TAST 2012

Calling all the Stitchers (and Stitcher-wannabe's) out there -- it is time to sign up for TAST -- Take A Stitch Tuesday!

Don't you like the label?  It is created by Annet, whose blog is fat-quarter.blogspot.com

Take A Stitch Tuesday is run by Sharon B, from her blog PinTangle.com, where she has posted a list of the many who've already signed up to participate.  Basically, Sharon (who lives in Australia) posts a stitch each Tuesday (in Australia, which appears here on Monday) and challenges everyone to try out this stitch on something this week.  It is an open group, one can follow along, or join it and share their stitches made via Stitchin Fingers group, or via blogs, or through Flickr.  To learn more click here (for details on the new year's group & sign-up list - and to sign up!) or click here to see Sharon's  "For-the-Love-of-Stitching Band Sampler" or click here to learn more about any number of community challenges.

If you're interested in the Stitchin Finger group (a ning thing) click here for a direct jump to the homepage.

Betty's quilt and Lynn's books

Reasonably Realistic Structures, 2011

Here is the full view of Betty's quilt, which she calls "Reasonably Realistic Structures."  Betty made her quilts from ten house blocks that were swapped in the QGGH Block Builders Bee many years ago (possibly more than a decade ago? but less than 15 years ...right, Betty?).

The quilters who traded in this ten-block swap begin with Betty Rivers (who is the first to piece her blocks into a finished quilt!), Lynn Roddy Brown (the initiater/organizer/planner of this swap), Rita Carter, Jill Danzer, Denise Goodman, Catherine Purifoy (who has quilts featured in Fons & Porter, click here and here), Barbara Reynolds, Harriet Rhea, Elizabeth Stewart, and myself, Cathy Winter.  Lynn, the organizer of this swap, is our most famous swapper as she has published not one but three books all about making (and trading) scrappy blocks and quilts.

Her books are:

Simple Strategies for Scrap Quilts

This is her first quilting book and features my favorite, "The Texas Two Step".  I have also spied one (or two?) of my blocks on this cover -- but I will not try to point out which one is my block!  Click here to see other quilts featured in this book.

Simple Strategies for Block-Swap Quilts

Lynn's second book has more fun scrappy quilts, including a few more that I have blocks in!  How exciting it is to see blocks I made featured in a quilt that has been photographed and published in one of Lynn's books!  Click here to see more quilts from patterns featured in this book.

Patchwork-Play Quilts

This is her most recent book published.  I ran into Lynn during Quilt Market this year, where she kept busy autographing copies of her newest book.  Stay tuned, I think she may be writing another book already (perhaps one of my quilts will get into one of her future books, eventually .... it never hurts to dream big, right?).  Click here to learn more about my friend Lynn Roddy Brown.

Be sure to check out her website http://www.lynnroddybrown.com any time.  Note: Look for Lynn's books at your local quilt shop.  They are available through Amazon.com as well.

Rita's house

Rita Carter is a member of our Block Builders house-swapping group.  Here she is, next to her house.

Of course, at the moment, I can't recall which of the two story red brick houses is Rita's (apologies to Rita!)  I will correct this post once I've remembered (or been reminded) which is hers, promise!  (hazards of aging -- the forgetful mind, or is it the hazard of holding onto UFOs for far-too-long?).

 

Here are the three of us at the Quilt Show this past summer.  I only wish that more of our group of ten were there that day.

Stay tuned, tomorrow I will post a view of the quilt without smiling quilters blocking it.  As mentioned previously, this is Betty Rivers' quilt made from ten blocks traded many years ago when we were all in the QGGH Block Builders Bee.  I have since switched to another bee, but the Block Builders Bee still meets (on Wednesdays, right?) -- perhaps I will rejoin them!

Betty's house

This is Betty Rivers in front of her house block, the one just above her smile.

With a last name Rivers, naturally Betty incorporated a flowing stream, err, river, in her house block.  Her house is set in the woods, next to a flowing river.  Look to the left to see a narrow sliver of my red Victorian.  Notice that she added a gingerbread man in her doorway, too.

As mentioned in the post before this one, this is Betty's quilt made of blocks we traded in our Block Builders Bee several years ago.  There were ten quilters that made blocks for this building swap.  Mine are still in my collection of UFOs while Betty finished hers in time for this year's QGGH quilt show.  She has finished other award-winning quilts from blocks we traded in our bee.  Click here to see another one of Betty's quilts.

My house

Years ago, I made ten of these two-story red Victorian homes for a small block swap in my Block Builders Bee, one of the many bees in the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH). 

 

For this swap, each of the ten swappers were to make ten blocks of a house -- I can't recall now if we had a size restriction, possibly a size range to keep in within (larger than X" and smaller than Y').  I'll check to see if anyone remembers.  Should I mention that my ten blocks are one of my many UFOs?  Then what is this I'm standing in front of, you ask?  Betty Rivers pieced her blocks together and entered it into this year's QGGH quilt show!  She added the gingerbread man standing in my doorway.

A Texas Call ...

Craft Texas has opened it's 2012 Call for Art ... This Call culminates into a Fall Show, CraftTexas 2012, at the Houston Contemporary Craft Center (HCCC).  This is the seventh year for this special exhibit which features the best of Contemporary Craft made in Texas.  Featured artists, artisans and craftsmen hail from across our grand state and specialize in a diversity of materials including fiber, wood, glass, metal, clay, recyled/found objects and more.  Click here for more information about the exhibit and application process or go to http://www.crafthouston.org to see learn more about HCCC.

Applications are made through CaFE, CallForEntry.org, a website that specializes in Calls for Art (this is the first time I've ever heard of it -- but then I rarely apply these days ...).   Now just because I'm not applying, doesn't mean you shouldn't!  Go for it! (but you must live in Texas .... so move here, if necessary!)

Don't Kill the Birthday Girl

This book happens to be my second memoir this month ...  a different kind of memoir ....

Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life by Sandra Beasley is a fascinating read, all the more so for me as I have two allergic Kindergarteners in my class this year, one of whom is highly allergic.  My eyes have been opened to a precarious life-hazard previously unknown (or rather unrecognized) by me.  Sandra weaves her story of emergency room visits and her coping techniques (not recommended for you to try) with facts about foods and their associated allergies.   Click here to read another review with more comments/endorsements.  If you have a friend who has food allergies, or a friend whose child suffers from food allergies, then reading this book is a must.  Don't Kill the Birthday Girl is an excellent read even if you do not have allergies.

Note: I happened on this book in my local library on the New Releases shelf.  Perhaps you will find a copy in your local library -- or request it through inter-library loan -- or borrow it from a friend -- or read an e-book version -- or purchase it from a local bookstore or via an online one.  Have I listed all the possible options yet?