Dealing With Leftover Binding

I try to be organized, really I do, but my best laid plans sometimes goes astray.  I keep a lot of "valuable" stuff that is related to my quilting construction.  Small pieces of tear away, fusibles, freezer paper etc.  I have designated a drawer in a cabinet for these items, along with other paper and pencil type items.  I keep the small items cut from other projects in a labeled expanding folder for ready access.  Well, sometimes some of those items will just be tossed in the drawer to be "filed" when I have the time.  Yesterday I went to find some freezer paper for applique and the drawer was  in disarray.  Bits and pieces of different products, along with a surprise. tangled among the papers was various left over pieces and spools of binding.  Becoming a little frustrated with trying to untangle my mess and muttering "why did I put binding in here and this is not what I want to be doing right now" I started pulling all the binding out, got my freezer paper and rearranged the other items into their respective homes and closed the drawer.

Now I have a pile of binding out, I've been trying to rid my studio of clutter not add to it!  Ok, what are my options, I go to the drawer that holds my binding.  AH HA that's why the binding was in the other drawer, I couldn't get another piece of binding in that drawer if my life depended on it. In fact some of the binding sprung out at me as if it wanted to run away. Since I almost always use a 2" strip for my binding I could press it open and put it in with my 2" strips for scrap quilts, but I had worked hard to press it double and my heart just wasn't in to undoing that process, since pressing binding is not one of those jobs I relish doing.
While browsing through the strips of binding, I notice that a lot of the pieces are in my strips drawers for cutting into scrap quilts, so my decision is to sewing them all together and make scrap binding for my next scrap quilt or more likely my next 10 scrap quilts.  I'm going to roll it like a ball of yarn and keep adding to it.  As time allows I will rescue the binding from the overflowing binding drawer and keep adding to my ball of binding that will reside in a basket next to my sewing machine for ready access.  Isn't there a  place that houses the largest ball of twine somewhere?  Maybe I will have the largest ball if binding someday.  Keep a smile on your face and enjoy your journey.

That Added Touch To Make The Quilt Yours

With so many talented designers and sources of inspiration I find myself falling in love with a pattern and immediately start cutting.  Every once in a while a quilt will just speak to you.  Such was the case a couple of years ago when browsing through an issue of McCall's Quick Quilts resulting in this quilt.

  Seeing the photo of the quilt of little dresses soon took me back to my childhood.  This quilt spurred that instant cutting mode for me, leaving all the other things I had to do on the back burner.  But while cutting, that little thought crept in saying.......ok, what can I do to make it special to me, being from a publication there will be many like it made by other quilters.
While appliqueing the blocks I was thinking of the trims and buttons I would purchase to decorate the quilt when it occurred to me that would be the area to make the quilt special to me.  I stopped sewing and headed for my grandmother, mother, mother-in-laws and my button boxes and tin of vintage trims.  I knew I had a couple of trims my grandmother had crocheted but the lengths were very short, but just long enough to be sewn to my little dresses.

  Though the trim on this dress is not hand made, the buttons are special to me because I can remember them being on one of my mother's blouses.  Though at a glace the quilt does not look much different than the published pattern, it's reading the label that sets the quilt apart for me and my family.
As I work with my quilting students we create projects from books, magazines and patterns, but I always urge then to do a little something different with the project  to make it theirs.
Enjoy your day and make your journey special.

Log Cabin Quilts: Forever Timeless

I took my first quilt making class in 1982. a Log Cabin class, the colors not my favorite but a good intro to quilting and it is finished.

Then I was on to a Log Cabin Christmas Tree class having found the Log Cabin  technique to be fun.  My third class was the ever popular Sampler Class.
 I do believe every quilt maker of that era made a Sampler.I enjoyed learning the new and different techniques in this class. A few weeks into the class the Log Cabin block was to be the block of the week.  As I sit there with a look of contentment, because I knew this was only going to take in about 15 minutes to complete, I find my teacher addressing me personally. "Sherry, since you have already completed 2 other Log Cabin projects I want you to do something different."  My reply was....."I don't understand", as my dream of a quick 15 minute block is crushed.  Her reply was that,  " I would figure it out."  It could be anything but the block as given in the book.  The rest of that class was a blur to me as she explained the construction method to the rest of the class.  My little brain was in a whirl as to what I could do.  I was pretty much in panic mode.  After class I decided to look at the quilting books before heading home.  There were numerous Log Cabin variations but nothing to make the block different.  About to leave in dismay I went past a new display and there in all its glory was a new book by Crystal Carter entitled "Holiday Happenings",  with pieces created in all Log Cabin blocks.  My excitement rose as I picked up the book to see if it might be of help to me.  There were many beautiful pieces, but all much larger than than my block to go into my quilt.  I purchased the book anyway...for inspiration and because I never met a quilt book I didn't like.

That week went quickly and it took a lot longer than my predetermined 15 minutes, but I arrived in class with my Log Cabin block.  My first self designed block and my first applique handle.  Sure glad my applique improved.  I will show a few more Log Cabin projects in a future post while I am documenting the progress of the quilt for Angel for her 33rd wedding anniversary.
This Log Cabin variation for her is different yet.  Instead of applying the logs two light and and then two dark around the block. This quilt is done in units and then the units sewn together.

The unit on the left will be turned over and sewn to the left side of the block on the right which will be the beginning of a "chain" going across the block. (The navy floral will form the chain.)
Enjoy your day, this afternoon I will be checking out how Pat Sloan is going to be doing some UFO (UnFinished Objects) Busting and you can be sure I have lots of those unfinished quilt tops and pieces and parts of quilts to be busted.

Working In Small Scale

Saturday is ME day, a day when anything goes, dear hubby and I might decide to take a day trip, go shopping or stay home and do our own thing.  Since it is winter here in the midwest  United States, and in an area that cannot make up its mind if it wants to be spring or winter.  As an example this time yesterday it was 58 degrees and today it is 28 degrees and snow this afternoon and tonight.  Hubby and I decided it was a stay home day so I pondered what I wanted to do this morning and decided to work on some element of my cancer quilt.  My quilt has a barn on it, that may sound a little strange for a cancer quilt but upon its completion I will photograph the quilt and explain it's meaning in one of my blog posts. Anyway, a quilter can't have a barn without a barn quilt and mine is no exception.  I pull the pattern segment for the barn and get out my ruler. Hmmm, the finished size of the barn quilt is 1 3/8".  Ohhhh, ok I whine a few seconds, but knowing those who create miniatures must deal in these dimensions I carry on.  Each square finishes 3/8",

so with my 1/4" on each side my square measures 7/8".  The squares on the right are my 7/8" squares and the squares on the left measure 1 1/8" to be made into half square triangles and then be cut down to my 7/8" square.

I drew my line and sewed ever so slowly to get my square.  I then trimmed the seam allowance to 1/8"
and proceeded to set my block together as any other pieced work.
There wasn't much room for fingers or even a stiletto and I admit I had to unsew one seam that was definitely not straight.  I sewed the other side on before removing the incorrect seam and had more to hold onto when resewing and that helped keep the seam straight.  I chose not to trim my seam allowance to an 1/8" when sewing the squares together as was my first thought as I felt it laid nicely with the full 1/4" attached.

Here is my completed barn quilt that when pieced into the barn and will measure 1 3/8".finished.  The outside border will measure 1/8".
Although this was not as bad as I first anticipated I don't see much miniature work in my future, but I certainly have a new appreciation for those who work in such small scale.
Working outside our comfort zone is good for us, try something you haven't done before you might decide you enjoy it.

Is It OK to Mix Hand and Machine Applique on the Same Quilt?

The creating of my cancer quilt is very important to me.  I have had many journeys in my life as has everyone.  But all the others seems to pale beside my breast cancer journey.  The fear and uncertainty and the disfigurement has had a great impact on my life, but also making me savor each moment of each day.
I don't believe a day has passed since my deciding to create my cancer quilt that I have not mulled over some aspect of the quilt on any given day.
One of the decisions that I feel to be the most crucial will be the method or methods of applique I choose to execute the design.  I have dated my self with earlier posts as I will now.  A beginning quilter in the early '80 I found that the accepted methods were hand applique and hand quilting and most machine work to accomplish either of the above was for decorative purposes only.
In the late '80 I was awarded 2 separate Folk Art Apprenticeships through the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kansas Historical Society for the preservation of quiltmaking.  During those two years I studied under Master Folk Artist, Helen Ericson, aka Mrs Danner's Quilts.  Naturally, my learning was based in the perfection of skills in hand applique, hand quilting and precision piecing. But times has changed.  The wide acceptance of machine skills, a product of very talented quilters, to create a beautiful finished product makes machine work as accepted as hand work in lots of circumstances.

For several years now I have had an inner struggle with this hand or machine applique issue.  So a few years ago I created this small wall piece to see what the results would be to put both hand and machine applique on the same piece.

The center is done by machine, the silk ribbon vine and even though the leaves are raw edged, the blanket stitch is turned in reverse.  The grapes are ultra suede and are stitched with invisible thread with the blind hem stitch, the glass seed beads are applied by hand, but that is the only element that is not applied by machine.  On the other hand, the outside border is completely hand done.  Same fabrics, same thread and silk ribbon.

What do you think, is it ok to mix hand and machine applique in the same quilt?

Inspiration Overload

YES! Inspiration overload.  I find myself wanting to make all the wonderful quilts and other small projects I see.  Where was all this in the late '80's and early '90's. We had great designers and nice books and patterns but the amount of creative inspiration out there today is fantastic along with a little overwhelming.

Great books on every subject imaginable and more magazines to subscribe to than ever, not to mention catalogs and all of the great finds on the internet, mystery quilts, challenges, quilt alongs, block of the months.  So many generous talented and  artists out there....where do I begin.  I find myself wide eyed going from this site muttering oh I need to print that or put this in favorites or join this blog and that blog, to the latest magazine that has come in the mail.  I always know of its arrival because dear hubby comes in with the mail and shouts out "your ____magazine is here."  And I immediately stop what I am doing to rush to see what wonderful projects fills it's pages.

This is the wonderful world of quilt making,  I once had a doctor tell me that I would need to find a hobby or something that I was passionate about because the day would come when my pain would be severe enough I would need an incentive to get out of bed.  Well, no fear of that as I fall asleep thinking of what projects I will accomplish on the morrow and wake up early thinking if I get up now I can get more done.

Perhaps we need more hours in a day, don't think I can go on less sleep in the hours we have in a day now.

Life is a journey go find something you are passionate about.

Making Friends Through Quilts

Along life's journey I find it amazing how friendly, giving and generous I find the quilting community.  Along with all these wonderful people along the way you find others who do not make quilts or sell the wares to create them or teach about it, but you find those that love quilts.  One of those people crossed my path yesterday.  Well, actually it all started a few weeks before Christmas.
One day as my dear hubby and I were out running errands I received a phone call, as I looked at my cell I realized it was a number I did not recognize.  Upon answering the lady at the other end introduced herself and said she had been talking to a dear friend of my family and she had suggested that I might be able to construct the quilt the lady was desiring.
Now as a general rule, but rules are made to be broken sometimes, I don't make a quilt top for others but prefer to just do machine quilting for them,  That being said as we talked I realized there was something special in her voice that intrigued me and I feeling that perhaps this might be the time to break the rule.  This was to be a special quilt for her.  She has a love of quilts and because of life's circumstances had never felt the time was right to acquire a handmade quilt.  But this year will be her 33rd wedding anniversary and she felt it was time to discard her present department store quilt for the handmade quilt she had always wanted.
We talked at length about color, patterns and I threw out some rough estimates based on the size she was wanting.  I asked her to let me think about it and to contact me again after Christmas and after we had both thought about it.  Well last week the phone rang again and the lady once again was eager for me to make her quilt so we set up a date for her to stop by and I would show her patterns and fabric.  The day was yesterday and the minute we met I knew I was going to have a new close friend.  We are both strong in our faith and share other values also.
I had previously searched for patterns and found one in particular that appealed to me for an anniversary quilt.  She had mentioned previously a Log Cabin with sharp light dark contrast.  So I was looking around for a visual to get an idea of what she might like and while doing so came across one in a book by Judy Martin that had her criteria plus Log Cabin Hearts.  When I opened that particular book I could tell by the look on her face and the tears in her eyes we had hit upon her quilt. I then assisted her in the fabric selection. We arranged the fabrics and I asked her to step back and asked her what she thought.  Her comment was she saw "love and happiness" when she looked at the fabric and the photo in the book.  So the fabric is now cut and ready for me to start the construction process.

I mentioned to her about this blog and asked her if she was on the internet and if she would like for me to blog about the progress of her quilt, she was happy about that idea so there will be future blogs about this quilt for her to follow along.
But the amazing thing is that when this quilt is completed not only will she have the quilt she has been wanting but I will have another dear friend thanks to quilting.
Life is a journey....look for those special moments along the way.