Great American Cover-Up 2011: "Quilts Full Circle"

Yesterday I went to the Bulloch Hall Quilt Show with a few of the WannaBees.   It's a busy time of year, so it was just Lynn, Ben, and me.  Plus Jackie's sister, Ginger, was in town and joined us.  Always so good to see her!

There were so many great quilts - you really should go visit them all yourself.  The lighting, while very natural and beautiful in person, creates some challenging shadows and color illusions in photography.  The pictures do not do them justice, and I apologize in advance.

This was one of my favorites.  It was made by a past president of our guild, Meg Latimer, who also belongs to Bulloch Hall.  It was longarm quilted by a former guild member of ours, Lynda Johnson, who does gorgeous work.  I love the colors, movement, and sparkle. 

I love seeing quilts made by people I know, and seeing a WannaBees quilt is even better.  Ben was the only one of us who made an appearance this year. 

His quilt "Show Me the Way to Go Home" also hung in our guild's show in September.  Can you find the path from the pub to the house (bottom right) without ending up in jail? 

We all had a moment when we got to this quilt.  It is "Jackie's African Coins," which Jackie started 2 years ago on retreat.  Ben finished it after she died and entered it in the show.    You can read his blog post about finishing her quilts and see better pictures there.  

Instead of a raffle quilt, this year the Bulloch Hall Guild did a challenge and raffled off the entries.  Each participant got 12 circles of red polka dot fabric.  The challenge was to use all twelve on a small quilt (perimeter no more than 80").  How cute are these?  Can you spot the "bunny"?

There were a couple of quilts that really knocked my socks off, and this was one of them.  The sentence, "I have never quilted before," appears in the description.  Can you imagine what her second quilt looked like?  Wow! 

This Dear Jane in the front hall was another stunner.  Every time I see one of these beauties I get a twinge to make one for myself.  Luckily I have always come to my senses.  This one was made by Diane Knott.

  

This folded fabric lovely is one that must be seen in person.  It is by JoAnn Meisel, and is called "Flowers for Linda" in memory of her sister-in-law.  I was just listening to an old podcast by Sandy of Quilting for the Rest of Us about the Save Our Stories project.  In the interview, they touched on the idea of quilting as a response to grief or some other event in our lives.  Somehow I can just imagine the quiet, repetitive folding of these flowers being a soothing task after a loss. 

Another quilt that brought back bittersweet memories was this kaleidoscope by another past president of our guild, Diane Berdis, called "Peacocks in My Garden."  Diane made this with our friend, Ann McLean, just before Ann passed away.  Ann is the one who taught the kaleidoscope class to Mom and me around that same time.  Ann was also a guild president - twice, in fact! - and I still miss her at every meeting. 

"Kyoto Houses" by Jan Antranikian

There were so many more I wish I could show you!  There's something about visiting a quilt show that is inspiring, relaxing, educational, peaceful, and joyous. 

"Shiloh Rick Rack" by Ellen Lott

Find a show near you and visit it soon.  It does your soul good.

Orange Crush Step 3

Wow, am I spatially challenged!

I do not know how someone with such poor spatial abilities and terrible math skills got involved in quilting, but it just goes to show that you should pay attention in Geometry even if you don't want to be an engineer.

These very simple blocks took me forever because we needed 22 going each direction. I got the first batch right, and then sewed the second batch wrong and had to "un-sew" them...TWICE! I even did a test block, wrote down how to do it, and did it wrong the second time. Honestly, it's amazing the kaleidoscope quilt ever got put together.

But they are done, and I can move on to step 4. I might actually get this quilt done before Bonnie moves on to a new mystery - at least if her publisher keeps her busy with the book tour and teaching!

I hope you feel some sense of accomplishment today!

Food, Fun, and Family

What a wonderful weekend! We celebrated my mom's 65th birthday last night with a completely indulgent dinner at EastSide. Bob brought out the most gorgeous platter of antipasti that he created just for her. It had everything from little Caprese bites with fresh mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes to prosciutto wrapped asparagus spears; from the traditional roasted peppers and olives to the inspired fresh blackberries that just looked too perfect to leave out. It was delicious and beautiful and left us almost too full for dinner.


Somehow we managed, though, because he had also made veggie lasagne and chicken florentine and penne with sausage. When it came time for dessert, I took matters into my own hands and brought out this cake that I had found at one of my favorite food blogs, No Fear Entertaining, for July 4th weekend. Mom really loved it, so I recreated it - this time without needing her to rescue me from the whipping cream fiasco!
So all in all it was a very yummy evening! The best part was that my FIL felt up to joining us, so our whole little family was together. I couldn't ask for anything more...unless my brother and his crew could teleport home. Or MOVE! But I digress.

The icing on the cake (I know, I know) was that Jan the Longarmer called to tell me that my Kaleidoscope Dreams quilt is done! It must be record time. She said she just couldn't stand to have it hanging over her head while she was on vacation, so she worked like crazy to finish it. (Why, oh why, couldn't I get just a touch of that work ethic???) I picked it up today and cannot wait to show it to you. I'll wait until it is bound, hopefully very soon. It turned out just lovely with all the swirls and points and swoops.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well. Sweet kaleidoscope dreams...

I Dreamt it was Finished!

My goal was to get the borders on my Kaleidoscope Dreams quilt today, and here it is. I am so pleased with the pieced border and the illusion of curves. Now the trick will be to see if any of the longarmers I know can get it done in time for our guild's show in September.

My other challenge is that the pattern calls for 6 1/4 yards of fabric for the back, but I cannot for my life figure out how to piece it so it is big enough for a quilt that is 84" by 104". Especially since longarmers tend to be picky about having extra fabric around all of the edges!

What I have learned from piecing this is the absolute critical need for a design wall. I could not have kept the pieces straight any other way. That was the best advice I learned during my class. Also, I truly believe I would have gone completely insane trying to do this pattern without Marti's Kaleido-Ruler. You cut every single piece with it, and they are PERFECT.

As I have mentioned, Bonnie's leaders and enders technique was the perfect companion for this quilt. I would take two pieces off the design wall, sew them, put a leader/ender piece through the machine, snip off the kaleidoscope piece, press it, and put it back on the wall before taking any other pieces down. That was the only way to keep track of where everything went.

The odds of one quilt having Marti Michell and Bonnie Hunter in common must be astronomical, but there you have it. Quilting: the great unifier. Hey, maybe we need a quilter for president!

Orange Crush Step 2

So I'm a little behind the times on Orange Crush. What can I say? I've had a lot going on in my life, and a lot going on on my design wall. But I finally finished step 2, a process that seemed eternal!

Part of the reason it took so long is that I was doing it as a leader/ender project with the Kaleidoscope Dreams blocks. It turns out that the kaleidoscope pattern practically screams for another quilt to be made at the same time with this method due to the need for the design wall and the extreme care required to make sure that each piece is in exactly the right spot. The down side is that the leader/ender quilt (in this case, Orange Crush) doesn't really get your full attention or sewing time.


Both quilts are chugging along at a glacier pace. If it weren't for the changing photos of my design wall it would feel like I wasn't making any progress at all! I really like the red border on Kaleidoscope Dreams, and I am thrilled to be moving on to step 3 (of 6) of the mystery. It's not much of a mystery to me anymore since I have been unable to help seeing photos of the finished pattern on other blogs, but I am curiously anticipating my own finished product since no two of us chose the same fabrics.


I have to add that making this quilt for Grace is perfect. The other day she sat on my bed looking through the step 1 blocks and reminiscing about all of the quilts they represented. She remembers - maybe more than I - which fabric went into whose quilt and sometimes even when we bought it. I imagine her lying in bed, covered in memories of all those cousins and friends and times sewing together, like a cozy memory lane. I have discovered a new fondness for scrap quilts that I never appreciated in the first ten years of my art. Bonnie awakened this in me, and for that I am so grateful.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Chance You'll Live to 100: 68%

100 is looking pretty likely for you right now. You've made your health a priority. So kick back, keep doing what you're doing, and enjoy the great life you've made for yourself. And you might get to see what the world is like 70, 80, or even 90 years from now.

Will You Live to 100?

We're having a lovely, lazy week. We met Piper and gave her the Circle of Love quilt. Andi loved it and was so appreciative. Monday was guild night, and we had our annual Quilt Olympics. Every year we sew for a charity, and this year we made pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer. By the end of the night the guild had 116 pillowcases, and many more of us brought home kits to finish. Gracie had a great time sewing with Mom and me, another generation of fabric fondlers on the way!


Today DH took the kids out shopping, so I have some quiet time to blog and sew. I'm hoping to get the border blocks cut for Kaleidoscope Dreams, but it will require some concentration and functioning brain cells! I'd love to get it to the longarmer and back in time for our guild show in September.

I hope you can squeeze in some sewing time this weekend.

Fabraholism...Hi, My Name is Jenny!

The first step towards beating any addiction (and who's to say I even want to?) is to admit that I am powerless over it. I'm so there! I haven't posted all week because I've been having way too much fun sewing and fondling fabric and even playing with heating elements of all sorts to distort and mutilate textiles to satisfy my illness. It was wicked fun!

First I had a conversation with my wonderful MIL about a cousin whose baby is due next month. I realized that, while each of my cousins' babies have received a quilt from either mom or me, none of DH's cousins have. Oops! The timing has always been a little hairy and we just aren't as closely entwined with their lives. Sooo...I felt it was high time to remedy the situation. In honor of my new fascination with Bonnie Hunter, my introduction to the Easy Angle ruler, and Andi's love of lime green, I decided to make a scrappy Jacob's Ladder with a green focus. Here's the block so far:

On Tuesday I finished whipping down the binding for the Team Tomato prize quilt. Last year for Mother's Day I gave my mom, MIL, and cousin one of those Topsy Turvy Tomato Growers. They had a contest, and Cousin Judy won by a landslide. This Mother's Day her gift will be this cute little tomato quilt and basket (by Dawn, of course) to

gather her harvest. Shhh...don't tell her! Thanks to the Stashbuster poster who suggested the "Just Leaf It" technique of free motion quilting. You can't really see it that well, but it worked perfectly for this little quilt.

On Thursday, Mom and I went back to our Kaleidoscope class. We learned how to make the alternate blocks that really make the design pop. Check out "My Design Wall" on the right to see how this quilt is coming along.

Then on Saturday (yes, my house is a wreck - don't call DFCS on me) I went to an awesome class with Jan Girod from Fiber on a Whim. It was incredible! Calling it a quilting class would be a bit of a stretch - it is definitely in the Art with a Capital A category. We worked with foiling and bone ash, Tyvek, cellophane, organza, metallic mesh, buttons, beads, and all kinds of pretty threads. We had irons, heat guns, and soldering tools generating some serious creative energy. It's not ready for photos yet, but I hope to have it up soon.

Plus Step 2 for Orange Crush has been posted! I'd better get back to work! Have a great week.

Clean

So I was reading my friend Kate's blog post about making her own laundry detergent and I couldn't resist trying it out myself. One of the comments she got on her original post was that she has two little girls, and the poster wanted to see how the homemade stuff stood up to a load of boy clothes.

Let me tell you, I put it up against the ultimate in boy clothes - a load of the stuff my husband and sons (ages 11 and 13) wore to play paintball on Sunday in the muddy cold. The before and after pictures say it all:

The clothes came out at least as clean as when I use regular detergent plus OxiClean, if not cleaner. They definitely smelled better. It's not so much a scent, but a lack of scent and a definite clean air smell. Like clear water or fresh air. In fact, I like this new concoction so much that I've been using it for every load, including my delicates. I can't wait to try it on a quilt.

Speaking of quilts, I finally finished piecing my last kaleidoscope blocks based on your voting. Since there were four blocks that were definitely in the lead and I only needed three, I had a tough decision. But when I looked at my original set, there was one that jumped out at me and was way too red (bottom left corner in the first picture). So I took that one out and made the four winners. Thanks for voting! I'll keep you up to date as I work on this quilt.

Have a great week!

Orange Crush Step One Done!

I had a very quilty day today. I was invited to join a new bee group that has spun off my guild, and we had such a fun and productive morning. I worked on step one of Bonnie Hunter's new mystery, Orange Crush. As you can see, I took the instructions to make it scrappy very seriously!

It was so inspiring to see what everyone was working on. One person is doing beautiful handwork, another is designing on the computer, another was auditioning border fabrics for a stunning quilt top, and a few of us were machine piecing. I could just feel the ideas exploding for future quilts, and it reminded me of a great story about teaching:

"If I have a pencil and you have a pencil, and we share our pencils, what do we have? We still each have one pencil. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we share our ideas, then what do we have? Now we each have two ideas...at least!"

Don't forget to vote for your favorite kaleidoscope blocks. Only a few more days before I'm going to make my decision on the final three, and the voting is close for 3rd place!

Have a great weekend,

Kaleidoscope Dreams

I have been having the best time with my kaleidoscope blocks from the class Mom and I took on Thursday. So far I have made 15 blocks. I need 3 more, but I have 6 possibilities. For those of you who haven't made a kaleidoscope quilt yet, I need to cut enough wedges for 38 blocks but only use 18 as the center stars. The rest of the wedges get used elsewhere in the quilt, and I need to decide on my favorites. Some were very similar, some were WAY too busy, and some just didn't speak to me. Now I need your help: please vote for your favorite blocks out of the six left (multiple votes allowed). At left are the finished 15 and the focus fabric to give you an idea of what I am already working with.

I'll give you the week to vote while I cut the rest of the blocks, work on my denim and flannel quilt, and maybe even start on Orange Crush.

It's one of those rainy, perfect-for-sewing days here in the 'burbs. If only the laundry would do itself! Have a wonderful week!

Joining the Blogging World

Okay, I admit it. I'm only doing this so I can get one of those cool links to Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt page. So I'm a total follower, a sheep if you will. Don't care.

Mom and I took our kaleidoscope quilting class yesterday at Share the Spirit Quilting and Yarn. There are not so many quilting things out there that I really feel the pull of taking a whole day class anymore - most stuff I can figure out by reading a book or looking at a website. But this is one that was worth every penny (of Mom's! It was part of my birthday present.) for someone to show us step-by-step how to do it. I will have to take pics of my stars and y'all can vote on which ones should grace the center of the quilt.

Speaking of Grace...my darling DD finally got her sewing table and machine set up in her room so she can sew without all the hassle of dragging everything out. The table is an old Singer treadle base with a butcher block top. She looked at the finished scene and sighed saying, "Mommy, I love it. It looks just a little old fashioned." That's my girl! Of course, she also informed me that her sewing room would never be as messy as mine, as she lovingly tucked her 3 1/2" strips of fabric into the SteriLite drawers purchased just for her last weekend.

Out of the mouths of babes...