One Monthly Goal

My sewing, like my sewing room, tends to be “all over the place”! I work a little bit on one project, then sew on another, maybe put together a quilt back – in other words, things slowly move to completion, but in a scattershot sort of way. I finished four quilts last year, which was better than I have done in probably 8 or 9 years, so I was happy with that. But – and there’s always a but – I could have been more organized about the whole thing and aimed to get more quilts done.

So I was pretty happy to see this on the Elm Street Quilts blog...

The “rules” are pretty simple; here they are in Patty’s words:

The basics for One Monthly Goal are as follows - 

Select ONE of your quilt-related goals for the month.  This could be to make a few blocks. cutting fabric for a project, sewing on a binding, or finish a quilt top.  Any goal that involves a step in the process of making with thread, fabric or yarn is a valid goal.

Describe your goal in a:

·         blog post complete with a photo(s) of your project and a link back to One Monthly Goal.

                                                  or

·         via Instagram your photo and description of your goal along with the social tag #onemonthlygoal and @elmstreetquilts 

                                                  or

·         via Flickr complete with a photo(s) of your project and a link back to One Monthly Goal. (link to this main event page or to the actual linkup page)

Add your project to the link-up at the goal setting link-up.  (Each month, the goal-setting link-up will be open from the 1st through the 7th, closing at 11:55 pm ET.)

Then come post again at the end of the month to share your accomplishment in the One Monthly Goal Finish Party.  The finish party will run for 7 days at the end of the month.

Each time you join the linkup you earn an entry into the Grand Finale prize drawing!  Link up in the goal setting and the finish linkup each month of the year earns 24 entries into the Grand Finale prize drawing. Link up goals one month but never quite got to the finish?  You still earn an entry for participating in the goal link up!

There are prizes donated by the Fat Quarter Shop, Make Modern and others – doesn’t this sound like fun? I already signed up!

May all of you have a happy, healthy, quilty New Year!

Just a Normal Starbucks Run

I’m teaching in Salt Lake for a few days and after class sometimes like to run in to Starbucks for a venti iced sugar free vanilla latte with whole milk — I tell myself it’s for the calcium!

This was a back window sticker on a car parked right in front — had to get this picture!

My last day of teaching was today so I’m headed home tomorrow for a couple of weeks to get some sewing done — I’ll keep you posted!

Glad I Changed My Mind!

I’ve been to Market and back — it was super to touch bases with so many friends! — and have been home catching up on some projects.

Finished the Circuit blocks and am thinking about the next Block of the Day, put the inner and outer borders on the Squares Plus quilt I’m making for Rhonda (pics later in the week when I take it to her in Salt Lake so she can see it and decide on batting and binding fabric) and am now putting the final border on the minions quilt.

 
The pic above is of the quilt with the fabric I had bought for the border. Delayed, hemmed and hawed, and basically decided it looked blah against the dark sashing.

 

Decided on the orange print in the same line and am much happier with the outcome! The new fabric brings out the orange dots in the navy sashing print and just brightens up the whole thing.

Going to put all that first border print on the back; thinking one of the yellow dotty prints for binding. What do you think?

Patches & Scraps, Midland TX

This is either my third or fourth visit to Patches & Scraps; owner Lisa Graham and I were trying to figure it out the other day and didn’t come up with an answer. The store has been open for four years and I came to them for the first time shortly after their opening and almost every year since. Every year they have even more merchandise and since pushing the walls of the building out is impractical, the aisles just get narrower!

This is the view to the left of the front door....

...and this is the view to the right! Lots of fabric and thoughtfully arranged groupings of notions make this a really fun store to shop. Lisa has six daughters and a son and all of the daughters work in the business, five of them in the store. So since there is Mom and five daughters all fabric shopping at Market and with the vendors who call on the store, you can imaging that there is a LOT of fabric being bought!

Nice Judy Niemeyer and other larger format patterns display right in front of the door along with some shopping totes to fill up — easy to do here!

I said “Smile” to Grace and Tara, two of Lisa’s daughters — Grace looked directly at me and smiled; Tara said “oh, no” and looked the other way.

This quilt is right outside the classroom door and I love it! It’s got that whole modern vibe going on. It takes over 5 yards of background fabric and we had a lively discussion at dinner last night about how many bolts a store had to buy of good backgrounds like this one. A 15 yard bolt may only be enough for 2 or 3 customers, so Lisa and April (store manager daughter) have found that they can go through a 4 bolt order very quickly. It was a very interesting insight about inventory management and the things a store has to think about when placing orders.

One of the most fun things about traveling is learning from the shop owners!

For the first two days, I taught my Fluff & Stuff machine quilting class; my last class here before I fly to Houston for Quilt Market is a feathers class using the Westalee rulers. I’m also going to demonstrate circles on quilts in a Baptist fan design and a few other of the template sets so that students can see some of the variety available.

Even though it’s just short demonstrations, I get to sew — and any day we get to sew is a good day, right?

A Week at Home

It’s nice to have some time at home between teaching trips — to catch up on email that I saved but didn’t read, unpack, do some laundry, repack....

This time I was home almost a week, so I got a little bit of sewing done. Here are two of the reverse Circuit blocks...

...and two more (maybe 10 to go?) as well as a Matrix Block in what I think is Step 3.

It’s finally getting cool enough that I’m seriously thinking about quilting the tops that I pieced over the summer. This is the Weekend Candy quilt from the Sleep Tight collection by Cotton + Steel. Pinned it up with wool batting and got all the straight stitching done with Mettler’s Transfil monofilament in the top of the machine and 40 wt Mettler silk finish 100% cotton thread in a medium grey in the bobbin. I chose the heavier 40 wt. thread for the bobbin because I’m going to do the free motion quilting with an even thicker 28 wt thread in the top of the Q-20 sit down longarm machine.

I was doing some blog hopping the other day and found this picture — drawstring candy bags are all well and good, but I really liked the elegant spooky tree and the purple diamond background. Funny how I get drawn into the little detail things and totally ignore the main point of the post! All in what the eye is looking for, I guess!

Clemtine Charity Quilt Quilt Along

When it comes to charitable causes, quilters probably have among the biggest hearts! We make quilts for others less fortunate and contribute fabric and notions to people who want to make their own. 

Here is another way to contribute that Fat Quarter Shop has been doing for a couple of years now.

The Clementine Quilt Along benefits the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to help advance cures and means of prevention for catastrophic pediatric diseases. Fat Quarter Shop is partnering with Moda Fabrics to match up to $20,000 of donations for this awesome cause. And, on top of that, they will auction the Clementine Quilt Along quilt at the end of the program, and 100% of the auction proceeds will go to the St. Jude campaign.

Read more about the program HERE.

Red Pines Quilt Shop, Detroit Lakes MN

This is the second time I’ve taught for Nate and Joy Fetting of Red Pines Quilt Shop in Detroit Lakes MN. Last year, I came in September and the fall colors were just starting to pop; this year, I was there from October 11–15 and caught them just about at peak. This picture was one that I took from the car on the way from the Fargo ND airport to Detroit Lakes. We don’t have a lot of fall changes in the Southern California high desert, so it’s always a treat to go somewhere and enjoy the seasons!

Sunset from my room at The Lodge at Detroit Lakes — definitely a room with a view! Every room at the lodge has a lake view and the common area has a beautiful fireplace. There was an Octoberfest celebration on one of the nights and we were presented with German food, beer and a very accomplished accordion player. I really didn’t know if I would like accordion music or not, but this guy had a really good repertoire of songs and was very personable. It was a fun night!

This is Nate and Joy on our first night at dinner....

We just ordered some appetizers and shared. The plate in the middle of the table is waffle cut sweet potato fries with a topping of corn, black beans, beef and a bunch of other things. It was sort of a nacho type topping without the tortilla chips. Really good!

I commented to Joy that the quilts on the wall were different from last year; she said “They’d better be!” Red Pines is a big shop with a lot of fabric — 150 colors of Mona’s Basic Grey Grunge? And there’s grunge polka dots now? I liked the shots of color in the grey and white background fabrics in the quilt above.

I had been looking at this pattern from Jaybird Quilts for a couple of weeks and Joy had it in the shop, either to purchase separately or in a kit with the fabrics shown in the photo above.

I bought the kit and then took a closeup because I really liked the quilting and don’t want to forget what it looked like.

And of course there had to be rain!

On the drive back to Fargo on Sunday morning, I asked Nate to stop at a church that I had seen on the initial drive Thursday afternoon. It was such a pretty setting — the church building itself and all of the threes around it.

Another one of the trees on the church property.

I thoroughly enjoyed my few days with Nate, Joy and the students as well as the staff of the Lodge at Detroit Lakes who did their best to spoil me. We’re already mulling over ideas for what I might teach next fall. This year, just like last, we did my two day machine quilting class and Ruler Play on a Domestic Machine. We’re thinking of more advanced classes for next year. There’s always great new things to learn!

Speaking of which, this week I’ll be in Midland TX and then going on to Houston for Quilt Market. Lots of new things for me to learn so that I can teach them to others. I’ll be in the Amann-Mettler booth with all the beautiful, colorful threads; if you’re going to be at Market, stop by! I’ll be doing demonstrations with Mettler’s 28 weight cotton thread and using the Westalee rulers — I’d love to see you! 

Durchess Heritage Quilt Show

It was great to be invited by Sew and Vac in Poughkeepsie NY to demonstrate Westalee Ruler work in their booth at this quilt show. Met some great people who had heard of ruler work but not seen it demonstrated, so I was busy all day sewing and schmoozing — doesn’t get better than that!

My friend Teri Lucas was the featured artist at this show and she arranged a space for me to hang one of my quilts in the non-judged, non-competitive part of the show. It’s always fun to see a quilt hanging in a show and they always look a lot nicer to me than folded up and stuffed into a suitcase like they usually are!

 

 
I told Teri had no idea what to name the quilt, so she did it for me; here’s a picture of the card that explains the quilt’s story. Teri and I have had a running joke since we met several years ago in Knoxville when we were both teaching for an AQS show there. She calls me The Queen and I call her My Dear Princess; if you have met Teri, you know she has an infectious sense of humor and it was great to be able to hang out with her after show hours. Teri lives in the Bronx, so she didn’t have too far to drive to the show.

This was the 18th Dutchess Heritage Quilt Show; it is presented by the Dutchess Heritage Quilt Show Committee in cooperation with the First Dutchess Quilters Guild and the Dutchess Community College Foundation. Along with Teri, I was excited to see Debby Brown (of Handiquilter fame and cutie patterns, for two), who told me that First Dutchess is her home guild.

     

So I took a picture of Debby’s phone so I wouldn’t get lost on the way to dinner and met both Teri and Debby, along with a couple of other really nice ladies for a lot of laughter and some good food.

Somewhere under all that lettuce is buried a bison burger, which was excellent, along with really crispy yummy sweet potato fries. It’s kind of disappointing to me that the only way I like this healthy vegetable is prepared in the worst possible way!

When I got up the next morning, it was to find that my five year streak of driving rental cars in rain or snow remained unbroken! If you are having a drought in your area, just book me to teach, tell me to rent a car and your problems are over, at least for one day!

These quilts weren’t in the show, but the vendor selling beautiful solid fabrics had no problem with my taking the pictures. I really liked the quilting on both of these.

After the show was over and the booth broken down, all of the goodies out of the booth were brought to the Sew and Vac, Inc. store in Poughkeepsie.  There are two locations; the Albany store carries Husqvarna Viking machines and the Poughkeepsie store carries those as well as Babylock and Janome machines.  Since I am a spokesperson for Mettler thread, I was also happy to see a goodly amount of Mettler in the pretty new fixtures!

Sew and Vac carries both garment and quilt fabrics with a lot of fun projects displayed on the walls. Of course, I LOVED the coffee cups hanging at the top of the wall and I think the office caddy — it definitely caught my eye, being orange and all — would be a really attractive and useful thing to have.

My eyes were riveted to the perfect points in the mariner’s compass quilt. Love looking at them, but have never had the nerve to make one.

Along the very top of the wall is a display of old to new Viking sewing machines. There were quite a few there — an impressive collection!

I had an hour and a half drive from Poughkeepsie back to the Albany airport and a little extra time to make that drive, so I had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel across the street from my hotel in Fishkill NY. I think I love Cracker Barrel as much for the eclectic shopping experience as the really good breakfasts. Had to take a picture of this cute sign!

Quick trip home, one day to get everything turned around and ready to take on the road to MN!