Weekend Update

I love my Guild! (The Houston Modern Quilt Guild, in case you don't know.)

We met on Saturday, talked of the Quilt Festival, QuiltCon, next year's retreat. Then show & tell: the challenge for this month was to quilt our jelly roll race tops from retreat. There were lots of terrific quilts. Mine was only half quilted -- & I worked hard to get that much done. I had thought to free-motion quilt it but my eyes were bigger than my free-motion ability, so I picked it out & tried a method I learned in a class with Mary Mashuta. I love the way it looks, think it is elevating a pretty ordinary little quilt. But I am going to take a breather before I get the other half done -- I've been quilting fairly feverishly for a couple of weeks.



On Sunday, I made a sleeve for my quilt, you know, THE ONE THAT WILL BE HANGING AT THE QUILT FESTIVAL! (Sorry, still a little excited about it.) I got out the pattern pieces for the shirt I'm going to make for Shug. I'm leaving at the end of the week to go visit my Mom & thought some garment construction would nicely fill the evening hours. I've also been obsessing on a quilt from the book Bold Improvisation. There are many awesome quilts here, one in particular I've wanted to make for a long time -- I did a fabric pull about a year ago, but other things pushed their way in.

 

Recently nifty quilts & The Root Connection have both been working on their version of this quilt & mine is burbling to the surface again. My pull -- all from my stash (well, almost all) -- was kind of primary colors with kind of a 1940s, 1950s feel. But I love the wild exuberance of my friends' quilts & was thinking of making a trip to Goodwill, the source of their fun fabrics. But I sat myself down & had a serious talk. Not only do I have miles & miles of yard goods (does anyone still call fabric "yard goods" anymore?), I also have lots of fabric from thrifted clothing. I pulled a stack from Laura Ashley & Laura Ashley-style dresses, the ones from the late 80s, early 90s -- over-the-top floral prints, big puffy sleeves, full -- really full -- skirts. They are pretty but I think the grouping might be a little vapid in a quilt, they would need something to give them a spark, but I'm not sure what. So they may have to continue to wait.

Something old, something new

I've been plugging away at the HST quilting. It seemed as though I would never be finished, but then, suddenly, I was! Now I need to order fabric for binding before the Big Reveal.

I began quilting my jelly roll race top. I tried free-motioning it & hated what I was doing, picked it all out & regrouped. This evening, I've been trying something new & really like how it is going. But it is our HMQG challenge this month, so I can't reveal it yet either. (I'll show you the backing fabric -- I've had it for years; it reminds me of the artwork of Charley Harper.)



My Low Volume squares are idle on my design door; my Low Volume calicos are waiting for a brilliant idea to strike me -- I've been focusing my attention on the Jane Market bags & quilting.
I got a box of fabric in the mail this week -- I needed that like a hole in the head, but, hey, they were on sale.




And my Big News: Skirting the Circle has been accepted to hang in the IQA -- Quilts: A World of Beauty at this year's Quilt Festival!!!!! I am really excited -- I've never seen any of my quilts hanging in any kind of show. This will be quite an experience. The credit for it even being considered goes to Shug -- he was the force behind it & did most of the work, as the deadline came while I was last out of town visiting my Mom.
Thanks, Shug!!!!

Steely-eyed Quilter Woman*

A bit of sewing -- 2 Jane Market Bags finished, one in French General's Petite Odile, the other from Tula Pink's Nightshade.



 


 
A bit of quilting -- my Stitched in Color HST quilt is about half quilted.





* a reference to Apollo 13 -- though there was no danger that I was even going to be late for dinner.

A breath of fresh air

A week or so ago, the temperatures were blistering at over 100 F (about 38 C) with really high humidity -- not as hot as some places, but we had an added bonus. A high pressure system was sitting over us making it not just hot & miserable but, dangerous as well! Smog & ozone levels were said to be !Unsafe for Anyone!

Thankfully, several days later clouds & rain moved in, dropping the temps down into the 90s -- even the 80s! -- much more do-able!

Beside the break in the weather, I had a special treat waiting for me in the mailbox! And while it made me feel warm inside, it didn't make me feel hotter. ;-)

My e-buddy, O'Quilts had recently posted about some things she had made for a baby shower. I had admired them & commented on how bad I was at baby gifts. Well, she very kindly offered to share with me the pattern she used for the baby bibs & asked if I would also like her pattern for adult bibs as well. O'Quilts & I are both dealing with Mothers in nursing care -- her's has Parkinson's, mine has Alzheimer's -- so we understand each other & understand the need for things like a bib for your Mom. She promptly got the patterns posted along with a cheery quilted coaster (in use in my studio), a cute little needle book (will go in my travel sewing kit) & a fun bit of fabric featuring a fried egg breakfast. The only thing missing is the salsa & tortillas!



Thanks O'Quilts! You are awesome!!!

My very long weekend

American Independence Day, the 4th of July, is one of the few holidays that cannot be made into a 3-day weekend. This year it fell plunk in the middle of the week -- not the best for celebrating -- that is unless you gave yourself the rest of the week off, like I did!

Wednesday we spent the whole day at our sail club: hamburgers & hotdogs for lunch (I tried a version of the "Kiwi burger" (our club has quite an international membership & the current Social co-Commodore is a New Zealander -- aka, a Kiwi -- besides the usual burger stuff, they add sliced beets & a slice of pineapple; I skipped the pineapple but added the beets & quite liked it); lots of fun & games for the kids; Shug & I got in a pretty good sail; then resting & chatting & snacking & reading until dinner; then waiting for it to get dark for the fireworks, shot from a barge in the Bay. A very nice day.







Thursday, I was up to my butt in quilt backs. Just FYI, there are 336 5-inch HSTs in a 42 fabric layer cake -- I used all but 10 from my Stitched in Color cake. There is almost as much piecing on the back of this quilt as there is on the front! I also prepped & pieced the back for the jelly roll race top I made at the HMQG retreat. The Guild challenge this month is to get those quilted. Both were then ready to sandwich & baste.

On Friday I did laundry, dusted, vacuumed, etc. But I managed to work in some layout & assembly time with one of my projects for the Low Volume QAL. I also got 2 more Jane Market Bags cut out -- these will be gifts.


 

Saturday, Shug helped baste 2 quilts; outside, he set up a couple of saw horses & the plywood work surface he made me. In a VERY fortunate turn of events, as I basted, I found my "humility block" in the Stitched in Color quilt -- but not being prone to humility, I later fixed it. It wasn't so very hot but it was pretty humid & I was very sweaty & a little cranky by the time I finished the second one. Shug also cut some templates for me so I can experiment with them with my low volume, granny calicos.





It was thunder-y & rainy on Sunday. Luckily we had done errands on Saturday, so didn't need to get out. I could spend a much time as I wanted stitching! And I got quite a bit done: more low value work, prepped the Jane Market bags & began quilting one of the basted quilts!





I hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as I did mine. What did you do?

First ..... of many

My first Jane Market Bag -- LOVE IT!!

 

A week ago the Guild had a sew-in. I took tons of stuff to work on, but my main goal was to cut out &, with luck, make, a Jane Market Bag. Quite a few of my Guild friends have made this bag, so I was hoping for help & guidance. Liz has made LOTS of these bags, refining, tweaking, enlarging & reducing, along the way & she awesomely held my hand through my first bag. I got all the parts cut out & the bag assembled to a place where I needed to do some careful pressing. I am sure I would have scratched my head for days trying to do this alone. Back home, I pressed, top-stitched & added the handles.

It's like that old saying: Give a girl a totebag & she can carry her stuff until it wears out; teach a girl to make a totebag & soon she & all of her friends & family will have totebags out the wazoo for the rest of their lives.

12 in '12 -- a leaner, not a ringer

OK, it is another obscure sports reference! This time: horseshoes!

I am not going to have a finish this month. I have a nearly-finished -- ABB, All But Binding. And the binding is machine-stitched on, but not hand-sewn down. I didn't think that I would be done with the quilting, but that went super fast. I am chipping the rust off of my free-motion "skills" & am fairly pleased with the results. You can sure tell what I did first & what I did last -- my stitches are a bit more even, the movement a bit more fluid. And I bet the boo-boos will get lost after I wash & dry the quilt.



Sorry Amy, Liz & Saf. But the good news is that I will already have a finish -- in just a few days -- for next month!

Addendum:
The good folks hosting the 12 in '12 Challenge said I could include it as a June finish (well, one of them, Saf did & I took it & ran). It is done now, washed & crinkle-liscious from the dryer!

Batting One Thousand

I had Shug give me some lessons in baseball batting averages.

A player's batting average is calculated by dividing their number of hits by their number of at-bats. So say I was at bat 8 times & got 2 hits: that would give me a batting average if 0.250, kind of average. But say I got a hit every time I was at bat -- that would be 1 divided 1, or 1.000 -- or batting one thousand. Perfect.

Well, I am not perfect when it comes to how I buy batting. Right now I have 3 tops ready to layer & baste. I have quite a few bags of batting on hand -- but they have all been cut into. I could do some piecing together of my batting scraps, but THERE ARE HARDLY 2 BAGS OF THE SAME KIND OF BATTING!!! Low-loft polyester, medium-loft black polyester, bamboo, cotton & polyester, all cotton. I would have some kind of crazy Franken-batting if I tried to cobble something together with all of them!

I thought about what I have & what I've used & decided that my favorites are the low-loft polyester & the bamboo. The polyester makes a nice, light-weight quilt. I nearly always machine quilt & I used to have problems with tucks on the back. But with a light spritz of spray adhesive & some safety pins (I am a belt & suspenders kind of girl), the tucks are minimal. I was delighted with bamboo batting from the first time I used it -- nice & 'sticky', so no tucks. I also like that it is a more green choice. But it makes a slightly warmer & heavier quilt than we often need here on the Gulf Coast. I think that between these two types of batting, I think I can happily quilt on into the future. If I limit myself to buying just these two I will be able to put together a scrappy batting when I haven't any whole, unused bags.

 



Shug tells me that a 1.000 batting average is possible over a short period, like one game, but unheard of over a season, much less a lifetime of baseball. A lifetime average of 0.300 is considered very good. So maybe I'm not doing all that badly.

To Do List

I am coming along well with my Stitched in Color HSTs. The top is nearly done & I really like how it looks. I am scratching my head a bit as to how I will quilt it & what I will back it with. I will have LOTS of HSTs left over, so I may -- for the first time -- have patchwork on the back! I know, I know, I am always the very last one to follow the new fashion, but I am more of a Path Finder than a Trail Blazer.

 

 I am also trying to get something quilted this month for my 12 in '12 finishes. There is the New Wave top done up in bluebonnet prints & plaids that should be pretty simple to quilt & should go quickly. Keep you fingers crossed on that one.

 I  want to make 2 tote bags for gifts. One I want to give this fall; I already have the fabric for this one. The other is for later this month & I don't even have the fabric for it yet! (This one may be given a bit late.) I am counting on guidance & support from my guild members for these projects.

And  Shug wants me to make him a shirt. My shirt-making skills are a bit rusty but since this is a birthday request (his birthday was earlier this month) & since it is for Shug, I'll give it a go. I hope shirt-making is like bicycle-riding & that it will easily come back to me.

 But as I toil away with these, a new QAL has caught my eye: the Low Volume QAL. I already had an idea in my head that would use up some 2.5 inch squares I have, in fact, I took the squares with me when I went to the HMQG retreat -- but I didn't get to them. I also have a big stack of pastel, old-school calicos that I have always wanted to do something with. Now seems like the perfect opportunity to pull out these projects, join the group & get them going! No time like the present, right?!?

Weekend Update

This past weekend was my first one home in the last 2.5 weekends.

The first half was filled with social stuff: on Friday, my new book group met for the first time, we discussed The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (interesting, liked it but didn't love it); that evening, there was a pot luck dinner at our sail club (it sounds fancier than it is -- no yachts here, just small boats like Lasers & Sunfish), after dark, we watched the 'practice' fireworks of the neighboring tourist area -- fireworks over water -- always beautiful; on Saturday, HMQG had its summer pot luck & BBQ party. Some spouses & some kids were there -- Shug came along. There was lots of great food & I talked with some members that I didn't really know that well & with some new members & had a wonderful time.

Then on Sunday we stayed at home & did what we wanted to do. Shug tidied his (very messy) workshop & did a bit of turning. I got out my HSTs & began laying them out & stitching them together. I even rested with book in the afternoon!



I got the laundry done & did a bit of dusting. But didn't get the floors cleaned or the rugs vacuumed. Please don't tell anyone, but I really don't care that I didn't!

Rodney King

Rest in Peace.

Hey, y'all...

Remember me?!? I used to blog here.

Well, I'm back after more than 2 weeks visiting my Mom -- waaaay too long. I don't think she really benefited by it & I was really tired & home-sick. FYI, she continues to fail mentally & physically & is in the fussy 2-year-old surrealist stage. Example: she gets her watch & her glasses mixed up, I set them both out so she could see them & said "this is your watch & these are your glasses", she says, "why are they the same?"' I say, "they aren't the same; one tells time, one helps you see; they are different", she says "that's what I said, why are they different?" {sigh}

Another week getting a caught up at home & at work. Then, here I am!

I took a sewing machine & projects along with me so that after a day at the nursing home I could relax with patchwork in the evenings -- it really helped my state of mind. And I got quite a bit done. I sewed together some strings for a scrappy diamond quilt, made a big stack of HST squares & -- TA DA -- finished my Swoon blocks!

 

I started thinking about what you would call a bunch of Swoon blocks. You know, like a charm of finches, an exultation of larks, a murmuration of starlings (it's a real thing, look it up). I came up with a Swirl of Swoon! What do you think?

12 in '12

I am posting this a little early this month cuz I am soon heading up to MoKan.
Just one finish this month but I really love it. The row & round robin was the first group thing that HMQG did. This quilt has the talent & love of quite a few of my guild buddies & it means so much to me. I am glad it is now a quilt.

Playing with my food

More specifically, playing with cake -- layer cake that is.

I'm trying to limit my purchases of pre-cuts, trying to limit my purchases of fabric period. (A glance at recent blog posts clearly show that I have not been successful.) Somehow I have quite a stack of layer cakes (& jelly rolls & fat quarters...) in my fabric stash now. I've been pretty good about finishing existing projects, not beginning new ones, but I really wanted to use a couple of these cakes & start something new. Currently, I have been obsessed with triangles. I wanted to begin a project that had lots of mindless sewing & that would be fun playtime when it came to laying out the pieces. My go-to, easy-peasy block these days is the half-square triangle so I decided to employ a couple of my recent pre-cut acquisitions. I cut up the entire stack of the Malka Dubrawsky's Stitched in Color layer cake that I won at our recent HMQG retreat, found a single fabric to use as the opposite side of the HST & now I have a stack of squares to assemble before I get to the fun part of laying out this one.



I took a 2nd layer cake -- Quilt Blocks by Ellen Luckett Baker -- & cut them -- not into HSTs but into HRTs -- that is, half-rectangle triangles. I dug out several solids that coordinate plus gray & white for the rest of the rectangle. This is something I've never tried before so please wish me luck!

Retreat & More

It has been a week since I returned from the HMQG Quilt Retreat. I -- and I think everyone else -- had a wonderful, productive time. Time away from our daily lives & the ability to do NOTHING but sew was exactly what many of us needed. The meals were great, the company was great, the only problem was it was just a day (or 2) too brief. Nearly everyone finished -- or made major progress -- on at least one project. Some had 4 or 5 tops finished by the time we left Deepwoods Retreat on Sunday. (If you want to learn how to make efficient use of your time, ask a busy Mom!)









I took with me the fixin's for about 11 different projects. I had decided that my first priority was the yellow zigzag top -- it was built on the diagonal & had outgrown my design door. As I was laying out the rows I was thinking I might use some of the remaining blocks on the back. But as I came to my last rows I ran out of blocks! I was short by 2!! I would have been panicked but I knew that I had some leftover fabric at home. I joined in on the jelly roll race & came in dead last. (Woo Hoo!) I had planned to work on my Swoon blocks -- I had all the parts for 8 additional blocks cut & ready to put on the assembly line, but I had mis-cut one element for all of them. And -- of course -- it was too small rather than too big. So I moved on to another project. I came home with 2 finished (well, nearly finished) tops, great memories & a desire to go back SOON!



I also came home with more fabric than I left with. There were awesome gift bags for everyone! (Thanks Fat Quarter Shop & Pink Chalk Fabrics!) I got 2 "cutie packs" -- 2.5 inch squares -- of Circa 1934 (I think these will be cute used with linen, maybe raw-edge appliqued) & a layer cake of Malka Dubrawsky's Stitched in Color!!!! I can't wait to begin something with that!





When I got home, I was still in that GO mode. I built a daisy cottage for an internet friend



& (finally!) worked on my blocks for the QuiltCon Block Challenge. After I got my stack of fabrics in the required colors, I was sitting at my sewing machine & noticed how they matched the little Avon mug I have sitting in my window. So that became one of my blocks. (I think it is pretty darn cute.)





Happy Mother's Day!!!

Advancing to Retreat!

12 in '12

Two this month. This one



and this one

One of the 7 Deadly Sins

Jealousy. Perhaps "envious" would be a better description -- and, I hope, not so deadly -- of how I felt reading about the recent experiences of several of my favorite bloggers. Why was I jealous envious? Because they

a. got to get away
b. got to get away with quilting friends
c. got to get away with quilting friends to quilt
d. got to get away with quilting friends to quilt with several of the Gee's Bend artists

Before you start feeling too sad & sorry for me (you are sad & sorry, right?), at this time next week I will BE AWAY! WITH QUILTING FRIENDS!! TO QUILT!!! The HMQG will be having our first Quilt Retreat!!!! No Gee's Bend artists, but I guarantee you we will have loads of fun! I have been so excited about this outing, I started 'packing' almost a month ago. I've been cutting & stock-piling projects, gathering sewing supplies, hoarding snacks & drinks (me to Shug: "Don't eat/drink that, I'm taking it to the Retreat!"; Shug to me: "We can buy you more in the WEEKS before you go.") I can hardly wait!!!

Anyway.

Reading about the time that niftyquilts, Bumble Beans & fiberliscious had at Quilt Camp caused me to go to my quilt closet & pull out this quilt.



This is the most Gee's Bend-inspired quilt I have made to date. The denim is from my, Shug's & my Dad's jeans & there is a bit of South African indigo fabrics. I think I made it in 2003 or 2004 but I have never felt like it is finished -- it seems to need something more, I just don't know what it is.

niftyquilts shared some of the quilts & quilt tops she & her friends bought after Quilt Camp. Seeing them prompted me to dig out this quilt.



This is one of the first vintage quilts I ever purchased. I've mentioned before how I am rarely moved to buy quilts, mostly I am content to look & enjoy, maybe, with permission, take a photo or make a sketch. But this one I had to have. The completion date is probably much more recent than the age of the top -- that variegated yarn was very popular in the 1960s. (I've always kind of wanted to take it apart, I don't like the way it was finished but I am afraid the yarn will leave behind big holes.) The gorgeous rayons are from the World War II era, late 1930s to early 1940s. I would love to know where & how the maker got the variety of prints that you see here. I've always thought it was luscious.