A few more of my favorite things!

Quite often I write about my favorite things, and usually it has to do with quilting.  Today is no exception!  This week I discovered a new quilt shop not far from Indianapolis, The Fussy Cut Quilt Shop , in Beech Grove, IN.  I was delighted to find it, as I'm often nearby.  It's a nice, friendly shop, that has a wide selection of fabrics.

I was delighted to find an out of print Moda fabric.  Rural Jardin is an older line of French General and is getting hard to find, so I'm loving my nice big piece.  How long do you think it'll take for me to cut into it? 

I'm anxious to take a more thorough look at their Batik fabrics on my next visit.

So.... a new quilt shop, a long searched for discovery...  what else does a quilter need?
Honestly not very much, but life has been good...
and I've been busy!

This brown & pink fabric has been a collection in the making, for over a year.  I've been planning to use this fabric for a Dear Jane quilt.  But the longer I thought about those little 4.5" blocks, the longer I put off starting it.

This green bin has sat right on my main desk for well over a year, always on my mind.  I've looked through the Dear Jane book, and the Nearly Insane books until I thought I'd go insane thinking about this quilt!  Well yesterday, I just dumped all the fabric out, touched it, folded it, loved it....  I couldn't stand it any longer, I had to cut into it.

I quickly decided to make six inch blocks.  Not small enough to make me insane, but small enough to be cute  & dainty.  I'm not sure if I'll set it with lattice, but it will be on point, so will need to orient the applique that way.  I'm excited!  Only a few blocks will get done a week, as I'm adding this to my busy schedule, but at least it will be started.

My first two blocks

This is an old tea towel that I found ages ago at a thrift shop, but have been unable to find until I recently rearranged my studio.  Well, the reason it was needed is that inspiration struck!  Victoria Findlay over at 15 Minutes of Play (one of her 2 very cool blogs) had a tea towel challenge.  She & some other quilty ladies have made small quilts out of their tea towels.  I'm planning on using French General fabric, mostly the darker reds & cream/tan.  So.... (yes I really say that a lot) now a design..... hmmmm.  I will be working on this too.

And last but not least!  I will have a booth at an Etsy event in September!  So exciting!  A girlfriend asked me to join her and share a booth at the event in Nashville, Indiana this Fall.

Nashville is in the heart of Brown County, the "hill country" of Indiana.  In the Fall the best color can be found driving through Brown County.  Nashville is an artist community, with a yearly studio tour, and  art shows.  It's one of my favorite places in Indiana to spend the weekend.

For the show/sale I will need some sort of tag to put on my quilts, telling people how to care for them.  It's not finished, but almost.

Someday, I will have to begin showing you some of my favorite things that are not quilt related...  yes, I do have a few... well maybe just a couple!
Back to work for me, come again soon.

A sewing tip...

Have you ever seen this item?  You wouldn't find it in a quilting shop, or even at Joann Fabrics.  I first saw one out in my husband's shop.  He uses it hold small parts, so they won't get lost when he's building something.  But I knew it would solve a problem I was having with all my tools rolling onto the floor constantly.  And it works wonderfully!  It's a stainless steel tray that has two strong magnets attached to the bottom. 

It holds all my scissors, seam rippers, needles, bobbins, even my various pressor feet.  All those items that were once hard to keep from rolling around,  are solidly stuck until I need to use one.

These trays come in different sizes.  I like the round ones to put pins in.  To find one, you just have to make a trip to the " Man Store,"  as we call it, otherwise known as Harbour Freight.  One word of caution to those who have computerized machines -- keep the magnets away.  I'm pretty the two don't mix.

 My last tip of the day is to always date your new scissors.  I have many pairs of these, and by using a Scharpie to date the newest pair, it's now easy to find the sharpest pair.

The scrap quilt is coming along nicely.  It's not turning out as I wanted it to, but for a scrap quilt, it's okay.  It needs some kind of pieced border, probaby more scraps.  But I haven't decided upon a design yet.  Maybe smaller blocks, half the size of those in the body of the quilt.....   it will take some more playing with scraps to figure out.

 The color of the triangles isn't right in the photo.  The true color is softer, a soft cheddar, not orange at all.  For some reason, this quilt didn't photograph well.


Pulling out the scrap bin again really isn't something I relish.  It's a bit of work picking colors, ironing them, cutting, etc...

But... there is one member of my household who loves it when the scrap bin comes out.  I don't know how, but Pippa knows every time I start digging through this bin, and she wastes no time climbing inside for a cozy nap.  I try to keep her out, but she is so determined!  It must be very comfortable!

Cold winter day = sewing time

My kind of quilt!

Good morning!

It's 23 degrees here in Indiana, no sun, just gray.  Indiana has it's own shade of gray, when I lived in Washington, the Puget Sound had it's own shade of gray too.  So...  I've been trying to add some color to my brain this morning, by looking through my quilt photo files.  I take photos of quilts I see, save photos from online auctions, etc...  to use as inspiration on days such as this, when a little bit of amazing quilt color lifts my imagination.

Perhaps you need a little bit of quilt perfection this morning too? I will show you my favorite star quilts.

Lone Star quilts always lift my spirits.  When they are executed well, they can be amazing.

Another beautiful star quilt.

 

Star of Bethleham -Folk Art Museum

More Stars -- Folk Art Museum

Can you imagine piecing all those little diamonds?

My mind is now full of wonderful quilt possibilities, so I'm headed into the studio to attack my pile of strings!

The bin is about half empty, I have many blocks pieced, and am still playing with the idea of

cutting the blocks diagonally across the stripes, and add a triangle.

It would add more design possibilities!  

A load of Scraps & a finished top

 It's simply amazing how many scraps I manage to push into one of these bins!  The seven blocks I made this morning hasn't put a dent into it.  The blocks are 10" square, and I'm only planning to use scraps from this bin.  I may slice the blocks in half when finished and sew on another triangle, but I haven't decided yet.


This bin consists of mostly red, black, brown and beige/tan colors, with some dark blue bits.  There are a few pieces of a peridot green that  will contrast nicely and add a bit of sparkle -- I think???

It will be interesting to see how many blocks can be made from just this bin of scraps.  Someday I will show you my HUGE trunk full of the last 30 years worth of scraps.  If my husband knew I had moved that thing from Seattle to Indianapolis he would think I'm nuts!  Maybe I am?

The first seven blocks vary widely, and hopefully will look better when I have more made and can gain some balance.  I'm thinking a black/tan print, perhaps dark tan print, or a dark red/tan print would look cool as a triangle piece if I slashed the blocks into triangles, across the stripe.  ???

Lots of ??? this morning.

A finished baby quilt.  I tried a pieced block boarder, but it added chaos.  The pieced stripes add color and no chaos.

Happy quilting!

Rearrangment finally finished--back to work!

My studio rearrangement is finally complete!  It's  not perfect, to say the least, but the work areas are much improved.  I am very anxious to get back to sewing this next week.

Today I mostly puttered around, putting small items where they belonged, and planning what to begin stitching on this next week.

I will show you photos of this room, in a counter clock-wise direction.  As you can see, I've not spent a great sum of money on furniture or storage for that matter, but have always found the right piece I need for the job.  This big conference table used to be in my husbands offices, but found a home here when we moved.  It is great for cutting out fabric.

My wall of wire cubes is as neat as possible right now.  I really have too much fabric right now, so hopefully this area will improve as I continue to work.  I love that these bins & baskets fit perfectly in the cubes.  I try to label each bin, to make finding things easier.

This folding table fits well here and doubles as a cutting space when needed.

This is my main sewing area, it's U shape is very comfortable to sew, iron or cut -- or all three, as I'm sure most of you also do.  Those little green bins are great for storing notions.  Each box is labeled to make finding bobbins, needles, etc.... quick & easy.  The green open bins are sitting on a drop leaf table on wheels, which can move anywhere, and open up to a 70" table -- great for when sewing friends visit.

A view from this angle.

This is a secondary sewing area, right next to the large cutting table.  I can piece blocks here, when the large machine is set up for quilting.  The dark area on the right is part of a large opening into our main living area.

View at end of cutting table

So, this room is complete!  One place I haven't shown you is UNDER the big cutting table -- it's full bins of UFO's, and hopefully it will look emptier soon.

Empty looms make great quilt racks!

Painting area beyond view -- and is not yet finished.

Okay, on to the weaving room!  This is the corner that used to house my Singer 301 and the cutting table.  I will show you this room in a clockwise direction.

Directly across from smaller loom

I want to take down all the art on this bulletin board, and do something else, but I'm not sure what yet.  Perhaps a gallery of doll quilts.  My painting area is beyond--out of view.  It's still a mess, and I'm not sure how to         arrange things there.


This room is about 14 x 26', and quite difficult to place things in.  As you can see, everything is lined up on the walls.  It is not in our main living area, but leads out to my husbands workshops.

Across from wall of yarn.  My design wall had to stay where it is.

You can see my larger storage area for batting, bolts of fabric, etc...   At the very end, out of view, is another wall of wire cubes, that hold bins of wool and felted wool that I use for sewing projects.

I have two commercial sewing machines that are unused at this time.  I have used them in the past for drapery, upholstery, & sewing in general, but right now I'm not doing anything with them.  I should sell one of them.  The area with my king size Grace frame is right out the doorway, next to the design wall.

And this concludes the end of our tour!

I hope you've not been too bored with all this, but it's a great way to show my friends and family what's been going on here.

My next post will be filled with progress on my string quilt series. 

Pippa enjoying her new wool "cat mat" -- made from both sides of a felted wool sweater.  This is the most desirable spot in the house right now,  at one point all three of them were trying to lay on it together!   I plan on making one for everyone.

Found treasure

 While rearranging/cleaning my studio space this last week, I uncovered a few long forgotten treasures.  And considering the fact these items would only be considered "treasures" by my fellow quilters, I've decided to share one of my favorite items with you today.

I'm fairly certain the magazine came from my grandma, but I'm not sure where she obtained it, as she was 15 when it was published.  The date on the magazine is 1935.  While thumbing through the pages, it struck me that despite changes in technology, so much in the world today is unchanged.  There are still wars, and rumors of more war.  Financial problems all over the world persist.  Families struggle to make ends meet.  Many quilters still sew binding on by hand and love red & white quilts!

I've been meaning to frame it to hang in the studio for years, so will get that done now.  I'll also post a few of my favorite pages that might be of interest.

These patterns are all mail order!  Imagine making one of these dresses!

Mail order Zinnia seeds -- iconic company.

Ad for baking powder.  A $1 a day for food?  I wonder how much that is in today's dollar?

Smoking was still popular!  And so was wearing fur!

My rearranging is nearly complete, and I just need to hang things on the wall.  There is a small (fairly large really) pile of things I hate to get rid of, but don't really have room for.  I hate to put them out in storage, so may make a trip to Goodwill.  I do love my "new" spaces, and will be back soon with an update.  I plan to enjoy an afternoon of quiet, and just sew!

String quilts

This quilt was made several years ago, and I can't remember if it's been mentioned in a post before or not.  It currently hangs in our dining room, and covers an electrical panel that was put there for some odd reason.  Really, who would put a panel in the middle of a wall?  So, there must always be something hanging to hide the panel.  But the longer this quilt is there, the more I find wrong with it!  So, I've added "start a string quilt series" on my list of quilts to make.  I think it will be fun to see how many different looking quilts I can make using the same general idea.

The criteria I've set is fairly basic.  Each quilt will have the same size square and must be a string quilt.  I think the quilt shown was "quilt as you go", but the series will be FMQ.  Fabrics from my scrap boxes will be the only fabric allowed.  Yes, boxes.  I'm ashamed to say I have two huge plastic storage boxes, the very biggest, longest they make--cedar chest size, full of scraps.  Probably 20 years worth of scraps.  I'd forgotten about them, but they surfaced during my rearranging project.  This project will be killing two birds with one stone hopefully.  I'll get several "panel covers" and two empty storage boxes.  

In my last post you saw my huge mess, caused by my hair-brained idea to rearrange my studio spaces.  Well, if you saw photos now, you'd swear everything has multiplied.  There is a huge mess here, and it may be awhile before it gets better.  But, it will be clean!  It's amazing how much dust comes out once things are moved.  Wish me luck -- I'm going back in. 

One month late

  Hello!  I suppose it's a bit late for Happy New Year, but my intentions were good.... I did think about blogging.  I've been ill for quite a while and things are starting to get back to normal.  I managed to get two quilts machine quilted, and quite a few blocks pieced, but it was all in slow motion.... doing a bit everyday.

Like most quilters, I resolved to finish my UFO's & WIP's before starting anything new this year.  But like most resolutions, it didn't last long, and I've compromised....  for each quilt finished, a new one gets started.

I blame it all on quilt binding and the time one has to think while applying it.  I tend to mull over quilt ideas as I sit stitching & pinning for hours, and this naturally results in new ideas that must be worked out ASAP.  So, perhaps a better resolution would be to just not worry about it, and let the creative juices flow, and just be happy!  Life is too short.

 
The blocks above came about while I was playing with the hand dyed bright strips of fabric.  There is just enough left to do some type of pieced border, so it won't be a big quilt, but I'm happy with it

.  You can see my "little helper" giving me a hand with the small red quilt.  Yes, Princess Pippa Jane is growing more lovely each day, but she's also entered into the terrible two's.  Her behavior has been quite unbecoming a princess lately.  She steals pins, pickers, thread, really anything that looks as though it might be fun to bat around.  She also terrorizes the grownup cats, and they've taken to hiding from her.  But we do love her, and she is my constant shadow, so I try to enjoy her kitten ways for they won't last long.

Moochie is never far from Pippa.  He can be found close by, watching.... protecting her from any unforeseen danger.  He probably deserves a title, perhaps Sir Moochie would do.  He is certainly handsome enough to pull off the title I believe!

But seriously now,  back to quilting stuff!    As you can see, I have a big mess in the studio right now.  Some how I had this brilliant idea to rearrange furniture.  Without going into too many boring details, I have 3 rooms here full of 30 years of quilting, knitting and weaving stuff.  So.... the plan is to move the looms to the long narrow room, and put my huge cutting table in with my primary sewing station.  Also to put most sewing machines in the same room.  Then, move all the yarn in near the looms.  Sound simple.  It will probably take at least a week.  Against my better judgement I'll let you see my huge mess, or at least part of it.

Using portable table to hold quilts and fabric staying in this room

this area will stay, just get cleaned up

All I can say is what a mess, and perhaps ask "what was I thinking?" 

This 9' table is moving into the room above, and this room will hold my two weaving looms and painting supplies

The looms will go into this area, and where table is above.  Most of this stuff is going into the quilting/sewing room

I promise to post my "after" photos, hopefully it will be sooner, rather than later because I don't do chaos well.  I like neat and orderly.

So, I will leave you with "Happy February" rather than new year wishes, and perhaps someone will take pitty on me and drop by to help me organize this mess!  ttfn