Pendleton puppies for Sew Expo
February 27, 2013 at 4:16 pm | Posted in books and mags, I love to make things..., projects to do, sewing, washington | 2 CommentsI just got back from Quiltcon and my first visit to Austin, Texas, and it was so fantastic! I am working on a post about it with lots of photos, but in the meantime, slowed down by a major post-flight cold, I wanted to share a little project I sewed last month for the Woolen Mill Store: a set of Pendleton puppies!
Michelle asked me and several other sewists to make some projects with Pendleton’s wool, especially their marvelous plaids, for their Sew Expo booth. I sent her several ideas and was so excited when they picked my favorite one, the George the Puppy softie from Jennifer Paganelli’s book, Girl’s World.
I’ve made several in quilting cottons for my kids and I knew they would be so adorable in wool plaids of different scales and colors. It’s a super fun little pattern to sew.
A few tips/details on sewing them in wool instead of quilting cotton: I cut mine on the bias instead of on the straight grain as directed with absolutely no issues.
For the curves, I “clipped” them with pinking shears, turned them right side out, and then top-stitched them for stability. No interfacing or any other materials necessary.
I love how the ears turned out!
And how the bias lines of the plaids looked along the seams.
Pearl and I named them Oliver and Madeleine and had a little indoor-outdoor photo shoot.
One of my favorite things was making a tiny wool-felt binding collar with a mother-of-pearl button “tag” for each of the puppies.
Buttons just find their way into a LOT of my projects. I love them so much.
The two puppies are so cute together. I used Pendleton’s ombre plaids in shirting weight, which is lovely to sew. I mixed larger-scale plaids for the bodies with smaller, more delicate plaids for the ears.
If you go to Sew Expo, I hope you’ll stop by the Pendleton booth and say hi to Oliver and Madeleine! Check out all the beautiful Pendleton project samples everyone sewed in Michelle’s post here.
If you go:
Sew Expo
February 28-March 3, 2013
Puyallup, Washington
summer + urban craft uprising
July 6, 2012 at 9:02 am | Posted in cooking is crafty too, crafty events, crafty to buy, washington | 1 CommentHappy summer! After two giant deadlines, two sick kids, two trips to FedEx, and tying up about two thousand loose ends, I feel like summer has finally started around here. We had a sweet little Fourth of July, got to pick seven pounds of raspberries the other day, and my garden is going crazy… now that I’m not hunched over my laptop eight or ten hours a day I can actually go outside now and then!
I’m in town for the weekend this time, but I sure wish I could make it to Seattle for the Urban Craft Uprising show! Kristen has organized another awesome line-up with tons of vendors, author signings, and craft demos.
Two of my favorite crafty ladies will be up there sharing a booth with their lovely jewelry, accessories and clothes! Cathy Pitters of BossaNova Baby and Crafty Wonderland has making gorgeous embroidered jewelry… bracelets and locket-style pendants. She is still screenprinting hoodies and skirts (you can see lots more of her stuff in her Etsy shop and at Crafty downtown).
And Torie (aka Totinette and the other half of Crafty) has these striking wooden necklaces for sale, along with filigree metal earrings and other charming bijoux. She also has a newly updated Etsy shop if you’re not local…
I’m looking forward to the PMQG exhibit at Sisters and the new Denyse Schmidt class at PNCA (oh, can’t wait for that one), but in the meantime Pearl and I are planning to make raspberry freezer jam and try our hand at some potato printing during Everett’s nap. Have a great weekend!
quilting modern
June 1, 2012 at 12:30 pm | Posted in books and mags, chatty, midwest, modern log cabin quilting, oregon, portland modern quilt guild, quilting, reviews and interviews, sewing, washington | 18 CommentsI’m so happy to be part of Katie and Jacquie‘s blog party weekend of posts celebrating their stellar new book, Quilting Modern! Katie is president of the SMQG and Jacquie is past president of the KCMQG, a current member of the CMQG, and on the national board too. These two know their modern improvisational quilting, and they generously share so many beautiful ideas, packed into one gorgeous book!
I love improvisational patchwork (and was very lucky to take Denyse Schmidt’s classes at PNCA), and Katie and Jacquie’s thoughtful designs, techniques, tips, and details are wonderfully illuminating. They cover many facets of modern quilting, like improvisationally piecing curves, creating sharp, perfect triangle designs, and one of my favorites, the log cabin makeover – they offer seven core techniques in all, each with three projects to sew. The table of contents gives a nice peek at the diversity of approaches and techniques (and I love the names they chose for their quilts!).
I’m sure many of the other bloggers will cover the 16 beautiful quilt designs in the book – but for my review I wanted to spotlight the striking smaller projects Katie and Jacquie designed for the home. With two little ones and not much free sewing time lately, a beautiful pillow or table runner is more my realistic speed, and these projects are also very scrap- and stash-friendly… a nice bonus! When I first got my copy and read right through it, I was immediately drawn to the Winging It Pillow, which builds a simple, stunning design around a focus-fabric scrap. The mix of erratic-height vertical piecing, bright, strong colors, and ultra-streamlined background is so appealing. This one is at the top of my to-sew list (and I love Katie’s invisible zipper technique, which is also included in the book).
The Southwestern Pillows are similarly striking. I especially love the Tumbleweed (the center asterisk-like design) – it’s such a fresh take on my favorite design style, mid-century modern. I’m picturing how fantastic a quilt made up of all Tumbleweed blocks could be… hmm, maybe when Pearl starts kindergarten…
My favorite of the three is the Sardinia Table Runner, a calm, serene, and gorgeous design with neatly curved “pods” (that Jacquie’s husband thought looked like sardines, so that’s where the name came from). This is another one I could see as a larger quilt. Angela Walters did a great deal of the quilting in the book, but Katie and Jacquie quilted these three projects. I loved the simplicity of these neatly alternating-angle diagonal lines over the curves and solids – a beautiful texture.
I will bring a copy of Quilting Modern for everyone to check out at our PMQG All-Day Sew tomorrow afternoon (at Fabric Depot from 9-9, though the book and I won’t be there til around 1:30), and I’m so thrilled that we’ll also be giving a copy away at the June 21 PMQG meeting. Thank you to Katie and Jacquie for including me in their book party, and to Interweave for sending two copies of the book for me to review and offer up at PMQG!
Be sure to visit the other bloggers reviewing (and giving away!) the book, too at the Quilting Modern blog celebration weekend:
A Stitch in Dye – Malka Dubrawsky
Fat Quarterly blog – Tacha Bruecher
Film in the Fridge – Ashley Newcomb
Generation Q – Jake Finch
Handmade by Alissa – Alissa Haight Carlton
Happy Zombie – Monica Solorio-Snow
iheartlinen – Rashida Coleman-Hale
Oh Fransson – Elizabeth Hartman
One Shabby Chick – Amber Carrillo
Pink Chalk Studio – Kathy Mack
Quilting is my Therapy – Angela Waters
Red Pepper Quilts – Rita Hodge
Sew Take a Hike – Penny Layman
West Coast Crafty – Susan Beal
Whip Up – Kathreen Ricketson
Wise Craft – Blair Stocker
sew expo shopping
March 5, 2012 at 1:50 pm | Posted in books and mags, chatty, crafty to buy, modern log cabin quilting, quilting, sewing, vintage crafty, washington, world of geekcraft | 7 CommentsI had such a great time at Sew Expo this weekend! Here are my finds – more on these in a minute.
It was a bit of a whirlwind trip. Nancy and I drove up Friday night with a Burgerville stop, and got to hang out with Michelle, Brittany, Kaci, Rachel and Cherri for a glass of wine and some fabric-shop-hop show and tell. Saturday morning, I did my book event at the Pendleton Woolen Mills booth, which was great – thank you to everyone who came to say hi!
Then, Nancy, Brittany, Michelle and I walked the show for another five hours of awesome treasure hunting – the four of us brought some good things home. Here are my finds, roughly in the order I snapped them up. I started with this fabulous plaid waterproof laminate tote at the Pendleton booth, which held everything else I got all afternoon.
And I could NOT resist these Sublime Stitching sew-in labels, also from Pendleton (if you’re in Portland, they have them at the WMS in Southeast). Genius.
I bought a yard each of the new ice blue and fresh green Pearl Bracelet from Island Quilter,
assorted yards and half-yards of Lotta Jansdotter Echo prints from Heartway International,
a beautiful 8.5″ x 11″ card of 42 vintage pearl buttons, “carded between 1945 and 1955 in Pennsylvania,” from Betty Henry,
two yards of this darling Tammis Keefe holiday reindeer reissue from Michael Miller for a tree skirt (can’t remember the vendor but will look for the receipt and try to update!),
and a pezzy mono-color jelly roll from Sandy of American Jane herself. She was so nice and so happy about the reissue, and I was so excited to get some of this fabric!!
Then, I got some very special trims and ribbons from Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods. I fell in love with the scissors ribbon, and needed the bluebirds too (I already have them in pink), plus the tiny red-and-white trim and the measuring twill tape. Then I saw a $9 package of 3 large shank-style milk glass buttons – very nice, but not my button style – with this darling scanned “baby pearls” label.
Since my daughter is a Pearl and I love pearl buttons so much, I asked the owner if she had any other buttons or trim packaged with this same vintage image that I could buy instead. She cut the label free of the three buttons, handed it to me and charged me 50¢ for it. So sweet of her! I will definitely be shopping with NTDG again soon.
I also got to meet Angie from The Quilting Loft, who is lovely! I fell for a gorgeous sample of this Indygo Junction dress in her booth sewn in a Lotta print, so I got the pattern, plus some adorable dot laminate, a yard of Valori Wells’ birch trees, and a yard of the Melody Miller typewriters.
I got this celebration print from Pacific Fabrics (plus two things not pictured – some large, unphotogenic placemat blanks that I’m going to try out with patchwork this week, and a beautiful vintage-button embroidery pattern they’d sold out of but are shipping me this week, no extra charge).
Two and half hours and another Burgerville stop later, we were back in Portland in time for the big game I’d DVRed to watch with my nephew who was in town this weekend (hi Julian!). Now I’m trying to decide what projects get what fabrics, in between finishing my Craft Hope tote bags and Think Outside the Block bee blocks, and dreaming of a PMQG –> Seattle ferry-powered shop hop weekend with friends…
If you are also sewing littlest warriors tote bags for Craft Hope (or making hats) and want to ship them together, or share photos, that would be great! Thanks to everyone who has contacted me or commented here or at PMQG. I will try to mail out Friday so they arrive in time, and would love to add yours (I’ll gladly cover shipping). Please email me over at portlandmodernquiltguild at gmail.com if you want to team up!
name tags, skirts, + sew expo
February 29, 2012 at 3:26 pm | Posted in chatty, craft to wear, crafty events, modern log cabin quilting, portland modern quilt guild, quilting, sewing, washington, world of geekcraft | 5 CommentsI think I’ll use my Leap Day for a sewing round-up post! I stitched up a PMQG name tag, a Lisette market skirt, and a matching headband in the last little while and I really like all of them.
It took me awhile to finish my name tag (you can see a couple dozen awesome ones from February’s meeting over here btw!), because I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to write/print/embroider West Coast Crafty. I was dreaming of Gocco, but finally went super-simple with a lovely turquoise Sharpie from Collage.
Loving my 2012 craft project journal from Ex Libris Anonymous…
Finished name tag! I used blue Pearl Bracelet from Lizzy House for my main section and binding-tape lanyard, and yellow Peacock Lane from Violet Craft for my pennants, and the back. I embroidered my name, stitched down my bias tape, pinned the pennants in place, and then used Pellon 71F heavy interfacing for it instead of batting, stitched around 3 sides, trimmed and carefully turned it, fully fused it on the back, and then turned the raw edges in on the bottom and top-stitched the perimeter.
I’m confident there’s a prettier way to add the pinback than invisible thread, but oh well. I like the back and that cheery yellow!
At the February meeting (which was completely awesome and included a stellar talk by Kathy Miller and a Cotton Couture color card for each of us!),
I got to wear my finished Lisette market skirt. Hooray! I bought the Denyse Schmidt fabric at JoAnn at the end of January, started cutting and sewing it at the Fabric Depot All Day Sew and stitched the buttons on the day before the meeting. I really like this pattern.
Here are my thoughts:
1. I made View B which I think is super cute, but it’s short. Really, really short by my late-thirties’ standards (I think 18″) so I “hemmed” it with folded twill tape right over the raw edge, instead of losing any more length. When I sew it again, I’m adding a couple inches to its length for sure!
2. The six pieces (front center + sides, back center + sides), look REALLY similar on your sewing table. I notched them all (thank goodness) and was still struggling to figure out which were front, back, side, center, anything. Don’t unpin them all at once (oops).
3. Choose big, striking buttons for the plackets. I really loved how that defined the skirt style along with the neatly top-stitched panel seams. It’s really cool how the plackets also create an avenue for a belt, tie or scarf, like stylish belt loops.
4. This is a nice efficient pattern that will give you good-sized scraps for patchwork – yay – or… a headband! I sewed a headband to match and I really love it, on days where my messy hair is kind of driving me crazy it is a nice polished feeling. If you’d like to make one too, I love Caitlin’s tutorial, I just adapt it a bit for my love of vintage and excessive amount of long, thick hair.
Ok, last sewing thing! I’m really excited for our PMQG field trip to the Sew Expo in Puyallup, Washington this weekend! Nancy, Brittany, Rachel, Kaci, Cherri, Michelle, and I are all heading up to check out the show, the first time I’ve been in 10 years. If you are going too, I’m doing a book signing for both Modern Log Cabin Quilting and World of Geekcraft at the Pendleton Woolen Mills booth on Saturday from 10am-12noon, please come by and say hi and get a free quilt block or magnet kit. I’d love to meet you!
Seattle event postponed – spring trunk show coming up
October 21, 2011 at 2:43 pm | Posted in books and mags, modern log cabin quilting, washington | Leave a commentI’m so sorry to announce that I’ve had to cancel my MLCQ event at the Quilting Loft tomorrow due to some sudden family stuff coming up. I was so excited about coming up for it, and I really apologize for the last-minute cancellation.
I will mail a box of my log cabin quilt kits to the shop on Monday to give away to any customers who wanted to come to the event, or pick up a copy of the book over the next few weeks. I’m also so happy to report that Angie has kindly offered to host a trunk show with lots of the book projects next spring, once The Quilting Loft moves to their lovely new location. So we’ll plan a make-up party for a few months out!
Again I’m so sorry to cancel at the last minute, but I’m really looking forward to the spring party – huge thank-you to Angie and the Quilting Loft for being so understanding. Happy weekend everyone!
hello Seattle!
October 14, 2011 at 10:04 am | Posted in books and mags, chatty, modern log cabin quilting, quilting, washington | 4 CommentsI’m super excited to come to Seattle next weekend for a Modern Log Cabin Quilting book signing and party at the lovely Quilting Loft in Ballard! It’s on Saturday, October 22 from 1-3 pm. I’ll bring book projects to show, along with free log cabin quilt block kits for everyone to sew.
Please stop by if you’re free! I would love to say hello and talk quilting with you, and I will definitely do some fabric shopping while I’m there…
Huge thank-you to Angie at the Quilting Loft, Katie of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild, Megan, Kristen, and Blair for helping me set up something fun in Seattle. We are making a weekend mini-vacation of it and I can’t wait! Hoping to take a ferry (Pearl’s favorite thing to do there), visit the Olympic Sculpture Park, see some buddies and go to the art museum…
If you go:
MLCQ book party
The Quilting Loft
2601 NW Market St. Seattle, WA 98107
Saturday, 10/22 from 1-3pm
Free!
wool felting at the Sew Expo
March 3, 2011 at 12:32 pm | Posted in crafting with kids, crafty events, washington | Leave a commentI’ve gone to the magnificent Sew Expo in Puyallup before, but couldn’t pull it off this year… but if you’re going, don’t miss my friend Kathy Monaghan’s Felting for Young Crafters workshop, offered both Friday and Saturday. It’s suitable for anyone 10 and up and you’ll leave with three very cool finished projects – one using wet-felting, one using needle-felted applique, and one sculptural piece! Plus, if you are wearing anything handmade with Pendleton, you’ll get a surprise gift too.
I first met Kathy at the 2009 Oregon State Fair when I got to try felting at the Pendleton booth – it was really fun! I wrote more about it then, but here are a couple of my photos…
Each person got to choose from beautifully dyed hanks of Pendleton wool and spindles of yarn for their mini-felting adventure. I would absolutely love to take the whole class!
If you go:
Felting for Young Crafters taught by Kathy Monaghan of Pendleton
Friday (#3021B), 2:30 – 5:00 pm/Sunday (#3021D), 11:00 am – 1:30 pm
Sew Expo, Puyallup, Washington
Kit includes: multi-needle felting tool, Pendleton carded wool, needle felting base, wool fabrics, wire armature, and instruction sheets ($20)
giving by hand and geek crafts
November 4, 2010 at 1:48 pm | Posted in books and mags, california, geek crafts, holidays, new writing!, oregon, washington | 1 CommentI wrote up two fun pieces this week that I wanted to share over here! First, I was so thrilled to spotlight four West Coast-crafted handmade holiday gifts for the brand-new issue of Venus. I picked a mix of my favorites – a striking Polaroid print from Yellow Owl Workshop (San Francisco), a leaf-embellished glasses case from Queen Bee Creations (Portland), lush and pretty flower brooches from Piper Ewan (Portland), and a rad coffee mug (made from corn!) by Sarah Utter (Olympia) for my round-up, and in what feels like a mostly digital world lately, it was a special treat to see all these cool things on an actual paper page.
Along with my regional picks for out here, Julie Schneider handled the East Coast, Amanda Mauer Taflinger covered the Midwest, and The Wondercraft spotlighted the Southwest – there is some awesome crafty stuff around these days, to say the least!
I’m also very happy to be posting weekly at Geekcrafts.com again, and I just fell in love with this sweet little amigurumi R2D2 pattern by Janama on Etsy. I need to get a refresher course from the super-talented Linda and start crocheting again…
Thank you, Venus! Thank you, geekcrafts! I have one more writing-related announcement tomorrow that I am super excited about as well, more on that whenever Pearl lets me have a little more laptop time.
C! C! E!
August 12, 2010 at 12:28 pm | Posted in crafty events, crafty to buy, new writing!, pretty pictures, washington | 2 CommentsI’m excited to head to Seattle tomorrow for the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs! (Wow, entrepreneur is surprisingly hard to spell, especially several times in a row, so I decided to simplify the title of this post.) The schedule looks fantastic — a mix of super-interesting hands-on panels and classes, craft and business lectures, book events and cupcakes — and I am really looking forward to seeing friends and craft heroes from all over the place like Faythe Levine, Garth Johnson, Megan Reardon, Lisa Congdon, Moxie, Kristen Rask and Jamie Chan.
I’m part of a panel on Teaching Your Craft on Friday (2:45-4:00) and leading a discussion on Craft Activism on Saturday (1:15-2:30). I would love to see you at either one, or at the panels I’ll get to attend the rest of the time! We’re also planning on dim sum, a Bainbridge ferry ride, a park picnic, and a visit to the big beautiful public library.
Many thanks to Megan for her fantastic blog post this morning detailing a whole slew of great places to eat, shop, hang out, and enjoy yourself in the conference neighborhood. I don’t know Seattle well enough to confidently run around on my own (after a mere 13 years of visiting from just south) and her tips and links are super inspiring.
Hope to see you there!!
p.s. If you are into photography and looking for some new things to try, I wrote up my five favorite photo-related things lately over at CRAFT: for the July Bazaar round-up: Big Huge Labs, Photobooth Finder, Blurb books, Photo Transfer Fabric Sheets, and Qoop Calendars (here’s the September 2010 page of ours, featuring my teeny little Pearl in a big covered wagon at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City). Happy picture-taking!
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