So many projects including a few Quilts

one inch sides on this tiny English paper pieced tumbling block 

I don't know about other quilters but I am finding I am starting many projects and having fun with each but not finishing them up as fast as I did a year or two ago when I first got started. The excitement of showing and telling about new projects at DC Modern Quilt Guild really drove my desire to finish up and get them ready for the show and tells. Now I am working on more complexity in my designs and taking longer to do the hand quilting and sometimes the piecing. Then there is that Instagram share thing. I find sharing a picture or two on Instagram has taken the place of writing blog posts to fore fill my desire to share as I go... Today I am stepping back from that because I know there are folks like the lady I met in Walmart this week who don't get on Instagram and would like to see some of the work in more detail that a slide show on my iPhone screen. Insert smiley face here. How the world keeps changing faster than I can keep pace with since the information age took off some 25 years ago.

This is my tumbling block improvisational nine patch hanging on the design wall as I was trying to sort out how to join them together and what order to place them in for the finished top. It's together now in a different order with a magenta sashing joining them all up. I really enjoyed working on the English paper piecing at the center of these blocks  from my own paper pieces. I decided to try some smaller ones for somewhere in the project. Now I have  bunch of those completed and ready to use once the quilting is closer to completed. 

English paper pieced tumbling blocks tiny one inch size and the three inch size used for the center of my medallion blocks for size reference as they hang on the felt with yellow pins holding them in place.

below is a shot of me sewing the big blocks 25 inch square together on my small Featherweight Singer sewing machine. Vintage Singer 1937 is a delight to use. 

Now that it is together and basted to the batting and backing a solid red! It's laid over my standing hoop to begin the large stitch hand quilting in the center medallion with contrasting colors to stand out. 

That tumbler is the big three inch sides one in the middle of this block. 

So this is just one report there is so many opportunities to write that slip by but keeping the story short helps make it more do-able for me considering I can't put down the iPhone and set Instagram aside as often as I would like. 

This project is on track and the earlier one I began back in January of this year is slowly coming closer to a finish. It's my tea leaf project with way too much detail in the quilting for my neck and hand problems to be done quickly. Still we are learning to slow down in this era of hurry hurry hurry and enjoy the simple pleasure of slowly putting the needle to fabric and working out some of our rush to a place of pride and centered calm. 

Next week off to Ipswich Mass. to hang at the river's edge and explore.

Michael Miller Challenge = baby quilt

New Baby Quilt: 32 x 40 inches 

The Modern Quilt Guild was given small pieces of fabric from a Michael Miller quilt fabric company's line called Petal Pinwheels. Five fat eights came in each set to make something quilted for a chance to win a years worth of fabric samples from the company for 3 winners. I used four pieces of the fabric plus two solids in pale silver gray & Curacao turquoise and a yard of orange Michael Miller tiny gingham purchased in a quilt shop.

by hand my embroidered label 

The finished quilt is 40 x32 inches and perfect for a new baby. I used my singer feather weight to piece together randomly the challenge fabrics in 8 inch half square triangles with the solids and plaid as my base neutrals.  This spread the special fabric as far as possible while trying not to loose the big printed designs hopefully with a modern feel. Then for the last guild meeting I made a embroidery label and turned it into an oval.  I like how the curves look on all those hard edges and angles. The quilting is zig zag to match the 45º angles of the half square triangles set in alternating rows. Naturally I used the orange plaid as my binding to bring out the oranges in these patterns. 

the back used remainders for a simple construction and an oval label 

zig zag quilting detail 

Now I need to find a baby who needs a blanket! Maybe this one is to be donated for the 100 quilts for kids project that comes along later this year. 

TAG IT

first step foundation paper pieced a little sewing machine

next back it and quilt it with the name and embroidery embellishments 

bind the edges  and model it... 

Now I have a crafty new name tag that is HUGE so everyone will be able to read my name at the DCMQG meetings.  At the recent meetings I noticed that I can't read the paper ones unless the wearer uses a giant sharpie marker to write their names big and plainly. I was excited to find that there is a challenge in the group discussed on our DC Modern Quilt Guild flickr.com discussion board to make tags and bring the next month.
I hope everyone makes an original name tag for the March 17th meeting so I can really begin to recall and retain some of those names.
Maybe in time I can do a smaller one but the embroidery dictated the size of this name tag. Thanks to Anjeanette for the link to her Pinterest bulletin board for the quilty name tags ideas.

Further adventures in quilting by the bay

This past week at the Ruppert's Bay retreat I got some big work completed. The first on my list of "things to do" was the space hungry basting of the three parts in a quilt that has to be spread out flat to accomplish, namely basting the three layers together before they can be quilted. The hand pieced top of 54 Rose-Stars was the quilt top that was ready to do this to and I got right to work. Backing laid out and stretched with painter's tape on a hard wood floor (painted red) layered with batting and finally the color filled top fit just right in the room... with a little room to walk around it on all sides. Last year I used this room to make my first machine pieced quilt. I didn't know last year to tape the bottom layer down while working which this year made the whole process much more accurate and easy. It was still hard labor to crawl on the floor stitching in large basting stitches with a long needle and thimble to push it through the three layers and back up. My figures were sore my knees and eventually my hip from laying on my bony side... But in less than 24 hours it was done folded and set aside to make way for the next project.

Rose-Star quilt basted fully stretched out on the floor of the red house's studio room 

back side of the Rose-Star Quilt is all white printed muslin. Close inspection of the photo shows lots of long dark blue threads running in a star burst from the center.

dark blue pieces for white panels stacked waiting to be appliqued 

 The Dresden Plate quilt a tribute to my great grandmother's of the same design is next. I have 30 blocks with hand stitched central circles appliqued on top of the machine pieced and appliqued plates in blue and white with opposite backgrounds. I also had seven more blocks near complete thinking I might do a small version to experiment with the machine quilting techniques I haven't tried yet with any success.

full sized diamond layout of the Dresden Plate pieces 

Diamond layout for smaller quilt top

The new environment was stimulating and having extra room to spread out and only these two projects on my plate made a new idea pop up. Diamonds? What if I turned the blocks to the side and got a diamond pattern instead of checker board style. It looked great but then I needed half blocks to fill out a rectangle and that would be a step back on this big quilt so I decided to play with the smaller version using the diamond layout and focus on getting the original checkerboard squares laid out and sewn together. It turned out a little bigger than I expected but it fell together so well I am not complaining about extra. I spent 8 months sewing the Rose-Star pieces so I never expected to achieve in one month the machine piecing of the Blue and white project with extra blocks to spare and the green and white fence quilt still on the back burner but getting close to next... The slow hand quilting of Rose-Star will put it all back in perspective.

Queen size Dresden Plate Top seen from my back porch window laid out in the garden

Thirty 18" inch squares appliqued with plates and center circles

Dresden Plate Top spread on the lawn. 

After some time reading in a book on Quilting I discovered a pattern I wanted to try. This is called Seminole after the Indian tribe of Florida who developed it years ago  using only a hand cranked sewing machine. It's a cool strip technique that uses stripes of three colors cut and re-sewn on diagonals in bands. The result of my first experiment is a very neat row of diamonds surrounded by contrasting color and long solid stripes... First I thought I would add some into the Dresden plate blue and white quilt but since it is so large, I think not. The better solution is to make another quilt and get really familiar with this technique. The rotary cutter, ruler and hot iron with lots of starch make this possible and fairly quick work.

first length of Seminole piecing in blues

closer look at detail of the Seminole strip piecing

 It is very exciting to have these two projects so much closer to complete and then a new technique well underway and understood. All that thanks to the time and space provided by our great friends the Rupperts of Fairhaven Cliffs, Md. I am looking forward to playing with all this and more in the coming months as I figure out the next steps. New quilting friends at the DC Modern Quilting Guild gave me a tip to buy a "walking foot attachment" for my machine. I found one on a very sweet web page today devoted entirely to my vintage featherweight Singer sewing machine. It seems from further reading there that the sales man was right it's a highly sought after machine! This link will take you back to the 1930s sewing shop for a little time travel. I ordered the walking foot and expect to have it in a week or two to try machine quilting again using the right foot to keep things smooth under the needle of the crawling foot.

retreat with a hurricane

Molly's red house is down under the hill in a valley that leads directly to the bay side beach. 

I have had the most wonderful two weeks full of fun creative and colorful experiences. My pal Molly Ruppert and her big family have a few homes out in a community called Fairhaven Cliffs, Maryland very close to Washington DC on the Chesapeake bay. She asked me late last spring if I wanted to come have a few weeks artist retreat in one of the houses that is normally a rental that was vacant this summer. I responded that I would like nothing better! When and what were the conditions. She wrote and said I could have a house with three bedrooms and all we might have to do in return was to mow the grass once and I could bring whom ever I liked to my retreat.We choose the last three weeks of August since Keith was out of town much of July and was very busy in June. August suited me too because this time of year in the city is typically very hot and muggy and mosquitoes are king. The garden is tired and dry grass is brown and dusty but I also have my annual birthday and what better way to celebrate than a retreat to make art at the beautiful bay.
 We packed up two Sundays ago and took food, pillows, sheets, art supplies and all sorts of exciting ideas to the bay house. I even took mom's feather weight Singer sewing machine to see if I might have space to make some fabric art. I also bound a special book for my daily sketches at the bay of large pages from the spare papers I have been saving for years for other projects that have accumulated in the folios in our studio. It was a perfect beginning. We ate a big dinner at Molly's the first night after we got keys and settled into our Red house. The folks in Fairhaven call the houses by their colors not addresses. The Rupperts call them by the family member's name that owns them. 

So we had the red house the place is an old beach house that was just perfect for us to make art and not worry about messing anything up. It is more space than I think I have ever had to work for more than a few hours at a time. I had a whole bunch of rooms to live in and a yard and the bay .... it was ideal. Nature is all around the house the hills behind are covered in a vine called Kudzu which is kind of creepy but also sort of magical in that it makes everything very green like topiary trees of mysterious shapes. 

from the end of the pier looking back at the cliffs and the beach and in the distance the red house.

looking at the house and the yard and bay beyond from the roadside above. 

Kudzu grows right up to the roadside and covers everything including dead tree trunks...

at dawn the sun showed me a kudzu bear and elephant at the edge of our yard!

 first Wed. afternoon a regatta of sailboats appeared on the bay

the first crab skeleton I found on the beach 

Our resident spider named Charlotte, naturally worked on her web daily. 

Keith worked every day on amazing arrangements with materials he collected right there in Fairhaven. Gardener neighbor Juanita Foust was very supportive and offered us anything we wanted from her garden and several other yards of vacant homes up for sale. 

butterflies were abundant and posed for my camera nicely. 

dawn on the bay was spectacular as the half moon hung over head and the sun came up red as fire

Not only did I enjoy making photos and drawing and painting each day but I also undertook a big quilt project inspired by the bay windows and the many colors and patterns of the experience of being in this great place for two weeks. I saw exciting patterns and colors and went right in and added them to make up a bay window inspired work. I worked almost every day a few hours if not longer on the sewing in a room that was intended for guests none of whom ever came. I used the empty single beds as my work tables and sewed on mom's machine until it gave out. Had to drive it to the sewing machine doctor this past Monday and there I found another one older but more valued by collectors. Who collects sewing machines I wonder? Anyway I could not resist using my birthday gift money to buy the sleek 1935 Singer featherweight sewing machine to get right back to the bay and work on the project that I was so deep into by the beginning of the second week. Now I have my own and I can leave mom's at her house for projects out there... it's perfect.

my birthday gift the singer sewing machine in perfect working condition. 

for my birthday I also got these beautiful antique plates like one I had to eat on as a child. The chocolate raspberry butter cream with brown sugar whipped cream was also a real treat but tasted even better on the depression era crackle plates. 

Then Tuesday morning while eating a delicious breakfast one of my teeth broke off! It didn't hurt but I was concerned it would so I called for a dentist appointment and had to drive back to the city very early Wednesday for a walk in visit. Then later Tuesday you all know that we had a 5.8 earthquake that shook up the east coast. It didn't stop us for long but we were really scared when the oil tank alarm went off in our red house. We found it and turned it off and rushed to the land line phone to call Molly but neighbor Juanita saw us and asked us if we were OK before we got the call dialed and explained that the shaking was an earthquake not an oil tank about to explode! What a relief it was to learn that our house and this wonderful vacation was not going to blow up all our fun. I got my tooth fixed and got back to work on my bay windows project soon as I got home and settled but we had to start getting ready for the weeks next disaster headed our way. Irene a hurricane was on the way. We decided to stay as long as we could to see what it was like if the neighbors were safe we figured we could be too. We shopped for supplies, cooked frozen meats and made ice to keep things cool... filled up big bottles of water for when the power went out and we had no well water to flush toilets. It was kind of exciting but not nearly as alarming as watching the news broadcasts full of doom and gloom about the terrors approaching the east coast would be had we been able to see them. We took all needed precautions and worked to use our last hours of power before the storm.
Irene arrived on the Atlantic coast miles from the bay about eight and the winds were strong, the rain fell in sheets all afternoon and into the night. We tried to ignore the sounds but the crash of a branch through a window and the flickering lights were alarming. We fixed the broken window with a little duct tape and a black plastic bag and one of those old fashioned window screen devices that held it in place. The lights went out right after we got the glass swept up from our broken window. The next part was sitting next to the open windows listening to the wind blow the trees soggy leaves and crashing branches falling & splitting. I suggested we read by our hurricane lantern in the bay room and we did for a few hours then about 10:30 we went to bed. It was black outside so we couldn't see anything and it wasn't safe to go out to look to see what those crashing sounds were. As long as they didn't land on us we were good. We woke to lighter rain and softer winds a tree had fallen and a few branches were broken. Fallen leaves were everywhere the car was waiting and the roads were soon open. We took a last walk on the beach then a tour of the little community of houses and checked on our neighbors. Then packed up our studio and the food and headed home. The trouble is there won't be power back for days if not weeks. No water, no power and only charcoal to cook with is too much of a hardship to give us time to be creative. We had a great two weeks with some really high drama moments but many more fun hours of simple walks on the beach or visiting with Rupperts and each other. I spoke to Molly this afternoon when we got home and she says we can come back when the power is restored for the third week she promised us. I said Hooray, that is just what I was hoping we could do because a retreat this much fun is very hard to give up for any reason. So hurricane Irene wasn't so bad to us after all.

the night before the storm arrived a beautiful view of the bay. 

cliffs before the storm at low tide. 

the tree that fell by the red house covered in ivy is barely visible but the root ball shows in the mud at it's base.

Keith standing in front of the fallen tree this morning 

 cliffs at the end of the beach after the storm 

 bay after the storm

at the base of the clay cliffs leaves and balls of various colors of clay rolled in balls upon the sandy shore

across from Molly's house a real broken maple tree 

sail boat that washed up on the big beach across from Molly's house