Making Fabric, Making Blocks

Victoria over at Bumble Beans invited the 15 Minute players to make a block for a Quilt of Valor that incorporated some scraps of camouflage uniforms she had left over from a commission quilt. This is what I did with the scraps:


I haven't been surfing other blogs much lately but I did see what Julie and Tonya are up to. They inspired me to go through my bin of strips and strings to pull out anything about 1.5" wide. (Most of what you see to the right of the bin below is narrower than 1.5")


That created the pile you see below. It looked much taller before I moved it to get a better picture!

I have 1.5" strips neatly cut and hanging from a skirt hanger in the closet too. And then there's the wicker basket under the sewing table with all the chunks and bits... I won't be sorting through it, I don't think, but I will raid it for 1.5" squares because I know there are some in there. Sewing these strips and squares together will probably be my Between Seams project for the time being.

I set aside the second Priority Quilt last week so I could work on the made-fabric block for Operation Uniform. While I was working on that block I made another small heart block from red scraps and it seems to be just what the Priority Quilt needed!

It's the one at the bottom of this composition. I think the six inch heart block I started with was just too big for what I had in mind for this quilt. Once I get the strips cleared out of the way I have a feeling I'll be able to move this forward now. We shall see!

Collaborative Effort

Remember this?
The Sunbonnet Sue block was hand appliqued by a friend of mine in the last years of her life. I have about four of these blocks. Long-time readers may recall that I added the top and bottom borders with the intention of turning this into a Priority Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I finally made good on my promise. :- )

For the longest time I couldn't figure out how to quilt the piece. Quilting is not my strong suit. All along I had a voice whispering in the back of my head that I should just echo quilt it. In an ideal world I would have hand quilted it. I feel the block deserves that but it's just not my thing (nor is applique for that matter). Yesterday I gave in to the voice but used an iridescent thread to bring this traditional block into the 21st century. After that it was playtime, adding the rick rack and flowers.

I had to give the chicks a mother hen to watch over them too. I did not embellish Sue's hat or dress, preferring to let Arlyne's work stand on its' own. I've titled this "Ripples of Friendship." The registration form has been submitted; I expect to get it shipped in time for it to go to Houston if that's what the powers that be decide to do. In the meantime, there are some pretty spectacular quilts up for auction right now. The auction ends in a few days, you should go check them out now!

Art Therapy

Last week when I wasn't feeling well I occupied myself by sewing red scraps together until I had pieces big enough to cut patches. From this "made fabric" (Victoria and the gang over at 15 Minutes) or reconstructed fabric (Mary Lou Weidman) I cut some 3.5" x 6.5" rectangles.

Then I cut two 3.5" squares and four 2" squares of yellow and turned two of those rectangles into a 6" heart block using the technique I shared with you in this post.

That was one of the blocks that were sitting on my design wall when I returned from the fateful trip wherein I discovered that the cute little house had been repainted (see previous post). I was thinking about the Bead Journal Project and how I could journal about what had happened to the house, in beads, on an ATC. Rummaging through my stash I found a large scrap of a print I felt captured the spirit that house once had. It was too big and too busy for a tiny ATC though. That's when the heart block caught my eye.

After pulling and auditioning several more fabrics I came up with this palette.

My intention is to make a Priority Quilt for AAQI, honoring the spirit of the home's previous owner. I haven't quite settled on the rest of the design or process yet. I spent yesterday catching up a bit on older bead journal projects. That will be a post for another day. ;- )

A Couple of Quick Projects

A Creative Dreamer's challenge for the month of December is "Home." I'm not sure anything could be more appropriate! As usual, at first I was flabbergasted at the range of possibilities, especially since there are no rules as to how we interpret the challenge. It didn't take long for me to think of the orphan house blocks in my stash however. There aren't a lot left at this point but there were a couple that I had designed and sewn up several years ago. One seemed particularly suited to this challenge. All I had to do was add a bit of landscaping.

There's something magical about the twilight hour, that brief space of time when day and night co-exist. Lights come on in houses, giving them a warm and cozy appearance from outside.

Around here at this time of the year the trumpeter swans are making their commute from the farm fields where they've been feeding during the day to wherever it is they spend the nights. It's a special joy for me to hear them as they pass overhead. They may have been the inspiration for the title of this Priority Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative: "Coming Home to Roost."

I was tempted to add some beads for sparkle in the night sky. I decided to keep it simple this time around though. Instead I used chalk pastels to create smoke coming out of the chimney and a bit of Micron pen ink to add a nest in the tree.

This quilt has already received its' registration number, 6280, and with any kind of luck will be on its' way to AAQI's quilt processing facility tomorrow. ;- )

When I could no longer go to the beauty school to get my hair cut every 6-8 weeks I found a gal who makes house calls. She's very diligent about coming over as scent-free as she can manage. I made her a pair of potholders this week to show my appreciation.

There are a couple more little projects I'd like to get finished before the end of the year. I may get a burst of creativity after Christmas and get a back made for my "Play Group" friendship quilt but right now I'm not feelin' it. I may have to spend some time playing in my scraps or with orphan blocks while everyone else is away at Christmas parties...

Time to Play

I dropped off the parts for the Harry Potter quilt this morning. It was hard to see all my old friends having fun together and not dare to step in. There were many new faces in the crowd too. In an attempt to cheer myself up I stopped at the thrift shop on the way home. I found some fun things (which I haven't pictures of - sorry) but I think going in there was a mistake today. Some days my body seems to be able to handle it better than others. Today was not one of those days. I now have a massive headache and chills. Oh well, this too shall pass.

On my design wall are a couple of blocks left over from the Harry Potter quilt. There were duplicates of some of the Windmill blocks. This one turned out small for some reason. I'll probably end up cutting it down at some point and then using it.


On the bottom in the photo above are just a couple of the scrappy blocks I have going.

Since I'm sort of between projects at the moment I thought I'd try to put together a Priority Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I've had this set of four Sunbonnet Sue blocks for a few years now. They were made by an elderly member of my quilt guild who has since passed away. I've never felt good about putting them in a quilt that will get used and laundered. I'm afraid they'll come apart under hard use.

But singly, in wall quilts, they could be charming.

I picked one, trimmed it up a bit, and added some additional color.

Now my dilemma is how to quilt it. I don't consider myself a hand quilter but I'm not sure machine quilting would be entirely appropriate. So it's sitting on my design wall until a good idea comes to me. In the meantime I think I'm going to either play in the scraps I received in a swap with V over at Bumble Beans or get out my stripes and dots and see what happens... Or I may end up just vegging out until tomorrow.

Two Quilts

First, "From Here to Eternity, the Alzheimer's Journey" has received its' registration number for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I just have to ink the number onto the back and send it off. Here it is bound and finished.

I couldn't figure out a way to quilt it that would enhance the design so I just tied the layers together through six buttons. It's not like it needs a lot of quilting to hold things together since it's only 8" x 12."

The second quilt isn't quite a quilt yet. Remember this panel?

Yesterday I collected the other two panels for our friend's comfort quilt.

You can see that C~ was inspired by Tonya's free pieced letters. She'd been looking for an excuse to play with that technique and this was a perfect opportunity.

The diamonds were inspired by a quilt in Kaffe Fassett's newest book and all done with KF prints. It's much longer than it needs to be because the math was a bit overwhelming for the maker. No problem, I'll just whack it off at the appropriate length!

I have an old Hoffman print that has all the colors of the rainbow in it that will tie the three panels together beautifully. So getting this top set is my job for the holiday weekend.

I have a couple of other projects in my lap that I haven't shared with you yet. One is pretty close to completion already. The other is something completely different and the foundation for it just arrived. Stay tuned! ;- )

August Creativity Challenge

My project is not entirely done but I wanted to post what I have before the rest of the month slips by. If I can get my body to cooperate I will probably have it finished in the next day or so but just in case...

The creativity prompt for this month was

Artwork by A Creative Dreamer, the instigator of these challenges.

My first reaction was sheer panic. I didn't have a clue what to do with that topic! The more I thought about it, however, the broader the application appeared to be. I mean, you could do anything from the transitioning of the seasons through the year to the transition of children leaving the nest (or coming back) or the ever so challenging female transition of fertility to infertility. Transition means change, and life IS change. What at first appeared to me to be a rather limited topic turned out to be limitless. That's a challenge in and of itself.

Eventually it occurred to me that there is a transition that millions of us will face and for which we currently have no vaccines, no concrete defense against, or the shadow of a cure. I am speaking of Alzheimer's Disease.

I wanted so badly to come up with a Priority Quilt to donate to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative earlier in the year. It's been too long since I've made a quilt for that project but I just hadn't been inspired. This challenge provided that inspiration. Thank you June.

As much as I wanted to do this, I was afraid my ideas wouldn't come together until it was too late. Seriously, I don't think a day went by this month that I didn't think about this challenge in one way or another. I had all kinds of ideas for other projects that I finally discarded when the concept for this quilt turned up.

It was the transition Alzheimer's patients go through - from fully functioning adult to an entity completely dependent on others for any kind of existence - that I wanted to portray. I suppose you have to be a quilter to "read" this quilt top and get the message easily, but if you start at the upper left and read the rows the way you would the page of a book you'll see the transition. (I hope.)

This is only an 8" x 12" quilt. I've used 4" blocks to create three rows. In the first row of two blocks (below) things are fine, normal. I'm imagining a quilter who travels, plays the piano, does other crafts perhaps.

Then in the second row of blocks mental abilities start to break down, to fragment and disintegrate. The Hellbucket print makes me think of the times when a normally mild mannered person will become suddenly violent or irrational. The sheet music has become disembodied notes. Stories ramble on or get repeated (etc. etc. etc.). Love still shines through unexpectedly.

The final row of blocks is a Broken Dishes block in blacks and grays, then a Flying Geese unit and a variation of the Rail Fence for the flat line at the end of mortality.

I hope this is not too depressing. The problem is that it's altogether too true and we currently have no way to combat this disease. That's why it's so important that we come up with ways to fund research and demand that our government leaders address this health care crisis in the making. I'm doing what I can in making and donating little quilts to be auctioned off to raise money for research. I hope each of my readers will find some way to address this issue themselves. Either make a quilt or buy a quilt from the AAQI website (during the next auction or on the Quilts for Sale page). Donate money directly if you like. Write to your representatives in Congress. Talk to your family, friends, and neighbors. DO something. Please. I could be the next victim. Or it might be you. Or someone you love.

Good Help is Hard to Find

I had planned to get back here before this but have had unexpected interruptions. Ain't that always the way? Not that there's a lot to report...

The new dishwasher doesn't seem to be bothering me. Hurray! We have discovered a slight problem however. The control panel sticks out far enough that we can't open the drawer in the base cabinet that butts up against the cabinet that houses the dishwasher. (The drawer is in the corner of the right angle formed by the two cabinets.) You have to open the dishwasher door to get the drawer open. We're hoping the technician can just bump the dishwasher further into its' cabinet to eliminate the problem. We'll find out on Tuesday.

I did manage to finish up the Priority Quilt:

Then I had to go to the store to get an envelope to ship it in. I thought I had one on hand but it turned out to be too small. Once I finally got the quilt into the envelope it took me three days to get someone from this house to take it to the Post Office for me! As close as we are to the Post Office you wouldn't think it would be such a chore. {sheesh!} But after suffering the trip to the store I wasn't about to take on the Post Office.

This is what I ended up doing along the bottom edge of the quilt:

I have been playing with a couple of ideas for new projects since finishing this little quilt. It's too early to say anything about either of them yet. One or neither may see the light of day. Only time will tell.

I have to confess to setting myself up for further distraction too. While I was at the store I came across this and had to buy a copy:

So far I'm thoroughly enjoying it. :- )

Good & Bad

I figured I'd better check in this morning while I'm still in good enough shape to do so. We are having a new dishwasher installed this afternoon and there's no telling what that's going to do to me. Hopefully it won't be a big deal. Unfortunately, experience has taught me to expect otherwise.

About 10 days ago our old dishwasher, the one that came with the house when we moved in, leaked and flooded the kitchen floor. I've never been happy with that machine - it's hard to load and never did a very good job getting the dishes clean in my opinion - so my Dear Husband said we could just replace it rather than repair it. Woohoo! He went out and found a floor model last Saturday. Although it may have off-gassed some sitting on the showroom floor it has never, to my knowledge, been run. Once all that hot water hits the new plastics or vinyl or whatever in the interior of the machine I'm sure there will be fumes released into my otherwise safe environment. But today it will be the fragrances that the installation technicians carry in on their persons that is my main concern. I didn't know they were coming early enough to be able to ask them to forego any colognes, aftershaves, strongly scented deodorants, etc. so it will be a crap shoot. Let's just say I'm not likely to come out the winner.

So until next time, whenever that may be, let me show you the bit of progress I have made in the last day or two. Yes, I think I'm finally satiated on novels for the time being! I picked up needle and thread and started beading the background of this Priority Quilt:

Hopefully you can click on the picture to get a little bigger version to look at. Here's a detail shot just in case:

There are tiny purple seed beads in the purple areas around the heart. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do in the lower section of the quilt yet.

Ami has put out a call for Priority Quilts so she can take 1,000 of them to the big quilt show in Houston in October. I really want to get this done, registered, and sent off to her so it can be part of that group. If I thought I had it in me I would try to do another one to go with it but I think that might be unrealistic.

I'm also just about ready to move around some books. I may even bite the bullet and get rid of a few. {gasp!} I need to make room on my shelves for the binders of the books I've had taken apart and for my collection of studio journals. Currently my shelves are full of books I can't look at without making myself ill. Where's the sense in that?! I figure I'll be better off with ready access to the binders and journals (instead of tripping over them stacked around the perimeter of the room on the floor) than the tomes that I can't even open.

Because the journals I use are spiral bound once I get them on a shelf they're all going to look the same. No spines with titles, no real color differentiation. So yesterday I spent some time cutting up old business cards and wrapping them with colorful folder labels to make these tags to hang from the tops of the spirals on my journals. I think this will work.

I like the way they look like tassels hanging from the journals. I could really get carried away and decorate the hanging loops with beads too! :- )