Here's what happens in my sewing room when Summer means I go NOWHERE! Posted by Virginia "Ginnie" Leiner on August 29, 2020 at 5:30pm View Blog The global nightmare which began in March continues into summer as you all know and those of us in the good ole US of A, if we are paying attention and minding our Ps and Qs, have been sticking around home alot. While this is a real bummer for those of us with kids and grandkids, parents and siblings, and friends in general far, far away (like more than a few hours' drive), it is a good thing for getting things done around the house and in my quilt rooms in particular. Over the summer, I have finished one quilt (Cheetahs in the House) all but for sewing on the school song on the back (how did I get talked into that???) and made three new quilt tops. I will have a very busy fall and winter quilting, once I get these these puppies pinned and basted. Here they are. First is Cup of Joe. I found these quilt blocks at a thrift store. I wanted something very bright. Surprisingly, my husband likes it and wants it for his own. Go figure. The back will be the same circles and squares print around the outside edge. The binding will be the white print you see in the border block.

The second one completed I am calling Grey's First Quilt (Cabin in the Woods, Autumn). We just adopted a very grey cat and he was a little needy while I was working on this one, keeping very close to my side and in the middle of the quilt when ever I laid it out. I later gave this one to my friend Judy O'Toole as she was recovering from cancer.

I found the cut squares that I used for the center of the Log Cabin blocks at another thrift place. I wanted something easy and elegant. The back will be the black leaf print you see on the outer edge. Have not decided on a binding yet. Quilt #3 for the summer I finished just this afternoon. It was made with several Halloween jelly rolls, a solid color jelly roll and a Halloween panel purchased on ebay. Halloween is my favorite holiday and right after Christmas quilts, I have made alot of Halloween quilts and have three more planned for my grands. The goal with this quilt was the effect of Halloween Wallpaper (hence its title) with pictures hanging on it. How did I do? The back will be a orange circles on black batik and the binding will be the orange with black spatter print you see around the center square.

So, I have two weeks to finish handsewing the back of Cheetahs in the House and also monogram the back of Fox in the Christmas Hen House (lots of houses here!). My mother arrives September 11 for a week's visit and then once she departs, I set up the table topper and start pinning quilts. With the Christmas Hen House quilt, that makes four to pin. Hope I have enough pins! Be well. Stay safe. Quilt on! Ginnie

And Entire Year of Quiltmaking Posted by Virginia "Ginnie" Leiner on July 25, 2021 at 6:30pm View Blog Where does time go? When you are in a pandemic, it moves incredibly slow while you are living it and incredibly fast in retrospect. Since I last wrote, I have finished five more quilts and started four others, Today was "appraise the finished quilts day." Jan Rodgers, my talented appraiser, got nine quilts done. We have maybe four more to do but that will have to wait for another day. Who knew dragging quilts out to be appraised, the appraisals, and then putting them all away could be so exhausting? I am bushed so this will be a quick post. Here are the five I have finished since the last blog.This one i am calling "Blackbird (you were only waiting for this moment to arrive)" in homage to Sir Paul. It is a double sided quilt. On the front, the sun in the lower right is paper pieced. The sunflowers and crows are raw edge applique which I found on ebay. The pumpkins are a block I got from Daughter Becky (henceforth known at "Becky's Pumpkin") and it ends with Maple Leaf, one of my favorite blocks. Here is the back.I had alot of blocks left and wanted to use them up. Plus I did not have enough of the yellow sunflower print. I will make a label for it shortly. This quilt was long arm quilted by Karen Frye of Quilting on the Farm.

The second one is called "Knitting Chickens." I found the fabric around New Years, just after I said I would buy no fabric this year (yeah, right!). It called out to be made a quilt! Strip quilting with off centered pieced blocks, turned on point. I particularly love the red and the black balls of yard fussy cut borders.This quilt was also long arm quilted by Karen Frye of Quilting on the Farm. The quilting motif is balls of yarn with knitting needles.

The next three are all gifts I am delivering to family in Illinois in August. First up is a wedding quilt for my niece Angie and her husband Zach. Married in 2012 (I am as always, terribly late), it is called "Central Park, Midwest." The cityscape is a Tula Pink pattern. I added the "park" tree border on the right and the borders all around. Long arm quilter Karen Frye of Quilting on the Farm quilted this one with a varigated peacock feather motif.

The second gifted quilt is a baby quilt for this couple's 6 month old son, Zander. It is called Sheeps and Peeps and I quilted this one myself. It is my first bargello quilt and I loved it. Definitely gonna do another one of those. It is pretty big for a baby quilt but I figure he will grow into it!

The last gifted quilt is perhaps my favorite of these five. Called "Pineapple Cats" because it was my first time making the pineapple block. The fabric for the cat faces is Nancy Wolff's. I just love her!

I ran out of fabric for the back (again!) and had to piece in another Nancy Wolff cat print. I didn't like it as well so I made a very long, left over blocks label and covered most of the less desirable print up. I think it turned out ok.

So I will get these appraisals back (and four others we did) this week, include them with the finished quilts and deliver them to the (hopefully) happy recipients in August. Feeling much relieved to have them done! Quilt on, folks! I am off to take a nap! Ginnie

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.... Posted by Virginia "Ginnie" Leiner on October 20, 2021 at 12:00pm View Blog Ready or not, here it comes and for once, I AM ready! Three quilts from our house will make appearances under trees this year and the tops are all completed! Two are already with Karen, the long armer genius and one will make its way there this weekend I hope. Here they are with a bit of their stories: First up is one I am calling "It All Started with a Mouse." A few years back, my friend and maintenance contractor for our rental houses, Jeff asked me in a round about way, if I would be willing to make a quilt for his daughter. Actually, the way he asked was to say, "My wife wants to know if you would make a quilt for Kara." Being the busy quilter that I am, we settled on a delivery date in time for Christmas 2021. Kara is a Disney fan and the mother of four. Here is the finished top:

When I sent progress pictures to Jeff and Jackie (Jeff's wife), she said, "I will not want to give it to her but keep it for myself." So I decided to make Jeff and Jackie a quickie Christmas gift as a surprise. I am calling it "Red Truck Christmas" because that fabric is EVERYWHERE and just begging to be a quilt and because Jeff drives a red truck. Here is the top for Red Truck Christmas:

Lastly, I did a surprise quilt for my friend Phyllis and her cat, Boots. The surprise part is that it is finally being made. Phyllis and I have been friends for 20+ years, ever since I moved out to Pennsylvania in 2000. She was a friend and colleague of my husband, teaching Sociology at the college where George taught Philosophy. For several of those years, I asked her if she would like one of my quilts. Every time I asked, she said, no, she likes old quilts. I told her I could make it and then take it out and drive over it a few times to make it look old! No takers. Finally, two years ago, she told me she would like a Christmas quilt. She picked out the fabric and waited. This year it is done.

A bit of background on Boots the Cat. Phyllis fed Boots as an outside cat for a few years and one harsh winter, took her in. Only for the winter, understand. She kept insisting she did not have a cat. Boots was not hers. Well it is now 3+ years later and Boots rules the house. Phyllis and Boots live on a very hilly street. Hence, this quilt called "Boots on Steck Street, Christmas 2021.

So keep on quilting and get those present finished. I am next onto making labels for when they return from Karen's house all quilted and ready to be bound! Best, Ginnie <

The Story of a Dog Quilt (and three grandkids) Posted by Virginia "Ginnie" Leiner on June 29, 2022 at 12:00pm View Blog For years and years and years and years, I have been promising my three grandkids Halloween quilts and this is the year it is finally happening. When we all started making vacation plans in the family, I played the Gramma card and told my two daughters it was time for a visit to Gramma Gigi and Grandad George's house. They had not all been here together with their families since 2018. So plans were made and Gramma, that's me, decided to have Halloween quilts ready for the grandkids to select one. I then proceeded to work like a maniac and got seven, count them, seven Halloween tops made and quilted by my friendly longarmer before they arrived this month. (There are two more to be made but they are not suitable for grandkids - more scary. What can I say, I just had so many ideas!) When I told my quilting friends about this and how the selection was going to occur (each child would indicate 3 quilts they liked and Gramma and moms would decide which one they would get), my friends all said, "What will you do when they all choose the same quilt?" I responded, "there are seven quilts to choose from, for God's sake! Certainly that is plenty that they will not all want the same one." Well, guess what. I was dead wrong and my friends were right. They all wanted this one, the dog quilt, called Who Let the Dogs Out?What to do now???

Before the families left, my daughter (the moms) and I had made the choices for the kids and I let the moms pick one for themselves as well. It was decided who would get the dog quilt (Sylvia the Texan grandkid) and that the California kids Wyatt and Ruby would get these two, Wyatt the Monster Mash

and Ruby the Dog Tricks and Cat Treats,

provided, I put lots of dragons on the back of the Monster Mash and a few more dogs on the back of the Dog Tricks and Cat Treats. We have not told the kids what they are getting, that will be a surprise when the box arrives at their house in October. Being the "Yes" Gramma that my daughter Jamie accuses me of being, I started brainstorming how I could make everybody happy and that meant making two more dog quilts. So I went on line on ebay to purchase more embroidered Halloween dog blocks only to discover that the seamstress had stopped making them. Since I had bought tons of stuff from her previously, I contacted her and asked her if she would make me, a returning customer two sets of dog blocks. She agreed, I paid, and they arrived in the mail Since I never make a duplicate quilt, I now needed to find Halloween dog material that was different from the original Who Let the Dogs Out and come up with two different quilt designs. Found the fabric, ordered and paid for the fabric and it arrived in the mail. I had by this time come up with the quilt design for the first dog quilt and was working on the second one. So this weekend, I am talking to daughter #1 in California and I tell her I am willing to make two more dog quilts and she poo-poos the idea, saying the kids need to learn that you do not always get your first choice (true that) and that they will love whatever quilt I send them because it is from Gramma. I think she is dead wrong about her strong willed 7 year old daughter who will be very unhappy that it is not the dog quilt, but that will all happen in California, many miles away from Gramma in Pennsylvania. I will go ahead and make the other two Halloween dog quilts. The fabric and blocks are just too cute to waste and who knows, I may keep one myself! or my Ruby in California may talk the "Yes" gramma into giving her another Halloween quilt. Happy quilting! Ginnie

Moving Things Along.... As you may have noticed, I have started blogging from my site here again. For a decade, I was blogging thru the American Quilters Society site called "My Quilt Place" and completely ignoring my own blog. Well, AQS is closing down their My Quilt Place site so I will be moving my blog posts from there to here. Stay tuned for lots of old posts showing up! I appreciate your patience. Ginnie

A Halloween Series of Quilts or Gramma Overdoes It Posted by Virginia "Ginnie" Leiner on June 29, 2022 at 6:30pm View Blog As I told you in the previous blog about the Halloween dog quilt, I decided to do a series this year of Halloween quilts. You may remember in 2013, I did a series of 15 Christmas quilts for my family and it was a surprise to them. If you do not know about that, there are a gazillion blog posts in my account about the series and you are welcomed to go read them but be sure to come back! So, the Halloween series is not quite as ambitious at this point. I started out planning to make 6 Halloween quilt for my 3 grandchildren, Wyatt (11), Ruby (7) and Sylvia(7) to choose from. Along the way before the choosing happened a seventh quilt got added and the kids made their three favorite choices the second week of June 2022. Also,none of this was a surprise this time. The kids and their moms knew all about the project and the only surprise part is what will arrive in the box in October of the three quilts the kids indicated they would be okay having. The moms know what is coming but not the kids. My daughters, Jamie and Becky, also got to choose a quilt and Jamie has already changed her mind on her selection. That's fine until I get the labels sewn on. They it is set in thread, so to speak! Here are the finished seven quilts that are now in the process of being bound. I am listing them in order of their creation. A Halloween Series of Quilts or Gramma Overdoes It Number one is called "Be Afraid... of Nothing" and it will go to my daughter Becky in Texas. This is my first Halloween quilt in non-traditional pastel Halloween fabric. It is approximately 72" x 72" and is quilted by Karen Frye of Quilting in the Country with the word "Boo." We call Becky "Becky Boo" or just "Boo" when she was little and her niece and nephew call her Aunt Boo. That is my cat Julie posing for us.

Number two is called "Monster Mash" and it will go to my oldest and only male grandchild, Wyatt. He chose it because it has dragons and he is very into dragons. There will be dragon machine embroidered squares on the reverse just because he requested them! It is also approximately 72" square and was quilted by Karen in monsters. It is the first one to be bound with a bat print. I am currently in the process of doing that.

Number 3 is the only quilt that did not get chosen in the kids choosing event. It is called "Nutty About Jack," and is from a fabric line called Cheeky Pumpkins. I have a friend who wants a Halloween quilt and this may be it. Daughter Jamie thought that maybe acorns and pumpkins are not traditionally thought of together.

Quilt Number four was also fabric from the Cheeky Pumpkin line with fabric from the Wee Cheeky Pumpkin line added. I called this one "She Accessorizes" as it is a witch and her various accessories and familiars. Jamie chose this quilt after first choosing quilt number five. She had thought her daughter Ruby would pick it as she is the fashion accessory queen at seven years old but Ruby (like the other two) wanted the dog quilt.

Number five is my personal favorite and once Jamie changed having this one for "She Accessorizes," I decided this would be the one I would keep. I had already named this quilt "Sometimes I Forget I'm a Cat Quilt" because there is so much going on in it. In early June, we had to put a much beloved cat named Grey down and it broke my heart,, I loved him so much. He was a sickly rescue we took in two years ago and he was a special needs but very loving, giving cat every day we had him in our lives. I truly believe he got me through the pandemic. We thought we were saving him when quite possibly, he was busy saving us. Anyway, the new title of this one is now "Sometimes I Forget I am a Cat Quilt (in memory of Grey)" because all the cats are gray.

Quilt number six is the infamous dog quilt called "Who Let the Dogs Out." It was such fun watching the grandkids look at all the quilts and make their choices. I had prepared a ballot for them with large pictures of each quilt and we displayed the seven quilts on beds in three bedroom and a love seat. Ruby and Sylvia were helping me lay them out and they both immediately wanted the number one quilt, "Be Afraid... of Nothing" I think because it had a pretty girl in a witch costume on it. By the time we were laying out the dog quilt, Ruby said, "I think I have just changed my mind." Jamie feels they were feeding off each other when making their selections and that maybe we should have brought them up one at a time to choose or Gramma should have chosen for them. Too many choices I think she was saying and peer pressure. Becky and Sylvia took it all in and worked together to make their choices. Remember the moms got one too and there was some strategy involved. Anyway, here is the prima donna Dog quilt and it is a cutie. It is going to Sylvia in Texas I think mainly because Jamie did not want her two kids fighting over it if it and another quilt arrived in California for those two. Ruby will get quilt number seven which has dogs and cats and Wyatt will get his dragons. This is the compromise the moms worked out when the kids were not around and it is fine with me.

The last quilt, number seven, came about because I had extra cat and dog embroidered blocks and thought, "What the heck, we will do another one." It went together very quickly and since the block work on the main body was almost non-existent, I decided to put the card trick blocks on the side. The original title was "Dogs vs. Cats" but the card trick addition brought to mind "Dog Tricks and Cat Treats" in a conversation with daughter #2, Becky, who is also a quilter. Here it is.

There will be two more quilts but they are just vaporware right now, although I do have an idea of a pattern and plan for each and the fabric is bought. There themes are not kid friendly so they were not included in the selection in mid June by the grandkids. I will blog about them later as they develop as well as this next idea. Jamie calls me the "Yes" gramma. During our family visit in June, she said I said yes to everything the kids wanted and if I didn't think of it, they did and I said yes to that too. It is true. I spoil them when they are here or we are there, wherever "there" may be. But I can be tough gramma too. Remind me to tell you the hot tub story some time. So yes gramma ordered more Halloween dog blocks and more Halloween dog fabric because she never repeats a quilt and the next dog quilts will have the same embroidered blocks but different patterns and fabrics. Will those dog quilts ever make it to the two California grands who are not getting the original Halloween "Who Let the Dogs Out?' Momma Jamie says no cuz kids need to learn that they don't always get their first choice and she maintains they will love whatever I send them because it is from Gramma Gigi. I think I will make them and hold on to them and someday, somehow, they will find their way to California because that's what Yes Grammas do. Stay tuned! Ginnie

Confusion Posted by Virginia "Ginnie" Leiner on June 29, 2022 at 2:30pm View Blog It’s always an interesting experience and a gamble when you finish a quilt and share it with others, most of whom are not quilters and do not have one scintilla of an idea how much time, talent and resources go into creating a quilted object of art, let alone, blood, sweat, tears and love. You will get reactions such as “Aw, how pretty!” “Aren’t you talented?” “How long did it take you to make that?” (I get that one a lot) and the winner of all time, “You mean you cut up fabric into little pieces and sewed them back together?” (Love that one, as if that is all it is!) Today however, I got a new reaction when I showed my husband who is my gentlest critic, my most recent finished quilt called “Sunflower Summer Sky.” And his reaction got me thinking about what it is we expect from a quilt and what the quilt's (and quilter's) obligation is to deliver on that expectation.

I finished this quilt on a Sunday, having finished the hand stitched binding in the evening before dinner. So excited to see how it would look on the guest room bed, I took it upstairs, put it on the bed, took scads of pictures and waited for hubby to notice it was done and in place. I waited and waited. I waited all evening and all of the next day and finally asked him Monday evening, “Did you look at the sunflower quilt on the guest bed? What do you think?” It was dark by this time but we went into the guest room, turned on the light and looked at the quilt. His first comment (and my first clue) was him saying that he needed to see it in the light and would look tomorrow.

Tuesday passes. Wednesday comes and I am working on my quilt documentation. I have both a written record and a pictorial record of all my quilts and I was ordering pictures of recently completed quilts and wanted to include this one. So I took it off the bed and spread it out on the living room floor to take pictures front and back. Both hubby and I work from home so I called him on the phone (he was in his attic study, I was on the first floor) and said, “Hey, I know you are working but if you want to see the new quilt all laid out, it is in the living room right now as I am taking pictures of it.” He said he would be down in a minute. When you show someone your artistic creation, the object of your constant attention over a number of weeks, months, or years, you are always a bit apprehensive about how it will be received. I have been making quilts for over 50 years and I am always looking for what my kids coined “the Bridget reaction,” where a recipient of a quilt literally loses her mind over said quilt. My husband has never given me a Bridget reaction but he has liked many of my quilts, some very much. He is my constant supporter of this obsession and never asks what I spend on fabric. However, there is always this inkling of a feeling I get that he does not see what I do as having a great deal of significance in the world. Granted he is a puritan by faith (social justice Congregationalist) and a philosopher by profession so what I see as putting a beautiful thing out into the world, often as a gift that bring much happiness and expresses love, pales in comparison to fighting injustice and explaining philosophy to undergraduate students and translating Nietzsche from 19th century German to modern day English for the Stanford University Press. I get it. In my head, however, a sneaky part of me tells him that quite possibly, these fabric creations made and given with love by me to others, which will be passed down from generation to generation (unless they land in the Goodwill in which case I will come back and haunt them) will be a legacy more resilient and meaningful than the will to power (Nietzsche) ever was. Because love is, right? And Quilting is love. I seem to remember actually telling him that in fact. I doubt he agreed. But we love and value each other and are old and wise enough to know when to leave well enough alone on a topic. So, back to the story. The quilt is on the floor, the camera (actually my phone) is ready to take the pictures, and the husband come down two flights of stairs to have a look-see. He stares at the beautiful blues and golds and crimsons and brown and says…nothing. Dead silence. Big clue number two. When he finally does work up a response, it is “It confuses me.” I admit that was not what I was expecting. I am totally in love with my creation, mind you, which to me exudes sunshine and brilliant color, the essence of a day in late summer when (this actually happened to us on a trip west some years ago), you come upon a field of sunflowers, all nodding and following the sun as it treks across the sky and for one moment, life is good and God is in his kingdom and all is right in the world. The quilt says to me order and chaos, great planning and willful abandon, structure and freedom and above all else, color, color, glorious color. But it confuses him. Okay. Alright, I say, how does it confuse you? “I don’t know what it is saying or what it means” he says. And then I have this epiphany. Quilts, like other forms of art, have different meaning (or no meaning) and say different things (or nothing) to different people. Maybe the miracle of art is not so much that it says so many different things to each of us but that SOMETIMES it actually says something close to the same thing to two or more of us. What are the odds that someone would have the same reaction to a piece of art that I do? And is a quilt obligated to say or mean anything? Can it not just be a quilt? Just be a thing of effort and beauty? I will give you an example of our differences in art tastes. My husband loves modern and abstract art. I work by day in an art museum where we have some such art and we live near Pittsburgh, the home of Andy Warhol, the undisputed first king of such art. He loves it, I find no meaning in it and it actually irritates me because I am somehow sure someone is playing a trick on me and getting away with something. This is not art!!! To each his own, I guess and it is our differences that make us so interesting to each other. So it confuses him because he cannot find a meaning or understand what it is saying. My husband knows I am an approval junkie. He knows I want that Bridget reaction or something close but he is also as honest (and as gentle) with me as he can be and does not want to hurt my feelings. So as he stands there, struggling to find something nice to say, I decide to help him out and ask him, “What about the color? Do you at least like the color composition?” “It is colorful,” he says. “Will this one be around for awhile?” he asks. As I give most of my quilts away (share the joy is my motto and after a short time if you kept them all, where would you put them? This one is #179.), this is a valid question. I grit my teeth and say, “Yes, it is the summer bed quilt in the guest room so we are keeping it. It is ours (or maybe it is mine).” Then as he walks up the stairs to return to his long dead 19th century tormented but insightful philosopher, Frederick, he throws me a bone. “Then if it stays here, I will have a chance for further conversation with it in the days to come.” Deep sigh…life with a philosopher and (gentle) art critic. In the meantime, there is NO dampening my joy. The quilt has many enduring qualities, from the hand stitched mitered corners on the 30 some blocks to the deconstructed then reconstructed offset sunflower panel, to the clerestory of small sunflower blocks under the first row of blocks, to the large gold and red sunflower border, she is a beauty and she is mine! I will use her and admire her, cherish and show her off (my neighbor has been over already and she had no confusion. Her first comment was “Oh Ginnie! What fabulous color!”) and in the fullness of time, pass her on to one of my daughters, who will pass her on to her daughter, who will pass her on to the next generation where this quilt will be loved and honored and understood as what she is, a gift of love and beauty to those I love and to the world. Amen. Ginnie