Jedi Quilting

I saw a picture of this "Soothing Eye Pillow" in the current Connecting Threads catalogue. (It was on the same page as the ergonomic seam ripper.) And what popped into my head was an image of young Jedi Quilters practicing their sightless rotary cutter technique under the supervision of Jedi Masters. ("You've taken your first step into a larger world with fewer fingers!")

In Which Using Up Scraps Leads to Buying More Fabric

I always love Bonnie's color combinations so much that I want to make my Bonnie-quilts exactly like hers.

Carolina Crossroads: red, white, and blue? Perfect! (Besides, I have so many of them.) Hand me that rotary cutter.

Double Delight: indigo, chocolate, double pink, and cheddar? Bonnie, you are channeling my inner color sense! (Or maybe I'm channeling yours.) Hand me that rotary cutter.

Carolina Christmas: red, green, and gold? I love Christmas colors. And I'll bust so much stash making this quilt because I have so much of these colors. Except the gold, of course. I'll have to buy some gold. (I told you about my quest for gold in a previous post.)

So I bought and preshrunk my gold. And then I began to think, "I'm not being very creative. I always use the exact same colors Bonnie does." I commanded my dormant individuality to arise and assert itself.

"Purple!" I said. "I have lots of purple. And I like purple and green together. They are complementary colors (just like red and green), and they look good with gold. And I will call my quilt, 'California Advent' since purple is the liturgical color for the weeks proceeding Christmas."

So I pulled my neutrals from my stash. Hmmmm. Not as many as I thought. Making scrap quilts has really put a dent in them. So I bought more neutrals. Anyway, you can never have too many of those. And when Bonnie posted an update on the amount of background fabric we'd need, I felt vindicated. My shopping conscience was bathed in a glow of justification.

I had plenty of greens, so that was fine. But what happened to all my purples? Yikes! Didn't I have a huge number of those? Oh, yeah. I like purple. Funny how that leads to using them up. Maybe I should buy more. But that's adding to the stash, not using it up. More indecision. Should I go back to red?

At this rate I'll never get my quilt done. There's only one thing to do. Pick up that rotary cutter and start slicing the golds and neutrals for step one. Like Scarlett O'Hara, I'll postpone thinking about the rest of my quilt for another day.

I feel a little giddy, but scrappy quilters have to get used to living on the edge.

Update: As you can see from the picture at the top of this post, I ended up buying more purple. No wonder stashes never get any smaller.

The Quest for Gold

(In an effort to bring my blog up to date, I'm posting the following, a version of which was previously posted on the Quiltvillechat group at Yahoo where those of us who are working on Bonnie Hunter's current mystery quilt share our progress.)

Okay, so I made a last minute decision to join in on the Carolina Christmas mystery. True, my sewing room and my cutting table is a bit of a mess right now. True, I haven't pulled any fabric yet. But I have lots of greens and purples and plenty of neutrals. All I have to do is buy two yards of a nice gold.

So yesterday* I headed out to Local Quilt Shop #1. My mom asked to tag along because she needed some fabric for a new valence for her kitchen. She's got a great eye for color, so I always enjoy shopping with her.

Problem #1: "I'm looking for a nice gold," I announce as we enter the shop. I pull out a few bolts of solids." Something like this, only I'd like it to be a print."

"Those aren't gold," she counters. "This is gold." The bolt she's holding up is too pale. And it's not what I think of as gold. It reminds me of boring, upholstered furniture. Or very old kitchen appliances.

"Well," I concede, "maybe 'gold' isn't the best word to describe the color I have in mind."

We wander separately through the store, each on our own fabric quest. I find a couple of possibilities, but nothing that screams, "Buy me! I'm perfect!"

My mom finds a possibility for her valence, but it too is not quite perfect. "But isn't that the special green you use in your kitchen?" I ask.

"No," she replies, "there's a bit too much yellow in it." I don't argue because she has an amazing visual memory for colors. Me, I'd have to bring a swatch. We decide to visit Local Quilt Shop #2.

Here my mom finds a black and white fabric which she thinks will work. She pairs it with some giant rick-rack. I'm still auditioning golds. She watches as I hold a bolt of gold up to a shelf filled with purples. "What do you think?" I ask.

"It doesn't go with those purples," she replies with a shake of her head. "But you could use it with that purple over there." I check, and she is right. That purple is gorgeous with that particular gold.

"But, Mom, I'm going to be using this gold with lots of purples. I'm just trying to get an idea of whether it goes with purple in general."

"But which purples?"

"Well, I'm not buying any of these purples. It's a scrappy quilt. I'm using purples I have at home."

"Then shouldn't you have brought them with you?" (She knows I can't carry colors in my head.)

"I'm just trying to find a gold that looks good with lots of greens and lots of purples."

My mom's brow wrinkles as she tries to visualize this. "Is this supposed to be an ugly quilt?" she asks hesitantly.

"No, it's supposed to be scrappy."

"I think," she says deliberately, "You should choose this fabric by yourself."

And so I did.

I got two yards of Blush Texture Marigold by Benartex.

"What are you going to use this for?" asked the clerk as she unrolled the bolt preparatory to measuring and cutting.

"A scrappy quilt with greens and purples."

"Then this will be perfect for it," she said emphatically. Just salesmanship? Or was it quilters seeing eye to eye, sharing a common vision that escapes those who sew fashion and home dec?

By the way, I was so enamored with my new gold that I bought a fat-quarter stack of some of the other colors in that line. Aren't they rich and luscious?

========

*"Yesterday" as in the day before I originally wrote this.

Road to California -- I hope!

Perhaps you've noticed the "Carolina Christmas" button that has recently appeared on the sidebar. I put it there because I made a tardy decision last month to sew Bonnie Hunter's newest mystery quilt. I'll be wearing a real life version of this button when I go to Road to California some time this weekend.

I bought a multi-day pass to this show and was looking forward to being there on three out of the four days. Unfortunately, due to family problems, I'll probably only get to attend on Sunday which seems hardly enough time to see all the quilts, much less browse through all the vendors. But this year being what it is, I suppose I should just feel grateful that I can go at all.

Anyway, if any of you other Quiltville fans should spot me and my badge, please say hello!

P.S. I haven't been able to chronicle my progress on "Carolina Christmas" so far, but plan to bring the blog up to date on it very soon.

Christmas Quilting With TJR and Others

There's nothing I love more during Advent than working on Christmas projects. (Not for me the mere prudence and foresight of piecing Christmas stockings in July so they'll be ready to display in December.) That's why I'm so excited that Bonnie Hunter is sponsoring a new mystery quilt right now. It's called, "Carolina Christmas," and it's a scrappy quilt made in reds, greens, golds, with neutrals ranging from cream to tan as the background.

I made a last minute decision to join the online quilting frenzy, and I'm really looking forward to stitching cozily while listening to Christmas music. Every year I try to get a new Christmas CD, and this year's is The TJR Christmas Card featuring my brother TJR who plays and sings neo-classic rock. I'm a Medieval/Renaissance girl myself, but I confess to being impressed by the virtuoso fingering my brother displays in these instrumental interpretations of eight traditional Christmas carols. And I was particularly charmed by his original song, "Christmas in California." It's Southern California's reply to "White Christmas," and hearing it will stir feelings of nostalgia in any Californian transplanted to the frigid Midwest or East Coast. The CD is packaged in a cardboard case which doubles as a Christmas card. And if you buy five or more of them from his website they're only $5.00 apiece, making them a reasonably priced and easily mailed gift. Single copies of the disk will soon be available from CD Baby. For now you can download the complete album or individual songs. (By the way, that little snowman at the beginning of my post was done by my son Filius for the cover of the CD.)

Just to show that my musical taste is not formed solely by nepotism, I thought I'd list some of the other CDs I'll be listening to during this project. Sir Christmas: Songs of the Season is by Broceliande, a Celtic and Early Music ensemble which I first heard at Mythcon 38 where they were playing songs related to JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. This CD is the first of four volumes celebrating the seasons of the year. The songs, sung in French, Latin, English, Medieval Spanish and Middle English, are not your run of the mill Christmas carols. In origin they range from the 13th century to the 20th. Their rendition of Guadete is possibly my favorite. Click to hear samples. (Scroll down a bit to find Sir Christmas.)

Sing We Noel is a collection of Christmas music from England and early America. It includes the 15th century carol, "Nova, nova: Aue fitt ex Eva," which is the story of the Annunciation in Middle English with a Latin chorus. That's been a family favorite since our children were small. (Yes, we started brain washing them early!) "The Midnight Cry" from 19th century America recounts the story of the wise and foolish virgins, a seemingly odd choice for a Christmas CD, but a pretty good one for the season of Advent which emphasizes both the coming of Christ at Christmas and His seconding coming at the end of time. Other favorites on this disk are "Mervele Nought, Josep" and "Syng We to This Mery Cumpane." Brief samples can be heard here if you scroll down a bit.

Last year I couldn't find my copy of Diciembre en México by Donna Peña. But it turned up during the summer, and I'm looking forward to playing it again this year. It has lovely songs in Spanish celebrating both Christmas and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe which falls on December 12th. Mmmmm, I could go for some pan dulce and some Mexican hot chocolate!

And finally, just to prove that I am not without links to popular culture, I've always been fond of Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Music which I heard over and over again when I was a child. (It was one of three Christmas records which my parents owned.) It's a mixture of traditional carols, such as "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and more modern songs such as "White Christmas."

The copy which Amazon sells has a different cover, so I dug up the picture at left from elsewhere on the Web. That's the copy my parents had, one of only three Christmas records which they owned. We kids heard it over and over and over again. Every little intonation of Perry's voice is engraved on my memory. That's why this album triggers "Christmas!" in my brain, and that's why, when I found a CD copy at the super market many years ago, I had to buy it. But it doesn't sound quite right. My parents' record had a scratch which caused the phonograph needle bounce and skip, repeating one phrase in "Christmas Song" over and over again. ("And every mother's child -- and every mother's child -- and every . . . ") Amazon has sound samples here. Just scroll down a bit.

What Christmas music do you like to listen to while sewing a Christmas quilt?

The Wedding Dress

And here's a picture of my mom's wedding dress which was made into the christening gown I wrote about in my previous post. My mother was married in 1951. Isn't that dress gorgeous? (Click on the picture for a somewhat closer view.) It was custom made. The materials cost about $50.00. She drew a picture of what she wanted, and a friend of hers designed the pattern and sewed the dress for $10.00! The headpiece for the veil is made of artificial orange blossoms composed of some sort of pearlized material. I wore the same headpiece with my own wedding veil, and it currently resides in my cedar chest.

Instant Heirloom

(This post was begun in October but left unfinished because Life has been too eventful for blogging. )

Whew! Still no quilting.

In July my dad followed up with another stroke, and my mum and I were very busy trying to take care of him at home. After an exhausting week we discovered that his insurance would cover in-patient therapy at Casa Colina, a facility about which I cannot say enough good things. My dad is an out-patient now; we schelp him over there twice a week for therapy. Since I live next door to my parents, I'm over there many times a day to help my mother with my dad: bathing, dressing, supervising (since he's not supposed to walk alone), and making sure he does his daily exercises.

However, I did complete one sewing project: making a christening gown from my mother's wedding dress. It was a fun, albeit nerve-wracking, project. The first difficulty was simply squeezing out the time to work on it. (Taking care of my dad is like having another part-time job.) The second was the stress of Great Expectations. My mother and sister are firmly convinced that I am an amazing seamstress, an assessment which I do not completely share.

The gown was being made for my sister's first granddaughter. Her son and daughter-in-law have been married for about 10 years and hitherto have been without offspring. My poor sister, who definitely has the adoring grandmother gene, has been forced to confine her affections to chihuahuas. But now she is being presented with not one, but two grandchildren -- twins, a boy and a girl. Well, it doesn't get much better than that!

The only problem was that they had but one christening gown, the gown which my sister's son wore when he was baptized. That was also the same gown which my father wore when he was an infant, so it was 82 years old -- definitely a family heirloom. Anyway, that gown could be used by the boy, but what to do about the girl?

Rather hesitantly my sister approached my mom and me and asked if we'd be willing to make my mom's wedding dress (which had long been in my sister's keeping) into a gown for the girl twin. Voila, instant heirloom! My mom thought it was a splendid idea and, grabbing her seam ripper, immediately reduced the gown to yardage.

My mother's gown was designed and made by a friend back in the early 1950s and featured a layer of taffeta covered by a sheer fabric with a floral lace edge. I wanted the baby girl's dress to show off the fabric to advantage and yet echo the look of her brother's antique gown. I used a pattern from the late '70s, Simplicity 8971, as a basis for the dress and hat.

I lengthened the gown a bit and dispensed with the horitzontal tucks. Instead of the gathered sleeves, I made loose straight sleeves out of the floral lace. The pattern's hat is made out of wide eyelet lace. My hat was made and lined out of the taffeta with an overlay of the sheer floral lace. (Click on the picture of the hat at the beginning of the post to get a better look at the lace.)

Instead of pintucks on the bodice, I put lace beading threaded with pink ribbon. (The antique boy's gown had lace beading with blue ribbon.) At this point I felt the dress was finished, but my mom felt it needed a bit more, so she added the two vertical rows of lace beading and pink ribbon on the skirt. As it had to be added by hand, it was rather finicky work.

The last picture gives a close up view of the floral lace which I used as the bottom edge of the overskirt. (The under layers of the bodice and skirt are made of the taffeta.)

Both dresses were presented to my sister's daughter-on-law at her baby shower, and I can definitely say that all of the stress and anxiety that went into the making of this dress were as nought when weighed against the expression on her face when she opened the packages. Definitely worth it.