Scraps

Bare walls drive me nuts. However, I am not really great with home decor. I tend to find all of our furniture from craigslist, family members, or the side of the road (seriously, drives my husband nuts). Everything hanging on our walls is either art from my kids, my very talented friends, or family photos. My house will never be in Better Homes and Gardens.

So we have a dining room. I love having a dining room, we found an guy through friends that makes tables and benches out of scrap wood leftover from building homes, a china cabinet for almost nothing, and chairs from Goodwill. It is big enough for our whole family even when extended family visits. It is also where my amazing Girl Scout troop meets, the kids do art projects and general mayhem happens. The walls in the dining room are still bare. Like totally neekid.

At first I thought I would put a dry erase board in there, or cork squares to change things up, but I didn't want it to be too classroom like. So a few months ago my friend Dorothy gave me a bunch of really cool vintage embroidery hoops. All sizes. I knew they had to be in my house somewhere.

So today the kids and I went through my fabric scraps and started loading up the hoops. To keep the edges down, we used Elmer's school glue, just in case we wanted to take the fabric out and use it in another project. If you want yours to be permanent, you can use a glue gun or staples.

This project took us about an hour from hooping to hanging!

I think it fits our dining room really well, and the fabrics remind us of past sewing projects! Bonus, it was FREE.

I know a lot of us don't have the hoops hanging around, but they can often be found in thrift stores or grandma's attic!

Tennessee Row by Row

Many of us are excited for Summer, especially with travels! It gives us the opportunity to visit other quilt shops, and perhaps participate in the Row by Row Experience!

If you are coming through the Memphis area, please stop by Sew Memphis and pick up a copy of our free row by row pattern for the challenge! I love our pattern. The theme this year was water, and of course The Bluff City is right on the Mississippi River!

Our row features local fabric designer Jenean Morrison's latest fabric line, Star Landing. The pattern was inspired by the DeSoto bridge, the Mississippi River, and Memphis as the crossroads between the midwest and the south.

I love Memphis. I have met so many creative, fun people here. I have learned so much as a sewist, and have grown a ton as a quilter and designer.

Happy travels this summer, and don't forget to participate in the row by row experience!

Art and Life

A while ago I wrote about finding a longarm quilter that fits your style. I know when I first started quilting I lived in Ohio and just found a local lady and basically said "just a meander in white is fine" for every project. Hey, forgive me, I was new and just really excited to see anything finished! I know better now. The quilting can change everything about your quilt!

My longarm quilter Teresa from Quilts2aT got together and made a wall hanging from the scraps leftover when I made 2 matching queen quilts for my bedroom.

Guestroom 

I had a few of the 9 patches leftover and put them together thinking it might make a good crib quilt, since there is also a crib in there. After bringing it over and hanging it on her design wall, we started talking about it. A lot. There was so much negative space. Too much negative space actually. This wasn't a killer piece on my part. It was sparse. It was missing something. We talked about the best usage for the negative space. Working on a quilt with someone can be like working on a painting with another artist. You paint a portion, hand it over, they work on it, maybe you get it back to add more, and so on. You know what the other artists aesthetic is, but you can't predict what the finished work will look like when it is all done. What she did was stunning. 

From far away you can see it is a lot of white space.

Closer you can see the ghost 9 patches. We called it The Canterville Quilt. Oscar Wilde fans, here is your giggle for the day. 

Movement and rests, quilting can be musical

I love the bubbles

Freehand, so every swirl is an individual

See? Amazing. We entered it in MQX this past week. We didn't win any of the prizes Wednesday, but yesterday Teresa walked by and Toby Lischko was pinning her faculty ribbon on our quilt!

yeah! We got a ribbon!

Toby Lischko and Teresa at MQX in Springfield.

How cool! Happy sewing!

Family Sew Time

School is out. I am OK with this. I think. We are at the point where durihng the day we can all spend a bit of time in the sewing room. There are 3 machines, so no fighting over machine time. Vasi has a toybox in the room full of cars and legos. He also has the scrap bag to make "outfits for his monster trucks" while we sew.

This past weekend, Evie finished her third quilt.

She is 9. Sometimes she is so grown up I forget that. She is already 5'2". She's very mature for her age, thinks through things and loves reading and math. She even says her favorite part of quilting is doing the math. This quilt was no different. We were talking about modern quilts, looking at samples and techniques. Then we also looked at Modern Art, to talk about what modern can mean. We also have been working on color theory for the past few weeks. Altimately, she found her inspiration in the paintings of Mark Rothko. She remembers seeing his work at the Carnegie in Pittsburgh, and liked it because of the colors. I thought she would want to do large blocks of colors, but no, when we went to Sew Memphis for solids, she chose 4 shaded of pink. We bought a half yard of each, then sat down to start planning. We had 4 colors and she wanted large blocks, so this is what came out. She chose the grey border from my stash, to be a frame of sorts. This took her 2 days with my help. I still don't let her rotary cut. 

My 7 year old (8 next week!) worked on this

She had scrap fabric from my stash and we printed out a map of Mississippi for her to use as a pattern piece. The burlap is a burlap canvas we found at Walmart in clearance a while ago. She is my hand stitcher, she loves handwork and would rather make stuffies. She has started doing a split stitch around the border and wants to make a heart where our town is! 

I love my lazy days in the sewing room with the kids! Happy Sewing! 

Mama's got a Brand New Bag!

OK, so when I create a pattern I usually end up making a few. I never design a pattern I am not going to use, so yes, my new purse is a Midtown. The beautiful pink one was made for someone else, but I could not get that fabric out of my head, so I ended up finding the citrus colorway on fabric.com and making this sweet one for summer for me!

I am a fabric fanatic. I will admit to being a fabricaholic. I get really excited when new fabric lines launch, and follow the blogs of my favorite designers and those that sew for them. I have favorite lines of fabric I keep fatquarters of for years because I know you can't buy them in a store anymore and I want to keep a piece just in case. 

This season, I am totally in love with Jenean Morrison's Lovelorn. Check it out at the link. She is a designer with FreeSpirit Fabrics (of course, they carry most of my favorites, Joel Dewberry, Denyse Schmidt and Anna Maria Horner among them). I have made a few things already using this collection, including the bag featured in The Midtown pattern photos. This is one of the few fabric collections I love every colorway equally! It was really hard for me to decide which colorway to use for my personal bag, and after receiving a gift certificate for Fabric.com which is carrying the whole collection, I settled on orange for summer. 

As a fabric line, this has everything a sewist desires. There are beautiful large prints that lend themselves to home dec, clothing and big bags. There is a small ovals print that reads as a solid for quilting. There is a fun modern floral, there are 2 small prints for balance and this great arch print that adds movement to any project. The variety of scale, bold use of colors, and graphic nature of this collection make it the need to have collection for all your projects this season! 

While the orange and pink colorway are exciting and happy, the blue colorway keeps things cool and subdued, which is why I chose it for a baby boy quilt. 

One of the blocks

Close up of the ovals used as background, the hexies used as a border, and the large scale paisley as binding. Longarm services provided by Quilts2aT Studio. 

Toddler Time made from the pink color way. I know I put the arches with the floral together on each bag so far, but I love the look!

Sew, what is your favorite fabric line this season?

Happy Sewing!

How to chose your long-arm quilter

While doing the binding on a quilt I recently picked up from my long-arm quilter, Teresa, I started thinking of the one thing I dread doing when we move to a new area. That is finding a long-arm quilter I like! When we were in Franklin I had established a rapport with a local woman who did amazing work, and took my tops there. Here it took me a while to find another long-arm quilter, and now I use her for everything. I was thinking of what I needed in a long-arm quilter, and what you should look for too!

Firstly, everyone has a different aesthetic. I am a patch-worky-modern-meets-tradition-kind-of-lets-see-what-happens kind of quilter. I don't do applique. I love the look of it, don't get me wrong, but when I am in my studio I have to be true to myself. So rule one is: Make sure your aesthetics jive. They can be an amazing quilter and have 40 years experience, but if you are both not on the same page design wise, you won't be happy as a customer and they won't be happy with the work they did on your quilt. I will admit when I take my quilts to Teresa, I tell her to do what she thinks will work best, because after 4 years I know we are on the same page and I will LOVE what she does. Along with everyone having different aesthetics, everyone has different experience. For most of my quilting, I want edge to edge. My quilter has a ton of pantos to chose from.

The quilting will add life and movement to your quilt, and yes, it can also kill it. When I first started quilting 10 odd years ago, I went to a lady because she was cheapest. It's not that they look bad, but they could look better. I have 1 bed quilt I made that has a meander quilting on it and the spaces are about the size of Texas. I also chose cheap batting for that one, which is a whole separate blog post.

Quilting by Quilts2aT Studio.

We all make mistakes while piecing, and I know that things can be "quilted out", so you don't notice your mistake. You know what else I found out? Things can also be quilted worse, and the mistakes can be highlighted.
 
So, look at their sample work. Check out their webpage, blog, etc. Talk to their other customers. Talk to them. I chose my quilter out of the 20-odd ones that work locally. I know all the local long-arm quilters do amazing work in their own right, but I chose the one who matched me the best!

Second, you should be able to talk to your long-arm quilter. Really talk. And listen. Trust. You hand over your tops, that you have spent a lot of money and time on. Did you sit down and let them know your vision? I think it is better to go in and tell what your overall desire is for the quilt, then pick the quilting design together, than to walk in there and say "I want this pattern with this thread and that's it!". But on the other hand, you should have some idea, if not concrete than conceptual, of what you want from them! Even if you just tell them your inspiration.

Evie with Teresa from Quilts2aT Studio. Evie has finished 2 quilts and loves to visit Teresa's studio!

Price. I would say don't worry about price, but know about what you will owe before you leave from dropping it off. I will also say if your quilter buys batting in bulk, check out their batting. I buy batting from my quilter because she carries higher quality batting. 

Another question to ask is what is the turn around time. Don't be shocked if it is up to 2 months! I would also say relax about time, you don't want them to do a rush job. So if you are doing a gift, make sure to leave enough time for the quilting!

Sew, if you are newer to quilting or just looking for a new long-arm quilter, keep this in mind! Ask others for recommendations. Check out photos of their work, and most importantly, talk to a few!!

Happy Sewing!

-p-

So Proud of my Evie!

My 8 year old has been sewing for a while, and has made plenty stuffies and pillows and little things. We started working on her quilt about a year ago, taking 6 by 6 squares from my scrap stash and piecing them together. It was hard for her at first to keep a straight 1/4 inch seam, so a few of the blocks are wonky, but after working on it for a while she got the hang of it!

She finished the piecing a few weeks ago, and we took it to Teresa Pino at Quilts to a T studio. Teresa quilted Evie's quilt for 2 weeks allowance! It was so sweet. We also owe Teresa gratitude for giving Evie a sewing machine last year for Christmas! It has been the machine she sewed her quilt top with.

Evie was so serious picking out her quilting design and thread, deciding on big loopy heart shaped leaves and lime green thread!

She signed her work order and then waited... sometimes not so patiently...

Then ta-da! It came out beautifully! It did take us a while to bind the quilt, but now she has it in her room! She brings it out to watch TV with. We are so proud of her and she is so proud of her accomplishment! Go Evie!

Happy Sewing! 

For a Special Teacher

This is the project that has consumed me since February, when we found out Evie's second grade Spotlight teacher, Mrs. Roehm, was retiring. I thought it would be nice to do a small signature quilt for her from the second grade, so I asked a few other parents what they thought, and it blossomed into us getting signatures from not only the second grade, but also many of her former students! We took blocks to all the schools here, and then some former students stopped by my studio to sign. I also had a lot of former students email me signatures for the quilt. What impressed on me most was how LOVED she is. I heard over and over, "She was my favorite teacher! She believed in me! I still think of her!"

I feel blessed that Evie was able to have her. Evie helped a lot with the piecing of this quilt. We gave the quilt to her this afternoon after our field trip.

We are losing a great teacher this year, but I know she will enjoy her travels and time with her family. She has touched so many lives during her career. Bless you, Mrs. Roehm!


Happy Sewing Ya'll!

Senatobia, MS

So today Rena, Bubba and I ventured a little ways south on 51 to Senatobia, Mississippi. The main reason for our trip was to go to the music shop there, Tobie's, for drum sticks for Rena. Our neighbor moved away and gave Rena a child's drum set, but had lost (or in mom terms, "lost" as in hid and forgot where they went!) the drumsticks.

The guy there was really nice, and they were well stocked for a small store, including a really good selection of used items. They also have lessons, including drum lessons! So next fall when the dust settles from a new year of school, we are going to do a trial lesson there. Rena is so excited.

Of course, there was a subway next door, so we didn't get to try any of the local places that were recommended to me, like Penny's Pantry.

Rena LOVES Subway. So we had to stop. Had to.

Bubba didn't seem to mind though. He was chilling watching everyone in the restaurant.

Of course, I chose to go down to Senatobia because there was also a new quilt shop. The guild took a trip down, but I can never do any of the daytrips because of the kidlets.Senatobia as a town is really cute. There is a neat thrift store and shops on main and a few of the side streets, and around the downtown there are some great older homes to look at! But nevermind the town, on to fabric!!

Cotton Treasures is located at 117 South Front Street right off of Main near the post office. Like Doctor Who's tardis, it is bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. They have the shop in the front then a classroom in the back, and a long arm there too.

Chantay, the owner, spoke both my languages, fabric and SALE. See this bookcase of fabric? All of it was on sale for $3 a yard. Yup, $3. for the good stuff. a lot of 30's repro and civil war repro. I about died.

Chantay and Ann (from the guild!) were super sweet. They had a lot of really cool fabrics and notions. It is so worth the trip! I can't wait to go back, and hopefully take a class. It was hard moving down here from Franklin, TN because of the ladies I had met at The Quilting Squares. Now I have a new local shop! They also gave me the info on a woman who teaches smocking in the area!

All in all it was a good day. We went to the Hernando Library on the way home to pick up a book for Evie, and of course, Rena wanted her picture taken with the Star Wars figures on display.

My little ham, she was like "look! Daddy toys!"


This is the fabric I bought at the shop, for $13 total.

I'm kicking myself for not buying more. Might have to go back next week!

I am still piecing the Belle Meade quilt by Bonnie Blue Quilts. It is taking me forever, mainly because the quilt has 336 2 inch half square trangles. I did the 6 inch ones a while ago, but am still plugging through the little ones. With the leftovers from that quilt and the Stones of Franklin I did a while ago, I made this little lap quilt.

It's just half square triangles set on point, and I still need to add the piano key border, but it feels nice to get SOMETHING done.

Happy Sewing!!

Starflower tablerunner

Last summer my inlaws and I took the girls to Strausburg Railroad for the day, and on our way home we stopped by a few amish quilt shops. In one, my mother in law found a few FQ 8 rolls, which she bought for me to make table runners and toppers for her. This is the second one I have finished.

The pattern for this is the Starflower from quilters cache. It was the guild's block of the month for May. Of course, I didn't get a block done for the meeting, but hey, here's 2 I did now!

Happy Sewing!

This weeks projects

Sew..... I have  been busy this week, I finished this table runner

The pattern was called Dutch Treat and was a pattern with fabric I bought in the quilt shop last year. It was fun and fast to do. I also started working on my sister in laws wedding quilt, which I just started cutting out, and while trying to get through my scraps, I found I had A TON of steelers fabric, so I threw this togther

It's lap quilt size, so I am going to add a black border to get it closer to bed size for my nephew, since I made quilts for the girls and my neice this past fall.

I also did this for Serena, since S day was today

She loved it! I need more practice with applique, and want to take a turned applique class eventually. I just realized with this project that if you put stabalizer under the tee shirt it is easier under the maching. I should have known that! Oh well, live and learn!

Serena has a class pet "Hopper". He's not real, (thank goodness) but we have to take pictures and write what Hopper and Rena do this weekend. His first trip was after school to the Chinese Buffet. Fridays Kevin works from home, so he comes with me to pick up Rena from school and we do lunch.

So when we got home this afternoon, we read about frogs. Rena decided he was cold and needed a blankie, so we went through my scrap bag to see what a from would like, and Rena chose this fabric, because it would camouflage Hopper so no one would eat him when he was asleep. We also made him a little pillow. He had a nice nap with Rena and is ready for what the rest of the day brings.

The other thing that has occupied my week has been this amazing book, Mississippi Quilts, but Mary Elizabeth Johnson. The Mississippi Quilt Association did a heritage project, and documented quilts around the state, putting them cronologically in this book, telling the story not only of the families that owned these quilts, the women who made these quilts, but also of Mississippi and the nation itself. I am so glad they did the project, I have learned so much from the book.

On the bookshelf

So I went to the Library today, which means for me I am getting settled. It's the little things that start to add up to "This is my town".

I like Hernando, which is why we chose it. It has a great downtown area, alot like Granville, Ohio, where we lived after we were first married. I am starting to find all the comforts of home here. Friday I hope to hit up the local history museum. I find it interesting the town and county are named for Hernando Desoto, who it has been said died here, but historians argue over if it was here or the other side of the Mississippi in Arkansas.

I am also meeting people, Monday is Quilt Guild, which I am so excited about! Oh, and the girls are settled in. Evie has a best friend here, and plays with the neighborhood girls. She misses her friends from TN, PA, and Ohio though, and often asks about everyone. I hope we can get some friends down this summer. Next on my list is to find a babysitter.

The library had a great selection, I found 2 books on Mississippi quilts and quilters. I love how each area has a different feel, different style, of quilts. I can't wait to start the books. I also found an amazing book by Kumiko Sudo with Omiyage patterns, which I am going through now to pick which projects I want to try.

Today was a lazy day, a happy day. It seemed to all click today,like I almost know where I am going. I have explored the roads a bit, know what road takes me where (for the most part) and am building my map in my head. I can't do GPS, which drives Kevin bonkers, but I have to create a map in my head, that is drawn as I drive around.

Other than that, we started talking about the possibility of a maybe working on  kid #3.....

Squiggles

So I am still on the table runner kick, I finished this one last night and have a simple pinwheel block one cut out for this week.

I am still having so many issues with the quilting part, I love piecing but when I try to quilt I just feel it doesn't look right. But quilting with a machine is like drawing  by moving the paper instead of the pen. Some people pick it up right away, but others of us have a lot of difficulty.

This weekend was freezing here. Memphis shut down because of the snow, but snow down here is not snow, it is a sheet of ice and slush. Even after honing my driving skills in Rochester and Pittsburgh winters, I still was not prepared for this.

At least now it is nicer out, and the sun is rising when Evie goes to her bus stop (across the street). Today was the first day I let her go by herself, I just watched from the window. She was very responsible, looked both ways, and met her friend (bus stop is in her friends driveway). Sometimes its hard for me to grasp her growing independence. No matter how old, she's still my first baby. I wonder if it will get easier with Serena.

Wrote a song about it, wanna hear it? here it goes....

I don't know why I have been thinking about this David Allen Grier character for a while, maybe it is reloctating to the Blues area or America.

But anyway, It's Friday. Kev works from home on Friday, and both girls are in usually in school in the morning, so it is quiet time. However, today there was no school because we have been hit with a wintery mix (cold rain with some slush). So we are all at home chilling. Kev is still unpacking the office, Rena is playing cars in her room, and Evie is in her "art studio", which is the sunroom that has been overtaken with the girls craft supplies and some toys.

Evie was all sorts of upset today when there was no school. Mainly because she just got her new Bento Box last night for lunch.

During the week, I can only really sew at night, after the girls are in bed. OK, so here I sew a bit on Monday and Weds and Friday mornings if I don't have errands and both girls are in school. It is a little piece of heaven to be able to go to the grocery store by myself. Anyway, this week I did a few little projects, the first being last night when we got Evie's Bento Box. I made napkins from some scraps.

This is Evie's BentoBox from laptop lunches. For the past few weeks, I have been trying to make reusable snack bags to go into the lunch bag I had made her. I have been making sandwich wraps for a bit, and thought it would be great to be able to pack a lunch that was less wastefull and saved money (baggies are expensive, and when they go in school lunches they end up in the trash) soooo.... after finding out that reusable snack bags are cute and good for occasional use (I'll still use them for Rena's snack) They are a complete pain to clean, and sometimes things get crushed. A friend from the mommy board I am on suggested laptop lunches. Evie picked out the flower one, and the set came with everything you see (except the napkins, which I made) for $40. I used the code ideal55 for 20% off.

The napkins are just 2 12 1/2 inch squares sewn together. I made about 8 last night just because I love using up my scraps!

Here is a table runner I made for my sister in law. She changes her decor often and for each holiday, so I have made her a few runners for her buffet or dining room table. This is from a kit my mother in law bought me last year from The Quilting Squares Quilt shop in Franklin, TN, where we lived at the time. If you are ever in the area, it is the best shop ever! Seriously, They have a dollar fat quarter bin that is always full, and a clearance area. This kit was 50% off because it was after Valentines Day. Plus the ladies there are awesome. Can you tell I miss the shop? It was my second home when we lived there!

This isn't the best pic, but I made a charm school bag from keykalou designs.  I love her patterns, my favorite of hers though is still the lots of pockets.  The fabric came from my friend Chris, who a few months ago sent me a huge surprise package of fabric she had. Some of them are huge pieces, some fat quarters, but nothing was smaller than a fat quarter! Some was her grandmothes, some she had bought for projects and never got around to using. This fabric she had the most of, over a yard in pieces. I like how the bag came out! It was a project for my mommyboard, they have a fit club and us crafters donate prizes for the winners.

I am also working on another table runner, I hope to be able to post it next Friday!

Sew, what is on your cutting table?

Happy Weekend!