Piece O' Cake Blog

Welcome back, Mr. Rogers...

I seem to be finding videos this week. I heard about this one featuring Mr. Rogers on All Things Considered last week and finally hunted it down. You may have seen it - I had not. It literally brought a tear to my eye. More than one tear — and it put a big grin on my face.

(This is the best use of Auto-Tune ever.)

 

You might also love the Bob Ross ReMix (remember his happy trees?). What the hay, here it is. More grins.

 

You might also love the Julia Child Remix. Click the link, once there you'll find other videos from NPR. 

 

Use your muscles...

(I apologize in advance to those of you who might not want to watch a heavily muscled man in admittedly small shorts. If this is you, just ignore this post. But if you're up for it, this is really sort of amazing.)

You may already have seen this, but I had not until just a few minutes ago. It's fun to watch, but then wait a bit when the video ends. It's not over. 

Here's a tip: when you see the record button, click it, then hit some keys on your keyboard.

Old Spice Muscle Music from Terry Crews on Vimeo.

 

 

For Addyson Grace...

No, that's not a typo. Both babies have Grace as their middle name. And their first names are 3-syllable names that start with "A". I have to stop and think before I say (or type) either name - but I don't see them often. I'll bet the members of the family that see them all the time have the names down pat. 

Alea, Addyson's mom, didn't have any color or design preferences. This quilt is just about the fabric. The center is a background that I had in my stash that didn't have a home. It found a home! I added borders and scattered butterflies from Applique With Attitude over the surface of the quilt - stitching them with #12 perle cotton and a running stitch.

Addyson's name isn't appliqued on the quilt top so I quilted it in with my signature. I had fund with the quilting - combining lines and flowers. I especially like the look of the two motifs meeting in the border. I hadn't done that before, but I will do it again.

I intentionally did not put a lot of applique on this quilt and I kept the pattern on the busy side. I want Addyson, like her cousin Annabelle, to use her quilt and love it to pieces!

For Annabelle Grace...

Both of my nieces, sisters Alea and Rachel, had babies in July. I don't always promise a baby quilt because I can't always get one made but this time I did promise. To both of them. And I finished both quilts before the babies were much more than 1 month old! Here is the quilt made for Annabelle Grace:

Rachel requested color combined with black and white. I decided to play with progressions of color and size to give Annabelle something to think about. Small strips lead to larger strips, light yellow blends to darker blue. The dark blue strips are centered and act as an axis in the design.

I wrote her name in my best longhand and enlarged it to make a template. I used the cutaway applique technique and appliqued it in place with perle cotton.

The quilting is fun! I quilted lines in the strips but switched to flowers in the prints. (Note: you can click on any of these photos to see it larger.)

I made this quilt to hold up to wear and washing. The more it is washed the softer it will be. I mostly used prints so that stains won't show so much. If it gets dragged around on the floor - that's just fine. I hope Annabelle uses it for a very long time.

Tomorrow I'll show Addyson's quilt...

How to separate an egg...

I found this video via Valerie Hearder's facebook page. As she says, you really don't need to understand the language to see how this works. I can't wait to try it!

UPDATE: I tried it and it works! I had a very fresh egg - I think a regular one from the store might work even better. I used a really short plastic bottle - I think one more the size shown would work better. But, as I said, it works and it's better than using my egg separator. Who knew?!

 

Now I need to get back to doing something that is actually on the to-do list for today.

Magen's Flower Garden...

Look what Linda made for her neice, Magen!

Linda rediscovered the joy of English paper piecing and has been going to town with hexagons. She made the flowers and then appliqued them to the quilt. I've just put the pattern up on the web site. Click here for more information about the quilt and the pattern.

It's always interesting to write instructions for a technique that I haven't written about before. Linda gave me the tips that she had come up with as she worked on this quilt. I combined that with what I know from my own English paper piecing. Steve took the photos to illustrate the techniques... all of that went into this new pattern. Here's one of the how-to photos:

I really love digital technology! Imagine, 10 years ago it would have taken a lot more time and money (and printing, warehousing, and shipping) to get this pattern from us to you. It's amazing when you think about it. (FYI - I'll probably upload a movie showing how to English paper piece in the near-ish future.)

I'll send a newsletter soon announcing this pattern, and new fabric that isn't online yet, and there is one more pattern to get up... but before then I thought I'd share Magen's Flower Garden with you.

Star Wars lives on...

I am a fan of Star Wars. Our sons played the first 3 movies (that are actually the last 3 movies) so much in their youth that I know the dialog by heart. Now grandson Jack, at 4 1/2, is a fan of Star Wars AND the Clone Wars animated series (which is actually pretty good).

Jack's favorite toys are Legos, especially Star Wars Legos. He's growing his hair out to look more like the guys he sees in Star Wars. (Really!? The mens' hair was bad in the movies and it's still bad - but kids don't see it that way. Sigh. My grandson sports Star Wars hair and I love him so I suppose I can learn to love the hair.)

Today I ran across these travel posters by Steve Thomas that feature famous Star Wars locales. What a great idea to combine the Art Deco style with these imagined places... like Alderon:

Gotta love the Death Star moon.

I am so tempted to buy one of these (not this one, it's sold out - but there are others). I'm not sure who should get it. Jack? Chris? Jeff? Maybe Steve needs one in the Dean's office... If I could afford it I'd get one for each of them. (Birthday and Christmas season is coming - you guys should let me know if you want one.)

OK - enough of this. Now I must get back to work. I'm quilting baby quilts. I'll have more to show on that very soon!

Star Wars lives on...

I am a fan of Star Wars. Our sons played the first 3 movies (that are actually the last 3 movies) so much in their youth that I know the dialog by heart. Now grandson Jack, at 4 1/2, is a fan of Star Wars AND the Clone Wars animated series (which is actually pretty good).

Jack's favorite toys are Legos, especially Star Wars Legos. He's growing his hair out to look more like the guys he sees in Star Wars. (Really!? The mens' hair was bad in the movies and it's still bad - but kids don't see it that way. Sigh. My grandson sports Star Wars hair and I love him so I suppose I can learn to love the hair.)

Today I ran across these travel posters by Steve Thomas that feature famous Star Wars locales. What a great idea to combine the Art Deco style with these imagined places... like Alderon:

Gotta love the Death Star moon.

I am so tempted to buy one of these, but then I'm not sure who should get it. Jack? Chris? Jeff? Maybe Steve needs one in the Dean's office... If I could afford it I'd get one for each of them. (Birthday and Christmas season is coming - you guys should let me know if you want one.)

OK - enough of this. Now I must get back to work. I'm quilting baby quilts. I'll have more to show on that very soon!

The Modern...

I visited the Trinity Valley Quilt Guild and the Denton Quilt Guild this week. Such nice people! I taught and lectured and didn't have time to snap a photo of any of it. You know, I ought to give my camera to someone in the room and ask them to be the photographer! If I end up visiting your guild and you want to volunteer, just ask!

After the lecture on Friday, I had time to visit The Modern Art Musem in Ft. Worth. I had been wanting to see the exhibit of portraits by Lucien Freud and it was worth seeing. He spent his life painting people and he did it well. That said, I'm not sure he was a happy man.

Many, if not most, of the figures in this exhibit were painted with downcast eyes. It made me realize how much I like a portrait that looks me in the eye.

I had time to eat lunch in the cafe. Great food, lovely setting.

I visited some of the works from the permanent collection. I don't know why but I have always loved this painting (Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 1960, by Robert Motherwell)...

I have no idea how it relates to the Spanish Republic and I don't care. I like it. And I like this:

I didn't make note of the artist's name but the placement of this piece is perfect. It is in a passageway, opposite a huge window and outside of that is the very large reflecting pool. Nice. It made me spend some moments thinking about reflections, and reflecting.

I like modern art in general but I don't love it all. (Refer back to the post on what is or isn't art). For instance, the works in this room...

Really, if you saw any of these in a yard sale, would you take them home? 

I sort of like the box/cube but I know I wouldn't pay for it what the museum paid for it. And the words in boxes on the wall... I wonder if the artist was grinning all the way to the bank after installing that one.

I feel completely certain that there is deeply thought out idea and lengthy artist's statement to go with each of these works. I didn't stop to read them this time. Even when text helps to place a piece in context, I like the work to stand on its own without explanation. I suppose I'm a philistine (one uninformed in a special area of knowledge). I can live with that.

One more thing about The Modern - the building and grounds are lovely. Worth visiting. And if you go, touch the walls. The feel of the concrete is amazing - smooth, velvety. Lovely to look at.

 

Door #3 is coming along...

I'm not sure exactly what I did over the weekend but I was really busy doing it and I have a variety of things to show for my efforts. None finished, but there are some interesting balls in the air. I did get Door #3 designed and up on the wall...

The door is layered and won't be this wide. Since I know what it is supposed to look like I can tell from this that it will work. 

I'm still stitching on Door #2 (in the middle). There's a plant that isn't on the block yet. I did take this photo before I took them all off the wall. I think they are going to be really fun together!

Where did the week go?

I've looked up and it's Friday - again! How does that happen? I know I was out of town teaching but I did fly home on Wednesday. I know I've been busy but it's a blur. I should be able to look at many things marked off the list but I didn't make a list.  I really need to write things down...

I know I've made progress on Door #2. I have more leaves for the tree and a whole other plant that will go on the ledge above and to the left above the door. I've got the pattern for Door #3 ready to begin working on. 

I've about decided to make each of my doors a separate quilt. I think it will be fun to be able to move them around. 

I did run across this photo of radiators that I took in the first classroom I taught in in Moline. The building, and others used often by the guild, are owned by John Deere. Many of the buildings used to be residences of various members of the Deere family. These are amazing properties and it was fun to get to teach in one of them.

I love the repetition of the design on each 'wing' of the radiator. I should have taken more photos.

Have a good weekend - may you, and I, get some sewing done!

Some things seen in Moline...

When I teach I am mostly too busy working to take photos. But on my morning walk I have my phone with me and can snap an interesting image. Moline is a pretty city and I enjoyed my time there. There are some lovely buildings but right now I am noticing doors. I've masked off the many stickers on the glass door below....

As I looked at this door and so many others I realized that in the US, we may preserve the interesting parts of a building around a door, but we most often replace the door itself. Think about it. How often do you open a really interesting door? Do you make note of it when you do?

I know why we replace doors. We want more energy efficiency and that is a laudable reason. Businesses want glass so that people can see in. But after looking at so many wonderful old European doors, I wish we had more of them in our lives here in the US. Maybe those of you who live in the first 13 colonies have those doors. Here in Texas, not so much.

What caught my eye here were the areas of red and brown and the contrast between the solid colors and the texture of the bricks. Yes, these are doorways, but I was stopped by the way the colors and shapes worked together on this wall, not by the fact that these are doors.

These metal fish made me stop. What are they for? 

There were many of them, folded over this concrete edge near a restaurant and barand a couple of other businesses. The Mississippi river was a half-block away. Fishing is big here so I know that's why fish are an image that is used. But these guys are just lying there, on the edge of the concrete. The same fish, repeated many times, next to each of the supports for the handrail. Here's a close-up:

They are decorative metal fish with no purpose that I can see. If they were on a climbing wall they'd be a good hand-hold. It is stuff like this that stops me in my tracks and makes me wonder. Why? Honestly, I like things like this to make sense and/or to be wonderful to look at. I guess it's good when something makes me stop to wonder - but then I want an answer and I don't have one with these stupid fish! What are they for?

In other news, Steve is now a blogger! You can see his first two blog posts here. I'll add a link to his blog in my Links area very soon. It's fun to see what he posts - so different from what I post. Isn't it great that we are all so different?!

 

Building backgrounds...

I just finished teaching a 2-day class based on my quilt, The Ground, As Seen From Above. This class is very much about cutting organic lines, without a ruler. This is lots of fun once you get into it but it's very different if you've never cut without a ruler or measurements to follow.

On the first day my students constructed their backgrounds and they are all wonderful! Here is Karla's, a lovely mix of green and blue batiks:

And Susan's. I love the purples she used! 

Faye's quilt is a lot darker than it looks here, and a bit more wine-colored. I love the movement in it!

Hope's quilt is actually greener than it looks here, and it's very pretty. The light, open spaces are well-placed.

Kathy's quilt is fresh and happy, with a great mix of patterns:

I love the way Bonnie played with the open space in her quilt.

It was fun to see Christy working on her quilt - she looked so good in standing in front of it!

Christy's mom, Marilyn, worked in vertical strips. The areas of blue shine through:

Mary was deciding on the colors of her wheels when I took this photo - when last I checked she was liking the brown ones. She has a nice mix of textures and values going on:

Paula's inspiration is a New England fall and you can see it in her quilt:

Today we appliqued and it was another good day. I'm proud of how well everyone did!

What's behind Door #2?

I think there is a happy family behind Door #2! I know the new block looks way too big to fit with Door #1, but it gets trimmed to size after the applique is complete. 

I've made some progress since I last showed you the doors. The panels in the yellow doors are reverse appliqued and the 'stained glass' window over the door is stitched off the block. I needed to get the whole door and trim appliqued so that I could set the rest of the block together. I've designed these blocks so that they can be set together in one quilt or stand alone as individual quilts.

Here's a tip for stitching something like the window. Cut the underneath fabric bigger than it needs to be (in this case it's the floral print). Trace around the template onto the underneath fabric. Trace and cut out the smaller pieces. Finger-press them and sew them to the fabric like this...

Once the 'spokes' are sewn to the underneath fabric you can treat this as one piece and sew it in place. 

As I type this I'm taking a break from cutting leaves for the plants that go next to the door. I'm going out of town tomorrow to visit the Mississippi Valley Quilt Guild in Iowa and I really want to have some stitching to take with me. So now I'm going to get back to it!

FYI - You can click here to read about my class for Adventures In Italy where I will be teaching from the door patterns. My class is called Open A Door To Adventure.

Is it Art or art?

Some years ago my very good friend, Karen Stone, showed me some of the wonderful paintings in her house. As I was ooohing and ahhhing, she told me that they came from antique stores and garage sales. They weren't 'Art' with a capital 'A'. They were paintings that had been painted by someone and that ended up owner-less, discarded. The thing is that she loved them (and so did I).

Since then I've bought a variety of discarded art paintings myself. This was my first one:

(FYI - click on any image and it should open up larger.)

I absolutely love this painting. I took it to Kim and Neva at The Frame Team here in Sherman - the best picture framers I have ever met. Both of them are incredibly good at choosing the right frame for any project. What you see on this painting is a liner frame in green with a wider, cherry-colored outer frame. Perfect.

Neva and Kim have, over the years, collected similar works. They have a good eye and they get out more than I do. I was in their shop this week and had a chance to see, and photograph, these...

The sailboat painting on the left is calling me. And then there are these...

Look at the cow up close. Goodness gracious, I LOVE this cow (and I don't like cows all that much). The problem is that I have run out of walls!

FYI: Kim and Neva have an etsy shop (click here) where you can see much of what they have collected and have for sale. 

I recently bought one of their finds that we titled Nuclear Sunrise (this was before the cow came in, so to speak). I love it because of the colors in it. It is perfect in the spot above this green cabinet, which lives behind a door in our bedroom. We went with a smaller, less expensive frame for this one. It's a deep violet/raspberry that is really good with the colors in the painting.

It's not a painting I see all the time, but it's an interesting surprise when I happen to be in a spot to see it. 

I could show you more of Kim and Neva's collection here but it's probably eaiser for you to go to their etsy pages. 

So back to the original question: Art or art? When I go to a museum and look at the art, I sometimes ask myself: If this was in a garage sale, would I buy it? Many expensive and respected works do not, for me, pass this test. Once I took that to heart, I find it much easier to find works that I love in the most unusual places.

I've also found that I have much more of a sense of the artist in these discarded paintings. Someone felt the need to express her or himself and they just did it, most likely without classes or training. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but that feeling of the artist is a large part of what makes these pieces more special to me.

The same thing is true in quilts. I find that I am personally very attracted to quirky quilts - and I am looking forward to working more quirkiness into my own quilts in the future. 

NOTE: if you go to Neva and Kim's etsy page, and if you fall in love with something but don't live here and you want it framed... if you do not have a good option where you live I can attest to the fact that they can choose the perfect frame for any of these pieces.