Various & Sundry #5- June 2014

Techniques, Tips & Tutorials

I have talked about using French seams in pillow cases and gift bags. They really make the seams look nice. Perhaps I can use them on the free motion tote bag I haven’t yet made if I cut out the batting? I’ll have to see. Here is a tutorial that might give you more information.

I found a video of Sue Nickels machine quilting and was pleased to see that A) she marks and B) she doesn’t run the machine at a demon speed. I don’t feel like such a fish out of water after watching this video and I think it opens up the possibilities of machine and free motion quilting to other quiltmakers who didn’t feel comfortable moving the machine a long as fast as it would go.

The Fat Quarter shop has a YouTube Channel they describe as great if you are looking for tutorials, tips, and fun videos?

I love this binding. the designer embellished it. It is the last thing I would have thought of, but it does provide another venue for embellishment and surface design.

Torie showed a picture of the beginning of her Texas Braid quilt, which I thought was a cool unit. The teacher has a post with students showing long strips of braids. I kind of like the units alone and wonder what I could do with one.

Joe Cunningham, of San Francisco, has a video on the TQS blog about sewing something to something else. While it is a simple idea, it is also profound and opens up your quiltmaking to a host of design possibilities.

Remember the Sarah Ann Smith online class I reviewed? Recently I saw a Melinda Bula video that illustrates the idea in a couple of minutes. I don’t think this video replaces the Sarah Ann Smith online class (which you should buy, if you haven’t already done so), but it does give you a good reminder of the steps in only a couple of minutes.

Exhibits, Shows & Challenges

Homefront Challenge. Entries are due August 30.

ZAnyMouse Disappearing 4 Patch
ZAnyMouse Disappearing 4 Patch

I like the layout of this Disappearing Four Patch that ZAnyMouse shared on Twitter. I like the way the small squares form, what looks like sashing and the larger part of the blocks form real four patches. Peggy at BAMQG said she has laid out some of the Disappearing 4 Patches this way. It makes me want to make a Disappearing 4 Patch! If you want to make something like this, check out the Material Girl tutorial.

The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles is trying to pay off their permanent building so they can have more financial options. To do this they are having a fund raising campaign. They write ” 37 years, 37 weeks, 37 reasons why you should join us to Realize the Dream. We have raised 50% of our $1.4 million goal but we need your help to Realize the Dream. These funds will eliminate the debt on our beautiful permanent building and home. Make our dream a reality by giving!” 50% is a fantastic start! Even if you can give $1, $5 or $10, every dollar counts. Give now to help maintain a resource celebrating all quiltmakers and available for all of us.

Media, Blogs and Other Artists

Kathy Matthews is a reader here and she does a quilt column for Chicago Now! Head over to her online space and tell her you read about her here. One interesting post was about a guy who wanted to return to work, because he had no hobbies. Can you imagine? The dude needs to start quilting.

Torina has redesigned the Tubaville Blog and looks cheery. She is working on the Gypsy Wife project. I will have to look that one up as I am not familiar with it. She also shows a picture of her finished City Sampler quilt on an April 29 post.

Anna Maria Horner gives the backstory of her new collection of fabric, which is sweet and sad and triumphant, but all in very lowkey ways. We think of designers in our realm as superstars and this post gives a very real view into the very real life of a woman who is mother, daughter, caregiver, nurturer and how all of that can overwhelm that woman when the roles get out of balance. The description of how her art and craft helped her return to her normal balance is heartwarming and inspirational.

The LA Times had a series of stories about Modern Quilting. Thanks to Pink chalk for the tip.

Quilt Market Recap

My pals at quilting Adventures have great posts on what they bought and saw at Market. Day 1’s post includes Carolyn Friedlander’s booth, which must have been a stunner (anyone have the list of booth winners?), because everyone is talking about it. One of their photos has a wonderful Dutchman’s Puzzle quilt where each block is made from 2 fabrics. I also really like the gridded flying geese quilt with the grey background. I could replace the flying geese with other shapes to make it a little different, but the flying geese are great.

They also did a Sample Spree post. I have a basic understanding of Sample Spree, but it is still a bit of a mystery to me.

Phoebe, on Day 2 of Market, was having so much fun she forgot to take photos for the blog! What a girl! Still she produces a valiant post. She reminds readers to check back for a Market giveaway.

If you haven’t seen Angela Walters post, be sure and read it. It is very poignant and makes me like her all the more. I am very partial to grandparents and she talks about her grandpa in this post quite a bit.

Deer with giant horns were prevalent. I saw a number of prints in various blog posts as well as a full on mounted, stuffed deer head – made form fabric. I think it is a strange trend, but to each her own.

Do you need a good laugh? Check out these photo captions from The Fat Quarter Shop. You can also see the thoughts of the FQS girls by taking a look at their Twitter feed during the show.

Lazy Girl Designs talks about her demos in the Clover Booth of “Press Perfect.” She also has some great photos. Short but sweet recap.

Nicole from Modern Handcraft (I wonder if this was the name of her blog before ‘Modern’ became a thing…when did ‘Modern’ become a thing anyway?) has a photo collage  and lots of detail shots of her Market experience.

Riley Blake has a two part blog post recapping the market experience of that fabric manufacturer. Part 1 talks about their booth theme (sea, beach) and shows stuffies, including a whale!, made from their new fabric lines. They say that navy and orange are the hot new color combination of the season. I guess I won’t be buying much fabric this season. I do like the flamingos (I’ll have to look for a pattern) on the pillows, but wish they were pink and the tree silhouette quilt is wonderful, though I wish it were made from different colors. Part 2 talks about more of their fabric lines, shows many, many projects and fabrics.

Bonnie Christine shows her booth, Winged, which is named after her new fabric line for Art Gallery Fabrics. Her post has mostly a fabric collage and she promises to talk more about Market soon, so stay tuned for that.

Jaybird Quilts has a nice post with a lot of different types of pictures: her projects in various booths, schoolhouse, setup. There is a picture of tula Pink’s new ribbon, one of which has the octopus motif that I used in one of the City Sampler blocks on it. I am not sure on which project I would use octopus ribbon, but I still kind of love it.

It is fun to look at a random sampling of different posts to get a sense of what Quilt Market was like. If you search for “quilt market pittsburgh 2014” recap you should get some interesting results as well.

Moda has videos.

Projects and Patterns

I don’t know how seem to miss blog hops. Moda had one recently called Spell It with Moda. It included patterns for letters, numbers and punctuations. I found it a link on Camille Roskelley’s blog.

I have been thinking about dong the Farmer’s Wife project. It will be awhile since I am working on the City Sampler/Tale of Two Cities projects and a person can only handle so many blocks at one time. I do like looking at them. Lori from Quilting Unleashed posted a nice picture of her blocks in the midst of a vacation post that makes me envy how much she got done.

Fabric

You’d think I had enough fabric. Not in this case. I need the right fabric: fabric with images of California. I want to make shirts for the boys to wear when they are travelling together as Grand Officers, or to wear at Grand Parlor. There seems to be a dearth of nice (read: suitable for grown men to wear on their bodies) California themed fabric. I have seen the following:

Spoonflower has some great designs and I would love to use some of them, but the fabric is pricey. Some of them would have to be cut and matched very carefully and I am not that good at making garments.

I’d really like something like the vintage silk pieces that I saw online at Etsy or another on Etsy or on Flickr, but there is not enough of them to make a shirt and they may be too fragile. I wish Michael Miller or Robert Kaufman would reprint fabrics like this. Tell me what you have found. Perhaps there is some old bolt of awesome fabric that you have found.

Tools and Supplies

A downloadable PDF version of the color card is now available! the colors may not be completely true, because of the color reproduction on your computer, so just use it as a backup to your printed (real) color card.

A Fiber Artist’s Guide to Color and Design is back in stock at Amazon! Click below to order it if you have not already bought a copy. This is a fantastic resource for those of you following along with the design series.