The Quick Brown Fox, redux

The Quick Brown Fox is being quilted by Chris this week. She's the longarm quilter who did such a magnificent job quilting No Rules For Julie. (You can see more pictures of that one here.)

I'm VERY excited!

More Color

I have finished PERSIMMON, and sewed it up into a word. It's about 37" long.

The next color in the sequence is yellow, and the word is.... GOLDENROD. There are several reasons for choosing this particular word. It's yellow, it's nine letters long, but there's also a very personal reason. My best friend lives on Goldenwood Drive.The arrangement of the fabrics in the word is by no means arbitrary.

After that a green, a black and a white.

Sweet Cream Roses

Sweet Cream Roses, my birthday quilt from Julie, is now hanging in my bedroom, so I can see it every day.

More Color

I made all the letters for the word PERSIMMON, but haven't sewn them together yet. My brother from Colorado is visiting this week. I haven't seen him in six years.He's a fine furniture maker, and we spent part of yesterday at the Currier, looking at their early American furniture, as well as some modern pieces. Afterward, we went on a tour of the Zimmerman House, a Usonian house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.Later, we went out to dinner, and had lobster and fried clams. It was a pretty good day!

Thalo Green

Chlorinated Copper Phthalocyanine is a synthetic green pigment from the group of phthalocyanine dyes, a complex of copper(II) with chlorinated phthalocyanine. It is a very soft green powder insoluble in water.

It is a very bright green. It is a very powerful color, a little goes a long way. It is also a staining color. If you get it on your clothes, it will -never- come out. Repeat: -never-.

You can see the result of a curious cat. This is Gizzy, who was interested in everything. He is now at The Rainbow Bridge, but this is the result of him sticking his nose in a small bit of thalo green paint. It took a couple of weeks for it to disappear from his furs. Actually, I was surprised it did.




*Dolly, Thalo Green in and of itself is not toxic. Gizzy suffered no ill effects.

What's Next?

I may be teaching a class in making free-pieced letters early next year, and since I am a visual learner, I want to have examples to show my prospective students.
I had the idea of making a small quilt showing different ways of making letters - completely crazy, and irregular, free pieced but more regular, letters taking advantage of fabrics (fussy cutting), using "fonts" and so on.

I liked the idea. Since I've just finished a big quilt with fairly precise, planned letters, I knew I wanted the first word to be completely relaxed. You may not believe it, but it's kind of tricky to completely let myself go and make totally silly letters.

I love words. If James Lipton ever asked me, "What is your favorite word," my answer would be "Rutabaga." I just like the way it sounds.

I also love color, and pigment names, Alizarin Crimson, Gamboge, Aureolin, Dioxazine, Quinacridone... From there it wasn't a big leap to do words of color.

Actually, I started with: Turquoise, Bordeaux, Alizarin... I was still stuck on wanting to be able to incorporate each of the letters in the alphabet. There aren't many pigment names that use a "J", or even an "F." "P," "K," and "Z" are pretty tough for non-obvious color names.

Turquoise, Bordeaux, Paprika, Saffron, Viridian.... Bordeaux, Cinnabar, Chrome, Phthalocyanine... the list goes on, but it isn't as big as you think. I wanted to use interesting names for each color, but not the stupid paint chip names that have nothing to do with real things.

And I wanted names that people could connect to... so even though I know what color "Chlorinated Copper Phthalocyanine" is, most wouldn't, so that was out.

And -of course- the words couldn't be -obvious- because that would be -boring- and we all know I -hate- boring!

SO!

Turquoise, a blue stone, in completely crazy blue letters.

Aubergine, Eggplant, a purple vegetable, a bit more precisely pieced.

I got to "Aubergine" from "Asparagus," believe it or not. I was halfway through "Bordeaux" when I decided to make "Aubergine" instead. The big bonus was that it was nine letters long! Too funny!

But then.. VERMILION! Another nine-letter word!

Vermilion, a red pigment, with some fussy-pieced letters.

OKAY! Too much fun! The concept of trying to include all the letters in the alphabet flew dramatically out the window, and the idea of nine-letter words that are the color of some pigment, food, spice, fruit or something that is obviously a color was in!

So the next word in the sequence is...

Persimmon.

Vermilion

OK, it's another nine-letter word. I kinda had a plan when I cooked up this idea, but it took on a mind of it's own and got carried away. I'm trying to catch up, and after about a week, I think I have it figured out.

This one is slightly smaller than the others. It's 36" across. It's different from the first two in that there is a bit more attention paid to how the fabrics are arranged in each letter. (Translation, the R, I's, O and to some extent, the N are fussy-cut.)

Here are the three words together.

Anybody like to guess the next word in the sequence? The only prize is bragging rights.

Have fun!

Julie's Quilt

TA-DA!Julie asked for a version of "The Rules" made in jewel tones, blues, greens and violets. She wanted asterisks and butterflies, and she wanted me to go for broke.

I didn't want it to be the same as Helen's or Tonya's. I finally figured out a way to arrange the letters I liked, but I had to check with Julie about where she planned to hang this quilt. Once I knew she had a wall big enough, I dove right in. Making the flimsy took longer than I thought, but I enjoyed working on it, and had a grand time including personal details for Julie.

We had decided this would be a secret swap, and I had a lot of fun teasing her.

I've made a Picasa Photo Album of in-process pictures here. You can click on each photo and enlarge to see all the details. I've also briefly described the steps in each photo, so I won't repeat the story here.

But I will share one story. When I designed the quilt, I knew what I would do with all the letters up until the word "FUN." I had no idea how I would make that word unique from Helen's and Tonya's quilts. But I wasn't at all worried. I knew I'd figure something out; that an idea would come to me. After four solid days of piecing, however, I had all the letters sewn (as shown in the photo above), but no clue what to do next. So I moved on to the asterisks, the butterflies, and then finally the signature panel that went on the back of the quilt.

Very late one night, over two weeks later, the idea of having extra "funs" near the big "FUN," but very pale, very light, very subtle, almost blending into the background, floated in my head. I laughed aloud and got to work. I finished all the elements the next day, and during the following week, assembled all the components into big panels, then the big panels into the flimsy; pieced the backing, and got the quilt out to Chris in Tennessee.

I was really happy with the flimsy, but when the quilted quilt came back from Tennessee six weeks later, I was overwhelmed by how truly stunning it was. Chris has done a magnificent job! I didn't give her any instructions at all except to make it look good. You have to check Julie's Picasa album to see more of Chris' fabulous quilting.

I brought the finished quilt to show my Mother, who looked at it closely for a long time. Finally she whispered, "It's perfect."



That pretty much sums up the whole experience for me.

Aubergine

Another nine-letter word, free-pieced, but this one pays a bit more attention to strip widths. This strip is about 40" wide; the letters are about 3-1/2" tall, finished.

Aubergine, of course, is the French word for eggplant.


**I am in the process of creating a Picasa album of all the process photos for "No Rules for Julie." You can take a look here: No Rules for Julie, but it is a work in progress. I'm still uploading photos and I'll be adding descriptions and comments later.

Obsolescence

Last Spring, after I revealed Helen's Rules, and then Tonya's version, my friend Julie asked if I could make one for her. She said I could choose one of her quilts in exchange.

I remembered this post.

The swap was On. Julie's flimsy was already made, so she had a big head start. When she suggested a July 4th reveal date, I almost fell on the floor laughing! HELL NO! There was No Way I could get a quilt made and quilted, and shipped to Julie by July 4. So then she suggested Labor Day. Much better!

By mutual agreement, we mailed our quilts this past Tuesday. The plan was they were to arrive on the same day. Alas, Murphy got in the way, and though I received my quilt on Thursday, Julie's did not arrive until Friday.

Julie's taken some outstanding photos of "O", and you can see them all here. Be sure to click the individual photos so you can enlarge them and see the wonderful detail.

I love "O". It's going to be used as a throw in my living room. Millie has already decided she likes it.

You'll have to go to Julie's blog for the big reveal of my quilt later on Saturday. She wants to take pictures of the quilt in the sunshine. She's very happy.

Me too! What a terrific swap! Thanks Julie!

"O" is for OUTSTANDING!

The quilt Julie made for me, "Obsolescence" has arrived in New Hampshire! Oh boy! Oh my goodness! O is Beautiful!Here's O on my desk.. taking over! Look! Julie made a wonderful book about O.One of my coworkers took one look at the quilt and said, "Lynne I know you make quilts with bright colors, but THIS is YOU!"I think she's right!

More about "O" later... Meanwhile, Julie should receive the quilt I made for her today, so you'll have to check her blog on Saturday for the Big Reveal.

A New "Q"

Of all the letters, I dislike making an uppercase "Q" the most. A tiny "X" in the corner of an "O" --- argh! Just agonizing!

So I came up with this version. Step one, make a sideways "C"
Slice it apart diagonally (or even almost crosswise)
Pull it apart, and insert...
the tail of the "Q"
Sew it up.
(I have a confession - I had to trim the lower right corner before I sewed it to the top piece with the tail. If you make one, you'll figure it out.)

Travel Time for "No Rules"

"No Rules for Julie" is on it's way to Julie in Tennessee.

And the quilt Julie made for me, Obsolescence (aka "O") is on it's way here to New Hampshire.

A Chair to SIT!

The amazing Lucinda, one of the Swap Mamas of DQS9, made mini chairs for each of the other Swap Mamas.

This is mine, and she included free-pieced letters! It's 7-1/2" wide by 15-1/2" tall. I love it! Thank you so much Lucinda! (Millie is always telling me to sit!)

Turquoise

It's just your average free-pieced nine-letter word.


This panel is 37" wide, and the letters are about 3-1/2" tall.

The Brown Bag

As you can see, Millie isn't too particular about what quilt she lies on. Here she is, taking advantage of Julie's quilt. Just about a week now...
Hey Sara! You got yourself a bag! Send me your mailing address!

Doll Quilt Swap 9, Received!

I had a very busy day yesterday. I visited Quilted Threads in the morning (more on that later), had lunch with my Mom, and got home to this box from Jacque. As you can see, it was marked "DQS9." Woo hoo!Inside was not one, but TWO quilts! One for me, beautifully graphic, black and white and red and yellow:

There was also this little gem, for my cat,Millie!


As you can see, Millie wasted no time claiming ownership!
It's pretty clear she approves.

Thanks Jacque!

I Got A New Bag!

Here's my new bag! This is a big bag, 18" wide by 23" tall and 2" deep. (46 cm x 58 x 5) The straps are long enough to go over my shoulder even if I am wearing a coat (translation: it has to be carried over my shoulder because I'm only 5 feet(152.4 cm) tall! )
I made it big because I will use it to carry quilts around. I am glad Sue "challenged" me to make a new one. This one is much more "Me" than the brown one.

The word "QUILTER" is probably the most conservatively pieced word I have ever made. It is 2-1/2" tall.

Ladies Who Love Brown Giveaway

OK! Since I am making a new bag, I won't be using the old one, so I'm giving it away. (This is a picture of the other side) If you are a Lady Who Loves Brown (or even if you don't), leave a comment, and I will enter your name in a drawing. You can tell your blogging friends, that's fine with me, but you can only "enter" once. No ballot stuffing. I will pay postage anywhere in the US. (If you're outside the US, you'll have to pay for shipping. Sorry.)

I'll keep the contest open until I get up Wednesday morning (about 7 AM Eastern US time.) My cat Millie goes to the vet on Wednesday, and when we get back I will put all names in a hat and pick a winner. I'll notify the winner by email (make sure I can find your email address) and announce the winner on my blog.
Good luck!

The body of the bag is about 18" square, about 2" deep, made of Trigger cloth, and is fully lined. It is machine washable. It is not quilted.


I -have- been working on a new bag. Here are my blocks, sewn to the body of the bag. I'll probably finish up the new bag tomorrow. I'll also talk more about the wonky house blocks, which may look a bit familiar. You can read about them here and here.

I Need a New Bag...

This is the bag I use when I carry quilts around. I made it about 26 years ago (as you can tell by the fabrics). The block about 15" square, and there's a different block using the same fabrics on the other side. The bag is about 17" square, but only 2" deep. Obviously, it's brown - my least favorite color.I was showing Julie's quilt and the Daft Zebras to a friend and she said, "Lynne, I have a challenge for you. You have to get a new bag. This bag totally does not represent you any more. You HAVE to make a new one that really shows what you can do.

So that's my plan for today. Stay tuned!

Tout Fini!

It's all finished.

Can you see that wall on the left by Millie's derriere? That's where Julie's quilt is hanging now, looking quite lovely. I shall enjoy it for the next 10 days, until it flies out to Tennessee on September 14.

Friday Finish

I've finished hand sewing the binding to Julie's quilt. Now I just have to sew the edge of the hanging sleeve and it will be totally finished.

I'm really sorry Julie, this is all I can show you. (Not!)

WOW

Including the binding, there are eight different WOW (white on white) fabrics in Julie's quilt. In this photo, you can see five. Julie said she likes the way I use multiple WOW in the background instead of sticking with the same one.

(These pins are spaced about 3/4" apart, and yes, I sew my binding down to the front of the quilt. I think it looks better.)

I've rounded the third corner handsewing the binding on the quilt, which is to say I am halfway through. Then I have to add the hanging sleeve, and it will be finished.

It has occurred to me that Julie knows more about the quilt than you might think. She knows what it is (it's a quilt with "X" and she knows what "X" is), and she knows what colors I've used (she was very specific) and she asked for asterisks and butterflies.

Julie and I will be mailing these out to each other on September 14th. (She's got a secret quilt she's holding for me. It's name is "Obsolescence", and has a nickname of "O.") That way we'll receive them at the same time. Why the 14th? Because Julie will be traveling the week of Sept 5. So if the planets align perfectly, in two weeks, our quilts will be revealed to each other.

Trust me, you'll hear about it!

So hear you go... another sneak peek!

Slightly Distracted

It's one thing to visit your lqs and spend some of your hard-earned money. It's another to go out and bring something like this home.

Yes, it's brand-spanking new, drives like a dream, has every creature comfort I could want, the finish feels slippery smooth, and when I drove it off the lot the odometer read "19."

Which is a roundabout way of saying I didn't get a whole lot of quilty things done yesterday as I was slightly distracted.

It's a 2010 Toyota Corolla S (S is for Sport, my sister bought the LE).  The S has the rear spoiler, the sunroof, spiffier wheels and some other "sporty" gadgets inside.