Bad Blogger...Bad!

Well, since we got back from Quilt Market, I know I haven't been the most diligent blogger around. Truth be told, I've been busy as all get out! I've been getting projects done (like you saw in the last 2 posts) and I've been working on the new ideas for the shop that we learned at Quilt Market. Plus, for the month of November we're short staffed at the shop so Mom and I are pulling double and triple duty to make sure things go smoothly. That being said, get better soon Debi! We need you :-)

So in the mean time, I'm running out of informational topics to write for you about. If you want to see something quilting related discussed on this blog, leave a comment and I'll make it happen! Untill then...I'll have a slew of neat new tips for you tomorrow.

Cabins in the Stars

Here is one of those current projects I mentioned a couple posts ago. This one is called Cabins in the Stars by Rita Fishel in her book Everyday Quilts. I loved it, and it's outside of the box for me. You know how I feel about piecing...I usually stick with applique when I can help it. But this one, basic though it is, really called to me and I had just the fabrics in mind. Consider of course the fluorescent lighting in my house and the camera phone, but the colors are much more intense than shown. The pink really glows next to the purple and copper metallic.

Rita Fishel's book. It's a really good one, lots of beautiful, versatile patterns.

This is the pattern I'm doing. I know it's hard to see but it's basically Log Cabin blocks and Variable Stars. It goes to show how color placement and block arrangement can make a simple pattern spectacular!

This is that pink/purple (both batiks) combination in the log cabin. Where you see the orchid purple in the pink is actually a really electric pink in an otherwise magenta and rust batik. It really is a stunning piece in person, and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw that shock of glowing pink in there.

Again, it's hard to tell but the center fabric (a batik) isn't that dull. It has the purple, magenta and copper in there so it really pulls everything together. The background is a deep chocolate brown (not a batik) and that copper (Also not a batik, it's Fairy Frost in "Coin" by Michael Miller) really makes the log cabin and center fabric just pop.

As you can see, I did mix batiks and regular quilting cottons together in this quilt. Usually I opt for one or the other, but in this case the subtle prints in the browns and the Fairy frost really offset the batiks well. As far as sewability, they sew together just fine! I have to say, I LOVE the way batiks sew. They press nice and flat, they don't ravel as much...Beauteous.

Since I'm on Mom-mandated day off from work today, I'm going to try and get this done. Oh, and I'm teaching my roomate how to sew too! I'm excited for her to start :D Mo' quilting buddies, mo' betta'!

Not that I'm the most diligent blogger on the face of the interwebs...

(I'm not. You and I both know it)

Well...I can't say I've been up to much other than that Halloween quilt. I have no pictures right now, but I got all but 2 of my blocks fused down; now all I need to do is blanket stitch 'em! They're turning out super cute, and I'm very pleased with them. Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted in the next couple days.

Speaking of the next couple days...

This will probably be my last post until about August 9th or so - it's VACAY, BABY! I'll be in California for 2 weeks. It's finally hit me after a year and a half of having 2 time intensive jobs, and I've been burning out pretty hard, mentally and physically. So I need a break, and a road trip with my friend Megan down to CA fits the bill. I'll come back happy, relaxed and tan (and probably with a set or two of Mickey Mouse ears). I just wish Mom was able to have an extended break too, because she needs it even more than I do. [Hey "Dante," stay OUT of the store on your days off! You're not even supposed to be here today :)]

So if I post at all, it won't be quilt related...it'll probably be Disneyland and palm tree related. 

Until then, have a happy and safe two weeks, and keep yourself in stitches!

'Tis the Season to be SPOOKY, part dos.

More pictures! I'm moving right along...of course, yesterday I had to take a break to go see Horrible Bosses with my roomate Lauren. Very, very funny movie, and I completely forgot how attractive Jason Bateman was until now. Woo!

Anyway, on to the pictures...

The graveyard is finished! My applique is definitely getting better...it dang well should after all those curves and points. Good grief.

Can you see that purple? Yeah, me neither. So I decided to outline the lettering in the Hot Fix Ribbon. Not easy to do with a regular sized iron!

MUCH better. The purple pops much more in real life though.

Yeah, I always intended to applique it down. My thought was that with the ribbon plus the blanket stitch, it would look like stripes. Success, I feel!

Cute little candy corns. I decided that in all the pieced blocks, instead of doing solid black, I'd to a nice polka dot. Actually, this quilt is filled with polka dots. Whaaat? I like polka dots... <3

Ghosties! Their faces will be embroidered on later. Right now, they have such blank expressions! Oh yeah, gotta love the [candy]corny jokes! I'm on a roll! lol

Just a basic Card Trick....that took me 3 (non-consecutive) hours to do...some moron *ahem* kept cutting it wrong.

Right-o! So that's where I'm at there. Tonight I'm thinking I'll start on the houses and the flying geese. Should be cute! 

This one is for "Pearl's Potions" I'll probably re-name it. I think this one is my favorite so far!

Darwin gets a new friend and I get to rip out stitches.

My roomate Lauren (yeah, I know) just got a new dog to keep Darwin company, and he's so FLUFFY I'm gonna die!

Say hello to Charles :-) Or Char. Or Char-Char. Or CHARMANDER! lol.

You know you live in an anthropology and science nerd house when your dogs are named Charles and Darwin. Hehehe. I love it! We call him Charlie though. He's adorable and Darwin likes him so it's a win-win. Woo hoo! Now if only we could take them sailing on a pint sized Beagle...(if you're a super nerd like me you'll get the reference...the Beagle was the ship that Darwin sailed to the Galapagos on). Aaaanyway...

So we have a bus hailing all the way from Texas coming in about a week to go to the Sisters quilt show and to visit, and after a little mishap with one of my kits, I needed to hop to it and get crackin' on another on to replace the can't-use-it-now one. So I chose to do a Thimble Blossoms pattern:

Super cute, and super simple....IF you're paying attention. Well, I read the pattern no less than 5 times. Seriously. 5 times. Apparently my information retention the past few days has been something awful because not only did I sew the wrong pieces together once, I sewed the new ones on without cutting the focus blocks down, and then had to do it a third time. I forgot to cut 2 strips for the points too. Good grief! Talk about having a case of the dumb-dumbs...so I've been spending more time ripping out stitches and re-cutting things than I have actually piecing! Oh the joys of quilting ;)

It's going to be really adorable though, I'm using Alexander Henry's Sew Much Fun as the large blocks, and Robert Kaufman's Sew Happy for the block points, and then an assortment of other matching prints for the neutral blocks.

Poor lighting, blah blah blah, but I assure you it's adorable. Oh, and third time's a charm, right?

It calls for a Layer Cake, but I'll level with you: I don't like Layer Cakes much. I think they're a great idea, don't get me wrong, and I do use them from time to time. But I really enjoy the process of choosing the fabrics, and I feel very limited when it comes to Layer Cakes because all of the colors are chosen for you. They're wonderful when you need a project done yesterday or if you're not wanting to go to the trouble to pick out 30 fabrics and cut them all to size (which admittedly, can be a pain), but I enjoy the process so I'd rather do it myself.

Hopefully I'll have the top pieced today so I can send it to Carol to be quilted tomorrow, or at latest, on Friday. Whew, nothing like flying by the seat of your pants!



Happy 2 Years to The Cotton Patch

It's amazing how time flies. It feels like just yesterday we took over the shop and then I blinked my eyes and here we are, 2 years later and going stronger than ever before. I know for Mom it's gone even faster.

I remember growing up Mom read me a page out of her teenage diary. No juicy gossip of course, but what she read me still resounds in my head and heart knowing what the past was and what the present is. In her entry she was laying out her life goals and in that goal plan was "own a fabric store." Now, this was well before she started quilting, but she's had a lifelong love for sewing and fabric. Knowing that, and all the time I spent watching her sew when I was growing up, and all the effort she's put forth in her own quilting...all of it just makes me extremely, extremely proud of her.

I remember a few years ago I was driving over on Edgewater in West Salem, back when you could still talk on your cell phone and drive at the same time without getting fined, and she called me, practically shouting into the phone. Mom has an inexplicable and science defying way of just falling into jobs. She won't be looking for one, but the perfect one always manages to fall right into her lap. At first I thought something was wrong, but after a few seconds I realized that, holy cowabunga, she got a job at a quilt store - a place she's always wanted to work. What's more, is that she was friends with the owner too, and Judith just asked her out of the blue to work for her. How much more perfect could it have been?

Five years later, Mom owns the quilt shop. This really is her dream come to life. Sometimes we have these lifelong dreams that never come to pass, no matter how hard we strive to achieve them, or whether we do nothing at all, they just don't happen. It's not what is meant to be. I can't begin to say how happy I am and how proud I am of her that her dream has come to fruition and she gets to have that joy.

I also can't begin to say how blessed I feel to be able to be a part of the store and to have such amazing and positive people and things in my life. It's amazing how time flies, and how just 2 years can entirely change a person's life. I had tried to quilt before then, but it just never worked out. I got frustrated and I wasn't any good at all. But after 2 years, it has reawakened my passion for art and creation, a passion that years of criticism and negativity from people who no longer matter at schools I'm long gone from had tried and successfully extinguised. The last 2 years have changed my life entirely from not knowing what I want in my life and surrounding myself with largely neutral influences, to giving my life a strong focus, a rekindled fire and the happiness of having positive and joyous people in my life.

Last night we had a party to celebrate the 2 year anniversary of our family having The Cotton Patch. Mom thanked us all for all of our help, because without us, she couldn't have done it. Well, I want to thank YOU, Mom, for letting me have a part in your dream and for guiding me to a better place in my life. And thank you Dad, Debi, Carol, Barb, Myke, Linda, Bobbie, Karen and Renee for making it such a fun place to be.

Now, on to the pictures from last night! I know if I don't post them, certain people (MomandDebi) will have my head for keeping them all to myself!

Taco and margarita schmorgasboard!

L-R: Aunt Barb, Debi, Mom

What a view! and what GOREGOUS weather. Finally summer in Oregon!

I love being on their deck. It's so beautiful out there.

L-R: Debi, Carol, my roomate Lauren

Bahaha...caught Lauren mid-eat. Don't worry, she got me good later, just wait and see.

L-R: Aunt Barb, Mom

Man, you have to be SNEAKY to catch a picture of Dad, and dang it all he moved. Trying to get a picture of him is like trying to get a picture of the elusive Sasquatch.

Quilts and Margaritas: The Perfect Combination. And the umbrella is ADORABLE.

L-R: Mom and Carol. Anniversary gifts!

An organizer and stationary set! That will come in handy. Thank you Carol!

I think that's a card from Debi.

"Don't break the ties! If you break the ties that means you're going to have a baby." Note the look on Mom's face. Worry not, that only lasted for a second because naturally she quipped to me something sabout maybe I should break the ties so she can have some grandchildren all ready. *facepalm* Nice try, Mom.

See now if that had been break the ties for grandchildren she'd have chainsawed that off at this point. Thank God that's not true! And isn't it clever how Debi wrapped that? Fabric is the greatest. <3

Mackie is my homeboy. I love all the dogs, but I have a real soft spot for this little crosseyed Scottie!

A beautiful windchime from Debi! That's going to go perfectly in Mom's garden, I have a feeling!

Debi

L-R: Mom and Debi

Gah! I told you she got me. that would be me (L) with my face stuffed full of cupcake, mid humongous chew.

L-R: Debi and Aunt Barb

L-R: Mom and Carol.

L-R: Debi, Aunt Barb

L-R: Aunt Barb's head, me, Mom and Carol

Wait, what? It's June all ready?! Shut your mouth!

Indeed. June all ready. Where have the last 6 freakin' months gone? Just wondering because apparently I've been asleep, zoned out or something. ::blink::

So. Those of you that know me know that to say I'm a workaholic is a disgusting understatement. I always manage to get myself stretched six ways from Sunday and then wonder why I'm so dang tired all the time. Lets put this is perspective for a moment, and then determine my sanity (oh, and a preemptive shut up to the peanut gallery :D). I have a "for real" job, and a "fun job." My "for real" job is mornings and part time, my "fun job" is close to full time (not including work done outside). I have a house, dog, family and friends that sometimes want some of my attention - thankfully I don't have to add a boyfriend or husband to this. Up until December, add full time credit hours at University to this, too, and last January (2010) I had a THIRD job in the mix. I have a side project that I'm working on and pushing through the system, that's super exciting (to me) and eating a lot of time (and patience...not my strong suit!). I'm a workin' machine! Honestly though, this isn't a complaint whatsoever. I love it. I'm one of those weirdos that doesn't know what to do with herself when she has "free time." Heck, I can't even manage to sit and watch my WWE without having to do something else at the same time...cross stitch, applique, sew, Sudoku, whatever...

I'm not trying to toot my own horn here (even though that's definitely what it's looking like, I know) but in the last month, I finished 3 projects. Pretty darn good for me I'd say! I'm a notorious project starter but not finisher. I forget/get bored/get frustrated and leave it alone for a long time/run out of fabric *gasp* and just plain don't finish. I'll start 3 projects for one I don't finish. UFOs GALORE!

That being said, in the last WEEK AND A HALF I have picked up 4 new projects and I have 1 quilting job I need to do for someone. Luckily only the latter has a deadline...

-I've got a super cute fall table runner, which will be neat...it's got little appliqued pumpkins on it.
-There's that damn chicken quilt, which, by the way, the pattern was wrongity wrong and I'm 5 flippin' inches short on my last border. Thanks for nothing, pattern! *grumble*
- There's a 900+ piece quilt from the latest Australian Quilter's Companion I'm doing...still gathering black and whites for that though...it'll be cool when its all said and done but good LORD I don't want to piece all that nonsense /whine.
-As of yesterday I picked up a row quilt out of a Guatemalan border stripe. It'll be pretty rad looking because I fussy cut the buh-jeezus out of the stripe, but I gotta get some go-withs to fill it out.

All in all, looks like I'll be staying off the mean streets of Keizer (I can't say that with a straight face...bahahaha. Keizer's pretty calm except for this guy, who after seeing him on the news I'm pretty sure is the posterchild for bat-crap-crazy

(True Keizer Story. I'm not offended by the sign, I mean, hey, beauty of the First Amendment right there...it allows you to demonstrate to the rest of the street what a looney toon you are. What I find funny as all get out is the fact that he originally had the spelling of neighbor correct, then changed it to a misspelling. Yeah I know, of course that's what I would take away from it...a grammatical error)

Well, after that dose of crazy, I'll leave you with my hound, telling me with his big ol' bug eyes that he wants me to stop trying to bind the quilt...little Lord Fauntleroy over here wanted to lay on it instead, but I kept moving it as I was stitching...I forgot, who is it that owns who? :)



"Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon."

Yes, I will always find an excuse to squeeze in a Ghostbusters quote. But let's be honest here...who wouldn't?

Anyway, I'm still trapped in my own personal binding quilts hell (::whine::) so I haven't been up to much other than that. Even the chicken quilt is on hold! Well, for the moment. So while I'm busy not being at all productive, I thought I'd do a blog about tips...safety and otherwise...that I use on the daily (when I'm quilting) or that I haven't tried yet but people at the shop keep telling me (I promise I'll try them out eventually!). If I know/remember who I heard it from, I'll attribute it to them (no last names for privacy's sake!)...if not...well, thanks for the tip whoever you are!

• I know we're all really careful not to hysterically wave our rotary cutters around and to not use them to hack at fabric as though they were a broadsword, but accidents can and do happen.  A good way to lower your odds of filleting yourself is to keep your fingers away from the edge of the ruler when you're cutting, and to ensure that happens, place your pinky on the outside edge of the ruler. This helps prevent the ruler from sliding and guarantees your fingers are away from the cutting edge. Suggested by Koleen. Nothing is ever 100% foolproof (not even those stupid gloves), so you may still get cut if something bizarre happens. Always be careful!
• Here's another tip for quilting injuries...we get stabbed by pins and needles, occasionally sliced ourselves with a rotary cutter or scissors or run our fingers over in the sewing machine (bad news) - sometimes we get blood on our work...eek! This sounds gross but I swear it works (unless you have gotten a significant amount of blood on your work, this is more for pinpricks and papercuts): Dab a little bit of your saliva on your (non injured) finger and put it on the bloodspot on your fabric. It may take a couple tries, but it will remove most if not all of the blood. This is great in a pinch if you aren't at a place where you can stop and wash your fabric or your quilt. Also, did you know there is a reason why little kids (and some of us big kids) stick our cut fingers in our mouths? It looks and sounds icky, but our saliva is a natural coagulant - if you have a minor cut or pinprick, saliva will stop the bleeding. Suggested by Helen. Just promise me you won't go spitting on other people's cuts...it only works on your own blood, and really, that's just nasty.
• If you don't have a no-slide cutting ruler or if your grips are worn down and you're not ready to buy another, in the mean time try placing Press n' Seal wrap on the back of your ruler. It is translucent, so you can see through it reasonably well and it has enough tack to it to keep your ruler from sliding on your fabric. I tried it - it leaves no residue on either your fabric or ruler. Suggested by some lady in the Tips portion of The Love of Quilting with Fons and Porter.
• Patterns can be a real pain in the butt to wrangle with by your machine sometimes, and storage can be an issue with all of those many pattern and their little plastic baggies they usually come in. To cut down on the storage issue, I numbered and wrote the pattern name on the bottom of the page on each page of the pattern. Then I shoved those pages in the clear binder sleeves and stuck them in a binder. Any applique pieces and patterns I slip between the pages in the sleeve, or keep the little baggie and slide it in with the pages. As for those little baggies the pattern came in, if they're salvageable, I use them with other projects to keep my cut pieces in so nothing gets lost. Otherwise, when you need the pattern just take the page you need out of the binder and there you have it, all nice and contained by your machine. This is my own method, and so far it's worked pretty well!
• Ripping out stitches just plain sucks. If you promise to be super careful, you can quickly and effectively rip out those stitches with your rotary cutter. Open the seam enough to get the blade in there,a nd using small strokes, let the blade snip the thread. You need very little pressure for this! Once your thread is all chopped to bits, use an emery board and run it gently from the inside of the old seam to the edge of the fabric. This will remove those little threads! Mom taught me this one :) We won't be held accountable for any injuries stemming from this tip! The key is to go slow and be very, VERY careful.
• If you're not comfortable using a rotary cutter to take out a seam, using your seam ripper you can do the same thing, run the sharp part of the ripper down the seam. Or, as Loretta suggested, cut every 4th stitch - it'll come right apart without having to snip every single stitch.
• Here's something I learned after doing it the hard way - If you're using a circle cutting ruler (you know, the ones that have all the sizes of half circles cut into it?), use a small rotary cutter to cut your fabric through the ruler with, something like a 28mm or an 18mm. A standard 45mm is too wide and can damage your ruler or knick your blade.

That's it for now...Keep an eye to the Newsletter for more great tips!

Hide yo' fabric, hide yo' patterns cuz I'm back bloggin' errything in here!

...Sorry, I relapsed and had an "If Antoine Dodson were a Quilter" moment.

Apologies. So, it's been awhile, I know. Things in my life are FINALLY starting to get back to ops norm. The carpets are torn up and the beautiful wood floor is in. It looks like a completely different house! Also, Lauren is moved in and just about settled.

...which, in related news, I've corrupted her and she's going to start sewing!! I'm starting a quilting apocalypse; it's like the zombie apocalypse we keep hearing about, only instead of turning people into zombies, I'm turning them into quilters! Bahahaahah-oh. Sorry. Got carried away. But yes, she bought her first bit of fabric and I'm going to teach her something super quick and easy to do to get her interested. I don't think quilting will be the thing for her, but I think crafty sewing will...like potholders, makeup bags etc. That kind of stuff. Yay for her!!! :D

Anyway. So since everything has been in a state of flux at home, I haven't been working on anything requiring my machine. This whole month I have sewn once. ONCE! Talk about torture!! I'm happy to have one of my best friends here, but the renovation and moving process had forced me to shove my machine into a lonely and crowded corner in the side room, and not being able to sew has, to be completely honest, sucked voraciously. I'm super behind on projects and they keep piling on...what I need is a retreat! Hm...

-----------------

In the mean time, I've been working on little hand sewing ventures and just cruising the internet longing to be sewing instead. *insert melodramatic sigh here* Okay, maybe I'm speaking a liiiiittle (only a little...) hyperbolically. I've been buried under yo-yos! Mom had a neat idea for the shop to use as a decoration (not as a sample or project) and volunteered me to make the "we'll start with 70 and see how it looks" yo-yos, since among us I'm the one that doesn't mind doing the repetitious handwork.

That being said, I'm turning my focus to yo-yo makers. I have changed my feeling on them. I've decided that I'm taking the Alton Brown approach to this sewing gadget: Brown (from Good Eats on the Food Network) talks about how unitask gadgets in the kitchen are really next to useless unless it's for a food that you make several times a week, and encourages people to seek out multitasking items instead. Yo-yo makers are unitaskers. Realistically,  they ONLY make yo-yos, and only the one size it's designed to make. If you do tons of projects using yo-yos in some form or another, and you make them all the same size and you need to be consistent at that size, then they're great! But how many of us really do that? Let's be honest with ourselves. Aside from the handful of yo-yos we may use to embellish a piece or the extremely rare occasion we think it might be cool to do a quilt made entirely of yo-yos, they just aren't a major player in most people's work. So. That thing just sits there for however many months (or years) until we make something with yo-yos and them remember what a pain in the rear it is and quit.

I admit that if I only have a couple yo-yos to do, then yes, I will use a yo-yo maker because I do have a couple. It goes relatively quickly and it's really really fool-proof. But I have to say, I prefer doing the whole process by hand. I find that I go slower using the yo-yo makers, because of having to move the needle all the way up and down through the holes in the plastic, meaning I can't load my needle with 10-15+ stitches at once. Seriously, the time I take tracing my circle/heart/oval/flower out is more than made up for with the speed I can do that single gathering stitch without using that damned plastic disk. Not to mention, I can do whatever size or shape I want using my own template, which can also be used as an applique temple in other projects, without sacrificing consistency.

That's just my humble opinion. If you're all for yo-yo makers, then all the power to you! They are a neat tool...I just used a popcorn tin lid instead!

I'm just about out of computer time here at the moment,  but I have more to say about things I've learned since I haven't been sewing much...tips and hints and a very begrudging tip of my hat to Fons and Porter.

Oof.

Just popping by to say "I'm sorry!" for the lack of posts lately...I'll be honest...I haven't been doing much of anything the last few days or so. It's amazing how busy and weird things get so quickly.

But I'll be back in a couple more days with something new :-)