Red Circles on Green, Palace Theater, AireGirl Again

This top is finished, unless I decide to add a border.  I began sewing red circles on green after seeing masses of roses blooming in pots at a garden market many years ago.  There was no particular plan for the blocks.  I just sewed circles thinking of them as roses.
I think the two rows of blocks with dark backgrounds around the outside are enough of a border and the binding will be a good finish, but I could change my mind.

When it came time to sew the blocks together I realized that the quilt would be too small for a bed unless I sewed more circles or used sashing.  I didn't have any more of the medium greens in the center so decided to use 3/4" sashing and cornerstones.  I found a shot cotton and cut and sewed and cut and sewed etc....  At some point in that process I realized that I probably could have cut the 50+ squares and circles and appliqued them in less time that it took to cut and sew the sashing and cornerstones.  But I didn't and the quilt is what it is.

It's different than I thought it might be when I began but I like it.  I think it's much better in person than in photos. Some of the reds just pop against the green backgrounds, which delights me.

Outside in the shade.  I think the above photo captures the colors better.

Last weekend we toured the Palace Theater.  It was built in 1926 as a vaudeville theater but when vaudeville died out a few years later, it became a movie theater.  It is not as large or grand as the Ohio Theater but I think it is just as beautiful.  This tour included the whole theater, not just the public areas.  Backstage and the lower levels were a warren of halls and doors.

This is the main part of the theater looking from the stage toward the back.  They tour guide told us the acoustics are exceptional.
Looking toward the stage--well, looking sideways toward the stage--from a side aisle on the balcony.
Backstage, it was fun to see the "posters" of performances painted on the walls.  
And lastly, our AireGirl is settling in and starting to feel more comfortable, though still refuses to look at the camera. I'm having trouble finding her name.  We try out a different one every few days.  I think Pippa would be the perfect name but one of my daughter's cats is Pippa and it would be just too confusing for them to have the same name. 

She still likes to be near me but she's beginning to feel more confident and interested in exploring.  She was Miss Sobersides when she came--I've never known such a serious Airedale--but we're beginning to see a change.  She's added tuckbuttruns, playbows, and the occasional smile to her behaviors.  And oh, the greetings to welcome us home!

I'm linking this post to
> Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
> Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

I hope you have a good weekend.
--Nancy.

This and That--Quilt, Bird, Theater, AireGirl

I'm up to my elbows in green.  I think I'm slow because this quilt seems to go on and on with more and more and more sewing.  And interruptions slow my the progress, too.  Maybe by the end of the month I'll have it sewn into a top.  Maybe....

I've had these blocks laid out on the floor in the living room and see them when I pass by.  I'm generally delighted with what I see.  The whole is red and green but there are bits of white in some of the red circles.  I'm glad I added those fabrics.

One day last week when I went into the breezeway on my way to the car to run an errand, there on the sidewalk was this little tyke.  Oh my goodness, how cute!

I could just see the beginning of his crest and a touch of blue on the tips of his wing feathers.  I hesitated to open the door because I didn't want to frighten him.  I was surprised that he stayed even after he saw me.  Then I saw the shadow of one of his parents flying around just above him.  After a few minutes he flew, just above the ground, to a pine tree in our neighbor's back yard.  I breathed a sigh of relief that he was able to fly and made it to the tree.

Later in the afternoon I heard a ruckus from the adult blue jays and wondered what was going on.  They were at the pine tree, squawking and flapping their wings.  I walked over to see what the commotion was about.  It took me a few minutes to spot the cat in the weeds and branches under the tree.  We made eye contact and the cat ran off.  The jays calmed down after that.  I hope the little fellow in the photo was not harmed.

On July 1st, my daughter and I took a tour of the Ohio Theater, the State Theater of Ohio.  These first two photos are the foyer.

The theater was built in 1928 and was set to be demolished in 1969.  A group of people raised funds and saved it.  My photos hardly do justice to its beauty.  The idea when it was built was for people to be able to leave their troubles behind and spend the day at the theater.  Almost everything is original, including the curtains. 

In the theater proper there is a chandelier hanging from the center of a star on the ceiling.  We were surprised to learn that it is 20' tall and weights several tons.  One of the people giving the tour had photos of it lowered and people cleaning it.  For me, the bigger the building, the more I underestimate the size of something.

And this is the Mighty Morton organ.  It is original to the theater and sits on a platform that raises and lowers, low enough that it completely disappears.  The organist gave us a "tour" of the organ's capabilities, including many sounds that would have been used during the silent film era.  Its pipes are at the front and side of the stage, hidden behind structural details.

The tour did not include the stage or back stage.  A video here has better photos and shows backstage.  This Saturday we're planning to tour the Palace Theater.

The best part of the last two weeks is this Airegirl who came to live with us at the end of June.  (She's not keen on being photographed--at least not yet--something I hope to change with exposure.)

She was owned by a breeder and is a retired mama.   She's very sweet and gentle, walks well on a lead, and is respectful of humans and cats.  She is somewhat un-Airedale-like with her calm demeanor and is a little hesitant and uncertain--ears to the side and tail down.  I'm waiting for her sense of humor to appear and to see her smile.  I suspect her freedom was fairly restricted.  I think we can give her a happy life.  I would tell you her name but we haven't chosen it yet.  (You know, new home and life, new name.)

Our weather has been mostly hot and humid with high dew points, but yesterday was only in the mid-80s with a wonderful breeze.  I sat outside with AireGirl for a bit and read while she sniffed around and investigated the yard.

I hope things are good for you!
--Nancy.

Continuing to Play with Red Circles on Green

My daughter and her kitties return on Sunday for a visit so I have until Saturday evening to make a decision about these blocks and get them up off the floor.  (The cats love to skate across blocks, dive into them,  roll around in them, and generally make a mess.)  It feels like the pressure is on even though I have five more days.  The important thing is to make a decision so I can pick up all 180 blocks.

I can't seem to let go of the idea of sashing.  I decided against the red and light stripes mainly because I couldn't find more of the fabric with dark red and off-white stripes.  (I found only orange-red.)  This was one of the other fabric considerations.  I like it.  (Click to enlarge in a new window to see details.)  If I use this fabric I will cut it for careful placement of the colors in the plaid.

I also tried this red and green plaid, below.  It's a no.

This is the red and green block from Hospital Sketches in the center.  I wasn't excited about that option.  Perhaps it would work if there were white somewhere else in the quilt, or...?

I also tried a layout with the dark green backgrounds mostly in the center and around the edges.  I was thinking formal garden layout.  I wasn't impressed.

How about the light green backgrounds in the center?  Maybe, if I rearrange the lighter red/pink circles into some kind of order....   This looks organized and comfortable to me.

And the last layout I tried is alternating light and dark backgrounds.  I could live with this but it doesn't the give the punch I thought the red against green would.  (Honestly, in person, these reds and greens together are vibrant and beautiful.  But then I always love those two colors together.)

The layout that makes the most sense and looks the most unified to me is the one with the dark greens around the outer edges and the light greens in the center, two photos up.  And I still like this dark sashing with red cornerstones.  Will I like it between every block?

Of course, there is the consideration of what border fabric to use, if it needs a border.  I'm fairly certain I won't have enough of this dark green and red plaid.

I consider this an improv quilt because I had/have no specific plan how the finished quilt would/will look and lots of play and experimentation are involved.  I enjoy the process, but in the midst of indecision and uncertainty it crosses my mind that maybe I should stick to using other people's patterns and colors.  Could I make myself do it?  Probably not. 

Do you ever begin a quilt with no specific end in mind?  Do you second guess your decisions?

I hope I can turn this into a cohesive top!  Feel free to share your observations and opinions.

I'm linking this post to Monday Musings at Songbird Designs.  Thank you for hosting, Brenda.

--Nancy.

Playing Again (and Welcoming Comments)

Note:  I'm sorry if you looked at this post earlier and comments were not allowed.  I don't know how that happened but I'd love to read your comments!  Thank you.

Eight years ago I began cutting red circles and green squares and, with abandon, sewed the circles onto the squares.  My idea came from seeing flats of roses in bloom at a garden market.  I did not take a photo but I remember that the sunlight dappled across both the flowers and the leaves, turning some lighter, leaving some darker, and highlighting some in the mid-ranges of red and green.

I waited till the kitties were gone, then pulled out the plastic shoe box where these were stored and arranged them in groups of nine.  I was--and still am--debating about putting sashing between each square or between each group of nine. 

This morning I looked at them again and thought, This will be such a little quilt.  I thought I planned it to be at least twin size.  Then I pulled out my notes which told me I'd made 180 squares.  I counted the ones on the floor and realized that I was at least a third short.  I checked the box again and there they were.  I added them to the group and played with the layout a little.

With the lighter circles coming from the upper right I thought it looked a little like the sunlight hitting the roses.  But I don't think that's an effective layout and I don't think I want to be so literal.  The arrangement above looks like a jumble right now.

Possible ideas for the layout include
-- placing all the dark green squares together in the center
-- placing all the dark green squares around the edges
If I had to choose right now, I'd put the dark greens in the center.

(It is amazing to me how putting photos together in a blog post and writing about the process and decisions help clarify either what I don't want to do with a quilt top, what I do want to do, and/or sometimes both.)

/

The other consideration is whether to use sashing or not.  These are the red and white striped fabrics I have on hand.
I don't know about you, but those narrow stripes on the lower right do awful things to my eyes so those will go back on the shelf.  The fabric I like best, if I'm going to use red and white stripes, is the center one on the top.  I think striped sashing gives these blocks a festive air reminiscent of a summertime carnival.

I also thought maybe red and green plaids might work.  This is a close-up of the ones I have, and you can see them from a distance in the first photo, on the left.  I'm not sure any of them would be effective unless I want the sashing to disappear.

If I choose sashing I will absolutely (as far as I'm thinking now) include red cornerstones that extend into the sashing.

While I'm playing, I might as well add my daughter's suggestion that I use this one block I made for Barbara Brackman's Hospital Sketches and put the red and green blocks around it.  This block will finish at 18".

It may be something I'll try but I doubt I'll combine the two. 

Before she left on Wednesday, my daughter and I drove to Plain City to deliver Hands2Help quilt top donations to a collection point for MCC.  It was a beautiful day but we couldn't figure out why it was so hazy.  The sun was bright and there were no clouds but it almost looked cloudy at ground level.  At first we thought perhaps it might be pollen in the air but we checked and no, it was smoke from the fires in Canada.  Fires like that are so frightening because they are so big and uncontained.  I'm sorry for the trees, plants, and the wildlife but even sorrier for the people who are affected.

The black plaid shirts are still pestering me.  "Use us, use us," they say.  I thought perhaps I could do something more fun than a two or three color quilt with them.  I came up with the idea of baskets and gave one a try.  "Flowers" of one color in this one, but I'd use other colors, too, if I were to continue making them.

I think the basket fabric is too dominant, too dark.  There's probably a better use for those black plaids, especially because I have so many of them and so much fabric!

I guess I should go play some more since I see things more clearly now.

I'm linking this post to
> Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
> Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework
> Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

I hope you have a great weekend!

--Nancy.

Like a Kid Out of School for the Summer

Yesterday I looked forward to today as if I were a kid let out of school for the summer.  I realized that the quilt I was so diligently trying to finish by the end of May--BowTies--was done and the only other active quilt in progress was hand quilting Flowers.  My life was wide open to possibilities.  Today, however, I'm feeling at a loss.  I have to make a decision about what's next (because I can't just sit and do nothing, can I?).

There are several possibilities.

Roses at the Garden Market?  These blocks have been tugging at me.  Each green square will finish at 4½". These have been on my mind for a few months.  I started them in 2015 and they've been waiting since 2017.  I can't work on them quite yet because the kitties are here until next Wednesday and I need to lay all 180 of the squares on the floor to sort the arrangement.  Then I'll decide on sashing/or not between blocks.  I'm torn between red and white/natural striped sashing and grey or some other color between blocks, or maybe a group of nine blocks side-by-side and sashing around those....  Or...?

Baskets of Plenty are still waiting, too.

These are sewn into a top but they will get unstitched.  These bright, lively flowers deserve better than the static, monochromatic sashing they have now.  What was I thinking?!  But unstitching is a sit-down task similar to quilting.  Maybe these would be better when I finish quilting Flowers.

The blue and light sampler blocks have been finished for a few years.  Finished unless I need to make more.

These need sashing and a border.  What color, what fabric?  I have 20 blue 12" blocks and am thinking about adding several brown ones--maybe.  I'm also thinking about 4" sashing, but I'm not sure.  And I'm still not sure about 4 x 5 blocks or 4 x 6 blocks or 5 x 6 or 7 blocks.  All of these blocks have a diamond or a square in the center, surrounded by the opposite.  It's interesting to me how much weight some of these carry.  I also find it interesting how the same arrangement of parts can look so different depending on the tone or shade of the fabric.

I have some little 3½" spool blocks I should do something with.  I like spools, sort of....

These are made of more modern fabrics in mostly bright colors.  It would be a simple, quick finish, I suppose.  But I can never decide what to do with little quilts.... 

Sweet Land of Liberty is in the wings but I'm not ready to pull that out just now.

Or, of course, I could start something new.  Now that's a fun idea!

Maybe a quilt with rose-printed fabrics?

I've been collecting them for a few years now and have some vintage pieces.   I don't have a specific pattern in mind, though....

I guess I could always clean up my sewing space.  (I'm too embarrassed to post photos.)

Or I could play, like kids out of school, or just be lazy for a week and sit and quilt and watch videos or listen to books on tape....  I think I'll decide tomorrow.

Do you ever feel like the kid out of school for the summer?  Do you have summer quilting plans?  Do your quilting habits change from season to season?

--Nancy.

2020 in Review, a Year of Finishing, More or Less

I determined that 2020 would be a year of finishing quilts that I'd started and were still in progress.  I set my sights high with nine quilts in varying stages of progress to work on and, hopefully, finish.  Photos are below descriptions.  

Baskets of Plenty was first on that January, 2020 list.  I needed to remake two blocks and make one new one to have the nine I thought would make a good-sized quilt.  Those are finished and the blocks are sewn into sashing with borders on part of it, awaiting applique on the top and bottom borders.  So, from these blocks on the left to the still-unfinished top on the right.  Not a finish, but still, progress.  You can read all the posts about these baskets here.
 


The Blue and the Gray was the next quilt on my January list.  I had only the blocks and cornerstones finished so it still needed the sashing to become a top.  I'm thrilled to have put the last stitches in the binding in November.

Everyday Patchwork was next on the list.  Ohh, I love this quilt.  I had 30 blocks made at the beginning of the year.  I added 5 more for a total of 35, for a 5 x 7 block layout.  It also needed sashing, borders, and applique on the borders.  The top is awaiting batting, backing, and quilting.

Autumn Maples, I'm happy to say, is in the process of being quilted.  I'm hoping the quilting will bring to mind leaves swirling in the wind.

Red Circles on Green Squares needed many more squares, so I've been working on those now and then.  My enthusiasm wanes and it's easy to lay them aside when there is other handwork to do.  I need 192 and have finished 182.  Just 10 more to go.  The stack below is about a fifth or sixth of what I have now.  There's still lots to be done with this quilt.  I'll need to decide on sashing and cornerstones (or not) on the groups of 9 blocks, and then sashing between the 9-circle blocks.

Cheddarback is a finished top.  This was a sew-along so I couldn't choose my own pace to finish it.  It was about half finished at the beginning of the year.

Little Rubies is a finished quilt, the last stitches put in sometime in April or May.  I love it, I don't love it.  But it's finished!

Linda Brannock's Flowers and Quarter Cabins saw no progress at all.  Flowers will need some unstitching then restitching.  I tried to make it larger by adding more sashing.  It's not right so I'll make it the way Linda did and add borders. Quarter Cabins needs a few decisions about the next steps.  I didn't look at either quilt all year.  I know they'll wait patiently for me, though. 
















Two quilts that weren't on my January, 2020, list were these:

Blue and Lights.  When I realized I had three 12" blue and white blocks left over from Cheddarback I decided to just make more blocks.  Most of the year it seemed I was doing the back end work of finishing.  It was fun to make blocks to continue a quilt in progress.  Here are 15 of the 20 blocks I've made.  I'll have to decide on layout, sashing, cornerstones, and borders.

Ohio Winters Browns (from Lori's 50 Shades of Brown at Humble Quilts) was the other finish for the year.  It's hard to go a whole year without starting at least one thing new, and this was it for the year.  It's a little quilt -- the small squares finish at 1". 

So that's my year in quilt-making.  When I began this post I was feeling down-hearted, thinking I had accomplished nearly nothing.  It's been a good way to realize that all my small efforts have amounted to something, even if there were only a few complete finishes.

I hope you had a good and successful year, whatever you did, and I wish you all the best in 2021.

--Nancy.

Competing Voices about Red Circles on Green Squares

In the spring of 2013 I saw stands of roses in bloom at a garden market.  There were masses of startlingly red roses against bright and dark green leaves.  Beautiful, I thought.  Quilt idea, I thought.

So I cut some green squares and began appliqueing red circles to them. I made a few but wasn't sure what they would become, how I would arrange them, whether I would add more to them.  I had no vision of a finished quilt.  I added a few "plus" blocks to the mix but no arrangement seemed just right and nothing else came to mind.  I put them into the closet to be revisited at a later date.

I pulled the blocks out again a few months ago to reconsider and make a decision about whether to continue or not.  And there seemed to be two voices competing in my mind.

Voice #1:  "Just pitch those blocks.  Don't waste your time making more!  They'll never amount to anything."

Voice #2:  "Make more!  If you stop now you'll never know what those blocks might become.  Don't give up too soon."

I listened to the second voice and have been making more red circles on green squares.  I have more than 140 now.  (It's a casual effort when I don't have other applique to do.)  I'm still not sure what they will become, or how they will look, or even if they will become a quilt,  but I hope there will be strength in numbers.

When the possibilities are nearly endless, when the outcome is uncertain, what else is there to do but play?  I'm sharing some possibilities below.

All squares with solid sashing between  -- red or some other color,

or all squares side by side without sashing?

Or in groups of nine with a muted sashing, or without sashing as in first photo above?

Or in groups of nine with muted sashing and red cornerstones between?

Here the blocks are placed randomly in loose groups of 9.  This layout doesn't do much for me but perhaps it's because there's no sashing.  Or perhaps it looks a jumble because there are several different greens and more than a few different reds.

More groups of nine....

Or groups of nine with red and white striped sashing?

Or...?  These blocks were a crazy, impulsive choice without a clear vision of any kind.

I know most people post progress photos when they've finally figured out what they're doing, which makes this a strange kind of post, a nitty-gritty post about process and progress or lack thereof for an uncertain group of blocks.

Having listened to the second voice suggesting I make more of these, I'm going to stop stitching more (except for the ones already prepared) until I come up with a plan for a quilt!

Did I mention that these blocks will finish at 4½" square.  A group of nine with 1" sashing would finish at 15½".

All thoughts, ideas, suggestions are welcome, including "ditch them" and "Whatever were you thinking?!"  And I'm grateful for honesty, gently written.

--Nancy.
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