Quilts

Sentimental Journey: Bee Blocks for the Mid-Century Modern Bee, part II

June 5, 2015April 27, 2019 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

I’m back to the Sentimental Journey–a round-up of all the bee blocks I’ve made, and the quilts or collections where my blocks ended up. Carla, of Grace and Favour, inspired by Jen Kingwell’s Green Tea and Sweet Beans, asked us all for a sampler block with a texty background.

Here’s mine. Of course, I loved this quilt so much, I copied it for January 2015–now I have one too.

Another year, Carla dreamed up this terrific tutorial for making an arrow, and she combined it with a couple of other blocks, some neutral backgrounds to make this quilt.

Here was mine. This was fun because I was able to use a lot of stash fabrics and it still looks interesting and modern-ish.

A feather block, this time for Susan of PatchworknPlay, from a now-defunct tutorial by Anna Maria Horner. Susan sent us the greige background fabric, and asked us for the two-color combo shown above.

She ended up having some feathers in different sizes (probably because of some printer scaling not set to 100%), but I loved the way she set them all on the diagonal, making this beautiful quilt.

Inspired by a quilt she saw on Pinterest, one round Susan asked us for brightly colored solids with black background; above is my block. It took me forever to get her my signature block (I really miss my mind when it wanders) but she waited for me and added it to the back. Here is the front of her gorgeous quilt:

Linda of Flourishing Palms asked us for strip-pieced diamonds. The tricky part is to get the strips going the right way (trust me on this).

She also asked us for pink and green “bar” blocks, which she has now used to complete her “Strawberry Fizz and Lime Pop” quilt.

A gifted domestic-machine quilter, she has now started to quilt it. These photos are taken from IG, so aren’t that great, but click on the link to her quilt name and see many more!

Mary of Molly Flanders asked us for this set of triangles (above) as well as this set of blocks (below), but is planning on making a larger quilt using both, so doesn’t have a grouping to share.

These two fun pink Cross-X blocks were for Mary, of Mary on Lake Pulaski. She turned our blocks into this quilt:

And this is her collection of the Union Jack blocks she asked us to make for her. I won’t tell you where mine is, because even though I ripped it out three times, I still don’t think it was very good. It looks fine in this grouping, though, proving there is strength in numbers, even if the numbers are quilt blocks.

The final set of blocks and quilts are for Anne Deister, of SpringLeaf Studios. I loved making Anne’s blocks because I always felt as if I were in on a big secret, as she is a pattern designer and we were helping her figure out, and pattern test, her designs. So here’s one set of blocks, above, which turned into the quilt top below:

Which she then refined, and made up in her stash, turning out this beauty, above. She calls it Matrix, and it should be released soon (she gave me permission to post these photos). It was easy to make, and fun to see the finished product.

And then this block turned into this terrific quilt:

Anne calls this Tumble, and again, the pattern should be released soon. We’ll probably do a blog hop/giveaway, so I’ll keep you posted.

She has an artist’s eye for staging her quilts. I love this photo.

So that’s it for the originals. We have had some leave our group, and some newbies join us, which I have written about as I’ve made their blocks. It’s been a rewarding experience working with all these women!

Quilts

Sentimental Journey: Bee Blocks for Always Bee Learning

May 7, 2015July 28, 2015 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

I saw a notice on IG one day, with Megan saying that she had room for another participant in her bee. I jumped at the chance to be with such illustrious quilters, and they gracefully accepted this newbie. This bee sent out their fabrics to everyone, so we would get a little packet of fabrics with directions, then we’d sew it together and send it back. Only once did I worry about running out of fabric, and once, when I screwed up a block, I was relieved that I had similar fabric in my stash.

I grow rather attached to the bee blocks I make, even the ones that give me fits. I always feel badly when the blocks aren’t just so, and given the number of notes I’ve received on my bee blocks from others saying the same thing, I know I’m in good company. So I got to wondering one day: what ever happened to the bee blocks I’ve made? I sent out emails and I’m happy to show you what I’ve received in return. If they recipient hadn’t made it up into a quilt, that was not a problem; some sent a picture of a grouping of blocks. If that wasn’t sent, no big deal. I guess I just wanted a final wrap-up post about my time with this bee. This bee was on their third year, so it disbanded after my final block, but it was fun bee-ing in their company.

The following blocks/quilts are in no particular order:

We made ogee blocks for Mary’s turn. One of the hallmarks of this bee was to always be learning, so a lot of new techniques were tried. This one was curves in a Drunkard’s Path block, that when assembled makes an Ogee Block.

This was the first set I made, and Megan requested arrow blocks that turned every which way.

Hettie sent us directions for Hobo Quilt Blocks, and everyone’s was different; it was to be a quilt for her sister, who was graduating with a PhD.

Toni’s Christmas spiderweb blocks were really fun to make, and I love the fun holiday quilt that came from hers and our efforts.

Celeste added to what we sent of Bonnie Hunter’s Boxy Stars, and made two quilts for charity.

Kristina asked for Sparkler Blocks, a pattern by Lee Heinrich.

Debbie sent us the link to make these half-square rectangles, and turned them all on their sides to make her Ziggity-Zag Quilt. This was a good challenge to make sure the angles went the right way.

Leanne walked us through making perfect points for her Ocean Waves block. I didn’t get all of them perfect, but her finished flimsy is wonderful.

And here is her finished quilt, titled Winter.

Anything that Stephanie conjures up is going to be great, and although I fretted over these blocks (as I worried about running out of fabric and really worried that my finished product was only “pretty good” in my estimation), I love her finished quilt, titled One of these blocks is not like the others.

Marci’s Modern Maples were fun and fast, with interesting fabrics.

The last bee blocks in this lineup are Michonne’s. The lovely story about this is after I sent around the emails last month, asking for photos of either the blocks together or a the quilt/top, she hurried and finished hers so I could post it here with the rest; it looks terrific! And what did these beemates make for me?

Pineapple blocks.

I really enjoyed seeing all these blocks and quilts together. Thank you everyone!

Quilts

Welcoming Easter with This and That

April 3, 2015 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

This #1:

I finished the Bee Block for our Mid-Century Modern Bee; Stephanie was the Queen for this one, and she chose this paper-pieced block, which was published in Love Patchwork & Quilting Magazine, out of England. I purchased and downloaded the issue (they were having an Easter Sale!–$2.99 for each digital issue); the templates are on their website, but the directions are in the magazine.

This #2:

The beans are up and have leaves! Those of you who follow me on Instagram are used to the hashtag #goofyaboutmygarden, for I am indeed, goofy about my garden. With California’s mandated water rationing on the horizon, I’m glad we converted to drip irrigation systems and tore out our front lawn.

That #1:

I graded the third batch of essays from my college-level class, but you wouldn’t really have known it, given the number of errors and problems. I looked up the scores for the other two essay assignments, and this essay’s median scores are a full six points lower than the previous two. Maybe it’s time to retire?

That #2:

I was able to take my sampler quilt, with blocks from my bee mates, to the quilter. She was recovering from foot surgery and wasn’t taking any new quilts until April 1st. This is one of my happy errands.

That #3:

I made another neonatal quilt to give to my guild. I know I promised you a free pattern, but I need to try this one again. Bigger. There were waaaay too many pieces as it shown, and I’m trying to keep these little quilts easy and quick.

Final This ‘n’ That:

I’ve also finished up the hand-sewing for all the EPP Circles in my Circles Sew-Along (wait for the reveals in the next couple of months), and now am puzzling out how to put this quilt together. And I’m still sewing down the leaves on the Pineapple Quilt. And my list of things to finish for this quarter still remains pathetically long, but I guess the point is to keep going.

For at some point, as Atwul Gawande points out in his excellent book, Being Mortal (and which I just finished), we are all mortal and have a finite time on this planet. One study he mentioned which was fascinating to me was the idea that “how we seek to spend our time may depend on how much time we perceive ourselves to have” (97). He cited the work of Laura Cartensen, who devised a way to track and study this, finding time after time, that the choices that we make with our time depends heavily on how much time we think we have left. The young and healthy “believe [they] will live forever,” and are drawn to experiences in the Big Wide World, while those feeling like they have less time focus on the “here and now, to everyday pleasures and the people closest to [them]” (97).

Translated to quilt-ese, that means that as an older quilter, having lived through the first incarnation of popular topics such as Gee’s Bend, large blocks on the back of quilts, square-in-a-square quilt blocks, Amish/Modern, and so forth, I really have no desire to repeat those topics again in my quilting. My choices are informed by not only having done-this-already, but also on what I want from the quilting. It becomes more about a creative journey and relating to those also on the journey, and less about cranking out quilt after quilt after quilt. It is more about quality and less about quantity. Less randomizing and more focus.

So while I still love a good quilt magazine, I browse to see what they offer. Same old, same old? Pass. Some new ideas or a new way of looking at things, leading me to a stirring up of the creative juices for a day of happy working? I’m all in. And if I can further connect with quilty friends, you blog readers, have conversations and chats and trade IG quips, this version of the quilt world is what I aim for.

Happy Easter, everyone.

Because He Lives

Quilts

Summer Report

August 9, 2014August 8, 2014 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

What I Did This Summer
(And can it already be over??)

1. Went to Utah and ate a Crab Sandwich at a Kneaders Sandwich Shop

2. Went to the beach with my grandkids and two of my kids

3. Entertained grandchildren with puzzles

4. Entertained grandchildren with forts made out of quilts (luckily I have a few)

5. Put the lighter summer look in the guest bedroom, loving how it makes Kaleidoscope shine
(on the end of the bed is my friendship quilt, which includes signatures from all my granddaughters)

6. Made a starry block for Susan for the Mid-Century Modern Bee in July

7. Made my August Mid-Century Bee block for Mary

8. Been arranging the blocks that come in from my turn at the Always Bee Learning Bee. Everyone must be on vacation, because they are dribbling in, little by little. But I love to see them all together!

9. Went to Zagreb (and Ljubljana and Dubrovnik–all in Slovenia and Croatia). . .

. . . and Budapest, Hungary.

10. Hosted a giveaway!

I did the Random Number Generator thing and got #3, but Susan said she already had that book so not to consider her.

So I did it again, and Carly was the winner. I’ll be in touch by email.

But I can’t let this go by without telling you all how thoughtful and interesting your comments were. I like how you read each other’s and answered each other; I love seeing community in our quilty world. It made me remember that I’m also inspired by quotes and sayings, as well as nature and other quilters. I love how Harlan said that when the creative juices are clicking, “something new and needed is created.” I appreciated Anne’s parsing out the difference between flat-out copying vs. being inspired by someone’s work. All of you brought excellent ideas to the conversation and I wish I could give you all a prize. You are all the best. Hope you also had a good summer!