Be*mused

Speed bump

I had hoped to have this small quilt finished and hanging for the holidays, but it's had to be put on hold while I put the pedal to the metal on the wedding quilt.  A queen-sized quilt takes forever to handquilt!!  The end is in sight, however.

Anyhow, a few weeks ago, I decided to prep the top and bottom borders for applique, to have them ready to pick up and go as soon as the other project is finished.  I'm dying to get back to this!!  I cut two strips of the Moda Bella Snow and sprayed them lightly with some water while waiting for the iron to heat up.  It was a sunny day and as I pressed, the sunlight was casting a dappled shadow on the fabric as it came through the shutters.  A cloud passed over the sun briefly and I noticed that the dappled pattern remained.  I blinked and leaned in closer to the fabric. 

There were definitely some splotches of discoloration...bright discoloration...but I decided that they were areas where I had sprayed the water that hadn't yet been pressed dry.  I continued.  The sun came out, the sun went in.  I squinted.  And then I realized that the fabric was defective.  My first reaction was *Phew!!  Glad I caught that before I started appliqueing!*  My second reaction was to dash over to the completed applique on the design wall and go over it with a fine tooth comb since all of its background was cut from the same piece of yardage.  Good news.  It all looked fine.

The photo above shows the splotches of undyed areas, marked with pins for easier identification.  In some lights, you can't even see them, yet in others, they pop off the fabric like they're under a black light.  I thought I'd mention it here because so many are using light background solids and, like me, probably wouldn't bother to examine the fabric before using, thinking that any imperfections would be obvious.  Fortunately, I had ordered extra of the Bella Snow so I was able to cut new border strips from the same length, after careful examination.  Another *Phew!* 

Lots more to share...a list of things waiting!  But not today.  Off to do my morning quilting...yes, there's a daily schedule.

***To clarify a bit after receiving a few comments, the splotches definitely were not attributable to possible bleaching by my water spray.  They were fairly large and well-defined, and although the remaining yardage was somewhat salvageable, there were more splotches found in areas I had not touched.  It was a manufacturer's defect.

Whoopie pie redux

Late last month, I had a request from Sew, Mama, Sew! for permission to post a photo and link to my Whoopie Pie recipe for a series of holiday ideas that they're presenting each day in November.  (Click over from my sidebar link and check it out.  SO many wonderful, creative ideas...every day!!)  I was happy to agree, but there was a little problem. When I originally posted the recipe, it was tacked at the end of a post about my new sewing room and appeared there without an accompanying photo.  The only solution seemed to be to make some and take a few photos.  (Twist my arm.)

So this morning I pulled out my batter-stained recipe which had been carefully copied from my mother's handwritten instructions, circa 1950.  (This is a classic New England *delicacy*!)  I whipped up a batch and was reminded of how quickly they go together.  Here are some halves, cooling on a rack, while another sheetful are baking.  Notice how some are cracked on the top and some are smooth?  No problemo...they're all good.  Literally!

Whoopie Pies

Cream together:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup milk
• 6 TBSP Crisco (vegetable shortening) 
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 5 TBSP cocoa
• 1 tsp. salt

Drop by generous tablespoon on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Filling:

• 1 cup marshmallow fluff
• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1/2 cup Crisco (Butter can be substituted, if you're willing to sacrifice authenticity...*grin*)

Beat the above, adding small amount of milk until desired consistency.  (Which would be something like frosting....)

When the chocolate halves have cooled, pair them up by size and shape.  Generously spread filling on one side, top with mate and wrap each pie individually in plastic wrap.  If you're serving them immediately, you may choose to place them on a plate, unwrapped, as in the top photo.  However, they are moist and cakey, and do tend to stick to one another if stacked for any period of time.  Yield: approximately a dozen and a half (18).

When I was growing up in Maine, these were always a favorite to bring to the beach or a summer picnic.  But no matter what the season, eyes light up when whoopie pies are brought out!  (They're especially delicious with a glass of cold milk.)  For the sake of accuracy (*ahem*), when they were ready, I poured myself a big cup of coffee and checked them out.

 

Mmmm...whoopie pies.  They're not just for breakfast anymore!

When you HAVE to find it

 

Two weeks ago, I told the newlyweds that their quilt probably won't be finished at Thanksgiving, as I had originally promised.  I'd been quilting each evening on the borders, and though I was making steady progress, I had the nagging feeling that the pieced center really needed a bit more quilting.  So I broke the news, I wouldn't be bringing it in November, but would send it right after the holidays when the mail situation would be a bit more reliable.  They were so gracious...oh, ok, take whatever time you need! 

Pressure off, I quilted along until a few nights ago, when I decided I had to finish it as promised.  Pour it on, quilt during the day, complete and deliver it at Thanksgiving.  For them and for me.  And so I've been quilting during the daytime, to the temporary exclusion of most other projects.  As long as the fingers hold out, with some occasional help from New-Skin (it works!!).  And happily, I'm loving this quilt more every day. 

  

Not only the quilt, but some of the fabrics.  That Kaffe Fassett fabric in the center...the ikat stripe with the wonderful little greeny-yellow bouquets?  Every time I quilt through a square of it, I pause and admire it, wishing I had purchased more at the time.  I only ever had a tiny bit of it and it's in a group that's long gone.  But yesterday I remembered something.  A website that helps you hunt down a discontinued or mostly sold out fabric.  Entering two words in the search feature...Kaffe and Lille, the name of the fabric group...I found it.  And now so can you, if you find yourself in a similar situation.  Or worse.  (Lust vs. need.  Small distinction.) 

My OCD habit of cutting my fabric from the opposite side of the selvage (information) edge served me well in this case.  But if you're a fan of the recently popular selvage quilts and projects and are willing to rip the edges from your stash fabrics, you'll get lots of inspiration from the Selvage Blog where Wendy's gorgeous selvage quilt  (even more wonderful in person) was recently featured.  Today she shared her first selvage project...truly, she is Martha MacGyver!  I'm going to have to hide the scissors next time she's in my sewing room.  

Humming along

Humming along.  That sounds so much nicer than scuffing around, doesn't it?  There's definitely been more scuffing than humming here over the last week as I was flattened by some seasonal...flu?  bug?  super-cold?  It seemed never-ending, but finally I'm feeling better and back to some routine. 

 

There's no better pick-me-up during a sick week than good mail, especially when it arrives wrapped in tape like this!  I would have had a hard time opening such a fun package, except that I knew what was in it...a special order from my personal shopper in Japan, Molly.  And what had I requested?

She's such a sport.  I had asked her to keep her eyes open for more of the sharp yellow pindot that I had bought a small piece of at Yuzawaya last January but it wasn't turning up so I went on a very labored internet search of some Japanese fabric sites, which only sell in country.  I found this one, (as did Jennifer, who was also kindly keeping her eyes open for me,) which I thought might have been the elusive yellow, but it turned out instead to be a fabulous neon green.  (I couldn't resist adding in a bit of the two sweet florals, *as long as she was ordering*.)  Both pindots are Suzuko Koseki prints, for Yuwa, impossible to find in the U.S.  Despite my weary state (honestly, I've felt like a dishrag), I pulled myself together enough to wash, press and try it out.

Nice and zingy, paired with some old American Jane and a bit of Authentic text!  I think it would be a great accent green in some applique, too.  Good thing I ordered a good length of it. 

So that's about all I have to show for a week.  I did get a lot of quilting done on the wedding quilt, which has been promised for delivery around the holidays, and spent some of my time making Christmas lists.  I'm in the mood to make some things this year and was able to find a few tutorials online that I might try.  Of course, I can't share what I'm considering here (don't want to tip my hand...), but if you're looking for a good gift to make for someone from preschool through college age, I'd be happy to share my pattern for pillowcases, which I have written about and showcased here and here.  Just let me know in the comments and I'll email it to you.  Ever since I've seen this fabric, I've been thinking what great pillowcases it would make...dontcha think?

***Added *just a bit* later:  Speaking of Japanese fabric, Kim over at True Up has been writing some great posts on the fabrics offered by Japanese vendors at Fall Quilt Market.  Each day this week, she's featuring different Japanese companies and their new offerings, with more to come.  True Up always has the interesting scoops and previews on what's coming down the pipeline in the fabric world.  If you're a Kaffe Fassett fan, today she also posted some preview shots of his upcoming new lines. 

Back to school(house)

Do these ring a bell?  I started these schoolhouse blocks a few years ago after many years of mooning over this cover quilt on an old Country Living magazine.  After assembling a quilt top of nine by nine blocks, I put it aside to ponder.  This happens a lot...I begin a quilt with the intention of making a wall piece, only to get to a certain stage, love where it's going and start to rethink my original size intention.  And I wanted some kind of a border on it, something that the original quilt didn't have.

So it languished until last week, when two members of our quilt group shared their recent experiences at one of Gwen Marston's annual retreats.  I'm a big fan of Gwen's.  I have her books, I understand her philosophy.  But something about seeing my friends' fabulous retreat pieces, assembled from unfinished quilt projects brought to life with new *parts*...sawtooth edges, applique accents...moved me from thinking about trying it someday to needing to start now.  I could hardly wait to get home and dig this piece out.

Not wanting to abandon the other projects I'm working on, I've been adding options to the schoolhouse piece in my spare moments in the sewing room...waiting for the iron to heat up, after marking applique pieces, before assembling a few new rings for the wagon wheel blocks.  How about a red & white sawtooth edge?  Too much white?  I'll think about it.

 

How about red & cheddar?  That may be better.  What about borders?  More cheddar (top)?  A different brown print (side)?  How about a star in the corner...two corners?  All four?

 

If not stars, how about a sun?  I saw something similar in another antique quilt...this could be a possibility.  Or not.  Sometimes when I look at it, it looks wonderful.  Sometimes, too much.

I'm trying to introduce some other colors.  Difficult, when the center is so stark.  But I'll keep playing until something works.  It's a lot of fun and quite easy to do in little *found* moments.  In fact, I think it's easier to pin something up for consideration and move away from it for a while.  It gives you the opportunity to come back to it with a fresh eye. 

 

That was some response to the jelly roll question in the last post.  Did you notice that Moda just introduced a Sampler Box at Quilt Market this week?  (Mmmm, I could sure go for some Whitman chocolates right now....)  Thanks to everyone who left a comment and contributed to the conversation! 

Jelly rolls, layer cakes & honey buns

In the last few years, Moda has come up with a very clever marketing strategy, that of the pre-cut bundles of individual design groups of fabric.  As much as I admired the concept...presenting them in different sized offerings and naming them for mouth-watering desserts that mimic their assembly...I wasn't particularly interested because

1. I never make a project from a single fabric line.  I prefer to mix them up.
2. The pinked edges.  I always prewash my fabric and how much of a mess would all of those little *bits* make as they fluffed off in the dryer?
3. How would I store them?

As with many quilting innovations that I initially stiff-arm (Luddite that I am), I overcame my reluctance when a group I had been awaiting was debuted.  Again, cleverly, Moda has employed another great marketing strategy...releasing a new line in the pre-cut bundles before the yardage is commercially available.  It was August.  Authentic popped up on The Fat Quarter Shop site.  I bit...into a jelly roll.

It was so cute that I didn't wash it for several days.  I hated to untie the ribbon and unfurl the strips from its perfect, tight & compact jelly roll form.  Eventually I succumbed and was a little surprised at how much fabric was coiled up there!   I mean, I knew because I can read, but I am a visual person.  Forty 2.5" strips equals a good amount of fabric!  I pre-washed it all, pressed it and was rewarded with this luscious selection of prints to add to the stash.  Would I do it again?

I'm not sure.  Maybe.  Here's my take on the specialty cut bundles.  They do seem to be a good value.  You do get to see the full range of a new group *in person*, something that is rare these days even in the best stocked of walk-in fabric/quilt shops.  Surprisingly, the fabrics above were my favorites from this group, but they weren't my favorites when I saw the group online.  There is value in seeing the actual fabric before blithely ordering yardage from a website.  Because they use a very fine pinked edge, you lose very little, if any, when pre-washing, although the strips came out of the dryer in a large tangle.  And a little linty from the loose pinked bits.   

In the end, however, unless you are purchasing with a particular project in mind...and there are many such free project tutorials over at the Moda Bake Shop (that theme again...clever) with just that in mind...or are looking to enhance a scrap stash, I'm not sure about the appeal.  There's that storage issue, again.  Mine are currently draped over the wide end of my ironing board, waiting for a solution.  I really don't want to have to develop a new system for bake shop precuts (a glass bakery case?)   

So, how about you?  Have you developed an appetite for these specialty cuts?  What's your size preference and how do you integrate what you don't use right away into your stash?  I'm thinking a layer cake would fit my uses better than the jelly roll.  That is, if I ever develop such a craving again.

It must have been a long meeting

Ha.  I know I said this was handwork for my quilt group meeting, but once I got going, I just had to make a few.  And I wanted to make sure that I liked how it was developing before I cut out too many blocks' worth.  I like it...I love it!!  And it's an easy block to assemble, though I think I do it differently from most.  I machine piece the 20 spokes into a ring, then hand piece the ring into the background block.  Finally, I applique the pieced circle over the center hole.  I've had a number of inquiries about my methods this week...if there's interest in my sharing that here, I'm willing to do it.  But I'm happy to just answer the specific emails if it's pretty obvious to most or it's not a block that many are interested in.  Let me know.

It's a gloomy day here in Chicagoland.  It started out brighter.  I got up with the sun shining and had a nice Skype chat with Molly in Japan.  (There may have been some talk of the Tokyo Quilt Festival in January.)  Everything went downhill from there.  The clouds rolled in, my off-and-on head cold ratcheted up a few notches to headache/ear involvement and *sniff*, Chicago got the early boot in the Olympics bid.  For selfish reasons, we were rooting for Chicago, as M's profession would have benefited from it.  (No, he's not a politician!)  Oh well.  The chill rain is expected to last another day or so.  Perfect weather to curl up under the wedding quilt and make some quilting progress.

This is only peripherally related to sewing, but I have to share this.  Lulu at Home has been posting photos of *to die for* button cards that she makes for fun, combining her graphic art skills, a love of vintage graphics and her button collection.  They're not for sale, just for enjoying, but well worth the *click* over!

Lifesavers

 

I can see the eyes rolling.  What is she starting now?!!  I assure you, I have not put down my current ongoing projects.  But I have had a problem.  I belong to a wonderful weekly quilt group which, somewhat anachronistically, meets during the day from 10:00 to 3:00.  It's a large group, with regular attendance between 20-30, and everyone brings handwork to work on.  Inevitably, come Tuesday morning, I'm scrambling around before I leave the house, looking for something that I can work on a the meeting.  The wedding quilt is too large to bring...I wouldn't want it dragging on the community room floor while I work.  My applique is too fussy to work on in a social setting.  (Or perhaps I should say, I'm too fussy to work on it there!)  And my other projects are mostly machine work.  I've occasionally grabbed the hexagon blocks...yes, still soldiering on on that project...but I've had a project in the back of my mind for a while and it occurred to me recently that it would work as meeting handwork.

I've never been a particular fan of the Dresden Plate/Wagon Wheel style of block, but when I saw these quilts in the Going West exhibit at the Renwick, they really struck me.  Each was made in dark wools but it was those light spokes that made the blocks sparkle. 

Additionally, I've been wanting to try some of the specialty rulers.  Sheesh, I'm sounding like an old geezer here...*those new-fangled specialty rulers*.  It's just that I've continued to do things mostly the way I learned to before quilting was such an industry and if something worked for me, I pretty much ignored new tools and put my money into enhancing the stash.  But now I'm a convert.  You really can crank out the shapes with this nifty ruler!

When I jumped into this project on the spur of the moment last week, I was planning to prep just a few blocks at a time.  But with so many colors required for each wheel (20!), it was definitely a case of *in for a penny, in for a pound*.  As I dragged out more and more fabrics, it was easy to see that cutting a bunch at once was the way to go.

I assembled a sample block, generously cutting the background and center to be trimmed square after completion.  I made a fan top once this way and it worked well, but those spokes had been cut individually, with one edge along the straight grain, so I didn't have the problem I could see developing here...raggedy edges already!  Also, since these were going to be assembled into circles, I could see that there would be fiddling necessary to match things up..the spokes, the center circle, etc.  So I scrapped that idea.

Now I have a bunch of wheels assembled and a pile of spokes waiting.  Today I'll cut out the centers & background blocks, mark them all for handpiecing, assemble a little bag of handsewing necessities, pack my bag and put it by the door.  Let's see if this helps reduce the usual last minute flurry before I head out to our meeting.  Not betting on it...it's always something!

After my last post, it sounded like everyone's been through the credit card fraud experience.  Despite the inconvenience, everything was cleared up quickly.  My curiosity wasn't satisfied as UPS never did show up that day with the fraudulent delivery.  So no plasma TVs here after all!  *grin*

Don't mind me

© MinaLeeStudio

Unintentionally, I have somehow let this blog devolve into *Here's what I've made, here's how I did it, back soon with the next installment*.  It probably had something to do with our move last year, which had its share of complications once we finally landed here after the long saga of trying to sell the house in Indy.  (Among other things, two weeks after moving in last August, we faced another transfer (What?!!!) which wasn't resolved until the holidays.  Fun times!)  A little fear of commitment to the new place kept me focused on the handwork instead of mixing it up with my usual patter about the day-to-day.  Well, enough of that.  For the record, I love it here in Chicagoland (love.it.), we're finally working our way to the bottom of the to-do list on the house (no matter what the condition of a new-to-you residence, it just takes a while to make it your own) and I've made a lot of friends here.  (See: love.it.)  Bring on the old blah-blah-blah!

Which is another way of saying, I've got nothing to show today.  Ha.  But here's a good one.  Last Thursday, about 10 minutes after placing an order with the Fat Quarter Shop, I heard a stern-voiced message being left on our machine.  I didn't get to the phone in time to pick up so I returned the call to find that our credit card company believed someone had stolen our account info.  After a quick review, I confirmed what they suspected, that a number of charges were indeed fraudulent.  Amazing...how do they red-flag such benign purchases?  I wear makeup! (Sephora), I watch TV! (Best Buy).  Anyhow, sadly, we've been through this before so we know the drill.  They canceled the account and issued us a new card, but only after I insist that Yes, that Fat Quarter Shop charge is valid. Please don't mess with my Moda Bella cheddar order! 

Yesterday on my way out the door, the phone rings and it's an automated call from UPS, telling me to expect a shipment today.  *Please try to be home between 8:00am and 5:00pm because this delivery from Best Buy will require a signature*.  The message included no prompt to connect to customer service so when I returned from my weekly quilt group meeting (love.it.), I called UPS to try to save them some work and cancel the delivery.  But *we can't find your info*, *it's not in the queue yet*, etc., etc., etc.  The light dawns and I understand how they spotted our account fraud.  The perpetrator must have requested delivery to a different address from the billing address which Best Buy probably refused.  The charge was expunged but the delivery order must have slipped through.

Today is my first quiet day in a while and I intend to be spending a good portion of it designing the top and bottom borders of the red & green applique.  That and waiting for my wall-sized plasma TV to be delivered.  Heh.