Village Faire

June 28, 2013August 12, 2013 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

Village Faire, quilt #117 on my 200 Quilts List

A part of the Year of Schnibbles, hosted by Sherri and Sinta.

This quilt reminded me of summer days, of green lawns that you can lay down in and drift off, and of course, pinwheels that spin with the flick of a finger, or by holding them overhead while running. I was also reminded of local faires and immediately thought of Babe, the Gallant Pig, and Mr. and Mrs. Hoggett, cotton candy, ferris wheels.

I started it on the small machine, as the big machine was set up downstairs, quilting Kaleidoscope.

Here’s the original. You can see I changed up the border.

Given the bold prints of my fabrics, I felt the border was too busy for what I had going on in the center, and as we are given license to modify and create and have fun with Carrie Nelson’s patterns, I indulged and put a series of bars along the edges, with pinwheels for cornerstones. I have a fabrics from the Comma collection from Moda and from Thomas Knauer’s Asbury collection, which has summer-time things like bumper cars and soft-serve ice cream cones.

And on the back? Yep–a tea towel. This one is from Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales region of England. We went on vacation there a few years back and as we are enamoured of Wallace and Grommit, we knew we had to head over to Hawes and sample some Wensleydale cheese. (Even though it was raining. And rained all day, which explains why England is so green.)

A scene or two from Yorkshire. I can now get this Wensleydale cheese in Costco, during the holidays. Will wonders never cease.

This measures a little larger than the other two Schnibbles designs, coming in at 34″ square. I think this design would morph perfectly into a baby quilt, or a quilt for a child, by adding another row of the pinwheels.

After taking the outside photos, I gimped upstairs (yes, I can walk around now, but not much, and have that lovely blue boot on my foot) and threw the quilt on the guest bedroom bed. I really like these bold colors. Given that we are heading into a weekend of 100+ degree heat, I declare that summer has arrived!

This summer may you find a Village Faire to attend, and a pinwheel to spin with a quick puff of breath.

Quilts

WIP–Bee Blocks (post revised)

June 26, 2013June 26, 2013 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

UPDATE: I’ve revised this post, because this morning I realized that TODAY is Wednesday, not yesterday (when I’d originally written it: we’re a little foggy on life over here), so today I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

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I joined a new bee (newby! newby!). I am honored to be included in the Always Bee Learning bee, and the first block’s fabrics have arrived to be sewn (they have different rules than the Mid-Century Modern bee). But Linda’s blocks for the MCM bee still hadn’t been made, and I like to honor my deadlines.

So I gimped down to the sewing room, pulled out a drawer and put a pillow on it for the left foot, got out my portable iron and pad and put it on the table on the right. I figured it was good to be sewing as long as I wasn’t putting any weight on the foot, right? (I’m really hoping that MY idea of “partial weight-bearing” agrees with the doctor’s).

But had to stand for a few minutes on my right leg while I cut the strips, then I sat and sewed. And twisted to iron, but finished up one block before dinner.

After dinner I finished the other one (normally we only do one, but everyone else was doing two and I didn’t want to be a slacker); I packaged it to mail tomorrow, hopefully making it to Florida by July 1st. That small block in the front? We do signature blocks with our Mid-Century Modern (MCM) bee.

This is what Linda is doing with them: using them to border another set of blocks from another bee. She says she’s stuck about what to do in the corner–maybe a rounded version of the stack?–so if you have any ideas, head over to her blog and leave her a comment. It’s always interesting to see our bee blocks being used. Another quilter in this bee finished up her quilt (scroll down to the Mid-Century Modern quilt in neutral fabrics); I hope when it’s my turn I can be as successful.

As I lay in bed yesterday, I did make a button for that new bee:

At least I can be somewhat productive when I lay around here.

What else am I working on? Well, another July 1st deadline is for this month’s Schnibbles quilt. My husband brought up a camp chair (small chair we use when we go camping) and I could slide it in the cubby hole of my sewing desk, and yes, I did get some of that top quilted last night. While I can only quilt for a short while, it feels good to be productive and to see a quilt take shape.

hanging Kaleidoscope Quilt

Thanks, all, for your nice comments about Kaleidoscope (in previous post). My husband hung it up in the hallway this morning. It brings a smile to my face as I slowly make my way up the stairs. Here it is again:

Final thought: Happy Birthday, Rhonda! You are an inspiration, always.

Quilts

Kaleidoscope

June 24, 2013 Elizabeth E.31 Comments

At long last, I have finished Kaleidoscope.

Here she is on the fence, all quilted and bound and ready to be hung up in our home. The first picture was merely the top, unquilted, but I like that image quite fine (it’s my home screen pix on my phone).

Krista got me started on this process and the above is a photo of my first block, blogged about *here* so I don’t need to redo the gory details (just do a search for “EPP” in my search box, if you do want the whole story).

I liked how I could sew bitsy pieces together into a new design and they could become something else.

I finished my first block in February 2012, wrote about it *here,* using the completion as a sort of a milestone capping off a cancer experience. While I do like the quick quilts that sew up in a month, or whizzing through a bee block, there’s something gratifying about a longer quiltmaking experience, as it serves as a thread through many experiences and days and months and weaves in and out of other quilts.

I liked how every block was a puzzle, a mystery, waiting to be figured out, laying out the pieces to see what it should become and how to sew it together. I liked that it was portable, going to many doctor’s offices, on a road trip, and certainly while making my way through three seasons of watching Downton Abbey.

One center laid out on a computer laptop one night.

Photographed on a hotel chair, pieced while on a road trip to San Francisco.

The way I cut and laid out the pieces was like a twist of the wrist on a childhood kaleidoscope viewing toy, the glass pieces tumbling into another design, another shape. So I started to think of the blocks as visions through a kaleidoscope. I didn’t know how many of these blocks to make–it was one of those things I just kept working on and I figured I would know when I was done.

There were three.

Then there were six.

And then seven, and I was trying to figure out what to do. I ordered more fabric (bless the manufacturers who don’t yank their lines so quickly!). The small bits in the lefthand lower corner didn’t work. So I went with bigger triangles, trying to let the seven kaleidoscope shapes rise to the top.

I labeled and sewed those together by hand as well. Then onto the existing top.

It sat on my pin wall and I just didn’t know what to do–wasn’t really sold on it. Then I thought about the border, chose the bright lime, auditioned it for placement: large medallions going down the middle of the border, or small ones? Again, trying to make the quilt center the star, I went with the latter.

Sewing the top to the borders–the only time I used machine piecing on this quilt top. I decided to leave in the papers until it was all sewn, so they could stabilize the edges. One thing about the edges in this quilt–none were placed with regard to straight of grain, so the top was very flexible, and needed careful handling.

Once those borders were sewn on, the whole top began to sing together again. And now the next puzzle–how to quilt it? I let it sit some more, until I worked up the courage to move forward.

Cut and sewed together more of that second batch of fabric, trying to match medallion to medallion. It worked well enough.

I stretched out the back on my living floor, taped it down, then the batting, then the quilt and pinned it all together. Still didn’t know how to quilt this thing, so it sat for another spell. Finally, I realized it was never going to get done if I didn’t get going on it, and I had three days free–all in a row–so found the perfect thread in my bag from the last run to Superior Threads and got going.

I like to sew on my dining room table. I put down a placemat for my sewing machine and notions, and let the quilt slip-slide all over as I work.

To grip the quilt because I’m not a fan of quilting gloves, I use that stuff you can buy at an office supply store on my fingers (one brand is SortQuik–don’t know what mine is).

After two and half days and sixteen bobbins of thread, I wanted to be done. Really, I did, but the border was a little ripply, so it needed some more. Final tally? Seventeen bobbins of thread. The quilt is 53″ wide by 54 1/2″ long, so that’s fairly dense quilting. I used a polyester thread with little bit of sheen for the top, as well as Masterpiece, a cotton thread. I used Bottom Line for the bobbins–it holds more; I did loosen the top tension to get the stitch balance correct.

The back of the quilt, with the two colorways of the medallions. I came to really love this fabric: Michael Miller’s Gypsy Bandanna.

I had decided I didn’t want a narrow border to show on the top, so went with a faced binding. This label was the last thing to be sewn on, last night as I lay in my bed with my foot propped up on two pillows, recuperating from another surgery (this one not life-threatening, a planned event). But still, for those of us who like to keep busy, like to be doing, this forced idleness is really hard to deal with. I plan to try to figure out how to do some quilting this afternoon, my good foot on the sewing machine pedal and my gimpy foot propped up on a pillow on a drawer. I figure I can get 30 minutes in before I say “uncle,” and head back to bed.

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This is the 116th quilt I’ve made in my life, and the quilt is also part of the Finish-A-Long, quarter two.

200 Quilts · Creating · Family Quilts · Quilts · Something to Think About

Christine’s Philadelphia

May 28, 2013April 2, 2024 Elizabeth E.21 Comments

At the last post, we were in the bakery section of Bottega Louie and I had a big surprise for my sister Christine.

It was Christine’s Philadelphia, a quilt celebrating her life and her newly adopted city. She moved to a Philadelphia row house this past year, after ten years in transition. First, she raised all her children, then began a new section of her life as an artist, returning to school. Settling in to this life was not for long, as her husband died of cancer in a quick and wild two years. She went on a mission for our church to New York City, and resumed a friendship with Doug, who had also lost his wife. They married after her mission and she moved from the West Coast, where she’d spent most of her adult life, to the East Coast (Delaware), then finally to a lovely home in Philadelphia, within walking distance of art museums. She resumed her art, but one more mishap: while biking to her studio one evening, she was hit by a car, but has now mostly recovered from that accident. She is taking on new challenges all the time. So you can see why I wanted to make her a quilt. I had lots to cram into one tiny creation of mine.

She was surprised. And I think, delighted.

I’d been planning it and working on it for a few weeks, and when she came out for her son’s graduation, I knew I could give it to her then and see her face, and then mail it back later (which I’m doing).

This was the sketch I made in QuiltPro. I knew that I wanted to alternate bold solids (for the roofs) with other patterns (for the houses).

This was the quilt, all sewn and smoothed up on the pin wall. I think I was able to execute the vision I had fairly successfully. I also wanted to emphasize the chevron effect, but didn’t want a steep 45-degree angle on the roofs, instead I went with something more sloping (drawing my own pattern to get this done). I often thought about making this just in solids, like the sketch, but I’m all about richness and texture in my quilts.

This was the first pulling of fabrics. I was worried about mixing the moderns (used mostly for the houses and the row above, as well as the sky) with the densely colored, floral Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

I sent a photo of this around to some friends and asked them what they thought. Cindy of LiveAColorfulLife said, “Oh, go for it.” So I did. (Like all my junk on the sides of my pinwall? Sometimes I treat it like a giant cork board.)

Swapping out roofs on the right side to see if I like the orange down on top of the yellows any better. I don’t.

But I tried the whole row and added in the doors and windows. You’ll notice there’s a bold blue sky piece which disappeared in the final version. I keep trying to refine my design as I go, snapping a digital picture, evaluating, moving things around, and repeating the process.

I am not a fan of when people say “Oh, I am working on this but I can’t show you.” Then just don’t show me. I hate keeping quilt secrets, but I had to keep it secret from my sister as it was a surprise, so I tried this sideways artsy shot on Instagram one day, hoping it would disguise the basic design. I didn’t want to put it anywhere on my blog since she’s a faithful reader.

I formed the windows and doors over a piece of stiff paper (like what is in a calendar) so they would be all the same size, then topstitched them down.

I sewed the narrow roof/house sections row by row; here’s one row lined up for stitching.

Then I would add the house, then the sky. The “row” on the right is all done. I’ll do another post on sewing those Y-seams, but later.

I like this shot. It reminded me of the AMH feather block I’d done for my Mid-Century Modern Bee.

I pressed the seams open — a rarity for me.

I took it outside to photograph the top, and just by draping it over the fence, I could see how valuable that deep plum-colored roof was to the whole composition. This partly influenced what color I chose for the binding.

Christine’s Philadelphia, front

I rigged up a clothesline on my back fence to take photos, as my husband wasn’t home and I wanted to get it ready to go with us to the graduation. I used a Jane Sassaman for the backing (above), and my quilter was lickety-split on the quilting (thanks, Cathy!).

I didn’t want the quilt label to stand out too much on that background, so printed it on yellow.

Here we are again, in an uncropped photo. You can see all the bakery goodies in the background.

When you sew on a quilt that is destined for someone, you spend a lot of time thinking about that person, in essence sending good vibes out into the universe for them, I think. I remembered the time she had mononucleosis when she was going to Stanford, and moved home (my dad was a professor there so we lived in the area). I was in high school at the time, and we shared a room while she convalesced. She hates it when I say this, but she has served as a great example for me and my other sisters, as all four of us are close together in age. All of my sisters are amazing. I am beyond lucky to be able to say this, and I know it. I made a quilt with Cynthia, made one for Susan, and now, with this one, they all have one of my quilts.

And with each quilt, I send them my love.

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This is Quilt #115 of 200 quilts, and I’m publishing this post on my mother’s 85th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!!

(Don’t worry. A long time ago, I made her a quilt too.)