Two books you must read

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall

In this, I used the spool block, and the snail trail block to create a quilt I called Barrel of Monkeys. I love this design as it reminds me of those toy monkeys my kids used to hook onto everything in the house.

Here is the Lawn Chair quilt pattern I mentioned. Stay tuned for a post with my finished quilt sometime this week. I am still stitching the binding.

Don’t forget to prep for the #SummerReadingQAL ! 

Books I mentioned..

Edge of Evil by J. A. Jance

Obedience by Will Lavender

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

Thanks for stopping by!

Quilt Happy!

Here’s the setting triangle link I promised.

Quilt Happy!

5 ways to love to your longarmer

1. Prevent wavy borders, by measuring and properly attaching them. There are a couple ways to do this. One is to measure through the center of your quilt top, cut your borders to that length, and pin and ease as you sew them on. Run them through the machine with the border fabric up and the quilt top against the feed dogs. Another is to fold your quilt top in half and lay it on a long table with the folded edge (center) toward you. Lay your border strips on top of it, and mark them for length. Move your top out of the way and cut where you’ve marked. No measuring! and it’s still accurate. Then pin and ease as necessary.

2. Stay Stitch around the entire edge of your quilt, in the seam allowance. It will prevent stretching, and be hidden inside the binding when you’re done.

3. Press your top, paying special attention to making sure your seam allowances are pressed consistently where possible. (especially if you are requesting ditch quilting)

4. Clip any stray threads that have been caught in your seam allowances on the front side.

5. Make sure your backing is big enough. Ask your longarmer how much extra they prefer. Press your backing too!

*Bonus points if you trim your batting to size. It should be as big as the backing. Sometimes my customers bring in a king batting for a twin quilt because that’s what they had. I have to trim away the excess so it fits neatly and the clamps are easily accessible, and where they need to be. Ideally, you want your batting to breathe a bit before it’s loaded, so I like when they take it out, and trim it down before bringing it to me. I have a favourite customer who does this, and also stay stitches her quilt tops. She is a joy to quilt for!

**As always, ask your particular longarmer for their preferences. Communication is key for a positive experience. You want your longarmer to he happy while working on your quilt!

p.s. PLEASE remove any pins before dropping off your quilt. I HAVE SCARS.

Some thoughts on Modern Quilting

I adore the aesthetic of modern quilts. The clean lines and negative space make my heart sing. What I hope to see in the future of modern quilting is a continuing focus on the do it yourself attitude, while gently embracing the idea of always learning, always improving. I don’t want to see a complete lack of quality workmanship for the sake of just making something pretty. I think it’s important to embrace both ideas, and merge them into one. A quilting world where no one is too intimidated to try, but is always wanting to learn more, and get better at their craft.

What I’ve been working on

My Doctor Who quilt. You can find the block patterns and layouts on Fandom in Stitches

Silent Film

Outlander stitch along blocks.

Listen to the episode to hear more details about these projects.

Two books I’ve read

Drood by Dan Simmons

The Surrogate by Tania Carver

Happy Stitching!

This is a sneak peek of Block 3 of the Outlander Stitch Along. I’m working on a few bonus blocks with quotes from the story.

Mulder and Scully <3  I need to redo their eyes.. the pupils are too small.

There isn’t a ton of quilty talk today, because I haven’t done much lately. I talked about my embroidery a little, and then the mystery quilt by Gyleen Fitzgerald on facebook. To find the proper group page for this mystery, go to facebook and search “Gyleen’s Bricks, Cobblestones and Pebbles.” Join and contact one of your friends within the group for the previous clues. I have them saved, and will be happy to pass them on to you. Just message me. Here’s what I have so far.. don’t let the shadow of little gridded squares on the wall confuse you, that’s my design wall. I want to finish out this round with dark bricks and then pull in some lighter greys in the next round.

I rambled a bit about some home improvement projects.. I’m messy

I finished this book yesterday, The Peach Keeper and it reaffirmed to me that I will always read anything by Sarah Addison Allen, without question or summary

P.S. I do realise that the “New Harry Potter” book is not really a new Harry Potter book. They are publishing the script of the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I am still excited

I loved Christa Watson’s new book!! Machine Quilting With Style. It’s the perfect book if you want to try quilting your own quilts on a regular sewing machine.

I talked about all my embroider projects going on, and which quilt I’m working on currently, which is my postage stamp blocks that finish at 5″ .. I love them!

Here’s what I am currently reading…

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

Scroll to the next blog post if you’re looking for the second Outlander Stitch Along block!

Go Stitch Something!

Here’s the paper pieced block I made yesterday.

It’s the first in the Sewhooked 2016 My Favourite Things block of the month.

Now.. Go do whatever you want to do.

Relax, it’s just PG-13 or so

The Cursed Quilt

I wiped my sweat as I leaned over the sewing machine, frantically stitching in a vain attempt to finish the quilt before Halloween. I had one day left to complete the quilt I had promised to raffle at the party the following evening. It was by far the largest and most intricate I had ever undertaken, borne of thick and luxurious fabric for the cold of the coming winter. It was becoming clearer by the moment that I had bitten off far more than I could chew. Hour after hour I worked at a nearly inhuman pace, and just when it looked as though I might finish, as I set my eyes upon the last few stitches needed to complete my creation, the thread in my machine ran dry. My last spool.

I had special ordered the thread weeks ago, as no local shop had stocked the one perfect color I needed, a color which no other could approximate, and which no other could so perfectly complement the shade of the fabric. I stood, clutching the sides of my head in my tired hands, expletives erupting from my heathen mouth.

In a fatigue and frustration induced stupefaction, I bundled the quilt angrily, though I loved it so, and threw it into the backseat of my car. I set out for the one quilt shop in town with which I was less than familiar, hoping against hope that it might have my thread. It was very old, and an unnerving mood hung all about the place. There were stories, warnings really, that the owner was not quite right, and that a couple of noteworthy local quilters had walked into the shop and never walked out. Silly stories, I always told myself, though I never did tempt fate by going there.

Have you ever felt such a chill that it snapped you from near-sleep to full alertness so suddenly that you felt as though waking from a dream? That is what I felt as I stepped into that grim place. The air was dusty and stale as I walked to the counter where an old woman stood, staring through me.

“Do you have Aurifil in teal feather?” I asked, nearly tripping over my words for the anxiety belaboring my every word and every thought.

“Teal feather?” She croaked with a crooked smile. “Yes… You have distinguished preferences, I see?” She smiled. It was scarcely a question rather than a statement.

“I guess so,” I nodded. “Look, I just need to get my thread and get home so that I can finish this quilt,” I didn’t have time for idle conversation.

“I don’t get many visitors anymore…” She lamented. “Let me show you something,” she said, wholly ignoring my previous request. She opened a drawer beneath the counter filled with unusual threads, most of which I had never seen, and plucked a spool of Aurifil, teal feather. “Come with me,” she said as she walked towards the back room. I pursed my lips and stepped around the counter to follow her, still clutching my quilt.

We stepped into a room which could have immediately curdled the blood of the devil himself. Blood red carpets streaked with black in indescribable, arcane patterns stretched across the floor. The walls were entirely black, and seemed to have been sloppily painted over and over with little regard for technique, with uneven runs and bubbles riddling every inch of the paint as though mess after mess had been hastily covered up. In the middle of the room stood an ordinary chair, and an ordinary but old machine on a dusty table.

“Please, finish your quilt here,” she said. “My old fingers can’t sew anymore, and it would bring me so much happiness to see my sewing machine used again, if only for awhile.”

I have no idea why I acquiesced despite my mind screaming at me to flee with every step I took towards the middle of that room. Her words were gentle, yet they made me want to vomit with fear, and still I sat down in that old, wooden chair. She handed me the thread with a cruelly affectionate smile, and I loaded it, somehow without any difficulty despite knowing nothing about this machine.

I brought the bobbin thread through and up to the surface of my quilt, set the presser foot down, and took a shaky breath as I pressed down on the pedal. My eyes brightened as the machine started to sew the straightest, most perfect line of quilting stitches I had ever seen.

“Wonderful, isn’t it?” She asked from behind my shoulder.

“Yes, I-” my reply was cut short as the old woman erupted into an unholy cackle, and I looked on in horror as my hand was drawn under the presser foot, the needle ripping into my flesh, splintering bone and severing sinew with ease as I screamed in agony. My blood sprayed viciously, caking the walls around me as I was drawn in all the way to the shoulder, my arm disappearing into the machine as the old woman’s laughter grew to a deafening level. I caught a final glimpse of my precious quilt which my face was now nearly pressed against, and saw that the thread being sewn into it was not teal feather. It was my own tendons. The fabric itself was being replaced by the supple skin being stripped from my body, and dyed red with my blood.

I awoke with a start, and looked down at my machine. The nightmare was real. I was still out of teal feather.

Written by Stephen Mier   copyright 2015

Go spook something!

Today I gave an update on my dad’s recovery, talked about the quilts I’ve worked on lately, and reviewed a book I read. Don’t worry, I gave no spoilers.

This was Dad’s arm the day after the angio procedure. It later turned even darker from wrist to shoulder, before eventually fading back to normal. The Dr. kept apologising for the bruising, and we thanked him for it, since it was the first step that made the whole recovery possible!

Here we are before they took him into bypass surgery.

I’ll have to post a new picture of him when I see him next week. It’s amazing how good he looks! Even healthier than before these surgeries. It’s amazing what good blood flow will do for you

Now, on to the quilts…

Firstly, here is my Scrap in a Box, because I don’t think I’ve showed you this one yet. I love how the fat sashing turned out.

And here is Falling Charms

Here’s Birdie’s quilt, with a close up of some of the quilting.

And here’s what I’ve done so far on the background of my Twilter Round Robin quilt.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas on how to quilt the bright areas of this quilt.

The book I reviewed on the podcast is I Saw A Man by Owen Sheers

Thanks for stopping by!

Go Quilt Something

I also worked on this little quilt I’m calling Moby. It looks like he is caught in a hurricane..

I also laid out my Scrap In A Box blocks.. And I’m trying out some fat sashings to see how I like it.

I inserted a piece at the end of the podcast of my son, Ian playing and singing. He was on the radio this morning, and I’m so proud of him. These aren’t professional quality recordings, but if you’d like to hear more, check him out on soundcloud. He writes his own music and lyrics. My favourites are Brighter Now, Sunset Eyes, and Rest My Heart… and all the other ones.  ha