Lynn Carson Harris

Suzuki Family Camp at Blue Lake

I'm back home from a fun filled week with Miss P at Suzuki Family Camp at Blue Lake. 

It was an intense week of cello and music and no internet or phones. Here's the breakdown in numbers.

Miss P participated in:

2 four day music camp sessions that included
30 hours of cello class,
Two cello play-ins,
Two fiddle concerts,
One chamber recital,
Two end of session concerts,

We also enjoyed:

Two faculty concerts ,
Three camp fires with s'mores,

Riding bikes around the camp,

Dropping ants into antlion traps ,

 

Catching tadpoles and dragonflies,

 

 

Creative time in the Art Barn, 

Swimming in the camp pool,
Playing with friends made previous years at camp,

Catching minnows at Duck  Lake, and

Two trips to Pekadill's for ice cream

 

Luckily the storm that brought tornadoes to other parts of Michigan this week missed Blue Lake. 

 

Miss P is excited to practice this summer and has a list of new pieces that she will be working toward. We are eager to return next year.

Desert To Sea

Meet my friend Jane Davidson. She's a fabulous professional longarm quilter who lives in Australia and has just self published a book. I met Jane a couple of years ago at quilt market and was able to spend a bit of time with her this spring in Minneapolis. She is such a fun, warm, and generous person. I hope you have the opportunity to meet her in real life someday too.

You may be familiar with Jane's Nested Churn Dash Quilt. I know I have seen quite a few quilts using this pattern on the web.

I asked Jane which of her quilts makes her the most proud. She says she is equally proud of Grey Matter

and APQ 4-Patch Quilt.

Desert to Sea is the title of Jane's new book.

It includes 10 quilt patterns by eight Australian designers. They did the photography themselves and Jane did all of the diagrams, styling, and layout herself. The book is available print on demand through Amazon. Jane will be selling them to Australians in her online shop. Quilt shops around the world can register here for a wholesale account to purchase books for resale.

I made a single block from Jane's Rock Pool's quilt pattern that I'll turn into a pillow. There were instructions for both regular piecing and paper piecing for this block. 

Jane is incredibly creative; she also took the design of her Refractatorium block and had it etched into buttons! Aren't they cute? She says she will have the buttons available for sale in July. I hope she adds some larger sizes. I think larger ones would look great on bags or as an accent on a dress.

Jane's favorite non quilty thing to do is play the piano and sing. She claims she's not good at either one but I don't believe her. 

Here are all of Jane's online links so that you can keep up with what she's doing. 

Shop: www.wantitneeditquilt.com.au

Site : www.quiltjane.com

IG @quiltjane

FB : Want it need it quilt

Twitter @quiltjane

 

 

 

Motives and Materials

Friday we drove out to Park Forest, Ill. to see Chawne Kimber at the opening to the show Motives and Materials at the Tall Grass Arts Association. Chawne has nine quilts in the show that runs through July 25.

I love that Chawne's quilts are quilty but not predictable like many I see at shows. She pushes the limits of working small and is not afraid to try new things. I have enjoyed watching her growth as a quilter over the years. I followed her progress on flicker long before she started blogging. She has progressed from making more common traditional quilt designs to working in an improvisational style. She has developed her own recognizable quilt voice that also shines in her other needlework. She is an excellent improv knitter and has also made some incredible embroidery pieces.

These quilts are filled with rich detail that can only be seen and appreciated in up close study. 

As always, Chawne has inspired me to push my quilting limits and I am eager to explore some new quilting techniques.

If you are anywhere in the area before July 25 get yourself over there to see Chawne's quilts. You will not be disappointed. These quilts need to be experienced in person.

Even if you are not in the area, Chawne's quilts are worth the drive!! Go!

Every Last Piece - feature quilt of the Week - Square Root

The featured quilt this week is Square Root, another from the gallery section of Every Last Piece. This quilt is composed of four patch and nine patch blocks. The background is a plain muslin fabric and all of the other sqaures are scraps from other projects. I chose scraps that read as dark to give the finished design more impact. 

This was one of the first quilts I quilted on my longarm. I did an all over loopy design on it.

There are no patterns in the book for the quilts pictured in the "gallery." They are there to provide inspiration and ideas for the designs presented later in the book. 

I chose this quilt to share with you now, because my friend Trudi Wood sent me this photo on Instagram and it made my day. (photo shared with permission) She is making her own version of the quilt. She figured out the layout in EQ, sized it up for a bigger quilt, and has added a border to it. She says she'll use reproduction 30's fabrics. I love that fancy feather quilting she has planned for the border.

 

After reading the book she says, "I've been thinking very differently about my scraps AND my stash!"

I hope there are others out there inspired to make scrap quilts after reading Every Last Piece!

If you are making anything inspired by the quilts in my book please use the hashtag #everylastpiece so I can see what you're doing.

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You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.

I can't compete with Amazon's low prices. But if you want to save a little and purchase from Amazon, please click here. This is an affiliate link and clicking through to purchase will allow me to earn a few extra pennies.

You can also ask your local quilt shop or book store to get the book for you.

 

Wardrobe Sewing - The Fancy Sailor Top

Yesterday afternoon I put the finishing stitches on a new top for myself. It has been a long time since I've sewn anything new for myself.

I bought the Sailor Top pattern from Fancy Tiger Crafts early last fall but didn't get around to making it until last week. The fabric I used is London Calling, a light weight lawn from Robert Kaufman.


I love the thinner drapier fabric for this top.


The pattern is listed as a beginner pattern and went together pretty quickly.
I love the narrow yoke at the top.

I know I'll get a lot of wear out of it. 


I want to make a few more of these.

I'm off to scout some pretty knit and rayon fabrics to try with this pattern. 

Peony Time!

We are thrilled that school is out for the summer. Miss P kicked of her summer vacation with a Girl Scout end of the year camp out last night! We had pouring rain in the wee hours of the morning but luckily the torrential downpour was north of town and missed the campers. 

After picking up Miss P, we journeyed on to Ann Arbor to enjoy the Peony Garden at Nichols Arboretum while the Peonies are still blooming. The Nichols Arboretum Peony Garden is the largest public collection of historic (pre-1950) herbaceous peony cultivars in North America. 

The flowers did not disappoint.

You can see photos from last year's visit here.

Every Last Piece - feature quilt of the week - Don't Fence Me In

Don't Fence Me In is the last quilt pattern in my book. If you have a large scrap stash and work your way through the book you can use the last of your scraps in this quilt. If you are just building your scrap collection you can start with this quilt and work backwards through the book. 

I designed this quilt with a large center area for featuring an interesting quilting design. The design used here was found in a historical pattern and ornament book from my local library. I tried to find out more about the original use but couldn't get any specifics. My library no longer has the book and I didn't write down any information about it when I had the book checked out. File that under "lessons learned".

After quilting the center and then basic fans in the border, the border would not lie flat. It had a bit of a wave to it. I added the flying geese in every other arc of the fans. The extra quilting worked like a charm.

 

I originally used the center quilting design as an applique on Childhood's End, a quilt I finished in 2001. The center is one piece of fabric appliqued to the background.

It is called Childhood's End because the making of it encompassed the time in which four family members moved into nursing homes and died. Three of those deaths occuring in the same week.

This quilt was in the AQS quilt show in Paducah in 2002. When it returned, I put it in the closet where it stayed for more than ten years. While cleaning the closet a couple of years ago, I took it out and looked at it. I was unprepared for my emotional response when seeing it again. I was instantly sobbing. Seeing all those stitches triggered an avalanche of memories of loving family members who I still miss every day. Hours of time sewing in the car driving to nursing homes, visiting family, and funerals. Needlework can be a powerful and therapeutic thing.

 

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You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.

I can't compete with Amazon's low prices. But if you want to save a little and purchase from Amazon, please click here. This is an affiliate link and clicking through to purchase will allow me to earn a few extra pennies.

You can also ask your local quilt shop or book store to get the book for you.

Four Patch Fun

Remeber last week when I told you I'd been cutting up my smaller scraps? Well, I worked until I had most of the tiniest bits cut into 1'', 1.25'' and 1.5'' squares. I also used the sizzix to cut triangles that will finish as 1'' HST.


To save time cutting scraps in the future I'm getting a new sizzix die for cutting 1.5 inch squares. I've also ordered a custom die for cutting the wee little one inch squares. I am so excited about the one inch square die! They are making it to cut TWENTY SQUARES AT A TIME!!!! I have plans to make miles and miles of half inch sawteeth strips. The new die will certainly speed the cutting process.

Have you ever seen any of those amazing antique quilts that feature tiny sawteeth?They stop me dead in my tracks and make me weak in the knees. I am inspired to make a quilt inspired by some of of those old beauties made from tiny pieces of fabric.

I spent some of the day yesterday sewing the little one inch scrap squares together. I like the look of smaller block compositions as seen above. 

I'm also taking the time to twirl all of the seems on the back when pressing. I think it will give a better look to the finished quilt. It sure helps the corners match up and the blocks are very flat. The small squares are also not distorted by the bulk of the seam allowances. 

I'll keep making these and play around with setting ideas for a while. 

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Disclosure - product links in this post are affiliate links. 

Every Last Piece - feature quilt of the week - The Color Purple

This week's feature quilt is The Color Purple, from the gallery section of Every Last Piece. My sister and I worked on this one together for my niece's high school graduation. We each used purples from our fabric scraps and kona snow for the solid background. It has a very controlled but scrappy look. The large and small square diagonal rows are very prominent. My niece used this quilt in her dorm room at UNC Chapel Hill for four years. I know she is eager to get it back so that she can use it again. 

This quilt pattern, Double Four Patch by Judy Hopkins, is quick and easy to put together from 2.5" and 4.5" squares of fabric. In fact, this was the third quilt of this same design I have made. Here are two other versions that I made for my nephews before I started blogging. 

I was quite happy to use so many of my scraps in one quilt when I made this first version. The lights and dark pattern is less obvious here but there are so many memorable fabrics in this early quilt -so many fabrics that I recognize from clothes I made growing up. I see scraps from pajamas I made for my boys twenty years ago! My nephew used this quilt four years at NMT and then through graduate school at VA Tech. 

This is the second of this pattern I made. The lights and darks here are a little more obvious but still all the fabrics are scraps. This quilt has also gotten years of use in my nephew's room at home and his dorm room at UVA and next year will be in his room in a house he is sharing with THIRTEEN other boys. Yikes. I hope this helps him know where his bed is! I hear that next year he will be able to look out of his window and see a house that Georgia O'Keefe used to live in. 

It sort of makes me want to take a quilt and go back to college! Well, not really. I had my first quilt and a wool afghan made by my grandmother in my dorm room at Va Tech.

Thank you M and G for photographing these and letting me share them today!

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You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.

I can't compete with Amazon's low prices. But if you want to save a little and purchase from Amazon, please click here. This is an affiliate link and clicking through to purchase will allow me to earn a few extra pennies.

You can also ask your local quilt shop or book store to get the book for you.