Stretching Art Challenge

I've been a part of an online group for a number of years now that does an annual art quilt challenge. The purpose has been to grow the skills of those that participate and I've enjoyed being a part of the group. The finished quilts and dolls are then displayed at one of the large quilt shows back on the east coast of the US. We'd love to have more people join us this year....all info is below. If you're interested in joining in leave a comment and I'll send you the name of the Yahoo group for you to join so you can join us.

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Announcing SAT14:

Foundations of ---------- For Stretching Art and Tradition 14, create a quilt, garment or dollinterpreting the theme "Foundations of __________________". You mayinterpret the theme as liberally or strictly as you like. Please, no foundation garments. Other than underwear, you might choose Foundations ofQuilting, Foundations of Faith, Architecture, or a good breakfast. We would like to encourage you to consider our original challenge intention, which was and still is the growth of the individual artists, through stretching yourselves by attempting a new form, technique, or material.

Stretching Artis an annual, un-juried fiber arts challenge which is displayed at thePennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza in Philadelphia, PA. If you would like to join the challenge, or would like more information, please join our yahoo group: StretchingArt.

Adminstravia:
Size of quilts must be no smaller than 18" and no larger than 30" in any direction.

Dolls must be a minimum of 18" tall and must come with a stand or be self-supporting.

Garments must come with a means to hang them.

Quilts must be delivered by August 17, 2012. (Delivery address will be given after signing up on Yahoo).

We are required to provide mailing info to PNQE2 weeks prior to ship date(the Friday before Labor Day).

Deadline to commit is March 1, 2012

* Note - if we do not have the minimum of 15 participants, PNQE will not accept our exhibit, so the deadline to commit is important.

Gratitudes -
1. Warmer temps mean the snow is almost melted.
2. Made progress with rewriting my resume today.

Thread Giveaway

Nancy from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shop is offering a wonderful giveaway on her blog of hand-dyed embroidery threads. I love using hand-dyed threads in my CQ work and these look lovely. Check them out by clicking "here"and enter her giveaway, tell her I sent you there. =)

Gratitudes:
1. todays weather was a little warmer
2. for my upstairs neighbor's son who shoveled the snow from the sidewalks here at the house.

Tree and UFO blocks

I just couldn't take it anymore and had to do some quilting this weekend. Should have been working on the commissioned sewing if I wasn't going to work on homework, but it's been so long since I've been able to actually quilt that I couldn't resist any longer. This quilt started with blocks from friends on QuiltChicks (Jane, Jodi, and Pat if I'm remembering correctly). I added two tree blocks, and 2 12 inch square blocks. the 2 inch squares that wind through the top are leftover strip sets from a swap I was in several years ago. Those blocks have yet to be put together. The pic is a little dark, but the predominate colors are assorted dark greens, several shades of dark brown and a splash of red. I'm still looking fabric to use as a border but haven't decided what color I want to use.

Meanwhile, I've pulled blocks for three more UFO quilts - two set of pastels, and a set of Blue/Yellow blocks. Need to pull out the commissioned sewing as well and get cracking on that stuff as well.

And finally, I've got several block possibilities going at the present time for my next submission as well, including a quilt that I plan to submit for possible submission. =)

Gratitudes:

1. Warmer temps this weekend.

2. School is going ok so far............now to finish strongly.

The winners are.....and answers to questions

The winners have been drawn for the two copies of Volume 4 of the 100 Blocks published by QuiltMaker - Congrats to Linda and Jean. And emails contacting them for addresses have been sent. If I don't hear back from either / both of them then I'll draw another comment as needed.

Now to answer questions -
Lori L asked how the border was done on the quilt I made from the block - The border was made by using one of the side sections of the block and laying it end to end to get a continual line.

An anonymous commenter asked what I would rate the difficulty of this block as - and I would say it's on the low to middle side of intermediate.

Dix asked how I choose "Quilted Snail" for my blog name - that came about after an ill-fated backpack trip with Campfire Girls as a kid when I was nicknamed snail. Long story there, but needless to say the name stuck, and people have collected snail figurines and stuff for me ever since. I had found the snail transfers 10 or more yrs ago on ebay (well 6 of the 7 in the set). Made the blocks and put them into a quilt. And figured that since I love quilting, the name "The Quilted Snail" was a good one for me and decided to use it in my blog and website.

Gratitudes:
1. My knee is doing soooooooooooo much better after physical therapy. Still more room to improve, but I can see it working. And i'm thankful for that.
2. A mini warmup is coming in the weather...won't last, but I'll enjoy while I can. =)

100 Blocks Blog Tour

Welcome to the 100 Blocks Blog Tour! I'm glad to have you visit my blog today. I love to design quilt blocks and quilts from those blocks. And have talked about trying to get my patterns published for years, so having a block published in Vol. 4 of the magazine has been exciting for me. When designing I still do a lot of my initial sketching by hand. But when I really get down to working on block patterns and layouts I move to the computer. I have been using Visio for most of what I do because it lets me play with it and I have to admit that it's been easier to work with it because of the years of experience with it. I love to play with blocks that go together quickly and simply but look a lot more complex than they really are or have secondary patterns that develop when the blocks are put together.

This block started with the idea of ribbon winding around a square. It came together fairly easily, and I liked the secondary patterns that developed when the blocks were put together. The block started off looking like the block at the right. And one of the many layouts that I came up with is shown to the left. In the end I decided to simplify it just a little and took out the blue flying geese shown in the pics above. I don't think that anything was lost. When I made the sample quilt, I used a section of the block to make a border for one side of the quilt.

Be sure to leave me a comment if you'd like to win one of two copies of the magazine! And if you leave a comment as "anonymous" please make sure to include a way to contact you if your is drawn.

Gratitudes -
1. A new, more efficient heater with the cold temps that are outside!
2. For the good day at South Newton High School today with the kids. =)

100 Blocks Blog Tour this week

The Blog hop in celebration of the release of QuiltMakers 100 Blocks, V. 4 is this week and starts today. QuiltMaker will be giving away a copy of the magazine to one of my blog readers (will be shipped from QuiltMaker). In addition I'll be giving away a copy of the magazine to someone who makes a comment to celebrate my block being included in the magazine (i'll be shipping this one).

I'm looking forward to talking about my block and the design process that I use when designing. on Thursday.

So be sure to come back and visit on Thursday November 11th and leave a comment on my blog to have a chance to win one of two copies of the magazine! Click here - http://quiltmaker.com/100blocks

Don't forget to check out all of the other blogs that will be showcased this week. =)

Gratitudes:
1. For the priveledge of having my block pattern published.
2. For the fun that I have when designing my block patterns and quilts!