Guardian Angels

I'm working on a RedWork pattern called "Guardian Angels." These little angels would be the perfect little something for a friend or family member who needs a little watching over. They also make great Christmas tree ornaments.

A very close friend of mine just lost her dad. If only I had these made up at that time. What a perfect little token for her to bring some comfort and a smile every now and then.

If you read my blog post about the Sign Language Quilt, you saw a picture of my granddaughter, Tristyn. She was born with bilateral cleft lip and a partial cleft palate. She is in for a lot of challenges in her life. I'm going to give her one of these when she has to go in for her first surgery in about four months. While she won't be old enough to understand at that time, it is a small something that she can take with her each time she has to face that. It is also something that will let her know at any trying time in her life that a special angel is watching over her.

You can make your own flock of angels with the pattern.

If you want to make it really easy, instead of tracing the design with a micron pigma pen and a light box, try Sticky Fabri-Solvy. You can print the design from your 3-in-One printer and start stitching in a matter of minutes.

Sign Language Quilt Story

Bonita is one of our customers. She made a Sign Language quilt for her great-granddaughter-in-law who earned her degree in Deaf Education. Here is a picture of her quilt.

I recently received an email from a gentleman who saw the quilt. He asked to be connected to Bonita because he wanted to do something for a special person. I gave his contact information to Bonita. Turns out he wants to do a similar quilt for a baby in a baby blocks setting.

It is unbelievable that technology allows babies to have their hearing tested at birth. We were lucky enough to be in the room when they tested our granddaughter in the hospital. Here is a picture of Tristyn's hearing test.

It's amazing that the Internet can bring people together with common interests who would never "meet" otherwise. In this case a beautiful quilt for a very special baby will be the outcome of a chance meeting through our website.

Puyallup Show in Review

The show over the weekend was the "Soft Opening" of our booth featuring Bird Brain Designs patterns and redwork accessories. Many of our existing customers stopped by and we met lots of Bird Brain's customers who were excited to see us. Snowmen seemed to be the most popular items.

Along those lines, we're featuring two Snow Themed patterns this week.

Snow Mom RedWork Stocking features  Mrs. Snowman and her Snow Kids. Make it as a stocking or turn it into a pillow or small wall hanging to keep out all winter long. A set of five ornaments are included in the pattern.

Snowmen RedWork Ornaments will brighten your Christmas Tree. They would also make adorable gift tags for the special people on your gift list. Why not string them together to make a Snowman garland that you can keep out all winter long? Put them together with a little sashing to make a small wall hanging.

Make these snow people now and enjoy them this winter and for many winters to come.

New Granddaughter

My first grandchild was born yesterday. Her name is Tristyn Rylee Snyder. She is a precious gift and I'm so excited about being a grandma. This is the first picture taken of both of us. She was about two hours old. Those two hours from when she was born until I got to see her for the first time seemed like twice that long.

Mini Studio

I'm on the road so much that getting some quality quilting time in is a challenge. We are going to be in Southern CA most of the time until we leave for our January shows. This is my work space during that time. I have just about everything I need right here. If I don't, there are several quilt shops in close proximity.

My sewing and cutting spaces.

I even managed to get a small design wall into the space.

I'll be working on projects for a new program that will launch sometime after the first of the year. I have several samples to make for it. So when the samples are just about done, we'll make the announcement. Yesterday I completed the first of six. One down five more to go.

Before and After

Most people don't realize all that goes into getting ready for a show. This shows a very condensed view of what happens between our fully loaded truck and what you see when you come into our booth. These pictures were taken over the course of set up at a few shows. I was so busy setting up I kept forgetting to take pictures.

Our truck is fully loaded for Pacific International Quilt Festival.

This is the view of the inside of the truck from the side.

As you can see my husband is an excellent packer.

This is the other side. The grid is what we display the bundles of

Hand Dyed Fabric that you see in the booth.

Our hand truck has to ride on the outside some weeks.

I know we have had a good show when it can ride on the
inside afterwards.

These pictures are of our "stuff" in the aisle at the

San Diego Quilt Show

This is what all that looks like from the inside of the booth.

This is the view from across the aisle.

The quilts are hung and electrical is up and connected.

We are about a third of the way done. This picture was taken

in Portland at Northwest Quilting Expo.

We are about 75% done in this picture

Here is what our booth looked like last weekend at

Pacific International Quilt Festival

Remember that completely full truck? All of that fit inside

this 8' deep by 15' wide booth. Pretty amazing.

We have done this about 30 times this year. Our set up is easy compared to some of the other vendors you see at a show. It takes us between five and six hours to set up and between two and three to tear down. There are a lot of people with more elaborate booths than ours. We do our best to present a professional looking booth with products that you won't find everywhere. Thank you for shopping with us.

Pacific International Quilt Festival

I don't get much time to look at quilts and shop at this show. It is too busy and we don't get much time in the mornings before the show opens. So I need to spend that getting ready for the day. The Best of Show quilt is amazing! It is probably one of the best technically pieced and detailed quilts I've seen. Here are pictures of the quilt and the artist's comments about it that hung next to it.

The Jack Nicholson quilt caught my eye. The quilter is someone who started out doing Baltimore Album quilts. One of the comments in her write up is that she was working on eyes and who better to choose for a model?

Rulers

Not all of us own every size ruler made. There are so many different brands, sizes and colors. According to the "Quilt Police" we should use only one brand of ruler so all of our measurements are consistent. For some people the slight calibration difference is no big deal. But other people see this difference as significant. My personal favorite right now are the Frosted Olfa Rulers.

What do you do if you need to cut something but don't have the perfect ruler? You connect two rulers together. A Ruler Connector is the perfect tool for this. It will turn any two rulers you have into what you wish you had. Two 6" x 12" rulers become a 6" x 24", 12" square or 12" x 12" L-shape. And that is just one ruler size. Imagine what you can do when you combine different sizes.

Purchase this item 6" x 12" Frosted Olfa Ruler

Purchase this Item Ruler Connector

Newest Project

I had a couple hours free on Tuesday so I started on my next project. Here is a sneak peak at what I'm working on . The fabric is from Sew Batik. I think it is going to be very eye catching when it is completed.

Rainy Orange County

We are in Costa Mesa, CA for the Orange County Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival. It is a rainy day for our set up. There is a test track in the parking lot here that is testing tires. I bet they didn't expect Mother Nature to provide the water for the test. I bet the drivers are having fun driving these cars on the wet track. It sounds that way at least.

How to Cut Long Bias Strips

This is a topic that interests many people - How to cut bias binding super easily! When I demonstrate this in class one of the comments I get frequently is "That was worth the price of the class right there." The trick is to fold the fabric on the bias. Below are illustrations and written instructions on how to fold the fabric and how to cut your long bias strips. This works no matter how long or wide your piece of fabric is. Thank you to Dee Degitz for teaching me this trick. The From Marti Michell Corner Trimmer makes sewing the strips together super easy!








Step 1. Lightly press fabric in half

selvage to selvage.

Step 2. Open fabric up to the full width with the wrong side of the fabric facing up.

Step 3. Take the top right hand corner and fold it toward the center fold line. This forms a 45° angle.

Step 4. Next take the bottom left corner and fold it toward the center fold line.

Step 5. Now take the bottom folded edge and line it up with the top folded edge. The fabric is folded on the bias now.

Step 6. Position your fabric on the mat the way you would cut strips. This illustration is for the QuiltCut2 but this technique works with a regular mat and ruler too.

Step 7. The first cut is a triangle that shows you are cutting on the bias. If you run short in your strips you can use this to get another one.

Step 8. Measure and cut the strips as if the fabric were pressed selvage to selvage.

See the post on How to Sew Binding to a Quilt if you need help with that step.

Happy Quilting!
Carol

Welcome

Welcome to our blog. We have our website, Facebook, and Twitter where you can get information about us and our business. Here's yet another format for you to get information about our products, techniques, and us. Feel free to offer suggestions for topics. I hope you'll find this the perfect format for learning and having fun.

My friends John'na Lee, Robin and Tina convinced me that it is time to start blogging. I tried it once several years ago but it was so complicated at the time that I gave up really before I got started. When Robin told me how easy it is, I decided to give it a try.

I designed the site while husband Alan was driving us from Portland, OR to Tucson, AZ this week. It's amazing how much you can accomplish while trapped in the front seat of a truck for 10 - 12 hours a day. There is still lots to add  but this is a good starting point. We'll grow the blog together. I'll post things that come to mind. That along with your ideas and input should make for a great experience for all of us.

Check out the survey below. I plan to choose a new topic each month. So offer suggestions of what you'd like to see there. With all of your creative minds, we should come up with some great ideas.