It's Good To Be Green

It's Good to Be Green An Invitational Exhibit at Latimer Quilt and Textile Center, Tillamook, Oregon will open on Tuesday March 4th. You can view some of the entries at the link above. I have a piece in this show entitled "It's Good to Be Green". check it out.

It is cold and slightly snowy here in Bloomington IN, but what a great little show this is. I am having a blast with all the wonderful students and staff. If you live close by you should definitely visit this show, there are lots of fantastic quilts on display.

Indiana Heritage Quilt Show

I'm off to the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show. Let's hope the weather stays nice as I am driving. If any one is down in that area I suggest you make time to come to the show and stop in my room and say hello.

The Racket

The Cardinals were making quite a racket this a.m when we went into the woods. It was before 7 and they made me stop and look. As I looked up a large bird flew off abit and landed on a branch about 50 feet away and stayed there looking at me. I thought at first it was a hawk, I often see them up there hunting, but not this time. It has been at least four years since I had my last sighting of a great horned owl, and there it was. It just sat there looking at me. We stared at each for a long time, it would turn it's head and look away and then swivel around and eye me again. I finally walked off to let it try and get some breakfast. I really wish I had had my camera. These are just photos I took off the web.

It really is wonderful to see these great creatures in their natural habitat.

Tagged

I've been tagged by Nana B and here are the rules
Ok, I have been tagged to say 7 things about me that are not widely known. That's hard for me cause I tell anybody anything they want to know. So here goes, first I am supposed to list the rules: THE RULES: 1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you. 2. Post THE RULES on your blog. 3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog. 4. Tag 7 people and link to them. 5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

1. I exercise everyday, either by walking or by riding my inside machine.
2. I hate liver, except pate.
3. I was born in Corinth, MS a very small town that I have never returned to.
4. I wanted to name my first born son Leif, but he was named Zachary instead. I thought it would be too hard on him.
5. I make up words.
6. I like clutter, putting things away means I can't see them and I don't know where there are, or more importantly I forget about them.
7. I collect Disneykins. I am not a big Disney fan, but I love these little figures.

These are some of my favorite blogs.
Judy Coates Perez, she does fun and fascinating things with paint and ink.
Wanda Hansen shows us such great quilt projects.
Emily Parsons because of her great ideas about knitting and quilting.
Melody Johnson because of her great gift of sharing.
Tommy Fitzsimmons I love her sense of style and her work.
Anne Lullie for her gorgeous fabric.
and Shirley Goodwin for her wonderful fabrics and her wonderful self.

Girl Friends Christmas

Why is it that girlfriends always have Christmas late? Here it is Valentine's Day and we are celebrating Christmas!! My friend Betty has the most fabulous Cabana where we meet for good food, fun, lots of wine and lots of talk. The four of us have been meeting since the kids were babies. The oldest is now 28! How did that happen?

Randi, Deb, Betty and me.

Christmas presents

Some of the food. It was delicious!

Finn's Fabrics

Finn's Fabrics in Barrington IL is going out of business. Everything is 70% off. This store was always a treasure trove of fabulous fabrics. If a bit over priced you could still get the most gorgeous fabrics, wools, silks etc, plus trims and buttons. It was always a place I went to find the unusual. Dyllis the owner has had some health issues and is finally closing the doors. On Saturday several friends and I went to see what could be found that must go home with us. I managed to find quite a bit. If you live in the area it is well worth a stop in. The doors will be open the next two Saturday's from 10-4. I hope you make the trip.

Copy right

Walks in the Woods II

Lexie's Piece

Dear Frieda, Several years ago, I saw a quilt of yours in a friend's magazine. I had a house that I thought those colours would go in, and I liked the stylized trees. At that time I was unfamiliar with your work, I just knew I loved the article and the quilts. I believe it was a Fons and Porter publication, but recall no more than that. I know I looked at it a dozen times on that weekend and made a sketch and a few notes. I went home and went through my hand dyes, and I have included photos of the end result. It was for my dining room wall. I loved it there. It was while I was making the wall hanging that I discovered your website when a friend emailed me someone's blog. I knew then that your work was called `Walks in the Woods'. Since then my circumstances have changed, our house was sold and I can no longer hang it in my rented abode. I belong to a co-op of art and craft folk and have considered displaying it as an example of my quilting, in the hope that someone may wish me to make something for them, on commission. My finances would prefer that someone gave me $$for it, but as it is not my design, I believe I can do neither, without your permission. I would appreciate your feedback or permission for either scenario. I will take no action unless I hear from you, and if displayed I shall acknowledge the source. Am I rambling? BTW the peice is 32" x 40", and my hand dyed fabrics as well as a few of my friend's, are used. Many thanks for reading thus far.Lexie

Dear Lexie,
Thank you for contacting me, I have no problem with you selling the piece as long as you acknowledge that it was inspired by my work and reference my name and website. And by the way yes it was in an issue of Fons and Porters magazine. I am happy that you admire my work and after all making art work is my way of influencing the world. Imitation is the strongest form of flattery, or something like that. I am inspired by my daily walks in the woods with my dog George and so much of what I make is a direct result of these walks, I hope that you find your own inspiration and allow it to influence your own art in the future. Good luck in your endeavors.
Fondly Frieda

Happy on the new quilt

Lars and Megan happy and warm on the new quilt!!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a very happy and warm Valentine's Day. We are still freezing here in Illinois.

Lars and Megan's quilt

My son Lars asked me in August to make him a quilt for his new apartment in Boston. I finally finished it! Winter is almost over, but there is always next year. He and Megan decided they want it to be Blue, and Blue and White. So first I had to buy the white and more light blue because I like really intense colors and didn't really have any lighter shades. Then I had to decide what pattern to make. I decided to use a pattern out of Pat Speth's book, More Nickel Quilts. She calls it Streak of Lightning. It is a scrapy quilt, but I wish I had placed the white in certain areas to see the pattern develope more noticably. I know they will enjoy it no matter what. It turned out huge 100 x 100 so it will fit on queen or king.

What kind of batting is best for fusing.

Hi Frieda – I took my first shot at doing a fusie – the tulips – from your book. Considering it was my first learning experience – it turned out OK enough for my husband to want it – Anyway, I used a scrap piece of warm n natural for my batting. I am no pro at free motion quilting or stipling but I found it difficult to get a nice flow. Is there another type of batting that would be more appropriate for working with fused layers? Also, from what I saw on your web site I may need to use a different sized needle. Saw the Chicago School of Fusion on our SD PBS channel. Enjoyed! Feel sorry for my iron – definitely a challenge keeping that sucker out of fusions way. Thanks, Kathie (born n raised Chicagoan and parents formerly your “neighbors” from Streamwood. ) Rapid City, SD

Thanks Kathie for the question. My batting of chose is Hobbs Heirloom, or Fairfield Cotton Classic. Both are nice and thin and don't have any pattern on them the way Warm and Natural does. They machine quilt beautifully and don't create any drag. I also have found that if I spray the back of my quilt with spray sizing ( I like the new Mary Ellen spray sizing that comes in a pump bottle, it costs more but there is non wasted and it smells good) the quilt just glides through the machine with easy. And yes it is important to use the correct needle for the correct job. If you are using cotton thread I recommend using a "Quilting Needle" it is designed to penetrate all the layers of the quilt with ease unlike a Universal needle which is designed to part the threads for sewing. And remember that a sewing machine needle is only intended to sew 8-10 hours of sewing time, so change those needles!!!

New design on my webpage

I have been working with a friend from my church for over a month now, and we finally have a new web design for FRIESTYLE, my website. I still have to upload some images on my notions page, but other than that I am ready to premier the new site. I invite you to take a minute and check it out, particularly the store section. I would appreciate your honest feed back.

My samples

Tsukineko Inks

Yesterday Judy Coats Perez led a class for the Textile Diva's at the College of DuPage on Tsukinelo Inks. We had a blast. I had never used these inks and was very interesting in giving them a try. What I discovered is that you need to practice. Big surprise.

Judy demonstrated the various techniques of applying the inks to dry white or light colored hand dyed cottons. Dipping the Fantast/x coloring tool bullet point (nub), either sharp or rounded, into the ink you then rub the nub onto the fabric creating shading and shape. To thin the inks you can use Aloe instead of water. After playing around I found I liked using the Aloe method better as it gave a smoother appearance.

Judy started us out by doing basic shapes, rectangles, leaves, and spheres. She then gave us hand outs from Dover books of flowers, fruits and berries to lay under our white fabrics to follow along and color in. Eventually I tried my own designs. We even did a little marbling on shaving cream with the inks, something else I had always wanted to try. This was great fun and more my cup of tea.

I enjoy taking classes on new techniques with friends along for the fun, it is always easier to learn by watching someone else do it first and then experimenting in class while you sit and visit. It is particularly nice on a gray day in February.

I have blogged before about my church raffle quilt, but I thought I'ld share the history of the group.
Last night at church we meet for another group called Woman cooking for Woman.
"On the first Friday of each month (except July and December), women gather to cook, converse, cajole and donate to a cause or project that supports women. We rotate between global and local causes in order to educate ourselves to the plight and concerns of women everywhere."
They asked me to do a presentation about the raffle quilt since the money we raise now goes to charity. It was a great opportunity for me to review the history of our group and I decided to put together a slide show with most of the quilts that we have made in the last 15 years.
The UUQuilters were originally started to add funds to our own building committee. Our church was moving into a new building that we were creating out of an old 19th century 8 bay barn on the property were we meet. The idea was to make the quilt, raffle the tickets and contribute the money to our church's needs. We did this for ten years. After that time we wanted to start donating the money to causes we felt strongly about, and began giving to two kinds of charities, one locally in our own community and one internationally. The last five years we have donated to the following groups.

•Building fund for our own Prairie Cathedral
Funds to help with a new stain glass window in our entryway

Elgin Community Crisis Center
Elgin Larkin Center
Bethesda Community Development Center
The Fistula Foundation
The Hunger Project
The UUCE World Bank
All People's Inter Faith Pantry

The slide show shows most of the quilts that we have made over the years and some of the people who have worked on them. It has been a great experience and we have grown close as a group. Originally we started out making a log cabin block set in the barn raising pattern. How appropriate for our group. The very first quilt we made as a group hangs in the entryway of our church and was made in red and gray the colors of a barn. After that we did all kinds of color combinations.
Eventually we had to simplify the pattern to accommodate the very different abilities of people who worked on the quilt.
We started making stripy units that where then cut into triangles and sewn together with other stripy units cut in triangles. This way it compensated for variances in seam allowances and allowed anyone who wanted to participate to be able to do so. It has been a great success.

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Snow

It's snowing here! George and I were the first to walk up in the woods at 6:30 this morning, it was magical. The snow was about 6 inches deep and still coming down in light soft flakes. You would never know that George is nine years old because he romps thru the snow just like a puppie. It is very funny to watch, he actually hops along like a rabbit, or plows thru like a a little bull dozer. Some of the squirrels were high up in the trees chirping at each other. I felt like I was in a fairy tale.