Gwen Marston - LaConner Quilt Museum

A Gwen Marston exhibit is about to open at the La Conner Quilt Museum on January 4th and it will run through March.

I've pulled all my Gwen Marston inspired work.

Used 1 1/2 lint rollers to tidy them up.

Sleeves have been added to some pieces.

This is the past two years of sewing and hand quilting.  Some of these pieces I have not shared with my online peeps.

Why, you ask.

Well, I've been asked by the curator to show some of my work that has been inspired by Gwen Marston!  Wow, pinch me! 

January 4th is the big day.  Here is your chance to visit the museum at no cost.
The open house reception will happen from 4 - 6 pm on opening day. January 4th, 2017

My work will hang until the end of February. These three rolls of quilts have been delivered to the museum.  One more piece is being shipped in from American Patchwork and Quilting. It will be featured in April's issue, but you can see it in person at La Conner Quilt Museum.

Gwen's exhibit runs through March.  She will be at the museum in March.  Check the museum website for those dates/times etc.

If you are in the area, please join me on January 4th for the open house reception.  I would love to meet other quilter's who have been inspired and influenced by Gwen.  Please share this information with your local groups and guilds.  I'm sure this exhibit will be a smashing success!

Keep Stitching
Sharon

Email and Website Issues

Seems like my server host company has closed shop.  I'm locked out of my email account which, of course, houses all addresses and info and stuff I should have somewhere else, but don't.

Can't have a post without a picture, right?
Here is a version of my table runner that was published last month in Just Charm Quilts by Annie's Quilting #141403. Hand quilted using both YLI and Perl Cotton. Wool batting.

All comments will be redirected to new email.  sharon underscore tucker at outlook dot com

Sharon
Grass Roots Quilt Studio

Christmas Greetings

As we are all rushing to get those last few things wrapped up, I wanted to take a few minutes to post a Christmas wish to all my fellow blog readers/quilter's. Thank you for still 'checking in' here. My blogging has taken a back seat to other things this year, so as I look back, I see that as a good/bad thing. Good that I have been busy and enjoying life, but bad because I have learned so much from fellow bloggers and felt like I finally had the quilting connection that I needed through blog land and I have let that slide. 

 

Although I am in the midst of a move, we still ran away from the colder days and headed to Hawaii in late November. We landed in Kona and spent a few days there seeing some of the sights on the Big Island. Of course that included a coffee plantation tour. Very educational, and yes, we bought a lot of Kona coffee to bring home.

 

One of the resorts had these quilts hanging in the outdoor walkways.  Glass covers made for challenging photos, but they are still great to look at.

 

We heard one of the big resorts on Maui closed in July and they sold off everything, including the vintage Hawaii' an quilts they had.  I hope they went to good homes!

 

I love the lava rock that pokes out from the sand in random places.  It reminds us how the islands were formed, and that they are not all soft sand and warm breezes. 

Here are the old coral blocks in Lahaina.  At first glance they look like old bales of straw. 

While in Lahaina, it's a must that we head to this restaurant for lunch. The best Chopped Steak!

Hibiscus are everywhere, and this bush was loaded with blossoms at Sugar Beach Resort.

Nothing compares to the smell of Plumeria.  My guy surprised me by picking and stringing enough blooms to make me a lei.  I wore it proudly, and enjoyed every whiff of this amazing aroma. 

I found this fabulous piece of green coral, along with these few funky pieces of the ubiquitous orange and white.  I took it home via a photo.  We left them for the next visitor to enjoy. 

I love this shot, the sun shining through the palm leaves.

Although poinsettias thrive in Hawaii, our friend has a hedge of them in her yard, this picture was taken of one from a local greenhouse. 

With only a week between returning home and Christmas, and finding this huge poinsettia, I have decided to use this as my tree.  Add a few quilts, some Christmas pillow cases and, voilà, it's Christmas in the condo.

And I couldn't pass up a class on Hawaiian applique while in Maui.  Once quilted, it will join my stack of Christmas pillow cases. 

So as the sun goes down, I wish for the best to you all. It has been a rough year for many, I hope that 2017 brings some peace to people, health and a belief that "life is good". Keep your loved one close, and be kind. Everyone has some struggles, we just can't see most of them.

Merry Christmas and all the best in 2017!
Keep stitching,
Sharon

Giving Thanks

It's been a long time since I've been here.  I just realized that the last post was about surgery and then nothing................. not a word............ not an update..................... just nothing. 

There was a whole lot of nothing going on.  My guy had surgery on his shoulder, so I was being the caregiver, driver, cutter of dinner food.  At least for a couple of weeks.

Then I did this............. Surgery was required. So was a food cutter.

Which led to both of us doing nothing for a few weeks. Seriously, nothing. We even had to hire a driver.  But slowly we both moved forward in our recoveries. 

Just to throw something else into the mix, I closed on a condo 2 days before I fell. 

On the upside, here is my latest piece that is currently in Just Charm Quilts from Annie's Quilting

My pattern is called Charming Stars and is on page 26.  The booklet is full of patterns that use, yes, Charm packs. My pattern is great for those charms you liked so much that you bought two packs!

Showing some fancy quilting here.  The fun thing about this block is that it finishes at about 18" so it doesn't take long to make a quilt using this pattern.  I've made several pieces using this technique and it's super easy. 

 

 

My condo will house my studio in the master bedroom, so a few renovations were required. Now that I've moved the big pieces of furniture, and my long arm, the "guy" is going to repurpose my current cutting table/cabinet and start putting up shelves. My long arm machine has gone back to Iowa, to the Nolting factory, for a service and tune up. Seems like a silly time to have my machine away, but there is a reason to my madness.......... I'm leaving, on a jet plane..... gotta be up at.... 4 a.m.

My guy has booked us a vacation, so see, it's really the perfect time to have my machine serviced. I will return rested, and ready to take on the new studio. We are both still healing from our injuries/surgeries, but a trip to the Orthopedic surgeon this morning, (yes, we had a same guy) he told us the salt water and sun would be good for our healing. :-)

I'm wishing everyone a fabulous Thanksgiving. I have so much to be grateful for. I have an abundance of goodness in my life and I am so blessed.

Keep stitching,
Sharon

Prepping for Surgery

Don't get excited, it's not my surgery. My guy is finally getting his shoulder repaired after 10 weeks. We hear it's going to be a very painful recovery, but knowing that every day after the surgery brings us one day closer to being back to working order makes us both happy. He retired in February, so this was his summer of sailing and golfing and getting an old car............. surgery!

So I need to be prepared for the next week, while I sit and keep him company for a few days. What else but EPP!

I have signed up for an EPP group that starts up in the fall, but I'm getting a jump start.  Wow, are those small diamonds small. That really sunk in when the package of 450 pieces arrived from Paper Pieces.  I'm trying a "new to me" method, no stitching through the paper, so the one hole punch is necessary for paper removal with a tiny crochet hook.

I've got lots of diamonds cut.  Super fast and easy since I had scads of 2 1/2" strips in a basket. 

Using small paper clips to hold down the seams makes the basting task more manageable, and I feel that I'm getting a tighter wrap on the paper.

So far, I have a small zip bag already basted.  However, it still looks like 1000's of papers are in the package, even though it only came with 450.

I'll have busy hands along with the surgeon. If I get bored, I also have a facing and sleeve to stitch down, and a wall hanging that is marked, basted and ready to hand quilt.  This should keep my hands busy for the next few days. 

Then it's back to the quilting machine with customer quilts.  I'm staying on task and am working with a 2 - 3 week turn around right now, so if you have any tops you need turned into quilts, please consider me, it's appreciated. 

Keep stitching,
Sharon

This, That, and Ft Mac

A little of this. Hexi's getting appliqued along a vine. Tiny, yup, but oh so cute.

A bit of that. Yes, that is my basket that I've been working from for months and months. It actually is holding the fabric for my Sacagawea Sampler from Minnik and Simpson. Seems to be in the same holding pattern. However, I've been using this basket as a resource for the above quilt.

Seems I had a bit of organizing to do. With a neat and tidy box to work from, I can now go forward and start the piecing on the next round of this Americana medallion styled piece.

And finally, a quilt for Fort McMurray, Alberta. The residents are slowly making their way back to town, some not finding anything left of their life after a devastating fire ripped through their town. Hopefully this quilt will make it into the hands of someone and allow them to be wrapped in some small comfort.

It's on my long arm right now. Thanks to all my guild buddies at Running With Scissors in Ferndale WA who contributed their time in making these blocks, and thanks to my quilting bff who left her bolt of poppy fabric at my house so I could 'donate' it on her behalf while she trekked and cruised through Europe. Hey, I'll take the help wherever I can get it for a project like this!

Keep stitching,
Sharon

Sneak Peek

This is what I can show you, just the trimmings.  But if you look closely, you will see that there are some 30's colors and prints peeking out from all that cream.

After the blocks were all made, I got the machine quilting done.  I slipped it in between a customer quilt and had it ready to bind in no time.

One stitch at a time, I got the binding all stitched down by hand.  It was the perfect take along project for a weekend road trip that we just went on.  Work and pleasure all rolled into one.

Another shot of the quilting, I just love the texture on the back of this piece.

Makes you want to pet it, seriously, it does!

The timeline of publications, this shall be revealed either later this year or next spring.  I'll keep you posted. It's a fun and fast project made easy with pre cuts.  Enough of a tease.

Keep stitching,
Sharon

Got the Blues?

The state my sewing table has been in for the past few 6 months.  Piles of 2" squares, all waiting to be stitched together with assorted creams/whites and made into blocks.

One at a time, these squares are slowly becoming strips.  Some start and end with blue, others with cream/white.

They get pulled out of this box by the handful, and rest patiently beside any current piecing project, just waiting for the end of a sewing session, so they too, can get stitched together. O-N-E at a time.

At first I thought that a 16 patch would be the right size.

but I didn't like that the block wasn't even.  It needed to have blue in all the corners.

And then the 25 patch block morphed into this, a 49 patch block.  Now we're talking!

This bottom block makes a statement!

So far I have enough sections for 13 blocks, only 43 more to go.

Oh, and then there's the forty eight  9 patches that I need to make..... yes, 48!

At least I moved away from the first idea, 1" finished squares. One 9 patch and I quickly realized how long I would be at this project.

This is my Ocean quilt, and I just couldn't strip piece this block.  I love the randomness of putting each square together, one at a time.  No timeline, just a labor of love for my guy.

Keep stitching,
Sharon

Mixed Bag

Quite a while ago, I did a few small pieces using 1/2 sq triangles and I needed one more to fulfill a long overdue gift.

It looks best this way, and it fits onto this cute little hanger.

Since it's going to hang in her cabin in the woods, this was a perfect pick for the backing. 

I made a few more sections of sashing for a 25 block applique project.  There are still several blocks that need the marching stitching and it's been set aside for now.

Can you see a theme going on here?  Lots of 1/ 2 triangles have been made in my sewing room.  This piece is close to finished, but for now its also put aside.

My customer brought this fabulous Double Irish Chain.  Its going to be the guest book.  All the guests will be signing the center white blocks so we kept the quilting to minimum. 

 This wavy cross hatch was just the right amount of  quilting.

I love the two colors she chose for this piece.  It's such a classic.  A single Irish Chain with 2 colors is a fabulous graphic quilt.   I think red/white or cheddar/cream.  What two colors would you  chose?

Keep stitching,
Sharon