February | 2009 | Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts

Archive for February, 2009

Signs of spring

February 27, 2009 at 2:36 pm · Filed under Books, Everyday Things, Fabric

It’s a grey day here in Michigan. At 6 am, it was 51 F and it’s now 32 F and heading down. But I saw several signs of spring today. For example, the daffodils are starting to poke up in the flower beds. And the green Hostess Sno-Balls are near the cash register at Walgreen’s. One cannot find a more sure sign of spring, wouldn’t you agree?

Lily asked to see more of Momo’s Wonderland. You can find much better images over at Moda, but I thought I would point out some favorites in the charm squares.

momo1

Medium spread out flowers (there are small bunchy flowers and large bunchy flowers as well).

momo2

Lacy butterflies in a few color combos.

momo3

SCISSORS in a few colors

momo5

Polka dots in great color combos.

momo4

momo6

There are several large-scale prints that are gorgeous (including a patchwork-y one). You can see that these would, ahem, be better in a larger piece. Not that I’m telling you to get 10″ squares or, heaven forbid, yardage when it comes out. 🙂

I’m going to think about whether I could make up Ann’s Jump for Joy in Wonderland.

Here’s a reminder from yesterday:

jump1

That would be a sure sign of spring!

I can also tell it’s spring when we open the mailbox these days. We seem to have a lot of small friends with spring birthdays. So, “we” are often busy trying to make birthday gifts in the spring. “We” started this guy this week:

monkey

“We” quickly lost interest and, since the party is today, I had to finish the bookmark.

I don’t understand where this child gets her short craft attention span. ::shaking head::

Anyhoo, we’ve been making bookmarks using the cute characters in the Aronzi Aronzo Cute Stuff book for a while now. They’re cute, naturally, with fairly simple shapes that can easily be stitched down with embroidery floss. It’s working for us:

cute

Hopefully when quality control returns from school, she will appreciate my third attempt at a pom-pom (the tiny Clover pom-pom maker is too smart for me…). We combined the bookmark with a rocker pillowcase (since they’ll be playing one of the rock band Wii games–I don’t speak video game) and a monkey Webkinz (because I’m lame like that). It feels like a decent balance between homemade and pre-fab.

One last sign of spring…I could NOT resist Fifi Lapin over at LeSportsac.

Really. Who could resist these bunnies???? (What? I had a Macy’s gift card AND a coupon.)

fifi

Uh-oh, I think Binnie needs some new duds….

May you see some signs of spring!

Permalink Comments (8)

Mo’, mo’, mo’

February 26, 2009 at 3:12 pm · Filed under Fabric

Oh, I’ve been waiting for you:

momo

I believe March is finally MoMo month. Who doesn’t love some Moda, but this seems to be new territory in the technicolor landscape. Wonderland is designed by MoMo, one of Moda’s in-house designers in Japan (as I understand it). More MoMo, please.

I don’t know exactly what else I’ve been doing–flitting between projects, messing up projects, doing paperwork, working on a secret center for the Spring Fling round robin (speaking of which, I need to clean up my sidebar…).

I know what I’ll be doing later…reading the new Australian Quilters Companion. I’d been ordering back issues from time to time and there seemed to be more and more articles in which I was interested, so I subscribed. So many interesting things in each issue. Here are a couple of things I noticed in issue 35 as I took a QUICK peek inside:

rainbow

Part one of Rainbow Lollipops designed by the breathtakingly talented Kellie Wulfsohn.

Also, American guest designer Anne Sutton (also breathtakingly talented) is featured. You really should make this for spring/Easter:

jump

Get right on that, would ya? That kind of cuteness cannot wait.

EDITED TO ADD: For anyone who wants to know where to get the mag if you can’t get it locally…

I have a subscription through Stonehouse Publications in Canada (and have ordered back issues from them in the past). Here is a link to issue #35 that contains the pattern for the bunny quilt.

I also see that it can be ordered from QuiltBooks USA. And they have a subscription option as well.

Ooh, maybe I’ll take the magazine to the bus stop and to piano lessons. Or should I save it for the early evening lull?? Decisions, decisions. Such an exciting life.

Permalink Comments (10)

Two things

February 19, 2009 at 1:59 pm · Filed under Tools

Clover makes some wonderful needlecraft tools, no? Where would we be without a lovely pair of serrated applique scissors or a nice hera marker or any of the other wonderful Clover products (speaking of which, where is my Chaco-liner????)? And the innovation and improvement to the processes of our lovely needlecrafts? Fantastic! Take, for example, the yo-yo makers we have come to love. And they even have some new-ish smocking tools to make smocking less intimidating. Innovation! I’ll bet Clover could even build a better mousetrap.

On the other hand, is there a need to improve ALL of our needlecraft traditions? I’ve been seeing ads for a new Clover product in the quilting mags. I saw it today in the new http://www.keepsakequilting.com/ catalog. Run right out and get yourself a set of these:

puffs1

Oh, must we revisit biscuit quilting?

Those bits and pieces look, well, unnatural. I’m going to skip the return of the biscuit quilt. Maybe it’s like the saying in the fashion world–if you’re old enough to remember bell-bottoms and hip-huggers the first time around, you should avoid it the second time around. I guess that’s not true for quilting, but I’m going to take a pass.

But, on the same page as the Clover biscuit quilting innovation? This dandy product:

wacker

The Wacker Seams Perfect ™! I would own one of these and every time I need it, I would say, “where is my Wacker Seams Perfect?” I would love saying that! This seems like a great idea! Probably not for households with small children (oh, the uses with siblings and small animals…), but I may have to get one of these!

Hmm, and I was going to make some cookies, but I really need to find that Chaco-liner now…

Permalink Comments (8)

Logged out

February 18, 2009 at 3:47 pm · Filed under Everyday Things, Fabric

Gosh, you know you’ve been away for a while when WordPress logs you out. Howdy to you too! I went straight from time constraint to winter break without taking a breath. Excuse me, mid-winter break is the correct term. Because they already had winter break. We’ve been filling the MID-winter break with braces adjusting, hair cutting, new loopy potholder making (replacing the ones I made, ahem, a few, ahem, years ago…which were nothing short of a health code violation), friends and a touch of Orla Kiely-ing. I couldn’t show up here without having been properly Orla Kiely-ed.

orla

orla2

I believe I showed great restraint…partially brought on by most of the stuff having been wiped out before I got there. No cute tiered serving thingy for me.

OH, and some mailbox excitement from Annie B and the Fat Quarter Swap:

fqswap

Aren’t the fabrics wonderful?! Look at the pretty pin box! ::sigh:: Prettiest pin box on the block, bar none! Speaking of bars, there was also a bar of chocolate…

choc

I have nothing to say. Other than it was the most delicious bar of chocolate…

Wanna hear something extra nice? Annie shared her only piece of Liberty fabric. First of all, how nice is that? Second, she needs to hang around with Katy a little more. 🙂 I love the fabrics! Thank you, Annie!

A little more mailbox joy:

goodfolk

Yea, Good Folk fat quarters!

I also got my paws on Heather Ross’s Weekend Sewing book. It is quite lovely!

weekend-sewing

I’m not sure how many of the projects I will sew, but it is lovely to look at. The white featherweight made me think of Anita and her little beauty.

While at Borders picking up Weekend Sewing (cleverly hidden from the sewers in the knitting section…), I saw, in the flesh, copies of Material Obsession! Can’t wait for book two!

I quilted and quilted and quilted early last week. Took a break by standing up for three days straight. And I’ve been doing some 12 1/2″ block sewing for various things, including the Bushfire Quilt Project. Here are some stars:

bushfirestars

I’m also planning to get some bindings ready to send along. I also did a little Project Improv work, but I’m not sure how I feel about it, so I’ll ponder it a little longer.

Hope you’re all well and that your tiniest puppy doesn’t have an ear infection. Awwwww…

Permalink Comments (10)

So, while I await the plumber…

February 6, 2009 at 12:37 pm · Filed under Fabric

…let’s announce the winner of the Amy Butler fat quarters (certainly more interesting than actually waiting for the plumber, I’ll let the dogs do that):

random1

Comment number 220…let’s see who that is, shall we?

If I’ve counted correctly, comment 220 was left by Peta in Australia!

Yea!! Do a happy dance for us, won’t you?!

Peta, I’ll be in contact to confirm your address.

I enjoyed reading about your plans and visions for the fabric–you even made me have some visions myself!

Thank you all for visiting! It was certainly a good time going out and about to visit new-to-me blogs. Don’t be a stranger…I hope you’ll be back to visit! Looks like Katy may organize us again, so keep a look-out. You know, as if you had a pool of water forming in your basement and were awaiting the plumber…only more fun and without having to write a lumpy check in the end…

Permalink Comments (12)

Whew!

February 6, 2009 at 12:01 am · Filed under Fabric

That was some crazy stash-busting giveaway fun, huh?! It’s time to close the entries. Thanks to all who visited and commented–old friends and new! I’ll be back later today with the results from the random generator. Keep your stitching fingers crossed!

Permalink Comments (3)

Amy gives away Amy

February 4, 2009 at 8:05 am · Filed under Fabric

Today! It’s today! Thanks to Katy for organizing the Great International Stash Give Away!!

As I hinted yesterday, I’m sharing classic Amy Butler. Yes, it’s true. ::sniffle:: As I was hunting around (and you don’t have to look far) for a giveaway selection, I came across the Temple Flowers stash. I made a few other selections from the area, shut the box and said to myself, “now I know where the Temple Flowers is.”

And then I decided that, of course, it is the perfect giveaway. It is a little hard to part with…but I have a a little more. You know, for posterity.

So, here we have 10 fat quarters from Amy Butler’s Temple Flowers collection:

abfq

Here’s a fave:

fave

And you’re even getting the good selvage (when there was good selvage to be had):

absel

sel2

sel3

sel41

To enter, please leave a comment telling me what your plans for this fabric would be…please be specific. Would you put it in a quilt? Well, what pattern would you use? Another sewing project? Tell me about it.

I’ll leave the giveaway open until 11:59 EST on February 5, and I’ll announce the winner on Friday, February 6.

Oh, if you are a new commenter, comments are held for moderation, but I will be checking regularly, so don’t panic if your comment doesn’t appear instantly.

Be sure to click on over to some of the other lovely giveaways happening today!

Permalink Comments (227)