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.

Linking up with Lee!

Quilts

Friendship Swap

October 15, 2013 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

Two of my Mid-Century Modern Bee buddies, Carla of Lollyquiltz and Susan of PatchworknPlay have teamed up to run a Friendship Swap of the Cross-X blocks. I had originally pled “no way!” but then Krista of KristaStitched wrote and asked me to be her swap buddy. How could I ever say no to Krista? Besides I’ve had a veritable obsession with these blocks for some time, as witnessed by the evidence below:

It’s been kicking around in the back of the closet for eons, it seems like, and I purposely left the wrinkled up template page for the full effect of ancientness.

And because I might have a wee obsession with text fabrics, I’m hoping that Krista and I can work something out so I can use these.

I did some wandering (yes, I’m avoiding the grading–how did you know?) and found a post on Mrs. Schmenkman’s Quilts blog about her foray into the Cross-X Land, and her beginning quilt. While Carla and Susan have decided to go the coordinated route, I’m kind of liking this from-the-stash look, with light backgrounds. So I think, yes, that’s it, and then I find this:

All of the current rage for this came from Amy of Badskirt, who saw it in a Japanese Quilt, reverse-engineered it, and put up a tutorial. However, if you have Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, it’s easy to find out that Nancy Cabot first published it in 1938 with the name Spool Block, # 1970 on page 248. (For some unknown reason, I bought my book when it first came out, but even at the elevated prices of used books right now, it is worth having. I use it a TON.)

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/missriain/9683609064/sizes/c/in/pool-2161187@N21/)

And this whole story goes to show you that every old will be new again. While Amy’s block comes in at 7.5″ inches (finished), here’s templates for a 10″ block: Cross-X Blocks 10-inch and a 12″ block: Cross-X Block 12%22 (although that feels too big too me if it’s the scrappy, cozy quilt top look you want).

Click on the links at the top of the post to see what Carla and Susan have come up with, including a Flickr Group to help keep the quilters motivated. Krista and I are still working out the bits and pieces on how we want to do it. Anyway, how ever you cut it or however you do it, the bottom line is to grab a quilty pal and to get going.

Quilts

Two Blocks, Two Machines

October 12, 2013 Elizabeth E.19 Comments

Bees are interesting things. I’m in a new one and am still figuring out how it ticks when this block arrived in the mail. The instructions read to leave the quadrants unsewn as the bee-er wants to really make her quilt scrappy and move the blocks all around. It’s paper pieced. Seventy-two pieces per block (4 quadrants). It took me over 7 hours, closer to eight hours, to finish the two blocks. I began wondering about this quilter–who would send out such a complicated block to the bee and expect us to do not only ONE, but TWO blocks? I began wondering about what a sheep I was to follow along, when I should have just sent back the unused fabric after the first block and the scraps for the little triangles, and kept it to one. The end result was that I didn’t feel very good about her, nor about myself–for not standing up and saying “This is excessive.” I was more than happy to send that off this morning!

This is the blocks from another bee-er in the same bee. Because my first batch of fabric got lost in the mail, I was doing her September blocks in October. These blocks were already cut out, and both went together in under an hour. I’m happy to spend more than an hour on a bee block, but the contrast between this quilter’s and her bee-mates was astounding. I felt good about things as I mailed off her blocks this morning.

On our walk yesterday morning, we passed by the house of an older neighbor, who was downsizing and moving up to the high desert. Stuff had to go, including this funky green sewing machine. We continued on our walk, never mentioning it, but on the return loop, I said to my husband, “Want to go and get the car . . . and your wallet?” He laughed. When he came back there were two machines waiting for him to load into the car (I didn’t take a photo of the other), but I got both for $55, including the matching cabinet that the father-in-law had made for this green machine.

I took them right up to my Sewing Machine Whisperer, and he said they were worth tuning up, so into the shop they went. “You know, you have no foot pedal,” he said, gesturing to the green machine. In my defense, it was early in the morning, so when I went back, the older neighbor went up into her sewing room, but couldn’t find it. I left my name and phone number, and hopefully it will turn up. I’ll get these two older machine back in a few weeks; I plan to give one to my granddaughter, who wants to learn to sew.

Today I plan to sew my brains out. And NOT on complicated funk-inducing, grumpy-generating bee blocks.

Quilts

Finish-A-Long, Q3 Wrap-Up and Quarter 4 Goals

October 8, 2013October 8, 2013 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

These were the goals of Quarter Three of the Finish-A-Long, hosted by Leanne of She Can Quilt.

1. Hunter’s Star is finished, and is renamed At the Bandstand, Under A Starry Night — Quilt #47 on my 100 Quilts List. I had started in 2002, and finished it up this year.

2. Rhonda got her hot mitts, and then I made a second pair for my daughter-in-law Kimberly, who liked them so much.

3. The colorful tote, made in Keiko Goke fabrics, is finished and I’ve been toting it around as a purse, I like it so much.

4. Lollypop Tree is still a quilt top, hanging in my closet.

5. Ditto the Friendship Quilt.

6. The so-called Facets quilt is finished, and has been re-christened as Juxtaposition, quilt #121 on my 200 Quilts List.

7. The Four-in-Art quilt with an owl theme was completed, and is named Congruence, quilt #119 on the 200 Quilts List.

8. The Citrus quilt was quilted together, quilt #118 on the list.

In addition, I completed a quilt for a new grandson: Charlie’s Quilt.

I’m taking off most of the oldies and adding three new quilts: a Christmas Quilt, a Schnibbles that I never quilted, and the Map-themed project for our Four-in-Art group (that’s the preliminary sketch there in the middle). I left on the Friendship Quilt just to keep it alive–if I can just get the top together, then I’ll take it to my quilter to finish it up.