Sorry about the trouble with my Gruber's blog post. It seems people were having trouble accessing the page and the comments. I don't know why this happens now and then. I put in a help ticket on Typepad and will try to get it fixed. I will keep you posted!
In the meantime, I just found out that Amanda Herring, The Quilted Fish, is giving all you lovely readers a chance to get our book at a 20% discount from now until July 22, 2012.
I gotta tell you, I am so far behind in my blogging. I have hundreds of photos I want to show you from this summer, but alas, I seem to not have time to get on here and share. Well, I keep telling myself, now I'm stockpiled for when I have a dry spell! LOL.
So, I'll just start with recent stuff. Last weekend, Sweet Pea, Papa Pea, and I traveled to Minnesota to visit my BIL. Then, I headed off to my quilt retreat at Gruber's in St. Cloud while Sweet Pea and Papa Pea went visiting relatives.
Here was my pile of crap--er, really valuable sewing stuff--that I took with me on retreat. (I cannot wait to get that tile in our entryway replaced!) Papa Pea commented it was an awful lot of stuff. But I used it all--well, except for that wire basket on top--never did get to that project! I think there was a method to my madness. If I take a lot with me, he won't notice how much I bring home, right? Truthfully, I was pretty well behaved on the shopping front.
I worked on quite a few things. One was my next Quilted Fish idea, so I can't show you that. Another was a blog for my bee, which I'll show you in another post. I spent a lot of time making blocks for my Urban Nine Patch quilt (click the link for the tutorial). I came with three blocks done and left with nine done! Woo hoo! I am going to make four more. I will set them on point like this. I am happy with how it is turning out. I had my friends at the retreat pick my color combinations fo rme. It was fun!
Everyone had cool stuff they were working on and neat show and tells. People were talking about how they don't blog other people's work so as not to steal their thunder. It gave me pause. So, instead of a parade of show and tell, I'll just give you some sneaky peeks at some things people were working on. These are some of the close up photos I took, so as not to spoil their action with the whole quilt.
Mary's Birdie Stitches. (Click the link for the pattern.) Awesome. With Kate Spain's Fandago. I'm working on this one and totally copying Mary.
Another of Mary's fantastic creations.
Michelle made this awesome goodie for her sister, Rene', for her birthday. I LOVE IT. And Michelle is a semi new quilter. Hello. Quite talented!
Here is part of Rene's Peace and Love quilt. I think that's what she called it. It is so wonderful....for her new baby grandson.
A quilt Rene' was working on last year. Wow. I LOVED this one.
Amanda Jean's 36 patch...made for her 36th birthday. How cool is that. How could I do a 47 patch? LOL.
How about some photos of work spaces?
Mary was hard at work on this beauty on her little Featherweight.
Amanda Jean with her beloved Juki...working on little mini trash bins.
Here are some of her little trash bins. Love them. She gifted each of us one! How cute are they?
Terri had this pile of squares she was making numerous projects from. She is quite talented with combining fabrics!
Doris had this cutie patootie bag. I love it. I managed to find the pattern for it. Gotta make one! 'Cause you all know I need another bag!
Doris' workspace. Doris had a lot of fun stuff going on at her sewing machine. Love her little coffee mug.
Terri made a bunch of these little zipper bags. She gifted us each one. They are made with fabric she designed on Spoonflower! Lovely! I'll do a follow up post on all the little gifties.
Here's Rene' as she works on her totally awesome cowboy quilt. I'm going to copy her on this one, too. I hope you'll be seeing that in the future. This photo gives you an idea of our awesome quilting space at the retreat center. We sewed, drank a little wine, ate quite a bit at dinner (we were all good for breakfast and lunch, though), talked a lot...well, you get the picture.
Mary is so adorable. She decided to take up crocheting. She's making a quilt with blocks that you crochet around and connect. Cindy and Amanda Jean are going to do it, too, I think.
It all started in part because Mary won this book on a giveaway on Cindy's blog. I think she looks like a happy hooker, don't you? (C'mon. I mean hooker in the crochet sense!)
On Saturday, we all challenged ourselves to try something new. Here is Cindy, trying out free motion quilting on Amanda Jean's Juki. She said it was FUN! I was doing curved piecing on my Urban Nine Patch. Curves are a challenge for me, so that was good. Others were trying crochet or trying to sew something 3-D, like a pincusion. Others were learning to sew in zippers. I love these retreats, because we all learn so much from each other--about sewing, blogging, pattern design, fabric, child rearing, and life in general!
And there was some shopping involved, of course! This is Michelle's haul. I'll show you mine later.
This shirt Michelle was wearing really cracked us all up!
And here is the gang. In the back, from left to right, is Doris, Michelle, Rene', Terri, and Mary. In the front, from left to right, is Cindy, Amanda Jean, and me. We are posing in front of one of Terri's creations from retreat. Beautiful. We sure missed Shelly and Toni this year. Hugs to both of them. But I had a great time with these gals. I can't wait to see them again next July. They are simply the best. I tell you, if you haven't checked out their blogs, you sure should. They are all so incredibly talented and awe-inspiring. I often wonder what I'm doing there with them! But mostly, they are the nicest, most genuine women I have met. I am lucky to know them all.
And to think. If I had never met Shelly in blogland, I wouldn't know any of these ladies. Last year, Shelly invited me to tag along, I went, and, well...the rest is history. And blogland helps us keep in touch over the rest of the year. Blogland is a beautiful thing! Shelly, I owe you one...BIG TIME!
I need to take photos of my gifties and my goodies that I purchased. I'll try to share that next time. Oh, and I had a nice visit with Brooke along the way, too. I need to download those photos to show you, too. They're on my other camera. Oy.
Hope you're doing swell! It is so dry here, we have only cut our lawn TWICE all summer! We have had no rain in two months. I have kept my plants alive, but my lawn is long dead. Wow. Pretty weird weather this summer!
I am back from my retreat, and I just drew a number for the book giveaway. I had 64 comments (Wow! That's the most I've ever had! Thank you all!) on the post, so I put in 1 through 64 on Mr. Random, and here's what I got:
Number 46! (Why couldn't it be like number 3? Much easier to count! LOL.) By my count, comment #46 was Gwen Windham, who said:
Thank you for the wonderful tutorial! And for the chance to win this book! Those little flowers are so pretty! I can think of so many uses for them!! They'd be adorable attached to a headband=== or some flip flops!!! OR both! :-) Thank you for the chance to win!
I will email you, Gwen, to get your mailing information!
Thanks to everyone who played along! I appreciate all your positive feedback and lovely comments. I sure wish I had 64 books to give away. I would like to give one to each of you.
I'm very excited to be hosting today's events for our book tour.
When Amanda e-mailed all of us to ask if we all wanted to write a book together, I was like, "Of course!" I couldn't wait! I thought it would be so fun (and it was!).
But then I took a huge gulp and said to myself, "Wow. Now I have to come up with a project that is 'book worthy!'" (Remember the Seinfeld episode--Are you "sponge-worthy?" LOL)
(This clip has nothing to do with my tutorial..but the "book worthy" comment made me think of this episode. I love this Seinfeld episode!)
I sat down and started to think about what I needed but I had no pattern to make. I realized I have been wanting a crafting organizer that is different from anything I had seen on the market before.
I do a little bit of hand stitching....and I always have at least three or four different hand stitching projects going on at any one given time. Is anyone else like that?
So, I created this project, called "Core Essentials" (get it--Apple Core!) for the book. It's an organzier that has rings for the binding. That way, you can open the rings and take pages in and out. I designed different styles of pages:
One page with a zipper pocket on one side and two zipper pockets on the back side. All the pockets are clear vinyl.
One page with a clear vinyl pouch on each side of the page for your patterns.
One page that holds a note pad and pen so you can keep notes or keep track of rows, etc.
This way, I could keep my "core" handwork items (like my scissors, needles, etc.) in one page and then I could make additional pages for each of my handwork projects. Then, when I am about to travel, I can just grab the project page, add it to my book, and off I go! I hope you like it!
Each of my pages for the book, as well as the cover, have binding on it. For my post today, I wanted to give you a little tutorial on how to attach the binding neatly. I wanted to put these instructions in the book, but I was limited on space. I would like to show you how easy it is so you aren't intimidated by it. I know when I first tried it, it wasn't completely intuitive as to how to do it. So, I hope this helps!
I am working with a scrap from my cover here for illustration purposes. (This piece of fabric is my favorite from Amanda's new Apple of My Eye fabric line from Riley Blake.) If this was a page in my book, it would also have vinyl pockets, etc. I am also working with double fold binding.
The pages on my book are only bound on three sides. The last side has a grommet strip that gets sewn on it, so there is no need to put binding on it. So, the first step is to put the binding over the edge of one side. You can let the end run long a little and trim it off later.
The key is to make sure your binding edges are about even on both sides. You want to make sure to catch both sides when you sew. You can pin or, better yet, I used Clover Binding Clips to do this (especially when I had vinyl layers in there, too).
I found it helpful to do this with my walking foot. That kept everything feeding through nicely. I aligned the left edge of the binding with the inside edge of my foot. I moved my needle left to where I wanted to sew. Don't sew too close to the edge, or you risk not catching the edge on the back side. I'm pushing it a bit here sewing this close to the edge.
Sew all the way to the end, but not past the end. Backstitch a little, cut your threads, and take your fabric out of the machine. DO NOT CUT the binding!
It should look like this. I sewed with white thread so you'd be able to see better. You should sew with matching thread (unless you WANT your stitches to show up like this).
Now, to go around the corner...Open up the binding and bend it 90 degrees around the corner. The binding will fold and magically make your miter for you.
Now, fold the binding down over the edge, and you should have a nice miter on each side. Sometimes you have to fuss with it a little to get the corner to nicely match up to the edge. But it is not hard.
I don't pin these corners. I just slide it into the machine and lower the needle in my handwheel right in that corner. (I do pin the middle sections a bit to hold them in place.)
Sew all the way to the end, just like you did before, clip your threads, and remove the fabric from the machine. This is how your corner should look now.
The other end looks like this. Now, repeat the process for this corner and sew to the other edge.
When you get to this edge, you can trim off the excess binding, even with the page. If you were doing the cover, you would NOT cut here. Instead, you would go around this corner and meet up with the other end and finish it along a straight edge by trying one end under and sewing it down. When I am going all the way around, as in the cover, I start my binding strip about halfway across a straight edge as well, not on a corner.
This is what the finished, bound page should look like on both sides. It can be a little tricky to always catch that bottom side. So, just sew carefully and always be checking the underside of your work to make sure you're catching that binding edge on the back side. If you are really nervous about it, make sure the binding on the back side is a little "deeper" than the binding on the front. I find that to be successful.
I hope this little tutorial was helpful, if you decide to make that project! I also hope you like my project in general. It is sort of intimidating to put yourself so far out there with something so close to your heart!
Now, how about a giveaway?!
EDIT: This giveaway is now closed. The winner was #46, Gwen! Congratulations!
I will be giving away one copy of the book. Do you want one? If so, leave me a comment, and I'll put your name in the drawing! I'll draw a name on July 12!
And while we're at it, how about ANOTHER giveaway?! Amanda has some kits left over from Market for making these necklaces. The winner will also receive a kit to make this necklace, another project in the book. It is so adorable. And these flowers are also so cute by themselves, with a clip on the back as a hair clip, or a brooch, or to clip on the cuff of your capris. So cute! If you leave a comment, you'll be in the drawing for one of these as well!
How's that for some fun!
If you want to see more glimpses of the projects in the book, make sure you visit everyone else's blogs this week, too. Everyone will be sharing their projects and offering a little tutorial of some sort. And each one of us is giving away at least one book and a necklace kit. So, you could have lots of chances to win! Good luck!
THE SCHEDULE
Sunday, July 1st: visit The Quilted Fish's Blog AND Jana's Blog (Make sure you go and visit their blogs today. You can still get in on the action, I'm sure!)
You know you want one. C'mon! Go ahead and click so you can go get one!
They are really reasonably priced at $18, and you get nine patterns in the book! That's only $2 per pattern! And I tell you, there are some pretty awesome projects in this book. Our team did a really good job on this, if I do say so myself!
I am off to my retreat at Gruber's! I can't wait! I'll be back soon with how that went! (As if it could be anything but fantastic!)
So sorry I've been so absent and without a word. I appreciate your e-mails asking where I've been, and I apologize if I haven't responded yet. I know it is summer, and my work life should slow down....but it feels like it hasn't. I still get as many e-mails during the summer as I do during the academic year, and I just have a lot going on. That, combined with trying to spend some real quality time with Sweet Pea and Papa Pea (which we've been doing) has kept me hopping. And that has left little time for blog writing or reading! So, I'll apologize for not being by your blog lately and not being very responsive to comments. I've read all your comments and really appreciate them! I will try to get back to them. I will also be by your blogs soon. I sort of feel like I need to get into the swing of things again!
Anyhoo....
Many of you had asked about the Quilted Fish Design Team's book, which I blogged about in my market posts. Well, you are in luck! This week, we are hosting a blog tour for the book. I am a day late with this post, so it's already underway. There will be copies of the book given away at each post, other prizes, and little tutorials for you to enjoy. We hope you love it! So, stop by and check things out each day. Here is the schedule:
Sunday, July 1st: visit The Quilted Fish's Blog AND Jana's Blog (Make sure you go and visit their blogs today. You can still get in on the action, I'm sure!)
They are really reasonably priced at $18, and you get nine patterns in the book! That's only $2 per pattern!
I'll be back in a few days with my contribution to the book tour. Then, I'm going away to my annual retreat at Gruber's in Minnesota. I'll be home for a few days and then gone again for a week to New Hampshire to celebrate my parents' 70th birthdays! So, I may not be back to regular blogging for a short bit, but I'll try to get some blog posts in along the way.
Number 46! (Why couldn't it be like number 3? Much easier to count! LOL.) By my count, comment #46 was Gwen Windham, who said:
Thank you for the wonderful tutorial! And for the chance to win this book! Those little flowers are so pretty! I can think of so many uses for them!! They'd be adorable attached to a headband=== or some flip flops!!! OR both! :-) Thank you for the chance to win!