Spring pictures

Nothing quilty to write about. I've not been home long enough to sew since Sunday. And right now any sewing time I find I will need to spend doing customer quilts. One is all loaded and I've stitched in the ditch around most of the inner border. I'm totally stumped as to how to quilt most of it. I have ideas, but they are all beyond my beginner skills.

My Tangled Threads quilt group saw a marvelous play last night instead of having our regular meeting. Crowns is a story based on the book "Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats". Quoting from the book description, "photographer Michael Cunningham beautifully captures the self-expressions of women of all ages-from young glamorous women to serene but stylish grandmothers. Award-winning journalist Craig Marberry provides an intimate look at the women and their lives." The first link takes you to a summary of the story that's written so much better than I any I could write. The second link takes you to the book the play was based on. The black gospel church music sung by the cast was absolutely incredible. If you have the chance to see it be sure not to miss it.

I like to put at least one picture with every post, so I'll leave you with some photos of spring flowers that I took in our front yard at 6:30 yesterday morning before I left for work. My camera battery needed recharging, so it actually looks darker than it really was. The top photo shows our crab apple just beginning to blossom, with grape hyacinths blooming in profusion under it. The next picture is a close-up of tiny blue Grecian windflowers and new peony shoots, as well as iris leaves and other perennials. The last photo shows snow on the mountain and grape hyacinths next to the driveway. (Please ignore the grass and weeds - unfortunately the only times I've been home to work outside it's been raining.) I love spring flowers.

Spring is springing!

I love spring - it's my second most favorite season. Autumn is my favorite season - I guess I just like change. Seeing everything wake up - all the pale yellow-green new leaves and trees bursting into blossom everywhere. My front yard is now blooming with daffodils, grape hyacinth and windflowers. The tulips are ready to burst open any minute. Blossoms on our crab apple are just starting to open. Soon the cherry and apple trees will bear flowers in preparation for later fruit, and the pink dogwood will be a sight to behold. Spring colors always make me think of quilts. I want to dig out my spring colored fabrics and play to my heart's content. I need to do other things however, so I'll just leave you with pictures of two spring-like quilts I did years ago.

The other thing I love about spring is baseball! My Seattle Mariners play their first game today - I can hardly wait! I've been addicted to baseball since 1995 - before that I thought it was boring! Then the Mariners started to win. I'm not a fair weather fan - I still watch even though they aren't winning 116 games a year - but I sure hope they don't lose 90+ games like they have the last two years!

One finished project - and progress on another

Well, I discovered 5 UFO's that weren't on my list. These weren't UFO's I'd forgotten - just UFO's that I thought I'd already listed. I discovered the omission when I opened the spreadsheet for updating. So I am now the happy owner of 51 UFO's, instead of the 46 I thought I had. And all 5 of these have not reached the finished top stage, so added them to the sidebar on my blog.

I spent this week working on one of these - a Civil War sampler that began as a $5 quilt top. You probably know how that works - pay $5 for the first kit of fabric and pattern, then as long as you bring back the finished block each month you get the next month's kit for free. I had one last block that needed doing. I'd kept up nicely - but then the shop closed on Memorial day almost 2 years ago. We got our last block kit, but no sashing or border patterns or fabric. The instructor arranged for us to meet elsewhere, but charged $5 a month for the pattern and furnished no fabric. I was able to get the sashing patterns but not the border patterns. I finished the last block on Sunday night, and put them up on the wall.

Keeping in mind what Sharon Craig talks about in "Setting Solutions" and "Great Sets" - I highly recommend these books - I picked a pieced sashing and added a bunch of new colors. I chose from Civil War reproduction fabrics I've collected, but kept to brighter and more colorful choices. I finished setting the blocks together today. I wish I could remember what the borders on her two samples looked like. I know they were pieced, but that's all I remember. So I've hung this up on my design wall, hoping it will tell me what I need to do for borders. I want more than just strips of fabric.On March 23rd, I attended my second Pre-1830's medallion class. I received my second "packet", which included the rest of the fabrics for my center, my second handout, a vintage postcard, and a letter from my "dear sister". If you remember, the first month I had a letter from my "loving husband" along with some chintz and muslin he'd sent me for "the quilt I spoke of making for our bed". This time the included fabric was sent by my "sister" - scraps from making clothing for various family members. She was one of the people my husband visited on his trip, and he told her I was making a quilt for our bed. Here is a picture of my first two sets of fabrics.

Now I must decide what my center medallion will look like. I can do an elaborate broiderie perse Tree of Life with the chintzes, which would be typical of a quilt from the early 19th century. English ladies took expensive chintz imported from India, cut out whole motifs from the cloth, and arranged them in a new design using English fabric for the background. They appliqued them down with either a blind stitch or an extremely tiny buttonhole stitch. This way they stretched a single yard of chintz to it made an entire quilt. I'm tempted to do this, but would need to find a couple other fabrics, as none of my chintzes have birds and I'd want a bird in my tree. Other choices for the center include a simple variable star, a simple pinwheel, an appliquéd dahlia that looks somewhat like a multilayered Dresden plate block, or an appliqued laurel wreath. I can also choose any pieced block that would have been used in this time period. What a difficult choice! I need to examine my fabrics well, and decide which would suit them best. We have no class next month as our instructor is teaching in Paducah, Kentucky at the quilt show, so I have two months to finish my center.

We learned about "make do's" during the class this month. Since china, glassware and other items were scarce and expensive in the 19th century, they weren't thrown away when chipped or slightly broken. Instead they were turned into something else useful. Many lovers of primitive and folk art are now making and/or collecting these "make do's". Eileen (our instructor) talked about turning candlesticks into pincusions, attaching rope to handleless teapots so they could still be used, etc. We spent the rest of class creating "make do's" from either wool or silk scraps. The wool pieces became large strawberrry pincusions or simple flattened squarish pillow shaped pin cushions. The silk scraps were made into balls using a pattern from Ginny Beyer's book "Puzzle Balls". We all used short candlesticks for bases. This was lots of fun - I'm eager to make one from wool also.Here is a picture of mine, which I finished yesterday. I didn't want to stuff it with polyester fiberfill as that dulls pins. Instead I used a bunch of my daughter's curly brown hair that I've been saving for years - she has incredible hair. When she was a little girl I did it up in French braids or two pony tails. When she wanted it cut short in junior high school I saved what was cut off. I'd forgotten all about it until I cleaned out a bunch of sewing room drawers this last week. As soon as I saw the sack I knew what it was, and knew exactly why I'd been saving it. The lanolin in her hair will keep my pins sharp for years. I added a package of rabbit fur I bought for some long-forgotten project, then finished with polyfil around the base. I've put a bunch of pins in it and set it on the window sill about my featherweight. It looks so bright and colorful there!

Oh dear! More UFO's!

I can't believe it - I found three more UFO's that aren't on my list! And none of them are at the finished top stage! I've added them to the list in my sidebar. I have a sinking feeling there is still another one too - I seem to remember another project I started in a class that I know has not been finished. I'll check that out when I get home. The good news is that I'm now finding time to work on these along with my BOMs. I'm hoping to get at least one of them to the finished top stage this weekend. I have a customer quilt that I must finish this weekend, and another customer quilt to load onto Gandalf, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have for my own projects.

Time to get to work - my class arrives in less than 30 minutes.

A good time was had by all

Quilting retreats are just the best! We all had a wonderful time, and the days passed by much too quickly. As usual I took many projects that never saw the light of day, but I did get many things accomplished that I wanted to do so it was a success in that way. After 3 straight days of string piecing I got tired of that, and the baskets seemed to be as full as ever! Here's what my project looks like right now.
I caught up with my Girl Gang "It's a Wonderful Life". I guess I should say I finished the appliqué on all the prepared blocks. Another installment came just before I left so I'll need to work on that one next. I also got more done on the blocks for Heirloom Stitches and the Jan Patek mystery. I'll post those later.
We had 10 people at the retreat this time. One long-time member didn't make it for health reasons, and another stayed home at the last minute because they bought a new house and had to start getting theirs ready to sell. We had three ladies who attended for the first time - it's so great to make new quilty friends!

Heading Out

I'm getting ready to head out to a quilt retreat after work tomorrow. This is with a group of friends that I met on the Internet. We were all on Pat Sloan's yahoo groups list, and decided to get together for a retreat. We've been doing it twice a year ever since the first one. We all bonded immediately. There are a few of us who've made it to every one so far, and others who've made it to most of them. A few joined us last year, and we have a brand new person coming that we've never met before. We come from all corners of Washington - up by Seattle, over in the wheatfields of the Paloose, and here in SW Washington. Some come from up and down western Oregon, and one is from the farmlands of central Idaho. We call ourselves the PINS - Phenominal Internet Northwest Stitchers. This will be our sixth get together. Every spring we meet in Longview Washington, and spend four days in the basement of a wonderful quilt shop called Momma Made It. That is a very dangerous place to spend 4 days, let me tell you! Some of us will meet tomorrow at the Red Lobster for dinner, then the rest will arrive on Thursday. I have the car all packed with sewing stuff - no matter how much I take I'm always afraid I'm going to run out LOL! I'm taking appliqué, my string blocks, 2 1/2 inch strips for Bonnie's Scrappy Bargello, 1 1/2 inch strips for nine patches, and the quilt I've been hand quilting for several years now. I'm sure that's enough - I'm also sure I'll throw in at least two more projects before I go - just in case LOL! Spending four whole days stitching with quilt buddies - what could be better? And when we get tired of stitching we can go upstairs to shop! I'll take pictures to share when I get back. In the meantime I've interspersedd official "group portraits" from past retreats throughout this post.

You mean I can choose only 25?

What are the top 25 quilts that are on my "To Do" list that I want to make? Argh!!!! How can I ever narrow down the choices to 25!

I was reading through the Stash Quilts ring while eating my lunch here at work, I saw Jeanne's response to Evelyn's challenge. So I went back to Evelyn's page and scrolled down to find the challenge. Somehow I missed it while I was catching up on my blog reading last night. So, looking for an excuse to delay going back to work I decided to see how many I can put on the list from memory. Shouldn't be too hard - remember, I'm the quilter with a spread sheet of 58 PIGS! The hardest part will be deciding what order to do them in. And I'm NOT going to include any of my UFO's on the list.

1. November's Song by Jan Patek - a kit all ready to go
2. Home Sweet Home by the Blackbird ladies - a BOM that I've not yet started
3. Quilting the Garden by the Blackbird ladies - I have the fabrics all stacked and ready for this one.
4. Samples from the Past by the Blackbird ladies - I know just what colors I want to use
5. Tulip Garden by the Blackbird ladies
6. Birthday Rose by Jan Patek - a kit all ready to go
7. Liberty Eagle by Jan Patek - a kit all ready to go
8. Anniversary Stars, a scrap quilt designed by Evelyn Sloppy - fabrics chosen and ready to go
9. New Century Garden by Cherie Ralston and Karla Menaugh - for learning invisible machine applique - a kit all ready to go
10. Pineapple Tidbits by The Buggy Barn - a kit all ready to go
11. Millenium Garden by Jan Patek
12. Garden Botanical by Robyn Pandolph - background all ready to go
13. through 25. Twelve "Celebrate" quilts by Lori Smith - a wallhanging for every month - kits all ready to go

And that is just the beginning. I know I've left off lots of important ones. There are quilts on Bonnie's Quiltville site. Antique quilts in my quilt search books I want to recreate. Classic quilt patterns I want to do again. And many, many more.

Picking only 25 is impossible!

A wonderful time was had by all

We had a great weekend at the beach with our kids. The weather cooperated beautifully! This large beach house belongs to our daughter-in-law's family. It was built just north of the little town of Long Beach, Washington by her maternal grandfather in 1980. This is the view of the Pacific ocean from the living room, eating area and master bedroom. Their property goes all the way to the beach so they don't have to worry about anyone building in front of them. Unfortunately what looks like a stream on the left side of the picture is the path to the beach, so we didn't get to walk to the beach. That's about the only thing we didn't get to do. The water was so deep it had a riffle like a lake - there has been a LOT of rain in the last three months! We played lots and lots of games - all our families have always been very big on games. Here you see the bunch getting ready to play dominoes. Our daughter and son-in-law are on the left, son and daughter-in-law and Chewbacca the dog in the center and my DH Fred on the right. We also played Boggle, 31, Phase 10 dice, Mille Bournes, Sequence, Whoonu, plus the video game Monkey Bowling. We also played both ping pong and pool. After a dinner last night of pizza we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Even though we couldn't walk to the beach we still got some exercise. Yesterday morning we three ladies took the dog for a walk into town. We got our coffee for the morning, then Chelsea, Rebecca and Chewie walked to boardwalk while I visited the quilt store. I think I was very good - just one small sack full went home with me, in spite of the fact that they were having a fat quarter sale. Ninety-nine cent fat quarters are very hard to resist, but I bought only 8. I bought 5 yards of cheddar to go with a scrap quilt - maybe the strings - plus a half yard of a civil war fabric that particularly appealed to me. I bought a packet of 6" squares of the new Moda collection called Poetry. That gives me the pleasure of ownership at a very low price, and the pieces are plenty big enough for scrap quilts. Here is a picture of the haul. The round trip was a little over 3 miles, so that was a very nice walk on such a beautiful morning.

I did get one pattern also - a red and white ABC redwork pattern. Remember my collection of red and white fabrics? This might be just the ticket for using some of them. Unfortunately you can't see all the cute embroidery pictures in this scan, but you can see how they all fit in the center of the neat quilt blocks. They are color-book like drawings of things from childhood representing all the letters of the alphabet. This one will be fun to do, as I enjoy simple embroidery very much. But believe it or not, I have no plain white cotton broadcloth in my stash! I'll have to buy some white fabric in order to do this.Better call it quits and get back to catching up on laundry. After all, I have only 2 days to pack for my quilt retreat!

Making progress

Last night I finished pressing all my strings. These two baskets full look so much better than the tangled mess they were before! Turns out there aren't as many as I thought there were. Lots of the mess turned out to not be strings after all - more like oddball shaped pieces that I'd separated by colors at one time and put in ziploc bags. That was when I thought I was going to make string spool blocks - with the thread as the string - and needed strips and pieces only 4" long. So I culled a lot of those - I just didn't feel like dealing with little odd shaped pieces smaller than 3". I know I could have made crumb blocks, but as it is I have enough fabric for 3 lifetimes at least. I stamped on my feelings of guilt and tossed those in the garbage. Also tossed were lots and lots of very narrow strings where the widest part of the strip was less than 1/2". Whatever possessed me to save those to begin with I'll never know!

I managed to piece two more blocks on Wednesday night, and I'm already playing with ideas. I like the graphic design when I put them this way on the design wall. I'm thinking of doing a double sashed quilt - with a small 1" sashing inside each four block set. What do you think of solid black sashing with cheddar setting squares? Then maybe the larger sashing in a bold red? When I'm at the retreat next week I can cut some strips to play with on the design wall.

I also have these baskets of 2" squares to deal with. There's a funny story about these squares - at least it's funny to me because it's so typical of my quilting. In 1992 I got to go to the Houston Quilt Festival with the Daisy Kingdom entorage. I took a scrap class from Dara Duffy Williamson. We were to bring "a large varied collection of fabrics". I just couldn't decide what to take, so I cut an 8" square from every piece in my stash to take. My suitcase weighted a ton! In the one day class I made a total of 4, six-inch blocks. The lady next to me didn't read the class sheets and had brought a total of 4 fabrics so I shared my loot with her, but still brought most of it home untouched. Fast forward about 5-6 years. I took an "Illuminations" class from the Watercolor ladies- Pat Magaret and Donna Slusser. I needed 2" squares of lots of fabrics, so I cut my remaining 8" squares into 2" squares. Illumination turned out to not be "my thing", so all I accomplished was putting some squares onto a design wall. In the meantime I had 15 pizza boxes full of 2" squares sorted by color and value. Fast forward to the present and Bonnie's leaders and enders. I dumped all the squares into two baskets and have been stitching them together as a leaders and enders project ever since. I have no idea what I'll do with these - I imagine as I continue to stitch them together they'll tell me what they want to be. In the meantime I'm having fun visiting my stash in tiny increments.

After work today we're heading to the beach with our kids for the weekend. I'll miss everyone while I'm gone, but hopefully I'll have some completed appliqué blocks to show you on Sunday night!

This is so much fun!

Wednesday nights are almost always spent with our daughter and son-in-law. We go to dinner and then either play games, watch a movie, or watch our beloved Mariners during baseball season. Tonight was no exception, but I did manage to piece two more string blocks. I'm having so much fun doing this! But my string pile is growing and expanding! I guess I had really crammed them in there. Two baskets full have now become two overflowing baskets of pressed strings, another big pile of pressed strings, and a giant pile of unpressed strings. When they are all pressed they will take up at least 5-6 times as much space as they did before. I think I have enough strings for at least a couple queen size quilts!

Revisiting these fabrics from quilts made log ago is lots of fun too - even all the tiny calicos. I had so many of these because I had a doll and teddy bear making business for 7 years when my kids were in grade school, and they all had dresses, aprons hats, etc. made out of calicos. When I got tired of the business and went back to teaching my remaining fabric inventory - which was large even then - got renamed my "quilting stash". There are even some scraps from dresses I made my daughter and granny dresses and maternity smocks I made myself. What fun memories! I'm having so much fun that I've almost reached the point of deciding to take all these baskets with me to the retreat next week and focus on making strippy blocks. I can appliqué in between machine sewing sessions.

I can hardly wait - the last week before retreat is always the hardest. I only get to see these quilty internet friends from all over Washington and Oregon twice each year when we get together for a retreat. Isn't the internet wonderful! There are so many wonderful quilters that I never would have met - both in "virtual" and in person quilting sessions - without it!