Quilts

Sentimental Journey: Bee Blocks for the Mid-Century Modern Bee, part 1

May 11, 2015August 5, 2015 Elizabeth E.17 Comments

Cindy, of LiveAColorfulLife, called me up one day and said she had a great idea and a great name for a bee: Mid-Century Modern Bee, and that everyone had to be at least mid-century in age. Maybe it was the exasperation I felt that all the newbies were claiming invention of tried and true blocks and methods, or that I was ready for another bee, or that Cindy’s charm could not be turned down, but I jumped at the chance to be a part of this new group. We’ve been going strong for three years, so I’m dividing this post into parts, and am grouping them by the participant, rather than going through the calendar years. We now have a blog, courtesy of Susan and PatchnPlay, so I guess you could say we are all grown up. I wanted a place where all our blocks, quilts, and tutorials could be listed; you’ll find links to many tutorials of these blocks, so have fun browsing. The first project we did was Carla’s Church Dash quilt, with the tutorial found *here.* The next year, Carla (Lollyquiltz) had us make another block churn dash block for her, and the beautiful quilt above is the result. Carla is still working on this year’s batch of blocks, a birthday cake block using *this* tutorial. This bee also does signature blocks, which I love, and you can see the array at the top of her pin wall. My birthday cake block is the blueberry with mint filling, as one of the fun things she had us do was list what “kind” of cake we would make for her. If you use the tutorial, remember to set your print scaling settings at 100% so your block will be 12″ square. Cindy thought for her first turn, she would do the Winged Square Block with the tutorial found *here.* When I sent around the letter asking for photos of blocks/quilt tops/quilts, she sent me a photo of all the blocks together. For her second round, she fell in love with Rene’s spiderweb block (another member in our bee) and decided she wanted one too. This became common–we are so well matched that we borrow ideas for each other regularly, tweaking them slightly. We used *this tutorial* for these blocks. Using *this* tutorial, and again borrowing from Rene’, Cindy went with a rainbow Dresden plate, with a black and white center. Unlike the Always Bee Learning Bee, we make from our stash, not sending out fabrics to each other. It is fun to see how many of us have the same fabrics. Her last request was matched by another bee she is participating in, so her design wall was flooded with circles. Debbie, of A Quilter’s Table, asked for a variation of the Hugs and Kisses Block, but done in soft hues and colors (aka “Low Volume”). Her stunning completed quilt, above, titled Common Affection, has gone on to be published and to win ribbons. I love that blue wall, as it really shows off the low volume fabric choices. Debbie’s next block (in 2014) was a pair of rolling diamond blocks, from *this tutorial.* Here’s her completed quilt, Vivid, adding a few more to round out the original collection.Rene’ of Rene Creates, and who inspires many of us with choosing blocks, asked us for a spiderweb block (tutorial link found above), but in scrappy fabrics. She made this cool quilt with the colors moving all around–a real scrappy treat. She took it with her when the family did Christmas photographs together; I love the setting. Her 2014 block was this cool-in-blues-and-greens Dresden block (tutorial listed above). She laid them all out on her bed to show us how they look together. Because of different printing sizes, they range from smaller to larger. She plans to place them scattered across a solid background for her quilt. Deborah, Simply Miss Luella, asked for house blocks, and here are a few. Mine is in the upper left; link to the blog post about it, with the pattern is *here.* You can find her on Instagram. I made this house for Linda, drawing from my collection of free house patterns that I had worked up for my in-town sewing group. The reason she asked for houses, is that her house burnt to the ground, and she lost everything shortly before Thanksgiving of the year she was with our group. We all made houses, our hearts going out to her as she worked hard to rebuild her life. (to be continued)

Quilts

Sentimental Journey: Bee Blocks for Always Bee Learning

May 7, 2015July 28, 2015 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

I saw a notice on IG one day, with Megan saying that she had room for another participant in her bee. I jumped at the chance to be with such illustrious quilters, and they gracefully accepted this newbie. This bee sent out their fabrics to everyone, so we would get a little packet of fabrics with directions, then we’d sew it together and send it back. Only once did I worry about running out of fabric, and once, when I screwed up a block, I was relieved that I had similar fabric in my stash.

I grow rather attached to the bee blocks I make, even the ones that give me fits. I always feel badly when the blocks aren’t just so, and given the number of notes I’ve received on my bee blocks from others saying the same thing, I know I’m in good company. So I got to wondering one day: what ever happened to the bee blocks I’ve made? I sent out emails and I’m happy to show you what I’ve received in return. If they recipient hadn’t made it up into a quilt, that was not a problem; some sent a picture of a grouping of blocks. If that wasn’t sent, no big deal. I guess I just wanted a final wrap-up post about my time with this bee. This bee was on their third year, so it disbanded after my final block, but it was fun bee-ing in their company.

The following blocks/quilts are in no particular order:

We made ogee blocks for Mary’s turn. One of the hallmarks of this bee was to always be learning, so a lot of new techniques were tried. This one was curves in a Drunkard’s Path block, that when assembled makes an Ogee Block.

This was the first set I made, and Megan requested arrow blocks that turned every which way.

Hettie sent us directions for Hobo Quilt Blocks, and everyone’s was different; it was to be a quilt for her sister, who was graduating with a PhD.

Toni’s Christmas spiderweb blocks were really fun to make, and I love the fun holiday quilt that came from hers and our efforts.

Celeste added to what we sent of Bonnie Hunter’s Boxy Stars, and made two quilts for charity.

Kristina asked for Sparkler Blocks, a pattern by Lee Heinrich.

Debbie sent us the link to make these half-square rectangles, and turned them all on their sides to make her Ziggity-Zag Quilt. This was a good challenge to make sure the angles went the right way.

Leanne walked us through making perfect points for her Ocean Waves block. I didn’t get all of them perfect, but her finished flimsy is wonderful.

And here is her finished quilt, titled Winter.

Anything that Stephanie conjures up is going to be great, and although I fretted over these blocks (as I worried about running out of fabric and really worried that my finished product was only “pretty good” in my estimation), I love her finished quilt, titled One of these blocks is not like the others.

Marci’s Modern Maples were fun and fast, with interesting fabrics.

The last bee blocks in this lineup are Michonne’s. The lovely story about this is after I sent around the emails last month, asking for photos of either the blocks together or a the quilt/top, she hurried and finished hers so I could post it here with the rest; it looks terrific! And what did these beemates make for me?

Pineapple blocks.

I really enjoyed seeing all these blocks and quilts together. Thank you everyone!

Quilts

[in Just-], Deconstructed

May 3, 2015April 30, 2015 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Yesterday, I revealed my quarterly art quilt challenge, and as is my usual, this post is about some of the how-to’s.

When trying to think about how to illustrate this poem, I kept thinking of all the pictures I’d taken in Washington DC during cherry blossom season and was thinking that they might work for this. I first searched for a picture of a balloon seller, and found an illustration from what looked to be c. 1950s, perfect for I wanted–a nice, clean interpretation.

This is a composite of several photos; I added in the balloon man last. I saved all this (multiple times) and then started to prepare my fabric. I wanted to use the Bubble Jet Set again, like I did for an earlier art quilt (more info *here*), so soaked my Kona white squares and hung them to dry.

I ironed them to freezer paper, then tried to feed them through the printer just as they were.

Fail.

So this time I trimmed down the edges and taped it to a piece of cardstock on three edges and then fed it through the printer (I have a flow-through feed path, but I have done in those printers that do a U-turn). Success. I didn’t care that the image was a bit wider and spilled out onto the tape, as I knew I was going to sew fabric strips around the edges. I let it sit for 30 minutes.

The other part of using Bubble Jet is to rinse the printed fabric in their Bubble Jet Set, so after waiting the allotted amount of time, I rinsed the printed images, and hung them to dry (below).

I’d printed two different versions of the balloon man. One with all full-out color everywhere, and one where I had lightened the background by about 30% to let the man and the children pop out a bit more. That one worked best for fabric.

On the screen, they don’t look too different (lighter background is on the right). But my husband said the full-color print was “all a bit much,” language for toning down one part of the picture so that the other could shine. He liked the difference.

I cut the strips 1 1/4″ wide as I wanted a narrow range of gradated colors.

Strips on. I made it a wee bit bigger than our 12″ so when I sew all four of these together at the end, I’ll have room to maneuver.

I drew out the balloons on some waxie paper squares that they use in delis. I’d purchased a big box ages ago and I use them to try out quilting ideas.

I tried drawing it on with a white pencil, but it didn’t show very well, so I just pinned on the waxie paper, and kept flipping it back and forth.

If you read the post about the quilt and the meanings of the motifs, you’ll know why these balloons are here.

I like to attach the label before the reveal date. On this day, my father was going into surgery for a broken hip. He fell when he was hanging a painting in his art studio. Did I mention that he’ll be 90 in December, and is still a source of inspiration for me–still going down to his studio to paint daily? But today, while I thought about him, I couldn’t make the labels at all–something I usually can do in my sleep. The middle shows the label. . . printed on the freezer paper backing. Next. The righthand side shows the label when I forgot to print only the first page, plus I obviously put the fabric down too low and it printed partially on the masking tape. I finally got it the third time. He had his surgery, and is fine, but to say I was feeling a wee bit distracted and out of sorts would be an understatement.

Now I’m thinking that the other quilt needs to be spiffed up with a photo or two. I need to get those woods darker and deeper, but will have to think about how to do this.

I always enjoy trying to interpret a theme or an idea in these little quilts, but there are some days I approach the task kicking and screaming. It’s always soooo much easier to just pick up a block or two, start whacking away with my rotary cutter and tada! a stack of blocks is sewn and done. It is harder to take the time to think about what I want to say and how to say it. It’s on days like that I’m keenly aware that I’m not an fine arts artist like my sister Christine, or my father.

However, I’m my own kind of quilt artist, and I choose to keep doing these little art quilts because it stretches my brain and pushes me to explore new techniques. Everyone has to find a way to keep growing in their quilting, otherwise we become stagnant and stale and slip out of the conversation. For me, this is one way to remain in the stream of creativity, and I’m always glad to have these art quilt challenges come around again.

Many thanks to the other quilt artists who participate–they inspire me!

Quilts

[in Just-], a Four-in-Art Quilt

May 1, 2015May 1, 2015 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

For those of you who are avid English Paper-Piecers and are new followers, welcome!

[in Just-]
#2 in the Literature Series
Quilt #147

Continuing our theme of literature and my personal love of poetry, this is the second in a series of four art quilts for this year, a collaborative effort by the Four-in-Art Quilters, a name chosen because we do four small (12″ square) art quilts per year. For this quarter, I chose e.e. cummings’ poem “[in Just-],” a poem about a balloon man selling balloons in Spring. I’m also following a seasonal theme, as the last art quilt focused on Winter.

e.e. cummings’ poem appears on the surface to be a simple sensory poem about “when the world is puddle-wonderful” and “bettyandisbel come dancing / from hop-scotch and jump-rope.” It’s a world where the wonders of childhood dominate, from mud, “piracies” and “marbles” to the sight of a balloon man with his wares to sell to the children.

But in the last stanza of the poem, the capitalization and descriptions change. The “old balloonman” becomes the “goat-footed balloonMan,” with his whistling pipes and inferences of Pan, a somewhat lascivious ancient god who is half goat, but has the reputation of pursuing the women. Suddenly the poem changes, the games of childhood left behind as Pan brings different games to “eddieandbill” and “bettyandisbel,” games from which they will never stop playing.

(detail of center panel)

When this version is presented by my students to the group (they each have to choose a poem, analyze it and present it), there are some groans, as in, “can’t this just be about balloons and spring and mud and marbles?” Yes, it can. But perhaps e.e. cummings is trying to have us look at two spheres at once: childhood and adulthood, and that razor-thin edge where we cross over from one into another. We then have an interesting discussion (all very G-rated) about when they felt they crossed the dividing line from childhood to adulthood, and the answers vary from when I got my driver’s license, to when I first kissed a boy, to when someone left home, to when they had their first jobs and bills and live-in girlfriends. And so it goes. The balloons of childhood escape from our hands into the heavens, and we can never get them back.

I plan to join all the quilts together when I’m finished; here are the two I’ve completed thus far.

I can’t believe I left off the author’s name, so I hand-wrote it in. There will be a final label when all the four quilts from this series are joined, so I’m just not going to worry about redoing it right now. The “Deconstruction Post” will be next, with some info about how I made this quilt.