Catching up

Life just keeps on moving along. I’m trying my hardest to keep up…

Way back at the end of October we had a Divas meeting at the Naperville Art League. Mona Wadington from Bernina came to show us some of her wonderful scrap quilts. There was lots of Show and Tell.

Dorothy had finished her shades of grey piece… It had some wonderful grey beads on that looked just like M and M’s.

Yvette had her piece too… I liked the rebellious triangle going against the tide.

I missed the previous month’s meeting where the projects were started. I guess I was busy doing something important. It looked like I missed a good time.

That Thursday I went for a walk around Herrick Lake with Jan and Sue after breakfast. The colors were beautiful, both the leaves on the trees and the blue sky. I just had to take some pictures, even though it meant we really didn’t get much of a cardiovascular workout…

There were some interesting pod things to take photos of too…

It was a good thing I appreciated the sunshine that day because then we were off to a wet and rainy San Francisco for the weekend. Steve nearly got left behind at Midway when he went wandering off to take phone calls during a flight delay that turned out not to be as long as was first expected…

We were meeting our friends, Trevor and Elizabeth, who had flown in from London. A bit of rain could not stop our sightseeing plans so we saw Fisherman’s Wharf in the drizzle. That’s Alcatraz in the background.

Steve thought he was wet enough he might as well go for a paddle…

On the Saturday it rained so much I couldn’t even try to take any pictures.

On the Sunday morning we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It was foggy…

But just so we couldn’t say it rained all of the time the sun came out as we were on our way back to the airport! Here is Union Square in the sunshine…

and the cable car coming down Powell Street…

I had to be back Sunday evening as on the Monday morning there was a “Fuse like McKenna” class at PHF.

Everybody in the class had a different McKenna Ryan pattern with them. We nearly got away without having to clean the irons until near the end when Marge decided to liven the class up for us all…

It really didn’t take too long to deglue the iron and it was as good as new again! The same could not be said for the fabric shape…

Our bee got together to work on Anne’s quilt again. This time we were at Yvette’s. Here are Dorothy and Pat sewing on borders.

So now the top is very nearly finished.

Dorothy took it home to put the last set of borders on and then i think we are going to pay to have it quilted. I hope it will raise a reasonable amount for Little Friends.

And moving right along to Henry IL…

It was a very pleasant, if early, drive to Henry. Stephanie came with me to keep me company and take some pictures. We started the day with a basic beading class for 25 members of the Marshall Putnam Quilt Guild. They were a very sociable bunch so I knew when it was time to move on to the next stitch by the rising decibel level in the room… After a good lunch it was time for the business meeting and then I got to share my quilts.

Here’s one from Everyday Embellishments by M’liss Rae Hawley. I do pull some peculiar faces when i am talking…

It was fun having got to know some of the crowd during the morning to be able to speak in the afternoon. I had a good day out. I hope that there will be lots of beaded quilts at their next meeting!

That week saw the last Mancuso show in Schaumberg which is a shame because once again it was a really excellent show. I was able to go on the Friday afternoon to see the quilts (and do a little shopping) and then on the Saturday Stephanie, Cheryl and I took the “Up Close and Personal” class with the South African teacher, Rosalie Dace.

There were only 6 students in the class so we had lots of personal attention as we learnt lots about design inspirations and art quilts. I worked from a picture of chloroplasts that Rosalie had brought with her.

After drawing several thumbnail sketches of little parts of the whole picture I settled on one design. I didn’t want to take my sewing machine so I have two blocks pinned.

I want to layer and outline stitch them and then add beads and embroidery. We will see…

Here are Rosalie, Stephanie, Cheryl and me with one of Rosalie’s designs as belly coverage. We had been concerned that the three of us in one class might be too much of a challenge for any teacher but a combination of fantastic teaching technique and utmost self control saved the day.

I am looking forward to working with my design some more. I have drawn it up so it can repeat vertically and horizontally but life has got in the way…

I did manage to finish my Silk Unravelled throw this month…