Into the Woods is finished–my first finish in the FAL hosted by Leanne. I blogged about how bogged down I was in my entry FAL, so it’s nice to be able to go out to the front porch, have my husband hold it up and declare it done. And yes, I know it’s January and we still have pumpkins out there. Okey-dokey, moving right along. . .
Here’s a closeup of the quilting, and the blocks.
And the requisite beauty shot, draping not-so-artfully by the pumpkins.
Back of the quilt. I had purchased this fabric about eight years ago, when I was shop-hopping up in the Pittsburg area with a good friend. Our husbands are both scientists and we’d see each other almost annually at conferences. This particular time I had a rental car, so we left the boys to their science and took off in search of ours. I love that certain fabrics have memories attached; whenever I see this I will think of Beth.
I had originally named this a different name, mocked up the label but just couldn’t make the name stick. Then one night, it came to me. Seeing this quilt was like walking into the woods, surrounded by golds, greens, crimsons and browns, and so that became the title, just like the Broadway play Into the Woods by Steven Sondheim. That play has always had special significance for me, as its allegory of going into the woods –the difficult trials of life — and making your way back out of the woods — into a different life than the one imagined — became a sort of map for me during a painful shape-shifting time of life. I still love that play, and as I worked on the label (with a scrap of lyric pulled from the title song), I played it on the computer and sang along. Nothing like a Broadway show tune to make the quilting go a little quicker.
My quilter, Cathy, did a lovely job on the quilting of pumpkins and vines (and if you know the play Into the Woods, there is a section of Jack and the Beanstock, which correlates nicely). So there it is–my first finish, and finally, a Friday Finish for myself.
Update: Original post for the Finish-A-Long is *here.*
After we finished lunch at Grand Central Baking Company, and had visited Cool Cottons, we headed up into the Irvington district of Portland to a well-known quilt shop called Bolt. I have read their blog for a while, so knew about the amount of creativity that just oozed out of this place, plus it was on Alberta Street–my sweet MIL’s name. So that’s two votes for heading up here, don’t you think?
My husband has Parking Karma, so we found a place to park right across the street, then headed over. It located at 2136 NE Alberta Street in Portland (97211) and the phone is 503-287-2658, with email at info@boltfabricboutique.com. They are open every day, generally from 10-6, but different on Sat and Sunday, so check out their website for their hours.
Can I just say I’m crazy for dot-words? In the front window of their store they had letters on large dots, spelling out the goodies inside, and I loved that interesting touch.
This store is just full of great ideas, great fabrics of all kinds and lots of ways to get you thinking about quilts and projects to make. They carry a full range of Oliver and S Patterns, different kinds (substrates) of fabrics, from laminates to lightweight cottons, notions, threads and everything a sewist/sewer could want.
But like most quilters, I’m there for the fabric and ideas. And they have lots of fabric to choose from.
This store is tiny but packs a lot in, so I spent some time looking. I’m on a tight space allowance because of my suitcase, so that made it very hard to choose what I could take home.
And yes, that is the new Lizzie House Constellations line in the blues (on the left). I also saw other lines of fabric (Madrona Road, for one), plus they have a good mix of modern, novelty and good lines for blending in a quilt layout. You could spend all day here, I think.
Their tins of patterns–many to choose from.
And here’s a PS to our time in fabric shops: We also walked around some of Portland’s Art Galleries, where we saw a piece by Robert Rauschenberg, that only cost $70,000 (below). Makes the price of our quilt fabric look like a steal, doesn’t it?
I was amazed that a simple quilt-like construction could cost that much to own, but hey, it is a Rauschenberg. The intriguing thing was the voile overlay in the dotty and flowery sections in the picture above. I studied it a long time, and if you are in Portland and want to go and see it, head over to the Elizabeth Leach gallery on 9th street, where they treat you with great respect even if you are carrying a drippy umbrella and are wearing walking shoes. Which I was.
We quilters need our inspiration from many different kinds of places, and I’m grateful to both Bolt and Cool Cottons which allowed me to take snapshots of their shops. Now go and visit, if you are in Portland.
I can’t believe I’m still working on this. No, it’s not the Christmas quilt, although that is still very much in play. It’s the Autumn Quilt.
Since I started collecting fabrics for this oh, 8 or 9 years ago, and started cutting and sewing this quilt 2 years ago, it’s no wonder that I let it sit for a while after getting it back from the quilter as I couldn’t figure out what to bind it in. You know we all hunger and thirst over the cute bindings that Red Pepper puts on her quilts, but sometimes it’s best not to over think this quilting thing and just move forward. This is a plaid that was in the quilt, spliced up with a couple of other prints, as I didn’t have enough of the plaid.
I don’t know why, but I love the autumn colors. Living in LA, I get autumn about NOW, in January, when the liquid ambers turn maple-like colors. I went looking for quotes about autumn to find this quilt’s title, and all of them were about the fall that they have on the Eastern seaboard, or New England or mid-western areas of the country–so romantic about leaves and color and the “twilight of the year” and death and harvest and so on. I found a quote I like, but I’m still letting it mull over in my mind.
I mean, I can’t just call this “Autumn Quilt,” now can I?
And this is where I am on the pillow shams for my wonky star Christmas quilt. I decided to make a normal star, as they are 16″ finished, slap on some fabric on the top and bottom to get it to equal the size of a pillow sham: 20″ by 26.”
I want a flange around the outside edge, so I cut about another 100 2-1/2″ squares, and sewed them together in strips.
So now they look like this. I stopped because I’d taken the quilt over to the quilter, and gave her the red/green thread I’d purchased at Superior Threads when I’d gone through there at Christmastime.
I stopped because I had to get the syllabus and the course calendar and the expanded course calendar done and sent to the school copy center, and while I was at it, I sent over vats and barrels of more things to the copy center, trying to prep up for the first few weeks of school, which starts next week. But it was oh-so-nice to not have to create those things from scratch–to be able to find them on the computer and send them over with minor alterations.
I may actually get more quilting done this semester than last, given the fact that I’m teaching a course I’ve taught before. And that is a very good thing.
And lastly, I had a lovely surprise from a fellow quilter: she heart-attacked my door on my birthday, which was this past week. I’ve never been heart-attacked before, so I laughed and took a picture to remind me forever. Thank you Lisa! I had other lovely gifts to celebrate that day from other friends and family, phone calls from my children and some friends. A good birthday, for sure.
And then, just to remind me that I’m no spring chicken anymore, my back went into spasms the next day and I’ve been wincing, whining and moaning a good girl and not complained once about it. Like all things, this too will pass.
Hope you are all getting your new year off to a good start!
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Every New Year’s this poem, In Memoriam, by Lord Alfred Tennyson, has been recited in Sweden to welcome in the new year. It’s one of my favorite hymns, not only because of the arrangement (the Marsdon tune, arramged by Crawford Gates in an especially riveting D-minor key, which gives it a haunting quality) but mainly because the last stanza urges us to “Ring in the . . . larger heart, the kindlier hand,” among other things. And while I could say that the wording might be reversed, giving us “kindlier heart and larger hand” and that would give us more chances to do quilting, I think I’ll leave it well enough alone and hope for what Tennyson wrote.
Yesterday I just finished the quilt I started one year ago. This is a terrible, horrible blurry picture, but you get the drift. That’s what happens when you finish up late at night, and the pin wall has all sorts of other things pinned around the edges. Better pictures are coming. The fabric is Countdown to Christmas by Sweetwater, and the pattern is by Angela and found on Moda Bake Shop. Since the stars and I went several rounds before I finally was declared the victor, and because I think they look beyond wonky in some blocks, I’ve been thinking about the book Star Mother’s Youngest Child, a delightful story of how a wonderfully ugly little child comes down to earth to see what Christmas is all about, and ends up sharing the hearth with a grumpy old woman (which I certainly was at one point in this quilt’s construction). It’s okay that nobody but me will know what it means, but I like that title: Star Mother’s Youngest Child.
I’m at the point of deciding whether to just piece up the extras for the back, or to take the last steps and make the shams that could go with this so as to decorate the guest room for the holidays. I’ll just make up two star blocks, for they measure 16″ and then border them and call it a day. It IS New Year’s Eve tomorrow, and I don’t have much on the schedule, so why not?
This is the stack from IKEA that I finally got washed up and ironed (yes, I’m one of those), excepting the bottom red/white snowflake fabric, which I bought on my way home from Utah in a bookstore that also carried fabric. How great is that? Forget coffee. Give me books and fabric and I’m happy. But that red snowflake fabric is destined to back the wonky snowman quilt I started LAST November, which is the next to go up on the pin wall, while I can still listen to Christmas carols and before the urge to clean out closets creeps in with the New Year.
(Self portrait)
I’m too old for resolutions, but I try to put down some things that have me looking forward, for that is where the future is. One is our newest theme for Four-in-Art: trees. I took lots of photos of snowy trees while in Utah, and here’s a photo that my husband snapped of me in a lull in my photo-snapping.
But the one tree I remember was by the side of the highway while I was driving up north, covered in glittery frost and standing completely out in a field, all by itself. I did see snowy trees on the way home, but most were obliterated by a huge snowstorm which had me sitting up straight in the driver’s seat, clenching the steering wheel, praying that the semi-trucks would stay in their tracks and I could stay in mine. I don’t know how the folks do it who live in snowy climes–you have my admiration.
Another bright spot is the Mid-Century Modern Bee. All of us Mid-Century Modern quilters are gathered together by Cindy, of Live a Colorful Life. She and I had fun creating the logo together when she visited in November, and I look forward to participating with such a distinguished group of quilters.
I don’t know what this New Year will hold. Certainly the Mayan calendar is going to go for another round of days, so I guess we should too. I hope to add to my 200 Quilts list, with another quilt just back from the quilter and awaiting the binding, then the documentation onto the list. I hope to write more, both on this blog and others that I maintain, to teach well in the classroom, to read some books, and attend some quilting conferences (next up is Road to California, with its emphasis on glitter and crystals (not a fan), but hopefully I’ll find one or two that I love).
I hope that you are gathering some bright spots together in your future, and that we are all able, like Tennyson, to “Ring in the . . . larger heart, the kindlier hand.” Happy New Year of Quilting!
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 