Quilts and things

I am in the midst of getting ready for Quilt Market, which takes place in Houston in October. The time is fast approaching and I still have much to do. This week I brought home a few quilts from the LQS that have been on display there for oh-so-long. 

Several of them are going to market with me. I am formulating how to set up my booth. The booths there are so beautiful and it is a little intimidating. The hardest part is trying to make my booth attractive in an auditorium filled with so much eye candy. 

 Meanwhile, I got it in my head that I needed a little rug in my booth. I decided to try and crochet a rag rug. I have been wanting to try this for years, ever since a fellow blogger, Finn, showed them on her blog. This was several years ago, but I managed to find her comments on the topic and went to work. First I went through my scrap box looking for long strips, then I trimmed them into 3/4" wide strips. I experimented with a couple different sizes, but 3/4" seems to be the magic number for me. I also learned that a strip doesn't go too far, and it is a little difficult pulling the seams through with the crochet hook, so the longer the strip the better. I was happy to find some really long pieces in my scrap box that had been trimmed off the backing of quilts after they were quilted. And I used a J hook and Finn used a K hook. Finn posts about it HERE and HERE. This is a fun way to use up fabric that you know is going to waste. The problem is that you get hungry for more and you run out of long scraps, so then you start looking in your stash for old or ugly fabric. Last night my husband accused me of using my good fabric for a rag rug. That's just crazy. I used old fabric. "Good" is a relative term, right?

 I have to share this darling doll furniture that my granddaughter just got from her other grandfather (the one I am not married to). He made it for her American Girl Doll. Such a talented man, and such a lucky little girl! Hmmm, maybe she needs a rag rug!

 

Pilgrim's Pride

I was thinking this morning about my ancestors and the great heritage they have left me. I am pretty sure that most Americans can say that they came from families without much money. I know I can. My family tree consists of paupers and Pilgrims, pioneers and patriots. Maybe even pirates, who knows? Yes, Patchs for sure! But no where on my family tree do I see dollar signs. They were salt of the earth, working class people. They did what they could and what they had to do to take care of their families. My grandfather went to college in Chicago to become a chiropractor. He never got to practice. Instead, the depression came along and he drove trucks. My grandmother didn't have a job outside the home, but what a worker she was! Though she was raised on a farm, she ended up living in the city of Buffalo, NY with a garden in her backyard. My grandparents rented out rooms in their home to make ends meet, and their children slept in the attic. Trust me, this was no bed and breakfast! At one point my father's parents lost their home and could not find a place to move into as soon as they needed. My mother's parents told them that if they got desperate they could stay in their cellar. Well, they actually did become that desperate, and for a few months they took up residence next to the furnace in a very small room with only a bed. This must have been in about 1947 because I remember (and I was only a year old) calling down the radiator grill in the floor to my grandfather and hearing him call back to me. A sweet memory for me, not so great for them.

Another family of mine lived on the plains of Alberta, Canada. They farmed their land and fought the elements and whatever else life threw at them. They were Mormons and from them I got my faith and my fat legs. No, not all Mormons have fat legs, I just happened to have been blessed doubly. 

My Great-great-grandfather Davidson died from an accident while chopping wood with an ax. No doctors were in the area and one of the boys rode as fast as he could to Lethbridge to get a doctor. The doctor wouldn't come. He said it wasn't worth the ride as grandfather would be dead by the time he reached him. Turns out he was right. 

When it came time for the crops to be harvested, neighbors came from all around, bringing their own harvesting equipment (whatever they had back in 1897) and they harvested all the crops for Grandma Davidson. I suspect there are many, many stories like this across America. Communities pulling together to take care of their own. 

Granted, this story took place in Canada, but the community spirit is the same. My grandmother used to love to sing Oh Canada.I love to sing America the Beautiful! I love this song! It is emotional and stirring and full of wisdom and inspires us to be better people, better Americans! It unites us! Click on the link and read the words. They are amazing. 

 America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, From sea to shining sea! 

 My heritage was built on the backs of my ancestors, and they came from many different countries to build this nation into something great. They were paupers and Pilgrims, Pioneers and Patriots! I bet yours were too!

At long last I can reveal the quilt that I have been working on. It really didn't take as long for me to complete it as it seems . Well, maybe it did, but I have excuses! Blah, blah, blah.The lovely fabrics in this quilt all come from Marcus. Something old, something new--that's the way I sew. I have a lot of trouble sticking with all one line of fabric.

Now I need to bundle it off to be quilted, and hopefully get it all packaged in time for Quilt Market in Houston in October. That means that my sewing is done for a while because I need to write pattern instructions. I am beginning to feel the panic coming on.

I received a lovely little bundle in the mail this week from Julie Letvin. Julie is the artist behind the lovely jewelry on her website, Me and My Stitches. I have been admiring her work for quite a while and to tell you the truth, I was having a hard time making a decision on which pieces I wanted to purchase. Now that they have arrived I have to tell you, they are even nicer in person! The first link is to Julie's blog and the second takes you to her website. Go-go-go!!!

Thank you for all the words of advice and encouragement in my last post. I'm drinking lots of water! (Pretend you hear that last sentence gargling).

Well, here we are in the last week of August. I don't know how that happened, but already the weather has cooled just a bit. My grandkids are back in school already! They begin earlier in the west than I am used to. Enjoy this last week of summer!

 

Speechless!

 

Welcome to my blog! Above is a Primitive Gatherings wool project that I have had almost finished for several months. I needed a little wool to complete a couple flowers. I even had the binding on it! I quilted the fabric with straight lines before I appliqued the wool in place, which is easier for me since I am not a not a quilter. (I hate to say that out loud)

I have never spoken of my voice problems on my blog, so I thought I might explain what is going on with me. Over the past three years my voice has become increasingly high pitched and scratchy. It began when I was recovering from a flu bug of some sort. The kind that leaves you coughing for months. My voice never really recovered. Finally I saw my doctor about it and he was confident that it was a result of acid reflux. I never realized I had that problem, but he started me on medication. I also saw an ENT who scoped down my nose to look at my vocal cords. Oh well, you probably don't care about all the details, but I saw the ENT again yesterday and he says one of my vocal cords is immobile and dry, this leaves the cords without the ability to vibrate and make sounds. All of this has resulted in my inability to teach or speak at functions. In fact, it is difficult to have conversation at all. My voice is but a whisper at times and it is a strain to speak. I have been referred to a different specialist who may inject my throat with something to stimulate my vocal cords. 

Meanwhile, I was referred to a speech therapist who gave me the best advice, and things my doctors failed to mention. Number one on the hit parade of advice was that I needed to drink more water to hydrate my entire body. I drank a lot, but mostly diet coke, which I found out is a diuretic, as are other caffeine drinks. They don't hydrate. I was using anti-histamines for post nasal drip and to help me get to sleep when necessary. Also a big no-no as they cause drying, as do the menthol cough drops I was using. Luckily the post nasal drip has subsided, as has the coughing, so that is helpful. So I am drinking lots of water, avoiding caffeine, and anti-histamines, and using fruit flavored cough drops when necessary. Since this problem seems to be affecting more people than I realized, I thought I would pass along what I have learned and maybe you can take steps to avoid going this far down the road.  Not looking forward to the injection!

On a side note, I am scheduled to teach at an event in October in Hampton, Virginia at the Coliseum Convention Center. It is Expo II-2012, sponsored by Bella Fabrics. For info, follow the link. They have a great selection of teachers. So after that great build-up on my voice, let me assure you that I will have a microphone! I will be teaching an all day class on my Old Elegance quilt.Come join the fun if you are in the neighborhood! Save the dates October 13th and 14th, 2012.

 Pattern available at Patchalot Patterns!

Here is my bio:

Like most quilters, Marcie is addicted to fabric. She thinks it must have first occurred the moment she was born and was wrapped in a nice soft cotton blanket. As a child she watched her grandmother and her love of sewing, and realized that she wanted to do that also. She began sewing with cotton prints and sewed through the evolution of fabric as polyester blends and then double knits became popular. Now she has come full circle and she is the grandmother, and she is sewing with lovely cotton prints again; only this time she is making quilts!  

Marcie's passion is scrap quilts. She has a large fabric collection focused on reproduction prints. When she makes a quilt, she draws from what she has on hand. She models her designs after traditional quilts and tries to add her own twist to make it unique. She sells her patterns under the name Patchalot Patterns, putting her last name in play.   

She is happy to say that she has had her quilt designs published in several wonderful magazines, including McCall’s Quilting and McCall’s Quick Quilts; American Patchwork & Quilting, Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting and Primitive Quilts and Projects.   

Spending time with her family takes priority over all and in order to see them she must travel, as they live in several different states. She is blessed with four wonderful children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. They all know that when she comes, she needs a sewing machine, Diet Coke and Hershey’s Kisses! It’s a family joke—quilts, coke and kisses! Life is good!  www.patchalotpatterns.com

Oh dear, now I have to dump the diet coke reference! But life is still good, and we move forward trying to dodge obstacles that are placed before us!

Beautiful Blues

 I saw this picture of a spongeware pitcher, below,  on Pinterest and got very excited! It is exactly like one that belonged to my great-grandmother that I am now lucky enough to possess. 

It has always been one of my favorite things!

When I followed the link to the page where this pitcher was listed it gave it and the soap dish a value of $380.  I would never sell mine because I am sentimentally attached!  I don't have the soap dish, but I do have mine happily arranged with other items of blue. 

These dishes, the Spode, belonged to my husband's mother. I add little things here and there to the arragement, like the little antique oval dish and the tea pot and pitcher. I have a weakness for pitchers, I must confess. The angel, by Jim Shore, travels around the china cabinet blessing all within. Kinda pretty, isn't it?

 

 Also displayed in the cabinet is a baby dish that was used by my husband's father who is 88 years old, and his siblings. I nested a little bird on the ledge. The cookie jar is an antique that my mom picked up somewhere and gave me many years ago. They are resting on a vintage doll quilt that I believe is from the late 1800's. 

This plate above is a newcomer to my collection. I picked it up at an antique store in Pillager, MN when we were there recently. How do you like the name Pillager? I never gave it any thought until we were there this past July, and then I became curious about what got pillaged. Hmmm. I must do a little research on that!

KISS Quilts, etc.

We made a quick trip by car (that wasn't the quick part) to Minnesota for one week. Enjoyed seeing family there and eating brats and walleye. Saw signs for many quilt shops along the way. Didn't stop. You know how it is when there is a man behind the wheel. They focus on the road and stop for nothing! Still, I enjoyed seeing the signs and knowing that they are scattered in the highways and byways across the country! 

 

I am still working on a couple big quilts, but have also managed to fit in a few small things.One of the big quilts I made is going to APandQ for an upcoming issue. It had tons of the 9-patches and I always make more than the quilt requires. I ended up using some of the leftovers in this scrappy little quilt above, and also in the one below.

This one was for my grandson's dresser.

 Still playing with scraps, I made this one using 1-1/2" squares. It is 24" x 24". I keep a jar on my cutting table and throw spare 1-1/2" squares into it, so I always have plenty. I cut scraps into larger size squares as well, of course. They all come in very handy. My own pre-cuts! When I was in Arizona I used all my 1-1/2" squares for that big project and now I am starting over! By the way, I call these KISS QUILTS. You know that stands for "Keep it simple stupid". Never a problem for me! They are nice little utility quilts.

The big finale is coming Monday night (8-13) for The Closer on TNT. That has been a favorite show of mine. Really great cast! I hate to see it go. They will marathon previous shows the same day in case you missed any this last season, which I am sure I have. A new spinoff will begin right afterwards called Major Crimes, staring Mary McDonnell (Dancing with Wolves). She is a very different character in this role, but maybe she likes those roles. She is awesome. 

One more show that is fairly new and you can still catch up online on TNT is called Perception. Another show with a quirky main character. I must love those shows, like Castle and The Mentalist and Monk. They are my faves! All detective shows too.

 Let's hear it for Eric McCormack in this one!

Back to the beloved Bernina!

 

From My Design Wall

My last post was July 2nd and I can't think of anything interesting in my life since then. In fact, was there anything then? Doubtful. But the wheels have been spinning and the sewing machine has been whirring away. Ideas are on their way to becoming quilts. I finished the one I showed last time, but am holding it in reserve for a bit. This one is currently on the design wall.

 I have been working on this design all week and am really enjoying it. I was the happy recipient of a box of fabric from Marcus Fabrics last week so I happily selected some "choice cuts" to include in the star blocks. The beautiful fabric lines are from two great designers, Paula Barnes and Pam Buda. Check out Paula Barnes Companions, and Heart of the Prairie by Pam Buda. Both these lines are fantastic! I totally fell in love with the background shirting type prints in Heart of the Prairie. They look like they are tea washed and contain subtle shadings that are very nice. 

If you go to the Marcus website you will find that for each fabric line they have a free quilt pattern that you can download. Also, you will be delighted to know that you can click a link to download the whole fabric line to your computer. It comes in a zipped folder so you just unzip it and use the fabrics in your EQ program. To use them, open EQ, begin a project or go to one you already have begun, open the Library to Fabric and then Search. Scroll to the file where you stored the fabric line (ex. Marcus/Heart of the Prairie) and click the fabric, then click Save to Sketchbook. As far as I know you can only add one fabric at a time to the Sketchbook, which is kind of a pain, but still worth it. 

On the family front I have to bring on our youngest granddaughter for a bit. I have spared you that for a while, but we all know that babies take center stage in every family. The photos below are of Ellie. She turned one year old in June and wow, do I ever miss her! Her mom is the great photographer!

 Those rolls on her legs are not original with her, if you get my drift. The quilt in the back is the one that was in McCall's Quilting recently. They called it Teaberry Stars. But let's face it, Ellie is the star of the show! 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are finding a cool breeze now and then, even if it means standing in front of a fan!

 

What's Cooking?

Heat wave sweeps the United States and everywhere I turn people are feeling the heat. It has hovered close to 100 degrees here in Virginia Beach, and we are getting lots of rain too. And that begs the question, what's for dinner? If you have any cool suggestions please leave a comment. 

Meanwhile I have been sitting under the a/c vent in my sewing room stitching away on a nice bright quilt. You saw the geese I was making a couple posts ago, well they have been stitched into fine little blocks. Well actually, 12 inch blocks, not so little. But very pretty I think!

 These hot colors just seem to feel like I do lately. Hot but happy! One problem, after I got the sashing all in place I decided that cheddar squares would look better than the pink since there is pink in the border as well. So I have been picking out pink and restitching cheddar. A little tedious, but not bad. Plus it makes me happier with the end result. And this is why it takes me so long to make a quilt. It is always a work that changes as I go. I have never been known for my decisiveness. Maybe this should be written on my quilt labels!

Men at Work

 The title of the email was "Why men die first". This is one of those funny emails that is so true that it is scary. We have all seen similar things, I am sure. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, but no mama came up with these! Hold on to your chair and scroll down....

 How many men does it take to lift an air conditioner to the third floor? ...and two to hold the ladder, one to take the photo, and one to get the beer. Or maybe the beer came first?

 Definitely do not walk under these ladders!

 And when he gets that thing unscrewed he's gonna do what? Fly?

 Insane!

 Really???

If you are tired of getting the emails about women drivers, you now have this as a rebuttal.

A visit to Millstone Quilts!

This is the darling quilt shop Joan and I went to visit on Thursday. It is Millstone Quilts and is just outside of Richmond, VA. We have been wanting to take a trip up there for quite a while. The shop is owned by Regina Simmons and is situated in an actual old mill that her husband restored. Brick walls and wood floors combined with lots of fabric and quilts makes you want to move right in!

Millstone Quilts was featured in AP&Q Quilt Sampler, Fall 2011 issue, and they sell my patterns! In fact they had three models on display and I felt so flattered. Below you can see the magazine that their quilt was featured in, along with jars of thread and darling pincushions made by the indispensable Vicki Johnson. Vicki gave us a tour of the shop and made us feel very much at home there. It took us so long to get there that we missed seeing Regina as she had to go to another appointment.

 You may recognize the brown and blue quilt in the center as my
 Old Elegance. Doesn't it look wonderful? 

They have one kit left for this quilt if you are interested. 

I don't know why this darn photo is sideways, but it is too pretty not to include.

 Kits are available for this darling sailboat quilt that Vicki made.

I love it!

Below is a lovely display of flowers on the stairs going to the porch. They were too pretty to ignor.

 This shop caters to those of us who love reproduction fabrics. If you are traveling down Hwy 64 between Richmond and Williamsburg set your GPS to find Millstone Quilts. It will not dissappoint!