Progress on the tiling piece

It's been a while since I updated on the piece I'm currently working on.  In contrast to the QN piece which feels very last year (in my weird brain), this piece feels very immediate (and currently irritating since I'm struggling with monofilament quilting).  In case you don't remember I started with these tiles I designed while in a workshop with Jenny Bowker.

I decided to incorporate them into a piece to fit into my ongoing liturgical series.  In addition, the timing was right to try to finish it in time for the current open call for entry for a quilt with a quote or saying on it.  The show is one of the  IQF ones this year (I think it's actually called "Just Sayin").  I decided to feature the text from the peace; the time in a traditional Catholic or Episcopalian service (maybe others too?) when congregants greet one another.  The actual words in our prayer book are "The peace of the Lord be always with you" and people respond "and also with you".  That was too many words to fit in my shape though, so I went with the more common greeting between people- "Peace be with you.  And also with you".  Inspired by a gorgeous piece of Islamic art/tile work/illumination, I decided to fit my words into a round piece to go in front of the tiles.

Here is my paper pattern as I was drawing all my letters into the round shape.  It was tricky to get them to angle properly and fit right.  I'm not 100% pleased and a typographer or calligrapher probably would have done much better, but it was the best I could do!

And of course I then cut the letters out of four different colors of gold fabric (because you always need more sparkle).

Here they are all fused down.  In case it's completely illegible, it reads "Peace be with you" around the outside and "and also with you" around the inside.

Then for the tile borders I decided to make myself crazy and foundation pieced this chevron pattern.  All these fabrics are different golds (about 10 I think) all different weights and textures, all ravelly and all a giant mess, but I love the way it turned out.

Here it is so you can see more or less the main composition.  There is now a big (6-8") solid maroon border that goes around the whole thing.

I decided to bind the edges of the gold pieced border and the round part since there were a bunch of raw edges.  The gold border especially was way to thick to turn, but I really wanted it to be on top.  I also couched sparkly razzle dazzle thread aroudn all the letters and I hope that makes them a bit easier to read.

Linking up with Nina-Marie as always!  Mike and I are leaving for Alaska on Saturday, keep your fingers crossed we don't get caught in a tide or eaten by a bear.

Pink Polka Dot Dress and Opening Reception

I was so lucky that my mom came with me to QN15- we have such a great time together and wound up making a mini-trip of it.  Before we went, I sewed up a new dress to wear to the opening reception, and of course it's pink.  I fell in love with this pink polka dot fabric a while back and made this dress based on a shirt pattern I'd made and liked previously.

  

The best thing about the opening was getting to meet so many fabulous artists.  64 of the accepted ~85 artists were at the opening and we had lots of opportunity to talk with each other.  Kathleen Dawson, the QN director, put pictures of all our quilts on our name tags.  It was one of those great ideas that really made a difference when we were all milling around, since it made it easy to put an artist face with a particular quilt and gave us someplace to start a conversation.  I'm so nervous meeting new people, especially people whose work I've admired from afar for a long time, but everyone was super friendly and open.  I spent a fair amount of time scurrying around getting the other artists to sign my show catalog- almost like yearbooks in high school.   It was especially neat to hear each artist talk about his/her piece, both from a technical and artistic standpoint.  Diedre Adams, who had a beautiful piece in the show, kindly took pictures of most of the artists and their pieces which she shared on her blog.  Definitely worth checking out if you'd like to see more of the work.  My friend Barb drove up from St. Louis to see the show as well, and it was great fun to see her.

I'm generally not one for selfies, but I love taking selfies with my mom.

You can see in the next one what a lovely job the Dairy Barn did hanging my piece so you can see the shadows behind it.

On the last day we went to Hocking Hills State Park and took a nice hike.  Even though we weren't on the most popular paths, since it was Memorial Day weekend there were hordes of people everywhere.  It reminded me of the country around Sewanee where I went to school, and was really a lovely state park.  The weather was gorgeous and made a nice break from home where we have had non-stop flooding rains and other severe weather.