The Clock is Tick, Tick, Ticking!

Yikes - I have promised to have my ABC quilt ready to be part of our guild group challenge entry for the San Mateo County Fair.  Last year our guild had a group challenge involving Kona Solids.  It was great to see our modern quilts at the SMC Fair quilt show.  This year a group of us agreed to have our ABC quilts finished in time for entry into the group challenge.  Seemed so far away and do-able at the time.  Now, it's right around the corner and I'm still trying to finish the borders on the quilt top before it goes to my long arm quilting friend, Dee Small (I know that "modern" quilts do not have borders according to some modern quilters, but I disagree!)  I'm not going to show another photo of this unfinished top - I'll include a photo when all the borders are on.  

Dee has agreed to get it quilted and back to me before May 8, when we have to turn in our entry forms.  I have 2 of the 4 borders on - and the other 2 borders are pieced.  It's just the corner blocks that are a little tricky getting just right.  And I have been working on other projects, such as the Wonky Log Cabin blocks.

Got to get it to her this weekend in order to give her enough time to get it done.
Then I will have to get the sleeve on it, label it and have it ready to go. 

What about your deadlines - got any you want to share?

I did finish all of my Wonky Log Cabin blocks and will get them sewn together once the ABC top is done.  Easter got in the way of sewing.  My grandkids came to visit along with Mom and Dad for a long weekend.  We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Friday and the Exploratorium in San Francisco on Sunday.  We watched Wreck It Ralph several times, played with new and old toys, ate lots of good food, took walks, had a pizza picnic Saturday night while Mom and Dad went out to dinner and had an Easter Egg Hunt in my living room Sunday morning.  Sadly, they had to go home on Sunday.  Man was it quiet after they left.  Really, really quiet!  Sigh...

Here are a few photos of our weekend:

 

 

Hope you had a wonderful happy Easter.  

Aaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household. 

Whoa Nellie! I'm Awash with Wonky Blocks

I have been steadily working on the Stack and Whack Wonky Log Cabin blocks that I wrote about recently.  I found the tutorial on Katie from the Blue Chair's blog Here.  Loved it the moment I saw it and decided to use up some of my stash to make a cheery, springy, easter"y" quilt. The fabric is not traditional Easter fabric and is much larger scale than the prints that Katie chose.  I gravitate towards strong colors and prints, so my stash does not have much in the way of pastels or smaller scale prints.  This top was a great way to use some of my stash.  No shortage of purples, oranges, or greens in my cabinets!

 

I ran out of room on my design wall and had to overlap the top row just so I could place the blocks. I need 2 more blocks to complete the top row, which I will make tonight. The top will be 60" by 72" if I stop now, which isn't really big enough for a bed. One more row would bring me to 60" by 84" which is more usable I suppose. What do you think? Should I make it a little bigger or stop where I am?

 

Curious minds want to know:  What's on your design wall this week?

 

Speaking of Spring, a little rain storm blew in and brought us a windy afternoon and 70 degree temperatures.  So, what did I do when I got home?  I arranged all of my blocks on the design wall.  Then I thought it was kind of warm, so I opened the window in my sewing room.  What the heck?  I looked like Lucille Ball in one of her classic crazy situations as first one block and then another and then a third, fourth, fifth blew off the design wall.  I tried to pick them up and put them back before I lost track of where they should be...still without closing the window.  Just before total disaster struck it occurred to me to close the window and stop the madness!  Whew - I'm not sure I got them all back in their original places, but they are now at least pinned and ready for a final sorting when I have all the blocks done. 

 

Other projects are on hold.  Still  haven't gotten the binding on the Mod Mosaic quilt - I will do it this weekend and have a finished quilt for my grandkids to use while they are here for Easter.  And I better get the border on my ABC quilt if it's going to get into the San Mateo County Fair group quilt exhibit.  About 5 of us from the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild made traditional blocks with modern fabric using the letters of the alphabet as a block of the month type project.  We have agreed that we are going to submit all of the quilts to the SMCF quilt show, if they will have us.  I'd better get a move on it!

 

Aaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household. 

 

 

 

I'm At It Again!

Do you ever get bursts of mad creativity resulting in all kinds of sewing energy and there's nothing you can do but give into the flow and sew, sew, sew?  I'm having one of those bursts right now.  I put together a Mod Mosaic scrap quilt top and quilted it (yep, those of you who know me personally will gasp in awe and amazement that I ventured beyond quilting by checkbook for a second time!)  And I put together my string block quilt top and pieced a back for it and will also quilt that...

You want proof you say?  Here you go:  exhibit A on my kitchen floor.  Gotta love that spray baste stuff. 

And, I jumped into a new quilt top.  I was looking at my favorite blogs and saw this tutorial by Katie from the Blue Chair Wonky Log Cabin.  One minute I was thinking about how cute the Wonky Log Cabin quilt was and the next minute I had a pile of fabric on my work table, in the colors of Spring and Easter and all things scrappy.  The blocks are made in 4s (4 pieces of fabric cut up at a time and then the fabrics are mixed up within those 4 blocks.  I decided that I would not repeat fabric from one set of 4 blocks to the next, so my initial pull had to be followed by rooting and rummaging for more fabrics.  The blocks will be 12" finished and I will make 30 of them for a 5 x 6 layout or 42 if I want to go the next size up.  Not sure I can stick with the "no repeat of fabric" if I go to 42 blocks.  We'll see what happens!

I have to say it's really fun to root around in my stash and pull out fun fabrics.  No need to shop for fabrics.  I'm making a small dent in the stash and creating something fun and in the happiest of color combinations. 

Here are a few photos of my progress:

I hope you get a sense of the quilt that is being borne here - more to come as I complete the blocks and add even more colors to the spring mix.

Aaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.

As Promised - more QUILTCON

In my last post I gave you an overview of content and controversy.  I wanted to move on from there and show you my most precious experience:  a class with Yoshiko Jinzenzi.

I stayed in Austin until Sunday for this class.  I have been taken by her design and purchased her book but to meet her in person...  She combines simplicity (a dot or dog or square on fabric) with a knowing of what makes sense to her.  She is so modest and so willing to share that I am taken aback and in awe of her. 

 

 

Having the opportunity to be in a sewing room with her was amazing.  QuiltCon made this happen and I am so grateful!

 

And I have to say that meeting up with the joined Bay Area peeps for dinner was wonderful.  We are so close and yet so far (travel time).  I'm wondering if we can't create some "meet ups"  that don't involve travel to a distant state?  If not, good luck to Lauren who is moving to Japan.  I hope she will stay in touch and, of course, start a Modern Guild where ever she is in Japan.

 

And a few more quilts:

 

 

 

 

This last quilt was People's Choice for best in show.  I agree 100% that this quilt from simplicity of piecing to beautiful quilting was the winner.  What do you think about this quilt?

 

Aaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.

 

 

Back Home After QUILTCON - So Much To Think About!

I have returned home from QUILTCON.  What an amazing experience - thought provoking, overwhelming, uplifting, controversial, hectic, inspiring and much more.

 

 

 

 

 First, I must say that the organizers (the board) did an amazing job and should be commended for how well this first time event ran.  The classes and teachers were wonderful.  The quilt show could have used a little polishing (many, many comments and questions about the categories that quilts were in and the criteria for the categories).  The lectures ran the gamet from thought provoking to inspiring to controversial.  I am certainly thinking about my voice as a quilter and where I fit in.

As a result of one particular lecture, I have thought a great deal about the concept of Modern Quilting.  I hope that Modern Quilting will focus on inclusion rather than exclusion as it finds its definition.  It was disturbing to listen to a lecture on what Modern Quilting is and hear a view point that was exclusionary and rather demeaning towards other quilting styles.  It felt all rather highschool-ish and clique-ish in a mean girl sort of way.  It certainly was controversial and blogs are alive with discussions related to that viewpoint.  If it had been presented as this speaker's personal viewpoint, I think that would have helped.  Unfortunately, the talk was presented as a definitional, factual lecture - THIS is Modern Quilting.  THAT is not Modern Quilting.  Again, it was thought provoking!

Jacquie Gering gave a moving lecture on her quilting journey.   I loved her description of her family as "Makers".  She was followed by Denyse Schmidt who was the keynote speaker and gave a wonderful presentation on her quilting and design journey.   

I'll finish today's blog with just a few photos of quilts in the show.  More to come, I promise!

Aaaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.

Traveling Shoes Were On Again in January

I wanted to share with you a little of my birding trip to the West Indies (don't those two words ...West Indies...evoke mental images of old sailing scooners like in the movie Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World, sailing for days and then coming across an island in the ocean...exotic vegetation and scenery, beautiful people, all rather romantic and far, far away?) 

I'm here to tell you that Trinidad and Tobago are rather far away as they are about 7 miles north of Venezuela, but sailing through the sky is much faster than the way Russell Crowe went about it in the movie.  We flew to Miami and then on to Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad.  Here's a view from the airplane:

The West Indies were first a Spanish colony, then the French took over and lastly the British. They drive on the "wrong" side of the road like the Brits and have a lilting, almost Jamacian style of speaking.  Everything moves much more slowly in Trinidad and Tobago.

Luckily for me, my friend Sarah's husband does not like to bird, so she and I get to traipse around the world looking at birds and animals in strange, far away places. So far we have been to Ecuador, Eastern Africa and now Trinidad/Tobago together. We're planning another trip to South Africa for the fall.  But I digress..

Our guide picked us up and took us to Asa Wright Lodge high up in the northern range of Trinidad.  After we left the little city of Arima, we quickly changed over onto unpaved roads that became narrower and narrower - with hair pin turns that made it impossible to know whether someone was coming from the other direction - which they usually were!  I did alot of flinching on the way up, but I suppose got use to it through the course of the time we were there because that was the only road back down and we were often going back down to go to various birding locations. 

The lodge was formerly a coffee and chocolate plantation in the 1800s and early 1900s (how good does that sound?)  and they still grow and roast their own coffee for the guests.  The main building is gorgeous in a very understated old world way with a beautiful veranda that looks over the valley and island.

Here's the hallway leading back to the Anteroom, the Anteroom and then the veranda:

All meals are taken at the property in the main dining room (although a lunch was packed if you were going out for the day).  Tea was served every day at 4:00 p.m. on the veranda and then came Rum Punch at 6:00 p.m. with dinner in the main dining room (family style) at 7:00 p.m.

Here's a peek of the dining room at breakfast:

And this is one of the cottages although not the one that I stayed in:

Our cottage was 21 more steps up that walkway, right under a massive tree full of screeching Yellow Rumped Oropendulas (large vocal birds that make beautiful hanging orb like nests - the guys make the nests and then the gals come and check out the work.  Sloppy work does not get you a partner!  The gals want high quality construction before they will give a guy the time of day.)

Trinidad was lovely except for the chiggers - nasty little biting things they are!  We met some very nice Brits while on the trip and we were all staying in the same place in Tobago, so it was nice to have the continuity of people to talk to and have dinner with.  Next blog I'll show you a little of Tobago and the Blue Waters Inn. 

This trip, of course, is why I have done so little sewing.

Aaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.

A QuiltCon Hello!

Are you going to QuiltCon?  The Modern Quilt Guild has asked bloggers who will be attending to introduce themselves with a photo (my grandson Mason and me at Thanksgiving) and reveal 5 things you might not know about ourselves.  The Modern Quilt Guild.

Well, I'm going to QuiltCon and I'm a blogger, although lower case blogger as compared to the well known Bloggers, so I thought I would join in the introductions and here goes with the 5 things you may not know about me:

1.  I have a Labradoodle named Boo (o.k. you probably know that...) but before Boo I was the companion to 3 Dalmations (not all at once - sequentially).  That's about 30+ years of Dalmations.  It wasn't until I got Boo that I knew what it was like to have a nice, friendly dog who didn't beat up on the other dogs.  What a breath of fresh air!

2.  I was born in the midwest (St. Louis to be exact) and went to grad school at University of Missouri at Columbia.  Before I went to law school, I was a scientist working for USDA.

3.  I collected antique quilts for years and still have a small collection.  I came to quilt making from quilt collecting.  I made my first quilt in 1972 (I am pretty sure that is before many of you were born!)

4.  I am a birder (a person who looks at birds through binoculars and gets all excited about identifying them) and I travel all over the planet looking at wonderful birds and animals.  I have been on every continent except Antartica in search of unusual birds.

5.   My grandsons call me "Maw-Maw".  I pretty much dote on them and love seeing the world through their eyes.  I feel that I learn so much more from them than they do from me!

I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can at QuiltCon, while taking classes every day, going to lectures, looking at the quilt show and visiting the vendors to see what I must have.  Whew!  I'm tired already!