The Splendid Sampler — An Update

Posted on March 18, 2016 by edges

Since this project goes on for 100 blocks, I thought I would give an update every 10 blocks or so.

For now at least, I am really looking forward to every block, searching for the time to make it before the next block rolls out. (New blocks come out every Sunday and Thursday). Even more than that, I am enjoying seeing all the other work that others are creating, on the Splendid Sampler Facebook page.

Here is a look at my blocks so far. This grouping includes one of the bonus blocks which I did before the group even started.

They include everything from hand embroidery to digitizing and machine embroidery, as well as needle-turned applique and raw edge applique. I have not done any paper piecing, though some of the blocks have made that available. I am holding out for a slightly more complicated block…one that would be more difficult to piece traditionally than to paper piece. Maybe a little flower or something like that. With 90 or so blocks to go, I’m sure something will come along!

Luckily, I’m still finding time to do some of my own work as well, which I will share in an upcoming post. I’m really into neutrals these days, with a pop of color, so I see a theme emerging. A peak at my next project.

Vintage and Ribbons and Lace…Oh My!

Posted on March 13, 2016 by edges

I seem to be the curator of all the textiles in our family (and also the antique photos and other historical family memorabilia. Please don’t ask me why I have Grandpa’s tax files from 1968. I truly don’t know. Furthermore, I don’t know why I keep them.)

This blog is not about my mother-in-law who in her own right was a spectacular quilter and craftsperson/artist. I do have some of her quilts and have already informed my 13-year-old son that if he ever decides to get married, if his bride-to-be does not lovingly cherish family quilts and heirlooms, then she’s simply not the girl for him. No pressure. My first-ever blog post was about my mother-in-law.

The cedar chest in our bedroom holds treasures from the beautiful, meticulous and patient artist-women who came before me — the women who taught me to use my hands to make things.

I literally have hefty-size bags full of handmade doilies, table runners and dresser runners. Grandma was the expert, but my mom made them as well

A friend of mine referred to it as tatting. I don’t think it’s exactly the same, as my family never ever referred to tatting…they worked exclusively with a teensy crochet hook for hours, days, months, years. I believe tatting sometimes requires something called a shuttle. A word of caution: when you google tatting, you can expect to learn about the tattoo process. Oops. Try lace tatting instead.

Anyway, the most impressive piece I own — to me,at least — is the tablecloth handmade by my grandmother.

It fits the standard kitchen table. But that’s not the most endearing part. It comes complete with a few gravy stains I can’t seem to remove. But that’s not my favorite part either. My favorite part is that at one point she apparently ran out of one thread color and finished it in another. Mom told me that Grandma finished the last bit of it in white, which you can clearly see in some of the photos.

I love this.

Upon closer examination, I think she started in white. And then changed her mind about the color, just judging by the way it is assembled. She switched to a taupe — apparently she had a lot more of that thread. Or maybe she really did run out at the very end. If you are a craftsperson, you know this feeling. For heaven’s sake, I’m almost done, who cares, this is fine.

I’m so glad this happened, because I’m not sure I would have believed that a human being actually created this. It is meticulously stitched in some of the tiniest little crochet stitches I have ever seen. And I am trained enough to recognize crochet stitches. Of course, I saw Grandma working on things like this, but when you’re a teen, it hardly makes it onto your radar.

These days, I’m awestruck by its beauty.

My mom made beautiful works of art in yarn. She was a master knitter, at least until she had a stroke 15 years ago. While I love the yarn, I have no space for all that, so my sister will have to pick through it.

I, however, poured over her sewing notions.

In the last few years, she made little homey decorations for the kitchen.

The trim says charming things like “You are the apple of God’s eye,” and “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

I’m not ready to let any of this go. The women who came before us had real lives of creation, sharing, loving and giving. We honor them by appreciating their handiwork. All handmade. All the time.

My Obsession with Trees

Posted on February 3, 2016 by edges

I didn’t realize it until I tried to describe some of my projects to someone, and all the ones that reflected my own art and not just a pattern designed by someone else, usually included trees.

And if not trees, then at least something that grows in the ground. I can’t tell you what it means, except that I have a deep longing to connect to the earth.

I recently pre-ordered a book that has apparently been wildly popular in Europe: “The Hidden Life of Trees — What They Feel, How They Communicate — Discoveries from a Secret World, ” by Peter Wohlleben.

An article from the NYTimes profiles the German forest ranger’s book.

I’ve always known that the natural world — birds, animals, trees, gardens — have more to teach us than we ever give them credit for. In the woods, I learned to listen, and look…much more than I ever do in my daily busy-ness.

Art is a struggle. We are reaching, reaching, always striving to capture the thing beyond ourselves. I do believe that trees (as well as the rest of nature) try to teach us something. When I break through the barrrier and discover the lesson, I will let you know.

Until then, like most of us, I continue to be a student.

Multi-hoop project is quilted, bound and finished.

photosnap-carol

Participating in The Splendid Sampler

Posted on January 27, 2016 by edges

Why am I participating in this project?

Partly, I think, because I like the designers who are contributing, partly because it sounds like a great way to slowly put together a quilt and share ideas with others.

6 1/2 inch blocks sound doable to me. Even 2 a week. But if you were to tell me I need to create 100 blocks and do this sort of “surprise” mystery quilt, I might not have signed on. But 2 blocks a week sounds like a doable discipline. Care to join me?

Here are the details for anyone who wants to participate.

Also, here’s a link to the blog.

The project begins Feb 14, so you have plenty of time to get ready. Although all you really need in order to start is a decent stash of fabric.

I am going back and forth about which color scheme to use.

Black Tie Affair by Basic Grey for Moda

I love the neutrals. They would make an elegant and timeless quilt. But another part of me wants to use more colorful fabric and go with more of a “farmgirl” theme.

Morningside Farm by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufman

Here I would use the scenic fabric as a border with all the other fabric as the piecing in the middle.

What do you think? They are both so different. I will probably wait til the block patterns start coming in to make a decision.

Dust off your sewing machine, and get ready to join in this creative collaboration. The project will have a Facebook page too, The Splendid Sampler, moderated by Pat Sloan.

I’m sure you’ll have access to plenty of online show and tell, so why not be a part of it? All the patterns will be available throughout all of 2016 for free, but then they will be put into a book in 2017.

Even if you never sew a stitch, it’s fun to watch the process. What are you waiting for?

Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

Posted on January 21, 2016 by edges

Quilting is like gambling. No, really. Stay with me on this one.

If you’re a typical quilter, as I am, you purchase fabric…maybe you even attend shop hops. When you’re on vacation, you locate the nearest quilt shop and stop in for ideas and inspiration. And fabric.

But when you lay down your money, you are placing a bet. You’re betting that you’re going to have the time, energy and inspiration — in this lifetime — to use that fabric. And the odds are good. You, like me, have a history of completed projects, gifts you’ve made, accents around the house, finished, quilted, bound…complete.

You play the odds. I do too.

But this week, I had to face the fabric. I found a number of blocks I had started eight years ago (maybe longer). I have all the fabric to make this into a queen size quilt. I caressed the blocks. I lovingly examined the fabric…already cut, by the way, ready for piecing. I inhaled.

I recently took a yoga class for the first time in twelve years. (A lot has changed in my body. For one, it’s not that easy now for me to get up and down off the floor.) But the instructor had a calming voice and at one point she said, “Inhale….exhale…you know CEO’s and other high-powered executives have a hard time with exhale. They can take long deep breaths in, but have the hardest time releasing, letting go, exhaling.”

And I realized something. I’m no high-powered executive, but ALL my focus is always on the inhale. The exhale is something I ignore. The letting go, the release, is not something I ever think about. My focus quickly moves to the next inhale.

So this week, I’m honoring the exhale.

It’s not easy. It is very difficult, EXTREMELY difficult, to admit to myself that I’m never ever going to finish that project I started eight years ago. I gave myself this much wiggle room: I will make the completed blocks into a lovely table runner. Assembled, they will be functional, just not grandiose. I will take it out in the springtime to celebrate their bright colors. But I will let it go at that.

And then I will exhale.

And fold ’em. And let ’em go.

Have Your Sewing Machine Cleaned!

Posted on January 5, 2016 by edges

It’s a little frightening, I know.

As I sit here, there’s a giant hole on my sewing table where my machine should be. However, I finally got it together and decided to do the right thing. Every sewing machine needs to be professionally cleaned and maintained on a regular basis…which means at least once a year.

No matter how good you are at caring for your machine (and I am VERY good at caring for my machine), you still need to get it in front of a professional. You will never be able to get the dust, fiber and general build-up out of the inside of that machine by yourself. Don’t try.

Don’t use canned air. It will only force dust into places it doesn’t belong. When you bring the machine in to your dealer, be sure to include your standard foot and stitch plate, so the tech can check both a straight stitch and a zigzag and usually some decorative stitches.

Bring your foot pedal and cord.

And bring anything else you are having a problem with (buttonhole foot, stitch regulator, walking foot.) No problem with those? Don’t bring them. Your dealer does not want to be responsible for any more loose parts than necessary.

Have you purchased a machine in the last 5 years? They get updated. If you aren’t doing it yourself, make sure the tech updates your machine to the current firmware.

I made the decision to bring it in this week, when my family is back at school and work. I also took the week off…which is a little weird because now I cannot sew. I did it deliberately as a way to force myself to clean out the basement. Like many of you, if the sewing machine is in the house, I will come up with a reason to sew.

(Yes, I know I have another smaller machine and a serger just waiting to be used, but with the main machine at the shop, I am more likely to find something else to do.)

That said, while cleaning out the basement, I came across something I picked up at Quilt Market in October.

threads

It’s an inkjet printable cotton poplin fabric. It also comes in cotton twill. For grins, I tested it out with a couple of my photos.

flowersonfabric1 flowersonfabric2 I’ll admit the quality is better than I expected, and captured quite a bit of detail. The fabric then lifts away from the paper backing and can then be used as any other fabric. The poplin is very thin and I would certainly use a woven fusible interfacing on the back.

But if you are in the market for a memory quilt or just want to document your garden, as I do, this is an excellent alternative to products I’ve seen out there.

Happy 2016, Happy Stitching, Happy Clean Machine, and Happy Emptying-Out-Your Basement!

Ugly or Interesting? Read about it before you decide.

Posted on December 20, 2015 by edges

foodquilt4 I’ve been working on this quilt for my teenage son.

I’m racing against the clock to get it done for Christmas. All I have left is hand sewing the binding and then I’ll need to make a quilt label (Don’t forget the quilt label!!)

It certainly was not my choice of fabric. The pattern however, is the disappearing hourglass that I discovered in one of the recent Block magazines from Missouri Star Quilt Co.

The fabric has been the choice of my son, over the course of, oh, 13 years. If you quilt and have a child, you know what I mean.

For years, basically his whole childhood, I would drag him to quilt shops. He would slouch into a chair in a corner and wait for me to finish. Usually. However, on a number of occasions, he would approach me with a bolt of fabric. Not a lovely bolt of fabric.

It was usually a bolt of french fries, or pizza, or chocolate chip cookies. Was this child always hungry? And because I wanted to encourage him (and also felt a little guilty for dragging him around), I would purchase a half yard here, a half yard there.

Well over the years, we had assembled quite a collection of food fabric.

And this year, because he’s old enough now, not to be shuffled from quilt shop to quilt shop, I made him a quilt of all the fabric he had selected over the years.

Don’t judge me. This is not what he eats every day…but apparently what he thinks about while in quilt shops.

foodquilt1 I guess what I’m enjoying about the quilt is that up close, you can see the details of the food, but you have to step back a bit to notice the quilt pattern.

foodquilt3 foodquilts2 foodquilt6 It was larger than I expected, hanging over the top of a full size bed, so quilting was a bit of a challenge.

border The border is chocolate chips. My son picked out the binding fabric which I thought was quite hideous against the chocolate chips.

So I added a small flat piping to separate the two fabrics…and miraculously, it looks pretty great. I would never have selected any of these fabrics, but the random surprises of letting someone else choose turned out to be the best part.

back Finally, I pieced the backing from other fabrics he had selected along the way: maps, pheasants and computer gear.

Want to know what floats around in your kid’s head? Bring him (or her) to quilt shops and let them wander and select a few things.

You may or may not be surprised. But I guarantee it will be interesting.

The Neopixel Process

Posted on November 29, 2015 by edges

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1_VZdfc3PA[/embedyt]

So, with the vest finally complete, thought I would let you see it in action. I know it’s a little creepy as everything is in shadow so the lights would show. Actually, they show pretty well in daylight too. Those little neopixels are quite bright!

You can see that I used the Adafruit book as a reference during every step.

After I had the lining of the vest created, I used an erasable sewing pencil to trace out the pattern of the pixels, making sure to keep power and ground from crossing.

I numbered the pixels to keep track. The next step was to handle all the wiring.

Problems encountered:

The conductive thread, while it did work, would have lost a lot of power by the time it went through 19 pixels. So we switched to 22 gauge insulated wire for both power and ground.
We use the thread to attach the accelerometer to the Flora and it did hold up, but did not like the silver solder at all.
Working with wire and Neopixels is tiny, tiny work, much tinier than wool embroidery, or even working with embroidery thread. Be prepared with a nice set of wire strippers.

Here is a pic showing power and ground and attached to each pixel with the 22 gauge wire. White was power, black was ground. Each neopixel was at least temporarily held in place.

Next came the one thing I didn’t do. My husband did all the soldering. Silver solder every place the wires touched the pads on the neopixels, the flora and the accelerometer.

Then I brought the whole thing to the sewing machine, and zigzagged down power and ground. I found that I needed to add a cutaway stabilizer behind all the wire and stitching to support the fabric. When I finished all the stitching, I went back and trimmed the stabilizer as much as possible. All of that added a lot of stiffness to the vest, but surprisingly, it still hung pretty well when I added the top layer of fabric.

We repeated the whole process with data in and data out: wire to the neopixels, pin down, solder, stitch.

Finally, I created the top layer and attached it to the lining. It was designed to have serged edges, one of the reasons I chose the pattern. However, I think if I were to make it again (without any wiring,) I’d do a more traditional lining and finishing technique.

I’ll say this much about the project. It’s a big hit at parties.

We worked together on the programming. Actually the Adafruit book is very helpful with that, as everything is done in software and transferred via USB to the Flora. My vest is programmed to do a number of sequences, based on the movement of the accelerometer. As you see in the video above, I just have to shake it, and it changes mode.

Actually, I learned a great deal about simple wiring, I am proud that I could get through something like this, even with expert advice!

My next LED project will likely be a bag that lights up.

For now, I need to get back to some simple quilting. But I have lots of spare parts and I’m excited about the idea of another electronic project!

We’re lit! Neopixil go time!

Posted on November 26, 2015 by edges

This is a shot before I added the outer part of the vest which covers the wires, and before I sewed on the data lines. You can see they are held on by pins. I’ll try to capture a video today to show you how we’ve programmed the lights to change, and I’ll do a follow up blog with the details of how we made decisions and problems we overcame.

But it’s working!! Thankful today for a patient husband, willing to teach me about electronics starting with what is a circuit. I did all the wiring and sewing but I could not have done it without his 35 years of expertise, guidance and humor. (not to mention his tools, like wire strippers, soldering gun, and stash of wire.)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Don’t Cross Power and Ground!

Posted on November 19, 2015 by edges

My husband has said that to me now at least 100 times, even though we are not at the point of adding any electronics to our attempt at a twinkling holiday vest. That said, we have progressed with nary an accusation by either one of us accusing the other of knowing nothing about each other’s field of expertise.

The lining of the vest is ready.

We are getting ready to prep for wires, and so I thought I would share with you some of the baubles we brought in.

This is a packet of 20 neopixels. (A neopixel is a light). They snap apart like plastic toys.

And here is what my husband has been telling me. As you can see, each neopixel has 4 places for wire. Power and ground must be on opposite sides and they must never cross as they travel from one neopixel to the next.

The other holes are for the software to speak to each pixel. Input is info coming in, output is info being passed on to the next neopixel. It’s all fascinating and new to me since I have never had any experience with electronics…not even the slightest bit.

The “flora” is basically the brains of the operation. It also has a neopixel in the center. These things are bright! However, they may lose some brightness as they move farther away from the power source (battery – which has a limited life). This explains why my husband suggested using guage wire (covered in plastic) as power and ground, and conductive thread only as data in and out. Still to be determined there.

My next step is to draw up the layout on the vest with each neopixel in position.

I have requested non-leaded solder which for some reason makes my husband want to cry. Apparently leaded solder melts like butter. Silver solder requires much more heat and is more difficult to maneuver.

I leave you with this thought, today, which came on the packing slip from Adafruit.

Edgestitch

Sewing is life. Life is art.

Category Archives: Creativity