Thanksgiving 2015

November 26, 2015 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Today, on America’s Thanksgiving holiday, I am grateful for opportunities that come my way. To be sure, they are often disguised as *bonk!* on the head, occasionally causing some consternation. I am also grateful for hot and cold running water, a snug house and a garden where lettuce is growing, reminding me again of the harvest, but in a green way, not a gold-and-amber way. I open my spice cupboard and I am richer than the ancient kings of Egypt, with spices all arrayed in their glorious pungency and flavor. I have clothes in my closet–a variety, to be sure. I am grateful also for comfortable shoes, socks with no holes in them, and enough fabric to last me for quite a few whiles. . . and then some more.

I am grateful for family, for my six brothers and sisters, and for parents who instilled in me a sense of excellence, of purpose, a love of education and reading and doing the right thing. They also gifted me a love of the arts, of the decorative, of the intrinsic qualities of nature’s beauties. I am grateful for my husband–can’t say enough about him–and our four children and their families.

I am grateful to be a writer, a quilter, a maker, and to have found quilty friends in this lovely online community. I am grateful that you reach out to me, too, with glimpses into your lives and how things run for you. I am richer for it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quilts

Back to My Average Life After 10 Days on the Road

November 19, 2015 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Road? Did someone say Road? I found this in my mailbox this morning, and after jumping around my room and being a goofball for a while, the happiness over this news of my acceptance into Road to California 2016 has settled into a happy smile on my face. Not to mention the realization that lightning has struck me, twice, with this acceptance–both last year and this year.

My husband and I left for Las Vegas last week for a scientific conference of his, but we decided to stay a couple of night on the famed Vegas Strip. I liked the Bellagio Fountains, and certainly you can enjoy the wild and crazy neon/light/building attractions, but generally, overall, I’ll probably never go back. But it was good to do it once, I guess.

This is what I did like (from left to right): 1) a James Turrell installation in the back of the Aria, near the elevators (see below), Claes Oldenberg’s famous sculpture Typewriter Eraser, and the Dale Chihuly installation in the ceiling of the Bellagio of blown glass flowers.

Here’s a long view of the Turrell. The white tube casts different colors (which you can see above), filling the room with light. I love Turrell’s installations, given that I am completely enamored of color in quilting, too.

Our daughter and her three children joined us on our last day, and yes, we ate lunch at Shake Shack (we stayed in the New York, New York hotel, and I thought posing them in front of the fake Brooklyn Bridge was appropriate).

Then I flew up to Salt Lake City, where I saw one of my favorite buildings, and we celebrated my father’s 90th birthday, shown below with my brother Scott.

But I couldn’t leave Utah without hitting at least two shops: Elaine’s Quilt Block (a favorite) and a new one to me: Pine Needles, which I fell in love with. I’ll be back!

And now I need to buckle down with the quilting, the figuring out where to put the stuff I bought from the quilt shops, to remake the center of my latest hexie Rosette #5, because even though I probably got the memo that the pieces were too big and I should figure out the right ones. . . I didn’t. So now it’s un-sew and re-cut and re-sew. But why do anything average?

Something to Think About

Quilty Procrastination

November 12, 2015November 13, 2015 Elizabeth E.17 Comments

I feel the crisp air now of California, now that it’s finally mid-November (apparently the effect of climate change) and coming soon is Turkey Day. (For a turkey prep that will change your life, see *here.* We did it last year and I’ll never do anything else now.) And then, you know, The Big One, and I’m not referring to earthquakes in California. Yes. . . Christmas. My friend has already sewn multiples of her gift for family and friends, and I’m just now kind of thinking about it. I am already behind.

So I’m skipping all that, and going right to the New Year and its projects. Because it’s never too late to focus on something in the future, where I’m going to live, than to spend time moaning over the fact that I have nothing sewn for Christmas, which will soon be in the past. All this is because I seem to be an expert at procrastinating. According to Timothy Pychyl, interviewed on *this site,* I have demonstrated several of the key unproductive responses to a dreaded task (from *his book*)[my comments are in brackets]:

Distracting yourself, and thinking about other things
Forgetting what you have to do, either actively or passively (usually for unimportant tasks)
Downplaying the importance of what you have to do
Giving yourself affirmations, focusing on other your values and qualities that will solidify your sense of self [even though you aren’t getting your work done!]
Denying responsibility in order to distance yourself from what you have to do
Seeking out new information that supports your procrastination (e.g. when you tell yourself you need to have more information before you get started on something)[a classic grad school trick]

So, in order to model for you number ~~1, 3, and 5~~ nearly all of them, I hereby give you:

Projects for the New Year (or earlier, if I want):

Unpin Shine: The Circles Quilt after I spend close to 3 hours pinning it, take it apart and layer on another layer of wool batting, and then re-pin it in order to quilt it, or merely obsesses about quilting it, as the case may be.
Start the Spelling Bee. I’m still trying to think of a theme or a pithy phrase to have my beemates make for me.
Continuing Chuck Nohara block creation. There is no date by which these have to be finished, so it’s pure sewing enjoyment.
I’m the Queen Bee for Mid-Century Modern Bee in January and I already have my idea (I’m not telling). We’ve had some changes, and have 2 openings for quilters who have their own blog –or– a body of work on Instagram/Flickr. You also have to be over 50 (the Mid-Century thing), be vetted by our committee, have a modern tilt to your sewing, are a capable sewist, and love to be on time with your bee projects. Leave a comment if you are interested.
Four-in-Art has a new yearly theme (Color) and Simone has announced our first quarterly challenge: Microscopic. I’m totally jazzed. We also have a couple of openings, and the same criteria apply — except for the age thing. We’d also like if you would be willing to be creative and try new approaches to quilting. We make our quilts and post them on our blogs/Flickr accounts (we do not send them anywhere, so perfect for international participation). Up to this point, they’ve all been in the 12″ square format, but we are now leaving the size open to the artist. Leave a comment if you are interested. The guidelines we came up with are:

1. Members should have a desire to expand their creativity.
2. Have a body of work on line that members can review via blog, Flickr or Instagram.
3. Make a year commitment to the group, and do their best to make deadlines- unless some crazy life occurrence happens.
4. Be willing to review other Four-in-Art work and leave a comment within the first week of publishing.

Write my pattern for Spectrum, a mini quilt, and get that up on Craftsy/PayHip.
My time with the Traveling Threads Bee is almost finished. Just waiting on one more package from the quilter ahead of me, and then I’ve completed all the blocks for my beemates. My blocks have also been returned to me (all the Alison Glass fabrics in the corner up there) and I’d like to dive into that.
Plan out the Halloween Quilt my friend Leisa and I are doing:

UPDATE: IT’S BEEN FOUND!!
Apparently all my readers are more clever than I (but I knew that already) and have located the pattern for me. Thanks very much to Leslie in Rome, and everyone else. You are the best!

It’s called “Hallowe’en 1904,” and is from Blackbird Designs. Common Threads in Wisconsin seems to have it back in stock, which is great news!

See how easy that was? And how I didn’t think about Getting Ready for Christmas once?

But according to Pychyl, one of biggest recommendations to avoid procrastination is simply to get started. “Once we start a task, it is rarely as bad as we think. . . .When you find yourself thinking things like ‘I’ll feel more like doing this tomorrow,’ ‘I work better under pressure,’ ‘There’s lots of time left,’ I can do this in a few hours tonight’, let that be a flag or signal or stimulus to indicate that you are about to needlessly delay the task, and let it also be the stimulus to just get started.”

Happy mid-November, y’all. Let’s get started.

Quilts

Chuck Nohara Quilt Blocks

November 8, 2015November 7, 2015 Elizabeth E.21 Comments

I have a new girlfriend and her name is Chuck Nohara. Like all of my girlfriends, she is charming, sweet with a bite of spice, witty and oh! so clever. This is her book, purchased from QuiltMania. She’s also worth her weight in euros — er, dollars — so get ready for that part, too. If you live near a quilt show that’s coming up, sometimes QuiltMania comes to quilt shows and you can escape the horrific international shipping costs. I admit only to the fact that I was in recovery from surgery when I was shopping and perhaps the drug-induced haze had something to do with it, but now I’m having fun.

I was ~~suckered~~ drawn into this by the adorably cute photos of her work on the #chucknoharaqal on Instagram, and as soon as I saw some of these blocks, I was hooked.

The hashtag sashing is also very cute. I may or may not do this. Depends on my current state of mind.

You can make over thousands of these blocks, hence the title “2001,” which does not refer to the year, but instead to the number of block drawings inside. There have been other Chuck Nohara books, and they are scarcer than hen’s teeth. QuiltMania republished her work (text is both in French and English) and so now we can get her designs. Because of course you want a new girlfriend, too.

This is the one that drew me in. I’m prepping up some of the blocks just to try them out. Susan of PatchworknPlay and I are going to join the quilt-a-long and do some of the blocks, too. If you jump in with us, head to Instagram and post up your blocks there.

I started by scanning the page I wanted, full-size. I then cut out my block, placed it on the copier bed and enlarged it until it measured 6″ on a side. For the birdhouse, I needed to enlarge it by 283%. But the cherries needed 301%. I have no idea why. Those mysteries are way beyond my pay grade.