Finsh-A-Long–Second Quarter Report

July 2, 2013July 2, 2013 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

First, on July 3rd, I’m guest hosting today over at Leanne’s, of She Can Quilt, where I have written a tutorial for making a faced binding on a quilt (used on Kaleidoscope). This tutorial is in conjunction with the end of the second quarter of the Finish-A-Long, which she is hosting this year.

Now that you’re back, every quarter we monitor our progress and check in with Leanne, who is hosting this year’s Finish-A-Long program. So now it’s time for the second quarterly report of how many of our goals we finished. For a reminder, here’s my original mosaic, showing the quilts I was thinking about finishing:

And now the wrap-up:

Hunter’s Star–still in the closet (not finished)

Four-in-Art: Fire–Doloket, finished

Italy Quilt–Take Me Back to Italy, finished

Lollypop Class Sample I–(top is finished, but the whole project is not finished, because it’s at the shop for a sample)

Lollypop Tree Quilt–(not finished, still hanging in the closet)

Lollypop Class Sample II–Christmas Treat, finished

Friendship Quilt, still in the closet (not finished)

EPP Quilt–Kaleidoscope, finished (amazingly)

So that’s four finishes. Not bad. I also snuck in a few more that weren’t listed:

Spooling Around

A quilt for my sister Christine: Christine’s Philadelphia
(We’re in a pastry shop)

One really nice thing is the way that participating in the Finish-A-Long (FAL) keeps me focused on what to do next. So often I can be swayed by what I see on Instagram, or from blog reading, or the latest internet craze, ignoring my own goals and projects. I still have way more ideas and fabrics and projects that I will ever finish in my lifetime, but I like participating in FAL, where I least have a fighting chance of pointing to something at the end of the quarter that I did, that I finished, and that I’m proud of.

Now I need to think of things I want to try and finish for next quarter’s FAL. Hope you’ll join us.

FAL Progress: not much

May 30, 2013May 24, 2013 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

This is one of those I-think-I’ll-beat-myself-up posts.

I’m participating in the Finish-A-Long this quarter, after having such a gang-busting last quarter. Really, I was hot hot hot.

These were my goals.

1. I glimpsed the Hunter’s Star quilt top when I was finishing up the vacuuming after my sister and her husband left (they stayed with us for a few days and we had great talks). It’s still hanging there, waiting for a border or two and then a trip to the quilter.

2. Hey! I finished something–the Four-in-Art * Fire quilt, titled Doloket.

3. Hey! Something else was completed. Guess I might not have to hate myself so much. Yes, I did finish the Italy quilt — a Schnibbles quilt — part of Another Year of Schnibbles on Sheri and Sinta’s blogs. Title: Take Me Back to Italy.

4. I can’t finish this one, as the sample is hanging in the shop — the shop owner likes it unfinished so she can show people what machine appliqué looks like from the back.

5. Oh, right. Next.

6. Finished this one, woohoo! Title: Lollypop Treat.

7. What was I thinking even listing this? Next.

8. Sigh.

So, I guess it’s not total loathing here in Riverside, just partial. But the one good thing about this FAL is that keeps me honest, and usually focused. But I had to add in another Schnibbles (above, as I know no post is good without photos), and I slipped in Christine’s Philadelphia because the idea was burning in my brain. Okay, confessional over. I guess I should get to work.

200 Quilts · FAL · Finish-A-Long · Quilts

Take Me Back to Italy!

April 26, 2013April 25, 2013 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

I have this thing for Italy. So when I saw Va Bene!, a line of fabrics depicting scenes and buildings and landmarks from Italy, it had to come home with me. Many of our trips are detailed on my travel blog, Traveled Mind, which I’ve maintained for several trips, and it serves as a journal of sorts. It’s always fun to go and read it to remember the perfect bruschetta pomodora in the courtyard just beyond the steps of Santo Spirito in Florence (and is why I put the snippet of fabric showing this on the quilt label).

The facade of the church Santo Spirito, Florence

Brushetta Pomodora (pronounced with a hard sound: brus-ketta)

Recipe is found *here.*

So with this memory floating in my mind, I fell in love with the tomato fabric and the sights fabric and the background fabric with the Venetian gondolas and knew that I wanted to make this for Another Year of Schnibbles that Sherri and Sinta are hosting.

This was my first attempt. I ending up snipping off the piano key borders — even though they are in the original pattern — because everything seemed “mushed” together. I think a quilt should have strong focal point, or perhaps several places where the eye can travel to, and with the borders and this fabric, it just wasn’t working.

I also quilted the nine-patches in the ditch, and then did a heavy stippling on the triangles to smash them flat into the background, hoping the nine-patch design would pop up a bit. I think it also helped with that no place for the eye to rest thing I was talking about.

Windows of Santa Croce

I’d purchased this tea towel on a very hot day when we were touring Lake Como, and tucked it away in the suitcase. You can’t always find fabric in distant places, but there’s always a tea towel or two, showing the sights.

Florence Duomo exterior

Tuscan countryside

My husband is a great traveler, very adventurous, and loves to rent a car and just drive around, trying new places to eat, finding the out of the way place, avoiding the tourist traps, although he will put up with a few if the sights are top notch. So Italy fits us well. Enough people speak English, the food is amazing, and the scenery is picturesque.

So what else could I name this quilt but Take Me Back to Italy?

This is Quilt #112 on my 200 Quilts list.

It’s also my second finish for the second quarter of Leanne’s Finish-A-Long,

. . . and my first Schnibbles in Another Year of Schnibbles.

That’s a pretty big pedigree for such a small quilt, but this one can handle it.

It’s Italian.

200 Quilts · FAL · Finish-A-Long · Quilts · Something to Think About

Christmas Treat Wallhanging

April 22, 2013October 15, 2019 Elizabeth E.17 Comments

So, out here on the old sewing ranch-a-roo, I finished up Christmas Treat (name is courtesy of my husband) and took it outside to pose for pictures. The front.

The back is an old Alexander Henry fabric with quirky angels flying everywhere. I’ve hoarded this and now only have about a yard of the black colorway.

The label. I like to print mine out and border them before I stitch them on. If you do a search for “labels” in the search box on the blog, you’ll find posts about how I do my labels.

The final full shot. It’s #111 on my 200 Quilts list. It’s a big day because of the following four reasons:

1–this is my first Finish a Long completed. I probably won’t finish the blue flowers at this time as the shop owner likes that it shows the back;
2–I actually did some free motion quilting on this that I’m not mostly ashamed of. Don’t look too closely, as I don’t do enough of it to show it off, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out;
3–I took this sample (above, of Christmas Treat and below, of Lollypop Tree block) to Bluebird Quilts & Gallery, my local quilt shop, and she booked me in to teach two classes.

4) my husband took a new picture of me that I think is a pretty good rendition of who I am at this point in my life. As the Mid-Century Moderns know, we scrupulously monitor our images, preferring instead to be behind the lens instead of in front of it.

About photographs: we swim in a sea of digital images, and most are out of our control, as was demonstrated by the plethora of images that came forward about the Boston Marathon tragedy. Our grandparents had a handful. Our great-grandparents had, like, maybe three. So does having so many pictures make it any easier to find one you like of yourself? If you’re like me, my husband took about ten shots before I got one that I liked–one that represented on the outside how I generally felt on the inside. So, here it is. Banish all other images to the dustbin. This is the me as I am this week, all sunny yellow in sunny Southern California.

~~Okay, class info:~~
~~Class will be taught at Bluebird Quilts & Gallery, at 22320 Barton Road, Suite A, in Grand Terrace, California (just north of Riverside).~~

~~I’ll teach Wednesday, May 22nd from 10 to 3:30 p.m. and July 29th, from 10 to 3:30 p.m.~~

I need at least four, preferably, five people to carry the class. I’m including the pattern (my own, drawn from the original Lollypop Tree quilt from the 1880s), and freezer paper (have you priced this stuff lately? Whew!). Cost is $50/full day class, including pattern. Call the shop (909) 514-0333 to sign up, if you think you’d like to take the class. They’ll have class supply lists for you when you sign up. Their hours are Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed Saturdays.