Two Hippos

The Arty Zig

2012-01-27T13:11:00.000-05:00

A couple months ago, Pat Bravo asked if anyone would be willing to make Project Linus quilts out of her Art Gallery scraps. I responded yes, and lo and behold, a ginormous packet of scraps arrived at my house. They ranged across her collections, so while the aesthetic was fairly constant, the colors and sizes were not. I spent a while trying to figure out how to tame the scrappy wildness. Then I remembered Cara's designs for her guild's Habitat challenge and found my answer.

The big zig, which I have taken to calling, The Arty Zig, uses string-pieced blocks and a lot of negative space to make a statement. Or at least a large zig-zag. I made 8" blocks and randomly added the strips.

I'm not sure random was the best method, as it was a tad tricky to place the blocks in a pleasing manner given the range of colors involved. But the blocks were made and I was not remaking them. Now that I've made this once, I can see all sorts of possibilities -- fading from one color to another, multiple zig-zags within the big zig, a strip zig, and the like.

And, in what has become a common refrain in two-hippos-land, I love love love the back. Probably more than the front. There were three big chunks o' scrap in the bag and I used them for a riff on (or merely a column of) Oh Fransson's New Wave quilt.

I never thought I'd say it (so mark it down in the record books), I admit that I find that pink + coral print rather pretty. That's right, on my half birthday in 2023 (31.5 for those keeping track at home), I acknowledge that, on rare occasions, I do in fact like pink fabric. Emphasize the rare, ok? I don't want my anti-pink reputation ruined.

Which leads me back to teal, possibly my most favorite shade of blue ever and always a good option. I made this binding out of 8 million (or 30ish) scraps, some from Pat Bravo's bag o' wonders and some from yardage scraps I had in my own scrap bin. Teal is fabulous, let's just reiterate that in light of comments above.

Love in a (Snowy) Mist

2012-01-20T12:18:00.000-05:00

It may be a few months late, and I may be taking advantage of needing to charge my camera to post this, but my first do.Good Stitches quilt is complete. Way back in October, I asked my group, Empower, to make "Love in the Mist" blocks. I sewed the blocks together in 5 quads, and added more white to give the blocks space to breathe (quilt blocks need a lot of oxygen, clearly).

I took the final block and much yardage to the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild retreat a couple weekends ago. My subtraction skills were a little lacking when I cut the pieces to flank the quad unit, which led to much annoyance with myself. But there's always a way to recover, and in this case, the back was a little slimmer than intended, but it worked out. As Rossie remarked, my quilting stories frequently involve mismeasurements or unplanned detours due to insufficient yardage. Which have all worked out just fine, so mismeasure away!

I have included this gratuitous shot simply because I love it. But I will take this opportunity to note that I quilted the top in a rectangular grid of sorts -- which is much more visible on the image of the back, above. I used both orange and gray thread on the front, and gray thread on the back. The gray performed beautifully while the orange bled in a couple of spots. I'm working on removing those stains before I drop it off.

Teal Ta-Dot binding gave the quilt just the pop it needed. I think may be my new favorite fabric. Or maybe I just love teal (true statement) and therefore have been missing this fabric all my life. I'm just about out of it but Brenda, my always-hilarious local dealer of all things delightful in fabric, promises me she has more on order. When I get back to Michigan, I'll buy some more Teal Ta-Dots and drop Love in a (Snowy) Mist off at Alternatives for Girls, where all of the dGS:Empower quilts will go.

A Little Housekeeping

2012-01-19T15:41:00.001-05:00

Since I'm currently in Cincinnati (excited to check out Sewn Studio tonight), I cannot sweep or mop or vacuum or bleach or wipe or wash or take care of any other pertinent house cleaning tasks (a tragedy for sure). In light of this state of affairs, I decided it was high time I clean up the blog a bit. Or rather update it: it sorely needed some modernization and freshness. I made a new header, remembered how to install it, and altered the colors of sidebars and such. I'll still tweak things here and there, but I'm pretty pleased to check this off my to-do list. {Click on over from Google Reader to see, not just read about, the changes.}

Feedback--good or constructive--is much appreciated. If there's anything you'd like altered or added, removed or rethought, tell me! This holds for the blog more generally: if there's something you'd like me to post about, stop posting about or consider posting about, let me know.

Star Light, Star Bright

2012-01-15T23:16:00.001-05:00

I was out running errands today and trying to get some pictures of a new quilt. After finding a piece of dry sidewalk (we did get some snow on Friday), I snapped several photos and then noticed a man watching me. Several others had walked past, but this guy paused. I wanted to think it was the amazing quilt I had laid out in front of him. But no. He was simply concerned that the light was uneven. "Though maybe you want that," he hurried to add after commenting on my apparently poorly chosen photo-shoot location. Admittedly, I was more concerned with the natural light + dry area arithmetic than anything else. That said, when looking at the photos I took about a week ago of Star Light, Star Bright, I remembered that there is one advantage to more typically gray winter days: even light.

When you know you want a quilt to be bigger than a yard of fabric, it's probably wise to think about how much background fabric might be necessary to make that happen. Or not, and things will work out, just without a solid blue background across the entire quilt. The white space has grown on me since I added it to enlarge what would have been an otherwise paltry quilt. Conceptually, I wanted interlocking stars across a vast sky. And as long as the sky doesn't need to be all royal blue, I think I accomplished the goal.

Laura Gunn's Dogwood Flower seems to be a constant in many of the quilts I've made over the past 8 months. The supply is dwindling, so it will lose its privileged place. But whenever I reach into the scrap bin for the perfect complementary fabric, it stands out. Aqua + royal blue is pretty sweet.

I've had what I think of as the Michael Miller "Eye" print (the middle one) in my stash for several years now. I'm glad I finally found a good way to use it. It could be chopped up into smaller pieces, but there's something about the repeat I find enticing. I added some Riley Blake green circles and Monaluna brown circles, and kept things fairly simple on the back.

A little free-motion stippling and 1/3 yard of Orange Jewels (from Lizzy House's 1001 Peeps) later, and the quilt was finished. I used flannel as batting, which helped it crinkle up quite well in the dryer. I was able to drop this off to its new owner, Dov, on Wednesday. Dov is a little young to grasp what a quilt is, and his older brother was more interested in its possibility as a road for his trucks than anything else, but I think it will be well-used in all sorts of ways in the future.

***
In other news, I'm off to Cincinnati tomorrow for a little under 2 weeks of research. Stephanie gave me some tips about things to do and see, but I'd love to hear more. If you live in or know the Queen City, where should I go, eat, drink, pet fabric, see cool things? I'll have a car, so I should be pretty mobile.

Organic Imperfection

2012-01-11T12:13:00.001-05:00

Taking pictures of big quilts is really hard. I co-opted my roommate into aiding and abetting, but we still ran into some trouble. It would probably help if we were 6 feet tall or so, but that describes neither of us. And I haven't noticed too many college basketball players wandering down my street. Because if they were, I would totally borrow their heights and wingspans. I'm sure they wouldn't find a random woman asking them to hold up a quilt weird or anything like that.

The trick, it seems, is hangers. And a sunny day. Which we've had our unfair share of this winter. I assume we'll pay for it soon, or next year. But in the meantime, I am not complaining about sunny and 40 degree days in January. The tree shadow even sort of makes sense for this quilt (see: name). So about this quilt...I started it in the late summer and finished it in the late fall. I chopped up several large scraps of Marimekko fabric (from the clearance bin at the Crate & Barrel outlet), added eggplant purple borders, and decimated the five yards of Bella White in my stash.

Speaking of stash decimation, I ran out of gray as I was piecing the back. To be honest, I think I knew I wouldn't have enough, but I think I thought that adding the the rectangle of the Starling print (on the top) would be sufficient. I was wrong. At which point I pieced together the stripes on the bottom, yielding a sufficiently large, if somewhat devilish to baste, quilt back. It was easier to photograph, though -- the snow smudges really make the image, me thinks.

The name of the quilt came to me after I pulled it out of the dryer. When I first contemplated how to quilt it, I considered straight lines. Then I pondered boxes. At which point I began to trace circles (makes perfect sense, no?). The circle idea had merit, but proved impossible to execute in the way I envisioned. Which led me straight back to lines, just of the less straight and less perfect variety. They're straight-ish, at irregular intervals, and they're fabulous. There's something wonderfully organic and imperfect about it, and I think Organic Imperfection may well be my quilting mantra (not that I chant it or anything. That would produce weird looks, especially from the basketball player I find to hold up my quilts in the future).

As imperfect and organic as the quilt might be, I did plan two very important elements: the size (full) and the spacing. I knew I wanted to use a lot of negative space, but I also wanted a quilt that would drape over my bed. Hence, I wanted the design to make sense when it sprawled across my bed (and dominates my small bedroom). The framed leaves and flowers start at 16" from the bottom of the quilt, so they rest at the bottom of the bed. And because planning sometimes yields splendid results, when I fold the quilt, it can lie at the base of the bed and show off its prettiness. Or the stripes, which are similarly positioned, though more robust than pretty.

I employed a very rigorous selection process when choosing the binding. Tough decisions require examining every possible option, which I did, mostly by opening my storage boxes of fabric, positioning them alongside the quilt, and plucking options. I even considered pink (magenta, really, but it is technically a pink) which made my roommate gasp. But I naturally I rejected it. Finding a color that works with white and gray is the easy part; finding one that elevates purple and green is much harder. But I prevailed, and this deep goldenrod accomplishes the task quite well. Nothing imperfect about it.

X2Y4–6Z8O20(OH,F)4: More Than a Random String of Letters and Numbers

2012-01-05T10:25:00.001-05:00

It's been an odd winter here in the sort-of midwest. December was quite warm, snow barely covered the ground, and the sun has made more than one appearance. I won't complain. I will, however, choose fabrics far more congruent with the SoCal winter where this quilt now lives. Cheery, bright, fun yellows, oranges, greens, and aquas. The aquas were a later addition, when I plopped the chosen fabrics down and they sat next to some aqua dots and looked super awesome. I like super awesome, so some additional fabrics wedged themselves into the palette.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love public libraries? I love them. Especially my local one. It has all sorts of goodies (DVDs, trashy-mystery-novels-I-would-never-spend-money-on, good contemporary fiction, magazines, etc) in addition to a decent selection of craft books. I requested Sandi Henderson's Sewing Bits and Pieces and picked it up in mid-December. To be honest, not many of the books' projects spoke to me (which is fine, since I borrowed it from the library). But I'm always on the lookout for new quilts to try, and the picnic quilt looked pretty neat.

I think this is the "correct" orientation, but I actually like the other way better. Scratch that. Yesterday I liked the other way better. Today I like this way better. Good thing it can go either way and matters not at all. Anyhow, the work of this quilt is in the set-up, in the cutting and ironing. I got out the wax paper and cardboard to make the templates and spent an evening making myself these scallop shapes. Since this is a baby quilt, not a family picnic quilt, I knew it would be smaller than the one in the book. I made 44 scallops (rather than 80) and omitted the borders. I also appliqued the scallops onto a piece of cotton to stabilize it and make it easier. It added heft, but it was worth it. I could use 3 pins instead of 12 for each scallop. And goodness knows, I prefer fewer pins.

As you may be able to see, the scallops get appliqued down. (Don't mind the imperfect curves. I excel at imperfection.) I was tempted to use straight-line quilting or maybe do some sort of cross-hatch sort of thing. But it's for a baby, and I wanted to make sure the scallops would stay put. Stippling accomplished that goal. And I knew as soon as I chose those teal Ta-Dots that I would use them for the binding as well.

I may be indecisive about which way I prefer the front, but I can say with certainty that I love the back. Possibly more than the front. I took the pieces I had left from cutting out the scallops (which differed in size because some of them started their life in the scrap bin and others came from yardage) and sashed them and pretty much just adore them.

Yep, definitely awesome, that back. Micah was named for both the prophet -- a champion of social justice -- and the rock. Having never had the chance to name a quilt via chemical compounds, it seemed wise to seize this opportunity. According to the ever-reliable Wikipedia, the chemical formula for mica is X₂Y_4–6Z₈O₂₀(OH,F)_4.A fine name for a quilt, no?

That's a Wrap

2012-01-01T11:44:00.002-05:00

1. Red & Aqua Strip Quilt, 2. Topsy-Turvy, for Ezra Noam, 3. Signs of Spring, 4. Jacob's Quilt Front, 5. Nestle's Crunch Close-Up, 6. Day at the Lake #2, 7. Wedding Quilt Front, 8. Pojagi #5, 9. Spring Chicken, 10. Under the Sea, 11. Sun-Dappled, 12. A Little Glimpse, 13. Seismograph 1, 14. Ferris Wheels and Fireflies, 15. Twinkle Front, 16. Almost Sudoku, 17. Challah Cover, 18. Watermelon Slice Back, 19. A Giant Star, A Giant Hug, 20. Put a Bird On It Back, 21. Library Voices Quilt, 22. Back as Front 1, 23. Pixie Sticks front, 24. Sail Away Front, 25. IMG_6873, 26. IMG_6903, 27. Gathered Clutch, 28. Terrain Patchwork

2011 in Quilts: 26 quilts.

Some simple, some complex.

Some small, some big.

Most you've seen, a few you haven't.

Most for others, one for me.

Three standouts from 2011 Quilting:

Pops of color

Negative space

New techniques (pojagi, paper piecing, applique, big circles)

Three goals for 2012:

Curved piecing

Make a quilt for my living room

Sew an item of clothing

Heart to Heart

2011-12-31T17:12:00.000-05:00

I think I completed my last sewing for 2011 this morning. Although a few hours remain in the year, I've only got about 3 hours until friends come over for a New Years gathering, and somehow I don't think they'll be pleased if the entertainment is watch me sew. Call me crazy, but I put away the machine, cleaned up my sewing messes, and made a pinata. And baked and prepped some food.

But back to the pictures....for our December do Good Stitches quilt, Kelli asked us to make heart blocks. She gave us ample freedom, simply requesting heart-focused blocks made from reds, pinks, and whites and one more color. Technically she said use our favorite color, but I chose colors that I thought worked best with the fabrics and blocks.

Inspired by Sandi's list of paper-pieced hearts, I made the block on the right first. Hers were 6-inch templates, while I wanted a slightly larger heart, so I drafted my own based on her diagrams. I cut a standard piece of printer paper into an 8.5" square and then folded it every which way to have lots of angles to work with. Then I drew in the lines, stared at the template for a while, and finally labeled the piecing order. It's the first time I moved beyond a ready-made template for paper-piecing, and it provided some good mental exercise. The bias edges on some of the corners make it lay a little less flat than I would like, but I think it will be fine.

After paper-piecing, I wanted something simple. And I haven't made a square-in-square block in ages, so square-in-square it was. I transferred my elementary-school construction paper heart-cutting experiences to fabric, and made myself a swirly purple heart which I appliqued onto my pretty block. I'm slowly starting to see the fun in applique.

So there you have it, the last blocks of 2011. Except that I actually have three quilts to show you: two are making their way to their new owners and one needs to get photographed well. Obviously I can't do any sort of "year in quilts summary" without these ones included. Or maybe I can. To be determined. In 2012.

A Starry Night

2011-12-26T10:57:00.000-05:00

I find Christmas a delightful time to quilt. I'm usually home alone (albeit often with a loaner dog), the neighbors' lights are twinkling, the street is quiet, and I spread out the fabric and get to work (or play). This weekend was no different, and I finished the interlocking stars quilt I recently started. It's not quite what I imagined since I ran out of the royal blue background fabric. I tried a few options, including sewing together all sorts of tiny cut-off triangles to "make" more fabric. But in the end, I decided that a rearranged layout offered the best solution, more seam-ripping notwithstanding. I'll show the full quilt once I've washed it and given it to its new owner.

I also started a whole new project. It's very new for me: templates, curved piecing, applique. And, as much as I actually like winter, it's a very summery fabric palette. Which is fun and bright and makes me smile. Which is a good thing because standing at the ironing board and attempting to iron curves does not make me smile. Ever. There was no smiling while ironing last night. Except possibly when I was watching Bones and laughing at some delightfully ridiculous scenes. The key to tedious chores is definitely internet TV.

A Different Tack

2011-12-20T23:24:00.000-05:00

I distinctly remember receiving this royal blue solid in the mail. I bought it from JCaroline Creative when during her final fabric sale. I bought it because it was a great price and blue and solid, all of which made me think I would find a way to use it well. It only took several years for me to identify how I needed to use it. And suddenly, I needed to use it. To drop all other projects and start one anew. To create a few interlocking stars -- or as many as I could with 1 yard of fabric.

These interlocking stars seem to be trending but, to be honest, when I first started seeing them I found them overwhelming. Not because they were hard to make (they aren't) but because I found full quilts of them visually overstimulating, too much for my eyes to take in. But then I saw this image of Elizabeth's quilt in progress and I realized -- in the most obvious sort of way -- that negative space was the answer. I could make a few stars into a whole quilt, or rather, I am making a few stars into a whole quilt. There's a minor issue of needing just a touch more solid blue than I have, but I'm working on a creative solution to that dilemma.

Yes, Virginia, She Can Sew

2011-12-15T09:50:00.000-05:00

It's taken awhile, but I finally used my sewing machine and started putting together the October do Good Stitches bee quilt. I played with a lot of ideas about how to use all the blocks (mostly in my head). I knew I didn't want to just sew all the blocks together as I thought it would be too busy.

I contemplated uneven rows or rows unevenly spaced, but ultimately decided to make 5 big blocks of 4 stars each. I'm going to sash each of the big blocks and hopefully create some floating big blocks. I may get a little improvisational as I sash. Since I now have 5 big blocks, I'm going to use 4 on the front and 1 on the back.

Having now seen all the awesome blocks that my group sent me, I have to confess that I love the solids (none of which I made) the most. Maybe I'm just in a solids-place, loving solids anyways. But there's something about the crispness of the blocks that really appeals to me. Don't get me wrong, I still like the others; I'm just lauding simplicity at the moment.

After I had sewn the blocks together and was arranging them to take pictures, I realized that this block looks pretty damn cool when set on point. I briefly considered ripping out the blocks and remaking the quilt on point with white blocks in between each star block. But then I recognized the insanity and opted to file that layout away for another time.

This is a Map

2011-12-12T17:03:00.000-05:00

Image from here

I may have previously mentioned a love for maps. I can look at maps pretty much forever, and I love teaching maps. "What counts as a map?" generally elicits a wide range of great responses. Maps are fascinating in part because cartographic representations can take so many forms. Moreover, until the recent explosion of artsy maps (which started to gain prominence, I think, with Ork posters), it was relatively easy to forget about cartographers as thinkers and artists. I just saw the maps by These Are Things on design*sponge, and I find them quite compelling as art.* I'm still on the lookout for a Detroit map like this, but in the meantime, I'm happy with DC.

The past week has been a whirlwind of settling back in, feverishly working on a fellowship application, and making treats for holiday parties (and attending said parties). One of the things I noticed in New Zealand was the presence of savory muffins and scones. I started playing with a recipe this weekend and, when I've worked it out, I'll share it here. The party feedback was positive -- now I just need to recapture what I actually did!

Having now submitted the fellowship application due in five minutes, I will reward myself with some sewing tonight. Which means this blog may return to its crafty origins soon.Hopefully. Maybe.

*Dear Mom. This print would look marvelous in my living room. Just letting you know. love, your daughter.

Tangerine Tango

2011-12-08T11:23:00.000-05:00

I appreciate a good orange. I especially appreciate a good orange when I'm trying to get up in the morning, and NPR's Morning Edition is not necessarily full of cheery news (Michigan politics were particularly unpleasant this morning, I'll leave it at that). But NPR also told me that Pantone announced that "Tangerine Tango" is the 2012 color of the year, and I'm liking it. I might opt for a couple shades darker as ideal, but this is pretty darn close to my favorite orange (Betty's Orange, in Moda Bella Solids terms).

And Back...

2011-12-05T12:08:00.000-05:00

Two Sundays can be kind of cool : one to play (and happen upon a crafts fair and the very adorable Devonport town Christmas parade) and one to travel (lots of hours in planes and airports). The benefits of the international date line....and now it's Monday, and I'm trying to get life back in order.

Which will take awhile! I'm mostly caught up on email (which I checked sporadically while away), and now have plenty of work and regular life stuff (bills, groceries, etc) to keep me busy. And I will slowly whittle away at the 1000+ posts in my Google Reader. This was the first time I was detached from my laptop and regular internet access for 2.5 weeks, and the rest provided a well-needed break from technology, a chance for my brain and body to reset. But I'm also excited to see what people have been up to, making, and talking about while I was gone.

Greetings from New Zealand!

2011-11-23T17:14:00.001-05:00

Gre

Greetings from New Zealand! It's been an eventful week down here thus far, starting with easy plane rides but lost baggage (or delayed baggage -- I can't quite figure out how my bag needed more than 3 hours to make it from one plane to the next, but it arrived the next day and that's all that matters). As promised New Zealand has been wet, but the beautiful mossy beech forests are one lovely result. My friend and I spent 3 days on the Routeburn trek, 1 dry and sunny, 2 wet and rainy! While walking through the forest area, we commented on how it looked like it could be hobbit-land, only to learn when we finished that we missed running into the filming of The Hobbit by one mountain!

There were loads of Avalanche Zones, many of which were perfectly safe. However, the Department of Conservation required a helicopter ride over one not-so-safe area (see, Mom and Dad, we were careful!). Their rangers and hut wardens are tremendously knowledgeable and helpful, even providing us with some newspapers to stuff into our very wet shoes in the hopes of making them slightly less wet. Because of the rain, we walked across, though, and in many a waterfall. This is the land of a million waterfalls, at least in the spring.

But for stunning views like this, it's all been worth it.

And this too!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the States!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2011-11-15T13:53:00.001-05:00

The Setting: Detroit Airport
The Time: Saturday early evening.

TSA Official #1: "Is this your bag?"
Woman: Smiling, internally wondering what on earth has been spotted on the monitor.
"Yes, that's my bag."
TSA Official #2: "Please take your stuff and follow me."
Woman gathers her shoes, belt, jacket, purse, clear bag of 3 oz. liquids and follows TSA #2.

TSA #2: "It looked like there is a bottle in your bag, so I'm going to need to search it."
Woman: Quickly checks to see that empty water bottle is in purse. "Um, ok. I don't think there's a bottle but go ahead."
TSA #2: Takes books, bagged items, scarf, bag of assorted chargers, toiletries, etc out of backpack. "Wow, this is an impressively packed bag. I'm so sorry I have to unpack it."
Woman: "No worries."
TSA #2: "Seriously, this is the best packed bag I've ever seen."
Woman: "I like packing things. It's sort of like playing Tetris."
TSA #2: "I'm so sorry for needing to take everything out."
Woman: Laughing, "it's ok, really. You're just doing your job. Have you found what you're looking for?"
TSA #2: Pulling out a pair of old Chacos wrapped in a plastic bag. "Oh here it is."
Woman: "Oh ok, they're just sandals."
TSA #2: "Yep, I guess the curve just looked like a bottle. I'm so sorry that I'ev totally unpacked your bag."
Woman: "It's fine, I can put it back together really quickly."
TSA #2: Watches woman repack bag quickly. "Wow, I wish I could pack bags that well. You should teach a class."

Perhaps in my next life, I'll teach people how to pack efficiently. "Be a Packing Ninja 101" will, I am sure, have a tremendous audience. In the meantime, there are a couple of tricks to taking 2 carry-on size bags + 1 purse with you for 3 weeks:

1. Pick your bags wisely. There's a sleeping bag and a camping pot in the duffel bag. They fit well because the bag is as spare as can be. It's a rectangle, and the bag itself takes up very little space. The corollary is: use every bit of space. My first-aid kit is stored in the pot along with my knife, whistle, and other little items. (This bag was obviously checked due to the knife and the jar of the peanut butter I tossed in too.) My backpack is large for a daypack but small for a camping backpack. It's almost full now but it can expand as necessary. It has some of the food we'll take with us backpacking, so once we eat it, there will be more space for any items I pick up along the way.

2. Pack lightly. I've always been a light packer, and this trip is no different even though I'll be backpacking (hence the need for the sleeping bag and camping pot, but no tent needed on this trip) for part of it and wine-tasting (nicer clothes required) at other points. All clothes should be interchangeable (pick one neutral color and make sure everything works with it). Shoes should be adaptable (hiking boots are necessary for this trip so I took 3 pairs of shoes, but 2 would otherwise be sufficient). A couple of key accessories can dress up a pair of jeans or a simple black dress. Accept that you'll be wearing the same things for several weeks. It's ok; no one really cares. Bring items that dry quickly so you can easily do laundry as necessary. Take older clothes that are versatile and fit well but can be tossed if they meet a mud puddle or a jagged rock or anything else making them no longer wearable.

I've been in LA the past couple of days visiting friends (including a super fun dinner with Michelle last night), and I'm off to New Zealand for 2.5 weeks tonight. If you have any tips for NZ (my friend and I will be spending most of our time on the South Island, but a little time in Auckland as well), comment away! Any restaurant, sightseeing, coffeeshop, fabric/crafts, etc recommendations are much appreciated. We'll be starting with the Routeburn Trek and moving clockwise around the South Island from there. I'll try to post while away but with (intentionally) limited internet access, I make no guarantees...

Celebrate Color: Fall Scarf

2011-11-12T15:36:00.000-05:00

I indulged in a little scarf-making this week. I'd been thinking about how I like reversible scarves but sometimes want more of each side of fabric to show when wrapped around my neck. At which point I realized stripes could be quite useful.

I sewed together 6" strips of the gray fabric (picked up from the $2.99 table at G-Street Fabrics. Maybe it's rayon? It's soft and silky and feels like something scarves are made from. I'm open to ideas) and 4.75" strips of the deep yellow pastry voile from Anna Maria Horner.

Then I sewed the long (86" or thereabouts) strips of yellow and gray together. I purposefully made them different widths so that I could flip them on the back. This added a little variety and avoided the need to line up seams. The voile + rayon were both a touch slippery, but pinning helped. And since it's a scarf, perfection is not necessary. I sewed the right-sides together, leaving about a 3" hole for turning, and then top-stitched about 1/8" from the edge.

I saw Rachel's interview with Lotta Jansdotter* a couple days ago, and I think this scarf gets at her Celebrate Color motifs. And now I have something to enter in the Celebrate Color pool!

*I'm loving her new Echo collection. I bought several half-yards at full price (which I never do online) from Tammy. They will become a quilt for the living room since the colors work perfectly.

Pixie Sticks

2011-11-11T14:10:00.001-05:00

My friend Suzanne is having a baby any day now. In the meantime, she keeps me entertained from 2000 miles away with her blog. Now I admit, I'm not really one for pregnancy blogs. Just not my thing. However, Suz's blog is sharp and sassy, just like her. I mean it. Her blog captures her voice better than anyone I know. I confess that when we were in college together, I would not have expected Suz to become an ultra-runner, which she did. While I can't fathom 50 mile trail runs as fun, I can hear her voice in her stat-keeping, produce-analogizing, cocktail-dreaming, fashion-arranging, book-thinking, conversation-relaying writing. As for the quilt, I decided to lead with my favorite picture, which is technically of the back, but could be the front too.

The offset blocks were made from some Arcadia charm squares and honey bun strips. I pieced them together until I could cut out 4" blocks (at least I think they were 4" but I made them awhile back and can't remember.) They looked better offset than in the middle. And it's a quirkier quilt that way, which it should be for the future child of Suzanne and Jasper. Jasper is a real rocket-scientist and Suzanne does good things for Earth Justice, and I think their child will be full of sass and delightful quirks. He will not be named Oliver, however, despite some parental efforts to influence name choices. The name remains a state secret for now.

The block on the bottom left is my favorite. I don't know if I'm supposed to have favorites, but I do. I like the sharp-edged flowers and, of course, the orange. The off-white is Moda Snow for those keeping track (which I love dearly but it is not bright white which I originally thought "snow" meant. Luckily it's also not the dingy white snow turns after cars drive near it, because that would be truly unfortunate.)

The yellow leaves from the tree in the backyard created quite a nice background for a full shot of the back. The grey-ish color is Moda Stone, and I improv-pieced the "pixie sticks" and then added fabric until it was big enough. Stipple-quilting led to nice crinkling.

I bound it with my favorite print from Arcadia, the orange leaves, and Pixie Sticks made it to California this week, at least a little bit before Baby H's arrival.

do. Good Stitches: November

2011-11-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

After my last-minute block-making for my own month in do. Good Stitches, it was time to be diligent and efficient this month. Shannon picked a great block and a wonderful color scheme of gray/tangerine/aqua. I was able to make the blocks out of my scrap bin (plus the Kona Ash from Shannon). I do use aqua and orange a fair amount, after all. These blocks were super easy to put together -- cutting the pieces definitely took the most time, but once that was done, the sewing was quick.

I think the upper left block is my favorite. I like how the scale of each of the prints works with the other. As I noted to Felicity last week, I like the challenge of bees in which each person is sewing from their stash. It means choosing blocks that can play well together even when the fabrics are pretty different. I think this block is a real winner in that regard.

Line It Up

2011-11-06T17:21:00.001-05:00

A picture of a few white lines on white fabric is probably not the most spectacular picture ever. Actually, it's probably going to win some photography awards soon. For something like "most boring picture ever taken and not erased." Because, really, it's not showing much. But that's sort of the point, at least so far as the quilting goes. That whole disappear-into-the-background quilting thing. For what quilt, you might wonder. I was wondering too, since it had been a while since I'd really sat down and sewed something.

Way back when, by which I mean over two months ago, I showed a few peeks of a quilt I started for me. Should you not remember the glory that was that post, you can find it here. [For those of you who only know me through the interwebz and aren't used to a mildly sarcastic two hippos, well, here's a glimpse at the real-life sardonic two hippos.] Anyhooo.....this big pile o' quilt has been staring at me (when it wasn't buried under lots of other fabric), pleading with its non-existent eyes to be quilted. The problem was that it's huge, or huge for me. It's a full-size quilt and that's a fair amount of fabric to stuff through my machine. Which led to the "how to quilt it, like it, and not go crazy conundrum." For a brief moment in time, immediately after I basted it at the September SE Michigan Crafters Meetup, I thought I would do big circles. Then I tried to do one big circle and failed. It looked like a lumpy potato.

Which led me to bring it home, wait a while to rip out the lumpy potato, and then decide on a new tack: straight lines. Once I finally sat down and started sewing, straight lines were my new best friends. I did a few at irregular intervals across the entire quilt top just to get started, and then filled in at more irregular intervals until I felt it was sufficiently quilted. It took about 5 bobbins and 5 episodes of Body of Proof and then it was done. Just like that. Snap and done.

Once it has sufficiently crinkled in the dryer and I enlist the aid of some poor unwitting friend, I'll get a picture of my new quilt. That's right, my new quilt. It's staying in casa two hippos, in the bedroom de two hippos, to be precise.

Delinquent!

2011-10-31T09:31:00.000-04:00

It's taken me until the last day of the month to make, take pictures, upload, and post my blocks for my month in do.Good Stitches. At least they don't have to be mailed anywhere!

I made a tiny bit of progress in ~~depleting~~ using my scrap box. Although this block required a lot of HSTs, it came together quite quickly once I had cut all the pieces.

I'm realizing that my black desk provides a nice backdrop for pictures when there is sufficient natural light, aka a sunny day.

Here's a little glimpse at all the blocks I have thus far. Six more are heading my way and I need to decide how to arrange them. Although they're side by side in this image, I doubt that I will piece them like this. I think these blocks need more negative space to really stand out. I'm thinking of pairs or short rows (maybe 3 blocks each) surrounded by a lot of white. I may need to get more white as I've got about a half-yard right now....

Sail Away (BQF Fall 2011)

2011-10-28T11:16:00.000-04:00

Blogger's Quilt Festival has arrived again, and it's pushed me to finally show this quilt. In the past, I've used the BQF to highlight a quilt I'd previously blogged, but this time you get something new. Made last spring and delivered about a month ago, Sail Away finally gets its chance in the limelight. This is the third quilt to make its way into the Stoil-Shimoni family, and they all have one thing in common: navy blue. When you've known someone for over 18 years, you know favorite colors, and Rebecca has always gravitated toward navy blue.

When I saw this pattern from Esch House Quilts, I knew it was the perfect option for Rebecca's pending child. It reminded me -- a bit indirectly, perhaps -- of sailing flags, and Rebecca loves water and sailing. Whether her kids will as well remains to be seen, but she's currently researching the history of the whaling industry so I suspect there will be some maritime opportunities for them.

As I planned the quilt, I realized that Navy was the perfect neutral solid for the half-yard of Amy Butler's Tumble Roses Pink (from her Love collection) that was sitting in my stash, and I pulled the other prints based on what coordinated with the Roses. This design offered a nice opportunity to use little bits of lots of prints, which was another highlight.

In the midst of piecing the quilt, I ran out of the Navy solid (major misremembering of how much I had + major miscalculation of how much I needed). The delay didn't really matter, however, as I knew Rebecca and her family would be moving from from Israel to Baltimore this summer, and I waited to hand over the quilt in person. The back used every last scrap of navy I had -- even after ordering more -- and a whole lot of other prints from the front.

Those Tumble Roses reappeared as part of the binding. I love how the pattern of flowers disappears and the green, blue, and pink rhythmically alternate. The quilt was a hit -- as quilt and as a rocket ship. Rebecca tells me this is her favorite of all the quilts I've made for her family, and I think I have to agree.

Head over to Amy's Creative Side to check out all sorts of other delightful quilts.

do. Good Stitches: October

2011-10-21T09:24:00.000-04:00

It's been one of those weeks. Or, really those past couple of days that have stretched to feel like a week. Rainy, filled with work, challenging personally and professionally, exhausting. Time in which my bed seems like the best destination but once in it, my mind is racing so much that sleep fails me. Yep, truly delightful. Did I mention the 3 inches of rain over the past two days? Sogginess does not inspire me to go for a run even though I know exercise is good for me. And the furniture in my living room and dining room is in the center of each room, covered with tarps (all for good reasons, but it makes both the couch and my sewing machine unavailable to me). And my computer randomly shut itself off last night for no apparent reason (thank goodness for back-up copies and recovered versions of documents). After turning my computer back on, I checked my email and found a sweet piece of spam asking "do you model?" And I laughed and that felt good.

From Shannon

I buried myself under several blankets, finally got some sleep, and woke up this morning determined to turn things around. This means getting work done today and this weekend, but also doing some things for me -- some sewing, some hiking. And on the sewing front, it's time to make my blocks for do. Good Stitches.

From Shelley

As I might have mentioned, I'm leading the new Empower Circle. I am one delinquent leader, for I posted my blocks in late September but have not yet made them. To be fair, I was away for 10 days without a sewing machine and then life got overwhelming. But in the spirit of empowerment and admiration for the fab blocks other group members have already made and sent me, it's time to make some Love in a Mist blocks.

From Heather

I cut out the pieces for my blocks (first picture) and asked my group to make blocks using a palette of warm fall colors -- deep purple, burnt orange, cranberry, gold, etc. I asked for a white background but also suggested that some blocks could flip the white and the color to create some reverse blocks.

From Kelli

I also suggested that while I liked the scrappy blocks, a couple two-fabric ones (solids or prints) would add to the variation. I think there is something simple and stunning about this one:

From Heather

And with that, off to work and then later in the day or weekend, to sew. Have a wonderful weekend!

Items Complete and Not-So-Complete

2011-10-17T11:32:00.000-04:00

A week ago Sunday I pulled out the "Sukkah kit" out of the garage, stared at the pieces, and started building. About an hour later, I had the basic structure and walls put together, admittedly a tad awry (that's what happens when you fly solo on building things and then get a little lazy: the doorway was a little crooked, but that affected neither structural integrity nor useability. Aesthetics, yes, but I was too lazy to do any more than mumble about that). What is this "sukkah" thing? Well, some of my friends have taken to calling it my "fort," which works, although I'm not sure it would do me much good in the face of marauding enemies. At its most basic, a sukkah is a temporary dwelling that commemorates the transient shelter used by the Israelites in the desert. But Sukkot, the 7-day festival for which we build the Sukkah, is also a harvest festival, and a joyous one at that. So there are decorations and parties and general merriment.

At one point I thought I'd make a reusable fabric chain, sort of like Malka did. But time got the best of me, and paper chains it was. My friend Katie and I made the chains yesterday, just in time for our afternoon Sukkah party. We used pretty paper, though. And hung red lanterns and decorated tables with gourds and put out lots of food. The weather even cooperated, as the gloomy morning turned into a lovely, sunny fall afternoon.

The not-made fabric chains had company in the not-finished project department. I also thought about--and even started--a mini-quilt or table runner or something. But that was not to be as I pieced the top but got no further. But that's ok because I have another plan in mind for this flimsy and I think I might even like the new idea better than the old one.

Party Like It's 2012

2011-10-11T10:21:00.002-04:00

Sometimes when I quilt, I watch TV (via the internet). Sometimes when I quilt, I listen to music. And sometimes when I listen to music, I listen to the same album or group over and over again. And that's how I made this quilt. It may as well be the Library Voices quilt because I listened to them over and over and over again as I made this quilt. And I highly recommend you check them out: they're fun, literary, and catchy. And Canadian. After you hear them, you will be singing lyrics from their songs to yourself or out loud. I mean, I really try to avoid forcing anyone to endure my terrible voice, but when no one's around or I'm on a run or in the shower, well, sometimes I do sing aloud. And you will sing aloud when you listen to Library Voices. I first heard them live in New York earlier this summer, and lyrics stuck with me and I have no ear (really, no ear) for music. Just a warning before you listen to them on repeat and start singing.

And this is a quilting blog, so back to the usual topic. I made this quilt using Angela's Apple Crate Quilt tutorial. Her "recipe" is fat-quarter friendly, but it's also super-easy to use whole cuts of fabric. You just need fewer strips: 3 42" strips of 2 fabrics will yield a Block A and a Block B. Or should, except when you erroneously cut one of the required strips twice instead of once. But you would never do that, I'm sure.

I wanted to play with using a print as a "solid" -- or at least as the constant, the background. I had this flower print in my stash and selected stash solids that coordinated with it. A simple block design + chain piecing made this come together pretty quickly. I finished the quilt top in one afternoon/evening. The 4x4 block layout yielded a quilt that measured about 46" x 54". Angela's tutorial provides instructions for a larger quilt, but the straightforward blocks make it easy to size up or size down depending on your needs.

The back is a combination of navy and blue fleece, also from my stash. I'm donating this to Alternatives for Girls, as part of 100 Quilts for Kids, and I wanted to make it warm for a Detroit winter. The quilting was pretty simple: I quilted around some of the rectangles in each block randomly. Just moved from block to block and picked which rectangles as I went along. For the binding I used a combination of the leftover flower print and some of the solids.

In case you forgot: go check out Library Voices. They're currently playing in Canada, for the Canadian readers among you.

The Transformative Property

2011-10-10T11:09:00.000-04:00

Chapter 1: In which a quilt becomes a rocketship.

Chapter 2: In which our hero travels in space.

Chapter 3: In which a voice from earth requests the return of one 3.5 year-old hero.

Chapter 4: In which much spinning occurs.

Chapter 5: In which our hero returns from space.

Chapter 6: In which a rocketship becomes a quilt.

The End.

Put A Bird On It

2011-10-04T09:34:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it's really tough to pick which pictures to post of quilts. In this case, I kind of wanted to show the back first since, frankly, it's my favorite back ever and possibly my favorite quilt ever. I've had the opportunity to look at, pet, and lust after this quilt for a while now, as I finished it last winter and I've been waiting for just the right recipient. This is a quilt that I really wish I made bigger. It's a large baby quilt that I should have made as a lap quilt for me. But I didn't realize it until I finished it and fell in love with it and, moreover, I didn't have enough fabric to make it any bigger.

The front combines batiks my friend Katie gave me, some Aracdia scraps, and two favorite solids (the cranberry and the orange). It was the addition of the solids that really made me love the quilt. The orange, cranberry, and teal together really make me happy. I don't use batiks that often, but these were beautiful, luscious, saturated batiks. And they didn't have weird wax-relief images (I know that's the point of batiks, but I prefer the ones that are just dyed fabric). I made as many square-in-square blocks I could with the little amount of Arcadia I had and then cut 6" squares out of the other fabrics for the bulk of the blocks. I played with the arrangement until it felt right to me and then sewed it together.

A few weeks ago, my friends Sarah and Daniel came over for dinner. My roommate and I were in the midst of deciding what color to paint our living room and trim (because while I love cranberry as a color, it is a poor poor choice for trim. Consider that my PSA of the day: don't paint your trim cranberry. Future occupants will question your sanity). Anyhow, Sarah expressed her preference for painting everything white, whereas I'd paint everything a deep version of whatever color I most like if I had my way. She joked about making sure the baby would be surrounded by white. At which point I realized I had the perfect quilt to offer as the punch of color.

And the back -- my favorite part -- is really white (off-white, really) with little punches of color. I've been collecting shot cottons in the colors of this quilt, and I think I'm going to make a lap-size version of the above as a quilt for me. But I digress. The back is improv + negative space, all pieced with leftovers from the front and an off-white solid from my stash.

I quilted it with diagonal lines, in a cross-hatch pattern, but sometimes doubling and tripling the lines (randomly). I'm finding that as much as I love modern quilts (and I do), I also love modern quilts with variations of more traditional quilting. There is something about the random single/double/triple cross-hatch that appeals to me. And not surprisingly, I bound the quilt in the orange solid, another feature that contributes to my love of this quilt (and yet I have no idea what orange this is or who made it. I had about 1/2 yard in my stash, and I know it's not Moda, but that's all I know). Although I was away and couldn't attend the Sarah's shower on Sunday, my agent delivered it for me. I figure I need to start corrupting this child with splashes of color as early as possible.

New Bag for the New Year

2011-09-28T16:21:00.001-04:00

I was lucky enough to be able to test Rae's new Showoff Bag pattern this weekend. This is super bag: big, roomy, fun, and straightforward to put together. This is the first time I've had the honor of testing a pattern and, I must say, it totally appeals to my sewer + editor side. Sometimes, when I'm not sewing or working on my own work, I do some freelance editing. And I really like it. Since pattern testing combines sewing and editing, I was a pretty content person this weekend.

This also gave me a chance to use this lovely piece of home dec weight fabric I've had in my stash for a while. It's from Joel Dewberry's Ginseng collection and I bought it on sale several years ago and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. Since the pattern uses a half-yard of fabric on the exterior, this was the time. I used dark denim for the top panels and handles, also from my stash.

For the interior, I opted for some coordinating Curio Grunge in Butternut (by Moda). I had enough fabric left over from the exterior to add a matching pocket, and I remembered to add my label before putting the bag together. (This might be an obvious step, but I tend to forget it). Rae will be making the pattern available, both for personal use and with a seller's license soon. If you'd like to try your hand at winning a copy of the pattern, head over to Emily's blog and enter here (and drool at her amazing cakes, so awesome!).

Edited to add: The bag pattern is now available here.

And with that, I'm off to cook some more...Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins tonight. To those who celebrate it: shana tova u'metukah (a good & sweet new year). Or just pretend your new year starts tonight, and have a good & sweet new year as well (eat some apples and honey while you're at it).

Late to the Party

2011-09-26T22:17:00.000-04:00

But fashionably late, I think.

Anna posted a tutorial for a gathered clutch over a year and a half ago. I dutifully bookmarked it, and then shied away from it because of the zipper. Because zippers are supposed to be terrifying. But having finally conquered the zipper (it's really not that bad), I felt it was time to make one of these pretties.

Since it's a clutch and therefore small, it really doesn't require much fabric. And several of the Terrain scraps I received from Kate Spain were big enough to use. I wasn't sure how some of the more straight-edged geometric prints would fare if gathered (though now I think the answer is: ok) so opted for the orange tone-on-tone as a pretty safe choice.

I added the credit card pockets but didn't include a divider. I think next time (and there will be a next time) I'll add the divider. I might also interface the lining. I think even a little lightweight fusible interfacing would make it a touch stronger and, actually, a little easier to sew together.

Immune No More

2011-09-23T15:37:00.001-04:00

I've generally willed myself away from quilt-alongs. Not because I don't like the concept or don't want to quilt with (virtual) friends or don't want to make another quilt. Mostly, I bookmark them and note keep the instructions accessible so, if at some point in time, it's what I want to make and I have the time, I can. But I think I might actually do one. Kate and Kristie are doing a drunkard's path quilt-along, and I have really wanted to make some drunkard's path blocks for a while now. Kate's amazing quilt cemented my interest in the block and the design possibilities it offers. Of course, the timing isn't quite perfect, but I think I can make it work. Or not....to be determined. But I will figure out curved piecing this fall, one way or another.

In other quilting news, I'm the host, or as a friend dubbed me "Chief Quiltress," of a new do.Good Stitches circle. Hosting comes with organizational responsibilities (very appealing to my spreadsheet-loving mind), but also gave me the opportunity to select the charity to which we'll donate quilts. I'm excited that our new Empower Circle will be sending quilts to Alternatives for Girls, a really wonderful organization that does outreach, offers mentoring, and provides shelter to teenage girls in Detroit. I'll be leading off in October, and I need to decide/finalize the block I'll ask the circle to make. I'm toying with a few ideas, but if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

The Epitome of Awesome

2011-09-21T10:21:00.000-04:00

The epitome of personal awesome? That would be Michelle, who, out-of-the-blue, sent me this awesome fiestaware lemongrass mug and tangerine bowl. I mean, I might have mentioned a love for fiestaware a couple posts ago. And I might have said that one could send me some to live in my (no longer) fiestaware-free kitchen. But I didn't expect anyone to actually listen or do anything about it. And yet Michelle did. She told me something was headed my way, but I had no idea what that would be. And then thus huge, but pretty light, box from Amazon showed up. And in it was this fabulous surprise. I'm not sure I can convey how much I love surprise, out-of-nowhere, unexpected gifts of the exact sort of thing I really like. But I'm trying....so thank you, Michelle. You're the best!

The epitome of public awesome? That would be Tiya Miles, who won a 2011 MacArthur Foundation "Genius" grant. I highly encourage anyone who likes reading history to read her books, Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom and The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story. She's a wonderful writer and excellent historian, but, most importantly, she is one of the nicest, kindest, most optimistic, and supportive people I've ever met. And I admit, I've only had one conversation with her. But it was transformative. Moreover, in addition to being an incredible scholar, teacher, and person, she also founded ECOGirls, a mentoring and empowering program that connects girls to the local environment.

Awesome people all around. Pretty cool.

Back as Front

2011-09-20T11:41:00.001-04:00

After making a lot of quilts, I've often found that I love the pieced backs as much (or even more) than the front. I wanted a quick project on Sunday, and put together this baby quilt with the mantra "back as front," or think about the design as a quilt back. I think it works. It's one quilt I'll be contributing to Kate's 100 Quilts for Kids project.

The quilt actually started with the back, or rather my decision to piece together several fleece remnants to make this back. I'm trying to sew from my stash and part of that means using the odds and ends of backing and battings/flannel in my project. I used to use fleece as a backing frequently, and while I no long use it that much, I still think it makes for a great, warm, soft, and cuddly quilt. Perfect for a kid in Michigan.

I quilted it using a simple cross-hatch design. After basting the quilt, I placed masking tape on the quilt using the space between the big dots on the black and white dot fabric as a guide. I then stitched on both sides of the masking tape, using my presser foot's edge as a guide. I probably should have used my walking foot, but I was lazy and didn't want to take the minute to switch feet. My hands had to work a little harder, but aside from that, it was fine.

The binding came from my leftover stash of black and white fabrics from my sister's wedding quilt. I do love the black/white/red/yellow combination -- I think it works for any gender, any age. It's so versatile. I've been looking for a totally local -- as in, I can drop this off -- place to donate this, but if I can't find one, I'll be sending this to Margaret's Hope Chest. They're in Michigan, so it's somewhat local, and they do an incredible service by distributing quilts to kids whose parents are in prison. I can't do full justice to their story of origins, but suffice it to say, it's one of the most compassionate responses to violence and tragedy that I've encountered.

Shadows: A little outtake from this morning's photo shoot.

Up on my pedestal for a moment: This quilt, which is admittedly quite simple, took about 6.5 hours from start to finish. That's barely an hour a day if spread over a week. So grab some strips of fabrics and make a quilt. Kate's even offering some incentives for quilts made over the next month. If you've got access to some fabric and a sewing machine, you can do it. There will be a link-up on Kate's blog, next week, September 28-30, as well as October 12-14.

Perfect Placemats

2011-09-17T23:19:00.000-04:00

I admit it. I've spent the past couple of days eagerly checking the mailbox to see if my For the Love of Solids package had arrived. It looked like almost everyone shipped in time, so it could have arrived anytime this past week. Today I was home when the mail carrier came, but I was talking to my roommate and managed not to duck outside in the middle of our conversation. But a little later, I checked outside and there was a nice box waiting for me. And inside the box was a fantastic set of goodies from my partner, Mary Anne. When she posted these on flickr, I commented on how much I liked the dark teal color (Kona Glacier for those keeping track at home). It's hanging out on the top of my favorite colors list with Betty's Orange. My neighbors painted the formerly forest green part of their house dark teal, and I love staring at it. Handily, it seems to be a very in color this fall, so I get to marvel at it a lot.

The placemats include a pieced section on the left, comprised of Moda Crossweaves. They are shimmery and fun and feel great. The quilting on these placemats is lovely as well -- an inner border on each of the rectangles of the pieced section and straight-line quilting on the rest of the placemat. As the first picture shows, the backs are made of light lime and a pieced section as well.

Mary Anne also included 4 coordinating napkins, made out of Turquoise and Light Lime. The hems on these napkins are gorgeous. I keep thinking about making cloth napkins for myself and then stop when I start thinking about all that hemming (strangely, I'd rather bind than hem. It makes no sense, I know.)

And here's everything all together. Mary Anne also included 2 fat quarters, of Kona Glacier and Moda Dill (one of my new favorites, I'm sort of on a green kick of late, though I haven't done much with it yet) as well as 2 bars of Lindt chocolate. On flickr, she asked about chocolate preferences and I responded (not knowing that she was my partner) that I love white and milk chocolate. When she posted a picture of everything she was sending and I could see that it included white chocolate, I was hoping that the package might wind its way to me. And it did. And this pleases me greatly. Thank you, Mary Anne!

Friday Recipe: {Vegetarian} Tortilla Soup

2011-09-16T09:39:00.000-04:00

Image Source*

It's been quite a while since I posted a recipe, but the combination of sale tomatoes, early frost, and a friendly request leads me to post the recipe for my favorite soup of all times. Seriously, I could eat this every day. And if tomatoes were always bountiful and cheap, then I probably would make it every day. I got this recipe from a friend whose family had adapted a non-vegetarian version (tortilla soup frequently has chicken broth and chicken in it) into a vegetarian version. It's awesome. Go forth and make it. And eat. Often.

{Vegetarian} Tortilla Soup
Serves 8-10

Ingredients
Olive Oil
2 12-inch tortillas (I usually use whole-wheat but use what you like)
1/2 large white onion, chopped (sometimes I use a whole medium yellow onion)
3+ Tbsp fresh garlic, pressed
2 lbs. frozen baby white corn (white corn is key)
3 lbs roma tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1+ Tbsp cumin
1+ Tbsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper (I've used black pepper in a pinch)
Few dashes of cayenne pepper
4 c. vegetable broth or water + pareve/fake chicken soup mix

Optional Garnishes
Grated cheddar cheese
Blue corn tortilla chips
Cilantro

Instructions
1. Rip tortillas into small pieces and, in a large soup pot over medium-high heat, fry tortilla pieces in thin layer of olive oil.

2. Add onion and saute until translucent (or you can start with the onion and add the tortilla pieces).

3. Add garlic.

4. After the garlic is lightly cooked, add all the other ingredients EXCEPT 1/2 corn (i.e., add only 1 lb).

5. Bring the soup to a low boil and boil for about 5 minutes.

6. Turn off heat and, using an immersion blender, puree the soup. It should be thick, but not chunky. (If you don't have an immersion blender, you can do this in a regular blender but make sure the soup has cooled sufficiently.)

7. Add the remaining corn and return to the soup to a low boil. Simmer without burning the bottom (stir occasionally).

8. Eat! And eat some more. Optional Garnishes include shredded cheddar cheese, blue tortilla chips, cilantro, or anything else you'd like.

*I do love fiestaware. One day I might even have some in my kitchen. Feel free to send me some if you want.

A Giant Hug

2011-09-12T11:27:00.000-04:00

Sometimes words aren't enough. Jenny is one of those friends who always knows and finds the right thing to do in any given situation. When we first met, she had ginormous bruises all over from a bike accident, but still convinced me that getting a road bike and riding a metric century the next day was obviously the best possible thing to do (she was right). She's exactly who you want motivating you on a bike ride or a run or even floating down a river. She combines outrageous, serious, and sentimental in the best possible way. She's an expert card-sender, for example, and made sure to leave and mail me several cards when I left Madison and was adjusting to a new life in Michigan. We were lucky enough to overlap in New York for part of the early summer and share a few glasses of wine and some meals.

Yesterday, Jenny flew to Geneva. She'll be there for the academic year, working on her dissertation. As exciting as this opportunity is, it also meant uprooting her life, leaving her partner, her friends, her family, her bikes, her daily routines, her apartment, and so on. And this is hard. Last weekend I realized I needed to make her a quilt. Something to take with her as a visceral, daily reminder of friends and her life here. And something to remind her of her promise to name an Alp after me. That's the real reason I made this quilt.

Given that this would need to be mailed by Tuesday to ensure it reached her before she got on a plane, this had to come together quickly. Luckily, I had just seen (a different) Jeni's Giant Vintage Star Quilt, for which she had handily posted a tutorial. Inspired by barn quilts--so appropriate for a quilt for someone who lives biking through rural Wisconsin--this quilt is one giant block, which makes it come together quite easily. At 67" x 67", it's a great size--perfect for reading under or covering a full bed--but a little challenging to photograph well.

Although Jeni's vintage version uses a rainbow of fabric, I've been fascinated by the diamond windmill shapes that form with two colors (actually I've been thinking of just making some single diamond windmill blocks -- as in, the shape the orange or the blue makes on its own), so two colors it would be. It also made the math really simple: this quilt used 4 yards of fabric on the front, 2 yards of gray, one each of blue and orange. Only after I picked the fabrics did I realize how apt they were: the orange comes from Paula Pass' Flights of Fancy line and the blue from Kate Spain's Central Park line, and Jenny would be flying to Switzerland from New York, where she spent the summer.

I pieced the back with darker versions of orange (a fun pindot fabric I had) and blue (from Denyse Schmidt's line for JoAnn's) as well as the gray bicycle print (from Erin McMorris' Weekends collection). Originally I planned to run into the store to buy some more gray for the back, but I saw the DS Quilts bolts and realized the blue acorn print would be perfect (I also ran into Emily who nabbed the bolt after I was done with it). I thought about straight-line or echo quilting, but give the time constraints, I opted for free-motion squiggles.Which went quickly once I got my machine re-accustomed to free-motion quilting. And had it not been 11 pm, I might have gone out and purchased quilting gloves since the nice smooth fabric meant my hands were slipping a lot. Instead I worked on being patient and quilting calmly, or something like that.

As soon as I picked the orange and blue fabrics, I knew I wanted to use this green Dena Designs print for the binding. I love this print and love it even more as binding. I'd stock up on more of it if I could find it. I shipped the quilt to Jenny on Tuesday and it arrived on Friday, just in time to get packed.

In the process of making this quilt, I realized that there is something magical about quick, big quilts. I transformed a few cuts of fabric into a quilt that I know will be used and loved in a matter of days. In contrast, I've spent almost a year trying to figure out what quilt to make another friend of mine. It's long overdue at this point, and the primary reason is that I could never settle on the perfect design or the ideal fabric. I worried that some ideas were too simple, some not special enough, and others just not right. And then I made this quilt and realized none of those concerns matter (real perceptive, I know). In the vein of this confessional post, I just need to plunge in and make things and worry less about whether something will be special enough. So thank you, Jenny, for giving me the chance to realize this, obvious as it may be.

The Whole Watermelon

2011-09-08T23:16:00.000-04:00

Last week I showed a "slice" of my solids swap quilt, and now I can show the whole thing. While I finished it a few days ago, the weather has been most uncooperative for getting decent pictures. But I finally found a door that receives enough light on a grey, rainy day to snap a few photos.

After I created the improv quilt, I opted to add a little more wonkiness via circles. Dan's quilt definitely provided the inspiration, though in the spirit of improv + wonky, I wanted the circles to be not quite a perfect 360. Luckily, that was pretty easy to achieve! The innermost circle consists of alternating strips of my partner's favorite colors.

To balance the pieced circles, I also quilted in circles. This might be my new favorite quilting design, and a cardboard circle template was my best tool: I cut out a circle (after tracing a glass onto a piece of cardboard) and taped the cardboard onto the quilt sandwich. Then I placed my presser foot against the cardboard and basically "traced" the circle while stitching. After that, I moved outward at regular intervals and continued to use the previous circle as my guide.

The back -- which again uses my partner's favorite colors -- shows off the circle quilting really well. The empty circle in the middle will become the label, but I didn't want to write my partner's name before taking pictures.

This palette is not my regular go-to sort of color scheme, but I'm confident my partner will be happy with it, and it's fun to play with colors that I don't usually use.

The black binding was not originally planned, but once I used it in the pieced circle, I knew it was the perfect way to frame the mini-quilt. I'm really happy with how it works as the binding; it stands out from the rest of the quilt and creates a clear border. I think it helps focus the improv/wonky piecing in a visually pleasing sort of way. I'll send this mini-quilt, the pouch, and some other little goodies off to my partner tomorrow.

Nowhere and Everywhere

2011-09-06T20:41:00.000-04:00

Awhile back, I mentioned ordering labels. I talked about it but never showed anything because I ordered them while living like a vagabond and never managed to take pictures of them on the rare occasions in which we were in the same place at the same time. My weekend projects included a large quilt to which I wanted to attach a label. Thus ensued the label hunt. I knew I had stashed the small roll in a "safe place" while moving to ensure that they returned with me. But that "safe place" eluded me.

I hadn't come across them while unpacking and I dug through my sewing stuff multiple times in pursuit. In between each stage of quilt-making -- after piecing the front, piecing the back, and basting the quilt -- I looked for the labels, hoping to be able to attach one before quilting. But no, I couldn't find the roll. I quilted and label-hunted, binded and label-hunted, to no avail. I washed the quilt and I hunted, no luck. I dried the quilt and I hunted and, finally, at last, the labels appeared. I had squired them away in an envelope full of "important" papers that I would surely sort and file quickly (ha!). So the timing was imperfect, but at least I could still sew on a label before shipping the quilt. And so I did. The hand-stitching is imperfect, but I'll take it. And if you're looking for labels, Michelle at Inked Papers is delightful.

A Little Zipper Action

2011-09-03T12:35:00.000-04:00

It's true. Before today, I had never sewn a zipper. As I've been sewing more bags, I found this state of affairs more problematic and limiting. I read blogs and tutorials, half of which indicated zippers are hard and half of which suggested that zippers are pretty easy. All in all, I'd say the first time around went smoothly, and wasn't too difficult. Whew.

I made this pouch for my partner in the solids swap (it's stuffed with solid (+ a couple print) scraps). I used this tutorial from kelbysews, with a couple of modifications. I cut pieces 7" x 8.5" to make a slightly larger pouch. I used lightweight interfacing on the interior lining fabric and some slightly heavier interfacing on the exterior fabric (I didn't have any medium-weight at home, but this combo worked well for me). I like the addition of tabs for the zipper ends, but I would start with a wider piece of fabric to create a little more wiggle room when sewing everything together. I like the simple 2-fabric pouch I made, but if I make it again, I might add a little ric-rac or trim. All inall, a productive sewing morning.

Watermelon Slice

2011-09-02T07:12:00.000-04:00

My partner's favorite colors: check.
Improvisational: check
Somewhat wonky: check.

My plan for my partner's solid swap item changed a lot in my head. Working off her mosaic, I came up with several ideas. But none of them felt right. Then I was looking through some of my Flickr favorites and came up with a new plan. The pieced piece above represents the start of that plan.

I always forget that wonky/improv piecing almost always takes longer than planned piecing. This step took most of yesterday to cut, sew, and press, and it's about 15" x 27". There's another little surprise to come, but as I worked on it, I dubbed it "watermelon slice" because of the varied greens with a tiny pop of raspberry pink. Plenty more work to do before the deadline, but it's taking shape and I think the remaining steps will be quicker.

Sweet Seaglass Solids

2011-08-29T10:22:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend, I found out I won this sweet bundle of solids from Marmalade Fabrics (love the name!) through a giveaway on Teaginny Designs' blog. Alex posted a {free} tutorial for the Seaglass Wall Hanging she made with these fabrics, and I'm excited to test it out. I have an intended recipient in mind and may make a few modifications accordingly (and possible alter the layout/size to be more of a table runner). I head back to Michigan tomorrow, and I'm excited to take a few days for quilt stuff: finishing my quilt, making my swap items for the Solids swap, and planning/making a few gift items as well. Ok, I might not get the latter done this week, but I have big plans....

Twinkle

2011-08-26T11:43:00.000-04:00

Several months ago I showed you my first paper piecing efforts. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with the block, but I took the advice several of you imparted, and opted to make it into a challah cover/wall hanging. I added a slim aqua border and then a larger natural border, making the block a generous 19" square.

I knew pretty quickly that I would back it with a piece of Dogwood Stripe, from Laura Gunn's Poppy Collection (I think this print is now out-of-print, seeing as it's not longer listed on Michael Miller's website). I had used a tiny scrap on the front and wanted to show off the larger scale on the back.

{Please pardon the wrinkles!}

When quilting it, I opted for straight lines spaced about 1/4 - 3/8" apart within the natural border regions (I realize that makes it sound like I was quilting a political map of a contested war zone rather than a piece of art). I wanted the focus to be on the center circle of triangles, and I think I accomplished that. I also like how the slim aqua border puffs up a bit because it wasn't quilted.

I spent several months (literally) mulling over the binding. At first I considered using another aqua print, but that just seemed blah. Then I thought a green print would work well and pull out the green from the backing print. But I just looked at it, never finding it quite compelling enough. Finally I decided this was going to be a gift for friends I stayed with in Minneapolis and I needed to finish it before I left for the trip. And suddenly I knew that the peach Pearl Bracelet print (from Lizzy House's Red Letter Day collection) would be perfect. I had a momentary pause when I worried about the gray clashing with the natural, but I decided to stick with my gut, and I think the contrast makes the piece zing. And now "Twinkle" resides with my friends Dara and Barry who graciously let me stay in their Minneapolis apartment while they were away.

I think the binding is my favorite part of this challah cover/wall hanging. I already have more plans for the fabric as the binding of a future quilt. It's one of those prints that just works with so many colors, designs, and projects. While I missed out on some of the ducks from Red Letter Day, I'm glad I got my hands on this print. In fact, I'm finding myself more and more drawn to a lot of the "secondary" prints in big collections, especially the tone-on-tone or two-color prints that are extremely versatile and play well with others.

Solid Stashing

2011-08-23T10:36:00.002-04:00

As luck has it, I'm house/catsitting mere blocks away from a fabulous local fabric store: Treadle Yard Goods. I first noticed it on Saturday and knew I'd head over there shortly. And shortly meant yesterday afternoon. And it was awesome.

First, they have an impressive collection of modern quilting fabrics. (They also have a lot of apparel fabrics and are apparently the last local apparel fabric store in the area, but as a not-yet-garment sewer, I sort of ignored those fabrics). Because there were so many other fun fabrics to feel and touch and pet. Tula Pink (Prince Charming is charming), Joel Dewberry (the new Heirloom line in Citrus is calling my name), various lines from Moda, Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Japanese imports....all sorts of neat stuff. They also had a lot of substrates: quilting cotton, home decor weight, canvas, voile, sateen, velveteen, laminate, and oilcloth to name a few.

Second, they're really nice there. I mean Minnesotans have, in my week here, lived up to their extraordinarily friendly reputation. But Treadle did exactly what I think every store should: ask if I need help when I walk in, leave me alone to wander, and be helpful when I requested assistance. And then when I mentioned I was a visitor, they started telling me about all sorts of other fabric places to check out. Apparently there's an amazing shop in St. Cloud that I don't think I'm going to get to, but still: they heard I liked fabric and directed me to other places to look at it.

So I bought the solids above to use in the Simply Solids Swap. I have a few ideas rolling around in my head and need to make some decisions over the next week so I can start cutting and sewing when I get back. I also dug into their remnants and picked up two for me.

The gray print on the left is from Nancy Mims and the print on the right is a piece of oilcoth. I don't have immediate plans for the gray, but it's the sort of print that would be great as a bag lining, a binding, or in a quilt. As for the oilcloth, I've been meaning to make myself a lunch bag for years. I'm thinking oilcloth is smart since it will wipe down easily. I don't know how to sew with it, but that's just another thing to learn. I was pretty responsible with purchases yesterday, but I might need to go back and buy some Heirloom voile. It was just so pretty and would make a beautiful fall scarf. One can never have too many scarves. And buying fabric for a distinct purpose for me falls under "being kind to myself," right? Hmm.

Color Wheel Charm Swap

2011-08-22T13:52:00.000-04:00

A few posts ago, I mentioned signing up for the Color Wheel Charm Swap. Kati assigned me orange and orange-yellow for my colors. I knew immediately what I would use for orange, but orange-yellow took a little longer to figure out.

For orange (right), I sent in 5" charms from Kate Spain's Central Park Collection, the Bridal Path print in Metro. For orange-yellow (left), I opted for Amy Butler's Full Moon Dots in Tangerine. It looks very light next to the bright orange, but it's more saturated than it appears here. I'm a pretty confident cutter, but cutting charms for the swap gave me a pause. Just a few nerves before plunging in as I needed the full yard to cut 56 charms and knew there wouldn't be enough left over if disaster hit. Handily, disaster stayed at bay, and the charms are now in Kati's hands waiting for distribution.

A Little Glimpse

2011-08-21T18:55:00.000-04:00

It's been a crazy week: last weekend I drove back to Michigan, where I spent 3 days unpacking and moving back into my place, and then I left for the Twin Cities. I stayed with my friends in Minneapolis for a few nights, and now I'm house/catsitting in St. Paul for the week. The weather here is beautiful, and I'm learning how to get around by bus, bike, and foot. After I booked my trip, I realized that the US Gymnastics Championships were taking place here while I was in town, and I was able to catch both days of the women's competition (and see some coach friends of mine). And I've been at the archives during the week. A busy (in a good way) time indeed.

But given this moving back and around, it's also been a time of transitions, and I'm not always best at transitions. So I started making a quilt in my brief sojourn at home. This was a little nuts -- and I very ambitiously thought I might even be able to start and finish it in three days. By day two, I realized that wasn't happening. But I finished the quilt front, and started the quilt back.

And I let myself be content with that. I say "let myself," because I'm prone to being hard on myself when I don't meet self-imposed deadlines or make silly mistakes (hell, I'm prone to getting annoyed with myself when I miss a poorly labeled turn, or rather take a turn I shouldn't have. See: last weekend's drive from DC to Michigan. Don't worry, I'm over it now).

When talking to a friend a week ago, she reminded me "to be kind to myself" -- something I'm not always good at (I have a certain ascetic tendencies after all) and something I'm often terrible at in moments of transition. This quilt, I realized, is one way of being kind to myself, materially and mentally: it's been over a decade since I made a quilt for myself. I've made a challah cover, a scarf, and a bag...small things, but I'm placing this quilt at the head of the queue when I return. I've long wanted a summer quilt for my bedroom, and this will be it. It's a little more planned than usual (which is to say, there was a sketch and measured dimensions), but also a little bit improvisational, which represents my piecing and quilting style well. The product and the process, therefore, are both for me, and I'm really happy about that. Only a week and a half until I return to it....lots of Twin Cities exploration to do in the meantime, including the fabric shop 2 blocks from my housesitting gig. Sweet.

Meet Bianca

2011-08-16T09:38:00.000-04:00

Meet Bianca, my new hippo friend. My parents found her somewhere in Israel, possibly in Tel Aviv (it looks like something one could find in the Modern Art Museum, whether that's where she was residing is unclear to me. My mom probably told where they caught sight of her, but I have since forgotten). In any event, I'm quite fond of my new desk gadget, especially because I have reunited with my desk.

And also because Bianca is so useful. Not only does she hold paper, but she also holds my ideas. Ideas jotted on a random scrap of a box, possibly the container for my mini external hard drive (Western Digital Passport). In this case, she's gripping a quilt idea I've already started working on, miracle of miracles. I was a bit overly ambitious in thinking I could actually make the whole thing from start to finish in the three days I have at home before my research trip to Minneapolis, but I've successfully used almost 5 yards of white fabric, so progress has been made.

Pretty Things

2011-08-15T09:40:00.000-04:00

In July, I won a giveaway of Aurifil thread from Lynne. I got back to Michigan Saturday night and was excited to open the box -- living like a nomad really increases one's tolerance for delayed gratification. And gratified I was. Look at the color card: so.many.colors. I'm looking forward to playing with this thread. I've heard it really decreases the lint in one's machine and since I've grown a few lint monsters over the year, I'm looking forward to seeing if this holds.

Yesterday was an errand day, and errands meant getting a new planner. I know it says 2012, but it's an 18-month planner, and I always get a new one at the end of the summer. Random fact about me: I've always operated on a school-year calendar. All of my non-student years were spent working in high schools or universities. And my mom was a teacher, so even my tiny years moved with the cadences of the school calendar.

My roommate and I went looking for baskets. We ended up in Marshalls. She convinced me that I needed (and would wear) these 3-inch heels. I am not a heels person. But now I own crazy heels. Three inches. That's insane. But they are pretty. And made of patent non-leather (the non-leather shoe options have exponentially increased in the past decade, a trend that greatly pleases my vegetarian self).

Today: more errands and more sewing. That's right, I started sewing last night. It was too dark to get good pictures, but pictures coming soon....

Patchwork Piecing

2011-08-11T11:50:00.001-04:00

I almost forgot about my tiny patchwork project. These are 1" (finished) squares from the Terrain scraps Kate Spain generously sent me. My plan was to combine patchwork and circles with a lot of negative space. Then I saw Angela's post with a couple of design options for her quilt guild's Habitat challenge, and I thought maybe I should use my Terrain strings in a version of her Big Zig or Modern Tracks layout. I'll have at least 8.5 hours of driving on Saturday to further contemplate what to do. Maybe incorporate circles and strings? Maybe the Big Zig or Modern Tracks on the front and circles on the back? So many possibilities...

Mad Measuring (and Cutting!) Skills

2011-08-08T10:51:00.000-04:00

My brother decided to put my sewing skills to use this weekend...by turning me into his drywall cutter. It was a pretty good match for my skill set, and I think I was pretty good at it....as long as he told me where to measure from, that is. There was one piece that I cut a little short because I measured from the top of the new stud rather than the old stud, but it was fixable. I was a little uncertain about the cut-outs for the outlets and light switches, but they actually turned out pretty well. And I preferred this work to grouting, though it might be a tie with drilling holes for wires. I really do like drilling.

Back to the regularly scheduled crafting programming soon....

At the end of the week, I'll pack my car (including my sewing machine and fabric) and drive back to the midwest. I'll have a few days at home to unpack and resettle, before taking off for Minneapolis/St. Paul for 2 weeks of research. Any tips or suggestions about places to eat, fabric shops to visit, and other places to explore in the Twin Cities is most welcome.

Living Dangerously

2011-08-05T15:38:00.000-04:00

Apparently when I'm cut off from my stash and my machine, I sign myself up for all sorts of things. Like the Color Wheel Charm Swap Kati is organizing.

Sign-ups are already closed, but if you're interested in playing in the future, leave a comment for Kati here. I also signed up to be a stitcher in the do. Good Stitches {a charity bee}. I haven't participated in a bee before, but I've long admired what I see on other blogs. And since I try to make and donate several quilts to charity each year, this seemed like the perfect bee to enter. Hopefully I'll get to start in September.

With all these bees and swapping, my mind has been buzzing about a fat quarter swap. It's been a couple years since I organized one and awhile since I participated in one, and I miss them. Are you interested? When would you want to do it? Any rules you really like to govern your swaps?

Bugs.

2011-08-01T11:13:00.000-04:00

I haven't been sewing ~~much~~ anything lately and just wanted to make something. Without a fabric option, I thought baking might be a nice replacement. But I'm staying with my brother and his kitchen is half-packed-up, which means the mixer is sitting in a box somewhere. Yet people have been baking for far longer than electric mixers have existed, so it had to be possible.

I gathered all the ingredients to make brownies, and plunged in. I melted the butter and chocolate, and I broke 4 eggs into a bowl. At which point I realized there was no white sugar in the cabinets. So brown sugar would do -- I decided somewhere between 1/2-3/4 cup of brown sugar would be best, especially since I was using milk chocolate which was already sweeter than other chocolates. Adjusting and adapting on the fly. All was good. Everything was mixed and ready for the flour. I dropped a 1/4 cup in the bowl and then looked in the flour.

Big mistake.

There were bugs in the flour. Little crawling gray things, and god knows how many invisible bug eggs. I was really annoyed -- mostly with myself for not looking in the flour before adding it to the brownie batter. That was just dumb and totally preventable.

After dumping the batter and playing on the internet for a while to mollify my annoyed self, I walked back to the store and bought more chocolate chips. I might have also impulse purchased some salt and vinegar chips to appease myself.

Then I made brownie batter again, and of course managed to spill melted chocolate, beaten eggs, and batter in various ways. Clearly, it was not a good day for baking. But I made my brown sugar substitute (I could have acquired some white sugar at the store, but I was committed to my experiment) and I used some cake flour instead of all-purpose flour. And it turns out that while chemistry limits baking in some ways, these sorts of substitutions are just fine. The texture and taste is slightly different, but they're brownies and they taste good. And there are no bugs in them.

Meanwhile, on the sewing front, while nothing has been sewn, lots has been contemplated.

In particular, I've been looking forward to the tutorial for this block of the summer sampler series. Kate posted it this morning, and I really want to make it. I might use it for a mini-quilt for my partner in the For the Love of Solids Swap or maybe make a baby quilt of them (I've got a bunch more of those to make for the fall) or maybe something else altogether.

Circalicious

2011-07-25T12:12:00.000-04:00

Slow, slow progress on the quilting front. To be honest, the combination of renovation, moving, planning future research trips, and the gross gross heat, not much has happened, craft-wise. Also, the moving meant returning my sewing machine to its vacation spot at my parents' house as I didn't want to clutter up my brother's current apartment with my sewing machine as he's moving out shortly (provided the fixer-upper bathroom gets finished soon). Anyways...

Before waving goodbye to my sewing machine (I really need a name for it, any suggestions?), I played around with piecing circles a la Fleming. I used this tutorial and watched this video before cutting into anything. Overall I like the method, though I need to practice more to get perfectly flat circles. I think it's very forgiving, as any slight flaps should disappear upon quilting. I don't have a fully worked out plan for this quilt, but there will be more Terrain circles. Everything else is subject to change.

Also, the grey fabric is Moda Charcoal. I have to say that while I generally love Bella Solids, I'm a little disappointed in both Charcoal and Slate. I had ordered them hoping they would be similar to Kona's versions, but they're not. While it may be hard to see in the picture, they're too green to be true charcoal or slate. They'll work but they're not as versatile as true greys would be; however, since my Solids swap partner loves olive/artichoke greens, I think these greys will be perfect to use in conjunction with that project. Now I just need to decide what to make her.

When I Have Arthritis in My Thumb....

2011-07-18T11:43:00.001-04:00

....I'll know whom to blame. I spent several 10-hour days helping my brother and his girlfriend work on their new-to-them fixer-upper. It's a classic DC rowhouse that needs, um, work. More work than anticipated, I think. It has, as they say, "good bones," and I think it will be quite lovely one day. In the meantime, the goal is to get it liveable -- and I am quite invested in this goal as I'm supposed to live there.

This experience has renewed my appreciation for the hard work of demolition, construction, remodeling, and renovation. It's no wonder it costs so much, when such efforts require things like pulling staples out of formerly-carpet-covered floors. Luckily the hardwoods underneath the carpet are in great condition. The two rooms sanded yesterday look fantastic and will look even better when stained. But staple-removal in 3 rooms and a staircase took 2 people 10+ hours.

So a few thoughts from this weekend's work:
1. Never ever carpet over good hardwood. Sand and stain the hardwood, and relish it.
2. Do not paint over textured wallpaper (or any wallpaper for that matter).
3. Do not plaster and paint over wallpaper (seriously, strip the wallpaper when it's fairly straightforward and then plaster and paint).
4. Four layers of bathroom tile are too many. Rip out the old and replace the new before creating an absurd tile-monster bathroom floor.
5. Some people are willing to live -- and eat out of -- disgusting kitchens. Seriously, who doesn't clean up the mouse droppings? Or allows layers upon layers of grease in the oven? But when you encounter such grease, Easy-Off* is your best friend. It's probably full of terrible chemicals, but it is a fabulous cleaner. I really should have photographed this marvel. The oven is now a usable appliance once again.
6. Bleach and white vinegar are truly amazing cleaning products.

I have to confess that I'm still a little tired and sore from the weekend. And my sewing machine sat idle as I squatted and pulled staples, hacked at old wallpaper, and ferociously cleaned a kitchen. There are a few little projects I'd like to wrap up over the next couple of weeks, but the state of the fixer-upper may determine how much gets done...

image from here

But when I get back to sewing, I'll have something new to play with. I checked my email this morning to find that I've won some Aurifil thread and a color card from Lynne's giveaway. I've heard that this thread is silky to work with, especially because it produces very little lint. I'm excited to test it out and perhaps find myself a new kind of thread to use. It also looks like the 5-pack includes a multi-color thread spool and I think that will be especially fun to use on a quilt top.

*I have not been paid to endorse this product. My mom and I plucked it off the shelf because it claimed to be fume-free (true!) and it turned out to also be a miracle-worker. I thought it would take about 8 passes to find the original metal in the oven. It only took one.

Super Solids

2011-07-13T11:43:00.003-04:00

1. STLMQG Solids Challenge, 2. Natalie-front, 3. finished!, 4. Robert Kaufman Solids Challenge, 5. baby quilt, 6. Crop Circles - Embroidered Mini Art Quilt, 7. Dancing Dresden Plates, 8. "Huckleberry" Modern Baby Quilt, 9. Slumbering Spring Quilt, 10. DQS10 WIP, 11. Hexagon Quilt Back, 12. RK Challenge - Side 1, 13. IMG_1633, 14. Scrappy Mug Rug Swap - Received!, 15. DSCN0727, 16. DQS WIP

While perusing posts in Google Reader this morning, I discovered For the Love of Solids [a modern swap]. When I made my last mosaic for DQS10, I realized I had a ton of solids-only or mostly-solids in my flickr favorites. As a result, this seemed like the perfect swap to join I'm coveting lots of solids quilts. I still need to ~~finish~~, err make, my totally late DC Modern Quilt Guild Solids Challenge quilt, which is next in line after I roll around with my Terrain scraps.

But in the meantime, joining another swap seemed ~~wise~~ like a fine summer activity to add to my growing to-do list. And picking just 16 solids or solid-ish quilts was actually tough, so, assuming I get in, I think my partner will have lots of ideas and inspiration with which to work. I realize that my mosaic also highlights my inclination toward shades of blue, but I also love deep saturated oranges and reds. In any event, I'm hoping this swap will push me to start making more solids quilts, since I seem to click the star on so many of the ones I've seen. To learn more or to sign up, click here.

Settling In

2011-07-13T09:33:00.000-04:00

I'm settling into what I think (?) is my second-to-last temporary living arrangement for the summer. Before moving in, I stopped by my parents' house to repack and pick up a few things, including my envelope of Terrain scraps from Kate Spain. I've now ironed them and, yesterday in the archives, I figured out what I want to do with them (how's that for multitasking productivity!). Hint: there will be circles.

Ferris Wheels and Fireflies

2011-07-06T11:36:00.000-04:00

Friends, work, and California sunshine conspired to keep me away from the blog for a bit. I was lucky to get selected for a seminar that took place in the Bay Area, and spent 10 days back in Northern California learning as well as hanging out with friends. While my nomadic life has its downsides, one of the major upsides is the opportunity to return to places and people I know well with some regularity. That said, this quilt is for Shira, the new daughter of one of my closest childhood friends.

We laugh about it now, but when our parents introduced us one summer, Beth and I were sort of unimpressed with one another. There was neither active liking or disliking, just that blase "our parents are friends but so what" reaction. Then the following fall, we took gymnastics classes together and sports accomplished what our parents could not: creating a lifelong, tight friendship. Back then, we lived a few miles away from one another, just far enough to require parents' shuttling us back and forth. Of course once we both left home for college, her parents moved to a house a couple streets away from my parents. While the timing precluded us from taking full advantage of this proximity, it's certainly been a boon to my visits home and, most recently, getting quilts to her family.

When Beth told me that she and Harley had decided on purple and green as the colors for the baby's room, I decided to make a quilt that would hopefully coordinate but also stand on its own. I used two blocks from Lynn's Big Fat Dresden Quilt-Along which I previewed here. After making the two blocks, I contemplated adding the thin border, per the QAL instructions. But never one to completely follow directions and wanting a quilt that measured something like 40x60 instead of 30x60, I went in a slightly different direction, and added what I think of as the "bamboo strips" to opposite sides of the circles. I used the scraps from cutting the dresden plates, pieced them together and sewed them to the grey at an angle, all very improvisationally which is why one got snatched up by the binding.

The quilting is a little melange of styles, with flowers, vine-like trellises, circles, and stippling. I placed one flower in the center of each dresden plate and then added them at irregular intervals along the bamboo. To make the quilting more continuous and therefore easier, I connected these flowers with trellis vines.

Then I free-motion quilted spirals in each dresden plate and added stippling around the edges. If I were to do it again, I think I would use my walked foot and follow seam lines for the circles as I think doing it freehand was harder than necessary. I want to try tighter, more controlled circles in the future as I've seen them on a lot of quilts recently and I like the effect, especially when the rest of the quilt has a lot of 90 degree angles.

For the back, I plucked a just-shy-of-2-yards piece of Soul Blossoms from my stash. It fit perfectly, and given all the motion on the front, I thought a single piece of fabric would be nice. For the binding, I chose the Lavender Fans from Tanya Whelan's Dolce collection, which I had also used in the dresden plates. As for the name, the circles reminded me summer carnival/boardwalk/festival ferris wheels while the bamboo strips add a twinkle of color, like fireflies on a summer's night. As I write this out, I'm thinking that perhaps "Shira's Splash of Summer" sums it up well. Here's to many fun summers ahead.

A Dresser and a Seismograph

2011-06-27T11:33:00.001-04:00

I thought I first met Sarah about 3 years ago. Her husband Danny was a grad school colleague and she attended one of our workshops. It turned out she was a grad student as well, albeit at a different university. A university where I knew some grad students in her department. And so we played the name game and figured out who we knew in common. And then Sarah paused and said, "did you sell a dresser a few years ago?" As it turned out, we had sort of met previously. My roommate and I were selling an extra dresser (donated by my third cousins and no longer needed) and Sarah bought it from us. Totally random, except that when she came to pick it up my she and my roommate realized the friend they had in common who was the friend that linked Sarah and I in our "getting to know you" discussion.

Fast forward a few years and Sarah and Danny welcomed Sam into their lives this spring. I almost mailed them this quilt, but when I realized I would be in California in June, I decided to wait and bring it along with me. And then, because life sometimes really works out, I spent the weekend staying at the apartment of friends who live mere minutes away from Danny and Sarah. This quilt sprung from "Spring Chicken" and reminds me how the same types of piecing can make distinctly different quilts. In this case, I love the cluster of colors within what I think of as the seismograph -- Sam is a California baby -- in the middle. I also love love love the borders. I know there are some who don't think borders belong on modern quilts; I disagree. I think borders can be the quilt or, in this case, make the quilt. It's the combination of frames in different colors and widths that draw in the eye.

I pieced the back from several remnants from the front borders as well as several larger pieces from my stash. The stipple-quilting in pale yellow is most visible against the brown but fades into the rest of the quilt. This might represent my best stippling to date.

It can be hard to pick a favorite part of or fabric in a quilt. But in this case, there was no question: the aqua binding wins. It's gentle and fun, sweet and playful, charming and edgy.

The Smell of Grass

2011-06-21T12:16:00.002-04:00

I am highly allergic to grass. I do my best to avoid sitting on it in order to avoid itchy skin and red rashes. I take lots of allergy medicine in the spring. But I love the smell of freshcut grass. And this quilt, an angel quilt for DQS10 from Carol, reminds me of that fresh smell of grass. It's summery and fun, a perfect picnic scene.

The postal service seems to have disappeared the original quilt made for me, by MichelleSews. Perhaps they didn't like my complaints about their inconsistent rules for flat-rate envelopes and treated the quilt like a dissident in an authoritarian regime? It's unclear, though perhaps it will magically appear at some point later. In the meantime, Carol, or MamaCJT as she is known on Flickr, stepped into her role as angel-quilt-maker-extraordinaire and sent me a quilt, for which I am very grateful. I think this will look great on the blue walls of my bedroom and I look forward to hanging it up. Carol also sent along some fun fabric scraps which I look forward to playing with and turning into something....another quilt perhaps.

Stitch by Stitch

2011-06-20T09:52:00.000-04:00

Right after college, I moved to Portland, Oregon, where I lived with a good friend from college and three other guys. My mom's friends were very concerned about this living arrangement, since we didn't know the guys ahead of time and the bedroom doors did not have deadbolts, the horrors. All of these guys became very good friends -- what can I say, we had good taste in and excellent gut instincts about housemates -- and also exposed us to a lot of Japanese. In its original incarnation, the house consisted of 5 guys who ~~created a burger chain~~ had gone to college together and spent 2 years in Japan together through the JET program. The house was on iteration number 4 or 5 or so by the time we arrived, but there were still 3 Japanese speakers and us, the 2 non-Japanese speakers. Sometimes dinner table conversations would shift into Japanese and my friend was fond of translating these indecipherable-to-us exchanges as "our housemates who can't speak Japanese are the best ever. They are fascinating, amazing people. They rock." Etc., etc. Occasionally being left out of conversations, notwithstanding, I spent 2 years learning a lot about Japanese culture (and bikes -- I could tell you a lot about Shimano components for a while there).

As I returned to my in-progress Sashiko (Japanese embroidery) experiment, I remembered that one of my former housemates had a sashiko quilt, a gift from his host mom when he lived in Japan. It was beautiful, and I can't imagine how long it took to make. Traditionally, sashiko is blue and white, often white thread on blue fabric. The two colors convey simplicity even as the designs look complicated. The trick to sashiko, it turns out, is breaking complicated designs into single lines. So over here in my corner of the world, I'm working on the paint-by-numbers version in which I'm following a pre-made pattern; apparently it is made with washable ink so that I can pretend I designed it all myself. As you can see from above, the technique starts with sewing diagonal lines individually.

However, I am preternaturally incapable of precisely following directions. In this case, I have an excuse: they're in Japanese, so obviously I can't simply read and execute. I'm pretty good at reading pictures (that same college friend with whom I lived in Portland once wrote a paper on the linguistics of Ikea's non-verbal instructions), which is how I managed to follow the one important instruction of sewing diagonal lines instead of, say, circles, which is how my eyes first read the pattern. But I completely ignored acquiring a sashiko needle or using sashiko thread or even sticking to one color of thread.

I decided to use 4 colors of thread, though I've only made my way into 2 thus far. Before I purchased my kit, I looked at this pillow and thought that the multi-color version would be fun. I still think that, though I'm less convinced that my decision to use embroidery floss (colors, lots of colors!) was wise. Embroidery floss has multiple strands that easily come apart, which is mostly an issue in threading it, especially since the needle I'm using is on the small side. I'm pretty good at threading needles, but this takes me at least 4 tries each time. A lesson learned, I suppose. I'm determined to finish this little handsewing project, ideally in the next couple of weeks. Assuming I do, however, I have no idea what I'll use it for. A pillow? A pouch? A wall hanging?

Almost Sudoku

2011-06-17T11:43:00.001-04:00

I made this quilt this winter and took the pictures in April, with the wildflowers in full bloom (the one time of year the front yard looks nice sans help). And now that my courier transported it to a shower miles away from my present locale, I can show it here. The quilt is for the daughter of grad school friends who is expected to arrive in July -- a fine, fine month in which to be born. I'm confident that Sara and Gene will be awesome parents, of the caring yet irreverent, hilarious and fun to be around sort; I'm equally confident that their offspring will surpass my pop cultural and musical knowledge after approximately one day on earth.

Inspired by Heather's Autumn Canary quilt, I wanted to make a quilt whose design showcased some favorite fabrics. I had about a half-yard of the Berry Charms fabric (by Pat Bravo) that I wanted to showcase and selected fun prints from my stash to complement it. I also wanted each 9-patch section to be different, and it struck me that Sudoku puzzles offered the perfect template (+ some logic fun). Mind you, I'm not actually very good at Sudoku (or lack the patience to become good), but it seemed like a fine idea: I assigned each fabric a number and got to work. I made 6 Sudoku puzzles and, after some scribbling and erasing, filled them out. (Later I realized I could have just trolled the internets and found myself some answer keys but what would be the fun in that?) All was well. I laid out my fabric and started sewing 5" blocks together. And it was good. Until I managed to turn some pieces around, not realize I had done so, finish the quilt top, and find out that my perfect puzzle layouts no longer existed. I decided it was okay, and "Almost Sudoku" came into being.

The pieced back combines another Pat Bravo print, Daylight Pond (from her Paradise Collection), with pink flowers and a milk chocolate-y solid from my stash. The free-motion quilting blends in and helped it crinkle up perfectly. I didn't measure it after I pulled the quilt from the dryer, but I think it's about 45" square. I used the last remaining yardage of the pink flower print for the binding (previously used to bind this quilt too).

Folded up like this, the quilt doesn't read pink! which is one of the things I really like about it. I'm not a pink person and don't think baby quilts, especially girl baby quilts, need to or should be pink. But I have slowly allowed pink fabric to creep into my stash because, in the right tones and design, I even like it. And since I have it, I'm going to use it. And in this case, it's there, but in combination with the browns, peaches, yellows, and aquas on the front becomes fun and colorful. In fact, I think it's the peach print that makes the quilt zing.

Tutorial: How to Machine-Bind Your Quilt

2011-06-10T16:43:00.002-04:00

I fully machine-bind my quilts. Back and front. No hand-stitching to finish. Call me a heretic, but I highly recommend it. It's fast, it's easy, it's even enjoyable. Sure, the stitches show on the binding, but if you blend your thread carefully, they only show if you look carefully. Or you can make them purposefully visible, as a design element. It's up to you.

Now, I admit that when I first started making quilts, binding was my least favorite part of the process. It may not have become my favorite, but I don't mind it. In a couple of episodes of Bones or Law & Order or NCIS or Criminal Minds (notice a pattern here), I can attached and complete the binding for a pretty big lap quilt. So when anyone asks me about how to get better at binding, my recurrent theme is practice, practice, practice. It's cliche, but I found that making challah covers really helped me figure it out. They're small and manageable and allow for a lot of binding practice in a short amount of time.

I've made a tutorial for my method of machine-binding your quilt (using double-fold binding). I asked a couple sewer friends, including Michelle, to read it over, but any errors are mine alone. I wrote it for a beginner audience, so that it's accessible to a new quilter. But a more experienced quilter can skip the first few steps about how to cut, sew, and press binding and move on to the method. The link below will take you to a downloadable pdf file, which allows you to print it and keep it near your sewing machine for reference. If you're unsure about a step or are confused or want more information, please leave a comment or email me.

Two Hippos' Machine-Binding Tutorial

This tutorial is for personal use only.

If you want to teach it in a class, contact me before using and distributing it.

Odds and Ends

2011-06-07T18:53:00.001-04:00

Kate is organizing 100 Quilts for Kids again this year, and she's trying to get the word out early for an early fall push. Every year I try to make and donate a few quilts (some years more than others, admittedly), and one thing I really like about this particular donation endeavor is that it focuses on local donations. So search out a local charity, hospital, school, etc and donate the quilt you make to them. This not only connects you to your local community and emphasizes local needs but also saves on shipping. What's not to love?

Malka just announced that Moda will be replicating and printing her hand-dyed fabrics. So while these won't be uniquely hand-dyed, they'll be pretty close and will make her unique look more accessible and affordable, which is great.

As I soldier on without my sewing machine, I've decided that hand-piecing and quilting are really not for me. I got myself a Sashiko kit and started it but haven't gotten very far. I should take a picture but that would admit and showcase my poor performance. Maybe I'll take one anyways. I like the idea in theory, I just want to be making other things. But I'm using this time to work on a quilt design based on a Hale and Hearty (a New York soup, salad, sandwich place) brochure. I thought I'd be able to find the brochure online, but I was wrong. Once I get it worked out, I'll post my drafts. I've also resolved to sew a garment this summer. It will be a July/August project, and I'm thinking of starting with Meg's Schoolhouse Tunic pattern since reviewers suggest that it's a good beginner option. After seeing Julie's Kyoko Dress, I'm also contemplating that option. Maybe for garment number 2. Any thoughts, suggestions, or advice on garment sewing and fabric selection? I'm all ears.

Total non-sequitur: if you've always wanted to go to Paris, here's a Parisian trip giveaway for you.

And with that, I'm off to get ready for Shavuot, one of my favorite Jewish holidays. This 2-day holiday is all about dairy -- blintzes, ice cream, cheesecake -- and includes all-night learning. I mean technically, it's a harvest festival falling exactly 7 weeks after the second day of Passover and celebrates the giving of the Torah (hence the all-night learning). But to my vegetarian self, the dairy is key. Also, it's traditional to read the Book of Ruth which is, I think, one of the most fascinating Biblical texts. So it contains a nice package of customs and such. Chag sameach to all who celebrate it.

Summertime Shabbat

2011-06-02T13:34:00.000-04:00

It's not technically summer yet, but between the humidity and the long days, it certainly feels like it to me. I'll take the evening light, but I'd be happy to toss the humidity aside. I miss many things about living in Northern California, and the weather is high on that list. Summer's long days also means the Shabbat, which starts and ends according to sundown, starts and ends a lot later. Among friends of mine who are technical about these things, the late start/end has certain advantages and certain disadvantages over the early start/end in the winter. I'm not one for technicalities on these matters, though I appreciate the concept of living according to the rhythms of nature. It's one of the things I really like about camping: you sleep and rise according to the sun. But I digress.

My friend and best customer, Sara, contacted me about a commissioned challah cover. Her sister-in-law was recently engaged and Sara wanted to give her a challah cover as a gift. I was happy to oblige and we started talking about various options, in terms of both design and color. After she talked to her sister-in-law and they looked through some of my work, Sara asked me to make a challah cover like this one, but requested adding "shabbat" in Hebrew. At first I thought I could replicate the fabric from the inspiration one, but I didn't have as much left as I thought. But Sara had sent me some images and color preferences to work with, and "coral" stuck with me. I dug through my stash and reconnected with this coral-y orange/blue/yellow/pink fabric and decided to use it.

This was my first attempt to piece letters, and I spent a lot of time staring at Malka's work. The nice thing about the letters that comprise shabbat is that they're pretty simple -- Hebrew has two main font styles, a blockier printed text and a "cursive" handwritten one. The latter has a lot more curves while the former has serif and non-serif varieties. I briefly thought about using applique, for which I would have started with a serif-ed version, but for sanity's sake, I decided piecing would be better. So I stared and stared and finally started cutting 1.5" strips and working from there. I started with the shin, the letter on the right (Hebrew reads from right to left) as it was not only the first letter but also the simplest. Once I made it, I proceeded with the others. Though it may look like the bet, the middle letter, is wider than the others, they're actually all the same size.

The back is "Day Glowing Daisies" from Patricia Bravo's Naturella Collection. I put this challah cover together a little differently than in the past: instead of quilting it all at once, I pieced the shabbat letters and quilted the off-white canvas before adding the dresden flowers on the edges. Then I added the dresdens and quilted them, so only the dresden quilting shows on the back. I did this so I could fully quilt the background without the back looking like a mess of quilted background lines + dresden lines. Instead, just the dresden petals show. For the dresden centers and binding, I used a solid pink that matched the pink in the orange fabric from the front and coordinated with the fabric on the back.

The best part of making this challah cover was that Sara, who lives in London, was visiting her family in the DC area, and I got to hand this over to her in person. We hadn't seen one another in years, but we had a lovely dinner and chance to catch up.

On Winning, Wanting, and Giving

2011-05-31T23:15:00.000-04:00

The good: I won Terrain scraps straight from the designer, Kate Spain.
The bad: This delightful news made me crave, long, yearn for my sewing machine, or any sewing machine. I spent the day dreaming of things I would sew, both with the scraps and with other fabric.

Kate Spain has become one of my favorite fabric designers. For a while, I kept gravitating to her work without realizing it (mostly prints from her Verna line) and then I started seeking it out. I have a bunch of Fandango that I'm waiting to use -- inspiration, please strike.

I also have a Central Park quilt in progress that sort of stalled out. At first, I planned for that quilt to be for my room, but in the middle of sewing, I realized I wasn't thrilled with it. Then I realized that I was disappointed in my choice of a light yellow solid as the primary solid when, as I pieced the squares, I really wanted more zip. Or really more green, Moda grass to be precise. Which is sort of funny because green has never been a color that grabbed me. But suddenly it did, perhaps in solidarity with the coming of spring. But I didn't have enough fabric to easily switch or enough patience to rip out the old and start anew. Which is why it sits, mostly but not entirely pieced, in a ziplock awaiting my return. At which point I'll finish it and figure out what I'm going to do with it. Maybe I'll give it to someone else, maybe I'll sell it, maybe I'll use it as a picnic quilt. I think the yellow would look good against real grass in ways that it won't look as good against the blue walls of my bedroom. Hmmm.

Speaking of what to do with that quilt, as I was writing this post in my head earlier today (am I the only one who does that? I have several posts mentally "written" that need to make it through my fingers and the keyboard to the blog), I was thinking about an offhand statement Deborah made today. In a post about her current quilt project, she mentioned that the quilt will be only the second one she'll give away. I see comments like this and variations thereof -- e.g., I have so many quilts at my house, I need to do something else with this one -- not too infrequently, and they give me pause. I've given away far more quilts than I've kept. So I read those statements and wonder, "Do they not have friends/family celebrating milestones/getting married/having kids/etc for which they need/want to give gifts?" A lot of these people clearly give other handmade items -- bags, clothes, jewelry, etc -- as presents, so this is not written to suggest they are hoarding their handmade goodness. Rather, it's the recognition that quilts (including challah covers, table runners, and "smaller" quilts) are simply my go-to for a gift. Hell, last night I started thinking about a quilt for something years away, a quilt that may never make it out of my brain, but a quilt nonetheless. What are your go-to gifts? Any standards that never get old for you?

Questions + Answers + Giveaway Day Winner

2011-05-27T13:16:00.000-04:00

I'll start in opposite order of the post title, and lead with the Giveaway Day winner, Littlebit, who wrote:

It seems only appropriate to lead off with her question, "Why does a little bit of lint in a sewing machine cause so many problems?" I must confess that when I started sewing, I noticed lint but didn't realize how many problems it caused. It wasn't until I quilted this quilt, which was backed with red fleece, that I discovered the ills of lint. Namely, that a tiny red sweater lived under the machine's throatplate and liked to tease the bobbin. Indeed, I think the answer to this question is that lint is a tease, and particularly likes to scoff at machinery, bobbins, and humans. This web of dust produces tangles galore, traffic jams, broken needles, and general chaos. When I think more charitably about lint, I would suggest that it causes so many problems in order to ensure we humans are paying attention, thinking and doing with intention. But most of the time I lack that charity and just swear at the lint. I mean, it is a tease.

I think the most popular question was something to the effect of "What am I researching?" The short, formal answer is that I study religion and state. But that doesn't really tell you what I'm doing, does it? The longer, perhaps more interesting answer, is that I'm researching and writing a dissertation on American military chaplains from World War I through Vietnam. I examine how the chaplaincy has evolved in order to explore how the state manages religion and negotiates with, between, and among religious groups. I can talk about this for a very long time, but I think that's sufficient for now. I will add, however, that if you have friends or relatives who were military chaplains in this time period, I would love to talk to them. Or if you have letters or diaries or pictures or anything of the like, I would love to see those, so be in touch.

And to keep it light, Leanne asked "Would you rather buy fabric or shoes?" Fabric, no question about it.

Have a wonderful weekend, and more q&a to come!

Sun-Dappled

2011-05-25T23:38:00.001-04:00

I showed a few peeks of this quilt a couple weeks ago, and it's now done and has been delivered to its new home in Chicago. The sun was not the most cooperative when I took pictures, and I managed to unintentionally delete my favorite image while editing, but such is life. This quilt served as an experiment with equilateral triangles, linen, random selection, and chopping up large prints.

I pieced a print triangle to a linen triangle, pressed them, and tossed them into a grocery bag. I then sewed rows together by plucking out a parallelogram from the bag and attaching it to the row. When the rows were complete, I tossed them in the bag and plucked a couple out at a time to sew together. I wanted to make it truly random, such that repeats were okay and created visual interest. The mirror placement arose from this randomness as I hadn't realized that I wasn't sewing all the rows together in the exact same way. This layout let me use all the rows without ripping or chopping off ends to make them match. Design by mistake works for me.

I used prints from Laura Gunn's Poppy collection. I needed to make a gender neutral quilt and decided that the deep orange and range of blues would serve that purpose. And I don't consider flowers and leaves "girly"; it was a male roommate of mine who, years ago, showed me the brilliance of buying flowers just because, to brighten up space, and because the local flower lady was super nice. In the end, this went to Orly Erin, but I would be just as comfortable giving it to a boy. When I started cutting into the fabric, I wasn't sure how they would work out, since most of them are large prints that probably work best as backings. But I think it's really cool to see them in pieces as well. For example, the blue and orange triangle at the bottom of the picture is the center of a flower, but you'd never know it in its current state. In that sense, large prints can be quite multidimensional.

I did use a large piece of the painted vines for the back. As much as I think the vine pieces are cool, I really love the large section of it. The quilting is tough to see (that darn sun!) but I quilted straight lines 1/4" offset of the triangle diagonals, leaving the horizontal space unquilted and thereby creating a diamond pattern (a little easier to see in the close-up above).

Choosing a binding was a little difficult. Originally I thought I'd use a solid navy, but the solid seemed too stark against the watercolor-like prints. I played with a few prints from my stash but ultimately decided to use the Dogwood Stripe in Denim. I considered using the Spice version, which is also in the quilt front, but I wanted more blue. Because blue is awesome.

The Best of Intentions...SMS Giveaway Day May 2011

2011-05-22T23:01:00.002-04:00

I had really great intentions. I knew Giveaway Day was in about 2 weeks, and I was going to bring something with me to send off to a lucky winner. As I prepared to move, I added "make something for Giveaway Day" to my to-do list. As I packed up my belongings and transported them back to my parents' house, I mentally reminded myself to prep something for Giveaway Day. As I unpacked my stuff and repacked the 2 bags I was taking, I thought "grab a few fat quarters to bring along." As I stared out the window on the bus, I figured I could swing by a fabric store and buy something to offer. And as Friday rolled along, I hemmed and hawed about adding my name to the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day list. For despite my intentions, I didn't make anything or prep anything or bring anything or buy anything. So what to do?

As I debated whether to sign up, I decided that if I was going to enter giveaways, I had to offer something too. And my willpower is not that strong. There was no way I could see the SMS list in my google reader and not click over and not click the links and not enter giveaways. I'm not that good. Thus I need to offer something, and I offer something of a promise that gives you choices but also requires some patience. I would like to make you an infinity scarf, and will offer you the chance to select either the madras combo above or below, both of which make fantastic summer-weight scarves. Or if you're not thrilled about these options, we can talk other fabric choices as well.

As my regular readers know, I'm currently away doing research, and until early-mid July, remain separated from my sewing machine. Thus I won't be able to make it for a while, but I promise I will make it and send it to you by the end of July. So if you'd like a surprise summer package (or perhaps you need a gift for a friend with a July birthday!) that will likely include more than a scarf, this is the giveaway for you.

To enter:
1. Comment on this post and ask me a question. It can be any question, silly or serious, about any topic -- from quilting to why is the sky blue. Fire away...

2. Make sure I can contact you, either through your blogger account (a no-reply blogger cannot win because I can't reach you) or by leaving your email address in the comment.

The fine print:
1. This is open to everyone, wherever you live.
2. The giveaway will remain open until the evening of May 25, or possible the morning of May 26.
3. One entry per person.
4. The winner will be selected randomly, though a truly standout question could also earn a prize.
5. The winner must have followed the rules outlined above.

Finally, per an earlier request, I'll use this scarf creation as an opportunity to post a quick tutorial about how I make these scarves, so check back later in the summer for that. Until then, enjoy giveaway day, and have a great week!

*****It's Friday at 1.01 pm, and the giveaway is now closed.*****

Under the Sea

2011-05-18T21:59:00.000-04:00

Torrential downpour interspersed with tempered rain and drizzle. Since Saturday. Projected to last another week and a half with a slight break over the weekend, maybe. I think life under the sea would be an improvement, at least in some seas. The ones with pretty coral and interesting fish. Weather notwithstanding, I had the privilege of actually giving a quilt to a friend in person. Quilts do a fine job of concealing pregnancy, but Cristin is having a girl in July (a fine month to be born, if I do say so myself), and this quilt is for the forthcoming child who may or may embrace water like her mother.

Cristin and I swam together in college, or rather she swam (quite speedily) and I bounced around on diving boards, only swimming from where I landed in the pool to the edge. It seemed appropriate to use fabric from Momo's Odyssea collection for this quilt, which started as a pile of half-square triangles and turned into this big and little diamond pattern.

I really love the dense straight-line quilting but I confess that the constant turning of the quilt became a bit tedious. The effect is wonderful, the process a little less so. But I also decided to use different colored thread on the back, alternating between blue, green, and pink. I had almost forgotten about this choice, but Cristin -- a recent convert to quilting -- noticed it and reminded me.

The back consists of the large remnant pieces I had after making the front (which used a charm pack plus some extra yardage). I had hoped that my new labels would arrive before I finished this quilt, but alas they showed up right after I finished the binding. It was a mad dash to complete quilts, and I just couldn't wait for the labels any longer. (I ordered my new labels from inked papers -- great shop, fabulous service, wonderful labels....I'll show them as soon as I get a chance to use one.)

I used these sunspots from Amy Butler's Love collection for the binding, as it picked up the red and pink seashells (peeking out on the right) and, in general, made the blues, greens, and browns come alive. It's machine-bound per usual -- and I haven't forgotten about a machine-binding tutorial. I decided it would be the perfect thing to write and post when I didn't have the chance to sew (as in now). I just need to, eh, write and post it....

BQF: Spring 2011

2011-05-13T17:09:00.000-04:00

I think the blogger outage felled a lot of posting plans over the past 24 hours. I had hoped to get a Bloggers' Quilt Festival post up this morning, before I left for a weekend away, but was thwarted by technology. I'm back on my college campus for a swim/dive team reunion (I was a diver), and I'm snagging some internet time in the library before meeting up with former teammates for drinks and such.

My BQF choice may be familiar to regular blog readers and DQS10 participants, but I think it's the piece that best exemplifies my learning over the past 6 months. One of the things I love most about quilting is that I can always learn something new, and I've been pushing myself to tackle new techniques as well as tasks that intimidate me (circles!). In fact, I think it's safe to say that my 2011 mantra and goal has been "try new things." And DQS10 offered me the chance to make a pojagi panel for my partner.

I first encountered Pojagi through Victoria's lovely panels and followed her tutorial for making pojagi seams. This piece also represents my first use of shot cottons and cross weaves, which I fell for hard. I love the extra texture and interest the different warp and woof threads give, and I think these textiles really make the intentional simplicity of pojagi shine.

To me, this image conveys both softness and roughness. Pojagi was developed as a means of sewing work cloth -- cloth that would be used to wrap items, to carry things. As such, it should display a certain roughness, a testament akin to calloused hands or well-worn boots. But it also protects its contents from the elements or harm, and in that sense should exude softness as well. I like that even a hanging panel can speak to these qualities simultaneously, and I'm thinking of developing some challah covers using this method as I think it would convey the multiple purposes of of a challah cover, which covers and protects as well as beautifies and sacralizes.

Leaving the Hermitage

2011-05-11T10:11:00.000-04:00

It's been a productive 6 weeks at Chez Two Hippos, or rather at Two Hippos' subletted hermitage. I moved out of my very-convenient-to-the-archives lodging last night, and I'm now getting ready for sublet #3 of the year. Unfortunately this next temporary move precludes bringing my sewing machine and assorted materials and tools with me. Knowing this, I spent a lot of my non-archives time sewing over the past month and even have a few things to show for it. I've blogged what I could, and have a few more items in store as they make their way to their new owners. Per usual, my to-do list was longer than my got-done list -- alas there are some birthday presents that remain unfinished (and even unstarted) and a few other gifts that will await more work over the summer.

As long as I have my sewing machine, I make a good hermit. {I'm also quite good at having epiphanies about obvious-to-others elements of my life.} I'm really quite content to move from the work portion of my day to the sewing portion of my day with little in between. Living in the suburbs helped too, as I'm much more likely to go out and explore when I can walk or bike or bus somewhere, none of which is particularly easy in the suburbs. Urban living will return for the next 7ish weeks which will be nice for getting out and wandering more. Clearly, I'm striving for balance over the course of the year, rather than balance in the day or week, on the inside/outside, stay-at-home/explore-the-world, be-a-hermit/see-friends-and-talk-to-people ratio.

Oh, and those blocks above? An unfinished and modified (slightly larger) version of Esch House Quilts' Triangle Maze blocks. It's hard to finish blocks when you run out of fabric. Someone neglected to add some numbers, thus requiring a hasty order of more navy fabric...

Spring Chicken

2011-05-09T09:50:00.000-04:00

I was debating what to name this quilt, whether to call it something citrus-y since it's full of orange, lemon, and lime colors, or to opt for a name that reflected its purpose. I chose the latter, in part because as I pieced it together, I kept thinking of it as "spring chicken," and in part because that actually reflects its purpose.

A good family friend had the misfortune of severely hurting her ankle in one of those totally annoying ways: while walking. Although the original incident happened last July and surgery last summer was supposed to fix it all, she needed surgery again this spring. And when you hurt your ankle, the couch becomes your best friend for a while. Or not exactly best friend, but sort of necessary temporary life partner. So I made this quilt to accompany the couch (a lovely turquoisey blue, if I do say so myself) and chose colors and a name that I hope signify fresh starts and good things (mobility) ahead. And because this was going to stay with a former librarian who loves to read, the column of stacked books seemed quite appropriate. I made one long column because I wanted to see how it would look as a single offset column, and I like it. And when there are no young kids around, it's totally fine to have large swaths of white!

I wanted to make a floating log cabin design for the back. I don't really think this floats, as I didn't quite translate the vision in my head to fabric. But I like that it features the large Marimekko flowers in the middle and builds around it. I chose to leave in the selvages of several prints, including the Marimekko flowers, the Meadowsweet orange flowers, and the Lotus dots. All of the names seemed appropriate to the quilt's intent, and thus seemed fun to include -- whether or not the fabric lines are meaningful to anyone else who encounters the quilt.

I used Park Slope birds to bind the quilt, some of which even managed to appear without their heads on the other side of the quilt. In fact, I used this print to select the other fabrics in the quilt because the blue was the closest I had to (what I think is) the color of the couch, and the other colors shouted spring to me. I selected light and dark oranges, greens, and a couple blues (a shared favorite color) to work into the stack of books.

I didn't have any batting handy, so I used a large piece of white fleece. It worked well, though it is quite thick and I probably should have cut my binding strips a touch larger as a result. When I first started thinking about the quilting, I thought I might create a diagonal grid. But when I got it all basted together, I found myself less taken by a grid and more interested in meandering lines. Which is how I quilted it. It's now made it's way to its new home where I hear there might be some competition over who gets to use it more...

Fabric Gold

2011-05-07T12:18:00.000-04:00

A friend recently asked for donations for a craft auction for a friend of hers who has been going through rough times. I offered to make a scarf and whipped up this summer-weight infinity scarf, made out of 2 madras fabrics. For the first time, I managed to sew the scarf without the aid of my seam ripper. I'm feeling good about that. Have I mentioned I like scarves? Especially soft ones? I think I need to make one of these for myself. I'm also thinking about making one for Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day on May 23. What do you think? What are your favorite giveaways?

I'm off to enjoy some meandering around colonial Williamsburg and kayaking with friends. Enjoy your weekend!

Variables

2011-05-04T16:20:00.000-04:00

I don't spend much time in science labs these days, if at all. Perhaps I've met a friend in her lab but even that was a while ago. Perhaps it's the distance from lab experiments that led me to violate the cardinal rule of experimentation: minimize the variables. Instead, when I decided to sew up some pyramid triangles for the first time, I also decided it was a brilliant moment to test out using linen in a quilt.

The piecing would have been tremendously easier without the linen contorting every which way. Playing with linen also would have been easier had I been using squares or rectangles, rather than triangles with 2 bias edges (the diagonal grain on fabric, which is much stretchier than the straight or cross grains). But unwittingly making things more complicated than necessary represents a true strength of mine, whether I'm writing or sewing. And in the end, I really like the drape of linen in a quilt, It feels perfect for a summer quilt. This particular one will join a stash of baby quilts I'm scurrying to finish before I embark on a couple of months sans sewing machine (unless someone in NYC would like to lend me one for a bit.) This one is almost done while 2 others are still in the piecing stages, so there may be a few crazy late nights of sewing in my near future.

360 Degrees

2011-04-30T22:16:00.000-04:00

Or close to it. I finally pieced the inner circles for Lily's Quilt-Along. Since I lack easy (read: free) access to a printer right now, I had to make my own template, for which she handily gives instructions here. Her instructions assume, however, that one has a compass handy. And I don't. It's one of many things I lack as I live nomadically this spring. Actually, that's not exactly true. I don't think I've owned a compass since 9th grade geometry, and I'm sure I don't have one in Michigan. But somehow I feel like I could find one to borrow there more easily.

However, the absence of such tools merely calls for a little creativity. In this case, I started by tracing a plate that produced an 8.5" diameter circle, and proceeded to use my ruler to make marks denoting a 3.75" radius, after which I connected the marks, and cut out my circle template. Geometry class didn't go to waste, even if I never figured out how to write simple, elegant proofs instead of long, inelegant ones.

But I digress. I sewed a circle into the dresden plate! Rather than appliquing it on top. I recognize this may not be meaningful to more than a handful of people who read this, but I feel quite good about this accomplishment and newly acquired knowledge/ability. And I could not care less that it is imperfect.

Nestle's Crunch

2011-04-27T19:30:00.000-04:00

Dense straight-line quilting creates texture -- and uses thread! -- like nothing else. Quilting this little guy took 4 full bobbins of thread, plus a smidge of bobbin number 5. But it was totally worth it, and produced my Nestle's Crunch version of Lynn's Zinnias quilt. Technically the background color is Moda Betty's Brown, but I like to think of it as chocolate. And the single strip of colorful pieced triangles + the texture give it a little crunch.

Don't mind the folds and wrinkles, please! I waited about a week to take pictures of it as the rain made finding decent light near impossible, and even when it wasn't raining, most surfaces were quite wet. I folded it up and took it with me in the car just in case I found a photo op. When the rain departed, I snapped a few pictures under grey skies and didn't think to iron it until editing the images. I started with 3" squares of fabric, pieced the half-square triangles, and semi-randomly sewed them together. I tried to avoid using the same combination more than 1-2 times which technically makes the process non-random,but I didn't plan it out either, hence "semi-random."

Since I didn't plan the front, I ended up with way more half-square triangles than necessary. The leftovers from the front became part of the back, and I added a row of pinwheels to a yard of aqua/brown/orange/white dots that in this photo look oddly grey. It's not grey in real life, however! I used my 1/4" piecing foot for the first time while sewing the triangles for this quilt and what a difference it makes! I confess that I had long assumed that foot was silly, since I could use the edge of my regular foot or markings on my machine. But I was wrong; it makes a big difference, and these represent the most even pinwheels I've ever produced.

Ah, these colors are much more representative of the quilt itself! When quilting, I opted for (intentionally) wobbly lines. In order to ensure they didn't get too crazy, I sewed straight lines about 4-5 inches apart and then added the scraggly ones in between, using brown thread on the front and white on the back. I think it's neat how the quilting appears behind, but fades into, the pinwheels.

This quilt has arrived in California, where Benjamin will get to enjoy it. Well, I don't think he's cognizant of it yet, but I know his parents like it and that's quite a compliment coming from another sewer. Sarah and I are both sewers, but she has mastered garments -- she sewed her own wedding dresses while I panic at the thought of sewing a simple skirt (one day I'll figure it out) and thus stick to quilts. Several friends who make clothes say that clothes-making is easier and faster than quilt-making; I accept the speed argument but continue to admire anyone who can make things that, you know, actually fit someone's body. Types of sewing aside, Sarah and Matt sent me a surprise bundle of fabric for my birthday last summer, and while I would have made Benjamin quilt anyways, it was extra special to do so for the child of friends who know just what to give a quilter.

Practice Makes...Decent

2011-04-26T17:44:00.001-04:00

I've been interested in the circle of geese block for a while, as in almost 2 years. A couple months ago, I finally printed the paper template, and recently I sketched out a quilt using this block. I decided to test it out first, which was a really good idea. Despite reading the very clear tutorial carefully, the first quarter-block was a mess. Had I not reused the paper template, I would show you just how much of a mess it was. Suffice it to say that I managed to use pieces that were too small and sew pieces together incorrectly. My second try was better, but somehow I sewed fabric to itself multiple times. The third try only required ripping out 2 pieced lines, while the my 4th version included only one episode of fabric sewed to itself (I pinned and everything but still accidentally folded fabric onto itself).

I really like the block, but it was wise to start with my scrap bin instead of the planned quilt fabric. I'm not sure how many of these blocks I have in me -- making one took a good 4 hours. I'd like to believe my next effort will go faster since I now know what I'm doing, but I'm sure I can find some new mistakes to make. I'm still trying to work out how to minimize fabric waste since I feel like I need to use much bigger pieces than necessary to ensure I fully cover each section.

In the meantime, I'm debating whether I want to make this block into a larger quilt or enlarge it slightly and create a challah cover. Either way, turquoise is definitely my dominant scrap color!

That Disapproving Glance

2011-04-25T20:51:00.001-04:00

I buy most of my fabric online. I don't live close to an amazing local quilt shop and, as a grad student on a budget, I have to watch my pennies. I therefore shop online and never buy anything not on sale. But my sister found and bought me a Living Social deal for G Street Fabrics, and I had $50 to spend which was handy since I'm participating in the DC Modern Quilt Guild's Kona charm pack challenge and needed a base solid. (Of course, as I write this, I remember that the DCMQG card gets a 10% discount at G Street and I forgot to use it. Darn.) In any event, I went to purchase multiple yards of Kona (I ended up deciding on mustard) and while I would never spend $7/yard on it, the deal made it effectively $3.50/yd (at least in my head) and it was a gift anyways. While there I spied some Central Park Trefoil in Reservoir, and since I needed to spend $50, I decided to buy some of that as well.

I brought the bolts up to the counter to get the yardage cut, and the woman helping me asked what I was making. I replied, "a quilt." At which point she put the 2 bolts next to one another and smirked, disapprovingly. Now they don't coordinate exactly, but they look fine together. Moreover, I never said I was using them together (although I might use the Trefoil on the back of the quilt I'm making), but she assumed I was incapable of making decent fabric choices. Mind you, the quilting cotton selection at this G Street (there are 3 locations) is not, in my opinion, incredible if you like modern fabrics. There are some nice prints amidst the ones I dislike, but it wouldn't be my first-choice shop. And now, deal aside, I'm even less interested in supporting them: the prices are high (standard for a local shop), the selection is, for me, middling at best, and the service is less than impressive.

As it happens, when I got home, I saw this wonderful confessional post about things we don't often say aloud, or put in print/on screen in blogs. I liked that Rachel wasn't afraid to acknowledge she doesn't like every "hip" thing out there. And the waterfall of comments were engaging, honest, fun, and thought-provoking to read. For the record, I'm also not a Pips fan (too cutesy), only found a few Innocent Crush fabrics interesting (but haven't bought any), wasn't enthralled by Tufted Tweets, hate Denyse Schmidt's Greenfield Hill line, and ignore all giveaways that require anything other than simply leaving a comment. I like blogs whose full posts show up in my reader and rarely click over if they don't. I spend too much time reading blogs and not enough time sewing, but I can read blogs from anywhere and can only sew where my machine and material are. I really should name all of my quilts after crime shows since I watch all sorts of shows while piecing and quilting (Criminal Minds is my current show-of-choice; aside from the whole sleuth thing, I really like the random literary name drops in each episode.) And finally, I respect local quilt shop loyalty, but I refuse to fetishize it: as noted above, local loyalty isn't always deserved.

I also appreciated Deborah's response which is, as usual, thoughtful as she asked the flip side of Rachel's question: what makes you feel empowered as a sewer? I love a good online tutorial, and right now I'm really excited about figuring out how to sew circles. I first encountered Lynne through DQS10 (she's my awesome, on-top-of-it swap mama), and I decided to plunge in with her Quilt Along. Because I never follow directions completely, I'm sticking with 2 big circles and I'm not going to use the quilt-as-you-go method. However, I've pieced the dresden circles (I suppose I should take some pictures) and am now approaching the actual circle sewing. Lynne is tremendously generous and her blog is full of all sorts of fantastic tutorials. I certainly find that empowering. In addition, I just won a copy of Rebecca's Curlicue Crush pattern from Lesly at Pickle Dish. It's the first stand-alone quilt pattern I'll own, and I hope I finally figure out the whole curved piecing thing. Lesly's doing it as a quilt-along as well, which will be nice for support in my inevitable seam-ripping.

And that picture up top? I'll be showing the whole quilt as soon as I know it arrived at its destination.

To the Metropole

2011-04-22T10:39:00.000-04:00

In March, my friend Amanda came to visit me in DC (as did her husband, who handily took the above picture). She had just finished prelims (the big exams that separate coursework from dissertation work in grad school), and I had every intention of giving her a present, especially since I wasn't there to take her out for a drink or buy her a cupcake when she was done. I had promised her a scarf, after all. But, like usual, I was behind.

When I went to Michigan last weekend, I was determined to bring a belated gift, and the gift turned into gifts: a coordinating scarf and bag. When I saw the madras fabric above on sale, I knew exactly what I was going to do: make a linen and madras bag. Now I think these materials work well together as a summer-weight bag to begin with, but it also reflected Amanda's work. {nb: please indulge my ~~inner~~ total nerd for a moment.} She works on the British Empire, and linen (Ireland) and madras (India) represent two textiles the empire regularly imported from its colonies, near and far. Moreover, she's off to the metropole, London, for research in about a month, so it seemed appropriate to give her a bag made from materials that tied the capital to its far-flung colonies, some of which she studies.

I also made her an infinity scarf from 2 madras prints. I don't regularly use madras but it was super easy to work with, and this scarf is a perfect spring/summer accessory. As it turns out, Amanda had wanted an infinity scarf -- she is far more fashionable with her clothes and accessories that I am, but I pay enough attention to the sewing world to coincidentally make something she wanted. A perfect pairing, I think.

One of the fun surprises of the madras was that it turned into stripes when I folded it for the bag handles. This is definitely my favorite photograph, and might even be my favorite part of the bag. I should mention that the linen cooperated with the madras. I know linen is notoriously difficult to sew with, but it was fine for a simple tote bag. I'm not sure it would have been as fine for a more complicated bag, but I have some left so I might try.

Bag It

2011-04-18T17:44:00.000-04:00

I had a whirlwind trip back to Michigan for a conference + seeing friends, returned last night for a day in the archives, and, since Passover starts tonight, I'm off to a seder in a couple of minutes. But I wanted to briefly post about this bag I made last week for a friend who a) loves bags, b) loves green, and c) helped plan the roundtable we organized. The picture is terribly blurry -- night, no flash, and poor overhead lighting will do that. But I sort of love the unintentional artsy blurriness; had I more time, I would have futzed around with the colors, exposure, and saturation to make it truly crazy. The bag does use some of the Marimekko fabric I picked up last week -- when I bought it, I knew this piece would be perfect for a Katie-bag. I made it by modifying this "wasp-bag" tutorial to work with the materials and sizes I had. There are some things I would change if I make it again, but I'm pleased with it overall.

And with that, chag sameach to those who celebrate Passover!

Marimekko Winner

2011-04-13T19:50:00.001-04:00

The handy random generator picked #16, which corresponds to Katie B, who wrote, "What a great find! I'd love to turn the fabric into some pillows." I'll email you to get your address and send you your goodies. The rain finally stopped but it's too dark to take pictures outside; hopefully, I'll get a chance to show you a few of the things I've been making soon.

Wrestling with Angels

2011-04-11T22:31:00.000-04:00

Great friends know how to make you laugh and know just the right way share information. Last winter, Claire emailed me with the subject heading "your quilting" and a message that read "makes me want to have a baby. Seems like a good enough reason, no? ;-)" She then clarified that she was not actually pregnant, and the whole exchange made me smile: it's a good friend who can take information and package it just right, in this case knowing that I'm not a baby person but love making baby quilts.

In fact, for me, making baby quilts is a form of processing, a way of getting used to the idea that my friends are having children because, as my real-life friends know, yours truly is not a baby person. I've learned that this approach to quilting and thinking is not necessarily something that makes sense to people who think newborns are the most adorable things on this planet. I recognize that this puts me in a tiny minority, but it is what it is. I was therefore deeply grateful to Claire for calling me to tell me her news before I came to see her as it gave me time to get used to it.

In addition, Claire and Michael named their son Jacob Samuel, and their drash, or exegesis about his name, discussed the ways in which both biblical namesakes wrestle, literally and figuratively, internally and externally, with multiple ways of being, living productively in tension with who they are and who they want to be. As Michael wrote, "little Jacob, the biblical Jacob is not 'my guy' because of his triumphs and successes – he is “my guy” because he faces real struggles and has real shortcomings. He tries and fails, and tries again." Both strive imperfectly for peace and pathos, but persistence in the pursuit is what matters most.

Jewish custom surrounding childbirth differs significantly from American traditions: wait until after the first trimester to announce someone is pregnant, don't buy stuff or prepare a nursery, don't hold baby showers, don't call the child by name until after the bris (ritual circumcision) or naming. None of this is mandated by religious law, but rather stems from a mixture of pragmatism and spiritualism: don't be presumptuous about what will happen and don't let evil spirits have a chance to intervene. Painting what will be the child's room seems to be a common boundary among many people I know: paint ahead of time but leave everything else until later. In this case, I knew that Claire and Michael had selected yellow, and I made this quilt with a yellow room in mind. I used a modified version of Ashley's rectangle-squared block. I adjusted the width to maximize the use of a Hello Betty retro layer cake I had and thought would look great in a yellow room.

I used some remnant squares on the back, along with Laura Gunn's Tile Mosaic in Turquoise (from her Lantern Bloom collection). I love the subtle pattern of the turquoise print, with its hints of brown, orange, and cream. I free-motion quilted it, and bound it with a solid chocolate brown. When I made the quilt, I thought of the strip along the back as the "top." But when I prepared to add a label, I decided one of the solid squares in the strip would be a perfect spot, at which point the strip migrated from top to bottom. Of course, as the picture shows, there's no real top and bottom, and the quilt can lie any which way.

Holy Marimekko! (+ Giveaway)

2011-04-10T11:15:00.001-04:00

I spent several hours yesterday sewing with members of the DC Modern Quilt Guild. One of the local public libraries has a fantastic space with tables and lots of outlets. I knew some people and met some new people and made progress on a quilt. All of which was great. I also got to eat some Thai food (my favorite cuisine) and learned that the Crate and Barrel outlet stores sell Marimekko remnants for 95 cents a pound. You read that right: the same stuff that retails for 45 dollars/yard is sold for 95 cents a pound.

At least sometimes. Since there was an outlet not too far away, I headed over there and had a great conversation with a very knowledgeable sales person. Not only did she bring out another basket of fabric from the back, but she told me that they hadn't been selling remnants for a year. But C&B reduces fabric on the bolt to $4.95/yard during their spring sale in an effort to move inventory, and they had enough remnants to put out a barrel (literally, they're in a barrel). Most of the remnants come from store decor so they may have some staples in them but are otherwise in good shape.

I walked out with 7 pounds of fabric for less than 7 dollars (as a reference point, I think a yard of quilting weight fabric is about 6 ounces based on shipping costs). While perusing the store, I noticed that they are also selling napkins made out of Kaffe Fassett fabric for about $4/napkin (outlet price!) so I'm not too concerned about their profits.

But in honor of this splendid find and recently surpassing 400 posts, I'd like to share some with you. To win some Marimekko fabric remnants -- if you don't sew, these can easily be made into cool wall hangings with canvas/wood and a staple gun or glue -- leave a comment on this post telling me what you might do with the fabric.

The fine print: 1 entry per person, giveaway open until Wednesday around 6 pm, make sure to leave a means of contact, open to US and international commenters.

Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild

2011-04-07T18:25:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited to see this happening....of course, it started while I'm away from Michigan, but I look forward to meeting up with everyone in the guild when I'm back in town. In the meantime, R0ssie made some fabulous logos -- the one above is my favorite of the batch.

While there is a guild not too far away from Ann Arbor in Brighton, the meetings never really worked with my schedule. It's sort of like the gym -- the closer it is to me, the more likely am I to make it. Except of course, when I'm in DC and traversing the metro region by car for 45-60 minutes seems totally normal. On Saturday, I'll be meeting up with my local DC quilt guilders in Arlington, and I'm hoping that weekend = no (who am I kidding) little traffic.

I've got several projects in the works. Two friends had babies within 3 days of one another in late March, and while I was ready with one baby quilt, I'm scurrying to finish the second. I know they read my blog (hi Claire! hi Sarah!) so even though I'm not sure that they're reading it right now, I'm going to hold off on pictures until the gifts arrive at their destinations.

A Day at the Lake

2011-04-02T11:17:00.000-04:00

It's not quite lake-weather in DC, though it is supposed to get warmer tomorrow. But this is a long overdue wedding quilt for two friends, Cynthia and Andy, who got married in August when it certainly was lake weather. Growing up, both spend a lot of time in the Adirondacks with their families and, over the past decade or so (!), have spent a lot of time there with one another. As soon as I saw their invitation, which used multiple shades of blue and included an image of a boat, I knew blue would be central to whatever I made for them.

Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow line in the "Pond" palette was perfect for this project. When it first came out, I knew I would find a use for it, and I had squirreled away 8 prints and 2 coordinating Bella solids. I stored this group of fabric in my bin of "special project" fabrics -- these are the ones I know I want to use together and wait for the right project. This table runner was certainly the right project. I mulled over possible designs, at first thinking about making sailboats and wonky stars. I played around with some layouts and tried to find a sailboat block I liked. But nothing really stood out. So I opted for sashed bricks (3.25" x 6.5" bricks and 1.5" sashing), a design that I think is great for displaying the wonderful fabrics in this collection.

While the brick design is somewhat traditional, I went for modern, improv, and funky on the other side. When I made the bricks, I cut 3.25" strips from each of the 10 fabrics and then 3 bricks from each, which meant that I had plenty of the strips left. I started to chop and sew and see where it went. I got so into it that when I sewed all the rows together, it was much bigger than the other side, at which point I trimmed it down. I like how the two sides use the same fabrics in really different ways, both because they show how fabric can be deployed in a variety of patterns and also because it gives Cynthia and Andy two options for display.

I used the white sashing as the guide for quilting, only sewing within those lines but meandering around the bricks in no particular order which created a neat design on the other side (this picture was taken before I washed the runner).

Originally I thought I'd bind the runner in the navy solid, but as I put it together, I decided that the "flower fields" print would be a better option. I'm glad I chose it as I think it helps bring both sides together in ways a solid would not.

And there were still more leftover pieces of fabric. Coordinating coasters were in order, and I made 6: 2 each in 3 different designs. The one peeking out from the bottom has a strip of modern meadow fabrics across the middle, with white on either side. As hard as it was to send these off, I loved sending them to Cynthia and Andy who are just fantastic people. And, since they live just outside NYC, I'll get to hang out with them later in the spring when I'm in New York.

Disconnected Threads, Part II

2011-03-30T23:39:00.002-04:00

Note: This is the second part of my thinking aloud about simplicity and modern quilting.

Part II: Commerce and Quilting

As I noted in my first post, several bloggers have lamented and critiqued the noticeable increase in the sale of simple quilt patterns. There are certainly a slew of quilt patterns on the market that are relatively uncomplicated and possibly over-priced. I chose my words carefully: relatively, because the degree of complication certainly depends on the individual's experience and comfort level, and possibly, because cost is similarly dependent on perception of value.

Now a little background and a couple caveats. My mother taught me the basics of sewing; she showed me how to reattach buttons, operate a sewing machine, and piece together fabric. (Theoretically she also demonstrated how to hem pants, but I still prefer to ask her to hem my pants because I find it tricky to do by myself, or perhaps I am a touch lazy when it comes to certain matters. Anyhow...) After acquiring these skills, I became fascinated with quilting and, over the past (baker's) dozen of years, I've taught myself everything I can currently do through reading books, asking questions, perusing blogs, and ripping out a lot of seams. I've never taken a formal class and I've never purchased a stand-alone quilt pattern. I have, however, bought bag patterns and would consider buying clothing patterns if I ever figure out how to read garment patterns.

That said, I don't think there is one single way to learn how to sew or quilt. I recognize that different learning styles apply to sewing as much as they apply to school. In my early days of quilting, graph paper and colored pencils were my best tools. I used it to mock-up and reverse-engineer quilts on graph paper. Then I cut out fabric and sewed the pieces together. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. But as a math professor insisted in college, failure teaches as much as success. Indeed, failure is generally a pre-requisite to success.

In this sense, I would suggest that anyone learning how to quilt ought to plunge in and try, imperfections be damned. That said, some direction is necessary, and I would therefore suggest that, given the wealth of information on the internet, to start by trying some free tutorials. In particular, I'd send someone to Oh Fransson (for basics and patterns) and Crazy Mom Quilts (basics and patterns on her sidebar). For someone interested in traditional quilt blocks, the Modify Tradition blog would be a great resource. For some more modern options, Moda Bake Shop offers a plethora of tutorials, many of which demonstrate new techniques for conventional and improvisational quilts. (While this is sponsored by Moda, there is no requirement to use their fabrics and pre-cuts. Any fabric can be cut into 5" squares (charms) or 2.5" strips (jelly rolls) or any other staple "ingredient.")

These are just a few links that I would offer because I think they're especially clear. But there are plenty of other options out there as well, as the number of starred posts in my Google Reader attests. I would also advocate a trip to one's local public library to check out books on quilting. Some of the books may be old, but my local library stocks newer books as well. After borrowing a book, one might realize it's worth owning, at which point, buy it! Likewise, a trip to a used bookstore, a thrift store, or a yard sale might yield books to use as resources for very little money.

All of these suggestions assume that one has limited, rather than unlimited, funds and these will provide the best value. I think books are more worthwhile than stand-alone patterns because they usually include more than one pattern and they show a variety of techniques. But I also think books are most useful for learning how to reverse-engineer a quilt: being able to move back and forth between the final product and the individual stages ideally assists a new quilter in understanding the connections between steps and thus how to envision a larger quilt from smaller blocks (or how to break down a larger quilt into smaller blocks). Multiple examples only makes this more likely to happen. Thus even if money is no issue (and, please, if that's the case I know a graduate student who would happily avail herself of your sponsorship), these steps build and develop designing, sewing, and quilting skills.

Having said all this, why should I care if someone is selling a pattern to a strip quilt or a pinwheel quilt or rail-fence quilt or any number of straightforward (to me) patterns? First, I think it's ethically dubious to market and sell a pattern that is available elsewhere for free. No one can or will stop this sale, but this sort of commercial enterprise takes advantage of people who may not be aware that they could find a free tutorial in blogland. Of course, no one is forced to buy the pattern but selling something that can be easily attained for free remains problematic to me -- as Michelle has pointed it, it smells of a swindle. Second, I think it's intellectually questionable if not completely dishonest to sell a pattern that -- if easily available online for free -- hardly "belongs" to the pattern writer. It may not be copyrighted and thus it may be legal to sell it, but that doesn't make it right.

I've developed some tutorials (and have some in the works....that machine-binding tutorial will be posted one day), and I recognize it takes time to produce them. Nevertheless, I have posted free tutorials -- much to the chagrin of my far-more-entrepreneurial brother -- because I think it contributes to the larger crafting community. I know that sounds idealistic, but I truly believe that there is and should be give-and-take. As a result, I'm far more likely to buy a pattern (well, a bag pattern anyways) from someone like Rae who posts tutorials for free as often as she sells them.

In my mind, encouraging learning and encouraging other people to enhance their skill-set serves a communal good, and I want to contribute to and support that. There is much to be said about valuing an individual's time, and pattern/tutorial-writing absolutely times time and effort, thought and thoroughness. But given the choice, I will prioritize community over the individual, especially when the individual (person or pattern) is merely recreating something already available. I can't make anyone follow my personal ethic, but I can question the need -- by some, though certainly not all -- to commercialize the basics.

Quilting is part of the larger web of global commerce. This has positive dimensions, such as the availability of beautiful fabric world-wide and the ability of new designs and ideas to traverse oceans. But it also has negative, even pernicious elements, in which craving financial opportunities outweighs participation in fertile, free exchange of knowledge. As I see it, the latter represents a better option, a means of contributing to the larger common good. It's not curing cancer or eliminating world hunger, but it is a chance to, in the words of one of my favorite children's books, make the world a more beautiful place (Miss Rumphius).

Disconnected Threads, Part I

2011-03-28T13:26:00.001-04:00

image from here

Note: I had every intention of finishing and posting these thoughts last week, but life (in the form of wonderful friend coming to visit) intervened, so I'm late to the party, and not fashionably so. Nevertheless I'm posting this as a record of my thoughts and welcome your thoughts and feedback as well. I'm also going to separate this into two posts, given the length.

There have been a number of posts this (last) week grappling with the role of simplicity in modern quilting/design and in the commercial quilting economy. Sandi led off with a provocatively titled, but quite fair and reasonable, post, "The Dumbing Down of Quilting," which she followed up with several more posts surveying what her readers do and want to do as well as a plan of action via a forthcoming skill-building series on her blog. I give her a lot of credit for publicly raising issues that I've heard others whisper and silently grumble about (can one really grumble silently? perhaps "softly" is more accurate). Michelle noted her own frustration about the sale of simple patterns, many of which are available through free tutorials or could be worked out with a little arithmetic; she's added some important questions here. Michelle also pointed me Ali, who expressed frustration about the sale of patterns that one could reverse-engineer and to Carrie, who has an important post that links the issue of "dumbing-down" to business matters.

I think these posts all raise important questions about modern quilting and the modern quilter. But I think they sometimes conflate issues that are not necessarily linked: a simple/challenging spectrum (and the correlated matter of simple for whom and simple according to what) and the relationship among quilters, blogs, and the commercial sewing industry.

Part I: Simple/Complicated 

I enjoy making simple quilts, and I enjoy challenging myself to learn new techniques. I also think looks are deceiving, and what appears simple may be complicated -- if not in execution, then in design. For example, this quilt is one of the most interesting ones I've seen pop up in my google reader of late:

Image from here.

Let's take a look at it more closely. On the surface, the design is pretty simple: a column of paired half-square triangles surrounded by a solid (as I write this, I realize my non-sewing blog-reading friends might be smirking at this "quilty-babble"). I can figure out how to make this, and in fact I plan to make a version of it later this spring (emphasis on plan). But what makes the quilt work is a combination of wise decisions about color (in this case, decisions that started with a photograph), about layout, and about quilting. In fact, Lynn is an experienced quilter who has shown skilled precision piecing, curves, quilting, and applique in addition to "simpler" and improv-style quilts. I think her stunning Zinnias quilt is only possible because of her skill and experience in other areas. In this sense, I think we need to separate "adequate-simple" from "stunning-simple." I think I'm pretty good at the former and have a long way to go in terms of the latter.

Likewise, I think it's important to disaggregate simple-looking from simple technique, simple skills, simple color choices, etc.

A charm-square quilt is simple in a number of ways: it uses pre-cut squares (no cutting or fabric choosing necessary) and it relies on straight-stitching and chain-piecing (only requires knowing how to sew a 1/4" seam). The quilting could be complicated, but the one I made and linked to is rather straightforward: vertical and horizontal lines on either side of all seams. It's simple but it's a great exercise in layout because it does matter how the squares are arranged: the distribution of color and print size can -- and will - make or break this quilt.

Similarly, a strip quilt isn't too complicated to put together: cut a bunch of strips of coordinating fabrics, sew, and voila, a quilt. It's especially easy if it's no wider than 40" as you don't even need to piece strips together. But again, it does require aesthetic decision-making about fabrics that work together, about how wide to cut each strip, about how to place colors relative to one another, and about sewing a consistent 1/4" seam. The quilting can be really straightforward or, as in the first strip quilt I linked to, it can provide an opportunity to test out a new design, in that case stars.

To be clear, both of these types of quilts are simple in design and technique. They offer wonderful opportunities for beginners to piece their first quilt, and they're fantastic go-to quilts for more experienced quilters who want to make a quick quilt or showcase a fabric line (I plan to make a charm-square quilt for myself out of Kate Spain's Central Park line because I really like it). They're not complicated and they're not technically advanced. I think pinwheels -- the block labeled "intermediate" in the Sew Mama Sew post that rankled Sandi -- are similarly basic, part of the building blocks of more advanced -- in technique and design -- quilting. But any of these can be done well or poorly, using weak or strong technique, and drawing on bland or striking fabrics, and that distinction is, to me, quite important.

Part II: Commerce and Quilting...Coming Soon

Items of Note

2011-03-24T19:21:00.001-04:00

The good....Natalie received my dqs10 pojagi panel. Check out her blog post for, among other things, super-cute pictures of her cats debating how they feel about the new art in their home. She also documents our one-sided conversations over the past couple of months, in which I posed questions or posted pictures and hoped she would respond, while she responded not knowing how gratified to hear from her.

The important...

Modern Relief is at it again, this time raising money for Japan via a quilt raffle. The raffle will take place April 4, and you "buy" tickets to it through donations to Mercy Corps. As I know people in and with strong connections to Japan and I know people who have worked for Mercy Corps, I really like this combination. I've emailed the coordinators about donating a quilt and, pending their word, you may be able to win a two hippos original quilt.

The complicated....I started what became a long post about challenging questions about the spectrum of easy/hard, simple/complicated quilts, but it's become too long for this post, so I'll post it separately soon.

The Big Reveal

2011-03-23T10:48:00.001-04:00

It's finally finished! I'm really pleased with the way this string quilt turned out. I followed this paper-piecing method (which also happened to be the method used by a small group quilt-along I joined). While there are quicker ways to piece a string block, this method creates a pattern out of the red center strings that I don't think is possible from the quicker methods (perhaps I'm wrong?).

Although the blocks primarily use black and white fabrics, I threw in a few more red prints for some variation. I tried not to overthink the fabric choices within each block. Aside from not repeating the same fabrics within a block, I picked up a strip of fabric and attached it. If I sued a red print, I hewed to two per block and one per side, though I didn't necessarily use a red print (aside from the center solid).

The wind made it challenging to get a good picture of the back of the quilt, and this was the best my wonderful assistant (who wanted to be invisible) and I could get. Michelle helped me out by sending me some black and white blocks that made their way to the back of the quilt. Originally I envisioned using string blocks on the back of the quilt, much like I created the column of blocks here, and using a completely different pattern on the front. Once I started making the string blocks, however, I opted to continue making them and using them on the front. When it comes to quilt design, I change my mind all the time. It's the one area of my life in which I fully and truly embrace going with the flow and ditch planning.

The free-motion stippling on the quilt almost killed me. It certainly killed a lot of thread, some of which stayed in the quilt and much of which got ripped out. The red solid is "Christmas Red" from Moda, and it's a cheery, bright red. I used it for the binding as well, which I think helps frame the quilt. At 60" x 72" this is a large lap quilt, and I hope this quilt is well-used for many years in the future.

My sister loves red, black, and white and used this color combination for her wedding. In addition, she and her husband have a large black dog (who growls at me every time she sees me and, really, dislikes anyone who is not my sister or her husband). While this leaves me less than fond of Snoop, I figure the quilt will hide her fur fairly well.

DC Modern Quilt Guild

2011-03-21T22:57:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, I ventured over to Ebenezers Coffeehouse* to join the DC Modern Quilt Guilders (guildfolk?). And I mean join quite literally as I exchanged 4 quarters for that lovely membership card above. Despite my mental note to stop by the bank, I managed not to accomplish that task before arriving which meant I only had loose change. But Natalie seemed ok with my monetary complications.

I met some wonderful quilters. While this was my first guild meeting, I've been to other craft meet-ups, and I'm always impressed with the distance some folks travel to get there. It indicates how much meeting people in real life and forming communities really matters. Natalie demonstrated how to hand-piece hexagons. I'm months, if not years, late to the hexagon trend, but I was very grateful to learn how to make them.

I'm living a bit nomadically for the rest of the month and then I'll be in New York for 2 months later in the spring. During my nomadic sojourns and time in the big apple, I'll be without a sewing machine. When I was in NY two summers ago, I learned the hard way that I need to be able to sew. Admittedly, I don't need to sew like I need to drink water and eat, but it's pretty close. For me, sewing is part-relaxation, part-creative time, part-therapy. Going without is tough. But this time, I'll bring paper hexagons, scraps, scissors, thread, a needle, and a pin and have something to do with my hands. What exactly I'll make is still unclear, but I'm trawling the web for inspiration. I'm certainly open to other hand-sewing ideas (or the old sewing machine that belongs to your great-grandmother's friend's grand-niece in Brooklyn who wants to loan it to a random stranger for a couple months, that would work too).

*DC has very few good, local coffee shops; Ebenezers is one of the few good ones. I recommend it if you're looking for a nice place to work, read, or meet up with friends. It's right by Union Station, so convenient for meeting up with your traveling friends as well.

Pojagi Complete!

2011-03-17T07:45:00.013-04:00

I finished up "Bom," my pojagi panel for DQS10. I finally decided to approach the binding as a rolled hem. I realized that I couldn't iron a quarter-inch seam, but I could iron a half-inch seam. As a result, I ironed the half-inch and then folded the edge into the fold and ironed again -- the same way I make handles for bags. This worked well and will be my new go-to method.

The picture makes the two shot cottons look more starkly different than they do in person. What's neat in person is that, depending on the light, the panel can look like it contains 4 different fabrics. Because the warp and weft of the fabric use different colors, the orientation of the piece of fabric alters which thread color looks stronger. The lighter green therefore sometimes looks more blue or more yellow, while the darker green looks more bright green or more gray-green.

As the picture shows, it's cherry blossom season in DC. Since my partner loves Japanese fabrics, this seems like perfect timing. It also means that spring is truly about to arrive, and I look forward to the realization of the weatherman's prediction of mid-60s and sun today and mid-70s tomorrow on Friday. Now I will be inside most of the day at the archives, but I'm hoping to duck outside for lunch at the very least. While spring is not my favorite season, it is DC's finest season, and I will enjoy the advent of what I like to call "chaco weather" earlier than it arrives in the Midwest.

The cherry trees were, of course, a gift from Japan to the United States. For those looking for a way to help Japan as it recovers from the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis, google is helping coordinate donations to reputable groups as well as help people locate loved ones.

Get Thee to a Post Office

2011-03-16T13:44:00.003-04:00

It's been a motivation-less morning, which apparently leads me to use Shakespearean pronouns. I mean, did Shakespeare ever get burnt out or lose the will/discipline to get things done? His output was pretty tremendous, after all. Whereas I'm feeling burnt-out, work-wise. I know it happens to the best of us, and I'm pretty aware of the causes of this malaise, but I'm still trying to strike the balance between pushing through and stepping back for a break.

(It probably didn't help that I stumbled across this treetop adventure/ropes course website, as I love high ropes courses and zip lines. That seems like a lot more fun than work. Want to come and play in the trees?)

And then there are the more basic things I need to do. Like going to the post office. I have one package ready to mail and a couple others on the horizon. The coasters above are part of the ready-to-post parcel (because I like British English today), and they're an extra treat to apologize for the extreme tardiness of the gift-to-be-mailed (lateness upon lateness might be the theme here).

I have yet to decide whether I prefer to finish coasters by wrestling with binding or flipping-and-top-stitching. Each has its benefits and drawbacks. In the absence of a definitive opinion, I'll stick with my current ad-hoc method, which is to say, I do whatever I feel like doing at the time. I'll show the full set soon, but suffice it to say I had fun playing with the scraps from the larger project to make these coasters.

Coming Soon

2011-03-13T22:11:00.000-04:00

I've held on to these Modern Meadow prints for a while now, but I finally took the plunge and cut into them. I have a box of fabric collections and combinations that I know I want to use but ~~sequester to look at and pet but never cut~~ set aside for the perfect project. It's a good feeling to use them, since they exist to be used, and I'm liking what I've come up with thus far (it's a belated wedding gift that I hope to finish, send, and share soon).

I'm also using this project as a chance to photograph and write up my machine-binding method. I know there are plenty of tutorials out there, but I also know there are people seeking options. Since I only machine-bind my quilts, I've experimented with a lot of different methods and have developed mine out of an assortment of tips and tricks shared by others. It only seems fair to spread the wealth.

A question for those who might use this tutorial: do you prefer a detailed blog post or a printable document? I can see benefits to both, and I'm debating the best way to do it. If you have preferences or experience with making and posting pdfs v. writing out a blog post, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Spring Ahead

2011-03-12T11:10:00.000-05:00

It's a good thing that NPR informed me that we're springing ahead, time-wise, tonight because I might not have realized it otherwise. Clock-switching also wreaks a touch of havoc on my sleep patterns as I'm one of those people for whom light is the best alarm clock. Actually I'm pretty good at setting and responding to mental alarm clocks (my ability to wake up 3 minutes before my alarm goes off is both a blessing and a curse), but light is the key factor in my rising. In a dark room, I can sleep in. Otherwise, it's not going to happen. Now this doesn't mean I pop out of bed immediately, because I don't; rather, I lie in bed, semi-awake listening to Morning/Weekend Edition, thinking, or, if more awake, reading (a decadent treat). So whenever the time switches, it takes me about a week to get used to the new light situation (more or less) after which my circadian rhythms adapt to the slight day-by-day changes quite easily.

But speaking of spring, I've also made progress on my pojagi DQS10 quilt. It's almost done. I need to decide how I'm going to add a label, which is a DQS requirement, in a way that doesn't detract from the design. I also need to decide how to finish the quilt -- whether I want to add a more traditional quilt binding or whether I'll fold the edges in and sew, sort of like a hem, but also more in line with the pojagi technique. I think the latter would be more fitting but I'm not sure I trust my ability to iron and sew the edges in a straight line. I might practice first and see how it goes.

Bom: Pojagi Progress

2011-03-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

According to trusty Google translate, "bom" is the phonetic version of "spring" in Korean. I'm not really clear on whether "bom" refers to the season spring, to a fresh water spring, to springing up from the ground, or perhaps all of the above. Perhaps one of my readers will enlighten me. I looked up the Korean word for spring because my current project (for DQS10) evokes spring, with its green colors. As previously noted, my partner really likes Asian prints, motifs, and craftwork, and I decided to make a pojagi wall-hanging. I'm not sure if I'm more excited about the new technique I've learned (I'm using the first option described here) or with the shot cottons I picked up for this quilt. Shot cottons are special in that the warp and weft use two different colored yarns which result in a piece of cloth that can look multicolored or more textured. I opted for 2 greens: the darker green uses green and blue threads while the lighter one is actually a composite of yellow and blue (which appear green, per the color wheel I first encountered in elementary school art class).

This image, which highlights how the seams help make the art, also gives a glimpse at the shot cottons work. You can see the grain-like pattern in each rectangle, which is created by the different colored threads. (The darker part of the rectangle at the top is the most recent fabric attached but not yet finished.) I chose to sew with gray thread because I didn't like how any of the green thread I owned looked with both of the colors. I also like the gray for its sturdy-work quality, as pojagi was originally a utilitarian wrapping cloth used by workers or the commoners in feudal kingdoms.

It took me a few tries to get the seams correct and even more rounds to feel comfortable with the technique (and not need to refer to the tutorial on my computer each time I ironed a seam). But once I got going, it moved pretty quickly. I still have plenty of work to go, but I like how it's shaping up.

High Tech/Low Tech

2011-03-06T15:31:00.000-05:00

I spend most of my work day in the archives right now, seeking out sources and material for my dissertation. (Except on Friday, when I was felled by a stomach bug. But that's enough about that.) Researching in the archives mean a lot of flipping through documents and skimming or scouring them for relevant information. It also means taking a lot of pictures. One of the benefits of the digital age is the possibility (in some, though not all archives) of photographing material which saves money (photocopies are expensive -- in archives, they often run from 25-40 cents a page) and time (I don't transcribe everything right there and can return to the original document later). This also means I set my camera on a table while ~~flipping~~ carefully turning pages. And sometimes I look up and catch a random, abstract image that just looks cool. And might be an interesting idea for a quilt. Like the image above. We'll see.

I've spent the past couple of weeks quilting my sister's wedding quilt. Yes, weeks. In the process, I've probably ripped out 1/2 - 2/3 of the stitches because they had gaping loops on the back. I expected a transition, shall we say, from my old machine to my new one, but I thought free-motion quilting would be easier: I have a better foot (more metal, less plastic), the feed dogs drop, and the automatic tension setter worked great for piecing. Ha. I was wrong. But I couldn't figure out why I was having so much trouble.

Until today, when I finally figured out that the problem was not the tension or the type of needle but an unforeseen consequence of dropped rather than covered feed dogs. My new machine has all sorts of metal, which is generally a good thing as it's more durable than plastic. But the sharp metal edges of the area where the feed dogs lie is a problem (that's the area right behind the see-through bobbin and right below the foot/needle in the picture above). As I moved the quilt, stitches were getting caught in the metal edges and messing up pretty much everything. Not only was the quilt getting caught far too frequently, but the caught section often yielded knots on the quilt and random threads getting pulled out.

I created the most low-tech solution possible by taping a piece of paper, actually a piece of a used envelope, over the feed dog area. This solved the problem. I finished quilting the last 1/5 of the quilt in 1 hour. I do know how to free motion quilt after all! But quick solution notwithstanding, I'm not sure why this is an issue. Janome is a reputable manufacturer so there's no reason for this type of nonsense (that said, I continue to really love my machine). I'm now awaiting some fabric to bind the quilt; hopefully I'll be able to show the whole thing soon. I also have multiple baby quilts in the work for friends' offspring due over the next few months as well as a doll quilt for DQS10 to complete, so lots to do.

But first I'm off to find myself a chocolate-chip muffin, or the ingredients to make some...

Scarfing

2011-02-27T11:35:00.000-05:00

Last week was a scarf-filled week for some, though not for me. I missed a workshop on scarfing -- the art of wearing scarves. So scarfing wasn't the actual workshop topic, but it turns out scarfing can be an effective way to promote events when the speaker is an expert scarf-er (some women are very talented in the art of scarfing). And although not the main topic, scarves were displayed and discussed. Later in the week, I got in trouble for wearing a scarf at the archives. Well, I got in trouble before entering the archives as the security guard (very nicely) told me I had to remove my scarf and return it to my locker as "no scarves allowed" prevails in the archives (silk kerchiefs, however, are acceptable). That day was a little chilly.

My current work situation therefore curtails my scarf-wearing. But I really do like wearing and making scarves. I made my own version of Anna Maria Horner's infinity scarf with some voiles from her Little Folks collection. I adjusted the tutorial in a couple of ways: I chose voile for both sides, I used 9" cuts (rather than 18"), and I machine-sewed the scarf closed. I'm sure velveteen would make for a rich winter scarf, but I don't own any and the voile version is great year-round. I found 9" to be just fine: I can wrap the loop around 4 times and it takes up plenty of room as is. An 18" version seems like it would be ginormous (which could be a benefit). Finally, I lack the patience to hand-stitch anything. I therefore machine-stitched the very last step and used three parallel lines to make it look finished. Frankly, given the way the scarf loops around one's neck, it's hard to find, much less see, the sewn section. I've had this for a few weeks and love it.

Knitted Treats

2011-02-26T17:44:00.000-05:00

I don't knit. This frequently surprises people. I think the logic is that of the crafty folk out there, many knit, and therefore since I'm crafty I must knit.While my grandmother knitted and my mother knits, I never learned how to do so. Perhaps one day I will, but in the meantime I rely on the kindness of friends to provide me with lovely knitted items.

About a month ago, I saw these awesome wristwarmers. And wanted some. So I posted them on facebook and asked if any of my knitter friends might like to do a craft exchange. Michelle, a college friend who made me a lovely purple chenille scarf in college, volunteered to make me some, as soon as she finished her grading (she's a science teacher).

The grading was pretty quick because a couple weeks ago, my new wrist warmers arrived. When she asked me what color(s), I said no pink but any saturated colors would be fabulous. And she selected this lovely cranberry and deep yellow combination.

She also included a coordinating hat, made with fun variegated yarn. I love the braided-twisty part of the wristwarmers -- I'm sure there's a technical knitting term, but I'll work with descriptive words for now. I'm making Michelle a Lickety Split bag in return, and need to finish it.