Art Quilt Exhibition in Anchorage, Alaska

How lucky can I be to call both Kathy Harte and Judy Wedemeyer friends? These two talented ladies are letting the world see their quilted art works at Terra Bella Bakery & Cafe (on Dimond) in May, beginning with the First Friday Event on May 2, 2008.

Give yourself the treat of enjoying the cafe and the quilt art if you have a chance to be in Anchorage in May.

Booties Part Three

I was in Anchorage for a few days and I spent some time with Audrey. I brought up a small bucket of the things she's used to playing with when she is with me, and here's how that went:

She dove into the bucket, first after her necklaces and then ended up dumping the whole bucket onto the coffee table. Then she went for the purse - and she knew exactly what she was fishing around for in there - her cell phone. No, she doesn't have her own phone at the tender age of 1, I just slipped one of non-functioning phones that we have in the house that haven't been recycled yet.

She grabs that thing every time and flings it right into place and wanders around jabbering at the top of her lungs. It's hysterical. Especially when she gets her arms going - I can tell that her mother must gesture a lot when she's on the phone.

I finally talked her into trying on the booties (way too big - what a surprise - lol) and she liked them. After a while she tossed them aside for the bigger version. I am afraid of taking her shoe shopping now..... what have I started?

Booties Part Two

Using the tracing that I took of Audrey's feet and some quilted muslin from a machine quilting class, I cut out my estimation of the pieces. I love estimating and I do it all the time :)

I pinned the pieces together and I could tell right away that I had overestimated! I could put these things on a moose!

I unpinned and trimmed 3/4" off the upper - all the way around except for the heel, which I had already sewn.

I re-pinned and then stitched, using a walking foot - which was a bad idea, it didn't like the bulk, especially at the gathered bulk in the toe area.
I still think that the booties are too big, but I'll wait and see how they fit on Audrey. I would like to inset some cuff material and make them into pull-on slippers. I have some fake suede for bottoms and maybe fleece for the uppers, with a cuff for snugness?

Booties

What happens when you try to hold steady a wiggly giggly baby with one hand and trace around her ticklish feet with the other hand? Chaos. And this kind of scribble:



Heather Bailey has a free pattern for baby booties that I want to try. I'll make a tester first, to see how they fit, and then make a real pair for Audrey. Her feet are quite a bit bigger than the pattern that Heather offers, so I'll modify as I go, using her basic design and tips for construction.

Almost Spring

I begin to believe that spring is almost here when the daffodils start coming up. We still have several feet of snow in the yard, but around the house it's melting out.

The poor things have to fight their way through the masses of snow we received this winter - but up they come!

I can hardly believe that they push up through the snow pack!




There were even some dandelion shoots and I picked a few for bunny. His first spring treat :) He just loves dandelions!

The Contest

I was motivated to make this quilt (Crazy Shortcake - details here..)by a contest that was posted on the Jolly Jabber blog. All the entries are posted here in this Flickr set.

If you go to the Jolly Jabber Blog, you can vote on the 9 items entered. (I voted for the dress - LOL - I have a hard time voting for myself :)

There were some very nice creations, I hope you have time to take a look.

Etsy

I've been playing with electrons again. This time helping a gal fix her blog ring. We're getting to know each other via email and blogs, and every day I learn something new about her. She has a very funny email address and whenever she emails me I laugh out loud; she has pet rabbits living in her studio (just like me); she's quite generous and kind and she's got some cool stuff in her Etsy Shop called Littleputbooks.

If you have never been to Etsy, well, all I can say is "pour a cuppa, you're going to be there awhile".

My friend Holly Knott has a shop there too. But don't just stop with these two, use the search engine and take a look around the Rodeo Drive of the internet.

Bobbin Blowout

I can hardly believe my eyes, but I have a bobbin disaster. I am using a bobbin thread (new brand) and it is blowing out the sides of my bobbins. All of the bobbins in the photo used to be the same size before I loaded on this thread! I have a stand alone bobbin winder that I have used for years (even when longarming, so it has seen plenty of use) and I've used bobbin thread for years (a different brand) but I've never seen anything like this before! Yikes!

I did get a decent bobbin wound by using the winder on the sewing machine, and don't ask me how or why it worked because I have no idea. I wound the thread off the bobbin you see to the far right in the photo - and this is what was left on it after the other bobbin was full.

Quilt Photography

I have a good set up for hanging small quilts for photography. It's a rolling clothing rack (about $12 at Walmart) and yards of stiff poly fleece (this is not the soft jacket style fleece) draped over it and 2 chunks of rigid foam insulation (my favorite building material!).

I used silk pins - they have almost no head - to pin straight through the quilt, fleece and into the chunk of foam.

There is very little distortion to the quilt (it would be better on a flat wall, I know this, but I don't have the space) making it a good compromise.

I was surprised that the whole lap sized quilt was able to be suspended by just the fleece, so the pins really just perform the task of keeping it straight and keeping it from falling off while I am trying to take the picture.

Holly Knott shares her very helpful tips for quilt photography here.

I did it!

There's nothing like a deadline to motivate me, and I am willing to admit it: I am a procrastinator.

I knew that I could make the quilt in a day, and I still waited until noon to re-start the project. In between sewing I had a few other chores, and took off an hour to watch "Sense and Sensibilities" but I finished the quilt at 11:49p.m last night (Sunday night).

It's really pretty and my photos don't do the fabric justice.

The layer cake squares arrived already cut into 10"x10" squares and wrapped with stiff cardboard (no ironing necessary!) so I was able to just sort and cut ~ sweet! Thanks Fat Quarter Shop and Jolly Jabber for putting me back into fabric mode!

This small quilt (36" x 45") is made with:
1 Layer Cake of Simplicity Fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop (a layer cake is 40 squares cut 10" x 10") for the top and back and
1 yard of Simplicity Tonal Pink Garden for the sashing and binding. The cutting and quilt-as-you-go instructions are from our book, Crazy Shortcut Quilts.

Confession: I usually preview the layout of the fabrics on the back of the quilt as well as the front, but I let time get away from me and never even looked. So, it's a jumble, with similar fabrics next to each other instead of spread out and balanced. Guess what? It's just as warm and cuddly either way - all in all a pretty nice quilt! :)

Crazy Shortcake

Yesterday evening I cut, pressed, layered and pinned my quilt squares. (about 2½ hours)








This afternoon I added the decorative stitching (also about 2½ hours). I'm going to take a short break and then cut sashing strips.









I'm calling it Crazy Shortcake (so far) because I am using our Crazy Shortcut method on the Moda Layer Cake fabrics - Crazy Short-Cake :)

Time to make a QUILT!

I am cutting fabric for a new quilt! Yayyyyyyy! I've been up to my eyeballs in html, webs, blogs, rings and mud (cleaning up electrons and rabbit ranges). Now, it's Fabric Time. (say that like the commercial would say "Miller Time" - -lol)

The Fat Quarter Shop (I am still not sure if this is a good thing or a dangerous thing) had my fabric order to me about 20 seconds after I clicked "Buy Now". Hehehehe

That Moda Layer Cake stack of fabrics has been sighing to me all week - "come quilt me" it whispers..."forget that computer stuff, come play with faaaaabbriiic".

So, the ring is fixed, the word is out, the web is updated, the bunnies are taken care of and now it's time to play. I know exactly what I want to do with this quilt - it's partly tried and true with partly testing out a few new ideas too. My favorite!

Oh, and I know who's going to get it too!! I just love that part, thinking about who I am going to give it to while I am making it. It makes me happy.

Blog Ring - update

I have created a new blog ring for quilt designers and I invite every quilt designer, pattern designer, quilt book author and anyone in the business of quilting (who blogs) to join the ring and have some fun!

Go here and put in your blog address and then install the code in your sidebar and Whoopeee!!! We're surfing again!

Ringsurf Problems - the Blog Ring Links don't work

I am sorry to say that the blog rings on RingSurf are not working. I have been testing them on & off all day and finally have contacted them and am awaiting a reply. I know that the rings have been down for about a day so far and I can't wait any longer for them to fix things without posting about it.

I love surfing the rings - I find some great blogs that way! Update: I created a tutorial on how to create a new blog ring here and here. It's easy and I enourage everyone on ringsurf to change over and replace their ring on alt-webring.com Click Here