A Test and a Shop Hop

My daughter's driving test today went swimmingly, despite several indicators to the contrary. Threatening rain, a 90-minute drive to the test site, having already failed one test.... I took the day off from work to focus on getting her through today as successfully as possible. We spent a little time on some last minute practice, then made the drive to the town the test was in, had a relaxed lunch, hung out for a bit. And then--yay! She passed! Only 6 days before leaving for college...talk about squeaking it in under the wire!

I took advantage of the fact that the town we had to do her test in is right in the middle of Amish country. Good food, great quilt shops. There's one I particularly like--an Amish family farm where she's set up a fabric shop in a shed in her driveway. It's bigger than that sounds, and she has a lot of nice fabric in there. I had recalled that she had several of the Moda Essential Dots collection last time I was there, and I'm a fan of those. Yep--still there! And more colorways than I recalled! So I bought colors I often use--a yard of each, except the one on the far right. I got three yards of that one because I'm planning on using some of it as sashing for an upcoming project.

After dinner tonight, baby girl took her first solo flight in the car, asking me if I wanted anything from the grocery store. Sure--we can always use another gallon of milk. Off she went! To keep my mind off her being out alone in my car, I spent a little more time prepping for an upcoming project from the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt. Playing with fabric--the best therapy!

Book Review: Stack the Deck Revisited

Stack the Deck Revisited: Updated Patterns from Stack the Deck! by Karla Alexander

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It might be a little early to post a review of this since I just bought it today and haven't actually made anything from it yet. But I bought it because someone had taught me this technique at a quilt retreat a few years back; I've made a few quilts using the basic idea, but could never get it to work quite right. What a difference it made reading her actual instructions! Now it all begins to make sense...



Plus, I like some of the variations she presents on the basic concept. I'm particularly a fan of the stained glass window version towards the back of the book.



So, although I've already made three and a half quilts using this idea (the half being a UFO I really must finish before winter hits!), I can see a few more in my future. They're a hoot to do and, if you stick to fairly basic versions, pretty fast. Great gifts for babies, kids, and anyone needing a cuddle quilt.



View all my reviews

Another finish--Serengeti

"Serengeti," designed by Toni Whitney (see post for info)

Yippee! I can add another finish to my list! I had a day off Friday after my trip to Phoenix and was so jet-lagged that I wasn't up to much except sewing. Or, at least, I had the right kind of sewing I could do while jet-lagged. Perhaps that's more accurate. In any case, between Friday, Saturday, and about an hour on the binding today, I was able to finish the Serengeti project in time for it to head off to college with my daughter. A week early, even! Woohoo!

To give you some perspective, this finishes about 26"x 24". I highly recommend Toni Whitney designs, and the kits for them through Bigfork Bay Cotton Company. The pattern was extremely well written and included all the drawings for the pieces in such a way that it was very easy to figure out which pieces were supposed to be done in which fabric, and in what order to fuse them down. As I have said before, I went ahead and bought the kit instead of just the pattern--it saved a tremendous amount of time trying to find the right fabrics, and I'm really not sure it was much more expensive than having done it all on my own would have been. Since this was to be a piece for my daughter's enjoyment and nothing that I intended as a piece that would show off my own talent, such as it is, I was fine with doing this one by kit. Usually picking out fabrics is my favorite part of a project, but this particular project would have made me crazy. I know my limits.

This pic shows a little of the detail of my stitching around the edge of each piece. The pieces are all fused down and it's not the kind of thing you'd do much quilting on (unless you wanted to really go to town with bringing out detail of fur with thread, I suppose), so you stitch down every one of those tiny little pieces to make sure they'll really stay put.

Then you put the backing on and quilt the borders. I just did a very simple stitch-in-the-ditch on the two narrow inner borders, and as simple as I could get in the outer border. Partly, I wanted to get the thing done so I didn't want to spend a lot of time on the borders, and partly I really wanted the focus to stay on the very cool and majestic lion.

I enjoyed doing this, and learned some things along the way. That being said, I'm also thrilled it's done. It'll be awhile before I tackle something that requires tweezers to move itty bitty pieces into place again.

Grilled Pizza Debriefing

Rolling out the dough. Using my new French rolling pin that I bought at a local arts festival a few weeks ago. Polished maple. Absolutely love it!

Stacked up the rolled crusts with parchment paper between, covered with a damp towel to keep them from drying out. Wanted as much rolled before everyone got there as possible so I wouldn't be spending the afternoon with a rolling pin in my hand rather than a tasty summer beverage. (Note to self: next time use parchment paper that covers the entire piece of dough. When my nephew took the crusts to the patio to grill and they started warming up, they got very chummy with each other under that towel and we had problems with some of them not letting go of each other.)

Oops. Forgot to take a picture of the toppings "bar" before it got nailed by hungry guests. But you get the idea. BTW, the dip in the middle of the fruit plate (pineapple and strawberries) was also a new recipe--very tasty! Plain yogurt with a banana blended in, cinnamon...maybe one or two other things that I've forgotten now, but yum. Especially with pineapple. Who'd-a-thunk that pineapple and cinnamon would be tasty together? I also made a acai-pomegranate salad dressing that's a definite keeper. Successful day all around with the first-timer-recipes.

My nephew's pizza stylin's on the grill. (Don't recall what all was on his: alfredo sauce, spinach, black olives, garlic, tomatoes...probably at least three other things. He's the most adventuresome eater of all of us.) Grill the crust first, then add toppings, then bake it off either over indirect heat on the grill or in the oven. We had both going at once to try to get as many pizzas done at one time as possible.

Mine waiting its turn to go on the grill. Alfredo sauce, spinach, caramelized onions, pancetta, parmesan. Plus I threw some roasted red peppers on the top right before it hit the grill--I'd been waffling on them and finally gave in. (I've always loved roasted red peppers. Don't know why I was waffling in the first place.)

My MIL surprised me by bringing dessert. French vanilla pound cake that she split into three parts lengthwise, then grilled briefly to toast it up just a little. Spread a marscapone-with-lemon cream filling between the layers with strawberries, blueberries and red raspberries. Very, very good!

I'm exhausted now--two days on my feet getting everything ready. But the upside is I have lots of leftovers of dough, grilled crusts, and toppings. I think I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow!

A Foodie Post: Grilled Pizzas

This post is dedicated to Susan of The History Quilter. :-)

A few weeks ago, my nephew and I took a cooking class at our local culinary school (NY Wine and Culinary Center), learning how to make grilled pizza. I've made homemade pizza for a long time, but have always wanted to try grilling it, so I was really excited about the class. My sister (said nephew's mother), and a family friend and her daughter joined us. The class was an absolute hoot. Grilling pizza is surprisingly simple, plus I learned how to make a couple of different sauces on top of it.

So tomorrow we've invited my in-laws over and my nephew and I will be testing our grilled pizza chops. There will be somewhere between 7 and 9 people here. I'm planning on making fairly small personal-sized pizzas so that (1) they'll grill and bake pretty quickly and (2) people can play with topping combinations by doing a couple of different pizzas for themselves. My nephew will be the grill-master; I'll be in the kitchen. (He'll grill the crusts, then we'll bake them off both in the stove and over indirect heat on the grill--we'll need both going at once to get everyone taken care of in a decent time frame.)

Mind you--grilling pizza is easy, but providing a range of toppings takes a long time. I spent a few hours in the kitchen today in prep, and still have some left to do tomorrow in addition to the dough. (Of course, adding bruschetta and a fruit plate with yogurt dip into the menu as appetizers didn't help. I have problems with thinking small!)

Our options are going to be:
Sauces: Traditional red pizza sauce (store-bought, but a nice one); Margherita sauce (homemade); Alfredo sauce (homemade); olive oil and garlic or seasonings as desired
Cheeses: Mozzarella, feta, goat cheese, parmesan
Toppings: Roasted red peppers (my daughter did those--she's really good at it); spinach; sliced Roma tomatoes; black olives; pancetta; caramelized Vidalia onions; red onions; pineapple--if any is leftover from the fruit plate appetizer; pepperoni; fresh basil and fresh oregano from my garden; sliced garlic (yep, raw--that's my nephew's request). I may end up adding Italian sausage to the list tomorrow if my nephew decides to run out and buy some for me.

I also made a homemade acai salad dressing--which was supposed to be pomegranate but my daughter grabbed the wrong bottle at the grocery store and I didn't notice until we got home. But the acai juice was a blend with pomegranate anyway, so the recipe didn't seem to care. Still tasty. And I'm debating between two different yogurt dip recipes to put with the fruit tray--that'll take me all of about 5 minutes to do tomorrow so I'm not sweating it.

So wish me luck as we crank up the grill and see if we've remembered everything we learned. I'll try to remember to snap a picture somewhere along the way but can't make any guarantees!

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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