CQFA Retreat: My Work

As usual, I started my Fabric of the Year 2011. I made good progress, but I did not finish.

Before I left for the Retreat, I spent time organizing the patches into color families and then from light to dark. Normally, I figure out the size of the finished piece and do more organizational stuff. No time this year and it was fine.

Once at the Retreat, I spent a lot of time – all day Friday – arranging the color gradations. I got opinions from others about the placement of certain patches. I used my camera to look at the patches in a different way and it was a useful tool in my arsenal of work. Above you can see the progression. The top left is pretty soon after I put all the patches on the wall. The last photo, bottom left, is, basically, what I took home.

I had to pin and wrap the pieces in the portable design wall. I set it up in my workroom and am working on it.

I am glad of the progress I made it on it at the Retreat, but I prefer to work in my workroom. As I started work on Monday, I felt an ease come over me and the work began to go very well. I hope to be done sooner rather than later. Stay tuned.

 

 

CQFA Retreat Work

The CQFA Retreat was over the weekend. It was a relatively quiet retreat. Several people had to cancel at the last moment, which was a shame. Still, we had a good time and people made good progress on their various progress.

My spot with Julie
My spot with Julie

We were in the same location as last year, which has a separate building in which we are able to sew.

Other sewing space
Other sewing space

This was my view as I sewed. Reva does wonderful work and it was wonderful to watch her, Sue and Robin’s work evolve.

Reva's Black & White Piece
Reva’s Black & White Piece

The black and white piece is made from the fat quarter bundle Reva won from the prizes we got from Fabricworm.

Robin's Blooming 9 Patch
Robin’s Blooming 9 Patch

Robin’s Blooming 9 Patch was made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I liked looking at it. I like the pink.

Robin's Blooming 9 Patch 2
Robin’s Blooming 9 Patch 2

Robin added some 4 patches on the ends to make the piece a bit longer.

Sue's Scrap Quilt
Sue’s Scrap Quilt

Sue half square triangle scrap quilt is the kind of project I like to do on the Retreat. Sue had the blocks done and thought to do the rest at home. We encouraged her to use Robin’s design wall to finish the piece. She did so and made good progress. She wanted to use up as many scraps as she could and I think that she did well. Sue is making this quilt for her bed.

Maureen's work
Maureen’s work

I think the pink fabric in the middle left looks like the leaves a tree with the trunk being the piece right below. I mentioned it and Maureen said that we all see what we want to see.

Julie's work
Julie’s work
Julie's Calendar Piece
Julie’s Calendar Piece
Julie's Baggo Piece
Julie’s Baggo Piece

Julie made a lot of progress on various pieces. She started some and made progress on others. I was very impressed with her progress.

The Baggo piece is from a challenge where each person receives a bag of supplies from another and makes something out of it. I was particularly taken with the Baggo piece’s eye stamps. I was even more impressed when Julie told me she carved them herself. I really like the images and encouraged her to make more and sell them. I would be first in line for a set although I don’t do much stamping.

She quilted and bound this piece. She was irritated at the binding, which tinkled every time she worked on it, because of the bells she had added. I told her to stop and do something else in between. By the end of the weekend, the binding was done and Julie was not gnashing her teeth.

Julie
Julie

We went out to dinner on Saturday night together, which was fun. We had the most wonderful waiter who was kind, didn’t complain about any special requests and gave us each individual bills.

Road to California 2012

I took myself off, with TFQ, to Road to California this past weekend, which is in Ontario, California. I have never been to this show before and it is touted as one of the largest quilt events on the West Coast. I am spoiled by having PIQF in my backyard.

Front of Show
Front of Show

Road to California is a nice comfy sort of show, but more like a large guild show than “one of the largest quilt events on the West Coast”. Also, there were a lot of vendors. I would say 2/3s of the space was for vendors.

Eleanor Burns
Eleanor Burns

Speaking of vendors, Eleanor Burns was there. I actually saw her doing her demonstrations! I chatted with her a little bit in the course of a humming bird demo she was doing. She is not the stereotypical haughty celebrity. She was very nice, smiled for everyone who wanted to take a photo and chatted amiably. She is obviously well schooled to being ‘on’, because I saw her continue to smile and demonstrate while listening to someone who whispered a question into her ear.

Quiltin' Cousins
Quiltin' Cousins

The majority of the floor space was given over to vendors and the vendor representation was very good. Not only were there vendors I hadn’t seen before, but the vendors were cheerful. I find the vendors at PIQF to be quite surly, so this was a nice change. I was pleased to see Quiltin’ Cousins from Pismo Beach. Shawn, the owner, was really nice and friendly and we went back to her booth a few times to look at everything. We met her at Long Beach in 2010.

Licorice Allsorts
Licorice Allsorts

I saw a 1930s book that included a pattern called Cowboy Stars (on that table with the pastel quilt on it), but I didn’t buy it. I hope to find it at the library or find the pattern in one of the Kansas City Star books or in EQ7. It has some nasty diamonds and triangles, so I don’t plan on starting it anytime soon.

TFQ bought a pattern she called “not a pineapple” that was really called Licorice Allsorts (the black background quilt on the left). It does look like a baby Pineapple and I am eager to see how it is constructed.

The quilts were good. Different types and styles than I normally see. TFQ pointed out to me, quite rightly, that the fabrics being snapped up from the vendors – yards of Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs blooms, Moda charm packs and Jelly Rolls, lines of 1930s fabrics – were not represented in 90% of the quilts we saw. We walked back through the show and found the quilts made from solids, tone-on-tones, and batiks predominantly. See if you agree from the photos I took. Yes, there were a few quilts with prints, but very few. What are you doing with those lines of fabric you buy? Do you buy fabrics to collect? What are you using for your current quilt?

There was virtually no representation of Modern Quiltmakers at the show. I have to say that I have used a couple of ‘modern’ lines lately and those quilts will probably never see a show. I am, frankly, too lazy to do the paperwork to enter quilts into shows. I used to do it all the time, but the things they ask seem to pointless and a recent entry found the sponsoring organization to be so disorganized I had to essentially send my materials in twice. Still, I am not seeing the quilts like I make, so perhaps I should carve out some time to enter shows?

Road 2 Calif. Purchases
Road 2 Calif. Purchases

I bought a few little trinkets. I don’t buy many patterns, so that cut out a whole shopping niche. There were books in which I was really interested, but want to check out from the Library first to see if I REALLY need to add them to my collection. The fabric was a free gift from Quilt in a Day and I think the ruler will be good for making scrap blocks. TFQ bought me a bottle of buttons to replace those I have been using to embellish card holders and Christmas stockings. She said it was part of my birthday gift.

Now for the sentimental drivel. You can stop reading now if you are only interested in quilting. The show was great. Getting away was great, but I was very pleased to come to my dear DH, who picked us up from the train, had dinner ready and made a birthday cake (yes, my birthday was Friday, in case you missed it). I have been sick on and off for a month and am still hacking up a lung. If the trip hadn’t involved reservations and flights, I probably would have cancelled and stayed home. I enjoyed myself, loved the quilts, enjoyed the vendors but was very pleased to come home to my house and my family.

East Coast Shopping

I hadn’t been to Lancaster County, PA in a long time, so SIL was kind enough to drive me to Philadelphia and stop at some fabric shops along the way. We enjoy shopping together. We have the opportunity to catch up as we drive around. She never does that trip to Lancaster County alone, so I get to help her renew her fabric.

We mapped out 8 or so shops, but only made it to three. I was happy to find enough food fabrics to make the Disappearing Nine Patch. One of the shops had a lot.

In general, I did see a lot of brown and muddy colors. I tried to be careful and not buy those. I also tried to be cognizant of the light. It is hazy in that area when it is hot and that affects how I see the fabrics.

We started out with a list of stores on the Quiltart website. Thanks, Judy! We used SIL’s GPS to find directions to all the shops. The GPS made us make a lot of left turns, which wasn’t always easy.

Dutchland
Dutchland

Dutchland Quilt Patch
This was a two story store with a lot of Amish looking gift items and a lot of potpourri. Two Amish women were working there (one was in training). The fabric was upstairs in a light aqua room. They had fat quarters and a large number of bolts of fabric. I bought a few pieces, some FQs for a friend and some embroidery needles. Their colors were a little on the murky side for me. I did enjoy talking with the young woman who cut my fabric. She commented on the motifs and colors we chose and talked a little about her own sewing.

Dutchland Fabrics
Dutchland Fabrics
Fabric Shack
Fabric Shack

Fabric Shack, formerly Lapp’s Dry Goods
Next we went to the Fabric Shack, formerly Lapp’s Dry Goods. This is a quilt/fabric store in a former house in the middle of a bunch of farms, e.g. it is not on a commercial strip of stores. SIL and I have been to this store in the past. I like the former name better. There is something unappealing about the word ‘shack’. It didn’t matter because the first thing I saw when I walked in were the Farmer’s Market food fabrics. This store also had LOTS of fabrics. In addition to regular quilting cottons, they had the pre-quilted fabrics, a whole room full of flannels, Moda pre-cuts, books and FQs.

We had to wait a long time when we went to check out because the lady in front of us was buying multiple cuts of 10 yards each! She told us she was making Stack-n-Whack or One Block Wonder quilts and was buying so much fabric, because she was stocking up for the summer! Later, SIL explained how the technique worked and I looked at her book, but am not sure I’ll be making one using that method.

Buggies
Buggies

One of the things we saw, which was not a surprise to me, were Amish buggies everywhere. Obviously, people had to get around and they were using buggies. I enjoyed watching them drive by as we waited in the Fabric Shack to check out. The horses were gorgeous and looked sleek and well taken care of. Next door to the Fabric Shack was a mini buggy parking lot.

Zook's
Zook's

Zook’s
Zook’s had the most fabric of any of the Amish stores we visited.  They had arranged all of their fabric by manufacturer, which I thought was an interesting way of arranging it. It seemed to make it easy for them to find fabrics when people called.

We spent the next 2.5 hours in traffic getting to Philadelphia. Bleah! I would have liked to have gone to Sauder’s, but I found plenty of fabric on this trip.It gives me something to which to look forward in the future.

Scooter Bike
Scooter Bike

I also saw these scooter bikes everywhere in Lancaster. I don’t know if they are really called scooter bikes, but that is what they look like. I seriously thought about buying one for the Young Man, but didn’t have the energy to figure out how to ship it home, so I left for this trip. Perhaps another time. I thought they would be very useful for getting around  a college campus. I am not sure how one would compare to a bike as I have never tried one out.

While in Philadelphia, I tried to go to Spool Sewing. I looked up their hours, walked over within the specified time and they were closed. 🙁 Oh well. Perhaps I’ll go to Philadelphia again and they will be open.

A few days later, I drove up to New Jersey to co-host Mark’s radio show. As I drove, I wondered why there were no quilt shops with big signs on the side of the road that I could see from the highway. If I could see it, there was half a chance that I could stop at the store. 😉

Pennington Quiltworks
Pennington Quiltworks

Pennington Quiltworks
Wishes do come true, because not 5 minutes after thinking that, I saw a huge sign for Pennington Quiltworks. How could I not stop? Pennington Quiltworks was bright and cheerful. When I arrived the place was buzzing with activity. There was a large group of ladies having fabric cut and getting ready to leave. I found out later that there were 17 of them in the group and they were working on a very bright and cheerful friendship quilt.

On Friday, I had to choose between Mt. Vernon and quilt shops. Sigh! It is hard being a grown up. I really wanted to go to Mt. Vernon and see their new visitor center and the garden re-do, but I also wanted to go to quilt shops. SIL said I couldn’t do both, so we went to the quilt shops. 😉

Capital Quilts
Capital Quilts was our first stop. This used to be SIL’s local quilt shop, but I think that Patches (see below) is closer to her. I have been to CQ at least twice before. They have great fabric. They have a lot of batiks, more of the Kaffe Fasset fabrics than I have seen at other shops, some Philip Jacobs and Amy Butler. They also have machines. The thing I like about this shop is that they haven’t sacrificed fabric space for machines.

G Street
G Street has moved since I was there last. The space was a lot smaller and their quilting cotton inventory was quite picked over. I heard someone say that they were doing inventory soon, so I am guessing that the selection would have been a lot bigger if I visited next week. They had a number of interesting rulers. I found a few more food fabrics to add to my group. The store manager helped us and she said that RJR is only printing what stores order. Makes it hard to reorder a popular fabric.

Needles & Pins
This is a small Frederick, MD shop which I visited once before. In some respects it is what I think of when I think of the quilt shop in Marie Bostwick‘s Cobbled Court novels, except smaller. I remembered it as being quite dark. This time, even though it was raining, I found it to be quite bright and stocked some cheerful fabrics. They also had a small selection of the felted wool pincushions that I like. They had a great quilt hanging up in the shop. My problem with it was that it was made from Civil War fabrics. It was a BOM and each block came with the fabrics.

I found this situation to be the case in a couple of stores. A few of the shops were doing a BOM in Civil War fabrics and there was no alternative. A quiltmaker was not able to buy the patterns without the fabric and was not able to buy an alternative colorway such as large scale prints or batiks. Of course, everything about the Civil War is very popular in this area and the fabric seems to be quite prevalent as well. Not my thing, though and it makes me wonder if I am alone in this or if they are cutting out a bunch of potential customers. I assume these stores know their customer base?

Patches
Patches

Patches Quilting & Sewing
Patches was a great shop. It is also in a house right up from the Mt. Airy main drag. The people were really friendly and the place was crammed, CRAMMED, with fabric, notions, tools, patterns, rulers, thread, books and machines. There was no available space because every surface had something to look at or buy.

Did I mention rulers? This store had more rulers than I have ever seen at one store. They had the Quilt in a Day Flying Geese rulers that I mail ordered. They had the Clearview 60 degree triangle rulers that Pam, Sandy and I have been agonizing over in THREE SIZES! I was amazed. I didn’t even know that ruler came in 3 sizes. The shop also had the Starmaker ruler that Kaye Wood uses in the video on how to cut the hexagons from strips. I have never EVER seen that ruler. They didn’t have very many sizes of the Creative Grids rulers, but a person can’t have everything and I really have no reason to complain about their selection of rulers, if you couldn’t tell.

Patches Ruler Wall #1
Patches Ruler Wall #1

They had great fabric. I could have bought almost everything there, but just had to stop, because I was getting overwhelmed. The employees were very friendly, especially Pam who, in addition to telling us everything about the store, it’s products and classes also acted as local tour guide by telling us about local restaurants.

Sisto's
Sisto's

Sisto’s
Sisto’s was our next stop and it wasn’t as well stocked with fabric as Patches. I think it got the short end of the impression stick, because we went to Patches first. They had a lot of machines and I was able to finally buy some bobbins for my machine. Crazy that I have to fly across the country to buy bobbins! We talked to them for a long time about the HQ18 (I think that is the model). It is the HandiQuilter longarm machine. The woman we spoke with knew a lot about the machine and was very friendly. They had a lot of space in the shop, but most of it seemed to be filled with machines rather than fabric.

I asked about Anna Maria Horner patterns at a couple of shops and was shocked to find that they had never heard of her or her patterns. I found it odd, but, again, I think that the shops must know their customer base. I didn’t check to see if FreeSpirit had any fabric in these shops. Perhaps FreeSpirit doesn’t have a rep in the area? Odd, though.

Visiting

As I have mentioned around the web, I was on the East Coast last week. I don’t like to announce the fact that I am going to be gone, so I apologize if anyone was confused. I was at a conference for my job, which you might remember if you heard Creative Mojo (I promise to stop mentioning this eventually). If you didn’t hear Creative Mojo, you can listen to the podcast.

Mark & Jaye
Mark & Jaye

One of the things I did back East was co-host the Creative Mojo podcast with Mark Lipinski. I was really nervous and even more nervous when he posted on FB that he had been admitted to the hospital early that week. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen and wondered if I would find a note on the door with a key telling me how to turn on the headset and microphone so that I could fill in for him. Fortunately for me (and all of you!) Mark is a consummate professional with the motto of “the show must go on.” He was working on the script when I arrived, so Jeff entertained me. Jeff Turner has a smile that lights up the room. Toby, Mark’s friend and the owner of the Kindred Quilts, was also there to talk about creative book clubs. I thought it was funny that they were both from, or had lived in, California! Small world!

Mark came down when he was done with the script and told me what to do. I had to read or review a bit of a couple of the books whose authors would be on the show. I also had to read an article from another author and think of comments to interject. I also had to read the script and be familiar with the way the show would go.

Mark's House
Mark's House

Mark’s house is gorgeous. On Quilt Out Loud, Mark’s house looks like a mansion. In reality, there are a lot of rooms, but it seems to be well proportioned. The colors they used to paint the rooms are wonderful and bold. The hall is a bright citron green. The living room is bordering on a warm white, but has a tinge of orange or yellow. The living room, as are all the rooms, so beautifully decorated. They look like a decorator did them, but there is no feeling of not being able to sit down. The living room is very comfy as well as well put together. The guest bath is a light purple and Mark’s office is a wonderful sunshiney yellow. Mark’s office is filled with books. I kept getting distracted during the podcast looking at his books. He and I have a lot of the same books. His are not piled on the floor (note to self: get a new bookshelf!), but well organized in cube cubbies.

Mark talks a lot about his hoarding tendencies. While I did see the Pod (he wouldn’t let me in), I didn’t see any hoarding tendencies. House Beautiful could walk into his house and start a photo shoot. I felt funny taking photos of the inside, so I didn’t and I would have stayed longer except Mark really looked like he needed to go to bed.

The show went really fast and I had a lot of fun doing it. All I did to become the co-host was email Mark and I was in. It was fun.

The highlight of the trip was visiting with my SIL and the family. My BIL is a great cook and has no problem substituting to help me deal with my food intolerances. I really enjoy visiting with my SIL. We usually do a sewing or quilting project. We really work well together and it made me think of how much I like working with certain other quiltmakers on projects.

TFQ is another with whom I enjoy working. She and I work really well together, too. Remember the Cheerful Baskets? She has a great (can’t say this enough) sense of color and is good at giving me the pieces to sew in an orderly manner. I wish they both lived closer, but I also enjoy going to visit. I wish it were easier to visit.

I always learn something new when SIL and I sew together. She has a large workspace which allows two people to work together without stepping on each other. SIL has a pseudo-professional stand-alone embroidery machine. She has been having fun making Christmas ornaments, Boy Scout patches and other things with it. She had an idea for the NSGW pillows, so we played around with the software that comes with the machine and designed some motifs.

Chain piecing pillow covers
Chain piecing pillow covers

She stitched them out (well, caused them to be stitched out) while I was at the conference. When I returned, we made them into pillows. When I made the last Teacher pillows I thought that I should quilt them, but was really too lazy. SIL reminded me about the quilt-as-you-go method, so I used that to quilt and sew the tops simultaneously. The good thing about that method is that you can make the back as big as the pillow form and then you know where to stop. The other good thing is that you can use up random bits of batting.

NDGW Pillow Cover #1
NDGW Pillow Cover #1
NDGW Pillow Cover #2
NDGW Pillow Cover #2
Ruth's NDGW Pillow Cover
Ruth's NDGW Pillow Cover

We made 2 pillows for the Native Daughters’ (sister organization to the Native Sons for women) upcoming convention and one for my MIL (SIL’s mom). The one for my MIL was a bit of a mistake. We felt like we didn’t have quite enough fabric for it, so we didn’t want to make it for the grand Parlor. However, once the piece was finished we really liked the way it came it out and my adjust what we do in the future to take what we learned into consideration. We also embroidered 3 additional centers for pillows for the Native Sons raffle pillows for next year. I hope I don’t put them somewhere where I can’t find them!

Mosaic Block
Mosaic Block

We also worked a little bit with SIL’s  new Accuquilt Go Baby cutter. She had some parallelograms she had cut and we wanted to try the Jinny Beyer Perfect Piecer. In looking for a comprehensive video on using the Perfect Piecer, we found a video with an interesting block called Mosaic (I kind of doubt that is the real name, but I haven’t looked it up and I could be wrong) using parallelograms. She cut and intended to sew, but she was busy picking out greens for a green quilt, so I sewed. I am now an Accuquilt Go convert. Those patches lined up perfectly and there was only one small point matching problem.

In Lancaster County, we had bought fabric for a shirt for my BIL, so we worked on that, too. I was her assistant on that project since I am not much of a garment maker. I like it when I get to sew on my work-vacations.

Capital Quilts
Capital Quilts

SIL saw the above quilt, which is a 9 patch alternated with a snowball block. You can buy the pattern or take the class at Capital Quilts.

Sisto's Star Table Runner
Sisto's Star Table Runner

Sisto’s had a couple of nice quilts available for us to view as well. This looks paper pieced, but it could also be done, I think, with Y seams (at which you all will be experts after you work on the hexagons.

Tilted 9 Patch
Tilted 9 Patch

If you don’t mind sewing on the bias, this looks like you could make regular 9 patches and then trim them to be tilted.

Link to the 30's
Link to the 30's

This quilt is from the book, Link to the 30’s, which we saw hanging in Sisto’s Janome room. You can probably buy the book by calling Sisto’s. It is a book, along with the previous volume, that I have been thinking of buying. It is a project book, but the quilts aren’t all ‘quick & easy’. I thought it was done very well and I liked the way the blocks were not chopped off.

Link to the 30's - detail
Link to the 30's - detail

I wasn’t able to quickly discern the block so I took the detail above. I would have to look at the quilt closer to see the block and I simply wasn’t tall enough.

In case you are wondering about the conference I attended, it was great. it was a lot of work in terms of listening and understanding and bringing information back to my workplace. Not interesting in terms of quiltmaking, though.

Maker Faire Inspiration

 

FabMo.org booth
FabMo.org booth

A very kind person gave us tickets to the Maker Faire. It is something that I have heard lots of good things about, but never visited. Friend Julie loves it. Maureen and Amy from the Creative Mom podcast also rave about it. We finally got a chance to go and I have to say that the best thing about it was being inspired. I saw lots of this and that which had a nice line or good texture or something else that struck my imagination. It made it worth it to give up a day of sewing for that inspiration.

One of the things I really liked and did not photograph was the Steampunk costumes and fantastical vehicles. The ingenuity and creativity was amazing and oozing all over the place.

Back of Coat
Back of Coat

I don’t know this woman. I have no idea if she knew I was photographing the back of her coat. I really liked the back of her coat. It looked very tailored, yet easy to wear.

Embroidered Buttons
Embroidered Buttons

I have an embroidery module on my sewing machine. Lately I keep hearing about or needing to deal with buttons. This display gave me the idea of making my own buttons from embroidered designs I can do using my embroidery module. Cool, eh?

Bathroom Quilt Idea
Bathroom Quilt Idea

Every year for the past few years, I have talked about the quilt I want to make and put in one or both of my bathrooms. I saw this display and it is the same idea. I probably would make mine 4×5 rather than 3 x 12 or whatever it was. I like the idea of slipping things in and taking them out.

FabMo.org Dresden Plate
FabMo.org Dresden Plate

I don’t know anything about the above Dresden Plate,but the fact that it is in the FabMo booth makes me think the maker used FabMo fabrics. Isn’t it GREAT?

Inspiration Foot
Inspiration Foot

In a sea of black, denim and asphalt was this kid wearing red Chuck Taylors. I couldn’t stop looking at this foot dangling off of the dad who held him for the entire 20 minutes of the Mentos/Coke Zero show. He didn’t wiggle or talk really, his dad didn’t complain about holding him and the whole time his foot dangled down waiting for me to photograph it. The socks are an added bonus. This is definitely a photo I want to draw.

 

Birch Fabrics

Birch Fabrics Shop
Birch Fabrics Shop

During the drive to Long Beach, one of our stops was in Paso Robles, which has 3 (!!!!) quilt shops. We tried to find the shop and initially failed. We were starving so we went to lunch  and then tried again to find Birch Fabrics, which has the online store name of FabricWorm. Due to the success of the business, the owner, Cynthia, has had to move three times in the past few months. We were about to give up finding her brick and mortar shop and move on. I spotted the address on a building, but not the ‘unit’ number. TFQ was ready to give up, so I said I would just walk around the corner and see if I could see it when I saw the sign. The experience was totally worth the hunt.

Birch Fabrics
Birch Fabrics

Cynthia Mann is the owner of Fabric Worm/Birch Fabrics and she is the nicest, most welcoming person I have met in a long time. She spent tons of time with us, showed us everything, talked to us about our trip and her fabrics and upcoming fabrics and more topics than I can remember.

I never thought about seriously reviewing shops and creating categories within the review on which I could rate shops, but if I did, for Birch Fabrics, they would be:

Scale: (worst) 1-5 (best)

Staff Friendliness: 5

Space: 5

Fabric Selection: 5

Customer Service: 10

This wasn’t just a walk in and select some bolts, cut and leave kind of shop. We spent about an hour talking with Cynthia and her staff. She not only has the brick and mortar shop and the online store, but also has a line of organic fabrics which she is distributing. I like the way she has built her business and grown it organically.

I mentioned, here, a fabric pack in which I was interested about a month or so ago. I actually was able to see it at the shop and swap out certain fabrics I knew I already had. One of the issues with customer service, generally, I have is that people aren’t flexible. Birch Fabrics has priced their fabrics in such a way that customers can swap out fabrics from their fabric packs if one or two don’t suit their needs. Cynthia wants happy customers. We are happy customers.

Birch Fabrics Display Window
Birch Fabrics Display Window

This turquoise sewing machine and bolt of fabric (defective, so they refused to sell me any, which I thought showed good ethics!) are in the front window inviting people into the shop.

Birch Fabrics Back Towards the Storeroom
Birch Fabrics Back Towards the Storeroom

They have a couple of interesting displays in the front of the shop, but the rest is fabric storage. Cynthia has the same kind of encyclopedic knowledge of fabric lines and designers that TFQ does, so they talked nonstop the whole time. I was looking at everything, entranced by the visuals.

Birch Fabrics Back + Storeroom
Birch Fabrics Back + Storeroom

The space is awesome! If I could have any kind of space I wanted, Birch Fabrics space would be transported to a spot near my house and the shop would be my workspace. The space is light and airy, bright and clean. There is plenty of horizontal space for laying out and gathering fabrics. They don’t have a lot of display quilts and projects, which keeps the visual clutter to a minimum.

Cynthia showed us her storeroom on one visit and I saw a lot of packages destined for international locations. We had a big discussion about fabric choices and offerings. TFQ thinks that many shops are missing a whole population segment by not offering more bright and modern fabrics. Cynthia has a lock on that market right now. (BTW, I tried to get TFQ to write a guest post about this and many other topics, but she politely declined)All of their fabric are modern and bright. They put interesting packs together and move the fabric through their shop.

Birch Fabrics Back Towards Railroad Ave
Birch Fabrics Back Towards Railroad Ave

Upstairs, the staff have the space for classes and are starting to have sewing classes for the local population. If the shop were near my house, I would be sewing there frequently.

Birch Fabrics Front Towards Railroad Ave
Birch Fabrics Front Towards Railroad Ave

There are plenty of cutting tables and one of Cynthia’s staff, Arlene, cut fabrics for us and for orders the whole time we were there. She is obviously integral to both the physical and online businesses. Another thing I liked is that Birch staff are fast and accurate fabric cutters.

Cherry Red/Pink Fabric Group
Cherry Red/Pink Fabric Group

Like the group I found tempting a month ago, the above group was also tempting. One thing I liked is that Birch staff puts together groups of fabrics by different designers that go really well together and will make interesting projects. In the group above, the scale and designs of the fabric are different enough to distinguish the fabrics from each other while maintaining interest in the potential project. I was filled with inspiration being in the shop.

Fabricworm/Birch Fabrics
1244 Pine Street, Ste. D
Paso Robles, Ca 93446
corner of 13th and Railroad
805-239-8888
fax: 805-239-8807
fabricworm [at] gmail [dot] com

If you are anywhere near this excellent shop, I would recommend a detour to stop by.

GAQF Visit Part#2

It was hard to get to the Great American Quilt Factory. It is in Denver, but pretty far away from downtown. Unlike my last trip, I didn’t have a car or a navigator. Thus, I didn’t think I would make it out there on this trip.

On a whim, I asked a librarian who used to live in Denver about transportation. He and his wife had driven to Denver. We mapped out a plan for getting there on public transportation and I was set to go, but not convinced that I could make it out and back in time for my flight. Later that day I received an email from my librarian friend’s wife and she wanted to go to GAQF! Score! Wednesday, before I left, we drove out there and had a blast.

GAQF Visit #2 Fabric
GAQF Visit #2 Fabric

Above are the dots I bought! I can’t really say fabrics, because they are almost all dots! The food fabrics are for my mom‘s quilt. The black and white large dots are for a bag and everything else is on spec. The dots in the upper left hand corner are really nice Ellen Medlock dots. I didn’t think I had ever heard of her before, but when I looked at her site I think that Kathy from Finishing Lines mentioned Medlock’s bag patterns to me.

I saw two books that spurred my imagination and my recent scary Christmas mania. One was Christmas with Possibilities. I liked some of the motifs. One was especially appealing: a star with a spiral inside. The other book was called More Joy to the World, which had a really nice Noel pillow pattern. I didn’t buy either as they were mostly pattern books and I would rather get them out of the library or used. Sadly, they are not available at the library and used the books are about $13. We’ll see.

GAQF: Patterns and Notions
GAQF: Patterns and Notions

Flesh colored Aurifil had been on my mind since TFQ mentioned it to me after she used it for one of her projects. I also found that I needed some white thread. I saw them at the shop, so I picked them up.

The Lazy Girl pattern was an impulse buy. It might make a good gift for my Grama. Being really poor at reading patterns, I didn’t look at the materials list. I always assume that, since I mostly make quilts, I have everything on hand. That isn’t the case with this pattern. I need a bottom and some fusible batting. When I saw that it scared me because of the Amy Butler experience from last November. I put the additional supplies on the list to buy.

One of the best parts was that Beth (yes, another Beth in my life!), who does embroidery and is interested in quilting, but hasn’t taken a class or ever made a quilt, left with three patterns! One was for a flannel quilt using a panel. The two others were for Christmas decorations. One was for wool ornaments and one was for an arty wool Christmas tree.

New Beth and I plan to get together so I can look at 60 year old quilt that has some damage.

The Princess and the Pea

Sidewalk Joy
Sidewalk Joy

On Tuesday July 20, I set off from home for the airport to pick up TFQ before heading south for a quilt adventure along the coast. We were headed to Long Beach for the big quilt festival there put on by Quilts Inc.

We were both excited. Fresh off the blogs from Spring Quilt Market, I was ready to see new things, especially some of the new fabrics coming out in the summer and different patterns and tools. With Quilts Inc being the organizer of Quilt Market, I was sure there would be a lot of new products! I was also ready for some inspiration and new quilt shops.

Our first stop was Hart’s Fabrics in Santa Cruz. I have been there at least twice since the beginning of the year and not much had changed since then. Still I was able to see through the normal things that get my attention such as dots, aqua and cherry red for fabrics that hadn’t seen before.

Hart's Fabrics
Hart's Fabrics

One theme throughout the trip was how I need to spend some time buying work clothes and how much I dislike shopping. I saw some great purple fabric at Hart’s (above – top right-ish/middle) that would make a great skirt. Anna Maria Horner’s Multi-tasker tote pattern was so well written that I thought, perhaps, her Study Hall skirt pattern would be as well and I could make that out of the purple fabric. This is such a huge leap for me. Keep your fingers crossed on that! I also bought some fabric to make gifts, but you’ll have to wait for the gift posts for more details.

I really wanted to see the Bella Bag pattern from Fig Tree Quilts. I saw a glimpse of it in the most recent Quilt Sampler magazine. I wanted to see the bag made up so I could touch it and look at the pockets. I never saw any Fig Tree quilts patterns at the show and only a few of their patterns at one of the quilt shops. I guess it was a good thing I bought the Heather Bailey bag pattern in order to hedge my bets.

Next stop: Back Porch Quilts. I have written a lot about that shop as I visit at least once a year. I recently visited during my trip to the Monterey Quilt Show. The shop, as I am sure I have said is light and airy. They always have new fabric.

I decided that I was being an idiot about the price of the Little Wallet by Valori Wells. Both Terri and Maureen have recommended it highly and I respect their work, so I decided to get it. I think it will make great gifts.

Back Porch Quilts
Back Porch Quilts

The blue fireworks fabric will be a bag. I will use the fuschias together in…something. The coffee fabric may end up as pillowcases and the red is one of those embossed fabrics that have a great hand. The store was in a bit of disarray and didn’t look like they had as much fabric as usual. They also did not have the Little Wallet pattern. 🙁 We had dinner at a Thai place and spent the night in Monterey surfing the Internet and watching TV.

Will Use in One Quilt
Will Use in One Quilt
Reds and Turquoise will be Used Together
Reds and Turquoise will be Used Together

The kitchen appliance fabrics will be napkins.

Variety of Oddballs
Variety of Oddballs

The next day as a long drive to Santa Barbara through the Central Coast. We stopped in Paso Robles at Birch Fabrics. That was a great experience and I will write about it later in the week, because the service, space and friendliness deserves it’s own post. I bought great fabrics there (above).

I have started not to sleep well in hotels and kept waking up with a backache during this trip. I was very glad to get back to my Pilates class this past week.

We stayed overnight in Santa Barbara. We ate at a great restaurant called Bay Roadhouse (or something). The food was good and the waiter was cute and helpful. S.B. started our hotel problems. The hotel in Santa Barbara did not have a room for us and had to ‘upgrade’ us. Sadly the upgrade did not include two beds and the room was really loud. Even with earplugs, I woke up several times during the night. The hotel in Long Beach overbooked (for the second year in a row) and also didn’t have the a room with two beds. In my opinion, overbooking a certain kind of room one year is bad, but doing it a second year exhibits corporate greed, pure and simple.

The show was in a large space. The quilts were really well displayed. We could see them really well, but the lighting made it hard to photograph some of them.

Overview, SAQA Exhibit
Overview, SAQA Exhibit

The second quilt (turquoise with red, above) was a very powerful quilt by Judy Coates Perez. We stood and looked at it for a long time. I found an image of it and an article about it on her blog, so go and look at it. People were not allowed to take pictures of quilts in that exhibit. They had books available and I would have gladly bought one, but the photography in the books wasn’t that good. I got around the ban, because the above photo is an overview photo.

Overview of Antique Quilts
Overview of Antique Quilts

There was a wonderful exhibit of antique quilts. Quilts Inc. apparently has a wonderful collection of antique quilts. I was really glad they shared them with us. We really enjoyed the variety. One thing we noticed is that the variations (imperfections?) in the quilts made them more interesting. In that way they were very different from quilts of today that try to be perfect.

Antique Exhibit (Right)
Antique Exhibit (Right)

The quilts were large, in many cases.

Silk Log Cabin
Silk Log Cabin

This was one of the most beautiful antique quilts I have ever seen. For a silk quilt, it was in the most amazing condition. It was called a Courthouse Steps quilt, which surprised me, because I always thought that a Courthouse Steps log cabin variation had three squares in the middle of the block. We saw a few other oddities in the documentation of the antique quilts.

See the stanchion? They were another problem with photographing the quilts.

We usually use the preview time to photograph the quilts since the preview night is usually much less crowded than other times during shows. We went through and photographed most of the quilts in about 1.5 hours. We were shocked! There were no quilts from individual quiltmakers, only special exhibits. The special exhibits were great, but I did miss the individual quilts.

Long Beach Show Purchases x2
Long Beach Show Purchases x2

The above photo shows all the stuff we bought at the show. We had lists and were prepared to purchase from vendors at the show. The amount of available merchandise was pathetic. PIQF has better vendors. I was really glad for the selection at Birch Fabrics, because I was very disappointed in the offerings at the show. It was really hard to spend money there. There was not enough fabric. Almost everything was in kits or fabric packs and the vendors refused to break up the packs/kits if we wanted a single piece of fabric. As you can see, I did not find the Bella Bag pattern. It seemed that the vendors brought all of the old stuff they wanted to get rid of, with a few exceptions. TFQ found a great selection of Aurifil at Jeff’s Custom Woodworking (great sewing, cutting and ironing tables and cabinets!). American Jane/Sandy Klopp was wonderful. Her patterns are intricate and engaging. We saw Lorraine Torrence, who had a large booth filled with her patterns, jackets and a variety of clothing suitable fabrics. We had a great conversation with her.

All in all, I was pretty disappointed in the Long Beach Show. I expected a lot more. Again, it seemed like a show of corporate greed. I wouldn’t go back and think that shows are starting to be a place where you pay to shop. I can easily shop online without a fee, so why should I go to a show if I am not going to take classes and don’t get to see a lot of quilts or new products?

If I were organizing a show I would vet the vendors carefully and make sure they brought their best merchandise. I realize that this would make vendors less likely to come, but poor quality merchandise also reflects badly on the organizer of the show so everyone has an interest in keeping show goers happy. I think that fabric manufacturers should be there to, at least, talk to customers, do make and takes or something.

Cotton & Chocolate Quilt Company
Cotton & Chocolate Quilt Company

We decided to visit some shops on the way back. First up was Cotton & Chocolate Quilt Company in Thousand Oaks. They were at the quilt show. I don’t remember much about their booth except they had the ubiquitous kits and fabric packs. Their shop had a lot of great fabric that was new and fun.

Quilter's Studio
Quilter's Studio

We also stopped at Quilter’s Studio. They had one of the best selections of dots I have ever seen. Their booth at the show was great. The people at the booth were enthusiastic and glad to see us. One of the husbands of the owner was manning the shop and it was fun to chat with him. My enthusiasm was waning a bit for fabric shopping at this point.

Cotton Ball, Morro Bay
Cotton Ball, Morro Bay

The next day we went to the Cotton Ball in Morro Bay and went back to Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles. I thought it would be nice to go to a beach town and was interested in seeing a celebrity shop.  I thought the prices were high at the Cotton Ball (over $11/yard) and I didn’t buy much. I was glad to see Rob Appell’s wildlife patterns made up. They do not look photo realistic, which I appreciate.

I was glad to get back to Birch Fabrics. Birch was a much needed breath of fresh air. I needed to talk to some nice people and see some gorgeous fabric in a friendly space. We met Andrea, another of Cynthia’s staff and spent another pleasant hour chatting about fabric, looking at her new stuff and filling in the gaps on what we had purchased during our previous stop.

In Monterey, we went back to Back Porch and I was able to buy the Little Wallet pattern. They had some new fabrics,  too. 😉

All in all it was a great trip. After the first day of looking at fabric, I really wanted to sew. I came home and started working on projects. There wasn’t enough time for me to accomplish all I wanted to and tomorrow it is back to the grind. I want to find the right pattern for some of the fabrics I bought and get started on those projects.

Stalked by BMWs

Recently BMWs have been riding my bumper, tailgating, cutting me off and generally behaving badly on the road near me. I don’t drive that much so my left brain is trying desperately to assure my right brain that it is not some BMW conspiracy and just some weird quirk of driving fate. My fondest dream were I to win the lottery is to employ a driver.

Sunday, I returned from a short weekend away in Monterey. I stayed with friends, spent Saturday at the quilt show, bought fabric, drank wine, was not required to cater to anyone’s whims or needs and slept long and soundly.

Apparently, I needed this and didn’t even know it.

Show Floor
Show Floor

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the show. They can vary widely. I wasn’t sure if I had ever been to the Monterey Peninsula show before.  I have some vague recollection of visiting, but very vague and no photos.

The show as wonderful! The space was bright and airy. The quilts used bright colors and exuded cheerfulness. the quiltmakers were accomplished.They had plenty of white glove ladies, an acceptable vendor hall and food right there. I could see the ocean from outside the hall and people were friendly.

I bought a very special and hard to find gift for my mother at the guild’s booth, which she will have to wait until October to receive. Her birthday is in October – unless I can’t wait to give it to her. I am not sure I can.

I was really pleased that went. I saw Jean, Maureen, Terri and Robin, which is always a pleasure. Jean had a circle quilt that made me less disheartened about the circle quilt I have been contemplating. In general, I was inspired to go home and sew.

Bag Rack
Bag Rack

This is a great idea. I love it that they had a special exhibit of bags made from the Circle Bag pattern by Square Rose. I have been looking at the wonderful bags I have been making and wishing that quilt shows would have a sewn accessories or tote bag category. I realize that quilt shows are QUILT shows, but so many people are sewing other things, too.

Who Needs an Aquarium?
Who Needs an Aquarium?

I am always hard pressed to choose my favorite quilt, but I think the above it is. The fish look happy. There is plenty of turquoise and a lot to look at. It is by Mary Ellen Parsons, who I believe came to the Pamela Allen class at CQFA.

This mini retreat helped me over another hump of the illness and gave me my creativity back. I needed some extra sleep in a big comfy bed and didn’t realize it. I sleep well and for a reasonable length of time most nights. On the weekends, however, when I don’t have to wake up to the alarm, I often wake to the sound of the Wii beeping. I like to get up early, but often stay up late to find some quiet time and then don’t get up early. I went to bed early and got up early both days, read a lot of magazines and still got to chat with my friends and get where I needed to go in a timely manner.

Seeing so much color, fondling fabric and reading about fabulous fiber reset my creativity button. Not sewing for 11 days (mostly) when I was sick turned off the creativity button for some reason.  I knew that this week would be busy, so I decided that my goal would make some straps for a bag and haul out the pattern I bought at Hart’s in January.

I saw a dirt heap shaped like Jabba the Hut.

I saw sparkling water in the bay, in a slough and in an estuary.

I saw a spider about the size of a 50 cent piece.

BMWs were redeemed when I was invited to ride in a BMW 300 series hard top convertible. It was an awesome car and I can understand why their drivers might be frustrated to be behind my modest, imported 10 year old car.

North Coast Quilt Shops

We spent the weekend on the North Coast. I wasn’t excited about going, but, for various reasons, agreed and was glad I did. The North Coast is beautiful and I found as the car left the City behind and my eyes took in more green than concrete and metal, I felt calmer and more relaxed than I had in awhile.

To prepare for the trip, I looked up quilt shops in the area and came up with four. On the way up, we also saw a shop in Laytonville called Fat Quail Quilts that got good reviews from the other shop owners, but I wasn’t able to stop.

Fabrics from North Coast Weekend
Fabrics from North Coast Weekend

We did stop at Kim’s Fortuna Fabric and Crafts, Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop in Ferndale, Scottie Dog Quilts and Ocean Wave Quilts, both in Eureka. The first shop I visited was Kim’s Fortuna Fabric and Crafts. It is in a strip mall (a nice one) off of Rohnerville Road and Main Street right as Main Street turns into Fortuna Blvd. I am telling you this because I had to call since I couldn’t find it by driving up and down Main Street.

It is a nice store with a good selection of fabrics at about $8.99 a yard. the woman behind the counter was helpful and friendly. They also have yarn and other craft supplies. there was a Tumbling Block class going on while I was there and the teacher has quite a selection of classes going on during the next few months. I bought 3 flannels I like to use to make some receiving blankets (top 3 fabrics, above).

Food Fabrics for Mom
Food Fabrics for Mom

I bought some food  fabrics for my mom for one of her quilts and a couple of dots for myself. I saw a pink and white flower print that went with a black and white and a stripe. The three of them would have made a fabulous Anna Maria Multi-tasker tote, but I resisted. I have a full box of tote bag fabrics and need to make a few tote bags before I buy more fabric.

Ferndale Victorian
Ferndale Victorian
Ferndale Victorian
Ferndale Victorian
Ferndale Victorian
Ferndale Victorian
Ferndale Victorian
Ferndale Victorian
Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop
Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop

Famous last words, however, after I stopped in at Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop in Ferndale. Ferndale is a cute little town off the beaten path with gorgeous buildings on its Victorian Main Street. Itsy Bitsy Quilt Shop had a very chatty man sitting behind the counter when I walked in. He turned out to be the owner’s husband. They had fabulous fabrics and I succumbed, including two tote bag fabrics.

Kaffe Fassett tote fabric
Kaffe Fassett tote fabric
Kaffe Fassett tote fabric + inside dots
Kaffe Fassett tote fabric + inside dots

The store was really bright and cheerful and I think that was part of the attraction. I think it was my favorite quilt of the four I visited. The 2 tote bag fabrics are Kaffe Fassett prints. I also bought some dots, of course. The one above will go on the inside or the pocket panels. Not sure what I will use for the inside, perhaps a black & white print? I have plenty already.

After Ferndale we went up to Eureka to see Scottie Dog and Ocean Waves. Scottie Dog Quilts was a nice shop as well. I am amazed at what quilt shop owners can cram into a small space. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t feel crowded in Scottie Dog, but it wasn’t Best Buy either. I bought more dots and a conversational on turquoise with coffee cups that I want to use on the back of the Tarts (see above on the left, 4th from the top).

Scottie Dog Quilts had 2 diamond quilts hanging on their wall. I asked if they had the ruler or template they used to make it and the shopkeeper said that they used the Accucut. I never considered that machine as an option for me, but that offhand comment opened up a whole new world for me. Cutting diamonds for the FOTY 2010 would be absolutely no problem, however. Hhmm. I wouldn’t buy that machine just to make one quilt, but I will look around and see if a shop has it and I could try it. I have a lot of questions:

  • do they have the sized diamonds I have started to cut?
  • can you put one layer of fabric and have it cut?
  • how large of a piece of fabric can you put in, e.g. can I cut a 2×6″ piece of fabric and cut the diamond from that or does the piece have to be larger?

Finally, we went to the Ocean Waves Quilt Shop. It is housed in an old Victorian house, which made it adorable, but also a bit dark. I bought a pack of charm squares and another food FQ for mom. I think I was tired of fabric shopping by then.

I find it quite hilarious to listen to what the quilt ladies talk about while I am shopping. In my travels this weekend, I heard about the tribulations of the world including prescription drug addiction, surgery, a sister determined to have 4-6 children though she doesn’t have the money to raise them and a multitude of Valentine’s Day anecdotes.

If you spend any time up on the North Coast, you won’t have to worry about a shortage of  fabric.

More on the Quilt Retreat

I have a lot of talented colleagues who also attended the quilt retreat. I realized, after I got home, that the pictures I thought I took only were taken in my head. Sigh.

Dolores 2010 #1
Dolores 2010 #1

Dolores, for whom I made the pencil roll, is really making progress in her work. She takes classes deliberately from well respected quiltmakers and works through the techniques and makes it her own. For the past several years, she has worked in neutrals. This year she decided that she was going to add color back into the equation. This piece is from a photograph (right) and some techniques she learned in a class with Caryl Bryer Fallert. Dolores reworked the photo on her computer and then blew up the pattern, transferred it to freezer paper and used Fallert’s method of piecing to create the top.

Sonja, a new CQFAer was working with FabMo fabrics and just playing. She did a fabulous wave piece that I was really sorry not to have taken a picture of.

Sue and I are kindred spirits in that we both like to make quick projects in between our larger quilt projects. She worked on totes, scarves AND basted two quilts!

FabMo also has wallpaper -high end wallpaper – and Jan has been experimenting with folded boxes and bags using pieces of the free wallpaper. They are fabulous. She is also working on a piece based on the view of Nebraska from a plane. She worked on embellishing the circles she was making. Jan was sitting next to me and we talked about color, because she is finding her piece too dull. We discussed colors that would fit with her nature theme.

Julie's Hearts
Julie's Hearts

Julie bought a pack of Moda turnovers and is making a fun and sweet Valentine’s Day quilt. She is trying to limit her need to cut and this was a great way to do it.

Julie's Hearts #1
Julie's Hearts #1

Here is Julie’s quilt before she started on the appliquéd hearts.

Julie's Heart Art
Julie's Heart Art

Above shows her machine applique’ pieces waiting for their turn under the needle as well as the tools that are required for excellent quilting (glasses, rulers and coffee!). 😉

Illuminated Manuscript Heart
Illuminated Manuscript Heart

I thought that the above block looked like one of the illustrations in an illuminated manuscript.

Good Color Combo Heart
Good Color Combo Heart

This is a nice color combination. I am not sure the computer intermediation shows the subtlety, but it s great.

Skull Heart
Skull Heart

We talked a lot about this block, because of the skull. It is the block that shows that relationships can be icky and rocky sometimes. Fun fabric, though.

Maureen tried the pencil roll pattern and came up with a nice piece using some of her hand dyes and some FabMo fabric.

Terri worked on getting some tops put together. One was an exchange top that included some really nice batiks.

Debbie was trying to finish her daughter’s college quilt. She was using some very jewel-y turquoise, purples and other blues. It was very rich looking.

Kathy is a member’s daughter. We haven’t seen any of her work before this weekend. It turns out that she does wonderful handwork. She is working on this Piece O’Cake design, do it mostly by hand. I like the color choices she made. They are a bit muted, but not murky.

Kathy's Piece O'Cake
Kathy's Piece O'Cake

She didn’t like the scallop border that came with the pattern, so she designed this leaf border on her own.

Kathy's Leaf Border
Kathy's Leaf Border

CQFA Retreat 2010

FOTY Top Complete
FOTY Top Complete

This past weekend was our annual CQFA retreat by the beach. I spent the weekend working on the FOTY 2009. I also relaxed a little even though I spent a lot of time hard at hard sewing. My body is rebelling a bit from sitting so much and standing so much.

Last few FOTY blocks
Last few FOTY blocks

First, I found the last few FOTY blocks on my design wall before I left and I wanted to post a picture of them. I didn’t think I would use the one with the earthy brown (middle row, middle block) on the front, but I ended up using it.

FOTY 2009 in progress
FOTY 2009 in progress

I really worked hard on the piece. As with last year’s piece, there is a lot of sewing and pressing. The process, after I figured out the size and laid the blocks out was to sew two Zanzibar blocks together, press, put back on the design wall, sew two Zanzibar blocks together, press, put back on the design wall and then repeat that process 133 times. Once I sewed sets of blocks together, then I sewed two sets of two blocks together to make a set of four. I did that approximately 67 times. Since I wasn’t in my own workroom I had to walk around my table, past another table and into the corner to get to the iron. The distance was inconvenient, but also good, because it forced me to stretch my body. Putting the top together was a lot of rote sewing, but it was the perfect project for the retreat.

I did a few things differently this year. One was to count up the blocks and try to make a plan as to how I would lay them out before I arrived at the retreat location and was standing in front of my design wall.  I knew I had 225 blocks, so I thought I would lay them out in a 15×15 format. What I didn’t take into the consideration was the size of the portable design wall. If I placed 15 blocks down, 3 of them were on the floor. I didn’t want to work with blocks on the floor even though I could have. It is hard to photograph the in progress piece. It is easy to forget some of the blocks, etc. I reconfigured the layout and ended up with, I believe, 12 down and 19 across. I prefer a rectangular layout anyway so it worked out. I needed another block, however, so the earthy brown one ended up on the front. In the grand scheme, it doesn’t scream brown out of the quilt.

Color Sorting
Color Sorting

I also sorted the blocks. Last year, I think I just put them up in general areas on the design wall and then I had to move them around a lot. This time I sorted the fabrics on the table, put them in Roy G. Biv + white and black order and then put them up on the design wall. This strategy was a lot easier. I didn’t have move such large groups of blocks over and over. I had to move some groups, but the whole process was much easier. Below is a progression of how the piece evolved as I worked on the color:

#1 Blocks on the design wall
#1 Blocks on the design wall
#2 Blocks on the design wall
#2 Blocks on the design wall
#3 Blocks on the design wall
#3 Blocks on the design wall
#4 Blocks on the design wall
#4 Blocks on the design wall

Another thing I did differently this year was ask some of the other retreaters if any blocks stood out to them in an “I am out of place in this quilt” kind of way. Many of the CQFAers are really skilled designers, others are skilled colorists. All of them have something wonderful to offer if I remember to ask and listen.

I was looking at FOTY 2008 last week and found that there were some rectangles I really should have moved. It is by no means a horrible quilt, but I should have played with the layout a bit more. Asking for help was a great strategy, because people mostly liked the color work I did and I got lots of kudos, but some of the blocks jumped out at them. Funnily enough the blocks they noticed, for the most part, did not jump out at me. Almost exclusively, these were blocks that were hard to place – multi-color fabrics, conversationals, light backgrounds almost completely covered by various colors, etc. The CQFA group is great, because they helped me place the problematic blocks to their best advantage. In this way, I also learned.

FOTY 2009 Upper left corner
FOTY 2009 Upper left corner
FOTY 2009 Lower left corner
FOTY 2009 Lower left corner
FOTY 2009 Upper right corner
FOTY 2009 Upper right corner
FOTY 2009 Lower right corner
FOTY 2009 Lower right corner

I spent a good portion of the retreat sewing the quilt top together. Open house at school was today, so I had to leave the retreat early and only got some straps for my next Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote done. I really wanted to stay, but am glad I was able to have a chat with various teachers at school as well. There is always so much to do!

Back Porch Redux

I meant to write about this sooner, but it just didn’t happen. I saw this Flowering Snowball quilt when I went to Back Porch in October.

Back Porch Flowering Snowball
Back Porch Flowering Snowball

I have to admit that I was shocked, because I thought that nobody was making that pattern except for me and here was a semi-local quilt shop teaching a class. I have to admit that I was disappointed, because I thought I was doing something unique. Call Back Porch if you want to sign up for the class.

When I went to the Kaffe Fassett lecture, we also went to the shop, where we bought a few things.

Back Porch Fabrics
Back Porch Fabrics

I wanted to restock up on the Lonni Rossi fabrics. The line was long and as we stood in line, I saw this quilt on the wall.

Back Porch Log Cabin
Back Porch Log Cabin

I know TFQ will like it, but I also like the cheerfulness of it. I think the background is dots.

Shop Tour

SIL is in town from back East. As I have said before, she likes to quilt also, so we spent the day driving to some quilt shops. These quilt shops are across a bridge from me, so I don’t go and visit them very often. We were planning to do this on our way (as my excuse?) to pick up the Young Man, but he got sick and didn’t end up going to visit his grandparents. We went shopping anyway. 😉

Preponderance of Dots
Preponderance of Dots

Yes, I bought some stuff, including fabric. I looked hard at the notions and I have to say that the stores don’t, in general, have good selections of notions. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I really wanted to see a large number and variety of rulers and pins and other notions. I did find a few things I was looking for including a teflon pressing sheet.

Cotton Patch

Cotton Patch Back Door
Cotton Patch Back Door

The first stop was the Cotton Patch, a long time favorite. I bought fabric for my first quilt there . At that time I bought mostly solids and the day we went they had lots of dots in the room where solids used to be. They recently bought my Janome dealer, which used to be across the street. I was eager to see how they crammed the Janome machines in with the Berninas, fabric, notions, cutting tables, etc into their limited space.

The shop used to be a house and they did expand upwards at one point, but the shop is still really small. They gave up some fabric in order to fit the Janomes. I used to like seeing all the feet displayed and I didn’t see that this time. Now they are also closing out the Madeira thread, which is a shame. I don’t do much embroidery, but when I do I always liked the Madeira thread. My SIL has a dedicated embroidery machine, so I will have to talk with her further about thread. Until I get back on the embroidery saddle, I don’t think I will be buying much more thread. They also don’t have as many Janome machines on display. Perhaps, if I wanted to look at the 11K, they would bring it out for me to try. Patty, the lady I liked who worked at the Janome dealer is still there and that makes me happy.

Simplify Book
Simplify Book

I saw this book, which had some interesting projects. I’ll have to see if they have it at the library.

I was really influenced by the way they had the fabric arranged, which is why you see the different red dots. I could see using those dots all in one project, perhaps the Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker Tote? Yes, I think I have some of them already. Oh well, you can never have too many dots, right?

I bought the Martha Negley Grapes fabric, though it looks like Cherries to me, that I talked about in Thursday Misc. The one I bought is very red and the one I posted looks much more pink. There is another colorway called Plum that I think I should have bought.

Cotton Patch Mural detail
Cotton Patch Mural detail

The mural on the back wall is new and I like it. It has similar impressionistic brushwork to what Monet et al did. I think it is a nice touch.

Next, we went to lunch, because I hadn’t really had much breakfast and it was lunch time. I really enjoyed my tostada salad. My stomach is feeling much better after the treatment I did at the beginning of the holidays, so I could actually eat a salad! We ate at a place in Danville called Father Nature’s. I liked the service, and the room was light filled and open. It would make a great workroom.

Wooden Gate Quilts

Wooden Gate Quilts
Wooden Gate Quilts

Thus fortified we headed off to the next shop. Wooden Gate Quilts was formerly Quilters Inn. Bari J talks a little about the switch on her blog. I had never been to either shop, but we mapped it using Quilters Inn and then had a little bit of trouble finding the actual place when we got there, because it seemed to me from the outside that the shop was selling quilts. It is also on the side of a larger building and we couldn’t see directly into the shop. The area has a lot of historical buildings that look nice, so it was pleasant.

The shop was worth the wandering around. They didn’t have a lot of fabric, but the fabric they had was cheerful. Not too many ‘heirloom’ fabrics, as my SIL kindly phrased it. I saw the fabric line below at a couple of different shops. While I didn’t buy these particular fabrics, I did want to remember the color combination for future reference.

Fabric Combo
Fabric Combo

Most of the fabrics in this combination, Flower Sugar are from Lecien. One of the prints (not pictured in above photo) is a border stripe with big dots. The colorway I liked is made from a nice cherry red. I am not fond of the border stripe, but wish they had designed a companion print with those luscious pinky-cherry red dots (#30050-30). Oh well, as if I need more dots.

Lozenge
Lozenge

I loved this quilt. I love the colors (of course; see above) and the use of the little black pin dots. What I don’t love about the photograph is that the plus sign element of the piecing really stands out. It didn’t stand out as much when my eyes saw it. Yes, this is a pattern, though I didn’t notice which one. I have been thinking about that lozenge shape since my quilt adventure in July, so it was good to get a photo of another rendition.

I have to say that the people were really friendly there – chatty, cheerful and they looked like they were enjoying themselves. The colors of the shop were nice and the samples were really wonderful. They had two renditions of the basket quilt pattern (Going to Market #146 from Diana McClun and Laura Nownes new company “From Me to You”) I bought at PIQF and it was fun to see the colors they had used. I am not fond of the Asian prints used in the pattern photo and thought I would make it in my collection of aqua and reds, but the examples at Wooden Gate gave me some other ideas for color combinations. I really appreciated that they took the time to make two quilts from one pattern.

They had some interesting notions. I bought some fusible piping cord to finish some pillows. They carry a small selection of Aurifil there as well. I was looking for some bright orange, but they didn’t have what I was imagining. Of course, Aurifil may not make what I was imagining. I may have to put an Aurifil color card on my birthday list. The Aurifil suitcase is on my list, but I am skeptical that that will actually show up in my birthday gifts. They had a magenta thread colorway I almost bought, but don’t have a project for magenta thread at the moment, so I passed.

I also found a product there, sold by the yard, called Soft Fuse. It is wide, too – about 54″ and it makes your machine applique very soft. Wooden Gate also carried sheets of it that can be run through the printer! I really could have used this when I was making the Tarts. It is paper backed fusible web for hand or machine applique’. I bought some and will have to applique’ something to try it out.

Shockingly, I bought some chocolatey brown fabric with cream dots on it. I sincerely dislike brown, but this fabric was calling me. It is much more chocolatey than ugly brown. I need to make something with it quick.

In Between Stitches

Our final stop was at In Between Stitches in Livermore. In Between Stitches is on the old (?) main street in Livermore and the shop’s architecture has great details – wide pine floors, wainscoting, high ceilings. I would love that shop to be my workroom. This is Alex Anderson’s home shop and she has spoken about it on her podcast.

I had never visited this shop, because it seemed so far away. Once I was in the boonies, however, it wasn’t that far. 😉

In Between Stitches
In Between Stitches

The downtown area was very vibrant as well, which was gratifying. The retail space seemed full, the sidewalks were wide enough to encourage strolling and there was plenty of parking. Although traffic was busy, I had no trouble finding a spot right in front of the shop. Desiree has been very kind to me this December.

They had a pattern for a quilt by Verna Mosquera, which was very bright and cheerful. It is called Mon Ami and the colors really drew me in. They had cheerful fabrics (I bought the orange dots there), including the Lecien fabrics, but a lot of their fabric was of the reproduction/heirloom variety.

Basket Quilt
Basket Quilt

The basket design is a great pattern. I like the way they use the four patches for the middle of the basket. I might have to try a few. The fabrics are a good example of the fabrics they had at the shop.

They had a class going on where people were making the Plus sign quilt like TFQ is making. They were using horizontal strips and I am sure there was a method to the madness, but I couldn’t figure out how to make the quilt from just looking at their work. They classroom was nice and big.

I liked the patterns for the samples, but probably wouldn’t make them in the colors used by the shop staff. There was one star quilt (kit, I think) that I really liked. The fabrics were kind of French General looking colors, but it did inspire me to get off my duff for the Stars for San Bruno blocks.

In Between Stitches is where I bought the teflon pressing sheet. I am using it to make the Flea Market bag from Grand Revival Designs and I have to say it is interesting. The sheet looks like thick, slightly cloudy plastic. It seems to work as my fabric did not get scalded, but the sheet does get very hot, which is a bit deceiving because it doesn’t change color or anything.

I really like seeing new shops. I may not like everything about a shop, but I enjoy seeing the personality of the owner and the staff come out. I also like seeing the fabric in person. I just can’t tell the scarlets from the cherry reds by looking at a web photo. I would definitely visit all of these shops again. I am glad to see that new shops are hoping in the relative vicinity, even if ‘relative’ means 50 miles away!

I have to say I was fairly shocked at the prices. The regular price of all of the fabric I saw was $10.99/yard. I must be getting old, but I remember buying top of the line fabric for $5-$7/yard. I know I got my knickers in a twist at one shop during my summer fabric adventure because their fabric was $11/yard. I am buying larger pieces now, so the cost really adds up. I hope I don’t have to stop buying fabric.