A little over a month ago I moved into our new house. The move as such was quick – the movers came, packed the van, drove over, unpacked and were gone again in just three and a half hours. Ever since then I have been unpacking (that’s finished), trying to establish some sort of order (not yet finished), and trying to adapt (by far not finished!). It’s not easy to get accustomed to being a house owner, living in a house that is rather different from what you imagined your ‘if I ever buy a house’-type to be, and being responsible for a garden that looks completely different from what the garden of your dreams would look like. It will take a while.
The day after the move I got into the car and went off to participate in a workshop by Amy Pabst at Grit’s Life near Uelzen. It had been a rather spontaneous sign-up before I knew the date when the movers would come, so it wasn’t really a convenient time. But I had been smart and separated all the materials I needed for the workshop, easily accessible, easy to pack into the car, and a well-deserved respite in the midst of chaos.
I have admired Amy Pabst’s miniature log cabin and pineapple quilts at quiltfestival in Houston and at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, and I had been planning to interview her for the Patchwork Gilde’s magazine issue “Log Cabin” that is coming up next year. So when I read that she was coming to teach in Northern Germany, not too far away from where I now live, I didn’t hesitate and signed up immediately.
I was joined by my friend Vanessa with whom I had already gone to a workshop with Jenny Hanes last year (and never wrote about it, because of all the things that were going on).
We may turn this into a tradition, because once may be a coincidence, twice is a repetition, and it only takes one more time to make it a regular, a tradition… we will see.
So we were signed up for a one-day workshop of mini pineapple, and we had fun. I must admit – I hate foundation paper piecing, and it was a bit strange that I would sign up for this workshop. But to my undiluted joy we found out that Amy’s technique excludes exactly that part of foundation piecing that has always been my most hated part: the removal of the foundation material.
We started with a 3-inch-block, went smaller with a 2-inch-block and then ended up attempting a 1-inch-block.
3 pineapple blocks in one day.
But – I do like it. It’s perversely small.
Anything but sustainable, because there is a lot of cut-off fabric when you cut back the seam allowances after adding another log. And yet, it touches something in my ‘trying to get smaller’ tendency. So I have sat down to construct a 1 ½ inch foundation pineapple pattern with EQ8 (yes, that knowledge needs to be refreshed!) and have started sewing small blocks.
At present I am leaving off the final corner pieces, telling myself they will be added when a bit more of a design will be recognizable. To be continued…
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