Pamela Thiele Art Quilts

leftovers

Some leftovers are ultra yummy. Some, not so much. Especially fabric leftovers. I often have blocks left over from quilts I’m making and generally I pitch ‘em. Otherwise, if I hang on to them, they make me crazy–I feel like I have to do something with them and I start feeling guilty and that screws up my creating new quilts. Better to get rid of them.

However sometimes I have A LOT of blocks left over. A LOT. And it’s hard to pitch these. I have used a couple in the totes I’ve been making and intend to put on Etsy once I get the gumption to open an account and a PAY PAL account and take the photos and and and….

Where was I? Ah yes, leftover blocks. So I had several left over from Adela’s baby quilt. I pieced them and then decided they didn’t work. But they were cool–large graphic white on black (or black on white) florals. So I made the mistake of keeping them. Along with a border of two dotted fabrics –blue and green –that REALLY didn’t work on the quilt I was thinking they would work on.

So I decided to put the two together. The result is shown here.

And I am vacillating between loving and absolutely hating it. I think I’m going to net out on hating it. It is too busy. And the use of the colored dots fabrics makes no sense. I wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t created the quilt, I guess. So now I have to remember that it isn’t wasted time if I learned something and what I learned is to GET RID of leftover blocks.

don’t bother me

And now I’ve finally finished the super-sized Shoo Fly quilt. Borrowing from the song, I’m calling it: don’t bother me. At least for now. It’s a whimsical quilt and I’m concerned that anyone who doesn’t know that old song, won’t get the reference. And so the title could seem more grumpy than the quilt deserves.

The top came about because of a hanky I bought from a vender at this year’s Denver National Quilt Fest. I loved the extreme graphic of the hanky. An incredible floral. And then I found an oversized African print and I wanted it in the quilt too.

Interestingly enough, I think they don’t overwhelm the quilt — I tried to find equally strong prints for the other blocks. In fact now I kind of wonder if the hanky, which is the center block, is somewhat overwhelmed itself. Maybe not. Actually, to me, the quilt seems well balanced.

I did a half and half binding. Half the quilt is bound in a fabric that has metallic grey dots on orange. And the other half (more or less) has smaller very bright dots on very bright backgrounds. “A foolish consistency is the hobglobin of little minds,”according to Ralph Waldo Emerson and I have found that quote way helpful in my life. Especially when creating quilts.

and so it begins

Have started seriously thinking about the design for a potential quilt. I pulled a lot of fabrics for my design wall a while ago and I have been kind of staring at them periodically. I think maybe I am ready. Maybe. Of course this is an indulgence on my part because there’s a lot I should be doing in my life right now. But the addiction of fabric is a hard one to ignore. I am so ready in cut into some cotton and start figuring out blocks….

Here’s the selection thus far. I won’t use all of these and I will add more, over time. I never start out with everything I wind up using. That’s part of the pleasure of creating my quilts. They guide me. I just have to tune in.

I know I need to break up the two large panels because they do me no good as is. I want to use the large koi prints and maybe this is the place. Those too will have to be cut up.

I wonder using other big prints in this mix. Will they draw attention away or add interest? Dunno yet.

And are the two lower prints with the large and small circles too dull? We’ll have to see. I think it’s time to do some serious rotary cutting. YES!

The Trunk Show Review

The trunk show went really well, if I say so myself. What a totally nifty group of women! This club (The Castle Rock Quilt Club) is so open to new ideas, it is a thrill to be around them. I mean, honestly. This is the kind of person I try to be but it’s not always easy. But here was a group of kind of mostly traditional–although that’s not really an adequate description–quilters grooving on my quilts. Did that feel cool or what?

Plus they asked a lot of questions and really got involved with what I was trying to do. They made me feel terrific. They loved my quilts. I mean, wow. So much depends on the audience for just about anything. Well, this was an audience eager to learn and to see. It is so good how an experience like this feels. It makes me hugely grateful. It makes me want to make a ton of quilts. I know, I know, I have to get some on Etsy and eBay, and clear out my space. But it’s just soooooo good to play with fabric and I am in the mood!

Plus, because I had this show coming up, I have quilted the three tops that were hanging around here. Well, okay there’s a fourth quilt top which I WILL QUILT SOON. And the fifth quilt top I am going to take to a professional because it’s too large for my short arm and I do not want to do it with my sewing machine. Life is too short to do that wrestling.

Anyway I feel caught up and happy. And I am seeing my quilts a little differently, thanks to this group. Which is wild and interesting and I have to think about what I learned about me and my quilts from them. Hmmmmmmm….

aspens leaves and snow

Wow, this is some state. We’ve taken several day trips in the past couple of weeks to see the fall colors and check whether the high peaks have snow yet. Do I miss the maples of New England. Yes. But the aspens here are stunning and there’s enough variety in trees that we do get some oranges and even a few reds in the turning leaves. None of the burgundies a sugar maple can reach, but the rest.

We took our first trip toward the end of September, up into the nearest Front Range canyons and peaks. Above us by two or three thousand feet was Mount Evans, which was having a snow storm while we watched. Where we were it was chilly (43 degrees) but sunny. I love the various climates you can go through, as you go up a mountain.

We were retracing a route Lauren took, when she and Jon went on a hike up Chief Mountain earlier in the month.

I didn’t do the hike–my knees are improved but not there yet–but we did a walk to Luka’s and Button’s delight–lots of wonderful new smells, apparently. Bears? Mountain lions?

These are the views…the snow storm is on Mount Evans.

And then a few days later, the four of us  headed out again, ostensibly to see Leadville, the highest currently inhabited place in Colorado. It consistently has the lowest temperature on the weather maps. Our real objective was to see some new parts of the state and to get into the higher country.

The way in to Leadville was decidedly different from the way out — amazing the difference a notch makes. In, it was like a moonscape. Out, it was deep scary canyons (although as a driving vet of Mt Evans, I was calm and cool because nothing is so bad as the final section of the so-called road up Mt Evans). Another glimpse into the past, too, because one of the valleys hosted the 10th Mountain division of the World War II army (they were training for fighting in the Alps) and a POW camp.

This is Button, getting some air. We walked them around but it’s never enough when there are new smells and sights….

Finally we went out last Thursday to a place called Golden Gate Canyon Park–about an hour west of here and then another hour in the park looking for the reputed vistas. Well, they do exist and they are spectacular.

And this is why I am not homesick. Besides that fact that this is now my home. This place is spectacular. And the mountains soothe my soul.

Another trunk show. YIPES!

Getting ready for a trunk show I will be doing for the Castle Rock quilt club. I always look forward to these. They help me see my quilts with new eyes and I learn more by having to articulate what the heck it is I’m doing. Still, ulp. I have decided once again to create a new narrative and I hope to heck it makes sense.

Along with that, I am trying to finish three smaller quilts I’ve made. Got two of them done. Two are more of what I have been doing for a while, make large blocks with funky fabrics. One is a departure for me. I love all three, but especially the one that’s a departure.

I will report back on how the trunk show went. It’s this coming Tuesday. I love the name of Castle Rock. For those of you who aren’t acquainted with Colorado, there is indeed a large mesa which looms out of the land around it that indeed could just maybe be a castle. I like this name better than some of the ones the white settlers conferred on the various landmarks they saw. I understand that the names are pretty literal because they needed to be — people were looking for specific landmarks on their incredible moves west. So  aim for “the rock that looks like a castle” became over time, “aim for Castle Rock.” At least Castle Rock conveys some of the wonder of seeing this monolithic being rising from the earth.

Anyway, back to work. Here are the finished quilts–two down, one to go.