Reappearance of the Spiky 16 Patches

I spent some time yesterday just sewing donation blocks, including these Spiky 16 Patches. I came home to all the pieces on the floor. This is a problem with my new design wall that is making me crazy. I decided to get them off the floor and sewing together.

These will be part of another donation quilt. You saw these blocks unpieced back in April. I hope to have the fourth one finished sometime this week so I can put the top together in time for Sew Day.

Time for a New Suitcase

Tulips in Austria
Tulips in Austria

In case you didn’t notice, I just got back from a work trip to Switzerland and a side trip to visit friends in Austria. It sounds glamorous and it is exciting to say I went to work in Switzerland for two weeks. It is hard work, though, being in another location. I am so happy to be home, even though I was happy to meet my team mates in person for the first time. I am also happy I got to see some friends that I haven’t seen since 2016.

Basilika Rankweil
Basilika Rankweil

I prepared most of the posts for April 28-May 18 in advance, so you wouldn’t notice that I was gone.

This trip, I took more videos than I have in the past and used the panorama photo function more than I have previously. The views were even more dramatic this time than in the past. Or I don’t remember them being this dramatic.

Pfaender to Bodensee
Pfaender to Bodensee

There was quite a bit of rain while I was there and the clouds created most of the drama. The rain means that the landscape is really green, which I love.

I got to see friends, I was able to visit Basel, a new city to me and see some dramatic cityscapes. I also got to take several train trips, which I like. I moved around a lot, which is exhausting and it made me realize I need a lighter suitcase. My suitcase has been a workhorse, but it is getting too much for me to haul around, mostly because it is somewhat heavy even empty.

Spalentor, Basel
Spalentor, Basel

The worst part of the trip was that I didn’t bring any handwork. HUGE mistake that I will not make again.

Anyway, it was a great trip, but I am glad to be home.

Some More New Fabric

Fabric from Family Threads
Fabric from Family Threads

When I talked about Family Threads Quilt Shop the other day, I forgot to mention and show the fabric I bought.

The dots were really different than I have seen before. I think it was the colors, because the Tula Tiny Beasts dots are similar in size.

I love that chocolate fabric and have used it for Sweet Dreams pillowcases before. The fabric above is a little different from the ones I have bought before, but similar. It is just fun fabric and makes great pillowcases.

Cork I Spy #3

Cork I Spy - medium #1
Cork I Spy – medium #1

Here is the last Cork I Spy pouch I made at Retreat. The lining fabric is one of my favorites and I just had a bit of it left. I had just enough for the large lining piece.

In general for the three pouches, I found the cork to be easy to sew, but not easy to turn. If (when?) I use cork again on an I Spy pouch, I will definitely round the corners. I think it will make the project much easier to turn.

All that being said, I thought the corners looked fine when I finally did get the pouch turned. I gave these to some work colleagues and they loved them.

Russian Rubix in the Wild

Russian Rubix in Rankweil
Russian Rubix in Rankweil

Another quilt in the wild!

I didn’t get to see all the quilts I have sent or taken to Austria, but, as you have seen, I was able to see a few.

Russian Rubix was the last one I saw. It was also one of the first ones I sent to Austria. It looks pretty good.

One of the issues is that Austrians use a different kind of bedding, so the quilts don’t really fit in. Still, I am glad to see it on a bed, even if they just put it there so I could see it.

Family Threads Quilt Shop

Family Threads Quilt Shop
Family Threads Quilt Shop

I visited Family Threads quilt shop in San Juan Batista before the Retreat. This is a great quilt shop. There was a wide variety of fabrics, lots of patterns, bag supplies, solids and good notions.

The shop was small, but they had a wide variety of fabric. They had many, many panels hanging around the upper part of the ceiling. This is only the second shop I have seen with so many panels.

Family Threads main room
Family Threads main room

The shop also had a lot of fabric. They also had a wide variety of fabrics I hadn’t seen. I saw a lot of novelty fabrics that I have only seen online. Now I know I can go to somewhere relatively nearby and actually look at some fabrics.

The bolts on the floor in the front were a wide variety of polka dots. You can see the main color. The dot colors were all different.They weren’t just white. Yes, I bought a couple of fat quarter packs.

In the photo, right, you can also see the panels mentioned above.

Family Threads main room
Family Threads main room

The isn’t exactly crammed, but every surface was well used. There are also a lot of different textures in the storage furniture. In the photo, left, you can see the interesting sides of the white shelf.

The shop had lots of pre-cuts and not just jelly rolls. The polka dots I mentioned above were all over the shop in fat quarter packs. There were different combinations, too. I saw some monochromatic packs in blue and others with a selection of rainbow fat quarters.

The shop had a good selection of notions as well. I was especially impressed with their selection of Creative Grids rulers. You can’t really see the rulers, which are behind the pre-cuts in the photo on the right. You can see a nice selection of some great fabrics in that same photo.

I was thrilled that I finally found a shop that carries Northcott solids. remember I discovered those at QuiltCon in 2016. I didn’t need any the day I was there, but I’ll go back and get some in the future. The solids room was also the shop classroom. Some people were sewing there the day we visited.

Family Threads bagmaking materials
Family Threads bagmaking materials

In the vestibule of the solids rooms was where they stored their bagmaking supplies. I was impressed with the setup. The drawers were labelled so it was easy to find different types of interfacing. You calso see straps and webbing stored. I liked this area a lot.

Family Threads patterns area
Family Threads patterns area

The shop had a LOT of sample bags and other small projects as well as a wide variety of patterns.

All in all, Family Threads was a great shop and I want to visit again.

Get a different view, though. Julie wrote a good post about what she bought, and the shop.

 

107 The Alameda, Suite D
PO Box 1203
San Juan Bautista, CA 95045

HOURS Mon-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-3, Sun Closed

Tel: (831) 623-0200

Website: https://familythreadsquiltshop.com/

Happy Mother’s Day 2-in-1 Case

Mom's 2-in-1-Case
Mom’s 2-in-1-Case

This 2-in-1 Case is for my Mom for Mother’s Day. I cut this out at Sew Day, I think, and made it at the Retreat.

I forgot to put the foam inside. I did adhere fusible batting, so it has some structure, but it floopier than the others I have made.

I really had trouble with the snaps. I used the Snapsetter and found out that it has to be on a hard surface. The folding table that made my Retreat workstation was not stable enough so I had to redo the top cap twice. I think the bottom part may come off if she isn’t careful, so I’ll have to warn her.

Mom's 2-in-1-Case - inside
Mom’s 2-in-1-Case – inside

I think she could probably use this for non-sewing stuff in a tote bag or in her purse. I am sure she will think of some way to use it.

I got her a bigger and better gift also, which makes me not so worried about the snap.

BAM Retreat Downtown SJB

Peace pole at the Retreat Center
Peace pole at the Retreat Center

Before we could check in to the Retreat center we spent some time in downtown (old town?) San Juan Batista. We had lunch at the Jardines de San Juan. The food there was really good. We sat outside at a big table and enjoyed the sunshine. The restaurant was down the street from the quilt shop.

There weren’t very many people around the town as in it wasn’t packed, but there were plenty of people around.

A. Taix Building, SJB
A. Taix Building, SJB

After lunch we walked around the old part of the town. They had a lot of porches over the sidewalks and a lot of old buildings.

I couldn’t tell if this building was tin, but Julie and SIL #2 said it was decorative brick.

SJB old building
SJB old building

This building is a style that I really like, because of the big windows. I always thought it would be great to have a studio in a building like this, because of the light. I know that light isn’t good for fabric, but I really like working in a nice bright space.

In this building one of the shops was a candy and ice cream store.

Cactus apples
Cactus apples

There was a San Juan Batista Historic Park. There was a HUGE cactus, which had a lot of cactus apples on it. Julie knew that they weren’t ripe yet and what color they would be when they were ripe.

It’s interesting how many different textures there are on this plant.

Flowers in SJB
Flowers in SJB

There were also a lot of flowers and blooming plants around. I don’t spend a lot of time outside beyond my walks. I seem to enjoy it when I am outside. I also seem to take photos of a lot of flowers and plants.

 

 

Pulling out the Papers

La Pass back of rosette
La Pass back of rosette

I started pulling out the papers for some parts of La Passacaglia.

This is rosette #1 and I carefully pulled out the papers from some of the centers. It didn’t completely work out with some other rosettes.

I have to start taking out some of the papers sometime. I will continue even when I have to put some back in again.

BAM Retreat Other Projects

BAM Retreat 2023 - all the projects
BAM Retreat 2023 – all the projects
BAM Retreat 2023 - all the projects - detail
BAM Retreat 2023 – all the projects – detail

One thing we did was put all the projects, both finished and unfinished, up on the wall and take a picture of them. I thought it was a good way to acknowledge all the work we had done and all the progress we made.

Mary C's KaleidoBloom
Mary C’s KaleidoBloom

Other people made amazing projects as well. That big amazing quilt with all the curves is Mary C’s project, Kaleidobloom, Crafty Nomad Block of the Month project. I have seen the pattern and many people in the guild are working on, but I wasn’t very impressed until I saw the blocks on the wall.

I think there is just a border or two left, but I wish those corners would be built out some more. I’ll have to wait and see before I make some pronouncements beyond: awesome!

Lynette's project bag
Lynette’s project bag

Lynette, bagmaker extraordinaire, and my partner in bags for the Ultimate Carry All Bag-a-long. Lynette showed us her project, which uses a bag from Amazon**.

She cuts off the top and adds fabric to the bottom, then boxes the bottom using a 1 inch square. The bonus is that she doesn’t have to insert a zipper and the plastic bags are pretty inexpensive. She is working on developing a project that uses the bottom part of the bag as well. She may do a class or tutorial. I said I would be her tester, so you may see a few of these here later.

Amy's Metro Twist
Amy’s Metro Twist

Amy worked on her Sew Kind of Wonderful pattern, Metro Twist. Amy’s looks awesome! I love the Tula Pink True Colors dots and stripes she used and want to make one exactly like it. 😉 This is made with the Quick Curve Ruler, a ruler I thought worked very well. Amy talked about the certified teacher from whom she took the class and getting that person to come to the guild. Somehow that morphed into Amy and I teaching the class! If we do it, it’ll be fun. We’ll see.

Anna's Kaffe Fassett quilt
Anna’s Kaffe Fassett quilt

Anna finished a Kaffe Fassett quilt she has been working on for awhile. It looks a little like a watercolor quilt. Remember those? She has a goal of only working on UFOs this year. This was encouraged by the President’s challenge, which is to work on (and maybe finish?) projects that have not been worked on in over 6 months. I plan to finish some of the bags from the 2018 Crafty Gemini Organizer Club. Remember I gathered all the pieces and parts recently? I just haven’t done anything about it yet.

Owls with my blocks
Owls with my blocks

Melinda and Mary M were working together to make a quilt for Mary M’s daughter. They used an Elizabeth Hartman pattern called Allie Owl**. The owls were quite large and will make a lap quilt. The pattern shows brighter fabric; these fabrics look nice, too. I was really amazed at the size.

Some of my blocks are under the owls.

Deb's quilt top
Deb’s quilt top

Deb is a new member and this was her first retreat. Where I worked on 3+ projects, Deb worked on one project and she ended up with a quilt top.

I haven’t seen most of the fabrics she used in awhile. Some of them looked like aboriginal style fabric. This pattern doesn’t look like one that I have seen, but there are some elements that look familiar. The zigzag sashing looks like a Streak of Lighting quilt, but the blocks don’t fit with that design. It’s definitely interesting.

Melinda, Bonnie, Amy & Julie's projects
Melinda, Bonnie, Amy & Julie’s projects

Melinda, Bonnie and Julie  have their projects above Amy’s Metro Twist. Melinda’s blue and brown piece will be part of the San Mateo County Fair climate change challenge. It depicts the amount of rain in sort of a graph format that her hometown got this winter.

Bonnie has been working on the circle piece for a few months. She had some acrylic templates made by Tap Plastics and has been steadily making progress. It looks good.

The piece with the fuchsia in the middle to the right of the circle piece is the back of a quilt Julie is making. She wrote a post about it recently. This back goes on the Stitch Happens quilt I talked about recently. I really like the little HSTs surrounded by the fuchsia.

Maria and Alison's projects
Maria and Alison’s projects

Maria’s climate challenge is on the left of this picture.  I didn’t have a chance to talk to Maria about her piece, but I will later.

Alison’s blocks are underneath it . They are from the Tula Pink City Sampler book**. She is using some of Denyse Schmidt’s fabrics she got in some swaps.

You get a peek at another one of my blocks.

It is amazing how much we got done in a short amount of time. I love seeing everyone’s projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

 

 

More Pantone Selections

Pantone 142 + fabric selection
Pantone 142 + fabric selection

I have decided (today) that waiting for a chunk of time to select fabrics for the Pantone Project isn’t getting selections made, which means I cannot make blocks for Julie. I think that if I select even one fabric I am much closer to handing more blocks over.

I am pretty pleased with the yellow selection. I know it doesn’t look exact int he picture, but the card is more of the same color in real life.

Pantone 152ish + fabric selection
Pantone 152ish + fabric selection

Last week, on my lunch hours, I selected one or two fabrics. This orange is also a better match in person.

Julie and I both acknowledge that this is more challenging than we thought it would be.  Still, I think doing it in small chunks is worth a try. I hope I can make some progress using this strategy.

Julie and I meant to go over her technique for foundation paper piecing and we didn’t get around to it. That lack gives me a reason to get together with her soon.

Pantone Blossom and Coral Haze + fabric
Pantone Blossom and Coral Haze + fabric

These two are pretty similar. I remembered this peachy fabric, but had to get it out to see which one works better. I think I will use this fabric for the Coral Haze and find something else for the Blossom.

Scrappy Celebration More Detail

Scrappy Celebration EQ8
Scrappy Celebration EQ8

Scrappy Celebration is the name of the quilt I started at the Retreat. This one was not on my list, but I saw it in a recent American Patchwork and Quilting magazine and thought it looked interesting.

It was also easy to ease back into series piecing after creating so many bags.

Scrappy Celebration - first blocks
Scrappy Celebration – first blocks

I was able to make about 8 blocks, but cut a lot more pieces. As you can see this quilt is made up of Nine Patches and Four Patches.

I used some fabrics I bought in Washington when Mom and I went to visit the YM. I had put together a fabric pull to which I added a grey background and I think it looks good. I am going to try to vary the centers from the four patches (top left) so the Nine Patches with Four Patches look more like the block in the upper left corner). I haven’t had time to work on it since the Retreat, but it shouldn’t take me very long in general. The cutting is the worst part.