New York Beauties Part 1

So if you've read last week's post, I talked about becoming proficient in the making of the quilt block called New York Beauty.  That's my February OMG.

Last Sunday (yes, I went to a quilt shop on Valentine's Day!  What a nice gift to me!!) my friend Suzi and I trundled off in the threatening weather of an impending snowfall to one of our LQS's to attend a New York Beauty class.

This is the book the teacher had us buy for the class.

 

Hubster always seems surprised that I still sign up for classes.  He says "I thought you knew everything"... well, not that "know it all" kind of knowing everything, just a certain skill level.  Maybe.  LOL!

Anyway, I said I like taking quilt classes because you never know when you're going to learn a new shortcut or pick up a tip.  Unless the teacher is a member of the quilt police -- and if he/she is, then I just do my best to ignore that facet of things and try to remember not to sign up for anything ELSE the QP is teaching.

We had our supplies prepared, and were happy to get started.  I had purchased some non-paper foundation stuff that was suggested on the class list.  I made copies putting two arcs on each sheet, so if I get the hang of this I can go to town.

We roughly cut out our arcs and got down to business.  I decided to use batik fabrics, since I have a bunch of those and I love the concentrated colors.  I had thought I was going to make all my 'spires', as the pointy parts are called, in black with a white background.  But when I realized that my black fabric had a somewhat large print, and these pieces end up being quite small, I changed my plan.  Now my background pieces are going to be black, the larger triangles will be light almost white, and the spires will be various colors.  The pieces are still ending up small so a lot of the overall pattern is lost, but I like it better than I did the black spires.

I started with a nice bright green batik.

Let's see if I have this in the right order. First you place the fabrics right sides together, and line them up 1/4 inch past the stitching line of the paper arc.  The fabric is on the 'wrong' side of the fabric, so you can see where you're sewing.  You sew on the line.

Stitching from the 'point' end, up to the corner on the first two pieces to be applied.

See the thread hanging from where I started?  My seam slants to the upper right.

 

Then you pray that when you open up what you've just sewn, you have covered the entire area you intended to cover with each piece.  If you did a good job, you finger-press or iron, or use your Little Wooden Iron like I did.

 

Once everything is nice and flat, you fold back on the NEXT stitching line.  I used a folded sheet of instructions for a ruler I had in my sewing box to hold everything snug.

You have a big piece sticking out that has to be cut off.  Don't cut off yet!  You do not want to cut on the stitching line.  Ask us how we know that...

Lucky me, I had watched an episode of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting last week.  Mary Fons was paper piecing and she was using the Add A Quarter ruler at this point.  I just happened to have one of those.  It might have been on the instructions for the class, but regardless, I had tossed it into the box the day before.

Add a Quarter Ruler and Little Wooden Iron

So you apply the AAQ ruler to the folded arc paper, and THEN you cut off the excess.

Hold everything snug and cut with a rotary cutter.  I have a small mat I put just to the left of my sewing station, and voila!  You have added the seam allowance that you need in order to add the next spire or background piece.

For this pattern, you start with your background color, and add alternating spires and background pieces until there are five spires and six backgrounds.

I did learn from the teacher that the reason it is called New York Beauty is that the arc with its spires mimics the appearance of the Statue of Liberty's crown.  True or not, it made a good story!

Suzi and I each had several arcs made at the end of the class.  Homework is to make as many as are called for in whichever pattern we picked out of the book, and I think we're supposed to cut out all of the pieces that turn the arcs into squares.

These are the colors of my spires, jewel tone batiks.

So far I've done five of each of three colors...

And I have at least seven to go in these colors.

...the scraps I'm saving

The next pieces to cut.

More on this tomorrow -- NYB Part 2.

Sew on...

"OMG"

Since texting has become a big thing, all kinds of 'words' or 'expressions' have appeared in our vocabularies.  For example LOL, nearly everyone knows that means laughing out loud.  Or LMAO -- laughing my a** off, or ROFLMAO -- rolling on the floor, well you get it. 

One of my acquaintances went off last year about people saying "WTF".  They would say the letters, not the words but you know what WTF stands for, right?

So on to OMG.  It can mean oh my God or oh my gosh or oh my goodness, but one a blog I read a lot, I saw that the blogger used it to stand for One Monthly Goal.  I thought that was an awesome idea!

There's an actual OMG organizer, and you can link up and possibly win a prize if you want to participate...you can go here and read about it: OMG

I'm not sure I'll do it, but I love the concept.  It could be that for this month, I have a goal of whatever it is and I have about 30 days to pull it off.  I could do that. 

Or I have a goal to do 12 somethings a year, and if I bite off one each month it's doable.

This month my goal is to learn to make the New York Beauty block.  Well, I know what it looks like, and I've made paper pieced blocks before, and I've even done blocks with the curved pieces of the arc in NYB.  And since I'm a garment sewer too, and have set in the curviest of seams in attaching sleeves to armscyes, I feel fairly confident that I can get it done.

By learning to make NYB I mean I want to get comfortable with the process enough to make MORE THAN ONE block, and finish a project using them.  That's my OMG this month.

Because the more you practice, the better you get.  Doesn't matter what it is, piano, skating, public speaking, or curved seams.

To that end, I signed up for a class at a LQS that will take place over two Sundays in February.

http://quilt-agious.com/classes/

This is the book we're using, mine came in the mail last week.  There's a page you have to either trace or copy onto tracing paper or some sort of background, and you use that to make the "arc" portion, with the points. 

I tried to get the special paper the shop recommended to go through my home printer but that didn't work.  I does accept and print nicely on regular tracing paper, but the paper I bought specifically for this class was softer and you could leave it in without a problem if you so desire, according to the package.

My friend Suzi is also taking the class.  She had the same issue but got her templates printed at an office supply store on her paper and very inexpensively.  If I get a chance to do that I just might.  Note to self:  put BOOK and PAPER in the car in case you drive by the office supply store!

I'm looking forward to making some lovely arches so I can use up some of those batiks brights that are sitting in the bin.  Doesn't that book make YOU want to stretch your skills to do curved piecing?

Sew on...

Lost Weekend, or Down the Rabbit Hole Again

Remember that old movie with Ray Miland, The Lost Weekend?  Maybe some of the younger folks don't.  It was made in 1945 so it was an oldie but a goodie when I was young too... but I watched many, many old movies while I was babysitting and waiting for people to come home after bar close back when I was in high school.

Oh yeah, back when people hired babysitters and I made 50 cents an hour doing it!  Huh, that was so long ago I'm lucky I remember that.

There, did you see that journey down the rabbit hole?  I keep doing that...

Just like Googling things -- you start with one thing and if you're lucky, eventually you find what you wanted an hour ago when you started.

What is rabbit hole? - Definition from WhatIs.com

whatis.techtarget.com › ... › Consumer Technology › Personal computing

In a fall down the rabbit hole, an individual sets off on the path with a goal, gets

sidetracked by various events and changes direction several times along the way ...

 

Remember Alice in Wonderland?  The trouble that girl got into because she wanted to know what

the heck the rabbit was doing??

 

Sometimes I feel like Alice.

 

This weekend the intent was to spend some time in the sewing room doing some kit cutting for the

church group that meets in two weeks.

 

I didn't bring any fabric home from our cabinet, but that's OK because I could cut kits from my own

stash for the balance of the decade and not run out, and probably not miss any of it.  :-(

 

So I went down on Saturday around noon.  Then after a text conversation with Miss E, I got sidetracked

by a trip to the office supply store for school supplies that I didn't have in my resource center.  Followed

closely by a trip to Michaels and Target and Wal-Mart.  (Disclaimer:  I do not shop at Wal-Mart.  I hate

their 800 pound gorilla marketing practices and the cheap crap you can get there.   But I will wait in the

car while Miss E goes in for Free-dent Gum that doesn't ruin her dental appliances.)

 

 

That pretty much used up my afternoon.  I finished up the day with dinner and a good book.

 

Sunday after church I went down again.  THIS time I pulled various fabrics and made up some groupings

with a plan to cut out some Yellow Brick Road kits and some Tam's Patch kits.

 

Tam's Patch block

Yellow Brick Road Pattern

 

We purchased the Yellow Brick Road pattern because it uses up fat quarters, and I have or can cut a

LOT of fat quarters from both my stash and the church's.

 

After lots of sorting, I was ready to start cutting so I looked for my binder of church quilt patterns.  We

all have copies of the same patterns so I don't have to include the pattern with the kit.  You pick up the kit,

go home and pull the corresponding pattern from your book and you're off.

 

This is kind of how it went:

 

11:00 a.m. Where is that binder?  It's white.  Oh good, so are the other two dozen binders I have.  Well, it has
"Church Quilt Patterns" on the spine.  Doesn't it??  Not on the shelves behind the sewing machine.  
I'll look on the shelf behind the ironing board.  Oh, I should iron these blouses and put them in my
closet.  Ugh, two flights up again!

 

11:30 a.m. What was I looking for?  Oh yeah, quilt pattern binder...two flights down.   OMG -- what
the heck did I do with it?  I made a table of contents for it and everything!  Hey, here's a bin of
Christmas fabric, I should look at that.  I love Christmas fabric.  I should condense these bins.

 

 

 

 

12:00 noon There's that solid gray I was looking for!  What's it doing in this bin?   This would make
a nice addition to my fat quarter pile for YBR with that print with the gray background.  I'll start a
new pile.

 

12:15 p.m. I need to go to the bathroom.  I'll get some more iced tea while I'm up there.  Hey honey,

how is the pot roast coming along?  I'll add a little water to the pan before I go back down.  What's
on TV?  Nothing, oh, here's a cooking show I saw, you'll like this one, it's only a half hour long.

 

1:00 p.m. Back downstairs.  I think I need to clear a path.  I'll just move this bin of doll clothes
into the back room... I need to take this bin of yarn upstairs to the spare bedroom.   Upstairs again.
OOOO, I should pull this pink yarn and cast on one of those baby sweaters with the hood. 
What's in this bag?  More of that sparkly holiday Red Heart, I'll just put all those skeins in one place...

 

1:45 Quilt pattern binder!  I'd better get back downstairs and find it.  I'll take these quilt mags

down with me.  OUCH!  I stubbed my toe on the small file cabinet in the corner as I walked back into

the basement.  I wonder what's in there again, there used to be some graph paper in the bottom drawer. 
Miss E was looking for that yesterday, I can get rid of something if she'll take it.

 

The drawer is sticking a little.  I'll give it one good pull -- Hey!  Quilt pattern binder!!  There it is,

way in the back. Success!

 

Now where's that rotary cutter again??

 

I DID get some kits cut...  so the ladies will have something to sew going forward, as soon as I

take the bag of kits to church.

 

Sew on...

 

 

 

 

Oh Scraps! And Other Messes...

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to get back into my sewing room and get some things done and organized and cleaned up.

Key word:  Trying.

Danged if every time I go down there I don't go into some rabbit hole or other.  Like playing with my paper stash, or pulling out all my magazines from a box and spending all afternoon doing that instead.

I need some motivation.

And I need some pictures to post to make this blog interesting. 

In January, my buddy Suzi and I managed a mini-shop hop.  We went to one local quilt shop and signed up for a class.  OF COURSE we bought some stuff.  Why would we not.  Just for fun we compared totals and ended up spending nearly an identical amount not only at each shop but to each other's totals.  Crazy!  The second shop's totals were within pennies of each other!

I picked up a couple of patterns

And an assortment of fat quarters

 

Then last Saturday Miss A and I were doing some errands, picking up library books, stopping at Michael's for some art supplies, and then we ended up at our local quilt shop.  Again.

Actually this time I was picking up a pattern I ordered, so there WAS a purpose to the trip.

This was their display, I bought JUST the pattern.  I have a scrap stash to work through...

 So I'd better get busy and use up some of that stash I have because it's threatening to take over the house again.

Oh, and we stopped for lunch and a treat.

Sherbet in January, just the thing, right?

Sew on!

January Temperatures and January Projects

It's COLD people!  Today's weather is just more of the same depressing winter stuff we've had for a couple of weeks.  Well, at least the temp today was above zero when I left the house this morning...  I guess we should be glad of that.  And I'm so thankful that we're not having the blizzard conditions that exist in some places.

Our normal high is 30. Today's current temp is 21 with a wind chill that makes it feel like 13. 

I'd be happier if they didn't TELL me the wind chill.

DH takes Miss E to school in his car because she says the bus in the morning is "gross".  Miss A does take the bus.  However, she stands inside until she sees it coming down the cross street to pick up the girl who boards before her, then she runs to the end of the driveway.  And if she missed it, the bus comes back down our short block again in a few minutes.  This is because they have one more pickup around the corner and they return on our street to take the shortest route to school.

I remember a winter where I took a bus to work downtown and stood on a street corner in a blizzard waiting for the "Freeway Flyer".  The FF runs only during rush hours, and only from downtown to designated parking lots called Park and Ride lots.  You leave your car in the designated lot, ride the bus back and forth and enjoy the commute.  In theory.

Actually I liked taking the Flyer.  I read books on the bus.  You weren't supposed to eat on the bus but if you were discrete you could grab a granola bar to tide you over 'til you got to the coffee stand.  I didn't knit on the bus like some other people, but I supposed I could have!  Now I am so far off the route that I'd have to take another bus to get to the place where I'd catch the Flyer, and on the home end, I've got an equal number of miles off the bus as I've have on it.

Knitting on the bus in Israel.  Making an oozy cover??

I'm working on a list of projects this month, a few of them are knit so I could have gotten at least a half hour in each way!  But that's not happening...

Here's my list:

The purple and blue stripes at the bottom of the sweater for Miss A. 

• Rainbow striped cardigan for Miss A.  I have the back done and the fronts nearly so.  Two sleeves and the neck ribbing and it's done.
• Knitted Tea Cozy for a gift.  Made one for myself as a test and it turned out so cute!

Knitted tea cozy.  Keepin' the brew hot!



• The Lily Quilt has to be sandwiched and quilted before the baby goes to college.
• Turning 39 quilt needs borders.  It's hanging on my design wall taking up space until that gets done because if I take it down, that will be the end of it for years!
• Cutting up a kit for a quilt for my son.  I have a pile of fabric staring at me.  Of course I have to sew the thing after that!
• Finish sock number two of the pair I started before Christmas.  I actually cast on the second sock and knit about an inch.

First sock, half finished.  It's all done.  Sorry about the bad lighting.  It's a WILD color combo!

• I need to get the hang of my Sizzix machine so I can replenish my birthday card supply! I'm hopefully getting some help in that effort soon.
• Need to sort and store the finished doll clothes (18" sized) that I didn't sell at craft fairs.  I should really find some outlet for those, but not everything is photographed, so there would be a lot of setup to that.  It's low on the priority list until someone tells me they want something!
• I want to make myself at least two new tops and two pairs of pants because Nancy's Notions Sewing Weekend is coming up and I want to wear something I've made this year.
• Finish the Christmas Quilts from like four years ago.  They just need to be quilted.  (my favorite job -- NOT!)

Fleece robes for the dollies.  I also have PJs and other things in process, and a ton of stuff done.

 OK now that I've made the list public, maybe I can make myself get them done!  Fingers crossed!

Sew and knit on...

New Toys and YouTubing

I love getting packages in the mail... although DH will roll his eyes at that and say "Yeah, WAY too much!" 

This year I was the recipient of several gift certificates of larger denominations, two for Amazon and one for JoAnn's.  I took the opportunity to stock up on books (for the decade or maybe the millennium) and also picked up some craft supplies.

I have always done paper crafts, and have been a good customer to both Stampin Up and the stamp and paper sections at my local big box chains.  By the time Miss E and Miss A were each three years old they were veteran Michaels shoppers.  In fact Miss E had DH convinced she could read at three because she would say "oh, we're at Michaels" as soon as we pulled up to the store!

Because things come from various vendors when purchased at Amazon, I got packages on January 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, etc.  I got buttons and knitting needles of the bamboo variety and a package of thread and sewing machine needles. 

I got books

And a paper cutting machine:

Dang!  I've rotated that picture about six times, it's still sideways!

 

I am not an employee of any of these companies and have not been paid to comment on any of the products.

 

I dutifully read the directions on the cutting machine, and immediately realized that while I would be able to do some things on it (like emboss paper) with what I had, the other operations I wanted to perform required other accessories.  Purchased separately.  Of course.

 

Lucky me, I had money left on the gift cards...

 

I got some generic designs of embossing folders, like wood grain and little hearts, at my local JoAnns.  I found a few cutting blocks on clearance at Michaels.  Then I settled in to watch some YouTube videos from both the Sizzix company and some independent posters.

 

I found that I don't have patience with some of the video personalities.  There is one woman who loves to spend time laughing over the things she says, as in "I'm SO funny, you must be laughing too so I'll give you a few minutes to catch your breath".  And there are some people who don't have a clear idea what they want to say when they start filming so there's a lot of ums and uhs, and others who say things like "ooops, let me try that again" or they just plain leave things out.

 

But after watching about an hour and a half's worth of videos, I think I know what other parts and pieces I need in order to complete my 'kit'. 

 

And thankfully, someone in one of them said "it makes a cracking sound and THAT'S OK"... because that cracking sound made me very, very nervous!  And I learned about shims and what the difference is between those various pads you can buy.  And why I will buy them!

 

Miss A and I did spend some time embossing some card stock on Sunday afternoon.  It was fun, even with our limited number of folders.  Then we spent some more time cutting out some film strip shapes which she promptly took home with her for her own project, leaving me to sweep up all the little bits that came out of the punched out holes.  I can't wait to see what she does with the cutouts.

 

Craft on!

 

 

 

Happy New Year!!



And Christmas just continues on, here in Southeastern Wisconsin we finally got some measureable snow... our first real storm this year was the Monday after Christmas.  Miss A could hardly wait to get out into it... here's the happiest person in Wisconsin on December 27, 2015:

 

 

And here's the reality of Wisconsin on January 7, 2016:

 

 

The snow is already gray in places and black in others!  Ugh!  Winter...

 

Normally when I think of Christmas gifts my mind goes right to kids.  The years before the grands came, the holiday was kind of boring for DH and me.  The challenge was always what kind of gift to give my adult kids or the hubster that would enliven an otherwise quiet celebration. 

 

And gifts from the office?  Ha ha!  Either non-existant, or odd.  One year we did a Secret Santa exchange, and my SS turned out to be the creepy guy who was later discovered to be a stalker to some of the younger ladies -- but that's a whole other story!  And my previous boss used to show up with a box of Frango mints. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I love Frango mints, but seriously?  For a year's worth of awesome service??  And EVERY SINGLE YEAR??  No kidding, I worked for the guy for 17 years and every year it was the SAME THING...  No imagination I guess.  Or maybe he was Ebeneezer's descendent.  :-(

 

This year I got some nice Christmas presents that just keep on giving.  My current boss (or more precisely ONE of my current bosses) gave me a BIG Amazon gift card.  Big enough that there's still some left after several purchases!  Plus he sent me a lovely flower arrangement in Mid-December...

 

I got some books that I've been lusting after -- Sue Grafton's latest, called X, the new Anne Perry William Monk novel, and several used books including the Anne Perry Thomas Pitt book I missed when I read the series out of sequence!

 

I got a kids learn to crochet book because Miss A wants to learn that.  And I picked up books by Sara Paretsky and Reed Farrell Coleman to add to the pile.  But my favorite is the latest Louise Penny Inspector Gamache novel, The Nature of the Beast.

 

Additional finds (not from Amazon) included two Bonnie Hunter books and the compilation of the first ten 100 Blocks magazines, made into one massively heavy volume called, interestingly enough, 1,000 Blocks.  As in quilt blocks.  I had missed a couple of the volumes so I got the whole magilla now:

 

 

Last but not least, I got a GC for Joann's and with free shipping during the new years' sales, I got myself a Sizzix cutter!  I'm still reading up on how to use this and watching copious YouTube videos from the company but it looks like fun.   

 

 



I'll let you know if the fun continues!!

 

Craft on... Read on... and Happy New Year... 

You Can Get Your Heart Broken, or Maybe Bent a Bit

I have posted about my girlfriends many times.  I think I'm a friendly, generous person most of the time.  I try to be a loyal friend, and I value those friends who return the sentiment.  My true friends are my treasures.  YOU know who you are...

Which is why the thing as it transpired hurt.

A while back a former coworker and I discovered mutual interests.  She was a tentative sewist and wanted help.  She asked for help and I said sure.  Why not?  Shared interests create bonds and it seemed natural.

She made jewelry too.  She wanted to sell her handiwork and was not having much luck doing it on consignment.  I was doing craft fairs with my doll clothes.  We decided that we'd go into a couple of craft fairs because we could split the cost and share a booth.

She saw that I was selling things and she was not.  She abandoned her beads and took up doll clothes, except that she wasn't experienced with the actual sewing of the actual doll clothes.  She asked me to help her.  Of course my 'no' is broken...  I helped.  She learned, I was pleased!

We came up with a plan to split the work, and coordinate our items to better market them together. 

She said you make this, I'll make that. I made my 'this', she made 'thises' too.  She didn't stick to the plan.  <sigh>  OK, let's revise the plan - we need to have things that go together.  How can I sell 'thises' without 'thats'?

She said no, no, I get it, I'll stick to the plan.  But she made a whole lot of things we never planned and didn't do the stuff we did.  She barreled ahead and the plan was left in the rear view mirror.

She got pretty aggressive pushing her own stuff and sort of half way discouraging customers from looking at mine.  When I called her on it, she actually suggested that we could go into separate craft fairs.  AND she'd take the one I had originally done so well at.  Then she realized what she'd said and apologized. 

I felt a bit betrayed.  I understand competition, but we were supposed to be partners.  I didn't like how it made me feel, thinking that she was plotting on how to beat me at every turn.  I tried to be big about it.  Mostly I grumbled to my hubby... who was SO sympathetic.  Not!

We did one last craft fair together because we committed to it.  Then I started looking for other avenues to sell my stuff.  She did one of those free list sites.  I went the doll store route.

In the fall I heard from someone that she was continuing the craft fairs alone.   Evidently not selling up to expectations either.

I am not sorry I shared my knowledge because one of my joys is helping people learn to love sewing.  But it doesn't alter the facts and it still hurts a little.  Will I stop helping people? No.  But will I throw myself all in again?  Maybe not so much.

After the doll store fiasco I considered going back to that first craft fair, because there was still time.  But I found out she'd doing that fair, with DOLL CLOTHES.

I saw her recently.  She asked about my sewing and she said "Too bad about the store. I think I'm going to sell out all my doll clothes and go back to what I was originally doing."

Huh. Oh, and you're welcome.

:-(

Keeping Secrets

It's hard to keep secrets from some people, especially this time of year.

As a famous man once was quoted...

and when you live in close proximity to Miss A, there's no chance.  

 

 

Yesterday I finished up the holiday shopping, I think.  Then I schlepped it all upstairs to the bedroom and started the wrapping.

 

 

 

 

And wrapped.

And wrapped.

And... ugh.  I ran out of boxes.  I recycle boxes from one year to the next.  People take their gifts home in large bags and leave the boxes for next year.

Some of my boxes are approaching or have exceeded their expiration dates.

Tape.  Lots of tape.  Lots and LOTS of tape!

Although I'm now down to two opened rolls of wrapping paper, so that's a plus.  I have a bunch with the cellophane wrappers on them, but I'm leaving them for next year.  You have to use the stuff you have open before  you open new stuff, right?

 

So now all I have to do is keep Miss A out of the room with the computer until Thursday...

 

 

 

Keep calm and wrap on...