Friday Funday

It is fun, but it can be dangerous, when two quilting friends go fabric shopping. Yesterday, Bry and I hit a couple of the shops participating in the Houston Shop Hop. Here are examples of some of our conversations:

B1*: "This looks like you."
B2*: "Oh, I didn't see that. I love it!"

B1: "Won't this go with your (fill the blank) project?"
B2: "Yea, I think you're right."

B1: "I don't need this. I think I'll put it back."
B2: "Get it. It is so pretty. You'll find a use for it."

B1: "Boy, I did some damage today."
B2: "Yea, me too."








* We are interchangeable in these examples.

Who, moi?

It always annoys me when I see a beautiful quilt hanging at a quilt show and all the artist has to say about it is how many hours it took to make it and how many spools of thread went into it. I'm sorry, but if you are counting how much time and materials went into your work of art, then you aren't having fun!
I get lost when I am at my sewing machine, surprised that so much time has passed.



And yet, and yet...I am always pleased when I empty one of these guys. 1200 yards of thread! I bet you could go from here to the moon--well, maybe from here to Galveston, ok, from here to the grocery store. Still, it is an accomplishment of sorts.

Does that make me a hypocrite? Why yes, yes it does.

Black & white and pastel all over

Yesterday, I indulged my inner tantrum-throwing child and let myself cut out some new projects.



Both of them were inspired by rows from our HMGQ robins. The top bits with the white and Japanese indigo were inspired by Liz's rows. I didn't get 'the big picture' when I first saw her row. But I get it now--and I want one of my own! The bottom, un-assembled bits were inspired by what I added to Sean's rows: flying geese done in brights with black. (I'll be setting mine together differently than I did his.) Both were VERY fun to work on; both were very simple; and both make big statements in their simplicity.
I am excited about both!

But before I allowed myself to start cutting and sewing those, I had to first work on the latest HMGQ project: the Kate Spain Central Park charm pack challenge. I started--and finished--my little top (a charm pack and ONLY a half yard of extra fabric doesn't take long to use up). But no peaking yet! I'll show you what I have left over. Looks like enough to do some sort of plate or fan....hmmm...maybe on the back, maybe around the border....hmmm.



 

First Day of Spring

Happy first day of Spring!



It is already starting to feel like summer down here on the Gulf coast. The azaleas are just ready to bust out; many of our trees are already fully green; it is time to head to the plant store to replace our shade garden that was killed by the freeze this winter. We are in that "tweener" weather when it is not quite hot enough for the AC. Outside it is pretty pleasant, but my little quilting aerie gets kind of hot--that pretty leaded-glass window doesn't open, the heat in the house rises up and the the sun beating on the roof and my south-facing window all make it pretty warm in there. In spite of that and with several fans running, I spent quite a few hours in there today.

I'll give a full report of what I did later. I just wanted to say hello and send my greetings!

OMG!

In the midst of my trip to visit my Mom, I realized that after my return home, I would have less than one week to complete the round robin I got at last month's HMQG meeting.
I had finally gotten Fi's round to work on. I had been eager to work on hers since I first saw it. Her bright colors were going to be fun to work with. At a show-and-tell, Fi shared with us a vintage quilt that her great grandmother had made from Hawaiian prints. (See the quilt here.) So from the beginning, I had planned to use tropical prints. The day after I got it, I pulled fabric and began cutting blocks and even assembled a few...but then it stopped.
Now had I chosen simple squares or triangles, there would have been no problem. But I was making small quarter circles. And the thing about round robins versus row robins, if you get the round after several people have worked on it, they start getting really BIG.
But the quarter circles actually go pretty fast, the slowest thing is pinning the curved seams before sewing. I got maybe a fourth of what I needed put together yesterday. And today, in a marathon of sewing, I got it all finished! Yay me!

I'm back.

Well, the storm that was work and the marathon that was life have both slowed a bit and are letting me catch my breath.

(Here's a photo of me with my Mom I took while I was visiting her.)

 


My projects are all where I last left them--the postage stamp is half done, the purple wonky stars are nearly all made but not assembled, the circle skirt circle quilt top is assembled but I haven't had time to try out stitching down the narrow satin ribbons. At the top of my to-do list is the round robin I got last month, but have only just begun. If I work hard tomorrow (luckily, I'm not working) I may be able to get it done. (The next meeting is Saturday! :-o)

But I really want to start something new! What is that about?!?
There are two ideas I've gotten from the HMQG robins that I want to make; there is the dark Kona roll-up that goes beautifully with an Alexander Henry print that is more than 20 years old; there is the box I recently found full of strips and scraps left over from old projects that I would like to 'bust'; etc; etc; etc.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe St. Patrick's Day!

Wither inspiration?

From where might my next quilt come? Not that I need to add to my Play Load, but I always keep my eyes open for new ideas.

There is the wall at a public restroom,



a garage door,






a silver and brown tree trunk,






the fence around a playground,



leaded windows in a church,



or irrigated fields in West Texas.



Then I heard a mockingbird singing his spring song--how might that be interpreted in fabric!?!

I LOVE this quilt!

Ombre fabrics--fabrics that change color or pattern from selvedge to selvedge--have been around for a long time and I have always steered clear of them because I didn't know how to use them.
Well, friends THIS is how you use them!



This quilt, called simply Circle Quilt by MariQuilts, almost seems to breathe because of the masterful use of the ombre-d fabrics. The multi-colored stripe serves as a springboard for the colors brought in and they are pretty much all represented! Light and dark, warm and cool--the balance is perfect. And the black and white counter-stripe adds a counter-point to all the color.
This is a classic example of simple patchwork letting the fabric do the work. What could be simpler than large blocks of framed, bisected circles? But I am never bored looking at this quilt. It almost seems to radiate. And to further the feeling of radiation, the quilting outside the circles is done with variegated thread in a sun's rays pattern. Within the circles spirals are quilted and in the framing bands is a loopy, brick-like pattern.
The maker shows the quilt hanging above a grandchild's crib. The lucky baby would not even need to covered by this quilt to be warmed from it!

This quilt challenges me to break out those ombre fabrics. Large, simple shapes will put the fabric to its best use. And stripes, stripes, stripes.

Please find this quilt in my flickr gallery I LOVE these quilts!

I've been Leibstered!

I am pleased and proud to announce that Marianne at The Quilting Edge has passed the Leibster Award to me!!!



I had admired her work on flickr for a while before I started following her blog. I am in awe of her quilts and was so flattered when she started offering supportive comments for some of mine. So it is especially meaningful for me to be awarded by her.

Like being crowned Miss America--well, almost like--the Leibster Award comes with certain obligations.
The award-ee must post who nominated her/him and a link to their blog. The award-ee must 'pay it forward' by awarding 3-5 other blogs--blogs with less than 300 followers--with the Leibster and putting links to those blogs in the post. And inform those bloggers with a link back to your blog.

Now, in my roll as Award-er, here are my choices:

Noga at nogaquilts.blogspot. She is a brand new blogger--3 posts so far! While there isn't much there yet, I enjoyed what I read--following her creative process and the 'nuts and bolts' of implementing her idea. I look forward to more from her.

Diana at sticksandbubbles.blogspot. This young Romanian mother is just the cutest thing! She makes charming quilts and other crafty stuff and in addition to following her through her creative process is the hurdle of getting the materials she wants and needs through Customs!

Dan at piece and press. This is another blog that takes the reader along for the whole process--from sketch, through ripping out things that don't work, to completed quilt. The quilts have vision and the blogging style is warm and comfortable.

I would like to give an Honorable Mention to two quilters who don't blog but whose work leaves me weak in the knees. I eagerly watch for new flickr uploads from them.

Helen at helen richards quilts.
Binita at silaibunai.

The quilts of both of these quilters leave me stunned and amazed. Everyone should know about them!

I constantly marvel at the community of quilters and other creative people that the internet brings together. The six bloggers/quilters I've mentioned here are from around the world! I wish they lived next door, but with the internet, the kind of do!

The Great Wall of Fabric

So, I am a little self-conscious about my fabric. I am third generation pack rat--at least when it comes to fabric. I have been seriously sewing and quilting--and buying fabric--since the mid-1980s; I have not only my fabric, but also my Mother's fabric and my Grandmother's fabric. Fabric brings me pleasure. I can go into my sewing room, pull something, maybe something 10 or more years old, and combine it with something new and watch sparks fly between the two. When I see those sparks, ideas start flying in my head and quilts happen.  So I am trying to get over my embarrassment about it and just enjoy it!





I am very lucky to have a room dedicated to me and my quilting. I am also lucky to have pretty good storage. Most of the fabric is in two bookcases from Ikea--they are not perfect, the shelves are a little shallow. But the thing that they have that is so very important to me is doors. They have glass doors and the glass is covered with UV light filtering film. In our first apartment, I had my fabric on open shelves in a bright room. The fabric never had direct sunlight on it, but the ambient light really did some bad things to quite a bit of my fabric.

I've seen some lovely sewing and quilting rooms on flickr with lovely fabric storage, but when the fabric is out in the open and exposed to light I want to tell the proud owner of the space to cover her fabric.  I try not to get too strident and bossy, but I just want to caution everyone to be aware of the amount of light your fabric is exposed to. Fading is a slow process and you probably won't notice it--like I didn't notice it--until it is too late.



It is so nice to have stacks of fabric out in the open, to decorate the room and inspire the artist in the room. But we have quite a bit of money invested in those stacks and I hate to see them ruined by the sun.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

The Conundrum

I know we have all been in this place: work and life intrude themselves so much that you either don't have the time or the energy to get to your sewing machine. For the past few weeks and for the next few weeks, that is where I am.
I go into my sewing room and just putter about; tidying, maybe sewing a seam or two, but without the mental concentration to really DO anything. As I head out the door for another long day at work, I think, "All I want to do is SEW!" And thoughts of fabric and pattern and quilts keep me going through the day. But I always wonder if I really would be happy if all I had to do is sew. Is part of my peace and pleasure at my sewing machine that those moments are rare? I won't say my time in my room is "stolen", I don't steal the the time,  I "make" the time! If I don't make the time to cut and piece and iron and--well, quilt!--I get unhappy and frustrated. But I would like to *try* having nothing to do but quilting--at least for a week or two!

Until that happens, let me share some images of my Heaven on Earth.



I highly recommend NOT having your machine facing the wall. I am lucky to have a window next to me, but even if it weren't, I am not looking directly at the wall whenever I look up from my sewing.


My little 'alter' of gifts from friends and loved ones.


This my rotating 'gallery' that I spoke of in the last post (plus monkeys!).

 
My custom-built bookcases--Thanks, Shug! I tidied quite a bit before I took this image.

More Vintage

I am not often moved to buy a vintage or antique quilt. I have inherited a few--tops mostly--but I don't have much interest in owning old quilts. I love books about old quilts and find it much easier to store the books than to store old quilts.
But a few quilts have spoken so loudly to me that I had to bring them home.
I found this funny denim throw at an antique mall in Missouri. At the time I had never seen anything like it. Since it became mine, I saw one in my buddy, Bob Shaw's book Quilts: A Living Tradition. (I highly recommend this and all of his quilt books!) It is just the single layer of denim or twill--no batting or backing, so strictly speaking, not a quilt. The squares are crocheted together, mostly with variegated perle cotton. Then there is the wonderful variety of designs and motifs on the blocks. There aren't a lot of fabrics there but what is there is put to excellent use! The maker got good mileage from the apple print; some squares just have rick rack patterns; one block has a tiny crocheted doily; there are quite a few tulips and butterflies; and the maker's initials are even there.
I think it is just charming!



The other quilt I want to show today is this child's-size throw--again, no batting; this one is made like a pillow case. I got this at the International Quilt Festival. The HSTs are about 2.25 inches square--and the points are crisp! And the fabrics! I would like to know the provenance of this one--perhaps it came from Hawaii? The fabrics are all cotton and look like those used in shirts and muu-muus from the early 1960s. They are mostly large scale prints, so it is difficult to know how many different ones were used. It just glows!



I have a short dowel hanger on the wall that I look at when I am at my sewing machine. This is my rotating gallery for my small collection. And I encourage EVERYONE who has quilts hanging in their home to change them from time to time. Even ambient light can fade fabrics!

Happy Birthday HMQG!

I didn't get much in the way of sewing done this weekend.
But the weekend was not a loss...because Saturday was our monthly meeting of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild! And it was our first anniversary! Now, I am sad to say that I was not one of the founding members, I joined in April or May, but I think am not going too far in saying that I am part of the core group. The big news is that we are growing so that it is now uncomfortable to meet in member's homes! I will be a little sad to loose the cozy, bee-feeling of our small group, but it is exciting that we are gathering more and more members.
I especially enjoyed this meeting because....I got birthday presents! Last month it was decided that the way we would deal with birthdays would be that the person's whose birthday it was last would give a gift--something handmade, a bit of fabric and a bit of chocolate--to the person whose birthday is next. I thought this was a very clever idea--and not just because I would be the first to benefit! My gift-giver was Safieh. Saf has done and continues to do lots of swaps and I am always amazed by her creativity and sewing ability. She gave me a couple of fat quarters, this very cute pouch (even though it says "pens & pencils" I will use it for sewing things), and some real French chocolate! I also got a bonus gift from Amy--a second pouch with her famous tiny hexagons!

 

The round and row robins continue, though many of them probably will soon be pulled as they are now big enough to be quilts. This time I brought home Fi's round. I've been looking forward to working on hers and have had fabric set aside for it for some time.



Our next group project is a charm square challenge. We are using Moda's Central Park by Kate Spain. Today (Sunday) I began pulling fabric--only half a yard!!!-- to use with it.



Many of us brought along our red, white and blue wonky stars for Jen. I mentioned before that she has made many, many Quilts of Valor but, because of shoulder surgery was going to have trouble meeting her promised quota---HMQG to the rescue! See our work here.

I also pushed the dust mop around and though I didn't get to the vacuuming, I don't feel that the weekend was a loss!

I LOVE this quilt!

Today I am looking at a Very Merry Merry-Go-Round by RachaelDaisy.



I'm not sure where to start with this one. There is SO MUCH there. The block is the challenging and old-school Queen of May. But there is nothing old fashioned about the way it was interpreted here. I think every color in the spectrum is represented and while the palette is wildly exuberant, it is a controlled exuberance: the brights and the pales, the darks and the lights, the patterned and the plain--it all balances out. The skillfully pieced blocks on their fields of bright polka dots are further balanced by the sashing of intuitively string-pieced bands.
There aren't many solids in this quilt. And the prints are a little bit of everything; there are cupcakes and sugar skulls, puppies and paisleys, fruits and flowers and flamingos, and lots and lots of dots! The lucky person who got this quilt (the caption makes it sound like it was a gift) would never get bored looking at it!
This image doesn't show the quilting, but other images in RachaelDaisy's flickr stream do. The detail we see shows hand quilting using a heavier thread (it looks blue). On this quilty version of a bear-hug, the addition of hand quilting is like a gentle kiss on the forehead.
The challenge I take from this quilt is to try a block that I don't think I can make--I have always admired these wheeled blocks but have never ventured to try to make one. I would also like to try beginning a quilt that had neither theme nor color range. This quilt makes me want to just jump in and sew!

You can find this quilt in my flickr gallery "I LOVE these quilts!".

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope your day is purr-fectly sweet!

Caution! Construction Ahead!

Let's see, I did a little bit on....five different projects! Needless to say, none are proceeding very quickly. I hope I am not only one to spread herself thin like this.

I pieced together several more hexagons. This project is really on the back burner, but I love the colors and the fabrics so much that I like assembling the pieces. I am a bit fearful that my skills will not be equal the overall construction and that my centers won't match up. But until then, I like these twirly parts.



The circle skirt top is nearly assembled. I put together 4 more blocks and laid out a design I liked. My big, temporary design wall is in the dining room. So I set up a satellite sewing station down there with my Featherweight and my little Bohin iron (a little awkward to use but it is just so darn cute!) and got the rows all sewn together. I am eager to start experimenting with those narrow satin ribbons!



One third of six more stars are ready to be added to the wonky star quilt.



I spent *a little* bit of time working on the Modern Quilt Guild monochromatic challenge. If my past is any key to the future, I will not get this done in time to be considered in the competition but I am doing something I have thought about doing for a long time, the contest just spurred me into action.

And then this thing came out of nowhere! Last week it was not even a twinkle in my eye!
I've been loving what was being made in the postage stamp quilt along flickr pool. Not much appeals to me more than a big field of checkerboard patchwork; but I had not actually joined in with the group. After my fabric binge of last week, I was looking through my stash, seeing if there was anything that I would not mind getting rid of so as to make room for my new purchases. I pulled out about 3 yards of this stuff that--heaven help me--I think I bought to make a blouse with. I was ready to put it in the Goodwill bag, when I paused, squinted my eyes, got out some Kona white and started cutting strips. Next thing I know, this thing I hadn't planned was 1/4 done!

Fabric spree or fabric bender?

With great enjoyment and just a piquant pinch of embarrassment, let me show you what I got this week.













The grand total:



In my defense, my birthday was this week.

A Public Service Announcement

Have you cleaned and oiled your sewing machine recently?

Pretty good weekend

In spite of this sign of End Times--right at the foot of the bed!!!--I got up and got through the day unharmed.



After a week of frigid temperatures (I know we on the Third Coast are wimps about the cold, but it was in the upper 20s F (-0 C) this week! That is COLD by anyone's measurement!) it was in the 50s on Saturday and the 60s today, so I took advantage of the balmy weather and got a good walk in on both days. I did some cooking for the week: lentil soup on Saturday and beef stew today. And I even got to spend some time in my sewing room.

I added to Constellation Wonkulae and like how it is coming along.



I put the circle skirt circle quilt back on the design wall and am VERY excited about the elements I am thinking about. What do you think?





And I got this little throw quilt out to finish machine quilting. There isn't much left to do on it, so it shouldn't take too long.



Now, the stew is simmering, I have a bourbon and lemon soda in hand and I feel satisfied with the weekend's accomplishments.

I LOVE this quilt!

I want to start a recurring feature that I am calling "I LOVE this quilt."
In it, I will choose an especial favorite from my flickr favorites and analyze why I like it so much. These will never be quilts of my own making; I will always identify the maker's flickr name and name they have given their quilt. I hope the makers might be flattered that I have chosen their quilt to write about or at least not mind that I do so. If I include your quilt here and you do not wish it to be, please just let me know and I will remove it. I also hope that others will enjoy reading about these quilts and my exploration of what about them pleases me. But I have to admit that my main reason for doing this is selfish: I hope by really thinking about these quilts that I look at again and again and trying to understand why I love them, it might make me a better quilter.

First in this series is "Wonky Squares" by SilaiBunai.



I think this quilt is like a haiku! It says so much with an economy of color and piecing.
There are only five fabrics and they have all been re-purposed from other household uses. I would love to be able to examine it closely to see the fabrics that were clothing in their previous lives: Lungi and Salwar-Kameez! The calming palette of shades of brown and cadet blue make for a serene quilt while the wonkiness of the squares give it just a bit of an edge. This quilter has a good eye for combining colors and real ability for improvisation piecing. I like the broad bands of color around the chocolate-y brown print (I tend towards thinner, fussier bands). It looks to have been machine-quilted with an over-all meandering stitch that just brings the whole thing together.
(The setting for the photo perfectly suits the quilt too!)
The challenge I take away from SilaiBunai's quilt is to do more with less and to experiment with intuitive piecing and to use wider strips. The quilt shows that one does not need the latest line from the top designers to make something amazing. All she needs is vision!

Find this and future "I LOVE this quilt!" quilts in my flickr gallery.