Road to California Quilt Show

I was lucky enough to help my friends Bruce and Diane Magidson in their booth at Road to California in January. They started their business, Sew Batik, about the same time we started. So we have traveled to the same shows for years. I LOVE their fabric. It was always torture for me when our booths were across from each other at a show because I'd want to buy "one of each". I even used their fabrics in the Chevron Charm Table Runner I made for our booth. So when they asked for my help at the show I jumped at the chance.

Who wouldn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous fabric for three full days?! The fabrics behind me in the picture are their Wide Backs. These are the perfect size for large quilts so you don't need to piece the back. What a great idea. I'm wearing the jacket I made from one of the Rayon Batiks that I bought last year at the show. You can read about the jacket in this Blog Post.

If you have never attended Road to California it should be on your Quilt Show Bucket List. It is one of the largest quilt shows in Western US and in the country. They use up every square foot of the Ontario Convention Center. There are incredible quilts on display as well as a wide variety of classes to attend and of course LOTS of opportunities to shop.

It is also a very busy show for the vendors. As a result at a show like that usually there isn't much opportunity to leave the booth to look at the quilts. Which is exactly what happened in my case. But here is a link to the award winning quilts on the show website. The Best of Show Quilt was a Whole Cloth Quilt. It is the first time ever that a quilt like that won Best of Show. The quilt is called "Vivaldi by Moonlight." Here's a picture of the quilt.

All weekend as I was surrounded by beautiful fabrics and was looking at everything that people bought, I found some things that I just had to take home with me. Here are the additions to my Stash from the show. I'm proud to say that I have either started or completed two of the three projects. I think that's a new record for me.

I used these to make a Birthday Banner for my granddaughter Elsie's First Birthday. You can read about that in this Blog Post . Here's a picture of the finished product.

I also bought this fabric and pattern.

The fabric is a Rayon Batik. I love how the jacket I made turned out so I had to buy more for another project. It drapes so nicely and is so figure flattering. I have the dress finished except for the hem. Here's a picture of it just before I sewed the side seams.

The last thing I bought was the Honey Bun Pouf pattern and some fabric for that. The sample was in perfect view of the cash register where I was working all weekend. The fabric reminds me of water, and bubbles. Since we live at the beach and the fabric coordinates with our color scheme I thought it would be fun to have a couple of these for the grandchildren to sit on when they come to visit. I have to buy some canvas fabric so I haven't started on this one yet but it is in the queue.

I had a great time. It was fun to spend the weekend with Bruce and Diane. I saw so many of our customers and vendor friends. That is one thing I really miss about being off the road. We made many good friends over the course of those 10 years.

Happy Quilting,

Carol

A Little Somethin' Jacket

It has been awhile since I've made a garment for myself. I used to make all of my clothes. I made a few dresses for my daughters when they were growing up as well as lots of Halloween costumes. I think the last garment I made was an Elmo outfit for my granddaughter's Second Birthday. You can see that in this Blog Post.

I bought this pattern and fabric from Sew Batik almost a year ago. I am going to be helping them in their booth at Road to California later this week so I decided that it would be fun to wear this jacket at the show.

I have a very small studio now so the long piece of fabric didn't fit on what I'm currently using for a cutting table.

I chose this fabric because with all the colors it should go with just about anything. It is a rayon batik so it drapes well, making it the perfect fabric for a lightweight jacket.

The pattern only has three pieces so it wasn't too complicated to put together.

Jacket Front

Jacket Back

Jacket Sleeves

I cut all of the pieces out and marked all of the "Dots" for matching. I used a white Quilter's Choice Marking Pencil because it showed up with all that color. 

Next it was time to choose the thread. When I piece my quilts I usually use a neutral thread but with garments it should be something that blends. I have quite a thread stash so there were lots of choices. I ended up choosing this variegated thread from Superior Threads. When I looked at the spool I thought it would be too dark. But when I pulled out the thread and put it on top of the fabric, it was perfect.

Then I started putting the jacket together. I liked how the instructions have you press the fold line in for the facing now. That made things much easier later. The shoulder seams were easy. I forgot how big a 5/8" seam allowance is. When you're used to 1/4" in quilting that is a HUGE seam. I remember when I started quilting how SMALL 1/4" seemed. Funny how our perspective changes. 

Next was the sleeves. I discovered as I matched the dots and seams that there was too much fabric to ease into the opening for my taste. I thought it would be hard to get it even. I decided to run a 3/8" basting stitch on the sleeves. I was then able to slightly gather the sleeve to fit it into the opening. After I put it into the jacket and sewed the seams, it doesn't look gathered, just eased in which is what I wanted to accomplish.  Here's the jacket with the sleeves.

The facing and hem came next. I turned all of that under 1/4". Then I turned under the hem. Now is when the pressed fold line for the facing comes into place. I just folded that and it was ready to topstitch. I used LOTS of pins to keep everything in place. The only problem that I ran into was that I didn't like the way the instructions said to topstitch everything. I followed the directions and wasn't happy with how it lined up with the turned under edges. It wasn't close enough to the turned under 1/4". I was afraid that over time it would ravel. So I ripped out the whole thing and did it from the wrong side. I know that the "sewing police" say not to do this because bobbin tension is looser, but I opted for this because I could see where the stitching should be. I break the "quilt police" rules often so why not this one too?

All that was left was the hem on the sleeves. That was super simple. Just turn under 1/4" and then another 1". Topstitch that too. I did  the same thing here. I stitched if from the wrong side. Here's the finished product.

I think it will be cute with jeans but can also be dressy if I need it to be. Since it is a batik, if I want to roll up the sleeves a little bit it won't be that noticeable. 

Happy Sewing,

Carol

Vendor Friends

We meet lots of people in our travels, both customers and fellow vendors, who become friends. Our friends Bruce and Diane Magdison own Sew Batik. I love their fabrics and use them in some of my samples. Here's one example of a table runner I made with one of their Tiki Rolls.

Bruce loves our little dog Rex who travels with us. His face lights up every time Rex comes to visit him at a show. When we were in Tucson a couple weeks ago we had a great idea. We'd make Rex the official Sew Batik Mascot. My husband asked Bruce for a piece of fabric for a secret project. Between that show and the one in Phoenix the following week, I traced their logo onto the fabric and embroidered "Sew Batik Mascot" onto a triangle of their fabric. It was a great way for me to practice my satin stitch.

I tied the doggie scarf around Rex's neck and my husband and I took Rex to see Bruce. He was so excited to see him and was even more excited when he saw his official mascot uniform. You can tell these two love each other!

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.