July | 2007 | Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts

Archive for July, 2007

LoOooPy

July 25, 2007 at 9:04 pm · Filed under Quilts

It’s like a broken record around here. I keep quilting the same shape. Knock it off already. I purchased that nice book. You would think I could expand my horizons. But, in true get it done mode, I fall back on a few shapes I have confidence in. I tell myself that if I wasn’t always in a hurry to get things done, I would be able to take my time and try some new things. I guess I’m in too much of a hurry. And there is something like-zen-like in repeating a good shape over and over and over… This helps mask the long-summer whining in my ear. (Go do some math or something.)

I came across the Midget blocks at Sentimental Stitches today. So, if you’re bored and need a new obsession, knock yourself out.

And check out this gorgeous Kaffe-y lone star…even the hint of it gives me the shivers.

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But I digress

July 24, 2007 at 7:36 pm · Filed under Fabric, Quilts

Well, without planning to, I sorted 5″ squares of Chez Moi’s Fresh Air fabric while monitoring some sewing by Junie B on her Hello Kitty sewing machine (Barbie has a new comforter and pillow, no less). And so then I sewed some nine-patches and, poof, made them disappear and I was too bored with 16 blocks and decided to cut some of them up into, er, shall we say, a border treatment. I think the quilting will enhance it…we live in hope. This is NOT what I SHOULD be sewing. What else is new?

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July 22, 2007 at 3:07 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns

Remember this? I returned to it in earnest last week. I’ve been trying to get a decent photo of this quilt top for several days. We apparently live in the most oddly lit house ever. I’ll try to get a decent photo when it’s hanging up sometime. What a fun project! I had to use the ginormous gingham in the border (which still must be sewn on…before I have to remove all of my project and fabric piles from Nancy Drew’s bed since she’s returning home today…).

And then there is this diversion. I couldn’t actually get any of it sewn together because I spent an entire evening switching the colors around.

I blame the Material Obsession gals. I think they have the most fun on the planet! Time to skeedaddle off to get (more) coffee and head to work.

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The great suction miracle of 2007

July 17, 2007 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Books, Everyday Things

This day started out great! Ordinarily I would be hard pressed to say that about any day starting out with the C word (shhhh! cleaning). Gnomes worked some magic on my vacuum cleaner, and I had the miracle of suction that would have made Mr. Dyson weep. Don’t ask me how it happened. Maybe my vacuum was involved in a video game of some sort and it ran into something that temporarily empowered it. Or maybe a Playmobil piece dislodged itself from an important vacuum orifice. I don’t ask questions.

Then I went to visit the Hair Whisperer.

Then I came home to find an Amazon box on the porch:

All I can say is: Buy this book.

Christine Maraccini has a great approach–will your quilt be a dragger, a keepsake or a showstopper–the answer determines how much quilting your quilt needs. She then talks about developing muscle memory so the quilting design can flow from your hands. I LOVE this and am a big advocate of it. I can’t draw to save my life, but if I can get a semblance of a quilting design shape down on paper, practice it, figure out where it will take me, I know I can stitch it by machine. She then goes step by step by step through each of the gobs of quilting designs included in the book.

I have several great machine quilting books, but none that tells me so much about getting the shapes to come out of my hands and onto the quilt. Happy happy joy joy. I love this book.

Finally, I bring you this:

Blueberry pie. Photographed mid-bake while the crust was all pretty and well lit. While some people will be here tonight, I will be enjoying pie. Don’t bring me a t-shirt with an old man on the front! I’m not talking about you, Sting.

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It’s beginning to look a lot like . . .

July 16, 2007 at 7:24 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

Are you kidding me? It’s not even “Christmas in July” and I’m sewing with CHRISTMAS fabrics? Maybe that will be a good contest next year–how soon will I touch Christmas fabrics after Christmas? I don’t think I sewed with even an iota of Christmas fabric last year. It’s just not my thing. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s lovely–I just don’t have ROOM for seasonal fabric and fabric-related items (e.g., quilts). It’s the same way with flannel. It’s not that I abhor flannel. It’s just too fluffy to fit in my stash (plus also, have you seen the way it latches on to dust and dog hair?) I just don’t do it as a rule.

But, I’ve had this darn cute pattern, Merry Go Round, from American Jane for a while and I do love me some hexagons and 60 degree triangles. Well, I don’t know what to say about the Christmas fabric. Who among you can turn away from a diagonal candy cane stripe? Doesn’t it just look like candy on the inside of the block?

Which brings me to a question…does anyone else hold onto great patterns forever and ever before committing them to fabric, if you will? I carry them around with me for years before I find fabric or a plan I feel is worthy of their greatness. Because, ya know, if you pick the WRONG fabric the first time, you certainly don’t want to make the pattern a second time after all the joy is gone from the first experience. Who’s with me? I know, it’s only me, isn’t it?

I have been thinking and thinking about the Japanese lanterns that Candy showed us. I even annoyed Poor Tired Husband by leaving the EQ5 box laying out by the computer for a very long time, occasionally rearranging it so it might be more easily noticed. Being Mac people, we must simulate a Windows environment which just seems wrong mainly because I hate listening to Bill Gates laugh and also makes things extra tedious to set up (and to set up again…). I ended up back with Illustrator and am working on some block patterns.

Other than these things, I’ve been doing some hand applique, some driving around construction to get anywhere, some watering of plants, some work, some making a detective bag a la Nancy Drew. This leads me to ask: HOW IS IT THE MIDDLE OF JULY?

On that note, the detective is visiting her grandparents out of state, so I’d better go do something frivolous like pop in a movie and sew some more. Darn, I’m fresh out of Christmas fabric until I go to work again. Better move on to the next agenda item.

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I think I’m in love

July 12, 2007 at 1:01 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts, Tools

Go play with this:

Fabricmatcher.com

Hey, don’t stay there all day.

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Karisma pencil, has it got any?

July 3, 2007 at 11:05 pm · Filed under Tools

Delightful Mary wrote a comment to ask if I had used the Karisma pencil yet. I hadn’t, but I am happy to report that Mary’s comment got that pencil out of its package. I believe the write-up in Quiltmania magazine indicated that, poof, like magic, this pencil’s marks would just, poof, disappear when water was applied. Poof.

Welllll, I’m not so sure how they applied their water. It certainly didn’t just disappear when I dabbed it with a soppy cloth. When I scrubbed it with a soppy cloth, it did a little better. I also made some marks with the Karisma pencil and used the eraser. The eraser was a little better–it is soft and seems like a gum eraser.

I tried my trusty Papermate Titanium mechanical pencil against it. Um, it pretty much behaved the same as the Karisma. Mind you, the Papermate has regular .5 mm refills in it–you know, the ones you can get at Target, office supplies, etc., etc. I don’t know. I wasn’t wowed by the Karisma. It is also a .9 mm “lead.” This seems a little thick to me, but you can get a finer line if you hold it at an angle. The “lead” is made from the same kinds of minerals from which mineral make-up is made. For some reason, this gave me hope that the Karisma marks would, poof, disappear. If you happen to see one for sale in the country in which you reside, maybe at a quilt show or something, give it a try. But I don’t think I would order it from France to ship to the US with the crazy shipping rates. It didn’t rock my quilting world.
Oh, but if you find a Papermate Titanium mechanical pencil–buy it! I highly recommend them as a mechanical pencil with some heft.

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It’s all your fault

July 3, 2007 at 10:41 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns

It was a simple idea, really. It was one of those unscheduled projects that crops up when you find a really great fabric. Things just happen. I blame Michael Miller. “He” sent this:

What is a girl to do? I have had a wonderful pattern by Ruth Powers, whose company is called Innovations, for a while. It’s the Strip Trip pattern. It is a great pattern as long as you are paying attention. DO NOT (and I repeat, DO NOT) make a cutting or planning error. Only because you’ve got nowhere to go if you do. You’re stuck with great swaths of WRONGVILLE (and you don’t have more to get you out of the situation…well, if you’re me, you might have a tiny bit extra hiding in the basement…). BUT, if you have your wits about you, you can have a great time picking fabrics that are just meant to be together for eternity!

The Michael Miller check is so festive! I added some festive Kaffes and some Tina Givens raindrops (OK, I had another choice that might not stand out as much…but I went with the raindrops). Swooooon.

As usual, not a great picture, but isn’t it happy? It’s just happy.

Because it took longer than anticipated (I need to have my IQ checked just to see if I have one, you know, like a pulse), I decided to cap off the project with some fizzy pink lemonade.