Quilts

This and That for February 2019

February 16, 2019March 12, 2019 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

Bee Happy Quilt_Feb_1 — *You think I might have caught that wonky churn dash.*

I’ve been watching the second season of Anne with an E, a show on Netflix that re-thinks the well-loved story about a certain red-haired orphan. I binged-watched several episodes while hand-sewing and emobroidering the bees and other blocks from the sew-a-long Leisa and I decided to do. It’s been good company while I’m still recovering.

Bee Happy Quilt_Feb_2 — *Okay, now it’s fixed.*

blossom

I’ve been able to get out for a few walks around the neighborhood; this is our first blossom in our front yard. We’ve had a ton of rain, and since we’ve been in a drought, the plants (and I) are loving it.

Flower Hexie strips

I was able to sew my Flowers for Emma blocks into strips. Next up is sashing, the borders. I love this design by Sherri McConnell. Flying Geese BlocLoc ruler

I gave in and pressed the small triangles a different way, because, gosh! How can I possibly make a year’s worth of triangles and not use this?

Temperature Quilt_Feb13

Here’s a month-and-a-half’s worth of triangle temperature markers. It’s also an interesting way to note the passage of time. And yes, I have not yet Marie-Kondo-ed my design wall. I like it just as it is.

Gridster Bee Blocks_Feb13

Bee blocks from my Gridster pals have been coming in: a row of houses! High Quality Life label

I’d actually prefer dark, rich chocolate to give me a high-quality life, rather than Snickers. (Sign in my local Japanese/Chinese import store)

Quilted quilts_1

I sent out three quilts for quilting, and got them back in record time.

Quilted quilts_2

Now what will I do with them? I have to figure out how to trim them, and bind them with one working arm.

Time Marker for Surgery

Only now we’re almost at six weeks. I make these monthly time markers to send to my mother, to show her I’m still around. Still have the sling, still one-armed, but I’m trying to keep up with all the projects around here.

Happy Stitching!

tiny-nine-patches

Queen Bee for Gridsters 2019

February 1, 2019January 31, 2019 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

(see below for the winners of the Temperature Giveaway)

gridsters 500 with label

February is my month to be Queen Bee, a phrase I picked up from hanging-out-across-the-ocean with Susan of Patchwork and Play (she lives in Melbourne). I’ve gone through about a million different permutations, but in the end, I’m playing it safe and asking my beemates to build me a series of little houses, like the ones I saw as a teenager in the Daly City area, near San Francisco.

daly city

We’d drive up the newly built 280 freeway, look out through gaps in the trees and see the houses like zippers in the landscape.

dolores heights sf_2

There are lots of houses also in Dolores Heights.

IMG_6111 copy.jpg IMG_6096 copy.jpg

But the USA doesn’t have a lock on houses crammed together: the first photo with the red house was from one of the villages in Cinque Terre, and the one just above is Porto Venere, Italy.

Dubrovnik, Croatia.

little houses

We’ll see what my beemates come up with. I’ve mailed them all the pattern, and look forward to seeing their creations!

Thank you to all who entered the Giveaway for coldest and for hottest place you’ve ever been. I started out by reading all the coldest, then had to go and put on another sweater; so many referenced the brutal cold the Midwest is experiencing. Our hearts go out to you.

Although I was shivering by the time I finished Celia’s story of walking in the snow in ballet flats, the winner of the coldest packet is Susan Shaw, with her story of sledding with her brothers:

Coldest Day.png

I used to live in Wisconsin, and one summer we moved to Texas. The A/C broke and my children and I sweltered in 100+ hea for week. We’d gone from wearing our winter coats to the 4th of July parade to two weeks later, melting in the home.

So many of you had great “hottest” stories, but I totally related to Beth, who had to endure no A/C with all her little children:

Hottest Day.png

I hope you all stay warm…or cool, whatever the case may be! I’ll be in touch via email to notify the winners. Thank you all for entering!

Quilt Shows · Quilts

Prepping the Quilts 2018

December 18, 2018December 14, 2018 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Thank you all for the lovely words of encouragement you wrote in response to my last post. I’m making my way through them, and will answer them. However, everything I have done lately…is done lately.

Annularity_May 2018Labeled Northern Lights Medallion on bench

These two lovelies were juried into Road to California 2019, and so I spent a morning prepping them to head off:

Prepping for Road_1

Now you see the bit of errant blue quilting thread…

Prepping for Road_2

…and now you don’t… Prepping for Road_3

…thanks to these trusty friends. This is an old quilter’s trick, mentioned in several older books I have.

Names on labels are covered up. I also had to make sure my name and contact information are included on the quilt, and I do that in a label near the hanging sleeve, and that’s covered up, too.

Quilts into a clear plastic bag, into their box, and off to Road to California, not to be seen until January 2019, in the show!

Quilts

A Few Thoughts on A Year of Making Frivols

December 13, 2018November 24, 2018 Elizabeth E.20 Comments

My friend Simone asked me what I was going to do now that the Frivols were all finished. “What do you have planned for 2019?” she asked, oh so sweetly.

Let me review:
Elizabeth's Lollypop Tree Quilt_7

2011-2014 I worked on my Lollypop Trees quilt.

shinecirclesquilt_frontl
2014-2015 I worked on Shine: The Circles Quilt.

christmas-tree_5 halloween-1904_front 2016 I did not one, but TWO, Quilt-A-Longs (Halloween and Christmas).
2017 I had shoulder surgery and it seemed to be the year of small quilts.

Northern Lights Medallion_4
2018 was the year of the Frivols, plus the year of working in Painter’s Palette Solids.

And 2019?

It’s time for a bit of introspection and reflection here.

I am feeling a bit bereft because I feel like I have nothing in the pipeline, nothing in the brain for creativity. I see everyone’s IG feed, their blogs, I go to quilt shows and there’s just no sparking going on. Awol Erizku, a contemporary artist, titled one of his paintings “When You See Too Much, You See Nothing;” perhaps this is what’s happening here.

And so the “what now?” kind of morphs into “Nobody’s at Home in My Head” in spite of the fact that I have successfully slain the Frivols Tins that have been living rent-free in my closet for two years. I recognize that this “I-am-a-useless-cretin” thinking often crops up after an extended period of making, of pedal-to-the-metal.

I am happy that I finished my goal of making all those quilts, but really, I am mostly happy that I am finished with Frivols. It has been a year of learning, a year of exploring different palettes and fabric styles, but mostly, it has been a year of sewing someone else’s creativity and living in some else’s quilty head. That last part has been the hardest. I was pretty excited right off the bat to make these but after about the thousandth HST, or another tin of colored print fabrics to be augmented with a background of white…I had to dig deep to finish up this project.

It’s like when someone wants you to make them a quilt, and you agree, all the while thinking in your head I can do anything but one of those Star Wars panels, and then they show up at your house with Star Wars panels, it’s torture to get that quilt made. I wonder if this happens sometimes with our UFOs, if all of a sudden our interest or our tastes change, so what was once interesting, is now banal and you just can’t stand to work on it.

Frivols 12_12a

But I’m happy to be finished. I set a goal, I powered through it, and I appreciate all the cheering from my readers. You made a difference, as always.

I will donate some of these quilts to the Neonatal Quilt Project in our Guild and to the group that gives quilts to the foster kids who have aged out. I will gift a few more, and my favorites will live at our house.

Thank you all!

Frivols_all3 Frivols_all_12XDONEs