Working in a Series

July 21, 2012 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

I think part of my discouragement this week was fatigue. I’m working a stack of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. There’s probably 40 to 50 different fabrics that I’ve collected over the years, and in this pattern it’s a challenge to get the fabrics to talk to each other within the block.

I can see, though, that working in a series has improved my ability to see what works, as I change out the leaves and some other smaller pieces, as well (above). I found that I was less enamored of one of the earlier blocks, but it was already appliqued down and I would have been crazy to mess with it.

Here’s the final version of that block.

But I did mess with this one. The brightly colored circles with red in them are a different line of fabric, Amy Butler, and they stand out among Kaffe’s florals. (Although I am using some Phillip Jacobs, and others from the Westminster line.)

I think the Anna Maria Horner fabric does harmonize well in terms of detail and color (the aqua circles at the top, and the second large circles down from the top, with feathers and berries).

All in all, I am glad I pushed on. I do love looking at them on the pin wall, although now I’ve turned my eye toward the borders — with more design decisions. When I went to the Springville, Utah quilt show last summer, a version of this Kim McClellan pattern was done up in softer greens, a lovely quilt and a contrast to the bolder hues usually seen. In this, you can see the border design.

It was certainly deserving of its blue ribbon.

And you are all blue ribbon readers–many thanks again for your encouragement!

Something to Think About

Better Than Chocolate

July 20, 2012 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

You are all better than chocolate.

You are all better than giving in to discouragement.

In other words, you are all good company through the Quilt Swamp, and I was gratified and encouraged by your comments — thank you, thank you.

So I persevered today, made more difficult by the news from Colorado as I worked slowly, clicking on CNN or NPR or whatever news outlet I could find. It touched us also closer to home, as the troubled young suspect went to our local Big U as an undergrad, where my husband is chair of the Department of Neuroscience. And whose emailbox and phone message box was filled with requests from major news organizations and newspapers for more information. The Big U’s media office handled all requests, of course, but that something so far away from us can reach out into our lives made me think hard today, and I’m sure you all did the same. My sympathy and prayers are with the families of those who were injured and slain, but also with the suspect’s family.

So, with a grateful heart for your nice and helpful comments, I wanted to show you what steady work in my studio produced. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more comments on some of the process. But tonight, give someone an extra hug. And send out a thought and a prayer out for those who are suffering.

Quilts · Something to Think About

Lollypop Block Quilt Swamp

July 19, 2012 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

Existential Crisis this morning.

I don’t know how you choose what you’ll make for a quilt, whether it be the fabric pulls you in, or you see a design on someone’s blog or in a magazine. I chose this for both of those reasons, and now, more than halfway through getting the blocks assembled, I’m thinking: Really? You really want to make this? Because even though you’re getting the blocks pinned together, you still have to sew them down. Then make the sashing (another slew of piecing) and the borders (I’m simplifying the pattern). Then back it, quilt it, and just how big do you want this to be? Bed sized? Wall-hanging? Who’s going to quilt it–you?

So you could say I’m knee-deep in the quilty swamp. This is how quilts become UFOs. Somewhere along the line your fervor for a quilt begins to wane, another fabric group comes along that calls to you from the fabric store, you spend soooo much time on something that you just get sick of it.

No good answers today. Here are the eight so far: three appliqued down onto the fabric and five pinned together.

A photo of eight with the sunlight streaming onto the blocks in the late afternoon. I was tired.

Still tired today.

Books · Finishing School Friday

Back Among the Lollypop Forest: Blocks 5 and 9

June 15, 2012June 15, 2019 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

I like this part of the Lollypop Tree blocks the best: laying out the color scheme in those great big petals.

The part I like the least, in the cutting and choosing category, is the little circles all around. I chose Block Five to start back in again, because there only a few circles and they were all jumbo.

Block Ten, as labeled in the pattern, has a few more circles. (I call this my block nine.) But two down, seven to go. I’ve got to stop now and get the binding on the gingham quilt (which STILL doesn’t have a proper name) in order to tuck away a few loose ends before the arrival of Barbara and grandchildren. I went to JoAnn’s yesterday and bought two more boxes of applique pins. Since my goal this summer is to get these blocks all cut and pinned, and it’s taking one box for two blocks, I may be running there again–or else I’ll resort to the wicked long pins which stab you a lot when you’ve got it under the machine–or maybe pin with the stabbers, then change out. Playing it by ear.

And what book propelled me through these last couple of days?

On Canaan’s Side, by Sebastian Barry.

A lovely quote: “Bill is gone. What is the sound of an eighty-nine-year-old heart breaking? It might not be much more than silence, and certainly a small slight sound.” Narrated by an elderly woman, it is her story, and the story of the people she loved. I listened to this intently as not only is the story interesting and well-told, the language and imagery is inventive and descriptive.

I thought of my own mother, and the people she’s said good-bye to. And her mother, and then her grandmother, who came over from England, leaving that land behind forever. I guess all of our lives could be an interesting novel, if only the right author told our story. And this story is told by exactly the right author.

I loved listening to it, as the narrator gave shade and color to the characters, perfectly intoning the Irish inflection, as well as the Greek shopkeeper in the later section. It’s not a long novel to listen to–only 7+ hours–a relief after the last one I listened to, which was fifteen-plus hours (with irritating piano music off and on).