The Mechanical Muse...

 

It was revolutionary! I'm talking about the invention of the sewing machine way back in the mid-1800s. It made the entire ready-to-wear clothing market possible and it transformed home sewing among other impacts. This quilt is an ode to our sewing machines. It began with a layer cake of 10" squares and then, when I ran out of fabric, a sewing friend handed me the print with the old sewing machines on it. They got incorporated in the design, and here we have "The Mechanical Muse." A muse is defined as "a source of artistic inspiration". Yes, sewing machines can be our muse. 

How many machines do you have? I have three currently, and they all have jobs to do. This Elna Excellence 730 is my newest. I purchased it from a sewing friend who was ready to buy new machine. It's pretty, reliable, and a versatile workhorse. It's my primary machine. And I love how well lit the sewing area is. It took a bit to get used to the push button start feature, but now I've put the foot pedal away and use the button exclusively.

The second machine resides at our home in town. I really appreciate having a machine in each location to say nothing of a sewing room to go with! This Bernina 440 QE is also one I purchased from another quilting friend who was upgrading her machine. This is the one on which I do free-motion quilting on smaller projects. There's one of my Selvage Queens on the throat plate. I'll show you more about those in an upcoming post.

Bernina even has her own dust cover for when she's not in use. This wacky face is one I made in a workshop with quilting legend Yvonne Porcella. It was great fun, but what to do with the class project? Turn it into the dust cover, of course! Now I smile whenever I see it.

And my third machine is a lightweight, portable Eversewn Sparrow. It's been with me for nearly a decade and it's the go-to machine for classes and retreats. The other two are just too heavy to lug with all the other supplies. This photo was taken on our guild retreat last year and the Eversewn is hard at work. In the foreground you can even see a glimpse of everybody's favorite machine- the Singer Featherweight! Those sturdy little vintage machines often show up at retreats. They are reliable, even if not fancy with bells and whistles, and so portable. And speaking of bells and whistles... aren't today's machines right over the top with all they can do?!  

The same quilting friend who gave me the sewing machine print also added some sewing machine panels in case they'd be of use in the project. They were a little too golden for the quilt, but one of them made a dandy book cover. While I was at it, I also made two covers using Riley Blake panels by artist J Wecker Frisch. 

Here are the backsides. And don't you find that quilters are so generous? The Riley Blake panels and companion fabrics were also given to me by yet another quilting friend. Jackpot!

Happy 250th America!

 

Celebrate America! We are back at The Brick (Brick City Gallery in Ocala, FL). The annual Upcycled: Remembering & Reclaiming exhibit was held in March and the theme this year was honoring America's 250th and our veterans. Once again, a varied selection of media was featured along with repurposed items. This paper collage is "America's Pride" made by Edward Husser.

"Remembrance" by Lisa D Regan includes pieces of a wire brush (the poppy), old war medals, a flag topper (the eagle), and chopped up credit cards. Quite imaginative use of materials!

There were several fiber entries. "Hand Bag Flag in Denim" is by Stacie Pedrick. She used multi-colored denim pieces as well as curtain lace and a recycled belt for the bag strap. 

Stephani Schuster's "Threads of Freedom" includes parts of a navy uniform, wedding dress scraps, t-shirt material, denim and lace. The American Eagle was a popular subject for several entries.

My entry was this assemblage art piece titled "Pieces of America". All sorts of buttons, game pieces, jewelry bits and tiny flags found their way into this photo frame. It was fun to make, and it has found a new home. All of the art on exhibit is for sale.

"Stars of Service" by Cynthia Ancel is crafted from garage sale paint and discards from a pile of wood scrap. 

 

Another assemblage piece, "In War and Peace" by Kudra Migliacolo is made from shiplap wood scraps, vintage catalog pages, candy tins, trophy parts, buttons and fabrics.

Actual military memorabilia from both WWII and the Vietnam War are included in "Peace Starts at Home" by Jessica Carter. She also incorporated vintage maps, papers, and sheet music. And the topper is tiny military figures.

The back wall of the Brick City Gallery shows how nicely the items displayed against the clean, white background.

"Combat Boots" by Kathy Sage is a collage that includes prints from her deceased artist friend and uses recycled elastic for the boot laces. And the light-up assemblage by Ann Carreno was created from a glass bottle, wood, paper, beads, and acrylic paints. It's a lively piece!

Hope you enjoyed the visit to The Brick and the creativity on display for America's 250th! Happy 4th!

Is Your Phone Full of Pet Photos, Too?

All sorts of canine and feline art is on display at The Brick City Center for the Arts in Ocala, Florida, this month! Our local Subaru dealer (Subaru is known for supporting pet causes) sponsored an exhibit titled "Cats & Dogs: A Portrait of Devotion". There are paintings, mixed media, and fiber art pieces to enjoy. "May I Have a Glass of Wine" is by Lisandra Gonzalez. There was plenty of whimsy among the art pieces because... well... it's cats and dogs!

This is "Denim Doodle", the creation of Stacie Pedrick. Denim- the next best thing to a real Doodle!

"These are for Me?!" by Samantha Zerman depicts the overflowing toy basket awaiting the cat after just being adopted. Hopefully you can see the embossed hearts and cats in the black background. Lucky kitty!

One thing that impressed me is how well the artists captured those wonderful pet expressions. This entry is "Waiting" by Steven Swanhart. I've seen this look before. Portraits of Devotion really sums it up.

"Harley-Quinn" by Jeffrey Selker is an oil portrait done on wrap-around canvas. The colors echo that of a calico cat and this one clearly has great presence!

This Fabric Collage titled "Kitten Face" is full of unicorns, rainbows, and kittens.

This happy crew greets visitors right by the entry to the gallery. Among them is my "Who's a Good Boy" art quilt. And it found a new home! All of the art in the exhibit is for sale and there were sold stickers on several pieces. I wrote about this quilt here when we had the unfortunate incident known as the "Dusty Dust-up". We adopted Dusty, a sweet little pup, only to learn that his separation anxiety was beyond control and he did some damage in our home. Sadly, we had to return him to the rescue organization. The good news- he found another home with multiple dogs so he will never be alone! Happy, tail-wagging ending.

I'm now getting my "dog fix" by doing the neighborhood "rent-a-dog" program. Our neighbor has Westies. I borrowed her little guy Baron to accompany me on a couple of my walks. Just enough... for now anyway.

This info poster gives more details.

Stay tuned- I've got another Brick City exhibit coming soon for America's 250th!

 

Tale of a Troll and Two Quilts...

 

Just look at that face! Meet Big Pete. He is the creation of Danish artist Thomas Dambo and he was recently installed in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dambo's trolls are all constructed with many volunteers helping. I got to meet him in December when I visited family there.

Big Pete is made from all recycled materials. He's one of a family of five trolls located in various cities around the state. Here's a fun video narrated by the artist you might enjoy. 

Big Pete's big feet are both a blessing and a curse. He gets around on them readily, but, while walking, he crushes the wild flowers and other plants he loves so much. So he decided to lie down and save the plants. So explains the Dambo poem displayed at the site.

Here he is, reflecting on his dilemma. Very pensive looking. Go see Pete is you get a chance.

Here's a photo of our son Lee and me standing before Pete to give you an idea of his size. He's quite a fellow! That's Winston the Boxer with us. He enjoyed the outing, too.

We also visited The Whitewater Center there. One of the highlights was seeing these Scottish Highland cows in residence for the winter months. They are docile and friendly, so were a big hit with visitors.

And here is one of the quilts noted in the post title. I call it "Spare Parts" because it began with laying out assorted leftover blocks from other projects on the "design floor". As I studied the blocks, this combination emerged. Given its smaller size, I decided to machine quilt it myself on my domestic Bernina. I first watched Karen Brown's YouTube video for ideas and really liked how quick and easy it was to sew the wavy diagonal lines to complete the quilt.

The other quilt is a sweet old one from maybe late 1800s. I borrowed it from owner Suzon Teuton, who had it in her family treasures. It's a Florida quilt made by one of her ancestors. I love strippy setting and bars quilts, and this one was truly special. Suzon generously allowed me take it to quilt guild for other quilters to see and appreciate. That pink stripe is the print, and it along with all the fabrics are in such good condition despite their age. Notice the one yellow square in the middle of the quilt! So simple, it's made with Nine Patch blocks altertating with plain blocks, and wide sashing strips between the rows. Notice also how the plain blocks are in a tan colorway of the fabric print while the sashing is the same print but in a pink colorway. It's hand quilted in my favorite Baptist Fan motif. Just lovely!

Spring is for Quilt Shows...

 

Traditional, whimsical, innovative, masterful- whatever your cup of quilting tea, you'll get your fill at a quilt show. A local quilt shop, Miss Dee's in Palatka, Florida, kicked off spring with her Quilts by the River. It's so inspiring to enjoy a quilt show and see the wonderful pool of talent on display! This lovely  Hidden Circles by Shelley Stauffer is so beautifully pieced and hand quilted that it stopped me in my tracks. It fairly sparkles. I tried looking up the pattern in my copy of Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, but didn't find a match. It's complex for sure.

And then there were the aliens. This one entertains. We Come in Piece is the entry of Janel Bendis, Lisa and Candi. The improvisational piecing is a study in itself, but then the quirky bodies and expressions on the characters were a separate story. What fun it must have been to make this one. As you can see, it earned a blue ribbon in its category.

Still more whimsical creatures, this time a turtle study. And once again, the improv piecing is the star. Such a dynamic quilt! It's Heard of Turtles by Phoenix Quiltcon Group.

Between the wonderful colors and the sawtooth design, this quilt almost vibrates! Sometimes I like to study quilts to see how they were made. This one appears to be one-half of a Delectable Mountains block combined four to a block around a center square. It's likely the quilter relied on partial seam construction, which you don't see often, but works well in this block. Aidan's Quilt is by Nancy Grout.

I love cats and found the panel and colors chosen for Cynthia Irvin's Cat Quilt to be so appealing. In addition, the machine quilting was top notch. Each of those circles has a different quilting motif, densely stitched. Another blue ribbon quilt.

Fellow members of the Country Road Quilters in Ocala had quilts on exhibit. Linda Renderer made this charming ribbon winner titles Scrappy Spiderweb. It's quilted by Barbara Dees. Linda is a whiz at beautiful machine applique and fabric selection. The purple background sets off the Sampler-style piecing and graceful border beautifully.

Another guild member who is also a master at piecing is Janice McCall. This wonderful Sampler quilt titled Moonbeams was quilted by guild member Debra Johnston and earned an Honorable Mention ribbon.

My quilt, Cosmic Moon Pies, also earned an Honorable Mention at the show, so that was rewarding. It was also quilted by Debra Johnston. More photos and story here.

My husband Jack and I went for a picnic at Ravine Gardens, the state park in Palatka. There we saw this ???... I'm not sure just what, but of course I was drawn to it and had to get a photo! I guess it's a custom three-wheeler. But what a beauty.

The gardens feature a lot of stone work completed by Conservation Corps workers in the early 1930s after the Great Depression.

Palatka is Azalea central in the spring. The park was blooming beautifully. Hope you enjoyed the show!

Who Let the Dog Out???

Wait a minute! My last post was December 2025?? I've been AWOL. How does the time slip by so quickly? One way it happens is to get distracted by a new pet. And sewing. This little dog quilt is one I put together based on a cartoon drawing I did in a tutorial by Carol Owen. I thought it needed to be translated into fabric. And there were plenty of scraps to play with, so here is this little dude.

 

Then there was this little dude. His name is Dusty and he came home with us from a rescue farm. Timid, quiet, and as sweet as can be. We'd been missing our dogs who passed away from old age. We had debated the wisdom of getting another dog at our "advanced age," so to speak. But we fell for Dusty and home he came.

He is just so loving. One morning when we lost power and it was quite cold in January, Dusty knew what to do. Get under a quilt. With me. He was one sweet boy. Until.... After Dusty was with us for a week and adjusting quite nicely, we went to church for a couple of hours. He apparently, unbeknownst to us and the the rescue organization, had extreme separation anxiety! He escaped his room (he was known as an escape artist) and went on a rampage. Oh my goodness!! I never experienced anything like it with a dog before. Dusty is a pack dog. He is unable to be only dog. So, with heavy hearts, we arranged to return him. We packed his meds, his food, and belongings and provided copious notes on the care and feeding of Dusty. We felt better when we saw how happy he was to be back among his comrades. Not being Caesar Millan, and having lives that require us to go places without a dog, we knew that Dusty's emotional needs were too great for us. And I'm not a fan of sedating a dog. The good news... Dusty was adopted by a family who already had a couple of dogs. I think he will much happier there. So happy ending to an unhappy story. 

And here is a look at just a fraction of the chaos Dusty caused to our vertical blinds. Imagine how stressed the little guy was! But sheesh... It took our son (bless him!) two days to help us right the ship "just like it never happened." But I am now convinced... no more dogs for me. It was a painful experience because I just loved Dusty from day one. Live and learn. But I'm happy that he's happy now!

And Then it Jumped Right on the Wall!

 

This is the unintended quilt, and the last finish of 2025. It's titled "Riley's Starry Daydreams", and it's headed for Charlotte on a plane (with me) in the morning. I'd planned to complete quite another quilt project to welcome our first great granddaughter into this world. But instead, this quilt happened. 

It began with a stack of charm squares given to me by a quilting friend. And with a cute, free pattern using charm squares by Pat Sloan called "O My Stars". I'd eyed those squares for several months, and even put a post-it note on them with Pat's pattern name. But there was just one stack of squares, and I needed more to make the design. Our guild treasure sale yielded some fat quarters that went with the 5" squares. Before I knew what was happening, I'd started slicing and cutting, and arranging the pieces on the design wall.

Of course there are several other quilt projects that were waiting in line already. But did that stop this quilt from happening?? NO, it did not. And longarm quilter Deb Johnston happened to have a spot open to quilt this and get it back to me quickly. She quilted a cute star and bubble design.

Does this ever happen in your sewing room? Projects that simply insist on being next and jumping the line? Inexplicable, but I love the quilt and recommend Pat's easy to follow pattern. Try it yourself, it's a quick project, even if a little pushy.