Sawtooth Mania • Queen Bee February 2020

February 1, 2020January 29, 2020 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

I sat down one day to draw up a simple sawtooth block. Thirty-five variations later, I got up. Really, it’s all the same 8-inch block, but it is what’s inside that 4-inch square in the middle that makes it fun. As Queen Bee of the mighty Gridsters this month, I am looking for some Sawtooth blocks from my bee-mates. I’m calling it:

And like any beauty pageant there’s always a first phase; after looking at all of the first thirty-five, I’ve winnowed it down to these 25 semi-finalists.

I’ve left more explicit directions on our Bee Spreadsheet, but have fun choosing your favorite block to draw. Indicate which one it is on our sheet, and I’ll send you some templates. Remember, I only want ONE from you, so choose your favorite. And the reason why?

Not only do I have a specific layout, involving just twelve blocks, it’s also because I want a different signature block: a Tiny Envelope block (also found here). More instructions and information are given on the spreadsheet, but here’s the download for the instructions for the 6-inch envelope block:

Tiny Envelope Flier

Gridsters: Remember to make it in the same color as your Sawtooth Center, but to use PRINTS that match your solid, with the exception of the white center. Cut that from the fabrics that are coming your way for your Sawtooth Stars.

Everyone else: Feel free to use or borrow these sawtooth ideas. Pattern coming soon for all of them.

Fabric Collage at Road

January 22, 2020January 21, 2020 Elizabeth E.18 Comments

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593) was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books. He painted representations of these objects on the canvas, arranging them in such a way that collection of objects formed a recognizable likeness of the portrait subject. (found online)

Azulejos at Road — *Above, the main hallway, with quilts from our Inland Empire Modern Quilt guild.*

I had my own turn at playing Arcimboldo this past Monday at Road to California, in a collage class taught by Laura Heine.

Heine_Class

We arrived at the hotel ballroom, purchased our kits, and started fusing fabric to Steam a Seam 2. But of course, only one iron worked. Soon, Laura had rustled up irons from ballrooms that were vacant, so we were in business.

Heine_Class1

Then we started cutting and cutting and cutting. After lunch she showed us how to start laying out our cut pieces using the pattern shape to help keep us organized. It was a challenge. It made me think of Arcimboldo, but I also remembered when I was a teenager in Lima, Peru and the only way we could decorate our walls (big posters hadn’t really been invented yet, for teenagers’ rooms) was to lay out cut out pieces from fashion magazines onto a piece of newspaper, and carefully cover the newsprint to create some sort of art, one piece at a time. My sister, Christine, excelled at this, but soon all four of us were creating collages, guided by her teaching.

Tokyo Face Collage

Here are two more collages that my husband and I glimpsed in a store window in the Ginza area of Tokyo a couple of years ago.

Tokyo Face Collage2 Tokyo Face Collage 2_side

Here it is, from the side.

Heine_Class2

Slowly, the bears around the classroom started to take shape.

Arcimboldo-flora-1589

This is Arcimboldo’s portrait titled “Flora,” a lovely lady made all of flowers…just like I was trying to do with my bear in a classroom at Road to California.

Arcimboldo Winter

His Four Seasons are some of his more well-known works; above is Winter. I kept thinking of the version I’d seen in more recent memory: a giant sculpture in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Arcimboldo in 3D, rendered by Philip Hass in pigmented and painted fiberglass.

Heine_Class California Bear

And here is my bear. Arcimboldo would be proud of me. However, I still have the backgrounds to do.

LauraHeine_Bear

Here’s the class sample. It is evident I have a lot of work to do yet, but Heine’s artful versions of fabric collage are much more inticing that stacks of vegetables, or retail items. It was a good but busy day; Heine was a lovely teacher who encourages her students onward.

Monday marked the official opening of Road to California 2020. I have two Jen Kingwell classes (Wednesday and Thursday) and Thursday is the day that the show opens, and I’ll be able to finally glimpse my three quilts hanging in the show this year! Then Friday is the night I get to hear Jenny Doan in an evening lecture. Lisa and three friends are coming in from Utah, Afton is arriving tomorrow from New Mexico, and I’ll get to meet up with lots of new and returning friends from around the area.

I love Road week!

Free Motion Quilting · Free Quilt Pattern · Gridsters

Tiny Envelope & More Blocks

January 19, 2020January 19, 2020 Elizabeth E.20 Comments

Gridsters January 2020

It all started, this idea of Tiny Envelopes, when a) I came down with a bad cold and everything I’d ever done in the world seemed lame and stupid, and b) Carol, our Gridster Queen Bee for January had us all make wee televisions for our signature blocks, in order to match up the larger block of Lori Holt’s vintage TV.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate on the first reason, but this is my THIRD cold of the season, and I am sick and tired of being sick-and-tired. And I live in sunny Southern California, and no one ever feels sorry for you in the winter.

Then, last night, when the cold and sniffles had interrupted my sleep and I lay there, pondering this (can you tell I’ve been watching Jane Austin’s Sanditon on PBS, where they belabor every point, and examine everything to the point of madness?), following in Carol’s footsteps seemed the way to go.

Tiny Envelope

This little 6″ finished block will be my signature block for when it’s my turn, which is coming right up next month. Last fall I spent many hours making a variety of my chosen bee block in my quilt program, in preparation for my turn at Queen Bee.

And it was that, which all of a sudden seemed so inane. So last night this made perfect sense.

Tiny Envelope Illustration

So here are my instructions for making Tiny Envelope blocks, in downloadable PDF form (it’s slightly different than the illustration above):

Tiny Envelope Flier

(The usual caveats apply: don’t download for classes, parties, or your best friend. Please send them here to this blog to get their own copy.)

Here are a slew of pictures to go along with the Tiny Envelope blocks flier:

TinyEnvelope_1

All the bits.

TinyEnvelope_2

I sewed one slender envelope strip on one side, trimmed it; then repeated the process. Press.

TinyEnvelope_3

Now take that square that you cut in half and sew to one side, letting the tip of one side of the triangle extend 1/4″ past the edge. The other side will really extend. (Pay this no mind.)

TinyEnvelope_4

Sew the other side on. You can see the 1/4″ bit of the tip extending on the upper left side. Thankfully, it does the same on the bottom. Stitch, trimming off that excess first triangle.

TinyEnvelope_5 TinyEnvelope_6

Now for the background. Same idea. Look for 1/4″ on the lower right edge, and let the rest of the triangle flow off the top.

TinyEnvelope_7

Sew the other triangle on. Trim and press.

TinyEnvelope_8

The sides were bugging me. I laid a 4″ ruler, so that the 45-degree angles matched up perfectly with my inner envelope, and trimmed both sides.

TinyEnvelope_9

I sewed on the strips for both sides, then evened up the top, too.

TinyEnvelope_10

Lower strip is on. True the whole thing up to 6″ square, or leave it for me to do when you send it. Either is fine. And also for my Gridsters, use a background that is lively (no low-volume stuff), but that still reads “light,” like this one. The envelope part will match the color of your eventual choice next week. Like that makes any sense, but soon it will. The rest of you can just make fun little envelope blocks.

In other ~~news~~ blocks…

Tri-Ball

My friend Simone designs new and interesting blocks for our chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild. This is the Tri-Ball block that’s coming up to submit to the March drawing. I really love this one!

Extra HSTs from Tri-Ball

Snowball Triangle Example

Since this has some snowball corners, if you double-sew that seam 1/2″ apart, then cut in between the two lines of stitching, you can get some fun HSTs.

Orange Fields HSH

I’m also re-writing, re-freshing my Home, Sweet Home pattern, and changed up some of the construction techniques, so I made up a new version. I call this my Orange Grove Houses, especially now that its January and all the citrus is popping out in Southern California!

Quilted My Small World

Lastly, before this cold hit, I was able to finish up the quilting on My Small World. It’s good to hit the pause button now and again, to enjoy the (here comes my Jane Austin voice) fruits of our labors, the blessing of our handiwork.

Now I’m going back to the bed to practice some fainting and work on handling those nasty spells that come over a Victorian woman. But boy, do I love all the clothes they wear. It’s worth watching that show, if only to catch a glimpse of Miss Heywood’s dress with the pineapple sleeve caps!

sanditon-charlotte-heywood-sidney-parker-1571036275.jpg

Happy Quilting!

Quilts

Temperature Quilt Top • January 2020

January 15, 2020November 26, 2023 Elizabeth E.22 Comments

One-thousand-ninety-five triangles along with six rectangles make up the face of this heat map quilt, cataloging the temperatures and rainfall of Riverside, California in 2019. I have no plans to make another, but I was pretty proud of myself for keeping up with this, faltering only in my crazybusy November to December (finishing those two months in the first few days of January — which is why I couldn’t get the holiday decorations down until January 7th).

temp colors and chart — **UPDATED DECEMBER 2023:** The fabric line I use is called Painter’s Palette by Paintbrush Studios. You can purchase the full line by the yard at Keepsake Studios. Of the four numbers written at the top of the fabric square, the color numbers are the three numbers written on the right side. The first number is for cataloging.

Here is the original Temperature Quilt Key, for those on IG who keep asking for it (it lives here, on the blog); it was first published early in the year, outlinging my intents and purposes.

The un-adorned face of the quilt, today in my sewing room.

I’m thinking of a narrow border before I begin to add other blocks around this quilt, to make it a bit larger.

I embroidered the temps on the corresponding triangles in my Temperature Quilt Key.

I have a lot of triangles leftover, so I thought I’d sew them together, fit them into a pattern, somehow, and sew them on the outside. Seoul Korea Triangle Doorway

I guess I have in mind the doorway we saw in Seoul, triangles everywhere.

Thought I’d flash up here a photo of me with four of my amazing granddaughters. I have two more, just as far away. They make me look young.

Danielle agreed to help me lay out the interior of my North Country Patchwork Quilt. I finished all the interior pieces; now on to the rings.

While this shows just the sky quilted, I have now finished the quilting on My Small World. I’m still looking for a good title for this quilt, but My Small World is such a great shorthand. I’m determined to have it finished by Road to California, as I’m in two different classes taught by Jen Kingwell, who created this quilt. Yep, I want her to sign a label. Which means I have to get the binding on, then make the label.

Finished this, too, just about the time I finished up the quilting. I could listen to narrator on this audio book read the phone directory, she’s that good, but the novel is wonderful by itself.