Proof and Chocolate Pudding

There is an old saying; “The proof is in the pudding.”

Frankly, I’ve never been sure what that means.  And pudding has never stayed around my house long enough for me to figure it out – especially if it’s chocolate pudding.  What kind of proof does pudding need?

For the last couple of weeks my blog has been all about finishing projects, working your schedule so you can finish projects, and moving forward.  It’s been very verbal, so this week it has more pictures – the proof that I do take finishing seriously and do actually complete my projects.

The picture below is my Amish with a Twist quilt.  The pattern in by Nancy Rink.  This sucker is huge – somewhere between a queen and king.  Originally I had thought I would quilt it on my Juki 2010Q, but I think this may be long-arm-artist-worthy.

 

This is a close up of the applique.  I machine appliqued the flowers, stems, and leaves.

 

The Quilt History Club I belong to did a Mystery Quilt this year.  I completed my last block on New Year’s Eve and put it together during North Carolina’s Snow Meggadan last weekend.  This is a wall-hanging-sized quilt.  I will quilt this one on my Juki 2010Q.

 

And finally I did start a new project.  I’ve always wanted to make the Farmer’s Wife Quilt (1920).  There was a class that started this quilt as a BOM at Dragonfly, so I  signed up.  These are the blocks I’ve completed so far.

 

I will have more next week.  If you’re in North Carolina this week, the Statesville Quilt Show is this weekend.  Come see me at Dragonfly’s booth!

 

Love and Stitches…

Sherri

There's a Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven...

Continuing where we left off last week…that finishing thing…

We are all busy.  My mom, who has been “retired” for a number of years, tells me she’s busier now than she ever was when she was working. That information (and the fact that Mom straight-up tells me like it is) does not bode well for what I want to do after my husband and I sell our business.

I currently work full-time in that business, do my own housework (someone tell my husband there is such a thing as maid service, please), and work part-time in my local quilt store to support my fabric habit.  I’m an active member of my local guild and am a board member of The Applique Society. 

Busy….that’s what I am.  And in many ways, I like “busy-ness.” It keeps me focused and off the couch, watching TV for hours. However, all of these activities require me to be fairly organized as far as my quilting is concerned. 

Teaching high school really, really taught me how to plan.  I found that a good planner went a long way in assisting me.  And I have tried almost every planner on the market – paper, computer—you name it, I’ve given it a whirl.  I’m old enough to appreciate a tangible, carry with you, paper calendar/planner more than something on my phone (gosh darn why do they make those screens so small?) or on my computer (who carries their lap top with them any longer?) or iPad (again with the small screen thing coupled with the small key pad).

So with the fact that I have years more than you’ll ever get me to admit under my belt dealing with planners, let me tell you how I use them in my quilting.  Everything in life is pretty much scheduled, right?  Work, school, dentist appointments…nearly everything has a time slot.  Quilting should have that, too.  Everyone has a thousand things to do and just so many hours to do it in.  If quilting isn’t given a time slot, projects are never going to be finished.

“But it’s just a hobby…and there are other things I have to do…”  Yeah, I can hear that all the way over here.  And while true, quilting isn’t as necessary as your job, spending time with your family, or getting that root canal you need, it is still necessary. Quilters quilt for a variety of reasons.  Quilting uses the parts of the brain that assist in problems solving and it helps prevent Alzheimer’s.  It keeps math skills sharp.  But most quilters quilt because it gives them a chance to be creative and it gives an escape from reality.  The time spent with beautiful fabric, wonderful patterns, and other quilters allows us to forget about bills and illnesses and that co-worker that absolutely drives us nuts. 

So yes, quilting is necessary.  And so is finishing.  If quilting is given a time in your day or week on a regular basis, projects will be completed – and remember finished is better than perfect.

I have found that this little planner currently fits all my needs at this time.  And I really, really wish it was around when I taught school. 

 

It’s by Plum Paper and it is fabulous. Scheduling is a snap and the calendars are big enough to write everything down. 

 

There is also a project section that I use each week to set goals about what I want to accomplish.  Each week I can check them off as I go and plan ahead for the next week.  As I’m planning ahead, I can consult my patterns to see if I’m at a point where I’m going to have some issues.  If one quilt project is going to need more time because it’s at a time-consuming point or the next part is just difficult for me, I can allot more time for that project. 

That way, every project keeps moving forward. 

And that’s important.

Love and Stitches…

Sherri

Please note that I am not on staff with Plum Paper and receive no payment or products from that company.  I use their planners and absolutely love them and the way they can be personalized.  The calendars can be ordered at any point on the  year and can run 12 or 18 or 24 months.  If interested, visit their Facebook page.

 

 

The Whole Enchalada

I love new projects…

There’s something about new fabric and new patterns that just put the creative juices into overdrive and sends inspiration and ambition down on angel wings. I can’t wait to get them home and into my quilt area and just…start.

Starting is the easy part.  Finishing is, well…harder.  I have great plans, great ambition, and great intentions.

Only sometimes to have all three melt away when I find newer fabrics and newer patterns.

So this year, in some of my blogs, I want to discuss finishing – the process, tricks, tips, and how I make it through to the end.  I have always had to be somewhat organized since quilting isn’t my full-time job yet.  I’ve always worked one or more full time jobs in addition to teaching, designing, and making my quilts.  I’d like to share my process with you.

It’s hard to pinpoint what inspires us to undertake a new project.  For me, sometimes it’s the fabric.  If there’s a line of fabric that just takes my breath away, I’m known for buying two yards of each bolt and five of the one that I want as the focus fabric.  That fabric may sit on my shelves for a while – until I find a pattern that works. 

Here’s where my new iPhone comes in handy.  I’ll take a picture of the fabric with it.  That way there are no fabric swatches to lose.  I can pull my phone out, go to my pictures, and have it with me at any quilt show or fabric shop.   I can compare the material that is there to those in the picture (in case I’m short a few yards) as well as see if the pattern I’m considering will work with the fabric.

 

Sometimes it’s the pattern that drives me to start a new quilt.  If this is the case, after I purchase the pattern, I use my iPhone to take a picture of the front of the pattern and the sheet that has the fabric requirements on it. 

Lovely in Lavender by Debbie Beaves

 

 

 

My iPhone also has the option of turning the picture from color into a black and white photo.  I frequently use this option to study the color structure of the pattern – this allows me to see the darks, lights, and medium values used without being influenced by the colors the designer has chosen. 

 

That’s how it starts.  I think that’s how it starts with most of us.  Fabric or pattern…sometimes both…often dictates what we’re going to do next.  And I think this where a lot of quilters make errors.  We tend to think of this as the first step, instead of thinking through the quilt process in its entirety.  In fact, unless you are beginning quilter, I don’t think you should think in steps at all.  Beginning quilters have to, because they are learning and every concept is new.

However, if you’ve got three or more quilts under your belt, the time of thinking in steps as you pick your project is over.  I believe the reason a lot of quilters “hit the wall” in their quilts is that they can’t see beyond the excitement of new project.  Regardless of whether it’s the pattern or the fabric that has driven a quilter to start something, you have to see beyond this. 

For instance, take this little quilt top I finished this weekend.

 

This is Spring Bertie by Bonnie Sullivan.  I love Bonnie Sullivan’s patterns and the wooly flannels that have been designed to go along with them.   I decided I wanted to make this pattern, but there were a couple of issues I had to determine how to deal with before I committed to the project.

The first issue was that a lot of applique is involved.  I love applique, but I’ve already got two handwork projects going, and I really did not need another one.   I had to make a decision to be satisfied to machine applique it.  The background was not a firm cotton, but a soft flannel, so I had to make sure there was a stabilizer I could use that would allow the flannel to evenly feed through my Janome but not impede the quilting process.

All those half-square triangles were the second issue.  I love half-squares and their design possibilities are endless, but you’re dealing with bias edges no matter how you make them and bias edges can get a little wonky if you’re not careful. Couple the bias edges with the fact that this quilt is flannel and you could develop serious trouble with them.  Cotton fabrics can be starched to stabilize the bias, but flannels can only be starched so much.

So I did a test drive with the flannels and Thangles.  Worked like a charm.  Half-square wonkiness was avoided.

 

It’s important that as you consider a pattern, you look at its entirety, and not just its beauty.  If there is a block in the pattern you’re not fond of or that gives you serious construction issues,  meet that issue head on before committing to the project.  How will you get over your construction problems?  Can you possibly paper-piece them?  Can you get a quilting buddy who has mastered the block to show you how he or she does it?  Are there tutorials on YouTube? If applique is involved, do you have the time to commit to it by hand?  Is it a good candidate for machine applique?

If it’s a block you can construct just fine, but you’re honestly hate making, can you live with making several of them if the fabric’s pretty?

Don’t let the lovely pattern dictate your project.  Carefully look at it.  Open it up.  Read the directions.  If you love it, but there are a few things that may give you issues, can you develop a plan to deal with those to push your project forward? I think that’s the reason so many of us (me included) have so many UFOs.  We start the quilt and then run into an area that gives us problems and we haven’t come up with a plan to deal with it.

So we set it aside and start on the next project that catches our attention.

Other quilting areas should be considered and dealt with before rotary cutting one strip of fabric for a new project.  I’ll talk about those next week.

 

Love and Stitches….

Sherri

Happy 2016!!!!!

Happy New Year!

While I thoroughly enjoyed Christmas and the granddarlings and seeing family and friends, I am just as thoroughly happy that the Holidays are behind us and life is getting back to normal.  The tree is put up, the halls are undecked, and all the outside Christmas decorations are down. Now if I can lose the five pounds I picked up over the Christmas break, life would be almost perfect.

If you have read my blog for a while or researched my archives, you know that I do not make New Year’s Resolutions.  That just sounds too stressful and life is stressed enough as it is.  I do, however, make New Year Suggestions.  This is sounds less threatening and if I don’t follow through, I don’t carry around the guilt. 

It’s kind of like eating chocolate without worrying about the calories.

I celebrated New Year’s Eve by attending a surprise birthday party for my daughter-in-love.  After I got back home, I hit my quilt room because I had at least two hours before the ball dropped and 2016 ushered itself in.   I stood in the doorway and reflected on what I had done in 2015 – I have 20 tops ready to be quilted, three completed syllabi for classes, and a half-a-dozen works-in-progress.  I do need to re-visit Jane this year as I have had to leave her hanging by her border triangles for far too long. 

And hopefully in 2016, I will be able to re-possess my big quilt studio, as the daughter and son-in-love will be moving out on February 9.  So my tiny quilt room looks like total chaos right now.  I’ve taken this transitionary opportunity to go through my stash and sort, fold, and bolt material.

I’ve also reflected on just what kind of quilter I am…

I do like to take classes and teach classes.  I love to share with other quilters and learn from them, too.  So I am a “joiner.”  Guilds, bees, groups --  I have membership in at least eight quilting groups.  For years, by necessity, I functioned as a “lone quilter.”  When I started quilting in 1988, there were no groups that I knew of and instruction was few and far between.  Those logistics, coupled with the fact I had two small children and was working made either option almost impossible even if I could find them.  So I am  a “Social Quilter.”

 

I’m also tend to quilt some each day.  Ideally, I like to do some piecing, applique, or quilting before I go to work.  It settles and centers my mind and thoughts.  Regardless, it’s a rare day that some fabric doesn’t find its way between my fingers and my needle. 

Those are two things I don’t want to ever change about the quilting me.

However, I do hope this year to be more like this…. 

 

Organized and on point…. 

Instead of like this…

 

Which is what is seems like most of 2015 has been like.

I did finish one top and several squares over the two weeks I’ve been away and will be posting picture of them on next week’s blog. 

Until then…

Love and Stitches…

 

Sherri