Please Look After Mom

I have just finished a great book, Please Look After Mom.

This book is an international best seller by a Korean author who is already highly acclaimed in her native country.  This is her first book to appear in English and I am hoping others will soon follow!

The story is about the family of a woman who is lost in the crowd at the Seoul train station.  One learns of her life through the thoughts, memories and guilt of her adult children and her husband as they try to find her and while they struggle with this new twist in their lives.  It is a fascinating read, delving into the relationships in families: those between parent and child, between siblings, between in-laws, and between spouses.  Click here to read New York Times book review, click here for the Good Reads link, or click here to connect to Amazon.

Early Evening

This is my little quilt that I've made for Kate North's Sixth "Another Little Quilt Swap" (ALQS) which is taking place now (dare I admit that it is the size of a placemat?).  About my little quilt ... a few years ago, at the International Quilt Festival (IQF), I took a class with Jackie Robinson called "24 Batiks".   I love the colors of the batiks I used, so it was an easy decision to put the left-over cuts and blocks together, making a quilt for Kate's little quilt swap.  I call my little quilt "Early Evening" as the colors remind me of the slowly darkening sky at dusk.  Here it is:

"Early Evening"

Note:  I will be re-working the binding as I am not pleased with it's appearance in this photo (or in the actual quilt).

I had fun piecing this little top as I did not follow the original pattern layout of the "24 Batiks" pattern, but rotated my equilateral triangles in a variety of ways.  Quilting this was also a great exercise.  I did free motion quilting on my trusty old Bernina, changing the stitch for the different batik pieces.  Take a look at the following detail views.

And here is a second close-up view.

Later this month, Kate will send me the name and address of the lucky new owner of my quilt and I will mail it promptly to her.  At the same time, a new quilt will be on its way to my home.  I can hardly wait to see whose quilt I will soon own!

I swapped once before, in the Fourth ALQS, trading a remake of my "Big Foot, the Foot" quilt.  Follow the swaps made in ALQS4 to see more wonderful quilts.  The great thing about Kate's swaps is that they are "guilt-free" -- if you sign up, but are unable to finish your quilt by the deadline, no problem!  The swaps are all traded based on who ever does finish by the deadline, and no hard feelings if this doesn't include you.  I like this as I once signed up for ALQS #5, but was unable to finish.  I'm already percolating a few new ideas for the next trade ..... join the fun!

Kate has mentioned that she will host another swap, Another Little Quilt Swap #7.  So if you like sharing your quilt art with others and have no objections to mailing internationally, watch her blog, "Another Little Quilt Swap"at http://anotherlittlequiltswap.blogspot.com/  for the sign-up window and for other details.  The rules are really quite minimal and the joy is tremendous!

a talk with Jo

In a recent email chat with my friend Jo, she reminded me that her Button Candy quilt (featured in the previous post) started as a single block -- one made in reply to a design challenge we had in our Beyond the Borders (BTB) art quilt group.  Nancy Dickey, our leader at the time, had us create something (a drawing or quilt) using buttons.  I managed to pencil sketches (which I may post, if I locate that sketch pad).

Jo stitched up her first button candy -- the bag of hard candies.  She told me that:
          "I had so much fun making the bag of candies that I dived into my button stash, found it wanting, and proceeded to look for "vintage" buttons or newer interesting ones.  Now I have collected enough buttons for several projects"

I like her quilt so much, I plan to stitch up my own version of Button Candy.

Button Candy

 Jo Sweet, one of my Beyond the Borders friends (BTB), has made a great quilt favoring the sweet things in life.  Her quilt was in the latest quilt show by the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH).  In case you missed that show, I have a few photos to share.  First a full view of Jo's quilt, which she calls "Button Candy."

Button Candy by Jo Sweet

The multi-color polka-dotty sashing is a great offset to the four blocks of this fun quilt.

Jelly Beans

Every candy store always has a big vat of Jelly Beans --- what fun to scoop your own!

Hard Candies

I love a tasty hard candy, especially when fighting a sore throat.

Jaw Breakers

One huge jaw breaker to chomp on is also a fun candy treat.  Who wants one of these?

Box of Chocolates

My favorite of all is Jo's Box of Chocolates!  Are they truffles or some other yummy chocolate treats?


I'd write more, but first I think I'll go grab a bit of chocolate .... Actually, I want to make my own Button Candy quilt, don't you?

Alice's Odyssey

 Look at this!  It's the Best Of Show quilt from this summer's Quilt Show extravaganza held by the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH).  See the names?  Mine is on that list !

"Alice's Odyssey"

This quilt, Alice's Odyssey, was made by members of Beyond the Borders art quilt group (BTB) - my fiber art friends.  It began a few years ago when we were dreaming up a new challenge to taunt everyone with.  Bethany suggested we do a puzzle quilt and off we ran ..... this quilt is a puzzle, made of separate smaller quilts shaped as puzzle pieces.  Each puzzle piece depicts some aspect of our many favorite stories and plots found in the classic "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.

We each "signed up" for a specific puzzle piece -- they vary in size -- and also selected which mini-story within the larger story we wished to illustrate.  Then we were off and running, tackling many problems as they arose, and forever pushing back our "must be complete by" deadline (beware of this phenomenon if you choose to participate in a group piece).

Perhaps the largest puzzle, err, challenge, was figuring out how in the world to put all the puzzle pieces together.  Or how to transport the final version of our quilt may have been a larger stumbling block.  Regardless of the many issues we hurdled together, this is our glorious end product.  I find it stunning, if I may be so bold to say so.

Good news:  Alice's Odyssey will be in a special exhibit at this year's annual International Quilt Festival and Quilt Market that start later this month.   As it is very true that photos simply do not do justice to fiber art  ... this is one quilt that has to be seen in person, so be sure to come to the International Quilt Festival this year!!!

Best of Show!

Back to Alice's Odyssey -- Above is simply another photo of our prize-winning group quilt.  Congratulations to all my friends in Beyond the Borders (BTB)!  We were quite pleased when our group quilt won "Best of Show" this summer in our local quilt show.  It is the highest place one of our BTB group quilts has every achieved!

I'm ready ...

I'm Ready For My Closeup, Mr. deMille

Liz Broussard, the creator of this cute bird quilt, sent me this photo to share with everyone.  I must agree, it is much better than the one I snapped at the QGGH Quilt Show this summer.  Enjoy!


For more details on Liz's quilt, read the post below .....

Bird-Brained Blocks

This is the latest group quilt made by my friends in Beyond the Borders (BTB), a local Art Quilt group affiliated with the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH). 

Bird Brained Blocks

Our original challenge was to create a small 8" x 10" quilt (no larger and no smaller) with a whimsical bird theme.  Additional parameters were to use "Honeysuckle" (declared the 'color' of the year - as of last spring) and to use silk (preferably raw or dupioni).  Five quilts were gathered to create our finished quilt "Bird-Brained Blocks".  The five bird quilts were made by Elaine Connelly (our current BTB leader), Jo Sweet (the longest participating member of BTB), Janice McKeehan (who made two quilts for this challenge) and myself.  We were quite tickled and honored to win a 2nd place ribbon in the Art Quilt category at our guild's 2011 Quilt Show, "A Quilt's Odyssey".

I confess, I was surprised to find myself making another variation of my oft-repeated Big Foot theme.  My piece is the flamigo curiously peering at the egg that is cracking open to reveal a new member of the family.  Click here to see a few of my earlier Big Foot pieces.

Two other bird-brained quilts were in the Quilt Odyssey show as solo entries.  Liz Broussard  named her quilt "I'm Ready for My Closeup, Mr. deMille".  She used snow-dyed silk as a backdrop for a henna inspired design.  Inktense pencils, crayons and acrylic paint were also used.

I'm Ready for My Closeup, Mr. deMille

Barbara Jensen made "Tripped by the Tulle, a Ballerina's Fall".  Her original piece was inspired by the movie "The Black Swan".  She had fun adding detail elements to her prima donna ballerina -- such as her false eyelashes, her fancy tulle and her glamorous hot-fix crystals.

Tripped by the Tulle - A Ballerina's Fall

Barbara won a 2nd place ribbon in the miniature quilt category for her birdie quilt!  Go Barbara!