Great friends through Quilting

Lynda Doll and Marilyn

Lynda and I met through quilting. I've given this subject a lot of thought and when I think of my good friends around me they have all been made through my involvement in quilting. Lynda and I met when she got in touch with me to do a program for her guild in Clarksville, GA. We had so much in common and we've been friends ever since.

The following post tell about a wonderful weekend my husband, Kermit and I had with Lynda and Ted Doll

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

Lynda and Ted in front of guest house.

About three years ago, I did a program and workshop for the quilt guild in Clarksville GA. Lynda Doll was program chairman and my hostess. After Lynda and I met we found that we had so much in common. We both have children living in Solana Beach, CA and our grand daughters are in Daisy scouts together. We are both Master Gardeners, we love quilting and our husbands get along well.

Lynda and Ted invited us down this weekend and hosted a get-together for her art quilt group and their spouses. There was a huge snow/sleet storm expected but we felt we could get there before it started and back home after it melted a bit. Fortunately that area was spared.

Saturday morning we went in to Atlanta to the botanical gardens to see the new orchid exhibit. While it is not officially open and we didn't get to see the whole exhibit what we saw was breathtaking. I see several quilts in the photos I took.

Lynda and Ted have the most interesting little compound. It includes their cottage, a guest cottage, converted garage, and a studio house for their hobbies. They have both sun and shade to garden. Who could ask for more?

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

Several years before Ted and Lynda retired they purchased this cottage in the Georgia mountains. Most of these cottages were built for a Summer get-away from the heat of Atlanta. This cottage is at least 100 years old.

When Ted and Lynda decided to move here after retiring they renovated the house adding insulation, heating, etc. They also added a master bedroom and bath. They are surrounded by huge hemlock trees.

Lynda is a Master Gardener and Ted is an avid gardener. He is also skilled in making hardscapes.

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

Couldn't resist taking a photo of this great little bird house dusted in snow.

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

This is Lynda and Ted's studio house. Several years after they moved to Sautee, GA. full time this house came on the market. The house is adjacent to their property. They purchased it to make a his and her studio.
All they have to do is walk out their door across a little bridge or up a drive way and voila, they are at their studio.

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

Looking into Lynda's work station. She host her art quilt good here often.

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

Lynda's studio with design wall, cutting table and sewing machine.

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

Ted is also a musician. He plans the guitar as well as the mountain dulcimer.

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

Ted's painting studio

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

One of Ted's beautiful watercolor paintings.

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

What better place to take hand work on a pleasant day?

Visit to quilting friend in Georgia

Every well equipped studio needs a good place to make a cup of tea and a pot of soup.

More New Portraits

"Little Mexican Beauty"

A few post back I made a comment about how much better portraits look with a little speck of light in the eyes. This was one of the first things I learned during my photograph classes years ago. Always try to photo a person, animal, etc. placed so that you get a little dot or glint of light in the eye.

Below is the same portrait without that glint. Take a look and see for yourself how much more alive the person looks.

More New Portraits

"Little Mexican Beauty"

Girl without the dot of light in her eyes.

New Portrait

The Kissing Cousins

I have had the most fun today. It's been about a week since I've been able to work on portraits. One of my problems is getting the right photo. I need two things in a photo for me to make successful portraits. First and foremost I really need to like the photo. Secondly and as important is a photo with good contrast.

This photo fit both criteria. I feel so elated when I get a piece that I deem successful. I think I am going to frame this one with fabric. I have been putting a matte around the pieces so far and not really committing them to be or not to be quilted. I still haven't made up my mind yet but I do have another option I am going to try. I want to put the portrait in a stretched frame and paint over it with a clear paint. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of paint or medium to use?

New Portrait

Pete & Maddie

Pete and Maddie are cousins and they love each other so much. Pete in his enthusiasm at seeing Maddie has actually knocked her down with his running embrace. My sister-in-law capture this cute photo of "The Kissing Cousins".

Focus monthly meeting

Veronica Moriarty

Focus met this month at Veronica's house in Moore, SC. Veronica is the only working girl in our group and as you scroll down you will see how prolific she is as a quilter. Several of these pieces are old UFO's but only a few.

She is the proud owner of a new Bernina 820 sewing machine. A few of these pieces are simple patterns put together to practice her quilting on the new machine. Still this lady is a producer.

This is one of the UFO's that she's trying to decide what to add to the outside to make it bigger for a bed quilt. I love this piece. I don't have the patience to piece this type of pattern anymore.

Focus monthly meeting

Veronica Moriarty
Since we were at Veronica's house for our meeting this month She brought out a few pieces she had been having problems with or wanted some advice on. This pieces she calls her ghost quilt. I felt that was a great name for the piece since there seemed to be no one or at least ghostly figures in each door way.

Veronica plans to cut this apart. She's not happy with the background and wants to start over. We felt there was to much empty space at the top and that the color of fabric wasn't quite right. I always cringe with someone talks about cutting a piece up. However, when you don't feel that something is quite right that is usually the way to go.

Focus monthly meeting

Veronica Moriarty
Veronica finished this little art quilt and quilted it on her new machine.

Focus monthly meeting

Veronica Moriarty

Veronica is starting another circle piece. This is a very vibrant orange that is the background.

Focus monthly meeting

Veronica Moriarty
Veronica purchased this flannel fabric at an outlet for next to nothing. She is working on putting together quick pieces to practice her quilting. One of her sons has laid claim to this one already.

Focus monthly meeting

Veronica Moriarty
Veronica put this cute little piece together for a baby soon to be born to one of her colleagues.

Focus monthly meeting

Veronica Moriarty
A fun piece Veronica put together to practice her quilting.

Focus monthly meeting

Our Focus Art Group meet for our monthly meeting at Veronica Moriarty's house in Moore, SC. We had such a great meeting. With many of us showing multiple pieces. I started posting this morning and decided I was going to have to cover this post in two sections because I wanted to show and say so much. This is the first instillation more to follow within a day or two.

Focus monthly meeting

Diana Pickens demoed the neatest way to make a block out of half square triangles. She placed a striped fabric with the right sides together. One square was placed with the stripes horizontal and the next stripe was placed vertical. Sew around the whole square 1/4". Cut the square in half on a diagonal and then again on a diagonal making four pieces. This can also be done on a rectangle. Click to enlarge this photo to see the results. This design has many posibilities.

Focus monthly meeting

Diana demoed the cutting of this square.

Focus monthly meeting

Diana Pickens

Diana has been having trouble getting inspired recently so she's been going through her scraps, and UFO's making Lovies and cuddle quilts. While going through some UFO Diana found these pieces of fabric, cut and ready to go. Problem was she couldn't remember what design they cut out for. As she worked with these piece it all began to come back and she made this great looking piece.

Diana loves to experiment with stripes and this piece is a great example of what can be accomplished with stripes. Notice how the large stripes take your eyes through the quilt.

Focus monthly meeting

Diana Pickens

A closeup of Diana's block.

Focus monthly meeting

"Summer Beauties"

We have been watching this piece progress each month since Judy became a member of Focus last November. It's so inspiring to see a piece form especially when it turns out like this. Click on this piece to enlarge and enjoy each section, make note of the beautiful quilting.

Focus monthly meeting

Judy Heyward

This is an closeup of Judy's "Summer Beauties" quilt. Judy is an amazing machine quilter. When you look at this quilt from a distance you think the design is in the fabric. I envy this type of quilting as I have such a hard time with machine quilting.

Focus monthly meeting

Judy Heyward

Judy brought this finished piece and her first words where "I don't like this one". Wow, I thought it was beautiful, but there was something about it that displeased Judy. She couldn't quite put her finger on the problem.

This type of situation comes up at our meetings often and because we have such a talented group we often come up with a solution. These monthly meetings give me such inspiration and provides me with so much excitement that I can hardly wait to get home and work in my studio. The solution is in the next post.

Focus monthly meeting

Judy Heyward

Diana Pickens observed that this piece might look better with a smaller boarder. She folded the sides under and we thought she was right.

Notice the left side of the quilt where it is folder under to a small boarder.

There was also some discussion about adding the small black boarder that is around all the elements with the exception of the green on point square, to the green square.

Focus monthly meeting

Marge Edie

This is a new design that Marge is going to undertake for a project she is working on. Marge used this design on the top of a box she carved many years ago. The box was presented to her husband Dan as a wedding gift.

Marge designs on her Mac and after she is satisfied with the design she prints it out in sections and tapes them together for the whole design. I can't wait to see this finished. It looks and is very complicated but if anyone I know can piece this it's Marge.

Focus monthly meeting

Marge Edie

I showed a little of this piece in my post of our High Fiber meeting last week but wanted to show the whole piece. Marge is making this for her grandson and will add boarders. Marge loves the design process almost more than she does the making. She does this all on the computer.

Hoity-Toity Houses

Mary Lou Weidman standing by some of her block examples.

Yesterday my friend, Ann and I drove to J C Campbell Folk School to see Mary Lou. We both took Mary Lou's class in story quilts last year at Campbell. After the class was over Mary Lou came home with me to do a program and workshop for our guild in Seneca, SC.

Ann and I took her to Mary Jo's Fabric Shop in Gastonia, NC where she purchased lots of fabric that she had to ship back to Oregon. We became good friends so I wanted to take the opportunity to see her while she was close. I took my anniversary quilt as I need some help from Mary Lou on a few problems I am having. Hope to get those taken care of today.

We also had lunch with Pat Meinecke who is the quilter in residence at Campbell. I will be teaching two new classes next year at Campbell and I wanted to show her a few samples.

Back to Mary Lou's class. She is teaching a class titled Hoity-Toity Houses and the students were coming up with some really cute designs. As with all of Mary Lou's classes these are story quilts. Obviously since Mary Lou was teaching I couldn't go around and learn all the stories, but I did learn a few. There were two students who where in the class I took last year and it was good to see them again. Below are photos of the quilts in progress.

Hoity-Toity Houses

Terry Wright was in my class last year when I took Mary Lou's workshop in story quilts. She used one of Mary Lou's pattern last year so this was a new experience for her in making her own design for the quilt. Love that car in the lower right.

Hoity-Toity Houses

This piece also has many elements that I like. The maker is using yo-yo's for flowers and I like that idea. There is a large owl face in the upper right corner. Wonder what this story is about?

Hoity-Toity Houses

This was another interesting one. I would like to know the story of the elephants.

Hoity-Toity Houses

I loved this one. Lots going on. I didn't get a chance to learn all the stories that are being told in this quilts but they all do tell a story.

Hoity-Toity Houses

Carol Robinson was in the class I took with Mary Lou last year. She is not doing the hoity-toity houses but is continuing with the story quilt idea from last year. Carol belongs to a group of women who's husband have died. They have dinner together often. Carol is portraying that group for her story.

Hoity-Toity Houses

Close up of one of Carol's friends.

Hoity-Toity Houses

House by Bun White

Another Portrait

"Maddie"

This is my grand niece, Mattie and I'm quite pleased with the way this portrait turned out. I was going to post a before the light in the eye photo and an after. However, I deleted the before photo without thinking. The next one I make I want to show you what a difference the little point of light makes in the portrait.

At Those Portraits Again

The design wall in my studio

I've been working on those portraits again this week and I am having so much fun. Below are three portraits, actually four that I've worked on this past week. The portrait of Gus I did twice. I was having trouble getting his eyes placed correctly and I think the loose weave fabric was a major problem. The fabric was actually shredding on the small pieces. I decided to start over and do it in a different fabric. Much better.

I also did a piece of my granddaughter, Hannah, in pink gradations. You will see my comments on the problems I experienced with that one below.

Another piece of granddaughter, Ellington needed a lot of work but I'm happy with the results. Again I talk about the problems in that post.

I'm preparing to start the Photo Shop work on several others tonight so will have more later.

At Those Portraits Again

"Ellington"

This is the corrected piece I did of my granddaughter Ellington. The post below shows my first attempt. I actually took the photograph and looked at it to see what I needed to do to make the piece a little more detailed.

I cut away the black at the edge of her eyes near the hair and cut the pieces off that were below her eyes and moved them just a little under her eyes. I think that helped a lot. I also had to add light to her eyes in order to see iris.

In the post below I describe some lessons learned.

At Those Portraits Again

This is the piece of my granddaughter Ellington. I do have beautiful granddaughters don't I?

I made several mistakes in this piece. First, was my work in photo shop. I had too much contrast and when I posterized the photo it blotted out much of the detail. Secondly, I did not choose my fabric wisely. The number 2 & 3 fabrics were to close in color or value and the #4 fabric was to dark. I'm learning lots of lesson making these portraits. Hope I can remember it all.

At Those Portraits Again

"Hannah in Pink"

This is another piece that I had to do some work on. Hannah's right eye was a dark hole as it first appeared. I had to add some light in the eye to make it look right.

At Those Portraits Again

"Indiana Gus"

Gus is my ten year old grand nephew. He goes through phases of being people he's really into at the time. My sister-in-law took this photo of Gus wearing his Indiana Jones hat and scowl.

This is the second portrait I've made of Gus. The first was in gray/black and I talk about this in the next post. I learned from this piece that the area around the eyes can not be all dark. I had to go back into this one and add black eyes.

At Those Portraits Again

A few things I learned on this piece:
The fabric I used for this piece is designed by Karen Combs for Blank Quilting Co. Great idea right, well yes if the fabric was a little more densely woven. This fabric shred when you cut small pieces. I was so excited when I found this fabric because it actually has four gradations of color in one piece. There were many different colors in this fabric but, for these portraits, if you want to cut small details, it doesn't work. I'm sure the fabric is great, just not for this process

I also had trouble placing Gus' eyes and this piece will be used for sample quilting.

Being Thankful

The earthquake in Haiti is so devastating that it boggles the mind. We have a family living in CA. in the earthquake belt and know that this could have happened in the US.

I belong to a group called Art Digest on line and Haiti has been a topic this week. Someone posted about a quilt she had made after seeing a photo and article on CBS News. Her quilt is called "Mud Cookies" and I wish I could remember her name and link to the quilt. However, she posted the site of the news article and it made such an impression on me that I want to share it with you.

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/30/world/main3768430.shtml

I hope that you can access this because it is a compelling story. It was written in 2008 and the conditions were such that people were having to eat mud cookies to fill their stomach. Can you image what it is like now? I hope you will dig deep into your pockets and donate to an organization where the money will do the most good.

After witnessing this tragedy I was jarred into remembering how much I have to be thankful for. I had a return call for a mammogram, that is always frightening, but it turned out OK. When you have a little scare like this and witness the devastation in Haiti it makes you more aware of being thankful and grateful for everyday. We should live life to its fullest everyone minute.

High Fiber Meeting

High Fiber met this past Thursday for it's regular meeting. The experiments we were to do were with making fabric beads and working with Angelina fibers. Several of us made beads but did not put them into a project. Penny Little and Dianne Gjelsvik put their beads to use in several project.

This piece is by Dianne. She made this piece by fussy cutting leaves and adding a bird and it's nest. Dianne made the nest out of Angelina Fiber and thread clippings. Some of the beads are hanging out of the birds mouth. Dianne plans to add more beads as she continues working on the piece.

Dianne is the most consistence member of our group to put each project to work in a finished piece

High Fiber Meeting

Penny L. designed this piece from Angelina fibers that she fused together and cut into shapes.