Quilts

A Quibble and A Muse or Two

October 7, 2013 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

To prove to my Mid-Century Modern Bee, that I am on task, getting ready for their blocks, I decided to start on the center Santa. And instead of raw-edge fusible applique, I went with needle-turn hand applique. The directions are sketchy, at best, on this center square, just the big piece of art (shown in disguise, above) and a note to cut the finished center piece to 24 1/2″ square. I didn’t catch that one at first, and started appliqueing.

I traced the pattern, in reverse (taped up onto a window) onto freezer paper, which I then ironed onto the top of the fabrics, and cut 1/4″ around. This pile was where I started on Saturday morning, while I listened to our church’s General Conference, a respite in the wild and crazy world.

I was pretty far along when I realized that the picture was too big for the alloted measurement, by 1/4″, and that was with no seam allowances. So I cut the top of the tree off.

This is where I am tonight. I must have really gotten excited about shrinking this as it now measures 22″ top-to-bottom approximately, but now I have enough room for a smaller inner border of red. That’s the quibble. Now to the Muse(s).

My grandchildren came for the weekend. This is the first set (4 girls) –well, three of the first set. We made cookies that we later decorated when the second set (4 boys) arrived. I’ve made each grandchild a quilt, so you could say their very arrival on this earth served as inspiration.

The father of the four sons, Chad, is on the left and the father of the four daughters, Matthew, is on the right, flanking my saintly husband. While they look fully grown to you, in my mind, their are young boys, scrappily fighting in the upstairs bedroom over who gets the Transformer toy, like Chad’s boys in our front room shortly after they arrived. Boys will be boys, and that always involves a bit of wrestling around.

I was the muse for my sister Susan, when she made me this beautiful shawl/scarf, which I’ve already used a couple of times to keep me warm while grading. A noted historian, she writes comments on my blog like:

“I find the names of these blocks quite interesting in their historic nature. Fifty-four Forty or Fight refers to the battle over the Oregon boundary between US and Great Britain. It was a campaign slogan in 1844. Clay’s Choice no doubt refers to the great Whig politician Henry Clay, who helped broker the Missouri Compromise that would set back the sectional conflict until the eruption of the Civil War in 1861.”

I love her and was glad to learn about my quilt blocks!

My quilt group is also inspiring–we’ve been going strong for about fifteen years, and Caitlin (above) is a new member with her first quilt top, just finished last Friday night.

I saw this when we went to Greek Days at the local church, just a couple of miles from us. It reminded me of the Marcelle Medallion, which has been so popular around the web, and I can’t tell you how many pictures of stone floors I have from around Europe, quilt patterns in all of them.

I was quite impressed by the stories told by the priest, as he led us through his sanctuary, telling us of connections both modern and ancient, and it was an interesting point and counterpoint to the thoughtful talks I listened to in my church’s conference, as all these things remind me that we are more alike than different in our hearts and our minds, whether or not we worship the same.

This morning, we tiptoed out of the house, the grandchildren still asleep before their big day at Disneyland, to see this glorious sunrise. We stopped to take it all in, then moved on, pausing at each street, savoring the changing colors. This, too, is a muse of grand proportions.

It seems that every time I hit a rough patch, it stills me enough so that I can move in a new direction. Who would have thought that after finishing Kaleidoscope, with all its fussy English Paper Piecing, I would be appliquing a Santa down to a new square of cloth? But this is the direction the Muses have beckoned me to follow.

I am always frustrated by the rough patches and I can hear my parents chuckling in the background, as they know I like things to always be still and placid and never, ever, in turmoil. I’m a harmony junkie, if you will, not only in relationships, but everywhere in my life. “This too will pass,” my father used to say to me when I’d come to them in tears, upset by something or another, yet I always found it hard to believe their soothing counsel.

But I feel quite enriched this weekend, in spite of the chaos of an afternoon of eight children. I savored their noise and games, hoping it would never end, but of course realizing (that for sanity’s sake) it needed to. The trip to the Greek Days Festival on a hot October’s day. A visit to my sister last week. A new sewing project. Thoughtful and touching messages to the heart. And last, but not least, the best inspiration of all: the anniversary of our first kiss, twenty-five years ago.

May your muses find you this week. Happy Quilting!

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.