Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival

Thursday October 10th  I went with my husband to the Quilt, Craft, and Sewing Festival in Pleasanton, CA sponsored by the The Rusty Barn Group. There is no entry fee for the show but it does cost $15 to park. There are some about a half-dozen free seminars and a handful of make-and-take workshops, but for the most part it is a gathering of vendors. The participating vendor list is in the following image. Many of these vendors I have frequented through the years.

I bought very little at this event, mostly I think due to my mood rather that the show contents. My husband supports my quilting purchases. When I was ready to leave to go to the show he gave me this advice. "If you see something you are waffling on send me a text and I will help you decide. If you see something that you really like, but are hesitant to take the plunge, then send me a letter." He then chose to come with me, even wearing his special shirt that says "Quilters Husband".

I bought one yard of a Christmas fabric to use as a backing on a Christmas wallhanging I plan to make. I already own the #206 Deerly Loved pattern by Corey Yoder. The fabric bands run parallel to the selvage and there are four bands across the WOF. I was only able to get one yard and the pattern finishes at 42" x 42" so I will need to add to the edges. This may be the tail wagging the dog, but I will select the fabrics for the wallhanging front based on the striped backing fabric. My goal is to make it for this Christmas. There. I have put the commitment in writing. Actually, it is more a hope rather than a commitment, so I have just given myself some wiggle room.

I also bought  two patterns, both for bags not quilts. I am curious and have often wondered about those Japanese knot bags so I intend to try one of them out relatively soon.

Rounding out my sparse purchases was a black and white fat quarter for $1.50.

That's it for my visual aids. I have no pictures of quilt kits for sale. I have sworn off buying them anyway until I sew down my backlog. Also, the show does have a rule that

Photography, video taping, or sketching of the exhibitors' booths or merchandise is not permitted.

It was fun looking at "stuff" and I enjoyed the outing with my husband. We have had such a heat wave lately, that we have not ventured out of the house much, so this was a welcome change.

Nativity Christmas Ornaments

At my quilt guild's fabric sale in July 2021 I bought two of these nativity scene panels at 50¢ each along with six other Christmas ornament panels: namely three house panels, two panels of calico toys, and one panel of gilded gold ornaments. I was determined that this year I would have them all sewn up before the holidays and no longer lingering in my stash. My latest progress forward is on the first of the nativity panels. I cut out the eight figures and bought grosgrain ribbon for hanging loops on top. I can get eight 4½" loops from one yard of ribbon.

This is the stuffing I use for these ornaments. Actually I use it for all of my stuffing needs, such as pillows and toys. It is polyester and has a soft silky feel to it. It is not at all itchy or scratchy as some fills can be.

This week, after sewing, turning, and stuffing the eight ornaments, I whipstitched each closed with matching color thread: royal blue for Mary and one king, brown for Joseph and the shepherd, white for the sheep and the ermine trimmed cloak of another king, turquoise for the gown of the angel, and gold for the hem of a third king. I chose purple ribbon for the hanging loops. These ornaments are quite large and I stuff them minimally so the figures remain soft and cuddly should they be used for play.

My goal to sew up all my backlog of panels before Christmas has been thwarted by my having lost the remaining panels yet to be finished somewhere in my sewing room. I have misplaced two panels of twelve calico ornaments each and one remaining nativity panel. Other panels I have completed. I plan to use turquoise loops for a second nativity set ... when I find it!

Spooky and Sweet Completion

In my post for 9/20/24 I discussed my cutting and piecing for Spooky & Sweet, a four-week quilt-a-long project sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop with free pdf pattern downloads and online tutorials. This blog post addresses the quilting, labeling, and binding the top I pieced. The first challenge I faced was the dreaded phrase "quilt as desired". The image at the Fat Quarter Shop website shows an all over quilting pattern with computerized ghost motifs.  After a bit of study I could figure out the quilting path — up the left side of ghost, detour at the top of his head to insert two eyes, come down the right side of the ghost, detour to insert a star, complete ghost bottom, then meander off to repeat the motif inserting a star along the way. I have a sit down Handi-Quilter Sweet Sixteen which is not computerized nor does it have pantograph capability. Ghost motifs would fit well with a Halloween theme but the entire top is a witchy ghost and a vampire ghost so quilted ghosts are not a necessity. Yes, this design could be quilted free-hand, but I doubted my skill level to carry that out without a ton of practice. I opted instead for a pattern more controlled and less free form. I do not do well with too much two-dimensional freedom. 

I chose to do some wavy ruler work using a Hand-Quilter F wavelength template. It has a wavelength of 4" and a choice of a .75" or 1.5" depth. I decided the shallower depth would be better and needed to settle on an appropriate distance between the waves. I sketched some options with paper and pencil and then auditioned two down-selected spacings on clear plastic page protectors, deciding I preferred the larger vertical spacing. Larger spacing also means fewer waves and less work. The upper group is spaced 0.75" apart and the lower grouping is 1.5" apart. I quilted the waves starting at the bottom and worked my way upward. The blue masking tape helped me determine how far up to move the ruler between rows. The large dips of the lower ruler edge helped me center each wave above the one beneath it. The gridlines on the ruler served as a reminder to keep the waves orthogonal to the piecing.

  

I considered a gray variegated thread but instead went with a pale gray thread. Too much variation in the quilting lines I thought might distract from the pieced characters and stars. It took four or five hours to work my way up from the bottom of the 30½" x 34½" quilt. I did it in two sittings, one in the evening and finishing up the rest the next morning. Fortunately I had only a few glitches due to slips of the ruler but I could move on and pick them out later. The following photos are close-ups of the wavy quilt lines.

Two embroidered grosgrain labels sit on the bottom corners. The name Spooky and Sweet was too long and my Pfaff does not have the "&" symbol to allow shortening the name to Spooky & Sweet. For brevity the name became Spooky_Sweet.

The overall waves gave a pleasing appearance on the front. The pale gray blended in well with the white faces and was not distracting; that initial concern of mine was luckily not realized.

When I turned Spooky_Sweet over to look at the back I was bemused. The first thought that struck me was that it looked like one of those pads put on furniture to keep it from scratching during a move. Perhaps I should have named this quilt U-Haul!