Rose Window • Four-in-Art Quilt

August 1, 2017August 1, 2017 Elizabeth E.18 Comments

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It’s Four-in-Art Challenge Reveal day today, the penultimate challenge in 2017. We began this art mini-quilt group in November of 2012, and we are in our fifth year. Bette, Rachel and I have been with the group since the beginning, with additions and changes here and there. It’s been wonderful to have this to look forward to four times a year, a chance to stretch and try some new things, all contained in a mini-quilt (we are more flexible with the size now, but originally, it had to be contained in a 12″ square).

Rose Window_front

Rose Window
13 1/2″ wide by 18″ long
Quilt Number 185

Since I chose the challenge of Stained Glass Shadows, obviously I’m in love with the highly saturated blocks of color left on the floors of cathedrals and churches when the sun shines through stained glass windows. I originally thought I’d try some figurative work, but the colors are what always catch my eye.

So I began with the warm tones, adding the layers of earth-colors as they moved toward the bottom, and celestial-colors as it moved upward.

I also knew that somewhere on this quilt there had to be a Rose Window, that enormous circular window high above entryway doors.

Then it was quilt the background, and I went with the idea of the rose window as the center, with thread-streams of color coming out from there: navy and deep colors from the top and the warmer yellow-orange-red tones as the sun filters downward through the stained glass. My solid fabrics are Paintbrush Studio Solids, and the thread is Magnifico by Superior Threads (with Bottom Line in the bobbin) with some So Fine here and there, as the color dictated.

Details of Rose Window quilting.

Rose Window_back

Back of quilt, with standard label, and added corners for easy hanging.

Rose Window_front

Please visit the others in our Four-in-Art group, and see how they interpreted the Challenge of Stained Glass Shadows:

Betty Blogpost on Four-in-Art

Camilla http://faffling.blogspot.co.nz/

Catherine http://www.knottedcotton.com

Janine http://www.rainbowhare.com

Nancy http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com

Rachel http://www.rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com

Simone http://quiltalicious.blogspot.com

All of our blocks are on our blog, Four-in-Art.

Our next challenge is Illumination, and will post on November 1st.

stainedglassshadow_8 — National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.

Mucha_Prague — Stained glass window from Prague Cathedral, by Edward Mucha

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July’s Gridster Bee Block

July 24, 2017July 27, 2017 Elizabeth E.18 Comments

Here’s the block I made for the July Gridster Bee, for Carol. It was a fun make, made easy by this tutorial from Sara Noda. (She also has a blog post on her completed flag quilt.)

I also dragged out my hexagon quilt, and got started again. Here is Rosette #7, isolated (above), and below as it looks sewn into the quilt. I took the blocks and quilt rosettes with me on our recent family trip — since we had a lot of driving time — and was able to get the rosettes sewn together and one more completed.I’ve totally revamped Rosette #8, because frankly, everyone on the Facebook page was having real troubles with it, so I thought I would have a go at creating my own hexie arrangement. I’m choosing fabrics for it now.

I also picked my classes for Road to California 2018 (above)…

…and my classes for QuiltCon 2018, too. Anyone else going? Are we in the same classes?

And in case you think you only need fabric to create quilt patters, Sabrina Gschwandertner acquired a collection of old instructional films on the textile arts and has been creating quilt works of art. I will spare you the mumbo-jumbo about quilting from the LA Times, but here’s the article if you want to read it.

Film Quilt2 — *(PS Ignore the random “A” up on the right side)*

I actually wanted to see the movies, after reading about her and seeing images of her work. Now it is lost forever. Will we feel that way about the millions of YouTube videos? I doubt it. There is something about the tangible presence of film being cut up, the scarcity of that resource being destroyed to begin again. But I do like looking at her works. If you are in LA, the article has info about how to see this in the gallery, but the show closes soon.

And today is six months since my shoulder surgery. I’ve seen the surgeon for the last time, finished my formal PT. Now just the challenge of walking, getting back into some semblance of shape after sitting around, and doing the PT exercises on my own.

LASTLY, thanks to all who entered the OPQuilt Summer Book Giveaway (snazzy title, don’t you think?).

Here’s another:

Amy Friend’s Intentional Piecing, a look at using fussy-cutting to make spectacular quilts. She has a range of stellar projects, plus some fun paper-piecing designs to sew into various quilts and hand-mades. It’s signed by the author.

Again–leave a comment letting me know if you are interested in receiving this book in the giveaway. I’ll notify the winner by email.

Update: Roxanne was our winner from the last giveaway. Thanks again for all who entered!

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Quilts

Time for Refueling

July 7, 2017July 4, 2017 Elizabeth E.20 Comments

I’m Elizabeth, the girl behind the pump that fuels this blog.
I’m a quilter, mother, grandmother, wife, reader, writer, cook, housecleaner, recent PT-goer, free-motion-quilter. My driver’s license lies about my weight, my age, and how I look, for I’m really a care-free sylph of a girl, who really just wants to have fun.
This is me on a good day.

Other days, I’m just trying to be a maker, in between keeping the station running.

But it is time for some refueling. Time to break away from social media, writing, cleaning, cooking, stitching……time to fill up the creative tank……and look under the hood.

I’m off to get some Signal Lubrication, a check of the whitewalls,
and to sit on the back of a convertible without seatbelts (how did they ever get away with this?)
I’ll be back!

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Quilts

Happy Fourth of July • 2017!!

July 4, 2017July 4, 2017 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

Flag Washington Monumnet — Washington Monument

Happy Fourth of July!

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A long time ago I lived in Washington, DC for a year, and our quilt guild (Mt. Vernon, a chapter of Quilts Unlimited of Virginia) was pretty active. We met in the community center, next door to the Variety Store (which had great fabrics) and someone organized a tour to the Smithsonian quilt archives in the National History Museum.

They took us downstairs into a room with tons of these large, flat drawers, and a docent pulled them out one-by-one to show us these historical quilts. This was in the days before our phone cameras, which take great photos effortlessly, so many of my photos are sub-standard. But a few fun things stood out for me, from that tour.

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Gloriously colored applique, using ombre-shaded fabrics.

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The teensiest logs in this stellar Log Cabin quilt (the use of the plaids interspersed with solids and other plaids is brilliant, I think).

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Stars that are each their own character.

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And this quilt, which looked like it was English paper-pieced out of felt, but it was wool from Civil War uniforms, carefully cut and pieced, and made by a soldier. SmithsonianQlt_4 SmithsonianQlt_4a