Tag: Red White Challenge

WIP

Doing Nothing But Making A Mess

Elizabeth E.6 Comments


This is WIP Wednesday, hosted by Lee of Freshly Pieced Quilts, who is fabulous and writes us all a thank-you note for posting.  My mother and grandmother salute you, Lee!  (As do I.)

Let’s start with a quote from Andrew Wyeth, a great American painter, culled from the Brandywine River Museum when I visited last fall:

“I dream a lot.  When I’m doing nothing is when I’m doing the most.  Sometimes when there is great tension, or lots taking place, I may get an idea or an emotion, and it hits me strong.  I let it build in my mind before I ever put it down on the panel.  Sometimes I do my best work after the models have gone away, purely from memory.  (1996)”

I’m kind of in a fallow period right now as well. It’s time to make the shift from an all-quilt life to a life shared with the papers and detritus of my real job: an adjunct professor.  I’ve been quieter here on the blog, not because I haven’t lots to share, but I had to get that pesky syllabus over to the Copy Center on campus, as well as the Get To Know You form for the first day.  We’re also slipping out to a family reunion and a camping adventure in a National Park before I start back up again, so I’ve been doing the regular things like getting the car prepped, tires checked, laundry.  Well–you’ve all been on vacations and you know what’s involved.  Perhaps because of this, I relate to Wyeth’s comment “when there is great tension, or lots taking place”  it’s hard to be creative.


But since these Wednesday posts are about Work In Progress, I give to you my WIP: cleaning up the sewing room.
No lie.

Another lovely view.  Sometimes I just pile the stuff here and there, making way for that next project.  I’ve been trying to finish up a few things (two more coming in the next couple of weeks–on Fridays), yet you can see on the corner of my elevated cutting table a stack of reds and whites.

The Red/White Challenge finished ahead of schedule!  Here they all are, with my block on the top.  I have them up on the pin wall, just percolating there as I think very sweet thoughts about the women who took a chance on me and my quirky idea.  September 1st is the deadline for the Temecula Quilt Company’s “quilt show” and I want to have something new to add.

Somehow the idea of a table runner keeps popping up.  This book is an inspiration.

Blocks on point, bordered by a log-cabin type of block?

Or with a checkered block in between them?

I’m going to let it rest while we do family stuff for a while, and see what comes up after things simmer down.

Blog Strolling

RedWhite–AUSTRALIA

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

How fun is this?  The mail lady rang my doorbell and gave me this lovely package all the way from Australia.  I practically grabbed it out of her hands.

And look what was inside–these lovely Shoofly blocks from Kay from Down Under.  She has a funny story (which she gave me permission to relate) about these blocks.  Seems she had them all completed and ready to send off when her niece spotted them in her sewing room.  She grabbed them and gave the dogs a bath with her aunt’s “pretties.”  So Kay sent off for more fabric, and remade them.  I’ll always think of this story when I look at these blocks.  The dedication of the quilters in this red and white challenge impresses me over and over again.  Thanks, everyone!!

Quilts

WIP–Red/White Blocks, Etc.

Elizabeth E.7 Comments

It’s Work In Progress Wednesday!

Nothing fancy today–just the red/white squares for my mini-challenge.  Three are in, and I need to get these made and sent off to those who have already finished.  Thanks, ladies for meeting your August 1st deadline early!

My tip for the day occurred to me while I was trimming up bulky flying geese units for this block.  Sometimes on seam-heavy patches, if the ruler is sliding around a lot, leave part of your hand halfway-on and halfway off the ruler (my lower thumb, above) in order to anchor it better.  Then you can successfully trim up the unit.

And then there’s this. I got it back from CJ Designs (my quilter) as we’d worked out that she’d quilt some and I’d quilt some.  I’d been putting it off for a while because I didn’t quite know how to begin.  Yesterday I went to Leah Day’s Free Motion Quilting Project website, looked at some of her designs and clicked on her videos of how to make those designs happen.

This one’s called Curvy Key.

I like this one too: Overlapping Arches.

But I woke up this morning thinking about this one: Lollypop Chain.  If you have never been to Leah’s site, click on the Lollypop Chain link and watch her quilt up her sample.  She is amazing (and so is her quilting).  So maybe I’ll try this one.  Ruth McDowell suggested taking some transparent paper (doctor’s examining table paper, architect paper, or those waxy deli squares you can buy that they use to grab things with) to try out the quilting.

Draw out your design on the paper and place it over the area you want to quilt.  This does two things: let’s you “see” the quilting on your quilt before you decide, and also puts it into your muscle memory, so when you do start to quilt, it’s not completely foreign.  It also wouldn’t hurt to first try the design on a scrap quilt sandwich before you begin on your quilt.

Now I’m off to go look around at what you all have been doing!