Quilts

Elizabeth’s Lollypop Trees, final

May 5, 2014May 5, 2014 Elizabeth E.27 Comments

Elizabeth’s Lollypop Trees
began May 2011 • finished April 2014

A Kaffee Fassett Lotus Blossom print for the back, and I am finally done. I know you’ve seen an overabundance of photos of this quilt, so this is just a simple, abbreviated post to say I’m finished. (Or should I say: I’m FINISHED!!!)

Some time ago, my granddaughter Keagan saw my blocks up on my design wall, and quietly made a picture for me of what she saw. (I think it’s the block in the lower righthand corner of the quilt.) I love it, so I put it on the label.

Quilt #132 on my 200 Quilts list
73″ square

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This blog software has an excellent search engine box. If you want to see details about this quilt, type “Lollypop Trees” in the search box to the right, and you’ll get more posts than you know what to do with. If you have specific questions, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you. Thank you to all who cheered me on and kept me going, in spite of days of wondering if I’d ever finish. It’s very satisfying to see that quilt, to run my fingers over the quilting, and to know that I did it.

That’s three finishes in two weeks. Now to grade research papers until my brains fall out and my fingers fall off.

But look! Only four more days of teaching in this semester!

Quilts

Quilting the Lollypop Tree Quilt, I

March 26, 2014 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Still working on the lollies, or my Lollypop Tree Quilt.

I took the quilt to my quilter and she basted it together for me, which has actually worked pretty well. Usually I crawl around on the floor on my hands and knees and pin the quilt sandwich to within an inch of its life, but went this direction this time. It’s been nice not to have to navigate those safety pins, but I still don’t want to sew over the basting thread, so I’m pulling it out as I get there.

Finished up this one last night. I’m trying to do a different filler in the background of each block. It may not last, but this one is leaves. The background filler on the first one is a rounded double loop in all directions. When I look at these photos, it reminds me that there are still some details to go over (like the brown stems need to be quilted down at the trunk), but I’ll do the brown thread quilting all at one.

And then I started on this, and got almost done, but had quilted myself into a corner with extra fluffiness. After I quilted a tuck into the quilt, I stopped and unpicked for a while, and will take it up again today in better lighting, and when I’m not so tired. This background is an oval double teardrop.

Diane Gaudynski advises free-motion quilters that a little marker now and then is a quilter’s good friend. Like in that run of white thread on the blue batik. The thread I’m using is So-Fine white #401, and in the bobbin, I’m using the Bottom Line in a soft yellow. I’ve lowered the tension on the top to nearly half of normal (2.2 or 2.0) and I have really good balance in the thread. This thread from Superior Thread is quite fine, as the name states, and it just sews up beautifully. I switched to a size 14 topstitch needle which allows lots of thread movement, so no shredding. (I had been using a size 12, but the 14 is working better.)

I like the way the appliquéd pieces pop up. This *post* by Sandra Leichner is invaluable for explaining the process. I have a permanent link to it from the home page of my blog, as well as to Diane Gaudynski’s website.

I figure I still have about 5 days left of quilting time in my February/March goals, which clearly states: “Quilt Lollypop Trees.” I’ve been able to cross of all but one of my projects, so am still trying for a completion here.

Linking up to Lee’s Freshly Pieced blog.

Quilts

FMQ Lollypop Tree & A Beauty Shot

March 22, 2014 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

I started free-motion quilting my Lollypop Tree quilt. It has sat for nearly a year while I did Life and thought about how to start. I had quilted my Christmas Treat, but the spaces there were more wide open with fewer appliqués, so this one was a bit of a challenge, managing the quilt bulk and keeping the density of the stitches evenly spaced. I still have a few more details to take care of, like stitching around the trunk of the tree and across the leaves where they join the trunk, but after two-and-a-half hours, one block is done. Look at the tab above if you want to see the entire quilt.

Helpful sights: a Pinterest board with lots of filler ideas, Leah Day’s commentary on filler backgrounds, and multiple videos (not linked).

And I promised you a beauty shot. Here’s my Sol Lewitt’s Patchwork Primer quilt top, in my outdoor “photo studio.”

I also put this as my home screen on my phone. It makes me smile. Hope you are smiling, too, as you enjoy your weekend.

WIP

WIP Wednesday (Selvage Blocks)

March 12, 2014March 12, 2014 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

Okay, these 20″ blocks are addicting. Someone on IG commented on my selvage stash, but the whole thing could fit into a gallon ziploc bag. There are all those selvages on my stash, however. . .

Other Works in Progress, this Wednesday morning:

Rainbow Petals–the more I type that name, the more I realize it needs to be changed

Lollypop Tree Quilting. It’s such a big project, I keep waiting for the decks to be cleared to start on it. That’s always a bad idea if you are trying to get something done, but a good way to procrastinate.

Cross-X Quilt Blocks. That’s February’s installment on our Friendship Swap to the left.

Cutting out the quilt with the Mirror Ball Dots fabric. Let’s just make that THINKING up the quilt with the Mirror Ball Dots fabric. (No photo)
That’s enough for now.

Linking up to Lee’s Freshly Pieced blog and her WIP Wednesday.

FAL · Finish-A-Long · Quilts

FAL Progress: not much

May 30, 2013May 24, 2013 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

This is one of those I-think-I’ll-beat-myself-up posts.

I’m participating in the Finish-A-Long this quarter, after having such a gang-busting last quarter. Really, I was hot hot hot.

These were my goals.

1. I glimpsed the Hunter’s Star quilt top when I was finishing up the vacuuming after my sister and her husband left (they stayed with us for a few days and we had great talks). It’s still hanging there, waiting for a border or two and then a trip to the quilter.

2. Hey! I finished something–the Four-in-Art * Fire quilt, titled Doloket.

3. Hey! Something else was completed. Guess I might not have to hate myself so much. Yes, I did finish the Italy quilt — a Schnibbles quilt — part of Another Year of Schnibbles on Sheri and Sinta’s blogs. Title: Take Me Back to Italy.

4. I can’t finish this one, as the sample is hanging in the shop — the shop owner likes it unfinished so she can show people what machine appliqué looks like from the back.

5. Oh, right. Next.

6. Finished this one, woohoo! Title: Lollypop Treat.

7. What was I thinking even listing this? Next.

8. Sigh.

So, I guess it’s not total loathing here in Riverside, just partial. But the one good thing about this FAL is that keeps me honest, and usually focused. But I had to add in another Schnibbles (above, as I know no post is good without photos), and I slipped in Christine’s Philadelphia because the idea was burning in my brain. Okay, confessional over. I guess I should get to work.

200 Quilts · FAL · Finish-A-Long · Quilts · Something to Think About

Christmas Treat Wallhanging

April 22, 2013October 15, 2019 Elizabeth E.17 Comments

So, out here on the old sewing ranch-a-roo, I finished up Christmas Treat (name is courtesy of my husband) and took it outside to pose for pictures. The front.

The back is an old Alexander Henry fabric with quirky angels flying everywhere. I’ve hoarded this and now only have about a yard of the black colorway.

The label. I like to print mine out and border them before I stitch them on. If you do a search for “labels” in the search box on the blog, you’ll find posts about how I do my labels.

The final full shot. It’s #111 on my 200 Quilts list. It’s a big day because of the following four reasons:

1–this is my first Finish a Long completed. I probably won’t finish the blue flowers at this time as the shop owner likes that it shows the back;
2–I actually did some free motion quilting on this that I’m not mostly ashamed of. Don’t look too closely, as I don’t do enough of it to show it off, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out;
3–I took this sample (above, of Christmas Treat and below, of Lollypop Tree block) to Bluebird Quilts & Gallery, my local quilt shop, and she booked me in to teach two classes.

4) my husband took a new picture of me that I think is a pretty good rendition of who I am at this point in my life. As the Mid-Century Moderns know, we scrupulously monitor our images, preferring instead to be behind the lens instead of in front of it.

About photographs: we swim in a sea of digital images, and most are out of our control, as was demonstrated by the plethora of images that came forward about the Boston Marathon tragedy. Our grandparents had a handful. Our great-grandparents had, like, maybe three. So does having so many pictures make it any easier to find one you like of yourself? If you’re like me, my husband took about ten shots before I got one that I liked–one that represented on the outside how I generally felt on the inside. So, here it is. Banish all other images to the dustbin. This is the me as I am this week, all sunny yellow in sunny Southern California.

~~Okay, class info:~~
~~Class will be taught at Bluebird Quilts & Gallery, at 22320 Barton Road, Suite A, in Grand Terrace, California (just north of Riverside).~~

~~I’ll teach Wednesday, May 22nd from 10 to 3:30 p.m. and July 29th, from 10 to 3:30 p.m.~~

I need at least four, preferably, five people to carry the class. I’m including the pattern (my own, drawn from the original Lollypop Tree quilt from the 1880s), and freezer paper (have you priced this stuff lately? Whew!). Cost is $50/full day class, including pattern. Call the shop (909) 514-0333 to sign up, if you think you’d like to take the class. They’ll have class supply lists for you when you sign up. Their hours are Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed Saturdays.