There are two school of thought on welcoming your kids into your quilting habit. On one hand you can have a sewing room with a closed door and they are not allowed to touch your fabric. On the other hand, you can let them play with the fabric and make a giant mess. I will fully admit that some days I wish I had a design wall and a door to close (and lock). But most days the girls are knee deep in scraps and helping me pick fabric.
This is what happens when I turn my back on a pile of fabric.
Where do you stand on kids getting involved with your quilting habit - the process, the fabric, the inspiration? I'm working on an article on creating and quilting as a family, so I'm curious as to your habits.
If you're ever looking for party ideas I've got a new suggestion for inspiration: the business section of the book store. I'm serious. We had a great party in the office today and I came up with the idea after reading this book.
There is no need to bore you with the details of the office, suffice it to say there's been more than a bit of upheaval lately. We have a good group of people with some pretty strong convictions. Perhaps more importantly, we all have a pretty wicked sense of humour. Even the senior folks were entertained by the party idea. A little chat about finding our cheese when it comes to work, combined with an ongoing mouse problem in the building gave us the idea to have a cheese crawl in the office.
People set up a plate of cheese and accoutrements in their office. Then, individually or in small groups, we wandered the halls visiting and tasting. And yes, we hid the cheese of one boss so that he was forced to yell, "Hey, who moved my cheese?" Hmm, maybe it's an inside joke.
Quite surprisingly to me everyone totally got in to the idea. We had a great variety of cheeses from an amazing triple creme brie to a heavenly honey goat. Winner of the most unique cheese was the gjetost, or Norwegian brown cheese. It looks like fudge and does have a caramel taste to it. We ate it on mini rye with cucumber. I don't think it was very popular, but I really liked it.
My contribution was the Seckel pears with blue cheese, honeycomb, and hazelnuts. We were served something very similar on our trip to the Okanagan in September (The dinner is gloriously summarized here.) The difference was that the pears we ate there were still warm from the sun and the blue was local Poplar Grove. I've taken to eating the pear, blue, honey combo as a frequent snack so I passed that on today. The consensus is that they would also make a fantastic holiday appetizer, or perhaps as an alternative to chicken wings this Sunday for the Grey Cup.
And, of course, there was just a teeny bit of wine. Served in our glorious reusable plastic cups.
Another video! My apologies for the bad lighting and my apparently rosy cheeks. (A total aside - I love when The Monster says 'apparently', it is a totally overused word in our house.) It's week 4 of the Quilt Along. How are you doing?
Start with your strips sets, well pressed and 1.5-2 inches wider than the desired finished size of your blocks. You can see below what I mean. I am aiming for a 9.5 inch unfinished block.
Take your ruler and start rotating it. Aim for an angle like below - just a little bit off center. One important thing to keep in mind is that you want to avoid teeny strips on the side. Ensure that you have at least .5 inch strip from the last seam to the edge of the cut. Conveniently, the ruler is your cutting guide so you can watch this.
Cut the right side and the top. If you are left-handed it might be more comfortable to cut the left and top first. Flip around your fabric strip. Generally I do this by rotating my entire cutting mat instead of lifting the fabric. Line up the bottom left corner (bottom right if you're left handed) with the 9.5 inch by 9.5 inch (or your desired size) marking on your ruler. This will create cutting lines on the edge of the ruler for your side and top to finish of the block. Cut.
And there you have a finished block. It can be used in any direction when it comes to laying out your blocks.
Now you need to cut out the rest of the blocks from the single strip set. How many you get will depend on your desired block size. You should get 6 if you want 6.5 inch blocks, 4 at 9.5, and 3 at 12.5. The process is the same as above, but you start above your last cut as opposed to the top of the strip set. You can fiddle with the rotation of the ruler here and there. All your blocks can be cut in the same direction or you can rotate the ruler in the opposite direction. I tend to do two in one direction, and two in the opposite.
The next two photos are examples of one strip set cut. One for the original Gratitude quilt and one for the current one.
Notice the varying angles. This will give you even more opportunities for dramatic movement in the final top.
Next week will layout our quilt top and get it together. Remember, try not to play with your blocks too much once you've cut them. The seams are not finished and you don't want anything the loosen. See you next week!
Back when I was full of energy and vigor and swiss chard I entered my Frico recipe in the Safeway Cheese Champions contest. To be honest, I saw the ad on Facebook and was bored. Yup, I actually noticed the ad, that's how bored I was.
So I entered and found out recently that I won something. Sadly, it was not the grand prize. That means no Mama/Daddy time in Lake Louise for free. But I did get a grocery gift card and it will buy our dairy for a couple of weeks. No complaints there.
And, if you are in a Safeway in the coming weeks, probably only in Western Canada, pick up the Safeway Cheese Champions book. You will find my recipe and more in there. Oh, and a teeny tiny picture of me and The Monster.
My first teaching experience is over. My first experience teaching quilting, that is. It is now safe to say that I have a new dream career. Out of the window is my secret fantasy of being a DJ. Hmm, okay, that will still remain a not-so-secret fantasy and teaching will become my aspirational career.
For the past two Fridays I taught an Improv Piecing class to 4 lovely and interesting women. (Full disclosure: one of those women was my sister-in-law.) They were all experienced quilters, but they ran the gamut from exclusive pattern users to art quilter. Most importantly, they were there eager to learn some new techniques. And they all left happy, or so they told me.
I now know that one of the best parts about teaching is seeing what your students can do with the information/ inspiration you are able to share. The 4 women showed up with 4 very different sets of fabrics. One came with a delicious selection of her own hand-dyed fabric. There was a grouping of earth tone batiks that is making me want to rethink earth tones. My sister-in-law showed up with a good chunk of her staff, then augmented it heavily for the second class because she was in a purple kind of mood.
The final student came with a grouping of fabric that all showcased a chicken theme. I'll admit it, it wasn't my cup of tea, but I love the way her blocks turned out! It goes to show that improv isn't just for the modern fabrics. She is planning on making a table runner with her blocks.
During the class we covered wonky log cabins, chopsticks, free piecing, maverick/liberated stars, and what I call building blocks. The above blocks with all the purple are, of course, my sister-in-law's. I fear that my brother may be cursing my name because we figure she really started 4 different projects!
The blocks at the top of the post and this wonky churn dash are all from the same student. Aren't they fantastic? Sadly my camera and the lighting did not do justice to her gorgeous hand-dyes. She did a lot of work at home between classes because she was so inspired. So we started talking about what else you could improvise.
I'm eager to teach again, having made notes and refining the approach a little bit. Unfortunately, this LQS isn't interested in hosting the class again. That's okay, we thankfully have a lot of stores around!
Okay, now where we? Oh that's right, we were making a quilt together.
At this point you've hopefully picked your fabric and cut it in to strips. Finally, we can start sewing. And really, how hard can it be to sew strips together? It isn't hard, but there are some things we need to pay attention to as we sew.
Get Ready to Sew
Pick a neutral thread. Usually, I piece with a grey thread if I am using colours or medium and dark toned fabric.
Separate your strips with the background pieces in one pile and your accent pieces in another.
Take one strip each of all your background pieces and set aside.
Turn on your iron and get it hot.
Start Sewing
The first step is to sew all your strips (minus the ones set aside) together in pairs, right sides together. Match up the tops of the strips. Don't worry about the bottoms because all your strips will vary slightly in length.
Grab randomly! Sew together different background strips and sew background strips to accent strips. Do not sew accent strips to accent strips. Do not put an accent strip on the bottom of your pairs as you sew.
I find it easy to just sit and chain piece all these strips, one after the other. That means you sew one set together and without lifting your needle or cutting your threads you start sewing the next set of strips. And so on and so on.
Pressing
I am a firm believer in pressing and pressing well. Really, you can't make this design work well without pressing. But keep in mind that pressing is not ironing the life out of your fabric and stretching it out.
One of my quilt mentors taught me that you should be able to press with one hand. We have a tendency to pull on fabric when we use two hands. The hand we are supposedly using to hold the fabric often pulls on it without us even thinking about it. Try taking your iron and pressing while holding your other hand behind your back. It will feel awkward, but it is a good exercise to see if you have a tendency to pull.
You will also see that this method really only works when you press to one side, not when pressing your seams open. I'm not a fan of pressing seams open, so this works for me.
To press your strip sets I recommend pressing the seam flat, right out of the sewing machine. Then nose your iron in between the fabrics, on the right side of the bottom strip. Slowly nudge the iron forward and to the side, pressing the top fabric to the side and down. When you've reached the end of the strip give it another full press. Set aside and repeat for the other strips.
When you were sewing you matched up the top of your strips, right? So all your pressing should be to the strip on the right. For the first set of strips (the pairs) this will mean you will always press towards the accent. If you have darker accents then this is what you want. If you have a darker background then you will press to the background pieces.
As you progress through sewing sets together keep trying to press to the right, unless you have a dark accent/background combo. Then always press to the dark. This conscientious pressing will ensure that your accent pieces will really pop.
Continue Sewing
Now that you have your first pairs of strip sets, you need to sew the pairs together. Again, grab randomly. And again, match up the tops of the sets. Depending on how you sewed your first sets together some typical examples of the order of fabrics when you sew pairs together might be:
background - background - background - accent
background - accent - background - background
background - accent - background - accent
Press.
Depending on the final size you want your block, at this point you may be adding a single strip or another strip set as you progress. The final size of your strip set should be at least an inch and a half to two inches larger than the desired block size. Keeping sewing strip sets together until you get the desired width.
The one thing to keep in mind when it comes to sewing your strip sets together is that you do not want an accent piece on the ends. In other words, do not have your strip set start or finish with an accent piece.
This is the part of the process that might seem pretty boring at first, but as your strips sets come together you will get the first true glimpse of how your fabrics will look together. Note whether fabrics are standing out in a good or bad way. Your accents should really pop from the backgrounds.
And remember to refer to week 1 instructions to know how many strips sets you will need if you have a specific quilt size in mind.
We'll see you next week, to create our blocks and create the layout that makes the design pop!
After a very busy morning gluing brown circles to bigger brown circles, building floor puzzles of cats, and dancing to a jazzy version of Spiderman it was time to settle down for snacks. It was our day to volunteer at preschool. As the parent volunteer responsibilities include directing the craft, helping the teacher with all the regular tasks, and cleaning up at the end of the class. Our kid gets to be VIP that day, getting to go first for all activities and bringing something special for show and tell. Oh, and the parent gets the pleasure of bringing a snack.
Now, it should be painfully clear by now that I'm not the apple slice and snack pack kind of mom. I bake cookies and muffins when they ask me to. I don't bring juice for other people's kids. And when it is our turn to bring a snack I think it is a great idea to bring something likely foreign to the average Canadian three year old, like a cape gooseberry. I wonder what the other parents thought when they saw our snack reported on the calendar.
(A total aside, but don't you think having to record you snack is just another form of competitive parenting? Remind me to ask the teacher about that.)
A cape gooseberry isn't a common fruit. I always associate it with hotel fruit trays at meetings. Their distinctive papery coverings serve more as garnish to most of us. But peel that back and taste the sweetly sour fruit with the hint of sunshine. It's kind of like a natural version of sour gummy candy, minus the jelly texture. Personally, I love them. But I wasn't sure about the kids.
I baked cookies as a fall back position.
The cape gooseberries? They went over surprisingly well. In a class of eight kids one outright refused to even have the gooseberry in his bowl, stopping just short of a complete fit over the fact that it even touched his cookies. A couple more sniffed it and merely set it aside. Two more had to be cajoled... er, encouraged to try the fruit. And three happily tried them. One kept asking for more and more, leaving his cookies aside. Way to go kid!
My kid tried hers, declared it too sour, and returned to her cookies.
Thank-you so much for all your kind words over the past week. With everything that was going on it was wonderful to get your support. I am slowly coming out of the fog that was mere survival. And, in case you were wondering, the girls are now healthy and Hubby has started to feel some relief in his pain. He's got a ways to go in healing, but he is no longer glued to the couch. Hell, he even turned off the TV the other day he was finally so bored.
I did get some good quilting in on the weekend. Some friends offered to take the girls for a playdate so between that and naptime I had nearly a full day of quilting. It did wonders for my to-do list and my emotional health. First on the list was the samples for my class. It starts on Friday and there are one or two spots left if you are in town. Once that was done I managed to get ahead on the Quilt Along project. I will be coming back to that next week. I am quite excited by how it is coming together!
One thing I did want to announce at this point is that there will be a give-away for those participating in the quilt along. At the end of the posts I will ask you to share with me the progress you've made - whether it's just picking fabric or a completed quilt. I will draw a name of participants to receive some inspiring treats. And no, there will be no hints as to the prize.
I have a desire to make my own cottage cheese one of these days, just like my Baba used to. That won't be happening until Smilosaurus learns to keep it on the high chair tray, at least, instead of decorating the dog. The worst part is that we usually rely on the dogs to clean up after she eats. What am I supposed to do when this happens?
This was supposed to the post for week three of the Quilt Along. Supposed to be. I'm sorry to say that I need to put the quilt along and my blogging on pause for a week or two. I hate to do this to you and please know that I had no plans to do it when I started the quilt along. But we've had 3 trips to the ER this past week, for three different family members. The little one had croup, possibly caused by the flu. I developed an infection that thankfully turned out to be minor but has rendered my right index finger quite tender. And on Sunday night Hubby broke his collarbone playing hockey.
So, I am full-time caregiver for three people now, on top of working, preparing for my first class teaching, and other commitments. Something had to give. For now that has to be quilting. And blogging. I'm falling down drunk with exhaustion these days. Not drunk AND exhausted. Although...
I'll be back in a week or two, I promise. Thanks for your support.
Have I mentioned before that I am not that big a fan of Halloween? It isn't about the sugar or the mayhem. Personally, I've never enjoyed dressing up. As a kid I went for the laziest costume ever more years. My favourite was "Fat Jogger". Inevitably there would be snow for Halloween so I would wear my snow suit with a pair of my Dad's sweats on top. No make-up, no mask, no wig. My kind of Halloween.
This year, however, The Monster was ALL about Halloween. She changed the words to 'Happy Birthday' to be 'Happy Spook Night All Trick or Treaters!' (Try it, it works.) And we had to count down to trick or treating. Thankfully she had a good long nap and felt well enough. Both girls have been sick this week so we were worried we wouldn't get out. I had their costumes together. I can't decided if I'm awesome for putting them together or if my laziness towards Halloween shows? No answer required.
Go out we did and my little Pink Unicorn and Leprechaun were in fine form tearing around the neighbourhood. And the costumes? Well, we thought they looked damn cute.
Every book in our house is read a minimum of 4 times an hour. Each day it might be a different rotation of books, if I am fortunate enough to sneak in a repertoire, but each book will be read ad infinitum. Generally this causes intense boredom on the part of us parents, sometimes to the point of irritation. There is one book, however, that doesn't drive me completely insane to read: Munch by Emma McCann.
In this story of a toast and jam loving monster named Munch fighting off an enormous monster with an enormous appetite the strangest jams are highlighted as favourites of Munch: coconut, broccoli, and banana jam. While I had no interest in broccoli or banana jam, I was always intensely curious about the thought of coconut jam. So my Monster and I googled it one day only to discover what apparently most of South East Asia has already known. Coconut jam, more generally known as Kaya is a little bit of tropical heaven in a jar.
This morning I managed a quick escape from our self-imposed quarantine (still not sure if the flu is really here or not) for a trip to the Loriz Bakery, a Phillipino bakery and convenience store not to far from our house to pick up pandan. Also known by the horribly bad name of screw pine leaves, pandan is common on Thai, Malaysian, and Phillipino cuisine. Honestly, to me it smelled like a type of grass. Tasted bland too. But combined with coconut it tasted And smelled like our house was transported into somewhere far more tropical than Calgary for an hour. Remind me to get Thai of dinner tomorrow.
I blitzed my screw pine leaves with a bit of water and strained the mess. Then I set to carmelizing sugar, beating eggs, and cooking it all together with some thick coconut milk. It turns out coconut jam is more like a custard. But damn, it is good.
Sadly, The Monster refused to try it and Smilosaurus did not like it at all. I am blaming it all on the sickness and not on the odd colour that this ends up. Putting green goop on your toast is not appetizing to the eyes, but to the nose and tongue it was fantastic! Seriously, it was so good. And one of the best things is that I have A LOT more pandan leaves in the freezer and you can always get coconut milk. Even though the recipe only makes about 3 jars of jam you can make it at any time of the year.
In my research I discovered recipes with or without the pandan I decided to go for the pandan to make it a bit more authentic. A lot of the recipes had up to 10 eggs too. It seemed like it would be a bit too eggy so I found another recipe and adapted it because my can of coconut milk was bigger than the one in the original. It worked for me, it definitely worked for me.
1. Blitz the pandan leaves with 1/4 cup of water. Push the liquid through a sieve and measure 50 ml.
2. Melt sugar and pandan juice in a heavy bottomed pan on medium heat until carmelized. it will be green, so don't let it go much more than a couple of minutes once the sugar is melted.
3. Remove from heat, stir in the coconut milk and eggs.
4. Return to heat and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is thickened and cooked, approximately 20-25 minutes.
5. Place in sterilized jars and seal. Alternatively, let cool and serve that day. (I did not process my jars, but they did seal.)
Make sure to visit Under the High Chair for her virtual jam swap, there are going to be some fantastic submissions!
The little one is sick. It garnered a trip to the ER last night, on what one nurse described as the craziest night she's ever had at the Children's Hospital. But with some steroids and lots of rest she and I are both feeling better.
Today, however, was a day for snuggles and gratitude. So I sifted through some photos and pulled together this little photo essay. We spent a chilly Saturday in the kitchen and with some old magazines. Thanks to Julie and this interview I had a strong desire for raisin bread. A very strong desire.
Thank-you Gourmet for the most fantastic raisin bread ever. Seriously, all raisin bread should include cardamom, whether it is Finnish or not. Anyone know what makes it Finnish? It just seemed like a challah with raisins and cardamom. And who cares? Just get in the kitchen, get messy, and bake some.
This week is all about cutting your fabrics. It seems straight forward, it's just cutting fabric, right? This design is not dependent on evenly cut strips, but they do need to be cut straight. Check out my handy videos for my tips and technique on doing this. As always, email or comment if you have any questions.
Cut all of your fabric in lengthwise strips (from selvage to selvage). Ensure that all your ends are straight. There is no prescribed width to the strips, they are all random widths. Mine ranged from about 1.5 inches to 3 inches, but I didn't measure at all. From each 1/2 meter (yard) of fabric I would aim for 8-10 strips.
Once your fabric is cut you will get a better idea of how the fabrics work together. If any are jumping out at you as not playing nice with the others now is the time to replace them. For example, I'm not so sure about the one for mine that is second from the left in the top photo. It might be too light. But I haven't decided yet. It isn't a light, light one. In the photo below you can see the one third from the right that is lighter. I doubted that one and kept it in to great effect.
Next week will be sewing the strips and pressing. Yes, pressing. In the meantime, put a fresh blade in your rotary cutter and cut away.
If you are quilting along with me please let me know. I would love to be able to share your work with everyone else. I'm going to add a blogroll of participants on the site. If you don't have a blog then you can also link to a Flickr photostream. And speaking of Flickr, is there an interest setting up a group for the Quilt Along?
We are fighting the flu in this house. That means I will get lots of quilting done or none at all!
I'm not sure that the guy who invented caramel apples had kids. I bet he was an uncle, not a dad. He took evil pleasure in feeding his nieces and nephews sugar on a stick - under the guise of a healthy apple - then sending them home to Mommy and Daddy all jacked up. Mr. Dan Walker, a sales rep from Kraft is the man credited with introducing the caramel apple to the mass market. Someone out there do a geneology search on him and see if he had kids, will ya?
Personally, my first caramel apple was only enjoyed recently because my mom refused to let us have them as kids. At least this is what I remember, she may argue differently. It may have been the profusion of sweetness or the gooey mess, but I can tell you that I felt deprived. I'm over it now, only because I now know how to make my own caramel apples.
There are two ways to go about it. You can use the brand name kits or buy a bag of premade caramels and melt them. Or you can make the caramel yourself. Really, it isn't hard, only 4 ingredients, plus the apples. You do need a candy thermometer, but a basic one can be picked up at the grocery store. Your homemade caramel will also have a much richer flavour and a darker colour.
The alternative to making caramel apples is to make a caramel dipping sauce for apples, brownies, bananas, ice cream, and pretty much anything else that is only better with melted sugar on it. So, that means pretty much everything. Making a caramel sauce is even easier, taking only three ingredients and not requiring anything but a good pot.
While I generally welcome the girls, ages 1 and 3, into the kitchen regardless of what I'm cooking, this was a task I saved for naptime. Caramel is liquid sugar. It is ridiculously hot and can burn. And my youngest has an innate ability to stand right behind you without you knowing. With me making caramel she really would be living up to her nickname of Death Wish. So I boiled my caramel, cleaned and dried my apples, prepared some yummy toppings, then got to dipping. By the time naptime was over the girls had a treat to take them through an extra long trip to the park.
Caramel Apples
(6-8 apples)
6-8 apples
2 cups brown sugar
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp butter
1/2 c corn syrup
Special Equipment:
candy thermometer
bamboo skewers, popsicle sticks, or chopsticks
parchment paper or Silpat
1. Wash and clean apples. If they are supermarket apples wash in hot water and wipe well to ensure that all wax is removed. Dry thoroughly, very thoroughly. Insert a stick into the core of each apple. Set aside.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment rubbed with butter or a Silpat mat. Set aside.
3. Fill a large bowl with ice water. It should be big enough to safely hold the pot with the caramel mixture . Set aside.
4. Combine all ingredients (save for apples) in a saucepan at least 3 times the size of the mixture. Set on medium to high heat with the thermometer in the mixture. Cook until the temperature reaches 235-240 degrees F, approximately 10-15 minutes. As soon as it reaches temperature remove the pot from the heat and immerse the bottom of the pot in the bowl of ice water to cool. Stir and cool until the temperature measure 200 degrees F. DO NOT GET ANY WATER IN THE CARAMEL.
5. Dip your apples, one at a time, in the caramel. Twirl the apples to coat, then lift and twirl for 10-15 seconds letting the excess caramel drip off. Hold upright and repeat 10-15 seconds of twirling. Place on prepared cookie sheet to cool.
6. If desired, once the caramel has cooled for a minute or two dip in topping of choice.
Topping suggestions:
Chopped nuts
Toasted sesame seeds
Crushed pretzels
Dried fruit
Toffee bits
Crumbled, cooked bacon
Candy sprinkles
Crushed Gingersnaps
Caramel Dipping Sauce
(makes approximately 2 cups)
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1. In a medium saucepan melt sugar, swirling pan frequently, until amber in colour. There is no need to whisk or stir, just lift the pan and swirl the sugar until it is all melted and amber.
2. Cut butter into small chunks. Lift pot off burner and add in butter. Whisk to combine and return to heat until butter is melted and caramel is smooth.
3. Slowly add cream. Mixture will bubble and thicken. Continue to whisk until soft and smooth. Remove from heat.
4. Once cool, store in a glass jar until ready to use. Keeps for 1-2 weeks in the fridge or 3-4 months in the freezer. Serve as a dip for fruit, an ice cream topping, or on cake.
For those of you joining me from Breakfast Television, if you are also looking for the salted caramel ice cream recipe you can find it here. Print it now, before they shut down the site.
And for those of you interested in seeing my appearance on BT, you can find it here. Yes, I did indeed use bacon as a topping and it was delicious!
The end of a crazy week is coming. A few more things to do, like find some time to kiss a brand new baby, make some caramel apples for a TV appearance tomorrow morning on Breakfast Television, and visit with an old friend from Toronto. Somewhere in there I've also got to make Halloween costumes.
I have, however, been surprisingly productive this past week. I finally got my scraps cut for the Values Quilt Along. I launched my own Quilt Along. I made my way through about half the ovals I need for this baby quilt. Oh, and I went out of town for the drive-through visits with family. So, all in all, a pretty normal week.
This is it, week 1 of the Gratitude Quilt Along. Thanks for joining me, it's going to be a lot of fun. Let's jump right in.
This quilt is made, quite simply, by cutting fabric into strips, sewing the strips into sets, cutting out blocks, and sewing those block together. It's pretty straightforward. The bold design is realized through good fabric selection and cutting the blocks on random angles. This week is all about fabric selection.
How do I pick my fabric?
Your fabric selection on this quilt will really make the design pop, so take some time this week to play with your fabrics. The final design of the quilt is based on a high contrast between your accent strips and your background strips. This contrast can come purely from colour, but value matters more.
Value - this is the distinction between light, medium, and dark in a colour. Colour - this is the visual perception of where you see your fabric compared to the spectrum of red, yellow, and blue. (But did you really need a definition?)
This quilt design works best with a light or medium background and a dark accent. I would also recommend that your dark accent be a different colour, but with good fabric choices you could do this in a single colour way, as long as your values are high contrast. My recommendation is that your background fabrics be in only one or two colours and that they relate to each other well by having a few fabrics with both colours in them.
Alternatively, I think it might work if you used a dark background with a light accent. That could make a really interesting quilt.
If you are having a hard time picking your fabrics and determining value, pull out a digital camera, if you have one, and take a picture of your fabrics together on the black and white setting. Even viewing it on the camera's tiny monitor should allow you to see differences in value, without colour being a part of the equation.
One last note about fabric selection, go for a variety of textures in your fabric. I strongly encourage you to make your fabrics a selection of large, medium, and small prints. In other words, don't pick a whole bunch of small dots for your background pieces, try some dots, weaves, florals, hand dyes, stripes, or even large scale prints in a single colour. Having texture in your quilt will provide a lot of movement without it being too busy.
Let's go through my fabric selections to help you see how I work through this process.
This was my initial fabric pull. When I start a project I simply grab everything that looks interesting. About half of these were in my stash and then I spent some cash in the LQS to augment the selection. The inspiration for the colour scheme actually came on the street one day. Out for a lunchtime walk I spotted a girl wearing a grey pinstriped suit with with a navy polka dot blouse and yellow shoes. That was months ago and the colour scheme stuck with me.
I love all these fabrics together, but for this design I'm pretty sure the lights won't work.
In this grouping I pulled out all the lights. I also pulled out the Amy Butler with the pink dots. Hmm, but then that Kaffe looked too peachy instead of golden, so out it came.
But I kept returning to that Denyse Schmidt Katie Jumpr Rope Yellow Dot and the Amy Butler Midwest Modern Floating Buds. I love those fabrics. I so wanted them to work. This will happen sometimes, but my choices were lose those fabrics or change all my background fabrics to work with these lighter values. I went with losing the lighter ones (and hanging on to them for the back of the quilt).
This is my final selection. I'm prepared to be flexible and change some these after I cut. For now, though, I really like the way this is looking.
How much fabric do you need?
That really depends on how large you want to make your quilt. I've put together a small table to help you determine fabric requirements. These are only estimates based on what I used to make Gratitude. You may want to have some extra fabric on hand if you are really stuck on a certain sized quilt.
SIZEBLOCK SIZE # of BLOCKS (inches unfinished)
Crib (42 by 48) 6.5 42 (45 by 54) 9.5 30
Lap (63 by 63) 9.5 49 (60 by 60) 12.5 25 (72 by 72) 12.5 36
Double (81 by 90) 9.5 90 (84 by 96) 12.5 56
To make Gratitude I used 8 different fabrics in 1/2 metre pieces This gave me a finished quilt of 63 inches square. I think it is a good idea to pick at least 6-8 different fabrics for teh design to pop. If you want a bigger quilt than you can either use more of each fabric or use more fabrics.
I realize that I haven't given you specific fabric yardage. This is because this is about process, not pattern. I want you to play with your fabrics - new or from stash - to come up witha combination that works for you. Just take some fabric and start cutting and sewing. Because this quilt is about process you may start with one size on mind and change it partway through to make a larger or smaller block size, or a larger quilt. If you are looking to other sized quilts let me know and we'll work our fabric requirements together.
I prefer to use yardage as opposed to fat quarters for this. You will be sewing your fabrics into full length strips and then cutting them into blocks, so having a selvage to selvage strip will make your life easier. It is possible to use fat quarters for this too, but it will require some piecing into longer strips, or sewing more strip sets.
Did that all make sense? I hope so. But if it didn't, email me or post a comment and I will answer it as best I can. If you are going to post your progress on your blog, please let me know so I can create a blog roll. I've had some people express interest in following along with all the participants.
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's efforts and creations! Thanks for joining me.
Quilt Festival is over and I'm sad I didn't win any prizes. But I did get around to a number of sites and saw some fantastic quilts. I also found some wonderful new-to-me blogs. Thank-you to all my visitors and welcome to my new followers and subscribers.
Now, however, is it time to move on to the Gratitude Quilt Along for that quilt design. This Wednesday I will be launching the Quilt Along. This will be a 6 week event, from fabric choice to finishing. Of course there is no obligation to finish it in that time frame, but I'll be sewing right along with you and working my hardest to finish in those six weeks as well. If all goes well I am going to incorporate some video along the way, in addition to detailed pictures and instructions.
This quilt is a modern design, but it is based on a very traditional quilt - the Rail Fence. Unlike a traditional Rail Fence this quilt uses more fabrics, the strips are uneven sizes, and the blocks are cut on an angle. It is a very easy quilt to put together but, as you can see, gives you a very bold design. Fabric choice is really important so our first on-line class will focus on the fabric selection.
With more than a little impatience I've been watching the mailbox the last two weeks. Well, watching isn't quite the right term since I'm at work when our mailman comes. But the second my feet hit the ground out of the car I have a single vision. Sadly, it is not to kiss my girls hello or pet the pooches. Nope, I'm looking out for my last issue of Gourmet. Sigh. The last issue.
My Gourmet love started 15 years ago as an undergrad. I started buying the magazine from The Daily Grind in Halifax on my way home from the farmers' market. It was perfect for my busy life - I could read it in snippets and it transported me from the real daily grind of life as a working student.
Since those days I've been a faithful subscriber - even when we were stone cold broke it was my one luxury. I do indeed cook regularly from it. Last year in a fit of purging I only now regret I shared my magazines with a worthy recipient, dear Julie. I kept some memorable issues and I will be hanging on to the two years worth that I still have. And now it is gone. At least Julie is promising to open a lending library out of her basement. (Let me know if you need her address.) I still haven't stopped sighing.
I've also found myself defending the magazine to many. To the people who criticized the magazine as snobby, elitist, and catering to people with big gobs of time and money to cook and travel I say BAH! Don't get me wrong, it did have some pretty fantastical stuff. But it also had everyday recipes that included things like canned beans and frozen pizza dough. In The Kitchen Notebook section it broke down ingredients and techniques, making them quite manageable for the home cook. In the past few years Jane and Michael Stern's pieces were getting more and more play. And finally, I loved, absolutely loved the Politics of the Plate pieces.
Reading a magazine for me isn't about giving me 20 new ideas for a fast dinner. If I want that I can browse on-line or go to my mom's old Canadian Livings. But sitting down with a beer or a cup of tea, or flipping through the pages on a road trip were part escape and part inspiration. I may not make my own demi glace (I know people who do) but maybe I'll tackle beef stock again. Reading a magazine was my own little vacation.
One of the most formative recipes from the magazine is one I've only made once. And that was a long, long time ago. I'm picking this one to share because the first time I had it was at the house of the only person I know personally to have ever been published in the magazine. Friends of mine from journalism school lived in the same city as we did for a few years. They had two adorable little boys that Hubby and I would frequently babysit. They were writers and I adored them. Valerie wrote a little piece about a fantastic bakery in Edmonton and Ruth Reichl published it. I don't think we celebrated with this cake, but in my memory I am toasting both Valerie and Gourmet with it.
Okay, back to the usual process of sharing thing with you all along. I've got another project on the go and these are the fabrics. This is for a soon-to-be-needed baby quilt. I haven't heard from my girlfriend this week so I'm assuming that baby is still incubating, despite his Mama's desires. Phew, I've still got time.
And Tanya, I know you're reading so I hope you like the fabrics!
There are two school of thought on welcoming your kids into your quilting habit. On one hand you can have a sewing room with a closed door and they are not allowed to touch your fabric. On the other hand, you can let them play with the fabric and make a giant mess. I will fully admit that some days I wish I had a design wall and a door to close (and lock). But most days the girls are knee deep in scraps and helping me pick fabric.
