I last posted on 3/15, about my upcoming retreat to Empty Spools in Asilomar. I had a very good time, too much to go over in print. I communed with the quilting community, and had a few nice walks on the beach and through the town of Pacific Grove. I worked a lot on collage-ing too. The hardest part for me was letting go of the “paint-by-number” mentality, allowing the print of the fabric to do the textures and coloring. Susan Carlsen is a good mentor/teacher for this, she has a very encouraging way about her, to help you get the feel for collage and make it work. I have this photo of my owl, Trusty Friend. I still need to add some layers of tulle, and quilting.

Part of the Empty Spools program is to have a classroom walk about on the last full day. I get a lot of inspiration doing this and get to see a bunch of techniques and ideas to try on my own. Pricilla Bianchi was giving a class using her striped fabrics and Guatemalan woven fabrics. I took her class a while ago at PIQF, I bought a few ½ yard woven stripe patterned pieces at the time too. I can’t find the quilt blocks we worked on in class, but I was inspired to do another stripe quilt. Pricilla had this one with her, on display, and a few more on her website.

I really like the log cabin one, but I didn’t have enough of the “right” material to make it. The stripes, however, I did. I cut as many 3 ½” triangles as I could, and sewed them into squares. There were too many to lay out on my design board, so I switched to the guest bed. Once I got them together in a pleasing way, I sewed the diagonal rows together and added blue HST’s to the edges. This is where the “shrinkage” occurred, my final top size is 42 x 55. Its a good throw size, but I was kinda shooting for a full size, like the bed it was on.

I’ve been working on finishing the Christmas figs quilt currently on my frame. Yesterday I quilted the last block, now I just need to do the sashing, I am planning on computer stitched bead strings in each part. The outer borders are skinny too, only about two inches wide. I may just do parallel lines an inch apart.

Be Kind.

I started this BOM in January of this year, with the first four blocks. Then, due to some kind of supply/shipping issue, I didn’t get the February set until last week. I have been working on them this week, and realized that they have a lot of pieces and take a few hours to make. I counted the pieces, 115, which I probably shouldn’t have, but I figured out why it is taking so long to put these together. After seven of them, I have a system down, thankfully the instructions are easy to use and helpful. There are 16 of these blocks in total, and then 8 different ones. I think I have said this before, but I am glad this is a BOM, otherwise I don’t think I would finish it.

Speaking of long term projects, I am steadily stitching on the Pilgrims Progress Sampler. It is starting to look like something now. I have completed two pages, there are twelve in all, the small motifs and patterns are interesting to stitch. I like to have a goal each time I stitch, to do one, last night I did the bird cage and a bit of the lettering. I started to fall asleep (thanks to the hour lost thing) while stitching, which is not conducive to counting, so I packed it up. Generally though I do about 200 stitches in a session, not having to change colors makes it a little easier. Still have to count accurately though.

I am really looking forward to my up coming retreat at Empty Spools next week. I have a class with Susan Carlson, Fabric Collage. We have already met in an introductory Zoom session, and talked over what we need to do before class and what we need to bring. No sewing machines will be used, as the process of collage-ing will most likely take all five days. I am using this Great Gray Owl photo as my inspiration.

The Great Gray Owl is a character named “Trusty Friend” in the novel “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr. I really enjoyed listening to the story, and due to the magic of the internet, Gray owls started popping up in my Pinterest feed. I had been searching for an animal to collage for a few months, when this photo came up. A magnificent bird, more pictures here, the eyes are really that yellow too. I’m thinking of bringing a suitcase full of fabrics, as I know I’ll be using lots of little bits to create the shadings in the feathers. Since I’ll be driving there, I can load up my car, and not have to worry about overweight bags and checking them. I may do a blog post from there, we’ll see.

Be Kind.

I have a fondness for palindromes, be they numbers, words or patterns. I think patterns are called something else though, tessellations. Todays is the 393rd post, the last day of the shortest month. I should have posted on 2/22/22, but I was doing something else.

I have a bunch of works in progress, and a few FFO’s to show. The cross stitched Pansies have a frame and mat, I used a shadowbox frame from Michaels for it, with a circular cut mat from CustomMatCA an Etsy shop that will cut a mat to your specifications. I wanted a 7 and a 1/4 inch circle centered in a 9 ½ inch square, and that’s what I got. You may remember that I stitched this piece on a slightly small piece of Aida, which was rectangular. I wanted to frame it as a square, so the round mat hides the edges that don’t wrap around the backing. I used acid free double sided sticky tape to stitch the stitchery and adhere it to the backing. At some point the glue will probably give out, and I will have to redo it, but finished is finished and I think it looks good.

The Cecropia moth stitchery is also framed, I especially like how the gray wood frame compliments the colors. My only lament is the white linen I used, and how the white colored thread is lost to the eye.

I have been stitching on my LongDog Sampler “Pilgrims Promise” exclusively, yep, it is keeping my attention. I have to admit that I did pre-buy a chart that will be released at the upcoming Nashville Stitchery Market. It’s called “Love Reigns”, and it is by Teresa Kogut, but I doubt that I will start it when I get it. I do want to start a small piece soon, that will be a gift for a friends birthday. I have to get the threads for it though, the pattern calls for Gloriana silks, which are a bit on the costly side, 6.50 a skein, and there are 7 colors. I’m thinking DMC would be a good alternative, and I have a few extra hanging around here. Once I kit it up, I may alternate it with stitching on the Pilgrim. I am enjoying stitching with one color, and the motifs are interesting, fun to see the dots develop into patterns, leaves, and animals.

I finished the Heart quilt, I just need to iron it a bit. I thought the ironing fairies might do it for me if I left it on the bed, but it seems only the wrinkle fairies have danced on it. I also got all the cut off triangles sewn together with a border around them. I may add another round of blocks, as this top is too big for a doll quilt and too small for a baby quilt. Notice the “fancy” mitered border corners :).

I started on two pillow shams to match a quilt I made a few years ago. I used Hoffman 1895 batiks to make it and didn’t have enough scraps to make the eight blocks I need for the shams. I contacted Batiks Etc. and Sew What Fabrics and sent them a few scraps of the colors I used. Robin was able to match them and I got a yard of each to use. I am thankful that Hoffman is pretty consistent with their dye lots, and for the excellent customer service at Batiks Etc. The completed paper foundations are piling up and I’ll be getting these together soon.

On the frame, I am slowly working my way through the Christmas figs quilt, one block at a time. I’m not sure what I want to do in the sashings yet. I am hoping it’ll come to me soon.

Be Kind.

Yesterday I visited a ceramic tile and tableware store, Heath Ceramics, in San Francisco. They make custom tiles for decorative use, not for only bathrooms and kitchens. They have patterns on display as 18″ square blocks, very design wall like. These two caught my eye.

These tiles look just like the 112 triangles I have from my current quilt top that I’m working on. The Marcus fabrics Aunt Grace heart quilt, a free pattern from them, has 56 hearts made with the cut off corners technique. I’m thinking that I can use the ones from the lower edges to make a scrappy quilt.

I started the heart quilt last week as a way to use up the box (see ☝️) of 1930’s repro fabrics I have ‘collected’. These started life with the Farmers Wife’s quilt, went on to a few scrappy squares and scrappy diamonds quilts, and finally to the Simple Pleasures BOM quilt.

I fear it’s a never ending bottomless box though.

Be Kind.

I completed the four blocks for the January installment of A ribbon Runs through it. By the fourth one, I was able to sew it together quickly, and without any ripping. The fabric packs ship mid-month, so I’m good to go for the next installment of my other BOM, Reunion.

I finally got the Spider and the Fly quilt finished. It has been on my longarm for(ever) a long time. Not for lack of trying to finish it, but because my system is not working as it should. I got my longarm back from its repair/tune-up on January 18th, it was gone for three weeks. They replaced the missing check spring, and didn’t find anything else wrong with it. It is working well now. It’s the q-matic system that is spazzing. It will quilt for a few inches and then the machine will stop stitching, but still moves with the robotics. There is some disconnect there, I have checked all the connections and updated all the drivers and reset everything that could be reset. Still, same issues. While limping through finishing the last ten inches of the last row of pantograph on the S&F quilt, I wrote down all the steps I went through to get the machine to work. It is a two page list, single spaced. I have sent this in to the techs at Bernina, with my dealers help, and I hope that they can come up with a solution for me. I think it has to do with the control board in the control box. Or that the computer, which is four years old, needs a memory upgrade.

I am loading up my Christmas figs sampler in the meanwhile, as I can do some free hand and ruler work on it and enjoy using my machine again. This morning I laid the wool batting over the frame so it can relax a bit, this is a bagged, precut piece of Hobbs Heirloom. I want to keep this quilt for myself, as I really like it and spent a year making it, well, not 365 days, but 12 months of a BOM kit. I still like the fabrics and the colors. Joann Figarella has come out with a Christmas Figs ll, which is just as pretty and coordinates well with the first version. I am almost done with all my scraps, I probably have enough left over for one more lap quilt. I also have a bunch of the Halloween figs scraps, but most of those I used in the Spider and the Fly quilt. Might be one more small quilts worth there too. First, I’ll put a binding on the S&F quilt though.

The Pansies are almost done, I didn’t make my end of the month goal of finishing them, but I am getting closer. The leaves are made up of many different greens, I think I have one more bud to make and three more leaves. I am trying to come up with a creative way to frame or finish this piece. My “frugality” caused me to use a smaller than desirable piece of Aida, and the lower right side has only about an inch of selvedge. I was thinking of using a circular or oval mat, or frame, if I can find one. I just may end up making a small pillow.

Be Kind.