Nearly at Infinity

Infinity blocks, August 2009
Infinity blocks, August 2009

The Infinity blocks had been languishing for a little while. I needed some test subjects for the tuned up machine, so I sewed a couple. The middle one is of the ones I made on Saturday and the others have been hanging around for awhile waiting for me to photograph them.

The fabric I used for the middle blocks is an old Jinny Beyer fabric and it is really crisp to press and sew. Lovely!

I have only a little bit of the white left, so the block portion of this project is nearing completion. I will have to see how many blocks we end up with, however. It needs to be some kind of normal number and not one that won’t work in putting a quilt together.

Opposite Tote

Striped Tote with Flowers
Striped Tote with Flowers

You might think that this is the same tote I posted last week. It is, however, the opposite of the one I posted last week. I used the stripe for the main part of the fabric as opposed to the flower fabric, which I used for the accents this time.

I think that this may be the best tote that I have ever made. I don’t think that I made any mistakes (knock wood). One thing I did with this tote was sew on the button before I sewed all the pieces together. It was a lot easier!

I guess it is time to move on to another pattern. We’ll see.

More Submission

Cotton Patch, Lafayette, Calif, July 2009
Cotton Patch, Lafayette, Calif, July 2009

A week ago Monday, I trekked over to Lafayette to take the 9000  in to be repaired.

Failure. They were closed. I thought about calling, but then didn’t, trusting that they would be open. I had to be over there anyway for a family event, so it worked out ok.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on whether you are my wallet or not), the Cotton Patch is right across the street. I went over and looked around. I resisted a lot, but did buy a few things including those ever-so-tempting Japanese Quilt magazines. I bought 2 issues of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin.

Purchases, July 2009
Purchases, July 2009

See the turquoise and pink on the covers of those issues? I am like a bird magpie with shiny things when I see that color combination.

I bought the pear pattern for my Grama, who perpetually needs something to do. We’ll see if it sparks her interest.

There were a lot of nice fabrics, though I do miss their solids room. I tried to be restrained and just bought a couple of must have pieces. Dots, of course. The background of the green dot is the accent color of my living room.

The magazines were the coup de grace, however. Those Japanese quiltmakers are dedicated. The intricacy of their work is a never-ending source of inspiration for me. I was pleased to see a couple of coffee/tea/cup quilts with block patterns in one of the issues! YAY! Now I can consider the purchase research for the Tarts.

I am still working on that one last section of the Tarts, so these designs will be good inspiration. I thought of using a pattern to piece that section, but was disabused of that idea pretty quickly. Back to the drawing board!

I almost never rip the patterns sheets out of magazines. One of the issues’ pattern sheet was already ripped out and I didn’t notice until I got home. I took the opportunity to look at it and had no idea what I had been missing. I am not much of a maker of patterns, but the inspiration  on that sheet is worth the price of admission.

Marsha McCloskey has a new ruler out, which I bought from her website. I bought it because of the 1/16th inch measurements. I was trying to cut pieces with 1/16th inch measurements for the Omega Teacher Pillow and was wildy unsuccessful.

Feathered Star Ruler
Feathered Star Ruler
Feathered Star Ruler, back
Feathered Star Ruler, back

OK, I Submitted

New Fabrics, July 2009
New Fabrics, July 2009

I bought some fabric. It was cheerful; I had ideas for what to use it for and I just couldn’t resist.

I loved the pink stripe and pink flowers on the left.  They are cheerful. I, first, bought a half yard of each to go with the blue. As I was chatting with the cutting lady, I decided that they would both make fabulous tote bags, so I bought enough for tote bags. The others are fat quarters that I thought were cheerful. The funny part was that the cutting lady kept all the bolts aside so she could get some of the same fabric.

I need to get busy on tote bags as I now have the fabric to make four of them!

Weekend Mess

I really cannot believe that it is Wednesday already. I am glad, because that means the weekend is closer. The week is flying by.

Preventing an Avalanche
Preventing an Avalanche

As you know from a previous post, my fabric closet is prone to avalanches. I needed to rummage towards the bottom of a stack for a plaid. I took all the fabric from that section out and it sat on the floor where I rummaged through it, petted it, looked at it and reorganized by color. Most of it is back in the closet now, but there are a few pieces that still need some attention.

I have a stack of dots that won’t fit in the dot drawers. The need a home. A stack of Jennifer Sampou fabrics destined for a future Interlocking Triangles quilt that I need to integrate with their fellows.

It was fun to look through the fabric. I refreshed my stack of blues for the Infinity blocks. I made 8 of those this weekend in the process – four for me and four for my SIL. They make a good warm up for sewing.

Fabric 2
Fabric 2

I also found the piece of plaid I needed. It wasn’t in the giant stack, however. It was in the green bin so I didn’t really need to take all that fabric out! Oh well, as I said, it was fun.

Belated Thank You

Top Down View
Top Down View

K and Mrs. K came down for the Pamela Allen class. They had a four hour drive, which was above and beyond IMO. Still, I was (and still am!) so thrilled that they joined us, because they (not in any particular order):

  1. did great work
  2. added great comments to the class critiques
  3. brought loads of fabric that we all rummaged through
  4. are FABULOUS company

I invited them to stop and have dinner with us on their way down to Santa Clara. After the long drive I didn’t want them to have to forage for food as well. I thought we could have a nice chat; they could get a look at the Child and we could talk about projects.

They showed up and I come to find out they have a gift for me! I love gifts, especially unexpected and perfect gifts. It was a perfect gift: dot fabrics. It was a perfect gift with a wonderful presentation.

Perfect Presentation
Perfect Presentation

I love seeing the fabric the people think I will like. K and Mrs. K know I love dots! Perfect!

Whole Dotted Enchilada
Whole Dotted Enchilada

Thanks, for the fabric, for your friendship and support.

FOTY 2009 Progress

FOTY Progress, April 2009
FOTY Progress, April 2009

Here are my latest FOTY blocks. I love them! They make me feel so cheerful. Can you tell I have received a lot of blues and pinks?

Some of these fabrics I am going to pull out for a project for which I am collecting fabric. Not sure which ones, but I’ll post a pic when I get a little further along.

New Fabric

I swear I only bought the purple dot and two of the Christmas fabrics for gift bags. The shop sent me all of these fabrics including those little reindeer fabrics (hhmmm).

Fabric, April 2009
Fabric, April 2009

I had an idea for the dots and one thing led to another, but I am not going to that cool quilt shop in Carpenteria unless my sister pays. No more fabric for me for awhile.

Various and Sundry Saturday

I thought today, with people out of the house, would be a good day to catch you all up on what is going on. It isn’t going to happen completely. I am going to do a quick update and promise more later. Promises, promises, I know. I have missing my blog writing, though, so you are not the only ones who are suffering.

I have a lot of photos to post and they take time to process. I don’t just want to slap a bunch up there. I have some fantasies of someone from a card company looking at my blog and then hiring me to share my photos so they can make a line of cards out of them. We can all dream! I know I still have a lot to learn about image processing before my fantasy will become a reality, but I do know how to crop, so I am going to do it.

I also have the Creative Prompt drawing to post for March 27 as well as a bunch of inspiration photos. Yes, I finally got my annual photo of a cheery tree in bloom with some wonderful closeups.

FOTY Late March Blocks
FOTY Late March Blocks

I have been working on the Zanzibar blocks for FOTY 2009. I cut the pieces for these a week or so ago, but just sewed them this morning. Some of the pieces were too long as I sewed them together, so I have to check my cutting and make sure I am not getting sloppy. That project progresses.

Infinity Blocks
Infinity Blocks

I decided to call the above blocks (from the project with SIL) Infinity blocks because they look a bit like an infinity symbol. I haven’t been able to find a name for them, but may when I go to Always Quilting tomorrow. I used the scraps from the most recent tote bag I made for one set of the blocks. I heard from SIL, too, after sending her a sample, that the block looked fine.

If you didn’t listen to This American Life this morning (or whenever the most recent show is aired in your area), go and listen to it. The show is all about the effects of the current economy and stress. I like this show, because they seem to talk with regular people. In order to get away from my stress briefly I went south last weekend to visit my sister. Ostensibly we were going to update our scrapbooks; really we hung out, went to scrapbook and quilt shops and visited the Granny. I was able to sort photos from a trip I took that I want to put in an album. I am ready to start putting them in an album. YAY! I am going back on the weekend of May 1 to start work on the project.

Treasure Hunt Fabric
Treasure Hunt Fabric

One of our stops was at the The Treasure Hunt, a shop the size of a small suburban house (NOTE: not one of those monster houses, but the kind your grandma bought in the 1950s and you visited all the time when you were a kid). It is located in Carpinteria, California (Treasure Hunt Country Crafts – www.carpinteriaquilts.com 919 Maple St, Carpinteria -(805) 684-3360). It is truly a not to be missed shop. Not only does it have a satisfying selection of quilt fabric, tools and supplies, it also has a knitting section and two small craft supply rooms. They have cheerful fabric there. There wasn’t much, if any, Civil War-baby poop brown-depressing fabrics. The impression I got when I walked in was CHEERFUL. Fabrics are organized by line or by type. Want to see all the colorways of a fabric design? They are right next to each other. They also had a dots section and a stripes section. It would be hard if you were looking for blue of a certain shade, but I loved-loved-loved the look of the store. The people working there were very helpful. They didn’t have the turquoise/azure blue Windham Botanical Pop fabric I need, but I would definitely go back there again. I may post some photos later. The ladies were anxious about giving me permission to take photos, so they said they would ask their boss and get back to me. We’ll see.

Blue Island Quilts is also nearby, but I didn’t go there. Maybe next time.

When I got the above fabrics home, I laid them on the floor and think I will use all of those in the bottom row except for the black-on-whites in one project. Not sure what yet, but something. I love the way they look together. It is also a different color scheme than I normally work with. I’ll probably have to add more fabrics to it (a lavendar, maybe?), but it is a wonderful and inspiring start to a project.

As of yesterday, I am also no longer a small business owner. This means that I only have one job after 7 years of consulting alongside my regular job. I finally got a full night’s sleep last night (the stress was really doing me in), which is exciting in itself. I am excited to work on what comes next…writing?? quilt project designs??? I am wanting to get back to my career counseling to move the project along. That will have to wait, but I will do my exercises and make progress.  You can bet that whatever it is will involve more quiltmaking!!!

Color Me Quilts fabrics
Color Me Quilts fabrics

After the sale, I stopped in at Color Me Quilts (Color Me Quilts & More, 37495 Niles Blvd, 792-6567), which was in a perfect location to relieve some stress yesterday morning. I bought the stripe to go with the fabrics from The Treasure Hunt for the pink and brown project. The dots are, well, dots and how can I pass them up? I think they will go well with the cherries for the blue and pink project I am also planning. the blue dot will work well in Patrick’s quilt and the Pineapple. Cheerful, cheerful fabrics.

It is never too early to be thinking about gift bags, so I found some Christmas fabrics on sale and bought some of those to make gift bags for the holidays.

Future Bags
Future Bags

I am not a huge fan of Laurel Burch, but I don’t dislike her fabrics, either. The colors are a bit nontraditional, which I like. I saw a lovely white Christmas fabric, but it was too see through to effectively hide gifts, so I passed on it.

For now, thought I have to go sew a bit and get ready for the rest of the afternoon. Thanks for reading and for your comments!

More FOTY 2009

FOTY 2009 blocks
FOTY 2009 blocks

Here are the latest FOTY 2009 blocks. These blocks are so easy to make that they are like candy. You can’t make just one.

I am thinking that I will use these fabrics, except the bright white circles fabric, for a Yellow Brick Road type quilt. I wrote about these fabrics on January 17, 2009 and on February 23, 2009.

Need Fabrics

Botanical Pop Turquoise I bought a lot of this turquoise fabric (Botanical Pop from Baum Textile Mills/Windham Fabrics) – probably about 6 yards and made tote bags out of it. Now I want to make another and it so old (January 2008?) that nobody has it. I am hoping that one of you will have it and bargain with me for it. I would like at least 1.5 yards, but 2-3 would be better.

You probably remember the search for that Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy fabric from  May of 2007 in which Julie found the fabric at a random sore in her area. I am hoping that she or one of you will have the same good luck!

Botanical Pop Yellow I don’t think I ever saw the yellow, but would like some of it, too. A little piece is fine. If any of you see it or have access, let me know. Thanks!

New Elements Line from Mark

Mark Lipinski also, apparently, has a new line of tone-on-tone fabrics called Elements. They remind me of the swirly fabrics from a few years ago that I used in Spiky Stars (http://www.artquiltmaker.com/sub_pages/spiky.htm).
clipped from marklipinskisblog.wordpress.com

Elements

blenders-001

      My new line, Elements, just arrived!  I’m psyched and can’t wait to do something with them.    I love that they blend with all of my older lines, as well as the surprise line that I’m unveiling at the International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh this spring!  

  blog it

FOTY 2009

The FOTY 2009 block has been selected. It is from a quilt called Zanzibar by FunQuilts. You can find it in their book, The Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop, a book I highly recommend for the in depth discussion of putting colors together.

TFQ and I are going to make the same block and see how that goes. I made these first two thinking that I would use each fabric twice. I want to see a bit of the fabric, so I will use each fabric for the outside of one block and inside of another. I am interested to see how that idea works out.

I also am thinking that I will continue with the “waves of color” Jag I seem to be on and put like colors together. This may prove a bit of a challenge and I will have to change later, but for now that is my idea.

These blocks go together very quickly as each patch is 3.5″.

Birthday Report

I feel very fortunate to have received some birthday gifts this year! That was in addition to people agreeing to spend time with me. What a bonanza!

A box arrived yesterday. I took it upstairs to unwrap in peace. I dislike wrapping gifts intensely, but when I get a pile of gifts wrapped gorgeously like this, I don’t want to unwrap them. I did anyway, but I admired them for awhile first.


Inside were all of these things. Lots of fabric, some music and notecards, books, a scarf, some ribbon (which I think will trim some tote bags nicely!). I can’t wait to read the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie book. Thanks TFQ!!!!!

Above are the pottery pieces made at my party after they have been fired. Wati made the top piece. I photographed the back because I liked her message and the green she used. The bowl is the piece that I made. The plate came with the party and I tried to have everyone sign.

This fabric came from my dad even though my sister picked it out, paid for it and wrapped it. They are all FQs.

Terri brought the above fabrics.


Above are the gifts that Julie got for me. I got her the Life’s Companion book. Apparently, she thought it was so good that she got it for me! I started to read a bit of it and like. I wnat to reserve judgement, but it seems to be geared owards people who want to have a daily writing writing practice and haven’t yet started. As I said, I am reserving judgement until I read more of it.

I received so much fabric this birthday! It was amazing and great! I will have enough fabric to make a FOTY 2009 quilt with no problem. 😉 Thanks, everyone!


DH bought Amy Butler‘s In Stitches for me along with the Photoshop Elements book. Did you give me Seams to Me? That one came with no card or note straight from Anna Maria Horner. Nobody has confessed so I guess it will remain a mystery. Everyone needs a good mystery once in a while. I am especially interested since the person went to the trouble of getting the book directly from AMH. If you do that…..

Look! It’s signed! Whomever you are who sent this: THANK YOU!!!

I use Photoshop Elements to deal with the photos I post to this blog. As it turns out, I could use a few lessons. One of my goals for the coming months is to take a class (online, probably). In the meantime, the book will give me some help.

Above is an awful picture of some gorgeous batik from my mom.

I only photographed the quilt related things. The Child made me a hand (one of those pieces of pottery you paint kind of hand) with a mouth in the palm. I told you he was a creative child. My sister also got me an ice cream maker. Can’t wait to try that out! Might solve the little problem I have of buying ice cream sundaes for dinner when the boys are gone.

Fabric of the Year 2008 Project

I have mentioned dozens of times that I have been working on and off on the FOTY project all year. That is sort of the idea of FOTY (Fabric of the Year). You work on it all year, especially cutting fabric. In my case I also sewed some of the patches together. Now the top is finished and I will soon be moving on to FOTY 2009.

Basics of the project:
2.5″x4.5″ rectangles
Cut one patch from each piece of fabric purchased in 2008.

I did find one fabric that was missing and that was the purple vegetable fabric I used to make the eggplant/lemon tote. I have a little piece of the veggie fabric that I will put on the back, but I would like to make another tote with that fabric as the one I made didn’t quite come out the way I wanted. Sadly, I don’t have a large enough piece. Gladly I will be able to admire it on the back of the FOTY 2008 quilt!

This project was a joy to work on during the retreat weekend, as I may have mentioned. I didn’t realize how much fun it would be. Partially, it was one project to work on so I could focus that alone. Partially, people made really wonderful comments on how cheerful it was and what a good job I was doing, which boosted by ego a bit.

One of the huge things I decided not long before leaving for the retreat was to change the direction of the project. I started out with the idea that the patches would be oriented in a rail-fence type setting, like I show in a post from August 18, 2008.


After playing around with that stack of blues over the holidays, I was really inspired by the different blues next to each other. I played around with the unsewn patches I had madly cut in January. Trying the layout of the patches out the new portable design wall sealed the deal. I decided to work on more of a blended / color wheel type look to the quilt. That is what necessitated all that ripping. Three days worth, to be exact, though to be honest, it was all day, every day.

That brought to mind the challenge of the FOTY projects. The fabrics purchased during the year may not necessarily go together and there has to be some way to make a cohesive project. At least for me, as I didn’t want to make a project with no design cohesion. TFQ solves this design challenge by adding in other fabrics for the background.
Above are all the pieces that were not sewed together. I put them all up on the portable design wall to look at them. It looks like a jumbled mess here, but that is part of the design process. 😉

The above is an in process photo. I don’t, wherever possible, like to sew tops together in rows. The seams never seem to line up and that frustrates me. Good technique and well sewed quilts are important to me. It really depends on the piece as to how I end up sewing it together. Generally, I go for chunks, as TFQ calls it. She suggested the technique to me and I have embraced it. On this piece, I started in the upper right hand corner and sewed two rectangles together and did that all the way across the quilt. One thing that always fascinates me is the way the top shrinks as I sew. I know it is the seam allowance, but to see the big space appear as the piece goes together just amazes me for some reason.

Above I was working my way across the quilt sewing 2 sets of 2 rectangles together to make a chunk of 4 rectangles.

In the above photo, you can see that I have made larger chunks. Eight pieces are sewn together by now.The process was:

2 rectangles sewed together

2 sets of 2 rectangles sewn together = 4 rectangles

2 sets of 4 rectangles sewn together = 8 rectangles (like the above photo)

So, the top is complete. I am feeling like I can plow through some backs this weekend, so making labels is on my list. I am thinking that this might be a quilt that I can machine quilt on the longarm. I’ll let you know after Friday’s session.