scrappy utility log cabin (or housetop) lap quilt top for my father-in-law finished

I mentioned at the end of my previous post that my FIL asked for a lap quilt after I gave one to Andrea in his presence when we celebrated her birthday, and how excited I was. That was in early August, and he leaves us for Don's sister's in Colorado August 22. I want to give him a finished quilt for his train ride on the California Zephyr, and also to cuddle under while he's in Colorado through Christmas, and hopefully for a long time after that. He takes Coumadin, and he is always chilly.

During my staycation in the studio the end of July, I realized something crucial for me and quilts. Designing those two wallhangings helped me differentiate between a desire to make art quilts and a desire to make comfy cozy quilts for laps and beds. Andrea's quilt felt stiff, and while I think it will soften after washings and time passes because of the 100% cotton batting, I want lap quilts to be fluffier, softer and cozier right at the start. I also want them to bridge the past and future, to be reminiscent of grandmothers' quilts and conscious of loved ones who will cuddle under them.

I immersed myself in the quilts and quilters of Gee's Bend for a few days while designing this. I felt more than I thought. I was going to sash it more simply, subtly, but then I just started using the cut pieces on my work table, and it grew into this. I feel very connected to those ladies and am thankful their quilts were discovered so we can reap pleasure and inspiration from their hard work and lives.

I've been working on my FIL's quilt the past week or so, because it so happens that every weekend in August I am away from the studio. I burned the night oil (until 9 or so) last evening and the one before. Late for me! But you know I love it. The quilt top is finished, and I've sandwiched the layers with 80/20 cotton/poly batting and a simple pieced backing. Yippee!

Instagram photos:

I am quilting every two inches or so to keep it fluffy. The denser the quilting, the stiffer the quilt. Of course that means this will go quickly! Then I can't wait to make the scrappy binding.

I will post again when finished, of course.

Oh, and I just have to add this week's Free Will Astrology piece for Leo from Rob Brezsny. I love it! Can you believe it? :)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Many people harbor the unconscious bias that
beauty resides primarily in things that are polished, sleek, and perfect.
Celebrities work hard and spend a lot of money to cultivate their
immaculate attractiveness, and are often treated as if they have the most
pleasing appearance that human beings can have. Art that is displayed in
museums has equally flawless packaging. But the current astrological
omens suggest that it's important for you to appreciate a different kind
of beauty: the crooked, wobbly, eccentric stuff. For the foreseeable
future, that's where you'll find the most inspiration.

"Gertrude" quilt top is done

Books are interesting. I have collected expensive photo books for years. I just gave away a gorgeous set of Carolyne Roehm flower arranging and lifestyle books. Now I'm collecting quilt books. For Christmas I received a $200 Amazon gift card from the faculty in the English department where I advise undergraduates. It has paid for several quilt books and other things besides. That was such a perfect and generous gift.

One of the books is this one by Jane Brocket.

Her floral sensibilities and preferences are similar to mine. It makes me happy that all these floral fabrics in my stash can be put to good modern use. The quilt I imitated is one she calls "Hydrangea." So lovely!

I collect postcards for bookmarks. This one of Picasso is from the Art Institute in Chicago.

I wasn't sure I was going to like the fuss of cutting all these squares and precision piecing. After all, I've gone improv, and one of the great things about that is not measuring or worrying about matching seams.

But this quilt was one of the most pleasurable I've ever pieced. Good to know that I still enjoy measuring, cutting, and piecing like this. 

The real trick in Jane's design is combining the fabrics in good and interesting ways. I spent a lot of time arranging and rearranging fabric rows on the design board. But wow, what a satisfying process. I used a trick I learned while sewing Olive's quilt, which is that you can combine almost any fabrics if you juxtapose them with at least one color the same.

stash placemats and a baby boy quilt "ships & sails"

Stuff for Etsy. Placemats from my stash, which is big enough (thanks to Nancy) to create a thousand combinations.

The pink and yellow polka dot is left over from Casey's "sugar sand" baby quilt. Some of these fabrics I've had since the 1980s, some I've bought more recently, and some have been given me by my stash sister Nancy. There is even fabric from my mom's old doilies, the ones I made coasters with.

* * *

This blue and white stripe was a dust ruffle. I am trying to remember if we used it in one of our houses or if Nancy gave me this too. Besides that fabric, many of these triangles (flying geese) were fabrics she gave me which are shirting. I have always loved quilts made from shirts. Anyway, this will be a baby boy quilt to [hopefully] sell in my Etsy shoppe. I've quilted one small section. I think I'll straight-line quilt the triangles and free-motion quilt the other panels in swirls to resemble wind and waves. The quilt is called "ships & sails," which rhymes with "snips and snails and puppy dog tails." I'll post when finished.

tidying up and coasters for our house

My daughter Lesley loves her new quilt. Yes, the totem quilt was for her birthday April 30. She posted this photo of it at Instagram, with a new shawl she is designing and knitting. You can see she loves dusty turquoise, which is featured in the quilt and the backing. It's still cool enough at night that she can cozy under it a little longer this season.

Lesley's Instagram photo with her new totem lap quilt;
she is knitgraffiti

Now that the two most recent gift quilts are finished, this was a good weekend to dive into a project inspired by the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.

The book came out last year and it really seems to be going nuts. Here's my review of it at Goodreads yesterday:

I first heard about this book a few weeks ago when my daughter-in-law told me she was reading it and starting to discard items she and my son no longer wanted. It was all of a sudden last week that I realized — quite apart from any consciousness of wanting to read the book — that I needed and wanted to gain a flow of energy that was being constricted by STUFF in my home. I got back into The Way of Zen, which I hadn't read in months, and then I remembered this book, bought it and began to read. Instantly, I knew it was just what I needed.

I actually began discarding the first category of possessions today — clothes — before finishing the book this evening. In fact I would take little breaks throughout the day of working to read passages. I found it inspiring to do that, and I'm glad I didn't do any more discarding before finishing the book. It's important to get the full sense of her perspective.

I found reading the book and sorting through my clothes to be a spiritual experience. Even before beginning the process of purging, all week I have been looking forward to it the way I would look forward to spending time with my grandchildren, or a special trip or date. That's how badly I needed to do this cleansing process.

When I first read her advice to fold things and store them in boxes or drawers so you could see everything, and not lay things on top of each other, I wasn't convinced that it would be necessary. But as I took the now empty shoe boxes from discarded shoes, and folded socks, tights, underwear, yoga pants, and placed them vertically in the boxes, I felt so happy! The process of folding and fitting everything in the box just the right way was a satisfying puzzle to put together.

I think what's amazing about this book is that it results in action, even before completing the book! I was eager to begin discarding all week, and I am even more eager now to continue on to the next category. Ultimately, this book is about respect — for things, for oneself, for your home, for space, even for the things you get rid of. Her concept of thanking inanimate objects for what they do for you is new for me, and I find it quite sweet. This Eastern perspective (which also feels akin to Native American) is powerful in its simplicity and deep respect.

I spent about six hours Saturday purging my clothes. I ended up with three 30-gallon bags to donate, and one bag for trash. The trash bag had garments that were were stained, worn or torn. They were not appropriate for quilts, and I do not need more rags. Then I put what I'd chosen to keep (what sparked joy) back and organized things a little differently, using Marie Kondo's methods.

There is great pleasure for me adopting Zen simplicity, putting things away where they belong, having a place for everything, folding and caring for all possessions with love.

Today I spent several hours sorting books to keep and be donated. I got through the downstairs bookcases and have still two more to go upstairs. Carrying books around is heavier work than clothes, and I just didn't quite have the energy to finish today. I really like the concept of sorting by category, rather than by room or closet. We have a great recycling center at my university, and I'll take the books to the drop box there.


* * *

After all that work, I needed to create something. Sorting and organizing made me look at the coasters we use here in the family room, and they looked tired and drab. So I spent a little time sewing some reversible quilted coasters from some of my favorite scraps.

I began with old doilies that I grew up with in my parents' home. I don't know if they were first my grandmother's, but I've always loved them and have wanted to sew with them for a while. I needed to keep them with me here too, not add them to a quilt for a gift or sale. The doily fabric is on one side of each coaster.

Mother Goose quilt finished

What a joy this commissioned quilt has been! Working on it, and then discovering surprise connections.

A very nice friend asked if I would sew a quilt for her friend's baby "A" due in April. The shower is the weekend before Christmas. My friend thought shabby chic colors would be lovely (aka aqua, pink, ivory), and that's where we were headed. But then I remembered the Mother Goose fabric I've had for some time, a gift from my stash sister Nancy. She has collected bins of fabric in South Carolina on her trips to Myrtle Beach and is giving them to me as she down-sizes. Mother Goose has just been waiting for a baby quilt. I shared the concept with my friend, and she loved it.

So I built twelve wonky log cabin blocks around the characters and landscape elements.

This is a scrap quilt, and nearly a charm quilt, meaning that each fabric is used just once.
In addition to fabrics from Nancy, I used vintage fabrics from the 1970s,
some of them left from dresses I made for Lesley,
some from my friend Jeanie's stash (!), and some new fabrics.

The back is more farmy than girly. My friend and I agreed that a too flowery-girly back might overdo it. The wind was blowing when Don snapped me holding it, so the perspective is wrong. It really is straight.

"A" before piecing the quilt

The happy surprise is that the baby shower will be at Cranbrook's Kingswood school, where the mama-to-be and my friend attended, and the mama-to-be's parents taught. This is a very special school, deeply inspired and inspiring to culture and the arts. I attended a writing workshop there when I first began writing poetry in the early 1990s. I was so inspired by the design of the school architecture, furnishings and textiles, all coordinated by the Saarinen family in the early 20th century, that it shaped my own aesthetic and remains deeply embedded in my heart. That this quilt will be received in that space deepens my love for this project and baby!

Roy Slade's thorough look at Cranbrook shows some of its beauty. He talks about how his nearly two decades there were life changing. Amazingly, one weekend there was that for me. See what art can do!

The finished quilt is 42" x 55"

free motion heart quilting

Warm & Plush 100% cotton batting

Update 6/3/2015: Anna Wisjö Photography has posted beautiful photos of sweet baby Adelaide, and in one of them, I am honored to say, she is lying on this quilt. <3

sneak peek of a current project almost done: wonky Mother Goose baby quilt

one of 12 blocks on the front

the baby's initial on the back

Small glimpses because I can't wait. I will sew binding on this weekend, and then give the quilt to the friend who commissioned it for her friend's baby, due in April.

There are some very special surprise connections for me in this project, which I will share soon.

Genevieve's pieced block finished

Here once again is the old pieced piece,
which Genevieve's great grandmother may have sewn
along with scraps from her stash,
before I finished the block, below.

Here is the finished block after I added the green print
in the bottom left corner, the salt and pepper print,
the black musician and dancer print (top),
and blue & white gingham (upper left),
all from Genevieve's Great Grandma Helen's stash.
I also added hot pink paisley
from my own fabric stash to the upper right side.
How great is it to see improv quilting from the '40s or '50s?

Then I added white and black floral fabric from a thrift store skirt,
and a lime green border. For the purpose of the photo,
I laid it on a lively Michael Miller print named "Courtney,"
which I will be incorporating into the back of the quilt,
along with this pieced block.

Here is the front again (with the spinning wheel cutting off the lower left corner.)
I don't know what the spot of light in the lime green is, just in the photo,
as it's not in the fabric. I'm guessing it's a reflection from the mirror behind it.

Genevieve's "mischievous squares" quilt top

Genevieve's nursery is purple and lime green,
so I designed what I call "mischievous squares"
with lime green, purple and neutral grays.
A little mischief is good, right?

Genevieve was born August 15, latest great grandchild of my parents in-law (granddaughter of my husband's sister). I suppose I should have started a quilt long before she was born, but that didn't happen. :) I'm pretty sure Genevieve's mom and grandmom don't follow Birds of the Air Quilts, so I'm not ruining the surprise.

Now I am rallying all my design acumen (ha) for the back. Genevieve's other great grandma, now deceased, had a fabric stash that Genevieve's mommy inherited and loaned to my daughter Lesley to make her a bag from whatever she liked. Well, years after Lesley made the bag, she still had the stash, so I called upon her to find it in a box (they moved this summer) so I could incorporate some of it into the quilt back. There is this wonderful hand-pieced piece in the pile of fabrics. I can't be sure Genevieve's great grandma pieced it, but let's say she did.

Pieced piece by Genevieve's great grandma (?);
I've pinned three pieces to the pieced piece:
the black on the left, the salt & pepper, and the green and brown squares,
all from the stash, already cut. Talk about improv piecing!
I'm guessing this would have been sewn in the 1940s or 50s.
Click to see the fabrics better.

My plan is to sew additional fabric from the stash around the edges to form a rectangle, then piece it into a simple quilt back with large blocks of fabrics that coordinate with the front. I see the pieced piece as a precious "bloom" similar to the floral fabric on the quilt front. So I'll frame it similarly, but not necessarily create a set of mischievous squares. Still thinking!