Quilt Label Brilliance

I know I tend to rhapsodize about the West Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild, but here is reason number one zillion and two for why it's great to belong to a guild. A couple of months ago we were talking about quilt labels and I mentioned that I buy special ink jet printer fabric on rolls. I can cut the fabric to size and because it has a paper backing attached to keep it firm enough, I can run it right through my printer to make labels. The only problem is that it comes in one color – white.

One of my guild mates piped up and said that she didn't bother with special paper. She prints right on a scrap of the fabric from her quilt. How does that work you ask? Perfectly.

Just start with a scrap of fabric - in my case 8 ½ inches wide by 4 inches tall.

Spray the back of the fabric with some spray adhesive. I use OdifUsa 505 brand. Make sure to place the fabric on a scrap of paper so that you don’t end up with over-spray on your table or cutting mat.

Affix the fabric to a piece of regular computer paper, and trim to the proper size.

Now use whatever application you prefer to design your label. I use Microsoft PowerPoint, but as long as you can position the text and print, it really doesn't matter what you use.

Once your label is printed, let it dry completely (about fifteen minutes), then use a dry iron to heat set the ink.

Peel the computer paper off the back of your label, fold the edges under and give it a good press, and you are ready to stitch it onto the back of your quilt.

Brilliant right? And I never would have known to try this if I didn't belong to a guild with talented and clever quilters!

I also made the label for my Michael Miller challenge quilt but you will just have to wait until I can get some decent pictures to see more of that. 

Until next time, happy stitching!

Pouch Crazy

Last week I wrote about the pouch I made for my sewing buddy. Well it didn't end there.

I made a three pocket pouch for my grandniece for her birthday. 

See... three lined pockets with matching zippers. I followed this tutorial with a few modifications.  I don't usually sew from other people's patterns as I like the design component so much. However, I learned some really neat tricks working with that pattern, which I was able to incorporate into the pouch for the guild swap.

And as my reward, I received this adorable thank you note. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that there are still kids who write thank you notes.

I had no sooner sent this pouch off and received the sweet note when my guild announced - you guessed it - a pouch swap. Because it was for someone in my guild, I wanted to make something original, so I went to the drawing board.

First I tried to think about a type of pouch that I would really use, and hope I've hit on something others will appreciate. 

Here in Atlanta it is festival season. Every neighborhood has their own festival to raise money for parks, and other improvements that taxes just can't cover. Ours is called Summerfest. Typically a festival is held on Saturday and Sunday and kicks off with a parade and road race in the morning. Key streets in the neighborhood are closed off to set up an artist market, food trucks, a stage for bands, beer sales, and did I mention an artist market? You get the picture. Me wandering around listening to music, sipping a beer, and needing a place to keep cash, ID, and a credit card - 'cause did I mention the artist market? 

Based on that need, I came up with this idea for a zippered pouch with a very long strap so it could be worn cross body.

As you can see, I used English paper piecing to make a fabric piece about

nine inches wide by 20 inches tall. The finished bag is closer to eight by nine. 

There it is all pieced with the papers still attached to the back. You can see that I used two different shades of orange combined with some gray scraps all left over from another project. The fabric shown here is from the Spot On and Metro Living collections from Robert Kaufman, and they differentiate the colors as orange and tangerine.

After I removed the paper templates, I fused a lightweight piece of interfacing to the back of the fabric to give it a bit more body and stability - I don't honestly trust my hand stitching all that well, but fusibles can fix anything.

Next I squared up the fabric, 

and cut it in half. 

Fortunately I had purchased a bulk package of YKK zippers a couple of months ago, so matching zippers were in my stash. You can see with this photo where this is headed.

I love this neat technique found in the triple zipper pouch tutorial for finishing the zipper ends. 

And I was able to line each pocket (one shallow pocket on each side and a large full sized pocket down the middle) with more Spot On (snow on white). The instructions for how to insert the zippers and line the pouch pockets in one fell swoop are included in the tutorial from Debbie at A Quilter's Table mentioned above. And yes, Debbie is a much more prolific quilter and blogger than me. Hats off to that, and to her awesome quilts.

The exchange happens on Thursday, so I really hope whoever gets this one likes it. And I have full plans to make another for myself. I'm noodling with using up some prized selvage strips for mine instead of the hand sewn hexies. What do you think?

Until next time!

Kay Stephenson for Stitching Times

Everyday Inspiration

The West Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild has hosted some of the best swaps and challenges in the past year and a half that we have been in existence, but I think the recent "Everyday Inspiration" is my favorite so far. Our President, Robyn Webb, challenged us to take pictures of things we see in our everyday life, and then to select one and create a quilt that is inspired by the photo.

As with most assignments, I chose not to completely follow directions. On a recent trip to San Francisco, I toured Heath Ceramics in Sausalito with family and friends. Even the historic factory design by Marquis and Stoller in 1959 is inspiring. Read more about that here.

But I was most taken with glaze samples that I saw hanging on the walls. The image immediately put me in mind of all the Kaffe Fassett shot cottons I had sitting in my stash - some dark, some light, and some just that shade of gold. I knew before we left the place that this image would somehow figure in my entry for the challenge.

Later that same day we were in Berkeley and stopped in a restaurant called Eureka, (which I am determined to call Bang because of their signage). When I saw that sign facing me as I sat down, I loved it! For those that aren't in the know, this is an exclamation mark, or exclamation point, but for printers and programmers, it is commonly referred to as the "bang". 
Not to stray too far afield, but the symbol was thought to derive from medieval copyists who used to write the Latin word io at the end of a sentence to indicate joy! what a perfect summation for what had been a perfect day in the bay area.

So I didn't choose just one photo for inspiration, but two. However, I didn't noodle on those images for long after we returned to Atlanta because we left a few days later for a week at the beach. I needed a hand project for the car ride and this was it! I printed out two inch squares on freezer paper, grabbed fabric and scissors and off we went. I never would have thought to make this sort of straight-forward grid using English paper piecing, but it worked out great. In the past when I've tried to work with the Kaffe Fassett shot cottons, I've found them to be a stretchy pain, but there was none of that with this method. 

I did have a bit of a fit with the big gold bang, as it wanted to move around quite a bit, and I wanted to do some thread painting prior to quilting. I compromised by spray basting it to the background and then stitching all around the raw edge to start. given the barn wood decor of the restaurant and the sign, I wanted to let the edges ravel and be a bit more rustic. For quilting I decided to use straight-forward stitch-in-the-ditch to make the "tiles" pop. 

This was a truly fun challenge that had our members stretching to try things they had not done before - like designing their own piece and working without a pattern. Check out some more of our finishes here, and consider a similar challenge for your guild in the future.

Finishes

Yes I know it's almost February and everyone else did their 2013 round-up blog weeks ago. Better late than never? It does feel good to look back on the year and realize how much has been accomplished. Sometimes it seems like I have a dozen projects going at once and none will ever be finished. Anyway, today the weatherman says we may get a tiny bit of snow here in Atlanta, so it seemed like a good day to stay inside (away from all the Southerners that never learned how to drive on snow and ice) and cozy up with the computer and a bunch of photos.
First off, I had a few projects that have been sitting around for a long time waiting to be finished. This was an insulated table runner I pieced for myself but never quilted or bound. I did finish it this year, though I have to admit I no longer love it and don't know how often it will be used.

Front of Table Runner

Back

I also had planned to make this whole cloth baby quilt for a new addition to a friend's family a couple of years ago. Oh well. Now I'm thinking I might just donate it to a worthy cause

Zoo Animals Baby Quilt

Now for a few projects that were started and finished all in the same year. I know right?

I joined a the West Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild at the beginning of 2013 and I have to say that the gang inspired me to get quite a few projects finished. We had a few cute swaps including mug rugs, pin cushions, and holiday ornaments. I have to admit that we did the ornament swap in November and I just didn't have my act together for the holidays yet, so I swapped an ornament I made a couple of years ago. And, of course we made name tags to wear at meetings. I had a few too many ideas, so I ended up making four.

Mug rugs

Pin Cushions

2011 Ornament

name tags

Most of us also participated in the Blend Hip Holiday Challenge. What luscious colors for Christmas. I designed another table topper with lots of flying geese. I became a bit obsessed with flying geese this year, but more on that later.

Front

Back

Speaking of the holidays I made some cute "wonky hash tag" place mats (thank you Amy Gibson BOM 2012), and complimented them with a set of matching napkins. They made just the right touch for our holiday beer tasting dinner with friends.

Place mats

Napkins

Table Setting

And I did finally get around to designing and making some Christmas ornaments

2013 ornament

And then there were "the niece quilts". Somewhere along the line last year I realized that I had made quilts for me, quilts for the babies of family and friends, but I had never made quilts for my nieces. All of them are grown and live far away from me, so I didn't have as good an idea of colors and tastes as I would have liked, but what the heck.
For Coleen I designed "Floating Frames", which is bold and geometric, but also improvisational. I didn't even make a pattern for this quilt - just started cutting strips and let it grow organically. That led to a few fits when bias edges wanted to stretch out of shape (all of those square frames are set on point), but in the end I liked it. And luckily she told me after she opened it that her bedroom is red. Win!

Front

Back

For Cindy, I wanted something a bit more orderly, but warm and making you think of home and family. I called this "Urban Map" because when I looked at it the colors made me think of city blocks with green parks interspersed. The big bold flowers on the back gave me pause, but it did make me think of the riot of color that was my grandmother's rose garden (carried on for years by our grandfather after she passed). That seems like a fitting tribute to family, home and hearth. The pattern for this quilt is available here.

Front

Back

Front

Wendy, the youngest, was the biggest challenge. "Tetris Hex" speaks to me of a young woman with so many talents. The falling hexagons reflect both an orderly mind, but the ability to try and succeed at many things. I wasn't sure about the yellow. I mean it is YELLOW. But Wendy is a ray of sunshine AND a strong individual that others can and do lean on. Whether it matches her house or not, it did seem to suit her. The pattern for this quilt can be found here.

Back

Of course there are plenty of projects still sitting around unfinished. There is the Craftsy BOM for 2013. I've been noodling on adding some borders and making it bigger.

Craftsy BOM 2013

The larkspur quilt which I've been working on since 2012. I had a good bit of this quilted before I realized I had a HUGE pucker in the back. So it all had to be picked out. I kind of lost heart after that, but I will start again soon.

Larkspur Queen Bed Quilt started 2012

I also had an idea to make a quilt with all blocks using flying geese. I am in no way drawn to the color purple, but I have another niece, Robin, who passed a few years ago from Cystic Fibrosis. She loved purple, so this seemed a fitting tribute to her. I'd like to finish this one up this year and perhaps give the quilt to her mom.

Gaggle of Geese Quilt Started Summer 2013

The hex quilt that I've been working on for a couple of years is finally all pieced too, and that needs to be quilted. The idea was to use up scraps from all of the different projects since I started quilting ten years ago. The rounds are organized with the colors of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) and in the manner that my mom used to sort laundry (darks, brights, and lights) with a few blacks and browns at the center and whites around the outer edges. I'm really struggling with how to quilt it as I don't want to take away from the geometry of the hexagrams or the color gradient.

One Quarter of Quilt Top

A Rainbow of Brights and Lights

Finally, I had fun in 2013 with Amy Gibson's Sugar Block Club, so that one needs to be finished up. This picture doesn't show it, but in addition to the dozen twelve inch blocks from the club, I drafted and made half and quarter size blocks with the same designs. I just have to make a few more and I'll be ready to think about sashing.

What else is on the list for 2014? Well I have three gifts I need to make for birthdays in the next couple of weeks, a play mat for the new baby of a friend, my quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild / Riley Blake challenge which is due in February, and I want to make quilts for my two brothers. Plus I have three different bags cut out that need to be assembled.  Not enough? Wait until I tell you about the cat and dog blankets my friends and I are making for shelter animals...

Until next time.

Call it Serendipity

or kismet (have always loved that word), or just happenstance.

For Christmas 2011 I made a quilted throw to hang in front of the fireplace - because honestly in Atlanta even in winter - you almost never use the thing. 

As evidenced by the houseplants still sitting on the porch when I took these photos the following fall.

Despite my over-the-top affection for Christmas, you've got to love The Grinch that Stole Christmas!

and all those sweet folks living down in Whoville. Thank you Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr. Seuss. And thank you Robert Kaufman Fabrics for licensing the designs and making the fabric available. By the way, I notice it's still available at Fabric.com (and elsewhere), and now I see they have it in flannel!

So here comes the wonderful coincidence. My guild held a pillow swap recently, and when I pulled a number out of the hat, which pillow did I get?

Why this fabulous bit of Grinchmas of course.

My fellow guild member, Linda Petersen-Smith made four of these panels with scraps from another project, and then sewed them up with coordinating fabric to make the pillow. I couldn't be happier with the pillow or the little bit of serendipity. Funny how things work out sometimes.