A Quilter's Cookbook

I just went over to the Quilting Gallery.  They are putting together a Quilter's Cookbook full of quilts and recipes just right for the busy distracted person in all of us.  I added my Red a White Chili, a yummy treat that I feel is truly an expression of myself.  It's a great fix it and forget it recipe. Why don't you go other there and join in the fun?

The Great American Teach In

I've been busy planning and working on what I would do at my daughter's school for the Great American Teach In. The Teach In invites family members and adults in the community to come in and share with the class what they do and why school is so important, you're allowed 15-20 minutes depending on the school, and while I thought perhaps my own 15 minutes wouldn't be enough it turned out to be the exactly the right amount of time.

I was certain a quilt with the children's original artwork was the answer. When I was in first grade I wanted to be an artist. I was discouraged by one of my elders because "there's no money in it". But in reality art is everywhere. It's in nearly everything we see and touch. All carefully designed and planned by more different job types than I can think of let alone count. So that's what I wanted to teach to the children in my daughter's VPK class. Art is everywhere and many jobs require you to be creative. So you can grow up to be an artist!

What I found upon arriving at the school was a great class filled with smart amazing children all eager to talk to the adult sitting on the floor with them! It was a very rewarding experience to me, and I'm very glad I took the time to go.

How in the world did I plan to make a quilt from artwork? (See below for what I went through before I came up with this solution). Computers! I scanned all the children's images in to my computer, but instead of printing them out myself I am going to have a custom fabric company print it out on real cotton fabric. Then the final beautiful fabric will arrive to me just like a store bought cheater panel ready to sew on the sashing to quilt it up. Sounds expensive you think, but since I made the entire project fit on a single yard of fabric I only have to buy one yard which will cost me $20 AFTER SHIPPING!

As I was inserting the scanned images the world opened when it dawned on me that it's custom fabric. I don't have to make the sashing one color. I'm unlimited, I can make it however I'd like. So then I started working with swatches and effects for the background.

I researched all the other options that I could think of, printable fabric -expensive at 5 sheets for $10+/- as I needed 20 sheets at least (always take extras just in case), homemade printable fabric sheets - which seemed both labor intensive for finding the ingredients and then for making it, or simply allowing them to color directly onto the fabric. I did the math for fabric crayons $2 for a box of 8 is not bad one box for every two children, that's 9 boxes at $2 = $18 just in crayons... So then I thought well I just use regular crayons, but the wax paper didn't want to stick to the fabric as well as I thought it should, so I went for 40 gsm stabilizer with hairspray. That worked well but when I had my daughter test it out for me I found that anywhere she pressed hard with the crayon (to make the crayon show) the fabric lifted from the stabilizer and any further coloring in that area was very light, combined with the standard non-washable crayons, seemed like a quilt I didn't want to make.

Stay tuned for a review of my custom fabric in the upcoming weeks.

I am a firm believer that all artwork belongs directly to the artist. Be they 2 or 102, so all rights are reserved for the children whose artwork is pictured here in.

The Find

For Halloween my neighbor, who volunteers at hospice, gave Jessica a beautiful Strawberry Shortcake Dress.  It's darling in red and Jessica wore it to school the first day after I washed it.  Everywhere she went people complimented her on her pretty dress.  It's an apron style dress so it will work great with long or short sleeves under it.  Dresses work perfectly for Jessica who is so skinny, so I asked my neighbor if there were any more dresses.  Sure enough there were.  Aren't these beautiful?

I nearly forgot to tell you the about the dresses!  They are handmade never worn dresses.  The story my neighbor told me is that years ago a husband and wife started up a business the wife made all of these children's clothes. When the wife passed away the husband brought in all of the remaining dresses that his wife had made and donated them to hospice.

My personal favorite is the sundress with the pink and yellow 1/2" straps.  It has a pretty little purse attached to the waist with ribbons that hold it to the dress.  The little purse even opens for little treasures (hopefully I'll always find those little treasures before I wash clothes!)  The Cream dress to the left of it has a similar little purse which I'm certain Jessica will love having. 

Stormy Update

Stormy is sporting his third ball of yarn in this photo and has grown to be 36" long.  Shoot I've gone and knitted the length of a child!  Jessica loves to use my knitting needles as wands so one metal needle went missing for a night, I used one of my wooden needles that night instead and those were the hardest rows to put on by far!  But the lost is found and it seems to be going a bit faster now.  (the bamboo needle of the same size has more friction therefore I had trouble with drag).

 I'm personally currently in a rush to make an Advent Calendar for my friend Vicki over at Felines and Fibre Arts.  It's funny you think oh Christmas I have plenty of time.  Not so with an advent calendar.  I figure I need to have it in the mail before U.S. Thanksgiving to ensure it arrives in time.

Mommy?

Mommy, can I check out a Cinderella Book at the Library today?

My brain wheels a bit. Honey of course you can, but you already have two Cinderella Books here at home.

Is this what happens when you have lots and lots of books avail. to your child at home? I don't really know as Jessica has all of my children's books and all of my four siblings children's books (I am the oldest and the youngest is 19 my junior). She also reaps the rewards of a used bookstore going out of business and all children's books that I was buying that day were only 25 cents. Not to mention all of the books she herself has selected and has had purchased just for her. We easily spent 40 minutes reading to her or having her "read" (talk about the pictures) back to us. Often it's more. I timed our book reading over the course of a day over a year ago, just because I was curious.

So today is library day at school, it's the 11th week of "school library day", on three different weeks she selected books we already own. Twice she picked Cinderella (one was paperback and later it was hardcover) and once she picked "I wish I had Duck Feet", which is a great book, a holdover from my childhood days that we hadn't read in a while. Hey at least she knows what she likes!

Reversible Table and Placemats

Here I have my six newly made 4-holiday placemats and table runner. My runner is short and fat to cover the buffet area, so it won’t run far, but it will do a great job over here. Four-holiday what could I possibly be talking about?  It's Reversible!

Firstly you have the fall side. I think it's plenty festive for Halloween or Thanksgiving, and then you have the heart side which I think works not only for Valentine's but for Christmas as well. Keep in mind those crazy hearts (the first crazy quilt items I've ever made) will be covered with your Christmas Dinnerware, or mine as the case may be. I think with some blue napkins you could easily use these for Independence Day as well, though here in Sunny Florida we celebrate outside.

The hearts were made from my scrap bag and contain fabrics from last year's Red Wintergraphix Quilt, as well as Jessica's PJ's and a skirt that my neighbor made. The remaining fabrics were intended to be thrown away as to much fabric had found it's way into my local charity thrift store and they were planning on throwing it out (horror of horrors!) A dear friend rescued it from our local incinerator for me. Since I didn't have any interfacing the appliqué was made with muslin instead. I only used thread that I had on hand, which meant that when I ran out of red with the last placemat all all of the table runner appliqué were sewn on with white. I think it makes an eye pleasing change.

The cornucopia I made a week or two ago and didn't know what to do with it. It's a crayon transfer method and all of those where old junkie crayons, if you decide to do the same thing, don't use washable crayons and be sure to use a paper towel to wipe the crayon tips off first, that takes off any of the color spots and prevents it from getting mixed in to your art.

This is my entry for the Scrap Contest over at Homemade Dress, what did you think? You can still join in the fun the deadline is Lunchtime Nov. 7th (considering time zones I'd go with am if I were you) take a minute to pray for Samatha's family while your over there, her family really needs them.

That's a Quilt!

Well now as much as I want to people would be confused if I said that's a wrap when really it's a quilt. The Feathered Star is officially done. I finished it Friday, but I felt like it needed more quilting so this evening Jessica and I sat down together and added more. I'd say it's done now. The flannel back is really nice; it makes me want to curl up with it, which I did Friday afternoon even in 80 degree weather. It does amaze me how the simply adding quilting takes three pieces that feel nothing like a quilt and viola even as it moves within the sewing machine I can feel the change. For me it's like stitching in magic.

This quilt is two sided, the back being two of the softest flannel I've had the joy of working with.  Oh and if you think those simple four squares are easy take a second look.  Since the seams never match I had to sew a little and stop, line things up and sew some more.  I do like the finished look.  This is the butterfly/easter egg fabric, so tell me which one do you see first?  I saw the butterflies first, but everyone else says the eggs.

These are part of a scrap challenge.  They are going to be reversible 4-holiday placemats.  This side is the Christmas - Valentines side and I have a print checkered fabric that I'll be using for the fall side.  I plan to make 10 but for my entry it will only be six, since the requirement is to only use what you have and I ran out of red thread on number seven haha.  I'll also be making a reversible tablerunner/wallhanging to go along with these.  If you want to participate click on the words "Scrap Challenge" you've got till Nov. 6th.

Last but certainly not least is my Stormy update.  What a growing scarf I have on my hands.  Measuring in at 18" inches and on the second ball of yarn!