Pillow Talk

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Remember this lovely batch of fabric that I talked about here?  Well, I finally found a moment to make something with it.  I have many more ideas for projects for this gorgeous line, but this is what I came up with to start.  I was browsing over at Cluck, Cluck, Sew and spied her Sprocket Pillow Tutorial.  I wanted a pillow with a bit more weight to it, and something pretty durable.  Plus, you know me…..I tend to want to quilt everything!  Well, except my clothes.  I draw the line there…

So, anyway.  I started with the Sprocket Pillow instructions and template.  I pieced the top out of the lovely Tokyo Rococo.  Then, I layered up the front, back and side pieces and sat down at my trusty Sweet Sixteen and went to work.  And here is the finished product.

Tokyo Rococo Pillow Front Pillow Talk

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.   I also decided to add piping to the front and back sides, just because I love piping.  I used the piping foot that I bought to go with my machine.  It was the easiest piping I have ever done!  I have always used my zipper foot, but could never get quite close enough.   Here is a close-up of the front.

Tokyo Rococo Pillow Center Pillow Talk

I used covered buttons, covering the front button in the solid and the back button in one of the Tokyo Rococo prints.

Tokyo Rococo Pillow Back Pillow Talk

So, I was thinking this might be a fun class.  If you think so too, I would love it if you would leave a comment and let me know!

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May Classes

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I have been super busy getting everything ready for our first classes!  We have a few classes scheduled in May and several classes in June.  Our first class, ever will be this Saturday!  It will be taught by Lisa Calle of Vintage Modern Quilts.  She is going to be teaching this lovely Frame Clutch.

frame clutch May Classes

We will have all the supplies needed for the project in class, with the exception of one fat quarter for your lining.  We will have a few fat quarters available for purchase if you don’t have any in your stash to choose from…..just sayin…..You will learn fabric selection, basic rotary cutting, piecing, straight line quilting and bag construction.  Lisa made one of these for me as a gift a few months ago and when I started planning to open the Sewing Lounge, I called and asked her to come and teach this class.  I think they would make adorable gifts and who couldn’t use a few more clutches in their wardrobe?

We will have a Sewing 101 class on May 21st for those of you that have been dying to try your hand at sewing.  We will learn all of the basics of using a sewing machine, threading, bobbin winding, maintenance and some basic sewing techniques.  We will make a custom pillow case during this class.  There are sewing machines, and all of the basic supplies in the classroom for your use.  If you don’t own a sewing machine yet, or don’t want to bring yours to class, we have you covered!

Sewing Lounge May Classes

Another class available in May, on the 29th is a Zipper Pouch taught by Sarah.  You will learn a great technique for installing a zipper, basic rotary cutting skills, piecing and end up with this adorable zipper pouch.

Zipper Pouch May Classes

Isn’t it so cute?  I can think of a million uses for these!  Talk about some fun gifts.  Even if you are a beginning sewer, you will be able to complete this fun project!

I worked with a web developer to add the ability to sign up for classes right on the website.  Yeah!  You can click on Class List or Event Calendar to see the upcoming classes, sign up and even pay.

I am so excited about this new venture.  I have wanted this for so long and it is finally coming true.  I hope to see you at Urban Spools very soon!

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Coming Along Nicely

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Well, things are just about ready for the big opening.  The furniture is all installed and I am putting the finishing touches on the class schedules.  I have a web designer working on my website (expect some fun changes) and my friend Lucia is working on some new graphics for me.  I am so excited I can hardly sleep!  Are you ready to see what the Sewing Lounge looks like?

Ta-Da!

Sewing Lounge 1 Coming Along Nicely

I just love that huge clock!  G. found that for me.  And notice the Paris print under the clock…someday I’m going back there.

Sewing Loung 2 Coming Along Nicely

I have some more to do in there, but I am SO pleased with how it’s looking.  It feels so cozy in there!  I made poor Glen help me put together all of that furniture.  It took us most of the weekend!  This is after I made him help me paint for the whole weekend before.  He is going to need a vacation before this is all over!  The space I have leased is actually two rooms connected by a door.  The blue that you see through that door is actually insulation board that will be put on the walls in the office/long-arm area.  Sound travels pretty good through these walls, so I wanted to pad them a bit so that the hum of the long-arm would not disturb by neighbors.  Here is what the office is starting to look like:

The Office Coming Along Nicely

That is the long-arm  right behind my desk. Another piece of furniture that I made G. help me with…..he will likely kick me to the curb if I tell him I am headed to Ikea anytime soon!  I really like that I can close the door between the office and the classroom.  That way, if I am working on a quilt and someone else is teaching a class, it won’t disturb the students.

So, as you can see, it’s all coming together.  I still have to keep pinching myself to make sure this is real.  As I work on the class schedules, I would love to hear from you about any classes you would like to see on it.  Reply to this post with suggestions.  My friend Lisa will be teaching several classes as well and I couldn’t be more pleased that she is going to be on the schedule!

Many more photos to come as we get closer to opening.

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Getting Ready

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So, I promised you more details of Urban Spools Sewing Lounge.  Well, when I first leased the space it was not in good shape.  There were holes in the walls and the carpet was…..how shall I put this…..eeww.

Remodel old carpet Getting Ready

So, as I mentioned, G and I spent a weekend painting.  Then came the new carpet,

remodel new carpet Getting Ready

Much better!  Although, between the paint fumes and carpet glue I couldn’t stand to spend much time there for a couple of days!  Luckily, I had a getaway planned with a few close friends.  When I came back, my newest addition to the family, er…..long-arm was delivered!  Wow!  It is a good thing the dealer came to set this baby up!

fusion delivery Getting Ready

This isn’t even all of the parts, some of them are off the screen.  Of course, it is a Handi Quilter!  I didn’t even need to look at anything else.   I love my Sweet Sixteen so much, there was no doubt that their long-arms were going to be my best choice.  The big decision was which one to get.  In the end, I decided on the Fusion because it has a 24 inch throat.  That gives me 20″ of quilting space before I need to advance the quilt.  My HQ rep was so amazing to work with!  I bought it from The Quilting Depot in Grapevine.  Pam Barr, the owner was so helpful as I made my decision between the 18″ machine and the 24″ machine.  Pam delivered all of these parts and spent the next six hours setting up the machine and showing me how to use it.  We had so much fun that day.  My wonderful husband showed up mid-day to give us a hand, and boy were we glad he did!

That is the lovely Pam from The Quilting Depot guiding me through the use and care of this big dog!  I have spent quite a bit of time since this day practicing on the machine.  It is a bit of an adjustment to be moving the machine when I have moved the fabric under the machine for over 10 years.  But, it is actually more intuitive.  It’s like drawing with a pencil on paper, when you think about it.  I’m so excited and I really, really love just stitching away for hours on end.  Ah…..

Fusion ready to go Getting Ready

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Taking the Big Leap

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I have wanted something for a very long time.  I have wanted a job that was creative in nature.  I think back and it seems I have wanted this since high school.  And now many years later….my dream is coming true.  I am a firm believer that you can have the life you want, but only you can make that happen.  I think that for a lot of years, I didn’t believe strongly enough in myself to allow my dreams to have a voice.  But there is something terribly freeing about being older and having experienced a lot of life.  I realized that I was the only thing holding me back from having my dream job.

As you know, I have taught quilting/sewing classes at local  stores for over 10 years.  And I have always enjoyed it, but there were always things I would have done differently if it were truly my class.  And, I have talked a lot about how much I love, love, love machine quilting.  Sometimes I feel as if the cutting and piecing are just a path to the quilting.  So……..drumroll……

lease signing 2 Taking the Big Leap

I signed a lease for a space to hold classes and put a long-arm quilt machine!!!!  I really, really can’t find adequate words for how excited I am about this venture.  It feels so amazing to be finally pursuing something I have wanted for so long.  I will be offering long-arm quilting services and sewing classes for all levels.  I will have classes on beginning quilting, garment sewing, quick baby gifts, possibly some kids classes.  I have been lining up some of my best sewing buddies to come and teach as well, so we can offer a wide variety of classes.  The name of the business is Urban Spools Sewing Lounge.

lease signing1 Taking the Big Leap

I did not get to this phase without the help and encouragement from other people.  My dear, sweet husband has been such a huge support in this.  He has been so encouraging, pushing me to keep moving forward and telling me everyday that I can do this!  Also, about six months ago, I made the decision to hire a “business coach” to try and get past whatever it was that was holding me back. She has been fantastic to work with and it has truly given me the focus I needed to do the things I needed to do.  Her name is Morna McEver Golletz.

I am close to opening for business, and it has been some really hard work, but I have enjoyed every minute of it.  I’ll share more of the story later this week.  Right now, I have to go wash the paint out of my hair….

the work begins Taking the Big Leap

The work begins

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Another Quilt Finished

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Really Big Quilt Back Detail Another Quilt Finished

I finished the quilt for my sister in law – only a month after her birthday!  Not too bad, I guess.  At least not considering everything else I have going on.  I’ll be doing a blog post in a few days about that, though.

I wanted to take the quilt outside today and do some good shots of it out by the lake that is near my house.  But, it was pouring rain, so that didn’t happen.  I have a couple of shots of the finished quilt that I took before I bound it.  The fabric used in the front of the quilt was so busy that you couldn’t really see the quilting in the photos.  So, I turned it over to the back so you could see what I did on this one.  I wanted to do some custom quilting and I am pretty happy with the results.  This was a very large quilt, even for my HQ Sweet Sixteen, so doing these designs was a little challenging sometimes.

I used a stencil in the star blocks and marked them with Pounce chalk.  The little loops were all done free-hand, the feathers in the setting triangles were lightly sketched by hand with a white pencil and the swirls were all free-hand.

Tricias Quilt done Another Quilt Finished

I used a stencil and Pounce for those big, loose feathers too.  This quilt was going to take many evenings to complete if I hand sewed the binding on, like I usually do.  So, I decided to try a machine sewn binding.  I used an edge-stitching foot, normally used for topstitching on garments.  It worked really well and helped me to get a nice straight line, very close to the edge of the binding. I would definitely use this technique again.  It was fast and I believe it will be more secure and long lasting than my hand sewn bindings.

This picture also shows the last border on the quilt.  I did  ”piano key” quilting on the HQ.  Straight lines on a FMQ machine!  I used one of the acrylic rulers normally used on a long arm.  I think they came out nice and straight.  It was fast and easy!  I am almost  finished with two pillow shams to go with the quilt.  I’ll post pictures of the quilt and shams as soon as the sun comes back out and I can get some good shots.  Then, it will be off to North Carolina for this quilt.

Tricias Quilt binding Another Quilt Finished

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The Really Big Quilt

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I had posted here about the quilt I was making for my sister-in law for her birthday.  Um….her birthday that was twelve days ago…..sigh.  The good news is that it’s almost done.  So, a little bit about what happened between the last post on this quilt and now.  It is the second biggest quilt I have made in my quilting career.  The only one larger is this one and it is 99″ by 99″.  It is basted and hanging over the railing in my studio waiting for me to get the guts up to quilt something that big.  When I was ready to baste that quilt, I took it with me to Saturday Sew with the DMQG and spread it out over a very large conference room floor and crawled around for about 3 hours and basted that sucker.  Tricia’s quilt is 96 x 96 and I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the Saturday Sew to use the floor to baste it and it would be a month before the next one.  What to do….well, I remembered reading about a method that involved using clamps and a table, starting in the center and then shifting to each side.  I had watched my friend Melanie use the method recently and it seemed to work.  So, I decided it really was my only option.  What you do is take your backing, center it on the table, wrong side facing up and using clamps (or those really big black office binding clips) secure the backing to a table, counter, etc. like so:

Tricias quilt securing the back The Really Big Quilt

Then, lay the batting on top, then your quilt top right side up.  The trick with this method is to make sure you have marked the center of each of the four sides of the backing and the quilt top.  This helps you line up the top with the back and make sure everything is centered.  You also want to be sure you have the back of the quilt nice and tight as you clamp it down.  Then, simply pin the quilt, starting in the center and working your way out to the edges of your table.  I used the center island in my kitchen and it has an odd trapezoid type shape, so it was a little challenging on one end to make sure I didn’t miss any spots.  Once I had the entire center basted, I removed the clamps, shifted the quilt to one side, and re-clamped it.  You will have one side that is already basted together, so I just clamped the whole quilt on that side of the island.  Continue working your way around the quilt in this manner.  I really like this method of basting because I didn’t have to crawl around on all fours for the two or three hours that a quilt this size takes to baste.  I actually think this one was finished in a much shorter time frame.

tricias quilt basted The Really Big Quilt

Voila! One very large, basted quilt

See the funny angle on my kitchen island?  A bit challenging, but it worked!  I’ll definitely use this method again!  I have this quilt almost finished.  I’ll post tomorrow about the quilting process on a quilt this large.

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Tokyo Rococo

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So, the other day I was out on Twitter (which I almost never do!) and I saw a “tweet” about Carol Van Zandt’s new fabric for Andover – Toyko Rococo.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  I met Carol last fall when I was in Houston for Quilt Market.  We were at one of the evening social events and we chatted for awhile.  She is a graphic designer based in California.  So, I commented on the tweet (I have no earthly idea what the correct terminology is for my comment, but I do know it isn’t “twittered”)  Shortly after my tweet, I received a direct message from Carol asking if I would like to receive some of the fabric to see what I could create with it.  My answer was an immediate YES!  I loved both color ways when I saw it online, but when it arrived at my house a few days later, I really loved it!

Tokyo Rococo Tokyo Rococo

It has such a lovely feel to the fabric, really nice with a great “hand”.  I can’t wait to start working on a project with it.  What would you make with this lovely batch of fabric goodness?  I have been wanting a new iPad case (cause I succumbed to the media hype and had to have the “new” iPad)  So, I’m thinking I may use the coral color way for that.

Tokyo Rococo coral green Tokyo Rococo

So pretty and such rich, warm colors.  My photo truly does not do it justice.  And it is a great mix of prints.  So many of the modern lines of fabric seem to be all large, bold prints with nothing to break up the pattern.  Having started life as a traditional quilter, one of the great things about traditional lines of fabric is that there is a mix of print size, values, and textures.   I think this line has all of those things, but such a fantastic modern feel to it.  Yet, I think there is something lovely and vintage about the line as well.  I have a couple of Moda Bella solids that will work nicely with this line.

The other color way has blues and taupes with it and I think I will be making a new throw for my bedroom with this batch.  It looks stunning with my favorite solid of all time – Bella Stone.

Tokyo Rococo taupe blue Tokyo Rococo

Such a peaceful feel to this color way.  Soft and dreamy, like a beach house.  I really, really love that floral on the left side of the product card.  I would like a summer sun dress out of that.  I would love to hear what you would make with some of this fabric.

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Dallas Quilt Show

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2012 Dallas Quilt Show MBS Dallas Quilt Show

Last Friday, I went with a few friends to the Dallas Quilt Show.  This show is held at Market Center in Dallas every March and I make it most years.  It is put on by the Quilters Guild of Dallas and they do a fabulous job! Last year, we started a new tradition and we start the day out at Mama’s Daughter’s Diner.  I had eggs, grits and biscuits with sausage  gravy…..YUM!  I don’t eat like that often (good thing!), but man! it tasted good.  Then, off we went to see the quilts and visit the many vendors.  I love going to quilt shows, it is always so inspiring and I have never gone to one that I didn’t want to run right home and sew!

Moda Bake Shop had a booth for the first time and it was so crowded, we couldn’t get inside…

2012 Dallas Quilt Show Rheas Quilt Dallas Quilt Show
It looked really cute, though.  If you haven’t checked out their site, it’s loaded with fun patterns and projects, all free!

I was with several friends from the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild and we were so excited when we saw this quilt by one of the members, Rhea.  It is made entirely out of dupioni silk and my picture doesn’t even begin to do it justice.

This quilt was one of my favorites.  This block is called Carpenters Wheel and the fabrics used in this quilt were pretty traditional, but I could just picture it in some modern fabrics or even done completely in solids!

2012 Dallas Quilt Show Carpenters Wheel1 Dallas Quilt Show

It was such a fun day, I purchased a couple of new patterns and a quilt kit.  More on those later.  I ran into some old friends I hadn’t seen in awhile and we made plans to get together.  I was inspired to start some new quilts after seeing all that had been entered in the show.  I love quilt shows.

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Wonky Star Baby Quilt

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Bens Quilt Wonky Star Baby Quilt

I have been dying to post pictures of this quilt, but couldn’t because it was a gift.  I had to wait until it had been given.  The officers of the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild seem to have started a tradition.  In the two years since the guild formed, I think four of the six officers have had a baby.  When the first baby came along, all of the officers got together and each of us made a block and we put together a baby quilt.  Then, when the next officer was expecting we did the same thing.  This was the most recent addition to the guild (Little Baby Benjamin).  We all did wonky star blocks and then Jamie put them all together in an awesome circle layout.

It is amazing to me that every time we do this it always turns out so well.  We pick the style of block and a basic color scheme and then everyone pulls from their own stash and makes a block.  Then, when they all come together, it works!  There were two extra blocks after the circle was complete and Jamie put them together in a nested formation and embroidered a label.

Bens quilt label Wonky Star Baby Quilt

When the top was all pieced, I offered to quilt it.  I looked at the big open area in the center of the circle and decided some of my initial ideas of what to quilt in there might look a little feminine for this little boy quilt.  I sat with it for a couple of days and suddenly, I had the answer.  

Bens Quilt center Wonky Star Baby Quilt

I took the label and pieced the back around it so it sat right in the center of the quilt.  As it layered up the quilt sandwich, I marked the centers of the top and back, lined everything up, basted it and started the quilting from the back. I out lined each star and then pebble quilted the center squares.  Then, I flipped the quilt over and finished the rest of the quilting doing an all over swirly design around the stars.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out.  I forgot to get a picture of the whole quilt completed and bound, but you get the idea.

I love working on these collaborative quilts.  And I have so thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this great group of women.  The guild has been growing leaps and bounds and I can’t wait to see where we are headed!

bens quilt star Wonky Star Baby Quilt

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