May Table

My table is set for May. It is called Easter Basket. If you want to know the story of this quilt you can click this link and read the posts. The idea started in 2015 when I sent Julie a stack of fabrics for her to cut the tumbler shapes. I got them back, played with them, but the idea hit a wall because the colors were so wimpy. I ended up sending a second batch of fabric to Julie later that year but I never got back to the quilt until 2017.

Easter Basket is Finished

My Tumbler quilt is finished. I've been sewing the binding down in the evenings. Because this quilt has summery colors, I wanted to finish it so I could use it on the dining room table while it is still summer.

I made it to use in Springtime, but why wait?

Binding Easter Basket

I attached the binding for the tumblers quilt, Easter Basket, last night.

I'll pin it over to the front and hand sew it down. This will be a table cover for my dining room table.

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.)

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.

Six

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

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.

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!

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.

Tumbler Reboot

I wasn't happy with the tumblers. The colors are one note in terms of value - not too light, and not too dark. It's a charming color combination, and would be very pleasing if I continued, but for me it doesn't have enough verve or pizzazz.

I wasn't quite sure what it needed. If I can't identify the problem, I can't find a solution. Long experience has told me that if I don't know where I'm going, I stop working.  But that doesn't mean I stop thinking. I also keep my eyes and ears open. You never know when inspiration will strike.

While visiting Kathy in Belfast Maine, I saw two paintings by Linda Packard, a local artist.

These paintings reminded me that I needed a full range of values. My tumblers had a lot of middle values, but not enough light lights, and certainly not enough darks or intense colors.

So once I got home from Maine, I pulled some more fabrics, and I think these will help solve my problem.

Tumblers

After pairing and sewing a stack of tumbler blocks together, I decided to lay them out on the floor to see what they might look like.  It didn't take long to figure out that this would look good no matter how I put it together.

Thank you ladies. Deutzia is the little white bush out front. It's certainly a keeper.

Tumblers & White Flowers

 I've been pairing up the tumblers and sewing them together.

It's fun discovering things in the garden. These large white irises are at the end of the driveway, just beyond the carport.

 This is the bush I asked about last week. It's  in flower now. Maybe somebody will  be able to help me figure out what it is.

These two were taken with my phone, so I apologize for any fuzziness, but you ought to be able to click them to enlarge and supersize for more detail.

The Stack - The Plan

A couple of weeks ago, I showed you this picture of a stack of fabrics.

The strips are 4" x 11" and I think there are 200 or so of them.  So what did I do with them?

I asked Julie if she'd cut them into tumblers using her Accu-Cut gizmo. (I think that's what it's called.)

So I sent them to Tennessee, Julie cut them up, and they came back yesterday.  "I liked looking at the colors and fabrics you chose," she said when we talked on Sunday. "It's going to be a very pretty quilt."

I picked the colors and fabrics thinking of Spring. I sewed a few random pairs together to see what they might look like. It's going to be a table quilt.

So, OK, here they are:


Winter - "Picnic Table"

Spring will be the Tumblers (above)

Summer is the Blue Deco

Fall is the Fall House Top (away being quilted)

And last is the Christmas Random Plank.

All were made from fabrics from my stash.  (Yikes!)  I wanted them all to be scrappy, yet different. I don't think the Spring one is going to take long to make. I think once I get started it'll move right along.  You all know I love to watch Tennis on TV. Well, the French Open is going on right now, and I can sew and watch tennis at the same time. How good is that?

Yeah, I know I'm nuts.

Heh.