Modern Guild Strips - the quilt I didn’t win!

Kelly decided that the lotto block for the Modern Guild would be a 6.5 x 18 inch strips made of neutrals from black to light grey. It needed just a sliver of color in each strip.  It was a very popular block that a lot of people wanted to win.  I made two strips.

And still didn’t win.

So I decided to make my own.

I started sewing the strips on Tuesday.




Made more on Thursday.

And more on Friday.


Last night I began to sew the strips together.


I love the subtle bits of color.  As I sewed strips, I came up with some variations in the pops of color that was non-traditional.......if you can call this at all traditional.

We went to Hammond today to meet Patsy and Stacy......and talk about the aliens kidnapping people in the National Parks.

So I won't be going to any National Parks any time soon., right?

I Am A Woman Whose Child Is Dead

From QuiltCon

This is one of the most talked about quilts.  It hung in QuiltCon 2015 and Patty The Quilt Lady and I were in Austin that year to see it.  I think it would b safe to say we both had mixed reactions.

Here is the story behind it, since most people don't know what to think when they see it.

Penny Gold was making her first bed sized quilt for her son Jeremy.  He was heading off to college in August 2004 and had chosen a log cabin pattern for his dorm room.  That July he was killed in a car crash.

She felt an outpouring of love and concern from people for a while, but eventually their lives went back to normal.  Hers never did.  She wanted to find some way to let people know she was the still a mother who had lost her child.

Hence the quilt.  You can read her story in several places, Penny Gold is one.  She finished her son's log cabin quilt eventually, with a distortion in it where she had only three blocks to go when he died.  And she continued creating similar quilts and scheduled a show titled "Loss" that hung in 2016 in IL.

Interestingly, the discussion about the quilt at QuiltCon was whether it was actually a quilt or an art piece.  The letters are made of an unconventional material, not a quilting material, and it is fused on rather than stitched on.  Penny herself was surprised it was juried into the show.

She decided to send it because in 2013 the QuiltCon Jury Committee had accepted a quilt that read "Fuck Cancer".

I can only imagine what the next QuiltCon has in store for us!  Registration is currently ongoing.

Want to come with me Patty?

I Love Me A Light Box

Working on the black one.

Love me a light box.  This is the one I had to replace from the one that lived under the water line.  McGee (seen here in the photo minding his own beeswax) didn't seem care whether the other light box lived in a box or not.  He REALLY had strong feelings about this one, so it cannot live in its box.

I have a suggestion for camera manufacturers.  Make a camera that is bright orange and says, I am over here! in a loud voice and I will buy it.  Or I am going to need to hire a personal assistant to keep track of all my stuff.

Andrew was sick yesterday so I picked up the baby in the afternoon and kept him fed and watered until his momma got off work
 

For Christmas we bought him a bunch of toys and stuff to keep at our house when he comes here. 

But the best toys are sometimes the simplest ones.

That quilt he is on is the only quilt my mother ever made in her entire life.  And she made it for a baby that Carrie might have even after she got married.   

So it is a special piece.  And it stays at my house too. 

3D ---- 3D ----- 3D

These are just photos of the flowers Frank brought the other day.  They are so bright, just like the pieces of fabric I have been working with today.

I got a photo email birthday greeting from my dentist today.  Really?  As odd as that might seem, it was a picture of chocolate cupcakes, piled high with chocolate frosting that was piped in a big swirl, with a  white chocolate flourish.

I think they want me to get cavities.....

So I have been playing with more improv squares today. 

I have an idea how to put them together, but it won't be in a quilt.  I am hoping to have another piece for one of the shows.  I have two coming up.  

It hit me today that I can put them into a hanging rather than a quilt.  

Here is the progress so far.  I am going to stop making squares and work on the assembly.  And work out HOW the assembly will go.

It will be 3 dimensional.  

We shall see as it progresses.

A Daily Bird and Quilt Inspiration

There is quilt inspiration everywhere if you have the idea to look for it.

While we were in Nova Scotia i saw this incredible design.  It was in the town of Millbrook just north of Halifax as we were heading back to the city.  The Mi'kmaq Museum had just opened the week before we arrived.

Click on Mi'kmaq to read about their culture. 

A great find in the museum was this spectacular quilt.  The children of the Reservation were asked to draw pictures of their lives and the summer games held each year.

Their pictures were made into a quilt!

Some pictures were really insightful and artful in themselves.

And there was this huge Indian outside.  That is Frank standing beside him looking teeny tiny!

Looking up, I loved the use of fabric, probably canvas.

The birds wold have a lovely time cavorting in that sunny atrium.



The Daily Bird is so up to date, you would not believe it is me doing this.

This Dove flew in just today.  Well, last night actually.  In the middle of the night he comes whooshing in the window.

I see why he came, it seems he needs some sort of surgery to correct his gay leg.  It is a serious problem as it looks like it has fallen off the poor guy.  I wonder how that could have happened.

I asked him if he had been in a fight or something, he vehemently stated he was a Dove of Peace.  Hmmmm.

Pink!

Patty the Quilt Lady has been using up her pinks.  I decided I needed to make a couple of quilts for my nephew's kids.  A boy and a girl.  Yes, I decided on pink.

So I cut some strips with the idea of making a herringbone, but at the last minute I decided I would just lay it out in squares since I didn't have large pieces.  I ended up pulling fabric from my stash, which is fine, I need to use it all anyway, right?

I am working on piecing the back together and pulling some larger pieces.  I had to stop and wait for a new iron.

The iron I bought 3 years ago on QVC was leaking.  The leak has been growing in intensity and yesterday afternoon it was almost coming out as fast as I was adding it in!  So we went to Walmart to snag a new one. 

Today I found that I hate the iron we bought.  It has an auto turn off, you can't find one that doesn't these days.   But the temp control jump to the lowest setting.  Which meant that I had to click the button 6 times to get it back up to the cotton setting. 

No way am I doing that for the rest of my life.  I should never have let Frank choose it, even though I told him I wanted to make sure we got one with a dial rather than the electric grid.  He went for the cheapest one.......$24.95.

Can you say.........new iron?

Baby Triangles Quilted

Happy 4th of July!
 
This is a holiday I love.  Our Founding Fathers really didn't sign all at once on July 4th, and didn't even sign all in 1776.  That was the drawback of not having air travel and fast cars to get everyone together all at once.

My father loved to tell stories about all the protocol of Congress and stories of the patriots of old.  Those were some of the happy memories of being with him.  He was not always like that.  But I did learn a lot, and developed my political views from a lot of what he talked about.

Backs on Frame

I spent the afternoon working on the Twin Boy and the accompanying Twin Girl Triangles quilts.  Like true twins, I put them on the longarm together and ran long lines of stitching across both at the same time.

Tops side by side

Not as difficult as you might think.Ba 




And two for one in the time frame, nearly.  Economy of scale.  I decided after looking at them, the boy quilt needs light grey binding and the girl quilt needs the darker grey binding. 

tops done

The backs are perfect!

Of course I don't have either!

Pantograph - and a New Quilt

Mountains Quilt - the quilting work is done, the quilt is trimmed and I need to decide on the binding.  I love a quick finish!  Nothing fancy, just a swirly pantograph.  It was a good one to get back in the saddle with, as they say.  Luckily it was fairly square....I say fairly because I have yet to actually make a square quilt.  I am sure my friend Paula's quilts are all perfectly square, but she also makes 1 quilt to my 5.  But hers are beautifully square.

I think I want to take the leftover oranges and make a multicolor binding.  That way I am for sure to hit every corner with a seam.






We had a Speakers Bureau last night with our finance guy John about minimizing taxes on disbursements.  Interesting retirement stuff.    He has monthly educational seminars and quarterly individual meetings with all his clients.  I've told you about him before, he mentors kids on the wrong track and helps them create lives for themselves outside poverty.  He had an encounter recently with a woman who was over 600 lbs.  His wish was to awaken her self esteem and the desire to change her life; different circumstances, same concept.  She has lost over 200 lbs and has enrolled in the community college BRCC.

I think this is my next quilt.

Here is a closer look.  I made this test block and LOVE it!  It was easy and fun to put together and easy to cut pieces for.

Now I need a background first.  Then I can match the diamonds fabric.  I have no more of that perfect batik.  Or I can find a common center, I am loving that red.  Oh the possibilities!

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I am still working on Sawyer's quilt. 

Quilting on the House Quilt

Today I put together two more backs and put one of them on the frame.

I am digging deep into my UFO Quilt Top Box.

This one was from maybe 2006 or 2007.  I think it is Alex Anderson's pattern.  I tried googling her stuff, but I guess it is too old.

I never knew how to quilt it and just didn't feel comfortable with a simple meander on my Husqvarna machine.   It is fairly large and square.  I made the backing with some pink fabrics that were a dusky shade.  Most likely some of my mother's old stash.  It will make a nice girly quilt!1

I am going to do some fancy quilting on the house, like clapboard siding and bricks on the chimney.  And I think I need some flowers in the window boxes. 

And some significant number of thread color changes.

This will be FANCY for me!  LOL

Fireworks

Wow!  Who knew that using more than you bought would be such a foreign concept to some people?

I have to get a handle on some of these great piles of fabrics though, I think I now have more than I will ever use in the rest of this lifetime.  And I am not sure how to leave it to my reincarnated self in the future.  Burying it is not really an option.  Leaving it to Carrie is huge mistake.  She will just put it on Ebay!

Sigh, use it or lose it, I guess.

Here is the finished Fireworks quilt.  Top, quilt top.  Sorry.  Not the finished quilt.  I am in the process of putting pieces of fabrics together for the back.  I already have the binding ready.  I used some of the fireworks fabric that was intended for the original quilt borders.

Can you see what I did to fill in for the missing blue run?  Did I make another?  Can you see it?

And I have the four 4 color strips that were intended for the original inner borders.  I have an idea for a modern quilt that will  be interesting.

Not sure what I will do with the quilts yet.  Like I really need MORE quilts.  Maybe everyone will get a quilt for Christmas this year.

Might just happen this year.

glen

Proud Momma Time!

Daughter Carrie puts up with my quilting.  She put up with my sewing things when she was growing up, but complained when i made stuff for her.  I really hated sewing clothes, so it didn't take a lot of complaining to get me to stop!

And remember the 16 baby quilts I made for her friends in the last two years?  She came over and used the long arm to quilt one of them, and did quite well.  but that was it.

So yesterday she emailed this.

About two weeks ago, she showed me a photo and asked how she could make it.  We talked about fusibles and cutting a template and pressing not ironing.  You know, the basics.

And yesterday she emailed me this!

Talk about amazing!  

I am so proud of my fearless child!  That is how you have to throw yourself into stuff and figure it out.  You can't be afraid to try something new, or re-learn something old.

You just need to DO IT!

And she did!

Four Skate Friday

They don't look like race cars, come on.  Frank keeps calling them race cars. 

I set up the second skateboard quilt on the frame and got it quilted this afternoon. 

I need to put binding on both and get that done this weekend.  Grey, But I may have enough of the backing for most of one.


And on the Instagram front, I may have posted a third photo!  Yes!  I am not sure how to post a photo from the computer.  Most likely I will have to send it to the phone on its email.

For those who might be interested, I do not have my email hooked to the phone.  I want separation. 

If you need me, call me.  Emails aren't going to work until I get home and turn on the computer.  I just did not want to to be tied to the whims of the world just because I have a phone. 

Baby Quilt Necessary

A very dear couple friend has become grandparents!  Our daughters met at preschool.  Frank was President of the PTO (Parent/Teacher Organization).  And Renee was the Vice President.  One of the things  they did was to put globes in every classroom!  And become friends!

So they beat me in the Grandparent Race.  Last Wednesday Caroline delivered a healthy baby boy named William Donahue Kline.  They are over the top on the happiness scale.

And this baby needs a quilt!

So I made one in EQ.  I have decided on this one.  I will even out the top and the bottom and do the sides a bit differently.   But that is the basic plan.

The family is heavy into LSU football, Michael has had season tickets forever.  His momma, who is in her 90's is still attending them!  So this will be just perfect for little William!

I need to go pull some fabrics.........I probably don't have what I need despite having a room CRAMMED with fabric. 

Isn't that always the case?

52 Photos - Gallery 17 - Recycled/Repurposed

Week 17 is the best yet!1  Right up my alley.  I just love going to Purple Cow and going through the bargains.  The best part of the store is way way in the back against the wall.  There they cull from the already low priced beauties and hang all kinds of clothing pieces on the 99 Cent Wall.  They call it the Red Cow (maybe it is the Blue Cow, I can't remember.)

I get overwhelmed by the 99 cent wonders!  Every time I go there I spend about $15-20 on stuff to bring home.  Wonderful stuff.  And the rule is that Frank gets to go through the men's shirts before I cut them up!  He used to be really paranoid about someone finding out he is wearing a 99 cent shirt, but when he finally got close enough to look at them, he found some really cool shirts.   We fight overr the really cool ones!


Once I get the finds home and washed, I cut them into pieces that can be used in my quilt making.

Here is one that I started 3 years ago and then put away in a box.  That often happens with quilters.  They are called UFOs, UnFinished Projects.  We get stuck, we get tired of a project or we get drawn away by a more alluring project.  And the poor little unfinished beauty lays forgotten in that box.  We all have them; some more than others.  I won't tell you how many I have but let's just say there are more than Obama has states.

I designed the center of the block to look like it was floating.  The shadow it casts is made from  black tulle.  It  was ingenious! 

On this cutie, I have four more of the centers on which to add the shadow and individual borders.  Then I can put them together and add some borders around the entire quilt.  Two, maybe three. 

Once I finish the quilt top, it will go on longarm frame where a back and some batting will be added and all the layers stitched together.  It will be finished when the binding is stitched around the edges to make them smooth and beautiful!

Michael Miller Quilt Challenge

My Modern Guild has a challenge.  We were sent some fabric from the Michael Miller collection.  Each of our members go a piece of each fabric.  We are supposed to make something with it.  I know one of our members did a purse, they are her specialty.  Not sure what anyone else has done.

I can't show you, I know, I know.  I ahve been saying that a lot lately.  Well, Monday night I will be able to show you two of my things I have done lately.   The Michael Miller Challenge and the Modern Robin.

I hope it gets finished by then!  LOL!  I still need to quilt my Challenge piece.

glen

The Most Expensive Pattern in the World

It's the short stories that cost so much........had I known I would have made my own houses!  Honestly, this blew me away when I opened it up and found just the houses, no fabrics.  I did purchase the blue and the taupe for the backgrounds, but I think I will use my own stuff for the houses and trees!

This is her project description:

Product Description

For a long time, I’ve wanted to do a house quilt. And with the debut of my first fabric line, Architextures–an homage to my architectural roots–I thought it a fitting opportunity to create one. Instead of creating just one house to repeat, I decided to have an adventure by exploring a variety of houses. After all, that is what I see in my favorite neighborhoods, a charming mix of different architectural styles and house types. So, I started the design journey for this quilt in my hometown, roaming the streets with my sketchbook and camera in hand. I toured some of the oldest neighborhoods looking for interesting details to use in my quilt. I found loads of character in porches, awnings, and rooflines. In the end, there are 9 spaces (blocks) that make up the quilt. What I love most about this project is its hand-drawn quality. My drawing style and aesthetic are obvious in each of the prints, which makes the line feel personal and also gives the project the look and feel of a collage.

My other favorite thing about this project is that I was able to commission the very talented Alexandra Reisman to create a series of nine original short stories. These stories offer a snapshot of life in each house (and non-house), adding another creative dimension to the project.

The most perfect piece of fabric

You know that feeling when you find just the most perfect piece of fabric for a project?  Well I hit that just now.

I have a commission for a baby quilt for a friend's daughter from some of her clothes.  They want to remember her first year.  (I wish I had thought of that for Carrie all those years ago!)

And I have been searching for just the right fabric for the back.  And here it is:  Don't you just love it?  Well, don't you?

Food Sayings Quilt

I had beautiful parsley, but this week it was eaten by this handsome guy.  Of course he is a has been now.  And I do have one tiny eggplant growing.  It's beauty is incredible in it's blackness.

I have long wanted to make a quilt with veggies on it.  As soon as I get Dan's quilt off the frame and the Paint Chip challenge done with this Thursday, I get to start something new!!  Not the kind with the fat quarter fabric that you cut into squares and just make a regular quilt.  I want to paper piece veggies and add words on the quilt.

Hence, food sayings.

I ahve collected quite a few.  See how many you can think of and maybe we can ALL make some food quilts.  If not that, maybe a food table runner?  Certainly at least a food UFO.

And I want to include some words, since after this Paint Chip Challenge I will certainly be the Queen of Words on Quilts.

Ok, here are some of mine.......as you can see, I have been thinking hard on this subject and have committed it to my little book.

Cool as a cucumber
Piece of Cake
peaches and cream complexion
cake walk
carrot top
cut the mustard
butterfingers
easy as pie
As the cookie crumbles
apple a day
hot as a chili pepper
just peachy
egg on my face
slow as molasses
cool beans
kiss my grits
nutty as a fruitcake
in a jam
in a pickle
skinny as a string bean
red as a beat
icing on the cake
say cheese!
cake walk
cherry on top
meat head
tall drink of water

So, can you think of more?  Did I miss any cool food sayings?

I have several other ideas that I want to incorporate words into.  I have a great idea for a dog quilt.  But that will wait for another day.

glen