The quilt is done.  Here are some photos of the quilting I did.  Again, I will try bigger designs if I decide to print on fabric again.

January, Machine Quilting Sample

          One of my goals as a quilter was to start a blog.  I started this blog to not only share my trip to Ireland with friends and family, but to keep track of what I do as a quilter.  Well, adding to this once a year just doesn't help me remember what I've done, so a goal for this year is to write more.

           An after school program in Thermopolis called "Lights On" asked me to help some kids in a quilting club.  We dyed fabric and set to work.  They are amazing kids and have created simple, but beautiful quilts that will be keepsakes for them for a very long time.  We are now ready to do some simple quilting and needed quilt backs.  I took all the little pieces of left over fabric home and pieced them randomly together to create backs.  I loved the pieces so took some of my fabric from my stash and traded one of the backs with one of my quilters.  Both of us were very happy.

         Besides working on a t-shirt quilt with a very good friend, I also need to create a machine quilting class model.  I will be teaching a quilting class in Worland this spring and hopefully in Sheridan this summer at Quilt Wyoming.  When I teach this class, I usually have many quilts to show during class, but Heart n' Home in Worland asked for a display sample.  It was a really good idea and I will be putting as many quilting patterns in this small quilt as I can for demonstration purposes.  I will hopefully also use this at Quilt Wyoming this summer.  I needed something eye catching and thought the colors in this top would be perfect.
     

        I put the quilt together and got ready to quilt it when I realized that I could also do some experimenting with my stamps (bought mostly in Santa Fe).  Cynthia St.Charles does a lovely job with her hand carved stamps and I so admire her work that I thought a bit of experimenting on my part would be a fun thing to do. 

          I realize that my stamps are for smaller projects and I need to think more about contrast, but I had fun and I appreciate how talented Cynthia is!  She makes things that are so beautiful and makes it sound so easy to do.  If you want to see what she can do, she's a cover girl, check out the last issue of Quilting Arts, the quilt on the cover is hers.  I will heat set these stamped areas at get to work on my sample quilting this afternoon.

Abstracts

Three of us in Thermopolis have started a mini quilt group. We are very diverse in our quilting, careers, even our families. I have great respect for these ladies. Tracy is an accountant and is working for the town. Her very traditional quilts are works of art. The colors are soothing, the designs are well executed and I always envy her points and let her know that on occasion. Margie is a retired Consumer Science teacher and usually goes the traditional route with a twist somehow, somewhere in her beautiful work. She is an expert on color and I admire how she can pick out five colors in a focus fabric. I may see three of them, she sees all of the colors. I, on the other hand, am an undecided quilter. My love is art quilting and I enjoy the process and products of so many artists. I probably am an art quilter, but somehow it is hard to label me that when I have witnessed so many works of art by friends in Cody and Billings.

Our mini group decided to focus our projects for the next few months on Jean Well's newest book. If I had the book in front of me, I would certainlly tell you the title. It is a fabulous book, but with my wonderful, crazy summer I can't remember where I put it.

Our project we are to share at our next meeting is to create a design from a photo. I took a photo of a place at the Hamilton Dome Oil Field that has stripes of colors from rabbit brush (we called it chamisa growing up), sage, cattail reeds and other bits of plants in beautiful fall colors. This unfinished piece is my rendition of the color waves of that photo.

This first image is of some of the quilting I have started. I decided the bias edges needed to be calmed down and heavy quilting would help that.

This is an image of the entire little quilt. It is pieced and I like how curvey the sides are. When I finish quilting it, add some beads, I think I'll bind it so that the edges stay the way they are.

I will try to post a picture of the finished quilt and the photo I took in the next few days.

When this entry is posted, I will have shown two unfinished pieces--story of my life!!

Angels

While in Ireland I bought two books that had many beautiful Celtic line drawings with suggestions in each book on how they might be used. I found some beautiful angels in one of the books and decided to use the line drawing to help me make an angel for one of the great ladies that traveled with us. She gave all of us angels to wear to keep us safe on our amazing trip. I always wanted someone to do that, and I am glad that I have that wonderful angel pin from her. I machine embroidered with metallic threads. I put those pesky threads in the bobbin so they wouldn't break. I need to find the measurements of her journal she used while in Ireland so I can make a book jacket for her with the angel on the front. I didn't realize that the Book of Kells was the four gospels copied by Irish monks and decorated with their beautiful artwork. I want to go back to Ireland so that I can see the book, there wasn't time on this trip! I also learned that I need to do more research before I travel.

I am home from my travels. I have been spending time writing down what I saw, felt, and did in a paper journal. Maybe tomorrow I'll add those thoughts to this blog with many more photos. What a wonderful trip, I was always envious of those who traveled abroad, now I want to try other countries!

Westport Part Two

These pictures don't show the detail I would like them to. I am hoping on a larger computer that they would show the rock fences better. I am still amazed at the human spirit. The glacier that covered Ireland removed the top soil and deposited it farther south. All that was left behind, basically, was a layer of hard rock. They picked and chopped at that rock, moved it out of the way, and then made soil with seaweed and sand. On top of that, this area was the hardest hit area when the potato famine hit. Over all a million people died in Ireland, over a million people left. Mayo County (which is where we are right now) still hasn't recovered and the famine was in the 1840's. I need to read up on the famine. I knew it was bad, but wow!

Westport has beautiful flowers, like all the cities we have visited. The garden art was cool. It was a series of plates suspended on a pole with red gazing balls added too. I have a feeling that this little city really celebrates art. There are more pieces of art work, for example, in our motel here than any other place.

We took a ferry ride today. They served coffee, tea, snacks, espresso, and Irish Coffee. I had a coffee and a latte. The coffee was great, but I miss the Storyteller's coffee and the size! Little bitty cups of coffee of any sort isn't enough for a coffee drinker like I am. We were hoping to see dolphins, but they didn't want to show themselves today.

When Ireland joined the European Common Market (or is it called the European Union?), they had to change what they raised for crops All along this fjord you could see where the farmers were harvesting seaweed and mussels.
This photo is going the wrong way, the little roundish balls of the kelp should be heading south. I took this photo because it could become a pretty cool quilt one of these days.

Dave our tour guy sure is super. He is knowledgeable and I wouldn't take a car where he drives that bus. His sense of humor is almost greater than his wealth of knowledge. He is holding peat from a bog. We all stood on this peat and jumped. Forty of us made the ground shake. An art teacher from California was gracious enough to let us think that we created an earthquake. The peat is gathered, dried for six weeks and used as fuel. It is very smokey, but I bet is warm in the winter. Each farmer has their own space that they harvest the peat. A foot of peat cut from the land took 1000 years to grow--it is a plant! Grandma would have had a problem with this. We couldn't even pick her flowers, let alone cut up her plants!


This was a summer home for a rich couple built in the 1800's. It was purchased by nuns who used it as an Abbey. They had a school for girls that just closed. I don't know what will happen next. I bought a piece of needle felting here. I couldn't afford the one I wanted and it wouldn't fit in a suitcase anyway, so I got a small one. I wish I could find the roving as well as the art. I did get a web site, but Lucy's Sheepcamp always has what I need. It would just be cool to have a piece of roving from Ireland.

This bird looked like a crow, but had a black face. Kind of made him/her look grouchy.

Well, on to Dublin. We tour the Guinness Factory tomorrow and maybe ride an open air bus. It should be fun, but I don't want this trip to end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Westport

I am sitting in the cockpit of the flying boat. If only Dad and Ken could have been there with me. I bet I enjoyed the Irish Coffee more than they would have. It was invented at this airport to serve to tired and freezing cold passengers. It was very good and I'll have to try to make some at home!

We stopped at some pretty cool castle for a bathroom break. I asked one poor person in Kilkenny where the restroom was, she didn't know what I was talking about. The restrooms are marked toilets and that is what you ask for. Somehow the way Archie Bunker said toilet always comes to mind. Anyway, I loved this red phone. Somehow I see Harry Potter entering the booth to go to headquarters.

This is a picture of a golf course we saw on our way to the Cliffs of Mohr. The course was huge and looked like a challenge. This was pretty level there. We were told that movie stars come to visit and play here.

The Cliffs of Mohr was a pretty spectacular place. This is just one part of the horseshoe. It was very windy, but beautiful.

We had a long drive today through some beautiful, lush, green countryside, In fact the bus is so comfortable that I fell asleep. Mary told me I missed 150 sheep and 20 castles.
I am so impressed with the history behind the buildings and the fact that even if the roof is no longer there that everyone respects them. I have seen graffiti in the cities, but NEVER on the old buildings. The rock walls were impressive along the coastline. They wanted to have sheep and farm so they carried the rocks away and built fences with them. It took many, many years to do one little place. Then they brought sand and seaweed and mulched it. Wow, man can sure be stubborn when needed. The fences are very, very old. I can't remember for sure how old or how long it took them to build them. I think the fences took maybe 100 years to build and they have been around for many, many more years than that. I should have kept a diary, thought this would take it's place. I'll post some photos.
I really thought about my brother and dad today. Ken finds all the strange airplane places and dad was a pilot. We visited a flying boat museum today. Ireland was the landing place for the first transatlantic flights. The airboats flew across the ocean and landed on the water. Pretty cool. They built a replica that we could go in. Far more comfortable than planes now, it even had a honeymoon room. It is also the first place to make and serve Irish coffee.
There's so much more to Ireland than this trip. I hope I have time to do a better job sharing soon.