TREASURED MEMORIES

Yes, she's lived in all of these houses. Sue is one of my longarm customers and I can always count on her to give a challenge with every quilt. Sue definitely qualifies for the TIF (Take It Further) challenges I read about in so many other quilting blogs.

(Note: you can click on any image for a larger more detailed view.)

One time she used all of her husband's silk ties to create a quilt/wall hanging that was all circles. I've seen other tie quilts, but Sue took it a step further and used raw silk for the background fabric. Another wall hanging was done using up more of the ties but adding coins from all of the different countries where her husband had worked as an embellishing element.

This time, it is the "HOUSE QUILT." Sue used old photos for creating the houses and then asked her kids about their memories from each house. Sue interpreted those memories with bead, buttons, trim, and embroidery embellishments for each block. She forgot about needing to attach the embellishments after I completed the quilting so the challenge was double as I worked around each button and bead hoping not to hit them with the needle or catch them with the hopping foot.

For me, the quilting challenge became a question of how to enhance the memories of each block. The quilting became a freehand fill sampler using ever fill I ever seen and even dreaming up a couple of new ones.

I started with completing the obvious ... the sky areas and the grass or ground areas. The houses were a little more difficult because of the beading and buttons. But the detailing on the houses was so much more defined when I did stitch in the ditch where ever I could. Sue will have a few areas to complete on her own either by hand or with her domestic machine.

Sometimes the fabric was a good guide in dictating the fill pattern to be used. After I finished all of the sky/ground areas I went back to look at the roof of each house. Sue was very careful to pick fabrics that looked like the actual roofing material of each house. I followed her lead and quilted shakes, shingles, and swirly curvy roofing tiles. It is always difficult to use a two dimensional representation look three dimensional, but Sue did a good job by using proportion and scale, piecing lines, and embroidery stitches, and floss color to help create shadows, forward projecting roof lines, and under eaves areas.

Sometimes sky fill was easy because of the embroidery Sue had done to begin with. The fireworks in the sky gave me a theme to follow continuing with swirls and "shadow" fireworks. I also created a shadow forest behind the tall evergreen tree on the left to help enhance a single lone tree.
This building has a wonderful story. It was the only time Sue had to live in an apartment building. The building is located in Chicago ... hence, Lake Michigan in the foreground. And, of course, you'll notice the absence of any green, landscaping, flowers since Sue was living in the "concrete canyons." For one who loves her yard and gardening, the single lone ornamental tree she could see from her second story window was what helped her to keep her sanity.

The other item of interest with this building is an embroidered motif. This logo wasn't really on the side of the building, but Sue added it to help remember the other building tenants and to explain interesting visitors she may have met coming and going from the building. You may have to look closely at the picture on the left side of the building to see the embroidered Play Bunny logo - their headquarters is located in this building in Chicago.

No, this is not a giant peach or orange tree with only one orange. Sue could see the town water tower from one of her windows which was painted to look like a peach. What Sue remembers most about this water tower was, if one were approaching from just the right direction ... how much the top of the water tower looked like a bare baby's bottom.

Ah, Glasgow Kentucky ... where they actually created a mosaic of the town name and the state embedded right into the street!

Such a family treasure - a unique way to capture the memories and a great conversation starter for family gatherings. Sue, how are you ever going to decide who is the keeper of such a wonderful family heirloom? Is it time to get started making one for each of your children!

MONKEY BUSINESS

Now is this a fun quilt or what! When I look at my "to-do" list for today I see nothing about making a sock monkey quilt, but I guess this is a clear example of what they call "going with the flow" or "striking when the iron is hot." So, as Paul Harvey would say, "... and now, for the rest of the story ..."

My daughter has a friend who is expecting and due in October. Eryn has been after me to design a quilt for her to make for her friend. First was the picking of the fabric. Sock Monkey fabric was the selection of the day. And now for the pattern.

At first I thought I would use the same pattern as the one (Bebe Bears) I pieced for the twins and released at Spring Market. But, when I got up this morning, something just didn't feel right about that pattern with the monkey fabric.

Back to the drawing board and in just a quick 15 or 20 minutes I had the pattern done! Well, the drawings were finished; the pattern still has to be written. Some quick calculations as to how many strip sets were needed for the sashing blocks and how many squares would be needed for the half square triangles, and I was on my way to the cutting board rotary cutter in hand.

Piecing began at about 11:00 this morning and the borders were on with the top being finished by 6:00 this evening. I think I just set a new PR for the fastest time on record I've ever had a quilt come together. I took lots of construction/technique photos along the way to help in the pattern write-up. Tomorrow I will finish cutting the kit for Eryn, get the first steps of construction written out for her, and ship it off to her in a priority envelope so she can get started piecing the blocks.

If you're reading this post, Eryn, you need to call me and let me know if you have a 1/4" foot with your "Hello Kitty" sewing machine!

A FORGOTTEN UFO

Well look what I found! While searching through my 30's stash of strips, scraps, and fat quarters looking for some missing orphan blocks I found something else I had forgotten all about.

These are birthday blocks pieced for me by members of our Scrappy Sisters quilting group. They were made for me about eight years ago and have been languishing in a drawer waiting for me to have time to get them together into a quilt. As you can see on the table I even have a much rumpled and wrinkled quilt plan.

Along with these single blocks I had four corners of three rows each with the blocks in a horizontal set. I had cut the inside blocks in half to make the corners. Who knows now what on earth I was planning to do. No EQ printout for that idea ... at least, none found to date.

Our Scrappy Sisters group has a Finishing Club. Each person who joins must contribute $10 and four fat quarters. We report our square inches for each project finished during a quarter. Each person who reports in per quarter has their name in the hat for the drawing of a fat quarter bundle. We have enough participants to have three or four winners each quarter. At the "end of our year" ... our annual retreat in August, the person who has reported the most square inches finished wins the "pot of gold." We've had great fun finishing up our UFO's and getting to those projects that have been on the "want to do" list for several years.

Seems like this just might be the year to get the birthday block quilt finished up and on the bed. Oh, and I never did find those orphan blocks I was looking for. Drat! There's always tomorrow.

SPRING MARKET 2008

Another market season finished and a part of history ... what a grand time to meet up with old friends and make new friends. Market is a place where all of us with quilt related product come together in one large venue to offer our wares to shop owners and other people who do retail sales to the general public. Many of us who vend at shows see each other on a regular basis throughout the year "on the floor" at the various trade shows and quilt festivals. Cries of "see you in Long Beach" (for the new Summer Quilt Festival) were heard often as we packed up our booths and pushed our carts of product to our cars and vans yesterday afternoon.

My home for the last three days in booth 1506 was comfy being surrounded by my quilts. A new thing I learned was how helpful it was for people to see the same quilt in two different fabric styles. Sweet Nothings was hung in 30's with the batik sample right beside it. Wonderful contrast.

Sandra with Just Curves is now carrying all of my patterns that feature curved patch piecing - Cotton Candy Kisses, Picnic Party, and Asian Pinwheels. If you are still have trouble piecing curves using my quick and easy method, I suggest you try her Curve Master foot which is sized for all of the different brands of home machines.

On Friday everyone came to pick up all the literature they could manage to carry in their totes and bags from all of us vendors - many small pattern companies, the various batting companies, and the notions and ruler booths. To get to each of the smaller booths the show owners had to walk through the big multi-booth setups for all of the major fabric companies and get a quick peek at the new fabric lines. Saturday was a day of appointments with these fabric companies for most of the shop owners And Saturday and Sunday were also the days they came back to us pattern vendors to place their orders. I handed out lots of brochures, saw many familiar faces and repeat customers, and will be filling orders today.

In the big scheme of things, I think it was a good market; I'm looking forward to the retail festival in Longbeach this summer, and will have a booth in Houston for the Fall Market.

CATCHING UP

Oh my! New grandbabies, getting very sick with a repspiratory infection, and then playing catch-up really does put one behind. But, we should be back on schedule now. So let's get to the fun stuff .. what have I been working on?

Digitizing and Designing seem to be the task of the day. I have several new digitized designs for you Statler Users that will be posted soon into the online catalog. And, of course, International Spring Market is here in Portland, OR starting this afternoon with setup and the show floor opening to buyers on Friday. I have 3 new patterns to present to shop owners and then the public this spring.

MQS 117 TWISTING RIBBONS: What a great pattern with a traditional look and using only four fabrics. Piecing techniques include strip piecing and sew-n-fold corners making this pattern quick and easy to piece, and you will be able to make a "free" small throw quiltlet from the left-overs after trimming away "waste" triangles.

MQS 118 PEEK-A-BOO: Another quick and easy pattern to piece! I can always tell which patterns are favorites for me and are quick to piece because I will have multiple samples of that pattern. This pattern is one of those quilts. Only three fabrics needed - work for contrast in value and scale to create the light dark affect as the blocks form strong diagonal lines. To help stay within the designs lines of the pattern, I've included mitered borders as a part of the quilt pattern. (More about piecing mitered borders later.)

And finally, MQS 120 BEBE BEARS! Remember the baby quilts I made for our new expanded family ... I decided to include the multiple sizes into a complete pattern. We have a queen size quilt for the Moma and PaPa Bear, the baby size quilt for the baby bears, and we mustn't leave out the Grandma and Grandpa Bear. There is a throw size, as well, for snuggling, cuddling and loving at Grandma and Grandpa's house, too.

As promised two long months ago, the free pattern for the baby quilt can be found in the "FREE IS GOOD" folder on my yahoo newsletter site.

It's good to be back! Have a wonderful day and come back soon to see pictures and read all about Spring Market here in beautiful Portland Oregon.