Erin Underwood Quilts

So I’ve been spending these last few weeks working on a second version of my Fantastic Circle for our bed. I highly recommend we spend time doing something for ourselves every now and then, by the way. Fantastic Circle works very well with Jelly Rolls and I purchased a great set from Hoppin Bobbin last month just for this project. The shop owner there, Kelly, cuts her own for the most part so these came totally out of her fabric inventory and my original plan was to make the Fantastic Fan in her fabrics so that when it came time to teach the class in her shop, it would help her too. Although I plan to do that, it will have to come off my bed to go there. And it will be a bit larger that the original pattern since it needed to be 102″. Its on the long arm now.

I’ll post more pictures when its finished.

But I am digressing off the subject a little. The point is I bought jelly rolls and because I am making the quilt larger that the pattern suggests, I bought extra jelly rolls. Hence I have a lot of jelly rolls left over. Now, because this quilt is going on the bed and we have been gifted for “safe keeping” our son’s Blue Tick Coon Hound

who insists on getting up on the bed, I keep an old quilt on top of the “real” bed quilt to keep his assorted dog debris off the bed. I’ve learned long ago with this very headstrong dog to pick my battles. The bed hopping was small compared to the others that I fight with him on a daily basis in my efforts transform him from “damn dog” to “good dog”.

Okay – because of the “damn dog”, in this case, I decided I did not want him sleeping all over this brand new quilt but I love the colors and didn’t want to hide them under the ratty bed-protector quilt. So with all those extra jelly rolls, I thought about doing a Jelly Roll Race quilt. It should be just the right size to cover his favorite resting spot on the bed and I can still have the beautiful colors in the room.

Now, although I’ve seen a lot of Jelly Roll Race quilts, I really had no idea how to make it. So off to Google. I found this great tutorial by the Missouri Star Quilt Company! Lots of fun to watch. Its a liberating sewing experience and since this is for the damn dog, (well, technically its to protect the bed from the damn dog) it seemed like the perfect solution for me.

So let the Race begin!

I don’t think I’ll ever win the race but at least I finished!

In my travels this weekend through the Poconos and presenting my Trunk Show Lecture at Quilter’s Day Out (sponsored by the Mountain Laurel Quilters), I had the immense pleasure of meeting Anna Faustino. I knew her work immediately when she handed me her business card. I knew it because I have been fascinated by it for years. She has written a book on her technique that is worth the read – Simply Stunning Woven Quilts. She actually weaves her fabric strips to create incredible patterns! I was honored that she took time to come up and meet me. Please take time to visit her site and enjoy the view.

I’m working on this quilt for a friend of mine to go in her new book. I’ve got several hours of beading still left to do so I sit down this morning to tackle the job. As I reach for my beads, I realize there’s a little more in my project box that just beads and fabric.

At this stage of my life, I’m thinking cat hair can make an interesting artistic statement! It weaves so well between the fibers – its definitely better to work with it than to try and pick it all out! And besides, this cat appears to be my greatest fan! Maybe she’s got potential…

Jinny Beyer has kitted Optical Illusions with her beautiful fabrics!

And this week, the kit is this week’s  Web Special ! She’s got two color ways offered – absolutely gorgeous! So if you are a “kit” kind of person, this may be the one for you. Remember, there’s no curved piecing. All done with strips and the Creative Grids 15-Degree Ruler. So dazzle your friends with a quilt that looks so much harder to put together than it really is. Only you will know the truth!

I just been traveling my little heart out lately – visiting lots of great guilds. The Village Quilters of Catonsville, Maryland, Ocean Waves of Lewes Delaware, The Ladybugs of Newark, Delaware,  – just to mention the most recent. And I had a wonderful time in Ripley, West Virginia at The Quilt Camp. What a beautiful drive out there through the Cumberland Valley in Western Maryland. Perfect timing for the leaves. And oh – the antique shops!

But I’ve been doing a little bit more than hanging out with lots of different guilds. Got a second rendition of Optical Illusions completed – In Plaids!

Next was a quickie pattern for Cut Loose Press! Court Jester is a one-page patterns  that is truly a Quilt-In-A-Day! Eleanor Burns would be amazed! This one will soon be available through your local quilt shop as well as here on my website.  Don’t you think the black and white version reminds you of a court jester’s hat? Ok – it could be a light house too… all depends on your train of thought…

But what I am really proud of is my interpretation of “Reflections” – the Mason Dixon Quilt Professionals Network 2012-13 challenge. This is “Reflections of My Life”. Shadow Trapunto, metallic threads, extensive hand beading. There’s a little bit of everything I like in this quilt – three kids in particular, a handsome middle-aged man, a few cats and dogs and chickens and, of course, a quilt or two.

So I am on a mission today – need beads! Needs a specific color of beads of which I am not sure what that is until I see it. I take off to the closest bead shop – one that I have never been to before and really not worth mentioning aside from the adorable shop dog there! Not enough inventory to even spark the littlest bit of inspiration in me. And the antique store right next door was closed. This should have been a sign to just stop and go home right then and there.

So I head up the road to a bead shop I was so overwhelmed with last year in Chadd’s Ford, PA. GPS says 20 minutes.  On the way, I drive past  several music stores and pull in quickly to one to pick up some guitar strings for the loving hubby who complains that his strings are worn out but never takes the time to go get some himself. Since I find his ability to make music one of his most charming attributes, I buy two sets.

On the road again and I’m thinking that today is Wednesday so the quilt shop next to the bead shop should be open. I am thinking this is going to be a good day!

40 minutes later I arrive at the shopping center that houses both beads and fabric – Imagine my dismay when the bead shop is not only closed but is closed for inventory because it is going out of business. The next day it will open is Friday – ugh! But okay – I can deal with this because there is still a quilt shop here.

And the quilt shop is very very nice! Of course, the first thing I do is check it out to see if they are carrying my ruler. Boo – they are not. But they do have great fabric. I decide that I deserve to get a few yards since I drove all the way up there. I pick up a bolt and am floored! $13.50 a yard!!!! Ack!!! Granted it was Dr. Suess fabric but still – $13.50, really?!

The whole experience has been soured for me. I can no longer get into buying fabric. I introduce myself to the very  busy ladies working there, drop my card and leave. I’m guessing it would have been a better sales call for me if I had just bought a yard or two…

I get back in the car – I still need beads! IPhone says there is a bead shop just 20 minutes up the road. I plug the address into my navigator and keep on heading north. 20 minutes turns into 40 minutes and GPS takes me to a residential address – I am not knocking on the door in that lovely subdivision to ask if there is a bead shop in the basement. Thanks, IPhone.

So south I head again and stop for lunch. Guilt is starting to get to me as I have left my Mother-In-Law home alone with no explanation as to my where-abouts. She sleeps late most times and I was hoping to be back before she woke up – not working out for me but I decide to get over it. Lunch time is a great opportunity to multi-task when one is eating alone –  I eat my salad, agree to go out to dinner with my hubby tomorrow night, check my email – only Canadian Viagra messages and surf Facebook, make a few moves on scrabble (I am open to new opponents, by the way – send me a game via Facebook!) AND look for more bead shops.

Okay – IPhone says there’s one in old town New Castle, Delaware – I go to the website and there’s a picture of the store front that also has a sign out front for “Quilts”.  Carousel Beads of Delaware.  GPS says its 25 minutes. I debate. By this time the MIL is up and about – probably let a dog go swimming by now, left trash on the counter because she can’t find the trash can, that is if she ate any thing healthy or just had cookies for breakfast (Hey, she’s 83. She can have cookies any time she wants too.) and probably taken an hike or two up and down the road which provokes the dry dog to bark his head off and annoy the neighbors.  I opt for the bead shop and possible quilts too.

It is 45 minutes or more to get there. I arrive somewhat bewildered as to whether or not I am in the right place. GPS is off by a block but I find it! Whew! What  a nice shop – she’s got beads in just the right color and she’s helpful! I like her immediately. Then she tells me there is a quilt shop in the back – it really is true. The sign in the picture didn’t lie! I leave my pile of beads and trek to the back of the store. To my amazement, its really not a store, but a quilting studio. The Quilter-in-residence sells her quilts as well as fabric. AND the fabric is on SALE!!! $6.00 a yard! I  buy 20 yards! Woo-hoo!

I leave an hour later – happy! Set GPS to go home. It says 25 minutes. I get home in 45 minutes. Nothing has changed since I left the house – all is quite. Dog is dry. No trash on the counter. Its 4:00 in the afternoon. I take a deep breath and go upstairs to check on the MIL. She answers at my second knock – sigh of relief. I open the door – she is still in her nightgown… She has just gotten up!!! Oh boy, its going to be a long night… good thing I’ve got my beads!

A few weeks back while we were traveling on vacation, we picked up this little critter at a hotel. I suppose it could have been worse and we could have picked up a different sort of critter but we won’t go there.

She traveled well so she spent the rest of the vacation with us.

She is always wanting to help … in a su-purr-visory sort of way.

Never one to let any detail go unchecked, here she is offering her opinion on my latest quilting endeavor. Many of you recognize the view from the business end of a long-arm – and rest assured I did stop the machine as soon as this little critter told me to!

So I think she approves of this second rendition of Variation on a Classic Fan.

Perhaps all that fur she leaves behind is her stamp of approval… Can you see any here? Just to be safe,  I’ll get out the lint roller when she’s not looking.

But wait, someone else wants to offer his ex-purr-t opinion!

I have been remiss in my posting but have had lots of things going on – life changing events to be sure. I’m not really sure how we women get through life without girlfriends during these life changing events. I am very grateful for mine!

So the main lesson I’ve learned lately is to always follow your art,  no matter how bad it gets. But only,  of course, after you have discussed your problems ad nauseam with your girlfriends.

My mother in law has been forced to move in with us. Some of the forcing coming from her son, my beloved hubby, and some of the forcing coming from circumstance.  So as a result, I have lost a lot of personal space, privacy and independence. But that’s not the worst of it. She has lost all of her independence, her friends (since we live 3 hours away from her home), her “things”, her car and everything else  that has allowed her to do what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it.

As we make this transition into the next phase of our lives together, I am working to keep some of my space while giving her some of her space.  My mother in law is a fantastic artist! She taught lessons and took commissions as well as ran her own art gallery for years. Now she is forced to move into the smallest bedroom in the house, give up her studio and privacy too! I am struggling to keep my sanity all the while worrying about hers. And bless my poor husband who has put us in this position, he is trying to keep his attention balanced between his adoring mother and his slightly neglected, put-upon wife.

I find that the only thing that keeps me sane at this time in my life is my studio (and my girlfriends!).  I retreat to it at 8am and try not to leave until it is time to cook dinner. And the knowledge of how good it feels to create makes me keep my mother in law moving forward with her art. We have set up a table and shelves for her art work (a far cry from her studio to be sure) and talk every day about painting and creating. It has been hard, taken a lot of alcohol on both are parts, but I do believe that she has finally remembered her art.

She spent the evening discussing how fascinating that stupid hound dog was (the one that was dumped on our doorstep by my loving wild child) and how she wanted to paint his face. “Its so full of character, expression  and lights and darks”,  she says. I am at once drawn to her words. I know what she’s talking about although if any one asks, I absolutely can’t stand that dog!

And so we bond….

So happy to be at Mid-Appalachian Quilters this weekend! I will be teaching Maryland on My Mind, Diamond Star and Amish Star in that order! As well as all the great quilting going on, there will be  plenty of inspiration and comradery! I’m pretty sure that spell check didn’t catch that last word but you get my meaning. I’ll tell you all about it on Monday! Can’t seem to figure out how to complete my thoughts on this little iPhone. Monday  it is then- when I have a real computer!

Check out what my husband just finished building for me!

This is four ladders – width of 23″ or so – they are joined with detachable hinges so I can take them apart to move around easily or only use two or three at a time if four is just too big.

The wide set rungs really display the  quilts nicely. They don’t have to be folded too small to fit – I am just tickled pink!  I think he’s on to something and is considering building some more… Interested?