The Unveiling and What's Next!

It's done!!  I am relatively pleased with how it came out.  I made some executive decisions along the way and left the original color choices a bit as I finished it.  I think I am going to put a small black border and may then include a row of molas.  As it stands, it is about 48 inches by 48 inches and really nice and flat.  I am actually looking forward to quilting it as soon as I decide on the outside...

I will be making another one of these as for some reason I decided I would see how the molas I have collected over the years (purchased from Priscilla after her trips to Panama).  I just placed these on top of the "rocket" blocks to get a feel for how it would look and I LOVED it so the next Lone Star will be started before too long using the same very colorful palette (looks like the palette was made for the molas, doesn't it!    These are the smaller appliqued molas that are really made for the tourists but I have many nice ones that I like -- they are beautifully embroidered -- Priscilla is very picky.

I was bound and determined to finish up and decide what to do with this latest set of Serendipity blocks.  I didn't have enough of the background hexagons to do what I usually do so had to move to plan b.

What I decided on was to use small stars in the background triangles.  The star points alternate blue and green and are on white.  I have done them all but one in this picture.  I will use a medium blue for the background of the rest of the background hexagons.


It was an exciting day as I spotted an Indigo Bunting sitting on Marcia's fence but it flew away as soon as I got my camera out.  I did get a photo of it way on the other side of the field but it is just enough to identify it and not publishable!!  I had heard that we had buntings up here from a club member last week but this is the first time I have seen one.  Maybe before I thought they were bluebirds but this definitely was a Bunting!


Of course I got home and am sure now I have a UTI  -- drat.  It will be a miserable night and will get a prescription hopefully in the morning  -- why do these things happen after doctor's hours?

The Mola Challenge and RAFA - November Meeting

The deadline for the Mola Challenge is November 15. This was a challenge by Pat Pauly to our RAFA group. We all own numerous molas which we have purchased from Priscilla Kibbee. We were to pick one of our favorites and make a quilt inspired by some aspect of the mola. Pat actually found someone from outside who will act as a judge. The prize will be a mola!! A dinner (which I can't attend) will follow up to celebrate the completion. I figure everyone is pretty much finished by now so letting the cat out of the bag will be okay! We have to turn them in next week at quilt club and I certainly hope everyone gets up for show and tell!

This quilt is about 45 inches x 60 inches. One of the criteria was that it had to be larger than 24 x 24. I have used all of my own hand dyed fabrics for this and designed all the blocks using EQ (Electric Quilt). It looks pretty simple but trust me it wasn't!! The strips on the triangles were two different sizes so they would elongate and those spirals -- you won't believe how many times I pieced some of those as it would look right for two rounds and you would reach an impasse -- also the reversing -- not pretty. I also drafted the leaves for the paper piecing (which I hate to do by the way but thought it would be faster -- not sure it was!!). Don't know whether this is the quilted picture or not as who sees quilting on black!! It is minimally quilted (stitch in the ditch and some background) as well as heavily on the leaves. I always do fairly representational but think I was mainly inspired by the composition itself and all the colors. So I really wanted to convey the colorfulness and the base composition of the mola. Molas are almost universally "landscape" but I preferred the portrait orientation for this one.

This is the mola that was my inspiration!

Check out Priscilla Kibbee's blog as she almost always has some for sale there and her prices and quality are both excellent.

There were not as many pieces as usual at RAFA today as many were still working on their challenge pieces or pieces for the DeCadence exhibit we are having at the Arts Council in January. I am submitting my birds of paradise piece for that show.

The next two pieces were by a very prolific Caris Burton who does absolutely awesome work. Not only is she an expert appliquer and piecer but she does all sorts of surface design and lots of it!

This piece was just a little study but I think she had four of those here today!

This was a One Block Wonder quilt top done by Mary Rankin. I have such a weakness for hexagons and stack and whacks and do like this format!

This was the piece that will be part of the DeCadence exhibit.

Sarah Terry modelled her new outfit made totally from her hand dyes and in a class with Sandra Betzina that she took out in San Francisco a few weeks ago. She got all sorts of fantastic fitting instructions and loved the class.

This was the piece Linda Bachman did as a result of the Mary Diamond class she took in October. She is another prolific art quilter!

Anne Fischer has been dabbling again in surface design using up some of her old paints. Beautiful piece and I am sure it will be well used in a composition at some point!

It was also announced that Pat Faulkner got one of her quilts in the new Lark publication on 500 Art Quilts. Another RAFA member, Nancy Murty, has her quilt on the COVER!! It won a major prize at Houston a couple of years back and is an awesome piece!

Monday Molas and Tuesday Treasures!

Monday was a fun lunch at Priscilla's, getting to see the hundreds of molas she brought back from Panama on her latest trip. She said that she saw far fewer on this trip and had to work to get a stash to bring back -- her molas are always big sellers and she offers them so reasonably compared to the going rates on ebay and other sellers. I was very controlled this time although she probably had a better assortment than ever!! I couldn't resist a couple of special large ones and several small ones -- I was focusing on getting birds or fish that were facing left instead of right!! It is always a treat to see the ones that she keeps as well!!! She will be selling them at our RAFA meeting on Thursday so I may just.....

These are several of the small molas or appliques that I got.

The above molas were all quite small (about 7 in square) while this next bunch was the next "larger" size and were about 12 x 18 inches.

This first one is my very favorite and you should double click to see it more clearly. It is lots of spiders and exquisite workmanship. Just had to have it!

This second one was very unusual and Priscilla thinks that it may be indicative of a new trend. It is actually the reverse applique done on top of a printed piece of fabric. The base fabric is white with big black swirls. They somehow cut out so carefully that there is just a slight outline of the black swirl showing and looks like it is another layer of reverse applique but it isn't. I loved it! Their workmanship is incredible. On some of these pieces there is probably 30-40 stitches to the inch to tack down the appliques. The only thing I have seen close is some of the quilts from the early 1800s in the US that were at the Rochester Museum and Science Center (where we were documenting their collection).

This was an interesting geometric that caught my eye!

I just had to have these iguanas!


Anyway, I was back marbling today. The morning started pretty gloomy which inspired me to work in bright brights -- primary pallette which I almost never do -- my favorite pallette is secondary colors of orange, green and purple. Primary just seemed right today though. As the day cleared though, I switched to earthtones again -- using up all my prepared white fabric and all but about two pieces of the "uglies". The weather has not been cooperating at all as it has been raining every day and is supposed to for the rest of the week. So alum-ing more fabric will have to wait and I will have to get back to some sewing.

Just my basic blue and lavender pallette which I switched to after a few of the bright primaries!

How is this for July 4th!

This was an interesting exercise although not a very pretty piece. It shows what happens when you keep adding color just in the middle so there is more space on the outer perimeters for the paints to expand. The surface tension was different all over and I may play some more with this effect. Does give a feeling of depth.

Just another of the stripey primary pieces.

Again, fireworks in preparation for July 4th!

I will have to wait for the sun to come out before I can take pictures of some of the second bunch I did today. I have some Seminole strips that I made a LONG time ago that are in red, yellow and blue pallette so these pieces will probably end up with those in another jacket somewhere along the way!

A Mola-icious Day at Priscilla's!

This is one of my favorites with the four colorful fish.

Well, Marcia and I hadn’t gotten together with Priscilla for a few weeks so were looking forward to a day out on her new patio with her new patio furniture (she had a windfall from ONE button she sold on ebay). Priscilla has recently returned from a visit to Panama and visits to San Blas Islands and the Kuna Indians where she had purchased some awesome molas which she we got to see. The most fun are the ones she keeps for herself – no amount of wheedling and whining can get her to part with those. This was undoubtedly the most incredible collection of molas I have ever seen!! She had seen they were much better than she had ever purchased before and she was right!! The workmanship defies description. My guess is that a many of these pieces easily took a month to complete. There are probably 15-20 stitches to the inch and every bit of the surface is covered with intricate reverse appliqué – the hallmark of these pieces of artwork. And the colors.....


Priscilla graciously let us look through the ones that she had for sale. Of course we couldn’t resist although there were so many that we would have loved to have that we left behind because we just couldn’t justify the additional expense. Marcia found some horses and I found a snail (in honor of my father who was an expert on land snails and I am sure crawled around in the jungles in Panama at some point – I think he actually got one of his cases of malaria and hepatitis there). I also found a small bunny that I bought in honor of my mother.



I love the fact that these are authentic molas that were worn on garments. Priscilla had many that still had parts of garments and zippers attached. They are worn like yokes on an apron (although not an apron) with similar if not matching ones on the back and the front of the garment. Notice the white pin head at the top of this one. If you double click you can see closer. That will give you an idea of how small those pin dot reverse applique circles are on this piece -- no, those are not french knots but a tiny hole is cut and the edge appliqued under to show the fabric beneath.


This is my snail with a man riding on top. Notice all the tiny zig zag reverse applique. Most of the pieces are "landscape" style and about 14 inches by 18 inches although they vary in size quite a bit.



This probably has the most intricate applique of all of the pieces. It is a very color octopus.
I loved how colorful this was with the bird portrayed on the pitcher.




Note to self: don’t wear your brightly colored flowered shirt when you will be sitting outside with the bees!!! They chased me all over the yard.

Day 1 - Priscilla's Jacket Class

Well, haven't updated the blog for a week as I came down with some virus that just caused me to pretty much veg out most of the previous week. I did attend the first quilt club meeting of GVQC and it was great! The above quilt was exquisite and made by Chris Wickert while she was recuperating from a very serious illness. She did the whole thing by hand!! The talk by the Fiber Folk was particularly appreciated (as well as their artistry).


The first day of our jacket class with Priscilla Kibbee was excellent. She told us we could make our own pattern or use any of her patterns that she had brought with her. We have five people in the class and we are using four different patterns. I am using the one I was least likely to pick -- a short butterfly jacket which is an old Vogue pattern Priscilla had. Mary and Lynn picked the Quilter's Jacket, Marcia -- the quilter's vest and Beverly - the 12 Fat Quarter Jacket.

We began the day by tracing our patterns and then cutting them out from flannel which we will use to back each piece. Our next step was working with Priscilla and our stashes to find the fabrics that would work best together. This is the beginning of Beverly's jacket front.
This is the beginnings of Mary's jacket front.

This is Marcia and Priscilla auditioning fabrics

We had to give up some our favorites in this step but it suddenly looked much better after the outlyers were removed. Priscilla then gave us a nudge to get started on actually putting the design together.

I am incorporating a batik from Viet Nam in mine. I had already stripped some pieces for a class I took a couple of years ago and never finished. My jacket back is almost done at the end of today. I will start another one if I get this one done! I am very happy with it so far. This is my final for the day.


This is Lynn's final for the day.



A high point of the day was the review of the molas that Priscilla recently purchased directly from the Kuni Indians on the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama.
We are so lucky that she loves to do this traveling and we get to pick from what she brings back! She had an incredible bunch today!! A few came home with me but not the ones pictured as they were Beverly's picks!