Blueberry Buckle

Happy New Quilting Year!

I'm so thankful to leave behind the craziness of the past two years, and look forward to what God has in store for 2012. Our insane, delayed and complicated move (from our house in one state, our rental in another, and all our "stuff" in a storage unit, haha) is over and Eric and I are under one roof. We're making our new house into a home we hope to enjoy for years to come. Josh and Drew (now ages 15 and 16) have settled in and Julia is home from college, preparing for her wedding in April. The older kids are settled into their lives, and we look forward to many visits.

The studio is still a work in progress (a victim of the move), but every day brings it a step closer to completion. I find myself wanting to return to creating the things I love most, and I'm content to begin the new year with a hand-applique project.

Orange Peel Quilt from Remembering Adelia by Kathleen Tracy. Freezer paper applique (a la Alex Anderson) using my favorite straw needles and YLI silk thread. The straw needles are amazingly thin and the perfect length for stitching. Three neutral colors of the thread are all you need to blend with any colors of fabric you may be stitching. There are 64 blocks in this quilt, and I'm s-l-o-w at applique, but it's a great, relaxing, television project. I'm enjoying every stitch of this sweet little quilt.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Progress

We were away for Memorial Day weekend, first spending a day in western Maryland where we are getting our old house ready to sell, then traveling with the teens to the Delaware shore for a couple of days' visit to my son Wills. We had a great time playing mini golf, walking to the beach, watching Wills run a 5K, and eating fish and chips here. Really, if you ever get to the Delaware beaches, you've got to eat at Go FIsh. (And if you don't like fish, try the shepherd's pie. My stepson Josh said the it's the best he's tasted. He knows his shepherd's pie.)

I don't want to lose my quilting momentum, so as soon as I shipped out all the weekend fabric orders from the shop and the other shop, I got right back to the postage stamp quilt.

Thank you for the encouragement for this particular quilt design. It's very popular! Tiffany brought up a good point in her comment about strip piecing. While I'm not able to strip piece due to, well, lack of strips, I have been able to chain piece just as she suggested. I stitched each print square to a white square. I decided to work the quilt in four sections, so I started with one-fourth of the print squares. I chain pieced them by running them through the sewing machine one after another

and then I clipped them apart. Chain piecing saves a lot of time and thread!

I pressed the seam of each pair toward the print fabric and laid them out on the dining table to ensure even distribution of each of the prints. I call this technique "planned random".

I then stacked up each "column" of pairs, placed the stacks, in order, onto the lid of a plastic container, and took it over to the sewing table. In the morning, I'll chain piece the rows together. I love progress.

Speaking of progress, we stopped by the new house this morning and it has siding! They also poured concrete for the front stoop and walkway. We're really getting excited about our home!

Progress is good.

Hello, Quilting Mojo. Welcome back!

I love the postage stamp quilts that I've been seeing on flickr and around the web. They are just so simple and pretty. I'm especially fond of the quilts that alternate white squares with the printed fabrics, and this quilt by oh fransson really inspired me.

I had these in the stash:

Black and white charm packs. (Photo taken last night in poor lighting.)

I promptly cut them into fourths, and attacked 4 yards of White Kona Cotton with the rotary cutter as well.

This is probably the hard way to make a postage stamp quilt, starting with all these little squares and not strip piecing, but you have to work with what you've got, right?

Oh! I thought I'd show you how far our house has come along since the hole was dug for the foundation. This was taken not too long ago.

I can't wait to move. Living in a temporary space has been very unsettling. Last week I wanted to bake a cake and, well, the tube pan was at our house, two hours away. Things like that happen with the sewing and knitting, too, so I'll be very happy when everything is conveniently located under one roof!

Hole in the Ground

Eric's job is transfering him to Dover AFB in Delaware, so we decided to have a new home built by our favorite builder, RC Peoples. We are truly impressed by the quality of their work, and I had a great experience with them when they built my house in Bear, Delaware back in 2004.

Last Friday they started digging, and on Monday morning, it looked like this:

 
Over on the right? In the hole in the ground? That's the new studio. I'll have a nice floor put in.

I spent much of the day today cleaning up some details for the new shop, like making a new set of those little labels with all the color names and the name of the new website. That took hours and hours. Whew! Let me tell you, based in that chore alone, SimplySolidFabric.com is permanent and forever. I'm also trying to figure out how to set up shipping for those Kona Cotton fat quarter bundles so I can get them listed. Yep, still working my way up the learning curve of the new website.

I'm also working on a little project that involves linen, pretty cotton prints, and this tutorial. I'll show you tomorrow!

Home

Sitting down to write a blog post about a sewing project, because I thought it would be nice to have some sewing-related content for a change, I logged in to typepad and saw that I hadn't blogged since last week. Oops.

After my last post, I successfully retrieved my youngest son, Drew, from the airport. He returned last Friday morning, in the wee hours, from a trip to Asia with his grandmother. It was a pretty good deal: three weeks excused from school (he does have to pass his exams and write a paper), a few days in China, a stop in Russia, a cruise ship to Japan, and then visits to several cities in Japan and an extended stay there.

His plane landed in Baltimore just a couple of hours before the earthquake.

Our television has been mostly tuned to CNN since we woke up after a short sleep on Friday morning. My husband's family members in the Tokyo area are all accounted for and well. Inconvenienced to be sure, but unharmed.

We're praying for everyone in Japan: the family members of those who have perished; the survivors who are suffering hardships of makeshift shelters, food shortages and cold; the rescue personnel, emergency relief organizations and government officials who have a huge task ahead; and the power plant engineers and workers who need time and resources to prevent further tragedy. Our hearts go out to those whose lives are changed forever, and especially to those who have lost their families and communities.

Thank you!

Wow! Thank you so much for the wonderful comments about my shop! It is so good to hear from you and to know that my little shop is important to you. Thank you also for the wonderful suggestions you submitted via email. I've got some great new ideas now to implement for you. =)

We've been very busy here the past few days, primarily getting my son Drew off to Asia where he's going on a cruise/tour with his grandmother for almost three weeks. They are currently on a 14-hour flight from Chicago to Seoul, South Korea.

Drew had some social obligations to fill over the weekend (I drove) and then we had to go shopping for things he needed for the trip. Yesterday was a holiday here, so Drew was off school, which made it a great opportunity for us to spend some time together before his departure.

Then we had a little adventure.

He needed to be at the airport near Baltimore at 7:00 this morning. Well, I checked the weather yesterday morning and learned that we had 1-2" of snow predicted. Not a problem. We'd just leave for the airport a little early, like at 5:30 am.

By yesterday afternoon, though, the sky looked pretty ominous and the weather forecast was not so travel friendly. 2-4" of snow, ending right about the time we'd have to start driving.

For those of you who live in areas that receive a lot of snow, 2-4" is nothing, right? I grew up in New England and I remember waiting for the school bus in worse storms than that. (We just had to be sure to jump up onto the snowbank when the bus came down the hill because we knew it would slide right through the icy intersection. Back in those days we were smart enough not to get hit. Anyhoo.)

But this is Delaware we're talking about, and Maryland, and you have to know that more than 2" of snow is downright crippling. I mean, the news says 2-4" overnight and the kids *know* they won't have school the next day. And the stores immediately run out of essentials like milk, eggs, and bread (apparently everyone eats French Toast on snow days) and toilet paper. Hmmm.

Drew's grandmother called and invited him to stay over at a hotel near the airport. By that time, it was sleeting out, and dark, so we decided to wait it out until morning.

Then we heard this:

 
The black line indicates our travel route from Delaware to the airport.

Not looking good.

So we decided to drive before it got really bad, loaded up the car, and began our adventure.

The one-hour trip to the airport took three hours. For much of the drive, visibility was seriously inhibited by snow, it was impossible to see the lines on the highway (but we could tell we were on the road because of the guard rails, haha), and while we started our trip at 40 mph (vs. the customary 65 mph), we crawled the last few miles at about 10 mph. The really scary part was the 30 minutes we didn't see another car on the snow-covered highway and I wondered if somehow I was some insane person to be driving in a crazy blizzard.

But we made it safely to the hotel where we got to sleep for a few blissful hours.

 
Drew was too busy sending text messages to his friends at 6:00 am on a snow day (evil boy he is) to pose for a picture.

 
And before I knew it, he was on his way.

I sure hope he brings back some nice fabric from Japan. Oh, and that he has a good, safe trip. ;)

Single Girl Auditions

One quilt pattern that caught my eye earlier this year is Single Girl by Denyse Schmidt. I love that she's designed a funky, modern quilt that's a new take on a very formal, traditional design. That I kept going back to look at the pattern as well as all the Single Girl quilt photos on flickr meant that I was destined to make a Single Girl quilt, too.

For myself. Not a single girl, mind you. I'm very happily married to Eric, thank you very much, and I want this quilt for myself, haha. I saw the Free to Grow organic cotton prints by Nancy Mims for Robert Kaufman and knew they were the right fabrics for me. Girly but not froo-froo. =)

 

But what to use for the background? Initially, I thought Kona Cotton...in Ash or Coal or Snow.

 Ash

 Coal

 Snow


Really, any of these would work with Free to Grow.

BUT...

I just received the first shipment of Quilter's Linen by Robert Kaufman for the shop, and I lurve it so much that it's going in this special quilt. Quilter's Linen, which is actually 100% cotton, is cleverly printed to look like linen...subtle variations of shade that give the fabric a the look of texture and dimension. It looks so cozy and natural, and it's very soft and the colors are fabulous!

Let the auditions begin!

 Blue. Love this! Just not "me".

 Charcoal. Love this, too! But too dark for me.

 Cocoa. A contender. I love brown.

 Leaf. A very pretty color, but not right for this project.

 Taupe. Another shade of light brown would work better.

 Teal. Zing! This is it! The photo just doesn't do it justice, but I think I'm going with the Teal. It's actually more of a dark royal than teal, IMO. And it works. Lots of contrast so the prints stand out, and a color I can live with (a lot of). If I feel about it the same way when I pick up this project again, I'll go with it, haha.

In the meantime, I've got a craft show in less than 3 weeks and I've decided to focus on gifts for under $25. I'm searching the web for ideas and inspiration. They need to be things I can stitch up in quantity, using fabrics and supplies I have on hand, and do not involve zippers. Ahem.

Can you believe it's November, already? Seriously, though, this year is flying by.

Happy quilting!

Sue

 

Truckers, Quilting. Yep.

My husband thinks it's hilarious that my favorite tv show is Ice Road Truckers. Yes, you read that correctly.

Now, I am married to a soft-spoken chemist, I drive a small SUV that I take to someone else to change its oil, in my spare time I quilt and knit and bake, and I have raised quite a nice bunch of kids. I do not work on cars, drive excessively, or attend NASCAR races. The largest thing I've ever driven is a suburban...once. But on Sunday night at 9pm, you will find me (knitting ready) in front of the tube, glued to IRT.

(Don't even ask about this week's episode, though. It was the 4th, we went to fireworks, and I missed it. And my husband is aware of how hard that was for me.)

So, tonight I was perusing Ravelry and found a link to this article about truckers who quilt and knit. Even if you're not a fan of Ice Road Truckers, you'll get a kick out of it.

There will be quilting content tomorrow. I spent the day in the studio packing and shipping orders and cleaning and tuning up my Tin Lizzie. She's purring and stitching perfectly, and I have a stack of tops ready to quilt!

Keep On Quiltin'!

Sue

It's All About the Blueberries

It has been stinky hot here, and in the mid-atlantic region, that includes h u m i d i t y in a big way. We had 19 days of temps in the 90's in June (a record) with dripping heavy humidity, so thick it was hard to breathe.

Rant over. I really dislike humidity.

So last night, when the temp went down and the air felt drier, I opened up the windows to air out the house and decided that Drew and I would spend today away from the house, out of the air conditioning (for which I am forever thankful) and into the world.

After some deliberation, we decided to head north-east to Lancaster County, PA to visit our favorite bulk food store and, well, you know they have quilt shops in that area, which is a nice little bonus, don't you think?

We drove to Intercourse, PA, which is a small village known for its quilt shops and buggy rides. First stop was Kitchen Kettle Village, absolutely the most tourist-trappy place around. It's a collection of little shops that is always crowded in the summertime, the parking lot full of tour buses and cars. Being a Wednesday, though, it wasn't too bad.

 
And the weather was totally perfect for walking around.

I love the mural painted on the side of the Quilt Shop building. Oh! I didn't even notice the smaller mural up on the second floor until I looked at these photos! Aren't they nice? I am such a tourist.

 
Drew and I stopped for lunch at the Kettle Cafe, a little cafeteria-style place with delicious sandwiches, our favorite. (The pie always looks really good, too, but we've never tried it.)

One nice thing about Kitchen Kettle Village is that it is right next to Zook's, a fantastic fabric shop. Ahem. Yes, I bought fabric. No, I don't have enough. Truth is, I love the fabric in my etsy shop, but I love other fabric, too, and because I can't have everything in my shop, I should do some personal stash enhancement. Periodically. Right?

It's good therapy. I give you Exhibit A:

 
So pretty, so feminine, 20 prints by Tanya Whelan, Grand Revival for Free Spirit. I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but it has made me realize that our house is totally manly and a girly quilt would look very, very out of place here. Maybe I could put the two youngest boys together (well, they're the same age) in one room and make the other into a girly guest room? Would that be just a wee bit selfish?

Ah, but the true reason for the trip was not fabric, or the touristy thing, but blueberries. Lots of blueberries.

 

40 pounds of fresh blueberries. Yep. 40 pounds. (It was really worth the trip...the gas was nothing compared to what I saved on the berries, hehe.)

I plan to freeze 30 pounds, because that's what I need to get us through the year without rationing too much, but I haven't a clue as to what to do with the other 10 pounds. I've never canned, and don't know how. Any ideas?

Happy summer everyone!

Sue
 

Happy Birthday, Linda!

Between looking over wish lists of fabric and cutting and folding and packing orders for the sale, I spent some time with my wonderful bestest friend Linda this afternoon. It's her birthday...yep, we both celebrate this week...and our ages are decreasing...right, Linda?

Anyhoo, Linda lives in Pennsylvania (she has Amish neighbors...love that!), and I live in Maryland (we both used to live in yet ANOTHER state), so Linda chose for us to meet at The Mannings spinning and weaving school in East Berlin, PA. Linda is an AMAZING spinner (seriously, her yarn is beautiful!), not to mention she weaves and knits and about a million other things, but, I digress. I was running a wee bit late (that's another long story) and found Linda supervising her 11yo daughter Maxi, who was trying out one of the new spinning wheels. Maxi also knits and about a thousand other things (she's still young) and someday she will be smarter and better than her mom and I put together...

The Mannings is an awesome place and has everything a knitter, spinner or weaver could want. Abundant, gorgeous fiber, a huge selection of the best needles, wheels and looms available today, and classes, dozens of classes. We were there for a couple of hours and could have stayed longer. If you'll be in the area, it's definitely worth a field trip! Just look for the barn.

The most amazing part of the day is that Linda and I DID NOT purchase any yarn. If you know us well, you may now slowly pick yourselves off of the floor...it's true. We DID buy patterns though (because we need to use up the yarn we already have and a couple of new patterns might help make a dent in our stashes..we'll see, lol. I hope our husbands fully appreciate our restraint!

I CAN'T believe I didn't buy any yarn. If Erin wasn't on vacation in Alaska, she'd be on her way over here to check my pulse.

Happy knitting, quilting, spinning, weaving, or whatever-it-is you do!

Sue