Quilts

Sampler Quilt Top & Rosette #1 Finished

March 13, 2015June 26, 2018 Elizabeth E.28 Comments

I’m slowly making my way through the New Hexagon Millefiore Quilt-Along, and have finally finished Rosette #1. Because of the deep colors, it’s a bit harder to photograph than I’d thought, but here it’s tacked up on my fence, in the daylight. I’ve got the template ready for the next partial rosette, but will get to it a bit later, as there are some projects in the line-up ahead of it. This was the beginning of my Mid-Century Modern Bee Sampler, with all the blocks from my bee mates, plus a a couple I’d sewn together. Not Working was what I called it over the last few days. Definitely Not Working at all. I kept in all the bits and pieces of extras they’d given me, then I’d take them out. I’d move them around some more; this quilt was more challenging than I’d thought! The last post talked about the basket block, but I pulled out a vintage quilt block book I’d purchased at a garage sale, to find another. Four blocks of Road to California it is, as all my mates had to send blocks to California. Finally it came together and I declared the top done. I sewed all the pieces together while I listened to the next book in my Inspector Gamache series: Today I used the bits and pieces my bee mates had sent on the back and got it ready to go to the quilter’s. It’s the first one headed over there since October of 2014. How had it been so long? Teaching had taken a lot out of me, and I left room for church service, teaching Sunday School, going to QuiltCon, and my family: PeterMeganMove2015 My son, Peter and his wife, Megan moved back to California from Betheseda, MD. They did the cross country trip in 3 1/2 days. You can tell they are young. Clearing Garden SPR 15 And I left some time to clear the garden, with a few cabbages, Swiss Chard and Brussels sprouts left. We planted seven different kinds of tomatoes, but are waiting for the weather to stop being so hot and dry before continuing. My lettuce isn’t going to be happy this weekend that California has skipped winter, skipped spring and gone right to summer. But this cute tote and fabulous card arrived today as if to celebrate with me that I’d finally finished up. Rachel, of The Life of Riley, sent them over as a little gift. Her timing is impeccable! And so, to continue the celebration, I have a little giveaway. I actually have two: The first is this little book of Quilting Techniques. I’ve actually enjoyed looking through it, as I picked it up at a recent quilt show. And since California thinks it’s summer, it must be time to spruce up those toes with a weensy cute pedicure set in a flip-flop case, a Passive-Agressive notepad (in honor of our freeways) and a wee pair of Itty Bitty Scissors, for those summer trips you are planning. I’ll pick two winners. Just leave me a note telling me your latest success and somehow I’ll randomly draw a name and send off these gifts. International is okay, but I’ll just send one overseas (the other one is domestic). I’ll let you know the winner in the next post. Giveaway will close Tuesday evening, SoCal time.

Giveaway closed. Thank you all for entering.

Quilts

Patchwork Blocks and Ennui

March 8, 2015 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

In a recent email exchange with my father, he mentioned the idea of ennui. It’s not quite boredom, nor fatigue. It is more of a lack of interest in what lays before you, a dis-interest, if you will. The dictionary goes one step further: “a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest.” We quilters often describe it as “lack of sewjo,” playing off that phrase of “lost my mojo,” which after reading about in Wikipedia, all I can say is I had no idea.

Of course, having a stack of grading doesn’t help the ennui, but with the students dropping like flies (long story) I had fewer to grade and they actually performed really well, so it went quickly. (Bad essays take longer to grade.)

And this lovely distraction also came for a couple of days while the family was moving between houses.

But as Susan of PatchworknPlay and I chatted on Instagram, I noted that sometimes just sewing a block or two can help beat the ennui. Here’s a new one from the ever-talented Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company, from her latest magazine BLOCK.

I get these every couple of months as I signed up for the subscription and I always enjoy reading them. At QuiltCon they gave us all a copy of MODBLOCK in our swag bags.

Here’s how you cut it. She has the measurements in her magazine. But when I posted it on IG, Krista of Poppyprint mentioned that at their guild sew day, lots of quilters were making the same thing into a star block. I found that tutorial online *here.*

Bird blocks which can be maddening, but also fun, once you get the hang of it. I’m using a tutorial for “free-form” birds from my friend Rhonda, which she gave out to her class. There’s also a tutorial online, which is much more orderly, and if you are into the cookie-cutter precision of paper-piecing, there’s also one of those.

The last block I made last night, while listening to my latest Inspector Gamache mystery, was this basket block, also shown at the top of the post. It was late and I was tired, knowing that I’d lose an extra hour of sleep due to the dreaded Daylight Savings Time switch (I need to live in Arizona where they never switch). I found *this tutorial* and modified it the measurements I needed, plus used extra leaves from the Pineapple Blocks quilt border (yes, still working on that) to fill the basket. I needed the block to measure 9″ finished. One detail is those lower snowball corner on the basket: they were 2″ squares that I snowballed on. The rest was done by cutting as I went, loosely following the tutorial.

This is why I’m making blocks to beat ennui. My Mid-Century Modern beemates sent me a whole wall of blocks in January, and I’ve been adding to them, having no plan, but only relaxing fun. I added the Disappearing Hourglass, the Dresden Plate, the basket, the birds and a couple of fillers. I’m still playing, still arranging. Happily, the ennui is slipping away.

Quilts

Clutch Purse and Bee Block–Feb 2015

February 12, 2015February 12, 2015 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

For February’s Mid-Century Modern Bee Block, Carla asked us to make the paper-pieced birthday cake found on the Ellison Lane blog. If you decide to make this, note that the default printer settings are quite a bit smaller, so make sure your scaling is set to 100% when you go to print it out. It went together really easily. Carla’s going to have a whole quilt of layer cakes.

The Good Heart Quilters gathered together for our monthly get-together; it was held at Charlotte’s house (upper right) and we felt well feted by her hospitality. Lisa (above left) wore her quilty socks, and finished up Diane’s Date Night Clutch. We had others there, too, and we were all sewing on the Date Night Clutch, however, I got to hold Caitlin’s newborn baby so she could sew. A good choice!

This is the version I made from Dianne’s pattern. I had a box way up in the closet labeled “Japanese Fabrics,” and it held cloth purchased when I went to Japan and Shanghai China about fifteen years ago, a month after 9/11. I had put up the fabric and pretty much forgotten about it, so when I decided to see what was in there, it was a lovely surprise.

Why did I only buy a half-yard of this amazing red/white cotton?

Diane has two different versions of her clutch and this one includes the inner pocket on one side, the insert that will hold credit cards and bills, and a small zipper pocket for small items (or change?)

I’m all ready for QuiltCon now, as I have a small useful clutch to tuck in the bigger tote bags we all carry around.

And. . . I survived the grading of their first essay. I could tell you stories, but I don’t want to upset you if you are eating. I have one student that I’ve picked out as the One I Teach To. He spent a year at Cornell University before decided that it wasn’t for him (he didn’t elaborate). He’s always prepared for class, got an A on the essay, doesn’t fall asleep, and looks interested. . . like he values his education. See why he’s the one I’m teaching to? I generally like all my students, although Video Zombie Boy is getting on my nerves–turning in two paragraphs four days late and telling me it was his essay. (Right.) I’m leaving them all behind for a couple of days while I head to QuiltCon next week. I remind myself of the student I was working with in conference about re-writes, and after we’d finished, she blurted out “I’m going to see Wicked next week and I can hardly sleep I’m so excited!”

Yep. That’s me!

Quilts

Pineapple Blocks

December 20, 2014December 20, 2014 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

Before I descend into cooking and cleaning and more cooking and a bunch of dishes and family for Christmas, I thought I’d post all the pineapple blocks together. This is a combined effort of the Always Bee Learning Bee, the Mid-Century Modern Bee, plus a few I whipped up too. I took the papers off the remaining three tonight while watching How To Train Your Dragon 2 (amazing animation), and now I need to vacuum the family room again. I have more things to add to this quilt, and hope to be working on it over the break. But then again, my life may be like yours, full and lots of the things from the first sentence of this post!