Quilts · WIP

Work (still) in Progress

Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Many thanks to Lee of Freshly Pieced, who hosts a group of quilters hard at work.  Schlep back over to her blog to see others who are working hard. And yes, this week, I am a Work, (Still) in Progress.

I’ve feel like I’ve been hardly working on quilting this week, and boy, does that make me tired and cranky.  Creativity really can nourish the soul–cliche alert–but hey, sometimes cliches fit the bill. Sorry.

I actually have spent many hours on a project that I’m just not ready to show.  It’s not because I’m in a book or something, or that some famous person has asked me to test a pattern.  It’s just me.  Working hard.

But here’s something I will write about.  A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I made a king-sized quilt for my son Matthew and his wife Kim.  They wanted desert colors and liked the log cabin block, so eight billion hours of piecing later, they had a quilt.

Here it is, with Matthew standing on a chair on one side and Dave (my husband) on the other.  Can you spot the turned square (the mistake)?  I didn’t until the moment when I got it back from the quilter, bound it and had these two fine men hold it up.  I died a little, but it’s still there.

I had made extra squares to make them pillow shams, which I did, but then I had a few other squares leftover which I remembered all of a sudden on Friday morning.  I stitched them together, did a pillowcase backing, quilted it, making a fall table runner.

Here’s the backing: Halloweeny fabric.  So now I’m set for both October and November in the decoration department.  I should make some fabulous pumpkins like those on Barb’s blog.  Go and see and tell me you don’t covet them.  Especially the one with the bird’s head.  (Now you have to go and look!)

Good Heart Quilters · Quilts

Quilt Night and Black & White Winners

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

As promised, last night Simone’s daughter Camille helped me pick the winners for the Black and White Giveaway.  I’m terrible at picking winners because I want everyone to win.  So to take it out of my hands and back into the hands of Random (without that hideous Random Number Generator which I am convinced HATES me), I cut up all the names and put the names of my followers/Google readers into my Peter Rabbit lunchbox.

Who is it?

“CSL,” Camille says.  I started laughing.  My friend Tracy asks, “What?”
“That’s my sister,” I said.  “What are the chances?”

I threw in all the names for the next drawing, followers/readers and those who left a comment.

Camille stirred them around several times, then wiggled her hand in deep and pulled out a slip.

“Devon?” she says.  “Who is Devon?”

So, Cynthia and Devon, congratulations!  I can see I need to have more of these now I’ve found a way to draw names with Camille’s help.  Thank you Camille!  UPDATE: I’ve also selected two more winners, surprise!, because you know I just hate to turn anyone away. So check your email to see if you have a message from me.   The prizes?  Another stack of black and white from my own stash, plus a chunk of the Keep Calm and  Quilt On, in colors!  Once I get the photos done, I’ll post those.

Now a look around at Quilt Night.  Caitlin is coming down the home stretch on her Christmas Stockings.  That zig-zag quilt you see in the front?  That’s Deneese’s project.

Here she is with lovely Simone, who finally gave me a real smile so she could get her photo up on the blog (I don’t like to post photos of people with weird expressions, caught in mid-blink, and I seemed to get a lot of those last time.  Simone just moves too fast!).  Deneese is actually celebrating tonight because she made her through her first Potty Training Experience.  That is significant.  Congratulations on your kid’s dry pants, a big moment for the child, but a HUGE moment for the Mom.

This is Bridget’s quilt.

Now she’s back!

Her mom’s quilt is all laid out.  Lisa is another one that moves fast, so I didn’t get a picture of her.  Well, I tried, but the light was lower and so they were all blurry.  Next time.

Tauni also joined us last night, a bit late, so I pulled this photo off of Facebook so you could see what she finished last month: a quilt for her sister-in-law who is battling cancer.  It’s raw-edge appliqué, both in the words and the hearts and flowers.

And that’s Quilt Night for October!

Giveaway · Quilts

Wowsers!

Elizabeth E.10 Comments

I  finished the grading on the above stack of Torture Implements papers.  (But don’t they look nice, all lined up?  You would think I liked to work in rectangles and squares in my time away from the classroom, or something.) So after entering their grades, I turned on the computer and found this:

I smiled.  A great big smile. Wowsers!  100 followers officially here.  Welcome everyone!

I guess that means my blog has now grown up a bit, and can stand up straight on the playground of blogs.  This means I won’t get picked last for softball or kickball and that maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to clap the chalkboard erasers after school. Wait.  Wrong era.  No erasers anymore, right? And probably no chalkboards, either.

But I’m still smiling.

So that gave me energy to do a few leftover quilting tasks.  (Sometimes grading really gets in the way of my life.  How do Sherri and all the other teachers do it?)

I ironed the backing for Summer Treat.  As I was working on this, it struck me on how lucky I am to be working with all this beauty.  I had Harvesting the Wind on the pinwall,  and was ironing the giant cirles of the backing on my fancy-schmancy ironing board cover.  I stepped back and took a shot just to remind myself that when I’m parsing logical fallacies, comma splices and MLA format, I really do have this vivid other life that feeds me.

Pinned Summer Treat on the bed while listening to the presidential campaign debate analysis on NPR.  Nothing like keeping your mind busy while your hands are busy, too.  I plan to work on this quilt, plus a few other things this weekend, when my church has a world-wide conference.  They broadcast this conference twice a year, in April and October, and it’s so nice to quilt and listen and refresh that side of me that needs to think Deep Thoughts occasionally.

Next I dragged out my Polaroid Blocks to finish off.  I’d made 50 and sent off to the swap, and received quite a few interesting and wonderful blocks in return and they’d been sidelined in my studio.

I wanted to work on this partly because Krista of KristaStitched had sent me a few blocks, including a gingham one to remind me of our summer Gingham Giveaway, which truthfully feels like it was a millenium ago.  Or at least a million papers ago. (Am I done complaining about grading?  Not until December 8th, sorry, for that’s when the semester ends, but I’ll try to contain myself.)

She also sent me these two little treats: a scrubbie (but I’m using it for a mug rug) and a sweet teensy little granny square pincushion.  I pinned it up on my wall for my gigantor pins I use (like corsage or hat pins) when I am monkeying around with fabrics.  Thank you, Krista!

One of the steps in Polaroid Blocks is trimming up–we receive them “untrimmed” and so I stood at the table and trimmed up 140+ blocks this evening, while listening to more debate analysis.  It’s been interesting to teach the rhetoric of political speech in my Critical Thinking class this semester.  I’ve had to pay attention a lot more, and be more “critical” in the classic sense about what is said in the campaign.   Five more weeks, everybody.

Here are the blocks in stacks of ten, plus a few pulled out to the side for a Halloween tote bag.  The tilted stack is a few short of ten.  Tomorrow night I plan to work on bordering them for my quilt (I’ve sort of thought up a design.  Sort of).  I’m taking them over to Simone’s where we are having Quilt Night.  One of her daughters likes to look at these, so I’m hoping she’ll help me pair them up by fours, which is what I need for my plan.  A nine-year old brain can often do somersaults around my old brain.

Before I head over there, I’m printing off all the names of those who have entered my black and white giveaway.  So you have until Friday, 5:30 p.m. West Coast time, to enter your name if you haven’t already; click *here* and leave a comment. I’m making two stacks: one with everyone’s name and another one with followers (both here and on Google Reader, if you mentioned it).  I’ll announce the winners Saturday morning, after I rub the sleep out of my eyes and get back to the real world.

But I’ll still be smiling!

EPP · Giveaway · WIP

Quilting Along

Elizabeth E.12 Comments

This is a picture of my latest start of my hexie blocks series, taken in my super-duper photo studio: a piece of batting laid down on the kitchen counter, making sure that I don’t put it near the dishes, or onto any stray bits of gravy.  Other times my photo studio is a bigger piece of batting, laid down on the guest bed upstairs, or if it’s medium-late in the afternoon, I can smooth it out on my pinwall, drag in the torchiere from my husband’s den, prop the other light up on the small stereo speaker on my desk, and make sure I turn on the camera’s flash.

Actually, considering my week, this is a stupendous output.  You know, some weeks are GetMoreDone and some weeks are BarelyQuilting.

Now you know way more than you want to about how things are at my house, but I do want to thank Lee of Freshly Pieced for hosting us on WIP Wednesday, where we all scramble to get something done–or partially done–so we can post it up here and say Yes!  I’m still quilting along!  (I love WIP Wednesdays.)  Click on her name to head back to her blog to read about others who got way more done.

But don’t forget to enter the Almost to 100 Followers Giveaway, on the post just below.  I’m giving away two sets of fat quarters–in black and white–perfect to rustle up some Halloweeny quilting!