Family Quilts · Quilt Shows

Bloggers’ Quilt Festival

Elizabeth E.15 Comments

A long long time ago, back when little girls wore Mary Jane shoes and babies wore white high-top leather lace-ups, and Easter hats were required when wearing dotted swiss voile dresses, there were four little girls.  This story is about the two youngest: me (the baby girl) and my sister Susan, (standing next to me).

My two older sisters were, well–older, which meant that Susan and I were left to our own devices, desperately seeking to be older ourselves, to crack that inner circle of mystery and intrigue that belongs to older women.  Even if they were four and six at the time.

New Journeys

Fast forward about 55 years.  And to a 60th birthday for my sister Susan.  I thought it was quilt-worthy, to finally obtain that title of Older Woman, but not in the feeble, grandma-hunched-over sort of Older Woman.  More like the energetic, full-professor, world traveler, amazing knitter sort.  And my sister Susan is all of those.

So I made her a quilt with the block pattern of Crossed Canoes, because it holds many meanings for her.  Not only has she canoed/portaged/survived the Boundary Waters of Minnesota multiple times, she is a steadying sort for her husband as he faces a battle for newly-diagnosed cancer.  I titled it New Journeys, because at age 60, she is heading into a new kind of boundary waters, slipping into a different kind of journey at her age of exploring new horizons, managing new experiences, and always, learning to read the surroundings for how to thrive.  She will excel at that last one, as she always has.

I told my sister Cynthia–that next little girl up the line in her Easter dress–that I was making Susan a quilt, and did she want to contribute?  She did and I was glad, for then this quilt can be a hug from both of us in days to come. Bon Voyage and Happy Birthday!

New Journeys, back

Here’s the block.  It’s not to scale, but supposedly the PDF file is (click here: Crossed Canoe 10).  I chose to make my canoes a little wider than longer, as I wanted to showcase the French General fabrics (plus a few others from my stash).  My block measures 10″ square and the quilt is a nice “hug” or lap quilt size.  I hope Susan gets many hugs from it!

Click *here* to return to Amy’s Creative Side: Bloggers’ Quilt Festival 2012 to see other amazing quilts (and read some very cool stories).

Quilts · Something to Think About

Gingham Dresses

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

A few years ago, my granddaughter wore this Dorothy blue-gingham dress for trick-or-treating, a gift from her grandmother on the other side of the family (and a hand-me-down from her older sister).  A classic.

A couple of years later, her younger sister wore it on her trick-or-treating forays, and the youngest granddaughter from that family will probably wear it also in a couple of years.

What is it about this blue gingham dress?  What is it about gingham?  Since I’ve been on an gingham jag, several have left comments that indicate there’s a certain nostalgia for this fabric.  It seems to be associated with childhood, easier times, a dress that had lots of gathers, a dress with a big bow in the back.  Gingham always looks crisp, clean and fresh.  Gingham just has that certain something that reminds of us when we were children, of when staying out until after dark was a delicious treat as we played Hide and Seek, or Red Rover-Red Rover.

Gingham was for dress-up occasions, like Easter Sunday.  There’s an old home movie of three of us sisters all decked out in gingham dresses, with white rickrack along the neckline and armholes.  Mine was pink, Susan’s was blue, Cynthia had a large gingham on in a blue color and Christine, my eldest sister, was apparently too old for gingham as she wore a simple shift.  The quality of the movie was spotty, as home movie cameras were a new thing, the focus flitting as from person to person.  (My parents were just trying to learn this new technology, only they didn’t call it that–it was a great new invention!)  But gingham is ageless, and like Simone, in the earlier posts, when we throw on some gingham it carries with it not only its history (back to England) but also our particular group of memories and associations.

For me, it will always be that pink gingham dress, flounced and tied with a big fat bow at the back, worn on hot summer days.  Or the backing for my second son’s baby quilt–the large blue check a counterpoint to the colorful sashed nine-patches.  Or the flip side of my daughter’s baby quilt, those pink gingham checks making her soft skin glow in those few baby pictures I have of her.

Or perhaps, after this, it will be this summer, with its events and hot days, as I cut and sew new memories with new friends.  Come and sew some gingham with us!

WIP

WIP-Gone All Ginghamy

Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Many thanks to Lee, of Freshly Pieced, for hosting us on WIP Wednesdays.  At least I HOPE she’s hosting us today, as I know she had plans to head to market.  Be sure to head back over there to enjoy our weekly quilts-in-progress.

It’s not a big surprise I’ve had gingham on my mind.  But today I actually wanted to dive into the fabrics and sew with them, so above is my work in progress (need the binding and the hanger) for today.  The quilting idea comes from Canoe Ridge Creations.

I didn’t find much difference in sewing with the all-cotton ginghams I’d ordered from Fabric.com versus the lighter-weight vintage ginghams (which are surely a blend of polyester and cotton).  The vintage (and what you’ll get at JoAnn’s) fabric content leads them to be less tightly woven so you’ll not want to do a binding with them, for instance, but I found them fine for general piecing.

The other night I went to a baby shower.  One of the guests — our friend Simone — wore gingham.  My friend Leisa nudged me and said, “Look!  Gingham!”  Simone says she has a blue gingham shirt, too.

One of the challenges is thinking about the kinds of quilts that would work well with this fabric.  I don’t want anything with too many seams, as the constant subdividing of the checks might drive me batty.  However, having said that, I don’t really fuss about it if they are slightly off-grain, as it gives the piece a bit more energy.  (Did you notice the slightly-off grain “geese” up top in my mini-quilt?  Didn’t think so.)

I’ve been collecting a few ideas on Pinterest, finding it a handy place to stash quilts I run across. I also know I want to make a quilt with lots of white in it, to give it a light, fresh summery feeling.

from Rubyru Quilts and Makes 

from Fussy Cut 

But I have to admit I have my heart set on a bowtie quilt (imagine this one in white background with cheerful ginghams everywhere).  Krista, my partner in crime over at KristaStitched already has her idea all picked out!  We’re both hoping we can entice Cindy of Live a Colorful Life to come and play with us too.  Stay tuned.

Watch for our giveaway of three packets of gingham fat quarters (plus half-yard of Kona white in each) coming soon.

Quilts

Gingham!

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

It all started when. . .

I went to a gigantor garage sale and found boxes of fabric, and tons of gingham.  Gingham?  I hadn’t used or sewn with gingham for years.  I sent some to Krista, of KristaStitched and she suggested we do something fun this summer with our gingham.  One thing led to another and last week a box showed up at my house with some more gingham, woven this year:

Gingham is an interesting fabric because it’s not printed, it’s woven.

Here’s some printed fabrics–we call them checks because there’s only two colors.  In gingham, there’s three.

Check on the bottom, gingham (blue and chocolate brown) on the top.

I call them yarn-dyed, because the color is not applied, like it is in printed cottons, but the yarns are dyed the color present in the gingham, in this case some aqua and some chocolate brown yarns were woven to give us that “checked” appearance so typical of this fabric. The blue yarns overlapping the blues give the solid blue color and ditto for the browns.  But when the blues and the browns intersect, you get that half-toned looking square with both colors in it.  This also means that there is no right or wrong side to ginghams, which when I started to make my paper pieced block (in the Gingham Giveaway logo) I didn’t have to worry about that at all.  And that was one complicated little paper-pieced block.  You can find it here.

The new cottons are 100% cotton, made for traditional and modern sewers.  Okay, so when that box arrived, I thought . . . what was I thinking?  Way too much to use all myself, so Krista and I thought we’d have a Gingham Giveaway.

But it’s not just any giveaway–we want you to play along, and make something gingham-y for yourself and for all of us to see.

So I put together some packets of 3 fat quarters of gingham and a full half-yard of Kona White cotton.  If you are selected in the giveaway, you agree to make a quilt–or a quilt block–or four quilt blocks–or a mini-quilt–or something along those lines with your ginghams.  We’d ask that you then post it up on your blog linking back to both Krista and my blogs.  That’s all!

Dates: The Gingham Giveaway will be held early in June.  We’ll let you know when to leave a comment on our blogs, but we’d like you to be thinking about it.  We’ll announce those who want to play along with us, and because gingham is so picnic-Americana-looking, we ask that you blog about your block(s) or your quilt top on Wednesday July 4th.

Because this is a summer fun project, we don’t need your quilt to be quilted, or your blocks to be finished.  We just want you to have some fun with some ginghams and play, play, play!

Check back. . . or should I say. . . gingham back!