such authentic souvenirs as this one from Beijing.

Ah, well -- the clothes dryer has been peeping at me mercilessly, demanding my attention.

Happy New Year, 2014!

A Puppy Portrait Plea and a Lederhosen Update

Proposed Formal Portrait of Otto

Now, how funny is that?  Bernie took some really great photos of our Rottweiler puppies the other day, and I just couldn't help myself...  I found some photos of oil portraits from my trip to the Louvre and used my design software to stick my puppies' heads in place of the people.



Proposed Formal Portrait of Lulu

This one is Lulu, my Puppy Princess Extraordinaire.  I think the hands would need to be replaced with paws, and the background might need to be lightened up a little so she doesn't blend into it and disappear.

My mother does some oil painting, and she painted a fantastic portrait of my sister's dog once from a photo.  If she loves me as much as she loves Janice, don't you think she should whip up these paintings of my sweet doggies as well?  After all, they are her grandpuppies.

I think it would be hysterical to hang large oil paintings of my dogs like this, in matching ornate frames, in my living room.  Did you hear that, Mother?  I would hang them in a PLACE OF HONOR IN MY HOME, where everyone would see them and marvel at your mastery.  Please please please please please...

And now, back to the lederhosen, which are almost actually finished.  I just need to sew on seven buttons and three buttonholes.  If I have time, I'll add that little knife pocket to the right side seam and maybe some decorations to make them extra-snazzy.  But even at this point, they are wearable with safety pins.  I think that all the top stitching with jeans thread helps to make them look more like leather, don't you?

Lederhosen Costume In Progress

These need to be finished TODAY, in time for rehearsal at 3:30 PM.  And they had just better fit the boy, because I can't really make any adjustments at this point and there isn't enough time to start over.  I used a strip of drapery buckram, trimmed to 2" wide, to stiffen the waistband, and I found some jute ribbon at Michael's to simulate the leather lacings at the sides.  I have some red and green felt that I'm thinking of using to recreate the effect of the oak leaf pocket design on Bernie's authentic lederhosen, as well:

Bernie's Real Lederhosen

We need to use the real lederhosen straps with our costume, and they are a hunter green embossed leather with red leather trim, like the decorative pockets, so I think that adding those red and green leaf pockets would help to make our brown lederhosen coordinate with the straps better.

Of course, nothing is getting done AT ALL as long as I sit at the computer, clickety-clacking away...

Ride a Yellow School Bus to the Art Museum!

One of the chief attractions of being my own boss is setting my own schedule.  The downside of that is more late night and/or weekend work sessions, but it also means I don't need anyone's permission to take the afternoon off so I can chaperone a second-grade field trip to the art museum like I did yesterday.

Anders' class was one of the first student groups to tour the Mint Museum Uptown, which just opened in Charlotte, North Carolina in October of 2010.  We were confined to the fourth floor on our hour-long tour but we still felt rushed.  The students and adults alike could have spent a whole day at the museum without running out of things to see.

One of my favorite exhibits was this early 20th century wool bathing costume, complete with suede-bottomed, cotton sateen bathing shoes.  The Mint Museum displays this getup adjacent to an Impressionist beach painting from the same era depicting people wearing bathing suits very similar to this one. 

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE this bathing suit?!  Maybe not in wool, but the black is very slimming, and no more bikini waxing and no more situps necessary for a beach-ready body.  This suit was considered very daring at the time due to the low neckline and bare arms.  Oh, how times have changed...



Philip the Fair by Kehinde Wiley, 2006, Oil & Enamel on Canvas

 This painting was another of my favorites.  It's on loan from a private collection and it had a sign that read, "No Photography Except for Rebecca" (I swear!).  The artist is Kehinde Wiley and although I'd never heard of him before yesterday, I looked him up online and I really love his work.  He uses the technique, scale, and composition of traditional Western European portaiture, but instead of powerful white men in powdered wigs, his subjects are minority men in everyday urban street garb.  These portraits are intended to invite discussions about power and powerlessness, race, and cultural inheritances, but they are also just plain fun.  I love how the man in Philip the Fair seems to be coming out of the floral wallpaper, plucking a dainty little flower.

I'm about as far from an urban minority man as you can get, but I'd love it if someday Wiley could paint my portrait.  I'd like it to be a spoof of Jacques-Louis David's portrait of Madame Récamier, except that I'd be wearing my husband's sweatpants and thermal T-shirt, I'd have a messy ponytail instead of an elegant hairdo, and I'd be holding a big Starbucks coffee cup. 

Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David, 1800

I took the picture of that David painting when I was at the Louvre in Paris last year -- Now, back to the Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina!


Einstein, 1988, by Judy Fox, Terra Cotta & Casein Paint

 This sculpture was Anders' favorite exhibit.  The artist is Judy Fox, who creates life-size ceramic portraits of historically significant people, but depicts them as small children.  According to the wall plaque, this baby Einstein sculpture is meant to convey the childlike "innocence and fearless curiosity" of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein.  

Still, it's more than a little alarming to come around the corner in the museum and see a life-size, very realistic looking naked baby apparently sailing through the air!

Another exhibit that the students particularly enjoyed was this huge sculpture by Danny Lane incorporating different types of glass, steel, mirror, poplar burl wood, and LED lights. 



Threshold, 2010, by Danny Lane



Side View of Threshold



Anders checks out Pacific Rose 1997, an included glass sculpture by John Kuhn



Realm of Dream 2007, by Binh Pho, Turned & Carved Box Elder, Paint, Gold Leaf & Dye

 The peacock feather motifs on this vase by

Binh Pho reminded me of my friend, interior designer, author, & fabric designer Jackie Von Tobel. 

If you live in the Charlotte area, I strongly recommend you check out the Mint Museum Uptown.  If not, go explore the museums in your neck of the woods.  I wasn't expecting much from our art museum since Charlotte is such a small city, but I was pleasantly surprised.  And if you live in a big city like New York or Chicago and you have never visited your art museum, shame on you!