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

She's Baaaaaack :)

Audrey, my granddaughter, is back with me this weekend. I put most of the quilting stuff away and got out the camera. Knowing your priorities is a good thing. We're going outside to look for some mud puddles to stomp in. See you later!

Sharing Information on Squidoo.com

I am, at times, overwhelmed with what is available for free on the internet. Squidoo is interesting to me because they give you a nicely formatted place to share information on subjects that you are passionate about - and they give you a choice of donating any profits from the page you create to charity.

I am pretty passionate about some aspects of quilting and I like to share information for free and I am a firm believer in helping others. Squidoo.com looks like a good fit for me. Unlike a blog, where after about a week a post is lost in Label/Archive limbo - my topic is always there, easy to find and always available for anyone looking for it. That's kind of neat :)

If you are passionate about a subject and you want to share it with the internet world, head on over there and create what they call a 'lens'. Here's mine on different machine quilting systems.

New Books are In!

I received an email from my favorite marketing gal at Krause that the first shipment of the second printing of our book (Crazy Shortcut Quilts) is now in the warehouse!! Yipee!!!

Cure for Thread Backlash

I was having a heck of a time with my decorative stitching and thread backlash in the bobbin. I thought it was the thread (no) the stitch (no) and finally just assumed that the timing was off on the sewing machine (no).

I can't say I know what caused the problem, but I do know what backlash is: bobbin thread whipping backwards in the bobbin case & either bunching up or creating huge globs of thread clusters on the back of the fabric or quilt or winding itself onto the bobbin spring and shredding.

I had read a while ago about a teflon ring that was being sold as a 'cure' for backlash and in desperation, I cut a corner off my teflon pressing sheet and trimmed it to fit the bobbin case and guess what? No more backlash and I have been happily stitching ever since! Now, cutting up the pressing pad was an act of desperation - the teflon rings are available at quilt shops and online at Keepsake Quilting. But, if you're desperate for a solution and don't want to wait.......

Quilting Tools that I Love

I just love anything that makes my sewing and quilting easier, and these 2 things do exactly that: Joan Hawley's Tips DVD and Prym-Dritz curved nickel pins in a size 1.

The first time I saw Joan at Quilt Market, with her booth & business sign that said "Lazy Girl" I stopped in my tracks. Here was a woman I could relate to! I watched her Tips DVD yesterday and it renewed my respect for Joan and my love of her tips. This DVD is mostly about zippers (she uses them in quite remarkable ways on several of her handbag patterns). Lots of sewers are afraid of zippers and Joan removes all the stupid rules I learned in home-ec, back when girls had to take home economics and girls had to wear skirts and dresses to public school (I'm old!). Joan's DVD shows how to put in zippers faster than putting on a binding, and easier too.

While I was watching the DVD I was also doing the boring task of pinning my squares for a new quilt. I had a few bad pins and I opened up a brand new package of Prym Pins. Heaven. Bad pins are worse than useless (into the scrap bin they went) because they pull at the fabric and distort the smoothness I worked so hard to get! These new pins were smooooooth and sweet and between them and watching Joan, made a boring task better.

BTW, if you like the background fabric on the pins photo, it's Cherrywoods hand dyed fabric from their 'Chestnut to Light' colorway. That's what I am working on now.

Quilt Contest!

I just love the Jolly Jabber Blog by the Fat Quarter Shop. They are running a contest right now, using a Moda fabric called 'Simplicity'. Very pretty (for a floral). Hehehehe. Although florals aren't my favorite type of fabric, I really like this line and the contest pushed me over the edge on buying some. I have a new idea that I want to try and this will suit it perfectly.

Here's info on the contest (click here to go to the Jolly Jabber Blog about the contest) and I have received notice that it has been extended until April 6. My challenge shall be to make a small quilt in a day, from start to binding, although I will admit that I bought the Layer Cake, so my first cut is already made. If they send the fabric completely flat then I won't have to press it, saving another half hour or so. I will keep you posted!

Making cutting & pressing easier

As with my custom quilting desk I've improvised my cutting and pressing tables & surfaces. Here are the things I use and like, and why. This table (Sam's Club $42) has 3 height settings, so I can sew on it (sitting down) or stand comfortably and cut fabrics and battings at it's tallest setting of 36" high.
On the table you see my rotary cutter and my 20½" square ruler made by Omni. I just love this for cutting my quilt-as-you-go squares and for cutting batting squares.

I use this gripper stuff after trying several other brands and I just love it! (Walmart) I use it under my laptop, under cutting pads and under the wooden pressing surface that I improvised with a piece of plywood with Warm & Natural batting and muslin fabric. {Lowe's used to carry these smaller pieces of wood in bins in the plywood aisle, or you can buy a sheet of plywood and have them make the cuts for you}.

I just put the piece of gripper on the bare ironing board surface and then place the wood on it and cover it with cotton batting and then muslin.

Don't be afraid to improvise to make your sewing and quilting easier. I like the wood board because it is slightly larger than a fat quarter of fabric (18"x22").

Laughter

Audrey loved her new hat and although it is a bit big, it wasn't too big, it just has room to grow. We had dinner together, Sarah, Ryan, Tom, Audrey and I and it was the most fun I've had in a while. Audrey likes to take my jewelry and for some reason she decided that removing my eyeglass holder chain was the funniest thing in the world. She laughed, and I laughed just to see her laugh and then we were both laughing just because the other one was. Life just doesn't get any better than that.

Easter Collection from TipNut

Wow. TipNut has got it all for Easter! I just love the site and visit it daily. I am in awe of the work that goes into collecting this much information and the fact that it is freely offered! One of my very favorite blogs.

Audrey's Hat

I've been working on a secret project....Audrey's Hat. As you can see from Sarah's blog, Audrey loves to put things on her head. Her favorite thing is a tupperware toy that she pretends is her hat. That made me think that maybe I should make her a hat.

This hat had no design or pattern in mind, just play and relief for me after refurbishing kitchen floors everyday. So each day for the past 4 days, I've cut a little, sewn, agonized over fabrics, tossed my stash around and played. I didn't take photos of the process because I didn't think it would work, but I believe that I have a really cute hat here, and I can't wait to give it to Audrey.

It was hard to make it without her here, to test for size. I used the bear, but he's just not the same as a baby girl - lol :)

So, this weekend I shall see Audrey and give her my gift to her, her very own hat. It's a secret though, so if you see her, don't tell!

I am going to make another one and I'll take photos as I go on that one.

Alaska Fiber Festival

Sarah and I were invited to join the greatest group of gals for the opening night of the Alaska Fiber Festival in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. Here's Sarah Raffuse signing a book for Lee.

It was just so wonderful to see the artistic ladies who organize this awesome event and it was so nice that they remembered me, from the days when I attended meetings with the Anchorage Log Cabin Quilters Guild (and they remembered Sarah because I used to drag her along when she was just a kid). Gail Ramsey, Deb Hardman, Jane Odgers, Roxane Stoner, Mary Hertert are some of the artists and organizers of an event that is so well worth attending.

The Festival is presenting lectures and classes by Kenneth King and Jennie Rayment and the First Friday Gallery walk was just a HUGE success! The artwork will be up until the 16th of March and there will be a Merchant Mall at the Phillips Atrium downtown on the weekend of the 15 & 16th.

I only had time to visit one gallery, Virtu, on 4th Ave across from the Post Office Mall/Sunshine Plaza and what an outstanding display of art they had!! I was told that all of the galleries on the walk were just as exciting and I wish that I had been able to stay longer to visit them all.

(I put up the second photo because the colors are better, but the photo is a bit blurry. The first photo is sharp, but the colors are off.)