It’s a crumb-y giveaway!

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Becky Goldsmith

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Welcome to my new blog home! If you have followed my blog before, and you want to still, please do click the ‘Follow Piece O Cake Blog’ button on the right, above my picture. (FYI: I switched to wordpress because it is easier to manage.)

So, about the crumbs in the post title… I subscribe to Ami Simms’ newsletter and a little while ago she wrote about a student, Megan Null, who was making ‘crumb quilts’. Megan let Ami film her, and her video says it all:

(Link to video here.)

I googled crumb quilts and, who knew! There are pages of crumb quilts! It looks to me like crumb quilts started with Bonnie Hunter and have now taken on a life of their own. I have been too busy writing the color book to have noticed crumb quilts. Sigh.

Anyway, back to Ami. She has issued a 2014 Crumb Quilt Challenge! I generated a lot of lovely, colorful scraps when I was sewing for the color book and for a few days I thought I would start my own crumb quilt(s). I looked at the pile lovingly… and then I admitted to myself that this is not something I am going to do. My pile of crumbs could become your very own crumb quilt!

Everything in the box is pre-washed cotton—except for one piece of a silky polyester that is obviously not cotton. I was going to throw it away but thought maybe the winner would love it. There are little pieces and bigger pieces, strips, triangles, and other shapes.

If you would like a chance to win, leave a comment. I will have my random number generator (my mom) pick a number Sunday. I think I’ll be able to contact the winner from your comment but sometimes there isn’t a way to do that, so check back on Monday, mid-morning. I’ll post the winner. It could be you!

She’s a star!

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Becky Goldsmith

ElanorProfilePicSmall

My 11-year-old granddaughter, Elanor, is seriously into rainbow loom bracelets. If you are not related to, or friends with, a pre-teen girl you have no idea what I'm talking about. These are bracelets made with small, colorful rubber bands on a loom. They are so much better than the potholders I made in my youth :-).

Elanor wanted to make a how-to video. She tried to do it with her phone but the results did not make her happy so she asked me to help. I am the Nana with video equipment, after all.

I provided the equipment and the space. I zoomed in and out and did my best to shine light where it was needed. The rest is all Elanor. She practiced what she wanted to say and how to say it best. I am so very proud of her! I know how hard it is to give precise instructions and she did it perfectly, all on her own :-).

She watched me edit the film in iMovie and it won't be long at all before she is doing that herself. That's good, because she isn't done making videos yet! so, please do share the links to her video. She will be so happy to see that people are watching it!

Magenta!

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Becky Goldsmith

I subscribe to Now I Know, written by Dan Lewis. I get an interesting email about 5 days a week and on Feb. 4 I learned more about magenta.

Imgres.1

We all know that magenta fits in between red and blue, so why don't we see it in a rainbow? Now I know!

The short story is that when visible light is broken down into colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, Indigo, and violet), red is at one end and violet is at the other. They don't connect so the blended color between them (magenta) isn't there. Click here to read the longer story.

It's also interesting to note that magenta isn't on a standard, 12-wedge color wheel. Violet is what you will find next to red there too.

In related news, I only thought I was done with the manuscript for the Color book. My editor called Friday with several suggestions. After a deep sigh, I realized that her points were excellent and that the re-writing will make the book even better. So that's what I've been working on instead of blog posting.

One of Lynn's suggestions was that I look again at Joen Wolfrom's Ultimate 3-In1 Color Tool. You know what? It's really very helpful! She includes a 24-part color wheel that includes magenta and more. Cool. But what's really nice about this tool is that it takes each of the 24 colors and shows them in a variety of tints (lighter versions), shades (darker versions), and tones (grayer versions).

It is the addition of tones that I think is the best part of this tool. If you work with grayed fabrics (like Civil War prints) this is really handy. For example, if you have a grayed red fabric and you want to put green with it, you can look at the greens and you will find a variety of grayed greens. Take the tool with you to the quilt shop and you can look for the best match to the color you want.

I've got the 3-In-1 Tool on order and will have it on the site soon.

I’m back!

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Becky Goldsmith

I can't tell you how happy I am to report that the color book quilts are made and quilted, and the manuscript is finished. I'm smiling, Steve is smiling, I heard my first cardinal of the year this morning and the sun is shining! Oh happy day!

Color-0151 copy

I have been working non-stop on this book for more than a year—could it be two? I don't even want to think about that now. My editor tells me that I wrote way too many pages but that's better than too few.

I suddenly have some free time. Not really 'free' but I don't have immediate deadlines weighing me down. I almost don't know what to do next, except that I've got lists telling me what's next.

For today, I want to share some news from Jan Krentz. Jan, who some of you may know, is famous for diamond piecing (among other things). One of her books, Diamond Quilts & Beyond, was published in Russia some time back.

Diamond_B-L

Amazingly enough, the Sochi Olympic graphics are also very diamond-y.

Jan isn't suggesting that someone there used her book as a inspiration but rather that, if you like what you are seeing as you watch the Olympics, she has a book that can help you make a diamond quilt of your own. (I'm tempted to make one myself!).

Jan is selling Diamond Quilts & Beyond at a special 30% off now. Click here to go to her page to order.

Just for fun, try googling sochi diamond quilts. There's a lot to see!

How to decide…

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Becky Goldsmith

I'm quilting the last big quilt for the Color book. Before I could begin, I had to figure out what pattern to quilt into it. I pinned vinyl over a block and started doodling. First I tried a curvy pattern with some flow. Not a stipple, but something maybe with leaves or curls, or flowers…

It didn't take long to decide that that was not it. Next I tried vertical lines.

I've used this before to good effect but there is a lot of moving around shapes. That means a lot of sewing over lines of stitching and I didn't really want to do so much of that in this quilt so I started drawing horizontal lines to get me from one spot to another. I didn't love that so much but it did point me in a better direction…

I really like this! It's a kind of squared stipple. I think it looks very 1950's retro which fits nicely with the clock fabric. And it's fast!

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