Category: WIP

WIP

Gingham on my Mind

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

Well, I have gingham on my mind, but other things too.

Like these three grandsons of mine who showed up for the weekend.

Like this stack of papers who arrived on Wednesday and are Still Here.  (Definitely a work in progress.)  (Right now I’m taking a break.)

But this one is somewhere in between there and here, in terms of Works In Progress.  Here I’m sewing the borders on, but I finished (yay!) and it’s at the quilter’s right now, getting all stitched up.

Here’s some gingham things I’ve found while trolling the net. . . a book.  Is it me, or does that person they identify as “Jakie Kennedy” NOT look like Jacquie Kennedy?

I think the heel has some sparklies that move around.  Talk about elevating gingham beyond where it should go.

This is what I look like when I grade papers.  Ewwww!
However, her shirt is cute, don’t you think?  Love the covered buttons.

Now head over to Freshly Pieced to see what Lee’s got on her mind, at WIP Wednesday.

WIP

WIP Wednesday

Elizabeth E.4 Comments

I went to see my mother and father over the weekend, and it’s taken me until now to catch up.  The visit was well worth it, however, as there’s always something interesting and unique that’s happening at their house.

Like Dad’s painting of the Sideways Man in his painting studio.  My father keeps a journal of his inspiration and creative journeys, and this was inspired by an advertisement in the New York Times for a series of lamps–a woman was lying down underneath the hanging globes.

And fragrant lilacs in bloom. I grew up with these flowers and they are some of my favorites.  Only certain varieties will grow in our quasi-desert climate. The bush I planted once was not one of those varieties.

Scenery from a mountain trail just behind their house.

Still working on my EPP Rose blocks.  This is the fourth one and I’m almost done.  (That’s why it’s known as  Work In Progress.)

My mother showed me a quilt shop I never knew existed in their town.  Gardiner’s Quilt Shop, and look for a post on it later.  I guess I’ve forgiven Kate Spain, because there’s some of her fabric at the end–those gorgeous flowers in periwinkle and blue.

This is a new project, to sandwich in between the grading of my last two papers (research papers come in on Monday!), making the back for Scrappy Stars and getting that pinned as I’m pretty sure I want to quilt it myself.  This summer.  After school ends.  And Jury Duty (yes, the week after school gets out).

My son and his family went to Hawaii and they were smart folks and DIDN’T bring me back a T-shirt.  Instead Kristen spent “about an hour in some shop,” according to my son, and picked out these bundles of fat eighths for me to enjoy.

A veritable Hawaiian garden growing up in my fabric stash!  Thanks!

And many thanks to Lee, of Freshly Pieced Fabrics for hosting this WIP Wednesday, a weekly event in my life, reminding me I DO know how to blog and write and talk quilts. Head back over there to see what everyone else is working on.

Happy Quilting!

Something to Think About · WIP

WIP–Happy Birthday!

Elizabeth E.12 Comments

First off, let me say Happy Birthday to my son, Chad.  He’s grown into quite the man, with a wife and boys of his own, but I still think back to the days when he was my little boy.

And secondly, let me say thanks to Lee, of Freshly Pieced Fabrics who is hosting this WIP Wednesday.

Third, here’s what I’m working on: finishing up Scrappy Stars.  [Scroll down to the earlier post for the gory details of this quilt top’s finish.]  I’m planning the back, trying to decide if I want to quilt it, or if I want to take it over to my quilter.  I already know I’m binding it in that Quilters Linen fabric–I have some saved.

Other Random Thoughts:
Need to sew three gifts for three different people
It’s end of semester wrap-up with my English class (Research Essay, an in-class essay, and some odds and ends of grammar)
Thinking about summer sewing: what do I want to accomplish?
Eyeing the teetering stacks of fabrics shoved in neatly arranged in my closet
Realized I’ve not made one Cross-X block at all this spring
Nor the planned Sol Lewitt quilt
Haven’t finished that second skirt that I wanted to make
I’m not even going to look at the garage
The new apps for the iPad have been purchased, but I haven’t had time to learn them (couldn’t we use some owner’s manuals about now?  Why is it that only cars get to have them?  And obvious things like toasters?)
Planning which book to do first for the Cindy & Elizabeth Book Stash
Thinking about my gingham quilt–for the Krista & Elizabeth Summer Gingham Quilt-A-Long (go get your gingham if you want to play)

And finally,
Doing the Scrappy Stars quilt has taught me that I need to think more carefully about what I want to work on.  If I were a young quilter, the universe of quilts would stretch out before me and I wouldn’t have to prioritize.  But one of the frustrations of the Scrappy Star was the time limitations.  We always have fabric limitations, I know, but I was ready to be done with that thing long before it was to the “done” point, and was getting cranky at how much time I was spending spinning my wheels, going nowhere.

Time can be a friend or foe, and it’s not like I’m going to kick the bucket here anytime soon, but I’m just saying that the perception of limited time is something I think about, and have heard echoed in other quilters’ blogs. I remember when Chad was little, the children tick-tocked my day away, then they grew and were gone.  Now my day’s clock is driven less by external forces than by the realization that the day seems to slip away too quickly, and I’m once again, crunched for time.

Creating · WIP

WIP–Still Those Scrappy Stars

Elizabeth E.7 Comments

They’re going to drive me crazy.

Like Leila, who left me a comment, I could see that the greens read like a solid, which is what these stars needed.

But after a visit here, I am rethinking this.  I guess I should reveal at this point that I am a Charter Member of the Thinking-About-Quilts-Obsessively Club.  By the way, self-help groups are forming.  Check back for dates and times.

Which led to this.

And another couple of stars.  I decided that I just couldn’t live with two of them.  Call them my Stars-with-Training-Wheels Stars. And I’m not going to tell you what I’ve decided to do.  Check back for the reveal.

I graded all the students’ papers today during their test, as I wanted to give them immediate feedback on how their research essay is going.  (And I didn’t want any grading this weekend.)  But even though I don’t have to grade, I do have to evaluate nine different textbooks for the new class I’m teaching in fall, as book orders are due May 1st.  Yes, you read that right.  Because of cutbacks to the budget, our community college has cancelled all summer school courses, and it’s very likely that no staff will be working.  So I have to set the direction within two weeks for the course I will teach in four months.

You can see why I’ve been fixated on getting this quilt off the wall.  I have a life to live that doesn’t involve cutting up diamonds out of cloth.  The bright side of this upcoming switch is that I can now make a quilt completely out of diamonds.  I felt so peaceful when I wrote that last post, and fairly floated to bed, Zen-like.  Smugness goeth before a fall.  And that fall came after I’d cut up all my precious Japanese fabric and placed it on the wall.  It was at this point that my husband walked in and said “Gee, you really can’t see those stars, can you?”  I just looked at him, because as a scientist, he tells it like he sees it (and yes,  I’ve learned never to ask him “Does this dress make me look fat?”).  Of course, he was right.  After he left, I turned my back on the quilt and graded my brains out on Tuesday, among other things.

Today after school I went to Ginger’s Quilt Shop (I’ll blog about them later).  I just needed to talk to someone about what was going on.  This is where a brick-and-mortar shop is so valuable over online shopping (although I do both).  The woman there laid out several bolts, talked to me about what I was seeing, and then disappeared down an aisle and came back bearing The One.  The stars sang.  I sang (inside).  We all smiled and grinned, as by now we’d pulled in another quilter or two in the shop for their input.  I pulled out my credit card, and yes, at this point, I’ve cut out more diamonds.

Thanks to Lee, of Freshly Pieced Fabrics, you are getting this long tale of woe. . . and triumph!  Check over there for more lovely quilts in progress.