Quilt 'Til You Wilt

I just discovered a new Quilt Shop, an out of the way little place called Quilt 'Til You Wilt.  Wonderful place, if you're ever in the area you should certainly stop buy.  Not a plug just a true thrilled customer.

Today I only bought three little things, which all fit into one small bag, but good things come in small packages.  Like how about this panel by Elizabeth's Studios?  I'm going to start with a border of pink and then see how it grows and how well my stash can nurture it along.  Should be fun to watch it grow.  Yes, I said pink now no arguing you can help me decide the borders after I add the pink.

All around the store they have these little baskets.  Each basket has different goodies - all with amazing deals.  Would you believe I only paid $3.10 total for both of those spools of thread?  Figured this was a good a time as any to try out a couple of new threads.

Now I know, if I keep going you'll be aching to visit and most of you can't so I'll stop with "Do you know everything you ever wanted in a quilt store?  But have never found one that quite suits you?  This is that one".

 Sorry they are a brick and mortar store only.

No more bad Taste

The other day when I was squaring up the center of the Dresden Plate Quilt, I found myself with a bad taste in my mouth.  You know that semi distaste you get when you've been thinking about something to long?  Be it a remodel that isn't finished yet, a project you've been dreading, or in this case a quilt.

So I Hmmped and Errggged about it to myself for a while before coming to a simple and foregone conclusion.  You see I'd already made the borders for this quilt, so even though the bad taste was telling me all was lost I took the plunge and added the borders I'd made.  A funny thing happened while I was sewing on the borders.  First the folded border went on and even as it did I could see the blue in the Dresden Plates being pulled out and brought full circle (or square in this quilt's case).  That bad taste?  Well it started to fade.  The more I stitched the more I felt again in harmony with my Dresden Plate Quilt.

When both borders were on I started to iron down the border seams and that's when it hit me.  By adding the blue borders it forced the background fabrics back into the background where they belong and brought those blue plates forward.  As I took the pictures of the quilt, with Tiny's help of course, the quilt began to feel more and more a facet of myself.  No longer the bold background of "what was I thinking" but more the gentle hum that I knew I could do it.

Always my gentle quilt helper, Tiny was on the scene for pictures before I even had the quilt fully unfolded.  First she went under it, but not being in the mood to play hide and seek she slipped down one side while I straightened the other.  By the time I was refolding the quilt she was back.  After all these new things smell like time and love and really should have more cat smell to them.

Right now the without getting out the tape measure I can say the quilt is right about 87"x89", and I wonder...  Perhaps it's time to call the top finished?

By chance do you have a project like this?  The lack of an iron kept me from this one, how about you?  I say let's throw away the bad taste and go with our gut.  At the very least I can guarantee the cat will like  it.

Raising the Artistic Child

It's times like these I think my blog should say something like this post's title "Raising The Artistic Child".  Or how to go crazy in five easy steps.

On my good days this spring I've been going around the house and opening curtains and windows each morning.  For the most part this applies to DD's room, and let's just say sometimes it's better if I don't go in there...  So this morning, I make her bed and putter around a bit when I find this:

Each time I think maybe I'm done dealing with art everywhere all over my house.  Something else happens.  I recall being a youngster and I did some mild things like this, and then the day came, when I was five, that I took nail polish (the peal off kind" and painted it all over my room.  I thought it was beautiful, though I was disappointed that it didn't work like real paint to give me more than a touch of coverage.  When my mother saw she made me clean it all up all by my self.  There was one spot on my dresser that I was never able to fully get off and it stayed there all through my middle school and high school years until after I moved out and mother refinished the dresser.

Never again did I color on walls.  Never again did I put my art to anything other than paper.  Until I was older and added a touch to a mirror and then later glass...  That was the end of my "little kid" art.  When I was a little bit older I wanted desperately to grow up and be an artist, but of course that idea was squashed flatter that a dollar bill because artist doesn't make money and thereby can't self support.  I was in 1st grade when that happened.

Did you happen to notice what that artwork on that door said? Take a Closer look right here.  Yep.  Guess I'm going to let that one be.

Patisserie; My Tennessee Waltz Finished!

Finished, Huzzah, Done.  Down your glasses and throw them into the fireplace, this quilt is done!  This twin sized quilt all started from that one pretty white print and everything followed from there.  This quilt is so bright I went with a light weight batting so that my daughter can have it on her bed whenever it pleases her.  Judging from the smile on her face, that took several pictures to capture, I think it will be seeing a lot of use.  It is a Twin long, in case she still loves in enough in her college days to take it with her.  But you don't get to see that picture because silly me deleted the pictures before checking to make certain they'd downloaded properly and all these were taken after she'd gone to bed.

My spouse made the templates for this fight star and I think I'd be happy to make it again.  Especially as my templates are acrylic, so I've put them away with my others if the mood ever strikes me.  As you can see this pairs amazingly well with the snowball blocks.

So what do you do when the threads are stuffed into the quilt and everything is done?  Well as this is that yuckie fusible batting I'll be washing it and then putting it on the bed of course.

While taking the retakes I kept hearing this noise on and on it went.  I was watching a male cardinal so I wondered if perhaps he was just telling me how his day was worse than me accidentally deleting a couple of pictures when all the sudden a blur of brown flew right at him.  Nothing like a little one to turn the moment around.  In a flash the baby flew to the nearby palm tree and DH snapped their picture.  What a cute family.

Sometimes when I post my completed quilts you ask me where is Tiny?  Well she's right here.  Even though she'd already been through this once about 45 minutes earlier she was more than willing to re-smell the same spot as before.  I thought it was funny because she looked at it like "Why does this smell like me?"  Maybe because you spent a month napping on it?  Now what would be a blog post with Tiny in it without at least saying something about Sunny.  Well earlier today he remembered that he likes to sleep on the back of my chair sometimes.  So he got up there looked around like "now what" as the chair was steadily rocking.  Sure looks like he figured it out.  Or perhaps since this is Sunny we're talking about, maybe he just got to tired to think about it anymore and sat down like Winnie the Pooh.

But it's a Cactus!

Yesterday afternoon the deal of a lifetime fell into our laps and we just couldn't pass it up.  A Inspira Home Quilting Frame, with a Stitch Length Regulator thrown in (yes you read that correctly).  My husband went, looked, and it and handed over the money.  When he arrived home I was stunned.

I've wanted a machine quilting frame for as long as I've known they existed.  But it was in this nebulous someday way.  As DH was bringing the parts into the living room, I was stunned beyond words.

I felt like the woman who really wants one of those smart yards.  They use very little water, they are great for the environment, they are easy to maintain, they win awards, the neighbors rave about them, and she really wanted one.  And then her husband starts ripping up the grass and everything starts sinking in as the plants start arriving.  "But they're cacti!" She protests.  Yep, it's a big giant cactus.

Let me tell you about the Inspira frame.  It's set up at 5' right now.  I never really thought about that in terms of three dimensional space.  But trust me that's big.  What about when I want it set up at 10'?  Then it will be even bigger.  It's made of aluminum.  That made me think of the old windows we took out last summer.    But that isn't right at all.  This frame makes the windows look like paper.  The aluminum is almost 1/4" thick in the tubes, and it's got some weight to it!  It's so heavy I went to help DH by attempting to bring in the shelving brackets - nope.  Maybe you're a Mighty Minnie Mouse, but I'm lucky I can pick up my 40 pound daughter when something happens to her.

So what does this mean?  I don't really know, you tell me!  LOL.  I sent off an email to the manufacturers of the stitch regulator, so we'll see what machines I can shop for.  Rumor has it there is an adapter that can be used, but I haven't discovered anything about that yet.

I'm thinking now would be the time to get one of those learn to quilt panels, Skill Builder Practice Panels - I think they're called.  You know I've ALWAYS wanted to make a whole cloth quilt...  Is that bad?  Should I not use those preprinted patterns?  And I know, something has to be done about the sewing machine first...

Anyone with any suggestions?  I'm all ears!  Oh yes and do you recall the open space in the living room and kitchen vacated when my sewing area moved to it's own room?  In a word "Gone!"