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:: October 1, 2006 Austin Area Quilt Guild Show 2006
Damn it's been a while since I posted. Mostly because finishing the Pie in the Sky quilt has taken up most of my time an energy for the last few weeks. But now it's finished and being displayed to thousands of people at the AAQG biennial show!
It took me forever to decide how to quilt it. I made some attempts at the Orla-Kiely inspired design but it was NOT going to look good with my free-motion skills, and of course I didn't feel comfortable with, well, ripping of that leaf pattern (even though, as you might see from browsing through the print + pattern archives, I think a lot of designers do it. Maybe O.K.'s not even the one who came up with it?). I needed something that I could do with a walking foot, and came up with these randomly-sized, randomly-placed starbursts. It contradicts the nice symmetry of the quilt, so I ended up not liking that aspect, but once it was all said and done, it looked OK. Still, it did not turn out with ribbon-winning quality. It was hard to keep a nice consistent stich length and tension, the lines converging in the middle of the stars didn't always meet up perfectly, there was some ugly backstiching to secure the ends, and yellow Chaco Liner I used to mark the top ended up STAINING THE THREAD in places. Bummer! Still, I was proud of the piecing and was not at all embarassed to have it hanging in the show. What more could a first-timer ask for? I have to run because I'm volunteering at the show all day today. More pictures on Flickr. I will post more about the show later then take some detail shots of my quilt once it's home so you can see some close-ups in better lighting. posted by in Austin , Finished Projects , Quilting , Textile Arts , _____-Alongs :: Comments (18) :: link :: June 23, 2006 Hop, Skip, and a Jump
I was feeling a little gun-shy about quilting the Pie in the Sky quilt, so the natural thing to do is start another top, right? And another from the Denyse Schmidt book at that. The quilt in the book is 12 blocks big, mine will be 30 blocks. The pink/green/black/white color scheme was lifted wholesale from Hillary's inspiration that she got from a piece of fabric I sent her -- does that make sense? And it uses that fabric and some prints that she sent me. Some other color schemes (is there a difference between "color scheme" and "colorway"?) that are sure to come into play in future projects: Orange, red, and gray (with a hint of bright aqua blue) a la Jane's log cabin quilt Orange, aqua, and brown (spotted on a stranger's knit shirt recently) Chartreuse with grass green, avocado, and other darker greens (inspired by new growth in spring -- long overdue inspiration, that is)
What color schemes, ways, combinations, whatever, have been on your mind recently? posted by in Quilting , Works in Progress , _____-Alongs :: Comments (5) :: link :: June 16, 2006 Color Week - Red
(Oops -- I skipped Blue Thursday then forgot to hit "publish" on this one on Friday.) Just some selections from my Flickr archives ...
Bryan and friend Teresa at Lala's Little Nugget (where it's Chrismas all year)
Diorama at the UCM Museum in Abita Springs, LA posted by in _____-Alongs :: Comments (2) :: link :: June 14, 2006 Color Week - Black
Dogs and buttons.
for reference -- Peewee before we knew him (Prewee)
posted by in _____-Alongs :: Comments (5) :: link :: June 13, 2006 Color Week - Brown
Mostly-brown fabrics from the stash. Color week by Little Birds and Port2Port. posted by in Fabric , _____-Alongs :: Comments (2) :: link :: June 12, 2006 Color Week - White
These nesting geese are measuring cups, one of my prized kitchen possessions.
Color week by Little Birds and Port2Port. posted by in _____-Alongs :: Comments (8) :: link :: June 10, 2006 Finish What You Have
I'm on board for this Finish What You Have Month. Number one is this deer head embroidery, which has already come a long way since that photo.
Other UFOs: this New Look pattern -- actually one of the first garments I attempted, so the stuff you see above has been in a box for four or five years! I was making the pictured dress and part of the reason I abandoned it is because I knew deep down it would end up looking like a muumuu on me no matter what. So now I think I'll go for the tank top. I may re-think the body fabric though. Then, of course, quilting and finishing the quilt. I may (gasp) diverge from the original on the quilting. Oh! Here is a tip I overheard at this month's AAQG meeting: take a digital picture of your top, print it out, then draw quilting onto the printout to experiment with different designs. Alternatively you can put a photo in a plastic sleeve and draw the quilting with an erasable marker.
The rest of my UFOs are knitting. There is the Fry-Up bag and the Hourglass Sweater. Honestly I think "finishing" here will entail "putting them out of their misery." I was always unsatisfied by how the Fry-Up looked in knitting and wanted to use it as a gateway to crochet, but still haven't gotten the knack or the motivation to get the knack. Well! I had given up on the Hourglass sweater, thinking the size was turning out to be way off and having major dissonace about the color. But I just went to take a picture for this entry and changed my mind again. Sometimes all it takes is some time away. Still, I don't think this will be included in this month's push. posted by in _____-Alongs :: link :: June 3, 2006 Quilt Back
Today I finished the back for the Pie in the Sky quilt. This is my first pieced back and now I wonder why I haven't always done it this way. Well, I guess in some circumstances the quilting you have planned for the front won't work with anything but whole cloth in the back, but if you like piecing tops more than the quilting and finishing process, this is perfect. Also, sewing together big chunks of fabric is hard. Cutting long pieces perfectly on the grain is hard. (Or is it just me?) There is some waviness in this one but I'm pretty sure it'll quilt out. Umm, did I say something about not doing a matchy-matchy thing with the Denyse Schmidt fabric line? I was wrong. I just love these fabrics and how they look together. PS, the pink is not so contrasty in person -- the dots in the white fabric pick it up. In that last entry I was having that little border problem. Thank you SO much for all your input. I really did feel like framing the circle blocks with a contrasting color or pattern would have destroyed the aesthetic. Turns out my local Hancock fabrics got a new shipment of the kona cotton solids and lo and behold, there's my peacock blue! It is still obviously a different dye lot, but it's much less noticeable a difference and one I think I can get away with. posted by in Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (1) :: link :: May 22, 2006 Block Swap
My block swap package arrived last week. I am so pleased. All the blocks play so well together (It makes me hope that my contributions found good friends and weren't too much of black sheep). Every time I walk by them I stop and take a minute to admire. Jessica either put them together randomly and they just jived, or she spent That Much Time assembling packages and she's a genius. Either way, she rules! The idea of using the same four solids worked out so well. She was really on top of things and the turnaround was quick so it was all very satisfying. And now I get to decide how to turn these guys into a quilt. Right now I can only imagine doing the same thing Jessica is doing for the charity quilts -- a plain white background, with the blocks set not-quite-symmetrically. She's sure to come up with some other lovely ideas so I'll sit back and wait for a while. Here is who made my blocks! From the top, left to right: Thanks to the ladies who made my blocks, and double-triple-quadruple thanks to Jessica. I hope there is a block swap II very soon! posted by in Mail , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (2) :: link :: May 2, 2006 WWDSD?: A Dye Lot Dilemma
Every knitter has had a dye lot trauma. It never struck me that fabrics have dye lots as well, and differing dye lots will be especially obvious in solid fabrics. You know, the solids that Denyse Schmidt has brought back from obscurity, the solids that define her quilts. You see what's coming? So it is that I have hit a roadblock in the Pie in the Sky quilt.
I got a ton of RK Kona Cotton in peacock blue from Hancock's of Paducah for the two DS quilts I was making. I had to re-cut the background squares for the Pie in the Sky blocks because the first round came out all skewed. That forced me to order another couple yards, again from Hancock's. I didn't notice the discrepancy until I had cut the borders and sewn them on. It is subtle, but really obvious when they're butted up against each other. It was hard to capture so the photo above is doctored a bit -- neither batch is really so blotchy -- but the second (bottom) batch is noticeably more grey. Sewn together, it looks like a mistake, like I'm trying to get away with something, and since I was entertaining entering this quilt into the Austin Area Quilt Guild show this fall, I want it to be as perfect as possible. Even though I would enter it into the novice category, I can just picture those quilt ladies, all white gloves and pity, shaking their heads and tsk-tsking. They may do that anyway, but I don't want it to be about something under my control! Sigh. I considered that the problem may be due to using the wrong side, but no dice. It COULD be because I didn't pre-wash the first batch, but I'm pretty sure that I did. I wrote to HoP and they said that there are indeed different dye lots, that they don't have a way to keep track of the dye lots you have ordered, but that you can send swatches and they can try to match it. This sucks! At least if you run out of yarn in a certain dye lot, you can beg your fellow bloggers to check their stash and give some up. The moral of the story is: if you're using lots of solids in your quilt, order a few extra yards. So what do I do? WWDSD, ha ha? This calls for my first experiment with blogpoll.com. OOPS! Choice "E" should read "Both C and D." I'm confusing myself as well as you. And scroll down for some photoshop mockups!
Option B: Option C: Option E: Option F: posted by in Fabric , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (18) :: link :: April 24, 2006 Finished Project: Day at the Beach Quilt
The Day at the Beach quilt, re-created almost exactly in queen size from the original in the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, is finished! This one was so easy there's not even much to say. Except that I really love how it turned out. Oh, and two other things: 1. It was shockingly expensive to get quilted -- 3x the cost of the Plain Spoken job and about twice what I was expecting. I've tried to think of it this way: It was kind of like how car repairs go, and at least I have something tangible and nice to show for it. 2. I think I've got this hand-finishing the binding figured out. I've always gone diagonal, which has never been very invisible or looked all that great in general. This time I tried straight up-and-down stiches, as in the diagram at the bottom of this page. It (gasp) lays flat and was a zillion times faster. Hooray! More photos here.
posted by in Finished Projects , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (23) :: link :: April 11, 2006 Look Ma, I'm Improvising
Here are my contributions to Jessica's Block Swap. The I-guess-you'd-call-them string blocks are by far my favorites. I wanted to do something like this Denyse Schmidt quilt. Interesting -- as I made them, I only remembered the look, not the colorway, and the colorways are nearly the same! So much for improv!
These I made first, just by stacking 13" squares of my fabrics and rotary cutting them without a ruler. I've been checking out other contributors' blocks on Flickr and found myself most attracted to the simpler ones, so I just went with that.
Stack and whack, but WITH a ruler. OK, these were made AFTER the string blocks when I just wanted my 10 blocks finished! Also I thought I should use some of the mint green. I like them alright. From afar. posted by in Finished Projects , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (25) :: link :: April 2, 2006 In Search Of: Piecing Perfection
Triple-check your sewing machine tension. Here are nice instructions for balancing tension. There used to be a great, comprehensive guide at this link, but it seems to have vanished. You know your tension is off if you can see the top thread on the bottom or vice-versa, or the fabric on either side of the seam is wavy right out of the machine. Use a walking foot for piecing. You know how your pieces go into the machine perfectly lined up, but end up with one end hanging out over the other? To combat this the The Modern Quilt Workshop book suggests using a walking foot. This foot is essential for quilting, but it can also prevent your fabric from shifting around during simple piecing. Every little misalignment adds up and conspires to screw you up big time as you assemble the quilt top into larger and larger units. Or use a 1/4" foot for piecing. This foot has a little barrier on the right edge that prevents your seam from straying from the sacred quarter-inch. My walking foot only has a slit through which you can eyeball the edge of the fabric, and that's harder to control. The 1/4" foot keeps the seams consistent but you give up the even feed the walking foot affords. Fashion a pressing board on which to press out your seams and blocks. My ironing board is too narrow and kinda lumpy, which make it hard to get blocks nice and flat. I got a big piece of MDF from the hardware store, staple-gunned one thin layer of batting to it, followed by a layer of fabric. (The board will double as a portable design wall for quilting or a blocking board for knitting projects.) Press, don't iron. I still do not have the self-control for this, but it might be the most important tip here. Lay the iron on top, hold, lift, move, put the iron down again, lather, rinse, repeat. Back-and-forth ironing can distort the fabric. Trim your blocks down. AFTER pressing. It is smart, when possible, to make your blocks a little larger than the pattern calls for then trim down to the final size. When your blocks are not exactly the same size, you're forced to do all this easing to get seams to match, which causes those waves and puckers we're trying to avoid. Be aware of seam pressing and pinning issues. I have always pressed my seams open, stuck a pin through the middle of both seams (or at least tried to), and sewn over the pins. Sewing over pins is bad not only because of the danger aspect but also because it can distort your seam line. According to the Modern Quilt Workshop book there is no reason to press your seams to one side. I discovered one possible reason, and that is this trick. The action of the presser foot and feed dogs press opposing seams together. It must take some practice though, because I haven't gotten it to work for me yet. Backtracking a little: my beginning sewing teacher said that, when pinning, you should not lift the fabric from underneath with your hand, that the pin should do all the work. Lifting the fabric causes misalignment and distortion. Like pressing vs. ironing, this practice is mighty difficult to adopt. If you have any more advice to add, please comment! posted by in Quilting , Sewing , _____-Alongs :: Comments (14) :: link :: November 17, 2005 Back-Tack Deux and Birthday
My Back-Tack II package arrived from Zhinka Dinka Doo Amanda! Umm, circa November 1. I am SO sorry I haven't posted about it till now. My lateness has only to do with my own inertia: daylight savings time change = never home during daylight for decent shots, + weekends away. Amanda answered not one but two of my craft longings, spinning and polymer clay. The bag is incredible. I love the shape (round-bottom -- how do you do that?) and the fabrics. The solid is nice and velour-y. Above it's adding some brightness to the decaying fall garden (along with the garden gnome I painted at Gnome Gnight a while ago!)
Here is the whole haul: instruction books, roving, a drop spindle, another little bag with a variety pack of Fimo. There was also a box of Godiva chocolates, which is not pictured here for some reason.
I am excited to sit down with the books and start spinning and be a My Paper Crane poser. Nor can I wait to start on the road to Amyville poser-dom with the polymer clay. This round of Back-Tack was just perfect. Hooray for Amanda! (And profuse apologies again.) Hooray for Nicole and Alison!
But-wait-there's-more ... It was my 33rd birthday yesterday! In the morning, Bryan presented me with this ...
! EEEEEEEE! I dropped hints about a Print Gocco but he went one better. In the evening we went to Madras Pavillion for the best Indian feasting around, then I watched my stories on the TV, sated on coconut rice and palak paneer. So now I have three new endeavors. Where do you start? posted by in _____-Alongs :: Comments (8) :: link :: November 1, 2005 Scooped!
Thanks to a speedy delivery by our friends at the U.S. Post Office, my Back-Tack II partner, Bertha, scooped me! Despite my best efforts, it even got to her by the deadline. Well, here are some pictures taken at my house anyway.
(You can see why I had polka dots on the brain earlier.) Bertha's new craft was knitting so I made a bag and needle roll. The bag is fastener-free to prevent yarn snags, wooden handles for fast picking up and going, big enough for an average project but not too swimmingly big. The needle roll fits unless you're going for vertical. The apple print is vintage -- the apples are almost like iron-ons, they have a velvet-poster texture compared to the lineny background. The polka dots and lining is new.
I put thick interfacing in the needle roll because I wanted the option to fold it in three or roll it up. Given that, I was kind of confused about how to make a closure (any ideas?) so I just sewed a ribbon into one side. I sent along a small sample of needles in different sizes and materials, and some smaller accessories. Bertha has more comprehensive pictures of those things.
This kind of pocket is so easy to make, I don't know where it's been all my life. My pattern (Simplicity 5541) showed me how ...
And what is an intro to knitting package without yarn? Bertha is allergic to hardcore wool so these guys have little to no wool content. She already had a good start on knitting and didn't seem to need instruction books, and I couldn't bring myself to get a pattern book because that's such a personal thing, so I picked the new Yarn Harlot book. It turns out she was close to getting it for herself, so, yay! posted by in Finished Projects , _____-Alongs :: Comments (10) :: link :: July 31, 2005 Pink Lemonade in Oilcloth
In just under the deadline, this month's Pink Lemonade-themed submission for Tie One On. I've wanted to make an apron in oilcloth, so when the theme was announced I wished very hard that there was a pink print with lemons. And I was so right. Since sewing oilcloth is such a challenge, this apron is totally no-frills. This one's like body armour, good for washing the dog and other tasks in which you typically end up soaked down to your unmentionables. I think I need to shorten the thing by about a foot, as it's the opposite of "drapey." Here is the back view (caught right in the middle of tank-top adjusting). The ties are made from old curtains my mother-in-law gave me, made of good ol' poly-blend swiss dot:
And here it is away from the harsh afternoon light. Click on the photo to get to bigger sizes, there you can see the lemons better.
Tips for sewing oilcloth! posted by in Finished Projects , _____-Alongs :: Comments (6) :: link :: July 5, 2005 Back-Tack Attack
Now I'll show you what I made. The fabric haul included the yellow bees fabric and the subtle black print. I added the blue calico and white with blue polka dots to the mix.
An apron -- is that cheating? I was inspired by the tool belt that Behind the Curtain made, but went for fewer pieces.
A zippered pouch to showcase the beautiful button (an official Wee Wonderfuls Knockoff©!) and a zippered straight needle case. Both with beaded zipper pulls.
I totally failed in carrying out the bee theme with this pincushion. Maybe the recipient will be willing to keep it 10 feet away from the rest of the items at all times so they will not be associated.
Here is an encore. I found the little bee knitted cord tool to go along with the theme -- pretty serendipitous, don't you think? posted by in _____-Alongs :: Comments (4) :: link :: July 4, 2005 Back-Tack Loot
I got a basket bag! My Back-Tack stuff arrived this past Friday. It is from Jenny of Yarn Sandwich, and even though she said she doesn't sew much, you'd never know it. In fact it made me, who sews very often, feel like I'm doing something wrong! Apart from the finished products being professional-looking, I love the fabric and the rick rack and the colors and the stuff. She was very literal with my hints. So so nice.
In fact I used the marking pens to complete my own Back-Tack project, which I am revealing (and sending) tomorrow. Late, but with feeling! Thank you so much Miss Jenny, and thanks to her (our) benefactor, Mamie Makes.
Hello Lining! posted by in _____-Alongs :: Comments (2) :: link :: June 14, 2005 Modern Quilt-Along?
If you're interested, leave a comment or send an email. I think a quorum of five should do it! I'm working on a little review of the book, but if you want to know more about it, check out the authors' site Fun Quilts or follow the link above to the Amazon page. posted by in Modern Quilt-Along , Quilting , _____-Alongs :: Comments (8) :: link :: June 13, 2005 Peanuts Roundup Apron
Here is my submission for the Tie One On apron sew-along, theme "Home on the Range." It's on the dress form out of shame -- if I modeled it myself I'd need to pair it with a cowboy hat and boots, which I don't have. What kind of self-respecting Texan am I? As previously mentioned, I found the fabric in a thrift store in the form of drapes. The print was maybe a little too large-scale for an apron, but who cares? It's got Spike, Snoopy's weird desert-dwelling older brother! With all the rusty 60s-70s colors in it, it was hard to find something to use for the bias binding. I knew I wanted gingham, and of all the (prepackaged) choices, black seemed the best way to go. But I had to get over my thing against combining brown and black. Clinton and Stacey say it's OK, so. I wouldn't have been able to handle the miles of bias binding required by this pattern without my new walking foot. Can I just say? People, if you don't have a walking foot, get a walking foot. Do it!
I used a brown bandana for the pockets, which are open along the top edge. Here is the back view:
Yes, I hate the pukey burgundy color of my dress form too. posted by in Finished Projects , _____-Alongs :: Comments (16) :: link :: June 11, 2005 Back-Tack
My Back-Tack materials finally arrived! I gave the go-ahead for them to be late because my partner was "abroad." Some of the packages were wrapped up in Liberty of London labels, so maybe she was in England, or she's from there? Well, I'll find out soon enough, since the gallery is up. Anyway, I am pleased as punch. The bees-and-black collection is intended for the notions cases, and the pink stuff is for me. She also was hardcore and included an already-completed quilted knitting needle case, which I totally need, a TON of stitch markers, a pattern for a knitted kerchief, and a skein of lujo Knit One Purl Too yarn called Frosting. Some closeups, shall we?
I also love the little (I presume) WWII sewing kit-in-a-pill-bottle from the American Red Cross. Way to go, Ms. Back Tack Pal. You were very good to the final recipient, and to me! posted by in _____-Alongs :: Comments (3) :: link :: June 3, 2005 Tie One On
Angry Chicken is starting a monthly, themed apron sew-along called "Tie One On." The first theme is Home on the Range. I've never sewed an apron before, though I have some patterns in the ol' archives. Then in a thrift store today I happened upon the baddest-ass Western-themed fabric you will ever see. I won't reveal it yet, but know that it came in the form of 70s kids' curtains that were starched all to hell, and it involves licensed cartoon characters. So the cosmos are telling me to participate. I think I will use this pattern, which is view E from McCall's in-print pattern 3979:
Here are the rest of its variations:
I also have McCall's 3440, which appears to be out of print:
But they do have a newer retro apron pattern, 4793, which seems perfect for the Tie One On ethos:
And lest you think I'm a whore for McCall's, here are some more interesting in-print apron patterns. Kwik Sew 1797, which might be the least sexy looking of this bunch, but does include an oven mitt pattern: And that's just if you don't feel like going for the real vintage patterns on eBay. posted by in Sewing , _____-Alongs :: Comments (4) :: link
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Would anyone be interested in a Modern Quilt-Along? My thought is that participants would make anything, any size, from the book 
