Revisiting Inspiration

I did not go to the PIQF (Pacific International Quilt Festival) this year even though this major show in San Jose is relatively close to me, about a 45 minute drive. I elected to stay home and clean my sewing room instead. Shock – right? I have this tongue-in-cheek sign posted on the door but enough was enough. I needed a Marie Condo infusion to "spark joy" once again in my hobby.

I had not yet put away my purchases from a recent local show in late September which was over three weeks ago. I could not stomach having more "stuff" piled even deeper on my counters; buying even more when I had piles I had not even touched. I was still struggling with FMQing a quilt I had prepped to FMQ in November of 2017 and had begun piecing in January of 2016. I decided seeing those thread-dense masterpieces at PIQF would be discouraging rather than inspiring. I was in a sewing slump, having spit out only a few pillowcases and a simple skirt in a month's time. So I was revved up to tidy up!

As an additional incentive, I had a friend coming over on the following Monday who does not own a Handiquilter – I have a Sweet Sixteen – and was curious to check out mine. I wanted to clear out some space for an uncluttered area to play in. I made a few batting sandwiches so we could practice. Before my cleaning frenzy, you would not have been able to see this white surface of the Handiquilter table.

We had a blast. We tried free form spirals. I brought out some of my Handiquilter rulers. With the straight one we practiced stitch in the ditch and up-and-back piano key borders. We tried out one of the wavy rulers for that undulating set of parallel curves.

With the introduction of the clamshell ruler, my friend got really excited and stated that this could be addictive. At one point I said "I think we are starting to go a bit crooked". She replied, "I am sure the chickens don't mind."

We practiced Hooked on Feathers, the Sally Terry method where there is no backtracking required. We chanted "Inside Out, Outside In" to establish the rhythm and motion of quilting the feathers. I had fun and began to regain my confidence, reminding myself there was an assortment of stuff that I did know how to do. 

There were a couple storage solutions in my sewing room that she admired. It reminded me that hey, I may have too much, but I still manage to barely manage it. I repurposed an ineffective towel hanger from IKEA to hold my yardsticks.

I use a kitchen drawer unit from IKEA to hold my fat quarters and half yards. I use closet shoe caddies to hold my one yard lengths of fabric. The drawers and shoe caddies are all so full, I was very, very content with my decision to not go to PIQF and be tempted to buy yet more to cram in. Those butcher block counters had not been visible before her visit.

That evening, after company left, I had enough clear area on my cutting table that I could rotary cut the pumpkin placemat fabric I had bought three weeks ago and just recently put away. It was a panel of four placemats that you cut on the dotted line and supply your own backing and batting.

I had made patriotic placemats last July using bamboo batting and was not thrilled with the results. Maybe I blamed my FMQ when the batting was partly to blame for the lumpy-bumpiness. My friend had said she recently made a baby quilt with flannel within. I sewed up these four placemats using flannel instead of batting inside, and was pleased with the results. Having just tidied, I knew exactly where I had some yellow, loose-weave flannel, perfect for this purpose.

I sewed the seam allowance so as to leave just a sliver of black all around the perimeter. I was going to top-stitch with back thread but then decided to use a peach that went surprisingly well. I may quilt these placemats some more, perhaps outlining each pumpkin, but for now I am considering them finished until further inspiration strikes.

My choice of fabric for the back did much better with a peach thread rather than a black. I knew exactly where to find that one yard length of fabric neatly folded in my shoe caddy storage system. I'd just cleaned up. Remember?

With the company of a good friend and some tidying inspiration, my hobby is sparking joy once again.

Alden Lane's Quilting in the Garden 2019

At the amazing Alden Lane Nursery's Quilting in the Garden event, quilts are hung on clothes lines strung between four-hundred-year old oak trees. It takes many volunteers in addition to the dedicated nursery personnel to pull off such a event and those volunteers are generally drawn from the local quilt guilds.

I belong to two guilds. Amador Valley Quilt Guild sets up and runs the Budding Beginners, a hands on activity area for children and interested adults to try their hand at making a quilt block. My friend Renee is in charge of this inviting community activity and I helped a bit with the setup Friday night September 27th. Participants rotate through stations that are arranged in one area of a designated building.

Kits are prepared in advance for novice would-be quilters to make an appliquéd block. They can choose from a wide selection of options.

Alternatively they can make a pieced block on one of the two sewing machines that have been set up with pre-cut kits ready for them to assemble.

My other guild, Diablo Valley Quilters, is one  of the guilds that provides volunteers hang the quilts.  The quilts are hung on Saturday morning, taken down Saturday night and rehung Sunday morning so they are not exposed to the elements over night, and then taken down at the end of the show Sunday. I helped with the hanging 7:00 am - 9:00 am Saturday morning. It was funny to see all the ladies covered with the clothes-pins they would use to clip the quilts onto the lines strung between the grand spreading oak trees. Blue clips are stronger so they are used secure the end corners of the quilts and the weaker wooden clips to grip the edges in between. Then the loaded lines are hoisted up among the tree branches. No ladders are needed during the hanging ritual.

When I left after the 260+ quilts had been hung, the sky was still pink with the recent sunrise. It made a pretty backdrop for this lamp post bedecked with gigantic "spools of thread".

Quilts seem to surround those who stroll beneath them. In the next photo, three lines of quilts encircle this gracious oak.

It was a very windy weekend and sometimes the quilts were nearly horizontal so you had to admire them quickly. These bright colors and eclectic patterns are enjoyable no matter what the angle.

Margo's Doll House (109) by Joey Connolly, Eclectic Friendships (22) by Jan Scrutton, and Senoritas (8) by Sandi daRoza make an eclectic mix, hanging on this line. Quilts were hung facing the sun whenever possible.

This patriotic mainly red, white, and blue line showcases many of the quilts of the March Madness challenge.

I take snapshots of a smattering of individual quilts that spark my interest for a variety of reasons. Halloween Churn Dash (72) by Rhondi Reeves is a crisp reminder in a classic pattern that screams the holiday because of the color selections and of course the feature black cat.

Tucked off on the left side is a glimpse of Halloween Open Options (79) by Lora Zmak. I am impressed that such a simple basic pattern as Open Options by Material Girlfriends can be so graphically striking, merely by the color choices, in this case only orange and black.

I took this photo of Two-Wheel Nirvana (96) by Lynda Smith because it amuses me how varied are the interests of quilters.

I keep telling myself I want to make an all-curves apple core quilt but I still have not gotten around to it. Apple Core (73) by Rhondi Reeves will remind me.

But I have made a curved pieced quilt. Blue Hues (60) is one of two quilts I entered in the show. My blog post about its completion is dated 12/30/2018.

The other quilt I entered is Orange and Grey (61). Its completion post is dated 8/10/2016.

I photographed this modern graphic quilt, Ombre Blossoms (30) by Carol Ancog, to remind myself that a simple parallel channel quilting pattern can be very effective.

The noble, all-wise, carved bear statue of Alden Lane Nursery presides over Quilting in the Garden wearing a quilt shawl.

The gift shop is also a feast for the eye within. The blues of this display are so serene and inviting.

I most definitely shun black, gross, slimy, bloody horror for my style of Halloween ambience! The seasonal decor of this display is my kind of Halloween... smiling, quaint, friendly ghosts and pumpkins, orange/yellow/beige/creamy candy corn colors, a bit of witchcraft, and a grinning mummy thrown in for jovial trickery.  

I left the show smiling, filled with colors, and pleased that another tradition of the fall season had been fulfilled for me. No trick... this show is an annual treat for me.

Quilty September 2019 Weekend

The last weekend in September is a quilty weekend in Livermore and Pleasanton California. There is a Pleasanton Quilt, Craft, and Sewing Festival and the amazing Alden Lane Nursery's Quilting in the Garden event (where quilts are hung on clothes lines strung between four-hundred-year old oak trees) that I aim to attend annually. This post will cover the Pleasanton Quilt, Craft, and Sewing Festival. My next post will cover Alden Lane Nursery's Quilting in the Garden.

Here is the layout of the festival and the booths where I made purchases. My husband came with me to the show and we entered from the top of the diagram, wound our way clockwise around the perimeter, and then wended our way up and down the aisles in booth numerical order.

My husband asked if I had a goal in mind. I said that I was looking a particular shade of gray fabric to go with a Christmas car panel print I had.  I wanted to springboard off an idea I'd seen and admired for a nature images panel at Brentwood quilt show in August of 2017 (my post dated 8/21/17). Quarter square triangle blocks were alternated with the panel pictures and I liked the secondary image they made without detracted from the featured creatures. The hourglass blocks are actually quarter rectangle triangle blocks; my car image blocks are not quite square either.

True to the task assigned him, my husband found these three grays. At Patti Cakes (#131-#133) his advance foraging found the speckled gray shown at the upper right. Although not the solid I had requested it does have the fun colors of red and orange-gold of the cars. I bought one yard. It was all they had. As we rounded second corner of our perimeter path he spotted a gray at Sewing Party (#718-#719) and I bought 1½ yards. It is shown on the left in the following photo. I like the subtle two tone effect of the beige/gold thread throughout that I felt enhanced the background cream color of the car images. Once we started our aisle-by-aisle route, old eagle eyes spotted a solid gray at The Rabbit Hole Quilt Shop (#211-#214). Shown at the lower right, it is quite plain but the closest color match thus far. I bought the only one yard piece they had. I guess I must be continually bedazzled by all the the fabrics that distract me, but my husband was focused enough and sufficiently glad to have an assignment they he beat me each time on finding the grays.

Later at Twisted Scissor (#306-#309) I found these two non-gray fabrics but the colors seemed to call out to be noticed since they went so well with the cars, themselves. They are bright and strong though; I will need to use them sparingly so as not to distract from the perky cars. I bought ½ yard of the yellow and two ½ yard lengths of the red/black mini-plaid. To me the mini-plaid had a bit of a masculine feel to it and, to be sexist, the cars also seem more guy-focused.

With my goal of fabric to go with the cars satisfied, I looked at unrelated fabrics. I bought this cheerful, sunny panel that came with a free pattern. I've shown two halves of it in the next two photos and the pattern in the third photo. At a minimum, I think it will be good for me to practice my FMQing. I needs a bright yellow backing and maybe even some yellow thread for quilting. Each square is 10½" and there are eight different ones on the panel.

I also picked up this little note pad for my purse. Measuring 3" wide by 4" high, I like its sentiment. 

I really like pumpkins that are painted in patterns – polka-dotted, harlequin, swirls, checks – but I refrain from buying them because they are difficult to store for the rest of the year. As we rounded our fourth corner, Blue Petunia Quilts (#114-#116) displayed these finished placemats. Their fabric satisfies my yen for those designer style pumpkins. I can make fabric into useful placemats which can then be folded and put away in a drawer out of season! 

Each placemat measures 19" wide unfinished. They are sold as a panel of four placemats plus four 4½" squares that could be coasters. The panel is folded into a zip lock package very tidily so the black raven sitting on the white pumpkin shows. I selected and bought two packages off the rack because I wanted six placemats.

When I got home and explored my treasures – more specifically, removed them from their packaging for photography – I found that I had bought one placemat set and one panel. Probably one customer had looked at a panel package in the booth and replaced it on the hook of the display rack for the placemats. It, too, was folded so the black raven on the white pumpkin showed but the panel image is slightly larger than the placemat image and so it went unnoticed by both me and the vendor. Yes, that tall image, with a height of one WOF x 23¼" wide, is quite striking but it was not what I had intended to buy. Oh, well. It will work well as a wall-hanging for a door and I probably would  have been sick of making placemats after the first four anyway. I can maybe use those four squares from the placemat panel as cornerstones and make the hanging a bit larger with some border sashing. 

I also added to my license plate collection with this one from Blue Petunia Quilts.

I have a fondness for stripes and dots. Besides that one yard of gray from The Rabbit Hole Quilt Shop (#211-#214) I bought two additional one yard pieces there, each stripes. I think the wavy one is quite whimsical and cheery.

The Rabbit Hole Quilt Shop was also selling tea towels and I picked up two of these red dotted ones.

At Second Chance Fabrics (#147-#149) I got these two stripes one ~1½ yards and one ~¾ yard.

At The Quilt House (#601-604) I got these two packages of buttons that I think will go well on granddaughter dresses.

I had been relatively well-behaved purchase-wise up until the last couple aisles where I spent about two thirds of my dollar total for the day in the last final hour of my four hours at the show. It is almost like a bargain bug bit me or a little fabric fairy whispered in my ear "You are almost done! Is that all you bought?" At Elk Grove Sewing & Vacuum (#701-704 & #711-#714) I sort of went crazy buying 10 yards of fabric but every piece I bought is an excellent blender. I bought five yards of blenders in pastel hues. The spotted Grunge pieces are very textural and versatile and the stripes are very practical in medium toned values that can pair with either lights or darks. Now those central swirly dots in the center? Well, ya got me. They are just so darn appealing how could I leave them behind?

I bought five yards of blenders in red and green hues. Cue... Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells!  I doubled up on that fine hash lined print on the right. Two yards of that can easily sub for the background in blocks of a Christmas nature.

Probably the most expensive purchase of the day was a light table by CutterPillar (#519) which my husband pointed out to me as we rounded the final bend in our home stretch. It was he who encouraged me to consider. It is thin, has three light levels and a self-healing overlay cutting mat. I got an extra mat so I can have one with gridlines and one without for less distraction. It also works four hours on a rechargeable battery so I need not be tethered to an outlet. This will sure beat taping things up onto the window of my sewing room and working vertically. It will also allow me to take it to another room or to a class and also to work at night when it is dark outside. It has the sleek lines of an iPad making it especially appealing to me as an Apple fan. I chose the Premium size, a 13"x18" board with a 12" x16" lit area. I decided the Ultra size, a 19" x 26" board with a 17"x 24" lit area would be not as convenient to move around and was actually more than I needed. I am looking forward to trying it out. After we paid for it my husband whispered, "Happy Anniversary. Now I am off the hook." The next day was our 44th wedding anniversary. Nice gift, huh?

There was one last item I bought at the show, from Custom Creations (#801-804). I do not need to sew it, or store it, or design around it. I intend to gift it (recipient undisclosed) because it was certainly too adorable to be left behind. It measures 9"x13". This sequined purse with the gal in big round flowery sunglasses is a real cutie.  She seems to be saying "Ooh... what all did you buy today?"