Keagan’s Quilt

August 16, 2016April 2, 2024 Elizabeth E.20 Comments

Keagan, my first grandchild, came to visit me last month (along with her Mom–our daughter– and family. She’s crazy about Paris and France and all things French, so I collected a few fabrics before she got there and surprised her with them.

And you just can’t leave it at that in a quilter’s house.

L’Amour recoufortand de Paris, quilt #167
Pieced and quilted by Keagan Charon and Elizabeth Eastmond
July 2016

L’Amour recoufortand de Paris, the title, means Paris’ Comforting Love, because she considered how quilts give comfort and since it had all things Paris in it, she thought it up and had my husband translate it for her.

Keagan_5 We got all the pieces cut out, then I had to go and Take Care of Things, and when I came back, this was the design she’d carefully put together on the design wall. We sewed the pieces together–me on my regular machine, and she beside me on the Featherweight– and we put the top together. Her brother Riley helped iron the blocks; it was a team working together.

I stitched most of it on the Sweet Sixteen machine, but had her take a turn at the quilting, so she could say she’d help quilt it, too.

Since we were working against a deadline, we used a glue stick to tack down the binding, and then I top-stitched it into place.

And then, just like that! it was time to head on home. Here they are Sunday morning, all the kids (Keagan and Riley and Maddy) lined up for a picture before they piled in their van to drive home.

200 Quilts · Four-in-Art · Quilts

Jill in the Pulpit: Four-in-Art Challenge • Aug 2016

August 1, 2016January 14, 2017 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Jill in the Pulpit
Quilt No. 166, August 2016
#3 in the Color Series: Purple Passion

I have no serious thoughts about the color purple even though there’s a novel with that title, and even though it has so many interesting connections (which were explored in my last post and which seems like it was written about a year ago, but really it’s only been several days). Where do summer days go to? To family picnics, visiting relatives, long interstate drives, trips, ~~lounging around in hot weather~~ cleaning house. . . the usual. And then I had to ponder what I’m passionate about? Quilting, for sure, so in the end, the reality is to Get The Thing Done, diving into my passion of quilting, but hampered by. . .

. . . my shoulder going rogue, rendering me only a bit less helpless than the Black Knight in Monty Python, which is the standard by which we judged all injuries when raising the children. Yes, “tis only a flesh wound,” became our rallying cry for getting up and going, and so I did, and got the quilt done. Cause? Pretty sure it was the cheap-o yoga class I signed up for early this spring, and couldn’t finish because of the pain. I’m sticking to walking. Or sword-fighting.

All the purples in my stash (with the exception of the Kaffes) were purchased about the time of the Knights of the Round Table — all plummy and grayish and dated — so while in Utah, I visited *this* shop and *this* shop, acquiring a few new fat quarters.

Just before sleep one night, I sketched out an idea (top). The next day I proceeded to massacre my idea (the rest of the photos). Finally I decided that I should just slash it where it had problems and insert other fabrics, so I did, using *this video* for help in sewing curves.

I line up fabric underneath the slash, position it, then move it about 1/4″ back from my imaginary positioning line, then rotary cut along the shape. Stitch a 1/4″ seam. Press.

Repeat with other side.

Keeping the bag of frozen peas balanced on my “flesh wound,” I quilted this, stopping often to rest and ponder the state of the universe. . . or what I was doing. I hate that I have a new quilting machine, and haven’t really been able to use it much. “Soon,” my husband says, as he rubs my shoulder nightly and soothes my worries. “Soon.”

I whacked it here a little, there a little, turned it and whacked it again, until I got this ~~ungainly flower-like thing~~ quilt in a sort-of balance.

Now you know why I named it Jill in the Pulpit. It’s irrelevant whether you like the candidate or not, as the Big Deal is that we have come far enough to nominate a woman, and I thought that deserved some recognition.

So there you go–my Purple Passion Challenge.

Please visit the rest of our group, to see how they interpreted Color: Purple Passion. We also have a blog, Four-in-Art Quilts, where you can find us all.

Betty https://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2

Camilla http://faffling.blogspot.co.nz/

Catherine http://www.knottedcotton.com

Janine http://www.rainbowhare.com

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

Rachel http://www.rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com

Simon http://quiltalicious.blogspot.com

Susan http://patchworknplay.blogspot.com

200 Quilts · Creating · Quilts · Textiles & Fabric

Starry Compass Rose

May 26, 2016May 25, 2016 Elizabeth E.29 Comments

Starry Compass Rose
Quilt # 156

I’d like to tell you the background about how I went to Quilt Market. I was contacted by Paintbrush Studios in November of 2015 to see if I would design and make a quilt for them using their Painter’s Palette line of solids. At first I was like, who is this? but soon got to corresponding with Anne, a delightful woman with a great sense of humor. She turned me over to Deena in the design department, and I sent over a rough sketch. Then another. We soon had several renditions flying back and forth over email, which meant not only did I have to design a quilt for them, and sew it, but I also had to learn how to express myself in EQ7 (cue: grimace). I learned it “enough” and produced the sketch you see above.

Of course, all this is stuff I couldn’t mention on the blog, but I worked on this steadily from late November until mid-February when I sent off to them a quilt top, binding, backing and a label. Someone else would quilt it.

As a thank-you for this experience, I made them Focus, a small quilt to hang in their booth at QuiltCon. While at QuiltCon, I screwed up my nerve to ask Sue and Deena if I could get a pass to see the quilt at market, and they arranged it.

But I was most interested in seeing my quilt, all quilted up by Denise Marieno, at Quilt Market. I was sad to see it go in February, but ecstatic to see it now, hanging in the Painter’s Palette booth. I checked on the progress several times on Thursday as they set up their booth, watching as they moved it from an inner spot, to an outer spot. They were very happy with the result, as was I. Denise did a terrific job of quilting it.

So now it’s gone, and who knows when I’ll see it again, but oh, what a high! to see it at market. I hope I can work with them again sometime, as I thoroughly enjoyed the process and the people at this company.

I’ve spent my life in unheralded endeavors: a young bride having babies, a mother at home, a student, an adjunct professor, but no one praises your skill at loading a dishwasher, managing a complicated carpool schedule, or compliments you on the nice comments you leave on student papers. So to come into Quilt Market and to see my quilt hanging there as a professional quilt designer was an experience I won’t soon forget. It was like someone patted me on the head and said “You did great,” that my skills were recognized, instead of just giving service or being a cog in what passes for Higher Ed these days. I certainly don’t regret being a mother-at-home, nor of my years of teaching. I don’t regret being an older student, trying to fit in with the 20-somethings who were writing edgy short stories that included drugs and sex, while all I could come up with is little stories of mothers and fathers and families that somehow always included a quilt somewhere.

But to round that corner that first morning and see this quilt?
Oh, so satisfying.

Next post: Day One of Market, going to Schoolhouse, a Tumble, and a Giveaway

200 Quilts

Beauty All Around

May 25, 2016May 26, 2016 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

Beauty All Around
Quilt # 162

Before I start on my market wrap-up posts (although Sherri of A Quilting Life has a nice array of photos of her Moda contemporaries), I wanted to show you some of the market sewing I did for Sherri. She sent me some fabrics, I sent her an email with a design, then I got to work creating this little mini for her Moda booth. She has the words “There is Beauty All Around” on the selvage of her one of her fabric lines, so I grabbed a bit of that for a title. I got it wrong initially, thinking it belonged to this line, Desert Bloom, but it belonged to the previous collection.

She writes: “I love the name you gave your quilt, too; however, the selvage quote “There is beauty all around” comes from Valley…the selvage quote for Desert Bloom is “Nature’s beauty brings joy to the soul.”

Now you know them both!

It’s pattern #23 in my Craftsy Shop, and in my PayHip Shop (for EU readers). It’s a fun little mini that makes up quickly. Because it is a new little pattern and a wee little star at Quilt Market, it has a lower price for the first month, then I’ll put it back up to the regular price in my shops.

But that’s not all. I also made Sherri a clutch out of her fabric, featuring a pinwheel to match the quilt. I used Diane Stanley’s clutch pattern (she’s also known on IG as ylmommyx4), and it went together really quickly.