Giggles

 I decided the next word should be GIGGLES. It's fun and silly.

.

I knew where I wanted to go with the word, but it wasn't until I tilted the letters that I really started loving it.

 I think the fabric I is perfect, and the dino dot is the bomb!.

 

I'm not quite sure about the L, but overall I am pleased.

Of course, looking at it now I think the third G needs to be a bit bigger.  I want to make a pink butterfly as a companion to this word.

If you want to know how to make letters, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. My letters are made without patterns or templates and they are NOT paper pieced.

When Lynne Meets Julie

I "met" Julie sometime between 2007 and 2008 while we both participated in Tonya Ricucci's online class of free pieced letters. I had never had a quilt quilted, and it was Julie who recommended Chris Ballard to quilt the quilt of mine that is featured in Tonya's book.

Julie and I both have words on the cover of Tonya's book. Mine is GROW...

Julie made the word LEAP.

We became buddies online commenting on each other's work making letters, and she ordered a kitty quilt in August of 2008. I remember that particularly, because I received her request the day after the death of my goddaughter Violette.

We began to communicate directly. Emails flew back and forth with regularity.
.

Selvage quilts became popular at that time, and I made a few tote bags with them. Julie asked if I would make one for her in the spring of 2010.

We must have been getting really friendly, because Julie sent me this quilt for my birthday that year. Around the same time, we decided to do a quilt swap. I had made two Rules quilts, one as a mini swap with a friend in Australia, the other with Tonya herself. Julie wanted a Rules quilt too, but she wanted extras - asterisks, butterflies, and the way I used multiple fabrics in each letter.

The result was the quilt, "No Rules For Julie." It has everything she asked for. I held nothing back. I went all out. Originally I had expected the quilt to take me a week, but I had earlier that summer discovered the magic of using the prints in the fabrics to do what Wanda Hansen describes as "the heavy lifting."

Each letter took much longer the new way. I worked on the letters when I was on vacation one week in July (Wimbledon was on TV that week, and it was the year of John Isner's historic three day match.) At the end of five full days of work, I had only made 33 letters. That's six letters A DAY! I worked ALL DAY, EVERY DAY!

It took me a full month to complete the top. I even put myself in the quilt - that orange bird, I told Julie (who had said she was not particularly fond of orange) was her "noisy friend from New Hampshire."

The quilt is one of my very best, and hangs proudly in the foyer of Julie's house. Originally planned to hang in her studio, that all changed when her husband Larry first saw the quilt. "He looked, and looked, and looked..." I remember Julie telling me. "He never does that." He was disappointed when she told him the quilt was going to hang in her studio, and changed the location.

When the quilt was finished, I brought it over to show my Mom. She was very quiet for a few minutes as she took it all in. Then, "F**k." [yes, mom said THAT four letter word.]

"F**k"  another pause. She shook her head.

"F**k". Then she sighed and looked up at me. "Is she worth it?"

"Yes, Ma, she is."


And today, even more so. Julie is my very best friend.

Julie & Me

My best pal Julie (that's her on the right) and I have known each other since August of 2008, and we have met each other in person twice. This photo, above, was taken the second (and last) time we ever got together. This was taken in June 2014 at the Zimmerman House in Manchester NH. Julie came up to New England that summer to see the Quilts in Color show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

I was thinking last night that I should tell our story, since so much of it has happened online and behind the scenes.

Julie helped me to achieve one of the big goals on my bucket list, a visit to the Gateway Arch in St Louis MO. It was one of the highlights of my life, and I will never forget it.

A German tourist took this picture of us that day, in October 2013.

This is Julie with Glorious, the diamond quilt we designed together in 2018.

This is Julie (left) and Chris Ballard, who quilted my quilt Letters From Home, in 2009.

This is me in 2010 with Obsolescence, the quilt Julie made for me as part of a swap.

 Here is Julie in 2010 with No Rules for Julie, the quilt I made for her for the swap.


Way back when when she and I were discussing the idea of swapping quilts, Julie was very particular and very specific about what she wanted. What did I want? "That green quilt you are making. That's very you," I told her. "That's interesting" she replied, "as I am just coming to realize that green is a signature color for me."


So how did Julie and I first get connected? She wanted me to make a Gizzy quilt for her tuxedo cat, Angel (Julie is holding Angel in one of the pictures above.) What did I make?

Yeah, I knew what I was doing last year when I ordered the book GREEN, for her for Christmas.

Even though we have been together twice, and we live 1127 miles apart, we talk on the phone about once a month (in marathon 2 hour conversations we literally schedule in advance), we are now in contact quite frequently. We probably text two or three times a week, even if it's just to share pictures of our grandkids, but usually it's to comment on what we are doing in the quilt studio.

Julie and I have a long story, and it's pretty nifty. I will tell the story over the next few days. We have shared some of the same life experiences (we became grandmothers within months of each other). We have inspired each other, and we have helped each other. We get ideas from one another, and we give each other honest critiques. I always want to hear what Julie has to say.

Before and After

For the last few days this has been the view into the dining room. Notice the empty walls.  I had taken the quilts down to bring to the Concord Piecemaker's Guild for my talk.

They were a great bunch of ladies and I hope we all had a good time. I talked a bit too much (sorry) and as a result the guild's show and tell did not take place. (Really sorry about that, I'dve waited, with pleasure, to see what everyone was making.)

It was an hour's drive home, but at 9:45 at night, the roads are blissfully empty. I set the cruise control and the GPS and stayed in the slow lane for the calming drive home.

At home I was too jumpy to go to bed right away, so I put my quilts back on the walls where they belong.

Yeah, that's better!

The Giants - Part One

When I talked about my stash the other day, I mentioned I use large prints on the back of my quilts. It's a funny thing, but when I take photos of my quilts I don't take photos of the backs, which is a bit of a shame because I choose the backings so carefully. I never just use what I have hanging around.

So last weekend I set up my quilt stand and remedied that situation. Some of the photos have a blue cast because they were taken in the shade on a sunny day, but you get the idea.

In 2009 I made this quilt, Letters From Home as a sample for Tonya Ricucci's book, Letter Play Quilts. Tonya had stipulated the quilts had to be quilted. I had never had one of my quilts quilted before and was wary to let somebody else loose with it. Fortunately Julie Sefton intervened and recommended Chris Ballard.

When I talked to Chris on the phone she said, in her inimitable Southern accent, "I don't know how I'm going to quilt your quilt. I'm going to hang it up on the wall. Your quilt will tell me how it wants to be quilted."

Right then and there I knew Chris was the one, and she has quilted all my quilts since. I let her do her thing and it is always perfect.

At that time I had been reading Julie's blog and saw how Julie used a lot of pieced backings for her quilt. So I assembled this out of a Kaffe and some leftover bits. As you can see I added a cat emoticon.

When the quilt arrived at Chris's house she gave me a call, "I like the way you didn't drop the ball on the backing."

I've never forgotten that, and make every effort to "not drop the ball" on every backing of every quilt I make.

 Here is The Quick Brown Fox, also made in 2009.

And here is the back. Generally I feel backings are a great big space, and need something equally big to fill it up so it doesn't look stupid. I guess I just don't like a lot of empty space.

 
In between "arty" quilts, I make "normal" ones, or my version thereof. I made this because I wanted to see how many so-called rules about placing fabrics next to each other that I could break. I was going for broke, and ended up with a jewel box. The result is my quilt "Laughing Out Loud."

Here's the fabric I chose for the backing. It's an eye-popping Philip Jacobs print I was lucky enough to get on sale. I figured if I was going for broke on the front, I had to go for broke on the back. I gave this quilt to my Mom, so I don't have a "proper" photograph of the back.

My son asked me to make him a yellow quilt.

 Really.

(An aside: The tutorial for this quilt, Slashed Squares, is here. It's an easy quilt to make, and has lots of possibilities. It is the single most popular page on my blog, having over 27,000 hits since I wrote it in 2008.)


He said he wanted a "Quilt of Sunshine" so when he took a girl to the fireworks they could lie on a nice quilt and he could make a good impression. You can read a bit more about it here. My son gave me all kinds of grief about the fabrics I selected, but I have "Mom Armor" and I ignored him.  He was, originally, quite dismayed at what I selected for the back.

Giant Magnolias.

I had asked him if I could make "to Paul from Mom with love" in free pieced letters on the back of the quilt. He said "NO WAY" so I just made "XXX..." which is the way we sign letters to each other. (Tell that story now, however, and he slaps his forehead and says, "I was WRONG! I should have LET YOU") This is the same son who's getting the Petals quilt. I only have one child.)

When I gave him the quilt, he carried it home and placed it on his bed. He's never once let it touch the ground on the beach or at the fireworks. It's on his and DIL's bed as we speak.

BTW, the other print on the back, a small Japanese design printed in metallic gold, was chosen by him against my advice. Gold sparkly stuff on quilts WILL wash off eventually. So now the back of the quilt is flowers, and gray.

He loves the flowers, and he's graceful enough to admit he was wrong about them.


More backings and more quilts later!

Home Sweet Home

My quilts arrived back home yesterday.

After an extended stay in Memphis with Julie, the sampler quilt, Letters From Home, is back on the wall for which it was designed. I've missed it.

The Black Box, Nine x Nine and Magic Happens are all back where they belong. (Note the space bags on the floor at the right.)

I had to unpack the two giant boxes that came back from Memphis because today is trash day, and I wanted to get the boxes into the recycle bin.  I'll tell you about the goodies Julie and Larry included later. Last night was the Project Runway finale, and I had to watch that.

I also received the fabrics I ordered for the Chicken quilt. Chris gave me a few scraps of good stuff too. I've been washing and ironing all that. I'll show you later.

I changed my mind about the backing of the Sunburst Rainbow quilt. I've selected something else, and I've also chosen the binding. You'll see.  I'll be using that gray and white zig-zag for the back of the Sliced quilt, and I think that one will have a red binding. I know where both these quilts are going.

I have to finish the Rainbow Baby quilt, and the Spools quilt. Both need binding.

And I have to clean the house. Oh well.

And I bought myself the new Kindle Paperwhite, which I love. I sent my old Kindle to Kidbean, the oldest of my "fairy nephews." His Mom reports I may hear the sonic boom of joy when it arrives at their house later today.

:-)

Friendly Friday

About a year ago I ran out of wall space. I gave my friend Julie a call and asked if she'd like to hang my sampler quilt in her house for a few months.

"Sure, on one condition," she said.

"What's that?"

"Next year when you come for Quintessential Quilts 2013, you leave me the Fox for a visit."
 

I thought it was a fair exchange. So now that QQ2013 is over (for me), my Quick Brown Fox quilt is  hanging in Julie's house. My sampler, "Letters From Home" is being shipped home to me with my other quilts. Here's a better photo:

Julie has terrific light in her studio.

Visiting Julie also gave me the opportunity to visit my quilt, No Rules for Julie, which I made for her in 2010, and haven't seen since.  It was good to see it "in person" again. I still think it's one of my best quilts.

 It was hanging in the auditorium when I spoke at QQ2013 this past Sunday.

Change of Pace

A few weeks ago I wrote about retiring my sampler quilt, "Letters From Home." What I meant was I wanted to give it a rest from hanging and being exposed to light and dirt.  So I did just that. (The quilt on the bed is "Magic Happens", made by my pal Julie from all my leftover bits, and quilted by our friend Chris.)

I rolled it up around a cardboard tube, and tied it gently with fabric scraps.

It's now resting comfortably in the closet in my "spare" room.

I've hung the Four Seasons quilt in its place to enjoy. I was working on this quilt last Thanksgiving, and this year my Holiday guests will be able to enjoy it with me.

I Washed It

At one of the classes I taught a few weeks ago, I took a good look at my quilt, Letters From Home, and realized it was dirty. There were some dusty greasy stains across the top edge, and some spots along the edges.

Now, this quilt hangs in my house, just outside my kitchen.  It doesn't get any sunlight, but it has been rather active during it's 3 year life. It's been to Tennessee, to Washington State, to Quilt Market in Houston, to Quilted Threads in Henniker NH, to work with me, and anywhere I can show it off, so with all that, it wasn't really a surprise to me that it was a little soiled.  So I washed it.

In my usual cavalier fashion, I just tossed it in the washing machine (cold water, permanent press cycle) with some detergent and a color catcher.  When it came out, I tossed it in the dryer on low, then took it out when it was slightly damp and let it dry flat.  After a week, I hung it back up. It looks lovely, with the quilty wrinkles a lot of quilters like.

I'll bring it with me to Quintessential Quilts 2013 in St Louis next year, and after that I think I might take it down and let it rest.

Quilted Threads

Yesterday I drove to my favorite quilt shop, Quilted Threads, in Henniker NH.
I love this shop; it has a great selection, it's well-organized, it's spotlessly clean, it's well lit, and the sales staff is knowledgeable, helpful and very friendly.
Millie and I did a little shopping. She really likes these...I like... everything...Isn't this a terrific shop?
Oh, and did you notice this...
Yes, it's my Letters From Home quilt, currently on display. The shop has just received Tonya's book Word Play Quilts, (Yes, they looked for my quilt immediately) and were in the process of bar-coding it into their system for sale. The ladies tell me the quilt has been drawing a lot of attention, ("Everybody wants to know how you did it.") and apparently they are all amazed when they are told it is NOT paper-pieced. "Everybody loves it."

Some time in 2011 I will be teaching a class on free pieced letters at Quilted Threads. We haven't yet worked out the details, but it's going to happen, so stay tuned. In the meantime, if you are in the area, you can drive to Henniker to see this beauty.

And my quilt!

Tonya!

This is Tonya Ricucci, author of Word Play Quilts, and creator of the wonderful free-pieced alphabet. She's holding my quilt, Letters From Home, which is going to be in the book. This photo was taken at Quilt Festival (Quilt Market?) in Houston, at the Martingale booth.

Woo hoo! The book comes out December 7th! I can't wait!

You can click the photo to enlarge, then click it again for more detail. If you REALLY want to see detail, you can go here to see the full 8.4 MB photo and enlarge to your heart's delight!)

Help!

You've all seen my Alphabet Sampler Quilt. It's going to be published in an upcoming book and I think it needs a more creative title. The quilt is completely free-pieced, so maybe the title needs to reflect that. I'm terrible at naming things. (you can click the photo to enlarge.)

Any suggestions? Leave them in the comments. Thanks!

***Update*** I asked my friend Julie and she asked her coworkers and one of them came up with a name I really like:

Letters From Home

Since the book project isn't mine, I don't feel comfortable divulging more information about it, but I will surely let you know when it happens!