Quilts

Cross-X Last Call

April 25, 2014April 18, 2014 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

Well, my Cross-X Friendship Swap partner has a new gig in town: she’s expecting a baby, and I’m more than happy for her! So, since we were so near our goal, we decided to do an all-call, last-call and finish up the swapping. Here are my last blocks that I sent to Krista, of Krista-Stitched. Three (above) and Four (below). And is the tradition of this swap, we do a blog post on the last Friday of the month about our swaps.

Here are the four in double-vision; all total for this swap: seven. We now have about 55 total blocks (she does the math, I don’t) and I’ll get them all out and arrange them and get them sewn together. She wrote and said a few more were en-route to me, so I’ll wait a bit before sewing it all together. It’s been a fun run at this, and thanks to Krista and our Flickr group, for giving me the motivation to make some Cross-X blocks!

Coming up soon is the quarterly reveal of our Four-in-Art Art Quilt Group. Our most recent theme is Urban, with the quarterly theme of Landmarks. The Big Reveal of all of our quilts is May 1st, next Friday. I’ve got my ideas and am working forward with them. Stop back then and take a look!

Quilts

Amish With a Twist II Update

April 23, 2014April 27, 2014 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

When I returned from our little visit to the East Coast, my quilter called me and said the Amish With a Twist-2 quilt was finished. I was really happy to jet over to her house and pick it up, and was really happy with the quilting. There was lots of discussion about what color of thread should be used on this quilt, if a person wasn’t going to pay to have it custom-quilted, and needed to travel over both the lights and the darks of the quilt top.

I was able to take my quilt top to the Superior Threads quilt booth at Road to California, and run about comparing threads. They told me that King Tut would sit on top, So Fine would sink a little deeper and that the very fine Bottom Line thread would almost disappear into the quilt. We unwrapped a billion thread cones (just kidding) and I finally chose this one: Blush.

In spite of its name, it is a coppery colored thread, and goes perfectly with this quilt. I still have oodles of thread left, so check with your long-armer on how much thread to buy. I know that Superior also has a thread app, available on the Apple iTunes store, that can calculate how much thread you’ll need to buy for your project. I figure I’m good for about a hundred years of needing copper-colored thread.

P.S. That wild Jane Sassaman fabric you see it the backing I chose.

P.P.S.S. I promise a picture when I’ve finished sewing on the miles and miles and miles of binding.

Quilts

Goals for Quarter2 of 2014

April 21, 2014April 18, 2014 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Okay, translation:

1. Finish Lollypop Trees quilt. I need to finish up the quilting, sew on the sleeve, label and binding. Still looking for a name.

2. Quilt the Sol Lewitt’s Quilting Basics quilt. I have no idea how to do this, or what to back it with, but I’m thinking some of that Charleston Farmhouse I picked up last week.

3. Bee Blocks for April, May and June. There’s obviously no illustration for May or June blocks because they haven’t come my way yet. But *here* are April’s.

4. Finish off my Colorwheel Blossom Quilt Top. I’ve got a couple of ideas on how to expand it slightly. Then, next, will come the headache of How Do I Quilt This? A happy headache.

5. Ongoing: Selvage Blocks. I have centers cut for white, followed by cream. From sunshiny brights to neutrals.

6. Cut out Mexican Quilt. I call it that because the fabric I’ve chosen has a lot of calaveras, motifs, and colors from south of the border.

7. Cut out Good Luck Quilt. When our area had it’s last quilter fun-run, I missed it, but was able to get some of the yardage to make a quilt. I’ve got it dreamed up, now just have to execute.

8. Finish the Amish With a Twist-II quilt. You know: binding, hand-sewing the binding down, sleeve and label.

9. I’ve also thrown on sewing three skirts. Fabric bought and pattern chosen. Motivation missing.

Of course all of this flies in the face of Derek Sivers’ TED talk: Those who announce their goals are less likely to finish them. Watch below.

What I do find is that when I’m brain dead and only want to do *nothing at all* having that list taped to the front of my fabric cabinet gives me a place to start.