Quilt Shops

Sew Modern Quilt Shop

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

Yesterday my friend and I went to LA to see the fabric district, and also went to the far side of LA to visit a new shop in town: Sew Modern Quilt Shop. It has clean, modern vibe to it and we found the fabric lines to be plentiful and very current.  Overall, we’d go there again in a minute if we lived closer (it took us an hour and half to get home), but I overheard the owner say to a friend that they were readying their online shopping presence.

Lots of fabrics and with the large windows out front, everything is well-lit and fun to browse.

This seating area is in the front.  Love the modern quilts hanging around the shop–good inspiration.

While we were there, a man came in on an errand from his wife.  He’d brought a scrap of fabric that she needed to match and they found it, cut it, and sent him on his way.  I got the sense that this shop does customer service really well.

There’s an “easiness” to this shop that encourages looking and discovering new fabric lines.  I saw Tula Pink’s new line, Horner’s Loulouthi and lots of other fresh, modern fabric lines.  Oh yes, I indulged, and came home with some brights.  The plan is to make some grocery shopping bags with the vibrant colors.

I enjoyed their clothing samples–both women and children–with some good ideas to branch out past the typical quilt construction and use these fabrics in our wardrobes.

They were hosting a Sewing Day Camp for a group of very lively children, who were enthusiastically working on all their projects.  I liked the energy level that they brought to the store, and really liked that Sew Modern was teaching the next generation and instilling in them a love of creativity and working with their hands.

Overall it was a terrific day in LA, capped off by this visit.  Thanks to Lauren Hawley, the owner, for allowing me to take photos of a place I’ll be visiting again.

Creating · Quilts · Sewing

WIP–What About That Quilting?

Elizabeth E.15 Comments

Thanks, Lee! and here we go again.  To return to Freshly Pieced, click *here.*

Q: What do you call a quilt that is pieced, quilted, bound–but no label?

A: Work In Progress, I guess.  But it feels good to get this far.  I’m going to write the label on this in Pigma Micron Pen, so it won’t come unattached.  I’ve been trending that way on quilts that are gifted, and this one will be gifted.

I have another quilt that is at this same stage, but before I show that (check back here on FSFriday for a reveal) I want to get that one labeled.  I’ve collected a few more quilts from friends to photograph for my magnum opus–my journal about my quilts.  Jen of Stitch Hack and I were talking about a list that her grandmother kept, so she wrote back and told me that her grandmother had quilted (hand-quilted) over 2,000 quilts in her lifetime!

The big WIP is the quilting of the dotty quilt, based on Everyday Best, by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins of Piece O’ Cake Designs.  I’ve titled mine Come-A-Round.  I had sent it to the quilters for anchoring the quilt together and now I’m doing detail work.  But okay–I need your vote.  Here’s the dilemma: I began quilting the leaves and stems in green, and like any good sewer loaded the bobbin with green to match.  After doing this, I switched out to white (who knows why?) and now I have what my husband calls “green branches” on the back of the quilt–but only along the bottom side.

It’s on the back, but the rest of the quilting is in white.  I tried to unpick a bit today, and I can see that if I do choose to unpick ALL of this, it will take me the better part of a day to get that done, setting me back a day.  So, what say you?

Option #1: Keep moving: Leave it alone and chalk it up to experience.

Option #2: Cope.  Flip the quilt upside down, make this the top and put a humungous quilt sleeve on it, that would partially cover this.

Option #3: Sigh.  Be obsessive.  Unpick and re-stitch, but watch a good movie while you do this.

Reality Check: Even though I am fairly skilled, I’m doing this free-motion by hand, so I know I’ll never win any prizes.  But I do want to enter it into the local quilt show, and would like to put my best foot forward.  I’ll be curious to see what you think.

Blog Strolling

Ironing Board Cover

Elizabeth E.Leave a comment

Okay, it was time.

So I Googled “ironing board cover” because I wanted to have the glorious experience of making my own cover.  I’m not a fan of the silvery metallic covers.  I don’t like the ones with the foam bonded to them on the back.  I majored in Clothing and Textiles in college and the ironing boards we used were the vacuum-type, with the board sucking the steam out of the jets of the iron.  Real Fancy, and that’s how I got used to using a lot of steam in my ironing. But our professor said, if you can’t get one of those kinds of set ups, get an iron that has LOTS of vents and gives lots of steam and an ironing board that is heavily padded, so as to protect your work. When I buy a new iron I look for two things: lots of vents and that “shot of steam” feature and over the years I’ve been collecting the pads of my ironing board covers so now quite a nice collection. I needed a [cute] cover to go over that.

Here’s some blogs/tutorials that I referred to (I like to read up on things):

http://www.marmadaisy.com/2008/01/new-ironing-board-cover.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Fabulous-Ironing-Board-Cover/
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/01/quilted-ironing-board-cover.html
http://sewcindy.blogspot.com/2009/02/ironing-board-cover.html
http://www.aquiltinglife.com/2010/10/great-cover-up.html
http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2008/01/super-easy-iron.html

But this one seems the easiest and most complete:

TUTORIAL : IRONING BOARD MAKEOVER

I post all these so I can find them again next time I need them and because it appears there are already sufficient tutorials out there.  The world doesn’t need another.  The fabric is from Alexander Henry and has lots of sewing motifs on it.  My messy creative space looks a lot spiffier!