I'm Looking for Kaffe Fasset Fabric!

I remember someone commenting one time that they don't like blogs that all they do is talk about the fabric they found.  I will try to keep those kinds of posts to a minimum but since I spent all weekend at the track meet and didn't get any sewing done, this is all I have to share today.  And besides, I kind of LIKE seeing that kind of stuff.  I remember reading someone's blog recently where she bought over 30 yards of fabric!  For cheap!

I kept thinking, wow, stuff like that never happens to me . . . until today!

A lady who has been quilting for years advertised some of her stash on CraigsList for some great prices and I jumped at the chance!   She told me she was more into art quilting now and some of these fabrics just didn't work anymore.  She had a TON for sale and she said that was probably only 1/4 of her stash.  Sounds like a kindred spirit, eh?  

Here is what I bought.  I tend to like lots of color and will probably do something scrappy with these.

She must have been quilting for years because there were several dated 1996!

This one is a novelty that I found amusing . . .

Here are a few others that caught my eye, a pretty oriental fabric . . .

A retro fabric with big orange flowers.  Anybody recognize this?   Do you think it might be Kaffee Fasset?  Even if it isn't, I just like its retro vibe.

I have become an avid seeker of Kaffe Fasset fabrics!   I bought Kelly Young's (My Quilt Infatuation) Courtyard Tile pattern that is perfect for showcasing large scale prints and I need 20 fat quarters to make it.  So if anybody out there has some Kaffee Fasset  (or just some awesome large scale prints) lying around and you would like to trade for something else, I'm your lady!  I got such a good deal on this fabric today that I'll give you four fat quarters for one Kaffe Fasset FQ.  Show me what you've got and tell me what you're looking for!

My favorite find of the day was a vintage Kaffe Fasset piece.  I tried dating it but the site I found with past years of his fabrics only went back to 2009.   Here it is.  Anybody got any idea what year this is from?

I'm linking to Needle and Thread Thursday and Fabric Frenzy Friday hoping someone out there has some Kaffe Fassett for me!

Keep on creating!

Janice

Second 2016 Finish!

FINISH!!  Celebrate with me!  You just really have no idea how big a deal this is for me.  I have been starting projects for years and probably say, the last 15 years, I've actually only finished 2 things.  I've never been a finisher but this year is going to be different!  This isn't a beautifully pieced make-you-go "oooo" quilt, but it's done!  And it's sold!

In case you haven't read previous posts, this fabric came in a layer cake from a Moda line called Storybook.  The layer cake had yellow, pink, and blue squares, enough to make three different baby quilts.  The first two were this size and the blue version is actually 16 squares.  I'll save that for the next baby boy one of my friends has.  This fabric is a beautiful brushed cotton so soft it feels like flannel.  On the back is a plush minky-like fabric in a beautiful peach and white design.  All quilted with a meandering stitch.

And THIS is what happens when you don't have a design wall, and leave your "in progress" stuff on the floor near an open window while the wind is blowing . . .

It took me about 20 minutes to put it all back together again and to try and remember which colors I had put with which!  Here is an update on my progress on Pretzel Twist.   It turns out you have to pay attention to more than just which colors go where, you have to watch which direction the block is supposed to face next.  I did not do that and had to rip apart at least 8 blocks and put them back in the proper order,  Ugh.   

Here is the view of everything corrected with a few new rows.  Can you see the difference?

I'm loving this quilt! 

This week I probably won't get a lot of sewing done as my daughter's state track meet is Friday and Saturday.  She qualified for state in three events!  Yahoo!  Here is a series of pictures showing  her running the 4 x 100 relay (she's the one passing the baton).  Gave me a chance to practice my photography!  Can you tell I'm a proud mama?  :)

 SO INTENSE!!

Next week life will get back to normal!

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts and
Carla at Silly Mama Quilts

WOW are there some gorgeous quilts going on out there!

Happy quilting!

Janice

My Foray Into Long Arm Quilting

So you probably guessed by the title what I was doing yesterday!

I was taking a class on a long arm quilting machine.  Here she is!  I should have written down the model number, but it is a machine by Handi Quilter.   I took this class at the Blue Bird Quilt Studio in Nampa, Idaho.

That thing is huge!   I have now quilted once on my own machine and once on a long arm and at this point, I have to say I prefer my own little Bernina.  I felt so much more in control.  Yes, I know it probably is a lot easier to quilt a large quilt on the long arm, but it just wasn't as natural to steer.  Now I understand why they say "practice, practice, practice!"  I don't know how much time and energy I want to put into this just yet.  It costs $20 per hour to rent the machine and of course, much of that time would be spent pinning your quilt and backing to the rollers.

I had to share practice time with one other lady so didn't get to do a ton of practicing and my first attempt at this is just too sloppy for words!  Then I learned what a pantograph was.  I had no idea what that was!  Most of you experienced quilters already know but I will explain for my friends and family who probably don't know either.  This machine has a laser light that you point at a continuous line pattern that lays down on the table behind the quilt and wherever you move the laser light following the line pattern is also the same line the machine quilts for you,  That's a rough explanation.  It's much easier to follow an already created pattern than to have to think about what you're going to quilt.  (especially for beginners)  Here is what I did using a pantograph and even with the line to follow, I was very jerky.  Not yet smooth.  

Now I understand why they say it takes a lot of practice!  People who are already good at it just make it look so easy, don't they? 

I would love to hear from you long arm quilters about how long it took you to get comfortable quilting on a long arm.   Did you just jump right in or did you start out free motion quilting first? And which do you prefer?  I hope you'll share your experiences with me in the comments!

Eager to learn,

Janice

Pretzel Twist

Yesterday, I was standing in line at the fabric store and saw this.  It has always been one of  my favorite magazines but I'm not yet a subscriber.  What is wrong with me?  Anyway, bought it.

Inside was this quilt designed by Jane Vaughn called Petzel Twist and I fell in love and immediately wanted to make one.  I don't have enough projects going on apparently.  Looks complicated at first glance, but I was delighted to find out how simple it is!   Love the illusion of  interlocking "chains".  

So since yesterday, this is what I have so far . . .

I have learned some things along the way and if anybody else saw this quilt and was wanting to make it, I have a few tips for you if you're interested.  My impatience made it harder on me than it needed to be.

Mistake #1.  This is supposed to be a quick and easy pattern for pre-cuts.  Jelly rolls in particular.  Well, I don't have any jelly rolls at the moment but I REALLY wanted to start so just started grabbing fabric that I had recently bought.  Dumb.  I had to cut all those 2  1/2" inch pieces myself instead of just slicing something off of a jelly roll strip.  

Mistake #2.  Using one designer's fabrics makes things a lot simpler to choose the colors.  I didn't.  Oh well, it is going to be a bit chaotic, but definitely colorful!

The other thing that will speed things up is if you have sewn ALL the prints and background strips together like this before you start deciding which two colors will go into each block.  Every single print rectangle gets a white square at the end (like the two on the right), and every single print square gets a white square and a white rectangle on either side (like the two strips on the left.  Here is an example of what each block consists of.  

Here is what the above strips look like arranged properly to make a block:

Every single block is sewn together in exactly the same way with the only difference being the colors and the fact that every other block is rotated a quarter turn.  TIP:  Pay close attention to what colors come next!  I've already had to rip apart one whole block because I wasn't paying attention!

In the meantime, I have also decided what I'm going to do with this coffee fabric.  

I had already ordered a book with coffee cup patterns in it but changed my whole plan and will be making placements and a table runner out of it.   Much easier!!  I'm so relieved to at least have a plan now.

Linking up this week to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework  and am going to go explore some other blogs for some pleasure reading!

Also linking to Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts, Design Board at  Bits and Bobs, and Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication.

Happy quilting!

Janice 

Coffee Anyone?

OK, I think I have a problem.  I like to START things,   But finish?  I don't know yet!  I've only finished one thing all by myself so far.  Oh well.  Hopefully, with many to choose from, I won't get bored, right?  That's my theory anyway.  We shall see!

This next project is one I'm still pondering.  I doubt that I'll ever become a designer, it hurts my head!  At work, we are supposed to make up a basket with a theme for our office to take to our next state conference.  This basket will be auctioned off with a silent auction and our department has decided to do a coffee or tea theme.  I volunteered to make a lap quilt for it so I immediately went googling coffee/tea fabric, coffee blocks, etc.   I  found a few choices and our office voted on which they liked best.  So I bought 1 1/2 yards of this (it's all they had left).  Yes, I tend to be a fairly literal person but will work on trying to think outside the box.

I can't decide whether to use this for the back (which will probably need pieced along with something else, or use it on the front design, whatever that ends up being.   I found this block pattern  on McCallsQuilting,com described as a tea cup but it's square enough to pass as a coffee cup.  I would love to do a bunch of these in bright modern colors but how to make that mesh with this coffee fabric?  Hmm!

And now to decide how in the world I'm going to put it all together and how big to make it.  Too many decisions!  Help!

I also fell in love with this wall hanging from 2010 and promptly bought the pattern which I will save for a future day.  It's probably old news to most of you, but I LOVE it !

I want to see this hanging in either my office at work or in my sewing room, IF we ever get our house built.  That's another whole story.

So this post really wasn't about anything I'm working on yet but things that are just ideas at the moment.  And I would welcome ANY thoughts and ideas about how to proceed with my coffee project!

Have any of you ever made any coffee cup quilts?  Inquiring minds wanna know!

I'm linking up with Lorna's Let's Bee Social link party at Sew Fresh Quilts and Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.

Happy quilting!

Janice

My First Quilting Project

Happy Monday!

I would normally have more progress to show but spent last weekend in beautiful sunny Seattle!  Ha!  No, really!  It was!   I was there to watch my daughter's school participate in a track meet and the weather was amazing!   Ironically, it was rainy and gloomy back in Idaho so a good weekend to be gone!

So instead, I will show the quilt that got me hooked on the quilting part of making quilts.  It's the very first one I made from start to finish.  Up until now, I was really only interested in the piecing part of the process.   My good friend Robin showed me how to do quilting on my Bernina and that's how it all got started.  I'm loving it!

I bought a layer cake from the Moda Storybook line of fabric to make a quicky baby blanket and there were enough squares in it to make three small quilts in pink, yellow, and aqua.  This fabric is so cute!!  Here is my first attempt at stippling on the yellow version.  I enjoyed that so much, that's when I went in search of a quilting class and joined Leah Day's Block party.

My mom lives in a retirement home and I have lunch with her at least once a week.  This week I took all my projects with me to show her what I had been doing and one of the ladies at her table wants to buy my pink version for her newest great grand daughter.  I wasn't even trying to sell anything so that was fun!

So now I need to quilt and bind that one.  I found this wonderful plush fabric for the back.  So soft!

And finally, here are my block 2's for the Leah Day Block Party.  Kind of wish I would have picked a darker pink on the first one as it doesn't have much contrast against the white.  Oh well.  It ought to show the quilting really well, right?  :)  Still haven't decided on thread color yet. 

Today I'm linking up with Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrap Bag.

Happy quilting!

Janice

2nd Colorway for the Block Party

As you saw in my post yesterday, I have decided to join Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Block Party and am doing it in two color ways.  I only had one of the blocks finished yesterday and here is the 2nd one. I think this is going to be my favorite!  I didn't really explain what the block party was about.   Each month we receiving instructions for piecing a new block and also instructions on how to quilt it.  I joined the party about 4 months late so I'm a few blocks behind.  I'm going to get all 8 blocks (because I'm doing two different colors) all sewn and then I'll work on the quilting.  Can't wait!

I just found out about something called a Blogger Blog Hop for newbie bloggers like me so I have signed up!  I have no idea what it's all about, but if it means learning how to be a better blogger, I'm in.  I'm still tinkering around with what I can do with the blog tools and haven't figured it all out yet.

The colorful background you see on my page is a picture of some fabric that I bought years ago and it is a perfect representation of my favorite color.  ALL OF THEM!!  :)  

I have never been able to bring myself to cut it up so I have three yards of this gorgeous fabric that has been sitting around waiting for me to figure out what I'm going to do with it. (since this post was written I changed the background to white and just used the fabric for the lettering so it wasn't quite so distracting)

I am working on another quilt project (baby quilt) for my niece Katie, but since I don't know whether or not she will be reading this, I can't show you that until after the baby shower.  I hope she loves it!   I can show you the quilt that inspired it.  It is one I found in the 2013 May/June issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting.  I can show you my inspiration without giving away what it is.  So that finish will be for a future post.

Speaking of baby blankets, take a look at this . . .

 What you are seeing is a new project in the making.  The pink blanket is fuzzy and soft and perfect for a baby blanket except for that pink ribbon on the corner.  I want to applique a monogrammed initial over it.  Anybody got any good ideas on how to do this and make both sides look good?   I want to use the letter "m".  I'm picturing either a pink gingham or some kind of floral with lots of pink flowers.  I'm really liking this idea because it will be a pretty swift finish.  Love that instant gratification!  I am not just asking to fill space, I would be delighted to hear from anyone with some ideas on this.

I've got so many other ideas I want to share so I have to be careful and not write about too much in each post!  

Keep creating!  

Janice Holton

Introducing Myself!

Hello fellow lovers of color and quilts!

My name is Janice and I am a new quilter!  I'm ready to plunge in!  I have been reading quilter blogs for months now and my mind is boggled at the talent out there in quilt land!  Wow!  As soon as I figure out how to work this blog thingy, I'll add links to the blogs that I love to read.  I can tell you a couple right off the bat that inspired me.  First is Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation.  I can't believe how many quilts this talented lady puts out, not to mention how much I enjoy the bright colors she uses and the patterns she creates.  Scrumptious!

Another one is Leah Day.  I just learned how to free motion quilt on my own machine and have been devouring all the information on her blog that I can.  I joined the Free Motion Quilting Project and am so looking forward to learning more quilting techniques I'm probably going to make two different color ways.

Here are the fabrics that I chose to use for this project.

Project 1

Project 2

I'm kind of puzzled at why I chose these colors because I tend to be drawn to bright, rich colors and neither one of these fit that category!  Curiouser and curiouser (my daughter's drama class just finished performing Alice and Wonderland so that just seemed to fit).

So you're going to see all my projects, warts and all and hopefully I can share what I learn as I go!

Another project I have is a small quilt with western themed fabric made from 2 charm packs and 2 mini charm packs.    This only made 21 blocks which is kind of an odd number for anything!     Anyway, I'm trying to decide what I want to do with these.  Sash them with something?  Just sew them straight together?  Make a checkerboard with alternating blocks of something else?  Make another whole set of blocks to make a bigger size quilt?  What would you do?

Here is another exciting thing that I'm going to need help deciding what to do with!  I was given a quilt top by my mother-in-law that is very old and has been completely hand pieced.  Unfortunately, she has no idea who made it or where it came from.  She said it might possibly be made by her grandmother but there was no way to know.   I did not recognize the pattern but after asking someone more knowledgable than I am about quilt piecing patterns, I was told it is called a bow tie quilt.  It has bright happy colors with lots of yellow.  I wonder if anybody could tell me about what year you think these fabrics are from?  I am guessing about 1940's??  What do you think?

Another decision I am going to have to make with this quilt is how to finish it and how to quilt it.  As you can see in the following picture, there is a yellow border; however, the border is only on three sides.  For some reason the fourth side was removed.  I would either have to find some yellow to match this color, or take off the three borders that are already there and replace them with something else.  Decisions!  Decisions!

I was also given this quilt  which is BLEHHH!    However . . .

the back is scrumptious!!  And I think would look pretty wonderful folded up in a display cabinet with some other colorful creations.

Well, that's probably enough for now!  I was actually going to write more but apparently there is a limit on how much space you can use for one post.  So I'll save it for another day!

I would love to hear from anybody who happens  stumble upon my blog.  Please introduce yourself!  would love to meet some kindred spirits and hear what projects you are working on.

Thanks for stopping by!

Today, I'm linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

Janice