Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! Even if you're not a mom, you probably nurture someone in some way so that counts in my book.

Baby Evelyn was helping me quilt one day a couple of weeks ago. At 14 weeks her little arms aren't quite coordinated enough to grab things and they're too short to touch what shouldn't be touched. However, we won't be quilting together much like this, I loose a bit of coordination holding her and the quilt.

Quilt market is this week. So after church this morning and a stop at the local fabric store for a couple of supplies I'll be back at the machine. I'm almost ready for market. Just one big quilt to quilt (minimal quilting on this one) finish a table skirt and a pair of baby overalls. I'm hoping to do one more quilt for my newest pattern but we'll see how that goes. There is still patterns to print and stuff and quilts to pack and all the little things to do before a trip out of town, like a pedicure which is needed after this long winter

Have a blessed Sunday and happy quilting!

New Quilts

Hello from the sweatshop. OK, It's not that bad but... Have you ever heard that song, "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead"? I'm kind of feeling that way right now. The Int'l Quilt Market is just a week and a half away.

So, I thought I'd take a break and show you a few pictures of quilts that I've done for market. These three were done for Timeless Treasures Fabrics (TT) and will be displayed in their booth.

The Floral quilt is a line of fabric called 'Blossom'. This quilt pattern is my design and will be a free download on the Timeless website. It will fit a twin bed.

The Hunter's Star (pink/green batiks) is done from the 10" squares and 2-1/2" strips. Timeless has wonderful batiks, or Tongas, as they call them. This design came from a book and I'm sorry I can't remember the name at the moment but I'll post it later. I sent the book back to TT when I finished the quilt.

The Twister quilt is in flannel (green and beige) and it is done with templates, It's fairly easy. The templates are just called Twister and Lil' Twister from Country Schoolhouse I'm sure you can get them at your local quilt shop. There is also a book (a pattern comes with the templates).

I still have 2 quilts to make, one for TT and one for Blank Quilting. Na d a few garments and I need to finish up a couple of my quilts! I'm working on a pine tree pattern using my Quilted Jewels template set. I'll be posing pictures soon and the pattern will be available by the end of May (hopefully!).

Quilt Market is a trade show for shop owners to see new products, fabrics and gadgets. It's a little slice of heaven for quilters. After market I'll post pictures so that you can see what the Quilt Market is like if you're not familiar with it.

Happy Quilting!

The studio

You know those lovely books with the fabulous pictures of sewing studios of the stars? Yeah, me, too. I thought I'd post some reality for how the rest of us live!

The first two pictures are the area where I do my sewing and goofing off, er, writing on the computer (click on them to enlarge). It's pretty tidy by my normal standards. In the first picture you can see my cutting table. It's usually piled much higher with whatever and a space is cleared when I need to cut. I'm sure none of you ever do this! The bench is an old tool makers bench my husband bought from where he works before we got married. I sanded and painted it black. It's oak and weighs a ton, if we ever move I don't know what will happen to it as we had to take out both patio doors to get it into the room. You can also see a buffet that my hubby refinished, it has my quilting books and some fabric in it. He also refinished the drawer units from old treadle sewing machines that are sitting on top of the buffet at each end. On the wall, by the patio door, is an old medicine cabinet that holds thread.

The other room is where I quilt. We recently put in 'new' carpet which came from my sisters bedroom in her home when they re carpeted. This is also a 'shop' room that has a door into the garage. We didn't want to spend lots of money on carpet since there is lots of heavy traffic, i.e. dirty shoes, dog, etc., coming into this area. New shelving, bins, baskets and a valance on the window made the room look much more homey than it did before. I quilt on big George (an APQS George machine) in the back and do my bindings on little George (Brother PQ1500) in the front. Oh, I name may sewing machines, by the way.

The shelving unit was about $40 (Lowe's) and the bins were $4 to $8 (Walmart) each so it was pretty reasonable to put together. My hubby bought it as a Christmas gift. It was more for him since he really doesn't like the clutter of my sewing stuff but I'm way ok with that.

The black and gold tool box on the right side of the table is from Plano and my kids bought it for me at a local big box hardware store. It's perfect for taking my Featherweight to a class. the Machine fits in the bottom, sewing supplies in the top and it was only $35, or so.
My hubby also has a tool bench in this room.

One thing I'd like to add is more lighting to my rooms. I have some day-light type bulbs but let's face it, they aren't very bright. I'm going to add a couple more lamps.

OK, you might be wondering about my fabric stash. Well, you'll notice the crock in picture 2, there is fabric in it. We have several of those that contain fabric, I have a linen closet full and three other big plastic totes (a couple are in the garage) and several small ones with various collections. Maybe when my son moves out I'll be able to take over his room and have it all in one place!

Lastly, I have one of those flannel design walls that are collapsible and fit into a tote bag. I really don't use it much but when I need it, it's pretty handy.

I hope that my sewing studio pictures have given you some ideas for your own space. If you have any great ideas for storage, please share them!
Happy Quilting!

New pattern

Just a note to let you all know the Quilted Jewel tote bag pattern is now up on the web site. Click on patterns at the top of the page. The Quilted Jewel patterns are on the right side, just scroll down.

I'm headed off to a quilt retreat on Sunday and it goes to Wednesday. This is at the Lake Wappogasset Bible camp in Amery, WI. Camp Wapo is a Lutheran Bible camp set between 2 lakes, just wonderful! Great views and a huge sewing area (or scrap booking, or....). They have, of course, many Bible camps but they also rent out the facilities to other groups. My local guild has had 8 retreats there over the years and I'm going to one put on by the camp itself. Nice group of ladies and all so welcoming! I didn't know any of them before I went last spring. They must have liked me, asked me to come back for the fall retreat. Quilters are the best.

I'm hoping to accomplish a lot while there, mainly the piecing and design of the new pine tree quilt using the template set. I always have lots of packing before a retreat. Don't we always need to take at least 1/2 the sewing room? Oh, and way more projects than we can possibly get done. Since it's during the workweek, I need to take the lap top (thank goodness for wifi) and cell phone. On the up-side, no cooking or laundry!

So, tell me, when you go on a quilt retreat what are your 'must haves'? I take my chair and a lamp (maybe 2 this time). I go overboard on taking thread. I just have to have the right color! I also have it to share for others that aren't threadaholics like me.
Happy quilting!

Just news

HI everyone! I hope this day finds you all well and quilting up a storm! Hmmm, maybe a bad choice of words considering our weather of late.

I'm currently working on some new fabrics designs for Blank quilting fabrics. They will be another line of black and whites and hopefully I can post some ideas soon. In the meantime, if you haven't done this, you can go to Blank's web-site (on the right is a link) and sign up for the Eye for Design. When they have a new grouping, they'll send you an email of the potential fabrics and you can help choose what goes to print! Lots of fun!

I'm also working on 2 new patterns using the Quilted Jewel templates. One will be pine trees, including a bed quilt, a couple of wall hangings and a another Christmas tree skirt. The other pattern will be a casserole carrier. Both should be available in May. I'll be introducing them at the Spring quilt market. I'll post a picture of the Pine tree block soon!

My daughter, son-in-law and baby Evelyn have been here over the weekend. Tough to get any work done with the little bundle of cuteness here!

I haven't been quilting. I have a good reason: our new grand daughter, Evelyn Joyce. She was born on 1/31, weighed in at 6 lbs, 11 oz and was 19" long. She's really a pretty baby and I'm not just saying that because I'm her g-ma, she really is.

There lots of hair on this little one! My daughter, Lindsay, and son-in-law, Adam, prayed for lots of hair and a small, healthy baby and that's what they were blessed with.

I was able to spend last week with them so I didn't get much quilting in. I did make some large pillow-case like sacks that my daughter is using as sheets for the cradle. Easy to slip on the smaller size mattress. The cradle was made by my Adams grandpa when Adam was a baby. I also made a cover for Lindsay's C-shaped nursing pillow that she's been using to prop the baby in. Seems Evelyn likes sleeping sort of propped up.

I also started hand piecing a quilt. On my way out the door to Lindsay's place, I grabbed a bunch of red and white fabrics that I'd had for few years, a set of Ardco metal templates and and notions for sewing. I did get about 6 blocks done and I'll post those at some point. I'm doing a Texas Star and you can see the whole line of templates at www.ardcotemplates.com. I'm using the 8" block but I'm using the outer edge of the template for my sewing line and the block is 9-1/2", I'll get the quilt done just that mauch quicker. So, I have 3 hand pieced quilts going now. I really should concentrate on finishing one of them but what's the fun in that?

Happy quilting!

how to have a happy relationship with your professional quilter.

I'm a quilter and I have a pet peeve. It's quilt borders that WON'T LIE FLAT!

There, I said it and I feel better.

I do quilting for others and I find that there may be some lazy quilters out there. Or, maybe it's just that by the time they get to the borders, they just want to git 'er done! Or, maybe proper border application was something they've missed. Well, I've taken off many a border and re sewn them to customers' quilts so that I could actually quilt the quilt. With this in mind, I decided to post simple directions for adding borders to your quilt top so they aren't wavy, (not that any of YOU do them incorrectly, I'm just saying...) I'm also planning on giving these directions to all my customers!

Determine the Length of Side Borders

1. Measure the quilt from top to bottom through its vertical midpoint.
2. Cut two border strips that match the measurement exactly, using the width you've already determined looks best with the quilt. Borders made with crosswise grain strips are somewhat stretchier than lengthwise grain border strips, but either type is suitable.

Sew Side Borders to the Quilt

1. Find the center of the long side of the border strip, pin to mark this point. Find the quilt's horizontal center and place a pin in this point.
2. Pin the border to the side of the quilt, right sides together matching the center points. Pin through both layers at the match to keep them from shifting.
3. Match and pin the bottom end of the border to the bottom edge of the quilt, then match and pin the other end to the top edge of the quilt.
4. Continue matching and pinning the border to the entire side of the quilt, pinning at close intervals if you must ease in fullness to coax the two lengths to match. Raw edges should be aligned along the quilt's entire side.
5. Sew the border to the quilt with a 1/4" seam allowance, removing pins as the needle approaches them. If you had to ease in fullness, sew with the longest piece next to the feed dogs.
6. Press the seam allowance towards the border.
7. Use the same method to sew the remaining border to the opposite side of the quilt.

Determine Top & Bottom Border Length

1. Measure the quilt from side-to-side through its horizontal midpoint, including the width of the side borders. Cut two borders this length.
2. Find the center of the border strip and mark with a pin. Pin the center of the border strip to the vertical center at the top of the quilt, right sides together and raw edges matched.
3. Continue matching and pinning the border to the quilt just as you did side borders, working with ends first then matching and pinning the remaining length.
4. Sew the border to the quilt with a 1/4" seam allowance. Press the seam allowance towards the border.
5. Repeat to sew the bottom border to the quilt.
6. Repeat all steps if you want to add another border around the first.

DO NOT just sew your border strip onto the quilt and cut it off even with the quilt edge when you get to the end! This results in a wavy quilt that does not lay flat and is very difficult to baste or load on the quilt machine. ALWAYS measure, measure, measure!