Happy Birthday to ME!!

Today, January 31st, is my birthday . . . this year, I am the same age as the year I was born, '55.

Years ago, someone told me about one's "Golden Birthday," the year they're the same age as the date they were born (in my case, thirty-one). What is my current birthday called?? Platinum?? Diamond??

So, in honor of my birthday, I'm gonna have a giveaway: I'm gonna give you my address.
Raymond K. Houston
2017-A Ann Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63104

Now, send me something . . . I've already given you two suggestions.

(Gotcha!! LOL!!)

Laissez les bon temps roullez!!*

In several weeks, Ed and I will board the City of New Orleans and ride the rails on our way to Mardi Gras . . . Ed and I have attended Mardi Gras every year but one since Hurricane Katrina. It's been interesting and encouraging to see how much of the city has come back each year we go. And, riding the train has been a relaxing way to travel. This year, we got a roomette, with two facing seats next to a window, and berths (with pillows and blankets) at night. There's nothing like being rocked to sleep by the motion of the train . . .

Last year, I made our host, Johnny, a small wall hanging. It was the first "Mardi Gras Men" quilt . . . I liked it so much that I made another (larger) one when we got back home. I had a bit of fabric left over, so I cut it up and made kits which I gave to my dad to practice on . . . the idea was to improve his efficiency. Well, he did nothing with it, and I took the kits back over the holidays.

Originally, I was gonna make a series of small wall hangings for a possible quilt show. Then, I was gonna make a table runner for Johnny in New Orleans. First, I had to sew the squares . . . that took about a week to make 120 squares (60 each, right- and left-handed squares). This past week, I've made a series of 12" x 48" table runners (and one 18" x 48" table runner).



What do you think of 'em??

I broke two of my own rules in making these: do not work without a plan; and, do not color your tiles beforehand.

The design tiles are very versatile: no matter which way you put 'em together, you'll always get a pattern. This is why I call 'em "shape-driven patterns." This is why I recommend not coloring the tiles until you've arranged 'em. Otherwise, you're left with "color-driven patterns" and you miss out on the full effect of the arrangement of tiles.

Since all my squares were gonna be colored the same, I gave up trying to plan beforehand . . . all I did was try out different arrangements, knowing the colors wouldn't necessarily define any shapes. The exceptions were when I used mirror-image squares as well as regular ones.


(*Let the good times roll!!)


As always, thank you for reading my blog . . . please feel free to leave a comment and follow this blog!!

A day of joy and sadness . . .

I'll leave it to you to determine which is which . . .

Today, we celebrated Martin Luther King's birthday . . . since I work for the City, I had the day off; my partner, Ed, did not.

I got an email from a local quilt guild wanting me to speak at their meeting . . . tenatively, I'll speak to them in April.

I realized I missed the deadline (Saturday) to enter my "Mardi Gras Men" quilt in the 3rd annual "Naughti Gras," an erotic art show

In a way, "Mardi Gras Men" is a homo-erotic quilt: each man has his head between another man's legs; he's leaning on the calf of the man in front of him; and, his other arm is reaching back as though to tell the guy, "don't go anywhere 'cause you're next!!" Of course, each man also has someone else's head between his legs, he's being leaned on by a second man, and a third is telling him, "don't go anywhere 'cause you're next!!" An orgy in fabric (and me on the outside looking in, sigh).

Despite the housework I shoulda done on my day off, I sat at my sewing machine, sewing squares for my next project: a series of table runners in Mardi Gras colors (more about that in the days to come).

Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican/Episcopal), where Ed and I attend, celebrated the day with readings of Martin Luther King's letter, sermons, etc. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. . . . I volunteered to read from 4:00 to 4:30. I read one short piece and one lengthy sermon about "Love Your Enemies" (it was quite moving) . . . I actually read from about 4:15 to 5:00!!

Then, it was time to pick Ed up from work, swing by to get his new glasses, then home to fix fettucine alfredo with asparagus and shrimp for dinner.

Ed went off to his writing class, and I went back to my studio . . . I got several emails from my friends Greg and Ebony with "wonderfully wacky" ideas. They inspired me!!

(p.s. . . . I found out my checking account is overdrawn, and payday isn't until Thursday.)

"Winter Blues" part 4.999 . . .

Yes, at long last, the quilt top is complete!! . . . I've stapled the quilt to the wall in my office, so I can look at it every day. One of my New Year's resolutions is to learn free-motion quilting . . . this quilt will be one of the first ones (after I've had plenty of practice, that is)!!

Here's a detail picture of a single pinwheel . . .

I used two different blacks in this quilt: one with gold stars and spots for the background, and one with dark gray spots for the border . . . this pic shows how the border extends into the body of the quilt, mimicking the arms of the pinwheels, which extend into the border of the quilt. I'd like to think of this as an "integrated border," the border is an integral component of the design, and not just four strips of fabric slapped on . . .

I still have plenty of leftover blue fabrics already cut out . . . except for the dark and light blue fabrics I bought to supplement the supply, there aren't enough pieces in any given color to make complete pinwheels. I'm thinking of "mixing it up" with the fabrics, maintaining the light/dark contrast between the pinwheels, but giving the pinwheels more of a "scrappy" look. I'm thinking of changing the background/border to yellow/orange/red instead of black (which I'll use to make a couple of dark pinwheels in the body of the quilt. What do you think of that??

As always, thank you for reading my blog . . . please leave a comment, and follow this blog!!

"Leaders" need "followers," don't they??

My friend, Greg, over at Flat Out Quilting has started chronicling his first quilt using my design tiles, templates, and muslin foundations.

He praised me so much that I blushed (and, do YOU know how hard it is to get red out of a black man??), LOL!!

Go check him out!! And, if you use my design tiles in a project, please let me know . . . I'd love to send people to see YOUR work, too!!

Thank you for reading and/or following this blog . . .

"Winter Blues" part 4.66

I took a vacation day yesterday to take our car to the shop . . . we'd gotten snow overnight, and the highways taking Ed to work weren't in the best condition. The worst weather day of the year, and I'm out in it to get our car repaired!! (The weather was bad enough that the courts closed for the day, which meant I took a vacation day for nothing!!)

I spent the day, sewing . . . this is as deep as the quilt will get. From here on out, it'll only get wider (three more columns of pinwheels, plus border.

Hopefully, I can finish it over the weekend . . . start on a new project next week!!

"Winter Blues," part 4.45

Yesterday, I called in sick (actually, I told the office manager Monday afternoon that I wouldn't be in) . . . I had an entire day of Nyquil, megadoses of vitamin C, echinacea, liquids, and a little quilting. I added another column on the right and another row on the bottom. I have 3.5 columns and 1.5 rows to go!!