"Holland Memories" is finished!

 My "gridified art quilt" made during an online class with Ricky Tims is ready for show and tell (virtually) on Saturday!

I knuckled down yesterday and sandwiched and quilted it.  Today I made a facing and sewed it to the back by hand.  I only have to finishing stitching the hanging sleeve, and it will be hung in the front hall as a memento of our wonderful cruise through the Netherlands and a bit of Belgium during tulip time in 2019.

I have always wanted to make a landscape using traditional quilt blocks.  Ricky's instructions and mentoring were great, and I do hope to make another some day.  It took me most of a month to do, though, so my next one won't be done any time soon!  I have a few UFOs to catch up on.

And hooray for quilting! This project was a perfect diversion from worry for me right now with Paul still in the hospital.   He has an infection around his heart valve replacement, so is now on a course of antibiotics.   I hope he can be moved to rehab closer to home as soon as treatment stabilizes.

Back to the drawing board

 My mom said the "gridified quilt" was a bit "busy," and Ricky Tims offered a suggestion for improvement which I took.  Now I have a bigger windmill up front with the medium-sized one in the center.  The result is about 2" less wide, and a little less busy.  I like it except for that sliver of bright blue on top of the big windmill.  That will change today and then I will start putting the sections together.  

My next dilemma will be the border.  The block at the top is what I had thought of doing, changing the background color to go with the main color each border block touches.  I devised a slightly simpler block and will try making a few to see how I like them all together.  I don't want the border to overpower the quilt.  I keep wondering about small piano keys with tulips in the corners, so I may give those a try also.

Our class virtual show and tell session is scheduled for May 8, and I wonder how many of the 100+ students will actually be finished by then.  I probably won't be!  With Paul in the hospital in Burlington now, I'm spending a lot of time on the road.  It's about an hour each way which is OK as it's mostly interstate driving.   Family, friends, and neighbors have all been very nice, and I am thankful to have projects to keep me from worrying too much.  

Almost together

 

Yesterday was my last "gridified art quilts" class with Ricky Tims, and today I managed to put a lot of the parts together.  I almost missed lunch!  There are now only six sections to be sewn together.  

I really enjoyed working on this.  Ricky urged us to use traditional patchworks and as many different fabrics as we wanted to make our pieces.  I was skeptical at first, but I think it really works.  His feedback in between sessions was just great - very helpful and encouraging.

 We have show and tell on May 8, and I don't know if I'll be completely finished but maybe!  I want to add a border, and right now I'm thinking about echoing the big windmill's sails all the way around.  I'm not sure how I'll quilt it, either so I'll think about that as I finish putting it together.  Quilting is always the hardest part for me.  And then there's the question:  to bind or to face?  

April, "the cruelest month"

 

They actually survived!  I noticed my tulips blooming on Monday or Tuesday of this week.  What a nice surprise!  They are on the south side so get plenty of sun.  The daffodils on the north side are still budding.  On Wednesday, it snowed all day so that by Thursday all of the tulips were flattened under about 3" of slush.  Out came the sun, and this how they looked Friday.  What a relief!  It is most definitely spring when the temperatures swing from 30 to 60 and back again nearly overnight.

I love to bring flowers in from outside and will pick a few today for the dining room table.  I need a little brightening indoors with Paul in the hospital since Wednesday night.  Despite lots of prodding and poking, the experts still don't have a diagnosis.  I work through worry by keeping busy, mopping floors, washing curtains and old quilts, baking cookies for Paul, taking walks, working on my "gridified" Kinderdijk quilt.  

Last night neighbors invited me for dinner, which was a fun, welcome diversion.   Today I'll clean the refrigerator and try to beat the rain by walking early.  I'll visit Paul before my last Ricky Tims class at 3.   I've enjoyed the five sessions so far but have a lot of work to finish up in time for our show and tell session May 8.

Kinderdijk memories

 

The weather has been brutal here with snow, sleet, rain, wind.  My tulips are most likely finished for the year since they are under 2-3" of snow.  At least the sun today should melt it, but it's far too windy to go walking even with drying roads.   The trees are budding so pollen is flying around.

Staying in to work on my Ricky Tims class project seems smart.  My sewing room is a mess because every color box is spread out as I choose pieces for my "gridified quilt."  I'm recalling our 2019 trip to Kinderdijk, the Netherlands, a place with 19 historic windmills that I had always wanted to visit.  Seeing all those windmills against the huge Dutch sky was so amazing.  I didn't even care when it started to rain as it always does in the Netherlands. 

In the class we each drafted a "map" of our planned quilt for Ricky to critique.  He gave some very good suggestions, and now we are at the choosing fabric stage.  He wants us to use traditional quilt blocks throughout our quilts, and I'm having fun, despite the mess.  Those half-rectangles were tricky but not as hard as I thought they'd be.

I need to replace the yellow tulip with a pink one and make two more pieced tulips as well as a paper-pieced distant windmill.  Maybe I'll use the yellow tulip on the border (if there is one), on the back, or as a potholder.  But I need to take breaks and step back now and then.  This is a very intense project, and I am looking forward to tomorrow's class for more insight.

Take four

My class on "gridified art quilts" with Ricky Tims continues this weekend.  Yesterday's assignment was to start building the layout for our quilts.  I got out more graph paper and colored pencils to add some context to my theme blocks - a windmill and some tulips.  Sorry the picture is so light.  Some people in the class are adept at using "Paint" and other drawing software.  Others are just as Old School as me.

Looking back over my photos of Kinderdijk, the Netherlands, I noticed reeds growing on the banks of the canal.  I drew a paper piecing pattern for the reeds which I can reverse to make multiples.  I also drew a pattern for a smaller windmill in the distance.

Today I'll start adding a grid so I have a "roadmap" for the sky, fields, walkway, and canal.  So far, this measures 16.5" x 18.5" which could change because I might want a little more sky.  The Netherlands is very flat so there's always a lot of sky.   I'm itching to start using my design wall to add fabric for the sky, fields, and canal.  Today I'll spend a little time before class looking at my stash to see what I have that might work.

"Good to go"

After posting a new draft of my theme block for the Ricky Tims class, I got the OK to proceed and make the blocks.  

The paper pieced tulip I drew was hard to put together neatly, and Ricky's stem and leaves, while whimsical, don't seem to go well.  So I made a 3" pieced tulip which is easier, especially because I'm hoping to make a few more.  I may even embroider some stems.  We'll see what Ricky has to say.

Scale and perspective have not yet been discussed in the class, and we'll also talk about fillers.  I  made a test block of just the sails for a possible outer border, but will just have to wait and see what's next in the class.  

A few photos

Yesterday afternoon, I took a deep breath and wove in lots of loose ends of yarn from the rectangular shawl I've been knitting for a few months.  It used bulky yarn so didn't take long to get long, but it will be a gift, so I won't post a photo right now.   Today I'll block it and then find a box for mailing.

I also sewed the second fingerless mitt together and wove the yarn ends in.  It took about ten minutes, so I don't know why I procrastinated!  

I'll work on a few small projects now that it's warmer.  I loved making a Gansey (Guernsey) scarf, so I may design another one using this soft "Shine" yarn from Knit Picks only in a lighter color than this blue.  I also have some variegated cotton for dishcloths.

On the quilting front, my second Ricky Tims class was very interesting, and I'm going to get my homework done today so that I can start on building my blocks.  

Homework!?!

 I started my six weeks' Gridified Art Quilts with Ricky Tims yesterday morning.  There were 120 people signed up from all over the world!

We spent most of the time learning about the class website and how to navigate it, which was fine.   Then we were given an assignment to do for this afternoon's class:  to develop one or two main theme blocks for our small quilts.  

I want to make something reminiscent of our trip to the Netherlands in 2019.  My inspirations are the bulb fields in Enkhuisen, the windmills of Kinderdijk, and the famous gardens at Keukenhof that we visited.  On the first day, I looked out the bus window and took this picture.  The views only got better and better.

In Kinderdijk, there are a large number of ancient windmills, all occupied by families who operate and maintain them.  Some of the mills have been handed down through generations.  We visited the inside of one that has been set aside as a museum, and it is cozy but very small with a traditional bed tucked into the wall in the main room.  I was pleased to see a Featherweight sewing machine there, too.

At this point, I'm not sure how my wallhanging will turn out.  There will be filler blocks here and there, but I plan to include a windmill or two, along with some tulips.  I will use Ricky's "Chantelle" tulip as a guide but make a different style top for those.  

It was hard to get the proportions of the mill right, but after a lot of drafts and the liberal use of  "White Out," I finally got it to fit a 6" square.  I'm looking forward to this afternoon's class to hear more about turning the drawing into a sewn block.  We were to upload our drawings for Ricky to comment on, and I noticed he drew lines on mine to indicate sections for piecing.

I assume we'll be making our blocks and posting photos to be discussed next weekend.  It's an interesting way to learn.

The "Luminarium"

 For the last two days, I have been immersed in Ricky Tims' quilt "Luminarium," and my head is spinning!  I came home with so many new ideas.  Some to try.  Some to think about.  Some to recognize as "not me."  The sessions went from 10:30 am to 7 pm on Thursday and from 8:30 am to 5 pm on Friday.  I was glad I took my lunch each day because I needed some time to sit quietly and read, gaze out over Lake Champlain, and basically decompress.  It was intense.

I was glad to drive over with Jane and Gracie and to see Pauline, Joan, and Sarah there.  They will be people to bounce ideas off of in the coming months as we all digest.  Here are a few of his quilts.  He dyes his own fabric, and they are beautiful.

The circles in this quilt were created using some of the special stitches on his machine and a circle making foot.  He uses a lot of piping along his borders which I find very near.  It's hard to see but there are squiggly lines of couching around the circles.  This is made with a "couching foot" - a circle of clear plastic that you run the yarn or thick thread through.

Ricky had a lot of short cuts that he offered as well as suggestions about other tools and products.  Of course, he had a "shopaterium" to go along with the workshop, and we had plenty of time to "graze."  Even though I swore I wasn't going to buy anything, I came home with two yards of hand dyed fabric, two spools of thread, and a DVD about quilting and other finishing techniques.

I love the way the light shines through the squares in this quilt, but what I really took it for was the quilting - free form squares.

And it's hard to tell, but the last photo has wonky borders and very thick machine embroidery stitching around the petals/leaves.

The last two quilts don't have bindings, but rather are finished with facings.  This gives them a clean, sharp look (sorry for the fuzziness - my phone's camera leaves something to be desired).

My quilting mojo is re-energized, but I need to finish a few UFOs before I dip back into the extensive book we received.