The following pictures tell you why I’m saying Uncle on this project, as there is No Way I’m going to be able to quilt it and bind it and label it, all before the end of August. Which is tomorrow, in case you didn’t notice.
Cutting. And I only made one mistake. Not bad, not bad.
What is with all these half-square triangles in everyone’s design? HSTs! HSTs! AAAAGH!
I got one block this far late one night, then went to bed.
The next day I got this far, all while listening to Book 4 of Bruno, Chief of Police. And that little habit is all due to Bette, who suggested I might like them. I do. The real title of that book was the Devil’s Cave. Our hero, Bruno, saved the day.
Twenty-nine thousand pieces of sashing, and eight million borders are sewn on. It’s actually looking cuter.
It kind of like died here.
I cut the batting last night, organized (but didn’t sew together) the backing. But I had to finish up another quilt, and take photos, and meet a bazillion deadlines, the least of which is to revamp this entire room, which used to be the guest room, but will soon become our office. Well, mostly my husband’s, but I will have a desk too, and all our modemrouterprinter1printer2extrapaperofficesupplies will soon leave my sewing room and live here. Can’t wait. See me about November for the finished product/project.
I’ll get to the Frivols #8, but just not by August 31st. But I did try.
September’s box is Frivols #8 and is a tin from American Jane, with a whole host of fancy and fun prints. The Moda blog notes that:
“There is a correction to the pattern – Background, Sashing, and Borders. The first line should say 3 – 5 1/2″ x width of fabric strips. From the strips, cut 18 – 5 1/2″ squares.”
Duly noted. I’ll figure it out when I get there.
Here’s the layout of prints from their blog–colorful and charming. And I was happy to see that there are fewer half-square triangles in Sandy Klop’s quilt design.
The freebie for this Frivol is a sweet little tin with this month’s quilt design, that is just about the size of a charm square, perched up there by the bigger tin. I also love the quote on this month’s card: “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” While it is attributed to Oscar Wilde, this attribution — as in so many other quote attributions — is a little squishy. For more discussion on this, visit the Quote Investigator. In fact, if you read this article, it seems like Wilde was a bit more pessimistic about this whole idea of authenticity:
It is tragic how few people ever “possess their souls” before they die. “Nothing is more rare in any man,” says Emerson, “than an act of his own.” It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are some one else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. (c. 1900)
I happen to like the Thomas Merton version:
“In an age where there is much talk about “being yourself” I reserve to myself the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is very little chance of my being anybody else. Rather it seems to me that when one is too intent on “being himself” he runs the risk of impersonating a shadow.” (c. 1967)
I have to say my favorite instance of this idea is from Gordon B. Hinckley, an earlier president of my church. He writes about discouragement when he was called on a church mission at age nineteen, feeling like he could never do what was required of him:
So often we can focus too much on ourselves, and how we feel from moment to moment. While this aesthetic — to “forget yourself and get to work” — seems to hail from another era, I like to think about it sometimes, when I often can’t find the energy to finish up the chore, to get the work done, to complete the task. I felt that way with Frivols #7, as you probably know. And somedays I have to ask myself: “What do I want to have done by the end of this day?”
Perhaps all this seems so far from the supposed Wilde quote of “being yourself,” but for me they are linked. Perhaps the work is me, the getting done is the shaping of who I am. And hopefully, in forgetting myself and getting to work, I will become my best self.
With great relief and happiness, I present to you: Bread with every meal.
The title comes from the back of this quilt, a tea towel my sister gave to me when she was doing the Great Purge and downsizing her life.
And in that grouping of statistics about what was eaten, was this phrase, “Bread with Every Meal.” Weird to take this for a title, I know. I don’t usually like to be that obtuse in the naming of my quilts.
But it reminded me of the dailiness of quilting, for me. That nearly every day I am at a small feast at my “table” — my sewing room — partaking of the goodness of cloth and patches and stitching. It makes me happy, and so it’s not a far leap to think of this as my daily bread.
Even when I intensely dislike what I’m doing.
Yes, making this quilt was one moan after another, working on it, wadding it in the corner, avoiding it. These are not my kind of fabrics, and making teensy 1-1/2″ half-square triangles is not my favorite thing to do. But I adore the designer (Lisa Bongean) and so I was determined to be a Brave Girl and finish up this quilt.
It won’t win any awards for piecing, or for that matter, quilting, but it will win prizes for being DONE. So now I can post this:
That’s 7!
Yep, seven down and five to go.
In other happy news, we had Camp Create last weekend. For years a group of us had gotten together regularly, the first Friday of every month for the Good Heart Quilters. It came time to end that monthly gig (no short story on this tale, so I’ll skip the telling), so we went out with a bang, with Camp Create.
I put up a bunch of photos on Instagram, but for the historial (hysterial?) record, I’ll post them again here on the blog.
Amy, in the green shirt, above, teaches classes on handmade books at the local art museum, and came to teach us the Coptic Stitch and how to make a book from scratch. I could go on and on about her, but she is waaaay talented, as are all the ladies above. She anchored the first half of Camp Create, held in Leisa’s (air-conditioned) garage.
Claire bundled up her wee daughter, Jane, as she worked on her book next to Leisa.
All our books. One of my favorite lines of the day was when one of us hadn’t finished up our binding and laid it down with the rest. Amy carefully tucked the threads underneath saying, “We can hide our secrets.” Yes, indeed. Mine is the green one with the butterfly (click the link for the video). Amy had the best papers from which we could choose.
Then we had lunch and switched gears to screen printing. Both Simone and I had taken Karen Lewis’ class at QuiltCon, and Julie was also experienced at this technique, so we taught the technique to these fine crafters.
For those of you wondering where to get the screen printing cloth, I found this “utility fabric” at JoAnn Fabrics, and it seemed to work great. It’s not 100% cotton, but I did all my printing with this and I’m happy with it.
Amy was experienced in screen printing, and knew to wear gloves.Claire’s cupcakes
In other news, I’m making progress on my Hexie Flower quilt, a design by Sherri McConnell. (More info on her blog.)
And here’s my contribution to Hexie Lore: punch a hole in your paper. You can anchor your hexie with a straight pin while you stitch (so the fabric doesn’t move around), and at the end, insert the tip of your scissors into the hole and pop it out. I use the basting method where you don’t take out your stitches, and I use a hexie template to cut out the fabrics.
Lastly, we had some visitors. I set up the grandchildrens’ beds downstairs in the dining room, and Maddy’s bed was taken over by their dog, Cookie. Really, it’s more like their younger sibling, Cookie.
A summer treat: frozen yogurt. We miss you already–come again!!
It’s the first of July, so you know what that means.
I pulled Frivols Tin #7 out of the closet, and about fell over. There are a billion little triangles in this quilt, well, okay, maybe only a couple of a hundred, but they are teensy weensy (each HST measures 1 3/4″ square, unfinished). Yes, I am beginning to question my sanity. Especially since, when I was in Utah, I saw Frivols tins for sale:
See that quilt there on the right? I should have just bought it, and saved myself the trouble. But making these Frivols experience is a learning experience, or so I keep telling myself. I’m starting early this month, as it may take me a while.
Luckily in the tin, they have included a sheet to copy so you can just sew through the lines and have perfect triangles, also available on their Moda blog. Good thing I really like that lovely Lisa Bongean and her shop near me, Primitive Gatherings (also in Wisconsin).
Here’s the cute freebie: a scissors “keep” with the polka dots on one side, and Moda’s name on the other.
[Note: I won those scissors last month while visiting Corn Wagon Quilt Company in Springville, Utah. My husband, who is used to being in quilt shops, got a Hundred Grand Candy Bar, just for coming in (very nice of them).]
Okay, so if you are doing this Frivol, download Moda’s triangles sheet: Frivols7-songbird-triangle-papers [NOTE: Please be sure to download first, print a test page, making sure the measurements agree with what is written on the pattern, and print at 100% (of course).] I’ve printed mine out on vellum, which is easier to rip off than regular paper. Since we have to do eleven sheets worth of these triangles, I figure it’s four pages a week, in order to finish. I’m just hoping that with the special stitch-and-sew technique, I won’t have to be truing them up. That chore is right up there on the Hated Chores List with folding laundry and emptying the dishwasher.
Happy Fourth of July to you as well, a day to celebrate the birth of our nation. Here are some photographs I took when we lived in Washington, D.C. for a (most memorable) year:
Department of State, Star
Jefferson Memorial, with Declaration of Independence on the wall
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 