An Interesting Week

I pause from watching a ton of motorcycle racing this weekend to update you on my goings on. I'm delighted that blooms have finally burst forth in my neighborhood. The first that I noticed were forsythia bushes - how could you NOT spot them with their bright yellow blooms.

Days later I spotted flowering trees along the next street over from me. (My street has maples and choke cherry trees that won't bloom until later.) These were taken on a cloudy day with my not very good cell phone camera so difficult to see some of the pink blooms.

My neighbor had set out a pot with bulbs pushing up which I'd been anxiously waiting to see just what they were. Finally they have opened up into beautiful daffodils. 

I had reason to be downtown one day last week and was delighted to see white blossoms on some of the trees there. I was due for a haircut and my safari hunting stylist had two pieces of Kudu hide left over after mounting by her husband. The Kudu was actually taken by her dad after he'd shown interest in her first safari adventure. It was a special trip for this hunting father-daughter duo and I'm honored that she thought to offer these to me. I have yet to do anything with the first pelt she gifted me but the wheels never stop turning. It's mostly that I have no experience working with leather and continue to research.

In the meantime, back to the familiar. Time to layer up the Venetian Tiles top. I definitely considered skipping a few steps like pressing the major creases out of the backing, but decided I'd no doubt hate myself at some point if I didn't do it. The top had only a slight single fold line so yeah, may as well press that out too. I flipped it right side down and sighed a heavy sigh as I saw so many frays along the raw edges of seams. Very nearly skipped trimming those away too, but decided again that I'd be kicking myself if I could see any of those threads showing through to the front as I quilted. Not a quick process but cleaning up the wrong side is always a good idea. Look at the pile of threads!

All layered and safety-pin basted although I still need to hand-baste around the edge of the top and turn the backing/batting to the front to be pinned down for a nice neat package for machine quilting. So fascinating studying the variation of pattern in the blocks cut from the same fabric.

I also spent time digging through those bins and other piles around the studio for the missing Stack-n-Whack book, and also my Mariner Compass book that I wanted to reference before finishing up those class sample blocks and cannot put my finger on. You know you're in trouble when you look in the same places for the third time with the same result. Running out of places to look, although I did manage to unearth two books I don't remember buying plus two that I think I'd pulled off the shelf to reference quite awhile ago when I was working on stamping and linocutting - much piled on top of them. Those went back on the shelf as I'm not stamping or linocutting at the moment. The two I didn't remember got put away properly too. Is the dragon guard doing too good of a job, hiding things from me?

Suddenly I remembered a file box in the garage that holds info for the classes I taught while still in Wisconsin. I've tried several times to break down these files as I'm not planning on teaching any of these again, but as I look through it now hoping to find the lost books, I was reminded why I keep putting the lid back on and shoving it aside. Copies of class handouts and patterns easy enough to get rid of but there's also fabric from samples and partial blocks used to demo steps - as if I don't have enough leftovers and orphan blocks to deal with, I just can't face taking these things out and deciding what to do with them yet. They are from over 20 years ago; will they be helpful in making a quilt years from now as in the meme?  However, I was right about finding a lost book out there. I vaguely remember teaching the basic Stack n Whack method and sure enough, that first book was filed with my class notes. But the Mariner Compass book was not there, even though there was a Mariner Compass class file. Sigh. It no doubt will show itself when I least expect it. 

I'll soon have another finish to share, by the way. I've been much more diligent this last week putting in time on my sock knitting. I am literally 2 inches away on each sock from being done with them.

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 . . . 😁