Yellow Again and Hockey

 

The top half of the yellow quilt is gone. Where did it go?

It's here. I decided to web the quilt top together. Because this is stressful for my shoulders, I do half the quilt at a time.

I worked on this Wednesday before Swim Class.

I sewed the rows together the next morning, then I pressed it and went to my Tai Chi class.

When I got back from Tai Chi, the USA Women's Hockey Team was playing Canada, and they were behind. I was so nervous I could barely watch, so I webbed the second half of the quilt together. I finished just as the US team scored, and went to sit on the couch to watch the rest. The US ladies won in overtime.

Needless to say I didn't get to ironing the second part. That will come.

Friday I did housework and meal prep. I also watched the men play hockey. It's amazing how differently the men played compared to the women

The new purple and orange fabrics arrived for my nephew's quilt and I ran them through the washer and dryer. They need to be ironed also. And yes, I knew just what I was doing when I selected that eggplant fabric.

I'll be teaching the Scrap Slab Traingle Quilt class at the Night Owl Quilting Studio in Amherst NH some Saturday in August. Haven't nailed down which one just yet.

It's the Story

It started in 2017 when I wrote the story of the Colorado Quilt to give to my brother and his wife when I sent them the quilt. I knew I could tell the story, but there was no way to be able to tell all of it and expect them to remember any of it. So I created a document in Power Point, exported it to a PDF file, had it printed at Staples and sent it with the quilt.

I did it again when I gave the Goose Rocks Beach quilt to my boss. He loved the quilt, but couldn't stop looking at the story. 

In 2021 I began to write the stories for EVERY quilt I gifted, and had them printed and bound at Staples, and gave printed copies along with the quilts I gifted.

I wrote each story specifically for the recipient. If they didn't know much about quilt making, I explained some details.

In each I explained how I got the idea for a quilt, how I chose fabrics, why I chose the pattern I chose 

and how I put the quilt together.

If I changed my mind, I wrote about that too. I showed some examples of things I thought they would like to know, 

I wrote about how I knew a quilt told me where it wanted to live.

I've written stories for over two dozen quilts, and I have even gone back and written stories about quilts I gifted over ten years ago. 

I hear it all the time, "Lynne, the quilt is GORGEOUS, but. I LOVE THE STORY." Some recipients keep the story out on a table or bookcase so they can share it with guests or family.

So I don't know why I was surprised when my Mother called me the other night to tell me that I deserved an Academy Award for the story I wrote about her quilt. I had included a page for each bird in the quilt, and explained why it was appropriate for her quilt. If you read my blog, you would have seen these photos and heard the story.

The stories do two things. First, they tell the story of the quilt, Secondly, they document the quilt itself. At the end of each I have a page stating the name and size of the quilt. who made it, who quilted it and where the design came from. I also have a page of instructions for care of the quilt.

I've made almost two hundred quilts since 2009. I don't think I'm going to get stories written for all of them, but no matter.

EVERY quilt has a story, and if we don't write them down, then the story gets lost. 

Yellow Again

 

I've been making blocks for the Yellow Macnas quilt and getting them up on the design wall. Getting the top two rows up meant I had to get up on the ladder, which isn't much fun. I can see some blocks I want to rearrange up there on that top row.

Here the entire design wall is covered. This will shrink down to 60" x 76" when it is all sewn together. Normally I like my quilts 60" x 72" so  I may not need either the very top or the very bottom row. I'll have to review this when I have more energy to decide, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

Yellow & Chlorine Update

 

I've been adding Yellow blocks to the wall. I haven't done any tinkering yet. I can see a block that needs to be shifted in this photo, but I'll get to it later. I want this to feel more random. My friend Susan saw this picture and said she liked the little blips of red and the lighter ones. She thought they looked like rays of sunshine.

Here are what she is looking at - the yellows with other colors and larger prints,

I do have about forty unique yellows for this quilt. I'm having fun with this. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece. 

I've been watching a lot of the Olympics. I find I prefer the sports that are on ice. Which is to say, speed skating (long and short track) figure skating, curling, luge, bobsled and skeleton. Some of those events are suitable for sewing, and some are .... not!

I just love the Arthritis Swim classes. It's faded my bathing suit but the thing that has really bugged me was still smelling chlorine on my body while I lay in bed AFTER showering when I got back home after class. So I did a bit of research. Turns out the best way to get rid of the chlorine smell is to rinse it off as soon as you get out of the pool. This prevents the chlorine from seeping into your skin.

There are also body washes and shampoos that can help remove the smell and moisturize at the same time. I ordered some shampoo and a body wash and they arrived over the weekend. When I got out of the pool yesterday I went into the showers and rinsed off... BRIEFLY! The water was COLD! When the water temperature in the pool is 93F, water that is chillier really feels cold. At home the new body wash and shampoo worked too. Win, win!

Yellow Progress

 

I've been sewing the yellow Macnas blocks together while I've been watching the Olympics. This is about nine of nineteen rows. The blocks are just tossed upon the wall, but I like it being a bit haphazard.

I've also been in talks with the gals at the Night Owl Quilting Studio about possible classes there. I might teach classes on the Scrap Slab Triangle quilts and the curve based Rail Fence quilts based on Sujata Seah's book Cultural Fusion Quilts. We have scheduled a birds class there in April.

Yellow

 

Back in December these were the leftover yellow Macnas rectangles from the Little Brother yellow and gray Macnas quilt. Somebody asked me what I would do with them. I counted the pieces and I had enough for just over half a quilt. I figured I could cut up some little bits of yellow to make enough to make a yellow Macnas quilt.

Since I'm waiting for more purple and orange fabrics before I can work on a new quilt for my nephew, I decided to cut up some of the bits from my yellow scrap bins.

Here are the yellows from the yellow scrap bin. I pressed them, and then started cutting pieces.

Here are the pieces I cut from fabrics in the scrap bin. I haven't counted them, but with the leftovers from last December, I'm pretty sure I have enough to make a quilt.

Mom and Me

 

My Mother and me and her quilt.

My Mom is 92 and has several health issues, so I wanted to get her quilt to her as soon as I could so she could enjoy it. She loves it and thinks it's the best.

This and that

We'll get to this photo in a minute, but first a comment on the bathing suit thing and then a story.

Yes, it's amazing the bathing suit faded so quickly. One comment about what it does to my skin is worth noting. After I get home from swim class the suit goes in the wash, and then I take a shower. I have been told by my hairdresser to use conditioner every time I shampoo. So yeah, I'm aware of the detrimental effect of Chlorine on my body.

Last week I got an email from my heating oil company. It was a copy of an invoice for heating oil they had delivered. I thought it was weird. I hadn't seen them. I looked out the window. The tank was still snow covered and to fill it, the snow would have to have been brushed away. I was able to knock off enough snow to see the gauge and the gauge showed one quarter full. So I gave them a call. Sure enough the driver had made an error and sent a delivery notice to the wrong house. Since we have had so much snow, I knew I'd have to shovel a path for the delivery guy but when I tried to do it myself I found the snow too heavy. I called my nephew and asked if he could help out. 

He showed up an hour or so later and shoveled a clear path to the tank for the driver. We had lunch after he was done and he said, "Auntie, I have to talk to you about my quilt. It's over 10 years old and I'm starting to wear it out."

Now, most of us display a quilt on a bed, and it takes a lot longer than that to wear out, but my nephew literally wraps himself in his quilt every night (like a burrito), and I am guessing he washes it frequently, so it makes sense it's getting worn.

Oh. Gee. Darn. A quilt that is well loved? What more can we ask for?

"Can you make me another quilt please, Auntie?" he asked.

Well sure. What colors? 

"The same. Purple and Orange."

This is not a bad thing. I was between projects and didn't know what to do next!

The orignal quilt, Lightning in the Night Sky is here. Second one down.

Before and After

This is my bathing suit when I bought it in the summer of 2023.

This is it yesterday when I was packing my bag for the last Arthritis Swim class. 

I've been at the pool three times a week since the end of October. Chlorine is a nasty thing!

Mom's Bird Quilt finished!

 

The bird quilt I made for my mother is finished. I sewed the binding while binge-watching older seasons of Bridgerton so I would be caught up when I watched the first episodes of season 4.

I have to take it out for beauty shots, but it's really cold out, so I don't know when that will happen. It will have to be soon because my Mom really wants her quilt, and quite frankly, I don't blame her. 

I hate taking pictures of quilts in all the same places, and the snow makes it tricky. I'll have to figure out something. 

In the meantime I have gathered photos of each of the birds and am in the process of writing the story of the quilt, and of each bird in it.

A reminder for those of you who are new: if you want to make your own birds (they are so much fun) you can get my tutorial here, and ONLY HERE, at my Etsy shop.

Grand Opening

 

Cat's quilt was delivered and she opened the box and read the story of the quilt.

Then she unwrapped it...

Yes, she's really happy with it. She put it on her bed right away.

Win Some, Lose Some.

I'm sewing the binding on my Mom's bird quilt.

She was really excited to see it and came over to check it out.

She loves it, and thinks it is just wonderful. 

Great stuff!

I received this beautiful Amaryllis for Christmas, and like all pink Amaryllis's, it was very slow to open, but it had two stalks and twelve blooms. And like other pink ones, it was VERY tall. I have a special stake to hold it upright.

However, gravity rules.

Mom's Bird Quilt, Quilted

 

I picked up my Mom's bird quilt from Janet-Lee. Here is a closeup shot of the quilting. 

Here's another picture. I really love the quilting.

I've added the binding to the quilt, and will be finishing it over the next few days.

My mother is going to be very happy with this.

If you want to make your own birds, you can get my tutorial here.

A Bigger Bird

As you can see I figured out the picture thing.

Here are some quick updates to my last post.

We got just over a foot of snow. That's the easy part. The hard part is the low temperatures for the next week will hover right around zero, and the highs won't get above 24F for another week.

The New England Patriots won the AFC Championship and will play in the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks. Didn't see that coming last August.

I took Cat's quilt out for beauty shots, but it was windy so I didn't get many pictures.  It's a really pretty quilt and it's going to make Cat very happy.

The big snowstorm caused the Y to postpone the start of the Tai Chi class till next week. Works for me!

In my plans to make an extension of my Liberated Birds tutorial, I have made a bird twice as big as the "standard" bird, and with my hand next to it you can see how it is bigger. I've got lots of plans for the new tutorial, and it's going to take some time.

I do want to remind everyone that all my tutorials on my Etsy shop are 25% off until the end of January, so now is a great time to buy them.