HAPPY 2014 and ....

Happy Valentine's Day, Happy President's Day, Happy St. Patrick's Day, Happy Easter, and Beyond!

Well 2013 sure was a very busy year for me and I know you have been wondering where I have been:) After not writing for so long, I wonder myself.....
To get us back on track, this post will mostly be a photo wrap up of what I have been doing.  I know it will pain you to look at photos vs. read big long paragraphs of tedious details, but please try to suffer through!

Here are the Highlights:)

1. Three new designs found here: http://nestlingsbyrobin.com/whats-new.html

'Just Hangin' Out' is an adorable monkey quilt

'Semper Paratus' is for the patriot in us all and has all the letters to adapt to any service.

'Blooms of Hope' allows us to send healing flowers to anyone with the change of a color.

 

2. These 3 photos show my Festival Booth in Houston last October where I debuted my new designs along with 2 photos of what the floor and aisles look like.  It is so hard to wrap your head around how large it all is.

 

3. The top photo is TREEO by Linda Evans bought from the SAQA Auction. Just Adorable!

The bottom quilt is my Star House donated to the House Quilt Project run by Jamie Fingal.

 

4. This little cutie was given to me by my guild for my service as Leader for the last 2 years.  I volunteered for another and was told not to expect another quilt:)  WHAT? :))

 

5. My husband bought me show tickets to We Will Rock You, the Queen musical for my birthday and it was only playing in Miami.  So we went to South Beach for an overnight trip and whilst walking the strip, I found a window full of Rhinestone covered shoes!!  I could never wear them but so shiny and pretty!!

 

6. Merry Christmas 2013 with my smart and gorgeous and talented and funny daughters!!

 

7. I found this fantastic wrought iron door stop whilst antiquing with my girls.  Parts of my life have been a bit like a fairy tale and IT is Orange!!  How could I pass it up!

 

8.  We rang in 2014 in Key West where they drop a Drag Queen named Sushi in a giant red pump.

 

9. My juried entry into the 2014 Mancuso Mid Atlantic quilt show Hampton, Va.

 

10.  A huge splurge for me as I bid on and won this mini quilt at my guild's annual charity auction.

 

11. This is our new baby, Biscuit.  He is a rescue Wheaten and what a sweetheart.

 

12. Finished my mom's Hawaiian quilt.  Last year she mentioned how she had always wanted one and I opened my mouth before realizing what I was undertaking.  It is 40+ x 60+ and all needle turn applique and hand quilted in the traditional echo style.  Turned out beautifully and I don't ever need to make another:)

 

13. GO BOLTS!  The Tampa Bay Lightning made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs.  They aren't doing so well but still an accomplishment.  The game we went to was Great: lots of action!

The St. Louis Blues are in too and doing well I hear:)  GO BLUES!

 

14. Here is my little Pooka Duck.  She is our other little Wheaten. She and new big brother are doing well even though she really gets on his last nerve sometimes:)

 

So there are my last 8 months in review with many of the other usual things in between!

There are more fun things to come in between my youngest daughter's college graduation and a dear friend coming to visit in June.  Stay Tuned and keep quilting!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

If you have wondered where I was, I have been very busy!  January brought that pesky 2 week flu that was really hard to shake. Then my husband had it too so in that one week overlap, we were pretty pathetic together!
That put me 2 weeks behind on my work deadlines with a February trip looming. February is when I usually make the trek up to Virginia to attend the Mid-Atlantic quilt show with my mom and spend some time hanging out with her.  It is fun and I usually run into some NC friends along the way.  This year's entry into the show was none other than my Butterfly Cabin design. 

Available at Nestlings by Robin website

I also talked mom into taking a beading class with me.  As a reasonably intelligent person, I am sure I could have figured out the Peyote stitch myself but it is always easier to learn something hands-on.  So we indulged ourselves with an all day class with Mary Stori and I highly recommend her.  The class went smoothly, at a good pace, with her telling us stories while we beaded.  Her samples were beautiful and it was like a class and a lecture all rolled into one.

While at mom's, I was able to finish quilting 3 new red work pattern samples so I could sit and write once home again. Plus I fused some things and traced a couple of red work pieces for her. 

Once home, I got busy writing my patterns...coming soon...and preparing to demo at my guild.  Mom came home with me and patiently sat knitting while I worked the first 3 days she was here.  Got to love a mom, right?!

Now I am finishing a design that I started before VA. that needs to be sent in for photography...more about that exciting news coming soon.
This is the down side of publishing- I have such fun things to show you but I can't, YET:)

What I have been working on...

Depending on how much you stop by, you may remember this post from May when I had a new block in Quiltmaker's 100 Quilt Blocks.  I will wait while you go read it:))
http://nestlingsbyrobin.blogspot.com/2012/05/volume-5-has-arrived.html

Back in February while at the Mancuso Mid-Atlantic show, I bought this piece of fabric for my mom.  She has a Pfaltzgraff kitchen and this indigo was perfect.  I have never worked with true indigo fabric before and the hand is very stiff until you rinse it extremely well following the instructions that come with it.  After rinsing, it sort of has the hand of a light chambray.  It worked very well for paper piecing.

So when Mom comes to visit, this will be my gift to her.

The blue in this photo is truer to the real color.....better lighting:)  I love how it turned out and if she didn't already know I was making it, she might not get it!  Love you Mom:)

What have you been doing the last 2 months?? Part 2

Thought I would share some of the beauty from the Hampton, Mid Atlantic show before finishing my trip story.  I take pics of all the write ups for the quilts but blogger kept placing them sideways so you will just have to see my write up:)
I will start with a couple of my friends from North Carolina.....


Eileen Williams
Shell Study #1

 

Katherine McNeese
In the Beginning
From the Bending the Rules Exhibit of the VA and NC Carolina Artists 

Now to some of the show that I was fascinated by-  We will start with Linda M Roy who won Best of Show.  I know her work immediately upon seeing it and am always intrigued and impressed by the amount of detailing.


Linda M Roy
Vintage Button Bouquet
Best of Show

I think you will see that for the last few years I have been infatuated with the actual quilting of the quilts.  Therefore I spend a lot of my shutter time on the quilting details.



Judith Heyward
Summer Soiree

  Look at the gorgeous applique and quilting....



Karen Marchetti
Wonderlust

The quilting here is phenomenal and I was intrigued by the little circle type stitches (below in the white area) that have a starburst effect...are they just circles and the thread makes that look???


Wonderlust Detail



Carolyn True Ito
Red & White Delight

Having done my first Cathedral Window (very small) piece this past year, I was in lust with this one!  There was much discussion between my mom, myself, and another quilter as to whether the color placement alone was causing this illusion that there are two different blocks at work here???  To me the blocks through the center don't look like the same blocks to either corner....What do you think?

While in Hampton, my mother and I took a couple of classes.  Blogger rotated it but I think you can see that there are 2 little crab molas here...This was our class with Phyllis Twigg Hatcher.  The stitching really changes the look of the crab.
Neither of us were too intrigued by this until we got into the class. We signed up without really researching it.  I have to say that although I won't be making molas, the class itself was fun due to the history lesson Phyllis gives while teaching.  She has a wonderful slide show about the people who make these.  So I gave Mom my crab and once home she found the perfect fabric to accent the mola concept.  This will be an adorable table runner once completely done!

Part of my visit to VA was to take my mom to DC for a few days.  We had so much fun walking around the city and the weather was absolutely gorgeous for early March... 70s. 

The flowers were blooming and this little purple one is just so vibrant.  Anyone know the name??

Here is my beautiful mom in a moment of Zen in the garden behind the Castle building of the Smithsonian...All the magnolias were in bloom!

We stayed in Alexandria where we could walk the Torpedo Factory and the shops and restaurants.  It was a very girls weekend...my favorite!

Before we headed back to Mom's we took a tour of Mt. Vernon.  It is so surreal to walk the same floors and touch the same banister that George Washington touched.

My VA portion of my trip ended with my parents and I going to see Wicked---SO COOL!!  I did not read the book but loved the story and the sets and the costumes and the music.  The performers gave you goosebumps and I once again longed to be on the stage!

Opening Night at Chrysler Hall, Norfolk

I ended my long trip with a visit to my older daughter back in NC.  It was wonderful that I started and ended with daughter one-on-one time.  Both girls were very open to doing movie double feature days so I was able to catch up on movies my husband wouldn't dare see:)  I miss them so much and am thankful to have had that time with them!!

What have you been doing the last 2 months?? Part 1

Mid February I headed to North Carolina to visit my younger daughter.  From there I headed to Virginia to visit my mother and attend the Mancuso Mid-Atlantic show in Hampton, VA.  I have gotten very spoiled being juried into the show every year for the last 5 years.  This is my 2012 entry and soon to be pattern.  These colors just sing to me.

SimplySweet
Juried entry, Mancuso Mid-Atlantic show.

Simply Sweet detail

This quilt is hand appliqued, hand quilted, and hand beaded.  Quilt designs come easy to me but the actual quilting designs are harder...all that blank space is like looking at a blank piece of paper when you are expected to write something.  Thankfully over time the meditation of applique brought me some fun designs to play with and I was very happy with what I came up with.

SimplySweet detail of center.

In the second detail photo, you can see the actual quilting stitches that I did in different colors of variegated threads from Weeks Dye Works.  I used their floss for years when I cross stitched and was delighted to find they have quilting thread now too in lovely colors.

You can also see more of the beading.  Stopping was so hard and thankfully the deadline was there to tell me to stop beading.  At one point I wanted to bead the entire border...the gold beads looked so wonderful on the purple border!
In the first photo you can see the border beads just in the corners.

How do you know when to stop a project?

Crystal Coast Quilt Show 2009

The quilt show was wonderful as usual. We had over 120 entries along with the Alzheimer's:Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibit. I conducted a bead demo on Friday and Saturday with positive turn out and sign ups for a September class.

This is 'Swarley' (long story for a goofy name). 'Swarley' didn't make it to Paducah this year but was juried into the Mancuso Mid Atlantic show in February and won an Honorable Mention at the guild show in the group quilt category. It is all hand appliqued and then long arm quilted by my friend Beth Denmon, Illinois.
This is 'UP UP UP' and my entry for the guild challenge. Our challenge this year was to correspond with the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Innitiative in size only. Requirements were that the piece not be bigger than 9" x 12" to fit a priority envelope, monochromatic, and have a theme of Journey.

I chose a photograph of a balloon from a festival we used to attend every September in St. Louis. As I watched every year I imagined the journeys the participants would have along their path. It won 2nd place for 'Most Unusual Journey' and will eventually be donated to the Alzheimers Innitiative.

Last but not least is 'Wonder Under the Waves' by the Beachrageous group of Susan Hinzman, Lynn Strausbach, Mary Henris, Robin Koehler, and Eileen Williams-respectively.

It really is stunning hanging all together and everyone was impressed.

Hope you enjoyed the mini quilt show.