Author: Elizabeth E.

I quilt when I can.
Quilts

SIX!!

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

No, not six quilts.  That wouldn’t be normal, would it.

Six dotty circles!!

I was kind of commenting on how many pieces it takes to my quilty pal, Rhonda, who lives on the Other Coast.

Three arcs per 1/4 block.  Eleven pieces on the larger outside arc, eleven pieces (smaller) on the second arc, and 4 on the center quarter-circle arc. One hundred and four pieces per block.  I haven’t even put the four pieces on the outside of the circles to square it up.  And this is only the center section.

Well, the truth is I was kind of moaning a wee bit to Rhonda, as it seems to go sooo slowly.  But she noted that “It’s also theraputic, isn’t it?”  She’s right.  I can listen to the radio, to podcasts, to novels (my mother and I are listening to Things Fall Apart), and just let my mind wander and stitch.  She called me this morning to tell me she’d dragged her dotty circles quilt pieces out of the closet and had started to work on them again.  I loved the coincidence that I was working on something that she’d already started–great serendipity.

The repetitive motion allows me to think about Gabby Giffords, the tragedy there, the speeches, and how I fit into the equation of more civil conversation.  I don’t really traffic in the political sphere, so it doesn’t affect me directly, but I can practice not rolling my eyes when someone I’m not crazy about is speaking on the TV, or listen more carefully, expanding my “moral imaginations” as President Obama suggested.  I should do these things not just because it’s a good idea, but also because as these dotty circles suggest, what goes around, comes around.  And I want good things to come back around to me.

Creating

Wheels of Dots

Elizabeth E.Leave a comment

Okay, compared to Red Pepper, I’m awfully slow.  She gets a quilt done in a day, it seems, but here’s what I’ve been able to do in a few days.  Two almost-done wheels!  Yay–only 10 more to go.  I originally thought there were sixteen wheels, but no, only twelve.  That suits me fine.

You know that old adage about how what we quilters do is take perfectly good fabric, cut it into small pieces just so we can sew it up again?  That idea has played through my mind more than once, as I’ve worked on this quilt.

Here’s the board of pieces that I keep next to the sewing machine, painstakingly trying to be random when choosing.  The little machine–the Featherweight–has been pressed into service for this one.  I like my bigger electronic machine, but there’s a different connection to the fabric and the process when I use this tiny sewing machine.  It’s just me, the belts and gears and all those little pieces of fabric.

Okay, the one downer will be when I have to peel all the paper off the backs of these arcs at the end, but Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins of Piece O’ Cake Designs (who designed this quilt) said to use parchment paper.  So I went down to my local Kelly Paper store and bought a ream, choking on the price.  But I really dislike peeling paper off of paper-pieced quilts, so I was ready to try their recommendation.

This quilt is from the book Quilts with a Spin, and is on sale now at their website.  Yes, I see all that applique on the outside of the quilt. This must be my applique year.  The other night at quilt night we were discussing how chaotic our lives seemed to be, and I mentioned that this coming year was the Year of the Rabbit on the Chinese calendar.  To a woman, they all said they were ready for a year of calm and quilt, a rabbit-like year.  Maybe that’s why I’ve inadvertently chosen applique quilts this year–calm, quiet–sewing on my applique while I stream down something from Netflix on our AppleTV.

Creating · Good Heart Quilters

Quilt Night–Jan 2010

Elizabeth E.Leave a comment

Our little quilting group (which at one point had the name of Good Heart Quilters) got together for our first time in the new year.  It was at my house, so I got to snap the photos.

The newest quilter first!  Sara is new to our group and new to quilting and for her first project has decided to cut up her sons’ shirts and make a one-patch.  I love memory quilts, and think this will be a great project for her.

Dots were everywhere tonight, perhaps because of the stash builder we did in November.

Laurel took the ones we passed out then, added to what she’d been collecting, and made this terrific square.

There will be four in the quilt when she’s done; she worked on the yellow one tonight.  She and I both found out that it doesn’t take much to collect a lot of dots.

I was working on a dotty quilt, too, but am paper piecing arcs to make large circles.  Laurel and Lisa coached me through my first steps.  I mean, we all know how to paper piece, but when you pick it up again, there’s always this bit of confusion–not helped by the fact that I had a birthday recently.

Tracy’s raw-edge applique circles-onto-squares will be completed soon as she’s speedy.  What kind of fabrics? Dots!

We were all in awe of Karen’s bargello heart–a project she’s been steadily working on for a while.  That’s the beauty of Quilt Night–we all catch up with each other and we all get a chance to pull out our quilting and stitch for a while.

Because of my birthday, Leisa brought me a cake.  So, I made them all pose for a shot.  We’ve been doing quilt night in one form or another for about 10 years, and the composition of our group has changed over that time, with some quilters pausing to do other things, and new quilters joining in.

Leisa and Lisa.  Lisa just got her machine back out of the shop, so she worked on quilting a panel for some pillows.  Lisa brought Dr. Seuss fabric that many of us wanted to steal–she’s got two more grandsons to be born this year so that fabric will be perfect.

Jean missed November’s Quilt Night because she was on a polar bear expedition (photographing them)–it sounded fascinating–but she got right back into the swing of things and cut all evening.  I have a fold-up table similar to hers and it really saves the back when doing lots of cutting.

Jody worked steadily on pillows to match the quilt she had made for her daughter. One thing we were all talking about is our local quilt show, Road to California, which is coming up in a couple of weeks and we were seeing who was going which day.  None of us are taking classes this year. We’ll just be shopping, I guess.

Leisa, Tauni and Laurel visit while working.  That’s Martinelli’s there on the tray, along with delicious birthday cake (we thrive on caffeine, not the liquid bubbly).  Some of the quilters were missing, but hopefully we’ll see them next time.  Tracy, Tauni and I worked for a while, talking late into the night.  I think we solved just about all the world’s problems, so we wrapped it up until next time.

**********

Late addition: I worked all day off and on, and completed the paper piecing for one circle.  Now’s there’s eight more to go!

(I’m trying to make the quilt below.)

(Wish me luck.)