The Dixie Quilt show

Wow what a few days we have had. Our quilt show was a big hit. I was told we had 1,800 people attend! I was worried that the attendance would not be as good since they moved it from Easter weekend.  But it appears that I was wrong. I am very glad about being wrong. It is much easier to not have the show over Easter. The PHFA group, of which I am one of 7 members, were featured quilters. Our display was really well received. We all did lots of explaining of our techniques. Hopefully we have given determination and courage to a few would be art quilters! We can hope anyway. The group is trying very hard to promote fiber art and make people realize that YES it is art! Most of those of the group  that entered pieces in the show won. I had a quilt that I collaborated on with Wanda Bublick on win. We won first place in large pieced quilts and also won Viewers Choice. I am very happy about that.  There are photos on face book. I can't figure out how to get to those. If you are not on my face book page you can friend me and have access to my page.... Charlotte Purcell Gary. Also you can go to PHFA's web site.....www.paintedhillsfiberartists.com and see what is going on with the group. We hope to keep the web site up to date.
The sun is shinning here on this wonderful Monday morning. I am so thankful to be alive, breathing and able to move! I have work to do, but just can't seem to get myself motivated to turn the sewing machine or long arm on this morning.
I need to get the binding sewn onto blankets I am making for the RV. I am sewing them on with the sewing machine, so that won't take to terribly long.  I have client work to do as well.
My husband and I have a phone land line that we give out if we need to have a phone number. We have been getting calls from someone saying that there is a warrant out for someones arrest and one that says I have won a car. There are no warrants out for any of my family and I have not entered to win a car. Last night at 9:30 I got a call (I don't usually answer this phone if I don't know who the number is or if I know it is some kind of a telemarketer). Dave had already gone to bed and I did not want the phone to ring long enough for the answering machine to kick in. So I answered it. I politely told the person (woman probably in India) not to call this number again. She kept on talking so my next response was not so nice, she still continued. The call ended with me really not being nice and hanging the phone up.  I have had my husband turn the wringers as far down as he can. The answering machine is still on and I check it when I walk past it. But if any of you wish to get in contact with me, text me on my cell or give me a call on my cell phone.
It is almost 11. I am doing laundry, but I guess I ought to get to work. I wish all of you a very good week!

2 client's quilts..... Sandra and Margaret

Easter is almost here. Time is going by way to fast. But there is nothing we can do about that. I just hope I am making the best of the time I am allotted.  

Today I finished Sandra and Erv's quilt. It is so cute. The Vogels are such nice people. They are snow birders, who were renting the basement of the house above us. Sandra does a lot of machine embroidery. She had done a few quilts that she has given to charities. The is her own quilt. 

This quilt is one down by another client and friend, Margaret Miller. Her quilts are always fun. She wanted cross hatching behind the basket in the middle. I also did cross hatching behind the small baskets. It turned out really nice. She was very happy with the finished product.

I wish everyone a wonderful Easter

Lael's latest quilt

This month has been a busy one. Lots to do in the yard and plenty to do inside as well. I finished Lael Lovell's latest masterpiece. She does such a wonderful job in her piecing. I always love her color choice. This was a kit, so the fabric was pre-selected. I used Superior Thread threads Magnifico in the top and Sew Fine in the bobbin. I made a template using freezer paper to mark all the feather work. I am very pleased with the way this one came out. Lael just picked it up and was extremely happy. This one took a while to quilt.

Now I need to move on to my own quilts and get things ready for the Dixie Quilt show that will be held in the ladder part of April at the Dixie convention center here in St. George.

I really enjoy quilting, but my hands have started hurting pretty badly. I am afraid I am going to have to kind of cut back on the amount I do. I worked on this one in 4 hour blocks. 

I have been doing a lot of work in the yard too, trying to get things planted and ready for summer. It is nice and warm. I love this weather. I have two little tomatoes on one of my plants!

Easter is just around the corner. Dave and I will be staying here in St. George. I had thought we might head to Moab, but he wants to take his telescope out in the desert and so some photography of the night sky. I will go out with him, I doubt he will want to stay more than one night. I am hoping he will want to go up into the mountains when it gets a bit warmer. We need to use the small motor home we purchased. 

I hope everyone has a very Happy Easter!

March 3rd 2015

It's March already! It has been a while since I have posted on this blog. I have been doing most of my posting on my face book. I have been very busy this past couple of months.
The Dixie Quilt Guilds bi-anual quilt show is coming up in April. I have been very busy with getting work done for a few of my clients. I have a couple more that need to be done in time for the ladies to get the bindings sewn on in time for them to be entered in the show.  The PHFA group I belong to are going to be featured at the quilt show this year. I have a few pieces that I need to get hanging sleeves sewn onto for the show. Time just have gotten away from me. The older I get the slower I seem to be getting. I spend much more time thinking about a project before I start working on it. Everything seems to take me longer also!
I had been having problems with thread breakage on my long arm. It has been very frustrating. I finally purchased a new bobbin case for the machine and have had much better luck. I think that my older bobbin case had developed a bur or something.  I have an Innova long arm and they are machines that really can use any thread combination. Anyway....... I had had issues with different threads, but nothing that I could pin point. I adjusted tensions, changed needles... checked timing and finally purchased a different brand of bobbin case. The bobbin case I purchased was a more expensive one than I had been using. The check spring looks like the check spring in my Bernina. I have had much better luck.
Here are a few of the things I have been doing lately.....

January 2015, Sunday 24

I haven't written on my blog in a while. Thought I would take a moment and do so. Like most everyone I know, I have been so busy it is not funny. Not much time to think about anything on finishing the next task. Some of them quilt related and a lot just things that need to be done. Not fun things like cleaning and cooking an doing laundry.

I have been very blessed over this past year. My immediate family are doing fine. As I get older, it is sinking in that I need to do more of what I want to do and not so much what everyone else wants me to do. Sometimes it is one and the same, but often it is not. We had a great Christmas. The girls were here along with their mates. Megan and Patrick came from Brooklyn, New York. Candice is living here and will be for another year or so. Season and Micah were able to come up from Moab.  No other family was able to attend. My parents are not doing well. Time has taken it's tole on them. My brother-in-law is in the hospital and has been for some time. Hopefully he will be going home on Wednesday next. We are looking forward to this next year. The fiber art group (PHFA) I belong to are going to be the featured quilters at the Dixie quilt guild's bi-annual show. Which will be held the week after easter this year, not on easter as it has been for years. We have a show in at the Springville Art Museum in September and are working on new pieces for a show that is scheduled in 2016 at the St George Art Museum.  I set up a new face book page and that has been where I have been posting.

 Over this past year, I have attended to many funerals. I realize as I get older more of us will be passing on, but it seems that I was just 30 and my kids were little.  I am almost 60! Where has the time gone? We are not guaranteed our next breath. So each breath should be used to its fullness. I have enjoyed my life so far, for the most part. Even the hard times have been pretty good. There are times when I have felt that my tapestry of life is rather dark. But..... the dark times make the bright moments that much more significant! I often fixate on the condition of my home and obsess over it.  I am learning that the windows that need to be replaced will be ok for a while and the hole in the deck... well as long as the table covers that spot we are ok for a while also. I lost my best friend (Debra Smith) this past year to ALS and I did not spend as much time with her during her sickness as I could have.   I had clients who need their quilt as soon as possible and the money I am paid for doing those quilts come in very handy. I know I used 'being busy' as a way to live in my own happy world and not see her suffering with ALS. I kept my self insulated from her reality with distance and work. Looking back I know I should nave made different choices. I should have spent every moment I could have with her before she passed. Now it is to late. I know she understood my choices, because I would have understood if our positions had been reversed.  She lived up North and my family and my responsibilities were down here in St George. Nothing I do can or could have done would have changed the outcome, but my best friend died of ALS and has left a huge hole in the fabric of all the lives she touched. The past cannot be changed, but I can make different choices in the future.

One of my friends and fellow fiber artist has brought up the point that we each need to decide what our goal is and to focus on what we we need to  do to accomplish that goal. Trying to do so many things spreads us to thin and nothing gets accomplished to it fullest, no goal gets realized. My goal this year is to do more things with family and friends, not worry about 'things' so much. I am going to try to not stretch my self so thin, to say no if I need to and not feel guilty about my choices.  I am going to let things go that don't really matter too.  So if you decide to visit me... my house might be a mess, but as long as you don't stick to the floor and it doesn't smell I am ok with that! I don't mind people dropping by and everyone is welcome.

I have been doing a bit of painting with watercolors and soft pastels as well as fabric painting.

These small pieces will be put on the front of quilted book covers. I am hopping to have a lot of them done by the time our 2016 show is going. I am reproducing some of the large pieces that have been done in fabric with paint and also trying to do some smaller pieces. Hopefully some of them will sell. So far I have had interest, but no one has made a purchase. Big pieces take so much time to do, I can't just sell them for nothing. I look at my creating things as a job and when I spend 3 plus months on a piece, it is worth more to me than $200 or $300.

I need to get busy...... lots to get done. I have a few quilts for clients that need to be done with in the next couple months so they can go home with their owners to have bindings sewn on and finished for the quilt show.

I wish you a wonderful year of happiness and creativity!

Aspen #1

I finished all the quilting on this piece. I put it on the long arm after all. Using it is so much easier than using the domestic machine. I am very happy with how it turned out and now need to get the binding attached. I think I will put a dark purple or a black binding on it. I will need to purchase some fabric if I go with the purple, but have black in my stash. I don't want to go out anywhere. My head is plugged up and I don't know if it is caused from the dust that is created with the material is cut into tiny bits or if I have a head cold. If I have a head cold I don't want to spread anything. I think I am just going to lay around today, will  watch an art program I think.

Here is a photo of piece ready to have the binding and hanging sleeve  added. I just went to Scrap Apple to get some material for binding.

Dec 30

The time sure has flown by. We had a great Christmas. All the girls and their partners were here. Season, my niece, and her husband came from Moab. Megan and Patrick flew from Brooklyn  to LasVegas. We missed being with the rest of the family though. Maybe next year we will all be together.  Candice helped me fix Christmas dinner. I decided to reproduce a pastel I did of aspens in fabric. I took a class from Noriko Endo that she taught at Scrap Apple Quits a while ago. I had only done one of them and thought I would be fun to do on this one.

I have loaded this on the long arm and am going to do the major thread painting on my Innova.  I really like this piece.