Inspirational lines and shapes from Texas

Everything I look at morphs in my head into quilt possibilities, so I thought I'd show you a few examples from last week's Texas trip. I zoomed into the wavy lines of a trunk at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, and later I found myself on a staircase with similar lines. Both beg to be made into art.
  

Blue Mesa Grill, Dallas, TX

The restaurant abounded with design inspiration in addition to fantastic Mexican food.

The twig wall in the lobby of Blue Mesa Grill in Dallas is fabulous! Many quilts have been based on this simple juxtaposition of horizontal and vertical lines in alternating blocks.

With Dave at Blue Mesa Grill, Dallas, TX

For example, I made the quilt "Aquifers" four years before I saw the twig wall, but it could've been inspired by the wall. It actually came straight out of my head with no conscious inspiration.



Detail from "Aquifers," original art quilt by Sherrie Spangler

It may look like these wet rocks inspired the blocks in "Aquifers," except that I made the quilt four years before I took the photo! I guess I'm just drawn to those shapes and they come out subconsciously in my work.

Does this happen with any of you, and what shapes are you repeatedly drawn to?



The clouds and sky as we flew out of Seattle are similar in design to the rocks in Texas, with a horizontal line dividing a complex area below from a simple area above in each photo.

Leaves -- what more can I say other than gorgeous natural lines and color. Any little piece of a leaf could lead to a quilt. These are from the San Antonio Botanical Gardens.

Squiggly, wiggly plants and pods in San Antonio could translate into a quilt.

Organic fractured lines in a rock walkway in San Antonio contrast with yet are similar to manmade lines in a hotel lamp shade in Dallas. Each could inspire endless quilts. More to come later from the Texas trip!
 

Have a colorful day

Everything's bigger in Texas!



Those of you who guessed that the Mystery State was TEXAS are right! As they say, everything's bigger in Texas, including me when I lumbered onto the plane to leave after a week of Texas-size servings of dessert, barbecue and enchiladas.

It took me three days to finish this slab of chocolate cake from the Saltgrass Steak House in San Antonio, and I didn't even eat all the icing.

My stomach felt like this laughing Buddha that was on the grounds of our hotel in Dallas. At the same hotel, the Hilton Anatole, I got this outrageous Rice Krispy dessert. It has chocolate mixed in with a layer of peanut butter filling and homemade marshmallow fluff on top. I had half for breakfast the next morning.
 

Then this thing was my dessert at Dick's Last Resort in Dallas. It's a cakey brownie with a whole Hershey milk chocolate bar melted on top and powdered sugar, nuts, chocolate drizzle and ice cream.
 
At Dick's, they make appropriate hats for each customer. Here's mine. (Most of them I can't show on the blog because they're too bad.) Dave's said "Banned from Petting Zoos."

Even the names sound big. Here's the Monument Café in Georgetown, just north of Austin. I actually had something healthy there, but I can't remember what it was.

This is the bigger-looking version of the statue clue in the Mystery City blog post. It's Stevie Ray Vaughan, late famous blues musician who is memorialized in this statue in Austin. The other part of his clue is that he played on "Austin City Limits." One of his songs is about flooding in Texas, and one of the clue photos was debris after a flash flood swept through McKinney Falls State Park in Austin.

 

At the colorful County Line in San Antonio, I had brisket and a crème brulee to die for, but I didn't get a picture. Another colorful restaurant is the Blue Mesa Grill in Dallas, where I had lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in about 20 years.

I think the entrance looks a little like my Southwest wonky log cabin quiltlet (the one I was accused of copying).

This twig wall at Blue Mesa reminds me of a quilt. Next I'll blog about inspirational lines and shapes I saw from San Antonio up through Dallas and above the clouds.

P.S. Some of the other photos in the Mystery Cities post are the Riverwalk and the Alamo in San Antonio, Las Colchas quilt shop in San Antonio (that'll get its own post), and an Alaska Airlines plane at Sea-Tac painted like a salmon.

Have a colorful day

Mystery state and cities -- can you name any?

Start of our trip.

Hi Y'all (hint 1). I haven't blogged in awhile because I've been out of state all week, so this calls for another Mystery Cities post. Who can guess what state and cities I've been in?

Hint: Everything's bigger in the Mystery State, even chocolate cake.

Mystery City 1:

One of Mystery City 1's biggest attractions.

Another major attraction.

There are a lot of these here.

On to Mystery City 2, same state:

This guy, one of my favorites, sang about flooding in the Mystery State.

Here's a link to the song, which is almost like cheating for you:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3159YIe2OU 

He's played on "______ City Limits."

 This shows some of the recent "flooding down in ________ ."

Mystery City 3:

We just arrived yesterday in Number 3, so I only have one good photo so far. The other hint is that we came here hoping to find warmth and sunshine and ended up in a Polar Plunge.

I'll blog later on quilt stores and art, but for now let's see how many can figure out all three cities!

Have a colorful day

Let there be light!

"Light" by Sherrie Spangler copyright 2004

We finally had sunlight today in our cloudy corner of the country! The upside was gorgeous shadow play on my 10-year-old quilt hanging in the stairway landing. The downside was that suddenly all the dust and cobwebs became visible.

  

As the sun came through the window, it created one shadow on the quilt and a second one on the wall below. I couldn't figure that out, but I took photos. And here's a photo of the bird sculpture and Starbucks stuffed reindeer that cast the shadow. (Yes, I keep my Christmas decorations up until February. We need the cheeriness on the grey days.)
 

Have a colorful day

"New Mexico House" quilt

"New Mexico House" by Sherrie Spangler copyright 2014

I just did another wonky log cabin quilt, this time in response to our STITCH challenge to use the beads we were given at last month's meeting. I traded for some cactus beads because I love the desert.

I'm still using the same scraps from the last wonky quilt. I satin stitched turquoise frames around the window and door because Southwest lore says turquoise frames ward off evil ... at least that's what I read in a guide book.

Cactus beads inspired this little quilt.

I decided to do a pillowcase backing, so I only quilted through the top and the batting. Before I applied the backing, I machine stitched the sleeve so I wouldn't have to do it by hand afterward.

Then I put the top and backing right sides together and sewed all the way around. I turned it through a slit that I cut where the label would go.

Speaking of labels, don't make my mistake. Usually I use a pigma pen, but this time I used a pretty turquoise Staedtler pen. I forgot to test for permanency, and when I steam fused the label on it all blurred out. So I just went over it with a black pigma pen and now it looks fine.

This wonky piecing is getting addictive. I think I'll do some more today because my car just started making a horrible knocking noise when I turned it on so I don't think I'll be going anywhere today. Still waiting for the service guy to call me back and tell me if it's even safe to drive in to the garage or if I need to have it towed.

Hop over to Nina Marie's Off-the-Wall Friday to see what other fiber artists have done this week:
http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/2014/01/problem-solving-off-wall-friday.html

Have a colorful day

Bowl and wind

I didn't want to put away the beautiful colored scraps from the last quilt, so I used them yesterday to make a scrappy bowl.

Then last night the wind whipped up and sounded almost like a tornado (see swirling movement in bowl). This morning revealed a rearranged front porch and back deck.

Normally there's a wicker love seat to the left of the front door, but somehow the wind got it over (or under?) the porch swing and into the little Japanese maple. On the back deck, chairs were tipped, plants were ripped and it's been grey and pouring rain all day.

 Have a colorful day

"Year-Round Cabin" finished

It's done! I put the binding on my wonky log cabin quilt last night and sewed down the sleeve and put a label on today -- just in time to show at tomorrow's guild meeting.

"Year-Round Cabin" copyright Sherrie Spangler 2014

I'm teaching a class in the technique next month at Quilt Revolution called "Modern Log Cabin" and am excited about talking about all the variations and how to personalize your quilt through your own center block and maybe text, special charms, etc. Here's the link to the class schedule:
http://www.quiltrevolution.com/classes.htm

Now I think I'll use the leftover strips to make a coiled basket. These rainy days call for increased time at the sewing machine.

Have a colorful day

Wonky cabin quilting

Six hours of sewing in circles and my second wonky log cabin quilt is quilted. Tomorrow I'll bind it and then hang it at Quilt Revolution in Gig Harbor, WA, as the sample for my Modern Log Cabin class!

Have a colorful day

Wonky log cabin II

 

My daughter's wonky log cabin graduation quilt in the last post was so much fun that I'm making another one for myself.

The theme of this one is "seasons." I planned to make two blocks for each season, but the boundaries got sort of blurred and I ended up with four that could be winter with a little fall color, and four that could pass for spring or summer.

I auditioned two of my hand-painted fabrics for the center block and decided on the brighter one. The grey would make more sense, imparting the feeling of a moody sky as the seasons change, but I like bright colors better.

Here's the finished center block, with a big bright sun, blue sky and brilliant green hills -- my happy  place!

Have a colorful day