Lemon Tree Tales

Amish: The Modern Muse exhibit Part II

The second part of the exhibit, Amish: The Modern Muse, is finally up at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. I volunteered to assist several of the local modern quilt guild members with the hanging of the quilts a week ago. It's a wonderful experience to do that and see the exhibit before it was opened to the public. Then last Sunday Steve said that we should jump in the car and drive over to see it without all the ladders and work carts in the way. Just a word of warning that parking is only available on the street. We had to park a few blocks away because of another event nearby. So plan accordingly.

Here are some of the striking quilts on display. As always, pictures just don't do justice to the beauty of fabric in person.

 

Squared Repeat by Terri Carpenter

I like the offset design and all the thick/think quilted lines.

 

Triple X by Terri Carpenter

Just look at the little red embroidered stitches that give such great texture to the bright blue sections. It's a nice accent of handwork to accompany the machine stitching.

 

Mistakes Were Made by Stacey Sharman

The artist used vintage denims and other fabrics in a very traditional double wedding ring pattern that is timeless.

 

Churned by Linda Sinclair

Sometimes all you need is one oversized and offset block to make a strong impact.

 

Diamond and Jewels by Tina Michalik

Those greens are some of my favorite colors. Don't they look vibrant against that sea of black?

 

Songs of a Distant Lancaster by Tami Levin (yes, here's my quilt .. yay!)

This is a picture of the back just as I finished the last stitching on the binding and label. One of these days I'll have to rig up a system for photographing quilts. This is the first time that I tried a wide 1" binding with traditional mitered corners. It really finishes off the quilt. I'll probably try that technique out again on a future quilt.

A quick snap from installation day .. the blue ladder is off to the right. The perspective is exaggerated but I wanted to show you how nicely my quilt hangs with these other two. It's almost like we got together and planned it.

Steve took a quick snap of me standing next to the quilt. It was very exciting to see my work displayed at the museum. It's inspired me to try again and design more quilts. Maybe I can have one to enter in our local quilt show. If you have time please go to the museum and take a look at the quilts. The antique Amish quilts on display in the larger gallery are treasures and shouldn't be missed. The show runs until March 1, 2015.

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Amish: The Modern Muse exhibit Part I

Amish: The Modern Muse exhibit Part I

Before the new year I went with my friend Rachel to see the first installation of the exhibit "Amish: The Modern Muse" being shown in the small gallery at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. In the larger gallery they had antique Amish quilts from the Darwin D. Bearley collection. Unfortunately I can't share the photos of the antique quilts because the museum asked that you only use them for personal use. They will be on display until March 1, 2015.

The other exhibit are quilts that three local modern quilt guilds made that are inspired by Amish quilts. My quilt will be in the second installation that hopefully will be hung soon. There's been a water main break in the street and the city won't allow visitors until their water (and bathroom) are restored. I'll post pics as soon as it's up. In the meantime here's a few of the modern quilts that I thought you'd enjoy. 

 

House Top Quilt by Tara Faughnan

Don't you love the bright colors? It's such a cheerful quilt and looks like it's quilted with stitch-in-the-ditch.

 

Zyklen by Vanessa de Fabrega, quilted by Angie Woolman

 

Feeling Blue by Linda Hlday

Linda used her own hand-dyed fabrics and hand quilted it. The colors were all very soothing in person.

 

X by Stacey Sharman

It was very hard to photograph this quilt because of all the subtle blacks and grey fabrics. It's quite striking in person and I really enjoyed it.

Goodbye 2014 .. Hello 2015!

With each passing year I'm constantly surprised when that year comes to an end. It seems like they're beginning to pass us by quicker and quicker. 2014 was full of changes for our little family. At the beginning we were still experiencing the winter cold of Wyoming.

In February we made a trip back to LA to attend my grandparents' birthday party. My grandpa turned 90 and my grandma turned 85 just a few days later. They're still very active and drive their RV between Simi Valley and the Thousand Trails RV park near Palmdale. They even make the four hour drive in their little pickup to spend mini vacations in Laughlin. Wow, way to go. This next year they'll celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary.

In May we decided that as much as we were enjoying life on the prairie that California's siren call was beckoning us back home. By June we had moved back to our home in the bay area, sad to say goodbye to new friends in WY but happy to be near old friends once again.

In June I welcomed Freddie the longarm to the family room and by August I had opened my new longarm quilting business, The Quilted Lemon. So far Freddie and I have been busy quilting charity quilts and some beautiful client quilts. Building up my client list will definitely be the priority for 2015. New patterns are being added to my pattern library.

In October I learned that my quilt was juried into an exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. It's in the second show that will open in another week. Yay! That's my very first time with a quilt in a show and I can't wait to share it with you. First I'll share some of the quilts that were in the first half of the show.

The fall saw quite a bit of RV travel including a trip to visit Frankie when he was still only 8 weeks old. Of course we were more than happy to pick him up a couple weeks later. I'm afraid that it's been mostly all puppy all the time here at the Levin house while we work on housebreaking and basic training. But the fall also was family time with a quick visit from my dad in September, and one by my mom in October and another trip to LA to see my in-laws. Finally in December we had a visit from our niece before and after she went on her birthright trip to Israel. That was a nice time and she liked playing with Frankie. So now we're a family of five ... Steve and I and three cairn terriers - Fearghus, Fiona and Frankie. (We call them the F-troop.) We're all looking forward to a wonderful 2015. Happy New Years!!!