Quilts

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, a Four-in-art Quilt

February 1, 2015February 1, 2015 Elizabeth E.19 Comments

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
#1 in the Literature Series
Quilt #142

Moving a different direction, the Four-in-Art quilters have chosen a year-long theme of Literature for this current series, and within that, we each have chosen our own way to think about literature. Some have chosen to focus in fiction or non-fiction or others have chosen children’s literature. I have chosen poetry.

Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” is one that I taught in my literature class at school, which gave me a chance to really research it, to hear a recording of him reading his work, to explore what others have thought about it. Depression runs in our family, and many writers have commented about the intimation of suicide — the struggle over this — buried deep in the implied meaning in many of the lines. Frost, of course, has denied that, but I think that while the writer may write the lines, it’s the readers who get to interpret what they see in the poem. Time for you to see the poem:

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

In class we study the iambic tetrameter, the rhyme scheme, the internal rhymes and then focus in on those repeated lines. When you watch Frost read his poem, the first line of that last stanza really comes through that the woods are dark and deep, although lovely, and then he raises his eyebrows, almost in a shrug, saying he has promises to keep, as if that prevents him from exploring the darker woods before him. And many times our obligations do keep us on a certain track, keeping us from veering off into depression or getting lost in other ways. When you have to put food on the table for your young family, you have fewer minutes to ruminate or cry or sit in the corner and stare out the window.

I think the first line, “And miles to go before I sleep,” might refer to the tasks we all face: the laundry, work, family and social obligations, that daily list of compiled chores that pile up before us. I know I certainly had a week like that, and even though some were delightful obligations that brought great pleasure, there was no extra space on the calendar, no breathing room to stop and look at woods filling up with snow.

Perhaps that second repeated line refers to the longer view, past calendars, past busyness, past the To-Do list. We all need purpose in our lives as it is the engine that drives us to get up and get dressed, to engage with the world and to lay out our days in ways that not only contribute to the lives of those around us, but more importantly, lets us focus on the miles both behind us and in front of us. Frost’s genius lay in crafting the lines that cause us to reflect on the bigger picture. His poem reminds us to pay attention to the journey of our lives, rather than than the mere detritus of our lives.

While some may think of the quilting as just a hobby, for me it has become part of my purpose in life: to explore and to create, to reach across the world or country and build friendships, like this small art quilt group. Certainly I can outline the big ideals that inform my choices, but when traveling miles to bring a quilt to fruition, I take heart in Frost’s reminder to keep to the journey.

I like this new challenge for this year. I’ve already chosen my poem for the next reveal, which is in May, and yes, all mine this year will have a seasonal theme.

Please take time to visit the other Four-in-Arters, who have also put up their Challenge Quilts today
(just bits and snips of their quilts are shown–be sure to see the full quilt at their sites):

Betty at a Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com

Catherine at Knotted Cotton

Elizabeth at opquilt.com (you are here)

Jennifer at her Flickr account

Nancy at Patchwork Breeze

Rachel at The Life of Riley

Simone at Quiltalicious

Susan at PatchworknPlay

PS: My blogging software places ads here so I can use this site for free. I do not control the content of these ads.

Quilts

Christmas Tree Skirt

December 13, 2014September 5, 2019 Elizabeth E.23 Comments

Christmas Tree Skirt 2014
Quilt #141 on the 200 Quilts List
(Post updated August 2019)

Here I laid out the old Christmas Tree Skirt on top of the new one; it was made in the early 1970s out of pre-quilted fabric with a tricot backing, and homemade bias tape.

I was inspired by Betty’s skirt that she made last year, as well as others. The original inspiration was a tree skirt from Fat Quarterly 2013, but since I didn’t have a pattern and it was all proportional squares, triangles and rectangles, I just started cutting. Here I’ve laid an embroidery hoop so I could judge how the center circle would look. It took me about two days to get all the houses and trees arranged, partly because I wanted to use my stash and it that necessitated some color and value balancing. I have a piece of fabric from my first quilt in here, as well as some scraps from dirndls made from German fabric (which I love). I even have scraps of fabric from cotton I’d purchased in Rome, Italy some 14 years ago, as well as some Japanese fabrics, also purchased on a trip. Build your stash, everyone. It’s a fun place to visit.

UPDATE 2019, BASIC DIMENSIONS:

Fuse a series of fun fabrics to Steam a Seam II. I cut everything a bit larger, then trimmed to make sure the fusing covered the back completely.

Basic skirt circle: 52″ diameter (piece some white cotton fabric to allow for this dimension of circle)
Center hole is a traced 6″ circle embroidery hoop.
Tall Skinny House: 9″ tall by 3.5″ wide
Pointed triangle roof is 6.6″ wide and 4.5″ high. Follow the basic directions for tall Christmas Trees to cut yourself a wonky triangle.
Two-story house, short: 7″ tall by 6″ wide
Two-story house, taller: 9″ tall by 7″ wide
Trapezoidal Roof measures 8″ across the bottom, 3″ across the top and is 3″ high. So, cut a rectangle 8″ by 3″ and fold in half. From the outside lower corner, draw a line so it ends 1.5″ from the fold. Cut that section off and you’ll have the roof.
Pointed Roof for two-story house measures 7″ wide by 4″ tall.
Tall Christmas Trees: Cut a rectangle 7″ tall by 4″ wide. Fold in half lengthwise, and cut from lower outside corner to the center fold at the top, making a Christmas Tree shape.
Medium Christmas Trees: 6″ tall by 4.5″ wide (cut as above)
Stacked Christmas Trees are formed the same, but the dimensions are 3.5″ tall and 3″ wide.
Christmas Tree Trunks are 3.5″ tall by 1″ wide…but some are shorter (like 1.5″ tall). Cut them to your liking.
Wonky-cut stars (Do a search for a 2″ pattern online; trace the outlines onto fused fabric, then cut). —-> Or use this one: 5-sided-stars <——

Use my photograph at the top of this post to plan and map our your pieces, but cut some different dimensions if that’s what you like (like making a shorter, skinny house).

WARNING: Prewash your reds!!! I did them once with Dye Catcher Sheets. I should have done it three times, so my tree skirt suffered. We still use the tree skirt, as the discoloration is up near the binding in the center circle, but I wish I’d washed them more than once. Now we call it Christmas Tree Skirt at Sunset.

I thought I’d use a large red/white dot for the binding, but when I cut it on the bias, I got this effect. So I went with a narrower stripe than the one shown, cutting it on the bias so it would go around the curves. I pieced it, then folded it in half, then sewed it to the back and topstitched it to the front. A trick I learned in Clothing and Textiles in college was to press a curve into the bias tape. It went on like a charm.

In working on this, I zipped through two books and am in the middle of one more. The two I couldn’t wait to listen to were both Inspector Gamache mysteries, set in Canada. One was titled Still Life and the other was titled A Fatal Grace, both by Louise Penny. And I’m halfway through The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. Fitting, isn’t it?

We finally finished decorating the tree, and I’m enjoying the new tree skirt!

Bobbin Statistic: 5 (in other words, how many bobbins it took to get this thing quilted)
Quilting: First I stitched through the quilt sandwich on the raw-edges of all the house and tree shapes, letting it be slightly wonky as I went. Then the top-stitching on the stars. I switched to white thread and did a loose, large meandering quilting around all the shapes.

Quilts

QuiltCon/Quilt Show Fun

December 11, 2014 Elizabeth E.23 Comments

I’ve been entering quilt shows since about the time I moved here to Southern California. The closest one was Road to California, and in those days, I always was accepted. Schooling interrupted my quilting, and when I got back to my craft, the ground had shifted underneath me. I couldn’t get my quilts accepted any more.

I felt pretty badly about this the first time it happened, especially since the quilts I saw at the show seemed to be all spangle and sparkle and glitz and flash, along with quilting that was perfection, due to the advent of the longarm-quilted piece. To say I was discouraged would be an understatement.

I kept trying, and kept getting rejected. It felt a lot like grad school, where I’d write up my short story, or poem, and take it into workshop and they’d get out their figurative knives, blades, guns and other weapons and slash my pieces to bits, then shoot holes in them. I think I cried all the way home that first time, but it got easier to separate myself from my work, and take the critiques in stride. Some were helpful. Some were NOT helpful. I had to know that my writing still had value and worth, and to keep going. It was the work that mattered.

Fast forward to this week, watching the feed blow up on Instagram as people cooed or moaned about their acceptances/rejections to QuiltCon. Whether the organizers like it or not, they have created a couple of problems and I was watching the fallout happen in realtime, in people-time, as comments started flying. The problems most prevalent appeared to be:

1) Too many entries. This came about because there was no limit on how many quilts could be entered. I haven’t checked every show, but the ones I’m familiar with limit how many quilts you can enter. Because QuiltCon had 1300+ entries, and maybe only space for 400 quilts, well. . . you do the math. But the odd thing was this line in the rejection letter (yes, I got rejected on all three of my quilts): “Please do not be discouraged. We received more than 1,350 quilt submissions and the jurors had to make many difficult decisions.”

This was weird how they commented on the recipient’s emotional state and then flipped it around so that the person being rejected should feel sorry for the jurors and their difficult work of wading through over a thousand quilts in order to chose the ones they wanted for their show. Just the facts are necessary: “You didn’t get in. It was a good effort. Try again next time.”

Timna Tarr’s Valley Snapshots

2) The perception that there is a mysterious criteria that determines who gets in and who doesn’t. The key word is “perception.” And the perception, judging by what I read on IG, is that this mysterious set of rules is not given out to mere mortals, but only those in the inner circle, the claque, the clique, the friends and buddies of those running the show. I can hear the snorting going on now. Yep. But this problem persists because the modern quilt movement can’t figure out what it thinks is a modern quilt enough to be able to describe it, or communicate it to the masses. People like me. And then they hold a contest in which we are all supposed to submit, which feels very much like going to the top of a busy freeway overpass and throwing our quilts over the edge, watching them sink down into the morass.

On top of that, there seems to be an overabundance of graphic artists at the helm, or with some graphic arts training. Might this not mean that the graphic punch, that visual snap, the elements of high contrast off the grid have become ascendent? Maybe. Then put that into the judging/juror criteria and disseminate it.

When I entered, I was surprised to see there were really no categories to select into. Yes, there are categories, but I didn’t get to nominate my entries into any of those; the assumption is that those on the other end of my internet connection will do that for me, further confusing the experience. So I don’t know if my quilt was judged against other similar quilts, or if it was thrown into the pool of 1300+ entires, with bleary-eyed jurors watching quilt after quilt pass by their eyes, until the whole thing collapses into Let’s Get This Done, sort of like I feel when I’ve graded too many papers in a row. I have total empathy with the jurors, but perhaps there are some solutions that might rectify this difficult situation. I hope they find them. And I hope the show I’m about to see in Austin in February will put aside some of my concerns and be a great experience. I am happy for those who got in, and can’t wait to see the quilts.

one of my rejected quilts

But in the end, what matters? Are you only as good as your last rejected quilt? Or are you the sum total of your work, the cutting, the sewing, the creating? Given the number of times I’ve been rejected, I could have melted into a puddle on my floor. But my training in grad school, although sometimes painful, gave me stories like this one: a famous author used to mutter to himself “I’ll show them this time,” every time he started a new novel. And the knowledge that I am more than just my latest quilt. And that I won’t melt if someone tells me “no,” although it feels really good when they tell me “yes.”

another rejected quilt, soon to appear here on the blog for the first time–stay tuned!

One lovely side effect of all this sturm und drag (storm and stress) is that I have loved the reading on the #quiltconreject and the #rejectedbyquiltcon hashtags on Instagram. I’ve been introduced to some fine new quilters, and fallen in love some new works from familiar quilters. It’s been quite the wild ride.

JosephCampbellBigQuestion

Yes, the modern quilt movement may or may not survive the problems I mentioned above. But it’s not really my concern. My concern is to get going on the next quilt, to say a hearty yes to this creative adventure.

Quilts

Colorwheel Blossom in Progress

November 19, 2014 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Because of all the wonderful and encouraging comments from last post, I kept going. This is an in-progress update. Inner blossoms quilted. Inner background quilted. Moving on today to small border, then final large border.

Some asked about how I knot the threads to bury them. When I begin stitching an area, I pull the bobbin thread up to the top, hang on to them and start stitching. When I’m done, I need to deal with these threads. Before, I used to tie a square knot and then thread the tails through a self-threading needle and bury them. There is a better way that I learned from Sue Rasmussen.

But first, there are two kinds of self-threading needles:

The top kind, where you snap the thread into place, is a more reasonable cost, but occasionally it will shred your thread. The side-threading needles retail for about seven dollars each (coming in a pack of three), but those who have them swear by them. I did a search on “self-threading needle” on Google to find these.

But now I tie an overhand knot leaving the knot about a 1/4″ away from where I want to sink it into the quilt. I grab the tails, put them in my self-threading needle, insert the tip of the needle where my threads originated and come out about 1″ away, pulling on the thread to pop in the knot. If your knot is too far away, it will come loose.

Thank you again for all your encouraging comments.
Linking up to Lee’s Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

Quilts

Ralli Quilts and Conversations

October 29, 2014October 29, 2014 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

I was fascinated by all the comments left on my last post about whether to not you choose to answer every comment on your blogs. The trigger, of course, was a couple of articles from 99U which is a site geared toward business types. In talking about this with Cindy, of Live a Coloful Life, we both remember the early days of blogging, where reply comments were not the norm, but instead of replying to a comment, you’d head over to their blog and leave a comment. A couple of comments referred to this, such as this one from Barb: “I also would rather someone comment on my blog rather than spending time replaying to my comment on theirs. That would be a great agreement; instead of replaying, comment more on others blogs.”

Some of you came up with your own name for those snippets of comments. I liked Susan’s observation: “‘Nice Quilt’ is what I would consider a conversation ender. If someone says something like “that’s a really nice quilt, I like the blah feature” then I consider that a conversation opener.”

Nancy echoed many comments when she wrote “I like the interaction between people, albeit virtual, through blogs. I have made some blogging friendships of which I am truly glad. I leave comments about blogs that have given me inspiration, a lesson, beauty, a smile, or something to think about–the start of maybe a brief conversation. I think of blogging as a way to interact with others of like interests. In my smaller physical community, it is difficult to find the more artistic quilters or those who self-design, so I turn to blogs.”

I’ll leave the final word to Claire about our blog reading, as she describes exactly how I feel: “All this assumes a normal day with a leisurely coffee break while I read email and blogs. Other days I skim and probably miss wonders.”

Well said, Claire.

All of these quilts are from an exhibit I recently saw in Utah at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art. They are known as Ralli Quilts, and are from Pakistan and India (see map at end of post). I was amazed at all the stitching, the detail, and the colors (like the quilt above–I couldn’t get my camera to adjust to the deep reds).

These were all found by Dr. Patricia Stoddard, a friend of my sister Susan (who tipped me off to this exhibit). The website about these quilts is found *here* and is interesting reading. Her book, a veritable catalogue of the quilts, can be obtained *here.*

I loved the contemporary look of these quilts, many made in the 1970s. There are several sites that sell newer ralli quilts and can be found by a search on Google.

This reminded me of the Trip Around the World Quilts, a sensation on Instagram last year.

Improv piecing anyone? Often the women saved time by piecing printed textiles together, rather than doing their appliqué.

One of my favorites; I put the closeup on Instagram. It was a good afternoon there at the museum, looking at quilts that are out of our quilting mainstream, a good antidote to the quilt market frenzy on social media. Their vivid colors and patterns reminded me that time spent with patchwork and colors can bring a quiet satisfaction and an entry into the wider world of quilting.

˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚

Our Four-in-Art quilt group will be revealing their final challenge of this year on November 1st. Occasionally we have an opening for someone who wants to play along. No shipping required, just a willingness to engage in new ideas, new techniques of your own choosing. Leave a comment and your blog address if you are interested.

And then a couple of days after that, I’ll have my November Circle Block ready to show you, plus a variation that may interest you for the holidays!

Quilts

Busy Quilty Weekend

September 10, 2014 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

This past Friday night was our little quilt group’s Quilt Night. We hold it the first Friday night of just about every month, taking off some here and there. Lisa (on the left) and I founded The Good Heart Quilters when she was pregnant with her daughter, who is will soon be 18. Hard to think we’ve been going that long! On the right is Charlotte, one of our newer members, and Lisa’s running/marathon buddy. Why are they smiling? I cleaned out my fabric stash this past month and brought all the leftovers for them to claim.

Speaking of pregnant ladies, Tiffiny, on the left, is waaaay pregnant and due this week. (So far, no news.) She is our bonafide Newest Member, but I’m guessing with a new baby, we won’t be seeing her for a while. She’s helping Lisa hem and sew buttons on band uniforms (Lisa is a parent volunteer). See? We don’t always do quilts. We want Tiffiny to come any time she wants to as she brought us all a yummy key lime pie. Treats are always a good thing at Quilt Night.

And still speaking of pregnant ladies, Caitlin (on the left) is due in January. Simone (on the right) and I rounded out the group and we are definitely NOT pregnant. A small gathering, but fun. And with great treats that everyone brought.

I kicked them all out 10 p.m. because the next day I had to leave at 7 a.m. to head to San Diego to the San Diego Quilt Show, where I was taking a Free Motion Quilting Class with Sue Rasmussen. She was great. The class started out with a comprehensive overview of needles and threads, but soon we launched into hands on FMQ. I had taken a class with another instructor about twelve years ago and a lot of what I know now I’ve gleaned through books, internet and Instagram. So I thought it was time to do something classroom-y again.

We learned about hand position, speed, foot control and the all important wild card of what to do when our brain kicks in with questions like “Should this be a feather?” or “You really messed up there.” She also taught us three methods for starting and stopping, and kept the class moving with good demos and good advice. I’m now totally intimidated on submitting anything to a show as she clued us in to some things she looks for in a show quilt (she’s often a judge). Thankfully she didn’t say “sparkles.”

I had an hour for lunch, see the show, and visit the vendors’ booths. I raced through it, so didn’t have time to grab names or titles of quilts (sorry) but here’s a few photos that I grabbed as we zipped by.

This French landscape is Sue Rasmussen’s. You can bet I looked closely at the quilting. (It was perfect.)

She actually had three of these trees, all in different color ways and different fabrics. It was fascinating to see how different they all were.

I loved this fun quilt, but it didn’t win the Modern Quilt category prize. (Inconceivable!)

Great quilting, eh?

This one won first prize in the Modern Quilt category. Hmmmm. I see “improv piecing” which seems to be a criteria (or at least according to Road to California’s blurb when I took a look at it this morning). That’s it? Improv piecing as the only qualifier for Modern? Oh, that and “significant negative space,” or something like that. I hate these seemingly artificial qualifiers and divisions. Like Leanne of She Can Quilt says, “I’ll know it when I see it.”

Back to class for another few hours. Here are some of Sue’s samples. I really enjoyed her class and was glad I made the effort.

On the long drive home, there is this elegant bridge spanning the wide freeway. When I see this, I know I’m halfway home. It was a good weekend, with good friends and experiences, but heading home is what I like to do most.