Top 5 Techniques that Look like Fun (but I haven't tried yet...)

I've said it before and I'll say it again...I'm hopeless addicted to the wild, weird world of quilting. Heck, if that's not apparent all ready, then perhaps I've been understating things (though, really not something I'll ever be accused of doing...ask my family/friends, I'm a spaz!). So while I've been piecing and appliqueing and quilting to my little heart's content, I've seen some other techniques that I really want to try...but haven't (yet). So, here they are (in no particular order of course):

Top 5 Techniques that Look like Fun (but I haven't tried yet...)

5. English Paper Piecing
I've all ready tried regular paper piecing, but this English Paper Piecing thing keeps rearing its head. Every now and then at the shop, someone will come in looking for english paper piecing supplies, and as a matter of fact, yesterday Loretta Orsborn was in our shop teaching a class, and she showed Mom and I an English Paper Piecing project she was working on and let me tell 'ya....it was cool! It made me want to try it, maybe not on the larger scale she was doing it at, but maybe a wall hanging? For a hand-sewing method, a wall hanging is probably all my attention span can handle. But it looks like a really simple technique and I really love how precise it is without seeming to be overly complicated. It looks like the prep actually takes the longest!



4. Ice Dyeing
I flipped right out when I saw this...you can dye your own fabric, pretty much mess free if you do it correctly, with the ice cubes in your freezer and powder dyes. What the heck?! I love the results! It's similar to tye-dye but without being overly ... tye-dye-ish, if that makes sense. This is a lot less planned. With tie-dye, you can make certain designs based on how to fold or twist the fabric and tie with rubber bands, and you apply the color directly where you want it - with the exception of the twist of the fabric, you pretty much know where the colors will be and how they will interact (since the dye is liquid, you see how it'll blend right away). With Ice Dyeing, the dye is a powder and rests on top of the fabric and dissolves and falls where it will as the ice melts - you can kind of guess where you want a particular color to be but ultimately it just goes where it goes and there is no "planned" pattern to it. It doesn't lend itself to the twisting and tying that tie-die does, because you need the looser folds to allow the powder the seep through.  I couldn't find a video tutorial for this, but if you click on the "Ice Dyeing" link, that is the best tutorial I have seen for it.


3. Hand Embroidery
Okay, so this one isn't ENTIRELY true. I have tried it. All I've done is a back stitch and an absolutely pathetic stem stitch (gotta work on that!). But have a looksie at the above link and check out these video tutes...how flippin' cool?! Embroidery is always a nice touch when embellishing a quilt - it can be whatever you want it to be and while it can look very modern with clean lines, it gives just a hint of the traditional which is really quite nice. I think the coolest part about embroidery is the fact that it has been done for literally thousands of years - we do it now, the Victorians did it, the ancient Chinese and ancient Egyptians did it, the medieval cultures did it and there is even evidence that early man had the ability to do it as well. Plus, there is no denying that hand embroidery can be absolutely elegant or wonderfully simple, so it caters to all skill levels.

4. Set-In Seams
Fine, fine. This one isn't all the way true either. I've tried this and you should have heard the fit I had. This is just the most ridiculous thing, it really is (okay, fine, so I'm still a little bitter). Set-In seams and Y-seams are pretty much the same thing far as I can tell, and using this technique can yield some pretty incredible results.. The thing I want to do with this, actually, is my mother's specialty - the Lone Star Quilt. She can practically do these in her sleep, Set-In Seams and all and have it turn out practically perfect. It comes with experience (and *groan* paaaaatience) I think. I'me working on the experience thing, but I think the patience with myself and with my projects is something that I'll forever lack. Anyway, maybe once my bitterness and rage (Hyperbolic much? Geez.) subside with these stupid seams I'll give it another go and make a sweet Lone Star!

5. Reverse Applique
Oh my goodness, have you ever seen a quilt all done up using this technique? It can range from cutesy to complicated and can be used as the focus technique or as embellishment. No matter which way you cut it, it's neat! I remember in Miss Parker's 7th grade art class, we had to do this technique using paper and an X-Acto knife to emulate (what is probably the most famous example of reverse applique) the Molas made by the Kuna people of Panama and Colombia. Their work is absolutely amazing. It's bright, it's intricate ...often imitated but never equalled. Aside from the Molas, this is just a funt hing to try and I think I (eventually) will!

Men and Quilting

It really does bother me that when I Googled "Men in the Quilting Tradition," the first thing that popped up was "Quiling for the Men in your Life."

What I was really looking for was a blog I saw months ago, about a man who started quilting and started documenting his experience as a male quilter. I really enjoyed it, and I wish I had bookmarked it.

We need to start a movement to get these fellas quilting. I say that only half jokingly. Yes, quilting is a largely gender defined art...one of the handful swung in favor of women...but it doesn't have to be. Guys, you too can quilt, and the ones that do are damn good at it.

My absolute favorite quilter (aside from my momma, of course, because her designs are phenomenal...seriously) is a man - local quilter Anton Haas Jr.. His quilts are gorgeous and just so, so precise. He really is a gifted artist.

So when you have a minute, look up "Male Quilters" on Google. There are a few out there and they are blogging like madman.

You're harshing my mellow, Broski.

So after Blogspot decided to "do maitenance" on its server (I think the proper term is "screwing ish up") it dropped my most recent entry. Isabelle, you're a witness! So let's try this again.

I made another quilt, blah blah blah, I didn't care for the original colors, blah blah blah, so I did it my way in lots of reds and oranges and gold with a spash of green.

It's AMAZING how easily I just summed up a 5 paragraph post. "Blah blh blah" has got to be my #1 favorite filler when I'm annoyed about something, which, I am VERY annoyed that the post got lost in who-knows-where of cyberspace.

So anyway, enough grumbling and grousing and whining. I got the pattern out of the book Fast, Flirty and Fun  by Sarah Bisel from That Patchwork Place, which we have available in the shop.

See? It's an adorable pattern, but those colors...I can appreciate them but they're just not my thing. So...of course I changed them.

This is MY color way. I gotta say, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Most of you know I'm not too shy about color, and I know what I like. Even though purple, believe it or not, is my absolute favorite color...I heavily lean toward the reds, oranges, browns and golds. Actually, the quilt I'm about to finish (which I've had since January...) is also reds, golds, browns and oranges...I need to step outside my box and do a blue quilt.

Did you hear that? That crashing sound was the sound of my motivation coming to a grinding halt. I like blue all right, but I think I'll leave that to someone else.

As always, the hardest part was trying to be "random" with my color placement. I just don't think I have it in me! I'm too persnickety, too Sheldon-esque, too whatever. Ask my roomate...I had this quilt spread out all over the living room floor and I was asking her every 5 minutes if the color placement looked okay. It's like the people walking around who look like they just rolled out of bed...most of them spent an hour in front of the mirror with a blow dryer and a fistful of pomade to get that look. Don't ask me to do random. I can't. lol.

One of these days I'll invest in a nice camera, one that's not attached to my cell phone. Of course...my birthday IS coming up in September...*cough* :b Anyway, the green there isn't quite that bright. It's the dark green piece from Patrick Lose's Mixmasters line. I LOVE that fabric. I really do. Let's just be honest here...I just like Patrick Lose (not as much as Debi does though). But I think the African ladies are gorgeous, and I've been meaning to do a quilt with them in it for a while...cultural stereotypes be damned!

Someone stop me before I put myself in stitches!

Hehe, well, if you can't laugh at yourself, well then, what are we doing here?

Anyway, cheesy joke and puns aside, for the whopping ZERO anythings I did in April, I'm making up for it in May...right? I'd like to think so! I finished another project and I have to admit, I'm really happy with how it turned out. It needs a little lot of squaring up, but I think when it's all said and done it's going to be a neat, ample sized wall hanging.

The original pattern is this:

I mean, it's cute, right? The display picture knew the way to my heart - it had a big ol' chocolate cake on it. I knew I had to make it! It was a match made in my stomach. But I looked at the colors it was asking for, and I looked at the picture and it's so sweet, so darling, so pretty...and so not me at all. to me, the colors are very nice but pretty blah. So I put the ol' Lauren spin on it. Because that's what I'm calling it.

Reds, oranges, golds...are you seeing a trend here? lol. Who'da thunk that my favorite color is purple, because I sure don't use it a whole lot. But this time I thought to put a zing-a-roonie of green in there. It's in the African ladies fabric, and quite honestly, I reaallllllllly love that border fabric and I'll pretty much take any excuse I can to use it in whatever I can.

As usual, the random color choosing was difficult (ask my roomate, I had all 54 pieces spread all over the living room floor, and I kept interrupting The Daily Show to ask her opinion on color placement) but it happened. I'm not too thrilled with that coin-gold in there once I got it in, but there's nooooo way in hell I'm going to take it all apart and replace it. So. I'm just ignoring it and letting the green take over.

This picture is not so great, but the lighting wasn't either. One of these days I have to invest in a for real, no joke camera. My birthday is in September...hmmm ;) Anyway, the green is quite a bit darker than shown here, but the point is the African ladies. Aren't they beautiful? I love this fabric. Considering my Anthropological background (God, it sounds pretentious doesn't it? I hate saying stuff like that but for this it's just what it is)  and the fact that my advisor was legitimately African, cultural stereotypes like this in art set me a little on edge but not enough to stop enjoying them or using them in my quilts. So, hoity-toity academia...I just got 2 words for ya :)

So I have a new quilt in the works and one more that all it needs are its dang borders (I know, I'm slacking in a mjor way on that quilt...I've had it since what, January?)...the latter, guess what, is in oranges and reds and browns and golds...Someone stop me! I need to do a blue quilt or something. Just the thought of that though completely un-motivates me. The new one is black and red and orange and yellow and purple and blue...but I'm really stepping out of my box and the focal fabric has bright, big ol' chickens on it. Seriously. I don't like chickens in decor. No offense to those of you who appreciate the occasional non-edible chicken in the kitchen but it's seriously not at all my thing. So, at least I'm branching out there!

It's Second Saturday this weekend, so the store will be a madhouse. But it's a new Block of the Month, so it should be fun! Hope to see some of y'all there :D



There has got to be at least ONE other person on the planet that sees this as totally normal and borderline pedestrian. There has to be. lol.

If you know me, then you know that I have an (abnormal) obsiession with all things Halloween. No, no, not the movie. Quite frankly, the movie sucks (protest away!). I mean the holiday, of course. I love all things Halloween...the monsters, the interior and exterior decor, pumpkin carving, costumes, Trick or Treating, passing out candy....seriously, from the cutesy and folksy to the creepy, bizarre and gorey...I love it all.

If I ever have children, by the way, they will go trick-or-treating in a neighborhood, NOT in a dang mall. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of getting dressed up and going trick-or-treating around our neighborhoods with my Dad. And, mark my words, one day I will be the house that at Halloween with cause a city brownout with all of my awesome lights and animatronic lawn decor. Yes, that will be a reality. And...I will certainly be the proud owner of the best haunted house EVER. Just you wait. lol.

But with Halloween comes my favorite projects. At the shop, Debi and I designed an embellishment contest for Halloween - everyone started with the same design and fabric and they had to embellish it as they saw fit. Just for shiggles, she and I did our own quilt. By the way, if you like this pattern please ask before copying or emulating. It is under copyright!

I love these kinds of projects because they force you to push your envelope and to think about non-quilting items in terms of quilting embellishments. Looking at things in a new way...that's one of the very best things about quilting, and quilting embellishing!

So this is the finished project. 15 hours of work right there. 35" x 35". Everyone had the house, grass and sky fabric. The rest was their choice.

The black/gray damask border is blinged out with Hot-Fix crystals - I had to hand quilt the spots where the crsytals would sit down so they had a flat place to be fixed to.The spider web is a textured cord couched down with Superior Mono-Poly thread. That spider, I sh!t you not, is one of those gummy spiders for kids that people give out as party favors...you know, the onces that feel all boogery that no one over the age of 10 (oh, okay, well, and me because I'm a freakin' 8 year old in a 23 year old body apparently). The fence is a cut up black wire hanger that's been couched down with blakc thread. The UFO has been fussy-cut from some outer space fabric, and it's little abducting-people-beam was drawn in with chalk pastels. The moon was painted in with a silver paint pen. The cloud is made from Angelina Fibers.

Okay, so here, the alien head in the window is fussy-cut from some alien fabric (I know, "Duh," right?) The curtains have been hand folded and sewn into the windows and are made of silk. The fog is Angelina Fibers. The ghost popping out of the chimney is first an appliqued shape, then with Angelina Fibers layed over the top to make it look all...ghosty. I'll get to the rest in the next photo... 

 From the top, the cauldron was drawn in with a black Pigma pen. The contents of the cauldron is -wait for it, because this'll make you go "Lauren, you have too much time on your hands, and while you're at it you might consider cutting down your caffeine intake" - is hot freaking glue with scrapbooking glitter poked into it while it was still hot. The grass was thread-painted to look like actual grass. The knocker on the door is one of those hook-and-eye closures for clothing. I just used the hook side, because hey, it looked like a door knocker. Also, the stone around the door wa originall just a plain textured grey. I quilted it and shaded individual stones in with a very specialized and expensive tool - a yellow No. 2 pencil. Yep. Just a plain pencil.

Another close up of the web with a squishy spider.

Right, so the boards are fussy cut from a grandfather clock piece of fabric, the coffin was fussy cut from coffin fabric ("Duhr," I can hear it through the screen!). Now get ready to go "what the..." - those bones that the (squishy-like-the-spiders) skeleton is climbing down from are SPRINKLES. Yes, they are sprinkles, as in cupcake sprinkles from Michael's. It's not that weird, I mean, I sprayed them with varnish to keep thaose rat-bastard ants away.

But there you have it. For this quilt we really had to think about how to use non-quilting items with a mind to embellish in order to get the effects we wanted. All in all, it was an absolute blast and I can't wait to do another one for spring!

And, just to show y'all...we do Halloween up at the shop right. Yes, we dress up! Debi and I were dressed to the nines, and Mom decided the fake moustache route was more her speed....she doesn't love Halloween like we do! But I spent the day creeping around people...I was the Creeper of The Cotton Patch! Can you guess which movie monster is my absolute favorite? ...lol.



Dang you, offset triangles! Dang you all to heck! Hee hee.

If you know me, then you know (probably all too well) that when it comes to quilting and Blocks of the Month, I'm one of those pain in the arse-y people who is simply incapable of following the pattern. No, no, no. I always have to change SOMETHING...usually color, so it's no biggie, but kind of when you have to try and match your color choices to what the pattern calls for. So, before I show you what I (tried to do) did, I''ll show you what I SHOULD have done:

This is Kaye England's English Pathway's 6 Month Block of the Month program. I'm not a floral kind of girl, but even I have to admit, this quilt is gorgeous and a computer picture simply doesn't do it justice - the turquoise in there? Fuhgeddaboutit. It's WONDERFUL. But like I said....I don't care for florals. So...

I did it THAT way. The center of the star is the line I pulled everything else from. I should know what that line is called...Crap...Well, we have it at the store, it's the super contemporary piece. Crud. Ah well, I credit my laspe in memory to it being 1 in the fetchin' morning and that I'm watching stand up comedy (LOVE). Bah. Anyway...that border of triangles in the quilt...from the first picture? Yeah. Those are the freaking DEVIL. They're offset, which in theory isn't difficult but toss that bias edge in there with someone who irons fabric until it's super dead...what a pain in the... So I'm still stuck on that part. And by "stuck" I mean, "I'm tired of freaking looking at those dang triangles."  But eventually this thing is going to go on my bed and I'll re-do my bedroom to kind of match it. Aw heck, who am I kidding? Yeah I will be re-painting the walls and doing a wall hanging to match. Seeing that in writing just reaffirms what a Type A I am sometimes. Yeesh. lol.