Pacific Grove Blues

October 25, 2013 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Oh, yes, you’ve seen this before, but only (as the Australians say) as a flimsy, a quilt top. So I needed to get a few projects done and finished and this was next on the list. I was originally going to name it Sand and Sea, but changed my mind to keep it fresh.

This is the block, made in fours and arranged into the quilt. The original post has more information about the pattern, if you’re interested.

I call it Pacific Grove Blues, because of the time we spent in Northern California last month walking along the coastal path in that very interesting town. I don’t have the label for this quilt finished yet, but will, soon. Of course, I visited the fabric store that was there, Back Porch Fabrics; look for the review of that in an upcoming post.

It also hearkens back to an earlier quilt, titled The Blues of Carmel, made from a fat quarter purchased there, and homage to my mother’s blue blue eyes.

We watched these waves every morning, trying to get to the walking just before sunrise. A peak experience, as my Dad would say.

It can now join my growing stack of Schnibbles on top of the guest room armoire. My husband keeps asking me what I’m going to do with all of these little quilts. I really have no idea. Table toppers for holidays (especially the last one, that’s all patriotic)? Doll quilts for the granddaughters? (But I’ve already made them all doll quilts.)

What would you do with a bunch of little quilts? Any ideas, besides stack them up and enjoy them? We’ve all heard quoted a million times that factoid from the book by Malcolm Gladwell about how it takes 10,000 hours of practice to get really good at anything. I figure by cranking these out, I’m keeping those 10,000 hours of practice alive and going. I don’t really know how much longer I will continue to do these Schnibbles, but I have to say that Carrie Nielson of Miss Rosie’s pattern company always has solid designs and colorations, and I can always keep learning something new about how to piece something, or put a combo together, or be exposed to a new block and its possibilities. I like keeping my options open.

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This is one completed project from Finish-A-Long, hosted by Leanne of She Can Quilt, Quarter 4 of 2014’s goals.

This is quilt number 123, on my 200 quilts list.

Quilts

America Is A Tune: October Schnibbles Quilt

October 20, 2013October 19, 2013 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

America Is A Tune (it must be sung together)
finished October 2013
Quilt #122 on my 200 Quilts List

I was making this quilt all during the recent embarrassing shut-down of our country. It was embarrassing because I’d been thinking about the ideals that began our nation, and I felt that no matter what your political persuasion, the sacrifices of those early leaders would pale in comparison to the sacrifices being made by those now congregating in the halls of Congress. And perhaps because they made those sacrifices, maybe those early leaders recognized the fragility of the nation, and worked hard to get it going and keep it going. The title of this quilt is from Gerald Stanley Lee, a clergyman writing at the time of World War I, and I think it kind of expresses what I would hope we, as a county, could embrace again: working together.

Okay, enough on that, but I am really happy the shut-down is over.

Clover Schnibbles

Sherri and Sinta chose Miss Rosie’s new pattern, Clover, for our Schnibbles this month. I couldn’t face making all those teensy blocks, so this was my plan:

So I cut the center “flower” blocks 3” square (finish at 2.5″). Then cut a bunch of 1 3/4″ squares and sewed them into a four-patch, which would finish at 3″ square, too. I randomly picked these measurements, and so also include how I constructed the side setting triangles and the corner triangles.

And although it happened again: this pattern included no cutting instructions for those of us who don’t buy gobs of Moda pre-cuts, this brilliant design is all Carrie Nielson, from Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company, so get the pattern before you start.

What prompted this was a visit from my son, who is a political animal–eats, drinks and sleeps politics. Somewhere in a chest of drawers out in the garage was a little T-shirt I’d bought for a grandchild at the Senate Office Building when we had our sabbatical in Washington DC. And when looking for that to give to him (so his daughter could wear it), I found this tea towel, with some of Washington DC’s landmarks.

My favorite one, the World War II Memorial isn’t on here, nor is the World War I memorial, which is hidden off to the side of the Lincoln Reflecting Pool (on the left, as you face Mr. Lincoln).

The backing fabric is an ancient fabric from Susan Winget. I’d been saving it for a patriotic quilt, and it now has found its home. I quilted it in a cross-hatch design, while listening to The Light Between Oceans, by M.I. Stedman. I have three hours to go and I’d better get going on quilting last month’s Schnibbles, so I can finish the book and talk to my mother about it.

Quilts · WIP

WIP Wednesday: Schnibbles Time, again

October 15, 2013October 15, 2013 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

It’s Wednesday and it’s been a long time since I’ve linked up with the fabulous Lee at Freshly Pieced Fabrics and I mean to remedy that today. I’ve got all the Schnibbles bits up on the pin wall and I need to get them all sewn up and quilted and DONE, because my bee-mates are sending me my green and snow blocks for my Santa’s Village quilt, and I want to see them all arrayed. Funny how one project pushes another to completion. It’s like how tiny the toddler is at the tail end of the family until you bring home the newborn. Then it’s time for that kid to grow up, get potty-trained and pull their weight in the family. Yep, this is kind of like that.

Linking up with Lee!

Quilts

Two Blocks, Two Machines

October 12, 2013 Elizabeth E.19 Comments

Bees are interesting things. I’m in a new one and am still figuring out how it ticks when this block arrived in the mail. The instructions read to leave the quadrants unsewn as the bee-er wants to really make her quilt scrappy and move the blocks all around. It’s paper pieced. Seventy-two pieces per block (4 quadrants). It took me over 7 hours, closer to eight hours, to finish the two blocks. I began wondering about this quilter–who would send out such a complicated block to the bee and expect us to do not only ONE, but TWO blocks? I began wondering about what a sheep I was to follow along, when I should have just sent back the unused fabric after the first block and the scraps for the little triangles, and kept it to one. The end result was that I didn’t feel very good about her, nor about myself–for not standing up and saying “This is excessive.” I was more than happy to send that off this morning!

This is the blocks from another bee-er in the same bee. Because my first batch of fabric got lost in the mail, I was doing her September blocks in October. These blocks were already cut out, and both went together in under an hour. I’m happy to spend more than an hour on a bee block, but the contrast between this quilter’s and her bee-mates was astounding. I felt good about things as I mailed off her blocks this morning.

On our walk yesterday morning, we passed by the house of an older neighbor, who was downsizing and moving up to the high desert. Stuff had to go, including this funky green sewing machine. We continued on our walk, never mentioning it, but on the return loop, I said to my husband, “Want to go and get the car . . . and your wallet?” He laughed. When he came back there were two machines waiting for him to load into the car (I didn’t take a photo of the other), but I got both for $55, including the matching cabinet that the father-in-law had made for this green machine.

I took them right up to my Sewing Machine Whisperer, and he said they were worth tuning up, so into the shop they went. “You know, you have no foot pedal,” he said, gesturing to the green machine. In my defense, it was early in the morning, so when I went back, the older neighbor went up into her sewing room, but couldn’t find it. I left my name and phone number, and hopefully it will turn up. I’ll get these two older machine back in a few weeks; I plan to give one to my granddaughter, who wants to learn to sew.

Today I plan to sew my brains out. And NOT on complicated funk-inducing, grumpy-generating bee blocks.