Coming Back with a BANG

Although sewing has been part my life for well over 1/2 of it, I have to confess to periods of time (some of them lengthy) during which I am unable or unwilling to do any sewing. Of late, until recently, I have been going through just such a period. I have however, a pretty good excuse--and her name is Elizabeth Louise!  Since March, she and my little Maggie have received top billing in my life. And what a fun time we have been having!  I converted my longarm to a clothes drying rack (as it turns out, 12 foot metal bars with canvas overlays make a great place to hang little girls dresses as they are drying!), my sewing table to a laundry folding table--complete with a baby seat, and my design wall became the world's biggest felt board for Maggie to experiment on. I had a slight twinge of regret about putting all of that time and effort into refinishing the basement--after all, it was in the name of "working" down there.  But I knew that when I was ready, I would get back down there, clear out all of the miscellany and get back down to business.

It happened a couple of weeks ago. I woke up raring to go, and before I knew it I was in the basement with a gigantic cup of coffee and did not come up until that evening. The result: a clear sewing table, empty longarm frame, blank design wall (much to Maggie's chagrin) and about 300 new ideas I was dying to try.

I had to put some order to my thoughts! I am famous for having a ton of ideas and getting none of them done....So, I started with a couple of projects that could be completed quickly, one long term project, and one project that was completely new to satisfy that itch. Here they are on the design wall...as you can see, I am still happily sharing space with the alphabet train.

The quilt in the background on the left is a sample of a new pattern that I released at spring quilt market called Juxtaposition. I had been wanting to work with these particular fabrics by Malka Dubrawsky.  I love their bright colors (lime and teal are currently on my list of favorites). These blocks had been cut out before Eliz. was born so they were a cinch to sew up and get on the wall. The blocks in the background on the right are some pillow tops that I am hoping to quilt and put on my couch.  I love the way quilted pillows look but it seems that I suffer from some sort of creative laziness. Despite the fact that I love the way they look, and I not only know how to sew and quilt but even have many tools at my disposal to make the job easier, I still put off this task of making pillows.  Hmmmm....

The quilt that is on top of the others is an Around the Block sample.  Janine and I released this pattern together in our second year of pattern designing.  Since then, we have made many samples of this quilt. I have long been drawn to the log cabin pattern and I am so happy with the way it looks using a neutral solid and some of Marcia Derse's latest fabrics. It somehow makes this very traditional pattern look modern. We are getting together once a week to sew this quilt up, hoping to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. More on that progress as it happens.

The last project I decided to tackle has been a long time in coming. I have been an ardent admirer of Kaffe Fassett/Westminster fabrics for--well--it has actually been years at this point. I have been shuffling bins of these fabrics around my studio, not really realizing how much I had accumulated. As it turns out, the rough total is somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 1/2 rubbermaid bins.

I decided to cut a strip of each of these fabrics to make an In and Out quilt that I could work on intermittently, throughout the summer. The upside of this project: I got to look at ALL of the prints that I own in this category and use a lot of them.  In some cases, I used the rest of what I had.  The downside of this project: 160 strips later, I have not even used all of the fabrics I have and I was somehow inspired to do a little shopping and ADD to this collection--to fill a few gaps, of course.

To date, I have all of the strips cut into pieces, and 180 blocks made. I'm feeling pretty good about this progress--especially since this particular quilt does not have a deadline. Oh how I love sewing for fun!

Exciting News

Well, I've been a bit absent in the blog world lately--but not without good reason! Last Sunday we welcomed the latest addition to the Walsh family....Elizabeth Louise!  We've already been swaddling her in quilts!!

And some other, only slightly less exciting news: I will be interviewed on Pat Sloan's Creative Talk Network on Monday, April 2nd.  Showtime is 3 pm central!!  Click on the link below to listen in....

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/radio/index.html

Team Sewing

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

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

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

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

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!