Houston Bound.

I am sorting this weekend to get ready to fly to Houston on Tuesday.  In the days that I was a full time Austin resident, I could just fling everything in my car, fill the tank and start out.  Not any more.  I have to figure out the weather in Houston, choose clothes and then figure out what supplies I will need to keep me from tearing up the bedding in our hotel room and using it for a project.  So, at  minimum, I need needles, scissors and floss.  Everything above that is just all to the good.

Frances

Artists Garden
52" x 52"
Here is a final photo of our quilt that will be in Houston this year.  We are so delighted!  This was a really fun project to work on.  Connie Hudson was the project coordinator.  Here is a description of her inspiration (from her blog)....

How we got here. In May of 2010 I took my mom on a "road trip" to visit Frances Holliday Alford in Grafton, VT. Since my mom is a Master Gardener we decided to visit Longwood Gardens in PA. I decided to take photos of flowers that represented my art quilt group friends. So driven by the idea that was in my mind that on the return trip home from visiting Frances, we detoured back to the Gardens for another round of photos.

The Task. Each artist was given a selection of photos and was asked to interpret it in their style or even try something new. My only parameters were the size of the block and that each piece had to be finished.

In my mind's eye I was seeing individual flowers (person) beautiful alone but together supported by the trellis (each other) accomplishing and making an incredible garden (art).

Artists involved:

Top L-R Connie Hudson (West Lake Hills), Cindy Henneke (Independence) Annie Smith (The Woodlands)

Middle L-R: Francis Holliday Alford (Grafton, VT & Austin), Leslie Jenison (San Antonio), Sherri Lipman McCauley (Lakeway)

Bottom L-R: Kathy York (Austin), Barbara Forrister (Austin), Suzan Engler (Panorama Village)

I can say that one of the things I really enjoyed about this project that was different than our previous projects is that each block stands alone as it's own little quilt.  The blocks were assigned to each of us.  Previous quilts have had rather loose parameters, which makes the assembly much more difficult.  We tend to bring our work to group sessions and then slice, dice and rearrange ad infinitum....until a consensus is reached, and then we start the long process of stitching them together.  I will post some of these quilts in the days to come, but suffice to say, some of them were amazing works of art creating by lots of tender loving care mixed in with some rather heated discussions!  It is not an easy process, but for me it has been a rather rewarding and bonding one. 

And last, because Connie took the lead on this one, she invited some other artists to join us.  Good decision!   Their work and new friendships have really pulled this one together!  Thanks everyone!!