In Search of a Finish

 

When I saw this on Instagram, I nodded my head in agreement. Since diving into quilting, I've often had more than one quilt project going at a time, pretty much for the reason she states. But on second thought, I decided I agreed only up to a point. While I've not had multiple knitting or embroidery projects going at one time, the ones in progress do add to list of things I could work on, and at some point I think the overall number of choices can become overwhelming, frustrating, and even depressing. That's kind of the point I'm at, I think, especially after unearthing so much during my search through bins. Over the weekend I could feel it building until it became clear: I needed a finish to feel better.

And so I chose the Joy Banner. You know, the one draped over my sewing chair waiting for threads to be buried and a label. I'd been viewing it as a daunting task, one I didn't want to do but couldn't escape. But there was a bookbinding video I wanted to watch which was an hour long, and because it was the last in a 4-part series, I was pretty sure I could follow along while burying threads, looking up when I knew there was something to see. The burying went more quickly than I anticipated with it nearly done by the end of the video. It only took ten or so minutes on another day to complete the task.

Now for the label. For years, I meticulously printed out my labels and hand stitched them to the back of quilts. Then there were some that really didn't need the printed label and I was fine with inking the info on cloth by hand. Next step was deciding some labels didn't need to be hand stitched in place but could be fused there. And that is what this banner would get. I didn't get the spacing quite right but the banner is going no place except up on my wall. Trimmed and fused in place, I now had that much needed finish and feeling better about myself.

I also spent some time over the weekend, rooting around in those bins again. I'd opened up that Stack-n-Whack quilt top to be dazzled by it, and wanted to find that possible border fabric I'd bought that now I wanted to use as a backing. You can see it at the top of the quilt, and that it would not work as a border. But it will be great as the backing. There's no question; this will be the next project to finish.

I'd searched my blog for posts about making it but could find none. How could that be? Fortunately, I'd pinned a note onto the top that explained everything and made me wonder how I could have so little memory of where I was living and the studio I was working in when I completed it. I only remembered working on it at the same time and with the same fabrics as the blocks for St. Hilary's Star which I finished after moving to Idaho in 2006. This note tells me I finished the top in 2003 (!), the star blocks at least partially done and set aside too, two years before I started my blog. The note also tells me the name which I'd forgotten: Venetian Tiles which is the name of the pattern in the book Stack-n-Whackier Quilts by Bethany S. Reynolds. My version uses only 4 blocks rather than the nine in the original - probably because of the fabric I had on hand. Finding the book took scanning my bookshelf then having another look through the closet where I found it resting flat on a shelf. I think I had plans to make at least one more quilt from it as I looked at fabric in the big bin and rolled onto a cardboard tube. I surely must have purchased her first book where I would have learned her technique and made my first Stack-n-Whack quilts but at this point, I can't find it. Anyway, I'm very excited to see things coming together for a finish of this quilt.

As long as I was lifting flat folds of fabric used in those two quilts out of the big bins, I thought one of them might work to finish out two of the Mariner Compass sample blocks I'd unearthed. I think pillows will be the best bet for these and I like this leafy print in the right teal blue for it. The other compass has already been set into a square using the same fabric as the background fabric but I think using this fabric for the back of the pillow will work well.

The yellow in the compass is actually more golden like the print in the batik on the left

Finally, I felt it time to take that last Mariner Compass and find a fabric to set it into. This one I plan to finish as something to hang on the wall, maybe even stretch over a canvas frame, and give to that great niece and her new husband as a wedding gift. That dark fabric on the right is a very mottled batik that should fit the bill nicely. I think it will be more interesting than a solid black (lord knows where the black fabric used in the compass might be by now). But you know, you have to try a lot of things, even outrageous things, to find the right fit. A lot of prints and batiks got auditioned before the mottled one stepped in and said, "Hey - don't you think I'm the one?" Be honest, doesn't your fabric talk to you too?

I've certainly got my work cut out for me during my daytime slot for creative endeavors. In the meantime, the evening knitting of the socks is coming along, be it slowly. One more section of increases on this one before the run to the top, at which point I'll switch back to the other sock to knit its increases. Each round begins at center back, and that orange marker reminds me when I've gotten there.

Wishing You a Lovely Weekend

However you celebrate (or don't celebrate) Easter, enjoy the pause to recognize the coming of spring and so much rebirth. And don't forget the Reese's peanut butter eggs . . . 😁

Not Much To Share

I think my body has finally adjusted to the time change, yet I don't seem to be getting into the studio to get going on anything. I realized I still have threads to bury and a label to make and attach to the Joy Banner, but I'm sure any of you who quilt in a way that requires burying threads would understand why I'm still putting this off. There are also a handful of what I think of as 10 to 15 minute projects in there like mending some socks that although I could get them done relatively quickly, I keep passing them by - an old and apparently unbreakable habit. Mainly though, I also realized that I needed to get serious about finishing my taxes, so creative time has instead been used to work on those taxes (not to be confused with working on those taxes creatively). Federal taxes are done and I've downloaded what I need to do the state taxes so those should go quickly.

Fortunately, work on the socks always takes place while watching certain TV programs. I'm ready for the first increase to "grow" the leg to fit over the calf. They are the beauty rippling through my life right now while still waiting for traditional signs of spring. The lawn maintenance crew have been out this week, blowing dead leaves away from foundations and off the lawns and running something over them that aerates the ground I think. And I'm beginning to see tiny leaves pushing out on some of the trees. Still didn't spot any bulbs blooming the several places I stopped at in town, but they must be somewhere . . . Has spring sprung in your part of the world?

Heels Turned

The zippered pouch with Hmong applique holds crochet needles and knitting accessories

I must admit I've lost enthusiasm for the split nine-patch project since failing to find that piece of batik I planned to use for a moon. And I still needed to clear space on the worktable in order to go ahead with finishing the Stack n Whack top. So my mind has been occupied instead on knitting: projects in the queue and the project on my needles. I hunkered down over the instructions for turning the heel, knowing I would have to concentrate to get it right this time, and I can report that I think I managed better, not seeing any holes that will need closing up later. Yeah!!!! Now I'm moving up the leg, first with some rounds in pattern to establish it and then changing the stockinette stitches to ribbing to match the ribbing on the instep. I honestly don't know how some knitters knock out socks so fast; these will take even longer than my last pair as I am making them kneehighs. But I really like working on both socks in the pair at the same time, alternating between them as I move through different sections.

I use cardstock for the covers, using a photo from her website

Clearing a space on the table meant catching up some things I wanted to add to my gratitude journal and gathering up printouts from some of Angela Walters' machine quilting series. Sometimes I think I like organizing more than I like actually making things; I'd found a stack of these printouts buried on the floor with a panel I'd bought in order to practice stitches from her "Fillers" series. Well, they won't do me any good there, and I'd thought that as I collected more and more printouts from her series, I should "bind" them using the Arc Notebook System as I had with my Handmade Books printouts. As much as I enjoy binding books, I have yet to run across one that will do what this system does. It works a bit like a spiral binding except that you can add and remove pages at will. It requires a special punch which I decided to invest in plus the plastic discs that hold the pages, and I have not regretted that purchase. Now that I have these organized and at my fingertips, it would not be a bad idea to get that panel out and layer it up. It would make a great warm-up piece; just doing one small section before starting a session on the Stack n Whack quilt.

I don't know about you, but I am having a terrible time adjust to the time change. That, and all the disturbing news bombarding us on a daily basis here in the states is enough to make me want to hide away with my knitting and quilting and reading or just curl up on the couch. Snuggled under a quilt, eyes shut, has always made me feel safe - the ultimate escape, But it's not the only thing, which is why I was gladdened to run across what I share with you below. Hang in there, fellow "hobbyists" and artists! We have a built-in safety feature. 💖

  

WHERE IS IT????

I am frustrated. The socks were calling to me once I got both to the heel-turning part so I've been spending extra time on them since I remember having trouble with it on the first socks I knit with this pattern. It's going better but really demands my attention. It's in two parts knit a little differently from each other, the first part being pretty easy and straight forward. The second part not so much and I was ready for a break. It occurred to me that I should dig out that circle of batik I'll be using as a moon with the split nine-patch blocks so that the fabrics surrounding it are right. I thought I'd run across it not that long ago, and started with the top bin on a stack of three in the closet. It's actually made for storing Christmas wreaths but because of its large squarish size, I bought it to store the Baltimore Album blocks I'd made. Nope, not there, but instead I was faced with some of my earliest forays into sun printing, surface design and art quilting. Talk about leftovers! So many bits and pieces to not toss, so many ideas especially for working with leaves. And a substantial amount of that Roberta Horton plaid - I have no idea why I stored it here.

On to the next bin. It had a note on top telling me what projects were in it. Things I'd forgotten about, like a small top made from feedsack reproduction prints and drunkard's path blocks, and not one but three mariner compass blocks. I was planning on looking for the yellow and black one to finish up as a wallhanging for my step-great niece who is a bit of a world traveler and happened to snag an Irishman when she was in New Zealand. They recently got married and I hadn't done anything about a wedding gift yet, thought this would be perfect. But those other two - I recognize most of the fabric from the shop I taught at in Wisconsin so they must have been samples for a class. I knew I had one Mystery Quilt set of directions with fabric set aside in one of the bins and I found it here, along with two others - really??? Other projects too in there. I have no need to find anything new to work on - I have plenty in these bins.

Things I was dabbling in shortly after arriving in Idaho 2006

The third bin is a truly big and deep one, and I knew some of what was in there, but wasn't expecting this on the top along with pieces of hand-dyed fabric. I must have had a plan for setting the hand-dyes aside but I'm not sure what. I do know what I'd planned to do with the sharply angled triangles and why I set it aside. I think I'm more experienced now and could work with these with success now. To be honest, it's almost depressing to see here and in the other bins these early attempts and ideas that I've abandoned, a little because of out of sight, out of mind.

But still no batik circle of fabric. However, the next layer included something else I was planning on finding to work on. In fact, as I was considering what to choose for my return to more quilting, it was between this Stack n Whack top ready to quilt and the split nine-patch art quilt. It's made from leftovers of the St. Hilary's Star quilt for which I had far more fabric than I needed. I put it aside because I was dithering about adding a border of an African fabric that I'd picked up thinking it would go, but once home with it, I wasn't sure. It's been on my mind to finish it up for a very long time so I can drape it over the trunk in my livingroom. I think that border idea is long gone. May use that African fabric as a backing though. A ton of fabric and ideas lie between this top and the final layers of fabric.

Luckily, some of this is labeled as to what it is intended for. I'm remembering now about the full size quilt I wanted to make using my signature Idaho Beauty block and, what else, teal fabric for the stars, white for the background. I actually do not think I'm interested in making that anymore. I did know I had the beginnings of a "Simply Seminole" quilt in this bin, one where you make the strips, then sew them together quilt-as-you-go style, something else I taught and this was my second sample. I need many more Seminole-pieced strips to finish this up and again, not entirely sure I'm interested in doing that. I also knew that the background and backing fabric for another quilt I've been wanting to make for at least the last three Christmases, one with pinwheels of plaids and Christmas prints, should be in this bin, and there it was at the very bottom. And whew! I'd been looking for the pattern in my binder files to no avail which worried me, but no, I'd put it with this fabric. I still really want to make this one. 

So I am at a loss as to where that circle of batik is hiding. There is one more place I could check, which means unloading my cache of framed art quilts and framing materials which reside on top of a foot locker also filled with larger lengths of fabrics, some of which are batiks. It's such a job getting into that trunk, and now with the finds I have made, perhaps I should just get started on something else. Certainly wasn't a waste of time going through the bins where I found plenty of great project to choose from. Maybe I'll finish turning those heels first . . . 

New Project & Some Visitors

Lattice Overlay - Ohio circa 1925 - 74" x 78"

In 1995, I made my first of several treks to Paducah, KY for the American Quilt Society annual show. Big event covering many venues, one of which showcased antique quilts from the Hamilton collection. That is where I was mesmerized by the above quilt and its faint grid pattern superimposed over the dark angled lines. Whether it was intentional or the result of fading, I noted that it made the quilt look out of focus as you looked at it. At the time, I wasn't familiar with the block that created this effect but later learned it was a variation of the split nine-patch.

At some point, I worked up the block color scheme in my Electric Quilt software, and printed out some reference examples (top of photo) as well as doing a small drawing of two blocks with slightly different color schemes on the graph paper (lower right). Later, friend Judi came up with the two quilt patterns she hoped she could sell along with our hand-dyed fabric, and it too used this block pattern. I even taught some classes of how to make those quilts, making up sample blocks showing how they would look with traditional quilt fabric as well as batiks (the 4 blocks on the left). Patterns, class handouts, sample blocks and my previous printouts; these all went into a file for when I might eventually get around to reproducing that antique quilt.

I went through quite a faze of. making and teaching Mariner Compass blocks using Judy Mathieson's method. She included instructions for how to "set in" the round block into a bigger piece of fabric, eliminating piecing four sections of background fabric together. It requires cutting away a hole in the center which leaves you with a a very large circle of fabric to use on something else. Well, I had one of those in a darkish purple batik and I got the idea that it would make a lovely moon with a tree placed over it. And what if I took those batik sample blocks and made more for the background? Yes, I've been thinking about this for some time! This will be my realignment into piecing again.

After looking at everything in the file, I decided I needed to scan my original photo of the antique quilt and print it bigger so I could study all those subtle lighter colors that produced the grid. Stare and think and look at notes before I finally figured out what was different from the split nine-patch quilts I'd been making from Judi's pattern. If you look at those batik blocks, you will see that the center square is dark fabric. But as I studied this larger view of the antique quilt, I suddenly saw it - these blocks had light center squares which is how you get that grid effect. Talk about tunnel vision even though all my notes from before I made Judi's version were right there. Now everything else in the file made sense. And sorry, batik sample blocks, you will not be going into this  quilt!

As for my visitors, last week I spotted a duck pair swimming and feeding in the swales along my walk. Late February seems too early for them to appear; then again, it's been a very mild winter. I'm wondering if this is the same pair I saw last year. The female was gobbling away, head under the water, with the male seemingly standing guard like before, but this time he did more dipping of his own head to feed. I found the post where I talked about them and it is from March 5, mentioning a warming trend, so maybe they aren't here too early.

Then there are the deer. They usually amble through the bushes in the greenbelt behind my place, occasionally popping out to look around and perhaps browse. I've seen the mother and two young ones from last fall recently, looking good and healthy. So when I saw a couple of deer again last week, I thought it was the same ones. But my, these look a little bigger, stockier, and there were only two. Oh well, good and healthy. 

Slowly making their way, browsing on the new shoots of grass.

One ambled over to this scrubby pine by the corner of the house for a nibble.  

What a beauty. 

And it just kept coming, right up to my deck, and sniffed around. Sorry, nothing there, not even grass. But by now I was getting a good look - have never seen them get this close to the house - and could see how "bulky" this one was, like there was a real layer of fat under that fur.

As it turned to leave, I noticed the tail. Wait - I've been seeing white tail deer - that wide tail brown on top, white underneath, but this tail is totally different. These are NOT my usual deer visitors. A quick google gave me the answer. My visitors are Mule deer, which besides the different tail, are slightly larger with darker fur than white tail deer which explains what I was noting in their body bulk.. Welcome to the neighborhood. 

True Confessions

As the weekend approached, I realized I was experiencing some "Olympic Fatigue". i.e. as much as I was enjoying watching the various competitions, my enthusiasm was beginning to wane (confession one). How many more short track speed skating heats do I have to watch until the final A & B races? Aren't the bobsledders done yet? I couldn't even bring myself to watch the figure skating gala yet, recording it for when I'm not tired of watching these same athletes strut their stuff. I was beginning to look forward to the start of motorcycle roadracing season at the end of the month. I hadn't caught on to the fact that the weekend would see the wrapping up of the Olympics AND the start of Superbike racing until Thursday when an e-mail alert arrived in my mailbox. Maybe it's a good thing the two overlapped, giving me the fresh excitement of a different kind of sports watching to get me through the last of the old.

At the same time, I'd been tracking an order from Denmark (!) that came quickly enough to New York, but sat for days before showing up in San Fransisco where it also sat for a bit (weather?). An order that originally was projected to arrive by February 13 blew past that date, not being delivered into my mail locker until last Thursday. I was amused at how on pins and needles I was about getting it, excited when the key to the package locker showed up in my box (along with delivery confirmation e-mail), then highly frustrated when I couldn't get the key to work. A note to the postperson produced the package at my door the next day . . . at last! And what was in that package?

3 yarn "cakes" plus a sweet treat

Yarn! I'm not supposed to be buying more yarn until I use up what I have on hand, or at least put a big dent in the stash. But as is often the case, I was lured into the purchase partly because of a sale (confession two). It all started with my downloading of free patterns that I hoped to pair up with that yarn on hand.

I'm discovering, though, that many of the new patterns aren't designed for use with the worsted weight yarn that was popular back when I was learning to knit. But they are beautiful so I download them anyway, and in the case of this pattern called Autumn Waves, I thought it possible to substitute my worsted wool for the cotton/acrylic blend called for. And of course, since I'd downloaded this pattern from the yarn company's site (Hobbii). I started getting e-mails from them. I'd look at what they were offering (always enticing) but blanch at the prices, and eventually question ordering from them at all when I discovered they were based in Denmark. Then came the sale e-mail with the yarn for this sweater 40% off. Ok fine, I'll give them a try. And I was able to use Thank You Points from my credit card to bring the price down even more. Sold!

And at least for now, I am not disappointed. This cotton yarn is so soft, unlike the 100 percent cotton yarn I knitted into sweaters years ago. Must be that addition of acrylic which should also give it more stability than that cotton I used that produced a sweater that was not only heavy but stretched under that weight. I still marvel at my excitement waiting for this yarn to arrive. It's not like it's something I will start right away. In fact, there are at least three smaller projects ahead of it on the knitting priority list once the current socks are done. Which, by the way, are progressing in spite of all the sports watching. Sock one is at the heel turning point, and I've switched to sock two to bring it up to the same point.

My conclusion: I'm insufferable when it comes to these things! But I can't deny how they excite me. 😊