November | 2007 | Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts

Archive for November, 2007

Now, about that cupcake

November 30, 2007 at 6:55 pm · Filed under Quilts, Tools

First, though, I picked up this:

Yes, but, Bernina, how do I USE it? Any bets on how soon this little appliance gets a try-out? Hopefully it will make an appearance on the machine sooner than the felting attachment has (um, still in box). (It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was feeling artsy, what can I say?)
But, back to this:

Today we are celebrating the 100th posting from this here blog. So, we shall have a little celebratory something AND GIVE AWAY A SMALL CUPCAKE QUILT (PROBABLY WITH FEATHER QUILTING! Get out! No! You don’t say!)! So, leave me a comment before midnight EST on Thursday, December 6, 2007. Here’s a little twist. You’ll get two entries if you also email me (alobsigerATgmailDOTcom) and tell me from what pop culture source material the name “Mrs. Schmenkman” is derived. Wheeeee!

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Cupcake copycat

November 29, 2007 at 8:05 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

Say that three times fast. I thought it was time for a cupcake since everyone else is having fun with Sandy’s pattern. I’m just making one cupcake for now. Hmm, I wonder why…

In other news, I came into possession of this box:

Look at what’s inside:

Isn’t it pretty:

Three colorways. Yum. I pored over books and patterns last night trying to match worthy fabric to worthy pattern. A couple of ideas are percolating. Oh, the possibilities! Hey, that just gave me another idea!

Thanks to everyone who shared in my excitement with the feathers! I do appreciate it! See you soon, perhaps with more information on that cupcake…

EDITED: For more info on that cupcake, see here.

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Broken record

November 28, 2007 at 9:58 pm · Filed under Quilts, Tools

While not wanting to bore you to tears, I bring you more feathers. And only because I can’t believe HOW MUCH FUN they are. I was held back so long by my fear of The Feather. Of course, just like riding a roller coaster, I felt like I was doing feather quilting while I tried to get to sleep last night. I’m a little sad that this quilt is all quilted. Somehow putting on the binding doesn’t sound nearly as much fun as feather quilting. If I can get a good picture when the quilt is hanging, I’ll bore you a little more with this quilt and its feathers. Sure was a fun way to jazz up some pointy stars and snowball blocks! Hmm, looks like this quilt needs a good spritzing to get rid of marking pen marks too…

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I can’t possibly

November 27, 2007 at 10:28 pm · Filed under Quilts, Tools

I’m sorry. I can’t possibly:

answer the phone

monitor homework

monitor child’s shower

feed dogs

cook dinner

or anything else.

I’m too busy FEATHER QUILTING!

Well, I do have to stop at 9. Can’t miss House.

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Feathering my nest

November 27, 2007 at 9:14 pm · Filed under Quilts, Tools

Feather quilting has eluded me. But, now* I have Patsy Thompson who showed me how to do freeform feathers. Yee-ha! I love you, Patsy! Yes, and, ahem, not one to really practice before slapping some feathers on a SHOP SAMPLE, I marked a spine and sewed some feathers on a shop sample. It’s not that I am that confident in my abilities. Trust me. I am just a lazy girl. In the case of moderate to massive stitching malfeasance, we have a seam ripper and we go back to known quantities of stitching. Sometimes the feathers don’t look like they’re coming from a spine. Well, I’ll just watch that when I do another round of feathers around the outside of this SHOP SAMPLE. Caution: Feather quilting is highly addictive!

I can’t recommend Patsy’s DVD highly enough!

*Leave us not mention how many months I owned this DVD before actually watching this DVD. I was eh-scared of feathers.

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It’s a one-room schoolhouse

November 26, 2007 at 5:13 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

Dear daughter’s teacher is expecting a baby in the spring. I don’t have a great track record when it comes to baby quilts. So this block testing is happening way ahead of the game for me. Wouldn’t a schoolhouse quilt be fun? The pattern is Village Square from Fig Tree Quilts‘ Houses book. Yes, I love that book. There are 25 kids in the class, so if I knock out three corners of feature fabric and build three more houses, this pattern will work. I’m thinking that at some point, I will have the kids sign their names. Yes, wouldn’t it be cute if they also drew themselves in one of the window squares. Would you like to wrangle that for me??? I’m not sure I can handle that. That might be overly ambitious for someone who can’t finish baby quilts.

The block in the picture is just a test…although maybe it will end up in a holiday gift for the teacher…oooh, four schoolhouse blocks turned into a pillow. But I digress. For the feature fabric of the baby quilt, I think I’ll use the Kaffe targets fabric on the left of the picture, base my schoolhouse colors on that and use an off-white background.

The schoolhouse blocks are 6 1/2″ square–diminutive! I imagine that these are one-room schoolhouses. So cute!

You might think I have all of my holiday shopping/gift making done since I’m thinking so hard about something that doesn’t need to be done until spring. You would be so wrong. This is called avoidance.

And, with that, I really should be working on something that needs to be done for February.

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Well, I didn’t know we would have to involve the fire marshal

November 25, 2007 at 12:18 am · Filed under Everyday Things, Field Trips

Detail from Quilting Time by Romare Bearden

It is quite a magnificent re-do of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The re-opening was celebrated by 32 straight hours of free access to art, entertainment and activities. Kind of a nice shot in the arm for a metro area and state feeling a hard economic hit.

We arrived just ahead of day two’s massive crowds. By mid-afternoon a line snaked from one of the museum’s entrances all the way down the block. We were glad we didn’t have to stand out in the cold. We will have to go back soon to admire the new digs with some smaller number of “friends.” It is amazing.

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So this is what happens on Saturdays

November 24, 2007 at 3:04 pm · Filed under Everyday Things

I usually work all day on Saturdays. Today I have the day off and am finding out how things operate on Saturdays around here. Interesting. I think I’ll keep my day job. The leaf sucking trucks were making their rounds. Oh, please, Mr. Neighbor, please move your van off our leaves that have been sitting out front for a week. And thank you. Then the phone company arrives and parks on the leaves. We have been without a land line since Tuesday. Usually I wouldn’t mind. I hate the phone. But Thanksgiving greetings were brief and distant via the cell phone…which I hate more than the regular phone. Please, sir, could you park in our driveway, here come the leaf suckers? And thank you. During the course of these minor transactions, the little dog is wandering in and out of the dog crates throwing up. Could you please limit your vomiting to one crate? Lucky girl, I get to clean it up and do more doggy laundry. At least I had the sense not to turn the stove on for the oatmeal until after all of this was taken care of. Late breakfast is better than burned up kitchen.

On the other hand, with a day off, we are going to the re-opening of this. Just us and thousands of our friends… Maybe the phone will work when we get back. Have a good Saturday!

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Shoes and fabric, what’s not to love?

November 20, 2007 at 7:53 pm · Filed under Field Trips

While I was at quilt market, I ran into my shoes in one of the schoolhouse sessions. I believe I may have mentioned that I have a problem with shoes. You didn’t know? In any event, I went to the session and saw a lady wearing the same shoes I had on. I hadn’t ever seen them live and in person on anyone else…not that they’re that exotic. We kept running into each other over the course of the next two days. We would say hello and check on our shoes (mine were packed away because they were bothering some blisters from some other shoes that shall not be named).

Well, today, a co-worker was telling me about a great quilt shop at which she stopped recently on her way to Chicago. From her description, it sounded like my kind of place. I went to the store’s web site and who should be smiling out at me but the Shoe Lady! I knew I liked her! I’ll have to drop her an email and say hello and see if her shoes are OK.

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Thank you, thank you very much

November 20, 2007 at 7:36 pm · Filed under Dogs!, Everyday Things, Fabric

We had a wonderful visit with my mom. She brought the aforementioned sugar cream pies. Hmm, still not quite right. This one may have too much vanilla flavor. I’ll have to continue my research. I have many versions to try…but probably not until after the holidays. I think there will be enough sweet temptations in the near future.

Spoil-sport that I am, I decided we weren’t going to the casino on her visit. So, we did a bit of shopping. I kind of wish I hadn’t gone into H&M…danger, danger. And, my mom asked my daughter what one place she should see while she was in town. Dear daughter said Target. Yes, Mom doesn’t have the ever-exotic Target near her. So we had to go. It’s a sad day when a person has to leave her state to get Solo cups.

While Mom was here, something lovely arrived:

Say it with me, “oooooh, aaaaaah.” Pretty, isn’t it?! I was a winner over at Linda Lum DeBono’s blog. These beauti-mous fat quarters are from her Funky Flowers line from Henry Glass. I plan to put these to good use…maybe using a pattern from Linda’s Cool Girls Quilt book. So fun! Thanks so much, Linda!!

During Mom’s visit, there was no sewing to speak of. It skips a generation in our family. So, I need to get back to the machine. But, um, I hope I didn’t “clean” away any important piles in the sewing room At some point in “cleaning” mode, I picked up piles and just put them in boxes. I’m sure I’ll be mad at myself sometime soon for doing this. Still, here is my mom’s comment about my sewing room: “It looks like a store in here.” Is that a compliment? I guess she could have said it looks like a colorful garbage dump in here.

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