Finally, a few pics from this summer's holiday.The mountains in South Tirol where we went hiking every day. We slept in a beautiful old Farmhouse.
This is at a seminary in Innsbruck, where some friends studied years ago. A current seminarian let us in to look around.

Marlene borrowed my hat as soon as we arrived at the Alm. She and Hans were wonderful hosts.

This is a lap quilt I made for my sister Lisa. She's made so many beautiful quilts for other people, I figured she deserves a quilt more than anyone I know, which made her a perfect victim for my experiment with the Disappearing Ninepatch.
I've always hesitated to make a quilt for Lisa, thinking it would have to be perfect. That's why I decided to call this "Ode to Imperfection". Many of the seams don't match, partly because I decided this quilt actually looks better the less the seams match.
I like how it turned out. I think it looks especially good in the half dark, when the reds and lighter colors seem iridescent. Lisa will choose the borders, since we both agree she's probably got something that would work (most of the fabrics in this are things she's shared with me). Plus, we already have this collaborative habit of Lisa choosing borders and backings for my quilts, fabric being so expensive here. I figure since it's her quilt, all the more reason for her to choose the border fabric, although i have some ideas.

Basil GardenI finally finished the first quilt I ever started! It had been languishing as a UFO in my cupboard for years. The motivation for finishing it was Peg, the daughter of old friends in California, who's off to study theater in the Fall. This still needs borders, but i think i'm going to just go with more of the beige leaf that I used for the background. Actually, the very first quilt i ever made, if you could call it that, also happened to be for Peg, the summer she was born 18 years ago. It felt like cheating bcs there was no patchwork or appliqué involved. It was just a white fabric with colorful, stylized clowns on it. I stuffed the clowns' bellies with extra batting and machine quilted around the outlines of the clowns.

One last picture of Mia's quilt with the borders on. The binding is going to be a dark rust asian toile.

The obsessive piecing continues: Yesterday i started a new quilt, a single Irish chain in pink and cream for my Aunt Livia. I had the same dilemma with her fabric that i had with the quilt for Auntie Ada, i.e. the rose feature fabric was pretty in such a delicate way that it seemed most patchwork patterns would only detract from it. Even the single Irish chain, intended to frame blocks with roses, didn't work because there wasn't enough contrast. All of the combinations of fabrics and designs that would show up at all seemed too overwhelming. Sooo, i decided to save the lovely rose patterned fabric for another quilt (i already know for whom!) and just make this really simple, with plain cream blocks between the nine patches. Still using the tiny rose companion fabric. I've already got a good start on it and hope to finish it soon.

Yesterday was the last day of my holidays. For some reason, i've been on this sewing jag the last couple of weeks. Maybe because i was longing to work on quilts for a couple of months before the holiday. So yesterday, I finished another quilt top, a lap quilt for my sister Lisa. Since i didn't want this to be yet another project on the list, I decided to make something really easy, that i could finish right away-- the disappearing ninepatch from that tutorial below. It's in batiks, mainly purples, greens and blues, with flashes of red and orange thrown in. I made it in two days, working on it constantly. I'm calling it "Ode to Imperfection." Can't wait to take pics so i can send it off.

Basil Garden Finished!

I finally finished piecing this quilt i started in 2001 and set aside until last week.

Today, I made three doll quilts in a row, just for the satisfaction of starting and finishing something in one day. One is a bargello with eensy squares. I don't even have any little girl recipients in mind for these. Will post pics when i get my camera back.

Since i haven't got pics of this years holiday yet, here, some pictures from last year's holiday. These are from Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This summer, i was in Regensburg, which reminded me a little of R.o.d.T. Another city that wasn't bombed. I wonder why so many tourists flock to places like Berlin, often ignoring the beautiful medieval cities.

This is Brigitte at the Rathaus, when she came to Hamburg in June.

At the Hamburg main train station. We had a lovely weekend, checking out a couple of quilt stores and my tiny quilt book library, brunching at a little place near me. We also compared the blocks we'd been making for this log cabin we're doing together. Hers were much smoother and neater, but she helped me figure out what i'd been doing wrong (stretching the fabric as i sewed). The strips we are using are mostly across the grain, so they're very stretchy and since the blocks are 12", you can end up with some pretty puckery blocks! I also started sewing mine on a foundation and trying to include more strips that are cut on the grain, so now, apart from color choices, you can scarcely tell the difference between hers and mine. Brigitte is paper piecing hers. I wish i could show you pictures of the blocks, but my camera is somewhere in Southern Germany now. Some of the fabric that just arrived in the mail is intended for this project, so I'm looking forward to getting back to the log cabins sometime soon.

The Basil Garden marathon continues. I've now got more than enough 4" blocks for two twins. I'm only planning to finish one twin in the next few days and later on make a double for moi me me! (something my brother Ron used to say).

The only trouble i'm having at this stage is keeping the blocks organized to sew them in the proper order. If you're chain piecing, you can't just sew the blocks in their rows consecutively, so you can easily get confused about the order, especially if your multitasking extends beyond the sewing machine as well (I've been listening to Fresh Air and other NPR archives the last few days so my head is full of interviews with all manner of interesting people).

My lovely and talented cousin Norma just sent me two boxes full of beautiful fabrics intended for 4-5 different projects. They're spin drying as i type. Tomorrow, i'll probably start working with a few of them (it's way past bedtime for bears here).

This evening, my friend Sophie and i finished up our Pride and Prejudice marathon. We watched the 1995 BBC version--the last four hours tonight. I hadn't seen this earlier one in many years and now i have to agree with others who've been disappointed by the 2005 Joe Wright version. Though Matthew Mc Fayden smoulders beautifully, no one beats Colin Firth for a subtle and enigmatic Darcy. Generally the 95 version is far truer to the book and this generally makes for a better film altho not always. The 2005 version probably has more appeal for people who weren't already Austen fans. It seems as if Wright is trying to make it accessible even to the MTV generation. But as Sophie and i kept reminding ourselves, a lot of the difference is in the sheer length of the earlier version, which allowed for a more leisurely pace.

Basil Garden

Peg, the daughter of some old friends in California is off to college this Fall in Southern Cal. Beth says she likes blue, so after racking my brains for something special that I could do quickly, I finally decided to resurrect this blue and beige Basil Garden that I've been working on forever. It was actually the first quilt I ever started. Since i'm not very systematic and hate to follow instructions, I just made masses and masses of these tiny blue/indigo/ tea dye nine-patches, which means there are already almost enough for two quilts. I still want to make one for moi me me sometime down the line, but maybe finishing one will be motivating. All I need to do is make some more rail fence blocks to connect them et voilá!

Quaxo!

This is my friend Nancy's cat Quaxo--name inspired by T.S. Eliot's The Naming of Cats. A few weeks ago, in the rush of the end of term, Nancy had to finish a quilt for her mother-in-law's birthday. I spent the night at her house in Bremen so I could help her finish tying it. I don't think i was actually all that much help, but we had a lot of fun telling stories while we tied. I'd brought my camera along to document the finished quilt, but kept forgetting to ask Nancy's permission--was so distracted by the conversation--and then when she wasn't there, i was so distracted by Quaxo. I'm crazy about Quaxo. I even bought him a souvenir in Italy.

Back from holiday and sewing up a storm, but since my camera is still on holiday in Switzerland, i will have to use words: I've been working on 10" indigo and white stars for that swap project. I've just finished making seven Castle Garden blocks from the book Once More Around the Block. Lots of tiny triangles and more flying geese and i didn't do it the easy way, but i'm determined to try that next time round. I was just so eager to get started and didn't anticipate that i'd make so many. Sort of got carried away.

I'm planning to send off 3-4 of these to my sister and cousin and keep the others for different sampler quilts. Also finished five sawtooth stars, also in indigo/white, using a beautiful botanical batik that my sister Lisa sent me for the large center squares.

Sometime in the next couple of days, i'd like to start this Grandmother's Fan quilt for my nephew. I've decided to sew the fans onto muslin and then use this dandy tutorial that Brigitte was kind enough to send me for sewing curves to attach them to the background, rather than using appliqué, altho i'm also considering cheating and machine appliquéing, then concealing that with embroidery, since the GF Marcos liked had embroidery where some GFs have lace. I'm excited about starting this. The indigo project can easily be put aside as it's intended to be something to work on a few blocks at time between other things anyway.

Hi, this is just to say, i'm alive and well, and even sewing, but no time to post pics. Too much work lately and now I'm leaving for a holiday for the next three weeks but when i'm back i'll have more time for sewing and blogging. Hope you're all having a lovely summer.

By the way, the flying geese i was doing the old-fashioned way started turning out fine, so maybe i'll stick to this method after all.

Easy Flying Geese?

Finally coming up for air after the last day of classes at the uni. I'm not completely done with correcting, but decided to get back to sewing for a day because i've missed it so much.

I'm working on some sawtooth stars, and was having the usual trouble getting the flying geese right, so surfed around and found this tutorial for a very clever, easy looking way of doing them. It's too late for the ones i've already cut out, but I'm keen to try it on the next set.

another shot of the floor at the Cologne Cathedral.

Inspiration

Last summer when Lisa was here we visited the Cologne Cathedral together and were both struck by the tile floors, some mosaics and some we thought would make great quilt block designs.

Addendum / Correction

My sister Lisa, who is eight years older, tells me that Grandmerner did read to the older kids at least. Maybe she read to us as well, and i just don't remember it. Lisa says she read Brer Rabbit and other regional classics, and that when she was reading a certain story, at a certain point she'd say, Here, when I was reading this to your dad and Uncle Vince, they would always have fallen asleep by this part (something about Aunt Tillymouse).

One thing i've noticed as we reminisce about family is that we really did all have distinctly different childhoods, even within the same family. When i mentioned to a cousin something about an unconditionally loving grandmother, "you know, like Grandma, that type" she said, Are you kidding? Grandma? That wasn't how I knew her. She never read or sang to them. But then they lived in Arizona and didn't see her that often. Still, i'm startled by how different our experiences/impressions of various people and events can be.

My Other Grandmother

We called her Grandma. She was born in the States, but I gather that when her mother's family settled in Texas it may still have been Mexico. She grew up in a rural area near Brownsville, on the border of Mexico, and married a wealthy merchant 29 years her senior, aka Grandpa (how he came across the border on horseback with an Indian servant, having been disowned by his father is another story).

Grandma was bilingual. Now that i'm a stranger in a strange land, I can empathize much more easily with both her and my mother. At least i haven't had to undergo the added humiliation of raising kids who are native speakers of German and tease me about my funny accent / word choices. We were merciless and i definitely have bad kharma in that regard.

The thing I've been thinking about lately is how much effort Grandma made to read out loud and sing songs to us in what was for her a foreign language. Now I wish she'd also sung songs in Spanish, or even spoken to us in Spanish, but in those days of course, no one recognized being able to speak Spanish as an asset. I remember she had this enormous book of Grimm's fairy tales that she would read to us and she had quite a repertoire of English songs, some from the 20s and some old standards. Looking back, I find this kind of amazing, considering that it wasn't her native language. Our other, WASP, grandmother was educated, but tended to be so obsessed with being the perfect housewife and doing all that sewing that she never read to us. Probably she didn't feel confident about her singing. Grandma also kept a large neat house, cooked wonderful meals and sewed lots of dresses for us, but she didn't do any other sewing.

Lately, I do understand this reading aloud in a foreign language a little better because i find that i like to read to little kids in German. It's one of the few times i can be sure i'm not making any mistakes! Also, of course, kids are just happy to be read to, even if your pronunciation or intonation may be slightly off.

I think Grandma had rather subtle taste in colors. I remember when i was about 10 being invited to visit my friend Louise's grandmother in Longview. She lived in an old house with a wraparound porch, surrounded by a yard full of magnolias. You could smell the magnolias through the windows. As I was unpacking my suitcase, explaining that these dresses had been made by my two grandmothers, Louise's grandmother said she could guess which had been made by the Mexican grandmother (a flashy ice blue beaded number). I was amused by this. In fact Grandma's contribution was a shift in a simple, heavy dark green cotton---one of my favorite dresses of all time.