WIP–Details, Details

August 10, 2011 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

Thanks to Lee, of Freshly Pieced for hosting this forum.

Coming home from vacation is such an interesting feeling. I read your blogs and your comments on Facebook and you seem to slide from one zone to another, effortlessly. I, however, have had quite a “re-entry” from my time away. Perhaps that’s because there aren’t children around anymore to pull and push me into activity. I did spend close to 10 hours on the computer the first day home getting things to the print center where I teach, then a haircut, laundry, College Orientation on the second day home, which brings me here to WIP Wednesday, and that freshly laundered handkerchief on the ironing board. So the details of today are laundering and pressing the handkerchief and vintage fabrics (hoping that musty smell leaves soon—any tips?)

More details include making a label for summer’s last quilt.

A little more hand-stitching tonight as I watch one more Harry Potter movie–I’m on Number 4. A friend dropped by her collection so I could watch them all at once before going out to see the latest.

And I’m listening to Last Town on Earth, by Thomas Mullen, while I work. Riveting fiction–I highly recommend it.

My husband and I have been retracing our steps of many years ago. Yesterday I said to him, “And today was the day we packed all my four children into our new mini-van and drove to Utah. Did I drop you off at your parents’ house before I went up to Ogden to stay at my parents’?”

“Yes. I slept on their old sofa, as my childhood bedroom was full of my sister’s kids.”

Many years ago today was the last day my beloved sweetheart had his bachelor status, and tonight we’ll talk about the “rehearsal dinner” in a park with all his nieces and nephews and my children and his sisters and brothers and my sisters and brothers and our parents coming in together in a great picnic. That night he and I worried about different things: I worried that my children wouldn’t fit in, that the blending of the family would be too much for the both of us. He worried about finances and how we were going to make it through all the college years, even though the oldest was only 14 at the time. But what we didn’t worry about was our love and commitment to each other. Yes, many years ago the small details seemed to be detritus, like little bugs buzzing around the grand event of our marriage. But this week we enjoy them, think about them, recall them and relish the bits and pieces and patchwork of our wedding day.

WIP

Doing Nothing But Making A Mess

July 26, 2011July 26, 2011 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.

Creating · Quilts

WIP–Lyon Carolings

July 19, 2011July 20, 2011 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

Welcome to WIP Wednesday, hosted by Lee of Freshly Pieced Quilts.

Lyon, what? you are saying? Lyon Carolings. That’s my work in progress for today.The title comes from the name of the church–Carolingian–in Lyon, France, which was built by the Carolingian Dynasty from the 7th century, and alternately known as the Carolings. I snapped this photo of the patterned design on their ceiling, because you know us quilters. It’s like a reflex. See pattern. Take photo.

I ~~obsessed~~ wrote about the process of converting what I saw to a quilt block on another post; feel free to look it up. I’ve had this quilt top and back completed for a year now, and as my free time this summer is on its last gasp, wheezing its way to the finish line (where I REALLY have to think about school and lesson plans), I was determined to finish this. So here’s my steps (pictures are below the STEP description).

STEP ONE:
Lay out backing, ignoring the fact that while you pressed it when you put it away last summer on a hanger it has developed new wrinkles.

STEP TWO:
Move the red bucket chairs because you need more room, leaving giant Xcircles in carpet.

STEP THREE:
Tape the backing to the floor, giving it a little tension to keep it smooth.

STEP FOUR:
Lay out the new kind of batting you bought, and realize that it will shrink 2%, which isn’t much, but if you’ve waited this long to quilt this puppy, you can wait a little longer while you squish it out in the newly washed kitchen sink, squish it some more, then drip your way to the dryer and dry it. Spread it out again.

STEP FIVE:
Lay out the top, and even though it’s a billion degrees outside and in, lean over and pin the quilt, thinking cool thoughts, thinking of this as some kind of Pilates Stretching Exercise as you reach for the middle, sucking in your stomach while you hover over the quilt, safety pinning it to death.

STEP SIX:
Trim off excess batting, then stand back and admire the quilt. This is an important part of the process because even though your husband really likes your finished quilts and is proud of you and loves to tell others about them, he’s not much interested in this part of things, so it’s you, baby, that has to bring the Atta’ Boy cheer to the table. Atta’ boy, you say. Or atta’ girl. Whatever.

STEP SEVEN:
Begin quilting the blue, because that will stabilize the quilt as you ponder what to do next. Some have a plan. I have a desire to Get It Done and will figure it out as I go along.

That’s as far as I have gotten. I like the puffing that happens as you start to quilt. I use Superior’s Bottom Line thread in the bottom, with a distinct advantage that it’s thinner so you get get more on the bobbin. I like the fineness of the thread and that it looks more delicate on the back. In the top, I keep coming back to using Poly Neon. For some reason this just works for me in most cases, although I have used other threads such as Superior’s King Tut and Poly Quilter.

I have no problem mixing threads, but do stitch out a sample on a sample quilt sandwich, identifying what I’m doing by writing on the section with a pen. Although you can’t see it really well, there are little numbers written inside those purple circles, above.

I’ve thought about using this flower, or the one below, as a template for how to quilt the yellow centers. Which always leads us to Step Eight: Visit the fabric shop to pick up a marker to sketch in the flower.

In the post just below (published on my FSFriday last week), I write about how quilts stay done, when everything else doesn’t. I’ll have another FSF post I’m working on, with a project that has been in process since last October. Check back, if you want to, to read about that one.

Creating · Quilts · Sewing

WIP–What About That Quilting?

July 12, 2011July 12, 2011 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

Thanks, Lee! and here we go again. To return to Freshly Pieced, click *here.*

Q: What do you call a quilt that is pieced, quilted, bound–but no label?

A: Work In Progress, I guess. But it feels good to get this far. I’m going to write the label on this in Pigma Micron Pen, so it won’t come unattached. I’ve been trending that way on quilts that are gifted, and this one will be gifted.

I have another quilt that is at this same stage, but before I show that (check back here on FSFriday for a reveal) I want to get that one labeled. I’ve collected a few more quilts from friends to photograph for my magnum opus–my journal about my quilts. Jen of Stitch Hack and I were talking about a list that her grandmother kept, so she wrote back and told me that her grandmother had quilted (hand-quilted) over 2,000 quilts in her lifetime!

The big WIP is the quilting of the dotty quilt, based on Everyday Best, by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins of Piece O’ Cake Designs. I’ve titled mine Come-A-Round. I had sent it to the quilters for anchoring the quilt together and now I’m doing detail work. But okay–I need your vote. Here’s the dilemma: I began quilting the leaves and stems in green, and like any good sewer loaded the bobbin with green to match. After doing this, I switched out to white (who knows why?) and now I have what my husband calls “green branches” on the back of the quilt–but only along the bottom side.

It’s on the back, but the rest of the quilting is in white. I tried to unpick a bit today, and I can see that if I do choose to unpick ALL of this, it will take me the better part of a day to get that done, setting me back a day. So, what say you?

Option #1: Keep moving: Leave it alone and chalk it up to experience.

Option #2: Cope. Flip the quilt upside down, make this the top and put a humungous quilt sleeve on it, that would partially cover this.

Option #3: Sigh. Be obsessive. Unpick and re-stitch, but watch a good movie while you do this.

Reality Check: Even though I am fairly skilled, I’m doing this free-motion by hand, so I know I’ll never win any prizes. But I do want to enter it into the local quilt show, and would like to put my best foot forward. I’ll be curious to see what you think.