Super Bowl Sewing Sunday

I wonder how many of you out there are snowed in, and are happily sewing today. You might be watching the Super Bowl or not. I will be doing hand sewing while watching the game at my oldest son’s home. I’m not really cheering for anyone, but it is a way to be out and about with other people. And, I baked which Tom appreciates. It’s just frosty and foggy here which is good compared to having piles of snow.  Elizabeth Anne, is my latest quilt in the March issue of The Quilter, and is available on my site. It is definitely a breath of spring with the purple, teal, blue and lavender.

I’ve been working away designing kits that we’ll post on the site soon. I have a new piecer named Pat who is piecing a new quilt, and redoing 2 of my quilt patterns with new fabrics.  It was really nice to be actually sewing yesterday instead of working on the computer. I will be embroidering a Halloween table runner today. It “seams” a little odd to some people to be working on Halloween when the next holiday is Valentine’s Day.

Michele’s Sewing Tip: When you are rotary cutting your fabric, “square up the fabric” first before you cut your strips. And, the old adage of “Measure twice and cut once” is not only true for carpenters but also quilters. Also, change your rotary blade often. When you cannot make a clean cut, and the blade gets “caught” in the fabric, you know you  need a new blade! Accurate cutting is the first step towards accurate piecing.  

Have a pieceful day!
Michele

Beth Ferrier came to our quilt guild

Yesterday the 600+ members of the Washington State Quilters Guild here in Spokane were fortunate to hear  my friend, Beth Ferrier of Applewood Farm Publications, Inc., speak at our guild meeting. She is a wonderfully knowledgeable  and humorous speaker with great stories to tell about herself and her fabulous quilts. The quilt on the left is from her Moondance book.  She is teaching two classes while she is here  in Spokane, and her lucky students are learning her machine applique and quilting secrets! The photos below are ones I took of her when we went to dinner at The Rusty Moose between the afternoon and evening meetings yesterday.

Above is Beth with “Larry the Lumberjack” outside the restaurant.  What will her husband, Kent, think? Below is Beth sitting in the carved bear chair. As you can imagine, this restaurant has a very Northwestern lodge look to it. Great food!

New Fabric Collection! This is called “Happy Haunters” by Red Rooster. I like these particular ones from the collection because it’s not overly “Halloween-y”.  Fall colors, but I LOVE the purple with the other colors! I will be offering two different kits with this collection including  redoing my “Smilin’ Jack” and the “Autumn Interlude” patterns. I’ll let you know when these kits will be available later in the spring.

Michele’s Sewing Tip: Strive for as accurate a 1/4″ seam allowance as possible when piecing! Having an accurate seam allowance does make a difference in how the pieces in your blocks, and the blocks themselves butt together with a quilt. Measure your seam allowance to see if yours is an exact or a scant 1/4″ (or not at all – yikes!). There are different sewing machine feet and products that will help you achieve a 1/4″ seam. You can also use a ruler to measure a 1/4″ from where the needle goes in the fabric, and then place a masking tape guideline at this point. If you are a beginning quilter, practice sewing 1/4″ seams on scrap fabric first.  

Piece,
Michele

New fabric and sewing tip!

                                                                                                                                                
Oh, the silly photos we take on vacation! Tom wouldn’t let me take his photo like this so I’ll just embarass myself. It’s the last week of January, and it doesn’t feel like winter here in Spokane. We’ve had very little snow so I’m posting this photo of me in Florida last month. I’ve been working frantically on designing new quilts with digital images of new fabric collections so I can write the directions, determine the bolts we need, and then order the fabric waaaaaay ahead of time.  In 20 1/2 years as a quilt designer, I have never worked on fall or Christmas projects this early in the year.
This is called “Sweet Liberty” by Pat Sloan for P&B Textiles. This company does print fabric ahead of time and sends out fat quarters to design with which is great!  LOVE this patriotic yet Americana collection! I will be creating a pieced and appliqued banner for the July issue of The Quilter; and also a lap quilt exclusive to my web site with the great new collection. I’m a sucker for collections like this with lots of variety to choose from, and with great contrast, too. I’ll keep you posted on what I’m doing it with this later in the spring. Hurrah for the red, white, and blue!
New Collection:

Michele’s Sewing Tip:
I am a quilter that cuts the pieces for blocks and borders as I go through each step instead of cutting everything out all at once. I base my border strips on what they should be mathematically, but your quilt may not come out exactly like the size of the sample (for various reasons). This is why I recommend that once your quilt center is done and you are ready to cut the borders,  measure your quilt to determine what size your quilt center is for the borders. Measure at three different points horizontally on the quilt top. Take the average of these numbers as the width of the quilt. Measure at three different points vertically on the quilt top. Take the average of these numbers as the length of the quilt. All the borders and binding for your quilt will be determined from your measurements from this point. The amount of fabric strips noted in my directions will be more than enough for these borders. Measure twice, cut once!

Have a pieceful day!
Michele

 

Keeping my Resolution

Yea for me! I’m posting again for 2010!  I love to collect houses of all sizes, and this one on the right is my newest! It is hand carved, and the quilt is hand painted on canvas. It lights up, and looks great above my kitchen cupboard. I have lots of the Cat’s Meow small flat houses (if you collect those)!

Here is part of a new
fabric collection called “A Stitch in Time” by Red Rooster. There is a red tonal that goes with this collection also. I designed a 44″ square quilt called “Star Power” that features these fabrics in 4 different quilt blocks. This is a patriotic table topper or wallhanging that can be used all summer. You can view the quilt that will be in an ad in the May 2010 issue of The Quilter.  A pattern and kit for this project will be available on my site at the beginning of March. There are other pieces to this new collection but most are already sold out.  The rule of thumb these days: “If you see fabric that you like, buy it when you see it” (as it probably won’t be around the next time you go to look for it).

Sewing Tip: Always start a new sewing project with a new sewing machine needle (in the correct size of course).

” Crescent Caramel Swirl” – a Crawford family favorite!

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
3 cans (sometimes called “tubes”) of Crescent Rolls in the dairy case

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter (cut from the stick); and grease the interior of a Bundt pan with the butter. Sprinkle the interior of the pan with three tablespoons of nuts (from the 1/2 cup).
2. Remove the rolls from the cans (do not unroll). Cut each section into four slices. Arrange 8 slices in the bottom of the Bundt pan. Set the other slices aside for now.
3. Add the remaining butter, nuts, brown sugar and water in a small pan. Stir; heat to boiling. Remove from the heat.
4. Spoon half of the sauce over the slices in the pan. Arrange  the rest of the slices in the pan; pour the rest of the sauce over these slices.
5. Bake for 25 – 35 minutes until the crust is a deep golden brown. Cool the pan on a cooling rack for 3 minutes. Invert the pan on a serving tray to remove. Let cool. Enjoy!

Time for dinner. Tom’s making a pork roast tonight! Then back to work. Sew  many blessings, and sew much to do!

Piece,
Michele

Oh, my, it’s been a long time since I posted.
Ok, it’s my New Year’s resolution (even on Jan. 21) to make sure I post several times a week starting now.  Our kids were home for Thanksgiving but they were with their other families for Christmas so Tom and I went to Florida to spend the holidays with his parents. An entirely different Christmas for us to not be at home, not to decorate, and to be in FL! His parents live in a wonderful golf cart community called The Villages which is about 1 1/2 hours north of Orlando. We spent 3 days at Disney World which is kind of a “strange” place to be if you don’t have kids. It was in the 60’s which was fine for us being from WA, but not so much for others. On one side there were people in shorts, short sleeves and sandals, and on the other side were people in boots, hats, gloves, scarves and winter coats!  We went to their Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. We watched a program on HGTV on how Disney plans for and decorates for Christmas. Disney works on Christmas for an entire year! Ever seen
poinsettia trees?
We were at a part of the Hollywood Studios where it looks like a city for a movie set, and the buildings were covered in 5 million lights! The lights were timed to wonderful Christmas music, and fake snow was being blasted from the top of the buildings.
Cinderella’s Castle at the Magic Kingdom was certainly amazing with a web of lights over the entire castle which could be changed into a variety of colors timed with music and fireworks (which were the best we’ve ever seen)! The  parade that night was a fabulous array of floats with all the Disney characters of course, but lights, lights and more lights! Worth the price of admission for sure!

The third day we were there we spent time riding the boats all over the lake and checking out the other Disney resorts including the fabulous Grand Floridian resort. This gingerbread house is really made of gingerbread and filled the entire lobby. There were demonstrations on making gingerbread houses, and we bought cookies there which were so good. Lunch there was incredible, also.
This picture made me laugh as it seemed to be a strange representation of Christmas for me but not for Florida. I saw a LOT of plastic light up snowmen in people’s yards, but some how snowmen on green grass just doesn’t do it for me at Christmas.  We got a GPS for Christmas, and instead of making Christmas dinner (as my m-in-law wouldn’t let us help since we were on vacation), Tom and I drove around The Villages in a golf cart. Did you know that a GPS will show golf cart paths?? We had a nice Christmas, but decided to do some touring for a couple of days. We went to Mt. Dora for a day which is a cute city on a lake, but how different for us to eat lunch outside in December in the sun?

Here is what I thought was a funny sign that I took on the side of the road while waiting for traffic to move!

We did go to a wild life park in Homosassa Springs and saw native animals including manatees, black bears, flamingos, birds, eagles plus a Florida panther. It was the warmest day of our trip with the temps being in the low 70’s (and still there were people with winter coats on). Yikes!
A fun place to walk around in a wooded area that you might not think of as Florida. We also went to St. Augustine, saw the Atlantic Ocean for the 2nd time, and visited a wonderful lighthouse. There were 130+ steps to the top of the lighthouse so we opted not to go. I would have loved to have taken the trolley tour of the city but it was an open air trolley and it was too cold for my in-laws. Wonderful old Spanish style buildings, and yes, we did see the Fountain of Youth. We ate lunch at a place that had a Carribbean theme; and when the tide is in the water goes right under where we were sitting. I stopped at a quilt shop there that had this sign in the window: “Parking for Quilters Only. All others will be basted and tied”! Quite funny, and a great store full of bright and whimsical fabric. All and all a fun trip but I missed being at home with my kids. After a couple of days being home, I decided to put out my snowmen collection so it feels like winter here in WA. I love their smiling faces!

Now it’s time to get back to work…. check back in a couple of days as I will be offering sewing tips, and showing new fabric collections. Sew much fabric! Sew little time!

Piece,
Michele

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy celebrating with those you are with this year, and count every blessing in your life!

And, now….. time for a chuckle…….. is this really how pumpkin pies are made??

Piece,
Michele

Grandparents and “Retardment”

My dear friend, Valerie, is going to be a 1st time  grandmother in March as her son and daughter-in-law are expecting. She sent me the “story” below which I found hilarious and thought I would share. The funny thing to me is that Tom’s parents live in a huge retirement golf community in Florida which is similar to what the story is about so I know what this is referring to.

RETARDED GRANDPARENTS

(this was actually reported by a teacher)

After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school. One child wrote the following:

We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa.
They used to live in a big brick house but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Arizona. Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on their bicycles and wear name tags because they don’t know who they are anymore. They go to a building called a wreck center, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now, they do exercises there, but they don’t do them very well. There is a swimming pool too, but they all jump up and down in it with hats on. At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out, and go cruising in their golf carts. Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And, they eat the same thing every night — early birds. Some of the people can’t get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked center for pot luck. My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too. When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.

Piece,
Michele

The Last Quilts from Spokane 2009

Yesterday was a GREAT fall day – grey skies, wind, and leaves flying all over! I love fall no matter if it’s grey or blue skies! I actually like baking bread,  making apple pie from hand picked apples, and a beef stew simmering in the crock pot with a fire blazing in the fireplace.  Everything about it speaks home, warmth and coziness to me with the sights, and smells of autumn.

I hope you have enjoyed the photos from the Washington State Quilters 2009 show and here are the last of my favorites from this show. Enjoy, and be inspired by their creativity!

This was fun for me to see one of my designs hanging in a show by a quilter who had purchased the quilt kit from me the year before.  Now back to work for me to work on a project for RJR Fabrics with a 2010 holiday fabric collection.

Piece,
Michele

More Quilts from the Spokane Show

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! We had about 75 kids this year which is more than in the past. We also had cars driving on our street (there are just 10 houses) and then the kids would jump out of the car so we assumed that they weren’t from our neighborhood. Anyhoo, it is always fun to see the little ones dressed up and excited for this event! My husband still talks about the HUGE candy bars that he used to get as a child. And, I read in a cartoon about a little kid talking about a “fun” size (bite-sized) candy bar, and said, “What’s so fun about this?”

Now back to more of my favorite quilts from the WSQ quilt show in Spokane, WA where we exhibited at several weeks ago now. Enjoy the quilts!

Live well! Laugh often! Love much! Quilt daily!

Piece,
Michele

Happy Halloween!

It’s cold, gray and drizzley today, and hopefully it will be dry tonight when all the trick or treaters are out! We will probably get 30 – 40 kids at the door tonight, but certainly not like we used to when my kids were younger. Today is just not the same as it is when you have little children who have been planning for weeks as to what they want to be for Halloween. I remember years of sewing a costume for each of my 4 kids,  and relishing that time when I could still meet the wants of my kids. One year all 3 boys went as green dinosaurs but Myk’s contrasting tail was yellow, Kevin’s was blue, and David’s was red. Kelly, my daughter, was a pirate girl. Today those kids are 29, 25, 25 and 24; on their own, and I hope their memories of Halloween as a child are filled with fun!

This past week I made my traditional Pumpkin Bread which is my mother-in-law’s family recipe.  I hope you enjoy it!

Pumpkin Bread by Berta Crawford
4 eggs beaten until thick
2 cups of canned pumpkin
1 cup of vegetable oil
3 cups of sugar
2/3 cup of water
3 1/2 cups of sifted flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
2 teaspoons of backing soda
1 teaspoon of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves

Combine eggs, sugar, pumpkin, water and oil – mix well. Sift all the dry ingredients together and add to the liquid ingredients – mix well until just blended as for muffins (batter should appear lumpy). Pour into 2 greased 5 x 9 loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees fpr 1 14 – 1 1 1/2 hours.

* If desired, add 3/4 cup of finely ground walnuts to the batter.

Have a Spooktacular Day! If you get a chance, please stop by my website as I have a One Day Special Sale today on all my quilts patterns, and selected quilt kits!

Piece,
Michele