A visit to Flora Grubb

On Mother's Day I was spoiled in many different ways.

A picnic in Golden Gate Park is always my answer to the question, "What do you want to do on Mother's Day?"

There were lots of other mothers there, and this year we decided to get comfortable on an old quilt in the rose garden.  They had amazing roses there with my favorite one being the scentamental rose.  I'll have to share the photos I took there with you soon.

We then headed over to my new favorite spot on planet Earth, a nursery called Flora Grubb.

I had intended to visit here before but never actually made it there.  This time, we were caught in traffic again but arrived about 30 min or so before closing.

I will confess that I made off with a fair number of plants anyhow.  Let's just say that it's a good thing we didn't have more space in the trunk or much larger plants would have found their way home with me.

Their aesthetic is  completely modern and minimal.  The plants are succulents, air plants, the list is long.  I'll have to photograph the adorable little ones that came home with me.  They are so pretty.  I've never tried to grow them before, so wish me luck.

Quilt Otaku Modern Objects: Norwegian Bowl

You know I'm bad at keeping secrets so thankfully that part is over.  I have been cooking up a little series of free applique blocks for you.  Here's the big reveal.

Norwegian Bowl is Block #1, and you can head over to partner blog Pink Chalk Studios to download your free pattern (PDF). 

I asked Kathy of Pink Chalk Studio to host the pattern for me because I love the modern aesthetic of her blog and the fabric that she has in her shop. 

I have been a huge fan of her work ever since I made her Pencil Roll pattern.  If you don't follow her yet, you probably need to add her to your list.  If you are in search of solid fabrics, her site is one of the better sources out there.

About the blocks:

There will be a total of 12 patterns in the first series of modern objects. 

Finished blocks are 6 inches in size as designed.

Each of the Modern Objects will be inspired by a modern designer that has been influential in the evolution of the genre.

About Block 1:

For this block, the inspiration comes from Norwegian designer Grete Prytz Kittelsen.  She passed away in 2010, but in her life she created numerous stunning modern objects.  Enamelware similar to the block above (Lotus Leaf design) was produced by Catherinholm. 

Once you finish your block:

Please post a photo of your finished block to the Flickr group for this series.  I cannot wait to see what all you creative needle artists do with this pattern. 

Block shown above was created using Oakshott fabrics.

This block will almost make itself since pieces are simple, there are not many of them, and the block itself is quite small.

Do be kind and observe copyright guidelines.  Use the pattern for your own personal purposes, and do not sell the pattern or the quilted items that you create with the patterns.

You will need to know some basics of applique in order to make the block.  If you are interested in a tutorial, give me a shout.  It certainly isn't rocket science, and I'm here to help.

A little treat for you

I mentioned before that I have modern design on the brain.

After designing all the modern house blocks, I felt there should be something next in a similar style but with a twist.

There are some free applique patterns in the works for you.

Keep an eye out...the first one is coming soon!

The complexity of these blocks is dramatically reduced as compared to the modern house blocks, so that should make for super-fast sewing time.

And in celebration of Mother's Day, I would like to thank my own mom for being so sweet to me and our family.  Having a mom is a huge blessing, I probably don't have to tell you that.  

I started reading through historic blog posts that mention my mom and she is either giving me fabric or other quilting goodies when I talk about her, or helping me finish projects.  Thank you Mom! xo.

I also want to wish the other moms out there a very happy day.  Raising kids is something that most of us really do devote our souls to and is more of an art than a science.  Perhaps Mother's Day is the perfect excuse to get out and have an annual picnic.  Enjoy the day.

Sheep Shop Yarn and Fiber

When I was in Monterey, I picked up this fiber at Monarch Knitting from Sheep Shop Yarn.

The colorway is called Sprite.  It certainly has some energy to it.  Untortunately, this South African company went out of business some time ago.  Too bad too, as I used to enjoy their yarns very much.

Back in the 1980's, this color was so 'in'.  I can remember having leg warmers in this color when I was in 5th grade.   I never got rid of my ski jacket that also has this color in it.  My hope was that it would come back into style again.

In the knitting and spinning universe, I sometimes see these neon colors again these days.  I have not seen a lot of them in quilt fabrics.  I think it would be really fun to see some of them made out of Oakshott fabric.  Maybe they will eventually do a neon line.

Until then, I'll spin this into something very light weight.  Probably for a lace shawl.

Quilting in Monterey

This weekend our family friends took us for a vacation in the Monterey, California area.

We had a lot of fun and spend some quality time together, away from the noise of real life.  

My favorite part was taking photos at Point Lobos, which is land set aside for conservation as a state preserve.  Tons of animals, including sea lions and their babies.  Cute, although they still smell like sea lions!

You can see many photos of this place online, they will give you a feel for how dramatic it is.  Hiking around is not difficult, but it was a little tricky for our 3 yr old at times due to uneven ground and rocks.

Not far from there is the town Monterey, where we ended up playing around a little bit.

Here's the scoop:

1)  Quilting: Back Porch Fabric 

(photo above)

Great selection of fabrics.  Very friendly staff.  Tons of Kaffe Fassett Fabric.  Quilts hanging up on the walls are clean looking and inspirational.

Best Find: awesome selection of batting, my favorite kind was there for the taking - Quilters Dream in request (super thin) loft.  Also loved some fish themed fabric by Anna Griffin.  Lastly, near the counter, they have hand blown glass seam rippers.  I didn't buy one since I would lose it, but they were beautiful.

2)  Knitting and Spinning:  Monarch Knitting and Quilts

Large shop, excellent collection of various kinds of yarn, tools, books, and supplies for spinning.  Not a huge selection of fiber that is pre-dyed, but lots of un-dyed fiber and huge selection of acid dyes.  The shop itself has 2 dogs that seemed to spend a lot of time there, very cute.  Staff was extremely friendly and informative.

Best find:  Kromski Spinning Wheel Oil - very long nozzle for getting in those hard to reach places of your spinning wheel.  Super cool.  $8.

3)  Lunching: Victorian Corner

Cozy lunch spot with American food, sandwiches, salads, and they offered us a choice between both breakfast and lunch menus.

Best find: Meatball Sandwich - home made sauce.  Don't miss it.  2nd generation family business, yummy food, friendly service, great for families and super cute vibe.

Liberty of London Fabric...just a little more

Have you tried eating Sushi made out of laser cut seaweed (nori)?

The shapes the cut it in look exactly like Sashiko.

I have to figure out how to get some of this.  Too fun.

Am I avoiding a confession that I picked up a little more Liberty of London fabric from Purl Soho?  Ok, maybe, but hard to hide that fact with that glorious photo up above.

They also have a solid green fabric on sale right now in my younger son's favorite color.  Almost an evil color actually.

Do you collect Liberty of London fabric?  Could you pick a favorite?  What do you to to catalog it?  Have you ever accidentally bought the same fabric twice?  I am not sure if I've done that with Liberty (thank goodness, due to the price tag).

Book Report Time: Quilts Japan Issue #146

I have a subscription to both Quilts Japan and Patchwork Quilt Tsushin.  Both of these are the two most popular quilting magazines in Japan.

Each issue has many gems in there and patterns galore.  My favorite part is usually the fold out paper that has tons of applique designs on it. 

Kinokuniya will ship to addresses in the U.S. for subscriptions of these.  Not sure about other countries. 

Issue #146 of Quilts Japan does not disappoint: 

• Pages of Hawaiian Applique
• Adorable 3D stuffed fruits on p45
• Incredible vine and leaf applique on p52
• An advertisement on p66 for a book in English called Flowers Hearts & Garlands.  Why do I need to read a Japanese magazine to find out about a book this awesome?  Sigh, I need to get out more.
• Beautiful house quilt on p104 with a very interesting block setting

If you love hand work like I do, this issue is certainly for you.  If you really don't like Hawaiian applique, you may want to skip it, as there is quite a lot of it in here.

Roll in a Day Photo Project

I mentioned that for this 2nd round of "Roll in a Day" - a photography project where you shoot an entire roll of film in one day and post all the photos, even the bad ones - I decided to join in on the fun.

I loaded my camera with some Illford HP5Plus and ran around clicking photos.

We went all over town that day, as we usually do on the weekends.  Check out a slide show here that includes all the photos I took, even the bad ones. 

The shot above is one of my favorites of the day.  DH with our older son.  They look very much alike those two.

Other photographer participants have started posting their projects to the Roll in a Day flickr group. 

While bouncing around on flickr I noticed a group of quilters in love with Liberty of London fabrics.  You know I had to join that group right away.

I also did a flickr search for the word "scanography" where people put all sorts of things on their flatbed scanners to create images.  At times, this includes their own faces!  Some beautiful things here though.

Did you notice that Purl Soho got more Liberty prints in?  I have not ordered any yet but this one called Red Willow Rose is making me think hard about that.  

Socks of Evil Deeds

 I call these socks my socks of evil deeds.

Always the villain uses purple and acid green in their costume in order to try to gain the upper hand on either Superman or Wonder Woman.

These are knit out of Twisted Limone yarn and were really quick and fun to complete.

For some eye candy, check out this beautiful modern quilt over at Lily's Quilts.  The saturated colors are awesome, they just pop.

Having a bit of unexpected car trouble this week.  Sigh...pressing on.

Modern Design and Quilting

Lately, I have had modern design on the brain.  Specifically, modern household items.

I'm in love with the designs of Heini Riitahuhta from Finland. 

Her pottery is divine and was featured in a Japanese crafting and lifestyle magazine recently called Giorni.

I managed to pick up a couple of pieces and find them very inspirational. 

There is a Japanese web site called Koruja Matka that looks like they carry her buttons.  I may ask my Japanese girlfriend to translate the site to at least figure out their address.

Anyhow, this love of modern household items has me all excited and in process of designing small modern quilt blocks.  A little series with more simple design as compared to the modern house blocks that I created.  I will confess those house blocks do have a fair number of applique pieces.

My little sister used to do hand applique with me and when she picked out a block, I think she had something like a limit of 10 pieces max.  Let's see if I can design these so that even the serious time-challenged applique artist can whip them up in an hour or two.

Quilter's Notebook

I am still making small chipboard notebooks that hold scraps of fabric and notes about projects.

I'm a sucker for these little books.  I started using zebra duct tape as the binding tape.  Really fun.

When Moleskin comes out with a new notebook, I always want those too.  They are small, affordable in general (around $10, although maybe expensive for a notebook), but so very handy that I have a little collection of them.

One for quilting notes, one for spinning notes, one for 'firsts' about the kids - first steps, first lost tooth, etc.  We had a first recently where my older son went to a friend's house to play.  I had not really thought about it much, but it was the first time I actually let him stay at a friend's house without also staying there.  He was so excited and proud and had such a blast.  

I know I have said this before....as incredible as growing up is, it's all flying by too fast for my taste.  Where is my slow-motion button when I need it?  We are having so much fun with these small kids.

Roll in a Day / Day in a Roll project

Today was "Roll in a Day / Day in a Roll" day.

A bunch of photographers run all over the globe with their film cameras (read: NO digital!).  They shoot a single roll of film during the course of a single day: April 21st, 2012.

The flickr pool is located here.  It looks like they will probably host this event monthly if you want to jump on the bandwagon next time around, it's easy enough.  As my dad says, "It's only film!"

I couldn't resist joining in on the fun since I love photography and my DH participated in the last round of it.  I will confess I was a tiny bit jealous of all the fun he had.

So I jumped into the fun with both feet.  I loaded my film camera with some black and white film, so will need to wait for a lab to process it.  I'll let you know when I end up posting it. 

I did during the course of the day happen to encounter some interesting things:

• A knitting shop having a crazy sale
• Two of my best friends
• An awesome teenager rock band
• A merry-go-round
• A couple of macaw birds
• Some very beautiful light
• A plain horse with wagon on Mulberry Street (ok ok, I didn't actually see that)

I couldn't help but pick up a little yarn during bullet item 1 above.  I'm planning to make hats, not that anybody would wear them in this crazy heat we are having!


The small quilt I'm hand quilting also inched forward a little during a viewing of Star Wars Eposode 6.  Yub-yub!


If you want to see a really adorable quilt idea, check out Julie's post on Herding Cats over at My Quilt Diary.  Her design of this is very Escher-like, and just beautiful. 

Who's going to the Seven Sister's Quilt Show next weekend in San Luis Obispo, California?  Probably not me, but would love to be there.

Modern Quilting

I am still here stitching away by hand with my needle and thread, and my Japanese Taupe Fabrics...creating modern house quilt blocks. 

This is the 10th block, and is inspired by what is called the Sax House in Oakland, California.  The home itself is designed to look just like a saxophone.  Can you see the instrument in the design?  I'm not done with the embroidery yet.  I think that will put the finishing touches on the block.

I never though that a popular blog like Quilt Inspiration would notice my work, but it turns out they did this week.

They just posted a little piece on my modern house quilt blocks which was very generous and kind of them.  You can see the article at this link.  The cool part is you can really see how the blocks were inspired from the photos I took of the real house.

I'm so honored!

Now, to come down from cloud 9 and get back to my stitching.

Quilting and Photography

I took a few photos of my Oakshott fabrics before I washed them.  What a neat and tidy little stack.  Ahhhh...organization.  So comforting.  Spoken like a true control freak.

But if I didn't love order, I certainly wouldn't be quilting in my spare time, now would I?

The photo above looks a bit impersonal I think, sort of like something you might see in a catalog.  I couldn't resist trying a plain white background though since the fabrics were so colorful themselves.


If you ever want to take a photo like this, it is actually super easy.  Here's how:


I opened up the curtains and put a chair in front of the natural light coming in.


It happened that there was an old and HUGE calendar from last year hanging around.  I used the back of it which was white, and sort of draped it over the chair.  You could also just use a huge piece of white paper or poster board.  I would not use fabric since any small crease will show.  I then put the fabric stack right in middle and started clicking away.  


You know I love photography, and helping folks take better photos for their blogs is something that has always been on my mind.


I wrote a guide for crafters who do quilting, knitting, and sewing to inspire and help people take better photos.  It's free and it's posted here if you're interested.


If there is a blog out there that you think has exceptional photos, let me know, I'd love to see it.

Sheep Shearing

This weekend my quilting/knitting group and family enjoyed a sheep shearing event at Hidden Villa in Los Altos, California.

The event included sheep dog herding, sheep shearing and explanation of how to do so handspinners can enjoy the wool.  They try to shear the animal in a single pass in order not to have any short pieces of hair that would mess up your yarn.  Very cool.

They also had a felting project for the kids to take some wool and felt it around a rock to make a big wooly paperweight.  They even had a station where the kids learned to spin yarn.  My kids of course already knew a lot about it.

It was a great photo opportunity and we shot some video as well.  I would highly recommend this event to anybody who knits, spins, takes photos, or has kids.  A little video clip of the shearing itself for you here:

Hear more about it from my friend Sue's blog - So Sue.  She did a really informative post about it.  The folks there said you can even buy yarn from these sheep at the Los Altos Farmer's Market.

Sue also recently nominated me for the The Liebster award, and so did Bridget of the Nickel and Dime Ranch.  I will have to decide who to pass along the blog love to next.  Thanks for the award.  It's fun to feel loved!!

Oakshott fabric: to cut or not to cut, that is the question

I'm not the only one who happens to 'heart' Oakshott fabrics.  

The Little Red Hen loves them, Completely Cauchy loves them, what's not to love...


I am thinking I may actually cut into my collection now that I have enough of them to actually make a full quilt.  I find the work of Malka Dubrawksy of A Stitch in Dye blog to be quite inspirational and I'm wondering if something like the cupcake quilt that she did would be an interesting way to showcase these fabrics.  I love this little puzzle that is made out of an image of one of her quilts.

On other creative fronts, he photographer in me wants to do a little photo study of Tom Otterness' sculpture installation at Happy Hollow in San Jose, CA.   It may take an early arrival to catch them without kids running all over them.


If you have the time, stop over to Moonstitches blog, and mention to Alex that you're glad to hear she's thinking of blogging again now and then.

Fabric Stash: how to organize it

I got the wild idea to organize my Japanese Taupe fabric collection.

I am embarrassed to say the above is only a portion of my fabric, although it is a big chunk of it.  It makes me want to create a million zillion taupe quilts. 

I store my fabric in wire bins so they can have air flow around them.  Textiles don't like to be stored in plastic, or near light.  I keep a huge very low cost Ikea curtain thrown over the bin holder at all times to avoid light damage.  I did not always do this and I had some damage unfortunately.  Over time, please do be careful of this.

Inside of the bins, I start with genre of fabric (ie  Japanese Taupes, Japanese Yarn Dyed, Civil War Reproductions, 1930's reproductions, etc) and I organize by color inside of the genre.  Most quilts I make out of only one genre pallet so the organization method matches my design thinking for a new quilt.

While wandering around the web:

I picked up an amazing knit shawl pin recently by Plover - keep your shawl on you or use in a scarf.  Beautiful.  Most clever designs.

My son asked me to paint my nails in this color (his favorite) and I did.  That's love for you.

Ukrainian Easter Eggs by Blue Blossoms Easter Egg - wow, nuff said.

Happy Easter - celebrate with a wool felt Easter basket: ala Purl Bee

Whenever the Purl Bee does a blog post with a project I always say to myself, "Gee, I'm going to make that!"  

Have you ever said that?  Ok, perhaps I'm not alone here.

But...how many of you have gone and followed all the directions and actually MADE the project? 

Ah- Ha!  Perhaps a smaller subset.

Well, for once, I followed their tutorial, and made the Purl Bee "Super Simple Felt Easter Basket".

Were their directions good?  Yes! 

Did the materials the recommend work as they say...another Yes!  

Did the project come out cute?  Of course Yes.  

Did I stick to the exact directions?  Well...not really.

Here's the scoop:

I could not help but use a basting needle instead of the needle they recommended.  A giant needle really helped me get through this monster thick felt.  I was glad I didn't try a small needle.

I also did not do the yarn embellishment on the top of the basket, but I added some wool felt decorations that I felt it needed.

I cut the leaves out of some wool felt I have had for a while, and I used a Sizzix Punches to stamp through the natural dyed wool felt I recently picked up at Verb. 

The project was really fun and I appreciated the online free tutorial.  I tried to make a bit 'manly' (can an Easter basket be manly?) since I was making it for my DH.

The materials themselves are more on the high quality side (not low cost), but the result is beautiful.  If the felt was less expensive, I would think about making more of these. 

If you're celebrating Easter, have a very happy one this year.

Shibori: traditionally created Japanese textiles

Another treat I had while at the Voices in Cloth quilt show, was running into Debbie of Kasuri Dye Works.  She used to own a shop in Berkeley, CA that I loved to visit.  When they had sales the line to get in would wrap around the block - it was really crazy.  These days, she does a handful of shows a year, and unfortunately does not have an online shop.

Her fabric is amazing though, so if you get to catch up with her, it is a real treat to see her fabrics and just to meet her.

You can easily find information on how Shibori is created.  There are many techniques.  My personal weakness is for the indigo dyed pieces, as that captures a certain vision I have in my head of traditional Japanese textiles.

I have always wanted to make another kimono quilt.  Many people have made them.  I made one ages ago as a wedding gift.  I hardly even photographed it before I gave it away.  Oops.  Sigh.

Naturally Dyed Wool Felt

When I was at the East Bay Heritage Quilt show, Voices in Cloth, I could not resist picking up a few small pieces of wool felt at the Verb booth.  I have a small collection of wool felt that I've picked up along the way but this is the first time I've seen it created through natural plant-based dye methods.  The colors have a certain elegant look about them.  Purlbee had a tutorial on making stuffed patchwork eggs a while back.  I'm wondering if these would lend themselves to that project.

I read about this incredible Amish/Welsh quilt exhibit over at Little Welsh Quilts, check out the post here.  Shame I don't live close enough to visit it (like on the other side of the pond).

If you haven't ever done a flickr search for "Yoko Saito" you might enjoy the images that you will find there.  Some really beautiful taupe quilt work there.  One of my favorites here.