Chris’ Welcome-to-the-Family Quilt

March 24, 2013April 2, 2024 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

This is where I was Wednesday morning, after listening to hours and hours of a new audio book: Beautiful Ruins. My mother’s still ~~reading~~ listening to it, so I’ll withhold my review until later. But the really good thing about audio books is that when they are playing on your desktop computer in the same room as the sewing machine, a lot gets sewn, like a quilt top for our new-to-our-family adopted grandson Chris. This is my Sashless Quilt, with the tutorial found *here.*

Full length shot on our front porch, with hands belonging to my tall husband Dave.

This isn’t a complicated quilt, it sews up quickly, and I love using favorites from my stash like the bicycle fabric. I’d been saving that for a long time and this was the perfect use because my son (Chris’ Dad) loves bike riding, owns a bunch of them and takes all his sons out on bike rides.

I started cutting this on Monday, sewed Tuesday and Wednesday morning, quilted Thursday, did the binding on Friday. Hey! I felt like Rita from Red Pepper Quilts, only I’m not listing it in my ETSY shop. (I don’t even have an ETSY shop.)

The “label.” Sometimes with quilts I know will be washed and washed, I don’t mess with a formal label, but simply write directly on the quilt with a Micron Pen.

Glamour shot, reclining on the sofa. I did the basic quilting: stitch in the ditch. I’d played with the idea of doing echo-quilting alongside the seams, but in the end changed my mind.

I gave it to Chris as they arrived on Saturday evening to celebrate my husband’s birthday. Chris’ younger brother Andrew used it first.

Later on, after dinner and all the adults talked, Chris nabbed it and settled into a movie. Or was it a game? I can see that at the dimensions of 46″ x 57″ he will soon outgrow the quilt, but I didn’t want it too big–it’s a “welcome to the family” quilt, like what his brothers received when they were newborns.

Chris seems to like it–I’m so glad!

It’s Quilt #109 on my 200 Quilts list.

Quilts · WIP

Another Sashless Quilt

March 20, 2013 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

Starting another sashless quilt, based on what I did in the Sunshine and Shadow Quilt Tutorial. But this one’s for my newest grandson Chris, adopted into our family this past December. Chris is eleven, so a “baby” quilt just won’t do, but every grandchild has a quilt from me, and soon he will too.

In pieces, on the pin wall. Having a pin wall is a real luxury, I think. Short of a stiff breeze, all the pieces stick there until I’m ready to sew it together (tomorrow).

The rows are marked. My Spring Break is half over and I still have a few things to get done, as Robert Frost noted: “And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

Another late WIP post, but if you get a chance, head back over to Lee’s Freshly Pieced blog and see what unfinished projects others are working on, plus the beautiful blocks that Lee’s crafting.

200 Quilts · FAL · Finish-A-Long · Quilts

Star Mother’s Youngest Child quilt

March 8, 2013March 31, 2013 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Here’s my second finish for March: Star Mother’s Youngest Child. The book, from which the title of this quilt is taken, was about Star Mother’s youngest boy who came to earth to experience Christmas before he was destined to take his place in the heavens, shining brightly forever. He landed at the home of a cranky old woman, who, childless and alone, just wanted to have one Christmas to celebrate before she died. And so the two came together. The illustrations are charming, and the child’s spikey hair and ugly countenance reminded me of the weirdo star in the bottom left corner, the points going the wrong way even though I tried really hard to get them like the picture of this quilt from the Moda Bake shop pattern. But in the aggregate, I think it all works okay.

Whenever I’m looking for a back, I usually go for whatever cheap fabric I’ve picked up on sale, or snagged from IKEA or the Marimekko from the Crate & Barrel outlet. I went to the guest bedroom closet, where these lengths all hang, washed, pressed and waiting and lo-and-behold! I’d purchased some of this Sweetwater Christmas line when I was buying the rest of the fabrics for this quilt. It had been two years and so I’d forgotten. I pieced it carefully to make the seam as invisible as I could. I’ve tried doing pieced backs. I usually fail at that sort of thing because at that point, I’m just so ready to be DONE.

I had also purchased this black/red stripe for the binding and even if it was on the original, I just didn’t know if it would work for my sensibilities. When I went to quilt night last week, Laurel told me it was just perfect. Sometimes you just need that atta’boy to help get these quilts done. I hand-stitched the binding while 1) watching a movie, 2) attending a baby shower another night, and then 3) coming home and talking to my husband after a long day.

My quilter used Superior’s King Tut in a tight red/green variegated color in a medium meander.

For the label, I scanned a picture from the book when the little child first knocks on the Old Woman’s door, and included a quote from the last pages of the book.

This is #108 on my list of 200 quilts. Frankly, I can’t keep up this pace of finishes unless I stop sleeping or eating (neither of which is very likely). The last two quilts have been in the pipeline for a couple of years, and I just had some extra time this semester and was able to get them finished (along with the help of my quilter). But for today, it’s nice to see this all done, lounging on my sofa.

That makes five Christmas quilts I’ve done in my lifetime: two have been given away, and the other three reside here. It will be fun to get those out this coming December.

This is another one of my Finish-A-Long quilts; original posting showing all my goals is *here.*

Quilts

Road to California 2013–part II

March 3, 2013March 4, 2013 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

The next two posts are photo-heavy, but I decided to put the quilts I wanted to show you up in two, rather than three posts. (BTW, these are in no particular order.)

Laurie Wozniak’s American Spirit, was one of several done for the American Spirit batting display, and for which they handed out calendars with photos of the quilts. I liked the postage stamp theme.

Lynette Hallmark’s Colorado Evening was the other one in this series that caught my eye.

Bubble-Licious was made and quilted by Karla Dahms of Minnesota, and was inspired by the Beatle’s song “Octopus’ Garden,” from A Yellow Submarine.

Artists Mark McDermott and Cat Larrea of Alaska, participated in a curated exhibit titled “Perspectives: Fantasy and Reality.” This piece, Chignik Bay Lagoon, is a digital image of an original watercolor, which was then enlarged, printed on fabric and quilted. Both artists have geoscience backgrounds.

Road to California always has a section of Faculty Quilts, and this very well-known quilt, Circular Reasoning, is by Emily Cier, and is quilted by Angela Walters.

City Edge 1 and 2 (this quilt and the next one) were made by Gerri Spilka and Delia Dungan and are from the Perspectives exhibit. Both are from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and were inspired by their cityscape.

This quilt by Hollis Chatelain, From Stone, was inspired by a trip to beach near Brisbane, Australia. (from the Perspectives Exhibit) Confession: I’m always in a love-hate relationship with her quilts.

MidTown A and B (this quilt and the next) were made by K. Velis Turan of New York. She used fabric, dyes, textile paints, and. . . shrink plastic (what we used to call Shrinky-Dinks) for the cars. Since so many of us have a love affair with big cities (but often are glad to retreat to the ‘burbs), I thought these quilts were terrific at showing the compressed space of buildings side-by-side, but sited on river-like boulevards.

Allison Aller, another member of Road faculty, made Crazy for Plaid, her version of the traditional Gothic Windows pattern. She used machine and hand embellishment (below, sorry for the blurry photo).

The main reason I was fascinated by Girl with a Pearl by the Sea, was because of that incredible mass of textured silk on the quilt. Detail below. Quilt made and quilted by Sandy Winfree. Can’t decide if I like it or not. It’s a novelty quilt, and I think sometimes Road goes overboard on those. Overall, I have to say I think this year’s Road offerings are better than last year’s. Fewer sparkles for sparkles’ sake, for starters.

Another sea-themed quilt (there were a lot of them this year) was this young boy swimming in a school of fishes. Sylvia Clary of Florida, titled this Gone Fishing, and is apparently inspired by her real-life young grandson Carson. It’s the details and whimsy of this quilt which drew me in.

Check out the use of selvages in this waves. The fish were made of her hand-dyed fabric, and this quilt included hand-painted, hand drawings duplicated for use, along with thread play, crystals (this is one quilt that I didn’t object to them being attached to, as they were used in the design, not to overwhelm the design) and lastly, photo collage. It was a real treat, but as usual, my favorites don’t always get the ribbons.

Ignore the words floating above this postcard, which was the back of the quilt. Fabulous.

Suzanne M. Riggio, maker and Terri Kirchner, quilter, both of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin (say that quickly) put together this “slice quilt” by the Milwaukee Art Quilters of an old home where they held their meetings. The Jennings Homestead has applique, fusing, painting, inking, embroidery and discharge techniques. Is anyone else wanting to do a “slice quilt”? They are fascinating to me.

Jumping Off the Cliff with Freddy Moran, made by Kathryn Bernstein and Pam Dransfeldt of Los Angeles, California. It’s fun to see Freddy influences in a quilt again.

Another faculty quilt. Lone Starburst was made by Kimberly Einmo and quilted by Birgit Schuller. Einmo wanted to create a quilt “one Jelly Roll Bundle plus one background fabric.” She succeeded.

Monet in Pasadena, was made and quilted by Melinda Bula of California. She used fusible applique and heavy thread play to create this quilt from her hand-dyed fabrics. The inspiration was the Huntington Museum and Gardens in Pasadena, CA. Details below.

Two sisters, Sue Nickels and Pat Holly, made this quilt together (Sue quilted it). It’s titled New York State of Mind, and is part of the faculty exhibit. Didn’t we used to call this orange color “cheddar”?

Old China was made and quilted by Nita Markos, and was inspired by a photo from her childhood.

I’m showing you the detail first on Cynthia England’s quilt, because it’s made of so many teeny tiny pieces.

One Fine Day (from the faculty exhibit) was inspired by a photograph she took of Lake Tahoe, spending a day there with friends and her family, a good “day to remember” she says.

The pieces in Organic Log Cabin #3, made and quilted by Jennifer Emry, were “scissor-cut. . . without measuring to get that ‘organic look.”

This one was fun to study. Until I went to the other ballroom to see the quilts, it was about the only “modern” quilt in the exhibit. Road trends toward the traditional, so I was happy to see a bit of a break-out here.

Another from the Perspectives exhibit was Out of the Box, by Sandra E. Lauterbach from Los Angeles California, and is based on a map of Shanghai, China.

Lorilynn King’s Pocket Full of Paisleys had a “private name” for the quilt while she was working on it (she called it her LOUD quilt). She decided to learn her embroidery software, and used turquoise thread when testing. She kept going and this was the result. (As you may have noticed, some of these quilts are hard to photograph, because they either have signs on stands in front of them, clear plastic tape strung across, or the lighting and/or angles are a struggle to work with.) I liked hearing that she had an “official name” for this quilt, and a “private name.” I do the same thing, feeling like giving a quilt a name is sort of like naming a child–you can’t really know what that name is until the quilt is finished.

Helen Remick had an alcove all to herself, showing off some of her quilts. The one that caught my eye was YoYo 11: Reflections on Changing Technology. She writes: “As one technology replaces another, some things are preserved, others lost. CDs in yo-yos hold manuscripts, family history, rituals and vacations. The collage on the back side is made from images and documents on these CDs.”

I also liked this one, but didn’t catch its name. It evolves into yoyos at the border.

Deborah Sorem’s My Secret Grandma’s Flower Garden has many allusions and references to her grandchildren in the quilt, and “represents three generations.” Detail below.

Lupine designed and made by Emily Cier, quilted by Cathy Kirk

I finished the exhibit in the main ballroom, and slipped over to the smaller ballroom, where I found this gem of a display by Robert Kaufman. Of course, I read a lot of blogs by modern quilters, and this past weekend was QuiltCon–a modern quilt convention (next one is in two years!), so have been surprised that the organizers of Road haven’t yet made a nod to the influences of these quilt. But here was a small exhibit of some amazing modern quilts. ~~One frustration was that none were labeled: not the maker, nor the title, which is a glaring oversight, I think. Enjoy the modernism of these quilts.~~ Update: Leanne of She Can Quilt emailed me all the correct titles. I’ve amended the blog to add in this new information.

Leanne writes: “The quilts are all from the book called We Love Color, compiled by Susanne Woods, published by Stash Books.” The one quilt not shown below (but shown above) is TV Color Bars Quilt, designed and made by Betz White. I hope I put these in all the right places!

Stepping Stones, designed and made by Lisa Call

Orbit, designed and made by Jennifer Sampou, quilted by Angela Walters

Stacked Blankets, designed and made by Valori Wells

Think Big, designed and made by Jacquie Gering, quilted by Angela Walters

Sanibel designed and made by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr

Modern Cross, designed and made by Kathy Mack

Centered, designed and made by Cherri House, quilted by Angela Walters

Color Frames, designed and made by Amy Ellis, quilted by Natalia Bonner

Ladders, designed and made by Elizabeth Hartman

Keys, designed and made by Alissa Haight Carlton

One of the vendors also had a touch of the modern in her display. This was Ginger’s Quilt Shop in Ontario, California, which I found a week later was closing its doors. I was sad, because they’d been so helpful when I was making my Scrappy Stars quilt, in helping me figure out which color to use to back the stars. I did go up to one of the closing days, picked up a slew of solids (I’d purchased a stack from them at the show), and said my good-byes to a great quilt shop.

Next post: last of Road to California quilts.