Glad not to be in the fashion business

I had a great evening last night sewing and watching "Project Runway," and as I watched I realized how glad I am to be a quilter, not in the fashion business. As a rule, quilters help each other out and even if they don't like a quilt, they'll find something nice to say about it. These design divas, not so much.

I got into the studio early and watched the party store challenge from two weeks ago while I finished a pillowcase and trimmed up some Mile-a-Minute blocks. I enjoyed the party store challenge except that my favorite designer, Sarah, went home. I picked her for favorite as soon as I saw that she sewed on a vintage sewing machine – couldn't tell if it was a Singer 201 or 15-91 – and kept fabric in the kitchen cabinets. My kind of person.

The best bit of the episode, though, was seeing Tim Gunn crack up over "wooly balls."

After that I watched last week's episode with the wonderful hats while sewing the border on to my Boxy Stars quilt. The borders came out great, a narrow deep pink inner border and a black print outer border. It was nice to see the episode with sound, too, as last week my cable provider was having problems, there was a picture but no sound on the show.

I finished the borders just in time to watch the newest episode. Just two things to say, yea Team Underdog, and, for once, the promos didn't overhype the show. I still want to see more of the sewing, though!

More later!

So much sewing, so little time

Isn't it funny how you can go weeks without sewing then suddenly the dam breaks and you want to do everything – all at once? This summer was like that for me, I went the whole summer and the only sewing I did was at the two TOGAs I attended and making an outfit to wear to my class reunion. Then a couple of weeks ago I finished a little crumb table topper and I guess it brought my mojo back. Now I want to do everything, all at once!

The only problem is I'm jumping from project to project like a butterfly from flower to flower. I guess that's okay, since I'm making progress. In no particular order I have:

Assembled my Boxy Starts blocks with sashing and have the border ready to apply;

Assembled some bow tie blocks and put the border on;

Made 20-something blocks from a bag of scraps and a Mile-a-Minute pattern I got at the beginning of the month;

Finished two pillowcases to donate to our guild's boutique and have three more cut out.

Last night I changed gears yet again and opened up a sewing machine I've had a year or two but never used, a Willcox and Gibbs chain stitch treadle. Beautiful little machine, but I had other stuff going on when I brought it home and just never got back to it. Both machine and treadle were stiff but a good oiling/lube has them moving smoothly now, except that the presser foot is stuck in the up position. I have some penetrating oil to put on it and I should be able to finally try out this machine this weekend.

I didn't get much sewing done after playing with the machine last night, but I did get the pillowcase fabric pressed and started on a third pillowcase, so not too bad.

More later!

A Pfaff and a half comes home

I've really been cutting back on new sewing machines lately, simply no more space. But I had to make an exception this month. A really big exception.

Last year a friend got a Pfaff

industrial treadle machine. I was with her when she got it, and told her if she ever wanted to sell it, I'd be interested. A few weeks later, she told me it was mine. So, when I saw her at the Tennessee TOGA (Treadle On Gathering and Academy), I also got to bring home the Pfaff-and-a-half (my sister's description).

It's a monster. I haven't weighed the head, but it's probably in the neighborhood of 40 pounds. I should have put something in the picture to show the scale, it's bigger than it looks. And the bonnet (cover) is large enough to use as a baby bed.

The cabinet isn't too much bigger than a household treadle, but it is heavier and the drive wheel on the treadle is huge. It's in pretty good shape for an industrial, the table top needs a little work and there is paint worn off the front of the bed of the machine. The main problem is a small break in the treadle base, but it is patchable.

My biggest issue right now is where to put it. It's currently on the sunporch, but the humidity is getting to it and the cabinet top swelling a bit. So I need to get it inside (not that my house is any less humid).

I'm hoping to use this for free-motion quilting. The thought of all that space under the arm! About twice as much space as the Singer 15-30 I normally use for free-motion.

Oh, and the treadle is beautiful. Pfaff used an art deco styling for their treadle bases, very sleek and linear. Since I love art deco styling, it's perfect.

Another project, but I won't put this one off, I can't wait to try it out.

Where has the summer gone?

Not into the studio, that's for sure! Except for a few activities, my summer has flown by without touching a sewing machine or fabric. But now my mojo is back, I'm back at the machines and our quilt show is coming up rapidly, so I'll try to catch up over the next few days.

The quilt show is coming! It's amazing how a deadline can focus your mind. Our guild's show is mid-October and I have a ton to do to get ready. (link to High Cotton Quilt show in my blogs list for details).

Entry forms for our show were due last week, so I spent two hours Saturday morning sorting through quilts, measuring them, deciding what class they belonged in and filling out the forms. Then I drove to town, where we were having a work day for our boutique, turned in the forms and spent a couple more hours working on pillowcases to contribute to the boutique. I'm doing a simple cuffed pillowcase using some juvenile fabrics I found in my stash.

For the entries to the show, wow! I entered more than 20, because this is our first show and the entries were coming in slowly at first. Better too many than too few. A half dozen were my little art quilts. A few more fell in the small quilt category, both pieced and mixed piecing and applique. Several more went to the large quilt category and the final batch go to the group category, as they were made with blocks from Treadle On exchanges.

And four of them aren't finished yet! One has been a flimsy for ages, the other three were finished blocks. Since last week I've assembled the tops for two, a Boxy Stars started in class with Bonnie Hunter last year, and a bow tie top using Civil War repro fabrics. I'm in the process of putting borders on both of them now, so that just leaves one top to piece. The blocks shown are from the Boxy Stars. The combination of blue, pink and brown with black was inspired by the fabric in the top right corner of the brown block. I'll be using that fabric for binding.

I'll have more to share later, but for now, on to other stuff!

Finding time....

Time, time, time. Decisions, decisions. There are the gotta dos, work and essentials around the house – feeding the cats is not optional, then when you have time to be creative, what do you do?

For most of February my sewing time was tied up with making table covers and new window treatments for our restaurant. Not unpleasant (except for the part about using the floor to cut the vinyl), but not exciting either. But they look great now that they are finished and hanging!

Next it was finishing up some small art quilts. Each of these was an effort to work with a different technique, though I did all the free-motion work on my 1930s Singer 15-30 treadle.

The first was a lighthouse, done with fusible applique. I cut out each of the pieces for the water, sand and marsh separately and fitted them together like a puzzle, so there wouldn't be too much bulk. It worked pretty well, but next time I would draw all the pieces on the fusible's paper, then cut it apart, so they would fit better. After fusing, I layered with cotton batting and backing, then free-motion embroidered/quilted the palm trees, water, grasses and shading on the lighthouse, using various rayon variegated and solid threads. Then I free-motion quilted the sky background, and finally added beads and buttons, including the seagull, as embellishments.

Next was an experiment in thread sketching. I layered my fabric for quilting and sketched the palm trees, horizon and sand, and grasses, using a rayon thread. Then I used watercolor pencils to shade the beach, water and sky, and the palm trees. The pencils gave a nice, soft effect, maybe because they were soaking through into the batting. I decided I wanted the finished piece to be larger, so I stitched borders to the top of the piece, butted batting up against the existing batting and added a single piece of backing over the entire back. Then I free-motion quilted the border and added some waves to the water, securing the center of the piece and adding a

little more detail. Some tiny shells from one of the local shops finished it off.

Finally, my puzzle. In January I signed up for the challenge at Three Creative Studios, and the first challenge, for Jan. and Feb., was to create a quilt inspired by the word puzzle. I came up with the idea, but with my other deadlines, didn't get it finished in time for the challenge. I started with a scene I had photographed on Tybee Island, modified the picture, including drawing the puzzle piece outlines, and printed it on fabric. My first thought was to make the puzzle as a layered quilt, and stitch all the edges with decorative stitching, but it made for a very messy look. So I printed a second picture and fused this one to stiff interfacing, and used applique scissors to cut apart the pieces.

I found the fabric for the table in my stash, layered it and free-motion quilted following the fabric's pattern to suggest wood grain. Then I attached the puzzle pieces by free-motion stitching, following the lines of the grasses, building, shading of the palm tree.

And now it's on to other projects, I've layered and started quilting a Disappearing Nine-Patch I started last year, and am busy working on publicity for our guild's first quilt show, the High Cotton Quilt Show, which is coming up in October. I've set up a blog and Facebook page for the show, and designed the logo for the show this weekend.

What happened to February?

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. It seems February flew by, and between weather stuff and job stuff, I haven't gotten around to posting. Of course, there's the problem that I haven't had much new quilty stuff to post about, too.

Most of my sewing time for the past few weeks has been devoted to making table covers and new window treatments for our restaurant. 18 vinyl table covers and 12 window treatments, to be exact. I'm down to the last two window treatments, then will be able to sew what I want for a while. I'll post pictures once they are hanging, right now they just look like a pile of colorful fabric.

I have snuck in a little bit of other sewing. The quilt that wouldn't be finished is done except for a label. After I got the binding on, I decided I really, really didn't like the quilting, done in tan, on the black borders, so picked that out and did a slightly different motif, in black. Much, much better.

I'd also signed up for a challenge project, through Creative Studios, with the theme of "puzzle." I got my idea all worked out, and started on it, but had some problems with making it do what I wanted. I missed the deadline, but will still post once I've worked the wrinkles out.

For now, here's what the big Feb. 12 snow in south Georgia looked like, and I'm getting back to work.

Playing with new techniques and toys

I haven't spent as much time in the studio as I'd like, but I have been having fun trying out some new techniques and materials.

A couple of weeks ago I got some Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils. These things are so cool. You can sketch dry for a colored pencil look, brush with water after drawing to soften and intensify the lines or start with a wet surface for a real watercolor look. This weekend I took a thread sketch (last post) and colored it in with the pencils, wetting the fabric first. I love the effect. I still have a few finishing touches to put on, some tiny seashells, I think (if I can find them) then decide how to bind or finish it.

Another piece I am working on is fused applique, with detailing quilted in. I cut out the fused pieces like a puzzle, so I wouldn't have too thick a layer to quilt through, so for the most part it is quilting pretty well. I did some very small background quilting for the sky, which doesn't really show in the photo. Still a bit more to do here, but I'm pleased with the progress.

I've done all the thread sketching and quilting on both of these on my Singer 15-30 treadle. It's my favorite for free-motion quilting.

On the traditional side, I'm still working on the red and black quilt from the Treadle On Boat Shuttle Exchange. I got the binding on a couple of weeks ago (with help from Rascal, previous post) and while hand-sewing it, decided I really wasn't happy with the tan quilting on the black borders. So now I'm picking out the borders. I'm beginning to think this quilt will never be finished.

Lots of other stuff going on, of course. Our guild, Staying in Stitches, is holding its first quilt show this fall. As part of the publicity committee, I've set up a blog (on my list of blogs) to post details of the show as they are worked out, and I'll be sending notices to all the quilting magazines.

And for the next week or two I'll be on hiatus from quilting. I'm making new table covers and window treatments for our restaurant. They are the final step in redecorating the dining room, so getting them done is top priority.