A Beautiful Faraway Place I'll Never Go

in progress

When I made this quilt it didn’t have any special meaning. I was having fun playing with colors, remembering the color theory and technique I had learned in a workshop with Tara Faughnan. I crowd sourced for title ideas because nothing immediately came to mind. A friend said it reminded her of photos she had seen of Cinque Terra Italy at sunset. After looking at the images myself, I had to agree.

The idea of the world’s most beautiful places is tinged with sadness for me at the moment. I used to think I’d reach the age of retirement and then happily go traveling the globe with Nate. Now that we know more about how severely climate change will affect our lives in the next decades, I’m realizing that will probably always remain a dream. Not only will flying become an extravagance beyond the reach (and outside the moral code) of most people, but many beautiful coasts and places around the world will simply be gone. I think it’s important to put people first and I am hoping (and voting) that our leaders will make choices that minimize the damage already done and prioritize human survival. I know it’s a selfish impulse to grieve my lost leisure travel, but I’m taking a minute to be sad about all the places I’ll never get to see with my own eyes.

in progress

completed top

A Beautiful Faraway Place I’ll Never Go

A Beautiful Faraway Place I’ll Never Go, back

label detail

quilting detail

This quilt is good for a twin size bed, measuring 65” x 80”. I quilted it on my domestic Juki. Mitch Hopper took final pictures for me.

Happy as Larry clamshell quilt

In the summer of 2016 I was lucky enough to attend a workshop taught by Latifah Saafir, hosted by my guild, Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. I love all of Latifah's work, and her glam clam pattern is brilliant.

I had fun picking out colors for this quilt. I wanted lots of candy colors, some pops of neon,denim, and some text prints. In picking my fabrics I studied one of Latifah's quilts, Neon and Neutral, that I have long admired. Her quilt inspired me to include the pops of neon and the text fabrics. Also, Kona announced Highlight as their color of the year in 2016. I was seeing it everywhere and I wanted to try my hand at using it.

It was amazing to use a die-cutter to cut all the clamshell pieces. It was my first time using one. I was able to borrow a guild-mate's cutter at a sew-in. Cutting these shells was so quick and easy with that tool.

I tried to make the layout pretty random, but with little clusters of color throughout the quilt. I'm so pleased with how this quilt looks. Clamshell quilts are so classic but I feel like the colors and prints here are really fun and fresh. This quilt just makes me happy. That's why I named it Happy as Larry. It's sort of a play on "happy as a clam." That seemed too on the nose, so I opted for another phrase that means the same thing. I first heard the phrase "happy as Larry" in the movie Strictly Ballroom, a mega-favorite from my youth. 

Piecing the clamshells, row after row, can become a little tedious, especially as the quilt grows. By the last few rows I felt like I was really wrestling a beast under the needle. I felt so triumphant when I finished piecing this top. I had to celebrate. I finished this top at a Chicago Modern Quilt Guild retreat weekend, the perfect place to knock out a project. 

Mitch Hopper took these photos of the final quilt for me. Nikki Maroon quilted it. Simple curves and grids, as per my request. 

I tried something new for the back of this quilt. Society6 is a website where artists can upload their images, and customers can purchase them printed on a variety of products. So I ordered their product called a wall tapestry, with an image from a collage artist I've been following for several years, Ben Giles. The fabric is polyester, but it quilted up nicely, and I love the fun image on the back of the quilt.

quilts and pillows for Sarah's Inn

Our guild made items for a local charity, Sarah's Inn in Oak Park. Here is a description of their work from their website. "Sarah’s Inn provides comprehensive services for families affected by domestic violence so that they get the support they need to find safety, rebuild their lives, and heal. Our legal support services help ensure that survivors of domestic violence receive equal rights and protection under the law. Sarah’s Inn is a community leader in educating children and adolescents about how to cultivate healthy relationships to prevent future violence from occurring. Working in partnership with local stakeholders, we run education and training programs to promote an appropriate community response to violence."

They do great work right here in our community. We were so happy to be able to gift them some items to make their counseling rooms more comfy. We all worked from the same color palette, and made small quilts and pillows in either solids or prints. These are the items I contributed. As a guild we gave much more. I'm always grateful for opportunities to use my sewing for good. 

My first quilt swap

A fine gentleman on instragram recently  organized a mini quilt swap and I thought it would be fun to jump in.

I was assigned a partner and commenced stalking her IG feed.  She seemed to like subtle colors and beautiful, small scale floral prints.  I had recently purchased a some pre-cut London of Liberty florals in a rainbow of colors, so I decided they would be my main fabrics.  I decided on a plus quilt.  There are so many great design options when laying out a plus quilt, and I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking at inspiring quilts.  I ended up basing my layout on this gorgeous quilt by Megan of  City Stitches. 

I used a variety of whites and greys for my background, since I had them on hand from another project.  I wanted to add something a little special, so I decided to make teeny tiny wonky stars for the center of each plus. I tried to use contrasting colors to make each star, but sometimes they ended up blending in with the plus more than I intended.  The stars were so small that sometimes the secondary colors in the prints came to the forefront, and the stars didn't stand out as much as I thought they would.  It bothered me at first, but then I decided to embrace it as another design element.  Some stars that pop out, and some that blend in.  I had this quilted by Nikki Maroon and she did a beautiful job.  The finished piece measures 24" square.

It was fun to make this quilt and see my partner leaving comments about how much she loved it as I posted progress pics, since she didn't know it was intended for her.  I didn't have to worry about whether she would like it.  I already knew.  I also really enjoyed picking out extras to send with her quilt.  Paper Source is an excellent place to buy swap extras, it turns out.  I didn't take a picture of those, but I think I sent some washi tape, a notebook, a candle, and some candy.

I received a fabulous quilt from another IG user, which you can see here.  All in all, a successful swap.  I'll definitely do another when I have the time.