Hand Quilting the Klara Annabella

I've hand quilted before as part of church sewing circle, but for the first time, I'm going to hand quilt my own quilt.  I pieced this top last summer as a living room throw, and I began quilting yesterday.  I'm going to quilt in casual concentric circles using the hoop as guide; this will be my major handwork for a week at the beach coming up.

The lovely name comes from the printed names on the fabrics' selvedge.

Kim's Quilt, Revealed!

It's done.
Hallelujah!
I connect this poem to it, by way of a name:

Fishing in the Keep of Silence
by Linda Gregg

There is a hush now while the hills rise up
and God is going to sleep. He trusts the ship
of Heaven to take over and proceed beautifully
as He lies dreaming in the lap of the world.
He knows the owls will guard the sweetness
of the soul in their massive keep of silence,
looking out with eyes open or closed over
the length of Tomales Bay that the herons
conform to, whitely broad in flight, white
and slim in standing. God, who thinks about
poetry all the time, breathes happily as He
repeats to Himself: There are fish in the net,
lots of fish this time in the net of the heart.

The front:


The back, intended to be reversible:


I started with Kim's vision, explained here. I gained impetus from Gee's Bend quilts.

My method:
I used three sizes of patches and then I framed the whole thing with long strips of brown interspersed with a few random patches. I pieced the back with some fabrics from the front, plus a big block of green and a big block of gold; unfortunately, some of the piecing was wonky here. Nervously, I started machine quilting with gold thread. I stitched a long wavy line from corner to corner of the patches; using that as my guide, I stitched on both sides until I ran into the frame. For the frame, I did concentric rectangles in brown thread. I bound the quilt in dark brown.



My satisfaction with the finished quilt was deepened by Kim's pleasure and excitement when I gave it to her. Truly I am dreaming in quilt designs these days because of all this. . .



See the dark green shirt pocket (usable!) patch below Kim's forearm?

The Comforter, Felted

Remember that I tied the blue bricks comforter with wool yarn and expected it to felt when I washed it? Well, it's washed now, and beautifully felted. . .sweet polka dots. I like it.

Before:



After:

Journey Bag

As I made Kim's quilt, I prayed for her, smiled over memories (we've known each other since high school freshman year), and dreamed about her future. This is the third quilt I've completed, but it's the first one that makes me feel like an artist. I recall Kim's vision that started the quilt, fumbling around for fabrics, taking the advice of dear readers regarding Gee's Bend quilts, and getting deeply excited by my vision. Making this quilt has increased my confidence and vision as an artist (I'm an artist!) and given me new ideas to play with.

I can't imagine this quilt going to a stranger; I know Kim will treasure it and I'll see it from time to time, so I can release this quilt with a light heart.



The other morning, I made a traveling bag for the journey so Kim can take it safely back to the big city. I used only my scrap bag and tried to echo the theme of the quilt without using any of the actual fabrics (Kim wants the leftovers for her own projects).



I have a few ends to tie up:
1. name the quilt
2. embroider a name/date tag and attach it
3. "photograph the crap out of it" (says my husband)

Birthday Treats

My birthday was in March and I like to arrange treats for myself.

I went to a museum to see antique Amish and Mennonite quilts.






I read my sweet new vintage paperback, The Nutmeg Tree, by Margery Sharp all afternoon. ($2 from the library book sale) It's my definition of a satisfying romance - sharp prose, some food and dress details, dimensional characters, and a tidy ending.




And dinner out (sans children - thanks H&J!) with my husband, parents and sis, eating fabulous Pittsburgh salads: beef tips with fries and coleslaw on top of the greens.





There were other treats, undocumented, that my loved ones gave me: books, apple caramel tart, extra babysitting to go thrifting, a little surprise birthday party complete with cupcakes and candles. It was a wonderful way to turn 35.

Some of the thank you cards I made to send out. . .

The Last Blast of Winter: Two More Scarves

After the picnic, the weather turned frosty again. Ahhhhh, spring.

Before it is hot again, let's look at another winter scarf:



I knit that one a few years ago to go with my pale blue winter coat. The scarf is OK, but. . .yawn.

So here, I submit to you, another recent sewing therapy session. Inspired by the colors and weight of the previous scarf, I made a scarf for my blue coat that I LOVE.



One side is plaid. The other is pale blue silk (from an old shirt of mine that was stained) with red and a wild-card flowered rectangle. I interlined it with some leftover sheets from this project and then machine quilted it in red.

I LOVE IT because it feels good on my neck, it's reversible, and it's not boring. The right blue with a cherry red is so satisfying, isn't it?

Commencing Quilting

Yesterday, with my friend Rebecca as witness, I started to machine quilt Kim's quilt. A big deal for me. A really big deal. . .it's for Kim, but I love it so much, so for both those reasons I want the quilting to be next to perfect. I wanted the quilting (a new design I dreamed up) to complement the rich colors, not distract from them. Consequently, I used dark yellow thread, instead of white, so it would be more subtle.

And, so far, I'm THRILLED. I feel like a rock star. It looks so good to me!! It also seems to be going quickly, so I hope Kim will be snug under her quilt soon.

I realize the photo doesn't show quilting detail, but I promise lots of good photos when it's done. Right now I'm just happily immersed in quilting (I'm sure it will get boring in a few days - it's a full size quilt).

The daffodils are a new bunch from my friend A, picked along the lane to her farm.. . .left at my door with a bag of magazines one night. Aren't I blessed?

A Comforter is Done!

Celebrate with me! I'm so pleased to say that I finished this queen-sized comforter Saturday at my church women's retreat (thanks for your help, Naomi!). Several women bring handwork to do while we sit and talk. Because I'm so excited about finishing this thing, I bumped the Sunday dinner post to tomorrow. Comforters do not get finished every day around here, so bear with me.

Pattern Inspiration:
Seeing this quilt of Leila's. I knew I wanted a scrappy quilt with a simple pattern. I made the bricks 4" x 8" which is a standard size for real bricks.

Color Inspiration:
I love blue. And our bedroom is drowsy, cool blue, so I wanted the quilt to be easy on the eye without a lot of contrast. Yet it could not be too boring, so I threw in a little lavendar and cool green and a few shots of strong blue. To keep the colors even calmer, I used all that white sashing. The dark blue ties and binding were a last minute wing-it that I really like.

Materials and Cost:
I bought a few inexpensive vintage pieces of fabric with this quilt in mind, but most of it came from Rebecca's stash.

Some of the white sashing is actually painting dropcloths because I was in a rush to finish piecing and didn't want to spend money for plain white cotton. So there are a few spots of Coachlight (our dining room color) on the sashing!

The backing is a old blue sheet whose partner's elastic wore out and got cut up for blue bricks.

The batting is a cheap polyester blanket I got from Target; it was too slimy-feeling for my husband and me, so I decided to be 1930s-style and make it into a quilt.

I estimate the total cost is $45.



Quilting:
I intended to quilt it, but that dratted blanket prevented quilting. So I tied it with dark blue wool from Rebecca (and that will felt down when I wash the comforter to put away for the summer - I'll show another pic then).

Binding:
Navy cotton from my stash that was intended for napkins, but I couldn't get the hang of the rolled hem foot.

This comforter was never intended to be a showpiece, so I don't mind the flaws in it. I'm pleased that I got to play with color and make something usable.



We slept happily under it that very night. . . it's heavy, warm, my favorite blues . . .and it's DONE.



Now, on to Kim's quilt and the living room throw.

Gee's Bend Inspiration

I grew up saturated with a certain kind of modern Mennonite quilt: carefully coordinated fabric bought specially for the design, intricate piecing with even more intricate infinitesimal white quilting on top. The colors were peach, Williamsburg blue, mauve, and forest green in the 80s. Now it seems to be pink and green. These are the kinds of quilts that are made and sold at fundraising auctions. Until a few years ago, I thought that's what quilts were.

(Oh dear, I only have time for a short post - I've got the can of worms in my hand).

Well, in short, I checked out The Quilts of Gee's Bend as recommended by Leila. I had heard of Gee's Bend before, from USPS stamps, but never seen the quilts or the women up close.

I am utterly amazed. The quilts of Gee's Bend are amazing. Shifting definitions and ideas in my head. Already narrowing my eyes at my stash and my future quilt plans. Fingering Kim's quilt with fresh vision and desire. Wishing I could go talk to the ladies of Gee's Bend and feeling shy.



This winter, I had been asking myself in irritation why I can't find a shorter project to sew than quilts; I even dabbled in painting and wallhangings. But I adore the play of color and texture in quilts and then you get to USE THEM - other projects just don't satisfy. I have been re-inspired by The Quilts of Gee's Bend.

Beginning Kim's Quilt

Kim! Spoiler Alert!!!

My friend Kim commissioned a quilt from me. Her guidelines were broad: orangey-red, browns; warm, rich colors; use up-cycled goods. I've been shopping other stashes I know about and even bought a corduroy shirt at Salvation Army.

Tonight I just couldn't think of a reason not to begin (well, except for vacuuming and piffle, vacuuming).

And I despaired because it looked ugly. I rarely do "pretty" as an aesthetic for anything, but really, I told myself, maybe I should have aimed more for pretty here. All the fabric seemed so strange, but I made myself work on the block for an hour because patchwork is magical after a few rows.

I really really like it. What do you think?




I am cutting, designing, and sewing all in one swoop. It's more time consuming than I thought; I don't know enough about quilting to know if anyone else does it this way. My plan at this point is to machine quilt stitch in the ditch (maybe using yellow thread!). I haven't found a backing yet. I want to start sleuthing for a sheet