Quilt #2 On The Frame

With quilt #1 off to LA, I had time this week to put the layers of quilt #2 together and mount them on the frame. It is quite a process. First the back of the quilt top has to be checked block by block for loose threads. Then the three layers - quilt top, batting, and backing - are laid out together to make sure they are ironed smooth and sized to match. The carpet in the living room is the only place big enough for this process.

After the batting and backing are cut to fit, the top and batting are pinned every few inches around the perimeter and then the two layers are rolled together for transport to the quilt frame in the basement. It takes some trial and error to line all three layers up on the frame. A small inconsistency in tension or angle could become a big problem as the quilt is stitched and winds onto the front roller.

Now that everything is in place I just have to decide which of several design options to use for the hand quilting. Hmm - diagonals, squares, curvy lines, hearts, zig zag - too many options. Maybe I should take a vote.

Folded Up, Ready to Go

One quilt done, one to go.

The first of two wedding quilts took flight to LA on Tuesday in Rebecca's carry on. Her trip comes at an opportune time. After spending a few hundred hours on hand quilting, I don't trust the post office.

The Last Stitch

Two days ago I finished the last stitch on the last block of the first wedding quilt. Sixty-three blocks, three thousand seven hundred and eighty inches of hand stitching give or take an inch or two. Yippee!

All I need to do now is sew on the binding and it will be ready to fly away to the happy couple in Los Angeles. Then I can mount the second wedding quilt on the frame and start all over again. I hope our third child doesn't plan to marry any time soon.

Quilting Bee

In May when Rebecca returned from school in Santa Fe, we decided to hand make a wedding quilt for each of her brothers and their brides. Now that the projects are no longer a secret, I can post about the process.

The first step is to find patterns and fabric. We settle on using 1930s and 1940s reproduction prints that remind us of those used in my grandmother's quilt. A simple quilt pattern is needed to show off the colorful fabric designs. Our first thought, the classic double wedding ring, is vetoed after research reveals it to be among the most complicated. We are both accomplished at sewing, but neither one of us has ever made a quilt. On a trip to the Mill Ends Store we find a great book of contemporary patterns called Sunday Morning Quilts.

The pattern for Aaron and Elizabeth, called "Sunday Morning," is made up of ten inch blocks with five colored strips and one white strip in each block.

"Checkerboard," for Gary and Elise, alternates white and colored three inch squares. The fabrics are the same in each quilt. 

Calculating the number of fabrics to buy and the yardage requires diagrams and higher math. Five visits to three stores results in a pile of twenty colored prints and five white on white prints. My friend Alice hears about the project and donates three of her husband's old Armani shirts to use along with the other whites.

Buying the fabric is the easy part. Now we have to cut little pieces out of big pieces so we can sew them back together into blocks to make 72" x 90" quilt tops. We set up tape lines on the work table in the studio and go to work cutting strips. It takes several hours over three days. With the strips cut, Rebecca starts piecing the "Sunday Morning" quilt top for Aaron and Elizabeth, the first bridal couple.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this I start to think ahead to the actual hand quilting and realize we need a quilting frame. What would we do without the Internet? A beautiful oak frame pops up on Craig's List. Just one problem - the seller is a two hour drive away in Philomath and we need a truck to hold the 96" long frame. Alice saves the day with her truck. Off we go in the pouring rain.

The first quilt top is ready to be mounted on the frame set up in the basement "party room" by the middle of August. The top and batting are mounted on the back roller, the backing on the middle roller, and all three parts come together on the front roller. We are ready to quilt.

The first few blocks are slow going and my stitches are anything but straight. After a while I fall into a rhythm and find the hand quilting meditative. Good thing - my co-quilter, Rebecca, is ready to return to fall semester in Santa Fe - I'm on my own.

It is now December - between a trip to New Orleans for the second wedding and an eight week writing class not much quilting has happened in the last month and a half. The hand stitching is about two-thirds complete on the first quilt. Another month and it should be finished. Then the second quilt goes on the frame and we start all over. Rebecca will be home in another week. Two can quilt faster than one.

Wedding #2 - New Orleans

Last Wednesday we left for New Orleans to attend our second family wedding in two months. The last wedding was my son Aaron's in Pittsburgh. On this trip we celebrated with Gary's son, also named Gary. Two brides, two grooms, two joyous occasions, two proud and happy parents, and two cities as different as they come.

Our arrival three days before the big event gave us a chance to explore New Orleans in a similar fashion to our sight seeing in Pittsburgh. Rising early on the first day we left our B & B by 8:00 am to venture across the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway an approximately 24 mile long bridge made up of two parallel spans supported on 9,500 concrete pilings. According to Wikipedia, 630 square mile Lake Ponchartrain is "a brackish estuary . . . not a true lake . . . it is, however, one of the largest wetlands in North America." It wasn't long before all we could see was water in every direction.

In addition to our interest in the lake, our plan was to rent bikes in Mandeville and ride on the 31 mile Tammany Trace. Unfortunately the bike shop was too far from where we wanted to start our ride so instead we hiked in Fontainebleau State Park. The park, once a sugar plantation, still has evidence of the past - the ruins of a sugar mill and an alley of oaks.

Unfamiliar wildlife and tropical vegetation let us know we were no longer in the Pacific Northwest.

After a quick bite to eat we made our way back across the causeway to our next destination the exclusive Garden District. The area developed between 1832 and 1900 is a National Historic Landmark District and one of the best preserved examples of southern mansions.

One of the most interesting discoveries was the walled Lafayette Cemetery Number One established in the 1830s. Narrow aisles between rows of above ground crypts extend out from a central axis. The cemetery was busy with All Saints Day visitors.

We enjoyed a brief visit with young Gary as we walked through the Garden District then left him to pick up Aaron and Elizabeth at the airport.

After collecting our son and daughter-in-law, we found our way to Longue Vue the Edgar and Edith Stern House & Gardens. The Sterns, well known New Orleans philanthropists, worked with noted landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman in the 1930s to create a perfectly integrated house and garden. We were intrigued by the similar goal of the family behind Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water" also built in the 1930s. Two properties designed to connect to their surroundings with a vastly different architectural outcome.

Tired by a long day of sight seeing we drove back to our B & B in the Bywater District. Maison de McCarty, built in 1860, was once the city home of plantation owners.

Aaron and Elizabeth went out to dinner with a friend while we joined the bride's family at Ye Olde College Inn a New Orleans landmark. After dinner and pleasant conversation with our new extended family we passed on an invitation to Rock and Bowl. Instead we wandered down Frenchman Street listening to live jazz pouring out onto the sidewalk from bar after bar.

Friday morning we rose early to walk the streets of the famous French Quarter located along the Mississippi about a mile from our B & B. Here we saw the iconic New Orleans architecture on streets named Burgundy, Royal, Dauphine and of course Bourbon. The streets were wet with disinfectant sprayed from large trucks to neutralize the effects of partying from the night before. Even at 7:00 in the morning bars were open serving eager customers.

The river and the buildings including the Saint Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square were softened by early morning fog.

Two hours of walking in the Quarter built an appetite for a delicious 9:00 breakfast back at our B & B.

New Orleans architecture is not like anything I have seen before. The typical one story houses although narrow at the street extend to the back of each property in a configuration resembling a railroad car. This design, referred to as shotgun, is the result of property taxes that determined value by the width and height of the building. Many houses in the Bywater where we stayed were painted in combinations of vibrant colors.

On Friday afternoon we lunched on barbecued pulled pork sandwiches and local Abita beer at a neighborhood spot called "The Joint" then took a break from the sight seeing portion of our trip to help set up for the wedding in the garden of the B & B. That evening out of town guest joined us for a Vietnamese dinner of Banh Mi (sandwiches) and Pho (soup).

Last minute wedding preparations such as engineering a frame to hold an arch of ribbons filled Saturday morning.

Before long it was time to dress and gather for the main event.

Gary and Elise's wedding ceremony officiated by a New Orleans friend was beautiful and moving. I cried, Gary cried, the bride cried, the groom cried we all cried happy tears to celebrate the union of two hearts. 

A dinner of greens, pulled pork, two kinds of grits, and spatzle, catered by a friend who is part owner of Boucherie was followed by two kinds of luscious cupcakes and the caterer's famous bacon brownies. Dancing and partying lasted well into the night.

A Sunday morning brunch was nearly eaten before a sudden rain drove us all inside. The chaos of packing up the bride and groom almost made us late delivering Rebecca to the airport for her afternoon flight back to Santa Fe. To fill the time between her afternoon and our late evening flight Gary talked me into a 40 minute drive out to the Old River Road west of New Orleans where several Antebellum homes are located. We didn't have time for a tour, but the drive was worth it for this view of 300 year old live oaks at Oak Alley Plantation as well as fields of sugar cane.

Our flight brought us home after midnight exhausted, but richer from the glimpse of a different culture and the joining of two young lives and two families.

Wedding #1 - Pittsburgh

Last Wednesday we arose at 3:30 am to begin our 3,000 mile trek to Pittsburgh for my son Aaron's wedding. Twelve hours later, luggage retrieved, car rented, armed with a folder full of MapQuest instructions, travelling east on I376 we leave the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania to enter the Fort Pitt Tunnel. After three quarters of a mile, the white tile lined route under Mount Washington opens up to a jaw dropping view of the Pittsburgh skyline described by the New York Times as "the best way to enter an American city." We have arrived, the adventure begins.

We look from our freeway vantage point across the intersection of three rivers (Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio) to PNC field where the bridal couple and many of the wedding guest are enjoying a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals. The bride's father and my son share a passion for baseball. After a stop-and-go trip through the almost mile long Squirrel Hill Tunnel, we arrive at our hotel on the eastern outskirts of the city in time to switch on the TV and catch a three run homer leading to a 5-0 victory for Pittsburgh. This is a good omen.

Knowing the late morning sleeping habits of our children, we decide to spend the early hours of the second day sightseeing. Gary has been talking about our first stop, the Duquesne Incline (pronounced "du-cane"), ever since Aaron and Elizabeth moved to Pittsburgh. The Incline is a funicular built in 1877 on the site of an earlier version that carried coal to the top of Mount Washington.

The ride in an antique car is a bit unnerving, but the view from the top is spectacular.

A short distance down Grandview Avenue is a small park with a dramatic sculpture of a 1770 face-to-face meeting between George Washington and the Seneca leader Guyasuta.

Our next stop is the Central Northside neighborhood called Mexican War Streets. The district consists of four blocks filled with restored 1848 row houses. We follow a walking tour down brick covered sidewalks charmed by the architecture and the setting.

The final stop of the morning is the Allegheny Cemetery, established in 1844, where we find impressive monuments for famous people such as Lillian Russell and Stephen Foster along with many of the industrialists who built the city of Pittsburgh.

No, this is not a church or a house. It is the final resting place for J. B. Ford of Pittsburgh Plate Glass.

Lunch and a drive through downtown past the H. H. Richardson designed courthouse, resembling a massive fortress, then we return to our hotel in Monroeville to await instructions for the remainder of the day.

The plan is for everyone to meet at Aaron and Elizabeth's apartment where we join up with Rebecca who traveled ahead of us. This is where we will meet Elizabeth's family for the first time. Just two exits away from our hotel we find the once proud town of Wilkinsburg. The loss of industrial jobs has taken a toll on the neighborhood, but at least the rent is low for struggling filmmakers.

Sharing food and conversation with parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, and friends in this relaxed setting entertains us until late in the evening.

On Friday morning we meet our new extended family over breakfast at the hotel and then load into cars to make the trip to Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece Fallingwater, located an hours drive away. Our route takes us through a rolling countryside of farms and deciduous forests. The vacation house built between 1936 and 1939 for the Kaufmann family, owners of a Pittsburgh department store, is a stone and reinforced concrete structure cantilevered over a stream and waterfall.

I studied this house in Architecture History forty years ago never imagining I would visit some day. It is impossible to capture the dynamic beauty of the house or the setting in a photograph. The experience is like walking through a three dimensional work of art perfectly balanced in nature.

Friday evening the group splits into young and not-so-young to dine at favorite restaurants selected by the bride and groom. Not even half way through our meal, Aaron calls to see if we are having fun. He is surprised we are still eating and chatting because the younger group is finished for the evening. Dinner is followed by a midnight drive to collect Gary's son and fiance from the airport. They arrive a day late from New Orleans due to Hurricane Isaac.

By Saturday morning the full impact of what is happening hits me and I spend most of the day dabbing joyful tears. There is nothing more joyful for a mother than knowing her child is joined to another in a bond of love and friendship.

As a distraction to fill the time before the ceremony, we drive Gary and Elise around to see some sights. One stop is the Carnegie Library. The building is several times the size of our library and the open stacks are filled with many more volumes. In the stacks the floor of each level is made of thick glass to let light into the space below. Windows along the side overlook several reconstructed dinosaurs in the main hall of the Carnegie Natural History Museum.

Finally it is time to dress in our finery and drive to the wedding. The ceremony is in the Broderie Room at the Phipps Conservatory, a late 19th century glass and metal gem, located between Schenley Park and the Carnegie Museum. Rain clouds close in overhead as we wind our way through Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Some say rain on a wedding day is good luck.

We are ushered through hot houses filled with exotic plants to a small indoor parterre similar to the gardens of a French chateau. The room is perfect for our group of twenty, the ceremony is lovely, the bride and groom are giddy, the parents are proud, and everyone celebrates the union of these two.

Champagne toasts are followed by a five course gourmet vegetarian dinner at Eleven, a restaurant located near the Allegheny River. Everyone seated at the table is here because they love Aaron and Elizabeth. It is a blessing to be surrounded by that love. A marriage joins more than two people - it creates an extended family.

Sunday morning we say goodbye to family and friends. The newlyweds leave for Scotland and wedding guests scatter to all parts of the country. Four days ago we left Portland to spend time in an unfamiliar city with people we had never met. Today we return home richer from seeing new sights and making new friends. 

Note: Click on any photo for a slide show of all photos.