Sewing

My Small World • Section 3 & 4

November 6, 2019January 4, 2024 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

I know you are thinking, no — praying — that someday soon I will be through with This Quilt, and believeyoume, you are not the only one hoping and praying that I can add it to my list of Three Hard Quilts of 2019 to be completed. I’ve finished two Hard Quilts and I’m determined not to put any other quilt up on that design wall until I slay this Patchwork Dragon.

So I’m here to report progress: Section Three AND four are finished, hallelujah, but I’m celebrating probably less than you are because I have two more sections to go and I get stuck on the smallest things.

Like the flying geese in Section Three.

The approach I took the first time I ~~made~~ started this quilt was to pull every fabric out of my cupboards, strew them around and clip a square of this or a square of that and piece it into this quilt.

I occasionally try that approach again. Which doesn’t work, again.

The best approach is to see what you’ve already thrown into the first two sections, then replicate that, either via color/value or the actual fabric, if you can find it the mess. The completed flying geese, above — which you can see is sort of an amalgam of all the geese I tried.

I’m finding the paper piecing templates from Sarah of SewWhatSherlock very helpful, if you want to get yourself a set.

I also learned that I am truly stuck, lunch helps. And maybe read the newspaper. And then start in on the big shapes, letting the detritus come later.

I can work in new bits here and there, like this woman with her bird.

Or some fun repeated shapes, the appliquéd half-circle echoed in the fabric. I can’t decide if this yellow is a fancy front window, or two hidden doors, camoflauged, or a re-planted tunnel under this European-style gate to the city.

Then I charged into Section Four — and why not? the whole sewing room is already a disaster — hand-sewing clamshells and fussy cutting blocks, and cutting multiples of the lower section strips but finally deciding, and now these sections are sewn together: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4.

To recap:

My motto: Making progress, square inch-by-square inch.

My Small World Quilt, a pattern by Jen Kingwell.
Mess in the sewing room, by Elizabeth Eastmond (me).

Something to Think About

Making: Another view

October 31, 2019October 31, 2019 Elizabeth E.16 Comments

Recently I attended a lecture by David Taylor (at PIQF), which was humorous and interesting. One interesting fact was, that while he did these incredible quilts with very detailed applique and quilting — most taking about a year to complete, when he was at home when he wanted to relax, he did very different work for himself. He worked on the Piecemakers’ Calendars.

(A photo of his Christmas Chickadee is on the left.)

My husband and I had just had a discussion about this, about how I, as a pattern maker and creator of original quilts, sometimes make other people’s patterns. I had a hard time explaining myself, for both facets of my quilty life give me much pleasure. Why wouldn’t I alway make my own designs? I have tons more ideas than what you’ve seen, many more ideas to explore.

So I was intrigued by David Wu’s article titled “In Praise of Mediocrity.” His opening lines hooked me: “I’m a little surprised by how many people tell me they have no hobbies. It may seem a small thing, but — at the risk of sounding grandiose — I see it as a sign of a civilization in decline. The idea of leisure, after all, is a hard-won achievement; it presupposes that we have overcome the exigencies of brute survival. Yet here in the United States, the wealthiest country in history, we seem to have forgotten the importance of doing things solely because we enjoy them.”

Wu goes on to say that he believes it is because we afraid “of being bad” at our hobbies. If all the joggers are supposed to be marathoners-in-training, or all the painters supposed to be the next Rembrandts, that places the pressure of linking our identity to our hobby, with the result that we feel “you’d better be good at it, or else who are you?”

I just finished the last of my Guild visits for the year, and from early on this year, I worked into my lecture a quilt that I think it a distinct “failure,” on so many levels: the colors don’t work, the pattern is good, but the fabric choices are all wrong, the quilting is meh. But I show it in among my fancier quilts just to say that not every quilt is a home run, and most quilts don’t make it into the top ten of national shows.

Wu notes that in always striving to be excellent in our hobbies, it becomes more like work. We lose “the gentle pursuit of a modest competence, the doing of something just because you enjoy it, not because you are good at it….But alien values like ‘the pursuit of excellence’ have crept into and corrupted what was once the realm of leisure, leaving little room for the true amateur.”

The people in my quilt workshops are always comparing their efforts with my samples, some of those sample having been made multiple times, so they are fairly free from errors. The result is that I often leave them up on the front table when I’m chatting with the students about color choices, or design choices, wanting to see what they want to put where, what colors they want to make their quilts.

If we, or our students, or the women at retreats, or the neighbors around the small sewing circle feel like we have to be excellent at everything we do, isn’t this like being “trapped in a cage whose bars are not steel but self-judgment”? Wu does not think that becoming good at something is terrible: “I don’t deny that you can derive a lot of meaning from pursuing an activity at the highest level. I would never begrudge someone a lifetime devotion to a passion or an inborn talent. There are depths of experience that come with mastery.”

I want all my students to want to sew, to enjoy the process. So what if the quilt doesn’t ever leave your bedroom? Is it less wonderful if it never gets into a show? It hopefully is the making that is the pleasure, or as Wu puts it: “a real and pure joy, a sweet, childlike delight, that comes from just learning and trying to get better,” finding “exaltation in the mere act of doing.”

Happy quilting!

Guild Visits

Citrus Belt Quilters Guild Visit • October 2019

October 25, 2019 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

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The Citrus Belt Quilters Guild offered their members one of my Two-for-One Classes this week, and since it was October, several of the workshop members went for a Halloween themed mini-quilt. We worked on Merrion Square and Home Sweet Home, which are available in my PayHip shop. Below are some of the quilts in progress:

When Hollie started hers, it became a challenge to see how the value was spread around the circle of house blocks: orange and purple can both read as medium-valued when you look at them. By switching the camera’s settings to Noir or Silvertone, we could spot the value shifts and distribute them more evenly.

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Linda brought a pile of door pieces, and we had fun distributing them around her circle of houses.

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Tessa had pre-cut all her pieces, and was nearly done by the end of class.

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Now Linda has added her bushes, using her own hand-dyed fabric. That green — a perfect floating of a color — livened up her composition.

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By the end of class, Lorraine, with nails to match, had created a spooky Halloween neighborhood, with lots of really fun details.

Citrus Belt Quilt Guild Workshop

We had a great time in class–thanks, ladies!

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I arrived about 45 minutes early to the next day’s guild meeting, and the nice ladies there set up the quilt frames and my quilts for me while I put all my programs out on the chairs. That done, I walked around to see all the program tables.

This Guild, which is celebrating its 39th year this year, runs a full and varied program from “Sew What” (sewing items for sale) to a Charity program with this month’s Angel Tree for foster children, to the other items seen here.

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Because their workshops are the day before their meeting, a group of quilters finished their house mini quilts and showed them off to the guild. Of course, I loved this part!

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Some made Home, Sweet Home. Here is Sheryl’s; while she wasn’t able to come yesterday because of worries about the fires in the canyon near her home, she sewed along with us in spirit, using vintage fabrics. I’m glad her electricity stayed on — because of the fires, many are losing power.

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Linda finished up her Merrion Square, minus a border of the aqua dot and binding of the stripes. She has been to Merrion Square in Dublin, and used the stripes to echo the wrought iron fence that runs around the square.

Well done, everyone!

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After hearing from all the Program Chairs, they broke for birthday cake.

I liked the tiny hats women wore in honor of Halloween. I need to get one of those, for sure. And then it was my turn. This guild was most responsive and enthusiastic, and I appreciated the interest they had in my quilts and my stories.

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Thank you Citrus Belt Quilters for inviting me!

Quilt Shows

Pacific International Quilt Festival • 2019

October 21, 2019January 4, 2024 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

But first!

I’ll be speaking and giving a workshop locally, at the Citrus Belt Quilters Guild. The lecture, titled Abecedary of Quilts, will be on Friday morning, October 25th. The Workshop, which is a Two-for-One class (Home, Sweet Home and Merrion Square) will be Thursday, October 24th. This is my last local presentation, and the last for this year; I’m excited to meet all the quilters at the Citrus Belt Guild!

Now on to PIQF: Pacific International Quilt Festival. I’d been reading Gillian Travis’ blog for some time, enjoying her small quilts, generated from her photographs from her travels abroad. When Susan took her class at Road, and recommended it, I wrote to Gillian, asking if she ever taught in the States (she’s British). Why yes, she replied. I’m teaching at PIQF. I hopped on the computer and registered for her class.

One of the first quilts she showed us in class, was the one above, based on a visit to Burano, Italy. I had similar photos, and was really excited to make this (the above is a composite of several photos).

Gillian provided patterns for us to work on smaller versions of Burano, or smaller version of a Yorkshire Village. I chose Burano, and above you see my progression from tracing to placing to fusing down. I got so far as to fuse it to my background (the blue in the upper left corner), and right now, it’s still folded up in my bag, still unpacked. I’m looking forward to unfurling it and getting back to work on it. We pinned our class’ versions up on the wall:

Some even got to making the white frames around the windows.

PIQF Lecture1 I really enjoyed this class, and was happy to move from there, to her lecture that night, where we enjoyed more visions of her work and her stories. My friend Leisa and I also attended two more evening events: David Taylor’s lecture on Wednesday night, and the Fashion Show of Creative Garments on Friday night (photos are up on IG), which we both really enjoyed (especially the narration by Rachel Clark).

Leisa (L) and Tracy (R): we went around on Thursday and looked at the show together. And how about that PINK ribbon, behind their heads. Now there’s one I could covet.

Here’s the one that everyone wants: a blue ribbon.

And Tracy won this for her quilt Sew She Did, which she designed, pieced and quilted. Congratulations, Tracy!

A closeup of one of the blocks.

On Saturday morning, I went and said good-bye to my two quilts that were in the show. Annularity (above) was in a nice placing, all by itself in good lighting.

Ladybird (above) also was placed well, with okay lighting. I talked to one woman who gave me a full (and lovely) critique of what was going on in my quilt. It was nice to talk shop with a complete stranger. I also saw (and got a photo with) Roberta Horton, who really launched me from beginning quilter to serious quilter. I’d taken classes with her at Houston, and I was a complete fangirl when meeting her.

As someone who has traveled to Houston, QuiltCon, Road to California, Palm Springs, and Virginia shows, the last two Mancuso Brothers shows, as well as to Long Beach, I have to say that some venues have real difficulty with lighting (all the Mancuso shows and the Long Beach). The entire show felt like it was in a greenish cast, and not nearly bright enough. My husband told me he could see it in the photos I posted on Instagram. That first night, halfway through, everything all of a sudden went brighter, and I realized they hadn’t “warmed up” the lights. So none of the photos I took at the beginning are any good.

One of my quilt heroines, Tanya Brown, whose work I have followed for many years, had Cranky Claus hanging in the show, along with Life Nouveau, but they were horribly placed. She gets into Houston every time, so I was suprised where they’d hung her quilts. It made me belive that maybe the organizers/hangers didn’t know who she was? My friend Lisa has helped hang Road to California for several years, and I know the effort that show goes to in displaying each quilt to its best. Their lighting is very good, as well.

The other issue I had was that some quilts got hung that shouldn’t have been: poorly designed, poorly made, odd choice of materials or subject. When speaking with one of the Mancusos, I asked how many quilts were submitted: “Roughly 450.” How many quilts are accepted? “Those that meet our standards.” (evasive) I pressed on, asking, How many quilts are rejected? “2-5%.” So then you hang nearly everything. He mumbled something about that standards business again, but I had my answer. I did smile when I saw that their webpage listing their award winners didn’t use the photographs from their contest venue. (I saw most all of these.)

I decided I would focus on the fact that my quilts hung in the same show as Tanya Brown and Tracy Cox, rather than my quilts hung in the same show as the fleece-lamé-fur-shells beginner’s quilt, above. I was there once, at the place where this quilter was, and for many years, every entry of mine into quilt shows was rejected. I appreciate it when the judges a) limit the number of entries, and b) jury the quilts into the show. It appears that this year at PIQF there was very little jurying going on, which makes for an uneven show quality.

Last Whine: when are these older shows going to come into the modern age and put Instagram names on the placards? QuiltCon has done this for years, and it makes it easy to tag people when posting. Okay, on to the fun.

One highlight was going to the show Friday late afternoon when everyone had cleared out. We had the vendors to ourselves, and got to spend some time talking with booth vendors. We may have purchased the pre-cut kit to make Tannenbaum, but also vowed not to pressure ourselves to get it done for 2019.

We also participated in the Bernina giveaways, the vendor mall (where I saw some old favorite booths — hi Cecile!), and met and chatted with new quilters. We enjoyed the evening lectures/fashion show and came away with new projects to sew, as well as good memories. I need to go and unpack and sort and pre-wash my bright tangerines and indigo blues (I was on the hunt for these fabrics) and decide what to do with my length of kantha fabric, but I wanted to get a post up quickly, while it’s still fresh in my mind.

Happy Quilting!