Love and a swap

I'd been putting off making a block for Julie's White Coat Project because I didn't know how to do it. I decided I wanted to make something using selvages since Julie has made quilts with them, but I've never worked with them before. I also wanted to make something with free-pieced letters, but I didn't know what I could do in a small block. Finally, I decided to try Tonya's classic LOVE block.

This is 6-1/2" unfinished, with each letter block finishing at 2-1/2". The selvages are stitched down only in the seams -- is that how it's done? Well, it's how I did it! I hope it plays well with the other blocks Julie receives.

I participated in an I Spy swap, so much fun! I make lots of I Spy quilts and a swap is a great way to get a variety of fabrics. I had a few plans for what I'd do, but the squares started out at 5" (so they finish at 4-1/2"), and that's awkward for using them with other blocks. I've been seeing some rainbow I Spy quilts -- like this stunning one at Mermaid's Purse --and thought I'd like to try one. The swap didn't provide me with 10 squares of each color, so I had to supplement from my stash, but that just means I have leftovers for another quilt! I bordered each square on 2 sides with solids and arranged them stepwise (the picture is sideways). I've sewn much of it together, just haven't taken the photo yet. It's fun and quick.

Three at once

Some might call it an inability to concentrate, but I prefer to think of it as an ability to multitask. I was busy this weekend.
I cut squares out of the first piece of string fabric I put together. There will be much greater variation when all the pieces are made, but I just couldn't wait. There will be pieces with dashes of brights, too.
I had put only 2 of the checkered borders on this I Spy. I always get bogged down when I get to the borders because the fun is over by then. But I bit the bullet today and put on the remaining 2 checkered strips and the green border, and then pieced and attached the outer border. Just have to piece the backing, sandwich, quilt, and bind!
I also went through two boxes of t-shirts that my sister sent me almost two years ago! She asked me to make a quilt of them as a memento of the various military assignments her husband has had over the years. I was going to have it ready when they returned from overseas this summer, but they came home several months earlier than expected and I had not even started! There are so many shirts that I think I'll make two tops -- one with black and gold fabrics added (the colors of the US Military Academy) and one with red, white and blue. I've sorted the shirts into those two groups and now I'm going to wash and prep them.

And for your viewing pleasure, found art:
The beautiful new Champaign Public Library has funky air vents. Aren't the different sized holes so much more interesting than row after row of identical slots? And wouldn't that be a great quilt -- each block representing something artistically interesting in the building!

Name & Chicago & Stars

It's been a long time ... so sorry! I kept thinking I would be back to reading and writing blogs any day, but it didn't happen until today. I have done a lot of Linus stuff -- my friend Bunny came over and helped me find backings for quite a few quilts, which she took off to finish. And last week I put together batting and backing for 16 quilts! It feels great to have those gone to quilters.

And as for my own quilting, I made my name for Lazy Gal Tonya. Since I like to work with hot colors, I used a chili pepper fabric for my name as a little visual pun. Still have to trim and piece them together, that won't take long. They'll be in the mail soon!
And I pieced yet another I Spy -- the final one for my nieces and nephews. This one has a checkerboard inner border and I was so pleased that the size of the checks worked with the size of the blocks -- the corners meet just right!
In my last post I mentioned that stars kept popping out of the tumbling blocks, but many of you commented that you couldn't see the stars. Maybe the following photos will help. This is "Tumbling Blocks with Emerging Stars" from The New Work of Our Hands. Each side of the tumbling block could be a point for a star, and each star point could be a side of a tumbling block.
And here's a close up:
I went to the Chicago Quilt Show a week ago. I just loved it! There were lots of vendors, lots of quilts, but I'll just show two for now. First, I was pleasantly surprised to see a wonky log cabin in the midst of quilts with more standard patterns.

And this quilt is a stunning rendition of the Museum of Canadian Civilization in Canada. My DH has family in Ottawa, just across the river from this museum, so we have visited it a few times. It's a gorgeous building, and the quilt captures its mood quite nicely.

That's a quick catch up. I will be visiting you all in blogland!

Inspiration

This little rug is in front the sink in our half-bath. I love it. Can't you see making a big cat (or big anything) with strings like this?
And I saw this ad in the most recent issue of Cooking Light. I wanted to find this image on the web, but couldn't, so I have to use the washed out photo I took of it. I love cityscapes anyway, and was enchanted by the thought of using a black fabric with spattered dots to show a skyline with lights in the buildings.
And while I was looking at the picture, I noticed the writing was upside down. So I turned it over.
Now the lights in the buildings are out, but you can see the stars in the sky. Absolutely wonderful! This is an ad for Earth Hour, which is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund to publicize the effects of climate change. They are asking everyone to turn off their lights for an hour at 8:30 pm local time on March 28. Please check out their website for more information and to find out how you can participate. Such an incredible ad!
And finally, here's an I Spy I delivered to a friend's son this evening. So much fun!

Guts and glory

Like just about everybody else, I've been trying to figure out what my quilting goals are for the new year. Finish my UFO's? Get rid of stash? Take a class? Blog more often? What???

This morning I had an ah-ha! moment, a flash of insight so brilliant that it has to work for me. And here it is: I'm going to work on those projects that will make my gut feel good. I know, I know, it doesn't sound like a plan and it certainly doesn't sound brilliant. But it's just what I need to push myself and to feel good about what I've accomplished. Here's why:

Quilting is my hobby, which means it's something I do for fun. Right? Apparently not, because I sometimes stress about it. So then it's not a stress-reliever, it's a stress producer. I need to get rid of whatever makes me feel bad about my hobby. And what is that? I feel bad that I don't let myself work on projects that are really creative because I don't know whether I can be creative. In the end, that's what I will regret -- not that my sewing room was messy, not that I have several UFO's, not that there are skills I have not mastered, but that I have been afraid to follow my own creative instincts.

So I'm starting small. Quilt Pixie is doing a block a week to improve her piecing skills, and I thought I'd do something similar to give my creativity an opportunity to come out and play. I need new potholders anyway, so I thought I'd try some ideas there. How about a wonky log cabin potholder? I love how a tiny project looks great big on my blog!
My only rule for practicing creativity is that I have to start the creativity-jogging project. Once I'm started, I'm usually okay. (It's that "energy of activation" stuff from chemistry class -- it takes more energy to start than to keep going.) I don't love this potholder top, but I like it fine and I feel great about the process -- I didn't know where I was going with it, but I let it develop as I went.

And on a completely different note, I finished the three borders of an I Spy that started as a way to make use of leaders and enders, a la Bonnie. Still need to quilt it. (And don't you hate how those great big projects look so tiny in a photo? It's the same size as the potholder!)

I wish you all a wonderful 2009 -- I know my year will be better for sharing it with my blogging friends. May we all find the guts to aim for our true goals!

I Spy and such a solid stash!

My I Spy is quilted and bound! All that's missing is a label and a trip to the post office to send it off. (I loaded this photo three times, and still blogger is putting it sidesways...sorry!) Click on the photo to get a better look at the fabrics.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this photo, however, is that it was taken outside! We have had two absolutely gorgeous days with temps in the 60's, plenty of sunshine, and just a whisp of a breeze.

I haven't posted much this week, but I have been very busy quilting. I bought some more black and white fabric for my Stroop quilt background, and I'll work on putting that together tomorrow night at Wild & Sassy, a small quilt group I joined.

Most of my quilt time was spent with Project Linus this week. We had a worknight on Thursday, and we have two work events coming up that we had to prepare for. We're going to be doing string blocks for all of them -- everyone enjoys making them, and we have plenty of strings. I have now cut out muslin for 3 quilts and I was determined to find enough center strip fabric from our Linus stash of solids.
We pieced red strips on one and blue on another -- but all these colors gave me a great idea. I'm making one of these quilts myself to test my idea. I'm really excited because it's a different shape and a different design than I've done before. Fun!! I'll post it soon. But wow, is my sewing room a mess.

Also went to a local quilt show and joined two swaps, more on those as I get to work on them. Enjoy springtime!

Playing

Start with the easy ones, follow the directions. Yes, that's good advice, and No, I didn't take it. But I took the more important advice that seems to be coming at me from all directions: Play! Quiltdivajulie has a wonderful post about about mindful moodling, Lazy Gal Tonya is constantly urging us to more liberated quilting, Wanda plays with color every day, and I -- well, I am starting to get the hang of it. When I saw the blocks Wanda was playing with yesterday I wanted to play with some, too!

Of course, I couldn't try the more straight-forward squares because the pinwheels are so much more whimsical, and I couldn't cut the strips all the same size because it occurred to me it might be fun not to, and I got a little too carefree about cutting the blocks and some of them ended up not playing nicely with the rest. (I'll find some friends for that lonely triangle later).

They say that playing is the work of childhood because it's what children must do to learn about the world. I think that continues to be true for things you learn at whatever age you are.

Other quilty things this week: I smiled whenever I saw my color words on my design wall. I have cut back on the few things I will change about them, and then I'll put the top together!

I also braved the borders of my the I Spy I finished piecing a month or two ago. Putting on borders is my least favorite thing about making a quilt, and this has borders on the front AND on the map on the back. Here it is on the dining room table, getting pinned for quilting!

Back at it!

Yay!! I pulled out the pieces of my Stroop quilt today and put them up on the design wall. I was surprised by how many letters I had already done.

I have only two more color words to do -- orange, which I started today, and green (which will be done in orange). I did o, r, and a today, but liked the a better as an e, so tomorrow will do a, n, and g and -- I hope! -- green. It went very quickly and I would have done more if I hadn't spent some time cutting for another quilt. That was avoidance, pure and simple, but I think I'm over the hump.

See the black and green prints at the top of the color words? I've been trying to figure out how to put the words together as a quilt, and it suddenly dawned on me to do a border of crumbs using the colors of the words, but I think I'll throw in a few crumbs of these fabrics for a little sparkle. I'm also thinking the purple fabric (the word pink) may be too dark, and I may re-do it in a lighter purple. Then again, I may not.

You may be sick of seeing my I Spy quilts, but since I finished piecing this top (except for the borders), I'll post a photo of it. I did this one in odd moments, but I have such a system for it now that it takes very little time. I enjoy working on it, though it's no longer very creatively or intellectually or even technically challenging. I enjoy thinking of the kids the quilts are going to, and I try to personalize each one a tiny bit by choosing a few designs that relate particularly to the recipients. In the last one I had a cup of coffee labeled "Kona", since my nieces live in Kailua Kona -- plus I put in some tropical and oceanic prints. In this one I have a map in one square and the name of one of the towns is my niece's last name. They are little things, but fun.

strings and rows and pretty shapes

This coming Saturday is Make A Blanket Day for Project Linus, and getting ready for it has taken up most of my quilting time recently. It's fun, but I'm getting impatient to get back to my own projects. One of our big MABD projects will be making heartstring blocks -- they're easy to do, and inevitably we get eager attendees who don't know how to sew. This is such a fun way to learn! This morning I stitched together some blocks we made at a worknight so we'd have a sample to show on Saturday.
The only personal quilting I've had time for this week is my new I Spy. I was able to cut up shapes on the breakfast table while all the Linus stuff was spread out downstairs by the sewing machine. With all the pieces for each row in a little baggie, it's pretty easy to stitch a row. It amazes me how hard my first I Spy was to make, and how now I think of it as easy, mindless sewing.
And just for your aesthetic delight, how's this?
That's my new olive oil dipping bowl that's sculpted into onion-like layers. The golden green puddle is cold-pressed, extra-virgin, polyphenol-rich olive oil. It's good -- so good, so very very good! I discovered how send-me-to-the-moon delicious really fine olive oil can be when we visited Italy a few years ago, and now I'm splurging on the occasional bottle of this wonderful stuff. Unlike your grocery store vegetable oils, each one has its own spunky personality. Mmmmm.....

I'm back!

Many apologies for the long delay between posts. Having gotten behind, it became more and more work to catch up, so I just didn't. I did a lot of traveling this fall -- so much so that the airlines have upgraded my status, but now that I have perks I am done traveling for awhile and can't use them! All those trips really cut into my quilting time, too.

I felt so bad about not posting, that I quit reading others' blogs, and I have really missed being part of the online community. Now that I'm back, I'm planning on some wonderful reads catching up with everyone.

So what quilty things have I been up to?

Working with the Project Linus committee of my guild has taken most of my quilting time recently. I just updated that blog (see the link in the sidebar to "Hearts for Linus"). Our raffle quilt is amazing -- I didn't make it, but as chair of the committee, I handled logistics. You can see it and read about it on Ami Simms' website. If you live nearby, please buy a ticket! All the proceeds benefit Project Linus.

I also coordinated putting together this quilt for a good friend who just had a baby.

Lots of people contributed blocks and I put them together and did the quilting. The pattern is called Hugs and Kisses from "the little box of Baby Quilts" by Jenny Wilding Cardon.

I also did the backing and quilting to finish off this I Spy for my nephew Andy's two little girls. It was finished last fall except for that, but I didn't get to it until this past week. Tomorrow I plan to trek to the post office to send it to them. The modern world is amazing -- I'll trudge through our snow to mail this, and they'll open it in bright sunshine on the big island of Hawaii!

And this is the back.
If you've read my blog before, you know I have plans to make I Spy quilts for all my nieces' and nephew's children. Andy's was the third, and here on the table are the hexagons being prepared for Andrea's quilt. The little kid in me loves playing with all the novelty fabrics!
I had planned to use a red background fabric on this, but when I laid some of the hexagons on it, they got lost. It was too dark and fought with too many of the novelty prints. So I tried this one, and I like it. It's not the greatest photo, but the fabric is blue with bright confetti.
And finally, when Val was home for the holidays, she and I started to make a holiday quilt together. The only photo I have so far is of the fabric, but I'll take more as I work on it. We had a blast choosing lots of sparkly reds and greens and creams.
And just for fun, here's a chest we recently bought for the family room. It goes with all our colors, and I have plans for a quilt that will look good in there.
I still have a few projects I'm working on that I will finish soon (I hope!!). Meanwhile, hello to everyone, it's good to be back in touch.

It never rains, but it pours!

Why does everything happen at once? My kids have been visiting, we've had other houseguests and dinner guests, extra stuff at work, and my training for my 60-mile, 3-day walk has really picked up -- it wears me out! (I walked 13 miles on Saturday and 9 on Sunday.) I've enjoyed it all, but I've gotten behind in my blogging.

I've had several quilting activities, but not many photos to post. I have put the inner border on my I Spy at last -- it was making me feel guilty just hanging there on my design wall. Borders and backings and the finishing up part of quilting are so much less fun than the designing and piecing!
I'll put an outer border in the same blue that is on the star points, and then back it with a map and bright yellow, just like in my previous I Spy quilts.

I've also started a class with Tonya from Lazy Gal Quilting. It's been great! Once I start having something to show, I'll post those photos. I've also been working on a project I can't yet write about, and am ready to put sashing and borders on the Happy Houses quilt for Project Linus. I've been putting that off because I can't decide on sashing fabric and because, well, I don't much like doing sashing and borders, etc. But I'm giving a short demo on these houses for Central Illinois's Make A Blanket Day later this month, and I need to have the quilt to show!

I love piecing!

There are so many aspects of making a quilt, but the part that really grabs me is the piecing. I love it! There are so many types of piecing, and so many possibilities within each type. I'm doing two kinds of piecing now, and hope to begin a third and then a fourth soon.

First, I'm doing some traditional piecing. I just finished the top (minus borders) of my third I Spy! It went together very quickly, guess I've learned something after making my first two.
I have read several books on stars and hexagons, and none of them has adequately addressed the most basic techniques of joining the pieces together so the points match. A quilt like this needs the points to match, or you lose the flow of the design and piecing becomes a more dreadful nightmare with each succeeding row (don't ask me how I know). On my second I Spy I figured out how useful the little bunny ears can be in matching. But when you press your seams for minimum bulk, those bunny ears lie right along the seam line on every other intersection of every other row. What to do then? I had been putting a pin through the intersection and pinning on either side, and had reasonable success. But it was time consuming and difficult. Suddenly a simpler way occurred to me. Maybe everyone else has figured this out already, but just in case there's a quilter out there who hasn't, this is what I started doing and it works like a charm.

You can see how the alternate intersection on this row seems to be missing its bunny ears. That's because they are lying on the seam line.
But you can use your fingers to flip the seam to the other side to expose the bunny ears. I pin the two intersections on either side first, so that the weight of the fabric doesn't become a factor, and then flip those bunny ears up and place them right on top of each other. In an ideal world the bunny ears would match perfectly when you expose them, but in real life you often have to finesse them just a little. When you get them lying right on top of each other, stick a pin off to the side a bit to hold everything in place. (I can't believe I took a close-up photo with one hand and it actually came out!)
Then let the seams flop back down and stitch away. It works great!
As satisfying as I find this piecing, I've also been playing around with Tonya's tutorials on free pieced letters. I am enchanted by the look of them -- so fun, so whimsical! It's another kind of skill altogether, and for me, it's harder. When my points match, I know things are right. When I do free piecing, I have to rely on my own artistic sensibilities to decide whether it's ok. But it is fun, and I rather enjoy disengaging my perfect-point self and seeing what happens. Now that the I Spy is done (well, the hard part is done), I'm planning to finish up my wonky Stroop quilt.

In in the not-too-distant future, I want to try a small piece using Ruth McDowell's piecing techniques. Her quilts are amazing! I got her book on pieced vegetables even before I started quilting. Her piecing techniques are unique and I think will require a good bit of practice. She is truly an artist -- she can draw, and her fabric choices are unbelievable. If you haven't looked through her books, do. She just came out with a book on piecing, and I'm going to work my way through that.

I Spy received, a nice story -- and off on vacation!

My niece Laurel just phoned to say the I Spy quilt arrived and was a big hit! I'm so pleased. Here's a photo of her daughter Julia enjoying the quilt. Apparently Julia was so excited when the quilt arrived that she would hardly let it go so her mother could look at it! I have hexagons cut for 3 more I Spy quilts for my other nieces' and nephew's children. I must be crazy, but when I heard how excited Julia was to receive the quilt, it makes the time and effort more than worthwhile.With this I Spy quilt, part of my quilting journey has come full circle. I made my first quilt when I was a college freshman for the child my brother and his wife were expecting the following autumn. I didn't know how to make a quilt -- I just cut squares and stitched, some by hand, some by machine, using fabric we had on hand (I don't know why we had it). When I finished piecing it, I knew it needed backing -- I didn't know about batting in those days. So I purchased some flannel and borrowed a machine to stitch it envelope-style to the back. I didn't quilt it -- didn't know it needed it! I proudly gave it to my new niece Laurel. Alas, it fell apart the first time it was washed. Everything shrunk unevenly and the stitches pulled out. I was devastated, and gave up quilting.

Fast forward more than 30 years, to 2005. My husband and I spent 6 months in California on his sabbatical, just a few minutes from where Laurel lives now. I had decided the time was right to try quilting again. Coincidentally, Laurel had taken up quilting, but as a working mother of a newborn, she had no spare time to sew, so she lent me her machine. I took a class at a local quilt shop and haven't stopped quilting since! It feels right that I should make a quilt for Laurel's children -- hopefully, this one will hold together!

And finally, I am beyond excited about leaving tomorrow for vacation -- it promises to be an amazing trip (Amsterdam followed by bits of the Italian coast and Greek islands)! I will be back looking at blogs around July 17, and I hope you come back to visit me then, too. I'll have lots to post! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer (or winter, for you Australians). See you in a couple weeks!

I Spy finished!

Just needs a label, which I'll do this afternoon. I don't usually label my quilts, but this is a gift for children and I want their names on it.
Here's the back. A friend suggested using the map, and I think it's a great idea.
We had a Linus workday yesterday and the guild member in charge of our raffle quilt brought the blocks that have been completed so far. (Some still need eyes.) We got permission from Ami Simms to make her adorable Dog-Yeared Calendar Quilt as a fundraiser for Project Linus. Each block has been made by a different guild member. When it's all put together, we'll raffle the quilt.