Rainbows, flowers and poltergeists

The rainbow strings blocks are done! I think they're wonderful!


I would never have been able to make this from my own fabrics since I don't have much of a stash (yet!), but because this is for Project Linus, I used fabrics donated to the guild for charity quilts. I did raid my own stash a few times, especially for orange and purple. The blocks are so heavy that I had to pin them to my design wall. I think I'll leave them there a few days just to look at them!

My sample origami flower is also done. There are some raw edges from cutting out the back that are a bit troublesome at the petal tips. I hope I can deal with it when I applique the flower. Right now it's just lying on a piece of fabric, and the button is one that -- oops! -- fell off my shirt. I'll find something a little more appropriate for the final project.


And now for something completely different ...

Good photos make good blogs. Well, that's not all there is to it, but some blogs are just gorgeous to look at. Lisa Boyer at That Dorky Homemade Look recently posted a photo tutorial that sounded pretty simple, so I thought I'd give it a try. She calls for two pieces of foam core, but I could only find one stashed behind the recycling in the garage, so I thought for the time being I'd use a white afghan for the backdrop. Bad idea. I chose origami as my subject, since I think my last origami photo (a couple posts ago) may be in contention for the Worst Photo Ever prize. I put a few pieces down and looked through the lens expecting to see this:

Instead I saw this:

The poltergeists that made me cut the rainbow blocks the wrong size and finished the carrots when I wasn't looking must have pushed a button somewhere on my camera. I can't find that button (and I can't find my camera book, which I think they also hid), but I finally was able to locate a reset button and return to the default settings. Actually, I am very glad to discover this feature and once I figure out how to control it, it could be quite useful. By then I'll have bought a second piece of foam core.

And finally, more on the Chicago Quilt Show. Many of you seemed to think the batik blocks in my other post were all I bought. Oh my, thank you for crediting me with such restraint! But do you think I'm nuts? How could I leave my little town and go to the Big Quilt Show in the Big City and not come home with bags of scrumptious fabrics? Here's a fat quarter pack of African fabrics I picked up.

I love African fabrics but I don't know how to use them. One of my first quilts was an African Coins quilt for Jocelyn (my older DD), but I used batiks.

And here's another photo from the show. My poltergeist seems to be working at Blogger for the moment because I cannot get this photo to load right side up, so tilt your head to the left when you look.

This quilt is Floral Fortitude by Pat Doyle Mikrut. It's such a happy quilt!

Does your quilt have soul?

There's a very interesting discussion going on at Two Lime Leaves about what we respond to in a quilt, and whether technically perfect quilts have soul. There are lots of opinions expressed and the comments make a great read if the topic interests you at all.

Fabulous!

Quilts to die for and vendors galore -- the Chicago quilt show was incredible! Overwhelming, too. I reached a point where I just couldn't absorb anymore, but with only one day there, I kept going anyway (duh!).

Photography was permitted for all but one section of the display quilts, so I took quite a few photos. I think I'll share pics of one or two quilts for the next few posts rather than trying to do everything at once -- and maybe you won't get the same overload I did. I'm so grateful that we could take photos! Most of the quilts in the "no photos" section are already lost to me.

First, a little of what I've been up to quiltwise. I got these batiks at the show and think they'll make a wonderful baby quilt.
The little packet on the right has 8 or 10 squares, each with a different image. I love the whimsy and I love the fabrics -- so much fun to pick them out!

I've been trying different backgrounds for my Stroop quilt but of course I had less than a fat quarter of my favorite. At the quilt show I found 3 more fat quarters of it. I might be able to get a pieced background from that, but the vendor said she's pretty sure she has 6 or 7 yards in her shop. She wrote down the info and asked me to email it to her and she'd check. Keep your fingers crossed! Just in case she doesn't have it, I bought this. Sadly, I was disappointed when I tried it out at home.
I also tried this. I like it, in fact I really like it, but it has a carnival feel and I don't think that's right for the quilt. But I like it more than the dots above. Still, I am hoping I get more of my first choice fabric, or that I can make do with the little I have.
I have finished my rainbow strings blocks, but haven't downloaded the photo. I also wrote up directions for what we've decided will be our guild's basic Project Linus block. It's easy to make with scraps at home, so we're hoping people will take a minute and make a block. I posted the directions on the Hearts for Linus blog and have already heard from several guild members that they've been making them. One person helped her grandchildren make 14 of them in one hour!
And now, two amazing quilts from the Chicago show. I don't know how the judges can possibly pick a Best of Show! I was awed by so many of the quilts, and they are so different. The two I'm posting today keep popping into my mind, so I'll share them first. This one is Dust Storm by Paramjeet Bawa. Be sure to click to enlarge it. Note how she made the trees, a blend of fabric and threadwork. The quilting helps define the picture, but see how she gives smoothness to the jars by not quilting them. I love the subtlety of the shading that gives the feeling of dust. And the women's robes -- well, wow!


This next quilt, Black Sheep by Laura Brown, is the only journal quilt I have a photo of (not enough time!). So few lines and colors, so much expression. It really draws me in.

Fabric folding & Googlegangers

Now that I'm retired (will I ever tire of saying that?), I'm expanding my quilting horizons. I joined the Miniature Booty Swap for the chance to design a quilt that suits someone else's style rather than my own. I want to like the quilt, but it has to be something the recipient will be happy to hang on her wall. I was pleased to learn that some of my swap partner's preferences are just like mine (she has such good taste!), but a couple things are quite different (what, is she crazy?!). I spent a few days searching for inspiration, and it finally came. As you can see, it doesn't look like much yet.
This is my first attempt at making a 5-petaled origami flower in fabric. I got the instructions from Rebecca Wat's book, A Fresh Twist on Fabric Folding. My next step is to stitch the petals down in the center and trim away the excess fabric in the back. That will leave just the petals, which hopefully will look like the ones in the book:
Beyond that, I'm not willing to reveal more about the project just yet. But I did see a recent post on my partner's blog that makes me think my idea might be on the right track!

I enjoy origami, so the fabric folding idea appealed to me. In 1993 we spent 6 months in Ann Arbor. My daughters were only 6 and 9 years old then, and since they didn't have any friends in town when we arrived, we tried hard to find activities they would enjoy. We joined an origami group at the Ann Arbor Public Library and the girls were really good at it, much better than I was. They made all sorts of cool things.
There were some delightful people in the origami group. Two of the regulars were Laura, who designed amazing origami paper using computer-generated designs, and her husband, a paper-folding expert who was many years her senior. They were affectionately known as Laura-gami and the Older Folder!

And as for Googlegangers ...
Today's New York Times has a fun article about the fascination we feel with people who share our names. Have you ever googled your name just to see who else turns up? If so, you're not alone -- lots of people are curious about their same-name mates, their Googlegangers. Against all rationality, I confess to sharing this sense of connection with my namesakes. It's silly but I do feel it. So this morning after reading the Times article, I googled my name. I've done it before so I expected I'd read a bit about the reporter one state over who shares my name, but this time the first person who popped up was an Italian to English translator (a native English speaker living in Italy) who is also a sommelier. Wow! I have studied Italian and visited Italy 3 times in the last few years, and I am rather into wine these days. Am I entering the Twilight Zone?

And as long as we're talking a walk on the weird side, it turns out that my husband and kids know one of the people mentioned in the NY Times article -- how's that for 6 Degrees of Separation, another concept I find fascinating!

Delightful Deadlines

As I was driving back from the post office after mailing these luscious reds to my Bull's Eye swap partners, it occurred to me that I need to keep track of my quilting commitments. Suddenly I have so many! The joys of retirement... :)
It will be a pleasure to delete my office calendar from my master Google calendar and replace it with a quilting calendar. I'll have such wonderful entries -- I can see them now: "marvelous mini-quilt due," "send off fabulous fabrics to partners," "take fun strings to worknight," "pick a project for quilting group." So much better than "boring 2-hr staff meeting," don't you think?


I'm still working on the rainbow strings I showed yesterday. Our guild's Project Linus stash has plenty of strings, and it seems that when you take out one, two replace it. It's one of those quilting miracles. I have been pulling from one of our baskets, and what a mess. But it seems to be my day for brilliant ideas (I'm counting my quilting calendar as brilliant), because I suddenly remembered the clothes rack!



I have used this for hanging strings before, and the rack resides neatly folded up in my quilting space, but I had completely forgotten about it. I got it out and pressed and hung my purple strings. It's so easy to find just the right one now! Why didn't I remember this before?

Rainbow strings

I get so inspired reading your blogs and seeing the beautiful quilts you all make! Just a few days ago I was looking at string quilts on the Heartstring Blog and also came across Samantha's beautifully color-planned baby string quilt on Diary of a Mad Fabricholic. Those were bubbling in my mind while I sorted through our Project Linus stash of solids, hoping to find enough of one piece to make center strips for a whole quilt. Then inspiration struck! I had seen a zig-zag string quilt on someone's blog and it occurred to me that a rainbow zig-zag would need less of each central color (always thrifty with the Linus stash!) and could be really fun. And what if the strings were chosen with color in mind, each zig-zag having strings of the next color of the rainbow?
So I set to work. What a blast! (And what a mess -- piles of strings everywhere!) I cut the blocks to be rectangles, but was working fast and didn't think ahead. Uh-oh. You can rotate a square block to get the center strips going any direction you want, but you can't do that with a rectangle. I had to use the frog stitch on half the blocks (because, being efficient, I had already sewn all the center strips down before realizing my mistake). I think that's what TV is for -- giving you something to do while you un-sew. I also discovered that I had cut a few of the foundations too small, but fortunately I have been able to compensate for that. I guess inspirational stars were shining that day but my technical skills stars were under deep cloud cover! In any case, I am so pleased with this quilt. Obviously I still have to finish the blue, purple, and red rows, but I couldn't wait to share this.

I also want to give many, many thanks to Amy at The Calico Cat, who has donated some of her solid brights for use in our string quilts. It's greatly appreciated!

And here's the new fabric I bought for my Stroop quilt background. I couldn't find the one I had just a little piece of, and this will probably be ok, but I don't like it as much. I'll have to let it stew a bit before deciding how to proceed.

Autographs

So many memories! Wanda just posted on her blog about the autograph books she kept as a child and after seeing hers I just had to find mine. I had this when I was very little, I imagine because my older siblings had them and I wanted one, too. It looks like my book was homemade, though I could have sworn it looked like Wanda's red one! Maybe one of my sisters or brother had a red one (do you guys remember?).

I love the entires that my family wrote for 4-year-old Cheri. I can still feel how excited I was to have them all sign my book. How many of these ditties do you suppose were original, and how many were widely used? I know them all well, but of course that's because I grew up reading them in my autograph book. Here's Carolyn's entry, and I think she may be the one who put the book together.
Kathi wrote this on "May 9-1/2, 1956"! She expresses true sisterly sentiments.
My mother very sweetly entered this.
And finally my brother Ray put this in my book.

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!

Backgrounds and swaps

All week I looked at my Stroop words to see whether I really wanted to change any letters. It's amazing how a little time can make a difference. The orange ceased to bother me at all, and though I still think pink is a bit too dark, I don't think it's so dark I'm going to change it. But the final ple of purple drove me nuts -- my eye kept being drawn right there -- so I changed it. And I did make a new n for green.
If you want to see what they looked like before, there's a photo here.

Today I played with backgrounds. I had always expected I'd put the words on a black ground, and I think it looks fine.
But what a shame not to explore other possibilities. I have a few black/bright prints, and I thought that might be fun -- at least until I saw it!
But this black and white was sitting on the cutting table, so I put it up and I love it!
The problem is that I had only a fat quarter of it, and as you can see, I've cut off a corner and a couple of strips already. It shouldn't be too hard to find more of this, or of something similar, should it? I guess I haven't decided for certain to use this background, but I do like it. Any input -- comments on these or suggestions for other kinds of backgrounds -- gratefully accepted!

By the way, this is why the black and white fabric was at hand:
I made another block like Wanda's using the triangles I had cut facing the opposite direction (I was thinking wrong direction). I have so many other things going on now that I'll put these away for awhile.

Since I last posted, I joined The Quilting Pirate's Miniature Booty Swap! I've never done a swap of a whole quilt before (and it's going to be a miniature quilt, but still), but I can't wait to design a small piece that will be the kind of thing my swap partner will like. There will be a link to the swap in my sidebar soon, I hope, but so far I keep getting crazy messages when I try to put it there.

I also finished all the quilting on my I Spy. I'll post a photo as soon as the binding is on!

And -- last but definitely not least -- today was my LAST DAY OF WORK!!!!! I am officially retired. :-)

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!

The new and the old

THE NEW
Drum roll, please! I have made blocks of all my color words.
And let me just say that I love them. I'm going to fiddle with them a bit, but I'm going to live with them for a few days first in case I change my mind. I don't like the n in green, so I haven't attached it in the expectation that I will make another. Actually, I do like the n, just not at the end of this particular word. I think I need a lighter purple to make pink show up better, but I'm not sure I'll change that -- it's such a jaunty word that I'm not sure I can bear to replace it. I'll change the ple at the end of purple because those letters together are too stiff and stodgy (I love the two l's in yellow and want to get purple to have that sort of freedom). And I'm a little bothered that none of the letters in orange takes up the whole space, or that together they don't bounce to all the edges, so I may do something there. BUT, having said that, I do love these!! I do, I do, I do! Thank you, Tonya, for all your wonderful help. You've opened up a new quilting world to me.

Tomorrow I'll play with layouts and snap some photos of what I'm thinking to get everyone's suggestions.

THE OLD
This week HGTV aired a rerun of a Simply Quilts episode featuring Christine Porter, who wrote Quilt Designs from Decorative Floor Tiles. I bought this book right after I started quilting and couldn't wait to make one of the quilts -- but they were beyond my skills. I tried anyway. This was two years ago, and I took one of the easiest patterns in the book and reduced it to quarter size and made it for my husband's birthday. Unfortunately, I had loads of trouble piecing the triangles for the zig zags and so the quilt is a little wavy and puckery. I was disheartened and put the top away. (I also had no idea how to quilt it.) The recent rerun, along with the fact that it's my husband's birthday again in a week, inspired me to revisit the quilt.
I remembered it this way except with a much lighter and brighter and turquoise. I am so disappointed at the muddied values! Just doesn't show off the design enough. Live and learn.

And I revisited the past as I looked around my office this week. I retire April 1 and will miss this quilt I have in my office -- it's perfect for my food-oriented job, but I have no where to put it at home. The third or fourth quilt I ever made, it is from a pattern in Sharon Pederson's More Reversible Quilts. I love the rainbow colors of peppers, carrots, lemons, cabbage and plums -- I call it Fruit Basket Upset.
And just for fun, you might enjoy these. I have a calendar by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers called Fast Food (each month is a mode of transportation rendered with food). You should check out their books (the first is Play with Your Food). I forget the official title of the leek photo, but I call it Bad Hair Day!

I'd like to reply to you, but ...

I was on blogger for about a year before I learned that my settings were "no-reply." At one point I left a comment on a blog (a rarity for me in those days) and the blogger went to all sorts of lengths to figure out how to contact me. What a sweetie she was! And she told me how to change my settings to make it easy for her to reply.

Lately I've wanted to reply to people who left comments with specific questions, or just to respond in general, but was unable to because the comments were left by people who were anonymous with no email or who had their blog settings at no-reply. For those of you who don't know what your settings are but have noticed no one ever replies to you, you can easily change your set-up. Recently Paula the Quilter posted instructions on how to fix your settings to enable replies (and thanks, Quilting Pirate, for finding that link for me!).

For those of you who hesitate to comment, please don't! I feel like I missed out on quite a bit by lurking all that time. There's a wonderful online community waiting for you to join!

Yee-ha!

Yesterday the dam broke, or someone flipped a switch, or ... something dramatic, because suddenly I could just make letters. Not that I couldn't make them before, but I had to psych myself up and I was very critical of every little thing. I finished orange and giddily went on to green, which took next to no time. Definitely, something clicked. I did not look at Tonya's great tutorial even once (I used to check it constantly), I had finally internalized the process and JUST DID IT.

I did suffer a bit from the Stroop effect when I moved to the orange fabric and started making the word orange, but fortunately I caught myself before I got too far. When I finished, I laid all the letters out on the grid of my ironing surface to figure out what height to use for the finished words. My letters vary a good bit, but not as much as they appear to in this photo, which was taken at an angle. I decided on 5" and set to work forming blocks of each color word.
I may have to futz with a few letters, but I'll take that as it comes. Once I get the word blocks formed, I'll figure out how to fit them together. Suddenly it's doable. :)

Exuberant Color

Wanda at Exuberant Color has an amazing blog! I have learned a lot about color and value from her quilts and posts. Such creativity, such exuberant use of color (such an aptly named blog!), such fun! It's uplifting to visit. Today she posted a string pieced block with a layout I wouldn't have thought of. Since I just took a class about color and string piecing, it was the perfect post for me. Take a look!

Quilt class

My guild invited Kay Capps Cross of Cross Cuts quilting to make a presentation and teach a couple classes. I like her stuff but almost didn't take her Slaphappy class because I already know how to piece string blocks. Fortunately someone told me the class was much more about color than about piecing, and they were right. It was a great class!

During her lecture, Kay showed two versions each of about 8 quilts -- one version was made with color and one with black, white and one zinger color. Then she talked about the different effects of the quilts and the things to consider when making each version. On her color quilts, I especially liked her "flowing borders" as she called them (sorry, I don't have a photo), where the color/texture change is small but very effective -- it gives a sense of both boundary and background. For blacks and whites, she talked about scale of print, how a mixed black/white fabric reads, and what happens with grey. Translating a color quilt to black and white is not simply a matter of replacing value for value. I learned so much! Here are two blocks I made in the class -- fun, easy, and I loved playing with the fabrics (there were lots of us and we shared). In the blocks below there's a fabric full of 3 Stooges quotes and one with gentle sayings like "If all else fails, pet the cat."

My friend and co-worker Marilyn is not a big fan of blacks and whites, so she decided to make the block with her colors -- creams and tans with yellow and orange zingers. Even though those are not my colors, I think her group of 4 blocks is just wonderful!

It's a constant wonder to me how different we all are in our response to color and design. While I can appreciate and like -- even really like -- lots of things, I would just never want to spend much time working with certain colors or styles that others can't get enough of. Keeps life interesting!

Here's a block I made this week that is definitely not my colors. I often participate in the guild's block lotto for the practice of making different blocks, and it's fun to do. They always provide the background fabric, and it's almost always a tan or cream. As often as not, I don't have much in my stash to put with it. I had to work hard to find fabrics that fit what was asked in this one, but I like the block pattern.

Other quilting things I did this week -- I cut batting for these 3 Linus quilts. Someone donated a bunch of flannel cut into various sizes and I stitched them into tops. It was amazing that we had this piece of batting that just fit them!

And Val was home for a long weekend! She volunteered to make dinner one night (look at how fast that hand is tossing the pasta!). She lives in a coop at school and says it's such a pleasure to cook at home where no one has taken the food you need and all the utensils are put away in the right places!

I kept checking in with her while she cooked to see if I could help, and she kept saying no. I knew she didn't need my assistance, I just liked being told I didn't have to make dinner! And it was a yummy dinner indeed.

The Darjeeling Limited

I have some photos to post but haven't had the chance to transfer them to the computer (still dealing with a slow system), and my daughter Val is home for a visit, so this will be brief.

We just watched The Darjeeling Limited/Hotel Chevalier. Bizarre, very bizarre. But the soundtrack is great and the photography is fabulous! It's worth seeing the movie to take in the colors and the beautiful photo styling. Absolutely gorgeous! It's drenched with light and color, and has a look that I don't know how to describe. Most scenes would work as still photos. The film has a crisp, clear quality. Visually, it was a real treat and I just wanted to alert all of you who love saturated color and clean design.

You can see a trailer here, but it doesn't really capture what entranced me about the look of the film.

Why is this woman smiling?

Lots of reasons!

First and foremost, I QUIT MY JOB! And what's even better is that I didn't actually quit, I am retiring! I was shocked when I learned that I was eligible, but when we moved here in 1982 I taught European history at the high school on campus, and most of my jobs since then have also been at the University of Illinois. That means they all contributed towards the same retirement program. Suddenly I wouldn't be walking away but would be moving on. I will miss seeing some of my good friends at work, but I plan to keep in touch. Otherwise, it is time for me to go. Does anyone remember "Marvin K. Mooney, will you please go now?" by Dr. Seuss? It ends, "The time had come, so Marvin went." On April 1, the time will come and I will go.

Second, my guild had an auction Thursday. On the premise that one quilter's trash is another quilter's treasure, everyone donated the quilting stuff they didn't want anymore so that others could bid on it. There was a huge pile of quilting magazines and I despaired of trying to flip through to choose those I might want. I picked one up at random and it fell open to this article by Chris Kleppe (American Quilter, Winter 2003):
I love, I am completely fascinated by mosaics and Moorish architecture. I have often wondered how I could make one of those tracery designs into a quilt, but the answer always came up applique, and I am a piecer. Here Kleppe explains how to determine whether a particular design could be pieced using her method. Of the quilts shown in the article, this design is my favorite (there's another quilt overlapping in the upper right):

Third, I am grateful to so many quilters for their help and advice. Yesterday brought another example. A good friend and quilter stopped by yesterday afternoon just as I was finishing laying out AGAIN the quilt that had fallen off my design wall last May.
I love the look and feel of these rich batik flannels, but I didn't have as many blocks as I want and I couldn't find any more fabric. She had some in her stash and drove them over and gave them to me later in the day. How amazingly sweet, I am so very grateful. This is easy piecing, so I will make more blocks and then have something simple to stitch together in odd moments.

And fourth, after a brief shower this morning, the sun is out and our snow is melting! We might reach 50 degrees today and I can't stop smiling as I watch the mountain of dirty snow in our front yard dissolve into beautiful, non-frozen, totally splashable puddles.