The next step

Quilting is at a minimum currently as my dining room is covered in construction dust and a free-standing bath is currently blocking the cabinet holding the machine.  So it's a good move that I decided to hand-quilt this baby.  I initially decided to hand-quilt because I'm still not comfortable quilting by machine.  I broke at least one needle and bent another the last time I attempted it and that was just a runner.

In preparation I ordered some supplies.  Cotton thread, quilting needles, a leather thimble and I was ready to roll.  I almost bought a hand-quilting frame, but I thought that might be a step too far.
My materials arrived and I realized I got the wrong needles. Oops.

I needed to get out of my house, anyway.  The sound and presence of builders was driving me to distraction.  I went to explore my local sewing shop.  Turns out it is run by a lovely mother and daughter team.  They had no needles to sell (a delivery was due at any minute) so they just gave me one and made me promise I would come back and buy a pack next week.

Turns out there is a patchwork club held on Wednesdays where local ladies come in and use the big tables and machines, etc. and have a chat.  The owner offered to teach me how to make my own binding and do the corners.  Very sweet.  The ladies in the back (presumably in the middle of that day's Patchwork Club) gave me a bit of a stink eye over their half moon bifocals, but I think I can win them over.  What's more charming to a retired Brit than a young sarcastic and pregnant American?

(Sidebar)
My confidence isn't without precedent.  Pete and I went on a cruise a few years ago and made best friends with a lovely 70-year-young couple.  Seriously.  Pete gave them his creamer on the plane and we were best buds for the next two weeks.  We still speak fondly of Ray and Shirley.  They are the benchmark for our golden years.
///////

I was a bit late for the Patchwork Club that day and of course didn't have my quilt with me at the time.  I headed home and got to work sandwiching and basting on my living room floor.  I don't recommend this course of action.  I also don't recommend hand-quilting without proper tension.  My vision of this finished is not holding up to its current state.  I'm trying to save it by re-basting after each row of hand-quilting in order to maintain some tension, but it may be a lost cause.  Or I may have to buy an embroidery hoop (as mine is trapped in the same cabinet as the machine) and move it every few stitches.  Hmmmm...

The other battle (as you can see from the photo above) is getting the lines straight.  As my triangles don't actually meet up, I'm going a bit off-grid with my quilting lines. Blindly pushing forward in the hope it all turns out OK in the end.

Fitting.

I guess this quilt is turning out to have some meaning in the making after all.

Wordless Wednesday

photo by author

Sewing Alone or Socially?

The reason Ariel and I joined together for Squaring Up was to create a community.  We were both contemplating our very first quilting projects and wanted somewhere to turn for advice, camaraderie, and inspiration.  We didn’t want it to be as vast and overwhelming as Pinterest or a message board, but we needed to be able to organize our thoughts effectively and still have some way to interact with the rest of the world.  As completely newbies to quilting, we didn’t want to go it alone, and the resources for face-to-face interaction didn’t exist.

At the risk of sounding like a freak, I was glad the face-to-face interaction wasn’t an option.  I’m not shy, and have no problem leading or speaking to strangers, but when it comes to hobbies, I’m a loner.  The virtual community we create, both inside and out of Squaring Up, gives me all the social interaction I need.

I’ve always been the type to be by myself (usually reading a magazine with a cat on my lap) and sewing has made me question this.  On one hand, I want people to read my blog(s) and I want to start a conversation.  It helps me validate what I’m doing as well as gives me a reason to keep creating.  On the other hand, I don’t want it to turn into giveaways and sponsored posts.  That creates a community of “what’s in it for me?”  I don’t enter a lot of giveaways and sponsored posts lose me as soon as I open the RSS window, because the author’s personality is normally completely lost within the reviews and contest rules.  I understand sometimes you need to just make a living, but I’d rather not see how the sausage is made.

I also struggle with my independence when I’m faced with a social activity.  I joined a chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) when I lived in Maryland, and again when I moved here to Charlotte.  In Maryland it was exciting because I actually made a friend from it, and it was completely new--I attended the first meeting and helped make the decisions.  But we moved, such is life, and I’d heard great things about the Charlotte chapter.  I attended one meeting and decided it wasn’t for me.  The women were extremely nice--so welcoming and ready to help you out, which was amazing--but I was bored.  I was so bored throughout the meeting, I couldn’t justify paying the dues and dedicated a handful of precious hours each months so I could sit in a library room and be bored.  So I never returned.  I think it has something to do with being engrossed in the fabric and sewing world; I don’t want to idly chat about someone’s personal projects.  I want to go on and on about favorite lines and stores and “have you tried this?” and “I saw this method on...”  If I want to just view finished projects, I’ll go on Flickr.  That’s really mean but I have to be honest with myself.  That kind of group just isn’t for me right now.

I also sold my ticket to Sew South, a sewing retreat here in Charlotte.  I had purchased it in October, before we knew we were moving (actually, the day before my interview for my job here) and was looking forward to it until the class list and discussion board started coming together.  At that point, I realized this wasn’t going to be an excuse to sew for four days; these women were looking to make friends, to swap gifts, to come away with phone numbers and email addresses and friendship bracelets made from quilting cotton.  I didn’t want any of those things.  I just wanted a reason to take off a couple days of work and sew some dresses I’d had in the queue.  It wasn’t going to happen.  I became incredibly irritated anytime I saw anything related to the retreat, and decided it was time to give it up.  Someone who really wanted to go bought my ticket and I’m sure she’ll have a much better time than I ever could.

I’m not sure where this anti-social side of me stems from, because I really would love to have friends who sew, so we could get together and support each other.  But when it comes time to put these plans into action, anything that requires more facetime than a Flickr group or blog roll is too much for me.  I get overwhelmed and angry at people enjoying the event, and distance myself from groups so I can do a project on my own.  To be honest, there’s nowhere I’d rather be than in my sewing room, by myself, listening to music or a movie while everyone leaves me the hell alone.

I’d like to eventually get over this and go to Sewing Summit or QuiltCon or whatever.  I’d like to have more than just my mom and a couple girlfriends to exchange gifts with.  But I know myself and my priorities, and that just isn’t in the cards at this point.  Community is important to me, but I feel like this online community--bloggers, creators who are keeping sewing alive in 2013 and the age of Target and Forever 21--is enough for me right now.  As long as I keep putting myself and my projects out there, I should be okay.

Do you sew with a group or have friends who sew?  How do you balance personal time and group time?

...and just like that

the top was done.

We've had builders in the house all week tearing apart my bathroom.  Between them turning off the power and water at unannounced intervals and sending demolition dust throughout the house, I found time to iron and stitch the six rows of Pruin's quilt.

Ironing is a funny thing.  It is such a necessity in quilting.  It changes the shape and size of even the cleanest seam.  I thought of this while ironing out the seams of each row.  They matched up great before ironing, not so well after.

I thought of the over-privileged city-boy tailor that made Pete's wedding suit almost three years ago.  At our first fitting, the suit looked ridiculously big and clownish and I was not happy seeing as we were putting more money into this suit than my dress (justifiably, as Pete has gone on to wear that suit at least five more times and my dress is still sitting in a box under the guest bed in my parents' house).  The young cocky tailor assured me it was the right fit, it just needed to be ironed and pressed.  He claimed these hot air and steam actions would 'shrink' the suit at least half a size and give it that 'tailored' look.  It did, to an extent.  It also had to be taken in because it was just too big.

With Pruin's quilt, the opposite happened.  Each row got a little longer and a little more out of sync.  As I pieced the rows together I realized my triangles weren't going all 'pointy' but keeping their blunt corners as I was a bit too stingy with my initial seams.

I could have ripped it all out and started again.

I didn't.

It's good enough.  Another parenting lesson hidden in the stitches:  letting go of perfection.

Wordless Wednesday

Seen in Belmont, NC, on March 2.

Out of Quilts

Well, I've done it.  I've finished my quilt queue.  I'm all caught up.

(But, I guess if you look in my sewing room closet and see the handful of quilt tops without sandwiching, I guess you could say different.  Stay out of there.)

For the past six months, I've been cranking out quilts nonstop.  I've made quilts for friends, for charity, for family, for myself.  I've tried all kinds of techniques and designed a few myself, without a pattern.  I went from never seeing a walking foot to buying a sewing machine labeled the "Quilters' Edition"--times have changed!

I am, and always will be a garment sewist, first and foremost.  It's what started me down this rabbit hole and it's still what drives me when I buy fabric or plan projects.  But quilting crept in and stayed, and even after I messed up a few times (my mother is reading this and I'm sure she's thinking, cut your selvedges!), I kept at it.  I tend to have a persistent personality, and I like to try all sorts of things, whether or not I like them.  I thought quilting would be a fad, and in fact, I wanted to do it to make a t-shirt quilt for my brother.  Those shirts are stacked in my sewing room closet.  (Not next to the aforementioned quilt tops.  They're in a bin.)  I got too distracted by fabric lines, layer cakes, charm packs, and basting pins to ever even start his quilt, much less give it to him for Christmas or his birthday.  Maybe this year?  Hopefully?  I wandered into quilting and ended up running away with it.  But now that "must-do-everything-right-now" attitude I've had feels like it needs to take a couple breaths and take a look at its life.

While I did just finish a huge quilting project that I'll detail in a few weeks, and I have my do.Good stitches bee coming up, I don't have other quilting plans on my horizon.  I like the thought of getting back to dresses, skirts, and blouses.  I've bought a ton of fabric for these projects over the past few months and just haven't been able to get to them because of quilting: since Christmas, I've made four baby quilts (three have been backed, bound, and presented, the fourth is waiting for me to learn how to use my free-motion foot) and a full-size quilt, as well as bee blocks.  It's only March!  I love the thought of just sewing for me again.  I love to sew for others and really enjoy it, but it's far less pressure just focusing on me.  Besides, I buy all this fabric, just to give it away?  I don't think so.

So what can you expect from me in the coming months?  Well, I have a few projects to show before summer, and I need to design a quilt for my bee in April.  I'd also like to explore my introverted side and talk about guilds.  And I have so many books!  These books need reviews!  I also may have a few guests popping up, if all goes well.  I won't be silent!  I'll just be less patchwork-focused and my wardrobe will look great.  That's worth it, right?

In keeping with this theme, I completed something from Liberty Love: the Michelle My Belle dress!  It sewed up wonderfully.  I love that book!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  What did you work on?  I'd love to know!

Monthly Round up

A collection of the links we highlighted throughout the month with a few extras thrown in for good measure.*


We were quite bookish this month.

Quilting Pieces of the Past.  Emily's review can be found here.
Liberty Love by Alexia Abegg.  Review found here.
Quilts 1700-2010, Hidden Histories, Untold Stories edited by Sue Prichard. Ariel mentions it here with an accompanying page at the V&A in London.





Emily is quilting charitably.

First, for the Red Cross with the Handmade for Newtown project.  Read the post here.

And now, with the do.Good Stitches group on flickr.  Read about the progress here.





Emily mentioned she's attending the Sew South Retreat.  I'm sure we'll hear more about that next month.

Ariel semi-quoted a great interview with Danielle Henderson on Design*Sponge, or at least drew a little inspiration from the interview here.

Our first Wordless Wednesday featured images of Arielle Alasko's work (photographed by the artist) and Maura Grace Ambrose of Folk Fibers (photographed by Buff Strickland).


And for a little extra inspiration this month...

I'm getting a little obsessed with Log Cabin patterns and the myth & meanings behind colour combinations and layouts.  Maybe it's my way of nesting, but I think I found my next project.



*This monthly round-up encompasses Christmas to present to ensure we haven't missed anything since Friday Round-up went MIA.