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.

Keeping busy

The weather has been a bit "unsettled" (as the weather people say), so I've had time to make a few more Harriet's Journey blocks.  I really like working with the "Moody Bloom" line from Moda.  I have added a few other fabrics from my stash to round out the colors.

I also took my fourth Ricky Tims "Gridified Art Quilts" class yesterday and revised my roadmap for my quilt.  It has grown a bit but I think it will be easier to sew as a result.  Not sure if it will have a border or not.  Will wait and see how it develops.  

The class is good because we post photos along the way, and he gives feedback and suggestions.  There are over 100 people from all over the world in the class, so it's quite a lot of work for him.  This is his first class with this topic, so he will be revising his plans and his planned book after this.   I find it quite interesting and look forward to Saturday morning's class.

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.

A few more blocks

 I keep plugging away at Harriet's Journey.  At this rate I'll be done in a couple of years!  I love working with the Moody Bloom fabric and am anxiously awaiting another pink and another green from Hancock's.  There are a lot of darks in my bundle which is OK, but I like a lighter quilt.  Here are my latest blocks.

I forgot how often Jennifer Chiaverini includes "Y" seams in her quilts!  The one on the lower right was a toughie.  I also substituted a traditional pineapple for the one in the book because I am used to making this blocks with the papers I have for the RSC.

I now have 12 made and no idea how I'll set them together.  Some people make this decision from the outset, but I like to take my time and see how they look.  

Grandma Gatewood's Walk

I read all the time and have all my life.  As a kid, I would read the phone book if there was nothing else, and I remember reading the World Book Encyclopedia the summer I was 12.  I'm a librarian to the core.  This past year I've read a little less than normal as I've been knitting while watching TV more.  But I still spend time each day reading, usually on my Kindle nowadays.  I've read some really good books this year, including a couple of excellent mysteries such as the new "Maisie Dobbs" book by Jacqueline Winspear, The Consequences of Fear.  I intersperse mysteries with some lighter fiction and even some heavier stories like my favorite of last year, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, which deals with a global pandemic.  I rarely read nonfiction and prefer stories written by women.

Yesterday, I found myself struggling to read a bit of chic lit, a follow up to a book I really enjoyed called  The Garden of Small Beginnngs, by Abbi Waxman.  I guess she is trying to appeal to a much younger audience.  I had slogged through about 18% and just couldn't read another word.  

My sister mentioned to me that she had just finished the book I gave her for Christmas and that it was the best book she'd read in a long time.  She does a lot of hiking in Colorado and I thought the book would appeal to her.   I decided I'd give Grandma Gatewood's Walk, by Ben Montgomery, a try, too, and, to my surprise, found myself just racing along.  How nice it is to find a book that makes you want to read it all the time!

Grandma Gatewood was in her late 60s in 1955 when she started walking the 2,000+ mile Appalachian Trail.  She had no gear, really, and wore sneakers.  I can't wait to get back to it today!

"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.

More blocks for the month

 I finished taking the paper out of this month's pineapple blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This month's color is blue, and I could do a whole bunch more blue blocks if they weren't so tedious!   If I get a chance later this month, I may make a few more.  At the rate I'm going with these 6" blocks, it will take years before I get a quilt I can actually sleep under!

I really like the pineapple piecing papers from the Fat Quarter Shop.  They are newsprint and stay nice and flat while you work with them.  I made some string blocks over the weekend using some 10" papers from the Missouri Star Quilt Co. They are tissue paper weight so they tear off easily, but I found them harder to work with.  They wrinkled when pressed, which I like to do after most longer seams.  

I made 8, cut them in half diagonally, sewed four triangles together, and ended up with four 14" squares which I added to my orphan box.  I don't know exactly where they'll end up, but I did use up a lot of neutrals in the process.

I also made my three 8" blocks for the "Options" quilt along with Aby Dolinger.   I like her clearly written, easy-to-follow patterns.  It will be a scrappy quilt, as so many of mine are.

I will turn some attention to the Dear Jen quilt in the next couple of days before the Harriet's Journey blocks of the month are announced on Saturday.  

I don't know how far I'll get with either quilt this month, though, because I've signed up for a six part class online with Ricky Tims - "Gridified Art Quilts."  I'm curious to learn more about taking a photo and turning it into an art quilt using traditional quilt blocks.  

"Anything Goes"

 Yesterday was sunny and a little warmer than it has been, so the snow melted and I was able to take a few quilt photos.    It was too sunny (after so many days of gloom!), so the results are a little washed out!  I have a huge stack of quilts needing good pictures outdoors, so today I'll try and take a few more.  I use my neighbor's deck railing and, sometimes the rocking chairs on our porch.  

First up is Honeycomb, a crib-sized quilt I finished last summer.  The designer, Karen Griska, was to speak at our state quilt guild meeting which was cancelled due to COVID-19.  I made it entirely of strings and quilted it closely with my Elna.  I love the way it turned out.  And I hope that, someday, I get to show it to Karen.

The back is plain unbleached muslin which my son always loved as a kid because it was so soft.

My next attempt at photography was Anything Goes, a sampler made of blocks swapped with quilting friends around the world.  I've been swapping with these ladies for several years, and they all do wonderful work - accurate, difficult, interesting.  They come from Australia, London, Ontario, Washington state, Florida, South Carolina, Cailfornia, Ohio, and more.  

Each person in this particular swap picked a 6" block from books like Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.  Each person got to choose what color(s) her blocks should be.  Then we had 2020 to make and mail our blocks to each other.

I'm  curious to see how everyone sets their blocks.  At first, I was going to use nine patch blocks between the swap blocks, but then I decided I wanted a larger quilt.  I ended up making 12" log cabin blocks using the swapped blocks as my centers.

As you can see, I chose my blocks to be purple, and people did a lovely job!  I have a batch of signature blocks, too, that I plan to "log cabin" also to make into a table topper as a memento.  Most of the log cabin fabric came from a birthday swap with the same group.   

I like the way the quilt turned out.  I made a few extra 6" blocks to get the quilt up to a large throw size.  The back uses polka dotted fabric and purple nine patch blocks.  I just happened to find the polka dotted fabric at Joann's, where I tend to buy only basics - muslin, Kona white - and notions.  

Here's a picture of the back.

RSC and more

 I keep plugging away at various quilts being made simultaneously, a little at a time.   The Dear Jen quilt designed by Jen Kingwell is very intense because her pattern is meant for hand piecing and I am mostly machine piecing.  You'd think that would be easier, and it is, but I convert all the templates for paper piecing or rotary cutting.  

Nonetheless, here are my most recent strips (6" x 18").  I've made 17 of these so far, so I have a long way to go to get a good-sized throw.  I may end up quilting it in sections, too.  I like combining traditional blocks with Kingwell's more modern ones, and that makes the process interesting.  

April's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color is blue which I have lots of, so I started by making two 8" Pop Star blocks designed by Jenny Doan.  I'm using various gray backgrounds for these.  Because constructing the blocks requires cutting off little corners, I'm also making some 3" blocks out of those corners.  They'll most likely go into the same quilt in some way - as cornerstones or borders or...?

The bright blue floral fabric came from a dress my mom sent me to cut up.  She had bought the fabric in Hawaii years ago and had a summer sheath made of it.  I managed to salvage quite a bit of fabric from it and like having a little bit of Mom in the quilt.

Now I'm working on four 6" blue scrappy pineapple blocks.  They'll take a bit more time, but I do like using the pre-printed papers from the Fat Quarter Shop.  The result is really sharp.  I'm mining my string basket for these blocks before I cut up anything in my blue box.

Houses

 

This week my mind has been all about houses and homes.  I said goodbye to this quilt Wednesday as I dropped it off at Studio Place Arts for its upcoming silent/online auction.   

I love the way this swap quilt came together and the way I quilted it with my walking foot.  I started by drawing two slightly off center diagonal lines and then echoing closely.  It took a long time and lots of thread, but really worked.  

The gallery does so much for our community that I like to support it whenever I can.  My Storm at Sea quilt was in a show a year or so ago there, and they also featured two other quilts in virtual show last year.

I have always enjoyed making house quilts, and this week I made a tiny pincushion and a mug rug featuring them.  I don't want to show them as they are for a special birthday coming up.  But suffice it to say, they are cute.

Paul and I looked at another condo in our neighborhood the other day and are now debating whether to make an offer.  We have been looking for one that offers one level living (right now we are on three floors) for a couple of years.  This house unfortunately needs lots of work - new floors throughout and a good deal of painting.  But the price is right.  It is also smaller than our current house which we love for its light- and airiness.   The job of moving/downsizing seems daunting.  What to do?  We have a long list of pros and cons as well as to-dos before we decide.  Stay tuned!