May to JeanR and Liz - layers upon layers

This one needed something else - but I couldn't figure out what and looking at it a couple weeks after it was mailed, I still have no idea what it needs. Maybe a circle? I need to complete my series of round stamps for JeanR all at once. It's too hard to switch gears to circular stamps after doing 20 rectangulars.

I'm very curious what Liz thinks when she sees this version of her May envelope. I was so tempted to send it along like this because I loved it just the way it was. Liz's envelopes are very bold and she fills up the space so I thought this might be too radical for her. I mailed all the other envelopes and let this one sit on my desk and stare at me. Eventually I decided to add some squares on the left. 

The biggest problem was that the envelope is pale pink and even though there is a little pink in the stamp - the big pink name was not right with the stamps. I found some stamps in my stash that went with pink as well as the brighter colors in the stamp. But it was still very disjointed.

I squared off the corners on her name.

I set it aside - and happened to set it on the backing sheet from all the quilt stamps was on my desk.

I saw a black border and realized that more black might tie things together. - but I didn't have enough to layer a black border on the envelope.

So, I bordered the stamps and added a few random bars.

At this point, it was getting close but needed one more thing.

Of course, I thought of dots.

But they had to be square dots.

So, I cut squares from the edging of the selvedge from the backing of the quilt stamps.

Considering how much time I spent trying to figure out how to resolve all the issues, I am pretty happy with how it worked out. It's still a dud - but it is a happy dud.

 

May to Judi

As I post all the envelopes with the quilt stamps which were mailed over a week ago - I am looking at them with fresh eyes and things that bothered me previously are not bothering me anymore. I'm very happy with the mixed fonts on this. Although it looks a little sparse. I wonder what it would have looked like with an Amy-border. I wonder if I should buy another set of these stamps.

***

I'm filling blog posts that will pop up in two weeks. As previously mentioned, I started the outgoing-May envelopes prior to finishing the April incoming. Now I'm in a quandary about when to go back to April. I think we'll switch tomorrow. I do not have a good add on for today - so I'll just mention that my birthday is in April - so if you like to collect birthday ideas - get ready....

Here is my birthday greeting from MrWilson:

It's a keeper!!

If I actually end up in senior living, I'll be posting it on my door.

 

May to Irene - Good Writing

 

This is a border appropriated from Amy's April envelope. I did a few envelopes with Amy's border and this one is my favorite. I tried bolder pens/markers on some others and they were pitiful. It was fun to find colors that work nicely with the stamp. Patty's comment about how much my envelopes have changed over the years popped into my head because this is so primitive. I keep thinking I'll try to do some better calligraphy - but the quilt stamps were demanding primitive lettering. That's my excuse. I'm sure Irene would make her beautiful copperplate look wonderful with these stamps.

***

Remember how I was hoping that my library would get a copy of Anne Lemott's new book, co-authored with her husband, called Good Writing - so that I could brush up on my writing for my readers? A day after I wrote that, voila, the library notified me that the book was ready for me to pick up. Apparently, I had put it on hold.... and forgotten about it. 

I have not started it yet. I saw a blurb on the back of the book that referred to one of the tips - which is to write like yourself. That's not how it was worded - it's something about how you already have a voice, so use it. I'll be interested in that tip because I already know that my writing is 100% conversational. 

So, it's 3 pm on Mother's Day and I am going to take a break from blog posts for a while. I'm also going to start my Judi-inspired envelopes. I have 22 to do in May. Ten of them are done and were done in one sitting of a couple hours. Maybe I can get 10 or 12 done today. Wish me luck.

*** It's 7 pm and I just finished the last 12. I've never kept track of time before. It looks like I spend an average of 15 minutes per envelope....

May to Amy - white gel pen hack

I'm breaking my rule and posting some of the outgoing May envelopes before finishing the incoming April  envelopes because I never learn my lesson about following my own rules. I almost didn't post this one because it is so crooked. But, I'm going to share that I am seriously annoyed with how my eyes refuse to register *level.* I know I could just stick to rulers and maybe I'll try that. But rulers have their own issues. 

I was wildly excited about the Harriet Powers quilt stamps. Not all of the envelopes get an A+. I was thinking of doing several envelopes with Gwen Weaver's Rascally Romans --- but after doing this one - I was done with Romans for the day.

***

Here is a remedy to make gel pens *rejuicy* that I have not yet tried. If someone tries it and has success, please let me know. 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/F4grHGjajtU

Here is the person's main page if you need to avoid chores. Sadly, I am still doing battle with the weeds. My goal is to get things shaped up so that I can spend less time out there....

https://www.youtube.com/@RebelUnicornCrafts/shorts

April to Nicky and Janet

 

Here are two more variations of Christi's versals. I used a big chunky paint pen on Nicky's and resisted the temptation to outline the whole thing. I'm not wild about it - but I think it looked better in person.

I think Janet's was better. I outlined with a gel pen and then filled in with patterns using paint pens. I liked how the style went with the quilt stamps. I love-love-love the quilt stamps - but I think the JANET should have been larger. I had to make the strokes slowly or the gel pen would skip - so that limited the size. 

***

I'm not sure what this person has in mind.

At the top of her IG account she has this:

Artist and illustrator, sharing daily art and experiments in art #calicobrush
Do not copy!

Then she has pages and pages and pages of fun watercolor illustrations that include step-by-step instructions. Not all of them - but a lot of them. If she doesn't want people to *copy* why is she providing instructions. 

Maybe she doesn't want the images copied?

I'll just type out the name and if you are interested in simple watercolor illustration - you can check it out.

instagram(dot)com(forward slash)calico(dot)brush(forward slash)

FEB to Nanski - art quilts

Here is the one version inspired by Morgan's second envelope that had a script that went edge to edge. It's fine - but the colors in that stamp are tricky. They have some very dark tones as well as softer tones - but the overall effect is consistent. Maybe I'll buy more of them and keep trying. As much as I love doing a script from edge to edge, I might have to make myself move on. Or do I? What if I got stuck in a rut? Would any of you say anything? One person has noted that my style is very different these days - compared to ten years ago when the exchange was born. More on this later.

 

***

I know some of the readers are also quilters. Here's a look at some quilts that are on the contemporary end of the spectrum. There's a fair amount of talking at the beginning where they explain the origin of this exhibit after the more contemporary quilters were not being included in mainstream quilt exhibits.

I'll make a bold statement here. I loved a couple of the quilts - and really did not care for quite a few. It parallels contemporary art. I love a few select pieces - but there's a lot that just doesn't resonate with me.

I can see why they had to start their own venue to show contemporary work.

Quilt National 25 exhibit  a video

Also - a link to the organization - which includes info on where the exhibit will be in the coming months.

LINK to more info

July to Smash - Jillian Kaye

Finally - an envelope that I really like. There are some things I would change if I did another one but it's a solid idea that did not have a stamp in mind - and it was a very happy moment when I found this one. I'm tempted to do a snake series.... but not every letter is snake-friendly.

Here is a fun quilt for someone who likes snakes. The background is a little too busy for me - but it looks like a pattern that might work as a border on an envelope. 

***

Our add-on is Jillian Kaye who does mail art. I posted one of her envelopes in 2021 LINK to the first post

It's quite a trip down memory lane - reading what it was like during covid. 

As I wander through my folders - I see that Jillian is still in business and she is on IG.

LINK to Jillian's IG. Her handle is PB and Jillian - which is very cute. Her work is equally cute.

Here is a link to a party invitation for her son - when he turned 1. If you have time to look at her IG, she has several videos showing her process. If you find the one where she draws sushi it will make you want to draw sushi - or if you are not into sushi - there are lots of other ideas. 

 

March from Kristin in Winterset

 This is from a new exchanger, Kristin, who lives close enough to Des Moines that her mail gets postmarked here. If you recall the envelope I posted that I sent to her - it said Winterset. I've been there to visit the Iowa Quilt Museum. Winterset is the home of Fons&Porter - which you recognize if you are a quilter. It is also in the heart of Madison County and most of us are familiar with the book and movie, The Bridges of Madison County. 

It is a picturesque town and if any of my pen pals who are also quilters find themselves in Des Moines I'll be happy to schedule a field trip to Winterset. The quilt museum is worth the trip. I needed to fact check myself since Iowa is dotted with soooo many little towns that I often get them confused. Wikipedia was my source for fact checking.  Wikipedia confirmed that my info is correct and added a tidbit that I will be giggling about all day. I might even remember this for more than a day.

Winterset was platted during a cool spell in the summer of 1849. The name was originally to be "Summerset", but the unseasonable coldness made the commissioners reverse this to "Winterset".

It's a silly little tidbit - but I seem to thrive on such things. Kristin: feel. free to send any additional info about your town and I'll add it here. I'm aware that Winterset is the birthplace of a cowboy movie star - but it's not Gary Cooper or Slim Pickens - so he will not get his name into my blog.

***

This was viral yesterday - so maybe everyone has already seen it - but if not - Yikes!

https://www.fastcompany.com/91324550/kerning-on-pope-francis-tomb-is-a-travesty

And then there are the people who say that it is an intentional mistake - which is often done to show that humans are not *perfect* - in which case - a better mistake would have been to carve FRANK - with nice spacing. Bad spacing is not a worthy mistake.

And if you don't want to read the articles - and wonder about the V instead of a U - that's not a mistake - that's just using a *vintage* alphabet. 

Or Comic Sans - that would have been wonderful - a very proper mistake.

Could it be even worse. Why yes it could.

DEC from Rachael - Susan McCord quilt

I am being vigilant about filling the posts in the order that they appear in the folders to see if I can do this without missing any. I have the add-ons pre-written - so there is no rhyme or reason to how they are paired. I was delighted that Rachael get's to be with this add on.

I don't know if Rachael quilts - but she has the design sense and attention to detail that would be very helpful if she decided to try quilting. Rachael knows that I have a thing for copying her work. If I copy this one it will have to be for people who have only 6 letters and one of them needs to be an I. 

Yup - I just checked the list and the only one who has 6 letters and an I is Juliana Quiroz. Sorry, Juliana - I don't think I'm going to attempt this with your Q. Maybe Rachael want's to give it a try. Not to mention that part where she'll have to figure out how to spell  The Quirozs - or Quirozes - or Quirozi.  Pluralizing names that end in s or z is so tricky. 

 

***

The sub-zero blog posts. I think this is No. 3. I'm posting random stuff and I know there are a few quilters who read the blog. This is my all-time favorite quilt. I saved an article about it and then I found out that it is at the Henry Ford Museum (in Detroit) which is on my list of things that I'd like to do with my grandkids. I know they are very interested in seeing the actual bus that was found and restored - that Rosa Parks was riding when she made history. That bus in also at the museum and the museum is only one state away from them.  

Here's a link - not the best photos. It appeals to me because she was a kindred spirit to anyone who has a hard time parting with very small scraps of paper (or fabric). Her design was genius - for using up random bits of fabric that come in both square-ish as well as triangular-ish. 

LINK to McCord quilt at Ford museum

A tight shot of the. itty-bitty pieces

A mid-range shot of the vine pattern.

The coolness of the whole quilt.

The pink and green pulls all the random bits together beautifully.

***

This is the blurb at the link - I need to steal that phrase - "rendered to perfection* - to use on envelopes. It will be the opposite of *deeply regret.*

Indiana farmwife Susan McCord made this stunningly beautiful quilt -- indisputably her masterpiece. This trailing vine design is a McCord original. McCord pieced together printed and solid cotton fabric scraps to create the over 300 leaves on each of the thirteen vine panels. McCord used variations of this vine in the borders of several quilts. But McCord's vine design is rendered to perfection in this work of genius.

The end of May, outgoing

 

I watched a short video of someone writing like this on IG and a few days later I thought about it and wondered if I could remember the steps. It's not quite right and I forgot to photograph it after I finished it.

Here's my practice - or maybe the top one was practice and then after I did the envelope I realized that the shadow should have gone on the left, so I did it that way and -yes- that would have been better. Don't worry, there is nothing about this style that makes me want to do more of it so nobody has to worry that some kind of atrocity will show up in the July exchange.

Here are some that have already run where I added something that was an improvement - although the additions are pretty subtle - mostly just filling in the ribbon writing with some color or shading. On Janet's I added the cords to *hang* the piñata lettering. The layout is a little clunky, but, I'm seeing ways to make it a lot more fun - so there will be more piñatas.

This is a little P.S. to the quilt project. I added this to one of the posts - but I assume people don't ever go back and re-read posts. When I mentioned fussy cutting - where you choose specific flowers from a pattern and center them in a hex - this is an example of the quilting gods smiling down on me because when I bought the fabric, I figured that would be more than enough - but when I realized how many different flowers there were and wanted to find matching ones - it turned into a very challenging puzzle and thankfully there were exactly 6 of each of the two flowers x times 2 quilts = total 24 flowers -- I saved this piece to illustrate how wasteful fussy cutting is. It's hard to decide how compulsive to be about quilting. My *save-every-scrap* nature tends to be the stronger compulsion. 

May to Kristine - Last quilt comment

 

This one is towards the end - when I was getting looser and I rather like it. I was tempted to fill the name in with the same pattern that is on the envelope - but did not have a good way to practice - and was running out of time - so this is the final.

***

Additional thoughts - for the quilters - the rest of you should just get on with your day - and skip this part.

One last comment about the quilt project. We have two shops that sell quilting fabrics and I visited both with the quilts to look for replacement fabrics. There are some companies that sell reproductions of 1930s fabrics. The owners of those quilt shops were thrilled to see the quilts and they were in agreement with me that doing a repair that would make the quilts usable rather than doing a museum quality restoration that would make them only show pieces was perfectly acceptable. 

We also noted that the *art of quilting* has changed a lot. There are machines to cut the blocks or hexes and then there are machines that will do all the quilting. So the only *handwork* is stitching the blocks together - which is seldom done by hand. The quilts I repaired were pieced by hand. The binding around the edge, which required two steps had the first step done by machine and the second by hand. 

I suppose there are still a few people who quilt by hand. It's not like it's a lost art. Anyone can see *how* to do it. The question is how even can you make those tiny stitches. And then the ultimate question: how long does it take. It occurred to me that the readers who are quilters might be pondering - how much time did Jean put into this project. 

And there might be people with more ideas on how to source the perfect fabrics -- but I've already mentioned that my least favorite part of the project was looking for fabrics that would be good enough. *Perfect* fabric would have been cotton lawn - but I had no idea where to find that, much less find it the right colors and prints.

I have no idea how much time I spent on actual stitching. I got faster as I went along - but it was easily 50 hours and maybe closer to 100. I spent a significant amount of time futzing around considering options ....and then with the solid colors that I replaced... there was some washing and bleaching and distressing....aaakkkk...and I changed my mind on the border and ripped out the first repairs and redid them.....I'm happy and Caroline and Tracy are beside themselves...so....I can put this project in the category of: Yes, that is something that I have done and boy did I learn a lot. I'll probably do some more repair on these two - but, if anyone asks me to repair a quilt, I'll be able to decline without feeling guilty or selfish. I'm happy to have rescued the quilts and given them some more years.

May to Kate - Quilt project 3

As previously mentioned, I often start with Kate's name - it doesn't have any of the problem letters - and it's a good one to noodle around with when I am pondering ideas. I had not done a *Jordan* style for Kate and had some larger envelopes - so figured her full name would work out. I was pretty happy with the black and then not sure I could make that stamp work. It was a lot of steps - and for a while it did not look promising at all - so it was super fun when it all came together. Kate has gotten a lot of duds - due to me doing hers while I am in my warm up phase --- it was fun to finally get a pleasing one for her.

***

Here are the finished quilts. It's fine - the goal was to do repairs that would blend in and I think I accomplished that. I also learned a lot - and it could have been better if we had spent more time finding more perfect replacement fabrics. But, I find that I am no longer excited about searching for things that I don't even know if they exist. There are ways to print images on any kind of fabric you like through Spoonflower and I could have created art to do that - but the expense of ordering fabric and not really knowing how the colors would look made that an unattractive option. All totaled - I spent less than $12 on replacement fabrics.

There's also the matter of quilts that have been aging for 90 years - it's hard to find fabrics that feel the same - worn to a softness. While it's not museum quality restoration - they can be used on a bed - and washed carefully - and I think that's better than having something that can only be admired rather than used.

Here they are, back home - in Caroline's guest room. They still need a few more repairs - but, I'll save that for next fall or winter when I won't have the weeds tormenting me.

Yes - that one red flower is jarring. I would have changed it - but Tracy wanted to keep it. I'm aware that a lot of quilters like to put one jarring element into a quilt - and so I was fine with maintaining the integrity of the original quilter's decision. 

If you are curious about whether the two quilts are exactly the same - they are. Or rather they were - oddly,  all the fabrics that shredded were the same on both quilts - except for one. But, I don't think it is noticeable.

A couple more photos I took at my house before I returned them

Above is the second quilt before I started the repairs.

Below is the first one, finished.

 

May to Juliana - Quilt project - 2

 Here's one more attempt to make something as cute as Patty's envelope with a Thinking of You stamp. I tried this stamp on Paula's name and the four-leafed clover was terrible. These would have been fine if I had put the diagonal one with the leaves on the bottom. Also the cupcake needs to be larger. I can't figure out why that zigzag tiger design is so hard to duplicate. I'm not giving up yet - but... not impressed with how things are going.

***

When I put a tiny flower in the center of a hexagon, I cut out a flower and applied fabric glue around the edge. I tried Fray-Check - but it saturated the whole flower and was rather stiff. Hopefully the tiny blanket stitch around each flower plus the fabric glue will keep it from fraying. At least with my unorthodox methods - nothing is permanent. Someone could always un-do what I have done and redo it to more standard restoration.

 

Not all of the original hexagons were *fussy cut* flowers - so when I couldn't find anything that worked for a large fussy cut flower, I substituted a calico. The one above and the one below are calicos - which are much easier than fussy cutting.

On the one below, I found some fabric that worked to fussy cut - and I discovered that many of these prints look like they have the same flower repeated - but there are 4 or 5 flowers within the print that seem to be the same - but there are subtle differences. So then -- I'd find 6 of the same flower to fit in the hexagons that are joining what I called - flat to flat. The ones that are not replaced yet - are joined to the solid color hexes on two sides. So, I would find a different flower to fit those 6 spots.

And - when I am done - I will never stitch another hexagon. Two sides are on the grain but 4 sides are on the bias - and those 4 bias sides are not fun at all. Plus - none of the hexagons are symmetrical - they have all stretched a bit. I'll spare you the whining....

***

I added this a few days after this post ran - to show how much waste there is when you fussy cut. I was beyond lucky to find 6 of each flower for each of the quilts - a total of 24. That's exactly the amount of fabric that I needed - but so much waste. 

May to Jessica - Quilt project - 1

 

This style of lettering is in my wanna-try folder. I used a marker and did this a few months ago - but it

has been lost in a stack. If I try again, I need to use nibs and ink. It was inspired by someone who only exchanged a couple times. It's medieval-ish. The madonna stamps looked better than any of the contemporary Forever's in my stash. It probably would have looked better with just pears. 

***

I know there are some quilters who read the blog so I'll share one of my side projects. Remember the envelopes to my friend Caroline? She has a pair of quilts that were made by a relative. They were made in the 30s and had two seriously tattered sections in the solid green border. Various bits of flowered fabric were threadbare. Repairing it looked like something I could do - until I looked more closely and I realized that they needed to be cleaned first and I was not comfortable washing them because I had no idea how the fabric would respond. 

Luckily we found an experienced quilt restorer who was willing to wash them and give me tips on the repair work. She was willing to take on the job of restoring the quilts as well - but the estimate on having a museum quality restoration was going to be very high and her process makes the quilts *look* identical to the original, but they are no longer washable - which means they are only for display. Caroline and her daughter, Tracy, and I thought it would be fine to do some *patching* and just cover the worn spots with fabrics that would blend in - and restore them to actually *useful* rather than just display pieces. 

It was fun pondering what the original quilter would have preferred. Maybe she would agree with us to go the useful route. Then we needed to find fabrics that fit in. Luckily Tracy and I have a friend who had a box of scraps from the 1930s and we found almost enough scraps to do all the repairs. 

The pattern is called *Grandmother's Flower Garden* and on these two quilts, the person did what's called *fussy-cutting* where the hexagons in the ring of 12 - has a flower positioned in the middle of each hex. We did not have any scraps that went with this one - and it was only the very center of each flower that was shredded. So I did some long basting stitches (almost like darning) to hold the flower together and then stitched a tiny flower on top - which you can see in the photo below.

If you look at the one below - once again, we did not have any scraps with the right sized daisies so I did another *Jeanerized* patch - where I just covered up the inner portion of the hexagon. The yellow flower doesn't make sense - stacked on the daisy - but our goal was to make the mending blend in from a distance. On the one below - the purple one - again, I only found one useable purple flower which had too much purple - so I only replace the portion of the hex that was inside the hand quilting.

Nov-Dec monsters to Smash - tie-dye sheep

Shout out (and thank you) to Lindy - a reader who emailed yesterday to tell me that there was a typo in the announcement about postal rates going up. It was a cute graphic - but not from the USPS. Next time I see the IG account with the cute graphics I'll post something - I can't remember the name.

Here is the correction - the rates go up on Jan 21 ---

Since I've been appropriating Smash's idea so often, I figured I would send her a thank you for the idea. This envelope was in the stack of envelopes that were started and then set aside. That stack seems to be resolved. 

Some of my favorite envelopes have been cartoonish - with *characters* making comments. It's a very fun way to send mail when you are not in the mood to do something more traditional. And speaking of non-traditional - I saw this quilt on Pinterest - along with lots more that have very non-traditional approaches to quilting. Seems like I forgot about quilting for a while - but now it's back.

Here is a link to buy the pattern for the quilt.

I think it would be more fun to make it without using a pattern - but that's just me.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/620948874/tie-dyed-sheep-a-scrap-quilt-pattern

If you are a quilter - check out the rest of her quilt patterns - some of them lean in a nicely contemporary direction.