Baby Elephants and Another Good Book

Baby Elephants are quilted.  This UFO is about 4 years old and finished!  Well, the quilting is finished, there is that trimming and binding thing with a broken arm going on. 

This makes 6 UFOs quilted so far.

I have a great panto in the shape of elephants I have wanted to use for a long time.  This quilt with elephants on it was the perfect thing.



Don't you just love these guys?







I do pantographs a bit differently.  My frame lives in the dining room with limited space.  I talked to several people at the Houston Quilt Show when I bought my Avante.  The solution was a Quilt Cam.  The screen sits on top of the handlebars and shows a projected picture of the panto on the shelf. 

It works just fine!  But if you have motion sickness, I would suggest trying it out before you buy one.  It makes Frank sick to look at it. 

When I was starting a new row, I sewed my machine to the quilt!  It is difficult to free the foot from its predicament.  I do this from time to time just for fun and entertainment.



I listened to two books in the last couple of days while working on my quilts.  I had heard an interview with Richard Ford about his book Let Me  Be Frank With You on NPR ab out a month ago.  It sounded much better than it was.  In fact, I kept thinking, is this the same book?  The best part of this book was the photo on the front!

The Orphan Train was a lot better.  It was one of those book I didn't want to end.  There could be a sequel, I need to check.  It sort of ended in the middle of her life so there could be.

Definitely a good quilting read!

The Value of My Ellies

When Renee emailed me with the news of my grand win, she also gave me numbers of 5 people who had questions about the quilt.

I thought they wanted to know the pattern, or some query such as that.  These blocks are now one of a kind since the Sri Lankans had that terrible tsunami and I am sure they are no longer making these, if they made it through that disaster.  

So I politely called the first number.  The lady asked me to call back later.

The second number offered me $150.00 for it.  I have no idea why anyone would want to insult someone by offering a figure that won't even buy the fabrics, much less the work.  It is clear that she knows nothing about quilting and just covets the quilt and wants to own it.  I would never just ask someone to sell me something of theirs that I casually liked but would never put time into.

I just didn't even call other three numbers.

At least now I know the value of my quilt, "not lower than $150.00"!

Bottom line is, I am not interested in selling my Ellies.

The Ellies Are Home!

You know, when you sit in your guild meeting during show and tell, and you like the quilts being shown, you are happy.  But then, someone opens up a quilt that makes the audience intake their breath and sigh because it is so stunning.  I wanted that.  Big time.  And I think I got it.

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for just the right quilt to come along. An as the Old Sicilian Saying goes, all good things come to those who wait.  And, believe you me, good things came to me!

I can't sing the praises of Charlene high enough.  She did a prizewinning job on my quilt.  Too bad my quilt isn't perfectly pieced or it would win the Houston Quilt show!  The quilting is exquisite!

The Elephants of Sri Lanka started out with a story in the Quilters World Magazine from 2007.  Don't fret, you can't get them anymore because the tsunami wiped out Sri Lanka so there are no more elephants.  The women were taught to embroider and create these blocks to sell in the US.  Cost was $10 per block and it was shipped free.  


The Elephants jetted in from
Sri Lanka and were gorgeous.  I was so afraid to cut into them I let them sit for 2 years while I collected fabrics to work the paperpieced blocks with.




Here are all 12 elephants lined up on my design wall.  While I was at a retreat with a group of friends, i began to paperpiece the sashing blocks.  I loved the colors, and of course I love paperpiecing!

Here are two blocks joined.  I have oftne thought they woulld make a wonderful quilt just by themselves.  And after letting them sit for a year or more, I thought about doing just that.  I was still afraid to cut the elephants up!

But when I paired them up with the elephants, they were gorgeous.  I knew I had to complete this quilt-----at least to a top stage.








So here are the ellies and the sashing blocks all put together.  They sat for another year because now I was afraid to ruin the quilt with quilting!  I just can't win, can I?

The elephants were bugging me to get done, so I talked to my friend Charlene Harp, and she agreed to quilt them.  And it was a labor of love for sure.  The elephants are not "delicate" so to speak, but when put on the frame one leg did fray a bit.  And two places in my paperpiecing were not deep enough to hold.  So there are some repairs to do.

Here are Charlene and I displaying the quilt for the first time to the Remember Me Guild.   We got that intake of breath!  YES!

Here are some close up details of the quilting.  Some of the fabrics are so patterned you really can't see the quilting on it.  Which is a terrible shame, she did so much fine work on this quilt.  She should have charged me $1000!

Each of the elephants have the vine in its background.  The border has a leaf, and the circle border had lotus leaves.  The paperpieced sashing is echo quilted.  And the elephants are stitched in the ditch.  There are 5 different colors of thread.  And I can't imagine how many hours she put into this quilt.  

I am so grateful to Charlene for doing this quilt for me.  I love it.

glen

Stash Report #2 and the Ellies Are Coming Home!

That feels good, sort of.  Nothing purchased for two weeks straight so I am still sporting a zillow. baby!

used this week	0
Used Jan	-0.5
added this week	0
added jan	0
used YTD	-0.5
Added YTD	0
stash reduction	-0.5

I did work on both the Reflections and Maylee's quilts this week but I don't want to report anything just yet on either of them.

Ohhhhhhh!  and great news!  I heard from the famous quilter Charlene Harp, my Ellie quilt is done!  I am so excited to see it!

glen

Elephants of Sri Lanka and the Lady Jane Grey

You will be very happy to know that Charlene H. now has, in her possession, my Ellies!  YES!  She is a brilliant quilter and will do such a special job on this quilt.  I can't wait to see it.

A couple of weeks ago I brought them to show her, she came right up with a great quilting idea.  She is so smart!  I had to trim up the top and create the backing for it.

When I purchased that backing, I bought 5 yards, thinking it would be more than enough.  But it was not.  I needed about a yard and half more!  Leftover fabric from the borders made up the difference.

This will be a big claim on my Stash Reduction report on Sunday.

I had some time today to work on the final circles and half circles for the Paperweights.  (Poor Lady Jane Grey.  She was part of a plot to keep a Protestant as leader and thus thwart Mary, who was Henry VIII's oldest surviving child and an unmarried woman of 31.  Queen Jane was not even 17 when she was manipulated onto the throne.  And it was just a matter of weeks, because once it was known that the boy King Edward was dead, Mary began to raise an army to take her rightful place as Queen of England.  And Anne Boleyn's daughter Elizabeth was not far behind her.  Poor Jane, I am sure she will be beheaded.)

I finished up the paperweights, I spent some time rearranging the colors.  I decided to toss one of the light green circles and make a darker brighter one.  And am now piecing them together.  I have one row completed.  I am afraid it will be too small a quilt.  But that would require 7 more circles.  Doable but not desirable!

As you can see, I am ready to move on to an Auction  Win.  It is a completely cut out quilt, waiting to be assembled!

Two Near Finishes

I finally finished Dan's quilt and put the binding on this morning, now I have to hand sew it down.  Do you like the feet in there?

And I am not really sure I ever showed you the whole of the Elephant quilt.  I am in negotiations with      a fabulous long arm quilter to do the finish work.  I cannot put it on my frame because the blocks are bigger than the arm.  It really needs bigger and better than me.

I hope my choice accepts the challenge, she really is a fabulous quilter and I love what I have seen her do for others.

We shall see.

I tried to get the back of The Dogs for you, but as you can see, I had problems.  Chloe wanted to be on it and didn't want DiNozzo on it.  DiNozzo wanted on it regardless.  So a good natured scuffle ensued. Queen of the Hill kind, since Chloe always wins.   Lots of noise, lots of running, lots of barking.  Very little of the quilt.

glen

Two Days of Fun With Friends

Charlene came in yesterday and we played with fabric for a while at the house. Then off to a River City Guild Meeting and dinner with some quilty friends at La Madelaine's.

Then this morning I cheered her on to the finish of the Halloween Duffle Bag.

Check out the inside of the bag!  Those eyes just stare right though you!  LOL.






Then Frank took us and Carrie to lunch for some fabulous Shrimp PoBoys.

I did actually get some work done.  The Elephants of Sri Lanka is now completed to the top stage.  I will quilt it on my regular sewing machine, it has a 9 inch throat so I can get a lot of quilt under there.  I want to do a close echo quilt style around each Ellie individually.  And some Morrocan Tiles in the between spaces.  I am expecting it to be in that quilting stage for a while.  Sorry it wouldn't shift for me.  DiNozzo must have been too heavy for it.  (Oh, my.  I just noticed what he is doing!)




I also finished.........let's hear a CHEER for .........  Amber's Quilt!

My camera died before I could get a picture of Amber's BQ Quilt so that will have to wait for tomorrow.

 But I do have a nice picture of the completed baby quilt.  Not my best and greatest quilt, but cute for some baby who loves duckies!  It will go in the stack to be quilted.....at some point this year!

Now I am off to have a birthday party for Ann........

Photo a Day and Elephants

Something I am listening to.  Hmmmm.  I hear the dryer and the washer doing what women have done for centuries.  In pretty much the same way but with a motor.

I happen to be so lucky as to have a washer with a see through top!  That is one of the reasons I chose it, so I can see my clothes being washed!  Cool.  (I have to admit, before I had this washer, I used a pencil to hold the button down so I could watch the clothes being washed with the lid up.)  I have no idea why this fascinates me so, but it does.

My goal today is to have the Elephants bordered.  That should be doable.  Frank is working at home today.  So he says, we shall see. I never ge tmuch done when he is home.  I have no idea why.


I am still trying to decide if I want the light or the dark on the border.  I think I will go to the grocery and come home and decide by lunch time.

glen

Elephants on the March

The elephant top is together!  Yeah!

I need to decide on the color of the borders.  They will be worked tomorrow.  He likes one, I like the other.  His is brighter, mine is more in tone.  Both look good.  See the poor ellie with the cut off tail?  Poor baby.  He looks mad, huh?

Here is the one Frank likes best.












Here is the one I like best.




What do you think?

Elephant layouts

Sounds like a basketball term.  The Elephants are gaining on the Tigers, the Elephants set a layup and they take the SCORE!

I think these elephants have scored big!  LOL.

I did a layout last night, finally got all the papers off the backs of the sashing squares.  I am not sure what to call them, jungle squares?  They sort of look like the jungle.  Are there jungles in India?  I guess so, because I think of tigers roaming the Indian jungles.  This is what they looked like.

I was so afraid this quilt was going to be too beige-y.  But the jungle squares have darkened the entire piece.  So I wanted to test the piece I had thought of for the border.

And it definitely needed a stop border!  Black was too harsh.  Both Frank and I immediately vetoed that.  So I tried several other pieces.  This one worked best but I am still not totally happy with it.  I will finish putting the entire top together and maybe take it to a fabric store and see what happens in that space.

The fabulous thing is that Jo-Ann's Fabrics is opening in another week!  Can't wait!

glen

design Wall 2-27-12

Coming up to the Leap Day.  I had a friend in grammar school who was born on Leap Day.  It was exotic and wonderful to be so different.  I just had Benjamin Franklin to be my birthday partner, and so close to Christmas was awful.  Sigh.

I have the Ellies on my design wall this week.  They are the UFO for February.  I have long put off finishing the Elephants of Sri Lanka, since 2007 to be exact.  I dabbled with them at a retreat about 2 years ago, but put them back into their bag after that.  They have been on the UFO list for a while, always feared.

Now they are out in the open.  But I had misplaced the issue of the magazine to see how they were laid out.  I had to spend one night digging through my mag stash to find it.  Last night I trimmed them down and tore the paper off the backs of the sashing blocks.  There were a few loose areas but I fixed that and we are ready to get a top done.  I finally have ideas for the quilting and I am no longer dreading that part.

The elephant blocks came from Sri Lanka through a dealer in New York.  She was brokering the sale of work village women were doing trying to start a business to generate income.  Their work is exquisite!

Tiny tiny stitches, perfect curves, all hand done.  And the blocks were dirt cheap.  I sent along a donation as well.  The quilt will be a masterpiece when I get it done, but it may be into March before it is totally quilted.  I want the elephants  to be very detailed.

These are the blocks that will go in between the elephants and pull them together.  Strong linear designs compliment the elephant's roundness.  I guess this is the jungle the elephants emerge from as they march along the quilt's path.

I told a friend a few years back, I love it when someone opens a quilt out at meeting show and tell and there is an audible gasp from the audience.  The quilt is spectacular.  I am hoping this will be mine.

glen

Whacking off an Elephant's Tail is Not Easy

I spent a goodly amount of time playing with a layout for the Ellies yesterday.  The picture layout in the book has the four red elephants in all four corners.  Well I have only two of the reds.  They have elephants marching a different way on each row and I thought to go a different way with each block.  But they appeared to be butting heads so I decided to march them like the mag layout.

I have two of each design but they are both right facing and left facing.  And I had four large ones.  That left me with a dilemma.  Somewhere, somehow one was going to be close to the wrong one.

So I decided on this layout.  The four large ellies are diagonal down left to right and the reds are far apart and the other two are not next to each other either.  And everyone is marching in the correct direction.  And they all seem to be happy.

My problem now is the pattern.  It says to cut the elephant blocks to 15 1/2 x 15 1/2.  But the paperpiece blocks are 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 and they only reach 14 1/2 when put together.  Major dilemma, because the four large elephant blocks get their tails whacked off.  I find that difficult to do.  I guess I will have to do it today, but it is cerebra-technically tough to do.



glen:  how do you like THAT college word?  Carrie, did you read my blog today?????  LOL, I know the answer to that!

This is for Swooze and Charlene --

I wonder why I am not on the cover?

I found the stupid  lovely magazine after three hours of looking through magazines having a lovely time going though my magazines I keep for just this reason!

I knew it was the Quilter's World from June 2007 because the only thing left on the internet is the template for the sashing pieces. It was just a question of finding it in the various stacks and boxes of magazines.  Frank says I should have a huge huge giveaway, Carrie says I need to take them to the dump.  I say they are all treasures and I need them all.

see my lovely bedroom?  

I will be working on the elephants today.  Yes!  Finally.  And may finish them before the end of the month.  I do have that extra day, you know.

But first I have to piece the back for the mystery quilt.  I have the borders on and the back nearly complete.  Somehow I miscalculated and forgot to add the extra that goes on for the long arm.  So I need to add that and put the top and the bottom of the piece on.  I may have invented a new quilt pattern by the time this is over!  I need to load something on the quilting machine tonight and get one or two of these three things done this weekend.

And I will have a LOT LOT LOT of fabric usage this week with three backs getting pieced!  Yes!

oh, I forgot to put the clothes in the washer, let me run and do that before I get totally distracted and never get them in.........like yesterday.

glen