Time is a Dressmaker • Quilt Finish

March 10, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Faith Baldwin said that quote, and I’ve saved it for ages, waiting to use it as a quilt title.

I started this with a whole new stack of colors than my last temperature quilt, and then even though I’d been fussing about it since January 1st, the intense sewing really didn’t get underway until about March — I was waiting to see if we would have an interesting year for weather. We did, with snow one day and hail another and many rain storms.

While I didn’t want to replace the earlier version, I did love love that quilting. Jen was able to do the same pattern on this quilt, too. It’s more square, has a temperature quilt key on the back, along with a linen tea-towel calendar to show the year. I also added a square denoting made in California. Which it was.

This is quilt #286, and it’s 61″ wide and 70″ tall. Or long. Or high, or whatever.

No surprise that I chose this title for this quilt, as these patchwork triangles mark the passage of time, and by their very color, alter the face of the quilt top. I’m not sure I’m as generous about the marks time has placed on my physical body, and sometimes the alterations of who I think I am can sometimes be pleasant, and other times, painful. I want just enough spice and change in my life to make it interesting, but I don’t want sustaining relationships to wither or change or wilt. Some you can’t get back, like when my father died earlier this year. Other relationships take a bit more stitching and cutting and late-night sewing to become the beautiful garment (or quilt) they were meant to be. Y’all know what I mean, and I’m guessing the marks time leaves on all of us can be wearying. Or gratifying. Or somewhere in between.

A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller, said Paul Klee.

John Lithgow: Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug.

Theodore Roethke, a favorite poet, noted that, Time marks us while we are marking time.

Try pausing right before and right after undertaking a new action, even something simple like putting a key in a lock to open a door. Such pauses take a brief moment, yet they have the effect of decompressing time and centering you, wrote David Steindl-Rast

We’re planning a trip to see the Eclipse in April, and are trying to find those moments where we can pause time, as Stindl-Rast suggests. And hopefully not in dive hotels, or out of gas at the side of a road in West Texas. Seeing the eclipse will, in its own way, pause time, and will make its mark, bringing a fancy bit of stitching to this thing called life.

I hope the Dressmaker-called-Time makes you the finery you hope for–

(XOXO Thanks, my love )

P.S. Other posts about this quilt:

Temperatures are in the News!
February 2023 • This and That
Filling the Days…with Quilting
This and That: October 2023

…and other posts on Instagram.

This-and-That

February 2023 • This and That

February 27, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

I finished all the tendrils and vines and flowers and now just have the center circles to appliqué and so I started thinking, what’s next?

A border with leaves…with flower buds and occasionally not flower buds. This wasn’t my first idea, but it seems to stick. I was hoping my brain would cough up something a little wilder, like Gaugin, or something. I can’t figure out a title for this quilt-in-progress, having gone from Midnight Garden, to Twilight Garden. Which sent me down the rabbit hole of what is twilight?

I wanted a title for how flowers look when the sun has gone down but it’s not yet dark, and it turns out I have three different descriptions: civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight. I think I was trying for nautical twilight. Stay curious and read about it here.

What else?

I used to be paranoid about releasing my ideas before they were a pattern [coming soon!], but I know whoever is looking at this won’t steal it, right? But this is how it looked in my head and this is where we are today:

Inverted Log Cabin. Yep, I sewed that last seam, raced downstairs, grabbed Dave and we snapped a photo in — what else is on my brain in this post?–twilight. I’m thinking Civil Twilight.

Now to figure out how to quilt it. I’ve been highly influenced by Christine Perrigo‘s ideas (took a class from her at QuiltCon once) about how to think outside the lines. On the left, last night’s attempt. On the right, this morning’s. I just worry that it may all obscure the center floating square. And what color of thread? I try never to start with my first ideas, but let them jell a bit.

I received this amaryllis from a friend for Christmas, and on the left is how it looked when it bloomed in December. On the right, is the flower now, nearly DOUBLE the height. Is it because it’s a low-light window? When it is on the countertop, it’s taller than I am now and almost taller than my husband. Should I stop watering it? Let it go dormant? Does this blooming ever stop? I’m looking for tips from all the amaryllis experts out there.

And it’s awards season so we get to see what all the stylists dress their clients in, as well as see Fashion Week’s street fashions, as well as things that in the shows. Mostly, I think: “There’s no way I could ever wear this!” And the Fashion Person replies, “Made you look.” Although I do like some elements of all the fashion shots above, remember, they are highly curated. By me.

That pocket is black check, sewn on in a non-factory method, on a navy-checked shirt. I think Dad sewed it on at one point, because his shirt didn’t have a pocket. Or he took it to a terrible place that had terrible machines. And where did he get the square of fabric? (He was highly resourceful, all the time.) I only took two shirts from his closet when we cleaned out, and we donated the rest to a group at the local university who lets students “shop” from the selection to look spiffed up for interviews, etc. I am pretty sure they wouldn’t be needing this one, or another worn one. I cut off collars/cuffs/buttonplackets and will use them in a project I have in mind. In the background are couple of my husband’s old shirts, too. Now if I could just find the bag with the other blocks from this Project I Have In Mind, I’d be really happy.

I have since distributed these, but I also brought home his paintbrushes. Several members of my family wanted some, and it’s nice to know he’ll be thought of, whether they are put to use, or tucked into a pencil cup. All of this is a way to re-integrate parts of my life together.

I had been feeling this way, for a bit too long. (I’m going to start calling things on my To Do List “Mysterious Activities.”) But this week I had a whole free day without anything scheduled and pushed forward on several fronts (like finishing the appliqué at the top of this post). And a quilt showed up from my quilter:

Halfway there on getting the binding on my 2023 Temperature Quilt. I am aiming to finish it by February 29th because how cool to finish a quilt on Leap Day, right?

And the last thing in What I Dragged Home from my Parents’ House Category is this reading stand. No, I didn’t get it from the parents, but it has to do with them. I borrowed my mother’s journals back from my niece and am slowly reading them. Having this, helps.

Almost done here, hang on. This is the set of trees, made for the Gridster Bee, for February. It’s from someone’s pattern, but it kind of drove me nuts, because…the center seam on the tree. (Why?) But the game in online Bees is they choose the block they want. And we make them one, or two…or three.

I went to pick up my friend to take her to her Birthday Lunch, and this gorgeous hibiscus was blooming in the rain on her front patio. Couldn’t resist snapping a photo.

And even though it’s still February, I have already put out March’s St. Patrick’s Day girl, because right before that holiday is the Dreaded Daylight Savings Time Shift on March 10th (hate it because I like morning light, and NO, DST doesn’t give you “more light”), and right after THAT ignominious day, we will have St. Patrick’s Day, then dance in our gardens for the First Day of Spring (March 19th), and and then after that we drag out the bunnies and eggs and stuff for Easter, which is the last Sunday of March. Couldn’t we have spaced these out a little more?

Happy Whatever!

Something to Think About

Filling the Days…with Quilting

January 30, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

I have treasured all your messages to me, and have read them over and over. Thank you for all your kind words on the occasion of the loss of my father. I will miss him greatly. I was unable to reply to you all individually; however, I appreciate what you said. I thought I would talk about some of the things that I’ve been doing to pass the time, fill the time, mark the time.

About a week before his death we knew the arc of Dad’s life was bending slowly to the earth, but it was Road to California Week, kind of an event around here and I had two classes, one from Lori Kennedy (on the left, above) and one from Annie Smith (right). I won the lottery on my teachers, not only for their classes, but for their humanity. I was pretty quiet on Monday during Lori’s but on Thursday when I walked into Annie’s, I had been crying the whole way there. Both women were sympathetic to this week of pre-grieving, kind souls who recognized a quilter in distress. I am glad to have met them both, and also to learn from them in many ways (yes, we talked death and it didn’t upset either of them). They both just sort of let me be creative on my own, far away from the goals of the class, so I just quilted in Lori’s, and drew a version of an appliqué block (“Citrus Grove”) in Annie’s.

They were kind.

Saturday, I had determined to pose by my quilt, and I did. It was down the aisle from a stupendous quilt so most people just walked by, but that’s the game. That’s my smile when I felt like like I was stuffed with cotton batting, trying to produce a smile, but really wanting to cry, but gosh — it was Road, and I did want to see the quilts. Ever have days like that? (There are lots of YouTube videos of Road 2024, if you can’t wait for me.)

This was in the Cherrywood exhibit and I loved the colors they chose this year: a punch of green and orange together, along with the black. This one is one of my favorites. And I loved Picatso (below), by Nikki Hill. Click on the cat to see the whole mini quilt. A classic.

Because I sewed on a sit-down with the feature of “optical reading” of motion in my class with Lori Kennedy, and because I already had a Sweet Sixteen sit-down machine, I went to the Handiquilter booth to see what they had. This was their newest: the Insight Table. It will help me keep my stitches more even (I hope). There’s now one in my quilting room, and I pinned up Happy Valley to practice on. But I haven’t yet quilted on it.

That next day, just at the end of last week, we had our trees trimmed, something which happens every two or three years. Remember, in California, things never stop growing; we even mow our lawns in the winter. Yes, there is some dormancy, but cutting off excess and grinding it up to get rid of it is something we do. This was also the week that my family was planning/not planning the funeral events for my Dad. In some upset moments, I wish I could have brought a truck like the one on the right and thrown in all my excess feelings and ground them up. Mom was pretty specific with what she wanted for her service, and we did it. Dad was also specific with what he wanted…but we aren’t doing it. I read about this online and this situation can be common with the death of the remaining parent. Siblings can split up over this sort of thing (I have friends who have lost their whole family).

Families are more fragile than trees.

I brought this quilt to the finish line. My husband helped me sort out the borders for this 2023 temperature quilt, and it’s ready to go to my quilter’s.

Remember how I wrote about that local quilt store that closed at the end of the year around here? I put some of that fabric to good use with this backing. If you are doing a Temperature Quilt, buy yourself a tea towel on ETSY with the calendar on it. I also added a stylized image of California and the temperature key I also finished:

I had chatted with Lori about the temperature quilts she and her sister were making in Minnesota, after seeing mine. When we talked later that week, she told me she liked my free pattern, but that I’d made a mistake: the temperatures only went to 36 degrees on the low side. Yeah, she’s right. It’s a California scale. We laughed about it and she said she’d add more. (And, um, don’t judge the embroidery. I don’t know why I can’t do the stem stitch. I do much better when it’s the back stitch.)

Nights this past couple of weeks have been hard. I saw that inscription when we visited Chicago this past September and Isaac Barrow was right. First I was reading Home, by Marilyn Robinson, and the ending of that book echoed what was going on in our family: the family being called home as the father was fading. One of the main characters, Glory, tended to cry — boy, could I identify with her. It was a powerful book of loss, of love, and a nod to the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Then I turned to something completely different: a sheep mystery, Three Bags Full, translated from the German. Both were “effectual comforters”. Three Bags Full was a “cheerful companion,” and Home was a “wholesome counselor.” I decided to read them in real book form, as I needed to hold onto something tangible at night in those evening hours that are hard to pass. We also are enjoying the PBS series All Creatures Great and Small. I’m glad these quiet stories are here.

My friend Charlotte gave me this Amaryllis for Christmas, and everyday we notice changes: from one blossom, to two, and now two more are opening up to make four. She says to plant it in the garden when I’m done with it, and it will come up every year. I’m in this interesting “slowed-down time” — different from than when my mother died — where I take life at a less hectic pace: quiet dramas on television, watching lilies bloom, and reading paper books. The grief is not as profound, I can tell. Just different. Next week I’m grabbing my children who are coming up for the committal and we’ll be clearing out my parent’s apartment. It does make me re-evaluate what I’m hanging on to, and getting rid of.

I’ve been trying to be diligent about keeping up with my morning walks, and today — after I dropped Three Bags Full at the library dropbox downtown — I walked around those streets. I thought the Katarina tile was appropriate to what I’m going through.

If only we could just open a faded red door to get more power for ourselves.

It says: Be Kind to Yourself Today.

300 Quilts · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Temperature Quilt · This-and-That

This and That • January 2024

January 14, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.18 Comments

Sometimes the title for these posts can nudge toward the trivial, but the first thing I want to talk about was anything but trivial.

My family.

Our four children do not live near us, for some, the far-away is very-far-away, and for others, it’s a bit closer. My husband proposed taking me out to dinner for my milestone birthday, but to “prepare for photos.” And “maybe don’t wear your sneakers.” We went to our local Fancy Dining Place, The Mission Inn, which was still decked out in holiday lights. When I rounded the corner to our table, the kids were all sitting there. Oh, My! I was quite touched that they would come to celebrate with me, and they spent the next day with us, too. Quite the loveliest of birthday surprises. By Sunday, they had all gone home, and the house was very quiet.

When an opening became available, I rejoined the Gridster Bee. It was one I’d started several years ago, but I’d bowed out last year. Patti, ever capable, took over and has been a steady hand in keeping it going, as many bees dissolve after a short time. We had our kick-off Zoom call at the beginning of the month (one positive from the 2020 pandemic is this technology):

I loved seeing Carol’s Christmas quilt, one done in an earlier iteration of this Bee.

I finished this. It’s a free pattern, here on the website (keep reading). I’d started writing it ages ago, but who knows where time flies? Inside is the color key for both this 2023 (softer) version of Painter’s Palette fabrics, as well as the (bolder) version used in 2019:

I haven’t yet finished the 2023 quilt; for one, I’m still embroidering the temperature range numbers onto the Circle of Geese block that I’ve used for a key.

And about this geese pattern. It was originally made by Kelly Liddle of JelliQuilts. If I could find her again, I’d link to it. She seems to have vanished without a trace, and it’s a pretty good pattern for this sort of thing. I’ve even written to the last email I have from her, when I paid for and downloaded the pattern: Zip. Nada.

Which brings me to the podcast I listened to this past week, where Ezra Klein and his guest, Kyle Chayka, talk about how the internet isn’t fun anymore. Boring, too. And part of it is what Chayka calls the SEO-ification of the algorithm. Everything resembles everything else, as we use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to get a wider reach. While this can have benefits, Chayka and Klein argue that we seem to be homogenizing our world, as every website looks like another as the robots send you to whatever you’ve liked before, and assume you will like again.

I’m fine with that, especially when I do a search on Temperature Quilts on Instagram. But I’m also not fine with it as it seems to have flattened out what we see. Like hashtags used to be an interesting way to get a range of images, from temperature quilts that began as crocheted blankets to the most recent version of houses, leaves, and birds. Now we just get the “TOP” images. Are they the top “eye-ball-getting” images? The most colorful? The most interesting? And how will we ever know what the robots, aka: algorithm, have come to choose what they are showing us.

Chayka says he misses the curated web, where various people wrote random things, like a writer went flying through a rainbow and put the colors up on a blog. A blog!?! Who writes those anymore? Well, I do. Maybe that is why I also write about quilting, but also more-than-quilting, trying to avoid being boring, and maybe to avoid having to clean up my sewing room:

(*from 2020, but it still looks the same*)

One more thing: this week is Road to California, a local, national quilt show. I’m signed up for two classes: one from Lori Kennedy (FMQ on Monday) and one from Annie Smith (Design Your Own Appliqué on Thursday). I’ll also go one more day, Saturday, so I can stay to get my quilt that is hanging in the show: Aerial Beacon.

I would take a closer photo of this, but it will have to wait until next week, when I get some pictures of it hanging in the show. If you are headed there, find me and say hi!

Here’s the Temperature Pattern download. It will stay here on my website for a bit, then move over to my Pattern Shop on PayHip. Enjoy!

UPDATE: The pattern is now over on PayHip, so head over to my Pattern Shop to download your copy.