WIP

My Small World, redux

September 10, 2019September 10, 2019 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

mysmallworld2019_1

It’s not often I get to have a re-do on Quilts-I-Once-Started-But-Abandoned, but there’s a fresh breeze in the air this fall, with another go-round of Jen Kingwell’s My Small World quilt. Paula James (@the_secret_sewer) and Nicola Kelly (@nicola_picola_) have joined forces under the IG banner of #mysmallworldsewcial on Instagram, getting us started and keeping us going until we all finish, some nine months later. The experts all say that we’ll agree to anything that has a finish date in the future because we think we have all the time in the world in the future. This proves it.

I love Paul’s opening line in her recent post: “Over 60 awesome quilting friends have foolishly offered to join Nicola and me in a special sewalong to create our very own #mysmallworldquilt by genius @jenkingwell.”

And Nicola writes: “The fabulous Paula and I were beyond inspired by Jen Kingwell’s #mysmallworldquilt at last weekend’s retreat that we decided to make one in our inimitable style! 😂. If you would like to join us in a friendly, motivational and slightly bonkers sew along we’d LOVE to have you onboard….Thank you for the phenomenal response already to Paula’s post last night and let me know below if you’ve reconsidered your WIP pile and fancy another little addition.”

These are my kind of leaders.

I dug in the boxes at the bottom of the heap, to drag out this woe-be-gotten piece of piecing, folded up some four years ago (that’s 1460 days, if you are counting) and set aside. The last post I can find says something like “My Small World, June 2015 edition,” like there was going to be something else after that.

messy ironing board 2019.jpg

I’d made a copy of the pattern from my Quilt Mania Special Issue Spring 2015 (which isn’t for sale anymore), and made all my errata and corrections on this, so I’m somewhat ahead of the game. I guess. And there was an earlier sew-a-long; see my Posts for Reference, below. The IG at that time was #mysmallworldqal and it can be helpful to look at that feed for ideas.

I also have a bazillion 1 1/2″ squares of ivory-colored sky cut up. When I saw this in a comment on the #mysmallworldsewcial feed, I had to laugh:

You can purchase the pattern at Jen Kingwell’s Shop, Amitie, if you want the booklet, but you can also find some online, if you do a search. So, get out your orphaned Small World and get back in the game!! Below are screenshots from their feed, reminding me of what I need to get done by what date:

IG sewalong SMall World

Other Posts For Reference
VeryKerryBerry — Kerry ran an IG sew-a-long in 2015. On this post she has info about each section, links to Errata (Corrections) if you have the magazine pattern, and tips and tricks. Very helpful. [Warning: Any link back to QuiltMania does not work. I think after a year, they relinquish rights and responsibilities back to the pattern writer.]
Patchwork ‘n’ Play — Susan’s Melbourne Town, where I found out that Jen Kingwell based this quilt on the artwork of Mary Blair, a Disney artist.
Live A Colorful Life — Cindy’s My Small World: The Disney Version
Wendy’s Quilts and More — Wendy writes about re-starting a stalled Small World
Another post from Wendy with more tips

Chuck Nohara Quilt Top Finished!

October 4, 2017October 3, 2017 Elizabeth E.23 Comments

We interrupt this tour of France and the European Patchwork Meeting to bring you breaking news: I finished the Chuck Nohara Quilt Top!

My husband held it up for me, but it’s big — about 80″ wide, and similar height.

Chuck Nohara Blocks_Final

Above are the Chuck Nohara blocks that Susan and I chose; we took turns choosing blocks to make–four a month, which sometimes about did me in. I’ll have you know that she is ALL DONE with her quilt. (I took this photo inside, the quilt smoothed up on my design wall, so all the blocks were visible.)

Chuck Nohara Signature Block SS

And then we made signature blocks for each other, to commemorate that year-plus of making weensy little fussy blocks. (How did we decide to do this? Blame the Chuck Nohara QAL Instagram Feed.) The above signature block is hers, surrounded by my tiny plus-sign blocks and the final star borders. I have other posts tagged with “Chuck Nohara” so you can either click on the label at the bottom of this one to get more info, or do a search in the box to the right. Chuck Nohara Signature Block ESE

Here’s my signature block. Do I love love this quilt? Parts of it, most of it. If I had another millennium, I might have tried something different besides the two borders, then star borders. Let me rephrase that… I DID try a lot of different things but nothing clicked to me (now I have a lot of cut fabric for string blocks). At some point, the old mantra clicked in my head: “Better done, than perfect” as well as “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

Sometimes it’s fine to have some good quilts. I love so much of what I learned with this quilt–so many different techniques. But I’m also glad it’s at this spot. I’ll bring it back when I finish quilting it, but for now, I’m putting it up on the 200 Quilts List.

WIP

WIP Wednesday (Selvage Blocks)

March 12, 2014March 12, 2014 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

Okay, these 20″ blocks are addicting. Someone on IG commented on my selvage stash, but the whole thing could fit into a gallon ziploc bag. There are all those selvages on my stash, however. . .

Other Works in Progress, this Wednesday morning:

Rainbow Petals–the more I type that name, the more I realize it needs to be changed

Lollypop Tree Quilting. It’s such a big project, I keep waiting for the decks to be cleared to start on it. That’s always a bad idea if you are trying to get something done, but a good way to procrastinate.

Cross-X Quilt Blocks. That’s February’s installment on our Friendship Swap to the left.

Cutting out the quilt with the Mirror Ball Dots fabric. Let’s just make that THINKING up the quilt with the Mirror Ball Dots fabric. (No photo)
That’s enough for now.

Linking up to Lee’s Freshly Pieced blog and her WIP Wednesday.

Quilts · WIP

WIP, RP, BB Can’t You See?

March 5, 2014November 25, 2014 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

That’s Works in Progress, Rainbow Petals, Bee Blocks, can’t you see? I just liked the rhythm of it all, especially after the previous post, with Emily Dickinson, a reclusive but prolific American poet, writing about her sewing. And yes, that video was of my granddaughter, taking her first stitches.

So the Work in Progress is my Rainbow Petals quilt. This is a rainy-day-late-at-night photo, and we all know how those turn out, but if this looks familiar, that’s because it is. (Check your iPhone.) I first thought of this last summer, when — in bed recuperating from foot surgery — I watched the Apple Keynote talk about their new iOS7, and this logo kept flashing on the screen. I took a screen shot of it and tucked it away. I went to the Long Beach Quilt Show (final year) and bought sixteen different half yards in the Kona colors I thought would match, holding up my screen shot to double check the colors. My friend Leisa and I arranged them at dinner that night, numbering the labels so I wouldn’t mix them up. I’ve since seen another quilter try her hand at this. I had thought to piece it, but now I think I’ll appliqué it by hand.

I’m still thinking over those dark middle petals. While they “read” as black, they are actually forest green.

I also finished a first set of churn dash blocks for my Mid-Century Modern Quilt Bee and sent them off. I kept thinking about them, unhappy with how they had turned out.

So I made another set. I am one of those quilters who have ironed seams so long to the side, that I’m not very happy with my results when I have to iron seams open. If the block is too small, and the seams are pressed to the side, I just take a bigger seam and press again. But if the seams are pressed open, then it’s unpick, resew, re-press. As I mentioned on our Mid-Century Bee blog, I’m just Open-Quilt-Seam-Challenged.

Cindy, also from the Mid-Century Modern Bee, wanted a spiderweb block, with a low-volume (muted) text center and solid strips for the web. A great idea!

For March in my Always Bee Learning Bee, Marci wanted two Modern Maples blocks.

And yep. I did it. I joined the Modern Quilt Guild as an Individual Member because my closest guild was MILES away, across the great wide scorching plains of Los Angeles Traffic — or Orange County Traffic — and I wasn’t able to attend their meetings. Maybe in summertime?

Linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced.

Quilts · WIP

WIP Wednesday

November 13, 2013April 27, 2014 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

I seem to be on an Amish trend. First the book announcement and a round-up of my Amish quilts, and then with this WIP Wednesday, news of my Amish With A Twist-2 BOM status. I was sailing through these monthly chapters of fabric and pattern until this one: twenty-eight blocks, all log cabin style.

I got out my trusty swatch/color helper and started cutting. I had to add a bunch to my cards to keep them current, one selvage snip at a time.

At first I was confused, with what they wanted, then I figured it out. They want a TOTAL of 28 strips, in a variety of the colors listed. I did my math, and figured out that would be about 4 strips of each different color, in the dark color way and a different number in the medium color way, so lined them up on the board and started cutting.

And cutting.

I sewed the centers together, then did one complete round of strips. They look kind of cool lined up here, I think.

I assembled them in kind of a log-cabin-block arrangement, just trying to get the visual.

And finally–twenty-eight blocks completed. I have eight more to go in a different coloration, then assemble and finish.

I’m also working on the #friendshipxandplusswap showing up on blogs and instagram; there are quite a few of us who have paired up, decided on the number of blocks, and are going at it. In October I was supposed to send my partner two blocks (we make four and send off half), and in November, four. Well, here’s a part of November’s, I still owe October’s and December is right around the corner. We all plan to blog on the last Friday of the month, so if you are not entertaining a turkey-pumpkin-pie hangover from the day before (American Thanksgiving), and can head back around, you’ll see some more of these blocks.

Next WIP rattling around in my head comes from when Leanne announced the theme for our next Four-in-Art challenge: Structure. So when I was visiting my sister and her husband at Cedar-Sinai hospital this past week, I took some photos to get me in the mood. They have very cool structures there, in terms of modern, angular buildings. But it’s their art on the inside which is swoon-worthy. (That’s another post).

Here’s the Big Kahuna of WIP projects, and the deadline is fast approaching. I have now received all the 12″ squares from my bee mates. Now to find the hyper-overdrive-Christmas-blast of energy to get it done! I’ve not arranged these yet how I want them, but I love seeing them and all the signature squares, up on the pinwall.

I could bore you with more, but I think that’s more than enough.

Linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced.

Quilts · WIP

WIP Wednesday: Schnibbles Time, again

October 15, 2013October 15, 2013 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

It’s Wednesday and it’s been a long time since I’ve linked up with the fabulous Lee at Freshly Pieced Fabrics and I mean to remedy that today. I’ve got all the Schnibbles bits up on the pin wall and I need to get them all sewn up and quilted and DONE, because my bee-mates are sending me my green and snow blocks for my Santa’s Village quilt, and I want to see them all arrayed. Funny how one project pushes another to completion. It’s like how tiny the toddler is at the tail end of the family until you bring home the newborn. Then it’s time for that kid to grow up, get potty-trained and pull their weight in the family. Yep, this is kind of like that.