Twelve by Twelve in New Zealand

Kia ora! In an exciting development this week, I am thrilled to report that the Twelve by Twelve exhibition will be touring New Zealand as part of the Craft & Quilt Fair in September 2010 as follows:

• 9 - 12 September 2010: Craft & Quilt Fair Hamilton, New Zealand
• 17-19 September 2010: Craft & Quilt Fair Christchurch, New Zealand

I will be accompanying the exhibition and fellow kiwi, Kirsten, might be there too.  We look forward to sharing our work with a New Zealand audience while the quilts are downunder.

Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef

The Institute For Figuring is an organization dedicated to the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science, mathematics and the technical arts. I thought about Nikki and the Mathematics theme when I read about their Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project.  Do you crochet Nikki?

Winter Wonderland Yarn

The sewing machine is still down while a part is on backorder. Since I haven't figured out how to free motion quilt on my daughter's machine, I decided to spin up a little yarn in our color theme. I dyed some Romney wool and mohair locks a bright blue and added white fake cashmere and firestar nylon to the mix. The color mixing was a breeze with my newest toy, a Louet drum carder. I spun the dreamy soft batt into a thick and thin single and plyed it with black metallic thread. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this fun yarn, but I enjoyed exploring the color theme. Maybe next I'll paint some fabric!

Blue and White Inspiration

As anyone who's been to my house can attest, I like blue. A lot. I used to think that a blue and white kitchen was so cliché, but over the years and moves, I've found that not only can I NOT resist it, but a blue and white color scheme blends with just about any kitchen -- blonde wood, dark wood, country wallpaper with pink flowers, mostly white, stainless steel appliances, and even that avocado green kitchen we had in our first German apartment.

So that's my inspiration. My vast collection of blue and white pottery; in particular, that blue and white classic -- Delft.

Blue Shibori

I'm keen to incorporate some stitch resist shibori in my next Twelve by Twelve piece. Stitching is so time-consuming so today, when I had some blue dye left over from a purple dyeing session, I did some fabric fold shibori to warm up. Such a fresh palette Francoise.

Inspiration

I thought it was about time to pull out the scrap baskets for some color inspiration. This color combo that Francoise chose is going to be stunning, and I can't wait to see everyone's finished quilts. I've got an idea floating around in my head for my quilt and it will use these scraps. Hopefully it works out as planned.

Another connection

One fourth of the twelves at the Cadillac Cafe in Portland, Oregon.

Karen was in Portland for a family wedding and despite the hustle and bustle of the holidays we managed to find a time when Gerrie, Karen and I could sit down together for breakfast. Gerrie and Karen had met earlier at Diane's when Helen was there, but this was my chance to meet our talented and warm-hearted Karen! Again, I am struck by how much it is like getting together with an old friend and how much of our personalities have come through on the blog and the emails and in our work. We had a great visit, then got to meet Karen's husband, daughter and son-in-law, who had been banished to another part of the restaurant. The truth is they would have been bored by all our "book" talk and besides her husband said they did not know the "secret twelve handshake."

What a treat to start the New Year!