A Tale of Two Quilts

"It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times..."  A Tale of Two Cities was a favorite of mine to teach, especially the opening (and of course the closing) lines.  Our lives are made of good times and bad times, often happening at the same time.  My grandson Ryan is currently reading this book in his sophomore English class, and I hope his teacher is making this book come alive.  Each character illustrates so vividly how our actions matter, even and especially after death.

Christopher's Grief Quilt from his brother Bradley's shirts is finished.  And this has definitely been for him and his family the worst of times.  I didn't know Bradley or any of the LeGrand family.  But through Chris I have met them, learned about them, and have felt their pain over the loss of Bradley.  I wonder if Bradley had any idea of how he might be missed - I wonder if any of us realizes the impact our lives have on others. Sometimes it takes a movie like A Wonderful Life or a book like A Tale of Two Cities to lead us to this realization.  For others it takes a death like Bradley's for us to know how fragile our lives are.  Chris and his family will mourn Bradley forever as they also celebrate his life. 

To balance the sadness in my studio when I'm working on grief projects, I like to do baby quilts.  And one fell into my lap at the recent Chicago Modern Guild Quilt Retreat.  The 15 of us strip-pieced 2.5" strips and within 30 minutes we had the blocks for 3 baby quilts made.  I volunteered to assemble and quilt one of these quilts for Project Linus.  As I worked on this quilt I couldn't help but think about the sick child and parent it will go to and the small security it will give.  I thought about how blessed my life has been and how much support I have to meet my life's challenges.  I'm also starting two baby quilt this week for my friend Cathy's fifth grandchild and friend Cecilia's third grandchild.  For their families, it is the best of times.

Paula's Kenyan Wall Hanging

Today was a limited sewing day. After working on Christopher's quilt for an hour, I switiched over to Paula's project - it's small, it's fabulous, and it's finished. She made us a beautiful photo album of our trip to Kenya, and I think this hanging is a fair trade!  Now I can give my undivided attention to Christopher and have his quilt finished by Saturday.  23" x 31"

Definite Progress

This is one of my favorite parts of the quilt process.  All layers are basted together, and the quilting has begun.  With basting I work from the middle towards the edges.  But when sewing I start with the outer edges and work my way in, taking out the straight pins as I go.  There are still a lot of pins in Christopher's quilt, but I've taken out almost 150 so far. 

With every row of stitches I can see this quilt taking its shape and its final form.  By Sunday it ought to be perfect.

Note about quilting:  my work space is L-shaped and big.  It's perfect for supporting this quilt as I work my way around and around it.  In lieu of a side table, an ironing board can be used to provide support for the quilt - and the quilter!

Ready for Pin-Basting

All three layers of Christopher's quilt are ready to put together. The top has its borders. The batting has been breathing now for several days, and the backing has been seamed together and has the words on it. And John is always the best sport about helping me assemble these three layers and transfer them to the work tables. This quilt will 70" x 90".

Quilting Retreat

I went to my first one ever and had the best time. 15 of us from the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild were at the Siena Center in Racine, WI. One highlight of the weekend was just seeing how others work and what they were working on. Another was getting to see and use a fabric die cutter, thanks to Ebony Love.  Best of all was getting to know the women in this group.  The CMQG is fairly new, and this was its first retreat.  It went so well that there is already the planning in the works for one in November and one in March 2012!

I worked on three projects and found my biggest challenge was space.  Although I took a big box of scraps, I only worked with my reds.  My stopping point was a space issue - I need now to border these pieces to a uniform size and then go through the same process with other colors of scraps.  I'm thinking this will be the row of a quilt. Paula's t-shirt wall hanging was another project I had with me.  It's all assembled and now ready for the outer borders, which is part of a quilt-as-you-go process.  And these borders have to be centered and mitered.  So again, I reached a lack-of-space stumbling block and will finish it in my studio.
 

Because I knew Ebony was bringing her AccuQuilt Die Cutter, I grabbed two batiks at the last minute and used them for Drunkard's Path pieces.  I cut as many 12" squares from the two fabrics and ran them through the die cutter.  Within 10 minutes I had all my pieces.  Notice the notches!  I'm so impressed with this machine.  The rest of my retreat time was spent piecing these squares.  At some point I'll figure out exactly how many blocks I have and plot my layout on my Electric Quilt software.

Saturday after dinner CMQG President Beth divided us into three teams of 5, gave each team the same number of 2.5" strips, and told each team to make Fence Rail blocks.  My team did it in 22 minutes!  Each team's blocks are making a baby quilt like this.  I pieced this one together and will quilt/bind it for Project Linus.  Two other guild members are finishing the other ones.

I can't wait for the next retreat.  But meanwhile today I'm working on Christopher's Bradley Quilt. This quilt is my priority for the week!

Check out fellow retreater/blogger Karen's post for more details about our terrific weekend. 

Remembering Kenya

Look! Two of our favorites - grandchildren and travelling - in the same picture! We had such a terrific time in Kenya, and this wall hanging from two t-shirts, the flag of Kenya, and two great ethnic prints will always remind us of our Kenyan safari with my sister Paula and her husband Dennis. It hangs above our entertainment center, which serves as an everchanging display for the latest pictures of the grandkids and the latest travel souvenirs. 22" x 47"

Tomorrow begins a 3-day retreat with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  15 of us are heading to Racine, Wisconsin; and I'm pretty excited about going.  Since I have a studio and sew all the time, this retreat presents a special opportunity for me to do something out of my comfort zone.  So far I know I'm packing my scraps and the "ingredients" for Paula's Kenya wall hanging.  Stay tuned for what actually emerges from this weekend!

Should vs. Want vs. Did

Today was one of those rare days where I could work uninterrupted in the studio - no workout,no parent visit, no appointments, no cooking. I know that I should have gotten busy on adding the borders to Christopher's quilt. But what I really wanted to do was quilt this table runner:

However, John made one of his rare quilting requests. He asked that I begin work on the wall hanging of the two Kenya t-shirts and Kenyan flag. So I got busy on that. And it turned out to be exactly what I wanted to do.

I might have even gotten this quilted and bound except Midge, my direction reader, had some time to work on the hobo bags we started, the same one I'm stuck on.  So we spent a couple of hours finishing them. I need to carry this for a couple of day before I figure out where and if I want a snap closure and whether the handle/strap needs any adjustment.  The one thing I know about this purse is that I again have loved using Soft and Stable by byannie.com as the purse lining.

This evening I'll continue work binding one of Ebony's quilts, something I happily volunteered to do in exchange for the work she did on Cristina's quilt. 

Some days don't have enough hours in them.  Today is one of those days.  And in the back of my mind all day has been what I want to work on this weekend at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild retreat in Racine.   I still don't know - what a lovely "problem" to have!

For My Neighbor Cristina, thanks to Ebony

When I first met Cristina, she was a 7th grader who loved to touch fabrics.  She was a sponge who happily absorbed anything I showed her about quilting and sewing.  During her high school years she made several quilts in my studio.  One summer I asked her to do this Fence Rail and model this pattern and sew it as grand daughter Nikki made her own Fench Rail.  Cris found these fabrics in my stash and went to town.  And then life intervened, and this quilt was never finished. 

I thought I would finish it for Christmas 2010 and give it to Cris.  But then Ebony Love bought a long-arm quilt machine and wanted quilts to practice on.  Am I the lucky one or what?  Ebony just returned this quilt to me yesterday, and I am stunned at the density and fluidity of her quilting.  This quilt is beautiful, and her curvy quilting lines are a fabulous juxtaposition to the straight lines of this Fence Rail pattern. And Ebony's choice of thread color - perfect.

A word about Cristina's outer border.  I didn't like it when Cris chose it.  And I still remember Cristina tell me it was something unexpected and that you sometimes just have to take risks.  In hinsight?  She was right. 

I think I wanted a brighter gold color for the binding.  However, this yellow batik with the dots coordinates nicely with the border.  Click on this picture to see the details of Ebony's quilting.

Cristina is a sophomore at the University of Iowa and will be home for Spring Break in a few weeks.  I can't wait to return this quilt to her!

A Table Runner and a New Purse Pattern

It's been a luxury to have the past three days clear to sew. After getting Christopher's quilt to the next stage, my time was free. And these two projects are ones I've been eyeing and wanting to start. My love affair with all things Jinny Beyer continues, and this table runner - although a fairly simply pattern - packs a terrific visual punch because of her fabrics. I'm trying to decide whether to use the piece of backing fabric as an additional border and thus enlarge the whole runner. The finished size is 12" by 60", but I wouldn't mind making it a bit bigger for our table.

This purse has a design that I like, and I thought it would be simple to make. Wrong. Very wrong. What's making me finish this is that I love the batik of the outside of the purse and I also love the coordinating fabric for the lining. But I'm stuck on the directions and can't figure out what to do next. Solution? Sewing buddy Midge. She made a copy of this pattern and has fabrics to make this purse for her granddaughter. I think I'll have to wait for her to get to this stage and then show me what to do.

I'm great with flat stuff but fall apart when there is any shaping involved.

Yippie-i-o-ki-ay

These fabrics are the results of my run out to quiltfabric.com in Willowbrook. Left: a batik with more blue than black. Next: another batik but with more black (these are very similar fabrics. Next: a blue-black mottled fabric that is very rich. On the right is a pure black fabric. So now the issue is which one Christopher will prefer. My goal is for Chris to make a decision about which fabric without driving from Evanston to LaGrange. However,it's so hard to tell from photos.

This second picture shows all three of these fabrics next to an edge of the quilt banded on both the top and bottom with black. But it's hard to tell. Clicking on any of these photos will enhance the details.

I've had a good day of sewing and almost feel as if I'm back in the saddle again. Thus, the song title!