Sister's Choice Quilts

Hey, I'm Still Here

istockphoto

Sorry to have dropped out of sight for a few days there!  Guess what?  I got a new job!  It is a part time job, just five hours a day four days a week.  I get Fridays off, work with kind and mellow women, have a bright sunny office all to myself, and think I am going to like it very much.  My desk isn't quite as swanky as the one pictured above, but it is very nice indeed.  I feel so grateful to have found employment when so many people are out of work.  I am very lucky indeed.

I will have plenty of time for quilting, reading and playing with my silly dogs.  I have been sewing all weekend, so you will see the fruits of my labors in my posts this week.

The other big news is that Ozzie and Sophie got haircuts.  Did they ever need them.  I have never seen such shaggy dogs.  Ozzie behaved badly at the grooming salon of course, and had to wear the "happy cap" again.  Sophie was an angel and will happily be invited back.  We will probably have to pay double for Ozzie, if they take him again.  Ozzie is extremely unhappy with his new look, and crawled into Sophie's smaller dog crate and tried to make himself very small.  Look at that glower on his face.  I don't think he is coming out until his hair grows out.

Hope you are all having a terrific weekend!

Samurai Squares

 

Have any of you attended a Strip Club Class at your favorite quilt shop?  A Strip Club is a group that gathers to make a quilt out of the popular 2 1/2 inch strips (sometimes called Jelly Rolls) that are so popular these days.  I highly recommend going to at least one of these workshops for wonderful ideas and fun projects.

The shop where I joined in the We Be Stripping group (Prairie Queens in San Jose, CA) has a cool machine that cuts strips out of fabric right there at the store.  That means that they are not limited to the commerically produced pre cut strips, but can come up with their own innovative collections of fabrics and bundle them up for sale for students of the Strip Club, or other interested customers who just love the fabrics they have combined.

Prairie Queens has some strip collections left from recent Strip Club classes and they are available for purchase.  (Sorry, I got the last set of black and whites).  If you go to their website, you can see previous offerings that may still be available.

I was simply blown away by this collection of blacks and whites.  The quilt pattern is by Cozy Quilt Designs and is called Samurai Squares.  The concept is so simple-  pick two colors for your strips and add a contrast color.  There are three different blocks in the quilt.  All use three fabrics in the same block design, but there are three differing color placements.  The blocks are then set on point.  I think this combination is breathtaking.  The class sample was done in black and white and a golden orange accent.  The picture below is from the pattern cover from Cozy Quilts.

 

I got home from the class at 1:30 and by 4:30 had made 10 blocks!  I will keep you posted on my progress on this one.  Wouldn't the Tour d'Eiffel fabric make a wonderful outer border?

Batik Challenge

I have not made much progress to speak of on the Batik Challenge I have joined with Lisa, Kristin, and Marianne.    These purple fabrics are divine to play with and as a result I have been doing major fabric fondling and not much cutting or sewing!  I did set up links to the other challenge participant's blogs, and recommend that you go check them out.  We have some seriously talented quilters in this challenge.

Making a batik quilt seems more about the art of color placement than it does about sewing, in my opinion.  For this project, I am going to get plenty of practice with color placement, as my blocks are pretty small--5 1/2", and I need to make 50 of them.  I start with a 2 1/2" square and build around it.  Three fabrics are combined in each block, and you can have limitless fun mixing dark fabrics, light fabrics and combinations of values.

My dreamy group of purples was given to me by a group of quilting friends, and I added to it when I visited a local quilt shop called Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove, which is known for its batiks, Asian and Kaffe Fasset fabrics. Check out your local quilt shops--I bet they have an entire section of batiks that you usually pass right by on your way to see the latest Modas, Windhams, Andovers and RJRs.  Next time you are in the shop, stop, look and use your imagination when it comes to batiks.

I don't know why I have not made more batik quilts, as they seem to allow a wonderful expression of one's imagination and creativity.  If you have never made a batik quilt, or have not made one in some time, I suggest you get a collection of fabrics in your favorite colors and start playing around.  There are awesome collections of batiks available from practically every major fabric company.  If you want to immerse yourself in a sea of greens and blues, they are out there.  Love apricots and peaches?  You can find a great selection in batiks.  Earth tones?  Knock yourself out.  Even if you think "batiks are so not ME", I encourage to make a small project using them, if only for the exercise of dabbling with colors and values.  If you don't end up loving your results, there is someone you know who will!

Charisma Spice Cake and Fresh Air in the Cabin

After yesterday's nonsense, I decided to get myself in gear today and finish up a couple of things on my To Do list.  I got the borders on two quilt tops!  The one above is from a pattern called Spice Cake by Mary's Cottage Quilts.  The fabric is Charisma by Chez Moi for Moda.  The pattern uses a layer cake, and made an enormous quilt in no time at all.  The bed I have it shown on is queen sized, and it hangs down plenty long enough on each side.  This quilt is so simple, the fabric and the quilting design are what ultimately will make it sing.

I LOVE this quilt.  It has a contemporary look that is so trendy right now.   I used fabric called Fresh Air, also by Chez Moi for Moda.  The pattern came from Evelyn Sloppy's book Log Cabin Fever.  This one went together quickly too, and was loads of fun with all the fabrics I had to play with--I think I had nearly 70, including my scrappy lights from the stash closet.  My quilt is one row shorter than Evelyn's pattern because I ran out of fabric, believe it or not.  If you recall, I had two jelly rolls that I cut down to 1 1/2 inch strips.  Even with all my extra tone on tones I ran short.  This pattern would be better made from actual yardage as the author recommends.

The block, by the way, is a very simple version of a log cabin style block called Courthouse Steps.   Three "rounds" encircle a center square in each block.  I really liked using the solid looking tone on tones in each block for uniformity and to give the eye a rest from the busy prints.

This particular quilt would be sensational made up in a variety of different fabrics.   Gather up your plaids and some coordinating tone on tones and you would have a masculine or "cabin-y" quilt.  Or how about a collection of florals?  It would be very cool done as a Christmas quilt, with a selection of Christmas-y prints and some tone on tones in red, green black and gold.  Oooh, oooh, now I am excited!  How about a collection of Asian prints and some coordinating tone on tones?  The scrappier the better with this block. 

I liked making it so much, I may just do another one!

Simply Sophisticated Months Three and Four, and Nicole Has a Hissy Fit

Today was one of those days when I should have stopped while I was ahead.  My plan was to get caught up on some of the Block of the Month projects I have joined, since heaven knows I haven't been keeping up all that well.  I must have a dozen blocks to  make in all to get current.   The blocks above are the Simply Sophisticated BOM blocks for Month Three.  Cute little square in a square block, which went together like a dream.  I even made one in black and white for the applique quilt I am going to make for my future grand child if I ever have one.

I should have been happy with that, and just turned off the Bernina and shut the door of the sewing room.  Go read a book or something.  Run the vacuum.

But I didn't.  I thought "well, that was nice, I believe I will move on to Month Four".  Month Four is the block Card Trick, which most of you are probably familiar with.  I have always wanted to make a Card Trick quilt, but have never gotten around to it.  My friend Lisa, who has a much better imagination than I do, once told me that she doesn't care for that block and would never make an entire quilt out of it.

Let me just say that for every seam I sewed correctly on these blocks, I sewed two or three the wrong way.  I am completely covered by little threads produced by all the seam ripping.  You know the Paul Simon song "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"?  Just substitute the words "50 Ways to Sew a Block Cattywampus" and you will have my story in a nutshell.

Finally, after WAY too much time had gone by, the blocks were finished.  Pressed to death, fabric stretched all out, and crummy points.

And I HATE them.  They are ugly and executed poorly.  Every single thing about the blocks is just wrong.  That baby diahrrea colored solid fabric does not add one single thing towards making me like it any better.

Just so you know, the problem here was all Operator Error, by which I mean my lack of satisfaction with these two blocks has nothing to do with the pattern, and everything to do with my inability to follow directions and my lack of spatial awareness.  I even pressed the seams all in the wrong direction.

 At the end of this project, if I have any fabric left over, which I think I will, I plan to make two different blocks and substitute them in the place of these.

The one in black and white doesn't annoy me as much, but it gave me plenty of grief too.  You would think by the time I got to the third one, I would have the technique down, but you would be wrong.

Ok, I am going to go have a glass of chardonnay now.

Batik Challenge

Sometimes it takes a quilting buddy to get you out of your comfort zone and get a different kind of quilt made.  Or just get *something* made!  My friend Lisa suggested that the two of us challenge each other to finish a Batik quilt, and I thought it was a splendid idea.

Last April, at a quilting retreat I organized at San Damiano Monastery, I was given a selection of gorgeous purpley batiks.  I had forced everyone to play a dismal FUN game called Left Center Right, where you pass fat quarters around a circle based on your dice throw.  At the end of it all, I was given the pot of fat quarters, not because I had won them fair and square, but because everyone was thoroughly sick of the game and couldn't figure out how else to end it.

The retreat is happening again this coming April, and I would feel very guilty if I didn't have something to show for all those generously given fat quarters.  Hence, the idea behind the Challenge.

I have two books that feature batik fabrics, both by Laurie Shifrin.  I have it on good authority that she will soon be coming out with a third book, so you will want to look for it at your local quilt shops.  Laurie's books are all full of inspiring, gloriously colored batik quilts, in beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.  There is something for everyone in her books.

This is the pattern I chose, Native Rainbow:

Here are my purple fabrics:

So, if you would like to join Lisa and I, the rules are simple:  pick a pattern out of the Batik Beauties or Batiks and Beyond books by Laurie Shifrin and post your progress on making the quilt of your choice.  Let me know if you want to sew along, and I will post a link to your blog on my side bar.  The deadline is April 24, because that is when I need to have my top done to take to the retreat!   Come on, it's time to use some of those great batiks you know you own!

Picketty Sticks

You may have noticed that I am into bright and cheery fabrics these days.  I am feeling very upbeat lately with all my free time to sew, and find that happy colors suit my mood perfectly.  I cannot believe I actually own the fabric group pictured above, but there it was, smiling at me from the stash closet.  For a time, I belonged to the Fatquarter Shop's Jelly Roll of the Month Club, and this was one of the offerings.  Sometimes, fun things just turn up in the mail box.

At the recent retreat I attended, my daughter Sara was working on a pattern from one of Heather Mulder Petersen's books, On A Roll Again.  If you don't already have this book, go get it from your local quilt shop.  It is full of great ideas on how to use Jelly Rolls, as is Heather's first book On A Roll.  (I swear I am not on her payroll, I just love her stuff!)

The pattern Sara was working on was one called Picketty Sticks.  Sara used a jelly roll of the Fig Tree's Fig and Plum group, and it turned out so adorable--everyone at the retreat said they wanted to copy her.

The point of the pattern is sew strips onto a muslin base, and angle the strips slightly so that the effect is slightly wonky.  Sewing wonky on purpose?  I am so there.  Anyway, you sew four of these vertical strip panels together and put on a border and you have a simply adorable quilt in no time flat.  And Heather is not kidding when she says the cutting takes five minutes.  Maybe even less.

Sewing the strips on a muslin base ensures that your panels will be straight once you trim off the edges, and not veer crazily to the left or the right.  See how I have my strip angled slightly?  Line your presser foot up with the edge of the top fabric and sew right along it.  Fold the excess muslin from the strip to the right so it is out of your way.  Once stitched, flip the top strip over and iron.

For this project, you will want to move your iron right next to the sewing machine, because you must press every strip open after stitching and you do not want to keep hopping up and down to the ironing board.

So here's the thing.  You do not have to make an entire quilt using this method.  Make just one panel, to the length you prefer, put a border or two on it, and you have made the cutest table runner ever.  The muslin gives the piece extra structure and weight, so for a table runner, you might even skip the quilting of it.  Or just do stitch in the ditch, which anyone can do. 

Let your imagination go with this one.  Use those leftover scraps of seasonal fabrics you know you all have.  Halloween, Patriotic, Christmas.... 

You see where I am going with this? 

 

Sophie Has Cosmetic Surgery

I know, she is awfully young to have cosmetic surgery, but something happened to Sophie and we just had to have the procedure done.  I have mentioned that she has been awfully feisty with Ozzie and that there has been a bit of fighting going on between them.  At first, she was the instigator, but there has recently been a role reversal and Ozzie has been paying her back.

They got into a scrape a day or so ago and I noticed afterward that Sophie's ear was scabbed up.  I took her into the vet for a check up and when they washed her ear off they could tell that it had been bitten right through.  Did I want her to go through life with a tattered ear like some raggedy old  pit bull?  No, I did not.  It is important to a girl to look good, and since she is such a pretty little thing, I did the right thing and opted for surgery to stitch it up.

I swear, they had better out grow this phase of adolescence, because I can't take much more.

She isn't too happy about having to wear the plastic collar.  Ozzie keeps trailing after her trying to chew on it.  She rallied around by dinner time and was her usual self, eagerly watching Daddy prepare her meal.

Ozzie and Sophie's Favorite Game

I have not posted on Ozzie and Sophie lately, mainly because they are too shaggy and unkept looking to be seen in public, but today I couldn't resist.  Here they are on the bed in my sewing room, bugging me while I try to sew.  Sophie is on the left and Ozzie is on the right.  They stare at me, grab little bits of fabric and run off, reach over and push at me with their paws, and generally pester me to stop sewing and pay attention to them.

If I ignore them long enough, they give up on me and play a little game on their own, which has turned out to be a real favorite.  It is their own doggie version of Cops and Robbers or Cowboys and Indians.  I call it Rat and Terrier.

Sophie, the smaller of the two, gets to be Rat.  She crawls under the bed, where Ozzie doesn't completely fit, and just sticks her paw out a teensy bit.  This drives Ozzie completely mad.  He is Terrier of course, and goes totally bonkers in his efforts to roust out Rat.

Here Sophie is, starting the Tease.  After a bit, she draws her paws back under the bed and just pokes her nose through the dust ruffle, just enough so Ozzie can see where she is.  He lunges and barks, and growls and generally acts like a maniac. 

At some point in the game, he can't stand it any more and tries to squeeze under the bed to get her.

You have never heard such carryings on.  I wish I had a video camera to record their antics.  Finally Ozzie works himself up into such a frenzy that I have to stop the game before it gets out of hand.

One of these days he is going to get stuck under there, and then what am I going to do?

Apple Crisp and Gypsy Girl

My posting schedule is all goofed up this week.  Reason?  I have been sewing and gallivanting.  Don't you love that word?  Gallivanting?  It perfectly sums up what I have been doing.

The quilt blocks you see above are all laid out on the Design Bed.  The pattern is Apple Crisp from Evelyn Sloppy's book Log Cabin Fever.  The fabric is Fresh Air by Chez Moi for Moda.  Cute cute cute.  I used two jelly rolls of the print fabric and off whites from the stash.  My mission today is to sew the blocks together.  I am procrastinating though.  You see, I started another quilt this week.

While at the retreat, my friend and mentor, April, was working on some blocks that were so ridiculously cute I had to copy her.  Immediately.  I had some American Jane fabrics that have been sitting in a tub out in my garage, if you can believe it.  I rescued them as soon as I got home from the retreat, knowing that they would be perfect for this new project. 

How cute is this fabric?  I used at least two American Jane groups--Apple Pie and Cherries Jubilee.  The fabric has a retro 40's tablecloth vibe to it that I love.  As you may have noticed, I am really into cheery fabrics at the moment.  The blocks are so adorable, I can't choose which one is my favorite, but this one might just be it:

That touch of black is what does it for me.  Someone told me once that if you want to add some zing and pizazz to a quilt, add in some black or purple fabrics!

Ok, where do you find the pattern for this block?  Heather Mulder Petersen never lets me down these days, and I am fast becoming an Anka's Treasures groupie.  The pattern is called Gypsy Girl and is from Heather's book Fat Quarter Five.  You probably already have the book.  If not, go buy it right now.  It is full of great patterns (as are all of Heather's books).  I plan to make another quilt from this book called Hopscotch, which maybe you will see coming together in the next week or so.

Here is the book:

Here is the pattern:

Seriously, you could use just about any fabric for this quilt and it would be beautiful.  My friend Judy showed me her version, done in Fall fabrics, and it was amazing.  You make a simple block with two fabrics, then cut the block into quarters.  Add on the white strips and you have an extremely cute block.  And, don't you love how Heather doesn't let you waste your leftover fabrics, and incorporates them into the border?