When Iowa Calls

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day.  Last year at this time I was having an awful time of it in the hospital, recovering from yet another of my surgeries. My family visited and all I remember is that I could only eat  a liquid/soft diet. Seems so far away now and, even though my daughter is still away at school, this Mother's Day was so much better, as you can imagine. Yesterday, my husband and son took me out to a nice place for an early dinner to make up for it. And then my son, the starving graduate student, "let" me buy him a new pair of jeans and some groceries. After all, what's a mother for?

My trip to Iowa last week was great. Everyone in Grinnell was so pleasant and I almost didn't want to leave. My first class was located at Cornerstone Quilts, a great quaint shop in  downtown Grinnell.

Another of my classes was located on the Grinnell College campus, which was just lovely. Orange Peels were the order of the day and featured in one of my favorite quilts.

I enjoyed seeing the variety of  colors and prints my students used to make theirs -

Barb looks tickled pink.

Jean is having so much fun with color . . .

The ideal class allows some time for hand stitching and more than a little time for relaxing chatter as well.

And I like seeing lots of smiling faces too!

The ladies suggested that we stop at the Amana Colonies on the way home for a look at this group of villages with old world charm and a nice selection of craft shops and restaurants.

Handcrafted gifts by Iowans, what could be better?

 

 

More than a few antiques shops and  . . .

 . . . lucky me - another lovely quilt shop!

One of the little quilts from my latest book The Civil War Sewing Circle -  done in blues and browns. So cute.

They had a nice selection of stitchery patterns too.

Chris at Heritage Designs - a Top 10 Quilt Shop. Make sure you stop by if you're in Amana.

I could have spent a lot more time in this place but we were anxious to get home as we still had quite a long drive back to Chicago.

I love driving around the country, stopping at towns I might never have had a chance to see if I weren't visiting guilds. I know many of you travel to more exotic places and while Iowa may not be the most glamorous place to visit, as Oprah says - this I know - Iowa will be calling me again and I won't hang up. I'll be going back, that's for sure.

Working on Your Scrappy Stars?

If you are joining in on the small quilt challenge this month (Civil War Stars, remember?) or thinking about doing it - try playing around with some little four patches for the centers of your star blocks to get you going.

You may wish to make your quilt in different colors than mine and that's fine. On a rainy day like today I enjoy taking a few minutes to play with my scraps and make scrappy four patches for another quilt for another rainy day.

I always have an abundance of little scrap squares cut for projects like this . . .

 . . . and some four-patch blocks sewn together and ready to go.

It's not easy to get these small blocks to turn out perfectly, but don't worry too much. Try to cut accurately and slow down when you piece. Press each piece after you sew and trim the units before you sew them together into the blocks. Go a little more slowly than you would with a larger block but try not to get stressed. When you start fussing about perfection you lose some of the joy in making the quilts in the first place. Even if it's a little wonky, it will still be cute! And like I always say -  doll quilts from the past were not perfect and that's one of the reasons we love them so much.

Okay, maybe we don't love this one so much but you have to give her credit for trying - and finishing, LOL.

Looks like I will need to fudge these seams just a little . . .

Get your pieces cut this week and if you can make them into blocks, all the better. I am going to Iowa tomorrow for a presentation and some classes and will start nagging you about working on it again next  week after I come back.  Mother's Day is coming up - have some fun and take time for yourself  - sew a little something.

There's Comfort in Tiny Stitches

I've always loved needlework samplers and used to do a little cross stitching years ago. When I heard about this book of samplers from the Spencer Museum of Art written by Barb Allen and Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs, I knew I had to own it.

I particularly fell in love with one of the cross-stitch designs in the book that was inspired by this 1824 sampler stitched by Ann York at age 14. The one on the cover.

The linen is inscribed with tiny stitches - "When This You See Remember Me My Dear aunt Ann York her work in the 14 Year Of Her Age 1824", obviously made as a gift to her aunt. It's so lovely, isn't it? And hard to imagine that it was created by a girl of 14, who was born in 1810, so many years ago.

I wanted to begin working on it right after I bought the book but of course it took me awhile to find my cross stitching supplies and then I had to run out and buy the right thread. I was having so much fun thinking about beginning a new, different, project but then when I actually sat down on the couch and started working on it, I became distracted almost immediately by a ringing phone and then got pulled away by something more important, the way it seems to go so often when all I want to do is sit down and finish a thing.

What can I say? This is as far as I got . . .

It's been sitting for a few months and then all of a sudden I found I  had a little time yesterday while watching the depressing NBA Playoff game between our beloved Chicago Bulls and the Sixers. So I pulled it out (again!) and made just a little more progress. It's been awhile since I did much cross stitching and my eyes just aren't what they used to be. I end up wearing magnifiers on TOP of my glasses with bifocals, LOL. With a lot of  full spectrum light or better yet -  daylight - thrown in. It's so much easier to see my bigger quilting stitches! But won't I be pleased when this is finished?

On my way now!

This book is just full of designs I want to make.

Here's one that looks pretty simple.

And there are a few other mini cross sticheries designed by the Blackbird ladies I need to make someday soon -

Inspiration is a funny thing and I've learned that sometimes you just have to go with it. Like so many of  you it's hard for me to find the time to do everything I want to do and still juggle family demands and work and other pressures. But I find that when I truly get inspired to start something new if I don't act on it I lose my inspiration. And a little bit of myself. That's when I try to remember to tell myself  - if  I am feeling busy and stressed, take a breath, jump off the merry-go-round and try not to worry about all of the things I should be doing and just do this one thing for myself, now. The other things will have to wait because I know that working on creative projects is good for my soul. And then I find that I am refreshed and relaxed and ready to tackle those things that got pushed aside. Finding that balance makes everything else run more smoothly.

I'm travelling to Grinnell, Iowa, later this week for a presentation and 2 workshops so I know I will not have much time for myself until next week. And when I come back there is always much catching up to do with whatever got pushed aside at home - and don't even remind me about all those e-mails  I think I have to answer.  

Right now we're having another dreary, rainy day in the Chicago area. After a very busy weekend I think I am going to snatch a few minutes (or maybe forty!) and work on my stitchery today, in between doing laundry and other things to prepare for my trip. Oh, I have so many wonderful projects to think about! And stitching is so soothing. Lord, grant me the time  . . .  and the wisdom to make the best use of it.

Hey! It's May!

Yes, May already. And you know what that means -  it's time to make another small quilt to complete your goal of completing 12 quilts this year. You're almost halfway there. I know you've been waiting anxiously for me to announce which quilt you should start working on. For this month's project, I have chosen the Civil War Stars quilt on page 26 of my book The Civil War Sewing Circle, a small scrappy favorite of mine.

Make your star blocks in any colors, scrappy or not, and use as many blocks as you like for your quilt. Set them on point or use setting squares. Make this YOUR way. Oh, and have fun!

I have made 2 of these quilts already, both finished in 2009. One for the book and one for a friend. If I were going to make another one (Ha! I shouldn't even be thinking about that.), I think I just might choose different fabrics this time -

Love these, but this groups needs a little more blue to make it pleasing to my eye.

Playing around with your fabric before you choose which prints you are going to use and actually cut is such fun. My advice - take your time, even if you're making it scrappy like mine. My scrappy quilts are planned out a bit - I just can't always bring myself to randomly select fabrics and hope they all go together. I have to really like the way they play together and if they seem a little bland, sometimes I throw in a "kicker" color -  a yucky green, gold, bright pink or even black, for contrast.  Do you do this too? Tell me -  what colors do you like to throw into your quilts to spice them up?

This group, for instance. So lovely but I think it needs something else to pull it together. I may throw in a really pretty pink after I dig through my pile of oinks. (Whoops - I typed an "o" instead of a "p" there but it was so cute I thought I'd leave it in to get a laugh. Oinks, get it? LOL. )

Also nice but I think it needs just a little more contrast - those blues are too similar.  Indigo maybe? Or perhaps black . . . and a different shirting.

See what I mean?

I am hoping to encourage many of you to believe that you can make  some small quilts this year. The method I suggest you use to complete your goal here is to make your quilt in weekly steps every month. I know you are all busy people. This challenge is not meant to take anything away from the other projects you are working on or interfere with your hectic lives, but something I think you can accomplish by working in short bursts of time.

So here's how to do it: Take a week each month and work a little on the different parts of the quilt before you assemble it and quilt it. You can actually make quite a bit of progress doing it this way, breaking the whole thing into manageable parts. And I think the creative process becomes heightened as well. Instead of rushing around thinking you have to make the whole thing RIGHT NOW and ending up being stressed because you think you can never do that, take it slow and work at a more leisurely pace. Break it into parts.

You have 4 weeks to make this quilt. This week, play with your fabric a little. Cut some squares and see how they would look together if they were made into four-patch units for the star centers, before you decide on the star points. Maybe cut those along with the background pieces. Notice that, in my quilt, I alternated blocks with blue star points and red star points. Then, set it aside until you have time to  make a few blocks. Maybe put the blocks together when you have time the following week. By the end of the month, you will have easily finished this quilt. And be on your way to making a few more small quilts this year.

If you're like me, though, you may find that once you start you want to keep going until you finish. That works too LOL.

Think . . . Even Smaller

Now you know I am nuts . . . .

I was feeling a little blah last Friday after visiting the dentist to fix a cracked tooth, ugh. I needed a distraction from the pain and I felt something "quilty" stirring inside - the desperate need to make something, quick. I remembered my ongoing "Daily Creative" promise to myself - try to be a little creative every day. Or at least every day I'm able. It's good for the soul.

I've never made anything this small and it really didn't take me long at all. I couldn't wait to quilt it and bind it. The blocks finish at 1 1/2"  x 1 1/2".  I cut one-inch squares for the nine-patch blocks and 2" squares for the setting pieces. Yes, instructions, just in case you happen to be eager to join my crazy small quilt club I just formed this very moment.

For some reason those blocks in my other challenge quilt were looking too darned big and a little voice told me I should try making a smaller version. (Voices?? Really? Now for sure you'll think I am nuts . . . )

(Post-it added for scale.)

To some of you it may look and act like a mug mat but, no, it's definitely a quilt.

Ahhh, very relaxing and exciting to have another little one finished. They should all be this quick. Too bad I don't have a teeny tiny little bed for it . . .

Think Small Quilts

We're coming up on the end of April and I know many of you have finished your little nine-patch quilts for our Small Quilt of the Month Challenge. I even made this one. It went very fast. I was able to finish putting the binding on it yesterday.  Just a reminder - there are still a few days left before April is over and we start in on another one. For this free pattern, see here.

(Please tell me it looks like a doll quilt and not a place mat. I left it on the kitchen island overnight, woke up and jumped out of bed before my husband did so he wouldn't set his breakfast plate on it this morning . . . .)

I went to Indiana earlier this week  to give a presentation and teach a workshop.  While I was showing some of  my quilts I mentioned that I was challenging  quilters (you!) to make one small quilt a month from some of the patterns in my books. They looked at me like I was . . .  absolutely NUTS. Every guild has its own personality and from the quizzical looks on their faces I figured out that this was a group that mostly made large bed-sized quilts and did not like to "play" with the small ones.

Quilters who don't make small quilts don't get the "obsessive" part of it--it really is addicting. I think it's because with little quilts you have the freedom to make all of the designs you love and dream about in such a small time frame. Once you begin you know you can finish pretty quickly and then go on to the next, and the next and the next . .  . . I was able to make an Amish quilt and a Crazy quilt, quilts I knew I would probably never make in full size, even though I admired and loved looking at them.

It's a lot of fun to experiment like that with different blocks, styles and fabrics. There are even times when I'm drawn to more modern fabrics (oh no!) and have toyed with making a very bright-colored quilt. Just for fun. I don't think I will ever give up making reproduction quilts from the 19th century though.
 

I often have a hard time coming up with a quilting design for my small quilts and sometimes just do what's easy because I'm in a rush to finish (and move on to the next one!). I've used some of my favorite stencils over and over. Last weekend I thumbed through this book of small quilting designs by Shirley Thompson (now out of print, unfortunately )  that I've had for awhile to see if I could use one of the designs for the plain blocks. The quilt  I made is so simple I thought it needed something to "spiffy" up those plain blocks.

I didn't have a good light source to trace the designs and did not want to open up my dining room table, take out the leaf, stick a lamp underneath and then run to Home Depot to buy a piece of glass to fit the leaf. Way too much trouble.  I seemed to remember that my daughter had a light-up desk when she was a child and wondered if it would work for this. OR if I even saved it. So I scrounged around in the basement for 15 minutes until I found this Crayola light tracing box from her Barbie Fashion Designing days when she was eight. (Lord only knows why I was saving it, maybe just for this?) I copied the design onto tracing paper with a black marking pen and then put my quilt top on top of the box with the design underneath and traced it onto the fabric with a washable fabric marker. Then I layered the quilt and quilted it.

My first try - and I have to say I think it turned out okay. I need to tweak my method a little for next time - the quilt shifted slightly on the box while I was tracing - but all in all not bad. Yes, I know, it is very sparsely quilted. I usually do more but this time I was anxious to get it done so I could show you before the month was up. Depending upon how much more time I want to spend on it, I think I will just quilt around the blocks a bit more and then call it finished. Still cute.

The next quilt (for May) will be taken from my book, The Civil War Sewing Circle. If you are keeping up, we're a third of the way toward making 12 quilts this year. Yippee! I'm having fun, how about you?