Field Trips in Fiber

More gift boxes

I suppose I've happened upon my craft theme for Christmas 2007 - packaging!

These two boxes will go to my hairdresser today. A few years ago I gave her a couple of glass ornaments for Christmas. Little did I know that I started a tradition! She loves them and leaves them out all year. Her signature color is pink (even the outside of her house is pink) so I usually buy her ornaments that aren't in Christmas-y colors. I've never wrapped the ornaments in any special way before and knowing Donna, the box is likely to become a new tradition as well.

Here's the inside. I just love the long skinny one for the icicle ornament! it's about 8" x 1". To all of you that have done the inchie charms - you have my deepest respect! Those tiny end pieces were very fiddly. I can't wait to deliver these this afternoon.

It's still the basic box pattern from Fibre and Stitch. Here are the ingredients - from left to right. It's all done on a base of dark red felt. The first layer fused is the gradient pink-to-purple silk chiffon (from the stash - it was there so I used it!). I tore off big pieces and let it pleat across the felt foundation. Next I added a layer of Mistyfuse. I cut squares from the pink sparkle dot remnant and tossed them around the piece and then added loads of the pink and purple acrylic threads, cut pieces of the Superior metallic silver thread and finally loads of sequins sprinkled everywhere. Another layer of Mistyfuse to hold all of that in place and a final layer of pink tulle was fused on top. I wanted these boxes to be sturdy so I added a layer of Timtex between the felt outer layer and the green lining. It's nearly impossible to fuse the Timtex to the felt layer so I quilted the outer layer and the Timtex with Superior Glitter Hologram in silver before I fused on the lining.

Specialty threads have really come a long way. Starting with the postcards this past weekend and now the two boxes, I have used a variety of acrylic, Wonderfil (poly and metallic) and Superior (metallic) threads and have been using a standard 80/12 needle  with no problems at all. I remember when you had to have a special needle and say a lot of prayers to get Sliver or one of the other early metallics to sew properly. Thread technology has certainly come a long way!

There are several more boxes (and some bags) in my future. These are loads of fun to make and everything is coming from the stash!

Stashbusting, the counter argument

If you have some time and need a good laugh please read Helen's post on her position re stashbusting and the judges final verdict on charges of libel against her. She's obviously a very good lawyer!

It's just a box

but if you were getting birthday gift Wednesday would you rather have the gift in the plain white box or the black box with the red and silver dots?

I made this for my friend's birthday gift. She doesn't generally read the blog on a regular basis so I hope she keeps to that habit this week. I basically used the Fibre&Stitch Box tutorial. The inside fabric is hand-dyed. The decoration is foil fused to the box. I cut a top piece big enough for the top and sides and fused WonderUnder circles all over it and then fused the foil to the circles. I cut out the individual pieces after the foiling was done. I have one of those Clover mini-irons and it was really useful on this project. The thread is Sulky rayon that has been in my thread stash for years and the black fabric was a scrap piece just big enough to make the entire box. I love it. I might have to make one for myself! It took less than 2 hours start to finish.

A Christmas Postcard

I worked at home today so the commute home was faster than normal. While Chris was preparing dinner I was able to get my first set of Christmas postcards done.

This is the first crazy quilt type project I have ever done! I'm so take with the beautiful work of the crazy quilters in the blog world that I decided to give it a try. The central motif is from  Dover holiday image CD. The fabrics are a mix of all kids of scrap fabrics and even some gift wrapping ribbons. It's not real crazy quilting because it's not done in a sew-and-flip method. Each new piece was position with raw edges showing - it's a postcard after all. It was fun tr use some of the decorative stitches on the machine. The threads are gold Superior Metallic, gold Wonderfil Hologram and red and green acrylic threads that I bought several years ago when Lunn Fabrics was clearing out their thread inventory. The acrylic threads has a beautiful sheen and each cone is about 6000 yards! It was such a bargain that I probably have about 40 cones of the stuff. I can even run it on the longarm.

I made 16 of these cards because that's how many images that I could print on one fabric sheet. Now on to contemplating the second Christmas design. I found a postcard stamp on the web today so should be able to get these addressed and in the mail next week.

When I was shopping for the stamp I noticed that the stamp internet stores all seem to organize their stamps by brand. Why? It makes it nearly impossible to find something without searching through every page. Those brand names mean nothing to me. The best online fabric stores got over that insanity and now cross reference they inventory by designer, color, theme, whatever. That's one reason that eQuilter is so successful - you can find things! Why haven't the stamp companies done that as well? My favorite mixed media supply site, Joggles, is the same way. I generally only buy there when I know EXACTLY what I want and can find it but it sure is a difficult site to browse. It seems to me that once your inventory in a category goes over 2 pages it's time to break the inventory into sub-menus. It drives me nuts but they probably shouldn't change that any time soon because if shopping were easier I might fall off my stash control wagon faster!

.....48 hours without a migraine! I'm starting to feel whole again.

WIP Wednesday

and no photos! I apologize for that. I hate to post without pictures.

I haven't posted in a few days because I've not been feeling great. I've had 3 migraines in 8 days and have had some persistent allergy symptoms. I can't figure out what the allergen could be though! I've passed 36 hours without a migraine now and have my fingers crossed for the rest of the week.

I have progressed on a few projects:

• My first set of Christmas postcards are almost done. Hope to have a picture to post for you soon
• I've made some good progress on the locker hooking rug
• I finished quilting Anne's quilt and sent some fabric to Debra so that she can embroider a label for me. That's going to be really cool, I usually just print my labels on fabric with my ink jet printer.
• I've started planning my next set of Christmas postcards - I hope to come up with 3 designs.

I also cleaned up a lot of piles around the house. Occasionally I get the need to fill garbage bags. So we cleaned out 3 bags of clothes and things from our closets and next I will hit some of the other closets in the house. I'd love to fill the car with stuff for the thrift shop! Aside from my sewing stashes, I hate having too much stuff in the house. I want things to be used and prefer to give a useful item away rather than keep it for "someday I might need it". I rarely need the item and by the time I'd want to use it I would want the new and improved version anyway.

On the stash control front I've been good. But it was easy because I haven't gone anywhere! My LQS is having a Fat Quarter Frenzy sale this weekend. Fortunately Chris and I will be out of town so I will miss it. I am going to order a rubber stamp for the backs of my postcards - does that count as stash? I don't think so and besides I am ordering it to use right away!

LQS Teaching Day

What a great day teaching today! I had 4 great students for my Indygo Junction class. We had great time and everyone left with just a few finishing touches to complete their jackets.

The big news? I didn't buy anything except for a new pattern: the Rio Blanko topper! I only bought that because the ladies in class want me to teach this one next. I was helped by the fact that they kept me so busy that I didn't have much time to shop. Regardless of the reason, I've lasted a day on my stash control program!

Tomorrow I hope to finish quilting Anne's quilt and finish a set of Christmas cards. My dyed fabrics came out well but I can't show them until the recipients get them in the mail. I have a little more work to do before I ship them out.

Back to the stash - you will want to sit down for this one

I enjoyed reading everyone's responses to my stash control post. Some made me laugh out loud but some made me realize that I needed to clarify some points:

• I'm not stupid, I am not trying to stop spending money on inventory. That's crazy talk! Let me provide some perspective. If I cut my spending in half I will probably move from the top 10 spenders at my LQS and drop respectably into the top 25. I don't think she will go out of business, nor will I be leaving empty handed every time I visit. Willpower isn't one of my strong character traits.
• My goal really is to cut my spending in half but only as the metric. It's not a money issue, that just seems a good target to control the amount of stuff I have to store. I'm not in the mood to actually inventory what I have. Since I track my expenses like an accountant, I can easily compare 2008 expenses to the average monthly expense for the last 3 years. How much is that? The number is big enough that I'm embarrassed to tell you!
• The real reason that I'm trying to do some stash control is that I really like the fabrics that I have and I want to use them! No need to add more to make many of the projects that I have on my "want to do list".

So there you go. I'm just trying to keep the floor from collapsing and to use some of the great fabrics that I already have. Don't recommend that I expand my space - I figure that my sewing/quilting/craft space in this house already covers about 1000 square feet!

Oh, and as a reward, I might just buy this for myself next year! You may remember that Mom and I used the Pfaff 2058 in our class in Houston and we both fell deeply in lust with it!

Now for your entertainment pleasure, here are the highlights of my current stash. I suppose that I could take these photos again in a year and see the comparison. (Probably not.)

Let's stat with thread - I ADORE THREAD! All kinds of thread.

General sewing thread and piecing thread is stored in this cabinet under one of my sewing tables. Of course it's labeled and categorized as is everything in my sewing spaces.

And Willie has his collection of (primarily Superior) thread. I am certain that I will buy lots more of these when I can get them for half price at MQX in April. I like having 2 or 3 good options for a quilt.

Finally, I store other specialty threads (metallic, Acrylic, clear, some rayons......) on these shelves in the containers highlighted with the red box.

That leads us right into the fabric tour. The rest of those shelves are all of the scrap bins. There are 2 large bins of 6" charm squares (I have loads of ideas for those), squares of other sizes, strips and bits. belows these shelves is an old microfiche cabinet.

When I first put this in for my fat quarter storage there was a lot of free space in those drawers. They are now packed to the gills with a lot of overflow here in my quilting fabric cabinet.

There was a certain amount of organization to this cabinet but now several bins of fat quarters have started a coup. If I could downsize (through completion of a project) a couple of those white baskets it would be really cool!

I actually have two of these BIG cabinets. The other one was for garment fabric storage.

I donated about $1000 worth of wool fabric to my local University fashion department last year when I realized that I had become so allergic to wool that I couldn't even handle it anymore. That cleared up one entire shelf which became a convenient place to store that huge plastic bin of yarns. I don't knit, these are for embellishment only! I mostly buy them on sale once a year at a shop near my friend's river house. I only buy yarn on sale but it's still a LOT of yarn! And that leads us to all of the stuff I have accumulated since I discovered fabric postcards and Sue Bleiweiss'  mixed media classes. All of these things are mostly her fault.

The silk fiber collection

The sparkly stuff collection

The ribbons and trims

The beads - I really like beads because they don't take up much space!

There's one last stop on the stash tour, the button department! This cabinet is another cast off from work and once held canceled checks. It's also a great magnetic bulletin board.

The only thing stored in it now is BUTTONS! I have collected buttons since I was given my Grandma Dove's button bag. In the past few years I have bought several large lots from eBay. I have 2 drawers like these with un-sorted buttons.

This drawer has my "special" buttons

But the rest of the drawers, fortunately, are not stuffed but they are sorted by color.

There it is. My sewing room in it's full stash glory! You should be feeling a little queasy right about now. Do you now understand why I do not need to buy ANYTHING else?

I think I'll start buying art glass again instead. Art glass is one of my favorite things. I have several pieces and never grow tired of any of them. I even like glass jewelry better than precious stones. I picked up this piece at a juried craft show a week ago. I can't believe I bought art for my bathroom but it sure looks nice there! Even Chris likes it.

Meanwhile, back in the sewing room. All of the fabrics I dyed this morning are a all washed and dried. I'm really happy with all except one piece. I'll paint over it to see if I can improve it. I'm also working on some Christmas postcards with all this stuff.

This has to be my longest post EVER! If you've read this far you deserve a break - a chocolate break.

What's this?

It's the fabric dyeing for my blog drawing winners! Even the big gray tub - that's a backing for Mary. I spent all morning doing fabric dyeing. What fun!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving with Mom, brother and my Aunt and I just had the yummy lefovers for lunch. Tomorrow I am teaching at the LQS so I need to get my materials and notes together. Then I can wash all of these out and see what I got! I was hoping to finish quilting Anne's quilt today but I don't think that will happen. Maybe tomorrow after class.

Starting Anne's Quilt

You may remember this quilt that I started back in September at Craft Week. I made 4 blocks and Anne immediately called it hers! I want to get it done by Christmas so I loaded it last night and started quilting. I'm doing a pantograph because the quilting really doesn't show but it's one big quilt so it's not speedy! It should be done by Friday night though and I'll be ready to load a baby quilt that my Guild made on Saturday. I have to have the baby quilt done in 2 weeks. I'm trying to get my projects done so that Mom can have Willie for a couple of her Christmas quilts.

Thanks to everyone who posted on my stash control post! It's not a money issue. It would be easier if it were! LOL! I just have too much stuff and want to try to keep it from spilling out of my sewing room into the rest of the house.  Willpower is not a strong family trait so I'm not holding out a lot of hope but I'll give it a try! I'll keep you posted as I jump off and on the wagon......

Can I get my stash under control?

A few months ago my husband offered to knock out a wall and enlarge my 14 x 17 sewing room to add another 130 square feet. I told him that it was a bad idea because I would just fill the new space with even more stuff that I can’t use in my lifetime. I meant it in jest but it’s truer than I wanted to admit!

Can you really have too much sewing stuff? This past week I have determined that the answer is a resounding

YES!

Two things happened to bring me to that conclusion – three actually, if you count the comments from my Mom and friends over the past couple of years – “You have too much stuff, why are you buying more fabric?”

A week or so ago I got a little overwhelmed by the work and project lists running through my head. I decided to write everything down – work on one list, personal on another. It’s working very well to keep my time focused. The work list is under much better control but the home is 2 columns typed! I have no less than 27 projects in some stage of progress or that I have committed to do and another 10 or so projects that are ideas that I want to do. Additionally, I pretty much have ALL of the materials that I need to make EVERYTHING on the list.

That was my first clue.

When I was making the postcards this weekend I pulled out everything pink that I could find throughout my various stashes. I couldn’t find a lot of pink – which is fine because I mostly dislike pink – but I sure found lots of other stuff. (Of course I did find enough pink, so I had plenty!) I am absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of fabric, yarn, buttons, trims and other STUFF that I have. The good news is that I still love all of it – every little button, scrap and string. The hard cold truth is that I DO NOT NEED ANY MORE SEWING STUFF! It’s ridiculous, it’s out of control and it’s embarrassing.

Last night while cleaning up the postcard detritus I decided that it was time to get some control over my inventory practices and see how long I can go without buying any fabric – or anything else for that matter! Then this morning I read Judy's post on the same subject and decided that I REALLY need to do this since she is providing a built-in support organization. She posted on the same issue and is making a commitment to stash reduction and is going to track progress for any blogger wanting to participate.

I don’t plan to really track fabric used I just want to gain some control over what I buy. So my challenge to myself is to only buy what I absolutely need for a current project and to see how long I can do that without cracking under the allure of “new and shiny” fabrics and toys. If nothing else I just need to start thinking about my purchases before I come home with another $100 bag of new fat quarters. I’ll be happy if I cut my purchases in half – and I can measure that because the accountant in me tracks all sewing purchases in a separate account.

Going forward, I will post about EVERY sewing-related purchase and explain WHY I bought whatever it is and I’ll do it until I fall totally off the wagon. My first test will be at my favorite LQS this weekend. I’m teaching a class and rarely leave the shop without spending at least $50, usually it’s over $100. My second test will be a bead show in Richmond in 2 weekends. We’ll see. I’ll be happy if, in 6 months, I have emptied a couple of the overflow fat quarter bins from my fabric cabinet. Maybe this weekend I’ll post some photos of my various stashes – then you’ll see just how bad it is!

My Mother and my friend Kim are both laughing themselves silly right now. They don’t’ think I have any hope of self-control over fabric purchasing – are they right?

Postcard/Door Sign

The theme for the MQResource postcard exchange is "black, white and one color". I have had about 100 lame ideas for this swap! I finally settled on something Friday and thought I'd share the entire process of how I made decisions and executed this particular card.

You'll see the black cord. That's the new twist on this card - I decided to make the card a door sign for the recipients sewing room (or studio or whatever it's called). The back photo shows how the card will arrive in the mail. I wanted to avoid having to use a clear envelope so I made a little pocket as part of the backing. That will keep the cord safe in the mail.

As I said, I had many lame ideas for this swap and pink as the third color NEVER crossed my mind. But last week I picked up some fabric from my LQS for an apron sample (for a future beginner sewing class). The pattern is Retro Aprons by Cindy Taylor Oates. This pink and white print is what she chose for the apron. Not my favorite fabric but it made a really cute apron. As I was cleaning up I noticed that there were only 3 colors - black, white and pink! The print is sewing and laundry images. I quickly counted the number of sewing-related blocks left in the scraps and there were exactly what I needed for this swap.

The first step I always take is to pull out everything that I can find in the color scheme that I am using. I gathered fabric, buttons, ribbons, yarns and embellishments. I discovered that I don't have a lot in that pink. I also quickly determined that I needed to stay in the theme of the fabric - clear color (no variegated yarns), clean lines (no eyelash yarn or other texture) and no sparkle. that left me with the motif box from the fabric and the need to probably put words with it as the embellishment. That's where the idea for the door sign formed. I didn't have the whole concept formed so I just jumped in with that I had.

The trim that matched the pink best was ric rac so I decided to pull out the pinking shears to cut all of my fabrics to compliment the zig-zag edge of the trim. I cut each motif square out and then a backing square in black that was slightly larger than the motif (there were several motifs and different sizes). The card was covered with a white fabric then the black square was fused on and the motif top-stitched. Next I printed a sheet of "Enter At Your Own Risk" labels. These were fused on and then edged with pink ric rac. This is as far as I got last night. I couldn't figure out the next step.

When I woke this morning I realized that I needed more black in the lower portion of the card. I found this tiny black ric rac and sewed it over the pink. Much better! It still needed something else. I toyed with the idea of doing some stamping or painting on the background but I still felt that the look needed to remain clean and simple. But it absolutely needed a third element.

The answer (for me) turned out to be a simple black button - I tried pink and black and white buttons. The plan black looked the best. Then I saw a stack of pink and brown scraps from Kim's quilt. I pulled three of the pink fabrics and cut them into tiny rectangles and arranged them into a fan under the button. I stitched the button on by machine and then put a dab of fabric glue behind each snippet of fabric. Now it was done! I added fusible web to the backing to prepare for adding the back cover and hanger.

Now to figure out how to add the hanger. I cut one piece of the white backing 3" x 4" (top of photo right) and one at 4" x 6" (top of photo left). I folded down one 4" edge of the larger piece as a hem and stitched the hanger to the edge. The hanger is stitched to the BACK of the lining piece - the side that will be fused onto the back of the postcard. The hanger is about 9" cut and I used twill tape - because that's what I had on hand. Some of the cards have white hangers and some black based on what I had on hand.

The postcard is placed on the pressing board with the TOP of the card to the RIGHT. In the lower half of the photo I have fused the 3 x 4 inch piece of backing to the  right side of the back (top of the card). Then I placed the larger piece on the back with the hanger to the right (top of the card) and fused that to the lower half.

In the top of this photo the backing pieces are fused in place. Fold the hanger under the top flap of the backing piece. Once the edge finishing is done, the two sides of the pocket are sewn down. I did a serger finish on these cards in a solid pink for the upper looper and black in the needle. When you make a backing like this you have to be careful to make sure that the proper layers of the back are sewn into the edge finish. That was the trickiest part of the whole construction process. I made 2 extra cards, which was fortunate because I constructed the back of one of the cards upside down!

I really like how this turned out. I see a couple of other ideas for this like a "Do Not Disturb" sign for a birthday card or a "Welcome Santa" card for Christmas. I think that I am going to print the address labels so that I can use the adhesive of the address label and the stamp to seal the pocket opening for mailing. I would have constructed the card so that the address would have been on the flat side but I needed for the button to be on the top of the postcard for the card to go through the mail processing equipment. If the button were on the bottom of card it would potentially jam up mail processing equipment. I always hope that the post office will hand stamp the cards but in reality that almost never happens.

I hope I've explained this one well. Let me know if anything is confusing so I can clarify.

Postcards Received

Here are a few postcards that I have received recently.

From the Stitcher's Guild "Great Outdoors" themed swap.

From Laurie

From Tamara

This one from Gayle is for the MQResource "Black, White and one color" swap.

Commuting to work

I live about 12 miles from my office but, living on 10 acres, it feels like I live out in the country. My commute is beautiful every day. Yesterday the color was spectacular. Of course I didn't have a camera so I went out this morning to take some photos. The sun wasn't quite as bright as yesterday but you'll get the idea.

The drive to work:

The office park

The ride home

One of our sugar maple trees in the front yard

More info on locker rug hooking

I was really surprised at the interest in the Locker Hooking post yesterday so I thought I'd add a little step-by-step information to answer some of the questions. I'm not going to show the steps to start the rug but if you decided to get into this craft, The Happy Rug Hooker series of books by Cindy Murray are the ones that I have learned from. Each of her books has the same basic set of instructions but different individual rug hooking patterns.

I decided that I didn't want to follow a pattern because I wanted it to be mindless. So I an simply working around from the outside in. I started with 3 rows of a brown print batik for the hem followed by 7 rows of blue, 5 brown, 7 blue, 5 brown, etc.

These photos will show the basic steps of hooking the center of the rug. Click on any photo for a larger view. This is the hook. It's basically a large crochet hook on one end with a large eye on the other. The string is threaded through the eye.

The strips of fabric are cut about 1 1/4" wide. The book instructions have a cool way to tie the ends together but I didn't like the lumps of the knots on the back of my rug so I overlap the ends about 1/4" and hand stitch them together.  The fabric is folded together in half as you work the loops.

To start, put the crochet hook end of the tool through the next hole in the canvas and lay the folded strip over the hook and then pull the loop to the front.

 

Continue like this loading several loops on the tool.

make sure the string is still threaded in the end of the tool and pull the tool and string through all loops. It's the string that keeps the loops in place.

Here's what the rug looks like from the back.

As you get to the end of the string just tie the next string on with an overhand knot, pull the knot tight and cut the tails about 1/2", When you pull the string through the next set of loops the knot will be hidden under the loops. Sometimes it takes some effort to work the knot through all of the loops.

And that's all there is to it! There is a finishing step and other instructions in the book. You can also do this technique with yarns, other types of fabrics (wouldn't old plaid shirts bee really neat?) and even batting strips (sturdy cotton batting like Warm and Natural). Hope that answers any questions.

WIP Wednesday - rug hooking

I mentioned in an early October post that I bought a book and supplies for Locker Hooking. I even started the project! I decided to make a rug for my newly tiled bathroom that is tiled floor to ceiling in a gradient of brown and blue glass mosaic tiles. I was going to follow a pattern in the book but it started to seem too much like cross stitch. I wanted this project to be easy and mindless.

I cut lots of brown and blue strips from my scrap bins and decided to do alternating bands of blues and browns. You can tell that I am using a wide variety of values in the colors. The first few rows seemed to take forever but now that I am about 9 rows in it's going pretty quickly. This is a great project for using up a LOT of scrap fabric! It's not a particularly exciting project but it is what I am doing this Wednesday. I hadn't done a WIP post in so long that I wanted to do one tonight.

So this is my WIP as I watch the premiere of Project Runway. I love this show!

Indygo Junction Jacket

Yes, you are in the right blog and I did sew a garment! It's nothing to get excited about. This is the Indygo Junction Never the Same Twice Jacket. I made this in January for a shop sample. I was going to teach the jacket in the Spring but we didn't have enough students. It's doing better this month so I needed to get another sample done before class starts Wednesday. This is meant to be a beginner class so don't have any big expectations! LOL! I tried to do different closure details on all 3 jackets that I made.

The fabrics were chose to match two pants that I have for winter. On this side I fused three of the circle motifs on the left front and stitched around the edges with a matching thread. The pocket is made with two 1/2" button holes made about 1/2" apart. the purple tie is sewn to the jacket and each end fed through a button hole and then tied in a bow in front. That pocket is so huge that I will not need to untie the closure to use the pocket! The button is actually a mother-of-pearl button (back up), a purple button and a bead.

This side is simpler. The pocket has two large buttonholes and the buttons are painted with some of my new Stewart Gill paints!  I sewed the buttons on with beads.

It only took a few hours to make this jacket - it's a perfect beginner sewing project. Unfortunately, the Extra Small is still too big. I can wear sweaters under this one!

Drumroll! And the winners are.....

I used a random number generator program and it selected:

#25 - floribunda

#30 - Mary

#3 - Gayle

#18 - Marie

#1 - Joanna

If you are one of the winners please send me your mailing address and any preferences you have for your fabric!  My goal is to have all of the packages mailed out by the end of the month.

Thanks to everyone who commented - I was overwhelmed! This was fun. I'll have to do it again soon!

Veteran's Day

An Open Letter of Thanks by Kyle-Ann Shiver

A little bit of thread testing

I have seen references recently to Wonderfil threads. I've only recently heard of them. I don't know if that's because they are new or because I live under a rock (which I do most of the time). I was asking Sue B about them and she offered to send me a couple of spools to try. I used the 40wt rayon last night on my checkbook cover. It sewed beautifully. I mostly use Superior threads because that's what I've been buying for Willie. I use them for all of my sewing. I decided to start off my day today with a bit of testing to see how the Wonderfil and Superior threads compare.

I have left all of the photos large so that you can click on them to see the full detail image if you want. I didn't determine that either thread is better than the other. I'd be happy with both to sew on my DSM. It does appear that the Superior threads have a much tighter twist and the Wonderfil threads feel "softer" on the spool. I haven't tried yet but I suspect that the Wonderfil would not run so well on a longarm. 

The Wonderfil 40 wt rayon is comparative to Superior Highlights.

The Wonderfil DecoBob appears to be an almost exact match to Superior Bottom Line

The Wonderfil and Superior Metallic threads also seem to be an almost exact match. The Wonderfil sample that I have is a really nice variegated. I do not think that Superior has a color similar to this one.

This isn't a sewing sample. Wonderfil has a decorative thread called Dazzle. It seems to compare to Superior's Razzle Dazzle but the Razzle Dazzle has a much higher metallic content. Both are good depending on the effect you want.

I assume that these thread lines are developed for different uses and different markets but there are good comparisons with certain products (above). I have a few other samples of Wonderfil but nothing on the Superior side that really compares. I like these Wonderfil threads and can see that I'm about to start collecting some of the non-Superior-like lines! Here are the links to both company's web sites:

Wonderfil

Superior Threads

A checkbook cover for the new pen

As I posted yesterday, I won this beautiful hand made pen in a UFO Challenge on MQResource. Today I also received a couple of spools of Wonderfil thread to try. I ignored my long sewing to-do list and decided to kick off the weekend and make an appropriate checkbook cover for the new pen. I think it turned out great - although I'm not sure red is the appropriate color for anything finance related! It looks good with my green wallet though.

I used this tutorial from the Fibre&Stitch web site. There are several really great projects there for free! The Wonderfil Rayon thread (2-ply, 40wt) sewed beautifully. I changed the pattern just a tiny bit. I positioned my pen pocket on the left so that I could pull the pen out with my right hand and I tapered the pen pocket in as I neared the opening to accommodate the bulk of the pen. Cool, huh?

If you haven't posted a comment for my fabric give-away be sure to do so by leaving a comment on this post! The drawing is Sunday evening (US EST).

I also made 10 more blocks for my next QOV Chinese Coins quilt - the blue and brown one. That project is really good for getting me back in the sewing groove. Now I'm ready to tackle the weekend project list!

A color matching tip

Mom reminded me to post about a tip that we picked up in the Jean Wells Keenan class at Houston. One of our classmates brought this one to us. It's a tip to help isolate and match colors in small quantities in photos or fabric (or whatever). All it takes is an index card with a 1" (more or less) square cut into the card along with a very small hole at least an inch and a half away. In this example I have placed the hole in the card over a small patch of an orange daylily. With that color isolated I can then place fabric or color chips under the larger opening until I find the matching color. I thought this was just brilliant!

I'm a winner!!

The MQResource board has a monthly UFO challenge. You post a photo of a completed UFO (over 30 days old) and you are entered into a drawing for a prize. Members of the board sponsor the prizes. I won the October UFO with my Chinese Coins QOV. I was the lucky recipient of this pen from Thearica! It was handmade by her husband. You can see a sampling of his beautiful wood work here.

Coincidentally, Sue B posted a checkbook cover tutorial at Fiber&Stitch. I think it's a sign that I need to make a beautiful checkbook cover to use with my new pen!

I posted about the Stewart Gill paints 2 days ago. Sue B posted some of her experiments with the paints today on her blog. Check it out to see how the paints look on paper surfaces.

Stewart Gill Paints

I should be working on some tasks or one of the many project that I have underway but I wanted to play with my new paints. I talked about these in my Houston - Day 3 report. The paints came with a really nice book showing how to use the paints and even has a page with directions for making a test swatch. it was a good exercise because I got to try out a little of each paint. Where I had comparable paints, I also did the test with Jacquard paints to compare the brands.

The Stewart Gill Colourize compares to Jacquard Textile Colors and behaved similarly in the painting test. The SG MetaMica compares to Jacquard Lumiere but the glitter in MetaMica might me finer than Lumiere.  That's about where the similarity ends - at least with the jacquard paints that I have used.

This sample at left is made by painting a layer of SG white Pearlize and then painting over it with a blend of Pearlize with red Colourize. I just scooped a tiny bit of Pearlize into a plastic spoon and gradually added drops of red to get the gradient. I love the shimmery effect of this paint.

The sample below is made by painting a layer of Colourize and then painting over it with Alchemy. The 4 colors are White Mist, Opal, Seaspray and White Hot.  I painted it straight out of the bottle but I think it could be thinned. Isn't that a great effect?

I also bought Byzantia but the sample just doesn't photograph well but it is a beautiful superfine glittery paint. I love it too.

Now to come up with a good project to use them! Speaking of which, since coming home I've become a little overwhelmed by lists running around in my head. On top of that I got two more work projects assigned this week. Time for lists! I made a work list (still overwhelming and long but at least it's in one place) and a sewing list. It's long too but here are the things that I have to focus on first:

• prepare samples for a jacket class I an teaching in a couple of weeks
• mail out some fabrics to Alycia for her 5th grade QOV project
• black/white and 1 color postcards for MQResource swap
• load Mom's Stack and whack for quilting
• favorite artist postcards for the Stitcher's Guild swap

If you've read this far be sure that you post a comment on this post to be included in my Blogiversary drawing this weekend!

Time to celebrate!

It's my first blogiversary! I can't believe that it's been a year since I started my blog. I started the blog simply as a way to have a back up for my project photos and project diary. It has helped me organize my plans and projects and has made me much more productive. At the time, I thought it would be a stretch to come up with something to post once a week. Ha! It's year later and I still want to post something almost every day. I guess that I do talk a lot.

The big surprise of this adventure has been all of the new friends that I have made. I never expected that anyone would read my blog or that I would meet some many other wonderful quilters, sewists and fiber artists. I feel like I could travel anywhere and have a friend to visit. So, as a thanks to everyone who reads the blog, it's time for a contest!

Since I am experimenting with my fabric dyeing, the "prize" will be a set of hand-dyed fat quarters in a color gradient, or a parfait of fat quarters, or a 1 yard piece. All you have to do is post a comment here before Sunday evening at 5:00 pm EST. In your post indicate what you think you would like. I'll try anything - even more tie dye! Note in your comment what colors you like and what you would like to have.

I'll draw FIVE names Sunday evening and will have the fabrics out in the mail to the winners by the end of November.

Thanks to everyone who stops in to read and if you have never commented before, now is the time to start!

Houston - The Last Supper

We capped off a great trip with a perfect dinner. We met at the Cheesecake Factory for lots of laughs and a general good time. left to right are: Iris (owner of Mistyfuse and Transdoodle), Sue, Terri, me, Mom and Elaine. It was the perfect ending to this fantastic trip. Mom and I are packing now and will head home tomorrow morning.

Real life will resume Monday.

Houston Day 4 - My legs are tired of walking!

As we were coming into the convention for our last day I realized that I had not done a good job of conveying the size of this convention. We were told that the show brings in about 56,000 visitors and is the largest convention hosted in Houston. It takes up the entire George R. Brown Convention Center. The first floors is 850,000+ square feet and the Quilt Show uses all of it! The photo above, of part of the vendor area, is a poor collage of 4 photos that I took from a window on the second floor. This is only 2 of the 5 exhibit halls. The quilt exhibit is in Halls D&E to the right of this area. We certainly got our exercise today!

We did not have any classes today so we walked the entire vendor floor from the far end (row 21) back toward the quilt exhibit. There are about 1000 vendors.  Mom finally made some purchases - a book and some border fabrics for a blue and yellow quilt. Last night I worked on my colors study a little more so I shopped for gray fabrics for a value study. All-in-all we both purchased far less than we anticipated but that's not all bad! We both have stashes that are overflowing out of our sewing rooms. Speaking of champion-level stashes, today we got to meet up with Judy and her Mom. Since a friend chided me for not posting a photo of me and Mom togther, it seemed appropriate to capture this Mother/Daughter photo. If you can't identify which Mother goes with which Daughter you might need new glasses! Judy is as nice as she seems from her blog. She has a great sense of humor, as does her Mom. It was fun to meet up with them on Aisle 16 and thanks to the nice lady in the booth who took our photos for us!

Now we are off to the Mall for a little real retail therapy and some dinner.

Houston Day 3 - A feast for the eyes!

Today we spent most of the day drooling through the quilt exhibit. I took lots of photos for myself but I'm not comfortable posting work by other people on my blog....so no photos today. Sorry! be sure to go look at the winners here.

On the shopping front, I bought Renae Haddadin's new DVD about how to use her Rays to draft patterns. her first DVD is very professional and thorough so I'm looking forward to this one.

Last night I read the book that came with the Stewart Gill paints so I had to go back and get the one type that I did not buy yesterday.

We also got to meet Jeanne Williamson and buy her new book The Uncommon Quilter.

We had a class this afternoon with Melody Crust. The class was on using foils. Unfortunately the glue that she uses is different from what I am used to using and Mom and I, both, were allergic to it. So we packed up and left early. But don't worry about us - there is always plenty to do at Festival so we just headed off n a different direction and toured the journal quilts.

We've only had one bad thing happen this week. On Tuesday someone scratched my rental car while it was in a lot downtown. I finally called USAA today to report the claim. I love that company - they really know customer service!

Tomorrow we hope to connect up with Judy at some point and to meet up with Sue and Terri again.

Houston Day 2 - Meetn', Greetn' and Spendn'

Another fun day today. The hotel internet died last night but it's back tonight so let's catch up. First, here are the remaining photos from yesterday.

I got to meet Sue (on the left) and Terri (on the right) last night at the Mistyfuse booth.

And I made sure to get my Fibre & Stitch tag.

Then I met up with Sophie (center) and Amy (on the right).

It was so much fun to meet friends from the blog world!

We didn't purchase much yesterday but here's what I bought - two fat quarter packs. Both, I think, are older Kaffe Fasset lines. That ugly bag? It's the free tote from the Festival registration. It is, without question, the ugliest quilt show bag I have ever received! Janet Lee does a MUCH BETTER bag for MQX and it's the one I am carrying around this week.

Today we had one afternoon class. It was a Mixed Media demo-rama of sorts. They had 15 stations in a ballroom and we rotated from station to station for 15 minute demos. It worked pretty well and the demos were enough to get a flavor of a technique or product. We got through the rest of the vendor booths today. I was going to buy my friend, Anne's, birthday present here but the vendor got on my nerves so I'll buy it online somewhere else. I also did not fine the quilt display chest (no vendors) or the cutting table that I wanted. The cutting tables here just aren't quite what I want. I think I will have to sweet-talk my brother into making one for me.

I did find a few good purchases though! First I found the two fabrics on the bottom. They are fat quarters painted with metallic paints. They are really cool! The neatest thing was that Janet Fogg was working in this booth and she recognized me from her class at MQX in April. I wonder if I was that bad of a student? Hmmmm

I also bought some new glitters and some Stewart Gill paints and stencils. I think these will be fun paints to use and the ladies in the booth were delightful. I was happy to give them money!

It amazes me that some of the vendors (like the one where I wanted to buy Anne's gift) really miss the whole customer service angle. Sometimes it's bad enough that no matter how much I want the product I will not give them my money. Then there are vendors like Artist Cellar (the paints) are totally fun and share all kinds of information about the product and I will LOOK for a reason to buy their product. Vendors need to "get it".

Another fun part of the day was a visit to the A-1 booth to meet Lynn. What a really lovely person! She was busier than a one-armed paper hanger but stopped to chat for a few minutes and pose for a photo.

It was also nice to stop by the APQS booth and see the new Lenni machine. It's a really nice intro/home quilting machine! It was also really nice to be recognized by the APQS folks. All-in-all a wonderful day! Tomorrow we will start looking at the quilts and have an afternoon class on foiling. it will be like play school.

Be sure to go by Summerset's blog and see her American Beauty with it's Honorable Mention ribbon from the show!