Like so many quilters, I have another life. Quilting elevates me, and sustains a need I have to create with cloth. But the Garden is my alter world. Most days this time of year you'll find me barefoot, grounding myself with the earth. I dabble in everything, but especially heirloom varieties of flowers, vegetables, herbs and edible weeds, and the quest for a righteous compost bin. This spring has been a windfall of salad crops, and diabolical episode of gray mold. It's nothing short of Lord of the Rings out my back door.
How's this for a happy spring quilt to lift the mood of a rainy day? Isn't a beauty? Donna Young made this appliqued and pieced top from a Jen Kingwell pattern. I've had it in the studio for several weeks working out how I would quilt it. At the 11th hour the light bulb went off, and I'm so glad it did. Sometimes you have to let a project brew until you see the perfect answer--even on another person's project.
Posing with the last quilt bound by the Gnadenhutten Quilt Project are a few of our unofficial team members. Our core group was made up of 7 talented women that worked at every aspect of quilt and comforter making over nearly 3 years. We estimate we made and shared over 200 quilts and comforters during that time!
It's been a long time since I've posted anything, and I didn't want you to think I'd disappeared completely. I haven't given up quilting in the least, but life has been complicated. This post will explain a large part of it. While I'm not one to share often about my family life, we felt this went beyond the needs of our privacy.
It started with a phone call after we'd gone to bed. It was the middle of January past. Our daughter, Isabella, said she thought there might be someone in her basement. She heard what she thought was her man door being kicked down. I remember saying to go outside, and we would be there as soon as possible. While trying to get my shoes on in the front hall, our house shook some 4 miles away. I tried and tried to call her back, but she didn't answer. My shaking fingers wouldn't do what they were supposed to by then. We were panicked, but steady running for the truck. She called when we had reached the end of our driveway screaming that her house was gone! It had exploded! Her dog and cat inside were gone, but she had Pippi in her arms. She said she was okay.
Writing this now still makes me cry. The pictures are still hard for me to look at, but please do. Izzi has a public link to an album at the top of the post which reads Buy a Gas Detector. There is also a video of a camera at the end of her road.
She stood 5 feet from the house when it blew up if you can imagine. Our family wants people to understand what happened, the absolute miracle of it all, and how to protect your own home. Gas detectors are inexpensive, and can save your life. She didn't have one because we didn't know there was such a thing. Now we do, and now you do, too.
Thank you for reading this important story.
The Morning After
When another daughter and son went back the next morning to look for the missing animals, there was just wreckage. My daughter took pictures, and when she blew this up she saw Vera sitting in the middle of a still smoking house waiting for someone to find her!
Petra, found in a piece of tin after 4 days, burned badly with very little hair left. She lost part of her ears, but otherwise fully recovered including her whiskers.
Hi friends,
As many people have heard (and literally felt from miles away), my house was leveled in a natural gas...
Quilters are made to believe they "need a pattern" for the most basic of things, but breaking out of that thinking is incredibly freeing. We don't need a set of numbers or directions for everything we want to do or make. The makers before us drew mainly on their own ingenuity, imagination, and make-do attitude. If you've never done worked with a pattern, I encourage you. There is a satisfying feeling of creating with your own ideas!
If something doesn't go as planned, it may be reframed as a positive design element instead of a mistake in understanding poorly written pattern instructions. It stimulates your critical thinking, and creates a one-of-a-kind object. Whatever the outcome, it's a feel-good-thing, and we all need that now. Right?
I have said before I come from a long line of Anne's, and one Anna. Edyta Sitar has a line of beautiful reds, pinks, and creams right now called Anna, and a quilt pattern to highlight them. It's simple, and perfect for the not-quite-a-jelly-roll I had from a Tim Holtz line. (It was closer to 2 5/8" than 2 1/2".)
This quilt is for a son who never asked for a quilt because he didn't need one. I do think it's finally he would like one from me more than than a need to stay warm now, and that makes me very happy, if you must know. When he asked, I started sewing. The fabric had already been bought, and I was just waiting for the cue. I knew he'd come around sometime.
I realized the other day I had not posted in some time. I'm keeping very busy quilting for clients, and at a time like this that's good. Each day seems to bring a new twist with the sunrise. Ohio has had rising Covid cases like most other states, and it has inched closer to my circle. Many members of the extended family, and our children's families have it, and we are hoping for uncomplicated cases. I'm thrown back to the days in the past when I'm sure many women felt helpless with the diseases that swept through their own lives, and like them am finding relief in turning fabric into something useful.
Having so much on my mind makes me long for simple projects, and small quilts. When a few last minute Christmas quilts came in, I was tickled with this small one. It was for a little boy, and he loves trucks of all kinds. Instead of a basic E2E, I wanted it to be special when he flipped it over to the red backing.
I don't know how I missed the fact that this sampler was the 1865 Passion Sampler, but I did. So giving credit to France Aubert who blogs at Passion Patchwork is due. She combined the blocks from Barbara Brackman's Civil War book along with 40 others to create a sampler quilt which was also published in the recent edition of Quiltmania magazine.
That said, I'm sticking to the block schedule loosely. Where I can substitute a block that pushes me to work harder, I am. That's how the Little Blue Baskets block came to be. It's fallen in line with some of the other things I've been working at in skill building: accuracy, and working in a smaller scale.
This week has been a flurry of cleaning up leaves, and summer. Rarely do I cut down my perennials preferring to leave them to wither on their own schedule, but something made me go through the gardens and tidy this year. The saying, "Never leave for tomorrow what you can do today," pops up over and over. My compost and leaf piles are enormous. It will be a rich spring for fertilizer.
I've had an internal dialogue going whether to write much about these Civil War blocks, or just let them stand on their own. Because it's supposed to be joyful sewing only, I've decided to say little. I won't titter on about missing points or meeting seams. I'm sure that wasn't so much of an issue in those times as I have some of those old quilts, and I've seen it firsthand. I would venture it was much more about the fabrics then, and how they added so much color to fairly plain interiors in many cases. The fabric and quilts might have been the stars of the room all their own so I will try to allow these blocks do the same unless necessary.
Years ago I was involved in a round robin, and introduced to a modified paper piecing technique that didn't require me to sew through the paper. That was a revelation because I hated that part with a passion. I had avoided all paper piecing projects. But the idea of folding back the paper, and sewing beside the seam made a lot of sense, and saved the paper to use again. No ripping!
Yesterday I posted on a Facebook site for Farmer's Wife 1930s blocks, and another poster mentioned a book called Painless Paper Piecing by Marjorie Rine. This is a modified version of her technique, I believe, by the little bit I can read in the look inside option on Amazon. I learned it from another quilter, and will pass on the rough details I used. The book is still available used, and I suggest you purchase it if you want the exact details of that method.
This week has flown by. I've hustled to get customer quilts out the door, and also a quilt pieced for one of our sons. The Civil War blocks have been fun, and there's a lot of crossover between those blocks and these. But the Civil War blocks are 8", and the Farmer's Wife blocks are 6". You can feel the difference when there's so many little pieces to fit together.
Also, approaching a new block pattern every time you sit down to sew requires concentration. The need for accuracy as you scale down makes you pay close attention to your basic skill set: fabric prep, cutting, handling the fabric, sewing a proper seam, and how and even when to press. All have been scrutinized, and tweaked in the past weeks. It makes me want to try some even smaller blocks still. I guess it's like the limbo.
My conscience is saying, "Have you no shame?! Yet another quilt along when you have two out there hanging?" And I answer it with, "I need this! I need the adrenaline, the frenzy, the routine." And honestly, I think that's true. I crave joyful sewing right now. I need camaraderie. I want to hear and feel the struggle of other quilters moaning about a difficult block, and not thinking about the world at large for just a tiny bit!
I know I said I was going to do a block a day to get my out from behind the grind of my Farmer's Wife 1930's project, but I'm choosing steady progress over a killer plan. It's a little like a busman's holiday to come home from quilting all day to piece blocks, and yet it's a pleasant segue. There's usually a few spare minutes between my through the door, cooking, and dinner, and find this works like eggs in coffee. Sweet!
Oh, the quilts I see! I'm so lucky to be surrounded by inspiration daily. It's been a whirlwind, and they keep rolling in from so much summer sewing. Let me show you a sampler of recent highlights.
Rosann Triner sent me this supersized, modern beauty several weeks ago. It took us a while to decide how to quilt it. Between talking and texting ideas, we came up with this simple, yet elegant design. It adds softness with the curves, yet keeps it both modern and minimalist. This proves that often the simplest designs require the most planning. It's fantastic!
What an appropriate block name to show today! Are you deep in the leaves, perusing pumpkins, and lapping up lattes? 😉 Oh, yeah, there's no doubt of a seasonal shift now. Isn't it funny to have to open your door or check the weather to see if it's shirt sleeve or parka weather? I feel like the height of the color change is already here, but a pilot friend who flew over the trees last weekend told me it's only beginning. Brace yourself for a race through some weird holidays to follow. 2020 isn't over yet for sure!
Just a quick post to show you sweet Augusta! I made this block with Marti Michell templates, paperless paper piecing, and rotary cutting with a ruler. The more I work with modified paper piecing, the more it's growing on me. It's quick! Holding those tiny templates in place, and working hard not to cut myself with the rotary cutter is trying. Note: It's far easier if you don't remove the adhesive paper from the back of acrylic templates. Add some adhesive dots to give them a little stick-to-it-ness if they get too slippery. So far, so good.
