Becka’s Project Journal

These turned out so gorgeous I had to share!  My friend Karen and I just finished up a school residency with 2 kindergarten classes; I designed the class, she taught it.  The teachers wanted to do a Native American project so I suggested making these little star quilts and reading the book “Shota and the Star Quilt”.  The diamonds are cut and stiffened fabric that the kids glue-sticked to a card stock backing.  Each kid made a little quilt and then they made a bigger one all together and had a “quilting bee”.

I had a lovely evening with Kim from trueUp.net last night.  She was here for the Quilt Market (national fabric trade show) and spoke at the Textile Center about blogging and the fabric world.  After the talk I went to dinner with Kim, Faye, Jen, Caroline and Shaerie, a bunch of cool and crafty ladies.  (I hope everyone got a lot of sleep last night, because they were all back at Quilt Market today for another exhausting day!)

Kim had some interesting things to say about blogging.  It is nice to hear someone else speak and confirm things that you have been thinking.  Some of her tips:

• Share your process – People love to see “behind the scenes”.  I love doing these kinds of posts that’s why I do my Wednesday works in progress.
• Share research – If you have done a bunch of reading up about a new sewing machine, share.  I don’t do this often on my blog, but I know I always google to see if anyone else has reviewed a thing (especially a new expensive thing)
• Make tutorials – Yep.  Tutorials are hot. I know from looking at Google analytics that those how to pages get the most hits on my blog.
• Talk about your favorite local shops - Yes!  I know how excited I was to find the Stitch London blog with a list of fabric shops in London.  Going there in June and I want a souvenir!  I should do a guide to Minneapolis.
• Answer comments – I love getting questions and answering those in another blog post, too.
• End with call to action – This one is my favorite.  Ask a question at the end of your post to encourage discussion.  My friend Donna does this often and it has made me want to comment on her posts. Why didn’t I think of that?
  

Kim also talked about having a topic for each day on her blog and how that gives her a fall back for what to talk about.  I started doing Works in Progress Wednesdays here recently and it is great!  Sometimes that’s the only thing I post in a week, but it means I always have something to talk about.  Kim also talked about selling advertising space on your blog and ways to be part of the blog community and build audience.

Most interesting for me was listening to the questions that the audience was asking Kim.  I am perpetually a teacher and I think I got some great ideas for future “Tech Tuesdays” sessions I can teach.  (I already do a series on etsy, digital fabric printing, blogging, and so on.)  It is easy to assume that everyone knows about Flickr or Google Reader, but this crowd was really interested and would have liked to hear more.

Kim gave away a bunch of door prizes.  I got this cute little fat quarter pack of organic cotton from Clothworks.  Since Andy scored a door prize too, I am going to donate mine to the Volunteer Appreciation Party door prizes at the Textile Center next week.

As of tomorrow, I will have 3 art quilts on exhibit simultaneously at three different galleries.  How cool is that??

This is “Chicken Little”.  He is currently on display as part of “A Common Thread”, annual Textile Center members’ exhibition.  8″x9″, cotton fabrics with some handdyed by me, hand embroidered, hand stitched, machine quilted.  I made it originally for the MN State Fair’s “Quilt-On-A-Stick” but then I spaced out the deadline and didn’t get it turned in on time.  So I saved it so it could be in this show.

This is “Intersect”, which is on display starting tomorrow at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for “A Foot in the Door”.  11 1/2 inches square.  My handdyed cotton, machine pieced, hand embroidered.

And this one, “Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?” is traveling with the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo and is currently in Tampa, FL.

Symphony No 5 in C Minor (Chickadee)

2009

8 x 8 inches

Finally got around to listing a couple of little art quilts in my etsy shop. I have made a bunch of these and I really like working on a small scale. With all of the art quilts happening at work with our IKEA fundraiser, I feel a little like I have these on the brain, so I thought I would share. These are about 6×8 inches.

Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?
Becka Rahn 2009

If you are in the Twin Cities area and you love IKEA, I have a deal for you! I am one of the quilters participating in an art quilting challenge called “Project Patchwork”. IKEA partnered with the Textile Center. Each quilter got 4 yards of IKEA fabrics and the challenge was to make a quilt using entirely those fabrics. This Saturday March 21 there will be an exhibit and sale of the quilts at IKEA starting at 6 pm. There will be snacks and live music and lots of art to see! Best yet, is that everything we make from selling the quilts goes to support the youth programs at the Textile Center (which are very near and dear to my heart!)

Here is a sneak peak of some of the other quilts, too! All of the remaining quilts (including mine!) will be for sale at Textile Center‘s new online shop in a few more days.

These are both quilts being made as gifts for friends who I am pretty sure do not read my blog on a regular basis, making it safe to share.

The first is black and red with a tiny bit of turquoise. I deliberately chose big bold prints for this one and it’s a little wild. Those are the 5 different blocks, all pieced. After looking at it for a while, I decided that I will put plain black sashing between them, just a narrow strip to give them a little space from each other.

The second is more warm earthy tones with a little hint of japanese influence. I “fussy cut” a fabric with big koi fish on it to make sure I had a fish in each block and the deep purple is a subtle print of flying cranes. I am really thrilled that these were all fabrics from my stash.

I am working on a new collection of tiny alphabet quilts. I started making little patchwork alphabet letters for my etsy shop – keytags and coasters with fabric all pulled from my “too-small-to-fold-up-but-too-nice-to-throw-away” scrap bin. These have no pattern, I just make them up as I go along, hence the name “Impromptu Alphabet”. As a concept, I love the aphabet – I have collected alphabet books for years, especially ones with an unusual theme. This little quilt is “T is for Tree”. The leaves are tiny little quilts themselves. The whole thing is about 8×9 inches. I entered it in a Singer Sewing Machine “Sewing with Nature” challenge. I think they ultimately are looking for something with a bit more actual organic material stitched in, but being as it is winter in MN, that kind of thing is hard to come by. I have also done the letters E, F, and C and they are waiting to be quilted.

Here are some of my favorite alphabet books:
Mary Poppins from A to Z by P.L. Travers (I have an original 1962 version)

The Skull Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta

Anamalia by Graeme Base

The Z was Zapped by Chris VanAllsburg

Allison’s Zinnia by Anita Lobel

The Alphabet of Animals by Christopher Wormell

The Alphabet (Mouse Books) by Monique Felix

Shiver Me Letters by June Sobel

There’s nothing like a gently snoring dog next to you on the couch to zap every bit of motivation to get up and do something. I have been working like a mad woman lately. I delivered 75 sets of buttons with geeky textile saying on them to the Shop at the Textile Center. They already need to be restocked. I sold half of my inventory of puppets in one morning there last week (all of the lions!) so I need to get to sewing more puppets. My final write-ups and samples for the book “One Yard Wonders” were due last week. I have 2 projects in the book which is scheduled to be published in late 2009. I still have to write a bio for them. My new baby nephew threw off my schedule for getting his room decor done and so I finished these for him:

This evening I should really try to convert the photo studio back in to a guest room so my inlaws have a place to sleep when they come visit very soon.

The Minnesota State Fair prides itself on being the home of 59 different foods on a stick. No kidding! Check out the video or the official “food finder” site. Not wanting to be left out of all the fun, the Creative Activities section of the fair decided to add a new category this year – “Quilt on a Stick”. To qualify, your quilt must be 8×9 inches, consist of a minimum of three layers that are hand or machine stitched together, and have a sleeve on the back, which holds a paint stir stick. At the last minute, our entire staff at work decided to enter our quilts-on-a-stick! The category has several ribbon and cash prizes associated with it. How can you resist entering, with the possibility of being able to say “I won a blue ribbon for Quilt on a Stick”?

My entry is above. It is titled “Wallflower”. (Although it is not present in the photo, it does indeed sport a stick.) I intended it to be a bit of a mystery and it has stumped some of its viewers, who haven’t picked up on what exactly they are looking at. Leave a comment by August 21 (Fair opening day) with what you see in my “quilt on a stick” and I will award a prize of Kitchy State Fair Goodness to a random winner.