Lolly's Fabric Purchase

OK--just a quick post because once again I'm sleeee-eeeepy. Still adjusting to time changes. It's only an hour difference but man, does that still wreak havoc on your internal systems!

In any case, on my way home from Wisconsin I took a side trip to Shipshewana, Indiana. One store clerk there said, "Wow, that's really out of your way, isn't it?" Hmmm.... Maybe a half hour off the expressway? When I'm doing a 30 hour round trip, half an hour doesn't sound "out of the way." It sounds more like, "Take the opportunity as long as you're in spittin' distance!" I joked with her that quilters will travel almost any distance for a nice quilt shop. Since I suspect Lollys brings the vast majority of the business in the door of their "mercantile of shops," I'm guessing she's used to that response.

Lolly's was amazing, as usual.

Here's what I buyed. Well, you'll see the stack in the bottom left that were from the Quilt Foundry. Everything else was from Lollys. The three fabrics across the top (purple, teal, cream) have a purpose. I just need to come up with a design, but I've got a year to do it.

The two packages in plastic with fabrics arranged in diamonds are sets of 5" squares, 40 0f them. Not by Moda so they can't call themselves a charm pack. Don't recall what they were named. But they're all batiks. Gorgeous batiks.

The four charm packs altogether (I can call them all charm packs without getting a cease and desist, can't I?) I bought with something in mind...


I have one "Little Charmers" pattern from designer Heather Mulder Petersen (I think that's her name--it's way too late for me to go dig the pattern out and check. If I don't correct this later, that means it's right) in her Anka's Treasures series. I made several table runners from that one pattern--it has three options in it--for Christmas gifts a couple of years ago and then made myself one this year. I was thrilled to see that Lolly's had several other in the series--I really like these. Hence, picking up a couple of charm packs as well. I see more table runners in my future. I only have so much wall and bed space, right?

The other two patterns at the bottom are the Five Yard Quilt series that I mentioned in my episode about the Quilt Foundry. The fabrics I bought will be used in the pattern on the left--it'll look really wonderful in all spa colors.

OK--I'm dozing off over the keyboard so I'll have to wait until later to post pictures of the physical shops themselves.

By the way, I did finally manage to get back to my sewing machine for the first time in weeks tonight. Got the backing pieced together for a UFO I'm sending off to a long-armer. Woohoo! I'll be so glad to see that one done--it's been hanging around for a little over three years!

The Quilt Foundry fabric purchase

If you're interested in the background story to this fabric, listen to episode 55: In Which I Visit the Quilt Foundry (posted this evening). This is the P&B Textiles Sausalito line* that I purchased today at The Quilt Foundry, with the intention of using it for the Five Yard Quilt pattern #506, "Shadow Boxes."

I'd write more, but I've been on the road for a long time today and looking forward to a l-o-n-g night's sleep. So g'night, catch y'all later!

(*with apologies for bad hotel-room lighting that's graying out the colors but good. Trust me, it's really pretty!)

Half the fun down, the other half to go

Since I'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks, my husband suggested he and I do an overnight at a B&B in the Finger Lakes, something we haven't done very often. Here we are, near the Finger Lakes, and we've never gone to an inn on one of them. So last night we packed up and hit the road as soon as work was done; an hour and a half later it was like we were in a different world. Well, not entirely. It looked an awful lot like the town I grew up in and not too far off the town we live in. But it still, it was away. We had a great time. Already have plans to go back.

There was an antique fair going on while we were there and I found one of my favorite things: printing press letters. So I now have the word "quilt" displayed in mismatched printers letters displayed in my quilting area. Very cute. I love them. They make me smile.

I also got some foodie stuff at a cute little kitchen boutique shop (I'm a sucker for a good finishing sauce), and some really wonderful "found item" frames for antique pictures that will look great in my dining room.

There's a really nice quilt shop (rumored, anyway--I've never been there) nearby, but it was 10 minutes in the wrong direction so I didn't get to check it out. Next time!

After our overnight, my husband dropped me off at the New York Wine and Culinary Center for a cooking class I had registered for with my nephew, his mother (my sister), and a couple of very close family friends. The class was on grilled pizza. It was great fun! I picked up a couple of great cooking tips and came right home to put one of them into practice...not on pizza, but on fettucini. Can't wait until I'm back from my trip and can make some grilled pizza!

Tomorrow I'm taking my daughter to meet my in-laws for a local arts/crafts festival that I'm usually out of town for, so I'm looking forward to that. Absent the fact it's supposed to be 90 degrees or more. But we're not going to stay long because I have to finish packing when I get home.

I probably won't be able to blog again until I'm home in a couple of weeks. Stay quilty!

Summer Quiet

I haven't posted a podcast episode in the last week because I'm still in a quiet mood. Not sad, necessarily, although I'm still doing that "empty nest" thing that started the morning after my daughter's graduation. So weird little things hit me at odd moments. But it's also been a super-busy time at work, and a pretty stressful time for my husband at his work. So we've both been reacting--to stress and to empty-nesting--by, ironically, nesting. For example, today we celebrated the Fourth of July by paying bills, re-evaluating our budget (see previous references to two college tuitions!), then I gave the kitchen cabinets and appliances a thorough scrubbing while he headed out to do some yard work. I don't think we're even going anywhere to watch fireworks--we're both just in the mood to stay home. Mind you, I did take the morning to finish a book I was reading (the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy), and I believe my husband spent most of that time playing Civilization (his hobby of choice), so it's not like we were working like maniacs all day. But we simply chose not to go anywhere or do anything--just stay at home doing homey things.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd post some pictures of what was surrounding me this morning as I was finishing the book. Love this time of year.

Nothing else needs to be said...

(I shall return to our regularly scheduled programming later this week.)

Playing with the Palette for my Next Project

Nice alliteration in the title, eh?

So apparently it's not enough that I currently have four projects in the works; I have to start thinking about my fifth. Someone shoot me before I hurt myself.

What's on my design wall, cutting mat, or sewing machine right now?

(1) Pinwheel project (it's made significant progress since the last post that talked about it); (2) Serengeti project (from my May quilt retreat--apparently I've not posted a pic of it yet, sorry); (3) Chicken Butt project; (4) Hexie project (have 39 out of about 180 hexies cut). Plus two UFOs that really just need to get done this summer because they're starting to annoy me, hanging on their hangers, mocking me every time I walk by them.

But still, I can't help myself. I started playing with fabrics in my stash the other night. Here's the palette that resulted.

The two that got things rolling are the second and third in from the left. Several weeks ago I'd been moving fabrics around and just tossed one of those on top of the other to get it momentarily out of the way. When I went to pick it up later to put it away, I was struck by the two sitting side-by-side. Not my normal color palette at all. But even after I'd put them back in their normal locations, I found myself thinking about those two colors again and again. I finally put myself out of my quilty misery and started pulling other pieces off my shelf.

I was a little worried about contrast until I took the black and white version. It actually seems to be OK. I might still want something a hair lighter in there, maybe another print, but since I don't even know what I'm doing with them yet, I'm not sweating it at the moment.

I think I know what they're destined to become a part of, but it's all very misty in my head. I'll let it percolate on its own for awhile; it'll all come together in due time.

Apparently I'm working at a very high level of distraction these days. I suspect that has to do with the fact that it's crunch time at work right now; lots of deadlines hitting all at once. I can keep track of everything and stay head-down-blinders-on-nose-to-the-grindstone while I'm working. Then I get off my computer at the end of the work day and it's like every methodical part of me flies out the window and I can't keep focus for more than seven seconds at a time. I can live with that--I know it's not Normal Me so I'll roll with it and welcome Normal Me whenever she decides to come back and live in my house again.

Meanwhile, I have some fabric to go pet.

My Stash Challenge Project Results

I started another blog entry and then decided I really should devote one to my stash challenge project first. This quarter's challenge was to do something inspired by children's artwork and to use at least three fabrics from my stash. Well, if you read this blog entry a few days ago, you'll know it started out a bit rocky. But it got better from there. It's not completely done, but at least the main part is done and it wouldn't really take me all that long to finish him up. I just need to figure out when I'm going to do that. (See my next blog entry for my current quilty distraction level!)

So--before I show you the artwork it was based on, let me give you the backstory. When my daughter was a sophomore in high school, her art teacher had the class do a project on shadowing, which had the main purpose of teaching kids that shadows don't always have to be black or gray. The teacher hung a bunch of beanie babies from the ceiling (can't imagine how gruesome that may have appeared!) and instructed the kids to sketch the beanie baby nearest them in colored chalk on black paper. My daughter was the only kid in the class to take that quite literally--she drew exactly what she saw.

Introducing...Chicken Butt.

Yes, this is the only beanie baby backside represented in the entire art class. My daughter has a true sense of the ridiculous. That's my girl.

He's been hanging on the bulletin board next to my desk ever since she brought him home at the end of the year. He makes me laugh every time I look at him. So, when I hit upon the idea of making a challenge based on children's artwork, he became the obvious first choice. (I have another one of my daughter's artworks from around the same time that's also destined to be a wallhanging at some point, but it's much more sophisticated. No fluffy backsides involved.)

I decided to turn him into fused applique and then threadpaint him, trying as much as possible to imitate her cross-hatching and use of color.

Here's my result.

The background got a little puckery, although not as bad as it looks in this photo because I'd just pulled him out of the totebag I bring to my guild meetings--he got a little wrinkly in his trip to show n' tell.

The puckering is because I used a lighter weight stabilizer than I should have, but I followed the advice of my thread-painting teacher and used a steam iron frequently during the process, so the puckering actually isn't all that bad. And I think a lot of it will actually quilt out. Whenever I get around to quilting it, that is.



I had a ton of fun figuring out what color thread to use where. Mostly I used stuff in my thread collection (not quite big enough to be considered a "thread stash" yet). I did have to buy orange, pink, and blue thread since I didn't have any of the right shades. The blue came out darker than I thought it would--I'd have preferred something a little lighter.

His comb was fun to do. Also, you can sorta-barely tell in this photo that I used a tone-on-tone white for his body. I wanted to see what it would look like. I think it just adds a little extra dimension and fills in where I may have not been quite as even-handed with the thread.

I also had fun with the feet--I loved the way my daughter had shaded his feet in the original artwork. If I'd had an additional orange that was a few shades darker than the main orange here, I could have done even more shading. But it's still cute.

The biggest issue I had throughout this process was deciding what direction I was going to thread-paint in. Some places I went north-south; others east-west; others diagonal, or curvy. Sometimes (like on the top of the feet) I painted myself sort of a border around the outside edge if I wanted it to be more clean. Other places, like the body, I intentionally went out and over the edge of the fabric to depict his fur. I kept her original drawing close by so I could check directionality and do my best to follow it.

It was an absolute blast. I only broke one needle (on his puffy little tail--the purple thread I had was far too thick for this project) and had a few thread-nests (same place, same reason). Otherwise it was a hoot and I can't wait to do it again!

Chicken Butt needs to be finished, and then I suspect he's destined to become one of a series. I have so many images of him in my head now. So stay tuned!

If you'll permit me a departure from usual subjects for a moment...

It finally, and rather unexpectedly, hit me today.

I expect to get choked up at graduation.
I expect to get choked up (and probably more) when we drop her off at college and drive away that first time.

I seriously did not expect it today, when I ran her down to school for her last final exam of high school.

Baby girl is graduating.

We hopped in the car and headed down to school, as she ran me through her afternoon post-exam plans of walking from school into town with friends to hang out at the sub shop for awhile (Subway being the contemporary version of the 1950s soda shop around here). I dropped her off at the door after her habitual quick kiss on the cheek and, "Bye, Mom, love you!" tossed over her shoulder as she closed the car door behind her. I was fine. I pulled out of the parking lot, turned left onto the street to head back home, and the middle school came into view; it sits right next to the high school building. As I drew near the middle school, some class of kids came pouring out of a set of side doors with all sorts of balls in their hands and immediately started breaking up into groups based on whatever social categories exist for them at the moment. Guys wrestling in the grass, girls standing in tight circles whispering and giggling and looking nervously over the shoulders at the boys, a few kids standing uncomfortably by themselves around the fringe edges.

That's when it hit me. Baby girl is graduating. My throat tightened up as I recalled how relieved I was when both of my kids moved into high school--middle school is such a seething mass of hormones and every passing day brought its own drama. I watched those kids on the middle school lawn playing out whatever scenes their reality has set for them and remembered how vulnerable my own kids seemed during those years. Even now, picturing my middle-school kids' faces in my head, my heart twitches a little bit in memory--how much I wanted to protect them but needed to mostly let them find their own way; how alternatingly annoying and charming they could be; how we never quite knew what reaction to expect from one moment to the next; how relieved we'd be when baby girl would flash a smile instead of a scowl or when buzz-man (my son) would laugh something off rather than yell back in anger.

High school was ever so much easier.

As I drove away from my daughter today at the school, I realized that I hadn't waited for her to make it all the way into the front doors of the school like I always used to. I've had several months of reminding myself, "She's 18. She'll be at college soon. I won't even know what's going on." Apparently it's sunk in enough that I'm willing to assume she'll make it the 50 yards or so into the front door of the high school safely without me watching over her.

The event of going to college has very little to do with the kids learning to do without Mom and Dad, but with Mom and Dad learning that their kids are actually adults. And I'm good with that. I'm loving who my kids have grown up into. They may not always make the decisions I'd make, but generally speaking they make good ones. And the not-so-good ones, well, those are "learning experiences," as my Dad always used to call them.

My son is a few months away from being 21. I love the fact that he texts me several times a week--sometimes just to let me know what's going on with him; other times to ask for advice. My daughter has already said that she plans on putting Skype on her computer so we can do video calls with each other when she's gone. It's true--new communication has made the world much smaller these days. I'm excited for my daughter to start college--I think she's really going to bloom. My husband and I have commented to each other many times how much fun our kids are to hang out with now. They always have been, but there's a definite shift now into a different type of relationship. I'm enjoying every second of it.

So I'll wave farewell to the high school, the middle school, and the elementary school which all formed the locus of our lives for the last 20 years. I'll get a little choked up at graduation. I'll get even more so when we drop baby girl off at college. And I'll return to a house that would feel a bit too empty if it weren't for the two doofus dogs excited to get my undivided attention during the semester. And then we'll all move on to see what the future brings. Pretty cool stuff, all around.

Quilting Florally...

IMAG0928.jpg
Originally uploaded by sandyquiltz

I've decided that flower arranging is a very quilty thing.

Years ago, when I was first married, I had this image in my head of having fresh flowers in my apartment every week. I didn't really care whether my husband or I got them--I just wanted them there. Soon enough, as financial realities took over (a year after we got married we were both in grad school and had both our babies before both of us graduated), fresh flowers dropped way to the bottom of the priority list and they only showed up once or twice a year...anniversaries and birthdays.

Now, twenty-some-odd-years later, things have eased up enough that I can once again usually afford to spring for some flowers from the flower shop of my grocery store. I've found that I thoroughly enjoy choosing flowers. I almost never buy their pre-made bouquets. Instead, with a full basket of groceries starting to melt behind me, I find myself going through all their floral options and picking out which ones really strike my fancy that week. What mood do I want to set? What color scheme am I going to work with? What textures do I want involved?

Funny, it wasn't until this week that it struck me. Dang it if I wasn't thinking "quilty" while I was doing it! I wanted a mix of floral texture--big and small petals, much like big and small prints. My main color scheme (white, this week) with a few surprising accent fabrics...oops...I mean flowers...thrown in. Layout...borders (how the taller flowers frame the shorter ones)...yep, I'm designing a quilt in a flower vase.

I realized that I get some of the same gratification from putting together a bouquet as I do putting together a quilt--and it goes a whole lot faster! And, I don't have to worry about messing it up with my still-growing-machine-quilting skills. (I suppose you could try to stuff a flower head under your sewing machine needle but I suspect that wouldn't end well for the flower or the machine.)

So, so far this weekend, this bouquet is about as quilty as I've gotten. I suppose I ought to put in at least a half hour or so on one of my projects but I'm strangely just not in the mood. I'll go pet some fabric and see if it motivates me. If not, I've got some flowers to go sniff.

Attack of the Hexies--Part I (Introducing the Quasi-Quilt-Along)

This week's podcast episode, "In Which the Hexagons Attack," sorta officially launches a quasi-quilt-along that Jaye at www.artquiltmaker.com and Pam at www.hiptobeasquarepodcast.com and I are doing together using hexagons. Are we right in our heads, you may well ask? Remains to be seen. Especially after taking on projects using hexagons. I think I'll be all sorts of wrong by the time this is over.

So far I've worked out my design--kinda. (Have you noticed all the qualifiers I'm using in this post?) At least, I have an idea of where I'm heading and an idea of what it'll take me to get there. But I'm allowing myself elbow room for changes along the way. Organic, I think they call it. Allowing the quilt to speak for itself, they might say. Or, just hedging my bets. Which is more realistic but doesn't sound quite as artsy.

How is this a quasi-quilt-along? Well, we're not really giving you specific directions, patterns, designs, fabric quantities, or really anything else you can hang your hat on. Rather, we're giving you a process and a community. We're giving you links with information about the methods we'll be using, which you can find in the podcast show notes, or at Jaye or Pam's sites at the links above, and we'll be egging you on! We'll all be posting pics of our hexies in progress as we go, and sharing tips and tricks that we're picking up along the way. (Hint: There are no templates involved, and we're not hand-piecing. Although if that's your modus operandi, who am I to stop you?)

If you've never done a hexie before (like me), this is the perfect opportunity to try one out! Start with a small project (unlike me) and see how you like it.

If you've got hexie UFOs around, this is the perfect inspiration and encouragement to get 'er done! Did you get stuck on something? Post photos and get advice. Or just whine. We know how it feels.

If you're a hexie-afficianado and just want to do another one, come on board! Your experience is welcome.

Pam designed a great button for us to use--you'll see I've added it to the upper right of this blog. If you want to join us in making hexagons, go ahead and post the button on your blog too! Here's the link to it.

Leave a comment here or in the show notes to the podcast if you're on board! The more the merrier! Eventually I'll probably do some sort of give-away around it, just haven't gotten that far in my thinking yet. Let me at least get a few hexies cut, first....

Nice day at a quilt show...

I invited my MIL to go along with me this morning to the Genesee Valley Quilt Club quilt show, which they do every two years. It's a really big show--they take over the fieldhouse at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Lots of special exhibits, nice selection of vendors... Seems that every time they've had it, I've been out of town. This was the first chance I had to go, and I invited my MIL to come along to see a little more of "my world." She really enjoyed herself. I didn't take a ton of pictures--I was mostly enjoying just looking at things. And since I was using my cell phone several that I did take didn't come out well. But here are a few that came out OK that you'll enjoy...

"Gary's Quilt" by Sonya Pease. Sonya's a friend from my guild and my often-retreat-roomie, but I didn't even realize this was her quilt until after I started snapping pictures of it.

The colors attracted me at first, and I'm a sucker for a nice medallion center. But when you get closer to this quilt...











...you realize it's 3D! Check out the blocks--folded fabric. I didn't get a great picture of the border but you can sort of tell from this photo that it's also dimensional. Very cool

This is detail of the center medallion, which is also dimensional. Very hard to tell from this picture, but each of those little darker radials in the center is folded, and if I recall, so are the rust-colored points as well. (Don't quote me on that one now, though--I saw a lot of quilts today!)

I dug the fact that the dimensionality on this quilt was sort of a surprise element--you don't notice it until you're right up on it. Wonderful. Nice job, Sonya!

My cell phone camera really blurred this one--sorry. But it was a great photo quilt entitled "Tribute to the Women of Kenya" by Margaret Reek. The sign card read, "This quilt is a tribute to the Kenyan women pictured here, CTC International who rescued them and their disabled children from despair, and the American Sewing Guild Team who taught them to sew."

I love that she used this setting, in the shape of the country of Kenya, and the colors are from the Kenyan flag. The photo blocks are interspersed with blocks with symbols and sayings on them, and yes, that's a tail hanging down one side. Loved it.

And now for something completely different... "Winter Afternoon" by Caris Burton. The line running through the middle was blue--my cell sort of washed it out. I love the serenity of the piece. The quilting was straight horizontal lines across for most of it, but it was broken up by occasional boxes of other directional quilting.

"Many Molas" by Linda Bachman was inspired by molas from Panama. The card didn't say whether "inspired by" means that the applique blocks were molas themselves or whether Linda had made them based on molas. I tend to think the latter because there were other quilts in the show also inspired by molas--apparently it was a challenge.

I loved this quilt--great colors, great combination of machine and hand quilting/embroidery, and the setting and borders really worked with the feel of the mola blocks as well.

I love quilts in unusual shapes and this one grabbed me. "Legadema, Burnt Ebony's Daughter," by Patricia G. Faulkner, was inspired by one of her husband's photos from the Okavango River Delta in Botswana. I love how she laid the subject behind the grassy elements--you really do get the feel of the wild in this one.

One of the special exhibits was the "Fiber Face Project." Unfortunately I didn't get all the details of the project but it was a collection of local city school kids who had all done self-portraits in fabric. They were very, very cool. This one was the first prize winner, although how they could've chosen was beyond me.

Gotta love the wholecloth quilt, right? "Double Trouble" by Ruth Ohoi was gorgeous--and this was the back of it! Unfortunately, there were no "helping hands" folks in sight for me to get a look at the other side. It's also brown--I have no idea why my cell phone decided to turn it white. It didn't change the color much on any other quilts. Go figure.

One of the exhibits was the Keepsake Quilting Challenge first and second prize winners from the last few challenges. Here is Diane McClure's first prize winner of the "Welcome to Spring" challenge from 2009. I just loved those bunnies--and I especially loved how she quilted them. Very simple.

Can you tell how small this is based on the car clipped to it? "Cosmos in Lavender and Green" by Jean Cody was the result of a class with George Siciliano, who is well known for miniatures.

Detail of "Cosmos." Look at that. Gorgeous. Intense.

I've always been a fan of quilts that take the center out into the border in some way. This one also mixes boxes with kaleidoscope hexagons, and then blows them out the sides like they can't be contained. "Asian Wonder" by Judy Perkins is based on the One Block Wonders Encore book. I love Judy's colors, color placement, and border treatments.

And lookie who I ran into? Beth Davis, of episode 10 "In Which We Chat with an Appraiser," is the Genesee Valley Quilt Club historian and had a fantastic display (which my BFF/BQF Kate helped create and staffed on occasion, although she left before I got there--I ran into Kate at one of the vendors later buying, guess what?, fabric). Beth gave my MIL and me a quick demonstration of yo-yo makers as yo-yos were part of the historical quilt display, and they were encouraging people to sit in the booth and make them. Unfortunately, my MIL and I were on our way out at that point so we didn't try our hands at it, but I will probably be buying myself a yo-yo maker soon. I'm not a huge fan of yo-yos, but the pinwheel quilt I'm working on is crying out for them. So thanks, Beth, for showing me that the yo-yo maker tool would really speed things up for me!

That's all the pictures that are worth sharing--not that the other quilts weren't beautiful but my cell was just not cooperating and none of the other pictures came out well. Including, most disappointingly, the grand prize winner. Hopefully GVQC will post photos on their website!

I didn't do much at the vendors--I did buy two jelly rolls of neutrals at one vendor who had a really good price. Jelly rolls are often shy on neutrals so it'll be nice to have some as back-up.

Then I came home and, filled with inspiration, worked for another hour on my stash challenge project. It's coming along well!

And so the thread-sketching begins...

Or would it be thread-painting? Nope, I think I'm sketching more than painting, although I'm filling in quite a bit. So maybe it's impressionist painting?

You wanted pictures. Tee hee.

The point of no return...

















Partway done...

Applique...for the rest of us

Here is a step-by-step accounting of how Sandy goes about doing fusible applique.

Step 1: Trace my daughter's artwork onto tracing paper. Check.
Step 2: Redraw the tracing with a sharpie so I can see the lines better. Check.
Step 3: Figure out which order everything would need to be fused in so the pieces end up in the right order: mark pieces accordingly in traced drawing. Check.
Step 4: Give myself a serious pat on my back because everything is going along swimmingly. Check.
Step 5: Tape traced drawing down onto my plexiglass "light table" and trace drawing onto fusible. Check.
Step 6: Fuse all white pieces onto right side of white fabric. Oops.
Step 6 (take 2): Toss out fused white fabric. Find more white fabric in scrap bin. Retrace drawing onto new piece of fusible. Fuse onto wrong side of white fabric. Check.
Oops.
Step 5 (take 2): Toss out fused white fabric. Flip drawing over so it's in the reverse. Trace drawing onto fusible again, in the reverse this time. Check.
Step 6 (take 3): Fuse all white pieces onto wrong side of another scrap of white fabric from scrap bin.
Check and check.
Step 7: Fuse all orange pieces onto right side of orange fabric scrap.
Oops.
Step 7 (take 2): Toss orange fabric scrap, retrace drawing onto new piece of fusible, fuse onto wrong side of new orange fabric scrap.
Check.
Step 8: Fuse onto wrong side of yellow fabric. Give myself another little pat on the back for getting it right this time. Check.
Step 9: Fuse onto right side of purple fabric scrap. Really? Again? (Gutteral growl heard here.) Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know: Oops.
Step 9 (take 2): Toss out purple piece, retrace drawing, fuse onto wrong side of new purple fabric scrap. Check, for pity's sake.
Step 10: Align traced pattern, no longer in the reverse, under the applique pressing sheet. Set up all the fabric pieces in appropriate locations to check for setting. Check. Another pat on the back. Check.
Step 11: Start to pull all the stinking paper off the back of the fusible with no fingernails to speak of. Find a sharp pin to score paper to give me a fighting chance. Finally get all the paper off. Check.
Step 12: Pull paper scraps that fell on the floor out of the mouth of doofus Golden Retriever. Check. Throw doofus out of the sewing room. Check.
Step 13: Fuse pieces together on applique pressing sheet. Check.
Step 14: Cut a piece of black background fabric to size. Check.
Step 15: Carefully peel applique unit off pressing sheet--only almost losing one piece. Check.
Step 16: Align applique unit on background fabric. Fuse the darn thing once and for all, with flair and flourish, and a bit of a happy dance that--despite all the errors along the way--it's looking pretty dang cute at this point.

Check.

Machine Quilting with Alex Anderson: 7 Exercises, Projects & Full-Size Quilting Patterns by Alex Anderson


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Machine Quilting with Alex Anderson is a good companion book to Beautifully Quilted with Alex Anderson. (See my review.) In Beautifully Quilted, Anderson teaches the reader how to create quilt designs from scratch--which is very useful, although the designs she presents are much more easily suited to hand quilting, which is her first love. Machine Quilting deals with this issue, albeit briefly, with a short section on adapting hand quilting designs to machine--continuous line--quilting.




As always, she begins with a brief description of equipment needs--partcular features that are helpful, although not strictly necessary, on a sewing machine; consideration of needles and some troubleshooting tips here; considerations for threads, marking tools, and gloves or other helps in free-motion quilting, pins, and basting.




The next section is entitled "Preparing the Environment," and has a lot of really good information on ergonomics, lighting, and other things to keep in mind to set yourself up for better success. I wish I'd known some of this when I first started out--I learned some of it the hard way!




Following is a section on "Preparing the Quilt," which discusses marking, the adapting of designs for machine quilting, and basting. Next, there is a section entitled "Getting Started," which addresses machine tension, planning your stitching strategy as she terms it (what direction you're quilting in when), handling the quilt itself as you maneuver it through the machine, starting and stopping, anchoring your stitching line, and a short section on troubleshooting. Finally, there is a section addressing "Techniques and Practice Exercises" to get you rolling before you tackle a first project. The exercises take you through grids/straight line quilting, curves, echo quilting, following the fabric motif, stipples, and so forth.




Then there are the requisite projects that all her books contain which help you practice what the book teaches. "Perfect Practice Placemats" give you a chance to practice every one of the techniques in a small and easily managed way. "Floral Fiesta" would be a quick quilt pattern to put together as the center section is simply a large-scale floral print that you then practice following with free-motion quilting. "All Geese A'Flying" is an adaptation of a flying geese block to give lots of room for grid and cable quilt patterns. "Scrappy Nine Patch" allows for more grid practice, but then the border is a cable which wraps around the corners, giving you the opportunity to practice measuring and connecting your border patterns. "'Round the Twist" gives large open spaces to practice motifs, and "Straight Furrows"--a log cabin setting--allows for free-motion straight line quilting. (I have more difficulty doing a straight line with free-motion than I do curves!)Finally, "Basket in Blue" is a wholecloth quilt which is a great final project to the book--wholecloth quilts make the quilting "the thing," so skill is important here.




The book also has a brief section on quilt labels and recommended resources, plus pull-out paper patterns with quilt designs she has used in the book.




This would be good for beginners to machine quilting--it takes you step-by-step through a process meant to build your confidence in this technique.




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Beautifully Quilted with Alex Anderson: How to Choose or Create the Best Designs for Your Quilt: 6 Timeless Projects, Full-Size Patterns, Ready to Use by Alex Anderson


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I bought Beautifully Quilted a few years ago but just fell in love with it all over again as I pulled it off my shelf to review it. In terms of usefulness, I think this could easily be my favorite of the Alex Anderson series. I haven't done a lot with creating quilt designs that needed planning or marking, favoring free-motion quilting. But there have been plenty of times that I would have preferred to do something that required a little more forethought but wasn't entirely confident in my abilities to take it on. Now I see the possibilities in front of me and am hankering to take something on!




First is a section on "Tools and Terms," which describes basic tools that are useful in creating and marking quilting designes, from pencils and Sharpies to velum or tracing paper on a roll. I found myself making a list of tools I either didn't have yet or had forgotten where they'd run off to--and I'll note here that none of the supplies listed are particularly specialized. A plastic protractor like kids use in 6th grade math, butcher paper...easy to find stuff.




Next is a section on choosing quilting designs, discussing things such as filling the space, proportion, balancing the amount of quilting overall, background designs behind a main motif, and so forth. She also discusses ways to adjust commercial templates and how to transfer a design.




The next several pages are a wonderful gallery of quilts that highlight different quilting designs and shows how they add to the overall effect of a quilt. We all love the eye-candy, of course, but in this case it's very useful and educational eye-candy!




Following the gallery is approximately 20 pages of tips and techniques for drawing your own quilting patterns: grids, feathers, repeated motifs, and how to create a quilt design from an inspiration such as architecture or kid's drawings. Her instructions are extremely clear with excellent illustrations--it would be a very simple matter to take her information and create your own unique and original designs.




As with all of her books, there are several projects (five) that give you the opportunity to practice creating quilt designs. The quilt patterns are very simple blocks with lots of open space to highlight quilting, but that doesn't make them any less attractive.




That being said, I don't see myself doing the patterns in the book just to practice the quilting designs. Instead, the strength of this book lays in the 20 pages of techniques described in the paragraph again. I should also note here that the book does contain a tear-out section with full-size quilting patterns ready for use. But with her instructions in the book, I'm not sure I see the need for the patterns! I will also note that the designs she works with are more appropriate for hand-quilting than continuous-line machine-quilting, but with a little more thought and planning should be adaptable.




If you're not confident in your ability to draft your own quilting designs, I'd highly recommend this book.




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Kids Start Quilting with Alex Anderson: 7 Fun and Easy Projects, Quilts for Kids by Kids, Tips for Quilting with Children by Alex Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The concept behind Kids Start Quilting is an interesting one: write a book that gives a series of "workshops" that enable to reader to work with kids from ages 9-14 how to quilt. "Their approach to fabric and color was without the restrictions we adults seem to get hung up on. They were eager to get involved and learn. There were no gender boundaries....The kids were far more skilled and 'ready' than we had anticipated," Anderson states in her introduction. The book was based on real-life experience that Anderson and Liz Aneloski had in working with kids in this age range, so it's well tested.

The book is actually written for the kids themselves, but it has tips in it for adults working with kids. Honestly, I don't see a nine-year-old sitting and reading the book her- or himself, but perhaps a 14-year-old would. That being said, the book starts with a brief description of what a quilt is, the blocks that will be covered in the book, a list of standard mattress sizes, tools and supplies, some information about fabric, fabric grain, and preparing the fabric, and then it launches into "The Basics." The section on basics covers rotary cutting, pinning, stitching, seam ripping, pressing, settings, borders, backing, batting, basting, how to tie a quilt, hand quilting (nothing on machine quilting), and binding.

Then follows seven projects, including a split-rail fence quilt, four-patch, log cabin, "secret" sawtooth star, half-square triangle quilt, and then a sampler quilt which includes each of those blocks. The final project is instructions for making pillows from each of the blocks.

If you have kids and would like some help in teaching them to quilt, or think they'd be old enough and interested enough to work through the book themselves with a little adult assistance here and there, I'd think this would be a good addition to your library.



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Hexies

I woke up this morning with hexagons in my head. I blame Jaye.

You see, Jaye can be a bit of an evangelist about hexagons. Really. Last night she and I got tweeting back and forth about hexies and she talked me into it. In 140 characters or less. Amazing. Granted, she caught me at a weak moment--it was closing in on midnight my time so my brain was beginning to get fogged with sleepy-time thoughts. I was in a suggestible mode, I suppose, while she was still cranking on all her west-coast-three-hours-earlier perkiness. But there it is, officer. I can blame no one but myself. I have agreed to allow hexies to enter my life.

When we finished our conversation last night, I was thinking a mix of scraps and fat quarters. But when I woke up this morning, there was a full-blown hexie quilt in my head in blues and creams/beiges. So I suppose it must be done. (To badly misquote the well-known baseball movie, "If you dream it, it will come.") It looks to me like I have sufficient stash of blue and neutrals to pull off the 30-or-so different fabrics Jaye recommended. Since some of those blues have been on my shelf awhile, it seems legitimate to scrap-ify them. I may throw in another color just for kicks n' giggles. We'll see what happens when I start slicing. What mood strikes. Or whether I'm designing when I'm on east coast or west coast time.

Jaye's introduced me to a fast way to cut hexies--looks like it can be attributed to Kaye Wood, given some of the links she's provided me. The cutting isn't actually what worries me. You see, this whole conversation began on the topic of Y-seams. Like, "Gee, Jaye, I've been quiltmaking for over 10 years and I've never done a Y-seam." "Easy-schmeasy," she replied, or something along those lines. (Ok, so maybe I've never heard the phrase "easy-schmeasy" come from Jaye's mouth--or, more appropriately, her thumbs on a cell phone keypad via twitter--but that's my east coast translation of her west coast philosophy.) She's promised to teach me her (once again) easy-schmeasy approach. I trust her. I think.

I'll let you know when I become awash in hexies. I may need someone to throw me a life preserver.

2011 Quilty Resolutions Check-In

Those of you who are listeners will recall that I encouraged everyone to make some quilty resolutions (or goals) for 2011. There was even a fabric give-away involved--yay! In any case, lots of folks did make their resolutions and I really enjoyed reading all of them. (For those of you who haven't heard it yet, here's the episode.)

It's not quite the six-month mark yet, but I thought I'd do a quick check-in with where I stand on mine so that I can assess what I've managed to accomplish and also remind myself of what I still have left to do.

I realized I actually had two sets of resolutions--one that I posted on the podcast page, and another I posted in a different quilt group I'm involved in. They overlap a little but not as much as I'd hoped. So here are both lists combined:

1. Use five days in 2011 as personal quilt retreat days.
Assessment: I've spent more time quilting on each of the two days I've had so far, but can't say I've been able to set a day totally aside as a quilt retreat day. I need to get more intentional about that.

2. Take two quilt classes (preferably in person) My other list only had one in-person class as a goal.Assessment: I took part of one online class through QuiltUniversity but let it slide halfway through. However, I do have an in-person class coming up this weekend at my guild quilt retreat--we have the opportunity to take a thread painting class during the retreat. I'm in!

3. Use or donate 5 books from my quilt library. My other list had "use two books from my library for projects."
Assessment: I've given at least 10 books away to other quiltmakers, and have a stack to take to my guild retreat for the silent auction this weekend. My MIL's "Floral Bouquet" quilt was made from one of the books in my library. So I've met one version of this goal and am halfway on the other.

4. Make two holiday projects sometime before the holidays so I have them in time to decorate (and not just on Thanksgiving day or Christmas eve!).
Assessment: not yet!

5. Use at least one jelly roll and one charm pack from my stash.
Assessment: I used one jelly roll in the "Floral Bouquet" quilt, so this goal is half met. I'm sure I'll use at least one charm pack since one of my holiday projects is likely to be a charm pack table runner pattern.

So--halfway through the year and I'm halfway through my goals! What about you? If you had submitted goals for my challenge, you'll probably find them here. (If you emailed them to me, they wouldn't appear in the comments. I did manage to get at least half of you connected to a spreadsheet I'd set up in Google Docs to help us all track but Google Docs was giving me fits and I was never able to get the other half connected. Sorry about that!) If you aren't a listener or didn't submit any goals but still have some of your own, let us know how you're doing!

Finish It with Alex Anderson: 6 Terrific Quilt Projects, How to Choose the Perfect Border, Options for Edges by Alex Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"In some ways, making a quilt is like parenting a child: your best intentions for them may not be the road they choose," begins Alex Anderson's Finish It with Alex Anderson. (Well, OK, it doesn't quite exactly start with that sentence, but the sentences appears within the first couple of paragraphs.) Her premise is that quilts often make their own decisions about how you should finish them, and she does outline some instances in which that happened for her in Finish It. If you're looking for some basic information on border treatments, this is a good resource.

The book begins with a section on basic quilting tools that are specifically relevant to border-making, such as a tape measure (which I don't use for anything else in quiltmaking, frankly). The other tools are pretty standard stuff--"Be sure your machine is in good working condition," "Use a quality cotton thread," and so forth. I don't know that the section was necessary--one would think by the time you got to making borders you already knew you'd need good thread and a working sewing machine. But for some reason all quilt books in the last decade include basic quiltmaking information, like a brand-new quilter might pick up a book on finishing a quilt before she'd ever even started one, and would try to learn how to quilt from it. Perhaps, I suppose. I would have rather seen that page used for something else, such as further discussion on allowing the quilt to talk to you in determining borders. (She started out in such an interesting way but then doesn't come back to that whole line of conversation much.)

Next, however, Finish It then moves to the crux of the matter: "Border Basics." Here there are sections on things to think about in terms of border proportions and other design matters, squaring up the quilt, measuring for borders, cutting and grainline, stitching borders, and border options (butted, mitered, partial-seam, corner squares, pieced borders, self-bordering quilts, and applique and quilted borders), with basic instructions or considerations for each. Good information, well presented.

The next chapter is "Edge-Finishing Basics," including a section about binding: straight-grain vs. bias binding, figuring binding length, double-fold, preparing the quilt for binding, squared corners, mitered corners, methods to end binding, and scalloped-edge binding. This chapter also includes directions for creating folded piping and prairie points.

For some reason, the book then has a couple of pages with "general quiltmaking basics." See my comments above on my thoughts on that in this case. I will say that some of the general quiltmaking basics here do specifically reference borders. And it's only two pages, so it's not overly prominent. But still, I'm just sayin'.

As all Alex Anderson books do, Finish It then uses six projects to give quiltmakers the opportunity to experience different border treatments. "Rail Fence" is a self-bordering quilt (in other words, the blocks themselves become the border by being done with a different color treatment). "Amish Baskets" is a medallion quilt which uses corner blocks in each of the borders: the two narrower inner borders just have a corner square of fabric; the main outer border has corners of basket blocks. Additionally, this quilt also uses piping along the binding edge--an opportunity to play with two techniques. "Unknown Star" has a pieced border of half-square triangles. "Irish Nine-Patch" has a scalloped border (on which Alex used a scrappy pieced bias binding that's quite cute). "Butterfly" has prairie points, and the final project, "Scrappy Triangles,' has a very lovely appliqued border.

There isn't a single Alex Anderson book that I don't like on some level. They're always well written, have easy-to-follow instructions, and they start with the basics and then challenge the reader to move just a little beyond. Finish It offers solid ideas and guidance for several traditional methods for finishing a quilt--it does what it sets out to do very well. In the grand scheme of reference books on border methods, however, this one doesn't stand out for me. It's good, just not great. Finish It with Alex Anderson: 6 Terrific Quilt Projects, How to Choose the Perfect Border, Options for Edges



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Happy Mother's Day--yay!

My Mother's Day gift! The SewEzi portable sewing table has gotten rave reviews--I don't think anyone in my guild has it but several folks on my last retreat were talking about people they knew who had them who absolutely love them. I have wanted one for awhile to take to retreats, plus I've thought it might be useful to have if a friend came over to sew with me again. The day my BFF/BQF Kate came over to sew with me, I had her set up with my old machine on a small folding table and a plexiglass extension on the machine, which worked OK but was a little wobbly. The SewEzi is supposed to be pretty sturdy with minimal vibration.

Sadly, although my DH wanted to order it for me he wasn't 100% positive what he was actually ordering and didn't want to get anything wrong, so my family announced it as my gift and then I placed my own order for it tonight. Which is absolutely fine--it just means there's no way I'll have it in time for my guild retreat this weekend. Dang. Guess I'll just have to go on more retreats!

Once I've had the chance to take it for a "spin," I'll do a review of it on my podcast.