Pat Durbin

Read moreLooking back at the Sanna quilt

When you make a quilt – there’s still a lot to do even when the quilting is finished. I have been working on this large quilt for the last 87 days.  Today is the day that the binding is finally sewn down by hand, and I start on the sleeve.

A sleeve is a tube of fabric that is sewn to the top back of any quilt which you want to hang on a wall.  Most of my quilts fit that catagory. 

Again this is a hand sewn project, which takes some time (and motivation).

Then there will also be a label to note the title and the maker of the quilt–me. So I’ll start pinning this tube to the back of my redwood scene and hand stitch the top and bottom through the backing and catch a bit of batting, but not go through to the front of the quilt.  Then we can hang it and photograph for show entry and historical purposes.  YES, we’re almost there.

The waves have been big and high tides.  We went to one of our favorite places: Dry Lagoon State Park.  Sometimes you can find agates, because the wave action stirs everything up.  But not this day…

We were surprised to see multitudes of foam…interesting.

As you know California has had lots of water recently to “replenish the earth”.

Where I live there is an area that is sort of a low spot which in the summer is dry, but with all of the rains lately we’ve accumulated quite a pond.  The ducks find it quickly once it fills.

So this reminded me of the ducks in my quilt, “Sequoia Duckpond”, and I thought’ I’d share a photo of the stages I went through to construct the ducks in that quilt.

If you look closely at the last stage, you can see all of the threadwork on the duck.  Click on the link and you can see where this duck lives on the finished quilt.

I’ve been making notes, checking them twice, of choir performances, local events etc that I’d like to see during the month–Making Spirits Bright.

We visited Jacoby Storehouse in Arcata to see the tree. 24′ tall.

Awesome in person…I took these with my camera…should have taken Gary’s, but these are ok.

Whenever I visit this building, my mind goes back about 60 years to what it was like in those years and following.

I guess that’s part of “maturing”. Everything has a memory.  Well, the tree has become a tradition.

Merry Christmas to you!

Many times you’ve seen me publish quilts of the redwoods.  I thought you might enjoy this photo. On our recent outing to the redwoods my husband shot this photo of me walking around looking for a “perfect shot”. I thought it would give you a bit of perspective to the size of the trees.  They are awesome!

I’ve been working on some small projects.  Two of them will be gifts for some special people.  I thought I’d share them with you.  Both are redwood scenes with backgrounds constructed in mosaic style.

The inspiration photos were taken in Garberville on a beautiful fall day.

International Quilt Festival starts November 1.

I’m happy to have two quilts intered into the “Quilts a World of Beauty” juried show/contest. The quilts I have entered this year are “Into the Woods” and “Cat Tails”. Also I have been asked to donate a small work for the IQA Celebrity Auction.  If you go to the show it’s alwas a wonderful display to see many of the “stars” works.  Stop by and bid on your favorites. This year my donation is Wooded Wonderland.  It’s a small piece that is typical of my Mosaic pieced forest quilts.

I’m happy to be at the quilting stage of a new quilt…working title: Hike Hawaii.  I chose the picture inspiration from a trip we made on our anniversary in 2009.

It’s been awhile getting it to this stage and I’m happy to be swooping down these palm fronds with bright quilting threads.  As usual they are Superior Threads and mostly “Rainbows”.  Here’s a glimpse.  More to come later.