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23 Jun 2012

Binding the weekend away

A friend of ours that’s been there for us throughout the last three years is going to receive a quilt on Monday that she knows nothing about.    This will be the first time we’ve given a quilt to someone outside our immediate family.  This means though that I’ll be binding all weekend since I plan on finishing the binding on a Christmas quilt that was put together in March.  After that quilt is finished, I’ll bind our friends quilt and finally the Arbor Lane quilt.  Not bad now that I see it in print… binding three quilts in two days!

If you are interested in the how to of binding, check out this link Crazy Mom Quilts.  This is more or less the method that I’ve used since I started up quilting again two years ago.

If I can squeeze it into the weekend, I’ll also finish the mini quilt that I started and maybe piece one of the nursery blankets together for my nephew.

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22 Jun 2012

Shopping Day

Yesterday was a shopping day for me.  I had specifically purchased fabrics for three quilts minus the backings, but had received a couple of coupons from Joann Fabrics for 30% in addition to any other discounts.  So, off to the store I went where I found the Heidi Grace fabric collection.

This I thought would make a really nice queen size quilt.  I ended up buying enough of the fabric to make a queen and a twin.  My plan was to make a twin first as a sort of proof of concept and then make the queen.  I had assumed that I could readily find a pattern for this fabric set… and that’s what I get when I assume!  I laughed until I cried.  I will find something suitable however and soldier on.

I also found a couple of quick nursery blanket kits that I intend on making for my nephew and niece:

And of course a shopping trip wouldn’t be complete without buying some more Jelly Rolls

There was another item I was able to pick up was some of my favorite Warm & White batting.  Have you done any shopping lately?

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20 Jun 2012
7 Comments

Jelly Rolls and Persian Plum Block 4

At lunch I slipped out to buy something from the fabric store, not out of need but there are a lot of sales going  on and I just had to.  After almost an hour of trying to decide between fabrics I ran across some jelly rolls.  I used my last one that I received for Christmas for a quilt that my son absconded with recently.  As I have no other jelly rolls at hand, I wanted to get some should the mood strike me.  Let’s be honest, can you really ever have enough fabric?

On to Block 4 of the Persian Plum BOTM

So now onto the new block.  This was definitely one of the easiest I had the pleasure of putting together!  And the colors as usual were stunning and magnificent.  If you were looking for a beautiful block this one turned out rather well.  There is some cutting involved, so be aware.

And the finished piece!!  Block 4 of 12, hey that’s means we’re already 1/3 the way there.

Posted in Block of the Month, Daily, Reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
19 Jun 2012

Out to Lunch

I’ve mentioned it in an earlier post, I do quilt swaps of mini quilts with a group on Yahoo.  For the past two days I’ve been working on mine but can’t publish it here until after the swap is complete to ensure anonymity.  Yesterday when I arrived home from work, I had only to finish the second half and started in on it immediately.  As I compared the two halves of this really neat quilt top I realized that something was dreadfully wrong.  One side was easily four inches longer than the other.

A little perplexed, I examined both very closely and figured out almost immediately that somehow one was sewn with a 1/4″ seam while the other a more generous 3/8″ seam.  The rest of last night was spent picking the “good” one apart.  Yes, I said it…  I’m shortening the long one by resewing with a 3/8″ seam because it will have more of the look that I was going for in the finished mini.

This leads me to remember my lunchtime conversation with my coworkers on Monday.  I work with a bunch of IT techies with talk ranging from what is the latest in sever hardware innovation, to which character do you play (Sith or Jedi)…  Occasionally we talk at lunch about our families, houses, activities, and other stuff that I guess bonds us as a group.

At one point during lunch (did I mention one of our permier vendors was also there?) the table had quieted down a bit and my best friend turned and asked me what I’d done with my nine days off.  Seven people turned to me for my answer as I (shamefully) admitted that I’d spend the entire time quilting.  The table remained silent when my friend spoke a little louder, I’m not sure if he was goading me or not, but asked me again and I said a little stronger that I’d spent the entire time piecing five quilts together.

To be honest, I felt worse that I didn’t say it proudly the first time… it came out as more of a squeak and that’s not my style.  I am proud of how I finished though.  One of the others who were at the table admitted afterwards that they get together with needle and thread on occasion as well.  I apologize to anyone reading this for not standing up to the opinion of others and can only say that I must have just been… out to lunch!

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18 Jun 2012
3 Comments

Winner for the Persian Plum Block 7

And the winner is…

Pillowsalamode!!!  If this is you, then you are the lucky winner.  Please email me at txmlawrence@bistroquilts.com

And for the rest of you, I’ll be having another giveaway in two weeks.  Stay tuned and as always keep quilting!!

Posted in Giveaway and tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
15 Jun 2012

The Scissor Effect

Nostalgia has me in its grip this week apparently. I found myself talking about some of the things my wife and I have discovered as beginning quilters. I started talking about the scissors we use most. I thought it was hilarious that after spending our time, energy and money on selecting these large and really nice scissors, (one of them bought by my wife is purple even on the cutting surface) that aren’t even the one’s we use the most. I’m not opposed to spending money on useful items but we both try to stay away from frivolity in our purchases (most of the time!!). Although we’ve used everything we purchased, when we were thinking about it, the scissors we use most are the little 4 ½” detail Singer scissors. I think they cost $5.95 Of course out of all the things we do while quilting, the cutting, sewing, measuring, ironing, and washing this is one of the key instruments that when I can’t find it, can really be a bummer. We actually have two of them and they are exactly the same… well last month our daughter visited and left them too close to the iron which partially melted one of them. Even with two around, there are times when we sit down to sew and go to clip off the thread that they aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Sometimes Kay is the culprit and sometimes it’s me, but at that moment we just want those lightweight little gems. Don’t get me wrong, we’ll use the “bulkier”, more expensive ones when push comes to shove, but the little scissors are definitely in the “can’t live without” category. What is the implement of destruction can’t you live without?

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14 Jun 2012

A Million Questions

There are a million questions I had when I started quilting.  Some of the information needed was readily available, other info… not so much.  I still do not consider myself anything beyond a beginning quilter and find a VERY happy place there.  I’m still in the honeymoon stage of being delighted and frustrated over the simplest things at times.

While I was working on a quilt top two nights ago, my wife walked in on me staring at the two halves of my quilt top.  She asked what was wrong when she saw me staring.  The quilt top was one that you have to assemble diagonally and I was trying to figure out which side needed the piece of fabric that I had left.  Unlike some projects, having a piece left over when you know you’ve cut the exact number does NOT work in quilting.

This brought me to realize how many question I still have and how many I have had that I was lucky enough to find or be given answers.  Some of the questions I was faced with involved personal choice:

What scissors should I use?

How large of a cutting mat do I need

Which fabric brand do I buy?

Where is the best place to buy this stuff?

This evolved into more questions:

When using a rotary cutter should I try to stay straight, or cut at a slight angle?

Should I pre-wash my fabric?

How do I get the points to look good in this pattern?

No matter where I looked people seemed to avoid answering questions where personal preference was concerned.  My take on it is that if someone has asked, give them your personal opinion but do not be broken-hearted if they end up going a different way.  I had just wanted a place to start from.

I’m sure at any stage we all have questions that need answers.  Some of these answers we get from a book or a magazine, some we seek from our fellow quilters/mentors, others we plunge into headfirst and after our 20th redo, find the answer ourselves.  Wherever your answers come from, just remember that all of us at one time or another has had the same questions.  Don’t be afraid to ask the questions… and support those that are new and try to help with the answers.

If you are looking for answers, post comments, go to quilt shows, read magazines, examine other quilts, get involved in a quilt swap.  There are so many outlets for you to find out those burning questions.  Until next time, keep quilting…

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11 Jun 2012
1 Comment

Free Persian Plum Block 7 Give-A-Way

Believe it or not I happen to have an extra Joann Fabrics Persian Plum block 7 that I am going to send to some lucky bistroquilts.com follower.

How to Enter:

1. [Required] Leave a comment on this post. What would you do with your Persian Plum Block 7?

2. [Required] Be a follower of this blog.  It only takes a moment to click the follow button.

2. {optional} Like BistroQuilts.com, and then leave a separate comment letting me know you did {or that you do already}.

If you are reading this in your email or feed reader, please visit the actual blog post to enter. Email entries, Facebook comments, and Twitter messages will NOT be counted.

Prizes:


At the end of the week on 6/16/12 I will randomly select a lucky recipient to send this prize to.  This is not restricted to the U.S., I will send anywhere in the world.

Posted in Giveaway and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
10 Jun 2012

Museums and a Quit Show

Yesterday was a very wonderful and very long day.  We planned a trip to a museum and a quilt show in two different cities in the same day.  Crazy right?  I had found out that the Fort Worth Kimbell Museum was displaying paintings from the Clark collection of Impressionist painters and Kay had learned that there was to be a Quilt show from an acquaintance of hers.  We said, hey why not try to do both.

Not knowing that the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth didn’t open until noon, we arrived at 11AM.  The museum was featuring the Clark collection of the Impressionists, something I’d always wanted to see in person.  Rather than wait, we headed over to the Museum of Modern Art just across the street.  Though I do not always appreciate “Modern Art” I wanted to see what they were showing and had an hour to spare.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a new artist displayed that I’d never heard of.  Ged Quinn’s paintings combine landscapes with fragments of history and mythology.  They’re slightly disturbing, but also very seductive in their composition.  After seeing the collection there at the Modern we were starting to get hungry.

The modern museum has a cafe as well and as it was very convenient, we decided to try out the food there.  Kay ordered a Moroccan salad while I tried to destroy a Kobe beef hamburger.  Both were really good, but that may just have been because we were starving!

After that we went back to the Kimbell Museum to view the Clark collection.  It was really impressive and I highly suggest visiting at least once.  The seventy-three paintings in the exhibition include twenty-one by Renoir, along with four by Edgar Degas, two by Edouard Manet, six by Claude Monet, two by Berthe Morisot, seven by Camille Pissarro, and four by Alfred Sisley.

We were a little tired at that point but we wanted to still make it out to the Irving Texas Quilt Guild’s quilt show “Splish Splash”.  I really didn’t know how small or large this show would be and it was already getting on to 4pm.  We were met at the front by smiling faces and warm invitations.  I have been recently looking for another wonderful long-arm quilter to work with that is closer to me and asked the ladies at the front if they knew of any.

I was immediately escorted to three of them that were still at the show.  I then received a personal tour of the show by two of the quilters as they talked about the quilts they had quilted for the show and their love of the craft.  All in all, this was the best show I’d ever had the pleasure of going to.  I may not have won any of the door prizes that they called out, but feel that I had the best door prize ever.

My thanks to the special people from the Irving quilt guild that showed me around their wonderful show and showed real enthusiasm for the works of art they helped create.

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08 Jun 2012
1 Comment

Sage Garden Patch Quilt or Two day quilt

As a teaser for the book, I’m posting some pictures of a quilt from a book Quilting a Patchwork Garden that I did a review of.  I completed this quilt in two days, although it could have been done in one day.  I changed up the borders from what the book called for because I wanted it to be a little larger and liked the added flair as well.

Outside block

The block above is as hard as this quilt will throw at you.  It is important however that you pin all the panels when sewing them together!!  When I was telling my wife about this quilt and sending pictures to her as it was coming together

She thought it was really nice and had a clean look to it.  In my earlier post of the review for this book I mentioned that it had a garden theme, and as the first quilt you come to in the book the Sage Garden patch quilt didn’t disappoint.

And this is the point when I decided to change-up the borders and add my own bit of flair.

And not satisfied with just a white border on the outside, I added a green square to all four corners.

In closing I’ll say that it was a blast to put this together.  The funnest part was when my wife came home to see this sitting on the couch and said “WOW!  We need to go to the fabric store so I make this quilt this weekend.”  The pictures that I took do not do this quilt justice.  If you’re looking for a beautiful quilt to make for a loved one or friend that won’t take forever, then this pattern is for you.

For the serious quilting I will mention two facts that we had discussed while I was making this.  This can easily be pieced together in one day.  Kay had asked me if I was working on it all in one sitting for both days and I have to confess that I goofed off for a large portion of  both days, rather than keeping at it.  Second, there is some minor changes in a couple of the measurements that I would suggest.

It is already at the long arm quilter (trying someone new) and I’ll post another picture after its bound, but before it goes off to its lucky new owner.

Contact me if you are making this and would like to hear about the changes I would suggest.  Until next time…  quilt on!!

Posted in Books, Daily, Reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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