Bright Cobblestones

 

There's a quote that an art school in Florida uses in its advertising: "A great idea is only an idea until you make it real."

And just because you make the idea real doesn't make it great. The IDEA for a brightly colored cobblestones quilt sounded great, but once I got all the blocks on the design wall I was decidedly unimpressed. There's too much of this that just looks like mush to me.

Now, that "to me" is the operative term here. Just because most folks think it's OK doesn't mean that I do.

I shall continue wrestling.

This is the view when I eat my lunch on the front porch. Quite nice, listening to the birds and the leaves rustle in the breeze.

I Am Retired!

 

We have these great big TV's in several places throughout the facility. Today, I was the star on all of them.

I have worked at Felton for 35 years and 10 months, and Tuesday was my last day in the office. (I have vacation time I'm still working off), but as of today I am officially retired.

Needless to day I didn't get any "work" done on my last day. Instead I walked around and said goodbye to my coworkers. I got lots of hugs. I have been talking to people for the last few days, because I knew I'd get too emotional to do it all in one day. But it was still a bit rough.

I was given a beautiful clock and this blanket, printed with photographs of me and my coworkers over the years I have worked for the company. This is me with the CEO. I made the Goose Rocks Quilt for him.

This is me and Ben, the young man I have been training, my former boss Daniela, who has been helping with the transition to the new ERP software. The Ola Polo quilt is hers. And at the far right is Matt, my boss. He is the owner of the Awash in a Sea of Blue quilt.

I was taken out to lunch and my coworkers complimented me on my trustworthiness, my dependability, my passion and my never-ending commitment to the company. It was pretty emotional.

Finally I packed up my belongings, packed the car and left.

This is a photo of the road home. A lot like my future. Wide open and sunny.

A Variation on a Theme

One of the tasks I need to do is to straighten up the fabrics in my stash. Since I am between quilts, I figured it would be a good task to start. I worked on the White on Whites, and then sorted out the white with colors and the creams with colors. I took the fabrics off the shelf, ironed them, refolded them, and put them back on the shelf.

I decided to work on the fabrics I call "colors on a white background." As I was pressing one piece I thought. "Gee, it would be interesting to make a cobblestones quilt with these bright fabrics, and have bright bold colors slashed through them." ***

Then I thought, well, fart. What am I waiting for? So I went through the stack and chose 24 fabrics, then pressed them cut 6-1/2" WOF strips.

Then I cut the first set of blocks, and inserted the strips and trimmed them. Whenever possible, I try to insert the contrasting strip and reassemble the block so the pattern continues from one piece to the other as in the photo above. It helps keep the quilt cohesive.

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Here are the 24 fabrics with a strip inserted. I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing them together. Now, I just threw these up on the design wall. I haven't arranged them to their best advantage, but you can see some of the challenges I will face. 

No, I am not in the least worried. I can make this work too.

And yeah, I did continue to work on organizing the fabrics.

*** Remember how I keep telling you that inspiration can be found anywhere? Well, this ought to show you.

Cobblestones

 

I've decided to name Deb's quilt "Cobblestones."  Here is a closeup of the quilt so you can see some of the fabrics I have used in the quilt.

At first I thought the quilt I would need a small dark border around the quilt, and then a larger cream one, but when I put a thin strip of dark fabric on the left side, and I didn't like it at all. Then I thought I should put a narrow light border, THEN a thin dark border and THEN a wider cream border, but I wasn't sure about it, so I gathered up some leftovers and made a sample strip, and put it on the top edge. I didn't like either version, so now I will simply add a border of cream/light and then the flimsy will be complete.

Here is the flimsy all sewn up.

Look what I found in my stash! A terrific fabric I will use for the backing of this quilt.  That's surely a WIN!!!

Deb's Quilt

 

I asked Deb to come over and take a look at what I had on the design wall. She was happy. She loved the fabrics I had chosen and I was glad to see we were on the same page. I did a lot of tinkering after she left and this is the layout I will sew together.

When Deb visited we talked about borders and binding and we looked at some fabrics for each.

Now I do not usually allow this kind of input in my quilts, but when I toured Deb's house, she wasn't kidding. It was a lovely, serene home, but it was very neutral. I knew that if it were up to me I would add more color, but this quilt is for Deb, and I wanted to be 100% sure she was good with the design and the fabrics I had chosen.

Although it is quiet and neutral, it will be a very beautiful quilt in its own way. Deb has told me the quilt will have a place of honor living on the back of the couch in her living room.

Now I've got to sew this together. Of course, before that happens I will scrutinize the design to make sure it is up to snuff. I can already see some things I might change - like some of the lines are too much the same in some rows or columns.

OH! The quilt needs a name. Suggestions welcome!

Happy Birthday Darling!

 Happy Birthday to my darling granddaughter,

Somebody is 8 years old today! And as. you can see she loves the PRIZM quilt, so now it lives in California.

The cat loves it too. He hasn't stopped cuddling with it since it came out of the box. (The soft frisbee is a gift from Mémère as well.)

yeah, those two are definitely connected....

The Beige Quilt

  I am making a beige quilt.

Yes, you heard that right.

You all know how much I dislike beige. But when someone you love says she is a "no-color kind of girl," you honor that.

I am making a quilt for my cousin Deb, who lives nearby. When I called her and asked her about her colors, I knew her colors were low-key, but I was surprised when she said "no-color."

"My living room sofa is cream and I have black and white throw pillows. Come over and look around." We made plans to get together in a few days. In the meantime I had to do some thinking. I knew I would be able to figure it out, and I knew I could make it beautiful, I just didn't know what I would do.

It took me about five days before I figured it out.

I decided to make "Crossroads" from Amy Walsh & Janine Burke's book Colorful Quilts for Fabric Lovers.

The quilt has six inch blocks with a thin insert in each. There are three blocks, one divided in half, one with the strip close to the edge, and one 2/3 of the way through. The basic blocks would be various creams, and the inserted strips would be darker blues, greens and other dark values. I went through my stash and pulled fabrics and brought them with me when I visited Deb.

She loved the idea, so I went home and started cutting fabrics.

The light fabrics are in the first photo, above. The colored insert strips are in the photo above.

I started sewing the blocks together. It didn't take long.

I threw some of the early blocks on the wall to see how it was going to look. I knew I wouldn't know for sure until I could see all the blocks on the wall.

It isn't "me" but I know I can make it look great.

Scribble Scrabble Goes Home!

 

I visited my cousin M and his wife N and delivered the Scribble Scrabble quilt. M was amazed. He had to examine every inch. "Is that a martini glass," he asked at one point? (Yes.) He kept saying it was Magnificent. 

About the backing, which was old maps, chosen because M travels a great deal: "The back is perfect. Did you know how much I love maritime history?"

He also loved the quilt's story I had written and printed. 

I was very happy. Both M & N love the quilt and their grandson loved looking at all the little details I put in there for him (dinosaurs, cats, bugs...)

Yeah, I'd say it was a hit.

Funny thing is it makes me just as happy to give this quilt away.

Family!

 

My son and granddaughter arrived a couple of days ago. Their flight was delayed by 2 hours and they finally got to my house about 10 PM, and they were hungry! So I fed them, and they both perked right up. 

The next day they came over and my DGD and I baked a cake and then I asked her to crawl under my worktables to fish out some fabrics and tools I had dropped back there.

We added the stitching for gathering the skirt on the Dino dress I am working on. DGD expressed an interest in sewing herself, so I Gabe her a strip of fabric and let her practice.

The next day she sewed the hem on the dress.

My son took pictures of us, and he asked us to be a little bit silly.

Jet lag finally caught up with the both of them.

Oh Olympics!

 

I have been watching the Olympics. I mean, I've been stuck on the couch! 

SURE, I loved watching Simone Biles, anybody on a horse, Stephen Nedoroscik (pommel horse guy), the pole vault (did you see???) the tennis between Carlos Alcatraz and Novak Djokovic, the shot put, the water polo, OMG... the 100 meter dash!!

But after like the third day, I knew I had to get off the couch, so I headed into the studio, grabbed the stack of blue scraps on the work table, and started sewing slabs. I ended up cutting forty scrap slab triangles, and I only stopped because I got a blister on my index finger.

My son and granddaughter will be here in less than 48 hours, so if I'm not blogging, you'll know why.

A Dino Dress

My granddaughter will be visiting next week and she has expressed a desire to sew with me. I figured I better get going on her dinosaur dress.  I have completed the bodice, above, and assembled the big parts of the skirt. All that's needed is to gather the waist and attach it to the bodice, then sew the hem. My granddaughter has no sewing experience, but I think she would get a kick out of doing that part.

I've really enjoyed the Olympics. I love watching the Equestrian events along with Water Polo, and that's in addition to the usual - gymnastics, swimming and tennis. Then again, pretty much anything is interesting to watch.