Pearl Hexagon Progress and What's On Deck

The first three hexy columns are sewn -- only 9 more to go!  Boy, are these hexagons tough!  I like it when the pearls match up as they do with the purple and green hexies and the purple and brown hexies in the photo.  Believe me, this was not done on purpose!  The hexies get rumpled a bit by all of the handling.  Jacquie suggests no ironing until it's all done, though!

I am already looking to my next project, which involves some Riley Blake chevron fabric.  DH has been asking for a duvet cover for awhile.  I plan to use a modified version of Daisy Janie's Bright Lights, Big City Quilt Pattern.  I will finally start on it once the hexies are done.  This is just one of the many projects on deck!

If you are so inclined, please help the Boston Modern Quilt Guild make quilts for victims of the marathon bombing.  You can make quilt blocks or flags to be displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston!

Check out what everyone else is doing this WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced!

Super Quick + Easy Baby Quilt

French class is on Wednesdays so I am writing my WIP post early!  I wrote up the post on my Pearl Bracelet hexies last week and of course forgot to link it.  I have another WIP that I hope to finish up soon -- a little baby blanket for a coworker's newborn.  I have made this blanket several times.  The pattern is in Joelle Hoverson's Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts.  The first time I made it I blogged about it here.  Wow!  I'd forgotten that was my first post!

It's really easy to make, but sewing the ties is a bear!  I generally sew about 80 of them.  The picture shown is the fabric (designed by yours truly at the design if you check out my Spoonflower shop!

Take a look at this week's WIPs at Freshly Pieced!

Hexies Cut!

There wasn't much done this week due to the Easter holiday, but before that, I did get all the hexies made of Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelets cut!  I cut about 168 of them all together.  And, I think I'm switching gears a bit, which naturally means I most likely cut too many.

Some of them I had already stitched up at QuiltCon.  Mmm hmm.  The one that was held at the end of February.  I really am not supposed to be sewing until I get my nook organized.  I have lots of other cutting to do in the meantime.

So, here are all the PB Hexies that have yet to be sewn.  Bright Star is shown in the forefront.  I really like that fabric because the dots are raised.  I'm not sure what the technical term is for that.  Well, it does have a nice hand. :)

I used this ruler to cut them.  Sure, it's tedious, but I am hoping it's most accurate.  I could have used my Go Baby, but I wanted the hexies to be a bit bigger to really show off those bracelets!

And these are the hexies I sewed at QuiltCon in Jacquie Gehring's class.  They are in columns, but the columns are not yet sewn together.  Good thing because I realized some are not quite in the order I'd like.

Check out this week's WIP Wednesday post at Freshly Pieced by guest blogger Natalie of Greenleaf Goods.  She is putting all her WIPs out there!  I have at least one item I am ashamed to post.  I don't think I'll do it until it's complete!

After looking at her blog, I think I might know Natalie... Natalie, have you ever been to a BMQG meeting? :)

WIP Wednesday

I have been very quiet lately.  Why?  I have been cutting hexagons!  Lots and lots of them!  You might recall I am now PB Complete (as explained here) and so I am cutting lots of PB hexagons.

Of course, rumor has it that there are more PBs on the horizon.  I hope I can get this Major project done before the new ones roll out!

Thanks to Lee of Freshly Pieced and her WIP Wednesday post, I took a break from cutting to write this post!

PB Complete

I have finally completed my collection of Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelet fabric.  I am proud to say that I have some discontinued prints -- chocolate on orange (left side, top) and semi-sweet (left side, second from top)  from Guising, and galosh (left side, 5th from top) and feather (left side, 3rd from top) from Red Letter Day.

Some of the colors I was hoping for are: Cosmonaut (left side 4th from bottom), Tin Man (left side, 7th from bottom) and Bright Star (right side, bottom). Some pleasant surprises are Isolated Shower (left side, 2nd from bottom) and Juniper (right side, 6th from bottom).

I am designing a new project using my Electric Quilt software and hexagons courtesy of my AccuQuilt Go Baby.

Bento Box Christmas Quilt and EQ6

You might recall my Bento Box Christmas Quilt posts from this summer. I assumed the BBCQ would be complete by now. Well, I had a visit from family, trips to Montreal, Portland, New York, and Houston, and two classes (Flash and Pattern Drafting) at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (which I have yet to write about)... Oh and let's not forget about work.... November 1st rolled around and I realized I had not started my quilt! Well, I have been working on it. I washed and ironed the fabric... good...

Thankfully, I have EQ6 to help me design the quilt before I start cutting the fabric. I scanned the fabrics and imported them into EQ6. I then drew the bento box block by hand. From there, I colored in blocks and then created a 3x3 quilt. After creating a quilt, you can go in and color any of the shapes or replace entire blocks. Above is one of the many permutations I generated using EQ6. Whatcha think? I like this. It's more orderly than the random ones I've done.

A couple of drawbacks are that the larger print (bottom row, middle) didn't scale so well. I wasn't patient enough to make it look good with the other fabrics. Also, several of the fabrics are metallic, but that doesn't show through at all. So, the quilt should look much more vibrant in person.

Sandi Henderson, the Portabellopixie!

Quilt Market is a trade show, which generally speaking, means mere mortals such as myself are not allowed to attend. I did attend, however, because I signed up to work at the show. My first job was to be hanging quilts. I was reassigned to security duty, if you can believe that. For nearly 8 hours, I sat in a chair and told people that they couldn't use the washroom that was closest to me. GRB management wanted to keep the area clear of non-convention center personnel because of the heavy equipment in the area.

Well, I stuck it out like the trooper I am. Sometime during Friday evening, while vendors were setting up their stalls, a woman came by, headed to the bathroom. I stopped her and told her she had to use the other washroom that was much further away. I then realized it was Sandi Henderson! I said, "Sandi!" She looked at me with surprise, because of course, she didn't know who I was! I said, "I read your blog!" LOL. She asked if that meant she could use the closer washroom. Sadly, I had to tell her no. LOL.

I did tell her a funny story about the Lei print of her Ginger Blossom line. At the Lowell Quilt Festival, I saw that one of the vendors had the Lei print there. I asked her if they happened to have the corduroy version. The woman, visibly irritated, said, "This is a _quilt_ show. No one sells corduroy here!" Well! Sandi and I both laughed at that one.

Sandi asked why I was at Market and not Festival (which is for the general public), I told Sandi I wanted to be home for Halloween. She understood, unlike most people who gave me a strange look when I said that.

I think I was introduced to Sandi's work a year or so ago, via Heather Bailey's website. I believe Sandi initially made children's clothing using Heather's Freshcut line. Sandi branched out and created two lines of her own, Ginger Blossom and Farmer's Market. They are both bright, fun and colorful fabric lines.

Sunday, I found Sandi's booth, part of the bright and beautifully decorated Michael Miller aisle. I had corresponded with Sandi via email before. I said that to her when I re-introduced myself. The first thing she said was, "Did I write you back?" LOL. I know she is crazy busy and she was concerned that perhaps she didn't get to me, but of course she had returned my notes. (She told the others who were there that I didn't let her use the washroom the night before. There is a similar story involving Jane Sassaman!)

I showed Sandi my portfolio. She really liked it and had positive things to say. I'm glad she was the first person I showed my portfolio to, because her encouragement really steeled me for the rest of the contacts I made that day!

Sandi's husband was there, also, and he was very nice as well. I asked Sandi how the kiddies were doing, and she said she missed them terribly. I'm sure they missed her, too, but how lucky are they to have such a mom. And she's a cool mom, too, because she makes the most awesome Halloween costumes!

Sandi is one of my textile heroines. I'm looking forward to what she'll think of next!

Portland

I apologize for the long time between posts! Life has been super busy lately, but I wanted to share the fun Hubby and I had in Portland, ME.

A couple of weekends ago, Hubby and I traveled to Portland, Maine via Amtrak. We headed up to meet Sharona and her beau.

It was a rainy, rainy weekend, thanks to Hurricane Kyle. We can't seem to escape rain this year! Anyway, despite the rain, we all had a great time. Sharona drove down all the way from New Brunswick! We didn't realize how far they drove -- it was only a two-hour trip for us. We stayed at the La Quinta Inn. It's not a bad place if you don't want to spend too much. You help yourself to breakfast, but you can make waffles or have pastries, cereal, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, coffee, juice, etc. Not bad at all.

We did not have a car (the hotel provided transportation to and from the train station), so Sharona and her beau came to pick us up for dinner once we got into Portland. Due to some oddities with the streets in Portland, we drove around a bit (in a few circles) looking for the Italian restaurant, Espo's Trattoria, that Sharona picked out. It was really funny once we found out that they had already been to the restaurant before they came to pick us up! The restaurant had a warm, homey atmosphere and the waitress was very nice. We ended the night early, but I had plenty of work to do at the hotel. I schlepped my pattern drafting homework up there so I could get it done during the downtime.

Saturday, we hit the shops of downtown Portland. Hubby and I did some damage at one of my favorites, Stonewall Kitchen. They have awesome dried soups, relishes, sauces and kitchen utensils. They also have a sweet little kitchen inside the store. I wanted to take a picture, but the staff didn't allow it. Well! The boys went to Starbuck's while the girls visited a bookstore, Books, Etc.. I bought two books: Asian Art and Sew and Stow. We also stopped in a boutique, Bliss, which is one of my Portland favorites. It's on the pricey side, but I did see a fabulous coat and dress that I would have liked to take home. Another shop I like to visit in Portland is Simply Scandinavian. It's a nice shop if you're looking for typical Scandinavian crafts, especially Christmas ornaments. Simply Scandinavian also sells clothing, jewerly, toys and books. Of course, they have a few Marimekko items: aprons, notecards and even fabric.

The biggest surprise was Portland's Whole Foods. Sharona hadn't been there before. She looked it up online and wanted to check it out. Little did we know, Portland's Whole Foods is a city within a store. There are a few Whole Foods stores in Boston, but they all pale in comparison to the Portland store. It is cavernous. It has all the things you'd expect: fruits and veggies with a large selection of organic offerings, cheeses, meats, grains, nuts. This one has a restaurant inside and a sushi bar. I could spend an entire day in that store. I met an older couple who was offering free samples of ice cream, called Sherbetter. I tried the lemon flavor and the rainbow. They were both delicious. As it turns out, Jack and Helen were helping their son, Jim, launch his product. Jack and Helen live in Boston, so it was fun meeting them in Portland. I will look for Sherbetter the next time I'm in Whole Foods here at home. If you're ever in Portland, be sure to visit Whole Foods.

Lest I forget, there was one fabric store that we could find in Portland: Z Fabrics. The owner, Mary, said she opened the shop out of sheer frustration, because there were no good places for fabric in Portland! The shop is tiny, but is stocked with colorful, large scale prints. I bought some for my Halloween costume, that I will of course share later. I am encouraged to see an up and comer in the fabric world. I hope she does well.

Just down a couple of blocks and across the street from Z Fabrics is Angela Adams. I visited her store years ago in Portland before she had all the press and before her rugs were featured on The Apprentice! I own two bags from her store. I was eager to go back to see what she had in store. Unfortunately, there were no bags! She now sells a few laptop bags, small housewards and journals. There were also a few simple garments made with fabric she designed. If you are in the market for a modern wool or cotton rugs, however, it is the place to be. There is an amazing undersea rug behind the counter, similar to the photo above. Of course, seeing it online doesn't do it justice. The rug is huge -- at least 8'x10', and it's full of vibrant colors and texture. (Note: There are some bags are on her website, but nothing like the leather ones I have!)

We worked up an appetite after all that shopping! We dined at a Greek restaurant that Sharona found, Greek Corner. Sharona is a vegan, so we didn't mind her doing the restaurant searches. Of course, she did well. The food was delicious and so fresh. Greek is one of my favoirtes (sans the feta). As it turns out, the restaurant is within walking distance of where we started at Stonewall Kitchen! There is also an Indian restaurant next door, that I'm looking forward to trying.

After dinner, we said goodbye to our Canadian friends, but not before Sharona gave me two issues of Clin d'oeil, a Quebecois fashion magazine. As you know, the language of fashion knows no boundaries! Sharona and I met a year ago, thanks to Martha's sewing show. Now that our respective significant others have met, we plan to meet up a few more places together. Montreal and Bar Harbor are the next spots on our list.

Eggceptional Potholder!

How cute is this little potholder? It's like a mitten for cooking! I found the pattern at one of my favorite haunts, the New England Quilt Museum. The pattern is called Potholder Ladybug by EmmaCreation Arts and Crafts. I didn't use the fabric that came with it, though. The part with the eggs was supposed to be sashiko instead. Though sashiko is one of my favorite pasttimes, I wasn't super fond of the pattern. How could I resist the new twist, anyway, after seeing the egg fabric at Fabric Place?

The bottom right is a little wonky. I doubled the thermal batting and it made the laters a little too thick. I am glad for the extra batting, though. No heat gets through this baby! Next time, I'll trim that. I will do a pattern review at some point. It's fairly easy. I whipped this up in a couple of hours. There is a loop at the very top that came out surprisingly well. I hope I can duplicate that!

Yes, I spend way too much time at Fabric Place. I was there last weekend because hubby wanted to go to a sports store in the same mall. How convenient! I was good, though. I didn't buy anything. My next quilt project will be a Christmas quilt. I am not going to buy anymore fabric unless it's for that project. We'll just see about that!

In the Mood

Mood Fabrics is a place I always visit when I go to NYC. You may already know that the designers of Project Runway shop there. I've been to NYC a couple of times during the taping of PR, but I have yet to be there when the designers are there! That would be fab. Meeting Tim would be fab, too. I was watching PR reruns the other night and I saw a couple of employees that I had just seen when I was there. I'm such a geek.

I can't even say how much fabric I've bought there. I have bought Marc Jacobs fabric and Oscar de la Renta fabric there, too. I know that only because one of the employees have told me so. I was also complimented on my fabric choices as well. What can I say? I am a Material Girl. That is so overused, I know, but that really does describe me.

One of the cool things about it is that you get to the 3rd floor of 225 W. 37th Street via an old-fashioned elevator with elevator operators. How often does that happen? They used to have them at the old Ritz-Carlton on Arlington Street (which is now Taj Boston), but I don't know if they still do that. For those of you who are shocked that there is no longer a Ritz in Boston, not to worry: Ritz-Carlton Boston Common.

If you love fabric, Mood really is the place to go. You can get denim, knits, silk, leather, tweed, wool, upholstery -- you name it. I can't do the selection justice here. During the last trip I saw a sign that read "No more samples of Pucci fabric"!! Pucci? See, this place is cool. I am a woven cotton girl, myself. I have yet to venture into the world of knit or silk. I will one of these days. I want to order this book so I can start practicing.

So, what did I get at Mood? I was intrigued by the polka dot print. I love how the polka dots are randomly scattered. You don't see that too often. I think it would be cute for a handbag or a summer top. How about the Ann Taylor top below in that print with the bow in a solid? The picture is from the Harper's Bazaar (Smart shopping). I was unable to find the top on AnnTaylor.com, however




I thought the black fabric would make nice pillows for my guest room. It is not done yet, but it's working on a French theme.

The last PR season, I saw for a quick second Christian carrying around a canvas Mood shopping bag. You notice minutiae like that when you've seen the episodes as many times as I have. I asked if they had any and they did! They even had one with the LA store's address. I had to have NYC, of course. You can order them online.

I will share more Mood acquisitions in later posts!

Thank you, Cherry House!

I won a cute bundle of black and white fabric by participating in a giveaway on one of my favorite blogs, Cherry House. I love the quilts they make and their patterns. Thank you!!