Off and Running!

Well look at that. The irises are in full bloom. And we're not going to be here to enjoy them. sigh.
By noon today, we're off and running to Davis. We'll be gone through Sunday, which is four days. The yard will still be here, but we won't. Hopefully the neighbors will like it?

All this to say that I'm gone through April 14...but I'll be back....

How I Baste

Good morning!! Well, I've been busy, if I do say so myself. Yesterday was a day of basting. I do this quite often, so I take it for granted that everyone else does as well. But I know that is not true. Not everyone machine quilts, and not everyone pin-bastes. Those of you who do can skip this post. Those of you who are still interested are invited to see how I pin-baste.

The first thing I do rearrange the furniture and put up basting tables. I have three of these 8' tables, yesterday I only needed two of them. The leg extensions were cut from PVC pipe. Mine are 10" long, because I'm fairly tall.

Once the tables are up, I press the back and stretch it on the table. I use the term "stretch" loosely. It is not taut, but it is also not loose. I pull it so that there are no folds or puckers, but it is still so loose that the weave of the fabric is not distorted. You can see that I use both plastic clips and masking tape to secure the back to the table.

Once the back is smooth, I spread the batting. I prefer working with cotton, because it grabs to the backing and lies flat. Polyester has a mind of its own, and is more challenging to baste. (haha! Do you see our rabbit ears in the background? They really are hooked up to our new HDTV. We don't do cable! :)

If you have any overhang, you might want to check under the table for lurkers...

The top is then spread on the batting, and smoothed as squarely as possible. The rulers help assure that the edges are square. It's not often that I will "eyeball" a quilt, unless it is obvious that it is nowhere near square to begin with...


Finally, I pin in the areas that I will not be quilting. On this particular quilt, I will be stitching in the ditch before doing any free motion. Once the stabilizing quilting (in the ditch) is finished, I'll pull out the pins and then do the free-motion.


Here is the pin placement. More is better, when it comes to pin-basting. The last thing I want is to have the three layers shifting, so I am careful to be sure that all three layers are more than secure.

After this, I close the pins and trim the back/batting to within 1" of the top on all sides. And now, it's good to go.

Yesterday I basted three quilts, and they are all waiting for my attention. If I don't post in the next few days, you can theorize that I am quilting...either that, or playing in the garden... :)

Cross One Off

Ta Da!! Here's that Broken Dishes UFO that was lurking unfinished in the bottom of my shelving unit. I showed you the hand-pieced blocks and icky fabrics all waiting for attention. Well, they got my attention, and they are DONE.

Well, almost done. Now that I see the photo, I think that I should replace the corner squares with something darker/brighter, but other than that, it's actually not half bad. I picked up a quilt-for-hire today, so I'll be setting up basting tables in the near future. May as well baste this one and quilt it as well. You never know when it might come in handy... :)

And since I was outside, enjoying the Spring morning, I thought I'd show you what the irises are up to.

Aren't they lovely? The bed is raised about a foot, but they're big'uns, at least 3' tall or more. I LOVE it when they bloom. Are you sick of them? I hope not. They are a yearly source of inspiration and joy for me, and I want to share the love.

That's all for now.

Oh, except that we're off on a 3-day jaunt to So Cal, so new posts are unlikely between now and April 7...

Call it what you will...

...it's mine.

Some days it's a "studio," sometimes it's a "sewing room," today, it is simply a dump. The only thing I've done in it for the past week or so is to walk in and dump things. But today, being April Fool's Day, I'm going to play the fool and show you what it REALLY looks like.

The room is 11' x 11', and was Andrew's bedroom until he left for college in 2002. I moved my sewing machine into his room that fall, but I believe it was the summer of 2004 that I officially took over. He stayed in Santa Cruz, working, and I took that as an invitation to move his things out and my things in. I don't think there's much of Andrew left in the room at all, other than his scientific scribblings and codes and things behind my design wall. I haven't painted or erased the wall. Some day it will be an archaeological find. :)

When you walk in the door, you face the south wall, and this is what you see.

It is the infamous "design wall," currently functioning as a catch-all and not much more. The ironing board is piled high with things from the floor, as well as a quilt waiting to be quilted and a pile of batiks waiting to be pressed.

This is the south wall.

It is probably the most organized wall in the room, with the nice, neat stash there in the corner. The shelving unit next to it isn't quite big enough to hold much of anything, but it works for now. To the right of this photograph would be the open door, there's really nothing to see.

See? Just the ironing, also waiting for attention. Above the door is a triptych made by a friend of mine. I framed it in a shadow box. The chin-up bar on the door frame is an excellent lure for boys. They love to come back and literally hang around and talk. :) That's also the purpose of the director's chair. I try to keep it empty. It also calls to people (particularly my hubbie) and they'll come in and sit and visit while I'm working.

Here's the other half of that west wall. sigh. (See the director's chair in the left corner?) There's another one to the right of it, but that one tends to be a catchall for whatever is waiting to be worked on. Above the closet are some gold/porcelain Christmas plates from the same series my mom used to collect. Whenever I see them, I think of her...

Finally, here is where I sit.

Obviously the sewing table is also currently being used as a catchall. When I walked in to take this picture, I found a shirt on my chair. It appears to be missing a button. My guess is that a button will magically sew its way onto the shirt, and then the shirt will disappear again.

Then again, I could be wrong. :)

I should have taken a picture of the floor. There's about a 4' x 5' area with nothing on it, except sometimes a cat. And it's vacuumed. But you'll have to use your imagination. I'm not taking any more pictures today.

There you have it. Some say clutter is a sign of disorganization, others insist it's a sign of genius. You've seen my personal space, I'll let you decide. ;)

Welcome to April...

The Promise of Flowers

Spring is here! The flowers declare it to all with eyes to see. :)

I walk out my front door and am greeted by all of these bobbing iris buds, full of promise. I've put out snail bait, so I expect full blooms soon rather than snacked-on remnants this year. Can you see? In the background, by the left birch tree, there is a purple blur - one iris is already in full bloom.

In front of the iris bed, I spy the first rose. This is a beautiful miniature rosebush, that LOVES where it is planted. It does not realize it is a miniature. It wants to be BIG. Just look at all of these buds, reaching up to the sun. They are almost as tall as the iris, and the iris are on a raised bed!
As I look at this picture, I realize that once again the neighbor's house is featured prominently. It shows up in so many of my photos, people might begin to think we live in a similar place. :) Let me assure you, we don't. We may see Tara out our window, but this is what they see from theirs.
See the window between the lollipop trees? That's the window to my sewing room. My machine faces it, so that I can look out and see green and flowers and birds (these days it's crows) and whatever else happens to be out front. It is definitely inspirational.

So. Did I make those of you with snow a tad jealous? Don't worry, by June or July, we'll be roasting in more that 100 degree heat, so you will be able to laugh the longest. Spring usually lasts about 2 weeks in the Valley, so we have to enjoy it while we can. It won't be long before we see Isaiah 40:8 in action "The grass withers, the flower fades..." and then, I'm sure to be found working on my "Flower Fades" quilt in earnest...

Time Capsule - Broken Dishes

ohmygoodness.

I'm not sure what I was looking for, but this is what I found. It was in a small rubbermaid container, under a stack of containers, under some binders, not in my sewing room. I had completely forgotten about this project, which must have taken some willpower. It is so thoroughly hideous, it's hard to believe it's mine. Believe it. It's mine.


When I joined our local guild in the late 80's, one of the "fun" things we did was host a 5" square exchange. Each month we'd bring in a stack of squares and swap with other quilters for an equal number of their squares. The goal was for each of us to eventually have enough different fabrics for a charm quilt. Dare I say it? Most of the fabrics were anything but charming. According to my notes (on the lip paper) I was planning to make a twin-sized quilt out of these. ugh.

(I do think the above surfer block is pretty cute. Six of those fabrics were mine, I'd made clothing out of each piece in either the late 70's or early 80's.)

Apparently I started this "quilt" after I'd taken my first quilting class. In that class, we were told that true quilters did everything by hand, including piecing. Our teacher frowned upon those who were so low as to resort to machine piecing.

Since I wanted to be a GOOD quilter (I'd already been a bad self-taught quilter for 5 years), I soaked up everything taught by those more knowledgeable than I.

After 25 years, I can truly say that sometimes a gut instinct is better than a score of opinions passed along by others. Done correctly, machine piecing can be as much or MORE satisfying than doing it by hand.

Don't ask me why, but I had 20 minutes to kill this morning so I sewed together these already cut triangles, then squared the block with my ruler and rotary cutter.

I pulled out the rest of the "charming" fabrics from the box, and pressed them. The ones that melted (synthetic fibers - hiss!) and the ones that had stinky dye when hit with heat all went into the garbage.

There are enough left to assemble into a baby quilt for charity. But do it by hand? I think NOT!!! My machine is my bestest sewing buddy, and if it were not for machine-piecing, I'd have more than two of these hand-pieced nightmare projects in my UFO pile.

You caught that, huh? Yes, there is a second hand-pieced UFO in another box. But it's going to stay in that box for at least another day.

Today is the day to liberate this box. I need it for something else. :)

Happy quilting to you, and if you feel like using your machine? Forget the quilt snobs. JUST DO IT!!! :)

Sense of Style?

What?!!

That's what he asked, when I saw him preparing to leave yesterday. He started adding clothes, and I ran to get my camera. He wondered what was so special? I've got to say it is his truly unique sense of style. Is it a gift? An eye for the unusual? Or does he just pull from the top of the clean pile and put it on?

He wanted to be sure that you got the entire effect, so you don't want to miss the shoes. It doesn't show up too well in this picture, but one has a black sole and the other blue...

He definitely is colorful, you've got to give him that!!! :) xxoo Mom

Extraordinary Messmaking

grrrr.

That was my immediate reaction when I wandered out of my bedroom this morning. I didn't think, "How wonderful! The boys are home!" No, I thought, "How am I going to get this clean by Sunday?" There was no love in that initial reaction, just frustration.


I know they're not individually responsible. It's the cumulative result of their being together. Put three engineers under one roof, and you'll find a collection of "broken" items suddenly being dismantled and (eventually) reassembled into something that works.

I have to admit, they are industrious. Last night Andrew replaced the power source of the monitor that went bad last month, and now it works just fine.

But the messes!! Where do they get it from? Surely it must come from their father? yes? Maybe not.

This is a wee corner of my sewing area, just to the right of my machine. To me, it is totally organized, but to the average viewer? Probably not so organized. (Notice the embroidery machine to the right of the frame. This is why embroidering is an all-day event when I choose to do it. I have to unearth the machine beforehand, then bury it again when I am done.) ;)

And if it's time for true confessions, well, I confess. This is my desk.

I intentionally aimed the camera so that you could not see the open cabinet doors above. But I will tell you, almost ALL of my closets and cupboards (well, the sewing room is the exception), but almost ALL of them have been recently organized, and look better than what is out front for all to see.

So, I guess I can't blame the boys for making messes. It seems to be genetic, and I seem to be the carrier. sigh. Time to stop pointing fingers and go clean up!!

Every Quilter's Nightmare

There are some quilters, an entire army of them, who never prewash their fabrics. I will never, ever be able to understand how they can so blithely work with fabrics that just might betray them.

After too many bleeding incidents - 2 MAJOR ones in particular - I have been diligent to the point of obsession, when it comes to prewashing fabric. Fabric is not allowed out of its bag, until it has gone through the washer.

And it goes through the washer on warm, with at least 2 color-catcher sheets in attendance. If those little sheets catch any color, BACK into the wash it goes, this time with either Retayne or Synthrapol. I ALWAYS wash batiks with Synthrapol, and to date, it has always done me well.

And then there was yesterday.

I also wash my quilts when I finish them. It's another quirk of mine. But apparently I missed one? I was certain I'd washed Queen of the Garden, but apparently not. A friend at church wants to hang it in the sanctuary a week from Sunday, so I thought I'd block it a little, to make it look its best.

The quilt had other ideas.

spritz. spritz. spritz. I'd pinned the quilt to the board and was merrily spritzing my way around it. Suddenly the edge of the orange flower caught my eye. NO. I looked elsewhere.
That is most definitely migrating color, color that has NO BUSINESS in the pale blue of the sky. Sure enough, the entire interior edge of the quilt was changing color, as the water soaked into the fabric and the dye soaked out of the dark blue batik.

I did what any sane blogger would do. I grabbed the camera. Then I headed to the bathtub.
I started running the water, and realized I had a problem. I had a BIG problem. I added a generous amount of Oxyclean to the water, because in a lecture Sharon Schamber assured us that "Oxyclean kills excess dye."

This is the color of the water, on the first treatment. That looks like a TON of excess dye, and it doesn't look at all dead to me.

I emptied the tub, filled it again, and added a like amount of Oxyclean. This purple is paler, but it is still purple.
On the third go-round, I ran clear water, with no Oxyclean. There's still some excess color, but not as much.
And by the fifth or sixth rinse, it was clear enough to drink.


Did all of the wandering dye come out of the quilt?

I confess, I don't really want to look at it too closely. It is currently pinned on the blocking board, blocking and drying. Most of the migratory color came out of the sky fabrics, and most of it came out of the yellow flowers. But the orange flowers, that I showed you at the top of the post? They still have dye at their base.

And if this can happen to me, a religious pre-washer, I just can't begin to imagine what pain might be in store for those of you who shrug and say, "Well, mine won't bleed!" or "It's not that big a deal." For me? It's a VERY big deal. In fact it's an ORdeal. And I, for one, am glad this chapter is behind me!

Another River Quilt

I think this one is finished. It gave me a rough go around, in the square-this-quilt competition, but in the end, I think I won.

Rather than my usual, square, bind, block progression, this time I blocked first, then squared and bound it. This is what I ended up with.

To say that I was not happy is an understatement. Every edge woobled, particularly the left. I believe I may have had a bit of a hissy when I saw it hanging. A large groan immediately escaped my lips. I took the picture so I would have a before/after comparison, because there was no question about it, I was going to have to block the thing again.

"Sierra Snow Melt"
29" x 29"
Suzanne Kistler 2008

There! It's not perfect, but it is much, much better! I can live with this. Now all I have to do is label it and see if I can get it submitted before I miss the deadline.

Here is a close-up, if you'd like to see my water quilting. The trees are a print, I did not piece that forest, as one friend thought. Really, would ANYONE piece this, when there's a perfectly lovely fabric available? I think not.

I have to share with you my favorite comment about this quilt. I actually asked the woman to repeat herself, because I could not believe my ears. She said something like, "You've taken art quilting to a whole new level!" hahahahaha!!!! I never, ever, consider myself an "art quilter." But apparently she's tagged me as such, and I find that to be delightful. Will wonders never cease?!!!

P.S. And if Cynthia Corbin sees this post, she'll probably be thrilled. I got it, I finally got it!! THIS should have been my final project in her class, not the one I am STILL working on. It took 2 full years for her teaching to sink in, but there you go. Good things come to those who persevere!!

Easter Blessings!

For the most part, this has been a very unconventional Easter in our household. We don't have all of our children here today, and two of them arrived at 2am this morning. My hubby is sick, so I ventured out alone to Discipleship class and then was joined by the middle boy for church.

Like I said, not our typical Easter.

But some things stay the same, no matter how much they change. Witness the pre-egg hunt photo. Smile for the camera boys!! Okay, we have to take another one because someone was making faces! :)

Here's the after shot. I know, it looks like a lot of eggs, but when you have big boys, the competition gets fierce. :)

Adam was the first one to realize that some of the eggs had dinero in them. (The other boys suspected they were empty.) When Dad asked if all of the eggs had been found, they shrugged. But Adam picked up on it. As Dad walked through the yard spotting more eggs, Adam pounced on them.
He matched him step for step and watched which way his eyes focused.

So much for taking the challenge out of it. :) But that's okay. Making them take finals on the day/night before Easter (can you believe he had one from 6-8pm last night?!!) was enough of a challenge to last a weekend.

And now, they have their well-earned Spring break. Talk about blessings! All of the boys for a week? I love it!

Easter Flowers

sigh. Daylight Savings Time. What are we saving, really? I'm not saving time, I'm losing time. I sleep later than I would, if the time were what it used to be. If the sun's not up, then neither am I!

This is a most peculiar year. It doesn't feel like Spring, it doesn't feel like Easter. This morning I decided to take my camera into the yard with me, to see if I could find something to change this lack of feeling.

Well, here's something. I spy primroses.

I'm not sure where these came from, but there are yellow and pink primroses all through my "secret" garden. It's been years since I've planted primroses, and surely I didn't plant so many. If they are thriving, winter must be just a memory for them. They look so happy! (Except where the snails have been snacking.)

The next display I see are dianthus. In my mind, dianthus are definitely summer flowers. But they are blooming pretty vigorously right now. Maybe no one told them it is March? I'm not complaining. I LOVE the color, they cheer me right up! :)

And on the backside of the same plot, here come the Johnny Jump-ups. They don't want as much sun as the dianthus, yet they look just as happy. I'm glad that they popped up before Pete spread the stuff that keeps seeds from germinating. Germinate away, little poppets!


Now these are totally unexpected. I usually don't see Dutch iris until the end of the Spring blooming cycle. These came out of nowhere. I'm not complaining, I'm surprised. Another happy reminder that perhaps it IS spring. All of the flowers seem to know it.

And finally, many of the geraniums are blooming. I think of them as summer bloomers as well. Does this mean we're going to have a long summer? Or are they celebrating all of the extra rain they got this year? Or do they know it's Easter, so they've dressed in their finest to celebrate? Whatever the reason, I am thankful for flowers. They add beauty to my world when I least expect it.