Category Archives: Notes from a quilter

Busy busy busy…

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Every day is a sprint.

I'm guessing that the same is true for many of you. I sometimes wonder if it has always been this way. I have dim memories of times when I could sit and read a book—very dim memories. I don't necessarily think that my life was better then, but there are days when I wish I could focus on one thing without knowing how many other things I also need to be doing. OK, enough of that 🙂

I was in Monterey and Pacific Grove, CA, last week to teach for the quilt guild. Monterey is such a great place to be. The people were wonderful, the weather was lovely. On the way to dinner one evening I spotted this in the sidewalk. It made me smile. 

HeavenUnderFoot-Pebbles copy

While there, I got to visit one of my all-time favorite shops, The Back Porch. Of course, I shopped…


BoughtAtBackPorch copy

I didn't shop for anything in particular and the stacks reflect that.

In the same way that I did after my last shopping trip, I thought I'd tell you why I bought what I did. The first two fabrics that went in my pile were these:


Kokka-PenguinsPhones copy

Both are linens from Kokka. The penguins are designed by Nancy Wolff, the telephones by Melody Miller. They are not inexpensive fabrics but I have used similar fabric before and I am always sorry when it's gone. (FYI: Linen and regular cottons are not a problem to combine in quilts. They sew together well.)

The penguins have text on them! You know how I love text…


Penguins-TextDetail copy

These two cottons are both designed by Stella but I didn't realize that when I bought them. One of my students had used the light branch fabric as a background and I really liked it. The concentric circles didn't make me think of tree rings until I saw the two fabrics together.


Stella-Branches copy

Besides the fact that the Kokka linen is expensive, I'll bet that many of you don't buy it because you aren't sure how to put it with other fabric. Here are some ideas:

I would not have normally have thought about putting the tree fabric with the penguins but it works! I would add more fabric, but this is a nice start.


Penguins-WithBrowns

The more delicate, feminine floral looks really good with the telephones. It makes me think of myself as a teenager. I probably add some light fuschia and teal, possibly a lot of cream, and a deep dark burgundy.

Phones-WithFlowers copy

The orange tile print from Kaffe Fassett is pretty nice with the telephones too. In fact, it surprised me…


Phones-WithOrangeTile copy

And I like it even better with the yellow and orange fabric by Thomas Knauer for Andover—although I would use the yellow in very small doses. 


Phones-WithOrangeMore copy

What else I would add? Probably blue, more aqua than true blue. 

I'll share more in a couple of days. Until then, I hope you have a nice holiday weekend!

 

 

Nacho cheese!

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Have you ever wondered why you can never eat just one? Click here to read the NY Times article that will tell you why. It's pretty interesting, and sort of scary, just how easily we can be manipulated by food science.

I haven't tasted a nacho cheese chip in years because they are not were not gluten free. As I was typing that I thought I'd do a quick fact check and, guess what? I can eat them again!

From the Frito Lay site: "In 2011 we reformulated Doritos Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips to remove wheat from the recipe. While some older packages may show "wheat" on the ingredient statement, please be assured that all Doritos Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips currently being sold in the US do not contain wheat."

However, just because I can eat them, that doesn't mean I will eat them. I've gone years without them and that proves to me that I can (maybe) continue to resist the lure of the yummy, golden, salty, tastiness that is Nacho Cheese Doritos.

 

Spinning Wheels, quilted by Angela Walters!

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I like to quilt my own quilts but every now and then I admit to myself that I just can't do everything. Luckily, Angela Walters has come to my rescue! 

Spinning Wheels is the first of several quilts that she is working her magic on. I received the quilt last Monday, bound it, and sent it off to be shown at Quilt Market. Can you believe that I didn't take a picture of it, bound? I slapped myself upside the head. And then I asked Angela if she had taken pictures. Yes, she did.


02_SpinWheel-FlatSide-Detail copy

I love the different quilting designs that she used. Everything works well together, adding life to the quilt but not overpowering it. 


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Definitely check out Angela's blog.


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I don't know about you, but this makes me smile :-).

 

Making Quilts…

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Have you seen Kathy Doughty's newest book, Making Quilts? If not, you should look for it!

MakingQuiltsCover

Kathy is one of my favorite quilting friends, although I don't get to see her often. She owns Material Obsession, a quilt shop in Sydney, Australia. She also writes a great blog! There is a link to the Material Obsession blog in the column at right, or you can click here. 

Making Quilts was originally published by Quiltmania, in France. The text is in both French and English making the book bigger because of the extra pages required for both languages. In the same way that books from the US are often more expensive overseas, that book was more expensive here in the US—but not any more!

Luckily for us, Making Quilts has been re-issued (in English only) by Stash Books! You can find it at your local quilt shop, from Amazon, or from C&T. 

Kathy has a fearless way of combining color and pattern—in quilts, in her wardrobe, in her home. The chair below is one that she showed on her blog a while back. She had it recoverd in that great fabric to go in her home. I want to go sit in that chair, in that room, and soak in the color!


KathyD-chair-2

Kathy sometimes teaches in the US. If you ever get a chance to take a class from her, you won't be disappointed. Until then, you might want to check out her book!

 

Interesting reads online…

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I subscribe to Dave Pell's Next Draft newsletter (also available as an app). He posts 'the day's most fascinating news' 3-5 days a week. And you know what? A whole lot of what he posts really is fascinating!

For example, did you know that Hanukkah and Thanksgiving fall on the same day this year? And that that won't happen again for 70,000 years. Who knew! Buzzfeed has lots of Thanksgivukkah suggestions.


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Dave doesn't always post links to 'happy' news. I found this article from Vanity Fair to be completely depressing, but you should maybe read it anyway. It's about the way that social media is changing the way girls and boys, young women and young men, couple-up. (I apologize in advance for bumming you out.)


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Surely this can't be true for every young person. I hoped that perhaps this was more of a coastal phenomenon since trends come last to the center of the country; but I had dinner with friends last week and one, who works with kids, says she's seen some of this behavior herself in her clients.

I don't know what can be done to stop this nasty social media/kid mash-up, but I think that anyone raising girls, and boys, should at least be aware of the trend. 
On a related, but happier, note: my DIL, Lorna, posted a link to this (Seeing a Woman: A conversation between a father and son) on facebook. It's a well-written, father-to-son letter explaining why a woman's attire is never an invitation to sex.

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Nate Pyle is the father doing the writing. He is the lead pastor at Christ’s Community Church in Fishers, Indiana. I gotta say, I tend not read blogs written by pastors but I think I'm going to have to read his. In fact, I've added a link to his blog, From One Degree to Another, to my favorite blog list at right. 

 

 

One last thing about the fabric stacks…

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When you look at all the fabric from my recent shopping trip together…

WhatIBought copy

…did you see a Christmas quilt? It's there:


Reds-Greens copy

And it's even better with the aquas added to the mix.


Reds-Blues-Greens copy

I didn't photograph these with the dotted mushroom fabric, but it would fit right in.

You might wonder if I 'saw' a Christmas quilt as I was buying these fabrics. No, I did not. It's more that the fabric I bought is a tiny representation of what is mostly in my stash. By combining these in different ways, I could build a huge variety of quilts. Of course, I would want to add to these because more is better :-).