Sacred Threads

I'm back from my trip to see the Sacred Threads exhibit near Washington DC. It was my first real quilt show, but I think it was fabulous! This is a show with a spiritual theme and the works are not judged per se, but rather limited only by suitability of theme and space constraints. Some of the works were mind-blowing beautiful, all were meaningful to their maker, and many really 'spoke' to me, and some I didn't care for or maybe just didn't 'get'.

I really couldn't look at the quilts that were in the grief category nor quite a few in the healing group, as my recent acceleration of creativity in quilting has been fueled by my husband's fight with cancer last year and I'm just too emotionally raw. I looked at a few and read the artist statements and began to get all choked up---it was difficult to maintain my composure after that.

We went on the day of the artists' reception so there were a whole bunch of the artists there, but since they were enjoying looking at everyone's work also, it was impossible for me to match artists to their work. I missed a great opportunity I'm sure by not talking with them, but I'm a social chicken and my line of "Could you tell me about your piece?" just didn't seem right if I had no idea of which person made which piece. A fine time for my shyness to take over. Sigh...

One of the committee members did chat me up as I was leaving and encouraged me to join SAQA to meet up with some like-minded quilty folks. She was incredibly nice, and even complimented me on my new bag which I made last week. I'll post pics of my bag soon; I love it!

Today I think I'll get to attend the local quilting group. It's been a few months since I've been able to go.

Gotta sew,
Amy

Time for New Glasses?

Yes, that's a magnifying glass! I can barely see the stitching here as the fabrics are both light colored and the raw edge lines right up with the edge of my foot. It does seem to help at least. I ordered this lens from Linda's Electric Quilters Co. and it's got a little LED light and a nice long flexible arm.I have noticed it's been harder to thread a hand sewing needle and I need to hold it and other hand work farther away to see it well. I think it's time for bifocals!

WIP- Living Water

I was a bit of a tease to reference a project I was working on and not post a picture.



Here it is:





Sorry it's a bit dark. I took it at night. You can see how little room there is for this quilt on my wall. Since I can't expand the space, I guess I'll make smaller quilts. Below is a close up shot of the stitch I'm using over the raw edges. It's a tiny zig zag with a single larger zig every 4 zags. I really like it far better than a blanket stitch or satin stitch for raw edge applique.




I've learned so much (in other words I've made mistakes and learned from them) while working on this quilt and am still excited about the image, so I think a second one will be in my future. Smaller and with a few different techniques.



Time and Space

Time and space are against me. There are so many ideas and I just can't get them done! Some just don't fit in my life; some literally won't fit in my sewing room.

I've got a work in progress that's coming along well; actually, I'm kinda blown away by it. So it really is going well. But it doesn't fit on my design wall. I've got to draft out the final portion of this quilt and it's hard to get it all done with my space limitations. I think from here on out, I'll make sure nothing I'm working on exceeds about 55" square. That's my space limitations and it will just be easier to work within that; though when the local quilt shop opens, I should be able to spread my work there if necessary.

I've been reading some quilty, arty, creativity books lately and they encourage me to find the space and time for my 'work', my creative expression. The art speak makes me a bit nervous, but I'm loving what little I am getting to do.

I hope you are getting to work your creative outlet too!