WIP and Scenes from Italy

November 7, 2012 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

I think we are all breathing a sigh of relief that we can answer our phones again without being assaulted during dinner by robo-calls from a candidate. Or go to our mailboxes without needing a forklift for the thousands of pounds of campaign fliers. I live in California and thought I had it bad until we talked to our son who lives in Ohio. My sympathies to all who live in swing states; thanks for participating in the process.

So it is so nice to return to a routine, and today is Works in Progress Wednesday, hosted by Lee over at Freshly Pieced. Actually today it is being guest-hosted by Svetlana, and she echoes my sentiment of enjoying the weekly accounting that we do every week to keep us on track.

Last night as I watched the election returns come in with my husband, sister and brother-in-law (who are visiting), I was able to finish up this seventh hexagon. I just keep the basket of pieces downstairs by the television and work on it whenever I am parked in front of the tube. This hexie I could christen the political hexie, for it seemed like that’s what I was watching most as I worked on it. I don’t know what I’ll do with them all–Downton Abbey starts up in January so maybe I’ll have some more completed before I have to decide.

But I have just returned from a trip my husband and I took to Italy, where he participated in the Collegium Ramazzini, a scientific conference in Carpi (a little town northeast of Bologna). Not only did we visit Carpi, but also Bologna, Padua (and the Scrovegni Chapel), Venice, and Burano–a colorful island near Venice of brightly painted houses.

This is a wall from the 11th century in a church in Bologna. Love those patchwork designs. Everything old is new again, isn’t it?

I can’t believe they let us walk on this ancient stone floor from the Peter/Paul Cathedral in Venice, but here it is.

My husband found this fabric shop for us to look at (Bologna), but I only bought fabric in a shop across from the two (slightly leaning) towers. Below you can see the man cutting my wool challis.

I’m thinking a scarf or something. Fabric was really expensive over there.

But they do wrap it up nicely to bring home.

I’ve been collecting tea towels for use on the back of quilts, and here’s the one from Padua. We thought it interesting that the thing we went to see most — Scrovegni Chapel with Giotto’s frescoes — was not even listed on the back.

In sunny Burano, we saw a woman sitting out by the canal making lace. By hand. Burano is known for its lace and lacemakers, and apparently it’s a dying art because none of the young woman want to learn it. We watched her for a while, as she used her needle and thread to create tiny stitches and knots over a paper pattern.

Here’s a close-up of her pattern. She’s created the main flowers, then will come back in and create the webbing to hold it all together.

I found the quilt shop in Venice! This is right as you come off the Ca’D’Oro vaparetto stop.

But the prices are enough to make you swoon. Twenty-one euros a meter (39″) works out to about 25 bucks per yard. I try to remind myself of the luxury of all the fabrics we have here in the States at about half the cost. I’ve learned not to buy quilt fabrics imported from the United States when I’m traveling, but if I have time, I’ll duck into a shop for a pattern or an interesting notion.

I’ll leave you with three photos: the first two are from the island of Burano and the last is from our final, foggy, morning in Venice, before we headed home.

Work (still) in Progress

October 10, 2012 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Many thanks to Lee of Freshly Pieced, who hosts a group of quilters hard at work. Schlep back over to her blog to see others who are working hard. And yes, this week, I am a Work, (Still) in Progress.

I’ve feel like I’ve been hardly working on quilting this week, and boy, does that make me tired and cranky. Creativity really can nourish the soul–cliche alert–but hey, sometimes cliches fit the bill. Sorry.

I actually have spent many hours on a project that I’m just not ready to show. It’s not because I’m in a book or something, or that some famous person has asked me to test a pattern. It’s just me. Working hard.

But here’s something I will write about. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I made a king-sized quilt for my son Matthew and his wife Kim. They wanted desert colors and liked the log cabin block, so eight billion hours of piecing later, they had a quilt.

Here it is, with Matthew standing on a chair on one side and Dave (my husband) on the other. Can you spot the turned square (the mistake)? I didn’t until the moment when I got it back from the quilter, bound it and had these two fine men hold it up. I died a little, but it’s still there.

I had made extra squares to make them pillow shams, which I did, but then I had a few other squares leftover which I remembered all of a sudden on Friday morning. I stitched them together, did a pillowcase backing, quilted it, making a fall table runner.

Here’s the backing: Halloweeny fabric. So now I’m set for both October and November in the decoration department. I should make some fabulous pumpkins like those on Barb’s blog. Go and see and tell me you don’t covet them. Especially the one with the bird’s head. (Now you have to go and look!)

EPP · Giveaway · WIP

Quilting Along

October 2, 2012October 2, 2012 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

This is a picture of my latest start of my hexie blocks series, taken in my super-duper photo studio: a piece of batting laid down on the kitchen counter, making sure that I don’t put it near the dishes, or onto any stray bits of gravy. Other times my photo studio is a bigger piece of batting, laid down on the guest bed upstairs, or if it’s medium-late in the afternoon, I can smooth it out on my pinwall, drag in the torchiere from my husband’s den, prop the other light up on the small stereo speaker on my desk, and make sure I turn on the camera’s flash.

Actually, considering my week, this is a stupendous output. You know, some weeks are GetMoreDone and some weeks are BarelyQuilting.

Now you know way more than you want to about how things are at my house, but I do want to thank Lee of Freshly Pieced for hosting us on WIP Wednesday, where we all scramble to get something done–or partially done–so we can post it up here and say Yes! I’m still quilting along! (I love WIP Wednesdays.) Click on her name to head back to her blog to read about others who got way more done.

But don’t forget to enter the Almost to 100 Followers Giveaway, on the post just below. I’m giving away two sets of fat quarters–in black and white–perfect to rustle up some Halloweeny quilting!

Quilts · WIP

A true, blue WIP list

September 18, 2012 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

First off, let me tell you what I’m working on now: Portuguese Tile Quilt. (To readers of this blog I apologize for showing the top one more time.) I’m displaying it for my weekly foray to Lee’s Freshly Pieced blog. Return there to see lots more interesting quilt works, and many many thanks to Lee for hosting this weekly forum.

The above quilt, when it is quilted, bound, labeled (properly finished) will be the first quilt on my list of 200 Quilts, in other words, the above is quilt #101. A few bits ago while working on my Quilt Journal, I made a list of quilts I need to finish up to add to the 200 Quilts list. Like women, who NEVER reveal their true weight, it’s an embarrassment for a quilter to realize how many unfinished things she has lurking around the edges. And I’m not even talking the fabric in the stash that is being held on the shelf for imaginary projects. Here goes.

Potential Quilts for the 200 Quilts List:
1. Autumn quilt–needs borders, backing, quilting.

Here’s where I left it. No, I did sew on that striped binding to the left, then I folded it up and hung it in the Guest Room closet.

2. Friendship Quilt

I could have gone on collecting signatures for years, for like all of you, I make new friends and keep the old, but I decided to cut it off at the time I sewed the blocks together. Now I should get crackin’ and get them sewn together.

3. Wedding Ring Quilt

Yes, I started one of these. In the leftover Aunt Grace fabrics from the above project. Which is cut out, but only a little bit sewn together. I should save this for a summer project, providing I get LAST summer’s project done. This has a poignant memory attached to it: I took my box of fabrics over to my friend Leisa’s house and we sat and cut and sewed on 9/11, needing each other’s company while we watched and listened. And cried. Definitely need to finish this one.

4. Summer Treat

You’ve seen this. I’ve decided on the border, the backing. Now I just need to steal some time from somewhere. And given the quality of the English paper I just graded, I think I’ll give up grading for a couple of days to recover (the student earned a 43 out 100), thereby gaining me some more time.

5. Maroon/Forest Christmas Quilt

This one was made about a hundred years ago in the 1980s. It’s so not “me” that I haven’t even given it a name. I would go and dig it out to photograph it, but I am already depressed from grading (see above) and just can’t handle any more disappointments tonight.

6. The famously unfinished Lollypop Quilt, this summer’s gigantor Work In Progress. I just received my next semester’s teaching assignment and it is a class I have taught before (and loved) so I believe things will align in the Sewing Studio just right in order to get it finished.

The last two are on the first 100 Quilts list, but they are still WIPs:
Hunter’s Star quilt, began when my last child went off to college. He said he didn’t really like it, so I switched up and made him a different one (each child gets a quilt for their bed for their first Christmas season away from home). Top’s all done. Not much else. . . and the last WIP recorded in my Quilt Journal is. . .

Millenium Quilt. In my memory, I didn’t like it much. But when I pulled it out of the back of the closet to photograph it, I found I did like it. Plus those fussy cut pieces of fabric referring to the Millenium (the year 2000) are kind of like a bit of my own personal history.

Now like that proverbial woman who stepped on the scale in front of a room full of people, I have to go and hide for a while in order to recover.

Happy WIP Wednesday!