Finishes...and lots of travel

I've enjoyed seeing lots of family in the last few weeks so haven't been too productive in the sewing room.  But gosh has it been fun.  My boys showed me a wonderful time in Seattle last week-end!

(Max went into the html on the blog here and widened everything, making it easier for you to read, I hope!)  Max is on the left...he works as a software engineer at Amazon; Chad is on the right, a senior at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington.  They live 3 miles apart from each other and get together often.    That makes this mom REALLY happy!  ;-)

Because I am heading for the Empty Spools conference at Asilomar next week-end, I have some finish work to accomplish.  As "Artist in Residence" I do want to have my most current work to show and tell about.

So "Rainy Spring" is now done....

I took a long time picking out the backing at Fabric Depot, but finally settled on two fabrics to layer together, and aqua poly satin and some glittery netting!  It looks nice and rainy but it does leave a bit of a glitter trail.

To bind it, I folded the back over to the front and stitched it into place, manipulating the fabric in the corners to some semblance of a miter.  I left the edge raw, then covered it with some narrow trim (more glitter!) and a row of herringbone...

I wouldn't say this is aces technically, but I do like the overall effect...from a distance!

So this is now done, except for sewing on the dreaded sleeve!

Now I am working on the Cowgirl CQ....

This is my kind of machine quilting...I simply pinned my top to a washed microfleece blanket from my local BiMart ($20 for a kingsized), trimmed it to size, and am quilting in the ditch with clear thread, strait lines, no free motion anything, even stitches...
I would have liked a slightly better color but BiMart is close and this is going to be a working quilt on a ranch....not precious!  And I have to say that the top quilted onto microfleece this way yields more of a "bedspread" weight than a quiltlike feel, and it is REALLY nice!  I have one on my bed and I love it.

So I'll be quilting all day until my husband calls me out to the garden to help plant the onions...

This is Robert's idea of a blank design wall!

I definitely plan on blogging from Asilomar, so next time I'll be posting from beautiful Pacific Grove, CA...
Bye for now!

See You at Fabric Depot August 13

I'll be returning to Fabric Depot in NE Portland, OR to sign books, demo my new pattern from Brookshier Design Studio and get excited about stitching with fellow crazy quilt enthusiasts on August 13, from 11 a.m. til 2 p.m.
Looking forward to it very much!

My sister and I took her daughter there yesterday to buy fabric for the backing of young Qwen's first quilt.  Imagine our surprise when we were greeted by this sign at the entrance.

"You mean me?"

That's my sister looking on, quite amused.
It's going to be fun, and I hope to see you there!

Meanwhile, Qwennie decided on some yummy cuddly fabric for the back of her quilt.  We aren't going to need any batting, as this is a lightweight California quilt/bedspread.

Here we are pin basting it and will start quilting today!

Pictures to Canvas....A Lovely Service

I wanted to share a neat service I've recently tried, EasyCanvasPrints.com
I'm up visiting my old family cottage at Lake Michigan and wanted to bring a present to my cousin....I can't bring my "H" quilt, as I need it for a few upcoming exhibits....but with Easy Canvas Prints' picture to canvas service, I sent a detail photo of the quilt and got back a great mounted picture, ready for its place on the wall of the cottage.
Hal, my uncle whom everyone called "H", loved it here so much....he and I shared that love very deeply.

Here is the quilt, which old time readers may remember:

And here is the wonderful canvas print:

I think the detail and colors came out just great in this print.
This is 8" X 10", but they can print lots of different sizes.
And now it belongs to the cottage....

It's hanging in the same room as a few of H's paintings.  This one is a favorite of mine...

He was so inspired by this place, as I am.....

And it's so good to be back.....

H is with me, looking over the lake.....   ;-)

Down in Mexico....

We went from this...

to this.....

...in the blink of an eye.
Air travel is a beautiful thing.
We are down in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. We love this country very much.

We needed to get provisioned so our friend Leigh took us to the open air market in nearby Guaymas.

Leigh Hay-Martin is one of my Point Bonita sisters who also owns a condo in the same place and at the same time that we do! So we get to see each other here too...


Everything at the market is so fresh and enticing.

There are lots of things for sale besides food, too. It's kind of a flea market as well.
I am always on the look-out for bits to add to my crazy quilts and I found a few good ones.

Some special hand-knotted bracelets...one of which will go onto a new house portrait I am making for my friend Barbara (which I'll show in my next post).

My husband and Leigh checked out the table where I had just bought some little heart lockets. Robert speaks Spanish and he made lots of jokes with the vendors about me.

Everything is so colorful here. This was my favorite table of all of them....

Just so great. We loved the market.
Then Leigh took us to a little fish place off the beaten path for our lunch.

The ceviche was amazing.

When we got home, Robert modeled the new shades he bought at the market.

Fetching, absolutely.

And now it is time to get back to "work"....

The easy stitching in the afternoon is on the Go Crazy blocks...the more complicated design work is in the mornings....yes, I can make this work down here!
Adios for now.... ;-)

...and p.s. to all you crazy quilters...
CQMagOnline needs you to send in your photos for the Readers' Showcase a.s.a.p. Please do!!!
Send them to rissapeace@yahoo.com Thank you!

Home from Michillinda

As always, this place inspires me like no other.
I had a week on Lake Michigan with a few of my very dear cousins. It was my first time visiting in September in three decades. Fall arrived my first night there.

The mornings were crisp and vivid.

It was mostly mixed clouds and sun, and lots of wind.

Lake Michigan is like a highly sensitive woman, so responsive to the changing weather. Her mood can change completely overnight.

The trees at Michillinda always overcome me with their grandeur and grace.

This oak in the foreground especially....

But really, this year was about the wind and the whitecaps.

This was the most amazing, howling sunset.

Here is the view a little later, looking the other way, towards the north.

There was so much wind earlier in the day while I was going down to the beach that it blew my glasses off my face onto the bank, never to be seen again! (We looked and looked, although I confess I couldn't see too well.)

So I had to go into town to get some reading glasses to tide me over until I get some new prescription ones.

Aren't they fetching?

It was so hard to leave yesterday...though it's always great to come on home.

So good-bye, beloved cottage, until next year.......

Oh, and I did work on a very fun project all week which I will post next time.

Family Travels and Rain

...not a lot of stitching going on this month but I thought I would check in. We've been dodging raindrops, welcoming family, and visiting family too; as this will continue for another week or two (not the rain, I hope!) I don't expect to be back here blogging until July.

But here are a couple snaps of the "kids"....

My boys, Chad and Max, kicking back at my sister's house in San Diego.
And then all the guys but one (who had to work).....

It's a tradition in the family for them to be photographed lining up, crossing their arms, and looking as tough as they can. This is the face of Twenty-Somethingness in America and I'd say it looks darn good!

My sister's daughter Qwen and Max's girlfriend Esther hit it off immediately and ran off to do their nails.

A little girl energy, yes ahhhh....

We came home to more and more rain. *Sigh*

It's still beautiful in its way, but this weather has the garden in slo-mo.

Hope you're enjoying your June...see you in July!

Back from the Ranch

My sister and I visited our cousin Tracy and her husband John at my cousins' ranch in Wagon Mound, NM this last week. So many wonderful things happened!

We dove deeply into the family scrapbooks from my mom's young life which Mary and I had never seen; we rode in the canyon looking for arrowheads and caves; went on beautiful hikes; had intense discussions about quilting and art (Tracy got me started in quilting in the '70's). We shared a campfire in honor of my uncle, Tracy's dad, who passed away a year ago, and things got good and rowdy....

But most of all this trip demonstrated that when family and friendship merge together, it is just pure unadulterated joy...

Here's a little tour....

The Main House was built in 1800 and has been added onto over the years.

Mary and I had the red guest house all to ourselves which is just a short walk from the Main House...

I had a cozy room, didn't I? While snuggled under the quilts I could hear mountain lions screaming under the stars at night and wild turkeys gobbling in the mornings....

My sister and I were joined by Jag and Swig on our morning walks.

They would follow us back to the barn.

It sure was pretty.....

We all loved Ralph, an orphan calf that Tracy was raising. He followed us around and reminded me of my dairy days...

We spent a lot of time going through old family papers together, but we did talk quilting some.
Tracy bequeathed all her dad's old ties to me, and I got to thinking about how I could use them...

I laid them out on the floor in a very rough fashion with some old fans in two of the corners, just to see how they'd fit in the Vintage CQ...
He wore these ties to all the meetings, dinners, conferences, flights, classes, and broadcasts he made during his career in government, business, education, and television over the decades...I love the idea of my uncle's life being part of this quilt, especially because my aunt is already here with her polka dot scarves and the Bicentennial ribbon. We'll see....

Tracy gave me some of her quilt blocks from when she used them in her work as a professional illustrator back in 1971....you read that right; as a quilter she was way ahead of her time. I'll share those in a future post.

Meanwhile...

Thanks, Tracy...you are the absolute best!

The Samplers of Deborah Bryant

As I am having much trouble with my "secret project" and am positively butchering my waste canvas cross-stitching...my mind turns to the wife of my dear Uncle Hal, Deb, the most accomplished cross-stitcher I have ever known.

When I visited her last fall I tried to take pictures of just a few of the pieces she has been creating over the decades as her great life's work. The walls of her home have scores of them, all subtly different, and they lend a sense of wisdom and serenity to the atmosphere where she lives that is profound.

Here are but 9 of them; they were hard to photograph in their frames with no shadow or flash...Be sure and click on them to be able to see her magnificent stitching, and read the inspiring words, too.







...and the Masterpiece, which I believe took her two years:

The cumulative effect of being surrounded by all of this, as I have said, is calming and uplifting at the same time.
You can see a few of them on the wall behind us...

She gave me one of my very own, too, which I will always treasure:

I love you, Deb!