When plans change...

Today, I was supposed to have a monthly sewing day with a girlfriend. Unfortunately, she's sick with this nasty cold that's been going around, so we had to cancel. My 18 year old and I decided to go shopping at a small local Italian market, and she put this into the shopping cart...

Rainbow pasta bow ties from Italy.

While the water was coming to a boil for the pasta, she made garlic bread...

We had the pasta with homemade marinara sauce and freshly grated Parmesan cheese...and our family never forgets the pepper...

I have been fortunate enough to have my Star and Stripes piece quilted by Barbara Persing  http://www.barbarapersing.com/gallery.php Browsing her gallery is well worth it. Her work is absolutely beautiful!

Barb lives about an hour away from me, so I sent her the quilt and she mailed it back to me this week.Last night, at the ArtQuilt Elements opening http://www.artquiltelements.com/ , I had the pleasure of meeting her.

Her newest book called "Listen to Your Quilt" is due to be released by C&T Publishing in May.  http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?sku=10850

Honestly, it took my breath away when I pulled it out of the box and opened it up.

Now, I need to decide how to bind it, and another project will be finished!

 A peaceful farewell to March...

Just another day...

In my studio, my sewing machine faces this scratching post. I giggled one day when I looked up from my work to see one of my cats, Merlin, in this position. Out came the camera.

For the past several days, I have been madly prepping for a class I am teaching in April. It would have been easier if I had simply kept the patterns the original size, but no! I had to go and enlarge them to make them 8" squares. I tweaked some of the patterns, created cutting instructions, and printed foundations. Just finished...whew! You know those projects that you're just sooooo glad when they're done?

I finally made my next stash pick for a new project...you know that "eenie meenie miney moe" moment? A gorgeous stack of batiks in teals, rusts, and browns. I have decided what I'm going to do, but I'm not telling. I want it to be a surprise.

So, now I am off to Cloth and Bobbin to get the backing fabric for my "Three Bears" quilts. I'm so excited!

The Three Bears...

On March 14th, I purchased six yards of the "Cosmos" fabric, a yard of each color. Then I bought three yards of a white on white for the background. I chose the Bow Tie block as my first quilt and went to work. For some reason, as I completed these three quilts, I kept thinking of the story of The Three Bears. So, the first quilt is called  the "Papa Bear Bow Tie," and it measures 72" x 92".

I set each block in 1 1/2" sashing...

and added a nice size border of my favorite fabric in the group.

I had sixteen blocks left over, so I put together the "Mama Bear Bow Tie" quilt. I left out the sashing between the four center blocks and machine appliqued a circle in the middle.

I used most of those bonus squares (half square triangles) in the border. This quilt is 49" x 49".

I had a decent size chunk of each fabric left, so I put together a "Baby Bear Diamond" quilt that measures 37 1/2" x 45".

It is framed nicely with the darkest fabric...again bordered with my favorite.

All that accomplished, and I still have a bag of "leftovers." I love these bags full of rainy day possibilities.

Bow Tie block...

I just had a lovely visit with my daughter from Chicago. Three wonderful days of simply hanging out together. Early yesterday morning, off she went to the airport. I came home and decided it was time to cook. I started with apple pear sauce and banana poppy seed bread. Then I made a batch of fresh tuna salad...I try to do this weekly. I cooked some beets. I had some homemade chicken stock in the refrigerator, so chicken pastina soup for the kids.

Just about everyone in the health field is telling us that we need to eat more plant matter. Several days a week, I make myself a "green drink"...filled with organic wild green powder, hemp protein, banana, mango juice, and lemon flavored cod liver oil. Believe it or not, my fourteen year old son likes it. To finish off my cooking day, I took a huge mound of beet greens and rainbow chard....

chopped it up and threw it all in a big pot of spiced lentils! It was yummy. I was wishing I had some naan to go with it.

Over the past few days, as time allowed, I have been tackling the "Cosmos" fabric from Westminster. I decided to take a simple traditional block and enlarge it to showcase the fun fabric. The Bow Tie block can be set several different ways making it an interesting choice when you're in the mood for something not too complicated. I started with 5" and 3" blocks. Then I drew a diagonal line on the back of all the 3" blocks.

After the 3" block is sewn onto the corner of a 5" background block, I sew another line approximately 1/2" away from the first sewing line. I rotary cut in between the two lines. Typically, this corner fabric is just cut away. However if you take the time to sew that extra line, you end up with a 2 1/2" bonus square.

These small squares can be incorporated into your quilt or into the border. Whatever you do with them, it is a great way to make use of that corner fabric!

After all that was finished, I assembled my blocks....and am now ready to put a quilt top together!

Hopefully, the next time I post, I'll be able to share this quilt top and some others that I was able to make from the "leftovers." Happy quilting!

My stash....

It's mid-March. A friend of mine has asked me more than once if I am putting a dent in my stored fabric. I just laugh and say, "I really need to send you a picture of my stash!" So, here we go. Most of my fabric is in my closet. If you can believe it, it is the ONLY closet in my house! Here are all my batiks sorted by color...

Here is a pile of batiks that I have no room for because all of my boxes are full...

Here are my other fabrics sorted by color. On the bottom of this shelf are two very large boxes: one for all my creams and whites and one for all my blacks and grays...

On another shelf, next to my jeans, are my fabric collections...

On the floor is a pile of Asian fabrics that don't fit in my box marked "Asian." On top of this pile are all the fabrics for a quilt I am making for my soon-to-be nineteen year old. The box holds the pieces that have already cut.

Here, in my closet on a small bookshelf, are piles of random stuff...

Now, we move out of the closet. Under my drafting table are more boxes. The top two boxes hold projects I am currently working on. The big box underneath is more unfinished stuff...and more stuff...

Next to all that is my box of "leftovers" that I recently organized...

Here is a drawer in my sewing dresser filled with....ok, yes, more stuff that I haven't finished. All my beige and browns are in the drawer underneath.

Ok, so that was really embarrassing! I guess you can understand why I want to finish projects this year. And, I must say, I am doing pretty well. Working hard...and having fun! However, I've told you in so many words that fabric is my addiction. I shared a picture earlier of some new fabric called "Cosmos" by Westminster that came into Cloth and Bobbin. Well, yesterday, I succumbed. Here is my new project....

Can you blame me?

Perseverance...

Rilke wrote....

"If we imagine our being as a room of any size, it seems that most of us know only a single corner of that room, a spot by the window, a narrow strip on which we keep walking back and forth. That gives a kind of security. But isn't insecurity with all its dangers so much more human?

We are not prisoners of that room."

I read this over a week ago, and it keeps pulling me back to it. I have reread this many times thinking about the room of my soul, especially how this idea relates to my art. I know the truth of this concerning my soul, only knowing a portion, a safe portion. I also know this is certain concerning my art, keeping in a safe corner, feeling insecurities that prevent me from branching out, experimenting, and pushing the boundaries. I don't want to be a prisoner. The first steps of freedom are difficult. Often we run back to what we have known.

I have finished all the squares for the brown star quilt. The block for July was the most difficult for me. My first attempt was a mess. I ripped part of it out four times before I gave up and decided to simply start from scratch.

I am not totally pleased with my second attempt, but I'm going to let it be.

Here is the final block for August. This class will be a celebration. Four women who have stuck through this for a year. Amazing!

The final quilt will be a replica of the "What Star Are You From?" quilt. I might play around with a different border.

So, next I will make six of those tiny stars, put together the sashings, and assemble the top. I can barely wait to get it done!

Something new from something old...

The New York Times Natural Food Cookbook. I got it in the late 70's in paperback. Last fall, I found an old  hardback copy in good condition. I was ecstatic because my copy was in three pieces. I have truly loved this cookbook. I have been making the whole wheat banana bread recipe from this for as long as I can remember owning it. The only tweak I made consistently was adding a generous quarter cup of sesame seeds to the batter. All these years, I have looked forward to brown bananas so I could make this recipe.

The other day, I got the batter ready and said to my son who happened to be in the kitchen...."What can we do differently this time?" His suggestion was to add fruit. We happened to have blueberries, so in they went. I did not expect it to be so absolutely delicious!

I decided to make twelve placemats with the Paintstik bamboo panels that I made. I clearly wanted an Asian theme for the fabric I chose. I hunted through a box and found a lovely piece that my wonderful stepmother brought back from Japan maybe fifteen years ago. I was so excited to be able to finally feel good about using it.

The bamboo panels got a 1/4" border of dark green with metallic gold dots...

and the result was this. They are super-sized placemats 15" x 20".

I've been wanting to get the brown star quilt done, so I completed the blocks for the April class...

May class...

and June class...

Thankfully, I have now finished ten out of the twelve blocks. Two more to go....then I can put it all together!

Dare to be different...

Recently, I got into one of those moods that in my child-bearing years I called "nesting." It's the mood that makes me want to clean and organize. Sometimes I think it comes now at a time when everything around me is in chaos, and I need to bring order to something...anything...in order to cope. Whatever the reason, the result is calming. 

I started with the bottom drawer of my sewing dresser. I absolutely love neutrals. Always have...in decorating, dressing, and quilting. So, I took all of my neutrals from everywhere in my studio and stash closet, folded them neatly, and set them in order by tone or design.

Next, I attacked what I call my leftovers. I rarely use patterns for my quilting. Generally, I purchase the yardage I think I need, make as many squares as I can from what I have, then put a quilt together. The result is a pile of strips, scraps, and completed squares with no home. So, I went through all the mess and organized all my leftovers into bags. I have an entire box full of these bags. Here are a few....

Now, I come to that Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric that I already made two twin quilts and a baby quilt from. I started off with twelve half-yards of the collection. I purchased a cream background fabric and went to work. Even after all those quilts, I had a leftover bag! Over the past three days, I took everything in the bag and threw together another nineteen squares. Well, at this point, I knew I needed twenty to make a 4X5 block quilt, but I just didn't have enough to pull off another one. So, after some thought, I decided to throw a big circle into my quilt of squares and rectangles. I chose an inset circle....

The result is a quilt I am calling "Dare to be Different."