February | 2008 | Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts

Archive for February, 2008

Make a wish and open the mollusk

February 28, 2008 at 8:27 pm · Filed under Everyday Things, Great Quilt Patterns

It really says that. See:

This is one of the directions on a “wish pearl” necklace dear daughter received from one of her great-grandmothers for her upcoming birthday.Do you suppose there was ever a funnier direction on a product? For me, the real gift is “Make a wish and open the mollusk.” Can I have the box?

Oh, it has been an event-filled day here, what can I say. The younger dog is somewhat of a nervous Nellie who barks at every little thing that moves. In her practice-for-the-mail-carrier barking, she managed to rip off one of her nails. I can only say ewwwwww. She is currently confined to quarters until I can figure out a way to keep her foot covered. I had a brainstorm involving neosporin, gauze, horse wrap and press and seal. That lasted about three minutes. That must be a record of some sort for dogs though.

We had some progress on Petal Play.

Yes, that’s a 36-patch. Go big or go home.

Permalink Comments (6)

Brainwaves and magic

February 27, 2008 at 8:16 pm · Filed under Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

I very much appreciate the feedback on the creative kismet post! Thank you! I did, in fact, draw up some ideas in a sketchbook yesterday. I loved Caity’s idea of somehow marring the sketchbook before using it (see, maybe I’m not so weird about the blanka-pagea-phobia).

I also started a project with the Ginger Blossom fabric. While working on it, I’ve tried to let go of my usual “I’m in a hurry here” approach to decision-making. Now, there’s a fine balancing act: to approach a project with the idea that you have all the time in the world to make choices while not actually taking all the time in the world which would inevitably result in a mess of overthinking.

In this case, I’m starting with a lovely pattern called Petal Play designed by Denise Sheehan of A Graceful Stitch.

But I’m going to transmogrify it and see what happens. Just like my dogs, I have a head filled with ideas.

Like that. Thinking but not overthinking.

And now I have something magical to show you.

Do you see that nice acid-y green in the top-right leaf? You definitely need some of this stuff. It’s silk velvet hand-dyed by Sue Spargo‘s sister, Wendy. Every time I walk past this project, the silk velvet catches my eye. It is the most beautiful stuff. I would venture to bet that every color of it has the same magical properties. Oh dear, I’d better check with my investment specialist to see if I can own some more.

Permalink Comments (2)

I am SO not weird!

February 27, 2008 at 1:54 pm · Filed under Everyday Things

1. I must take a shower and get dressed as soon as possible after arising (barring the occasional exercise incident between waking up and showering). This counts even when sick (don’t you just feel better when you’re clean and in clean nammies?), please see 2.

2. I go to great lengths to keep from getting sick. Airborne, Zicam, the whole nine. I hate being sick. I don’t have that kind of time, please see 3.

3. Time is an enemy. Ever since dear daughter was born, time and I have been at war. It just keeps running out and there’s not enough of it, please see 4.

4. I like my routine and leaving the house doesn’t really fit into my routine because it just sucks up time, please see 3 (and, for that matter, please see 2, because leaving the house usually means being around people who may be trying to spread their sick germs to you).

5. I am the most socially awkward person you or I have ever met, please see 4.

6. I hate exercise, please see 1.

7. I am no longer addicted to diet coke.

Thanks to Cyndi for tagging me and because of number 5, I’m only going to tag the other Mrs. Schmenkman over at ArtsyFartsyQuilts. And now since I’m all dressed (please see 1), I have to go do my weekly stint in the classroom (please see 2, 3, 4 and 5).

Permalink Comments (3)

Creative kismet

February 22, 2008 at 7:08 pm · Filed under Fabric, Quilts

Sandi Henderson’s Ginger Blossoms fabrics and an eBayed Kansas Dugout quilt top both arrived today. I’m liking the Ginger Blossoms colors with the vintage fabrics. I wonder what I can stir up with the old as inspiration for the new? Which leads me to a deeper philosophical consideration…

Of course, I enjoy quilting. Who doesn’t love to play with colors and fabrics and the sewing machine? At times, however–and maybe this happens to me because I am often working with a deadline–it becomes a little rote, a little whiz-bang-gee-that-happened. Let’s just say that occasionally there is little feeling involved and I ask where is the “me” in this project?

That question hit me hard at the Sue Spargo workshop. Sue encourages one’s creativity, and her projects are rife with opportunities to make creative choices. When I was preparing for the workshop (you know, the overthinking…), I focused on gathering my supplies mainly with learning technique in mind.

At the workshop, I realized that technique is the easy part (what I mean here is that it is learned by practice and then you have it). I sat stitching down my circles and became paralyzed by what to do next. The full impact of the wish to make creative choices stopped me in my tracks. There were just too many directions in which to go! That coupled with over-caffeination led to full on panic.

In a nutshell, I haven’t been practicing my creativity muscles. And, for me, that is the hard part. It is, however, the only way to get to the “me-ness” of a project. What can I add to a project besides fabric combinations? I would like to stretch to do more. The Paper Plates quilt gave me a taste of this.

Sue described how she collects inspiration. I have long meant to do this, but I am not a draw-er or a doodler and, well, blank sketchbooks are just so pretty when they’re blank, aren’t they? I hate to mar the possibility in those blank pages.

So, I’ve been pondering these things, and then Kathy at Material Obsession summed it up just the other day. Her post about layering experience and the spirit hit the nail on the head! I have long admired the projects I see there; each one is just spilling over with creative choices.

Now I need to figure out what to do about this, to find a way to move myself forward and to shape up my long-dormant creativity muscles. Maybe I will dust off a sketch book. Maybe I will keep the Ginger Blossoms not too far from the Kansas Dugout and see what happens.

Permalink Comments (5)

Hand work week

February 21, 2008 at 7:27 pm · Filed under Everyday Things, Quilts

I have attempted to give in to winter “break” by not requiring myself to do lots of machine sewing this week. I knew it just wouldn’t happen. It is powerful hard because the “shoulds” and “want tos” are sitting idle. But, I am trying to maintain some productivity. I find it helps to keep my brain from leaking out my ear.

So, we have continuing fun stuff going on with Greenbrier:

We have a block of the month:

And the mail carrier was kind enough to pull up and carefully deliver a Stitchette quilting bee:

There are weeks in which I have good intentions of getting lots of things done and then I DON’T get as much done as I planned. That is always a bummer. For some reason, however, it is harder not to have high expectations from the get-go of the week. Just can’t let it go. Yes, it’s nearly the end of break week and I am just now trying to let it go and just go with the flow. The flow included lots of quiet, focused time during which Herself worked on a school project–wait for it–WITHOUT COMPLAINT. I should take a lesson: there was no stressing out about the project, there was just the doing of the project, successful completion and then some Sponge Bob to celebrate! I should try that next week.

Permalink Comments (2)

Who moved my beads?

February 20, 2008 at 2:19 pm · Filed under Everyday Things, Whining

I have a mighty stash of useful and pretty beads SOMEWHERE IN THIS HOUSE.

Anyone have any idea where they might be? Anyone?

I’m thinking I need a new category called “Somewhere in this House.” I could fill up that category. Easily. Yes, I’m organizationally challenged. Ya wanna make something of it?

In the middle of the night recently, I composed an eloquent post about the Sue Spargo workshop. I woke up and all the eloquence had cleared out. I was left with empty winter break head. Or my post is somewhere in this house. So, because of my empty head and my re-arranged beads, you are left with this sad, sad post. I need those beads for my Sue Spargo project.

Permalink Comments (4)

Stemming the tide of the “coffee faucet”

February 14, 2008 at 2:21 pm · Filed under Everyday Things

I turned straight to page 23 of the March/April 2008 Quilter’s Home magazine to read the “Miss Pronunciation” article. Being a person with a last name that can be difficult to pronounce and spell (I am not a “singer”) and who is NOT married to a “sicko,” even though that’s what it looks like, I try to be sensitive to correct pronunciation of others’ names. What a great article! I will now practice saying Marti Meesch-el.

Permalink Comments (1)

My stars!

February 13, 2008 at 8:08 pm · Filed under Quilts, Tools

Look what the eBay fAiry brought:

There are more than 20 of these hand-pieced beauties! SQUEAL! I love looking at the variety of fabrics. I try to stay off the eBay, at least as it relates to wandering aimlessly among the vintage textiles, but I did spend a little time this week and have a couple more treasures coming my way.

And I wanted to link you up to the graph paper generator found here. Generate your own hexagon graph paper or octagon graph paper or equilateral triangle graph paper or tumbling block graph paper or…you get the idea. Fun for planning quilts!

Permalink Comments (4)

Getting ahead of myself

February 13, 2008 at 6:06 pm · Filed under Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

This week I’m taking a workshop taught by Sue Spargo. I don’t have much experience with wool, so I was anxious to get my supplies together and really think through what I would need to bring. You know, overthinking the actual supply list…

In an effort to test some approaches, I somehow have ended up with a decent start on the center of the Greenbrier quilt. Oops.

The testing involves lightweight fusible web which I have heard is great with wool. It is working great as a stabilizer and raw-edge-keeper-togetherer. At some point, however, I will have quite a few layers of it and there will be swearing and gnashing of teeth when this becomes a problem (note: NOT hand quilting this thing). Although, hmm, in spots it is not stuck on the wool terribly well so maybe I could actually cut some of it away to create a windowpane effect. And the reason I couldn’t use the windowpane approach from the get-go is that I am appliqueing shapes to a larger piece and then cutting the larger base piece to shape…the base piece may or may not change in size somewhat while it’s being stitched to. If you know what I mean. And therein lies the overthinking.

Sue is going to hate me.

Pardon me, I’m going to go make a Valentine’s pillow case now.

Permalink Comments (4)

Hexagon helper

February 7, 2008 at 9:46 pm · Filed under Tools

There is a lot of hexagon love out there these days. As I was cutting some out just now, it occurred to me to mention one of my favorite hexagon cutting tools. I think I’ve mentioned Brandy’s Mylar Pieces before, but they also have handy-dandy acrylic window templates for hexagons too:

The inside of the template gives you the actual finished size of the hexagon. The outside adds the 1/4″ seam allowance.

Today I needed a few card stock templates in actual size (not having the size I needed in mylar pieces). So, I traced inside the window to get the finished size. Then I needed to cut some fabric hexagons to include the seam allowance, so I used a 28 mm rotary cutter to cut around the outside of the template. A little double stick tape helps keep the acrylic template in place while rotary cutting. Done and done.

I regularly pull out these templates and love that they make hexagon prep go quickly. And when I decide it’s CRAZY TIME, I can use the template to cut fabric for the 1/2″ hexagon mylar pieces that arrived recently. It seemed like a good idea at the time…

Edited later to add: And when you realize you have cut the wrong small size hexagons, it is slightly less painful to fix the situation. D’oh!

Permalink Comments (2)