Berry picking adventures and the 20 year annoyance

Last weekend we went picking berries and the kids had an awesome time. We picked something like 12 lbs of Olallieberries and Boysenberries at Gizditch Ranch in Watsonville, CA.

The 2 yr old ate WAY more than he picked.

I am working on the design of the next modern house block of the month. This one is based on a home located in Palo Alto, CA. It's very boxy and has incredible old trees all around it. Lots of green fabric this month.

In annoying news, my darling high school friend reminded me that we have a reunion coming up in September.

At dinner I mentioned this to my husband (and of course said I have no interest in going) but I told him I thought it was like our 10th or 15th reunion or something.

He ANNOYINGLY reminded me that it's probably more like my 20th high school reunion, so I've been freaking out over that all evening.

Really? Can it be? So soon?

Maybe I should not confess this to you all as I am probably showing my oats here, but sheesh, it's true!

For those of you who are way younger than me, and you know who you are (especially those youthful babes in my weekly knitting group), pleeeeeeeeease do not make fun of me for being so darn old.

And for those of you who have had the guts to attend reunions for your 30th year, or 40th, or perhaps 50th (as I belive my dad may have actually done), you have to let me in on how you keep young at heart. From what I can gather, it's an art not a science.

Off to go apply my wrinkle cream.....

Turquoise immersion

At times I get hung up on one color and find myself going for it in various different ways.

Right now, turquoise seems to have attention.

I am spinning yarn in colorway "Parrotfish" by Girl on the Rocks that I picked up at Stitches West.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a Hawaiian applique block that I started a while back. There are lots of colors in there, but turquoise is one of the larger sections.

Hope your weekend is full of color. If you are favoring a certain shade, let me know your fav!

Modern House Block #1: pattern now available!

After many late nights, numerous formatting challenges, and colorful several conversations with myself (and my DH for that matter) around why it is so hard to create a PDF file...

I'd like to introduce my first pattern for download:

Bay Area Modern House Block #1
$10

Please note that in this PDF pattern download, applique instructions and techniques are NOT discussed. It is intended for folks that have an understanding of applique.

It's been a labor of love and I am thrilled to have this little creation ready to share with the universe.

Enjoy, and feel free to send your feedback my way. I'd love to see photos of your completed blocks!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope your 4th is amazing. I certainly enjoyed the extra weekend day. Summer really feels like it is in full swing now.

Quilt and yarn shopping in San Francisco

Last weekend I spent the day in San Francisco with some of my quilting friends. The girl who made up our list of places to stop was very inspired, so here's the list in case you want to re-create it next time you are in the neighborhood.

1) Dynamo Donuts: Of all the places we went, this was the only one that I suggested. Go figure, it's the only one that is wall to wall delicious with sugar-laden goodies. They have the most creative donut flavors you will ever see (outside of Austin, TX) and I'm not sure you have really lived until you try their maple bacon one. It's true that everything is actually better with bacon.

2) Kinokuniya Books: They had a bunch of cool quilting magazines there and books. I picked up one new one and a bunch of plastic dolls.

3) Peapod Fabrics: If you have the chance - DO NOT MISS THIS SHOP! If you love Japanese fabrics, as I do, you must must must - I repeat - MUST - visit this shop. Parking is horrible, but the fabrics are worth it. Some American fabrics, but tons of Japanese imports. Very unique and different selection. The owner is lovely, and from Kyoto. I even managed to pick up some Richard Scarry fabric here. It really floated my boat to discover this place, in case you couldn't tell. I also picked up the fabric shown above. It's from a collection called "Modern Wa". How perfect.

4) Urban Fauna: This is a yarn, spinning, and fiber shop within a stone's throw of Peapod. A bright airy place with the most amazing katamari damacy amagrumis on display. I was in love, they were not for sale. The thing that struck me most when I was there where these kids to make felted wool toys for kids by WoolBuddy. The frog one was really cute. They seemed to have a very nice kids class schedule too. Bummer it's so far from my house.

5) Urban Burp: Tons of vintage fabrics from the 1920's and earlier through around the 80's. I bought a piece of ABC Carebear fabric here, believe it or not. Crazy!!! I'm going to use it as a quilt backing.

6) Lunch at Samovar tea house: In all the years I've been going to the Metreon to check out the Sony store and to SF Moma, I cannot believe this was so close and I have never been before. The food selection is very international. I got their iced black tea and it was out of this world. Planning to go back here.

Whew! If you can hit all of that in one day, then my hat is off to you. And if that still didn't stop you and you want more...how about stopping at Flora Grubb. It's a very cool looking plant nursery, but I have yet to visit in person. It's on my list for next time.

Infant knit hat - fit for a forest sprite!

This is the second hat I whipped up for my baby niece.

I know, using an ugly doll to model it is a bit of an oddity, but anyhow it kinda matched the shape of his ears, so it had to be done.

The yarn is handspun. I am starting to wonder if I like knitting or spinning more. At this point I think spinning is actually the winner.

This weekend we are in town celebrating the holiday. Lots of stuff in plan though.

To Do:

1) See Cars 2 movie - am I the last person on the planet to see this? The little one has never really been to a movie on the big screen. I am so excited about this.

2) Take photos for more modern house quilt blocks - time to get ready for next month's class. I will make my confession to you now that I did get some new fabric recently for this project. I cannot wait to quilt with it! More on that soon.

3) Write up a blog post about our quilty adventures in San Francisco for you all to enjoy the links.

4) Investigate putting PDF modern house quilt block patterns up for sale on my blog...shouldn't be rocket science, right?

5) Catalog some of my quilting books on my new app - iBookshelf - it's kinda cool. Maybe I can stop wondering which books I have and which I don't!

What's on your to-do list this weekend?

If you don't have a good list yet well then - start by voting on my hand quilting poll if you haven't yet - it closes in only 3 days! Oops, make that 2!

Handspun Baby Hat and other quilty adventures

I hand spun some naturally dyed fiber that I got at Verb (is there another place to get fiber? I think not!) and knit up a super super tiny hat.

My new baby niece needs to be spoiled so no commercially created, acid dyed, itchy scratchy yarn would do. No no no. This baby needs cashmere, merino, and angora hand spun by her favorite (ok, I'll admit and only as well) aunt. More info on ravelry here.

The bunny that is serving as my 'model' here just so happens to have the same sized head as a newborn baby, so it's an interesting and handy way for me to check if the size is right or not. I sort of made up the pattern but it is inspired by the cover of Joel Hoverson's "More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts."

Don't tell my sister, but I'm trying to surprise her with another baby hat in a different shape. She has a 2 week old baby, so I'm sure she doesn't have time to read my blog these days. Let's keep this quite, ok?

Oh, and last Saturday one of my amazing quilting friends took us on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco to explore a bunch of quilt related shops. I will compile a list of links with some info on them in case you need to plan your own similar trip someday.

Quilt Shopping around Chicago

Those of you who guessed I was in the mid-west when I took the photo for my last post - well, you were right!

I was outside of Chicago, IL in this town called Barrington. The quilt shop - well worth a visit - is called A Touch of Amish.

They have a big selection of reproduction fabrics, shirtings, and fabrics that would look really nice if you are working on a traditional quilt pattern. The ladies who work there are very friendly, and the number of bolts of fabrics they have is pretty impressive.

Fabrics I picked up there are photographed above.

I didn't have time to really tour the area there, but I fear that there are two other shops in that general area that I should have visited and didn't have time to actually get there.

The first one is The Quilt Merchant in Winfield, IL. Have you ever been there? It looks like they specialize in Civil War reproduction fabrics. It is on my list of places to hit next time.

The second shop is Pieceful Gathering in Fox River Grove, IL. It was probably within driving distance of where I was, but we were on a very tight schedule with our grandmother's birthday party, so did not make it here either. I'm sure I'll be back to Chicago again for family visits, so will certainly not miss this next time.

Brain Teaser

Ok fancy pants...think you know your quilt destinations?

Well, leave a comment if you can guess where I was when I took the above photo.

More stories coming soon about what I did there, and what I could have done in the general area (and didn't! AAHH) and you'll also know what part of the country I spent my summer vacation.

Hope your week is wrapping up well. I have a huge and very quiltish weekend in store!

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2011 - everything but the kitchen sink

Our visit to gramma's 90th birthday is over and fun was had by most.

The party itself was awesome, and it was great to see her. She really loved the scarf that I knit for her and we posed with her wearing it for a photo together.

My husband and little one managed to come down with a summer cold as we were traveling so they had less fun than some of us.

The boys did see fireflies for the first time though (we don't have them in California) so that was magical.

Speaking of magical, what to my wondering eyes should appear in my mailbox while I was gone but the Pacific International Quilt Festival 2011 catalog.

Time to mark your calendars: San Jose, CA on October 13 - 16th! Classes are open for registration. I was surprised that there was even a small amount of hand work classes listed, so that seems nice. There is also a class on how to photograph your quilts which I found very interesting.

Entries for putting your quilt in the show are due Sept 1. I don't think I'll be entering anything this year, since I'm planning on winning Best In Show next year with my taupe modern house quilt (ahem).

I'm going to attend again of course this year and will be taking photos for you, same as last year (and the year before, and the year before, and....you get the point).

Gift for the 90 year old who has it all

Our gramma is turning 90 next week, and for some time now I have been thinking, "Gee, what can I get her?"

Well, she used to knit a bit and I think she likes handmade things, so I ended up knitting a small scarf for her. It's in a crazy golden color, one of those striking jewel tones that I like a lot. I hope that she finds it soft and comfy and that it brightens up her birthday.

I have some notes on how I made it in ravelry here, but the pattern was very easy to memorize even for somebody who is really a quilter and occasionally fakes knitting projects.

The yarn I used is Malabrigo lace weight yarn which is so soft, I cannot tell you in words how soft, you really just have to touch it yourself. It did have some knots in the ball though, and I think knitters who know what they are doing really hate those. I kind of ignored them and kept going (probably not the right thing to do, but come on here, I'm a quilter!).

I also got her an electronic photo frame and my DH is helping me fill it with photos of the kids. Probably she will like that a lot better than the scarf, but I wouldn't blame her.

So here's to us all living to see 90, living to still do aerobics at that age (as our gramma does), and to gracefully getting older since - gosh - isn't that what we are sorta doing anyhow?

And Yes, I know I agreed to stop buying things on Etsy (or at least try to stop!) but I could not avoid one very tiny relatively inexpensive little teenie thing....Retro Scandanivian Style Star Wars Posters!

Maybe they sell 12 step program guides on how to give up Etsy...Hey, can I buy one of those on Etsy? Ahhhhh!

More House Blocks, and increasing the family headcount

Another teaser photo of the latest taupe modern house block. Next class is the 26th of June at Verb - join us if you can!

I am thinking of putting the patterns up for sale on my blog, but it's been on the busy side lately. That will be my project for early July.

Meanwhile...My sister's new baby has arrived. She is healthy and beautiful and my amazing sister got through it all in her usual supermodel style complete with poise and grace.

Giving birth is a magical event, and even my boys (including the 2 yr old) were stunned that this tiny new cousin has arrived and is now open for having her toes tickled. I could go on for pages here, but let me just state for the record that she is awesome and we are all so lucky to know her.

I started the worlds smallest baby hat for her today. I think I can finish it pretty quickly. I wish I had completed a new quilt for her, but that is also on my to-do list.

In other wanderings, if you have the chance, pls do check out Lori's blog - Humble Quilts - her recent cherry block is really adorable, and her blog in general is beautiful.

Japanese Taupe Fabrics - never too much of a good thing

I was looking through my stash of taupe fabrics in preparation for my next house quilt class later this month.

There were so many beautiful ones, it is hard to choose at times. Especially when working with the subtle shades of taupes I have found that seeing them in daylight is an important part of the process.

It isn't always easy for me to pick out the fabrics during the day since my creative work is mostly limited to after hours, but I was able to look while the sun was up today so that was nice.

In the afternoon I visited with my monthly quilt group, which was fun. It's always awesome to see my old friends and get inspiration from the projects they are working on.

The hostess let me see her fabric collection as she had newly organized it, and she stores her fabrics as flat as possible with really not that many folds in it.

Since I have a BUNCH of fat quarters, I end up folding them a lot and putting them into bins. Seeing how she organizes makes me wonder if I could find a way to store my fabrics with less folds in them so that they have less chance to have permanent damage due to the folds.

How are you storing your fabric these days? Am I the only one obsessed with stuff like 'no light' getting in, and 'no folds' causing permanent creases?

Have a cool tip for me to avoid crease lines? I'm all ears.

Oh, and for fun, I posted a "Do you like to hand quilt?" poll - cast your vote!

Fantastic Fabric Folding: Folded Flowers

When I was thumbing through my latest copy of Quilts Japan May 2011 Issue #140, I was reminded of how pretty folded flowers can be.

On page 44 of this issue there is a little wall hanging of folded flowers where the blocks are made from tiny floral print fabrics.

This got me to thinking about the possibility of making folded flowers out of Liberty of London fabrics. Although it would be a decent chunk of work to undertake a quilt like this, it is hard to resist the temptation to start something up.

As an experiment, I took some small floral fabric and worked one small block up to see how hard it is to do. The pictures in Quilts Japan were helpful, but of course the text is in Japanese (which I cannot read).

I then remembered that I somewhere had a copy of Fantastic Fabric Folding by Rebecca Wat. This book was published back in 2000 and is still available at Amazon here.

On page 25 there are nice diagrams with explanations in English that help you make these cute little flowers. The book itself has lots of other cool folded fabric flower projects too.

Not starting a big new quilt project tonight or anything - after all it's almost midnight - but tomorrow is another day!

Quilted art bags - for kids, and encounters with handmade fabric

Last weekend my 5 yr old son went to the birthday party of his twin girl schoolmates.

I heard that their favorite things included art supplies, so I jumped at the chance to make some cute art pouches for them.

When I make bags or things that need to hold shape, I bring out my super heavy interfacing: Timtex. I used a couple of different linen fabrics, with the Timtex inside.

It was fun to whip these up. I used Velcro to create a closure mechanism on the inside of the flap. The size of the pouch was designed to house the contents I knew I was putting inside.

Superfun and adorable for two very cute little girls. I hope they enjoy them. I did my usual calligraphy on the front with their names and I had my son sign his name on the back using a pigma pen.

On a different note, I discovered the most amazing fabric printing artist the other day. The very talented Gina Pericini started selling her hand printed fabrics up in the fabric/yarn shop that I teach in.

Her etsy shop is called Flock Home and includes the most adorable fat quarter packs. I find it rare to encounter fabric that is hand made, and even more rare to find it so clean and with such beautiful designs.

I'll take some photos of the fabric I got to show off in a future post. I am thinking of making a protective pocket/holder/bag for my Japanese quilting magazines using her fabrics.

Thimble Cage and more fabric I 'need'

Finding the perfect thimble cage is not easy, as it turns out.

Thimble cages are used to hold your thimble in a beautiful cage, as a necklace when you need to pause your quilting, so you don't lose track of them. There is a small ring on top that slides off towards your neck on the string and the cage opens right up.

I wanted to get just the perfect one to hold my favorite antique Simons thimble.

After looking at some pretty ornate ones, I settled on this very minimal version that is available from The Colonial Needle Company.

It is called the thimble teardrop cage by Roxanne, which is a brand that makes various kinds of quilting supplies including needles.

I will warn you that it isn't quite large enough to fit my serious workhorse thimble, though. It's huge so I guess it makes sense, but just so you know...when I go to do a large amount of quilting...my thimble of choice is the Raised Edge Thimble by the Original Needleart Guild

It looks like there is now a new model out that even includes dimples on the top sides of the thimble. That looks like it would be interesting to try. It would probably give you some additional options in how you use your hand.

I was looking around at Superbuzzy (awesome online fabric shop, lots of Japanese fabric, awesome service too)....and ran into some Lego fabric. If you know me, and how I love to spend time with my sons, you know how much we all love Legos. When I saw this I said, "Wow, I NEED that fabric!" Seriously, does somebody like me ever 'need' any more fabric?

In this case - of course!

Finished at last! Table top quilt, hand quilted

I cannot even remember how long ago it was when my mom showed me her beautiful antique quilt top, and I said, "Oh, just give it to me so I can quickly quilt it up for you, Mom!" I think she bought it through a quilt dealer.

Well, "quickly"...doesn't exactly describe the rate at which I get things done sometimes, but I will say that finishing this small quilt was extremely enjoyable and I am thrilled with the end result.

The quilt top itself was pieced out of indigo and white fabrics by an unknown maker circa 1890. Whoever she was, I hope that she's looking down on it thinking - awesome - it's finally turned into a quilt after 120+ years.

My mom's kitchen is an amazing place with more light coming in the windows than any other kitchen I have ever been in. I can only dream of having this much beautiful light in my house anywhere, let alone in the kitchen.

She has it decorated mostly in blue and white, so if she puts this quilt on top of the center of her dining room table, I think it will look pretty smart.

I was trying to finish it for Mother's Day, so I guess it's sort of a belated gift, but anyway I think she'll like it.

Using Pigma Pens, I inked the names of her grandchildren on one of the plain white blocks. This will remain there as a permanent part of the quilt, and will not wash out.

I just love the look of inking words on fabric, and think this turned out pretty cool. She is expecting another grandchild VERY soon, so I left a spot to add the baby's name there too.

I used YLI's hand quilting thread in light brown color (to show off the stitches a bit, how flashy of me!) I have been tending to this use lately, and find that it gets fewer knots than other options.

My next post really should discuss the incredible quilted gift she gave me for Mother's Day (it's another WOW), but I'll need to photograph it for you so you can understand how spoiled I am.

Quilt Blocks of Modern Houses: Block 4

I'm getting all excited that our next Block Of the Month is coming up at Verb in a couple of weeks.

The house we are doing this time is very simple, but turned out oh so pretty. I literally cannot wait to see how other people are coming along with their amazing and beautiful blocks.

In case you are in the California Bay area, it's in about a week on Sunday May 22nd, at 2:30 pm.

This weekend is a busy one for us. There is an awesome event at the Children's Museum of Natural History that is all about Wooly Mammoths - in Fremont. We are hoping to find the time to check this out.

It got me thinking about "Wooly" Mammoths. Like "wooly"? Really? Do you think I could knit something out of them if they were still around? Maybe they would be adverse to the idea of a haircut from me?

Anyhow, I mostly never post more than one photo per blog post, but I cannot resist ending this on a funny note. It's the weekend after all. The below is a photo of my youngest son having a conversation with a sheep last weekend at Happy Hollow.

Mother's Day Bliss

Yesterday my family took very good care of me for Mother's Day.

My husband really spoiled me by making the boys write out personalized cards to me (including pictures they drew).

We had an awesome brunch, but there were gifts too, so I am sort of feeling like it was my birthday, not Mother's Day.

Anyhow, there was an antique quilt I had my eye on that was floating around on eBay, so he bought that for me. I've always wanted a double wedding ring quilt, so now I have a very classic 1930's example to add to my collection.

He also gave me a vintage sock yarn ball holder made out of bakeware (pre-dates plastic) from Katrina's Wool World. It's adorable and fits my small balls of handspun yarn perfectly too.

If you are a mother, I hope you had a wonderful day. Goodness knows it isn't the easiest job you'll ever have, but at least you can probably say it's the best one.

Patchwork Quilt Tsushin #161

The April 2011 issue of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin is packed with goodies.

On the cover, they feature a redwork alphabet block, which is covered in flowers and adoring little girls. It's a pretty cute alphabet, and the insert includes all the letters (of course).

My favorite page is actually page 41 where Yoko Saito has an article on how to make a bird block and a beautiful flower block out of taupe fabrics. Really pretty.

There is also a beautiful taupe bag on p. 29 that features a swallow bird. Swallows are really famous near the town where I grew up in Southern California. I should probably try putting some on a quilt. Their shape is very unique.

I just heard that another issue of Quilts Japan arrived in the San Jose Kinokuniya shop so part of me wants to run over there and pick it up before they close tonight.

Hope your week is going well. I am finally feeling healthy so I'm back at it with my hand quilting.