Nothing Thready or Quilty to Post

I have nothing quilt related to share today. Thank goodness the big Memorial Day weekend is over. Our little vacation town gets a bit crazy and crowded in the summer. Many of my quilting customers come up from the cities this past weekend and I had several calling to come over and drop off projects for me to work on. When you work for yourself, weekends don't always mean anything special. My husband is also self employed, so we usually take special days off during the week. Less tourists, and less customers trying to seek us out.

Today we went fishing in a little lake named Patsy wayyyy.....out of town in the national forest on a walking/biking trail. Mike had to drag the canoe for about 1/2 a mile, I carried gear, we walked through dry and mucky swamps, and made it to the perfect bass lake. After 5 hours of fishing, and catching about 50+ big bass each, we are now fed and ready for bed. I'm exhausted! We also have a great case of bass thumb. I love bass thumb! I almost forgot to mention the 2 dozen ticks I found just on myself. YACK! I feel better after a shower.

Tomorrow will be a fresh quilting day. Now off to read a good book.

Obsessed with Thread

I bet I'm not the only quilter out there that is obsessed with thread almost as much as with fabric. Currently I'm in love with Superior So-Fine for longarm quilting, domestic quilting, regular piecing, paper piecing, and top stitching. WOW! I should have said I love it for everything. In the photo, I've machine quilted on my longarm Gammill little quilt sandwiches that I then trimmed out with a rotary and butted the clean edges together. I then top stitched with So-Fine in a smocking stitch, going back over the stitches 8 times. So-fine is a low profile thread that covers fine but doesn't cause a bumpy buildup of thread.


This little quilt was made with my fiber layering technique that I teach at guilds and shows. This little gem recently was awarded a Teachers Ribbon from Cathy Franks at the Machine Quilters Expo iin Rhode Island this year. It was a huge honor to get a ribbon from Cathy Franks, who's quilting I greatly admire.

What a lovely assortment of yummy colors I have. Last year I won 1st place at the Home Machine Quilters Show in Utah. I won a gift certificate for $500 my choice of threads at Superior Threads. What a dream! I've been using So-Fine for years on my show quilts.

Now go figure....there is a new thread out there I will have to try that many of the longarmers are raving about. "Glide" thread by Fil-Tec. http://www.bobbincentral.com/

Like I said at the beginning...Obsession.



After my first post I added a comment responding to a friend, Lee Spanner. I feel I should share my answer:

Lee, that is probably the best expanation I've read yet. It's all in the perception of the viewer. Does a painting take any longer or any more skill that creating an art quilt? No. Both take skill, time, resources, patience, etc. When a quilter can sell an art quilt for $40,000+ dollars, I call that mighty fine art.

Beginnings of an Art Blog

A friend asked me a few weeks ago... why is it so many people don't view quilting as a legitimate art. Noses go into the air and statements are said.

1. It's just a quilt.

2.It's folkart.

3.My granny made quilts, but not like that.

4.That's not fine art.

And on an on..........

Well, in the opinion of those of us that make these awesome works of art, yes quilting can be fine art. Quilts can comfort, but they can also be stimulating. Quilts can open your eyes to the beauty of color, movement, and texture just as a fine painting or collage. Quilting is expensive as a hobby, art, and career. We take our art serious and strive to do our best work that would make our mothers proud.

I have several friends that have been blogging and I've really enjoyed what they've shared. Now it's time for me to get off my lazy bottom and take the time to share also. I'm a great procrastinator and hope that blogging will help me to stay more on task to finish those UFO's screaming to be finished.

From time to time I'll post boring things.

Today I had a friend, Sonya Anderson, over and she was able to quilt on my Gammill quilting machine to finish a gift. While she played, I was able to finish some rust dye fabric that had been aging. They are rinsed and hanging. Here is also a picture of what I've made from a piece of this beautiful rust dyed fabric.