action kivu 3!
August 19, 2012 at 12:00 am | Posted in book events, book news, craftivism, log cabin quilting, portland modern quilt guild | Leave a commentI’m so honored to be part of the third annual Action Kivu fundraiser, which helps women and girls in the Congo through education and sewing! Alissa has been a tireless and wonderful advocate for this amazing nonprofit, and has rounded up a fantastic mix of modern quilting prizes for donors. You must see her post to believe all the cool fabric, books, patterns, and even quilts that people who contribute will win!
If you contribute $10 to the cause, you are automatically entered to win this package of prizes. I’m so thankful to Stitch and Pendleton Woolen Mills for generously adding their contributions to make it really special!
One donor will win:
• a signed copy of Modern Log Cabin Quilting
• the new Winter issue of Stitch, with a nice feature on wool sewing, donated by Stitch, and
• a brand-new set of 8 wool fat quarters, and a baby quilt kit (which includes 2 FQs and 1 full yard of wool), donated by Pendleton Woolen Mills.
If a friend or a blog reader wins I’ll add an extra prize, too!
This blog entry from Pendleton shares more about what makes this winter issue of Stitch so special – I’m so proud to have my feature article on the history of wool in America included alongside some amazing sewing projects, including Michelle‘s midcentury-inspired quilt and Daniela‘s Northwest Modern laptop case!
You can find out much more about Action Kivu and donate here.
Seattle event postponed – trunk show next spring
October 21, 2011 at 10:40 pm | Posted in book events | Leave a commentI’m so sorry to announce that I’ve had to cancel my MLCQ event at the Quilting Loft tomorrow due to some sudden family stuff coming up. I was really excited about it and I apologize for the last-minute cancellation.
I will mail a box of my log cabin quilt kits to the shop on Monday to give away to any customers who wanted to come to the event, or pick up a copy of the book over the next few weeks. I’m also so happy to report that Angie has kindly offered to host a trunk show with lots of the book projects next spring, once The Quilting Loft moves to their lovely new location. So we’ll plan a make-up party for a few months out!
Again I’m so sorry to cancel at the last minute, but I’m really looking forward to the spring party – huge thank-you to Angie and the Quilting Loft for being so understanding. Happy weekend everyone!
MLCQ event at The Quilting Loft in Seattle!
October 7, 2011 at 4:06 pm | Posted in book events, log cabin quilting, shops | Leave a commentI’m super excited to come to Seattle in two weeks for a Modern Log Cabin Quilting book signing and party at the lovely Quilting Loft in Ballard! It’s on Saturday, October 22 from 1-3 pm. I’ll bring book projects to show, along with free log cabin quilt block kits for everyone to sew.
Please stop by if you’re free! I would love to say hello and talk quilting with you, and I will definitely do some fabric shopping while I’m there…
Huge thank-you to Angie at the Quilting Loft, Katie of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild, Megan, Kristen, and Blair for helping me set up something fun in Seattle. We are making a weekend mini-vacation of it and I can’t wait!
If you go:
MLCQ book party
The Quilting Loft
2601 NW Market St. Seattle, WA 98107
Saturday, 10/22 from 1-3pm
Free!
NW Quilting Expo + my wool baby quilt class
September 23, 2011 at 5:14 am | Posted in book events, book news, chatty, fabric, log cabin quilting, not just log cabin | Leave a commentMichelle and I got to check out the NW Quilting Expo today, which was cool! I had never been there before and it was great to get to see all the vendors’ booths and prize-winning quilts on display. I’m teaching a wool baby quilt class for Pendleton there bright and early (8:30 am! lots of coffee for sure!) on Saturday so I was happy to get a chance to visit for fun, too.
By the way – my class (#S300 in the booklet) still has 3 spots open out of 20, so if you happen to be interested you can register at the front desk there. This is the project (above), a very simple elongated coin quilt made from three Pendleton wools, and the class fees include a kit with all the fabrics in either pink or blue color families. I can’t believe I’ll be teaching 17 (possibly more!) students on Saturday and I am super looking forward to it.
Back to the Expo… Michelle and I saw this amazing quilt and both stopped in our tracks to love and admire it. I adored the kids’ book The Hundred Dresses and these beautiful rows of vintage-fabric-pieced dress blocks, each with tiny hand-stitched coat hangers, amazed me. Renee Newstrum (who I would love to meet!) designed, pieced and quilted it:
Oh, the little dresses!!!
We also stopped by the Pendleton booth and among many awesome things, they had a nice display of my books and my Winter Woolens Quilt (made with their wool, I bought everything for it at the Woolen Mill Store). So cool.
And the tempting pick-any-8 wool FQ sets were going fast.
I also saw Diane‘s marvelous book with the Clover Kanzashi kits at the Fabric Depot booth. (She’ll be there Friday from 11-2 demoing the Kanzashi makers!)
Speaking of books, I was happy to see all three of Terri Thayer‘s quilting mysteries at the Expo! She came to my event at the Bobbin’s Nest in May and brought me a signed copy of her first one in the series, Wild Goose Chase.
I’ve bought the other two at Murder By The Book, my favorite mystery bookstore (right in my neighborhood here in SE Portland). By the way, if you are interested, they have a new Crafty Crimes section with all the knitting, sewing, needlework, and scrapbooking mysteries in one place, which I personally love. I’m going to bring some vintage craft supplies by so they can decorate the shelf, actually!
Anyway, Jean at MBTB recommended a mystery called Quilt as Desired, which is at the top of my stack of books to read next, and I met the author, Arlene Sachitano at Expo this morning! So I bought the second one in the series, Quilter’s Knot, and she signed it to me.
Ok, see you super-early Saturday morning if you’d like to make a wool baby quilt, and if you’re in Seattle please save the date for Saturday, October 22 from 1-3 pm – I’m so happy that we’ve just set up a MLCQ book event at The Quilting Loft in Ballard! More details soon…
MLCQ visits KCMQG!
September 15, 2011 at 5:54 pm | Posted in book events, book news, chatty, fabric, log cabin quilting, quilt history | Leave a commentWell, I absolutely loved visiting Kansas City – thank you SO much to everyone who was so cool and welcoming! Everett and I had the most awesome time running around with Jaime, Jenny, and the other KCMQG folks, and I wanted to share some photos of my favorite things we did there, from start to finish.
Jaime picked me up from the airport and we started off with a trip to Urban Arts + Crafts as the first stop on my own personal Holiday Shop Hop (two months early in my case – but if you are anywhere near there, mark your calendars for November 5 and 6!).
Urban Arts + Crafts is a super cute and colorful store with beads, yarn, fabric and many other craft treasures (plus lots of books). I love shops like this, since I like to do so many different things myself… but my heart belonged to fabric on this trip.
I ended up with this nice zig-zag print and some Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope and County Fair! Loved seeing these again and getting a second chance to buy some.
Then Jaime took us to lunch at the Bluebird which was lovely, and downtown to visit Hammer Press (no photos of my finds, since there is a secret Father’s Day gift for Andrew in there that has to stay hidden til next June… but I did find this for a certain 3-year-old I know). Loved seeing the TWA building – so beautiful!
She showed us some other beautiful neighborhoods and we crossed from Missouri into Kansas for the first of many times. I hadn’t realized, with my total ignorance of KC geography, that we’d get to hang out on both sides of the state line, a bunch of times even! Very cool and now Everett has been to five states total. After some time to chill at Jaime’s gorgeous 1950 house (same year as mine!), we headed over to Eden’s Alley for dinner with Jacquie and Jenny. It was so great to get to hang out and chat, and Jacquie and I even found out we are both UNC grads (plus, she and my dad went to the same high school – !). Then it was time to head over to the KCMQG meeting…
I was so excited to see my dear friend Rhonda, who came from Lawrence to see me!! We’ve known each other for ten or eleven years through crafty things online and it was awesome to get to give her a hug in person. The meeting was amazing – KCMQG got their 100th and 101st paid members (!!), and the show and tell ended with a teary surprise – Shea organized a beautiful collective gift for beloved outgoing president Jacquie, a quilt called Windy City.
photo by KCMQG
Then I gave my log cabin quilting presentation and showed book projects, and people were really wonderful about it – I got a lot of great compliments, and signed some books, thanks to Elaine from Harper’s, who sponsored the meeting with a fantastic mini-shop in the back! What a great evening.
After a lovely end of the night back at Jaime’s, she took me over to the KC Bernina store in the morning and we had to say goodbye. I snapped up this Betz White hat pattern and some handy pre-wound bobbins,
and got to admire their beautiful collection of vintage and antique Bernina sewing machines.
Jenny picked me up (with her adorable 7-week-old son, Carter, who Everett was fascinated with!) and we headed over to Harper’s. I loved seeing the Kaffe Fassett shot cottons in person, and how cute is this orange sewing machine?!
I picked out two of the shot cottons, plus this cute deer print and a tiny rotary cutter I’ve been wanting forever. (The quilting ruler was a gift from Elaine!)
Then we headed to the Nelson-Atkins art museum to meet Kim. I absolutely loved the museum and I wish I could have spent a whole day there (next time for sure). Everett let me see most of a photography exhibit before his baby-timer went off, and then we went outside for a more mellow visit to the completely amazing sculpture garden.
We dodged a hailstorm nicely and went back downtown for lunch with Kim, where I got to set foot on the other end of the Oregon Trail,
and then our last stop was Bon Bon. I was so excited to look through these tempting bins full of rolls of vintage and new fabrics! I picked out a nice selection, including this blue and brown colorway of my favorite vintage sheet pattern (!!!!),
and I got some half-yard cuts of two Cloud 9 fabrics I’ve been wanting.
Here we are at Bon Bon with Jenny and a sleepy little Carter. Jaime and Jenny were the sweetest tour guides ever.
Then we had to head out to the airport again and say goodbye to Missouri (and Kansas)…
and Everett and I were on the way home with a suitcase full of awesome souvenirs! Here is everything I found on my mini-shop hop. Love it all.
Along with everything I bought, Jaime gave me one of Shea‘s quilt patterns (can’t wait to try it!) and Lauren gave me this beautiful stack of vintage fabrics. Thank you so much, ladies.
I just want to thank everyone in KCMQG for welcoming me so warmly and to Jenny and Jaime for showing me your beautiful city. It was a wonderful couple days and I loved it all! I was sad to leave, but I’m excited that we’re doing a log cabin potholder swap with the KC guild – I can’t wait to see what my partner has in store for me… photos of the whole swap coming in November. And if you’re here in Portland, hope to see you tomorrow night at our PMQG meeting, too.
Speaking of, I’ll see you tomorrow for my Sewing For Boys review and giveaway – I had a lot of fun with this one and will be sharing my project then!
Kansas City bound!
September 8, 2011 at 5:51 am | Posted in book events, chatty, fabric, log cabin quilting | 1 CommentSo, today I needed to rehearse my log cabin quilting presentation, call a cab to the airport for dark-thirty tomorrow morning, pack, and track down Everett’s birth certificate… what better time to sew a new dress??
This was my recent score at JoAnn – 3 yards of my favorite print from Denyse Schmidt‘s Picnic line earlier this summer. I pre-washed yesterday and then started cutting around noon. I’ll post more about the Continental pattern if anyone’s interested, but it felt like it ran very big on me in my measurement size (18) and I ended up doing various pleats and tucks at the armholes and neckline (front and back), and bringing the sides in substantially. The length was perfect as-is, though.
My favorite change was skipping the tie belt (which is very cute in the pattern envelope photo) and making an improvised 4.5″ wide reversible obi sash instead. I really needed the definition and the wide, graphic sash turned it from billowy and indistinct on me, even after all the streamlining, to a more tailored waist and party-dress silhouette. LOVE the fabric – just love it. I did the sash in half Picnic, half County Fair (her 2007 home dec collection). I really love the contrast side out, and then the matching side is more subtle but also pretty.
Here’s what they look like together closer up… I’m calling the dress Picnic at the County Fair. By the way, I hadn’t had a chance to press it or even trim threads before I started losing the light, so forgive my super quick photos. Today flew past me!
My goal was to finish the dress before it got super gray and fall descended and it was time for jeans every day. Well, it was 95 degrees here today and summer is sticking around for now, so I’m hoping for several outings in my new dress! And the first one will be at the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild meeting tomorrow night… huge thank-you to everyone there for inviting me to come visit and speak. I am so excited, and I’m bringing a big stack of PMQG members’ cards for our log cabin potholder swap!
See you next week! Or if you’re in Kansas, tomorrow!
saturday afternoon party!
August 18, 2011 at 11:17 pm | Posted in book events, chatty, craftivism, fabric, log cabin quilting, quilts for quake survivors, shops | Leave a commentI mentioned the book party last week, but wanted to share some new peeks at the cool things we’re planning for the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store this Saturday afternoon – I would love to see you over there! The reception is for both Modern Log Cabin Quilting and World of Geekcraft, which I’m really excited about. It’s been fun making up some special craft kits for both books! I’m teaching a new Woolen Cross Pillow class from 12-2 ($45), and then from 2-4 you can stop the (free!) party to sew MLCQ-style quilt blocks in their gorgeous wool fabrics
that look like this,
make comics magnets from WOGC,
and have snacks and lemonade. I was planning to make cupcakes (my favorite book party treat) but changed my mind – now it will be cheesecake brownies, which seem a little more summery! I love those too.
(so picture brownies here instead…)
You can also work on your own crafts, check out lots of projects from both books, and find all kinds of good treasures in the by-the-pound bins and on the tables there. I snapped up all the wool squares to make this patchwork throw from one of those bins, and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever made.
Pendleton has also graciously put together a tote bag of prizes for someone at the party to win! My MLCQ publisher, Potter Craft, sent me this handy canvas satchel for the gift bag. I put copies of both my books and both of the craft kits into it, and handed it over to Pendleton to see what they might want to contribute. So far they’ve added a bunch of colorful carded wool, a spindle, fat quarters of lots of different plaid wool fabrics, buttons and zippers, and it sounds like there’s more on the way!
Also – Aimee of the Woolen Mill Store was nice enough to do a little interview with me about my new craft room, my favorite designers and artists, and how NOT to baste a quilt. Thank you, Aimee!
Book Party!
Saturday, August 20 from 2-4 pm
Pendleton Woolen Mill Store, 8500 SE McLoughlin Blvd, Portland
(free!)
A few other quilting things…
-I’m working on a post for Quilts for Quake Survivors on our lovely party last weekend (HUGE thank-you to everyone who came to sew with us) and our next steps and final donations. I’ll post a link here when that’s up (we’ll see how long Everett naps) but here’s just one photo for now… Teresa‘s amazing 1954 Pfaff!
-And see you at the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting tonight?? They’re also hosting a fabulous all-day sew at Fabric Depot on Saturday. I highly recommend sewing over there, zipping over to the book party mid-afternoon for a quick wool-quilt-block and treat break, and heading back to sew some more. Sounds like the perfect day to me!
prizes and parties
August 12, 2011 at 8:18 pm | Posted in book events, book news, chatty, craftivism, fabric, quilt books, quilts for quake survivors, shops | Leave a commentPrizes and parties (and quilting) = three things I’m super excited about, coming right up.
First, Alissa’s amazing fabric fundraiser for Action Kivu has just a couple days left to go (it closes Sunday the 14th). They are hoping to raise $15,000 and are at the halfway point now. Awesome!
Action Kivu is a nonprofit that helps women who are victims of the conflict in Eastern Congo by teaching them to sew. The conflict in Congo has taken the lives of over 5.4 million people since 1998. Rape is used as a weapon of war, with estimates putting the number of rapes in the hundreds of thousands. This is truly difficult stuff to think about but together we can really make a difference for some specific women who need our help.
By donating specific amounts, from $10-100, you automatically enter to win some amazing prizes at each level, like a set of 43 fat eighths of Flea Market Fancy, donated by Jacquie and Ashley ($75), and a set of Sugar Creek fabrics (not even in stores yet!) from Denyse Schmidt Quilts ($40).
As of this morning I am so happy to announce that if you donate $20, you can win a set of books – a signed copy of Modern Log Cabin Quilting paired with Alissa’s Block Party!! The fundraiser ends Sunday (8/14) so please jump in when you can. This is such an important cause and I am thankful to be supporting it (I have my fingers crossed for the Flea Market Fancy category). Lots more info on Action Kivu here, and Alissa’s post and prize descriptions here.
Speaking of good causes, Daniela and I are winding down the Quilts for Quake Survivors project for Mercy Corps’ work in Japan with our party on Sunday! We’d love to see past and present supporters (you are so welcome to come sew with us for a bit from 4-6, then hang out and have food, drinks and music from 6-8). Thank you to everyone who has been part of this project.
I’ll be grocery shopping with Alexandra this afternoon – she has generously offered to make some lovely food especially for the QfQ party, so we’re picking out some good things. I can’t wait!
Last, there’s another crafty party next weekend! I’m teaching my Woolen Cross Pillow class at the Woolen Mill Store on Saturday, August 20, from 12-2. It’s $45 and you get all the materials to make one of these cross pillows, plus lots of extra wool to bring home for your second one!
After the class, the Woolen Mill Store is hosting a Modern Log Cabin Quilting reception and book signing from 2-4 (free!). Each person will get a special Pendleton wool kit to make a log cabin block, and there will be refreshments and other surprises (like felt comics magnets kits!) for crafters too. I’ll have all the projects I’ve made with Pendleton wool there (including the Winter Woolens Quilt from MLCQ) to show, and some of my favorite book projects, too. I would love to see you there.
Woolen Cross Pillow class, 12-2
MLCQ reception, 2-4
The Woolen Mill Store, 8500 SE McLoughlin Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97222
So, prizes, parties and quilting… I hope one of these strikes your fancy too, and that I’ll see you at the parties!
Sisters and apron-along-ing
July 27, 2011 at 9:05 pm | Posted in book events, book news, chatty, log cabin quilting | 2 CommentsAs usual it seems, it’s been a busy few weeks so here’s a catch-up/round-up kind of post… lots of things going on these days and I rarely get a quiet hour in front of the computer now that my eight-month-old, Everett, is really on the move!
Sisters was awesome, a bit of a whirlwind but fantastic. I LOVED the Portland Modern Quilt Guild special exhibit, our area was beautiful – a calm, breezy walkway with 18 guild members’ quilts hanging on both sides. This post has some lovely photos from Michelle, too.
I had my 20-pound baby in the Beco carrier pretty much the whole time I wasn’t at my book signing, so I didn’t get any great pictures myself, but luckily lots of folks in the guild were out in full force and the group flickr pool has a lot of amazing ones! Thanks to Heather for snapping these three photos – here’s my quilt in the mix, Modern Crosses.
I met Valori Wells, Jean Wells, and Kathy Doughty when I headed over for my signing and managed to (hopefully) not be too inarticulate and star-struck. The Quilters of Gee’s Bend were there too – my second overlap with them, after my trip in 2009 (here are four of their gorgeous quilts in front of the shop – how much do I love the second one?!). It was pretty awesome.
Thank you so much to everyone who came to my event at the Stitchin Post! I met so many nice quilters and it was really lovely. I have to admit that it was a challenge co-wrangling a lively three-year-old and a laid-back baby all afternoon in a beautiful, crowded, hot place, but it was a great day.
Meanwhile, Fat Quarterly has posted the second and third installment of the Apron-a-long – the free Block Pocket Apron pattern and tutorial. Week 1 (choosing materials and tips on the pattern) is right here,
Week 2 (all the cutting and piecing the block) is here,
and Week 3 (making the pocket and apron body) went up today, right here.
There’s a giveaway this week – since so many people have mentioned that they love the patchwork pillowcase I used for my apron-along, I’m offering up the second one in the set! Just leave a comment on the FQ post this week to enter once, or add a photo of your apron in progress or finished) to the FQ flickr pool and the MLCQ flickr pool for a bonus 10 entries.
Next Wednesday is Week 4 – finishing the apron, the giveaway winner, and a new MLCQ announcement… so please stay tuned over there.
I was going to try to write every single July thing up at once, but after this much HTML-ing I’d rather save a few last things for their own special post. So next week I’ll write up the Log Cabin Quilting class I taught at PNCA this month, which was amazing. I was so inspired by my six lovely students. And then this weekend I get to take Denyse Schmidt’s Walking The Line: Working with Improvisation and Structure in Patchwork workshop. I’ve been looking forward to this one for so long.
Here are my current solid fabrics – the five on top are from Cool Cottons, the ones underneath are from my stash. I am excited to do some trading with Rachel, Michelle, Robin, and Jaime at class! I’m bringing the same red scissors as a print option, which I pieced into several of the blocks I made in the 2009 Denyse Schmidt class.
I’m hoping to find some interesting new directions for improvisation and design, but I do like the idea of “cousin” blocks that have a common fabric, a couple years apart… and well, I just love those scissors.
See you on the other side!
PS: If anyone is interested in shorter and more frequent crafty updates, I’m posting more at my FB page + I just finally (finally!) joined Twitter this week. I’m only finding time for longer blog posts here, at my main West Coast Crafty blog, or for World of Geekcraft every few weeks or so, so it’s been nice to write tiny things instantly, too.
Sisters, aprons, a book signing, and a class!
July 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm | Posted in book events, book news, log cabin quilting, project extras | Leave a commentWow, July is shaping up to be a whirlwind month already – I wanted to pass on some quick updates on the book and some other quilting excitement coming up! I have some photo round-up + bonus project posts planned for the next few weeks, so look for those soon – a special thank-you to everyone who has posted pictures of your projects in the Modern Log Cabin Quilting flickr pool. I LOVE them and it’s been such a joy to see what people have made from the book. Jen‘s orange-and-linen Modern Crosses is a huge favorite of mine…
First, I’m so thrilled that Fat Quarterly’s Block Pocket Apron-a-long kicked off today!
You can download the free updated pattern + instructions over there and get lots of ideas on choosing your materials, from a vintage or new pillowcase to a couple of favorite fabrics to pair for the block pocket. There’s lots more over in the post, and each week in July we’ll share more tips and fun details on making and customizing your apron, step by step. Thank you SO much to John and everyone at FQ for hosting our crafty party! I can’t wait to see everyone’s aprons – here’s everything I picked out for my new one… now I’m just wondering if I should make a Modern or Vintage version??
One important note: there were two typos in this project in the first edition of the book, which are now corrected in this downloadable version of the pattern! You’ll use a 3.5” x 4.5” (not 3” x 4” as it’s mentioned once) piece of pattern paper for spotlighting centers, and for the first tier of logs (fabric B) you’ll cut a 1.5” x 21” (not 1.5” x 18” as it’s mentioned in the Cutting Key) strip of Fabric B. I apologize for the confusion, and I’m so glad to have the chance to share the updates here, in the pattern, and on my corrections page.
Last, if you’re in Oregon, or nearby, I would love to see you at one of these quilt events this coming month.
On Saturday, July 9, my Modern Crosses quilt will be part of a special Portland Modern Quilt Guild exhibit at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, Oregon. We’ll be in the courtyard between Paulina Springs Books and Jennifer Lake Gallery. If you’ll be there, please come by our group show and say hi, a dozen of us from the guild are going!
Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, 2009
I also just set up a Modern Log Cabin Quilting book signing at The Stitchin’ Post from 1-3 on Saturday (huge thank-you to Jean, Valori and Sally for having me) and will have some of the book projects and my sketchbook there, along with free log cabin block kits. Yay! I’d love to meet up if you’re at the festival too!
The Quilters of Gee’s Bend at The Stitchin’ Post, 2009
Then the next weekend, July 16 and 17, I’m teaching log cabin quilting at Pacific Northwest College of Art as part of the Summer of Making program. The workshop is 10-4 both days and we’ll have lots of time to design, piece, and work on projects big and small.
All the information is here (including a class syllabus) and don’t forget, if you’re a PMQG member you get a 10% discount on a PNCA class, which is so cool. If you’re interested, please let me know if you have any questions, or what you’re most excited to work on – this class will be very collaborative and very personalized, and you’ll have lots of blocks (or even some finished projects) by Sunday afternoon.
Hope you are having a wonderful summer, with plenty of time to sew!
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