What did Yavonne Porchella have to do with the "Summer of Love" ?

My husband and I made a trip up to San Francisco to go to the Monet exhibit.  But due to not reading the tickets thoroughly we went to the De Young museum assuming that's where the show was.  

When we handed the ticket confirmation to the clerk he informed us that the Monet exhibit was at the Palace of Legion Of Honor!  Boy did we feel stupid!  But he said the "Summer of Love" Show was currently at the De Young and would we like to see it before going over to the Palace?!

The show was great, a real trip down memory lane!

But probably what was most fun for me was seeing a name I recognized from the quilt world!

I've been a fan of Yvonne Porcella's work from the very beginning of my interest in quilting. She's right up there with Nancy Crow and Jean Ray Laury for having helped spark the Quilt Renaissance of the second half of the 20th Century.

The show focused on the music, garments, poster and other arts and crafts as a way of illustrating this interesting time in our near past social history.

This one caught my eye before I even read the label!

And who remembers denim patchwork?!

Look at all the different fabrics she used to make this "Granny" dress!

There were many other textile and Garment makers featured.

This is about 90" square, all crocheted so creative!

The fine detail in this purse was amazing!

There were losts of great posters that looked vaguely familiar but this is the only one I really vividly remembered .  Maybe because it is soooo vivid!

An estimated 100,000 (mostly) young people came to SanFrancisco that summer of 1967 to "Turn on, Tune in and Drop out".  It was an interesting show.

Just to round things out for the 20th century we went up stairs to the Stewart Davis exhibit.

I liked his work a lot but this painting really stood out!

Then over to the Palace of Legion of Honor.

The Monet exhibit focused on his early work this picture marks the turning point into his fully formed impressionist phase.

So beautiful!

It was a lot of fun going to all these cool exhibits.  I grew up in the Bay Area and now I love being close enough to the visit the city by the Bay....

and then coming home again to our (relatively) small town of Santa Cruz.

cheers, CW

PVQA May 2017 BOM - Flying geese

Sorry for the delay on these instructions I've been traveling a lot and that makes wifi a little dicey for posting.
This is a really fun block and I've included a relatively new technique for making flying geese units 4 at a time!  I first saw this on Randy's blog (Barrister's Block) back when she was posting her first Sow-a-long.  You can make any size "geese" by adding 7/8" to the height and   
1 1/4" to the width to the finished size of the geese units that you need.  These geese units will be 2.5' x 5" -finished.
Fabrics

Choose colors in light to medium shades of blue, green, pink, purple, grey, black or white.  You will be making 2 sets of Flying Geese units.  For each set of “geese” choose one solid color and one print. 

The prints should be graphic:  dots, stripes, circles, zig-zags etc.  Make one set where the “geese” are solid and the background is a print and the other set will have printed “geese” and a solid background.

This is an “All From Your Stash” Block.  Two sets of “geese” units constitutes one block credit you may make up to 6 blocks = 12 “geese” units.

Cut

1-    6 ¼ ” solid square to be paired with 4-  3 3/8” printed squares

1-    6 ¼” print square to be paired with 4- 3 3/8” solid squares

Sew

To make 1 “geese” set of 4, take one of the 6 ¼” squares,place it face up on the ironing board, place two of the 3 3/8” squares on top of it, face down, as show. 

Draw a line down the middle. Pin each small square across the draw line to hold it to the large patch.  

Sew ¼” seam on each side of the drawn line. 

Cut on the drawn line between the two stitched seams
and press. Place one 3 3/8” square right side down on top of each of these units.  (refer to pic below) Draw a line on the square, pin it down and sew a ¼” on either side of the line.  Cut on the line and press.  

Each 6 1/4" square will yield 4 geese units 

                   

Sew the 4 geese units head to tail.  Repeat the proceedure for the second 6 1/4" patch and it's four - 3 3/8" squares to produce the second set of geese.  Do not sew the 2 geese sets together.  Leave that to the lucky winner so they can mix and match to their own creative vision!

                   Have fun with this great technique and

                 Have a great weekend!  Cheers, Claire W.

Up date on April BOM "Spring Baskets"

"Spring Baskets" had a pretty good turn out, 23 blocks!

 You can find the instructions here.  It's a fun block that uses a half of a layer cake (5" x 10") for the basket and a little more than a half of a layer cake for the background.

And, yes, there is that basket with the funny handle.  It is our guilds policy to be forgiving to the new bees and boo-boos of all quilter's attempts. 

 Our mission like most guilds is primarily Educational and we encourage new bees to try new things, to learn and expand their skills by participating in the Block of the Month program.  First tries are often not perfect but it's a beginning!

Speaking of BOM's;  if you're looking for the May BOM instructions they will be ready in a few days.  Sorry for the delay, last week was very very busy.

Cheer, Claire W.

Happy Mother's Day!

A Virtual Bouquet, Wishing you a Happy Mother's Day!

I wish I could send you the fragrance as well.

There's nothing sweeter smelling than a

bouquet of Sweet Peas!

Have a Sweet Day!

Cheers, Claire W.

Update on March PVQA BOM 2017

These blocks were turned in at our April meeting for the "Tribute to Jean Ray Luary " which was presented at our March general meeting. (See link to original post below)  As you can see there were not very many takers for this project.  But that is not unusual for either applique projects or "Artsy" projects.  There's just something intimidating to some people to just making stuff up.

I think the people who did make blocks did a fantastic job!  These portraits are really fun and each one is unique!  These blocks will make a great wall hanging!

http://cspoonquilt.blogspot.com.es/2017/03/march-2017-pvqa-bom.html

I decided my first attempt (see the link above) was to grimm so I made another portrait.  This one was not a self portrait.  I just wanted to make an interesting character.  She's kind of serious but she does not look as sour as my first attempt.  I seem to have a problem drawing smiles?!  

I don't feel like that, I generally think of myself as an optimist.

I thought it was a fun project even tho' the turn out was low.

Some Month's projects are just like that.

Happy Weekend!!

Cheers, Claire W.

Update on January Block of the Month

The drawing for these blocks was at our March general meeting.  There were over 80 blocks turned in so we split the blocks 3 ways!  I ended up taking home one set because one of the winners was not in attendance.  If a person can't be at the meeting they can put in for the drawing as long as they turn in the block before the meeting.

I played with the blocks a bit before delivering them to their winner.  Here are some of the layouts that I came up with.

If you are interesting in the source and constructions of these blocks go to:
http://cspoonquilt.blogspot.com.es/2017/01/pvqa-january-block-of-month-2017.html

And if you are looking for the April BOM instructions go to:
http://cspoonquilt.blogspot.com.es/2017/04/pvqa-april-2017-bom-spring-baskets.html

First up is the old random color scheme.  There were 28 blocks total so I made it 4 x 7 blocks.

Some of the possiblities would necessitate making a few more blocks but these blocks are so fun and easy to make that's not a problem.

In horizontal rows of color...

Then I tried colors by diagonal...

Grouped in random color sets of 4 seperated by some yet to be determined sashing...

And lastly sets of 4 arranged by colors...

I think my favorites are the two where the colors are randomly distributed.  But this last one is growing on me.  It really needs another vertical row to make it a bed sized quilt.  The blocks finish at 10".  Maybe even two rows?!  Well they were really fun to make and play with.

And now they are with their lucky winner!

Happy Weekend!

Cheers, Claire W.

PVQA April 2017 BOM- Spring Baskets

I used half of a layer cake patch (5" x10") for the printed areas and then a solid or tone on tone for the background. From the background  cut: 1- 5"x 10" rectangle,  2- 2" x 3" rectangles and 1- 3 1/4" square.

Step 1

Put the print 5" x 10" rectangles right sides together and press. 

Step 2

Cut the 5" x 10" rectangles in half to make 2- 5" x 5" layered sets.  Cut one of these squares in half diagonally. See left hand side of the next picture.  Sew one of these triangles on the long edge. open and press toward the print.  Trim this Half Square Triangle to 4.5 ".  

STEP 3

Take the other half of that cut- square and seperate the print piece from the background piece.  Cut the print triangle to make 2 smaller triangles and then take one of these triangles and cut it to make two smaller triangles.  You will have a total of 3 triangles: 2 smaller and one larger.

Match the two small triangles with the 2- 2" x 3" rectangles and sew.  NOTE:  they are right and left facing.

Step 4

Take the other 5"x 5"  and sew a 1/4" seam on all 4 sides of the square

Step 5

Cut this square through both diagonals.

This will yield 4- HST.  And yes, they are all bias edges, but if you treat them kindly they will keep their shape!  Press toward the print.

Step 6

Now you have all the pieces you need plus a few leftovers. Layout all the pieces according to the picture below.

  Sew the to units from STEP 3 to the 4.5" HST,  Then use the large background triangle to finish the bottom. 

Step 6

THIS TRIANGLE IS  a little bigger so trim the whole unit to 6" square.

Step 7

Sew the Basket handle HSTs 2 for the left and 2 for the right.  use the pix as your guide. 

Sew one basket set to the left sew the 3 1/4" square to the top of the other set and then sew to the other side of the basket to finish!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

CHEERS, CLAIRE W.