Four Seasons Quilt

Feast your eyes.  You can click the photo to enlarge and then click again for lots of details.  It's so interesting to compare to the finished flimsy, below.

The quilt is about 48" x 60" or so.

Evolution of Out

You will see more of this, but not anytime soon. It is part of an idea I am rolling around in my head. 

All The Red Sticks

Here are all 63 of the Red Sticks blocks laid out on my dining room floor.I'm not completely committed to this layout, but so far so good.  I'll look at this photo for a while, and if I want to move things around, I will.  Around these will be a narrow strip of one of the black and white fabrics, then all these blocks will be surrounded by red-on-red blocks, then a red binding and a red backing.

Red Sticks Blocks

I trimmed all the blocks for my version of the Red Sticks Quilt. I may lay them out tonight and start sewing them together.

Or not. My Four Seasons quilt is all quilted, and is visiting my friend Julie for a little while before it comes back home for me to finish.  Julie's got some great photos, so you should go over and check out Chris's fabulous free motion quilting.

Red Stick-a-thon

Here are all the Red Sticks blocks I have so far, 51 of them. I need 12 more, then I start the red-on-red ones for the "border."  Why so many more?

When I realized that offsetting the strips made the blocks smaller, I had to adapt. I had originally planned on 8" finished blocks, but I won't get them that size, they'll be about 7-1/4" finished.  I had a particular size in mind, and to get that size, I needed more blocks. So today is Red Sticks Day.  If I can, I want to make ALL the blocks in time for The Big Game tomorrow.  I will trim my blocks down to size while I "watch" the game.

Otherwise I'm pretty sure I won't have any hair or fingernails left by the end of game.

Winter Sneak Peek

Chris has done her magic with my Four Seasons quilt, and it will be on its way home to me soon.  She took this picture while the quilt was being quilted, and I want to share this luscious little tidbit with you all.

It's pretty awesome and I am very excited!

More Red Sticks

 Now I have 30 red sticks blocks. I need 18 more for the center, then I will make 32 red-on-red for the "border."

 I really like this block, with the red fans, the black and white stripes and the orange fabric that echoes the stripes in each.

 This is another block where I placed the patterned piece quite deliberately.

I like this block too, with the obvious mis-alignment of the green strip.

Remember I said I need 18 more blocks for the center of the quilt? Here are the six pinks, the six blues and the other fabrics I will use to make up those 18 blocks. You can click the photo, then click again if you want to see the fabrics in detail.

I want to move quickly, because Chris has finished quilting the Four Seasons quilt, and I should see it sometime late next week. I will be eager to finish it so I can bring it to Quilted Threads for display.

Red Sticks Update

I have made 27 Red Sticks blocks. I started with 8-1/2" squares of red fabric.

Here are a couple of the newest blocks.  This one is an homage to my pal Julie. She sent me this red fabric, loves black and white as much as I do and is crazy about purple.

I am particularly fond of this next one.

You don't think the fabric placement was an accident, do you? Because, it isn't. I really did want it to look like that. I love putting these kinds of "in jokes" in all my quilts.


By the way, I'll be teaching a class called, "Houses and Trees, O My!" at Quilted Threads in Henniker NH on Saturday May 5th, and a repeat "Letter Play" class on Saturday June 23rd. Click here for more information.

Favorite

This is arguably my most favorite quilt.  I don't know where it is, if it's privately owned or in a museum somewhere. We don't know who made it, but it was made about 1900 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  It's 78" square made of wool and exquisitely hand quilted with black thread.

I'm reading a lot about Amish Abstractions, and my mind keeps coming back to this beauty. The vibrant colors just hit me. The simple geometry, the utter abstractness, in one image absolutely defines what it is I love about quiltmaking.

Could I make a wonky version? Nope.


It's from the book Sunshine and Shadow: The Amish and their Quilts, by Phyllis Haders, Main Street Press, 1976.

So Wrong It's Right

Have you ever had one of those days where everything goes wrong but it all turns out in the end?  My Saturday was like that.

I invited my Dad to the movies on Saturday. We both wanted to see Red Tails, which started at the Magiplex theater at 3:20.  I got the time wrong and left to get him a few minutes late, and although we got to the theater on time, the movie was sold out.

"Let's get something to eat," my dad suggested. "We can come back."

"Wait a minute," I said, and got back in line to buy tickets for the next show at 6:30.

We walked out towards the car.  "What do you want to eat?"

"I dunno.  You choose," my dad said, "whatever you want."

Knowing my dad (whose wife died last summer after a battle with Alzheimer's) didn't get out to eat much, I was momentarily at a loss. "What about that nifty new gourmet pizza place?  They have artisanal beers and great entrees."

"OK. I have a $100 gift card. We can go anywhere."

As we were driving down to the pizza place, we approached the local high end Italian restaurant. "Well, we could always go there," I pointed.

"Yeah. Let's do that."

So we parked and went in. We ordered an appetizer platter that included calamari and bruschetta. My dad got a glass of wine. He had had a rough morning. It was nice to relax and chat.

The waitress came by with the menus and told us about the specials. Neither of us were interested in a 12 ounce steak (way too big), but we liked the scallops and lobster in Bernaise sauce with asparagus.

We ate like kings. I couldn't finish my dinner, but my dad was happy to take care of it for me. We both had dessert, and laughed and laughed.

The bill came - it was $94.00. My dad handed me the $100 gift card, and I pulled a ten dollar bill out of my purse to pay the rest of the tip.

We left the restaurant in high spirits, got to the movie theater early and presented our tickets, "You can go right in, the theater is clean and empty."  We decided to hit the rest rooms first, then found the perfect seats.  While we waited for the movie to start we played a game on my smartphone and kept giggling about how we certainly didn't need any popcorn.

Finally the movie started.  Remember, we're both expecting to see Red Tails, a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen in WWII.  When we saw an actor look at his cell phone I sneaked a peek at my tickets using my own cell phone as a flashlight.  Our movie was in theater 3. We were in theater 6.

I leaned over to my dad, "I think we're in the wrong theater. I think this is Mission Impossible."

"Well, make yourself comfortable and enjoy the show, we aren't moving now," my dad whispered.

So we did, both of us freaking out as one hair-raising stunt after another unfolded on the screen before us.

When the movie ended, we stood up slowly and stretched. After all I'm 57 with arthritis in my spine, and my dad's almost 80.  We looked at each other and started laughing.

Everything went wrong. We were late for the movie. We ate at the wrong restaurant, and somehow we ended up in the wrong theater, watching the wrong movie. "It's wrong, but it's right," my dad said.

"Nah," I replied, "It was perfect."

Even without the popcorn.

Creepy Crawly Crud

I have that creepy crawly crud that's going around. I've been home sick every day this week and I'm miserable.  I've spent the whole week flat out on my back either in bed or on the couch.  It's been very boring and demoralizing.

Red Red

 While "watching" tv this weekend, I cut red fabric into squares for the Pick Up Sticks quilt.

You all know how much I love large prints for the backings of my quilts.  This one won't be any different. I've  selected this Philip Jacobs design.

Seventeen

Seventeen Red Sticks blocks.  I figure I need 80.

Pick Up Sticks

I'm enjoying making the Red Sticks.  These blocks are about 8-1/2" square. 

Remember, get to work. Pick up your pencil.