March | 2010 | Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts

Archive for March, 2010

At first, I thought she’d sent me underwear.

March 31, 2010 at 4:05 pm · Filed under Books, Fabric

Katy! Katy! Katy! Isn’t there a song about a girl named Katy? If not, I should write one. It would say something about her niceness, her generosity, her fashion sense, her creative flair and her ability to addict me to Liberty of London.

A surprise arrived in the mail box today. You know, the USPS is killing me. We used to get our mail first thing in the morning. Now we get it last thing in the afternoon. Did someone report me for lack of mail patience and now I’m being taught a lesson? Lesson learned, let’s change back the schedule, ‘kay?

I digress.

I find myself quoting Katy on a regular basis. GASP! She’s a gem. I could kind of see through the V & A bag before I opened it, and I thought she’d sent me Liberty boxers. Not that there would be a complaint lodged. Aren’t they pretty?

And the card is pretty too:

::sigh::

It’s all so pretty. THANK YOU, Katy! It’s so nice to have you at hand when my addiction flares up. THANK YOU!!!

Another person putting a smile on my face is Bonnie who left a comment recently. I had to click through and see what Calamity Jane’s Cottage was all about. What sweet things she has for sale! I ordered a book by Sandy Gervais, and Bonnie sent along some beautiful Romantic Homes magazines for me to peruse. What a treat — I have a feeling there is some delightful eye candy in store!

The Sandy Gervais book looks like perfect spring inspiration. I made her Funny Farm quilt some time ago and just love the funky style of that…so this book was right up my alley. THANK YOU, Bonnie!

And the poor little birdy from yesterday…

Poor little thing — he has a needle in his eye and no tail…poor thing.

Tweet, tweet, thanks for the treats, girls!

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B is for . . .

March 30, 2010 at 12:38 pm · Filed under Everyday Things, Quilts

Busy! I know you know about that. We’ve been very busy with “B” words lately. Someone had a Birthday and got a new:

Bike:

Dear heavens, a women’s bike!

Don’t they put pretty designs on bikes now?

Someone also got new Boots:

Glad to know a whimsical print is still appreciated at the advanced age of 10.

A new Belt:

And started some new Books (of the piano and math varieties).

All of this growing and accomplishing leaves a mother feeling very Blessed!

With that, I’d better get back to my Baskets:

And later a small Birdy:

Because I’m feeling a little Behind!

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Looking into the future

March 25, 2010 at 2:28 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns

I’m planning ahead. Don’t act so surprised. I’m in the delightful One Block Over quilting bee. Fun, fun, fun! You get to play with other people’s fabric and make interesting (fun!) blocks. My block month is coming up in May. I have an idea of what I’d like, but I thought I’d better try out some color combos before committing. With the help of my trusty Kona solids color card, I plotted and planned and wandered to see where I could get the most colors at the fewest places.

Yesterday, a gorgeous package arrived from Kathy’s wonderful Pink Chalk Fabrics. OH MY!

Today, an urgent yellow package came from Hancock’s of Paducah to round out the selections:

So many delicious colors from which to choose!

I added in some Kona Snow to lighten things up and made some geese.

I haven’t decided which flying geese block I’d like to use, so I haven’t sewn these together. But I am enjoying the color play and hope to be prepared to mail out packages to the One Block Over participants later in April.

There are a lot of flying geese patterns, methods, etc., out there. I used this one for the Dutchman’s Puzzle block over at the Country Crossroads Quilters guild page. My geese aren’t arranged in the Dutchman’s Puzzle color layout in my photo, but I’m still playing around.

I see geese in my future.

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Spring baskets

March 23, 2010 at 3:52 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

So, hey, the daffodils didn’t get ruined by any yucky wintry weather. And we’re back to full sunshine. Hurrah!

And I just put the last seam in the Going to Market baskets!

Hurrah! One piano key border is ready to go, but I need to figure out the inner border before I go any further…decisions, decisions.

This quilt makes me think of spring and dyeing Easter eggs. I was thrilled to be working with all batik backgrounds — they made the blocks and seams come out so nice and crisp. It really helped where there are seams coming together. I just love the pattern! But, I really need to learn how to count before making it again. Cough, cough, I had to make two more tiny blocks after I laid the thing out this morning.

All’s well that ends well!

Last but not least, do you listen to Pat Sloan’s Creative Talk Radio? I caught the podcast of yesterday’s show — guess who was on? Sarah! So, if you want a little insight into how Sarah plays with fabric, you can take a listen (it’s the March 23 show). In the first half of the show, there was also a fascinating interview with Frieda Anderson. A wonderful listen all around. Now that I have my miscellaneous software up to date, I can subscribe to all of these lovely things via iTunes. Because, you know, Jackie has a quilty podcast too. So many good things to listen to either while we are sewing or in the car or while exercising (sigh).

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A rude awakening

March 19, 2010 at 1:15 pm · Filed under Everyday Things, Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

That’s what these blooming daffodils are going to get tomorrow when it gets to a high of 45 degrees F and then starts to rain and snow.

So sad to see a defeated daffodil. Until then, I will try to enjoy them.

I also got a small “rude awakening.”

Laundry — check. House semi-clean — check. Grocery — check. New light bulbs — check.

Time to sew, right?

Time to lay out the basket quilt.

And realize that, yet again, I didn’t make enough blocks. Drat! I need three more of those long strippy ones up there. Drat! YEA! BLOCKS ARE DONE! And I can tell I’m going to need to allow extra time for block re-arrangement. When I finally get to that point.

Drat and oh well.

Before I head back to the cutting and sewing of baskets, here’s a piece of new fabric:

Cute, huh?

Always buy the extra large boxers if you’re going to cut them up for fabric.

Have a lovely weekend!

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I caught it

March 18, 2010 at 2:14 pm · Filed under Books, Dollies Online, Fabric, Quilts

The fabric bug that is going around. Not that there isn’t always a fabric bug going around. Let’s call this the “stitchy solids.” It’s definitely an itch than needs scratching. Did you see Jan’s post? I have to go back and digest all of its goodness — it’s jam-packed with viral goodness. Achoo!

I also made a pact with Janet to do something stitchy this week (you did see her little purse tutorial, right? I was taking a gander at zippers today, but remembered that I seem to have a bucket o’ zippers from a rummage sale I can use).

So to scratch the stitchy solids itch, I did some digging in the shot cottons. And the shot cottons got a new storage bin this week (hmm, I have a feeling there are more of shot cottons Down There, but I am nursing a knuckle injury as a result of my search so I won’t be digging around for more for a little while):

See, now I know where they are:

It pains me to cut into some of these, so I took a two inch strip off of everyone:

Just a tiny thing. I still have half a strip and lots of rectangles, so I think I will make a couple of small quilt cousins to I can play around with the colors some more.

I’ll do contrast stitching in each rectangle and then let the stitching trail off into the sash and border. I am stitching with some thread candies:

Oh my! I love these little things (Presencia perle 12):

Here’s my favorite color — of course, my photo doesn’t do it justice. It is darker and practically a fluorescent red orange:

I need a vat of it. It looks spectacular with grey!

How timely that this book showed up. Solids! Hand quilting! Huzzah! I’ll be enjoying this treat later:

Leave us not discuss the fact that the show of these quilts was in San Francisco when we were visiting in February. Shhhh! I said, we’re not going to mention it! Did I mention that Alcatraz was beautiful?

So, a little bit of stitchy-ness while waiting for the child or in the evening in front of the TV. But, during the day today, what did I do?

It seems I mis-read the count for the number of tiny baskets I needed to make. The pattern directions are very thorough, but one has to pay attention. I made 21 blocks but need 44. I have six more to go.

EDITED TO ADD: Wheeee, Nanette has her quilt top done! Go see!

And then maybe I’ll stitch for a while.

Before I leave you, the latest Dollies Online pattern is out for month three:

It’s called Details, Details. Sometime I think I’ll make several blocks of this to make a larger quilt. It’s also a fun little quilt for color and value play. It will be available shortly as a single pattern or is available now as part of the Dollies Online 12-month membership. Cheers, thanks for taking a gander at the new quilt!

I hope it is sunshine-y where you are!

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Color and texture and stitching, oh my!

March 13, 2010 at 8:58 am · Filed under Books, Fabric, Quilts

As you may know, I tend to get a little excited about fabric/quilting/stitchy things. Well, I got a little excited about Jan’s recent “Big stitch, big love” post. The bags she linked to really piqued my interest. They reminded me of the beautiful Work Quilts series Victoria has been creating. All of that GORGEOUS color and texture and stitching, oh my!

Have I done anything about these stitchy vibrations going through my head? Well, I’ve collected a few bag patterns whose shapes interest me. I’ve collected a few Presencia perle cottons (the tiny balls of size 12 look like candies) in some scrumptious colors. And I’ve really been ogling this quilt because there are so many good things about it — one of which is the hand quilting through those yummy stripes:

Kaffe Fassett’s Stripe Scape quilt from Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts.

I’ve been pulling out my striped fabrics.

Oh, and I picked up one of the books Jan mentioned…er, along with Keiko Goke’s older book…you know, so I could get free shipping…

The Keiko Goke book plays right along with great stitchiness.

So, my brain is just whirring along with this obsession. Now I just need to get my fingers into the action.

Oh, and this lovely tool is going to help as well.

Acquired from Jackie’s delightful shop. It was time for an updated version for me. I was at least two panels short of new colors. It just keeps unfolding and unfolding and unfolding. What a person really needs is a quarter yard of each color so you can really see what they look like together. har har har

Looks like our kind of game board, no?

I am partial to the flap with a good portion of the greens. Chartreuse? Yes, please.

Gosh, the possibilities!

One last thing if you are looking for weekend entertainment. Have you seen the movie Bright Star? It’s about the romance between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. What a visually stunning movie! AND Fanny Brawne sews the most beautiful frocks, and the ladies wear these jackets with the tiniest crocheted medallions. Oh MY. Finishing off my Going to Market baskets (yea! finished and ready to sew together) was slowed yesterday while I was dazzled by what was on screen. I’ll definitely have to watch this movie again!

Have a lovely weekend! I’ll be thinking stitchy thoughts.

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Much, much later…

March 11, 2010 at 4:31 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

After a lengthy hiatus, I’ve been working on my Going to Market quilt.

I started this quilt in, er, September. My, where does the time go? How do all these other projects keep intervening? I just don’t understand. I saw that Nanette is working on this quilt too. Hers is going to be HAPPY, I tell ya! I have a feeling I’m going to need to make this quilt again. Maybe the wall version this time though.

But, I do have all of the baskets done now.

All the little ones are done.

All the medium ones are done:

It’s just a matter of 12 more basket handles for the long ones…

and the tall ones…

I am hoping to get these done tomorrow. If not the stitching down, at least the shaping. Promise? Let’s not drag this out anymore than we just have to.

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Lucky me!

March 5, 2010 at 5:25 pm · Filed under Fabric, Quilts

The Doll Quilt Swap is always, always fun and inspiring! DQS8 was no exception. I was a little slow at the start this time but I mailed my quilt out today, so I felt I could finally open the package that had been so kindly sent to me. Kristine was completely on the ball and sent the quilt way back in February. I need to take a lesson from her.

She sent me this little charmer:

Can you believe it? How generous to first make the quilt and then to make it out of FLEA MARKET FANCY! Wow! I call that a NICE person!

Thanks so much, Kristine! And thanks again to the wonderful Doll Quilt Swap organizers — it is always FUN!

I am even luckier still though because Katy (I’m going to start calling her Lady Liberty…) asked me a trick question recently. Next thing I knew, this fabulousness arrived in my mail box (via Royal Mail, don’tcha know?!):

Stacks of half hexes. OH MY. I told Katy this will be the thing that makes me happy when I miss out on all of the Liberty print merch coming to Target soon. Really, a Liberty print bike?!?!?!?!? I NEED THAT…