Star Mother’s Youngest Child quilt

March 8, 2013March 31, 2013 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Here’s my second finish for March: Star Mother’s Youngest Child. The book, from which the title of this quilt is taken, was about Star Mother’s youngest boy who came to earth to experience Christmas before he was destined to take his place in the heavens, shining brightly forever. He landed at the home of a cranky old woman, who, childless and alone, just wanted to have one Christmas to celebrate before she died. And so the two came together. The illustrations are charming, and the child’s spikey hair and ugly countenance reminded me of the weirdo star in the bottom left corner, the points going the wrong way even though I tried really hard to get them like the picture of this quilt from the Moda Bake shop pattern. But in the aggregate, I think it all works okay.

Whenever I’m looking for a back, I usually go for whatever cheap fabric I’ve picked up on sale, or snagged from IKEA or the Marimekko from the Crate & Barrel outlet. I went to the guest bedroom closet, where these lengths all hang, washed, pressed and waiting and lo-and-behold! I’d purchased some of this Sweetwater Christmas line when I was buying the rest of the fabrics for this quilt. It had been two years and so I’d forgotten. I pieced it carefully to make the seam as invisible as I could. I’ve tried doing pieced backs. I usually fail at that sort of thing because at that point, I’m just so ready to be DONE.

I had also purchased this black/red stripe for the binding and even if it was on the original, I just didn’t know if it would work for my sensibilities. When I went to quilt night last week, Laurel told me it was just perfect. Sometimes you just need that atta’boy to help get these quilts done. I hand-stitched the binding while 1) watching a movie, 2) attending a baby shower another night, and then 3) coming home and talking to my husband after a long day.

My quilter used Superior’s King Tut in a tight red/green variegated color in a medium meander.

For the label, I scanned a picture from the book when the little child first knocks on the Old Woman’s door, and included a quote from the last pages of the book.

This is #108 on my list of 200 quilts. Frankly, I can’t keep up this pace of finishes unless I stop sleeping or eating (neither of which is very likely). The last two quilts have been in the pipeline for a couple of years, and I just had some extra time this semester and was able to get them finished (along with the help of my quilter). But for today, it’s nice to see this all done, lounging on my sofa.

That makes five Christmas quilts I’ve done in my lifetime: two have been given away, and the other three reside here. It will be fun to get those out this coming December.

This is another one of my Finish-A-Long quilts; original posting showing all my goals is *here.*

200 Quilts · Finish-A-Long

Once There Was A Snowman

March 7, 2013March 31, 2013 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

I’ve had my first finish for March with Once There Was a Snowman. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I’m thinking that I’m several months early with this Christmas quilt, rather than 3 months late. It’s all about context, in my life. This was my attempt at being wonky. Not a favorite thing to do, I must admit. I’ve made quilt blocks that are wonky sewing as well, and really, I just can’t find the attraction in all of this sewing random strips together, trimming at weird angles, sewing some more. I wasn’t attracted to it in the first place, but you really can’t judge a process until you’ve done it. So I did it, and can now safely say: not my favorite, as Johnny Depp said in the movie Chocolate, as he instead preferred other kinds of chocolate. Just like I prefer other kinds of assembling a quilt.

But it will be fun to set it out for Christmas and have the house all festive. I used a Kate Spain snowflake-on-red fabric for the backing, piecing it carefully to match the design and so no seam would be apparent.

My quilter zipped out this very cute ornament design for me. I used Superior’s variegated blue King Tut thread for the quilting. In hindsight, maybe white would have been better on top, but that’s the game in quilting, I think. Always learning, always learning.

I have to admit that being a part of the great Finish-A-Long, hosted by Leanne of She Can Quilt really helped motivate me. Now on to the next one!

Update: Original Finish-A-Long post is *here.*

Quilts · WIP

Lollypop Tree Top Finished

March 6, 2013 Elizabeth E.19 Comments

Rhonda and I started talking about this about three years ago, thinking we’d do it together. We’d both admired it, yet were daunted by all the work. Yep, it was a lot of work, but I’m happy to say that I’ve finished the top and ready to start ~~obsessing~~ thinking about the backing and how to quilt this thing.

So I guess you could say my work in progress is ongoing, but I prefer to think of the next phase as different quilt; while in actuality it is the same, I think I’d prefer to swivel around in my chair while I’m grading, gaze at this draped in all its glory on my pinwall, and just enjoy a completed top for a while.

I’m linking up to Lee’s Freshly Pieced Work in Progress Wednesday, guest-hosted by Claire. She has a wild shot of a quilt by an airport control tower that’s worth seeing. Great commentary, too.

But — hallelujah! — tomorrow I’ll have a picture of my first March finish. See you then.

Quilt Shows · Quilts

Road to California Quilt Show 2013—part III

March 5, 2013March 3, 2013 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

This is the final post on the quilts I saw at Road.

Fiesta Mexico was made by Karen Kay Buckley and quilted by Renae Haddadin.

The back was amazing, with all the colored thread. Details of the front are below.

Chromatic Transitions. Rachel Wetzler adapted a late 1800s Minton tile pattern to make her quilt. Four tiles pivoting on center makes one block and there are 25 blocks in the quilt. She played with the placement of values to de-emphasize some shapes and empasize others. Details below.

This quilt fascinated me by the way she appliqued it. Some swirlies were turned-under (freezer paper method?) and then appliqued using a small zig-zag.

And then there’s this section which is raw-edge appliqued. I love the combo of both in one quilt.

Cranes in Motion was made by Gloria Gilhousen and quilted by Jean McDaniel of Oregon. So you’re thinking: nice birds, nice autumny background. And then you realize that the background is all flying geese, set on the diagonal. Clever.

Inspiration came while she was vacationing in Florida where “cranes are ubiquitous and sunsets are an extraordinary visual experience.”

Sheil Frampton-Cooper is the one who put together the Perspectives exhibit where you saw lots of landscapes yesterday. This is her quilt, Fantasyland. She writes: “Created during an emotionally challenging time, working on this quilt was an escape to a fun place. It was my ‘amusement park’ and regardless of what I had to deal with, as soon as I entered my studio and felt its vibrant energy, I was comforted and full of excitement.” She is from California.

I included this quilt because when was the last time you ever saw a cream and green quilt? Green Miles was made and quilted by Peggy Kragnes of Minnesota. She writes that it was made “using green fabrics gathered on a 7,000 mile road tip with patient husband.” No kidding. There are many different fabrics in here and the quilting is wonderful, too. Detail shots below.

Annette Guerrero made two solid-fabric quilts. This first one is titled Convergence.

This quilt is titled Iris.

She included a quote from Emile Zola on her sign: “If you asked me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”

Lily Pad, made by Patti Van Oordt and quilted by Cory Allender (both of St. George, Utah) is a paper pieced design that had its origins in a class by Claudia Meyers. Since I’ve been working on a hexie-shaped quilt for eons, I was interested in how she displayed the pieced hexies against the rusty-orange background.

This little stunner, titled McTangerine Rose, was the 2011 Block of the Month patter by Sue Garman for “The Quilt Show.” Lynn Droege, the maker, added an additional border. It was quilted by Lisa Sipes; both are from Kansas.

For a change of pace, here’s a miniature quilt. Kaye Koler of Ohio, “set out to see how small I could make a log cabin.” Each block is ONE AND ONE-HALF INCHES!! Which means, my thumb (and yours) would just about cover one log cabin. She used 172 different fabrics. All of the miniatures were amazing, but because of the plastic tape, I couldn’t really get in to see them.

Pam Hadfield, from California, saw a trivet in the airport, and used it as inspiration for her quilt We Moost be in Yellowstone. I have a Christmas ornament similar to this from when I visited Yellowstone: a moose filled with designs.

Another exhibit in the show was something called “Power Suits,” and each quilter used their own ideas to depict the theme. I liked some of these very much.

Someday I aim to make a pineapple log cabin quilt!

The annual awarding of The Ugly Quilt came from this exhibit, but this year we had a tie. You’ll find them at the end of this post.

Remember the swirly quilt above in yellows and blues? Well, Rachel Wetzler did it again: Rare Birds is a quilt depicting the six of her friends in a their quilt critique group: (l to r) Denise Havlan, Rachel Wetzler, Annette Hendricks, Beth Gilbert, Ann Fahl and Robbi Eklow. That’s quite a group!

Along the front wall of the ballroom was a Route Sixty-Six quilt. It consisted of large panels with lots of small quilts adhered to the “road,” showing off the sights in the area of the cities along the route. Here are some of the panels, with some close-ups of the mini-quilts as well.

I included this one because my daughter used to live in Kingman Arizona, and I’m pretty sure the movie Cars was based on some of the scenery around there.

We have a giant orange stand like this in Riverside, in our State Citrus Heritage Park.

Let Sleeping Cats Lie, by Cheryl Giovenco (quilted by Sheila Osbrink, both of Corona, California). This quilt is made of 19 different batik fabrics, and was designed by Helene Knott.

Vincent–Haunted Genius was made and quilted by Danna Shafer of Temecula, California and is her interpretation of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” She used fused appliqué, secured with monofilament thread; it was five years in the making. Detail below.

This is for you applique fans. Joan Lebsack made Welcome to My Tea Party, based on a pattern by Verna Mosquera.

The sign next to this quilt was wrong, so I have no idea who made it or what the title is. It’s really lovely.

A couple of years ago (March 2010), there was an exhibit of red and white quilts in New York City, “Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red & White Quilts,” which took us all by storm. Thelma Childers made this quilt as an homage to that amazing show, but also as a way to show many different quilts, and how one might have obscured the other as a person walked through that show. I’m a fan of Thelma’s, so was really excited to see it in person, as I read about on her blog as she made it.

The beautiful quilting is by Connie Lancaster.

This is another Childers’ quilt: Two Score and Seven Stars, and it is quilted by Judi Madsen (both are from Illinois).

Tree of Life, by Allison Lockwood of California, was based on a trip to Thailand, where she was “enthralled with the color and sparkle of Thai Buddhist temples.”

What made this quilt by Gayle Pulley stand out for me was not only the coloring of her hand-painting on a whole cloth, but also where the color isn’t, and how the stitching fills in. Two Tenacious Crows are certainly having their feast in a cornfield.

And now I bring you my truly subjective category: Ugliest Quilt. One is easy and you’ll probably agree with me. This first one, however, may make you howl, especially if you loved this Award-winning Quilt. I couldn’t find anyone who did, so I think there are more that might give me a thumbs’ up on my awarding of this quilt one of two in the Ugly Quilt category.

I like red. I like gold. I’m not opposed to feathers. But I couldn’t make any sense of this one, other than it was one of those quilts that was just a show-off for technique, and not for design, or cohesiveness. It’s made by a couple of big-name artists (I never reveal my Ugly Quilt makers), and while a lot of times I see their quilts up here on Winners Row at Road, this one just made me scratch my head and realize that my puny efforts will NEVER get in, if this is what the winning quilt looks like.

This is just all wrong on so many levels: the art, the composition, the appliqué wads of dyed cotton batting for hair. It has nothing at all to do with the subject matter, just like the quilt above.

I guess I look for quilts that have some intrinsic beauty, when I pick out my favorites, or colorations or design elements that are interesting. I also appreciate technique, but “over” technique is just as big of a sin to me as is “under” technique.

Other observations: The people that hang the quilt show still have that affliction of hanging subjects together, such as all the flowers together, all the birds together, all the zombies together (I didn’t show any but we did have some Halloween quilts) so that you don’t let the quilts interact in a more natural way. Wish that would go away.

I think the show overall was better than last year (it could only go one way), but I was not as charged up about the vendors as I usually am. Perhaps that’s just because I’ve gone too many times and seen everything that is brought to the show (or maybe I have just too projects on the back burner with too many yards of fabric home in the closet). I did buy a bead bracelet (quilt shows are a great place for jewelry), and some solids from Ginger’s, but other than a few bits here and there, it wasn’t a Big Haul. I think the group that we were with didn’t buy as much as usual, either.

I do appreciate having a quilt show nearby, and look forward to Long Beach the first week of August. The best time of all was with my friends–both new and old–eating together, doing Show and Tell, taking a break. See you all next year!

And that’s a wrap for 2013.