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.

a trip to the mountains

It's vacation time, and the livin' is easy!  We have spent this week enjoying the beauty in and around Glacier National Park, but more importantly, spending time with Dan and Lauren.  We have done so many fun things, and we were lucky that Thursday they could both take a day off from work.  Even though the day looked pretty dark and cloudy to start out, we did end up with a beautifully sunny day.  Our lunch was eaten on the shore of Flathead Lake, watching a few boaters drift across.

And the day would not be complete without a few stops just for me!  This beautiful muted colored yarn was purchased at Camas Creek Yarn on Main Street in Kalispell.  The shop is in a beautiful old building and they have renovated the upstairs into accommodations.  They have become known for the licensed products they create for colleges--hats, scarves, etc. with the school colors and name.  The yarn is by Raven Ridge, a local spinner/dyer.  You can see her interesting colorways on her website, all derived from the colors in nature.  If you scroll down a ways on her website, you will see the whole story of the process of dying the wool.

There was another stop in Kalispell at Glacier Quilts.  This is a great source for fabric, they have an extensive collection.  More batiks than I have ever seen in one place!  And they offer a lot of the picture panel prints that can be worked into a quilt or wallhanging.  I listened in as 2 of their staff assisted a woman pick just the right fabrics to coordinate with an American flag picture.  They were really helpful to the customer.  I walked the aisles of the quilting cotton, but what ended up going home with me were some squares of hand dyed wool to be used in some future project.  The colors were great.

We have only one day left of our visit in Whitefish, so I better get off this computer and enjoy it!

multi-tasking

While my sewing machine takes charge and merrily stitches along, I simply need to be present to change thread colors when it tells me to and try to intercept any problems that might arise.  So, of course, I need something to keep my hands busy.  This is one of the wool applique projects that I brought along--

It is a pattern by Buttermilk Basin, By Thy Hands September, and will become part of the block-of-the-month series that I am starting at Bear Patch.  This wool portion is sewn by hand and then joined with a traditional quilt block that is sewn by machine.  The best of both worlds!

Barb, one of the ladies attending the retreat with us is sporting this lovely bracelet, a gift from her lovely husband!

It comes from an Etsy shop for Blackberry Designs.  They can make them for all sorts of interests and people and hobbies and occupations.

I am loving this new project bag that my kids gave me for Christmas.

It actually is a knitting bag, and that is how I have been using it until I packed up for this trip and realized that it would be great for toting my handwork projects.  It comes from the Tom Bihn company.  Made in Seattle and co-designed with the people at Knitty Magazine, a great source for wonderful knitting designs.  There are pockets and stuff sacks and pouches and leashes to coordinate in wonderful saturated colors.  This is the Little Swift.  I thoroughly love this tote bag and all of its features.

Oh, and by the way, Tom Binh makes lots of other neat stuff, like backpacks and messenger bags and briefcases.  Check it out!

I think Ian is developing his own creative side, now using his pajamas for a hat!  Such a style icon!

Working on...

Buttermilk Basin designs for my monthly wool project. Some appliqué paired with a traditionally pieced block. I am staying at my friend, Nancy's, house for a few days. Great view of the lake and no plans to go outside today which is good because it is maybe about -20 degrees!  Better go, soup is ready!

on the path

I have been learning a little bit about photo effects that can be used to enhance or alter the look of an everyday digital picture.  This picture was popped into Instagram and one of the filters really made the highlights of the blocks and stitching pop into view.

This was a quilt made by a customer, using the traditional "Drunkard's Path" block.  Each block is made of 2 pieces, one is a quarter of a circle and the other is the arc that matches up to that circle edge and completes the square.  This quilter used all blue and white, making a very distinctive design.  She told me she likes a more traditional style, so I thought feathers in the blocks were called for.  I tried to find a little more history about this quilt block to share with you, and didn't turn up many facts.  But I did learn this:  Legend has it that some quilters believed that it was bad luck to piece a Drunkard's Path quilt-the person who slept under it might develop a thirst for drink and wander far from home.

Let's hope that wasn't true for this quilt maker!  Probably the biggest challenge with this quilt (besides staying sober!) was determining how to do the design with the fewest stops and starts.  Those pesky stops and starts always mean securing the stitches and thread ends so they won't come apart, and can be hard to do and make as neat as possible so as to not detract from the design.  Once I figured that out, it was smooth sailing!

I finished up another very important project--

ready for stuffing!  I have written before that I made a set of 4 of these quite awhile back, where there were just 4 in our little family.  Then along came a super son-in-law, so I dusted off the old pattern and made one more.  Now, we have a need for stocking #6 plus one more on the way!  So I actually put together 3 new stockings, repeating some of the same fabrics or similar ones.  Now we have Ian's name on one, and another is reserved for his baby-brother-to-be, plus I am ahead a stocking "just in case"!

This is the trusty old pattern--

probably now only to be purchased at an antique store!  The leaves and the berry on the cuff detail are sewn on using fusible web and the blanket stitch on my machine.  I used to use this technique a lot, back in my early days of quilting, but now not so much.  It was a good jog for my memory to do it again.

I have also been dabbling with some wool pieces lately, working on some possibilities for classes at the store.  We sell quite a bit of wool and often have customers looking for instruction or just a group to join that shares the love of wool applique.

These hexagons are just the beginning of a set of pieces that would make an entire quilt.  They come from Under the Garden Moon.  There are many cute designs and include not only the applique process, but embellishment with stitching, too. 

Also in the works is a set of 12 little quiltlets that include a traditional quilt block with a wool applique design to coordinate.  These come from Buttermilk Basin, and I am working up some kits for them.

Here's my little Ian, showing off his "fish face" much to the delight of his grownups!  Just when I think he can't be any more lovable, he finds one more way to tug at my heartstrings!

things learned

Wisdom shared is wisdom gained.  

So here are things I have learned this week--

Our new favorite iron is the Turbo Steam Master by Sunbeam.

Purchased at Costco for about $30.

We have been using 2 for about 16 hours a day for 4 days with zero complaints.

Sometimes bigger is not better.

We were using up a large bag of wool strips to make felted pincushions.  The strips are wound up tightly and fastened with a rubber band.  They are tied up inside a nylon stocking, then washed and dried a few times.  They usually come out looking cute like these--

But we had a few casualties of the wraps that were on the large size, they sort of burst and turned out more like softballs than pincushions!

Pellon 44F is a good thing.

Tshirt quilts continue to be a popular choice for high school and college students, so there have been a couple of them assembled during our time here. 

The interfacing of choice is Pellon P44F, applied to the wrong side of the tshirt sections and then sewn into the quilt to stabilize the knit and make it much more useable.

Clear Windex is just the ticket 

for removing pencil marks from fabric.  

Who knew??

Squash can be delicious!

Even though I'm not a big fan of squash, I had a second helping of Nancy's squash soup at lunch today.  

Here is Nancy's recipe:

1 Sunshine squash

1 Sweet Mama squash

(or any squash of your choice)

Cook in the microwave until soft, then after they are cooled peel them and chop them up.

In a large pot, melt 1/2 cup butter.  Add:

1 large onion, diced

2 ribs of celery, diced

Saute until translucent.

Add the chopped up squash and chicken or vegetable broth to cover.  Cook for "awhile" until the squash gets very soft but not completely mushy.

Use an immersion blender and blend some of the lumps out.

Add 2 tablespoons (roughly) of Tuscan seasoning from Costco, 1 can coconut milk and salt to taste.

Serve and enjoy!

wooly ladies

I've been working on some more wool applique as I prepare for a class I am going to teach at Bear Patch in March.  We had been getting requests for a basic class and even though there are many people who have done a lot more of this than I have, I decided I could pull together enough info and material to make a good learning experience.  Here's my project in pieces:

 And here's a bit of detail:

A single strand of embroidery floss and a whip stitch to sew the shapes.

 Last week I was with a group of quilting friends, and we got into a discussion of the value of saving scraps.  Notice how I have positioned the pattern piece below into one corner of the fabric in order to leave a larger unused area to save for something else--

 Poor Anita was chastised for being too liberal with her pattern placement and then throwing away the scraps!  You would have thought it was the end of the wooly world!  And even though this is wool felt, which I think in some purist circles might be looked down upon, we felt the need to educate Anita on the value of saving wool scraps.  They do run at a higher price than regular quilting fabric, plus there is a more limited choice in colors.  So, like many others, I save even little bits of wool because you just never know when you need a tiny little dot for an eye for a bird or a berry on a branch or a flower center.  These were scraps left from this project, and there are some good sized pieces here that will go into something else (I hope).

As a part of the class I am going to lead, I am trying out some various products including needles.  I was actually kind of surprised at the differences in needles.  Right now my preference is the package on the right that looks like a matchbook.  Of course, that is the one that is hard to obtain, which is par for the course.  The ones at the top are labeled Wool Applique Needles, but seem really over-sized for my uses.  The jury is still out on this topic.

needles from Fons & Porter, Foxglove Cottage, Scarlet Today and Bohin

working on....

 No big news here, at least not the kind of announcement that I am waiting to make regarding the arrival of my grandson!  As you can see in this picture, Brita is nearing her delivery date!  We were at the Timberwolves game with B and B this night.

about 36 weeks

The picture below shows a new-ish project that I have been working on.  It is made from felted wool sweaters that I have been collecting from a local used clothing store.  I finally have enough of a coordinated theme to put together a decent sized lap quilt or couch quilt.  This has been kind of fun.

chopped up felted wool sweaters

I washed them twice on hot water/cold rinse and dried in a hot dryer.  You never can tell for sure how they will turn out, but 5 of the 6 that I worked with shrank up nicely.  They have to be 100% wool, but even if the tag says that, there is no guarantee that they will shrink down like I want them to be.  Not sure what to do with the other one, probably put it with my stuff to go to the donation center!  They will be able to collect twice from that one!  

Anyway, I cut all the sweaters open at the seams, so I had flat fronts, backs and sleeves to work with.  I decided to work on a grid of multiples of 3", so I cut chunks that were 15 1/2", 12 1/2", 9 1/2", etc.  Mostly squares, but some strips to fill in as needed.  I ended up drawing it out on graph paper to make everything fit into rows that could be assembled and then joined together.  I wanted to keep this simple, without a backing or binding.  So I just overlapped the edges of the pieces by about 1/4" (not very accurately in some spots!) and top-stitched with a wavy stitch.  I used the walking foot on my machine, it would have been really hard to keep things feeding through evenly without that.  When it all came together, I did one more round of topstitching all around the outside edge and called it good.  I think I want to do more of this as I can find sweaters that are appropriate.  

Up on my design wall--

La France by Villa Rosa

I cannot believe that I have those 2 turquoise blocks at the bottom nearly on top of each other!  I did not even see that until I looked at the picture, and I had been consciously working to keep the colors scattered evenly throughout!   I think the seam ripper has to come out for this one.  This is a pattern that uses 5" pre-cut squares plus 1 yard additional fabric.

I finished a quilt for a customer, all flannels--

Customer's flannel quilt

And started another quilt that I introduced to you before--

Lover's Lane by Villa Rosa

This looks like Easter eggs to me!  I will be able to finish quilting this one tonight since I am home alone and can do whatever I please!  

The 2 Villa Rosa quilts that I have shown here will be displayed at Bear Patch, where the patterns and kits will be available.

I'm thinking that supper will be a bowl of popcorn!

the march lamb

Do you believe in the old saying that if March comes in like a lion it goes out like a lamb? And is the opposite also true? Here on the frozen tundra it has seemed pretty lambish for these first days of March, cold but no storms. That does not bode well for the end of the month! Our March weather is typically snowy inshort periods, often coinciding with high school tournament time and snarling up plans for people traveling from all over the state to St. Paul for the final rounds of hockey, wrestling and basketball games. The good thing about any snow we get now isknowing that it won't be around for long, as compared to the snows of Nov/Dec that you know will remain as icebergs for months to come. It's all a mind game at this point!

I am loving my morning at home today, it's quiet, I have noplace to go so I can keep my jammies and robe on for a bit longer, and the fire in the woodstove is keeping me toasty. I've been taking some pictures to share with you---

This is a nice little woolen penny rug that I handstitched not too long ago. The little circles were all cut out for quite awhile, patiently waiting for my attention. If I remember correctly, this started out in Wisconsin when I was on a retreat at Beaver Lake Landing. We walked across the frozen lake to visit the home workshop of a wool dyer, and ended up with assorted woolens that someone (maybe Marilee?) started cutting into little pieces so we could exchange and get a better variety. I might have the facts wrong on that, but I doknow that it was a cooperative project, which always makes it more special.

I finally finished the binding on this baby quilt:

I really got some sore fingers from this one because I made the binding just a titch too small, or the seam allowance just a titch too big, because it really needed some pushing and pulling to turn around the edges neatly. I showed you this here before when I was blocking the yardage to get it squared up. These are not individual little pieces that I sewed together, they are just designs printed on fabric. I quilted them as blocks with a coordinated blue backing that has words about babies all over it. It finished up about 36" square and will be heading off to Arizona soon for a new baby boy in Laura and Rommel's family.

Still doing some winter-type knitting, making an "infinity scarf", which is basically just a big loop to be worn around the neck. The colder it gets, the more it encircles the neck!

Nice bulky washable wool yarn, pattern free here.

I spent part of my morning yesterday making up kits for quilts to be made and donated to Quilts For Kids.

My club, guild, gang, whatever you want to call it, officially the Ham Lake Piecemakers, is having a sewing fest next Friday and Saturday to see how many donation quilts we can generate. So I am getting some prep work done for that, using fabric from my own accumulation and a little support for key pieces from the quilt shop. I think these will bring lots of comfort to some little ones.

Putting my new design wall to good use as I construct these rows. The top row has been sewn together with triangles, but I am not loving this fabric. I might have to have a do-over on that one. I have 4 other rows done and this one just doesn't go with the flow.

Three more rows to go!

And the sorting, reorganizing and purging of my sewing stuff is winding down (alleluhia!). I have prepared a bundle of patterns that I am ready to part with.

These will go to the Piecemakers for a little fund-raiser that we usually do at our retreats. If you are part of a quilt group you might want to try this, it has been a success in adding to our treasury and helping us buy batting for our charity quilts. Here's the deal:

members are encouraged to donate a few items that are likely desirable, not junky. These can be fabric bundles, a basket of notions, a bag of thread, a group of patterns, etc. The coordinator places a few of them on a display table with a little basket next to each item. During the next few hours, group members can put their name into the baskets that they are interested in. $0.25 per name! You can put your name in as many times as you want, but it costs each time. At a pre-determined time, one name is drawn from each basket and that person is the new owner of that treasure. And we start it all over again, until we run out of items! It's fun to see what is in demand, and how many quarters some women are willing to part with!

Time to get on with the day and I will leave you with this parting thought:

"Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful." Sophia Loren