Quilty kind of day

Last week was work, work, work. The reward for all that hard work came yesterday with a not only a day off, but a great day off. Friend Sandy extended an invitation for a little quilt shopping; that's not the type of thing I like to turn down. We went to the Cutting Edge in Weston and the Quilting Workshop in Wausau. The latter was a first for me; this shop is loaded to the gills with fabrics. Sandy found just what she needed for the queen size Double Irish Chain she'll be making. She's probably got it well under way already. Sandy is not one to let any quilty grass grow under her feet!

My quilty day didn't start until today when I finally got the quilting started on my wallhanging. The center background and first border are done, but there's still the detail and outer borders that may have to wait until next weekend, depending on how the week goes. Still, a lot of progress was made today. While bread was rising and soup was simmering, my machine was humming away. I may not have a finished wallhanging to show for my efforts, but I did have a nice rustic loaf of bread. A pot of chicken and rice soup loaded with carrots and mushrooms and a loaf of fresh bread made a perfect supper for this cold and snowy day. As much as I love to spend a day off at the sewing machine, it just can't compete with the aroma of a chicken in the pot and a loaf of bread in the oven when the snow is blowing and wind is howling.

It's sounding like snow day kind of weather out there. Too bad I don't get off when school is canceled. I'd happily dedicate another day off to quilting and cooking.

The answer was in the glass

Super Bowl Sunday turned out well for me. Not only for the football, to which I don't usually pay much attention, but also because I came up with a plan to finish my bird and basket wallhanging.
At first I considered a pieced border edged in prairie points. Just a walk through the kitchen reminded me that prairie points are not something I find very enjoyable to make. In fact, if memory serves correctly, there was some sort of solemn oath sworn against them after this little quilt. Don't get me wrong, I love this quilt, but the six or seven years since I made it has not been long enough to make me forget pinning all those little triangles. So, no prairie points. That's when my glass of Diet 7-Up came to the rescue. Actually, not the soda, the glass.
Here it is. A Williams-Sonoma juice glass (I found two of these little gems at Goodwill last summer. These nearly indestructible glasses are the best!) turns out to the be perfect template for a scalloped edge that must be made in 3" increments. Who knew? Certainly not me ... until now.

And so, with graph paper, a ruler, my trusty juice glass and some fusible web, I was on my way to a very satisfying border for my little quilt. Since I don't want to spoil the suspense of the finished project and since it's not quilted yet, you just get a peek at the border.

With any luck I'll manage to get this quilted in the coming week so I can get back to my yellow and white project before my daughter rejects me. That's got to get done before March.
Why March? Well, I don't want to give away any secrets, but I happen to know that Alyssa has a really special plan for her blog during the month of March and I'm planning a little something to go along with her theme. So, it's time to get moving. Spring is just around the corner!

A week later

Still not finished with my little wall hanging, but it is progressing nicely. All the applique is finished and a very simple first border was added.
Maybe just straight borders to bring out the fruit and berry colors. Maybe something to echo the basket and blackbird. I keep digging through fabric, but haven't found just the right thing yet. Other than the basket fabric, I hadn't wanted to buy anything new for this, thereby avoiding adding to the never ending scrap collection. Guess I'll just have to screw on my thinking cap a little tighter to come up with something that will frame and finish this nicely. Looks like another week of pulling out books, magazines and fabrics to find just the right inspiration. It's here somewhere. I just know it.

The winter is long and the going is slow

So today was going to be the day to get this little quilt done. And I did work on it for several hours this morning. First, I had to cut the basket fabric into strips (cut on both the crosswise and lengthwise grain) and piece them together again to give the basket more dimension. That turned out to be a good idea. The simple diagonally printed fabric looks much more basket-like after being pieced with its pattern in alternating directions.

Then, there was the bird. My first bird effort looked like the poor thing had wrung its little neck. Back to the book (Bird in Hand by Ginger Cookie Company) for reference. Seems I had reversed the bird. Re-cut bird. The only pieces of the pattern I'm using are the bird and basket and the basket is pretty hard to mess up. Good thing all those fruits and berries were already printed for me. All I had to do was cut out the design.

Here all is arranged pretty darned close to how I envision the finished applique. Truly, I did think I could get this all done today.


This is how far I got. I am doing a straight stitch raw-edge applique on some insanely little stems and leaves. Seriously. Check out the size of those berries. I thought this would be quick?
I can't blame the delay entirely on the size of the pieces I chose to work with. Since I'm really winging (no pun intended) this one (other than the bird and basket), my mind is reeling with border possibilities. The piece is currently 21x27 and can be no larger than 30x36, so I don't have a lot of room to play with, but I do want a nice frame around this little fruit basket (or is it a corduroy purse?). I have a very small amount of fabric that would make a great scallop on a border and I spent a good deal of time playing with that. Then again, if I refer back to the book and the original design inspiration, there is a dog-tooth border that is pretty darned attractive, but I'm liking the way the design is looking to the right (despite my personal leanings toward the left) and think maybe just the right and lower edge would have a pieced border. What to do, what to do...

Happy Birthday Dad

My dad was a hummer. He hummed along to almost any music playing in the background. And, sometimes, if it was a particularly good song, he'd sing along. And of those times, there were a few songs that he could really belt out. "Some Enchanted Evening" was one of those songs.

Dad would have been 88 on January 16. To honor his memory on his birthday I listened to the soundtrack of South Pacific, just as I do every year. Bloody Mary and Some Enchanted Evening stand out most clearly in my memory as songs he particularly enjoyed. I was at work (no one else was in the building) and hummed along as I sorted and copied and pasted and tabled and charted and calculated and then belted out a line here and there just like Dad would have done. Give it a listen and remember (or meet) my dad. Don't forget to hum along.

Working on a work quilt

The best quilt I ever made is this Hollyhocks wall hanging. It took me a long time to hand applique. The original intent was to hand quilt it. By the time I actually finished the applique, hand quilting was clearly not an "in my lifetime" option. The machine quilting is some of the best I've ever done, which helps this quilt maintain its status as all-time favorite. It's been hanging behind me in my office for the past six years. Every time I turn around, it makes me smile (well, nearly every time) and my friend down the hall has promised to save the quilt on the day my brain really does explode and spew data in a spatter pattern that will baffle CSI enough to warrant a cliffhanger episode.
But, things change. A new file cabinet moved in last week and the only available space for it places it right in front of my quilt. I really need that file cabinet and now I really need a different office quilt. Nothing I have seems the right fit. That's right, I need a new quilt.

I spent a good deal of time today mulling over my options. It can be no larger than a 36" square. But I think a rectangle will be more attractive. After paging through several books and magazines, it became obvious that I want another appliqued quilt. I chose the perfect pattern of a basket filled with flowers. I chose all the fabrics and pieced the background and began to feel overwhelmed when this fabric tickled my memory.

I've had this beautiful fabric for years. You'll notice that this 9" square has corner pieces added. Unfortunately, when I put these alternate squares with the ones I had planned to use them with, the entire quilt was, well, ugly. So, the black squares went back into the stash waiting for some other purpose. I found that purpose today.

So, yes, I want an appliqued quilt, but no, I don't really feel that I have the time or energy or dedication to complete a hand appliqued quilt at the moment. Voila! Enter Broderie Perse: Cutting designs from one fabric and appliqueing them to another. I will do a basket of flowers and fruit using this lovely fabric for the majority of the applique pieces in a raw-edge treatment.
And a bit of ripping and re-sewing will put those 9" blocks to good use as borders. It will be soft and lovely and exactly what I need behind me all day.

I can't wait to get back to work on it.

Look Jane Look

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative sells little quilts and donates all profits to Alzheimer's research. Since this devastating disease affects more than one person near and dear to me, I decided to stop thinking about it and actually make the donation of a quilt. The guidelines for submitting quilts are quite strict: the quilt can be no larger than 9" x 12". That's not a lot of room to work with, but judging by the quilts that are for sale and auctioned every month, there are a lot of quilters who tap into their creativity to accept this little quilt challenge.

I've had a half-yard piece of Dick and Jane fabric for several years. In fact, I bought it at a shop in Racine while on a little excursion with my sisters, Jeannine and Jane. It seemed most appropriate that I use that fabric for this project. Jane, the youngest of us, has Early-onset Alzheimer's. This is the first quilt I will donate in the hope that someday soon there will be a research breakthrough that will keep someone else's sister - and her family - safe from the heartbreak of Alzheimer's.

I started with a stack of 2" squares cut from the print and several solids.


The squares were sewn into six random 9-patch blocks.

Each block was then divided
What were nine-patch blocks were then reassembled into new blocks to make the little quilt.
After layering with batting and backing, free motion quilting was added. My freehand quilt-writing echoes the script from the black and white Dick and Jane fabric. Finally, a little black and white pin dot binding does the finishing. My little quilt is now ready to send off. From what I've seen on the website, it may take a bit before "Look Jane Look" is actually available for sale. In the meantime, I've got more Dick and Jane fabric. Every inch of it will go to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative in honor of my sister, Jane.