Nose to the Grindstone (and if you believe that...)

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Fourth of July. It was actually sunny and dry here! That was some kind of a record! In honor of the Fourth (well, not really, but it does read as red, white, and blue so it seemed appropriate) I got out one of my really old UFO's and finished the top finally. I had taken it out about a year and a half ago after it sat maturing for several years. Sometimes we just need more experience before we can finish a quilt to our satisfaction! At that point I realized why I hadn't finished it yet and took off the borders that were causing the problem. Then I got interrrupted or put it away for some other reason until the other day. I found my notes on what I intended to do with it and just did it. Now it fits the bed the way I want it to and I only have to acquire the batting and buy or make a back for it. It's made entirely of flannels. My intention is to tie this one, probably with a red perle cotton, because that was what I envisioned from the beginning. (What you may not be able to see is that the borders are a solid navy blue. This pic was taken outside on our overgrown bed of creeping juniper.)







The bright orphan blocks were hanging around in the back of my mind, and so was my commitment to make a journal quilt for this month and a baby quilt for the next grandchild. I pulled the blocks out of my orphan drawer and started going through them. Lo and behold, there was a pieced bit leftover from one of my favorite quilts that was nearly the right size for a journal quilt, and it has the right greens in it! So I added some fabric to bring it up to size, basted it to the batting, and spent a good deal of time rummaging around in my stash o' stuff. I still don't have a theme or topic for this quilt, and that makes me uncomfortable, but the whole point of this exercise is to break the confines of my comfort zone. I found a machine made lace applique that has these cool circle elements to it, cut them apart, and sewed them onto my ground. I have an idea for a direction I could go with this but nothing is written in stone. We'll see how it develops...





As for the baby quilt: I put these blocks on the wall today. There are plenty more left to work with but this covers the size DD has requested. It won't have the full Orphan Train look to it but I think it will be a happy quilt in the end. The challenge now is to find the right fabric/print to use to frame up the smaller blocks. I really want to have just one fabric surrounding all of the blocks. I don't have the psychic energy right now to make a lot of decisions about what to put where. This needs to be a simple and quick project, not an ordeal. The Pinwheel blocks at the top and the bottom are leftovers from what was going to be my DD's first "big girl quilt." As it turned out, she never got that quilt. Eventually I made a Log Cabin variation for her when she was a teenager. The best of her Pinwheel blocks went into a quilt I made for her firstborn, but that's another story!

Finn's Rescued Orphan

So I'm a little slow in posting it for those of you who may not have seen this top on Finn's blog a couple of weeks ago, but this is the rescued orphan top I "won" in Finn's give-away! This apparently was the salvagable part of a larger quilt. In my opinion all it needs is borders and it would be big enough to be useful on the couch for snuggling under. What those borders will be remains to be seen however! I'm thinking something simple and plain, to show off the blocks. But we'll see. I have a hard time doing simple and plain. ;-)

I've been looking closely at this top. There are Jacob's Ladder blocks and 25-patch blocks and a couple of Log Cabins that have been made to fit with the other blocks by the addition of single squares or small 4-patch units. The prints are very bright and cheerful for the most part, from the mid-20th century. There are a couple of fabrics that Finn and I think could be the "mourning prints" of the late 19th/early 20th century (they are the black prints in the 25-patch block in the second row, just right of center). All in all a very cool top. For those of us who like that sort of thing anyway!

On a related note, as a result of working on my Orphan Train quilt I now have a better idea of what I want to do with my black & white & pink friendship blocks. I a-l-m-o-s-t started working on it today. I'm not quite ready for another big project yet though. So I'm fishing around for a workable idea for my next journal quilt. I really want to do something with those sequins!!!

Body & Spirit: Helpmates

I have just finished sewing the binding and the sleeve on my third journal quilt. Hooray! Technically I only had one day to spare to get this done by deadline. {whew!} Not that anyone would have done anything had I not finished it on time. I just need that deadline and the feeling of impending doom to get me going sometimes!



This one is very simply pieced as you can see. Just four fabrics. The story and meaning behind this quilt is all carried by the embellishments. If you recall, I was struggling with the nearly constant battle between my logical, analytical side and my creative, emotional side. Then I realized that they were meant to work in tandem, not separately. That's when I found the center panel in my stash. The male figure represents "Body," the logical, analytical side. The female figure, "Spirit," represents the creative, emotional side. Body also represents the physical nature of my being, the part that is controlled by time and will eventually die and decompose (the clock and the skeletal fish). Body wants to always be in control (the ship's wheel). Spirit, on the other hand, is eternal (the bird on her shoulder). She is also nurturing and creative (the flowers at her feet and the heart on her bodice). [You may have to click on the picture to get a larger image so you can see some of these elements. The fabrics are all pretty dark, as are a lot of the embellishments, and I'm not the world's greatest photographer yet.] I used the fabric with the squares on it - at Body's back - to further illustrate the logical, analytical aspect of that part of me. To balance that I have the spiral print on Spirit's side of the picture. At their feet is a print that I thought expressed the ethereal nature of the whole concept.

The clincher for this composition is the lock Body is offering to Spirit and the key she holds in her hand. He can do nothing without her input. It takes both of them, working together, to get the job done.

I took my cue for the flowers at Spirit's feet from the images that were already on the fabric. The colors too, that's why they are so dark. In fact, in order to comply with the guidelines I'd set for myself for this challenge, I had to work hard to find a way to include some of my favorite green in the piece. There's green in the print but it's not my favorite shade of green! I thought about just using a backing fabric featuring my green but that felt like cheating. I found this Fossil Fern in my stash that I really liked with the browns and olive green of the quilt. It's not exactly the lime green I love but it's as close as I could get away with. I think it holds the whole composition together in a vibrant way!

It was quite a struggle to come up with a way to "quilt" this piece. I started with the random straight stitches in the background around the two figures. Then I decided to put tiny beads in the centers of the spirals. I used triangle beads in the squares on the opposite side of the quilt. The bottom border was the worst. I fretted over that for days. Finally I bought some black delica beads and sprinkled them in and around the swirls. I didn't want to do anything that would compete with or cover up those lovely curves and colors.

Now I can move forward and start thinking about how to incorporate some of those sequins I bought (see previous post) in my next journal quilt!

Sequins Anyone?

Saturday I did a little online shopping. Well, a lot of online shopping. First I looked for a new light fixture for our living room, then I shopped for clothes (yuck), then I did some browsing on fabric and bead sites. Fire Mountain Gems was having a $2 sale on selected items. Woohoo! I waded through all 28 pages, and toward the end came to entries for sequins. They were all 5mm cupped sequins in my choice of red, black, gold, silver, aqua, purple, and blue. Great! I love sequins, of all shapes and sizes and colors. In fact, I've been wanting to do a small piece, probably a journal quilt, covered in sequins. I figured these bags were the size you get in most retail establishments, maybe 3" x 4" or something like that. I ordered four bags (purple, aqua, blue, and silver) and a set of four charms, also a mere $2. I hesitated when I got to check out and saw what shipping was going to cost me but I reasoned that it would be worth it in the end.

In yesterday's mail I was surprised to find a box had been delivered. At first I thought it was the orphan top Finn is sending me. It was about the right size and weight for something like that. When I looked more closely at the return address label I saw that it was from Fire Mountain Gems. Well! A box of this size and this heavy just for a few bags of sequins and a couple of charms?

I sliced open the top to find a lovely piece of tissue paper with this sticker on it:

When I pulled off the tissue paper I found all of this! (and some packing paper)

These bags of sequins are about 4” x 7” and a good half of an inch thick. 230 grams each as it turns out. (Guess I have to learn to read the fine print! But then I would have had no idea what 230 grams of sequins would look like anyway.) Of course they also included an update to their catalog, which is the size of most magazines. And they sent me a free gift:

I'm not quite sure what it is but I can always take it apart and use the elements as embellishments in something someday! (The hangtag refers to it as "jewelry" but the cord is much too small to go around a wrist and doesn't seem to be adjustable. It could be a scissor or key fob I suppose.)

All in all I’m very happy with this purchase and certainly with the service. But if anyone needs any 5mm sequins in purple, aqua, silver or blue, just let me know because I have plenty to share!

Thrift Shop Treasure

I want to thank everyone for the kind comments on my Orphan Train quilt. It's so nice to get positive feedback! The top is still pinned to our living room wall. Yesterday I cut and sewed and pressed the backing. Now it can go to Heather whenever she's ready for it or when I'm ready to give up the warmth and color in the living room, whichever comes first!

I have a feeling that the fog I've been in has been partly due to the concentration I put into creating the Orphan Train quilt. As Finn put it, I "hit the pavement running" with that project and didn't stop until it was done. While I do generally focus on one project at a time it is unusual for me to stay with one of that size with that intensity. I surprised myself with that one. So I am probably justified in needing some down time to recover. And I should know by now that it takes me a little while to shift gears. In this case, from piecing a twin size top back to hand embellishing my journal quilt.


To tide you over while I recover from my creative lull I have decided to share with you a recent acquisition. I really feel like I scored with this one. DS and I were in our favorite thrift shop, just cruising as I recall. Sometimes I check out the linens, sometimes I don't. This time I did and I couldn't believe my eyes! Here was this mostly white quilt with all these triangles, hand quilted, and a price tag of only $10. Ten dollars!! I quickly pulled it off the hanger to inspect it more closely. I could see no tears, no popped seams, nothing to indicate why it had such a low price. I called DS over to help me. We stretched the quilt out between us and checked both sides. There was some kind of brown stuff on the back side but it felt like it might wash out. And the name Helen Roll had been clearly printed in one corner on the back. No date, just the name. But no damage anywhere. I promptly rolled it up and carried it to the checkout counter.

The gal working the cash register was new to me; we visited a bit while she rang up my purchases (I think we picked up a couple of other small items on that trip as well). Then when she went to put the quilt into a bag for me she caught it with the tip of her ink pen. Of course it left a mark. Arrgh! She tried to assure me that it would wash out, blah blah blah. Well, I knew the quilt would have to go into the washing machine as soon as we got home anyway so I tried not to stress over it.

I put the quilt in the washing machine with just a little trepidation and my current favorite laundry soap by biokleen. I set the machine for a short agitation and a soak cycle. When the washer was done I popped the quilt into the dryer without even looking at it. If anything had gone wrong there was little I could do about it at that point. I had the surprise of my life when that quilt came out of the dryer. Not only was the ink gone but so was the brown stuff on the back and the whole quilt was brighter, whiter! All of the stitching was still intact as well. Finally I sat down with the quilt to have a good look at it.


An awful lot of the prints looked familiar to me. Not anything I specifically had in my stash, but of the era when I was stash-building. I'd bet money I could identify where some of those fabrics had come from in fact. The top appears to have been machine pieced by someone who knew what she was doing in that department. The hand quilting sort of threw me though. It's not of the same caliber that the piecing is. There seems to be a pattern in the big open spaces, but at first glance the quilting looks very random. There are lots of stitches, but they are not evenly spaced or even close together in some cases. I eventually concluded that perhaps the top had been pieced by a daughter (or younger woman) and hand quilted by her mother (or an older woman). My own MIL had created quilt tops for her mother to hand quilt in her last days just so her mother would have something to do. I strongly suspected this was a similar case. Then it occurred to me that the name on the back was probably for identification of ownership rather than the signature of the maker. There was no date after all, just the name, very clearly printed in large letters on the back. Could it have gone with the older woman into a nursing home?

A few days later I found a short obituary in our local paper for Helen Roll. Sure enough, the quilt had been hers and had been donated to the Humane Society's thrift shop at her death. Kind of sad that no-one in the family wanted it, but a real treasure for me. It's just the right size for snuggling under on the couch with a book or a movie on TV. The batting has lumped up in some places but that doesn't bother me. The quilt has history, some of which I figured out, but still has enough life left in it that I can use and enjoy it rather than merely conserving it. A happy ending all the way around!