Tag: quilting

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Quarantine Quilts Part II

We are back today with more quilts from staff members who are spending a lot of time at home.  We hope you enjoyed the quilts of Diane and Carole.  Next up is Elizabeth and Linda.

Elizabeth

 

 

Elizabeth was working on this Seagrass matchstick quilt from Craftsy for a quick wedding present. Unfortunately, the wedding was postponed until August taking away any sense of urgency in completing it.

 

 

Once Jinny’s new Impressions fabric arrived, as Elizabeth says, she “dropped Seagrass and picked some Sweet Tea.”  She is making the shop  sample of this new quilt and it is looking good.

Linda

Linda is busy as always with lots of projects in the works.

 

 

When the pattern for Jinny’s Sweet Tea was ready to go, Linda got to make the first sample. She chose purples and teals along with a Casablanca border print and completed this lovely top.

 

 

This triangle square quilt is for her nephew’s baby, Sophia, using Palette #149 as a background and random grey fabrics. All of the fabrics are from her stash.

 

 

While organizing her sewing room, Linda discovered a long missing piece of County Clare border print to finish a kaleidoscope quilt made as a class sample using Marti Michell’s kaleido-ruler and pattern.  With it was the backing which looks perfect with the front. Don’t you just love when you make discoveries like that?

 

 

Also in-process is this Disney Frozen panel for her granddaughter’s 3rd birthday. The icy blue Milan fabric will be a great backing for a quick quilt. It seems all little girls love Elsa and Anna!

Twenty years ago, Linda’s daughter selected the pattern from a Fons and Porter book “Quick Quilts from the Heart” as her college quilt. She then changed her mind and wanted a 30s fabric quilt so this quilt top sat in the UFO pile. About 10 years ago, Linda started trying to quilt the top.  Nothing went right and finally all the stitches needed to be removed and batting replaced. Now, after a year of removing stitches, she quilted it on the longarm and it is done (with a little help from the kitty)!

We have more staff quarantine quilts coming to share with you so keep watching for the next post on the blog.

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Keeping Busy

 

It is very hard to comprehend what has happened to our world in just the last month. All of us have been affected in one way or the other. Many have been ordered to shelter in place, food and toilet paper have disappeared off grocery shelves, events have been canceled or postponed, air travel has been disrupted and we worry about the well-being of those who have come down with the virus and the health care providers who are treating it. We mourn those who have succumbed to it. We all react differently to such circumstances. For me, I’ve had to postpone the memorial service we were planning for my husband.

To take my mind off of so many things I keep myself busy with other activities. Weather permitting, I walk every day. We’re lucky that we live close to the Potomac River and I’m able to walk along the river.  I have been watching the bald eagle in her nest that I see from the riverbank.  I’ve also watched the bluebells pop from the ground and now growing so tall and full of buds that are ready to burst open at any moment. The Dutchman’s Breeches and trillium are about to bloom as well.

 

 

I am also baking bread. Just the process of kneading the dough is somehow therapeutic. I have a sourdough starter that I began from Water Buffalo milk when I lived in India. That was 50 years ago, and it is still alive and thriving today. The sourdough boule is one of my favorites to make.

 

 

In times like this sometimes it is just calming to design or start a new sewing project. Many of you who have traveled with me on one of the Craftours trips I have taken in the past know I always plan a sewing project to work on during “found moments” on the trip when our hands and eyes might otherwise be idle. So, I decided to finally plan the project we will be working on during my Greece trip. Originally scheduled for this May, the trip has been rescheduled for May 15-25, 2021. Hopefully all traces of the virus will be gone by then and we can relax and enjoy a wonderful trip to this magical place.

For the project, I wanted to have a design that would cover all of the basic techniques of hand piecing so that even a beginner would be comfortable tackling it. I also wanted to incorporate the traditional Greek Key motif into part of the design. I selected one of my favorite traditional blocks, Rolling Star, (Block 59 in our Quilters’ Block Library free pattern section) and drafted it into a 20” square for the central motif and used the Greek key design as a border.

 

 

This year I am doing a series of on-line tutorials on working with border prints and the first lesson is Border Print Squares (See the five minute video here). I used that same technique for making the square designs around the Grecian Star.

 

 

This might be a good time to try something new since so many of us are spending a great deal of time in our homes. Watch the video shown above and check out the free Tips and Lessons on my website. Then, pick up a needle and thread, a few fabric patches and give it a try. I hope you will find this simple task as soothing as I do.