Pamelaquilts

Pulling ties...

2012-01-30T09:43:00.001-08:00

This morning I am working on finishing th task of pulling all the ties out of a butterfly quilt so I can repair it, replace the batting and quilt it! There were a lot of ties in this one. I can't quite figure out how they were done as they all go through the back into the seam allowances of the pieced top. Too bad the cotton batting disintegrated!

Project Quilting 3:2 and Plenty of Piecing!

2012-01-28T22:18:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a busy week, at least as far as quilting goes! I really had a lot of other things to work on, but I didn't want to miss out on making another quilt for the Project Quilting challenge this week. The theme of the challenge was fun - it was called Making Music and we were supposed to make a quilt based on a song. I was excited because I have several quilts based on songs floating around in my head, but I soon realized that they were not quilts that could be easily made in a one week span! As the days started ticking by, I kept trying to come up with another idea that would work for my theme. Finally, the pile of fabrics with roses that I have been shuffling around my sewing room all week and the June Taylor ruler I won from Moda merged together and the song title became obvious! Something simple, like Ring Around the Rosies! Woo hoo, I was ready for sewing - fabric, theme, and tools were all set to go.I cut four squares of blue, four squares of pink, a rose print for the center and borders and used my ruler to cut the squares out. (ignore the fact that the one pink square looks like a different color, because it wasn't! These are the squares you have left after cutting with the special ruler. I started out with a piece of fabric 20 x 20 inches
After cutting the smaller squares and sewing back together my piece measured 12 1/2 inches! I thought about making a pillow, but decided on a small quilt for a table topper or wall.
And here is the finished quilt, complete with some accent beading. I had a hard time with the binding, there wasn't enough of the blue fabric or the roses, which would have been my top two choices. I was really pleased with how the pink looked after I had it on, though.
I've been making stacks of triangles for Ann's quilt. I hope to have the top for this one done early next week. I think I'm about halfway done now.
Don't they look nice all together?
I also finished 15 of these this week. Only 85 left to go :/ Trying to keep a positive attitude, but I want to get this project finished soon! With any luck I'll have 35 more done by next Saturday. I also finished up the T-Shirt quilt! I'll take pictures tomorrow and show it - it really deserves it's own post!

Hope you have a good quilting week - don't forget to check out the Home Sweet Home Quilt along! If you need me to send you a pdf of my block instructions, let me know, and I still have more of the houses to give away if you want one make sure to let me know.

Enjoy!

Pamela

Home Sweet Home Quilt - A - Long

2012-01-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Are you ready to make a really fun house block?

I was pretty excited to be asked to join in on this Quilt- A - Long and I had just the block in mind to create, so I hope you enjoy it! It looks a lot like my house (not that it really sits right on the bay, but who says it can't in my quilt block?

I know there are a lot of little pieces, but they all go together super easily to make this cute little house block. You can download the full printed instructions here. I've even included a paper piecing pattern for the house itself, so if you would prefer to work on it that way you can. If you want to learn how to paper piece see this Tutorial on Connected Threads. Oh, and when you finish your block, come show us on our flickr group!

I also have a couple of little goodies you can get, but join me at the end of this post for the details.

So.... let's get started on our House by the Bay!

You need a lot of pieces for the house block, but they are small so it really won't take too much fabric! You'll need 6 - 1 x 2 1/2 inch pieces, 4 - 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch pieces, 2 - 1 1/2 inch squares, 2 - 1 x 2 inch pieces, 1 - 1 1/2 x 1, and 2 - 1 x 6 1/2 inch strips for the house itself. I used white for my first house, then a fun blue stripe for my blog version!

Then you will need 2 - 2 x 2 inch, 2 - 1 1/2 x 2 1/2, and 1 - 1 1/2 x 2 inch pieces for the windows. Yellow is a nice window color.

For the roof you will need a 2 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch piece and a 1 1/2 x 2 inch piece. I had a nice brown piece that looks like shingles for this one.

A nice door - I picked a red one - 1 1/2 x 2 1/2.

Blue for the sky - you'll need 2 squares 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, one strip 2 1/2 x 8 1/2, one strip 4 1/2 x 8 1/2, and one strip 4 1/2 x 2 1/2.

A piece of green for the hill, or brown rocks, or how about a sand dune? Just one 2 1/2 x 10 1/2 piece will work for this.

And water for your bay - 2 1/2 x 12 1/2.

Now for the sewing! It all goes together in sections, so it won't take long!

For the roof, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the 2 1/2 inch squares of sky. Sew these to the sides of your big roof piece:

Trim away the extra fabric 1/4 inch from the seam. Press your seams toward the roof, then add your first 1 x 6 1/2" house strip to the bottom:

Sew a 1 1/x x 1 house piece to the bottom of the 1 1/2 x 2 window. Then add a 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 house section to each side of the window, then add a 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 window to each side, and finish with a 1 x 2 1/2 house section on the ends, so you finish with a strip like this:

And sew it to your roof!

Now, take your 1 1/2 inch house squares, draw a diagonal line on them and sew them just like the big roof! Trim and press and add the last two 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 house pieces to the side like this:

Sew it the bottom of the house, then add the second 1 x 6 1/2 inch strip - almost done now!

Sew a 1 x 2 house strip to the bottom of each 2 x 2 window square. Set aside. Now sew a 1 x 2 1/2 strip to each side of the door piece, add the windows (house strip toward the bottom) and the last 1 x 2 1/2 inch strips. Press seams.
Add to bottom of house - the hard part is done!

Sew the 2 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch sky strip to the left side, and the 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 to the right side of the house.

There's a little trick to the hill - with your 10 1/2 hill piece right side up on the bottom place your sky piece right side down at a 90 degree angle so you can sew the angle - like this:

Mark your line, sew, trim and press. Add to the bottom of your house and sky unit:

For the big finish, add your 2 1/2 x 12 1/2 strip of water to the bottom! Stand back and admire!

If you are worried about whether your house block will be accurate in size wait to cut your 2 1/2 x 8 sky piece and 2 1/2 x 12 1/2 water piece until the house is done. Then you can easily adjust the size of these pieces to make your block come out to 12 1/2 inches, sometimes it's nice to have that little "fudge" factor!

Don't forget to upload your picture to the flickr group!

So on to the surprise bonus' I promised! Do you EQ? I designed this block in EQ7, so if you do use EQ7 I would be glad to send you the project file for this - just let me know and I'll e-mail it to you! I'd love to see your EQ7 project using my block, too, so show it to me and I'll post it here on my blog!For the second Freebie, I have a couple of strips with these cute houses and trees that were left over from another project. I thought they were perfect for this Quilt - A - Long, so if you would like one of these little houses, just leave a comment. I think there are 16 of the houses altogether, so if I get more than 16 interested I'll have to do a little drawing. If there are less, then I will just divide them up among those interested. I think the strips are about 4 inches tall or so.

Project Quilting 3:1 Architectural Elements

2012-01-15T10:54:00.000-08:00

I was excited about this challenge because I knew immediately that I would choose an inspiration piece from my Paris photos, little did I realize how hard it would be to choose one (and find time to actually complete the piece)!At first I wanted to make a piece using Notre Dame as inspiration, but as the week sped past I realized I did not have time to do justice to that project right now, but it will have to go in my "someday" list. Then I started looking for something a little more realistic with the amount of time I had to work with. I decided that this picture of the underside of the Arche de Triomphe would be just the ticket. At first I planned on doing nine squares, but piecing all those strips on took longer than I thought, so ended up settling for just a little 4 square quilt.
I dug through my stash for some nice tans and happened across that nice brown stripe that I thought would work perfectly for my dark strips. The small center blocks were a fabric that I loved and had just a little strip left, but enough for this quilt! The inner and outer light strips are the same fabric, and I used a brown print for my dividing strip and binding.
Isn't the backing perfect? It really reminds me of the inspiration photo!
I love the way the yo-yos worked for my flowers. I made them early Saturday morning and sewed them on half asleep because I had to go to a Dance Competition for my daughter and wanted to finish and post my entry so I didn't miss the deadline.
I would love to do this project larger and add pretty quilted borders to mimic the detailing in the arches. This was a really fun project to make - if you look at the flickr group there are lots more fabulous entries! Check them out and leave some comments - it's always fun to see what other people think of your work.

Have a productive week!

Pamela

First Free Motion Stippling

2012-01-08T23:19:00.001-08:00

While I was putting things away from yesterdays class, I took some pictures of my first effort at free motion stippling so I could share it here. I thought it would be fun to also show you how pretty it looks hanging in my front room before I start criticizing it too much! The walls are a lovely gray/lavender shade that I just love. The quilt looks perfect hanging in this spot and I really enjoy looking at it. It's so heavily quilted that it lays quite flat. The blocks were made for me in a secret sister swap probably about 15 years ago and I quilted it back in 1992.I studied some you-tube videos and read all the books I could find and jumped in to machine quilt this little top. I used monofilament in the top, and a soft grey color cotton thread in the bobbin and quilted the heck out of this little quilt! Can you see the crazy looking quilting. Definitely no consistancy to the quilting. Lots of funny pointy spots and crossing over lines. Big loops, little loops. But you know what? It doesn't really matter. I still love this quilt and am proud to display it!

See the little blank square above the lighthouse block? I meant to make that into a signature square, but was so excited to quilt it that I forgot. Isn't that funny? I sure wasn't going to take out the quilting so I could write in it, so decided to leave it as is, and have to really look hard to find it every time I tell the story! I guess the moral of the story is, to just have fun - enjoy your projects and the process of learning new skills. I sure do!

Pamela

Free Motion Quilting and Charming Hearts

2012-01-07T22:09:00.000-08:00

Today was a busy day. I taught a free-motion quilting class. It was fun, and I enjoyed encouraging my seven students in their attempts at mastering some basic free-motion. I know how hard it is when you first start and think that it all looks so bad. They all did quite well, the machines were pretty well behaved (yahoo!) and I hope they will continue to practice and move forward in their skills!

I showed them my first attempt at stippling and it is truly horrible! Much of it looks like scribbling with thread. I'll have to take some pictures of it before I hang it back up so I can share with you! Nothing like looking at one of your first attempts at something to make you realize how far you have come.I finished these table runners this week as sample for my Charming Hearts pattern. Am still refining the instructions, but should be able to get that listed on Etsy sometime this week. I am getting faster at writing the patterns, but it's still a struggle. Hopefully later this year will be upgrading my laptop and that will make an improvement for me in the illustrations.
Here is the quilt I finished for a customer before Christmas. Isn't it pretty? I like how the quilting came out - I did outlining around the animals and Noah and the Ark. Then I drew the lines in the border and stitched those with the walking foot. I used white thread on the back as well as the front, and was a little concerned about how it would look.

I think it looks great! Love the contrast and how it brought out the design. I didn't really mean for my waves at the bottom to align with the ones at the top, but it worked out well also. I enjoyed working on this one, definitely a cute little quilt. The customer supplied the backing as well as the fluffy poly batting. I don't usually choose the fluffy batts, but they are nice for baby quilts, very cuddly and soft.

I'm excited about Project Quilting starting tomorrow! Last year I didn't participate because we were preparing for my daughters wedding, but this year I am ready to make some fun quilts. Cannot wait to see what the first challenge is going to be tomorrow. Stay tuned and you'll get to see my work in progress! Maybe you might want to join in on the fun, too!

The Postman rings.....

2012-01-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

I had a bounty of fun stuff arriving in my mailbox last month, and though I took pictures I never got around to blogging about them! One of the best arrivals was a prize I won in the 12 Moda Days of Christmas Giveaway - I won the second day prize. I received a fun looking box in the mail, all taped up with Moda tape - I received a June Taylor Ruler for cutting twisted squares in different sizes (Twist and Stitch) and four charm packs of moda solids! I am really excited to create something special with these - right now I am thinking a fun holiday apron with a decorative band of the blocks cut from these fabrics at the bottom. Unfortunately the holidays are past so this might fall down to the bottom of my to do list. Or not. I'm itching to dig into this project right now!

Another fun little item arrived, I purchased some fabric for a mystery project - am not saying what it's for, but it's going to be a lot of fun!And I ordered some scrap packs from Fabric Depot for making some bags. I was so elated to see that I got selvages! Double bonus! I've trimmed the selvages off the bottom set and am working those up into a strata that I will quilt and make (hopefully) a large carry on bag out of. The rest will have to wait a bit, my plate is full at the moment and I need to do some crossing out of items before I can start any new projects. But I might sneak in a little selvage project or two in between other things...just because!
Hope your year is off to a good start and you don't feel as overwhelmed as I do. I started a list of projects (see 2012 list at the top of my blog) and feel a little bit in over my head at the moment - too many projects, too little time. One step at a time, I guess, and it will get all done! I'm not taking on any large projects for anyone else at this time, so that should help me to make some headway on my list. That and a little caffeine.

Off to the sewing machine!

Pamela

Really?

2011-12-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

I absolutely cannot believe that December is almost gone and I have only posted once all month! I guess it was a pretty hectic month, but I had not realized how quickly it went by. Of course all the fun Christmas stuff does make that happen, but I also was working my little sewing and quilting tail off (if only...).

I finished this Dresden Plate Quilt and was happily surprised at how easy a King size quilt actually was to maneuver under the Juki's oversized throat. Yay - now I won't be afraid to attempt quilting the Wedding/Anniversary quilt that is in the works for my newlywed daughter and hubby. Will have to make sure to add that project to the projects for 2012 list! (Deadlines in March, so I'd better get started soon!)
The postal service was totally amazing and delivered this by priority mail in one weekend, getting it there in plenty of time for Christmas (whew).
I finished and mailed a 23 pound box of wonderful bags and journals and tags.... to my favorite lady Margie!

It is so much fun working with her - she has excellent taste in fabrics and is always so encouraging and sweet. I have met some wonderful friends through Etsy, and Margie is definitely tops in my list!

I also have hosted a Bunco Party in my home, helped but on a Christmas Luncheon for about 80 lovely ladies, did some hurry-up alterations, cleaned and decorated my home and traveled to the North Pole! (Via the Polar Express from Mount Hood Railroad) I've had fun with my family, and walked a few miles on the track with my husband - another one of those fitness goals!

We were supposed to have more family for this weekend, but unfortunately a stomach bug on their end stopped those plans, so I guess I get to do some sewing and maybe clean up my sewing room a bit. Should be a good way to end the old year and start the new one! I'll be making my list of goals for the year along the way, I have lots of quilts in the works that need to be finished and new ideas to try out. I'll put my list on a page so I can refer to it and see how I am getting along on all my various projects - I'll try to update regularly with progress reports!

Last but not least, my necktie quilt was featured on the Selvage Blog today - now I feel like a real celebrity! Thanks to Karen for sharing - I love your blog and am honored to find a place on it. Karen has an Etsy shop as well: KarenGriskaQuilts. I love her Amish inspired quilts, such lovely colors against black. This one is my favorite - wish I could touch it, I love silks!
Thanks for allowing me to share my life with all of you this year! I hope that I've been a little inspiring, and maybe entertaining along the way. I'm just blessed to be able to keep this little journal of my life and work as a quilter and seamstress, and I appreciate every one of you for following my little blog!

Blessings, Joy, and Peace to all!

Pamela

More Projects in the Works

2011-12-01T23:07:00.000-08:00

I've been busy sewing up some special orders this week, I have a large quilt to get finished before Christmas, but I need to get these done before I can focus on that. This is a Personal Organizer. It holds a small notepad and has pockets for receipts and coupons.
This one (sorry the picture ended up sideways!) is an Organizer. It holds a larger notepad, and has a pocket for more stuff. It closes with a button and ribbon. I made it using a pair of small panels with encouraging words about Breast Cancer.
This is one of three clutch purses. I had to do a little drafting because the pattern called for a frame that was square. Sewing through all those little holes is a bit of a challenge, but I love the way it looks! If you look closely you can see the little pocket at the bottom - the little curve tab covers the snap that closes it. So cute!
This and That. This pattern wasn't a big hit with me. Sewing the binding around the bottom is a great big pain and looks sloppy on the bottom no matter what you do. Definitely not my favorite organizer. I'll be making one over the weekend that I will share with you that I absolutely love -
This is the Find It Fast organizer. Its absolutely awesome, and this one is done with laminate for the outside. I think it makes it even more awesome and you can take it out in the rain, or spill coffee on it without making a huge mess (not that you really want to, but you could...)
Happy stitching! Hope you are working on some fun projects, too!

My First Quilt

2011-11-26T14:33:00.000-08:00

My quilting journey has been a long one, I've had a needle and thread in my hand since I can remember. I started out sewing doll clothes, graduated to making most of my own clothing by the time I was in high school. My mom passed her love of sewing on to me, and taught me most of what I needed to know! I took home ec. in school, also, and was lucky enough to have teachers that were encouraging and pushed me to go further, and do quality work. In my teens I made myself a pieced comforter from scrap fabrics and pieces purchased from the sears catalog (there were lots of places that sold fabric in the 70's that don't anymore). It was made out of rectangles set like bricks with the seams alternating every other row. It was filled with a double layer of poly batting, then pillowcased with a sheet for the backing. No binding makes a quickie quilt! I used this on my bed through high school and took it with me when I got married. It was used as a bed quilt, as a couch quilt, and a kid quilt. Not sure what happened to it, but I would love to find it and look at all the fabrics again, it really was a sampler of my life.

My next quilt was one for a double bed and it was made out of pre-cut squares from percale sheets. My mom and I bought a couple sets and swapped colors so we had our favorites. Mine was browns and blues. I pieced the top and tied it with the usual two layers of batting and a pillowcase edge again. We used this for many years, and still have it, it's so soft and lovely to snuggle in! Not a work of art, but it kept us cozy and warm!

My first real quilt was this one:
I made this in 1986 when I was pregnant with my fourth daughter. You can't tell from this view because the background is a small floral with a white background and blue flowers! Not the best pick color wise, but we were kind of hoping for a little boy! The pattern was from Woman's Day magazine, I believer. All the pieces were cut by hand with cardboard templates. I hand stitched it all - no thimble, using a hope and a stab-stitch. Didn't know about rocking my needle yet. The hearts are hand applique and padded. For the quilting I used two strands of regular sewing thread! The edges are prairie points instead of binding. My daughter still has her quilt and loves it, and I have made so many more since that I can't count them all. I think I learn something new with every one - and definitely have improved in knowledge and technique over the years. How fun it is to look back and remember when I first started out, and how much enjoyment I have had over the years with fabric, needle and thread - I wouldn't trade it all for anything!

Thankful

2011-11-25T22:50:00.000-08:00

I'm definitely feeling thankful this week. I've got the Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt finished - hurray! I've had this quilt for about a year now, and will be quite glad to send it on to it's owner now that it's finished. I'm sure she will enjoy it!

I cooked a nice Thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed time with my family here, though I do miss the daughters that don't live nearby. Maybe next year we'll have a big get-together. I also had a great visit with my mom on the phone (nearly 2 hours!). We are so much alike! We were debating whose sewing room is the messiest. I said we ought to exchange pictures and decide, but I am pretty sure I would win! (But my freezer is the cleanest, since I did a big clean out of that this week and threw out a garbage bag full of mystery meat and other assorted freezer burned yuckiness.)

My youngest daughter and I spent the day finishing up the Harry Potter movies. I feel a little guilty for not doing any sewing, but it was fun! Spent this evening watching one of our favorite movies with my husband - The Shawshank Redemption. Love the ending. Now I'm ready for bed, tomorrow will be a good sewing day, I think!

Almost done!

2011-11-17T23:00:00.001-08:00

I suppose I should have guessed that I was getting pretty sick by that bit of a ramble last week. Never fear, I am well again and back in the saddle (so to speak) again!

A week of not feeling so well wasn't fun, no machine sewing for me, but I did get a good bit of hand quilting accomplished and have nearly finished the GFG (Grandmothers Flower Garden). Today I machine stitched the binding to the top and wanted to share my neat trick for keeping the binding from getting tangled and messy - at least I think it's a neat trick. If you've ever received one of those giant tins of popcorn, you know that they are great to use for various things, I have one that is a trash bin I keep by my sewing machine. When I do a really long binding, though, I dump it, give it a quick wipe and use it as my binding helper. It sits under the edge of my ironing board and as I press my binding I let it fall into the tin, keeping my binding nice and clean!
It keeps it from tangling up, too. When I finish pressing I just move the tin over to the sewing machine and use the end that was pressed last to start my binding, and it comes out of the tin just as easily as it dropped in! No twists, tangles, or stray threads to deal with.

I even did a little tuck on all those inside corners to make them lie nicely - I'll try to remember to get a picture of that later. I'm ready for a nice long weekend to finish up the binding - once I get this finished, I'll be getting started on the DWR (Double Wedding Ring) that's been waiting for it's turn!

When I can't talk....I start thinking

2011-11-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

I think there is really not much that will make you stop and take a good look at your life like being sick. Luckily, for me, it's just a minor cold with laryngitis, but it has forced me to slow down a bit for the last few days and really see what my daily life looks like. And to think a little about the things that are important, and the things that are urgent, and how the two aren't necessarily the same thing. I think I've spent too much time on the urgent and not enough on the important lately, and if you don't take care of the important, then the urgent starts looming more and more. Does that make much sense, or is it the germs taking over?

I just know that I spend more time daily putting out small fires that if I planned better wouldn't exist. For example, every week we go through at least two packages of bagels and two containers of cream cheese. If I were to buy all of these at the same time, I wouldn't have to run to the store twice - or more because we are out of one of these items. (I know, I'm a little old to just now be figuring this out, but give me a break - raising 5 kids has left me in survival mode more than I realized!)

I read this blog post today and it really hit home. I think often that I lack the contentment that my life once held. I look around my home and feel discouraged by the clutter and unfinished projects. I keep myself occupied with what I feel like I have to do, and ignore what I want to do, then whine about it. I plan my time poorly then stay up too late to finish something that should have been done earlier, but was neglected because I was busy doing something irrelevant. We hear a lot of talk today about being "purposeful" and leading an "authentic" life. I think sometimes we set those things up as ideals, then beat ourselves up because we are falling short.

Maybe what we need to do is just breath. To look at the leaves on the trees and listen to the music of the wind. To know that who we are and what we do is enough. To appreciate what we have and to know that all of this window dressing is just temporary and enjoy it for what it is. Today is a new day, and a new opportunity to go beyond the daily grind and into a day that holds joy and promise that we can share with others.

In Joy!

Pamela

A Faithful Friend

2011-11-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

Too many deadlines...

2011-11-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty good week, but I am feeling quite stressed by all the deadlines hovering over my head right now. I have three dresses that need to be altered this week, vests for the lions club and some bags and other small things to make. Not to mention a quilt to finish hand quilting. I think it's all pretty doable, but right now I'm having trouble seeing how it's all going to work. Plus I think I'm getting a cold. Or at least laryngitis. Fun.

Out of all the sewing I did this week, this was my favorite finish! It is a Travel Bag / Carry on bag by Candy Corner Quilting on Etsy. This pattern was different in that it has a little contrast flange in the seams. Not sure exactly why this isn't actual cording which wouldn't be much different to apply, but I followed the pattern directions, and it came out really cute! I added extra pockets to the inside. This is a nice size weekend type bag, no pattern pieces to worry about blowing up, and easy to make with good results.

I found a new supplier for hardware that is only 100 miles from me, so my order for the rest of the bags came in less than 2 days from the time I ordered! Very nice! I also ordered a free (with shipping) scrap bag of webbing and was thrilled with a nice quantity of webbing in several colors that I have for future projects. I see some fun quilted bags in my future! At least after I get past all of these deadlines.

I suppose I need to learn to say no, but I really need the work right now. Seems like the bills have piled up lately. I suppose I shouldn't complain, it's good work that I enjoy. Enough rambling, I suppose I should get to the rest of tonights hand quilting. Can't wait to finish up this Grandmothers Flower Garden. Then I get to start the Double Wedding Ring!

Remember to turn back your clocks!

Pamela

31 Days - 3

2011-10-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

Not too bad for me, I managed to make it through 31 days of blogging and only missed three times. The perfectionist in me wanted to post-date for those missing days, but I wouldn't let her. No excuses, no covering up - I just didn't do it!

I have been busy stitching, though!I finished 6 Notebook sized journal covers with Paris themed fabrics. They came out super cute and fun.
A reversible luggage handle pad. I don't know whether I like the blue polka dots or the yellow floral the best. Both are fun and bright!

A folder holder with the white print. It is lined with the blue polka dot and has binding in the yellow print.
And last, but not least the Travel Duffle by StudioCherie patterns. Another hit! This is a great pattern, I did have a little difficulty understanding a couple parts, but when I just followed the directions step by step it all came together.

I think I might have to make more of these! (They would make awesome gifts for my family, I think!) I love the jute handles - the fabric on them really dresses them up and makes them nice for carrying. That side pocket has pleats so will expand to hold lots of goodies.

I've enjoyed doing this 31 days (well, lets just call it 28). I don't think I'll be blogging every day for the rest of the year, but hopefully I will be blogging more often and sharing what I'm working on. Thanks for reading, and commenting! See ya in November!

Finished!

2011-10-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished this beauty and sent it home to a very happy owner! We have been working on this top for over a year now. It is absolutely beautiful and I really enjoyed all the quilting that I put into it. All of the blue backgrounds are stippled, and most of the rest is a variation of echoing.The hearts have echoed hearts in a rayon thread - I was pretty surprised that I didn't have a lot of trouble with this thread breaking. I will definitely use it again, I like the subtle shine it has!
The doves were echoed in the different sections, and I really liked the way it brought out the shape of them.
But my very favorite was the hills and sky in the center panel. I'd love to do more landscape type work and this helped me visualize how to quilt this kind of a piece.

Today I worked on a block for my Crazy Jane quilt and blogged about it here.

I organized some projects that I'll be working on next week and made a shopping list for JoAnn's. I have a 30% discount card that I need to use tomorrow, so I want to get everything I need while I can! Now it's off to the recliner for some more hand stitching on that Flower Garden. I'll really celebrate when I get that done!

Congratulations!

2011-10-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Sam who wins the banner of 7 Halloween flags! Sam, if you will contact me, I will send them ASAP - you might not get to hang them for this year, but they will be great for the future!

Patti, I'll bring the sewing kit to our meeting today!

Have a happy fall day, everyone, hope you get to do some fun stitching today - I am going to go embellish the stained glass quilt I've been working on, then off to have coffee with my lovely group of local Etsy gals.

Enjoy!

Pamela

Sooo tired

2011-10-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

Ah, tonight I am so tired. I worked at the quilt shop until mid-afternoon. Then I had errands to run, and quickly because I had to go to the post office and the bank and the credit union before they all closed. Then I needed to go buy milk. When I got home, I had to change and go to the track to walk 2 miles with my husband. This is our first week of walking together and I don't want to be the spoil-sport and be too tired. After walking I had to go home, start laundry, and the dishwasher and make dinner (next Wednesday we are having something in the crock-pot for sure!).

So now I am cozy in my recliner, reading blogs and catching up on my e-mail. In a few minutes I'll put the lap-top aside and pull this lovely thing onto my lap and do some stitching. And I will be relaxed and refreshed and happy. Aaah.

Don't forget, my giveaway ends tomorrow! Only two people have commented, so you might want to throw your comment in, since you have a good chance (please, please!)

I feel like a lonely blogger that no one loves....
Pamela

Quilted Journal Covers for Notebooks

2011-10-25T23:01:00.000-07:00

Today I've been working on an order for a set of quilted journal covers for regular size spiral notebooks.This is one of them, so pretty in pink!

Love these fun fabrics, I'll have to make sure I get a picture of the finished set, for now...
back to the sewing room!

It's All in the Details

2011-10-23T20:16:00.001-07:00

For me one of the most enjoyable parts of sewing is all the details - I just love the small things that make each project something special! Even when I was sewing shirts and things for my daughters to wear to school, I loved the finicky little details that made the outfits look so sweet!Finishing up this duffle today, I definitely was grooving on the wonderful details! Found the eyelets which were the awesome antique tone that goes so well with the colors of the bag, and I got to use some of my stash of twill tape that has Moda printed on it! So wonderful! The cording and the little cord stop also were floating my boat today!

Then I finished this sweet bag off with a giant black button and loop closure. So great!!!
Isn't the inside so pretty, too?
One more look - I just love it

Then I finished up this Suzi purse insert - large size. It came out so sweet, what a fun afternoon in the sewing room. I missed out on working on my Dear Jane blocks today, but I'll do those over the week (cross my heart!)

Hope you had a happy day of stitching, or whatever you love, too!

Bucket Bags!

2011-10-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day for stitching! I headed for the sewing room right after breakfast and got out the pattern and fabrics for this cute number (pun intended!).

This was my first time working with laminate. It was interesting. I had difficulty with my tension. My teflon foot didn't help with that, and I really didn't have any issues with my regular foot, so put that back on to finish up. I added a zipper pocket and two patch pockets to this pattern.

This one was easier with regular quilting cottons. I also added an additional zipper pocket and inside pockets to this one. Love the fun fabric in it! I also started another bag, but it's not ready for a photo op quite yet - I'll finish it up tomorrow.

Bags made using Keyka Lou's Bucket Bag Pattern. I made the bags wider and added extra pockets to the lining.

Ella and the Art Caddy

2011-10-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

I woke up today with a sore and stiff back, so I'm feeling a little slow and off-kilter. Despite that I headed into the sewing room this afternoon and accomplished a couple of projects. The first one was The Ella Carry-All. Aren't the fabrics cute?
I've never made an actual duffle bag like this, so I was curious to see how it would go, and it went great! The pattern is very well written and quite easy to make. The trickiest part was the round bottom and the tips in the instructions made it a breeze! Instead of using the pattern, I put my handy circle ruler to work, the ruler made cutting the circle shape a breeze.
Sorry, no picture of the final product - I dropped my camera :( and it keeps shutting off. I'll get new batteries tomorrow, and hopefully it will work again. For more projects by the designer go here to see some great ideas and downloadable patterns!
After that I worked on making the Art Caddy - super cute! I'm getting pretty practiced at making this pattern. There's a lot of layers and fusing, but it comes out nice every time!
One of these days I'll have to make one for myself! Now, it's off to bed for me, hope my back feels better tomorrow, I have more projects to work on. Make sure you make a few minutes to go enter my Give Away before next Thursday!

Quilting With a Friend

2011-10-20T21:43:00.001-07:00

Today I helped a friend to work on her rag quilt. Technically I didn't do any of the stitching, but I did pin all the squares for her. Two hours went by really fast with chatting, pinning and stitching! I think that we might be able to finish getting the top together next week, but she is on her own with the snipping!

Time for a Give Away!

2011-10-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, I found what I was looking for in my disaster area of a sewing room, took some quick pictures and am ready for action! I decided to have three prizes, and I will be running this giveaway for a whole week. Simply post a comment here telling me which prize you would like and I will put your name in the pot for that item. Would you like an extra opportunity? Follow my blog and leave me a comment telling me you did. And for a third chance, give me a shout-out somewhere (blog, facebook, twitter...) and leave me a comment about that! Ready to see what you could win?

Here goes:
One pattern for a Travel Sewing Kit and Knitting Caddy by Valori Wells. I used it to make a shop sample for the quilt shop and loved the results! I loved it so much I made two, so I have an extra one to give to a lucky person! It is made out of gorgeous batiks and a pansy print. It's got a nifty pocket with a flap and felt pages for your needles and pins.
And last, but not least, a string of 7 fall flags to hang on your porch or over your mantel for Halloween! (Also for sale in my Etsy shop, if you don't want to take your chances on winning it!)

I will ship to anyone, so no restrictions on entering, but you only get three chances!

Good luck! I'll choose three winners next Thursday at 8:00 am pacific time!

Trying Something New

2011-10-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

Don't laugh, but I'm a bit vegetable challenged - growing up we ate potatoes at almost every meal, and usually had green beans or corn as a vegetable. I like a larger variety of vegetables now, but feel rather intimidated by cooking things that I've never eaten before. Today my boss gave me a cute little round spaghetti squash, and even though I'd never tried one before I decided to go ahead and serve it. My friend google found me some instructions for cooking it and I decided to go with baking it, then sauteing in butter and garlic. It was delicious, and now I've added a new vegie to my repetoire! Yay for trying something new!
And now for another something new - my sampler project. This is the first time I have ever made anything quilty with gray! I really like it and am excited to add the borders, I think it will be lovely! I am thrilled to be one step closer to finishing this big project, I've really enjoyed it and am looking forward to seeing what the completed project will look like.

Do you like to try new things, or do you stick with what's comfortable? I'm often guilty of sticking with the tried and true, but I do love to experiment sometimes and try a different approach.

I'm getting some goodies together and will post about my celebratory giveaway in the morning - I have some fun goodies that I want to share, so be sure to check in and see what I've got, I think you'll like it!

I'm a Winner!

2011-10-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

I spent a little time hopping around blogs yesterday, and were there ever a lot of giveaways going on. Now, I don't enter these very often, mostly because I get discouraged when I don't win (call me a sore sport, I guess!), but yesterday I entered several just because I figured that if you don't enter you really can't win. This morning I was making my blog rounds and when I got to Gudrun's World I saw that I had won a copy of this awsome book:
I can't wait to make some of the fun projects in it! I think to celebrate, I might have to host a giveaway of my own - so you'll have to come back and find out more later this evening when I have it all together! For now, it's off to the quilt shop for work - wonder what new fabrics arrived this week? I'm hoping some laminate for the cute tote in the book I won!

One Done, One Begun.

2011-10-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a deadline to motivate me, I got the Cross Stitch Quilt all finished up today.Here is a picture before the scallops were quilted, showing how I quilted all the short lines that are all around the edges. Instead of cutting my thread, I just let it travel between the two lines. I'll have to go trim up all of those later, but for now they are out of the way and I can quilt all the scalloped lines. (See the little dots between the two lines of cross stitched scallops? Those are the quilting lines on this quilt)
After the quilting was finished I trimmed up the edges to prepare for the binding. The binding is out of the same pink satin used for the back. I was a little worried, because this stuff frays if you look at it wrong. So I handled it very carefully, and it wasn't too bad. I stitched it to the back of the quilt first, then pressed it toward the edge, turned it to the front and top-stitched it down. It came out fabulous!
Before binding - so pretty! After I get the threads trimmed I will take some nicer pictures to document it. Rumor has it that the maker of the top has another for me to quilt - I'll look forward to it, this was a really nice project.
Here's the next one on the list. It's a beautiful stained glass quilt that my student and I have been working on for a year now. The top is finished and I get to do all the quilting. The pattern says to quilt cloud shapes on the sky - what do you think? I like it, and think the variegated thread is really nice here. I'll be adding some lines from the star to the outside in metallic thread later. The quilting is doing a great job of taking in the bagginess from the bias tape being stitched on. I'd like to finish this one by the end of the month, so you'll see more on it as I go!

Time to go work on my hand-quilting now. It was a good day for stitching!

Cross Hatch Quilting

2011-10-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

Today I worked on the cross hatch stitching on the cross stitch quilt (sorry for the poor picture, should have taken it during the day time). I use my walking foot for this, I was a little worried because the top was a little uneven because of the cross stitching, but it worked great. For this one I did a little back stitch at the end of my lines and trimmed the thread ends close. Tomorrow I will finish up free-motioning the scallops on the edge, trim it and bind it! It will be very nice to cross a project off my very long list!

5 blocks in 4 hours - More Jane

2011-10-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

I know why I have nick-named this quilt "Crazy Jane" but now you can all appreciate why also. I made 5 blocks today. Each block is 5 inches square. So for an entire afternoon of work I have a bit more than a square foot of this quilt finished! No matter, I know this wasn't going to be a quick and easy project when I started, so I shall just keep on until it's finished!
This is block E-2. I had background fabric and the two football pieces in a baggie. No fabric for the border. So, I pulled the freezer paper off and chose another fabric. The two footballs are appliques, then the border pieces are simply stitched on by machine. Took me about an hour. (I'm not a super speedy applique-er!)
Looks very nice!
On to E-5. I decided to do this using a paper piecing technique, then applique the circle. The hardest part was figuring out how big to cut the pieces for the rays. After that, it was just stitch, press trim until I got each half done. Pieced them together and appliqued the circle. Another hour.
I remembered to use starch on the edges of the circle when I pressed it for the most awesome crisp edge! Just spray a little starch in the cap, apply it to the seam allowances with a paintbrush and press. No basted needed at all and you get the neatest circle you ever saw!
Block E-6. This one was a little scary with some very small piecing and lots of triangles. I jumped right in and decided to just piece it normally using the strategy of cutting the pieces larger than needed and trimming for each step. The very center I made by adding white borders to a print square, then cutting the square in half diagonally to sew with two print triangles. This was then trimmed down to 1 1/2 inches!
After this I just sewed on the print borders with white squares, trimmed up again, then the white triangles and a final trim. I thought I was done at this point, then realized I needed to applique those squares on! They were cut at one inch, then (using spray starch again) I pressed in the two sides 1/4 inch, then pressed the top and bottom in 1/4 inch also. This made a nice tight square that I appliqued down using about 4 stitches in each side! This took an hour also.
I broke from the order to find a couple more blocks I could get done quickly. E-9 was a good choice. It's a simple lattice, and I did it using strip piecing.
I cut 4 colored strips, sewed them with 3 white strips, then cut into sections. Each section sewed together with white strips, then border with more white. 1/2 hour block!
And for the Fifth block - F-4. Been looking at this for a while, not quite sure how I wanted to approach it. The measurements were a bit odd, involving 1/16 of an inch, but I blasted through it and it came out great!
I made a 9 patch with the four large triangles and white strips with a blue square in the center. Then I added small triangles to the corner to fill it out. Another 1/2 hour block and I had time to organize and put away all my stuff. I'm happy to be making good progress on this project, and if I can keep up my current pace should be able to finish the top by my next birthday! (My goal for this year!)

Yes, I'm a little crazy, but aren't we all in our own way?

Another Day

2011-10-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

That makes two days this week with no stitching! Definitely not the norm for me, but I hope to make up for it this coming week. The man of the house will be back to work, and I will not have the extra meetings and work this week myself. I did get two boxes with lots of sewing projects that I get to work on (the first box arrived yesterday!). My dear customer Margie has outdone herself with this batch of wonderful bags and goodies, I will be happily sewing for the next few weeks on these lovelies!

This is my Buster cat. He likes to sit in my lap and tries to compete with the computer. I can't decide if he looks pathetic or just plain spoiled! A little of both. We share this chair, and if I'm not sitting in it, he likes to nap in it. He only has one eye, but gets along just fine and is a sweet boy. He doesn't keep me company in my sewing room like his sister used to, but loves to snuggle when I'm blogging!

Such a life - doesn't he look like a neglected kitty? You should see when he tries to lay on the keyboard, we have our battles for sure!

Dresden Plates - looking good!

2011-10-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

I got a box in the mail last week with the pieces of a quilt that I was requested to finish for a customer. I need to get this one pieced and quilted by Christmas, so need to make sure I keep working on it so I make it for the deadline. We decided that I would machine stitch the plates to the background, which looks really nice. I used a lightweight fusible webbing underneath the Dresden plate so I could turn the edges neatly, and it worked like a charm! I then stitched around the edge of the inner circle and pressed the seam allowance to the inside. I top-stitched this edge also and was pleased with the result. One block down, 47 more to go - how many days till Christmas? Guess I'd better add this to my daily list for sure!

For a person who can't seem to finish her own projects, I'm pretty excited about finishing other quilter's. Guess it's easier to deal with someone else's stuff than my own - at least I'm accomplishing something, though! I did put together the top row of my sampler quilt today, I really am excited to get it all together. All in good time, I suppose.

Speaking of in good time, it's time I was in bed, I have a planning meeting tomorrow for our church Ladies Retreat and I want to be able to concentrate! Sleep well!

Cross Stitch Quilt

2011-10-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

Just a post and run today, got to go to a football game and watch the girl cheer, and the dance team is performing a number she helped choreograph! We are so proud, but it sure makes our weeks and days go fast with this busy girl!

I started working on a quilt today for a friend of a friend. It's a cross-stitched quilt and I am machine quilting it on the marked lines. Not as much fun as making up my own quilting, but it will be quite pretty when finished. It has satin on the back so slides nicely on my machine bed :)

I want to get this finished up by Tuesday, shouldn't be a problem because it's already going fast. The binding is going to be in the same pink satin.

Off to the game!

Kickin' Back

2011-10-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

Whew, it's been a long day. I worked a solo 8 hour shift at the Threads That Bind today, and was it ever busy! I cut fabric, ran the cash register, answered the phone and managed to squeeze in machine quilting a red, white and blue quilt for Quilts For Valor. The customers came in waves, giving me just enough time to clean up and put the bolts away before the next wave came in. Crazy, but the day did go by fast!

Now I am cozy in my recliner getting ready to pull the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt on my lap and do some hand quilting. I'm ready for some relaxing, and handwork is just the ticket - it's a great way to unwind after a busy day. Try it - I'll bet you like it!

Stealing Stitching Time

2011-10-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

I just couldn't wait to work on those Nine Patch Cornerstones for my sampler quilt, so I stole some stitching time today before I made breakfast. Back when I first started quilting I had three little girls under 5 and one on the way - I think most of my quilting was in stolen moments! I always say that I fell in love with quilting because it was the one thing I could do in a day that would stay done, everything else would have to be done again the next day. Now I have more time to quilt, and better equipment, and a whole room to spread it all out in - so it's good to remember and appreciate and just enjoy the process of stitching, creating and designing.

So - I needed 16 3 1/2 inch 9 patch cornerstone blocks for my quilt. I like to do strip piecing for multiples like this, it takes hardly any time to turn out accurate blocks and you don't have to handle (or cut) all those individual 1 1/2 inch squares. I cut 5 strips of red and 4 strips of gray for my patches. For each strip set I sewed one strip of gray to one strip of red.

For the center strip I added another strip of gray. (Always pressing the seams toward the red).
For the two outside strip I added a red strip.
I then layered one edge strip on top of the center strip, right sides together with the seams nestled together.
Using my handy June Taylor Shape Cut, I lined up the bottom edge of the strips and cut them into 1 1/2 inch sections.
I just love how they come out so perfectly, this is an awesome tool for cutting multiple shapes like this!
I then placed my pairs carefully on my large acrylic ruler and took them over to the sewing machine, where I sewed them together. Because they were already paired up and aligned it went so fast!
Leaving the chain together I took them to the ironing board and pressed them all. Isn't it great how all the seams butt up just right?
Still keeping the chain together I returned to the sewing machine and added the 1 1/2 edge strips that I cut from the remaining edge unit. Leaving them chained up helps me to be able to feed them through the sewing machine without having to handle them individually as much. It really speeds up the process!
Then they all get pressed one more time, and cut apart.
Aren't they pretty? Now I have a nice, tidy stack of cute little cornerstones for my quilt! Now I just need some time to lay it all out and sew it together - I just can't wait!
Now I have a nice, tidy stack of cute little cornerstones for my quilt! Now I just need some time to lay it all out and sew it together - I just can't wait!

Stitching Selvages

2011-10-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today I got to spend a good long time in the sewing room, stitching away! I was working on a custom order for two of my little selvage projects. I had fun digging into my pile of selvages and making a pair of fun little fabric buckets for another person who is crazy about selvages. I also made a few more while I was at, since I only have two left in my Etsy shop.

I tweaked my design a bit, adding extra to the lining so I could fold it over and make a colored accent at the top of the bucket.
Did you know how hard it is to photograph purple? It always wants to be blue! But I did a lot of tweaking, and it looks purple to me, now.

I also finished up my Dresden plates for my sampler quilt. I can't wait to work on that and put the top together, but I probably won't get to stitch that until Thursday... at least I know it will happen soon! I am so excited to see if it's going to look as good as it does in EQ7 - I sure hope it does! In the meantime, I get to work at the quilt shop for a couple days, and have some projects that will need some stitching waiting for me there, you'll get to see those tomorrow ;)

Looking forward to more stitching this week!

Pamela

Going A Little Crazy

2011-10-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

Oh, yes, today was a Jane day! The last two weeks I have been deliberately choosing to do some of the more simple blocks, but today I tackled the two hard ones I had at the end of Row D - I was up for a challenge!I've been avoiding D-11 for a while, not wanting to figure out how in the world to piece all those angles, and then having to applique those little diamonds... But after working on all those Y-seams this week I was ready to tackle this little beauty. I traced the basic block on a piece of freezer paper, the cut it out into the individual pieces. I then ironed all the pieces onto the correct fabrics and cut them out using an accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance. I started from the center and carefully matched all the corners, ending up with a perfect block (hurrah!). I used freezer paper for my applique templates as well. A couple of them aren't quite as straight as I'd like, but they'll do!
Next was D-12. I thought at first that I would applique the squares on, but then decided that I would try to piece them in. I traced each quarter section on freezer paper and ironed them onto the white fabric. I then cut diagonally to the corner of the stitching line for the blue square and cut an accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance. I stitched from the outside of the block to the inside corner, stopping at the corner with my needle down. I then folded the white under until I could pivot and stitch the next side of the square. This resulted in a neat corner on my blue squares, so I was ready to stitch the blue triangles by using a paper piecing technique. I then trimmed the squares up to the perfect size I needed and added the little sashing strips. I was really pleased with the results on this one!

To round out the day I decided to go ahead and do one of the applique blocks. This is E-1, just 4 football shapes on a blue background. I used freezer paper for the appliques, and pressed diagonal lines on the background so I could place them neatly. It came out just right!

Yeah, three more blocks done. I need to get organized and figure out how many more to go. Or maybe I should just have fun and keep making blocks until I'm a little closer - I might not want to know! I'm excited to get this huge project finished, but I know it'll be a long process. But that's part of the fun, right?

Maybe it's because I'm just a little crazy!

Pamela

Not Even One Little Stitch

2011-10-08T23:04:00.000-07:00

Nope, I didn't get to make even one little stitch on anything today. I did get to supervise four other lovely ladies in the construction of their various quilts, and we had a lovely time chatting. They stitched and I watched and advised. I would have brought my own project to work on, but my wake up call was late and I only had 40 minutes to throw dinner in the crock pot and get myself dressed and out the door. I barely made it in time! Then, when class was over I had just enough time to get home, throw bread in the bread machine and get dessert going before our company arrived. We ate, watched King Kong, and enjoyed dessert. Now, it's about time to turn in for the night. I did miss getting to actually sew today, but at least I got to be involved in the process - some days, that just has to be enough!

Luggage Tags for Minnesota

2011-10-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

Today I worked on hemming a black dress and taking in a wedding gown at the zipper. Neither project was conducive to pictures, so you'll just have to take my word on those projects, they both came out pretty nicely!

Then I cleaned house for company tomorrow - we are going to watch King Kong - fun!

Then I finished up a set of luggage tags, from the pattern I reviewed earlier this summer by StudioCherie. I had a lot of fun choosing neat fabrics from my stash for these. The reason I am making so many of them is that my daughter and I are going to sell them as a fundraiser for her trip to the journalism convention in Minnesota. We have a month to raise almost $500.00, so that should keep me pretty busy - I'm going to do the sewing and she gets to do the selling. They will sell for $10.00 each, so that makes 5o - so far I've got 10 done. Guess I'd better get busy and keep stitching!

Pamela

The Louvre Museum - Part Two

2011-10-06T23:22:00.000-07:00

******no quilting or stitching - Paris post!********

After our refreshing dinner we decided to hop on the Metro to return to the Louvre Museum. Our plan was to explore some more of the museum as it is open late on Wednesdays. We ended up in the Egyptian Wing which was really amazing, but a little eerie at the same time. We hardly saw another person as we meandered our way through multiple sarcophagi (is that the correct plural?) and artifacts of a long gone age. The sheer quantity of the collection is pretty amazing.

You know the "Book of the Dead" that you hear about in horror movies? Did you know that this was an actual thing? In this book are all the instructions that the Egyptions believed that you must follow if you want your soul to go to the afterlife.
It made us sad to think that these people thought that if you followed a formula, buried servants and animals with you and did all these things that your soul would be allowed to continue on - they had no other hope.

This painting depicts the last of the 10 plagues, the death of the firstborn. Interesting to think of the children of Israel in Egypt and the things they went through there before they left.
We felt kind of icky seeing all of the mummified people and animals of all ages and sizes. It felt very depressing, and we were pretty much ready to move on after a bit.

Amazing - just thinking of the age of these items!

And we exited out the pyramid, taking in its beauty in the reflecting pond and fountains. We headed back to our motel for a hot bubble bath and a good nights rest. Another beautiful day in Paris, and tomorrow we would visit one of our most anticipated museums - the Orsay!

Hand Quilting

2011-10-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post today, I have Quilt Guild tonight so need to get ready for that!

Today's stitching project was my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt. This is a long overdue project, but I'm making good progress on it now! I watched Jane Eyre while stitching this afternoon and had a lovely time watching a "chick flick". Don't think this was one that my hubby would want to watch, so it was a good choice for my solo viewing! Wonder how many more movies this quilt will go through? Quite a few, I think! I really love the relaxing feeling I get from sitting and doing handwork. I really need to be better about doing it regularly.

(Tried to use my phone to blog this, but no luck. Any helpful hints on mobile blogging?)

Stuck on Selvages

2011-10-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know why, but I am having quite the affair with selvages lately. I can't explain it, but they just make me feel so happy when I see them all stitched up in tidy rows with their color dots and words showing clear and true. Just love them!

Today I made a little mug rug using some short pieces - I sewed them diagonally onto a piece of batting and backing, so it was quilted at the same time as it was stitched. It was fun digging through my stash of selvages to find some fun ones. Then I decided to work on something else - a quilted journal cover.
For this one I needed to use my longer pieces, but the funny thing about selvages is that I never use them up. My bin always seems just as full after making something as it was before! Kind of like strips!

I finished up both projects with some of my hoard of Amy Butlers Wall Flower print in Cherry. Love it! A bright green ribbon finished off the journal cover with a nice splash of color. I've listed both projects for sale in my Etsy shop, if you might be interested.

Do you like selvages, too? I know they are not for everyone, but I just love them. I plan of re-covering my rolling chair with them eventually, and would love to do a valance also. There are a lot of fun projects on the internet, and every time I see one, I want to make it!

Till tomorrow!

Pamela

More Y seams - Cactus Basket

2011-10-04T22:32:00.001-07:00

Four days in a row, I am really on a roll! I'm enjoying being able to work on some quilting projects this week, though I did pick up a wedding dress to take in and a cocktail dress to hem this afternoon. At least you'll get some variety in my stitching!

Today I remembered that I was supposed to have finished a quilt block for my Guild's 2012 raffle quilt. The pattern I was given was a Cactus Basket. Another chance to practice those Y seams!
The fabric on the right is our inspiration fabric, and the fabrics on the left are my palette for the pattern. The background was pre-cut, but the rest of the pieces I had to supply the fabric and cut.
I switched out my pink fabric, and here are the pieces laid out. I wasn't too sure about the yellow "feet" on the basket, but decided to go with it anyway.
To piece diamonds together and have they line up, you need to match those 1/4 inch seam allowances and let those little dog ears hang off. Then you just stitch them edge to edge!
Once I get the two pairs sewn together (I press the seams toward the purple, being careful not to stretch my pieces) I pin through the 1/4 inch seam allowance and match them by spearing through each side. Then I sew edge to edge, and carefully press the four patch diamond unit.
When these units are sewn together, I pin through the 1/4 inch mark on the inside corner, and sew them together being careful not to stitch into the seam allowance. I stitch all the way through the other end.
I then pin the back ground piece to the inside corner just like with the bow tie block. Sew carefully from the corner to the outside point. I got my whole block sewn together, and when I finished it was really warped looking. I went back to find the measurements and discovered that the top corner square had been mis-cut. I trimmed it to the right size, then re-sewed it and the block looks much better.

Ta-dah! The colors don't show well here, but it's quite a pretty block, and I have two more days until the guild meeting. Good job for me, I usually am working on stuff at the last minute!

This was a pretty tricky block, and I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner quilter, but with a little practice it's not too difficult and pretty impressive looking. Can't wait to see how everyone else's blocks came out!

Pamela

Why, oh why - how to sew Y seams

2011-10-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

I spent a good part of today working on stitching a top as a sample for the local shop I work at. It was a beauty, but it was very involved and used about a bazillion (yep, I counted them) Y seams. It was a lot of work, but finished up well. I am really glad that I have accomplished learning how to do a Y seam well.

Since I forgot to take a picture of that, I thought I would post a tutorial today on how to make a Y seam (and I'll post a picture of the sample later this week after I can take a picture of it). For my tutorial I thought I would show the traditional way of stitching a Bow Tie Block. You can see a lot of these on the Internet, but they are mostly made using squares and triangles. I learned how to make it using templates and Y seams.

First of all you need to make your templates. You can use stiff cardboard, but I like the template plastic. I used the pattern for Magic Circle/Bowtie from the Complete Quilters Guide. (This is a wonderful book, well worth owning, though it's not new) You can find a pattern online here: -it's a 12 inch block. Mine is a 6 inch pattern.
After you have your templates finished, you need to mark your fabric. Mark two bowties and a knot on your main fabric, and two bowtie background pieces. Cut them out with your scissors, just for traditions sake!
Mark your pieces 1/4 inch from the edges - I just mark the light fabric and always sew with this side up. You will sew the center square to each of the bow tie sections - start with the white ones, and sew from one dot to the next, not stitching into the seam allowances.

Add the two print sections to the center, this time I sew on the square knot section, stitching between the previously stitched lines and not stitching into the seam allowances. I like to backtack at each end, to secure the stitching, but am very careful not to stitch beyond the first stitching lines.
Finally stitch the short seams from the center square to the outside edges. I prefer to sew from the marked dot out to the outside edge of the block. This way any excess fabric doesn't end up bunching in the Y and can be trimmed off when I square up my block.
Here you are - one perfectly sweet little bow tie block! I think I'll quilt this one up into a little mug rug. Perfect for fall!

Give this block a try, it's a nice way to learn those Y seams!

In stitches,

Pamela

All worn out.

2011-10-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's me. Definitely exhausted after two days of a fabulous quilting workshop. No, I didn't get any stitching done today either, but I have an awesome pattern ready for stitching up, so you'll get to see how that starts progressing very soon! In the meantime, here is my pattern, and to the right you see a glimpse of my fabric choices for it - I think it will be pretty neat. Tomorrow I am going to clean up my sewing room, hang my master pattern on the door and start doing some sewing!
Since I didn't do any stitching at the workshop I worked for a bit on one of my Dresden Plate blocks for the quilt pattern I'm working on. Two more to go and I will be ready to piece the cornerstones and put the top together. Then the hard part comes, writing up the pattern. I love this so far, and look forward to seeing how it all comes together!
Now for a good nights sleep so I can get some major stitching going tomorrow - nothing on my agenda except for working on quilting projects - sounds like a great day!

Good night!

Pamela

K-3 and K-4 of Crazy Jane project

2011-10-01T21:47:00.001-07:00

I spent my day at a workshop taught by Janet Fogg today, so I was planning on having that to blog about, but we didn't get as far as doing any stitching! (hopefully tomorrow, though my design might need more work before I can actually get to the fun part!)

So I decided to work a bit on my Dear (Crazy) Jane project. This is Block K-3. Easy peasy - just sew 1 inch strips and squares around and around until you have your block. I actually cut a couple extra strips, then realized that all I needed was the white border. Oh well. At least I didn't sew them on before I realized it!
Pretty nice! Note the messy strings. I'm not a good trimmer when I sew. I really need to get my thread trimmer function fixed so that I won't have so many sloppy untrimmed threads hanging off my blocks! Either that or learn to trim them by hand.
This one is K-4. It was a little intimidating, being that it was triangles on point, but I felt up for a small challenge tonight. I measured out the triangles and cut them. (of course, in my true distracted fashion I cut them in reverse of what I needed. Sure hope I don't use up all my white on these cutting errors!
I sewed the four three triangle side units together, then sewed them to the sides of the center square. I then trimmed up the corners and added the larger corner triangles. The block is a little wonky, but I think it will be fine once it's sewn to the sashing. The bias edges seem throw it off a bit.

Later this week I will count up my blocks and see where I am at in the project. I really want to get the top finished by June, so I have the summer to get it quilted. I am determined that this one will debut at the quilt show next September. I'm hoping that 4 blocks a week will get the job done, but am willing to step it up if I have to!

Tomorrow, more about my workshop weekend, and maybe some pictures if I remember to take some!

Pamela

31 Days of Stitching

2011-09-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

Day 23: It's All in the Details
Day 22: Bucket Bags
Day 21: Ella and the Art Caddy
Day 20: Quilting With a Friend
Day 19: Trying Something New
Day 18: One Done, One Begun
Day 17: Cross Hatch Quilting
Day 16: 5 Blocks
Day 15: Another Day
Day14: Dresden Plates
Day 13: Cross Stitch Quilt
Day 12: Kickin' Back
Day 11: Stealing Stitching Time
Day 10: Stitching Selvages
Day 9: Going A Little Crazy
Day 8: Not even one little stitch
Day 7: Luggage Tags for Minnesota
Day 6: Handquilting
Day 5: Stuck on Selvages
Day 4: More y-seams
Day 3: Why, oh why - Y Seams
Day 2: All Worn Out
Day 1: Crazy Jane

Here I am jumping in with both feet, and hopeful that I will actually be able to accomplish 31 consecutive days of writing about a topic I truly love - the art of sewing. I thought about just focusing on quilting, but while I do love quilting, I also do a lot of other sewing, which is also fun to talk about! So my goal is to show you every day what kind of stitching I am doing. It might be hand quilting, or sewing a zipper in a dress, or hemming a pair of pants. Should be fun, right? Stick around, you might learn a thing or two, and I may just learn something, too!

I think I'm always learning something new, every new project has it's own challenges, and the process of overcoming those obstacles is one of the things I really enjoy about quilting, and sewing. I am specifically working on completing a couple of quilts for other people, so I will also be updating on my progress on those projects. One is a Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt that I am hand quilting, and the other is a Dresden Plate that I am finishing up the piecing of. So as you see, there is no lack of material to write about, I just have to be consistent and do the work!

Thanks for joining me here, and I hope you enjoy keeping up with me, as I am sure I am going to enjoy following the rest of the bloggers who are doing this. Here's the little rabbit trail of how I ended up challenging myself to this commitment - I am on an Etsy team (Quiltsy) and we decided to advertise on a blog to see if we could increase sales for our team members. We decided to advertise on The Inspired Room, and I started reading her blog and love it! Next thing you know I'm reading about this fun 31 days series, thinking that maybe I should try it. Well, I just about talked myself out of it, but decided tonight that I might just go ahead and give it a try.

Wish me luck!

Pamela

Marie Antoinette in Prison and l'Arc de Triomphe

2011-09-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

********Quilting later, here's a little bit more about my Paris trip*******

After the quilt shop, our next stop was to visit "La Conciergerie" This is the prison that held the victims of the Guillotine, so it's a pretty big part of French History. It was fascinating, but a little depressing at the same time, so I guess that's why I didn't take many pictures. Plus it was pretty dark, and it's not really nice to use your flash in places like this!

The history was really interesting, and reading the guide from our book really made it come alive to us. We could picture the troops in the large hall in this photograph, and the fireplace was like a room itself, it was so large! Downstairs we saw the cell where Marie Antoinette was kept before she was executed - and we read of her escape attempt, very interesting stuff - history is always fascinating, and it was really neat to see these places after hearing of them so often. Its amazing how actually being in these spots makes history come alive and reminds me that these were real people and not just fictional characters.

Our next conquest - l'Arc de Triomphe! I was eager to see this in person - in high school my friend and I constructed a version of this out of clay for the Foreign Language Fair. It still resides at our old high school, complete with the ribbon we won for our effort. I assure you, the real thing is much more impressive! There is an elevator here for those unable to take the stairs, but we made the climb - 284 steps here - easier than Notre Dame, the steps were larger and the sprirals not as narrow. I had learned my lesson from yesterdays climb and stopped as needed to catch my breath, along with many others. The view from the top is spectacular, as you can see there are several main avenues that lead here. You can see the Eiffel Tower on the right, and Montparnasse Tower toward the left.
And a view of the modern section of Paris, including skyscrapers and le Grande Arc de la Defense. This will definitely be on my list for the next trip! We watched a video clip of some of the history of the Arc de Triomphe while we were there, and paid a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier there. The Arc de Triomphe was built under the order of Napolean I, but not completed until after his death. It is a tribute to all the soldiers who have served France, and the names of many are inscribed there. Famous Author Victor Hugo's funeral service was conducted here. Part of the video we saw was Adolph Hitler and his forces marching under the Arc. This must have been devastating to the French to see.

Statue of Charles De Gaulle
Looking up underneath - simply lovely detail. Looks like quilt squares, right?

After our visit here, it was getting toward dinner time, so we decided to stoll down the Champs-Elysees and perhaps find something interesting to eat, and check out all the neat shops and restaurants. We did not realize how long the street is (2 kilometers!) but we enjoyed our stroll and the chance to people watch while we walked! We eventually found a small take out sandwich shop, and purchased a couple of sandwiches on soft bread and some yummy desserts which we enjoyed on a park bench in the shade. It was a lovely summer evening and we just relaxed and enjoyed talking about all the fun things we'd seen that day, and looked forward to returning to the Louvre and exploring more.

Au Revoir - next week we will finish up the Louvre Museum!

2011-09-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'm not too sure where the last week went. Seems like I was pretty busy, but when I think about it, I'm not really too sure how much I really accomplished. I know I spent time working on my new pattern/project because I only have four more blocks to finish and I can put the top together (hopefully today!) Then I need to start refining my instructions. Not quite so much fun, but a necessary part of the project.

I did spend a couple of hours Sunday afternoon working on my Dear Jane project. I'd really like to finish this by my next birthday (well, at least the top!) so I plan on making this my Sunday afternoon puttering around project.
I started off with this block, nice and easy to get myself back in the swing of figuring out the math and actually piecing these little beauties! This was a simple Sawtooth Star blocks, and it went together quite nicely, so I was pleased with the way my sewing time started out.I thumbed through the book a bit, looking for another simple one to tackle and found this. Easy as pie, I just started with a solid block of blue fabric, the slashed it diagonally to add one stripe. The second was done in the same way, just being careful to match the seams from the first one so the block would be nice and straight. Just a quick trim and this one was ready for its beauty shot!

So, how hard can this one be? The colors are reversed and the strips wider, but that can't make that much difference, right? Well, I should have guestimated higher for the original square because my first block was too small. This one had to be redone. Yes, it is blue, but the photographs don't show that too well.
I'm not one who knows the meaning of quitting while I'm ahead. I really wanted to make four blocks, even though my daughter and I needed to go to the grocery store to stock up on lunch supplies for the week. I had a small square of fabric that I really liked and after a quick bit of math determined that I had enough. Too bad I didn't realize that I was cutting my strips 1/4 inch too small. Sigh. I saved them, hoping to find a block I can use them in later. Found another piece of fabric, cut the strips the correct width and finished this one in just a short time.

So, that's four blocks done this week. Haven't done the math to know how many I need to make to finish, but at least I made a good start!

What long term project are you working on? Do you have a goal set so you can complete it anytime in the foreseeable future? I always say I don't like deadlines, but realistically it's the best way to get something finished!

Happy Quilting!

Pamela

Three Day Weekends

2011-09-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our new schedule for school every weekend is a three day weekend! This was our first one in the new school year and while it was very busy it was also kind of nice. Friday we got to sleep in (Yay!), I had to run around and pay bills, and I got some housework done before we went to watch the football game - we'll be going to them all to watch the girl cheer/dance.

Saturday was a local Festival, so the girl was in the parade, which I got to go videotape and photograph (paparazzi mom in action!). Then I picked her up and we got to hang out for the rest of the afternoon before she went back to watch the classic car cruise.

Sunday was my busy day - the second day of the quilt show and I was signed up to do a demo at noon, then spend a couple hours selling raffle tickets. My demo was a Disappearing 9-Patch, plus I did a Disappearing 4 patch and Pinwheel 4-patch. Now I've got two lovely blocks, and actually should have patches for two more, but seem to be missing some pieces. So, I suppose I will bundle them all up and stash them in the UFO drawer until the missing pieces reappear! Anyway, as you can see, it was a pretty busy weekend, not much sewing got done, but I have high hopes for future weekends. I think I might like this new four day school schedule after all.

Now it's off to finish cleaning the disaster area that I call my sewing studio and do some sewing!

The Cluny Museum

2011-09-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

*****No quilting here, just reminiscing about the Paris trip again :) ******

This cute little bird entertained us while we were eating lunch in the shadow of Notre Dame - so cute! We threw it some crumbs of our sandwiches, and watched it eat a big red something - we were kind of hoping it was just a tomato out of someone's lunch! After eating we consulted our handy dandy map and made our way toward the quilt shop - when we found it, the shop was closed for lunch, so we decided to go ahead and visit the Cluny Museum because that was on our list. It was definitely a summer day, and the weather was nice and warm!

Here is a cool sundial outside the museum. Neither one of us had ever seen one mounted on a wall before so we thought it was pretty neat. There was no line at this museum, it's not really big, but we really wanted to see the Unicorn Tapestries! It was included on our museum pass, but we had to pay a small fee to rent a pair of audio guides. They were nice, but unfortunately I had issues with pushing the wrong button on mine and ending back up at the start! The Cluny museum is officially known as the Musée National du Moyen Âge (National Museum of the Middle Ages). It dates back to the 1300's and has a nice collection of midieval articacts, and was once the site of Roman baths.

Lots of neat statues and architectural details! Very warm and stuffy (no air conditioning here!) but we enjoyed rambling through the exhibits.

These are the original heads of the statues from Notre Dame! A man saved them, buried them in his yard, and years later they were dug up! This was one of the neatest exhibits. There was a lot of information about the stone carving industry - there were a lot of people who were employed carving many of the statues and architectural details on the churches and palaces and buildings.

More carving, and I wish I could remember the significance of this one. It must have been mentioned for a reason on the audio guide! What I wish I had picture of were the tapestries. They are kept dimly lit to reduce aging the fabrics, but they were wonderful. It was very interesting that they were made in factories of sorts - not all of course, but they were not all one of a kind items! The Lady and the Unicorn series was fabulous, and it was very interesting to hear about what each thing on each tapestry represented. Each of the first 5 represents on of our five senses, and the last - well we were given several interpretations and were left to decide for ourselves what the final one represented!

We had a delightful couple of hours here, but I was eager to head to the quilt shop! Le Rouvray was a delightful shop and I enjoyed my time there - next we head out to the Arch de Triomphe - more stairs to climb!

Quick Mystery Block of the Month by SpringWater Designs

2011-09-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

Dawn of Spring Water Designs is posting a Quick Mystery BOM - a table runner that we can finish before Christmas! Doesn't that sound like fun? I decided to participate, and I hope some of you will, too. I'm almost always up for a quick and fun project (as the piles in my studio will attest to!).

I had a good productive day today, not much quilting, but several mending and altering projects got finished. Oops - just remembered there was one more pair of pants that needs a little extra added to the lining. Oh well, I guess I can tackle that one tomorrow. I did get some of the pesky ones that involved using the serger done, so I am really pleased about that.

Other than that, not much going on. When I fed the neighbors cats today I noticed some leaves on the lawn. I guess it really is getting to be fall, isn't it? Here's a mini quilt I made that I like to hang on my coat closet door in the fall. I think it's time to get it out. Enjoy the last of the summer days, for fall is on the way! I think I'm going to go pick out fabrics for the Mystery - maybe that will get me in the mood for the new season...

Pamela

Movin' Right Along

2011-09-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

We have movie night once a week in our house, and we watched "The Muppet Movie" a couple of weeks ago! For some reason this song is repeating in my head this week, I guess because I feel like I'm finally getting into the rhythm of school and work and keeping up with life!

I found a new place to sell my patterns, so I am really excited to get busy with that, I really think that is where my interest is at the moment, and I really want to work on getting more designing done in the coming year. It seems like life kept getting in the way this year, I started out with great plans, but was never really able to get on a roll. So I've got a few uploaded and am working on finishing up some that I've never really quite got all the way completed. Here is my Journal Cover Pattern. Check out more of the great patterns on PatternSpot - love the fact that they are instantly downloadable! Plus there are lots of free ones, too. I've got a couple in mind that I'd like to add, so I'll let you know when I do.

Last night I spent most of the evening using EQ7 to put an idea I've been kicking around in my head for quite a while into an actual quilt and I am so loving it! Can't wait to choose some fabrics tomorrow and actually do some sewing (and writing instructions!) It's been a while since I was actually this enthusiastic about a quilting project, so it feels really great. Today I am finishing up a few odds and ends so I can be ready for some concentrated sewing.

Here is a little teaser - it's not the whole project, just a taste!

The Louvre Museum - Part One

2011-09-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

Bright and early we got up on Wednesday so we could tackle one of the most famous Museums in the world. Armed with our audio tour (and the headphones!) we set off. Having done our research, we knew the quickest way to enter the museum without having to stand in line (you can access an entrance in the Metro station), but once we were in came the task of figuring out where we were and where we wanted to be, as the exhibits had been moved around since our audio guide was made! Since the guide couldn't be skipped forward or backward we decided to listen as we looked and hope to catch up. We looked at lots of old statues, eventually finding our way to one of our "must see" sights - the Venus de Milo. Apparently it's on everyone's list so there was a sea of people around her. We very much enjoyed the added insights from the recording - we now know exactly what contrapposto is (counterpose) and why it is important! We learned that she is made from two pieces of marble and how she is a study in contrasts. It was so fun to look at this beautiful work while listening to why it is important and so interesting!

Further along we were introduced to another one of the important ladies of the Louvre - the Winged Victory of Samothrace. I really loved this one, and it wasn't as crowded here. We were able to walk around at our leaisure and study the beauty of this one! I wonder what kind of a face this lady had? Fierce and proud, I think! The third grand lady of the Louvre is the Mona Lisa. Now that was a crowd! Mona Lisa has an entire large wall in the midst of a huge room. The crowd starts at the back, then you work your way forward to the front for your look, then to the sides and out. We just stood to the side, I figured I could see it better in a book and we didn't want to spend an hour on one painting when there were so many more to see!

Founded over 200 years ago. Our country is so young in comparison!

The crown jewels of France! Beautiful, but not easy to get in a photograph.

We saw many wonderful paintings including The Wedding at Cana. There was a wonderful discussion of this on the audio guide, telling the story of who is who in the painting and discussing the various perspectives of the people in this. There were several paintings that were discussed in detail and it really added to our enjoyment of the art. The Raft of the Medusa was another one we really enjoyed. I'm not sure what this one is, but I liked it enough to get a picture!

With over 35,00 works of art you can never see it all in one day, so once we finished our audio tour, we looked around for a bit, then decided to leave until later in the evening (we chose Wednesday for our visit because we knew we would be able to return in the evening). We sat for a bit in the Tuilleries Garden and just enjoyed the nice day - the sun was out and it was a perfect day!
Look at all the neat statues on the outside of the building!
And the big Ferris Wheel. Didn't ever get time to do that, though.But of course there is time for lunch - Jambon et Fromage (ham and cheese) with a cafe creme. Sitting on a park bench behind Notre Dame enjoying a summer day in Paris - most awesome!

Taming "The Beast"

2011-09-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

Have you ever bitten off more than you could chew? I definitely did on this project. I was so excited about making a quilt out of neckties, that I never gave a thought to all the logistics of completing it. Early this summer, I finally got the ties sewn together into a circle for the middle of the quilt, and was completely in shock at how heavy it ended up. At that point I was at a loss as to how to attach it to the thin, silky sheet the customer chose for the background. I decided to lay it out with the backing and batting and pin baste it to the top, then quilt the ties to the background.

This started out fairly well, until I realized that I had a bit of rippling going on. So I folded it uop for later. After a couple months of languishing under the dining room bar, I decided it was time to pull up my big girl panties and finish up this monstrosity. I adjusted pins and kept quilting the ties down, figuring the bulk of the ties wasn't going to allow for a perfectly flat quilt, and it would be fine in the end. After the ties were all quilted I had to quilt the remaining background.
I marked lines from the seams of the ties out to the edges and stitched those. I'm not entirely sure it's enough quilting, but I'm afraid that more quilting would just magnify the problems that the center already has. So I am leaving it as is, and getting another opinion tomorrow.

I decided to applique a padded center circle to cover the gap in the center, figuring that the extra bulk was needed to balance the thickness of the tier. It looks pretty good, and did work to stabilize the poof that was forming in the center. The back is a little rough, but not horribly so.
Last, but not least, bias edging on a scalloped edge per the customers request. Haven't done this in a while, and it took an afternoon of hand-stitching, but it's done now!
This is a super heavy quilt. Would probably be very warm if any one ever wanted to actually sleep under it! I think it's just meant to be a show piece, so I hope my customer is happy with the results - I'm not 100% satisfied myself, but it was an experiment and I learned a lot. I am just happy to call it done!

School Days, School Daze

2011-08-31T17:24:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe that the first day of school is right around the corner. We are in the midst of registration, and tonight my baby will perform on the Dance team for the first time of her Senior year. I'm trying to enjoy all of these times and not be sad, but once in a while it hits me that this is the "last time" we will be enjoying these times.

My oldest daughter started kindergarten 25 years ago, and for all these years I have happily prepared and sent my girls off to be taught all the wonderful things you learn in school. How to write your letters and do math and give a speech. Finding out that there are all kinds of people in the world and you have to get along with them the best you can. Learning to be independent and do your homework and show up when you are supposed to. All 5 girls have done well, and now I am down to the last year. Where does time go?

I started quilting at around the same my oldest started school, so I've been quilting for 25 years, too - I have to remind people of this when they see some of my "collection". It has taken me a long time to accumulate all those quilts, and the skills needed to create them. It is a process to learn all the skills you need to be a success, in life and in quilting, but if you don't enjoy the journey you miss out on a lot. So we enjoy the moment while we are in it, look forward to the future and what will be, and look back on the past with tears in our eyes and gratitude in our hearts.

Good lessons for life, and for quilting.

Reflections

2011-08-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

I was really excited yesterday when I looked at my art book! I knew immediately what I wanted to try for my creative challenge, but had to go to work, run errands and attend to some business matters. I haven't been so excited about getting to work on a project in ages. I even forced myself to do the work I had planned on some journals before I allowed myself that hour of play time, but I can tell you - that picture was open on my sewing table and the ideas were running through my head.

The part that I really liked about this painting you can't see on the large picture but check it out here: Schloss Kammer on the Attersee I. The reflection of the trees on the water really was my inspiration. This would be a really neat painting to re-create in fabric, but given my short time span what I really wanted to do was focus on that reflection and I though the best way to do this would be to piece in wiggly strips, using the front of my fabric for the trees and the back for the reflection in the water. It would have been nice if I had time to piece the house and bushes, but for the sake of time I chose this barn fabric as my background. Kind of funky, right? This was left over from a pair of boxer shorts I made for one of my girls about 15 years ago!

I loved the green I found for the trees/reflection - it really captured the look of the trees in the painting in color. Piecing in the wiggly strips was not too hard, and now is a technique I wouldn't hesitate to use for other projects. It's interesting how the look of the strips changes depending on the direction you press the seams, too.

I'm not sure if I will finish this up in any way, or just let it live for a while on my design board, then discard it. I did have a wonderful time playing, and it was really enjoyable to be so enthusiastic about a project - so for my, this challenge is a success already. I did decide though, that I need one rule. I have to put away my toys when I am done playing. Otherwise I am going to have a big mess to deal with!

What's Shakin'?

2011-08-23T23:01:00.000-07:00

Seems like a lot of shaking going on this week - earthquakes in Colorado and Virginia (where my parents and grandparents live!). Hope we don't get any shaking going on here - I've got enough going on without any natural disasters, thank you very much.

I'm working on some more fun projects - Beatles fabrics! I've got some pillowcases, journal covers and a messenger bag to sew. They're looking pretty cute so far, I'll share some pictures when I finish!

I had fun celebrating my birthday last week. Enjoyed a very special treat - authentic french Macarons! A dozen delightfully delicious treats were delivered to my door and savored bit by bit throughout the week. I am inspired to try to make some of these on my own, but they sound pretty tricky. Maybe when the weather is cooler. Right now it's pretty warm and humid for our area. My daughter says it's sad we complain about the heat when it's 70 degrees. That's ok. We'll take what we can get!

I decided that I want to do some creative challenges (totally on my own, no rules, no deadlines, no guilt!). I have a wonderful book that has a beautiful piece of art for each day of the year. So every day I want to create something inspired by the featured art. Today I did this little 6 1/2 inch block. It was inspired by the colors in the painting. I loved the rich reds and blues. I like how my block turned out. I don't think I'll make a block every day, but I think when I do make a block, it will be a 6" block so I can put them all together into a quilt eventually. Anyway, that's my idea for today. It could change next week, but for now, that's my idea. I'm not going to post every day on this, but will try to once in a while. I don't want to feel pressured about this, just want to have fun and do something to stretch myself. Right now I'm excited about it and can't wait for tomorrow to see what I am going to do!

Celebrating!

2011-08-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

A year ago today I was celebrating my special day here...

Wasn't that a birthday to remember? I was feeling a little wistful last week thinking about it, but then I realized what a blessing it was to get to go at all! I will never forget the wonderful time I had sharing this experience with my daughter - what a terrific way to spend a birthday - but isn't each day a precious gift? Should I be any less happy because I am in my own home? I think not!

And every day we have to spend with our loved ones here on this earth is a blessing, no matter what. Life brings trials and pain, but how we choose to live each moment is how we overcome those things. Yes, I have worries and troubles, but each day I want to laugh, and experience the peace that I have been given through trusting in the One who holds me in His Almighty hands.

My husband and I were laughing this morning. Guess what I got for my birthday this year? A new radiator for my car! Ah, yes, I could cry and pout that we had to do this, but I am happy for a car that will get me where I want to go - what a blessing not to have to walk up hill to the store for milk and bread! (yes, I really did cry a little when we found out that it needed to be done, but I got over it...)

Whatever is bugging you today, let it go - think of something to be thankful for and smile. Life is too short to be sad!

Historic Paris Walk,

2011-08-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

***no quilting in this post, more detail of Paris 2010 trip!***

After enjoying the view from the top of Notre Dame we brought out our guidebook and started out on the Historic Paris walk from Rick Steves. His self guided tours are probably not for everyone, but we enjoyed his slightly corny sense of humor and the historic insights presented. They can be downloaded for free, and are a great resource that can really add to your trip, especially if you don't plan on taking organized tours.

The first place we went afterwards was the Deportation Memorial. It was closed, but we listened to the guide and were sobered by the things that this memorial seeks to remind visitors of. Such a sad piece of history that World War II is.

After hearing about the Isle de la Cite we proceeded on to the left bank and enjoyed strolling the narrow streets and taking in the sights. We loved the book stalls and picked up a nice stash of postcards at a wonderful price!

I don't remember what church this was, but the gates were locked! We were brought into the world of medieval paris. We skipped the bookstores, knowing that we didn't have room in our luggage for all the temptations there! We actually passed up the quilt shop, not even realizing it, but would return there later, for today we were on the way to the Latin Quarter.

This is St Severins. It is an example of flamboyant architecture. Flamboyant means flame like. Really interesting, as I just thought of the word as meaning something showy and extravagant. Words are so interesting to me, and learning the root of this word really added a different point of view on it! This church also featured some great gargoyles!
This is St. Michael's fountain in Place St Michelle, aren't the dragons great? We learned about the Sorbonne, cafe culture, and revolutionists! Lots of history took place in this area, very interesting!
St. Chapelle -I was very excited to see this church's famous stained glass windows. We were also eager to use our special passes to skip the line, but since the church is located in the courtyard of the government buildings we didn't see much, if any benefit to our passes. There was a long line of people outside and on occasion a man would come out and pull a few people with passes through. Eventually we got to go in, having to pass through metal detectors and having our bags checked out first. Can you believe this magnificent cathedral was quilt in only 5 years? This is the ground floor - for the common folks.
Upstairs was for the wealthy patrons! (More spiral stairs, but not as many as Notre Dame!) We had a fabulous time looking at the windows - they tell the entire Christian history of the world in these glass panels, there are so many to look at you could literally spend hours here. They are simply breathtaking with all the detail.
The outside, which is beautiful, but nothing compared to the lovely windows inside.
The huge gates outside the church (and government buidings!). The bathrooms here were awful, we figured that they would be nice, but the public ones are actually a little scary, no attendant, the lighting is iffy and I wouldn't linger here alone at all. We looked at the Palais de Justice, complete with robed attorneys!
At this point we headed for the Conciergerie, but it had closed for the day, so we decided to return after our visit to the Louvre Museum the next day. This clock there was built in 1370! By this time were a bit tired, so decided to return to our hotel room for a rest before we ventured out for dinner and more sight seeing. We were definitely in need of a little rest before we could carry on after the climb up Notre Dame, and it made our evening so much nicer.

After several successful meals we were ready to tackle finding our dinner near the Eiffel Tower. We had thoughts of going up the tower, but the lines were long so we settled for a stroll from the busy Trocadero to the Eiffel Tower, then on to the Champs De Mars Brasserie for dinner. Naomi had a pasta dish and I had a Salade Nicoise, complete with anchovies which I tried for the first time! Very salty, but not too bad. We enjoyed a leisurely meal there - loving that we didn't feel rushed to complete our meal and make way for the next diners. One of the best things about Paris is that leisurely attitude toward dining. I loved the feeling of not being in a hurry! We stayed til it was dark, then made our way back to the Eiffel Tower, being treated to a lovely sight of it starting to glitter just as we turned the corner through the trees - simply breathtaking. We debated taking a boat tour, or simply returning to the hotel so we could make an early assault on the Louvre Museum the next day. Sleep won out, so we headed to the metro and ended our evening with plenty of time for a hot bath and a good night of rest, looking forward to Mona Lisa and Winged Victory.

Going With the Flow

2011-08-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you start out the day with grand intentions of what you will accomplish. At times that will work, and your day will go the way you planned. I find that more often than not my days don't seem to proceed accordingly. Take this morning for instance. My plan when I went to bed last night was to work on getting a quilt finished. I awoke too early to get up, so my brain started working and planning on it's own. Before you know it I fell back to sleep and dreamed of...making bags. Out of corduroy! Where in the world did that come from, I don't know, but I decided to go with it.

Or not...I started writing this in the morning, fully intending to get some purses sewn and pictures taken, but it was not to be. I did found some pretty corduroy with flowers, but not the one with cherries that I really wanted. Then I messed around for a while, cleaning and putting things away, went to work on a top for a shop sample, cut the background for another top that I am making and never did get around to the purses! Oh well. I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles.

By the way, if you like lemon, buy some rice chex and make "lemon buddies" They are so good! Like little bites of lemon meringue pie we decided. Yumm!

Retro Messenger Bag by Ellen Medlock

2011-08-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

Isn't this a fun bag? It was so much fun to work with these great fabrics - the bicycle prints are organic cotton, so soft and a wonderful texture. This is the Retro Messenger Bag. The pattern is by Ellen Medlock and is a great, easy to follow set of instructions. Every step was quite clear and the result was wonderful. (I love how the strap came out with the bicycle wheels on this side!)
I liked the way the handle attacked with the hardware - it makes the bag hang quite well.
It was fun to fussy cut the panels for the front and the back of the bag. The Rosie panel on the front is from a t-shirt. I used fusible interface on the back to stabilize it, then just used it like any piece of fabric. It worked quite well and I am excited to try some other projects using t-shirt panels - I definitely have enough to work with!

Anyway, this is a pattern I would make again, very easy and I love the results.

Apple Blossom Fairy Quilt

2011-08-06T10:05:00.001-07:00

Crossed another quilt off the UFO list this week! I've had this top home for a few months now, it was a shop sample for over a year and finally sold all the panels that went with it. I loved it as a top, but was really conflicted about quilting it. I really did not want to outline all the detailing, but find it really hard to quilt through faces on quilts. Especially when they are as sweet as these are.
It just doesn't seem right to sew through such darling little faces, does it? Last week I basted it, though, fully intending to overall quilt through the whole thing. Chose a nice peach colored thread that wouldn't be too obvious and told myself it would be just fine, like a piece of art with brush strokes. Up until the moment I started I really wasn't going to outline. But then I took one more look at that precious baby and had to do it. Outlined the entire center panel. It really wasn't that bad, and I love the way it looks. Except for the sky. I might have to load some blue thread on and do clouds or something.
But at least for now, it's done, and I've even listed it for sale in my Etsy shop! So if you are looking for some darling Apple Blossom Fairies, they are available right now...

Notre Dame - Underground and Up to the Top!

2011-08-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

***No quilting in this post, I am continuing with my Paris Tour!***

On Tuesday morning, Naomi and I got up early, ready for our first day of "real" sight-seeing. We had decided the night before to take the easy road and eat breakfast at our hotel instead of struggling with trying to find a cafe. So down a set of spiral stairs we went, not sure exactly what we would find, but comforted in knowing that we would be able to nourish our bodies before starting out on the days adventure. We were thrilled with the breakfast available - fresh juice (the best orange juice ever, we both wanted to drink the whole pitcher!) yogurt, cheese and ham slices, and wonderful coffee! After we seated ourselves at a small table a hostess came and brought us each three rolls on a plate - one hard roll, one regular croissant and a chocolate croissant! Yummy, yum, yum. There was no one else in the breakfast room and we contentedly ate and chatted, planning our excursion of the day. I think another family came in midway through, but they were not american, so did not visit with us.

After eating, we set out for the metro, this time fully confident we could find our way. I believe this is the morning that we spotted our banks atm machine, just down from the stop - very convenient! We boarded the metro, (thankful for knowing the stop this time) - we wanted to find the Tourist Office, but only knew the metro stop. So we bravely got off at the Pyramides station and exited. We were momentarily lost, but quickly spotted our destination, stepped inside and purchased our 4-day passes. I highly recommend purchasing one if you plan on doing a lot of museum hopping as we were. Not only did we save a lot of money, but we also saved a lot of time, as often we were able to enter the museums through a special line without waiting long. Not everywhere unfortunately, but at many places.

We entered the courtyard of Notre Dame, and unfortunately I had forgotten my headphones so we were forced to use the guidebook instead of the audio guide. This was a little more difficult, but fortunately the entire guide is the same, so it worked out. We both enjoyed learning the history and reading details about what we were seeing, so it was something we enjoyed and we felt like it gave an added depth to our experience. It's impossible to tell the scale of the church from pictures. It's absolutely breathtaking, not only the sheer size, but the detail is awesome.

As you can see we arrived earlier than most of the crowds! For the rest of the day this courtyard was jam-packed with other tourists! I am glad we were able to get some pictures before it got busy - this is me, with the same big cheesy grin I wore for most of the trip. This is near Point Zero - the center of Paris.

This is a close up of the statues at the bottom of the rose window at the entrance of the church. It depicts Mary cradling baby Jesus, with Adam and Eve. It was fascinating to read about all the statues and carvings! After spending some time just taking in the front of the church we took a quick detour to check out the Archeological Crypt. It was fascinating to see the remains of Roman ruins and see how the city of Paris began hundreds of years ago - there were some signs and explanations in English, but a lot was in French, and most of the interactive displays were broken. It was included in our Museum Pass, and didn't take long, so we didn't regret our visit, but were ready to see Notre Dame from the inside!
By the time we re-entered the courtyard a line had formed for entry. We joined the line, which seemed quite long, but in reality only took about 15 minutes. The inside of the church was so lovely - very large, and despite the people there was a very hushed and reverent atmosphere. I took a lot of very blurry photos, but like this one of one of the windows. All of the windows tell a story, so one can spend a good amount of time, just looking at those. There are many statues (we spotted another Joan of Arc!) and historical artifacts to be seen.

Outdoors once again we walked around the right side of the cathedral where there is a small park with benches where you can sit and relax. As this day was a rainy one we didn't linger long, but enjoyed taking a few more pictures and proceded to the rear of the church to use the facilities, then around to the left to join the line to climb the tower! The line stretched around to the rear of the church, but wasn't moving very quickly. After seeing the lady in front of us finishing up a sandwich we decided to do the same and eat our lunch in line. The lady turned out to be from Australia, and we ended up having a very fun chat - both of us happy to find someone who speaks English that we could share with! Naomi came back with lunch - Croque Madame, and Ham and Cheese Crepe. Yummy! I never would have thought about adding a fried egg to a sandwich, but it was delicious. The rain came in little spurts, but not too bad. I was glad for my raincoat! Unfortunately the Museum Pass does not give you an advantage here and we had to wait in the same line as everyone else.Every once in a while the line would move forward in bursts. We later realized that they can only allow a certain amount of people up at a time - the tower is only so big and can only accommodate a limited amount at once. It was a nice wait, and good company with our new friend!
I was really glad it didn't rain hard, if it had we would have had to move away from the side of the church, as these chimera would have started spitting water on our heads! Finally we rounded the side of the building and entered the gate to climb the tower. To get there we had to ascend a very narrow (just over the span of my arms!) spiral staircase up about a million stairs! And then you are just in the gift shop! At this point our new friend discovered that she had waited for two hours to climb the stairs when she though she was going in the cathedral - wonder how many people this happens to? Pretty easy mistake to make as there are no signs outside!

Once in the gift shop you wait until enough people have cleared that the next batch can go up to the tower - an even narrower staircase - you can feel the wear in the stairs and your foot barely fits on the actual step! Another million steps, the stairs just go round and round with an occasional small window. You have no clue when you will get to the top so you just keep climbing and climbing because there are people behind and you don't want to look like an old woman that just turned 50...you step out a small door and look out on the most spectacular view! I had to stand for a while and just breath. My legs felt like rubber and my heart was pounding so fiercely I was afraid they would have to carry me down (how in the world would they do that down that little stair case?) Whew....but it was worth it! After catching my breath I was ready for the final assault to see the bell - wasn't going to miss that after making it all this way!
The spire of the cathedral from the tower. The green statues include the 12 apostles along with the architect of the spire. He is looking toward the spire, the apostles look out. Interesting, right? Although everything is still wet, it was just overcast and drippy. Now it's time to go back down the stairs...easier, but I was more worried about taking a tumble on the way down.
And a look up at where we had just been! 387 steps to the top, not a million. Still, a hard climb, and just the beginning of all the stairs we ended up climbing during our trip!One more look as we continued on our walk of Historic Paris. As you can see the clouds are starting to break up and the day is getting more pleasant!

"Land Army Bag" and Organizer Pattern

2011-08-03T22:41:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of making two more projects from this nice red fabric with gold bicycles. One of them was an Organizer Pattern by 4Charity. She has a very nice little shop and donates 100% of the proceeds from her patterns! Isn't that sweet? I really loved making this little project, and found the pattern to be quite easy to follow and quick to make. It has pockets inside for a notebook and a pen, and whatever else you would like to keep safe and organized. This would make a nice little gift item, and she includes directions on personalizing your notepad and covering a button with fabric (I didn't do that, but used a vintage button from my stash instead.)

The next project is the "Land Army" bag by CharliesAunt. This is a pattern designer from Great Britain, and I love her patterns! They have a fun retro look and are really a pleasure to make! The "Land Army" bag pattern has a bow on the front that my customer did not want, so I had to make a few adjustments to make the bag without the bow, but it came out great - the instructions were very complete and easy to follow. The pattern pieces did not require any enlarging, just taping together the pieces. I like the shape and size of the bag, and the way the strap is attached works very well and is different. I added a small patch pocket to the inside of the bag, also.
I liked this bag so much that I purchased another pattern from her shop to make a bag for myself - I will post a picture of that some other time, I think I might like to make more of that one, too. Emma is nice enough to allow purchasers to make a limited amount of her bags for sale, so I might add a few to my shop for the fun of it!

Cleaning out - and a swap!

2011-08-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

I've been rather distracted the last few days with doing some cleaning out. My attic is full of lots of random boxes full of important keepsakes and treasures and Christmas decorations and - well, junk. Stuff I've collected and don't know what to do with. So I'm pulling out and sorting. Right now I've got a couple of boxes of fabric scraps from the 80s. The really bad part is it's not even mine. It was being cleared out of someone else's house about 10 years ago and ended up in mine. So now I am going to either make something out of these bits and pieces or pass them on.

Do you hold onto things for years, or do you pass them on for someone else to enjoy and use? I'm a big packrat, but I'm working on it. I have a nice collection of Christmas fabrics, and I'm signing up on Paula's blog for a swap - how exciting! I will get to pass some of my collection on and get some new goodies without actually adding to my stash - a win/win proposition in my book. If you would like to join in hop over and sign up!

I'm looking forward to sorting through some of my goodies and sharing with another quilter - how fun!

What is a Handmade Quilt?

2011-07-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, deep thoughts here, or maybe just rambling. We'll see.

Today we were having a bit of discussion on the Etsy Forum about what is handmade. Seems as though another quilter's customer was disappointed in a quilt she received that was machine stitched, feeling that it was not handmade. I've never had this happen, but I call all my quilts handmade. I chose the fabric with my own taste. I make them, using my hands to cut the fabric with tools, stitch the fabric together with my sewing machine, and quilting them - also with my sewing machine. Because I do all the work with my own hands and tools, I consider them to be handmade. They are not hand stitched. I can do that, but don't sell most of them because they are special to me, and because I'd have to charge an outrageous sum for them. They are definitely not made in a factory. So I think they are handmade.

The dictionary definition of handmade says: Made by hand, not made by machines. I feel like the machine did not make my quilt. My hands did. My hands used the machine, but without my hands the quilt could not be made. That's handmade to me.

Now, because Google is my friend, I went deeper into the question - what makes a quilt handmade? There are a lot of different answers, and most people readily admit that a handmade quilt is better than a factory made quilt. What is the difference? For many people that difference is LOVE.

A handmade quilt is one that is made with care. The fabrics are chosen with a preference toward quality in a handmade quilt. A factory made quilt is made with the most inexpensive materials. A handmade quilt is sewn together with an eye for precision and a desire for durability. A factory made quilt is sewn together with speed being top priority. A handmade quilt is quilted to enhance the piecing, with a feeling for how the stitching looks and holds the layers together. A factory made quilt is quilted in an efficient manner with the main concern being speed, not quality.

Many people love quilts, and find that an inexpensive factory made quilt fills their needs. They don't care if they use it up and wear it out quickly. And that's ok, because you get what you pay for. Other people are willing to pay more for a quilt that is made with care and will last for many years, perhaps even be handed down to their children.

Some quilters love to hand-stitch and do it beautifully. Some quilters enjoy the speed and freedom of machine quilting. I love both, and can appreciate them for what they are. I like to machine quilt on my domestic machine, some people own or rent a long-arm machine. The results can be very similar, but both methods require skill and practice, just like hand quilting. Just like some people hand quilt in a frame, some in a hoop, and some in their lap. Different methods, but all are quilting and depend on the skills and work of the person doing the quilting.

I think it's wrong to represent a quilt made in a factory as one that was made by hand. I also think it's a mistake to call a quilt not handmade simply because it was made with machine stitching instead of hand stitching. I don't think a quilter should feel defensive because of how they do their quilting. I think quality work should be respected for what it is. Hand stitched does not necessarily mean handmade. And handmade does not necessarily mean hand stitched.

Just my Two Cents Worth!

Laura's Luggage by StudioCherie

2011-07-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

I need to catch up reviewing all the patterns I have sewn up this month! This is one of my favorite projects - Laura's Luggage. This pattern was as well written as the Luggage Tag pattern, and made a simply beautiful bag that would be perfect for a weekend away. It features two large outside pockets, two zipper pockets, and large inner pockets with elastic at the top.

I did have one issue with this pattern, and that was the fact that in order to get your full size pattern pieces you have to go to a copy store and have the page enlarged. This was the only pattern that I worked with that required this step, and I believe that the shop did a poor job of getting it to the correct size. I had to buy a longer zipper for the top closure and spent a bit of time fiddling to get things to line up correctly. I generally prefer having pattern pieces printed full size in patterns and having to tape the pieces together than having to worry about taking them to be enlarged and having them come out correct. But all is well that ends well and the bag came out terrific! It's a nice light weight and not too stiff, and the piping gives it a really classy look. Below is a peek into the large zippered pocket, which is hidden behind the outside panel pocket. The other pocket is a small one in the side that would be perfect to stash your keys in.The instructions and illustrations were perfect - and I appreciated the tip on sewing the lining to the outside at the top as it really made a difference in the finished bag. This is an easier bag to sew than the Amy Butler Weekender bag (less bulky), and has a similar style to it. Definitely one I would make again!

For more patterns by StudioCherie, check out her shop here.

Why do I Quilt?

2011-07-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting question to ponder, and (at least for me) you might get a different answer on different days depending on my mood and the depth of my thinking at the moment. I can think of several reasons right now, without even trying too hard because quilting really meets a lot of different needs in my live on a variety of levels. One of my quick and easy answers relates to how I started quilting in the first place.

I have sewn all my life. One of the first projects I can remember making was a sweet outfit for a barbie doll - I'm guessing I was around 7 or 8 years old and cut a piece out of one of my moms good sheets for my project. After that she was a little more careful about providing me with acceptable materials for my experiments! My mom also grew up sewing, as most girls of her age did. She never liked handwork, though, so the patchwork blankets at our house were tied with embroidery floss, except for the quilts we got from grandma. I always loved those - made of flour sacks and hand quilted. They were bright and it was fun to look at all the different prints, I think my love of all things scrappy originated with those quilts! We used and enjoyed them, and wore them down with picnics at the park, forts in the living room and overall daily abuse. So for me, quilts are meant to be used and loved - there will always be fabric to make more.

As I became a teen I continued in my love for making things and taught myself to knit and crochet. I joined a craft of the month club and learned decoupage, cross-stitch, and a host of other crafts, but always enjoyed sewing the most. In high school I made many of my own outfits, finding great joy in being original and wearing things that no one else had. I took home ec, and had a lovely teacher who was happy to teach this girl the finer points of sewing and handwork, and found some lesser known forms of needlework to challenge me with like swedish weaving and chicken scratch! I am glad she was not one of those mean ones who don't like students that know a lot already. I made a simple quilt out of rectangles for my bed, using scrap fabrics from the dresses my mom made me growing up and fabric bundles we purchased through the mail. This was in the seventies, when quilting was becoming more popular again - we used two thick poly bats and tied it with embroidery floss to make a thick warm blanket that was wonderful to sleep under on cold nights in Colorado.

I was married in a wedding gown I made myself, and as my girls were born enjoyed making them dresses and nighties, but found less and less time as my family grew for being creative. I made a few simple comforters for our beds, including a "big girl" quilt for each of the older two when they moved to a twin size bed out of their cribs. When I was pregnant with my fourth daughter I made a wonderful friend who was absolutely in love with the idea of quilting! She persuaded me to try hand quilting.

I used a pattern from a womans magazine. I did it in red and green and chose a background fabric with little blue flowers because we were hoping for a little boy. It was an Irish chain quilt with stuffed hearts in the open area. I worked for weeks hand quilting it - I used two strands of regular sewing thread and stretched that fabric so tight in my hoop that all I could do was stab stitch up and down. I was hooked! I loved the texture that the hand quilting created. I loved the fact that I could quilt a block, and come back to it later and be able to do another - finally a chore that stayed finished! And the fact that I could be busy doing something and have a few minutes to quiet my mind and think. From there I never looked back and have always had a quilting project (or three!) to work on.

As my skills have progressed the quilting world has changed. There are so many more options now, less rules about how to do it "right". More fabric available, more tools, and more options for meeting with fellow quilters! Right now I see a lot of "Farmers Wife" projects being worked on, which is exciting. A lot of people are making these wonderful blocks, learning to quilt with templates, which for many is a new skill - for me it's going back to where I started! (No, I'm not joining in, I still have my Dear Jane in progress, so I'm not going to go there!) I'm thrilled to sit by and watch while a new generation of quilters is learning how to use the tools I started out with - and really happy that the traditional methods still are relevant in a world of rotary cutters and fast piecing.

I still love scrappy quilts, most of my stash consists of pieces that are less than 1/2 a yard! I now machine quilt more than I hand quilt, though I do love both. Quilting fills a need in my life to create something that will last longer than this day, week, or month. Quilting also gives me an opportunity to play with color, contrast, pattern. It quiets my mind, allows my thoughts to percolate and develop and centers me. It gives me a social outlet as I meet other quilters and am able to develop friendships. I quilt because it gives an added depth to my life, allowing me to be creative, it challenges me to develop skills and expertise beyond what I already have and it allows me to touch the lives of others.

(please forgive the bad pictures, but I started quilting before digital cameras...these pictures are in no particular timeline, just some of my favorites I have made!)

2011-06-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday I finished up the Folder Holders, enjoying the process of looking through my bountiful button jar to find the perfect button for each one! I carefully packed up all these goodies for my customer and got them ready to go out (but never fear I still have a list of projects in process, more to come!)
On Tuesday I had a yucky headache all day long and only managed to do some cutting and pressing. As much as I wanted to play with all those pretty projects, I knew that reading instructions and sewing was probably not a good idea. But today I sewed and sewed (but didn't take pictures, sadly). Sometimes that's how my weeks go. Bursts of productivity intermixed with periods of nothing useful. But two more wedding dresses arrived today for altering, so I hope I can keep the productive vibe going! It will be interesting to see if I can get all these things done and not get totally stressed out. Stay tuned...

Pamela

Pamela

Folder Holders

2011-06-19T23:42:00.001-07:00

Worked more on the Folder Holders today, in between movies, and a trip to the store for Dog Food. And celebrating Father's Day! The movie was Super 8, which I loved! I'm a huge fan of Science Fiction, and this was a superb movie, sentimental, lots of action and a scary alien. What's not to love? Lots of fun and a good ending, definitely one I would watch again. We haven't been to the movies in a while so it was really a treat and made it a fun day.

I got two of the Folder Holders bound today - the larger ones, so will finish up the smaller ones tomorrow. This first one is the size that the pattern instructions make. This will fit a letter size folder (or several). These are fun to make, and pretty easy to customize to different sizes, which is what I am working on. I even made one that is 1 1/2 inches deep, hopefully it will work as intended - I had an interesting time trying to get the dimensions right on it.
You can find the pattern for this here. It is another very easy to use pattern that you might enjoy making. In fact, once you start making them, it's hard to stop! And I'm sure they would be handy for a number of things, maybe to hold a sketchbook, or photographs...

Stay tuned for more interesting projects in the coming week, I still have half a list to get through!

Pamela

More Folder Holders and a Notebook Slipcover

2011-06-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

I really hope I am not boring you all dreadfully with these posts on the multitude of projects I am currently working on. I'm finding it helpful, like a reward for doing my daily duties! Plus I know it will be a great way to look back and see all these projects and remember how they went.

This is the Notebook Slipcover. It is also by Virginia Lindsay (Ginia18 on Etsy) This pattern si one I would also recommend highly - very well illustrated and the instructions are quite good. She even includes the math for figuring out your custom size! I know that always helps - this was made for a 1 1/2 inch 3 ring binder. I only had 1 inch size in my house, so I hope this will work out all right on the correct sized notebook. It looks like it will. I've been making similar covers like this on my own for years, and this pattern makes it much more simple and easy. Definitely easier than all the times I tried to figure it out on my own. There's just something about being told what to do step by step that makes these projects take much less time and trial and error.

This is the outside - cute, right? I love the patchwork fabric, so sweet and colorful! One of the Folder Holders will be out of this, and I quilted it on the lines so it really looks like patchwork. Fun! The Folder Holders didn't quite get finished today, but I've got four cut and quilted, so all I have to do is bind them and they will be ready to show off tomorrow.

So, you will have to wait one more day to see those. Sorry! (Guess that's one way to keep my readers coming back for more...)

Good night!

Pamela

The Art Caddy times 2

2011-06-17T23:23:00.000-07:00

Finished up both of the Art Caddy's today! They came out very nicely - I have made this pattern before and that helped me to make good progress on making these. I think the pattern is very well written and though there are a lot of layers and details to the bags they are not too difficult to put together. I did make the bag a little taller and wider than the pattern, so had to figure out the measurements carefully so that everything would match up correctly.

I think the blue and gray in the bag made my pictures come out a little oddly colored. I guess it fools the camera into thinking the lighting is off or something! One of the fun things about this pattern is the use of grosgrain ribbon for the handles. You stitch two layers at the edges for the handles, they are nice and sturdy, and so quick to put together! These bags are very sturdy, the outer layers are interfaced, there is a layer of batting, then a layer of peltex fused in side. This is a bag that will hold it's shape with no problem!

Isn't the one in the bright fabrics cute? And the ribbon with the dots is so nice with it!

The Art Caddy Tote pattern is by Virginia Lindsay and can be purchased from her on Etsy - even if you aren't highly experienced you will be able to make this. The directions are super, and very encouraging, she tells you where you are likely to have problems and encourages you in every step - easy to read and understand throughout!

It's been a good week, I've met many goals and feel very encouraged that I am making progress in many areas! I am looking forward to more sewing over the weekend and tomorrow I will tell you more about the Folder Holders!

Pamela

Doing the Frog-Stitch

2011-06-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, my seam ripper got a workout today! Totally not the fault of the pattern, though. It was definitely my own way of thinking which was wrong, and trying to make something harder than it really was. Do you ever do that? I didn't read the directions for the side panel right and first I folded it the wrong way, then I turned the ends in and wasn't supposed to. Both times I was assuming something that the pattern did not say to do, when I went back and read again it was perfectly clear what I should have done.

Do you know what that is? Rip-it, rip-it!

But the results were totally worth it, I really love the looks of this coupon caddy! I think it's going to be really handy, too. It closes with a nice magnetic snap. And it has tabs with all the categories already printed on them (thanks to a great free downloadable file by the author of the pattern for printing them up on fabric!).

It has eight pockets and is plenty roomy enough to hold a ton of coupons.

The pattern is by iSew at Etsy. It is called the Coupon Organizer. She has some other cute patterns, too, that it would be fun to make. If they are as good as this one, you will be thrilled!

Tomorrow I will be working on a couple of art caddys. I have everything cut and fused and ready to sew - should be able to stitch those together in no time at all!

I was a bad girl, though. Didn't work on the necktie quilt today. That means I have to do extra tomorrow because I am going to have that project finished by Monday. I mean it! So I better go to bed now!

Pamela

How to Make Luggage Tags by StudioCherie

2011-06-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

Did I ever have an exhausting, but good day today. I worked at Threads That Bind until mid-afternoon. I spent my day working on cutting 8 tumbler kits from Asian fabrics and waiting on customers. Not boring, but I was on my feet the whole time. Then I had to go shopping and run errands after that. I was pretty tired when I got home!

After dinner I got my second wind and quilted more on the necktie quilt. It is so heavy to maneuver around under the needle. I am just using the walking foot to quilt a 1/4 inch around each tie, but it's still hard to work with. I am not sure I am happy with the quilting thus far, but we'll see how it looks tomorrow. I will definitely be very happy to have this quilt finished and out to its owner, so am going to keep working on it daily for sure!

After that I got to work on making some luggage tags. The pattern is by StudioCherie and I am very pleased with it! I started off my prepping all of the peltex that needed to be cut for the 15 tags I need to make. Whenever I have a large project like this I find the most efficient way is to do all of the cutting at once - this way I can have some of the prep done and get right to the fun part quicker during my next work session.
Part of the reason I really like this pattern is because in addition to the full size templates, there are instructions for cutting with your rotary cutter. This made it a simple process to cut all the backs and frames without having to worry about making a template and tracing. It only took a short time to get all of this step done and be ready for the pressing and sewing!

Didn't this one come out cute? (Sorry for the bad night time indoor pictures. I'll try to get tomorrow's project done in the morning and take a nice picture that you can enjoy) The instructions were very clear and easy to follow and included great tips for working with the peltex. I will be adding eyelets to the top, but will probably do all the tags at once to be more efficient. If you would be interested in trying the pattern for yourself you can find it here. I definitely recommend it - two thumbs up!

Pamela

5 x 7 Folder Holder

2011-06-14T23:21:00.001-07:00

I modified the original pattern for the Folder Holder to make a small 5 x 7 envelope. Isn't it cute? Just needs a button to hide the stitching line from the velcro. Will be making a few more of these in other sizes, so I will give you the details on the pattern then.

I did get the necktie quilt basted today and started quilting. I hope to finish that up over the next couple of days, then there will be pictures to share. See - now you have to come back and check on my progress. Clever idea, right? Other than that, it's been a long day and I'm ready for some sleep - promise to be back with more tomorrow!

Pamela

Lots of sewing to do!

2011-06-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

Well, they say that when it rains it pours, and it seems that it is really true. No sooner than I committed to making a large box of projects in two weeks than I got an SOS from my friend with an alteration shop. I now have several wedding dresses that need some work hanging out in my sewing studio. Luckily for me, the weddings aren't until July, so I can concentrate on my fun package of bags, organizers and fun stuff first!

I plan on tackling a project or two a day, so I will have a great opportunity to review some patterns, I think all of them are for sale on Etsy, so it will be fun to support some of the great designers there! Every single pattern I received is very professional looking, so I look forward to trying them.

And did I mention the fun fabrics? Things that aren't available here in my neck of the woods and so much fun to work with... I am excited!

The first project I did was an easy one - this is a journal cover made using a logo from a t-shirt - isn't that a clever idea? I never would have thought of it, but now am dying to dig through my stash of old t's to find possible journal ideas! Wouldn't they make awesome gifts? Anyway, this one came out really great, I just love all the fun colors and bright patterns in the fabrics, and the bike theme is totally terrific - very fun!

If you'd like to make a journal cover yourself, my pattern is available in my Etsy shop - it's a lot of fun to make, and the possibilities really are only limited by your imagination! Plus that, if you buy the pdf version, I'll e-mail it to you within a few hours - so you can start sewing today.

Speaking of patterns, I'm working on a few new ones now, hope to have those in the shop soon also. If you love collecting charm packs, you will love these new patterns - I'm excited to show them!

Now it's time to call it a night, hopefully I'll be able to post the finish of a huge project tomorrow - hope I'm up to the challenge! I've got batting, backing and am ready to rumble, it may be a bit of a battle, but I am ready to get this done and off my list (and mind!).

Pamela

Catching up...

2011-05-31T22:42:00.000-07:00

Today I spent most of my day catching up on overdue projects. I was totally lazy this weekend and didn't do any sewing at all! It was kind of nice, but I had quite a list of projects that needed finished this morning. I had a good day of working, and three projects crossed off my list. The first one was a pink dress that I was asked to make for a wedding. Not my cup of tea, but it's ready to go for hemming and I can move it out of my sewing room - always a good thing! The skirt had 8 panels with 8 gored inserts, so it was a lot of sewing to put together.
The next project was a fun one. It involved taking an old needlepoint cushion apart, stitching the front onto a new piece of fabric and making a buttoned back for it. Don't you love this beautiful peacock? So pretty, I wish I could keep it! The buttons for the back came out of my button jar - so that's two down! At this rate, I could use them all in...about 10 years!

Speaking of buttons, I finished the journal for my givaway - isn't it pretty? I got it mailed out today, so excited to see what Mruna thinks of it when it arrives! It's so much fun to send my creations out into the world, and this one is going all the way to India - very exciting!

Nothing quite like the cheerful combination of blue and yellow, I think - especially when we've had such a damp and dreary spring.

Now it's off to bed in hopes of a good nights rest and a productive day tomorrow!

Pamela

Bunco, Rain, and the blahs...

2011-05-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

Do any of you play Bunco? I have a wonderful group of friends that get together on the fourth friday of every month and we spend a few hours laughing, eating, and rolling the dice! There are prizes to be won, and lots of catching up to do as we don't see each other much except for this one time a month. So much fun! But afterwards, I really don't have the energy to do much else. It's exhausting to enjoy yourself that much in one day...

We let the hostess give us a lesson each time, this time our hostess talked about having a joyful attitude. Not just when we are having fun with our friends, because that's easy, but having a pleasant and cheery attitude with our husbands, children, and families. She talked about those people being the ones that we care about most, but we tend to treat them not as well as we treat the others that we only see occasionally.

It was a good lesson for me, and something I've actually been working on this week. I have a really bad attitude about certain things, and I've been thinking about why I feel the way I do, and why I react the way I do to certain requests. I am not always nice, and I really do want to treat my family in a more gracious way because that is how I want to be treated, right? Anyway, I am working on it.

The weather is blah today. Rainy and windy, feels much more like January than May. This has been one of the coldest and wettest springs I can remember for years. We did get outside to work on the yard some earlier this week, but there is still a patch of really long grass in the backyard that needs to get mowed. The ground is still really wet, too so I haven't planted anything yet, I want to work on the herb garden I've been threatening to put in for several years now. I guess that's why quilting is so nice - you can work with flowers and bright colors all year long.

I suppose I need to shake the blahs, go to my sewing room and get something done before the afternoon is over, I think there might be something bright and colorful that will lift my spirits waiting for me there. May all of you have a wonderful weekend, and don't forget those who have sacrificed so that we have the opportunities that we have today!

Pamela

(sorry, my pictures don't seem to want to upload today....)

Giveaway Winner - Blue and Yellow Journal Cover

2011-05-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

(sorry if my pictures aren't the best...it's raining....again...) I told you all there were a LOT of buttons in my jar! There are some larger ones, but there are tons of small ones. I counted them all this weekend before the giveaway, and thought that I better start using some of these!

Don't you love the buttons on the card! So cute! I think they would be nice on a needle book or something sewing related, don't you? Since they were on a card I decided to write the number of buttons on the back, because I knew I would not remember if I didn't. And sure enough, when I turned the jar out this morning to take a picture of the card for you it was a different number than I thought it was! If I had made my own guess this morning, I would have lost - isn't that hilarious?

Sooooo, with no further ado (or blabbering) the winner of my giveaway is MrunaMistry with a guess of 789! She was only 8 buttons away from the correct number - good job! She has a blog and an Etsy shop: Kalatirth and makes the most amazing fashion illustrations! Congratulations, Mruna, I have e-mailed you with details so I can send your journal to you!

I have had a blast doing this, so might have to another one soon. It was so much fun seeing all of you guess - and it was purely a guess, cause I didn't give you much of a clue. Thanks for playing along with me and I hope to see you back here for the next one!

Pamela

May Giveaway - Button, Button

2011-05-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone! I've been wanting to get together a giveaway for a while, so when I saw that there was an official Sew,Mama,Sew May Giveaway Day, I thought it was the perfect excuse for actually doing this. Giveaways are so much fun, and I'm sure there are going to be a lot of great ones, so I hope you will hop over there and check it out.

Since most of the people who read this are going to be new to my blog, I just want to introduce myself briefly - My name is Pamela and I am a quilter. I love to play with fabric and thread, and I enjoy writing. So the natural progression was for me to start this blog, and I have really enjoyed writing and documenting my work. I am a pretty busy wife and mother, have a dog and a cat and work part time at a quilt shop. I enjoy fabric of all kinds, and also work as a seamstress doing alterations and custom sewing. Mostly I like to write about quilting, but I do add other things from time to time.

On to the Giveaway! I will be creating one of my custom journal covers in blue and yellow with a monogram for the winner - I will ship this anywhere in the world so everyone is more than welcome to enter. I've been making these journals for a while now and just added the blue and yellow version to my Etsy shop.

Isn't it pretty? These are so fun to make!

How do you win? I thought it would be fun to have a little guessing game. Just leave me a comment telling me how many buttons you think there are in my little button jar:

Just a little help for you - the button jar is about 6 inches high and 4 inches in diameter. It holds quite a few buttons (hint, hint!). The closest guess to the actual number of buttons wins the journal! You have through May 25 to guess, so have fun trying!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you again!

Pamela

Week 20 - 52 Week Challenge

2011-05-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, time goes by too fast these days, and it seems like most of the time I don't have much to show for it. I'm really glad to be able to report that I have finished quite a bit this week, though! I've been working bit by bit on this rather large set of bags, bins and totes for one of my favorite customers. She has lovely taste in fabric, and I really enjoy working on her projects. The first one here was almost forgotten, but it was a simple one, it's called a Folder Holder. I was so tickled to find that button, it was absolutely the perfect color for the fabric!

This one was the most complicated, but my favorite! It is called Carol's Convertible Purse and is by The Creative Thimble. This is the second pattern I have made from this designer and they are wonderful! Very detailed and take you forever to finish, but the bags are so nice when they are done. I made the Professional Tote for my trip to Paris and it is the best tote bag I have ever owned by far. So many pockets it makes being organized easy, even for me.

Here is the rest of the pile - three fabric bins, a satchel, a sewing machine organizer and an art bin. I'll tell you more about those later, though, can't use up all of my blog material in one wild post!

Also, I am participating in a Giveaway next week, so be looking for that - it's going to be lots of fun, and I have a great prize for the winner!

The Possibility of a Laptop going through the Window

2011-05-03T10:13:00.001-07:00

My computer is driving me nuts today. I deleted some pictures, pressed a button to clean up un-needed files, and deleted a whole lot of stuff from my unused desktop shortcuts file. And now I can't download anything off the internet. And worst (or possibly best, haven't decided yet) of all I can't play Zuma Blitz on facebook. I might have to resort to Angry Birds on my phone.

I really do have more important things to do than figure out why I can't print a coupon for $1.00 off produce. I have quilting and sewing, and house cleaning. But I can't seem to do any of it with peace of mind knowing that my computer is going nuts on me. Not to mention that I just realized that I will probably have to save this post, then open firefox to even be able to post it. I don't think I like the new version of IE. (Because of course, I upgraded to that a few days ago also.) Does anyone else spend more time time than they would like trying to figure out why the computer is messed up again?

On the other hand, I did finish the cute spring bunting I've been wanting to make for my sewing room. And there is sunshine today, so I think I will turn off the computer and go do some sewing. Because that will make me happy!

Week 16 - 52 Week Challenge

2011-04-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

It seems like I have a lot of things hanging around my sewing room waiting to be finished. Some projects are large, but some of them are really quite small. Like this one. Just a little zipper bag, made from a couple of panels I made using selvages.

Add to that a bright green zipper from the zipper stash, and some pretty lining fabric.

And now it's finished! No more shuffling around those squares of fabric thinking that I really ought to get around to making something before I lose them - and they really make a cute little bag.

(And I did get my taxes done, too! Yippee!)

Happy Quilting!

Pamela

Musee D'Orsay, Cafe George V and the Eiffel Tower

2011-04-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

After our shopping excursion we followed the signs to the Musee D'Orsay - we knew it was closed, but we wanted to check out where it was for our visit later in the week. We found out one thing for sure - just because you see a sign it does not mean that your destination is a short distance away! But it wasn't really raining, and we felt a bit rested after our easy afternoon and thought it would be a pleasant diversion.

We enjoyed checking out the outside of this Museum, which was a former train station. The plaza outside boasts several statues that are very neat. One of our favorites was of a series of women representing the continents. There was someone else taking photographs with them, so I intended to come back later and take pictures, but ended up forgetting. Oh well. We then realized we were right across the river from the Louvre, so decided to walk over there and see if we could buy our museum passes for the next day. They had just closed, though, so we settled for a couple of photos in the emptying courtyard! At this point it was time to make our way back to the hotel and get ready for our big night out in celebration of my Birthday.

When we returned to our Hotel we figured out where we went wrong that morning, and had no more difficulties with our travels back and forth from that point on. We were determined to go all out, so dressed up in our finery and set forth, hoping that we wouldn't get soaked by the rain again or that the weather wouldn't turn too cold. Thankfully it didn't and we had a fine time!

We ate dinner at the Cafe George V on the Champs Elysee. This well known spot was absolutely charming. The waiter was the epitome of what we pictured as a french waiter - a sophisticated looking older man who was very charming and great at drawing people in. We were asked whether we wanted to dine inside or out on the sidewalk. We chose to eat inside and am glad we did as the diners outdoors smoke a lot! The seats all face outside, and we were in the second row, enjoying a good view of the sidewalk and all the people passing by. I had the famous French Onion soup which was outstanding! My daughter started with a Caesar salad. Both were huge portions and could have been a meal in themselves, but we were going all out - she followed her salad with the Boeuf Borgignon and I had a steak with frites (french fries!). We asked for a carafe de l'eau (pitcher of tap water) but it never arrived. We thought about ordering champagne, but since we were feeling a bit worn down decided against it. Later I realized that was a good thing as the drinks there are very overpriced. We thought the food was great, and tried to eat as much as we could, but still ended up leaving part of our meals behind!

The last order of the evening was to take the metro to the Trocadero and pay a visit to the Eiffel tower! The Trocadero is a large paved plaza, filled with all kinds of vendors wandering about, selling miniature Eiffel towers, and at night they have little flying things that light up for sale among other things like purses, scarves and all kinds of oddities. We walked across the plaza until we were almost at the stairs that go down to the reflecting ponds. Just then the Tower started sparkling as the lights came on for a special light show (which happens at every hour in the evening). It was like a special show just for me - as I watched those lights sparkle and glow I was thinking how wonderful it was to be spending my birthday in such a wonderful place with my daughter. I thought about how blessed I was with such an opportunity and how grateful I was for all the wonderful experiences I was going to enjoy during the week. I will never forget it!

After enjoying the light show we headed down the stairs (nearly 100 of them), crossed the street, and stood beneath the Eiffel Tower! I was amazed at how much larger it was than I realized, and how beautiful and graceful, yet sturdy and strong at the same time! About this time we realized that it was 11:00 at night and that we should probably head back to our hotel room to get some rest before our big day tomorrow - Notre Dame, and medieval Paris was our theme for the next day, and we still needed to buy our Museum Pass. Back across the street, a quick stop for crepes (coconut and chocolate for me, banana and chocolate for her) so yummy and so many choices for filling! Then a quick subway ride and off to bed, once again tired, sore feet and legs, but full of joy for the wonderful day.

Week 15 - 52 Week Challenge

2011-04-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

I finished something big this week, but don't have any pictures to show of it yet, so I will show you what I finished that is small. But it was very fun!I have been admiring all the cute "mug rugs" I have seen, but haven't made any yet. I started making a journal with one of these cut little teacher panels and realized that they were perfect for making one of these handy oversized coasters.

I added a strip of blackboard looking fabric, then went to town with quilting. I detailed the teacher, then stippled all around her in white, and finally used black for the border and chalkboard fabric. I used a bright red for the binding, and voila! I had a lot of fun working on this and definitely will make some more - I have so many ideas in my head for when I have some time. It's instant gratification to make such a lovely little quilt and be able to finish it so quickly!

'Night!

Pamela

A Good Day of Quilting

2011-04-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, today I had a very good day of quilting, indeed. I am up against a deadline, so I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did, but I really had a blast! In fact, I couldn't stop having so much fun - but let me start at the beginning and explain... This is the Coos Sand 'n Sea Raffle quilt for 2011. I volunteered to chair the committee. I provided the pattern and asked for guild members to make blocks, and so they did. I had three helpers to put it together, and I decided to quilt it myself. Just for the fun of it. Well that was before March got out of hand, so here we are in April and the quilt needs to be finished this week!

I got my quilt all basted and ready to go yesterday. I even knew how I was going to quilt it. I figured out how much quilting I would need to do each day to finish by Monday. Yesterday I quilted my 20 blocks and was able to quit. Today I quilted 20 more blocks. Then decided to go ahead and finish all the spiderwebs. Then (encouraged by nice comments on my facebook status and picture of work in progress!) I couldn't wait to try the feathers on the star blocks. I was having so much fun, I went back to it after dinner and finished them all.

They were really fun to work on! They are not all perfect, but they look excellent, don't they?

Now all I have to do is quilt the border and bind it. Oh, and add a label.

And here is a frugal quilting tip for you. If you want to make a quilt, but don't want to spend any money yourself, volunteer to work on a project for your guild or other organization. They buy the fabric, you get all the fun, and then they make money on the tickets! Winning situation for everyone!!

Have a happy and weekend and take some time for making something you love!

Pamela

Paris Flea Market

2011-04-07T22:31:00.000-07:00

One of the things I thought would be fun to do while we were in Paris was the Flea Market. Les Puces de Paris St Ouen is the oldest flea market in Paris. It is only open weekends and Mondays so it worked out perfectly for us to visit. Unfortunately it was pouring down rain when we visited, but we still had a great time browsing the many stalls of new merchandise outdoors, then the antique stalls in the Markets. There are several collections of vendors in 12 different Markets. It seems as though many were closed, but we had a good time browsing around and I was pleased to find the vintage postcards I was hoping for! To get to the flea markets our instructions included getting off at the end of a subway line and following the people going under the highway overpass. Sounded a little odd, but it really was just as easy as that! I was nervous, having been warned repeatedly about pickpockets, but we never had any problems. I had a dummy wallet in the pocket of my totebag, and managed to never lose that, much less my real wallet tucked deep in the zipper pocket in the middle of my tote with my passport! You can see that despite the pouring rain there were plenty of people out shopping.

There was every kind of item available for purchase in these stalls. I ended up buying stylish "Paris" themed baseball caps for me and my husband at one of these. Inside the Dauphine Market we browsed through antique furniture, a really cool vintage clothing store (the clothes were so small!) and lots of vintage book dealers. There were dozens of stalls on different levels and we found so much to drool over. This is a book I had to take a picture of for my husband, who is a Postal Carrier! I chose about a dozen postcards from a stall that had lots of them for sale. If I happened to live in Paris I would have so much fun shopping for furniture among the cool antiques we saw in the shops here!

After shopping to our content here, we traveled by subway over to the Bon Marche for a look at the first Department Store ever! I didn't take any pictures there, but I wish I had - it was so nice. I was looking for some special souvenirs for my friends, and found wonderful kitchen towels that were perfect, so ended up buying those, and a wonderful french book on Paris for myself. We had a wonderful time browsing the goodies there - it was fun seeing all the stylish clothing, shoes, and household goods they had displayed! I enjoyed the splurge, after all it's not every birthday I get to shop at the Bon Marche!

Next installment will tell of my birthday dinner and first visit to the Eiffel Tower - very special!

52 Week Challenge - back for week 14

2011-04-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

I have been rather busy the last few weeks - I have been finishing things on a fairly regular basis, but have simply been too busy to blog about them! Thank goodness that the crazy month of March is over and I have a much less stressful April in store (at least I hope!)

For this weeks project I decided to finish a quilt that I started last year. I finished the top, and even had the backing ready, but it ended up relegated to the UFO drawer for a while. I got it out yesterday, got a piece of batting ready and layered it up with lots of safety pins. Right now I have the extra leaf in my dining room table to make basting quilts easier as my back has not been happy with my usual kneeling on the floor method.

I decided to use brown thread for the quilting since it looked nice on the front and the back, and used a simple meandering stitch for the quilting because the fabric is so busy that the quilting really doesn't show much. It gives it a lovely texture without being overwhelming to the quilt top. Aren't the fabrics pretty? I ended up calling this one Fleurs de Versailles because it made me think of the beautiful gardens and buildings at Versailles.

I am so happy to be back to doing some fun quilting for now, so I hope to come up with a lot of new finished things in the next month or two. Those UFOs have been piling up and it's time to get them all finished, plus that my fabric cupboard is overflowing and needs to be reduced by a large amount so that I can open the door without being in danger of my life!

Here's to seeing more finished projects!

Pamela

A Quilt for Australia

2011-03-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

I made this quilt for a lovely lady in Australia! I can't wait for her to get it and let me know what she thinks, I really do get quite a kick out of sending quilts so far away. She was so nice to wait a couple weeks while I was busy with my daughters wedding. I meet the best people through quilting!

The fabrics in this quilt are from Sandy Gervais Frolic line. Very fun and fresh looking. I love Sandy's designs, and have gotten quite adept at spotting the new ones when they arrive in the quilt shop. I think she is one of my favorite Moda designers, though I must admit there are several that I like a lot! The pattern is a simple disappearing nine-patch. It was fun and easy to sew up the top and really looks nice.

My next big project is a Wedding quilt for my daughter and son-in-law. I've purchased a fat quarter bundle of Origins for this one, but haven't decided on a pattern yet. Anyone have a good one for fat quarters to make a queen size quilt? I can get some additional yardage for borders, but am just not sure how I want to use the fat quarters and haven't made too many large quilts using them yet.

I am glad to have time for quilting again, and am looking forward to some small projects for my Etsy shop. Mug rugs seem to be popular right now and I'm thinking of trying a few just for the fun of it. As well as some mini quilts. I probably won't be making any more of the quilted checkbook covers and wallets, as I've had quite a few of those around for a while and they don't seem to be selling. I have a LOT of projects in the works and really want to work on those - I am planning several table runners using charm squares - those are a lot of fun, and I have a couple made up and ready to quilt already, plus ideas for a couple more so far. Just need to make time to do the sewing!

Here's to lots of quilting and new projects - may your weekend be a quilting one!

Pamela

Paris - Monday Morning Meandering

2011-03-24T22:28:00.000-07:00

What a thrill it was to wake up on my 50th Birthday in Paris! Both my daughter and I had slept well, and since we had a pretty low-key day planned we both slept as long as we wanted. The plan for the day was to go pay a visit to "Les Puces" - the Paris flea market! Then we thought we would pay a visit to the Bon Marche, and just generally spend the afternoon getting acquainted with the city before changing for a nice dinner at the George V restaurant on the Champs Elysees. The rest of the week we meant to cram in as many museums, monuments and churches as we could fit in, so we thought a nice quiet day would be a good way to prepare ourselves for our sightseeing.

After we got showered and dressed we headed down to the hotel lobby and got directions to the nearby subway station (since we had not managed to make it the most direct way when we first arrived!) We zipped up our raincoats and headed out, anticipating a wonderful petite dejeuner in a french cafe. It was raining, but our spirits were high as we merrily set out for the subway. Unfortunately we had not realized that french streets do not meet as neatly as ours do, and turn left at the first street, walk two streets then turn right for one block might sound easy, but when five streets come together, what is straight? Unfortunately we once more took the wrong path and missed our station. We walked on, thinking that eventually we would have to either find a restaurant or a station, but found neither. We did find this beautiful church:

With this statue in front of it - we recognized Joan of Arc immediately!

Onwards we walked through steady rain. Eventually we got to where we could find where we were on the map and made our way toward the Arc de Triomphe, figuring that there should be nearby restaurants as we were getting quite hungry and it was almost time for lunch! It was a very quiet morning, not a lot of traffic or people about. Finally we neared this landmark, and I could not resist framing it in the trees. We continued walking, smelling food and eventually found a street with several restaurants to chose from.

As it was my birthday, I got to chose our dining spot - and after looking at several places, decided to stop at this one! Isn't the decor wonderful! Definitely a one of a kind place, very unusual and though we were too late for croissants and coffee we dined on a very unusual pizza for our lunch. We had the deluxe pizza - and it came with a most unusual ingredient - a very lightly cooked egg right in the center! Neither of us could finish our pizzas, and we were in awe of the french girls seated nearby who practically inhaled theirs - how in the world do those French girls stay so skinny, we thought. Well, during that week, we definitely found out!

I hope to figure out what the name of this restaurant was, but I will always remember our meal there!

Next week I will tell you about the flea market!

Versailles, Finding Dinner and our First Night in Paris

2011-03-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry to leave you all hanging about the rest of my trip, life has been a bit busy! I figure it's time to get back to a somewhat normal routine, and how better to start than to reminisce more about the trip.

We enjoyed touring several of the rest of the buildings on the Versailles estate - unfortunately jet lag must have caught up to me because I have no pictures of the Domaine, the Petite Trianon or the Hamlet. They were all lovely, and we walked for quite some distance before we discovered the Petite Train (your run of the mill tourist tram!). For just a few coins we were shuttled from place to place for the rest of the afternoon. We were just slowly going through the sights not even thinking of time, when suddenly we realized that the last train of the afternoon was being announced! We hopped on, and fortunately were treated to a wonderful tour of the backside of the Palace, and were able to see the huge gardens and countryside before we were dropped at the gates.

By this time we were quite hungry and anticipating finding a restaurant for dinner. We found an area that looked promising, but found nothing open, then decided to head back toward the train station as I had developed a very sore leg and was starting to limp. We found another small chain type restaurant (my daughter refused to visit the very convenient McDonalds right outside the train station!) and ate some premade quiches for our dinner. Mine had a very strong goat cheese on it, not really my favorite, but nourishing. After refueling we made our way back to the train and found seats for the ride home.

We were both exhausted, having been up for too many hours without much sleep and were ready for our cozy room and bed. I had a very painful cramp in my thigh and was having trouble walking, so was thankful that our hotel was a straight shot from the train station. Our plan for monday was pretty low-key, just shopping at the flea market and celebrating my birthday with a dinner at the George V Restaurant on the Champs Elysees, so I was hoping that my leg wouldn't be a problem. I already had several blisters on my feet and was resigned to wearing my daughters running shoes as comfort was definitely going to rule over style!

We happily fell into our cozy bed and fell into a long and much needed sleep - Monday would be my 50th birthday, and I was going to celebrate it by living out a life long dream. But for tonight, I was simply worn out, having walked 14 miles through airports, trains and palaces, all while being drenched in rain. Quite the first day in Paris, and well worth it.

Where have I been?

2011-03-14T22:35:00.001-07:00

Is anyone wondering? I have been here and there and everywhere. I've made 4 quilts, and 15 round tablecloths with purple edges. Altered a wedding gown and two bridesmaids dresses. Watched my youngest daughter dance in a competition, played with my little grandsons, and enjoyed the wedding of my sweet daughter Tracy. It's been a whirlwind, but a blessed and happy time, too. I can't wait for life to return to somewhat normal, though! We have one more dance competition, then my ladies retreat and life should slow down for a bit after that! At least I hope.

Life is good!

How to get ready to do some machine quilting!

2011-02-19T10:35:00.000-08:00

Perhaps if I were a bit neater in my sewing room it wouldn't be such a production (and sometimes it really isn't, honestly) but for today, this is what I need to do before I can even take one stitch - clear some space on the sewing table:

Take rulers back to cutting table

Put papers with phone numbers in organizer to be filed later

Put away misc. spools of thread from the weeks sewing

Throw away blue jean scraps from mending job

Put patterns for quilt shop where I will see them when I go out

Put package of cording in drawer with other supplies

Put away small and large rotary cuts (mental note, find hooks or nails to hang these with)

Take daughters headband to bathroom to put away (ignore laundry, finish that later)

Sort paperwork for future project, put with fabric on tray to keep together

Move table runner projects to cutting table to work with later (I hope!)

Found - 1 coffee punchcard, put in wallet (ignore piles of paperwork on desk - later)

Diaper coupons - put near purse and make a note to take to church on Sunday!

Joann's flier, need to look and see what I need on sale this weekend!

Put away new fat quarters purchased on Wednesday

Put stack of potholder supplies on cutting board

Put pens in drawer at desk and pins in drawer on shelf!

Move stack of misc magazines, notebooks, and calendars

Put scraps on pile to be processed for scrap quilts

Dust off table

Now it's all clean and ready for a weekend of quilting (ignore organizer full of paperwork to be filed, I'll work on that tonight!). But first I need to clean out my machine, oil it, and wind some bobbins - then I'll be ready for some fun!

The Fountains of Versailles

2011-02-03T09:31:00.000-08:00

One of the main reasons we decided to visit Versailles on our first day in Paris was to see the fountains in action. Only on weekends are they active, so it seemed like the ideal day to take it in. Not only are the fountains turned on, but classical music is also played on speakers, making it a delightful experience. The gardens themselves were lovely - flowers and hedges, created like a series of outdoor rooms, they were almost maze-like!

This is my favorite fountain, the Apollo basin. It depicts Apollo - the sun god (whom Louis XIV identified with) rising from the waters in his chariot. Definitely much more impressive when the water is running! Most of the fountains were only turned on when the king went by, but this one ran all the time. The fountains are run by a gravity system, using the force of the river to shoot water through the fountains.

This is the Collonade. It is hidden in the gardens and quite impressive to suddenly walk into! It looks like an ancient ruin, but was built by Louis XIV's artists.

This is my daughter from the courtyard overlooking the fountain. In the background you can see the man made lake/canal. This was used for recreation, with gondoliers imported from Italy living nearby.

This is me directly in front of the same fountain, isn't it pretty? This is the Latona fountain, also known as the frog and lizard fountain!

We walked and walked the grounds, just admiring the lovely manicured gardens. I'm sure that on sunny days the gardens are a lot more crowded than they were during our visit, but it was rather nice to be able to wander and take in all the pretty spots while we listened to our audio guide.

The last part of our visit to Versailles was a lot of walking - and I think that the trip was catching up with me, as I noticed that there is a lack of pictures of the rest of the grounds! We visited the domain of Marie Antoinette, the Petite Trianon, and I got no pictures - it was beautiful and we enjoyed it so much even though we were definitely getting weary.

I will finish up our first day's adventures next week, and give you some links to the places we visited on our first day in Paris, I hope you enjoyed this small taste of the fountains!

Pamela

Week Five - 52 Week Challenge

2011-02-02T21:18:00.001-08:00

Here is my finished project for the week. I've had the top pieced for a few weeks, but could not decide how to quilt it. I had something else in mind (snowflakes, or frost) but after I pulled out all my thread and thinking about it, decided on a simple swirling design that makes me think of wind.

I made this table runner as a personal challenge to myself to design a table runner for each month of the year using charm squares. For this one I used fabric out of my stash, but I plan to make a second one with a fun set of charms that I purchased. Though I'm not sure of my choice for the triangles at the moment. I think I just need to get started and see how it goes!

I have my February runner designed on paper, and also have my charms for that, so should be getting that done next - after all Valentine's day is rapidly approaching! Well, I suppose I should get back to work, I'm determined to get the pattern for this written out by the end of the week, and it's already Wednesday. As usual I have more things I want to do than I have time to do them all in!

Stay warm!

Pamela

The Palace of the Sun King

2011-01-27T08:48:00.000-08:00

As you can tell from this picture (taken in the Hall of Mirrors) it was rather damp! I am definitely sporting the drowned rat look, but the smile on my face reflects my lack of concern over being soaked through. Today, I will take you on a little mini tour of the Palace of Versailles. This palace was built by Louis the IV for several reasons, one was to get out of the city, and the other was to create and consolidate a center of power. Louis was one of the most powerful and successful kings ever, ruling over 18 million people. In the seventeenth century, french culture was at it's zenith and Versailles was the cultural center of Europe. Every other king wanted a palace like Versailles!

My first impression of the grand palace of Versailles was a little disappointing. We started out in some random rooms full of portraits of Louis IV - I noted that the door frames were faux marble, and was feeling kind of ripped off, but as we moved on, I definitely was treated to all the fabulous splendor of the great sun-king.

Before we left, I had downloaded an audio guide to my phone to use at Versailles. I was hoping my daughter would be able to also download it on her music player, but because of computer problems she wasn't able to. So we each just plugged one ear phone in and walked close together - actually a good thing because the place was definitely packed!

The extravagant painted ceilings were breathtaking, and many of them had a lot of symbolism, and it was so helpful to have the video guide to explain what we were seeing. I remember walking up the stairs, and you could feel that they were worn down by all the people who have gone up and down them over the years, it was really a very sobering feeling, like the weight of the history of this building just settled over me.

As you can see there was a mob of people filling all the rooms of the palace! We just shuffled along, listening to our guide, looking up at the painted ceilings and enjoying hearing the murmur of so many voices - a very international crowd indeed! This area had tons of statues and paintings, all beautifully done. See the beautiful marble designs on the wall? No faux marble in here! I hear the floors are lovely, too, but I don't think I ever really looked down - and it was quite crowded so I probably wouldn't have seen much anyway (don't worry - I found some other wonderful floors later in our trip!)

One of the interesting things about the ceilings was that they were not meant to be viewed from any certain vantage point, but they were really painted as if you were looking up into an actual scene above you! No matter where you stood part of the scene would be right side up and part of it would be upside down. I'm glad I didn't have a stiff neck because it would have made it tough to enjoy that part of it. The ceilings all had Roman gods and goddesses mixed in with real people from the era. One of the interesting things about Louis IV was that he called himself the Sun King - because he brought warmth and light to everyone! Believe me, this man had no self esteem issues, he was a supremely confident ruler, and his kingdom was one that the world of that time envied. Unfortunately, only a few generations later it all crumbled and ended in revolution.

This is the Hall of Mirrors. It is a beautiful room, windows down all one side, and mirrors all along the other literally reflecting the windows. Dozens of gorgeous crystal chandeliers, this is a stunning ball room. You could just picture the elegant ladies and gentlemen in here, and all the dozens of flirtations, conspiracies and conversations taking place! Really amazing - there are 357 mirrors in this one room, built in a time when only the well-to-do even had one! I don't think many of us would be able to function without at least several mirrors in our homes.

Next week we'll have a tour of the gardens and see the fountains - which was the whole reason we chose this day to go. Definitely worth seeing, even on a rainy day!

Till next week,

Pamela

Week Four - 52 Week Challenge

2011-01-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

When I saw the title on this quilt pattern, I just had to make it. Crosswalks in Paris? Mais, oui, mon amie!

What a fun quilt to make! It's a strip pattern, just two pages of instructions and super simple to put together. You just make strips, 4-patches, and turn some more strips into flying geese by sewing squares onto rectangles. Oh yeah, now I've got another set of left-over triangles to play with!

My new favorite spot for taking quilt pictures! They come out fairly well, even on overcast days! The only downside is the clutter that sneaks into the edges of my shots - but I am working on that issue. Baby steps, you know!

I quilted it in pink thread with loops and hearts. I could have done something jazzy in those squares, though. I liked making this so much I just might try another one. We'll see.

And a sleek band of black binding to finish it off. Sweet. Yes, I pieced another back - I bought this pink ribbon fabric one day, thinking I would do something different with it, but realized that I was never going to get to that project. There wasn't quite enough for this, though. Then I thought about using just the white for the back, but I really don't much like a plain white backing. Isn't it pretty with the pink, though? I'm happy, and this quilt is now strutting her stuff at the quilt shop, tempting everyone in sight to sign up for my Strip class in two weeks. And to buy some jelly rolls so I can bring her back home and enjoy snuggling on the couch. This one might be a keeper! We'll see!

For more of the 52 week challenge check out Fabric Fascination!

Au Revoir!

Pamela

5 Years of Blogging about Quilting!

2011-01-22T09:55:00.000-08:00

I had a nagging thought this morning as I was going through my blog feeds, how long have I been blogging? I had to go check it out, and it's been 5 years this month! Wow - who would have guessed. Now I average less than a post a week, but still, that's a lot of writing about quilting and other details of my pretty normal life. It's pretty neat to look back at all those projects and things I've done over the last 5 years!

Today I taught a class on binding at Threads That Bind - I work part time here and teach classes occasionally. To tell you the truth I don't think I'm an awesome teacher, but I'm a pretty good encourager. I try to help my students make the best of their current abilities and give them tips and helps to do better. Even though I value accuracy and perfection in my own work, I have a hard time holding my students to that. I would rather they enjoy the process and finish their project than do everything perfectly. I always say, you won't notice from the back of a galloping horse, but if it bothers you, I will help you do it better! I also say practice, practice, practice a lot. Really repetition is the key to learning a lot of things. Like mitering binding corners. Once you've done 20 of them, you've got it down, but the first 12 or so might not look quite like you want. Anyway, I hope they learned a little something today and go on to do more on their own!

Now I am off to do some blanket stitching on a customer quilt. Only two more blocks and it's ready to go together. I am not too fond of machine applique, so I will be glad when I get this one finished and can go on to a more "fun" project! I have an original design that's ready for quilting and pattern writing, so I really want to get moving on that, and have another quilt to be quilted and finished. Always something, right?

I hope all your bindings have nice corners and your ends line up nicely!

Pamela