All Things Quilty

New Quilty Books

2009-12-29T08:16:00.006-05:00

We got home from western North Carolina yesterday evening after a delightful visit with all the McBrayers, and their doggies, both big (Tommy Mac's third dog named Blackie)

and small. This is baby Jasper, Lindsay's chihuahua puppy!

There was still snow on the ground in Rutherford County, so we had a sort of white Christmas...

and we had clear weather, and look at this gorgeous sunset reflected in the backyard pool.

My family has discovered the Amazon Wish List, which is a wonderful thing. You can add items from any website to your wish list. So, among my gifts, I found a subscription to Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine, and two wonderful quilt books.

I am especially thrilled with the first one, Fabric Art Collage- 40+ Mixed Media Techniques, by Rebekah Meier.

I have been collecting lots of tools and materials for painting and stamping fabric, but did not always know what to do with them. I love this book because she names the actual products she uses, where you can get it, and refers back to the page with the instructions when she shows a project with that technique. Finally, I am going to use my Creative Textile Tool for some hot stamping and cutting! I stopped at Mary Jo's Cloth Store, AKA Mecca, on the way home and added lots of nice new things to play with. Will show that stuff in another post.

The other new book is Creative Ways with Fibre & Stitch, by Sue Bleiweiss and Terri Stegmiller.

This book features many surface design techniques, and some awesome projects like a painted canvas tote, some journals, boxes, and art quilts. I took an online class from Sue last year on making fabric journals, and this book will be a lovely addition to my library.

Having been home less than twenty-four hours, I will be heading south this morning to visit my grands for a couple days. We did not get to spend Christmas with them this year, so I am anxious to see what Santa brought them! They both attend a private church preschool/Kindergarten which is closed this week, so I will have some uninterrupted grandma time!

Christmas Blessing

2009-12-24T08:54:00.003-05:00

May the peace of Christ be with you and your loved ones.

Another Christmas Quilt

2009-12-23T08:19:00.007-05:00

If you have been reading my blog this month, you may remember my post about the Gingerbread Houses quilt I entered in the Virtual Christmas Quilt Show on SewCalGal's blog.

She has added a new feature which allows viewers to have a chance at winning one of the great prizes! Just visit her blog and leave a comment or send her an e-mail about your favorite quilt in the Virtual Christmas Quilt Show. Drawing will be December 25, so hurry over! There are some lovely quilts to drool over in the show.

In addition to the Gingerbread Houses quilt, I have quite a few Christmas quilts. Today I will show you one that I made from a block exchange with my quilt bee back in the nineties. The bee has changed names from Just Between Friends to the Whacky Ladies, and I think Marilyn and I are the only remaining original members of this group.

We made pine trees from strip pieces of different lengths with two half-square triangles in each strip. I remember this being a complicated pattern to measure and piece, but I like the way it turned out. Since the trees are not embellished, the quilt is not just limited to Christmas decor. It is just big enough for napping on the couch, although it is currently hanging on the wall in my living room.

To have enough blocks for the quilt, I had to make two more of my blocks, featuring the blue-green-violet batik tree fabric. Of course this was long before I had my long-arm machine, and I used one of the decorative stitches on my Bernina to add garlands to each tree with metallic threads.

I have gotten my new machine (Janome 6600) set up, finally, in its table that fits snugly around the machine. I have only spent a short time playing. It is weird to sit down to sew, and not even know how to wind a bobbin or thread the machine without consulting the manual. It feels very strange after so many years of using my very familiar Bernina. But, I think I will like it.

Today's plan: another workout on my Wii Fit, and then make something fattening to take to the Christmas Eve gathering at my son and daughter-in-law's home! I am thinking...Bourbon Balls!

Early Christmas

2009-12-21T08:33:00.006-05:00

We had a wonderful weekend with our son Dave and his wife Emily. We went to their home and enjoyed a soak in their new hot tub, which they got just in time for our old age! It is so relaxing. My brother Pat and his wife Alice live only a few blocks away, and they came over to join us. One of these days, we will have one of those lovely spa tubs at our mountain home. The huge snowstorm that blanketed the East Coast on Friday missed our area by only a few miles. We got a trace of snow on the deck, but the rest was rain. But it was still pretty cold, and that tub felt great!

Emily and Dave are hosting her entire family for Christmas, and we will be joining them for Christmas Eve, but we decided to share our Christmas gifts with each other this weekend. These lovely Victorian-style patchwork ornaments were a gift from Emily, made by her mother. I love them!

I finished the satin pillow that I started a long time ago to give it to Emily for Christmas. The white satin is left over from their wedding quilt. I just quilted feathers and flowers all over, but added a border of mixed horizontal and vertical lines. It will go on the leather chaise lounge in their bedroom.

I was very surprised to receive my gift from my hubby while we were there...a Nintendo Wii! He said I had asked for it last Christmas, which I don't recall. I was just thinking how happy our grandkids will be that we have a Wii they can play with...when I opened the accompanying gift from Dave and Em, the Wii Fitness Plus. This has all kinds of games for balance, strength, flexibility, and aerobics. The four of us played Bowling Saturday night, which was lots of fun. When we got home, I fooled around with the program and tried some of the fitness exercises. When you start out, it measures your BMI and compares it to your age, and then you do a balance test. I did not catch on to how to perform the balance exercises. My Wii Fitness Age is 70! Since I am 59, I was not too happy about that! Charlie, who is 60, had a fitness age of 55. I will have to try that balance test again.

This is going to be a fun way to work out without using the same exercise videos I have gotten kind of sick of doing. I sampled the yoga (at one point called YOGO in the instruction manual), hula hoop, step aerobics, and strength exercises.

My five-year old grandson is an expert on his dad's Ipod, clicking away with his little thumbs on video games, and instinctively knowing what to do despite the inability to read the messages. He can even download new apps on his own. Maybe he can teach me to do some of these Wii exercises!

To end on a quilty note, here is my little three-year old granddaughter, Lily, at our house a couple weeks ago. Do you think I have a future quilter in the family?

Sewing Space Organization

2009-12-18T10:18:00.008-05:00

There are lots of great deals in the stores these days. Here is purchase I am quite proud of: a flexible, clamp-on Ott light for my Gammill. It was on the Clearance shelf at Michael's Craft Store in North Raleigh. I was able to use my 40% off coupon with it, for a grand total of $12.00 for this great light. The only other light in the room is an overhead fan with light fixture, and a floor model Ott light that just did not work out with the Gammill, since I was always knocking it over.

I am continuing to try to organize my sewing space on the third floor. I have just about finished with organization of my "stash." There are two narrow closets in the sewing room. Here is the first one, which holds my fat quarters, hand-dyed fabric in the tall drawers, and pre-cut squares and strips in the shoe-boxes.Bonnie Hunter came to our guild this year and explained how she "tames" her scraps by cutting into strips and squares of 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3.5", etc. I already had a lot of these cut up. I'm not sure I will keep them in these fabric shoe-boxes, because they are collapsible.

Here is the other closet. This one is directly behind the embellisher machine table, so I can just wheel my chair backward and reach for some yummy stuff. Like this basket of hand-dyed cheesecloth, part of my postcard challenge prize from Vicki Welsh.

The two tallest plastic drawers are my scraps, sorted by color.

The two shorter drawers are for ribbons, trims, and other embellishments. I used one of my old organization tools from my elementary school experience: label everything, and include a sample of what's inside on the label.

My larger pieces of fabric (half-yard or more) are sorted by color in these plastic bins on another 9-cubby shelf unit against the wall.

This wall is only about five feet high because of the sloping ceiling of this finished attic space. Looks like I need to use up or get rid of some of these pieces so the tops will actually fit on the plastic tubs. But, it is looking a lot better than the old system. I used to keep the fat quarters in the wooden triple dresser, and the plastic tubs on top. That was not working out too well, was it? Along with my little stereo and talking books and CD collection?

I did not plan to ever show off the wreck that was my old sewing room, but I guess as I get it cleaned out, I will show the old versus new. Can you see why it is taking me so long to shovel out this room?

To try to keep things off the floor, I am using pegboards on the walls. This one, for rulers and rotary cutters, fits on the narrow space between the two closets.

This one is on the wall next to my sewing table. Yesterday I bought some more thread racks at Joann's, so I would not have any plastic drawers and boxes of thread lying around. I have not put those up yet. I have already discovered that I do not like having rotary cutters and scissors stationed directly above my head when I am sewing- those will have to move! I like the little wire baskets that attach to the pegboard. A good place to put sewing machine oil, fray-check, etc.

I still have only one design wall mounted, but will try to get DSH (Dear Sweet Husband) to help me hang the other one this weekend. I have unearthed the basket and boxes of fabric and UFO's that I brought home from our friend Spike's house after his wife passed away two years ago. Pam made these very precise blocks with perfectly mitered frames, and I intend to finish the quilt for Spike. I found an assortment of squares left over from some of her other projects, and auditioned them next to her blocks, which are already sewn together. I don't know why she used so much pink in a quilt for a manly man, but I thought I would try adding more blue-greens and tans for an outer border. I'm not sure about that... but I definitely do not want to make any more of those mitered log cabin blocks. It will have some kind of scrappy border. There are yards of what looks like sashing strips in a lime green...don't think I will be using that for this project. I wish there was a pattern or hint of where she was going with some of her UFO's. Memo to self: store UFO's with a copy of the pattern or book, along with the fabrics selected for that project.

We might have a little snow here this weekend, although there is a much greater chance in the mountains. I'm glad we had our family gathering last weekend, because many of the folks had to travel from Boone and other points west. We are planning to go to try out Dave and Emily's new hot tub on Saturday. Sitting outdoors in a hot tub, watching it snow...sounds delightful!

First Quilt at Age 83

2009-12-16T10:00:00.009-05:00

I have a delightful new customer who brought me her first quilt before Thanksgiving, and I delivered it to her this week. Her quilt has a story to tell, as do so many.

Gertrude used to help her mother hand-quilt her embroidered quilt tops, but had never made one of her own. She decided to make a quilt for her son, and one for her daughter-in-law. She was going to machine-quilt them, so she pieced them in long strips.

Life intervened, as it so often does. Gertrude's husband became very ill. She spent the next five years nursing him. He passed away in March of this year.

Gertrude decided she would go back to the projects she started many years before- so she would have something to leave behind. Her hands are now affected by arthritis, so it is not easy for her to do handwork. She has finished the first quilt, a lovely green and pink with a very nice oriental-looking floral fabric accent.

There are many different framed blocks making up this sampler quilt,

and lots of nice green "canvas" to fill with artistic freehand flowers and leaves.

This was a very ambitious project for a first quilt. Not only was it LARGE, but it was set on point. That gives many bias edges and opportunities for stretching and fullness. When I first loaded the quilt, the entire right hand side kind of just sagged, instead of stretching taut.

I moved my extra clamp with the perky little "fishy" to the right side,

and also decided to baste horizontally every ten to twelve inches along the length of the quilt as I went along. But Blogger is turning the picture so it looks vertical!

Even after all the basting, extra pinning, smoothing, and lots of curvy quilting to take up the fullness, there was a lot of "extra" by the time I got to the bottom edge.

So- more pinning, basting, and some tight, tight quilting with one hand

while smoothing with the other, and leaning on the "belly bar" for even more control....and the result was pretty flat, although not exactly even.

I think it is beautiful! Let's hear it for Gertrude's first quilt-at age 83!

Secret Santa Reveal

2009-12-15T09:34:00.007-05:00

The other day I posted about the lovely Secret Santa gifts from my friend Jean. I also showed a teaser of the project I was working on. The actual exchange was on Saturday, during my family party, and I can now reveal what I made for Jenny Copeland. It was kind of funny that I was her Secret Santa, because I am one of the more "Artsy" quilters in the CyberBee, and she is probably THE most traditional. She likes country colors, folk art, applique, hand-quilting...and chickens! I decided to make another Great Big Tote Bag, like the two I made last year, except in her preferred color palette.

The instructions for this bag are from the Selvage Blog. It would take a lot of selvages and sewing to make this MONGO bag!

You start out by making a quilt, complete with binding. I selected most of these fabrics at Loving Stitches quilt shop in Fayetteville, NC, when I was there to buy a roll of batting. But Alert Readers will remember the beautiful green sun-printed pine needle fabric as part of my prize from Vicki Welsh's November Postcard Challenge. I still have some left for other projects! The orange hand-dye and the brown stripe were from my stash.

After constructing the striped top and the pieced lining, I quilted the project on my Gammill, in designs inspired by Nichole Webb's Floribunda Feathers.

At the same time, I quilted two five-inch pieces for the shoulder straps. After doing that, I realized I was supposed to fold the five-inch fabric strip in half over the batting before quilting. So, I cut my quilted straps in half, and then had to make a binding for them. I sewed them to the inside of the bag, reinforcing with X-stitching. The bound edges of the quilt are hand-stitched together.

Since I now had an extra strip of quilted five-inch wide fabric, I decided to make a little pouch that could be used to carry rotary cutters or scissors. It closes with Velcro, and I added a little fiber to the zig-zagged raw edge of the flap.

You can see how big the tote bag is in relation to the approximately eight-inch long pouch.

I also tucked in a pot-holder made by my friend Carolyn Ormond for her church's bazaar, and a coffee mug filled with coordinating fabrics.

If you would like to see another awesome Secret Santa gift from the CyberBee exchange, visit my friend Janice's blog to see what she created for Jean.

Family Gathering

2009-12-14T09:23:00.004-05:00

I spent most of the day yesterday in my jammies after the big family reunion at my house on Saturday. It was lots of work, but so great to see everyone. We ended up with a little over forty people. Here are the two youngest! Both little babies were very friendly and sweet among all the tall relatives.

So, how do you feed a sit-down turkey dinner to forty-something people? The men were in charge of the turkeys. My son Dave cracked me up as he played Massage Therapist while rubbing in the seasonings. "How's your job going?"

He brought his turkey cooker over, so we had twin fryers bubbling away in the driveway...

and two twin turkeys, fried to golden perfection!

The weather was cold and gray, but we had about fourteen kids running in and out of the house and around the yard. Here is my granddaughter Lily in her new fleece toboggan made by my friend Mary Nennstiel. Too cute!

I plan to do as little as possible today, and won't be cooking anything for days...unless heating up leftovers in the "nuker" counts as cooking. Maybe the new sewing machine will get out of the box this week!

Gingerbread House Quilt

2009-12-11T15:38:00.006-05:00

I decided it was time to take a break from my Christmas party tasks today, and join in the fun of the Virtual Christmas Quilt Show from Sew Cal Gal's blog. I have made quite a few Christmas quilts over the years, but will share a special one for this post.

Back in the nineties, I was the lucky winner of the December Block Party blocks at the Capital Quilters Guild in Raleigh. The pattern was a simple house with a chimney design, that we were encouraged to embellish as desired.

They were all really cute!

If you glance to the left upper sky section, you will see Santa and his sleigh...

How about a candy house? Lots going on here!
One of my favorites...Santa's boot is just disappearing down the chimney. And I love the lace work to make the gingerbread trim!

My own house block was plain and simple...

Not this one...lots going on in this candy house!

I put all the houses in a nine-patch design, and bordered them with Gingerbread Men from a Debbie Mumm design. Many of the ginger people were embellished with trinkets or fused novelty fabrics that represented our hobbies and interests.

I was teaching elementary school at the time...

I love flowers and gardening...

And my husband had just gotten his Private Pilot's license.

There is a little quilter girl holding scissors and a quilt block next to the house block that I made.

This was so much fun to embellish! Now the grandkids want to know which one is "them." Hmm, I need to add one eating fruit loops and another wearing a pink dress. And a few eyes need to be tacked back down. But this little wall quilt still has a strong appeal to me!

My Secret Santa

2009-12-11T09:14:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow is the day that my extended family will be coming to town for a Christmas gathering...and also the day that the CyberBee holds its annual Christmas potluck and Secret Santa gift exchange. Since I will not be able to attend the CyberBee meeting, my friends Jean and Janice came over and picked up my Secret Santa gift to deliver...and brought mine to me! My Secret Santa was Jean!

Since CyberBee members have been together fifteen years or more, we often know a lot about each other's interest, tastes, type of quilting, etc. And we also get to list colors and "stuff" we like in a database. So, these gifts are often very eagerly anticipated and special.

Jean brought me a wonderful bag of goodies to appeal to the artist in me!

Transforming Fabric by Carolyn Dahl...

The Uncommon Quilter by Jeanne Williamson...

Some of the lovely, sparkly "Fantasy Fiber," also sold as Angelina, which I tend to add to all my art quilts and postcards...

For more sparkle, some Fantasy Film, also sold as Textiva...and a new product called Magic Mesh which I can't wait to try! It looks like self-adhesive cheesecloth!

One of my all-time favorite products, hand-dyed Tussah Silk Tops from Myrna Ficken (somebody has been paying attention to my blog posts!) for use in needle-felting or other fiber products like my shawls...another product that is new to me, Paper Cord Ribbon Trim, which should be fun to twist and curl and add to post cards and other fun creations...and, after all these nice things, something just a little naughty...a reindeer that poops candy! That should be the hit of all the five-year-olds at the party tomorrow...

And to top it all off, on the day that I received all these lovely surprises, it was Jean's birthday! I did remember her day with a red poinsettia.

Hope all the CyberBee members enjoy their special surprises tomorrow...I will post pictures of the package I made after the excitement dies down this weekend!

It's Here...Meet Josie

2009-12-09T12:20:00.005-05:00

This was my one and only purchase on "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, which has become the biggest shopping day in the USA.

For those who have been following my blog awhile, you may remember that I came out of retirement to teach school last spring. I saved every bit of that money...and decided after my recent guild workshop that I had to do something about my bad case of Sewing Machine Envy.

There is nothing wrong with the Bernina 1260 that I have had for about fifteen years. Ninety-five percent of what I do is straight-stitch and zigzag, with about five percent of fancy stitching on postcards or art quilts.

But, it is no longer up to snuff with what the new machines can do. My friends Janice, Michelle, Cathie, and even my online quilt teacher Pamela Allen all raved about their Janome 6600's.

And then Quilts Like Crazy had a special two-hour sale on Black Friday when this particular machine was on sale. A great sale. And I splurged and bought it! With some of my teaching money! And the special table that fits snugly around it!

I had to order the machine, and it arrived yesterday.

It's still in the box...the table is not here yet. And I want to play! But there are a couple projects that I need to finish fast, and don't have time to experiment with my new toy.

Oh, yeah, and all of my extended family is coming for dinner on Saturday.

Do you think it would be fine with them if I made new patchwork tablecloths instead of food?

Probably not!

Here is a peek at one of the secret projects I am finishing with Bernie the Bernina instead of Josie the Janome.

What could it be???

(It was quilted on my Gammill Classic- and came out pretty good, considering that the check spring on the tensioner came flying off during the process, and I didn't feel like working with an Allen wrench to take the whole thing apart and replace it.)

Secrets, secrets!

Anything Art Goes Digital

2009-12-08T21:23:00.006-05:00

Monday was the December meeting of the Anything Art quilting bee. I am very pleased with this group and how well we are bonding after only four meetings. This time we got together at Ruth-Ellen's house, which is not too far from where I live. The topic was digital cameras and photo editing. Ruth-Ellen is not only knowledgeable in this area, but provided very professional handouts. We tried all kinds of new functions on our digital cameras. We hung one of Ruth-Ellen's quilts outside on a cold, overcast day to take pictures.

Don't the ladies look studious! Mary H. was also there, but not in the picture.

Ruth-Ellen has rigged up a wire to her deck railing, and attaches the quilts with those heavy black paper clips.

Here is the detail shot I took of her lovely art quilt, which was quilted by Cathy Kirk.

After the photography lesson, we learned how to make potato latkes, and shared a pot-luck lunch. Then we went to the computer to see how Ruth-Ellen organizes her photos with a program called Lightroom, and edits with Photoshop Elements. I am determined to become good at using Elements---some day!

Christmas Ornaments from Here and There

2009-12-06T10:42:00.008-05:00

Every year, when I get out boxes of Christmas ornaments and decorations, I remember not only Christmases past, but places we have visited. Many years ago, I started looking for Christmas ornaments when we traveled out of town. This was not always easy, since school teacher vacations were mostly during the summer months. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the ornaments which bring back fond memories of our trips.

Way back in the 1970's, Charlie played trombone in The Little German Band. (It's not little...there were over forty members!) They performed on weekends at Oktoberfests, and often at the N.C. State University Faculty Club. In the summer of 1976, they arranged a tour of Germany and Austria, and we both worked two jobs to save up extra money for the trip. (I worked eight hours a day for the state Disability Determination Section, and at night as a waitress at an Italian restaurant!) That was our last trip to Europe. We found it very romantic...I came home with a little stow-away on board! We named him Bryson, but the German Band members called him Little "Helmut." Anyway, even though the trip was in July, I bought some wax Christmas ornaments. Two have melted after being stored in the attic, but I still love these two survivors. I guess they are made from molds, and then hand-painted.

It is hard to take photographs of ornaments on the tree...they tend to jiggle around!

When Bryson was about six months old, we went to visit college friends who lived near Charleston, S.C. They now live only about thirty minutes away from our mountain cabin, so we see them much more often. I remember Vicky and I pushing our babies in strollers along the waterfront and through the markets in Charleston. This is one of the ornaments I remember purchasing there... a little toy horse for my little boy.

When I get a new Christmas ornament, I try to remember to write the year on the back with a white or gold pen. I am so glad that I have done that, now that we have been married for 38 years. It is getting harder to remember things!

Fast forward quite a few years...I must not have traveled much once we had two babies and very little money for quite a long time! Most of our ornaments from those wonderful years were the children's school projects made from jar lids and dried pasta! I treasure them, too, although I have bequeathed most of them to the boys for their own Christmas trees. Charlie eventually changed careers from being a university business office employee on a fixed salary, to becoming a successful financial advisor. I accompanied him on many nice business trips across the country. One of my favorite destinations was San Francisco...

and each time we went there, we visited Muir Woods to see the redwoods.

And I found this jolly California Santa in a gift shop in Sausalito, where we stopped on the way back from Muir Woods and the wine country.

We have also been to Boston twice. The first time, it was the 200th anniversary of the U.S.S. Constitution, a ship nicknamed "Old Ironsides." The spouses were treated to one of those bus tours where you can get on and off to visit places sites of interest, and I very much enjoyed seeing this old battle ship that was named by our first president, George Washington.

When Charlie first became a stock broker, he trained in New York City for three weeks, his first trip to the Big Apple. The boys and I could not afford to visit him then! I actually was born and lived in the New York vicinity for my first fifteen years, but had not been back to visit since 1966. I finally got to revisit my "home town" a few times within the last ten or twelve years.

One place I had never been was New Orleans, Louisiana. July is not the best month to be in the Deep South...but I found this jolly Santa, possibly mixing up some beignets, who adorns my pantry door. Does he look a little like Paul Prudhomme? I think so!

But our best trip EVER, which was a reward for a wonderful sales year, back in the LAST wonderful sales year, was in June of 2001, when we had an all-expenses-paid trip to the Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas. The Atlantis is such a huge resort that you could probably spend a week there and not see everything. They have plentiful gift shops there, if you feel like dropping $99 on a piece of Lalique crystal about an inch square. While Charlie was attending the obligatory business meetings, I decided to visit the craft center across the street, where locals sold their hand-made items, and they actually expect some haggling. I spent less than five bucks, and came home with two authentic island ornaments. The first is this smiling island lady...can you see the hand stitches on her shoulder seam?

And this jolly island Santa, complete with straw hat, who has the fluffiest cotton beard in the world!

I hope you have enjoyed reminiscing with me! Now it is off to finish the giant customer quilt that I have been "wrassling" with on the Gammill!

Altered Fabric

2009-12-05T08:16:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, I showed a picture of the "twinchies," or two-inch squares, I made for the members of my quilt bee as favors at our Christmas brunch. There is a little funny story behind these.

Back in July, the bee met at our LQS, Quilts Like Crazy, for a sew-in day of making charity quilts. At the previous meeting, Donna brought a large bag of donated fabric that we rummaged through, finding choices that would work for Yellow Brick Road or other simple quilts for Quilts on Wheels. We then added some of our own fabric from our stashes and came up with some really nice quilts for wheel-chair bound residents of rest homes.

In my quilt, the donated fabric was the white flower print and the ribbons and bows on black background.

Carolyn worked with the snowman print to come up with this nice Christmasy quilt.

Marilyn chose the teddy bear Americana fabric and made enough blocks for two patriotic quilts.

The point being, that even dated, no-longer loved fabric can still make charming quilts.

But...nobody would touch this outlandish, neon-orange and green "surfer dude" print.

We had a lot of laughs as we tried to get someone to make something out of this awful stuff. I ended up taking home the extra fabric to use as backs for charity quilts that I offered to quilt for the guild. But...

I decided that for my Christmas favors, I HAD to make something out of this fabric.

When you look closely at it, there are interesting grids, lines, prints, and text throughout the fabric. What do many art quilters try to incorporate into their layered, textured, creations but line, prints, and text?

So, I started painting. I used a Jacquard textile paint in emerald green to cover the entire fabric. Then I stenciled with a gold Lumiere metallic paint, and used a stamp to add additional text that looks like script writing.

Without the glaring fluorescent colors, this was getting very interesting!

My first idea was to make stuffed bird ornaments with the gold ferns as wings, but I waited too long to attempt such an ambitious project. So, I covered the green fabric with silk ribbons, bits of Angelina and Textiva shiny stuff, and a white tulle with gold metallic dots, and machine-quilted it all to a piece of Decor-Fuse. Then I got out the heat gun and zapped the fabric to do interesting things to the Textiva and tulle. I trimmed the result into two-inch squares, fused a backing of either painted watercolor paper or a lame' print,and zigzagged a fiber around the edges. Finally, I ironed on some Swarovski crystals. If you don't care about the exact placement of the crystals, you can just use your iron to heat-set the "hot-fix" crystals. Much faster than the "Bejeweler."

Now, everyone has a little piece of the ugly fabric, which is no longer ugly.

But, I still had GOBS of the surfer dude fabric.

Our bee celebrates members' birthdays by giving them a fabric fat quarter according to their preference. Our absent member Jean had asked for "brights", and it is her birthday month.

She got a lot of nice bright batiks that will be delivered to her.

And a lovely bright package of "surfer dude" fabric! Our new White Elephant gift, that I am sure will be passed along whenever possible to unsuspecting others!

Christmas Brunch

2009-12-04T12:10:00.004-05:00

Today was the first of the Christmas get-togethers of the season for me. My local bee, The Whacky Ladies, met for our annual Christmas brunch at Brig's Restaurant in Wake Forest. We have so much fun at these parties, although this year we were sorry to miss two members who both underwent surgery this week. One of the things we do is a gift exchange. Most of the time we have a "gift grab,", where you choose an unopened gift in order of drawn numbers, and open it. Then the others can choose your gift instead of an unopened gift. This year, we did something different. Carolyn read a story about the Wright family. You had to pass your gift to the right or left every time you heard those words in the story. This was fun, kept us laughing, and no one had their gift "stolen."

I got a much-needed desktop needle threader and some lovely red fabric.

The inchie on the left, is actually a "twinchie", or two-inch little art square that I made everyone for favors. More about those next time.

Donna made our brunch more festive by bringing everyone a Christmas tapestry place mat to use right there at the restaurant. Mine will go well with all my snowmen!

Mary makes lots of gift items, and made us each a rose brooch. This pic is a little out of focus.

Marilyn made an assortment of embroidered mittens. She does beautiful handwork!

Janice made adorable errand lists in a padfolio-type of notebook.

After the breakfast, at least four of us headed to our LQS, Quilts Like Crazy!, for their 30% off sale today. I purchased some fabric that is very different than anything else I have, with the thought in mind of making a tote or perhaps a little girl dress. Look how Janice's memo pad matches the fabrics. Do you think she influenced my color choices?
The print fabric with the birds and dots is by designer Tina Givens, who lives right here in little old Wake Forest, N.C. It also has some fairies on it.

For my final bit of quilty news, here is the Jim Shore nativity set I treated myself to yesterday. Jim Shore's work usually has quilt designs used in the clothing of his characters. I have quite a few of the Santas and angels, and one Snowman. I have been wanting the nativity for a long time. This is the smaller one from this year's designs.

Autumn Colors "Flower Power" Quilt

2009-12-03T08:30:00.010-05:00

My customer Susan of Stampin-Up brought me another die-cut flower applique quilt in lovely fall colors. She sells the Big-Shot die cut machine, which can cut eight layers of fabric at a time. She buys the Moda "Layer Cake" fabric selections of 10-inch squares, and uses three sizes of the scalloped edge flowers.

She chose a variegated King Tut cotton thread called "Old Giza." (They definitely have fun thinking up names for these Egyptian cotton threads!) It shows up very well on the yellow background and orange borders.

I free-hand quilted lots of flowers and leaves and vines. I had leaves swirling around each flower. Then I had to go into each layer of every flower to quilt around them, as they were only glue-basted to the background. If the quilt is washed, those scalloped edges will fray for a shabby chic effect.

Using a variegated thread with both dark and light areas brings up the problem of what to use as a bobbin thread.In a perfect world, you will never see evidence of "pokies" or thread showing, and shouldn't matter if you use different colors. But it is not a perfect world, is it? If you use the variegated on the back, the color changes will never match. I usually select a Super Bob bobbin with Bottom Line thread in a neutral color. This time, when I auditioned a rust-colored thread, it showed up on the yellow top threads. I ended up using a light golden brown thread called Baguette, but it did show up slightly on some of the dark blue thread areas.

The back is a dark sage green with a rust-colored leaf outline print. If I had used the rust thread on the back, it may have looked a little confusing, but the Baguette shows up nicely.

One customer quilt to go before Christmas...and it is MONGO! But very pretty.

Why I Make Quilts, Part 5

2009-12-02T07:55:00.002-05:00

Here is baby Shelby on her Yellow Brick Road quilt. I think she likes it! I love pictures of babies on their quilts!

I still have two customer quilts to finish before Christmas. One is another die-cut flower applique quilt, which I nearly finished yesterday. Will take pics soon!

Decorations

2009-12-01T09:55:00.005-05:00

I finished my holiday decorating yesterday...do you hate me? Charlie got the outside done last weekend, we got the tree decorated while the kids were here...but that left all the Christmas quilts and knick-knacks to make decisions about.

This Santa is floating on a papier-mâché moon from the chandelier in our kitchen dining area. Behind him is a Norfolk Island pine, one of many that has grown from an 8-inch pot to excessive heights from all the light entering the kitchen from windows on three sides. I add little ornaments to its drooping branches.

I like to group similar ornaments. Here are some snow people in my dining room. Oops, I meant to repaint those walls since my touch-up paint does not exactly match! Oh, well!

We have a very small dining room with a round lazy-Susan table that Charlie's father commissioned for his family from a mountain woodworker. Many meals were enjoyed here with his large family. We don't sit in there very often, partly because those ladder-back chairs are not very comfortable. But I like the look of the old wood. These angels are riding around on the lazy Susan...

while other angels are flying above them and shining in the light.

When I was little, my mother made a felt Christmas tree wall hanging from three shades of green felt trimmed with rickrack. She sewed toys and trinkets to it. I loved this as a child, but it was looking very sad a few years ago when we moved my father from his big house to a retirement community. The felt fabrics had all faded to a sort of khaki brown. Then, I found this triangle-shaped patchwork tree at the Ashe County quilt show, and used the decorations from my mother's tree to "trim" it. Now my grandchildren love to look at it. I hang it low on the wall in our entrance foyer.

Quiet House

2009-11-29T15:02:00.003-05:00

You know that awful Yoplait yogurt commercial with the female contortionist? Check out the way my grandson was sitting on the couch Saturday night. He has a future in commercials!

It was so great to have our family here this weekend. Dave and Emily were a huge help to me. Dave helped Charlie carry out some old furniture that I wanted to get rid of, and Emily helped me organize the quilting room where the old furniture used to live. Yippee!

The children keep us busy and are always up to something, but we miss them so much when they leave. Do you think my husband looks like a punk rocker in this photo? That's a magnolia leaf wreath on the door behind his head!

I took this picture of Lily right before they left. She was trying her best to get into the snow globe. She still has those huge eyes that earned her the nickname Lily-Bug when she was a baby.

We decorated the tree while the kids were here. Only four broken ornaments---and it was Gigi, not the kids, who broke them all.

They will be back in two weeks. I will probably still be picking up Fruit Loops and M&M's off the floor until then!

Another Blog Prize- and Family Photos

2009-11-28T09:43:00.007-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed visiting some of the blogs of designers featured in the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. Several of the talented bloggers offered give-aways if you visited their sites when their blocks were featured. Lucky me, when I visited Janet's blog, named Chocolate is My Favorite Color, I was one of the winners! Here is the lovely selection of fabrics I received in the mail yesterday. It is from the Paisley line of fabric which Janet used in her block, named "Thoughtful Star." Thank you, Janet!

We have been enjoying Thanksgiving weekend at home with our family. Right now I have two handsome hunks in the kitchen making breakfast. Our older son wanted his Pop to teach him how to make his famous home-made Southern biscuits and gravy, an artery-clogging family favorite. Actually, Charlie switched over to Pillsbury frozen biscuits a few years ago, but he still remembers how to make the real thing. He used to watch his grandmother and my brother-in-law Kenny's grandmother, and practiced until he perfected the technique. It makes a huge mess in the kitchen with flour all over the place, but who cares?

Avery has been playing on the floor surrounded by puzzles and building toys. I highly recommend Wedgits, a construction toy that even the fourth and fifth-grade students enjoyed when I taught elementary school the past two springs. Here he is, sitting in a sunbeam.

Here is Avery and Lily in a recent school picture. They are looking way too GROWN!

And here is a recent picture of three of my baby quilt recipients. They are my nephew Jason's daughter Lacy, my niece Melinda's daughter Ragen, and our friends Mike and Amy's daughter, Shelby. Those first two girls are definitely up to something!

Today we are putting up our Christmas tree. The guys are outside trimming down the trunk. Charlie brought it back with him from the North Carolina mountains, along with wreaths and roping for the front porch. This should be a fun day!

Happy Turkey Day!

2009-11-25T11:41:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the US. Traditionally, a time to gather with family and friends, and have a delicious traditional meal of roast turkey. I made two of these little turkey quilts last year for gifts. There is a pattern called Turkey Feathers, by Rasmatazz Designs, for this 24" square quilt. Fun to make, and pretty quick!

Our weather has been, on the negative side, gray and rainy for days. On the positive side, it has remained unseasonably warm. My daffodils are coming up, Maggy's viburnum is still blooming,

and here is one of my old-fashioned roses that decided it was time to bloom in November! It smells divine! Why is Blogger making it stand on its head?

My grandchildren will be here on Friday, which makes me so happy. Look at this cute hand-painted stool I bought at my friend Carolyn's church bazaar...

It was only two dollars, and will be perfect for them to stand on to wash their hands and brush their teeth. Or sit on!

I just opened this wonderful surprise in the mail...a handmade Christmas tree from Elizabeth Creates, one of my favorite bloggers! I won her blog drawing honoring her 350th post, but did not know which of the three prizes she would send me. We had been corresponding about her Christmas ornaments. Elizabeth very generously explained to me that the stand was vintage wooden spool attached to a wooden disk from the craft store. I guess she knew I would love this colorful little tree! It is made of canvas that is painted and beaded, and decorated with fun fibers at the top. Thank you, Elizabeth! I am so proud to own one of your creations!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, let me just say, I am thankful to all of you who visit me at All Things Quilty, and especially those who leave comments or write e-mails about my little columns. I never knew blogging would be so rewarding, or put me in touch with so many people all over the globe!

Heart Quilt...and Mouse Tales Update

2009-11-24T16:57:00.013-05:00

Finally finished a quilt today for my friend Jean. The blocks are Sister's Choice, with a few heart blocks mixed in. The pastel stripe border also features hearts. So, naturally, the quilting is a heart and loop freehand meander.

The top thread is a variegated cotton King Tut in pastel colors that match the top perfectly (called "Mummy Dearest"-they are really stretching the fact that it is Egyptian cotton thread).

Her backing is a pale pink flannel, and I used a Super Bob bobbin thread called Baby Pink.

Here is something else I did when I was avoiding organizing my sewing space last weekend...I had some fabric paint out for another project, and I hate to waste any leftover paint on the palette, so I painted some used dryer sheets.

I piled up about three at a time since they are so porous, and painted them with a brayer. Then, I would put the top one on the bottom, and paint with a different color of Lumiere. These are delicious paints that gleam! Painted dryer sheets can be used in mixed media projects to add additional layers of color and texture.

And now, the news you have all been waiting for...

Mouse Tales: The Sequel!

I have gotten several interesting comments on that post, as well as some private e-mails offering advice on the mouse problem.

My son suggested using peanut butter instead of cheese- that's what his own personal mice love! They can't just grab it and run!

So, I put a nice dollup of PB on the old snap trap. Within an hour, I could see where the mouse had stuck his paws through the peanut butter. In fact, there were little peanut butter tracks where it left the scene of the crime. Trap was not sprung. Mouse wins again!

When I took my postcards to be mailed yesterday, I bought some fine new mouse traps at Ace Hardware. In fact, there is a post office inside the new Ace Hardware near my home- how's that for convenience? When is the last time the phrase "Post Office" was used in the same sentence as "convenience?"

I got two kinds. One is the traditional snapping kind that the dumbass on the You-Tube video kept catching his fingers in. Except, these have fake yellow plastic Swiss cheese. You put the prong into one of the holes on the Swiss cheese. The "S" hole is for sensitive, and the "F" is for firm. I am not making this up!

So, do you use the "S" hole if you are a sensitive person, and don't want to kill the mouse? Or, does "sensitive" mean that the slightest touch will set off the trap? Does "firm" mean that it will hold the mouse more firmly??? Curious customers want to know! I opted for "S."

The other kind is the sticky pad that the mouse gets stuck on when he walks across it. It has some kind of crumbs in the center that I guess is bait. This type of trap is what I was cheaply trying to produce at home with duct tape and cardboard. A sad failure...I later found the duct tape and cardboard in the garage with no mouse attached.

Anyway, the package comes with four sticky pad traps. I set the two fake cheese traps and the four sticky traps all around the area behind the garage stairs where I had alertly scouted mouse sign. I know all about scouting for sign, having been married for 38 years to a hunter. You will recognize mouse sign when you see it. Especially when you have seen the live mouse jumping around in the vicinity.

And, despite the fake plastic cheese and the crumb bait, I added additional bits of cashew to each trap. This morning, the cashews were gone from the snappy traps, but they had not been sprung. What was I dealing with here, Mighty Mouse? Darn, I knew I should have picked Hole #2!

But this afternoon, I snared my first mousie! It was a very, very fat little mouse with bulging sides, either from all the cheese, peanut butter, and cashews, or perhaps it was a mother-to-be. It was stuck in one of the sticky traps!

So, finally, Jeanne wins one round. We will now see if it was a lone marauder, or part of a family of mooching mousies.

"I am thankful for..." Fabric Postcards

2009-11-23T18:39:00.004-05:00

My goals for Monday changed when I realized that I needed to send in my postcards for soldiers in Iraq. One of the ladies in the Carolina Longarm Association wants to send enough postcards for every soldier in her husband's troop, and she asked to have them by Thanksgiving. Okay, that meant mailing them today. And it ties in perfectly with Vicki Welsh's November Postcard Challenge, "I am thankful for..."

So, up to the wreck of a sewing room, searching madly for relocated things, pulling stuff out, trying out my new set-up. I already dislike several things about the new room, but was able to get a few cards done.

I am thankful for our service men and women who are doing a valiant job far from home under sometimes terrible conditions.

Three cards are based loosely on the American flag, but with a field of white snowflakes on blue instead of stars. I used a piece of striped satiny-type uphostery fabric for the red and white part of the flag. They are each a little different.

The first one features lots of zigzag stitching in white and red thread over the stripes, and a luscious blue yarn around the border.

The next one has rickrack to make more stripes in the red area. I just zigzagged the outer border with red metallic thread.

The third one is a little more "artsy." I added a star cut from Angelina to the blue area, red silk ribbons on the dark red stripes, snowflake buttons, covered the whole thing with gold-dot white tulle, and then zapped with my heat gun. Here is a tip: don't put the buttons so close to the edge that you have to zig-zag! Or put the buttons on last!

I also finished a little winter scene that features a fabric pine tree, a batting snowman, and silvery snowflake stitching. For fun, I added some button mittens and snowflakes. Same comment about the buttons being too close to the edging. I used tiny black pompoms for the snowman's face. I sprayed the whole thing with crystalline glitter mist, a new product I had not used before.

And finally, because this one looks like a wintry mountain scene, I sent one of my postcards from the October postcard challenge. (Vicki, don't count this one again.)I hope these cards might bring a little joy to a soldier far from home during the holidays.

Sewing Space Organization

2009-11-23T08:27:00.006-05:00

It is getting to be that time of year again when you can't post pictures of your latest projects...because they are destined to become holiday surprises! I am making something for the gift exchanges for both my local bee, The Whacky Ladies, and my larger group, the CyberBee.

But, while Charlie is at deer camp, I finally decided to bite the bullet and organize my sewing room- a long overdue project. In fact, I blogged about moving out my son's stuff and painting his bedroom back in February, 2008. Then, in July, 2008, I made the flannel-covered design walls. Since then, the design walls have just been propped up, and I never got around to putting this room together. I put my embellisher in there and enjoyed surrounding myself with projects on the design walls.

Then, I got a new sewing table, but it never got out of the box until this weekend.

Finally, it got to the point where I had to do something. I am having to step over boxes and bags, my cutting table and ironing boards are loaded with fabric, and I can't find things I know I have in there SOMEWHERE. So, this weekend I started trying to organize. It is slow and painful. I am not very good at hanging things on the wall with screws. I'd rather stop and work on a project than de-clutter. Wouldn't you?

My space is a finished attic that has two small rooms and a landing. I have decided to put my sewing machine and embellisher in the newly painted room, along with an ironing board, cutting table, and most of my fabric.

The other room will have all my drawing and painting supplies, the long table I formerly used for sewing, a large wooden bookcase with all my quilting/art books, most of my UFO's (UnFinished Objects), PIGS (Projects In Grocery Sacks), WIPs (Works in Progress), etc. and a workstation desk with slanted top for drawing/designing ( which I bought with a half-price coupon from Michael's about two years ago and is still in the box).

Both of the two rooms have two narrow closets with hinged doors. Since it is an attic space, there are knee-walls and sloping ceilings, which limits the space quite a bit.

I bought a 4-drawer file cabinet for $5 at a roadside flea market, de-rusted and painted it...and finally put it together a couple days ago. This will house my patterns and all those articles I print off from the computer and snip out of magazines. It will live on the landing between the two rooms, along with my small refrigerator and some wire bookshelves for my copies of Quilting Arts magazines.

So far, I have:

set up the sewing table and put my machine in it, and plugged everything in
put up a pegboard next to the table and organized my threads and sewing tools
Set up the ironing board behind the sewing machine and plugged in the iron
sorted out my embellishments like rick-rack, fibers, ribbons, and yarns, and put them in labeled drawers
moved my color-sorted clear plastic containers of half-yard and larger pieces into the new room in a 9-hole cubby
Mounted one of the design walls- will wait for DH to help with the second
Replaced the bulb in my Ott light and replaced the overhead bulbs in both rooms with brighter, white light bulbs. Ah, much better!
Moved the stack of wrapping paper and gift boxes off the landing (okay, now it is on the stairs leading to the third floor and needs to be dealt with)

Today's goal: finish one customer quilt, mount and begin the next customer quilt (another "flower power" quilt), and clear off the cutting table and move it to the new room.

Better GOMA (Get Off My A_ _) and get busy!

A Smile for You

2009-11-22T11:40:00.005-05:00

Just because you deserve a smile today! My favorite is the black lady in the flowered skirt.

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."
— Mark Twain