INSPIRATION RENEWED

SATURDAY SALON a big boost for my imagination.

Good friend Nora invited me to be her guest at an "Art Fiber Salon" in Raleigh to explore 3-D forms using a stiff interfacing with fusible on both sides (Pellon brand but others are available).  My problems with fusible has always been with small shapes leaving exposed adhesive web that always get stuck on my iron, making a sticky mess.

Art Fiber artist Roxane Lessa has worked out all the problems. Cutting bigger shapes, ironing fabric to both sides and only then shaping, folding, pleating or curling; her forms are ever evolving.
See Roxane Lessa's website to see her creations.  My creative force made but one small piece today but watching her method, edging and hole-punching techniques has inspired me to think of multiple ways to shape fabric.  So many ideas I'm wide awake and cannot fall asleep - curses!

All in all a terrific week for me.

First off I received a 'Thank You' from grand-niece Emily B. who turned 10 years old in July and received a Calendar Quilt featuring a 2003 calendar tea towel. A scrappy style quilt with strips and borders it ended up a bit longer than intended but I kept going until it seemed right.

Jan S. my favorite long-arm quilter did a top notch job of top-stitching. Many of the blocks and strips were samples made in workshops taken over the past decade; some orphans looking for a place to fit.

The calendar idea to oppose her big sister's calendar quilt made a couple of years back that was hanging over Madison's bed. Since the two share a room Emily needed a quilt for her side. Unfortunately before her quilt was finished, their parents sold that house and are currently renting while a new home is being built. Somehow I think they will find a place to hang this quilt once the family takes occupancy.

Having done that home-building phase I am thankful it is someone else's turn now.


IDEA # 2
Reading about recycling shirts and uses for men's shirts somewhere on the web I noticed that pillows could be made using the shirt button-closure for the back to eliminate the need for a zipper.  Neat idea.

So naturally with as many thrift-shop-men's shirts as I have stashed away, I pulled out a shirt and made a scrappy pillow. What I did wrong was to e-mail the photo to both sister Jan and SD Jane.

Jan visited a couple of days later and noted that the pillow would look perfect on 'Her' new sofa in their mountain cabin.

So pillow #1 left with Jan and headed to a new home in the western North Carolina.

  
Literally hours later Jane called to say she 'absolutely loved' the pillow and could she have it. What to do???


IDEA #3
Pulling more shirts out of the stash two more pillows emerged using mostly blue and whites to fit to her blue-white china pieces and a blue-white table runner made previously.

The strip piecing and top stitching took some weeks but they got shipped out more than a week ago.  I could hardly wait to hear if the pillows had been delivered to their Houston home.

Now I can honestly say I have quilted items 'all across the country.' At least in North Carolina, Missouri and Texas. Maybe more, I keep losing track of what I've made.

What to do next?

Besides a head full of ideas after today's Salon, I have at least three projects 'on the table' that need attention before the end of August.  The next Salon is the first Saturday of September but I will be headed southbound with DH on that date.

What happens next is more likely to be Monday's jewelry class or finding time to assemble the Flynn Multi-Frame System (delivered this week) to do machine-top-stitching using a consumer machine. It sounds a bit tricky but I'll figure it out eventually, getting started seems to be the hard part.

Check it out at: Flynn Muilt-Frame Quilting System.  This may just be what I have needed for years, a way to actually finish a quilt quickly. Stay tuned.