Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Hexagon Park

Hexagon Park by ava99riley00
Hexagon Park, a photo by ava99riley00 on Flickr.
Made from charity quilts fabric from my quilt guild, this is Hexagon Park, a free pattern from the Moda Bake Shop. Lily's Quilts made this Hexagon Park pattern.

Since I used the guild's charity fabric, this quilt must go to our charity project.  I can only imagine how the person receiving this quilt will feel when she picks it out. We donate our quilts to a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

I borrowed a technique I've noticed on other quilters' blogs...I strung some clothes line between two trees and clipped the quilt to the string. It makes a nice picture, and I get natural lighting for better color. I got to use some old-fashioned clothes pins to hang it up. Sometimes simple tools are the truly the best.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Mini Hiatus

I enjoyed a long weekend away and haven't been sewing. Hope to post again soon.

While in Charleston, SC, I went to People Places and Quilts in the historic district. Nice little shop with high quality fabrics. They like Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett, and Moda. I bought a book called Southern Pillow Sayings, with designs to embroider on a pillow cover; the book is published by the store. It's adorable! These were some of my favorite sayings:

  • That dog ain't gonna hunt.
  • She's just a mess. Bless her heart.
  • About what you might expect, more or less under the circumstances...
I miss the south; I'm more partial to North Carolina mind you, but any place that serves grits for breakfast and is well into spring by April 1 is OK with me. It was fun to visit and get away.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Holy moley

I have been playing with my sewing machine attachments, and, oh my gosh, they work! Sitting in a box for 20 years, and they still work!  Not only that, they work really well!

The one that astounded me was the binder. It was magical...thread the binding in, slide in the fabric to be bound, and out the other end comes bound fabric with even stitches. The only challenge was going around tight curves.

The ruffler makes ruffles with such precision. It's so mechanical - it has ratchets and springs, it has levers that go in and out, it has screws and numbers etched into the sides, and it clicks and clacks as it works. In this world of electronics, it's almost revolutionary to see a mechanical gadget in action.

I had pretty good success with a hemmer, too. Those are a little tricky to use, because you have to keep the feeding mechanism "full" of fabric. The fabric wants to slip out. It's rather uncanny how it folds under a 1/8" of the edge of the fabric and feeds it to the needle without losing its grip. No ironing required.

I must post pictures soon!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

A Pile of Projects

Getting ready for guild by ava99riley00
Getting ready for guild, a photo by ava99riley00 on Flickr.
Over the weekend, I packed up the projects I've been preparing all month to send to the guild meeting. Once again, I could not go to the meeting, but one of my committee members picked everything up to have available for members.

Usually there's a mix of projects, heavy on the piecing. This time, the offerings were mostly binding and quilting projects. Two smaller projects to put on inner and outer borders on some Split Decision pattern tops. All of these projects were worked on during guild's charity workday last month.

My contribution is mainly to organize these projects and get them ready for others to pick up. I whip together backing fabric and make lots of binding. I cut batting, and package it all up neatly. I make them look like gifts or packages of bedding like you see in the department store. Presentation is essential to getting members to take a project home.

In the lower left corner you can see my charity quilt with the squares quilting design, ready to receive a binding!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Shout out...Quilted Memories, LLC

I found a local (to me) business when searching for a batting supplier for my guild. It is called Quilted Memories, a home-based business in Overland Park Kansas. They're a Hobbs distributer for long arm quilters, but they also sell packaged batting, bolts, as well as rolls. The primary business owner is Lyn Heilman. She was pleasant, professional, and easy to work with. Just to disclose, I really didn't have a complicated transaction to negotiate.

Their retail prices are good, and their wholesale prices are better. For the guild's charity projects,  we were able to take advantage of the wholesale price, with proof of Non Profit status. This was especially advantageous for the guild because we didn't have to pay shipping  I could just drive there and pick it up!

Quilted Memories sells to individuals, and they ship all over the place.

Quilted Memories sells thread and quilting gadgets in addition to batting. There may be fabric in the near future. She mentioned she's trying to establish a small shop in a front room of her house, and it was in the set up stages at this time. It looks like it will be a cute little shop.

I got a roll of low loft polyester batting at Lyn's recommendation. We'll see how it works in practice, but I think it will be fine. Our group tends to like thin batting better.

So, a shout out to a new business, helping folks get established. Check out their website: Quilted Memories, LLC.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Hexagon Park - progress

Hexagon Park - progress by ava99riley00
Hexagon Park - progress, a photo by ava99riley00 on Flickr.

I finished the pieced borders of Hexagon Park earlier this week. The inner border is sewn on but the outer border is just placed next to the center section...checking out the sizing.

Uh, ooops. It's not super obvious from my picture but the top and bottom border don't quite match up. I can fiddle with the sashing between the squares and make it fit better.

There's going to be one more border of white around it, then it'll be good enough to post to Lily's blog.