Village Houses: Joybells Ring in Heaven’s Street

July 23, 2012July 1, 2022 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

When I was at our sewing group, Lisa brought out her “house” quilt, the earliest group quilt that we’d attempted together. You saw hers. Here’s mine:

Quilt #28

We had the common fabrics to use of the fairy print (on navy) and the pink striped (shown in some of the houses).

And here we are: Tracy, Lisa, Susan (who has moved away) and me, all holding up our quilt squares. I love how they are all laid around the sofa everywhere. And I love seeing that houses quilt in the background (#14 on my 100 quilts list, made 10 years earlier in 1988).

Detail. I wanted it to have bits and pieces of a neighborhood so I included those things in each deep border above and below the houses. I guess at the time it had significance, as I notice some World Wide Web fabric there (the earth globe above). The internet was just getting popular then — seems like a millenium ago.

This one’s my house. I guess my fairy was tired and lay down on the front walkway.

I entered into Road to California in 2000; here’s what I wrote on the entry form:

As I was designing all the houses, I tried to include a wide variety of styles, to illustrate the diversity of a street in Heaven, a celestial neighborhood that would be knit together in love and faith. In the upper and lower borders, I placed activities that the people in the houses might do: getting together with friends, outdoor activities, celebrating holidays, and of course, quilting. The name of this quilt comes from an old saying that explains that when a child is given a home, “Joy-bells ring in Heaven’s street.”

You know those things you buy at quilt shows, like the panel above. Whenever are you going to use them, if not for backs?

Okay, here’s a few of the houses. The links underneath each illustration are templates for each house. They are PDF download files, but I’d ask you to remember that since I was a novice at this software at that time, they aren’t perfect. Some have a lot of pieces, others are more streamlined. A mix is best, if you’re making a village.

1930s Prairie House ESE

Classes · Quilt Shows · Quilts

Long Beach Quilt Festival: Getting Ready

July 22, 2012July 23, 2012 Elizabeth E.2 Comments

I believe in taking classes, when they interest you or teach you a new skill. I’m headed to the Long Beach International Quilt Festival (or LB-QuiltCon, as I like to call it) and I’m taking three classes: two from Karen Stone and one from Kaari Meng, of French General. Here are snapshots of the projects:

I discovered today that there is a Preview Night on Thursday night, where we get access to the quilt displays, vendors plus they have a Take-It-Make-It sort of set up of learning new skills. I finally got organized this afternoon, printing out class supply lists, which led me to notice one curious thing. I need no fabrics for the Stone classes, but did have to pay for a kit. And they’ll have sewing machines for us to use (and charge us for, of course). When I went to Houston a few years ago, I dragged a roller suitcase full of fabric with me to each of the classes I took. What a change.

What a very nice change. (I may sneak some of my fabrics in anyway.)

Creating · Quilts · Textiles & Fabric

Working in a Series

July 21, 2012 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

I think part of my discouragement this week was fatigue. I’m working a stack of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. There’s probably 40 to 50 different fabrics that I’ve collected over the years, and in this pattern it’s a challenge to get the fabrics to talk to each other within the block.

I can see, though, that working in a series has improved my ability to see what works, as I change out the leaves and some other smaller pieces, as well (above). I found that I was less enamored of one of the earlier blocks, but it was already appliqued down and I would have been crazy to mess with it.

Here’s the final version of that block.

But I did mess with this one. The brightly colored circles with red in them are a different line of fabric, Amy Butler, and they stand out among Kaffe’s florals. (Although I am using some Phillip Jacobs, and others from the Westminster line.)

I think the Anna Maria Horner fabric does harmonize well in terms of detail and color (the aqua circles at the top, and the second large circles down from the top, with feathers and berries).

All in all, I am glad I pushed on. I do love looking at them on the pin wall, although now I’ve turned my eye toward the borders — with more design decisions. When I went to the Springville, Utah quilt show last summer, a version of this Kim McClellan pattern was done up in softer greens, a lovely quilt and a contrast to the bolder hues usually seen. In this, you can see the border design.

It was certainly deserving of its blue ribbon.

And you are all blue ribbon readers–many thanks again for your encouragement!

Something to Think About

Better Than Chocolate

July 20, 2012 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

You are all better than chocolate.

You are all better than giving in to discouragement.

In other words, you are all good company through the Quilt Swamp, and I was gratified and encouraged by your comments — thank you, thank you.

So I persevered today, made more difficult by the news from Colorado as I worked slowly, clicking on CNN or NPR or whatever news outlet I could find. It touched us also closer to home, as the troubled young suspect went to our local Big U as an undergrad, where my husband is chair of the Department of Neuroscience. And whose emailbox and phone message box was filled with requests from major news organizations and newspapers for more information. The Big U’s media office handled all requests, of course, but that something so far away from us can reach out into our lives made me think hard today, and I’m sure you all did the same. My sympathy and prayers are with the families of those who were injured and slain, but also with the suspect’s family.

So, with a grateful heart for your nice and helpful comments, I wanted to show you what steady work in my studio produced. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more comments on some of the process. But tonight, give someone an extra hug. And send out a thought and a prayer out for those who are suffering.