Pin It Weekly #288

Would you like to meet new friends? Here are three followers for Fleur de Lis Quilts on Pinterest. Let's begin with Kate Janssens' "bags" board because she has some interesting little DIY bags.

Linda Hains has the sweetest board, titled "art," that has the most precious drawings. How stinkin cute are these?

And finally, Mya Ballard is a girl after my own heart. Check out her "School Survival" board!

I guess surviving school these days takes more than a few pencils and some paper. And for those especially rough days, an emergency kit for true emergencies. I guess the office doesn't keep a bottle of Tylenol for teachers anymore. :) If you're starting back, what do you consider "survival" necessities? Or are you a member of the no-extra-weight-in-the-backpack crowd? I still am the latter.

GSQA Meeting

GSQA Opportunity Quilt

This lucky gal has been doing so many quilty things lately! I don't know how July became the quilt travel month for me, but wow! I'm having fun. Of course, I'll have to settle down and get busy with our quilt show, which is on Sept. 28th. In other words, the heavy lifting is about to begin. 

This travel was to attend the GSQA meeting in Brandon, Mississippi, with Lori, a friend who is about to become the new GSQA president. Her term begins in January. 

Detail of opportunity quilt

I was a little more than moral support: I also had the opportunity to "sell" my circuit teacher classes. There's a system to how that's done. First, the teachers lay their class quilts out on tables and chairs to be seen by anyone interested. Then we each had a few minutes to talk about the classes so that the audience could get our perspective of what we teach. 

There wasn't much time, but showing our class quilts and giving a little blurb may have interested someone who will go back and encourage her guild to hire a teacher. Cross your fingers and hope that I'm one!

The hosting guild had a mini quilt show, which was a sweet surprise. Those are the quilts you're seeing here. Unfortunately, the quilts did not have information as to who their makers are. 

Did I mention that we did part of a shop hop along the way? I know, I know, but yes, I did buy fabric. How about the goodies come in another post? This one is plenty full of eye candy.

We also had a show and share. I wanted to show Dropcloth, so I was standing in line or helping to hold other folk's quilts and didn't get any pictures. Just trust me, there were some fabulous ones.

Lastly, MJ Kinnan gave a trunk show and presentation. You have to check out her work! It's amazing. Can you imagine what this quilt looks like in person? It's a stunner, for sure. These are two of MJ's diamond quilts. Both photos are from her website. Though I did take photos of my own, you can't imagine how difficult that is until you try sitting down behind people, while one or two others (who are always too short) hold up and move the quilt. I'm not very good at photography when everything is in my favor, so the pictures I took? Nah, not even.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TONY BENNETT STUDIO

I had not even heard of Kinnan before this meeting. Well, maybe in passing. Have you? She'll be teaching in Houston and has had quilts in several major shows. If you have the opportunity to see her teach, jump on it! Quick, fast and in a hurry. She's that good and her quilts that fabulous. 

PHOTOGRAPH from MJ Kinnan website.

I must live under a rock. Are you there under the neighboring rock or are you familiar with some of the big name quilters? How do you manage that? Really, I read about quilting all the time. Where and whose work should I be reading to keep up? 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: egg shapes

Sometimes I look at an item and see a quilt. And sometimes I look at a quilt and see an object that probably is not meant by the maker. The first is a possible idea for a future quilt. The second is probably odd. Regardless, this inspiration comes from a quilt and manifested itself into an SQI. Or something like that.

So are you curious what kind of quilts might be deviled eggs incognito? Quite often they're modern, artsy, and colorful.

These quilts and over 600 others (though not devil egg incognito) are in the modern section of my "heart, quilts" board. Do you see devil eggs in these quilts? 

Pin It Weekly #287

Hey folks! Happy weekly! Meet some new followers with amazing boards. Irene Borjas, for example, has a DIY obsession, which means many boards with DIY ideas. How do you like this one called corazones, Spanish for hearts? 

Another DIY guru is Annatjie von Staden. Why don't we just jump to her "creative ideas" board? Don't you want to see more of this?

These, my dears, are made with utensils. Are you wowed yet?

But there are many other ideas on this board, so....

Finally this board is so unusual that I have to share: "Ideas for someone who has passed away" is Deneen Tressler's board of Christmas tree ornaments and memory makers. 

Have a wonderful rest of the week. Here's hoping you got lots of DIY inspiration from this post, and even better, that you get to put it to use, right? 

A Quilty Jaunt -- more of CFAL in Baton Rouge

Lucy Landry -- Life's Journey-Marathon

Since I didn't get to process all of my pictures for the first post of the Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana (CFAL) exhibit at the Louisiana State Archives building, I thought I'd get to work and try to show you the rest. None are in any particular order. I started out trying to systematically take pictures, but well, I'm more ADD than systematic. 

Yvonne Bayham -- Here Kitty Kitty

This one really tickled Richard! He kept going back to it to look for the 3D effects and to giggle at the pure joy of it.

Vicky Thompson -- Flight of Fancy

Bebe Tulley -- Walking Home from School, Uganda

Sally Gordon -- Bird on a Wire

Lisa Ducote -- Guardian of the Forgotten

Melanie Borne -- Jerusalem

Donna LaFleur -- Lightness

Did you notice the little feather in the bottom right corner? Not me! I saw it while working on the pictures.

Vicki Thompson -- A Light in the Woods

Suzi Stone --
Spirit-- Through the Stars to Mars

Suzi Stone --  Gorden's Musical Journey

Melanie Borne -- Losing Ground

Melanie Borne -- Leaves

BeBe Tulley -- St. Mark's Church Door, Philadelpha, PA

I can't say I have a favorite, but Susan Broussard's Sigh (below) certainly makes my heart happy. It's just so realistic-looking yet has a sense of mystery to it. I couldn't help but to take a closer look. Even with a close-up, there's no way a photograph can do it justice.

Susan Broussard -- Sigh

Of course, it isn't just this last one that deserves to be seen in person! Is it just me or aren't they amazing?  Fiber artists for certain. Which one really speaks to you? Or has you thinking of home? (That's what Sigh does for me. That cypress could be in my back yard.)