Drinking the Binding Kool-Aid

It seems there are many flavors of quilting kool-aid going around these days. Fabric Folding for one. My own self-revelation on thread. Well, here's another - binding! Elizabeth at Late Bloomer Quilts dedicated a whole post to this fabulous method of finishing up the ends of quilt bindings. You can't even tell where it starts and stops. Honest - it's magic. There is also a how-to video on the American Patchwork and Quilting website that shows you the process in nitty gritty detail.

I'll confess, it took me a few tries to get this right, mainly because I kept making the same mistake over and over again. Somehow, I thought each time I was doing something different and that magically it would work. NOT! But my persistence paid off and I will never go back to my wicked ways of bulky binding endings. Give this method a try and I'm pretty sure you're going to have a "I should have had aV-8" moment and smack yourself on the head.

Quilting the Weekends Away

Wow! Is it already Autumn? The weather people tell me that yesterday was officially the first day of Fall. In the Seattle area, at least this year, that means that our nights and mornings are very brisk with brilliant sunny cool days - at least on the days when it isn't raining (insert Seattle rain joke here).

Also, Football season is in full swing here, which spawns the opposite season "Crafting Season". This means I hole up in my studio and stitch away with about as little interuption as is possible in our house. The weekend days are only interupted by hoots and hollars of both joy and dismay coming from the manliest room in our house - the Man Room - repleat with wood paneling, big screen TV and a leather couch. Very manly.

So what have I been up to so early into Crafting Season? Mostly quilting! Here is a quilt, just finished last night, that is getting wisked away today for a magazine coming out around Valentines Day using the Be Mine collection by Sue Zipkin for Clothworks. All those hearts and candy heart sayings - it's just pretty darn adorable. Expect to see it popping up in your local shops in the next month or so.


Okay, so there are a few cleaning chores, errand running and other generally less pleasant things sprinkled in there but I like to live in fantasy land. A special place my husband calls "a nice piece of property in the state of denial".

New favorite find:Fabulous Piecing Thread

Whenever I find a new product I really like I try to spread the word. My new favorite thread for piecing is from Aurifil on the "Orange Spool". After some research it seems this is their 50Wt Cotton Mako thread. It's very low lint and a bit finer than your standard piecing thread. This means that my machine is no longer a victim of the fluff monster! Because it's finer, I have shortened my stitch length a bit to compensate.

This thread has been around, I just never tried it because frankly it's more expensive and it's harder to find. Well, one of my local quilt shops started carrying it and the owner swore by it. The spool looks like it's smaller than others, but really it's more thread on a smaller spool. The other nice thing about it - the spool itself doesn't have that HUGE hole that requires one of those little wooden adapters that I always seem to misplace.

I have started seeing this thread more and more - especially after this quilt market for some reason. I guess people got hooked!

An introduction is in order...

I would like to take a quick second to introduce you to a new friend of mine, Brandi. We met at Spring Quilt Market and in the small world that is quilting, she lives a stones throw away from my house... Weird strange small world. Well, it was her first quilt market and let's just say she was sufficiently sucked into the wonder that it the quilting business.

This year she launched her new longarm quilting business in Auburn, WA named Quiltiste! Her work is beautiful, fresh and modern so stop by her blog and check our her new studio. It's just fabulous!



Welcome to the quilting (and blogging) world Brandi - thanks for drinking the proverbial "Kool-aid"!

Fun and Games at Ikea: A True Story of One Quilters Studio Remodel

Okay - So after reading about Anne's new studio, I got inspired (AKA - A bug up my butt) to remodel my studio. I reached the "up to here" in the "I've had it up to here" and decided that I was going to spend my Labor Day weekend laboring. Or rather, roping my husband into a lengthy and arduous trip to Ikea followed by a long afternoon and evening of manual labor including a copious amount of drilling. Might I add, he did this for me even though his loathes Ikea? Not really the concept of Ikea, just the journey to Ikea... Especially on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. What can I say, he's a sweetie!

I'm going to be brave and post some "before" pictures here. None of this "Ta-Dah!" it's done sort of post here! Okay, be prepared, it isn't pretty, but I hope it will provide the appropriate context for my spontaneous remodel motivation.

{Before: Witness the Carnage}

{After: Ta-Dah, a new studio!}

So, from Ikea came the beautiful storage system you see on the left, the frosted glass doors on the top even have an etched flower in them that's pretty nifty. My printer and TV (a must have) are now perfectly situated and my sewing area is a dream! I love that the table comes into the room rather than against the wall so that I can use both sides. Before all the moving and stuff, I also painted the room robins egg blue (or some variation of it) which is kind of hard to tell in the picture. It's a bold move for me, as I am a "let's paint it Yellow" sort of gal.

There are still a few odds and ends to tie up like some spiffy overhead lighting - I'm pretty sure mine is from the sixties sometime with it's white gold flecked glass shade. Also, new baseboards and trim, along with a new design wall. I had one before where the shelving used to be and now it will occupy a smaller space on the opposite wall.

I love my new studio! WOO-HOO!!!!

Fun Times with Quick Quilts

So, I was purusing around and found this! This quilt is from the Clothworks/Dianne Knott line "Mummy Mambo" and is featured in the November 2007 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts. I'm not even sure if it's on the news stand yet! It's the first I've seen of it and it's pretty darn exciting.


More often than not these projects are worked on so far in advance that's it's like visiting an old friend when you see it again. I believe I posted this one in progress last March... where did the time go? I'll tell ya where it went - by all accounts it went fast and out the window along with Summer.

There are a few more quilts for magazines in the works and I just never get tired of seeing them all pretty in photographs and "real" if you know what I mean. Sometimes I finish a quilt, hang it up for a bit and then off to storage it goes especially if it's for a pattern. I'm a clutz and a half and anything left out for an extended period of time is likely to get trompled on or have half a Diet Pepsi spilled on it.

Really...Honestly and truly.... I'm a walking danger zone. My husband has threated to pad every corner and knife in our kitchen with foam. :)

How Fast They Grow

Kids just grow up to darn fast. Before you know it they are being independent and logical thinking PEOPLE or even worse ADULTS! Just to prove this, my oldest turned TWENTY this week. Twenty... *sigh* So, we took them out to one of our favorite restaurants, Mama Stortinis, and we had a blast. Ate too much - but skipped the embarrassing singing at the table much to my chagrin! There was a delicious Banana Spilt ice cream cake waiting for him and us at home.

{ Cory and Erica - aren't they cute?}

To add to the evenings festivities, Mama Stortinis has one of those "If you eat it all it's free" meals, which for the men at the table was just a challenge waiting. So without further ado, I give you before and after photos of this even, that just about say it all.

{ The 10 pound plate of pasta arrives }

{The aftermath, which required large sums of Alka Seltzer }