Archive for April, 2008

Such a treat!

April 30, 2008 at 8:04 pm · Filed under Fabric, Quilts

Look what arrived from Australia today!

Here is the lovely item that was inside:

I won a contest over at Lily’s gorgeous blog. Can you believe she sent this TO ME? Look at all this stitching!

Shhhh…the baby is sleeping.

Thank you SO much, Lily! I am just entranced by all of your pretty stitches. The fact that Lily would share this work is the sign of a very generous soul!

On the flying geese front, I have the center of the top finished. Yes, um, I did decide that I preferred the “erroneous” geese to the correct geese. The puffball geese gave it better visual consistency, if you will. I think I’ve decided that this now needs a small border and then a surround of more geese.

Well, I would stick around to entertain (?) you longer, but I’m having very annoying WordPress issues. We had been getting along OK after recent dashboard changes, but now something has apparently been “upgraded” beyond my compatibility…or my patience.

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I meant to do that

April 28, 2008 at 7:13 pm · Filed under Fabric, Quilts

My week is starting off like Lily’s.

I meant to have the puffballs in the background of the flying geese. The geese were supposed to be all scrappy. This is what happens when a ruler gets the best of me. I was so absorbed in the method, I didn’t stop to question which fabric would end up where. And that’s what I did with my sewing time today. Yea me!

But isn’t the new Martha Negley fabric beautiful?!?!

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Note to self

April 25, 2008 at 7:43 pm · Filed under Everyday Things, Fabric, Quilts

Dear Self,

In the future, as the weather becomes nicer, please consider making smaller quilts. No larger than a throw size, please. You’ve been inside on your sore duff all day (and for the better part of this week) trying to finish this quilt. That is a waste of decent weather, if you ask me. And the dogs are giving you the stink eye because they haven’t been walked today. Plus, you have become boring. And you are listening to way too much bad news on NPR. I’m just sayin’.

Love,

Me

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Marie Webster quilts

April 24, 2008 at 4:01 pm · Filed under Books, Quilts

I found this today–maybe I’m the last to know–at Project Gutenberg, one can download Marie Webster’s Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them. A lovely peruse! The photos are mainly in black and white, but there are some thrilling quilts. If you download the book, be sure to look for the photo of “Old Ladies Quilting.” For some reason, this caption cracks me up!

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Back to shoulds

April 21, 2008 at 7:17 pm · Filed under Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

Well, last week’s total slack-itude has come to an end. By last Wednesday I had come to grips with the idea that nothing I should be doing was going to get done. Then I began to embrace the idea. And now I am sad. It was fun to play around. And leave the house. Back to reality and the alarm clock.

Today I quilted daughter’s teacher’s baby quilt. Maybe the binding will get sewn down at dance class this evening. Tomorrow I’ll face the Midwest Modern quilting and hopefully get started on my block of the month block. Not that these are bad things to do by any stretch. But it is fun to occasionally (?) veer off the schedule and see what happens. Funny, the time still passes too quickly no matter what you’re working on.

I will leave you with the current state of the Ginger Grove project. I am pleased as punch with the feel of this project.

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Some sort of a record

April 16, 2008 at 8:16 pm · Filed under Books, Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

You remember the aforementioned possibility of Japanese fabric acquisition in the not-too-distant past (yes, that would be earlier today)? Well, I cut into it AND sewed with it! I guess I should have told you to sit down before I told you this. I can’t believe it myself. Perhaps the spirit of improvisation moved me. I have kept in the back of my mind a fantastic version of Sue Spargo’s Ginger Grove pattern that was done in Japanese fabrics. If you’ll visit this post at the Material Obsession blog and scroll down, you will see Kate’s version in Japanese fabrics. Lovely, no?!

Well, I am taking the Ginger Grove workshop with Sue in a few weeks and thought I would take a different approach than the luscious wools. Not because I don’t love her wools but because I am still working on Greenbrier in wool. And so, I did this:

Can’t decide on the background:

Oh, I’m having a good time. Can you tell I am completely goofing off this week? Not a “should” under the presser foot so far this week. It is spring break after all…

Hmm, do I dare use some Ikea fabric in this creation? We can never really know the longevity of any given fabric, but would I be stupid to put some Ikea fabric in this thing?

Look how cute it is:

Your thoughts?

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Field trip

April 16, 2008 at 6:42 pm · Filed under Fabric, Field Trips, Quilts

I ventured out to the Henry Ford Museum today to see Quilting Genius 2: The Improvisational Quilts of Susana Allen Hunter. Wow, wow, wow. When we arrived, the mood lighting wasn’t working, so we had the lighting of stark work lights. Nice and bright. Then the mood lighting was turned on. Much better to see the stitches, texture and detail, but it really challenged my meager camera skillz. Hopefully, I’m properly caveat-ed now. Here are a few of the gorgeous quilts.

Isn’t the texture amazing? I appreciated that several of the quilts were hung so you could get a full view of the backs.

This is the newest quilt in the exhibit. It is from the 1970s, and is affectionately referred to as the disco quilt. Remember those slinky polyester shirts and qiana?

Wonderful stuff.

We then toured the on-site Dymaxion House. That blew my mind too.

After this quick trip to the museum, there might have been a small visit to a nearby quilt store where there might or might not have been some purchasing of some Japanese fabric…maybe. That’s all I can say.

Here’s to field trips on lovely spring days!

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Cheers!

April 15, 2008 at 9:05 pm · Filed under Books, Everyday Things, Quilts

Thanks for helping me laugh about the Great Coffee Panic of ’08. Whew and mmm. That is over and we have a winner. Two delightful commenters guessed the box would arrive early and indeed it did. Those tricky tricksters at UPS tricked me. The regular UPS truck came and went about the middle of the afternoon. But a second truck with a different driver coming from a different direction came later. Aha, tricky! The dogs didn’t give the driver a friendly greeting, but I yelled my thank you as she retreated to the truck. So, the winner of the Prairie Paisley Layer Cake is:

Congraulations, Jana! My goodness, this coffee tastes good.

Here are a couple of interesting things. Thing one is edible:

Sorry it’s so crooked. There was a guest photographer. Chocolate chips! These kind of sneak up on you. They would be really good with some of that whippy strawberry-tasting stuff that comes with fruit trays. They are excellent plain, however.

And, I finally purchased a copy of this:

I was not aware of this quilt pictured in the Treasury of American Quilts:

Lollypop trees!

I can’t wait to more thoroughly peruse this book and see what other treasures are waiting inside!

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DUDE!

April 15, 2008 at 8:13 pm · Filed under Everyday Things

Look who’s here! I’ll be back later to announce the Layer Cake winner. I have to go make some coffee right this minute. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

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Let them eat cake!

April 13, 2008 at 10:45 pm · Filed under Everyday Things, Quilts

Or perhaps at least sew with it.

What we have here is a little First Blog-iversary!

Of course, I want to thank each and every one of you for visiting and commenting. But I also want to thank everyone for ceaseless inspiration, loads of chuckles and your many kind words. Thank you! Really and for true, thank you!

Without getting too teary-eyed about the whole thing, what I get from blogs and blogging is the impetus to try to make bold choices in quilting. I have been pondering a project for a while and have been feeling lukewarm about fabrics for it. Well, I made a round of blog-reads this morning and the proverbial lightbulb lit up. I was feeling lukewarm because the fabrics I was considering were not “me.” Late today, I gathered up fabrics left and right that are me fabrics. I just needed to re-focus. Plowing around reading about others’ projects and creative processes keeps me reflecting and considering–it keeps my brain moving.

That said, what blog-iversary would be complete without a give-away??

Because I so enjoy a tasty cake, I thought it would be appropriate to give away a cake, of sorts. A Layer Cake.

This is a delicious Moda Prairie Paisley Layer Cake. yum yum

Now, I’m going to make you work for your treat. We are going to have a little guessing game which involves our in-transit coffee maker. This seems a little diabolical since I don’t even know the answer to this question myself, but in keeping with the theme of bold chioices, I’m doing it anyway!

In order to have a chance to win, you’ll have to guess when the coffee maker will arrive.

Here is the information that I have on its current whereabouts:

1. The coffee maker has been shipped.

2. The coffee maker is estimated to arrive between April 16 and April 21.

3. The coffee maker is currently in New Stanton, Pennsylvania, USA.

4. The coffee maker needs to come to Ferndale, Michigan, USA.

5. The coffee maker is traveling via UPS.

6. I don’t know the type of UPS service by which the coffee maker is traveling. I can tell you we selected free shipping.

So, what do you think? I will put all correct guesses in a hat and draw from the correct guesses. If you guess more than once, I will only consider your first guess for the drawing. I will accept entries from now until the coffee maker arrives. And if it hasn’t arrived by the end of the day on April 21, I will be crying too hard to ever possibly draw a winner.

OK? Have at it and, again, thank you!

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