Tiny Envelopes Quilt

February 26, 2014 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Tiny Envelopes
Quilt #129 on the 200 Quilts List

I was happy and pleased to hang this one out on my back-fence studio, and be able to see the shading of the Kona Snow and the Kona White in the background. I smiled.

This quilt had its origins in another, my most recent Four-in-Art, and instead of discarding the small envelopes, I let the fabrics and little squares and colors and strips guide me to another quilt, an interesting journey.

Usually, with me, it’s always a block in my head, or a pattern done up in my quilt software, or a photo of a quilt I’ve seen and want to make, but this one? It formed itself.

I quilted wavy lines, an occasional circle to designate a postmark, and loops in the borders.

The backing is one of my favorites, with pictures of a samara, those little maple seeds you split apart in summer and affix to things — like your nose — little seeds destined to fly away, like a letter to a friend.

The quilt sleeve and binding, a batik fabric, shown close up.

It’s not so big, really, but it was the size it needed to be.

I put two stickers on my Goals Chart–two things finished!

I’m listening to Someone, by Alice McDermott and find that I’ve worked for hours, swept away as I am in this tale. I’m more than halfway through, and need to take up another project so I can finish the novel. Recommended by my mother, but really recommended by my sister Susan, who told my mother about it.

Believe it or not, California is supposed to get some rain. So far right now we have about 1″ of rainfall, when normally it is 10.” We’ve contacted a garden designer to rip out our lawn in front and put in some xeriscaping–plants that are more native to our area and require little water.

But this weekend? It’s supposed to pour, and I know it will knock all the blossoms off my lovely blooming wisteria, the heady fragrance a spring’s welcome when I walk outside to photograph quilts.

This is the view from the top of the trellis–a thick carpet of lavender and purple.

I hope that lovely blossoms are in your future, and that you receive some tiny — or large — envelopes in the mail, tiny, but with grand messages. Which reminds me that I need to get going on my Bee Blocks and my Cross-X blocks, and get those envelopes out in the mail!

Linking up with Lee, of Freshly Pieced on her WIP Wednesday.

200 Quilts

This and That, February Version

February 22, 2014 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

This made me laugh this week, as I had NO life, yet TOO MUCH work. A bit out of balance. Papers to grade, lessons plans to prep, more grading, ACK!! Finally, yesterday afternoon I pushed back from the computer, and went outside to breathe in some balmy Southern California air.

First, a visit to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store, where they exchanged my Christmas-present phone for a new-to-me phone. That should fix the battery problem, the Genius said. Thanks, Justin.

Next, writing out my quilting goals for a couple of months. I tried to be judicious in my choices, not throwing EVERYTHING up there, but just the things I’ve committed to, or think I can do. I’m not doing the Finish-A-Long this quarter, but do like the push it gives me, so I have to generate my own push. I think I’ll tackle the quilting on my Tiny Envelopes quilt. It’s been pinned together for several weeks, waiting for me to finish my grading.

I always “test” my quilting in a doodle, then mark right on the fabric what the upper tension needs to be. Here are a few other test drives. I’m using King Tut thread by Superior Threads in the top, and So Fine thread in the bobbin. I LOVE So Fine. I often use Bottom Line thread in the bobbin, but then need to loosen the upper bobbin tension more. Bottom Line is very fine, so “sinks” into your backing nicely. I found the upper tension also varies between using my free-motion foot (needs to be lower), and my walking foot. Test, test test.

First, quilt the little envelope shapes.

Then I started looking up ways to quilt the larger design on the quilt, looking at all different kinds of postmarks on Google Images. Did you know you can send your envelopes to North Pole, Alaska and they will cancel your Christmas letters for you, with a postmark that says “North Pole”?

I thought this design had some potential, but I kept looking.

The one in the upper left corner — a square with wavy lines — that was the one that pushed my quilty buttons.

I always print out a “faded” version of my quilts onto paper, then doodle some designs. I’d been doodling for a while before I found that one. I recreated it in the upper left corner, then went to work. I Googled “wavy lines template” and found one here: cutting_wavy_lines. Click on that link and you’ll get a PDF file of some wavy lines.

I traced one of the wavy lines onto some heavyweight plastic from an old binder divider I had laying around, then traced the wavy lines onto my quilt with an air-disappearing marker.

After a couple of hours of quilting, I hit the proverbial wall, but since the marker is a disappearing marker when exposed to the air, I knew whatever marks I had made would be gone in the morning, so I quilted until I ran out of thread in both the bobbin and on the spool. I got the message, so called it a night.

200 Quilts

Olympic Geese

February 16, 2014February 17, 2014 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

Well, first, Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!
(card is from my husband)

And I made some cookies (recipe *here*) for the occasion.

But in amongst the papers that had to be graded and the handouts that had to be written, I wanted some form of Olympic quilt. Something. . . somehow.

So I laid out some snips from some recent projects in circles, playing with this layout and the other.

So, here it is. Olympic Geese. Little triangles flying around in circles.

While free motion quilting, I decided to try different ways of tackling the quilting. I figured out about twenty different ways to quilt a triangle. A little self-tutoring while goofing around.

Then I quilted lines radiating out from the center, close together.

While at Road to California, I found a pattern for a bag I’ve wanted to make for just about forever.

So it starts out with lots of squares, with batting and backing, then stitched around. This is the interior. I used heavy thread, like a sashiko thread, to create the stitched lines. I then stitched it in rows, then the rows together. Of course, all done while watching the Olympics and cheering on Noelle Pikus-Pace.

I then stitched the sides together, which about broke my already burdened brain (remember? the grading? the handouts?).

And here’s a picture of the interior. It has woven faux leather handles, which I zig-zagged onto the bag, and will cover the cut ends of the handles with more fabric. It’s kind of an odd shape, but it intrigues me. I’ve got to find a way to put it together more easily–this hand-stitching of all the squares together is for the birds. And I think I’d like to try it in bright colors, and smaller squares. And I’d also like to fly around the world, too.

Okay, back to grading tomorrow. Then to do our taxes. Who says it’s a holiday?

200 Quilts · Four-in-Art · Quilts

Structure: Four-in-Art Art Quilt, February 2014

February 1, 2014February 1, 2014 Elizabeth E.20 Comments

On Line
No. 2 in the Urban Series: Structure

Leanne asked us to consider the theme of Structure for this challenge. While other ideas teased, the vision of these immense structures of steel and wire kept haunting me.

My husband and I got off the freeway to follow a few, photographing their massive, yet airy, construction reaching high into the sky, grabbing a line and passing it to their fellow tower.

It made me think about structure in terms of how electricity — and their cousin, the telephone line — have created their own structure in our lives. We used to depend on mail, human contact, driving somewhere, but now we email, Instagram, Facebook, Skype, and need scads and scads of voltage to do it all. The structure of our lives has changed.

I had hoped to make a quilt of tiny envelopes, distress them somehow, then superimpose the grand power scaffolding on top of that, representing the change in communication. It was not meant to be.

I printed out the upwards view of the tower, intrigued by its criss-crossing lines, then proceeded to sew together a billion little angular pieces. I kept thinking how proud of me Leanne would be, as she is the queen of improv quilting.

As I completed a section, I’d lay it out.

Done, but it was a bit small, so I added a border.

I’m showing it from the back, as I’m mighty proud of those billions of seams.

I chose a variegated thread and quilted where I wanted to. Maybe those scribbled lines in the border are conversations? Or interrupted code from a blog post? Or the news from a family member, broken into bits and pieces as it is transmitted? The fabric is scraps from my most recent quilt, Amish With a Twist Two, perhaps because I wanted to work with line and not pattern (and certainly with all the weeny subdivisions, there is plenty of pattern) but also because the sack of scraps had not been put away yet.

I like this photo because the leaves and berries of the bush behind this tree call out the color in the quilt.

Posing with its soul mates: the telephone box and the power meter.

I had planned to piece all the little envelopes together and put them on the back, but I decided that with all the seaming, the quilt would be one gigantic lumpy square. Plain backing then, from the Collage line of fabric, and then added the label. That morning nothing would go right, so it’s on and done; not perfect, but sometimes that’s just how it has to be.

I owe my associations in this Four-in-Art group to these very structures, long looping lines bringing me quilting and friendship.

Take a look at how our group interpreted this theme:

Amanda at www.whatthebobbin.com

Anne at www.springleafstudios.com

Betty at a Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2/12251011196/

Carla at lollyquiltz.blogspot.com

Leanne at shecanquilt.blogspot.com

Nancy at http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com

Rachel at rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com

CODA

Since I wrote about how I made it, I won’t be doing a “deconstructed” post for this quilt. And when I hear what the new theme is for May, I’ll let you know. As usual, there was some amount of frustration over this quilt–deadline crept up on me, a “why am I doing this to myself?” moan (or two), and then the getting down to it.

Teresa Amabile said “Creativity depends on a number of things: experience, including knowledge and technical skills; talent; an ability to think in new ways; and the capacity to push through uncreative dry spells.” At the end, I’m always glad I pushed through any dry spell to arrive at the finished Four-in-Art art quilt.