May | 2010 | Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts

Archive for May, 2010

Happy camper

May 26, 2010 at 4:32 pm · Filed under Fabric, Field Trips

It’s the fun-filled nearing-the-end-of-the-school-year. It keeps a person hopping. One person hopped off to a couple of days of camp. Oh my, those are small kid-filled cabins. Did I mention it’s been really warm here? I’m expecting the camp laundry to be extra smelly. Can’t wait. Should hit full ripeness about this time tomorrow.

Guess what sits on the very same road as the camp? Just guess. A lovely quilt shop. Yep. Goodies at every turn. I’ll schedule my volunteer time next year so that it doesn’t overlap with hubby’s volunteer time. Ahem. I worked quickly:

Now, I ask you, who needs lunch when there is delectable fabric to look at? Pshaw!

Look, something to eat!

As Arnold would say: I’ll be back.

When the camp laundry arrives, I may have to go out to the back yard for regular sniffs of these:

Ahhhhh, peony time!

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Do I smell cake?

May 20, 2010 at 1:17 pm · Filed under Books, Fabric, Field Trips

You’re invited for cake and coffee. Come on over! I’m a plain birthday cake kind of a girl. No fondant, no filling, no chocolate, no nuts. Old school birthday cake. I’m pretty picky about frosting though. None of that flavorless whippy stuff that tastes more like Crisco than anything. Yummy. I made the household aware that I was ordering my birthday cake. So that we wouldn’t have two birthday cakes. That has happened. Not that two cakes would be a bad thing. Just a little unnecessary and perhaps indulgent.

It’s been kind of an if-fy week. But things are vastly improved today. And not just because there’s cake. Let’s see, I’ve had lots of coffee in lots of forms. My favorite was the soup bowl of caff-uccino at a neighborhood restaurant. Then I went to a garage sale. I had high hopes for that sale — one of the participants is a known vintage fabric person. Alas. I did find a new book:

The story of a patchwork quilt with magical powers. We all know about that. There are some funny bits:

“It is pretty,” my father admitted, “but what are you going to do with it?”

Ha!

I like the color scheme of the illustrations too.

Nice aquas, greens, grey and gold.

After the lack of stash enhancement at the garage sale, I wandered off to a local fabric shop.

I finally picked up some of the Westminster Liberty “Aft” Fabric. Crack me up — the selvage all says “Aft” instead of “Art.” I also picked up some M&S Textiles aboriginal prints. I kind of like these fabrics all together. Hmm…

Had to get a little of the great Alexander Henry owls on canvas:

I have some on light grey background, but you can’t have too many cute owl fabrics.

That’s the day so far. I also got a new camera. It’s similar to my old camera but with just enough changes to drive a person a little bonkers. So far I don’t think it’s made my photos magically better. I guess I should really read the manual and maybe even Photography for Dummies. Speaking of which, it takes GREAT video of the dogs.

Don’t forget, come on over for cake!

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SSSQ Quilt-along

May 14, 2010 at 12:42 pm · Filed under Fabric, Great Quilt Patterns, Quilts

Jackie showed what she’s working on for the Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts quilt-along — her bright and beautiful Bordered Diamonds.

I’ve been sitting with a start for the quilt-along for a couple of weeks. Wondering what to do next. Shocked that it took two entire days to sew up a fairly small top.

I started with the Striped Donut pattern from SSSQ and maybe 45 inches of pastel Serape. The Serape fabric is one that you look at and think, “say, good lookin’, you’re full of mystery and surprises, aren’t you? You and your hazy unevenness….” Something like that anyway. I got a small pile of small print coordinates for the corner triangles, decided to cut the stripe so that it would efficiently use the width of the fabric and away we went. Surely this could go together and be off the design bed in a day.

Surely you jest. I powered through to the evening of the second day. Bound to get it off the design bed because I didn’t want to screw up the order trying to lay it out again properly the next day (note to self: install design WALL).

So, there that is. I’m still poring through the book looking for inspiration for the border.

I am thinking the border may involve this:

I am hoping the border does not involve this:

Don’t worry, I’ll save them for something. Maybe the border…

In the meantime, there’s still time to join the quilt-along. There’s also a fascinating Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts blog tour rolling along. Nice of them to have these festivities during my birthday month!

Oh, and the chintz squares have been put together:

I decided it needed a little bit of bordering too.

Hope there’s sunshine where you are!

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The great debate

May 12, 2010 at 3:15 pm · Filed under Books, Fabric, Quilts

I sewed the big wheel blocks together this morning. It sat on the bed most of the day. I’m this close to cutting it apart and making the blocks smaller. That’s a lot of background. But then again, I may leave them as they are and put a small inner border and a little more background just on the sides. Or… I might just round the corners after it’s quilted and put on a nice blue binding of some sort. Hmm…

While that debate raged on, I started a little something from this wonderful book:

Honestly, this is a great book. The quilt designs let the fabrics sing. I’m reading every word because I don’t want to miss a detail. The text about Jane’s inspirations left me dreaming of colors and shapes and quilts. I also decided I need to get out more so I can have more inspiration. In the meantime, I saw some colorful English beach huts while watching Pirate Radio today. Does that count?

Anyway, I’m starting with Charming Chintz. I changed the 16-patches to nine-patches. Jane’s arrangement also matches one small print with one large print throughout the quilt. I’m messing around with the small prints. We’ll see. There may be a debate about that later too.

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Go see!

May 10, 2010 at 5:18 pm · Filed under Fabric

Time to go see what the new Kaffe, Martha Negley and Marylebone Liberty fabrics look like!

Swoon and stuff! I’m planning a blue and white quilt. Guess I’ll have to wait so I can add some of the new blue and whites.

LOVE it all, of course. Notable are the Kaffe ombres and the COLORS of the Martha Negley prints. Oh dear.

Oh, and you can see the new Amy Butler fabric… but it’s not coming until September. Sniffle.

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You’re welcome

May 5, 2010 at 11:58 am · Filed under Quilts

I am only kidding with that title. I’ve been wracking my brain working on a method so that I would not have to hand applique those large wheels from yesterday. Not that I am averse to hand applique — I quite enjoy it. I just don’t have time to hand applique those wheels right now. And I WANT THAT QUILT DONE while it’s still fresh in my mind. Oh, and the ric rac applique edge wasn’t going to fit my vision. What to do, what to do?

Complicating things is the open center in the wheel. Yes, I know I could applique a circle over it. But let’s solve this in one fell swoop, shall we?

Yes, let’s.

OK, pretend this is one of the wheels. I’m starting with a 6 1/2″ square and a 7″ square of Pattern Ease. Any lightweight non-fusible interfacing will work. I’ve used fusible for a similar application, but let’s not get the iron messy, shall we?

SO, here’s your “donut” circle and a square of Pattern Ease that is slightly larger:

Lay the donut right side down on the Pattern Ease square — you may want to carefully pin these two together to lessen any shifting:

Stitch 1/4″ from the outer and inner raw edges:

Trim the Pattern Ease even with the outer and inner raw edges — I also clipped the inner curve:

Next, cut into the Pattern Ease only — halfway between the inner and outer edges

Now, flip the Pattern Ease over the outer edge, essentially turning it inside out so that the Pattern Ease goes to the back:

Use a chopstick or knitting needle to smooth the outer curve and press the outer edge.

Turn the Pattern Ease left around the inner ring to the back:

Smooth the inner seam with a chopstick or knitting needle and press.

Here’s what the reverse side looks like at this point:

Trim away most of the Pattern Ease leaving it approximately even with the 1/4″ seam allowance:

Eureka!

This finished circle can now be machine stitched to the background. Now, if one should desire, this circle could also now be hand appliqued to the background. See, with the big wheels, there are a lot of seams around those edges. The thought of dealing with that while maintaining a lovely 1/4″ turn-under was a little daunting. Problem solved. Yes, I know that you can still see a tad of the Pattern Ease. Well, be more careful next time. And/or applique to a white background. You’re welcome. 🙂

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Figure it out

May 4, 2010 at 1:24 pm · Filed under Fabric, Quilts

Things aren’t getting DONE, but they’re getting figured out. Figuring things out doesn’t necessarily feel like progress. But it has to be done. So, today is figure it out day around here.

Last week, inspired by this gorgeous bombshell of a quilt over at Ann Champion’s blog (I’ve looked at it so much, my browser knows its way there), I made six of these “big wheels.”

My brain has imagined how it wants this to look. Now I just have to do the math. The math tells me I need at least another three yards of background. Note to self: don’t let the wedge ruler be in charge of things.

Silly me, I thought I could resist Rural Jardin. And then I started mixing it with other things. Silly me.

Also figuring out some smaller wheels today.

Hmmm, still can’t let go of the French General fabric, can we?

And I need to figure out how I want to quilt this:

It’s almost too much to think about in one day. Maybe I’ll take a quick break with a delicious new book:

Although I have a feeling that spending time with this will have me figuring out some more things.

I’d better stick to today’s list.

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Electric Quilt 7

May 2, 2010 at 10:01 am · Filed under Everyday Things, Quilts

As a Mac user, I’ve only dabbled with Electric Quilt. I missed the upgrade to EQ6 after it appeared that the in-house tech department couldn’t hook me up with Windows XP. And now we have Windows XP, so I’m thinking I might have to leap up to EQ7 when it’s released. When I draw up quilt patterns now, I use Adobe InDesign but I would really love to see teeny fabric swatches appear in those little squares and rectangles and triangles. I could really envision better with EQ. I’m thinking it would also help my total ineptitude with freehand drawing on the computer. So, I’m looking forward to the new EQ7. Oh, did you know that Electric Quilt makes wonderful stand-alone software (i.e., you don’t need the Electric Quilt software to use them) too — my faves are Sue Spargo’s and Amy Butler’s.

Tomorrow, EQ will post links to 10 blogs that will be hosting Electric Quilt 7 giveaways. Be sure to check that out on May 3!

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