200 Quilts

Snapshot!

Elizabeth E.12 Comments

I present. .  . Snapshot!

This is where I’ve been for a while, trying to work out the kinks of this crazy idea I had for my Polaroid Quilt Blocks.  I didn’t use them all, so at the end of this series of how to make this quilt, (it will take a couple of days, sorry–but there are lots of photos), I’ll have a little surprise drawing to get you started on your Polaroid Quilt.  Watch for it.

It all started here.  I made a few and joined the swap group run by Debbie of A Quilters Table, and soon had over a hundred of these very cute little Polaroid Blocks.  So I HAD to do something with them but everyone was showing this:

or this:

. . . which are both very cute, but I wasn’t keen about bordering each block. So late one night when I couldn’t sleep, I decided I would try to figure out how to do TWO blocks at once.  So I did.  First, if you haven’t made some Polaroid Blocks, start here:

It takes just five easy steps, repeated over and over, to get a batch going.  And please press all seams AWAY from the center square.  I have some fabric in one of my Polaroid blocks, cut from one of my first sewing projects when I was a child–a Barbie doll dress.  I found that dress (really nothing more than a tube with gathering for the waist), took it apart and fussy cut a piece from it.  So have fun as you gather your centers.

As for the white, I used KONA white.  I do like KONA’s other neutrals, but this quilt just needed that bright white.

Here I’ve lined up the centers, sewn the 1″ by WOF (Width of Fabric–a shorthand way of saying, cut a strip from selvage to selvage) on one side, then the other and now I’m cutting them apart.

The top goes on now, and then I’ll cut a 1 1/2″ by WOF strip and sew that on the bottom.  That’s what makes the Polaroid “look.”

And. . . here I’m trimming them down to 3″ across by 3 1/2″ in length.  I’m using the center block as my guide, placing the 1″ mark of the ruler on that edge (note that my blocks are upside down), then centering the ruler for the 3″ in width.  Press them all again.  One quilter’s blocks were starched pretty heavily and hers didn’t ravel as much as the others, so if you like spray starch, now’s a good time.

This quilt measures 52″ wide by 64″ long.  It has three borders surrounding the four stacks of double-Polaroid blocks.  I tried to use interesting centers for my Polaroid blocks, along with the swap blocks I found most interesting.  Here’s the basic ingredients:

For blocks:
about 1  yard blue
about 1  yard green
104 Polaroid blocks (have a few more, as when you are matching them together, you’ll need some options)

NOTE: Sorry to be so inexact; I’ve measured and measured and this is what I’ve come up with (well, actually I’ve come up with that you need 31″) but I don’t want you to run out of fabric, so get that extra.

For the print border:
1 and 1/2 yards–you are buying for the length.  If you don’t care to put your border on the straight-of-grain, buy 1/2 yard.
I used a yard of fabric, but ended up piecing it, so if you want it all in one piece, buy at least a yard and one-half.

For the white border:
You MUST cut this on the straight of grain for the center strips of the quilt and the first borders.  The joined quilt blocks are all slightly skewed off grain and you need something to stabilize them.  So buy about 2 yards white, but MORE if you are going to buy for the Polaroid blocks (and you’re on your own for that one).

But peeeples!  You NEED a good white fabric hanging around your sewing room, so do what I do: buy it in five-yard lengths.  I should really do what Cindy does: she buys it by the bolt.

Now print out these two PDFs: one is “right-leaning,” and the other is “left-leaning.”  rightleaning  leftleaning  Just keep them hanging around until you need them.

Next post I’ll start on the construction of the blocks, but here’s a couple more pictures of my Snapshot quilt lounging around the backyard.  For some reason, our summer just won’t quit.  Here in Southern California we have something called the Santa Ana winds, and they are hot blowy hair-dryer-feeling winds that come out of the desert.  It makes us all cranky to be doing HOT SUMMER, when everyone else is doing pumpkins and fall leaves and crisp apples.  But it does make for nice pictures of quilts, resposing on the rose bushes, which still have blooms.

NEXT UP: Constructing the Double-Polaroid Blocks.

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!