For many years my fabric was folded in stacks and placed on a shelving unit. The problem with this system was that there were no dividers between the stacks and when I’d pull out the fabrics I needed for a project, I usually ended up with a mess of leaning towers of fabric. A few years ago I read an article in Quilting Arts Studios magazine about using square wire baskets to store the fabric. This would still allow you to see your fabric,  keep it more contained and avoid the mess of fabric falling over in the process of pulling and grabbing it from the shelf. I found wire baskets and plopped the folded fabrics into them, keeping them separated by color.

After trying this method for a couple of years I finally had to admit that it didn’t work for me either. If I needed a particular red fabric I had to pull down the red fabric basket, dig through to find the fabric, pull it out dislodging others in the process, and then cram the basket back on the shelves. Since the baskets were wedged so tightly into the shelves this usually carried the risk of having the whole shelving unit fall forward with all the pushing and pulling.

I decided it was time to try something new and found the Expedit shelves by searching the Ikea website.

 These seemed like the perfect solution because I could display all my fabrics stacked by color on shelves again, but these shelves were like cubes so they offered the extra dividing system I needed to keep the towers of fabric from leaning and falling over in the grabbing and pulling process!  Unfortunately, the closest Ikea is 3 hours from here and the cost to order online and have them shipped was outrageous so a daytrip was in order. DH and I made the trip a couple of weeks ago and purchased the 5 x 5 cube unit as well as a single tower unit. We then spent a Sunday afternoon putting them together. As with all things Ikea, the directions were easy to follow, no words, just pictures and we didn’t even end up with extra pieces of hardware in the end! One thing we did, that wasn’t in the instructions though, was to add wood glue to each of the little wooden “dowels” to make sure everything held together well. We also attached the units to the wall so that there won’t be a chance of the shelves toppling.

Once the shelves were assembled, it was very tempting just to load them up with my stash just by transferring the fabrics from the baskets to the shelves. However, I knew there was fabric buried in those baskets that hadn’t seen the light of day in many years. Some of the fabrics were bought years ago when I first decided to try my hand at quilting and just weren’t the quality fabrics that I wanted to keep. You may have some of these in your stash as well. You know the ones I mean. They are a little stiffer or just don’t have the feel of the better quality fabrics. I decided this was my opportunity to weed out those fabrics that I knew no longer met my standards or were not the style I am currently using. So my days of refolding and weeding out have begun. I’m spending long hours watching old reruns of Project Runway and stroking fabric.  I’ll keep you posted…

Apparently this mild winter we’ve had on the east coast has really inspired some very special quilters to get ready for the summer. Pat Boggs finished her Flamingo Frolics quilt and brought it to show me at the Statesville Quilting and Needle Art Extravaganza. I love all the pink!

This was the first time I’ve vended in Statesville and let me tell you it was such a great show! There was such a variety of vendors and we were just as excited to be there as the customers were to see us. Can’t wait to go again next near.

The main advantage of this wonderful product is that it has sort of a “teflon” finish to it that allows you to press all the pieces of your applique design together as one unit, let it cool, and then peel it off and place it in the proper position on your background fabric. If you have ever fused a design down, one piece at a time, on your backgound fabric you may have run into issues of it not being centered or in the specific place you wanted, or maybe it wasn’t straight and was leaning one way or another!

Hopefully these instructions will help you to understand the process and make your life easier. 

First of all you will need an applique design…

Trace your design onto fusible web, my particular favorite is Heat ‘n Bond Lite. 

Be sure to leave approximately 1/2 inch between each pattern piece. Number each piece accordingly just inside the drawn line of each piece. It may also be helpful to write the fabric color on each piece along the inside edge.

 Roughly cut your fusible web pieces apart, leaving about 1/4 inch outside the drawn line.

I like to trim out the center fusible area on large pieces so that there isn’t a build up of fusible which can make your design too stiff.  To do this, simply cut the center from your fusible web, leaving approximately 1/4 inch from the inside drawn line.  (This is why you label your number and fabric color close to the inside drawn line so that it won’t be cut away during this trimming process.)  Be very careful with larger pattern pieces so that you don’t distort your design when you begin to iron this “strippy” piece down.

Lay each piece on the WRONG side of the appropriate fabric and fuse.   Be sure to check the iron settings for your particular fusible web as they sometimes vary.

Cut each of your pieces out on the drawn line.

Although my patterns are reversed for you to trace your design onto fusible web, you do need to flip your pattern sheet over and use a light box or sunny window to trace your design on the back of the pattern sheet for the next step.  This will ensure that your design will look the way it should when you are ready to fuse it to your fabric and you can place this under your applique press sheet as a guide for fusing.

Lay your applique press sheet on your ironing board and place the pattern sheet underneath so that your drawn design can be seen through the press sheet. 

Remove the paper backing from your pieces and begin layering your design by placing the piece that is the farthest away from the top down first, lightly press in place.

Continue to add pieces , making sure that no gaps are showing.

When all the pieces have been fused in place, let your design cool and then peel it from your press sheet.

Now lightly press your background fabric down the center both horizontally and vertically. 

This will give you lines to center your design.  When you are happy with the placement, fuse in place.

My favorite applique press sheet is by Bear Thread Designs. It is sturdy and has served me well for several years.

I hope you find this little demo useful and begin your own love of fusible applique!

Yep, as cold as it was, I spent the weekend in Myrtle Beach. However, I never even laid eyes on the actual beach or the ocean because I was vending at the Myrtle Beach Quilt Party. Lots of ladies taking classes and enjoying the quilts and vendors.

One of the highlights was when sisters Debbie and Mardelle came by to show me the quilt that Debbie had made. She bought the Flamingo Frolics pattern at last year’s show.

She told me at that time that she wasn’t a quilter but was an avid scrapbooker and cross-stitcher. Mardelle is the brains behind the Myrtle Beach Quilt Party and Debbie decided to make the flamingo quilt as a surprise to present to her this year. Debbie even scrapbooked the whole process from shopping for fabric to the quilt’s final stitches.

When presented with the quilt on “Show and Tell” night apparently Mardelle was speechless to find that her sister had finally made her first quilt! I was thrilled that Debbie chose one of my patterns as her first project. She said she is “hooked” now and plans to make some of my other patterns which she had previously purchased.

There were some great quilts on display by the teachers….

After a long drive home on Saturday night I was ready for a nice cup of hot tea. Boy was I surprised when my DH opened the refrigerator and brought out a delicious coconut cake that he had made for me!

In all of our 34 years of marriage this was the first cake he had ever made! He knew that coconut was my favorite and I had recently acquired the recipe from one of our bee members, thanks Carol! If you are a big fan of coconut as well, here is the scrumptious recipe from allrecipes.com. 

1 (16 ounce) package white cake mix

1 (14 ounce) can cream of coconut

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 (10 ounce) package flaked coconut

Prepare cake according to package directions. Bake in a 9 x 13 inch pan or in two layer pans. Cool completely. In a small bowl combine cream of coconut and condensed milk. Poke holes in cake with a straw. Pour milk mixture over cake and spread with whipped topping. Sprinkle coconut over cake. Serve chilled.

Delicious!

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always had some type of sewing space in my house. My DH is retired from the Air Force and for 29 years we moved about every 3-4 years. When my kids were small there was very little extra space to allow for a dedicated area to sew. I often would set up my sewing machine at the kitchen table, make a huge mess with fabric scraps and  pattern pieces scattered all over the place, and then try to push everything aside to allow enough room to eat at the kitchen table. After dinner, everything would be returned to the previous chaos until that sewing project was completed. At that point everything would be cleaned up, machine  and ironing board put away until the next sewing project.

 Eventually we moved to a house that had a downstairs family room which allowed me to take over a corner of the family room. This allowed me a little more freedom as I was able to leave the sewing machine set up between projects which also meant that I got more sewing done because it wasn’t as hard to haul everything out to start a new project. I became so used to having my own space that I continued to commandeer a corner in the basement of the next house. With the next move we ended up in a house with no basement and no room in the family room for me to have my own little corner. By this time my three kiddos each had their own room so I convinced the girls that it would be a great idea if they would share a room and I took over one of the bedrooms for my ever growing sewing supplies. I can’t begin to tell you how many fights I had to referee over them sharing a room, I think there were a few months of actual masking tape down the middle of the room so that neither of them stepped in the other’s space (but that’s another story in itself)!

 When the girls were in high school we lived in yet another house that had no extra room for me so I ended up taking over the dining room for my space. This actually was not the best solution because it was in the main living area and one of the first things people saw when they came to the house. Because of that, I had to clean up quite a bit when I finished sewing for the day to keep everything looking presentable. Several moves later I now have a dedicated sewing studio of my own! It’s the bonus room over the garage. I can start a project, leave everything as messy as I want, start another project, etc. etc, and I am the only one who has to deal with the mess.

We’ve lived in our current house for 11 years now. Ack! That’s like a lifetime for someone who was used to moving every three or four years, so occasionally I get a little itchy to move things around.

Recently I realized that the design wall I had been using for a few years just wasn’t hacking it anymore. I had a sheet of styrofoam insulation from the local hardware store which I covered with flannel. It leaned against the wall and was stored behind a large chair which manages to stay covered with piles of fabric. Whenever I needed to use it I hauled it out from behind the chair and propped it against the storage cabinets at the end of the room.

Eventually I began to want a larger design wall, something a little more permanent so that I wouldn’t have to move things around whenever I needed to use it. I decided that the only way to accomplish this was to move all the shelves and storage cabinets to another wall so that it would “free up” the wall I needed.

Since my original design wall wasn’t quite large enough I added another covered sheet of foam insulation next to the original one. It wasn’t until they were covered and nailed to the wall that I realized that the color of the insulation makes a difference. The original one was pink and the recently purchased one was blue. You can see a little difference in the color now that they are side by side but I’ve gotten used to it. When I use this wall to take photos of quilts I crop out the background anyway so it really doesn’t matter.

If you have been yearning for your own design wall, here are a few pointers…

Depending on how large a wall you want, you will need one or two styrofoam insulation sheets from your local hardware store. Measure your wall to determine the finished size of your design wall area. Since I rearranged my room to accommodate a large wall I used two styrofoam sheets.

To cover the styrofoam I purchased some heavy duty flannel. It wasn’t large enough to cover the styrofoam so I sewed two widths of the flannel together and made sure to allow enough fabric (about 6 inches) to be able to fold over to the back side of the styrofoam board. After sewing your flannel together be sure to press the seams open.

You may need a helper at this point. Lay your flannel out on the floor or use a large table with the wrong side of the flannel facing up. Then lay your styrofoam sheet over the flannel. Make sure the fabric is flat and begin turning the fabric to the back of the styrofoam board. Staple a couple of staples on one side and then pull the fabric slightly from the opposite side and staple. Continue alternating sides, stapling as you go until you have secured each side. Next, staple the top and bottom the same way.

Since the styrofoam isn’t strong enough to hold the staples in place for an extended period of time, use some type of wide tape (I used duct tape but packing tape will also work) to tape over the edge of the fabric and staples. Tape all four sides.

I used two pieces of styrofoam and wanted to keep them aligned so I added additional tape to make a “hinge” between the two boards.

 Now you simply need to attach the finished design wall to your wall. I rested the bottom of the design wall onto the baseboard and used small nails and nailed through the styrofoam right into the wall.

If you are limited on wall space, you could always make a design wall like this, hinge it together with tape and store it somewhere, maybe under a bed, until you actually need it.

Once you begin to use it, though you will love it enough that you will want it out all the time!

Janice Pope and I traveled to Laramie to stay with our friend, Mary, and to teach a few classes. We were welcomed by a great group of ladies and had such fun. My free-motion quilting class was a joy, as always. It’s so great to see students realize what fun they can have with some new quilting designs.

During the class, Sherry Reynolds came by the shop to show one of her quilts. It was absolutely stunning! Sherry, an engineer in her former life, has only been quilting for about 5-6 years but has certainly mastered it in this short time. Keep an eye out for her, we’re sure to see her work often!

We attended a great Wearable Art exhibit at the University of Wyoming’s Art Museum. What inspiration to make me want to come home and make a new coat or jacket of my own!

This is called Bella Pavone by Alice Kay Arnett. Gorgeous pintucking!

And the Mirror Smiled Back by Sara Varca. Gotta love that wild lining!

A Clash of Unity by Jennifer Schneider. This gray and yellow is so “in” right now!

Meditation by Teresa Nealon. A wonderful classic style.

Those Who Sew in Tears Will Reap in Joy by Treva Sprout Ahrenholtz. This beautiful dress was started many years ago by Treva simply to make something creative and beautiful. Her description stated that she came back to it time and again as she was dealing with sadness in her life. She didn’t realize that someday she would have a real purpose for it and eventually was able to wear it herself as a wedding gown.

The trip to Cincinnati was great fun as I had a friend come along with me to help me in my booth. None other than Laura Martell of  The Creative Thimble! When I mentioned that I was looking for someone to help me in my booth she graciously volunteered and we had a great time and shared a lot of laughs. As we were sitting in the booth at the show, we were like stalkers watching the crowds come and go. We were actually keeping an eye out for bags made from Laura’s patterns and would call the people into the booth to compliment them on their wonderful creations and to introduce them to Laura as the designer of their particular bag pattern.

What great reactions we were able to see! Everyone was thrilled to be able to meet the actual designer and often wanted their picture taken with Laura. One lady was so excited because her friend had actually made the Professional Tote she was carrying and she called her friend right from our booth to let her know she was standing there looking at Laura. By the end of that conversation she had tears in her eyes. It was a great photo op which we kindly took with her camera so I, unfortunately, don’t have a picture of that moment.

I do, however, have a photo of a great quilt by Barb Kelly.  She came into my booth and told me about the quilt she had made from my giraffe pattern, My Favorite Earrings. Barb explained that it was the first quilt she had ever made and that she had so much fun watching it come together. She said she actually got up in the middle of the night to go in and admire her work and to see the personality develop in the mama giraffe during the process. How exciting it is to hear that something you create as a pattern can bring smiles to the faces of the customer as they make it themselves. I was especially pleased to hear that it was her first quilt and she felt it was so easy to accomplish!

My show last weekend was a little more low key but still a great time with the ladies of the Rutherford Quilt Guild. It was the first year for them to have a quilt show and they did an excellent job of putting on a great show with lots of gorgeous quilts to admire and a great variety of vendors.

I’m currently planning my next big trip, leaving on May 4 to fly to Laramie, WY with Janice Pope of Anything But Boring, where I will be teaching a full day workshop on free-motion quilting at Quilt Essentials. It will be a full weekend with a trunk show on Friday night, school house sessions on Saturday and the workshop on Monday. Janice will be offering a class on her Two Hour Tulip purse and Mary Corcoran, formerly of Raleigh but now living in Laramie, will be offering a class as well. Mary has recently published a gorgeous pattern featuring seasonal oak leaves which will be debuting at Market.  After Laramie, we will drive to Salt Lake City for Spring Market. I’m looking forward to the excitement that Market brings.

Anyway, we always look forward to our time together. For the past two years we have gone to Oak Island and stayed in a gorgeous beach house owned by a relative of one of our members. We waste no time getting machines and tables set up so that we can get down to some serious sewing and quilting.

This year’s retreat was also a deadline for a project we had been working on individually. We got the idea from Quilting Arts magazine as they published an article a few months ago asking for small quilts that portray your inner animal. Since these quilts were small, usually 8 1/2″ x 11″ or something close to it, we figured this would be an easy and fun project. Giving ourselves several months to work on them also helped, however, there are always a few of us who literally wait until the last minute! I must admit I am one of the procrastinators but managed to meet the deadline by finishing my quilt at 11:30 p.m. the night before the reveal! Unfortunately I could not think up an animal that was a procrastinator but did manage to come up with something  that I felt was a close depiction.

I decided my inner animal had to be a duck. When I asked my dh why he thought I picked a duck he said it was because I let things roll off my back and don’t get too upset about anything. Although that is a pretty accurate description, the real reason is because, like a duck, I may look calm on the surface but underneath the water I’m paddling as fast as I can! When we had our “reveal” moment, the quilts were removed from a bag and laid on the floor one at a time so that we could guess which animal matched which person. What fun it was to see just how well we knew each other.

This cute little quilt  belongs to Shirley. She said she had a hard time coming up with just one animal that depicts her so this is Shirley flipping her lid! As you can see it says, “Itz a ZOO in here!” She says that pretty much sums it up with all her ideas just screamin’ to get out.

 Julianne created this great little quilt of  a Mama Hen. She said she longed to create a cheetah, based on her love of running and racing but she was sidelined from running due to an injury during the challenge time (notice the cheetah shaped cloud). She decided that she is really a Mama Hen with her four chicks around her, who dreams of being a cheetah. The hen is sitting on a quilt that Julianne made, which was photographed and transferred to fabric for use in her little quilt.

It wasn’t too hard for us to guess that this was Carol’s quilt. We are always accusing her of putting things away and forgetting where she put them. The great thing about this little quilt is that behind every leaf is a picture of scissors, thread, measuring tape or some other sewing tool. She certainly nailed it with this one. Also, notice the question mark above the squirrel’s head? That’s Carol, always looking for something and as she says, tries things by trial and error!

 There was no doubt who this little gem belonged to when it was revealed! Lori is a Hokie through and through and has sewn every bag pattern known to man! Although the rest of us weren’t really sure what a Hokie was, we learned that it is actually a turkey. Lori says the Hokie Bird is loyal, studious, loves fall weather and college football, and bleeds maroon and orange. She did a great job on this little bag, the back of it even has turkey feathers for a tail!

Last, but certainly not least, is Tina’s lion quilt. She says the traits of a lion are independent, strong, and fiercely protective of family and friends. What a beautiful job she did of collecting just the right brown prints for the lion’s mane. It’s no surprise that Tina chose this strong and gorgeous creature as she, herself, earned her black belt in karate this past year. You go girl!

We still have one member of our bee who is working on her inner animal. Hopefully Ann will have her quilt ready to post soon.

Using my Gorgeous Gourds pattern, these ladies came up with some beautiful fabric combinations.

We also had a great lunch provided by one of the guild members. Delicious chicken, twice baked potatoes, carrot salad, bean salad, and delicious dessert of cherry cobbler all made in their on-site kitchen! It smelled so yummy as it was cooking and was so, so good!

Thanks ladies for such a wonderful day!

It’s a new year with lots of possibilities just around the corner.  I love to start off the new year with things a little more organized than they were the last hectic weeks of December.  My goal is to try to simplify, simplify, simplify…..we’ll see how successful I am at this!  Today I worked in our home office to try to make it a little easier to actually sit down and get some work done.   Things look much better, now I just have to start shredding the four boxes of paper which were stashed in the corner for the last few months by my DH. 

I love to clear out the clutter, unfortunately I am married to a man who believes in hanging on to each and every thing he ever owned.  Don’t get me started on the fact that he still has the leather outfit from his Davy Crockett doll which he had as a child (FYI the Davy Crockett doll is no where to be seen.)   We also won’t mention the deer antlers that we have in the garage mounted on a piece of plywood, but not hanging up, which were given to him by an acquaintance when he was a child, or the ziplock bag stashed in the closet that contains old childhood memorabilia.  Keep in mind, he did not kill the deer, but for some reason has a difficult time letting them go.  His idea of organizing is moving everything to a more consolidated position and not getting rid of much.  My idea, on the other hand, is to sort, toss, and donate as much as possible.  Just because it was given to you doesn’t mean that you are obligated to keep it for the rest of your life.  I’m sure there is someone out there who would love the bobble-hipped hula dancer or the cute little statue dressed in aquamarine flowing robes to represent your birth month.  I love the look of an empty space on the bookshelf and don’t feel the need to have every little space occupied.

My sewing room on the other hand, is a different story.  No matter how hard I try to keep things neat and orderly, it is virtually impossible.  I simply chalk this up to the fact that you can’t be creative and neat at the same time.

I learned a long time ago not to make New Year’s resolutions.  My goal, however, is to try to weed out more of the junk that seems to be taking up too much space.  It used to be a little easier to get rid of things when we moved every three years with the Air Force.  However, living in the same house for ten years has certainly taken its toll.

Here’s to hoping you accomplish your new goals in the new year too!