Peas In A Pod

UFO Update; The Quilted Moose Quilt Store

I'm going to post my UFO update today, because tomorrow I will be posting my tutorial for my Quilted Fish Design Team project.  I'm nervous and excited about that.  I hope it's okay and that people like it!

My UFO report is very small today.  Another baby step!  I did finish the appliqué on my Tree of Life Quilt!  I got these last two stems and the dark green leaf sewn down.  I'm not sure what took me so long.  I finished it in two short episodes of Seinfeld!  But this quilt top is done, and the backing is put together, so it's ready to be quilted.  Even though it was a baby step, it resulted in a project being much closer to completion!  Hop on over to Blackberry Creek to see how others are doing with their UFOs.

On another note, I didn't mention that I have been traveling the past few days.  One of my graduate students and I traveled to Omaha, Nebraska to visit the Munroe-Meyer Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center there.  I have a couple of colleagues who run outpatient and day treatment services for children with developmental disabilities and autism.  It's called the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders.  They help parents with problem behaviors their children display (which is also what I do with my research) and with behavioral feeding problems.  Also, they have children come for effective academic instruction.  It was a really informative and fun visit.  (If you live near there, these are probably the highest quality services you can get for your child, by the way.)

When I travel, I like to try to visit a local quilt shop.  It adds a little fun to my trip, amongst all the work.  Sometimes I don't have time, but since we drove to Omaha, we had a little more flexibility than if we had flown.  So, I started to think about where we could go.

I recalled that there was a shop near Omaha that I had seen in The Quilt Sampler Magazine Top 10 Quilt stores and looked it up.  It was The Quilted Moose!  It's in Gretna, NE, about 20 minutes from Omaha.  I asked my graduate student if he would mind if we stopped there "on the way home" (it turned out to be in the opposite direction of home!  LOL).  He was a really good sport and said it was fine.  He had some work to do anyway, and could sit in the car and work on it while I shopped.  What a guy.

When I walked in the door, here was the view to the right.  Wow!  This store was jam packed with fabric and samples.  It was pretty overwhelming!  I think this is about 1/3 or 1/4 of the store!  And there was so much variety!  Batiks, Moda, brights, dark and dirties, etc.  Lots of really cool stuff.  I think I barely scratched the surface in this store, because I didn't want to keep my student waiting too long.  But that's probably a good thing!

If I turned around from where I was standing to take that first photo, this is what I saw.  Anne Sutton's of Bunny Hill entire Lily and Will line, along with all of her gorgeous pleated satin trim.   I just had to slowly back away from this, because I wanted the entire card of every color of that trim.  (I have no idea what I'd do with it.  It's just so gorgeous!)

This was a cute display of towels, charm packs, fat quarter packs, etc.  I loved how they sold all these cute picture frames that were painted cute colors.  They had lots of stitchery and quilted projects framed in the store.  It was a nice way to display some small pieces.

This is a display of a quilt designed by someone in their shop.  Great fabrics (Kate Spain?  POSTSCRIPT:  IT'S FRUITCAKE BY BASIC GREY.  SEE COMMENT BELOW.  THANKS, BROOKE!).  I don't know if you can see the kits that are packaged up in the lower right hand corner.  They were packaged so cute with a blue bow on them and a sparkly blue snowflake.  Very tempting!

I loved this display.  The Jo Morton on one side, a framed courthouse steps piece, and a beautiful stitchery.  (I know who makes those stitchery patterns and I can NOT think of it right now.  Sorry, I don't have time to look it up!)  And, check out the cute moose!

This was the classroom area.  Choc-a-block full of quilts.  The quilts you see on the table and the one with the flying geese draped over a quilt hanger to the left are in a new book (which I'll show you below).  That quilt just to the right of the window was their quilt when they were featured in the Quilt Sampler magazine, and it was the cover quilt on that issue.  I have that kit in my stash.  It's one I really want to get to.  :-)

Recognize that quilt that's third from the left?  Yep!  Tree of Life!  I really fell in love with the first quilt on the left here.  It is another pattern designed by one of the girls in the shop.  I absolutely loved the border fabric, and I loved this quilt design!  This entire wall of fabric was Japanese Daiwabo and taupes!

Yes, this pattern came home with me.

They were out of the pretty blue fabric that was in the border, but they had some of this grey.  I liked that just as much.  It's a Japanese fabric and is just gorgeous!

And they had it in this tan, too.  I couldn't decide, so I got a little of both.  Won't these make pretty borders for a couple of different quilts?

And I got a little of this one, too.  Couldn't resist.  When I travel, I like getting fabrics that are unique and I can't find at home.

The owner of the shop had just published her first book. I had to get it.  If you come back on Saturday, I'll tell you more about this book and give you a peek inside.  I'll also tell you about their new quilt retreat!  But I have got to get to work now!  My time allocated for blogging has expired!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Beading Tutorial, Part Two

Hi Everyone!  I hope you enjoyed Lynn's post yesterday about beading!  If you did, you're in for a treat today, becasue she is back for a second day to show you some beading basics.  Today, Lynn shows you the ins and outs of how to sew the beads on your quilt.   Thank you again to Lynn for her willingness to share all this great info with us and for taking the time to write such a clear tutorial.  Enjoy!  --Mama Pea

 

It’s Lynn again, aka Alamosa Quilter, finishing up my beading tutorial guest post for Stephanie.

Today I’m going to show you some beading basics. To start, thread your needle with a double length of thread. Knot the ends with a single quilters knot.

I am using some white beading thread on solid black fabric so that things will show up better in the photos. I should also mention that I took these photos on a partly cloudy day. The clouds were moving fast and playing peek-a-boo with the sun so the colors look a bit different in some photos than in others.

Starting half a needle length from where you want to begin beading, insert your needle between the layers and pull the knot between the layers. Then go up to the top of the quilt.

Take a very small stitch (that will be hidden underneath your bead(s)). This gives some added security to your initial knot. I put a bead and the needle next to the stitch for scale so you can see what I mean by “small.” If I was using black thread this stitch would be pretty much invisible even before it gets covered by beads.

Now come back up to the top of the quilt just before your little stitch, so that the beads will cover your little stitch.

Then load up your needle with beads. The number of beads you load at one time depends on how far you are going and what stitch you are doing. For this first stitch we are just going to lay them straight. I loaded about 10 beads on my needle.

Lay them flat on the surface and gently tap them back towards the starting point to make sure that there is no loose bead thread sticking out the back.

Put your needle straight down at the end of your beads. You don’t want to put the needle in at an angle because it may negatively affect how your beads lay.

Bring the needle to the back of your project.

Come back up a few beads from the end, right in the middle of the line of beads. I generally come up about 1/3 of the beaded length from the end. In this case, about 4 beads from the end.

Pass the needle through these last couple beads again.

Pull your thread through and you have just sewn your first line of beads.

Load up some more beads and I’ll show you how to get a curved line of beads.

Lay the beads on your surface in a curved shape.

When you are happy with your curve, put your needle straight down to the back at the end of the last bead in your curve.

In most cases, this will cause your beads to jump up from the surface as the ones in the above photo did. Never fear! You are going to couch them into submission. Force your beads to lay back down on the surface and bring your needle up on one side of the beaded thread at the top of the curve.

Pull the needle up and put it back down on the other side of the bead thread.

Pull the needle and thread back down to the back. The little couching stitch should be hidden between the beads.

To do a loop of beads, just bring the last bead around to the first bead and go back down to the back as close to where you came up as you can. Then couch the loop down. You may need to couch it in a couple places to get them to lay the way you want.

Due to the way they are made, bugle beads can be sharp on the ends and there are often a few damaged ones in every purchased package. In the photo below I drew arrows toward the two damaged ones I poured out. You may need to click on the photo to enlarge it to be able to see the damage.

Because bugle beads usually have sharp ends they can cut your thread over time. To use bugle beads safely, you should always place a seed bead at the beginning and end, to protect the thread.

Load up a seed bead, a bugle bead, then a seed bead on your needle. Lay them flat on your surface and put the needle straight down to the back at the end of the line of beads.

Bring the needle up between the bugle bead and the last seed bead.

Take an extra stitch through the last seed bead.

Again put the needle straight down to the back of your work right at the end of the bugle bead line.

The last stitch I will show you is how to make beaded fringe.

Come up from the back of your project where you want the top of your fringe to start.

Load the beads you will make your first strand of fringe with on your needle. I used a blue bead on the end for clarification since this bead is the key to making fringe.

Lay the beads flat on the surface of your work, but separate the end bead (the blue one) from the rest.

Put your needle back through all of the beads, except the last one (blue one).

Pull the needle through all the way along with all the excess thread. You may have to fiddle with the beads a bit to do this, but be patient, it will all work out.

Insert the needle back into your fabric right where you came up to begin the fringe.

Pull the excess thread to the back and you’ve made the first strand of fringe. It will stand up.

Or lay flat.

Repeat the fringe step as many times as you want to make fringe. This looks great hanging down off the bottom of a quilt. You can make the individual strands as long or as short as you like.

So that’s it for stitches. Now how do you finish? Take your needle and excess thread to the back of your project. I will show you two ways to finish depending on whether you are going to back your project or not.

If you are beading on just your top and batting (or felt or flannel or some other layer) and will back your work when you are finished then you don’t need to worry about hiding knots. Take a small stitch, just through the batting layer.

Pass your needle through the loop of the stitch.

Pull the thread tight creating a little knot stitch.

Then clip your threads leaving a generous 3” or 4” tails.

With these tails, tie a knot.

I usually do this twice. The beading thread is kind of like thin dental floss and has a tendency to misbehave. After you have spent all that time beading, you definitely don’t want the threads to come loose and beads to go every where. Then clip the ends about 1/2” from the knot.

Put your backing on and finish the edges as desired and you’re done!

If you have already backed and bound your piece and you are beading as a final step, I still take a very small knot stitch on the back. Actually I do two of these. Then knot your thread near the fabric and put your needle between the layers. Pull the thread to hide the knot between the layers and then clip your threads.

When beading as a final step you can travel between the layers to hide some of your stitching. For added security you may want to stop and tie off then restart in a new area instead of traveling very far. This way if the beading stitches come loose in one area later on, the problem will be contained and easier to fix. If you do travel, be sure go through the last couple beads twice and take a small knot stitch on the back at the end of the first beads, travel between the layers to the next area, then take a small stitch (up to the top and then back down to the back) that will be hidden beneath the next beads before continuing to bead. This will minimize the damage should your threads get cut later.

Whew! That’s all I have for you today. Happy beading!

Lynn

Beading Tutorial, Part One

Yesterday I showed you the Silk Radiance fabric I'm going to use for my March challenge with Lynn.  Well, I told Lynn, I'm pretty sure that faric is going to require some sort of bling...perhaps beads.  And Lynn does a lot of cool beading on her quilts.  So, I asked her for some advice, and I asked her if she'd be willing to do a guest post on my blog about beading on quilts.  She was kind enough to agree and then blew the doors off it by doing a two-part post!  She is here today to tell you about beading on quilts.  Come back tomorrow for Part Two, where she demonstrates some actual strategies for attaching beads on quilts.  Thank you so much, Lynn, for all the great information!  I am indebted to you!  I hope you--all my blogging friends--find the information Lynn provided as helpful as I did!  Visit her blog sometime and surf around.  Check out her quilts that she's beaded and buttoned.  I love her hand stitching on her projects, too.  I value my blogging friends so much and for many reasons, not the least of which is how much they teach me.  Thank you again, Lynn!

 

Hello everyone! Lynn here, aka Alamosa Quilter. Recently Stephanie asked me if I would do a beading tutorial for her. She wants to put some beads on a project. She suggested that as long as I’m doing a tutorial for her, maybe I should do a guest post for her. And here I am! We’ll start with some of the questions Stephanie sent me.

Stephanie: I want to do some beading on my quilt, but I’ve never beaded on a quilt before. I know you have some experience doing it, so here’s what I’m wondering:

Do you put the beads on before or after you quilt? I am thinking after, so that’s what the rest of my questions will assume.

Answer: You can do either. If you are not going to quilt the beaded area then you can bead before quilting. You may even want to just layer the front and batting, then bead. Once you are done beading, add the backing and quilt as desired. This will hide your beading stitches. Otherwise, just layer and quilt as normal and bead after you have quilted. You will want to hide your beading knots between the layers in this case.

Stephanie: What type of thread and needle do you use? I have used beading needles, which often are necessary to fit in the holes of the beads. But are they strong enough to get through the fabric?

Answer: I recommend beading thread. This is typically a nylon thread. The reason is that some of the beads can be sharp and may cut regular cotton. You can use any needle that will fit through the hole of your beads. I usually use a quilting needle, a between size 10 or 11. I have never used a beading needle. Some people use the very fine appliqué needles, called straw needles. These are longer than is comfortable for me though.

The thread I use comes on these little bobbins. It isn’t expensive – about $1.50 per bobbin. It comes in a few different colors. I have white, black and gray. In general, I match the thread to the fabric I am beading on. For black fabric I’d use black thread. However, for clear beads I’d probably stick with white.

Stephanie: What types of beads do you like to use best? How do you decide where to put the beads?

Answer: Mostly I use glass seed beads and bugle beads. They come in a variety of sizes. I seem to prefer the look of the smaller ones for some reason, not sure why. Put them where you want some extra sparkle or any where you want to accentuate. The beads are just another surface design feature.

You can sprinkle beads sparsely across the surface to accentuate certain areas, like in the photo above. Or you can group them for major impact, like in the photo below.

For these beaded flowers I used the design on the fabric below.

I carefully cut out the design I wanted and fused it to my background fabric then beaded over the design. It was my first major beading project and took a while to complete, but I love it.

<Comment from Stephanie:  I love this strategy of "borrowing" a motif from a fabric and beading on it!  How cool!>

I keep my beads and beading threads in this old loaf pan.

I buy beads when I see them without worrying how I will use them.

Stephanie: Do you have any tips or secrets to offer? Have I forgotten to ask something that you think is important for this?

Answer: I recommend a good beading book for inspiration and fancy stitching instructions. I have “Beading on Fabric: Encyclopedia of Bead Stitch Techniques” by Larkin Jean Van Horn.

There are other good books too. This is just the one I own. It has a spiral binding so it lays flat when open which is really nice. The book contains lots of good information about types of beads, some basics on how to bead, and such. Here is the table of contents.

The other thing to keep in mind is that beading is not a fast technique. I love the effect beads can give a quilt, but it can take a lot of time if you use a lot of beads. I am “process oriented” not “project oriented” so finishing quickly is not usually something I consider for an art quilt. “It takes as long as it takes” is my philosophy with art quilts.

I do not recommend putting beads on a bed quilt and definitely not on any quilt that will be used by a child.

In part two I will show you a few beading techniques and stitches along with tons of photos for each step.

Lynn

The Intrepid Thread: Welcome To My New Home...The Shop is Open

via intrepidthread.blogspot.com

One of my Quilted Fish Design team members, Julie, has opened her own on-line quilt shop! Very exciting! It's called the Intrepid Thread. Cool. She has a small inventory right now, but she is hoping to get more! She has the new Sugar and Spice fabric I blogged about today if you're feeling the need to get some. If you hop on over to her blog, you can find out how to get a 15% discount on your order. AND she's having a giveaway for a $20 gift certificate. So, hop on over there and get in on the fun. Maybe go shopping while you're at it.

I wish Julie all the luck in the world on her new venture! Very exciting!

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I've Got Love in My Tummy

Recently, I got some new fabric, and I'm not kidding....as a result, I couldn't get this song out of my head!  (Make sure you listen to the second verse; it is especially apropos, given some of my new fabric!)

 

I recieved a little package in the mail the other day from Amanda Herring, The Quilted Fish!

She gifted all of her design team members a fat quarter bundle of every fabric in her new line, Sugar and Spice! (Did you hear the line about sugar and spice in the song?  When I opened this, all I could do was to start singing, "Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got love in my tummy!)  Can you stand it?!  Look at the great colors!  I can't wait to tear into it!  But I can't stand to open it.  It's so pretty!  I just keep petting it for a while as I figure out what I'm going to do with it.  I have a few ideas up my sleeve.  And, do you see what the fat quarter bundle is sitting on?!  She also gifted each of us a 1-yard cut of two different laminated cottons!  I LOVE these!  And they are so soft and drapable!  These are going to be so fun to work with!  We get to do two projects this time...one from the cottons and one from the laminates!

Here is a funny story about these fabrics.  When I opened them and pulled out the fat quarter bundle, Sweet Pea looked inside the box and saw the laminated cottons.  Here is our conversation:

SP:  "Mom!  Raincoat fabric!  I love it!"  And she pulled it out. "Can I have this one?!"  She was holding the red polka dots.  

ME:  "No, I have to make something with it for The Quiilted Fish.  But I can make you something." 

SP:  "I love it, and you never let me have the fabric I want!"

ME:  "That's not true, and you know it.  Now give it back to me."

SP:  "That's no fair!"

ME:  "How about I make you something with it?"

SP:  "No.  I want it and I want to make something out of it."

ME:  "Okay, I can get some more and you can have it.  But I need this."

At this point, Sweet Pea runs out of the room with the polka dot fabric in hand and she HIDES IT FROM ME!  I asked her for it back several times and she said, "No.  I hid it from you."  I was sorta mad, but inside I was also dying laughing.  I faked like I was looking for it.  Then, I decided to let it go.  I looked for it half heartedly a couple of times over the next couple of days.  I asked her a few times where it was.  Each time, she'd walk over to her nightstand and stand right in front of the drawer.  She'd say, "I looked in here, but it's not there."  So, I was pretty sure I knew where it was.

After I finished her fleece vest, we were looking at the book with the little girl and doll patterns that I blogged about last week.  I looked at the messenger bag pattern and said, "Would you like me to make you something like this out of that red polka dot fabric?"  She said, "Yeah!"  So, I said, "Well, then I'll need that fabric you hid from me to do it."  Bingo.  She went and got it for me.  It was just too funny.  So, I'm keeping it a secret, because I have some fun things up my sleeve for that tutorial (I hope I can execute them).  But there's your one and only hint.

See the little crown on top of the fat quarter bundle?  Amanda is so sweet.  She sent us each a little crown pin to remind us that we are all queens and that we are special.  It was her way of thanking us for our work on the tutorials.  I thought that was pretty sweet.  But, I am definitely the one who is thanking her for this great opportunity and these wonderful gifts.  I am having a lot of fun with this team.

Here's a little close up shot of the bundle if you want a better idea of the fabrics.  There are flowers, paisleys, big polka dots, and ARGYLE!  LOVE!  Click here to go to Riley Blake's website to see all the fabrics, since I am still petting this and haven't opened it up yet.  You can also see all the laminates (there are 7 of them!!!) at the website as well.  While you're there, check out some of the neat embellishments they have (buttons, fringe, ribbons).  There's some pretty fun stuff there.

If you need tips on working with laminates, Amanda did an awesome tutorial for a checker board and a tic tac toe board and gave tips for working with laminates.

And speaking of fabric love...remember when I told you about the gal who did the hand dyed fabric and sells them at our guild meetings?  Well, at that meeting I picked up some of her newest fabric, which is called Silk Radiance.  It is so beautiful.  It's 55% cotton and 45% silk, so it behaves a little better than silk.  I bought some, but she had sold some of the colors I wanted before I got there.  And one was my favorite color...a pretty teal.  So I called Jackie and asked her if she'd dye some more for me.  She specially dyed a bunch of fabric just for me, and I picked it up the other day.  Again, all I could do was skip out to my car singing, "Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got love in my tummy!"  Check it out!

 

(SisLH, I picked up your fabrics for you, too!  I put them in the mail on Saturday.)

These silks are what I'm going to use to complete my March challenge with Lynn.  Yes, I know I'm late getting started, but I've been trying to get all the pieces in place....inspiration for design, inspiration for color, and then figuring out how I'm going to execute my idea.  Okay, I'm off to figure out that out now!

Until next time,

Mama Pea