Sewing and Product Preferences

Working in a quilt shop, there is one question that I get asked more often than any other:  "Which [fusible/ruler/pen/thread/etc] do you use?"  With so many options available to them, it's no small wonder that people want to cut to the chase and be referred to one product, especially if they're trying something new.  I do it all the time too, especially if I walk in to a store where I am only familiar with the most basic of basics. For example, if I walk into Ulta, I'm like, "Gee there's someone who's got their business under control, they will obviously know what the best products are." (Because, clearly I don't...one degree of humidity and POOF I look like this guy...but I digress)

While I may not know much about concealers and hair-taming concoctions, I do know what my sewing preferences are.  No one has a foolproof methodology, and a product to my liking may not be to the liking of someone else.  Here are my preferences...what are yours?

Starch, or no starch?
It depends on what I'm doing and why.  Generally, no starch.  But if I am working with a lot of bias, or small pieces, then yes on the starch.

Starch Brand?
I prefer Mary Ellen's Best Press.  The rose and the mint ones smell SO good and they don't leave flakes.

Steam, or no steam?
Steam, always.

Prewash, or don't prewash?
I don't prewash my fabrics.  However, if someone has given me fabric that HAS been prewashed (which is very rare) then whatever I am putting with it, I will prewash.  I subscribe to the school of thought that either your prewash all of it, or prewash none of it.

Cut, or tear?
CUT.  The tearing of fabric wakes up the little OCD goblin and drives me nuts. And yes, I know it makes it more straight on grain, but I hate the fuzzy edges which I would have to trim off anyway.

Mix batiks, or segregate batiks?
I like the look of mixing batiks with non batiks.

Thread Type?
For piecing, I always use cotton.  For quilting, if not cotton, then I will use rayon because I like the sheen of it against the fabric.

Thread Brand?  
Gutermann, Presencia or Sulky for my top thread, Superior Bottom line for my bobbin.

Fusible Brand?
Heat n'Bond.  I prefer their "Lite" fusible.

Window your fusible, or not to window your fusible?
It depends on how intricate the appliques will be and how small the pieces get.  I am not THAT dedicated to windowing.  If it is a medium to large pieces, then yes.  Smaller than that, no probably not.

Batting Type?
I LOVE the way wool looks when it's been heavily quilted, so use that quite a bit.  But, if I don't want that toasty of a quilt, and I need it to lay flatter for hanging, then a medium to low loft cotton.

Batting Brand?
For wool, The Tuscany Collection.  For cotton, Warm & Natural, or Hobb's Heirloom.  Whichever I find first.

Spray Baste, or Pin?
If it's a baby quilt or wall hanging, then I spray baste.  Anything bigger than that, I pin.

Spray Baste Brand?
Metter or 505.

Machine Needle Brand?
Schmetz, always.  I tried Klasse needles, and they were terrible.

Go-To Machine Needle Type?
I use a Schmetz Microtex sharp 80/12 for all of my piecing.  I will use it for quilting too, but only with cotton thread.  If I am quilting with anything other than cotton I will use a Schmetz Metallic needle 90/14.

Ruler Brand?
Creative Grids.  Those rulers are worth every cent.

Rotary Cutter Brand?
I have a pressure sensitive rotary cutter that I love.  I never have to worry about leaving my blade out because the cover retracts only when you apply pressure to it.

Sharpen blades, or just replace?
Replace.  I tried a few sharpeners but the time it took to get the blade back to a usable sharpness wasn't worth it.

Marking Pencil, or Marking Chalk?
I have a Sewline mechanical pencil that I love.  I prefer mechanical pencils to wooden ones anyway, so the fact that there is one for sewing kicks ass.  I use the regular lead and the white lead the most.

Air Soluble, or Water Soluble Pens?
Water.  I find with air soluble I don't get back to the project quick enough and the lines have faded already.

Quarter Inch Foot, or Walking Foot?
Quarter Inch Foot.  I have only ever had to use a Walking Foot once.

Hand sew, or machine sew binding?
For all the complaining I do about binding, I much prefer the look of a hand sewn binding.

Wide backing, or regular backing?
Regular.  The greigh goods used for wide backings are still not quite as nice as those used for regular 44" cotton.

Pieced backing, or plain backing?
Plain...I like the look of pieced backings, but once I am done with a quilt top I like to fiddle with the back as little as possible because I usually have another project I need to get to.

Pincushion Style?
I love the convenience of the magnetic pincushions, so that is what I use most often.  The one I use for classes or get-togethers is a regular stab-them-in kind.

Thimble Style?
Okay, fine, I'll say it....I hate using thimbles.  I have a hard time with them because they feel cumbersome and I don't feel like I have tactile control over the needle.  But when I must use a thimble, I like the cheapy, adjustable plastic ones that cover the pad of the finger, but not the fingernail.

Other preferences?
- I prefer to sew barefoot.
- I am a much more productive night-time quilter.
- I prefer Netflix/DVR to music when I'm sewing.
- I do ALLLL the cutting that is possible, excluding borders, before I sew a stitch
- My design wall is the felty side of a $1.84 vinyl tablecloth.  Id on't know how I lived without that thing.
- I'm a bad kid who uses a rotary cutter instead of a seam ripper
- I never choose my binding until the quilt is quilted, and I rarely choose the borders until the center is complete.

What are your preferred quilting products and techniques?  I'd love to hear!

Friday Finish: Witch Hazel's Medicine Cabinet, I Spy and some Fat Quarter Loot!

The first Halloween project of 2014 is done.  BAM. 

 

Also, the I Spy quilt came back from Frances...dinos on the back!

Aaaaand these lovelies I won from Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday drawing a few weeks ago - a 10 piece fat quarter bundle from Bobbie Lou's Fabric Factory arrived today.  Thanks again to Lee at Freshly Pieced and Chelsea at Bobbie Lou's!

 

Worth a Read: "They're Men. They Sew. Let's Get Over Ourselves."

I saw this article by Deanna McCool of sewmccool come up in my personal Facebook Feed, and it's a good one.  Most of us, whenever we hear of a successful male quilter or sewist, what is our automatic assumption more often than not?  "Must be gay, how else would he be interesting this?"  This challenges our preconceived notions about men who quilt or sew for a hobby or for a living.

This is where the article was originally posted.  Oh, and the rest of her blog is pretty cool too. Thank you for putting this out there for us to read, Deanna!

THEY’RE MEN. THEY SEW. LET’S GET OVER OURSELVES.

It’s time to be completely honest with ourselves.

I know that most of us reading right now are women.

And when we see a man who sews or quilts, we have an immediate reaction.

Especially if he’s successful.

“What is he doing here?”

“He must be gay.”

“How did he get into sewing?”

“He got that book deal because he’s a guy.”

“What’s so special about him?”

It’s understandable – to a point. Because seeing men in sewing fields “is like seeing an albino cocker spaniel,” said Kenneth D. King, the acclaimed couture designer and contributor to Threads Magazine. “They kind of stand out.”

But guess what?

When we women spout off crappy assumptions about men who sew, we’re being hypocrites.

When I was a reporter, I covered the police/fire beat. And I liked it. My other degree is in criminal justice, and I have enough books around my house about murder and autopsies and white collar crime and serial killers that nobody.had.better.die in my house. Ever. Because the police will suspect that I did it based on my library of horrors.

But, in my first reporting job, I had to fight for that beat after the previous cops reporter announced his departure – because a male reporter wanted the job as well.

I actually overheard the editor say she thought she would give it to the guy because he had also been in the military and would be better at the job of talking to the manly men.

I protested and landed the beat. And I put up with the cops showing me photos of bodies and gross stuff and driving fast around turns while I sat in the passenger’s seat of their squad cars because they were secretly trying to make me vomit. It was the mid-1990s and even then I was the first female police reporter that newspaper ever had.

To be clear, I would have puked in my mouth and swallowed rather than give them the satisfaction of seeing me get sick.

And I had to deal with getting paid less than the other guy (oddly, I found out because he showed me his pay stub and asked me to decipher the taxes that were being withheld.). Later, at another paper, I overheard a guy say that I won a certain prestigious award only “because of the subject matter.” And more than once a reporter at a smaller, but competing, newspaper described me, in a column he wrote, as “cocquettish” (i.e., flirtatious, seductive.).

I mean, seriously, people.

Couldn’t my success have been because – I don’t know – I was a dang good reporter?

But when I first saw successful guys who sewed, I had that little thought in my head, “that sewing guy is popular just because he’s a guy…”

…and then I was ashamed of myself.

I want to be judged by my work and not my gender.

And so do the men in the sewing and quilting field.

They’re men. They sew. Let’s get over ourselves.

“I know my gender has opened some doors, but it’s closed more than it’s opened,” said Thomas Knauer, a quilter, fabric designer and author of Modern Quilt Perspectives. (that’s my Amazon affiliate link for a darn good quilting book that I highly recommend).

“I say –  look at my background, my work. They’re not just going to give me a book deal because I’m a guy,” Thomas said.

Thomas was a pure, theoretical artist and professor of experimental new media – essentialy art done by using “new media” like computer graphics and the like. Then he became ill….had to leave a job he loved, and discovered fabric design. For awhile he considered himself a fabric designer first and a quilter second, but now he sees himself primarily as a quilter.

I chatted with him on Skype from his temporary home in London (he’s an American, a North Easterner). Thomas is a cerebral guy, a dad with two kids – the photo near the top of this post is of him, sewing with his daughter – and he thinks a lot about gender stereotypes in the sewing industry.

Frankly, he’s felt a little beaten down by them.

The gender-specific language used in the field irritates him, to the point where he’ll drop out of a group if the leader sends out a letter or e-mail that starts with, “Hey, ladies.”

“They’re leading with the assumption that the audience is women. That sends a subconscious message that guys don’t belong,” Thomas said. “It hasn’t been horrible for me. It’s an annoyance…but it makes me not want to go to Quilt Market. It makes me increasingly reclusive.”

Thomas said he’s been left out of many small-group retreats specifically because he’s a man, and organizers don’t feel that 20-30 women would be comfortable sewing into the wee hours of the night with a guy there. He’s also been told that the women’s husbands “wouldn’t like it” anyway.

Kenneth, as well as quilter Molli Sparkles, however, have the double-whammy sewing field “differences” of being gay and being men, and gay-ness brings its own set of stereotypes and prejudices.

Kenneth has never had an issue with throwing his whole personality out there (the “D” in Kenneth D. King, he says, stands for “Diva,”) and figures if women don’t like it, then…..frankly, they’re missing out. He was told at the beginning of his career that he shouldn’t tell anyone that he’s gay – but he knew he was never going to “pass” as a straight guy.

We spoke by phone – his studio is located in one of the fashion capitals of the world, New York City. He shared that he began sewing for his Barbies when he was 4. His dolls drove nice cars and went to the opera and only wore evening gowns…(because why would they need anything but evening gowns anyway?).

He was a boy. And he sewed. Big freakin’ deal – it was in his blood.

He remembers seeing a note on a blog once where a woman complained that all the guys were coming into the sewing field and “ruining it.”

Ahem. Most of the sewing companies are owned by men and run by men, anyway, Kenneth pointed out. As for the sewing side, it’s often considered “women’s work” even though design tends to be based on math and geometry, which are traditionally “men’s fields.”

“It appeals to that whole engineering side of me,” Kenneth said. Fashion design “is applied geometry covering a three-dimensional shape.”

Although Kenneth is a leader in the fashion industry, he’s not been well-received in the South, he believes, because he’s gay…and not necessarily because he’s a guy.

“I am who I am,” he said.  “Part of the reason I developed the reputation I’ve developed is because I am who I am. I teach a lot of what I want to know more of. The information is reliable and repeatable and I put it out in a clear and concise way.”

And that’s what learning from anyone should be all about, right?

Molli is a quilter from Oklahoma who now lives in Australia, and enjoys being – as he says – a subversive voice in the quilt industry. He started a “No Girls Allowed” quilt bee and blogs at MolliSparkles.com.

“I grew up with Grandma Sparkles making quilts. She never taught me to sew, but I definitely paid attention, and would often help her out with picking fabrics and laying out quilt blocks,” he wrote to me in an email. “I’d be her runner back and forth from the living room (design) floor and her sewing machine. High heels are not easy when you’re six years old, but you’ve got to start somewhere!”

A couple of years ago he made a quilt for his grandma to thank her for all of the kind things she did for him throughout his life…and hasn’t looked back since.

He wrote that he’s not had too many negative experiences from being a guy in a field dominated by gals, aside from being on the receiving end of what he calls “stank eye” when he suggested fabrics to a woman in a quilt shop because her choices didn’t quite, shall we say, add beauty to the quilt.

“I am fully aware I am a minority in a female dominated environment, and I have often considered that part of the recognition I have received is because of this,” he wrote. “But then I think that is a dangerous road to go down, because I don’t like playing the minority card.

“I stopped caring what other people think a long time ago,” Molli wrote. “I’ve probably had more encouragement because of my gender, than the other way around. People are often pleasantly surprised to find that there is a man behind the woman (so to speak). It is somewhat of a rarity to find men who quilt, and quilt proudly, so I’m happy to be that vocal, card-carrying, flag-waving, diva-acting man who quilts!”

There’s one common thread (ha! thread!) that I noticed when talking with all three men.

They’re all confident, and likely, they’re better at speaking their minds honestly than many women in the sewing industry.

And it might be one reason that talented guys can rise to the top while some talented women languish and flounder.

Yep. We gals who, as Kenneth observed, “want to link arms and sing kum-bay-a”

…and, to be frank….don’t always want to stand up and admit…or are slow to admit….that we’re running a business.

Ouch. It kind of hurts. But I’ve seen it. I know it. I used to be afraid to charge too much. I still am.

Kenneth was never afraid to set his rates based on his high level of skill.

If people don’t appreciate his work…

…they can move on.

I heard it in the way the men talked about themselves and the language they used – Thomas isn’t afraid of using a well-placed f-bomb.

I’m afraid to offend people.

“I am more apt to speak my mind without fear of recourse,” wrote Molli.  “Ask me my opinion, and I will tell you the heart-to-the-tiara truth, baby!”

I know that when asked an opinion, I’ll try to find a way to sugar-coat it so I don’t hurt anyone’s feelings.

Some of these differences are ingrained in our society, like it or not.

But we can change them, at least a little, in our well-cocooned sewing universe.

“The one thing I would love to see changed is that shift in the language assumption…the leading assumption that the audience is women,” Thomas said. He understands that every group – in this case, women who sew, like to protect their own domain.

But it’s not right to assume that men can’t be great at sewing and quilting, or to demean their work when they are.

Women would help themselves if they stopped painting their own stereotypes, Thomas said. You know – joking how we hide fabric in the car from our husbands or going on about how husbands don’t know the difference between fabric and paper scissors. Those little Victorian e-card memes habitually harp on gender differences rather than start conversations that can bring us closer together.

And if a guy gets any pushback by joining a sewing class, “I would tell guys just ignore the snootiness,” Kenneth said. “If you get any pushback, say I’m here to learn something. More men would do it if more other men would jump in and get it going.”

So…of course men and women are different.

But I could hang out with the cops.

And men can sew.

We can learn from each other.

We should all have our work judged based on talent, and not on gender.

Give talented men who sew some respect, even if we’ve been a little lax with it before.

Because isn’t that what we’ve been wanting all these years for ourselves?

WIP Wednesday: The Power of Three

I wasn't kidding when I said I was pulling out some OLD projects.  This. Is. OLD.  Well, old for me.  It's from 2008-2009.

I remember I was working on this for a sample, and I getting frustrated with it, and put it aside.  I put it aside for so long that the fabric sold out, and as I said, "well, shit," I shoved it aside again.

Some very, very valuable lessons have been learned since then:
#1.  Keep the pattern with the project when you have to put something aside.  Lord knows you won't remember how it goes together six years later.
#2.  That 1/4" seam ain't no joke.  Learn it, live it.  Because when you have to put something away, having that 1/4" mastered means you won't spend an hour and a half ripping apart, and reassembling shitty blocks.
#3.  Take some damn notes as to which fabric is which.  Because you won't remember which pieces are which after they have chunks cut out of them six years later.

Grumble, grumble, grumble; gripe, gripe, gripe.

So this is The Power of Three by Quilt Woman.  My sample was out of the Za-Za-Zing line by I-Don't-Remember-Who.  And yes, since all I have left of this pattern is the cover, I will be assembling this by looking at the picture and winging it.  How hard can it be?

 

LOL

Actually, after about an hour of figuring, I think I have how it goes together down.  And if not?  Well, just like skinning cats, there's more than one way to assemble a quilt.  BAM.

SO here's what I have so far.  This is going back away for a few weeks until I can finish up the (several) projects I have to finish within the next 3 weeks.  

Don't worry, I took some of these apart and redid them, because WOW  o.0

Did I mention half of the blocks I found were in various states of completeness and missing-pieces-ness?  Thankfully I at least kept the extra fabric with it. 

WIP Wednesday: Witch Hazel's Medicine Cabinet

...of the handful of you wondering...YES HALLOWEEN ALREADY.

We got in Halloween fabric, Spooktacular by Blend Fabrics and obviously I loved it and obviously I had to make a sample from it.

CUTE.

I made this pattern up a few years ago, but that just goes to show how good I think it is if I feel inclined to make it twice.

I like it so well because there's so much room for focus prints without being just giant squares.  These are only 9.5" squares.  I've got all the colors arranged.

Just the bottom row is 100% done.  More work to do on the rest...maybe I'll have it finished in a week or two!

What Quilting Means

I make a pretty concerted effort not to get too personal or too squishy here, but today, it's about to get a little personal (not gross) and a little squishy (also not gross).

Whether life seems to just bit continuously, or deals me a one time low blow, it doesn't matter - that's always when I sit there and tell myself, "well, it's time to get to work."  I'm a master of distraction.  I'd rather be busy than sad, and I'd rather be overworked than have time to sit there and dwell on what's getting me down. 

My grandmother (mom's mom) passed away very suddenly last night.  We knew that her health was failing, and we knew from the doctors that she had a limited time left, but last night it was out of left field and it wasn't how any of us saw it ending.  It hurts.  A lot.  Us grandkids were truly blessed to have a grandma like her.  She always made us feel welcome, wanted and loved, even when we were acting out.  She treated all of us equally and made sure none of us felt left out - hell, as little kids she gave us happy unbirthday presents, so while one of us got birthday presents, we got to open a little something too.  She signed every single card for everyone in the family with "Loads of Love."  Little things like that meant a lot to her.  It's been one largely sleepless night and one long day and I miss her so much.  We all do.

Did I mention she had the most beautiful smile?  

So what does that have anything to do with quilting?  I could have done anything tonight.  Anything in the world.  Play some video games, visit friends, read, clean, sleep, cruise...but instead I chose to do something I ordinarily hate.  I grabbed a couple quilts from my stack (more like a disorderly and growing pile, but whatever) of finished projects that need a binding sewn down, went to Mom and Dad's for dinner and I bound quilts.  There is something very calming about that.  Jambalaya, and binding.

But that's what quilting does for me.  It's not just my hobby, it's not just my art, and it's not just my distraction.  It's my therapy.  When everything else is going to absolute shit - when I am angry, anxious or sad - when I am stressed or when I'm lonely or when I'm happy - quilting is what quiets my mind and quiets my heart, and helps me work through whatever ails me.  I get see that progress spelled out in stitches and I will always remember what that particular quilt did for me.

Peace.  That's what quilting means to me.

WIP Wednesday: Granny Squares

This is another long term WIP.  After seeing a granny square how-to on another blog (I can't remember which one, it was several months ago) I thought it would be a good way to eat up more scraps.  The one I saw had a 100% white background with each block divided by sashing, but I thought it might be neat to have the block separated by background colors.  So, each block has a different background color in a solid fabric, and then the squares for the interior of the block would be scrappy. 

So I made some, put it away, made some, put it away....and neglected to take notes on how I needed to trim the squares.  Now three of them so far are about 3/4" too big.  Those I will be ripping apart, trimming and reassembling probably last thing.  But this time I was smart enough to write down a note about trimming those pieces and put it in the box for next time. 

Nice, but WRONG by 3/4"

But here's what I have so far.  I think there are 25 or 30 total that need to be done. 

I'll finish the rest one of these days.

Friday Finish: I Spy Quilt

Okay, so maybe I finished this on Monday.  I'm trying to be diligent about these link party things, so it's a Friday Finish.  From Monday.

Let me preface this by saying (in general and for my mother's benefit): No, I don't have kids.  No, I'm not pregnant.  No, I don't want kids right now.  No, kids are not in my near future, and no, you don't need to ask me if I think I might be "waiting a little too long for kids." 

But I do love kids quilts.  Kids get all the super awesome fun fabric because apparently grown ups can't like super awesome fun stuff anymore.  And, that super awesome fun stuff did not exist yet when I was a kid...the fabric industry just wasn't there yet back in the late 80s/early 90s.

WHERE WAS THIS FABRIC WHEN I WAS A KID?!  IT HAS THEIR CORRECT NAMES ON IT FOR KIDS TO LEARN!

Ahem. It's stuff like this that makes me like kids fabric now.  This is awesome and mark my words, I will find it and I will buy it and it will be for me and not some kid.  That's the bonus of not having kids.  I get to keep the kickass dino fabric for me and it won't get drooled on (much). 

Annnnyway.  So I made up a sample of an I-Spy quilt I've had my eye on (haha...see what I did there...fine, fine I'm done), which means I got to root through the kids fabric for cool things for the littles to hunt for while they're in the shop.  

I liked this one so much because the pattern was really different.  It's like peeking through a key hole at all the I-Spy prints. 

Here are a few of my favorites (the blocks haven't been trimmed yet, I promise they aren't that wonky for real):

And here's a few of the finished product.  26" x 39"...not as large as I'd hoped it would be when I started and didn't read the size on the cover of the pattern (I know, I know):

 

Now off to quilting!

WIP Wednesday: Halloween Dresden Plate

I already posted about this project here, but this is a very looooong term work in progress.  I don't think I'll be finishing this one for a year or more (hopefully not too much more).  Like the rainbow houndstooth quilt, this too is a mental health quilt that I work on from time to time when I need something mindless to do. I intend on hand appliqueing them down (we'll see how long I actually commit to that), so yeah...this is going to be a slow moving quilt.  That's just fine by me.

So I'm working away on my Halloween Dresden plate quilt.  I finally got all of the blades done.  All 400 of them.  Each 16.5" block requires 20 blades, and right now I'm sitting on a 4x5 block quilt.  I think I might be crazy.  I'm thinking of adding another 5 blocks to make it a 5x5 block quilt.  Someone save me from myself.

But right now I'm only working on the assembly of the outside of the plate. It's amazing how much they shrink down as you sew.  Ooh. Aah.

I haven't picked out what I want for the background, (though, for this I have a couple ideas) or the circle in the middle of each plate (for which I am totally and completely undecided) yet.  It'll come to me.  But in the mean time, I'll just sewing plates as I get the time.  Besides, I don't want all that bias on the blades hanging out all nakie for too long.

Here's one finished one.  Only 19.5 more to go.

Linking up with Freshy Pieced's WIP Wednesday....see the right side bar for a link to the blog.

One Bajillion Blue

I thought I had already taken pictures of, and posted this....but I didn't!  So Sam (click her name to check out her blog, Diary of a Mad Fabriholic), this one's for you!

I used one single block (I know, I had 100 to choose from and I only chose one, lol) from Tula Pink's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks

This wonderful book that I need to make more blocks from

I chose Number 77, because I thought it would be neat to make a larger block from 4 of these blocks.

I wanted to alternate lights and darks to get an optical illusion...And I needed to get rid of blue scraps.  So I chose 50 light blues, and 50 dark blues and when to town.  There are only 100 different blues here, but after all that picking, and cutting, and piecing, and pinning, and pressing, and assembling....it might as well have been one bajillion.  Hence, one bajillion blue.  

 

Right now the quilt is on display in the shop as a sample for the book.  The walls are pretty high (very tall ceiling) so from down here I know the picture isn't all that great....but you get the idea :-)  And no, your eyes aren't deceiving you....it does lack a binding.