Tag: Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston

A Sunny Morning

Turkey Tracks: December 29, 2021

A Sunny Morning

What a beautiful day we have today—as we all lumber toward the New Year 2022.

But, it’s too warm for the thin layer of snow we have on the ground to last—which is too bad as the Snow Bowl ski area had made enough snow for at least half of the mountain to be used.

On Monday, AC and I were able to visit the athletic field, and I took this video of all the activity at the ski area.

Note the father helping his young daughter learn to ski in the foreground as they return to their car. This way is how parents help the little ones learn to ski at early ages.

Yesterday was rainy and dreary, so it was good that I had house cleaning and laundry to do. And today is beautiful, so AC and I will try to throw his ball at the Snow Bowl athletic field, which will work if the snow isn’t too wet and mushy.

A Quilter’s Table blogger Debbie Jeske posted her most popular blog entries this year the other day—among them was the ”Liberated Wedding Ring” quilt she made—which started me on my own journey with this quilt block. That quilt now sits on the back of a chair that I see as I come down the stairs from the upper floor. It never fails to make me smile.

*To remind, the block is a ”Liberated Wedding Ring” designed by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston and can be found in their book FREDDIE AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS.

I had some triangle ”outcuts” from a top I’ve now completed (more on this quilt in a future blog), so I sewed them together to get more parts for the ”parts department” bin.

The joke on me is that I intended to sew them with the colors in the triangle—but somehow I pinned them or sewed them so the white part made the triangle.

It’s all ok. I like them both ways. Apparently the universe had a different project in mind for me with this task.

I Lost My Mojo For This Quilt

Turkey Tracks: September 12, 2021

I Lost My Mojo For This Quilt

I started this EPP project in 2018.

It’s the “36-Ring Circus” designed by Joanne Lewis. The pattern and template kit are at Paper Pieces.

I am using Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics for the centers, pastel solids for the rings, and darker solids for the rest.

I now have three rows done after three years—three more to go.

But it seems I put off working on it to do other handwork on a regular basis.

It is an elegant pattern, for sure.

But it is hard and in many ways, seems tedious to me. Sewing the rings to the centers is…hard. I’ve found taping from the front and using a flat stitch on the back helps.

I have all the solid pieces cut and glued, so I will finish it someday.

I hope it doesn’t take another three years—one for each row!!!

I did organize all the centers for the 4th row, so that’s something. The first center is done, but not the rings.

Meanwhile, I seem to be more than a little interested in wedding ring quilt versions.

Here’s the funky one whose top is now done: from Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston’s book FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS.

And Tara Faughnan’s Wedding Ring Quilt:

I’m ready to start sewing together the last and final row.

Funky Wedding Ring Quilt Top

Turkey Tracks: August 2, 2021

Funky Wedding Ring Quilt Top

What a fun scrappy quilt!

It is so lively and so full of good energy. And I have not named it yet.

This is just a quick and dirty picture—and the quilt is hanging over another quilt in progress, so things look lumpy.

A reminder that this block comes from Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston and is in their book FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS. I mixed printed and solid scraps in the blocks and am happy with how that evolved.

And here is what is going on BEHIND this quilt:

This quilt is designer Tara Faughnan’s “Wedding Ring” quilt.

It is so fun to make!

I have a busy day but can’t wait to spend some time today making more of the scrappy rings.

Design Wall, July 2021

Turkey Tracks: July 18, 2021

Design Wall, July 2021

My quilt room looks like a bomb went off in it as there are color-coordinated piles of fabric everywhere as apparently I am working on four projects at the same time.

(1) Here are the strips for the log cabin, all cut—with two blocks organized on the right. I am using the Creative Grids 12-inch log cabin ruler for this project—which makes log cabin blocks super easy and fast to make.

I fell in love with Tara Faughnan’s Wedding Ring quilt the moment I laid eyes on it a few years ago. [Let’s face it: I’ve fallen in love with so many of Tara’s patterns now, having been introduced to her in The Color Collective (Sewtopia, Amy Newbold) three years ago.] This past spring I got as far as buying her pattern, and last week I photo copied the 10-inch versions on to freezer paper and thought I’d “just make a trial block.” Yeah. All of you quilters know how THAT goes. Here’s where I was by last night:

I’m finding it takes a lot of cutting to get started on this project—but that it is gobbling up solid scraps like mad.

The “funky” wedding ring quilt top—now a leader/ender project—is coming along. I will make it 4 blocks wide by 5 blocks (14-inch blocks) so it comes out 56 by 70. That will be a nice lap size. Previous posts cover the origin of this project for me. The block is by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston and is in their book FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS. And I am indebted to Debbie Jeske (A Quilters Table blog) for making the block without sashing which makes it much more modern.

And here’s how Maria Shell’s “Rattlesnake” zig-zag pattern gets formed with light and dark isosceles triangles. I used Tri Rec rulers to make mine, but Maria Shell shows how to free-hand cut these triangles in her book IMPROV PATCHWORK. I love the scrappy nature of this project.

I’ve cut a lot of strips while going through solid scraps, but have put this one on hold until I get the “funky” wedding ring top off the design wall.

It’s a totally rainy day today, so it will be a lovely sewing day for me—with breaks to console AC doggie.

The Design Wall, June 26, 2021

Turkey Tracks: June 23, 2021

The Design Wall, June 26, 2021

The “Tenderoni” quilt top is done, layered, and basted via the longarm basting. I’m almost certainly going to hand quilt it with a 12-wt. cotton in the honey color in the quilt. The binding (the darkest red in the quilt) is here and washed—I’ll cut it this week. I’m calling it “Fractures,” and I’m really pleased with the movement in this quilt. It will be a wall hanging—30 by 42.

Latifah Saafir designed this block and chose the color palette as a guest designer for this year’s The Color Collective (Sewtopia, Amy Newbold). And it has been really interesting to see what other people made with this block.

So with “Fractures” removed, the design wall looks like this now:

The “Monkey Business” blocks are all done. I may still move some blocks later today, but I’ll sew the blocks together after I try one more move with some of the blocks at the bottom. Basically this quilt is a “sampler” quilt of Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics. As such it is fun. And I loved making the blocks. Abbey Lane Quilting designed “Monkey Business,” which appeared in Issue 22 of Simply Modern magazine. The blocks finish at 13 inches—so it will be a fun lap size quilt.

The leader/ender “Funky” wedding ring scrappy top on the left is coming along as well. The pattern is in FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston. Debbie Jeske of A Quilter’s Table blog made a quilt top recently where she took out the sashing Moran and Marston used, which made the top even more modern. I’ll probably wind up with a lap size top as I don’t see my version as a wall hanging—and I’m liking having fun making this block and using up both solid and printed scraps.

The little round circles are being made from the off-cuts from the “Tenderoni” block.

I thought about moving the circles into different positions on the background block—both sideways and up and down, but when sketching it, I couldn’t make the design work in a coherent way.

There is something really pleasingly “glowy” about this fabric palette as it appears with these little circles.

And now, as we had a good soaking rain yesterday, I need to go and weed! I’m rounding the final corner of the house now.

Design Wall June 2021

Turkey Tracks: June 3, 2021

Design Wall June 2021

I’m having fun with quilt projects these days.

The design wall is full of fun.

Here’s the “funky” wedding ring block found in FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston—and also made recently by Debbie Jeske of A Quilter’s Table blog. I’ve wanted to make this block since I saw Debbie’s modern version. Two blocks are together, but I’ll leave the other parts loose until all are made. I see some already I’ll be wanting to move. And, of course, I’m using up both solid and print scraps in this project.

Here’s Debbie Jeske’s version, which I love. Note that she begins to incorporate some printed fabrics in her half-square triangles at the bottom right. I really like that touch. She has such a great design eye.

Moran and Marston pioneered modern funky blocks, which they often made and put in what they called their “parts department” bins so they would have blocks ready to use. It is always fun to go back and revisit their work.

Guest designer for the seventh and last project from The Color Collective, season 3, is Latifah Saafir. “Tenderoni” is already taking many forms as members of the collective work with the block. Here’s what I have now. I’m thinking 5 by 7 rows, but who knows if this design of mine will hold. I could expand it with insertions of plain blocks of fabric. But I’m kind of liking the “windmill” that is taking shape—and of course all the fractured “parts” of a circle.

This next block designed by Abbey Lane Quilts for Issue 22 of SIMPLY MODERN magazine is called “Monkey Business.” I thought it might work to whittle down my Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics. The block is way fun to make, and I’m having such fun combining fabrics in each block and then making some sense out of where to put each block.

Abby Lane Quilts did a lap size of 4 by 5 blocks, so with a 13 inch block, that’s a nice lap size of 52 by 65.

I’m in no rush on any of these projects. It is just nice to have “play” time on the design wall.

I’ll likely get to the light grey/dark grey big log cabin later in the summer. And I’m looking forward to making it.

I heard this morning that my new longarm is coming in late July! The log cabin will be the first quilt to be quilted on it I think.

More Bits and Pieces

March 7, 2021

More Bits and Pieces

I finished the expanded “My Bokeh” quilt top today and purchased a backing for it this past week.

You may recall that I thought I’d finished it. Only, it kept calling to me, and I had more fabric. So I turned what I had on its side and added more rows. Now it is a lap-quilt size: 60 by 72. And I like it a lot.

Now it has joined the other ongoing projects on the bed next door to my quilt room. There are two finished quilt tops that need to go on the longarm, all the ironed fabric for the blue/grey log cabin for my niece, backing and binding fabric for the log cabin, a pile of fabric sent by Sewtopia for this month’s Color Collective project, a BIG block I cut out to see how it would look that needs to be sewn together, and the “funky” wedding quilt project I’d like to try out—the one Debbie on A Quilter’s Table blog tried and posted, from a book by Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran (COLLABORATE AGAIN) about “funky” quilt blocks and projects (see a previous post for pics).

I cleaned off the design wall and put up the log cabin blocks I’ve already made. My niece and her husband chose a barn raising format. So now I’m really excited to cut more fabric and to make more blocks. I’m thinking 8 rows at the very most—that would be 96 inches square. But it is already looking really pretty!

The best thing about roasting a big chicken may be what comes after that first meal, as in the gorgeous lunch salad the next day:

Or the broth-dense soup for dinner last night:

Unfortunately, I’ve reacted slightly to this soup, so now it’s a benedryl nap day. I don’t know if it is that the stock cooked too long in the Instant Pot, or if it is the teaspoon of tumeric I added, or both. I’m resisting throwing out the other half of the soup. The 5.5 pound chicken produced 2 dinner meals, a big lunch salad, 3 soup meals, and 4 cups of stock frozen in 1-cup portions. AND, some really healthy and delicious meals.

My boy was so pretty yesterday that I took a picture of him.

That’s “the look” that says it is well past time for us to do something TOGETHER.

And so we did.

I Have Projects

Turkey Tracks: January 27, 2021

I Have Projects

Yes I do!

And I can easily start more apparently.

First though, I am loving my Instant Pot. As I’ve said before, I have Histamine Intolerance and need to cook my food quickly as long cooking times increase histamine levels. My Instant Pot allowed me to cook a pot roast in 45 minutes, with a 15 minute stay in the pot with the steam, and about 15 minutes in the pot first to saute the meat, onions, and garlic. I could even remove all but the juice and use the saute function to thicken the sauce.

The result was a tender and very tasty pot roast that did not take hours in the oven and that has provided me with a lot of meals all ready to heat quickly and eat. Here’s one with some smashed potatoes that I cooked separately alongside. I did not put the carrots and asparagus in the pot either. They are easy enough to cook fast on the top of the stove.

My collection of the “other” selvages—the side without writing—had grown to a point where I needed to stop and knit them into the eighth and final placemat. They are funky and fun combined with bright colored, generous-sized cloth napkins—and I was without a sewing hand project for the last two nights anyway. The Sugaridoo quilt is back on the longarm, and I will finish it today and trim and bind it so there will be hand sewing tonight. Then I will try to baste “My Splice” on the longarm.

It started snowing last night—off and on. AC doggie went outside and came right back to get warm snuggled next to me on the couch.

Yes, he wallows when he wants to be loved up.

I love wedding ring quilts and am very drawn to this “funky” one that Debbie of A Quilter’s Table blog made recently. She got the pattern from the older book FRIENDS by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston, who pioneered the idea of creating a “parts department” of blocks to be used in improv quilts. They also created a whole series of “funky” blocks based on traditional blocks—like this wedding ring block. I am wondering about making the block with my solid stash. Or, maybe the Cotton+Steel stash. I do like the way the prints and solids are mixed in Debbie’s version here. And isn’t the wide binding with her fabric choice awesome? I have not tried a wide binding like this on e. She did further secure this binding with some bit-thread cross stitches done decoratively along each side. Thanks, Debbie!

This block is in this book, which I found online. And, I love it.

It will be a snow day for me today. I did all the household work, laundry, and errands yesterday, and I am looking forward to finishing Sugaridoo and then playing with some of the projects I have already started. I really need to spend some time with the leader/ender “Trees” quilt as it is taking over the design wall. I have some parts department “Pips” block to make to finish off that project. And I’ve started a Log Cabin quilt for a niece out in Wyoming as a house warming gift as they have just purchased their first home.

There are, of course, other projects to do. Always.