My Quip – Happy Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day, and Enjoy the Feast of St. Stephen…

On the 2nd day of Christmas, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree, and the winds are howling out-of-doors. The Pack are all sleeping on new beds and blankets. And it is now appears to be the official day of the year to change one’s profile on Facebook.

Three quilts have made their way to their new homes. Starry Nights to Belleair; Christmas Harlequin Plus to Clearwater; and Hidden Treasure to Land O’Lakes.

The strips for NC Blue Bargello have been put together and the tubes are currently under way. The inserted image is of our fabric key.

A new commission for a turquoise and queen size quilt has come in. I am in the design phase of this new idea. I am also toying with an idea to create a woven Bargello design series.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual Grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow or in red, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please check our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Enjoy, your day. Ten more days of Christmas remaining.

Jim

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Q78 – Quilt and Wall Hanging – His American Flag

Good Morning and Merry Christmas…

I just received a tremendous gift, and on Christmas Day. As you know we’ve been trying to trace down all the quilts and wall hangings, and images thereof that we have made over the years. The Grid at the bottom of each posting page on the blog, Quilts SB, is our portfolio.

Tonight, thank you S and JB, and KF for sending me the image of His America Flag quilt and wall hanging that we made. It is a part of a private collection in Delaware and we are pleased to present a copy of the image here. This quilt was our Quilt of Honor to JB and we were thrilled to be able to gift it to him to thank him for his service and dedication.

As mentioned this is a wall hanging and quilt, and you will note that it is created in a Bargello technique. The fabrics are all 100% cotton, and we certainly had fun making this version of His American Flag.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual Grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow or in red, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please check our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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My Quip - Merry Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas Eve...

All the best for tomorrow.

Enjoy,

Jim

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Q77 – Christmas Quilt – Hidden Treasure

Afternoon,

Do you recollect that there are times that you may have not put out all the Christmas gifts under the tree…? And you tax your brain trying to remember; just where in the hell you secreted it away. And sometime later, all of a sudden, you discover a wrapped present hiding in some drawer or in some closet snuggled out of the way.

Well that’s what we’ve done. I was sort of tidying up the house today preparing for Saturday and thought to myself that I needed a quilt to put on display. In the Quilt-Room my eyes were immediately drawn to one tightly rolled bundle of red. Definitely a Hidden Treasure…

This quilt has not been included in our Quilt Grid, nor could I find any write up that I had prepared for a future posting on Quilts SB. It sort of just appeared. Now don’t get me wrong, I remember, and Andy remembers, making this quilt. It is a simple patchwork quilt that we cut the squares and threw them all into a bag. Next we randomly pulled out the patches and sewed them together in the order that they were pulled. And ta-da, here is our Hidden Treasure.

The dimensions of Hidden Treasure are: Length – 81” (205.7 cms) and Width – 62” (157.5 cms). The fabric and the batting is 100% cotton. The prints can be seen in other ones of our quilts. The quilting is in red thread and it is a meandering stipple stitch.

Here are a number of additional images of close ups and the backing of the quilt. (Today is the gorgeous Florida weather that I love. All the windows and sliding glass doors are open, and I'm in my bare-feet. Happy Holidays.)

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual Grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow or in red, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please check our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Check out our recently announced Christmas Quilt sale and discounts. Our sale on Christmas and Holiday quilts runs from today through December 31st.

Enjoy,

Andy and Jim

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Q76 – Christmas Quilt – OP Ornament

Morning,

These past couple of days have been busy days, and as promised here is the last, not necessarily the final, but the last quilt of our 2010 OP Nöel Series, Op Ornament. The design for OP Ornament was inspired from a piece entitled “Hypothesis Art From Pure Mathematics” by Harvey Rayner that I stumbled upon in my search for possible optical ideas for our quilt series. His website is Root 2 ART:.

Using Harvey Rayner’s idea I sat down with my Corel Draw and Excel software and mapped out the possibility of recreating one of his visual works as a quilt. The next idea was to use as much of the remaining fabric that we had used in all of our previous quits in our OP Nöel Series. All fabric, as I previously mentioned in my postings, for this quilt and all the ones in our OP Nöel Series was obtained through Fabric.com.

OP Ornament begins at the center of the quilt with four 9 ¼” by 9 ¾” (23.5 cms by 24.76 cms) almost-squares. The four corner squares are at about ¾” by ¾” (1.9 cms by 1.9 cms). That’s right; the four corner squares are small. They are about 0.6%, that is, less than 1%, the size of the center almost-squares. Excluding the binding and the backing, there are 960 squares and rectangles all pieced together. The dimensions of OP Ornament are: Length - 68" (172.7 cms); Width - 77½" (196.8 cms).

This quilt was a challenge for us especially as we wanted it too create some form of optical illusion while keeping to the elements of our Holiday Series.

Here are a number of more images of close ups and the backing of the quilt. (Even though the pictures were taken by the pool, it is freezing and one would develop hypothermia should they enter.)

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual Grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow or in red, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please check our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Check out our recently announced Christmas Quilt sale and discounts. OP Angel, as well as Isle of The Misfit Toys are at their new homes and are securely bundled and wrapped under the Christmas tree.

We have begun work on a newly commissioned quilt, which will be designed in the form of a blue Bargello quilt.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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Q75 – Quilt and Wall Hanging – Dorothy’s Window

Afternoon,

I was cleaning out some photographs today, and I stumbled upon a couple of unfiled pictures of a quilt and wall hanging. The name of the quilt is Dorothy's Window, and we made it in 1999. We donated Dorothy's Window to Art For Life and it was offered up at the auction. I remember being pleased with the funds that it was able to generate for the charitable cause.

Here are two images for your viewing pleasure.

My apologies that I do not have the dimensions on hand, but I do remember designing this original Bargello-style quilt and wall hanging. And it had a ton of colors, albeit cotton fabric.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual Grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow or in red, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please check our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

OP Ornament, our last quilt of our OP Nöel Series has been completed. Stay-tuned for the upcoming posting on the Blog. Check out our recently announced Christmas Quilt sale and discounts. OP Angel, as well as Isle of The Misfit Toys are at their new homes and are securely bundled and wrapped under the Christmas tree.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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My Quip - Iceberg In Our Pool - OP Ornament Under Construction

Afternoon,

We thought we would just touch base to let you know what’s going on in our world of Quilts SB.

It is cold here in the land of the sun. We even had an iceberg in the pool. All-things-being-equal, it should be warming up a bit by the end of next week. The new moon is tonight and the next full moon, which of course may be our 3rd day of winter, falls on the 21st of December.

We have been working on the latest quilt, OP Ornament, of our OP Nöel Series. The top is comprised of 960 pieces ranging from 1 ¼” by 1 ¼”, (3.175 cms by 3.175 cms), to 10 ¼” by 10 ¼”, (26.035 cms by 26.035 cms). The ¼” or 0.635 cms is the selvage on each of the sides of each square allowing for the stitching of pieces together.

The initial design of OP Ornament has a look of a colorful flying carpet so it has been a mystery to us as to what exactly the final top will look like. The majority of the fabric for OP Ornament was obtained through Fabric.com. Stay tuned for my updates.

Don’t forget that all are Christmas and Holiday Quilts are on sale at our Quilts SB Etsy site. If an “Uh oh!” screen appears after you click on a picture of one of the Sale Quilts, I’m sorry to say but it has found a new home… but I’m not really sorry. If you would like us to design a similar one as one that is no longer available please feel free to get in touch with me. We welcome new and your commissions.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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My Quip - My Rear Window

Early Morning,

Of late I’m beginning to feel like Jimmy Stewart of his character L. B. "Jeff" Jeffries in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. It’s the compartmentalization that I’ve transgressed to; my genealogy and my quilt designs. There are many stories going on, developing, and even though I am a participant, I am sitting across the courtyard just peering in.

Each of my searches and treks in my genealogy work has taken on a life of its own. My Transcription Project in the search for the origins and ancestry of my ggg-grandfather James Smith has become an ultimate fixation. Each new, albeit old, document allows itself to unwind, presenting facts and figures of days gone by. Each tangent entices me to follow its trail to seek its subtle answer.

Tonight I discovered four new July ancestors...

Hallelujah to the introduction of my five-times great grandparents and two of their offspring, a gggg-granduncle and a gggg-grandaunt. I also uncovered the marriage registration of my great-great-great-great grandparents July, which of course, now satisfies a number of the questions which have confused my search and progression back in time. Check back for the details.

Another window is the email question I received a couple of weeks ago. The question is a pondering as to whether my Uncle Jim Robertson may have been the birth father of a ardent ancestor searcher. I can’t answer this question as yet but the trek and opening into the mystery of this realm certainly has got my mind racing. In such a search, question after question has to be asked... and who knows what we may discover, just around the corner. Does the Y-DNA have the answer?

As each piece of each puzzle unfolds, I sit and observe as Jimmy Stewart,as the disabled Jeff, stares out of his apartment window, puzzling at the stories befitting each and every of his distant neighbors. The fabric of the lives of my ancestors become living stories as does each of the quilt projects that we take on. The courtyard of the stories continue.

After this weekend two quilts, OP Angel and the Isle of The Misfits Toys will be delivered to their new homes. Christmas gifts of warmth and cheer.

The design and reflection of the North Carolina waves lapping the shores are the workings of a new bargello creation on the dining room table. The choice of fabrics are now taking their places. The coupled hearts electronically delivered.

Another new composition, the Bai Jia Bei, a gift of 100 Wishes begins to formulate as a trail of red thread weaves its way into the life of a child and family. And the pieces of OP Ornament drape in strips on the long-arm waiting their piecing to completion.

I am that Jeff Jeffries, the Jimmy Stewart. And I am the participant.

Regards, stay tuned, and enjoy.

Jim

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My Quip – Is Beauty In The Eye of The Beholder?

Morning,

Is seems to me that I have been mildly chastised, to a degree, for using the word “Ugly” to describe our first quilt… It’s the one on which I am very comfortably sitting, on my chair at my PC.

As a side, I can say that maybe this first quilt has provided me with a stroke of luck… My chair at my PC desk has not exploded… and Bella certainly likes to rest herself with me, as I attempt to type.

Well this morning I received a Twitter message regarding a piece of art for sale on Etsy. The message is “So ugly it’s beautiful. I think.” I checked out the link and the Twitterer is correct.

The objet d’art is, how can I say… in the eyes of this beholder… is not too appealing to my optical senses. The item, labeled “So Ugly Its Beautiful Jar” looks to me as if someone in the kitchen was making their annual fruit cake, and the fruit peel concoction exploded… and this white container jar just happened to be in the way. I, personally, tend to agree with the Twitterer. (Here’s the Etsy link to the “So Ugly Its Beautiful Jar”…)

And where am I leading with this finger-pecking rambling? Our next quilt, OP Ornament may just fit into the category of, “Well is it, or isn’t?” It is our original design and it also is our “Mystery Quilt”; that is for the moment. The fabric cutting has been done and not including the border, binding, and backing, there are 960 pieces to sew together. The largest piece is 10" by 10", and the smallest is 1" by 1". Should prove interesting, to say the least.

Stay tuned.

And enjoy,

Jim

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My Quip - Thanksgiving Aftermath - Our First Quilts: Images Found

Afternoon,

I actually was good on Thanksgiving, and did not gorge myself into gastronomic oblivion. And thanks to B&J for the great family get-together.

I mentioned some time ago that I had been searching my files in my multiple folders, and recovered drives, looking for wayward images and files after the number of crashes I’ve had since 1998. And lo and behold, in the recesses of a folder within a folder within a folder within a recovered data file I discovered some images of the first quilts that we ever attempted and created. It certainly proves the adage that one does get better with time.

The images aren’t that great and I cannot remember the dimensions of each quilt, but here goes.

Our first quilt has the file name of Ugly 1, and I can honestly say, it is UGGGGGlyyyyy! This quilt was our endeavor at the point we decided to venture into the world of fabric art… and that was in 1995. It was constructed on a Singer Sewing Machine.

I know where this one ended up. It is now under my butt, on my chair at my PC, and it has been patched many a time. And it is ugly.

Our next attempts were the results of the first class we ever took in the making of quilts. The class was taken when we decided that we had better learn how to make quilts.

The one the left is Andy’s first and my first is on the right. These two were sewn on our Singer and our new Husqvarna machines. Both of these two quilts were given as gifts. As you can see these were very simple quilts that gave us the first lesson in piecing, sashing, and borders.

The next quilt was our first challenge, and we wanted to create a quilt with the elements of a modern day Amish quilt. We donated this quilt and it was auctioned-off at the annual supper celebration of the Hillsborough County Center of Excellence.

Our next creation is a quilt we created in memory of the accidental passing of a friend’s brother.

We have since gone through a number of other sewing and quilting machines. Are current machines include those of Baby Lock, Husqvarna, and Viking... and there is fabric in just about all rooms in our house.

I will be adding all of these, our first quilts, to the Grid shortly...

Enjoy,

Jim

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My Quip - Happy Thanksgiving

Morning,


Happy Thanksgiving from Us, the Pack, and the Greys.

That's it... Happy Thanksgiving!

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Q69 - Christmas Quilt - OP Nöel I

Afternoon,

And before I settle in to make our contribution to tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast, I thought that we had better post our latest quilt addition to ourOP Nöel Series. Ladies and gentlemen, our newest quilt, OP Nöel I.

OP Nöel I is our original design, and as you can see it is of similar festive and holiday fabrics as Nöel Diptych, OP Nöel II, Not Til D25, and OP Angel. OP Angel has found a new home in Seffner, Florida.

The geometric pattern design of OP Nöel I is identical to that of Starry Nights, squares in parallel lines. And once again in the glorious sunshine I have taken images of OP Nöel I. The top is composed of two fabrics; Peace Love Faith of MMFab, Inc. and a solid Burgundy Red compliment. The backing is Tone on Tone Maize fabric blend.

The dimensions of OP Nöel I are: Width – 57” (144.8 cms) and Length – 70 ½” (179.1 cms). The quilting is a series of parallel lines three-quarters of an inch apart, comprised of 53,400 stitches. The binding is Tone on Tone Maize and is hand-stitched the complete distance of the border.

Here are some images of close ups and the backing.

Please remember that the actual shades and tones of the colors may or may not appear as clear and crisp in the images.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual Grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow or in red, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work, or do what it says it is supposed to do. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.

If you are interested, and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please check our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Stay tuned for our new quilts – OP Ornament. Check out our recently announced Christmas Quilt sale and discounts. As mentioned above, OP Angel, as well as Isle of The Misfit Toys are on their way to their new homes in Florida.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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