EPP: A Shared Gift

February 21, 2012 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Because I am a complete quilt dork, loving nearly all things quilting, I love looking at my very first completed English Paper Piecing (EPP) block. I love how I can use the fabric to make a secondary design. I love how I can sit and watch Downton Abbey or a movie or talk to my husband, and at the end I have another something to show for the time. I love how I learned it from Krista, and how she shared with me how to put it together, and how I went to other blogs and quilters and friends, enjoying the fruits of sharing from this community of quilters.

I suppose my enjoyment is kind of all stitched together with the trip to the surgeon’s office today, and when he said, “Have a nice life. You’re all done,” I thanked him, hopped off the table, got dressed and zipped out the door, with only a bandaid (instead of a bulky gauzy dressing) on the healing wound site. I called my husband to tell him the news as I sat in the parking lot. I know I’m an easy-to-cry person so I wasn’t too surprised by the tears that followed, streaming down my face as I sat there in the warm sunshine, thinking about my little journey of the last two-plus months, and getting that advice from the doctor.

So, I pass it on to you. Have a nice life. Finger some cloth. Sit in the warm sunshine for a few minutes. Enjoy those skills that you are developing, or have developed, in making something of yourself to leave behind if the have-a-nice-life line doesn’t materialize at the surgeon’s office, and you realize, like Sir Launfal, that all we ever have in this life is what we share. So, just today, I share my first EPP block with you on this very normal, this very poignant day.

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Lines from James Russell Lowell’s poem: “The Vision of Sir Launfal:”

Not that which we give, but what we share,–
For the gift without the giver is bare;
Who bestows himself with his alms feeds three,–
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.

(Presidents) Day in LA

February 18, 2012 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

My mother often says, “A change is as good as a rest,” meaning sometimes just getting out of the house and doing something different — a change — does a body good. So we took off early to LA, and while I didn’t really expect to do anything “quilty” I did run into several design things that made me think about quilts.

These screens are from the Japanese Pavillion, the light coming through the windows in soft waves of grays and silver. The whole pavillion is quiet and calm and filled with interesting angles and objects.

My husband and I also played hide and seek behind this giant stack of plates. I was talking to a friend the other day and said about all they could write on my tombstone for accomplishments is washing 1.4 million dishes in my lifetime. Some days don’t you feel invisible to the world? I do.

Then we enetered the Pacific Standard Time exhibit, where they had this fabulous Airstream trailer. Take It Easy, it says. Yep. I needed this day out.

Textiles were part of the modern design that was evolving mid-century.

Couldn’t you use this as a map for a quilt? Half-square triangles, 30/60 triangles, curvilinear shapes balanced against grids. Delicious.

This all-over textile is more interesting when you focus on the detail.

More half-square triangles. And dots.

This bathing suit is called Swoon. It was made during the war in 1942, as there was rationing on rubber. Which means: no elastic. So the designer used the laces to adjust the form to the wearer.

Here’s the exhibition tag. Given that so many quilters are swooning over the recent Swoon quilt block design out on the market right now, I loved the parallel names, although they are very different. Did you know that Catalina, another prominent swimsuit manufacturer was the original sponsor of the Miss America Pageant? Maybe that’s why they always had swimsuit competitions.

More swimsuits. Don’t you just love these? (And guess what we had later for lunch? Lobster rolls!! They had a series of food trucks parked outside in affiliation with the exhibit, and we ate at the Lobsta Truck.)

That wooden bench in the background is so intriguing with all its cutout wood pieces all fit together like a . . . quilt.

Yep. A hexagon barbeque pit.

Which leads me to this. My husband drove out to LA (it’s about an hour from our house on a good day with no traffic) and I was able to stitch on my rose window block–hexagons! Sometime I’ll have to get a good shot outside so you can see the colors. I’ve only made one mistake in putting pieces together, which is okay with me.

So, I had a change. Which is as good as a rest. I’ve ignored the grading in the briefcase because it’s a holiday and I’ll have an extra day to get it done. I’m off now to cut another rose window hexagon–I want to be sure and something to stitch on for Downton Abby tomorrow night!

Happy Presidents’ Day Weekend!

Quilt Shows · Something to Think About

Road to California–In Perfect Harmony

February 6, 2012February 18, 2012 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

I’d Like to Teach the World the Quilt in Perfect Harmony
Bert Garino, Florida

Before I get to the wonderful quilt above, made by a friend of mine, I’ve had some interesting responses on my posts about Road. I hope I made it clear I was not denigrating any of the quilters who made the snazzle-dazzle quilts. They’ve spent hours and hours on their creations and while I may moan about the proliferation of these types of quilts at this particular show, my observations should in no way imply that their quilts are deficient in any way.

Bert notes that: “Bling” was the keyword for winners at Houston this year too. I find it interesting that so many of the prizewinning quilts show up at so many different shows. It seems to be a business for the winners, and the rest of us lifelong quilters just go to see what they have come up with each year. I’ve been a “quilt angel” in Houston the last few years, and so I got to hear a lot of comments from quilt viewers. It seems that a lot of the quilts are more intimidating than inspirational to a lot of quilters.

Rachel says: I think your observations have really been spot on. Perhaps the reason we are more inspired by the vendors is because they are making/selling the kinds of quilts we want to make. I’ve noticed the trend toward show quilts.

Kris made the comment that: I agree that show quilting has gone to a whole different level, but I think that it is worth mentioning that the “bling” quilts you are showing were designed for the art or non-traditional innovative quilting categories. They were specifically not made as traditional quilts and as such really can’t be compared to them.

Now back to this quilt.

Bert Garino, who served as President of the Mt. Vernon chapter of the Quilters Unlimited Guild in Virigina (a HUGE guild of 11 chapters) shortly after I left DC, made this quilt for the guild’s quilt show in February 2009, where the challenge was “All the World’s a Stage.” She says that she “loved this little quilt so much, I thought more folks should see the message written on it,” and she enetered it into Houston where it was juried it as “Art – Whimisical.”

“The letters written across the earth were done with a permanent pen, and then I quilted around each of the letters. The legs, arms and quilts were done with fabric pens. Each of the little quilts was then quilted individually before being appliqued to their little person in the larger quilt. On the sun I trapunto-ed the Chinese symbols for harmony and the doves flying in the sky are carrying various thread bits. The quilt was made to bring a smile to people’s faces and to share in the joy of each quilt maker’s journey.”

Bert writes “It just smiled on the wall hanging amidst all these ‘thousands of work hour’ quilts, wondering how it got there. I think we all need to just enjoy the art and hard work of all the quilters, and know that we all have our favorites that we would like to emulate. For me, the favorite quilts that I’ve made have been given to soldiers returning from Iraq, families in shelters or given to new babies, family and loved ones.”

Thanks, Bert. Sometimes we get all wrapped up in the business of quilting, that we forget its origins as a necessity, as well as a way for early quilters to express some of their creativity. I love that Bert sent me these pictures and the last one with her radiant smile helps me to remember why I quilt.

Happy Quilting!

Happy Old Year Ending (Wrap-up) · Something to Think About

Happy New Year 2012: List of Plans

December 31, 2011December 28, 2024 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I figure if January was the only time I turned over a new leaf, I’d be in trouble. I like to think about things in a new way all the time, which gives to a very big habit of blog strolling to see what other new things are out there. Or like my daughter said to me today, “Now that you’re still convalescing from your surgery, it’s time to do Pinterest!” I think that might be a hole I’d never climb out of as it would be way too alluring.

But January is my birthday month (as an adult, as a mother, you are allowed a whole month) so I would like to Make Some Plans. Not resolutions. For if these plans don’t come to fruition, my pride won’t be wounded. Like those stand-by passengers on airplanes today, any unfinished plans will just be carried forward to the next List of Plans.

Some Quilting Plans for 2012

1. Make some Cross-X Blocks. I want to do wordy fabrics in the backgrounds somewhere, in order to take advantage of my stash of wordy fabrics. (Photo from janejellyby.)

2. Basket Blocks. I collected, in my earlier days, an entire group of food fabrics. (That’s the first batch of selvages I cut off and sent to Cindy of Live a Colorful Life.) My goal has always been to make a quilt of basket blocks with these fabrics. (Photo from Gray Cat Quilts.)

3. Get back to work on my Lollypop Tree blocks. I started them last year, and should have followed the advice I saw on several blogs, which was to lay out all the fabrics for each block all at once. Then I could be sewing them all year long.

4. Get the borders on this harvest/autumn quilt before autumn comes again. I need need need to get that stack of fabrics tucked back up on the shelves and I won’t as long as the border isn’t on this one. Like most things quilty, I am over-thinking these borders, but I don’t feel like a plain 4″ all around would suit this quilt.

5. Play around with the QR code quilt idea. Don’t know if it will pan out into anything, but I just like thinking about it.

5. Spend the Fat Quarter Shop Gift Certificate my son and his wife gave me for Christmas. I have this in mind, although any colorway will do:

6. Leave time to quilt and listen to audio books in between work (grading & teaching), church service, spending time with friends and family. I read a piece by Pico Iyer today in the New York Times and he talked about the necessity for quiet space, free from distractions, away from the constant flow of noise and information. I think many of us struggle with the demands of the things I’ve listed above, plus trying to be a thoughtful and interesting blogger as well as a good member of the blogging community, in responding to our favorite blogs.

It sometimes can be too much, can’t it? When this happens, I try to get around to comment on those bloggers who I have a special connection to, whose ideas have really sparked me to be a better quilter. I also try to include a few new ones occasionally in order to keep my ideas fresh, and to sample what’s out there. I can’t comment on everyone’s blog, although at times I have left the quilting behind in order to attend to the rigors of commenting. Not a good trade-off, as the comments get more and more brief and tend to be “drive-by” blurbs that don’t really show my appreciation for what I’m reading, and for the creativity I do want to notice, and to allow me to create my own online community with those who interact with what I’m doing.

It’s a balance, and Iyer quotes Marshall McLuhan: “When things come at you very fast, naturally you lose touch with yourself.” Here’s hoping this new year allows us all to enjoy the fruits of our labors, allowing us to fully reconnect with who we are in the process of quilting.

Happy New Year!