5 Things You Don't Know about this Quilter...

I'm thinking there are many things you could conclude from a diligent search of my posts, both here, and abroad on the wide wide wolrd of the internet, but today's request to post 5 "unknown" things abouto myself has prompted some soul searching. Here they are!:

1. Not totally hidden, but currently my day to day life work has been entirely taken up dealing with my Mom's care in a nursing home - she has Alzheimers, and is in "stage 5"... meaning, she sometimes knows me, and sometimes doesn't! She's mobile, but barely, and still is verbal... but her communication is often garbled. The challenge: enjoy her existence without judging, sadness, or fear... helping her to enjoy her own existence and feel as good as possible TODAY and in THIS MOMENT... She now lives in HER WORLD and the key is to try to enjoy that. Life continues.

2. Along with this, is helping my Dad to deal with this tragic circumstance, (he is five years older than Mom and NEVER expected this type of situation) and enjoy a newfound relationship with him.  I always felt closer to my Dad than my mom,we have a creative bent in common, and I hate to see him give up his life to try (in vain) to be a caregiver to her...

3. I have an exceptional addiction to speed, and a Red Miata which feeds my addiction. Up next:perhaps time to try my hand (foot?) at some amateur SCCA racing.... they PROMISED me a Jet Car... I wanted to learn to fly - but I'm stuck on the ground!

4. Today's visit to the "Common Threads" Quilt Shop in Waxahachie, Texas was one of the best "eye Candy" shopping experiences in many, many months... I HIGHLY recommend!

5. This really isn't so unknown, but, I can think of almost NO quilting projct that could possibly more rewarding than making a baby quilt for your local quilting charity... I try VERY hard to make a baby sized quilt EVERY month for the charity efforts of my home quilting guild: Austin Area Quilt Guild.Lately, I've been making "strip" quilts of my very vintage and NOT modern Kona colors!

6. (Who cares if I go one more it's MY BLOG!)... I really love the creative ethos of the "Modern Quilt Guild"... though I.  also really resist the urge to be cynical... after all, what could possibly be MORE modern than any quilt I made in 1969!?? Bring back Feminism I say.. and let's make it STICK this time. It's way past time for a Woman in the Oval Office!

7. I LOVE vintage sewing machines, and have been collecting, restoring, using and trading them for about 15+ years now. My favorite: the Model 15 Singers. Most often used: a pristing Singer Featherweight that is a joy to take to a workshop. And, my best find: my husband paid $5.00 for a Singer model 31-15, the "Tailors" machine - a professional 40 pound monster that eats through ANYTHING and is a joy to use for free motion work of any kind! It really needed a paint job, so now it is RED (of course) to match my car!

Learning a "New" Thing or Two: Cotton Theory and a Good Teacher

I had the great pleasure to attend Austin Area Quilt Guild's "Gift of Quilting" workshops on Friday evening. Unfortunately, I only was able to extricate myself from a single day's work to attend. This wonderful two day event is put on every other year - in between "Show" years. The idea is to provide member-taught workshops, as a reward to volunteers (and members) who work so hard to make the biennial Quilt Show happen.

The workshop I signed up for was a 3 hour reversible quilted Table Topper, made using the Cotton Theory technique. Offered by veteran sewing and quilting teacher Nancy Voegele, I was hoping to not only pick some new quilting skills, but also to see an expert in action.  I was not dissapointed.
Here's my finished piece:

Table Topper: Dinner "Side"

Table Topper: "Breakfast" Side

The project entailed creating a reversible table quilt, the completed size is 15" x 26.5" wide. The technique is very unusual. The individual patchwork pieces are layered, front to back with quilting in between, then quilted, and combined in a most unusual way. Entire quilts can be constructed in this way, with the quilting done in concert with the piecing - eliminating the need to layer and piece the entire quilt - a difficult prospect for many quilters.

So, if you are having difficulty quilting a large quilt, this may be a great way to complete a quilt with just any resonably good quality Sewing Machine.

Another fun aspect to the technique is that it allows you the fun of using those often ignored decorative stitches to provide further embellishment as part of the assembly technique. I used several of the mock "hand embroidery" stitches in the construction process. I also used some of my new found piping skills (from my workshop in March with Susan Cleveland ) to add a small corded piping edgeing to the binding, To further gild the rose, I embellished the binding with a varigated blanket stitch...

 I am VERY happy with the way "DD" performed in this somewhat tricky maneuver.  I used the "blind hem" foot - which rode smoothly over the uneven piped edge with ease. The piping foot handled that chore wonderfully too!  If you've always wondered what those special feet can do for you, this project provided me with pretty compelling proof that the foot makes the difference in stitch quality. Here's a close up of those embellishments:

Decorative Stitch and Quilting Detail

Piped edge and blanket stitched binding - how about those corners?!

I give a big thumbs up to teacher Nancy Voegele, who really kept the class moving along (inspite of one totally unprepared student!). She handled the situation with grace and actually had at least one finished, ready to bind quilt done by a student. I had to add the final two parts to mine - so felt like I really did well in class.  Nancy teaches at a number of locations around Austin, including that cool new hip sewing lounge, Stitch Lab.

I was REALLY happy to have a completed project today - I am so close on several projects, including one full size quilt - stay tuned for an update as they get finished!

- Keep on Quilting...
- Karen