Quilts

Pineapples and Crowns–Blogger’s Quilt Festival

May 15, 2015May 22, 2015 Elizabeth E.21 Comments

Pineapples and Crowns made it into the Viewer’s Choice section of the Festival.
Please remember to vote for your favorite this week!

Pineapples and Crowns, 61″ square

I am entering in Amy’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival, and I apologize for my regular readers who have already seen this quilt. But she requests a blog post written the week of the festival, so as some one who is totally rule-bound (*cough, cough*) I am writing a new post. The original post is *here.*

The inner pineapple blocks were made for me by two sets of bees, but the outer border, of the pineapple crowns is all hand-appliqued. I went back and forth between all the categories, looking for the “mixed technique” category, but finally entered it in the appliqué category, if you want to help this quilt become a winner–that’s where to go (*shameless plug*).

It could have gone in “scrappy” or “large” for just like our children, we can categorize our quilts as one thing or another, depending on if they’ve kept us up all night, sick and crying, or if we see them decked out in their Sunday best, playing the timpani drums at the end-of-school concert, like my eldest granddaughter just did. (Way to go, Keagan!)

But, as always, the best thing to call quilts is done, ready for display or enjoyment or to take to a botanic garden and take pictures of them, which I did recently. I love the mix of scrappy white-background fabrics and the rainbow of brights. I placed warm bright petals in the outermost border, and cool petals in the inner border. It’s not really noticeable overall, but I needed to organize these blossoms somehow, and I chose to do it with color.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes and head back to Amy’s Blogger’s Festival to see all the other terrific quilts that are showing up there, and to vote for your favorite in each category. The voting begins May 22nd, and you can also vote for Viewer’s Choice as well. Enjoy the online quilt festival!

Quilts

Colorwheel Blossom–Blogger’s Quilt Festival

May 15, 2015May 17, 2015 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Colorwheel Blossom, 48″ square

Welcome to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival! I’m entering ColorWheel Blossom in the ROYGBIV category of Amy’s online contest.

The original finished blog post is *here.*

It took me forever to find the right colors for the center of the blossom, and I haunted several quilt show booths, combing through their Kona Cottons to find just the right shades, then visited Purl Soho–Irvine to get the right inner petal shades. I appliquéd it to the white background, and then it took me several months to get up the courage to quilt this. I settled on a curvilinear emphasis in the middle field and an angular emphasis in the borders.

It now hangs in our hallway right by the front door, a rainbow greeting all our guests, lighting up our home.

Thanks for stopping by to see Colorwheel Blossom. Be sure to head back to Amy’s Blogger’s Festival to see the rest of the quilts, and to vote for your favorites! Voting begins May 22nd for each category, as well as Viewer’s Choice.

Quilts

Wonky Basket Blocks Tutorial

May 12, 2015 Elizabeth E.21 Comments

Carla, of Grace and Favour, asked us to make Wonky Baskets for her bee month for May 2015 Mid-Century Modern Bee. She sent us some photos of examples of Gwen Marston’s Liberated Baskets and gave us instructions to make colorful baskets with contrasting handles. I just found my way to completion. I thought I’d share how I proceeded.

This is a result of the process called “Grading Avoidance.” (My final papers just came in and I run upstairs in between each paper and play with the cloth to get my brains back. It’s a skill I’ve learned since becoming a professor.)

Carla’s request reminded me of a quilt I saw last summer in the Springville Art Museum, Going to Market, by PJ Medeiros (quilted by Amity Golding).

I liked all the different-sized baskets, so I drew up this sketch:

I then pulled up a bunch of two-fabric combinations and laid them all out on my ironing board, and started to cut.

This is how I assemble the basket part, beginning with the bottom piece (or base piece). I lay the basket piece on top, about 2″ from the edge, and placing the ruler at a slant, I cut through both the LEFT base and the basket pieces. Shift the basket piece to the left so it overlaps the righthand base piece by about two inches, then lay your ruler down on a slant, and cut through both pieces. I show you how it looks once you are finished (above).

Pin and stitch, then press towards the basket.

Lay the upper piece and the newly constructed basket bottom piece together, then measure about 11″ from where you will cut the base; place a pin. This is the outer boundaries for the handle.

To make the handles, cut a bunch of bias strips anywhere from 1 -1/4″ to 1-1/2″ wide. Fold in half, wrong sides together, long cut edges aligned and stitch a narrow (1/8″ seam).

I have these bias strip press bars that help me with the next step: I slide them in, wiggle the seam to the middle back and press. You can just do this with your fingers on your ironing board. Try really hard not to stretch out your bias.

The above weensy picture (click to enlarge) shows me 1) auditioning bias strips for the handle (I have a bunch to choose from ). Go to the ironing board and press, with steam, a curve into your handle, then pin it on (photo below). It’s better to think about easing in the inside curve, rather than stretching the outside curve, but truthfully, both happen at the same time.

Then back to the above photo: 2) stitch on the handle, doing the inside curve first, then the outside curve; 3) handle stitched, and finally 4) the seam between the upper and lower parts are stitched and trimmed.

For the final press, press seam toward basket so the handle will look like it’s coming out of the basket.

I cut and stacked a bunch so I could slide up here between grading and sew a couple. Bias strips are in the front.

And now I have ten! You can see I’ve made one of them bigger. I also have a couple of midget baskets ready to make, too, to even out the rows. I’m just making them–I’ll figure out how to put them into a quilt later, after these last essays are graded, the final given and grades assigned. A perfect summer project, I think.

Quilts

Sentimental Journey: Bee Blocks for the Mid-Century Modern Bee, part 1

May 11, 2015August 5, 2015 Elizabeth E.17 Comments

Cindy, of LiveAColorfulLife, called me up one day and said she had a great idea and a great name for a bee: Mid-Century Modern Bee, and that everyone had to be at least mid-century in age. Maybe it was the exasperation I felt that all the newbies were claiming invention of tried and true blocks and methods, or that I was ready for another bee, or that Cindy’s charm could not be turned down, but I jumped at the chance to be a part of this new group. We’ve been going strong for three years, so I’m dividing this post into parts, and am grouping them by the participant, rather than going through the calendar years. We now have a blog, courtesy of Susan and PatchnPlay, so I guess you could say we are all grown up. I wanted a place where all our blocks, quilts, and tutorials could be listed; you’ll find links to many tutorials of these blocks, so have fun browsing. The first project we did was Carla’s Church Dash quilt, with the tutorial found *here.* The next year, Carla (Lollyquiltz) had us make another block churn dash block for her, and the beautiful quilt above is the result. Carla is still working on this year’s batch of blocks, a birthday cake block using *this* tutorial. This bee also does signature blocks, which I love, and you can see the array at the top of her pin wall. My birthday cake block is the blueberry with mint filling, as one of the fun things she had us do was list what “kind” of cake we would make for her. If you use the tutorial, remember to set your print scaling settings at 100% so your block will be 12″ square. Cindy thought for her first turn, she would do the Winged Square Block with the tutorial found *here.* When I sent around the letter asking for photos of blocks/quilt tops/quilts, she sent me a photo of all the blocks together. For her second round, she fell in love with Rene’s spiderweb block (another member in our bee) and decided she wanted one too. This became common–we are so well matched that we borrow ideas for each other regularly, tweaking them slightly. We used *this tutorial* for these blocks. Using *this* tutorial, and again borrowing from Rene’, Cindy went with a rainbow Dresden plate, with a black and white center. Unlike the Always Bee Learning Bee, we make from our stash, not sending out fabrics to each other. It is fun to see how many of us have the same fabrics. Her last request was matched by another bee she is participating in, so her design wall was flooded with circles. Debbie, of A Quilter’s Table, asked for a variation of the Hugs and Kisses Block, but done in soft hues and colors (aka “Low Volume”). Her stunning completed quilt, above, titled Common Affection, has gone on to be published and to win ribbons. I love that blue wall, as it really shows off the low volume fabric choices. Debbie’s next block (in 2014) was a pair of rolling diamond blocks, from *this tutorial.* Here’s her completed quilt, Vivid, adding a few more to round out the original collection.Rene’ of Rene Creates, and who inspires many of us with choosing blocks, asked us for a spiderweb block (tutorial link found above), but in scrappy fabrics. She made this cool quilt with the colors moving all around–a real scrappy treat. She took it with her when the family did Christmas photographs together; I love the setting. Her 2014 block was this cool-in-blues-and-greens Dresden block (tutorial listed above). She laid them all out on her bed to show us how they look together. Because of different printing sizes, they range from smaller to larger. She plans to place them scattered across a solid background for her quilt. Deborah, Simply Miss Luella, asked for house blocks, and here are a few. Mine is in the upper left; link to the blog post about it, with the pattern is *here.* You can find her on Instagram. I made this house for Linda, drawing from my collection of free house patterns that I had worked up for my in-town sewing group. The reason she asked for houses, is that her house burnt to the ground, and she lost everything shortly before Thanksgiving of the year she was with our group. We all made houses, our hearts going out to her as she worked hard to rebuild her life. (to be continued)