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.

Giveaway · Quilts

Christmas Lollypop Tree Wallhanging

April 17, 2013April 17, 2013 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

I finally was able to stitch down the petals, dots and branches of my Christmas Lollypop Tree Wallhanging, figure out the borders (I referred to the antique Lollypop Quilt for ideas) and get it all stitched together. Lacking: quilting, and a border, so it looks a bit incomplete, but like I always say, it’s nice to be at this point! I think I’ve cornered the market on red and white and kelly-green and white fabrics. Funny how our stashes will tilt one way while we’re working on a quilt, then veer into another direction when the next project comes along. This is one thing I’ve been working on for this Works In Progress Wednesday Post, hosted by Lee of Freshly Pieced. Thanks, Lee!

Another thing that has been in the works, but couldn’t show before is the little earbud holder. I used Dog Under My Desk‘s pattern, and it went together pretty quickly. I gave it to a friend, for she and I have what we call “sushi therapy,” where we get together and vent about our students (she’s a professor, too). I think between the sushi and the venting, we maintain our sanity (but this semester is really trying our patience!).

I fussy cut out a bit of fabric that has a piece of sushi saying “You’re really really rice” and appliqued it on to the inside bottom of the pouch. My friend laughed.

And I made her a bag from my favorite pattern by Grand Revival: “Practical Bag,” with some book fabric that she gave me (I’m such a nice girl, that I’m sharing!). I’ve made this pattern a ton of times. I made it in New York fabric for my sister who lived in New York for 18 months on a church mission, so she could carry her groceries back home after shopping. I made it for a friend who came to visit from Iowa and whose husband is a pastor (BTW, they just got a call to move to Brisbane, so she’ll be joining all my Australian friends very soon). I’ve made a couple for me, and a bunch for I don’t know who else. I originally purchased it for my daughter to make and traced off the pattern for me in case she had questions. But soon, I bought my own and an extra. What will I do with this?

(They are much better at styling their photo, I think.) So. . . I think I’ll drop it into the mail to one of my readers! As usual, readers get one chance and followers get two chances, but leave a comment if you’d like me to mail you my extra pattern. But to qualify, tell me what you’ll make your bag to hold. . . or to who you’ll give it away to if your idea is to make it for a gift.

I can make this bag up in under an hour, and it holds quite a lot of groceries, or sewing for a doctor’s office trip, or snacks for the kids, or things to return for your errands. I’ll use the tried and true husband-pick-a-number method of selecting someone (although if you’re very clever in what you say, I might have to override him). Giveaway will end Friday morning when I drag myself out of bed, so make sure to leave your email so I can contact you.

And if you want to know what I’ll be doing while you write interesting things? I’ll be quilting my Christmas Lollypop Tree and grading Drama tests (grading is NEVER done). Thanks for reading, and Good luck!

Quilts

Cranking out those Lollies!

April 6, 2013 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

Cranking is probably the wrong word. It takes me the better part of a day to get one of these pinned, just because I have to leave time for pulling out all of the Kaffe fabrics I own, distributing them around on every flat surface in my sewing room (I have been known to pull out the portable tray tables for another surface) and then finding NOTHING I want, make a run to the fabric store for more. (Oh, and by the way, there’s news about my tiny giveaway at the end.)

So maybe cranky is a better word. That’s always I how I feel in the middle of one of these blocks. And also when I look up at the one that’s All Done and I realize the mauvey pink leaves are all wrong all wrong.

And so were these attempts to fix the problem. I was able to find these because in the middle of all this angst, when my entire color-themed cupboard was exploded, I decided to tidy up.

Pretty, right? Notice I didn’t show you the other closet.

But I persisted, cranky or not.

By switching out some of the larger circles it finally came together, so cross that one off my list. I’m also trying to pay attention to how I begin and work through these knots just in case my class carries and I will actually teach it. I’m going to bring chocolate for when they hit the cranky part–that ought to help.

I wanted to try to make a RED-background Lollypop Tree for the holidays. I pulled out my Piece O Cake books and patterns as Becky Goldsmith does such wonderful things with red backgrounds, but whatever I worked with didn’t look holiday-ish enough to suit me.

Better.

So I made it to here, and am going to let it rest.

When I was a local quilt show, I picked up a few fun buttons to giveaway on my blog that have sewing-related themes.

And because I cleaned out my sewing cupboard, I’m throwing in a bit of fabric to go with them.

The second group, with the “power tool” button is a few larger squares of boy-oriented fabric for those quilts for sons or grandsons, or an I-spy quilt you may want to make.

The first batch of fabrics (“Hot Stuff”) has couple of fat quarter solids and a trio of fun novelties.

Cindy, of Live a Colorful Life, is hosting me on her Name Game on her blog on April 8th, Monday. To win one of those buttons, and the bits of fabric that go with them, check back on MONDAY, the same day her feature will post. Don’t leave comments below for the giveaway, as I’ll only draw from Monday’s comments. As usual, you get one chance for your comment, and one more chance if you are a follower of this blog (and leave a comment). I’m hoping you’ll head over to Cindy’s blog and see what she has written (thanks! Cindy), and you can also leave a comment on Cindy’s blog for her buttons (she has two different ones).

Okay, now I have to go and clean up my sewing room.