Sister's Choice Quilts

Goodies From the Trip

 Of course my friends and I went shopping while on the trip.  There were several shops we throroughly enjoyed.  One shop in particular, Charming Lulu seeemed to have a very clear idea of who they were and who their target customer was.  The shop was full of bright color, spaciousness, and energy.  The owner had a real knack for putting small fat quarter bundles together, and was so enthusiastic about her new business.  The vibe in the shop was definitely young, current and bright.  It was a real treat to stop in and discover something really unique.

Yesterday I finished putting the leaves on my first Idaho Lily block.  Overall I am pretty happy with the block, and have to say I can barely see the machine applique stitches they are so invisible.  I used a smoke colored Sulky invisible thread that is so fine, it is like sewing with a spider web thread.  I could hardly see it to thread my needle!  It truly disappears into the fabric.

 

THis new rotary cutter by Olfa has a cool feature.  If you hate changing blades, you will love it.  There are no screw and washer to fiddle with.  You just push up the gold lever on the back side and the whole apparatus comes apart.  The old blade drops off and you slide a new one on and push the lever closed again.  I haven't tried it yet, so I will let you know how I like it.

 

Have a great Labor Day Weekend everyone!

Rock and Roll

You may have heard about the earthquake we had in California earlier this week.  It hit the folks in the Napa area pretty hard.  There are a great number of wine storage warehouses in that area, and some wineries were pretty devastated with their inventory falling and breaking.  Tragic.

We were not affected particularly, but a friend in the Napa area shared a photo of her wine cellar with us.  You can see that is a pretty sad mess to clean up.  She said it looks worse than it really was.  Only about a dozen bottles actually smashed, and none of them were their real prized bottles.

Living in California for years, many of us are kind of jaded when it comes to these infrequent quakes.  Usually they just make the chandeliers swing and the wind chimes ring, but every now and then we get one that calls our attention.  The worst one I was ever in was the Loma Prieta in 1989.  I was on my way home from work, driving down a local street, when I thought all my tires had gone flat because of the way the car was jouncing around.  Then I noticed chimneys on the houses I was driving past were falling down!  I stepped on the gas, got home in a jiffy, to find my then 8 year old daughter huddled under the heavy dining room table, just like they taught her to do in school.  Things were a bit of a mess in the house, with books, lamps and knick nacks sliding off tables and shelves, but we had no permanent damage.  What was kind of cool is that people in the neighborhoods didn't want to go back inside their houses, and that evening almost every block had folks sitting outside on lawn chairs around portable barbeques, sharing their food from their fridges before it went bad due to the massive power outages.  Sometimes these terrible events do have a way of bringing folks together.

My Great Sewing Adventures Part Two

Ah, wool applique...I love the look of sewing with wool and don't do it nearly enough.  I was fortunate to be able to sign up for a class with Stacy West of Buttermilk Basin on my recent travels.  Stacy is a person who holds the simple pleasures of hand stitching very dear to heart.  Her appreciation of the past and those simpler times and simpler cares was very evident in her designs and methods.  

Our class project was this adorable little sunflower mat.  Stacy has a technique for doing wool applique that is innovative and very effective.  Instead of pinning all those little pieces down, she had us fuse them to the background with fusible web.  This method makes certain that those little pieces stay put, don't shift about and are easy to sew down.  Her method also makes your project extremely portable, and who doesn't like that?  I can take this little mat with me just about anywhere and be able to stitch away without worrying that I am going to lose any of my pieces or stick myself with a pin.

The Buttermilk Basin website has all of Stacy's patterns for sale, many of which could be Block of the Months.  Her holiday themed patterns are especially fun.  There is plenty of time to whip out a harvest or Halloween project! 

In this class, I learned things not only from Stacy, but from some of the other attendees of the class as well.  One woman had the neatest pressing board called Steady Betty, that she shared with some of us.  The surface of this little portable pressing board is very firm, and just perfect for any sort of applique.  I ordered one online and can't wait to show it to you when it arrives.

My Great Sewing Adventures Part One

I am back from a wonderful week of catching up with good friends, sewing with some very talented instructors and doing some excellent shopping.  It is wonderful to get away--a rare event for me--but even better to come home and start playing with the new ideas and materials I acquired on the trip.

I learned some terrific new machine applique techniques from Kim Diehl, a designer I have admired for years.  She does not teach all that often, so I was thrilled to sign up for two classes with her.  The photo above is my first effort using her methods, done in class.  

Here is Kim, being introduced to the class.  She was very sweet and fun, but also a good teacher.  I have several of her books and have made one of her quilts, but having her right there in front of me was such an amazing learning experience.  I am really looking forward to doing a lot more of her projects, both applique and piecework.

Here are some of the small quilts she brought with her to show to the class.  Fatquartershop.com is offering a Block of the Month Club featuring Kim's projects.  It is called Simple What Nots Club, and consists of six months of kits to make her mini quilts.  If you are a fan of her work, you might love making these little quilts.

Oh Well.

Here is Metro Hold the Lattice.  I have the rows almost half sewn together.  I made the top with a collection of Circa 1934 fabric and the Quick Curve Ruler by Sew Kind of Wonderful.  I took liberties with the pattern (actually called Metro Lattice) and left out a pieced lattice that I didn't particularly care for.

Here are the issues:  The points of the pinwheels don't particularly line up at all.  I suppose that was the purpose of the lattice in the original pattern directions--to separate those pesky things even more.  They kind of sort of float, especially when viewed from a distance, but trust me, it isn't so beautiful up close. The second issue is when you sew the blocks together, the corners where all those seams come together are horribly bulky.  I hope my quilter doesn't break a needle.  If I have it quilted.

Maybe once it is quilted and balled up in a chair or something it won't be so noticeable.  

Not real happy about this project.  But is is pretty from across the room.

I tell you my next project is going to have all straight lines and not require anything to match up.

 

What's Going On This Week

Technically, this photo shows what is NOT going on this week.  No progress at all on Metro, Hold the Lattice.  Not bogged down or bored with the project--no, no, far from it.  The thing is, I am getting ready to go on a trip!

In a little over a week, I am meeting up with two dear sewing friends for six days of visiting, sewing, and fun.  We are taking some classes together and I have been busy cutting out the fabrics for the kits we will be using for our class projects.

The photo looks a bit of a mess, but trust me, I am all organized. I have ordered some zippered project bags from an Etsy seller, and hopefully my baggies will fit in them.  A much better look, I must say.  I will share a picture when they come.

Because of my busy schedule, my posting this month is going to be somewhat sparse, but once September rolls in, I should be back to more frequent blogging.

So, I completely forgot to share with you some things I picked up a couple of weeks ago when Fatquarter Shop had a mega sale.  All Moda fabrics were 20% off!  I needed backings for several UFOs so I can send them off to my favorite quilter and really took advantage of the savings.

I don't know about you, but I like my backings to really coordinate well with the quilt tops, but I hate to pay full price for backing fabric.  This sale was awesome, and I picked up backing fabric for my All Wrapped Up Christmas quilt, my Ansonia tumbler quilt, my Urban Winter Quilt, and I forget what all else.  That whole stack is mostly backings and a couple of backgrounds.  Great sale.  Thank you FQS!

I also picked up a few layer cakes recently, one collection being most notable.  

This is Autumn Woods, by Kate and Birdie, who are known for their beautiful paper designs.  This collection is in buttery yellows, muted oranges and dove greys.  So so gorgeous.  The group came out in May, and I am so happy to have gotten a layer cake.  I need to get on the ball and order some border and backing fabric from the collection before it sells out.  I don't think this designer is on a lot of shops' radars.  I will be making something lovely with it, I promise!

Have a grand weekend everyone.

Summer Progresses

Just checking in mid-week.  Hope you all are having a good one.  Summer is well on its way to being over, and that is somewhat difficult to accept, as it seems like summer just started.  No worries, there will plenty of more chickens and corn on the barbie before it is all a distant memory.

This week is another busy one for me.  Taking care of Eva, who has had a bit of a stomach flu, working, and trying to get some household projects done.     Eva just had her third birthday, can you believe it?   I know. It seems like yesterday I was at the hospital watching her be born.  Time passes fast.  At this point in time, she lives for dressing up in princess costumes and pretending Ozzie and Remy are her royal subjects.  Ozzie doesn't play along for a moment, but Remy at least will let her dress him up to play a character in her dramas.  He may not be completely enthusiastic, as you can see from the photo above, but he plays along. Ozzie is the palace thief.  Today, snatching a whole packet of MacDonalds fries out of an outraged Princess Eva's hands--not cool.  He ate them all while she wailed.  That dog.  I tell you, he has no conscience.  But I have been telling everyone that for years...

I really enjoyed reading everyone's responses to my post on "Do you make blankets".  Oh my goodness, did that strike a chord.  I especially liked the last comment from someone who said they had an acquaintance offer them $50 to make a quilt.  People just don't have a clue. do they?

Trusting all is well with you all.  No sewing going on here.  Say, for all you Outlander fans, did you hear that there is a new series starting next week on the Starz network that is based on the Diana Galbadon novels?? Jamie and Claire--the classic romantic characters that will go down in history.  Check it out on starz.com if you are a fan.  You can even watch the first episode for free  And seriously, the actor who plays Jamie Fraser will make it worth your while.  Ahem.

Anyway, all is good here, even if I am too busy to sew.  Hope you all can say the same! 

New Obsession

I have been having fun lately with my Filofax planner.  Filofax is pretty utilitarian in the style of their planner pages, but with a little embellishment, you can really raise the cuteness factor.  I have seen some YouTube videos where people (usually young women under 30) go crazy with stickers and stamping and all sorts of other decorations--almost totally filling up their pages so there isn't any space left to write appointments!  I love the concept of embellishing a calendar, but not to excess.

I have even scaled it back a bit from my first efforts.  What you need to get started is a product called Washi tape, which I am now certifiably addicted to.  The tape is repositionable, like blue painters tape, but comes in dear little rolls in every color and pattern imaginable.  You would not believe the choices offered online and in scrapbooking shops.  Add in a few cute stickers, and something called "journaling cards" (also available at Michaels and other craft shops that carry papergoods) and you are ready to go to town.  A trip to Michaels got me started, but then I went online and went a bit nuts ordering more Washi tape.

My family thinks I have lost my mind, but I tell you, I am smiling.

"Do You Make Blankets?"

I got the dreaded "Do you make blankets?" question yesterday from a woman I work with.  Ack.  Don't you hate that?  You know in your heart what is coming next.  They are going to ask you to make a king sized quilt for their daughter's wedding in a duck head and deer antler fabric, or a tee shirt quilt with every ratty tee shirt their son ever collected since fourth grade.  Nooooooooooooooo.

What do you do when you get that question?  

I replied that I do make quilts, but that my time is so limited I barely have time to make my own projects, much less take on projects from other people.  "Well, I'd PAY you", she said.  Right.  If I charged $15 per hour and the project took me 20 hours, that would be $300.  Add in another $150 for quilting, and $40 for the time to hand sew the binding, we are at $490, not including the price of fabric or backing, which would be what, $150 or more?  Sure, I'll do it for $640.  Are you sure you still want me to make that duck head quilt for you?

There is also something demoralizing about working with fabrics or a pattern that is not your own choosing.  Of course sometimes it works out and you are given pretty fabric and a good pattern, but not always.  If I were to make a quilt for someone I would want to have a hand in picking out the fabric and pattern so at least that part of things was gratifying.  When I worked with my student last year,  I had a lot of influence in guiding her when it came to picking out fabric for her projects.  Her taste was different from mine, but she had a good eye for picking out bright colors that at least went together well.  That was actually quite fun, and her joy in her accomplishment was fabulous.  But that was different.  I was supervising her making her first quilts, not making them for her.

I know many of you may make quilts for other people, and I applaud you for your fortitude and generosity.  I just don't have it in me, except for rare exceptions.  I also admire long arm quilters who quilt for others--good heavens the things they see and sometimes have to fix before they can even begin to quilt the project!  

Recently, I discovered a hilarious website called "Ugly Quilt Gallery" with lots of photos of terrible looking quilts.  No one was made fun of, so don't worry.  All photos of the ugly quilts were cheerfully submitted by their makers for the gallery.  The names of the quilts are a laugh too.  There is one called "Autumn Fell On Its Face" for instance.  The quilt above is from that gallery, and was made from all the leftover flannel fabrics the maker had in her stash.  She was so optimistic it would be a success, and good humoredly shared the unfortunate results.  

Just so you know I am not immune to making an ugly quilt myself, I must share this photo with you:

Uh huh.  Those blocks are kind of cute, but man oh man, why a purple lattice?