I am in Seattle helping with the grands.  I love Seattle.  Took the train from the airport to downtown where my sweet son met me, loaded my luggage in the car.  He went back to work and I went the Pike's Market-the happiest place on earth.  Headed right to my favorite quilt store "Undercover Quilts" and promptly bought a pattern for a B'Day present for my sister in law (the finished product is the gift, not the pattern ), some Laurel Burch fabulous border fabric, and 1/4 yard of sea shells for a second underwater seascape as my husband loved the first one.

Sloan sleeping

Laurel Burch, Pattern of Moose in wilderness, seashells

However, before the joy of Seattle and Pike's Market, my flights were eventful.  One of my greatest fears is having a seat liner fold up into my underware and go flapping in the breeze behind me-well, it happened.  I was about 4 rows back on the aisle and the man by the window had to get up-so I backed up to the front of the plane and the sweet ladies in the front row quietly said some thing was on my backside.  Reaching to the back of me I removed 1/2 of one of those dreaded seat covers that was happily waving to the folks in the plane as I walked.  I couldn't stop laughing-i mean, what were my choices?.  Then I started thinking-How long was that there-I didn't use the restroom on the plane? How many people pointed and stared? When did I take off my sweatshirt?  The moral of the story being-it was one of my greatest fears and I lived through it -giggling all the way-life is good and God is amazing-just when I think I'm all that-he sticks a seat liner in my drawers and parades me down the aisle of an airplane in front of 223 people:)

Back Country Quilters Feb. Meeting

My friend Debbie and I have volunteered to be Co-presidents of our local quilting organization.  We are not a guild, just a group of ladies who love quilting and who have put on a really nice quilt show every year in October.  We had our February meeting last night and I did a postcard demo.  It actually went really well and the meeting was a lot of fun.  I started a Back Country Quilters blog where I posted all the pics from the sharing last night.  Some very talented women.

Candy Mittag talking about the mini show the end of March

a pretty good sized group for our little quilt shop

1890's quilt-isn't it beautiful!

Bits and Pieces

We are getting ready to go to the Big 3 swapmeet (a 1x per year event that my husband looks forward to and I enjoy as well) Greg restores vintage British motorcycles and sells them at this event as well as through the year.  I have been focusing on making handwork as we camp in the motorhome in the parking lot of Qualcom with no electricity.  The size of the baggy of tarts ready to be sewn for the pies and tarts quilt does not seem to relate to the work put in to making said baggy of parts.

Instead of sewing the material to the template I iron down with starch-works beautifully!

A bag-o-tarts ready to be sewed into little tart circles (enough for 18 so far)

I also redid part of this paper pieced block for Dear Jane and appliqued the center on to it as well as finishing the Le Moyne Star block (one star point needs to be restitched-I was off two threads which makes a difference in these little blocks.  These are untrimmed so it looks like I may lose a point or two.  I am actually going to be fine with that:)

Dear Jane-One block from the Turquoise and dark row and one from the turquoise and light row

I need to go to Seattle next Tuesday for two weeks.  My Beloved DIL is sleep deprived and under doctor's care for postpartum blues.  I asked if they needed me to come and she said yes-2 weeks please.  I am thrilled to be able to help them but so sorry she is having such a hard time.  I love my DIL-she is such a blessing to us. So, I need to take handwork as I won't have the time to machine piece and don't want to lug a machine anyway. Hopefully I'll get some more tarts done today but it is a really busy day. The pies and tarts are just so easy to transport.

I am signed up for another class on my return and since I am the caretaker of the teacher, I think I will do that and sew quietly in the back of the room on one of the projects I have already started.  I will take notes and pictures-but I can't start one more project or my brain will explode.

Postcard 1, 2, 3's-An Easy Postcard Tutorial

So, while experimenting with these little quilts I have learned a few things:

1. I don't like double sided fusible-like the effect but the process is painful.
2. They don't need to be perfect-just pleasing
3. I love doing them-instantaneous joy at the completion
4. They use up nicely those bits of fabrics left over from paper piecing that are too small for regular quilts.
5. They are addicting!

Step 1      Gather Materials

Peltex: I used Peltex double sided fusible heavy duty.  There are several products out there that will do the trick.  The Peltex made a nice firm card that ironed flat and wasn't too thick.

Double sided lightweight interfacing: if you feel the need

Glue sticks: The one I used was acid free and went on blue but turned clear

Material:  Thematic prints, batiks (worked well with the raw edge applique technique because they didn't fray as much as the regular). Also a plain cotton for the back-light color.

Scrapbooking stuff:  You know you have it:)  Most of my quilting friends scrapbook as well or at least used to.   Stamps/inks (Check the dollar bins at Michaels) also, I found the large "Postcard Stamp" at Road to CA for 14.00.  I am sure it could be bought on line-but it isn't necessary-you can draw it on.  Cardstock, charms, yarn/ribbon, stickers, beads, buttons, words, pens, colored pencils, etc.

Iron and Ironing pad, Sewing machine, embroidery thread, an ironing sheet for applique is nice but not essential, Rotary cutter and mat.

Gather supplies into one area so they are easily accessible

Step 2   Cut Base of postcard

Cut Peltex with rotary cutter and mat into 4x6 inch rectangles.  My roll was 24 inches wide so I cut it into 6 inch strips and then cut each strip every 4 inches so I got 6 postcard blanks every 6 " or 18 postcards for 1/2 yard of Peltex.

Cut Base material with rotary cutter and ruler into 6" strips then cut every 4 "

Step 3  Stamp your backside (not your backside-the card backside)

I stamped quite a few of these ahead of time so I didn't have to stop and make a back.  Cut your light colored plain cotton 4.5x6.5 so it overlaps a bit.  Then either stamp with your postcard stamp or lay it aside to write on after the card is complete.

Cut material 4 1/2 x 6 1/2

blot don't rub ink onto large stamp

Center stamp onto material

Postcard backing complete-set aside

Step 4  Choose your fabric base and pieces for postcard

The St. Patrick's day post card was a solid base with pieces cut out of another thematic fabric after it had been ironed onto double sided lightweight fusible.  The 2nd side of the fusible was then scored with the tip of a scissors or pin and backing is peeled off and then piece is stuck to base piece and ironed down.

Pieces are selected

second side of double sided fusible is scored

plastic from fusible is peeled off

Pieces are ironed down individually and colored pencil is being applied

Another way to add fabrics to the front is with glue.  All the tutorials I read said to use fusible interfacing but I am going to do it my way  because it is just faster and less tedious-either way will work.  I used an acid free glue stick and just went over the back of each piece-careful to glue the background before the foreground.  Since I am going to stitch everything down-I don't see why it would matter. Let me know if you have a reason that it matters that I don't see.

Pieces selected from paper piecing scraps

Same pieces glued down starting from back and moving forward

I decided I liked the looks of the purple mountains fabric backside up.  It gives that smoky look at dusk that I wanted.  Our Santa Maria Valley has 5 mountain peaks when viewed from the north end looking toward the southwest and the mountains are very rocky-hence the blue squares on the purple mountains. The sun sets behind them and we have beautiful red sunsets.  Anyway-the block is securely attached and now I will take it to the machine using decorative thread.

Step 5 Machine Quilt

all stitched down

from the back

Step 6  Trimming
Trimming can be done two ways, by hand or with a rotary cutter.  There are pros and cons to both.  Rotary cutting gives a nice clean edge but if not careful you can nic the postcard.  Hand cutting gives you more control but is not quite as clean as the rotary.

Iron backing on, let cool, line up card and cut with a rotary cutter

Trim front even with card with sharp scissors

iron back to trimmed front

back peeks out about 1/4 inch all around

hand trim flush to edge or rotary cut with ruler and blade

Step 7  Finish Edge

Set your machine to zigzag.  I like a thin edge that is tightly sewn-personal choice.  I set my machine to 3.0 mm width and 0.3 length and go around the card 2 times.

machine set to 3.0 x 0.3

finished card

back of card

This back is made from a preprinted quilt label from Kaufman-I printed the lettering and the lines

Last Step  Put in a plastic sleeve and mail

You can have the post office hand cancel the postcard and then put it in a sleeve to keep it safe-tape back down securely.

 

ready for mailing

nature inspired

Valentine's Day

Mother's Day

St. Patrick's Day

I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial.  I only ask that you not copy my original designs.  You can surely do better:)

Dear Jane Clinic

Well-not much progress on Dear sweet Jane since last month but got three blocks mostly done today-none of them pictured because they are not finished yet-but mostly done.  When I laid these out I noticed that they don't have the contrast that I want-however, these are the blocks for the outside border of the quilt and is the only row that is beige and black so, all in all, this row will contrast with the one next to it.

Teacher, Susan Axelrod and student

Margaret  finishing up a block

Bella helping

15 outside row blocks and 1 inner block (lavender)

I do see things differently when I take pictures.  I will work on more contrast in the remaining blocks on the outside row-about 30 of them.  I think in about six months at least two of the quiltts will be done and I won;t feel so scattered.  I took too many classes this year-will not do that next year.

It is starting to look like a quilt

These little satellites take some time to do. Today I got a tutorial for postcards half done-should complete it Sunday.  That took some time to do-just thinking it through step by step took awhile-especially since I do them several different ways.  It is a good exercise.  I just walked into my studio and my Lizzy was contendedly chewing on my Ramona landscape postcard.  I rescued it out of her little jaws just in time.  Don't know how she got it.   Then I went to work on the paperpiecing-only 2 done but that is 2 more than I had done yesterday.

I spent about an hour pruning rose bushes (that should have been pruned last month) and it felt good to spend some time outside (other than my swim this morning).  So, all in all, a productive day!

A galazy appearing

Glad I took a picture-I notice that I forgot a piece on the bottom left pie slice:)

A Small One Done!

The quilt has 3 or 4 small circles along with the large ones.  I think I like paper piecing or maybe it is the new direction I am taking in color. This isn't finished just the 4 quarter circles pieced.

I like the pieces all individually-just not sure if they will be too overwhelming all together.  But I am going to finish it and we'll see.  Nothing ventured nothing gained.

The Visions gallery was really nice.  Greg actually went in and we discussed each piece as we explored the gallery.  Some of it was wonderful and some was dreadful in my humble opinion. The docent said they were trying to appeal to a variety of tastes-I think they succeeded.

Two more!

After work last night I went right to the studio and finished two more stars.  I probably won't put all four in a circle but who knows.  My husband suggested taking me to Visions Quilt Gallery and out to lunch for V Day.  I am in shock but am certainly going to take him up on it.

Beauty and Check Workshop

Spent a lovely day yesterday at Bits and Pieces in Poway.  Janice Ellertson was teaching paper piecing using stabilizer that doesn't wash out and that you can't feel once the quilt is done.  I have done minimal paper piecing so the skill building was great.  Janice is a wonderful teacher.  The only negative was the fact that although B and P is a lovely store it is in an industrial building with no air or heat.  I was freezing.  I will bring my own space heater if I ever take a class there again.  Fabrics are Kaffee Fassett, batiks, a touch of black and white and the background is Laurel Burch.  I think it will look a bit like a galaxy.  There are 24 blocks in all.  I finished the pieces (without background sewn on or corners added) for 2.  I think the rest will go faster now that I know the process.  I signed up for the class 6 months ago and was not disappointed.  Janice works at Cozy Quilt Shop in El Cajon and has won several dress making competitions (Bernina/Hoffman) and the outfits she made were pretty incredible.  She would be a wonderful speaker for your guild. A thoroughly enjoyable day!

Postcard Progress

Sew much fun!  These have been a blast but I have destroyed the order in my studio pulling out bits and pieces of things. I have 8 done and want to do 4 more.  have the ideas-just need the time. I am thinking Thursday.  I also need to do a demo series for the demo on the 20th.  One thing at a time.