The Pensacola Slice Quilt

One of the special exhibits at our upcoming Quilt Show will be the Pensacola Slice Quilt.  For those of you not familiar with slice quilts, the idea is you take a photograph (or in our case a painting), get a very enlarged copy of it, and cut it up in slices.  In this case, the painting was copied (with the artist's permission) and enlarged to 4 ft. high by 10 ft. wide.  Then it was cut into 12" wide slices and handed out to people in the guild.  They were given a color reference slice of what it needed to look like, and then we waited.  Twenty people participated, so we ended up with 2 slice quilts. This is one of them.

Each slice is self bound and has a hanging sleeve on the back.  All 10 one foot sections are displayed together.  So cool!!!

The first section starts with a RR trestle bridge that is known in Pensacola as the "Graffiti Bridge".  It is painted almost daily with different things.  Then there's the big beach sign leading out to Pensacola Beach - very iconic.

It seems I missed a section, with Old Christ Church downtown (built in 1832), the big beach ball and the Blue Angels in formation (you can see them on the first picture).  This is our old Saenger Theatre (built in 1935) downtown.  It's been restored and it's beautiful.

Last is a shrimp boat (yes, we have wonderful fresh shrimp here) and the Pensacola Lighthouse (I kind of cut that off).  I was on my lunch hour and there were people in the gallery room where this was being displayed so I kind of rushed.  I'll get some good ones at the show.

Also hanging was our Guild challenge from last year.  It was called "Music of the Night".  I'll post next about that, I've got several pictures of my process.

I participated in this challenge and my quilt is hanging.  Any idea which one is mine??  (I'll reveal in the next post).  It's not raining here today - :).  Happy stitching - I'm headed up to my studio to play!!

-Karen

An Evening with Silver Threads Quilt Guild

I am finally beginning to feel like I've caught up with myself since March 6th - my husband's surgery.

One of the fun things I've done is take a short trip over to Ft. Walton Beach, FL - just down the road from Pensacola.  I was asked to present my trunk show for the Silver Threads Quilt Guild. 

I got there a little early and drove one block off the main road, and found this quiet little spot.

It was warm enough to roll the windows down and listen to the birds and ducks.  I'd remembered to bring a book to read, and so in the midst of my craziness..... I spent an hour just reading, listening and enjoying.

The presentation went well, what a great group of ladies.  This is Kerry who plans the programs - she was such a delight.  I got to share my quilting journey with them and totally enjoyed my evening off from being "Nancy Nurse" :).  You can see a few of the quilts on the table, but no other pictures.

There have been lots of other happenings, and I'll post about those soon.  Two more weeks until the Quilt Show :)!  My DH is progressing well.  He sees the infectious disease doc next week, hope it's good news.  We are still taking it one day at a time.

-Karen

Detours

There are times when you kind of know life might throw you a curve and then there are times when it comes out of left field.  Many of you know that my DH had a complete shoulder replacement last August.  It appeared that things were going to be wonderful.  But things didn't exactly go that way.  Last Thursday he went back into surgery to fix the problem. The joint was infected and the doctor had no choice but to take it out and put in spacers.  He will be in a brace for 6-8 weeks.  The brace straps his arm to his torso as he currently has no shoulder.  He will also be on IV antibiotic therapy for 6-8 weeks and then he will go back in for a reverse shoulder surgery.  While there is bone and tissue infection, the biggest praise is that it's not in the blood.  I am not a nurse but yesterday the home health nurse came to the house and showed me how to give the IV in his pic line.  This will be a new normal for us for a few months.  

We're taking it a day at a time.  

I thought about this quilt as I put out my spring quilts a few weeks ago. It's called "Beauty for Ashes".  The story is here.  It's one of my favorite quilts not only because it's Robyn Pandolph's line Secret Garden (I was obsessed with this fabric LOL), but because of the story behind this quilt and the message that reminds me to trust God in all things.  I will probably be a little absent as I'm trying to juggle my nurse duties, my job and my upcoming quilt show in April - eek!!!  I keep remembering that I'm the Chairman!  I am finding snippits of time to work on the hand quilting of my Jubilee quilt, it's amazing the stories that are woven into these stitches.

Thanks for listening, have a great day.

Karen