Quilt Guild Meeting

Tonight I will attend the Quilt Guild meeting for the first time in several years.
I was a faithful attendee for many years until my husband had to teach a night class on Mondays one year and I had younger children I couldn't leave home alone.  Then, living out of town and getting busy with other things, I just got out of the habit.  However, a large number of my friends were met through the guild.  But tonight! I am nervous because they asked me to come and be their "featured quilter" for this meeting.  I have spent all morning biting my nails and trying to organize my thoughts.  It is quite difficult to decide what to say and what to take for show and tell.
I thought I'd sew for a little to calm my nerves, but unfortunately I have a problem with my machine that requires me to take it in to be fixed.  I was machine quilting yesterday at full tilt, and hit a safety pin --- Ouch!! It seemed to do something very bad to the tension.  I pulled out my backup machine, but no go with it either.  So, both are sitting quietly by the front door. (along with the stuff I pulled together for tonight)

One of the things I'm taking is this project I started yesterday before the big hit.  It is some odds and ends from other projects, and some cut-out pieces from a little beat-up set of embroidered doilies.  I'm planning to turn the pieces into a long table runner.  It is good sometimes to just sew together stuff that can't possibly be turned into a pattern.

 And... remember about the little round-top case? Well I tinkered around a bit and sewed a couple from felted wool sweaters, and they are just crying out for embellishment now!  I took lots of photos during the process, so I hope to turn that into a "How-to" posting. 

 Also, as I was exploring some ways to customize the blog, I added some links to other blogs, including Judy's around the world travel adventure!
Wish me luck for tonight!  thanks! michelle

Saturdays are busy

Yesterday, I spent quite a few hours in town at the store.  First, I helped  unpack some new orders, and then we had a staff sewing get together--all the 8 staff that work in the front of the shop, plus me were there.    
During our sewing party, we talked a bit about working the shop on Saturdays.  It is a busy day.  Weekdays have their own rhythm, with deliveries, phone calls, a lot of regulars stopping in, and some flurries of activity during the day, often around lunch hour.  Saturdays are often strikingly different.  Often they can be hectic, even with 3 or 4 staff working to help people.  The twice-monthly Saturday block pick-up days can be very busy, but often the same people come at the same time, so there can be quite a bit of socializing.  Sometimes a group of 4 or 5 will come in together, either coming from breakfast, or before going for coffee.   No deliveries, but lots of quilts being planned out.  Sometimes it is busy all day, sometimes a real rush at 4 or 4:30.  By 5:30 you can be very tired out! 

 Do you see that box of envelopes on the table? It was so much fun to open the box and find it.  It is a selection of Hot Iron Transfers for embroidery.  There are 20 dozen, which is 240 of them, and almost all are different!  We all had to pick out some favorites to take home.  (At less than $2 each it was easy)

After 5 years of working nearly every Saturday, I decided to spend Saturdays at home.  But Saturdays at home can be busy too. 

So far today, I have pin-basted two lap size quilts, sewn on some borders, browsed through some books to get some ideas for a new quilt using large scale prints, baked some home-made granola bars, started reading a novel by Laurie R. King, got caught up on Facebook, admired the sunshine, played with my camera and the collage creating features of Picasa, and watched some Olympic skiing on t.v...

I recently purchase this little toiletry pouch made by Fossil.  It is a great size and shape, I was thinking of trying to make one similar to it out of felt and one of the fun-colored zippers I picked up recently a year or two ago. Maybe later.. michelle

Saturday Surprise Block #13

For those who are sewing the Saturday Surprise Blocks, this is today's block:

 And here, some gorgeous new fabrics by Basic Grey, called "Blush", by moda

The Computer is my Friend

The last couple of days have been very computer oriented.
Catching up on my ledger book yesterday took up 5 hours! by the end of that I was pretty antsy, and it took a while to recover.   So, in the evening I sewed a bit, knit a bit...

These are little baby slippers, very tiny, out of alpaca so they're very soft.  the pattern is in a Debbie Bliss book.  I'd like to make them in my size.  Hmm. 


Then I decided I needed to sew a bit.  We got in a bunch of Amy Butler's Love collection on Monday, which are all big prints.  I didn't have any of them here at home, but I did have some Anna Maria Horner fabrics and some other nice bright fabrics, so I found a simple table runner pattern on the Moda web site:  
silent-night-batik-tablerunner.
 I made it a bit longer, with 5 squares instead of four.  I like how it turned out.  I think we'll have to do some kits for at the shop, but in some of our new fabrics.
 

When I talked to Deb today, (she at the store, I am at home, working!), they were unpacking some other new fabric, another moda line called Blush, by Basic Grey, which you can see  HERE.
You might remember that they did a very popular Christmas group of fabrics called Figgy Pudding.  I almost jumped in the car and drove to town to see them, but I restrained myself.  

Instead, I worked on a couple of patterns -- the block for Saturday, and the new version of X and O's.  This was the first pattern I wrote in 2004 when Periwinkle opened, and I still think the design is good.  So, I have resewn the quilt in 1800's reproductions, and am totally redoing the pattern.  
Now I need to decide what to sew with the Blush fabrics!
michelle

How to Make a Braided Rug, part I

I decided to break up this "tutorial" on how to make a braided rug, because it might take a while for me to write.  Plus, when I make a rug, there are three definite stages to the process.

This is Part I -- Gather your fabric, make strips and fold them

First of course are photos of some finished rugs:

 You can make a small circle rug for on a chair or stool, or a long narrow oval for a bench:

 or a circular floor rug:

 or a long oval rug for a hallway!

 You can combine the braided rug with a hooked rug center:

But first you have to collect some wool.
I've been lucky in the past to obtain fabric somewhat inexpensively, but I find this is getting harder to do where I live.  Aside from Value Village, and the Salvation Army thrift stores, we have a Mennonite used goods store here that I found the best stuff.  It was in a section that had little bundles of fabric for low prices.  Also, you can sometimes find some good lengths of yardage at garage sales, or perhaps a friend might have a stash that she wants to give away.  Or, you can get it at fabric stores, although that can be pretty expensive.
Sometimes, it is even worthwhile to take apart an old piece of wool clothing, if you want to use the color or pattern on it --- a very large dirndl wool skirt is good, but you have to be able to get quite a few fairly long strips from it to make it worthwhile.

I sort of knew what wool looked and felt like.  However, it is hard to tell sometimes whether a fabric is a wool blend.  The main thing is that it should be thick enough to fold into a cord that has some body to it, that won't be really flat.  If a fabric is thin, you can try to felt it by throwing it into the washing machine on hot, and then putting it in the dryer.
You can really tell the difference between 100% wool and a wool blend when you try to cut or rip it into strips.  100% wool rips really easily, whereas a blend has resistance to it, and makes a louder noise when you rip it. 

To start, you need to cut strips of woven wool that are about 2-1/4" wide.  I usually make cuts on the end of the fabric with the rotary cutter and ruler:  You can rip each strip individually, or if you're feeling strong, rip down a few inches on each, then fold half the strips one way and half the other.  Hold one bunch of strips in each hand and then pull apart to rip all the strips at once.

 After you have strips, you might want to join some of the shorter ones into a longer strip.  I like to have strips that are at least 4 or 5 feet long, up to about 6 or 7 feet long.
Join them with a diagonal seam.  Just lay one end over another at right angles, and sew on the diagonal. 

Then cut the extra fabric away.

At this point, I usually put them all into a large basket to keep near the sofa to have on hand for moments when you want something to do.  Perfect for watching t.v.
Next step is to fold and coil the strips into something that looks sort of  like a cinnamon roll.

 It's a bit tricky to explain how to do the folding/coiling.  What you're aiming to do is fold the raw edges to the inside (be careful so that any seams you had will be on the inside of the fold).  It's certainly a two-handed technique.  You might find it helpful to place pins in as you go to prevent things from unwinding if you accidentally let go.  My coils are usually about 3" to 6" wide when totally wound up.  Finish off by putting a pin in the end to hold it in place.  Then, you can lay them out on an ironing board.  I steam them thoroughly on one side, turn them over and steam again.  When they dry, the folds will be set in place so that they won't unfold when you do the braiding part.  

They look sort of interesting at this point.  Usually I do lots of them, so that later I can braid a lot at one sitting.
If you only want to give this a try, you'll only need a few coils for something like a 8" circle to use as a hot mat.  You'll naturally feel clumsy doing this at first, and be tempted to give up.  But, it's like a lot of things, if you persevere a bit and practice, soon it gets much easier and you'll be doing it without thinking about it. Really!

Well, that's it for the first step,  next you will braid the coils!!! Michelle