Remembering

"Remember"     6" X 6"

This wee quilt was made to send to my friend Nancy who lost both her parents this year. Her loss effected me not only because her mother was an inspiration to me, but because her loss connects us.

Her mother taught me by example how to age gracefully, with beauty and humor, with strong beliefs and a world interest, and she always made me feel like she really saw who I was. That was a gift.




Nancy is a long time friend, who lives down South still. We worked and played together until I married and moved North. Distance is only a small problem though as each time we get a card, or see each other it's as if no time has passed. That is another gift.
Her loss reminded me of the precious woman who used to watch me as a child. She always made me feel important, smart, loved and safe. She was generous, and pious, and unassumingly humble in the best way. I miss her every day, but carry the fact that I was loved by her in my heart. She made a lasting contribution to my growth as a person and who I am today is due in large part to her. I called her Tatee, and no one knew where that came from.
I do. She used to say, "ta-ta" for thank you when she handed me anything. She became my thank you person. And that was a gift.

A quilt is so much better than a card, isn't it?
LeeAnna

animated poodle video

Cole last summer, not the star of this video

so touching, so funny this animated video just to entertain you.
I am sorry I don't know how to embed vimeo's   but here is the link, click away!

you are going to love this if you love dogs

LeeAnna

What to do when you don't know what to do? # 1

Okay, so you want to sew, you want to make something, you just can't put your finger on what to make.


I often feel at loose ends after finishing a big project, meeting a deadline, or after a period of time not sewing for whatever reason.  How does one get started again?? Let's talk about it in this new series. I'd like to start with piecing and later discuss easy applique techniques to do in the times when you want to just sew.

There are always fall back options, such as digging out a pattern, actually opening a book of techniques to try, or finishing a UFO (un-finished object). But...

There are times when I don't want to make the next great quilt, I just want to sew.
 I still want to be original, and put myself into the process, but don't want to make too many choices. I just want to see color next to color, and see shapes develop.

 I turn to my  scraps.
The odd little pieces are already random in shape, and have color variations within a range. I will take the smallest throw away pieces, and piece them together like a puzzle, growing into usable fabric. Then I cut shapes from this to use later. I will show examples of this next time.

Or I decide I want the feel of a snowbank, or the feel of water, so I piece them with this in mind and they grow into something resembling a snow bank, or water. Examples of this coming up later as well.

 This is the moment just to let go, and sew.

So on week one, consider playing with squares

I have made many a quilt,  using these little 2 inch squares. When I have bits of leftover fabrics I often go ahead and cut 2 inch squares for use later and store them in this box.  I use them like dabs of color/paint. Arrange them on a design wall, just play with them, put them up, and move them around until you have created something like a background, or a landscape or a ball, or in one of my cases a flamingo standing in water. The concept is to play without worry.






You could sew these together with a white square between for a very soothing pattern. You can place the color randomly or organize it into growing areas of blended sections to create a background.

Whatever you do, I hope you just arrange  them quickly and sew together into a new piece of fabric. This should be an exercise of short duration, to keep you in the play side of your brain.
This is a tutorial on how I sew the squares together into a background or scene. Click HERE to see it!

I call mindless pieceing Medicinal Sewing because it lowers blood pressure and increases happy endorphins.
I hope you share with me your ideas for this kind of play and as always enjoy creativity.
LeeAnna

Speedy two inch square tutorial

Pattern is from quiltdoodledesigns

Does this count for a post on use of the color teal?
Just for fun, I decided to do the block of the month at quiltdoodledesigns. I love a scrap, the blocks are easy and fairly fast and I get to dig thru the scrap bins. Winning! The above two blocks are Feb. and March. The layout of her quilt will make it easy for me to quilt it in rows to save my sanity  back.
They will be highly embellished I'm sure.

 I'll tell you how I do these kinds of watercolor style quilts. I design them on my portable design wall. The pattern is given in my workshop, the wall is two sided, folds to 24X36, opens to 48X 36 free standing with both sides available to use at once.

I take it over to the sewing table so I keep the squares in order.

 I flip each second vertical row square over it's next door neighbor in the first row, right sides together but oriented just like they were on my board.  Then chain piece them, pair by pair, leaving them all connected by threads in the long row.

See?

After sewing that row, I add the next row.
I place the top pair face up on the sewing table, take the top square of the next row flip it right side down on this pair and sew that seam.

Chain piece adding the next one down each time, don't cut the chain.

Starting at the top again, do the same process with the fourth square flipped right sides together over  the top trio, to make a chain of foursies:

After you have done this all the way over, the piece is now like a flag, horizontal rows sewn,  and connected to the row beneath. No way to mix it up now!
I press each row in opposite directions to make sewing the rows nest together well.

Sew your rows together, and the piece is made.
This is a fast method to make backgrounds of lots of fabrics, or scenes like this pattern calls for.

Hope this is clear, and you enjoy it. I am linking to the super scrappy March link party, HERE! where lots of people are digging into their teal scraps for March and sharing their cool block patterns.

Hope this is teal enough.... the roof is teal as well as some of the scraps. One day I will figure out how to set up a video camera to make all this much easier!
BTW, If you are interested in learning how to make my design wall, I'll come to your guild!

LeeAnna

Black Poodle Cafe

Black Poodle Cafe  12"X 12" (c) LAPaylor

 This is my interpretation of Toulouse-Lautrec  for my challenge group STAT, see other quilts           CLICK HERE

I finished it early as I have several big deadlines looming. I am not satisfied with it, and considered what I would have to do to tweak it and overnight made an executive decision to-- LALAMO
Live and Learn and Move On!

(Click on picture to enlarge)

this pile of stuff went into it

It started in a very promising way. Although I don't like the art of Toulouse-Lautrec, I do like the style of the twenties and posters advertising bars. I chose a font and words to print on fabric. I thought it would be a fine size for the small piece, as words take center stage on his posters. Well, to do that, I would have had to applique individual letters or inked it over the background. As I realized AFTER it was finished.
The scale is off, and I'd basically have to remake the whole thing to correct it all, and to be honest I have too many projects in the queue to do this. I'll share what went into it:

 These pink embossed satin and black brocade shot through with gold threads were left over from another quilt I'll share later. (It is shown in my Idea lectures) I love these slippery fraying fabrics for their impact in person and deco design.

the skirt four different lace pieces. The poodle is quilted in swirls with sparkly mylar blue thread.  The nose and eye are beads and the tail is peeking thru.

The table cloth is green corduroy the table legs palm tree buttons given me by friends.
So the main problem with this piece is the advert section of words. I really should have cut out each letter separately and appliqued them on, which I have done so I didn't want to do it this time. Did I mention the whole thing is 12 inches square?
Small for me.
I thought about removing and reprinting the sign, argh! But then the poodle would be in the center anyway and that would have to be removed too.

So my friends, I share a not so perfect offering to the artist. His work is busy, mine is busy. His work is dark and a bit depressing, mine is happy and energetic. Art is made to suit the person. I'm moving on...

LeeAnna
for more poodle art visit the STAT page CLICK HERE

Come see me!

This month I will be the guest speaker for the PAX River Quilt Guild in Southern Maryland.
The link is HERE

                 ---Shameless Self Promotion----
I will be doing my favorite lecture, "Where did you get THAT idea??"
Combining my years in theater, years working with teenagers as a social worker, and years as a working artist who loves a challenge, I have created a presentation that is fun and interactive. My viewpoint is everyone is creative, it's just a matter of allowing it to flourish.  Along with imagination games, and stimulating interaction between members, I share 50 challenge quilts in person. There! Come see me!

The partial view of a quilt I am sharing at the top of the page came from my imagination one day. I must say I get a lot of ideas while doing something mindless, and since there is so much mindless-time in a day what with normal chores like clothes folding and dish washing, there is a lot of time to come up with ideas to make.

She is made from scraps,. see the scrap containment system   Click Here  or look for the label-- Studio-- on the side for more posts on my favorite room. She is twirling the world on her finger, seeing possibilities in the everyday,

Travels to a quilt show and Williamsburg,VA

"Bikini Body" Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

 We made it to the quilt show and I was overwhelmed by the response to Bikini Body!! I met so many women who could relate to her, and we all found common ground on which to laugh at life! What fun it was!!
I was able to connect with an online buddy, Paula Hughes at sassy quilter and her fun group, who were dancing in the aisles with glee over the shopping. Quilters are a fun group!

Mr. Not Afraid of Color and Cole (Porter) poodle dropped me off and spent the day visiting Williamsburg and writing the dissertation back in the hotel room. On Sunday before we left to rush home to an ice/snow storm, we enjoyed a leisurely walk along the charming streets of Williamsburg. I never tire of the atmosphere, and on this Spring-like day of sun we started the visit with some townsfolk. They were discussing the issues of Revolution but took a moment to include my boy.

Revolutionary Confab, with poodle

 The town is a living museum focused on the time of our colonial revolution. The re-enactors are friendly and welcome Cole for a petting.

He feels most of them need to be petted.

 This is a shot into an exhibit building with a tailor, but the reflection shows the colonial buildings across the cobblestone street.

Then we did a bit of shopping... and just like a boy, my boy wanted something to make noise. He was equally interested in the chocolate and gingerbread purchases. We also left with a few gifts, and some blush wine from the local winery. 

Window Shopping

The main street is Duke of Gloucester Street -or- DOG street. There are lots of dogs to meet. These two made an impact, enormous and the girl had a bow in her hair. There were many puppies who wanted to get to know Cole, and one little 8- pounder wearing a dress caught my eye, but the black lab puppy who showed great restraint around 11.80 year old Cole and won his heart. He begged us to bring her home, but her people were connected to her by a leash so....

Rest Stop

Just before we had to tear ourselves away from one of our favorite places for a long car ride back home, we had a restroom break. Cole did NOT find my hitching him up to the horse post at all funny. They have some enormous horses here, and one year I got a snapshot of Cole reaching his little puppy nose up to meet a draft horse reaching his gigantic nose down to touch Cole's. This year, Cole was over the horse, but very intrigued with the sheep, that looked a lot like poodles lying down, and he yipped at them to get up and play.
They wanted nothing to do with him but he was sure tired in the car home from his adventure.
We started a new book on CD on the trip, and are both into it. We got halfway through the story and arrived home in rain but before the ice began. Now we need to plan another trip so we can hear the end of the story!
Hope you enjoyed our "slides"... remember the old days when people had to sit through slide shows of each other's vacation trips?
LeeAnna