r0ssie (fresh modern quilts)

Rebooting

2012-01-08T21:00:00.002-05:00

I went on a retreat this weekend with the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild. I had such a good time and knocked out and kick-started a few projects.

My friend Ace got married in October. And I had promised him something handmade. I had in my head a pillow for his bed. Ace and Stephen have a really pretty duvet cover and bed; I wanted to add something bold and masculine.

I used hand-dyed pieces of red/orange (dare I say tangerine tango?) pimatex. Also, Kona Plum, un-dyed pimatex, and Kona Stone.

First, I bought a king-size pillow from TJMaxx.

Then, I made a little quilt to be the same size.

I pieced this improvisationally, knowing I wanted a stripey sunrise. The quilting is in orange thread, to echo the rays.

Next, I made an envelope back, which I pinned to the back of the quilt and I sewed it down at the same time as I used my machine to attach the front of the binding with my machine. Stitching the back of the binding down by hand took almost as much time as everything that came before. Largely, I think, because pimatex's thread count is so high it is really hard to sew by hand (I tried a few needles!)

The finished pillow has already been delivered to Ace and his husband. They claim to love it (I know I do!)

Sorry about the low res pictures. No promises...but I'll try to get some better ones in the future. In the meantime, I'm feeling re-energized from the retreat (and a better work schedule) and hoping to be seeing more of my sewing machine soon!

Pirate Ship Chic (Ikea Hack)

2011-11-26T15:00:00.001-05:00

I don't, in general, like dressers, but I needed a dresser. In August, I spotted this dresser on Pinterest and thought it quite lovely:

Shortly thereafter, I saw this dresser in an Ikea catalog and I thought to myself, "ooh! I can make that dresser look a lot like the other dresser! Yay!" A visit to the store confirmed my suspicions that the dresser could be quite lovely if changed just a bit. I stood in the showroom knocking on it and poking it and peering inside it to confirm that it was solid wood (I'm not a fan of veneers).

The Mandal Dresser was, for a little while, out of stock at the store, but last week, when I check the Ikea website, it said that they had a few on the shelves, so I zoomed out there and picked one up.

My plan was to stain the wood on the outside and change out the legs to some sort of pedestal + round tapered leg (á la the mid-century dresser that I had admired).

Now here's where I was a bit foolish: I thought it would be easy to sand off the polyurethane finish (polycrylic? lacquer?) and stain the wood a darker shade. Ha! So foolish! I tested out my little idea on a piece that would be hidden once the dresser was assembled. And...

I was a bit distressed by how distressed it looked.
I tried again on another piece that would be hidden.
I sanded and sanded and washed and stained.
And the result was no better.

Things got busy at work, so I just let the wood sit out for me to gaze at over during my morning coffee and my evening banana.
I knew it would easily take primer and paint.
I knew it would look just fine the color it came in.
I figured I could probably buy some crazy chemical to peel the seal off.
I had options.
And then on Friday afternoon when I came home from work and looked at it, I realized that I loved it.
"You look like you've been on a pirate ship," I told the board. "And I dig that about you."

Plus, a little voice in my head interjected, you can always paint over it if you change your mind.
I took the wood out to the garage.
I sanded.
I built a little pedestal.

I stained.
I waited for it all to dry.
Then I assembled.
And now?

Trés Pirate Ship Chic, no?
I don't blame you if you hate this.
I've been there.
But I love it.
And so I'm going to post more pics!

Home Goods

2011-11-06T11:00:00.001-05:00

I was giving myself a hard time about not finishing up any quilting project lately and then happened upon this to do list on my fridge:

I realized that I have been getting things done...just not quilting things. So, today I'm going to share my recent decorating-on-a-budget triumph. When I moved into my new place, my living room was empty. No furniture!

I had given away or sold almost all of my old living room furniture (a beat up futon was the best item...you get the gist). The only thing I had left was my round coffee/side table.

After a few weeks of vigilant Craigslist-checking, I scored a pretty sweet leather couch for $50.
And I spent $30 on the curtains (TJMaxx) because the horizontal blinds were driving me nuts.

But then I went over a month with just that one piece of furniture in the living room. This, of course, results in having to sit next to people when they visit, which can be awkward.

In the photo above, there's a carpet from my bedroom because I was trying to figure out how big of a rug the room needed. You'll also see that I made a mock settee out of storage tubs and cushions. I was trying to figure out what my options were for that space. How big did the furniture need to be? How big would be too big?

Also, what colors would work? I wanted to go with a scheme like this...

Because over the summer I had noticed that I continually pin this color scheme on Pinterest. And I knew I already had a number of things (accessories, art) that would go nicely with these colors.

I had even begun down that color scheme line; I found an awesome mid-century coffee table for $30 at the Salvation Army store. The top was damaged and since some research determined that this is an table from Lane's Acclaim line (which have very thin veneers) I knew that once I sanded it, I'd have to paint it.

I sanded and painted a few weeks ago.

Out shopping, I was looking for an accent chair to match my color scheme.
I was also looking for a rug for the room.
I kept looking around and not finding what I wanted.

Many items were close, but not quite right. This chair from Home Goods was the closest I came to buying a chair. However, the scale of it was a bit wrong (pretty sure it would look too big) and I would have wanted to switch out the legs (costs money) and it was already quite expensive ($299).

Then, on Thursday, I got the feeling that Home Goods was calling to me (like a psychic thing, pulling me to the store...this is often an accurate feeling). I went to Ann Arbor's Home Goods...and didn't find anything I liked (wah wah wah).

Then, Saturday, I realized that maybe it was the other Home Goods (up in Brighton) that was calling to me. It's twenty miles up the highway, but they have a stellar Salvation Army in Brighton, so I decided to make a little trip of it. I went to Salvation Army first, where I quite liked a pair of orange chairs they were selling for $60--the scale of them was perfect and they were comfy and just the right amount of stylish. Of course, orange wasn't in the plan, so I left the store without them.

Next, I went to Home Goods, where I admired many chairs, but they were all too bulky and/or leather (I didn't want more leather). Then I went through their rugs and found THE ONE.

It had all my selected colors except for having orange (THE EXACT SAME ORANGE AS THE CHAIRS) instead of the mustard color I had been envisioning for the room.

Bing, bang, boom, bought the rug, ran back to the Salvation Army for the chairs and drove home triumphant!

10 minutes later...

Reverse view....(planning to get those boxes taken care of this week!)

There's a titch too much old-ladiness in the room right now, but I think that once I get some art up the place will look generation-appropriate. I'm loving where this is going...

And I love that I did it fairly cheaply. Rug ($299)+Chairs ($60)+Couch ($50)= $410.

The next project for this room is going to have to be a revisit of the curtains...the silver looks fine by day, but horrible at night. They are also more see-through than I would like given that this window looks out onto a busy street.

Another project for this room: framing the two paintings on the left (by my great aunt Evelyn):

As for the yellow coffee table? Don't worry, it's happily living as a bench in the bedroom...

And that is the story of my living room. I hope to have a report from the craft room soon!

Beer

2011-10-29T13:35:00.000-04:00

You all were cracking me up with your approval of my reward beers! Growing up in Wisconsin, as I did, and having an English parent (the aforementioned mum), I was raised to know and appreciate my beers and my cheeses. Such is my love for beer that whenever people tell me they don't like beer, I'm galvanized in my belief that they have only tried bad beer (Miller? Bud? I'm talking about you here.)

Now, some people really like "challenging beer"--the super-bitter or super-hoppy stuff. Me, I mostly go for the easy-drinking ambers and browns. On a hot day, I'll grab a lager.

My favorite's these days are...
amber: Bell's Amber (This is also the beer that I give to people who claim that they don't like beer.)
brown: Bell's Brown (Bell's is a Michigan brewery, but they do have some distribution in the midwest and the south.)
lager: Trader Jose (Trader Joe's Mexican beer)
ale: Spotted Cow (only available in Wisconsin)

oh my gourd

2011-10-16T14:15:00.004-04:00

A month or so ago I saw a picture of a little pumpkin with vampire teeth on Pinterest (feel free to follow me over there!)
I immediately sent the image to my friend Lurky with the comment "teeeeeeeth!!!"
To which she replied "It's happpppppening!"
And this weekend, it finally did!

These are so quick and easy to do. So rewarding for how awesome they turn out.

The plastic teeth were just a few bucks for the whole bag:

I was in Walgreen's to get my headache medicine refilled when I grabbed the teeth, so I paid for these at the pharmacy window.
The pharmacist thought this was really funny, "So, any questions about the Imitrex?"
Me, "Nope."
Him, "And you just need the Imitrex and this bag of teeth?"
Me, "What more could a woman need?"

Well, googley eyes, as it turns out. But, Lurky already had those at her house.

And I pulled out some pins and pens a few times.

Aren't they awesome! They make me so happy.

oh, hello

2011-09-15T20:00:00.004-04:00

It's been a while my last post. I suppose I could fill in this space with details about my real job and moving and this stupid cold I caught. But I won't. I'll just say this: busy and happy.

I picked the Kelp Quilt up from the long-armer last week.
I love it!

Now, it just needs binding. I'm going for candy blue.
But first I've got to get my map room in order.

It has gone from this (where's my stuff?)

To this (all-purpose stick-those-boxes-in-there room)

To this: (assembled desks and tables, but still a lot of stuff and no sewing machine!)

And you'll notice there are no maps on the walls yet, which makes my habit of calling it the map room especially funny. Soon enough, soon enough!

record-breaking heat

2011-08-12T08:00:00.004-04:00

It was 107 Fahrenheit (42 Celsius) outside when I met up with Jacquie (Tallgrass Prairie Studio) and Lauren (Aunt June) in Lawrence, Kansas.

We cooled it down with some lunch.

Then heated it back up with a trip to Sarah's Fabrics.

That's my pile. I spent $105. I could easily have spent more--truly excellent selection--but was trying to be good as I still had a week or two left on the road and want to be able to, you know, eat.

Jacquie, who had just announced she's moving from a big house to an apartment, was trying not to buy any fabric, but then she did (and tried to hide it in her purse).

lt was awesome to meet these ladies in person after reading their blogs for a few years and admiring their work and quilting with them in the Mid Mod Bee. Speaking of the Mid Mod Bee...the Kelp Quilt did get pieced together finally:

I did this in June, but haven't had a chance to photograph it properly until now. It was quite a process to decide how to put this together as I shuffled and re-shuffled the strips from my bee members. It kept looking weird...too balanced, too unbalanced, too blah.

Ultimately, I figured out that I needed to focus on the white kelp bits, not the background colors. This layout, you may notice has the strips with a lot of white at the bottom, the strips with the least in the middle, and the "medium" ones up top. I love it like this. I had to make a strip, change one bee member's strip a bit (centering it), and shuffle, turn, shuffle, shuffle, turn, to sort this out. I don't think I've ever spent that long arranging blocks. Usually, I throw the pieces on the floor, tweak a tiny bit and then I'm happy. How long do you usually spend arranging blocks? Does having blocks from a bee (rather than all from oneself) seem to make this longer?

Obviously, it needs squaring up. Then, I'm thinking I'll get some solid purple for the back, orange thread for the quilting and drop it off at the quilter as soon as I'm back in Ann Arbor (this weekend, yay!)

Thrift

2011-07-31T19:00:00.001-04:00

Thanks for the book recommendations! My friends in DC took pity on me and passed along some of the books they had, but I've added your recommendations to my Paperback Swap wishlist!

I know I’ve mentioned that my possessions are in storage this summer, but I think I’ve spared you from long-winded complaints about the process of moving out of my apartment. I will continue to spare you, but suffice to say that place was like Mary Poppins’s purse gone wrong...I couldn’t believe how long it took to pack up my stuff.

The good news is, there will be a lot less to unpack. Because about a third of my things (yes, truly, a third) were sold or donated instead of being moved and stored. I only packed things that I found truly beautiful or useful and then rest went bye-bye--clothes, kitchen stuff, books, everything.

I even went through every piece of paper, putting them into four piles: keep, recycle, shred, and burn.

The “burn” box contained old drafts of my dissertation, which I no longer need, but felt I needed to let go of in some sort of ceremony; burning them on Grandma’s farm was an awesome release.

I found the process of editing down my furniture and decorative things the most interesting, it really clarified what it is that I like and want to have in my house. As opposed to what I like, but don’t want/need in my house.

When it came to decorative things, I was especially brutal in my cutbacks. Because I love going to thrift stores while travelling and I wanted to be armed with a well-honed aesthetic. When I first fell in love with milk glass, I bought milk glass stuff whenever I was it at the thrift stores, now I am way picky about the designs and cleanliness of the items, and won't buy things that are priced too highly; so I end up passing over most of what I see.

I also have a color scheme picked out for my new place., based on this picture from the Garnet Hill catalog:

This helps in my purchasing. These are, by the way, basically the colors I already have going with my stuff, especially my favorites!

I’ve been lucky in thrift stores so far on my trip, most things got packed into my car without being photographed, but here are some early favorites.

steel drawers with case and feet $2.99

Shower Curtain $1.99

Pyrex bowl $2.99

(my parent’s one-eyed dog PRICELESS)

On the road

2011-07-22T13:30:00.001-04:00

Traveling is going really well. Since leaving Wisconsin, I’ve gone through Canada (Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City) Maine (Greenville, Bar Harbor, Portland) Vermont (Woodstock, Burlington) Massachusetts (Boston area) and am now in the Washington DC area. That’s just listing the places I’ve slept, there have been day trips to other locales, including up a few mountains, down a few gorges, and down several rivers.

I haven’t been taking very many pictures because I just haven’t been in the mood. I realize some people might find this horrifying, but I’m not one to ruin a vacation through my efforts to document my vacation.

I did snap the moose I saw. He's just a little guy, probably 2 years old.

Also, fabric stores. All of the fabric stores I found in Toronto looked like this:

My friend who was with me for the Canada stretch said they were "scary" I was more of a mind that they were fascinating.

I made it to a fabric store in Maine (Ale Wives) and was pleased to find that it looked like this:

I also found a few in Vermont, just by chance (walking by) because Yelp and Garmin didn't know of any and my friend in Burlington didn't have a phone book. Fabric store owners: if you aren't listed on Yelp, add yourself.

I haven't gotten much hand-stitching done as I seem to pick up a book rather than my sewing kit when I have a moment to myself; I've sped through Katherine, When We Were Orphans, Oh My Stars, The Swan Thieves, The Left Hand of Darkness this month alone. I left Michigan with stack of books in my car, acquired over the year for free from Paperback Swap, it is slowly dwindling away, so I may have to hit a bookstore soon. Maybe I can find a used one. What summer reading have you been enjoying? Any recommendations in the category of literature-but-not-depressing?

Hermmm....

2011-06-24T18:30:00.002-04:00

So, my really rather new laptop needs serious tech support and I'm not going to be able to get that done for a few weeks because I'm going to be camping in Canada then sashaying around Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City and then various parts of Maine.

I have other gadgets with me that will let me read blogs and look at flickr, but as far as me posting anything? I think that's not going to happen until I've reached Burlington Vermont, where I'm staying for a bit. Basically, July 15th at the earliest. Sad.

Oh well, hopefully when I come back, I'll have photos of moose. I'm dying to see one in person.

And maybe I'll have some more cathedral windows.

Good ol' hand-sewing project!

In the meantime, if you need something to chew on, chew on this:
"My father’s an artist and I remember talking to him about wanting to be an artist and saying to him if I can do art that changes people over time, shows them something for a second or a minute, changes their mind about something, that would be really worthwhile." --Phil Toledano via The 99 Percent.

I don't like the distinction that craft produces "useful" objects and art produces "not useful"and I love this sentiment about the use of art...to change people, to show them something, to open them up and get them thinking.

How to square up huge blocks.

2011-06-22T17:30:00.000-04:00

A common step in any block-based improv quilt is squaring up the blocks. When I was making blocks for Stinky's quilt, I squared them up with each additional "wall" that was added to the block--i.e., eight or nine times per block.

Now, for a while I was just working with my cutting mat and ruler and rotary cutter in the usual manner. I found this very frustrating. Since rotary mats work on this logic:

This "origin point in a corner" logic isn't great for squaring up blocks that are "whatever" size but have a definite middle. To cut with that kind of mat, I had to find the middle of the block, measure out from the middle in four directions to figure out where to cut (because if it is 7.5" to the north, 7.7" to the south, 7.6" to the west and 7.8" to the east, I need to cut all to 7.5"). And then actually cutting involved some math again. What's 7.5 less than 21? 13.5? 12.5? I can do advanced statistics, matrix algebra, and more, but this sort of basic arithmetic on the fly will give me the stupids.

Also, measuring twice and cutting once using this method means measuring over 500 times just to square up 9 blocks seven times each. No thank you.

I knew that I wanted a cutting mat with this logic--which might be called "origin point in the middle"

Because I couldn't find a mat like this in the shops--and probably couldn't afford one even if I had found it--I set my noodle to figuring out how to make one myself. Eventually, I was successful. I'll explain how to set one up yourself below. First let me explain what I was able to do with my little set up.

The center of each block marked with tape throughout the whole making of the quilt. When it came time to square up a block, I would push a thumb tack through a spot marked on the tape (the center of the block):

I would use the tack to put the center of the block into the center of my board, which had an "origin point in the middle" grid marked out on it. I would slide my rotary mat under one side of the block in order to save my rotary blade from wear and tear.

Using the grid marked on the board (not on the mat) I would line up a large T-Square, and then use my rotary cutter along the T-Square to make the cut.

Then I would move the mat and T-Square to another side and cut again, repeating until all 4 sides were done.

Now, this is how to make your own big squaring board. You probably only need to buy items #1 and #2, so this will run you about $22.

Materials:
1. drywall t-square (look at hardware stores, order online from Amazon.com)

2. mdf panel big enough to accommodate your largest block. I bought two of these from Home Depot to lay down next to each other to get enough surface area

**these 2' by 4' pieces fit in my car and are easy to store under my bed, by all means, use bigger pieces if you can, but make sure the pieces are exactly square or exactly rectangular, or you'll have trouble with your t-square going off at angles.

**my carpet is plush and so the two boards stayed abutted without hardware. if you are going to use this on a hard floor or up on a table, you may want to consider buying hinges or straight flat brackets or whatnot to hold the pieces together.

3. drill (Optional. You only need it for two seconds to make a divot in step 2 and could get by without.)

4. Permanent marker or pencil

5. large rotary cutting mat

6. rotary cutter

Directions:

Step one: Lay your MDF panel(s) on the floor. If you have more than one panel, decide if they will stay put without you joining them with hardware. If they need hardware, join them now.

Step two: Decide on a location for your origin point and mark it.
Mine is 1" over from the seam between the two panels (the sides) and halfway between the top and bottom. I used my drill to put a divot in the MDF a the origin point. This divot is a hole that doesn't go the whole way through. It makes it easy to be assured that the thumb tack was stuck to the right part.

If you find, as I did, that the tack doesn't do a good enough job holding the block in the same spot as you cut, try using the thumb tack to position the block and then immediately replace it with a dressmaker's weight (or a big jar of rice) to hold the block in position as you go around cutting.

Step three: Mark out a grid on your MDF using the T-Square and pencil or permanent marker. I have mine marked every inch from 15" to 35" You can decide for yourself how many markings you need, but be sure to use good measuring practices as you do this since you will be stuck with your wobbly inaccuracies if you make them.

Step four: Stand back and marvel at your work!

Step five: Think of all the possibilities now that you can make huge, perfectly square blocks!

All wrapped up!

2011-06-17T08:30:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday the quilt was wrapped up in secrecy...

then taken to Grandma's where my cousin Stinky tore into the box...

to reveal her graduation quilt!

Stinky was pretty pleased with it. As she should be, given that she picked some of the fabrics. And...

it matches her room!

By the way, this is the long shot on her room:

Teenagers!

Okay, let's try it in the guest room at her house for a [much tidier] side view...

I've taken to referring to this variation on the log cabin as "particle board cabin" because of all the little pieces I joined to make up each piece of the "walls."

Squaring up blocks this big is a feat of engineering. I took a few snaps of how I did it and will share that part of the process soon!

It is labelled on the front, with a strip of written-upon fabric (look in the above photo, bottom right corner).

The quilting is similar to the DoublePlusGood Quilt--hexagons and extra lines, done by Bernie.
The back is an awesome print from Tula Pink's Full Moon Forest line. I bought 10 yards of this several years ago when I spotted it on sale for $4/yard. I chose to use it on this quilt because Stinky likes stripes and nature.

The binding is a yellow wood grain print that I picked out the other day.

I'm very pleased with this quilt and proud to have finished off the tradition of graduation quilts for my Grandma--Stinky is her youngest grandchild, so we're done!

Hometown

2011-06-10T14:30:00.002-04:00

I grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It's a small city with the Mississippi River as its western boundary, bluffs to its east and south and marshland on its north.

[photo by Ken Maurer was taken from one of the bluffs, facing the river to the west, with Minnesota visible in the distance]

The name of the city comes from the sport of La Crosse, which was played by the native population using sticks that, to the French fur traders who came to the area, resembled a bishop's crozier (la crosse in French).

This morning, I headed just north of the city to Olive Juice Quilts (a great shop!) to meet up with Anna, who you may know from the blog Noodlehead. Anna and I do not know each other from school as I'm a smidge older than her and went to a different high school. But, as with any small town, we know a few people in common and are always happy to meet people with similar interests.

Anna and I had lunch last November, and occasionally email each other. After I expressed my extreme love of a bag she had made (something she's very good at) she even sent me the bag! I've been meaning to post about it and had taken pictures months ago, but was waiting for an excuse to share...here it is!

Isn't it great? It's my #1 bag this summer. You can buy the pattern from Anna for $7 over here: Noodlehead Patterns

Today we didn't just eat lunch, we went fabric shopping. My cousin's quilt is quilted and I needed to pick out binding. I pulled out some options, and Anna helped me make the final selection: the yellow woodgrain fabric. It's going to look great!

Because my schedule meant that we needed to meet up at a time Anna had her kids with her, I got to meet little Emily and Natalie. Adorable, energetic little monsters!

I had made up a fabric store bingo game for Natalie to play. She did really well with it and even posed for a picture after winning.

Here's a close up of the card:

I doodled this up in no time, just thinking about typical fabric motifs. Plus I only had to make one. If you had more kids old enough for this activity, you'd have to make a different one for each kid, with the pictures shuffled around. Feel free to use this idea if you ever have kids you need to keep busy in a fabric store!

More on modern

2011-06-04T18:00:00.000-04:00

The quilt for Miss Stinky is done and at the quilters and I am safely ensconced in my childhood home for the next two weeks. Every good road trip starts with unwinding at Mom and Dad's right? Plus, there are puppies and brothers here.

Also, a sewing machine. I had my old sewing machine tuned up before leaving town and have brought it to my parents' house. This will be its new home.

My mom knows how to sew, but has not done much of it in recent years. This is partly due to busyness on her part, but also due to the fact that her supposedly rather nice sewing machine stopped working properly before she got her money's worth out of it. I am hoping that using my old machine will revive her interest, it is also nice for me to have a machine to use while i am here.

I brought along my strips from the kelp quilt and am planning on finishing this top next week.

These strips are from the Mid Mod Bee. Speaking of mid-century modern, in the comments to the Modern Day Quilts interview, Rachel said,"I see the correlation to mid century modernism being very clear in modern quilts but other modern inspirations not being so well represented. Is this a personal choice? A fashion of the time?"
This is a question that I have as well. I love mid-century modern design and so it does tend to be what I am inspired by. I do sometimes see some more minimalist work and things that are more beatnik or mod. I think I start to lack the vocabulary for some of these though...if someone could recommend books or documentaries that tease out the threads in modernism, I'd be eternally grateful.

Kate wrote, "Crafts, to a large degree, have also changed from a handed-down tradition to an individual pursuit, in the vacuum of the craft room, with input from the internet."
Does anyone know if this is true? I have been looking for, and failing to find, any rigorous studies of craft traditions and the extent to which they have been solitary, community based, or mediated. I have a mental picture of Laura Ingalls Wilder learning to sew from her mom, and the novice of today learning from YouTube, but anecdotes and easy-conjured mental images aren't evidence of how craft works in people's lives. Have there been histories that document this rigorously?

Quite a few people wrote about craft vs. art.
These words just seem like "master's tools" for elevating what rich white men do with their minds and bodies (it's art!) and devaluing what women and other minorities do with their minds and bodies (craft!). Am I wrong? When and why is this distinction useful?

Rachel said, "One of things I love about the 'quilts' I love is how well crafted they are. Sometimes I am kind of freaked out how badly some of the Modern Quilts are made. In photos, its hard to tell the level of craftsmanship so it doesn't seem to carry any weight. I get great joy from the 'making' and have been repeatedly told that 'craftsmanship' is a 'traditional' value. Is this so? "
Well, I can't really speak for how much "craftmanship" matters to other people, but I can answer for myself and speculate a bit. For myself: I piece improvisationally, so i don't need to have PERFECT scant-1/4-inch seams on everything, because blocks are always going to get cut down and squared up as part of the process. I make good, stright seams that will hold up to wear. I press carefully and resew on the rare occassion that a seam is too skinny to be durable. I don't have puckers or stretching or fudging.
From what I've seen in pictures and in person, most modern quilts are well constructed.
I think that craftmanship carries weight. However, I don't think that modern quilts are celebrated for their technical achievements, but rather for their designs. So, I don't really care if you tackled inset-seams unless I love the result of that tackling. It's all about how it looks in the end, not how crazy you went trying to get there.
Also, what does not carry weight with me as far as craftsmanship goes is any notion of how things are "supposed to be done" or are "supposed to look" that doesn't add to a quilt's longevity or strength. I will show stitches when I want to. Combinations of colors, prints, and materials are of my own choosing. If I'm confident that the fabrics won't shrink unevenly, I will combine voile, quilter's cotton, linen, and more.
The traditional quilters that I know are far more interested in following rules.

One last question from Rachel: "I love print and tend to believe 'more is more' having been told that 'solids is Modern' do I have to put solids in my quilt to have it be Modern? isn't it more about the design? "
I think the use of negative space is one of the bellwethers of a modern quilt. This is usually accomplished with solids and near solids. However, I don't think that using solids or lots of negative space is a requirement of modern quilts--you can have the disease without manifesting that symptom, as it were.

Dana noted, "It's interesting to me that so few people notice that 'Modern Quilts' are so heavily influenced by African American quilting and African fiber traditions."
I have seen that influence noted repeatedly and in the lecture I gave on modern quilting listed it alongside Japanese aesthetics as a major influence. Perhaps it should be brought up more often so that people can pull at that thread and rediscover those quilts. What other influences do people see?

Interview

2011-05-27T11:30:00.002-04:00

The DoublePlusGood Quilt is featured on Modern Day Quilts today. Pop on over to see not only a new photo of this quilt but an interview that covers a wide variety of topics, including some provocation about the meaning of modern.

I had a good time up north. Fresh air and fly fishing!

I like fly fishing mostly because I like putting on waders and strolling down the river. The Au Sable River is about 6" higher than normal, which meant there were a few times when the a lot of me was underwater and the current was doing its darndest to tip me over. But, I managed to stay on my feet, stay dry, and even catch a fish.

Since returning, i have been plugging away on Miss Stinky's Quilt...so close to being done piecing!

Each block needs another round. And I'm thinking I need to unbalance it in the final layout. We shall see...

Piece in Peace

2011-05-23T00:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks for all the DoublePlusGood love! It is a nice quilt and I'm very pleased with it. Anyone looking to make something similar should read the Liberated Cross Block tutorial LollyQuiltz posted. Most of my blocks were cut using the method she describes, I love the look of them.

My house is a wreck at the moment as I prepare to put almost everything in storage and hit the road. I've rid myself of half my furniture and dissembled more. Things are piled up everywhere waiting to be boxed or taken to the thrift store or plain ol' thrown out. As such, the only livable space in the house is the living room, which has my mattress on the floor (sold the bed frame, am using the bedroom to stash packed boxes) and the sewing table next to it. I've been keeping the living room tidy and vaccuumed...a single room with no moving chaos...so that after I've packed up my assigned spot in the rest of the house for the day, I can retreat in peace and piece.

Having cut all the fabric into 3" wide (blue) or 2.5" wide (orange) strips--and random lengths--I was at first joining them as I went. For example, making a patchwork strip of dark oranges 20" long to attach to a 20" side of a block. I quickly grew frustrated with this method and so I sewed up all the pieces into hugely long snakes and have been much happier since.

Slowly but steadily my nine blocks are growing.

I've got 5 blocks that are about 25" square. These four spread out on the bed should get that far soon and then I've got to figure out how thick that last round of fabric will need to be and what hue/value for each. Which means figuring out placement of the blocks. Oh my. I'm pretty sure that the final squaring up-- 33" square exactly--is going to be a feat of engineering.

But for now, I'm heading north to go fly fishing, or as I like to call it, river hiking.

Bound

2011-05-18T19:45:00.000-04:00

The DoublePlusGood Quilt is done.

My plan to have it quilted in a honeycomb/hexagons worked out quite well. The long arm quilter I took it to, Bernie, was happy to order and work with the pantograph I had found on the internet.

Once it was quilted, however, we realized that the width marked 3.5" above (my marking and my confusion) should have been 7" This meant that there were great big areas of the quilt that weren't quilted--the inside of a 7" hexagon. Oi. Bernie and I laid the quilt out on her floor and tried to decide what to do.

Pick it out and start over? I almost never pick anything out. I think in the entire course of making this quilt I only unpicked one seam and it was because I had stitched in a block upside down (and it had words on it).

Add something inside the hexagons? Too distracting, I thought.

Add another all-over pattern? Maybe, but what?

Ultimately, we decided to add in straight vertical lines all over the quilt. They are ruler straight and between .5 and 1.5 inches from each other.

The final outcome is pretty awesome. Depending on the angle at which you view the quilt, the quilting either disappears, or you see the hexagons, or you mostly see zig-zags, or you mostly see the vertical lines. The thread used is a Sulky Blendable and it mostly disappears, which is what I like in quilting. I'm 90% about the piecing and so I want quilting that doesn't distract from, but supports the effect of the piecing.

Anyway, when I got the quilt back I then had to make some decisions about the binding.

I often have an idea about the color of binding I will use from the get-go, but I did not in the case of this quilt. I auditioned quite a few colors and ultimately settled on using some Kona Curry.

This is a decision I'm still not 100% confident in. But, I'm thinking it will grow on me.
Part of why I chose the Curry is because it looks really nice with the backing. Some of the other colors I auditioned (lime green, off-white) did not.

The backing is a nice quilter's flannel that I got for a steal a few years ago. It has been hanging in my closet waiting for a quilt to back.

By the way, check out the awesome corners on this thing!

I recently noticed that my corners, never having been perfect, were getting WORSE. While I don't demand perfection of myself, I do expect improvement, so I read over the instructions for binding in Denyse Schmidt Quilts: 30 Colorful Quilt and Patchwork Projects just before sewing on the binding and ended up with a much better result than my recent attempts. This is straight-grain binding, cut at 2.5" and with a single-fold. If you've never read over Elizabeth Hartman (Oh Fransson!)'s directions for making continuous binding (find it here) I highly recommend it!

I finished stitching on the binding at a sew-in with some ladies from the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild. It's been raining since then, but I finally snuck the quilt out during a break in the gloom to snap a few pictures of it on the monkey bars:

By the way, as I was taking these pictures, a 20-something guy with a backwards baseball cap and tattoos all up his arm, driving a pick-up truck with over-sized wheels, leaned out his window to tell me he loved my quilt. Pretty cool.

order up!

2011-05-09T10:26:00.000-04:00

After going too many years without a proper vacation, I am going on a whopper of a road trip this summer. In my sweet new (used) ride.

I wanted to let you all know now because i can't keep my etsy shop open while on the road, so if you want plexi for your dyeing adventures, please place your order by May 25th. The shop will reopen around August 15th.

As always, shipping to the US is free. I ship internationally, just send me a message with the list of items you'd like and i will send you a quote.

Plexi arrives with dyeing and discharging instructions.
I am happy to make custom orders.

Link to etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/r0ssie
To learn more about this technique, click on the itajime shibori label just below this sentence.

Two Hues, Many Values, Not Much Time

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

I'm full steam ahead on this quilt for my cousin Stinky.

I usually trust my eye when it comes to judging values, but I keep finding myself using my camera (and especially the camera's black-and-white function) to check on my fabric sorting and the construction of the blocks.

These are some pictures I learned from as I was sorting fabric.

And parts of some blocks:

There are 100 ways to make log cabins, I'm not sure why I chose this particular method of making patchworked strips of each value, but so far I find the result really interesting. As in, I'm not sure how much I love it, but I do keep looking and looking.

What's going to happen when these blocks reach 33" square? I can't wait to see if this is going to work the way I want this to work.

A Cup of Tea

2011-05-02T20:00:00.003-04:00

Friday night, I had a wretched time falling asleep. Then, I woke up at 3am, exhausted but alert.

I've never been one to have trouble sleeping, but I understood why it was happening. On Friday, grading had ended and stress, an important part of my body's ecosystem, had gone missing. Summer has its own work and pressures, but is so dramatically different from the school year, it is a shock to flip from one to the other.

There I lay, wide awake, empty, exhausted, and with a vicious craving for a cup of tea. I dragged myself out of bed and set some water to boil. Sure, tea has caffeine, but I could tell I wasn't going to sleep anyway, so I figured it couldn't make anything worse.

Making tea "properly" is one of the first things my brothers and I learned to do. Long before we knew how to fill the dishwasher, do our own laundry, or any of the myriad other household chores that would become our responsibilities, we were taught how to make a cup of tea to our mum's specifications.

Producing a perfect cup of tea is something we can all do by rote, 15+ years since moving out of our parents' home. Of course, "perfect" here is calibrated to my mom's taste, but I have friends who have learned just to ask for tea in my mom's style when I offer to bring them a beverage. It's that good.

On Friday night, sipping that cup of "mom style" tea, curled up in bed with a book, I felt my body slowly adjust to summer. And somehow, taking in that caffeine, I drifted off to sleep, placing the empty mug on the bedside table as I snuggled under my quilt.

For your own magic cup of mom tea, follow this recipe.

1. You need a big mug. One that holds about 1.5 cups of liquid.

2. You need Silk soy milk. Either the plain one, or the organic vanilla (the organic vanilla is not too sweet, the normal vanilla one is). Soy milk is made in a variety of ways and many brands will curdle if put into tea, which is why I'm being specific about the brand. Neither my mom nor I drink cow's milk---she's lactose intolerant, I just think it is gross. You could of course make this with cow's milk, but the flavor will be different and it might not be magical.

3. Tea. This is what I buy at grocery store. My mom brings back tea bags from England each summer (PG Tips, I think, the recipe is different in Britain; it is like how Guinness tastes one way in Ireland, another in America, and another in Asia.) Anyway, tea bags matter, these are good and inexpensive.

4. Water. You have to boil your water in a kettle or on the stove. Not in the microwave. It needs to be brought to a full boil, so if making it on the stove, don't take it off the heat at the first sign of steam, but rather wait for it to get to a rolling boil. Most electric kettles with auto-shut off will do this accurately.

5. Put a teabag in the bottom of your mug. Pour 1.5 cups of boiling water directly on top of the tea bag. If the tea bag has air in it, push out the air with a spoon, then, cover the top of the mug and let the tea brew.

My mom likes a 3 minute brew. I like 4 minutes. A timer is used.

6. Take off the lid and remove the tea bag from the water. If you leave the bag in, the tea will get bitter.

7. Add 1/2 cup of Silk. Enjoy.

I started writing this yesterday, Sunday, but had to stop as I ran out of time. I thought it would take 30 minutes to write this down. It took more. Also, it started to seem alarmingly precise. I mean, wow am I exact when I make a cup of tea. I knew I was picky, but this seemed excessive to me, yesterday, as the lines added up.

Anyway, I stopped because Lurky came over to work on her quilt and so I was hand-stitching binding on the Double Plus Good Quilt and she was piecing on my machine. And we were chatting about this and that and playing music. Then two things happened: Lurky asked for a mug of mom tea (unprompted!) And we turned the music off and played an episode of Doctor Who in which the Doctor's life is saved by a cup of tea (and then he saves planet Earth). I took these as signs that I should blog about tea, after all.

: )

rainbow cake

2011-04-22T19:47:00.000-04:00

Ace recently celebrated his birthday. The day before the party, I saw a picture of this cake

It's a Bobbette & Belle cake. I saw it on Pinterest, which means I saw it all tiny and so was initially under the impression that the ruffles of frosting were M&Ms. Which made me think "that's awesome. I want to do a rainbow one for Ace!"

I called Ace's fiance to see if someone was already making a cake and discovered that the job was available. The schedule was a bit tight for baking since I had many plans, but I figured I could buy the cake and just refrost it.

The grocery store provided all I needed. The chocolate cheesecake came cheap and they had the full spectrum of generic M&Ms in their bulk candy aisle.

Since blue is Ace's favorite color, I decided the center of the cake would be red so that the outside would be lots & lots of blue.

There was a massive amount of frosting on the cake and I was glad to scrape it off as I'm sure it was full of the cheapest shortening man can buy. I made up some fresh cream cheese frosting by whipping 1 package of cream cheese with 1/2 stick of butter. I then stirred in 1 cup of powdered sugar.

The cake then got a thin layer of frosting and the fun of pushing in concentric circles of candy began. I used a cup to mark a circle at the center of the cake so that it would start out even. Once the red and orange were in, it was easy to keep is symmetric and lovely.

It was a hit!

I bought this.

2011-04-13T08:04:00.001-04:00

I don't generally do "I bought this" posts, but a whole bolt of Kona Curry? That's worth sharing!

I got a good deal on the fabric because I was buying the whole bolt (20 yards!) and I know someone who runs a little fabric shop (thanks, Brenda!)

The Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild is doing a solids challenge, and this bolt of Kona Curry is going to be a big part of the quilt I'm making.

Speaking of the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild. I made their new logo. What do you think?

"Put a tree on it" is to Ann Arbor as "put a bird on it" is to the world of hipster crafts.

I actually made two logo suites and we all voted. I was the only person to prefer this one:

I love the dirtiness. Oh well, maybe another modern quilt guild is in search of a logo? As long as the city name isn't too much longer or shorter than 9 letters, Ann Arbor could easily be changed to something else, I'm happy to edit and send the logo along.
Update: The thread logo is on its way to Amarillo!

and the winner is....

2011-04-11T12:23:00.000-04:00

Kristy! (check your email!)

Blocks that don't want to be in big quilts.

2011-04-08T09:15:00.011-04:00

On the one hand, I love bed-sized quilts.
On the other hand, I think that a lot of blocks look better in small quilts, where there aren't so many blocks that busyness takes over.

For example, I L-O-V-E this mini quilt by Amanda (msmcporkchop). But I also think it is perfect as just this one block. Any more, and it would be too much.

(block and photo by msmcporkchop, seen on flickr)

I've also noticed that I sometimes make blocks that look good in multiples, but only in one long strip. Or in a small 2x2 square.

What do I do with these? I put them in a dresser drawer to hobnob with other temporarily-set-aside friends.

Last fall, when Interweave Press asked me if I could could write a table-runner and placemat pattern for them, my first reaction was to be flattered they had asked, followed quickly by confusion as to why they would ask me for patchwork that wasn't blanket-oriented. I am so blanket-oriented. Lately, only big blankets.

Then I remembered my orphaned blocks, some of which looked good in long strips, but not in anything larger, and I realized I already had a table runner design waiting for me in my dresser.

So I pulled out the blocks, which were too small and too short, but quite interesting. And I made another set of blocks--bigger and longer and better. And I wrote down how to do it. And I made a few placemats to go with the tablerunner. And I sent the explanation and runner and placemats off to Interweave. I had no idea if they'd like what I had to offer, since the pattern is (a) improvisational, (b) stack-and-whack, and (c) stark.

But they did like it. And so I'm pleased to announce its in 101 Patchwork Projects and Quilts.

I've just received my own copies in the mail and am rather impressed with this magazine. It is jam-packed with cool projects, not to mention quite a few names I recognize: Esch House Quilts (Debbie), A Stitch in Dye (Malka), Summersville (Lucie), The Quilt Engineer (Latifah), Film in the Fridge (Ashley) and I Heart Linen (Rashida). Also, really nice paper; this magazine will hold up under use!

Keep your eyes open for the magazine at the shops and give it a look when you see it! It should be for sale next week.

In the meantime, I've got an extra copy that I will give away to one lucky person.

They sent me three copies, so I figure one for me, one for you, and one for my Grandma (a granddaughter in a quilting magazine is bragging GOLD in her nursing home. )

To enter, leave a comment on this post and I will pull a winner on Monday morning.

Stuffed Mushrooms

2011-04-03T19:00:00.012-04:00

My friend Miranda makes the most wonderful stuffed mushrooms. When she moved out of town this summer, I remembered to complain vociferously to her about the loss of her from our soccer team, and from happy hour martini time, and from our regular games of cribbage, but I forgot to complain that she was taking my mushrooms away.

I remembered just last month when I started craving them. Luckily, while you can't play soccer or cribbage on the phone, you can relay recipes. I was thrilled to discover that I could recreate her magic in my own kitchen. These mushrooms are just so crabby and yummy; I've never had stuffed mushrooms like them!

To experience this bliss, follow this recipe...

(0) Preheat oven to 350

Chop up:
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1/3 cup roasted red peppers
2 cloves garlic
1 small yellow onion (optional)

(1) Saute on medium heat approximately 5 minutes.

Then add:
1 can of crabmeat
4 ounces cream cheese
4 ounces feta crumbles
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 cup fresh spinach, de-stemmed and chopped
ground pepper (optional)

(2) Stir until cream cheese gets gooey, then remove pan from heat. This is your stuffing.

(3) Wash 8 portabella mushrooms by wiping down with wet cloth, then de-gill them with a spoon. Brush outsides of mushroom with olive oil, place mushrooms in even layer in pyrex pan or baking sheet. Fill mushrooms with stuffing.

(4) Bake for approximately 30 minutes (time varies based on size of mushrooms, bake until they are hot but not drying).

(5) Add slices of provolone cheese to tops of mushrooms, bake for 5 more minutes.

(6) Serve hot!

As a side note: leftover mushrooms are delicious chopped up, sauteed, and served on pasta.

Enjoy!

Batik, C'est Chic

2011-03-18T14:30:00.002-04:00

I've blogged about this book before, but it is coming up again, because I've got to say how much fun I have just keeping that electric fry pan of wax around and pulling it out on a random evening when I've got a free hour and a bell pepper.

Since I don't dye too often in the winter, I've got a fair amount of waxed fabric in a box under my bed, just waiting to be dyed.

When I made the light blue dye bath for my soccer jersey, I went through the box to see if any of the waiting fabric would be pleasing in blue.

I found this one, which was made using the aforementioned bell pepper:

Looks good all dyed up, no?

If you look back at my older posts about batik, you'll see that the problem I had when following the directions in Malka's book was some missing details in the explanation of removing the wax from the fabric. Basically, this is what I learned last time (which Malka confirmed in the comments to an earlier blog post): don't try to boil out more than a yard of fabric at a time.

I have discovered another useful tip which really minimizes the work involved in removing the wax: as the wax boils off the fabric, scoop it out of the pot.

Those bubbles on the surface are wax.

Scoop the wax.

Have a bucket of cold water handy and put the hot water and wax you've just scooped into the bucket.

As you can see, this removes a lot of the wax from the pot! It's kind of fun to watch it solidify as it hits the cold water. You don't have to watch the pot and scoop the wax continuously, a few times over the course of the boiling will do it.

Doing this made the post-pot wax removal time about 10-seconds long. I just had to rinse the fabric and massage it to verify that all the wax had been removed (it had!) Hooray!

Only drawback: my soup ladle is no longer safe for food...oh well, nothing a trip to the shops won't fix!

DIY Soccer Jersey

2011-03-16T13:00:00.001-04:00

It's crazy how fulfilling I find it to be able to make certain things for myself.

This weekend, I needed to go to the thrift store for a light blue shirt. I need it for a soccer team I'm subbing on next month. I was whinging to myself a bit about this trip; I was going to have to walk to the store, which I wasn't in the mood for. And then I was going to have to dig through their shirts for one that was 100% cotton and big enough and the right color and didn't say anything too obnoxious on it. There are days where that sounds like fun; this was not one of those days.

Then I remembered that I had white t-shirts and blue dye. Ten minutes later, a white t-shirt was submerged in a dye bath.

I used most of the same steps you'll find in my Immersion Dyeing Tutorial, except that I didn't paste the dye up in a dish, but added it to a squeeze bottle with some salty water, shaking it to mix. I used a squeeze bottle because I figured I'd start the dye bath with a very small amount of dye in it and then slowly add more if the shirt was too light; the squeeze bottle makes that easy and safe.

The trick to getting pastel colors is to have only a small amount of dye in the bath...it's not like paints where you stir in white to get pastels.

After the dye bath and washing the shirt, I printed my jersey number on the back. I contemplated getting a more polished look by using paint and a freezer paper stencil or maybe whipping out the fabric markers, but I decided I wanted a sort-of handmade dot-matix look, so I used a radish to stamp paint on the shirt.

I like the result and am ready to play!

March of the Tools: Rotary Cutting Tools

2011-03-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

The fabric designer Heather Bailey started March of the Tools on her blog a couple of years ago. Since I have had a few questions about the handle on my rotary ruler, I thought I'd take a post to talk about this tool and a few others.

I resisted buying this handle. In general, I try not to buy "stuff," so this isn't too surprising. Also it is very purple and plastic, which makes it one of my least favorite colors and materials! Plus, it costs around $20 and just wasn't sure if it would be $20 worth of awesome.

I thought about it for at least a year.
I looked at cheaper options.
Ultimately, I sucked it up and forked over the $20.
I wish I had done it sooner!
This tool makes it so much easier to hold the ruler in place while cutting, to move the ruler between cuts, and to set up cuts very precisely.
I don't, in general, have a clumsiness problem, but I'd wager that if you were someone who worried about cutting your flesh when cutting your fabric, the gripper would help to avoid those accidents.

Love this tool!

While we're talking about rotary cutting, I wanted to point you towards my favored rotary cutter: Olfa's Quick Change Rotary Cutter . Why do I like this one? As the name implies, it is very easy to change the blades. The problem I had with the ergonomic one (see picture below) is that I have a heck of a time changing the blade and then end up with a wobbly blade. The Quick Change is very easy to change and never wobbly.

Also, I am ambidextrous enough to cut with my left hand when the situation calls for it, and the ergonomic cutter is for right-handed cutting only.

The downside of the Quick Change Rotary Cutter is that it doesn't automatically cover the blade when you set it down...you have to slide the guard up. This is second-nature to me now, so its not a problem. But, if you are accident prone...maybe not the right cutter for you.

This is the ruler I use 90% of the time.

It's just a really good size for me (6.5 x 24.5) since I usually cut on a 24x36 mat. And that purple half-inch on the one side is really useful!

I don't have any strong feelings about rotary cutting mats except that bigger is better and buy them when Joann's puts them on 40% or 50% sale. : )
The one that I use currently is a Fiskars mat. I like its pretty colors.
When buying a rotary cutting mat, I avoid any that are putting off a strong odor.
I also avoid any that have a lot of writing on them. I used to have a smaller Olfa mat and I was constant working around a corner that was full of words rather than ruler markings.

So, that's me marching out my rotary cutting tools.
For advice on caring for these tools check out this webpage.
And if you're new to the whole rotary shebang, check out this tutorial.

For my other March of the Tools posts click on the label below.

What's your favorite tool?

doubleplusgood

2011-03-06T13:00:00.001-05:00

The rain stopped. And then it snowed. And then the sun came out. Quilt picture time!

I've named the quilt the DoublePlusGoodQuilt. Yep.

This link will take you to the first image, in its original size (huge!) in case you want to scroll across the quilt top and see what's going on there.
View it huge!

See if you can spot the fabrics I made or altered--there's an original batik, some potato prints, and some wrong-side out fabrics.

Currently my plan for quilting this is a vertical honeycomb, then binding with yellow. We shall see.

And miles to go before I sleep...under this quilt...

2011-03-04T14:00:00.006-05:00

I like to forget how long it can take to go from finishing quilt blocks to finishing a quilt.

I guess this might take a particularly long time when you start from 100 blocks that are all different heights and widths and not squared up. : )

This is my process…

Step One: Square up the blocks

Step Two: Sort blocks by height

Step Three: Lay out blocks keeping blocks of approximately the same height in the rows together:

Step Four: Label each block with its location in the overall quilt
( I like to use address labels on which I write 1-1 1-2 1-3)

I always mark the end of the row with an extra symbol so that know when I'm done.

I pin the blocks in pairs as I pick them up.

I’m not a big pinner in general, but here it is useful to keep the pair together. Generally, I only put a few pins in each pair, all on the end where I want to start the seam.

For each row, I decide whether I’m going to line up the bottom or the top of the blocks. Because the blocks are not identical heights, rows get squared up after they are joined and having either the top or bottom already straight makes this easier and less wasteful.

Step Five:
Sew and press and sew and press until the rows are complete.

Step Six:
Square up the rows.
Here’s the best way that I have found to do this.

(a) start in the middle of the row. Line up a seam with the lines in the rotary cutting mat.

(b) check the top or bottom (whichever is supposed to already be square) to be sure that it is square. You need it to be square, so even if it is just 1/16” off somewhere, square the whole row again.

(c) With one side totally square, find the shortest block in the row. Start from that block and square up the row. Be precise.

Step Seven
Once all of the rows are squared up, lay them out again. Check that you don’t need to make any rows wider…your quilt is going to be as wide as your narrowest row. Pick the rows up in pairs, deciding whether you are going to join them starting from the left or the right. Varying this will result in a more balanced final quilt. When deciding, I think about which blocks will get cut up and what is going to line up with what.

Join the first pairs of row, then lay the quilt out again. Again, decide whether you are going to join rows from the left or the right.

In this picture, you can see that some rows have been joined starting from the left and some from the right.

As you go through this, you can start cutting off extra width from the rows. I do this by sliding my rotary mat onto the floor under my quilt.

Step Eight
Realize you’re done. Wish it wasn’t raining so that you could take the quilt top out for a proper photograph.

Walking

2011-02-25T14:30:00.001-05:00

Thanks for commiserating with me over my car accident! I am just fine and already 2/3rds done with my shopping list: thread and ibuprofin, not the rather more expensive car. I don't drive to work (I bus or walk) so I am not in a hurry when it come to the car.

Speaking of walking distance…Ann Arbor now has its own branch of the Modern Quilt Guild! And they meet at the Downtown library, which is rather perfectly half-way between my work and home.

I went to the Quilt Guild in Brighton during the summer months, but most of the year I have a scheduling conflict with their Monday meetings (boo…). I'm excited to have a group that's so close to my home and that meets on Wednesdays! I'll probably do both guilds during the summer when my schedule is looser and the days are longer.

It's always fun to go to guild meetings, find out what other people are up to, ask questions, and give advice.

Have you looked at the list of people that took the Process Pledge lately? 547 people! It's more than I can follow on a regular basis, but I had some extra time today and decided to let random.org send me to a few blogs. I looked at quite a few, here are the ones that were posting about their process:

#417 is Seams Sew Creative ... Janice is starting a new quilt soon and will be blogging each step. Sounds awesome!

#436 is Bella Lou who just posted a tutorial for making a lovely cushion cover:

#387 is a photographer and beachcomber: Quercus Design. I love this post about picking up plastic out of a moral obligation and then starting to find it beautiful.

Crash!

2011-02-23T14:00:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year where as soon as I cross one thing off of my to do list, two more get added. So, I've been working 12+ hours a day and struggling not to totally crash out as soon as I get home each night. Luckily, next week is "spring" break at school, so I'll have some more time to myself and I'll be able to do more than work and crash, work and crash.

Speaking of crashing...look what happened to my car!

Poor baby! All he ever did was drive 217,000 in 16 years and be a good handsome boy. And then some silly driver rear-ended him and pushed him into the car he was behind (which hit the next car, which hit the next car.) Oi vey. Luckily no one was hurt. I was a little bit achey the next day, nothing that an ibuprofin wouldn't have taken care of, but the funny thing is, I was on my way to buy some ibuprofin when the crash occurred.

I was also on my way to the fabric store as I needed some more thread...the cross quilt top is almost put together. Once I get my hands on some thread I should be able to finish it up!

That's the shopping list at the moment: car, thread, ibuprofin.

It's making me blue, Pantone 292

2011-02-10T13:00:00.005-05:00

I caught this NPR story on Pantone and the color trends this morning: The Business of Color (give it a listen...very interesting!)

It touched on a couple of things that interest and irritate me:
(1) Is having 1,925 colors a lot? Maybe I'm crazy, but that doesn't seem like very many to me. Of course, I'm a nutter and can look at hundreds of green paint chips and declare them all wrong for my office. It's not a question of not being able to pick: I'm very decisive and I'm looking for something specific that I would be happy to find, but it is not at Sherwin-Williams, Ace, Lowe's or Home Depot I still haven't painted; I'm thinking of going gray, except that seems kind of trendy...which brings me to my next point.

(2) I wish colors weren't so trend-driven. Because of "trends," I either I can't find the color I want (I'm thinking here about clothing and quilting fabrics) or a color I like is everywhere and on everything---making it feel less "mine"---and thus, like what I wear and make is not a form of self-expression, but like some sort of joining/uniform-wearing/exercise in conspicuous consumption.

Sometimes I just avoid color issues entirely...

So, what do you think? Do you like color trends? Does 1,925 Pantone colors seem like a lot or not?

By the way, I'm not actually feeling blue, the title of this post comes from this Magnetic Fields song:

clean leather, moisturized hands

2011-02-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all the recommendations for tins and cases for hand lotion. In the end, I realized that I had some nearly-empty make-up cases that would work perfectly (hooray for the $0.00 solution!)

This jar is light, closes tightly and is the perfect size to slip into my little purse organizer; this little pouch is moved from bag to bag and contains all my essentials--lotion, chap stick, migraine medicine, etc.

Also, the homemade leather cleaner (1 part vinegar, 1 part alcohol, and 2 parts water) worked a charm! It was very easy to use, just rub on with one cloth and off with another.

It's nice to have these things cleaned up and squared away...let's just hope my Green Bay Packers can do the same at the Superbowl. Though, I will love them either way!

So far...

2011-02-01T08:20:00.006-05:00

I've gone from this:

To this:

I find it so useful to stop and lay out blocks and see what's missing and what is too abundant. Based on what I saw here I decided to make the next batch of blocks with very few pieces of the darkest fabrics, focusing on the whites and medium greens and mixing in just a little more yellow. I want this quilt to calm down a little. I'm also going to include some blocks that are half-size or otherwise different from these (not exactly crosses, crosses with borders, etc).

I'm piecing these blocks as leaders-and-enders while working on my cousin's graduation quilt, which seems to be coming along nicely, but is not yet big enough to spread out and assess.

Recipes

2011-01-28T17:11:00.000-05:00

While I can make a great big mess just about as well as anyone, I also have a talent for organization. Sometimes, I try to organize things and the system fails. For example, all the whatzits for my various gadgets...

I have failed a few ways at keeping these organized.

However, I have a recipe organization system that has stood the test of time. It is based on an article I read in Real Simple 5 + years ago. It's buit on binders, sheet protectors, and tape.

To put this system in action, you must first decide what main categories your recipes fall into. Mine are...
pasta
rice
veggie mains
veggie sides
poultry
seafood
soup
salad
sandwich
appetizers
breakfast
drinks
cookies
dessert
breads

For each category, there is a tab and a cover-sheet. The cover sheet is used to write down favorite recipes in books that fit into the category

I made these by sending lined paper through my laser printer.

For loose recipes--things scribbled onto scrap paper, xeroxed from library books, clipped from magazines, or printed from the internet--I slip them into the sheet protectors and file them in the appropriate section.

With smaller recipe cards, I recommend taping them to a colorful sheet of paper.

Now, the Real Simple article recommended using a big binder and adding recipes you hope to try soon. I do not do either of these things. (a) I use a 1.5" inch binder. But I have four of them. And I know which sections are in which because they are different colors. And I keep a list on my fridge.

In my opinion, a bigger binder would just be too cumbersome to whip out and flip through...a few lighter binders is better! Also, (b) I keep recipes I want to try, but have not yet tried in a separate binder (the "fourth" binder). Most of the time, I just want to make stuff I already kind of know how to make, and I don't want to dig past a bunch of recipes to find my "tried and true" recipes. And then there are other times when I'm in the mood for branching out and trying something new, and it is fun to have all of the new ones already in one place.

And by the way, I take the recipes (in their protective sheets) out of the binders when I am making my grocery list for the week. I put them on my clipboard which I keep in the kitchen. I put recipes back in the books--at the beginning of the section--once I have made the dish. It's all pretty seamless and awesome.

Anyway, I was just thinking about the recipe binders today because for the first time in a long time, I need to add a new section: homemade goods.

I've had a homemade deodorant recipe on the fridge for over a year (based on this recipe). And earlier this week, I made spoon oil for my cutting boards (found via Happy Stuff). And today I tested out some handmade leather cleaner (test splotch looks great so far), so, you know, I need to put all these recipes somewhere other than the side of my fridge!

Looking at this picture of the spoon oil reminds me...I need a lightweight little jar or tin to for carrying lotion in my purse. Any recommendations? Something the size of a spools of thread or a matchbox car would be perfect.

questions

2011-01-15T19:30:00.002-05:00

There's a name for this type of food prep where you get all the ingredients ready, arrayed in separate bowls. Someone told me once and I thought I'd committed it to memory, but it isn't in my brain any more. It's one of those phrases like mise en scene, that can't be rediscovered via google.

Anyway, it's been bugging me, anyone know what I'm talking about?

Also, I was wondering is anyone has recommendations for washing wool skirts?
All the skirts I liked in the thrift store today fit me perfectly (when does that happen?) so I find myself with a couple new, woolen skirts that don't have care labels in them.

I googled and found a wide variety of suggestions: from soaking in the bathtub in many changes of water, one of which has vinegar to a pretty standard soak with detergenty water, rinse until free of soap.

I haven't worn wool in the past because gives me a rash if it is in contact with my skin, but these skirts are lined and I'll wear them with tights and long underwear, so I think my skin won't mind them. At $4 each, I figured it was worth a try!

when gold is metallic

2011-01-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

I really enjoy a good screen print. If I can find one that I love, that is in colors that work for me, that is signed and a limited edition and a reasonable price, I buy it. (Boy, that sounds like a lot of qualifications, but being picky saves me money).

During my recent room shuffle, I realized the need to clean out my closets and basement storage. At back of my clothing closet, I found a collection of poster tubes and realized how many prints I had collected, but not framed or displayed. What a waste!

I went through the tubes and selected two prints to buy frames for, then I hopped onto Americanframe.com for some cheap solutions (and free shipping).

These are the prints I was framing. The Decemberists poster is from Cricket Press and is sold out. The New Pornographers print is from Clinton Reno and can be purchased for $20. By the way: the suits look tan in photos, they are metallic. These are two of my favorite bands, my favorite albums from each are The Hazards of Love (Decemberists) and Mass Romantic(The New Pornographers).

For New Pornographers print, I ordered a "German silver" frame to fit the print without mats. It turned out pretty sweet. The German silver matches the suits!

For the The Decemberists poster, I wanted a mat and went through the color options online, ultimately selecting a yellow mat that I was pretty sure would look awesome (I grabbed some yellow fabric from my stash and held it up to the poster and saw that it would *work*!) But...um...I didn't read closely and when the kits arrived, I discovered that what I thought was yellow was actually gold. Totes my fault, by the way, it is called "Golden Nugget" and I do know that metallic rarely show as metallic on the Internet.

There was no way I was going to put a gold mat in a silver frame. No freakin' way.

Also, I knew it would be very pricey to get another mat cut in town. So, I put the frame kit away, complained to people about my problem, and waited for an answer to arrive.

One friend suggested that I spray paint the frame.
Which led me to thinking about painting the mat.
Which led me to buying some paint.
And painting...

And painting...

Until finally...

It came out a bit greener than I intended, but I think it works and it'll be easy enough to reopen the frame and paint again if I decide that's got to happen. I think I've decided to paint my home office gray, not green, so I'll wait for that paint to go up before making a final call.

The whole episode with the hilariously metallic mat reminded me of discharging and dying fabric, which began, of course, when I ordered some pink fabric online and it turned out to be PINK. Sometimes the answer is to whine a bit and then get some supplies and mess around!

The Only Tradition

2010-12-27T17:00:00.004-05:00

During the years I lived in Seattle, when cash was tight and it was hard to get time off of work, I developed the habit of going home for Thanksgiving, but not Christmas. To this day, I'm not interested in celebrating Christmas. Maybe I'll return to it someday when I can find a way to have it be peaceful, thoughtful, and actually reflect the best stuff that Jesus taught (tolerance, championing the poor and oppressed).

As it stands, the only childhood Christmas tradition I've stuck by is making blintzes on Christmas morning. I may have this wrong, but I believe this tradition started sometime in the 1980s, when my Grandma's sister showed up on Christmas morning with a pan full of blintzes. Blueberry and strawberry and raspberry blintzes. Sour cream and cinnamon sugar for the top. Pure joy. Ever after, blintzes were the Christmas morning meal.

For as long as I can remember, my parents were in charge of making the blintzes for the whole extended family (15+ people). My mom, who does not like to cook, but is really good at random tricky kitchen things like béchamel sauces and gravy from scratch, made the crepes. My dad, a brilliant cook who will not bake, made the filling.

When I revived this tradition in my own home, I took out my recipe books and looked for blintz recipes. I couldn't find anything that looked remotely like what I grew up eating. Even looking on the internet, I kept finding recipes that didn't have the same main ingredients. Whither the cottage cheese? The fruit?

I called home, my mom answered. The crepes are made following a recipe in a book. "Just find a crepe recipe in a book. Cook one side, then fill them, cooked-side-in."

She put my dad on to tell me about the filling, "Cottage cheese, egg yolk, softened butter, vanilla, whatever fruit."

"Any measurements for these ingredients, Dad?"

"Two egg yolks. A few pats of butter. Two big tubs of cottage cheese."

"How much fruit?"

"However much you like."

"But what do you do? Roughly the same amount as the cottage cheese?"

"Maybe a little less."

"And you're describing how to make a lot, right? This is for like 30 blintzes?"

"For the whole family. We have a big family."

"Have you ever been interrogated by the police? You'd make an excellent hostile witness."

"I'll get your mother."

: )

Seriously, you'd think I was asking for pass-codes into their back accounts! They are usually such a cheerful people.

Anyway, to save YOU having to call them and ask about this apparently-touchy subject, here's my version of the blintz recipe. This makes about 15 blintzes. In my experience, two blintzes is a meal. You can make these the night before (except for the final fry).

Crepes:
Find a crepe recipe in a book. Cook one side.
I use the basic crepe recipe in How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food
I cook them one at a time.
I use about 4TBS of batter per crepe and I cook them in a stainless steel fry pan, with canola oil sprayed in the pan for each crepe.

Filling:
Combine the following.
1.5 cups of cottage cheese (if it comes out of the tub with a lot of liquid, rest it on paper towel or in a colander for a while, you want it rather dry)
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1 cup frozen blueberries (or raspberries, or chopped strawberries)
0.5 cup raspberry pie filling (or blueberry pie filling or strawberry) canned stuff is great, or prepare your own.

To finish the job:
Spoon the filling onto the cooked side of the crepe.
Fold the crepe around the filling. (My parents do a full wrap, like a burrito; I do a roll, like a taco as it allows for more filling per blintz.)
Set frying pan to low/medium-low.
Melt a bit of butter in the pan.
Add blintzes to pan. The low heat gives you time to heat the filling without burning the crepe. Cook both sides. (Maybe 5 minutes per side)

Serve with sour cream and cinnamon sugar (a mix of white sugar and cinnamon).

Enjoy!

Humpty be Crackin'

2010-12-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

In the end, Humpty got his limbs.

I should explain why I was making a Humpty doll for my little neighbor friend.

It is because of this:

link in case embedded video doesn't work: http://youtu.be/r5idILB-vts

The little guy loves to watch clips on youtube. He knows you can play them over and over and he knows that the little pictures on the sides are other videos you can watch. So, he has a fair amount of control over what he watches, which he enjoys. It's nice for the adults, too, because we can ask Kecky questions about the videos before we replay them "What happened to Humpty?" "Do they fix Humpty?" You know, the sort of stuff that studies show encourages better comprehension of what they are observing.

Also, as soon as Kecky isn't paying much attention to the videos, its easy to redirect him to more active play. If we watch Dora the Explorer or other shows, Kecky seems to feel obliged to hang in there until Dora reaches her final destination even though you can see the little guy is itching to get off the couch and run around. Not a problem he has with books, by the way, which he will listen to for quite long stretches.

One day, after watching the Humpty video, Keckers turned his wee face to me and said "I want to fall. I want to crack." Which, on top of being the funniest utterance ever, led to this whole game where I draw a crack on Keck's forehead, Kecky and I sit on something, sing the song from the video, "fall" off of what we're sitting on, and then lay flat on the floor laughing until we get up and find something else to fall off of.

So, Keckers was turning three and I wanted to make him something, what better than a Humpty Dumpty doll?

Humpty is 100% cotton, his body is made from canvas, which had his face and crack painted on with fabric paint. The canvas seemed likely to fray, so I cut it large enough to incorporate a 1/2-inch seam and I zig-zag stitched the edges before joining the halves.

Humpty's patchwork pants are attached to the canvas base and contain batting. All three layers of the pants were quilted.

The legs, which were giving me trouble at first, finally looked right when I look Cheryl's advice and made them extra long. The limbs are basically just tubes of quilter's cotton. When it came time to sew everything together (following the construction scheme laid out for the cat pattern in Denyse Schmidt Quilts) I went over the bits where the limbs attached a bunch of times.

Which was a good call because when Keckers unwrapped Humpty...

He took a second to look at him, exclaimed, "It's HUMPTY!" Then Kecky took Humpty by the arm, whipped him to the ground, laughed, and said, "Poor Humpty." Next, Keckers looked at me and in all seriousness said, "Rossie, Humpty be crackin'!"

Holy crap that kid is funny.

crash

2010-12-13T08:00:00.003-05:00

sometimes clumsiness

has interesting results

are we there yet?

2010-12-09T18:15:00.002-05:00

Lurky has been plugging away on her quilt.
But, when we spread it out on the floor to see how far she'd come, we were both surprised to discover that she was not so very far along.

Oh well, that's a better problem than not liking what you've made so far, right?

I've been wanting to make more bed-sized quilts, which probably means I'll be confronting this more and more. I finished piecing all of the cross quilt blocks that I had cut (earlier post about this quilt here). I knew I didn't have enough blocks for a twin-sized quilt, but I had guessed that I had half a quilt's worth. Nope, it's a third of a quilt

The idea with the fabric selection here was to make two piles: one from my stash of text fabrics, the other that ranged from orange-to-teal in a way that sort of embodied the colors of copper as it ages. It was a somewhat haphazard fabric selection, so I'm surprised to see how well it is working.

Since this is being pieced as a leaders-and-enders quilt, pressing and cutting are really the only times where I feel like I'm working on it. Usually, it is just the byproduct of the other things I'm doing. Tonight, I'll get some cutting in so I can come out bed-sized.

By the way, I regularly sing the PJ Harvey song, Man-Size with the word man switched out for bed. And then laugh at myself.

This is what I've actually been working on: a humpty-dumpty stuffyfor my neighbor's soon-to-be-three-year-old.

I can't decide if Humpty needs legs.
The mock-up I made had legs, but I'm kind of digging him limbless.
He is an egg after all.

mug painting

2010-11-30T09:15:00.005-05:00

I finished off that messy mug...

I like it!
I have painted mugs before...

Flickr tells me these "craft night" pictures are from April 2009. I don't remember where i first learned of this paint, Pebeo Porcelaine 150, but once I saw it, I knew I had to try it! You can buy it online at Dick Blick, and they usually have it at Michaels if you have one of those shops in your town.

It is really easy to work with, just paint it onto ceramic or glass or metal, let it dry for 24 hours, then bake it for 35 minutes to make it permanent.

There are a lot of colors and you can mix the colors, but I have had a lot of fun with just three colors (coral red, sapphire blue, abyss black) and minimal mixing. Three little pots have painted more than 15 mugs and there's still plenty of paint left!

My craft night mugs have been in heavy rotation for 18 months and the paint job is holding up remarkably well. Only one shows some chipping. Some of my favorites from the first round are mugs where I took an existing patterned mug and added color and print to it.

Doing this means I can buy thrift-store or TJMaxx mugs I like the shape and weight of even if I find them a bit ugly or dull. Then, I paint them to suit my fancy. I had three such mugs that I did up this time around.

I also painted up a little sugar bowl and its lid. I was thinking blood cells, can you tell?

The sugar bowl now lives in my office. I'm forever emptying my wallet of change and needed somewhere cute to stick those nickels and dimes!

pass the puppy

2010-11-28T22:00:00.002-05:00

My younger brother got a puppy. Her name is Olive.
If you haven't heard from me this week, it is because I have been playing pass the puppy.

Or I've been at the fabric store (look, a shop with solids!)

Or, I've been out lunching with fellow-blogger Anna of noodlehead (she lives in my hometown).

Or, I've been spoiling my parents' 17-year-old cat, Macky. Full name: Makanaki, after the soccer player because she used to dribble golf balls like soccer balls.

In the words a high-school friend "THAT CAT IS STILL ALIVE!?!?!?" ha ha ha. Macky has barely slowed down.

I did pick a winner for the thermofax screen, Laura, who said, "Less than a year ago, I dyed my first fabric with Procion MX dyes--and have been totally addicted since then." Check your email, Laura!

And since she mention Procion MX dye I wanted to point out that you could use the Thermofax screen with thickened Procion dye (try sodium alginate or superclear).

Thanksgiving is coming!

2010-11-20T13:48:00.000-05:00

I love me some American Thanksgiving. Food and football. And, if I can make it work, a week in Wisconsin. This year, I extra-'specially made it work and am currently on my first of nine days in my home state. I'm ready for a whole lot of beer, cheese, and football. : )

Thanks for your kind comments on the fabric and my toy box doodle.

If you'd like a screen in this design, it is now available in Lynn's shop!

The $5 mini screen is the scale I used on the fabric and mug in the previous post (5.75" x 4"). The $9 option is larger (8" x 5.75").

Lynn was thankful that I spread the thermofax love and she emailed me to say that she'd like to offer a giveaway to my blog readers! Sound good?

Here's what you can win: one thermofax screen (any size, any design, including your own doodle) and one bottle of Simply Screen paint (any color listed in the shop).

To enter, name one crafty thing you discovered this year that you are thankful for. I'll pick a winner on Friday.

screen-printed fabric and ceramics

2010-11-14T11:00:00.000-05:00

I love hand-printed fabric and purchase it from various etsy sellers on a regular basis. Current favorites are this and this and this.

Much as I love hand-printed fabric, I have never screen-printed fabric myself. So, even though I knew that Lynn (firbraartysta) made custom screens at a very reasonable price, I didn't immediately have it in mind to order one from her UNTIL I realized that her thermofax screens are flexible and I might be able to wrap them around ceramics and print on ceramics. I hand-painted some mugs last year and loved the process and results. (If you want to see thermofax screens, with an explanation, check out Lynn's shop and YouTube channel.)

Well, I asked Lynn about printing on ceramics at a Modern Quilt Guild meeting and she had never tried it, but because the ceramics paint that I have (Pebeo Porcelaine) is water-based, she thought it might work. She generously offered to send me a screen so that I might experiment. With in a couple of days, I had emailed her this doodle:

Which is based on this 1950s textile:

Except I was trying to have the shapes look less like windows and more like vintage Fisher Price Little People character silhouettes.

When the screen arrived, I tried it out on fabric first, to make sure I understood the technique.

Easy peasy!

I printed up a bunch of blue and yellow for my Grandma's quilt in no time!

If I had planned ahead at all, I could have had a much cleaner repeat, but I wasn't in the mood for fastidiousness, so there are some gappy bits.

Results in using the screen with Pebeo Porcelaine onto ceramics were mixed. I simply could not get a clean print onto my mug:

This is the best I could do. The problem here is NOT the paint or the screen, rather it is the fact that the mug is a very hard surface that curves. Luckily, you can wash the Pebeo Porcelaine off and try again, so I was able to try multiple times to get something I liked. This is the best I could do and getting this involved using a lot of tape to hold the screen in place on the mug, printing a tiny bit, moving the screen and printing another tiny bit. Not a fun process and not really the result I wanted. Oh well.

Using the same paint and screen, I was able to get a clean print onto a 100% flat surface:

So, I guess that if I wanted to print onto FLAT plates I could. It's much more likely that I'll be printing some more fabric however, now that I've begun, I'm hooked!

w i n n e r

2010-11-08T08:07:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Kirsty @ Bonjour!

Your number came up!

Check your email!

Blog Tour - The Practical Guide to Patchwork

2010-11-02T07:00:00.022-04:00

I really like this book. In some ways this is not surprising, I've been a long time admirer of Elizabeth Hartman's work and when we've had the chance to swap emails--usually because i wanted a pattern or two for a giveaway in the Fresh Modern Quilts flickr group--she's always been prompt and kind and sincere, a voice that comes through clearly in this book.

But in some ways it is surprising that i enjoyed reading this book as much as i did: on the grand spectrum of quilting, the quilts in this book seem to mix the brighter fabrics available today with blocks that are fairly traditional (equal sizes, usually gridded and surrounded by sashing) without pulling much more in. While i have a deep love for some of Elizabeth's quilts (this and this and this), the patterns in this book didn't shake me up me the way that those one's did. I think the reason for this lies in something Elizabeth spoke of earlier on the blog tour, “I started planning the quilts for the book with a checklist of design elements, both conventional and modern, that I wanted to include. Writing the patterns for the book was, to a certain extent, designing patterns around the items on that checklist."

If I think of these quilts as teaching exercises, the fact that none of the individual quilts takes my breath away makes sense. I've been looking at Elizabeth's quilts for years now and can usually spot one of hers the second it shows up on flickr...if she wrote the book to communicate each of the skills and aesthetics she finds fundamental, then of course they look quintessentially and unsurprisingly like her work. Duh, me, duh!

At any rate, I highly recommend this book. Pages 25-44, Step-by-Step Quilt Construction, are worth the purchase price of this book alone. I have a copy of one of Elizabeth's first patterns, which I keep in my sewing desk because it has become my go to reference for quilt construction (I regularly forget how to sew on binding). Now, I'll keep this book in my desk, too.

Typically, i wish quilting books and magazines would LEAVE OUT the construction section...I think should be their own "101" books and not included in every gosh darn quilting book (often in tiny font, with few pictures, taking up space where another quilt could be shown!) But step-by-step construction is what Elizabeth does best, so i am glad she allotted many pages to this!

With holiday season coming I think this book would make a great present for oneself or any quilter or would-be quilter on your gift list. It doesn't cover all of what I would consider modern basics--Elizabeth doesn't do improv piecing, and there isn't much play with negative space--but it does cover a lot and it covers it well. It's a heckuva lot better that the introductory quilting books I consulted when I began quilting!

In point of fact, if I were giving a gift to a new quilter, The Practical Guide to Patchwork would go in the gift box with a sample of some fabulous fabrics.

Today, one lucky winner--new to quilting or not--has the chance to win those gifts, provided by the lovely Elizabeth Hartman herself! To enter, comment on this post with an answer to the following question: what is one thing every new quilter needs to know?

I will pick a winner on the 7th.

For more chances to win, check out the rest of the blog tour:

October 27th – Sew, Mama, Sew!
October 28th – Film in the Fridge
October 29th – I Heart Linen
October 30th – Tallgrass Prairie Studio
October 31st – Handmade by Alissa
November 1st – Connecting Threads
November 3rd – One Shabby Chick
November 4^th – True Up
November 5^th – Pink Chalk Studio
November 6th – Whip Up

And of course, you can follow Elizabeth on her blog, Oh, Fransson!

wabi sabi

2010-10-29T11:02:00.001-04:00

If you've been here long, you'll know I find this concept fascinating and helpful as I think about my quilts. Whole Living has an article on Wabi Sabi this month (thanks to Pat Sloan for pointing this out!) Luckily, the text is available online (click here).

I don't agree with everything that Roberts says. As one commenter on the article wrote, the article has some half-truths and misunderstandings, such as when Roberts suggests that failing to clean up after her child is wabi sabi. The commenter says, "clean the fingerprints and, as you do, appreciate the uneven texture of the wall. Then you will be practicing wabi sabi. Leave the dirt on your wall and you are simply making an excuse for laziness." I agree.

Also, Roberts's assertion that, "Nothing about nature is linear or symmetrical or impervious to decay," makes me think she failed a lot of science classes.

Regardless, it is an interesting read.

To me, wabi sabi cannot result from laziness or neglect or a desire to be imperfect, but rather a different way of thinking about what perfect is and a desire to work with nature rather than against it.

To me, the shed above is not wabi sabi, it is run down. But imagine if the boarded up windows were given new glass and the flora was trimmed back...then the variations in the tin and the slight waver in the roofline would be beautiful and the shed would be wabi sabi.

I have looked at the books mentioned in the article, including Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers and The Wabi-Sabi House though I prefer this children's book Wabi Sabi and have been trying to sort out what book or articles (if any) they use in Japanese Studies programs because I suspect that they wouldn't have the weird Western framing that continually makes false binaries of perfect/imperfect maintained/neglected symmetrical/natural.

What’s cooking?

2010-10-27T17:26:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the Hash Brown Casserole recipes!
I was astounded to see what goes into those things: most have several kinds of cheese + sour cream + butter + condensed soup. I’m too cheap and calorie-phobic to follow these recipes! I’m going to experiment with a roux to see if I can make a healthier, cheaper casserole. I’ll report back.

Lurky came over to work on her quilt, started back in March. Why has it been so long? Well, Lurky is a bit of a world-traveler and spent the summer in Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, then returned stateside just to find herself with wedding after wedding to attend. But, she’s finally back to living like a (relatively) normal person, so on Saturday she came over to my house to work on her quilt.

Since I’ve discovered that it isn’t possible to share the sewing machine, ironing board, and cutting board, I had set another project for myself: switching the rooms around in my apartment.

You see, I really want to move, but I get a great deal on this place and don’t expect to be in this city much longer, so the best financial decision is to stay put. However, as much as I know I can’t afford to move this year, I was still desperate for a big change in my living environs, so I decided to swap the office and the living room.

So, now my office is going to be in the middle of the house and the living room at the front. This is the desk in its new location.

In its new location, the living room has a perfect spot for a design wall—previously, a heating vent was set to cause trouble!

In the “new” office, I’ve resolved to paint the walls. These walls were white when I moved in, then purple for a few years, then I covered them in whatever I could find in the basement when I tired of the purple (ceiling paint mixed with ? cup of the latte color from the “new” living room.) I’m thinking I’ll go with green next. Any votes on these colors?

Okay, back to Lurky, look what she brought me from Indonesia!
Tjanting tools for batik!

Lurks took a class on batik in Indonesia and when she said she wanted to buy supplies to take home, she was put on the back of a moped and taken out into the countryside, where she purchased these tools directly from the guy that made them. Awesome, right? There are three different sizes of opening for making lines, dots, and fills. I’m excited to try them out!

It worked really well to have Lurky sewing in the kitchen while I moved furniture around because she now has the basics down and just needs occasional reminders/consultations. And since I took frequent breaks for chatting and tea, we kept each other company pretty seamlessly.

Slowly but surely, Lurks is making a fabulous quilt! If she's lucky, I'll have the sewing stuff and design wall set up in the living room soon...she's about ready to put these blocks together!

Nashville

2010-10-21T09:46:00.000-04:00

My friend D-Bomb moved to Nashville earlier this year and I took advantage of a two-day break in classes to visit him.

Seeing as he's been a craft-night attendee many times over, I insisted that we craft at some point over the weekend. On Saturday night, we went to All Fired Up! and painted some pottery. You can bring beer and snacks!

I have to say, while painting pottery was never on my bucket list, I had a great time picking colors and a bowl to paint and putting it all together. The bowl is still in Nashville getting fired, which will make the colors look like their proper selves (it is supposed to be orange, not peach!) and once it goes through the kiln, the bowl will be all shiny and happy.

D-Bomb made this:

Because D-Bomb is all about the maize and blue...

We did some other artsy stuff. We went to see the Chihuly exhibit at Cheekwood.

And we went to a small town craft fair. I bought only a jar of Pumpkin Butter at the fair. At another booth, I had found a gorgeous print, but felt compelled to put it back when I saw that the vendor was also selling the Confederate Battle Flag. Now, I know it is impossible to say definitively what a symbol--particularly such a widespread symbol--means, but why, given that it means treason or racism to so many, would anyone want to peddle that particular symbol? Needless to say, I had some "oh, I guess I'm a Yankee" moments while in Tennessee. But, I also had a really great time and ate more than my share of Southern Food. New favorite: Hash Brown Casserole. When I find the right recipe, I'll let you know.

I did eventually procure a lovely print. D-Bomb and I went to Hatch Show Print for some letterpress goodness.

I got a print that says "Party this way" with a picture of a pointing hand. I'm going to frame it and put in my office, pointing to my bookshelf because I'm Just. That. Nerdy.

Also, we went to a fabric store for like 10 minutes one morning. I'm making a maize and blue quilt for my Grandma because (a) she's awesome (b) she loves those Michigan Wolverines and (c) she has moved to an assisted living facility--something that has been long overdue--and amongst the few things she has with her are every handmade thing I've made for her in the last few years. Aw, Grandma!

So, I was on a maize and blue fabric mission and found some beautiful out-of-print maizes!

Random treasures are the best reason to pop into fabric stores when you are out of town. I even found some Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric at half price (and that stuff is hard to find at full price!)

Anyway, I've still got a ways to go on the maize and blue fabrics, so if anyone can think of fabric lines to look for online, please let me know. I've visited the local shops and used the sort-by-color function at the online stores that have it, but that's only turned up a few prints, so recommendations are appreciated. I want to get the hue right, but value can and should vary. That Moon Pie pictured above has the right hues.

Alrighty, back to work for me!

Bean Bags

2010-10-14T19:00:00.000-04:00

Almost everyone who comes into my office asks about my little pile of bean bags.

These little beauties are an essential piece of my ability to stay organized.

Since my job requires me to tackle several large projects at once, working on each one separately and incrementally, I often have about six piles of papers and books going. When I put a bean bag on top of a pile, it is like putting a lid on the project for the time being. And having the bean bag on top of the pile stops me from adding random things (the mail, things from other projects, etc) to the stack. Sometimes I add a post-it note next to the bean bag to remind myself what comes next in the project. I almost always move the stack to an open piece of shelf so that I can have a clean desk, which helps me to focus.

Want to make some? Here's how I do it:

1. Round up some scraps of fabric.

2. Iron the fabric. with bigger scraps, fold them in half length-wise, right-sides together, and press the fold. with smaller scraps, pair them up and pin the right-sides together.

3. Trim the fabrics down to something rectangular. If you are using lighter weight fabrics (voile, some chambrays) you may want to double-up the fabric or cut a piece of muslin to the same size to use as a liner. If you wanted to use the bean bags in a "toss" game or let a shild play with them, I would definitely double-up the fabric.

4. Sew around the edges of the fabric as in the picture below, taking extra care with the corners and leaving a 1" opening.

5. Press the seam on the side with the opening open. This will help you get a neat edge in step 8.

6. Turn the bags right-side out, gently push out the corners (I use a pointy chopstick).

7. Fill with dry bean or rice.

8. Hand-stitch the bean bag closed.

9. Enjoy!

Eggplant Parmesan

2010-10-06T08:00:00.004-04:00

I love fall for many things, amongst them: I consider it the season of eggplant parmesan.

Why? Because it is cold enough that you don't might turning on the oven.
And its warm enough that grilling eggplant outside is still pleasant.
And eggplant is still readily available, as are decent tomatoes.

The eggplant parmesan that I grew up eating was nothing like lasagna, so I am always surprised when I see eggplant parmesan served in dense slices, smothered in red sauce. This is how I picture eggplant parmesan:

I make eggplant parmesan following a recipe that my dad has always used. Though, it should be said, he microwaves, then slices and fries his eggplant, whereas I just slice it and grill it. I love the taste of eggplant off of the charcoal grill, plus it is less fatty to prepare it that way. In addition, I like to grill bread (pizza crust really) to serve at the meal, so I do use up the charcoal. Plus, I have one of those cheap charcoal chimneys that makes it easy-peasy to get the grill going.

Back to the bread: do you see that liquid in the pan above? It is one of the best tasting things ever, and having fresh bread to soak it up is heavenly. I use this pizza dough recipe.

As for the eggplant parmesan recipe? I've got that right here...

Eggplant Parmesan
adapted from "The Paupers Cookbook" and Rossie's Dad

Ingredients:
5 large ripe tomatoes
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
salt
black pepper
2 medium eggplants
1 pound mozzarella***
Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

Instructions:

(start the grill, preheat the oven to 325)

1. Slice eggplants into 1/2-inch thick rounds, brush with olive oil. Grill both sides until cooked through and slightly browned.

2. Wash, seed, and finely dice the tomatoes. Drain in a colander for 20 minutes.

3. Remove tomatoes to a large bowl and mix with basil leaves, garlic, 3 tablespoons olive oil, one teaspoon salt, and one teaspoon pepper.

4. Spread half the tomato mix in the bottom of a lasagna pan. Then use all the eggplant to make the next layer. Top eggplant with slices of mozzarella cheese. Lastly, spread the remaining tomato mix on top.

5. Bake at 325 for 45 mins. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

***I think this might be really good with ½ ricotta or feta and ½ mozzarella, including a layer of mozzarella on top to get all crispy and brown.

Look mom, long arm!

2010-10-02T19:00:00.002-04:00

I was originally scheduled to have my first long arm lesson at the end of August. Because of my dog's illness, I wasn't able to attend on the scheduled day. The folks at Monarch Quilts were very understanding and I took my lesson on Friday.

As it turns out, half of the lesson is spent learning how to mount the quilt onto the frame. I guess that makes sense, since you don't have to baste the thing!

In the above picture, I'm stitching using a pantograph. Basically, after putting everything into position, you stand behind the machine, and look at a laser which is pointed at your pantograph (circled in red below). You trace the design on the pantograph with the laser.

Once I've got the hang of using the machine with pantographs I will take a lesson on doing free-motion quilting on the machine. When you free-motion quilt, you use the handles circled in green below and actually get to look at the needle and the quilt-top as you go.

This is what I really want to do, since (a) I usually prefer quilting that has a relationship to the patchwork, rather than an all-over design and (b) every pantograph I've seen is way too smooth and cute for my taste. I can deal with it for the time being...maybe...or maybe I'll draw my own wabi sabi pantograph.

I will definitely be needing some practice. Here's my progress so far:

You can see that I'm twitchy and tense!
I did 6 short rows in total, this is part of the 5th and 6th. I improved a bit.

Monarch Quilts provided the fabric and let me take it home in order to get more pictures, then bind it. It will be going to Project Linus or a similar charity.

I did not choose the fabric, but at least I got to pick a binding that makes it a little more cheerful.

how to make the shirt

2010-09-30T20:00:00.001-04:00

this one:

which I usually wear like this...

because I love a long layer on the bottom of my top and a forgiving layer, too!

or you can reuse an existing t-shirt to make something like this:

by cutting up an old t-shirt that is several sizes too big.

first of all, find a couple of shirts that fit your in the way you want your new shirt to fit.
You can grab measurements from a different shirts, just lay them flat and slap a ruler on them.
What you need are approximately "right" measurements for your shoulders, hips, the length of the shirt, and the size of the opening for your arms.

measurement	referred to as...	if you wanted to make me a shirt**
width at shoulders	A1	17"
width at hips	B	18"
length down back	C	28"
size of opening for arms	D	8"
add 5" or more to A1	A2	23"

**I'm usually a US size 10 and have more shoulder and a longer torso than most women.

Here are the two pieces of fabric you need to cut:

Fabric:
I have made this from oversized t-shirts and from knit yardage. The plain green shirt is made from a knit with a bit of weight and a fair amount of spandex. I found it at my local JoAnn's.
I really like this fabric.

As the other pictures show, I have also made this shirt from old over-sized t-shirts. These are fun and more casual. Be sure you start with a large enough t-shirt (the A2 measurement in particular can cause trouble.)

To Construct Shirt:
1. Pin the "right-sides" of the front and back together. Pin the sides together, starting from the bottom, stopping "D" inches from the top. Make a 1/4" or 3/8" seam up the sides. Be sure to backstitch at the top and bottom of your seam.

2. Turn the shirt right-side out. Now, you are going to join the shoulders. With the front of the shirt facing you, match up the end of each shoulder (the outside corners of the top of each piece), overlap the front of the shirt slightly over the back and stitch the shoulder together (about 3" width of overlap)

Yes, you are making a half-exposed seam.

That's all! Make 'em, wear 'em, sell 'em, & generally do what you will!

magazines and radio and jeans

2010-09-19T15:40:00.002-04:00

Dudes...there's a link to my blog in the new issue of Stitch! : )

Also, I'm going to be on Pat Sloan's Creative Talk Network tomorrow (Monday, September 20th). The show airs at 4pm EST here: http://toginet.com/shows/creativetalkradio I'm the second guest, so you'll hear me right around 4:30.

You can catch the show live or listen to it after the fact (it is recorded and you can play it on your computer or download it to a player.) There will also be a giveaway of some of my plexi shapes on Pat's blog, enter by Friday @ noon: http://www.patsloan.typepad.com

And here I was just minding my own business making things with cloth and running my mouth about processes and mutants and such. Hmmm. I wonder if I can parlay this into free beer. ; ) Probably not. : (

My jeans...want to see them?

Here they are. I've spent most of the day dyeing some fabrics (blue, actually, all the pink is from an old, messy day). I had to stop by my office to finish up some things since the ol' home computer is still not cooperting fully (stupid virus). Its funny to be in these pants in this place.

Anyway, a tutorial on some new dye stuff will be posted soon. I've been playing with a new book and some cotton of an interesting texture...must share!

Edited to add:

A few links to stuff we talked about in the interview:

Where to go for the giveaway: Pat's Blog
A clip of Malka Dubrawsky explaining itajime shibori: Quilting Arts clip
Simply Robin explains flat dyeing: Flat Dyeing
The process pledge: The Process Pledge
Video of my lecture on modern quilting: Modern Quilting, Mutant Quilting lecture
Cheryl Arkinson (Naptime Quilter) on modern quilts as throwback quilts: Throwback Quilts
The flickr group: Fresh Modern Quilts

Where am I?

2010-09-16T16:27:00.000-04:00

Well, first I was traveling a bit to see Elle get married...very cool wedding.

Then, I started a new job...very time consuming! Does anyone know how to add hours to the day or days to the week?

Lastly, my computer got whomped by one heck of a virus. Just when I think I've eliminated it...it comes back with a vengeance! I have high hopes for a new virusbuster a friend gave me...we'll see, I've already tried two!

In the meantime, photos from my trip to Chicago...

Modern Quilting Lecture

2010-09-03T21:16:00.000-04:00

The video is live! Check it out over here: http://vimeo.com/14680699

Here's what the page looks like:

Sexy, no?

Here's the description:
This lecture on modern quilting describes my journey as well as giving the lay of the modern-quilting land. I cover what I see as some key aesthetics of modern quilts, I ponder the appropriateness of the term "modern" as it applies to quilts, and generally get nerdy on a number of topics that relate---in my brain, anyway--to modern quilting. Among them: wabi sabi, simultaneity, linen clocks, and Bewitched.

Many thanks to Running With Scissors for inviting me to lecture. Also, to the wonderful audience! Please excuse the soft background noise, it's the building's ventilation system. Also, I'm sorry that I appear in outline most of the time, the priority was on the attendees being able to see me and see the slides; this didn't always read well on the camera.

A note to parents: there is one minor swear word in here, right after I talk about elephants. You'll know that it's coming. :)

While in the original keynote presentation, the credits for all photographs were visible, that is not always the case in the video. Thus, to do my due diligence to copyright, allowing anyone who sees the video to follow any of the examples to their originators, you can check out these flickr galleries, which contain the source images:
flickr.com/photos/rossiebug/galleries/72157624748961179/
flickr.com/photos/rossiebug/galleries/72157624873540454/

Please feel free to link to this video from your own sites.

I don't know if it is just finally getting this edited and up, or the fact that it is finally Friday, or the fact that I'm off on a mini-break to see Elle get married (!!!) but I'm very cheerful today! Yay!

Thanks

2010-09-01T21:00:00.000-04:00

Thank you all for your support. Losing my dog was rough, but it helps to know that people understand. Also, it makes me happy to know that so many of you have pets that you love as much as I did my dear Buzz. So many lucky little furry creatures!

I've been able to spend more time at home this week, adjusting to the silence without getting upset. As such, I've was able to finish latest block for the Mid Mod Bee. This is for Jess:

I made this block for a charity project for the Brighton Modern Quilt Guild:

And a few more kelp quilt strips came in the mail, making it more and more fun to look at the clothesline strung behind my bed.

Mmmmm....kelp.

I love having these out where I can see them. It started as a way to keep them from being crushed, but now I think I'm going to set up a permanent design wall in my living room. Also, I start a full time job next week and its going to necessitate me crafting in dribs and drabs, rather than in lengthy sessions. I think having a design wall will keep the dribs and drabs coming quickly.

Can anyone comment on the relative effectiveness of flannel vs. quilt batting? I want the blocks/fabric to stick to that wall and not go floating off behind the couch.

Sad News

2010-08-29T20:14:00.000-04:00

After a brief but painful illness, my dog was put to sleep on August 21st.
Buzz was only four and is dearly missed.

I've been doing alright, mostly due to my amazing friends who have kept me busy all week. I can't imagine life without pets, I've rarely been without one, but some parts are really hard.

bizzzayyyy

2010-08-19T00:04:00.001-04:00

I have been busy, busy, busy lately.

Mostly with good stuff:

...getting ready to teach a couple of new courses in the fall involves a lot of prep work, but I get to lead a seminar on a topic dear to my brain, so that's awesome!

...friends are throwing parties like there's no tomorrow and I cannot resist pools, BBQs, kayaks, blueberry picking, going to the theater, or even Karaoke.

...people are getting married and otherwise doing stuff that involves me planning trips to Nashville, Chicago, and Kansas City for September and October.

Oh, and remember this?

My lecture?

I gave it.
And I videotaped it.
And I will get the video online soon.

lights, action, CAMERA!

2010-08-12T00:30:00.003-04:00

Yep, it happened! I got a new camera!

Thanks so much to everyone who ordered from the shop during the sale. I couldn't have done it without you. Between what I had saved and what I made on the sale, I could have replaced my Rebel XT with something comparable (the Rebel XS or XSi, they don't make the XT anymore). But, I've been feeling the limits of the XT for a while now, and had been saving in part so that I could upgrade to something with a little more power. Specifially: the.Canon EOS Rebel T1i. I wanted video. More auto-focus points. The ability to use the LCD on the back as the viewfinder. So, still no need for a professional SLR, but a little upgrade!

Being short a few hundred smackeroos, I was feeling angsty and indecisive over whether I could wait a few months to earn the cash for the upgrade or if I should just buy the replacement that I could already afford. I was actually kind of suffering (so dramatic!) and then telling myself to stop being a spoiled brat about it (there are wars! very bad diseases! people are going hungry! stop whining about a stupid camera!)

Thankfully, when I complained to a friend about my (a) camera predicament and (b) having to live with my own brattishness, she pointed out that since there was a $100 rebate that was going to expire on July 31 the only reasonable solution was to ask my parents to celebrate Christmas in July. Honestly, I think the last time I asked my parents for money was in 1997 when I needed a refill on my campus cash for dormitory food. Ha! As it turns out, my dad was more than happy to buy me half-a-camera for Christmas, six months early. Yay for dads! I kind of went "full brat," what with asking my daddy for money, but I seem to have it out of my system now. I certainly hope so, I was insufferable. Barf.

I haven't had much time to play with the new camera as yet, but I did pick up a UV filter for the lens that came in the kit (a UV filter protects the lens and the camera, I have one on each of my lenses).

I went an appliance shop in town that has photography gear only to discover that they eliminated that section a couple of years ago. This meant that I had to hop one town west to get the filter. Not a big deal except that the camera store in Dexter is one of my favorite places in the world and VERY DANGEROUS to my wallet. They have bins and bins of used gear that I love digging through.

There is a $10 Polaroid land camera in this pile. I kid you not.

I managed to resist the land camera and bought only this vintage Gossen Super Pilot light meter ($2) and the necessary filter ($19). I don't know if the light meter works or not--I'll need to get a battery and try it out--but I figure it will make a super-sweet paperweight if nothing else.

Or I could pretend it is a truth-meter and point it at the unwary.

And then tell them, "f-stop lying!"

Thanks all for the compliments on the green shirt. I made an upcycled version and it came out pretty well.

I will post an directions on how to do these sometime in the coming week. But to answer some of your questions: no, I do not have a serger, I just used a straight stitch on my regular sewing machine. The first green shirt is made from fabric I got on sale from Jo-Ann's. That fabric has quite a bit of spandex in it, so its clingy and has a weight to it. The t-shirt above is made from 100% cotton, so it's a bit easier to wear, though I don't like the neckline quite as much with this fabric...something that might be fixable in the pattern, I'm going to see with the next one I make!

green shirt

2010-08-08T12:40:00.003-04:00

I'm rarely sew clothing and success when doing so is elusive, but a few weeks ago, when JCasa posted a free pattern for a boatneck shirt I gave it a try.

I made a muslin (a practice shirt) and it was pretty easy to stitch up, but when I put on the muslin, it was totally unflattering. I just don't have the right body type for it.

This is a picture from the pattern.

I think this model looks lovely, but looking at this picture now, I can see why this shirt wouldn't look good on me. I have a long torso. My shoulders and hips are broad. As such, putting a balloon of fabric from my shoulders to hips not only emphasizes the widest parts of my body, it hides the narrowest parts, and it points out my disproportionately long torso.

My mom, by the way, has a short torso, so she's about 1 inch shorter than me when we are standing at about 4 inches shorter than me when we are sitting. It's hilarious.

Anyway, I must have filed away some of the information gained by trying to make the shirt, because a week later, I realized that I could probably accomplish something that would be flattering if I just changed a few things about the pattern. I decided to try and make a shirt that was halfway between JCasa's Undaunted pattern (pictured above) and this store-bought black shirt which I've owned for a few years.

The key: buying some stretchy t-shirt fabric & relaxing the neckline.
The result was pretty great if I do say so myself!

This is the first one I made. It's a bit too small around, making it obvious when I've had a big lunch (or, you know, a summer of big lunches). Today, I'm going to see if I can find big t-shirts at Value World and then make some shirts that are a little bit looser and say funny stuff!

I'm out of pins.

2010-08-05T20:30:00.007-04:00

I decided to do a leaders-and-enders quilt with liberated plus/cross blocks.
I did a lot of cutting the other night resulting in a few trays like this sitting next to my sewing machine.

I use pins as markers as well at to hold sets together. Each block has 10 pins in it in stage one. Hence, no pins in the pin-cushion!

If you haven't seen the tutorial for liberated cross quilts at Lollyquiltz, you should check it out.
She made this stunning quilt using her method:

That is one of my favorite quilts that I've seen on flickr/the blogosphere all year!

The method I use for constructing the crosses is very similar to what Carla (Lollyquilts) recommends.

I got through a few of the leaders-and-enders as I made this block for the Common Threads quilt bee:

Sarah asked for texture and pops of color. I may have gone overboard on both counts, but I had fun!

I was going to buy some more pins today, but the quilt shop didn't have rainbow ones. I need a variety of colors for my method (umm...it involves color-coding). But, at the thrift store across the street, I found the prettiest pyrex in the world, so I went home happy.

Tomorrow, pins!

sunshine + fabric

2010-08-03T12:20:00.001-04:00

You know how they say you should store your fabrics and quilts out of the sunlight? Well, let me provide a brief illustration of what happens when you expose your fabric to a whole lot of sunlight!

The closet in which I keep my clothes has a window. A south-facing window (LOTS of intense light).

When I first moved into this apartment, I knew that I needed to put in a curtain to block the sun. I ended up using a bit of quilting fabric.

After five years, this is what the fabric looks like:

Buzz's paw is on the part of the fabric that hangs below the window, protected by the wall. The bleached out bit is from the sun! Can you believe it? This is Michael Miller fabric, so this is not happening because the fabric is low in quality. It's actually pretty fascinating what is bleached out and what remains.

The fabric feels the same in both portions. I couldn't tear either part or cause the threads to separate or fray by scratching. Who knows what the underlying issues might be, though.

Can you imagine if this fabric was part of a big stash that had been folded and stashed in a sunny place?
That could be truly, epically bad!
If you have a sunny sewing room (I have a dim corner or an office!) Get doors for your shelves or a cabinet or something.

Or you might end up making sad faces like Buzz Buzz Full of Fuzz!

on the grill

2010-08-02T01:33:00.003-04:00

I didn't get much time on the sewing machine this week. If fact, I think the only things I made were a few bean bags to use as little tailor's hams. Oh, and I needed them because I was cutting into this huge length of jersey to make a shirt. A shirt which I have failed to take picture of, even though I've worn in three times this week. Despite being made using an existing shirt as a model, the new shirt is actually a bit small across my stomach. I've been eating far too much food. Delicious, grilled food. I love the foods of summer. And grilling just makes them all better.

Given that I don't eat most meats--and rarely eat the meats that I do eat--people are surprised at how often I grill. But grill I do. All summer long. Grilled veggies are just so delicious. Amazingly wonderful.

I keep garlicky yogurt in the fridge. It's a few cloves of garlic minced and stirred into plain yogurt, greek yogurt, or even sour cream. It gets more potent (i.e. BETTER) as time wears on. Yum. I put garlicky yogurt on almost every vegetable I grill. It adds a little bit of fat to the meal (which not only helps me to feel full, but is, I believe, good for vitamin absorption.)

Grilled eggplant is probably my favorite. I just slice the eggplant about 3/4-inches thick, use a pastry brush to cover the slices in balsamic vinegar and olive oil and then stick them on the grill for about 5 minutes on each side, re-basting with the vinegar and oil before flipping.

This is the eggplant before it went on the grill. I usually take it off when it is ever-so-slightly burnt. FYI: blackened vegetables are safe to eat, charred meat is carcinogenic.

My second favorite grilled food is pizza.

That's eggplant, green olives, provolone and parsley (not yet cooked).
You can find the recipe over here.

My good friend K came over to help me eat the pizza. He brought with him some vegetables that his mother had made. I've been begging K to introduce me to his mom since the first time I ate some of her food. I want her to teach me to make vegetables the way she makes vegetables.

On pizza night, K brought this rice/leeks/carrots thing that seriously blew my mind. I'm not sure that this, or any, picture can do this food justice. It tastes so freakin' good. And it is meant to be served cold, making it perfect for sack lunches. And it's healthy. I could go on.

Anyway, since I've been asking for five years to be this lady's vegetable apprentice, and it hasn't happened, I finally broke down and researched some Turkish cookbooks. I was surprised to find that Turkish food is often folded into either Mediterranean or Middle Eastern cookbooks and based on the reviews, I've requested this book for the library.

So, I'll be able to try some recipes out soon. But if anyone has personal recommendations of cookbooks with delicious Turkish vegetable recipes, please let me know!

more fun with markers

2010-07-25T22:11:00.002-04:00

[ the sale in the shop continues...thanks for the orders so far!]
[ and thank you to Dan for loaning me his spare camera in the meantime! ]

These fabric markers have a life of their own and have been weaseling their way into a number of my recent projects.

Having said that a piece of fabric Elle algipainted would make a cool napkin, I set about stitching one up. Because of the way Elle had done her fabric painting (green grid on the slant and flowers within the grid) once I cut it and joined it to the Amy Butler print, there was a blank spot that just looked wrong. Before I knew what was happening, a green marker was in my hand and I was filling in the blank space! I then darkened a few other squares for a more unified look. I really like the results.

There are a million ways to make napkins. Because I don't like ironing tiny little hems, I like to make napkins by
1. sewing two fat-quarters together almost all the way around (right sides in) with a 1/4 or 1/2-inch seam (leave a 3-inch opening along one of the sides)
2. pressing the seams open (essential for getting a neat edge)
3. turning the napkin right side out.
4. stitching right along the edge all the way around.

Since Elle isn't one to eat alone, I made a second napkin to go with the first. The back of the first napkin (above) is from the new fabric line, Party Dress by Mo Bedell. I really like the sweet, drawn look of the fabric, plus, it has some of the same colors as the other prints I was using. So, I went through my stash for another piece of Party Dress with the right colors. On the way, I found another print with the same feel as the fabrics I was already using, but it didn't have quite enough color. Also, I wanted both napkins to have that custom/homemade feel. As I was wondering what to do, a whole gang of markers made their way into my hands and then onto the fabric.

In no time at all I had two unique and coordinated napkins!

I was especially pleased with the napkins when they came out of the washer looking very much like they did when I put them in (the above photos are of the napkins after being washed). As you may recall from my project with the scarves, the markers faded quite a bit when washed. I think that maybe the quilter's cotton had a better result because of the high thread count.

My markers weren't done with me, because they also made their way into a couple of quilt blocks I made on Friday. After reading a blog post about a young father who was fighting cancer and a friend who wanted to make a quilt to help him, I volunteered to make a couple of blocks for the quilt.

Lucia had decided on a blue and gray color scheme for Errick's quilt and asked that we please pick fabrics that weren't too feminine or juvenile. When I went through my stash...

I found a lot of fabrics that almost fit the bill. Eventually, I settled on a big gray polka dot print and a deep blue sea print. But I wasn't quite happy with the fabric as the polka dots looked a bit too fun for a quilt that was going to kick cancer's butt (serious business!) So, I started filling in the polka dots with the gray markers from Dharma (I have both mist grey and grey). Then, since I happen to know the name of Errick's tumor--it's Trudy--I wrote her name in and crossed her out. Take that Trudy!

These blocks are on their way to Lucia tomorrow!

I can only hope that my non-toxic markers have some serious cancer-killing vibes! Go markers go!

sale in the shop

2010-07-23T18:08:00.000-04:00

I was happily crafting along, snapping some photos as I went...

When my camera went dead.
It seems to be the shutter.
Which is fair enough.
I've taken 84,000 photos on my Rebel XT.
Average shutter life is somewhere in the 50,000 neighborhood.
I knew the poor thing's days were numbered.
I've been saving for new one.
But I don't have enough money yet.

And so, I bring you the BROKEN CAMERA SALE.

For one week only, FREE SHIPPING to US addresses.

International customers: I can't do free shipping for you, but I will refund your 10% of your total cost of items after you place your order. And as always, if you are overcharged for shipping, I will refund the difference.

So, you want plexi right?

Now is your chance to get it at a cheaper rate. I'm unlikely to have another sale anytime soon.
The plexi comes with directions for dyeing and discharging.
Get it while the getting is good!

Don't know what this plexi is for? Check out my explanation over here.

Sale ends on July 30th!

It seems I am not alone...

2010-07-19T14:42:00.000-04:00

It seems I am not alone in disliking the name "scrappy" for quilts with mixed prints/designers/etc. "Scrappy" should be reserved for quilts that actually use scraps (left-overs) and further, I think, a quilt doesn't really look scrappy unless the scraps are pulled somewhat indiscriminately, so that hue, value, and scale receive little-to-no consideration.

I like the term "stash quilt." I also sympathize with the desire to just call it a quilt. But, I like being able to quickly communicate how the fabric was selected and there are at least three ways I see this happen: (1) make your own mix (2) use scraps from other projects (3) mostly use prints from a single line.

Someone asked why I need a name for this at all, and the answer is simple: I name everything. I find names really useful. They are shorthand, they are maps, and they are how I make my living. I know it is exhausting sometimes for other people. My older brother has expressed a strong preference for talking to me on the phone when I'm tired and/or sick because I'm "less exact and less exacting." Ha!

Also, a few of you mentioned that you also hate the term "wonky'---ME TOO. But, I already have a much better term that I use. Want to know what it is? Come to my lecture on August 15. : )

A few other things worth mentioning:
A lot of good recommendations came in for children's books with quilts in them. I put them all together over here:
Kids' books with quilts

I've had an Amazon Associate's account for a while now, but this weekend I put together a store and organized it. You may find it useful because I did comment on all of the items in the store and you can see a list of my favorite quilt books and craft books.

Rossie's Amazon Associate's Store

I get a small kickback if things are purchased from Amazon following my links, but feel free to just copy down the titles and borrow stuff from the library (that's what I would do!) Of course, if you do follow the links and buy stuff, rest assured that any money sent my way will be spent on quilty goodness.

I've just signed up for lessons on a Gammill Long Arm. Can't wait! It looks like a lot of fun.

Images used in this post are from a quilt I made last year as part of the first Old Red Barn Co. Quilt Along. It's a rail fence pattern, I altered Dana's pattern to include an odd number of strips in each block and to include the random teal squares.

there is something to be said

2010-07-16T11:43:00.000-04:00

for getting just sick enough that you have to lay on the couch for a couple of days. Feeling unwell, but not entirely miserable either. You know what I'm talking about? Those illnesses where you can feel okay for hours at a stretch as long as you don't move too much and someone occasionally brings you a bowl of rice and a cup of tea. The kind of illnesses where as soon as you try to do anything other than read a book or pet the dog, you get wicked sick. But lying on the couch, everything is okay and so your job is just to wait for the ailment to pass. So you do luxurious things like listen (just listen) to a whole album or read a novel from cover to cover.

That was me earlier this week. I had a migraine that refused to fully bow down to my meds, so the worst of the headache and nausea would disappear with the medicine, but only if I stayed still. So I stretched out on the futon and read Slammerkin. It's very good. I love well-written, well-researched, historical fiction. And I listened to The Crane Wife which I have out from the library. I do love The Decemberists.

Wednesday, I was well enough to sit up and scoot around a bit so I made my block for the Common Threads Quilt Bee

Jess based her block request off of this quilt by Ingrid Press:

I think Jess's quilt is going to look amazing!

Does anyone know more about Ingrid Press? I googled and found some blog posts related to her part in a 2009 Birmingham show (here and here) but no website of her own or books or anything. There has to be more to see than what was in that show...and my eyes are hungry for it!

Having done Jess's block, but still finding myself in the mood for sewing, I stitched up a little log cabin block out of some fabric I had nearby.

I've noticed that a lot of people refer to all fabric combinations that aren't prescribed by designers and manufacturers as "scrappy." This has never sat will with me because I make my own fabric combinations 90% of the time and so using fabrics across designers/manufacturers/etc is not using it for some secondary purpose. It would be wrong to call the above combination "scrappy" because the fabric isn't "left over" from other project, it is being used according my own original intention. I also hesitate to call such combinations "original" because um, blue and green is not some extraordinary idea! Also, sometimes I begin with a fabric combination I saw in someone else's work, as below where the colors in this quilt began with the Dewberry pink and Butler mustard, which I saw together in a purse listed on etsy.com.

I was looking through my thesaurus in search of a word I would prefer to "scrappy" and have yet to settle on one. Something that expresses the autonomy of the person choosing the fabrics, without suggesting that they are a lone ranger or some sort of hard luck case. Any ideas?

Alright, I'm off to catch back up on my work (there is a downside to getting sick!)

some kind of scarfy fabulousness

2010-07-14T00:10:00.002-04:00

Ace and I were sitting in our neighborhood bar a few weeks back when he reached out to pet the scarf I was wearing around my neck. He asked if I had made it and, further, could we maybe do "some kind of scarf fabulousness" on a future craft night. I had not made the scarf in question (pictured below), and initially thought that making scarves might be far too much of a bother for a craft night. Would all the sewing fall to me? And what fabric would be suitable?

The next day, I remembered that Dharma Trading Co. has a section in their shop dedicated to blank scarves and realized that some kind of scarfy fabulousness might be quite easy to do!

The folks at Dharma Trading Co. were kind enough to sponsor our fun and together my friends and I selected 15" x 60" cotton gauze scarves and fabric markers (we went with Fabricmate Permanent FabricMarkers in both chisel tip and fine tips.) After reading that the markers worked on both cotton and silk, I added a single silk scarf to our order (more on this later).

A few days before craft night, I made a practice scarf (seen below). The color of the wet markers is very close to the color of their caps, but the color is a bit lighter once it dries and lighter still once the scarf has been washed. Making a practice scarf and washing it proved really useful as it let us make informed choices about which colors to use and combine. I also discovered that the metallic marker didn't look metallic on the cotton gauze...maybe it works better on thicker material?

Setting up for Craft Night was as simple as opening the box of goodies from Dharma, getting out the ironing board, and pulling out a roll of freezer paper.

Freezer paper has a papery side and a shiny side, a hot iron can be used to temporarily fuse the scarf to the shiny side in order to stabilize it. This is optional, but can be really useful if you want to have a design with long, straight lines. The utility of freezer paper is magnified if you draw a grid onto the papery side before fusing the shiny side to your scarf.

This grid was drawn by Elle who showed up for craft night having done some homework:

Elle has been into folk art lately. These motifs are based on Ukrainian Easter eggs.
After gridding her freezer paper and carefully ironing her scarf to the paper, Elle made two bold viridian stripes on her scarf.

Then, she added a black design on top of the viridian and an apple green motif alongside the stripes.

Finally, she added magenta designs to the center (look closely and you can see the gridding on the freezer paper in this picture.)

Her final result was gorgeous!

In the meantime, Ace worked away on his scarf.
He didn't use freezer paper backing, but we did protect my table with some cardboard since the markers can bleed through the fabric a bit. Ace's scarf is based off of the Tori Amos song "Cloud on my Tongue"--a song that was playing on the stereo. Ace used lyrics and images from the song to fill up his blank scarf.

Ace added layers and layers of text, pictures and lines. He used the veridian, suede, and grey markers to create something truly unique and beautiful!

I've been researching mid-century modern design lately and based my scarves off of designs from the book Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers in Modern Design. Here I am with the book (Ace decided the world needed to see my mid mod dress with the mid mod book.)

This is the first scarf I worked on:

As you can see, my yellow ocher marker ran out of juice! This was the only marker that ran out of juice and it happened because it was one of the fine tip markers, but I was using it to color large areas of the scarf.

I decided to work with the marker as it lightened and then leave the rest of the scarf white. I like the resulting look even though it wasn't what I had planned!

For my second scarf, I decided to marker on both sides of a cotton gauze scarf. As you can see from this shot of Elle's scarf, the markers don't go straight through the scarves, so there definitely is a "back" and a "front."

For my scarf based on the Day's pods design, I did one side in red and then flipped the scarf over and colored in the same shapes in crimson.

It came out really well if I do say so myself!

For my third scarf, I tried out the silk. I quickly discovered two things: (1) while the markers keep a precise edge on the cotton gauze, they bleed a bit on the silk, creating a sort of fuzzy edge. (2) on silk, the markers go through to the other side.

After washing everything, another difference between the silk and cotton showed itself:

the colors on the washed silk changed very little while some of the colors on the cotton changed quite a bit.

I love the way the cotton scarves look. This sort of casual, faded look is perfect in the summer over a t-shirt or sundress. However, fading could probably be minimized by washing the cotton scarves by hand with gentle soap (I threw these in the machine with regular detergent).

As my friends and I were working on these scarves, I kept thinking how much fun this project would be at a kids slumber party. Especially since it has basically no preparatory or clean up work! Of course, if parents did want to do some preparatory work, they could dye the scarves ahead of time. I dyed one of my scarves after the fact...the pods one. I just wanted it to be pink!

I also sewed snaps into the ends as I'm not a naturally elegant scarf wearer. You know those people who carelessly tie a scarf and it looks perfect? I'm so not one of those people, but I try to look like one. Snaps help. : )

reminder for locals: Shadow Art Fair tomorrow!

2010-07-09T11:25:00.000-04:00

More details over here.
They don't usually have any quilts, fabric, or fiber art, but the whole thing is still very cool and worth the $0.02 cost of admission!

I won't have a table, but I will be there in the afternoon, approximately 2pm-3pm. Say hi if you see me. There's a picture of my face over there--->
I'm 5'10" and will be wearing a polka dot dress.
; )

thread

2010-07-08T13:48:00.000-04:00

Sew, Mama, Sew has asked to see our thread stashes.

Sha-baam!

Yep, that's it. : )
I did just give a few spools of polyester thread to a friend though.
Okay, now for the questions:

How did you select colors for your personal thread collection?

I use neutrals (beige, white, gray) for piecing, so there's always some of that around. For quilting, I buy thread on a project-by-project basis, I usually head to the shops knowing exactly what I'm looking for.

Do you always match the color perfectly to your project?

No. In the spirit of the photographer Henri-Cartier-Bresson, who said, "Focus is a bourgeois concept," I have long believed that matching is a bourgeois concept. It is by no means my default to match my thread to my fabric or my shirt to my skirt.

Do you ever use contrasting thread?

Yes, but usually my thread plays a sort of conversational role somewhere between the "blend in" of matchiness and the "stand way out" of contrast. For example, The Green Quilt is quilted in a very specific lime green color that I hunted down. There is no lime green in any part of the patchwork, it was what I wanted to add to the quilt through the quilting and binding.

Do you use the same color in the bobbin as the upper thread?

I match the top and bottom about 75% of the time.

What if a fabric has big areas of very different colors?

This has never bothered me.

Do you have any tips or suggestions about choosing thread?

Learn what kind of thread your machine likes. My old machine really liked polyester thread. My new machine prefers certain brands of cotton thread.

Can you show us a picture(s) of your thread collection?

Do you ever buy thread because you fall in love with the color (without a particular project in mind)?

Embroidery thread: yes.

Quilting thread: no.

Do you “invest” in thread?

No. I'm not cheap about thread (you get what you pay for!) but I don't keep a stash of it, either.

If I came across a sale on 30wt Sulky solids and blendables, or something else that I knew worked well in my machine, I could see myself stocking up.

What types of thread do you have? (elastic, quilting, all-purpose, wool, etc.)

Cotton embroidery thread.

Cotton machine thread.

Cotton machine quilting thread.

Process Pledgers in Action!

2010-07-05T21:42:00.002-04:00

Over 230 people have signed the process pledge. Can you believe it?

I went through the links today and wanted to share some of what I saw (all pictures belong to the blog owners, not me.)

That Girl, That Quilt explained her inpiration and process for this beauty.
Don't you love the mix of sizes and of old and new?

Little Bluebell showed off her design door.
Her daughter got it right when she stuck a "terrific!" sticker up there.

Quilt It experimented with big quilting stitches. Amazing!

Live a Colorful Life is inspired by the colors in her magazines.
Isn't that great? I know I have random catalog pages and magazine covers that I have saved because the colors are so lovely.

Kimberly White Design has been exploring her own process. Only one quilt at a time? I would die!

Crazy Mom Quilts shares some thoughts on learning to applique: "...don't worry about the rest, that all comes with time."

Milky Robot has been slowly stitching up her "Good and Evil" quilt.
Isn't this insane? I love the mix of fabrics and this use of a very traditional quilt block.
She explains some of her color inspirations here.

You know what I love? has been stitching up squares and musing over changing them.

And also taking pictures of vans with cool designs.

I could go on, but when would I sleep?

Edited to add: Blogger is currently experiencing difficulty with comments. I am getting your comments by email (yay!) but they are not showing up on the blog (boo!) Hopefully this will be resolved soon, but until then, keep calm and carry on (and don't worry about it when your comment doesn't post right away, I think they will appear eventually.)

my favorite paints

2010-07-04T07:00:00.004-04:00

I don't always sketch as part of my planning process.
Usually, if I'm drawing, it is more of a "get the thought down before it escapes" or a "show bee members what I'm thinking" sort of thing.

So, most of the time, if I make a drawings it is just pen marks in my moleskine:

With the quilt pictured above, I was originally thinking of going with pond colors (mineral greens) and when I went off of that idea, and started thinking of reds, I could no longer picture the outcome in my head. I painted it in order to see what it would look like. And so...

This really helped me sort out what colors I wanted because I had thought I wanted the colors to run from pure orange to pure red, but in painting, I found that red-orange to brown-red was more pleasing.

Why did I paint?
Well, to put it plainly, except for the random implement here and there, I don't have colored pencils or markers or crayons.

Why don't I have them?
I don't really like them. When I use them I always wish they performed more like my favorite paints.

These are my favorite paints. They cost $30 and I've had them for 10 years.

These are tempera cakes.
I love how they blend together.

You can see here how I've made different reds by mixing the peach, orange, brown, and red.

Usually, I like more pastel colors, so I have a second tray with several white blocks in it for mixing--that way I can have several pastel colors mixed at the same time.

These paints are non-toxic, but not washable. However, I let me neighbor's two-year-old using them regularly and just make sure he has a smock on.

He does just fine. He accidentally put a big violet smear on *my* white sweater one day, but he's never ruined his own clothes. With little ones, I recommend adding a little water to the top of each cake, but not giving them bowl of water. Bowls of water are disasters waiting to happen.

This wee dude paints masterpieces:

Including one that I have on my office wall:

If you want to try these paints out for yourself, just ask for tempura cakes at an art store.

To be more specific:

The brand that I have are Alphacolor Biggies.

I recommend using them with watercolor paper and watercolor brushes.

(Even the kids should get quality paper and brushes, please!)

I have made kits of these several times as gifts. I usually order them from eNasco.

They have fantastic prices on supplies, but the shipping prices start pretty high, so I think that the deals are only good if you have a bigger order.

If you want to duplicate my set up this is what you need to order:

Alphacolor biggie cakes: http://www.enasco.com/product/9703935

extra white cakes (three): http://www.enasco.com/product/9700529%28H%29

trays for cakes (two): http://www.enasco.com/product/9716666

set of 5 brushes: http://www.enasco.com/product/3100368

watercolor paper (three packs because this price is amazing): http://www.enasco.com/product/9725348

merchandise total: $67.53

shipping (to my address, yours might be more or less): $13.68

What's your favorite art supply?

you're invited!

2010-07-01T07:30:00.002-04:00

I've been invited to give a lecture on modern quilting on August 15, 2010 in Northville, Michigan.
I've accepted this invitation because I have an ever increasing pile of ideas about mutant quilting and I relish the opportunity to organize them, find visual illustrations for them, and engage in conversation about them.

I'm bringing my brain, my quilts, and an image-filled slide presentation.

If you'd like to attend, please reserve your spot because space is limited
RSVP to Lynn at FibraArtysta@earthlink.net

Many thanks to Running With Scissors for inviting me! (offiicial announcement is on their blog)

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More on Chain Piecing

2010-06-29T08:15:00.032-04:00

I love that there's a whole vocabulary for this that I never knew.
"Threadsavers" "thread catcher" "threadbunny" "Leaders and enders" "Drive on"

It reminds me of this lovely ABC book I checked out from the library to read to my friend's 2-year-old.

There are thousands of "A if for..." books out there, but this one is really so charming.

There needs to be an equally charming Quilting ABC book, we quilters certainly have enough vocabulary.
If I write it, will you draw? I mean, someone needs to write a quilting book for the toddler set. I've read a few kid's story books featuring quilting and I really only liked this one:

Do you have any recommendations for kid's story books about quilting/quilts/quilters?

I spent part of today thinking about good projects to piece as "leaders and enders" instead of making and throwing out threadbunnies. It seems like you'd want a simple pattern for a leaders and enders project. I've started a gallery of ideas that contains mostly quilts that are simple squares or half-square triangles (I would piece the half-square triangles using the sew then cut method.)

If you look at the gallery and have any more ideas for me, let me know (comment here or on the flickr gallery) and I'll add the idea to the gallery.

Someone asked if there was a tutorial for chain piecing. I found this one online:

I must say, her machine is a bit smoother than mine as she's always able to slip the next piece of fabric under the foot. I do have to pick up my presser foot a smidge sometimes to put the next piece of fabric onto the feed dogs (sorry, no video capability in my house at the moment!)

Actually, the stack-and-whack blocks that she's piecing would be suitable for leaders and enders, too. Hmmm....

Thread tails.

2010-06-27T18:00:00.000-04:00

Unless I've changed the thread or a needle, I never hang on to the thread tails when I start sewing.

Because I never have thread tails.
I chain piece everything.

And I sew through scraps at the end of a run of chain piecing.
My sewing machine, when not in use, looks soomething like this:

This started because my old machine's tension would go nuts if I proceeded in any other manner.
Now I can't imagine going back.
No holding thread tails. No trimming of dangling threads.

Also, it puts those little scraps to use before they hit the trash bin!

Am I the only one?

Sodium Alginate!

2010-06-20T13:45:00.006-04:00

For such an unassuming and cheap product, this stuff sure is awesome!

A few months ago, when I posted about batik, Melody of the blog Fibermania suggested that I might have fun playing with sodium alginate.

Shortly thereafter, the folks at Dharma Trading asked if I'd be interested in writing up some of my dye experiments for them. I said yes, so this post is sponsored by Dharma and it will potentially pop up in some form on their website in the future (oooo....fancy!)

While sodium alginate has many uses, this post is about using sodium alginate to make paints out of your procion dyes; a goop I call "algipaint."

If you have the set up for immersion dyeing, then the only additional supplies that you need to buy for this project are (1) sodium alginate and (2) a small whisk. You'll also need some jars, cardboard boxes, push pins, and brushes, but I'm guessing you can find those around the house.

In a display of high nerdery, I have made an array to depict the supplies needed for each of the four dye things I like to do (the picture should get bigger if you click on it).

(The prices denote what I paid for my stuff; try dollar stores, TJ Maxx, and garage sales to get similar deals.)

I think this makes it clearer that the initial investment in the supplies for the immersion dyeing allows you to do many more dyeing crafts for just a few dollars more!

Okay, back to algipaint. Some friends were coming over to play with me and the sodium alginate last Saturday, so I made and played with a little bit of algipaint a few days in advance to get a sense of how the paints behaved and how long it would take to mix them.

I wasn't feeling particularly creative that evening...this is the sort of mess is what happens when I craft because I have to, not because I want to:

A couple things I learned from this test: when you leave the fabric out to dry, lumps in the algipaint will spread before drying, making an uneven line, so if you want an un-lumpy line, clear out the lumps!

I love the watercolor look in this section:

I find it fascinating how well this drawing and the shading in it were preserved!

This solid blob was made by dumping algipaint onto the fabric as it hung on outside and then leaving the fabric pinned up to dry (the algipaint slid off into a waiting bucket).

With these lessons in hand, I got ready for my Saturday fun.

The prep work was pretty straightforward and took about an hour.

1. Preparing the fabric. We were using PFD (prepared for dying) Pimatex. I washed several yards of it earlier in the week. On the day my friends were coming over, I soaked it in a soda ash/water solution and then used the spin cycle on my washing machine to clear out the excess water--not rinsing, just spinning. Soda ash is a PH-changer and therefore harmless to your machine and machine-washable clothing, don't worry about it being in your washer.

2. Making work stations.
    (a) Cover all tables with kraft paper or plastic garbage bags. (The dye will stain wood tables).

    (b) Each person needs either an open cardboard box (and push pins) or a frame (with clips) to stretch the fabric on.

4. Get out gloves for everyone (I have a box of surgical-style gloves from Costco).

5. Get out all of your brushes, stamps, sponges, cardboard scraps and anything else you think might be fun for stamping/painting.   I have a collection of odds and ends that are perfect for this stuff--toilet paper rolls never go to waste in my home!

6. Double check that you have collected everything you need. You don't want to be scrounging around in linen closets and fabric stashes once you start because the algipaint is permanent and might get on you!

7. Change into whatever you are going to wear for dyeing (something you won't mind if it gets stained with dye).

8. Mix up your algipaint!

First: set up your algipaint mixing station. I used a table in my backyard. I lined the area I was using with damp newspaper to catch any stray dye powder.

You will need:
respirator or dust mask
rubber gloves
damp newspaper
Procion dyes (available here)
sodium alginate (you can use either high or low viscosity, find it here)
measuring cup
measuring spoons
pastry brush
small whisk
two buckets of warm water (one will stay clean, one will get dirty)
glass jars and/or plastic cups--one for each color (Remember: once a dye tool, always a dye tool).

Second: Put on your safety equipment (gloves & respirator). You will not need the respirator once the dye is mixed, but until then, keep it on, and don't let anyone else help you or be in the room with you unless they have a respirator on.

Third: Mix away!
(a) put approximately 1/2 teaspoon of dye into jar.
(b) use a spoon to add a tiny amount of warm water from the "clean bucket" and use the pastry brush to "paste up" the water. You should add no more than 1 tablespoon of water at this point. Make sure all the dye powder has dissolved and no lumps remain.
(c) measure 1 teaspoon of sodium alginate and scoop 1/2 cup of warm water from the "clean bucket." Pour them into the jar simultaneously and then whisk them for about five seconds.

(d) You should now have a jelly substance--it won't be entirely smooth in consistency, but it shouldn't have any dry flecks of sodium alginate. Set the jar aside. For best results, let it sit for 30 minutes before using

(e) Swish the pastry brush and the whisk in the "dirty bucket" to clean them off.

(f) Repeat steps a-e until you've mixed all of your colors.

Fourth:
Rinse off all or your mixing supplies in the dirty bucket, roll up the damp newspaper and put it in a trash bin. Make sure that all the dye has been cleaned up and then remove your respirator.

Fifth:
The sodium alginate is made from algae and is a thickener. It works kind of like jello in that it "sets" into a jelly once mixed with water. You may want to whisk it again after it sets and before you use it to paint, it will still be a bit lumpy, but totally workable.

(Yes, my little whisk has a pig's head for a handle.)

This concludes your prep work, now the fun begins!

(Goodness, I'm just realizing how long this post is going to be!)

"Craft Night" is a regular occurrence around here and it is always referred to as "craft night" even when it occurs during the day. How many people come depends on what the project is and how much space it takes up--carving pumpkins outside is basically unlimited, but inside projects where everyone needs a work space are usually limited to four. There are four of us that do almost every Craft Night and this has been going on long enough that each of us is amused by what comes off of the brushes/stamps/knives of each other person. Ace regularly falls over laughing at some of my pattern making "of course, of course, that's so you!!"

Elle's approach to a new medium is the methodical trial and error of an art student. She focuses on learning what kind of things are possible, often creating a series of disconnected pieces.

Ones that demonstrate blending the algipaints on the cloth...

Or show the brushstrokes of a flat fabric painting brush...

I love how this experiment came out...I'm not sure if she wants it or will let me patchwork with it, but I know how I would use it!

Elle did made one piece that was more of a composition:

I have promised to hem this for her so it can be a napkin (a retro Scandi picnic napkin).

When I had emailed people about the Craft Night I had mentioned that they could bring t-shirts or anything cotton that they liked to paint on. Ace took me up on my offer and showed up with a pair of jeans he was "over" on account of their somewhat dated color.

I gave him some cardboard to stuff in the legs and Ace grabbed the jar of blue algipaint and he went to work.
adding layers by brushing

and layers using my found objects as stamps

and even a layer using Elle's hand as a stamp

it was a pants-painting frenzy...

until the jar of blue looked like this:

and the pants were completely covered.
After Ace went home, I realized that I had not soaked the jeans in soda ash (huge problem: soda ash makes the dye permanent). I consulted some knowing souls and made a plan--let the jeans dry overnight, then lay them out in the sun all day, soaked with a water and soda ash solution.

I soaked them by laying them on plastic sheeting, dousing them, then putting another layer of clear plastic over the top of the jeans to give everything the best possible chance to soak in and cook and become permanent.

I washed the jeans with trepidation, but they came out of the washer looking great!

I've shown these to Ace and we've agreed that I will throw them in a tub of gray dye to change the color to a more wearable blue.

But we all agree that they are amazing. I love how the layers of painting and printing look.

Lurky arrived late, but dove right in, grabbing a few brushes and jars, working steadily

And before long, filling her piece of fabric with this stunning image:

We all agreed that these Foam Tip Brushes from Dharma Trading worked best for this sort of controlled line. The tip is a lot like eye shadow applicator.

Lurky also made this fun print, using two round pieces of foam and the end of a toilet-paper roll.

This fabric was washed out in the clothes washer. This is really the best way to preserve your work. Just throw it in the washer with your rags and regular detergent and let it wash. I experienced no dye transfer on the pieces I washed in the washer and I asked people that have been using this method for years and they said that they'd never had an issue with their washer on account of using it to wash out the alginate. I did experience some dye transfer on the one piece I decided to "be careful with" and hand wash, which just goes to show, sometimes lazy is better!

You'll notice this blue/green print has a spec of yellow on it. That's because I failed to put on clean gloves before pulling out clean fabric for Lurky. She didn't mind, though. Bless.

Why did I have yellow algipaint on my hands?
I must have been working on this:

I had begun by making this print:

To make this, I had to be pretty controlled, so once I had set it aside, I was ready to just play and slap algipaint onto fabric for a while.

This is me, just trying out different brushes and stamps and then filling in the white space with bright yellow. And if you think this is pukey-70s-fabulous, check out this bad boy:

I made this by painting on commercial fabric. As with the solid white fabric, this had been soaked in soda ash. The original fabric was green trees on a white background. I love the possibilities of being able to algipaint on commercial fabric. You can't batik on commercial fabric because the wax won't always come out of lower-thread-count material. Fabric paint is always a possibility, but dye has the benefit of being so permanent and of leaving the feel of the fabric alone (so soft!)

By the time I had finished the trees, all of the brushes were dirty. Rather than clean some off to start a new piece fresh, I just painted with dirty brushes, so as I swiped eggplant algipaint across this piece, yellow came off the brush with it. Totally digable, no?

And then I decided to make a total mess of paint on one of my found-objects-as-stamps...getting me this:

The O's on the top were left as they printed out. Towards the bottom, I was filling them in and smoothing them out. I like both.

After everyone went home, I cleaned up. Of course, I had to use up the remaining fabric, so I painted a piece fuschia:

And dumped out the orange algipaint onto a piece and smooshed it around:

Which ultimately yeilded this:

All of the fabric was removed to the basement where there are plenty of flat surfaces to lay it on as it dries out. (Ideally, I think you'd want to let everything dry in the sun, but Michigan's weather wasn't cooperating.)

I cleaned up the work areas by putting all the tools and brushes in a bucket of water while I took cleared off the surfaces. I scooped out the remaining algipaint out of the jars and put it in my kitchen trash, taking the bag out with the used kraft paper that had covered the surfaces. Algipaint is sticky, so I did have to "shampoo" my brushes and tools with dish soap. And to get the insides of my jars clean, I needed Soft Scrub. It took about 30 minutes to clean up...not too bad, really.

To wash the fabric out the next day, I simply ran it through the washer twice. First with cold water and then with hot. I used regular detergent in the cold wash and Dharma's Professional Textile Detergent (a non-toxic alternative to Synthrapol) on the hot wash. You could probably use regular detergents on both washes, but the specialty detergent is really good at grabbing and holding any dye that comes loose, preventing it from staining the white areas of your fabric, so if you try algipaint and can't get it to wash out cleanly, try the textile detergent!

I will report back soon on the continuing evolution of Ace's jeans as well as some pictures of the algipainted fabric being used in patchwork!