Rachel Maus "It Doesn't Matter" (I.D.M!) 01-01-10

The quilting technique I learned from Rachel Maus at the Surfside Stashbusters Workshop on Monday is named (by Rachel),"It Doesn't Matter" and uses scraps, strips, orphan blocks, whatever you have at hand. "It Doesn't Matter!" The fabric can be color coordinated or not - I.D.M! I started with some leftover pieced strips (like Chinese Coins), some off-cuts from squaring a quilt and some strips of various widths/lengths. But the color was so DULL that I started adding strips of red and black/white - guaranteed to spark up anything. Sew the fabrics together any way you wish - random, log cabin style, square in a square, whatever - I.D.M! I didn't get out any orphan blocks (because I don't know where that box is right now), but several in the workshop used them to great effect. What you are aiming for is square blocks between 6.5 inches and 9.5 inches. As you are sewing square up the results, according to your own persnickety desire, or don't - I.D.M! I have used a 9.5" square ruler paired with a 11.5" square ruler. More about these rulers at the bottom of this post.

Here are my four 9.5" somewhat randomly pieced blocks which I have arranged and rearranged until I found a combo that is tolerable!

Then I sewed them together and pressed them as flat as I could.

Photographing an acrylic ruler on top of the patched blocks isn't very legible, so I cut a piece of lightweight cardboard just for the clarity of the photo. I aligned my 11.5" square just as the cardboard is shown here. Don't cut edge to edge of the fabric - instead cut from one corner of the acrylic square to the next. Which leaves me with....

.... a sort of frame with an 11.5" hole in the middle.

With scissors I cut from each inside point to the outside edge of the fabric creating four triangles with each of two points cut off. Now I match the short sides of two triangles and sew, then repeat with the other two triangles.

The resulting triangles go together creating a second block with a bias edge all the way around. Care must be taken to not stretch this bias edge out of shape - I carefully pressed the joining seams in the middle, not the outer edge. Using the larger of my acrylic squares I trimmed the block to size,

and I have the first two blocks for my "It Doesn't Matter" quilt. It will be necessary to make all the blocks, put them up on a design board (or pin them to a wall) and move them around to make a pleasing combination. Since these blocks are 11.5" square I will need 16 blocks for a 44" square quilt without a border. I might also add sashing between the blocks, cornerstones at the sashing intersections or some other arrangement of putting them together.

Acrylic square rulers come in a LOT of different sizes. Rachel's inspired idea is to use these rulers in pairs. The combinations that she uses are:

6" or 6.5" square paired with a 7.5" square
7.5"square paired with an 8.5" or a 9.5"square

8.5" square paired with a 9.5" or a 10.5" square

9.5" square paired with a 10.5" or an 11.5" square

The last shadow of 2009 12-31-09

No flash still, so I thought I would see what I could take a flash less picture of before the sun went down. This is the shadow of the weeping birch tree on the lovely grey siding of the house. The sun tints the air for the last time in 2009 and, I think, makes quite a lovely image. Every year has shadows, some more than others. This has not been a good year for many people in this country and all over the world, although my investments have 'rallied' so things don't look terribly dark for the future of the TCQC. More new quilts in 2010, I hope. Most of all I look forward to better health and fewer losses, perhaps some long distance travel and LOTS of creative sewing. I have no resolutions - just hopes. And they extend to all of you around the world who read this blog regularly or periodically. I hope this new year fulfills your dreams.

Wordless Wednesday 12-30-09

A Friend 12-29-09

What sustains us better than our friends? Since I stopped celebrating Xmas I have discovered that everyone else is terribly busy just when I am not! They are shopping, wrapping, cleaning, preparing for company, cooking, etc....! Meanwhile I might clean out a drawer or two and do my usual chores (or not). And I certainly have lots of time to think about friends I am missing. The list is long, but here are two friends who are close to my heart.

Friend Toni Mahoney at her 2nd home in Colorado in August 2004. Toni and her husband live in Tustin, CA, with their amazing cat Stanley. http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3236658054810119404&postID=8710554107460630782 Toni belongs to quilt guilds in California and in Colorado, although she seldom attends those in CO; she has in the past year returned to playing the violin and is involved in several small groups. Her husband's health is not good, so they seldom travel these days. Toni and I are determined to get together soon - between her schedule and my poor health these days we most 'talk' via e-mail.

I took this picture of my friend Maggie Ezell in Feb 2007 - the occasion was Karen Kolwalchuk's birthday party held at Maggie's house. A perfectly lovely party - bittersweet because we knew that Karen was moving east before long.

Maggie has just had major surgery and is waiting for results from biopsies - so everyone is sending good thoughts, prayers and meals (unfortunately I live too far away to be much help in the food department). Maggie is one of those amazing people who always makes others feel good when she is around; she has done several jobs for Beach Cities Quilters Guild (including President) and is active in a number of none quilt related philanthropies in south Orange County. I have not seen her for sometime, between her busy life and mine it just doesn't seem to work out as often as we wish. I hope we can get together early in the new year to catch up on all our news. Meanwhile I solicit your good thoughts and prayers for a very special lady.

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Rachel Maus Workshop for Surfside QG 12-28-09

Rachel Maus came up with this design - or perhaps "method of working" would be more apt - over a period of time. She did have that 'light bulb' moment to start with, but worked at the measurements to provide for many different sized blocks. She calls the method "It Doesn't Matter" and I find it quite fascinating. I admire her desire to share the method with others in the old tradition of quilt making when everything new was happily passed on to others without charge or copyright barriers. Since I have been so busy being sickly I have not been out to purchase a new camera, so there is no flash used in these images.

I really enjoyed the day, but by the time I had stopped at the 99 Food Market and driven home in semi-heavy traffic I just walked into my bedroom and collapsed. Later, when I tried to work at the computer, I could not stay awake to type one sentence. Sure hope this sleepiness disappears with tonight's last antibiotic. Other than that little problem and an occasional residual cough I think I will be well in a couple days.

My table mate, Sharon Pembrook, is in deep concentration - not over the technique, but listening on her cell phone to the misbehavior of her grand girl! And she still accomplished more than I - I am so slow. Behind her are class samples for the shop workshops - you can see other pictures and descriptions at the "A Time To Sew" website:

http://www.a-time-to-sew.com/classes.htm

One of the "It Doesn't Matter" quilts on the left and more shop workshop samples on the right. Barbara Seidel checks out fabrics that Rachel brought and Julia Maben contemplates more cutting.

I'll post more about the "It Doesn't Matter" quilt sometime this coming week.

"Middlesex Fells - Late Fall" 12-27-09

"Middlesex Fells - Late Fall" Ruth B. McDowell 1996 95"W x 75"L

Commercial and hand dyed cottons, batiks, cotton thread, cotton batting

Machine pieced, raw-edge pieced, machine appliqued.

Sometimes this quilt is referred to as the "Plaid Forest" - it perfectly demonstrates Ruth's use of plaids off grain to give the impression of many different small branches and twigs in the density of the trees.

This is the largest quilt in the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection. So large that I told Ruth that I would buy it if I had a wall large enough! I went home and measured and e-mailed her that YES it would fit on two different walls of my house. Since it is so large it is consequently quite heavy and I don't always include it in presentations, even if I can hang it. But it is a very unusual quilt in that it is pieced in the "old fashioned way" (sewing the pieces together face to face and then pressing open) and also in a "new fashioned way" (overlapping raw edges and sewing them down). Ruth had completed three vertical sections for this work, but wasn't happy with the over-all quilt. She took it to a meeting of her small group and hung it up for their opinions - after looking for a bit one of them moved the middle section up and the right section down. And they all agreed it worked. Ruth then had to figure out a way to put the three pieces together since they were designed to fit perfectly, sewn face and face and turned/pressed. Thus her early use of raw edge applique to join the sections and some raw edge surface applique, presumably to 'even things out'

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You can see one of those added applique pieces here on the top left border of the quilt.

She used many different quilting patterns - including this one which her students call "NZ" or "New Zealand quilting" since it resembles the letters NZ.

I have put in all these detail shots so you can see the amazing selection of cotton fabrics Ruth has used to create the impression of an understory of many different plants and stones beneath fallen leaves.

If you click to enlarge you will be able to see the fabric insertion where she has used some of the fancy stitches on her Pfaff of the moment.

Another quilting design - leaves in the leafy understory of the forest.

Unfortunately I have posted this picture up-side-down! I could delete it, or delete the entire post and start over again, but I have decided to just leave it as is. The space across the bottom is the backside of the quilt - I had it hanging folded over the top bar of my quilt display stand. You can identify several different quilting designs and also some machine buttonhole stitches used on the raw edge.

On the back of this quilt Ruth has used a furnishing cloth printed with large colorful parrots and tropical foliage and flowers: note her hand printed label and also the TCQC label above it. The fancy backing fabrics she uses make her quilts so distinctive and special. Although I had previously used some 'fancy' backs on quilts, I didn't go berserk until after I had a class with Ruth - guess she gave me "permission" even if unconsciously.
www.ruthbmcdowell.com

I am feeling better every day and tomorrow I am going to keep my committment to take a workshop offered by the Surfside Quilters Guild. I have been waiting a long time, through many delays, so I am excited about it. If I run out of steam I will just curl up under a table and have a nap! I've been getting really good at napping.