MissesStitches

Christmas Stitching

2012-01-31T17:08:00.000-08:00

Here are some Christmas presents I made last month. The quality of these photos proves that you really can have too much sunlight in your pictures!

They are not very big. The rectangular ones are about 8" by 4".

The square ones are about 4 or 5 inches square.

They are from a pattern by Bareroots. Small and easy to whip up. I love the detail and quality of Bareroots patterns.

I attached narrow green ribbon when sewing them together to make a hanger. They could be used as tree ornaments or (especially the larger ones) door knob hangers.

Grandmother's Flower Garden

2012-01-24T04:08:00.000-08:00

Ever since I finished hand-piecing my tumbling blocks quilt, I have felt the need for a hand-sewing project. I've managed to keep myself busy on long car trips with some embroidery projects, and other small things, but I needed something else. SisterStitches has done quite a bit of English Paper Piecing, and recommended it to me, so I finally decided to try my hand at it.

First I bought a package of hexagon papers (actually, they're card stock). I chose to use 1 1/4" hexagons. That is the measurement of one of the sides, not the width of the whole piece.

I think it was SisterStitches who suggested that I make a plastic template to cut out my fabric pieces. I started with one that was 1/4" larger than my paper template, to allow for the fabric that gets folded over the edge. Then I decided to give myself a little more fabric, and made a second template that added 3/8". I like that size much better.

Here you can see that I've traced my shapes onto the fabric. (Note: it's best to iron your fabric at some point!) Having that template really made this part easy.

This photo shows seven hexagons which have had the fabric basted to the paper pieces. (Yes, I know I'm switching fabrics on you with these pictures; please excuse me!) They are now ready to be sewn together into a "flower."

The back side of one "flower" all sewn together. . .

. . . and the front side of that same flower.

# # #

And that brings me to show you this beautiful quilt. My GrandmaStitches made this for a wedding present for MisterStitches and myself. That was 35 years ago. Hand pieced and hand quilted, of course. I dug it out of the cedar chest to admire it, and then felt bad for keeping it put away like that.

So now it lives on our sofa, and we use it to cover up with while we're watching a movie in the evening.

A beautiful quilt like this should be kept out and admired, don't you think?

I think I can almost remember some of these fabrics as Grandma's dresses.

Mystery Quilt Part I

2012-01-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

McCalls Quilting magazine recently had an article which explained a three-part mystery quilt they are publishing. Some of my quilting buddies and I decided to make this mystery quilt. I opted (as did some of the others) to make a Quilt of Valor, so I chose some red, white, and blue fabrics. I really would have liked to use up some of my fabric stash, but didn't have anything appropriate, so I went shopping at one of my favorite quilt shops, The Loft.

Here are the fabrics I chose.

For the first part of the mystery, I made two different blocks. One a simple quarter square triangle, and the other a similar block with only three pieces. Of course, the directions had me cut the binding fabric first. Here are my completed blocks so far.

I'll keep you updated on my progress here. This magazine only comes every other month, so I don't feel too much pressure! Even I should be able to complete the assigned blocks in a two-month period, right!?!

New Sewing Knobs For Cabinet

2012-01-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

It was actually quite a while ago that I came across this website for "creative" drawer pulls.

I have two cabinets right near my seeing machine, one with five drawers in it, and one with three.

Now I have such cute drawer pulls! And they somewhat identify what is inside the drawers. So I spend a little less time opening drawer after drawer till I find the right one. I know, you'd think I'd have the drawer contents memorized by now!

Very Scrappy Quilt

2011-12-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

Sometimes people criticize quilters for cutting large pieces of fabric into smaller pieces, then sewing those small pieces into a larger piece to make a quilt. We quilters all know that's just plain nonsense! But I have a project that used already small pieces of fabric scraps to make a quilt. The idea came from Elizabeth at www.ohfransson.com. She made a large floor pillow with this technique; I made a small-ish quilt. It can really be made in any size you wish.

Here is a photo of the finished quilt top.

Now I will show you how I got there!

I used my blue scraps for this quilt. I didn't sort them at all, or care if the blues went together or not. The above photo shows my little fabric bowl full of blue scraps sitting next to my sewing machine. Next to the fabric scraps is a pile of one-inch strips of off-white fabric. This fabric is leftovers from a sheet that I had re-purposed into a comforter cover.

This photo shows my first two pieces of blue fabric with a strip of off-white between them. This is the basic step for the whole project.

I sewed the 1" strip to one piece of blue, then pressed toward the blue. The 1" strips were all approximately 20" long, so they simply got trimmed down to the size I needed when I sewed them to the blue pieces.

Here is the first set of fabric sewn together and pressed.

Next I laid them on the cutting mat and trimmed one side to a straight edge. As you can see, I angled my cut, which adds to the fun and scrappiness of this quilt.

Now we're missing a couple photos, but the next step was to sew a 1" strip to my straight edge. Then I made another set of two (or maybe three) fabrics, made a straight edge, and sewed it to the first set I'd sewn. Get it?

And here is a finished block. You may notice that the block itself is not square either, but has a slanted edge on the bottom. That's ok! It will all work out in the end! Also, I have no idea exactly how big this square is. I just kept sewing fabric pieces until it looked about right. Really, this project is so forgiving! Which also makes it very liberating. Just grab a piece of fabric and sew it to the next one! It's so much fun.

Here's a close-up of one of the blocks. I particularly liked this fairy fabric. I remember it from quite a few projects ago!

And here's another shot of the finished quilt top. Now I just need to add borders and finish it up. If you look closely, you can see that the blocks and rows are not square and do not line up exactly. I used the same one-inch strips to join three blocks together into a row, then evened up the bottom and top edges. Another one-inch strip joined the rows into a whole quilt top. You may notice that the rows and columns are not parallel or even with each other. But it doesn't matter: it all gets trimmed square in the end.

Christmas Decorations

2011-12-22T16:32:00.000-08:00

OK, here's a super easy Christmas decoration. Simply tie some beautiful ribbon around the dining room chairs! It doesn't get much easier than that. It helps that my chairs have ultra suede fabric on them to help hold the ribbons in place, but a little well-placed scotch tape could do the trick, too.

I think it was in October when I was in Costco and they had their Christmas decorations and wrapping paper out. They have such nice paper (in a much bigger roll than I'll ever use up!) and really pretty ribbon. The ribbon comes in a 50-yard roll, which usually lasts me several years! This year I used up more of it, but as I usually re-use my ribbon, I'm sure I'll still have lots left over.

I had a plaid woolen skirt that I wasn't wearing any more, so one day I washed it in hot water and dried it on high heat to felt the wool. Now I've finally gotten around to doing something with it! I cut mitten shapes out of the wool, then did a decorative stitch around the edges in red. All that remained to do was clothes pin them onto a ribbon.

I have eight regular-sized mittens, and one small mitten. This decoration was slightly more work than the one above, but not very much bother, either!

Free Motion Quilting Class

2011-12-19T16:30:00.000-08:00

I recently took a free motion quilting class at my local quilt guild. It was taught by Bonnie Toy, a very experienced quilter. She has some awesome ideas, and is a good teacher. Bonnie has a wonderful way of getting things across to her students.

Now, if you don't laugh too much, I'll show you some of my attempts in her quilting class. I've done some free motion quilting, but am nowhere near adept at it, and I always need more practice. I take every class I can find, as I always learn something new.

This first example is just a little elongated, three-loop figure eight, then three loopy loops around it. It's quite easy to move around the quilt top with this design.

My second example is a curved loop, but then it is "echoed" in a square manner, rather than with loopy round lines.

One of my favorite designs, and totally new to me, is this one that looks like intersecting circles. It requires drawing a grid onto the fabric, then snaking curves up and down the lines. The result looks like circles. It's awesome, and I am so glad I discovered this design. I now need to acquire the necessary grid, and my local quilt shop has some ordered, so I'll have one soon.

This design--or one similar to it--is know as bananas. However, I didn't make mine quite like everyone else did. But I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Just some random curves.

The above examples are all on one piece of fabric. You can see that the fabric is a very colorful batik print. One day I will do more practice quilting on this fabric and will have a set of placemats!

Christmas Decoration

2011-12-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

This may look like an odd assortment of objects to be holding in my hand, but I promise there is a purpose here!

Two years ago I read an idea on the internet for a Christmas decoration which involved dental floss and little round white stickers. The stickers were attached to each other over top of a length of dental floss, then hung in a window. I made several very long rows of these and hung them up. It almost looked like snowflakes falling!

This year I decided to make a variation on this idea. I used last year's Christmas cards and my one-inch circle punch. I really went crazy punching out colorful parts from the cards! Then I used a glue stick to attach them to dental floss. Just randomly spaced, no measuring involved!

Here is the result, hanging on my front door. I simply put a piece of clear tape at the top and another piece at the bottom. I left a little slack in the hanging lines, so that when the door is opened or closed all the little circles wiggle and twirl and sparkle and look pretty!

Etcetera

2011-12-12T11:00:00.000-08:00

I may have won the Bad Blogger Award. It has been way too long since my last post. Sorry about that. Things have been a little busy for me, but I know that's no excuse.

Today I'm going to give you a preview, through photos, of things I have been working on, and blog posts that will be coming in the future.

I promise.

I know that some of these photos need some explanation, and I guarantee that will be forthcoming!

Box Tops For Education

2011-11-27T18:18:00.000-08:00

I have saved my share of "Box Tops for Education" in my tenure as a school mom. It seemed we were always saving some kind of label or clipping a coupon for the kids to take to school. I'm not even sure what all those things were used for!

So I thought I was finished with all that when my kids graduated from school.

Not so!

With DaughterStitches teaching elementary school, I once again find myself cutting these little squares from my food packages. Now I'm even mailing them away to her!

Not that I mind of course. Glad to help, DaughterStitches.

Card Making

2011-11-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

I've been making cards for the last two days. Once I get everything spread out all over the dining room table, I want to make more than just a couple cards! So I go into card-making-factory mode.

I made some more Christmas cards with little triangles of fabric for trees. I did this two years ago. You can see the original post here.

And a few more of this "circle tree" design.

I made a couple other styles of Christmas cards, too, but I'm not going to show them, because I know that SisterStitches will say, "OK now I've seen them, and the surprise is out, so you have to make me a different card!"

Then I made some "every day" cards just to have on hand.

A few different varieties. . .

These blue ones just have different sized squares glued down in a random, overlapping pattern. Makes for very sticky fingers!

Believe it or not, this cool paper was a paper bag that I received at a store. I wadded it up in a ball, then straightened it out again and glued it down. I like the rustic look.

And a couple more of these flower cards, made with silk flowers.

I used up the last of this cool trim that I've had for quite a while. I like that it is so colorful and festive.

All in all, I made 14 every day cards, and 32 Christmas cards. Not bad for two days of work. And we're not talking 8-hour days, you know!

Walking Across The Golden Gate Bridge

2011-11-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge is something I've been wanting to do for a while now. I chose a nice sunny October day with minimal wind. On the bridge it is always windy, so I wanted to start out with the best possible weather I could!

It looks like an awful long way to go when you first start out. I felt like I had gone a very long way when I got to the first tower, and that's not even half-way! I hadn't realized that there was such an uphill curve on the bridge. It really is uphill both ways!

It is 1.7 miles across the bridge, and I walked the round trip. It was fun, and challenging, too.

I suppose it's inevitable that some red paint gets spilled on the concrete. I've been told that workmen are continually painting the bridge. By the time they finish, it's time to start over again.

I looked back and saw this big ship heading out of the bay to the Pacific Ocean. You can see what a nice, clear day it was.

Several places along the way were phone call boxes for emergencies and also to call for personal crises. The smaller sign assures the reader that the consequences are very drastic for anyone who falls from the bridge.

There's only the short railing on the side, and also minimal railing between me and the six lanes of traffic zooming by. It was very noisy, with all those cars going by.

This is near the Marin County side of the bridge. I like how the bridge's shadow shows up down on the water. It really is a long way down.

And it's a long way up, too!

Here's a picture of a tired, windblown, but happy MissesStitches at the end of my walk.

Simple Potholder

2011-11-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

Several months ago I made this little heart piece as a sample for paper piecing in a class I was teaching. The class was Intermediate Quilting, taught by myself and my friend Kalynn. One day was spent learning paper piecing, and I have to say that the students did quite well with the challenge.

As you can see, this is a real simple design, easy to accomplish. So I had it lying around my studio, and decided to do something with it. I'm low on hotpads in my kitchen, and the rest, as they say, is history! Added some of that Insul Bright batting, found a scrap for the back and basted it together.

I outlined the red heart, then used a heart-like free motion quilting variation to do a little quilting around the outsides of the heart itself.

Embroidery Thread Organization

2011-11-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a little bit of organizing lately. Now, this is just a very small drop in a rather large bucket, but at least it's a start!

I've been using and collecting embroidery floss for several years now, and have never had a consistent place to keep it. As a result, I have little caches of thread all over the place. There will be a baggie with some threads in a drawer, some more in with my crazy quilting supplies, some more in a tote bag with a project, etc. That makes it hard to find a particular color of thread when I'm looking for it.

So these little floss bobbins came to my rescue. The bobbins and the box into which they fit so nicely. I've gotten quite a few of my thread skeins wrapped and "filed," as you can see. I'm separating them into sections of reds, purples, blues, greens, etc. Look in the upper right-hand corner of the box in the top photo. Those are all black thread. All. Black. Because I couldn't find the floss I needed, I was constantly having to buy more black thread. There doesn't seem to be any variation in the black hues, either.

At first I was a little leery of letting go of those little labels with the color numbers on the skeins. But I've never been one to follow those numbers anyway. If a pattern calls for "DMC 346 pink," I just find a pink in my thread stash that I think will look good in the pattern. So I let go of that worry. I think the advantage of having all my thread organized, and all in one place, easy to see and easy to choose will win out over not having their DMC numbers available.

Fabric from Stitch Simple

2011-10-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

Look at the lovely fabrics I received in the mail from Stitch Simple!! Run on over there and check out their website. They sell pre-washed, pre-ironed, pre-cut fabric. Isn't that cool!?! I am one of those quilters who subscribes to the Alex Anderson school of washing fabric before I use it. So it's really neat to receive a package of fabric and have it all ready to use. As well as cut into squares for me so I don't have to!

My package contained reds, whites, and blues. I ordered an equal number of whites, and reds/blues. I'm thinking of half square triangles with a white and a color in each square. And you may have guessed it, I'm planning on making a Quilt of Valor, which will go to a wounded serviceman or woman.

And how did I come by these lovely fabrics? I won them! Yes, I did. From the Green Bag Lady, who had a giveaway on her blog, in conjunction with Stitch Simple.

Seriously, go check out Stitch Simple, as they have some lovely fabrics. They are not all in 5.5" squares, as mine are. They have different sizes of pre-cuts, also fat quarters, skinny quarters, 1-yard cuts, etc. And, they have a lot of lovely organic fabrics from Harmony Art.

Art in the Redwoods 2011

2011-10-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid I'm very behind with my blog posts. Art in the Redwoods happened in August, and I told you that my quilt earned 2nd place here. Now I want to finally show you another beautiful quilt that won the first place ribbon.

First place was won by Jo Dillon, a quilt she called "Turkish Delight." My poor photo doesn't do it justice. But you can see the intricate piecing and beautiful shading she used. Jo makes really incredible quilts.

And, once again, my quilt, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," which won second place. SisterStitches quilted this great big quilt for me.

Christmas Crafts E-Book

2011-10-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

Remember when I posted this ages ago? It was an idea I had (and produced) for Christmas cards using triangles of green print paper AND green print fabric.

I was very excited recently to be contacted by All Free Christmas Crafts as they wanted to link my little tutorial to their website. In fact, they put my project into an e-book about Christmas crafts. Go here to download this free little e-book with a tutorial by Yours Truly.

I know it's not exactly the big time, not published in physical book form, but it's a start.

I might be making some more of these cards for this year, as well as some matching gift tags. I still have some left over triangles all cut out!

Making Greeting Cards

2011-10-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

The other day I spent some time making cards. My supply was very low. It's always a nice change of pace to sit down with glue and paper. Here's what I did.

First some simple cards covered with hand-made paper.

While in an antique shop, I bought some vintage postcards. I thought they looked nice framed with a different hand-made paper.

A few cards made simply with silk flowers that I cut from their weird plastic stems.

And a few Christmas cards. If you are on my list, don't look at this last photo!

Did You Unplug The Iron? -- Tutorial

2011-10-01T14:59:00.001-07:00

This photo is how I left this post quite a few months ago. It was an applique project I was trying, so I would have something to remind me to turn off the iron when I'm done sewing at the end of the day. I had no idea it would take me so long to finish the project, and then to get around to blogging about it. "sorry"

Here you can see that I started sewing down the first piece of the iron, the blue piece. I didn't need to sew down the left side of the blue piece. I just left it a raw edge, as I eventually covered it with the next piece of fabric. I really love those small applique pins. They don't get in the way as much as larger pins when making the applique stitches.

For embroidering the letters, I just turned to my computer. I tried out several different fonts till I found one that was just right. I felt this font would translate into embroidery pretty well. I liked the hand-written, almost scribbly look to it.

After I added the embroidered letters, I decided to add a few more little lines of embroidery, just to liven up the piece a bit (the heat lines beside the iron, and the steam lines coming out of the top). Then I added the yellow border pieces, and did a little hand quilting around the edge of the iron, and just inside the border.

Here it is, finished and bound with the same yellow fabric.

Now, I know we are not supposed to point out our mistakes to others. But I want to tell you what I learned in this project.

1. Finish all aspects of the picture portion before embroidering on the words, so that the words will be centered!

2. Also, always use a backing layer under the embroidery fabric. That can be interfacing or simply a piece of muslin. This will help a lot in hiding the tails of your embroidery thread, especially if you're using a fairly bright blue on simple unbleached muslin!

I really like my little hanging. It only measures about 7 inches wide, so it doesn't take up much space next to the door of my studio.

Cell Phone Holder

2011-10-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hi! I recently made this cute little cell-phone holder for myself. I should have done this several years ago. I know. And I should have this several months ago. I know. Better later than never?

MisterStitches and I go to a lot of baseball games. I never take a purse with me, because I don't want to have to keep track of it. But I do need a few little things with me. I use pockets when I can, but now I have this nifty little bag to hold just a few things.

Courtesy of SisterStitches, I used a pattern from Quiltsmart. (We all want to be smart quilters, right!?!) This cool pattern comes printed onto fusible web. How smart is that! In the photo below you can see that I've ironed the fusible pattern onto my fabric. It also gives instructions on how to use two different fabrics, one for the outside and one for the lining, if one so chooses. You can see all the cutting lines and folding lines printed right there.

Here you can see the two different fabrics that I've chosen for my little bag. Inside and outside.

Per the printed (on paper) instructions, I am now folding one line to meet another. All perfectly spelled out for me.

And this is what I created. You can see that it's only about 6" tall.

Because of the folds, inside are two separate pockets. Just a good size to hold my phone, some money chap stick, a credit card.

And here it is on me. This is how models are supposed to pose, isn't it?

Sheep Quilt Block For Elizabeth

2011-09-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

My friend and fellow quilter Elizabeth is moving to another state to live. Our small quilting group decided that, for a good-bye present, we would each make her a block with a sheep on it. Elizabeth is very fond of the local sheep herd! I was emailed a drawing of a sheep and told to make a block out of it somehow.

After a couple false starts (different ideas about the background and construction methods) I hand appliqued some off-white fabric to a background of fabric by Harmony Art. I thought that using some locally-designed fabric would tie in well with the "sheep-as-neighbors" theme.

Lots of little applique stitching around all those curls of wool! And of course, MissesSheep needed her nose and eyelashes embroidered onto to her little sheep face.

To add a little interest, I embroidered some little flowers and grasses near MissesSheep's feet.

I can't wait to see a picture of the quilt when all the sheep blocks are put together.

Quilt Exhibit at MOAD

2011-09-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Recently I went to see a quilt exhibit at MOAD (Museum of the African Diaspora) in San Francisco. The quilts were made by Siddi women of African descent living in India. These very bright and colorful quilts are made by starting with an Indian sari as a "base" fabric, which will eventually be the back of the quilt. Starting at one side of the sari, different sizes and shapes of patches are hand sewn onto the sari as the quilter works her way around the edges and in towards the center. Some patches are fairly big, while others are very small. Often tiny patches, maybe 1" square, will be sewn on top of the already existing fabric, to add a secondary design.

These are obviously scrap quilts, which accounts for their brightness and variation. A lot of different fabrics are used, too, not just cottons. Silks, brocades, and other types of fabric all find their way into the quilts.

Photos with permission and courtesy of MOAD website

Summer Traveling

2011-09-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

This summer DaughterStitches, BabyStitches, and I went to the Midwest to visit some of our relatives. We had one fun night staying with SisterStitches and her family, then spent the remainder of our time with my parents. BabyStitches needed to see where her

great-grandparents live.

We had fun playing outside in the grass, visiting a nature center, playing with my "vintage" toddler toys, and seeing fireflies in the evening.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to ride in Uncle Jarry's tractor. Doesn't BabyStitches look tiny up in that big tractor!?!

Here is BabyStitches with my brother Jarry and her mom, getting ready to drive out of the tractor shed.

BabyStitches thoroughly loved the tractor, as well as her time spent with Great-Uncle Jarry.

Here's a shot of a quilt my mom has on her hand quilting stand at the moment. Isn't it beautiful! And her stitching is so small and even. I hope my quilting can be that good some day.

My Fabric Winnings!

2011-09-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

I won a piece of this cheerful, yummy fabric from Harmony Art last week. Isn't it just beautiful!?! It is called 40 Ginkgos, a very appropriate name. I've always loved ginkgo trees, and this is one of my all time favorite Harmony Art fabrics.

As I unfolded the fabric, then washed and dried it, I was shocked by how much fabric was there. It was a yard in length, but at 110" wide (rather than the normal 45"), there is an awful lot of fabric! So I decided that I would share some of it with SisterStitches and MomStitches. SisterStitches is a fabric gourmet, too, and MomStitches loves ginkgo trees. I whacked off two chunks to put in the mail, and am still left with lots of beautiful ginkgo fabric!

Public Parklet

2011-08-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

As I walked down a small street the other day I happened to see this "Public Parklet" which was placed between some cars in a regular parking place. Kind of surprising to come across this! It looks like an effort to bring more greenery into the city. And apparently these are appearing all over San Francisco.

The parklet includes some nice greenery, and a bench where people can sit. Another time when I saw it, the bench was full of people eating their lunch.

The red structure has wheels on it, so it is truly a portable park! I think this is a great idea. It's such a bright little spot added to the city environment.

Thick, lush greenery of large ferns and small flowers is very appealing. And even provides some shade.

Disneyland!

2011-08-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Last month MisterStitches and I went with our KidsStitches, their spouses, and BabyStitches to Disneyland. It was a wonderful, fun time. BabyStitches was so excited to see the characters, and to go on the rides at Disneyland. She is a very "Disney" girl, who loves Mickey and Minnie (last year she was Minnie Mouse for Halloween!), and knows her Disney movies very well.

In fact, we all had a great time at Disneyland! It really is the happiest place on earth. I remember my first visit to Disneyland when I was 25 and we had just moved to California. I almost cried when it was time to leave!

BabyStitches got a special treat this year. She went to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique where she was dressed up in a real Snow White costume. They even did her hair up in a fancy bun (enough hairspray to hold it all day!), a small tiara, and lots of fairy dust (glitter). She looked so pretty, and enjoyed wearing her dress the whole day. By the end of the day we were all covered in her fairy dust, and it took a few shampoos to get it all out of her hair, but she enjoyed it all!

At one point in the day the other, bigger people went on a "scary" ride, and it was my turn to spend some alone time with BabyStitches. We were near FrontierLand and found a petting zoo with the cutest little goats. Even a princess loves to pet the nice animals!

Shameless Bragging

2011-08-23T15:14:00.001-07:00

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I entered this quilt into Art In The Redwoods, an art festival held in Gualala, California every August. And I just found out that it won second prize in the quilting category!!! Hooray!

Do you remember this quilt? I blogged about it here. I designed and sewed it and SisterStitches did the awesome machine quilting on it. It was for my guild's challenge show last May.

I know that a great deal of this quilt's beauty comes from SisterStitches's quilting, so I am very proud to share the award with her.

More details later when I come back down from my cloud, and find out more about the other winners.

Embroidery Progress

2011-08-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've gotten quite a few squares finished for my embroidered flowers quilt. I talked about it in this post and this post. Here are several of the squares laid out together, and now I'll show you some close-ups.

In fact, I've completed 12 of the 14 squares, so am close to getting finished. After buying more green embroidery thread, I was able to finish up the blocks that were lacking their greenery.

Travel-Sized Button Garden for BabyStitches

2011-08-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

I recently found a great idea on This Little Project for a button/unbutton toddler toy, so I decided to make one for BabyStitches. It was quite simple to make and fun, too!

I chose a neutral piece of flannel for the background, then cut several green stems of varying heights. I just freehand cut them, didn't worry too much about getting them exactly a uniform width. Then I cut a few leaves out of a couple different colors of green. I used a double strand of embroidery floss to sew the stems and leaves to the background, with a long straight stitch.

It was fun cutting the flowers freehand also. And easy to use a small embroidery scissors to cut a tiny slit in the center of each one.

Slightly above each stem, I sewed on a button, where the flower can be attached.

Note: It's a good idea to use all similar sized buttons, so that the flowers are all easily interchangeable. I didn't do that at first, and ended up replacing my small buttons with slightly larger ones.

On the back of the "flower picture" I attached a length of ribbon, with just a little box and "x" to secure it in about the middle of the ribbon length.

Here you see the ribbon lying behind the rectangle.

And here you can see why it's there! So the whole thing can be rolled up into a roll and tied with that ribbon, making it easily transportable. I thought BabyStitches might like this to play with in the car or on plane trips.

Pay It Forward 2011

2011-08-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

"The first five people to comment on this post will receive a handmade gift by me. In return, you must write a blog post explaining Pay It Forward 2011 and send your first five responders a gift handmade by you. It is a great way to make new friends and spread some handmade love around in Blogville! No rush to send them out today or tomorrow, but do make sure you send them out."

A few weeks ago I read this on a friend's blog, and just had to respond, because it sounded like fun. What is more fun than receiving a present and giving some presents?!? The blogger in question is my friend Gail, and her blog is called Quilt, Knit, Run, Sew. Gail is a great quilter, and a great crazy quilter, too. She sent me some small sea shells that have a natural hole in them, so I can use them for embellishments, like on a crazy quilt or a landscape quilt.

I can't wait to use some of these pretty little shells.

Now it is my turn to "Pay It Forward." Five people contacting me will receive a little present from me. So comment on this post, or email me, and I'll be sending something your way.

MissesStitches in the Car

2011-07-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Sorry it's been so long since my last post. MisterStitches and I have been on a long car trip. I'll tell you more about the trip later. The really interesting news is the sewing I got done along the way! Driving down to Los Angeles and San Diego

involves a lot of very straight driving

along Highway 5. Conditions which

are ideal for me to sew in the car.

I told you previously about preparing all these blocks for embroidery. Now I will show you the progress I made on the blocks.

Here is one I like with little orange daisies.

Another one, and its close-up below.

And then I realized I was running into a problem. I should have thought about how much green thread it was going to take to do all the greenery on these blocks. Silly me!

So now my "mostly-finished" blocks look like the ones below, with flowers, but no greenery.

In this one the flowers are in the shape of a heart, and I'm thinking that shape will show up better once I get the green stems and leaves added.

But I will soon have more green thread, now that I'm back home and can get to a fabric shop!

A Little Landscape--Finished!

2011-07-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

It's finally finished! I mounted the little "quilt-let" (Is that a word? Maybe it is now!) onto the painted artist's canvas.

I made little stitches with very fine silk thread. Simply started from the back side, stitched up through the quilt, then back down to the back side again.

The "holding" stitches were made on top of other stitches or seam lines in the quilt so they wouldn't show.

I plan on entering this piece in Art In the Redwoods next month. Art In the Redwoods is an annual art fair and contest held each summer in Gualala, California. It's partly indoors, and partly outdoors at the Gualala Arts Center, a beautiful facility. A fairly big event, people come from all over for the art, the entertainment, the dinners, the parties, the vendors, etc. It's always a lot of fun.

Embroidered Flower Quilt

2011-07-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is the latest quilt I have started. I bought this pattern many, many years ago, and am just now getting around to making it! There is a lot of embroidery on this quilt, and I need to have a hand-sewing project to work on. Sometimes I go over to someone else's house for a quilting group, and sometimes MisterStitches and I take road trips on fairly straight roads where I can sew without getting carsick!

This is the first block I made, to test out the pattern and see if I liked it before I prepared all fourteen squares. I think it turned out quite well with the dainty little flowers and leaves.

My optimistic thought is that by the time I get done with all this embroidery, I'll be fairly good at it! I learned to embroider when I was fairly young, doing mostly cross stitch and stem stitch. And I would say I'm fairly competent at it. But I didn't even know that back stitch existed until a couple years ago, thanks mostly to Jenny of Elefantz, who does amazing embroidery. So, I would like to improve on my skills.

The preparation took me quite a while to do, as there is a lot of cutting small pieces and strips, and sewing them together. The pattern said to tea-dye my muslin, which I did, but it turned out too dark. At that point, I didn't want to try to lighten it, or to dye another piece of muslin. So I made the executive decision to just use the unbleached muslin as it was. It had some nice slubs and irregularities in it, so I was happy with that. Each block consists of a muslin center square (or rectangle), a narrow print border, then a narrow muslin border, then a slightly wider print border for the outside. And they are not very big squares; the smallest one is 7" square finished, and the largest is 7" by 14" finished. I'll walk you through it here.

First I cut many, many 1 1/4" strips of muslin, because I knew I was going to need a lot. And of course, cut out the center blocks from the muslin, too.

For each individual block I cut out the print borders that I had chosen.

Here is the first 1 1/4" print border sewn around the muslin center.

And now I have the second border, the muslin one, sewn onto the block.

Then I sewed on the final border, which is a tiny bit wider than the others, but only by 1/4 inch! I made these outside borders wider than they were supposed to be. My thinking was that this would provide a little bit more fabric for the embroidery hoop to grab. That left my outside edges a little uneven, but it will be all trimmed up after it is embroidered.

Both of the muslin pieces will have embroidery on them. The only small difficulty in piecing these blocks was that I needed to press toward the colored fabric always, in order to have that small (3/4"!) muslin border free of seam allowances. That was not the way the seams wanted to lie, however, so I had to do a bit of coaxing with the iron.

After the block was finished I ironed on a piece of lightweight fusible to the back. This made it easier to trace the pattern onto the fabric (less slippage) and also makes for a nice base for embroidery.

Then, to the light box to do some tracing!

Or a window works well, too. I used a new pen that I found called "Frixion" by Pilot. I found out about this pen on my friend Gail's blog. It is a nice little 'felt tip-type pen,' with the unusual quality in that the marks can be erased. On paper, you simply rub away the marks with the special end of the pen. It is not a traditional eraser, but a rubber piece that uses friction (hence the name of the pen) to make the marks disappear.

However, on fabric the ink disappears when you iron it. And it's just a small touch of the iron that does it. How cool is that!!!??? (Thanks, Gail.) The first one I bought was a mistake, though, as it was a .7 pen. Way too heavy on the inky side. The .5 pen is a much better choice. (The .7 was the only pen the store happened to have when I was there.) I found the first one in a Walgreens, and the second one at a quilt shop. The line is so nice and small that I think I'll be covering most of it up with my thread, but I can always get rid of any stray marks with a light sweep of the iron.

Here is a shot of a different block after it was all traced. I really like this pen for tracing on fabric.

The pattern instructions said to add some batting to the back of the block before embroidering it. They said it would make for a more "quilty" look to the embroidery. I've never worked that way before, and thought it would be impossible to embroider through all that. But I tried it and it actually worked! So I cut a small piece of batting for each block. I used a polyester batting here, as I have a hunch that will be easier to sew through than cotton batting.

The last step was to put each little completed block into its own (recycled) plastic bag. I labeled each with the block number that is inside. Now I can just grab one (or a few) of my blocks to take with me to work on.

After I completed all these steps, I laid all the separate blocks out on my

bed--in the correct pattern order placement--to see how they would look together. I had kind of done this with just the print border fabrics before I started cutting, but now that they're all sewn up, it gave me a much better image. I found that the quilt didn't look quite balanced, color-wise. Too many dark borders in one corner, for example. So I just switched some of the blocks around. As long as I traded the same size blocks, I don't think it will matter. I ended up with a more pleasing color scheme.

I'm very excited to get started on this project. As I said, it has been languishing in my pattern file for a long time now. Each time I saw it I would think, "That is so cute--I really want to make up that pattern."

A Little Landscape -- Part 2

2011-07-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

Remember this little landscape I showed you a couple weeks ago?

I have made a little progress on this project. I decided I wanted to mount it on a painted canvas to finish it.

Bought the canvas.

Bought the paint.

Painted the canvas.

Decided it was the wrong color.

Consulted with friends.

And finally,

painted it again.

So this is the color I ended up with. I'm not showing you the first color--it's a little embarrassing how badly I chose!

Next step is to attach the little quilt to the canvas and fix a hanger on the back.

Stay tuned!

Happy Birthday, Canada-Style

2011-06-23T18:13:00.001-07:00

My friend, Joyce had a "special" birthday in May. (I'll let her tell you just how special it was!) Joyce is Canadian, and loves to have tea parties. So for her birthday party, she threw a tea party for 60 people! She is such a "Very High Class" woman/quilter/friend.

To celebrate this special birthday, I made her this small mug rug, using the Canadian flag for the center motif. Joyce lives here in the good ole USA, but retains her Canadian ties.

It wasn't a very hard project. I simply Googled (don't you like when the name of a company become a verb!) "paper-piece-Canadian-flag." I came up with a very straight-forward design on this website. I have to say that I was excited about making this, because I absolutely love Canada's flag! Its two-color design (I also like Switzerland's flag), its simplicity, and the fact that the motif is from nature. (Your national anthem is great, too. "Oh, Canada...") Red and white are such striking colors to work with! I used Kona cottons for this project. The photo below shows the relative size of the mug rug, sitting beside a pen.

For the back I could have gone simple and used either the red or the white fabric, or used one of my red-and-white prints. But I was having fun, so I decided to free-style piece the back together. I started with a base of muslin and started slapping down various size fabric pieces onto it.

Then a simple quilting to highlight the leaf, some red binding, and I was done.

Happy Birthday, Joyce!

A Little Bit of a Landscape

2011-06-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a little landscape that I made several months ago in a class. We drew our scene, then made templates out of plastic which can be ironed over. It was a good way to get some nice, smooth curves.

All the pieces were sewn onto the background muslin by hand. I'm not sure why this took me so long to get around to quilting. And it took me forever, and a lot of experimenting, to decide how I was going to quilt it. The whole thing is only about 5" by 8" big! It shouldn't have been this difficult!

I have to admit that I'm still not done, though. I'm going to try mounting it on an artists' canvas, just because I've never done that before.

I used this zig-zag method for binding the tiny little thing--that was new for me, too. I think it looks kind of nice; I used a green variegated thread for that.

I'll keep you posted on the next step!

A Welcome Sight

2011-06-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

I was walking down the sidewalk in San Francisco the other day, and happened to notice this little, unobtrusive sign.

"We Welcome Reusable Bags."

This sign really made my day! I abhor plastic bags, and the environmental damage they cause. Slowly, it seems, some places are making strides to reduce the use of plastic bags. Although sometimes I feel like clerks don't appreciate it when I bring my own bag. It's probably not as easy to fill as their standard bags.

But this small sign brightened my day. It was only about 4 or 5 inches square. I'd love to see more and more of them!

It was in the door of a Vietnamese restaurant/carry-out. The restaurant was closed at the time, which is why there are bars obstructing the view.

Remember to carry your reusable bags with you. If you need a pattern to make them, there are simple instructions at The Green Bag Lady.

Trip to Ashland, Oregon

2011-05-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

MisterStitches and I just made another little trip up to Ashland, Oregon, to go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival again. It was a very nice trip, as usual, on several different levels.

We saw a great production of Julius Caesar, To Kill a Mockingbird which was fabulous, The Language Archive, and The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere, which was hysterical.

* * * * *

And I got to make another visit to one of my favorite quilt shops, Fabric of Vision. Sandy, the owner, always has such interesting fabrics in stock. Besides the usual quilting cottons, Sandy also carries some intere
sting fabrics like voiles and beautiful linens.

Here are the two neutrals I found that were calling out my name. As Alex Anderson says, you can never have too many neutrals. And that's not a category I collect very much. These are really some beautiful fabrics.

And here is a little "kit" they

had made up including two fabrics and a Valorie Wells pattern for a Little Wallet. I think these will be fun to sew.

* * * * *

I also got a lot of handwork done during the several-hour drive. I finished up this Hawaiian quilt square, which I started earlier this year, working on it a lot while we drove to Phoenix for Giants spring training. You can see the beginning of it here.

Here's a close-up of some of the hand-quilting I did on it. I really enjoy doing this kind of work.

The rhythm of the stitching is relaxing to me.

A Family of Bears

2011-05-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice little family of bears that I sewed recently. Papa Bear, Mama Bear and, of course, Baby Bear. You saw when I was beginning on this project here. I was complaining about working with the faux fur!

But I persevered, and ended up with these cute stuffed bears. They are all made from a pattern by Carol's Zoo. I saw her booth at a quilting show, and fell in love with her patterns. They really were easy to sew, too, except for the faux fur part! I think it would be great to now make these bears out of some other fabric, like corduroy, chenille, plain quilting cotton, etc.

The kit that I bought at that quilting show contained the fur, the pattern, and the eyes and nose and ribbon for finishing them off. It made it so easy that everything I needed was included there in the package. Of course, she also lists specifications for the size of nose/eyes you need for the different sizes of bears. For when I make some more!

Aren't these little bear faces lovable!?!?! The bears are nice and cuddly, too. The pattern says specifically not to stuff them too full, so they will be cuddly instead of stiff.

And you might be able to guess who has them now--BabyStitches, of course! She just turned three, and we went to visit her for her birthday party. What a wonderful party it was! DaughterStitches and her hubby, NathanStitches really know how to throw a party.

By the way, Carol was very accommodating when I called her with a question about the pattern. I was just a little confused, but it was my oversight in pattern-reading, not hers in the pattern-writing. All in all, the pattern was pretty clear to read and complete.

Sewing for Aurora's Birthday

2011-05-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

With BabyStitches just having had her third birthday, I did some more sewing for her. I'll show you some of it here.

DaughterStitches requested some new pants for BabyStitches, as she has outgrown the ones I made her last year (in this post). BabyStitches is growing by leaps and bounds, especially in her height. So I made these pants in size 4.

For these two pair of pants, you can see that I just reversed the order of two different fabrics. The blue floral is my guild president's quilt fabric. (No, I haven't been working on it yet!) For one of the pairs I put a ruffle on the bottom and used the side pockets. For the other I used a cuff on the bottom instead of the ruffle, and put the pockets on the back.

Then I had the idea to make BabyStitches a t-shirt with her age on it. I know that I made a onesie with "I'm 1" on it for her first birthday, and an appliqued Washington state shirt last Christmas, but I'm not sure if I did a "2" shirt for her.

But here is the third-year shirt. All I did was make the largest "3" in the word font of my choice, then enlarged it even further on a copier. I fused the three onto the shirt and did a machine blanket stitch around the edges. And what better fabric to use than the same red as I used for her pants!

New Applique/Embroidery Project

2011-05-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

I thought of a little project the other day. You see, I have a piece of paper on the door out of my studio which says, "Did you unplug the iron?" I just don't want to leave the room and forget to unplug the iron! Having recently had a close call with a fire at my neighbor's house, I've become a little more fire-safety conscious.

Granted, a hand-written note on a scrap of paper is a little tacky, so I decided to make a better sign. Why not sew it!?!?

I searched on the internet for a copyright-free image of an iron. Below is the image I found, and the copy I reduced so the iron was 4 1/2" high.

Using my high-tech lightbox (aka tape on my patio window!), I traced the outline of the iron onto two (yes, two) layers of freezer paper, which were already ironed together.

Now, remember that your final applique piece will be backwards from the pattern you draw. So keep that in mind, if it matters to you which way the iron faces.

I used a sharp paper scissors to cut apart all the pieces. It helps to label the pieces, A, B, C, and D, just to help keep track of what goes where.

Oh, also, be sure to use a pen that is NOT water-soluble to draw the pieces on the freezer paper.

Ask me how I know.

Next step is to iron the pattern pieces onto the back side of your fabric. Then trim about a 1/4" around the edges. With the handle (Piece C), you need to cut a slit in the very center of it.

Now we'll iron down the edges. You can use either a full-size iron, or a smaller hobby-size iron. I sprayed a little spray sizing into the can's lid and used a small, clean make-up applicator to get the sizing onto the fabric edges. This gives a really nice crisp ironed edge. Clip the curves as necessary.

Leave un-ironed the areas that you see marked in red in the photo below. They do not need to

be turned under, because another piece of fabric will be placed over that portion of fabric. On the small piece D (the knob on the iron) press over only the top and two sides, leaving the bottom side raw.

Here it is with all the edges ironed down.

Before we applique down piece C, we will tuck that little piece D underneath C, and sew across it.

Now it is all pinned down onto my background fabric, and I have begun sewing some of the edges. I really like using those very small applique pins, as they are very short and therefore don't get in the way while I'm sewing as much as the longer pins.

Keep posted for the rest of the project.

A Baby Quilt

2011-05-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a baby quilt I've just finished for a really good friend's third grandson. Not knowing if this baby was going to be a boy or a girl, I tried to stick with fairly gender-neutral fabrics. If this fabric looks familiar, you may have seen it in earlier posts here and here, when I posted the method for making a Stack & Whack quilt (or Slash Your Stash, or one of many other possible names!)

The baby has been born, a very healthy hearty big boy, who wasted no time coming into the world. Apparently he was born something like 17 minutes after mom got to the hospital!

Anyway, here is the quilt I made for him. I interspersed stack and whack blocks with solid blocks, as you can see in the photo above.

I haven't made very many scrappy bindings, but I did here, and was really happy with it.

The quilting went super fast and was a lot of fun. I made a "crazy daisy" design in the center of each square. A very easy and forgiving design. It was fun to do, too. I used a decorative stitch to go down each side of the sashing strips, and a different decorative stitch around the perimeter of it all.

Here you can see the flannel I used for the backing to make it nice and snuggly for this little baby boy.

A New Project

2011-05-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a peak at a new project I've just started.

It looks like some very odd fabric combinations, but I think it will turn out ok.

You can see that it is pinned down with those small applique pins, and ready for me to start sewing. MisterStitches and I are going on a road trip soon, so I need some handwork to keep me busy in the car.

I'll keep you informed--this should be a fairly quick project, so hopefully you won't have to wait very long for the final product!

Sisterhood of the Traveling Triangles

2011-04-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

I received an oversized brown envelope in the mail today and it had this sticker on it:

Your HSTs are here!

So exciting!!! A couple months ago TheQuiltShow.com (of which I am a member) hosted an exchange. Using pre-printed half square triangle tear-away papers, we could send in as many HSTs as we wanted. They would sort them, exchange them with every other TQS member who sent in HSTs, and then we would get a return package of the same number that we had sent in.

Sewing HSTs in one continuous piece (I think there are 18 HSTs on each sheet of paper) is so very easy, but I limited myself to a total of 84. (Now I wish I had done more!)

Here they are, all laid out on my dining room table. It's so exciting to look at them and see where they all came from. You see, we were asked to put our name and location on the paper portion of the HSTs.

With the above close-up you can see where some of my HSTs used to live.

It's going to be a lot of fun to get them all opened up, pressed, and figure out what to do with them.

Any suggestions for this limited number of HSTs? Or maybe I should make some more.....

And here at the bottom are my "famous" HSTs. The hosts of The Quilt Show, Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson each sewed an HST for everyone involved, and they signed their names on the front side of their little squares.

Father Christmas

2011-04-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

I recently finished this stuffable/toy/decoration for Christmas. I am quite happy with how Father Christmas turned out. This was one of those printed panel things where all the pattern pieces are printed on the fabric.

I really liked the ripped fabric for Santa's beard. Nice and rustic! And yes, that is a pet kitty sitting on his shoulder. The kitty is made separately, then sewn on. I thought about attaching it with a piece of velcro or a snap, but I was afraid it might get lost that way.

This jolly elf will be going to my quilt guild's Christmas Faire sale in November.

Sewing with Faux Fur

2011-04-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

I started a little sewing project last week that involved faux fur. It has such a beautiful sheen, and nice silky feel to it.

Sewing and/or cutting it is another story altogether!

There are certain techniques to help reduce the fuzz production. For example, when cutting it out, I laid it furry side down, and used a small embroidery scissors to just cut through the backing material, not all of the hairs. That helped quite a bit.

When sewing a seam, it is desirable to not encase the hairs in the seam, because the seam should be nice and furry on the outside. This is accomplished by holding the two edges together, and then stuffing the hairs down into the seam with a knitting needle. (I used a small scissors because I didn't have a knitting needle handy.) It necessitates placing pins very close to each other, about a half-inch apart.

Even with all these precautions, the fur was really flying as I worked! After an hour or so of battling with this stuff, I looked like I had been rolling on the floor with two large, hairy dogs! Seriously--it was bad. My very next purchase was a dedicated pet hair remover that will live in my sewing area!

A Quilt for MisterStitches

2011-04-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

Remember when I showed a few peeks of a red quilt a while back? It is finished now and I have come up with a name for it! "Painted Desert" from "Grand Canyon Suite." This quilt came out quite big; I can't remember the exact size, but I think it's about 75" wide, and fairly square-ish. It is for our guild's challenge show this year, the theme of which is "Rhapsody in Hue." That was why I chose to have a musical reference in the title.

It is from a Kaffe Fassett pattern that I saw in a magazine. It's very simply strips sewn together using a 60 degree angle to join fabrics to create the strips.

Here you can see how I quilted it, just 1/4" lines on either side of each lengthwise seam. Easy peasy.

I really had fun with this quilt because I had such beautiful fabrics to work with. Which led me to a little epiphany-type thing. We quilters all have our special fabrics in our stashes, our very favorite ones, the ones we are afraid to use. Or at least I do. Being afraid to use up my special fabrics has been a stumbling block for me. But I finally realized that the fabric folded up so nice and neatly on my shelves is not doing me any good. I get a little enjoyment from it when I'm looking through the fabrics for something specific. But why buy and keep fabric if I'm not going to use it? I realized this several months ago.

Working on this quilt, which included many of my favorite fabrics was enjoyable for me because of the beautiful fabrics. All the while I was working on it, I was enjoying the colors, the patterns, and how they all went together. So I don't feel that I lost any fabric, I just used it, and I truly savored it during the process.

Below you can see a sample of the strippy binding that I used. That was a first for me. I've always used one single fabric for my bindings.

MisterStitches really likes this quilt, so it is going to be his quilt. Knowing that, I chose a mottled red flannel for the backing, so it will be nice to use while we are watching a movie on the sofa.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

2011-04-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

This is a quilt I'm calling 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow.'

It was made in response to our guild's annual Challenge Show. This year's theme is

Rhapsody in Hue

and I immediately thought of using all the primary and secondary colors on the color wheel. I used Kona cottons for this quilt. It took quite a bit of drawing on graph paper to get it just how I wanted it. But as you can see, it's very simply made by sewing together many, many strips.

And I wanted it to be quite big. As you can see, MisterStitches is stretched as high as he can be, and it still puddles on the floor a little bit.

I want to show you some close-ups of the awesome quilting. Wonderful SisterStitches quilted it for me on her long-arm machine. I have a bit of trouble sometimes with tendonitis. And with the large size of this quilt, I just couldn't see myself pushing and pulling it through my regular-size machine.

Isn't she a great sister!?!?!? She did a really awesome job. The photo above shows a good example. In all the white areas she did an overall swirly pattern in white thread. She did different styles of quilting on different color strips. And I asked her to choose thread that is on the opposite side of the color wheel for the color blocks.

Green thread on red fabric, blue thread on orange fabric, etc.

By the way, SisterStitches does custom quilting for people, even people who live halfway across the country as I do! If you're interested, check out her blog Frayed Edge, and contact her that way.

Above you see an example of a yellow strip which has purple thread on it.

Here is the back of the quilt. I knew I would need to have a seam down the back, so I took some leftover fabric and made a strip of rainbow color to insert at the seam. I intentionally wanted the color strip to be off-center, because I thought it would be nearly impossible to get it centered exactly! The color shading you're seeing on the back of the quilt is just the colored bobbin thread used on the back of the colored blocks.

The challenge opens tonight (April 1st--no fooling!) and runs throughout the month at Gualala Arts Center in Gualala, California. If you're anywhere in the vicinity, try to check out the show.

The women in charge of the challenge this year asked that more of us make quilts, so we can have at least 50 quilts. Gualala Arts Center is 50 years old this year, so they 50 quilts would be appropriate. I'd guess that our challenge quilts usually number around 35-40. Final count of the quilts this year is somewhere around 85, so we really outdid ourselves!

Hawaiian Quilting

2011-03-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest project, a Hawaiian quilt square. I have to admit that I don't know the name of the design. Anyone out there know the answer?

The particular square came to me in an odd way. In our guild we have what we call a "fanny basket." Do all guilds have fanny baskets? It's our collection of odds and ends of fabric and we use this fabric mainly for comfort quilts or quilts of valor. People donate "what-was-I-thinking" fabric, or any fabric they don't want any more. Sometimes the fabric seems to reproduce on its own, making our basket very very full.....

Recently a few Hawaiian squares like this turned up in the fanny basket. I took this red and white one, because I like doing hand sewing. It had already been started--basted, and a little bit of the applique had been sewn down. It was in a zip-lock bag with thread and backing fabric, and even a needle! All ready to go.

I've made a couple of these squares before--quite a few years ago. But I've never done anything with them.

Should I make them into pillows?

Small wall hangings?

I have to show you the back, too, as I'm happy with how small and fairly even I managed to make my stitches.

MisterStitches and I took a road trip down to Phoenix for Giants spring training last week. So I had a nice bit of straight-highway sewing time. I finished the applique on the way there, and got started with the quilting on the way home. In the top photo you can see that I have started the quilting in the center.

Pretty New Fabrics!

2011-03-21T16:50:00.000-07:00

I am, as a rule, very selective when it comes to buying fabric. I already have bales of fabric, so I try to only buy fabric that I have a specific use for, rather than just adding to my stash.

However,

(and there's always a "however," isn't there!) recently I have found some very very nice fabrics that were begging to go home with me. First of all I have some gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics that I bought from a friend and fellow classmate at a class I took in San Francisco last month. They are so lush and colorful!

* * *

When I was at another friend's house a week or so ago, she showed me this piece of fabric. She had a huge amount of it, but didn't know what she was going to use it for, so she asked me if I'd like some. (Duh!!) I think it's cool fabric, because it is shaded from one end to the other, so it is multi-colored. Can you believe that one piece of fabric has all these colors in it!?

* * *

My local quilt shop, The Loft, was having a big sale, so of course I had to go check that out. I found this green print, which you can see from the close-up photo below is made up of blades of grass.

(Maybe good for a landscape or scenic quilt?)

The Loft also had this beautiful fabric, a border print. It is a companion fabric to the print I chose for my Guild President quilt blocks. So I bought a couple of yards, thinking I might use it as sashing or border or both when I put all my blocks together.

Another fabric is new to my LQS. This is fabric designed by my friend, Harmony, who is also local. Harmony designs organic cottons, and boy, are they beautiful! Below you can see her light blue print called Silent Stumps, and also her light blue sateen.

* * *

When I was at a quilt show a

couple weeks ago, I found the following two fabrics. Can you believe how realistic these grapes look! Aren't they beautiful!?!

And, while this one doesn't look very exciting, it is really more colorful than the photo shows, and I liked all the different striations throughout the fabric. Another good one for landscapes, I'm thinking.

I think this is enough fabric to keep me going for a while! I'd better go get busy. Bye for now.

Challenge Quilts

2011-03-14T16:29:00.000-07:00

I am busily finishing up my quilts for my guild's challenge show this spring. The challenge coordinators were really, really urging people to have this be a big show, so I'm entering two quilts this year. The theme for the challenge is "Rhapsody in Hue" so I'm concentrating on lots of color. I've shown you sneak peeks previously, and that's still all I can reveal, I'm afraid.

One of my quilts is very red. In this photo you can see one of the front fabrics, a little bit of my scrappy border, and the flannel fabric that I used for the backing. MisterStitches really likes this quilt, so it will be a "TV quilt" to keep us warm at night when we're watching a movie.

And I was very excited to just a few days ago receive my second quilt back from my sister. SisterStitches has a room-size quilting machine, and she very graciously quilted this for me, as it is quite big. SisterStitches did an amazing job on my (our!) quilt. Her stitching is just so very good. I like just sitting and looking at this quilt. Somewhat like having a newborn in the house, I could just sit and look at this quilt for hours!

Here are just a couple views of the quilt. I really like it a lot, a great deal of which has to do with the quilting! Thanks, SisterStitches!

I am now finishing up the hand work on both of these quilts, sewing down the binding and hanging sleeves. The show starts April 1st (no fooling!) and I have many more inches to stitch down, so I'd better go get busy!

Red Quilt, or Name Undecided

2011-03-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

Wednesday and Thursday I spent most of the day sandwiching and then straight-line quilting my red quilt. It's going to be in our guild's challenge show, so I don't want to reveal it yet, but I'll give you a few peeks.

I really enjoyed working with these fabrics. As I told you earlier, I made this quilt because I had a lot of red fabrics. I'm loving these fabrics! Above is one given to me by a friend.

I love this one with its peachy blossoms.

And these gingko leaves in a batik! So pretty...

And a nice, bright, cheerful Kaffe Fassett.

I did straight line quilting on either side of each seam on this quilt. If you can see the safety pins in the above photo, you can figure out that I didn't need to stop and remove safety pins while I was quilting, which was kind of nice.

MissesStitches Has a T-Shirt!

2011-02-28T11:23:00.000-08:00

MisterStitche
s is a real treasure! He just gave me a surprise early birthday present of this t-shirt.

A nice brown with cute pink trim.

But the best part is the logo on the front! MisterStitches designed this logo for me on the computer (some sort of magic, apparently). Isn't it awesome!

Then on the back is a copy of a photo of one of my quilts, Sonoma Coastline.

MisterStitches designed the logo, copied the photo, and had them put on a t-shirt for me. Isn't that fabulous!

Quilt Shows

2011-02-28T11:03:00.001-08:00

I was lucky this past weekend to attend not just one, but two quilt shows!

The first one was the Bay Area Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival. Lots of interesting vendors, some good shopping, make & takes, and some really beautiful quilts.

I found a couple new toys, some fabric, and a Koala sewing table. I can't wait till it gets delivered.

* * *

The second show was the San Francisco Quilters Guild bi-annual quilt show. A lot more quilts and fewer vendors at this venue. Some gorgeous, amazing quilts. I ran into a couple friends there, which was a nice surprise.

The two featured artists were Marcia Stein and Janet Mednick, both San Francisco-based quilters. During the day there were scheduled walk/talks with each of them. They would walk with a group of people throughout their exhibited quilts, and talk about them. Both very talented women, and both incredible quilters.

I found some nice toys at this quilt show, too, but I spent most of my time admiring all the quilts on display. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so I can't share any of them with you. You'll have to take my word for it: they were amazing.

Some Sewing by DaughterStitches

2011-02-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

Some time ago I came across this little stuffed being that DaughterStitches made when she was a little girl. I don't remember how old she was at the time. I suppose she drew the outline and I sewed around it to form the little doll(?). I think it's incredibly cute, with the little lace ruffles sewn around the neck, arms, and legs.

If you look closely, you can still see some faint remains of the smiling face which was drawn on the doll. Guess I didn't have a permanent marker handy!

It reminded me a little bit of the "Summer Traveler" that I made a couple years ago for BabyStitches. See that blog post here.

Intermediate/Beginning Quilting Class

2011-02-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

Today was the second day of the Intermediate/Beginning quilting class that I am co-teaching with my friend, Kalynn. It's a lot of fun teaching these classes (we co-taught beginning quilting last fall).

The students we have are the greatest, eager to learn, and pretty quick to catch on.

See how hard they're working!!!

Hard at it...

Here are some examples of their great work. Above is a LeMoyne star block. Isn't it pretty!?!

[And, BTW, did you know that LeMoyne means "the monk?" The question came up during class, so I looked it up on my iTouch. Amazing what technology can do!]

And here is a log cabin quilt block,

And another beautiful LeMoyne star.

Quilt Retreat

2011-02-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

I had the most wonderful time last week. I went on a mini-retreat with four other quilting friends of mine. We stayed at one friend's second house for three nights and boy, did we get a lot of sewing done. We were often up sewing till 11 or 12 at night. It was great fun.

I added a brown binding to this mini-quilt wall hanging (shown previously here). Unfortunately, I didn't have the right fabric to make a label, but I got the binding finished and the sleeve sewn on.

I also worked on piecing together these red strips for another quilt I'm working on. It is from a Kaffe Fassett pattern that I found in a magazine. I was struck by the simplicity of it. The whole thing is 5 1/2" strips, joined at a 60 degree angle to each other. The impetus for this quilt? My stack of red fabrics was getting too high to fit on the shelf!

Here is a photo of our little Bernina sweatshop set up in the kitchen. Four Berninas, plus one in a bedroom! Those machines were sure humming...

And here's a photo of the five of us when we went out to dinner one night. Yum!

I added sashing to some blocks to make a baby quilt...

Here is Gail's quilt, which she had just finished machine quilting. It looks great--little Dora the Explorer fabrics, mixed with frog fabrics.

Joyce finished up this simple sailing ship comfort quilt for our guild.

On the last day, when we were all heading home, Joyce's husband Larry showed up with a bouquet of flowers for each of us. I was blown away.

Aren't they pretty!!!?!

New Baby Quilt

2011-02-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

I decided I wanted to make another baby quilt, so I gathered up all my leftovers of flannel fabrics. I'm making another Disappearing Nine-Patch, because that is so much fun to do. I made the pattern previously here in an adult size.

This involves creating nine-patch blocks (duh!), assembling them, cutting them up, then reassembling them. I tried to use four darker fabrics and five lighter fabrics for each nine-patch. So I arranged all these little squares on my dining room table. The top photo shows (most of) them all laid out on the table, just after I bumped my head on the light fixture climbing up there to take the photo!

This did a fairly good job of reducing my flannel stash (yippee!).

This bottom photo shows, basically, only one block. After meticulously laying out all the squares, and playing beg/borrow so I didn't have too many of one fabric in a single square, I put each set of nine patches into a little baggie (previously used baggies, I have to emphasize (!), but no food contents) to keep them separate. I think I would be doing myself a favor if I ironed all these 4 1/2" blocks before I start sewing.

Can't wait to get started!

Making Cards

2011-02-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

I sat down recently to make some more greeting cards, as my personal supply was getting low.

As you can see, a few of them are of a similar design, which makes for efficient production(!). I used up a lot of my scraps for this batch of cards.

This one uses a pair of earrings I bought at Pay N Take (our local donation/resale event). I broke the posts off with a pliers.

The one on the left side is a lino-cut stamp that I made a couple of years ago in a class. On the right is a card made with hand-made paper, tied with raffia.

And this little cutie is made with buttons and a wooden butterfly. My drawing abilities cover stems, leaves, and grass, but that's about all!

MOAD/Improvisational Quilting

2011-02-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate to take a class last weekend from Ed Johnetta Fowler-Miller. The class was held at MOAD, the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco. I found out about the class a little late, and it just dovetailed in nicely with my schedule, and am I ever glad I took it!

This class was in conjunction with a quilt exhibit at MOAD called Textural Rhythms, from African American artists, one of whom was Ed Johnetta.

Ed Johnetta started us off making greeting cards, as a way of loosening us up. She laid out a plethora of paper pieces and told us to just start ripping shapes and glueing them down. Absolutely no planning or arranging was allowed! When we gave her our finished cards of glued scraps, Ed Johnetta put them into framed cards, which made them look like little works of art!

They turned out looking surprisingly good, and it was a very freeing experience.

Then we moved on to our sewing machines. Similar assignment this time, we started with a rectangular base of muslin, and started randomly sewing strips to it. Again we used the "just grab and sew" method, with no planning.

When we finished that, she told us to sew three more of them, then combine all four into a larger piece to use as a wall hanging. Below you can see my result.

We were using all types of fabrics, too, from quilting cottons to decorator fabrics to flannel. Anything goes with this method!

I'm planning to use a blue inner border and an orange-ish outer border/binding, after I get it quilted.

Project Number Three.

Ed Johnetta told us to create a piece of fabric by sewing together some random strips to form a rectangle. When I showed her what I'd sewn, she proceeded to cut it into pieces. Yes, really! Then she said, "Now sew them back together again in a different arrangement." So I did what I was told.

We ended up going through three or four episodes of her cutting up my piece of fabric! And this is the end result.

I love the crazy and impromptu look of it.

With this method of slashing/piecing, the piece ends up with some amazingly small pieces in it. I don't think I could ever have sewn such small pieces normally.

It was a totally liberating and awesome two-day class. Ed Johnetta was amazing, too. She is a great teacher and a lot of fun to be around. If you ever get a chance to take a class from her, jump at it!

Hand Quilting Frame

2011-01-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

I had a couple very large packages waiting for me the other day when I got home. It was the quilting frame I'd ordered! It seems that whenever I order something, I want it to arrive later that same day! I'm always so anxious to receive it!

It was no different with this quilting rack. I managed to get it all set up and put together by myself, and now it's all ready to use. There sure are a lot of adjustments on it: higher, lower, more slanted, less slanted.

Now my tumbling blocks quilt is installed on it and I'm ready to start quilting. I finally got all those little seams pressed down (with only a few small burns on my fingers). And I have given up any notion that this is a portable project. Now it will just sit at home (for years?) while I hand quilt it.

With my little arsenal of tools set up beside me, I'm ready to go!

Thread snippers

Thread

Thimble

Needle threader

Thread Heaven conditioner

Rubber disc to pull needle through

* * *

No, wait a minute.

Now I'm ready to go. Gotta have that (non-greasy) hand lotion nearby!

I really love having the quilt set up for me to work on. It's so easy to go into that room and quilt for just a few minutes or for a half hour. Nothing to set up or put away. It is placed in my guest room, and I can watch tv while quilting if I want. Looking up occasionally helps keep me from getting a stiff neck.

New Project

2011-01-24T15:45:00.001-08:00

Here's a sneak peak at a new little project I'm working on. [Man, it seems I'm really, really good at starting projects. Now if I could just manage to finish a fraction of them...]

This is going to be a small wall hanging for my guest room.

I'm going for the arboreal thing here, with browns and greens. I have it sewn and quilted. And I have the binding cut already. All I need to do is sew the sleeve, a label, and get it bound.

I played with some leaf shapes (more or less!) in my quilting.

Christmas Crafts Now?

2011-01-24T15:06:00.001-08:00

Here's a little snippet of a Christmas craft that I'm working on. Why now? Because I didn't get it done for last Christmas, and there's no time like the present to get busy on it, I think! It's one of those pre-printed panels you buy off the bolt.

It's a sort of stuffed doll/animal/toy, weighted at the bottom with nylon beads.

Below is a photo of what it will look like when I get it done.

I'm not quite sure where this will go or to whom it will go. We'll just have to wait to see Santa's fate.

Wooden Bowl

2011-01-14T15:23:00.000-08:00

When I was in Iowa in December, I visited BrotherStitches's woodworking shop. He has a very nice shop set up, and it's always interesting to see what he's working on. I spied a block of wood on the floor that looked like it was several pieces of plywood glued one on top of the other. He told me yes, that was what he'd done, and he said he'd show me the finished product when we went in the house.

This is what I saw when we went inside. A beautiful turned wooden bowl. Having started out as plywood, it showcased all those different layers making up the stacked plywood.

This is a shot from the side, where you can see all those different layers. Isn't it gorgeous!

And this close-up really highlights the layers, most of them a slightly different color from the neighboring layer. I was amazed at the lines and colors. BrotherStitches then said, very off-handedly, "You can have that bowl if you want."

WOW! I couldn't believe it! For me!?!?! BrotherStitches is quite a woodworker, and makes lots of beautiful pieces of art. And I have a very decent collection of his work. From Shaker boxes (all sizes) to turned bowls to carved figurines. He does it all, it seems. I'm very lucky to have him for a brother.

Tumbling Blocks

2011-01-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

I finally finished sewing all the rows of my tumbling blocks quilt top together! It now measures 82" by 90." It consists of 426 hexagonal shapes, sewn together from 1,278 diamond shapes. Whew!!

Now comes another fun part! With the quilt top up-side down, I need to iron all the seems on the back sides. Especially to get all those intersections to lie flat.

With so many short seams to iron, I'm using my Clover craft iron. Because a regular iron would be just too clumsy to maneuver these small seams.

Oh. My. Goodness. This. Is. Tedious.

After I iron a section with the craft iron, I go over it again with the regular iron, because I feel that the bigger iron will give a better overall press.

I've discovered that this is work which can easily produce a very stiff neck, if done for too long at a time! So I try to iron a bit, then take a break and do something else for a bit, then back to ironing for a while, then another break. Whose idea was it to make this quilt so big, anyway!?!?!?

Here is the fabric I bought for the backing fabric. It's extra-wide fabric (110"), so I won't have to deal with a seam anywhere in the back. Yes, I'm sure that will make this whole project much easier!!!

?????

Fabric Bowl

2011-01-07T17:17:00.001-08:00

This shot makes it look extremely wavy-edged, but I wanted to show you a photo of another fabric bowl I made. This time for a Christmas present. As you can see, I've used a variety of Christmas-y fabrics to wrap around the clothesline.

This next photo shows a close-up of the decoration I put on the side. I simply made three little coils with green fabric, then sewed them onto the sides of the bowl.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!

Another year has gone by, and a new one has arrived to take its place.

One thing that gets me going is that today is:

One-slash-One-slash-One-One

1 slash 1 slash 1 1

I know it's silly, but I always like it when date numbers line up like that. (It doesn't take much...) I just enjoy noticing these things when they occur. Like September 1st, 1991 appeared as 9/1/91 on checks that I wrote that day. I guess I can look forward to January 11, 2011 (1/11/11) as well. And November 11 will be awesome: 11/11/11!!

* * * * *

Enough of the silliness. With all sincerity, I wish each of you a fulfilling 2011. Do you make New Years Resolutions? I don't, but I often reflect at the end of the year just where I am in my life, and think about what is good, what needs changing, etc. Sometimes I think of new projects for a new year, but not resolutions. One year I decided I would grow my hair out until the next December 31.

Also, on New Year's Eve, MisterStitches and I celebrate our wedding anniversary. After 34 years with this wonderful man, I can only say that I love him more. Yes, it's been a while since that below-zero-degree day in Iowa in 1976 when we said our vows. It feels like several lifetimes ago.

So glad I did it.

* * * * *

In thinking about my "situation" this year, I'm feeling very content with my life, what I'm doing, where I am, what's going on. I have two wonderful kids, each married to someone that is also dear to me. One tremendous granddaughter who rocks my world. I love where I live. I have a lot of time to sew and quilt and play with fabric and paper. I come from a loving family, who care about me very much.

See! It couldn't get much better than this.

Also, this is my first full year of blogging (having started mid-year 2009), and it is something I really love. It's interesting and kind of a way of exploring myself. Gives me a chance to stand back and look at what I'm posting and what I'm doing. My list of blogs that I read has just gotten longer and longer, as I find new places to give me inspiration, new ideas, and just places to feel like I'm sharing as a friend. Cyber-friend, I guess.

I've been doing a better job the last few months with my walking and swimming. I am much aided by this website, where I am tracking my (virtual) walk across America. This is something that I very much want to continue throughout 2011. And beyond. But I'm not going to resolve to make X number of quilts for charity or anything like that. A project that I think I should undertake for this year would be to get myself a new camera, so I can show you some better photos!

* * * * *

So last night MisterStitches and I went out for a New Years Eve dinner to one of our favorite restaurants. There was metallic confetti sprinkled all over the tables, and we managed to keep most of it out of our food! We declined the "festive" hat and tiara, noisemakers, and bubbles. But I did bring home a confetti "popper" which I can't wait to pop open.

Five wonderful courses of delicious and adventurous cuisine--it was amazing. MisterStitches mentioned to our waiter that it was our anniversary, so when our dessert came, another dessert plate came with it. It was a plate with some awesome truffles, a single birthday candle burning, and "Happy Anniversary" written in chocolate on the plate! It was so cool! I wish I'd taken my camera to dinner with me so I could share it with you.

* * * * *

I plan to go forward into 2011 and make the most of it! I'm looking forward to making a lot of quilts and quilt projects. And happily, sharing them with you!!

Washington T-shirt for BabyStitches

2010-12-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a little t-shirt I made for BabyStitches for Christmas. I saw the idea on someone's art/craft blog, and thought I'd try it. It's an outline of Baby's state, with a heart button marking the spot where she lives.

The original idea was to make a template from freezer paper, iron it on to the shirt, and use fabric paint to paint the state onto the shirt. At first I was going to do that. But then I thought, I'm really more of a sewing person than a painting person, so why don't I sew it instead?

First I found an outline of Washington state on the internet. (Easy) Then I figured out what size I needed it to be, and reduced it to fit my little shirt. (Also easy)

Then it was simple to trace the pattern (backwards) onto fusible, fuse it to the fabric and cut out the shape, and iron it to the shirt. I used my machine blanket stitch to go around the outside of the state. I experimented a little bit on knits, and decided to put some muslin on the inside of the shirt, just to give it a little more "substance" when doing the blanket stitch.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Because of the muslin on the back, though, it is just a little bit stiff. I'll have to ask BabyStitches if she minds this.

Barn Quilts in Iowa

2010-12-26T16:00:00.000-08:00

While I was in Iowa (and Minnesota) visiting family last week, my parents and I drove from northwest Iowa, where they live, to Ames, home of Iowa State University. That is where my NephewStitches received his diploma. We had a good day for the drive: clear roads and sunny skies.

Eventually we came to Sac County, and were greeted by this sign.

Barn Quilts!! Awesome!!! It being winter, with the trees bare of leaves, and all the white countryside, it was easy to spot the barn quilts.

It was almost like a game to us.

We'd see who could catch sight of the next barn quilt.

It was such a treat to see them. Little random spots of unexpected beauty. They are so pretty.

It made the drive more interesting. I previously posted about BrotherStitches's barn quilt here.

All of the above quilts were taken from the website http://www.barnquilts.com/

It's Cold Outside!

2010-12-22T15:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Bloggie Friends,

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. (I think it's a record for me for longest time between posts!) I have been busy working on things, but either they are secrets, or I haven't had any good photos to show you.

I spent most of last week in Iowa and Minnesota. Man, was it ever cold! Yes, I grew up there, but now I've lived more than half my life in California, and I'm just not used to cold weather and walking/driving on ice. I was able to sneak in between snow storms, though, and had good roads for driving. I went to see my NephewStitches graduate from Iowa State University. We're all so proud of him. His degree is actually a double major in environmental science and agronomy. I think he feels a big relief now that all the tests are over. We had a good time celebrating with him.

It's Only Been a Year!

2010-12-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Way back in November of 2009, I showed you this photo of blocks I had cut to make a quilt. (Blog entry here) I got them all arranged on my design wall and sewn together into the quilt shown in the next photo.

Yes, I am embarrassed that it has been so long since I started it. The top itself actually went together quite quickly, but for some reason I just didn't get around to finishing it. From the photo above it looks like it is a lot of crosses or x's sewn together, but it's really much simpler than that.

From the photo above you can see that I sewed two rectangles together, made four sets of those, then joined the four together. It's a very simple process; it just takes a bit of planning and laying out of rectangles.

I didn't have a pattern, but followed a photo I had seen on someone's blog, and now I can't even remember which blog it was! But rest assured that I didn't come up with the design. And thank you to whomever posted this quilt on her blog!

I had to take a little care not to stretch the quilt top, as all of the edges were on the bias. Gentle handling seemed to do the trick. I pre-measured the borders, and made them fit the quilt.

I had chosen fabric for the borders and binding quite a while ago, and this week set about to finish it. The blue border strips can be seen above. Unfortunately, they were not long enough for the sides, so I had to piece them. Because the pieced blocks were placed en pointe, I decided to use diagonal seams to join the strips, hoping that the joins might be less noticeable. The photo below shows a close-up of the diagonal seam.

And here it is again, all finished. Now on to the quilting part of the project. I may just use straight-line quilting along the diagonal lines.

Crazy Quilt

2010-11-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

I have finally finished my crazy quilt! I have to admit that I'm embarrassed because I started on it in 2008. That was the first time I went to Empty Spools Seminars in Asilomar, California. I took a crazy quilting class that year from Judith Baker Montano. She is an awesome crazy quilter, and a lot of fun as a teacher; check out her website and see some of her beautiful work.

Here are some close-ups of some of the stitching and trims I added to the surface. It was a lot of fun deciding what stitch or piece of lace I would add where.

Making a crazy quilt is almost like sewing two quilts. First you piece all of the background together, which is in itself a big project of deciding which fabrics to use and how to arrange them.

When that is all done, comes the work of going all over the surface of the quilt again, adding embroidery, lace, trims, beads, buttons, etc.

The above photo shows the "'08" that I embroidered at the beginning of this quilt.

And in this photo you see where I had to add "2009" because I wasn't finished yet. Little did I know...

The tough thing about a crazy quilt is knowing when to stop! Traditionally, each seam is covered with stitching or trim. But you don't have to stop there. There are so many possibilities. At some point you just have to say, "That's enough."

What really made me get my rear in gear was when I realized I would need to add a "2010" to the quilt. And I sure didn't want to add a "2011!"

In the above photo you can see the small "TEN" stitched where I hoped it wouldn't be very noticeable. And I can say it's done.

I finished it by adding some black fabric triangles to the sides so I would have an en pointe square. I fused some interfacing to the black fabric, so it would be closer in "hand" to the actual sewn part of the quilt. Then I added some very thin batting, and a backing fabric. I sewed the front to the back with nymo beading thread on the back with a few small invisible stitches.

It really was a pleasure to work on this quilt. And I can't wait to start on some more "fancy work." It is a lot of fun.

New York, New York

2010-11-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

I went to New York last week! It was a wonderful trip, a theatre tour sponsored by Oregon Shakespeare Festival. There were about 40 of us, and we had a wonderful time, going to restaurants, seeing some NY sights, and of course, going to theatre.

Now, I would not call myself a Project Runway expert, but I do enjoy watching the shows and seeing the cool designs that the students make. So you can imagine my glee when I looked up Mood Fabrics and found the store is not

very far from where we stayed. I easily walked there one afternoon, and along my way I passed Parsons The New School for Design, where Project Runway takes place.

So there I was, right in the middle of the garment district. What fun!

Mood was actually a little hard to find, as the address I had turned out to be a service elevator loading sort of place. After some incorrect directions, I finally found it. There was no sign; I had to go into a small lobby and take the elevator up to the store.

Mood is just packed to the gills with fabric. All kinds, all colors.

I've sometimes wondered, while watching the Runway show, how in the earth do the "students" manage to find just the fabric they want?

There are three different floors, and as you can see, fabric is stacked everywhere!

It sure was fun to stroll around and look at

all the cool fabrics. They had some quilting fabric, but not much, and it was hard to look at because it was all on rolls, not bolts, and stacked on racks.

I hadn't exactly come to New York to buy fabric. I can get plenty of that at home!

But I did come home with one little swatch of fabric. And that made me happy.

Finished with Fabric Shopping Bags

2010-11-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

I finished sewing the fabric shopping bags, which I posted about here. And now you see them all lined up in the photo above. These bags will go in the Project Santa boxes that are delivered to people in our community. Thanks to the great idea of Harmony, and the consultation with Teresa of The Green Bag Lady, they all went together quite easily.

I actually had quite a lot of fun sewing these. They go together quite easily, and I'm sure I'll be making more of my own now.

I think I was channeling the Green Bag Lady while I was sewing! I used her pattern, which can be found on her website, with just a little bit of tweaking for my purposes. It's a very simple, straightforward pattern. You should definitely check it out.

It feels great to have a big project like this (26 bags sewn) all completed and delivered.

Bling for Your Knitting

2010-11-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

My great blogging friend Gail, over at Quilt, Knit, Run, Sew, did a lot of work to make stitch markers, which knitters to use for marking their rows. While I am only a fledgling knitter, and don't really do much with it, I really admire Gail for doing this project.

Gail made all these nice little markers and donated the proceeds of their sale to Run For The Cure. Aren't they pretty?

Some of the markers had pink beads, and some had pearls. I just had to ask her to send me a couple sets, so I can give them to some of my knitting friends.

And it's all for such a good cause. Thank you, Gail, for doing this.

May we find a cure.

Soon.

Fabric Shopping Bags

2010-10-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

I have begun a new project. (What a surprise!)

My friend Harmony, of Harmony Art Design, had the idea of putting a fabric shopping bag in with every box of goods delivered to our community this Christmas by Project Santa. Project Santa delivers food and gifts to families in need.

We talked (well, talked electronically) about doing this, and thought we might need the help of The Green Bag Lady. Teresa is a great friend, who just happens to make thousands of fabric shopping bags and Gives Them Away!

Anyway, we talked about how many we needed, and decided that the number we needed was small enough that I could take care of it myself. We need 25 bags. I think I've sewn about 20 so far. I have a pretty good system going. I get all the bags cut out first, and that's easy, because it's just a 36" by 18" piece of fabric, plus handles. Then when I get down to sewing them, it only takes me 15 minutes per bag.

KittyStitches had to come check out the bags!

So far I have used these three fabrics. The one in front and in the upper left are some, shall we say, *Extremely Economical* fabrics. Which worked to make great bags. The fabric on the right was donated by Harmony Art. The red and green print works very well for Christmas bags, don't you think?

CrafTown

2010-10-19T16:50:00.001-07:00

This is a photo from a blog post I made last December, where I gave instructions for making this small Christmas tree out of wine corks.

Amanda, over at CrafTown contacted me and asked if she could use some of my tutorials on her website. After debating with myself for about 5 seconds, I said, "Of course!!"

Here's a link to the site where this wine cork tree appeared.

http://www.craftown.com/Wine-Cork-Christmas-Tree.html

They have some nice crafts over at CrafTown, so go check them out! More of my crafts and quilts will be shown on the website from time to time.

Miniature Landscape Class

2010-10-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

I took a miniature landscape class last week from Diana Roberts (of Santa Rosa). Diana is a very nice person and a great teacher. She is a master of landscapes, having done a lot of miniature landscapes and circular landscapes (that's another class!).

Diana had a set of patterns that we were free to choose from. I chose the simple landscape below.

We traced the pattern onto tissue paper, numbering the pieces from farthest to nearest. We also traced the pattern onto an acetate sheet. From the acetate sheet we cut out the "puzzle pieces" and then ironed our fabric over the acetate to get it in the right shape.

First step was to lay down our sky fabric.

Then, starting with the pattern piece farthest away, we pinned the fabrics to a muslin background. The tissue paper had actually been sewn to the muslin to keep it in place.

The tissue paper overlay helped us keep the pattern pieces in the right position.

Now I'm going to hand-stitch down these pieces. I'll continue the saga when I get this step finished.

I've Conquered the World!

2010-10-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

I finished my "World" puzzle last week.

(I had previously blogged about it here and here.) It was a lot of fun to put together, and it really did enhance my geographical knowledge.

Now I can't wait to put it together again!

Sorry this photo is a little blurry, but it shows a close-up of part of the puzzle.