WIP

Roses Bloom on a Wednesday

March 7, 2012March 5, 2012 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

Last week we were all hosting the Leap Day Thread Giveaway, but today I’m back in the saddle with those Works–in–Progress (WIPs) and linking up to Freshly Pieced. Thanks, Lee, for hosting us all!

Today’s WIP is both a finish and an acknowledgement that I’ve got miles to go before anyone sleeps under this quilt! It might soon be morphing into a wall-hanging, and let’s hope I finish it before I run out of good televison and movies to watch. Now that Downton Abbey‘s off-season, I’ve resorted to The Big Bang Theory. Which is pretty funny, considering I’m married to a scientist and we both work in academia.

Here’s block two, all finished up. I left the papers in the outside pieces as I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet. I did put block one as the wallpaper on my laptop, and I smile every time it pops up. It’s both digital and tangible–digital on the screen, yet the satisfied feeling I get when I see it, is tangible. (I have another quilt on my phone as wallpaper for that device. I’m populating my universe with my quilts.

And here they are–the twins.

I looked in Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Quilt Patterns to track down the real name. In 1935, The Old Chelsea Station Needlecraft Service, a mail-order company, published a variant of the block as the “Rose Star One Patch.” Later on, other names were “Canadian Conventional Star,” the “Colonial Flower Garden,” and simply “Hexagons.” I trend towards calling it the Rose Window Block, only because it reminds of. . . what else? Rose windows.

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Here are some from our travels in Europe and Canada. (With a couple of others you’ll recognize.)

I wanted to focus in on one shown in the slideshow above.
While not technically rose windows, the sweet little rounds on this wall of windows in Santa Croce (in Florence) are quintessential Italy.

Quilt Shops

Spring Shop Hop

March 5, 2012July 16, 2012 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

What do you call a quilter who visits eight quilt shops and one Mexican restaurant on one day? Tired, but happy.

Our local shops (I live inland from Los Angeles) got together for a Spring Fling Shop Hop. This one was unique as it was small consortium of shops, all within one day’s driving distance–a perfect shop hop. The draw for my friend Leisa and I was that each visited shop would give away a fat quarter of Moda’s latest Rouennerie’s Deux line. Last week we hopped in the car at 8:15 a.m. and headed out to Palm Desert.

Shop #1: The Quilter’s Faire.

It was locked. We knocked. The owner came to the door, peeked out, smiled and said, “Yes?”
“We’re here!” we said. “The Spring Fling begins at 9 a.m.!”

She said, “Bonjour!” and ushered us in. She had thought it began at 10, and was a good sport for letting us in early. Every shop had made a quilt, and here are shots of The Quilter’s Faire, plus a look at her beautiful store.

They had the most amazing array of bags and totes.

Check out their chandelier.

We completed our purchases, filled out our Viewer’s Choice ballot for their teacup and saucer quilt challenge, and headed off.

Shop #2: Monica’s Quilt & Bead Creations

Monica, herself, greeted us at the door, and gave us a little tour of her store–unique as in that she carries tons of beads and supplies, as well as a being a quilting store. Her quilt was on the table, as well as above the fabric shelves. In fact, this shop, as well as The Quilter’s Faire, had lots of great samples.

I’m a fan of well-done little displays that catch a quilter’s eye and give them ideas.

The bead side of the large store. I could easily spend a day here, just shopping and then taking a bead class.

A bead/jewelry class going on in the back room.

Shop #3: Georgia’s Quilting Obsession

Given that I am a born Pollyana, I try to find the rainbows in the drops of rain. Here is a typical display in this shop: spool dolls, crocheted and knitted items. In other words, this is a grandma shop. In a grandma town. And I mean MY grandmother, not yours (she would be about 116 this year, if she were still alive). Her name was Georgina, so you can see I’m really hunting those rainbows.

We tried to be polite, trading off buying things in the shops. It was my turn and I bought a fat quarter from a dated Mary Englebreit line, and three skeins of embroidery floss. Next.

Shop #4: The Quiet Mouse

The room where we checked in was their classroom, where brightly colored quilts hung on all the walls.

And a Farmer’s Wife quilt! I thought of Cindy, of Live a Colorful Life, who is making one of these.

Besides seeing totes and bags in all the shops, I saw a lot of aprons. This three-tiered number in black and white was perky and fun, and made me think about ric-rac.

Of which they had a full supply.

And these very cool garden flowers, made from thrift-store plates. I wanted one of those, but held off.

Cute displays and lots of fabric to choose from.

Shop #6: Busy Bee Quilt Shop

She declined to have the inside of her shop photographed (citing copyright issues, which is really fine), but it also had a nice selection of fabrics, and good samples. This is the front of it–by that fabulous steeple.

By this time, we were famished–La Mexicana in Yucaipa filled the bill. We also sorted out all our problems with our respective in-laws and children (no problems with the grandchildren–they’re all perfect), and enjoyed delicious food. This isn’t a chain–it’s a real live family-run restaurant with those giant plastic glasses of soda and cheese-adorned entrees.

But no cheese for me–I had a seafood entree. Yum! Okay, back to work.

Shop #6: The Calico Horse

The full line of fabrics, plus a few from the past.

Their fat quarters, and their sample quilt.

I head to this shop quite often after I finish teaching (I teach in Yucaipa) and have always enjoyed their displays of fabric.

Two cute little yo-yo quilts right by the door. Keep this in mind for July.

Shop #7: Stars and Scraps

I frequent this shop a lot, so didn’t take a lot of photos, as I thought I had written it up on this site. Oops. I’ll have to do another visit! This is their quilt, and they used the cheater fabric in the line to create a patchwork-looking border. We are dragging by now, but have only one more shop to go.

Shop #8: Quilter’s Cocoon

They sewed up a mini-banner of fans. This is another shop that’s close by to where I live, but they are moving next month, so I’ll wait and do a post on them when they get settled. We turned in our “passports” with all the squares stamped, made our purchases and headed home.

The line-up of fat quarters.

The total ~~haul~~ amount of purchases for the day. I collapsed into a chair and worked on my rose window quilt blocks for the rest of the night. No, that’s not right. I threw the fabrics into the wash, then lightly dried and pressed them, stacking them all up beautifully in my closet.

THEN I collapsed into a chair and stitched the rose window while I watched Pelican Brief, a favorite movie with a younger Julia Roberts and two of the best cinematic scenes in the movies (#1–where the bad guy in the red baseball hat gets shot by the bandstand, and #2–where Julia can’t breathe after visiting the law offices where more bad guys work). Oh, and maybe the chase in the garage. Oh well–don’t we all have our favorite Mexican restaurants? And fabric lines? And quilt shops, too?

Sewing

Winners! of Superior Thread Leap Day Giveaway

March 3, 2012 Elizabeth E.2 Comments

Many thanks to all who entered the thread giveaway.

All of the names are listed below–you guys are pretty amazing. I’m going to suggest to Superior that if they ever need a thread color named, I know just where to send them. I just couldn’t decide so finally my husband took me out for dinner, helped me pour over all the excellent entries and helped me select two. But I bumped it up to three. Could have bumped it up to about a hundred.

The three winners are: Diane, who chose Tangelina and made me think of that leg that’s been all over the news; Judy, who picked Princess Sunkissed, that made me think of all those sunny-colored oranges that my friend has been bringing to me; and Gwen, for Marmalady, a clever twist on a name that several suggested. I’ll be in touch via email. And yes, while I only offered two prizes, I’ll think up something fun (thread-wise) for the third winner.

Textiles & Fabric

Leap Day Superior Thread Giveaway

February 28, 2012February 28, 2012 Elizabeth E.128 Comments

The lovely lady leaping is not me (aw, shucks), but is Allessandra Hamlin, from a websearch.

Today is the long-awaited Leap Day Superior Threads Giveaway!

Ten of us have joined together in this endeavor. I hope you will visit them all (listed at the end of this post) and win a bunch of thread today–enough to keep you leaping into quilting for now and for a long time. We are giving away a total of 35 spools, all courtesy of the Superior Thread Company.

Here’s what I am giving away today:

Three Spools of The Bottom Line, a superb thread for quilting

And two other spools: one of King Tut in my favorite colorway, and another of The Bottom Line.

And because I don’t think that orange should go anywhere without a chaperone, I’m adding a little bundle of fat eighths to keep it company.

I’ve experienced quite a lot of thread in my sewing life. I started with cotton, used silk and cotton in college while working on my degree in Clothing and Textiles, endured the first wave of polyester thread, and the shredding of combination threads in my machine. The first decent polyester thread I used was by a German company, and I continued to buy whatever was in the fabric store that matched what I was sewing. But one day, while at a quilt show, I noticed a newcomer onto the scene: Superior Threads.

I bought some of their thread and the thread was perfect for creating the effect needed for a winter scene. I learned to step up to a size 14 topstitch needle and to learn to play with my upper tension settings, loosening them, some which I learned from their website, which has TONS of information about threads, as well as tips and tricks for a happy sewing outcome. Not only does thread have to suit the artistic challenges of what I have in mind, I also need it to perform well. In other words, I don’t want to have to think about it–I just want to sew. But on my next quilt, I was struggling to get the balance right between the top and bobbin threads: The Bottom Line to the rescue, purchased at my local quilt shop. This slightly finer thread did the trick for me.

This is the King Tut, color #916, quilted into my giant summer flowers Lakehouse quilt. I had to sew across many different colors and this colorway did the trick. You’ve already read about Be My Valentine, and how I used King Tut on the top and The Bottom Line in the bobbin.

So join in the fun!

To win one of the two giveaways above — either the three spools of The Bottom Line (which is also great for applique, too) or King Tut, his Lady Love in tangerine and the fat-eighth chaperone — leave me a comment and a make up a name for King Tut’s Lady Love. You can indicate in the comments which giveaway you’d rather have. I’ll close the giveaway on Saturday, March 3rd at 8:00 p.m. PST, and announce the winner that evening, along with the new name for King Tut’s tangerine Lady Love.