Stormy Weather

Snowy weather is perfect for quilting. I have made several more blocks with the Kokopeli. I arranged it so that the black with white dots appear to be coming out of the flute like musical notes. I am dyeing some turquoise for the sashing but now I'm thinking the gold musical notes that I got for the cool cats might be a better choice...


Our studio is cold on the outside but toasty warm inside.

Another one Done

I finished the binding on this one this morning. It is the first one I have done with polar fleece on the back. I really prefer cotton fabric and batting. It's easier to handle on the frame and I like the weight of it better.
I added a row of silver rick rack to separate the houses from the border.


I started this one today. I got the Kokopeli fabric in Santa Fe earlier this year. I am auditioning sashing fabrics. I lean toward the turquoise but will have to dye some more.

More Houses

I sewed the houses together using a different coloured stripe than the one I auditioned yesterday. Once I had them all together I realized it was going to be too short so I started making more houses. Unfortunately, I ran out of the cute dotted blue fabric so the rest of the skies are darker and slightly ominous. I will add three more houses to the top and then use the striped fabric as a border. I will still need another border to make it large enough. I'm not sure yet what color that will be. Am I tired of making houses? Not yet!

Pastel?

For a baby quilt contest I thought I should make one with some pastels. This is it so far.

Art Day (With Cooking)

Yesterday two of my friends and I had an art and cooking day. We made some cheese (not totally successful because we let the milk for the feta get too hot). Last time I was in China town I bought a soup mix that had all the instructions in Chinese. We decided to give it a try. This picture is the broth steeping. We had no idea what any of the ingredients were but it smelled great.


Add a few vegetables and voila, a tasty and (I hope) nutritious soup.
In the studio we played with stamps, paintsticks and stencils. I also did a bit of machine quilting on my latest quilt. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the house. It was a fun day.

Houses

I got the houses put together with the yellow sashing. I don't like the lower right area but not sure what to do about it. The yellow is too wide there. Maybe I can fill it with quilting or applique something on there. The border looks quite dark in the photo but in real life it's quite bright.

Fabric

I went to Winnipeg yesterday and of course, had to stop at a fabric store. I got these four pieces of fabric. I like the bright yellow the best. It has very subtle leaves and ferns on it.


I bring my hibiscus plant outside for the summer. When I bring it in it always goes crazy flowering. Besides the two flowers, it has 11 buds.

Baby Houses

They extended the baby blanket contest for an extra week so I thought I'd enter another one if I can get it finished in time. I made these houses today. I'll use quite wide sashing because they are all different sizes. That way I can also bring it up to the required 40 inch size. The fabric on the left is my first audition for the sashing and borders. It looked not bad in the studio but now that I see it on my monitor, I don't like it much. It's too busy and will detract from the houses. I want it to look baby-like but not pink or blue. I have a nice bright yellow that may work or some dot fabric. Or I may break down and buy new fabric if I don't find the perfect one in my stash.

Cool Cats

Here are the Cool Cats pieced together. I don't have enough music fabric to make the back so I may have to piece some other fabrics together. I'll quilt it with loops and maybe some music notes thrown in.

Froggy Day

I am almost finished this quilt for a baby blanket contest being held by our local radio station. The winner gets a nice new sewing machine. Then the blankets will be auctioned off to benefit our local hospital. Either way there are winners!


And the back.

Cool Cats Encore

Sorry for such a dark picture. I have made a few more cats but meanwhile have been working on a baby quilt for a contest. I'm not sure if I am allowed to show it before the contest ends so you'll have to wait until the end of November to see it.
The cats are coming right along. I'm not sure about the top right one. I find the blue strips too light for the rest of the blocks. I may go at it with paintsticks and if that doesn't work I'll just discard it. The sashing will be the same musical fabric as I used on the mice.

Today's Baking

I pre-baked a pie crust for a lemon pie a few days ago so it was time to bake it today. I don't like to heat up the oven for just one thing so I made these savory muffins that turned out to be very, very tasty. I got the recipe at Cooks.com

Cool Cats

The cat apartment is all quilted, bound and ready for the hand sewing.


These cats are from the same fabric as the mice in Musical Mice. They are a bit too big to fit in the doorways of my houses so they get a crazy block instead. I'll be adding sashing, probably the music fabric from the Musical Mice.

Musical Mice

I went with Musical Mice. I liked Mouse Minuet but it seemed too formal for these mice. They are more Blues Mice, which, now that I think of it, would have been a good title too. I found the perfect musical fabric for the border at our LQS. I added a thin strip of gold ribbon, which looks silver in the photo for some reason, just inside the border. It's finished now and in the queue for the quilting machine.
Next I'm going to work on some Musical Cats that were on the same fabric. They are much bigger though so they won't be in houses. I like small characters for the houses. The cats will be in wonky log cabin blocks a bit like the bugs were. Stay tuned...

Which Words?

I can go horizontal or vertical. I can use either Musical Mice or Mouse Music.


I want to find some fabric with musical notes or some other music theme to use as sashing.

Cat Apartment

This is the quilt I finished for the friend whose mother had pieced it. It is huge. It barely fit on my frame. It is beautiful although not my style. I quilted it with all over loops.


This is the cat wall hanging made into a cat apartment as suggested by my critique group. I decided not to put any horizontal lines in the side strips to keep the apartment look. I had to search a long time through my stash to find the right fabric for the roof. Now to decide how to quilt it. I'll probably do this one on my DSM because it's quite small, only about 10 inches by about one yard long.

Musical Mice

I found some fabric with cats and mice playing musical instruments. The mice are a lot smaller than the cats so they are getting houses built around them. The cats may end up in the middle of wonky log cabins or some other setting. Meanwhile, the mice are practising for their next gig.

Pattern Making

Pattern Making For a Perfect Fit

If you have an item of clothing that is a perfect fit but is worn out, or you would just like another one in a different color, this is the book for you. Steffani Lincecum shows you how to "rub off" a pattern without destroying the original. She shows two methods, one using paper and the other using muslin.
The first section explains the two methods and then goes on to discuss the tools and equipment, fabrics, measuring and even how to estimate the yardage needed.
The rest of the book goes into details of patterning skirts, dresses, blouses and even handbags. She not only tells you how to make the pattern, she goes into detail on how to construct the garment and how to re-style parts of it for a new look. For example, in the blouse section you can convert the pointed collar to a round one, or change the blouse into a halter top or tunic.
In the handbag section she takes a pattern from the source purse and makes several different looks by changing the fabric, handles and details.
It is well illustrated and the instructions are clear and consise. I did a lot of garment sewing before I started quilting and I would have loved to own this book back then. If you enjoy sewing garments but are tired of buying patterns that don't fit, this is the book for you.

The Party Dress Book

I am not a party girl and when I get out of my jeans it's usually into pyjamas. However, this book makes me want to dress up in something fantastic and go to a party!
Mary Adams has designed dresses for many famous people and for movies. She has a store in New York City where her one of a kind dresses are showcased. The first part of the book talks about her career in fashion and her influences. Some of these influences include the hippie era, the fifties glamour, western fashion and even Marie Antoinette.
The next part is all about color, my favorite part of sewing , whether it's for garments or quilts. She uses lots of transparent fabrics such as organdie layered over different colors of opaque fabrics such as silk or taffeta. To these layers she adds ruffles, beads, bows and whatever else she can find in her collection.
Here is a list of her essential techniques, most of which are very simple to do but used in unusual ways. She uses French seams, piecing, quilting, appplique, pintucks, ruffles, and bias strips. Imagine a circle skirt completely covered with half inch wide bias strips in bright colors. Or a skirt completely covered with irridescent taffeta and then randomly sewn all over "a million and one times". Or a bodice totally covered with ruffles. Or skirts modelled after Moon Jellies (Jelly Fish) using pastel organza layered over bright silk. The list goes on and on. Each technique is illustrated with many wonderful photographs.
The last section explains how to make your own party dress using the included patterns for three different dresses. The patterns are just a starting point for your own creativity.
I haven't seen many books that are as inspiring as this one. If you are at all interested in sewing a beautiful dress or if you just want some eye candy to enjoy, this is the book for you.
You can have a look at some of her gorgeous dresses on her web page at Mary Adams The Dress


This is a skirt that is appliqued with pieces of taffeta and then sewn down with top stitching, similar to a crazy quilt.


This might be my favorite dress in the book. It was made as a wedding dress.
In case you hadn't already guessed, I absolutely love this book . I received this book as a review copy but if I found it in a store, I would just have to buy it.

Oh Oh...

Here is the partly finished bag from my new book. It's a bit squishy right now because the lining and extra bottom piece are not done yet.



Here is the lining all ready to be assembled. Do you see the problem? Right, the fancy inset zipper pocket is on the bottom, not the top. It would be the one that can't be ripped out and changed. I'll have to make a new lining piece and make a different bag with the pocket some other time. It's one more thing for my parts drawer...

I Almost Made It!

I am quilting this large quilt for a friend of a friend whose mother pieced it but passed away before she was able to finish it. I am just doing all-over loops on it with the odd heart sneaked in. I was this close to being done when I ran out of thread. I got some in town today so that will be the first order of business tomorrow. Then I have to cut and sew on the binding. Then there will be a couple of miles of hand stitching the binding down. It is a beautiful Christmassy quilt and it is beautifully pieced. I hope my quilting does it justice.

New Books

I got these two books that I ordered from Amazon in the mail today. I follow Lisa Lam's blog U Handblog and I have been wanting her book ever since it came out. Look for even more bags showing up around here soon. The dyer's Dictionary is a recipe book for dyers who are too lazy to do hundreds of experiments (and keep track of the results).


Here is a sample page from the Dyer's Dictionary. This is basically what all the pages look like. It should be helpful when I want a particular color. Each color has a recipe for a yard and a quarter yard.


The Bag Making Bible is chock full of suggestions and includes several patterns. I love the one in the picture .

Another Feast

We had another feast yesterday. This is Jenn's lasagna made with eggplant instead of pasta. Unusual and very good.


This is an appetizer plate that I forgot to photograph until we had all had a go at it. Yum. The yellow stuff is avocado and lemon oil on goat cheese. Yummy!


The dark one is wild rice and nut and craisin salad. The other is a green salad with fruit and a delicious dressing. Tanis made them.


This is Brenda's Everything From the Garden soup.
I forgot to get a picture of the apple crisp we had for dessert. It was a great evening.

Experimental Quilting

I have often seen this free motion quilting pattern but haven't tried it before. It may be too dense for the rest of the quilting but I'm looking at this quilt as an experiment in different FM stitches so it's all good.


I have had this ruler foot for quite some time but haven't used it before today. In fact I had forgotten that I even had it until I decided to try some ruler work. It works really well and now I'm thinking I need some shaped templates. This quilt is going to take a long time compared to my usual loops or meanders.

Another Bag

I made a second bag using the same pattern. Now I wish I had used something different for the inset pieces behind the front pockets. There is too much contrast for me. Maybe I'll get out my Shiva Paintsticks or maybe somebody will get this one as a gift...

Baking Frenzy

Today I made six of the creme caramels (two are gone already) two loaves of banana bread and about two dozen coconut kisses (quite a few of them seem to have disappeared too). I feel that if I am going to heat up the oven I might as well make it worthwhile. When I make creme caramels I usually make the kisses with the leftover egg whites. The banana bread is a huge recipe and I had a lot of overripe bananas. My freezer will be full of banana bread but the rest will soon get eaten.

Bread

This is the second batch of bread using my new flour mill. This one rose much better. I added some vitamin c and used a bit more white flour. It's hard to imagine how much better it tastes with the fresh flour. I used several kinds of flour as well as sunflower seeds.

FlicFloc

Today I bought this little hand machine to make rolled oats. We rolled some and it made the absolute best oatmeal porridge I ever tasted!

Quilted Cats

I finished quilting this one this morning. I am wondering why I didn't put a yellow border on the top and bottom as well as on the sides. Hmm.. Too late now.


I hid a couple of mice in the quilting. Sneaky mice.

Bag

I made this Margo handbag from Lazy Girl Designs. I may undo the last bit of topstitching and redo it with black thread in the bobbin. Other than that, I'm quite happy with it. It looks a bit wonky in the picture but that's just bad photography.

Maybe It's Done!

Everything is better with rick rack.

The Next Round

I dug through my stash of hand dyes and found a large piece of purple which is on the right side. Does it draw attention away from the middle or unite the whole piece? Should the dark blue be on the inside next to the orange or on the outside where it is now? Or should I have another narrow orange strip between the dark blue and the purple hand dye?
Or should I go with the purple on the left? In real life it has a sparkle but I'm not sure it's exactly the right purple. If I do use it, is the second orange strip too much?
Can you tell that I love auditioning fabrics? Are there enough questions in this post?

More Auditions

I have been sewing polar fleece this week (yes, getting ready for winter) so haven't worked on this quilt. I did play around a bit with other possible borders. I hope to make a decision and get them sewn on next week. It's so beautiful outside today that it seems a shame to stay in the studio.