Category: Quilting in South Carolina

My Improv Quilts

The genesis for me for making improv quilts came from three sources: a Jen Kingwell quilt called “Long Time Gone”; encountering the early modern books by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston where they collaborated and where they introduced the idea of keeping a “Parts Department” of blocks ready to be used; and the joint work of a newly formed “modern” quilt group in Camden, Maine.

I did blog posts on my improv and formative quilts from the above sources for improv work, so I listed the links below.

Here’s my “Long Time Gone” quilt, dated October 9, 2018. I added the piano key border which I would not do today as borders are not often seen in a modern quilt. This quilt could pass as a “sampler,” but also as an improv quilt made with blocks in a “parts department” bin.

If the link doesn’t work, you can search on the title to get to that blog post. ***If you right click on the title and open the link in a new tab, the link worked for me.

Turkey Tracks: My “ `Long Time Gone’ Cotton+Steel” Quilt

Here’s the first improv quilt I tried on my own–using blocks from my own “Parts Department.” This quilt is named “Parts Department Party,” and is dated May 2019.

*open link in a new tab.

Turkey Tracks: “Parts Department Party” Quilt

“Wild Thing” came from a Mt. Battle Modern Quilt Guild challenge based on the long-time “Bee Sewcial” group that posts to Instagram. Each month the designated member of the Bee Sewcial group for that month asks the other group members to make a block to their specifications–which includes design concept, colors, and sizes. The group works with solid fabrics. Many of this group’s quilts have won significant awards.

I chose a palette of bright, clear colors and made the key color the spring green color you see here. I also made extra blocks to fill in the holes that I needed filled in order to make the quilt top come together. Here’s the top:

Here’s he finished quilt top. Note that I used a clam shell groovy board to quilt it, and I do like that traditional quilting on this modern quilt.

The link to the blog post might not work, but it is called “Wild Thing” Quilt.

https://wordpress.com/post/louisaenright.com/13808

Here’s my “Improv Blocks” Quilt that I just finished. I used the blocks I made in a “blocks” class taught by Tara Faughnan. And I kept the same fabric palette during the class, hoping that would provide some consistency for a possible improv quilt.

https://louisaenright.com/?s=%22Improv+Blocks%22+is+done

I also made a quilt inspired by Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran’s work AND by how Debbie Jeske of The Quilter’s Table blog used and altered this idea: “Liberated Wedding Ring, made in the fall of 2021.

“Liberated Wedding Ring” Quilt

I seem to have a “thing” for wedding ring quilts…

My Parts Department is full of interesting blocks these days, so there will be another improv quilt, maybe this winter.

And Tara Faughnan will be teaching the improv block class again, starting in September.

I’m tempted.

It’s Salad Weather

And the markets are full of wonderful berries. I am addicted to this mixture of organic blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. (I drizzle the strawberries with a bit of maple syrup to sweeten their sourness as they are often picked green so they can be shipped.)

The other day I only had a bit of grilled steak in the refrigerator at supper time, so I fried an egg in a bit of butter to go on top of the salad. The corn is from some cobs I steamed. The base is a mixture of hearty baby greens. And I splurged on some fresh dill to put on my salads. The milk is, of course, raw milk, upon which I have thrived for over 20 years now.

This supper salad’s protein is one of the stuffed green peppers I froze a few weeks back. I added some of the steamed broccoli I cooked at noon. The onion bits are from an organic Visalia.

My new reverse osmosis system has been installed in the kitchen, so I now have what amounts to purified drinking water–which means it does not have any minerals either, and we need the minerals in water. So I’ve been drinking sparkling mineral water about once a day–poured over ice. Am I succumbing to the southern need for ice in drinks? It seems so…

There are several brands of sparkling mineral water here. I got a carton of Pellegrino at Costco about a week ago.

Today I’m cooking a small lamb rack I also got a Costco. I love lamb, but recognize that either one does or doesn’t.

“Improv Blocks” is Done

What a journey!

This quilt started with Tara Faughnan’s six months online “Blocks” class in the fall of 2023 and into 2024. Tara presents beautiful fabric palettes, but this time I had the idea that I might want to make an improv quilt with my work in this class–so I chose a large palette that I kept intact for the six months. The palette, I thought, might be able to provide some coherence down the road.

I posted about the blocks along the way so many of you saw that process–which was so much fun. After the class ended, the blocks sat on my design wall for months as I moved around the larger pieces and tried to make an improv quilt come together.

Finally, I had what I liked. Here’s the first view of the resulting top. I used Kona silver as my field fabric. I hated the borders though–and there were places where some adjustments were needed to make the quilt lie flat. The first step was to take off the borders.

Here is the top without the borders. Yes, I liked this top much better now. And while I had it on the floor I measured and corrected to make the top absolutely square before putting it on the longarm.

I wanted to try using my longarm to do straight line quilting down the length of the quilt, so I put it on lengthwise–and made sure my machine, with the channel locks set in place–would quilt a true line with the correct distance between lines every time.

Yeah! That was working really well…

…until it didn’t. My channel locks were not holding properly.

So, I took the quilt off the longarm, took out two lines of stitching, and set up all sorts of tables and an ironing board around my domestic machine so I could finish the quilting there. It took three days! (Meanwhile, my Innova dealer was already coming to take the wheels off my long arm as it was too high for me, so I put in a call to him about the channel lock issue. Yes, he came and all is well again.)

The problem with using a domestic on a big quilt with straight line stitching is that the fabric can (and does) get out of square as the walking foot pushes the fabric in a way that the longarm does not. But, I coped with trimming, and the quilt is…GORGEOUS!

Here it is on the floor, but this pic is distorting the quilting I think.

So I put it on the design wall upstairs to try for a better picture.

For the backing, I found a gorgeous coral from Figo at Five Eighth Seams that works really well with the Kona coral in my palette. And it makes this quilt I already love so much so lively and fun.

I will need to wash it to get out all the glue in the blocks. And I already washed the backing and all the stash fabrics. I want to show it to my two local quilt groups first though. I am a little hesitant about the washing as I used color catchers with the backing, and the dye did run more than a little. So, when I wash this quilt, I will use lots and lots of color catcher cloths in the wash and probably cold water.

There are two projects on the design wall and ironed fabrics waiting to be used in a third quilt. One of these projects is a leader/ender project, and that is working out well in lots of way to be shared later.

“Improv Blocks” is begging to be touched and used:

It’s Friday!

And I have more bits and pieces to share.

MY IMPROV QUILT IS GETTING BINDING!

Here’s a sneak peak–I use a pillow to elevate hand work as it takes the stress off my arms and neck. The backing is AWESOME! It’s a Figo print. And it is PERFECT for this quilt.

I am loving how this quilt turned out. When it is finished, I’ll do a whole post on this “improv” process–which did involve a bit of trauma as the channel locks on my longarm decided not to work properly so I had to finish the quilting lines on my Janome 6700 surrounded by LOTS of tables and an ironing board. (Jimmy Hernandez from Carolina Quilt Studio in Greenville, NC, was already going to come here on Sunday for another client, so he’s going to take off my longarm’s wheels (it’s too tall–I have to stand on tip-toe some times), so he can show me how to tighten the channel locks–and believe me, quilting lines on the longarm was way, way more easy than on the domestic.)

The hand quilting (big stitch) on “Happy” is down to the LAST BLOCK (after 10 more minutes of sewing on the penultimate block–and then the border, which will go fast as it is easy quilting.

I’ve have had an ongoing project that will be a 30-inch wall hanging or pillow–the second of the 4 blocks is almost done but needs some tinkering to measure properly. I’m going to shorten the white strips as they are too wide–it is too much white–and that will give me some room to add a final dark border around the purple/green/orange piece–where I still have to make the last bottom piece. (Cathy Beemer has been teaching us how to do this work.)

I’ve started a lap quilt using as many of the 3 1/2-inch squares as I can from the bins holding the cut-up Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society squares. There is ONE red heart and the rest of the quilt is low-volume. Easy Peasy.

AND, I’m ironing the saved fabrics from season 4 of The Color Collective where guest designer Annabelle Wrigley gave us her “Prickly Pear” quilt. The fabrics are from her own collection of solids, Ruby + Bee.

Screenshot

So, gradually, I’m catching up with those Season 4 TCCollective project.

Holy Moly! Look at this HUGE moth that is now resting on my back screen door! She’s 3 1/2 inches or so if you count the wing length.

It is a Waved Sphinx Moth. She lays her eggs in the ground, and the caterpillars eat tree leaves and other vegetation. The adult moth may not eat. Scorpions eat the eggs if they find them, which is why the moth is sometimes called a “Scorpion Moth.”

Do we have scorpions here? Google, google–yes, there are scorpions here but they don’t seem to be a huge threat.

https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.php?identification=Waved-Sphinx-Moth#google_vignette

https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Ceratomia-undulosa

I will walk my mile in the early evening–I’ve only missed 3 days this month–two of which were due to rain. I love my mile walk.

There will be dinner on the porch today.

And the recycle truck came today as I misled the whole neighborhood about our 2-week pickup of recycling after the holiday!!! So, I’m super happy the system worked with me to get our recycle picked up!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

The Quilt Series

I thought it might be useful to show all four quilts in this series, now that I’m done with this project.

As readers may recall, there were two events that sparked this project: I had a good quantity of the 1920-30’s reproduction feed sack fabrics (fat quarters) gathered together in my stash for a bit more than 15 years, bought when a local store in Maine went out of business. And, I saw the end results of a “series” challenge at my first Charleston Modern Quilt Guild meeting and loved seeing those quilts.

The first quilt started the series for me: “Vintage Feed Sack Wedding Rings.” The pattern is “Modern Vintage” by Camille Roskelley and Bonnie Olaveson, and I found it in the Better Homes and Gardens QUILT LOVERS FAVORITES, vol. 16, pages 86-89–before I donated the book to the Wando library. This block is actually a traditional block, which a Maine friend told me. It’s easy to find online if you like it: single wedding ring quilt block. The secondary patterns are quite awesome and interesting, I think.

Next, I took the circle of the wedding ring block and played with that in “Bubbles.” I wanted to make the circles float over the quilt as if they were rising upward. This quilt is smaller–baby quilt size.

I’ve always wanted to make a quilt from small half-square triangles. But I also wanted to add an element: pinwheels–made from the already made half-square units. The result was “16 Pinwheels,” which is more of a lap size. The half-square triangles are in the original wedding ring block.

I had thought to stop at the third quilt, but I had the units in the center already cut and I still had fabric in all the colors I had used all along AND units were on the design wall where I could see them. So, “Four Stars” came along for the ride.

So, there you have all four, and I had a really good time making this series. One of these quilts has already gone to a new baby in the family.

“Four Stars” Quilt is Done

This quilt is the 4th and last in the 1920-30’s reproduction series I seemed to have worked on this past winter. I’m liking it a lot. The leftover fabrics are broken up now and are in my stash.

I had leftover units from the other three quilts and fabric in all the color ways on hand, so I started playing around with the units, and this quilt happened. Maybe they are the best kind? A quilt born of play and creativity?

The panto is Garden Frills Too, and it looks so pretty on this quilt. As do the beautiful Innova quilt stitches. Since Jimmy Hernandez from Carolina Quilt Studio, my nearest Innova dealer, fixed the timing (remember I sewed a nail?), replaced the tension wheel with the newer version, and did all sorts of other refinements, Innova is so happy.

I’m putting together the improv quilt that’s been growing on the design wall all winter too, and as of yesterday, I’m liking it. A lot. But… We’ll see about how square it is and so forth probably today.

The household water filtration system technician is “on the way,” so that’s it for today with the blog.

A Busy Weekend

And a fun weekend too.

On Saturday morning I was the host for the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild monthly Sit and Sew as the usual member who organizes this event had another commitment.

We meet at a local quilt shop, Five Eighth Seams, which so generously shares their sewing/gathering space with us once a month,

This store is so colorful and lively. It is a pleasure to visit it. All over the store are so many beautiful hanging quilts.

This picture looks into the main part of the building where most of the fabrics live. And I somehow didn’t get a picture of that main room

This picture below shows the size of the meeting room–which on Saturday morning was divided into two sections by that purple divider. Tables with plugs are set up everywhere toward the back of this room. There are also several cutting tables and ironing boards. It’s a perfect place to “sit and sew.”

It rained Saturday morning, so my granddaughter’s tennis matches were cancelled.

But Sunday morning, the play commenced again. My granddaughter won this US Tennis Association (USTA) competition for 12 and under girls just before a gully washer rain hit us hard. And after, in the semi-final match (a nail biter), defeating the number 1 seed.

Between matches, I dashed home to fix some food–as the week was busy, and I had to cook something.

I’ve never grilled a steak and roasted veggies so fast!!

And now I have food for today.

The gully washer put down 4 inches of water in about an hour! And the rain continued lightly into the early evening, so I sewed and missed my daily 1-mile walk, which has only happened twice this month.

Tomorrow the whole house water filtration system gets installed, with reverse-osmosis water in the kitchen.

And today I have some food errands to run, among some other housekeeping chores. And there will be sewing. There is always sewing.

I Nailed The Grits

It required attention and patience, but the third time was the charm with cooking these Anson Mills “rough cut” ORGANIC grits.

I soaked them overnight in milk and stirred them for the first 8-10 minutes and then didn’t leave their side until I was sure covering and cooking slowly wasn’t going to make them overflow. It takes about 40-50 minutes adding bits of water (or more milk) about every 10 minutes so the grits don’t burn on the bottom and cook very, very, very slowly until the chunkier bits are soft.

But oh my heavens! They are so delicious. I will be ordering again, but will drop down to the finer cut version, which is still chunky and slower to cook.

Here was my noon dinner on the porch–made with assets and the grits: roast chicken and roasted sweet peppers and carrots (with garlic), sautéed spinach (butter and more garlic), and sliced Honey Crisp apple and an espresso.

And I look at this view while I eat. My neighbor pulled out her struggling gardenias and put in these pink “Knock Out” roses–which are a hybrid made with landscape roses, tea roses, and maybe other roses. They will be smaller than my red landscape roses and will grow wider I suspect.

The taller plant on the corner of the house is a tea olive, which I would love to have, but I don’t have the right spot for one. They get tall over time, but have the sweetest fragrance when blooming. They are a quintessential Southern plant.

Here’s a link to the Knock Out roses: https://www.knockoutroses.com

There are now lots of colors–this hybrid has been around 20+ years now.

Here’s one up close. They are so adorable!

The 4th and final quilt in the 1920-30’s reproduction fabrics series is off the longarm and has been trimmed and bound. Yeah! I’ve called it “Four Stars.”

We, hopefully, will get some rain today. But NOT a tornado as we are under an alert until 7 pm. A nasty system is moving toward us. Just rain please and thank you.

I’m sewing together the blocks from this year’s online block class with Tara Faughnan into what I hope will make an interesting improv quilt. Certainly it will be a memory quilt for me. So far, so good.

And, at night I’m sewing down the binding on “Four Stars.”

A Quiet Day Today

But I have been plodding along with all sorts of projects nevertheless.

Today I’ll finish the quilt on the longarm and will trim and bind it.

I did finish my name tag for the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild. I kept this one simple and…modern.

Along the way I learned how to monogram with my new Janome 6700’s alphabet, which was fun. The camera picked up the shadow lines in the name making it look rough, but it isn’t.

I donated both my old Janome 6600 and the Janome 8900, so there’s that.

I soaked the Anson Mill’s rough grits last night, so I’ll be cooking those at noon today. I can’t wait!! The rest of my meal is already cooked and will just need reheating.

This afternoon a clean water company is coming to test my water and to recommend a whole-house water filtration system. I got spoiled in Maine with my well water. This water has red iron residue and reeks of chlorine–and I know there is fluoride in it as well. I’m not sure about reverse-osmosis for the kitchen sink as I don’t like the taste of it. (RO removes ALL the minerals, some of which we need.)

So, I’m looking forward to learning more about water in this region. And I do use a Clearly Filtered pitcher for my drinking and (some) cooking water.

More Bits and Pieces–April 27, 2024

My neighbor who saw and filmed the otters in our neighborhood ponds told me that there were THREE otters in the pond where she filmed when she and another neighbor first got to that pond while walking their dogs.

She told me that she, too, has been reading more about otters in coastal South Carolina. Apparently they are somewhat rare and other nearby costal states don’t have them at all anymore. She said the otters travel around through the sewers and culverts. Well, that makes sense as there are A LOT of drainage systems here in the Low Country.

Also, Betsy wrote that her husband Bill gifted her with the quilt pattern for the quilt I showed you yesterday–it wasn’t a kit–which means Betsy chose her own fabrics, and didn’t she do a great job with her choices? (I fixed the post.)

The diffuser has peppermint and lemon in it this morning–and it is lovely and fresh smelling in the big room. (This would be another small moment of joy.)

The sequel to Erica Bauermeister’s novel The School of Essential Ingredients may be even better than the first book: it’s The Lost Art of Mixing. I read/listened to The Scent Keeper a while back, and now I have No Two Persons in my Audible system. I’m listening to The Survivors by Jane Harper, and so far it seems like it will be interesting. It’s set in a small beach town on the coast of Tasmania. Yes, there is a mystery involved. The printed book I’m reading is Jan Karon’s second book in her Mitford series, A Light in the Window.

Today is my youngest granddaughter’s 9th birthday–so there will be cake later this afternoon. I’m getting her card from me ready this morning:

I have for a long time now printed out pics of my quilts and used them in cards. I smile when I see them–and hope recipients do as well–so here’s another small moment of joy.

I am just finishing hand sewing the LAST block in the 4th row of 6 rows in “Happy,” the quilt that has taken YEARS to make. That means the middle is done and I’m over the hump of finishing this quilt as the edge rows are so much easier to get to while hand quilting. The border will quilt fast as there are not pesky, bulky seams to manage.

Betsy also identified the little purple wildflower I saw along my walking path.

It goes by several common names, like Dakota Mock Vervain,” depending on where one lives–all involve “mock vervain” in the name.

From Wikipedia: “Glandularia pulchella is a species of flowering plant in the verbena family known by the common name South American mock vervain. It is native to Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, and it is present elsewhere as an introduced species and roadside weed.[1][2] It is an annual or perennial herb producing one or more stems growing decumbent to erect in form and hairy to hairless in texture. The rough-haired leaves are divided deeply into lobes. The inflorescence is a dense, headlike spike of many flowers up to 1.5 centimeters wide.[3] Each flower corolla is up to 1.4 centimeters wide and white to purple in color.” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glandularia_pulchella)

I didn’t think to use my plant ID app, but Betsy did, using my picture. When I tried, yes, up came the ID. Duh!

Have a great weekend everyone!