My First Quilt

Camille of Moda’s Thimbleblossoms fame and Carrie of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company have posted a… well, “challenge” doesn’t seem right, but “suggestion” isn’t strong enough. They’re creating a Parade of Quilts, in which bloggers participate by posting and blogging about their first quilt and their most recently completed project, along with something they learned along the way. If you’d like to participate, check out their blogs, Simplify and La Vie En Rose. You’ll need to post a link in each of their comments. Do it quickly though – the deadline is Monday!

My first quilt – first COMPLETED quilt – was the Wild Goose Chase quilt I made for my grandparents. It was inspired by an illustration in The Quiltmaker’s Gift. (If you haven’t seen this book, check it out. It’s beautifully illustrated, and the story is wonderful.)

If I knew then what I know now, this quilt would have been made VERY differently. I cut out every triangle separately, cutting squares and then half squares and quarter squares. I matched and sewed each little piece, trying desperately to get my 1/4″ seams to actually be 1/4″. I sewed the geese into long columns and taped the columns to the wall behind me. At the time I was working at the dining room table – long before I had my own sewing space. The columns of geese were not straight. They looked like the geese were trying to pull a U-ey, curving gently to the right. The plain strips between the geese helped un-curve them, but I know a number of points got chopped. I used a variety of fabrics – I think there were 27 different fabrics, some quilt shop, some JoAnne’s. The quilting itself is less than stellar. It’s just a few long straight lines, because I was scared of messing it up. This was before the Little Gracie II came along, so I did it on my regular sewing machine. The binding is made up of smaller bits of the different sky fabrics. Despite the errors, I really love this quilt. It took a long time to finish, but that was mostly because my usual procrastination kicked it when it came time to quilt it. It was supposed to be for their 67th anniversary, which was in June, but was given to them in October on what would have been my father’s 60th birthday.

My most recently finished quilt is a mini quilt I made for a swap and I forgot to take a picture of it! It’s called Shoooooofly, and it was made for the Swap Til You Drop (STUD!!) May Twisted Traditional swap. However, another quilt is almost finished, and I’m hoping it will be done by the Monday deadline. It’s a collaborative quilt with my Mom, and she’s finishing the back and putting it on the frame (probably) today. It’s the Good & Plenty quilt for the neighbor girl who just graduated from high school.

What have I learned in the last five years? Let’s see, I’ve learned that mistakes can be corrected, or at least camouflaged. I’ve learned three new ways to make flying geese. I’ve learned that quilts should be used, not just displayed. I’ve learned that I’m a terrible procrastinator. (Okay, that isn’t new information!) I’ve learned that I get bored easily and want to move on to new projects before the old one are finished. And I’ve learned that the creative process is good for my mental health.

So, are you going to join the Parade of Quilts? I hear trombones…

Independence Day (After)

I came across a giveaway on TurningTurning that really hit home. She’s giving away Independence Day themed fabric, but she asked that entries include a personal declaration of independence. Here’s mine:

I am declaring independence from guilt. I don’t expect that will make it go away, but every reminder I give myself that I don’t HAVE to feel that way helps.

So… today, I am happy to be who I am, and feel what I feel, and do what I do.

I haven’t blogged a lot lately, haven’t sewed, haven’t done a lot of things that I’d like to do. I’ve been feeling that old anxiety, and haven’t been doing a very good job of fighting it. It’s funny – I go to work and can accomplish things with drive and purpose and everything is good, but I get home and, well, WALLOW. That’s what it feels like. Gotta work on that.

I see that I’m on post # 98 and I think post #100 would be an excellent opportunity for a giveaway. My goal is to accomplish that post BEFORE the end of the week, so keep your eye on this spot. I’m thinking the giveaway (darn, why do I have so much trouble typing that word?!) will be fabric rather than a project, and hmm… maybe it will involve a choice… I do have a lot to choose from.

Block Inspiration

I just happened upon a new site – Early Women Masters – Antique Geometric Quilt Designs. It includes some beautifully illustrated blocks. There aren’t any instructions, but if you’re looking for inspiration and are good at breaking down the pieces to create your own patterns, this is a great place to start. I’ve added the link to my Quilting Resources page as well.

The old ways are best

I came across a recipe on the Pioneer Woman blog. If you don’t already follow this blog, check it out – cooking, family, photography, men in Wranglers and chaps – what’s not to like?! I subscribed to all of her RSS feeds because I don’t want to miss a thing. She recently had another blogger (and his family) as guests, and Pastor Ryan made homemade pasta and Bolognese sauce.

When I was little, my grandmother made homemade noodles. Mom tells me that grandpa actually taught her how to make them. Grandpa sometimes used a wheelchair inside the house, and I remember sitting on his lap as he wheeled us past the counter where the noodles were drying. I’d reach out and scoop up a handful and we’d retire to the living room, where I’d share my booty.  Ah, fond memories of living dangerously close to salmonella poisoning!

Noodles (or pasta, if you want to get fancy), are simple to make. Seriously, it’s flour, salt and egg. You can leave out the salt if you’d like. Figure about 1/2 cup flour per large egg, and 1 egg per serving. Mix, knead for ten minutes, let it rest at room temperature (I wrapped it in plastic), then roll it out ultra thin and cut it in strips. Skinny strips, wide strips – whatever you like. Mine were about 1/4″ wide. I used a pizza cutter, but grandma used a knife, and cut hers about 1/16″ wide. Yep, you read that correctly. Grandma had a steady hand.  Toss ‘em about a little so they don’t stick to the counter, and let them dry out a bit. Say, long enough to make Pastor Ryan’s Bolognese Sauce. (That’s about 2 – 2 1/2 hours.)

This Bolognese Sauce is to die for. To. Die. For. todiefor. Really damn yummy. Mom actually said it was “the best spaghetti sauce she’s ever had.” That’s a lot, coming from her. Best of all it’s really easy, as long as you’ve got time to let it simmer.  Give it a try – you won’t be disappointed.

And yes, I courted Salmonella poisoning again today – I just love raw noodles.

HTML Code Basics

I just posted some info in a Flickr group about using HTML code. I thought it might be a useful reference for others, so here it is:

HTML Code
Here’s a quick tutorial on HTML code, some of which can be used in blog comments (and in comments and descriptions on Flickr photos).

1. All HTML code is shown inside the <> characters.
2. Code must be opened and closed. The closing code always has a / preceding the code, within the <> characters.
3. Basic codes include:
Bold: b (ex: <b>Bold</b> looks like Bold)
Italics: i (ex: <i>Italics</i> looks like Italics)
Underline: u (ex: <u>Underline</u> looks like Underline)
Hyperlink: a href=”URL” (closing code is just a)
(ex: <a href=”http://piecemealquilts.wordpress.com/”>Piecemeal Quilts</a> looks like Piecemeal Quilts)

By the way, getting the code to show in the post, instead of it just executing the code, involves changing the < > part of the code into the code that translates to brackets. I did it by using my blog editor, WordPress. I have the option of entering my blog posts in Visual or HTML mode. I write the HTML text in the visual mode, then click into the HTML mode and copy the text with the special characters. If you ever need to do it manually, replace the < with “& lt;” (no spaces between the & and the l) and replace the > with “& gt;” (no spaces between the & and the g). Those are semi-colons at the end (they’re kind of hard to see).

Whew!

May Quilting Day

Today was family sewing day, and both Karen and Pat made incredible progress on their projects. Karen has been working like crazy on a Schoolhouse quilt that her group will raffle next month. We worked on it last week – Karen, Mom and I – and made a lot of progress. Karen continued to assemble the blocks into rows with red sashing and white cornerstones, and today she finished the center of the top. All that’s left is the border, a cute red white and blue print, that I cut for her before she left.

Pat handed me a stack of fabrics (the watermelon print, purple, red and dark green) and said, “I want to make something with this.” I showed her my “Easy Quilts” file on EQ6, and she chose the woven rails. We pulled a couple more fabrics (the light green, gold and cream) and I started cutting strips while she sewed. The cream background is 2 1/2″ cut strips, and the centers are 4 1/2″ cut strips. The blocks will finish at 8″, and she’ll add a couple of borders to make a large lap/small twin quilt. It took the two of us about two or three hours to reach the point of finished blocks. She’ll sew the blocks together and bring it back (finished) next month.

As for my progress, well, I didn’t actually sew anything. My machine was on, briefly, but I spent my day cutting. Well, cutting, chatting, and eating the awesome Big Crumb Coffeecake with Rhubarb from the Smitten Kitchen blog. By the way, her Blondies are also incredible – I like them with cranberries, white chocolate and pecans. And a little Jim Beam.

Bits and pieces

The Salvation Army has a fabric and craft sale every year. I’ve picked up incredible deals in the past. This year I was much more limited in budget, but I still found a couple of great deals.

The wood spools were only a quarter! There were several bags of spools, most labeled at 2 dollars, but this one was only a quarter. I didn’t see anything different about these spools, so I snapped it up. The other bag was full of belt buckles that I thought would be great on bags. Again, just a quarter! Not pictured is the stack of about 15 quilting magazines, mostly American Patchwork and Quilting, for only two dollars! They were all dated between 2001 and 2004.

Later that week, we went to the International Quilt Festival in Rosemont, IL (just outside of Chicago). It was huge, as usual. I was pleased that I was able to stick to my budget, so my purchases are limited. I absolutely had to get white thread. You wouldn’t think that would require a special trip, but I prefer to use Aurifil and while a couple of local quilt shops carry it, they were all out of white in the weight that I use (50/2 – the orange spools). I prefer the really thin stuff because it helps my piecing to be accurate.

I also wanted to get a Moda Layer Cake – I wasn’t certain which fabric line, but I knew I wanted a set of 10″ squares. I have an idea for a quilt that uses them, and no one around here carries them. I found a booth that had a dozen different fabrics, and I settled on the Recess line by American Jane. Mom picked up a birthday gift for me – a Turnover in the Patisserie line by Fig Tree & Co.

Finally, I happened upon a booth that had fabric for just $5 a yard – and it was good quality stuff, too! Sometimes you can find inexpensive fabric, but all too often I recognize prints that I’ve seen at JoAnn Fabrics for less than they’re selling at the show. That is not a deal! This was older stuff from the major fabric companies. I picked up some of the brown marble because it’s the same fabric I used in a sample square of my first quilt pattern, Neapolitan. I did it in shades of blue and green with the dark brown corner pieces, and I’d love to make up the whole quilt in those colors. I went back to the booth at the end of the day to spend the rest of my budget – the orange check was calling me, and as I stood there the other two orange prints jumped from the shelves into my arms.

That nail file laying across the fabric? Well, I broke a nail and it was driving me nuts, so I had to buy one. That makes 145 nail files currently in my house.

My aunt purchased an Alto’s QuiltCut2 – the cutting tool that all of my purchases are stacked on. I bought one for my mom for Christmas a couple of years ago, and she absolutely loves it. Mostly because I cut all of her fabric on it. Honestly, though, I love the thing. I can cut a lot of fabric very quickly and accurately, and it makes preparing to sew much easier. The best part of my aunt’s purchase? They ran out of the product and she had it shipped to her house free of charge! That means I didn’t have to carry it for her. It’s a big, sturdy cutting system, which means that it isn’t light.

All in all it was a good day, except for the aching back and throbbing feet.

Pay It Forward

I have joined my first PIF from Jilly’s Space.

The concept of a PIF occurs when acts of kindness are performed without expecting anything in return and are passed on, trusting that the recipients will do the same and Pay It Forward, resulting in a never ending chain of kindness.

By signing on, my commitment is to make and send a gift to the first 3 friends who post a comment to this post requesting to join this exchange and who promise to Pay It Forward to 3 other persons, and so on.

At this time, I don’t know what my 3 gifts will be, but I can promise you a gift made by me and from my heart that I will send to you within the next 365 days. By signing on, what YOU then have to do in return is to Pay It Forward by making the same announcement and commitment on YOUR blog.

If you are one of the first 3 that sign up, please be sure there is a way I can contact you through your blog or email so I can get your contact info. Also, because this completed project MAY be larger (I’m not sure yet, but the possibility is there), I’m going to limit participation to US residents only, because shipping gets to be expensive.

So who wants to play?

One down – 87,000 to go

The Everything Old Is New Again quilt is finished and the pattern is available in my Etsy shop. Actually, it’s been finished for almost a week, but I finally finished the pattern this morning. Why, oh why did I think the pieced border was a good idea?! It is easy to sew and adds a nice little bit of interest, but it’s a real pain to calculate in five different quilt sizes. See, my patterns include directions for different size quilts, and the spacing of the white squares in this border is different for each size. It took me longer to figure out and write the instructions for the outer border than for the entire rest of the quilt.

However…

It looks good, doesn’t it? So does Mom’s version:

I took both versions to the quilt shop, along with a dozen patterns, and they loved them. They’re going to kit it in both colorways and take it to a show in Rockford in May. Mom’s pretty excited that her quilt is going to be displayed. I’m much more casual about it, since this is my third quilt on display. (*snort* – if you believe that…)

This makes ONE quilt finished for the Spring to Finish list! Woohoo!

Hurry up and wait

I finished the Everything Old is New Again top, then used the remaining charm squares to piece a strip for the back. It’s loaded on the frame to be quilted but I don’t have any white quilting thread! It was all ready to go yesterday, but of course the quilt shop was closed on Easter. Mom’s going to pick up some thread today and I’ll quilt it tonight. Fortunately, Mom ENJOYS doing the binding so it should be finished for Wednesday’s quilt guild.

It’s made with charm packs and a little yardage. I used Sultry by basicgrey from Moda. I love the pink and green and brown combination. It’s girly but modern. Mom found a charm pack that she loved, also by Moda – Northern Solitude by Holly Taylor. She finished her quilt first (of course).

Isn’t it gorgeous? And speaking of gorgeous Mom quilts, here’s her finished Family Star BOM:

She’s the only one of us who has actually finished. I love how it turned out. When all five are done I’ll post them together so you can see how different they look, even though we did the same blocks.

Then last night on a whim (as usual) I experimented with a zigzag quilt technique that I found on the Bee Square Blog by Crazy Mom Quilts (CMQ is of my favorite blogs, by the way – she has the best tutorials). I used some leftover white from my Everything Old quilt, and did a miniature version. I tried pressing the seam open and I was pleased with how it turned out.

I spray starched the heck out of it because I did it in miniature. See?

And yes, I know I wasn’t supposed to start another project. Hmmph.