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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Fabric sorting question

Here's a question for you:

I have my fabric mostly sorted by colors, except that I have a separate "section" of civil war repros, which are also sorted by colors.  I'm not talking about the separate sections for batiks, kids' fabrics, polka dots, stripes, homespuns, florals, asian, flannels, lights...

My question is whether I should be combining my, say, blues with the blues from the civil war repro section.  I'm thinking I'd like to keep them separate but  now I'm not so sure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

This is today's mess...I'm on the last large cabinet.  Next will be to move the design wall into my new space and hang the quilts and pictures.  Painter is coming tomorrow to paint the new kids' room --- bunk beds are being delivered on Tuesday!  WOOHOO..




My daughter took this picture of Emma and Max looking out the picture window.  I think it's fabulous, especially in black and white!!



Hope you have a great Thursday. Love to you all,
Randy

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Musty odor?

I've been moving all my fabric, piece by piece! 
I'm thinking that there's a musty odor coming from the piles of fabric and I'm wondering if anyone has ever noticed this and what you'd suggest I do.

There's no moisture in the area, so it's not humidity.

I'm noticing also that when I take the piles out of the cabinet, the fabric seems to expand!  It just doesn't seem like it could possibly fit back into the cabinet.  And boy oh boy, does it take forever??!!


There are two of these cabinets.  I've already done three small ones.  I"m on the second big one. I'm hoping to have the room painted Friday and the new bunk beds delivered this weekend. It's finally coming together!!

I am sure you'd love some updated pictures of the darlings:



More to follow!
Love to you all,
Randy

More quilts from Portland

There were so many inspiring quilts that we saw in Portland!







Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Second pieced border of Medallion

As promised, here are the instructions for the second pieced border of the medallion sew-a-long that Lori and I have designed. It's really very simple although it sounds complicated. Trust me! It's easy.

First of all, you'll need to add a solid coping strip on all four sides. Cut it 1-1/2" (will finish at 1"). I used the same fabric as my center applique block but you can use anything that will contrast with your first pieced border.   You can measure your center before cutting your strips and then pin the two ends before sewing it together. That way your strips won't be wavy. I sew my strips to the top and bottom first.  I always press towards the strips since they aren't pieced and I want them to "pop".

The pieced border consists of blocks that will finish at 4". (4-1/2" unfin).  The block is called "southern belle" in Around the Block (a very old and great book, IMHO).  Each block consists of four 2" (fin) blocks.  There are two sets of two.  For all four blocks, you will need two fabrics for the outside triangles.  Cut two 3-1/4" squares TWICE on the diagonal. The picture came out a little blurry. Sorry.


You will need to sew each pair of triangles together on one side. Be careful that all four of them are sewn on the same side.


There will be two different "centers" for these 2" blocks.  Choose two contrasting fabrics and cut them 3". Put them right sides together and cut ONCE on the diagonal.


I then lay my pieces out on a surface near my sewing table.. I'm a very visual person and need to see it laid out.



You can see that you want to lay it out so that your different "centers" are opposite each other.  You will now sew each unit together (the larger triangle gets sewn to the unit with the two little triangles).  I press towards the larger triangle since it's not pieced.

Each of these units needs to be squared up so that they measure 2" unfin 
(1-1/2" fin).  I have an old ruler called the Precision Trimmer that is perfect for this squaring up.  I also just bought a new one called the Tucker Trimmer which does the same thing. Or you can use any other ruler you have on hand. A girl can never have too many rulers, right??

You're then going to sew all 4 units together, again being careful that you sew it as you laid it out, with the large triangles opposing each other.




These four little 2" blocks, when sewn together, will measure 4-1/2" unf; 
or 4" fin. This is one of the blocks I used in my medallion, which is why the fabrics are different than above. Sorry! Hope it's not confusing.

Please make a total of 24 of these blocks.  Mine are all scrappy.  Sew two sets of 5 blocks together and attach to the top and bottom.  Then sew two sets of 7 blocks together and sew them to the sides. I tried to sew them together so that the darker of the large triangles weren't always going in the same direction. That didn't always work but it was the plan anyway!


I think Lori will be posting the final applique border instructions in two weeks or approx. June 11th.  Knowing Lori, it'll be right on time!!!

I hope you're enjoying this little project we designed. Please be sure to post pictures on Lori's linky thing on her blog.

Love to you all,
Randy

Monday, May 27, 2013

Happy Exhaustion

I am one lucky nana. I feel very blessed to be able to spend so much time with our two darling grandkids (Emma and Ryan).  Originally I was going to have Nana Day on Fridays.  Then it kind of morphed into me bringing the darlings to our house to sleep over until Saturday or maybe even Sunday.  Then it became easier for me to pick up the kids on Thursday afternoon and we were getting to have them stay with us until Saturday or Sunday. Ryan loves coming to our house because it's like being in the country compared to their house in SF.

Did I ever tell you that Ryan has been sleeping in my closet since he was first born?  We have a pack 'n play for him which fits perfectly in my closet.  But mind you: he's 3-1/2 now and has just moved into his own bed in SF (which he calls his "Boy Big Bed").  He still fits in the pack 'n play but I know that he's really getting too big for it.

Emma has been sleeping in a pack 'n play in my sewing room.  So the dilemma was where to put Ryan and a bed for him. And a crib for Emma.

We decided to buy a set of bunk beds for the kids and put them in my sewing room.  I was going to be relocated into our bonus room, which is like a bowling alley that's 3 cars wide (over our garage!). Think enormous sewing room!

The past few weeks I've been getting ready for the big move. Changed the lighting to wonderful fluorescent fixtures.  Got the bonus room repainted last week and started to move some of my sewing stuff into my new sewing room.  MAN OH MAN... Have I accumulated a LOT of stuff. Fabric!! Books!! Junk!! 

I'm happy to say that after the kids left this afternoon, we started the move in earnest.  My new sewing room is taking shape.  I'm excited about it.  It's a disaster but it's really HUGE.  I had bought a very large table last year at Pottery Barn at Christmas time, which they were using to wrap gifts so it was scuffed and marked up so it was a bargain.  It's now in the middle of my new sewing room and it's fabulous! A little tall for me but a perfect cutting table with cubbies on each side.

I'm excited.  We are going to paint the new kids' room this week and have the bunk beds delivered after that.  Ryan will still be in my closet for another week but after that, he'll be in his own room.

So the bottom line is HOW LUCKY AM I!!  I get to have my grandkids often enough to need a room for them to sleep.  We are delighted!!! It's just the best and I know I'm so lucky.  I'm completely aware that it is really going to be temporary because I know Ryan will be getting busy once he starts sports and school so we're taking advantage of the time we have with them that we have.

I'll post pictures of the new sewing room in a few days.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. We owe much to our soldiers who have given their lives for our freedoms.

Love to you all,
A Tired but Happy Nana

Monday, May 20, 2013

Like Jo Morton ?

One of the mini classes we went to at Quilt Market was with Jo Morton. We were treated to a fabulous quilt show using many of her new fabrics. They were very inspiring! I can't wait to get back to my sewing room!!

















Sunday, May 19, 2013

Bernina's brilliant display

Bernina had a booth that had a portion devoted to how fabulous their machines are because they're not made of plastic. They had a machine set up which was see-through! It was running constantly so you were able to see the guts of the machine while at work. I thought it was really ingenious!!

Booths galore

Every quilt designer or shop owner devoted an incredible amount of time and energy to setting to setting up their booths. I think we could've spent hours just marveling at the elaborateness of some of them. Here are some of my favorites! Enjoy















Saturday, May 18, 2013

More Market photos

We went back to Market today to take some more pictures of the booths and quilts. Enjoy!!