We had a small Christmas this year, but I was pleased to receive a few quilt related gifts.
A Few Gifts
Tag: Supplies
EQ Product Review
Am I in Judy Martin mode? Yes. I read her newsletter recently and found some great information, some of which I passed on in Various & Sundry #21. That post was getting too long, so here I am again.
I love her and would go to Iowa (not a bad state; been there at least 3 times, which is another story for another day) for a class with her in a hot minute. Her stars CD for Electric Quilt was awesome, but is now out of print. Lucky you, if you didn’t buy it the first time around, because EQ is bringing it back in a repurposed format by making many of her out-of-print star blocks available for download in their newly launched EQ Boutique site. They are taking the material from the Stars & Sets CD and putting it into what Judy calls families of blocks: Ohio Stars, Ornate Ohio Stars, Variable Stars, Compass Point Stars, and Spikey Stars (first five groups to launch). Others will follow.
According to Judy, the first five groups of blocks range in price from $8.99 to $11.99 and contain anywhere from 15 blocks to 22. Your first purchase comes with a free download of the software you need to play with the blocks.
If you already own the Stars & Sets CD, you do NOT need any of these collections.
Marsha McCloskey has also partnered with EQ in their My EQ Boutique. I have been wanting to make a Feathered Star block since I saw one made from dots in a magazine a few years ago. Now that I know the Triangle Technique and how to make different sizes of half square triangles, I feel more comfortable tackling that project. I did actually buy her EQ Boutique Feathered Star collection, so I was able to evaluate the process.
After purchase, there is an additional piece of software that you download before you download the collections purchased. The software came with a collection of Rose of Sharon applique’ blocks. Too bad I didn’t know about that collection last week before I prepared Frances’ applique’ lesson! After installing and running the EQ Boutique software, I downloaded the collection I bought and it was difficult *for me* to figure out how to get the collection to show up in the EQ Boutique software. Finally, in tiny print on the download page, I read that you have to close the EQ Boutique software before you download the new collection. I did that, re-downloaded and the Feathered Stars showed up very well. Also, I really don’t want to learn new software when I am pretty well versed in EQ7. The EQ Boutique software has a great ‘Link to EQ’ function that shows up on your Start menu (windows) which actually links your EQ Boutique collections to EQ. I would rather just call it up in EQ7 and skip the EQ Boutique software step, but it doesn’t seem like that is an option. I also understand that not everyone owns EQ7 software.
Read more about the collections, the software, and the system requirements.
I do have to say that EQ is bombarding me with emails about new stuff every day and I am glad they were all at Quilt Market so I could get a bit of relief. I have just been deleting the emails. There is definitely a fine line between just right and too much!
A Few Things
I didn’t buy anything when I went on Wednesday night and Thursday, but Sunday I went back to PIQF and bought a few things. I didn’t take a picture of the inks. Didn’t have the wherewithall to do a lifestyle shot of them. I bought several inks. Trust me.
The Perl Cotton (some of which are Valdani) are for Kissy Fish, as is the embroidery book. I felt like I needed a few more colors and a few more stitches. That piece should be done, but it seems to be perpetually “almost finished.”
Soon.
The two magazines are from New Pieces. I went on Friday to pick up the Zig Zaggy quilt and saw them. The Japanese magazine has some great bags and some wonderful Trip Around the World pieces.
I told myself never to buy a Quilt Scene magazine. I think the idea of magazine reporting on the show and showing photos is fabulous. I think the idea of a magazine about a show that couldn’t be published without projects was stupid. As you can see, I bought this one. The photos of the quilts (the few that are shown) are FABULOUS. This magazine also has the most beautiful Baltimore Album quilt I have ever seen. It is truly lush.
More on Precuts
What are precuts? Supplies? Fabric? Both?
Whatever they are I have a love-hate relationship with them. I love to look through charm packs and dream about the finished projects that will magically appear in my house made – from that very charm pack fabric – and change my life.
In reality, I really like the little bits of one whole line!
I have to admit that I sincerely dislike actually working with pre-cuts, but I tend to forget. I get an idea (did you see the Jelly Roll Race post?) and live another day to learn the same lesson.
The really big thing I don’t like is pinked edge. I like the idea of it, but what a &^%%$#ing mess! I open a Jelly Roll and there are bits of fuzz everywhere. EVERYWHERE!!!
The other thing I don’t like about pre-cuts are that they are not cut properly. Recently, I posted a tutorial about making 8 half square triangles at a time. I decided that I would get a neutral charm pack and use my Hoopla charm pack and just make a boatload of HSTs. Why not? I am sure a cool pattern will come to mind once I am rolling in HSTs.
I got a Kona White Charm pack and dutifully sat in front of the TV and marked all the White charms with an X. The pinked edges did not make this easy. I had to kind of guess where the marks went. I don’t like to guess. I like to be as exact as possible.
I went to line them up with the Hoopla charms and what a pain! They did not really line up very well, despite both being 5″ charm packs.
Folding a charm looked ok, except for the bit on the left. I finger pressed and thought I could line up the finger pressed line with the X on the neutral charm.
As an aside, I don’t really want to mark charms inexactly and then have to finger press a bunch as well. If I end up with that as my only alternative, I will just press the charms with the iron. It will be a lot easier on my hands.
As you can see from the photo (sorry about the quality of this one, it is the victim of my camera problems) the finger pressed line does not go corner to corner.
I don’t think there is anything I can do to force Moda to make their accuracy better. That is not a fight I want to fight today. Or tomorrow. I just have to deal with it in my own work.
Perhaps using pre-cuts as decorations is better than using it as fabric? Kind of an expensive decorating idea, though.
Various & Sundry 2011 #15
I do like these various and sundry posts. I feel a sense of freedom when I write them. I don’t have be terribly organized, magnificently coherent or make all the words relate to each other. I can’t point you in various directions and send you off on journeys, hoping you will return and tell me what you think.
The weekend of the 6th saw a huge event in NYC to support the Alliance for American Quilts. they are having an event called Quilters Take Manhattan. I think all of the unexpected hoopla surrounding Infinite Variety gave new life to quilts as art. All of the quilting glitterati were there and I followed the action as best I could from 3k miles away. Some blog posts I saw about this were:
- Bumble Beans Inc QSoS interview
- Cocktails and Thread
- Fashion Show
- Jackie’s Quilting Chronicles
- Red Headed Mermaid (very short mention)
In the course of following the events, I was pointed to Marianne Fons blog. I like her writing style and hearing about her family. She is a sensitive writer who records her observations in a delightful way. In a way, she reminds me of Rosamunde Pilcher, my personal gold standard for descriptive writing. She writes about her personal life and family, but doesn’t give too much away, but she does write about her daughter, Mary’s, illness a bit, which I had only heard about in passing. I was curious, of course, but such a thing is none of my business, so I wouldn’t ask, even if I had someone to ask.
Marianne, in turn, pointed me to Mary Fons blog, which I will look at and, perhaps, add to my blog reader.
Media
I saw that a show called Why Quilts Matter will be coming to PBS in the Fall. I am looking forward to watching it. The website has a video trailer. It is 9 part documentary in which Shelly Zegart is heavily involved. A lot of the people in the trailer are from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I wonder if Frances will be able to take advantage of any lectures or anything? 😉 There are a lot of other contributors as well. I checked my Tivo and the show isn’t yet listed, but I have a ‘quilts’ keyword search, so, hopefully, it will come up in that search.
Stitched, the movie, came out a few months ago and I still haven’t seen that. My libraries don’t have it yet and I am not a Netflix member.
I think there is something to be said for quilt companies to be small businesses, well any companies really. I am not enamored with large companies right at the moment. Small businesses seem to care more about their customers, though that is a generalization and a stereotype and I know it is not always true. The ones that have been taken over by larger companies, such as Fons & Porter, have become impersonal and don’t really seem to care about their customers. Fons & Porter is now owned by New Track Media LLC, which is further owned by a person and a private equity firm. They also own Quilter’s Club of America, Keepsake Quilting, QNM and others. What is their interest in quiltmaking? Money, I am guessing.
I watched one of the Fons & Porter episodes #1201 on the Spin Wheel quilt project (definitely a repeat), which said that the updated directions for using the hexagon ruler and their pyramid ruler to make the Spin Wheel with these tools would be available on their website. I bought the DVD with the pattern from the magazines, both rulers and went looking for the adjunct instructions. They weren’t on the website. I searched over and over to no avail, so I contacted customer service. The customer service people (called Answer54) were diligent, but supremely unhelpful. They had canned responses and I became more frustrated as it became clear that my question did not fit into their list of responses. Somehow I was transferred to Keepsake Quilting and the person contacted me and responded to me several times, but ultimately didn’t have the instructions. I also posted on their FB fan page. No response. I can make the block without that adjunct sheet of instructions, but it just seems so lame of them not to be able to find a sheet of instructions. I guess New Track thinks of their quilting properties as cash cows. This seemed like a simple request: M&L said the adjunct instructions were on the website, they are not on the website, please send them to me. I guess New Track Media thinks their brands are so awesome that they don’t have to provide customer service. Customer Service is everything, New Track. Get with the program.
SeamedUp is having a fundraiser (you, too, can be a venture capitalist!) to get more server space and a bunch of other stuff. They are a small, women owned company. Only one person has contributed, as of this writing, which is kind of sad. If all of the almost 2000 people who are members contributed $5 that would be $10,000, which is much more than their goal. Go for it and if you are not a member, join up! You can read more about their plans, the campaign and everything SeamedUp on their blog
Tools, Books and Supplies
I bought a new iron when I was out shopping for the Young Man’s school uniform parts. It is the most expensive iron I have ever bought – $29.99. I figured I should splurge since I have two in the closet downstairs that were cheap and, clearly, not up to my pressing needs once I got them out of the box and heated up. It is really nice to have steam again. I also like this iron, because it doesn’t beep at me all the time. I need many fewer irritating beeps in my life.
Did you enter the book giveaway I announced earlier this week? Check it out!
Are you interested in how thread is made? Coats & Clark made a video which I saw on AllPeopleQuilt.com.
BryeLynn of SeamedUp and Sew~Stitch~Create did a review of the Frixion pen. It is really nice when someone else does the heavy lifting for you!
Learning
As I have mentioned a few times, I have helped to organize a class at Always Quilting on August 27, 2011, 10-4. It will be taught by Lynn Koolish of C&T fame. It is open to everyone though the BAMQG and CQFA folks have had a headstart on sign ups. The class is now on the shop’s website. You can register via the website or by calling their shop at (650) 458-8580. Hope to see you there!
ArtQuilt Tahoe is coming around again. There are still some great teachers available. If you are able to attend and haven’t taken a class from Libby Lehman, sign up immediately. She is a wonderful teacher – giving, not stuck up, a great presenter, personable. I’d like to go sometime, but this isn’t the year. I’d love to hear about it, if you attend.
Projects
Hooded towels are very popular in our house. The Young Man thinks about things in the show and likes to tell me about them when he emerges from bathing. They are great to wrap up in on cold bath/shower nights when bathrobes are too fussy. The hooded towels have the added bonus of drying the hair with very little effort. They are harder to find as children get taller. I saw a tutorial for a hooded towel. For larger children, I would use two towels. Use a very sharp needle when sewing the two towels together, so you don’t break a needled or jam up your machine. Since you may be having the same issue, I thought I would share.
Yesterday, I posted about the gift I made for Grama. I took it to show a friend visiting from New Zealand and realized I hadn’t done the topstitching from the top hem to the bottom corners. DUH!. It would really help if I read the directions once in a while!
Last week (?) I posted the finished Kona Challenge quilt. Yesterday I saw a blog post about the responses to the challenge from the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. Some of them remind me of Angela’s Kona Challenge quilt (which she was binding at the last meeting!!!)
Due to my ongoing machine issues, I am working on easy projects, or projects that don’t require complicated piecing. The Jem just can’t handle it. I bought some more of the Tufted Tweets chair fabric when I went to New Pieces the other week and cut out a pillowcase to go with the purple quilt. I sewed the whopping 3 seams it took to put the thing together and will send it off this week, hopefully.
Other Artists
I had heard about Claudia’s blog, Machen und Tun from Frances, but had never gone to look at it until I saw one of her quilts in the Quilting….for the Rest of us Flickr group. She is a working on the Attack of the Hexies project and is doing a wonderful red and white color scheme. Why didn’t I think of that? I went to her most recent post (8/4/2011) and was thrilled to see a, mostly, aqua and red sampler quilt. If you scroll down she shows some more blocks and the whole effect is quite wonderful. She talks about looking at the Fresh Lemons Summer Sampler Series blocks inspiring her, but also encouraging her to go off in her own direction. She might select different blocks that weren’t as difficult or required no paper piecing. She also talks about making the blocks a little differently to make them her own. What a great idea for inspiration! I noticed a circle tutorial, which looks very similar to the Dale Fleming method. The other thing about her blog is that she writes in English and German. This is great practice for me. Thanks, Claudia! Her blog is definitely worth looking at.
Angela has posted over 240 photos of quilts from the UK Festival of Quilts. She posted the photos in a Smilebox format on Creating the Hive, so you can scroll through them fairly easily.
Life
Really good reminder of how the inner ambivalence can affect outer life.
Amplify’d from stillmansays.com
Art therapy? How do you connect your anti-passions to your passions? And when you are talking about passion you must talk about Jesus at some point anyway. Look, Jesus didn’t know what magazines were so lets cut him some slack here. Lots of people’s coffee tables are cluttered, so maybe that was a lucky guess. But her violent reaction to it mirrored her real frustration with her job situation. Her inner and outer, as far as she understood them were the same – even though it was hidden to her. What I offered her gave her a chance to actually take the advice from Jesus above and expand her vision of herself and experience entry into a new kingdom.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1b5k7
Binge
These are the first bits of fabric that I have bought for the Young Man’s food quilt. He is getting a food quilt from my mom, but I am making him one as well. I am only going to use this kind of fabric for the quilt. Mom used a variety of different food fabrics. I saw a few others on Quiltshops.com, but haven’t decided how many I need, so will wait to purchase. I do want to get the raspberries and I have some cherries.
After seeing Robin’s version of the Disappearing Nine Patch at the Retreat, I decided I wanted to try that pattern as well. I am going to put a red square in the middle and then black on white or a white on black print in the outside middle positions. I am going to do a test to see what looks best or if I need to rethink my color scheme completely. Make visual decisions visually.
I went on a mini book buying binge last Monday (not yesterday). It was part of therapy after the crazy family weekend. The Practical Guide to Patchwork was not in the purchase. I had that before, but hadn’t shown it and wanted to make the picture nice and even and not show you too much of the life sucking beige carpet that in on my workroom floor. Look for reviews.
Shopping at PIQF
I am still overwhelmed with the amount of quilt shopping I did in July, so I went to PIQF with a list and with cash. I came away with everything on my list and pretty much stayed within my budget.
I was very pleased to find the rulers I think I will need to finish the edges and corners for FOTY 2010.
I have an idea in mind for a certain kind of “review writing bookmark”, which requires that heavy duty wash away stabilizer (interfacing?). Stay tuned for more on that project.
I did try out the Grab Bag pattern and will write a review of the pattern soon.
I have to admit that fabric wasn’t on my list, but I found a few pieces that will fill in holes (the blacks and whites) and a couple of dots that I couldn’t resist (bottom row). The dots were very expensive so I got little pieces and will need to use the judiciously. They were over $11/yard and that is just too much to spend.
The Floral Burst fabric by Philip Jacobs will be some kind of bag. It was on sale at Always Quilting and I couldn’t resist the pink and yellow combination.The red dots came from TFQ. Thanks!
I also, finally, found the Bella Bag Pattern. I bought another bag with a bow, so I probably didn’t need this one, but Joanna Figueroa was so nice, and she had these fabulous chartreuse handles, that I felt like supporting her. Perhaps I will use the Philip Jacobs print to make this bag. A hot pink with white dots bow might be fabulous!
Odds and Ends Tuesday
“Be compassionate to yourself” is the message that stuck in my head after listening to Melanie Testa interviewed by Rice Zachary-Freeman on the Voodoo Lounge podcast. You have to listen to this podcast. it is very calming, Rice talks just enough, but not too much and she lets Melanie tell the listeners everything. It is a wonderful.
A few weeks ago, I talked about Christine Barnes. She has replicas of the color wheel I showed in the post on her website for sale. I mentioned it before, but took a look at some of the books and things she has for sale also. it was interesting to see the Interior Design books.
Malka Dubrowsky has a lovely Dresden Plate quilt she calls The Cupcake Quilt up on her site.
Did you see Vicki Welsh’s recent Field Tripping in Fiber? Aside from including my Chocolate Box, she has some other GREAT quilts. One is called the Cupcake quilt by Malka Dubrowski. I am not sure why she calls it a cupcake quilt, because it looks like a Dresden Plate variation to me, but who am I to judge? Cool name, regardless. there is also a pattern for a pleated handbag. I like the idea of pleats on a handbag. I am not sure if I like this particular handbag. I am so happy that she surfs quilt sites and compiles them in this newsletter like post.
Take a look at this orange sewing machine. Isn’t it cool looking? I would love more information, but I wasn’t able to see the name very well. I think it might be the Brother Innovis Quattro 6000d. Cool looking, if nothing else.
Periodically, I listen to a radio program called To the Best of Our Knowledge. I have gotten into discussions about whether the show is actually discussing the best of ‘our’ knowledge and whose knowledge that might be. Regardless of the philosophical meanings behind the name, I enjoy the show, because they discuss different topics with artists, physicists, philosophers, writers, professors and a whole host of other people I would never, otherwise, hear about. I missed the Superheros show a week or so ago, so, for the first time, I went to their website to see if the streaming would work. I was pleased that it opened right up and worked well with the Quicktime player. The Superheros show also included a segment on Wonder Woman’s new fashion look and the controversy surrounding it. The discussion was interesting and it made me, of course, think of the fiber involved. Does that new jacket hamper her flying?
There are a lot of other interesting shows on that site. You should check it out for good listening ideas when the podcasters on hiatus.
I am still thinking of a spiky border for my Zig Zaggy quilt. I saw one on Flickr that I really liked the other day. The problem is that I like the whole quilt as well as the border. I am still not sure if the Spiky border will go with the Zig Zaggy quilt.
The Textile Collection: http://www.vads.ahds.ac.uk/collections/ST.html
VADS is the Visual Arts Data Service that contains over 100,000 images that can all be used in learning, teaching, and research. The Textile Collection, from the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham, is one of 46 collections available on the website. There are two ways for visitors to peruse the 1051 image collection. There is the “View all images” link below the search box, and the browse method allows visitors to choose from such categories as “Function”, “Maker/Designer”, “Raw Materials”, “Cloth Structure”, and “Process”. Process includes such categories as batik, knitted, machine woven, and wax resist. Visitors should check out the “blocks for printing” under the “Function” category, to see many beautiful blocks that were once inked up and pressed onto fabric. These blocks were then deployed to produce patterned fabric for clothing, linens, and other items.
In case you didn’t hear, Bonnie Leman, founder of QNM died last week. I didn’t know she was sick and didn’t see an obituary. She did a lot for the quilt industry and her death is a huge loss to quiltmaking. We are fortunate to be the beneficiaries of the fruits of her labors. Fred Bloebaum also died last week. She was a teacher at a local school called the Sewing Workshop. She was also the creator of the La Fred pattern lines.
Finally, Again, Odds and Ends
Doing Good
I have gone on and on about the Rainbow Around the Block project. It is so easy to make blocks. They are like candy. I can’t just make one. Etsy featured the project on their blog a few weeks ago.
If you want to get together with people to make pillowcases, check the AllPeopleQuilt site for info on sewing with Etsy and ancillary meetups around the country. TFQ went home from our trip after hearing me go on and on about pillowcases, to find that she could easily make a few dozen from fabric on hand. Not sure how many she has in the pipeline, but I am looking forward to seeing her finished products. The Child and I are slowly plowing through his pillowcase. It is painful, but he is doing it. Go make some pillowcases!
I hope you know that there are plenty of other opportunities to do good with fabric!
Office Supplies
I am a pen junkie (are there any positive words for junkie/whore when referring to legal things like pens?). My current love is the Pilot G2. Recently, on the Cool Tools Blog, I saw a post about Jet Pens. They also sell journals, notebooks and scrapbooking supplies. Do not blame me if you spent your retirement money on pens and Japanese office supplies.
Sewing
Also on the Cool Tools Blog, I saw a post about a spiral eye needle. Apparently, you can thread this blindfolded! I need this needle. Sadly, they are not sold in regular stores and are expensive, so no losing them. Order from the Spiral Eye Website.
Linda M. Poole, who used to respond to the creative prompt, but got a fabric design contract and has too many things on her plate now is having a contest with said fabric designs! The designs are now fabric and a new line just came out. The deadline is October 4 and all the details are on a recent blog post. Go check out what she is offering as prizes. Did I mention they are FABULOUS prizes? [SherriD: I am looking at YOU!]
Someone pointed out another type of design wall on the Big Tent Quiltcast Supergroup. It is called the Vanishing Design Wall and it looks like it has potential.
Need some quilt-spiration? Bradie Sparrow is doing a summer quilt-a-long. They are on Week 5, but it is easy to find the blocks from the previous weeks. Friend Julie is making the blocks. and has been posting them. I thought about joining in, but really have enough projects going!
Blogging/Social Media
When I used Blogger, I was able to post via email. It was convenient when I went on vacation or saw something inspirational. WordPress has that feature, but I have never been able to get it to work. Amplify, related to Clipmarks, has a way of posting to blogs, Twitter, FB, etc via email. I haven’t tried it yet, but have set it up. We’ll see!
Are you on Goodreads and FB? If so, you can connect them so that the books you read post to your FB wall. I enjoy seeing what quilt books my friends are reading. I also enjoy seeing the fiction and reading reviews friends have written. I kept track of the books I read last year and was amazed to see how many I had read. This year I am a little scared of how many books I am, ostensibly, reading at once. Try it out!
Other
If your child stays at the local library after school, then you might wnat to get him/her one of the seat savers shown in Library God Stephen Abram’s blog. While you are at it, give them a donation. After all, you are saving on childcare, libraries offer a great service and are really hurting right now. Alternatively, perhaps you need one of these for your quilt guild meeting to keep the Quiltzillas away from your preferred chair?
Julie wrote very well about The Sketchbook Project. I have to admit that I got one, too. Since she wrote about it and, basically, wrote everything I was going to say, go look at what she wrote. My theme is In Flight. I haven’t started.
I saw a slide show of a sketchbook by Victor A. Lundy on the Library of Congress site. It reminded me that practice makes perfect and that sketchbooks can be small. The drawings are much better than I can do right now and capture some great images. I studied the people in the drawings especially.
More On Demand Printing?
I keep hearing about Spoonflower and now EZ Textiles has launched a site with CAD ready designs for a variety of fabrics. You can search the site without registering. The designs that I reviewed looked very 1960s/1970s to me.
This concept makes me wonder if we will be moving to more on demand printing of fabric? Jane Sassaman mentioned putting her more spooky designs up on Spoonflower to make them available and not scare people!
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Organization Ideas
When TFQ comes to visit for two days, I get at least 5 blog posts out of it! Her visit, coupled with the organizational segment on QNN TV, made me think about organization ideas for my fabric closet, my projects and my workroom in general.
First, I keep all of the flat bits of a project in a file folder. As soon as I start a project (or a class), I start a file folder for it. This is great if everything is flat, but doesn’t work so well for yards of fabric.
TFQ mentioned project boxes. Project boxes are boxes you use to keep all of the bits and pieces of a project together. This concept came up while we searching for fabric for Sorbet. I heard it mentioned somewhere else or I read it somewhere recently and now it is on my mind. I need some project boxes and a place to put them. I have a couple of them, but they just happened by default. One is a box I threw the Pineapple strips into after the strip avalanche. Voila! A project box!
The above boxes are from the Container Store. I have 2-3 of them and they work pretty well for project boxes as long as not a lot of yardage is involved.
The other is a box in which I kept all of the fabric for the Tarts for the years it took me to finish that piece. They look similar to the boxes above. These are also similar to the boxes in which I keep my fabric. The problem with using the box for a project box is that I may get mixed up if I don’t have them labeled properly and redistribute the fabric. Now I have all the fabric for Sorbet in the box where the Tarts fabric used to be.
Not all boxes for Projects need to be purchased.
I sometimes purchase scones for breakfast. The variety I purchase comes in the plastic boxes (on the right). I found that they are great for collecting squares and triangles and other smallish patches. The box on the left is from lettuce that some one brought over for dinner. That particular box is a good size for the FOTY diamonds. As an added bonus, they are not too nasty after the food has been removed and I am not adding them to our local landfill.
TFQ and I talked about ziploc bags, which are great, but are very slidey, especially if you get too many of something in them. They also don’t stack well.
My quiltmaker SIL uses banker’s boxes for her fabric. I prefer to use something clear I can see through, but I have made some temporary shelving out of banker’s boxes (repurposed from when we moved), so there are a number of uses for those as well.
What do you use to organize your workroom or studio? How do you organize your projects?
Good Mail Day(s)
A good mail day is a day where the mail brings me envelopes and boxes of items in which I am interested and, then, those things surprise and delight me.
I had one such day last week when I finally made the grand trek to my PO Box. I had bills that I knew were waiting for me, after all. What a fun trip! I found, not bills, but a whole plethora of quilt related books and materials.
SherriD, kind person that she is, tracked down that Fons and Porter magazine issue I sniffed and whined about a couple of times, and sent it along. The fun part was that there was also the rest of the directions for the Radiant Star block. I saw half of how to make it on a Fons and Porter episode and then the second episode, somehow, was deleted before I could watch it.
I also received my prize from Quiltin’ Jenny! I don’t think I have won a blog giveaway before, so this is very exciting! I am not that familiar with Leisure Arts books, but this one seems to have some great fabric combinations in their projects. There is also a basket project and I do like basket blocks. I am happy to have this book to add to my “to review” pile.
As a member of QNN TV, I receive Easy Quilts magazine. More projects! I was really interested and enthralled with the ads. I finally got to see an ad for Linda M. Poole‘s Iridescence fabrics. It is nice to be able to see the detail of some of the designs. I like some of the blocks in this issue, too.
Finally, I received a thank you from Safe Haven Ministries in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the donation of the Petal Apron.
Over the weekend, my BIL gave me the above book. He was stuck in London in April when the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokul, erupted. He used to live and work near London, so he was able to work in his company’s London office. He spent time over the weekend between meetings visiting some of the London tourist sites. I suggested that he go see the V&A exhibit. He went, but decided that he wasn’t interested enough to visit the quilts. He did buy me this book. I am looking forward to reading it.
Thanks for the mail, everyone!
One Sketch A Day from Chronicle Books
I always forget to check out Chronicle Books new offerings. I happened to stumble on this one and it made me think it might work for the CPP. I have to admit I am not sure if I understand how the book is laid out, but I may go down to the Chronicle shop later this week and check it out in person.
I was thinking that a more organized person than me could do each CPP response in order in this book. It might also be good for those of us who stare at a blank page blankly. I tried to win one from ReadyMade, but I rarely win anything so we will see.
Check it out!
I was thinking that a more organized person than me could do each CPP response in order in this book. It might also be good for those of us who stare at a blank page blankly. I tried to win one from ReadyMade, but I rarely win anything so we will see.
Check it out!
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Here are some supplies I bought recently. The Jelly Roll on the left is for the Happy Zombie/Oh Fransson quilt that I am gearing up to make. The other Jelly Roll I bought on spec. I wasn’t sure which one I would like better based on the colors on the screen.
The Tarts are ready to quilt, so that foot is an open toe walking foot, which I am going to use. Just need to baste.
The circle cutter is for the Circles class I took with Dale Fleming. I tried hers and it works great.
The Dresden plate ruler is what I will use to cut the New Wave quilt pieces. I have marked the bit on the ruler with a post it, so I know which line I am using.
The food fabrics are for a quilt my mom is making. She is down in SoCal taking care of Super G, so it is not high on the priority list. I am still collecting and cutting for her. I need to get some more of the potato chip fabric as Super G wants that used for her walker caddy. I never thought she would request that fabric. I had picked out a gorgeous hydrangea fabric that is very elegant and Super G wants the potato chips!
The dots are staples in my dot box and the Philip Jacobs fabric will end up being some kind of bag.
I am unfamilar with that thread, but loved the colors and thought I could use it to embellish parts of Flower Garden, which is high on my to do list.
Aurifil Thread Thoughts
Somehow, in my travels around the web, I was pointed to Blue Moon River (News from the Studio of Susan Brubaker Knapp, her blog). In the April 15, 2010 post, she tells the world that she has been selected for the Aurifil A team.
I have seen Susan’s work in Quilting Arts, but otherwise I don’t know her from a bar of soap. Still, I loved her post and told her, in a comment, that she is soooooo lucky. Susan’s post is really great. She has a lot of interesting photos and discusses Aurifil in a fun, but also informative way.
The Aurifil A Team is, apparently, a group of quiltmakers who get a bunch of Aurifil thread to use and remark on. Beyond that, I am not exactly sure what the A Team does, but I want to know so I work towards being chosen!
I was introduced to Aurifil back in about 2001 by Kathy Sandbach and I had no idea that Aurifil would become such a phenomenon. I took a machine quilting class with her at Marin Quilt and Needlearts Guild Seminar back then. She sold us ziploc bags full of Aurifil 50 wt cotton Mako. I was a bit leary, because there were no labels and barely any markings. Still, I shared about 12 spools with my mom. I still have a number of spools from that batch which are only partly used. I use them regularly,, but don’t use some of the specialty colors as much as I use the grey. I have become a complete Aurifil convert. I am working on using up all my other thread so that I can justify buying more Aurifil. What I would really like is the Aurifil suitcase. 😉
The suitcase is an outrageous wish as I have no place to put the suitcase. I also have PLENTY of thread.
I have only tried the 50 weight. I would like to try another weight, but my ideal would be to go somewhere where they had the different weights and I could try them out without buying one until I was sure which one I liked.
One of the things I like about this thread is that it works well in my machine. It doesn’t cause any problems.
I also like that it comes in a zillion colors. My favorite for piecing is the Light Gray #2600. Right now I am piecing with a slightly different shade, Pearl Gray #2615. TFQ said she had pieced with a color called Flesh (ugh! dislike that name!) #2315 and that color thread had simply disappeared into the fabric. I feel that way about the light gray as well, but am always open to finding the new perfect piecing color. I may try the Flesh, though, just to see how it works. The good problem is that once I buy a spool it seems to never run out. I was really shocked last week when I ran out of the grey!
