Frivols 8 FINISHED! & Intro to Frivols 9

September 6, 2018September 6, 2018 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

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Frivols 8_7 front

I finished Frivols 8, and haven’t yet named it, although Moda calls it “Brio” or something like that. But all those Bear Paw blocks are so fun and alive, I need another name. How about…

Charlie and Bear Earmuffs

…Baby Bear?, especially after my daughter-in-law posted this picture of her youngest son (my youngest grandson) helping with dinner, complete with bear earmuffs. He’s a character.

Frivols 8_5

I finally was able to get to the quilting (see below).

Frivols 8_8b basket

I found some old 1940s prints in the stash, and chose a blue to match the lightest blue in the quilt for the binding. That’s one of the troubles with doing these frivols after the fact: the fabrics to complete them are AWOL, but I made it work. Frivols 8_6

Now the requisite Beauty Shots. The print above is titled “She Will Find What Was Lost,” and is a print by Brian Kershisnik, a favorite of mine. Frivols 8_8a draped

But since this is your two-for-one post, here’s the intro for Frivols #9, our little box for September.

Look! No Half-Square Triangles! Okay, there are some triangles that are snowballed on, and a few Flying Geese, but hooray! I couldn’t face making another quilt with prints on a white background, even though I do like the look, so the background for this one will be a peach woven-looking print fabric.

This collection is by Lella Boutique. More info is found on Moda’s Blog.

And in other news this past while:

survived a “Meet N’Greet” when a young woman rear-ended me in stop-and-go traffic on the freeway. After spending too many hours on too many phone calls with her insurance company, I called mine, and the car will go in next week to be fixed. They’ll fight it out later who gets to pay what.
agonized when I discovered that all the patterns I’d given out in my workshop in August were too small. It was only after a phone call to corporate headquarters for the printing company, and two visits to the local outlet that I discovered what had happened: they had set the button to “Print to Fit” which ALL quilters know means at about 96%. They graciously printed out new, accurate copies, which I’ll collate and get over to the Guild. Then I’ll put a paper bag on my head and try to remain incognito.
created another tiny quilt in order to review a book by Kerry Foster, titled Paint-by-Numbers Quilting. My day on the Blog Hop is September 24th, and we’re doing a digital giveaway that day, so everyone can enter — US and international quilters. Check back then.
rearranged nearly everything upstairs in my house:We swapped the old guest room for the new office, which meant that all my stuff in the old guest room had to go in the hallways and the Master Bedroom, and the old office, and yes, even the bathtub. (I won’t show you the rest of the mess.)

Too Much to Do.jpg

Lately, I wake up every day feeling like I have about 400 things to get done that day, and fall into bed exhausted, having only accomplished a few of the things on my list. I know this soon will end, once my home is back in order, the big projects finished, the trips taken, the car fixed, the weeds pulled, next month’s Frivols finished, and everything crossed off my To-Do list. Right.

If it's not one thing, its your mother.jpg

Uncle (Frivols #8)

August 30, 2018 Elizabeth E.16 Comments

The following pictures tell you why I’m saying Uncle on this project, as there is No Way I’m going to be able to quilt it and bind it and label it, all before the end of August. Which is tomorrow, in case you didn’t notice.

Frivols 8_5 Frivols 8_6

Cutting. And I only made one mistake. Not bad, not bad.

Frivols 8_7 Frivols 8_7a

What is with all these half-square triangles in everyone’s design? HSTs! HSTs! AAAAGH!

Frivols 8_7b Frivols 8_8

I got one block this far late one night, then went to bed.

Frivols 8_8a

The next day I got this far, all while listening to Book 4 of Bruno, Chief of Police. And that little habit is all due to Bette, who suggested I might like them. I do. The real title of that book was the Devil’s Cave. Our hero, Bruno, saved the day. Frivols 8_9

Twenty-nine thousand pieces of sashing, and eight million borders are sewn on. It’s actually looking cuter.

Frivols 8_10

It kind of like died here.

I cut the batting last night, organized (but didn’t sew together) the backing. But I had to finish up another quilt, and take photos, and meet a bazillion deadlines, the least of which is to revamp this entire room, which used to be the guest room, but will soon become our office. Well, mostly my husband’s, but I will have a desk too, and all our modemrouterprinter1printer2extrapaperofficesupplies will soon leave my sewing room and live here. Can’t wait. See me about November for the finished product/project.

I’ll get to the Frivols #8, but just not by August 31st. But I did try.

Cartoon Fabric Buying

Frivols Quilts · Something to Think About

Frivols 8 • August 2018

August 1, 2018July 31, 2018 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

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September’s box is Frivols #8 and is a tin from American Jane, with a whole host of fancy and fun prints. The Moda blog notes that:

“There is a correction to the pattern – Background, Sashing, and Borders. The first line should say 3 – 5 1/2″ x width of fabric strips. From the strips, cut 18 – 5 1/2″ squares.”

Duly noted. I’ll figure it out when I get there.

CT-Bread-Butter

Here’s the layout of prints from their blog–colorful and charming. And I was happy to see that there are fewer half-square triangles in Sandy Klop’s quilt design.

The freebie for this Frivol is a sweet little tin with this month’s quilt design, that is just about the size of a charm square, perched up there by the bigger tin. I also love the quote on this month’s card: “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” While it is attributed to Oscar Wilde, this attribution — as in so many other quote attributions — is a little squishy. For more discussion on this, visit the Quote Investigator. In fact, if you read this article, it seems like Wilde was a bit more pessimistic about this whole idea of authenticity:

It is tragic how few people ever “possess their souls” before they die. “Nothing is more rare in any man,” says Emerson, “than an act of his own.” It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are some one else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. (c. 1900)

I happen to like the Thomas Merton version:

“In an age where there is much talk about “being yourself” I reserve to myself the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is very little chance of my being anybody else. Rather it seems to me that when one is too intent on “being himself” he runs the risk of impersonating a shadow.” (c. 1967)

I have to say my favorite instance of this idea is from Gordon B. Hinckley, an earlier president of my church. He writes about discouragement when he was called on a church mission at age nineteen, feeling like he could never do what was required of him:

“I wrote a letter to my father and said, “I’m wasting my time and your money. I don’t see any point in my staying here.” And in due time a letter came back from him in which he simply said: “Dear Gordon. I have your letter of [such and such a date]. I have only one suggestion: Forget yourself and go to work. With love, your father.” [from here]

So often we can focus too much on ourselves, and how we feel from moment to moment. While this aesthetic — to “forget yourself and get to work” — seems to hail from another era, I like to think about it sometimes, when I often can’t find the energy to finish up the chore, to get the work done, to complete the task. I felt that way with Frivols #7, as you probably know. And somedays I have to ask myself: “What do I want to have done by the end of this day?”

Perhaps all this seems so far from the supposed Wilde quote of “being yourself,” but for me they are linked. Perhaps the work is me, the getting done is the shaping of who I am. And hopefully, in forgetting myself and getting to work, I will become my best self.

Frivols 8_ little tin