Thread experiment

Hello, hello. Sorry I've been away for so long, but I've been extremely busy. I managed to make a couple of baby quilts last week to be auctioned off for a local school fundraiser (wouldn't you know that in my rush to get them finished and delivered, I forgot to take pictures!) and then vend at a local quilt guild show on Saturday. Sunday was spent recovering and rearranging the furniture in our bedroom to make room for a tv cabinet from another part of the house. That meant moving a dresser from our bedroom to a different bedroom and (eek!) purging some of our clothes to adjust to decrease in drawer space. It felt good to purge a little though. I have some jeans that I've "grown out of" that I'm going to give my sister to wear after she has her baby, but before she can fit back into her regular size 2 clothes (I know, it's sickening).

Anyway, I got sidetracked a little there. What I really want to tell you about is my thread experiment. First, our local Wal-mart stopped carrying embroidery floss, so I am now carrying it in the shop. But instead of DMC, I'm carrying a brand called Presencia. I had used some of their 100% cotton sewing thread before and loved it (very smooth and very little lint), but had never tried their embroidery floss. The sales rep told me that the quality of Presencia floss is better than DMC - no bleeding, colorfast, and even bleachfast! So what did I do....I did a little experiment to test their claims! Here's what happened...

I cut a skein of color 1906 (sort of a burgundy-ish red) into 4 sections. The first section was my control, meaning I didn't put it through any test. I put the second section in a bowl of lukewarm water and stirred it around a little. The water didn't change color, so I left it for about 10 minutes or so (keep in mind, my testing wasn't very scientific) and came back. The water was still clear. See?
And here's the third section in a bowl of water with a couple tablespoons of laundry detergent stirred in. Once again, I let it soak for 10 minutes or so (while I caught up on some of my blog reading), and once again, no bleeding.
The fourth section got the bleach test. I added two capfuls of bleach to my bowl of water (which I'm guessing was about 2 cups of water), stirred it around, and added the floss.Again, no bleeding.

Here are all of the sections (in order from top to bottom) after they dried. I kept them on the paper towel that I used to blot them dry so that you could see that they didn't bleed on the paper towel either.

As you can see, the colors stayed pretty much the same. The section that was soaked in bleach water faded a little bit, but not much.

Conclusion: I can wash my redwork quilts (assuming I ever finish one) without worrying about the red thread bleeding or fading too badly. Now, the red fabric may be a different story, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Kids & granddogs

This is what's on my design wall at the moment. I got this new fabric in the shop last week. I really wanted to make the full size quilt from the manufacturer's free project, but I decided that the table runner would get the point across. Now that I have the blocks done though, I'm really thinking this fabric will make the cut into a full size quilt. I love the rich colors. And it just so happens that we have a green couch in a our living room and a couple of pictures on the wall that have this dark red color in them...what a coincidence =)

I switched a couple of fabrics around when I made this, but I'm not going to tell you which ones. It looks just a good this way (and I wasn't about to re-make it), so it's going to stay this way for now. Maybe if I do the full quilt I'll do the "right" way.

My birthday is tomorrow, and I've really been thinking about it a lot. Not that I feel old, certainly not that, but maybe just not young anymore. You know, as in "Wow, I'm definitely not a kid anymore." Also, people are starting to ask about when we're going to have kids - like my biological clock is starting to tick or something. Well, it maybe ticking, but I don't hear it yet. My life is full and happy and just right for now.

After all, we do have a dog, and she's sort of like a kid. Here she is with some of the friends she made when we went to visit my friend, Nicole, and her family.

Our Heidi is the one on the right with her eye half-closed in anticipation of a playful bite from Riley. The cute little stinker in the middle is my friend's son, and the two dogs on the left are Nicole's (yes, there are two dogs there if you look closely). We tease Nicole's mom by calling them her "granddogs." She acts annoyed, but we know she secretly loves it.


And this picture (of a picture) simultaneously makes me want to have five boys and to not have kids at all! These boys are my adorable little nephew and his friends from daycare. They're all too cute, but boy, do they look like trouble or what!

More pink & brown

Well, I got my embroidery finished....
And here is the quilt!
I just meander quilted it - I wanted the fabrics and the embroidery to take center stage. I really like how it turned out. If my sister likes it, she may just get an identical one for her little bundle of joy that's set to arrive in November. (So, Sister, do you like it?) The binding isn't on yet, but given my track record with attaching binding, I figured I'd better go ahead and show this quilt to you without it.

Also, I have a favor to ask of all of you. If you would, please say this prayer for me:

Dear Lord,
Please help Tiffany as she teaches her beginner class tomorrow. Beginners are fun and it's very rewarding to see their progress, but Tiffany may need a little help from You at certain times. Also, please watch over the students to see that they don't damage their fingers with either the rotary cutter or sewing machine. And lastly, please give her husband the wisdom and good sense not to ask her what she is cooking for dinner when the class is over, and instead take her out for a nice dinner.
Amen. :)

Dear Kellogg corporation,

I have a bone to pick with you. I have been eating your cereal, Special K with red berries, for breakfast for the past six weeks or so, and I haven't lost any weight. Not even a little bit. Never mind that I've been eating twice the recommended serving of 8 ounces, because come on, who can face the day with just 8 ounces of cereal and a cup of coffee in their stomach? Oh yeah, and I don't use skim milk, because, well, I don't like it. And I may have cheated a couple of times by having cookies for breakfast instead. But other than that, I made a commitment to your product based on the advertising that said I would lose weight, and you're not holding up your end of the bargain.

I would return the unused portion of the product for a full refund, but I like the way it tastes, and it's got to be healther than the cereal I used to eat. However, I'm still upset about not losing any weight.

Sincerely,

Tiffany

Pink & brown

Remember yesterday how I was dreaming of all the possibilities of embroidery beyond redwork? And how a baby quilt for a friend of mine was on my to-do list? (The friend has since had her baby, and I still haven't finished a quilt.) Well, the light bulb went on yesterday after I posted.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I started a yellow brick road quilt at 4:00 yesterday. The good thing about this quilt is that I had the top done by 7:00. The pattern calls for borders, but I really like the way it looks without them, especially since it's just intended to be a baby quilt. Wondering where the embroidery comes in? In the larger, pink marbled squares, I'm going to embroider the baby's "stats" (for lack of a better word) in brown thread. Ya know, the name, weight, date of birth, etc. I got the idea from a customer's quilt that I quilted, and she said she got the idea from a book but couldn't remember which one. So I can't give proper credit to whoever deserves it, but I think it's a wonderful idea. I haven't started embroidering yet, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Here's a little more pink & brown love from a wedding we attended on Saturday night. I just love the cowboy theme!

I'm off to figure out the best way to mark and embroider on that quilt... wish me luck!

Redwork & cookies

I was bad this weekend. First, I didn't sew any binding down on any of the three quilts that are waiting on me for this final step. Instead, I started on my redwork project. I'm doing nine blocks that all have a mother goose, nursery rhyme theme. This first one is little Miss Muffet. I stitched her first because she looked like she was the least amount of work.

And this one is Old Mother Hubbard. Again, I'm stitching in order of difficulty, so she looked like the least amount of work after Miss Muffet.

I'm using three strands of red (DMC 321) embroidery thread on a bleached muslin background. The white background makes it very hard to get a good picture that isn't too shadowy, especially since today is another cloudy one.

On the bright side, this is the first embroidery I've ever done, and I really like it. On the weekends I like to have handwork (usually binding a quilt or crochet) to do while I sit on the couch and relax. Plus, I love the way redwork looks. My head is spinning now with ideas about how to update the redwork a little...turquoise thread on a brown background, white thread on black, pink or light blue on white for a baby quilt... I'm quickly thinking of more ideas for projects than I'll ever be able to complete.

Sunday I slept in and enjoyed every lazy minute of it. I even stayed in bed for 10 minutes or so after I woke up, just enjoying the feeling of slowly waking up instead of hopping out of bed and scurrying around to get ready for work. Grocery shopping couldn't be put off any longer, so I did that too. For supper, I made "To Die For Crockpot Roast" from the recipe on pg. 21 in the latest issue of the Country Register. Cindy tried it first and highly recommended it. And I second her recommendation. It meets the rule of 5's for recipes: no more than five ingredients or five steps.

And because I was already being bad by doing my redwork instead of quilt binding, I figured I might as well go ahead and crush any hopes of weight loss by making oatmeal cookies.

I love Paula Dean, but I tried her oatmeal cookie recipe a few months ago and just wasn't satisfied. I'm sure it was my failure and not hers. Afterwards, I was told by my mother and a co-worker that the recipe on the lid of the Quaker Oats is the best one, so I used that one this time. As you can see, I had much better results =)

Another one bites the dust

I've got several new things to show you, but I have made a vow to myself not to photo them until they are done, meaning quilted, bound, and labeled. So this is the first one that I've actually accomplished all of that stuff. I'm a little disappointed with the picture. I had totally envisioned this quilt hanging over the wooden privacy fence in my backyard, lit by the late afternoon sun. Alas, we've had cloudy skies for the last couple of days, with no sunshine forecasted for the rest of the weekend.

Here's a detail shot.

When I did my trunk show last night (which went really well, by the way, I didn't swallow my tongue or sprout hives or anything), it hit me that none of my quilts have labels. And I mean none. So one of my goals for, let's say, the end of the year is to get all of my quilts labeled. But since I don't actually like the idea of making a label and applique-ing (sp?) it onto a quilt, I may just sign some of them, like I did here.
I know it's hard to read since the backing is so busy, but I like the concept. I like seeing someone else's handwriting on a quilt, so I'll probably write out my labels even if I do applique a separate label. I think the handwriting makes the quilter seem more real - seeing a signature on old quilts makes it easier for me to imagine the quiltmaker. And it just seems more genuine than some computer-generated thing (not to say I won't do that on a few). Plus, if you sign the quilt back instead of attaching a label, no one can rip it off.

We woke up this morning at our house to discover we had no water. Not a great start to my day. There was some sort of problem on the city's end, and they are supposed to have it fixed by now. We'll see when I get home. There's a thunderstorm rolling in, so I'm going to snuggle up on the couch and sew binding on a quilt tonight. Maybe I'll watch a Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter movie while I sew, especially since our satellite reception will probably be touch and go. And my friend just dropped by some redwork blocks that she marked for me, so maybe I'll start on those when I get bored with binding. This will be my first attempt at embroidery, so wish me luck!

Mission accomplished

My purse is finished! And I love it! I realize it's a little Spring-y for September, but gee, I just don't care. And I think it's going to be just the right size. I haven't put all of my junk in it yet b/c I want to show if off for a little while before I go messing it up. As I may or may not have mentioned before, the fabrics are from the pink version of the Flea Market Fancy line by Denyse Schmidt for Free Spirit Fabrics (I'm working on getting this line on the shop website).

For the pockets, I borrowed a fat quarter from Heather Ross' Lightning Bugs line by Free Spirit. Polka dots - am I predictable or what? Here's a look at the inside of the bag. Four pockets total: one for keys, one for my phone, one for lip gloss, and one extra.

One of the last minute projects that got put together before the quilt show last weekend was this table runner. Pardon the shaky photography. This sucker is 56" long and it's very hard to get the whole thing in the picture! What you're not seeing is me barefoot, perched precariously on the edge of the daybed in the shop leaning over as far as I can to try to get a straight shot down at this thing. And here's a closeup of Prancer (or whoever he is).
I good friend of mine put this together for me, so I owe her one. I still need to quilt it and sew around the applique, but realistically I'll be lucky to get that done before Christmas! The pattern is by Mount Redoubt Designs, and we've got patterns and kits in the shop.

I'm visiting a quilt guild tonight. It's my first ever speaking engagement at a guild, and I'm a little nervous. However, I'm doing a "trunk show", so I should be able to talk about my own quilts without too much trouble. We'll see.

Today's output

This half-finished purse is all I have to show for today's efforts. I'm really excited about getting it finished though, because it's for ME. I've made about a gazillion of these purses (okay, actually probably only 5 or 6), but I've never made one for myself. So I took the opportunity today to start one. I know I was going to work on it this weekend, but it just didn't happen. Candy corn and crochet distracted me. I taught a class today on this bag, and everyone's turned out really cute. I wish I'd thought to take pictures...I never do until they are already gone.

On a happier note, this new fabric called BeBop from P&B came in the other day.
I haven't had the chance to take the plastic off yet, but that's on the list for tomorrow morning. The wheels in my head are already spinning with ideas for this line. Can't wait!

Quilt show

I'm relaxing my little heart out today, because the last few days have been spent in a whirlwind preparing for and vending at the Little Balkans quilt show. It was a very nice show, and everything went off without a hitch (thanks, in part, to a very late night for me on Friday night cutting kits and taking care of last minute details). Here are just a few of the quilts that I thought to snap pictures of:

It was hard to get a good picture of this one, but it is very pretty. Look at all of that detailed applique. Not my typical taste, but I couldn't help admiring it.

This quilt was right across from my booth. It is an antique Sunbonnet Sue. I don't care much for the peach sashing (which was probably a brighter orange when the quilt was made), but I love how the maker arranged the blocks. She did her best to make the quilt somewhat symmetrical so that either way you're looking at it you see a right-side-up Sue. It is also hand appliqued and hand quilted. Very lucky owner to have this in her family.

And I didn't get a chance to look up the details on this one, but I just love it. It looks very old-fashioned, even though it can't be because of the pictures in some of the blocks. It's scrappy and bright, and it just makes me smile.

And just so no one can say I don't support my local quilt guild, here are my purchases from the boutique. I was so excited to see the Christmas yo-yos already strung together in a yo-yo garland. That's something I wanted to do myself, and now I've got a headstart. I also couldn't pass up the little pouch. The fabric looks like the style that was popular when I was a kid - in fact, it may be vintage fabric (if you want to call early 1980s "vintage"). And with football season getting started this month, the purple batik checkbook cover is just the accessory I need to show my K-State pride.

I also made a dash into Wal-mart the other morning for bottled water, shampoo, and coffee creamer, but this ric-rac somehow made it into my cart also. I've never actually used ric-rac, but I'm very excited about the possibilities. Such fun colors!


And my hands gravitated toward this as I passed the Halloween aisles...


I finished several quilts just in time for the show, but I'll save those for another post. Since today is my day off, I think I'll tinker around with this fabric this afternoon. I'm thinking a purse, but we'll see what happens.

Enjoy your Labor Day!