Sister's Choice Quilts

Birdseye and Stargazer

Two quilts back from the quilter!!  I am very happy with these two quilts, as they represent what I hope to do more of in the future.  That would be more quilts that take some time and effort, rather than the Yellow Brick Road style of sewing.

Now, there is not one thing wrong in this world with Yellow Brick Road types of quilts.  You need to make a gift, you find some super cute fabric, spend a weekend cutting and sewing and voila, you've got a nice quilt as a result.  My daughter made five Yellow Brick Road quilts before her wedding and presented one to each of her bridesmaids.  Who were absolutely thrilled to get them.

The point I am trying to make, is that I have enough "Make A Quilt In A Weekend" sorts of quilts.  Fabric is expensive.  Quilting is expensive.  I have decided that if I am going to spend the time and money to make lap to bed sized quilts, they are going to be more elaborate affairs.  There is some panache to being known as "prolific" in my quilting efforts, but I think it is time to slow down and enjoy the journey more. 

The two quilts shown above took me quite some time to construct.  Birdeye, on the left is a Miss Rosie's Quilt Company pattern.  Let me just say I was making quite a lot of nine patch units with this project!  It wasn't terribly complicated sewing, but just a LOT of piecing.  Picking out the fabrics was really fun, and allowed me to use up a good deal of my Civil War Reproduction stash.  Stargazer, on the left was a pattern in a magazine.  I made about nine thousand flying geese units for this quilt top, and had a blast using up my stash of various Fig Tree fabrics from my stash--mostly Allspice Tapestry.   Both these quilts were a big time investment, are queen sized, and cost a bundle to have quilted.  I am going to be using these quilts on my beds and know they will be enjoyed for a long time, maybe even after I am gone.

But don't worry.  I still plan to crank out a lot of projects.  Schnibbles are my perfect vehicle for doing some fun piecing, trying out a new fabric collection on a smaller scale, and completing a smaller quilt top that I can machine quilt myself.  I am looking forward to that journey too.

Vision Safety for Dogs

Good morning Friends.  I spent the weekend working, so I don't have a lot of news to share.  OK, here's something.

This is Remy, my grand dog.  My daughter Sara knows how much Rem loves to hang out of the car window when he is a passenger.  She loves her pup, and surely would not want any harm to come to him from random debris that may fly into his eyes while he is hanging out the window.  So, with his safety paramount in her mind, she makes him wear driving goggles when they go anywhere. 

Remy loves his driving goggles.  Just the sight of them makes him all trembly, to think he might be going Bye Bye in the Car.  I cannot imagine what would happen if I tried to make Ozzie or Sophie wear driving goggles.  Ozzie would buck and leap like a bronco in an effort to dislodge them from his head.  Sophie, who is already a shaking wreck at the thought of car travel, would accept them as one more humiliation she had to bear for the driving experience.  (That dog is my Stay At Home Girl). 

Remy is a very well balanced dog, unlike my two maniacs.  He keeps his sense of humor, no matter what.

 

Oh, here's some more news----My son's Irish Lass is in town for a two week vacation with him.  I cannot wait to see her again!  My son has been walking about two feet off the ground for the past week in anticipation of her arrival.  He even cleaned his room.  Seriously, you should see it.  Love, ain't it grand?  They will stay in San Francisco, seeing the sights, for a couple of days, then head up to Angels Camp to see Sara, Ryan and Remy for a couple of days.  They will then go off to Disneyland, then come back up the coast to attend a family wedding (more on that subject soon).  There will be a few days hanging about our house down here in the Monterey area, and with any luck, our summer fog will be replace by the typical glorious September sunshine.  I hope to post on Mary Ann's visit and our festivities in the next couple of weeks.

Hope you all had a grand weekend!

Head's Up! Stash Sale!

fabrics pictured are not the actual fabrics for sale

I wanted to give you all a Head's Up that there is going to be a great Stash Reduction Sale coming up.

Lisa, of Stashmaster (whose stash is beyond compare) is going to be having a sale starting as early as tomorrow on her blog, so be sure and check it out!  Lisa has exquisite taste in fabric, and is only handicapped by the amount of time she has to make things out of it, due to the time constraints of her two jobs and three children.  (She is pretty amazing at what she manages to get done).  Since she buys A LOT of fabric and can't possibly use it all, she occasionally has a sale on her blog.  Do not miss it!

She will be selling some things that are no longer available anywhere, so this is exciting!  You may find that fabric you have been kicking yourself for not buying when it was in the shops.

Naked

Some of you know some of the things I love in this life.  Fabric and quilting, sure.  Fashion and shoes.  Ditto.  Makeup?  Well of course.

All the makeup bloggers are talking about this new eye shadow palette by Urban Decay.  It contains twelve eyeshadows, a dual ended eye liner pencil and an eyeshadow primer base to make it all stay put on your eyelids.  At $44 it is practically a steal, and everyone loves it if you can believe the hype and all the positive reviews.  So, naturally I wanted one.   Sephora sometimes has it, but sells out in a minute.  Sometimes if you ask the women who work there, they might have some hidden in the back room they will sell you.  You can buy it on eBay for $80, but why do that?  I think some greedy people buy a dozen items when they know something is going to be a best seller, then do the eBay thing and make some money.  Not sure how I feel about that practice.  Enterprising?  Um, no.   More like greedy.

Oh, where did I get mine?  www.ulta.com.  Paid the normal price, they shipped it to me right away, and Bob's my uncle.  Here is a better look at what I got.

Twelve nice basic shades that are pretty much wearable anywhere.  Except for the one called Sidecar, which dropped so much glitter on my cheeks I looked like an aging Tinkerbell.  I am still experimenting.

On a more serious note, this was a weekend dedicated to Issues With the Grandparents.  Friday Grandma fainted, hit her head and needed stitches in her head, and Grandpa broke his toe trying to catch her.  Saturday, believe it or not, she fell AGAIN and hit her head and needed more stitches.  Two trips to the Emergency room for these 89 year olds.  My husband  is with them now (they are his parents) and plans to go to the doctor's sometime today to have a long talk with their physician.  In my opinion, it may be as simple as a medication adjustment.  Her blood pressure meds were doubled the end of June and I think dizzyness is a major side effect.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Leaves

Thank you all for the fantastic suggestions for resources I can turn to for improving my machine quilting skills!  I spent a lot of time on the internet yesterday educating myself.  One of my favorite tips was from my friend Jean (In the Garden with Miss Jean).  She said if you quilt a leaf and it looks sort of wonky, just go over it again and it looks like you meant it to be that way.  So, I spent some time making leaves, and I had a blast.  It is so much more fun to make a Something, than to just sew along in a straight line trying to stay in the darn ditch.  My leaves may look a bit crude, buy hey, they are kinda cute.

I also tried to do Pat Sloan's Bubbles, but my bubbles didn't look so hot.  I will keep at it though.

The most prevalent suggestion was to check out the 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting blog, which I did.  Man, can Leah ever come up with great designs and implementations.  A good example of practice making perfect if I ever saw it.

I have 999 more hours of practice to put in, but I tell you, I am having a good time!

Machine Quilting for Dummies

Well, I quilted my Roundabout Schnibble myself.  I did stitch in the ditch for the main body of the top and loop de loops for the borders.  Now that I see the photo, I think it could use some more quilting in those remaining open areas.  Let's just say the job was adequate.  The top probably won't fall apart in the wash.  I hope. 

My gosh, machine quilting is an acquired skill, isn't it?  Does anyone know of any tutorials out there that are good?  Stitch in the ditch is mind numbingly dull, but I think I could get to like the free motion stuff.  But I need about a thousand hours of practice.  Make that ten thousand hours.

I made a start on the ten thousand hours today, and plan to keep at it. 

What to Choose?

 

This quilt is a shop sample made by someone connected with Quilters General Store in Rockford, IL.  The pattern is Miss Rosie's Quilt Company's Route 44, a new pattern by Carrie Nelson.  In late September, I will be meeting up in Illinois with three of my best blogging friends, Lisa from Stashmaster, Thelma from Cupcakes 'n' Daisies , and Allyson from Fat Cat Quilts, and we gals are going to take a class on this quilt from Carrie Nelson herself!   You all are going to experience this trip from all four of our points of view, so get ready for some fun!  I am so excited for the trip, I am ready to go right now, but we'll all just have to wait six weeks or so.  (Think I can lose 30 pounds by then?  Never mind...)

The quilt in the picture is a kit that the shop is offering to those who are signed up to take the class.  Only the four of us have decided we want to do our own thing.  (Once a maverick, always a maverick).  Now, my task is to decide what fabric I want to use for my version of this quilt.  As we all know, fabric auditioning is the absolute BEST part of quilt making!

My first thought was to use a collection of Japanese pastels I have been acquiring.  The fabric companies are Yuwa and Lecien.  If you have never heard of these companies, I hope you will look into them a bit.  The quality is unsurpassed, and I have to say that is reflected in the price per yard.  You will pay around $16 a yard for this yardage.  Not many stores seem to carry these lines, perhaps because their customers are not used to paying those prices. Totally worth the splurge, IMHO.   My favorite LQS, Prairie Queens, carries both lines, and if you contact them, I bet they would love to sell you some of their already cut fat quarters or quarter yards.  They have a fantastic selection.  Oh, and if you visit their website, look at the quilt kit called Twinkle Twinkle.  It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and is made entirely of these beautiful Japanese fabrics.  (See photo below).

I love these fabrics, but the red seems somewhat discordant to me for this project.  What do you think?  I was going to use it just here and there, and pick one of the pastels to be my border and setting triangle fabric.  However, the more I look at it, the less love I am feeling for using these fabrics for this project.  Not to worry, though, I have a few more ideas for using it!  Maybe I will even make Twinkle Twinkle!  Here is a picture of the quilt (from Prairie Queens website), made by Keiko Clark.

Now, here is a different idea.  I think this could be stunning.  I'd love to know your opinion.  I have a jelly roll and a layer cake of Old Primrose Inn by Blackbird Designs that would provide enough strips for the four patches, plus I have a boat load of great backgrounds.  I could use the big floral for my border and this brown star fabric for my block setting triangles.

 

 

I could change my mind ten times from now until the class, but this is what is floating my boat today!

Roundabout

Finally, I did a little sewing!  I ended up making my Roundabout quilt a Schnibbles size after all.  It is the perfect size for my round kitchen table, and will be an adorable little topper for it in September.  I have a Pottery Barn inspired arrangement of votive candles and sunflowers in pots that will be super cute on top of it.  I am going to machine quilt it myself, which is always an endeavor I undertake with some trepidation.  Wish me luck!  I may even try a bit of stippling on the border.

Every time I do any machine quilting, I check out You Tube for instructional videos.  I discovered a couple of tutorials by a woman named Marguerite, who has a blog called Crazy Shortcut Quilts.  I watched two of her videos on stitching in the ditch and found them pretty helpful.  Her You Tube videos are on her blog as well, so you might be interested in checking them out.

That was a great "conversation" we had Friday, on the disparity of wealth in our country during these difficult economic times.  Turns out, most of us seem to be in the same situation of waiting out the bad economy!  Thanks to all of you who made comments and shared your stories.

Just Thinkin'

This has been a very difficult year for us, financially.  My husband got laid off, I quit both my jobs (thinking we were moving), we unsuccessfully tried to sell our house (which has depreciated in value), and we lost money on a home we had hoped to purchase.  We are not unique in America these days.  There are many many people who are much worse off than my husband and I.  I know people who have actually lost their homes and businesses due to similar circumstances to those my husband and I are experiencing.  We are managing to hang on for now, but there has definitely been a toll on our collective morale.  There isn't any extra money for going out to eat, for vacations, or for helping our kids.  Bills come in the mail, have to be juggled, and there are often uncomfortable conversations as to how we are going to pay for something necessary.  I have been able to buy a little bit of fabric, but nothing like I would  in the "good ol' days".

Something got me musing today.  I have taken on another part time job at a local womens' clothing store.  The pay is really ridiculously low, but the gals I work with are fun, and the discount on clothing is generous, and with my interest in fashion, I am glad to have a reason to get dressed up and out of the house several days a week.

The shop where I work is in the city of Carmel-By-The-Sea, California.  Carmel is a tourist destination, and the site of a number of upscale events during the year.  Pebble Beach (a neighboring town) is the location of many golf tournaments, and the Laguna Seca Raceway is the place where many an automotive event is held.  At this time, the main event going on in our area is the Concours, where affluent (and not so affluent) people gather to celebrate The Automobile.  There are amazing cars all over the place, at all times, but if you want to buy a ticket to actually attend the event, you need to shell out $175 per person.  For the most part, the people who live here can't afford to attend the event.  Consequently, there are a lot of rich folks milling about town, amidst the rest of us peons.

Today I had an attractive customer, a woman who was around 50, who piled up a good number of garments at our cash wrap desk.  She declined to try anything on, as she was familiar with our brand, and needed a few new pieces to wear in our cool ocean temperatures which she had not packed for.  As I was ringing her up, I inquired if she had thought about getting one of our store charge cards, since she seemed to like our clothes so much.  "Oh, yes, I should probably do that", she said.  I had to ask her a few personal questions in order to open the charge account, one of which was "What is your annual household income?"  She wrote it down on a little Post It Note for me.

$3,500,000.  Per year.

Now, I am not planning to take up knitting, turn into Madame Defarge, and declare I despise all people more fortunate than myself.  But really.  The discrepancy in income between this woman and myself is beyond ludicrous.  How do people DO it?  I tell you, I am feeling very sorry for myself, and wish to hear any words of encouragement.

This Schnibbles Thing is Looking Pretty Good

I have been thinking a lot lately about the number of quilts that I have.  I have a L.O.T.  Many of them I do give away, but there is a limit to how many a family can use.  Isn't there?  People are always asking me, "What do you DO with all your quilts?"  As if they need to be put to some purpose every moment. 

I began quilting years ago because I wanted the look of a handmade quilt on my bed.  I still want that look on my beds and in my house.  One of the things I enjoy most is being able to change the look of a room with quilts to reflect the season or a certain color scheme. Having a lot of quilts allows me to do that often.

Now that I have been a quiltmaker for a few decades, it is clear that what thrills me is the planning, the fabric selection and the piecing.   I am pretty happy with the end results--who wouldn't love a few new quilts each year?  But it is the process that is the most fun.

That being said, I will probably continue to make a lot of quilts, many more than a family could reasonably use.  So, I have been considering this whole Schnibbles Movement.  Schnibbles are small quilts, about 24-30 inches square, typically.  Schnibbles patterns are made by Carrie Nelson, of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  She comes out with new designs every few months, and there are dozens of Schnibbles patterns to choose from.  And if you have been on Mars for the past year, you may not know that there is a club called "A Year of Schnibbles", hosted by Sherri and Sinta , where a new pattern is selected by them each month for participants to make, and prizes given out for a few each time.

Schnibbles patterns give me an opportunity to do everything about quiltmaking that I love.  I can work with the latest fabrics--many of them are available in pre-cuts before the fabric on the bolt is released.  The smaller amount of fabric required also saves me from spending a boatload of money on material.   I can do fun piecework to my heart's content, and complete an entire "quilt" in just a few days.  I can manage to do the quilting myself (again saving a bundle of money).  Do I end up with a quilt I can put on my bed?  Well, no.  (The patterns are easily enlarged, if that is one's mission, however).  What I end up with is a nice square mini quilt that I can use as a table topper or wall hanging. 

When I make up a Schnibble pattern, I am still able to add to my seasonal decor, or make a new color scheme for just about any room in my house.  Schnibbles are the best new thing to come around in the world of quilting in ages.  And in this economy, they allow us budget strapped quilters to carry on doing our thing.  I plan on making a lot more of them in the future.  So, if you haven't gotten on the Schnibbles bandwagon, what are you waiting for?

Green Fairy is having a big sale on layer cakes (perfect for Schnibbles).  She is including various numbers of charm packs (your selection) in your order, depending on how many layer cakes you buy.  My order just arrived yesterday, and I am so jazzed about what I received.  Look at my free bonus charm packs!  A new Halloween group by Minick and Simpson, that I probably would not have purchased in anything but a pre-cut, and this fun collection called Half Moon, which is all black and white prints.