An Update on My Studio Makeover Project

Well, I am stalled right now on my studio overhaul.  Sigh.....

You know when you ask someone to help you and then he/she gets busy and doesn't have time to help you?  AND the project is half-done and you don't know how to finish it yourself?

Well, that is where I find myself right now.

I have actually purged a lot of stuff out of my studio.  Of course, now that I've put stuff in plastic baskets in anticipation of have storage cubes, there's no place to put the basket right now.

Regardless of that dilemma, my studio looks like a different place, still disorganized, but neater and less cluttered.

Here's some update photos for you.

 

Granted, I still have a long ways to go before I can consider myself organized, but I'm at least on the yellow brick road now.

I was so energetic about this project last month, but my father got too busy to even think about my new electrical outlet and wooden post.  I even ordered my storage cube units for the base of my new sewing table.

Once I have the electricity in then I can  build my new sewing table.  It will actually have a 4' x 6' surface as well as 24 cubes underneath.  There may even be a space for some large and bulky items too -- I won't know until I start putting the cube units together. 

But pretty much everything has come to halt.  For now.

It's a Mini World!

Have you noticed that Mini Quilts are HOT???

It's interesting to me how trends come and go in the quilting world.  I can remember when I first started quilting in the 1990's that Mini Quilts were IN at that time.  Then interest in them waned.  Now they're back!

Why Mini Quilts?

1.  They don't use very much fabric, especially when fabric prices keep rising.
2.  They are smaller and most likely won't take as much time as a full-sized quilt.
3.  They don't take up much storage space.

I teach a yearly quilt class at my local quilt shop.  We meet once monthly and each year we have a different project.  Often, my co-teacher Mary Lee and I design our own sample project, but sometimes we use someone else's pattern or book.

SHHHH!  Don't tell anyone, but  our "class" isn't really a class -- it's a sewing group in disguise.  Some might even say a therapy group.  LOL!

This year we are tackling Pam Buda's new book, Vintage Patchwork.

I met Pam at Fall Quilt Market when I went to one of her book signings.  Her enthusiasm for Minis came through with each quilt she showed.  I knew right then and there that I wanted to make the mini quilt projects in her book.  Then I had a brilliant idea -- why don't we do this for our 2019 Saturday Class/Group?

The group was pretty skeptical at first.  Some were downright appalled (snicker....). 

But I didn't give up and YAY!  We are going to make almost all of the projects in Pam's book this year.

We just had our first meeting. They were still skeptical.


Our first project was Pride and Prejudice.

(Photo from the book)

I showed them my samples, which by the way are far from perfect.  But I find their quirkiness appealing and cute.   I am planning to proudly display a grouping of my mini treasures on a blank wall in the living room.

The class was willing to give it a go, even though they were still dubious.  I showed them three different ways to sew the tiny pieces together and we even checked our 1/4" seam allowances.

1.  Cut out all the 1" x 1" squares and sew them RST together into pairs.  Then the pairs into 4 patches and so on.  This method yields the scrappiest project.

2.  Cut 1" squares of assorted mediums/dark and cut 1" wide strips of your background/light fabric.  Sew a square RST to the light strip.  Stop then place another square, sew that square, then stop.  And so on.  After all the medium/dark squares are sewn to the light strip, then use the 1" squares to cut the
light fabric and you have pairs of squares.  You can get a scrappy look but the background will be the same with this method.

3.  Cut a medium/dark 1" strip and a light 1" strip.  Layer them RST and sew them together.  Then cut 1" segments .  Open pairs and press.  Not very scrappy at all, but you could use smaller medium/dark strips so there is a little variety.

Everyone started cutting and many of them even began sewing and making itty bitty blocks.

The next day, 2 of the class members sent me a picture of their almost-finished minis and I know a third member finished her top as well!  Wow! 

Hmmmmm.  Maybe making Minis won't be as painful as they thought it would be.

Why Every Quilter Should Have a Library Card

Do you have a library card?

I think every quilter (and every person for that matter) should have a library card.  

In addition to my quilting career, I work part-time as a librarian at my small hometown library.   So many people have come into our beautiful library and have said something like "Libraries are a thing of the past -- everything's digital these days."   

Really? 

Who said so?  Was this something you read on the Internet?  And of course, everything you read on the Internet must be true, right?

My friend, Missi, got me thinking about this concept when she was describing a recent book, THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean. 

Libraries are more than books, more than information -- libraries are a place.  

Okay, so how can having a library card enhance being a quilter? 

1. BOOKS! (This one is a no-brainer)   Libraries have books.  Whether you like fiction, ebooks, reference books, children's books, etc.  Libraries have 'em.  Looking for quilt books?  Visit your local library!

2.  Along with #1, check your local library to find out if they have interlibrary loan services.  In a nutshell,  if your library doesn't have a book that you want, they may be able to borrow it from another library just for you.  Talk about personal service.

3.  Periodicals.  Local newspapers (check out the local quilt shows!) and maybe magazines. (What!  Your library doesn't have any quilting magazines?  Then why don't you ask about donating a subscription???)

4.  Classes, Programs, and Workshops.   For you, for kids and teens -- for everyone!  Check out the offerings at your local library, you might find a class on knitting or quilting or painting, computer classes,  Friday bag lunch and a movie, story times for kids, American Sign Language, etc.  By the way, most library programs are FREE (please ask though). 

5.  Access to computers, fax machine/printer, etc.  There might be use restrictions, so you will need to check at your individual library.  This is a real lifesaver when your computer crashes or your printer is not cooperating.

6.  Digital Resources.  This one will depend on individual libraries.  It might be ebooks that you can borrow or access to Ancestry Library Edition.  My favorite digital resource right now is Universal Class.  There aren't any quilt classes on Universal Class (yet), but there are classes for tons of other topics.  Maybe you want to learn quantum physics?

7. Social Hang Out. Yes, libraries really are social hubs.  Gather your quilting friends and your go-to hand quilting project and head to your nearest library.  I bet they have a place that you can sit, sew, and socialize.  This is great when it's hot and you can enjoy the air conditioning.

8.  Meeting Place.  Need to find a space for a quilt guild meeting?  Check with your library -- they might just have a community room or meeting space that you can borrow for a low fee or perhaps even no fee.

9. More Digital Resources -- Okay, I am adding this one on at the end because I just discovered it.  My sister bought my family an Amazon Firestick for Christmas.  Who knew that I could access aps like Hoopla and Kanopy which are digital resources through my library card.  Hello movies!  Good bye stack of quilts that need the binding hand-sewn!

Sew -- what are you waiting for? Go get your  library card if you don't already have one.  Then visit your local library and see what it can do for you.

 

A Much-Needed Break, or Heading to the Flea Market!

As I mentioned previously, I'm at a bit of a standstill with my cleaning, organizing, and purging project in my sewing studio.  I have grouped and organized things in baskets, but now I don't have anywhere to put the baskets so they are currently living all over my horizontal surfaces.

My father is getting started with my electrical project and I just broke down and ordered my storage cube units -- I need somewhere for my baskets to live.  Keep your fingers crossed that the electricity goe sin soon so I can get back to my project.

 So recently, I took a break from all of my cleaning and organizing and took a little trip to Lisa's General Store (which used to be called Lisa's Indoor Flea Market) located in Greenville, PA.

Over the years, I've found some awesome deals -- my most recent one being my sewing stand.

It had a broken and repaired foot, but I didn't mind because I have always wanted one of these stands (usually called a Martha Washington sewing stand).  Go HERE to read my post about this stand.

One of my best finds was a 1900's vintage indigo and white Double Irish Chain quilt with some very nice hand-quilting designs.  It was just sitting there, waiting for me.

Anyway, though, if you are following my Reclaiming My Studio series, you will be pleased to know that I didn't buy a thing at Lisa's.  REALLY!  Not one single thing.

Instead, I just window-shopped.  I did see lots of sewing and quilting related items, though, and thought I'd capture them on my phone so I could share them with you.


I saw a few sewing tables.  The first one was similar to mine, but it had 4 turned legs and three drawers.  And it had a light wood finish.

 

This sewing table is a real beauty!  I just love the dark wood.  It's earlier than mine and the one above (which are more Depression-era pieces).  This Empire style piece probably dates to the early 1900's or so.

  

Of course there were some vintage quilts and quilt tops, but nothing that really tempted me.  Now had they been a stack of quilt blocks, that would have been an entirely different story.

I thought the booth owner was very clever to drape this simple little quilt on the vintage buggy.  Wouldn't that look great in your home or sewing room?  I would of course fill the buggy with more quilts or maybe vintage pin cushions.....  Anyone have an 18" doll to display in the buggy?

One of my favorite things to look for are sewing boxes and baskets.  There are so many different ones, I'm always interested to see them.  This basket had a very nice embroidered inset in the top of the lid.  Pretty, sin't it?  I wonder if it came that way or if a previous owner decided to beautify her humble sewing basket.

These little rectangular boxes are very common -- you've probably seen them before if you don't have one of your own.

Isn't this a lovely old sewing basket?  The booth owner made it look very inviting with the addition of the spools of old thread.

And here is a fin patchwork teddy bear.  He's not old, but he is really cute.  I don't think the patchwork came from a quilt, but rather I think the pieces were sewn together for the bear.

 Well, I hope you enjoyed window shopping with me.  Maybe you'll head out on your own flea market or antique shop adventure....

Reclaiming my Studio Part 6 -- The Gnomes Have It

Well, I’ve hit a real slow down this week.  I’ve been wanting to sew instead of clean.  Oh no!  Now what?

This past week, I’ve been playing with the cutest row quilt that I recently designed.  Of course, once I had the design, I wanted to select fabrics.  Then once I had selected the fabrics, of course, I wanted to sew, right?  Wouldn’t you?

I fell in love with all of the gnome stuff at Christmas time and found the cutest gnome block on Pinterest.  That inspired me to design an entire row quilt of jolly little tubby gnomes.



Here is my gnome row :

Aren’t they the cutest????  My row has five gnomes, each with his own combination of a red hat and a green body.  They will be the centerpiece of my row quilt.

I know, I know.  Sewing isn’t really cleaning, is it?  

But wait, it is!  HONEST!

I am making this gnome quilt using only my stash, so I am downsizing my collection of fabric!

Yes, I will get back to cleaning for real, I promise, but in the meantime, I am going to enjoy the process of sewing and making something fun.  

Stay tuned to see how my row quilt turns out.

2019 New Year's Goal -- Reclaiming My Studio Part 3............Scraps

Yay!  Tricia 1...................Scraps 0.

I had posted about my scraps on Instagram earlier this month  and a kind follower suggested that I join the 2019 Scrap Buster Challenge by Border Creek Station.

It sounded intriguing so I checked it out and I joined the fun!  This was just the thing for my basket of 1930's squares (see below) -- I just needed to add a white solid.  Easy Peasy!

The goal for the Scrap Buster Challenge is to make at least 52 blocks in 2019, which averages out to 1 block a week.  This sounded very manageable to me -- I know I can do this.  Besides, I can always work ahead so when a week is too crazy for me to sew, I can skip a week when needed.  AND it will use up some of my scrap fabric.  Win-win!

Here is my first Scrap Challenge Block.  It's not perfect, but I'm okay with that.  I gave up the idea of quilting perfection long ago.

I was so inspired by my first block that I made 3 more blocks the second week. I  posted my 4 humble blocks on the Scrap Challenge FB page and one of the other participants pointed out that I had sewn one of the HST blocks in each of the three blocks wrong.  She kindly said something about being curious to see how my variation turns out.  GULP!  I totally missed that.  Hmmm.  Time to "unsew" some seams and fix the 3 blocks.

Here are my repaired blocks.  As you can see, I decided not to do a ton of "unsewing" and used the wrongly-pieced HSTs to make 3 more blocks!  Now I have 7.  45 blocks to go.

It's not too late you you to join in the fun.  Just hop over to the Border Creek Station website for more information.  Bring a friend.

With my quilt studio bursting at the seams will fabric, I have decided that 2019 is going to be my YEAR OF SCRAP QUILTS.

So, not only am I going to blog about my Studio Cleaning Adventure, but now I'm going to add scrap quilts to the mix.  The good thing is that I should always have something to blog about.  The bad thing is that you are going to get tired of reading about my studio and my scrap quilts. 

Did you miss the first part of my Reclaiming my Studio series?  Click HERE.

On the 12th Day of Christmas

On the 12th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

12 Drummers Drumming

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, the twelve drumming drummers represent the "12 points of belief in the Apostle’s Creed."

I chose a Holiday Drum block for the center of the quilt and surrounded it with a variety of borders.  I call this one "Little Drummer."

On the 11th Day of Christmas

On the 11th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

11 Pipers Piping

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, the eleven pipers represent the "eleven faithful apostles."

When I think of "pipers" I think of bagpipes.  Of course bagpipes make me think of Scotland and by association Ireland.  So I chose a Double Irish Chain for this quilt in trraditional red, green, and white fabrics.

On the 10th Day of Christmas

On the 10th Day of Christmas...

My True Love gave to me...

10 Lords A-Leaping

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15, the Ten Commandments are represented by the ten lords a-leaping.

For this design, I picked the Boy's Nonsense block.  This block and I go way back -- I used it in one of my quilts for my second book, A Russian Journey in Quilts.  I'm going to call this one "Mischief."

On the 1st Day of Christmas.......

My True Love gave to me...

  A Partridge in a Pear Tree.

According to writer Pat Johnson in the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15,  "both 'my true love' and the partridge in a pear tree represent Jesus — the partridge because it’s a bird that will sacrifice its life to save its children."

I call this quilt design Birds and Pears.  I love how it has a modern feel to it even though it is in traditional Christmas colors.

The 12 Days of Christmas

For the Last couple of years, I've done a series of special holiday posts to share with you. 

Start HERE for my 2016 Playing Around with Christmas Songs

and

Start HERE for my 2017 12 Days of Christmas Gifts

For 2018, I thought I'd revisit the 12 Days of Christmas and design quilts to represent EACH day.

Did you know that the 12 Days of Christmas begins on December 25th and ends on January 5th?

Check out this great article written by Pat Johnson for the Vancouver Courier 12/21/15 for a great explanation of what the song really represents.  This was a real surprise to me so I wanted to share it with you this holiday season.

But before I forget --

to you and yours

Fall Quilt Market in Review Part 2

Isn't it typical that Quilt Market was a month ago and I'm still working on blogging about it?  LOL!

On Saturday and Sunday of Market, the show floor was open as was the quilt display.  If you've never been to Market, it's hard to describe what the show floor looks like.

Here are a couple photos taken through the porthole windows on the second floor:

The show floor is MASSIVE!  Filled with every quilt goody known to humankind.  Thank goodness the aisles are numbered or else you might get lost.  There were 22 aisles and each aisle is divided in half with a central wide aisle running through.  The show floor is so overwhelming but in a good way!

Since I didn't have any appointments or meetings scheduled, I was free to wander to my heart's content.  Which I did.  Of course, I checked in with many friends and met a lot of new friends too.  I stopped at C&T Publishing, Villa Rosa, and others just to say hi.

At C&T, I actually made an appointment to sit down and talk to the acquisitions editor, Roxanne, so that I could pitch a couple of book ideas to her.  Really, I didn't go to Market to pitch a new book idea, but I went prepared just in case.  (Well, hey, I was a Girl Scout, you know.)

Anyway, here are some things I saw on the Show Floor that I found photo-worthy:

Saturday was an exhausting day!  Then Saturday night, I went with my shop owner friend Shirley to the Moda dinner, which is always a good time.

On Sunday, I had the chance to check out the quilt display which by the way is in the other half of the first floor of the conference center!  I am sad to say that I only made it through about 3/4 of the quilt displays, but WOW -- the displays were amazing.....incredible......even breath-taking!

Here are a few teasers for you:

One of my absolute favorite things to do at Market is to participate in book signings.  I really love to meet authors and it's fun to help them celebrate their books.  Here's my favorite photo from the book signings I was lucky enough to attend -- can you guess who????

Eleanor is doing great!  She looked wonderful and was so very gracious.  I am thrilled for her that she's celebrating her 40th anniversary for Quilt in a Day.  Did you know that they updated her first book, Make a Quilt in a Day Log Cabin?  Click HERE to get your own copy!

Stay tuned for some book reviews for the books I discovered at Market.

To revisit Part 1 of my Fall Quilt Market in Review posts, click HERE.