Vermont Quilt Festival Loot

On Saturday I cashed in a year's worth of change and my credit card reward points and met my mom at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  The contest quilts were beautiful and the antique quilts lovely.  There was a Dear Jane exhibit and we got to see the amazing work of quilt artist Jo Diggs.  But lets be honest, we were there to shop... and shop we did.

In the past, my mom and I lived close enough to each other that we would ride to the festival together and spend the entire 2 hour trip home fondling our fabric; oohing and ahhing over our purchases and discussing the possibilities.  That ride home was almost as much fun as the shopping itself.  But now that my parents have retired to New Hampshire's Great North Woods, my mom and I had to drive in separate cars -- sigh.

Since I couldn't share the fabric shopping afterglow with my mom, I've decided to have a little show and tell.



First of all, the fabric...

Fall colors, yummy.  That's navy blue with the orange in the homespun pack.  Love that combination.  

Is July 2nd too early to start thinking about pumpkin pie?

 I can never walk away from a good red fabric.  I LOVE red.  

And the blue and green fabrics just went so well with the red.

The top two fabrics are from Lynette Anderson's Hollyhock Cottage fabric line.

Her fabrics are so whimsical and the colors so pretty!

Now on to the wool...

There was so much beautiful wool at the festival this year.  I bought the Primitive Gatherings charm pack on top for inspiration because the colors were great.  I must have been channeling Christmas with the rest.  I know, I know, July 2nd is definitely too early to start thinking about Christmas cookies.

And finally, the patterns...

Actually really only one pattern.  I love handwork and miniatures and couldn't resist this little Bareroots pattern.  The other two projects came from Pinwheels and have sayings printed on Daiwabo fabric.  After you stitch them up, you soak the fabric and the blue disappears.  Very cute as a pillow or in a frame.

That's it!  I wish there was more, but as usual, I was like a deer in the headlights for the first couple hours of shopping.  So much loveliness, so little decisiveness.  But all in all, I managed to acquire a pretty good pile of loot AND I came home with enough leftover cash to make a nice start on next year's VQF mad money.  Can't wait!!

The Traditional Quilter's Guide to Making a Modern Quilt

Impressive title, isn't it!

In my last post, I mentioned that I had an opportunity to design for a modern quilt magazine and while I clearly haven't been blogging, I have been sewing.  I managed to make the deadline and submitted 5 modern quilting projects.  Fingers crossed!

Just in case you're thinking of giving modern quilting a try, I've decided to share a few newfound insights.  May I present:


The Traditional Quilter's Guide to Making a Modern Quilt

1.  Play -- relax, experiment, and let your imagination go wild.

2.  Don't be afraid of modern fabric -- it may be bright, it may be bold, but it is, after all, only fabric.

Glimma by Lotta Jansdotter

 3.  Try solids -- cut into pieces and combined, solids can be a revelation!

4.  Edit, edit, edit -- just because it looks modern, doesn't mean it looks good.

More Glimma

5.  When in doubt, ask your daughter -- difficult though it may be to admit, she is younger, cooler, and in touch with her modern side (let me rephrase that  - she actually has a modern side to be in touch with).

6.  Add white -- but remember it's white and if you're not careful everything (rulers, rotary cutter, sewing machine, iron, ironing board, puppy, air, etc.) will make it dirty.

And more Glimma - I like Glimma

7.  KISS -- say it with me, "keep it simple, stupid."

8.  Focus -- don't allow yourself to be distracted by any of the following:  lacrosse games, band concerts, laundry, slumber parties, grocery shopping, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, head colds, dust bunnies, global warming, etc.

Curious Nature by Parson Gray

9.  Don't feel guilty -- you're not actually cheating on your stash.

10.  "Don't think, you can only hurt the ball club." -- please excuse the Bull Durham reference, but so many times in my life, this says it all.


Happy quilting!
                   

Modern Quilting

My head is spinning these days because I have an opportunity to design for a "modern" quilt magazine.

If I had to describe myself as a quilter it would be "traditional with a twist."  I love scrappy quilts with traditional piecing and maybe a bit of wool appliqué thrown into the mix.  My favorite quilt blocks are sawtooth stars and flying geese.  I cut my teeth on Kansas Troubles fabrics and I still favor muted, darker colors - especially red.  I love red.  And I own all of Kim Diehl's books -- even though I become absolutely green with envy every time I open one of them.

So why would I even think of attempting to design a modern quilt?

Because I just can't help myself.

After I got over the initial surge of fear at the thought of attempting modern design, my juices started flowing.  I spent hours on EQ 7 playing with the ideas pouring out of me; countless color and block combinations spinning in my head.  Now this may have been due to the fact that I accidentally drank a pot of full strength coffee rather than the decaf I thought I'd made -- a hypothesis I plan to test when I'm feeling brave enough to withstand the accompanying racing heartbeat and shaking hands.  But I really think I was reinvigorated by the challenge of designing something totally different.

Bright, clear colors.  High contrast.  Simple, graphic patterns.  Negative space.  It's like learning a new language.

Maybe I'll work with solids.  Maybe I'll explore asymmetry -- shudder.  Perhaps, dare I say it, I'll even try some improvisational piecing.  Even the word "improvisational" gives me a thrill!

I don't know if I'll be successful and my designs may be a disaster.  But I do know, that right now, quilting feels like play again.  And that's good enough for me.

My Spring Fling

Ahhh.... spring has finally arrived in New Hampshire.  We've been having the most amazing weather for the past week.  Sunny and 70° every day and still no bugs!

I decided to celebrate with a little on-line fabric shopping and to my delight discovered mini charm packs -- collections of 2½" x 2½" squares of fabric.

Now, I LOVE regular charm packs -- a whole fabric line of color-coordinated perfection in a tidy little bundle for only $10 -- but mini charm packs are a revelation!!!

Look how cute they are in their tiny packaging with their darling pinked edges -- like gorgeous pieces of candy that fit perfectly in the palm of your hand!!  And at less than $5, they are absolutely guilt-free.

Of course, I realize that inch for inch, mini charm packs are much more expensive than full-size charm packs.  And I know that the number of pattern possibilities are more limited for 2½" x 2½" squares.  And, to be honest, I have to admit that I'm deeply hesitant to even remove the paper bands from the mini charm packs to get a closer look at the fabrics, much less sew them into a project.

But I really don't care!  I love them and love knows no reason.  It makes me happy just to look at them sitting on the corner of my cutting table, looking sweet.  Joy for $4.50?  Sold!

Peaseblossom

It was school vacation last week so I didn't manage to get in a lot of quilting, but I did sew.

My daughter Grayson needed to come up with a costume for her role "Peaseblossom" in her school's upcoming production of I Hate Shakespeare.  "Peaseblossom" is a fairy from A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Grayson's director wanted her to find a "hippie" dress in pink and green.  Not eager to spend our vacation in the car driving from store to store looking for the perfect hippie fairy costume, I suggested to Grayson that we make the dress.  

I sew all the time, but it's been a while since I've actually sewn clothing.  When I was in high school, I made a skirt or two and during my first pregnancy, I even made a couple of maternity dresses.  And when the kids were little, I used to make their Halloween costumes every year--of course now that they are older, they want to buy or assemble their own costumes and my days of sewing with Winnie the Pooh-colored fake fur are long gone.  

But I wasn't too worried about getting the job done--it was just a simple dress after all, and I've been watching Project Runway for years, so I was pretty sure I had it covered.  Grayson was hesitant, but I told her that if we made the dress it would probably save time, it would definitely save money, and she could have exactly what she wanted.  "Trust me," I told her, "It's what I do."  She finally gave in and off we went to the fabric store.

I had my first moments of doubt when it took her 90 minutes to choose her fabric and pattern--but I figured she was distracted by the less than desirable behavior of her little brothers.  My concern grew when I was trying to figure out the notions.  She had chosen a Burda pattern--German, I think--and instead of actually listing the necessary notions, the pattern had little pictures that I assume were supposed to be universally understood.  When even the store manager wasn't able to translate, I took my best guess and grabbed interfacing, elastic, and bias tape.  At the cash register, the total came to just over $40--not exactly the bargain I was looking for, but there was no going back.

Flash forward:

The dress took me two days to finish and left me with a few more white hairs and a bruised ego.  I struggled with the fabrics--one gauzy, one slippery.  Quilting cottons make so much more sense.  I struggled with the fit and had to adjust the bodice when the arm holes ended up too tight--apparently German women have unusually skinny arms.  And I struggled for an hour to fish the elastic through the waistband only to have to remove it when Grayson decided that she didn't want an elastic waist after all.   

But in the end, Grayson was really happy with her moderately priced, reasonably pretty, homemade pink and green hippie fairy dress.  And I was comfortable with the realization that I should probably stick with quilting.    All's well that ends well.

The pattern and fabrics -- floral on top with an underskirt of the green.
Please try to disregard that the pattern is classified as "very easy."

Spring, Really?

For the first time in months, last night I fell asleep to the sound of falling rain.  I was convinced that I would wake up this morning to find that the last remnants of snow had melted and that spring was finally here.  Instead this is what I found:

More snow.

For some reason, this morning I felt like this on the inside:

But outside it looked like this:

So I decided that if spring won't come to me, I'd make a little spring on my own:

I borrowed the paper-pieced tulips from an MH Designs pattern that I've had for a really long time, but that is actually still available on their website.  The MH Designs quilt is 11" x 18" and has 7 tulips.  I made it once for my mother-in-law, but never got around to making one for myself.  I don't know what took me so long!  The tulips are a breeze to make and really sweet.  My little quilt measures about 5 1/2" x 6" and here's how I'm going to display it:

I think it's darling on the little quilt frame that my mother gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago.

Now I have something springy to look at while I wait for the view outside my window to improve.  Not a bad way to spend a Monday morning!

Show and Tell

Every year my mom and I go to the Vermont Quilt Festival.  And every year I tell myself that I will only buy fabric -- not patterns, I don't need ANY MORE patterns.  But then the booths are so inspiring and the patterns and quilt samples are so beautiful that I give in to temptation.  Somehow I equate buying a pattern with having the actual finished product in my home -- I tend to forget the pesky construction stage in the middle.  I'm developing quite a collection of patterns.  They look beautiful in their little plastic bags.  Don't think I will ever finish all of them.  Just goes to show you how strong my resolve is.

But thanks to my amazing long arm quilter Joyce, I'm happy to say that I've just lightened my load by one.  Here's the pattern that I bought at VQF a couple of years ago.  Maybe it was a few years ago.  Ok, it was probably five.

It's a Bonnie Blue Quilts pattern.  Pretty isn't it!  You can see why I caved.

And here's my finished quilt...

Ta da!!  Ok, I admit it's smaller.  I envisioned it as a wall quilt, rather than a lap or bed quilt.  But hey, it's finished -- beautifully quilted by Joyce, bound, and ready to hang on the wall.  All that's left is to decide which wall.

Here's a close-up of a tree of life block.  I love the straight lines in the gold -- Joyce repeated them throughout the quilt in the inner blue and sawtooth borders.

And I especially love how she quilted the tree trunks...

So there you have it.  One pattern down, a dozen to go.  At my current rate of one every five years it will only take me 60 years to finish them all.  

This year I PROMISE not to buy any more patterns.  I really, really mean it.  Honest.