"The Retreat" ~~ Finished!!

Way back in July of 2019, I attended a quilt retreat in Baton Rouge with other members of the BRMQG. After I got home, I finished up the top and added it to the bin. A couple of weeks ago I dug through the bin and chose this top to quilt. 

A little blue thread, feathers in the border, and some improv quilting.

I don't know what I did unless I really look at the individual motifs. In other words, I just had fun.

The back of the quilt is this solid blue linen and, because it was too small for the top, a plaid flannel. They look good together but I'm not real sure what's going to happen when it gets washed. 

I took lots of photos of the back so that I can go back and look at those motifs because some are new-to-me ideas. 

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	The Retreat
	Size:	48" X 60"
	Fabrics:	fabric from stash
	Pattern:	my design
	Backing:	from stash
	Batting:	100% Cotton
	Binding:	fabric from stash
	Quilting:	improv with various motifs
	Completed:	2020

SLW is quilted

This quilt has been a worrisome thing. I've enjoyed the celebrations, but the fretting parts have not been fun. There's so much to it though, that I feel compelled to deal with the parts, good and bad.

The sun makes a stained glass illusion.

After the Sherry Lynn Wood workshop, I thought seriously of abandoning the chunks of fabric that I'd put together but guild sisters said to keep going. I decided to take it on as part of the Cotton Quilters "Finish on a UFO" challenge. 

I like the purples, which may be blue in reality.

I tossed in AHIQ's hourglass challenge--because what's a challenge without a challenge and I'm an idiot, sometimes--and found that I really liked how the hourglass blocks helped to make sense of it all. Then AHIQ helped again when I remembered the old Chinese coins challenge and used that to come up with a setting. Ann and Kaja, thanks for the help!

a row of hour glass blocks

The idea of quilting this was overwhelming. I folded it up and put it in the "to be quilted" bin, where the possibility of never looking at it again is kind of real. But where would that get me after all the other challenges? So a week or so later, I made a backing, loaded everything on, and tried to make a plan. 

Some of the original pieces

I should have known better. I don't make plans! Those are throwbacks from the old teaching days when everything was planned, or schemed. :) No, these days I have to plug in the machine and hold onto the handles. Something happens. Some times I have to rip out the stitches, but mostly I just play along with the muse that is the machine. (Doesn't that have a poetic ring?)

The neutral has a green undertone that may influence the binding.
But it's too soon to tell.

The quilting is rather unconventional. I mostly followed the shapes, but occasionally added some sort of motif in areas that needed additional quilting. I like that quilting it this way tends to draw people in because the motifs are a surprise. The kids started looking for circles and other shapes. They asked a couple of times how many to look for. I haven't the slightest idea! Ask the muse.

Linking up with
For the love of geese #47 Thanks, Denise!

SLW quilt ~~ a finished top

I started this quilt in a Sherry Lynn Wood workshop back in November. Since it was a two day workshop, I brought home only the beginnings of something. I could not determine what that something was. Can you tell from this picture that I was not impressed? Thanks to my friend Glen of Quilts and Dogs for taking this shot when I was completely lost in my piece.

In January I challenged the Cotton Quilters' Guild to bring a difficult unfinished project to the next meeting. At that time we would each present the project and tell the group what our challenge was. In March we were to bring the project to show. The beauty of the idea was that everyone got to choose her own piece and decide for herself what she would try to accomplish. 

 For example, one lady brought in a completed top and challenged herself to have it quilted (though not necessarily completed). I brought in the "SLW mess" and challenged myself to figure it out and complete the top. In March I would show the top and challenge myself to quilt (or complete) it.

Since AHIQ (adhocimprovequilts.blogspot.com) was having an hourglass challenge, I decided to add a few hourglasses. That was the pivoting point. After that the pieces seemed to just make themselves. 

As you all know there have been all manner of crazy things happening in the world. The March meeting was a sewing room tour and, because of the Coronavirus, we won't meet in April. 

I decided that I would still meet the challenge and get it to a completed top for the beginning of April. But look at that messy confusion on the design wall. I needed a strategy. Back to AHIQ, of course. At one point we had a Chinese Coins challenge going...What if? 

   



I tested my theory and voila! If you have too much happening, separate the confusion. Calm it, slow it, sort it. Just do something to give the eye a way to see the ideas individually. I used every inch of the neutral. Otherwise I'd have made the top and bottom strips wider to make the quilt longer. I am much happier with it now, however. I'm not exactly looking forward to quilting it, but once it's on the longarm, something will happen.

Mrs. Mary Lee's next finish

Before the flu came for a long visit, I worked on another of Mrs. Mary Lee's quilts. (My parents' neighbor. I wrote about one of her quilts here and about another finish quilt here.) I've had three quilt tops for, uhm, four months already. Anna brought them when she picked up the last ones, but we discussed my getting to them after the holidays. It's after the holidays, so...

For the most part, Anna gives me carte blanche on the quilting. That is the most fun! Stress-free play! And while I do enjoy piecing my own quilts, I really enjoy playing on the longarm. 

Here are a few pictures of the back where, hopefully you can see the quilting.

Thanks for visiting!

Another of Mrs. Mary Lee's quilts ~~ finished

I am happily reading Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. It's slow going—I'm on page 113 of 560—but the story is getting more interesting as I advance. Pasternak won, but declined, the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958 for this volume about Russian life beginning with the Bolshevik Revolution moving through World War I to 1930. One reason that the novel is a struggle is that I have to stop and research events, people, terminology, and so on, quite often. It's a big undertaking, to say the least. Why am I doing it? That's another post. 

I've been working on a few small projects. One project seems to be ongoing—that's some little shorts and pants for Miss Milly. She is potty-training and occasionally has an accident. Keeping her in clean clothes is easy. If there are extra clothes!

I decided that it's easy enough and cheap enough to make shorts. Plus, I don't have to go shopping—the best reason, I think. The fabrics were in my nursery stash. Two pieces were too small to make pants, so shorts they are. 


The weather predictors in our area keep promising that it's going to turn cool any day now. Finally we can feel a little dip in the temperatures, from high 90s down to mid/low 90s. Eventually we'll need some pants, so I've made a couple pair of those and a couple capris, as well. These two are ready for hems and elastic and two were worn home before I could get pics. 

The other project under my needle has another of Mrs. Mary Lee's quilts. The blocks in this one are especially pretty and difficult. Every block has four Y seams! Who would want to make this many Y seams? I guess if you've already made well over 100 quilts by hand, a few Y seams aren't too much to take on. 

I liked the square motif so much that I decided to stick with it. I call this "squarish" but, while I thought it up on my own, I've seen it on Pinterest since. I guess I'm not the only one with good ideas. 
It reminds me of 1960s Formica counter tops. 

I'll leave you with a few pictures of Mrs. Mary Lee's very pretty quilt. It's 70" x 86" in size and it will go home to Anna, who will trim it and add binding before giving it to a family member.

   

Marley and the Machine, or The Bug Bit

Marley has been hanging out with her GramGram and Poppa all week. Entertaining a nine-year-old can be difficult, unless you're willing to ignore the technology in her hands. I'm not. That would, in essence, be ignoring her. 

So how to entertain a nine-year-old? Well, it helps to have a different kind of machine. A sewing machine, of course. She wanted to learn to sew. What grandmother could deny a grandchild such a request? Certainly, not this one.

I put her to work practicing straight lines. Then curvy lines. Then turning corners. She was pretty good at all of them. We started on her project of choice, a pillow to match her room. That was too easy and quick. Nevertheless, on day two we set about making a smaller pillow for Darla, her dog. She needed no instruction and very little help. 

Oh good. I was able to turn on my long-arm and make a few stitches on my own project. However, it was short-lived and we needed yet another project. She asked to make a quilt. Yes, perhaps a quilt would be just the project to occupy her for a while and allow me to work on my quilting. 

She chose the first pieces of fabric, all stripes. I suggested that if she wanted stripes for the whole quilt that we intersperse bright colors with neutrals. She pulled all the stripes she liked, and I cut out the 6½" x 8½" patches using the rotary cutter and showed her how to put them together, pin and stitch. By the end of the day, she had sewn a neutral to each bright. 

There are only eight blocks per row and seven rows, so by noon on Wednesday she finished all the rows. We began working on putting the rows together and she took the quilt top home to show her mom and dad.

Thursday we needed another project because I had not finished my own project on the long-arm, which means her quilt could not get loaded. 

She was off and running when I mentioned making a simple, elastic-waist skirt. I should have looked for a pattern but decided to just take her measurements and cut. Oops. It fits but barely. I may have to make some alterations next week. For now, though, she's thrilled with it. 

And that's been the first week of Marley and the machine. It's possible the sewing bug has gotten to her and bit hard. Let's hope so, anyway. I'd like for her to get another project or two completed before school begins in the hopes it means she'll pick it back up during holidays or next summer. 

Retreat finish (the final one)

Some time ago (it may be years now) I decided it was time to use some of the 2½” strips that I had cut perhaps years before that. You see, this is a story of epic proportions. Because years before either of those I began worrying that I would leave behind tons of fabric when I go. What foolishness! Still, I worked on a series of small quilts. 

The nursery rhyme series: Nimble and Quick was a blue bargello, both versions of He Loves Me was Dresden plate applique, Around a Girl's World, The Coolest Bug Collection, That Was Against the Rules, Fast Asleep, and so on. Some have titles from lines of the nursery rhymes, all are inspired by nursery rhymes. 

This quilt is both, inspired by "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater" and titled using the phrase "couldn't keep her." The inspiration came in the form of using pumpkin orange with those blue 2½” inch strips with the strips representing bars. Did you notice that the bars are not all going in one direction? I could have fixed that but I had just finished this improv top and was still in improv mode. 

Take that orange square however you want: a pumpkin, an escape route, a key hole. It's your take on the quilt. Notice in this picture that I had to add a horizontal strip in the orange to make the half square triangles match up. Somewhat. Up close like this you can see how much the medallion is off. Really? Geez. 

But I just wanted a finish and so I refused to rip anything out. An agreement I made with myself--no ripping. So things went in sideways and corners don't meet and goodness knows how many other problems, but stay they did. After all, have you read nursery rhymes lately? There are lots of issues in those little poems, but I love them anyway, and I'll love this little quilt just the same. It's in the TO BE QUILTED bin under about 15 other tops. 

Do you just leave in the mistakes? 

Do the mistakes make you like the quilt less?

Or do they have to be corrected? 

Do the mistakes drive you nuts if you don't?