A T-Shirt Quilt for Taylor

 I started this quilt before Christmas last year. I had enough shirts for two of the girls. I completed Whitney's quilt and then proceeded to work on Taylor's. I was finished with the quilting and started to serge the squares together when my serger started to give me all sorts of issues. I was breaking needles left and right. So Taylor's quilt was put off to the side for a few months. When I finally got my serger back from repair, I devoted a day to get it finished.

 As with Whitney's quilt, I tried to quilt a couple of little surprises. Here you can see I quilted her nickname.

McCalls Quilt

 You really can't call this quilting. Binding maybe because that's all I had to do. Sometimes, I deserve a project like that. Lauren and I had seen this line of fabric at Hancock Fabrics. I had used some for a couple of craft projects. She asked if I could make her a quilt. Um, sure, I'll get right on that. I do have fabric but that quilt isn't at the top of the list yet. Lucky for her, I spied this pre-quilted fabric this summer. It was marked down and I grabbed some. The bad thing about the prequilted fabrics is that you are limited in size. So I bought enough to make a large crib size quilt. Too small for her bed but she loves it just the same.

Notice how the pattern sketches match the dress that would have been on the front of the pattern envelope. This would be a McCalls 3679. I loved this line of fabric. I really wish they would do something similar again.

Whitney's T-shirt Quilt

Don't you love husbands? Mine has a tendency to come up with ideas for me to do. He came up with the idea of making a t-shirt quilt for Christmas. Easy for him to say, isn't it? It was a good idea but it's not like it's a piece of cake.

Several years ago, there was a speaker at the quilt guild who briefly spoke about a t-shirt quilt she made. That wasn't the purpose of her talk but the thing I remembered was that she used her serger and she quilted the squares one at a time before the quilt was put together. No need to use stabilizer with this method. I decided that was the method for me. 

We discovered a box of tshirts in Whitney's closet. She's been married and gone for a little over a year now. So we figured what she left in her closet was fair game. I made a couple of mistakes and that being not taking into account that some of the graphics were large. I ignorantly thought I'd just make 12 inch squares then I came upon my first graphic that was larger than 12 inches. So I had cut up a couple of shirts that I wasn't able to use. I did have enough shirts to work with but there were a few shirts that I used the front and back because I either liked the color or the shirt had her name on it.

 

Here's the back of the quilt. The main fabric is from M'Liss Hawley and it's "Houston" fabric. I was short for one square so I used Wisconsin Badger fabric. Whitney is a Wisconsin alum and she now lives in Houston. Pretty clever huh?

 One challenge of this quilt was that for some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to have a different quilt pattern on each block. I ran out of brain power close to the end and I think I have four squares that were meandered.

 

 On some of the squares, I free motioned a word or two. This square has the words "50 yard line" in it. The Crazy Legs race in Madison ends on the 50 yard line in the Badger football stadium.

 Tried to mimic EKG waves.

 This square has "Bucky" in it.

 Her senior t-shirt has seniors name on it. I stitched Whit's name on the side.

This one was just one of my favorites. Simple quilt pattern that stitched fairly quickly. Love that!

Give Aways at The Fabricologist

As you all know, I love fabric. I buy fabric from all over, all the local stores and online stores. So it's always fun to hear about a new place that sells what I hoard collect.

The really cool thing about writing this blog article is that I know Amy who owns The Fabricologist. I've been going to quilt retreat for maybe four years now and that's where I first met Amy. I'm very excited to see what she'll be selling and sharing on her blog. Amy doesn't know this, but early in the mornings, I walk around the sewing room while at retreat and I can leisurely look at everyone's projects. I'm also love sewing machines so I love to look at all the different machines. Well, back to my story, I always linger just a little bit longer at Amy's table because she is always doing something unique. Her quilts are spectacular, she has an excellent eye for color and pattern combinations, and she always comes really cool patterns, books or magazines. I highly recommend following Amy's blog because I'm sure she'll be showing some great projects in the future.

Now for the good part, look at all this sweet stuff that The Fabricologist is giving away.

 How Euro trendy is this pattern? If you do as much surfing as I do, you know the woodland creatures are very big. Hedgehogs are also big in the machine embroidery world.

 A sewing book with patterns is always a good thing. Kay Whitt's books are highly rated which makes this doubly good.

 Have you jumped on the handbag wagon yet? I've started to do my research but could use a good book to get me started.

 Everyone needs a snap setter if you do any kind of sewing, quilting or crafting. So easy to use.

 Fabric? Yes please.

I'm kind of lusting after that "Walk in the Woods" charm pack.

Ok, I showed you the goods. Now go out and enter for yourself! Use her blog link up above to enter. Hurry up because The Fabricologist will be drawing for winners this coming Monday. Make sure you check out the website, http://www.fabricologist.com/.

Finally, a Finished Quilt

It's been a while since I've finished a quilt. I haven't been quilting as much lately for a number of reasons. 1) it's not a project that I can finish in a day. 2) how many quilts do I need? 3) takes a little bit of muscle power to machine quilt. 4) loving the garment construction right now. 5) something funky is going on with my machine. I think the thread is hooking onto my feed dogs and breaking. So it needs to be adjusted. 6) not a cheap hobby. I guess that's enough reasons for now.

I started this quilt almost two years ago I think. It was one of Lauren's Christmas presents. The great thing about the fabrics all came from stash with the exception of the backing. The pattern is called Star Cakes from Legacy Patterns. Easy to put together. My original plan was to free motion a bridal wreath pattern all over. This is the stencil that I have.

I chickened out though. With my machine not liking free motion right now, I wasn't up for the battle of fighting the thread breaking. So I opted to cross hatch the quilt. I've never met a cross-hatched quilt that I didn't like. Certainly, it's a familiar pattern that we've all seen on old quilts. On this type of quilt, you really can't go wrong with that pattern. My motto, done is better than not done. So I have a done quilt. Maybe not what I had originally hoped but finished non-the-less and crossed off my to-do list. Ah, that feels good.

Fabric Dyeing

Have you ever said never? I have. Plenty of times. Let's see. I never want to learn: smocking, hand applique, how to make makeup, whole cloth quilting, fabric dyeing, art quilting. I know there are other things I'm forgetting. Why don't we want to learn new things? For me, it's about the level of perceived difficulty with fear of failure thrown in there. Last month, I scratched another skill off that list.

My friend Pat had taken up fabric dyeing a few years ago. When she first mentioned it, I knew it was something I would never ever want to do. Pat would always show what she was up to. Yes, it was always fun to look at what she did but just not my cup of tea. What was it that made me change my mind? It was a scarf. A few years ago, Pat gave me the most beautiful green silk scarf for Christmas. I had gotten so many compliments on that scarf. I loved the subtle shades differences in that scarf. Sadly, I lost the scarf a few months ago. I wore it to a football game and somehow, I went home without it. It wasn't the fact that I lost it but the idea that maybe I could learn how to create something that beautiful.

Last year, Pat gave Taylor and I an invitation to hang out with her while she worked with the dyes. Between all of our schedules, it didn't work out. In addition, the temperature needs to be above 70 degrees for the needed chemical reaction to take place. I was also a little fearful of showing my lacking color skills. Lucky for me, an opportunity came up. The local community college has a sewing and quilting expo every year. Last year, I spent a day going to lectures focusing on garment sewing. This year, I took a day long class in fabric dyeing. Of course, I always seem to be put with a group of over-achievers. The gals at my table were fiber artists and they all had business cards. My classmates all had certain colors in mind or patterns. Me, I didn't want any tie-dyed patterns. I wanted mottled colors. Maybe in the future, my dyeing and quilting will become more adventurous. I was happy with my first try though.

I was very tired at the end of the day but excited practice my new skill. I'm hoping in the next month or so, the weather here in Wisconsin will be warm enough so I can play.

The Traveling Quilter Goes to North Carolina

I'm in North Carolina this week for spring break. The real purpose of the trip was for Taylor to do some research for one of her classes. She is studying Frederick Law Olmsted. The father of Landscape Architecture. So here we are at the Biltmore mansion looking at his work. I did find some time to do a little bit of shopping though. Originally, we were going to travel to Mary Jo's outside of Charlotte. The Detroit airport decided they didn't like that plan. After a major scramble trying to keep our plans on time, the airline routed us to Knoxville instead. We did manage to find a quilt store that wasn't too terribly far from our hotel.

The Asheville Cotton Company sells Bernina and Baby Lock machines in addition to lots of fabric. I found out about the shop via a brochure on the Fiber Fabric Bead Trail. The tag line for the shop is "keeping the mountains in stitches." The ad for the shop states that it has over 8000 bolts of fabric. Now, the shop is large but I don't know about the 8000 bolt bit. The shop gals were very friendly. The store sold a lot of the big designer names like Riley Blake and Amy Butler.

 
While you drive around the countyside, you may stumble upon one of the barns that has a quilt on the side. I saw three or four but only was able to get one picture. If you are traveling down south, I know that you will find info on the web on where to find them. And they're not limited to North Carolina!

Finally, this morning we spent time at the North Carolina Arboretum. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot blooming. As we were walking the grounds, we came upon the quilt garden. Each year is dedicated to a different quilt block. How wonderful it would have been to visit during summer to see this. There are two educational buildings on the premises. We were told that one of the buildings usually has quilts on display but  during our visit, there were dolls there. The Asheville Quilt Guild invited Eleanor Peace Bailey to the quild to give a class on doll making and the guild members dolls were on display here. The dolls lined three corridors.

The Traveling Quilter Goes to Houston

Isn't it handy that my daughter moved to Houston right after the wedding. If Jeff and I had to move Whitney's furniture and wedding gifts down there, I may as well go during the International Quilt Festival in Houston. If you really want to know, I haven't been much of a traveling quilter for over a year, more of the traveling garment maker. But why pass up an opportunity to fabric shop.

Jeff, Whitney and I arrived about an hour before the show opened up. For those of you who attended the Chicago show in the past, the Houston show is a luxury. No more standing on the cement floor in the cattle corrals. We were able to go upstairs and get a coffee and, gasp, sit. No, no sitting allowed in Chicago. Your feet and legs were wore out before the show ever began.
A few months ago when we were in discussions about going to Houston, I mentioned the quilt show to Jeff. He said I could go and he would probably go with me. Well as the day drew near, he was rethinking his commitment. After all, he's a manly man. The morning of, he decides that he would take a chance and bring his laptop. Lucky for him that the convention center had lot's of areas for him to work. We bought a ticket for him but he didn't go inside until lunch. After lunch, he headed back upstairs. He only ventured onto the convention floor when Whitney and I were finished with the vendors and we were ready to view the quilts on display. My husband's only comment was "I'm scared." What's there to be afraid of with a few quilters mulling around the space. I must say, he didn't mind looking at the quilts. And at the very back of the quilt display, we found a curtained off area that said Men's Lounge. I think they had a big screen tv set for the men to watch football. I'll remember that for the next time.
My first stop, to see Luc the lace guy. Luc is from the Netherlands. He used to travel to the Chicago show with his French laces. French heirloom sewing isn't big in the frozen tundra as it is down south. We can make anything out of polar fleece but we really don't know what to do with this lace. Well, upon arrival at Luc's booth, I think he asked which vendors we had been to. I told him he was on my list for the first stop. He was surprised. I then told him that it I didn't have a lot of choices where I lived. He then said, "oh you're the person from Wisconsin". Ummmm, did my face turn red. Yes, I meekly said. He said, "you email me every year to make sure I'm going to be at the shows". Whitney then proceeds to text Jeff and said "Should I be worried that the Dutch vendor knows mom?" Luc is such a nice guy. He has a following. Lot's of heirloom sewers purchase his lace even though it's shipped over from the Netherlands. For you heirloom enthusiasts, you can find him at Cotton Laces. He has the best prices around. I think Whitney was a tad embarrassed that I asked if I could take his picture.
Whitney and I had a good time roaming the isles, all twenty-two of them. We came, we saw, we spent. Then it was finally time to go pick up Jeff and look at the quilts. We found the one we came to see. Pat Bishop's "Walk of the Cranes". How lucky in life can you be when you hang with such a talented artist. One of these days, I may just venture over to the dark side and try my hand at an art quilt.

More Cowboy Love

Alright folks, I want you to pony up to the hitchin' post and meet the boys. Let me introduce you to Jeb, Pole Cat, Hal, Slim, Squirt and Tex.

Last year, I posted a picture of this quilt in it's unfinished stage. Finally, finally another cowboy quilt is finished. I love the colors on this quilt. I love the fabrics of the quilt. I hate that it won't be mine. Boo Hoo.

This quilt wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for my friend Pat and her Magic Bobbin Genie. I mentioned something a while ago regarding my frustration with free motion quilting on my new machine. Well, with another foot and Pat's washer that seemed to do the trick. No tension issues or broken upper thread on this quilt. Meandering was done on the border and on the main part of the quilt, I did loops to sort of mimic a lasso.

When I mentioned to Jeff that all my favorite quilts go to others, he said "Well just buy more fabric." Really? Really? Well, twist my arm, ok. Done deal.

Quilt Retreat March 2010

It was retreat time once again. I think this was one of my most productive retreats ever. Lately I haven't been happy with my free motion quilting. My friend Pat had found these little silicon washers that you put under the bobbin. Apparently, machines with a drop-in bobbin have more issues than the vertical bobbin. Well, I used the Magic Bobbin along with my new spring foot and I finally had success. I was able to finally finish cowboy quilt #2. Hooray! I also started to machine quilt Lauren's Christmas quilt. I had to wait until I got up to camp so I could use the large space to pin her quilt.

In addition to quilting, I made a few items for Jacqi's new shop. I worked on a little pair of boys cargo pants. I made three pair of little girls ruffled pants. I also bartered for fabric. I know, like I don't already have enough. I walked by Gretchen as she was cutting some fabric and thought it would be a fun piece to make a little outfit out of. So we struck up a deal. I made her little 3 year old a twirl skirt and I got to keep the rest of the fabric. The fabric is tie-dyed with multicolored thread running thru it.

I also finished up my mug rug for this retreat. I still don't have the binding on the mug rug from last time. That mug rug is also too large. I may have to trim it down.

I thought I had taken a picture with more shop samples but I didn't see it on my camera. Several of us had worked on samples for Jacqi. There were so cute items made out of really cool prints. I can't wait to see how they are all displayed in the store.

My Lucky Week

Last week as I was pumping gas in the bitter cold, for some reason, a visit to the thrift store popped into my mind. I was about a half a block away for a store. My rationale was that since it is the end of the year, I was hoping that people had cleaned out their closets (um, sewing rooms) so they could get a tax benefit. I'm always in the market for vintage sewing patterns. The last two visits have not produced any children's patterns. I think someone stalks the thrift stores then sells them on Ebay. Nasty people. After feeling despondent over the lack of patterns I was getting ready to leave, I then spied this cute little poodle flannel. Good score. $1.80 for two yards of this cute little print in great condition. I then moved onward to St. Vinnie's. Didn't score much except zippers for a quarter each.

My second really great thing of the week involved my zipper foot. I have been missing a zipper foot for at least 6 months. This foot goes to my Viking 105. My first Viking. I would use that zipper foot on my new machine because that foot can get into tighter spots. I racked my brain out. I looked under every piece of furniture. I tore the laundry room apart, the new sewing room apart, every bag that I ever took to retreat or class. My beloved zipper foot was never found. I slowly had to resolve myself into understanding that I would need to fall in love with my new zipper foot. Forget that presser feet are a pricey deal. My guess is that the little foot would cost at least $20.00. The real trauma is that Viking does not make that zipper foot anymore. I've gone onto Ebay a few times with the hope of buying an older Viking foot. I had determined that I must have lost the foot either at retreat or class. My machines have been in so many places this past year. Well, on Monday, I thought I would see if my walking foot would fit Taylor's machine. For those of you who don't quilt, a walking foot is really expensive. I think I paid about $85.00 for mine. It doesn't fit my new machine so I was hoping I could use it on Taylor's. I pulled the box out and was stunned to see my zipper foot. WTH is it doing in there??? I also found the little magnetic guide that I sometimes use. That little zipper foot really made my day. From the picture, you can clearly see the difference between my old narrow foot and the new zipper foot. I can't wait to see what the rest of my week is like!

Winter Quilt Retreat

Typically, quilt retreat takes place during December and March. Lawrence University had changed up their semester breaks so our retreat dates got changed up also. We are lucky to be able to use this fabulous lodge that belongs to Lawrence University in Door County. Located along the shore of Lake Michigan in Bailey's Harbor, Bjorklunden lodge sits on over 400 wooded acres. Lawrence uses this lodge for educational seminars, music events, etc. Just recently, an addition was built onto the lodge. We now sew in the new addition.

The great room is where we used to sew. This room has a fabulous view of the lake. You really felt like you were on a retreat when the sun was rising or setting and you could see that from these beautiful windows. Our new sewing space seems to be a little larger plus the table arrangement is better.

I think that the great room can fit about 40-44 sewing machines. Here is my little home for the next four days. Because this lodge belongs to a university, the rooms are dorm style. The dorm rooms can accommodate 4-6 individuals. We typically de-bunk the beds and put on one of our quilts. I arrived late this year, so Jessie and Pat had already rearranged the room and made the beds.

I consider myself very lucky to be able to attend Jacqi's retreat. Besides being able to sew in such a fantastic place, you are surrounded by some of the most creative, artistic quilters around. Early in the morning, I like to walk up and down the rows before a lot of women are awake. I like to look at all the sewing machines, the projects and the fabrics. I didn't really do too much quilting this time around. I mostly worked on garment sewing.