NYC Garment District

Hi Everyone - I got home from NYC last night. I went to the Garment district on Saturday a.m. I liked Pacific Trimming where I bought a couple of yards of soft "ribbon" flowers that I will use to embellish t-shirts - my new favorite clothing choice. They had a very large selection of handbag handles for about $4 each.
I also bought a few yards of "braid" to embellish hand towels at M&J trimming. I like to buy plain white towels and then trim with braid to make them look custom. I even bought some fabric to make sundress, now I need to find a pattern. I used a document from Paula Nadelstern's website to figure out what to look at. One place I wanted to go (Handloom Batik) was no longer in Manhattan, so sad. Nancy even went with me to Purl Soho, but the warehouse in Orange County was way more fun. I didn't buy anything there.

Nancy and I went to see a Nora Ephron (and her daughter) theatrical piece (not a play) called "Love, Loss and What I wore." It was fun, but not very deep, even if there were mentions of divorce, breast cancer, and death. One of the funniest bits (I thought) was about women's purses, and another about bras. I think it is quite a good idea as a way to start thinking about writing an autobiography. We also could draw a favorite piece of clothing. I drew my wedding dress, maybe because I was watching "Say Yes to the Dress" on cable TV in the hotel room. I am so happy that I spent $79 (I think) on my dress, at an outlet store in Dallas-Ft Worth during a Planning Applications conference. Too bad I can't fit into it anymore. I find it quite appalling that people on that TV show have $3,000 - 7,000 to spend!

We had a wonderful dinner a block away from the theatre at a place called West Bank Cafe. Nancy had some kind of fish, and I had a black pepper pasta with duck and mushrooms. It was delicious.

I'll be in Wash DC in mid to late July. See you soon.

Bento Box: Tracey Brookshier

On Tuesday night, I went to the Quilters Anonymous monthly meeting to hear the talk by Tracey Brookshire about quilting in Japan. Quilters Anonymous is the overarching quilt group with over 400 members, of which the Ballard Stashbusters is just a "satellite" group. Tracey has sold over 50,000 copies of the Bento Box pattern - she says she is sending her son to college on the money she has made from that pattern. Too bad I didn't have photographs of ALL the many bento box quilts I have made!

Her talk was about spending 9 days at the Quilt show at the Tokyo Dome. Her slide show was FABULOUS. I am ready to go! I think it is typically the same week as TRB, so I might have to wait another couple of years, but I am thinking that January 2012 might really be a possibility. Do I really need to go to TRB annual meeting EVERY YEAR? I am not Kim! One of the interesting things she talked about was the "sensei" and student relationship in Japan. This is how the brush painting that my mother studied, and of course, Karate and other martial arts are organized, but they have extended it to quilting as well. She would show a full image of a quilt, and then a close up, showing the meticulous work, especially with applique and hand quilting. She didn't talk too much about different color choices, except for the use of beiges and browns (like the Daiwabo taupes). She asked someone about it, and they said they were going for the "American country look." It is still a mystery. Maybe they saw a faded b&w photograph that looked sepia, and they thought that is what the quilts looked like in real life?

So, start saving your money for a trip to Japan! I am READY! It doesn't bother me that I will never do that kind of quilt making. I think I can just marvel in the fact that they do it, and I am happy to piddle around to maintain my mental health. Frank is building me a shelf for the closet in my sewing room, to help me get a little more order (I hope!).

News from Seattle

Here is the strippy quilt my Ballard group made for our group member, Jean M, who is undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer. Blocks were due on April 1, and the quilt was finished, and given to Jean on April 29. I put the blocks and borders together, Carol did the machine quilting, and Ann did the binding


Here are 4 of the blocks (in progress) for the next CFC quilt that Jackie, Jenny and I are working on. I have finished all 12 of my blocks and mailed them to Jenny. Also, my Ballard Stashbusters group decided to use the same pattern for our raffle quilt for the Phinney Neighborhood Center (PNC). This design is from Kim Brackett's book, "Scrap Basket Surprises". We have received permission from Martingale Press to use it for the CFC quilt. The one for PNC will be mostly blues and greens, with a white/grey background fabrics. It will be interesting to see how different the 2 quilts look when they are completed!

Slight digression

Well, I had to put a hold on finishing UFOs to make a retirement gift for a friend in Iowa. Lucky thing I'd downloaded a free pattern (Summertime) from Michael Miller Fabrics (http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/) - it worked out beautifully in red/white/blue. I mailed it off on Thursday so it should arrive in Ames in plenty of time for folks to sign it during Paula's retirement party on June 3rd. I probably won't get it back until the end of June so depending on when we hold the July S&B, you might see it then.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly so my end result is about 6" larger in both dimensions. I ended up with a quilt that's 60"x74". 1st change - I trimmed my pinwheels to 10.5", rather than the component squares to 5", which meant my setting squares are larger as well. 2nd change - I added a white middle border for more signature space. This is a really fast quilt to make so if you need a twin-sized quilt in a hurry and you have a fun theme fabric, you might try this one.

Lori's Christmas Runner

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this for Lori (who's certainly welcome to edit this text).

What I did during the furlough

Here is "in progress" project using new fabrics from Maui. I am using M'liss Rae Hawley Phenomenal Fat Quarter Quilts book. The orange parts are going to pieced circles. I am going to call it Kihei Sunset. The directions say to cut the quarter circles and piece them using curved seams onto each square. I am thinking of making full circles and then machine appliqueing them to the top where all the squares have been sewn together. I just need to borrow a machine that has a nice buttonhole applique stitch.

The R/W/B is on it's way to American Heroes project at Vashon. I saw that they now have a Facebook page, and they sent several quilts to a military hospital in Afghanistan. Previously, quilts were used at Madigan Army Hospital in Pierce County, where injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan are being treated.

The T quilt for Russ just needs a small last border. I should get that done today. Frank and I are planning to work in the garden, but it is too cold and windy right now. We had an early spring, but now we are back in Winter. Lots of snow in the mountains yesterday, which is a good thing since we rely on the snowpack for our water and electricity in the summer.

Wish I was stitching and bitching with you all today. Lots of love!

Two completed UFOs plus one

Here are the first two completed UFOs from my list for this year (although I did pick up on the fact that my definition of completed varies slightly from the rest of the group in that I'm thinking of just getting the top finished while everyone else is thinking quilted and bound before it counts as done - since I'm greatly in the minority, we'll go with the majority view). I'm really pleased with how they turned out. You will all be pleased to know that the first two projects are already down in North Carolina for quilting.

The first image is project 11 and I'm still looking for a name. I'm planning to send it to a Marine on Okinawa. Al's now the only family member without a quilt from me. I'll send it along with the baby quilt I'm making for the baby that will be arriving shortly. I'll be using the dark blue for binding since I pieced the back with a variety of outdoors prints - I think it's almost as much fun as the front. Mom thinks Al's getting the best deal since he'll be able to use the side that suits his mood - this side when he's looking for zing, the other side, not so much. I'll have to post a picture of it when I get it really done (bindings and all).

The second image is project 16 - Wacky Patriot, and I really like how it came out. I'm going to call this block the DIY square since you pick your final size and fill it in however you want. You'll notice that I didn't stick with the "every center is a square" concept. I went with one dark blue for the sashing but used a variety of reds for the setting squares (yes, there are repeats!). I plan to bind this one in red. I didn't have nearly as much fun with this back.

This is the bonus quilt - one of the three that Clara is helping me move along. She added the borders. I have the back put together and the batting cut (yup, it's the left-overs from the other two) but wasn't able to get it pin-basted before Mom and Dad headed home. (Family events can really adversely affect project completion - especially when they occur in your own home!) I call this one "Bunting" and it'll go to QFV when it's done.