Various & Sundry #19

Books & Printed Materials
I received 4 books recently from Lark. Hey! Thanks, Lark! I don’t have time to do full on reviews this time, but here are some mentions of 3 of them:

  • Dimensional Bead Embroidery by Jamie Cloud Eakin (hardcover): some really nice pieces in the large gallery; beading techniques you could use for embroidery on a quilt
  • Color, Texture & Casting by Carles Codina (paperback): very modern looking layout, great photos; shapes within photos that could be useful for quilting design inspiration.
  • Rachel Nelson-Smith’s Bead Riffs (hardcover): lots and lots of encrusted seed bead pieces, Billie’s Bounce looks like it could be a very cool Christmas garland.

The Quilters Strip Ticket that TFQ sent me some time ago came in handy the other day when I was making the binding for the Food Quilt. The number I came up with for the length needed for the binding was right on the chart! Often the number I have is different and I have to figure it out anyway, but this time it was there. I was pretty excited.

Tools & Supplies
I tried out the True Grips (remember the rant?), which I bought from the Intrepid Thread, and they are awesome. I put them on some of the specialty rulers I am working with at the moment and those rulers don’t slide a bit. I think I’ll have to buy more.

I got a bug in my ear to try a binding tool to make the ends of my bindings meet perfectly. I went and bought the Fons & Porter version at Joann, but also would like to try the Wendt version (Follow the link and scroll down a bit. If your LQS doesn’t have it and can’t get it for you, Joyce will) that Joyce of Quilting Adventures mentioned to me. I was amazed at how well it worked. It is confusing and the directions are complete, but could uses a few more pictures. If you are a member of QNNTV, there might be some videos that you can watch, too.

I was able to finish the ends of Pavers and Stars for San Bruno #2 really nicely. Much better than the big end lumps of the past. I am really pleased with how the ends came out. Now those two quilts are ready to have the binding hand stitched down. (and then there will be 24!)

Patterns & Inspiration
Oliver & S has their first digital pattern out. it is called Puppet Show. It is a basic dress pattern for little girls. It looks nothing like a puppet show, but I thought I’d tell you. 😉

Media
Mark and Jodie were at Keepsake Quilting (also taken over by New Track Media!) and the KQ Kids posted about their visit. Some of the outtake photos were funny.

Did you like Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion? Well, go over to their blog and tell them so. They are thinking of bringing it back, but you need to put your money where your mouth is.

I am finally catching up with Creative Mojo. I have about 4 episodes to which to listen, so I listened to Creative Mojo 9-13-2011 the other day and it was a fabulous episode. It one that is going in the favorites pile. Harriet and Carrie Hargrave and Dr. Barton Goldsmith were on the show and those segments were the best I have heard in a long time. Harriet and Carrie were talking about teaching quiltmaking in conjunction with their Quilter’s Academy, Junior Year coming out soon. Harriet said that you can’t learn how to quilt by taking a project class. I think that is true, which is one of the reasons I offered to teach the sampler class. Before anyone has a heart attack and starts yelling at me, I do think that project classes can get people started and keep people interested. However, I do think that to progress, you need to know the basics of good technique. Dr. Barton Goldsmith was talking about self esteem and he said a lot of things that I say to myself (that came from my mother, probably) such as “don’t should on yourself”. He made a lot of sense and I have added his book, 100 Ways to Boost Your Self Confidence, to my to-read list.

On another Creative Mojo Show, Mark talked with the editor of Cloth Paper Scissors about their new iPad emag called Collage in Color. It looks like a free app with the short preview version of the magazine, if you have an iPad. The individual issues are $9.95. There is also a windows version you can access from the Interweave website. You only need to be connected to the Internet to download the magazine. Once you download it, the videos, etc all work without a connection. Obviously, if you want to to go an external website, you will need to be connected. I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan on downloading it. It sounds like a cool way of looking at media. Stay tuned; I’ll let you know.

I wanted to remind you about Hearts for Christchurch. Evie is still collecting hearts and my friend, Faye, who lives about 4 hours away from Christchurch tells me that they are having magnitude 4+ earthquakes every day and may not be able to rebuild the downtown because of the instability. Students have dropped out of Canterbury University and gone to a different school and people are moving away.

Japan

Joplin

Christchurch

Alabama….are you next?

Make a heart.