So I guess the publishers are beating down my door after all. My paper-pieced quilt, Travel Europe is featured in the “Quilting Bee” section of the April 2008 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine. I began designing this quilt what seems eons ago, and in 2005 I decided it might be a nice project for other military families like ours, who would like a souvenir of their travels. I completed the quilt and had patterns for each block professionally printed (email me if you’d like one, or the whole set). It’s been a reasonably popular block of the month class at the Arts and Crafts shop on post here as well.

I sent the photo to QNM two or three years ago and in the meantime, my quilting direction has changed dramaticly. This quilt no longer reflects my focus nor the direction in which I am currently working. It’s still nice to have it recognized though.

Last weekend’s repeat performance retreat in Schollbrunn was a very productive one despite having the kids along. Mostly, they dragged out their homework, and watched TV. R brought her two girls too, so there was some Monopoly Jr., karaoke, and swimming as well.
Behind the hotel was a very small “Wildpark” with deer and a wild boar and a playground that didn’t rate too high with the kids (have I mentioned that they are allergic to the outdoors?). There must be hunting in the woods too as last time there was a man with his hunting dog sharing our hotel.

The kids thought this foal was pretty cute though.

Indoors, in addition to individual projects, the others basted 9 quilts (yea big tables and large rooms!), and we finished the Depression block top for our hostess:

I worked on this all weekend:

I’ll give up more details in March when it’s done.

One of the blogs I enjoy reading is “Posie Gets Cozy.” Alicia’s writing tone, and her projects are so friendly and warm it’s no wonder her blog is so incredibly popular. I know Katja and I are very happy with the St. Lucia Doll Kit we bought from the Posie shop.

Recently, Alicia discovered Polish Pottery and extolled it’s virtues. I couldn’t help but share a small bit of the cupboard-full that I have amassed over the last 10 years or so. You see, as an Army wife living in Germany, it’s law that I must buy the stuff. One is pretty much not allowed to bring a meal to a potluck unless it’s presented in Polish Pottery (the upside is — the table always looks coordinated and great!!). It was a lot easier to fill one’s shelves seven years ago before Poland joined the EU and prices went up, but it’s still far more affordable here than in the US.

When we were first stationed in Germany everyone was gah-gah over Polish Pottery. We had plain black dishes from the Crate and Barrel outlet and colorful Bauer pottery from the 1940s. Needless to say, the Polish Pottery didn’t play well with these and I limited myself to buying just a few serving pieces (for potlucks, of course) and gifts for friends and family.

That didn’t stop me from jumping in an old SUV with a friend and her friend (and her friend) near-nine months pregnant with Zavi and heading off to the border town of Boleslawiec. Apparently the other ladies knew my penchant for organization and had placed bets on whether or not I had marked the map with all the hospitals between where we lived in Schweinfurt and the last German town, Bautzen. (I didn’t mark the map, but I probably stopped at most of the bathrooms in the shops we visited.) We stopped at Applebee’s in Dresden for dinner on the way home because that’s what all the Americans do.

Hubby and I returned to The States for 10 months and then moved back to Germany. Knowing that we’d most likely be living in a small apartment with an even smaller kitchen and little storage, we left stuff behind — like the Bauer I didn’t want to risk breaking, and 110 powered appliances we couldn’t use without a bulky transformer. We’d only have room for one set of dishes, but needed more than the eight or fewer place settings of the black ones.  In his infinite wisdom, TS&WGH said “How about we just chuck the black dishes and you go to Poland and get whatever we need for the annual Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas parties we inevitably host.”

This time I jumped in a minivan with several other Polish Pottery shopping veterans. Shopping with vets is the way to go. There’s no hemming and hawing over what to get or not to get, whether to get all the same pattern or to mix and match, or whether the prices will be better in the next shop. We knew what to get where and which shops were a must-see and which we could pass if necessary. This may have been the trip where one lady was shopping for several friends and had a color coded list to guide her. It was definitely the trip where the main driver was making a list of each shop and it’s location (mile mark from the edge of town) for newbies. We visited, and dutifully logged the exact location and nickname of, no less than 23 shops that day in and around Boleslawiec. Applebee’s was now operating under a different name, but the menu was nearly the same. We stopped for a meal of course.

We’ve since moved further from Poland, the prices have risen, I have two kids to factor into any outing, and I can easily entertain 12 for a sit-down meal, so I haven’t been back to Poland in years. I don’t miss the Applebee’s. I’ve also been privy to the location of the warehouse for one of the vendors that sells high quality pottery at the bazaars on the military posts. I think the warehouse is out in the open now, but five years ago, it was only through word of mouth that you could find them. Their lower prices meant it was cheaper to go there than drive to Poland unless you were in need of a car full of dishes. It’s only an hour away and they not only do they have a bathroom but there’s a good Mexican restaurant nearby. In fact, TS&WGH made a quick stop there on his way home last weekend.

I still don’t have a cheese lady though.

I had several requests for a Prairie Point tutorial after finishing my “Beat the Blues” quilt with these triangles of folded fabric.
I was going to make some diagrams, but McCalls quilting has already done it very nicely here; About.com has instructions here (be sure to click “next” to see the variations and finishing tips); and of course, Simply Quilts features them here. My quilt has nested prairie points spaced out to enhance their pointy triangle-ness.

All of the diagrams and tutorials above (as well as my quilt) use individual squares of fabric so that one can make very scrappy prairie points. If you want to take it even further, sew two rectangles of contrasting fabric together to make your starting square, then fold as for “overlapping prairie points.” The contrasting fabric will peek ever so subtle through the vertical slits in the prairie points! On the other side of the coin, there are also a few speedier, if not as colorful methods. The quickest method is the one presented here by Rowena.

Back in 1996, I clipped this tutorial out of an advertisement for Quilter’s Newsletter, or Quiltmaker, or one of their publications. It shows the method Rowena demo-ed, plus a two color variation.

Step 1 says to cut a strip of fabric using this formula: desired height of prairie point + .25 inch x 4. For example, if you want your points to finish 2 inches high, cut your strip 9 inches wide ((2 + .25) x 4 = 9).

The formula is a little different if you want two colored points: cut two strips, each the finished height of the prairie points x 2 + .75 inch; then sew the two strips together lengthwise wrong sides together using a .25 inch seam allowance and press the allowance to one side. I think the rest of the instructions (steps 2 through 5) can be figured out easily enough by following the pictures.

Also helpful is their formula to calculate how many prairie points you need. My formula was to make a lot and then place them around the quilt until it looked right — very scientific! If you want to be more exact the formula for nicely nested or overlapped points is: length of quilt ÷ finished base of prairie point x 2. For example, if your quilt is 90 inches square and your prairie points will be 3 inches on the base (taking away the seam allowance that will be hidden in the seam) you’ll need 60 prairie points for each side (90 ÷ 3 = 30; 30 x 2 = 60). Obviously, you’d calculate sides separately if your quilt is rectangular.

You needn’t use your prairie points just for finishing the edge of you quilts. Here’s points used within the border on the adorable baby quilt my MIL made for Zavi when he was born.

And here’s points used within the border AND as edging on the bottom of a very “liberated” wall hanging I made ten years ago:

Happy Prairie Pointing!!

Thanks for all the Blue quilt love! Winning was kind of a big fish in a little pond thing, but the challenge is all in fun, and I participated with the same spirit. To give the full spectrum though, I also received two rejection letters from “real” art quilt shows this week. I don’t say this for sympathy; I say it because it’s fact. Most everyone is (rightly) excited to share good news, but reluctant to share the bad, so it often seems that “everyone” is getting into all the shows they ever enter and gallery owners and book publishers are beating down their doors. I suspect that this is not true. I suspect for every win or accepted proposal, there are many rejections. Today, I felt like sharing the bad with the good — keeping it real (and by the way, there are currently no gallery owners or book publishers beating down my door — not that I’d have anything to give them anyways).

I am off this weekend with my fellow American winners and our equally talented German friends for yet another weekend sew-a-thon in Schollbrunn. I’m bringing the kids this time, so I doubt I’ll be as productive, but there’ll be six meals this plus cake and coffee that I don’t have to cook and that in itself makes the trip worthwhile! When I get back I’ll see what kind of prairie point tutorial/link mania I can come up with.

I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but I made Beat The Blues for our local (German) quilt guild’s annual challenge. The theme this year was “traditional,” and the quilt had to incorporate a certain navy blue fabric. I had been admiring Bonnie’s String Lone Star (scroll down to the big star with the atomic orange background) and as soon as I saw the challenge fabric it said, “I’d be the perfect neutral for a stringy, strippy star.”  Really, it said that to me. If not for the challenge, I would also still be sitting here thinking about how nice it would be to have an actual quilt on my bed. It all came together rather nicely in concept.

Of course, it didn’t come together so nicely in reality. There was the horrific discovery that the diamond template I had used was wrong and nothing fit together the way it was supposed to (if you want to make your own, I’d follow Bonnie’s lead, not mine!). Then there was the small problem of not having quite enough of the blue challenge fabric for the background and there being no more at the store. My quilting wasn’t quite what I had hoped either. However, it all came together in the end and the sum is definitely greater than the parts. After some initial trepidation, I think it looks great on the bed.

The grand unveiling at the guild meeting was tonight. Three other friends from the every-other-Friday-hand-sewing group I belong to had also made fabulous challenge quilts, as had nine other guild members. It was really hard to decide which quilt to vote on. I’m kind of glad i had my own there to vote for because there were about four of equal merit. K’s Japanese themed crazy quilt panels were fabulously embellished. J’s miniature medallion quilt was to die for, with the tiniest flowers and Lone Star halves. R’s scrappy, shirting fabric squares and triangles suited the fabric the best. There was also a second beautifully made medallion, two more scrappy quilts (the three would have looked great together in a retro look kids’ room with almost matching twin beds), and several log cabin variations that summed up traditional.

When it came down to it, the three Americans in the room took the highest prizes: K won third place, me second, and J first!! We are going to go fabric shopping with our gift certificates next week. Woo hoo! One of the nicest things about the guild is that they recognize all the work that everyone puts in to their challenge pieces, and so everyone who brought a quilt got to take home a bouquet of ivy strung with ribbons and cute little fabric chicks. Just in time to decorate for Spring!

Beat the Blues looks like a finished quilt, doesn’t it?

The quilting is finished. It’s nothing terribly complicated, and I can’t say it’s done at a professional level, but it’s just fine for our bed.

All it needs now is binding. I’ve decided that I would like the quilt to have scrappy prairie points on three sides (friend J warns that prairie points up your nose are not conducive to sleeping). Cutting about a bajillion 4″ squares will, of course, drag this project out a leetle bit longer, but should be worth it. Simplicity is apparently NOT my middle name.

Today is the annual Faschings Dienstag Parade in our neighboring town. As one radio host said this morning, it’s the day people are knee-deep in confetti and alcohol. I was hoping to share fun stuff like pink cowboys, dancing ice cream, witches, and pesky bakers, but I have been sick since Thursday and haven’t made it much further than the 10 steps from the couch to the computer and back to the couch. Zavi was sick the week before and had a barfing bout Sunday night. Today Katja is sniffly and it’s hard to tell which way she’ll go. I decided all that wasn’t worth a few hours in the wet cold. Faschings Dienstag — I already miss you.

My first thought after Françoise announced our 12 x 12 theme as Chocolate, was of something I had read on my last visit to the chocolate museum in Köln (Cologne).

It was an excerpt from a letter written in 1671 by Madame de Sévigné to her then-pregnant daughter advising that she herself not consume chocolate as

” … the marquise de Coëtlogon took so much chocolate, being pregnant last year, that she produced a little boy who was as black as the devil who soon died.” *

This story seems so outlandish to our modern sensibilities. I still can’t decide if it’s demeaning, insulting, quaint, amusing, stupid, naïve, foreboding, or what. I did find it intriguing, and certainly it offers a different view of chocolate. It offered a good challenge, so I went with it. It’s been great fun too.

I posted earlier that my piece would be visually expressed as a cross between a Fragonard painting and a Harriet Powers-style story quilt. Helen asked “How???” so here’s my thought process:

First I thought about the basic elements of the story: chocolate (of course), 17th Century French aristocracy, gossip, sex and taboo, the unseen servant/love toy, the impropriety of having a child born of said servant, the intrigue (I don’t believe for a minute that the child died of natural causes), society and the class system.

Next I considered how these elements could be expressed visually. Fragonard came to mind first as his paintings, although 18th century, are the epitome of French aristocracy and erotic frivolity. Since our chosen medium chez 12×12 is quilts, I also considered what in the history of quilting might be appropriate. This is definitely a story, so something pictorial made sense. To base it on a style known to be used by marginalized Africans (even if they were in the US and not France) seemed appropriate since a marginalized African played a central role in the story even if no one would admit it at the time.

Then I had to figure out how to translate it to fabric. Toile, being French, made a perfectly “frou-frou” background and looks a bit like engravings of Fragonard’s paintings. I’m not much of a toile collector myself, but I managed to dig up just enough from my stash. Slave quilts are characterized by asymetry, improvisation, and multiple patterning, so I could use some or all of those aspects in my work. Using many printed fabrics suggests not only the improvisation and patterning, but the luxurious textiles of the aristocracy as well. Organza would not have been used in a slave quilt, but it’s sheer quality is perfect for expressing an invisible presence.

Now to put pencil to paper. The Marquise is the focus, with her child in arms. Her breasts are bared not just to nurse, but in a voluptuous show of her sexuality. If there is any doubt that she’s the aggressor, her skirt is hiked confidently up to show more than a little leg and she’s allowed her sleeves to slip off her shoulders. Her head is turned, not lovingly towards the child, but to the chocolate, which her out-stretched arm suggests she wants more of. To express her gross consumption, the chocolate pot is large in scale. Smaller, and barely there in his transparency, is the Moorish servant no one is talking about. He holds the aphrodisiac with hips thrust forward, ready to give her what she wants.

Although I felt that the picture told a narrative well, this particular one is not universally known and I did want to reference it specifically. To that end, I embroidered the excerpt from Madame de Sévigné’s letter.

* The placard that I read was in German, but I found information in English online and the story was essentially the same. Here’s a few excerpts and links for the curious. (Oh, and be sure to go check out all the other 12 x 12 Chocolate quilts.)
This one pretty much says it all:

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Madame de Sévigné was a seventeenth century French aristocrat. For many years she kept up a prolific correspondence with her married daughter, and her letters are a wonderfully witty glimpse into life at the top of the food chain at that time and in that place.
She frequently mentions chocolate in her letters of the early 1670’s when it was very new, very expensive, and very fashionable. Like most newly introduced foods, its qualities were the subject of much debate: was it suitable for periods of fasting, being a mere drink? Did it have medicinal value? Was it addictive? Was it an aphrodisiac?
On this day in 1671 Mme. de Sévigné delivered a juicy piece of gossip disguised as advice to her daughter, who was pregnant at the time:
” … the marquise de Coëtlogon took so much chocolate, being pregnant last year, that she was brought to bed of a little boy who was as black as the devil who died.”
Mme. de Sévigné did not need to mention to her daughter that one of the other fashionable household items at the time was a handsome, black, Moorish servingman. It seems that the mother of the unfortunate infant did indeed have one of these fashion accessories, and part of his job description was to take her her evening chocolate drink. But I stoop to repeat gossip myself now, which is not seemly at this distance of centuries.

via: The Old Foodie

Another source via BodyScience and The Chocolate Health Book

More quotes from the Madame and a chocolate shop in her namesake:

…Madame de Sévigné, who famously recommended chocolate to her daughter (“if you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you”) but who rather more famously retracted her advice in a panic (“chocolate is the source of vapours and palpitations, it flatters you for a while and then suddenly lights a fever in you that carries you to the grave”, and furthermore “the Marquise de Coëtlogon took so much chocolate during her pregnancy last year that she produced a small boy as black as the devil, who died”).
via Several Bees