3/26 Workshop with Deborah

I've posted about my friend, Deborah Boschert before and you can see her blog HERE.

We've missed her since she moved with her family to Maryland, so it was wonderful to not only see her again, but spend the day with other friends and learning new things. 

Deborah also brought copies of the book, Twelve by Twelve: Inspirations and Adventures from the Art Quilt Challenge -

she is one of the 12 artists in the 12x12 group and you can see their current efforts HERE.  Their current challenges are all about colors, and by the time the Houston Quilt Show happens in November, another 144 small quilts will have been finished!  I certainly hope Lark Publishing puts together another book!  They are all very inspiring.

We spent the first part of the day putting WonderUnder fusing on the back of fabric - here you can see I brought lots of bright and happy colors to work with...

and we also spent time adding words and stamping and paint to fabric - again, I went for bright yellow...

After discussing a few techniques and the use of themes, we started working on our compositions - and, after all that bright fabric, I ended up with

Which is perfectly fine, because it will be a Vietnam War Memorial piece - I think all the current world situation made me think about how the world has so changed in my lifetime - even how we conduct war -

It was a great workshop and we all were so different in our efforts!

Michelle spent a great deal of time thinking about hers and I think it's splendid...

Mary found time to do 3 about "tsunami"...

Lu's two pieces ended up very Asian-inspired -

I love the colors in Thelma's -

And I think Laurel Birch would be very happy with what Biddie did with her fabric - I love where she placed the cats... 

And JoAnn finally became comfortable with who she is as an artist -

her stuff will always be girlie and THAT'S OK!

It was really nice to go around at the end of the workshop and each participant got to share her feelings about her piece(s), what they were working toward if there was a theme and one thing they learned (mine was:  Let go of your preconceived notions of where your piece will go, because it will always go someplace different.  I think I like Lu's the best, however:  The farther I try to get away from myself, the closer to myself I become.)

- here Janet is explaining how she only brought these fabrics so they would end up looking like a series whatever she did in the workshop - something to be said for narrowing your fabric choices...

This is not all that were in the workshop, but not all pictures came out -

After the workshop, a lot of us went to dinner at an Italian restuarant in Northpark Mall and then a few of us went down to Anthropologie...a store where it's mostly eyecandy because no one wants to pay their prices...and their window display was fabulous -

Amazing, actually, since it's just folded and draped tyvek and clothespins!

You can learn a lot in a mall just by looking in the windows - in one of the VERY expensive stores, one of the little cocktail dresses used this technique:

yes - those are trianglar holes with the flap sewn back so the reverse side of the facric adds to the texture and then it's also beaded...of course the dress itself would have only fit my thigh, but it was still a great technique to find!

Quilt Show - Part 3 - Covers for Kids

The Guild's challenge quilts were hung together and it made for a wonderful collection of Christmas quilts (mine is 3rd from the right)...and this is just part of that display!

Other guilds and friendship groups also put on their own challenges and then our members also just make covers and then donate them to the cause - we also hold workshops where members can come together and make covers; we try to display as many as we can at the show; even at the show, volunteers finished up over 40 quilts that had been made and donated but needed binding!

This is such a good cause - giving a small amount of comfort in trying times...

This was my favorite cover for kids this year: a jar quilt:

and all of the jars were "full" of bugs!  Some kid is REALLY going to love this one!

Next up...the DAFA workshop with my friend Deborah Boschart!

Commercial Interruption

I interrupt the Quilt Show Review to bring you this personal commercial endorsement of NOSH Euro Bistro on Oak Lawn in Dallas.

We had the most amazing dinner last night - beginning with shrimp for Dave and hummus+falafel for me...if I were tweeting, I'd have to say "OMG-NOSH ROCKS!!  And that's only after the first course...the falafel was Egyptian falafel, so it was made with fava beans, not chick peas and was so good as to turn a hard & fast meat eater into a diehard vegetarian.  Who knew that vegetarians could eat so well??

Our main courses were Sea Bass for Dave and lamb chops for me (if I had known about the falafel when I ordered, I would have just ordered more of them instead of the lamb, even though it, too, was incredible) - Next time (and there will be next time...) I'll take my phone so I can get pictures (these are from the internet), but really, they didn't look like anything special...but the taste?  Wow. 

And we got to say hello to Chef Avner Samuel (it's his restaurant...) - what a cool guy!

So - next time you are near Oak Lawn in Dallas and you have some money to spare (I had a gift certificate), stop by Nosh.  It's noisy, but worth every minute.

Now, back to the Quilt Show....

Quilt Show - part 2

Every year we also have a Guild Block Challenge - Every Spring (after the Show), if interested, a member can pick up a kit for the following year's show - the kit usually only contains the background fabric and the instructions for what fabrics and type of design (along with submission deadline, of course).  After the show, these blocks are then put together into a "Guild Keeper Quilt" which is used in displays at the next year's show, or other needed displays advertising the Guild (libraries, other shows, etc.).  I decided not to participate this year (reduced my stress by reducing my deadlines...) but the blocks submitted for judging were fabulous!

The winning block is the 2nd from right on the last full row by Alisa Hake; second place is second row, 2nd from left by Theri Dufour; and third place is the single one on the bottom by Marie Zaczkowski.  Won't they make a lovely quilt!

Last year, the theme was "Texas, Baltimore-Style" and the kits contained the background fabric and instructions to use the Baltimore quilt style with a cowboy boot as the central image...those blocks were put together into this quilt:

I think I'll wait until I see what the theme is before joining in this challenge!

Dallas Quilt Show - part 1

The Quilt Show this past Friday/Saturday/Sunday was awesome (as usual) - very inspiring but hard on the legs and feet (I was working there Thurs-Sun)!  I'm very proud to have been part of the Mini-Quilt Auction for charity -  This year, the beneficiary of the auction was Family Outreach Dallas, Inc., an organization that teaches teen parents the skills and know-how to provide their children safe, secure, supportive and healthy home environments; working with young parents (from the birth of their child until the child reaches age three), helping them become familiar with the milestones in a child’s growth and development. This ensures that the youngsters will be ready to enter preschool and beyond. For more information about them, visit the Family Outreach Dallas website at

 http://www.familyoutreach-northtexas.org/dallas/index_fod.html.

I know the total raised was over $8,000, so - again - I'm very pleased that my two little quilts contributed to such a good cause - (the purple one went for $110 and the blue one for $55)!  Congratulations to everyone who participated by either making or purchasing a mini-quilt!

 in this next one, you can see my purple one (3rd from right, top)

and my blue one (2nd from right, bottom)