a little English paper piecing episode

Don't ask me why - I've got a couple of new handwork projects started.

I guess I have very little resistance to something eye catching!

It doesn't help that I have a group of like-minded people at Bear Patch!  We have our monthly Paper Pizzazz group, plus I have co-workers who aid and abet me!

The blocks you see below first caught my attention in a quilt called Floating Colors that I saw on the Paper Pieces website.  It is from a book titled Millifiore Quilts.

Later, I saw another quilt called Quatro Colors by Sue Daley, and I put 1 + 1 together and figured out that they are actually the same block.

 

I ended up ordering the acrylic templates and necessary paper templates to make a few of these blocks.  I got the starter pack, this made me feel like I wasn't tackling anything that I couldn't manage!  Well, now that I've dabbled a bit with colors and shapes, I might want to get a few more blocks done and put this together for something to hang on my wall.

If you are comparing the 2 quilts, Floating Colors and Quatro Colors, the difference in them is a 45 degree turn.  Also, the Floating Colors uses assorted colored pieces where I have used light background pieces in mine.

I don't really have a good color plan worked out for my blocks, I'm basically just picking things that I like out of my stash and mixing it up as I go.  We'll see what develops!

Then, at the Quilt Market in St. Louis last Spring, I saw a new Sue Daley block program that interested me.  Since I'm the leader of the Paper Pizzazz group, it's part of my job to bring new ideas and projects to the group.  Debbie (my Bear Patch boss) is a great enabler.  She always tells me that if I like it, go for it!  So, I ended up ordering this Round We Go Block of the Month program.  There are 5 more people starting this along with me, and we can sign up more if you are interested.

Below is my first attempt at picking colors and fabrics for a block.  The block is round and after it's assembled it will be appliqued to a background square.  This picture just shows my bits of fabric laid together on a design board.  I'll be able to show you a better picture when I get some sewing done.

I just finished a book, The Lost Boy, that is a real page turner.  I've read some other books in the series by Camilla Lackberg, and this has the same recurring characters.  I've discovered that there are 8 books in the series, so I should figure out which I've read and which are still out there waiting for me.  This happened to be an actual softcover book loaned to me by a friend (a Paper Pizzazz friend!).  Mostly I've been checking out digital download books from the library, and I was so happy when I figured out that I can get them on my phone and play them over the car speakers when I'm driving.  It's great when technology works in my favor!  With a drive of 40-45 minutes to get to work, I can move through a book at a good pace.

Read any good books lately?

this and that

Last weekend, we (Bob and I) made a little journey south.  We were hoping for a bit of warmer weather to counteract the unusually cold spring we are having, but the weather really didn't get much better.  After all, it's less than 200 miles, so we shouldn't expect to wear flip flops with our winter coats, right?!

We did get to attend a baby shower for my niece, Nora, hosted by 2 of her girlfriends.  It's Nora's first, and her mom's first grandbaby, so I really enjoyed catching up with them on how this baby-making is progressing!  Here's Nora, with her mom, Mary, and my mom, too.  This will be my mom's 6th great-grandchild and the 4th boy.

One of the shower decorations was this sign, and I love the verse on it!

Meanwhile, my own little grandson, Leo, is growing by leaps and bounds!  We went from the 20th percentile on growth curves at his 1 month checkup, to 50th percentile at 2 months!  I think he's determined to catch up with his big brothers, Ian and Jack.

I can't wait for Nora and Mary to get the chance to ooh and aah over their little guy's milestones!  Leo is starting to smile and interact in a real way, not just hopeful thinking!

I'm into baby-hat-knitting mode, and here's another one just finished!

And another cast on!

This yarn looks a lot like denim.  It's called Tenderfoot and comes from The Polka Dot Sheep out of Whitefish, MT.  The color is named Stillwater.  I've lost the name of the yarn used in that first hat, unfortunately.  I really should get better about keeping the names and care info with the yarn, but if the yarn sometimes needs to be wound into a ball or "cake", and then the label doesn't stay connected.

No sewing done here except to get the quilting and binding done on 2 quilts for classes at Bear Patch, that was on a deadline so I was very happy just to meet that deadline!  Especially since I was the one that set that deadline for all the class samples to be turned in!

Along with getting all the class samples ready for display, there is a lot of "backroom" work on the computer, which is what I have spent some time on the last few days.  If you want to see proof of my labors, just look through the class information for the store's website.  Click on any class, and you will get a full description plus details.  I'm glad that's all done for now, but I'm still looking for errors every time I look at it!  There are a lot of dates and times and requirements to include, and after awhile they are all swimming around in my head like a whirlpool!

Today, I'm swearing off computers and going outside while the sun is shining so I can pull some weeds!  Have a great day!

feeling lucky!

I know there's a lot of problems all around the world, and many things to obsessively worry about it I choose to go that way.  However, I'm am trying to maintain a positive feeling in my everyday life, without being Pollyanna-ish.  I just had a great time with my mom visiting us, and a quilt retreat, and a relaxing weekend.  I am even feeling really good about the fact that we have done a thorough sort and purge and reorganization of another storage closet!  

And some really fun things to look forward to on the horizon, too-- Dan visiting and bringing Jessica to meet us, a couple more quilt retreats planned, and, drumroll please, 

another grandson due in March!  Woo-hoo!

2 weeks ago while on quilt retreat, a few of us took a field trip to a new (to me) quilt shop in called Altoona, WI.  That's on the eastern border of Eau Claire.  It's called Stitch Supply.  I will definitely be going there again!  They have the largest assortment of Cotton + Steel fabrics that I have seen.  It kinda required me to buy several fat quarters of some of the prints that we haven't ordered for Bear Patch.  Don't they look fun?!  Odd bugs, fountain pens, rotary dials, matchsticks, jacks...

Good additions to my fabric gallery!

My mom stayed with us for a few days after that retreat, then flew out to Whitefish, MT, to visit Dan.  She can get a direct flight from Minneapolis to Kalispell, which makes it easy.  She was there 5 days, then came back to our house for an overnight before returning to Iowa.  Before she left Montana, she asked if she could bring me anything.  I jokingly said I would love a fresh huckleberry pie.  Well, she carried a piece of that pie all the way back to me!  I was so excited!  I'm eating only a little at a time so I can make it last!

After finishing up my recent garment sewing experience - and I will definitely try to get a picture of it in action - I really wanted to get back to sewing some quilt blocks.  So I picked up where I left off at retreat and went back to work on these faux wedding ring blocks--

I have some sewn together, and the rest in different stages of assembly.    I would like to get this done to put on the class schedule at the store after the 1st of the year.  

I did complete another small quilt, below, that could also become a class.  It's called Timbuktu, and I started working on it last January.  It requires the use of the X-blocks ruler.  After I got the quilting done, I couldn't remember if I had binding for it already picked out.  A lot of times I do that, and I usually put a little label on that piece of fabric and store it in a little box.  Labeled "Bindings", of course!  I looked all over the place for a cut of that green fabric because it seemed logical to me that I would have chosen that for the binding.  I never could find it, and it finally dawned on me that maybe it was a different fabric.  I found what was left from the backing fabric, and there was plenty of that to cut binding strips, so that's what I did!

Last week at Bear Patch, we received an order that included these hexagon pre-cuts of the most recent Tula Pink fabric line.  They work just right with my 2" hexagon papers for English Paper Piecing, so I have been getting those ready to stitch together.  Tonight is our employee sewing night at the store and I will be taking that along to work on.

I recently wrote about our English paper piecing group at Bear Patch, and I included the recipe for a yummy dip that I made.  Today I am making it again to share with my co-workers!  Time to get to the grocery store and pick up a few things needed!  I hope your day is lucky, too!

quilting getaway

Great times with good friends and fabric!

That's what quilt retreats are all about!

I'm in Augusta, WI, at Bridge Creek Cottage.  I've been here several times, and probably written about it here before.  This time my mom even got to come along!

Yesterday I worked on my Little Rings quilt that I wrote about in the previous post.  Except for the time that we took a field trip to Eau Claire to visit Stitch Supply and The Calico Shoppe.  The Stitch Supply store was especially interesting to me, it will need a follow-up visit!

I did get a lot of sewing done to get the parts of the rings all together and now ready to sew into blocks.  They look very promising!

Today, I had a project hop.  I hopped from one thing to another!

One of the things that I worked on was a few blocks for my zigzag quilt.  I've been making lots of half-square triangles using triangle paper and my collection of solids.  (I've been using papers from Quiltime and Triangulations.  Thangles or other brands would also work.)  I have many more sets of fabrics pinned to papers and folded up in my project box, ready to be sewn.  These are the perfect short notice sewing tasks when I have 30 minutes to spare, and pretty mindless because I have them all set to go.

I had enough to arrange some on the wall, I know the color arrangement doesn't look that great but it has a long way to go yet.

Here's a picture of my mom and the quilt she put together today.  The 12 blocks were some that I had made earlier (much earlier) and had never been finished in a quilt.  So I put together a layout on EQ7 and found out how much more fabric would be needed.  When we were at the Calico Shoppe, she found the right colors of blue, red, green and cream to work together.  The blocks were actually made from Thimbleberries fabrics which were plentiful at that time, but not so much now.

Both she and the quilt look fantastic!

This afternoon I worked on this quilt, and it really went together fast.  I saw it on the Chicken Scratch blog written by Mary Etherington.  She has the directions on the blog page.

It used a jellyroll plus 10 more strips, which were solids from my stash.  I had the strips all ready and paired up so I didn't have to take time to ponder what goes with what today.   

I also made this little pumpkin tablerunner from blocks that were partly already sewn.  When I taught the Mini Pumpkins class at Bear Patch, I had several pieces underway to use for demonstration.  So I pulled together what I would need to make a small assortment of pumpkins, and this is how it turned out.....

We also have been sewing together pillowcases that will be donations through Bear Patch.  At the store, we cut a lot of pillowcase kits to be sewn and donated.  I brought some of those kits along and taught my mom how to run the serger, so she has been whipping up pillowcases!

Tomorrow we sew for the morning, then pack up and leave after lunch.  

I'll continue working on what's not finished, and some can wait in their boxes or bags for another day at another retreat.

special delivery!

 I feel like I can take a deep breath and relax after stressing for awhile about creating a new pattern for our Quilt MN event.  At Bear Patch, I am given the opportunity and freedom to create something new each year with this special edition fabric collection.  This year, I decided to think back a couple of years and re-invent a row quilt design I have used before.  This is the result:

Ten by Emmaline Design

 Here's a closeup of one of the sections, including portions of the great border print that I used.

I had a couple of challenges to put together the pieced blocks that I used.  The fish blocks, shown in the picture above, were derived from another block that I found when I was looking for something to create a frame.  It actually included diamond shapes where the orange pieces are, but I was pretty sure that few people would really want to tackle little set-in diamonds with Y-seams!  So I converted it over to triangles and flying geese blocks to get a similar look.  

I think they look like fish fins and tails!

I also had to do a bit of head scratching to create this chain link row!  I had seen something similar somewhere, but needed to make it fit into the dimensions of 8" x 48".  And find a way to end it neatly without a partial link chopped off!  I like the way it looks now!

If you are interested in making this quilt, we can send you a pattern through Bear Patch.  (I don't do any direct retail sales myself.)  Call 651-429-1039 if you would like to request one.

Also, I put together some of the tools and supplies that would be most helpful in making this quilt:

Starting at the upper left and moving clockwise:

a square ruler 8 1/2" or larger

a rotary cutter with a sharp blade

good scissors

Companion Angle ruler

Strip Stick

Clearly Perfect Angles

a cute pincushion with good (not bent) pins

a chacoliner for marking

mechanical pencil

frixion pen

an awl

seam ripper, get a good one like this one from Clover

good thread like Aurifil

a 4 1/2" square ruler

2 1/2" x 6 1/2" ruler

new needles

If you put those all together, you are much more likely to be successful!

I will be posting some other tutorial-like information over on the Bear Patch blog.

summer fun

What I've been doing this summer:

1.  Admiring the beauty of nature!

I only wish these gorgeous flowers could last longer!

2.  Quilting for a customer, a hand-embroidered quilt from a pattern by Crabapple Hill.  There are many beautiful designs from Meg on her website and available at Bear Patch.  

This one is called Vintage Tin.

I took this picture to show the little wireless speaker that I attach to my handlebars to listen to recorded books while I work.  It's called the Buckshot and is made by Outdoor Tech.  The holder is intended for use on bicycle handlebars, but it fits right on my machine handlebars, too!  I get most of my books through the Anoka County Library as digital downloads on my iPhone.  With this little speaker, I can still hear the recording and the sound of the machine at the same time.  I have to have an ear to the machine to pick up on the noises and sounds that alert me to a problem.  Headphones don't work as well for that.

3.  Visiting North Carolina to get some playtime with my little guys!

Happy Jack!

The best selfie I could get of the boys and Brita together.

We had something fun to do every day, and I learned all about the favorite books, videos, foods and anything else you can imagine in the life of a 2 and 4 year old!

4.  Starting a new quilt design for a new pattern.

This is for the Quilt MN fabric and shop hop starting 7/29.  So I need to keep pushing to get this done!  I have it all done in my head, but that doesn't really count!

I'm using a row quilt layout again, with the border print cut and place between rows of pieced blocks.

It's coming along, but there's still a lot of work to be done.  The top row of spool blocks is pretty straightforward, that's a block that's been made many times.  The row of chain blocks was something I pretty much had to invent to get the right size and shape that I wanted.  So that took awhile.  The bottom row of fish blocks was a block design that I found in my EQ program, but had to modify.  It was made with diamonds and Y-seams where the orange points are.  That type of construction is not easy, and I want this pattern to appeal to any quilter who looks at it.  So I re-drafted it to incorporate half-square triangles instead.

I have one more row of different blocks to make, then assemble the rows with borders, get it quilted, bound, photographed.  And write up the directions!  And get them printed and packaged, too.  And kits cut!  But hey, I've got 24 days to do it in!

What are you doing this summer!

Good Bye 1990's!

I think it's been a long time since I have stripped wallpaper, and that's a good thing!  And luckily, it's only a border strip and not entire walls.  This was so very pretty back in the early 90's in Brita's bedroom, but it has lost its charm!  The room is due for an update.  

Repaint and new flooring to start with.  Then window treatments and who knows what else.  There is still a twin bed in there along with a baby crib.  That's in addition to a boatload of sewing, knitting, crafting materials.  That all had to be moved out during the past few days.  Now small job.  I started out sort of sorting and organizing before packing stuff in boxes, but I'm on a deadline, so most of it just got lumped into boxes and will have to be sorted before it goes back in the room.  I'm leaving in a couple days for a little sewing getaway for a week, and Bob says he will work on the paint and floor while I am gone.  I could not pass up an offer like that!

 Thought I would share a couple fun Christmas pictures with you--we went to North Carolina and had an excellent time with kids and grandkids and friends there.  A very warm and friendly holiday celebration for all of us.  We gave the little boys each a sleeping bag, and they were immediately rolled out on the floor for play naptime!  I tried to get a selfie with Ian and Jack, but it's hard to maintain control of the camera when those little guys want to see what's going on!

Before Christmas, I made a fun new tablerunner for the Christmas display at Bear Patch--

Pattern by Tiger Lily Press, and all those curvy lines are pretty easy to sew.  I'm offering it as a class soon.  I also made the tablerunner shown below--

This one happened on a whim, because we got the new Mini Quick Curve Ruler (by Sew Kind of Wonderful) in the store, and I took one home to try out.  There was a little tablerunner pattern included with the ruler, and that orange and red popped off my shelves to make some quick blocks.  Really not so hard, and I have another pattern for pumpkins made with that ruler in the works.

In October (I think) I worked on this quilt at 2 retreats, and it's finally all together and on display at Bear Patch for a future class.  It is a pattern called Delight from Jaybird Quilts.

I finished the pair of Man Hands gloves I talked about in the previous post, along with a stocking cap.  They are both on their way to Whitefish, MT, to keep Dan from freezing this winter!

It's not very often that I get my kids together in one place, plus my mom, so I have to share our Christmas picture with you!

Back to the wallpaper!

good things pop up

Something new and fun!

The Fat Quarter Pop-Up, a brand new pattern by Joanne, AKA The Fat Quarter Gypsy.

I met Joanne when she has been shopping for fabric at Bear Patch and followed her progress designing quilt patterns.  She's doing a good job, as you will see when you visit her website.  

Yesterday she was the guest designer at Bear Patch during our Twin Cities Shop Hop.  She brought this brand new pattern and it was the buzz all day long!  The pattern comes packaged with the heavy-duty coiled wire (custom shaped by her own professional wire guy), elastic and even the little label!

Here's my first pop-up, made within the last hour.  It stands up straight, but compresses down to be secured with the elastic so it's ready for travel.  This one stands about 6" high, and other sizes are in the works.  One thing she mentions in her pattern is using wonder clips when it comes to sewing the body to the bottom, but since I can only find 3 of my clips, I ended up pinning.  Hence the 2 blood spots toward the bottom of the bag!  I will be experimenting to see what removes those!

It's great to see something easy and fun, and to hear Joanne talk about it you just can't help but become enthused!  In 2 weeks she will be unveiling the pattern to shop owners from all over the world at the Quilt Market in Minneapolis.  I hope it is a great success for her!

works in progress

You might recall that last summer we had a major overhaul of our kitchen and bathroom.  Turned out wonderfully, and of course, leads to other desires to update our home.  Like dominoes falling, so goes the home improvement projects!  In our second story area, there is still carpet in the bedroom (AKA sewing room #2) and loft/office that needs to go.  I'm tired of ignoring the stains, putting rugs over the worst spots, etc.  A couple years ago, Bob masterfully replaced the old carpet in my #1 sewing room (I basically have 3!) with DIY wood flooring from IKEA.  We would like to continue with that idea over the rest of the carpeted area, but there is an obstacle in our way.  When the house was built, we didn't have a good grip on what was going to happen with the log posts that support the railing, and the floor that they rest upon.  The carpet was installed and cut to fit around the posts and wrap over the exposed edge, which worked.  Now, however, when we rip out that carpeting, we have to go back to square one and modify the design.  

This is the way it looks now.

We need it to become more like this, with wood underneath the posts and covering the edge.

We have been pondering what would be the best approach to get this done and procrastinating because we either have to decide to bite the bullet and hire someone to take over, or figure out how we are going to do it for ourselves.  We are great DIY'ers, but we do have our limits!  Well, I couldn't wait any longer, and one night last week I just started prying and pulling until I could get the edge of the carpet loosened and pulled up.  This is what we found:

I remember when this carpet was laid, the workmen were not very happy about putting the carpet around the posts, and now I understand why.  They had to cut little pieces of that tackstrip stuff to fit around each post.  Then attach the carpet and bring it over the front edge to attach there.

Well, I guess we are committed now, because there is a chunk of carpet missing and bare wood that needs to be dealt with!

On to things I can handle more easily--

a little candlemat that I made from English paper piecing diamonds, along with wool and fabric.  It will be a little pattern for my Paper Pizzazz class at Bear Patch in a couple months.  It's an easy sew, and turned out well.  I especially like the fact that I found a cute little basket and candle to go with it!

And below is an arrangement of fabric stapled to canvas frames.  Like a fabric collage.  I want to hang these on the bedroom wall, they coordinate with the quilt on our bed.  Well, a couple of these are not actually stapled at the time I took the picture, because the stapler failed.  Not to worry, I figured out how to take it apart and free up the jam inside and I got the stapling done.  Now I have to get the spacing figured out and hang these up!

2 finishes

I have finally had a little uninterrupted (well, mostly) time in my sewing room to finish up some things for new classes at the store.  Right now is the back to school time of year, and that carries over to the store, too!  We have a long list of new classes opening up, for a full list go to the "Classes" tab on the website and choose the list of classes from the drop down menu.

I am really happy to finally get things pulled together for a new class I have wanted to get organized for quite awhile.  Since learning how to do English Paper Piecing a couple of years ago, I have wanted to do more with all of the different shapes.  Maybe it's the geometry thing, I always did like that class!  But stacking, moving, shifting, reversing and twisting those shapes fascinates me.  I know, dorky!

This new class will meet once a month or so (I plan to lay low during December!).  It's mostly a social and work time for anyone who wants to come, but each time I will have a new "featured shape" and a project that showcases that shape.

Our first class (in October) will feature the clamshell and this pillow project as an example of how to use them.

Then, in November, we will feature the tumbler shape, and the instructions for this little zipper tote.  It was fun to put together the tumblers using a little "Moda Candy" pack that I had picked up somewhere.  This pack is a bundle of 2 1/2" squares cut from a whole group of coordinating fabrics.  Makes it so easy to get a bunch of prints that go together.

I assembled all of the tumblers and then had to decide what they would be used for.  Not another pillow.  Maybe a little tote?  Make that a zippered tote!  I appliqued (by machine) the tumbler blocks onto the turquoise fabric, added some Soft and Stable, lining, zipper, and voila!

After I had it all together, it needed a really good steam press.  Which is hard to do on these 3-dimensional objects.  I was reaching for my pressing ham (which needed a dusting) and realized that my special little pressing mitt would be just right for this.  It actually is an oven glove or potholder for cooking, made of some of that heat resistant silicone stuff.  It's pretty firm, yet flexible.  It fits on my hand like a mitten, and I wear that on one hand inside the little tote while holding the iron in the other hand and moving the iron over the area that needs pressing.  It's a little clumsy, but it just dawned on me that it would work so much better to have a 3rd hand!  Look out, Bob!  Next time you will be wearing the mitt!

And now my next task is to write up the directions for these 2 projects!

Then, for my wool applique class, I really should get these 4 little guys quilted and bound.  They are part of my on-going wool applique group at the store.  It's been fun to see the combinations of wool and cotton, piecing and applique.  These patterns are all designed by Stacy West of Buttermilk Basin.

October

November

December

January

And speaking of Stacy, I am so excited to be a student of hers at a special event she is organizing.  It is just a few short weeks away!  She is using a barn in the Wisconsin countryside for what I hope will be an annual event.  Classes, shopping, food and fiber!  I might never leave!  You, too, can attend.  All the info is on her website.

whew!

A lot of busyness going on, living every minute with as much oomph as I can muster!  A little trauma in our lives last week when Ian had to have a tonsillectomy, not a good experience for a 2 year old that has no concept of what's really happening to him!  After surgery, he stayed overnight with his papa, mama and favorite things near:  pillow, blankie, trains, ipad, juice, monkey and videos to distract from the soreness and strange surroundings.  Recovery has been a rocky road at home, with the most irritable and hard-to-please child that I have seen in forever!  Well, he is progressing, and that is excellent.  The tonsils had to be removed due to hypertrophy, causing airway and swallowing problems.  So the fact that he will be able to sleep without apnea and snoring is wonderful!

And while big brother was struggling, Baby Jack was giggling!

I got to spend a lot of time with Jack over a few days, which was great.  And now I'm playing catch-up with getting 3 patterns ready for display and purchase at Bear Patch.

These use the new 2014 Quilt MN fabrics, and are part of a large display and collection at the store.  If you want to know more, head on over to the Bear Patch blog where I will be showcasing projects over the next few days.

16 In Between is a makeover of a pattern I made 4 years ago.  I enlarged the blocks to be able to use the 2 1/2" strip packs and the pictures panel that are part of the fabric group.

16 In Between

 This pillow is probably my favorite thing that I have made lately, I enjoyed the process and the result is pleasing.  I have some good tips in the pattern for getting a really nice professional finish to not only the pillow top but the back, as well.  I have to credit my mom with helping me come up with the name "Stix Mix".  I was sitting in her kitchen with my computer, working on writing the directions, and pondering variations of pattern names.  We were looking for words rhyming (since that is my thing!) with sticks or stripes or strips.  She was mixing up something, as is usual for her, and up popped Mix and Stix, and it stuck!

Stix Mix

 And thirdly, Ring-A-Ding, a twofer, since I have both a circular and oval tabletopper in the pattern.

Ring-A-Ding

And to make things easier with pattern-writing, I had a great view of Silver Lake from the kitchen window and deck.  This is a small lake in the middle of farm country in northwest Iowa.  The town of Lake Park is situated next to the lake, and houses surround part of the shore.  But there is a state park and city park and undeveloped land on a large portion of the shoreline.  It's not busy with boat traffic, although the occasional pontoon, motorboat and jet-ski can be found.  It's a tranquil spot.

Silver Lake, Iowa

And then it's back home to enjoy my own little spot of tranquility, with the not so tranquil city and bustle nearby!  One final word of advice for all of you--make sure you have a working carbon monoxide detector in your house!  Last Saturday, ours detected CO and alarmed.  Not life-threatening levels, but not good for your health.  The fire department came and verified that it was a legitimate alarm on their meter, as well, and they summoned the energy company who narrowed it down to a problem with our oven.  It's the same oven I had before the remodel, but it had been disconnected for about 2 months, then put back into place and something is amiss.  Anyway, I'm glad we had the detector in place!