Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Whew! Despite the usual last-minute obstacles (ran out of lint roller tape, ran out of printer ink, had to stuff timtex in the top to make those uneven edges stand up straight, etc.), the Summer quilt is finished and out the door.

What's the big hurry? That's the exciting part! Back in June, Anna Turner of Sew Uniquely You asked me to make a quilt for a show she's curating at Kress Gallery in Riverpark Square, the fancy mall in downtown Spokane, during the month of September. The conversation went something like this:

Anna: Are you going to make me a quilt for the Kress?
Nikki: Ummm, sure. When does it have to be done?
Anna: Oh...August.
Nikki: Yikes. How big does it have to be?
Anna: Well...at least 30" by 30"
Nikki: Aaannnaaaa! Oh man. OK. I'll try.

Obviously way bigger and way faster than anything I've accomplished for quite some time. But what an incentive!

So, the exhibit is Imagination Unleashed - Art Quilts from the Inland Empire and it's at the Kress Gallery for the entire month of September. There's also a one day exhibit on Sept. 16 of additional quilts in the main atrium of the mall and two other dates with quilting demonstrations and book signings by local quilt authors.

On the home stretch

Summer. 38" by 40".

It still needs a bit more pressing, some handwork on the back and a sleeve and label, but this piece is finally mostly finished. "Finally" makes me laugh a bit as I just started this quilt in June and have knocked it out MUCH faster than my usual timetable.

I'm coming to the realization that for me, quilting is mostly about color. This quilt was inspired by a tangled up jumble of red and green fabrics I pulled out of the dryer. I didn't think "oh, what a mess" I thought "oh gosh, must make a quilt out of that!" Winter around here is pretty much gray and white and brown and the older I get, the more delighted I am by the bright exuberant lush riot of color that is summer here. This quilt gives me that same feeling.

Road trip!

Hey, how the heck did it get to be the 19th of August?!?! Holey buckets, things have been crazy around here and I'm running at least a week behind on more than just my blog. But some things are better late than never - like photos of awesome quilts!

Last weekend I took a bit of a road trip to Seattle with my longtime quilt-and-track-mom buddy Julie and my new friend Tamra. Here we are at our destination, the biannual Pacific Northwest Quiltfest:



Here I am with fellow Artful Quilters bloggers Melissa from Bothell and Gerrie and Terry from Portland. Melissa, Gerrie and Terry have been much more timely than I have in posting about the show and there are a lot more great photos from the show on their blogs.



I found this quilt to be completely amazing, mostly because I can't imagine accomplishing something like it. It's wholecloth. All of the design and coloring is done with threadwork. Amazing.



Here's a detail shot:



I've developed a bit of a circle thing in my red/green quilt and I found myself endlessly fascinated with quilts featuring circles. Like this:



And this:

More circles:



And:



And:



And:



It was an excellent weekend, filled with color and wonder and visiting and laughter. And it will be fun to see what, if anything, comes of the circle obsession...

wrestling the beast

OK, whose silly idea was it to leave the top and bottom edges of the red/green quilt all different lengths and face them? Sheesh, what a pain in the butt! I'm not quite halfway through wrestling this thing in 40 different directions every inch and a half to sew around all those edges. This had better look cool when I finish! Ro esle! (Or else! for those who didn't grow up with backwards-speaking dads...)

Pictures in a few days.

Also, I took a fabulous trip to Seattle this last weekend for Pacific Northwest Quiltfest. I'll have pics from the show and pics from the Shibori class I took in the middle of the camping weekend coming soon.

Guitar Camping and Extreme Quilting

We had our annual camping trip with Dave's guitar buddies down at Heyburn State Park on Lake Coeur d' Alene this weekend. The weather was great, the company was excellent and the music was wonderful. Friday afternoon I took advantage of the opportunity to do a bit of Extreme Quilting:



I wouldn't normally take something this big on a camping trip, but, you know, I need to finish this dang red/green quilt. Note the excellent post-swimming hairdo.

And here are most of the musical entertainers for the evening:



The young lady with the guitar is Julianna, the camp activities director. She joined in the playing Saturday night and contributed a beautiful song from her native Colombia.



Dave's version of Muleskinner Blues, complete with yodelling, was a big hit. Here he is mid-yodel.



The Nutter-Butters were also a big hit. Lucky for us they were on sale buy-one-get-one-free!