You Can Never Have Enough Fabric

Let's face it.  Many of us have enough fabric to make quilts for the rest of our lives, myself included. Sometimes you make a promise to yourself not to buy any more fabric until you use up a bunch of what you already own. I call it a fabric diet. But there are analogies to a food diet. 

 It starts to get boring after a while and sometimes you just fall off the wagon, especially when you enter a quilt shop.  The problem is that there are trends with quilt fabric.

  When I first started quilting, fabric designs lasted for years.  Now, it has become such a competitive industry with such tight profit margins.that a particular fabric may only be available for a season.  So if you see something you love, you better buy it. And conversely, if you have been on a fabric diet for a while, there are many new fabrics to tempt you. 

 

A friend of mine had surgery.  She has a very cute dog named Roxy and she loves Bailey.  To cheer her up during her recuperation, I thought she would enjoy a special pillowcase.

I came across this adorable fabric and knew this was the one.  I could not resist.

 There was a co-ordinating brown fabric with dog biscuits that I thought would be perfect for the cuff.

 This brought a big smile to my friend's face. 

 

Many fabrics have dots of color printed along one of the selvages  with the manufacturer's name and the name of the fabric line.  The colored dots are representative of the dye colors used to print the fabric.  They are helpful when searching for other fabrics to make a quilt. 

The selvage of the dog prints were another story. 

Someone at Robert Kaufman Fabrics has quite a sense of humor.

Paw prints!  I need to save this.

Some quilters save all of their selvages (and their friend's selvages) and use them for fabric projects.  (Most of us just throw them away.) 

You can see some of these fun projects on The Selvage Blog.

 

Then much to my surprise, I received a package in the mail from my friend Kathy.

How perfect is this?

 

Who can stay on a fabric diet with so many temptations?

Fabric Imitating Life

I have been on the search for new everyday dishes.  The ones I have now must be about 20 years old and they have lots of grey scratch marks where the utensils hit the bottom.  They are white and I have lots of white serving dishes.  The white makes for a very nice looking table. 

 

I needed some shopping therapy and went to Anthropologie.  It's a chain.  If you haven't been to one, it's a very funky place with lots of eye candy.  They have women's clothes and home accessories.  The clothes are very cool, but as one of my friend's said to me, it's geared for 25-30 year olds with fat wallets.  I still like to look.

 

On my visit, I found some very cool bowls.  There was my favorite color:

 

Not only did I love the color, but I loved the shape too.  It was a good size for cereal. 

Then I saw a bunch of other, lovely and delicious colors.  So I decided to buy a few:

Blue, aqua and chartreuse.

There were a couple of other colors, but these were definitely in my wheelhouse. I decided to audition them at home and decided if I wanted colorful dishes to go with my white serving dishes.

 

Then I was cruising around some fabric websites and look what I happened upon:

This fabric really caught my eye and it made me think of my dishes.

 

Napkins?

Bicycle Bag Tutorial

I am so in love with riding my bicycle right now.  The weather has been co-operative and I have put quilting on the back burner to make more time to be on my bike.  This happened to me a few years ago.  It's hard to find a balance when the 2 things that you love to do on pretty opposite ends of the spectrum.  I made a small quilt to depict my dilemma.  I called it Crossroads.

It measures 24" x 24".  I used lots of my hand dyed fabric and did a lot of handstitching. I felt then, the same way that I feel now. Balancing quilting with the joy of being on my bike is a challenge. I won't ride when it is raining or if the temperature is below 40 degrees. Then there is always the concern about car traffic on the roads.  I try to be smart about when and where I ride. So I try to seize every opportunity.

 

I own 4 bikes.  One of them is a folding bike and that resides in Key West.  I fold it up at the end of our stay there and store it in the owner's closet.

For 2 months, I ride it all over the island, usually with Bailey in her basket that hangs on the handlebar. I try not to get get behind the wheel of  our car the entire time we're there.  It's a good thing my hubby does all of the grocery shopping.

 

In PA I have a hybrid bicycle that I use for riding with Bailey, only places where there are no motorized vehicles allowed.  I also have a carbon fiber, high performance road bicycle that I "graduated to" in my previous incarnation as a crazy, obsessed cyclist. Then I have my beautified road bike that I ride most of the time now.

 The bike used to be a white Bianchi.  I searched high and low and could not find a pretty bike at that time.  The manufacturers were not catering to women.  I really wanted a pretty bike.  Instead after riding it for about a year, I beautified it.  I brought it to a special shop that paints cars.  They painted it blue (my favorite color), added my stickers of 2 things that I loved(spirals and dragonflies) and sprayed clear coat on top.  I named my bike "Dragonflyer". 

 

Of course a girl needs a place on her bike for the essentials like a cell phone and camera, in addition to a storage bag for those necessary tools and spare inner tube.

I made this one about 5 years ago out of tapestry fabric. Velcro kept the flap closed and the raw edges were zig zagged.  It did the job, but it was time for a new fun one.

 

This one was fun, fast and waterproof!

 

I bought the laminated fabric at City Quilter in New York several year ago

and it was waiting for just the right project.

 

If you want to make one, here are my :

 You will need :

Fabric for outside: 12"x16"

Fabric for lining: 12"x16"

1 - plastic zipper (>16")

5/8" Velcro - 2 pieces 3" long

Walking foot or a Teflon foot

 

Layer the Velcro so that the hook side is up and the loop side is up. 

This will allow it to catch when you wrap it around the handlebar.

Baste across the top.

 

 Layer the fabric and the lining wrong sides together.

Mark a chalk line 3" down from the top across the bag.

Make as vertical mark so the Velcro can be placed 7" apart.

Baste the Velcro in place.

Mark another line 1/2" above the first line.

Then fold up the both layers of fabric to encase the Velcro and stitch across,

using either a walking foot or a Teflon foot.

You can see how I had a bit of trouble stitching with a regular foot, so I put on my walking foot.

 

The next steps are for inserting the zipper.  If you need more detail go to this blog:

 Dog Under My Desk

 Place the zipper along the top edge of the bag, right sides together.

Make sure the tab end of the zipper hangs at least 2" off the end.

Stitch  with a 1/4" seam allowance.

 Trim about 1/8" from the seam allowance and fold the zipper to the inside.

Stitch a scant 1/4" from the edge on the right side.

 

 Sew the other half of the zipper to the other side of the bag, starting with right sides together.

Trim, flip and top stitch just as you did with the first half.

Turn wrong side out.  Make sure the zipper tab is located on the body side of the bag.

 

 Stitch up the sides.

Either zig-zag to finish the edges or serge them.

 

 To create the side gusset, fold the bottom edge to meet the side seam, at a 90 degree angle.

 Stitch across the triangle 3/4" from the point.

 

 Trim and zig-zag or serge to finish.

Turn it right sides out.

 I love the look of a gusset and it is so easy to do!

 The finished bag.  It is just adorable.

Attach it to your bike with the Velcro straps and wait for your fellow riders to say

"Hey, where did you get that cute bag?"  ;-D

 

 

 

 

Christine's Amazing Oatmeal

I just returned from a quilting getaway with The Quiltinis, my quilt group. 

 I would show you what I made, but I didn't finish anything!

 

But, I had a great time because I combined 2 of my loves.  I rode my bike each morning and then sewed the rest of the day.  Maryland is a great place to ride.  It is nice and flat.  Saturday morning, Christine took me on a ride to Betterton  Beach.  It is a small town located on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Sassafras River.  I love destination rides and anything with  a water view makes my heart swoon.  It was a nice easy paced ride and we chit chatted for the entire 24 miles.  We even stopped at a pottery showroom to check out some hand thrown ware.  Since it was such a beautiful ride, I did a repeat on Sunday (without the pottery and without Christine).

 

I usually have some type of instant oatmeal for breakfast.  The real instant one where you rip open a package and dump it into a bowl with some water and then cook it in the microwave. I have never made oatmeal from scratch, if you don't count oatmeal cookies.  When I returned from my Sunday ride, Christine offered me some of her high efficiency oatmeal that she makes.  I should really say creates, because Christine doesn't follow recipes. Now she is quite the energizer bunny.  She juggles a million things at a time and never, ever, stops to rest.  I am just overwhelmed  by her energy level.  I get exhausted when I hear about what she accomplishes in a day and in a week, Wow! 

 

The oatmeal was delish.  It was hearty and full bodied and healthy.  It really filled me up.  She made a big pot and told me that it would be instant oatmeal for the rest of the week. I even went home with some. (Thanks CK.)

 

She shared what went into that pot and I thought I would share it. I'm going to try and make it myself this week.  I'm calling it Christine's Amazing Oatmeal

 

Start with a pretty large pot

Into the pot, put:

 

8 Cups of water

1/2 C raw wheat berries

1/8 C Flax Seed that she ground a bit

1/8 C sesame seeds

1/2 C steel cut oatmeal

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

 

Bring to a boil and cook 1 hour

 

Then, add

1 C oatmeal, old fashioned (not quick)

1/2C quinoa flakes

Handful of raisins and cranberries

Chopped walnuts

 

Cook 5 more minutes

 

Add honey and brown sugar to taste

 

Christine cooks with what she has, so if you can't find one of the ingredients, add something else.  That's her style. 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

The Mosaic Bike Ride

There is a great place to ride your bike not far from my house. It is called the Schuylkill River Trail.  I love to ride it from Valley Forge to Manayunk.  It is a multi-use trail that is predominantly paved and there are NO CARS and you often have a view of the river.  We went out yesterday

(Bailey & me) and rode a little over 15 miles.  The view is fantastic.

 

It is a beautiful ride.

 

I rode a little further than I normally do and was so excited to see all of this community art. 

Most of it was mosaics. 

 Painting and mosaics

Mosaic close-up

Under the bridge is this work in progress

This mosaic wall was made by a school group

 There were lots of these.  I'm not exactly sure what they are. 

 They look like steps, but are just plopped in on the ground.

They are so well executed.

 

 

Discovery is so much fun.

 

We Love Pinterest

Many months ago, I received a text from my pregnant DIL.  She had seen something very cool on Pinterest - a book wall! She sent me the photo and wanted to know if the future grandfather, aka my DH, could make one for her.

 

It was installed this weekend.

It was perfect.

The whole room looks just adorable. 

And check out these Tom's baby shoes she received from one of her childhood friends.

 

A couple of hours after we left, I received this photo.

Full!

She received all those wonderful books from her Philly and CT baby showers.

She is looking forward to many hours of sharing all these books with her baby .