Sunday, April 30, 2017

Back Me Up

I brought the Tumblers flimsy with me to Quilted Threads yesterday so I could find a backing fabric for it.

This was a nice option. It had a lot of the colors of the flimsy, it was a large print and it was fun.

This was another good possibility. The colors were also good.

 This was the one I selected. I think it's the best fit.

I didn't quite realize until I got it home and spread out that it was big butterflies.

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Tumbling Over

Are you tired of the Tumbling puns yet? The tumbler quilt flimsy is finished. I'll be choosing a backing when I visit Quilted Threads today to deliver Julie Sefton's quilt See Rock City.

I added four rows to the quilt, and now it falls over the edges of the table nicely. The table is an antique Duncan Phyffe style drop leaf mahogany table I inherited from my grandmother. It is about 40" x 63" as shown, and has three 12" leaves that can be inserted to make the table eight feet long and big enough to seat twelve. The "table quilts" I have made for this table are different sizes, the biggest being the Fall House Top quilt which I use for Thanksgiving dinners.

Friday, April 28, 2017

See Rock City in New Hampshire!

YES! This is Julie Sefton's magnificent quilt, See Rock City, is visiting the Granite State for a few months.
Here's a better photo.

You can see this quilt at Quilted Threads in Henniker NH. (It really is worth a special trip.) I'll be delivering it Saturday morning. I'll be teaching a barns class there in June, but it's full. There is a waiting list, and we are planning another class, so fear not.

In the meantime I've got it all to myself for a couple of days!

Thursday, April 27, 2017

More Tumbling

Last night I added four more rows to the Tumbler Quilt. It was easier to design them on the floor than the design wall.

I didn't get them all sewn to the quilt. That's tonight's job. Now I have to find a backing. Good thing I'm planning a visit to Quilted Threads this weekend!

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Tumbling Table

If you heard about Webroot in the news, you can imagine how my Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning went. Six computers at my office were affected, but for a while I was terrified our server was infected. It was a long night and an early morning when one user called me at home at 6:05 AM to tell me she couldn't get into her computer. (I knew she was going to call, and had an answer ready for her.)  So I didn't get any sewing done on Monday night.

Last night, however, I sewed the last big chunks of the Tumbler quilt together. I need to add four more rows so it will hang over the ends of the table, but I can do that. I can also add a border. I'll have to think about it.

However when I got it on the table I just loved it so much more! The green glass bowl looks spectacular and the quilt looks appropriately "spring-y", or like Cherie said, "Easter Egg" like. And although the quilt is made of tumbler blocks, I think Cherie has named this quilt. Easter Egg. Or Easter something. Easter Basket maybe.

Any other ideas or suggestions?

Monday, April 24, 2017

Tumbling Over & Over

My tumblers are now in four big chunks and I'll sew the last three seams later tonight. (It's time for Call the Midwife & Masterpiece Theatre.)

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Happy Birthday My Darling Boy!

My favorite person on the planet is now two people. This is my so-far favorite photo of him and his now 8 month old daughter. Today is my son's birthday.

Happy birthday my darling! I love you lots, as high and as wide as the sky. Love you honey!


Saturday, April 22, 2017

More More Bore Bore

The top six rows are sewn together in pairs. The next eight rows are just blocks sewn together. I measured and added a row at the bottom so it will drape nicely on the table.

Yeah, watching the progress of this getting sewn together is really boring, I know.

I think it's going to be very pretty with the green bowl.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Six


I've sewn six rows of the tumblers together, and then I sewed two pairs of rows together. It's moving along.

Monday, April 17, 2017

One Row at a Time

After a lot of tinkering, I decided it was time to start sewing the tumblers together. One of the problems with a planned layout is the blocks have to be sewn together exactly as I laid them out. So that takes time. At any rate, one sewn together row is wide enough to be a table cover. I'll have to do a bit of math to figure out if it's long enough.

The weather this past weekend was just lovely. For the most part it was sunny and warm. I had the windows open and worked a bit in the garden.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Tumbling Over & Over

I got up on Saturday and played around with the tumblers. I wanted to fill out the width of the wall. Since each block is placed, and not arbitrary, it's slow going.


By the time I stopped for the day I had this. I'm not done, but I am enjoying this. This will be a table quilt for the month of April, so the theme is light yellow greens and yellows. Naturally there are pinks, blues, violets and light creams.

I've got more blocks to put up on the wall, so I'm still working.

Happy Easter, and OH! Hop on over to Millie's blog to see the best, newest photo of my little grandbaby!

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Tumbling Along


Back in 2015 I asked my pal Julie to cut up some of my fabrics into tumbler shapes for a spring quilt. I didn't get very far with them.

They were too meek. Too washed up for my taste. They needed some pop, but I didn't know what. So I set them aside.

 Eventually I asked Julie to cut me more tumblers out of a selection of kick-ass fabrics I chose.  I got sidetracked, and went on to make the Triangle quilts.

After finishing up the last tutorial, I had a clean studio and a dilemma. What to do next? I didn't want to make another scrap slab triangle quilt, so I pulled out the tumblers.


Since it's very hard to know where you want to go with something until you have a starting point, I decided to just cover the design wall with tumblers, figuring I could rearrange them once they got up there, so that's what I am doing now.

Naturally I had to start tinkering with them. I already know this isn't it, and I will play some more. I have a LOT of pieces, and I really can't know where I want them to go until I see what I have.

So that's the job for the Easter weekend.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Oh, Those Birds!

The ladies of the Soo Nipi Quilt Guild had a lot of fun yesterday making birds. By the time the day was done, most had made four or five birds.




I'm telling you, some of these birds were seriously awesome, and they all were beautiful.



Candace made a seagull and set him on the beach. Awesome job!

The ladies had a lot of fun, and it was fun to work with a group where everybody knew each other, and helped each other out. There was a lot of interplay and chatter. It was a great day.

If you want to make some birds, get my bird tutorial here. It tells you everything you need to know to make your own birds, and to make them unique and your own.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Birds in Newport

I'm spending the day with a group of quilters in Newport NH today, giving a workshop on making my free pieced birds. You can get the tutorial on how to build yours, along with my tutes about building butterflies, scrap slab triangle quilts, and my tute about using your fabrics and colors, here.

Dozens and dozens of quiltmakers have made these birds. One quilter recently told me she had made over 49 of them. Yes, they are that much fun, and that addictive!





PS, Happy Birthday SweetBean!! I miss you darlin'. Sending you hugs and kisses!

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

"Now this one..."



My friend Julie Sefton was teaching a class on barn-building at The Folk School last week, and had my red barn block on display for her students. Some guests of the school visited Julie's classroom and looked around. Julie explained what her students were doing. One of the ladies indicated my red barn. "Now this one," she said, "has had Art training."

Julie was surprised to hear it, and we were both amused.

When Gerald Roy first saw this quilt, the Black & White Crayons, he said, "I already know you do, but if I didn't, this quilt would be enough to tell me you know how to draw."

Why? I asked.

"Drawing is about knowing what to push back, and what to bring forward. You obviously know how to do that. These light letters pop forward, and the dark ones sink back, but they are all on the same picture plane, and getting that to happen takes knowledge and skill."

I'm always amazed that it shows, and that some people can see it.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

The Chicken is Home

My quilt, Too Much Chicken, is back from its trip around the USA, and now I will sew the last two labels on the back of the quilt.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

The Weekend


I went to the MQX show in Manchester NH on Saturday. This lion was my favorite of the show. It was part of the Cherrywood Challenge. (You may have to look at this a moment or two for the colored blocks to form part of the lion's face.)

This was another of my favorites. Generally I feel these kinds of representational quilts are a "misapplication of the medium" (as Gerald Roy says), but this one is really beautiful. It hung perfectly flat, which gained points in my book. This won a pink ribbon (second place) in Pictorial Quilting. This was made by Andrea  Brokenshire from Texas.

As soon as I saw this I had to have it. A very bright light with a bendable neck. The thing is so light it weighs next to nothing, and because it's wireless you can use it virtually anywhere. I can already see this is going to help me when I do some hand sewing. It was less than twenty bucks, and you can get it on Amazon for even less than that.

And I had a chat with the MQX founder and I'll be submitting a proposal to teach a class there next year! 

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Backing for Fruit Loops

I've been staring at this on the floor of my sewing studio for three weeks:

It's the backing fabrics I chose for the Fruit Loops quilt. It's been lying there for that long partly because I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, and partly because I've been busy.

Last night I got home from work and after dinner I decided enough was enough. I cut the pieces crosswise into 18" lengths, then paired them up, and sewed them together. Then I rearranged them and sewed those together.

Voila! The backing of Fruit Loops is compete.

Now it's time to send them off to be quilted.

And this is also a reminder that the Scrap Slab Triangle Quilts tutorial is live and for sale in my Etsy shop here.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Scrap Slab Tutorial!

It's finished.

I'm happy.

I've already printed a copy for myself and had it bound.

It's 48 pages long and includes everything you need to know to make quilts using scraps and the Tri-Recs ruler set.

It's an instant download and you can get it now!

You can get it here, at my shop on Etsy: Lynne's Scrap Slab Triangle Quilts.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Selvages Away!

The selvages are all packed up and on their way to freedom.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Too Much!

A long time ago I got excited about working with selvages and for a long time I "harvested" them whenever I cut into my fabric.

However, I am no longer in love with them and find them occupying too much space in my studio. I'd be happy to give them away... BUT.  The but is you can have them if you want to pay for shipping. I'll jam as many as I can into a Medium sized US Flat Rate box. Email me at patcherymenagerie AT gmail DOT com if you're interested.


Update: All the selvages are gone. Thanks.

In other news, the Scrap Slab Tutorial is undergoing its final edits and should be ready soon.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

A Little Bit Ridiculous...

It's April first. The weather is supposed to be mild and the snow is supposed to be almost gone. And yet, it is snowing. There is easily six or more inches on the ground and it shows no signs of letting up.

Sigh.

Mother Nature is having a good laugh at our expense, I am sure.