Quilts

Autumn Tote and Center Square

September 25, 2013September 29, 2013 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

This week I spent holed up in hotel room, sewing on fun things left and right.

Autumn Tote Bag

And some not so fun things, that turned out to be fun things, once they turned out.

The Autumn Tote (above) is one of the fun things that turned out quickly. It was my second time making this pattern, and I was able to use what I’d learned last time and make the needed tweaks to the pattern so it turned out much faster in the sewing time.

This is the class sample for the class I’ll be teaching on October 22, Tuesday evening from 6-8:30 p.m., if you are in the area. I’ll be teaching it at Bluebird Quilts in Grand Terrace, California (phone number is 909-514-0333). I love the rich tones of autumn in this piece. This tote is big enough that I can get my iPad in here with no problem.

If you decide to make it, pick something fun and whimsical for the interiors!

Full reveal comes in a future post, but finally! I was able to move this quilt from Problem Child to Model Student. It all came because of a comment on my post from Linda, who noted that besides all the other things I mentioned, the ferns were headed in the wrong direction. A redraw, and a few other tricks which I’ll mention later, and I was on my way. Here it is in an interim step, threads hanging out and everything!

Tomorrow we leave from home after one last walk along the beach here in Pacific Grove (California), watching the colors on the rocks change as the sun rises. It’s been a lovely time.

At the Bandstand, Under a Starry Night

September 22, 2013October 3, 2013 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

At the Bandstand, Under a Starry Night, front

I’ve written about this quilt on this blog before, where I referred to it as Hunter’s Star, a description of the block. But now it is finished, binding and all, and has a new name: At the Bandstand, Under a Starry Night.

I’ve done a couple of “under the starry night” experiences this past week, and there’s also been some bandstanding, or music. The photo above is of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, where they have an LED art installation, The Bay Lights, which makes patterns with fish swimming across the bridge, clouds, waves, shooting lines, sparkly doodads and all sorts of patterns. We drove up to San Francisco to see this, as it’s only here for two years.

And here’s The City’s lights, with the Ferry Building in the foreground. I had first made this quilt for my youngest son’s college quilt. He was enamored of music of all kinds, acquiring the nickname of Audioman, so I incorporated music-themed fabric into the Hunter’s Star design, a personal favorite.

At the Bandstand, Under a Starry Night, back

However, he took one look at it and kind of squinched up his eyes, subtly shook his head and didn’t say much. I figured it out, and made him a different one (#43 on the 100 Quilts List), which he liked much better. This one sat around.

I pulled it out because I’d put it on my Finish-A-Long list, rummaged through my fabric stash, finding the borders already cut out. I slipped in the yellow inner border for some variety (funny how your quilting tastes change), found a large piece of IKEA fabric and put a back on it so my quilter could get it quilted for me.

Back detail

As you all know, it had been a beyond-stressful week for me not only for my own puny reasons, but troubles within my larger circle of people I love. And then the landline phone on the house telephone went out. That’s it, I said. So I sat down and put on the binding, and Friday morning found me traveling north with my husband to a scientific conference. I happily stitched as he drove.

quilt on a large cypress tree, outside our hotel room

So we found ourselves here in Monterey and it’s the jazz festival — a Big Deal, with Big Names — jazz in the lounge, on the stereo, musical instruments being seen everywhere. And I thought of the best kind of music, being played with great affection and intensity under a starry night, perhaps even by a band on a bandstand on a summery night, and so the quilt found its name, and its finish.

This is one of my project on the Finish-A-Long list, and quilt #47 on my 100 Quilts List. Yes, I went backwards. (Although now I only list them when they are completed, earlier I slipped in a couple of tops only.)

Classes · Quilts

Not All Dirt and Rocks

September 18, 2013 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

The quilting community is priceless–I see it on blogs, on Instagram, in quilt shops, and in smaller groups that gather together. And in my case, this week, the comments I received about my frustration with my quilting buoyed me up and gave me lots to think about.

The first thing I did was buy a couple of more tools to help me. Both Amie and Pip, in their comments, steered me back to Leah Day’s FMQ site, and then to Diane Gaudynski’s blog, where I learned tons of things by reading through all of her posts (loved the one about *batting*). One of the things I learned was continuing education is invaluable, as new tools (above), ideas and techniques are always evolving and I Need To Keep Up. Practice is mandatory, other commenters reminded me, and to not despair that my quilting is not like that of the long-armers. I loved the quote that Dot sent over, and also this one by Ursula La Guin:

If you see a whole thing, it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives… But up close a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern.

And I guess I should add that quilting seems to be best looked at as a “whole thing.” I am thankful for those who read my blog, reminding me not to focus on the dirt and rocks, but to keep the vision–to not lose the pattern.

One of the little miracles this week was teaching my Lollypop Treat class at Bluebird Quilts & Gallery. I had six great and enthusiastic students (one was camera shy), shown here the second week, bringing back in their own Lollypop Treat blocks. Each is so different and so wonderful, and I had such a great time. A couple of them became readers of this blog, so to them I say–thanks for joining in the adventure!

The owner, Janet, saw my Tote and thought it would make a great class, so she picked out some fall-themed fabrics, with a fun pop of Halloween for the lining. It’s an evening class, just one day, on October 22, from 6-8:30 p.m. if you’d care to join us. (You can reach the shop by calling (909) 514-0333.)

This is the tote that I made–I’ve been using it as my purse and I’m really liking it, even though it’s probably not what you’d see in the fashion magazines. But I need a purse that I can throw stuff in, and that has pockets, and that I can set on the floor if needed. I also love my higher-end leather purses, but in truth, that’s not always the kind of life I lead. And this suits me.

May you have a good week, working on the Dirt and Rocks, but keeping an eye on the bigger whole.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Lee’s Freshly Pieced blog.

Quilts

Quilting. . . and a Sticky Question

September 15, 2013 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

It begins here. I printed off a picture of my quilt, then took a fine-point sharpie to “quilt” in the designs I thought I would do.

Then this happens. Over and over, on each row. For every hour quilting, I spent half an hour unpicking. Wrong color thread. Wrong pattern. Wrong shape. Wrong style.

Finally, things start working.

I admit it. The last row got stippled, as I was pretty tired and my shoulders hurt from quilting.

I put it up on the pin wall, but something’s not working.

I pin up different centers–hard to see on this small picture, but I know it’s the center. I call in my resident quilt expert. “Looks nice,” he says, in the same tone of voice as when he answers the question “Does this make me look fat?” I know now what is wrong, but I am loathe to admit it. I turn out the light and go to bed.

In the morning, I pick up my seam ripper. Unpicking dense quilting gives you a chance to think. A lot. Here comes the sticky question, but first the set-up. I own a good-quality Viking/Husqvarna sewing machine, but it was purchased before we all started quilting so much on our quilts, even though it is called the Quilt Designer. After three tries, I finally found the foot that works for me, the tension, the everything to allow me to quilt on my machine. But my quilting doesn’t look like Judi Madsen’s on The Green Fairy, or on other blogs that I haunt. And I know why: my domestic sewing machine, without a stitch regulator, cannot compare to what a long-arm can do. Or even a baby long-arm. It’s just me and the thread, me and the pedal, my hands moving supposedly in sync with the speed of the machine.

But it’s not enough anymore, is it?

What was wrong with the middle was my quilting. The shape of the fern, the stitches that hover near even, but occasionally veer into very small or a bit-too-big, the whatever–it was just wrong. Free-Motion Quilting — the REAL free-motion quilting, has its warts, showing the artisan behind the tool. But that’s not what we are after anymore, is it? We want perfection: no bobbles, no wobbles.

So after three hours of unpicking, I am back here. And the reality of where our industry is heading today is that if I want a quilt that I feel I can enter in a show, or display wherever, I’ll have to step up on the quilting front, because no matter how you look at it, the ones with the bigger, more extensive machines with stitch regulators will always have it over me on my little domestic machine. Because of the limitations of my tools, I don’t know if I can make it right.

But I’ll try.

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