July has come and almost gone - but there's a whole lot of summertime left

This month has just flown by, and today (!) is the first chance that I've had to enjoy one of the biggest perks of working out of the house...the summer office set up.  Today, I have to do lists to be to-done, and newsletters to be written.

  There's nothing like sitting on the screen porch, listening to the sound of random lawn mowers and wildlife to get those creative juices flowing.  We have a  family of hawks living in the tree next door, serenading me with the sounds of their screams. For now, the screen porch is the closest than Dunkin (see pic) is going to get to the great outdoors.

The month started off with a bang over the fourth of July weekend when my copy of Quilty arrived, and with it, Lake Shore Magic's debut. That's very exciting, and I've been waiting to  get to work on the next pattern I want to bring out.  Now that the exciting part of the summer is over (and I no longer wait with baited breath for the sound of the school bus), I am looking forward to getting to work on what's coming next...hopefully, soon.


Now that I've gotten the two big 'push' projects out of the way,  I had originally intended to spend some time just playing in the studio, and continuing to work on my PhDs.  I know that by the size of this pile, I won't be graduating any time soon.

There's a whole lot of mish-mash in that pile...I know there's some free motion quilting practice pieces that I want to play with, an unfinished challenge that I got 'stuck on' - and I'm running out of time, a baby quilt that needs quilting before the child gets to kindergarten.

Why is it that summer seems like it's going to last forever before it begins, but it seems that by the midpoint of summer vacation - which is not, by the way, the midpoint of the summer?  I've barely had time to enjoy lazy evenings on the porch, and already I'm seeing ads for fall clothes...

Like many other summers, I'll get a late start and then work on my fall raking chores in my flip flops and capris...

Are you enjoying your summer break?

When you're a quilter, how do you celebrate a milestone anniversary?

Well, last week I was able to tell you all about the biggest quilt I had worked on last year, which was Lake Shore Magic.  A lot of energy behind the scenes went into getting that quilt into Quilty, but it certainly wasn't the only biggie quilt I worked on last year.  The second quilt was a labor of love for my husband - somehow last winter I realized I had never made him a quilt of his own.

We celebrated our 35th anniversary last month - and yes, I was very young when we were married.  Truthfully, that realization hit me when I was sitting at a guild meeting talking with some friends, many of whom had made at least one quilt for their partner.  I was chagrined to say the least, and I got to work on it right after the holidays.

Patience and Kindness, 2013

Picking out the quilt design was actually a very easy- many of you will recognize the finished quilt (above) as a Carpenter's Star pattern. Mike has always enjoyed woodworking, and has in fact made every one of the quilt racks which hang in our home. This was a natural fit, and several of the batik fabrics in it are special to him.  His birthday is in October, and I actually found batik pumpkins at one of the last trips I took to Keepake Quilting.

For those of you who doubt the old 'wives' tale that you should buy it when you see it - I SOO wish I had more of this left to play with.

This quilt was made as a secret to Mike - beginning in January, with our actual anniversary at the beginning of June.  Mike's semi-retired, and he's pretty tuned into the pieces I'm working on...so the secret part of this became more of a challenge than I originally thought. It's good that we had a major home renovation going on at the same time to distract him; the bad news is that drywall dust is never an embellishment option.   Fortunately, I had a couple of retreats this past winter - this 'surprise' was well traveled before I gave it to him.

This was the layout of the quilt on the floor before I sewed anything together; in this pattern, there is one right location for each piece of the 64 piece puzzle.  The tags were removed once I had actually sewn the entire star together.  I've never done a pattern like this, but I'm sure happy that I had a chance to work on this in peace and quiet over two weekends.

This quilt is special to me because although this is a queen sized quilt (with borders added), I rented time with a local shop on their longarm machine, and I actually did the quilting myself.  I learned a lot about the longarm process (which was a by-product of the experience), and I could happily give him something that was truly made by me.  It's nice (after all these years) to actually sleep under a quilt I made.

The name Patience and Kindness comes from two of the qualities that I first fell in love with him for.

Lake Shore Magic is finally here!

Good morning! 

Every summer, I make it a point to  attend the Lowell Quilt Festival; at last year's event,  I had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion on the direction of our industry, which included  both Mary Fons and Marianne Fons, representatives of SAQA and of the Modern Quilt Guild.  After the discussion, I had the chance to speak with both Mary and  Marianne - and to get an autograph on the Fons and Porter book that's been a bible for me for many quilts. One of those very  brief conversations- and a picture of the quilt top for Lake Shore Magic led to an offer by Mary to publish the pattern in Quilty.  

Meeting Mary Fons at the Lowell Quilt Festival last year. 

I'm usually terrible at keeping secrets, and I'm so glad that it's finally here! 

I had the privilege of attending the exhibit of Joanna Rose's quilts, Infinite Variety, in New York City in March 2011...the bus trip that I brought down there to attend the exhibit marked the debut of bus trips by The Patchwork Pearl.  Like many of us who had the opportunity to see the collection, I was inspired by the variety of styles included in the show, and I was inspired to make my own red and white quilt.  I was also intrigued by the variety and depth of styles shown in the exhibition.  

Lake Shore Magic was created on a weekend retreat in October 2011 - it really is an easy pattern to play with.  I had the pattern in my head, and a bin of every red and white fabric I had in my stash.  I tend to be a bit 'infamous' for bringing my bins o'fabric with me on retreats...but this quilt top just came (more or less) together. This was one of the early layout attempts....which I was not happy with. 

LSM...early layout...yawn!

The final quilt which appears in Quilty was quilted by the wonderful Pat Harrison of Ocean Waves Quilting Company in Rhode Island.  I was fortunate that when I brought the quilt to Pat,  we knew where it was going, so she was able to enhance the top with a fresh, contemporary outlook to the piece. 

I can say that LSM is the first pattern I've commercially produced, and I'd love to hear from you whether you like it, or modify it to meet your own needs.  I can also tell you that I have 3 more in my head... one of my summer projects is to get the next one out of that and into fabric.  Stay tuned!

Finally, just a shout out to the folks on the Quilty staff...they are great to work with, and always available to answer questions (there were many) along the way. 

Today, LSM is hanging in my home, and I love being able to look at it every day!  

Till next week...

Linda

This is the best news since Matthew and Mary hooked up!

I noticed on Friday that the wall for The Patchwork Pearl on Facebook got active - really active, especially for a Friday. Well, apparently there was a tiny little announcement at Spring Quilt Market that got a lot of people's attention. No, I didn't know anything about the news until I saw it and started digging, but the industry has formally matched up Downton Abbey and quilters.

Major kudos to Andover Fabrics for their winter 2013 introduction of the Downton Abbey line.

Oh, I can hear Mrs. Patimore's giggles from here - although, from what I read - it'll be the upstairs ladies who are the inspiration for this first set of colorways.  

 Now, remember that this is coming from the quilter who has been working on the Downton Abbey Challenge I and II.  I have noticed for a while the crossover between the demographics of quilters and the series - and now, we can have both.  

The first of the series of fabrics (oh, does it get better) comes to us in the fall, and I know that EQuilter has already gone online to say they'll have it.  

So my question to you tonight is...are you a Dowager (violet, what else?), Mary (maroon), Sybill (peach) or Edith (peach)...

Hmmm...off to bed thinking of the possibilities. 

Everything old is new again....

It's Quilt Guild Challenge season here, and I am 1 for 2.  At least the Pending Projects pile is no larger this year.  At one point in time, I had a plan to enter one quilt into two challenges - which is still a bucket list item for me. Although I was pleased that I had been able to figure out how to do that, I was never inspired.

If you don't have the inspiration to make a 'challenge' quilt, then the exercise becomes pointless.  I was a little sad when I saw where my entry might have been at challenge reveal #1, but there's always next year.

So, I moved onto Challenge #2, taking a look at the challenge prompt with fresh eyes, and threw the first idea out the window.  Ditto with idea #3, 4 and 5 - #2 kept calling me back with a siren's call. The prompt was to make a piece based on your birthday month, and May has a lot to work with.  I kept turning it over and over in my head, and the phrase "April Showers bring May flowers"  kept coming back to me.

Everything Old is New Again
Linda Pearl, 2013

Well, when inspiration finally arrives, it's not nice to ignore it- and I will say that this piece came together in less than a week.   What's really funny to me about this piece is that I didn't set out to use blues and yellows in this quilt - but I have been working on a kitchen remodel using those exact colors.  That combo must have been marinating in my brain while I was working on the project.  The yellow background was originally supposed to be the backing fabric, but when I put the basket against it, I knew I had my quilt.  And I know that it makes me smile when I look at it.

What is it about challenge deadlines that gives one (me) the idea that you have oodles and oodles of time?  My only consolation is that a post on the guild's Facebook page revealed that there were several of us still working at the 11th hour...and I love the company I found myself in.

This photo shows the project in the "I'd better get my butt in gear phase'... The Basket Garden pattern is one that my husband bought me for Christmas sometime in the '90's, but it had just the basket pattern I wanted - add some batiks, some mistyfuse - and you have the updated basket. And the name.




The flowers were made using the Leaves Galore Template from Sue Pelland Designs - a much improved technique for making realistic petals. I originally cut the leaves much too larger in scale for the piece, but using the smallest petal template on her ruler,  I was able to bring the scale much more into balance.

Here's the quilt that I made from that book...it's hanging in my living room.  The flowers in this  piece were part of the pattern.

The second anniversary is for cotton...

Quilts have long been used to mark life's celebrations - whether they be births, weddings, anniversaries or birthdays.  The form those quilts take can run the complete design spectrum, from traditional to modern, with everything in between.  Sometimes, as a quilter you have the freedom to select the quilt that you want to make  -  and sometimes you are working with someone who has some very definite ideas as to what he wants.  Many of us have been approached at one time or another to do something with  a wedding gown.  That's how I met a customer recently, who I have always referred to as   "Wedding Gown Guy".

This is the final product - I incorporated not only the actual gown, but also photos of the couple, their adorable son, and I personalized it further by incorporating their initials and names into the quilt - with their anniversary date matching up with Family. 

Rick contacted me through my website to ask me to help create an anniversary gift for his wife - they were coming up on their 2 year milestone, and since the two year traditional gift involved cotton, he wanted me to surprise her by using her wedding gown to make her a quilt.  He was quite definite about the surprise part - and I was equally as definite about it was going to take more than 10 days to make this I had until the actual anniversary.   We had a few phone consultations, and I finally agreed to take the project on when he promised to make it right with his bride.   I gave him a nice certificate and a sample board to present to her on the actual date, and I set out to take a look at the gown to determine what would meet the requirements.  That's the picture of the skirt above, high lighting the applique I actually used. 

I'll stop here and tell you that every single one of my girlfriends who heard about this thought I was crazy - and probably would kill their husbands if they tried this.  No problem - I assured them. He had a very specific clause in the contract which covered me - and I timed it so that no actual cutting took place until I knew she had the certificate and knew what I was going to do.  I worked on it, but I worked around the actual scissors part. 

In the end, I used the lace appliques from the skirt to frame a traditional medallion portrait of the bride, and backed those appliques with traditional quilter's cotton.  The picture above shows me positioning the squares under the applique to make sure that the pieces were centered. 

The gown itself remained in tact - and although this couple had no interest in recycling it for another wedding, it actually can be salvaged - all that would need to happen is to have another piece of lace reattached to the skirt of the gown.  I didn't deconstruct any of the actual dress. 

Hmmm...I wonder where my wedding gown is? I can go and play with that (70's) design). 

Customizing Celebration quilts is an expanding part of my business; for more information about how to incorporate your design ideas into a special piece, please email me at Linda@thepatchworkpearl.com. 

I celebrated National Quilting Day - by buying new underwear!

I had a chance to do a road trip this week with my friend Kate - it was our chance to explore unexplored quilt shops before the bus returned at 3. At the first shop, I was 'fondling' a basket of white on whites (who hasn't), and she gave me a look...I mumbled "underwear" and walked away.

 

She caught up with me outside and asked me what was up with the underwear comment.  I laughed and explained what I meant.  Back in the day, when I was a little girl, underwear was white, white or white. The sixties, you know.  My 'underwear drawer' was the top drawer of the dresser, and it looked something like this.

 

 

Fast forward a couple of decades, and I originally kept my fabric (when I outgrew the bins under the bed) in an old dresser, sorted by color. Without realizing it, the whites/creams/neutrals wound up in the top drawer, and at some point, I realized it was because of the underwear drawer syndrome. It's still there, but in a different dresser.

 

Kate just looked at me, and understanding dawned. So then she asked me if I had bought any 'underwear'.  I said yes, but not everyday underwear - I bought the fancy stuff. I got another look.  Stay with me...

 

The store was having a sale on all cotton if you wore green to shop, including the batiks.  So I looked at this as a chance to stock up (since I know I'm running a little low on it) in the fancy undies department - the kind you might buy at Victoria's Secret.

 

 

Wishing you all a great National Quilting Day....now that you know one way I've celebrated, how are you celebrating?

More on the results of the giveaway next week - as well as April's block of the month.

Talk soon