Wednesday, July 31, 2013

At Loose Ends

How could I possibly be at loose ends with two quilts in the works?  It's because I don't have a steady, quick-to-stitch, in-progress quilt to cut and stitch.  When I'm in the middle of cutting and sewing a quilt, I have plenty of ideas for the next quilt.  I jot them down, make drawings, etc.  Now that it's time to choose and begin, I'm hemming and hawing.  Colors, block size, etc.  But then maybe I really shouldn't be starting a new quilt anyway because I have 4 or 5 tops waiting to be quilted and at least one waiting for a decision about whether it's a finished top or not. 

This red/green is in progress.  I'm not completely committed to it yet. 
I began adding gold/yellow squares in the center of the 4-patch blocks.  Maybe they all need gold in the center?  Maybe the light blocks are too light but maybe the light crosses are okay?  Maybe all the circles should be the same size?  Maybe the 4-patch blocks should have green squares and red bars?  There are so many variables to consider.  It helps to look at a photo of the blocks.  Creates objectivity, I think.  I probably just need to keep making blocks and then play.

Center Light is exactly half quilted:  I counted the blocks today. 
I had hoped I was further along because I claimed this as my goal for a September finish for the 2013 Finish-A-Long.  I should probably find a few good movies to watch and settle in for at least a few hours every day.

Can you recommend some good (non-R-rated) movies?

I'm linking this to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and
WOW (WIPs on Wednesdays) at Esther's Blog.  Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.
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Friday, July 26, 2013

Quilts from an Antique Mall

Here are photos of a few quilts we saw at our local antique mall.  (If you'd like to see any of them closer, click and they'll enlarge in a new window.  I'm not using Lightbox so you'll be able to click again and enlarge even more.)

This purple and chrome yellow quilt is probably one of the ugliest color combinations I've ever seen.  (And the photo is not too far from the actual colors -- maybe just a tad brighter than in real life.) 

On the other hand, the quilting was probably about the finest I've ever seen in person.  The stitches were miniscule!

Then we came upon this colorful 9-patch.  Were these prints and plains from the '40s, the '50s, or the '60s?

This gentle green and lavender applique was hanging next to the one above.  I suspect the quilter created the pattern herself.

We also found a pale yellow and red quilt,

and this blue and white 9-patch with a great "diamond" border.  I like the quilted design in the white squares.

Then there was this 9-patch alternating with red striped fabric.  This one delighted me because of the quilter's use of red stripes.  Was it necessity or by choice that she used the stripes?  I think of this as a scrap quilt because of the variety of fabrics in the 9-patch blocks, and yet there's a planned quality about it because of the uniform red-striped blocks.  This was definitely a utility quilt.

Could we say that red is used as a neutral in this quilt -- or not?  I liked the quilter's use of borders.

We came upon this quilt with quarter-circles in purple and colors.  The circles were hand-stitched with an overhand stitch.  (Click the photo to see what I mean.)  This quilt was tied.

This churndash had colors similar to the 9-patch, above toward the top, but with different fabrics.

The last quilt was probably the craziest quilt I've ever seen.  The stars all but disappeared in the jumble of flower beds.  It was positively delightful.  I love its "make do" quality.  I can imagine the quilter cutting and stitching with abandon.  I hope she was pleased with the result.

It was definitely a utility quilt as evidenced by the expansive stitches, the knots exposed on the back, and the hard use.  I think it was loved nearly to death:  the edges were thin and fragile with nearly nothing between the top and bottom layers.

And it had this little gift of a red and green star.  A sweet treasure!

I feel sad when I think of all the work that went into these quilts and how unloved they are now.  Several  were priced at $40.00 or less, certainly a pittance when one thinks of the hours spent planning, cutting, and stitching them.  I hope they find good homes.

--Nancy.
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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Joining the Discussion:  Fabric Love & Creativity

Yesterday Audrey of Quilty Folk started a series of quilting discussions which she's calling "The Courage to Feel Creative."  I understand that she'll post a new discussion topic every Wednesday for the next few weeks.  The subject of the first post was Fabric Love.  I think this is a really interesting discussion and I encourage you to click over and her post and the comments before you read my thoughts here. 

She wrote that she thinks of buying fabric as the first step in creating a quilt and believes we should buy fabrics we love because we'll be more inclined to use them.  She continued,
If each of us can draw from a pool of fabric that speaks personally to our senses, invites us to play, and makes us feel good about what we’re making, then we’ll have more courage to open up and take risks.  We'll be practically itching to pull it out and DO something with it!...

Simply put, I think that making a conscious effort to build a unique stash is essential to having confidence in what we make and being happy with the results!
I've been thinking about Audrey's post since I first read it yesterday.  Like paint to a painter, fabric is the medium we quilters use to make beautiful creations, no matter the style of quilts we make. 

There are several aspects of fabric that I notice when I'm making fabric choices:  color, print/plain, style, texture, and quality, to name the essential ones.  If I love the print but the fabric is stiff and unyielding, I'm not interested.  If the fabric is soft and inviting to the touch but the color is one I can hardly look at I'll leave the bolt on the shelf.  They all have to work together for me to want to buy the fabric, though occasionally I'll sacrifice one attribute in favor of the others. 

I don't believe I have to love every single piece of fabric I buy or own.  I don't like blue or yellow very much but omitting them from my palette limits options.  That's not to say that I buy fabrics I really can't stand to look at or touch.  I have to at least be able to make eye contact with my fabric choices!  But I also think that some less-favored or less appealing fabrics, especially when it comes to color, push me to be more creative.  Sometimes a fabric that have been languishing in the cupboard for a while seems suddenly to be perfect for that new idea for a quilt. 

I'm a scrap quilter and my fabrics come from various sources.  Some I purchase new, some come from barely-used shirts and skirts from thrift stores, and some are given to me by other quilters .  I don't love everything on my shelves (and I'll probably never use everything on my shelves, only because I don't have enough time left on earth to sew all of it!) but most of it stays. The fabrics that I pass on most often go because of texture or quality.

How about you?  What are your thoughts on fabric choices and the creative process?  Do you buy only what you really love?  Do the fabrics on your shelves drive your creativity or are you creatively inspired and then choose fabric?

--Nancy.
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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

A Housewife

A housewife is portable sewing kit that was popular during Civil War times.  Women made them for their husbands, sons, and brothers  to take to war so they could make repairs on their clothing as necessary.

A month or two ago Starwood Quilter shared photos and wrote about a housewife she'd made.  I wanted to share photos of my own housewife and tell how I came to have it.

Many years ago we were at a Civil War reenactment at the Ohio Historical Society's Ohio Village.  There were several sutlers there with reproduction items for sale.  My young daughter saw this housewife and we looked it over.  I decided it would be too small for my little scissors and forgot about it. 

Unbeknownst to me she bought it and gave it to me for Christmas that year.  To my surprise the scissors fit perfectly and I've been using it ever since.  Even after 18 or 20 years of use it is still in excellent condition.  It was a perfect gift!

It measures about 8" long and 4" wide.  It has 2 pockets that have small pleats so they can expand to hold items that are a little bulky, such as spools, a thimble, a little tin of pins, etc.  It also has a piece of flannel stitched at the bottom for pins and needles.  I usually have a threaded needle there waiting to work on whatever project I have in progress.    

My housewife folds into thirds to make a flat or puffy roll (depending on what I've put inside) and is held fast by a tie so that nothing falls out of the pockets.  It's the perfect size to fit in my handbag or any other bag when I'm taking projects to work on.

I started to "collect" housewives and will add more as I find ones I like.  Google images shows many images of housewives.  There is a tutorial and a pattern for making a slightly larger housewife at Victorian Sewing.

Do you have a housewife or do you have some other convenient way of transporting sewing tools when you want to work on a project while you're travelling? 

--Nancy.
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Still Thinking about a Second Red & Green

It's not my nature to jump into projects (though sometimes I do) so I'm still pondering about a Snowball & 9-patch in red and green.    If I could only just follow someone else's directions, hook, line, sinker, colors, fabrics, and pattern, it would all be easy.  But not so interesting or fun.  And not so much mine.

The snowball blocks will finish at 6".  That's a lot of blank fabric.  Will my greens or reds be interesting enough?  Or do they need to be interesting?  Maybe they need to be ho-hum and restful.  What if the 6" squares are mostly plaids?  Boring?  But it is a scrap quilt.

How will I fill that 6" space with quilting?  Maybe crossed diagonal lines would work but they might be boring.  I could quilt in a flower, circle, or some circular motif.  But do I really want to draw/trace a motif dozens of times onto fabric?

There's an eye test that uses red and green.  It seems that for some, the letter on the red side is more prominent and for others, the one on the green side.  Is that happening with these drawings?  Do we all see the same thing when we look at these?

Or maybe I should sew two different quilts, one with red and lights, the other with greens and lights....  That would be very safe, wouldn't it?

I'm probably thinking too much, aren't I?  I should just go cut some fabric, sew it together into blocks, and then see what I think....

--Nancy.
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Monday, July 15, 2013

Another Red and Green?

I have piles of red and green fabric already out on my cutting table for the Red & Green quilt with circles and squares that I'm making (ever so slowly).  And I need a speedier project that I can sit and sew.  So I am thinking of making a red and green snowball and 9-patch quilt.

I can't see things in my mind like I know lots of other people can.  I need to see them on paper, on the computer screen, or in real life to get an idea how they will look.  (Which is an awful detriment to a quilter.)

No electronic quilter here in my home so I pulled out my graph paper and colored pencils.  I thought seeing the pattern that evolves with a group of blocks together in the colors I'm thinking of using might help me decide whether to proceed or reconsider.  Do you find that seeing your photos on a blog gives you a more objective view?  It seems so for me.

The four photos below are all snowball & 9-patch blocks.  The only difference among them is the color placement.

Version 1:  I like the red pattern the evolves with this placement.

Version 2:  In this view, the green is placed where the red is in the above pattern.  But the green pattern doesn't seem as strong to me.  The reds seem dominant to me in this pattern.

Version 3:  I think this variation accentuates the snowballs and 9-patches as separate blocks.  I see a strong diagonal pattern created by the reds in the 9-patches.

Version 4:  The placement of colors is exactly the reverse of the colors in the photo above.  I think I should see a strong diagonal created by the green 9-patches but, instead, I see a double row of red diagonals created by the 9-patches and corners on the snowballs.  These last two versions seem really choppy to me.

What did you notice about these?  Do red and green together drive you crazy?  They are on opposite sides of the color wheel.

If I proceed with this I'll use a variety of red and green fabrics.  Most of my greens are not as bright as in the photos above.  Some of my reds are as bright, brighter, and more muted.

I tried a 2-color quilt before and got bored with it really quickly.  It's still unfinished.  But I was using only 2 fabrics, not a variety of fabrics.  Or should I reconsider and use 3 colors - maybe red, green, and a natural.  Or should I use many colors?  Hmmmm.  (I am tired of white/off-white/cream just now.)

Such fun!  (But I'd really like to be sewing instead of musing.)

Linking to Let's Get Acquainted Monday, hosted this week at Sewing by Moonlight.  Thanks, Em.

--Nancy.
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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Quilting Lines

In an earlier post about this quilt, Center Light, I wrote that I wasn't sure how/where else to quilt after I finished the lines connecting the colored squares.

In a comment on that post Frances of Fabadashery said,
I tend to quilt a stage at a time, so once I had finished the lines as you are, I take another look and see if any further quilting is needed. After the hours of stitching the solution usually presents itself. It's a delicate balance. You don't want too little, but you don't want too much, but it is looking lovely so far.
Frances's approach seemed wise so I just kept quilting, block by block, all the while considering possibilities for additional quilting.

I'm not finished with all the lines between colored blocks but I knew the quilt needed more.  I finally decided to add stitching at the inside corners of the larger white/off-white blocks.  Not too much extra quilting but enough so there are no large areas left without quilting.

Do you go through a cycle of love, hate, love as you work on a quilt?  (Maybe hate is a little too strong.  Maybe it's more uncertainty or dislike.)  It seems like it happens with every quilt. 

I'm at the not-so-sure-I'm-going-to-like-this-quilt stage.  It was so smooth to begin with -- and now it's crinkly.  Which makes me wonder if I should have quilted around the edges of each block and left it at that....  I think I underestimated the effect quilting lines have on a quilt.  I'm sure -- well, almost sure -- I'll like the quilt again when it's finished.

--Nancy.
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Thursday, July 4, 2013

Happy Independence Day!

I hope you have a wonderful Fourth, celebrating the freedoms we enjoy.

--Nancy.
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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Slow Progress: Center Light, Red & Green

I've been hand quilting Center Light this week.  I deliberated for a while what to do about the corners of the blocks.  I'll show a close-up later.
My  intention is to finish this quilt by the end of September, my goal for the 3rd quarter 2013 Finish-A-Long with Leanne at She Can Quilt.  I think I'll have to work furiously to finish it, but it's just the impetus I need.  Only the center is quilted now.  Earlier today I thought I should keep a tally of how many squares are finished and how many are yet to be quilted.  I might feel like I was making more progress.

I've also been making blocks for Red & Green.  I'm still playing....  I may decide there's too much variety or too great a color variation -- or not.  We'll see.
I seem to be stuck in the 5" square mode.  These are not very large blocks and it will take me forever to finish this quilt.  One of my intentions was that I would be able to stitch the circles in the car or away from home when I couldn't be sewing on the machine.  But the circles keep drawing me to them and I have to push myself to sit at the sewing machine to stitch the 4-patches.  The circles and 4-patches are just about even in number right now.

I'm linking this post to
Q3 Finish-A-Long, hosted by at She Can Quilt
WOW (WIPs on Wednesdays), hosted by Esther at Esther's Blog
W.i.P. Wednesday guest hosted by Stacey of The Tilted Quilt at Lee's blog, Freshly Pieced

Thanks so much, ladies!

--Nancy.
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Lavender Baskets

I have been immersed in the heady fragrance of lavender today.  The flowers from this bush are paler in color than the ones in the photo I posted earlier but they are much more fragrant.  I don't keep track of the kinds of lavender I plant but this is probably English lavender and the other may be a Hidcote.  It doesn't matter:  I love them all!
These come from one large bush that I would have cut two days ago except for the rain.  It's really too late to just hang the stems to dry (if the flowers are open they drop off) and I can hardly stand to waste these fragrant spikes that bring so much pleasure with their memory of summer in the dark days of winter.

I decided to make some lavender baskets.  They are a wonderful way to preserve the fragrance of the harvest...

... but they each take an hour or more to make.  Below is nearly a whole day's effort and activity!  Perhaps they will be gifts to others who love their fragrance as much as I do.

I like this little tribute to lavender written by William Shelstone in his poem, "The School Mistress."  (Mickle means "much, great.")

     And lavender, whose pikes of azure bloom
     Shall be, erewhile, in arid bundles bound,
     To lurk amidst the labours of her loom,
     And crown her kerchiefs clean with mickle rare perfume.

I hope you have lavender to smell!

--Nancy.
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Monday, July 1, 2013

Playing with Red & Green

I'm still playing with these red and green circles and squares.  (The colors are a little brighter in this photo than in real life.) 

I pinned on some gold/mustard squares and circles.  I thought I would like circles but I think the squares look better, just maybe not on every 4-patch.

And I think maybe those really light green strips on two of the 4-patches may be too light.

I don't know where this quilt is going.  I'm just playing....

If you're playing too, I hope you're having fun.

I'm linking this post to Design Wall - July 1, 2013 at Patchwork Times.  Thanks, Judy.


--Nancy.
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