Twelve!

Woo Hoo! I like these a lot. This is going to be a fun quilt.

*Sorry for the minimal posts lately, I've been really busy. More details later!

Red One

I love red.

Let's Celebrate!

My son and I at Duke's Malibu in Malibu Califorina.

My future DIL and my Mom. We had a spectacular celebration dinner last night. We watched the pelicans fly by in formation, and we watched the waves crash on the rocks outside.


(Note, You are not seeing things. My Mom fell at the start of our trip, has a black eye, and the side of her face is swollen. No need to worry. She is fine.)

Medium Green

I am having a lot of fun with these.

This is Medium Green. I had made a light green (or yellow-green), so now I have a "medium" green. Never underestimate Christmas fabrics when looking for good greens.

Color Blocks

It's fun to think all these blocks have come from the little scrap bins. I like this, and will need at least a dozen more blocks to make this big enough.

Even though the "Missing U" quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts has blocks made from only primary colors, I'll make a brown block and some blocks with only black and white fabrics, and I might even make a black block. It's fun to make these.

A Special Bag

I do not know why, but I love containers of all types. I have a special weakness for boxes, tote bags and bowls. It's probably a good thing that of these three I can only make tote bags.  A couple of weeks ago my Mom got an iPad, and she asked if I could make her a bag to carry it around in, and she asked if I could make the strap long enough so she could wear it across her body.  No problem, I told her, I even have just the right fabric.

I  bought a big piece of this Home Dec fabric a few years ago when I found it in the scrap bin of a local shop.

The little bag didn't need to be complicated, and it was simple to do.

Voila!

Mom loves it.

Medium Blue

Making these blocks, with all the "extra" colors in the fabrics, makes me realize how we limit ourselves when we choose fabrics that "go" together. This block has a lot of different blues, warm ones and cool ones, and ones that veer to green and some that are duller blues, but here they all coexist wonderfully.

Update...
My friend Megan has left a question in the comments and I'm going to answer it here. Megan, when a fabric has both, say yellow and blue in it (as in your example) I determine which color is dominant and store it in that box. So if I'm looking at the fabric from a distance and it reads "blue" or "yellow" then the decision is easy.  I have bins for "WHITE" and I have one for "WHITE AND" which is where I store the fabrics that are colors with a white background. Lots of novelties end up in this bin, I do the same thing with Black. One bin for "BLACK", and one for "BLACK AND." I don't stress out too much about where the bits end up, and if some fabrics fall into two bins, then so be it. These are scraps, after all and some things just aren't worth stressing out about. I do have a "MULTI" bin and one for "CATS." Use whatever works for you.

As for your comment about a lot of quilters using only fabrics from the same "line" in a quilt, I totally agree. I feel those quilts are bland and boring. I always get strange looks when I shop for fabrics, and bring a lot of seemingly unrelated things together. As you know, I'll mix Asians, batiks, Marcia Derse, Kaffes, and Westminster fabrics together with Jinny Beyers, Tula Pink, or whatever else I can lay my hands on. Except for the big big ones, I don't know the names of the hot designers, and that doesn't bother me one bit.

It's Time...

When both work tables are covered in fabric to a depth of 18" it's time to clean. There's no room left to move anything over, and working becomes impossible. It's got to go.

Se the big bin on the far left? The one that's overflowing with fabric? Those scraps have to be sorted into the smaller bins on the table. As regular readers know, they are sorted by color.

The color blocks I have been making have come exclusively from fabrics in the little bins. I know there's a whole quilt in there, and I'm eager to see just how big a dent I can make in these bins.

I can see the red, orange, brown, teal and purple bins are overflowing. Guess which blocks I'll have to make next?

Happy Birthday My Dearest Darling!

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to You!

 Happy Birthday to my Silly, Funny, Fearless, Creative, Wonderful Son...

Happy Birthday to You!!!


Love, Mom
xxx... (infinity)

How my Mémère Made Quilts

My grandmother made quilts. They were scrappy quilts, and she never used a pattern. She made them from the clothes she and my mother made for me, my brothers and sister and our cousins. The quilts were made from the leftover fabric from our skirts and blouses, pajamas, jumpers, shorts and tops; from tablecloths, placemats, tote bags and costumes.

They weren't quilted, they were tied with crochet cotton, and the backings were sheets. The quilts were lightweight and washed like a dream. This was beneficial, as they were utility quilts in every sense of the word. We used them on picnics, we brought them to the beach, we watched fireworks lying on them. We used them to wrap my Mother's artwork when we had to deliver it to various galleries. On our beds, we put them on top of the bed's flat sheet, and under the blanket so they were rarely seen. On hot summer nights, they were perfect to sleep under, just enough to keep out the draft, but light enough not to be too hot.

My Mémère never bought new fabric to make the quilts. She always used what she had.  Later, when she had Macular Degenerative Disease, and couldn't see, I asked her how she made them, because I couldn't figure out how she put them together. They weren't made in traditional blocks.

This is one of the last quilts Memere made. This was made in the 1980's.

"I started cutting squares, but that didn't last long," she said.  "It took too much time to cut them out, and I still had fabric left over that I wanted to use. So I just took two pieces of fabric and sewed them together."

 "If one piece was too big, I'd just cut it off. If I didn't like the pieces I sewed together, I'd just use them someplace else." Mémère even chain-pieced them.

I asked how she got the pieces square. "Oh I cut them with a pair of scissors."

"So after I sew those, and pressed the seams, I did it again using the pieces I had."

 "I kept sewing until I got a big chunk and then I put it aside until I had a lot of big pieces and then I sewed them together until it got to be the right size for the bed."

Did she measure? No, she'd lay the big sections on the bed and move them around until they were the way she liked. She'd cut things off if they were too big, and add the pieces to other sections that were too small. She wanted to use every scrap.

Sound familiar?

It should. I've heard the same process described by Tonya Ricucci, Gwen Marston, and in several "tutes" for "made fabric" and many other places.

Was my Mémère the first true "Liberated Quiltmaker?" Of course not, she was just trying to make do with what she had.

My Mémère died in 2001, well before I took up quiltmaking again (after a 22 year break), so I never had a chance to tell her that she was a quilt maverick.

She would have laughed and told me I was silly, but every time I make one of these color blocks (using the technique she taught me) I think of her.

The One Hour Challenge

Last night I got home from work and heated up the oven to cook a baked potato. While I waited for the oven to pre-heat, I brought out the trash and threw a load of wash in the laundry. What to do while I waited for the potato to cook? (The rest of dinner simply needed to be reheated in the microwave, so no cooking was necessary.) What could I do in an hour?

Could I take the little pieces in this scrap bin,

and surround this piece of white fabric to make a 16-1/2" block by the time the baked potato was ready?

There was only one way to find out.

I selected fabrics, and ironed them as they came out of the bin.

I sewed the pieces into pairs, and then sewed pairs together and kept going until I was done.

It took me slightly longer than an hour, but it did provide quite a diversion.  The next question was did this make a dent in the amount of fabric in the little bin?

 

Answer: Not much.

Finishing the Bright Crayons

I've finished sewing the binding and hanging sleeve on the Bright Crayons quilt.

I'm really happy with it. 

 For now it's hanging in my office.

Backing

The part I like the least about making a quilt is getting the backing ready. They are generally too big for my table and I have to work on them on the floor.

I'm getting too old for this.

Then again, when I'm finished, I'm generally pretty pleased with the result.

(Yes, even my eyes go a little buggy when I look at this.)

The Power of One

When I first started blogging I didn't think anybody would read what I wrote. I didn't think anybody would care. 

Boy, was I wrong. 

Blogging has brought me a new life, and some of the best friends a person could ever ask for. It's easy to forget though, as I write my posts, that although I have a regular "readership" who leave comments, there are a lot of other readers I never know about. Earlier this week I got this email from Valerie whose beautiful email reminded me of the power of One.

Her letter left me awed, humbled and speechless.  Here it is.

Hello Lynne,

Greetings from Nova Scotia. 

I wanted to take a quick moment to thank you. I have been following your blog for a while now and enjoy it so much!!

You see...

Because you blog I have daily inspiration. I am never alone. Your blog has taken me to other blogs and my view has expanded enormously. Links are wonderful things!

 

 

Because you blog I have permission to play. I can make whatever I want. I can cut off points and allow myself to embrace my own imperfection. The process has become so exciting. I have photos of pieces during construction that are more exciting to me than the finishes.

 

Because you blog I am challenged to try new things. I can make letters and can build cows, dogs and even motorcycles.

Because you blog the new things I try are fresh, fun and exciting. I had long ago gotten bored with traditional patchwork but now once again have a fire within in me to push beyond what ever I did last time. I am excited and motivated.

 

 

Because you blog I am creating things that inspire others to create things. Physical objects exist in my home and in the homes of people I care about because of you.

Because you blog the circle continues and we all grow.

Thank you for your blog. 

Valerie

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