Fish Quilt--Beginnings

Hello Blog.  So sorry for the delay in writing, but life has been pretty up and down in the last year and a half.  We finished one step in a project so I can leave it be for a few weeks.  I'm starting a new quilt and I'm sharing the progress here. 

I've been thinking about it for months.  Sketched a bit.  Took photos.  Looked at images by others.  Picked out fabric!  I guess it's time to get it going. 

Above are some of the references that I'm studying for this quilt.  A fish illustration by Joseph R. Tomelleri.  A photograph by Craig Springer, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.  A map of the historic range of the subject.  My photographs of fish and a rocky stream. 

One sketch idea.  Probably not. 

Another sketch idea.  Also probably not. 

The ideas are gelling.  I won't be copying the map, Craig Springer's photos or Joseph Tomelleri's illustration, but I'll refer to them for shapes and colors.  I'm trying to figure out the layers.  What will be opaque and what will be transparent?  How will I make the background?  Will the transparent layers be transparent enough?  I have a feeling that this will require improvisation, winging it and ad-libbing. 

Off to sketch some more . . .

P.S.  It's good to back in touch with you, Blog. 

Worldwide Quilting Day 2017!

White Dove quilt detail

Worldwide Quilting Day 2017 is tomorrow!  March 18, 2017. 

I will be working with fabric tomorrow morning!

I have a couple of projects that I will be working on.  One part will be finishing work on one quilt that won't show much, so it's not so exciting.  Well, finishing is exciting!  The other will be to quilt a small abstract quilt.  Of course, I have plenty of ideas for more.  I just can't sew fast enough!

I have some inspiration ideas to share with you!  Share your love of quilting with the world tomorrow!  It's OK if you start today and continue on through Sunday, too!  And beyond!

1.  Here is a tutorial for an improvisational quilt block by Vicki. 

2.  The traditional log cabin block with a couple of variations from Bernina's We All Sew.

3.  Here is a tutorial and inspiration for Wild Geese quilts from Temecula Quilt Company. 

Yes.  It's all my fault that you will now head off into the Internet ether to study these tutorials and follow the links from them to who knows where.  It will be like eating candy, but without the calories!  I'd love to see what you're working on.  Please post a photo in the comments below or on your favorite social media sites. 

Shared Heritage

HAPPY WORLDWIDE QUILTING DAY!

Agua Caliente County Park on a Spring Day

Vermilion Flycatcher

On Saturday March 4, 2017 my husband and I visited Pima County (Arizona) Agua Caliente Park.  We went to see the gallery space.  We're deciding whether to apply for an exhibition in 2018.  The gallery is inside the historic ranch house which is a wonderful place.  We wandered around the park and when we got home, I realized that I took no photos of the buildings.  My only images from this morning are of nature scenes.  Which is a great thing.

I don't know ducks....

Phainopepla

The bees loved the blossoms on this tree next to the pond.

Aren't these pink flowers cool?  They are next to the ranch house.  The hummingbirds enjoyed them, too.

Definitely a pleasant day to be outside. 

Dear Blog--I've Missed You

Farm house in Kansas Settlement, Arizona

Dear Blog:
I haven't written in a long time.  A lot goes on in life and this blog got set aside.  I want to come back here.  I want to write and share photos.  I don't want my photos to stay in their files.  I want to show what's going on in life--hiking, nature, outdoors stuff.  I want to show art and quilt art.

When my husband and I were honored with some art residencies in 2015, I started posting on Facebook.  It's easy, fast, and addictive.  It's also hard to find things again.  I'll keep using FB, but I'll try to write here once in a while.  More often than my history shows.  I'll try to make it interesting.  

The photo above shows a worn, weathered, and abandoned farm house that is surrounded by the fields of Kansas Settlement, near Willcox, Arizona.  My husband and I took a day trip to this area to look for sandhill cranes.  We didn't find those birds, but we saw plenty of others.  And this interesting house.  With its layers of paint colors. 

It's giving me ideas . . .  Someday it might become a quilt, I'm thinking.

Thanks for reading this far and I hope to keep in better touch. 

Denny

Art for the New Year--One-Liners

I'm taking an online art class called Year of the Spark!  It's taught by the wonderful Carla Sonheim and Lynn Whipple.  It's positive and encouraging and SPECIFIC.  Boy do I need that!  And adaptable to all kinds of art forms.  And I've just been working on the first lesson!

My classmates are fun, too.  Lots of energy.  

We started with some drawing exercises and here are some of the beginning one-liners.

Spaniel-eared elephants (my own creation!):

Houses . . .

Birds . . .  A couple look kind of angry.  Some are in a hurry.  

Flowers . . .

And for those of you who know me . . . yes I translated something into fabric!  I'll post it soon (I hope!). 

We'll have a vendor booth at the Tucson Quilt Fiesta from January 23-25, 2015 at the Tucson Convention Center in Tucson, Arizona.  If you're in the area, please stop by.  We'll have quilts to show the quilting we can do.  Also some little black sewing machines to tempt you!  You know, the kind that come in little black cases!! 

Hope to see you there! 

Merry Christmas!

We hope you are enjoying Christmas Day with family and friends. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Charlie Pirtle Memorial Scholarship Quilt 2013--Honoring a Man of the Outdoors

Elusive Elk

I just finished this quilt.  I made it in honor of our friend Charlie Pirtle, who passed away in 2008. 

Charlie was a great man who was great fun.  He loved the outdoors and he loved to teach others about it.  He taught for many years at the Becoming an Outdoors Woman in New Mexico workshop.  Charlie's students loved him.  His fellow instructors loved him and sought him out during "down" time to visit with him.  Charlie was an appreciative audience and a wonderful story teller.  Charlie always told me--with that glimmer in his eye--that he would  buy a nice rifle from me (a gift from my dad) with his "pocket change." 

This memorial captures the essence of Charlie Pirtle. 

About this quilt:  Charlie was an avid supporter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.  He contributed  recipes to The New Elk Hunter's Cookbook.  (Even if you don't use elk meat, Charlie's Chili recipe on page 248 is one of our favorites with beef stew meat.  I think of Charlie every time I make it and I thank him for this recipe every time we eat it!)  Charlie loved elk.  He loved to hear them, look for them, see them, watch them, track them, and hunt them.  He supported the preservation of elk and their habitat.  Elk are plentiful at the NRA Whittington Center where BOW in NM is usually held.  Therefore, it was an easy decision for me to choose this elk quilt pattern, Elusive, by Montana artist Toni Whitney.  I enlarged the pattern by 50% to add drama to this already intense design. 

The quilt that I made will be raffled next weekend at the Becoming an Outdoors Woman in New Mexico workshop in Raton, New Mexico.  Funds raised in the raffle go to pay for a scholarship for a student to attend the BOW workshop.  BOW is a program where women can go to learn basic outdoors skills in a non-competitive environment.  Raffle tickets are only $5.  If you would like to support this program and the raffle, please contact Leilani right away at nmoea@comcast.net.  If you are interested in the BOW program, visit the New Mexico website here.

 In keeping with Charlie's old fashioned-ness, in order to win the Charlie Pirtle scholarship, applicants must write an essay about the outdoors.  It must be hand written (not typed or printed from a computer).

Just to give a tiny bit of insight to the quilt making process--a labor of love:

Eye, ears, and a nose

Head and chest (you need food cans to keep things from slipping!)

On the quilting machine

Quilting is done!

I think Charlie might be willing to pay pocket change for it . . . 

New (to us) Fabrics, Quilts of Valor, and Quilt Patterns

As usual, things have been really busy around here.  Above is a fabric that we have for sale in our Etsy shop. Don't you just love fire trucks with eyes and teeth?!

Below is a cute pattern that we're selling, too.  I made a small sample using this pattern and it went together FAST!   Maybe you could use this pattern with the fabric above to make a fire engine quilt?

We received two Quilt of Valor quilt tops from the Boulder, Colorado group.  I think we saw this top on this blog post.  This is what we saw when we pulled it out of the box from Boulder.  Wow! 

I quilted this quilt as part of the Tucson Quilters Guild "Quilting for Others" program.   I used the Merrily quilting pattern by Anne Bright in the center.  I did free motion designs in the border. 

Here is another Quilt of Valor from the Boulder group!  I quilted it using the Flamingo Sunset pantograph, also by Anne Bright.  

Remember the eagle quilt top above?  Here is it after it was quilted with the Random Stars pantograph pattern by Dave Hudson.  

These two quilt tops are on their way back to Boulder now and should get there in time for the group's next meeting.  I hope we get to see photos of the finished quilts being presented! Thanks to that group (and all the other Quilt of Valor groups) for doing this.  

Here is an antique Eldredge sewing machine.  It is for sale on Craigslist.  Check it out!

And . . . I managed to collect quite a few vintage thimbles over the last few weeks.  Then I realized that I should probably share.  These will be in our Etsy shop in a bit.  Here's one!

What have you been up to lately?

Quilts and Machines and Fabric!!

So sorry that I've been absent.  It's been crazy busy around here, but it's time to get back into the swing of blogging.

Here are some photos of some things that make me smile . . .

A small sample quilt that I pieced and quilted.  The fabric is mostly Westminster's Girls at Play.   The pattern is Angel Face by Villa Rosa Designs.  Both the fabric and patternss will be available later in our Etsy shop. 

A Singer Featherweight Model 221 sewing machine that is currently for sale in our Etsy shop!

A Quilt of Valor in the process of being quilted on our longarm quilting machine.  The pattern is Petaluma by  Meredith England. 

A family tree quilt made for my mother by our friend Kim.  Kim added some "family" members to the tree before she gave it to Mom.  

The "Lone Wolf" quilt that my husband made from leftovers from a custom quilt.  He designed it (a modified Courthouse Steps), pieced it, and quilted it.  He entered it in the Hummingbird Stitchers quilt show in Sierra Vista, Arizona and it won an Honorable Mention ribbon! 

Whoo hoo!  I'm back in the swing.  Does one post count as "in the swing?"

A Bear in Charlie's Cabin--A Quilt to Honor a Special Man

A Bear in Charlie's Cabin

My husband and I made this quilt in memory of our friend Charlie Pirtle, who passed away in 2008. 

Charlie was a gentle man and a gentleman.  He loved the outdoors.  He loved sharing it with others.  For many years, he taught outdoors skills at the Becoming an Outdoors Woman in New Mexico workshop. 

He was a popular instructor.  He touched many people and many of us are compelled to create tributes to Charlie.  Someone created a geocache near one of Charlie's favorite fishing holes.  Bart Skelton wrote his story about Charlie.  Charlie's obituary tells of the nature of the man. 

The quilt that my husband and I made will be raffled next weekend at the Becoming an Outdoors Woman in New Mexico workshop in Raton, New Mexico.  Funds raised in the raffle go to pay for a scholarship for a student to attend the BOW workshop.  BOW is a program where women can go to learn basic outdoors skills in a non-competitive environment.  Raffle tickets are only $5.  If you would like to support this program and the raffle, please contact Leilani right away at nmoea@comcast.net.  If you are interested in the BOW program, visit the New Mexico website here.

The quilt has a story, too.  Charlie had a cabin in the New Mexico mountains (the log cabin blocks in the quilt).  He also loved to tell stories.  We loved to sit and listen and share some of our own stories.  Charlie told bear (and elk and dog and other) stories (bear paw blocks).  When we taught together at BOW, Charlie always asked the locals about the wildlife at the NRA Whittington Center where BOW in NM is usually held.  Invariably, the news included information about bears at the center and whether they had been trying to get into the cabins there.  Sometimes Charlie told the same story more than once.  Charlie would say something like, "I probably told this story before, but I like to hear it again, so I'll tell you anyway."  We liked hearing it again, too. 

So, when I was reminded of Ricky Tims' quilt called Bear Paws in Bertie Marie's Cabin and Ricky's treadle sewing machine, my husband and I agreed that this would be the right idea for this year's Charlie Pirtle quilt.  Our version cannot hold a candle to Ricky Tims' quilt in terms of design and construction, but our version is meaningful to us as we do our part to honor Charlie. 

Charlie was an old fashioned man.  He did not use a computer and he did not really like cell phones.  He and my husband formed the Rotary Dial Telephone Club.  They were the only members.  At my husband's suggestion, I made the red and black bear paw blocks for this quilt on my grandmother's treadle sewing machine.  My husband and I made the log cabin blocks on our 1950's era Singer Featherweight machines.  I assembled the blocks on the Featherweight.  We both quilted it on our (definitely modern) longarm quilting machine.  In keeping with Charlie's old fashioned-ness, in order to win the Charlie Pirtle scholarship, applicants must write an essay about the outdoors.  It must be hand written (not typed or printed from a computer). 

The back of the quilt shows horses running free.  I think they are some of Charlies' fans, too.  

Wrangell, Alaska Photo Essay

Flowers in front of the fabulous Wrangell Museum

These photos are from our June trip to Alaska.  What an amazing place!  It's so very different from the Arizona desert.  First of all, there's WATER!!  Second, there's RAIN!!  Oh, wait, that is water.  Third, there are pine-type trees.  Next, it's cold (to us) in June. 

This page shows Wrangell, Alaska.  Wrangell is a small town that is missed by most cruise ships.  Too bad for them. 

View from the picnic table in front of the Wrangell Museum

A boat in the repair facility in Wrangell

Wrangell is small enough that we could often see who was driving where and what boats were heading out and coming in.  After walking past the fishing tender Frigidland (above) in the repair facility a few times, we later saw it motoring away. 

Tribal House of the Bear on Shakes Island

Shakes Island is a small island in the Wrangell Harbor.  You walk to the island across a pedestrian bridge. 

One of the totems on Shakes Island

View from Petroglyph Beach

About two miles from the center of Wrangell, is Petroglyph Beach.  The ancient peoples carved or pecked images into rocks on the beach.  You can wander around and try to spot as many as you can. 

View of Wrangell from observation post on Mt. Dewey Trail

 The Mt. Dewey trail will definitely get your heart pumping!  It's mostly on wood planks and takes you into thick rainforest.  It goes up and up.  Then it pops out with an observation post that overlooks town. 

Cruise ship arriving!

 When we saw the cruise ship pulling up to the City Dock, we picked up our pace a bit on the trail.  We were planning to lunch at the Stikine Inn & Restaurant with the gray roof.  We moved a bit faster to beat the crowds.  We needn't have worried. 

The people at the Stikine Restaurant were very friendly and accomodated my husband's special diet needs as best they could. 

The Charles T in a Wrangell repair facility

We walked past this repair dock several times in our days in town.  The Charles T caught my eye.  It's a fishing boat that was built in 1919.  Crab fishing season opened while we were there.  That meant a lot of activity in town and in the harbors. 

We spent almost four days in Wrangell.  Town is pretty compact so we walked almost all the time.  When we went to and from the airport and the ferry terminal, we got a ride from Bruce, owner and operator of the Sourdough Lodge where we stayed. 

While we walked about town, we started recognizing some of the locals and they waved and greeted us as we passed. 

Crows are all around town.  There was at least one that hung out in the downtown area that cawed and then beeped like a Toyota (or was it a Nissan?) when you use your key to unlock it.  Made me look a few times.  When I figured it out, we laughed and then enjoyed the mimicry each time we heard it.  It was funny to hear that sound when it came from high in the trees. 

Go to Wrangell to enjoy the relatively unhurried pace of life here.  It's not a ritzy place, but it's real.  It has its own kind of charm.  Watching the tides is amazing! 

What is your next adventure?