Peas In A Pod

Attic Window Quilt Shop: YOU'RE NEVER TO YOUNG TO START QUILTING

via westmichquilter.blogspot.com

Last weekend, Sweet Pea and I traveled up to Grand Rapids to see Caroll and to have lunch with her. The Scrappy Quilt Bee was meeting, and I had been wanting to get in on this bee for a while. So, we brought Sweet Pea's machine with us, and she did some sewing. I just helped.

Caroll caught some photos that I did not get. She blogged the day very nicely. If you'd like to read more about it, go check out her post. You can see Sweet Pea's machine and what we worked on. Love these scrappy blocks with a fussy-cut center. It's all paper pieced, and she was completely independent at it by the last round and a half of logs!

It was a very memorable day. Sweet Pea is still talking about it.

Thanks, Caroll, for a wonderful day! And Buffie, too, for setting up the bee!

Until next time,

Using Lucy's Crab Shack Scraps, A Little Duffle Do It Pattern Review

Earlier, I showed you my Summer Table Runner.  The thing is, when you make it, you start with squares and cut the triangles from the squares.  So, you end up with some odd-sized triangular scraps.  They are too big to feel okay with throwing them away, but they're pretty strange sizes to use as well.

My friend, Brooke, made the same table runner.  She blogged how she used her scraps to make a table runner here. Her scrappy table runner is in her Etsy shop here, if you are interested.  You can see the odd sized triangles in the table runner she made from the scraps.

Also, I have a new book called Sunday Morning Quilts, written by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison.  I love this book and will review it for you.  But it is all about scrap quilting, and it has been giving me the urge to do a better job of using my scraps.

I have also been inspired by the 15 Minutes to Play project wiht Victoria Findlay.

So, I decided I was going to do something with these scraps.  So, I just started randomly sewing them together to make "fabric."  I would sew one to another, and then sew another on....  If I had raggedy points or edges, I just took my acrylic ruler, cut a straight line, and sewed another piece on.  Occasionally, I even cut the whole thing apart and sewed one side to another side.

Here is an example of my "made" fabric, along with some of the scraps next to it.  I made a piece big enough to cut a rectangle big enough for my project.  I even used the big scrap that was left over to make more fabric and to cut another rectangle this same size for the lining of my project.

And here is what it became!  A teeny tiny duffle bag.  I am going to use it to put my cords in when I travel.  I used one of the labels I had gotten from my label crew mailing on it.  I think it is so stinking cute!  I even had this turquoise ribbon with fishies on it that I used at each zipper end.

To give you a sense of scale, here it is in the palm of my hand.

Here is the back side.  The Lable Crew always comes with a label with your name on it.  So, I sewed it on the other side of this, in case I ever misplace it.  I might be too much label (combined with the one on the other side) for such a little tiny bag, but oh well!

Here is a shot of the inside of the bag.  I wanted to show you that the bag is fully lined.  I also used my "made" fabric for the lining.  I don't know if you can tell, but if you look on the left hand inside corner, you might be able to see that even the raw edges are covered with a little binding.  So, there are no raw edges inside.

I made this from a pattern called A Little Duffle Do It, from For the Love of Fabric.  (EDIT:  If you want to access an immediately downloadable version of the pattern, click here.)  I picked it up on a little mini shop hop I went on with Maureen a little while back (more on that soon).  I really enjoyed sewing this little bag and am going to make another one.  I plan to make more fabric and make a larger, matching one.  The finished dimensions of this tiny one are 4 x 2 x 2".  The pattern also has Small (6 x 3 x 2"), Medium (7 x 3 x 3") and Large (8 x 4 x 4").  I love patterns that give me lots of options like that.  The pattern was very easy to follow and very well written.  The zipper was very easy to install, so don't let that intimidate you, even if you are a beginner.  The instructions even tell you what foot to put on your machine, how to position the needle, and lots of tips to help this turn out well.  The bottom of the box is made stiff with Peltex, so there is some body to the bag.  There is no batting inside, which is really helpful in reducing bulk.  The sewing is very easy.  A couple of times, when I had to sew over quite a bit of bulk, it was a little tricky.  But it was not bad.  Given that this is the smallest bag, I imagine it's the most difficult to sew.  When you sew up the side seams, for example, they are small, and there's bulk to get under the needle.  But it went together without a hitch.  The larger ones would probably be even easier to sew.  I found that when you sewed the side seams, if you just followed the pattern tips and squished down the bag bottom (again, which is stiffer), it worked great.

The pattern author does mention it's a good idea to use a nondirectional fabric for this project.  I think this would be important, as the outside of the bag is one piece of fabric.  So, if you had words, for example, they'd be upside down on one side of the bag and not on the other.  My scrappy look worked quite well!

I would classify this as an advanced beginner to early intermediate pattern.  It's great, and I can't wait to make more.  I bet these would sell really well at your guild's sales, Christmas craft fairs, etc.  I think this entire bag took about an hour to make (not counting "making" my fabric, which probably took another hour).

And by the way, this was a great opportunity to use one of the new zippers I ordered.  Zipit was having a great sale.  Fifty 14" zippers in a variety of colors for about $23.  (Click the link to go to their Etsy listing for the zippers.)  I recently was trying to make something late at night and didn't have the color of zipper I needed.  I ordered these so I'd have a variety of zippers to choose from.  I just love this rainbow package!  Also included was a color card of all their zippers, which was helpful, and a little zipper pull they make (and which I love--I blogged those here).  It was hard to choose a color, because so many went nicely with the project.  In the end, I chose navy blue.  I like how it constrasted and went with the fabric.

**Note:  I purchased the pattern and all the supplies for this project with my own money.

Hop you like what I did and that you found the pattern review helpful.  I had a ton of fun with this project.

Until next time,

 

Lucy's Crab Shack, Summer Table Runner Pattern Review

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for my lapse in blogging.  I know I owe you a post about our new book.  But I need to download and optimize some photos to do that post.  And to do the download, I need to go to the university where I have fast internet (mine at home is still a little slow).  And I haven't been going to the university every day now that it's summer.  Do you ever get like that?  (i.e., Well, I need to do X, but in order to do X, I have to do Y and Z first, and I can't seem to get Y and Z done.)  Story of my life.  So, it's coming!

Until then, I'd like to share something else.  I've mentioned before that I belong to Sweetwater's Label Crew.  Last month's free pattern was the Summer Table Runner (click on it to get the pattern).  It came with some fun labels.  And I ordered some of Lucy's Crab Shack fabric to make it.  I really LOVE this fabric!

I shouldn't show it, because I'm sending it off as a gift to someone who reads my blog.  But maybe she won't be reading it today or in the next few days (to see why, read on below).  I'm really happy with how this turned out.  I think it's adorable.  But how could you go wrong with this fabric?!

Here is a close up shot of the label they sent to go with the project.  Cute, huh?!

Here is a close up of the quilting I did.  Just simple lines and triangles.  Once in the ditch and then once opposite.  I really  liked this pattern, because they even suggested the quilting design in the pattern.  Coming from someone who often has difficulty deciding how to quilt her project, I really appreciated the suggestion.  I used white Aurifil thread to quilt it.

Here is the fabric on the back.  I love that, too.  I am sending this to a friend who is having a mastectomy today.  She is a young woman...maybe only 40, if that.  She was a doctoral student at The Ohio State University when I worked as a professor there.  She was not my doctoral student, but she worked closely with me on some projects.  Since she graduated, we have become friends (as often happens with doctoral students...I usually can't wait for them to graduate so we can be friends!).  Anyway, when she was a student, she had breast cancer and underwent chemotherapy.  She stayed in school through the whole thing.  I always tell her she is my idol and role model for a strong woman.  Well, almost 10 years to the day later, they found a spot on her routine mammogram.  So, she's having a mastectomy today.  I feel bad that's she's going through this again.  She always says the beach is her "happy place."  The whole time I was sewing this, I was thinking of her.  Although I love this table runner and I adore these fabrics, I am sending it to her and hoping it brings her a little joy and happiness right now when she needs it.  If you want to read about her situation, you can visit her blog, Scarlett in Modernity.  She has been very open about it all.  Please send your positive thoughts her way today.

Anyway, as far as a pattern review, I thought this pattern was very well written.  The runner is very easy to put together.  I think I made the top in a couple of ours (including cutting).  It took about 30 minutes to quilt, 15 minutes to sew the binding on, and maybe another hour to do the hand sewing on the binding.  I really appreciate the quick but cute projects that Sweetwater gives us all.  I would recommend this pattern if you are looking for a quick and easy project.  I would classify it as a "beginner friendly" pattern.  The triangles are bit and easy to sew together.  You don't have to do anything funky with the corners (like hang the end out 1/4 to accommodate for the seam allowance).  Just match the tip of the triangle to the corner of the other triangle and sew.  It all works out.  It would make a good hostess gift

**Note, I purchased this pattern and all the supplies to make the project with my own money.

In my next post, come back to see what I did with the scraps!  I had plenty of scraps from the project, and I can't wait to show you what I did.

Until next time,

A Few More Booths, then Taking it all Down (Spring Quilt Market 2012, Post #5)

Someone told me my links weren't working in yesterday's post.  I'm so sorry.  I don't know why they aren't working.  I even went into the html code to try to figure it out.  I'm trying on fixing them and will let you know when they are fixed.  I hope these work okay!  They seem to.

Last day of Quilt Market.  Here were the goings on....

In the morning, I was "off," so I wandered around to a few more booths that I hadn't seen yet.  (Truthfully, I know I still missed a lot.  As I look at other people's photos of booths, I see things I did not see.  I am always saying, "Where was that???!!!  I didn't see that!")  Anyway, here was Alexander Henry's booth.  Pretty strange, but I liked it.

Here is a close up of that sculpture for you.  Pretty creative, huh?  I like the off-kilter sense of humor, like what's found in their Ghastlies fabric.

Then, I ran into Sarah Vedeler at her booth.  I am so in awe of this woman.  She has made it her career to do digitized embroidery designs.  I really like her work a lot.  She has a doctorate, too.  But she left the corporate world and is now doing embroidery designs and supporting her children with that as her career.  I really liked her new set, which is behind us on the wall.  A quilt to her right, and a sleeping bag with the same design over my left shoulder.  Yep.  Going to make that for Sweet Pea.  She'll love it.  She is into "Peace, Love, and Joy!"  If you want to see more about this design and pattern, check out her website here.

I know I showed you some of this before.  I think it's really neat, and I told you I'd come back to it.  This is Paint Fusion.  (Sorry, I could not find this on the web yet.  It's very new.  When I get a link, I will share it!)  They had powdered pigments that you mix with a binder and can paint on fabric.  You can see the painted fabric below the sample.  It is very soft and supple....the paint does not change the hand of the fabric.  And you can probably see the mica and glisten in the paint.

This quilt started out all white.  The basic design was quilted on the white fabric, then painted.  Then, the detail quilting was added later in the solid blue parts.

Here is a detail shot for you.  I think this is pretty interesting.  I will be playing with this later.  Must try it!

The Dear Stella booth.  I just liked it.  Bright.  Cheerful.  Great chairs!

A detail shot for you.  Love that Cathedral Window pillow!

Another detail shot.  I think I could have just sat and looked at this booth for quite some time.

Next, I stopped at the Hemma Design booth.  I loved these little pattern storage boxes.  (Come on...you know me and my fetish for storage containers!)  Super cute.

For a future Quilted Fish project, I had thought about designing some bicycle bags.  But, I see it's already been done, and quite well, I might add.  Oh well!

And these little storage containers were awfully cute, too.  Wow.  Hemma had a lot of cute stuff.

More cute stuff from Hemma.  Are you seeing this?  Embroidery hoops, both plastic and wooden, for the handles on these baskets.  Cute!

Another cute booth.  It was very quiet on Sunday as I wandered through these booths.  It was sort of relaxing and nice!

The circus themed booth was quite fun.  You know I love this color combo!

Complete with elephants.  Very cute.  You can see they won a ribbon for this booth.

Yep.  It was the Michael Miller booth.

After all that, I came back to the booth and helped finish out the day.  At 4:00, we could start taking the booth down.  By 4:20, the booth looked like this.  Seriously.  What took us 2 days to put up took us 20 minutes to destroy!

Then, all we could do was wait, wait, wait for our crate.  So, we all sat down and rested our aching feet.  Very aching feet!!!!

My feet really, really hurt.  Really.

We did some serious goofing off while we waited for the crate.  I have a lot of cute photos, but we were all laying down and someone's boob was in the way in each one!  Haha!  Candice and Jackie would kill me if I posted those photos.  So, sorry guys!  You don't get to see them!

I did manage to catch Amanda and Kayce grabbing a quick photo.

Amanda and I had fun all weekend photo bombing.  For example, there were all these graduations happening across from the convention center, and Amanda and I did our best to photo bomb a few.  So, we decided to photo bomb some of our own photos.  We were taking a photo of Candice, Jackie, and Robbie when Amanda looked at me and said, "Stephanie, you go high, I'll go low!"  Here is the result.  I was laughing so hard after this one, I almost wet my pants!  I just want to say, white girls CAN jump!  I was impressed with the air I got!  Haha!  At 47 years old this summer, not bad!

Amanda and Kayce having a very serious moment together.  I do think we were the most fun group on this entire floor.  Just sayin'.

So, while we were waiting for our crate, I decided to walk around and see what the rest of market looked like as it was being packed up.  Here is Riley Blake getting all packed up.  Yes, my feet hurt, but if I didn't keep moving, I thought I would fall asleep right on that concrete floor!

Forklifts were running all over, delivering crates, picking up carpets.  It is so hard to believe that less than 60 minutes before this photo was taken, things looked like you saw above!

Everyone worked hard and furious.  You could tell peple just wanted to get the he** out of here at this point!

After 2 LONG HOURS, our crate finally arrived.  It took us another hour and a half, I think, to get everything packed into this little "closet."  It was a real puzzle to get it all back in there.

Oh, and when we opened up the crate, look who was trying to claw his way out of the crate.  We had accidentally locked him in the crate for the whole weekend.  Poor guy.  Sally, this one's for you.  (This is an inside, Quilted Fish joke, that even I don't totally get, because it started at Market a year or so ago, when I didn't attend.  I tried to find an old post of Sally's to help you with the inside scoop, but I couldn't find it.  If I do, I'll share the link with you.)

Like I said, it was a real puzzle to get everything back in the crate.  Jackie and Amanda strong-armed that thing shut.  Honestly, I would hate to be in Amanda's shoes when she got home and had to open that thing.  Can you say, "A-Va-Lanche?!"  I really hate to admit this, but I really wished Papa Pea was there to help load this baby up.  He is the Master Packer.  But don't tell him I said that.  I'll never live it down.

Sigh.  I can't believe it's all over.  It was really the experience of a lifetime.  I really can't believe it was all real.  Without the supporting documentation here, I wouldn't believe it still!  Hope I get to go back next spring.  I know I can't make it to fall market....middle of the semester for me.  Maybe Portland next spring?

I do have  a few photos I didn't show you yet.  Those will show up later, I think, on another matter.  :-)  (Oh, I still have to show you some of my loot from market.  So, yeah, you'll see a few more photos scattered here and there!)

Hope you enjoyed my trip down Market Memory Lane.  It was fun for me, anyway. 

Tomorrow, I'll try to put together a post about our new book.  And how about a couple of giveaways??  Yeah.  That sounds good.

Until next time,

Modern Quilt Meet-Up, More Booths (Spring Quilt Market 2012 Post #4)

Hi Everyone!  Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  My trip to Seattle was great, but really tiring.  I came home and haven't been feeling well.  I either picked up something with all the hand shaking I did, picked up something on the airplane, or just plain wore myself out!  Or maybe all three of the above!  I am feeling a little better today so I'll try to get caught up here!

Can you stand to hear a couple more Market posts?  I know everyone is getting tired of hearing about Market....  Then, I have a post for you on our new book!  Yippee!

 On Saturday morning, I had a little meet up with some of my blogging buddies.  Here we are after breakfast.  I'm on the left, then Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts, Claire (Amanda Jean's sister), Shelly of Prairie Moon Quilts, Cindy of Live a Colorful Life, and Tara of Tinkerfrog.  We had a lovely time at breakfast.

After breakfast, Brooke and I wandered around to see more booths.  I got to meet Pat Sloan.  That was totally fun.  She is exactly like she is on her radio show and on her blog.  Loved her!

Her new fabrics are called Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables.  It's a collection of pretty batiks.

Here is a quilt made from Kate Spain's new line.  This was hanging over at the Moda booth.  I really like this fabric and this quilt.  Plus, I thought the quilting was gorgeous!

Here is a close up of some of the quilting.

This was Edyta Sitar's booth.  You all know how much I love her!

I probably could have stayed in Edyta's booth all day long.  :-)

Next, Brooke and I  visited the Empty Bobbin booth.  What an adorable couple that owns this shop.  Great patterns and ideas here!

Loved this advent calendar pattern.  Bought it. Haha!

They gave me a copy of this sewing machine cover pattern.  I am going to be writing a pattern review of it soon for you!  Stay tuned for that!

  Then, I met Pam Kitty Morning.  She was so nice!

I had a nice conversation with this gal at the Lecien booth!

I had a lot of fun talking with Joel Dewberry!  He didn't have new fabric out this market, but he had some great new patterns that I'd like to try.

Oh, and there were all sorts of opportunities to be given free books.  I really love this book, called Quilting Modern (I'll do a book review of it soon).  She autographed it for me.  I had a wonderful time talking to this author, Jacquie Gering.  She was so nice!  Turns out she lives in Chicago.  I am trying to get her to come here to Michigan for a visit.  That would be so wonderful.

I got to hang out a bit with Bari J at her booth.

Here is her booth.  Very pretty.

She won an award for her booth.  Congratulations Bari J!

Then, Brooke and I got to hang out with Julie of the Intrepid Thread as she picked out her new fabric lines for next year.  This was at Andover Fabrics' booth.

Another book giveaway....I got a copy of Amanda Jean's and Cheryl's new book Sunday Morning Quilts.  I LOVE this book and have a book review and giveaway coming up for this book.  Stay tuned!

I also got to go to a book signing with Elizabeth Hartman (Oh Fransson!).  Her new book is Modern Patchwork.  She is awfully sweet!  I really like her new book a lot, too!

Back at the booth, we spent the afternoon helping people making more necklaces.  These are the girls from the Fat Quarter Shop.  They were awesome!

That night, the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild held a Modern Meet Up.  It was really awesome.  When you walked in the door, the first thing that happened is you were ushered to a table, where everyone got a door prize.  I got to meet Tammy, the owner of Marmalade Fabrics.  Do you ever meet someone and feel like you've been friends for a long time?  That's how I felt with Tammy.  I wish I lived in Kansas City so we could be closer friends!  Maybe through blogland, we'll be able to maintain a friendship.  Wow.  What a great gal!

Then, toward the end of the evening, there was a drawing for door prizes.  BIG prizes.  And guess who the first prize went to???  ME!!!!  OMG!  I couldn't believe it!  Do you see that fabric bundle I am holding?  There are 22 one-half yard cuts of fabric in really juicy colors.  It was all put together and donated by none other than Marmalade Fabrics!  I about died, I tell you!  Many thanks to Tammy for donating this wonderful bundle!  Seriously!  I can't thank you enough!  And on my left is Lisa, one of Tammy's friends and assistants with the shop.  Lisa is another one I hit it off with like crazy.  Turns out, she's originally from St. Joe's, Michigan!  Another person I'd love to hang around with more.  I was higher than a kite in this photo.  I could not believe it.

Claire (Amada Jean's sister) also won a big door prize.  Wow!

I got to speak with Amy Butler at the Modern Meet Up as well.  She is very nice and personable.  Oh, to be that tall, skinny, and beautiful, too!

Shelly (Prairie Moon Quilts) was there, and so was Victoria Findlay Wolfe of Bumblebeans.  I have followed Victoria for a while, so it was really fun to meet her in person.

Toward the end of the night, Lisa pulled out this quilt she had made for a challenge.  Wow. Is it spectacular or what?!

Even the back of the quilt is spectacular.  I love it when people take this kind of care with the backs of their quilts.

Well, at this point, they were kicking us out of the room at the hotel.  I hated to leave Tammy and Lisa, as well as Shelly and Victoria.  I also met another fun friend named Stephanie.  We've become Facebook friends since then, and guess what???  I learned she grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, my hometown!  What a small world!  I tell you.....

Well, I was exhausted at this point, but I went back to the hotel room with Brooke, and we hung out with all the other Quilted Fish gang.  We stayed up really late again, because the next day was our last day at Market.  Come back tomorrow, and I will show you how we broke down the booth.  I also met a few more neat people and saw some more fun booths.

I have to run.  I haven't had time to proofread this, so I hope there weren't too many typos.

Until next time,