Quilts

Quilter Missing In Action

April 18, 2014April 27, 2014 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

Wow. Have a Giveaway and then go AWOL (*Absent Without Leave*). Where have I been? Grading. Prepping. It’s about this time of year that I can just feel the end of the semester looking around the corner, and I go wonkers writing the weekly blog posts and printing off assignments, and writing tests, just wanting it all to be done. But I haven’t been totally inactive. Here’s my QMIA (*Quilter Missing In Action*) report:

Cut and pressed about 45 miles of double binding for the Amish With A Twist – 2 quilt. It’s still hanging out on the ironing board, waiting for me. (I seemed to have been passed over by the binding fairies somehow.)

Always Bee Learning quilt block for April, with an ogee pattern. I thought I laid it out as best I could (in this bee, we receive our fabrics and then stitch up the block), but I feel like I could have done better if I’d been able to slip in some of my stash to get a better distribution of colors, as I don’t want to disappoint her. I do hope the quilter is happy with it, but I’ll gladly do another if she’s not. I finally got out the Curve Master foot that my friend Rhonda told me about, lo these many years ago, and after cutting myself a few curves out of some scrap fabric and practicing, I felt confident enough to go at the bee curves. Rhonda says after you do a whole quilt of Drunkard’s Path, you’ll be considered a Pro. I’ll take your word for it, Rhonda. I tried to watch a YouTube video showing how-to, but that was the weekend that Adobe updated all their Flash software, which apparently didn’t work with my computer, so to be fair, some of my quilting time was spent cursing the computer, downloading, cursing some more, then uninstalling, reinstalling, etc etc. You’ve all been there.

Two Mid-Century Modern Bee blocks for April for Debbie. She only asked for one, but I got going and forgot to stop.

A birthday lunch with my kid, who is now thirty-nine and holding. He has to stay that age so I don’t have to declare that I’m any older. Oh, and just down the street from where he works is the Purl Soho warehouse for the West Coast, which coincidentally was having a sale, so these came home with me.

I also graded and prepped an inordinate amount, caught not one, but two, plagiarizers, but you don’t really want to hear about that. Now to change gears a little, here’s a quote from a new book by curator and art advocate Sarah Lewis:

This quote is from Brainpickings, a website I haunt. The author of this review, Maria Popova, often reviews books and brings together a lovely mix of ideas. While I’ve been unable to get to the quilting, I’ve been thinking a lot about why I do what I do: cut a piece of cloth into little pieces and sew it back together again. Of course, that’s the simplistic way of looking at things, for in the cutting and sewing lies a high degree of autonomy–of my being able to invent the design, give input to the creative process and even have a Fail once in a while. I like the above quote, because while I’ll probably never have the fame of other quilters, Mastery seems like a worthwhile goal. And apparently, according to Sarah Lewis, the author of The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure and the Search for Mastery, we don’t have to be perfectionists, nor have constant successes day after day. But we do have to be willing to shut ourselves away and work at it, embracing failure and going forward. Or, as Popova says, “This is why, Lewis argues, a centerpiece of mastery is the notion of failure.”

Popova continues by saying: “One essential element of understanding the value of failure is the notion of the ‘deliberate incomplete.’ (Cue in Marie Curie, who famously noted in a letter to her brother: “One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”)” And then Popova quotes Lewis:

Okay, that’s enough brain food for one day. I’m off to climb that mountain of binding, think about my goals (next post), and possible even finish grading the most recent literature paper that is in a stack downstairs on the dining room table.

But let me leave you with this gorgeous quilt from Cindy, of Live A Colorful Life, who is a one of those quilters who, while understanding the idea of the “deliberate incomplete,” also has a LOT of deliberate completes, such as her Marcelle Medallion, from *here.* She and I have often talked often about the WIPs that float in our closets and cupboards, yet I’d like to morph Lewis’ idea of the “deliberate incomplete,” to a new place–perhaps that of a quilt that is not ready to be finished whether because the quilt maker’s “other” life gets in the way, or that the quilter has “lost her mojo” (a phrase often seen on blogs) or does not yet have mastery of the skills needed to finish up (and certainly, that may include time management!). Yet mine and yours and Cindy’s quilts that are on our beds, our walls and folded ready for visits from family and friends, certainly is a testament that we do finish, that we are — at some level — on our way to mastery.

WIP, RP, BB Can’t You See?

March 5, 2014November 25, 2014 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

That’s Works in Progress, Rainbow Petals, Bee Blocks, can’t you see? I just liked the rhythm of it all, especially after the previous post, with Emily Dickinson, a reclusive but prolific American poet, writing about her sewing. And yes, that video was of my granddaughter, taking her first stitches.

So the Work in Progress is my Rainbow Petals quilt. This is a rainy-day-late-at-night photo, and we all know how those turn out, but if this looks familiar, that’s because it is. (Check your iPhone.) I first thought of this last summer, when — in bed recuperating from foot surgery — I watched the Apple Keynote talk about their new iOS7, and this logo kept flashing on the screen. I took a screen shot of it and tucked it away. I went to the Long Beach Quilt Show (final year) and bought sixteen different half yards in the Kona colors I thought would match, holding up my screen shot to double check the colors. My friend Leisa and I arranged them at dinner that night, numbering the labels so I wouldn’t mix them up. I’ve since seen another quilter try her hand at this. I had thought to piece it, but now I think I’ll appliqué it by hand.

I’m still thinking over those dark middle petals. While they “read” as black, they are actually forest green.

I also finished a first set of churn dash blocks for my Mid-Century Modern Quilt Bee and sent them off. I kept thinking about them, unhappy with how they had turned out.

So I made another set. I am one of those quilters who have ironed seams so long to the side, that I’m not very happy with my results when I have to iron seams open. If the block is too small, and the seams are pressed to the side, I just take a bigger seam and press again. But if the seams are pressed open, then it’s unpick, resew, re-press. As I mentioned on our Mid-Century Bee blog, I’m just Open-Quilt-Seam-Challenged.

Cindy, also from the Mid-Century Modern Bee, wanted a spiderweb block, with a low-volume (muted) text center and solid strips for the web. A great idea!

For March in my Always Bee Learning Bee, Marci wanted two Modern Maples blocks.

And yep. I did it. I joined the Modern Quilt Guild as an Individual Member because my closest guild was MILES away, across the great wide scorching plains of Los Angeles Traffic — or Orange County Traffic — and I wasn’t able to attend their meetings. Maybe in summertime?

Linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced.

Free Quilt Pattern · Quilt Bee · Quilts · Something to Think About · Tutorial

Oh, The Places I’ve Been!

January 18, 2014August 17, 2025 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Well. I’m exaggerating a bit.

I went into Los Angeles to meet my sister, who was accompanying her husband for his treatments here, in the Saperstein Center, at Cedars Sinai Hospital. I’m including this photo so my mother will know what it looks like. It’s a comfortable room, with private bays all along the sides of the main room. My sister and I curl up in the comfy chemo chairs (that aren’t being used, of course) and talk while we wait to visit with him. But this time while he was in treatment and couldn’t be visited, we first went to lunch at a favorite place of mine:

Sycamore Kitchen, which has very inventive and delicious food.

Then to The Grove, where we hit Barnes and Noble because I was looking for Quilty Magazine, because I’d just hit print:

My gingham quilt was featured in “Girls on Film,” paired with Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ.

Here’s a better look at it, and here’s the blog post about it. We didn’t find the magazine; my issue came a couple of days later in the mail.

And then Nordstrom’s where just seeing these makes my feet hurt. The heels on the left remind me of my mother’s “spectator” pumps, worn for years and very stylish.

Better.

Then back to the hospital. We later had dinner at a lovely little Italian place, then it was home for me, as we were both tired and she had to drive to her hotel.

Another place I’ve been is my local community college, where school started. (The white blobs are where I whited out each student’s name.) This ought to give you a representative sample of who is in my classroom. I finally have a great class! (Intro to Literature) and I’m more excited to teach this semester than I have been in a while.

I’ve also found a few minutes to spend in the sewing room. No, I’m not playing in the Economy Block Sew-a-Long. The pretty pink, yellow and chocolate square-in-a-square blocks are for a friend’s baby quilt, and I’ve already sent them to the quilter who is putting it all together. We used Red Pepper Quilt’s tutorial *here.*

I’ve already made a quilt out of the (officially known) Square-in-a-Square block, in my quilt “Into the Woods,” (number 103 on the 200 Quilts list, shown below), so I’m squared out. The block in my quilt above is 9″ square, larger than the baby blocks, and I drafted it in my quilt software, QuiltPro.

This is the block for January for the Always Bee Learning Bee. Toni of Hoosier Toni wants to make Christmas quilts for her children’s bed, and I thought her choice of the SpiderWeb block was great.

This is like the one we made a couple of months ago for another bee; the tutorial is found *here.*

This is for the Mid-Century Modern Bee, for Linda of Buzzing and Bumbling. Her house burned to the ground right before Thanksgiving last year, so we were happy to make her house blocks to help her re-create her life in a new fashion. This is my own design. I’ve got a PDF file of the templates here: *Hyde Park House*, but I have to warn you that since it’s a 12″ block finished, some of the templates “fall” off the page, and you’ll have to figure it out the measurements. What I did was measure the templates, then write the measurements down on the paper. Then I used that as a guide for cutting out the pieces. Somehow I ended up short on the height and had to add another strip of green on the bottom. Just don’t be too precious about this and you’ll get through. Hey, it’s free and untested, so Buyer Beware.

Lastly, my mind has been in Budapest, Croatia and Slovenia, places I hope to go to this summer. The challenge is when you are in lots of places, it’s sometimes hard to figure out where you need to be. Today I needed to be here in my sewing room, finishing up the Amish With A Twist 2 quilt top (next post).

And often when you are too distracted with your head in many places, you fall into the procrastinating habit. I had a student from my last class write to me, as she was worried about trying to overcome her habit of procrastination (although her habit is very slight, truthfully). I told her I sometimes ask myself “What do I want to have done before this day ends?” and sometimes that helps. Other times it is just not wanting to face that dreaded task every day, so you finally find the resources to get it done.

Although you might think this doesn’t really apply to us quilters, I think it does. Sometimes we put off tackling the really hard tasks and instead do our bee blocks (Ahem.) Other times we have sketched out a terrific quilt, but are seduced by the latest trend on Instagram (Economy Blocks) and let that pull us away from doing the hard work of designing and figuring out the quilt in our head.

An article in the New Yorker noted that “The essence of procrastination lies in not doing what you think you should be doing, a mental contortion that surely accounts for the great psychic toll the habit takes on people. This is the perplexing thing about procrastination: although it seems to involve avoiding unpleasant tasks, indulging in it generally doesn’t make people happy.”

So I’m trying to figure out which place I should go next, which direction I should head in my quilting. Shall I fall back on something easier to do than what I have to (“we often procrastinate not by doing fun tasks but by doing jobs whose only allure is that they aren’t what we should be doing”) , distract myself by buying more fabric (judging from the recent Instagram De-Stash, a lot of people have been doing this one!), or simply surf the web some more to get so many ideas, I can’t possibly make them all in my lifetime (“many studies suggest that procrastinators are self-handicappers: rather than risk failure, they prefer to create conditions that make success impossible, a reflex that of course creates a vicious cycle”).

Ultimately, it comes down to Getting The Work Done: “Since open-ended tasks with distant deadlines are much easier to postpone than focussed, short-term projects, dividing projects into smaller, more defined sections helps.” And aren’t most of our UFOs the result of procrastination?

So get yourself a notebook, break down the quilt you want to make into smaller steps, and check them off as you go. It also helps to set a deadline–try the Finish-A-Long if you need a little help with that; because of that I finished several dead-in-the-water quilt tops, surprising even myself with twenty-four completed quilts in 2013. Not all of these were begun and finished in that calendar year, but that’s when they came alive. I’ll close with some lines from one of my son’s favorite books, “Oh the Places You’ll Go,” by Dr. Seuss:

On and on you will hike
and I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.

So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.

Happy Quilting!

200 Quilts · Creating · Quilts

‘Twas the Week Before Christmas

December 15, 2013 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Well. Almost the last week before Christmas (ten days to go, says the Advent Calendar on our fridge).

Given that I’ve been >>sick<< with ick and asthma and blah for too long, and that I have TONS of stuff to do, I leapt into action and made my bee blocks for December for Mary at Molly Flanders. I mean, that is the prudent thing to do, right?

It was actually quite restorative working with old-fashioned prints and calming neutrals. A whole lot more fun than trying to get the last of the Christmas decorations up (but I did finish them today, thank you very much). I enjoyed the process. One thing that our bee does, which I like, is that we make each other a signature block with our name, our blog name and our location and send it along with the blocks. I have a row of signature blocks on the back of my Santa quilt (which has been idling all these past couple of weeks on my sewing room floor while I have graded and rested) which makes me smile when I see them.

And maybe it’s because I have signatures on my brain. Here are all the blocks for my signature quilt put up on my pin wall. They lack the sashing and the borders, but what fun to see a flower garden of my friends!

Whoops. I had to fix one of them. Mind you, that block has been like that for nearly eight years, and I’m just now noticing it. What’s fun about working with signature blocks is that you think about the person who’s name you are holding. Kendy would have a fit if her block were wrong, as she was always perfectly put together and perfectly modulated in all comportment. (Look it up–I kid you not.)

I had one more signature that I had to get, and I couldn’t just contact her and get it lickety-split (more on Toni in a later post). So I found her Christmas card from a few years back, enlarged her signature and traced it onto a prepared fabric square (a square of fabric that had freezer paper ironed to the back of it).

Toni’s square, all bordered in greens. She would be pleased.

Often at Christmas, all the relatives gather, or we go to their houses. If you want to start a signature quilt, have a stack of squares ready for them to sign. Choose a block with a wide open space for writing, and a simple frame for that signature. Then cut the center square about an inch larger than you’ll need it, back it with freezer paper. I drew the 4″ center square directly onto the freezer paper, so that it would show through and give people an idea of their boundaries.

I used a Micron .05 pen for people to sign their names. Those who I couldn’t get (who lived too far away), I sent the block to them and had them write their name lightly, but legibly with pencil, and then I traced it in the Micron pen when it came back to me (I included a SASE so the blocks would come back). I only had one that never returned to me, but then that woman get could get her dander up quickly, and she carried a grudge longer than anyone I’ve ever seen. She was still wonderful to me, though, and I loved her. I’m sorry she didn’t return the square.

Yes, all this quilt is women. Relatives, friends, mentors, and the latest batch of my granddaughters. At some point, I realized I had to cut off the additions, otherwise it would never be done. So, with the exception of my granddaughters, I stopped adding, even though there are still people who are important to me without their names on my quilt blocks. I love looking at it. I drop it at the quilter tomorrow, and since my granddaughters are coming for Christmas, she has promised to have it done by the 23rd. (I’ve already made the binding!)

Why did I start this? Because of Toni. I’ll tell you more about Toni, and why she was the inspiration for this quilt in another post–probably after Christmas, after all the company’s gone home!