Quilts

Santa’s Village Quilt Top Completed

November 17, 2013November 16, 2013 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

SantasVillage quilt top

After three days of sewing non-stop, except for the time when I went out to Costco to buy vegetables, or the time I took to talk on the phone to my mother and others, I finished the quilt top for Santa’s Village. (My apologies if you heard the sewing machine whirring along while we talked.) Pattern Plusses: the very cute Santa in the middle. Pattern Minuses: the directions that needed to go to about 20 more pattern testers before they released it to the public. I’ll have an errata sheet later on, when I’m not bonkers from sewing.

This is where I started this morning. Only I think I only had one side on the roofs of the houses. Hard to remember.

Houses and trees done and arranged. I’m tired, but I press on. I want to be done with the quilt top before I stop.

Oh, and Friday I finished up Leanne’s quilt blocks for the Always Bee Learning Bee. And finally the weather started to turn from the near 90-degree weather on Thursday to something more respectably autumn-like. At her house in Canada, Leanne had snow. Shoveling snow can make you tired.

I became even more tired when I called for reservations at The Fancy Restaurant for Thanksgiving and was told they were already booked up. (All of our children and their families are scattered to in-laws or other, and this is just not the year to cook.) But the Other Restaurant in the moderately fancy chain hotel has a buffet, and it’s not booked up. Now I can spend time in the sewing room, giving thanks for Santa being finished. Or. . . maybe quilting him, before and after our Thanksgiving feast. I used to be a purist, never going out on the holiday because I remember when my son had to work on Thanksgiving and I was ticked off about him not being at the table with family. Funny how things change as you age. My apologies if your son has to work at the local restaurant because little old ladies are too tired to cook. (And PS, I’m not shopping at Target that day, nor WalMart, nor any of the other stores who are open that day. I do have my limits. . . and my inconconsistencies.)

When you are this tired, it’s good to trim the HSTs leftover from the roofs, and start playing around. It’s good to have a piecing marathon behind me as on Monday, papers come in, and on Tuesday, I teach my class on the Pleated Tote at Bluebird Quilts (our LQS), and I need to make samples on how to easily make a zipper pocket in the lining. I loved teaching the last class there and am looking forward to this one.

Happy Sewing!

Quilts

Some Friday Finishes

November 15, 2013 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

Working on some Christmas Trees to go around this guy:

I finished up the center, bordered it with red, and arranged and sewed the blocks from my bee-mates in the Mid-Century Modern Bee. I think they look swell.

Krista invited me to the Friendship Cross-X block swap. Or + and x. or X and +. So many names for the same block.

After hours of listening, I have one more hour to go on Catherine the Great. I’m glad I learned about her and her times, but it is a loooong book to listen to.

Finished Rene’s block for our Mid-Century Modern Bee for November. I just realized I forgot to make the signature block (we do one of those for all our blocks, and send it to our bee-mate), so I’ll be slicing open the envelope and sliding it in before I head to the post office today. She used *this* tutorial; these are fun and easy. Another for the I Need to Make That list.

I noticed it’s getting harder and harder to carve out some uninterrupted time in the sewing room, so yesterday’s long day was very welcome. So many things I want to do, people I want to be with, traveling I want to do, and grandchildren I want to see. I was able to help my daughter’s oldest children sew a small project (a sleeping bag for a stuffed animal). I’ll leave you with Riley doing his first stitches:

Okay, back to the sewing. Today is partly errands, mostly sewing, which should continue through the weekend. Monday? The re-grading of the (shockingly bad) second essay. Yep. I made them all re-do it, so now I get to regrade it. Now I know I’m nuts.

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 · Something to Think About

What I Learned from the Cedars-Sinai Hospital Hallway Art

November 11, 2013November 10, 2013 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

This collection started as a way to help a beloved husband heal. I was there to share some time with my sister, as her beloved husband is battling cancer.

But when I went to get her a soda, and found my way back to the right space by following the trail left by the art in the hallway, I learned that a line. . .

. . . can be colored in. . .

. . . to make some great shapes.

Maybe a quilt block or two?

More about the art in the Cedars-Sinai hospital, on YouTube. And Happy Veteran’s Day, if you are in the United States. Thank a vet for their sacrifice.