Quilts

Patchwork Blocks and Ennui

March 8, 2015 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

In a recent email exchange with my father, he mentioned the idea of ennui. It’s not quite boredom, nor fatigue. It is more of a lack of interest in what lays before you, a dis-interest, if you will. The dictionary goes one step further: “a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest.” We quilters often describe it as “lack of sewjo,” playing off that phrase of “lost my mojo,” which after reading about in Wikipedia, all I can say is I had no idea.

Of course, having a stack of grading doesn’t help the ennui, but with the students dropping like flies (long story) I had fewer to grade and they actually performed really well, so it went quickly. (Bad essays take longer to grade.)

And this lovely distraction also came for a couple of days while the family was moving between houses.

But as Susan of PatchworknPlay and I chatted on Instagram, I noted that sometimes just sewing a block or two can help beat the ennui. Here’s a new one from the ever-talented Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company, from her latest magazine BLOCK.

I get these every couple of months as I signed up for the subscription and I always enjoy reading them. At QuiltCon they gave us all a copy of MODBLOCK in our swag bags.

Here’s how you cut it. She has the measurements in her magazine. But when I posted it on IG, Krista of Poppyprint mentioned that at their guild sew day, lots of quilters were making the same thing into a star block. I found that tutorial online *here.*

Bird blocks which can be maddening, but also fun, once you get the hang of it. I’m using a tutorial for “free-form” birds from my friend Rhonda, which she gave out to her class. There’s also a tutorial online, which is much more orderly, and if you are into the cookie-cutter precision of paper-piecing, there’s also one of those.

The last block I made last night, while listening to my latest Inspector Gamache mystery, was this basket block, also shown at the top of the post. It was late and I was tired, knowing that I’d lose an extra hour of sleep due to the dreaded Daylight Savings Time switch (I need to live in Arizona where they never switch). I found *this tutorial* and modified it the measurements I needed, plus used extra leaves from the Pineapple Blocks quilt border (yes, still working on that) to fill the basket. I needed the block to measure 9″ finished. One detail is those lower snowball corner on the basket: they were 2″ squares that I snowballed on. The rest was done by cutting as I went, loosely following the tutorial.

This is why I’m making blocks to beat ennui. My Mid-Century Modern beemates sent me a whole wall of blocks in January, and I’ve been adding to them, having no plan, but only relaxing fun. I added the Disappearing Hourglass, the Dresden Plate, the basket, the birds and a couple of fillers. I’m still playing, still arranging. Happily, the ennui is slipping away.

Quilts

Traveling Threads Bee

March 5, 2015March 2, 2015 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

Megan (MegsinCali on IG) recently got together a new group to try a traveling bee. I’ve passed on these before, not trusting the universe — and other quilt makers — to execute my vision for my quilts. This time, however, I was finally ready to lark about and see what others will do with my initial idea.

And that was it: my only idea was to use Alison Glass’ line of prints, mixed with other prints. I knew I wanted a big block (above, taken from a vintage quilt book) to lead everything off, but then I had no idea past that. I needed other quilters to help this quilt along, so I jumped in, and am now so excited about the whole process.

Some talked about having a little book to go along with the quilt, so I put one together, complete with scraps of the cloth I was sending along, and the admonition of NO GRAY. Well, no medium gray. I hate what it does to quilts (washes it out, makes it blah), but I can handle light gray or charcoal. But that’s another subject for another time.

And then I laughed when I realized that two of the fabrics in Glass’ line are a dark charcoal. Oh well, let’s see what happens. I mixed in some more prints from other places, just for ideas or a resource.

And here it is–all packed up and ready to go (and sent!). I have a Pinterest site where I’ve gathered some ideas from here and there, but Traveling Quilt Bees are pretty rare, I’ve discovered. Round Robins, where a medallion quilt is created, are more popular, but I already have a medallion quilt or two, so I want that well-traveled look in this quilt top: an addition here, a block or four there, some flying geese strips — or not.

Our little group seems to gravitate towards Instagram with DM-ing each other, using the hashtag #travelingthreadsbee as the preferred way of communication. So look for us there!

Quilts

Post-QuiltCon Musings

February 25, 2015February 25, 2015 Elizabeth E.16 Comments

This was QuiltCon 2015.

No, wait. This was QuiltCon.

What was interesting was meeting people that had been 2D to me, through correspondence and jpeg images, and having them become 3D persons. I think that was my favorite part of QuiltCon, and as you know, the one keeping me up at night before I went.

As Leisa and I (lowerest left photo) walked into the Convention Center to register, the first person we met was Susan Katz from Southern California (photo just to the right of that). Then in the lowerest right photo, I met TaosSunflower. She was in line ahead of me and I put the description she’d given me in a 2D world together with the elegant, tall woman that I glimpsed, and asked her name. We left Flatland together and smiled and hugged and talked. I met her nearly every morning for breakfast, as she was staying in my hotel, and feel like I’ve deepened the friendship that we’d established through our correspondence. It was she who asked me one morning if I was almost through my “Flat Stanley phase.” I laughed out loud, for it was a perfect description of what I’d been doing.

The thing is that people whose books I’ve purchased, people I’ve been reading, people whose blogs I’ve commented on and whose bees I’ve joined were all so accessible. I’d never ask Alex Anderson or Ricky Tims (two traditional quilters) for a dual selfie, but I walked right up to Malka Dubrawsky and Heather Ross and asked them for one. . . and they happily smiled and posed.

I met other 2D quilters, and we again left Flatland as we figured out that we read each other on blogs, or knew of each other on Istagram.

Here are Cindy (LiveaColorfulLife), Anne (SpringLeaf Studios), me and Leisa.

The two tall women in the back are Nicole (MamaLovesQuilts) and Ginny (Minnowpeck). They are who I’d invited to lunch, along with the cute short quilter in the back, Christa (ChristaQuilts). I’d met Heidi (front left) in class on that first day, and I already knew Cindy (center).

That luncheon swelled to ten happy quilters.

And. . . this was QuiltCon.

I hadn’t seen many of the quilts from the 2013 version, and was curious at what was there, what was deemed to be “modern,” since no one really knows, or could seemingly articulate. I was happily surprised. I think we’ve all conquered the deconstructed Log Cabin or Square in a Square, as there were several of those, so it’s probably time to move on from that block. And I glimpsed another faction within this faction, shown in the photo above, as the modern-traditionalists are on one side of the floor, and the modern-moderns are on the other.

I’ve been putting the photos of the quilts up on my Instagram (button to the right), blowing up my children’s feeds in the process, and still have quite a few to post. But I wanted them up there for others who were in my position last time–so they could see the quilts that made it in. To be truthful, there were a few I would pull out and put in some of those QuiltCon rejects. (You know I’ll write about them in the days to come.) But for the most part, I was happy to see such fine quilts of such high quality.

This was QuiltCon.

This felt different than a “regular” quilt show, as there were many vendor booths with things to do, such as the Cotton and Steel Booth, above, where I sewed a patchworky square (okay–I confess–it was a wonky Log Cabin). They also had many “Demos”: half hour (or shorter) talks from Famous Quilters. Sometimes it was an out-and-out pitch for a product, but other times they talked about their process or their designs.

I enjoyed my classes, trying to find at least one thing that was new to me, and I really loved the lectures, proudly letting Bill Volkening know (he, of 1970s quilt-collection fame), that I made my first quilt in 1973, out of sheets, calicos and a poly-cotton blend solid. I still have that quilt (and perhaps moderns would like to know that even though I pressed the seams to one side, all the seams are now flat flat flat after so many years). I laughed and smiled through the Luke Haynes lecture (where someone really did ask him how often he changed his needle), and was fascinated by what Bill Kerr had to say about noticing details.

I met Claire, another digital pen-pal of mine and regretted terribly that I didn’t get a selfie of us together. Next time, Claire. Maybe even in Pasadena in 2016?

I realize that I may have participated in something that cannot ever be duplicated, as they are now splitting the convention into two geographical halves: Pasadena in 2016 and Savannah in 2017. And I’m a bit saddened by that. Austin is pretty darn perfect for this sort of thing, with good hotels with close proximity to the convention center, delicious food in the restaurants (we never ate the same place twice), terrific vendors and superb lighting for all the quilts. But it was the mix of quilters and Famous People who were happy to talk to you and visit with you that made it so enjoyable. I am looking forward to the West Coast version of QuiltCon in Pasadena, and maybe I’ll see more of you there.

Bring your buttons, and let’s trade. Let’s leave Flatland together!

Quilts

Sips and Gulps, Digital Style

February 17, 2015February 12, 2015 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

I’ve been preparing for my unit on Digital Media and how it affects our critical thinking, as that’s my students’ next paper. I’ve read a ton of articles, and read a lot about how relationships formed via the digital medium are different than those formed in person.

This has been on my mind because this week I’m headed to QuiltCon with my friend Leisa (our relationship formed in person). I will be meeting lots of “digital” friends — not that THEY are digital — but that our friendships were formed in bits and bytes of media exchanges, over Instagram, emails, blogs and Flickr.

In one part of the excellent video above, Turkle recounts being asked if all these little “sips” of interaction ever added up to a big gulp? She thought not. This has gotten me thinking about how we conduct our quilt conversations over the internet. I have some “sips” that have been converted into gulps. I talk often with Betty in Virginia, Cindy in Fresno, and Anne in Colorado and all were started by comments left on blogs, or by being together in an online group. I have others I converse with less, but still we have made the jump to real time, and gotten past the awkward moments. However the truth of it is that some sips can’t always convert to gulps.

I’ve put together a couple of meet-and-greets at QuiltCon. The first one I organized gave me a stomachache for a day, as I was so nervous and scared about making that jump. But we found a time to meet, to see each other, and I’ll just see what happens. It’s part of our culture, I think, that instead of names exchanged across a stamped-letter distance, creating a pen-pal relationship, we now form those loose ties over photos and quips and blogs and Facebook pages. Whether or not these sips will translate into gulps remains to be seen, but I’m looking forward to seeing if they can.