Life as a Quilter -- Julia Graber

Friday, June 05, 2015

Holiday Pines ... Continued

I have now added a gray border to "Holiday Pines," bringing elements from the center of the quilt out into the border. You can see where I started this quilt HERE.

My goal for this quilt is to merge or integrate fiber art with traditional utility type quilts. It measures around 60"X60" and is big enough for a throw for the back of a couch or small enough for a wall in your mountain cabin.

Now, my question is how should I quilt it? Is it complete with the gray borders? With what color should it be bound?

Thursday, June 04, 2015

Life and Sailboat IV

Life ...

Paul and Scott work on Scott's drone.

Scott handles the controls.

Gabriel is mixing paint for ...

... his Legal Eagle wings.

Quinten thought it was a privilege for me to help move equipment. He said that I GET to, not have to, pull the combine header. My jaw was tight and I was tense for the whole 8 miles.

Delta Joy

... as a Quilter

My little "Sailboat IV" is part of SAQA's Trunk G on display at the Rosenzweig Art Center in Columbus, MS this month.

Monday, June 01, 2015

Holiday Pines Quilt

... as a Quilter

It's tempting to just slap a gray border on this improvisational quilt and call it ready to quilt. But wait ... I think it's better to take elements from the center of the quilt and place them in the borders. So, it will take a little more time now to complete.

I started out by making pine tree blocks ...

... in holiday colors.

Then I laid the blocks out in a pleasing arrangement and added sashing with smaller pine trees inserted randomly.

I trimmed here and there as I went so I could sew a straight line.

Life ...

Boys will be boys.

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Fiber Tuesday with Mel

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Lily Workshop in Corinth

What a marvelous job these ladies did in my “Lily” workshop in Corinth, MS.

Grandmother and Granddaughter worked well together.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Quilting with the Possum Town Quilters

I prepared a red and green string quilt as a project for our Possum Town Quilters.
Using an old algebra book for foundations we placed a yellow strip diagonally in each block with
red on one side and green on the other side.

Carla, Lawana, and Carol sewed strings while …

… Brenda, Ebba, Karen, (Judy and CC not pictured) and I hand quilted.

Karen is a new member and brought along some of her fiber art for show and tell. I love her use of bright colors
and improvisational designing.

~~~~~ Parting Shot ~~~~~~

Paul’s mom had a birthday this week. We took supper to her and Daddy and enjoyed the evening. They have
lots and lots of purple martins.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

A Glimpse Through the Lattice -- Cattails

Thanks to Amy's Creative Side for hosting another fine Quilt Festival.

The process began by drawing a grid on the brown and gold background fabric. I fused “Heat and Bond” to the back of the printed fabric.

Then I cut squares from the printed fabric and fused them to the background.

Cutting and fusing only a few pieces at a time helped me keep the patches in order.

Quilted +/- 1/8”

Thinking of this quilt that I made back in 2014 …

… I positioned some sample chairs on the floor.

But then I decided to try a bouquet of cattails. Using paper I cut out a vase, reeds, and the cattail heads and auditioned placement.

Then I cut the cattail bouquet from dark brown fabric and

arranged it on the quilted background.

A Glimpse Through the Lattice – Cattails

Cattails on the edge of a pond summon memories of simpler times, lazy summer days and the song of frogs croaking in chorus among the reeds. Birds alight atop the sturdy cattail stalks and herald the dawn. By bringing a bit of the country life indoors to create a cattail bouquet, one can catch a glimpse through the lattice of natural pleasures ad the cycle of life.