More Redwork

Redwork

The American Folk Art Museum has an amazing exhibit of Redwork quilts right now through Wednesday. This show is up for less than a week, as if that could possibly be enough time to absorb all that loveliness. Molly and I spent our Friday afternoon getting lost amongst the quilts. As I doubt people who live in NYC will have a chance to make it to the show let alone those of you outside the city, I thought I would show you all some of the photos. Enjoy!

More Appreciation Photos

Now that the deed is done I can reveal the mystery quilt recipient, my mother.

My mom spends more time in or around her bed then she would like these days so it seemed only right that she have something yummy on it. I finished the quilt up on the 24th and she unwrapped it on the 25th. Good timing all around. I confess that I still haven’t mastered the finishing join of the diagonal binding. In fact I got myself, and my faithful crafting buddy Molly completely confused, until I gave in and did a straight line. I didn’t really make a New Year’s resolution this year, after all there are still several left from a few years ago…but if I was going to make a resolution it would be to master that darn diagonal join! Anyone that knows a good tutorial or video out there don’t keep it to yourself!!!

Slow and Steady Progress

I had some time this week for a moment of crafting bliss: I sat at the sewing machine for several hours and worked on my holiday quilting project while listening to an audio book. Really is there anything better than being read to while crafting?

By now you have glazed you eyes on the picture of the quilting in action and had a moments pause wondering when all those blue lines got added. Ahh painter’s tape: a crafters best friend. I really can’t begin to tell you how useful the stuff is. It is sticky without being too sticky. It is great for tacking a stencil down to a shirt, creating a clean paint line and as a quilting grid.

This is my first large scale quilting project and I needed a bit more handholding then a fading line of wash-away fabric makers. I set the grid of painters tape using my ruler and have been following the line to the end. So far so good. I know I am not the first person to use this technique and it is so easy that I know I won’t be the last.

Quilt Top for *****

Several exciting things happened in my world over the long weekend post thanksgiving. 1) I caught up on sleep, not so exciting for you but really needed in my world. 2) My guy managed to straighten out our ongoing home internet problem which had left us with intermittent phone, internet/wifi (hence no blogging) for a week. 3) I finished the Wallaby to end all Wallaby’s. 4) I got started on a quilt.
For many years I spent Fall cursing my loved ones under my breath as I madly tried to make them all handmade goodies. Depending on your point of view, in the last few years, I either wised up or bailed out. I made the general decision that I would only make things for those who would appreciate it or for those who were so supper special to me that I wanted to make things for no matter what. Of course this didn’t really cut down on Mahka’s little sweat shop pre holidays because most of my loved ones fall into one if not both of the categories above.

But truth be told I wasn’t having that much fun making so many super special things in such a short time. So I stopped. Now I only make one thing per holiday season, sometimes I make more but mostly I stick to it. So far so good, I don’t lose my mind pre holidays and I get to put extra attention into the project I do pick to make. As for my other gifts, I try to buy things only from small crafters via shows or etsy so everyone in my life still gets something made with love and my money goes to supporting people that do good stuff.

This year the gift is for: ***** Okay, I am not going to tell you yet. I am going to do what I can, while still blogging about it, to keep it a secret. Thank you in advance for being understanding.

Last weekend in an afternoon of the great crafting stars ailing just right I managed to make the top and with the extremely appreciated help of super crafter Molly I got it sandwiched an pinned too. I followed Oh Fransson’s advice on making a quilt sandwich, which can be found here. Her technique for rolling the top and batting onto the back is fabulous. It went a lot smoother than usual.

Next up: machine quilting!

Quilt in Action

A good night sleep, some band aids and these great pictures was all I needed to get back on the blogging band wagon. Thank you all for putting up with my disgruntledness. Actually I have really been enjoying blogging on a regular basis. I thought I would run out of things to tell you about but it turns out I still have more things on the list.
It takes a bit of work to figure out how to fit blogging into my regular life. This is especially true because since signing up for blogtoberfest my computer and blogger decided they didn’t like each other so I haven’t been able to upload photos directly from my home computer. This has created a somewhat crazy scenario of my e-mailing photos to myself and having to go to another computer to upload them. And if you all want things spelled somewhat to standard English language it means having my hubby (my god when did I start calling him that?) edit my blog before posting. You may notice that sometimes I post with misspellings and repost corrected texts. So if you really are bored and looking for amusement you could swing by my site and read the same post a couple times and see how it has changed, dear god that sounds boring please don’t do that.

Anyway…
I wanted to show you all some pictures of Amelia playing on her quilt. Cause really is there anything better than seeing crafting in use? A very special thank you to Liz for taking these pictures for me. Thanks Liz, you rock.

Ta Da

Applause, applause, applause! Please excuse my lack of humility here but this was one hard finish line to cross!

Miss Amelia's quilt is finished. Despite family events, a cold an a evening wedding on Sunday I managed to put the peddle to the metal and get this puppy finished.
Because this quilt and I spent various weeks not speaking I figured I needed to make the binding as simple as possible. This wasn't really the moment to get over my binding fear, instead of doing one continuous strip I bound each edge with a separate strip.  It worked fairly well and unless you know better you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with it, and really there isn't.
You will all have to excuse me now as I do a happy little dance to the post office. And let's hear it for finishing before her first birthday! In fact she just turned 10 months so really there was tons of time...

You Have To Eat All Your Vegetables Before You Can Have Dessert

I took Friday off from work to have a super 4 day weekend, because as my boss put it how often do you get a 4 day weekend.  I was planning on sewing the whole day away.  I wanted to make a skirt, make happy birthday bunting for Ms. Chloe who just turned one and work on this new quilt square I just saw a tutorial for on-line.  But then I had a moment of responsible crafter: you have to eat all your vegetables before you can have dessert.  In this case dessert equals all the new projects I want to do that look all pretty and shiny because I haven't started them and the vegetables well those are the heap-o-projects that need to be finished.  So I was a good girl and pulled out Amelia's quilt.  I bought new backing material because you may remember last time I tried to finish up it didn't go so well.  I also decided that this quilt wants to be tied and not quilted.  After three failed attempts to quilt it (twice by hand and once by machine) and a lot of time picking out quilting gone bad I came to accept that it was a tie quilt. 
I got it all tied off and of course realized there was not going to be enough fabric to do a rolled edge...Why are these things never simple?  and so I am now making binding so that one day, one day with a little luck before she goes to college I may actually finish this quilt! 

You Got to Know when to Hold um and Know When to Fold Um

We leave for CA today to see some of my all time favorite folks and their wee ones.
I have been burning the midnight oil trying to finish Miss Amelia's quilt until Sunday night when I realized, on my 3 try to back and quilt it that I was having no fun. In fact I was having the opposite of fun and sounding awful lot like a truck driver in the process. And so I took a deep breath and realized this was not meant to be a marathon it is meant to be a gift of love. I was pushing so hard to get things down that I was cutting corners in ways I didn't like. I was using a sheet as the backing rather than quilting fabric because I didn't have time to get out to a fabric store, I was also using cotton batting because that is what I had even though I thought this quilt needed loft.
And so I stopped. I do not need to finish this before we leave. It is a quilt meant to wrap a little one in love not frustration. So I pulled off the back, gave it a good shake out and folded it up. When we get beck from San Fransisco I will finish it and enjoy it. I will have the right tools for the job and a few deep breaths.

Amelia's Quilt

For those I have not complained to about this I know 33 babies born in the last 14 month. Yes that is right 33. There must have been rolling blackouts or something that i didn't know about cause there is a population boom! To be fair I also blame facebook. How does a social networking site make more babies you ask? Well I wouldn't say that facebook is causeing folks to cuddle up more, however, it is causing me to know about more of them. I have friends from college that I had lost touch with only to find them and there soon to be offspring on-line.
This baby boom has cause a wee bit of crafting stress in my life. There are several little ones that I would have done something but the craft debt is getting pretty high. It is almost bad enough that I want to just hide my head under the covers until these kiddo's go to college. But alas some of them are very special much anticapated bundles of joy that I really want to make something for. So slowly but surely i am crawling out of the craft debt. It isn't easy, especially because the longer it takes to make something the bigger the kid gets which means the bigger the item is...do you see the issue here people!
I am traying to stick with the motto of "keep calm and craft on". At the top of the list is a quilt for Miss Amelia. She is now 8 months old and my guy and I are going to visit her for the first time at the begining of August. Her folks are some of my favorite people on the planet and so I put my noise to the sewing machine and got cranking. And after a long weekend of patch work I have a top.

Home Is Where Your Bernina Is

Last weekend my guy and I went to the Brooklyn Guild's quilt show. My guys mother is the president, thank you very much, so we got the special tour.
What can I say I was inspired. I realized just how much i missed spending time with Tim Gunn (the sewing machine). My sewing/craft room is far from being operational so with special household permission bestowed on me by my guy Tim and I hit the dinning room table. And as you can see we had some fun.
This is a quilt for Ms. Chloe who was born last August so I really need to get a move on! I am in a bit of a quilter's debtors prison so I need to get a move on here so I can start the next two!

The Next Quilt

So I know I have been a very bad blogger lately, in my defense it is mostly due to the fact that our home camera seems to have disappeared into the vortex that surrounds my guy and I am stuck begging and borrowing his work camera which also requires finding the special card reader thing to convert the files and means I have to take pics on the weekend when there is light. oh and we are also getting married which seems to be taking over a large portion of my life.
Anyway here is the next quilt for my good friends Emily and Mary Ellen. They are due at the beginning of September so I am feeling quit smug to have it so far along already. Emily's favorite color is blue and Mary Ellen loves purple so this felt like a good compromise. The top is half finished and now it is sitting on top of my sewing machine mocking me whenever I walk by. I am co-hosting the shower in two weeks and I think I am done racing through quilts- I want to enjoy this one so I think I am going to give it to them in August.

Another Satisfied Costumer

My guy got back from delivering the precious cargo, oh yeah and having a nice trip visiting friends...
He brought with him the camera filled with photo's of Mr. Hunter loving his quilt.

Someone Loves his Quilt

My lovely friend Sara sent me these fabulous photo's of Mr. Milo on his quilt. I think it is clear that he is so smiley because he feels all the love from the quilt or maybe he is just a huge fan of the Gee's Bend quilt style.

One Square Shy

Well it has been an interesting week; I started my new job this week which is a bit overwhelming and has been keeping me from crafting. However, I did manage a big push last weekend on Hunter's quilt.
Of course nothing ever goes perfectly notice anything missing? That's right- one square shy. How I miss counted when I was cutting last weekend I am not sure but alas that is how the cookie crumbles.
With a nap and a little luck I will have the top sewn together this weekend.

I Swear I'm Doing it

Today might be my last post for a bit, I am starting a new job on Monday and my days of leisurely blogging are ending. I think I will become more of a weekend blogger until I get the hang of this whole 9 to 5 thing.
I have been doing a big push the last couple of days trying to get the top to Hunter's quilt finished. And here's the proof:

Those piles are actually about to become squares, I promise.

Placemats

I have been submerged in many worlds this last few weeks but I have been working on the resolution list. I have been really into making placemats. The blue ones are for us and have an easy rolled binding (I rolled the the edge of the backing fabric around the front and sewed it down). The red ones I am actually attempting to do a quilt binding, adding a totally new stripe around the edge. Mostly it makes me confused and a bit angry, hence I now have three completed blue placemats and one one red one. Oh well I am trying right?





opps I didn't take a picture of the red one completed so you will all have to imagine the edge all turned over and pretty.

Hunter's Quilt

This week has kinda slipped away from me. I can't believe this is the first time I am posting about Hunter's quilt in the making. I am actually working on one crafting resolution number 1: Hunter's quilt.
I actually got a good head start on this one when my sister was in town at the end of the summer. She has an amazing eye for color so any time I can get her to help me pick fabrics I do. It was perhaps our fastest fabric selection ever. In fact we picked the fabric so quickly that we felt like we needed to wander around the store for an extra half an hour just in case we were being hasty.
I am in love this this pattern even though it is one of the most persnickety quilt patterns in the universe. It requires very straight seam sewing and very precise cutting. No sleepy or distracted cutting allowed or these darn seams won't line up. This will be my third quilt in this pattern and I think I have finally got a good system down, sew several blocks then cut them one after another. I use double sided tape on the back of my plexi square to help keep it from skidding. I managed to sew 8 squares this week, actually ten but there were two casualties to sleepy cutting. I think another 10 or so and the top will be done.
I am thrilled with how well it is coming out. I increased the size of the center square (the yellow box in the middle) which is making the whole thing a lot easier.

Crafting Resolutions

I have been thinking a lot about New Years resolutions. I think it is time I make some crafting resolutions for the next year. I am going to vow to try my very best to finish up some of these projects that I have squirreled away half finished. My friend Mary recently made an excel spread sheet of all unfinished crafts which might be a bit extreme for me, instead I offer up my half finished project to the world wide web and expect you all to keep me on track. No matter how excited I get don’t let me start to knit another hammock before I conquer some of these. Oh I haven’t told you about the hammock yet, well that is a story for another day.

1) Baby quilt for friends in London. Fabric is purchased, washed and cut. The baby was born in October- sigh- they always come faster than I sew.

2) Fingerless gloves for my friend in Canada. One is done the second is started and hiding under our couch out of sight.

3) Lovely green mittens for me. These are actually all done but the thumbs which I was thinking of making a hidden opening in so that I can spin my ipod wheel in the cold. The sad part is there really are only 40 sts left to knit here.

4) Modular crochet sweater. As you know I was cruising along on this until it got hot out. I have one and a half sleeves to go and then there is a yummy winter sweater awaiting me.

5) Various custom fused plastic bag pouches promised to various loved ones.

6) Brown quilt for us! That’s right I actually started making a quilt for our bed but I tend to loose steam on that one pretty fast or maybe it is that there is always another shinier quilting project comes along.

I am sure there are many, many, many more projects hidden under my couch but as I am in North Carolina and can’t look under it so for now they are out of sight and out of mind. I promise to add on as I remember them. Happy holidays.

The Secrete Is Out: part III

Sorry to have left you all in secrete sewing project suspense but our internet was out. What a pain! and a bit scary to realize how dependent I have become on having it around.

So I guess this is the big finish to the secrete sewing project saga.

After much debate I picked a really lovely green fabric for the border, it has nice gold lines waving through it and somehow pulled everything together. But of course there was a problem. You might not be able to tell in this photo but it is really far from being square, in fact, the border took on a ruffle effect. I think it was because of those gee’s bend squares not being so square. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself because I forgot to tell you all that I hand quilted it! Yup that is me crazy craft-o-holic that I am. I got it all sandwiched up and stitch-in-ditch hand quilted it over a long weekend. I am happy to report that I seem to be getting feeling back in my fingers tips!

So I put a lot of energy into this darn thing and was ready for the home stretch, binding the edge, only to discover that the quilt had more ruffles then a costume in Westside Story. I think one of the best crafting lessons I have learned over the years is when to walk away and take some very deep breaths. After consulting anyone that would listen my sister gave me some great advice. I had left a panicked voicemail message which consisted of me on the verge of hyperventilation saying “I know that your not really a sewer but do I do. I could suck it up and let it be really wonky or I could go back and square it up” She pointed out that I am always happier to ripe out and start again rather then stare at an imperfection for years to come. And so we her blessing I pulled off the binding I had started to sew and squared up the whole thing with my trusty rotary cutter. I then sewed the binding on by hand which allowed me to adjust for wonkiness. This was my first binding edge. I usually just roll the back over and sew it down, there was quite a bit of a learning curve. But I managed.

And Ta Da! I seem to have a problem with taking good photos of projects I am proud of, I am not sure what psychological factor is at work here but it seems to be the case.

I am happy to report that mom and baby love the quilt. And I am heading out to visit the three of them (mom, baby and quilt) next week so I will try to take some better photos then.