Sister's Choice Quilts

Disclaimer

I try to be articulate and super clear in my writing, but it seems that I failed in my recent post on the simplification of quilting that is perceived by some to be a current trend.  I did not intend to make a one sided argument in favor of only making simple quilts. 

To clarify,  my post was just my opinion, and was not intended to be a rebuttal to anyone else's post, specifically the original post that sparked the argument.  I was speaking from my heart about how I got started in quilting, and that at that point in time, simple techniques and designs were what got me going.

Over the years, I personally have embraced more difficult techniques, but that is just because they interested me.  These methods may not interest everyone and that is ok.  I can only speak from my own experience.

It is all good friends.  If you want to  make simple quilts, you should.  If you want to make more complex quilts, you should.  If you are quilting at all, it is excellent. 

I linked to Piecemeal Quilts and Grey Cat Quilts current series on skill building because I thought it was interesting and worthwhile.  It has been pointed out to me that I should have mentioned that Piecemeal Quilts was the blogger who first brought up the subject of the dumbing down of quilting.

And this is the absolute last word I am ever uttering on this particular topic.

 

So, If You Want to Move Your Skill Level Up a Notch...

 

First off, thank you all for such amazing comments to yesterday's post.  Your comments were better than my post, so if anyone hasn't read the comments, please do go back and see what folks had to say.  Amazing, articulate, caring opinions all.  I am having a crazy kind of week, so I have not been able to respond to all those thoughtful comments.  Please forgive me.  I started a new job this Monday, and it is taking my last ounce of concentration and effort.  I am praying I am not to old to learn something entirely new.  My time and brains are both totally taxed.  If you want a humbling experience, just try acquiring some new skills.  It ain't easy, in quilting and in real life!  Time will tell if this employment experiment was a good idea.  If it doesn't work out, I can always go back to retail, right?

Today I would like to talk about raising our skill levels in quilting.  Some of us may be happy as clams making quilt after quilt with nothing more difficult that half square triangles.  Forever.  And you know what?  That's ok.  It could be that for you, it is all about the fabric, or making quick quilts for charity, or relaxing with a hobby you don't have to think to hard about.  There shouldn't be any Quilt Police coming around telling you to raise it up a notch.

That being said, some of us are eager to advance our skill level at some point.  Goodness knows, I am always promising to do more machine applique, take on embroidery, and do more machine quilting.  And at some point in my quilting career, I thought it would be fun to try curved piecing, paper piecing, and hand applique.  I tried these new techniques because I was interested, and because I wanted to move on.  This is good too, but by no means mandatory.  Hawaiian style applique would be a great advanced skill to acquire, but that does not float my boat, so I will give it a pass.  My new found knowledge in the areas I have chosen to pursue has given me great joy, and my projects that exemplified these new techniques gave me a lot of pride.  So, I am all for trying new things and trying to acquire new skills.  But that's me.  And I get so much enjoyment out of it, I don't hesitate to encourage all of you to learn more about the art of quilting.

If you are interested in reviewing the basics and learning some new ways to do things, two bloggers are featuring a program of tutorials that you might find interesting.  Piecemeal Quilts and Grey Cat Quilts are devoting a lot of time on creating these posts, and I found them to be quite good.  They are starting out with how to make pinwheel blocks, and talking about various methods of constructing half square triangle units.  I thought I knew all there was to know on those subjects, and was pleasantly surprised to learn a few new tricks.   Over time, they plan to cover topics such as fabric choices, cutting, components of quilt blocks, and progressively more challenging techniques.  I will be checking them out to see what more I can learn.  And if the new lessons don't pan out, I will go back to making quilts out of charm squares.

Let's Talk About "Dumbing Down"

 
There has been much discussion in the past week about the "dumbing down of quilting".  I have been giving the topic a lot of thought and wanted to share my feelings with you.

First of all, what does "dumbing down" mean?  Basically, it is a negative term for things that are overly simplified, specifically to appeal to those of little education or intelligence.  In quilting, I believe it refers to a simplification of technique, a decline in creativity, a degradation of standards, and the overall undermining of the entire craft.

 
Whoa.  Them's fightin' words, Ma.  So, do you think it's true? 

Here's what I think. 

There is absolutely a place for simple patterns and easy, fast projects.  In today's economy, so many of us have very few hours to spend on an interest such as quilting (or scrapbooking, or embroidery, or basket weaving for goodness sake).  A quilt we can make in a weekend is appealing for a lot of reasons.  Some of us will take the Turning Twenty pattern and run with it.  My own daughter, who was working full time, made five Turning Twenty quilts--one for each of her bridesmaids, before her wedding!  She was an inexperienced quilter, but after making five of those babies, she sure had a grasp of a quarter inch seam allowance and the value of accurate cutting.  Were the quilts simple?  Sure, but the fabrics for each were especially chosen for each recipient, and the lessons in color placement, tone, and value were invaluable to a new quilter.  The quilts were quilted beautifully by a paid professional, and without exception, every one was received with joy by the recipient.  Does she have a desire to make another Turning Twenty quilt?  Uh, that would be a no.  But the experience served its purpose, don't you see?  Now she is ready to move on.

Will my daughter make more quilts?  You bet.  And you can count on any future quilts being more complex and involving more advanced techniques.

You see, the thing is, we all have to start somewhere.  Do you remember your first quilting project?  Or second, or third?  Remember the thrill you had going through magazines or books, searching for a project you thought you could tackle?  Back in the 80's, I used to love to browse Quilter's Newsletter.  I would drool over template cut, hand pieced, intricate designs that were way above my skill level.  I wanted to be Jinny Beyer when I grew up.  I had a list of quilts I wanted to make someday.  Rarely, they had a project that had a rating of one or two "scissors" that might be at the level of a beginner.  I even tackled a couple of them.  One, I hand quilted and gave to my beloved grandmother, and is one of my favorite quilts that I ever made.  Yes, that is Sohpie laying on it, chewing my favorite slipper.

 

In the mid 80's, I had the privlege of attending a lecture by the amazing Mary Ellen Hopkins.  Remember her book "It's Ok If You Sit On My Quilt"?  Her designs were ridiculously simple.   Dumbed down even.  But they encouraged creativity and originality in the quilter.  Get some graph paper and some colored pencils and design a quilt!  She really opened some mental doors for me.

Then, I discovered Lynnette Jensen, of Thimbleberries fame,  My friend Carrie reminded me of her the other day.  Lynette is brilliant.  I loved her designs!  Simple?  You betcha.   Gigantic large pieces?  Oh yeah.  Nine hundred thousand other women making the exact same thing?  Why not?  I embraced it.  I remember making one of her sampler quilts.  I made a block that was the cutest little house, another one that was a sunflower, one that was a bird house.  So cute.  I was thrilled at my little blocks, and madly in love with her pretty fabric.  I was EXCITED about the process, the fabric, and the results.  My sister Trish made the exact same quilt and you couldn't tell hers apart from mine if your life depended on it.  So what?  They gave us pleasure and taught us techniques and gave us practice.

Then there was Eleanor Burns.  By the time I became aware of her, I felt I had moved on to more advanced techniques and designs, but the message is the same:  get some fabric you love, invest in a weekend and make a quilt.  Excitement, materials, time= a finished project you can be proud of. 

In my mind, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this.  You have to start somewhere.  If you are excited about the craft, the materials and the process, the results will please you.  And then you have gained the confidence to move on to more complex, more creative and more dynamic projects.

I have plenty more to say about this, but my post is getting l-l-o-o-n-n-g-g.  More later.

XXX-OOO

 

Penultimate Eventide Post

 
I love that word, penultimate.  Means next to the last, if you need to look it up.  I was off a week on the deadline for our Eventide reveal, which has turned out to be a very good thing!

I finished my quilt top, or so I thought, and folded it up and tossed it over the back of my sewing chair.  Whoops.  What about the scrappy pieced borders?  Oh yeah.

So, wish me luck this week (which is going to be super busy).  I may be burning the midnight oil to get this done by next Tuesday after all!

Hello Sunshine, and Let's Meet a New Friend

 
"Honey?  What's that strange light coming from the sky?"  Oh, it's the SUN!  Hello sunshine,  hello.  It's been dark for a very long time....We have had something like 25 consecutive days of rain here, and today it didn't rain!  With any luck, we will have a few days to dry out before the next storm blows in.  And if we are really lucky, there won't be any more storms and the sun will keep on shining until next November.  Wouldn't that be lovely?

Speaking of lovely things, I want to introduce you someone you may not know very well.  Her name is Monique Dillard, and she is the designer behind the pattern company Open Gate Quilts.  Bet you are familiar with her patterns!  She has been designing marvelous quilt patterns for years, and has a strong presence in many of your local quilt shops.

 
She often features one of her beloved Old English Sheepdogs on her pattern covers.  Are you placing her now?  lol She is also well known, and beloved, for her two fantastic rulers "Fit To Be Geese" and "Fit To Be Square", both essentials for every quilter, in my opinion.

Well, Monique has had an excellent year!  She debuted a gorgeous line of fabric called Olde World Style.  My dear friend Thelma made a quilt with Monique's fabrics, called Olde World Stars.  If you are a regular reader of Thelma's blog, Cupcakes 'n' Daisies, you may have seen it.  This is Thelma's picture of her quilt.

 
Well, the exciting news is, the marvelous and talented Monique is coming out with a new book, and has invited Lisa, Thelma and I to do a book tour on our blogs!  The three of us, plus Monique will be doing a month of periodic posts on quilts from her new book, "Fat Quarter Winners".  You are going to love this new book.

Being a lover of scrappy quilts, I am thrilled that there is a new book on the subject of using fat quarters for making quilts.  Monique is a firm believer in using one's stash, so in her book, you will find a ton of ideas on using up that gorgeous fabric you all have on hand that deserves (yes, deserves!) to be made into a quilt.  (Your fat quarters are all calling out "Pick me, Pick ME", can't you hear them?)

The book tour will start on Monday, April 4, and we promise you a month of new ideas, tutorials, information and inspiration! 

In closing today's post, I would like to say something about the designers, patterns, books, fabric and tools that from time to time I endorse on my blog.  In the past week there has been some chatter in Blogland about individuals possibly being "on the payroll" of the companies or individuals they praise.  Well, I am not on anyone's payroll, and in fact, do not know anyone who is!  Sometimes I wish I were, but nope, nobody is funding me to say nice things about them.  Quilt related goodies are not raining from heaven down on my house, I can promise you. I am absolutely sincere about anything I rave about here.  Any person or product I review will be written in my own words, from my own heart.  With very few exceptions, all items will have been purchased with my own meager funds.  If I like something, I will tell you why and how, and show you lots of pictures of why it works for me.  And I hope you know me well enough by now, to realize that if I don't care for something, I will be honest about that as well.

Fabric Teasing

 
I have a new project getting started!  I don't want to tell you too much about it right now, but you just wait until next week and I will be happy to share all!

The fabric pictured above was purchased in Illinois last September when Lisa and Thelma and I met up to take a couple of classes.  You can't just take classes all time, so we did a fair amount of shopping in the fabulous quilt shops in Illinois and Wisconsin.  This fabric is meant to be part of a kit, which I am notorious for breaking up.  I think it is going to be a perfect border for my new project.

This piece of fabric is part of the Home To Roost collection by Renee Nanneman for Andover.  Renee designs wonderful wonderful collections, and has a particular penchant for creating brilliant backgrounds.  (Renee doesn't pay me to say nice things about her.  She doesn't even know me).  I have been enjoying her work for years, and am so happy with her offerings over the past couple of years, especially. She has a new collection out called Farmhouse Retreat, which I just ordered.  I will be excited to show it to you when it arrives.  Yummy blues and apricots.

 
I had this lighter background piece in my stash, which is not one of Renee's designs.  But look how great it goes with her red/rose print!  The lighter piece is from the brand new Lilac Hill group by Brannock and Patek for Moda. (They don't know me either).  I filched it out of the fat quarter bundle I had purchased, because it is just so darn perfect.

Don't be afraid to mix and match your fabric groups, from different designers and different companies.  You can achieve really interesting looks when you do that.  My fabric "goes" but isn't totally matchy matchy.  Works with outfits as well as quilting projects.  Just saying.

I will be needing lots more of those light backgrounds for my project:  16 is what the pattern calls for!  But I may just throw in a few more.  The scrappier the better.  Luckily, there are some additional Home To Roost fabrics in that kit I am demolishing!

Do any of you do that as well?  Take apart a kit and use the fabrics for other projects?  Or do you save the kits in their pristine wrappings and never mess about with them until you acctually  make the intended kit?  For me, sometimes a new inspiration just takes hold of me, and I see I have the perfect fabric for implementing my idea, but I have to "borrow" it from a kit I mean to make "some day".  Instant gratification, that is my downfall.

Have a great weekend all of you.  I am forgetting what the sun feels like.  It has rained here for the past 19 days straight.  I will be inside, cutting up background fabrics for my new project.

 

Two of Things is Good

Well.  Didn't we have ourselves a blogging brouhaha yesterday?  If you missed it, just as well.  All over now.  Feathers are smoothed, tempers are cooled, and we are all getting back to our cheerful nice selves.  I hope.

But listen.  Really.  As much as we all love a spirited discussion, we have to be more careful about what we say in our blog formats.  Expressing our opinions is great, but not to the extent that we hurt individual people's feelings or malign their reputations.  Let's be kind to each other guys.  Words can and do really hurt.  And once they are out there, they just can't be called back.

Don't think I am Miss Perfect.  Far from it.  I learned this lesson the hard way myself.  A few months ago I posted on not caring for the sorts of blogs that are all about buying fabric and never making anything with it.  An extremely sensitive individual thought she recognized herself in my post and took great exception to my post and in turn, bashed me thoroughly on her blog.  I got hate mail from her supporters for a week.  It was all dreadfully upsetting and unpleasant.  I hadn't meant to, but I offended a number of people in blogland.  So, I learned if I was going to state my opinion on anything, to make an effort to do it in the most caring way.  And to be sure to state that I wasn't talking about any one person in particular!

It is so true that it is our diversity that makes the world interesting.  Thank goodness there are as many opinions out there as there are people.

I stayed home from work yesterday, a bit under the weather.  I have had this silly cold that has gone all asthmatic on me.  I gurgle when I breathe.  Ugh.  So, I didn't just sit in my bed, inhaler in hand, head propped up on ten pillows.  No indeed.  I made another zippered pouch!

Those of you who are weary of me talking about my little zippered bags, will be very happy to know that I used a new pattern!

 
This is a pattern by Terri Atkinson, who is not paying me in any way to promote her products.  (Trying to keep it light here).   It is a smaller version of the gazillion bags I made during the holidays, with a different treatment of the accent fabric.

I made one for my sister Trish, who asked for something small that would just hold a couple of lipsticks.

 

I think it is cute.  What could be better than a little zippered cosmetics bag?  Why two of them of course!

 

Eventide Tuesday--Last Post 'Til the Big Reveal!

 
Woo Hoo, the end is in sight.  The light at the end of the tunnel and all that.

I have my center section of nine blocks all sewn together.  I have my two inner borders of red hour glass blocks sewn up.  I just have to sew the two outside rows of blocks, sew the five sections together, make the pieced border, and I am DONE with this quilt top!  I will be finished with this by next week and be displaying my big reveal on Tuesday, April 5.

It's a good thing I have that extra week, or I would never have made this deadline.  I am so grateful to all of you who have been participating in the sew along, or I probably would not have had the stamina to construct this quilt at this point in my life.

Congratulations to all of you who have completed this project already!  Do check out Thelma's blog for a roster of the participants and links to their blogs (if they have one).

In other news, I spent my day off doing some sewing.  I drove up to Sunnyvale to attend my UFO at Eddie's Quilting Bee.   It was so good to see my girls, and I always get so much support from them.  I found myself pouring my heart out to Bev, the group leader, about all the trials that have beset us this past year.  She wisely pointed out all the blessings I have, and assured me that things always change and better times will be ahead.  I tell you, women friends are way better than paying a therapist $150 an hour.

Plus, an added bonus is that you can sew while you get your therapy.  I finished all the blocks for my lavender/aqua Central Park baby quilt!  Hope to get that together next weekend.  And on the way home, I dropped off the black and white "All Wrapped Up" quilt at my quilters, and found that it will cost around $60 for the quilting!

California, Land of ....

RAIN!

 
It sure would be nice to be able to actually use this gas grill. 

I am telling you, Friends, it is wet where I live.  Well, at least the grass is green.

 
If it ever stops raining, I will replant those clay pots with summer annuals.

Good sewing weather though.  And I have some wonderful pattern and fabric recommendations for you.

 
Carrie Nelson, of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, has six new Schnibbles patterns out!  Each one is cuter than the next, and I know you will want all of them.  What is so fun, is that she tends to use new and upcoming fabric collections in her new Schnibbles patterns, so you can get an idea of what you might do with those fabrics you have on your wish list.

 
It is never too soon to be thinking ahead to Christmas.  There are two new collections coming out that are definitely on my Must Have list.  Grace by 3 Sisters and Fa la la la la by French General.  The new FG group really has that Pierre Deux look I love.

So get some Schnibbles patterns and some of the latest charm packs or layer cakes (my preference) and make yourself some table toppers for the holidays.  They update your own holiday look, and they make outstanding gifts.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Happy Spring.  If only the sun would come out and the rain would stop.

All Wrapped Up!

 
I swear, this quilt  made itself.  I LOVE this quilt. 

It is from a pattern by Artichoke Collection called All Wrapped Up.  Not sure if you if you can find the pattern any more.  I was told the partners who were Artichoke Collection split up.  :(

The applique was super simple, but for some reason (probably because I do applique so infrequently) I always feel as if I am reinventing the wheel whenever I do it.  I used to use a fabulous tutorial by Barbara Brandeburg of Cabbage Rose, but she lost all her old blog posts and it is gone gone gone.  I had my Steam A Seam Lite, and a marking pen and knew I had to use my reverse foot number 1 on the Bernina.  I set the machine to the blanket stitch and was good to go.

 
I did kind of mess up my iron with the fusible web.  It was too late by the time I remembered that I had bought an Applique Pressing Sheet at PIQF last October.  Oh dear.  Well, I did get the pressing sheet out and it does work marvelously.  You place it over the applique pieces and press, thereby not letting any residue get on your iron.  It is made of some sort of space age material that things don't stick to and it can withstand high heat. 

There are other things you can do with the sheet that sound pretty wonderful.  Supposedly you can lay out all your applique pieces and fuse them onto the Pressing Sheet so they all stick together just the way you want them to for your final design.  You can then lift the whole thing off the sheet an position the applique pieces in their entirety on your background fabric.  I am not that advanced yet, so you will have to read up on how to do it!  There is at least one good tutorial on You Tube if you search for Applique Pressing Sheet tutorials.

Have a great weekend everyone!  Hope your St. Patrick's Day was fun.  Did any of you try the Corned Beef recipe?  Hope that went well for you if you did~  Kathy didn't have such a good result.  She covered the pan when she put it in the oven with the Jack Daniels glaze all over the roast.  The lid blew off the pan, the over door blew open and her sweater was still smoldering when her husband ran in to see what had happened.  Those alcohol fumes are potent, friends.  Lordy, never cover the pan!  Poor Kathy.  She says she will live to quilt again, but this could have been a disaster!