Sunday, June 30, 2013

Good-bye, Google Reader

Dear Google Reader,

I have loved you for several years now and I am very sorrowful that you are leaving.  You have many wonderful characteristics which I admire and enjoy.  I think you will be irreplaceable.  I wish you a pleasant retirement.

With kind regards,
Nancy.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Blog Readers,

I've claimed my blog at Bloglovin' and am following some of you there.  I've placed Bloglovin's subscribe button on my sidebar.  I'm also following some blogs at Feedly.  As far as I can tell, Feedly has not provided a subscribe button, but a resourceful and techy blogger has created one.  If you'd like a Feedly subscribe button, you can find one at Lokakid (in both English and Dutch).

I hope you who are reading this are finding the transition easier than I am.  I'm barely tech literate and I don't like change....

--Nancy.
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P.S.  Work-in-Progress Girl just emailed to let me know that we can get Feedly buttons at the Feedly Button Factory.  Thanks, WiP Girl.
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Considering Proportion

Before I make too many 4-patch blocks I thought I should consider proportions of the center divides (is there some other name for them?) in the 4-patches. The circle blocks and the 4-patch+divides are cut at 5" and will finish at 4 1/2" after sewn into a quilt.  I will sew red squares with green divides for the rest of the blocks.  (The blocks with red and brown and green squares with red divide were experiments.) 

Left to right finished sizes of divides:  1/2", 3/4", and 1".

These are the 3 variations with the alternating circle blocks.

Hmmm.  Maybe the 1" is too wide: it's more than half the width of one of the red patches.

I was trying to make this easy on myself but maybe I can't, unless I change the finished block size.

Possible combinations of sizes after block is sewn together & before sewn with circle blocks:
2 1/2" + 1" + 2 1/2" = 5"  (Too narrow or okay?)
2 1/2" + 1 1/4" + 2 1/2" = 5 1/4"  (Proportion is okay?)
2 1/4" + 1 1/2" + 2 1/4" = 5"  (Divide is too big?)

And I thought this would be easy!  I think I've made it hard by randomly choosing a 5" square and the difficulty's come up because the 4-patch blocks were an afterthought.

What do you do when you come upon a situation like this when creating a  quilt?

--Nancy.
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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Stopping too Soon

I start.  I make a little progress.  I evaluate, reconsider, decide there's a problem.  It doesn't look like I thought it would.  So I stop -- too soon.  Then it draws me back and I reconsider some more.  Add another block pattern, add a color, change a color, play.  Then photograph.  Surprise!  Maybe it's better than I thought.  Maybe it will work.  Maybe.

I like red and I like green.  And I especially like red and green together.  I know most people think of red and green as Christmas colors but I enjoy them all year.  And I know nature enjoys them in the summer. 

The inspiration for this quilt came while riding past a garden display of hundreds of red roses blooming against luscious green foliage.  Gorgeous! 

The reason for this quilt, at least to begin with, was the need for a small handwork project during a 3 1/2 hour drive to and from a visit to my daughters' homes.  The quilt I'm quilting is too cumbersome for the car.  I needed something small.  These seemed perfect.  (And they were.)

My first idea was only appliqued circles but I quickly realized that with 5" blocks it would take me a decade to stitch enough to become a quilt.  So I added the machine-stitched block variations.  My colors were originally only red circles and darkish green backgrounds that read as solids from a distance.  Then I thought maybe brown blocks with red circles would be safer.  They would have been safer but a little dark so I went back to the green background with red circles, added blocks with red center squares with green surrounding them (which may stay or go), and will use the blocks with red squares with green cross bars in the centers.  I think.  Unless I change my mind.  The blocks will alternate in some way.

I thought maybe I needed to expand the color variations.  When I saw these blocks I realized I was right.  Now I have a wider range of both reds and greens in mind.  I'll use scraps first, then dig into the quarter and half yard pieces.


Beginning a quilt that isn't someone else's pattern is interesting, exciting, and a little daunting, especially for a quilter without much experience.  Will the pattern work?  Will the colors work?  If not, it's only fabric and everything about it can change -- and it might.  Unless I stop too soon.

I hope you're having a great weekend. 

 --Nancy.

I've linked this post to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
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Monday, June 17, 2013

Seduced by Color


It happens nearly every time.  I need (or want) fabric, probably a particular color for a particular project.  I walk into the store and I'm suddenly on color overload.  I love nearly every fabric, nearly every color, nearly every print or plaid or plain.  I forget the color I came into the store to find because, well, the exact color just isn't there and there are all these other beautiful fabrics.

I look and look and look.  I pull bolts off the shelf and carry them around, trying to decide which fabrics to buy, what my budget will allow, how much of each I can buy, how I might use it.  Then I remember the color I was searching for and realize that none of the bolts I'm holding is exactly the color or pattern I came into the store to buy, nor even a good substitute.  One by one, I eliminate bolts of fabric putting them back in their places until I'm carrying nothing.

I walk out of the store empty-handed.

I'm a scrap quilter.  I do better when I have to use what's already available at home.  My shelves are stocked with spur-of-the-moment purchases because I was in the store for some notion or other.  But I can rarely go to the store shopping for fabric and come home with just what I was hoping to find.  There are just too many choices.

How about you?  Are you stronger than me?  Can you make quick, easy decisions about your fabric purchases?  Or are you, too, seduced by color?

I'm linking to Really Random Thursday at Live a Colorful Life.

--Nancy.
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Sunday, June 16, 2013

The Telephone by Robert Frost


        The Telephone
        by Robert Frost

        “WHEN I was just as far as I could walk   
        From here to-day,   
        There was an hour   
        All still   
        When leaning with my head against a flower
        I heard you talk.   
        Don’t say I didn’t, for I heard you say—   
        You spoke from that flower on the window sill—   
        Do you remember what it was you said?”   

        “First tell me what it was you thought you heard.”

        “Having found the flower and driven a bee away,   
        I leaned my head,   
        And holding by the stalk,   
        I listened and I thought I caught the word—   
        What was it? Did you call me by my name?
        Or did you say—   
        Someone said ‘Come’—I heard it as I bowed.”   

        “I may have thought as much, but not aloud.”   

        “Well, so I came.”


If only all communication were so easy!

I hope you have a good Sunday.

--Nancy.
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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Friday Night with Sunday Morning

I spent part of Friday evening stitching the blocks of this Sunday Morning quilt into rows.  What should have taken an hour or two took too long. 

This afternoon I stitched the rows together.

I've decided that just because I love someone else's quilt doesn't mean I have to own or make one for myself.  I also decided that this quilt makes me think of sun sparkling on snowflakes creating a prism-like effect.  Maybe I should call it Snowy Sunday Morning or Sunny Snowy Morning or Sunday Morning with Snow or ....

I think this will be a bear to hand quilt because of all the seams.  I pressed most of them open thinking that stitching through two layers would be a lot easier than stitching through four.  In another post I mentioned pressing seams open.  A reader made a comment that she thought open seams would not be strong enough for a quilt.  I come from a sewing background, before there were sergers.  We always pressed seams open in garments (unless we made French seams).  I think open seams will be fine (and if they aren't I'll have learned something).

I neglected to measure this quilt top but it should be about 75" x 90".  I deliberated about making it larger to use on our queen size bed but decided against it.  It's now laying in my stack of finished tops awaiting quilting.  There are several before it unless it "calls" me.

Happy quilting.
--Nancy.
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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Birthday Boy

Please indulge me a few baby photos of my grandson.
Wednesday was Malachi's first birthday.  My husband and I
met him, his mom, and our younger daughter at Ikea.

Mali was asleep when they arrived.

After lunch we began looking around the store.  He
enjoyed the toys (sorry, no photos) but was seriously
interested in this red timer, a floor sample.

When we meandered our way to the kitchen furnishings
department, Mali enjoyed playing in the sink.  Putting the
strainer back correctly seemed like solving a puzzle to him.

He spent the 4 hours we were there between stroller, our arms, and
store cart.  There were only two slightly rough spots but we persuaded
him not to cry.  What an easy-going, pleasant baby he is.

Would you say his hair is red?  It usually looks more blonde but in the sun and in this photograph I think it looks red.  I'm sure his hair is going to be red or, at the very least, strawberry blonde.  His aunt, my younger daughter, had hair just this color when she was his age, and now her hair definitely has a reddish glow. 

It was so fun to spend time with Mali, his mom, and his aunt.  Even better is that we'll be spending two days together this week!

Happy weekend to you.
--Nancy.
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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Hand Quilting Center Light

I always envisioned this quilt with several lines of stitches connecting the center squares.  (I thought about using colored thread but decided I didn't want to show off my unskilled quilting.)  The lines are unevenly spaced and not exactly straight but as straight as I could make them without marking them.  I like how they're turning out.


What I didn't think about was what to do with the corners of the larger, off white/cream/tan squares.  Hmmm.

I'm considering these possibilities:
  • stitching all the way around the inside of each light square several times
  • stitching inside the corners of each square several times

Does any of that make sense?  Probably not....

I used to think that the quilting was just stitches to hold the layers together.  I'm seeing it differently now.

I'm linking to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Thanks, Lee.

--Nancy.

P.S.  You can see the whole quilt here.
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Sunday, June 9, 2013

Gentle Sunday

The Pasture
by Robert Frost 

               I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
               I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
               (And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
               I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

               I'm going out to fetch the little calf
               That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
               It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
               I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

Susan of Starwood Quilter posted photos of a farmyard quilt block along with old family photos of her parents and sons with a young calf and her grandmother chasing a calf.  In her post she included the poem, "The Pasture."  Reading it reminded me of the sweet tune Randal Thompson wrote to set the words to music.

The poem is beautiful, a sweet invitation to go with the speaker to the pasture, but is even more touching to me when accompanied by music.  Perhaps the poem's speaker knew his wife needed a break from housework.  Perhaps a mother wanted her son to see the new calf.  Maybe the young man wished to spend a few moments alone with the young woman he hoped to marry.  However I imagine it, I am touched by the invitation.

I hope you have a restful and pleasant Sabbath.

--Nancy.
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Friday, June 7, 2013

A Very Tiny Finish

This is a needle cushion.  You know, a resting spot for your needle and presser foot when you have to transport your machine.  It's about 1 1/2" square.  Cute, huh?

I saw super simple directions for making one a few weeks ago.  It took about 5 minutes to make with pieces of fabric I already had cut:  five 2" squares.  I did have to cut the batting that goes inside.  The hardest part was turning it right side out after I finished sewing.  You can see directions at Prairie Rose Quilts and Farm.


I haven't transported my machine but I've used this needle cushion often.  I always want to have two pieces of fabric to send through as leaders/enders but sometimes I just don't.  At those times, I use this to put the presser food down so the thread doesn't get pulled out when I'm moving fabric around.

It's almost silly to celebrate such a tiny finish....  And yet, a finish IS a finish, right?

I'm linking this to finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.  Thanks, Amanda Jean.

--Nancy.
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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Center Light, Sunday Morning - W.i.P. Wednesday

I've started the quilting on Center Light, above.  The section where there are no pins is the only part I've quilted so far.  I had in mind how I wanted to quilt this but now I'm thinking of adding more quilting.  All straight lines and corners.  I plan to hand quilt this at a leisurely pace.  When it's done, it's done.

Below are the Sunday Morning blocks laid out, waiting to be rearranged and/or added to.  I can't seem to stick to really low volume fabrics.  I accepted white backgrounds with color, including red, pink, brown, green, and black.  I like it better now that most of those orange strings have been removed.
My goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes is to have this top sewn together by the end of June.  As it is now, it would finish at about 75" by 90", before hand quilting and washing.  I was thinking of making it queen size but with all the seams, I'm not sure about hand-quilting it....  Either way, the top will be stitched by the end of June.

I'm linking this post to
W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Thank you, Lee.
A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts.  Thanks, Shanna.

--Nancy.
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Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Quilt Inspiration in An Unusual Place

This is a video showing a young man doing crazy things on his bike in an abandoned industrial yard somewhere in Great Britain.  It is about 4 1/2 minutes long.

I watched it the first time for the biker's acrobatics, which are positively amazing.  I watched it again to focus on the architecture and beautiful colors on the buildings.  Notice the glorious bright rose doors on the tan building.  The video will stay in the back of my mind as possible inspiration for a quilt, though I don't know in what way.  Perhaps just colors.   (Did I say I love old -- old fabric, old buildings, old crocks, old furniture...?) 


--Nancy.
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Monday, June 3, 2013

Sweet Lavender


Here’s your sweet lavender, sixteen sprigs a penny, 
That you’ll find, my ladies, will smell as sweet as any.
Lavender Sellers’s Cry, London, England, ~1900

Yesterday I cut the stems of three young lavender bushes, not yet a foot in diameter.  The longest stems were just seven inches.  The buds are a beautiful, deep purple and their fragrance is sweet, fresh, delightful.

Despite their small size, they are just as fragrant as those grown by their older and larger neighbor.  You probably can't tell the difference but the bush below is about 3 feet across.  When the stems of that plant are open and ready to be cut I'll probably make some lavender baskets.


I hope you have beautiful, fragrant flowers to enjoy.

--Nancy.


Saturday, June 1, 2013

Quiet Expectation or Bright Surprise?

When you look at the front of a "quiet" quilt do you expect the back to match?  Or do you anticipate the possibility of a surprise?

I'm sometimes indecisive about quilt backs:  should they "match" the feeling of the front or should they be a surprise -- almost a second quilt?  Is it better to have two options with one quilt or better to have unity between front and back?   (High Five for Brenna is so bright and colorful that I suggested a calm fabric for the back.  I thought if she got tired of the bright front she could turn it over and have a calm quilt.)

The front of this quilt, below, (which I'm calling Center Light for now) is laid out behind the red-flowered and the creamy fabrics.  Are the fabrics in front too bright for a back to this quilt?  Too surprising?

The two fabrics on the left, below, are options for the back along with the fabric with red flowers.  The cream on the lower left almost matches the cream flowers in the fabric on the right except for its olive green leaves, which don't go with the 1940s green of the leaves on the fabric at the right.  If I ignore the olive green, the fabrics would work together.  Hmmm.  Can I ignore that olive green?
The cream fabric on the upper left is just a tad brighter than the cream in the red-flowered fabric.  I have enough of that to use with the red flowers -- about a third cream and two thirds flowers.

I thought about using just cream for the back but I don't have enough of any one fabric (and maybe not enough of several fabrics together) and I was hoping to be able to use fabric from my stash.

All of this brings me to a question:  does it do justice to a quilt to make do, possibly using less than the best (perfect?) choice of fabric in order to use up stash, in order not to spend more money on fabric?  (One of these days I'm going to die and there will be all this fabric left.  I'm trying to use it up!)

These are things I'm thinking about as I consider fabric for the back of this quilt.  I welcome any thoughts you have.

I hope you're having a great weekend.

--Nancy.
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