Happy August 2019 • This and That

August 16, 2019 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

When I looked outside in my garden today, the zucchini plant had wilted from the heat, mirroring how I felt inside. However, unlike my spectacularly unproductive zucchini plant [we’ve only had ONE], I’ve been pretty productive. Just not on quilts.

I’ve been working on prepping my upcoming Guild Workshops, getting the kits together (in wax paper bags instead of plastic, given my attempt to cut down on plastic where I can), and cute touches like place cards, so I know whose spot is whose once the class gets going.

Spectrum Pattern Revise — *The pattern cover with thumbnails showing the pattern pages and revisions. Now it’s a pretty good guide to EPP.*

I also revised a couple of patterns, the first one being Spectrum. Inland Empire Quilters Guild contacted me for a program for their evening meeting, then they got together a group of women for a workshop who wanted to learn English Paper Piecing. So I changed some things up in the pattern, added more content, and put it back up for sale up on PayHip.

EPP Spectrum Bag

One thing I made for a sample was this tote bag, splitting the main pattern in half and placing it on either side of the bag. I wanted to show that a person can do more with a pattern than simply make a quilt. That version of Spectrum is one of the variations in the pattern (bag pattern not included; I used the one in the October 2019 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting by Kristyne Czepuryk).

Kansas Sunflower Minimini

I also made a mini-mini to show them how to do the basics. I’ll be passing out this pattern for a Kansas Sunflower block in class, show how to “batch-cut” pieces, glue and prep them. They can then move on to Spectrum, or stay sewing up their mini-mini. We’ll also do one hexie flower, because what’s a class in EPP without a hexie flower?

Hexie Flowers July 2018 — (We’ll only do one; these are from my Field Flowers quilt.)

Merrion Square Pattern Revise

Another class I have coming up is Merrion Square and Far Away Doors, teaching it for the Pass Patchers Quilt Guild nearby. For ages, I’d hand out the instruction sheet to Far Away Doors when the class was taught, but adding it to the original Merrion Square pattern was one of the revisions I wanted to make, in order to get all the variations in one place. I took it offline, revised it, and now it’s back up for sale on PayHip, if you want all three versions in one pattern. [Note: If you’ve purchased Merrion Square and haven’t received Far Away Doors from me in a workshop, please contact me and I’ll get it out to you. Proof of purchase is required.]

Of course, all this is made easier by the fact that I’m getting the hang of the three pieces of Affinity Serif software that I purchased last fall: Affinity Photo (replacing Adobe’s Photoshop), Affinity Designer (replacing Illustrator) and Affinity Publisher (instead of InDesign). I’m getting quicker at each one, knowing where the tools are and how to use them.

Low Sugar Strawberry Jam

I also made three batches of low-sugar strawberry jam, after I tasted Laurel’s. Laurel and her husband grow their own strawberries, but the ones from the market in our neighboring town worked well for us. To go with it, I made a batch of zucchini bread with cranberries and left out half the flour (!).

My saintly husband declared it just fine, and takes chunks of this incredibly dense bread in his lunch every day. He makes me look good, even on my very bad days (of fighting asthma), wilting in the heat (like the zucchini plants outside), and trying to get all the guild workshop stuff lined up from here to eternity. I have to remind myself to take it one Guild and a time, and enjoy the process, which I genuinely do.

I finished The Night Tiger (I can recommend highly) and have started Little Fires Everywhere (so far enjoying it, but don’t give a recommendation until I finish).

I decided I was done waiting to start on this Halloween Banner project. I layered the panel (if your store doesn’t carry it, it’s available here), quilted it, and cut out the flags. I cut 1-1/4″ strips of stripey fabric from this line (called Costumer’s Ball by J. Wecker Frisch) cutting it across the stripe and bound the edges of the flags, sewing the strips first to one side of the flag, then the other. After trimming the bottom edge, I folded it up and glued it all down with my trusty friend, a regular old gluestick. Then I pressed and folded in the binding on the sides, again using my gluestick to keep it in place. (Be sure to press after gluing in order to distribute the glue).

gluesticks — *Hit those back-to-school sales, people!*

I top-stitched down the striped binding, and am now waiting for the fabric to arrive to make the top part so I can get the banners all ready for October 1st.

August Gridsters_2019 trees

Lastly, I finished up August’s bee blocks for the Gridster Bee, using an original pattern designed by my talented beemate Kelley. She’s getting ready for Christmas early!

I think my holidays are all mixed up, because I’m working on Christmas blocks, Halloween Banners, and my Fourth of July quilt just came back from the longarmer, needing binding. I hope you are able to keep your days and events and sewing projects straight. Happy Quilting!

Free Quilt Pattern · Gridsters · Quilt Bee · This-and-That

Wonky Hearts Aflutter

July 25, 2019December 1, 2024 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

How do I make nearly 60 wonky, improv-y hearts and not go crazy? Now there’s a challenge.

I started here, with a rough pattern of how big I wanted my “improv” wonky heart to be. The free PDF file is available for download. It finishes roughly at 5 1/2″ wide by 7 1/2″ tall.

Click here: Unfussy Wonky Heart

I started with the heart pieces. I layered up seven pieces of different pink and red fabrics, pinned on the heart pieces and placing my ruler along their outer edge, I cut around them with a rotary cutter: it wouldn’t really matter if I was hyper-accurate…close enough would do. I repeated this nine times.

Then I did the same thing with the background pieces, but was careful with my directional fabrics: I kept the pieces oriented as they would sew into the heart block.

Everything’s stacked up.

Word Quilt in Process — These photos were taken over two weeks’ time, as I tried to fit all the words together. Words were made in The Spelling Bee, from 2016.

I shuffled the fabrics so no two fabrics would be together, and made a sample heart (at the top of the post). I pinned it next to the quilt of words I’d been working on, closed up the machine, turned off the iron, and enjoyed the sunset:

When I woke up in the morning, I decided to try a digital mock-up of the quilt with the hearts as a border, as I wondered if the hearts were too big. I sent the photo to my two of my quilting buddies and they gave me two thumbs’ up. I’ll probably try to sneak in a narrow red/pink border between the quilt center and the outer border of hearts.

I’ve become braver about being wonky and improv-like, skewing seams, overlapping, cutting off points, generally going at it easy, instead of pristine.

I have a few more hearts, now, and while the widths vary from 5 1/4″ to 5 1/2″ (I just trim them where it feels right), I’m forcing them to 7 1/2″ tall (that’s before seaming). Because I am tired of cutting off the points, I’ll now be cutting about 1/2″ off the bottom heart section before I seam it to the top part.

This is one of two long-term UFOs that haunt me in my dreams. The other one is Small World, which I keep in parts in a basket in my shelves. I do have hopes on finishing that one, too. I signed up for a Jen Kingwell class at Road to California in January; I suppose one goal would be to have it finished so she could sign it? Right.

In other sewing news, I finished July’s Gridster Bee blocks for my beemate Linda and sent them off.

And I’m trying this new type of tomato, developed for scorching temperatures. This year we were almost chilly and foggy until June, then the temps shot up high. I haven’t had good luck with my garden in three years, after a stunning first year of beginner’s luck. But hope is a thing with feathers, said Emily Dickensen, or my case, tomatoes.

I’ve also started quilting City Streets, a quilt of my own design.

I’d picked up this Magnifico-cousin (same type of thread) when I visited Superior Threads last time. It’s color 101, and it looks like a gold thread, but isn’t a metallic thread:

I hope I don’t run out before I finish this quilt.

Finally, in my discussion about how the internet irritated me, I read a ton of blogs, some of which I can’t quite remember. But I did take a screen shot of this gem, a featured quilter on a truly dedicated quilter’s blog. (Given what he says about his favorite fabric color, I don’t think he would like my gold thread.) However, I leave you with the hope that you, too, have started quilting several times, as well as the ability to make the quilts in your head.

Books · This-and-That · Tiny Quilts

Happy July 2019 • This and That!

July 3, 2019January 11, 2026 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

In this episode of This-and-That posts, I wanted to lead off with a little freebie for your Fourth of July: the instructions for a Teeny Tiny Flag quilt. You can whip this up quickly, and it slips over a dimestore 4″ x 6″ acrylic frame. I made one recently for a friend in the hospital: no flowers or balloons were allowed. This brought some cheer to her stay as she loves red, white and blue.

I thought you might like the how-to’s, so download the PDF file (please re-download this new file–earlier this morning, there was a glitch):

Teeny Tiny Flag Quilt

I finished it off with some cute buttons. For more Tiny quilts (and Teeny-Tiny quilts), visit the Tiny Quilts tab, above.

Here’s a new favorite book of mine, Sunday Best Quilts, by Sherri L. McConnell and Corey Yoder. Sherri and I have been friends for a while ever since we shared English assignments for the classes we were teaching, at two different community colleges in two different states. I also appreciate her wonderful quilt designs, and have enjoyed her fabric lines (favorites are Bright Sun, Creekside and Front Porch).

I expect certain things out of books these days. I’ve stopped buying everything that’s new as I was pretty burned out with what I call “vanity” books — a famous quilter gets a book and really, it was nothing new under the sun. So now I am pretty selective about what I’ll add to my quilt library. The book has to have 1) a new way of looking at familiar quilts, 2) a thorough (but not mansplained) direction section, and 3) great photographs, plus 4) the writing has to be pristine and readable, no small feat.

This book fulfills all four of those criteria. If you are looking for a new book to add, I can recommend this one.

Truth.

So our Guild had a rummage sale this month, well, really it was a Clean-Out-The-President’s-Sewing-Room/Garage sale. Evidently people had been bringing her stuff for many years; husbands would call when their wives had moved to Assisted Living, and leftovers from classes all just sort of congregated in her garage. Time for it all to go.

I am always fascinated by what quilters used to do Back in the Day. Like these vests. Did we really a) have haircuts like that, and b) dress like this?

Another binder had templates with lots of code numbers on them, and then these illustrations. I loved “Home Grown” #8, and think it would make a great block in a quilt. No, I didn’t bring that one home.

But I felt like I scored with this box of “vintage” magazines (really, they are just 20-30 years old–how is that vintage?). I’d bought a few things here and there, stuffing my dollars in the Rummage Sale Jar, but at the end of the night, when so much was left, she said, “Take it all away!” So we did.

I wanted to post some construction images from Ladybird, the quilt from the last post. At this point I was thinking: what am I doing? This was the quilting after the first day. I threw it on the spare bed and left it there for two days.

Better.

In the end, I was pretty happy with it, finding lots of ways to be creative with mostly straight lines.

Finished this book. I loved it and I’m not a New Yorker.

I had wanted to leave you with my larger flag quilt, all quilted and bound, but it didn’t happen. So Happy Fourth of July, with a quilt top:

Long may it wave! (click to see it in action)

Quilts · This-and-That

January’s Odds-N-Ends

January 17, 2015December 28, 2024 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

One of the Christmas gifts I gave was a Snap Bag, which uses lengths of metal measuring tape to keep it closed. I had wanted to try these snap bags forever, so I bought a cheap-o metal tape measure in 3/4″ size (and also one in 1/2″ size) and went to town. It was really fun. One tutorial that I looked at was from Wilma’s World. But I tended to follow was Paulett’s at Sweet P Quilting and Creations, as she had placed batting in hers.

The one that that I found confusing was how to place the measuring tape. So here it the answer: like this: ) ( with the curvy sides towards each other. [NOT like this: ( )]

UPDATE: I was referred to the Gourmet Quilter’s video where she places the tape exactly opposite. Before trying to decide I’d read probably 20 tutorials on the web and watched a couple of videos and had tried to decipher it from that. Rose Smith has a video where she places it exactly opposite (like I’d done). However, I like how the one I made fits together, so I give up! Maybe it doesn’t matter which way you place it.

I put the little tabs there to help pull it open, but really, that measuring tape made it pretty hard to get open, so I just used my fingers. I wouldn’t use the 3/4″ tape on anything smaller than a finished size of 6″ by 9″ or thereabouts. Use the narrower 1/2″ tape. I expected it to be hard to cut with my old scissors from the kitchen drawer, but really it cuts easily, so I don’t think you need tin snips or anything heavy duty. DO use the tape on the ends (I used duct tape) to protect it from poking through.

This past summer my husband and I did some traveling to Croatia and we picked up a ton of postcards from the Naive Art Museum in Zagreb, Slovenia. He kept talking about trying to find a way to display them, so for Christmas I made him this bulletin board.

I went to my local hardware store and asked for “acoustic ceiling tiles,” when come as a unit of two. I cut it in half so I’d have two squares. How did I cut them? The man who helped me recommended a steak knife with serrated edges, but I found a linoleum blade on our work bench (it’s kind of like a Pirate’s Chest out there–you’ll never know what treasures you’ll find) and made that work. After cutting I sanded the edges to smooth out any bumps from the cutting, then hid one behind the laundry room shelves in case I needed to make him another (in case he didn’t like the fabric I chose).

I placed the ceiling tile face down on some batting, then tacked that in four places to keep it on. My husband’s favorite color is blue, and all the postcards had a bluey color in them (wonder why?) so I chose this muted leaf print. Really, the limiting factor was the colors of ribbon at JoAnn’s. You think it wouldn’t be that hard to go and get a couple of spools of ribbon, but those of you who have to shop there know it’s an Eye-Rolling Experience at best.

I had ironed the heck out of my fabric so it was flat flat flat, and then I began the process of stapling it down. I cut the batting out of the corners, then carefully folded and stapled the fabric down, trying to create the flattest corners I could.

I criss-crossed the ribbons at even intervals, stapling them down as I went. At the hardware store I had purchased some furniture tacks (or brads) and hammered them in where the ribbons crossed. On Christmas morning, I don’t think he was all that crazy about the color/fabric choices I’d made, so I showed him the extra and said when he decided what he really wanted, I’d make him another one. Within a week, he’d propped this up against the wall in his study, the postcards artfully arranged (better than I’d done, above). Within another week, it was propped up on his chest of drawers in our bathroom, where I thought it might go. He and I talk about it often, so I’m guessing it’s a keeper!

For those of you who are following the saga of my classroom, here is the new one. It’s dimmer than this photo shows, and is complete with a “stage” where I stand and blather on about Critical Thinking. It’s a step up from the old one, but still not as great as a regular classroom. And I had NINE students add on Wednesday. Nine. Where were all these students when everyone was registering before the semester started?

After Brenda commented on eating pineapple spears (last post about my pineapple quilt–I’ve got to get a name for that one), I found myself wandering the aisles of Trader Joe’s, looking for pineapple spears. Now if it would only help me finish that quilt.

I’m going to QuiltCon in a month (a MONTH!!) and I’d read about people and their buttons. So I worked up this incredibly ornate design with my magnificent Photoshop skills (*cough*) and sent it off to WackyButtons.com to make me some cute little one-inch buttons to trade. When I get them, I’ll figure out some giveaway so you can win one. In the meantime, I’m finishing up my next Circles Block post (which will be early) and hoping to finish up my still-to-be-started Four-in-Art quilt, although I do have a sketch. That’s progress!