A Jayhawk T-Shirt Rug

A friend challenged me. She had a bag of brand new quality t-shirts that had to be discarded. Could I use them for a toothbrush rug?

Here's the result. Using knit was new for me, I had always used cotton before. I found the knit worked great. To counter it's give, I used a sturdy denim for the rug base. I threw in a little red cotton just to break up the blueness ...

Another plus is that the knit makes a rug that is a bit more soft and cushion-ey. It is going to my Jayhawk nephew who loves these school colors. Rock chalk, Dylan! And thanks again, CathyD.

Love Shack

As you know, I love to start quilts. I started this one a while ago as an architectural challenge by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

We live in a mid-century modern house with a distinctive appearance. This photo inspired the quilt. Of course, I started it too close to the deadline and didn't get it done in time. I couldn't decide how to finish, so it languished in my pile of unfinished projects ...

Finally I figured out how to finish it - include the hill! You can see it now in the Johnson County Library "PS I Love You" Exhibition. Join us for a reception this Saturday, March 12th, 1 - 2 p.m. at Shawnee Library, 13811 Johnson Drive in Shawnee, Kansas. There are exhibitions at six locations of the Johnson County Libraries.

Since the shows have a love theme, I named this quilt Love Shack. You'll see it when you walk into the library. My Holy Seminoley quilt is also there.

​Also featured are textile and mixed media works by regional artists Barbara Brackman, Georgann Eglinski, Linda Frost, Carol Gilham-Jones, Elnora Nokes and me. This exhibition was made possible through a partnership with the InterUrban ArtHouse located in downtown Overland Park, Kansas.

Visit the library and check it out through May 15.

March Madness

All right! It's March and in my town, it's time for madness: basketball madness! Hence, this new piece for my entryway. It was inspired by the orange pieces, discarded at our local Arts Center ceramic studio. Look closely and you will see they resemble the surface of basketballs.

I thought our home needed a basketball god, a nod to our worship of this sport it in my hometown. Basketball gets us through long, brown Kansas winters and then spring arrives, right along with the end of the season and tournament excitement.

The base for this is a plastic serving tray. I am new to mosaic so I will find out if this is a base that will last over time. It's light, which is nice. Adding the broken ceramic does add weight.

Ladders Continued

So if we have a February 29, one should blog on that day because it happens so seldom. And this quilt is appropriate, as something like this cannot happen too often either.

I made a queen size ladder quilt a while back. As you can imagine, there were a lot of leftover bits and you know how those make me weak in the knees. I took them to a retreat a while back and stitched them together.

Then they languished in the sewing room, waiting to be quilted. As part of my turning-over-a-new leaf initiative of finishing things before I start MORE, I got out the perle cotton and started hand quilting this.

It is finished now. Last thing I had to decide is which is the top, which is the bottom? I took this photo so I could decide... it measures 44" x 80" and I have already taken a nap under it. It's a good size for that.

Trip to Tokyo

I got to travel to Tokyo last week with my friend Merikay Waldvogel. SHE made the trip, but sent a lot of photos - a vicarious thrill for a quilter home in snowy Kansas.

Merikay has enjoyed judging the Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival for several years. Her judge’s choice for this year's show is I Love Feedsacks #1.

It's a sentimental choice for a judge from Tennessee - finding feedsacks in a Japanese quilter's work.

Merikay sent a lot of photos - here are a few detail shots I really like.

Merikay treated herself to a manicure before she left. She may have enjoyed that as much as the trip!

I Needed This Today

Just finished piecing this today - I like it! I needed this today!!!!

1960

This is a good time to tidy - clean offices, files - to discard, pass on  ... My friend Cindy sent some photos so I thought I'd share them with you. She sent them because I love quilts - and she has no idea where they came from. Somewhere in Kansas, likely. Oh how I love their aprons, their expressions ...

Luckily, this photo had some information written on the back in pencil:

1960
Goldie Hutton
Mrs Graden
Inly (?) Pennell
Myrtle Hoffs
Ruth Rathjan
Faye Bishop
Winfred Secrest
Mrs Fifnogle
Nora Witt

Notice the plentiful use of white backgrounds, something we all strove to get away from for years. And now that is back, with the look of modern quilting.

My friend Karla is deconstructing a 1980s quilt she made for her daughter's birth. It features bright cross-stitch blocks and she plans to replace the fading '80s sashing fabric with something modern to celebrate the birth of her first grandchild. We admired the blocks yesterday and brainstormed about the bright colors she could use to sash them together now. But she shook her head and said her daughter would like white ... WHITE!!!