Table Runners

About a week ago I found a Free Pattern for a Table Runner. It was recommended as a quick last minute project for a Christmas gift. I didn't know what I was going to give one of the people on my gift list and this seemed like the perfect thing, especially if it really was a quick project. All you need is 2 yards of a border print.

So I headed to my local quilt shop in search of the perfect fabric. I didn't see a border print like the sample, but I did find a large scale stripe that I hoped would have the same effect. I also bought a companion floral print to use on the back.

This is the fabric pressed selvage to selvage

I made the top in just a couple hours. It really was fast and easy as advertised . Basically it is a stack of Quarter Square Triangles sewn together in different ways. I had LOTS of fabric leftover. So I decided to make another one. I was going to keep one for me but then remembered someone else that I needed a gift for.

I chose different ways to set the blocks for two different looks. I basted them and quilted them. I chose black to bind them just to pull it all together and define the outside. Here are my finished products.

Finished Table Runners

I even had enough of the border print left over to use on the backs. I thought it would be fun for the recipient to see what I started with and how it ended up in the finished piece. Now I can keep that companion fabric I bought to use on the back for my own personal stash.

Table Runner Backs 

I usually do a label for all of my work. The back is so pretty though, I think I might just sign and date them with a Micron Pigma Pen so it can be used on either side.

Not bad. Two completed projects from one fabric in what probably added up to a full day's work.

Happy Quilting, 

Carol

Celebrate The Seasons Banner

I just finished putting together my version of the Celebrate the Seasons pattern. Now that I'm feeling more confident with my stitching, it is time to branch out and apply my same philosophy to my Redwork projects as I do to my quilting projects. My mom taught me many years ago when I first started quilting that it is my quilt and I can use any fabric I want and make it any way I want. It doesn't have to look just like the picture. Once in awhile I do something similar to the pattern but more often than not, I put my own spin on things.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Here is the pattern for a quilt I was asked to make a sample of to test the pattern and then to sell at shows.

The Pattern

Here's a picture of my finished quilt:

My Confetti Quilt

I've been making minor changes to some of the Bird Brain Designs patterns but for the most part, except for fabric choices, I've made them like the pattern. Celebrate the Seasons is the first one I've done where I've really changed it up to make it mine.

So just like I have shown above, here is the picture from the pattern for the project.

Celebrate the Seasons

And here is my version that I just finished this morning.

My Version of Celebrate the Seasons

It is going to make its show debut at the Tucson Quilt Fiesta! in January. I have been working hard to get UFOs finished during my break. I hope to have several new things in our booth by then.

Happy Quilting and Stitching,

Carol

RedWork Christmas Tree

My youngest daughter Renee and her husband Grant live with us. She is all about Christmas. It is her favorite holiday. Last year they lived in a one room apartment and Renee had just about every corner of the place decorated. By the middle of December she had Grant excited about it too.

When they moved in with us all of the decorations came too. We got all of the decorations out of the attic on Friday. The decorating started that day and we're still not quite done. The "main" tree will go up this weekend. I believe at last count we have 7 or 8 artificial trees in various sizes and shapes.

Since there's an extra tree, I decided to decorate it with some RedWork Ornaments that I made for the show in Phoenix earlier this month. I used the Santa RedWork Ornament Set and the ornaments from the Heartfelt Angel Stocking pattern. We had the same tree on display at the show. I liked it so much in our booth that I wanted to do the same thing at home. It is on the landing of our staircase.

I'm almost done with the Winter Partners Pillows. I just have to do the Running Stitch "quilting" and then stuff them. I'll post a picture of them when I'm done.

Happy Stitching and Quilting,
Carol

New Bolts of Fabric

It has been awhile since I have had a chance to go "bolt" shopping. While we were on the way to Puyallup, WA for the Northwest Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival this weekend, we stopped at the EE Schenck warehouse. This was my first trip to that facility, and it definitely won't be my last. It is 80,000 square feet of fabric, notions, batting, books, and patterns. All I was interested in was fabric, and believe me that was overwhelming in itself. I'm glad that was all I had to worry about.

EE Schenck Warehouse in Portland, OR

I was looking for some fabric to finish up a couple models for our booth. I wanted some to have on hand to use in future samples and some just to sell as 1 yard cuts.

I knew I would have limited time, both because I needed to get to Puyallup and because Alan has a limited amount of patience for things like this. He doesn't get as excited being around all those gorgeous fabrics as the rest of us do. So I went online before we got there. Found the fabrics I was interested in  and made a list. Once I got there I found out that it doesn't really work that way. That just means they carry those fabrics. They might not be in stock. So my great plan went out the window. With rows and rows of fabric to now look at I was BRIEFLY overwhelmed. Then I took a couple deep breaths and started walking the aisles.

I found things that I knew were perfect right away. I grabbed those. Made notes of things that I thought would work. Things that I added to a "Wish List"for later. 

I also had to audition fabrics to finish up my Friendships Garden Quilt. Here are a couple pictures of that process. I think I finally got the winning combination but I was so busy writing down the SKUs and other information that I forgot to take a picture. 

Option 1

Option 2

I'm still thinking about it though. At first I thought the red was overpowering, now I'm not so sure. There is red in the blocks and it is just going to be in some of the cornerstones of the sashing. So maybe it isn't as out of place as I originally thought. What do you think? Leave me your suggestions in a comment.

I'll finalize the fabrics for Friendships Garden this weekend. Then I'll order them after Thanksgiving. I'll get to work on them right away so I can get the quilt finished during my break between Thanksgiving and the second week of January. Fortunately the blocks are all done. All I have to do is assemble the quilt top, quilt and bind it.

Here are the fabrics that I came away with yesterday.

I'll cut some of these up tonight and they will be for sale in the booth tomorrow. I'll put them on the website after the show.

Happy Quilting,

Carol

Snowy Travels

We recently did a show in Spokane, WA. We drove from there to Gardnerville, NV. As we were driving though Northern OR we encountered our first snowfall for this Fall/Winter season. We actually had a bit of everything - sun, rain, sleet, hail and snow. I feel like the postman - "Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds".  It seems like it started a little early. Maybe it is going to be a wet winter. There are definitely a lot of areas that can use it.

We stopped in Lakeview, OR for the night. There was snow on the ground and it was about 28 degrees. When we woke up in the morning, there was about 2" of snow on the ground. Alan had to scrape the windshield and windows. I was in the hotel loading up the luggage cart so I missed that fun.

Sunrise at Goose Lake on the Oregon and California Border

This picture was taken about an hour after we left. It was slow going for a lot of the drive. The road was quite icy and slippery at times.

This is just outside of Alturas, CA. When we left there was far more snow on the hood of the truck.

This area is very rural with lots of farms. We saw barns overflowing with hay. I want to do a series of Barn Quilts. You can see some of the pictures that are the inspiration for that on my Ideas for Future Quilts Board on my Pinterest page. We passed several barns with snow covered roofs which opened up another set of options when I start designing the quilt. Here are a couple of them. There were no cars behind us so I asked Alan to stop so I could get fairly decent pictures.

Now all I have to do is find the time to turn my idea into a quilt or quilts. Someday :)

Carol

Jenny's Stockings

We met Jenny Hope at the Ridge Quilters' Guild Quilt Show in Paradise, CA. She stopped by the booth and told us about the stockings she made, her way. We asked her to bring them so show us. So Sunday morning she brought Show and Tell.

Jenny made these as wedding gifts for her sister's grandson and his wife. She used the Heartfelt Angel pattern for the new bride. She stitched out the designs and then colored them in with crayon.

His and Hers Stockings

The only guideline was that he wanted fur inside. He likes cars so if you look closely you'll see Matchbox Cars down the side of his stocking. A soft furry animal print is the lining and trim on his. What could be softer than a stocking lined with Minkee for his wife's? Jenny added pink pompoms and some crystals to hers too.

Rather than just a solid back on them, Jenny used pieced star blocks. What a great idea!

Stocking Backs

I love that Jenny took these designs, changed them up and made them unique. I'm sure that the lucky recipients will love them for many Christmases to come.

Happy Stitching,

Carol

Columbia River Barge

We never know what we're going to see in our travels. On Tuesday we drove through Oregon on our way to Spokane. Or travels took us along the Columbia River. We saw this barge traveling up the river.

It's a little blurring because I had to take the picture through the windshield on the driver's side of the car while we were moving. You can see the windmills in the background. There were miles and miles of these along the route. We drive past these all the time but some of the ones we saw today were the biggest we'd ever seen. You can see why they are there though. If you look at the water you'll see white caps on the river. The wind was really gusting. So I'm sure these generate a significant amount of energy.

PIQF Traditional Quilts

There were so many gorgeous quilts at this show. While many shows seem to be leaning toward art-type quilts, there were many traditional quilts on display. The piecing and quilting on some of them was extraordinary. This post features what I consider Traditional quilts.

This one is a Log Cabin quilt. I love how the dark blue blue logs accentuate the blocks. But even more I like the illusion of curves. There is a quilt in the From Marti Michell Log Cabin ABCs Book that has that same illusion.

Here is a beautiful pink floral wreath applique quilt. I really like the colors used in the flowers. The lime green  accents add some sparkle. The quilting compliments the design nicely.

These on point star blocks take something relatively simple and turn them into something so much more. I think the striped fabric used around each block and in that small inner border adds a lot of interest to the quilt. The quilting between the block form quilted sashing  and cornerstones adding another design element.

While the shape of this quilt may make you think art quilt, the piecing of it says traditional.

The center of this quilt reminds me of something you would see looking through a kaleidoscope. I really like the striped border and especially the mitered corners. So many times a border like this is done log cabin style but in this case the mitered border really adds to the quilt.

These stars really caught my eye.

When I looked closer, the quilting in the pastel colored stars made me take a second and third look at the quilt. Again, the quilting really complimented the quilt nicely.

Close Up of Quilting

Here's another eye catching quilt. I love the colors in this one. You have to appreciate all those perfect points.

Talk about precision piecing; this quilt was incredible! You can get an idea of the size because I have the award winning ribbon in the picture.

 At first I thought it was a single fabric for the center and the points. But on closer observation, those are individual, tiny diamonds. The workmanship was absolutely amazing!

Close Up of Piecing and Quilting

These are only a sampling of the quilts on display.Watch for future posts of other quilts from the show.

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2012

We returned to Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) last week.

Thursday seemed to be the busiest day of the show. At least the crowd waiting to get in was biggest that day. I had one of the people at the entrance, who is much taller than I am, take a picture of the crowd waiting for the doors to open.

Crowd on Thursday Morning

This year the Mayor Jamie L Matthews of Santa Clara declared Thursday, October 11, 2012 as Quilt Day in Santa Clara and the whole week as Quilt Week, complete with Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to open the show.

Portland to Tucson Adventure Part 3

Set up for the Tucson Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival was on Wednesday. We always get to the venue early so Alan can get a prime unloading spot. Then we visit with our friends or I sit in the truck and work. If we're close, like this time, I will often try to get some work done before set up. Since set up wasn't until noon, I decided to stay at the hotel and do the laundry and take care of some things I couldn't do during our three days in the truck.

After he'd been gone for an hour or so Alan called and prepared me for more vehicle related bad news. One of the truck tires had a bubble in it. No one in Tucson had a tire. So he found someone who would get one and it would be ready to put on the following day.

Throughout the day on Wednesday and Thursday, Chris from Bulldog Emergency Repair kept in touch with us. It was going to take a few days so we just decided to stay at the hotel for the weekend, rather than drive all the way to Blythe on Friday or Saturday to just turn around and go back there again on Sunday.

Over the course of the day on Wednesday and Thursday we learned that one of our fellow vendors had their truck stolen a couple weeks before. Fortunately they were doing a class for a guild and all of their product was with them. But still, that isn't good any way you look at it. Another vendor had to leave their vehicle and rent another one because their transmission broke.

We left at about 7:30 on Sunday morning, heading to Southern CA for the Pomona Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival. We stopped at Zip Travel Center this time.

I got my chocolate chunk cookie. These cookies are made by Prairie City. I like to put it on the dashboard so it gets warm and the chocolate is gooey. It tastes like it just came out of the oven. Yummy!

We got to Blythe and picked up the trailer. Chris from Bulldog Emergency Repair was very thorough and helpful throughout this whole ordeal. We are very grateful for all he did for us!

Bulldog Emergency Repair in Blythe, CA

We arrived at our home in Southern CA at about 3:30 on Sunday afternoon. I am always glad to be home but this time it was such a relief after so many little mishaps. Here we are parked safe and sound.

I always say a little prayer at the beginning and end of every day when we're on the road asking for and giving thanks for a safe journey. While this has been more of an adventure than I'd like, things could have been so much worse. No one was hurt. We weren't in an accident. Nothing caught on fire as a result of all that smoking. This was all just things, and money going out, but those aren't the important things in life. We have been on the road doing shows for 8 years and this is the first really major issue we've ever had. I feel very lucky and blessed to be able to say that. 

The End

Portland to Tucson Adventure Part 2

We drove from Williams to Boron, CA on Monday. Since we got such a late start we drove until well after dark. We drove through Tehachapi, CA. My husband Alan's dream is to watch the trains in the Tehachapi Loop. That wasn't an option this time; it will have to wait for another trip.

We left early Tuesday morning. We didn't get as far as we had hoped because of our problems on Sunday, but we figured if we left at about 6:00 am we would make it to Tucson between 4:00 and 5:00. That would still give me some time to get laundry and other things done.

We made it to Banning, CA without incident. Then Holly, our friend from Quilter's Cove who was following us called. This time her travel trailer had a flat tire. She called AAA and they were there in less than 30 minutes. The driver got her tire changed and we were back on the road again.

Next stop is the Zip Travel Center at the Vicksburg Rd off ramp in Salome, AZ. It's a great place to stop for gas and a little snack. They have some delicious chocolate chunk and peanut butter chocolate cookies that I love. I shouldn't eat them but they just call my name every time we stop there.

At 1:20 Holly called again. Our same back travel trailer wheel was smoking again. Unbelievable! We were in the middle of the desert 31 miles into Arizona and about 15 miles from our planned stop at Zip. It was 105 degrees and the sun was shining right in my window. Needless to say it was time to call AAA again.

Since we were in the absolute middle of nowhere, miles from anyone who could help us, getting help was even harder than when we were stuck on Sunday in Maxwell. The AAA operator was so helpful. She found a tow service and tried calling several tire places to see if she could find someone to help us. She pretty much struck out for immediate help. The tow service could get a truck to us at 6:00 pm but she gave us their phone number so we could see if there was anything else they could do for us.

Alan talked to Robby from A Toe Truck which was the company AAA referred us to. He had a truck big enough to tow us but couldn't get it to us before 6:00. He was nice enough to make some phone calls on our behalf. He found a place in Blythe, CA that would help us.

Chris from Bulldog Emergency Auto Repair drove all the way from Blythe, about 45 miles to take a look. He told us on the phone that he would try to help us so we could drive it back to Blythe where his shop is. But if that didn't work, we'd have to wait for Robby's tow truck.

 I was terrified to get out of the truck. Every time I got out I could just hear the rattlesnakes, whether they were there or not. So unless it was absolutely necessary, I stayed inside with the air conditioner running. I got a lot of stitching done on my third Santa Trio block. I did get out to start getting things out of the trailer that I thought we would need because I knew we were going to have to leave it for at least a day or two but I planned for the entire weekend. Bless her heart, Holly took some of our perishable food and put it in her refrigerator so we wouldn't have to throw that away if we couldn't plug in at the garage.

Chris arrived at about 3:00 and was able to take the wheel off, it pretty much just fell off again, and jacked up the trailer. He put some blocks underneath to hold the trailer up. I wasn't about to get down on the ground to see what it looked like to take a picture. But this is what it looked like later.

I took this picture later because of course this happened on the driver side

Now we had to drive all the way to the next off ramp, which was the Vicksburg Rd off ramp, turn around and drive all the way back to Blythe; it was about 60 miles or so. Holly followed us to the off ramp then she went on to Tucson. We didn't even stop (so I didn't get my cookie) we just wanted to get to Blythe without incident. It took us 2 hours to get there. We arrived at about 5:30. It was obvious after Chris took a good look that we were leaving it there pretty much all weekend. So that meant I had to get more stuff out of the trailer, including the laundry. We were so full inside the cab that the laundry had to ride between the two front seats all the way to Tucson.

We grabbed a quick dinner at McDonalds (not my favorite dining spot but it was food) and headed to Tucson. We were able to get a room at the show hotel, Red Roof Inn right across the parking lot from the Expo Center, and arrived there at 10:30. That was 16+ hours after we left Boron that morning. But we made it.

To be continued (unfortunately).....

Portland to Tucson Adventure

Little did I know when we had to change a tire on our travel trailer when we arrived in Portland that this was just the beginning. More about that in a minute.

We had a great time at the Northwest Quilting Expo.  This show always has beautiful quilts on display. These are just a few of my favorites.

We left Portland early Sunday morning. We needed to be in Tucson, AZ by Tuesday. My hope was to get there by early afternoon to do laundry and catch up on paperwork before we set up the show on Wednesday. But sometimes things just don't work out the way we plan.

For those who have never seen us driving down the highway, we have a large GMC truck with a big shell on it and we haul a 30' travel trailer. The truck holds our product and the trailer is our home away from home on the road. See an earlier post about how we pack everything in there and set up a show.

Our friend Holly from Quilter's Cove made the trip with us. She drives alone so when we are both heading to the same show, we often follow each other. It makes her feel a little safer and we are happy to have a buddy on the road.

The plan was to drive to Woodland, CA and leave there early Monday morning to miss the Sacramento traffic. However at about 3:00 Holly called to let us know that one of our wheels was smoking. So we pulled off the freeway and called AAA.

We were one mile from the small town of Maxwell and about 20 miles from the next "big" town of Williams. We were too big for the tow truck to tow us to Williams. Our wonderful tow truck driver Luis followed us off the freeway. We were going about 20 mph and the wheel started smoking by the time we made it off the freeway. The new plan was to drive to Williams on surface streets. We drove about another mile at 5 mph and we were smoking again. We found an empty lot and stopped there.

It was obvious we couldn't make it to Williams. Luis jacked up the tire and the wheel practically fell off. He put what was left of the wheel on blocks for us.

By now it was well after 5:00 on a Sunday so all of the garages and repair places were closed. Luis, made some calls and gave us some phone numbers to try on Monday for help.

We had to spend the night in that vacant lot.  Luis went to school with the people who own the lot and said that we would be fine there. Luis lives close to there and said he'd come check on us in the morning.

After many phone calls on Monday morning we finally found someone willing to come take a look. John from Mid Valley Auto Care in Williams came to our rescue. He went back to their shop and got the parts he needed to get us up and running again. Once he got us all fixed up we drove there to have them put a new tire on the spare we put on in Portland. We were back on the road at about 11:30. We still missed the Sacramento traffic, just about 6 hours later than planned.

We are so grateful that Holly was following us and to AAA for the outstanding service they provided us. If Holly hadn't called us to tell us the wheel was smoking, who knows what might have happened?

To be continued.... (unfoturnately)

Trip to Lake County CA

We took an extra couple days on our way to a show in Portland, OR to visit our friends Robin and Tina of Bird Brain Designs. They live in Lake County CA. We drove through that area once several years ago and were excited to have a chance to stay and visit. Plus it was nice to basically take an R&R day for a change.

We got a tour of their new studio in Kelseyville.

Studio Entrance
The cute yellow car belongs to the owner of their next door neighbor Kelsey Creek Brewing

The studio has only been open since mid-June. So it is a work in progress. They have combined their RedWork and Wool designs with their love of antiques to create a warm and inviting space.

The studio is open Monday - Saturday. If you are ever in the area, they would love to have you stop by. There are lots of cute shops and other things to do in the vicinity.

If you can't make it to the studio, you'll find most of their RedWork designs along with all the goodies you need to stitch them in our booth at shows. We are the "Baby Birds." They are only doing a few shows a year, we're doing the rest for them.

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We saw lots of interesting things on this trip. Watch for future blog posts about those. In the meantime Happy Stitching.

Carol

Santa Trio Portrait Block #2

I finished my second block of this project. It helped to pass the time while I was waiting for my granddaughter to come out of surgery last week. I am always happy to have some hand work with me in situations like that. It helps to get my mind off what is going on. Not that you can put it out of your mind but it is a welcome distraction.

I have been talking about Sulky's Sticky Fabri-Solvy throughout this process. One thing I want to stress when working with this product is to set your printer to Draft setting when making a copy or printing from your printer. Less ink gets on the stabilizer. I find that is rinses out a little better this way.

Today I'm going to address what happens after the stitching is done. You may find it helpful to peel away the excess stabilizer along the outside of the stitching. I wouldn't try cutting it away from the inside, just large amounts around the outside edge. This is optional. I have done it without trimming too.

Fill the sink with some warm water. Put the completed project in the sink.

Put the project in a sink full of warm water to dissolve the Fabri--Solvy

Agitate it around for about 2-3 minutes. The stabilizer will start to dissolve almost immediately. Once it appears to be completely dissolved, empty the water and then run clean, clear water over everything to rinse out any excess Fabri-Solvy. When you are satisfied that all of the stabilizer has dissolved, hang it up to dry.

Hang it up to dry

If you discover after it is dry that the fabric is still a little sticky, just repeat the process a second time. Because I like to test things to see what you can and cannot do, I have also put my project in the washer to rinse out the Fabri-Solvy.

I have encountered a situation where there was still a little bit of residue after rinsing. I contacted Sulky about this. They also stress that it is important to set your printer to Draft when printing onto the stabilizer and I really think this makes all the difference in successfully removing all traces of the ink. They also suggested putting it in the washer with some Shout or similar stain removal product,maybe in with some other similar items so you have a little more agitation. In one case I know of it took two such treatments on cold water setting. However, in all of the cases I personally know of, it has come out every time.

When you are ready to finish up the project, put the stitching face down on top of a towel and press it. The towel underneath helps you get into all those little areas. You can use a little spray starch if you like. Now you're ready to finish up your project.

Happy Stitching,
Carol

New Website Page

I'm always looking for ways to improve our website. Teaching is my favorite part of what I do. Whether it is a lecture, hands on class, or just demonstrating a technique in our booth at a show; that is what I really like to do. It's one of the reasons I did all of the binding tutorials on my blog.

Last week I created a new page called Tutorials on our website. I hope that it will be seen as the Teaching Page on our site. In addition to things I have posted on my blog, there is a QuiltCut2 Fabric Cutting System Demonstration and another video that shows how to Align the QuiltCut2 Cutting Mat. As my travel schedule permits, I hope to have the time to add more topics. I also want to learn how to incorporate more videos onto the page.

I hope that you will take a look at it and give me your feedback. If you have a topic of interest related to quilting, RedWork or hand embroidery in general, contact me. I'll see what I can do about addressing your topic.

Happy Quilting,
Carol

Fiber Art in Unusual Places

I am always amazed at the different places you can find quilts and other fiber arts. When we did a show in Pueblo, CO there was a beautiful sculpture of a woman with a gorgeous quilt wrapped around her along the Riverwalk.

Chieftan Sculpture

Yesterday I was in the doctor's office and there were several pieces of Fiber Art that were framed. Some were just gorgeous pieces of fabric. Some were beautifully embellished pieces of fabric. This was the main piece of art in the waiting room where I was.

Chenille Jacket

I'm not sure if people in the waiting room appreciate everything involved in this type of art. But those of us who are quilters and fiber artists enjoy seeing them on display, wherever we may be, even if it is in a doctor's office.