Portland Public Library

'Inspiration-Transformation', the collection of quilts created by members of Art Quilts Maine in response to 2011's challenge, are on display at Portland Public Library, in the children's area, through the end of February. The challenge, taken up by 15 guild members, was to create a quilt inspired by your favorite children's book. Books selected ranged from Miss Rumphius to Go Dog Go. While some artists chose the same book as their favorite, the resulting quilts could not be more different. The renovated Library is wonderful, and the children's section lends itself beautifully to art, with wall space above the book shelves and plenty of  natural light. If you are in Portland, you must really try to stop in!

Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts

Photo from the Show

File Under Fiber's blog post from Nov. 6 includes a photo of Mom and Auntie Jean play Gin at the Nashua, NH show, A Quilter's Gathering. The quilt took second in the category, "Reflection of Theme." What theme? Sisterhood Swirls. I was talking to Mom yesterday and she said she and Jean had played the same game since way back when our families used to vacation together at the Caspian. Although she said is wasn't really Gin Rummy, they called it Crazy Rummy. Go figure. Got some great comments from the judges as well. "Fascinating to explore this beautiful piece: and "So much attention to detail is appreciated" were two comments that made me happy. Hope to hang this one back up in Mom's apartment before long.  

Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts

News from New Hampshire!

A friend just called to say that her sister went to The Quilter's Gathering show in New Hampshire this weekend and 'Mom and Aunti Jean play Gin' had a ribbon attached! Very awesome. She says I won "Best interpretation of the theme" which was Sisterhood Swirls. Can't wait to get the 'official' notification. I had two quilts in the show, this one and 'Bali Bloom', the big pink flower with beading. You can see it in the slideshow on my sidebar. Made my week!
Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts

It's Official!

 On a lark I suggested to a friend that we offer to teach a class this fall. Well, a conversation or two later, and here we are! The blurb below is from the Sew Portland site, where we will be teaching. Wow!

Not Your Grandmother's Sampler Quilt! ( 6 to 8:30 )

Beginners will learn to select fabrics, piece a variety of blocks, and assemble a quilt with Rana O'Connor and Linda Morrisette in this 6 session class. Class begins Tuesday October 11 at 6 to 8:30 and continues through November. $60 plus materials; no book or pattern purchase required. More than a beginner? You can benefit from Rana and Linda's expertise and "outside the box" approach.
Event Location: Portand


Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts

Three Wishes

I took a class this summer with a quilter I have long admired, Katie Pasquini Masopust, called Ghost Layers and Colorwashes. We worked on a practice piece, learning to draw the elements, then add floating 'ghost' layers and set brush strokes of colorwash behind the piece. We also brought in photos and began drawing the pattern for a quilt of our own based on the techniques learned in class. I finally finished the practice piece. It's called "Three Wishes" and has three leafy shapes floating on the purple and yellow strokes of color. Katie PM gave each of us a piece of wool batting to use with our practice pieces. I had never quilted with wool batting before. It has some great qualities--very light, and the quilting shows because any areas not quilted down kind of puff up. I totally did not expect the thread-painted leaves to be quite so puffy--my usual batts would not have created such pillow-like effects! The brush strokes of color seemed to need some connection to the quilt so I added a few beads. Next stop: finish my pattern and get started on a bigger piece using this technique--I am thinking of calling it "Lightning Bug Light". You'll see.

Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts

Publisher's Weekly

The touring show, "Inspiration Transformation", the series of quilts based on favorite children's books, is on display at Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington this month. Judith Rosen of Publishers Weekly took notice and wrote a great article about the exhbit. Click here to read all about it!

Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts

VOTE Online for Bali Bloom

I entered an online quilt contest! The theme this week is quilts with flowers. Of course I thought of Bali Bloom, with that one big pink hibiscus flower and sparkly beads. Take a minute between Friday morning and midnite Sunday to head over to the Quilting Gallery and vote for your favorite flower quilt. It is all in fun.

On another front, the Art Quilts Maine travelling quilt show, Inspiration Transformation opened at Devanny Doak and Garrett Booksellers this week with some great publicity. There were stories in the Sun Journal and the Daily Bulldog, and an article is in the works for Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf, an online newsletter about the children's book business. You may recall the 16 quilts in this travelling show were inspired by favorite children's books. It is awesome to be a part of this talented group of artists.   

Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts