A more muted feeling

At the Brighton Modern Quilters meeting on Monday night many members brought tons of scraps.  The group is making the Tokyo Subway Map quilt by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson! and thought some scrap trading would assist their personal stashes.

In spite of the fact that I think the Tokyo Subway Map quilt is totally amazing, I'm not going to participate.  Too many other projects on my plate/in my mind that aren't getting done.

Of course, that didn't stop me from looking through all the scraps!  I chose a few small pieces and this strip above.  I just love the colors!  I've been thinking about doing something in a more muted color palette and this may be it.  For now, I've stuck it to my design wall and I just stare at it from time to time.

More HST love

I've been working on a quilt this week for Cheryl Arkison's Quilts Recover.  When I first decided to participate, I thought I might make a quilt inspired by her logo which I love.  As the time got closer though, I saw this quilt using the mosaic block that people are doing as part of the Summer Sampler Series quilt along.  I love the block and, better yet, it is made up of HSTs!  (I do plan to get over my obsession soon :))

Next question:  what colors?  I've been feeling like working with some black lately (unusual for me) so I decided that would be the background color.  In general, when I make quilts for charity I try not to make them for young children.  Based on the charity quilts I see at the large guild I belong to, there are already many quilts for younger children.  So, I tend to think about teenagers, boys or less girly girls - or maybe even adults!

Anyway, I looked at my fabrics and decided on white, two yellows and grey.  This shot is from my design wall a couple of days ago.  I'll be shipping it off to Cheryl soon.

An Elegant Celebration

Next Sunday afternoon will find me teaching a class on my Celebration table runner at the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild's Quilting Unlimited.

I love the idea of having a table runner you can pull out for special occasions.  I made the bright version as a class sample and have wanted to make another, more elegant, version.  Besides, working with free form bias is too much fun to stop at one!

For the elegant version, I used a Fairy Frost as the background and a great Lonni Rossi print for the border.  I believe the dark red I used for the bias is a Nancy Halvorsen print from a few years ago, but I'm not sure since it was a fat quarter without selvage.

Keen observers will notice that I did not use any triangles for the confetti shapes in the new version.  They just didn't seem to suit the more elegant style.

If you'd like to see larger pictures of these runners, check out my Flickr photostream.

Suzanne Marshall will be the guest speaker at our QU dinner on Saturday night.  I admire her applique so much!  I'm looking forward to hearing her talk and to spending a fun evening with quilty friends.

A quilt for quilters

Every year the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild, of which I am a member, makes a quilt to reward a lucky guild volunteer.  The Guild has quite a few activities that require these volunteers and many people are very generous with their time.  As a small thank you, the name of each of these volunteers is put in a "hat" and the lucky person drawn wins what we call the "Worker's Quilt".

One of the ways to volunteer with the Guild is to make the Worker's Quilt.  Several years ago my hand dying group volunteered and made a wonderful quilt.  This was before I owned a digital camera so I can't find a picture of it for you.

This year, my Handwork group (recently renamed The Seven Sisters) decided to take on this challenge.  Renee suggested this pattern, we decided on the color scheme (neutrals), how many blocks we each needed to make (14) and we were in business!

Next up was a sewing day in Judy's basement sewing space to put it together.  Here it is laid out on Judy's design wall with a couple of rows on top of her project boxes.  We had a great time putting it together and are all really pleased with the way it turned out.  The finished top has a small light colored inner border and a piano key border out of the darker fabrics.  It is about 80" square.

This week, we met in Renee's basement and pin basted it.  With six of us working (Judy was out of town) it only took half an hour!  Wish I could baste all my quilts that fast!  Renee is doing the quilting for us.  I'll be sure to get a picture of the finished quilt.  The drawing isn't until November, but I'll be sure to let you know if I win it :)

I couldn't resist any longer...

I've been admiring the Marcia Derse line ever since it came out. The colors are so rich!  A friend of  mine made a wedding quilt for her son with it and it was totally gorgeous!  Marcia's fabrics are very different from most fabric lines with a more hand dyed/hand printed look.

I'm not sure how I'll use these, but I had to have some before they disappear!

Deciding to buy this fabric, even though I don't know what I'll do with it, has given me a bit of insight as to how my design-mind works.  I know many people are inspired by the fabric and then come up with a design to work with it.  I tend to work the other way and think of a design first and then decide what fabric to use.  When I go into a quilt shop, I am often looking for something quite specific.

This also helps me understand a little more why I'm not a "grab the full line of fabric as soon as it comes out" type of person.  However, some lines of fabric are definitely worth it so I think I'll try to see if I can develop my fabric-first design muscles.

How about you?  Are you a fabric first or design/pattern first kind of quilter - or both?

(The Kona cottons are jade green, regatta, Delft, cadet).

Sick leave

Things have been pretty quiet here at EHQ HQ this week :)  I had a great time sewing with friends on both Saturday and Sunday and then came down with a really bad cold.  So, this week, I have been doing the minimum amount required and trying to get a lot of rest.  I'm feeling much better already!  I'm hoping to get some sewing done today and through the weekend.  I hope you get to sew this weekend too!

PS  The picture is a rose in my garden a few weeks ago.  I'm not much of a gardener, so such gorgeousness is a bit of a fluke!

Quilts Recover

We all go through difficult times in our lives but it takes a special person to look out from that haze and see that others have it worse.  Cheryl Arkison of Naptime Quilter has endured quite a few hard times in the past year or so - the most recent being the loss of her beloved father.  Out of her grief and caring, Cheryl has begun an organization called Quilts Recover.


Quilts Recover is an ongoing project to collect quilts for those in need, for those who are rebuilding their lives.  In Cheryl's words:
"Earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, and more. The world is full of disaster news these days. The images and stories are gut wrenching. People are having to build their lives over, starting with less than they ever had.  Quilts Recover is about providing just one bit of comfort during that rebuilding process. Quilts Recover is quilters providing finished quilts to communities ravaged by disaster.

The first community target is Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada. Earlier this month, May, a wildfire swept through the town of about 7000 people. Nearly half the homes and businesses were destroyed, utterly consumed by the fire.  Quilts Recover will provide as many quilts as possible to families rebuilding their lives in Slave Lake."

If you would like to join Quilts Recover, Cheryl is accepting completed quilts through July 31.  For more details, see Cheryl's original post, the Quilts Recover blog or contact quiltsrecover@gmail.com.

A book pillow

Ever since I first saw Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr's "Book Club" quilt in their book, "The Modern Quilt Workshop" I have wanted to make one.  As with many quilts, it never made it to the top of my list until I wanted to make a retirement gift for my boss.  She is an avid reader so I thought a book pillow would be perfect!

I had a lot of fun making this, although I way overestimated the number of strips needed.  I am very happy with the way it turned out, but if I were to make another one as a pillow, I would alter the scale a little.  The original quilt is designed in rows that are 16", the same height as my pillow form.

This picture really makes the cream book next to the blue one disappear - it shows up against the background much better in real life :).  I enjoyed adding a hand sewn binding to this pillow.  Usually, I just sew my pillow pieces right sides together and turn them.  I like the way the binding frames the bookshelf and it felt good to add some hand sewing to a gift.

A full quilt would be such a fun way to use a lot of scrap strips.  Maybe, one day, I'll get around to doing a larger one.

I'm making progress...

on my Mid Mod Bee blocks.  This one is for Blair whose inspiration were a couple of very cool mid-century modern fireplaces.

Every time I see that Alexander Henry Heath fabric, I want some!  I try not to buy too much fabric without an idea for it, but I may have to give in on this one :)

I hope those of you who had holiday weekends enjoyed them.  Ours ended with a bit of unplanned excitement.  I was finishing up a few blocks on a charity quilt when the smoke alarms all over our house starting going off.  They are all connected, so if one goes off, they all do.  Building code requires it to be this way, apparently, but the disadvantage is that you don't know where in the house the problem might be.  I ran down to the basement to see if everything was OK there.  It seemed to be.  My husband had been in the kitchen, not cooking, so that was OK too.  He finally discovered the "smoking" gun... my iron!  The poor thing was smoking like crazy and giving off the most awful smell.  The strange thing is that it seemed fine when I left the sewing room.  Anyway, crisis averted, alarms turned off and iron placed outside to air out.  I don't think it can be salvaged so I'll be looking for a new one tomorrow.  I hope I can find one without auto shut-off!

Esch House Quilts on Facebook!

Esch House Quilts

I'm just getting started on Facebook. I've been thinking about jumping in for a while, so here we go.  It feels a bit like learning a foreign language, but luckily my younger daughter is totally fluent!

If you're on Facebook, what would you like to see there? I'm still learning my way around, so if you are an old hand and have any advice, I'd love to hear it!

If you'd like to "Like" my Esch House Quilts page, you can click on the button in my top left sidebar.

I'm on Quilt Inspiration!

The wonderful Marina and Daryl over at Quilt Inspiration are featuring some of my quilts today as part of their series on simple, modern shapes.  I love how they pick a theme and explore the way several different quilters express that theme.  You can find some of their previous themes in their sidebar.  The sidebar is also loaded with tutorials and free patterns - there is enough there to keep you busy for a long time!