Sister's Choice Quilt Show

Father's Day weekend my extended family gathered in West Michigan for the Sister's Choice Quilt Show, the sisters in question being my mother and my aunt. The venue was my uncle's barn. I arrived a day early to help hang the show, which was a really fun experience. The show featured quilts, primarily made by mom & Margo, that have been given as gifts, including baby quilts, graduation quilts, and hand print quilts, among others. It was great to see so many family treasures collected in one place, and to remember all that we have lived together.




The quilting matriarch, my grandmother, with one of her creations. She has only made a few quilts, but they are beautiful.


A selection of the baby quilts my mom has made for her niece's and nephews


On the left is the quilt Margo made for my mom's birthday and the right is the quilt they made for my grandparent's 50th anniversary.


Margo's Corn & Beans is one of my favorites (on the right) - just wish I had gotten a better picture.


Mom's Madras Stars is another favorite.


My mom made this for me for my high school graduation. Isn't it awesome?

You can see all my pictures here.

Sewing This Year

I cannot seem to gain much momentum in sewing this year.

The sweater project stalled out because I need one more sweater and have not made it to the thrift store to get one, and hopefully pick up a flannel sheet for the back of it. So one day I'll get back to that...as with so many things.

I have been going through the other supplies that I have here, in part to remind myself what there is and in part to (hopefully) inspire myself. Of the things I have, what is most getting my attention is what I like to think of as my "bits and pieces" box. Left over blocks, projects from my mother, unincorporated pieced units, attempts at surface design, little experiments that didn't relate to a larger project. Perhaps it is time to start putting these little bits into a larger whole.

A bit at a time. The thing is, I really want to think about it, and ponder each addition before I sew it down. I see it as a memoir quilt, sort of, a retrospective on my fiber life up until now. And I really want it to be a thoughtful project.

But it's hard to gain momentum when you're working that way.

So, so far I have this little bit.

In A Past Life

I have had a four day weekend this weekend for the New Year holiday and since I wasn't traveling I thought it would be nice to play around with a sewing project a bit. I do have sewing space set up in my room, but my supplies are not stored in a very accessible way. When I started trying to dig them out I found at the very top the felted sweaters that I cut apart last winter in preparation for the felted sweater quilt/blanket I have long been planning (I don't plan to have a batting layer for this project and therefore probably won't actually quilt it much).



I know there are a million uses for felted sweaters (in theory) but they also take up a lot of room so I told myself I needed to do something with them or stop storing them to use "someday". So what I was planning to be my next project last winter seemed as good a place as any to start up this winter.

My vague plan for the project was a patchwork center surrounded by larger solid squares. When cutting them apart I noticed how the sleeves could kind of fit together inversely, so for the center I decided to sew the sleeves together and trim them down to blocks, then use the fronts and backs for border squares. The placement of the sleeve blocks was pretty much dictated by size as I wanted to minimize further trimming.


The center

Not sure how much time I will have to work on this in coming days/weeks, but it's fun so far. I just love the look of felted sweaters and am enjoying this project. As I know the scraps won't really fit into the scrap box (not like I'm going to mix them in to other scrap projects) I'm thinking of using them to do a little bit of buttonhole stitch applique on this top - maybe stars? We'll see.


Preview of what it may look like with the border

Like all of you (no doubt) I have been noticing the "year in review" posts on various blogs and admiring what you all accomplished in 2010. I finished only three quilts in 2010 and posted on this blog a mere seven times. If it weren't for feed readers I would probably give it up as a lost cause, but the magic of bloglines and google reader allows at least a few dedicated readers to keep up with me without the annoyance of having to check back during the months-long breaks to see if I've done anything yet. Thanks to those who still click when you see "Quilty the Libster" highlighted in bold...

I know much better than to make predictions as to what 2011 will hold for me creatively. There is a project I want to try to finish for some friends by the summer - in fact, it's this project, the log cabin that I started in 2007. I would love to finish it queen sized as originally intended but we'll see if it becomes a throw-sized quilt (as so many supposed-to-be-bigger projects do) instead. Either way, I will be happy if it gets done.

(Interestingly, the log cabin was started for a different friend who I ended up giving this quilt to, which was also started for a different friend than the one who received it. Musical quilts? Do you ever find yourself working on something that you intended to give to someone and thinking as it comes together that maybe it isn't as good of a fit for that person as you originally thought? And then later decide in fact it's perfect for someone else? Apparently this happens to me a lot, but maybe it's just me.)

Beyond that, I have no other plans for 2011 except for a desire to sew more but a commitment, nevertheless, to going with the flow and seeing where the year takes me rather than making firm goals that I may not keep. I mean you never know with me (that is, I never know with me). I might be about to go off on a sewing spree or I might be just as dormant as I have been. Ya veremos. We shall see.

Happiest of new years to you and yours...hope it's off to a good start.

Deadlines

So I "kind of" met my goal - the quilt was actually done by Thanksgiving but didn't make it in the mail until two days after. The few days before the holiday were just so crazy at work that I wasn't able to get to the post office while it was open. Although my friend's due date was next weekend, she had her baby the day after Thanksgiving (yes, the day before I got the quilt in the mail) so the timing is pretty good.


Baby's last initial

I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. To me the borders really did a lot for this quilt - gave it a younger, more "baby" feel and lightened the whole thing up. The alphabet border fabric was just perfect, and I had enough to put on the back, too. The quilting is really simple, but, well...it got done in time so that's the important thing!



30"x40"

Preview

Just a quick and messy preview of the baby quilt:



I could tell early on that this was going to be a quick and messy quilt. No time to spend agonizing over the design and no eye for it anyway - I just took the idea and went with it.

They don't want to know what they're having so I went with primaries/rainbow to be gender neutral. Gender neutral is hard for me. It's an alphabet quilt although it doesn't exactly "read" as such. I have an ABC focus print that I love and I cut up one panel to form the blocks. They have fun pictures as you can see the letters when you're a bit closer, but you kind of lose it from a distance. Oh well. Mom and baby can get close to it.

Here is a close up of one letter:



Next up: assemble, quilt, in the mail by Thanksgiving. Can she do it??

Out of the Living Room

Hey, check out the photo installation of Chicago that my roommate put up:



Wait, what's that under those photos? Is it...? A? Quilt?

Why, funny you should ask...



So I don't know if I should call attention to this fact, but I just finished tacking down the binding on this quilt that I posted three months ago about hoping to have the binding tacked down in a few weeks. Good times! It had been sitting folded in my living room about 30% completed and with my roommates graciously ignoring it for three months until the last two weekends I finally sat down with a movie and worked on it. I'm so happy to have it done and out out of the living room, and I also really like how it turned out.

I, sadly, have been blogging so little that I think you can find the posts about the creation of this quilt top by clicking back one page of older posts. Finishing up reminded me how fun it was to make, and I absolutely got the effect I was going for. Throwing in a few fabrics that weren't quilting cottons turned out to be really easy and I like the texture that it adds to the quilt.



Thrifted sheet on the back. I had originally planned to do a pieced back but that was taking me too long and I decided I would rather get on with quilting it:



The quilting:



Ahh yes. So it feels good to have finished something, and hopefully it will inspire me to turn around and actually work on something else. Although I should have been made wise about posting statements like this, I have every intention of having a baby quilt done for my college roommate's Thanksgiving due date, so I need to get cracking on that. So...stay...tuned...?

As I believe I mentioned previously, I have been dabbling in making jewelry, which has been taking up some of the creative time I might otherwise spend quilting. I have a lot to learn, but I have enjoyed playing around with it. Anyway, here is a small selection of jewelry I have made:







Life in Chicago is otherwise quite good. My job keeps me busy and is really draining sometimes but I do really like it. Friends and fun times in the city keep me busy otherwise. To all who are reading I hope you are well!

The Latest

So this is one of those times where I log in to post acknowledging my woeful lack of posting. This, as you would imagine, correlates to my lack of progress in the creative arena. I am sewing down the binding on a quilt, so I will be excited to share that soon, but as I've said, anything requiring hand work is a slow process for me these days. I really want to have it done by next weekend, so hopefully a couple of movies or baseball games will suffice to get it taken care of.

The rhythm of life in Chicago has just not led me much in the direction of sewing. I put in a little work here and there, but I tend to find myself swept up in other things a lot, and I think that's just life right now. I feel content knowing that I have sewing space and it's there when I need it. I also feel content taking advantage of the blessing of living near friends right now and living in The Big City where there are always a million and one things going on. Since I know I am highly unlikely to be in this situation forever, I think it's incumbent on my to enjoy it while I am. If you would like to follow my life outside of my creative activities you can always check out Rejoice Always, although posting has been a bit slow over there, as well.

I did finally bust out my new jewelry making supplies last weekend, and I found this to be highly satisfying. Although I have essentially no idea what I'm doing, both technically and when it comes to design, it's super fun to play around with and satisfying to be able to complete a project in a very short time. And since I have no idea what I'm doing, the minimal time commitment makes it easy to just cut apart a project and remake it if I end up deciding it's not quite right.

Pictures of my creations to follow. I always intended this to be a blog for ALL my creative endeavors, but quilting has obviously always predominated. I really don't think there's any chance of this becoming a jewelry blog, so I beg the indulgence of the hard core quilters in the audience.

My birthday was this past weekend, and I got a new camera! Quilt bloggers know how exciting this is. I am really interested in photography and have been doing my best at taking it seriously with my old point and shoot, but wanted something that was a bit of a step up. Part of my motivation was to be able to take better pics for the blogs, so maybe this will also motivate me to make things to take pictures of!

In the meantime I took pictures of the top of my mother's pie safe, where she keeps many things:

The Quilts of May

Mark your calendars - May 2 and I finished my first quilt of the year:







I still don't know if I'm going to donate this or not (I did just find out a friend of mine is having a boy...) After getting organized I realize I have 6 baby quilt projects in some stage of completion (including this one). My plan is to choose one or two that I like the VERY MOST to keep for gifting, and try to finish the rest for donating. And honestly I think this might be one of my very favorite of the bunch. So we'll see...but getting some quilts donated is still a definite goal, and it will happen! I'm calling it project follow through...stay tuned...

Pink

I had such a busy weekend of sewing that I actually have a little something to share!

I had this idea at the beginning of Lent that throughout the season I would work on some baby quilts to donate by Easter. Let me start off this story by telling you that nothing has been donated. The first thing I worked on as part of this project is the Chinese Coins quilt in the previous post. By the time I finished the quilting on that I just...didn't...feel I could donate it. I love it! Too much! I mean yes, there are a few too many pin tucks on the back, but I really like the quilting, and I have always really liked the top. I don't know how well it shows in photos (well, I'll post a better one when it's finished) but the colors and fabrics just really sing together. Of course there is no reason I shouldn't donate a quilt I love especially since even if I don't donate it I probably won't keep it. Somehow I can face gifting it, but donating it and never knowing what happens to it or if it's appreciated is, apparently, too hard for me.

So I started this pink baby quilt with the idea that I would have an easier time donating something if I planned it to be a donation from the start. But...now that the top is done...I'm sort of...

OK let's face it, I have problems letting go. I always have. But I'm working on it. I am not making up my mind yet what I'm going to do with either quilt. I still would like to donate some baby quilts some time even though I didn't meet my original goal. Now it will just be one of those nebulous undefined goals we all do so well with.

I don't know. I'll work on it.

Anyway, it has been nice to spend some time sewing, so my goal setting at least had that advantage. I'm trying to get focused on what I want to work on if I can keep up the habit of sewing. This quilt is all scraps and salvage fabric*, since that is pretty much all I have with me here, so I'm pondering which of my planned scrap and/or salvage projects I want to give my time to. Stay tuned?

Perhaps better photography can also be hoped for? Sorry, I was so excited to have something to share that I couldn't wait to have natural light and a block of time for a better photo shoot...

*Flannel sheet scraps, pillow case scraps, bits from three different stained or torn shirts, scraps from a blouse I made, and lots of good old fashioned quilting scraps.

Long Time

Here it is at last, my sewing machine set up in a little corner of my Chicago apartment. In reality I never moved. I was having such a hard time finding something that I liked and that worked for me, and in the meantime got so settled in here with my friends that I eventually stopped trying to move and made my current situation "official." Space is the trade off of this arrangement, as in, I don't have a lot.

I was at my parents a few weeks ago gathering up some sewing stuff and came face to face, once again, (and sorry to be a broken record), with the over-the-top amount of fabric that I own. I mean I do not have room here for even half of it. Probably not even a quarter. So to start out with I grabbed my several tubs of salvage fabric to bring to Chicago, along with the scrap bin and whatever random yardage was sitting out not in a container. That includes most of the fabric I have been trying to convince myself to get rid of. Pretty much all of my "nice" fabric is still at my parents. I'm hoping that this will allow me to work through some of this fabric - use it or move on from it. I grabbed a few finished tops that need quilting, too, and a few in-progress projects.

All very much a step in the right direction. I still don't know how much time I will realistically spend sewing in the coming weeks, but hopefully it will at least be more than zero. My job continues to go well, but it is busy and sometimes mentally draining so that I don't do much when I get home besides veg. I need to make the transition to vegging with fabric.

I actually got the sewing machine to the apartment, but forgot a lot of notions including my presser feet. So when I was ready to start sewing last weekend I only had the walking foot. This might be good since it inspired me to get back into sewing by finishing something rather than starting something new, hence the quilting project in the above picture.

About that...I am having the worst time with tucks on the back. I mean, let's face it...I always have that problem. I don't know why. I want to know why, but I don't. I had high hopes for this one as I thought the combination of flannel backing and cotton batting would mean minimal movement...you know, because they would stick to each other. I pin basted using my fist to space, but had to completely unpick the first three lines of quilting b/c the tucks were so bad. Maybe I'm wrong about flannel - maybe the softness of it makes it really tuck prone. I have spent hours basting and re-basting this, eventually pinning like every one to two inches to try to keep it in place (and still getting little tucks, although little enough to leave in). Where have I gone wrong??

Oh well...it will be done soon. THEN I will start something new.

Sorry to have been a neglectful blog friend. I don't dare promise that will change, but hopefully it will little by little. I want to share this post from a while back from Debra. The horse top was one that I made as a way to challenge myself to use those horse panels in a creative way. The panels were 99 cents in the remnant bin at Hobby Lobby. It is a perfect example of a project that I make because my mind is captivated by the challenge, but I don't actually like it that much. I mean I don't dislike it, but it isn't really "me". So I finally realized I wasn't ever going to finish it and sent it to Debra for her amazing charity projects. I am SO grateful to see that she finished it for a good cause.