Creating

First Quilt Ever

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

Sometimes it’s wise to pause in the headlong rush to completion and busyness and take stock of where you are before you jump off the cliff again, and summer is often a good time to do just that.  I’ve mentioned before that I began to photograph all my quilts.  First I had to make a list, and as people talked to me, I would pencil in another and another.  It’s like forgetting one of the children, but I think I’ve about got everyone.

Occasionally I’ll post about them, and as I do, I’ll catalogue them on my page Quilt Gallery–Body of Work.  Here’s the first quilt I can ever remember making: a whole cloth quilt made from some densely woven Holly Hobby print.

I was pretty clueless about this quilting business, but I had slept under handmade quilts on occasion so our family was not bereft of something original.  I picked out this fabric, layered it over a plain yellow backing with some lumpy batting and put it in a hoop and stitched around nearly each figure.

Why lumpy quilt batting?  They were all lumpy in the early 1970s–big polyester wads that you had to unfold and unfold and smooth out and then stitch fairly closely so it wouldn’t shift in the washing of the quilt.  Decorative edges were the norm; this one has 2″ eyelet ruffling with rounded corners.  I’m pretty sure I stitched it onto the top, then folded the backing over to meet it and whipstitched the edges together.  I wrote about this in an earlier post, and defend its homeliness.

The back.  So different than what’s au courant now.

And here’s the place where I couldn’t figure out how to stop or start–a nice little nub of thread under one of Holly’s shoes.  I think it was about another 5 years before I really figured out that beginning/ending of the thread thing.

I realize that looking at my first quilt is like that old saying about my child’s precious and lovely, and yours is coarse and picks its nose, but I hope that by showing this, you’ll be realize that everyone is somewhere on the quilting spectrum–from beginner to master quilter.  This is where I began, and if you post or write about your first quilt, come on back here and leave a comment so we can see how far you’ve come!

Creating

Churn Dash

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

The first block is finished from the Red/White Challenge!

Sara finished up her Churn Dash block and sent it to me, and she was very happy to have completed her square (she’s a beginning quilter).  I think it looks beautiful–there’s something so simple yet lovely about these two colors put together.

I think the vibrancy of the red, which acts as a dark value, really makes the red/white combination pop.  That old saying “color gets the credit but value does all the work,” applies in this instance.  We think it is because of the red that the block looks so crisp.  But it’s the deeper (a darker value) red that is doing the work, as you can see in the block below.

I’ve simply lightened the red to a medium color.  The block is not nearly as vibrant or interesting.

Red also has its own stories and folklore, from the popular red and green Baltimore Album quilts, to this story, related in the book Wild by Design (Berlow and Crews):

“[A quilter] recalled an instance from her youth in the early twentieth century, when she and her mother traveled to the dry goods store to buy some fabric for hope chest quilts:

‘We had picked three pieces of remnant blue and was just fingerin’ some red calico.  We was jest palnnin’ on enough for the middle squares from that.

‘Just then Papa came in behind us and I guess he saw us lookin’.  He just walked right past us like he wasn’t with us, right up to the clerk and said, “How much cloth is on that bolt?”

‘The clerk said, “Twenty yards.”

‘Papa never looked around.  He just said, “I’ll take it all!”

‘He picked up that whole bolt of red calico and carried it to the wagon.  Mama and me just laughed to beat the band. Twenty yards of red.  Can you imagine?’ ”

And in honor of men who buy red bolts of calico, and help us in all we do, Happy Fathers Day!

——-Update———Two Red/White Challenge Blocks are In!———-

Creating

Lollypop Tree Block Three

Elizabeth E.2 Comments

Yep–I made it to Friday!  Here’s Lollypop Tree Block Three, on a yellow check.  I’m discovering that the more I do these, and am familiar with the different swoops and swirls of the fabric stash I have, the easier it is.  I learned on this block the importance of contrast–light against dark–as well as the idea of balancing geometric/angular designs against the curvilinear/floral designs.  I was kind of worried about that upper middle flower petal.  Although I like the rosebud is intriguing, it does look washed out in the above photo.  It’s a little less so in the real-life version, however.  It cracks me up how many circles I’ve had to make.

Block One has 4 ovals and 27 circles.
Block Two has 2 ovals and 33 circles.
This block has only (!) 2 ovals and 15 circles.  This was faster to lay out and faster to sew.

Total Circle Count: 75 thus far.

I have to say, I really like the softer yellows and the hot pinks.  Making these blocks gives me a chance to explore the world of color in a new way.

And P.S. My husband calls this the Avatar quilt, after all the strange vegetation shown in that movie.  (A botanist at our local university was the consultant, so we feel we have a home-grown tie to all those wild looking plants.)

Quilt Shops

Quilter’s Coop, Temecula California

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Last week I went for a little field trip and visited this shop in downtown Temecula California.  It’s Quilter’s Coop, and I had a great time there.

Joann, shown here helping a customer, is the owner and I had a great time chatting with her about different aspects of her shop.  She proved to me again that most of the shop owners I’ve encountered, as well as people who work there, are friendly and helpful.  And cheerful.  And probably brave and thrifty, too, but I don’t really know about that.

When you walk in the front door, you enter what I came to think of as The Americana Room: full of primitives and reds, whites, and blues and flag quilts and all sort of things to get you in a patriotic mood.  I loved the flag quilt on their deacon’s bench up front, with the use of the different colors for the flag blocks.

Cutting table in the Americana room.

Her table displays are inventive and have a mini-quilt or two, along with some fun antiques.  This fits in with the general tone of downtown Temecula–that of a frontier Western town, with lots of cute shops and antiques.  One of my favorite shops in Temecula is the soda place–with tons of different kinds of soda to choose from (I do like the Route 66 root beer). But I digress.

Here’s the Christmas room, which they were getting ready for the Southern California Quilters’ Run, happening this coming weekend (and next, too). Click on the link to see a map, as well as information about the run on the weekends of June 18th and 25th.

This quilt, titled “The Reason,” is designed by Laural of Simply PutPlus Patterns, who works at Quilter’s Coop (and who cut my fabric for me).  I saw quite a few other patterns I wanted as well.

Next to that was this display of Lighthouse Fabrics, as well as the ironing board.  I must have ironing board covers on my mind, but I picked up a pattern to make myself a new cover.  I’m sure you know by know (after looking at all my pictures of my ironing board cover) that I am in serious need of a new one.  Or maybe I just shouldn’t take anymore pictures of my ironing board.  Either one. . .

Quilter’s Coop has just about everything: holiday fabrics (Halloween, above), a few novelties, a wall of 1930s, a sale room, a room dedicated to creams and white, a corner for batiks–as I was shooting pictures I kept thinking of how to write about this shop.  How about this: they have something for every style of quilter.  Here are the photos to prove it:

I had a great time shopping here, the attitude personified by this sign that hung over the doorway to their classroom.

I loved the look of this–stacks of colorful fabrics, pins hanging from hooks, and the orange cutting mat.

Here’s my takeaway: the ironing board cover, a selection of brights, and fun prints–including a lovely fabric from Japan.  If you go there, they are on the corner of 3rd and Old Town Front Street, across from the market.  They have a parking lot next to their store.