Pandemic Zombie

Here is the story of how I became a zombie. It is a true story, perhaps in the Twilight Zone. 6 months ago the pandemic reared it's ugly head. Quarantine happened so suddenly! Zoom became a thing, ready or not. I didn't feel affected by the quarantine too much since we live in the mountains with lots of room to roam. Plus, around here, hardly anyone has followed the suggested social distancing, except yours truly, so it seemed like news on TV was unreal. Looking back, I was mentally numbed by the fear. Even figuring out my odds of getting sick didn't help a lot. I got internal stress and in the process of ignoring it, I became zombified. Like the perserverant person I have always been, I pushed on through and I have continued to mend quilts and make cool creations, with less vim and vigor. Blogging felt way too tough. I played a good amount of computer games. I was commissioned to finish a Cathedral Window Project 2 months ago. I was thrilled to have such a pretty project. Some of the menders I have been sent, only a mother could love. This one was interesting, and started with such a funny introduction: "I, the one who hems pants with staples and tape, have inherited pieces of what was destined to be a Cathedral Window pillow. The large triangle of work measures roughly 29 inches per side with a hypotenuse of 40 inches. There are also a few additional strips of completed squares (shown in picture) and myriad squares of patterned fabric cut for more squares."

Here is the history of the project: "The quilter's name was Flora Etta Foley, and she was my mother-in-law's mom. "MaMa" was born in the late 1890s and died in the early 1970s. She lived all her life in rural Russell County, in the central part of Kentucky. She had a dozen or so siblings, and may have finished through 8th grade. I like to think that the cathedral window quilt was a project she started just for herself, when she had the luxury of time and security to make something beautiful instead of something necessary. My husband found it (the boxed project) in 2011 when he was cleaning out his family home. He brought it to me, and I put it in a desk drawer. It's taken me only a decade (almost) to find you, but perhaps now MaMa's pillow can come to be." Here is the project midway.

15 hours of hand sewing later, I finished the pillow case, and put a zipper into one side. When I first received the project, I had gushed over the amazing handwork and how special it is. After sending the finished photos and invoice, I got this request from the client, "I wonder if I could ask one more thing from you? Could you put in words what it is about the workmanship on the cathedral windows that made you take notice? It's all magical to me, but I would be interested to know what sets these apart so I can make note of it." Here is what I wrote to her, "When I first saw the cathedral window piece, I noticed the color placement. It is made up of little scrap pieces of 50's and 60's cotton fabric in a classic range of colors found then. As in a piece of art, my eye moved around and saw smooth movement. The little windows are perfectly even. This takes a good eye and practiced hand to curl the edges without markings, and take tiny even stitches. You will see that the stitches are visible on the backside (inside) and look like perfect, even quilt stitches. This is amazing because it is all invisible on the front. My blocks are not as even or tiny and don't all go through to the back. This method of stitching, to make the back look as clean and perfect as the front is often seen in Nordic embroidery. Believe me, I tried, but it is tricky! I believe the diligence and workmanship shows a real love of the process. You have a lovely, durable piece of art."

Better Than I Could Have Ever Imagined

I was contacted recently by a woman who had a set of hand sewn felt ornaments made by her grandmother. They were embellished with beads and sequins. She wanted them sewn onto a table cloth for a gift. I was intrigued. When I received them I decided they looked like they had been made in the 1960's. They reminded me of projects I saw in my mom's McCall's magazine. I called the client back to discuss buying the table cloth and found out I had 4 days to finish the project. Somehow that had escaped me at first. I blame our (new) puppy for my inattentiveness. This was a BIG problem, because I live, as Mr. Thimblepie likes to say, 50 miles from a traffic light. Getting a large red oval table cloth, not to mention doing the sewing, seemed daunting. After pondering for a minute, I thought to call my friend Linda, who supplies table cloths for our quilt auction. Sure enough, she had one that she'd give me. WOW Talk about synchronicity. I set aside the other repair job I was working on to drive to her home and pick up the cloth. It was perfect. She thought McCall's magazine, too. When I got back home I laid out the felt ornaments. One puzzling thing was the pieces that looked kind of like snow drifts. After playing with them I realized they were script words "Noel." Turns out the client had not looked through the box and didn't know about the words either. She said she was afraid she might damage them. I laid everything out, rearranged the trees and decided they would make nice centerpiece enhancers. They were kind of tricky with beads close to the edge, but I am used to fidgety pieces. They will look pretty and sophisticated with an evergreen and pinecone arrangement in the center, maybe with some varied colored poinsettias. Next for the reindeer and Santa's sleighs, 2 sets of 4 deer and a sleigh for each side of the table cloth. I spent a day machine appliqueing all of the pieces, then used some Aleene's tacky fabric glue to hold down the little bits that eluded my machine. It is flexible and water proof when dry, and dries clear. I was able to call the client and let her know the table cloth was ready before her deadline. I sent her photos and she said, " Wowwwww! It’s better than I could have ever imagined! THANK YOU" What a kind thing to say.

What's in a Name?

I started some propeller blocks a few years ago for a commission. I liked the fierce retro airplane fabric; chosen for the fellow receiving the quilt. He had a penchant for vintage airplanes. The companion fabric, sort of pebble looking, was something I loved. The colors worked, so I gave it a try. I used chartreuse blades for the first quilt, then switched to red bandannas for this second one. I was thinking about a Quilt of Valor (QOV) for my cousin Joey Holbrook, who was a pilot during the Vietnam War for the air force. He grew up on a sheep ranch and it seemed homey and fitting. There weren't enough for a big quilt so I sewed some airplane blocks from a book titled, 'Quilts for Kids' by Carolann Palmer written in 1993. (I used to sew with Carolann at Quilter's Anonymous retreats in Washington.) After I made a fleet of airplane blocks I realized that coordinate or not, the two blocks did NOT work together. So, I made an airplane QOV for Joey and relegated the propeller blocks back into the UFO basket.

The top needs to be quilted, I will do that before Memorial Day, when the annual Holbrook family reunion happens in Chesterfield, Idaho. I'll present it to Joey and give him a big thank you hug for his service. Meanwhile, the propeller blocks finally got my attention. I auditioned several fabrics for sashing and had just enough to make it work using both of them. I did not intend for this to be a dark quilt, but between the curry inner sash, the navy outer sash, and the outer border being a dark taupey grey it is dark. The corner stones wanted to be included and then shocked me with their presence when the top was finished. As I was pondering this lovely strange little dark quilt, I thought about ceiling fans.

They are often unseen but vital in our open home. We have a wood stove that heats the loft super fast. The warm air needs to be circulated and thank goodness for ceiling fans. Also important in the summer to move cool air up and hot air down and out. So, the quilt became my ceiling fan quilt.

This little quilt borders on being one of those UFOs where I wonder, "what was I thinking?" I like it, I like the darkness, the strangeness, and the name.

Treat Yourself Like a Little Kid

A new year, a new calendar, some people say a new decade. One thing I am sure of. For me, here, it is a new day. I wish all of you a Happy New Year, full of hope and possibilities and magic. I have long made resolutions and kept many of them in my quest to grow and learn. Finish up projects that have been in limbo. Start new projects! Have more fun! Ainsley says to treat ourselves like little kids, have a snack, a warm drink, a snuggle and a rest. Be kind. Smile more. Don't take myself so seriously. Sew more! Eat the good chocolate! I am finishing up a Hanukkah Star quilt, a little belated but still apropos. It is from a pattern I found in QNM, 12/2000, called Rachel's Star. It is a 29" x 33" table quilt, made with paper pieced diamond log cabin blocks and triangles. Luminous, timeless, classic. I started this little quilt as a thank you gift for a cousin who has helped me with family history for a book I am writing. She, however, is at the age where she does not want any more belongings. So, I sent her a photo and regifted it to my son-in-law. He and some other members of my family and friends are Jewish. I used Indigo Shibori fabrics designed by Debbie Maddy for Moda. I also used some muslin dyed with onion skins for a curry yellow tone. The yellow diamond centers symbolize the candle lights of Hanukkah. The border was serendipity, as it has snowflakes which are six pointed like the star. Some of the shibori print has six pointed stars as well. Pure grace. For the back of the quilt I chose a fabulous red and chartreuse bird print by Kaffe Fassett. During Hanukkah this past week, I attended a dinner party with friends and family and found this lovely version of the same pattern: Historically the symbol became representative of the worldwide Zionist community, and later the broader Jewish community, after it was chosen to represent the First Zionist Congress in Israel in 1897. The Star of David was yellow badge that Jews were forced to wear in Nazi-occupied Europe invested the Star of David with a symbolism indicating martyrdom and heroism.

Just Like Your Eyeballs

This quilt started a few years ago as a tea towel challenge that my notorious sister Pam invited me to join. I bought the center of this wild quilt as a vintage (50's) tea towel almost exactly 6 years ago, from an Etsy vendor that is no longer in business. The challenge was presented by Victoria Findlay Wolfe, who had just come up with the concept "15 minutes of play."

Cool as a Cucumber.

I had a new Dresden Plate template and used it to make plates with pickle and random other themes. I like the strings of hot peppers, the olives, and the other wonderful fabrics from my collection. The centers of each dresden plate were left over from another wonderful quilt that had a humongous number of Kaffe appliqued circles.

Kaffe is the perfect blender fabric!

The next addition was two mason jars of pickles. I chose a quilt style called ticker-tape, which uses little scraps and looks simple but is very time consuming in it's fussiness. The good part is, it is not really fussy in the way detailed hand sewing can be, it just takes a long time to make one jar of pickles. It was fun digging through scraps to find the right pieces. Pam was with me when this part happened, and some of my favorite memories are of petting fabric together.

Silver lame' jar rings and sheer gauze mason jars.

At this point the adorable and quirky quilt top went into time out for several years. During this time I worked hard on improving my character in regards to the defect of procrastination. I did this not by finishing my UFOs. Oh no. I did it by joining groups and starting a whole bunch of other projects. I was in Stash Bee for 2 years and made many quilt blocks to trade. From this connection I got my cowboy and purple cow blocks, and the wonky churn dash blocks. Both of those quilts have been finished and displayed on this blog and at quilt shows,

I continued to write my daily pages (ala The Artist's Way.) I picked and chose which assignments I did. I skipped days often preferring to stare at Facebook instead. The more I wrote, the more benefit I got.  It began to pay off and I became more faithful to the practice of writing first then goofing off. I am doing the assignments in order, as a 12 week practice. Like doing the AA steps, a refresher helps a lot.

In the winter I also use the time to sit in front of my Ott lite for my daily dose of full spectrum light waves. It treats my winter SAD, helps me sleep better, and just feels good. When I learned that our third eye, the pineal gland, that produces melatonin, has rods and cones just like our eyeballs I was so happy. Of course it works! Better than taking melatonin at bedtime.

I decided to add a liberated border to my wild quilt. I had triangles saved from a Christmas project with quick cut hexagons similar to this pattern, I knew they would be useful someday. The colors were what I focused on, not the images. That is my own secret to fabric choice: the color, not the print. And, with lovely synchronicity, I used up almost every one of my triangles.

Even Chinese New Year fabrics!

I appliqued some little vines and hearts in the corners to carry the cucumber vine image out to the edge. Now I am quilting this fine piece. I basted it and did some machine quilting, and it also really begs for hand quilting. I am quilting on the tea towel images by hand. I also added a few wool felt leaves and embroidered the veins. Those leaves were oak leaves from a little freebie, that got trimmed to become pointy cucumber leaves.

Hand echo quilting around each item and along the edge.

This quilt is 46" x 52" such a nice wall hanging size. Finishing my UFOs is a recurring New Year's Resolution. This year for sure! What are your resolutions?

Snail Mail

Snail Mail sounds harmless. Going Postal less harmless but kind of general. Photos of personal stuff private to some, less so to those of us who are not modest by nature. It is hard to decide how to warn viewers of some NSFW material to follow. So, I'll start with a finish that is sweet, grandmotherly, old timey, hand quilted and hand pieced and a long time in completing.

Vintage Stars

My mouth is puckered as I state, "this quilt is a testimonial of the amount of time I have spent sitting on my butt." I quilted it with a Baptist Fan pattern to compliment the 30's and 40's fabrics. A friend gave me the quilt top, found in an antique store in California. The back and binding are bleached muslin. Now it will be part of my collection for a future trunk show.

And now for the NSFW topic. A famous quilter, molli sparkles, has a pattern that I bought on Craftsy titled "Don't Be a Dick." I have a special friend who collects erotic and other gay art. He is an admirer of my work, which means a lot to me. I don't appeal to everyone and that is fine. But he needs a Dick quilt and one is on it's way to him. It is wandering around in postal twilight zone,  being tracked but giving meaning to the term, Snail Mail.

Don't Be a Dick, 24" x 28"

Circumcised, with velvet

Uncircumcised with velvet

My label with a tiny thimble. Beach rocks on the back, some of my favorite pussy willow binding. 

Batik and velvet dicks, who doesn't like that? Quilted with metallic hologram Sulky thread. I felt very happy making this art. The gift is a 'just because' gift. If not everyone likes my work, then bonus to those who do like it.

Eat Dessert First

   The recurring feeling I have is too much to do and not enough free time. Even though I am retired and my days are my own I still feel this way sometimes. As I was writing my Morning Pages I listed all of my to-dos. Then I wrote about wanting to do some fun sewing as a reward for doing the chores. But wait! I thought. Eat dessert first! Do the fun stuff first and then the chores. Who is the boss of me anyway?
   So here is a recap of some of the sewing projects I have finished since my last blog post. It will look like a lot because I haven't blogged in forever.

Rose Garden lotto blocks from the quilt club. I added a few in tones with a touch of yellow to push the color perspective. 

Bugss in the garden. I LOVE bug fabric. This is Cotton and Steel from my sister. 

I am donating the Rose Garden Quilt to my quilt guild's annual Quilt Auction. A portion of the money goes to our tiny community.The rose garden blocks were a UFO from several years ago.

Angies Butterfly Get Well Quilt.

The Butterfly quilt above was made for cousin Angie who battled lymphoma, and beat it into remission. The center big butterfly is made with golf fabrics. That is a nod to my cousin Angie's favorite hobby. My sister and I made the blocks, I put it together, and then Pam quilted it. It is 84" square, made from a fun Elizabeth Hartman Pattern.

I made another butterfly quilt to raffle for my son-in-law's fund raising efforts. He had a liver transplant 3 months ago for a fatal liver disease, PSC, and is recovering very well. His transplant was a partial liver from a living donor.  The donor, Rachel is completely recovered and both have regenerated full livers.

Don't Quit Before the Miracle Happens

This quilt was sewn with all Moda batiks and the colors are so pretty. Pam is quilting this one as well.

Other quilts I've made were for my aunt Sonja who is my prime fabric enabler. She sent me the fabrics and I did the fun part...sewing.

Pioneer Spirit panel and disappearing 4 patch blocks

Hidden Kittens, a Moda kit.

I modified the eyes and nose on this quilt. the pattern had tiny eyes too wide set. I found the repetitive piecing and machine applique a bit tedious, but the overall effect is modern and fun.

8 weeks old.

A kitten after my own heart, in the fabric

6 months old, still petite at 5 lb.

And our new family member, Rootin'Tootin' Raspberry. She is a sweet independent cat who likes to spend most of her time outside running Nascar laps around the 3 acre property. Mr. Thimblepie named her after a character we remember from 1962 TV, a pistol packin' cowboy of the same name.

Ahh the politically incorrect  old days. Enjoy your hobbies and eat dessert first.

Sticky Mess

I entered a giveaway offered by Laura of slice of pi quilts and won a package of quilting templates designed by urban elementz. Laura included a note and asked me to let her know what I thought about the tear-away pantograph paper. Well... since you asked...

The directions said to use spray adhesive such as 505. I had a little bit left in a can, so perfect. The tissue paper was the right length, it fit my project perfectly, and I used up the last of the spray to adhere the paper to the quilt. I didn't want it to slip around and get weird. My little quilt is 31" x 47." I used iron adhesive batting as well, so that I wouldn't have pins under the tissue paper. It quilted quickly, in less than 30 minutes. I got to practice my FMQ, which was a little trickier than I thought it would be. The pantograph kept me from spiraling into smaller curls. I recall looking at this when I entered the giveaway, thinking "well that looks easy. Who needs a pattern?" I'll tell you who: people who don't practice their FMQ.

So, next the directions said, "once quilted, rip the tear away sheets off the quilt. Note: use tweezers to remove any small bits of tear away paper that might be left under stitches."

I used my seam ripper and found it helped with slicing the paper inside the loops. There was very little ripping of tissue paper because it was stuck to the fabric very well. It took me over 3 hours to remove all of the paper in a very tedious process. I tried using tweezers and my finger nail to remove small bits of paper, but was worried that I'd disturb stitches. Side note: the fabric was sticky! Well, duh.

The paper was sticky. My hands were sticky. The whole process was sticky. It didn't want to let go into the garbage can. By the end of this process I was a teensy bit tense. I figured that I would rinse the quilt and the rest of the tissue paper under threads would dissolve. Wrong. And, the fabric was still just as sticky. So against my better judgement and usual practice for a quilt made from vintage blocks, I used spray wash all over the quilt and washed it again with detergent. Twice. Finally it was not sticky. But the tissue paper was still hanging under threads like Al Gore's chad's in Florida election booths. So I finished picking out the tissue with tweezers as I thought about how to do this differently next time.

My sister Pam, who does custom long arm quilting entirely FMQ said just practice and toss the templates. Sure, but I wanted to try this product. So other than practicing, which is for losers, I thought of using dressmaker's carbon and a tracing wheel. The templates could be reused that way, as well. The quilt would still need to be washed.

The little blocks that had seemed dingy and boring really sparkled after the triple washing. Major bonus. And the quilting, very different for me, was a nice amount for this little baby quilt.

 I used lilac and orange for the flanged binding.

Here is the backing, repro vintage red and white. And my little label with my thimble insignia.

This is one of the finishes for /finish-along-2018-round-2. It will be gifted to a niece who is expecting a baby girl in July.

Finishing What I Started

I have worked to become more of a finisher rather than indulging my impulses and being mainly a starter. Starting new quilts and projects is so fun and exciting. Getting past the middle part of questioning whether the project is really worth it is the tougher part, and the finishing has often been under the pressure of a deadline. That whole procrastinating thing got tiresome to me, because of the lameness of shoddy workmanship and making excuses.

So... I am joining a "Finish Along."  Three months to finish, no consequences if I don't finish, prizes to some lucky quilters (Including, hopefully, yours truly,) and new friends in the interwebs.

Here is my list, ready, set, go!

1. Bugs in the Rosegarden. This small quilt is 44" x 57." The blocks were from my quilt club. I added sashing and borders. The back is pieced pinks, mainly a lovely rosy fossil fern. It is ready to quilt.

2. Thrifty Thirties. These old blocks were found at a thrift store by my sister, Pam. She gave them to me knowing that I love the challenge of turning straw into gold. The quilt is 32" x 47." I sashed it aiming for a woven look. The back is red 30's reproduction.

3. Butterflies. This is a get well quilt for my cousin, Angie, who is in treatment for lymphoma. She asked for a butterfly quilt for her bed, and I told her that the only good thing about cancer is that it pushes her to the front of the quilt line. I made #12 blocks and sister Pam made #5, including one huge butterfly. There are a few more blocks to make. I am going to finish the top as my goal, and Pam is going to longarm quilt it. It is an Elizabeth Hartman pattern called, Lepidoptera. It will be 84" square.

4. Hope's Star.  I blogged about this a few days ago. this will be about 32" square when it is finished. It is a baby quilt for my cousin Hope who has 2 young adult children and is surprisingly expecting a baby later this summer. It is made from 30's reproduction prints in pattern called Original Star by Fons and Porter. I want to finish it soon so I can enter it in the Council Qult Show in June, as the theme this year is stars.