true blue quilts

Team Sewing

2012-02-03T21:08:00.000-08:00

Last December, Windham fabrics sent us some of their newest (at the time) fabric--it's a line called Echo by Lotta Jansdotter. When I first saw these prints online, I was drawn to their simplicity. When they arrived at my house, I loved the scale and colors of these modern fabrics. Janine and I decided to get together to piece a new sample out of these fabrics so that we could get one done as quickly as possible. I know I've talked about this team sewing thing before....one of us pieces at the sewing machine, and one of us gets the blocks ready to sew and does the ironing. The bottom line is, it's twice as fast, and pretty fun. We started cutting this quilt out about two weeks ago on a Tuesday morning, finished it on that Thursday afternoon, and it was at the quilter's house by that weekend. We already have it back and it is being bound (thank you Ann Davidson!!). That's what we call a pretty quick turn around!

Here's some shots of the unquilted top--it's another green glass door--outside, when there was still a shred of snow to be found around here. I had to take the first image standing at the top of the quilt (which actually makes the prints face the wrong direction in the picture) because of the way the wind was blowing.

We added a few solids to set off some of the rectangles.

I love the way this pattern shows off the prints in this collection. Because of their large scale, the size of the rectangles is perfect. Green glass door was actually just released last May, and we already have three of these quilts made....I am thinking this might be one of our current favorites!

Kate's Quilt

2012-01-09T17:36:00.000-08:00

I told you that you'd have to wait until after Christmas for pictures of the baby LOFT I was working on--I did it! It was quilted, bound, washed AND wrapped before my sister and brother in law came with their little baby Kate for Christmas. Here's some pics of the finished quilt:

I am especially proud of the free-form 'K' I pieced for the backing.

I quilted the top with an allover swirl/paisley meander that I've been favoring these days. I love the freedom you have with an all-over pattern. As long as you stay consistent with the size, the sky's the limit!

There's something special about making a quilt for a loved one--and something extra special about making a baby quilt. It's as if all your hopes, dreams and prayers for that little person are sewn into the seams right down to the last stitch of the binding. I'm so glad I took the time to make this little quilt. And to be honest, I like it so much, I feel like making another just to have around!

Cookie Mania

2011-12-19T23:15:00.000-08:00

I returned today from the annual sister cookie baking weekend at my mom's up in Wisconsin. My sister Anna and I actually started this tradition about eight years ago when she was living in Chicago. We made a list of cookies we each wanted to bake and even organized a schedule that included which cookies needed to be refrigerated before baking and which could be baked right away. All together, we made a whopping 30 types of cookies between the two of us and a friend of Anna's who stopped by briefly to help us but accidentally broke the oven instead. By Sunday evening, we were both sitting at the kitchen table sharing a much needed bottle of wine and looking at about an inch of flour, sugar and sprinkles on the kitchen floor. Thus was born a tradition.

Since then, we try to get as many sisters on board as possible. This year there were three of us, a three year old and my mom. We made a lowly 15 types of cookies, but it was just enough to put together plates and tins for good friends, neighbors, co-workers, family and still put some away for Christmas day. We are pretty serious about the cookie baking at Christmas time in our house. There are some recipes that just HAVE to be made--they are non-negotiable. These include mini chip snowballs, island cookies (we use macadamia nuts in these instead of walnuts), mandel bread and anise biscotti. The last two recipes are from Cookies Unlimited by Nick Malgieri. I have to admit to having a flour and sugar crush on this man. Everything I have ever made from any of his books about baking has been amazing. If you like to bake, you should definitely add a book of his to your library.

island cookies

It is just as important to add a few new recipes to the mix as it is to keep making the old ones. This year, these included Greek butter cookies, crock pot peanut clusters (not really a cookie but there are no steadfast rules here...), cardamom butter squares, and peanut butter thumbprints.

crock pot peanut clusters

cardamom butter squares

It was nice to have a break from sewing over the weekend--especially to do something just as fun. There is something about baking and Christmas music that puts everyone in a good mood. And, we had such a feeling of accomplishment Sunday night after we had packed up packages for everyone on our lists and cleaned up the warzone that had once been my mother's kitchen!

LOFT baby quilt

2011-12-14T22:40:00.000-08:00

Well....It's been a while since I've posted here. Something happened...I think I blinked....and all of the sudden it was December 14th. Anyway, I've been working on a lot of projects that I can't post anything about at the moment....and some that I can.

I've recently started a new quilt for a special little someone in our lives, and it's meant to be a Christmas gift. (And about Christmas sewing: why is it always December before it occurs to me that I could make gifts for people?) This quilt is one that I have been wanting to make ever since I made the original for Colorful Quilts last year. It's called LOFT.

Of the five quilts that I have in the Colorful Quilts book, LOFT might very well be my favorite. I love the simplicity and straightforwardness (if that's a word) of it. Even though I made the original with all solids, I have really been wanting to try it with a solid/print combination.

I decided to do pink and cream, since this quilt is for a little girl. I always like to meet a baby before I make a baby quilt. I find that I make color and fabric choices that are influenced by the baby's personality. This particular little girl is bubbly and sweet, and happens to have a little ( or actually a lot) of pink in her nursery. Not that I am overly concerned with being matchy-matchy, mind you, but if it works out that way, it's like a little bonus.

One of the fun things about this quilt is that the blocks go together pretty quickly and are really fun to sew. Here they are, ready to be sewn together with the sashing and borders:

The top is actually together, and ready to go on my quilting frame to be quilted--with a week to spare! I can do this--no problem!

But, you'll have to wait until after Christmas to see pictures on the finished quilt :-).

Hope you're having a beautiful holiday season!

Re-quilted rectangles

2011-11-13T20:57:00.001-08:00

Having finished the ripping and re-basting of the rectangle top in record time, I immediately started to quilt it with parallel lines. This was actually my first instinct for this quilt--and I thought about it a lot while I was piecing. When I got it on the frame, however, I didn't follow through. It's pretty easy to do straight lines on my longarm. I have channel locks and a stitch regulator, so I just pop them both on and go from side to side. Straight line quilting is one of my favorite patterns but it can expose of lot of irregularities in your piecing, especially where the shapes aren't straight. This is why I was reticent to use straight lines from the start. But, I am glad I took the time to rip and re-do the quilting here. I think the straight lines work with the piecing design--they actually add more rectangles to the top, instead of taking away from them.

After I finished the binding, I washed the quilt with retayne on a hot water cycle. I had noticed while piecing that some of the darker fabrics were running even from the leak in my iron. To avoid some serious bleeding, I put a very generous dose of retayne in the washer. I dried it for a few minutes and then pinned it (while it was still damp) to my large cutting mat to block it.

I am not sure what I'm going to do with this quilt. I think that's why it was so much fun to make!

Giving In

2011-11-10T16:41:00.001-08:00

Driving home from a quilt guild meeting yesterday, I had the most acute desire to work with some Cherrywood fabrics. It may have had something to do with the fact that I sat behind our sales table and looked at our stacks of Cherrywoods all during the guild business meeting while waiting to speak. Or, it may have had something to do with the fact that I do not often have the time to kick around and sew something for fun. And I have been longing to do just that.

So, even though I walked in the door to a very hungry family, a pile of laundry and a stack of groceries that had not yet been put away, I did not allow myself to be deterred. I got dinner in the oven in record time and immediately went downstairs to start cutting. Luckily, the nature of my job allows me to keep a fairly large stash of fabrics in house so I was able to satisfy the urge to work with hand dyes. I dug into my bin--thanks to my handy contractor I no longer have to de-stack an entire pile of bins to get to the one I need--and got out all of the colors that grabbed me--which incidentally amounted to almost every single color in the bin :-). I knew I was not going to be able to allow myself a lot of time for this project. Therefore, I did not want much to keep me from getting from point A (the contemplative stage) to point B (the sewing stage) in a hurry. The sewing of this project was not going to focus on color or design. It was all about putting the fabrics together. I was going to start, and let it play out and see what happened.

When I brought all the fabrics to the cutting table, I somehow knew that I should start cutting rectangles. First I cut 5 1/2" strips and then subcut them into 1 1/2" rectangles. Then, I started sewing them together in pairs.

I could have strip-pieced these rectangles, but I like the variety you can get when you sew them individually, especially when you are making a small piece.

I had all of the pieces cut and many of them sewn together that evening--which is unusual for me. I woke up today thinking about this quilt and decided that meant I should finish it ASAP. It's not easy to parcel out a chunk of time to sew something for pleasure. In fact, at a guild meeting earlier this year, someone actually asked me if I ever get to sew things I want to anymore. I answered yes, and then realized while driving home from that meeting that I really do not take enough time for free creativity. (I guess the drive home from guild meetings is a prime time for me to do some reflective thinking).

I actually took the time today to sew this top together. It ended up being wall-sized--just what I wanted (and what I had time for). Here's a picture before all of the rectangle pairs were sewn together:

After I made a few minor changes, I sewed everything together. Here's the finished top:

I was so happy with the way it turned out I decided to put it on the longarm right away. And, not wanting to delay the finishing process, I started quilting. Here's where I ran into a snag....I decided to do a free-hand square meander. Now, I normally REALLY like this quilting design. But as I finished the third or fourth minute of quilting, I knew I was not happy with the way it was looking. I felt the quilting was too distracting....I wanted the rectangles to be more obvious than the quilting.

Before I knew it, I had the seam ripper in my hand and I had started to take out the stitching. I have to take a moment to say that I HATE ripping out quilting--and I have done my fair share of it! The mere fact that I was willing to put myself through the ordeal of "unquilting" meant that I really would not have been satisfied with the finished product.

I always play little mind games with myself when I have an arduous task to do. In this case, I counted the number of rectangles I had quilted over: 12. That meant I could do two at a time and then take a break in the hopes of making the job more palatable. It would only take me 6 trips back to the machine to finish up. The six trips are almost finished as I am writing this....I have punctuated ripping with roasting a chicken, starting this blog post, mixing up a batch of wholegrain honey oatmeal bread, cleaning the kitchen, and watching Olivia! with Maggie. Stay tuned for the "re-quilted" rectangle top...hopefully by the end of the weekend!

Little Red

2011-10-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

Every year, I resolve to do things in a more timely manner. It's not exactly a new year's resolution type of thing because I have to re-resolve to do it every month or so. And, sometimes my resolve works and sometimes it doesn't. This past month, I planned (at the beginning of the month, of course) to make Maggie a halloween costume. When I was little, my mother always made us costumes. I thought it was so much fun to be able to have something unique, not something that we bought out of a plastic bag at Target. (actually, there was no Target here at the time--it would have been more like Venture, or even Zayre--am I dating myself??). Not that there is anything inherently wrong with costumes out of a plastic bag. I have been known to use them myself from time to time. But sometimes I feel that if you have the skill, why not use it?

At any rate, October would be one of those months after which I have to renew my resolution to do things in a more timely manner. Actually I might go so far as to say I need to stop doing things at the last minute! I finally got around to starting said halloween costume on Friday afternoon, and finished it on Saturday. The idea all started with one of our favorite fairy tales: Little Red Riding Hood. Maggie loves to read that book! She also shares our love of the movie Hoodwinked, a hilarious spoof on the classic fairy tale. I decided that before Maggie started telling me what she'll be for Halloween, I'd take this opportunity to make a costume I wanted to make. So, I snatched up a Simplicity pattern from JoAnn fabrics and some red flannel and made a day of it.

Garment sewing is not something that is intuitive to me because I do not do it very often. So, this little cape probably took me longer than it should have. But the important thing is I did get it done, and even took a few short cuts to make it go a little faster. I was pretty happy with the results, given the fact that it is a costume.

I decided not to make the dress that went with the pattern. It seemed like a lot of work for something she would never wear again. Instead, I pulled out a fun Westminster print and One Yard Wonders from my sewing library. Who said Little Red Riding Hood has to wear gingham? I decided to make a skirt that she could wear again and enlisted the help of my friend Stephanie, who by the way, also designs patterns for Blue Underground Studios.

The skirt was our Saturday night project--talk about cutting things close! I knew that I would have no time to sew on Sunday. Someday, I really AM going to make good on the promise to use my time more effectively!

The result was adorable. Unfortunately, Maggie is a little reticent to pose for pictures these days. But I did manage to get some cute back shots of her cape while we were trick or treating and my sister held her still for a 30 second skirt shot on Sunday afternoon.

I love the way the skirt turned out. She even wore to to church on Sunday! So, already, it's been used more than once which makes me feel good about time spent.

Book Signing II

2011-10-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

On Friday evening, Janine and I returned to the scene of the crime, so to speak. Pieceful Heart fabrics in Lisle, IL was nice enough to host a book signing for us. Janine and I actually met at this store about 8 years ago in a sewing class that she was teaching. To make a long story short, she mentioned that she had a longarm and I hired her to quilt a couple of my unfinished tops. And, as soon as I saw her longarm I decided that I had to have one! So, I quit teaching junior high and high school history, convinced my dear husband that I needed a gigantic sewing machine at the same time Janine was thinking about teaching longarm classes. As I started my longarm business, we got to know each other pretty well and the rest, as they say, was history. Since then, we have about 50 patterns in print, and between the two of us and Janine's sister, we have probably about 150 quilts that go out as samples and trunk shows. We spend A LOT of time with our suitcases, carrying quilts back and forth to various places....

On Friday, we brought all of the quilts from the book as well as a few other new ones to give a trunk show and a brief talk about Colorful Quilts for Fabric Lovers. We had a ton of fun--Deb, who works at the shop, baked some amazing brownies and made whiskey balls, there was wine, and we spent the evening in a fabric-filled environment. Pieceful Heart has some great finds!

Batiks

Westminster Prints

But we really love the fact that at Pieceful Heart, you get to stand ON the cutting table to give your trunk show. I haven't really stood on a desk (or cutting table for that matter) since I was teaching. Especially in my junior high classes, I used to do it once in a while just to grab the girls' attention. Most students do not expect to find their teacher standing on the desk when they get to the classroom! Janine usually shows the quilts. Here she is, post-trunk show:

Thanks to all the ladies who work at the shop and made the evening a great success. And, thanks to everyone who came out to meet us!!

Rear Window with Soul

2011-10-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year while I was browsing the aisles at Patched Works in Elm Grove, WI, the shop owner asked if we had ever made any of our quilts with Amy Butler prints. I had used Amy's prints here and there in our samples, but never for the whole quilt. However, I had been eyeing what was at the time her latest collection and was looking for an excuse to buy some and make a sample with it. As it turned out that summer day, a quick question was all the encouragement I needed to acquire a neat little stack of Soul Blossoms in what I am calling the blue/green colorway. I decided to narrow down the palette instead of using the entire collection because the fabrics are very eclectic in style. This particular quilt only finishes 54" x 63"-- too small to add all of the fabrics in the collection and still get a cohesive look. So, I narrowed it down to about ten different fabrics. And I knew right there at the cutting table that I was going to use white kona solid as the frames. I am happy with the way this top turned out. It has a fresh, springy look to it--very contrary to our current weather in Chicago!

The quilt is now in line to be quilted at Patched Works. Stay tuned for future pictures, or, go and check it out for yourself. They will have the quilt on display in the coming months and you can get some Soul Blossoms of your own as they stock much of the line.

Because I can.....

2011-10-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

I am always telling myself how nice it is to work at home. You can go grocery shopping in the morning, when the store is less crowded. You can go the the mall on the weekdays, when the mall is less crowded. You can watch daytime TV--if you are into that sort of thing. You can get to know the small children and retired people in your neighborhood. Or, you can take a day to hang out with your family at places like the Chicago Botanic Garden...when they are less crowded. I am very into the 'less crowded' thing.

So today, because I can, I took Maggie to the Botanic Gardens. It was a mother-daughter bonding day--the first of many I am hoping!

Not to get all corny, but spending a day amid such beautiful surroundings helps me recharge my batteries and look forward to our lecture and trunk show tomorrow in Steger, IL.

Maggie's favorite part of the day was the Model Railroad garden. After all, where else can you go from one coast to the other in a matter of minutes??

My favorite part of the day: spending it with Maggie :-).

And to top off this lovely experience, these were waiting for me at my doorstep when we arrived home...Some new Amy Butler prints as well as a mix of some other Westminster prints!

Oh how I do love working at home....

Book Signing!

2011-10-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

Last night Julie and the wonderful staff at Patched Works in Elm Grove, WI hosted a book signing party for Colorful Quilts. If you have never been to Patched Works, it's time to get in the car and take a road trip. Julie stocks about 8,000 bolts of fabric in a wide variety of styles! Our favorites happen to be her batik and kona solid sections but she also carries a wide variety of Moda, halloween, novelty, childrens and Westminster fabrics. And, if your travels make you hungry, stop in at Le Cakery (it's right next door!) and have a soup and sandwich....and something sweet for desert.

We had a great time showing the quilts from the book and talking a little bit about the process of writing it from start to finish. I love all of the quilts in the book, but two of my favorites at the moment are the cover quilt: Club Noir, and Union Station. Both are pictured below:

Thanks to everyone who joined us--especially my dear mother, sisters and niece Josie! I am hoping she gets the quilting bug soon:-).

If you weren't able to join us last night, we'll be at Pieceful Heart fabrics in Lisle, IL this coming Friday and at Quilter's Destination in Arlington Heights, IL in November. Hope to see you there!

Weekend Workshops

2011-09-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of doing a trunk show and teaching 2 workshops for the lovely ladies out at the Berrien Towne and Country Quilt Guild in Bridgman, MI. Janine and I both agree that teaching workshops is one of our favorite things to do. We have never had a group of students that did not inspire us in some way. After all of the years I have been quilting, I am still astounded at the different perspectives people bring to quilting. These perspectives influence the way they look at fabrics, how they put fabrics together, and even why they are sewing in the first place. And, there is nothing more satisfying than the sound of several machines humming, constant laughter and companionable chatter, accompanied by the smell of steam irons and cotton.

Here are a few accomplishments we witnessed this weekend--

On Friday, the pattern was Curved Log Cabin. As always, one quilt can have so many different looks! Everyone used different looking fabrics in a wide range of designs from traditional to contemporary....

Reproduction type prints in a neutral palette with a tone on tone chocolate print:

Reproduction prints with a neutral alternate print:

Scrappy fall prints with a gold alternate print:

Batiks on both sides!

Some students even decided to make both sides of their Curved Log scrappy. This takes some tenacity but is well worth the effort...

And there is always one combination that I love and wouldn't have thought of myself--like this quilt using Amy Butler, etc prints on the scrappy side and Kona stone on the other.

Saturday's pattern was Around the Block. Again, we were blown away by the different fabric combinations and people's willingness to step "out of their box".

Of course some people started with their quilt already finished!

Brights and dots....and one of my personal favorite colors: lime green

A mixture of various types of prints in a controlled palette.....we liked the selective cutting for the center in this block...

And this quilt using garden themed fabrics. Centers here are also selectively cut and each has a butterfly, flower or a bee....

Both days, everyone got some blocks finished and were well on their way to having a finished quilt. And Janine and I had such a good time! So, thank you Berrien Towne and Country Quilt Guild for a wonderful weekend. We hope to see you again in the future.

Book Shelf

2011-09-07T15:42:00.000-07:00

The above is a picture of the greater part of my collection of quilting books. Yes, I did arrange them in rainbow order....not an original idea...I saw it in a home design magazine a couple of years ago and have wanted to try it ever since. So as soon as they finished the bookcase above my desk in our new basement, I arranged most of my favorites as you see here. I have to admit it does make me smile every time I look up from my work (which is often!).

So, other than their colorful arrangement and the fact that these books made it through the final cut when I was purging my quilting studio of all extraneous objects, this collection of books would not normally be something of note on my blog.

But wait....what's that book at the end of the row? The one at the end of the purple section??

Oh, yes it is! It is a copy of our first book, Colorful Quilts for Fabric Lovers published by C & T!! And, it will be available for purchase any day now! I have a spot on my own bookshelf!

We are obviously REALLY excited about the release of our first book! (sorry for all the exclamation points!!) I can remember when I first became aware of sewing. I used to swear up and down that I would never sew. And now, I am up there with many of the quilters I have come to admire!

Vintage Handmade

2011-08-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

Have you ever bought anything on Etsy? I love it....sellers from literally all over the world. So many different items (including fabric!) available on one website. Recently, one of our very own Blue Underground Studios designers, Stephanie Sheffield, started her own Etsy shop called two sisters handmade. Stephanie has always loved sewing, even before she started quilting and designing her own patterns. She is always bringing her handmade creations over for our lucky household--doll's clothes, kid's clothes, tote bags etc. I have been trying to talk her into doing a tutorial for some of her tote bags here. If I can drag her away from her sewing machine for long enough, we'll get together and do that!

Last week, she brought over a couple of little wallets she had made out of hand dyed wool. And, a few days later, she opened her shop officially. My favorite is the 'Olive Martini' wallet.

The leaf wallet is a very close second...

She also has some cute vintage items. You can check them out your self here.

The shop is new--only a couple of days old--so check back often for her latest creations!!

Dreaming vs. Doing

2011-07-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

At any given time , I have about 20 projects in the works around the house. Actually, if I were to physically count them all, I am sure the number would be way more than 20, but putting a cap on it makes me feel better somehow. A few weeks ago I went into a local quilt shop and found a lovely collection of batiks that I just had to have because they would make a great Archipelago.

What remains of that stack and the unquilted top is sitting on my cutting table. I have three unquilted Posh Tot tops next to my sewing machine on my sewing table and one half-quilted Posh Tot top on my longarm frame.

On the back of my longarm, there is a rubbermaid box with the blocks for two quilts: A Log Cabin and an i-candy. In my fabric closet, I have an entire tub devoted to projects that are in various stages of completion. One is a hand-pieced dresden plate that I started on a trip to Florida about 12 years ago. I no longer do a ton of hand piecing, but I do have the dream of finishing that quilt some day. On my design wall: the blue green glass door quilt waiting to be sewn together (I talked about this quilt in an earlier post).

There is a quilt over the back of a chair in my living room that has the binding sewn on and is waiting to be sewn down. I don't need much encouragement to start a new project! I have met dozens of quilters who talk about their UFO's (unfinished objects). Some say that they simply have to flit from project to project--that it keeps their creative juices flowing and their perspective fresh. Others have said that they have to limit the amount of projects that they have in the works at one time so that they will eventually finish some of them. Still others have told us that they only allow themselves to have one project, and the fabrics for one project, to be on their sewing table at any given time. On some level, I admire this trait, but I could never function that way. And, even quilters who say they only work on one project at a time admit to dreaming about future projects while they are working on the current one. So here it is--one of the most critical parts of living with creativity in your life (according to Amy Walsh) : dreaming. What ever your method of sewing, however many projects you have stashed around your house, you have to allow yourself the opportunity of thinking about things you could make, things you might make, or even things you have to make.

While recently browsing my mother's collection of vintage books, I came across a novel called O the Brave Music! by Dorothy Evelyn Smith. If I am contemplating starting a new book, I usually read the first couple of pages to see if it piques my interest. I have been thinking about this 'dreaming thing' for a while now and I was pleasantly surprised to find some words right on the first page pertaining to doing vs. dreaming. As the novel begins, the main character is actually in church, contemplating making a little suit out of pink silk ribbon from a hat on the girl in front of her for her invisible man that she carries with her everywhere. She mentions her broken promises to make this suit and the following words about the subject really rang a bell:

"I knew in my heart that I didn't really want to cut into the pink silk. It was such lovely ribbon, so thick and soft and yet crisp; so bright and glowing. My fingers itched to cut and snip and stitch; to fashion the stuff into a darling little suit....But I really didn't want to cut the silk. If I cut it, it would be finished. Done with. If I didn't, it would always be there; the beautiful suit I could make anytime I liked."

A couple of paragraphs later, she remarks that she is glad she did not cut into the ribbon and make the suit. "I felt, confusedly, that while I never possessed it, it was most truly mine. Afterwards it would be lost to me."

I feel I can relate to this sentiment. I like to think of future projects and "belonging" to me! But perhaps I am a bit more positive than the poor girl who agonizes over cutting a length of ribbon. While I may no longer 'possess' a finished work, I have within my possession thousands of others!

You know it's a good day when....

2011-06-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

.....you leave your house in the morning and the trunk of your car is empty.

You return several hours later with a trunk full of Marcia Derse bolts!

The making of a green glass door

2011-06-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Of the four patterns I had at spring market, my favorite is green glass door. I actually drew this design shortly after we opened--over 5 years ago! It took this long for me to get together a great grouping of green fabrics, make the quilt and write the pattern. That's one of the funny things I have found about designing and publishing patterns--often designs that we sketch out take years to come to fruition.

Anyway, starting a second sample of green glass door is one of the first things I did upon returning home from market a few weeks ago. This time, I decided to make it in blues. It always starts with some sort of inspiration for me...in this case, a collection of blue bottles I have sitting on a windowsill in my studio.

Then, a stack of fabrics. It never hurts to have way more than you could ever use!

Then I dive in and start cutting pieces, one at a time. Although I usually like to cut multiple pieces at a time for the sake of efficiency, I make an exception for this quilt because I want to make fabric placement decisions as I go along. As I cut, I place the block centers on a design board. A big part of the success of a green glass door is having an even dispersement of large/small, dark/light, funky/non-funky prints. I want to make sure that I do not cut too many of my favorites, which could make the quilt less interesting,

I also like to make sure to include some really random fabrics--fabrics that I bought because I loved, but did not necessarily have a plan for. Like this print with the chairs...chairs with birds! So random and so fun!!

Sometimes, things can get a little messy on my cutting table during this process.

Once I have cut the centers, I start cutting strips for the frames and pinning them up on the board with the centers.

Once I think I have the frames and centers set, I start to sew them all together. It's a lot of fun, really. And I like how the process of making this particular quilt differs from our other quilts.

Anatomy of a Quilt Market Booth

2011-05-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

We are back from Salt Lake City. The dust has settled. I have unpacked my suitcase and done all of my laundry. I have put away all of the cards and pamphlets that we picked up in a "spring 2011" file (which I may or may not open again...) and I have checked and answered my email which I did not have access to while we were away.

Being back at home, it all seems like it never happened. What we worked so hard for over the past couple of months seems as it could have been a dream. But no worries, I have pictures to prove otherwise.

When you arrive at the convention center, your booth looks like this:

You turn the corner and just hope and pray that all of your boxes that have been sitting in storage for a couple of weeks are there, all in one piece and with everything in them. In our case, they were. And we immediately began unpacking and setting up. For the next couple of hours, Janine and I worked at setting up the booth. We have, by now, gotten this down to a science. Janine stands on the tables and hangs the blue curtains and then the quilts while I hand her the pins and the curtain hooks. (We scrounged around for a few shows to get those curtain hooks. We used to pick them up off of the floor as we were leaving shows until Christy, one of our designers, thought to ask one of the workers at a retail show we were doing. He actually gave us an entire bagful, just like that!)

Little by little, the booth takes shape.

The last details to be taken care of after the quilts are hung are the lights and the sign.

Then, we go out into whatever city we are in to find some flowers. We have kept the tradition of having flowers in our booth ever since our first market, when my quilting group sent us a huge bouquet for good luck. In Salt Lake I looked in the phone book and settled on The Rose Shop. After a quick phone call, I discovered that store in question was located in a mortuary building not far from where we were staying. We all trucked down there (Sean, Maggie, Janine and I), and, seeing no particular signage, marched right through the front door....and into a wake! And then proceeded to ask someone who looked official but who did not work there exactly where we could find said Rose Shop. It was a little embarrassing. But, we did manage to find the shop located in the back of the building and they did an absolutely wonderful job on our floral arrangements.

For the next three days, we took turns hanging out in the booth and walking around taking in the sights. If you were there and came to see us, thanks for stopping by! If not, we hope to meet you sometime soon. We had a great time in Salt Lake City. Our new patterns were very well received. And we are excited to spend part of the summer making some new samples of our new quilts!

Hats for Uganda

2011-04-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

Growing up, there were always projects at various stages of completion around our house. My mom usually had 2 or three 'big' things she was working on in her sewing room, like a dress for one of us (or herself if she should happen to find a few extra hours) or a quilt or even drapes. In fact, looking back on it, my mom knew how to do everything! Anyway, aside from the bigger projects she was working on, there was always some hand piecing, needlepoint, handmade ornaments or some knitting laying around to fill those spare moments in the car, waiting at dance or play practice or even while watching a movie. One of the things that continually impresses me about my mother is her sheer desire to create things all of the time--even if she's tired, or has her grandchildren crawling on and around her, or is interrupted by something infinitely less fun than what she's working on--like making dinner. I'm pretty sure I inherited my love of all things fiber from her. She and my grandmother used to take my brother and I shopping when we were little and we rarely passed up a fabric or yarn shop. In those days, Sofro fabrics was actually inside the mall--can you imagine if you could go shoe shopping and stop at your favorite quilt shop on the way out of the mall?? That's almost as good as looking at fabric on your laptop in your pajamas. And both can spell trouble if you are not given to restrain yourself around fabric and yarn. My brother and I would invariably groan on the way into the fabric store saying "you are going to be in here FOREVER!" and my mother would just chuckle, knowing that even five minutes in a fabric store would seem like forever to us. At some point, however, I started paying attention at these stores and even wandering around and touching all of the fabric--a habit I still have to this day. And before I knew it, I had my own stash of yarn and fabric growing in my closet, which I had to move over to make room for my prom dress and collection of Nancy Drew books. I also started a collection of baskets full of projects that fill my time when I am not piecing a quilt at my machine. Thanks to my mom, one of those projects is now making a few little hats for orphans in Uganda. One of the ladies in her knitting group has a friend who has a friend (you know how that is...) who visited St. Mary Kevin's orphanage last year and has plans to go again this Christmas. Of course everyone is anxious to help in anyway they can and one of the things she knows the children like is hats! Boys and girls both have to cut their hair short to avoid lice so they wear these hats. My mother, of course, has already made a number of them.

For some of them, she used patterns she had laying around her studio. But she designed the little orange and blue cutie herself....

In the midst of all of the preparations we have been doing for market, I am still going to find the time to knit a couple of these simple hats. I am sure that I can handle a Christmas deadline (I am actually laughing as I write this because the truth is, I might not be able a Christmas deadline but I am certainly going to try)!

I'm in!!

2011-04-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

It's official....my new studio is now open for business. A few days ago, our contractor left out the back basement door, and I came down the stairs with my rotary cutter in hand to start working...at long last. There are still a few finishing touches that need attention--like changing out the hinges to match the doorknobs (I have discovered a new love in redoing our basement. I am obsessed with doorknobs!), grouting the shower in the new bathroom and hanging some sconces and overhead lights. But even with these last things undone, it is complete heaven to work down there. And the best part is that it has been raining non-stop here for the last week or so and I do not even have to think about water coming in because of the drain tiles we had installed last November. An unfinished basement is one thing, but water pouring in around your longarm frame is quite another story!

The first project to be tackled in my new space was to finish my last quilt for spring market, which is approaching at breakneck speed. Janine came so we could do some tag-team sewing. I know I have mentioned team sewing before but seriously--try it if you have a deadline and any willing and able body to iron seams for you. You won't believe how much you can get done in an evening! We sewed for hours and things got a little messy....

People wandered in and out to see what we were up to and even Maggie gave us a hand!

I love this quilt! I have been wanting to make it ever since I drew it shortly after I first started designing. It's called Green Glass Door--so named after a game my sister Anna used to play as a kid. I had a lot of fun collecting the fabrics for this quilt. I made sure to have some random prints like green peppers and chairs. They are all framed with green solids.

And a quilt with random fabrics deserves a random backing....like this fish print!

All of my market quilts are now at the quilter's---sadly, I do not have the time to quilt them myself. But it is a tremendous relief to have them all done--and with a couple of days to spare. I am not quite sure what I will do with myself!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Have a beautiful Easter Sunday!

I hope your Easter Basket is full of fabric.....

Southeast Wisconsin in 8 hours

2011-04-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we did a lecture and trunk show for the Lake Country Quilt Guild that meets in Delafield, Wisconsin. We love going to different quilt guilds and talking about quilting. First of all, we get to meet a ton of new quilters in the process, and second of all, we get to take advantage of some face time in the car to talk Blue Underground business. We got a little lost when we got off the highway...but that only adds to the fun. Delafield is a super cute town! The Lake Country Guild has great quilting spirit-- we had a lot of fun with them and their guild meets at 9:00 AM so we had some time to bum around our favorite hang outs after the meeting. That of course started with lunch at my mom's! After lunch we went to two of our favorite quilt/fabric shops in the area: Patched Works, Inc. and Bigsby's Sewing Center. Both are on Watertown Plank Road in Elm Grove.

Janine and I are hardly ever known to pass up a fabric buying opportunity. We love the fact that we can find completely different fabrics at each of the quilt shops we frequent even if they are down the street from each other! Both of these shops rank high on our 'favorites' list.

Bigsby's carries many of Lonni Rossi's fabrics (printed by Andover). Of course I had to zero in on the green section--I don't think I will ever get over green--it really is my favorite color. I have a ton of green fabric, I've made a respectable amount of green quilts, and if I didn't wear so much black even all of my clothes would be green!

They also have a great selection of buttons. I am loving the fact that they organize them in a rainbow palette.

And if you are feeling over burdened by the number of bolts you have chosen to buy from, do not worry! They will wheel you over a sewing chair to relieve your stress...

I started a collection of Lecien and Lecien-type fabrics on this shopping trip. They are not my usual bright colors but I have a specific project in mind. I want to make a wall quilt for the new bathroom in my soon-to-be finished studio. I chose a tealy-grey paint color called arrowroot from the Martha Stewart collection at Home Depot. I cannot stop thinking about how great these fabrics would look with that paint...In fact, I thought about it the whole time I was sewing a quilt for market today!

As soon as I can move into my new studio (which could be as soon as Sunday evening!!!!!), this is going to be the first stack of fabrics to go on my cutting table. I might not be able to sew them right away, but I can at least look at them while I am sewing other things!

Creative uses for quilts brought to you by a 2 year old....

2011-04-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

At the Walsh house, we have quilts in every room. In fact, when I first started quilting in earnest, I finished a couple of quilts and thought "wow, I can't wait until I can have stacks of these around to put on chairs, guest beds, etc..." Little did I know when we started Blue Underground Studios how quickly that time would come. We are lucky enough to be able to live with quilts that are not out on trunk shows (Janine and I take turns with our favorites).

I have been known to use quilts for many different things--table cloths, picnic blankets, Christmas tree skirts....but if you are two years old and you have at your constant disposal a stack of quilts that can be used, loved, tossed around, washed and sat upon, you can come up with some pretty creative things.

If you're in the mood for some nature, you might wrap yourself up in a quilt like a little caterpillar in a cocoon.

Be sure that the quilt is wrapped loosely enough so you can burst fourth like the beautiful butterfly that you are! We have it on good authority that quilt cocoons produce the most gorgeous of butterflies...

If you are in the mood for adventure, you might set out for a boat ride on the high seas! Make sure you have enough friends around you to make big waves and watch out for pirates!!

Of course, when you return home from your journey, the best thing to do is wrap yourself in some love and just chill out!

I love that Maggie is growing up with fabric and quilts all around her. She's already "making quilts" by arranging scraps on the living room floor and remarking about things that are "extra colorful." I can only hope that someday she will love to sew as much as I do.

You know you're getting old when...

2011-04-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

...you find yourself in an art gallery looking at paintings created by one of your former junior high students in the SAIC BFA exhibit. That is exactly where I found myself on Wednesday of this past week, after I had spent the day at a social media conference downtown. I snuck over that evening to the Sullivan Gallery on State Street to see the work of Samantha Haring. I had the pleasure of teaching Samantha during her junior high career at The Willows. The entire exhibit was beautiful---and inspiring. It's exciting to think of all of these young artists graduating and moving on to making art. You can see some of Samantha's work here.

I love visiting galleries and looking at art in all forms. It can be so inspiring, especially for a quilter (or just plain anyone who's crazy about color)...I often come home from a trip to the Art Institute with new ideas for color palettes and quilt themes. Looking at art online can also be very inspiring. Do a google image search using some of your favorite artist's names. A host of images will come up, some of them with commentary on the colors or a brief history of each painting. Some of my favorites are Grant Wood, (partially because of my penchant for all things green--look at those Iowa farm hills! How can you resist running to your bin of green fabrics?)

Young Corn by Grant Wood
Source: Grant Wood Art Gallery

Vincent Van Gogh (I love the yellows and blues in this painting--)

   Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night
   by Vincent Van Gogh
   Source: http://www.vangoghgallery.com/

and Vermeer (speaking of blue and yellow, see below!)

The Milkmaid by Jan Vermeer
Source: http://www.artinthepicture.com/

So just how, you might ask, can you use these paintings to inspire your quilting? You can, of course, do the obvious thing and take an entire color palette from a painting and use it in a quilt. The simple thing would be to use equal amounts of each color. If you want to be more complex, you can study the color relationships in the painting and determine each color's proportion. You can also take just a few of the colors (or even just two) and use them as a color palette for a quilt. If I were using Grant Wood's Young Corn as inspiration for a quilt, I would use all of the shades of green. To further the farm theme, I might create a strata-based quilt (hmmmm....I might have to try that when spring market is over). If I were using the Vermeer or Van Gogh painting, I would probably do a quilt with different shades of blue and yellow and possibly cream. Since I am not ready to use any of these paintings for inspiration at the moment, I will come back to them from time to time. You never know how something will inspire your work in the future!

So, congratulations, Samantha! And thanks to you for giving me the opportunity to look at some art on a busy Wednesday afternoon.

My Other Life

2011-03-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

I am a person who is never satisfied doing one thing only. As a college student, I sang in an opera chorus and did some community theatre in my spare time. As a teacher, I nannied, did a little community theatre, worked as a dresser/nanny at the Lyric Opera, and worked on the musicals at the high school I taught at. As a pattern designer, I am still helping out with the musicals at the Willows, 15 years after I started teaching there. I LOVE it! But, it makes me busy and sometimes keeps me away from my other obligations. These days, that means that I do not get to sew as much as I need or want to.

This year's production was Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella. It's always a challenge to do a full scale musical at an all-girls school. We have to hire out a prince, and many of the girls play male roles and well as female. Luckily, in the 'Cinderella days', the men probably wore low pony tails, so no one had to cut their lovely locks.

Of course I am constantly looking for links to quilting in every aspect of my life. During this show, I was able to help with not only the students and their rehearsals, but also the set and the costumes (See the stone wall in the photo above and the pumpkin carriage in the photo below).

It really is a fun change from my normal day. When else would I go to JoAnn Fabrics and buy 50 yards of orange tulle? I mean, who even knew they sold orange tulle?? And in multiple shades of orange?! And when else can I go to Home Depot and purchase spray paint in every shade of beige, brown, cream and gray that they have with no questions asked? (Either I don't look like a graffiti artist or graffiti artists don't favor the "neutral-castle wall" color palette)

The bottom line is, I got to help out with the musical AND talk a little about color and design as well. And the best part? Maggie got to tag along almost every day. Working at home has been the best gift ever because I get to spend every day with her! Here she is with the Fairy Godmother--one of her favorites. She can't wait until she can be in the play...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the work continues on the basement. It got a whole lot better looking...and then....it got a whole lot worse.

But the fine details are now being taken care of and we are on the home stretch--or so they tell me. I have happily taken over the ENTIRE house at this point with my fabric and now that the play is over, the days find me furiously sewing at the dining room table or cutting at the kitchen island. But, more on that later! It's late and I have to rest up for a big day of sewing tomorrow!

Quilt Camp!

2011-03-02T22:03:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Janine and I had the honor of joining the ladies at Camp Tecumseh's Quilt Camp in Brookston, Indiana. We were invited to camp at quilt market last May! At that time, it seemed like so far in the future. We made all of the arrangements, and put the date on our calendars. Whenever I schedule things a year in advance I have a hard time believing when the actual date arrives. But, it always does, and I found myself packing up pajamas and a pin cushion on Thursday evening.

Honestly, I had no idea what expect as we drove down Interstate 65. We left Chicago behind, and as we drove south the landscape became more and more rural. As a city girl, I really do love to drive on a highway flanked by cornfields. When we pulled into camp, the first thing we saw was our name on the welcome sign. How cool! We've never had our name in lights before!

From that moment on, we began a weekend of sheer bliss. We sewed, talked about sewing, ate, sewed some more and met some really wonderful ladies that I hope we have the honor of seeing again. Here is some of the exciting things they were working on:

Lydia and Caroline started a Gemini with a cool palette.

Judy worked on these applique flowers. She told me this was her first try at machine applique. You really couldn't tell--she seemed like a pro!

Cheryl made this cool Mod Quads out of pink, red, black and white fabrics. Both Janine and I want to make one of these soon!

Jayne made this funky little quilt out of fabric she bought when she arrived at camp. She made the entire top AND a pillow case while she was there!

Christine started this Around the Block with reproduction fabrics. Gotta put one of these on my list, too!

Ruth made this top that she calls Wild Child!

And look at these cool blocks Liz made using chopped up police patches and pants from her husband's uniforms! Super innovative!

I sewed a ton, and was happy as a clam! However, I was suffering from a severe case of 'head in the clouds' syndrome (yes, this is real...) and I had to rip almost every seam I sewed except on my name tag! In fact, putting my name tag together might have been the most fun I had sewing this weekend. Beth, who organizes and runs camp, gives everyone new a small piece of fabric with their name embroidered on it. You have to personalize it and make it your own. I used a stack of shot cottons that I have been moving around my studio for a couple of years waiting for the right moment to cut into them.

Frankly, I couldn't stand it any longer! I saw the opportunity to cut and piece these fabrics randomly and couldn't resist. Here's the result.

When you leave camp, you file your name tag in a little baggie with your name on it. That way it will be there when you return. I like that idea! It's like insurance that you'll come back.

The weekend went very fast. Before I knew it, we were packing up and heading home. I will always have the fondest memories of this camp--my first quilt camp. I can't wait to go again!

Weekend Warrior

2011-02-20T20:32:00.000-08:00

We had quite the productive weekend here at the Walsh household. My littlest sisters were hanging out, so I drafted them as ironers in the hopes that I could catch up on some of the sewing I have not been doing. We have the sewing/ironing thing down to a science. As I am chain piecing, someone cuts the blocks that have been sewn off of the "chain," irons them and puts them in their proper place: the 'done' pile if they are finished, the 'works in progress' pile if they are not. I never have to stop sewing! And, we get SO MUCH DONE!

During the time we were sewing today, we got 50 blocks made for a new quilt, one that will debut at Spring market. It is called Brix. I can't say a ton about the actual quilt at the moment but I can tell you that it is named after a friend of ours...my sister-in-law, Tara, is a Chicago Police Canine officer. Brix is her partner! Here they are together:

Aren't they cute?

I am using my some of my new favorite fabs for this quilt: Marcia Derse designs from her first three lines. Last year, I had the pleasure of hosting our bolts of these fabrics in my house. These saturated colors and fresh designs stayed on my kitchen island until I reluctantly dropped them off at Janine's studio. It was fun while it lasted.

Although my studio is still located in my dining room, I still have been able to get some things accomplished and I feel good about that!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T11:38:00.000-08:00

I have to issue a disclaimer here: I am not a painter, I am a quilter. Who recently started taking an art class. And discovered acrylic paints. Oh my Lord, they are fun. Some of the colors are so saturated I want to eat them.

This morning, I realized that I was going to see the students I am advisor to at the Willows and that I would like to bring them a valentine. Ordinarily, I have cards and trinkets for all occasions coming out of my ears. Today, however, I found myself oddly lacking. So I was then presented with a choice: I could go to my nearest Walgreens and get a generic box of Russell Stover Candy or a small M&M figurine with small M&M's in it's belly, OR, I could be like the crafty folks whose blogs I like to read and haul out the most accessible art supplies and make them myself. Option two seemed a lot more fun.

I spent half an hour in my pajamas walking around the house looking for the paint, brushes, masking tape (always elusive) and a container for water (I am now that kind of girl: the kind that washes empty yogurt containers to use later for things like holding water for your paints...), and paper. Once I located everything, I was on my way to handmade Valentine land!

I find painting to be quite therapeutic and if it weren't for the fact that I was chomping at the bit to start sewing for the day, I would have spent all morning mindlessly painting hearts on little pieces of watercolor paper.

At any rate, about 45 minutes later, the brushes were washed, the paint was drying, and I was off to lay out my next quilt and sew it together.

The girls will probably appreciate the i-tunes gift cards I am including more than these hearts. But, painting these has made me smile and sometimes, that is all that counts!

Happy Valentines day to all my fellow quilters!

When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother "What will I be?"

2011-01-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

Today was like stepping back in time for me. I was honored to be invited by The Willows Academy (my Alma Mater AND the location of my first 'real' job) to speak at their career day. I gave a presentation to two groups of students about what it's like to own a business designing quilts and work at home. Both presentations were in room 206, where I taught both honors and AP US history to juniors for many years. Being in the classroom and talking to students felt so normal to me. It was like I never left! At any rate, in preparing this presentation, I really got to thinking about the path I took that landed me right in my basement, quilting my little heart out. And I realized, that it is thanks to the Willows, and my dear parents, that I had the confidence and courage to leave my teaching career and take an entirely different path. One that would open up opportunities that I could not even imagine when I started out. So thank you, thank you to Mrs. Huntington, Mrs. Paulson, Miss Keenely, Mrs. Keenely, Mrs. Bradley, Mrs. Jacobucci, Miss Wilberg and all of the other teachers who believed in us and kept pushing us to be better!

Here are the highschool girls. Many of them expressed an interest in sewing--one of them even plans to go into fashion design.

And here are the middle school girls. Many of them have grandmothers who sew or quilt :-).

Maggie joined me at career day. She is already practicing to be a member of The Willows Poms team...

Keepsake Exclusive!

2011-01-17T21:55:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I opened my front door to find a box of Timeless Treasures headers sitting on my porch. Aside from getting actual fabric yardage, getting a box full of batik headers is the next best thing! I knew before they came that we were going to pull together a couple of palettes for some exclusive patterns with Keepsake Quilting. So, without wasting any time, I dumped them out on my living room floor and got to work.

The first palette was a no brainer for me. I always enjoy working with a rainbow palette. There is something really fun about working with all of the colors on the color wheel--it gives a lot of opportunity for contrast which allows the pattern design to really speak. A batik rainbow palette is especially fun because of the availability of clear, saturated colors, which are my favorite.

The second palette started with an awesome grey/taupe batik and kind of took off from there. I added the blacks and dark browns for contrast, and then the blues for interest. The result was somewhat subtle and sophisticated.

Janine used both of these palettes to make her latest patterns: Pandora's Box and the Plaza. Both patterns/kits are available exclusively from Keepsake Quilting!

Pandora's Box

The Plaza

Our friend Ann Davidson of Providence quilting did the longarming on both of these quilts. Thank you, Ann!

Want to make one of these quilts for yourself? Here is the link to the keepsake site:

www.keepsakequilting.com

First Finished Quilt of 2011

2011-01-06T12:17:00.000-08:00

Janine came over for a working lunch earlier this week and brought with her our first completed quilt for the year! We had each worked on this In and Out top at the end of 2010 (I can't believe that year is over already) and had sent it to be quilted and bound. We love the In and Out pattern...and we love these fabrics by Marcia Derse. This quilt was a welcome sight for both of us. Since the end of October, my quilting studio has been in a continuous state of flux. It currently looks like this (YIKES!):

The above picture is my forlorn longarm cord. My poor Millennium is in a box in our upstairs hallway. I am looking forward to putting her all back together!

My dear husband is such a good sport about all of this...the noise (this past week they have been replacing water pipes...between the banging and sawing I was pretty sure we were all going to end up in the basement permanently!), the fact that I have now taken over the ENTIRE basement and there is no room for the neon Bears sign or framed picture of the White Sox World Series win or his modest collection of baseballs in small lucite boxes..., the fact that the entire rest of the house is now my sewing room now that Christmas is over (Maggie loves my pincushion--not exactly the toy of choice for a two year old), and let's not forget the various states of panic I may or may not be in depending on the level of stress I am feeling about being out of the studio for three months straight.

Until the completion of said studio, I am trying to make the best use of my time and still be creative. Sometimes that means playing with Maggie and her newly acquired set of 'Bug's Life' toys from our friend Linnea. Other times it means cutting out future quilts at the kitchen island or commandeering the dining room for a project in progress. At any rate, I am excited as the noise from below continues to promise a finished studio in the not-so-distant future!

December Weekend, Chicago Style

2010-12-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

I spend a fair amount of my life daydreaming about what I would do if I had a weekend to kick around Chicago. This past weekend, my daydreams came true. With nothing definite scheduled, we decided to actually do some of the things we have talked about all year. On Friday, my sister Katherine, Sean and Mags and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Christmas trees from around the world. I hadn't been there since I was a little girl. I remember going there with my parents--it almost felt the same...The good news is, the exhibit is still going strong. Some of the trees were downright decked to the gills, dressed to the nines and chock full of ornaments, flags, and in some cases, framed pictures of pasta (that was the Italian tree, by the way). I am not sure if we're supposed to assume that Italians really do put framed pasta pictures on their tree. My Italian grandma certainly did not. Anyway, we had a great time looking at the trees and an even better time being together.

And, now that I carry a camera EVERY where I go (it's a little embarrassing...) I could not resist taking some pictures of non-Christmas related things. Some of these would make for interesting quilt inspiration...I know we're mostly square and rectangle girls at Blue Underground Studios but I have some imminent plans to try some other shapes.

The fun did not end on Friday! We unexpectedly got tickets to the Straight No Chaser concert at the Chicago Theater on Saturday night. Woo Hoo! Sean randomly found this a cappella men's group in this video on youtube last year (along with about a million other people.)

And now they're making CD's and touring and all that good stuff. And they are so great live!

We were having a serious flashback to our dating days when going out was a regular occurrence for us. After the concert, we decided to really live on the edge and go for a drink at the Gale Street Inn.

On Sunday, we had company for dinner and decorated our tree. It was a perfect way to end our perfect weekend. Maggie hung most of the non-breakable ornaments at the bottom of the tree and we hung all of the breakable ornaments at the top.

I am getting a little tired of our tree skirt so I wrapped our Around the Block sample around the tree stand instead. I actually think it looks kind of cute!

I love how the living room looks with the tree up. And I love non-traditional uses for quilts. Someday, I'll make a real tree skirt. But in the meantime, I think this is a pretty good substitute.

Silk Revisited

2010-12-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

I took a few minor diversions from my original '12 blocks a day' plan on these silk blocks. However, I find that having a goal in mind really helps me stay somewhat on track. If I hadn't given myself some sort of deadline, these blocks would still be in the contemplative stage.

As I finish them up, I am wanting to share some things we have found helpful when working with silks...

1. Start your project with a fresh rotary blade. Seriously, just change your blade! Your cutting will be easier and more accurate (which means your sewing will be more accurate).
2. Change your needle before you start to sew. A new needle will make for smooth sewing on dupioni silks. I was sewing for several years before it even registered that I should be changing my needle on a very regular basis. Once I started, I made sure I was never without extra needles.
3. IGNORE THE FRAY! This is hard, especially if you are at all persnickety about your personal space and its cleanliness. The silks will fray...and you will find it all over your house. Just this past week I found some stray silk in our egg carton, on our Christmas tree, and on my kitchen floor. It's a by-product of working with these amazing fabrics. Get a good lint roller and move on.
4. Do not pre-wash your silks. The resulting fray will leave you with not a lot of room for cutting your pieces.

We really have come to love working with silks and the richness they add to a quilt. Since they can't really be laundered, they are great for small projects like throws, wall hangings and table runners.

Happy Quilting!

Good Intentions, derailed

2010-12-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

I started this week with every intention of starting a new quilt for market out of this lovely selection of fabrics:

But I got distracted by the print on the left....the clamshell print from the Parisville collection by Tula Pink (it's actually called 'fans' on the selvedge). This happens to me all the time! I wanted to start cutting all of the fabrics but I could not stop thinking about that clamshell print and how great those colors would look in a solid palette. After wandering around the kitchen weighing the pros and cons of deviating from my schedule, I finally decided to give in. (I rarely ignore an urge about color....my studio, when it is functional....is full of random piles of fabrics that are evidence of this.) So, I trucked upstairs to Maggie's room to find my solid bin. Of course it was at the bottom of a stack of bins. I quietly moved the top bins out of the way and began to assemble a group of solids in the semi-darkness of the morning. When I finally carried them back to the kitchen, I was pleasantly surprised by the result.

So now, I have a new stack of fabrics waiting to become a quilt. This stack is on our piano, which is also currently the home of my bowl of scissors (yes, I have a bowl of scissors), a bottle of best press, a cow pitcher for my sister , two strings of LED Christmas lights and a book of Broadway Show tunes (the only thing that actually belongs there). I will stare at it for a while as I am sewing and hopefully I will make something with it. However, I will not give in to unnecessary pressure. I think half the fun of sewing is about dreams....the dreams of unmade quilts.

Thanksgiving Review

2010-11-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

Well, Thanksgiving dinner is over, the leftovers have been dispersed, the extra chairs have all been returned to their rightful places and the last dishes, and serving pieces have been washed and put away. All in all, we were quite satisfied with everything this year! We made all of our usual recipes for turkey, stuffing, etc with a couple of new twists. We always make cinnamon rolls, a tradition started by my grandmother's sister Alice. She was one of the best cooks in our family, and we still sit around and talk about some of the meals we had at her table. Up until this year, we have been experimenting with different cinnamon roll recipes, but I think we can finally stop looking. We made the recipe from the Pioneer Woman Cooks blog (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/)--they were heavenly!

We also made a departure from our traditional cranberry sauce and made Cranberry Chutney from the Orangette blog (http://orangette.blogspot.com/). It was fabulous! But the food was not the only highlight of Thanksgiving day. Almost our entire family was together with the exception of my youngest little berry of a sister, Margaret. With the other seven of us and the nieces and nephews, we make a pretty good party!

Today, instead of giving in to the temptation of going to the mall for some black-Friday blowouts, we took a ride to Monches Farm in Colgate, Wisconsin. For someone who could pass a pie out her dining room window into the neighbors extra bedroom, going to a place like Colgate is a real treat. Once you get off the highway, the drive is beautiful. There are quaint farm houses, fields and even horses! You just don't see things like that near our house. (Not that I would trade in my short ride to the loop, close proximity to Super Dog, or lawn I can mow in two minutes flat...)

And, Monches farm....well, it is a place to get ground-hardy perennials, dried wreaths and swags, beautiful Christmas ornaments, and so many other fun 'needful' things for your house and garden.

It has been such a wonderful week--it's going to be hard to get back in the swing of things and back to work on Monday!

Progress

2010-11-20T13:01:00.000-08:00

Whenever I want to get a quilt done in a timely manner, I divide the total number of blocks by the number of days in which I'd like the finished blocks. In this case, I decided to try and make 12 Berkeley blocks a day to finish them in four days. Things were going swimmingly until Friday. Friday was riddled with unexpected happenings--most of them good. I started the morning sewing, as I usually do when I am on a mission. Then my sister called and wanted to go out to lunch....and then I decided to stop at the nursery for some pine boughs and curly willow branches to put in the pot outside on the front porch. At the nursery I did an extensive search for ornamental cabbage plants (they were out of them...) which took us some extra time. After I arrived home and started to make the arrangement, I decided to do some much needed clean-up in the front yard. I then proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon with my husband (and I tried to explain to him just why I had to buy dead branches for the front porch) and at the end of the day went out to a fundraiser for The Willows Academy, where I used to teach. In short--I had a great day. But, I only finished 6 blocks. Luckily, I had finished the assigned 12 blocks in the previous two days bringing my grand total of blocks to 30 for the week! Needless to say, I'm feelin' pretty good about that.

And now, I have to decide whether or not to try and finish this quilt top before Thanksgiving. Let's see...I'm spending the week with my family (code for hanging out with the sisters, cooking, eating and watching old movies). We are very serious about our Thanksgiving menu at our household. And unlike Barbara Stanwyck in Christmas in Connecticut, we really do make the food we talk about. That having been said, I think I have decided to give myself a reprieve for the coming week. Berkeley Blue will have to wait.

Silk Love

2010-11-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

It's always a great day around here when the UPS guys stops by. (Well...to be fair, I have to include the FedEx guy and the postman as well...) Recently he delivered a yummy box from Brewer filled with dupioni silk kits. One of the latest silk collections we have worked with is called Jeweled Treasures. Originally meant to make the Silk Gems pattern, this kit includes 16 jewel-toned fat quarters. I now have one of my very own and am about to start my silk quilt collection. I think, however, that I am going to shake it up a bit. Instead of making a Gems quilt, I am actually going to use the Berkeley Blue pattern (created for the Sapphire Silk Collection). I am hoping to have four of these silk quilts in time for Spring quilt market in Utah. We'll see how that goes...

I love working with silks. I admit, I was reticent at first. Janine (my friend and business partner) and I would go to local quilt shows and she would buy up every dupioni silk she could find. I could not imagine making a quilt with these fabrics! Before we started collaborating with Brewer on these silk collections and patterns, I came out with a quilt pattern called Circus--the first quilt I had ever made using all solids. Janine promptly made one out of silks and the rest is history - We were hooked!

(In case you're interested, Jeweled Treasures silk collections are now available on our website!)

It Has Been a Long Time in the Making

2010-11-09T17:57:00.000-08:00

Hi! Thanks for stopping by. After literally years of thinking about it, I have finally taken the plunge and started a blog. I am both excited and nervous about this commitment. I think it will do a lot in terms of keeping me in check! I know I will be working on things just to have them to put in a post. I am also welcoming the challenge of putting thoughts, ideas, and the latest happenings at Blue Underground Studios into words. I am nervous about actually posting regularly...but have resolved to do the best I can.

The irony is that the very thing that gives me something to write about - my quilting studio-is the very reason I have the time to finally start this blog. We are currently in the process of completely redoing my quilting space which is in the basement of our 1945 English Tudor on the north side of our beautiful Chicago. For the past month, when I have not been working on quilts for market, I have been cleaning out bins of fabric, shredding paper, getting rid of TONS of scraps, wondering why I ever started some of my old UFO's and sorting through my old history notes from my former career as a teacher. All of my fabric and sewing supplies are now stashed around our house...in my daughter's room, in our foyer, the den, the kitchen...Being productive is going to be a challenge. But, I am certain it will be worth it!

Stop by often to see my latest quilting projects, etc!

http://www.blueundergroundstudios.com/