Quilts

Cleaning Up the Study/Happy Memorial Day!

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

What my sewing study looked like at the end of the semester, after I’d posted grades.

Way leads on to way. . . getting worse.

Ahhhhh.

Before I exploded the room, I was working on a little quilt design for a quick summery treat.

Here’s the quilt.  It’s titled Summer Treat, but when I was working on it I called it Ice Cream Treat, as those colors look like you could lick them. I threw in a couple of purple triangles just to make things interesting, for I believe that every quilt should have a full range of lights-to-darks.  Just like any good photograph.

Here’s the block.  Since it’s a 12 inch block, this should go together quickly.  I’ll post some templates tomorrow and hopefully a shot of one of my refreshing Summer Treat blocks.  Now that my study’s all cleaned up, it’s time to pull out the fabrics and put that clean space to use.

Happy Memorial Day, or Decoration Day, as my mother calls it.  She and Dad have already started putting flowers on the graves of those relatives who have gone before, adding another one or two each year (everyone gets buried near them–kind of our psychic home away from home).  I appreciate that they honor the original meaning of the holiday, and it makes me think about my grandmothers and my one grandfather who I knew best.

We’ll be heading out to the main street near our house to cheer on thousands of motorcyclists for Rolling Thunder West Coast, an homage to Rolling Thunder, East Coast.  We saw that one when we lived in DC–so many bikes came over that bridge on their way past Lincoln’s Memorial and on to the Mall.  Last year for West Coast Rolling Thunder we had about 4,000 bikers and I waved my little American flag and hollered.  It was great.

Barbeque for us?  Maybe.  Or maybe we’ll just go out for a burger and let others do the grilling for us.  But I’ve already picked up the strawberries for our Summer Strawberry Cake (recipe on my cooking blog).  That’s they beauty of all the children grown–life’s a bit more flexible around the edges.  And of course–some sewing in my nice clean study.

Happy Memorial Day!

WIP

Finally, a Wednesday

Elizabeth E.4 Comments

Finally?  Doesn’t Wednesday come around each week?  Well, yes, but today was the day I gave my final, and I came right home and graded the essays.  Then it’s stew over the grades, which is going on in the background.

While I never usually list all the quilts I want to do, I do like this kid’s approach to his summer.  Some small ideas and some big ones.  I especially like the “attend an outdoor play” and “s’mores.”  I have listed things before on this blog, and it’s pathetic how few of them get done.  But here goes:

I admire those who have a quilt-in-progress to show, but I finished mine!  See yesterday’s post.  Head back over to Lee at Freshly Pieced for more wonderful Works in Progres.

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!