Brilliant!
I should get one of these and wear it around the Road to California Quilt Show which starts next week. Or not. Somehow I think quilters can wear pretty interesting clothing without any assist from an online shop. But if you want one of these (and to read other funny slogans) head to Cafe Press.
Okay, compared to Red Pepper, I’m awfully slow. She gets a quilt done in a day, it seems, but here’s what I’ve been able to do in a few days. Two almost-done wheels! Yay–only 10 more to go. I originally thought there were sixteen wheels, but no, only twelve. That suits me fine.
You know that old adage about how what we quilters do is take perfectly good fabric, cut it into small pieces just so we can sew it up again? That idea has played through my mind more than once, as I’ve worked on this quilt.
Here’s the board of pieces that I keep next to the sewing machine, painstakingly trying to be random when choosing. The little machine–the Featherweight–has been pressed into service for this one. I like my bigger electronic machine, but there’s a different connection to the fabric and the process when I use this tiny sewing machine. It’s just me, the belts and gears and all those little pieces of fabric.
Okay, the one downer will be when I have to peel all the paper off the backs of these arcs at the end, but Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins of Piece O’ Cake Designs (who designed this quilt) said to use parchment paper. So I went down to my local Kelly Paper store and bought a ream, choking on the price. But I really dislike peeling paper off of paper-pieced quilts, so I was ready to try their recommendation.
This quilt is from the book Quilts with a Spin, and is on sale now at their website. Yes, I see all that applique on the outside of the quilt. This must be my applique year. The other night at quilt night we were discussing how chaotic our lives seemed to be, and I mentioned that this coming year was the Year of the Rabbit on the Chinese calendar. To a woman, they all said they were ready for a year of calm and quilt, a rabbit-like year. Maybe that’s why I’ve inadvertently chosen applique quilts this year–calm, quiet–sewing on my applique while I stream down something from Netflix on our AppleTV.
Our little quilting group (which at one point had the name of Good Heart Quilters) got together for our first time in the new year. It was at my house, so I got to snap the photos.
The newest quilter first! Sara is new to our group and new to quilting and for her first project has decided to cut up her sons’ shirts and make a one-patch. I love memory quilts, and think this will be a great project for her.
Dots were everywhere tonight, perhaps because of the stash builder we did in November.
Laurel took the ones we passed out then, added to what she’d been collecting, and made this terrific square.
There will be four in the quilt when she’s done; she worked on the yellow one tonight. She and I both found out that it doesn’t take much to collect a lot of dots.
I was working on a dotty quilt, too, but am paper piecing arcs to make large circles. Laurel and Lisa coached me through my first steps. I mean, we all know how to paper piece, but when you pick it up again, there’s always this bit of confusion–not helped by the fact that I had a birthday recently.
Tracy’s raw-edge applique circles-onto-squares will be completed soon as she’s speedy. What kind of fabrics? Dots!
We were all in awe of Karen’s bargello heart–a project she’s been steadily working on for a while. That’s the beauty of Quilt Night–we all catch up with each other and we all get a chance to pull out our quilting and stitch for a while.
Because of my birthday, Leisa brought me a cake. So, I made them all pose for a shot. We’ve been doing quilt night in one form or another for about 10 years, and the composition of our group has changed over that time, with some quilters pausing to do other things, and new quilters joining in.
Leisa and Lisa. Lisa just got her machine back out of the shop, so she worked on quilting a panel for some pillows. Lisa brought Dr. Seuss fabric that many of us wanted to steal–she’s got two more grandsons to be born this year so that fabric will be perfect.
Jean missed November’s Quilt Night because she was on a polar bear expedition (photographing them)–it sounded fascinating–but she got right back into the swing of things and cut all evening. I have a fold-up table similar to hers and it really saves the back when doing lots of cutting.
Jody worked steadily on pillows to match the quilt she had made for her daughter. One thing we were all talking about is our local quilt show, Road to California, which is coming up in a couple of weeks and we were seeing who was going which day. None of us are taking classes this year. We’ll just be shopping, I guess.
Leisa, Tauni and Laurel visit while working. That’s Martinelli’s there on the tray, along with delicious birthday cake (we thrive on caffeine, not the liquid bubbly). Some of the quilters were missing, but hopefully we’ll see them next time. Tracy, Tauni and I worked for a while, talking late into the night. I think we solved just about all the world’s problems, so we wrapped it up until next time.
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Late addition: I worked all day off and on, and completed the paper piecing for one circle. Now’s there’s eight more to go!
(I’m trying to make the quilt below.)
(Wish me luck.)
When we were up in Utah over the holidays, I stopped by Piper’s Quilts and Comforts in Salt Lake City. It’s in an area of the city known as Sugarhouse, not too far from where my husband lived as a teenager. It’s housed in an old home, on 1944 South 1100 East and their phone number is (801) 484-5890.
The front porch had two quilts hanging from it–one was this very clever one of different colors of snowboots for skiing.
The other was this frilly and fun apron quilt with cool scalloped edges.
Open–come on in!
The first thing I noticed was another quilt, hanging on the back of the apron quilt, framed by little hanging baby shoes.
I asked for permission to take photographs–always a good idea. This makes me wish I had babies again (almost).
The main room is filled with bolts of fabrics, books, yarn and on the back wall–a display of old hats–an homage to the woman who used to live here (I think–my notes/brain is fuzzy on this one).
More fabrics in the room on the other side of the stairs, and I found this shop a pleasant place to be on this cold, rainy day.
I thought using a tub and a sink was a clever way to showcase goods and trims.
More fabric bolts. The young woman who helped me said they’d just had a huge sale, but I still found things I wanted to buy.
I love those applique blocks on a red background!
A Christmas tree quilt up on the side wall, near the cutting table. It’s always fun to see shops all festive for the seasons.
To the right of the Christmas tree quilt, was this window of blocks (detail on right) that the shop owner was making. Great inspiration–I think it would be fun to string blocks that I’d complete in a clothesline fashion like this. (Melissa over at ISLY blog has a tutorial that might work for me.)
I just washed up some of the fabric I bought there–in preparation for the Lollypop quilt I’m making with my friend Rhonda. My husband went with me on this little expedition, but slipped out to wander through the shop across the street: 10,000 Villages–one of his favorites. I was happy with that because it left me more time for browsing. I enjoyed it all, and hope to come back next time I’m in town!
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 