Juxtaposition • Quilt Finish

October 1, 2013June 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.22 Comments

I finished my quilt, and I’ve titled it Juxtaposition. Every quilt teaches me something, and this one taught me to try again, to not get discouraged, to discover new ways of doing things.

This photo of the quilt, shows less of the texture–the quilting–and more of the color and pattern. I love the pattern.

It is Facets, from Anne of SpringLeaf Studios and as a lovely part of this quilt, she will be offering one pattern for a giveaway. (UPDATE: Giveaway is closed.) I only did one of the several versions of this pattern; mine was the simplest, but all of her directions are clearly written and easy-to-follow.

The easy punch of the graphic design drew me to this, and I knew that the fabric I chose, Charleston Farmhouse, would be a perfect fit. I just didn’t anticipate the difficulty of quilting that central square, but it didn’t take away my fondness for this pattern. I’m already planning to make it again, using the blocks idea shown on the front of the pattern.

I wrote about the frustration I experienced in quilting this, but sitting in my hotel room one morning (we were away at a conference), I realized that if I didn’t tackle and finish, this quilt, I probably would pitch it in the thrift store bag.

(original quilting)

So I drew up two ideas for the center; both were generated by a comment of a reader who said that my ferns in my original design were facing the wrong direction. I thought a long time about what she said, and as I drew, took in her ideas. I let my husband and my quilter friend Beth vote on the one they liked, and I went to town. I used a blue marking pen to assist me, but didn’t trace the leaves, as I still wanted that organic look to the quilting.

After I finished, I had my quilt in one hand, camera in the other, walking around the hotel looking for places to take its picture. This shot was taken in full sun, laying on the grass in the late afternoon and the texture of the quilting really pops. I used a faced binding again on this quilt, and I like how it looks.

It was lovely to come home with a finished quilt. This is quilt #121 on my 200 Quilts Index.

It is also part of the Third Quarter Finish-A-Long, and I’m happy to say I finished one more quilt on my list!

And also today, my tutorial on Y-seams posted at Leanne’s blog here, if you need a little help in that direction.

To win a copy of this pattern (it’s a downloadable PDF), tell me about the hardest quilt you ever made, that really challenged you, but one that stuck with until the end. Are you glad you finished it? Do you hate the quilt? Love it for what it taught you? Gave it away as soon as you could?

~~Leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner on Thursday evening.~~

Drawing is now closed. Thanks for participating.

100 Quilts · Quilts · Schnibbles

Sand, Sea, Schnibbles and Y-seams

September 29, 2013June 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

Joyce Carol Oates, the very prolific American novelist and writer was asked what she did when she finished a novel. Did she go on vacation? Did she stare into space? “I read poetry,” she said. “I find it is good to let the mind rest a bit from the ardors of a novel.” Well, at least that’s how I remember it, when I attended her lecture as a graduate student at our local University of California.

After last week’s wrestling of the difficult quilt (coming up), this is my poetry after a novel, say, The Brothers Karamasov, or something. I missed last month’s Schnibbles outing–too busy with the beginning of the school year, but I was pretty determined to do one this month. It was a squeeze play, especially after I started reading the directions. I couldn’t make heads or tails of them, as it was a pattern geared strictly to pre-cuts, which I don’t generally buy.

(I like the back with its little open four-patches seam allowances.)

I stormed downstairs all lathered up about my frustration, but luckily my sister Susan had given me a treat to assuage the raging quilter within: some delicious cookies from Joan’s on Third in Los Angeles. It rescued me, and I went back upstairs, figured out how to cut strips from my fabric and get going. If you are not a pre-cut user, you have been warned. However, there is a nifty method for making those pieced triangles/checkerboards in the corner, so Miss Rosie’s pattern company was redeemed again. (Still think there should be directions for those of us who use fabric-by-the-yard!)

The original pattern’s name is Mercerie, and they do it in many different fabrics, hence, the need for charm pack directions.

And the Y-seams?

On Tuesday, I’ll be doing a guest-blog post about how to sew the Dreaded Y-seam. Stop by Leanne’s, of http://shecanquilt.blogspot.com to see the secrets.

In the meantime, read some poetry. Here’s one from the Poetry Daily website:

On My Seventieth Birthday I Try to Skinny-dip in Boston Harbor
by Sandra Kohler

I cover my nakedness this morning
with an outsize purple tee, “Outrageous
older woman” scrawled in pink across
the chest. A gift from my son, daughter-
in-law. Beneath it, the only part of
my body where my skin fits me still,
unmarred by time—my shoulders.

Sunrise, ebb tide, half an inch of water
covering Tennean Beach’s pebbles, mud
I sink into as soon as I step out toward
dawning sun. Planning this baptism I
forgot to check tide charts: I’d have to
wade through seventy feet of muck to get
my feet wet: no quick strip and dip here.

Turning seventy: I never imagined this.
Years ago, when I’m visiting my eighty-
something mother-in-law, she’s gossiping
about a neighbor, calls her “an old lady”
—stops herself, says, “I know I’m old
too, but not inside.” Inside, what age
am I? Thirty, eighty, fourteen?

Will sinking into this muck renew me?
On the drive home, passing a shallow
wetland between abandoned factories,
I see a flash of white: two egrets gingerly
wading, stepping, spreading their wings
in the risen light over a brood of hatched
fledglings, as new as aging is to me.

Quilts · Totes and Purses

Autumn Tote and Center Square

September 25, 2013June 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

This week I spent holed up in hotel room, sewing on fun things left and right.

And some not so fun things, that turned out to be fun things, once they turned out.

The Autumn Tote (above) is one of the fun things that turned out quickly. It was my second time making this pattern, and I was able to use what I’d learned last time and make the needed tweaks to the pattern so it turned out much faster in the sewing time.

This is the class sample for the class I’ll be teaching on October 22, Tuesday evening from 6-8:30 p.m., if you are in the area. I’ll be teaching it at Bluebird Quilts in Grand Terrace, California (phone number is 909-514-0333). I love the rich tones of autumn in this piece. This tote is big enough that I can get my iPad in here with no problem.

If you decide to make it, pick something fun and whimsical for the interiors!

Full reveal comes in a future post, but finally! I was able to move this quilt from Problem Child to Model Student. It all came because of a comment on my post from Linda, who noted that besides all the other things I mentioned, the ferns were headed in the wrong direction. A redraw, and a few other tricks which I’ll mention later, and I was on my way. Here it is in an interim step, threads hanging out and everything!

Tomorrow we leave from home after one last walk along the beach here in Pacific Grove (California), watching the colors on the rocks change as the sun rises. It’s been a lovely time.

Good Heart Quilters

Latest Schnibbles is Taking Shape

July 15, 2013July 17, 2013 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

This is the Schnibbles pattern chosen for this month’s Parade of Schnibbles, hosted by Sherri and Sinta, a design called Lincoln. While I love the red, cream and blue and it is appropriate for July, I had a cute packet of fabrics brought to me by a friend while I was convalescing and it just pushed its way to the front and demanded to be used. So I did, sewing and ironing with my foot up (it’s quite a ~~feet~~ feat).

Think this real estate is getting crowded? I didn’t want to take down the quilt on the left, so just folded it over while I put my quilt up on the wall. In looking at it, I knew the name: Citrus. What else to call a quilt with lime, lemon and bold orange in it?

Sewn top. I cropped it so you wouldn’t have to see my messy pin wall. But I’ve put a tea towel on the back of every Schnibbles so far, and what to put on this one? I thought about going by the Citrus Historical Park, where I thought they may have something. Then I looked on the towel rack in my kitchen (the oven door) and there it was–a citrus-themed tea towel!

My sister brought it to me because my kitchen is yellow, and maybe because we carried a sack of oranges up to her in the snowy mountain west last February, a ray of sunshine from our home town’s harvest. But I hope she won’t mind that I put it into service here. I whipped it off the rack, washed up up and bordered it with fabrics from the front.

One beauty of making small quilts is that I get to piece my scraps of batting hanging out in my closet and use them in the quilt. I lay the scraps side-by-side on my cutting mat, overlapping the sides I want to seam. Then I take my rotary cutter and make a wavy cut in them–a long, slow wavy cut. I butt those seams side by side, and using a stitched-zig-zag in a 9.0 width, I zig-zag the seams closed. It makes a nearly invisible join with no ridges.

Citrus is all pinned up. I’m actually getting some projects ready for our little quilt group (The Good Heart Quilters) is getting together for a retreat this weekend. I have learned that it’s too busy to do intensive thinking, so it’s better to go prepared with projects I can sew while chatting away.

This coming January, our quilt group will have been going strong for about 15 years. We generally meet about 7 or 8 times a year, always on the first Friday of every month just after 7 p.m. When we were all younger, we stayed until 2 and 3 in the morning, but now we’re all packed up and gone by 10:30 p.m. Here’s some photos from June’s get together:

We met at Leisa’s house this time; we rotate where’s we’ll meet.

What I tried to work on–this is when I remembered it’s best not to have too brain-draining of a project to stitch/cut!

Bridget is a new quilter, but look what she turned out!

Laurel finished the quilt she started last fall–a combination of piecing and appliqué.

JoDy showed us her cool round tablecloth, made with a wedge ruler. . .

. . .then flipped it over and showed us the back!

She also finished a reversible table runner.

Caitlyn (L) recently ran a half-marathon with Lisa (R) who is a marathoner. Lisa showed off their medal. ( That’s a pair of scissors on a magnetized disk on Lisa’s shoulder, not a fancy broach or something!) Our retreat will be at Lisa’s house–she did one last year and we had such fun, we’re doing it again.