Quilts

Summer Bee, Quilting, and Chuck Nohara Updates

August 19, 2016August 12, 2016 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Updating you on my Chuck Nohara block progress. I finished off the incredibly complicated floral wreath block in the upper left. Susan and I (and Bette) are working together on this, with Susan choosing two/month and me choosing two/month. Yes, I chose that one (never again). But June was finished up.

July’s blocks were interesting. I did the sunglasses on the road to my Gwen Marston class. I did the lower two blocks at the quilting retreat, and promptly had to re-do them again. But I could now cross July’s blocks off the list.

I launched into August early because of some planned travel, and hit my first roadblock with a Dresden-plate block.

I drafted my own little Dresden template, then proceeded the way I always do.

I had prepped up the bird before our road trip to two family reunions, but lost it somewhere between my sewing room and the great state of Utah, so I prepped up a second one, stitching it to completion while watching the Olympics opening ceremony. Yep, I changed a few things, but here they are, all done. I need to get them all up on the design wall, all together. Next week.

My friend, Laurel, showed us her COMPLETED New Hexagon Millefiore Quilt, so I thought I should resurrect that project and get it going again.

So I laid it out on the bed in the extra bedroom. . . (warning–lots of nighttime quilting pictures ahead)

. . . found the package with all the pieces and tried to make sense of it. I ~~hated~~ disliked the strong star shape of that rosette (seen here in Katja’s quilt), so after studying Laurel’s rendition, I made some changes, combining some pieces.

Now comes the fretting part. Will it work in the bluesy-purpley combo I have going?

Luckily I hadn’t cleaned up the stuff of the extra bed yet, and so I laid it out, section by section. I think it will work! I said to my husband, then packed it all away to take traveling with me. It was hard to get going on this, as I’d forgotten how much trial and error is involved in the making of these rosettes.

Here’s three sets of bee blocks for the Mid-Century Modern Bee (top is Mary, middle is for Sherri, and the bottom is for Rene). Can’t wait to see what they do with them!

I did finish Simone’s Spelling Bee Block for July while at the retreat, and it was the one thing I didn’t have to re-do. You’ve seen this before, but since this is a round-up post, I wanted to include it.

I made an extra set of words for Kerry for her Canadian Provinces list of Spelling Bee words. Okay, we are almost to the end (I’ve been saving all this up for a while).

In looking at the looming deadline for Road to California entry, I kept pushing forward on getting this quilt finished.

Which led to many rounds of this on my aching shoulder, and a trip to the doctor’s office. I’ve not stitched much since then, which is like tying my hands behind my back and not letting me use them.

So instead, I read a lot, finding this “Cap Slogan Generator” on the Washington Post website, and thinking that THIS is the slogan we all need to see more of.

And since once an English teacher, always an English teacher, I corrected all the logical fallacies in the questionaire sent to me by one of the major political parties (such errors in faulty reasoning!) and yes, I sent it back to them (they had, after all, provided me with a postage-paid envelope).

I won’t leave you with politics, after all I do have a heart, but instead with this little shot of the shelves above my computer. I’d sent Marsha of #quilterinmotion some of my scraps and as a thank-you, she sent me my first-ever fabric postcard. (I was so excited.)

So, summer’s almost over. Enjoy the last few days of the Olympics, avoid politics, and keep quilting!

Quilts

Chuck Nohara Blocks This Far

June 29, 2016June 29, 2016 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Well, I’ve finished three of the four June blocks.

(a truly hideous nighttime photo)

The last block won’t be finished until July, because I lost my mind and chose something that is insanely complicated. My block buddies, Susan and Betty didn’t complain at all, even though when they saw it, they must have known I was nuts. That happens sometimes.

Here’s all the blocks so far: thirty-two fun little six-inch squares. Susan chose the heart-in-the-hand block and I love it.

I was busy the last couple of days making these two small quilts. They are a combination of masterful creative ideas and talents from Kevin Umaña, and Janine Vangool’s Uppercase fabrics. I have a post planned next Tuesday showing them off. I even have a giveaway, courtesy of Ms. Vangool.

I’ve also been busy finished the stitching on our Oh Christmas Tree Quilt, which will post on Saturday with the first of the borders — the troublesome red-triangle border. All secrets are revealed that day (and yes, there’s a giveaway that day, too. These are getting out of hand, I think). . .

Simone posted her requests for the Oh Spelling Bee and used the above chart to help us reference her colors. It was too cool to hide, so thank you, Simone. Some of those color names are awesome: “Papaya Whip,” and “Alice Blue,” and “Old Lace Floral White.”

I finished my block for that bee even before June started. This was for Kerry of PennyDog fame. I felt so smug as I mailed it off a couple of days early. Then a friend in the bee reminded me that I hadn’t paid attention to the colors that Kerry wanted. Smug faded right off my face. Time for a re-do. Kerry asked us to do all the names of the Canadian Provinces, as she just immigrated there from England. (I guess she made it out of Britain before Brexit!)

Here is the re-do. She made up her own pixelated alphabet, not using the one the rest of us are (that one is on Quilt Abecedary, if you want it), but the word went together pretty quickly. I do think this version of the word “Alberta” is easier to read than my first one, so yay.

I’ve perfected my mailing to Canada: buy some Press N’ Seal, that sticky plastic wrap, and tear off a square. Fold your stuff-to-mail (just about one block only) the shape of your envelope.

Fold over one side, and smooth the heck out of it. Make it really flat. Then smash it some more, scooting all the air bubbles out to the side.

Fold it again and again, smooshing after each fold. Squish squish squish out all the air bubbles and make it as flat as possible.

Slide into your envelope and mail. I can send it from the US for a little over a buck.

I’ll be taking a class with Gwen Marston on Friday, and can’t believe it. I tried to get into her classes at QuiltCon Pasadena, but they were all sold out even before I could get the log-in code to work. Since she’s retiring in 2017, I feel really fortunate to slide into one of her last classes, held in conjunction with the Seven Sisters Quilt Show.

I’m so excited!

May’s Blocks (and some of June)

June 5, 2016 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Because my husband is busy this afternoon recovering from our trip (see below), I used an online generator to pick a winner today for the felt, and it’s Elizabeth (what a great name, eh?) who goes by catskillquilter. Congratulations, Elizabeth! I’ll be in touch to get that sent out to you. I have two more giveaways lined up in the next couple of weeks, one courtesy of Uppercase Magazine, and the other from the Steam A Seam people (that one’s on June 13th–in conjunction with our continuing Hallowe’en 1904 QAL). I’ll have some great news as well about that fabulous pattern.

Here we go, first with quilt blocks from our Mid-Century Modern Bee: Carla of Grace and Favor asked for a modern churn dash block, saying she likes mustard and plum. Above is my block, but I was tempted by this, from @myquiltdiet:

I thought it would be fun to try, but Carla said “Too much work!” I could hear the laugh in her voice, so I smiled and went with tweaking the center bars to give it a bit of a twist. I hope she likes it.

In our Spelling Bee Quilt Bee, Susan of PatchworknPlay asked for words to make up her saying, which she’ll reveal on her blog. I first took three words with “w’s” but then Simone had none, so I gave two back, leaving me with the above.

Since NOT staying at home seems to be the thing I do the best lately, we headed out Friday for a mini-reunion with my husband’s family in Zion National Park, about 7 hours away. You can tell who has been coming there for ages (this makes about trip #20 for me) as we say “heading to Zion’s” as if there’s a possessive element there. (However, I do feel like it’s “my” park.) To try and catch up with my patchwork, I took some Chuck Nohara blocks on the road, stitching them in the car and in the park.

We invested in new air mattresses this year, twin blow-up beds, and those of you who have slept on a queen air mattress with another person while it slowly deflates all night long, know exactly why I replaced our aging air mattress. It also helps that my favorite camp quilt, Hearts in the Pines, is made for a twin. The pattern is out of print, but you can find the blocks in this previous post. My husband’s bed later on got a green nine-patch, but he left it off because it was. . .

…pretty dang hot this weekend. Snapshot was from the next day, where it turned out to have a high of 103 degrees F (about 40 C.)

My husband and I, my son and his wife and boys always go out to dinner at Zion Pizza and Noodle Company the first night, as we all love their pizzas, and who wants to cook after setting up camp? I love their scallopy crusts.

We were tasked with getting the S’more supplies. I cracked up when I saw a whole section just dedicated to this.

We rejoiced to have my husband’s niece (shown here in the Virgin River with the youngest of her six children) join us. Several weeks ago she underwent surgery for a brain tumor, and while under anesthesia, had a stroke. She awoke to a mostly paralyzed left side and has undergone significant physical therapy just to be able to walk with occasional hesitation. But she’s walking! She’s our own little success story, and she and her husband and family are our very own heroes.

Throwing rocks in the river was great entertainment for my grandson and the other small cousins. (No, he couldn’t lift that one.)

I left the river early because it was too hot, and went back to camp. I picked up my Chuck Nohara stitching, sitting quietly in the shade, watching (and chasing away) the squirrels. All of a sudden I hear a sound directly behind me, and using the reverse camera on my phone, caught this shot. One of the other little cousins came running over, saying “Bambi’s here! Mom, Bambi’s here!”

Because of the above sitting quietly, I’m all caught up with my Chuck Nohara blocks from April and May:

Now to head into June!

Chuck Nohara · Quilts

Chuck Nohara • January 2016 blocks finished

January 28, 2016January 27, 2016 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

Happy to report that I finished my January’s Chuck Nohara Blocks a few days early, even with totally redoing the house on the hill block (#cn968). (The upper left fabrics are from Sherri and Chelsi’s new line of fabrics, called Valley. Yes, that is a shameless plug for her two lines, as I love the colors and patterns.) By the way, that (#cn968) is how we tag them on Instagram if you are ever looking for a block, and want to see what others have done. After seeing what others put together, I switched out the house colors (previous version shown below):

Yeah. I didn’t like it much either, although I like all those fabrics.

Here they all are so far. No, I haven’t trimmed up all the blocks yet. Mine will measure 6″ when they are finished (6 1/2″ trimmed). Here’s February’s blocks, in case you want to think about them early: