From the Vault - Teapot Quilt

Welcome to From the Vault.  In this series,  I'll pull out an old quilt to show you and explain what I was thinking at the time.   In some cases, it is "WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!  

I guess I'm not afraid to show you these.  I think we all have styles that have evolved over the years.  

I'll tell you what year the quilt was made, and you might recognize colors/fabrics/styles that you also experimented with during the same time frame.

I made this quilt in 2005 and I still love it.  It's still me, and it's the only quilt that I've had on our wall nearly continuously since I made it. 

The pattern is no longer in print.  It's Tea Party from Quilted Frog.  (For my cat-loving friends, they have a cute pattern that might be tempting.)
 
I bought the pattern from Going Quilting, a great but short-lived quilt store.  They had lots of fun prints that were unique at the time, like the aqua/green/purple/yellow/orange floral on the upper teapot, the mugs, and the plates.

This is a fused quilt and I had so much fun making it.  I used a piece of lace for the "doilies".  The spoons look more like pipes, in my opinion.  I'd show you a close-up, but it's hanging way up high above a tall window, and I don't feel like getting out a ladder to take more photographs.

Tea for Tuesday

Each Tuesday I'll be featuring a vignette of tea-related items.  Most of them will have one of my teapots; they all have at least one thing you could use at a tea party.

Teapot from Linden Hills Pottery, Hudson, Wisconsin.   Visit them at the Winter Art Festival at the Monona Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin on November 10 - 11, 2012.

Cups and saucers are Fiestaware.

Don't ask me what you'd do with salt and pepper shakers at a tea party.

Piggy Pile Foreshadowing

I learned the meaning of foreshadowing in my high school freshman English class, when Mrs. Z had us read Charles Dickens.  Wikipedia explains it better than I can.  It's "a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that will come later in the story."
 
Last Friday I went to the Waunakee Quilt Show, on the hunt for hand-dyed fabrics from Anne Alessi, just like I told you I was going to in What a Great Party!  I bought quite a bit and Anne said I could make a piggy pile out of it.  Well, that wasn't my intention while shopping, but she must have mentally transported that thought because when I got home, I learned that the pigs had other ideas.

It started out nicely stacked, then one of them found it.  It only takes one, you know.

 

Must have blasted through the stack and now there is, indeed, a piggy pile.  Looks like there might have been a little help from someone.  Is that a foot from another species there on the right?

Now they've found my vintage thread.  At least the playing is getting tidy.

I don't blame them for arranging and rearranging.  Aren't these colors gorgeous?  The dyes are so rich and make solids more fun because of the variation and depth of color on each piece of fabric.

Nice job, pigs!  I love hexies!!!

As I left Anne's booth, she said "I can't wait to see what you make with them!"  Yes.  Well.  First I need to wrest them away from the pigs.

 

Not Just Another Pretty Face

Each Sunday, I'll take a break from the material aspects of this blog and spend a little time looking at the finer points of pigdom.  Most people probably appreciate the ham and bacon side of pigs; little do they know they have a deeper side as well.  

We'll start the week with a peek into the favorite quotes of thoughtful pigs and also learn a pig factoid (pigoid?) in a feature called Pigipedia.

PIGIPEDIA
The pig family first materialized during the Oligocene Epoch (23-37 million years ago), with a giant hog known as Entelodont.  Bony knobs on their head were located around their eyes and other delicate parts of the skull to protect them during fights.

As large as a cow, it evolved into two distinct branches of the piglike family.  Peccaries still exist in southwest United States and South America, while Old World pigs continued to develop in Africa and Eurasia.  The Old World wild boar is thought to be the direct ancestor of all varieties of the domestic pig. 

Thursday Theme - Dress Forms

Before we get into today's theme, it would be good to begin where it all started - Batter Up!  I'll wait for you while you read that post...

All right then, let's see what we've got.  I was right.  It did lead to the start of a dress form collection.

 

 This was the first one.  I believe it's a pin cushion, but wouldn't that just seem like sticking pins into a voodoo doll?  Can't do it.

This is the second one.  Feels Parisian.

Remember my Wonky Donky block from yesterday?  Here it is with its dress form friends, cut from a panel of RJR Fabrics' Lil' Miss Sew & Sew by Dan Morris.  Now you can see how the colors in that log cabin block look fine once you see it in context with the rest of the fabric.  Three more blocks to make, then some special treatment for the sides in order to make a rectangular wall hanging.  

And here's the finished product you read about in Batter Up!  Size is 24 inches wide and 32 inches tall.  It's needle-turn applique and I used a backstitch for the letters with six strands of embroidery floss.

Of the ten fabrics I originally pulled, I used seven and introduced two new ones.  I decided to use the same hot pink on both sides of the skirt to give it boundaries so the eye wouldn't wander off.  I like having a framed version of this, instead of doing the traditional quilted wallhanging.  Not only did it save me the quilting, but it's a nice contrast to what you usually see in a frame.

I have hazy plans for other dress form thingies in the sort-of near future.  How's that for a goal?  I'll keep you in the loop.
   

Wonky Donky

The small group of quilting friends that I meet with every month is so nice.  At our first meeting we talked about what we wanted to get from the group.  One of the things we agreed on was a forum to get together to talk and learn about quilting, but with no pressure.  We wanted to have challenges and assignments, but the underlying premise was no guilt if you didn't participate.  I love this group - there isn't a snob or big ego among any of them.

Last month's "assignment" was to make a wonky log cabin.  I love log cabins.  It shouldn't have been a problem for me.  It was.  I couldn't think what to do, what fabric to use, and I was afraid of "wonky".  I didn't make the block.  Grr.  Meeting time came, and there were everyone else's blocks laid out, each unique to their maker.  We oohed and aahed over them all.  Of course, I felt guilty.  And embarrassed.  And determined to make one for this month, even if it was late.

Same problem this month and time was getting really short!!  I was having a major mental block on my wonky block.  Finally, Nike (Just Do It!) kicked in.

So here it is.  I realize that the colors look incongruous, but that's because they're out of context with the feature fabric.  I can't really tell you any more about it right now, but if you come back tomorrow, it will make more sense.  And I promise, it looks a lot better with its friends.

For now, I'm happy.  It was lots of fun, just like they said it would be.  I'm excited about this next quilt that it'll be part of.  Everything is hunky dory, or should I say, wonky donky.

Tea for Tuesday

Each Tuesday I'll be featuring a vignette of tea-related items.  Most of them will have one of my teapots; they all have at least one thing you could use at a tea party.

 

A nice cozy teapot, to go along with yesterday's Come Home post.  You've probably heard of or seen ceramics that change color based on temperature.  I'm not sure, but this one might start purring once you add the hot water and tea. 
  
 

Come Home

In Character Improvement, I showed you some things I bought to give my sewing room more character.  Last week I found vintage magazine ads from the 1920s and 1930s that also fit right in, so they came home with me, too.  Many of them were advertisements for dress patterns, while others had a story to tell.

This is an original page from The Ladies' Home Journal, September, 1926.  I like it because it depicts a then-current modern woman facing many of the same challenges we do today.  Enjoy how language has changed over the last 80+ years:

"We lead such crowded lives!  Every hour of the twenty-four is precious!  The woman who must hoard her energy - who is tired before the day is over - misses countless moments of gayety and joy which never can return."

It got me thinking about how important home is, and how it gives back as much as we are willing to give it.  You might not have a perfectly landscaped house like this, with an enormous dog and cat waiting to greet you when you get home.  Maybe you have an apartment or a condo.  Maybe all you have is a room in a nursing home.  Wherever, whatever, home provides nourishment for our inner lives.  

I was reminded of this wonderful book I read over ten years ago.  I went to my bookshelf, pulled it out, and reread it over the weekend.  Note the subtitle "Create Your Own Haven in a Hectic World."   It's not a woo-woo (aka flaky) book, it's a reassuring book.  It's an easy read that pulls you along, encourages you, and makes you feel like it's just what you need in order to be able to create a home that nurtures your soul.

It starts out with Making a Home.  This isn't about trends in decorating or the grandeur of your dwelling.  It's about surrounding yourself with books and art and plants and collections and furnishings that reflect who you are.  Make it unique to your personality, not somebody else's idea of what a home should be.  It should energize and enrich you.

Simplifying deals with both your possessions and your time.  Cluttered rooms and busy schedules interfere with living in the moment and make you feel bogged down.  How about this for good advice - organize, but only after you've simplified. 

As far as prioritizing your time, if you're the type to make a to-do list, grade the items as A, B, or C, depending on how essential it is they get done.  That way if you accomplish only your A items, you still feel successful.  Schedule in fun, and allow more time than you think you need to accomplish something.

The chapters Cooking and Cleaning have an almost Buddhist quality to them.  Probably neither one is at the top of the list of busy people, but that is all the more reason to read what she has to say and learn how they can feed the soul.  By the time you're done reading these chapters, you'll want to do both. 

Celebrating deals with the milestones of life as well as the miracle of day-to-day living.  I particularly enjoyed the story of her and her daughter celebrating Mozart's birthday.

Sitting is one of my favorite chapters.  I used to love this quote by Thomas Jefferson: "It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing."  There's no doubt it worked for him; it's amazing all the things he accomplished.  But Moran has an equally good point when she says, "We live in a society that applauds activity and distrusts stillness."  And she doesn't mean it in a good way.  We need to learn for ourselves that serenity feels better than the stimulation of incessant busyness.


Comforts is the final chapter, and it brings us back to home.  Everyone has their own comforts - creativity, daily routines, correspondence...  What comforts you and are you doing enough of it?

This is a 12-inch quilt I made this summer.  Its name is Nesting Instinct.   The chair is a miniature version of the armchair in Althea Ballard's Dream Chair Quilts.

Let's see how well this Chickadee did in creating a haven.

• Making a Home?  Check - This isn't your typical nest in a tree.
• Simplifying?  Check - no clutter.
• Cooking?  Can't give her that - I think she ordered out.
• Cleaning?  Check - It all looks spic and span.
• Celebrating?  Check - She's waiting for her baby birds.
• Sitting?  Check - Lots of opportunity to contemplate and appreciate nature.
• Comforts?  Check - Note her happy decorating and picture of a loved one hanging on the wall.

 

I like Shelter for the Spirit because it ties together so many aspects of what it takes to build and maintain a nurturing environment.  It's like holding the ribbons to a bouquet of balloons.  Each balloon alone is buoyant and attractive, but together they feel like a complete celebration, and that's what life should be.  You can do the same thing - it's all within your grasp.

Not Just Another Pretty Face

Each Sunday, I'll take a break from the material aspects of this blog and spend a little time looking at the finer points of pigdom.  Most people probably appreciate the ham and bacon side of pigs; little do they know they have a deeper side as well.  

We'll start the week with a peek into the favorite quotes of thoughtful pigs and also learn a pig factoid (pigoid?) in a feature called Pigipedia.

PIGIPEDIA  
In 1983, a swimming pig named Priscilla saved a young boy from drowning in Lake Somerville, Texas.  Acquired as a piglet, she was considered as much a pet as a family dog.  Neighborhood children taught her to come running when they called to her from the fence.  She was inducted into the Texas Pet Hall of Fame and was invited to do the Johnny Carson show.  The owners regretfully had to decline, since "it was too hot to take Priscilla on an airplane."

She later developed a drug problem because she liked eating the morning glory plants at her home.  She was sent to a farm in San Marcos to detoxify.  She returned home (with a newly produced son!) for awhile, but eventually returned to the farm where she died of old age.

Thursday Theme - Rakes

Each Thursday I'll feature items that have a similar theme.  They might be quilts, books, or purses I made.  Or, they might be ceramics or other objects (not made by me) related to the theme.  If there are too many, I'll spread them out over multiple, but not always consecutive, posts.

 

Little rake, not quite up to the job.  This reminds me of an animated movie I saw when I was very young where a woman had to empty a lake using only a slotted spoon.  That scene caused me a lot of distress, evidently lasting to this day.  Anyone knowing what movie that was, please leave a comment.  Cinderella maybe?

 

 

This size leaf is more like it.  Anxiety alleviated.

 

Slightly bigger rake.  Pots waiting for something!!

 

 

Caught on camera admiring itself in the mirror!

 

This is our full-size rake, no longer of use for raking, but fine for some of my weaving.  I don't take credit for this idea.  There used to be a really creative gardener that worked at the Middleton Public Library and she did something similar.   

I used to buy yarn, thinking I would knit.  Well, I don't and I finally admitted it.   At least I quit buying new yarn, for the most part.  But I was glad to have this idea to help use up some of the yarn I had.  It only took me a few hours to weave.
  

  

If you look closely, you'll see open spaces at the center edges of the variegated yarn.   I like the breathing room it offers.  I also like puns.