Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Sweet Home Chicago

Every year I try to get back home to see my family at least once or twice.  This year George and I came out for a quick two week trip-- just enough time to visit the ones we love and soak in family time.
George has been getting reacquainted with the cousins and hanging out with Grama.


I'm trying to savor every moment and make memories to keep me from missing them all year.
Grama K. making plum cake.

Each time I come home, I take the trip down to Lockport to go to Thimbles.  Gram always says,"oh, next time you should tell me so we can go visit Mary Jane."  Mary Jane and Grama were friends when their kids were younger and I hear that she helped Grama take care of me when I was a baby and my mom had to go back to school.  She's also one of the few people that traveled to Greece for my wedding (my side in attendance= 9, Costas' side= 241).  Imagine my surprise to get to Mary Jane's house and find out she's a quilter!!!

Mary Jane and Gram K.
For the record, Gram didn't know either.  hehe.

Well, Costas flew in today and I'm happy to announce that the wedding quilt I've been working on is finished, days before the wedding!  And Costas arrived just in time to hold it up so I could get a good photo.

It still needs a label and a run through the wash, but I think it'll be ready to hand deliver to the bride tomorrow.
Lizzie, quilt protector.
Many thanks for all the emails and messages you sent worrying about how we survived Irene.. Our house is fine, we just lost one tomato plant.  Really, nothing compared to some less fortunate.  Thanks for thinking about us.
Btw, the Trip Around the World quilt is not the first quilt I finished in 2011!  I managed to stitch the binding down on my NYC Metromod show quilt over the weekend~  Yay, two quilts done in a week!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

improv-- a 6 minute circle story.

I'm working on my submission for the NYC Metro Mod Guild show (read more about the traveling show here, you may be able to see our quilts in a town near you!), and I hit a snag when I realized that I couldn't get as many words on it as I had originally planned..
Wait, let me explain-- the theme of the show is "What does Modern Quilting mean to you?" and along with the quilt, we all must submit artist statements detailing our personal beliefs on Modern Quilting and how that ties into our show quilts.  I, of course, wanted to write all over mine, in pieced letters.  Like, all over it, but I realized that my design space is much much smaller than what I wanted to say.
My quilt is split into two parts, with writing on both but using different background fabrics.
The bottom letters are 3" tall, and the quilt must be 15" x 20" to be included in the show.. I knew I could make smaller letters, but didn't want to try to piece itsy bitsy fabrics to make my "b" "g" and "a" look curved.  So, I got creative and tried something new.
Ages ago I saw the 6 minute circles technique on a blog somewhere (I think it was this one), but just filed it in the back of my mind, not needing it until last week..
I drew up some tiny circles, followed the directions, and gave it a try.
On my first attempt, I removed the freezer paper before stitching as the directions suggest, but my "circle" wasn't really round. 
For all subsequent attempts, I left the freezer paper on as a sewing guide and my results improved.
Yay!  I had little circles, which I then pieced into letters measuring just under 2" tall.

Now for a bit more applique and hand work, and my tiny quilt top will be ready for basting.

Couldn't help adding in some EPP..

What I learned:
This is a great method, and I think it will experiment more with this type of freezer paper piecing for letters.  Of course, with the success of my first 4 circles, I got a little over zealous, and ambitiously tried to use the technique to piece other shapes..
The hearts worked great! until I got to the accute point at the center of the top.. um, no.  physically impossible.  But, I improvised and just needleturned the points by hand.  I still got an awesome heart, just half pieced, half appliqued. 
It looks better than a raw-edged machine applique, and faster than hand appliqueing the whole thing.  I'm pretty sure I'd do it again.
(Btw, heart blocks are for the 15 minutes play Scrap bee.)

Monday, August 15, 2011

TATW

How did I not see this pattern before?I had been looking for something easy and quick to do with the lovely, trendy fabrics I bought from Pink Chalk Fabrics last fall.  My original thought was to do a Curlique Crush, recently famous through Lesly's Ogee QAL, but I didn't start in time and now the clock was ticking..
See, I bought the fabrics (and the curlique pattern) in hopes of presenting a lovely modern wedding quilt to my cousin when she gets married next month.  I was planning ahead!  As soon as she announced the engagement I was off and fabric shopping.. but back then September '11 seemed like such a long time away..  Even last month it still felt like I had tons of time to pull something together.
Alas, I quickly realized that I procrastinated too much and an Ogee would never happen before the wedding.  I didn't want to go to Chicago empty handed, and really didn't want to buy a replacement gift (because I already spend the $ on all that fabric and even if they asked for one, I know they'd use a quilt more than a cappuccino machine..).  So, it was good timing that I happened to see Lesly's tweet about her new Trip around the world quilt, and decided to follow her lead.  (Thanks Lesly!
As I was cutting and piecing this amazingly simple (and easy to put together) quilt this week, I just kept thinking over and over how wonderfully generous Bonnie Hunter is, and how she has helped me time and again with my quilting and hasn't even known it.  Thank you Bonnie!
The pattern is very simple with strips  cut 4"x WOF, joined, then looped and subcut.  Bonnie's directions include how to press seams so that everything butts together smoothly when you step the strips up or down to create the pattern, something I wouldn't have had the foresight to do on my own.  I thought the unpicking might be a pain in the a**, but it actually wasn't that bad, and I really enjoyed putting each strip on my design wall and watching the pattern appear. 
Here I wasn't too sure..
But a few more strips and I was dancing around the sewing room, loving how cute it was going to be..
The top is just about together, I'm waiting for the border fabric to dry (damn rain).  We're headed to Chicago in less than 10 days, and I want it quilted and the binding attached so I can hand stitch it down as I visit with the family for a few days before the actual wedding.  I found the best background fabric too, but I can't show that til it's on..
I hope my cousin and her husband like it, and don't feel gypped that they're getting this instead of the more complicated Curlique, but hey, if she ever mentions it, I'll just help her choose new fabrics and we can make one together then. 

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Ribbon block tutorial

Last night Frederick asked if I could point him to some directions for my ribbon block, which I made up last February.  At the time, I took pics to make a tutorial, thinking I'd use the block for my month in a bee, but changed my mind.  Now's as good a time to share it as any, right?  So here goes--

Start with a square (I think mine was 9")

Make a slice to one side of center, cutting the block into roughly 3/5 and 2/5.

add in a strip of fabric.


Press.  Rotate the block a quarter turn, slice again, making 3/5 and 2/5.

Add in a strip of the same color.  When joining the pieces, fold back the top a bit so you can line up the seams of your first strip.

Press.  Rotate the block another quarter turn.  Slice and add again.  This time I put in a different colored strip.

For the 4th cut, I added in the same yellow, making it appear to overlap the moss green.

First round done!  On to the next round..

As you slice and add, be sure to keep rotating in the same direction and it will appear that your ribbons overlap in a spiral pattern. 

Some slices can be a little wonky/angled, but be sure to match seams carefully and pin if you want your earlier strips to line up.

It's really not as difficult as it looks.  Go ahead, give it a try!

My second attempt:

If you make any, I'd love to see them!  add links to blogs/flickr in the comments~

Friday, August 5, 2011

Beware

of hungry toddlers..
"Mom, I just touched your thing and put it in the sink."  I saw some bits of chewed red paper on the couch next to him.
"What thing?" as I walked to the sink.

This is what I found:

No, it's not a rose petal.  It's one of my home-made cardstock hexagon templates. Or, what's left of one anyway.  Thankfully he found it after I made my latest pin cushion..
top

bottom
This one I made for me :)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

For Lisa

The end of the month never seemed to be such a big deal to me before, but now that I'm in so many (too many?) bees, it always seems like the month is over before I know it.
Lisa was queen bee for July in the NYC Metro Mod guild bee.. she sent a red triangle and told us to do whatever we wanted with it.  I knew I'd make a house (one of these days I want to make a house quilt for myself..), but didn't like my first attempt (dark sky) so I tried a second.  A bit better, but maybe the chinese folk toy fabric (Alexander Henry, 2004) was too big of a scale for this project.  They'll stand out anyway..

p.s. getting the hang of twitter slowly.. not so obsessed that I've stopped sewing yet.

Insane!!

that's how I feel right now.  After reading lesly's post about talkin' tuesdays and they fun they've been having, curiosity got the better of me and I clicked the link to Twitter
Oh no.  I so did not need to do that.  I have been living a very full life without tweeting about it for 31 years.. but I got sucked in.  or, well, I'm in the "overwhelmed" stage, as they say.

So quick, help.  Do you tweet?  How does it all work?  How long til I make sense of it all?

And how do I get this photo to be my profile pic?
It doesn't seem to let me crop the pic down the way facebook does. 

Ok, deep breath, I know I'll figure it out eventually.  (So much for the 3 quilts I wanted sandwiched and quilted before the end of the month) 

Why do I feel like that girl at the party whose friends just pulled her unwillingly onto the dance floor?
If you are on twitter, please tell me who you follow..

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

August 2

Inspired by this and this, I cut up some hexagons yesterday.
And after a trip to my local Petco and what seemed like hours rummaging through my sewing room closets looking for needles longer than betweens, I present... a pin cushion.
Sweet, statisfying, and useful too!
I have been working in cool colors lately and felt the sudden pull to hot pinks and oranges.  Whew, glad that's out of my system..

Free Zoom Quilt Class, October 20.

    Free Live Online Craft Class Learn to quilt with Jessica Wed., Sept. 9 Tues., Oct., 20, Nov. 9 7:00 – 8:00 pm Sign up now.   Take one or...