Monthly Archives: February 2012

Sunday Night Stash Report - MidAtlantic Quilt Festival Edition

I was pretty good at the Festival and only bought for specific projects. I’m not counting wool felt kits because those aren’t part of the quilting, and I only got two of them, plus that brown piece to finish the kit I already had at home. Mostly I bought patterns I can use existing stash for (guest appearance by Chester the quilt in this photo):

  • Used this Week: 2.25 yards
    • 2.25 for son’s Secret Lab curtain
  • Used year to Date: 94.5 yards
  • Added this Week: 3 yards
    • 1.5 various embroidered bits from the booth (top row in photo)
    • 0.75 for a Half Moon Modern Charm Pack (bottom row in photo)
    • 0.75 various batiks for farm project (fabric in bottom right, pattern in middle right just above)
  • Added Year to Date: 65.25 yards
  • Net Used for 2012: 29.25 yard
    • YTD Used for Charity: 38.5 yards (41% of total used)

Not-So-Live from the MidAtlantic Quilt Festival!

Maybe you heard around the quilty podosphere that there was a meet-up in Virginia this week? Here’s some pictures to satisfy those of you who couldn’t make it (and the other attendees will also be sharing some photos I’m sure):
Top, from left to right: Frances and Sandy. Bottom, from left to right: Me (Pam), AJ, and Tanesha.
 
Tanesha and I at lunch:
Sandy and Frances listening during the podcast we recorded:
AJ, also listening intently:

These, along with the listeners who gathered with us, are all just as wonderful as they sound on the podcasts. We all agreed after so much social interaction we were going to head back to our respective beds and collapse. Except I finagled my way into dinner with Sandy and Frances, and then came back to my parents’ house and collapsed into bed.

Sandy has the recording, and is driving home today. I think she’ll get it posted this week.  Thanks to everyone who showed up, and I hope everyone who couldn’t make it got lots of good sewing done!

HtbaS - Episode 68

It’s the panicky last-minute-before-travel episode! I talk about finishing my son’s room makeover, felted wool projects, and getting ready for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival.

Play

Extreme Room Makeover: Racetrack Edition

Rather than beat around the bush, I’ll start off with the coolest part of my son’s “new” room:
Nerf gun rack!
The Nerf gun rack! It’s the first thing you see when you walk into his room. It’s made from pegboard painted to match the wall, with 4″ pegs dipped into Plasti-Dip to give a little more grippy-ness.  For those interested in the construction, this is what the back looks like:
It’s backed with a frame of 1×2’s, screwed in from the front. Very simple to do, and then mounted to the wall into the studs with screws.  Here’s a close-up of one section of the finished piece:
The bandolier made from my dad’s old fatigues is hanging on the far left.  I also got some baskets to fit into the pegboard to hold the smaller items.  Anywho, if you look at the first picture, you’ll see the closet door just to the right. But it’s no ordinary closet!

It should be no surprise that we have secret labs at my house. I made that using a tension rod and a yard and a half of fabric, and fused the letters onto the fabric.

And now, we’ll circle the room counter-clockwise. Curtains! My son said his favorite number was 96. I have no idea why.  The fabric on the valance is racing helmets and checkered flags.

And here’s the rest of the elements: tire wall clock, posters, etc.

Small Project Finishes

I promised pictures of this geranium basket felted wool table mat, so here it is! It’s about 18″ across. Not sure where I’ll put it yet.

And here’s how you can ID me at the MidAtlantic Quilt Festival (or any other quilt festival, honestly, since I usually take this bag to quilt shows):

 Check out my new tag! Not really a name tag since it doesn’t have my name on it, but it’s a… tag line tag?

Sunday Night Stash Report: 2/19 (Oops)

I awoke at 2:40 this morning to the panicky thought that I hadn’t done a Sunday night stash report last week. Oops.
  • Used this Week: 11.75 yards
    • 11.75 for Blue Swoon
  • Used year to Date: 92.25 yards
  • Added this Week: 0 yards
    • Woohoo! I will probably be breaking that streak at the quilt festival this weekend
  • Added Year to Date: 62.25 yards
  • Net Used for 2012: 30 yard
    • YTD Used for Charity: 38.5 yards (42% of total used)

On Growth.

I’ve been thinking about my growth as a quilter a lot lately, and Jaye’s (very thoughtful) comment on the last episode spurred me to actually sit down and write about it.  My mom recently sent me a picture of the first quilt I made for them, which was maybe 8 years ago. I honestly can’t remember whether I made it before or after my oldest was born, but here it is:
It’s lap-sized. I bought a FQ assortment of Hawaiian print fabrics, cut them into squares, sashed them (inaccurately, I’m sure), used poly batting, and just straight line quilted (without a walking foot) in the sashing. I believe I called the sashing “lattice” at the time. I can name about 99 problems with this quilt. Inelegant layout? Complete lack of a consistent and accurate 1/4″ seam? Lack of quilting? Check. Check. Check.
Compare that quilt with Iz, from last year, also in Hawaiian print for my mom.
Interesting layout? Consistent and accurate piecing? Imaginative quilting? Check. Check. Check. Still, I look at it and can name around 25 problems with it.
I’m a tad hard on myself sometimes, is what I’m saying. But I can also acknowledge growth. Technical growth, anyway. I’m still working on that artsy-fartsy part of myself that brings things like color. Here’s another early quilt of mine to demonstrate:

This is prayer quilt for the church group I used to work with. We worked with donated fabrics for 90% of our needs, and in this case a man had lost his wife to cancer and was left to raise their five daughters on their own. I suggested using 5 different pinks in the quilt to represent the five girls. Because the pink at the center of the blocks was rather more red than pink, I put the lace strips over it to “cut it” a bit. It’s an okay quilt given the limitations we were working with, but I feel like I can name 5 things wrong with the color here and they are all shades of pink.

And then my color growth with the Blue Swoon quilt:

It’s… better. I say that with a hesitancy that comes from a place of insecurity about my color skills (and not begging for nice comments, because you guys have already said such nice things about it already - thank you!).

I feel like I need to force myself to do an insanely scrappy quilt just to push all sorts of colors together and make myself get over my aversion to things not matching exactly.  Here is where we pause to listen to my parents, husband, every school teacher I ever had, and anyone who’s ever seen me work on a jigsaw puzzle laugh their fool heads off with the idea that I will ever be a laid back person who can just “let things go”.

I’m very good about setting/accomplishing goals around increasing my technical skills (paper piecing, trapunto, FMQ, etc.). What I need to do is balance that with it growing my “softer skills” like design, color, and art quilting skills in composition.

It’s likely that my nerdy inner-self that craves structure is going to wield a spreadsheet and a protractor and beat down the inner artsy-fartsy hippie. That’s probably why I don’t wear more scarves, too.

Blue Swoon: FINISHED!

Blue Swoon is finished!

I used the lime green Swiss dot print from the Ruby line for the binding.

Random close-up of the center (this blue is the same as the backing fabric):

And here’s the back, with some seriously bright sunlight coming through:

HtbaS - Episode 67

Meet Me at the Waterfall! Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

Borrowed from Sandy…

You’ve been hearing us talk about it-the details have finally been worked out! Join Sandy of Quilting…for the Rest of Us, me, Frances of Off-Kilter Quilt, AJ of The Quilting Pot, and Tanesha of Crafty Garden Mom podcasts, and a whole bunch of our listeners at the Waterfall Meet-up at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, Virginia!

Make your way to the indoor waterfall in the main lobby of the convention center starting around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 25th. We’ll gather there, wait until a few minutes after noon in case there are folks in morning classes, and then possibly move to another nearby location depending on how many people we have with us and what’s available. (We’ve got some tentative locations on hold but it’s hard to know what will work best until we see how many people we’re talking about.)

I know all of us podcasters are anxious to meet each other and our listeners face-to-face! So, meet at the waterfall!

Extra bonus: if you see other women wandering around the show that look like different versions of me, that’s probably my mom, sister, and niece! I’m going to try to make a thing for me to wear so you’ll know it’s me- for reference, I’m the one on the left in the picture of me & Frances. I may not have glasses on - might be having a contact lens day.

Hugs accepted, btw. I figure if I put that out there up front, it’ll be less awkward! Then again, who am I kidding? I will probably still snag your hair on a button or something.