Improvisational Quilts

Just a warning: this could get to be a lengthy post. (There are pictures at the bottom if you want to skip to the eye candy!)

I pieced my third journal quilt Thursday. I enjoyed the process, it came out pretty much as I intended, but I didn't have a clue as to how I would embellish it. Went to the bead shop(s) with my friend (we actually went to two), didn't buy as much as I thought I might (nothing for said journal quilt), didn't feel very well when I got home - naturally. The next morning my sweetie and I went to see the new Pirates movie. We'd been waiting - well, I had been waiting to see it until some of the crowds died down. He saw it while he was in Idaho. We went to the earliest show possible but the theater was still fairly crowded, and on the way out I passed some guy wearing something he probably thought enhanced his desireability. I gagged. Really didn't feel well after that. It took the rest of the day to recover but I did enjoy the movie. The first one is still my favorite of the three, and the second one would be my least favorite. Nevertheless, kudos to Disney for reawakening the lore and romance of piratology!

Back to the journal quilt. While I was unable to sew yesterday I was able to journal (in my spiral-bound notebook). During the course of my journaling I discovered/realized that the piece I had made on Thursday didn't feel "right" to me. I think it's sound compositionally and I will still try to finish it off someday. But for this particular project (series of journal quilts) it doesn't serve my stated purpose. It did not have the potential of taking me closer to my personal goals. So I'm putting it aside and will make a 'new' third journal quilt. I already have the focus fabric picked out. I'm just waiting for the energy to be creative again.

In the meantime, I have been to the Shelburne Museum web site to see whether there is a catalog available for their current exhibit, Something Pertaining to God: the Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins. There doesn't appear to be a catalog, but there are half a dozen detail shots of her quilts on the site. Very inspiring to those of us who enjoy improvisationally pieced quilts!

So then I went to Eli Leon's web site (because he is the one who loaned the Rosie Lee Tompkins quilts to the Shelburne Museum). Eli Leon is the man probably most responsible for bringing African-American improvisationally pieced quilts to our attention. From his site you can go to photo album pages with pictures of quilts from many different quiltmakers. Click on the "More Quilts" badge (about half way down, right hand side) and that will take you to a page where there is displayed one of the most original Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts I've ever seen. It's at the bottom of the page on the right hand side. It was made by Minnie Lee Metcalf and she calls it Grandmother's Rose Garden. Love it!

And now, for your viewing pleasure (I hope!), let me introduce you to my Cattywampus Nine Patch, aka "Hiding From the Pup-arozzi". This was pieced improvisationally four years ago but only quilted and bound in the last six months. I kind of had an idea of how I wanted to quilt it; it took me that long to get brave enough to actually do it! I used a vine/leaf stitch that's on my Pfaff and a varigated polyester thread my sister gave me for my birthday a couple of years ago. I'd read that cats like to hide in foliage - not having one of my own I wouldn't know - and that's what finally pushed me over the edge to get the quilting done. The quilt is actually a trapezoid in shape, not a rectangle. It measures 11.5" across the top edge, 14.5" across the bottom edge, and is 21.5" long. I'm really quite pleased with it!

Adventures in Shopping

So this is how my life works: because I'm planning to go with my friend to a bead shop about 30 miles away on Friday I know I have to allow myself Thursday (today) to recover from anything I might choose to do on Wednesday (yesterday). And because I cannot get the Fabric of Life challenge out of my head - even though I'm feeling the pressure of the journal quilt deadline - yesterday (Wednesday) I decided to go to a different town nearby to see what I could find in the way of African prints. Before I even got to the quilt shops I ran into something toxic at the Post Office. It didn't smell like a perfume, but it was strong - too strong for me. I was surprised that I didn't feel worse than I did when I got to the first quilt shop but by the time I was done at the second store I was in a world of hurt. Fortunately this town is right on the coast and I was able to go to a park where Reilly and I could take a walk and have the ocean breeze blowing on us. I didn't think to note how long we were there; it was long enough that I felt better for the drive home (thank Goodness). After a good night's sleep I'm feeling pretty normal today. If I can just avoid doing something stupid or thoughtless today I should be okay for tomorrow!

This is the print I'm trying to work into the Fabric of Life piece. The one I only have a fat quarter of. What I want to do is make a border for the top and bottom of the quilt that incorporates this print. I was a little disappointed yesterday in that I didn't find the African prints I'd hoped to, but I did find a couple of batiks I think might work.

So now I have four fabrics to choose from to use in making the borders: from left to right, a blue and white I found in my stash (it looks like something someone gave me judging from the shapes of the pieces I have), a muddy orange I bought here in town on my first foray for additional fabrics, the mostly brown batik I bought yesterday, and another blue and white batik I bought yesterday. I was trying to duplicate - or imitate - an indigo blue with white dots in the first border I put on the quilt and to find something that would blend with the mask print. The muddy orange looked too bright; I hope the brown won't be too dark. I think the blue batik is actually going to work better than the leaf print. (The photo doesn't do either the brown or the blue batik justice.)

At this point I may be able to set this aside to begin work on my next journal quilt. Or not. I might have to get the rest of this top constructed before I'll be able to change my focus. Once I get started on something I tend to want to stay with it until it's completed to my satisfaction or I get stuck, whichever comes first. (If I don't get started on something soon it will be a moot point as there won't be enough time to get anything done!)

Journal Quilt v.s. Fabric of Life Challenge...

I seem to be having a hard time recovering from the weekend. I suspect I may have been exposed to something without realizing it. Yesterday the sum total of my accomplishments were one load of laundry and a brief trip to the store for essential food items. Well, I worked on a jigsaw puzzle too, and nearly finished it, but somehow that doesn't seem like an accomplishment per se. I could be doing another load of laundry even now but here I sit, reading others' blogs and trying to get inspired to do something productive...

I'm getting a little anxious about my next journal quilt. I've been ahead of schedule for the last two months. Now that there's a more "official" deadline (because I'm participating in the Bead Journal Project with my journal quilts) I seem to be falling behind! Well, not really, but that's how it feels to me at the moment. It's the fifth of June already! I only have 25 more days left!

I have pulled a palette of prints to use, and I have an idea of how I'm going to construct this quilt. One reason I don't already have something "in the works" is that I've come up with and discarded a few ideas that I decided would be too difficult to execute. The 8.5" x 11" format is a bit challenging. I want to show my concept of the difference between the way the right side and the left side of the brain function. You know, creative and emotional v.s. analytical and logical. A friend and I are trying to put together a trip to one of my favorite bead stores for later in the week. Knowing that that is coming up may be just the catalyst I need to get this journal quilt top made. (I may have to buy beads for it!) There's a new block coming to me in the mail for the Bead Round Robin too. (Another potential excuse to buy more beads!) I have a feeling that trip to the quilt shops in the next town for African prints may be postponed for a bit as I focus on this project instead. The Fabric of Life quilts are not due until October

after all. :- )

Whew! I'm Whupped!

Helped my DD and DSIL move into their new home yesterday. I tried to refrain from doing too much (DH wasn't allowed to go at all because we knew he would hurt himself!), and I don't really feel like I did all that much, but I'm tired! It's a cute little split-level house. Had to go up or down that half flight of stairs way too many times. At one point I tried to just toss a bag of linens up the stairs and it only made it halfway! Came rolling right back down to me. {sigh} It's no fun being incompetant (or 30 years older than everyone else on the job!).

I had hoped to stop in at a quilt shop on my way home from the kids' new place because this particular shop carries more African print fabrics than those closer to my home. Unfortunately I stayed much longer than I expected to and the shop had been closed for a couple of hours before I got anywhere near it. Maybe I'll make a special trip out there tomorrow. I don't expect to find anymore of the stuff I already have but maybe I'll find something else I can use. I don't really want to make the quilt a lot bigger but I feel it needs something more to frame it or finish off what I already have.

So, since there's nothing new to show you let me share one of my old treasures with you. This is a quilt I found back when we were living in southeast Texas. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it and went back to visit it several times before I could even screw up the courage to ask about putting it on layaway. It wasn't that expensive because it isn't that great a quilt in most people's eyes, but it was more money than I felt I could afford to spend on anything I didn't need and would be afraid to use. At the time I had three toddlers to feed and clothe, no money of my own, and DH wasn't a Texas oil tycoon by any stretch of the imagination! Finally I asked, the nice lady said yes, and I put down a deposit. A couple of months later my sweet husband got it out of layaway and gave it to me for my birthday as a complete surprise. Honestly, it was one of the best birthday presents I've ever had.

I don't know who made the quilt or even where it might have come from. I think I asked the shop owner but she didn't have the provenance. It is stuffed with raw cotton. Well, not raw, it's been cleaned and carded, etc. but it's not a commercial batt. The quilting was done by hand. The stitches are even but not small. It was obviously used. A lot. It has been repaired more than once and actually needs to be repaired again (on the back this time; it's losing stuffing). I love it for its' wonkiness, for the happy conglomeration of prints from the 1950's, for its' honesty.

So, the last time I posted I did try to put up an image at the end of my post. I think it was a Blogger issue, not me, and hopefully my pictures will load today.

Hurray! Here it is! This is how far I have come with the Fabric of Life challenge quilt. The rectangles are bordered with the second fat quarter of fabric from the Here Je Center (an orange tone-on-tone stripe). The border is cut from another single fat quarter that I had in my stash. The two side borders were originally close to the same size as the top and bottom borders but had such a dramatic curve to their outer edges that I felt I had to do something about it. There's actually more tension or movement now that they are smaller too. They may get narrower yet; we'll see. I rather like the slope at the bottom edge but it may also be too steep for me to cope with. At this point I just need to find some more prints that I like with what I've got. I have one more fat quarter in my stash that I'd really like to use but I have to be sure of what I'm going to do with it before I cut into it because that fat quarter is all I've got. There's no room for mistakes or miscuts or for changing my mind midstream! So I have been making experimental pieces in other fabrics and trying them out. I'm close to finding the look I want but not quite there yet...

In the meantime, I have put the binding on the commissioned dorm quilt. It will be picked up this afternoon if all goes well. It's a very lovely quilt, due mostly to the efforts of Heather at Quilted Designs who did the machine quilting. The intended recipient apparently has very minimalist taste. The piecing consists solely of five strips of fabric sewn together in two alternating colors: black-green-black-green-black. I hope she likes it!

We had a rather chaotic day here yesterday what with DS#2 coming and going and DD and DGD coming over to spend the afternoon. Also had to take the dog to the groomer. Just walking into the grooming salon gave me a headache for the rest of the day. Then when DGD dragged me out into the yard to watch her run the circuit she had created for herself I apparently was exposed to some other invisible toxins. (I didn't think to put my mask on. Someday I'll learn!) I had to lay down when we came in and then I also had to send my children out to pick up the dog from the groomer's. {sigh} Aside from the slight headache leftover from yesterday's exposures I feel much better today. Unfortunately, DD#2 ate some bad food yesterday and is now on the couch trying to recover from an extended bout of vomiting. What a way to spend his vacation!