Signature Quilt

In 2007, I joined a signature block swap. I finally got the blocks set and quilted. This was a fun swap in which to participate and I now have friends from all over the world. The block we used was a variation of a classic signature/album block.

This small quilt is just the perfect size to cover the window in my basement sewing room and it is fun to look up at it to rest my eyes from close-up work by focusing on something further away. 

I hope you have experienced the fun of a swap.

4SQS5-Mono

Here is the reveal of my contribution to the Four Season Quilt Swap Monochromatic swap. My swap partner lives in another country so this has already been mailed. I do not know if she stalks my blog so no names will be mentioned.

This quilt is 20x20" and turned out so nice I am making one for myself, albeit in red and green. Sidebar: I have always wanted both a feathered star and a red/green quilt.

There are 4 different blue fabrics playing together and the light blue is also used as the backing. All fabrics are from stash.

Quilting was done on a domestic sewing machine using either a light blue variegated rayon thread or a dark blue variegated rayon thread. The star was ditch quilted and then free motion was added. The center quilted medallion is reproduced in the four corners of the quilt. In the north, south, east, west large triangles I used a quilting pattern called Nordic Cross. The border was filled with a series of straight lines or undulating lines.

Hopefully, my partner will like it.

A Little of This, A Little of That

Have you ever seen the play or movie "A Chorus Line" ? I have it on DVD and watch it a lot. Must be the music. Anyway. The title of this post comes from a line in the movie, in case you were wondering. You probably weren't. But if you want to know the context of the quote, why, watch the movie!

The quietness of the blog points to busyness at La Casa del Quilter.

I went to visit Auntie on a beautiful sunny Sunday and it was nice to just sit and visit and not have to 'do'. I was able to stay and visit for over an hour.

But long before going to Denver-town I was sewing. Sewing on Quilts of Valor quilts. One, two three tops and their backings are done and pin basting is in the near future.

The 4SQSMONO is done except for the label. This is being sent out of the country so it needs to to get into the mail very soon to be able to meet the deadline.

Lots of knitting going on, too. The stack of Log Cabin Barn Raising knitted blocks from leftover sock yarn is growing taller. A new process is in place: for every pair of socks that get knit a square will be knit too. A few pair of socks never got their photos taken, but the yarn is still in the basket so it (and the socks) will be preserved in a knitted square.

The photo is from Microsoft Clipart and I find it amusing that all the yarn items look like crochet but the photo shows knitting needles. And where is the sewing needle that goes with the sewing thread and thimbles?

Princess Feather

When I was at the local museum partaking of the Gee's Bend exhibit I spied this beauty in one of the display cases in a different exhibit. This is a two color Princess Feather quilt. It was given by A.D. Hagemen to his wife as a wedding gift c.1871. The quilting is exquisite and is 1/2" apart. Look at how the unknown quilter quilted a feather design in and around the feathers. Another thing was the extensive quilting inside the applique pieces. Wish I could do hand quilting like this. I know I can't, because I just put the last stitch in a small quilt last evening. My stitches are not tiny and, lately, they are not even consistent. *sigh*.

I've been plodding along on the first pair of bartered tube socks. Can we say boring? It is not the yarn but the design: a tube stock done with stockinette stitch. *yawn!* I've been trying to hurry on these by doing 2 at a time but it still seems interminable.






It is probably going to be a bit quiet around La Casa del Quilter as I am only working on tube socks *yawn* and the 4SQS5 that I can't show you. Speaking of which, it has turned out so well that I am going to make myself one in red, white and green; you know, the colors found in a Baltimore Album quilt. I've always wanted a quilt in those colors and this pattern will work wonderfully.

Randomness

Jenclair, over at Bayou Quilts, recently reorganized her bulletin board. I thought that was a good idea so I went into the sewing room this morning and took this photo. But the more I stood there looking at my board the more I like it this way. In a way, it reminds me of the wall at a (former) head shop in a nearby town. This 'boutique' used the whole wall (not a board) and has not taken anything off this wall. Never. Ever. The shop has been in existence since 1969. The wall has an approximately 4" deep strata: announcements of peace marches, concerts, parties, items for sale or trade, posters of plays and events. 40 years worth -- I kid you not. I would love to dig down through the layers just to revisit. A time capsule on the wall, so to speak. But I digress. My measly little bulletin board holds some memories too. See that green & yellow flag up in the corner? That is one of two stickers I bought for my guitar case in college. In 1970. Yes, even then there was concern and awareness for the planet. Next to it is a design I made up as a patch for my blue jeans. I like to look at them so I keep them fairly cleaned off.

There is a whole lotta of knittin' goin' on. Sorry Jerry, I couldn't resist. I have been bartering again. One of the younger boys at work wants some knitted socks. And he bought the yarn. Come springtime, I will need a young strong boy to help in the yarden doing some heavy lifting, so we are trading labor for labor. I currently have the first sock of a pair of socks for me on the 5" double pointed needles, a barn-raising square on the 7"dpn's and a pair of socks on the 40" Addi Turbo circular needle for him. I am going to knit him 2 pairs of tube socks using the magic loop technique. O, and he requested a pair of felted house socks too. No prob.

Had my eyes checked yesterday and dr said I have the beginnings of a cataract. Ugh. Ordered the new glasses today and about had heart failure at the price!

I'm still working on my 4SQS5 quilt. Sorry no photos.

The hand quilting is progressing on the little quilt. I am not going to show a photo of it until it is done. After all, how boring to see the same thing over and over.

Spent a bit of time late this afternoon, cutting some scraps into 2.5" squares for leader enders. I have a LOT of 4 patches made up now. I suppose I should make something from them?

Today it was a lot more like spring than a wintery January day. The sky was blue, the weather warmy and slightly balmy, the ice melting on the lakes and the doves were cooing. Never heard doves in January before. So here's to you: stay warm and enjoy your weekend.

Four Seasons Quilt Swap 5

I have signed up for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap 5. This one is a bit different: it will be monochromatic. O! I can't wait. My brain is teeming with ideas but I need to wait until I get a partner.

So I just broke my New Year's resolution and it isn't even the new year yet. What was it? I was not going to join any swaps. But I just couldn't resist.

Zen Garden

You all know that I joined ALQS2 (Another Little Quilt Swap 2), don't you? I was in the Art Quilt section. Since I have already received my little art quilt (you can read about it in this post) I thought I should tell you about the one I just sent out.

Like I normally do, I stalked the blog of my swap partner. She likes nature and when I saw her February 2008 post, I knew exactly what I was going to do. You see, I happen to have 9 of these bamboo tops. Yes, you read that correctly -- nine. This is the only one with the dragonfly on it, however.

Here's the back story on all these little quilt tops. I have a degree in art although I make stupid mistake as in this case. I was taking a design class and as part of my final art project I proposed a king sized quilt that was, in essence, a large nine-patch made of rectangles with a large border popped onto it. As a new quilter, I really underestimated the time it would take to complete the WHOLE project and was only able to get this block painted onto muslin.

But I gave a presentation to the instructor showing the block and the rest of the design and he bought into it and I got an 'A' in the class and graduated. I finished painting the other 8 blocks and completed the top and it became my oldest UFO: 25 years. I once pulled it out of the closet hung it on the wall and thought that if I over-dyed it. would I like it better? I over-dyed it green and still didn't like it. Another time, I pulled it out and it hung on the design wall for months before it FINALLY dawned on me what was wrong: scale.

Scale is one of the principles of design and I had totally ignored it in the big picture of a whole quilt. I did not have a king-sized quilt top with borders. What I had was 9 small quilt tops!! Plus some odd shaped pieces that were former borders.

So, Debbie, received a hand painted quilt, the first in a series called 'Zen Garden'. It is painted using Deka Fabric Paints which are no longer available in the US. I over-dyed it with Procion MX Fiber Reactive Dyes. It is the approximate size of a fat quarter, maybe a bit smaller. I machine quilted more bamboo into the background and then filled in with a stipple. The painted dragonfly is a simple couched embellishment, using two different weights of Kreinik thread.

There is one thing you may not have noticed: a lack of a binding. I did not want a binding to catch the eye so I faced the quilt using the bits leftover from when I squared up the quilt. I like the way it turned out.

It is so simple. So zen.

Windy Day

Friday was a bit of a blah day, wasn't it?

Around here the wind has been blowing. It has blown most of the leaves off the trees and all we get to look at are the skeletal branches.

I reached into my mailbox and there was a squishy! It was my ALQS II quilt from Collectincat. She called it "Windy Day" and that is so apropos for around here lately. Thank you, Collectincat, for a beautiful little art quilt.

Friday turned out all right after all because there was a bit of a smile in my mailbox.

ALQS Teaser

I've been working on my swap quilt for the Another Little Quilt Swap 2. Here is a bit of a teaser.

Fleetingly I fly

Do you remember the song the children sing in The Sound of Music called So Long, Farewell? This precious little quilt is the visual version of one line in that song.

Marit, Quilt-it, made this little quilt for me as my summer partner in the Four Season Quilt Swap. I just love this perky, bright little quilt. My photo does this quilt a dis-service as the quilt really has square corners and is not misshapen like the photo shows it.

Thank you Marit! I love it!

p.s. I purposely mangled the lyrics for my title.

Summer 4SQS Teaser

Yep. I'm a-working on my Summer 4 Seasons Quilt. Sorry, but the color isn't true in this photo.

"One of These Things is not Like the Others"

I have finished my little quilt for the Another Little Quilt Swap. I abstracted a photo from my swap partner's blog and then added just a bit of whimsy. All of these fabrics were pulled from the stash, including the backing.

There is one new thing on this quilt: a red piping was added to separate the blocks from the black border. I just followed Ricky Tims' instructions on his DVD. Easey peasey. It is quilted using a red Mederia Supertwist metallic thread on top and a 40 weight neon poly Mederia in the bobbin. I am quite pleased with how the quilting came out; I think I've finally gotten the hang of machine speed and hand speed. There are only a couple of places that the stitches get tiny. The quilting almost looks like I have BSR on my machine.

All in all, I had fun making this quilt. It's being washed up now and I am going to block it dry. Then it will get popped into the mail to my partner. And the title of this post? One of the blocks in the quilt is unlike the rest. Find it.

Update 6/19/08: my partner, Ramona, has received the quilt! Here is a link to the blog post that I based the quilt on. If you are a bit squeamish don't follow the link. Just sayin'.

Binding the ALQS quilt

I thought I would update you on my ALQS quilt. This is the back: a black on black fabric. It is a bit hard to see, but I am up to the hand stitching phase of the binding.

Here's a trick: I don't use pins at this stage, I use three (3) micro binder clips. These are the smallest you can get at Office Depot. I stitch up to the first one and move it behind the third one in a leap-frog fashion. They stay put and I do not get scratched by a pin.

ALQS Sneak Peek and other Wednesday Happenings

Here is a teaser for the quilt I am making for Another Little Quilt Swap. I have been working diligently and it is actually quilted now. In fact, all I have left to do is bind it and label it. I have enjoyed the research and the 'stretch' this little quilt has made me do. I do not know if you do this, but in the swaps in which I participate, I stalk my swap partner. What I mean by that, is I read her blog and look at her flickr site(s) to discern likes, dislikes, style, etc. This little quilt is basically an abstraction of one photo that I saw on my partner's blog. I hope she likes it.

In other news, I have been working on the PI shawl. O. My. I have to unknit about every third row. What made me think that I could knit lace? I had this same problem when I knit this item. I guess I really need NO distractions when I knit lace. But sometimes that doesn't even help because I find my mind wandering and then Oops! there is a mistake about 3 rounds back.

I started riding my bicycle to work again this week. Remember how far it is? It is 10 miles (16 km) round trip. It felt good to be moving again. I have been sedentary for far too long. I guess I subconsciously felt that if CarGuy couldn't do it (move around, walk, etc) then I wouldn't do it. I need to change that way of thinking because it really, really felt good to exercise. Now how often do you hear that? I cut my riding time by five minutes this morning. This is a good thing because it means that I'm not coasting as often. But the bike needs to go to my peeps at the shop to get the front brakes adjusted. Boy are they loud!

Have any great and exciting plans for the weekend? Me? I'm going to finish up a paving project TheKid started, reconfigure two zones of a drip irrigation system, plant some tomatoes, chop down some weeds and tall grasses and other assorted garden stuff. Once I get the bag of sand for the paving project out of the back of the truck, the pop-up camper can go onto the bed of the truck for the summer. Then I can mow the grass and weeds in the back section. It's one of those domino effects, you know. This can't happen until that happens which can't happen because this other thing didn't get done. I hope that by the end of the weekend I not only will be caught up with the yarden but be a slight bit ahead. Does that ever happen?

If I have any time left over, I do want to get the binding done on the ALQS quilt. And make a bag. I warm up for free-motion quilting on a fairly large quilt sandwich which is almost covered and decided that my practice pieces like this would make excellent quilted bags and use up stash! Maybe I'll have something to show by Monday or Tuesday next week.

4SQS-Summer Sign Up

The summer round of the Four Seasons Quilt Swap is about to begin! You can find more information on the 4SQS blog. The swap will be capped at 75 participants whichever comes first, so act quickly!