QuiltCon Prepping Fun

February 18, 2016February 16, 2016 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Since I will taking a class from Lizzy House on Block Printing (see random sample from web, above), and since I decided I’d had enough of “have-to” sewing, I wanted to just whip up something fun. . . like a tool roll.

Here it is, fully loaded. I had some leftover canvas from making bags for grandchildren, doubled that, then stitched on wee pockets for my tools. Oh, plus a flap for rolling over the tools and a tie.

Empty. It’s in the bottom of my bags that are all packed up for QuiltCon this week:

I’ve been working backstage on a quilt to bring to the kind folks who asked me to make a further-backstage quilt for their market booth (pictures of that one coming in May). But I wanted to have something for them to show off their fabulous new line of solids, called Painter’s Palette, so I put together this smallish quilt for them to have in their booth at QuiltCon for everyone to put their hands all over to feel the nice hand of the fabrics. I call it Focus, and soon I’ll put up a free pattern on Craftsy for it. Just not this week.

Focus, quilt #158
Approximately 38″ by 42″

I quilted it lightly, because heavy quilting changes the texture of a quilt, sometimes obscuring the “hand” of the fabric. Since it can be hung both ways, I had to construct a rod pocket that could go both ways.

See you on the backside of QuiltCon!

Lanyard Tutorial for Quilt Shows

February 15, 2016February 12, 2016 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

I didn’t have a lanyard last year at QuiltCon, and my pins slipped and slid everywhere, beside the fact that I jingle-jangled as I walked. I wanted one of those spiffy ones, where I could pin on my pins.

I patchworked up a strip 3 3/4″ wide and 37″ long, took it to my ironing board and pressed it in half, lengthwise.

Open it up, and to one side of the center fold, lay down a 1″ wide by length-of-lanyard strip of fusible interfacing; iron that into place.

Fold both raw edges in, almost to the center, but not quite. The side with the interfacing should be folded over that interfacing, and the side without interfacing should match when all folded up. With the interfacing UP (not to the feed dogs), stitch first along one long side about 1/4″ away from the fold, then the other. Make sure you’ve caught all the folded edges when you stitch it down. Then stitch down the center.

Arrange the strips so that it will hang around your neck (see top photo), then mis-align the lower raw edges, setting the top one 1/4″ beyond the bottom strip. Slip on the lanyard clasp.

Zigzag the extended top strip over the bottom strip, to hold it in place.

(View from the underside)

Again, for ease in wearing, slightly splay the two strips apart, then stitch along the finished ends (refer to photos).

(View from the top side)

Yes, I’m headed to QuiltCon West 2016 this week (held in Pasadena, California), along with some friends from the Good Heart Quilters, the small monthly sewing group I belong to here (which is why there is heart fabric on our lanyards).

That Friday night class is taught by Jacqueline Sava. I hope to meet a lot of my online friends, trying to make “real” the digital friendships I’ve enjoyed. There should be ~~more than a few~~ a whole mess of photos on my Instagram feed (button is to the right). If you are going, find me and swap me a button!

Halloween QAL · Quilts

Halloween 1904 Quilt-A-Long

February 13, 2016April 10, 2016 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

(Picture borrowed from the amazing Thelma of Cupcakes and Daisies here)

So now that the Spelling Bee is underway for the year, as well as some other quilt-a-longs I’m involved in (Oh Christmas Tree) I thought I’d get going on the Hallowe’en 1904 quilt. The pattern was found for me by Leslie, a fabulous reader, and I’ve already roped in one friend to do this with me. The quilt was designed by Barb Adams of Blackbird Designs. If you want to follow along, I’ve figured out how we’re going to get done by August, leaving you plenty of time to get it quilted and bound by October. My friend is doing it with me, so you may see some of her work here as well as mine.

So here is how I’ve envisioned dividing up the quilt into steps (yes, that’s me up there, conjuring up more time at the sewing machine):

Step 1: February 2016–buy all the fabrics and find the pattern. Mine was purchased from Common Threads in Waxahachie, TX (www.commonthreadsquilting.com). The quilt measures 90 by 90, which is too large for me, so I’m only doing nine blocks. Each block is 20″ square, and with the outer borders, that should come to roughly 65″ square. I may change my mind, but this looks good from here.

Step 2: March 2016–Cut out the quilt: the tan backgrounds of the squares, the border triangles, the smaller half-square triangles, and the piano key border

Step 3: April 2016–Assemble three blocks and add pumpkin appliques, using the pumpkin appliqué pattern. We’ll be adding the HST borders in July, so don’t worry about that now. Because I am not a big believer in re-inventing the wheel, we’ll use Thelma’s method (of Cupcakes and Daisies) for adding the curlicue stem. (NOTE: I’m making a smaller quilt, so will only be doing 2 pumpkins.)

Step 4: May 2016–Assemble two blocks and appliqué one cat, and one owl (refer to Thelma’s quilt).

Step 5: June 2016–Assemble the rest of the blocks. For me that is five blocks of stars. We’ll be using Thelma’s method.

Step 6: July 2016–It’s half-square triangle month–HSTs until you can’t see straight, and then you’ll sew them onto your blocks.. There are 24 HST for each block. In the pattern, and in the photo above from Thelma, they are mixed up and varied, but also harmonized (some have a mix of orange and black, some have just black, some have just orange.) Make your own rules and go with it.

Step 7: August 2016–Cut piano key borders and the four pinwheels in each corner. Sew them together and attach them to the quilt.

Ta-done! My job as a quilt-a-long crazy person is to lay out the steps and to get you (and me) to the end. From here you’ll do the quilting and the binding.

Hope you decide to join us, and finally have that Halloween quilt you’ve always wanted on October 1st. . . instead of the usual 31st. To keep in the spirit of things, the Hallowe’en Quilt QAL will post on the 13th of every month. . . whenever that is.

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Update on Oh Christmas Tree QAL: I’ve updated Step: Prepare to include a couple more places to buy high quality wool felt. In addition, I’ve been working ahead on the circles, and have a few tips on how to construct them (from Wendy in New Zealand), so you may want to hold off on cutting the circles all out of felt, until you read the next post on March 2nd. Lastly, today I saw the Simply Moderne magazine at my local JoAnn’s store, if you are still looking for it.

Quilts · Something to Think About

February’s Procrastination

February 5, 2016February 5, 2016 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

I did the Husband Random Name Generator today and Diane Nelson is the winner of the pearl cotton bubbles. Congratulations, Diane! I mailed them off this afternoon to you. Glad you are making good progress on your Oh Christmas Tree.

I received my latest Frivols tin, with the cutest little scissor holder–it will just fit nicely over my embroidery scissors. I signed up for a year of these as a retirement present to myself. So far it’s going along nicely: I have a stack of seven tins on my sewing room shelf (they have numbers on the side to keep track of them), with none of them made. I think I need to stop putting this off.

Laurel let me stipple on her quilt for her yesterday. Isn’t this just the dream of a mini quilt? It’s for an auction for Autism Research.

Bee blocks are in my life right now. I was Queen Bee for January in two bees, and they are rolling in–one batch of words for Spelling Bee was held up by a snowstorm in the midwest, and the rest of the words are being held back by my procrastination (see notes at the end of this post).

I finished this book block for Cindy’s granddaughter’s quilt last night, and there’s my signature block. I love that in our bee we do signature blocks for each other; we also do them in The Spelling Bee too.

Time to gear up for February’s Chuck Nohara blocks. Looks like we have more piecing than appliqué this time around–should go quickly together. Susan has already started hers: here and here. She’s quick!

Maybe not getting to them until now means I’m just taking to heart the advice from Adam Grant in his recent New York Times article “Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate.” He wrote that “while procrastination is a vice for productivity, I’ve learned — against my natural inclinations — that it’s a virtue for creativity.” There’s a term for that process of always working to finish things early. It’s pre-crastination. Grant notes that “Pre-crastination is the urge to start a task immediately and finish it as soon as possible. If you’re a serious pre-crastinator, progress is like oxygen and postponement is agony. When a flurry of emails land in your inbox and you don’t answer them instantly, you feel as if your life is spinning out of control.” Some of this is to reduce “working memory loads,” because, as Grant reports, “psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik found that people had a better memory for incomplete tasks than for complete ones. When we finish a project, we file it away. But when it’s in limbo, it stays active in our minds.”

Yes, apparently putting things off can make you more creative.

How can procrastination help? Grant writes that “[o]ur first ideas, after all, are usually our most conventional. . . . When you procrastinate, you’re more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.” Of course, as anyone knows, especially my daughter who was helping her son with his last-minute science project (how do these things slip our children’s minds until the due date??), excessive procrastination can also work against creativity, forcing you to choose the easiest route in order to get things done.

And today, this day in the first week of February, when I’m tired from chasing January’s deadlines and putting away the Christmas tree lights and mailing back all the things that were left in the house over Christmas vacation and summer is too far away to be of any help and QuiltCon is looming so how can I possibly concentrate, it might be helpful to realize that sometimes it’s really okay to put things off, as well as knowing that procrastinators have lots of good company.