Gum on Concrete

Gum on Concrete

52'' by 68''

Another quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts, done with my scraps in a totally new colourway. This quilt, quite honestly, reflects the journey I've taken since the book came out a year ago.

... It is me, sewing up a pattern Amanda Jean created. I feel a bit of her, her friendship and enthusiasm, in each stitch.
... It is my never ending obsession with grey. And yes, I only 'made' a few scraps to complete this quilt.
... It is a name that came from someone in the audience at one of my first trunk shows, where I shared the quilt top last summer.
... It is the last quilt I finished before travelling across the country for teaching and another trunk show - something I was never able to do before the book came out.
... It is the quilt I photographed at The Workroom, while there teaching and taking advantage of their perfect for photography light and backyard.

Without Sunday Morning Quilts nothing about this quilt would exist. For that, I am grateful. And although the name has nothing to do with the joy the quilt brings me, I do love it too.

Quilted with a combination of Wonderfil Konfetti and Aurifil 50W thread. Swirls and pebbles and squared off spirals making this quilt heavy and dense. Perfect for a cuddle. Helped out with the use of Quilters' Dream Request batting in 100% cotton.

A scrappy binding in grey, so nothing stands out. Just a growing expanse of concrete.

Friday Favourite - Blueberry Park Wash Bag

Sitting in a hotel room this morning. I've worked out already, done a bit a work, and am packing up for two full days of teaching at the Superior Quilt Show. Needless to say, I am feeling quite productive! It's amazing how that is when there are no diapers to change, lunches to pack, or walks to school. But then there are no morning reading sessions, nekkid butts to pinch, and walks to school.

Small consolation on this trip is my new wash bag/toiletries bag from Blueberry Park. I've been following Karen, the artist, on Instagram and drooling over her screen prints. I adore the designs she uses. Then she was selling scrap bags... And well, to make the shipping totally worthwhile I added this bag to the order. It only made sense.

With a lot of travelling this year for teaching and the like it was time to upgrade from my standard black drugstore version of the toiletries bag. This one makes packing so much easier! Fits all my stuff - hair, teeth, skin, and my one tube of mascara - and is pretty to boot!

Karen has had a rough past week or so with the passing of her father. Send hugs, if you can.

Big's Quilt - Finished and Well-Loved

Big's Quilt

60'' by 54''

With very little fanfare in the house  - more like a giant smile and a tiny squeal - I finished the quilt for my Evil Genius. It came out of the washing machine, all toasty, and was immediately put to use for cuddles, then fort building, then as a veil, then baby wrapping, then sleep. Well loved right from the start.

It's such a crazy mishmash of fabrics, all picked by her. She laid it out, then helped me sew it together by sitting on my lap and guiding pieces through the machine. Well, some pieces. Then she got bored and went back to watching Coraline. I was allowed to baste it without her, late at night, so her baby brother wouldn't get in the way. Then she picked thread for quilting - 6 different ones. No amount of convincing would lessen that amount so I accepted the challenge. Including that the front and back be different! (Oh tension woes! Don't look closely at the quilting.) She even drew me a sketch of the squiggly line she wanted for the quilting. That girl knows how to draw a meander. Finally, she picked her binding fabrics, a blend of purple with a bit of pink, of course. And she even sat with me for quite a bit as I hand stitched the binding down, pulling the needle.

Even I thought I was crazy when we started this project. Here is what I learned:

 - Let it evolve. If you get stuck on things having to get done only you will get frustrated. She could focus on the task, but making a quilt is a big project to a kid so it needs to happen at their pace.

 - Move fast. It was a lot of stop/go. When it was my turn to finish a task she was on me to get it done and get it done now.

 - Be okay if she loses interest. It sat for over a month on my design wall and I was a little bit sad that she'd lost interest. But when she came back to it her excitement had grown.

 - Let it go. Like most of us, the excitement was in the fabric selection and layout. I couldn't take that away from her so I let go of my conventions and perceptions. Would I have chosen that red fabric? Nope, but she loves them.

 - Limit the selection for backing fabric. I gave her stack of fabric I have in big yardage and told her to pick just one. Phew.

 - Do not use 6 different threads from 3 different manufacturers for the quilting. Just don't do it.

 - Be prepared for a blah reaction. Perhaps I'd built up her excitement for the quilt in my head, but a smile and just a tiny squeal were not what I expected when I handed her a warm quilt. But since I finished it a few weeks ago I see that it gets dragged around like her blankies, she wants it at night, and she plays with it. The quilt is not getting ignored and she loves to show it off. So yeah, I'd say she is indeed excited.

 - When you let her direct the photo shoot take, then delete, the photos where she drapes herself over the quilt in a way that no almost 5 year old should be seen. Don't tell her.

 - Smile a lot when you notice her outfits match her quilt.

Letting Her Play... Or How I'm Learning to Let Go of my Fabric

It was like a floodgate. So much just pushing on the doors, screaming to bust through and wreak havoc on anything in its path. I let her in, I really let her in the sewing room and now I can't keep her out. No longer content to arrange and make a mess of my jars of scraps she is now turning to me stash. She pulls out her favourite colours, determines just the right combination, then grabs my embroidery scissors, and hacks away. She's discovered fabric glue and fabric markers. With no input from me, and little regard for my fabric she is churning out butterflies and more.

It was one thing to let her pick and play when making her quilt. I still had some margin of control over that. Now? All I can manage to keep her from doing is hacking through some favourite fabrics with random cuts down the middle. But it rips at my quilter's gut and every now and then my heart, the heart that is tied to obsessions with fabric gets broken. She listens to me when I vehemently insist that she leave THAT fabric alone, then turns around and insists herself that she knows what she is doing and won't wreck my fabric because she is making something more beautiful.

She does this while I sew, while I write, while I cut fabric for her sister's quilt, while I play around on the internet. She won't touch my scraps, preferring to attack the bins of fabric in my stash. Did I mention the heart palpitations? Then I remember what Amanda said, It's All Just Fabric.

So we've had repeated discussions about cutting from the corner, not the middle, and how Mama gets final say on whether she can use that particular fabric. And when she wanted a big piece on which to attach a swarm on butterflies I let go and said that it would make a perfect garden.