Armchair Quilter

Farmer's Wife - catch-up

2012-01-23T18:55:00.000-08:00

The QAL is in hiatus until the end of this month, beginning of February, at which point we should be at week 28 - 56 blocks in total. Well, I'm not quite there, but so far this month, I've managed to put this little collection together.

It should seem obvious, but every time I work on these petite 6" blocks, I'm always amazed at the amount of time ~~suck~~ involved in the creation of each block. However slow going, there is something rewarding with figuring out how to piece some fairly intricate pieces. I actually went back to paper piecing for the last couple of blocks, #42 Fruit Basket and #43 Garden Path. The templates were really odd in between sizes and I wanted the accuracy of PP.

Here's the rundown:

The Y seam gave me a bit of trouble that I think can be smoothed out with quilting.

I really love the combo of fabrics on this one but the perfectionist in me hates the fact I didn't notice and correct the missed point on the dark pinwheel.

It's fun experimenting with different techniques on these blocks. I pressed my seams open to reduce bulk but the trade off is that it makes it much harder to match seams.

More "Y" seams but I think it came out okay.

*****

More Farmer's Wife inspiration can be find by checking out the QAL group on flickr.

A Fresh Start

2012-01-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

A New Year calls for cleaning out the old and seeing things with fresh eyes. In that spirit, I spent several hours over last weekend in my sewing room (well, my bedroom) cleaning and organizing my workspace. A little sadly but with some anticipation, I took down my Farmer's Wife block display of 30+ blocks (hovering over the bed!).

After the decks were cleared, I got down to business. Here's two new FW blocks taped on the wall by my bed. These blocks look a little lonely all by themselves on a stretch of white wall!

The flower basket block was a quick and easy one, even with the hand applique on the handle. I didn't use the template -- I cut a strip of fabric on the bias about 1/2" wider than finished size and folded and pressed the sides in, then shaped and pinned the handle onto the background fabric. A little spray of starch helped it lie flat.

The Garden Path block was a little more time consuming due to all the small pieces. I used my easy triangle ruler to measure the printed templates. I find this easier than trying to trace on the fabric around the templates.

I'm also making progress on "Liberty Fields" from Material Obsession I, assembling the body of the quilt.

I took this shot to document the placement of the blocks so I would have something to refer to as I sew this together. I now have all of the blocks joined but have yet to sew them to the strips of HST's. Let me tell you, this quilt has turned out to be WAY more work than I anticipated. I was so thrilled to finally be able to lay it all out to see what it's ultimately going to look like!

See the toes and cord at the top of the photo? That's my son playing his X-box game! We were competing for floor space. Ha ha!

I'm also am making progress on quilting feathers on my triangles quilt. Here's my warm-up piece. I used some really old fabric and scrap batting. The very first quilted feathers I ended up hating and am in the process of pulling out. It's horribly tedious ... I have only a few more rows to go but it's taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r! The quilting itself is quick and easy so I need to stuck with it so I can finally finish this quilt.

I also need to find the right fabric to make the binding. I'm thinking a B&W stripe or dots would work well. Any suggestions? Here's an older picture of the quilt top:

The backing is solid aqua.

****

I feel re-energized by doing some very simple cleaning and organizing. How about you? Anyone else starting out "fresh" with the new year?

---Claudia

Happy New Year

2011-12-30T18:16:00.000-08:00

I didn't intend to be take such a long blog break, but with work and the crazy run up to the holidays and then taking time off to be with the kids - I needed some time to recharge my batteries.

Getting ready for the new year, I couldn't resist picking up some new fabrics.

Axel had to get in the shot

These are from Peapod Fabrics, a wonderful little independent fabric store in town. I also order the blues pictured below via the 'net about a month ago.

More pretty blues

Lately, I've been really digging indigo blues and yellow-golds. I decided to make a very good friend a quilt in this color scheme (she has been dropping hints that she wants a quilt). She also told me she likes blue, but then today she mentioned she wanted to get rid of the blues in her bedroom and go with green and rust! Now I'm not sure what to do ...

I have been steadily working on the star quilt (see last post) but it's still all in pieces so no new pictures to share. This has been the year of the "WIP", with only a couple of small completed quilts to brag about. Mainly, the work I've put into my Farmer's Wife sampler has left little time for other projects. I miss that sense of completion, but I also need to remind myself to be patient. It's all about the process; I could easily have pumped out several "easy" quilts with large piecing and minimal quilting if I wanted to. But I've enjoyed learning new techniques and working at a slower pace this year.

I'm also thinking of moving in a different direction in this new year. In October, I took a landscape quilting class with Kathy McNeil that made me think differently about the craft of quilting. I like the idea of using fabric as a tool (like paint) instead of the emphasis on sewing with designer fabric names and reproducing popular quilting designs.

Wishing everyone health and happiness in the New Year!

My daughter sunbathing in Golden Gate Park
December 28, 2011

Stars

2011-11-28T14:13:00.001-08:00

Sorry, it's been a while since I've updated my blog. Life has been good, and busy! I managed to fit in some sewing over the long weekend. I ran out of quilting thread for my triangle quilt (see previous post) and had a really hard time locating the exact YLI thread I need to finish up this quilt. I finally found an online source for both threads (I'm using two different colors) and am waiting for my order to arrive.

Meanwhile, I used the break as excuse to embark on a new quilting project.

The pattern, which is from the first Material Obsession book, calls for 34 Ohio stars. Each one is made from a different print from my stash.

Just when I was getting thoroughly sick and tired of making so many stars I moved on to the the next step which involves joining stars to make 8 sets of flower bunches and embellishing them with embroidery stems and hand applique leaves. I'm enjoying this step as I can work on the couch and the stitching and the leaves are fairly large and not too fussy.

I also made myself a new coaster.

I'm pretty happy with it, but how it holds up, only time will tell. I find that my home sewn kitchenwares made with quilting-weight cotton tend to be on the flimsy side. I like my potholders to be thick and sturdy and able to withstand high heat. I always add a layer thermal treated fabric in with two layers of batting, which I also used here, but this time I used a waffle-weave cotton towel for the backing.

I'm hoping this will add the "heft" I'm looking for.

I think it looks pretty "snazzy" with my french press.

Here's my daughter on Thanksgiving, snuggling with my sister's newest dog. He's 4 pounds (full-grown) of cute! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Quilting - second go around

2011-11-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

Remember this quilt?

I started quilting it months ago but hated my quilting so much, it ended up on the WIP pile. This weekend, I unfolded the quilt, assessed the situation and started quilting new meandering feathers on the half I hadn't quilted. I should mention that I first straight lined quilted around the triangles but the quilt still needed something.

Now I have half a quilt with feathers (pictured from the back):

with my trusty paperweight ...

Now I have the enviable task of taking the crappy quilting. So far, I've managed to remove just a few blocks worth of ugly feathers. It's super slow going. I also ran out of thread and an hunting around for a source on the internet. I'm using two different kinds of YLI variegated 40 wt. quilting thread I had picked up at a quilt show a few years ago. I found the thread at various websites, but not the two of them together in one place. ***sigh**

Generally when I start free-motion quilting, I warm up on a small scrap to check my stitches. Just take a couple of scraps and sandwich it with a scrap of batting - the same kind that you are using in your quilt, and quilt away. Here are my doodles from the other day:

I had to adjust my tension up quite a bit to get my stitches looking good on the back. The tension is affected by various factors such as the type thread, needle, fabric, batting, etc., so don't skip this step.

At the same time, I'm warming up, playing with the designs I'm considering, and auditioning thread colors. Now I have these fun little scraps floating around the house ... I suppose I could make them into coasters. The leaf scrap was a little piece I had in my scrap bin from practicing needle-turn applique.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival for Fall

2011-10-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's time for Fall Bloggers' Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. I was honored to have been a featured quilter on Amy's website last month.

The quilt I'm sharing for the Fall Festival is my most recent finished quilt, Lemon Pie.

I used a Piece O' Cake Designs pattern featured in Fon's & Porter's quilt magazine. The pattern called for fusible web and machine stitching for the applique. Through experimentation, I settled on a small zigzag stitch to finish off the applique. It was a bit of a struggle but a good learning experience. I have since learned that The Bottom Line thread by Superior Threads is the perfect thread for machine applique. How I wish I knew about this thread before this project.

I had a lot of fun with the quilting.

The Bloggers' Quilt Festival is a great opportunity to see lots of inspiring quilts and meet new quilters. Thanks to all for visiting my blog.

I'm back from PIQF

2011-10-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

My husband's Halloween musical show is poised to open next Thursday, so it's been a flurry of activity in my household. Despite the madness, I managed to fit in the the Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) with my sister for a few days last weekend.

Here's a couple of awe-inspiring quilts:

This one was designed/drafted on paper and quilted on a domestic Bernina. The back was equally spectacular.

The quilt above is by Gloria Loughman. My sister and I wanted to take a class by Ms. Loughman, but it filled up right away. Instead, we enrolled in a half day hand-quilting class taught by
Jean Brown and a full day landscape quilting class with by Kathy McNeil.

We didn't have a huge amount of time to see the show and shop (awesome vendors) but we tried our best! You can find more pictures from the show on my flick under quilt shows.

Above is the class sample of the quilt we were making in class. My sister and her friend and I took up a table at the back of the room - we had heaps of fabric which we were freely sharing amongst ourselves and snips of paper and fabric littering the carpet and pretty much what we accomplished by class end were the rock formations/cliffs in the mid and foreground. Too bad I didn't think to stop and snap a picture of us working, but we were trying to get as much done during class time as we could. I came away from the class armed with the techniques to finish the quilt and another WIP to add to the pile.

It wasn't all work and no play.

I'm 2nd from the left and my sister is in the middle.

When I have more time, I'll write in more detail about some of the things I learned in my two classes and a few tools I purchased (new quilting hoop, etc.).

While the Babylock is in the shop

2011-10-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

Had to switch gears, pulling out the featherweight this weekend to piece some FWS blocks.

I managed to put together 4 blocks.

After debating about it for a while, I decided to not share Block #33 - Farmer's Puzzle here. It looks way too much like a Swastika for my comfort. I'm going to take it apart and turn some of the pieces around and will post at a later time. However, you can see the block photographed with all of the blocks.

Looks like it might not be too early to start thinking about sashing colors. Any ideas are welcome.

We enjoyed more warm temps and clear days through the weekend but now it's started to rain. I love working in my quilting room (aka, the bedroom!) on a nice sunny afternoon. I was able to grab a couple of hours unexpectedly on Saturday while my daughter worked at a fundraiser car wash for the school band. I had volunteered to help out, but they had more than enough adults to supervise. I somehow found a few more hours on Sunday after taking my daughter and a friend to the mall (I followed at a discrete distance as they shopped at Hot Topic, etc.)!

Here's my sewing companion ....

And my fabric storing system - I resisted the urge to straighten things up for the picture.

Lemon Pie is finished

2011-09-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

A finished quilt is a beautiful thing.

Lemon Pie
Please do not copy without permission

I'm so glad I've switched my focus from my FWS to finishing up a few things on my WIP pile such as the quilt above.

Here's some texture detail on the back:

quilt back
Please do not copy without permission

I really like how velvety-soft the backing fabric feels - almost like a brushed cotton. It's a lavender dot print from Lucien. I used a variegated thread for the top stitching and plain grey (Coats & Clark) in the bobbin. It blends beautifully with the lavender.

I had just completed the free-motion quilting and was changing feet on my machine to start on the binding and my machine went dead. Kaput. Oy. I took it into the shop on Tuesday and got a royal spanking from the shop owner for horrific negligence. 3 years is WAY too long to go without a service. I guess the equivalent would be to drive your car for 20k without an oil change!!! So, I have my fingers crossed that there is nothing major wrong that can't be resolved with a thorough cleaning and adjustment. I have a quilting class in mid-Oct. for which I need my machine and it's questionable it will be done by then.

If anyone reading this is thinking this sounds familiar, don't make my mistake; stop what you're doing and take your machine in IMMEDIATELY for servicing!

I still have my Featherweight which came in handy for making the binding strips and finishing up the quilt. I can still work on piecing my FWS blocks too.

Lemon Pie, Completed!
Please do not copy without permission

******
Have a GREAT weekend!

Here's my tubby guy Axel - we bought him a battery operated hamster in hopes he'd chase it and get more exercise. As you can see here, he wasn't too impressed.

Axel vs. Hamster

TGIF!

2011-09-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, I do love Fridays. The end of the work week is in sight, and various "quilt-y" projects beckon.

New Stash

Before I tell you what I have planned for this delicious stack, I wanted to give a yell out to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for featuring me on her bog today. I feel totally honored to be featured, and maybe a bit astonished, to be honest. Amy's next Bloggers' Festival is coming up next month, so mark your calendars. I can't think of a better way for small bloggers such as myself (under 50 followers) to get our work out there and to encourage us all to support other quilters.

Back to the fabric featured above.... I had purchased for my FWS project, but now I can't get the idea of making a log cabin mini or table runner out my mind! I'm not sure if I have enough yardage as these are smallish scraps - somewhere in between fat quarter and fat eighth in size.

Speaking of log cabins, here's a fun idea on quilterscache.

****

Have a GREAT weekend, everyone!

Quilting!

2011-09-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

Yes.... I've been busy quilting. This is, after all, a quilting blog, and I've been making good progress on quilting Lemon Pie. You can read about the making of this quilt here, here and here.

Lemon Pie Applique quilt
Please do not copy or link to this photo without my consent

I was able to get this sandwiched fairly quickly due the the small size of the quilt. I love being able to do this on a table vs. floor -- I'm too old and my back hurts having to stoop over the floor!

I'm loosely following the freemotion quilting pattern recommended in the magazine but changed the background stitching in the 3 lower inner panels to better match the background fabrics. I'm actually working on the border now, so it's going quickly. As you can see in my photos, I still need to go back and bury my threads.

Lemon Pie Applique quilt
Please do not copy or link to this photo without my consent

I used embroidery floss to make the birds' eyes and a variegated thread by YLI for quilting. I just finishing up the quilting in the outer borders and it feels good to see the finish line in sight!

A pic from my Saturday walk at Oyster Pt. The red leaves made me think of Fall, although it this is some sort of evergreen tree! One can tell that Fall is nearly here because we're finally getting some super hot weather here in the SF Bay Area!

This and That

2011-09-16T17:53:00.000-07:00

First of all, Happy Friday! I had really good intentions of blogging last Friday about my weekend plans, but it never happened. The big plan was to do some reading.

Which in fact, I did...but then my daughter spied the pattern on the cover of Quilts & More (right under The Hunger Games). I hadn't even so much as cracked open the magazine yet.

She just had to make it, so we got out some fabric and I assisted with the measuring and rotary cutting; she did all of the stitching. We didn't have pre-printed pumpkin printed fabric for the center squares so she's designing some motifs and I'll probably stitch those by hand. This is my (our) very first time making prairie points and they're super easy.

Some loot from a recent trip to Joann's. 2 half yard cuts of Denyse Schmidt's new fabric line and some embroidery floss. [The little embroidery pictured in the photo was stitched by my daughter. ]

And these:

I've been meaning to find some self-threading needles for a long time. They should really come in handy for quickly burying threads when quilting. I also thought I'd try out titanium sewing machine needles. I have one on the machine right now and I honestly say I can't tell the difference. I would be interested in hearing from anyone else who uses these. Are they better than standard needles?

Have a GREAT weekend, everyone! I'm looking forward to finishing up the last in The Hunger Games trilogy and probably a little sewing. I can't wait!

Getting Unstuck

2011-09-06T13:44:00.000-07:00

After getting completely “stuck” on the Darting Birds block, and seriously questioning whether it was worth continuing on with the FWS project, I decided to skip over to the next block in the book; Ducks & Ducklings. I’m happy to say that I am now officially “unstuck”.

The block would be more aptly named Cobwebs & Clover. I used 2 different Alexander Henry prints, both Halloween themed - the B&W clover is from the Ghastlies line.

I then revisited Darting Birds, and once I settled on the bold wavy print, it came together.

Next up, Economy

Thank goodness for an EASY one!!!! I've been waiting for a block with some large pieces so I could feature this cool print from my stash. The way I oriented the fabric, it actually looks much better not "on-point".

Lastly, #30 End of Day

I literally finished this one at the end of day, yesterday, which is why the photo is so grainy. Again, I was able to use a wonderful Alexander Henry Print (the dark print) ... the black striped fabric in Economy is also an A. Henry print.

I used templates for this last batch of blocks. I can say now after 30+ blocks, with the exception of some blocks that only need very simple math calculations, my blocks made with the templates have come out the best. My paper piecing blocks yielded exacting results but loads of frustration (and swearing) and the finish size blocks were coming out a tad on the small side. I like to piece with a scant 1/4" seam as it gives me wiggle room to trim down anything too wonky.

I'd like to share with you my work process. I should probably take some pictures to flesh this out.

I'm cutting out the templates and pasting them onto plastic template sheets. I leave the paper template cut a little big and then trim it down once it's secured to the plastic. I find I can use my rotary cutter and ruler to cut fabric with these. Occasionally, I do need to toss a template if I've cut on it too many times, but still, I'm finding myself working faster, and with good results. Before cutting into my fabric, I measure my templates and cut a fabric strip horizontal to the selvage to fit the template. This saves a lot of time. I wasn't having good results with slapping my template down randomly on a fabric piece, and tracing around the template with a pen or pencil.

FWS- Progress Shot

Have a great week!

Claudia

Farmer's Wife: at an impasse

2011-09-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

My free time (as it is) these past few weeks have been consumed with my house painting project, but I do have a couple of FWS blocks I put together a few weeks ago, but have yet to share with you.

#25 Cups & Saucers

and

#26 Cut Dish

I attempted the next block, Flock of Birds, but didn't get far. The few nights I sat down to work was at the end of some very long work days. After shuffling these pieces around, and getting no where, I called "it a day".

Not quite a Flock

I find myself losing steam on my FWS project, and it's not just a lack of time or energy. I haven't figured out how to streamline my work process, so I'm reinventing the wheel on each block. Sometimes I use the templates, or paper-piece or use math. This takes more "brain energy" than I seem to have these days.

I'm also finding that I'm out of good background prints in light colors. Not all fabrics can be "rock stars", and I'm lacking good "blenders". Unless I start reusing fabrics, but I was hoping to keep things scrappy. Ideally, I'll be able to pick up some FQ's at my local fabric shop, if I can only find the time. So, it's at an impasse for now.

Now with the bulk of house painting done (still need to do touch up), I hope to turn my attention to this WIP.

Lemon Applique

I have the backing fabric and would like to get it prepped for quilting. Maybe I can squeeze in some time this weekend between the 2 planned picnics/BBQ's.

I wish everyone a great Labor Day weekend!

Swirling Leaves mini quilt

2011-08-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

The finished quilt:

Swirling Leaves

And the back:

Swirling Leaves

I wish I could take a photo that would do justice to the vibrant colors in this quilt, but the contrast is just too much for my little point and shoot Canon.

Because the quilt design is double-sided, I spent a lot of time considering how I would quilt this. A few months ago, I had subscribed to receive email updates from Leah Day at The Freemotion Quilting Project but had been so busy with life, I hadn't taken the time to really read and explore her blog. I started spending time on her blog, perusing her designs. By the way, Leah's blog is a fantastic resource for learning and improving one's quilting skills. It's good to know there's a whole world of possibilities out there beyond basic straight line quilting and stippling. On my own I have been exploring free-motion quilting designs over the last several years and in my opinion, the process of quilting seems to be an after thought for many quilters who just want to finish a quilt or feel their skills aren't up the the task.

I decided I wanted a "watery" inspired design. I took Leah's Flowing Lines design as a starting point and added an occasional swirl. Here's my practice piece - I was also auditioning various colored threads:

Excuse the lint! I tried 4 different variegated threads before settling on a Gutterman's in earthy-tones that had went to a black. I liked the shadowy effect of the black areas on the black fabric.

This quilt has been finished for a couple of weeks and I haven't sewed a stitch since then as I've been deep into painting the dining room. In some ways, this reminds me of trying out fabrics for a new quilt:

I'm going with the aqua blue, 4th down from the top. It's Martha Stewart Lagoon MSL125. Wish me luck.

Log cabin tote

2011-08-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! The kids are completing their first week of back to school; son is a Junior in High School and daughter is in 6th starting at the Middle School. I guess summer is officially over for us although we're still deep into our summer fog season and hope there are many warm days in Fall ahead of us.

One drawback to working on long-term (somewhat tedious) quilting projects is missing that satisfaction of completing a project from conception to the finished item in just a day or two. With this in mind, I decided to put aside my FWS and wiped out a tote bag for my daughter's friend for her 11th birthday.

Log cabin tote bag

I used mainly batiks which no one seems to like these days, at least on flickr. I have a bunch of batiks in my stash in green which I'm not a big fan of but had purchased to make a quilt for my son and ended up never using. I added some Jane Sassaman prints to the mix.

back of tote

Bag is constructed with a layer of batting (quilted to the front) and a simple lining. I didn't care if this bag lacked structure but I usually do add some interfacing to my bags, and this could've easily been done if I so desired.

free-motion feathers

I've made a lot of simple totes, so this came together easily. I thought this was a good opportunity to practice my free motion quilting skills so I quilted a meandering feather filler on the back of the bag. You can see the quilting much better from the batting side. The front is quilted simply in the ditch around the log cabin design.

Speaking of free motion quilting, here's a peek at my Swirling Leaves table topper quilt. I'll be sharing the completed quilt on my blog soon.

Farmer's Wife: there is progress!

2011-08-02T20:12:00.000-07:00

I've been slowly and steadily working away at my FWS and have completed 26 out of 111 blocks. I'm happy to report that I'm about one-quarter of the way there!

The First 25!

The 5 blocks pictured above on the lower right side are the most recent:

#18 Century of Progress

#18 Century of Progress. Paper pieced using the patterns provided by the the FWS Yahoo group. After seening how the block was constructed, I decided to eliminate the 2 unnecessary seams on the center pinwheel (see the red fabric). This was a fun block that came together fairly easily.

#19 Checkerboard

#19 Checkerboard. Even though I sewed this up about a week ago, I had to check my notes on Flickr to remind myself that I had paper pieced this one. This is a good reason to keep a record or journal while working on quilting projects.

#20 Churn Dash

#20 Churn Dash. Wouldn't you know this is a super easy block requiring easy maths, and mine is wonky.

#21 Contrary Wife

I LOVE the name of this block! I went a little wild with the background fabrics on this one. Used math and pieced conventionally.

#22 Corn & Beans

#22 Corn & Beans. Dang it! After finishing this one fairly late at night, I noticed I'd flipped a corn triangle with a background triangle. I couldn't face the ordeal of taking it apart so I'm trying to live with it the way it is. If it continues to bother me, I'll correct it later. I've found this is a great way to deal with mistakes - sleep on it and see if you feel the same about it later. Paperpieced.

#24 Country Path

#24 Country Path. I'm kind of in love with the way this one turned out. I decided I didn't want to deal with PP, so I printed out the templates, cut them out, glued the paper to some template plastic and cut the plastic out. I traced the patterns onto the right side of my fabric and cut out the pieces with scissors. Wouldn't you know, I finally came up with a block that was a tad larger than 6 1/2" because I was careful to sew a scant 1/4" seam. This is one of my quibbles with paper piecing. My blocks are coming out a tad smaller than 6 1/2" which means my blocks will be even smaller once I have them squared up.

No doubt someone has a key tip to share about how to get a paper-pieced block with a little extra around the perimeter?

Anyway what I like about this project besides the mini-design/fabric decisions to be made with each block is how I'm exercising my skills as a quilter. On these 26 blocks, I've used a number of different techniques such as utilizing templates, paper piecing and drafting blocks by hand on graph paper, calculating cutting sizes and last but not least, hand sewing!

In Process (pieces cut out using templates)

Pieced block...checking it one last time!

Back

Fini!!!

Introducing my new baby

2011-07-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, my new "baby" arrived in the mail. I purchased a Singer Featherweight on e-bay. This is actually my very first e-bay purchase and there were a few "bumps" with the seller, but thankfully we got it worked out and the machine arrived in good working condition. I was away on vacation, so had to wait until we got back and cleaned the house (see my last post about the floor refinishing) before I could set her up and take her for a test run. Well, I'm in love!!! My large Babylock is sitting on the floor while I'm enjoying piecing my Farmer's Wife quilt blocks on the featherweight. It frees up so much more working space on my table.

My daughter had to get in the act as well. So instead making progress on my FWQAL, we made star blocks with a doggie print. She looks super serious here, doesn't see?

I didn't make any progress on my FWQAL, but we had fun.

Over this past week, I managed to make one FW block. It was a bitch....

#17 - Cats & Mice

I used the PP pattern through Yahoo groups and I should have put more thought into how the pieces were going to go together. I ended up with an impossible construction situation and ended taking apart the units and resewing. It's a little wonky-doodle, but I'm happy with it.

Here's a block I finished up right before going on vacation.

#13 - Buckwheat

I used the templates for this one and it's partially hand sewn. The repros are from various lines - one I like in particular is called Miniatures by Julie Hendrickson. My local fabric shop, Peapod, carries a few prints in this line. I think these work nicely in "busy" blocks with tiny pieces.

Back from vacation

2011-07-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

I've been back from Iowa for a week and have been wanting to catch up on my blog, but finding the time has been a challenge. As soon as we returned from our trip -- we had our hardwood floors refinished while we were away -- we were confronted with with a massive clean-up project. The house was full of very fine sawdust. But the trip to see the family was action-packed and especially enjoyable for the kids as they got plenty of time to spend playing with their cousins.

While in Iowa, I found a vintage quilt top in an antique store:

It was all folded up but from what I could see, I recognized the "Double T Block" or Capital T block design as I had just read an article about Temperance quilts in the most recent Fons & Porter magazine. The double T design was created to symbolize abstinence from alcohol and what I find interesting about the design is the "T" is somewhat hidden and an interesting secondary design pops up behind the 4 T's.

I fell in love with the "scrappiness" of this quilt and the vivid colors. It looks like the quilter used dress and shirting fabric and whatever she had on hand to make up the blocks. The tag on the quilt dated it to the 1920's. The top must have been stored carefully away out of the light.

The blocks were hand stitched but the sashing was first hand-basted on, then machine stitched to the blocks. The quilter never got around to taking out the basting stitches:

Every time I look at this quilt, I see something new.

I'm so glad to have come across this quilt top. I plan on quilting it eventually but would like it looked at by a quilt expert/assessor first.

Usually, I do quite a bit of quilt fabric shopping while in Iowa. Ames has a wonderful quilt store called the Quilt Connection. I made it there but only had a half hour or so to do a quick shop while the rest of my family went looking for Red Monkey root beer. I picked up an odd assortment of fat quarters, Civil War repros and some contemporary fabrics. I've already cut into the yardage.

I'm finding myself drawn to reproduction prints lately, as they work so well in the small 6" blocks for the Farmer's Wife Sampler. It's fun to mix the mostly smaller-scale repros with more contemporary fabrics. I especially love the Alexander Henry B&W featured above.

Summer in San Francisco

2011-06-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

This is what I've been working on:

Sewing is taking a backseat to some much need home improvement projects. We're in the midst of wallpaper removal... 4 layers, that is. This is what we found under the vinyl that stripped off easily. The birdcage print and fake grass paper are GONE! We have no intention of living with 50's era brown leaf patterned paper, either, and since this snapshot was taken, 3/4 of the room is now cleared down to bare plaster. The floors are next on the list ... then painting, and so goes the summer!

Another day and another layer down

extra Maple leaf

I finished piecing the back for my Maple leaf quilt.

Maple Leaf - back

This is the front:

Maple Leaf
29 x 29

The inspiration for the back is from a quilt featured in Material Obsession 2. I replaced the center 9-patch with an extra maple leaf block and adjusted the dimensions of the pieces to fit with the center block.

I found it very refreshing to work some of my non-trendy designer fabrics into this work. Although I find the online quilt world, including flickr a wonderful source of inspiration, the rush to use the latest and greatest new fabric lines, is getting old (for me). Not that I don't LOVE fabric, it just seems like sometimes people respond to the "designer used" over the quilt, the creativity and skill the sewist invests in her craft. It can be a challenge to filter it all out and listen to my inner voice and create what I want without worrying if anyone is going to like my work because it isn't "trendy".

Now my quandary is how to quilt an essentially two sided-quilt. Any ideas? I have a rough idea of quilting freeform wavy lines in a diagonal around the leaves.

***

This is probably my last post for a few weeks. I'm taking a short break. I hope everyone is enjoying their summers, whether you are sewing, relaxing, traveling, etc.

My Saturday morning walk on the marina (So. SF)

Happy Friday

2011-06-17T06:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday!

This week I finished another block for the FWQL:

#8 - Bouquet: I utilized the foundation paper piecing templates from the FW Yahoo group. There's so much yellow in this one, it stands out a bit from the other blocks, but should balance out in the long-run once I've made more blocks in different colors.

I'm running out of room on my design wall ...

I'm "roughly" following the color scheme from the book, pulling out some pretty old scraps from my stash. Because I'm not using white or other solids in this quilt, the challenge is finding good background fabrics; the one used here is a new fabric from Denyse Schmidt's new line from Joanns.

Have a GREAT weekend.

Border Maple Leaf WIP

2011-06-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

My wonderful friend, Irv, was visiting yesterday and admiring my Farmer's Wife blocks I had taped to my bedroom wall. He thought (to his untrained quilters' eyes) they looked "Japanesey" which got me thinking ...

Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt progress shot

I remembered starting a maple leaf quilt last year that I thought suited my friend's tastes perfectly. After find the blocks in a box, I decided to sew them together to make a wall hanging. The pattern is from www.quilterscache and is called Border Maple Leaf. The site suggested sashing with lots of tiny fabric squares, but once I had a few of these sewn together, I hated it. Thought it was too busy. This is what I came up with instead:

Border Maple Leaf
22" square

Boy oh boy, is it difficult to photograph a black quilt. The contrast is wild. I chose some random bits for the the sashing squares. I could border the quilt, but I'm leaning towards leaving it "as is".

I'm having fun piecing the back in a creative way ... check back soon to see what I come up with.

Farmer's Wife QAL

2011-06-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to have stumbled upon a QAL for Laurie Aaron Hird's The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt hosted by Amanda and Angela. There's a wealth of info about the quilt on the author's website here. Additionally, check out the flickr group. Phew, I think that's enough links for one post.

If you are a long time reader of my blog, you may remember that I started on the Farmer's Wife quilt last year, but lately the blocks have been sitting in a box under my sewing table. Last night I pulled out the box (after hunting around for a while), and decided to sew up one of the easier block patterns.

#84: Spool

Love it!

I'm constructing the simpler blocks that are divisible by 6 by doing the math and cutting with a rotary cutter. Templates seem really fussy to me for such a simple block. I will be paper piecing the more intricate designs.

Here's my assistant getting in the act:

Assisting with block selection

It's a bit small ...

Lemon Pie

2011-06-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

I love lemon pie. One of our favorite cafes makes a buttermilk lemon pie topped with blueberries and whipped cream....oh so good. But I digress from the topic at hand, my Lemon Pie quilt top is finished!

Lemon Pie

The pattern is from Fons & Porters March/April issue and is a Piece O' Cake Designs pattern. As soon as I laid my eyes on this pattern, I wanted to make it so I started off with some aqua fat quarters and scraps from my stash. Once I got to the setting triangles and borders I needed to go out and buy some yardage from Peapod Fabrics. I thought these worked nicely with the existing fabric.

Now this moves on to my "completed tops" pile. Or perhaps I should leave it taped up above the bed?

Quilting feathers

2011-05-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hi there, I've been trying to update my blog for over a week, but it's been a super eventful week. My youngest graduated from elementary school yesterday. That completes an 11 year stint at the same school, so a bittersweet ending. My son finished his finals and his second year of high school. With the summer months beginning, I hope to spend a little more free time sewing and quilting.

I have been dutifully working on outline quilting on my triangle quilt, but not really liking the results, so I decided to add feathers. I think it adds a dimension to the quilt that was missing.

I'm using a YLI machine quilting thread in variegated blues. I usually use Gutteman's or Coats & Clarks, but want to branch out and try some different brands. I picked up the YLI at a local quilt show last year. I only bought the one spool, and will probably need to source it online before I get too much further along. I'm hoping to have a good block of time to work on this next week, while both of my kids are away for the start of summer.

Color Block Quilt for Bloggers' Quilt Festival

2011-05-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

For the quilt festival at Amy's Creative Side, I'm sharing a quilt that lives on my bed. It only took about 8 years of quilting to get around to outfitting my own bed with a handmade quilt.

Color Block Quilt

Stats:
Queen-sized
Assorted Kona cotton solids
Assorted prints: Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Jane Sassaman, etc.
Backing is a Valori Wells print
Machine pieced and quilted by me
Machine quilting with Coats & Clarks variegated thread ("autumn")
Free-form flowers stitched in the squares, feather in border

The idea behind this quilt was all about playing with color, and how far I could stretch the "rules" of color theory. I chose a simple log cabin pattern and concentrated on the color combos. The quilt grew slowly and at some point the idea popped in my head that I could make this big enough to fit my bed. I finally decided to add borders to make it more "bed friendly".

Border detail: free-form feather design

Front & Back

I had a lot of fun with the quilting. I free-handed flowers in the block centers and connected the blocks with leaves and repeat patterns ... basically whatever popped into my head at the time.

This was my first attempt at machine sewing the binding down, and it was a pain in the "you know what". I do like the end result though.

Valori Wells print on back

Thanks for stopping by. Here's a link to all of the fabulous quilts featured in The Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

A short & sweet sewing project

2011-05-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

This is the toughest month for me with the end of the school year looming and it's all I can do to keep my head above the high water mark (school auction, etc.!). Consequently, I don't have a huge amount to share on my blog right now even though I've been working away in small spurts on quilting this quilt.

With the quilting process going at a snails' pace, I decided to whip out this cute top for my daughter. I used an easy Burda pattern (9573) and the new DS Collection Picnic & Fairgrounds fabric available at Joann's. I decided to make my own trim using a contrasting DS print. FYI, this would be a super quick and easy project sans the handmade trim.

Appliqued

2011-04-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! As I was thinking out what i was going to write here, I thought, "Happy Hump Day", and then realized that it's Thursday. Oh well .... I thought I'd share my progress on my Applique project.

Ta da! I now have a new appreciation for the labor that goes into applique. I took the easy route by using a fusible product and finishing the edges with a short zigzag stitch. This is my first experience using Steam A Seam fusible web (sheets), and although this product is very easy to manipulate (reposition pieces, etc.) I was a little disappointed that my edges looked frayed after stitching. I experimented with both a traditional applique blanket stitch and a zigzag, finally settling on the zigzag. I also can't mention how many times I stupidly traced my pattern onto the wrong side of the fusible web! I bet someone has a neat trick for avoiding this like marking some colored dots on one side. If you have a helpful tip, please let me know.

I'd love some feedback from anyone who has tried Piece O' Cake Designs' overlay method of applique. The overlay is a print of the pattern (I traced mine onto tracing paper) in which you "overlay" on top of the pieces prior to sewing to ensure proper positioning of the pieces. I found this to be very tedious but I wanted to give it a try. No doubt the results are very precise, but in this case, I'm not sure how imporant that is to me.

I'm still here

2011-04-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I'm back! Life has been full and busy -- mainly all good, thankfully. I have been doing a little bit of sewing, but not much. Here's a peek at my new project.

The pattern is from the recent Fons & Porter magazine and is from Piece O' Cake Designs. I've wanted to do an applique quilt for a long time, and this seemed an ideal project. I'm using lightweight fusible and will machine applique the shapes to the background. Although I have tried my hand at needle-turn applique with some small projects like this one, I decided that was a bit to challenging for me to tackle at this point.

The most difficult part so far, was selecting the background fabrics. The Piece O' Cake quilt featured in the magazine has a very colorful background, but looks cohesive because all of the fabrics are from POC's own fabric line. I wanted to use all fabrics from my stash and not make any unnecessary purchases, so I spent a lot of time auditioning different fabrics until finally settling on what you see here.

My kids' spring break was at the beginning of the month. I spent a week at home on a "stay-cation". One day I took my daughter to the park for a picnic.

We had fun hanging out on our quilt, playing Scrabble on my Kindle.

This is an old Bento box quilt made from Japanese fabric. It usually lives on the couch, but served equally well as a picnic quilt.

The view from our quilt.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Spring!

Playing around with some new fabrics

2011-03-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

My daughter insisted I buy the castle fabric for her while we were at the Pajaro Valley Quilt Show last month. The line is called "castle peeps". I just bought the two prints showed here and will fill in the rest of the quilt with stash fabric. I thought the blue print coordinated well - it has an orange peel print w/ a hornet or bee at the center. I want to add a crenelated border to echo the castle print. I still need to decide on fabrics and "do the math". This may be in process for a while!

I'm on spring break this week and what better use of my time than to go fabric shopping? My absolute favorite fabric store in the City - Peapod Fabrics - just reopened in a new and bigger location last Friday and I made it to the store on Sunday.

It was wonderful to visit with the shops' owner and see all of the fabulous fabrics on display. The store is still very small by most standards but probably double the size of the former location. I found fabric backings for two quilts in my WIP pile - the Ohio Star quilt from the Shrinking Quilters' Bee (the yellow print) and an aqua solid for my triangle quilt and the solid brown for the binding.

The small cuts are not fat quarters but are small cuts (I haven't measured them but they are maybe 1/3 smaller than a fat quarter. This is my only quibble with the store - she doesn't carry fat quarters. I'm really loving the purples, browns and beige colors in these scraps. I'm imagining these prints in small scale paper pieced blocks. We'll see.

It's a pillow... at last!

2011-03-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I had a major phobia about putting a zipper into a pillow form. The fabric, embroidery (from a class I took at a quilt show) and various zippers have been hanging out on my work table for about a month. It's far from perfect -- I was a little confused about where to start stitching around the zipper and there is a gap at both ends. I used the tutorial by Sewkatiedid (http://sewkatiedid.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/zip-to-your-pillow/) and "winged" the parts that weren't clear to me.

It feels good to have another long lingering WIP completed.

A Finish!

2011-03-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

It seems like ages since I've had a completed quilt but I'm SO pleased with the way it came out. We've been sleeping under it for a about a week without the binding, so it was time to make one last push and get it done.

I finished sewing the binding on Sunday afternoon - on my 50th birthday no less! I've been calling this quilt "Color Block" which admittedly is pretty boring. Maybe I should change it to "That 70's Quilt"? What do you think?

The idea to rename the quilt popped in my brain when I came across the picture above when I was downloading my quilt pics onto Flickr from my computer. It's something my 10 year old daughter created one day when she was bored.

Some details:
Queen-sized
Assorted Kona cotton solids
Assorted prints: Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Jane Sassaman, etc.
Backing is a Valori Wells print
Machine pieced and quilted by me
Machine quilting with Coats & Clarks variegated thread ("autumn")
Free-form flowers stitched in the squares, feather in border

I apologize for the crappy pictures. First of all, I lost my camera and have had to use a very old Powershot. And this is a BIG quilt -- too large to be photographed in it's entirety in my house. Once it stops raining and things dry out a bit, I'll attempt a photo shoot outdoors.

Quilting progress - feathers

2011-03-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

I needed a chunk of time to devote to quilting the the feather onto the quilt border and I found that chunk of time on Sunday afternoon. There was the question of "who" was going to help my daughter with her science fair project and I managed to get my hubby to do so ...

I used a white fabric pencil and free-handed the feather design onto the fabric. I prefer to quilt my feathers without marking the fabric, but in this case, I wanted to ensure a consistent "snaking meander" going all around the border, so marking it worked well. I used Coats & Clark variegated thread - the same thread I used for the the rest of the quilt.

I still need to go through and fix a few mistakes and then this baby is ready for binding.

In other (slightly tragic) quilting news, I am now "scrap less"

I asked my 16 year old son to empty the trash and he assumed my scrap bin was trash! Oy!!!

Quilting

2011-03-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been freemotion quilting my Color Block quilt top. On Saturday, I was literally on my last block when I ran out of thread. Hopefully I will not have any trouble finding another spool of matching thread (Coats & Clark variegated from Joann's) and I'll be back in business again.

Here's a view of my progress from the back side. I'm stitching a flower at the center of each block and adding leaves and squiggles to fill around the flowers and connect the blocks. It has gone quicker and easier than I anticipated I think in part due to the design allowing me to work systematically from block to block and not requiring the quilt to be constantly turned. One of the suggested quilting patterns for this design is to quilt conscentric squares starting at the center of each block. While it would've looked very cool, I doubt I'd have the patience to execute such a design. This is a queen sized quilt!

In some cases like in the photo above, I let the prints guide my flower designs. I've been letting loose and having fun.

Upset tummy

2011-02-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

My daughter woke this morning complaining of an upset stomach. She insisted she was too sick to go to school so I stayed at home today and suddenly found myself with a few extra hours on my hands.

Remember this one? Probably not ... it's been a while! This is a fairly big quilt top - it measures 98" x 83". I purchased some gorgeous backing fabric, folded it up with the quilt and it's been sitting on top of my armoire ever since. Today, I unfolded the whole mess, pieced the back, cleared the dinning room of furniture and laid it all out and got it sandwiched and pinned.

Now I have to decide how I want it quilted. Any ideas? Possibilities include:

1. geometric spiral starting at the center of each block
2. free-form feathers (my current obsession)
3. Echo quilting around the print on the backing (flowers, etc.)

****

Mug Rug
7x7

A birthday gift for a friend who loves purple.

Mini

2011-02-13T20:14:00.000-08:00

I was really in the mood to "make" something from the design stage all the way through to the binding, so that's exactly what I did this weekend. With just a rough idea of what I had in mind, I started cutting the squares Friday night. Saturday, I designed the heart (using freezer paper), machine appliqued it to the background, sandwiched the quilt and finished the binding that evening.

Happy Valentine's Day!

To voile or not to voile

2011-01-31T14:00:00.000-08:00

...that's the question.

Nest Voile by Valori Wells
(image from Fat Quarter Shop)

Ohio Star Quilt
(Incredible Shrinking Quilters Bee)

The quilt still needs borders -- I'm considering an inner narrow striped border followed by a wider border in solid green -- but it's not too soon to be thinking of backing fabric. While browsing over at http://www.fatquartershop.com/, I cam across this gorgeous voile by Valoris Wells. It's on sale for $9 a yard marked down from $15, and since it's 54" wide, I would only need 2 yards.

So, what do you think? From what I understand, quilting with voile can be tricky because it's slinky. Would it be a terrible mistake to use as backing fabric?

Weekend Sewing

2011-01-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

It's coming together nicely. Four more blocks to go! Each block contains 20 small HST's x 20 blocks = 400 HST's. I find it less tedious to piece about 3-4 blocks as I go instead of making all of the HST's at once.

1. trimming, 2. chain stitching, 3. pile of Thangles, 4. pressing, 5. press, 6. stack, 7. paper removal, 8. HST's, 9. assembly, 10. WIP: Lady on the Lake block, 11. New Project: Lady of the Lake blocks, 12. Lady of the Lake

It was sunny and in the 70's in San Francisco this weekend. [yes, I know this may seem like a form of torture for those of you suffering through sub-zero temps right now] My daughter's gymnastics gym is located at Oyster Pt. in South San Francisco. Even with a terrible head cold, I couldn't resist going for walk Saturday morning while my daughter was in her class.

Lady of the Lake - some progress

2011-01-19T14:20:00.000-08:00

I've been making slow but steady progress on the Lady of the Lake quilt. My iron bit the dust on Sunday. forcing me to run out to buy a new one before I could do any sewing. I bought a Shark at Target and it seems adequate (not great), but it is lighter than my old iron. I have been dealing with chronic shoulder pain, so that's a good thing.

Blocks are oriented "on-point" and soon I'll need to decide how I want to treat the outside edges. I'm leaning toward filing in with HST's in batiks. We'll see. This has been been a "fly by the seat of my pants" sort of project. If you have a good idea, let me know!

Besides working on the LOTL blocks, I've been trying to sort out the chaos of my working space. Here's Axel assisting with organizing my scraps. I think these strips are ideal for a scrappy log cabin. Actually, I may end up giving these away to lighten the load.

What to do with a charm pack?

2011-01-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

Make a table runner.

While ordering yardage of Maison de Garance (French General) to make a table runner for my SIL from http://www.fatquartership.com/, I couldn't resist adding a charm pack to my shopping cart. I realized I could make a table runner with just charms, but it was a bit on the small side for my SIL's table. I showed a friend the unquilted top with the charms and she said she would love to have it (browns aren't really my thing), so I finished the runner for her.

One yard of fabric wasn't quite enough to cover the back, so I pieced in the Flying Geese with some of the leftover charms. Backing fabric is a dark brown Kona and binding is Maison de Garance.

This was an easy and relatively inexpensive project that I could see myself making again but with different fabrics.

A New Year, A New Project

2011-01-04T19:35:00.001-08:00

Happy 2011, everyone!!!

Lady in the Lake quilt block

My BIL (my secret Santa gift exchange partner) gave me a Bali Pop roll in "Mango" for Christmas. After recovering from the madness of the holidays, it seemed the time was ripe to start on a new throw quilt for the living room. You may recall the 80 years' worth of wallpaper removal and painting project we finished recently? The living room is now painted a nice light shade of gray with a deep teal blue accent wall. I've paired a light grey Kona solid with the Bali batiks. The purple color is called "red raspberry" batik by Hoffman. I've also picked out a teal blue Batik to alternate with the purple blocks. I think these colors will coordinate well with the room's new color scheme. I'm happy to be working with batiks again. The vivid colors are cheerful and are helping to chase away the winter blues.

Blocks will finish to a 12" square. HST's are 2 1/2". Inner HST (large) is 9".

I still have a stack of unfinished projects from 2010 ... oh well, I'll get to them eventually. I'm resisting the urge to set any goals (quotas, yikes!) for 2011...but, I'd love to hear about your quilting/sewing plans and challenges for the new year.

Winter in Golden Gate Park

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T19:11:00.000-08:00

This just about says it all. We were still deep into wallpaper removal and painting of our living room right up till Christmas. I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. It's been hectic - we've also finished celebrating some family birthdays - but now that Santa's closed up her workshop for the year, I plan on enjoying this next week off with the kids.

My family does a secret Santa gift exchange and I made my SIL a tablerunner, napkins and a pot holder using French General Maison de Garance fabric. After searching the internet and my stash of quilting magazines for a pattern, I decided I went with something very simple to feature the center floral print.

The binding is cut on the bias, and there is a slight ripple at the edges because I cut the fabric lenthwise, but otherwise, I think it came out quite nicely. Blue woven is on the back.

At the last minute (of an already last minute project) I decided to whip up a pot holder. The Lemoyne Star block pattern is very fiddly (set in seams) but some free motion quilting minimized the flaws.

*******

Here's wishing all my readers a happy and wonderful holiday season!

Triangle Top

2010-12-03T18:15:00.000-08:00

I've been trying all week to find time to show you my triangle quilt top. Well.... here it is! The triangles are all pieced and now I'm considering adding borders to make it a bit larger. Current size is 59 1/2" X 70".

Happy Friday, and I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Home improvement and a little sewing

2010-11-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

I started on a huge home improvement project over the weekend ... removing the wallpaper in our living room. We've been living with vinyl grasspaper for 10 years and it looks dreadful. We live in a rental, so we've been pretty cautious about launching into these types of projects. But, after successfully removing the paper in the kitchenette and revamping it into a much needed bedroom for my daughter, it was time to move on to another part of the house.

Wallpaper circa late 1950's with vintage light fixture.

This is what is under the vinyl. The pink and gold coordinates with our pink and gold formica kitchen countertops! The lady of the house obviously liked pink. This is just one layer down. There are several more layers going back to the 1920's. I have my work cut out for me.

Consequently, I didn't get any work done on my Triangle quilt over the weekend, but I finished up an embroidery I started on last year.

Christmas Tree on Acid

The pattern is a freebie from Badbird Designs. I cut out the finished design and made it into a stuffie. I think it looks rather ridiculous and garish, but my daughter loves it so it's hanging out in her room. I still need to add a loop of floss to the top so she can hang it up if she wishes.

I also sewed a couple of blocks for my Farmer's Wife Sampler.

Calico Puzzle & Bat wing

Instructions & completed block

This photo gives you an idea of the general layout from the book, The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt. That's the extent of the instructions provided. Numbered templates are provided on a CD. This book is a HUGE disappointment, as no measurements for the individual pieces are given. I will probably stick with the easy blocks - the ones that can be drafted out because the pieces are divisible by 6. I don't feel the need to slavishly reproduce an historical looking quilt anyway.

Triangles!

2010-11-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

I cut into my Betty Dear fat quarters using my super-duper Tri Tool triangle template. The template makes quick work of the cutting process. Simply cut the fabric into strips, in this case 6 1/2" strips to yield 6 1/2" triangles.

The prints alternate with solids from my stash. I have about one half of my strips pieced so far. This will be a "smallish" lap quilt. If I've done my math right (which is doubtful!), finished size will be approximately 60" x 72".

My design process
You might ask what happened to my earlier idea to using my Betty Dear to make wagon wheel blocks? Well, I opened up a drawer in my sewing cabinet and my eye fell on the triangle template. I've always wanted to make a triangle quilt, and I quickly envisioned a riot of diamonds, a la Kaffe Fassett. After cutting out some of the fabric and playing around with the triangles, I decided I didn't like the diamonds nor did I care for the "busyness" of the prints, so I gathered up some solids. I used some depression-era FQ I had picked up several years ago at a quilt show, supplementing with some Kona solids, and voila, a quilt pattern was born!

Now, if only Axel would STAY OFF ...

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T09:51:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Mini Quilt

My favorite Giant's Fan

Fall Quilt Festival

2010-10-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

It's time for the Fall Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. I've decided to feature my Snowball quilt completed this summer (June 2010).

Pattern: snowball with diamond border (squares set on point)

Fabrics: various designer prints, batiks in border and corners of snowballs, Amy Butler print on back
Inspiration: Kaffe Fassett, although I didn't follow a specifc pattern

It started out like this:

Eventually, a quilt emerged. It took almost a year to complete the piecing and quilting.

I free-motion quilted in a swirling pattern.

*****

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn Leaves

2010-10-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

This is as much fall color as you're going to find out my way in California. I brought my camera and leaf blocks with me to work and while on my midday walk, I snapped these at the park. Fortunately, there weren't too many folks out to question what the heck this strange woman was doing arranging fabric amongst the greenery.

As I walk by these manzanita bushes several times a week I often think its sinuous shapes would make a great start off point for a quilt design.

Farmer's Wife blocks

Sometime last year, my husband gave me The Farmer's Wife Sampler by Laurie Aaron Hird. In a quest to use up some stash fabrics, I pulled out the book a few days ago and made these blocks. Block size is 6" which makes for some pretty hairy piecing, but so far, I've stayed away from the more complicated designs. Mostly likely, I won't be making all 111 blocks in the book - but just enough to make a modest-sized sampler.

Some more pictures from my photo shoot the other day:

****

Betty Dear

2010-10-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

Let me explain. I've been trying REALLY hard to be frugal and use up my sizable fabric stash. But I've been drooling over Darlene Zimmerman's new fabric line "Betty Dear" and could resist no longer. I bought the entire line in fat quarter cuts from Thecalicogirl on Etsy today.

Betty Dear

It's a huge splurge for me - I don't think I've ever bought an entire line of anything. I already have a pattern in mind. I think these fabrics would look great in a "wagon wheel" quilt block. Some fabulous examples are saved in my Favorites on Flickr.

After searching through various online sources, and realizing this is a pretty straightforward pattern, I will most likely draft my own pattern. I just need to figure out how big I want my blocks and how many spokes I want to radiate out from the center.

Would would you do if a bundle of Betty Dear landed on your doorstep?

Part II - Quilting Class

2010-10-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

After some 6-7 years of quilting, I finally took a quilting class. I'm so proud of myself. My sister and I enrolled in a class on free-motion quilting techniques. Our teacher was Lori Smith, who is a well-known quilting teacher.

Instruction sheet and practice doodles

Some things I learned, not directly related to quilting:

#1 Come prepared. There was quite a bit of fabric and supplies prep for this class. I was in my typical rush-rush mode, and had to throw everything together early on the morning of the class.

#2 Come really prepared. At the last minute, I threw in some of my extra quilting feet and boy, oh boy, am I glad I did (will explain this later!).

#3 Never go anywhere your machine without a 2 wheeler cart. Oy. My machine weighs a TON and the class was located in the hotel next to the convention center parking. It was a schlep and I ended up busting off the pin that holds a secondary spool of thread on the top of my machine.

Amazingly, I arrived at class with everything I needed. However, my trusty old free-motion foot would not work! No matter what I did .... I changed my needle, re-threaded my machine, turned the power on and off, etc. I actually began to lose my cool as I envisioned having to leave the class before making a single stitch because I was dead in the water. Then, I had a stroke of genius. Why not try the extra foot I had thrown in my bag as an afterthought?. I was pretty sure it was an open-toe free-motion foot . It was much "clunkier" looking than the other foot, and I had never tried it, but at that point, I didn't have anything to lose. And it worked. And worked like a charm. Phew!!

Here's my first piece. We were instructed to stitch the straight lines first, then fill in the pattern with a meander. This was very straightforward for me, but a good warm up. I learned a couple of useful things.

First, if you tend to get puckers when you straight line quilt, it may be that the top, batting and back fabric grain lines aren't oriented in all the same direction. We were directed to stitch with the crosswise grain first (which has more stretch), before the lengthwise grain. Little did I know, even the batting has more stretch in a given orientation (just give it a little tug to determine this before creating your quilt sandwich).

Secondly, I very lazily have never brought up the bottom thread to the top of my piece at the beginning of free motion stitching. New to this technique, it went agonizingly slow, and as I was already behind with my work due to the snafu with my darning foot, so I ...ahem...cheated a bit, and left some of my threads on the back. However, this is something I will be working on at home, from now on.

Photographed from back-side.

Next, we free-motion quilted a feathered wreath from a template and our last block was more improvisational. We were supposed to practice stitching with a double-needle, but true to form, my machine wouldn't cooperate, so I experimented with one of my decorative stitches instead.

Unfinished block

I didn't have time to finish my piece - we were to sew the three blocks together to create a panel. Our teacher taught us a fun "quilt as you go" technique which I'll demonstrate at a later time.

All in all, the class was both a great learning experience and an opportunity to spend time with my sister. I left the class reenergized and can't wait to tackle some of my WIP tops!

A Quilting Weekend - Part I - Pacific International Quilt Festival

2010-10-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend was all about quilting! My sister and I signed up for an all day quilt class at the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara on Saturday and since we knew we'd be tied up in the class all day, we decided to take the day off work to see the show on Friday. And I'm so glad we did!

Quilt by Gloria Loughman

Isn't this the most fantastic quilt? Although it was almost impossible to chose a favorite, this was definitely one of mine. It was part of a small exhibit of quilts by Ms. Loughman called "A Slice of Oz". We saw so many quilts - it made my head swim. Toward the end of our allotted time (10-4) with a short break for lunch, we realized we hadn't seen the quilts at the back of the convention center and were literally running down the last few aisles.

Although we did a pretty good job staying away from the vendor stalls, I couldn't resist these gorgeous hand-dyes from Cherrywood fabrics.

I have been admiring Cherrywood fabric for ages, but it's the sort of thing I like to see and touch in person before buying. I was so glad to see they had a booth at the Festival. I purchased two fat quarter packs and a pattern with the intention of making a small wall quilt for my sister's sun room.

Here's my entire (quilt-related, that is...ha ha) haul:

My sister was very drawn to this pixelated-looking quilt.

My sister

I have a few more pictures from the show on flickr under the quilt show set (see display in the right-hand column of my blog).

As much as I could have lingered for several more hours I had to drive back to the City thru rush hour traffic, pick up my daughter from school, grab takeout for a quick dinner before going to a play with my family. The play (Scarpin at ACT), was fabulous (the two glasses of champagne helped). I felt I had way too much going on this weekend to be able to devote two days to myself, but I won't bore you with the details. Fortunately my husband was managing all of the kids' activities. I had to figure out when in the heck I was going to find the time to prep my fabric and supplies for my quilt class the next morning. I set my alarm clock for 6 am.....

Coming up next:
Part II: Quilting Class

Still Destashing - Maple Leaf Blocks

2010-10-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

The idea was to make Maple Leaves for my month of the Shrinking Quilters' Bee but they turned out to be a bit fiddly so I put aside my mangled test blocks to work on getting my Bee packages together and out the door before returning to these leaves. Still intent on using up some fabrics from my stash I've thrown in some oldies including some wonderful Lonni Rossi prints I picked up in Iowa several years ago.

The block pattern is from quilterscache and is called Border Maple. The suggested layout calls for setting blocks on point and adding corners (setting triangles) and then adding scrappy sashing.

And as I mentioned earlier, this is my month to lead the Incredible Shrinking Quilters' Bee. I chose the classic Ohio Star block.

Bee info can be found here and here.

Uncluttering the stash

2010-09-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Quilters like to joke about their fabric obsessions and stashing tendencies. But at what point does the Having Too Much impede the creative process? Increasingly, I'm finding myself on overload (quilters' ADD) and not seeing projects through to the end because I can't seem to focus on where the project is and moving it on to the next stage.

I've decided it's time to make some changes. I'm going to try to use up most of my old repros stash I've been saving for years, "just in case" I ever make that large and spectacular repro quilt, and to find creative ways to use up odd fabrics I was compelled to buy but can't seem to find a use for.

Ultimately, some fabrics may need to go (in the charity bag). ***gasp***

Too this end, I've started on two projects. One is a 9-patch quilt made with stash repros and some uglies. The houses were extra blocks I had floating about. This will probably be a small-ish quilt and may end up as an auction item for my daughter's school.

9-patch with houses

My daughter likes to go through my scrap can and the day we were working on the 9-patches, she put together a random assortment of scraps which I helped her sew together. It's freeing working with her because she doesn't have my sensibility about what colors and patterns work well together. It will be fashioned into a simple pillowcase made with some leftover doll stuffing.

Pillowcase back & front (left to right)

It's officially Fall, which is absolutely the best time of year in San Francisco, when our fog magically disappears and we get a taste of summer. I don't have much of garden of my own (I live on essentially a sand dune) but I enjoy the gardens in Golden Gate Park.

Dalia Garden in Golden Gate Park

Getting Ready

2010-09-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

It's almost my month for the Incredible Shrinking Quilters' Bee and I'm trying to get ahead of the game. I have a business trip to Boston planned for the beginning of October and need to have everything mailed before then.

Sneak Peek

I've never done a "Bee" before, and was a little apprehensive about the process of deciding on a design (I'll admit, that part was agonizing), selecting fabrics and calculating yardages. The block I finally settled on is pretty straightforward and once I started cutting the fabric, it was no big deal. I guess this was a case of over-thinking things.

I'm curious, do others find it hard choosing a project for a bee? I'm using fabrics from my stash instead of purchasing something new - that was the other issue, I was concerned that my fabrics may not be well-received by everyone. I'm interested in a wide range of fabrics styles including batiks and repros and don't always use the most trendy prints/designers.

Pseudo-Cathedral windows

2010-09-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a little something I'm working on:

The block design is actually a "folded" Flying Geese block. I found an excellent tutorial online (Ricky Timms & Alex Anderson video) and another tut that shows how to turn down and top-stitch the edges to create a curved-triangle shape (curved goose sounds too weird!). I had to play around with it quite a bit to get the look I wanted.

I've completed my blocks but will add sashing to make an 18" pillow cover. Check back here soon for further details. I will be posting links and hints on this technique.

Ugly fugly fabric

2010-09-07T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing we all have some of these "gems" in our stash ...

Coffee-themed Novelty Fabric

Yesterday, when I realized I was down to one Christmas-themed potholder given to me by my MIL about 15 years ago, I felt compelled to do something about it.

Plum cake + potholder

The kids were responsible for the delicious Polish plum cake (recipe from About.com). I used 2 pieces of fabric for the potholder's front and back, two layers of cotton batting and one layer of heat resistant fabric in the middle. I cut my binding on the bias which in retrospect was a mistake. It was too stretchy and wavy.

Even uglier fabric!

On the second potholder, I was inspired by a pattern in Susan Briscoe's Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match. This time I made double folded french bindings like I use on all my quilts.

My trip to Pennslyvania

2010-08-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

I'm back! We returned very late on Saturday night and have leaped right back into the thick of work, school (yes, school's started already), PTA meetings, chores, and so on. I'm just getting around to downloading my pictures and picnicking them (editing).

I spent a fabulous week in Pennsylvania with my sister's family. At my request, one day we drove to Amish Country to see the Heritage Quilt & Textile Museum. We had several teens and tweens in tow, so I couldn't linger, but I was thrilled to finally get to see a portion of the Esprit collection of Amish quilts housed by this museum.

My Sister

Esprit collection of Amish Quilts in main room

The building was formerly a bank, patterned after Penn Station in NYC. It had a gorgeous, detailed ceiling. Photos were allowed, but all the quilts in the atrium were in glass cases. I took photos anyway, to get an overview of the space.

Clever use was made of the vault.

View into the side gallery featuring some local Lancaster County quilts.

Joseph's Coat quilt attributed to Fanny S. Bucher Snyder, circa 1885. There were two spectacular versions of these on display. My photo does not do justice to the vibrant colors. Different quilting patterns were used in each color strip. More info. about these quilts can be found here.

One more quilt....

Sampler

I picked this up at the museum's gift shop:

And this tiny handmade doll (only a few inches high) for my daughter):

I was amused to discover the doll posing with the umbrella when I went to photograph the doll this morning.

At a nearby quilt shop, my sister bought me this wonderful pincussion made from a scrap from a vintage crazy quilt and an antique button.

******
Now it's back to the usual grind. I hope to get back to my WIPs soon.

Hi There!

2010-08-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

I've been on vacation - the "stay" portion of my vacation and it's been non-stop activities with the family but not much sewing or quilting. I did manage to get my July and August blocks done for my Shrinking Quilters' bee:

July's block for Lydia. [Sorry about the photo not being centered. Flickr has changed it's format and I'm going to have to re-learn how to link my photos. GRRRR!]

Lydia sent Amy Butler "Love" fabric with instructions to make an abstract block with all straight lines. Fortunately, she allowed us to use solids from our stash. I added a couple to give the design a slightly less busy look.

August Block for Dee.

Dee wanted a simple block design from a tutorial from Modify Tradition's blog. Info about this block can be found on Dee's blog thequiltingdee.blogspot.com.

Tomorrow I leave for Philadephia with my daughter to spend a week with my sister and family. We're leaving the "boys" at home! I'm hoping to see some great quilts when we tour Lancaster County.

Here's a couple of pictures from my "staycation":

In between projects

2010-07-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

I promised to visit Peapod fabrics to show the shop owner Elizabeth's tunic. Our visit is featured on Peapod Fabrics' blog here. Although it's tiny, this shop is the most charming fabric store imaginable. I highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the area.

Inspired by my success with the tunic, I ordered the Music Class Blouse + Skirt pattern and the Ice Cream Social dress pattern from Oliver + S. Both patterns are currently on sale for 20% off at the website.

While I wait for my patterns to arrive, I've been taking a little breather from my various WIPs, with the exception of doing a little stitching in front of the TV at night on my never ending hexagon quilt.

I've been sewing

2010-07-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

I made my daughter a tunic.

We were browsing in Peapod Fabrics last Saturday -- I was deep in the precut quilting fabrics bins while my daughter picked out the mini dress Amy Bulter pattern and fabric!! I have to admit that I haven't sewn a garment in some 30 old years. **gulp*** Somehow, I remembered what to do.

Summertime in the City

2010-07-08T14:28:00.000-07:00

Crissy Field, San Francisco

(my backyard)

What has everyone been up to this summer?

I have to admit that I haven't sewn a stitch or handled any fabric for that matter in a week and it feels strange. We took a mini-vacation over the holiday weekend in Carmel and Santa Cruz and aside for the usual grind of commute, work, child wrangling and managing a household, we've been slowly getting my daughter's new bedroom in order. I've also been reading a very intense and hefty new Vampire novel called The Passage by Justin Cronin. I'm at around page 600 and still have a ways to go.

My son rearranging the scenery

The doll (aka, Molly Shannon) was having a "bad hair day"

Cutting Coffins

2010-06-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

My daughter says these look like coffins. They're pinwheels, actually.

Mock-up on a piece of batting

Green pinwheel blocks will alternate with white ones.

I'm not sure if I should be starting something with such tedious piecing (sewing between marked dots), but I'm finding it freeing to cut fabric with my good old scissors using a template. I even moved my sewing machine off my working table to give myself more room to work. This is something I can work mindlessly on in spurts without having to figure out where I am in the project. At least at this stage. I'm trying to use up leftover fabrics scraps and stash fabrics as well.

By the way, lime green is my daughter's favorite color and she's firmly rejected pink as being "too girly". I can't say I'm a big fan of lime green, and I'm sure I bought the green solid fabric featured above with her in mind. This weekend, I worked on painting her new room which formerly was the breakfast room.

The before:

After stripping off the wallpaper, we discovered pencil drawings by the landlord when he was teenager in the mid-50's.

"After"

After first coat of paint - Honeydew by Behr.

Two finishes

2010-06-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

We had a fun little photo shot outside my office yesterday. I asked my friend Mary, who owns a very nice camera to take these shots and luckily for me, she agreed.

Aqua Strings

Snowball

Photos by Mary Henry

Here's a few more

The Snowball quilt was a year and one month in the making. It's twin size and unfortunately too small for my bed. It will probably be gifted to one of my nieces soon but in the meantime, I'm enjoying seeing it folded at the foot of my bed.

*****

I still have two pieced quilts to finish - one is about 1/2 hand quilted, the other needs to be sandwiched and quilted and yet a third mini still being pieced - but it feels good to get these two projects completed.

I'm thinking of blogging about the free-motion machine quilting process and showing some close-ups of these two featured quilts soon.

Have a great weekend and a great Father's Day!

Bear Paw completed

2010-06-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

Bear Paw Mini Quilt

So ... I'm disappointed with the quilting. I know we are often our own worst critics but I think my rushing combined with fatigue and a dull needle in my machine resulted in something for which I'm not wildly excited about.

Originally, I had a double helix sort of shape going through the black sashing but I had drawn on free-hand and quilted over and it looked terrible. I ripped it out and free-motioned the leaf pattern. I free-handed words around the borders - "Stargazing", "hiking", etc., and "Thank You" to show appreciation for the special things my daughter's teacher did with the class. I wanted it to subtle, and therefore wasn't able to get a good shot of the writing.

Quilt Back

This is really a case of try to make a quilt with the recipients tastes in mind. Mr. Rich is a former hippie type, is very interested in nature, Native Americans, and astronomy. I tried to incorporate these interests into the quilt.

Finished size is 18" square

Pattern: Bear Paw

Binding: brought backing fabric over to front - folded twice and stitched by machine

Fabric: various batiks, Alexander Henry prints

Bear Paws and Snowballs

2010-06-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

Bear Paw Mini

Whipped this up last night. I had a sudden inspiration to make Mr. Rich, my daughter's 4th grade teacher a little end of year gift. Last day of class is Friday. Yep, Friday. As per my usual mode of operation, a very last minute project is underway! Mr Rich has a very personal/spiritual connection to bears, hence the choice of the traditional Bear Paw block pattern.

Details:

Traditional Bear Paw Block Pattern
Block size 12 " (instructions from "Quilts, Quilts Quilts!!!")
Finished size 18"
Fabrics: Alexander Henry prints, batiks, black solid

I'm keeping it simple due to time constraints. This morning, I cut the batting and backing. To be quilted tonight.

* * * * *

Snowball Quilt

This oldie has been gathering dust in my WIP for ages and is finally getting bound. On my fabric store travels over the weekend, I purchased a pink and brown batik print from Hoffman. I had been search and searching to no avail for the red batik used through this quilt to use for binding, but it appeared to be a discontinued fabric. My daughter pointed to the the pink & brown and it worked! I would've never considered it (can't say I love it but sometimes you have to cut your losses and move on). Sometimes it pays to take a 9 year old fabric shopping even if she has to be bribed with a Webkins.

"Far Out" fabrics and some quilting

2010-06-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Alexander Henry fabrics

My husband wanted to visit the music store in the Haight which was a great excuse for me to go fabric shopping at Mendel's .

A standby of the "old Haight", Mendel's is a family run arts & crafts store with an old collection of junk but also an amazing selection of Alexander Henry fabrics. I have to cringe though, when the cut yardage, they snip the ends and tear the fabric. I hate to see high quality quilting cottons handled like that.

I'm using the bottom brick red print for my Japanese style sampler (WIP) and the rest were impulse buys. I'm especially in love with the zig zags and pumpkins. I see a table runner possibly in these fabrics.

******

In quilting news, here's a glimpse of my progress on Aqua Strings:

After making a special trip to Joann's earlier in the week for thread because I didn't like anything I had on hand, but then ended up using the same thread I had used on my Snowball quilt - Gutermann's variegated. Of course, I had only a quarter of a spool left, so I ended up having to make YET another trip to Joann's with my daughter in tow with a promise to not look at anything BUT thread. Dear Daughter claimed it was likely I would stop mid store to exclaim, "Isn't this cute!" , but with a trip to Mendel's and Beverly's (Hoffman Batiks were 25% off) all on the same day, I too had reached my limit. Got thread, got out.

*****

I'm also working on the binding for the Snowball quilt and should have an update soon.

Aqua Strings

2010-05-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

Aqua Strings

A rare occurrence this weekend; I had almost an entire day to myself on Sunday! My husband had an event and took our daughter, and my son had to work. After I dropped my son off at the Zoo where he volunteers, I stopped off at the farmer's market for a short while, then headed home and began sewing. Taking a few short breaks to eat, watch a little Clean House and do some chores, I was able to finish piecing this quilt and also the back.

shown on queen sized bed

Deciding on the finished size was a little agonizing. I decided on 9 blocks by 6 with finished dimensions of 92" x 62" (9 by 6). It is destined for my daughter's bunk bed (twin). In hindsight, I think 8x6 or even 8x7 would have been a better size but there's no going back! It's a little long but still works as a bed quilt.

I don't know about anyone else, but at some point in my quilting projects, I begin to loathe it and just want it *done*. I was definitely nearing that point making sure I had all those gazillion seams pressed in opposite directions. Ugh! I was so glad to push through and get this one together.

A sneak peek of the pieced back.

***********

I hope everyone is spending time visiting quilting blogs as part of the online Bloggers' Quilt Festival. My contribution is #286. I haven't had much time to browse yet, but I'm enjoying the diversity of quilts I've seen so far.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Summer '10

2010-05-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

I'm honored to participate in this years Blogger's Quilt Festival and very excited to have new viewers visiting my blog. It would mean a lot to me if you would leave a comment so that I know you've stopped by.

Edited to add: I cannot guarantee links on archived posts. Very often these can change. More information about past Blogger's quit festivals can be found at Amy's Creative Side Blog http://amyscreativeside.com/bloggers-quilt-festival/. Again, no guarantee that this link will work forever.

Additionally, I strive my best to answer every question I receive on my blog but I cannot respond to inquires with no return email address noted (i.e., anonymous).

For the quilt festival, I'm sharing my last completed quilt, which is something I whipped up for my daughter's school auction last month. Per my usual procrastination, it was a rush-rush project.

Quilt pattern is adapted from the Corner Store pattern from the wonderful book "Material Obsession". The designs are hand-quilted (in other words, stitched through all three fabric layers of the quilt - top, batting and backing) in Pearle cotton. You can read more about the making of this quilt on my blog here: http://couchpotatoquilts.blogspot.com/2010/04/charity-quilt-is-done.html and here: http://couchpotatoquilts.blogspot.com/2010/04/charity-quilt-for-school-fundraiser.html.

My purpose wasn't to make something artsy or trendy, but to make a pretty quilt that would hopefully appeal to the general buying public. I chose cheerful fabrics from my stash that weren't gender specific and managed to use what I had on hand with the exception of the backing fabric. The hand-stitching of the motifs while time consuming (maybe not the smartest choice for an auction quilt) is something I really enjoy. The motifs are traced in pencil - I used a window - before the quilt is assembled and then stitched by hand after I had stitched in the ditch around the blocks with my sewing machine. Despite being in a rush, I really enjoyed the process of putting this little quilt together.

Sunday Stash on Monday

2010-05-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

new fabrics

I made good progress this weekend on the string quilt but wasn't smart enough to take a picture. I have 36 blocks completed so far. The Joel Dewberry fabrics pictured above from his Modern Meadow line have been cut into strips and incorporated into the quilt.

I also purchased some solids.

The blue and golds (from left) are Moda cross weave and were 50% off at www.fatquartershop.com. The aqua is Basic Grey Grunge in blue. I just LOVE the solids in this line although I don't care for the coordinating prints at all. Maroon with blue together does nothing for me. I'm thinking of using the grunge on the back of the string quilt.

To prewash or not, that is the question

2010-05-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

various prints and batiks from my stash

Why bother prewashing fabrics these days? It appears that more often than not, quilters are choosing to use fabrics without prewashing. I have two quilts in progress (snowball and color block) in which I decided to throw caution to the wind and not prewash. I'm holding my breath ... fingers crossed that I don't get any bleeding or excessive shrinking.

However, when I use batiks, I ALWAYS prewash (once I was even crazy enough to prewash a pack of 2.5" Bali batik strips, which I don't recommend). I start with a test.

testing for color-fastness

The easiest way to do this is to dump the fabric in a large bowl of water and let it sit for a few minutes. Brilliant reds and dark colors tend to bleed quite a bit. I change the water a few times and then throw the fabric in the washing machine with the rest of the fabric I want to prewash, using in a color catcher for good measure.

Ultimately, I've decided that I prefer working with prewashed fabrics and so my goal is to prewash everything once it comes through the door. On occasion, I'll use sizing spray if I feel I need a little more crispness but otherwise, I prefer the feel of washed fabrics.

Do you prewash your fabrics? Always, sometimes, or never ....

An idea ...

A Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Some lovin' from my kids and a wonderful show.

With so much going on this weekend, working on a large project seemed like too much to tackle.

I decided to supplement my Mom's present with some nice homemade napkins.

I used some Alexander Henry fabric I had stashed away for a couple of years. One yard of fabric yielded 4 napkins on the smallish side.

The mitered corners adds a nice detail and gives them a little more heft.

Last night I decided to whip out another gnome house block for the Shrinking Quilters' Bee. Instead of planning this one, I auditioned the fabrics and quickly cut and sewed up a house.

I actually like this one much better than the earlier block that I had so meticulously planned out. Ha!

******

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!

New Quilt for my Daughter

2010-05-05T15:35:00.000-07:00

This week I've pulled from out this old project and have made good headway in just a couple of days. This strip block pattern utilizes the Strip Tube ruler from Cozy Quilts.

I had hoped to give my daughter the snowball quilt, but she's decided that pink is no longer a *cool* color. She loves greens and blues now. I'm using a mix of various designer lines including Amy Butler, Anna Griffin (I think?), Annette Tatum House, etc. You can tell this is an older WIP because most of these fabric lines are no longer available.

I'm having fun piecing this one. The ruler makes the task go fairly quickly.

Bee block and a little self promotion

2010-05-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

I finished a very simple 6x6 square block for the Incredible Shrinking Quilters' bee for the month of May. Yes, it's the 3rd of May, and I'm done. This one required zero creativity in terms of design and fabric but it was a nice opportunity to handle fabrics in the Hope Valley line. I can't wait to see Alison's finished quilt.

My 9-year old daughter requested some stitching on one of her brother's old shirts. She stitched a little on the word "Wish" and the moon pictured below before she lost interest and Mom finished it up for her. Not pictured is a star and a sun sporting sunglasses (my daughter's own design). Iron-on patterns are from Sublime Stitching.

*****************
And, now, some self-promotion. I started this blog last year to have fun sharing my passion for quilting with the online community but with at tops, maybe 10 regular readers, I've been considering some ways of boosting my readership. I decided to add my blog to Quiltersblogs.com. You will see the green and pink button added to the right-hand column of my blog.

New readers, please leave a comment in the comments section (Comments are always very much appreciated!!!, and if 10 new followers join my blog , I will arrange a great giveaway. My first...*hint: look at the dog fabric in an earlier post. Details to follow soon, so don't forget to check back!

This and That

2010-04-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

I finally got down to business and made a "gnome home" for the Incredible Shrinking Quilters' Bee for Sharon. My daughter helped by drafting up some house plans.

Her teacher would've been impressed with her application of geometry.

Ultimately, we concluded that any decent gnome would live in a tree:

I found myself with an extra hour Thursday afternoon before I needed to pick my daughter up from school and made a trip to Beverly's.

They had quite a lot of Heather Ross' Lightening Bugs fabric line scattered throughout the store. It kills me though, that they don't group fabrics by designer lines, or at least don't do a good job of it, so one has to literally go through the entire stock when looking for specific fabrics. But I digress. I picked up the dogs in ochre, a yard and it was priced under $9 - I've seen this print on etsy at grossly inflated prices. It coordinates with the dots and plants (I have a vast amount of this). I picked up the brown brint, a repro from Marcus Bros., I thought it coordinated with the ochre.

Now, I'm not sure what I want to do with my collection. I may be convinced to do a "giveway" or swap in the near future .....

Do you play with fabric?

2010-04-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't have time to sew last night but as the early evening light was streaming in my bedroom window and with glass of wine in hand, I started pulling fabrics from my stash.

Arranged and stacked.

Often, this is how I start formulating new quilting projects. Do you work this way too?

This is what I've been working on all week in the evening on the couch in front of the TV.

It's been in progress for ages. I pick it up when the desire for handiwork arises.

My biggest fan.

Charity quilt is done!

2010-04-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

Despite the hand-quilting, I was able to bang this one out in short order. I emailed the above photo to the school auction coordinator and it's already been posted on the website. It's listed for $230, although I'd be really, really surprised if they get that much. However, it is a winetasting/auction, so you never know.

Quilt pattern is adapted from the Corner Store pattern from "Material Obsession". The designs are actually hand-quilted (in other words, stitched through all three fabric layers of the quilt - top, batting and backing) in perle cotton.

Many more pictures of this quilt can be found on my flickr (look in the right hand column of the blog for a link).

Look what my sister made for me?

Pretty darn cool, no?

Charity quilt for school fundraiser

2010-04-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have found myself up against a rapidly approaching deadline. The school auction is on April 21 but it would be better to finish before the deadline so it can be included in the auction catalog.

Will I make it?

I have completed the hand quilting in 25 out of 30 blocks and I need to do the binding as well.

Stay tuned for future developments.

Happy Friday!

2010-03-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

I needed to whip out a baby quilt for a coworker ASAP and realized a pieced quilt would simply take too much time. I turned to my copy of Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts and made the Baby Quilt.

You take one yard each of contrasting fabrics and sandwich them with some batting. I cut off the selvages and squared up my yardage and simply laid the fabrics together and cut the larger piece down to size and then did the same with the batting. No measuring! The quilt is tacked together with "ties" made with machine stitched ovals. Besides being a super easy quilt to construct, the cost is minimal. I spent less than $20 on the entire project.

Recently purchased fabrics from Peapod Fabrics. http://www.peapodfabrics.com/

Liberty of London printed shirt from Target! Wouldn't the dots with the Liberty print make a GREAT quilt?

Crazy!

2010-03-01T14:56:00.000-08:00

I visited my sister in Santa Cruz yesterday and we drove down to Watsonville to attend the Pajaro Valley Quilt Association's annual quilt show. I hadn't intended on taking any photos, but this one spectacular crazy quilt stopped me in my tracks.
''

The quilter made a block for each month but instead of incorporating the 12 blocks into a quilt, she hung these in a series of three panels. I'm ordinarily not a big fan of crazy quilts, but I thought this was spectacular.

My purchases:

A yard of each for a baby quilt

Some cute novelty fabric (who could resist a cat doing the hula hoop?)

Vintage button, an impulse purchase

A couple of non-quilting related photos from my daughter's Chinese New Year performance at school last Thursday:

New York Beauties anyone?

2010-02-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

For my February block in my virtual quilting bee, I was forced to learn how to make a New York Beauty block. Intimidating, no?

My first attempt using my own fabrics:

The paper piecing template can be found here: http://www.lenzula.com/pattern/free/nyb.php.

I had never before attempted paper piecing and sewing curves. I decided to use tracing paper for my template. While I found it to be a tedious process to draft the pattern onto tracing paper, it wasn't difficult nor was the stitching. Sewing the curves proved to be much easier than I imagined. I pinned the center point and ends, then used a lot of pins to smooth out the sewing line. I used my small applique pins, sewing right over them.

This is what it looks like from the back:

The points come out nice and sharp using the paper piecing method.

I decided to try a different template for my final block and so made up another practise block with my own fabrics.

And the final using Jennifer's (bee) fabrics.

I added the purple print batik and raspberry solid from my stash to give it a little more pizzazz.

Snowball quilt out of mothballs and the first signs of Spring

2010-02-17T14:51:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was inspired to pick up an abandoned WIP quilt top. I finished the top and had purchased the backing fabric and batting a couple of months ago.

I quilted a fairly large scale swirly pattern over the surface of the quilt.

I'm using a variegated cotton thread by Gutermann's from Joann's. I had a terrible time adjusting my machine's tension with this thread. I used a polyester (*gasp!*) Coats & Clark with my large last quilt and it quilted like a dream.

I left the borders unquilted until I can settle on a design. I may just quilt more swirls or perhaps an orange peel design? I started to do some swirls and then ran out of thread... I guess a sign that perhaps I should let it sit for a few days before I make a final decision.

Moving from snowballs to flowers, the first signs of Spring have emerged in the Bay Area.

Fruit tree at parent's house in Walnut Creek on February 15

A few things I'm working on

2010-01-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

After the busyness of the holidays we've settled into a very rainy, wet January. I've been puttering around with a few miscellaneous projects. I even had a freebie day off work due to a powerful storm that took out the power at the office.

Jujitsunagi (Linked "10 Variation)

Manji (Buddhist Symbol)

Diagonal Cross

Mitsu Ume (Three Plum Blossoms)

Blocks are from Susan Briscoe's Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix & Match. I'm working with traditional Japanese fabrics (indigos and brick reds), sent to me by a friend in Okinawa, and scraps of Japanese prints leftover from my Bento Box quilt.

I just finished the applique block which was the most labor intensive of the bunch. I used freezer paper for the templates, plastic template for the flower centers, and Perle cotton for the embroidery. The flower centers proved very challenging for me and look quite crude. I'm obviously not very skilled working with such small pieces. I'd love to hear from anyone who may have suggestions/tips on how to achieve nice smooth shapes.

I finally cut into the fabrics I've been collected for a new bed quilt for Elizabeth. She requested a quilt in teals, blues and greens. We decided on a string quilt using my handy-dandy strip ruler from Cozy Quilts. Instructions to make the Daniella block are included with the ruler. I will post a tutorial soon.

The turquoise solid was purchased at Mendel's which is a wonderfully funky store located in the the City's Haight-Asbury district. They have what is probably the most comprehensive collection of Alexander Henry fabrics to be found anywhere under one roof, and a good collection of vinyl's and fake fur (should one have a pressing need!).

A New Year

2010-01-11T13:56:00.001-08:00

Starting off the New Year with a look back at some of my sewing and quilting projects from '09:

I realized when I created the mosaic that most of my bed-sized quilts are WIP's - one is in the process of being ahnd quilted, the others are completed tops only. What should be an immediate goal for the new year but instead I've been having fun sewing old-fashioned type blocks, inspired by the book my husband gave me for Christmas, 5,500 Quilt Block Designs by Maggie Malone.

Chosen design for my Shrinking Quilters' quilting bee:

Practice block:

And the final using Jessica's fabrics:

And from Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix andMatch by Susan Briscoe (a library book I'd dearly love to own):

I cut into some lovely Japanese cottons sent to me from a friend in Japan - the indigo and red print. It's a very loose woven, light-weight fabric that tends to stretch a bit. Next time, I'll definitely starch my fabrics before cutting. I hope to put together a Japanese-style samlper with these fabrics plus some scraps of Japanese prints letftover from a Bento Box quit I made a a few years ago.

So check back for more on this.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like undertaking an "emergency" quilting project right before the Holidays. My family draws names for gifts and I had drawn my sister's name. She wanted something "Christmas-y" and I debated for a loooong time on a homemade vs a store bought gift. Finally, I came across this pattern in an older issue of American Patchwork & Quilting and decided to go for it. I was sewing like crazy (and cursing myself) up until 2 days before Christmas.

Fabrics are all from my stash.

Oh, and why not attempt needle turn applique for the first time on a tight deadline? Actually, I used freezer paper technique for the leaves, and used a running stitch around the berries with the thread drawn in over the template to make the circle shapes. This was supposed to yield a perfect circle, but mine were still pointy in spots.

Backing and binding fabrics (Heather Bailey's Garden Pop) I had originally intended to make into an apron, but I thought worked well here -- not to Christmas-y as I didn't use any specifically Christmas-themed fabrics on the front. I used Mono-filament thread to quilt in the ditch around the squares and white thread for the freemotion design in the center applique square.

Of course, Axel had to get in the action.

Snowball quilt top completed!

2009-11-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

And another quilt top ... done!

Here it is:

This quilt has been in the works for at least a year and I started collecting fabrics for the snowballs probably 2 years ago. I had something very specific in mind combining pinks, greens, and gold florals and dots and combining them with hand dyes.

I didn't want any white on this quilt - although there are small bits. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I'm tired of looking at quilts with a lot of white used for negative space. Although using white can be very striking, to requires a little bit more creativity to avoid it, and the end result I thought, was worth it.

I ran out of the gray batik (Hoffman "hippo") I wanted to use for the border blocks and had a mix-up and long wait from www.batiksplus.com before my final yardage arrived. However, they came through and sent me a few extra fat quarters for the inconvenience. If you haven't checked out Batiks Plus, they have the most comprehensive collection of Hoffman batiks anywhere.

At the farmer's market yesterday morning. Elizabeth's wearing the scarf I knitted. I think I'm officially hooked!

Look at the gorgeous citron. I asked a customer who bought a couple of these what he intended to do with them and he got a sheepish look on his face before telling that he soaks them in vodka. Whole. And they are quite large, so I'm thinking a vat of vodka!

Color Block quilt top - completed!

2009-11-23T13:44:00.000-08:00

Here is its:

It's 83 x 98 and just fits on my Queen-sized bed. I would've liked a more overhang on the sides but am satisifed and ready to move on to preparing the back.

I shopped for backing fabric on Saturday at one of my favorite little fabric shops, Peapod Fabrics (http://www.peapodfabrics.com/), owned and operated by a delightful Japanese woman. I was hoping she would have the new Amy Butler Love line, but she didn't -- she did have a wonderful selection of fabrics though -- so I auditioned my quilt with various options for as long as I could get away with an impatient 9-year old in tow. I decided to go with something a little muted, this from Valori Wells Del Hi line (pictured below from the Quilt Home website). I thought it fitting since I had included various Del Hi fabrics into the front of the quilt.

I can't wait to put the back together and on to the quilting. I helped my friend Amy, with her baby quilt (sock monkey) on Sunday, so my project waits for another spare moment.

Ninja Bean

2009-11-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

I'm a huge fan of Rita's adorable handmade Ninja Beans. My daughter "ohhed and ahhed "over her pictures on flickr and so I decided to surprise her with a Bean of her own. Please check out Rita's beautiful work at Mochi Studios http://www.mochistudios.com/. Rita customized the doll (choice of colors, etc.) and was an absolute delight to with.

She has quickly become my daughter's constant companion, hanging out in local cafes and taking a prime spot in the bunk bed at night.

The hand-stitched details are so well thought out and executed.

Thank you, Rita!