Category: Quilts

100 Quilts · Quilts

Project Gingham!!

Elizabeth E.16 Comments

A long time ago, in a galaxy garage sale faraway, Elizabeth found a whole lotta’ gingham.  She shared with Krista, who really likes vintage fabrics.  Then we hatched the idea to share with a few others. And today’s the day everyone is sharing with us, but first–my reveal!

I’ve titled this quilt: Gingham Quilt.  Really original, but certainly it has to get points for being descriptive, doesn’t it?  I auditioned a lot of different block ideas, and then decided that just about anything would work with these prints, especially a lot of white.  I know some of the checks get in the way of the bow-tie, but I wanted this to be a fun, summery quilt, without freaking out about anything.  So there you go—some things you just live with and love.

I had seen in a Roberta Horton book that she had used a different fabric for the outside blocks in order to create a border, and I wanted to try that too.  I picked up the cool lavender almost randomly, wanting it so it wouldn’t intrude on the crisp white in the middle of the quilt.  A slight shift, only, in that border, and I tried to use many of the darker ginghams to highlight that shift.

Detail of the quilting, which is a spool of thread and a needle.  My quilter Cathy always has a great design for me.

Two glamour shots of the quilt.  I wanted to show one of my favorite ginghams–one not likely ever seen again in today’s mass market.  It’s that true lavender in the middle of the quilt.

I left this picture bigger so you could click on it for detail.  This is made with (deep memory, here, from my CloTex degree) a dobby loom.  The word comes from the early days of fabric manufacture, when a little boy would sit on top of the loom and pull up individual warp (or lengthwise) yarns so the weft (crosswise or selvage-to-selvage) shuttle could glide across and make a design.  Dobby is short for “draw boy,” or so the rumor goes.

If you look closely on the back, you can see white yarns (threads) that are carried across the back, and create the design on the front.  The floating yarns are the tip-off to which side you are looking at. A lappet is another type of machine but it’s my understanding that the lappet can only do one direction of thread, whereas in this design both the warp and the weft are involved.  Like I said, we aren’t likely to see this fabric ever again.

Label.

I chose a Jane Sassaman print for the back, and not only because I got a bunch of it for a deal when I went up to Michael Levine’s in Los Angeles, in the garment district, but more because it seemed to be in the mood of the front.

I think of this as the quilt for a picnic, for throwing down on a meadow somewhere and pulling out a wicker basket, kitted out perfectly with gourmet feastiness.  Right.  Not my life.  In reality, I think of the time I went up and took my then 4th-grade daughter out to lunch. . . on the front lawn of the school.  We got a lot of crazy looks from the gardeners and the kindergarteners as we enjoyed our sauteed pepper-and-onion sandwiches, just the two of us, with moms picking up kids in the school’s driveway just three feet away.  It’s a great memory; it’s that kind of a picnic quilt.

Now hop on over to the other blogs and see their Project Gingham reveals!

Krista, of KristaStitched

Cindy, of Live A Colorful Life

Rachel of The Life of Riley

Suz, of PatchworknPlay

Kris, of Duke Says Sew What

Becky, the Sarcastic Quilter

Quilts

Quilting Resource–Judy Martin

Elizabeth E.2 Comments

With all the modern quilts flooding the blogosphere, it’s good to remember some of the more traditional quilters that have been around for a long time.  Judy Martin is one of those.  I’ve frequented her site over the years, because she always has a free block of the month, or quilt of the month for us to download.

So while I may say “traditional” I think this one–Posts and Rails, the block and quilt that are up there now–read very modern.  She also has a list of her patterns that takes up 28 pages, and has one of my current favorites: Cloak and Dagger, which I saw in a Roberta Horton book.  From Judy’s list, I found out which book it was in, hopped on Amazon (it’s way out of print) and was able to pick it up so I can have the pattern.

I have several of Judy Martin’s books (she has a publishing company) and they always have great designs, which are drawn in full color.  She also has many quilts for sale for very reasonable prices, if you are interested in that.

Here’s one called Big Sky Log Cabin, and she made it by leaving off the last two logs of a Log Cabin block.  I think this also fits into the modern quilt sensibility, if that’s your bend.  I also think of her as a master of stars and star combinations, which I love.  Even though I have not ever made a completely “Judy Martin” quilt, I have used her block ideas in swaps and in sampler quilts.  She’s another one of those masters in the quilt world who I have learned from.

Quilts

Project Gingham Underway

Elizabeth E.2 Comments

I had a whole list of winners.  You all shared such lovely memories with me, and I enjoyed going back in time to your childhood summers, popping popcorn to sell, learning to sew at the hand of your grandmother, going to Disneyland.

Congratulations to Rachel of The Life of Riley for joining me on Project Gingham.  The next day to watch for gingham in our quilts will be July 4th, Independence Day for those of us in the States.  That’s kind of the peak of summer for us in the Northern Hemisphere, celebrated with pie, homemade ice cream, lots of overeating (in a good way), and hanging out waiting for the sun to go down to cool us all off and so we can see the fireworks.  And a perfect day to see all these gingham projects!

I’ll post a list of all six of our blogs on here, and if you’ve taken the steps to dig some of the gingham out of your stash and have made  (or plan to make) a gingham quilt project (or ordered some online or even found some in local shops), send me your blog name and address and I’ll list you as well.  Deadline for me to write the blog post and get it listed is June 27th (after all, I’ve got some serious summer fun to attend to!).  What qualifies: a block, or four, or a mini-quilt, or a big quilt.  Check back (pun) and see the gallery of gingham!

While you may think all I do is gingham, I’ve had a couple of other projects going as well.  The above is all the squares, cut out, for my Summer Treat Quilt.

Here’s four sewn together and arranged up on the pinwall.  I like how the borders make a crown-type block.  I always like putting new blocks together to see the new patterns they make when they share borders.  While this does look productive, it’s really an avoidance of my other Grand Summer Project. . .

. . . getting the Lollypop Trees back on the radar.  I’ve pulled all the Kaffe Fasset/related fabrics out from the closet, and traced off the remaining blocks onto freezer paper (the scrolls).

I number all the pieces so I can tell which block they belong to.  Some have over 50 pieces.  And I have nine to go.  Now I’m thinking I’m a bit nuts and maybe I’ll just do nine blocks TOTAL, instead of 12.  Or the sixteen the original quilt called for.

Krista, of KristaStitched, invited me to join her and her friends in their Far-Flung Bee, so named because the members live all over the world.  I’ve never been in a bee.  That’s sort of admitting you’ve never eaten raspberries or gone skinny-dipping, or something.  But they’ve drawn up a schedule and some guidelines and I’m giving it a go.  I’ve gotten two blocks done, and am ready to start another person’s blocks.

Several months ago I put my name on the waiting list to take a class from Becky Goldsmith.  Today my lucky number came up!  The class is quickly approaching–next Tuesday–so tomorrow I’ve got to go out and try to find class supplies, then sew my background for her class on Applique Outside the Lines.  I’m soooo jazzed!

Quilts

Gingham Giveaway!!

Elizabeth E.25 Comments

Today’s the day for our Gingham Giveaway.  Krista, of KristaStitched, and Cindy, of Live A Colorful Life, will also be doing a giveaway on their blogs, too.

We’ve put together three packs of gingham fun: three different fat quarters of gingham, plus a full half-yard of Kona white.  Here’s the deal: if you win, we want you to play gingham with us, so make a block or four or a mini-quilt, or add some more gingham and make a big quilt.  Then on July 4th, post your completed project on your blog, with links back to us.

You can enter on all three blogs with one winner per blog (and Cindy and Krista and I will put our heads together to make sure that no one wins twice).  We’ll mail anywhere but planet Venus (but then she’s gone around the sun now–all done transiting for another hundred+ years).

To enter, leave me a comment with your favorite summer memory from your childhood. I’ll close out the giveaway sometime in the early morning of June 6th/7th and post the winner on my blog, after conferring with my buds.

I was the youngest of four girls and was always put to bed earlier than them, which of course, made me nuts because I knew they were doing amazing things while I lay awake, listening to the crickets and their laughter.  But in summer our bedtimes often merged somehow. And one lovely summer’s eve in Boston, Massachusetts, a bunch of children (friends? for we lived in Sudbury–considered the “country” then) gathered together on the big wide lawn, the fireflies blinking and we played Red Rover for what seemed like hours.  Those kind of memories are always snatches and impressions, but I’ll never forget all the adults in the house, lit by golden lights, while we children played on past sundown.

Now leave me your favorite childhood memory of summer in a comment.  And good luck!

 

~~~Comments are now closed. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow on the blog, but will be in email contact before then.~~