Rock 'n Roll

 My last finish of 2022!

 I think I began collecting Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts back in the 1980s. The first one was probably either from San Francisco or Dallas. I'm really not sure when I realized I had a "collection" and things kicked into high gear. 

I began adding more t-shirts, and friends and family began adding to my collection as well. I always told travelers not to go in search of a HRC, but if they happened to pass by one, to please get me a shirt and I would reimburse them. I have documented each shirt with the name of who added it to my collection, along with the date. 

My friends and family have traveled the world. And there are some interesting stories behind the 95 t-shirts  (!) that are included in this quilt. 

I put off making the quilt for many years because I just knew it was going to be enormous. But because most of the t-shirts are the "classic" style with the logo and name of the city, I decided to conserve space by using the city name only. Once I had a plan, the quilt went together really quickly. 

Ready for some information about this quilt? 

The very first HRC was opened in London. The first HRC opened in the United States was in Los Angeles. 

I have t-shirts from Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto, but the only HRC currently open in Canada is in Niagara Falls, and I don't have that one, although I do have the American side.

I have a couple of "counterfeits": Jerusalem and Athens. 

My friend, Maggie, was visiting Beijing, a huge city. She took a taxi to HRC and then charged me for the taxi ride. :)

My parents got me a t-shirt from New Orleans one week before Hurricane Katrina leveled it. 

Mark and I took a bus ride to the HRC in Lahaina on the island of Maui during rush hour, and were a bit concerned that we would not make it back to the cruise ship in time.

While on a tour in Cartagena, we briefly left our tour group to pop into the HRC, and when we came out, we weren't sure which direction the group had headed--a few moments of panic.

I have received the most from Aaron and Christa, either separately (she spent a semester in the UK) or together. In fact, the last one I received was from Aaron when he and Stacie visited Iceland in September 2022.

Quite a few of the t-shirts I have (by my count, 28) are from locations that have since closed so this is definitely a collector's item. Also, at roughly $20 per t-shirt, this is definitely the most expensive quilt I have ever made! 

Mark and I took the quilt to the Guitar Center, a local business that sells electric and acoustic guitars, among other things. It was just the perfect backdrop!

For the back of the quilt, I added a border fabric with electric guitars, and Darby used a music note motif for the quilting. I'm so thrilled with this quilt (and I'm glad that the collecting has come to an end). 

This quilt would not have been possible without all the cool t-shirts from around the world. 

Title: Rock 'n Roll

Made by: Cindy Wiens 

Collection started in the 1980s, quilt completed in 2022

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Size: 55" x 66" 

WIP Wednesday

 Just a quick progress report.

I finished the Cog + Wheel quilt top and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

While I have been trying to use larger cuts of fabric from my stash particularly for the backing, when I saw this Rifle Paper print, I had to purchase it for Cog + Wheel. The colors are perfect, don't you agree?

I have had a pattern to make "snap" pouches for years. In fact, the pattern I used dates back to 2008. I'm not quite sure how it works, but you insert a piece of metal tape measure into the casing at the top of the pouch. The pattern included the little tabs on each side for ease of opening, and then the pouch just snaps back into place. It's pretty cool.

Natalie of Sew Hungry Hippie has a free tutorial on her website for these festive Christmas tree cloth napkins. It's as simple as sewing a half circle together. The tricky part is all in how it is pressed. I think they will look really pretty on our Christmas dinner table.

Finally, I have been wanting to sew a rope bowl for ages. I feel like they trended quite a few years ago, certainly pre pandemic, but I think they may be circling back around again. I had purchased some kits from The Mountain Thread Company. Their rope is a nice tight weave, tighter than clothesline rope. The kits include a denim needle and great instructions. This is my first attempt.

It was slow-going for me, but I have the hang of it and I think the next ones will go more quickly. So while it did not really take forever, I couldn't resist adding this label. 

Anyone else still doing last-minute Christmas sewing?

Holiday Homies

 At the beginning of the year, three of us decided to do a block of the month quilt designed by Annemarie Chaney called Hygge. 

I chose the Holiday Homies flannel line by Tula Pink.

Stephanie, Pam and I sewed together virtually for the first few months, and then as often happens, "life" got in the way. Toward the end of the year, because my fabric had a wintry, Christmas-y feel to it, I decided to forge ahead and complete the quilt. 

One of the blocks involved a series of skinny, appliqued knitting needles and I decided there was no way I was going to attempt that with flannel, so I switched those two blocks out for more of the tree blocks.

I didn't have anything in my stash for the backing so I ordered some "mammoth flannel" by Robert Kaufman. 

The quilt went together quite quickly. Darby was able to fit the quilting into her schedule at the beginning of December. I used black flannel for the binding. 

It has been gifted to our pastor and his family, and I hope they enjoy its coziness.

Quilt: Holiday Homies

Pattern design by: Annemarie Chaney

Pieced by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Completed December 2022

Size: 64" x 76"

WIP Wednesday

 It's been awhile since I have done a sewing update.  It will be a short one.

Today I picked up two quilts from the amazing Darby.

I will be adding binding in the next day or two. I'm so happy to have each of these completed. More photos will be coming soon!

I think that brings my total of quilt finishes for 2022 to a total of 16! 

I'm over halfway done with Cog + Wheel, and enjoying choosing the colors for each block, although I should be doing some holiday sewing...maybe next week. Are you doing any last-minute Christmas sewing?

Amanda Jean had me make a list of my current works in progress. I have about 10 in various stages of completion. There would be four more. However, I'm donating the blocks for three of the projects. The fourth is getting tossed. I hate it. I can't imagine anyone would want to work on it. When I said to Amanda, "Remember that project I worked on at the quilt retreat that I despised?" She knew exactly which one I was talking about. So I'm not going to inflict that pain on someone else. 

What do you do with projects you intensely dislike? 

Here's an update from my fabric-tracking project. This project has made me highly motivated to complete projects and donate/give away fabric I know I will never use. 

November update:

Used up/donated: 13.75
Brought in: 22.75
Net: +9 yards
Year to date: -255.50

This was an unusual month in that I bought more fabric than I used up or donated. But I'm still thrilled with the year-to-date total!

Quilts by the Water: Chain Link, Old Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey, California

 I originally named this quilt Chain Letter. I had a set of beautiful hand dyed fabric from Cherrywood in sea glass colors. 

I had come up with this block for a virtual quilting bee, I think for Amy of Diary of a  Quilter.

The block I designed is called Chiral Music (named by our son, Aaron), a rather quirky name. I had texted him a picture of the block and said I felt it needed a better name than "In and Out" or "Hello-Goodbye," and he immediately texted back "chiral." I wondered if he had meant "choral" because I had never heard of the term "chiral." He said that chiral refers to a molecule that appears to be a mirror image but actually is not exactly superimposable (he knows a lot of scientific information). I liked the name a lot, and added "music" as kind of a play on words since I had originally thought he meant "choral."

Then I played with it and turned the elements around, and this became Block 1.

I spent a weekend with my friend, Elizabeth Eastmond, and we played with different layouts.

We dropped some elements of the block, and this became Block 2.

This became the final quilt.

I submitted it to Modern Patchwork and it was accepted. The editors changed the name to Chain Link.

It was also in a later issue as the example used for an article on modern quilting.

When I decided to make a second calendar, Quilts by the Water, it was photographed by the wharf in Monterey, California.

Title: Chain Link

Pattern by: Me.

Date Completed: 2014

Size: 40" x 40"

Quilted by: Dea Oskerson

Flower Shop

  So long ago, 2008, I was part of a 1930s reproduction fabric block exchange with friends from church. We used a really great pattern booklet by Terri Atkinson called Confetti in the Corner. Each block had the same components but depending on how you assembled the blocks, they could look entirely different from each other. It really was genius and I have often thought it would be fun to make a solids version.

We each made extra blocks, and someone assembled them together for a quilt for the MCC charity quilt auction. So many years ago...

I never had an idea of how to put my blocks together, which is why it took so long to put the quilt top together. I had 13 blocks (because I had a duplicate of the block I had made). And then I saw this beautiful quilt by Mendy Slone, using 13 blocks, and knew I had found the setting for my quilt.

I am not proficient in applique, so I used some foundation paper pieced patterns by my friend, Amy Friend (@duringquiettime). The flowers were various sizes but I had plenty of the green solid fabric and was able to fill in the negative space to make it work. 

For the backing, I had some panels by Cori Dantini in my stash called The Makers. They were really cute but I had never quite known what to do with them. They were the perfect colors for this quilt. 

Most of these women no longer go to our church for various reasons, so this quilt is a special one for me.

I had initially thought I wanted some kind of flower design for the quilting, but Darby thought that might "fight" all the pots of flowers so she suggested something swirly. I'm glad she did. 

We were in San Luis Obispo (central coast of California) in early November, and while eating lunch I noticed this little flower shop across the street. I had already named the quilt Flower Shop, so what could be more perfect?!

Mark's brother, Scott, took some behind-the-scenes photos.

I was happy that Amy seemed to like the photo op as well , because it was her patterns that really made the quilt special.

Quilt: Flower Shop

Block pattern: Confetti in the Corner by Terri Atkinson, with foundation paper pieced flower patterns by Amy Friend of During Quiet Time

Quilt top pieced by: Cindy Wiens

Size: 52" x 62"

Quilted by: Darby Myers