Judy Gelzinis Donovan

Last night's Main Line Bead Society meeting featured a program by Judy Gelzinis Donovan, a textile artist, beader and teacher. Born in Philadelphia but raised on the tiny island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, she became fascinated with beads and textiles using vibrantly colored tropical fabrics, raffia, cowrie shells and beads. Her work, primarily garments and woven beadwork, has been shown nationally and internationally in juried shows, galleries, as well as in invitation-only fashion shows.

A highly entertaining speaker, she provided information on her techniques, ideas and inspiration. Attendees were encouraged to model her garments, and everyone had an opportunity to touch and look at them closely. It was almost enough to make me want to consider buying a sewing machine!

autumn celebrations

After being inspired by some of the sites I've discovered through Amy's blogger festival, I've been collecting dried materials from the yard to make autumn decorations. This little quilt turned out tinier than an ATC and is embellished with beads and paint.

change in shape

two of twenty

Finally I have identified the source of the pattern I used for a quilt I had posted earlier. Both of these were from Gwen Marston's Twenty Little Triangle Quilts. The original one posted is"String of Triangles" and the red, blue and yellow one is "Triangle Block with Triangle Border" (except that I didn't make a triangle border).

small vintage wip

Here are some vintage 9-patch blocks, approximately 3 inches, from a stash I inherited from a dear family friend. Several years ago I did make a small quilt using some of them which was given as a gift.

wip: to Boston

These small squares, embellished with beads and buttons, were made this past spring on a couple of unexpected trips to Boston and while I was waiting there. I have a small stack of them and haven't yet assembled them into any permanent order.

autumn hearts wip progress

Still working on autumn hearts, which I really think of as pumpkin hearts. It's a slow process since everything is done by hand but it is also enjoyable.

crazy wip

A tiny crazy quilt with partial border. Apparently I stoppped working on it in the middle of attaching the border. At least all the pieces are together. To take the photograph I used a couple of pieces of driftwood as paperweights to try to get it to lie flat. So my collection of rocks and sticks serve a purpose after all.

unexpected happy sale

This is the little quilt that sold unexpectedly on Saturday when it was being used as part of a display.

While I Was Waiting: Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival

While I Was Waiting: Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival

Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival

time and placement

While if I had my choice I would still be employed (preferably as a librarian), one of the advantages of my current situation is that I now have the time to sort through items (wips) tucked away in baskets in my studio and start working on them again. This is a project that I had purposely set aside while I was deciding how to set the blocks and whether or not to use sashing. I have made the decision not to use sashing and am now working on the placement of the blocks.

800 miles and autumn hearts wip

Riding in the car for a round trip total of over 800 miles resulted in quite a bit of progress on the small autumn hearts quilt project. Twelve hearts were appliqued, and eight of them have been outlined in an embroidery stitch.

Saturday morning rainbow

We saw a rainbow early Saturday morning on our way to Newbern. Adrienne sold a few cards and I sold a quilt she was using to decorate her display.

Adrienne Rachel's cards

Tomorrow Adrienne Rachel is selling her handmade cards in Newbern, VA and is hoping it won't rain.

hearts on my mind part four

For the long journey home to the mountains of my past, some pumpkin-colored hearts (although you can't tell from the photograph) to applique and embellish.

hearts on my mind part three

This not yet appliqued and yet to be pieced wip includes hearts and, according to the template, scrappy stars. Dalla is watching me take photographs.

hearts on my mind part two

This one was made a bit later, and combines both old and new fabric.

hearts on my mind part one

For almost two weeks now hearts have been on my mind. This is an early small quilt, actually it was a doll quilt for my oldest daughter. The fabric is vintage and I made a similar quilt in lavendar for a little girl she used to play with.

early triangles

A small quilt reflecting an early experiment with triangles. Not what I had intended to post this morning but my window of opportunity to photograph my intended post collided with the need for my camera battery to be recharged.

wind and roses

A fall day, windy with branches and debris on the ground, but still there are beautiful roses.

wip: mostly red

This wip is a foundation -based piece using a variety of reds with a smattering of dark blues thrown in. The intent is for it to to remain small although I do plan to add a few more "logs." It is currently stored in a basket with other wips, some of which have accompanying plastic baggies containing pieces of audtioned fabric for possible inclusion.
I prefer to have several ongoing projects for a variey of reasons but storage and retrieval is a challenge. I do keep a few out on a couple of design walls, but due to very little actual wall space, it is necessary to also have a system for storage. My latest system involved putting small wips in baskets in an armoire but then I forgot what was there. So lately I have pulled them out and now my studio is once again cluttered.

a little corner of the woods

remember to reach for the stars

She does still look a little strange, but she has finally been transformed from being disarmed to remembering to reach for the stars.

wip: she now has arms

The arms have now been attached to this wip, however, since I was working on them while riding in a car they did not turn out exactly the way I had in mind. I had hoped to finish this project over the weekend but took walks outside instead.

a new old discovery

When I decided I wanted to make quilts, I regularly checked books out of libraries to study them to try to figure out how. Some books were mostly about technique while others were primarily for inspiration and ideas. At the time I had a corporate job and probably studied these books for about a year. (My husband once commented that I was never going to make a quilt but only read about them.) New Discoveries in American Quilts by Robert Bishop (1975) is an old favorite and one of the books I frequently checked out of the library. This weekend I came across a copy at a book sale and even after all of these years, I still find it interesting and inspirational. Both traditional and innovative quilts are beautifully photographed. There are historical overviews of particular styles of quilts, and biographical information on featured quiltmakers. One was named Susan McCord and it was commented that "She deserves to be considered as important in her field as America's finest folk painters are in theirs."

wip: disarmed woman

This is a very rough wip, I haven't even yet figured out where to place her arms. The evening I was working on this project, I selected fabrics and just started cutting out shapes. After sewing the head and some of her body together, I wasn't sure about the hands and arms because they are too small to needle-turn applique. Now I feel more comfortable about leaving them with raw edges and will probably apply them accordingly once I've decided upon their placement. Also have several strips of fabric to be added as borders or frames.

wip: crooked cabin

a small pumpkin story

A friend gave me some small pumkins. While I was playing around with photographing them, Dalla (the cat) managed to knock one down on top of Mollie (the dog).

Mollie was compensated with a dog treat and doesn't look like she much minded.