I mentioned in an earlier post that I came to a point where I had to have three quilts quilted by someone other than myself! I showed one, here’s another. It was quilted by Tammy Lawson (who happens to be my sister) of Quiltin’ Kaboodle (in the Indianapolis area). She usually quilts more traditional quilts and is just stepping into the Modern world. She did a great job. She may be taking some time off from quilting spirals. I can’t show the entire quilt yet, but here are some snippets!
Kansas City Star Books has started a new division for Modern quilters! It’s called My Stars: A New Tradition. The blog started earlier this week. The first book is coming out this fall. It’s a compilation of ten different designers that designed modern quilts based on blocks that were originally published in the Kansas City Star. I was lucky enough to be chosen for the book. I can’t show the entire quilt, but here’s a sneak peek!
Tyler is home from scout camp and Kiley gets home from her dance training at the end of the week. Unlike scout camp, where mail arrives overnight, it takes about three days to get something to Kiley. So, this will be her last postcard. In ballet, turnout is the rotation of the leg so the foot turns out – so that’s the thought behind the card.
I ordered some backing fabric last week and it showed up last night. Well, I added a piece of Anna Maria Horner’s linen Field Study to the order. After finishing up some more postcards this morning, I pulled out an old leather jacket that one of my sisters gave me knowing it would be deconstructed and reused some day! So, even though I have quilts that are waiting for some attention … I feel a distraction coming on!
Those postcards? Well, here are the next two for Tyler. The first is just to remind him how great it is to be woken up early at camp! Too bad it doesn’t work so well around here – at least not during the summer!
Tyler goes to Camp Bartle where they have an honorary scouting program (or something like that) called Mic-O-Say. This year he got a new rank – Brave. I don’t really know what this means – it’s very secretive! All I know is that they make a pouch that they wear around their neck that has something secretive inside (maybe it’s just air, I don’t know). He also has to walk around all day without a shirt on – and hopefully remembers to apply lots of sunscreen. There’s more to it than that, but those are the two things I’ve observed! So, I had to make a postcard for that – tho it’s very out of proportion, he’s a skinny kid!
I finished two more for Kiley as well (maybe I can take a day off). So far, she hasn’t gotten any of them! At ballet school, postcards don’t just appear on your bed as they do at boy scout camp! She is trying to figure out the mail system! I think this first one is pretty self-explanatory.
The second one … well, aren’t all ballet dancers affectionately called ‘bun-heads’!
So for the first time, I had a few of my quilts quilted by other people. That’s kind of hard for me, because I can be a bit of a control freak – just ask my kids, or my husband, maybe even my dog! I had a pile of quilts that I needed to get done, so c’est la vie! This quilt was quilted by Ida Houston of Cowtown Quilts. It is beautiful! I can’t show the entire quilt, yet, but here are some detailed shots.
Ida really makes the quilting play off of the concept of the quilt. When I told her the name of the quilt, which has ‘pearl’ in it, she wanted that to be central to the quilting. This last picture shows her modern take on a sand dollar – since pearls come from sand.
I couldn’t be happier with the quilting! Thank You, Ida!
I actually managed to get a quilt quilted yesterday in amongst postcard making! I can’t show the entire quilt yet, but here’s a sneak-peek!
Now, back to postcards! I sent out two more yesterday – one for each. Tyler is taking Forestry while he is at camp, so that made the cut. This forest is comprised of a ‘chemis-tree’, ‘basket-tree’, ‘poet-tree’, and an ‘artist-tree’. The trees are all identified with quilting on the trunks.
More puns for Kiley as well – a Candy Barre! For both of these cards, I printed the pertainant images on to regular paper with regular ink. I applied three coats of ‘Matte Medium Gel’ to the front of the image and one coat on the back. That makes it flexible enough to withstand the stitching. I could just print it on fabric, but the paper gives a much crisper image and is easier to work with.
On to Kiley’s postcards! She is away at her first ‘Summer Intensive’. Two weeks of living in a dorm with other ballet-obsessed pre-teen and teens, dancing all day everyday (they do get Sunday off of dancing, but they have other activities!). She’s been gone just over two days and we’ve hardly heard a word. Actually we’ve heard no words, only a couple of texts. So, we are assuming that everything is going well!
The first postcard was to commemorate her first flight without her family – just a group of friends and another mom. I gave her a pen so her friends could sign it – don’t know if that happened or not! There were five kids flying together – hence the five windows. My writing gets better over time!! I only do this once a year!
This next picture is a little blurry – but I can’t retake it now! My goal in these postcards is to let me kids know that I’m thinking about them, but not make them homesick. The cards are always focused on what they are doing – not what’s going on at home. The ‘pun’-nier, the better – I can imagine my kids groaning ‘oh, mom’! Attitude is a ballet position, that’s what inspired this card.
When I can’t come up with good puns on my own – I call my neighbor! She’s great at coming up with puns. This next one is based on one of her suggestions! Plie-mates! Some of the girls on this card have a lot of work to do on their wonky legs! I really should have chalked their appendages before stitching, but it is what it is! If I was an artist, my kids wouldn’t have to be stick figure based with arrows for hands and triangles for feet!
So, that’s the first round for each. More to come!
The living is definitely not easy around here in the summer, at least not this summer. With several deadlines looming, two of my three kids have flown the coop for a while. My younger son is off at Boy Scout camp for 10 days. My daughter just left for a summer intensive ballet training program for two weeks. In theory this leaves me with plenty of time to work on my deadlines. The only snag is a tradition that I started with my son’s first summer camp – fabric postcards! At that first camp visitor’s day, I opened my son’s foot locker and saw the big mess of things strewn about. But, there in the corner was a neat stack of the postcards I had been sending. Two things I’d learned: (1) Never bother to open the foot locker; (2) Making the postcards was time well spent.
So, this year, I am making two sets. I’ll highlight the boy scout camp cards today and do the dancing cards in a separate post.
At Tyler’s last board of review for getting his ‘life’ rank, one of the guys asked “How do you spell Boy Scouts of America?”. This is a pretty well know question from him and the all the boys have learned that the answer is: F-U-N. When we were talking about this at the dinner table, his response was a smirk and a roll of his eyes. So, of course, it had to become a postcard.
Tyler’s first camp postcard for 2013
In the heat of the summer and the dirt from the camp, swimming is always a good thing!
Swimming Postcard
Packing is key to surviving camp. Everyone knows you need bug spray and sunscreen. Experienced scouts bring the extras – beef jerky and cosmic brownies in Tyler’s case. Anything to supplement the cuisine served in the mess hall!
All of the postcards go through the U.S. mail. As long as everything is securely sewn on (and you can sew just about anything onto a postcard), it will most likely survive. It costs an extra $0.20 for the hand cancelling. I pay extra to avoid multiple stamps – which right now is a $0.66. When I attach the stamp, I first put a little glue (just plain ol’ Elmers) down first and press the stamp securely into the glue.