DWM: another finish and swaps updated

Thursday evening we spent our wedding anniversary in the company of 70 strangers. That was our debut as Road Scholar Ambassadors.  We gave a presentation at the Del Webb Grand Dominion retirement community.  We tried to provide more information than "photos from our vacation," and the audience appeared to enjoy it. There were several in the group who had been on Road Scholar trips and their enthusiasm confirmed ours. 

What's missing in this picture?   People!  There were only a half-dozen people at the beach on Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful day and the water was warm.  It was hotter on Saturday and I'm sure it was more crowded, but I stayed home.  Sunday afternoon it rained, which we need badly, and gave me an excuse to sew.



Driftwood at water's edge






Batik 4 Patch is finished. I used the red circle batik for the inner border and the binding. The back is another example of finding a use for a possibly ugly fabric. This one came from a thrift store and was just right.  I used zig-zag stitches and variegated thread for all the quilting.

Purple, turquoise and olive!

I turned to the box of flimsies for my next project.  This bright sampler was on top of the stack. It was a block of the month on RCTQ circa 2007.  I set the blocks a couple of years later.  I used four different bright fabrics for the back.  The quilting is all-over meandering.  This will be donated to a worthy cause (though I don't know what that will be).

Here's my first-ever Block Lotto entry. This month's blocks are "Cool Ladders."


Sew Many Swaps is doing a D9P swap in blue, tan, and brown.  Participants are to send in the 9-patches and the recipients will cut them up. The color scheme grew on me as I cut and sewed six sets of six blocks.  The second photo shows what the D9P might look like.



I'm coordinating two swaps for Block Swappers.  Both are Friendship Stars, one in homespun and one in Christmas reds and greens.  I finished three sets of homespuns and the sample Christmas blocks.  They're not due for another month.  It's nice to have a head start.

I'm using 1.5" batik squares as leaders-and-enders. I'm not sure where these little 9-patches will end up.


See what other quiltmakers are doing at Judy's Patchwork Times.

DWM: Bag Lady Update and Decision Made

The  Bag Lady swap is nearly finished! I received a box from Carla with her blocks for Katie, Debs, and me.  Debs is making a beautiful floral applique block in batiks. She wrote that she wanted batik blocks to coordinate.  I made six 6" Rosebud blocks.  Katie plans a Churn Dash quilt in batiks.  She included an assortment of fabric and asked that we use our own fabrics but to include some of hers so there would be some continuity to the blocks. She added that Churn Dashes can be mildly addicting.  She was right! Once I decided which fabric to use, making these 9" blocks was a snap. (And I made three more 6" blocks that I didn't photograph.)  The dotty Cake Stands I specified are the seeds of a new project.

Batik Four Patch s rapidly becoming a Finished Object.  (I need a better name for it.)  I thank everyone for their opinions about the borders.  I cut the red-circle inner border 1.5", so 1" finished which is the same size as the frames for the 4-patches.  I cut the piano keys to 5.5"/5" fin. which is the same size as the framed blocks.  I have nearly finished quilting the center and should have the entire quilt finished at the end of the week.  As I posted a couple of years ago the quilts without deadlines or destinations come together easily.


See what other quiltmakers are doing at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Design opinion, please!

 Unedited!
Here is the border-in-progress for the batik squares quilt.  The piano keys units are 1.5 x 6.5, sewn into 6.5" blocks. As you see I have almost enough for the border.

I think that piano keys this big overwhelm the center blocks.  I can cut them down, of course. 

Would it be better if I cut the piano keys in half?  (Don't worry, they're just folded in these photos!)  I do NOT want to buy more fabric.  I have three batiks that could be used as frames.  Maybe.

#1 -- purple with turquoise
#2 -- red circles
#3 --  blotchy purple tone-on-tone

What do you think?

DWM: the allure of batiks

Last week I wrote that I needed to make two wall hangings. They're for the staff of a community agency that has concluded its ten-year grant funding. They've done a lot of good work and the agency board (on which I've served since 2003) will miss them. I began the design process by realizing that I have no idea what either woman's home decor is like. Batiks go with everything, and I have a lot of them in my stash.  The Cake Stand block is a  favorite (here, too).  The efficient way to cut the pieces provides enough for two blocks.  You can see the duplication between the two.  I quilted loopy flowers in the blocks, zig-zag in the sashing, meander in the setting triangles, and three parallel rows of zig-zag in the borders.   The cake stands are 4" (finished).  Each wallhanging is 33 x 33 and used 2.5 yards of fabric. 

But wait! There's more!  I can't throw away batik scraps.  I have a sweater-size box full of pieces that are too small for the fat-quarter boxes....squares, triangles, half-square triangles, strips.   While I made the wall hangings I used 2" squares from that box as leaders-and-enders which I then sewed into four-patches.  I cut 1.5" strips (using many of the 6" and 6.5" squares in the sweater box), cut those into 3.5" and 5.5" strips, and framed the four-patches.  One block led to another, and here's the result.   The blocks are 5" (finished).   I was going to set them so the darker squares would all be going in the same direction, but keeping track of that was too bothersome. The mixed orientation looks livelier! I will add a pieced border -- piano keys, I think -- partly because I don't have enough of any one batik in the right color for a slab border.  As shown, this is approx. 56 x 51 and used 2-7/8 yards.



P.S. No evening meetings this week provided a lot of sewing time!

See what's on other design walls at  Judy's Patchwork Times.

DWM: time to swap!

I'm pleased to say that I have finished quilting both wedding quilts (as reported two weeks ago)!  Up next:  two wall hangings for the staff of a community agency with which I'm involved.  The presentation is in early September so I need to decide soon what I'll make.



BBS Squares from previous years

The Baseball Swap  began nearly 15 years ago on the Usenet Newsgroup Rec.Crafts.Textiles.Quilting. It's been a YahooGroup since 1999.  Participants swap 6.5" squares of fabric based on the results of Major League Baseball games. Each person can choose a National League and an American League team (or just one). The backers of the losing teams owe the backers of the winning teams. One person keeps track of wins and losses and provides reports after the All-Star break and at the end of the season. Squares are bagged and sent to the BUPchucker--that's "big ungainly package" who swaps everything out. 


Ready to swap: 2012

I back the Cubs and the Red Sox, neither of whom is having a good season. For the first half of the season I'll get 62 for the Cubs but I'll give up 83. I'll get 67 for the Red Sox, but I'll give up 59.  (Actually I give up more because I send 10 squares to everyone. It's easier to count that way and goodness knows I have enough fabric.)
The squares are a great assortment. They come in handy when I need just a little of one color or pattern or another.  
 I cut squares during the year when I'm in a scrap-cutting mood, so I'm ready to go when the reports arrive, which they did this weekend.

I used 60 baseball-themed squares to make a jacket a couple of years ago....but look how many I still have!



Sarah always sent chili pepper fabric



We went to a wedding shower on Friday (for the recipients of the batik nine-patch quilt).  The bride is from Maine, the groom is from Wisconsin, so we gave them something that no one else would have thought of:  Moxie!   I ordered a six-pack and two Moxie-logo tumblers from BuyMoxie.com  and two 12-packs (one regular, one diet) as our contribution to the party fare.  Moxie is definitely an acquired taste, and fortunately the bride said, "I love Moxie!"  Now she can convert her groom.  (It costs a lot to ship flavored water halfway across the country, so we will savor the remainder of the 12-packs.)

If you've never heard of Moxie, you can learn more about it here.

See what other quiltmakers are working on while they watch the Olympics, courtesy of Judy's Patchwork Times.

DWM: a cloak, and wedding quilts

For Christmas last year my niece, Amelia, asked if I would make her a cloak.  I asked about the style and ascertained she preferred a Lord of the Rings type cloak rather than a Folkwear's Kinsale cloak -- a McCall's pattern (.99 on sale (cover price $16.95!)) was just right.   We finally coordinated our schedules and met at Vogue Fabrics in Evanston on Friday.  She loved the wool suitings at $19.95/yard.  So did I, but not for the cloak.  I found a linen-texture polyester for $8.95/yard. The pattern required 5-3/8.  Amelia chose a bottle-green poly for the hood lining. 

Vogue is known for its fashion fabrics.  Home dec is a strong secondary line.  Quilting fabric is a small part of the business.  Nonetheless, I did find some quilty bargains in the remnant room, as well as a piece of navy wool for a skirt.  (The navy skirt I made in 1995 no longer fits and cannot be altered.) 
Sunday report:  the cloak is finished!  It wasn't hard, just awkward with huge pattern pieces.  (No photo because all you'd see is a lot of black fabric.)

Wedding 9-Patch

As for wedding quilts:  I have two of them to make, one for August and one for September.  I was intrigued when I found this Bento Box tutorial  and created this flimsy. I decided that it's too girly-bright for a wedding gift, though I'm glad I tried the pattern and look forward to making it again.  (Idea:  scale down the block, or use a combination of block sizes.)  Instead I'm quilting a flimsy I made earlier this year, a Bonnie Hunter block called  "Grandpa's Star."  (I will rename it before I give it to the bride and groom!)  The second quilt was inspired by a project in the current issue of Quilt magazine.  The bride said they like woodsy colors and I had just the right batiks in my stash.   This turned out bigger than I anticipated -- 80 x 86!   [Thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who noted the incorrect hourglass placement.]

Grandfather's Star

See what other quiltmakers are up to this week at Judy's Patchwork Times. 

A Superior vacation!

I'm trying something new with a slideshow of photos from our trip.  Our summer Road Scholar/Elderhostel trip to the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale was wonderful.   We went to Green Bay on Saturday and enjoyed walking around Heritage Hill  with relocated and restored 19th century buildiings. On Sunday morning we picked up Dan at the Green Bay airport. (He was on our 2009 Utah trip.) We headed north via Peshtigo, which burned to the ground the same October day in 1871 as Chicago. (We knew that Dan, from Connecticut, was unlikely to ever go to Peshtigo again. We also had lunch at Culver's in Escanaba so he could experience that aspect of Midwestern life.)  We arrived in Houghton in time for dinner with our fellow Road Scholars -- held at the public library  of all places.  I've wanted to visit the Keweenaw Peninsula ever since I read Mystery at Laughing Water by Dorothy Maywood Bird fifty years ago. (I still have the book and I plan to re-read it now.)  Monday provided that visit with a coach bus tour from Houghton to Copper Harbor and back.

Free picture slideshow generated with Smilebox

Tuesday we parked our cars at the dock and boarded the Ranger III for Isle Royale National Park .  The island is 45 x 9 miles (with hundreds of smaller islands).  Native Americans began mining copper there 4000 years ago.  Benjamin Franklin successfully negotiated its annexation to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris for the copper.  (He probably had little idea of where I.R. actually was.)  Europeans mined, too, and everyone fished the rich waters around the island.  In the late 19th/early 20th century Isle Royale became a tourist destination.   We met Michael Gale, Bowdoin '13, and his parents, who are among the "life lessees" who still have a cabin on one of the small islands.  When I.R. became a national park in 1940 any family could keep title to their property until the last person who was living at that time passes away. (We met one woman whose father and cousin are 95, her aunt 90.) 

Accommodations at Rock Harbor Lodge, the National Park Service hotel, were great.  Our room opened onto a deck right on shore -- just two yards from the water!  Meals at the lodge restaurant were delicious.

Leaders Ann and John Mahan were excellent:  deft, caring, interested, and interesting. (See their photography at Sweetwater Visions)  Ann led hikes at 6:00 each morning. John's superb photos were the basis of lectures about wildflowers and Lake Superior.  We hiked the 'easy' trails -- the entire park has 165 miles of trail and we were on just a few of them.

The largest mammals on the island (besides humans) are moose and wolf.  The moose swam over from Canada in the early 1900's.  The wolves crossed the frozen lake one winter in the late '40's.  The wolves manage the moose by culling the small, young, old, or weak.  We visited Rolf and Candy Peterson's cabin where he (with her assistance) has been studying the Isle Royale moose for more than 40 years. Click here for one of many stories about their work. 

We settled into vacation mode....and then it was time to go home.  As a friend says, "It was a sufficiency, more of which would be a superfluity."  Yesterday was travel day: the six-hour ferry ride back to Houghton, then to Green Bay to drop Dan at the airport, and then home to Winthrop Harbor. We pulled into the driveway at 9:02 p.m.

DWM: halfway through the year

I finished the D4P wallhanging last evening. The quilting is straight lines with occasional bubbles (circles) -- very easy!  This measures 30 x 20 and used 1-1/4 yards of fabric.  

I also quilted Squares in Stars thus knocking another flimsy off the UFO list.

Here is how I keep track of fabric used and fabric bought.  I have a stack of these card-stock "pages" dating back to 1998, though the  annual tally  is kept on a spreadsheet.

June, 2012, was a month of acquisition rather than use!  I want to reverse that before I slide down the slippery slope again.

See what other quiltmakers have on their design walls today at Judy's Patchwork Times.

ALA 2012, part 2

More photos from ALA. The Rock Bottom Remainders' last-ever gig was the ALA ProQuest Scholarship Bash on Saturday.  The band includes Dave Barry, Stephen King, Roy Blount Jr., Mitch Albom, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, and others. ("They've got fifty shades of gray...we've got 100 shades of Tan.") 

 It was a sold-out crowd and Lynn and I were in the third row!

Stephen King andn Amy Tan

Abingdon Press has launched a line of quilt novels.  They had a drawing for a quilt (center-right in the photo). 

I always say I'm not going to get too many books and giveaways.....but how many is too many?

As chair of the ALA Council Orientation Committee I was in charge of the Council Suite, and thus stayed in the bedroom adjacent to this common area.  Nice digs, eh?  (Rack rate posted on the door: $600/day. I'm quite sure ALA paid less.)

ALA 2012

The unprepossessing exterior gives little clue to the fabric treasures inside!

M&L Fabrics in Anaheim

Hoffman, etc., batiks $5.98!

Lime green and friends



I wanted to restock Christmas fabric....R. Kaufman $2.98

Let the conference begin!




Waiting for the exhibits to open, 5:15 Friday.

Four of the ALA Biblioquilters with our 2012 quilts in the back.

Birthday surprise!

And it was indeed a surprise!  Thanks to all the ZBPL staff and friends.  (The only other surprise party I've ever had was when I was 12.)

The header on the library website!

At the birthday luncheon -- DH managed not to tell!