Stuff, Nonsense, Class Signups, and More

 I have decided to shock you all by saying I really cannot express enough how much more enjoyable summer is when a. one's children can all read chapter books, are old enough to feed themselves on a regular basis, and can be told "Mom is going to work for two hours. Deal with it wisely and don't kill each other. See ya on the flip side." and b. it is not one billion degrees with 600% humidity for days/weeks on end. Summer Sewing 2014 - winning!

Happy participant in a recent RRD class!

The biggest news I have today is that based on the shocking number of positive responses I got when I asked "Would any of you join me if I ran my Round Robin in a Day workshop in Pepperell MA this fall?" on the EPQD facebook page, I have procured my local community center for Saturday, October 25 from 10-4. I'm planning to run the class "mini-retreat-style" and will provide lunch and am asking all participants to bring a show and tell for the lunch break. This class is first and foremost about camaraderie and collaboration and a little bit about me keeping a nervous eye on the clock and cracking the whip as necessary. It's absolutely my favorite workshop to run and I don't think it any surprise that it is the most popular; I really hope you'll consider joining us! Don't let distance stop you - one participant is coming from Virginia! How crazy is that?  More information and signups are available in two locations: On the "Pattern Shop" page of this blog as the very first item to purchase, or via EventSpot at Constant Contact. Both locations feature easy payment via PayPal, and once signed up you will receive a welcome letter from me with a supply list. I mean what more could you want? I really hope you'll consider joining us for what I am sure will be a day of fabric frolic to remember!

Supercloseup is all I can show you.

Much of the last few weeks has been spent working on Scrap Squad quilt #4; I'm currently considering naming it either "An Imperfectionist's Worst Nightmare" or "My Own Personal Waterloo." This is the quilt that is making me sort of understand the "Slow Stitching" movement, although to be honest I don't know why we have to name everything cutesy things - just call it a long term project quilt. /modern quilt lingo rant over. But here's the thing. I loooooooove it. Love love love love love. This may well be one of the prettiest quilts I have ever made, pat my own back, and even though it features 139 pieces PER BLOCK and has about 1000 matching points total I have not yet thrown it out the window, and not only because I saw a snake close to where my studio window is yesterday while weeding. It might be the colors, which are so me, and the fact that I am actively proving that batiks and prints and solids and moderns and traditionals all mix if you tell them they do.

yummers

Did you see the July "Sizzling Hot Hottie" Hottie Hotseat post last week? If not, make sure you check it out! Carrie Hanson of Gotcha Covered Quilting was just delightful to have hang out in the hotseat, and really, I'd love to hang out with her in real life as well. Too bad she lives literally as far away from me as humanly possible on the North American continent.

She was so excited to be in the hotseat that she sent me some fat quarters from her shop! Free stuff! Presents! Woo Hoo! She's clearly been listing to my constant praise-singing of Art Gallery Fabrics. Thank you, Carrie!

I'll be taking August off from featuring a hotseater, mainly because Carrie and I almost forgot to run hers in all the summer crazy, but we'll be firing up the chair again in September with Gina Reddin!

It's back to the millions of pieces all over my sewing table for me.

Hop Til You Drop

 

Michelle at Quilting Gallery loves a good party, so it's that time again. I'd suggest that she wants to save money on party favors by making us bloggers provide the prizes, but I'd hate to sound like I think that isn't brilliant.

Welcome, Quilting Hotties, one and all! As the tagline reads, it's not a look, it's an attitude, and therefore no one is disqualified due to leg length, hair length, or even stitch length. I embrace my hottie side by keeping it light, keeping it fresh (both in projects and attitude) and keeping it real, and I hope you'll consider stopping in again and again to recharge your own hottieness.

Depending upon what time you read this on November 21, I may well be sewing my head off at my guild's Open Sew, where I will be running a dumbed-down version of my "Round Robin in a Day" workshop with a few friends. After a day of epic block fails yesterday, I actually just finished my center block they'll be starting with, and I just love it.

Isn't it fun how the design wall is just like a gigantic used lint roller?

This class is great fun to facilitate, and even more fun to participate in, and I am so pumped to not only be creating and designing all day tomorrow as I add to three other participants' quilts, but also to be the one screaming "WE HAVE 10 MINUTES LEFT IN THIS ROUND! NO MORE TIME! GET IT DONE! NOW!" like a lunatic. Time will tell how much the other ladies appreciate my candor and inflexibility in relation to clock management.

Half the fun of this class is the prep, not only in making a cool center block, but also in rolling around naked in your stash to find all sorts of yardage to bring along for everyone to work with during the day. I found this baby and really hope it gets used!

I only wish I had more. And that trees really could be polka dotted.

I always suggest quilters bring only about 4 yards total of fabrics they would like to see in their finished round robin because we don't have room for everyone to bring their entire stashes, but you know no one listens. I kid you not, the last time I taught this class, this was Judi's work area.

There's a show-off in every crowd.

In truth, I WAS jealous of the cart.

We'll see how well my victims fellow participants follow the guidelines tomorrow. Knowing a couple of them as I do, I have little faith that we won't have at least one overpacker.

Even if you read this early, I am excited that I can come back and update with a photo of the finished round robin after the class. It will be "summerweight," as the class only guarantees leaving with a top, not a finished quilt, but I promise the transformation will be amazing. If it isn't, you'll pretend it is.

Update: We didn't quite finish. I blame the facts that I couldn't be an effective whip cracker while sewing myself, and I was working with some of the most perfectionist, most amazing quilters I know, who would not be rushed. But who cares? The results are gorgeous!

The bottom two will be completed by our guild meeting in a couple of weeks. But they've started strong.

Besides workshops and my rather hilarious and awesome but I really shouldn't say that as it sounds kinda boastful trunk show lectures for guilds and other groups, I am a quilt designer for myself and various publications, creator of "Drop and Give Me Twenty", organizer of one or two group quilt projects through this blog every year, and a mom of three girls way too young to drive themselves anywhere and who never all want to be in the same place at the same time. I'm also currently developing a new attraction coming to QHH in 2014: "Hottie Hotseat" - A monthly post highlighting an industry professional in five hard-hitting questions or less, several of them guaranteed snarky. You'll hear about it all here at QHH, and I hope you'll pop in and participate in some or all of it! 

And now we come to the goodie bag goods. To celebrate the blog hop, I'm giving away the items pictured in this oh-so-professional-looking photo. I live in the northeast. We have like 4 hours of daylight this time of year. Forgive me.

Items pictured are way more awesome than they appear.

Should you be my big winner, you will receive:

• One copy of "Diamond Dazzle," an original booklet-style pattern by moi. Five sizes, cool border options, great fun.
• Six fat-quarter-ish orange and teal modern prints. I received these from Lemon Tree Fabrics, and they are ends of bolts. They are awesome, although slightly oddly sized. You will undoubtedly deal because they are so pretty.
• Five spools of Mettler thread in various shades of pink

To enter, please leave a comment telling me your favorite appetizer or pie. Recipes not needed, but I'd never turn it down. You'll be helping me greatly as I prepare to contribute both next week to the day of merriment, thankfulness, and sheer joyous gluttony we call Thanksgiving.

For an extra entry let me know if you follow Quilting Hottie Haven. And if you don't follow, I'll need a two page single-spaced essay explaining why not.

Kidding.

Good luck, and happy hopping!

 

Round Robin in a Day Does the Funky Chicken, and Start of "Who Buried My Studio?" Cleanup Extravaganza

Many of you were present for my FB postathon of photos last Saturday as I taught my favorite workshop of all time, Round Robin in a Day, to Hands Across the Valley Quilt Guild in Amherst MA. It was the enthusiasm of your commentary and the sheer numbers of people who apparently had nothing better to do on a Saturday than try to keep up with us throughout the day that made me figure I had better expound upon the class and reveal the big finishes on the blog today  because to leave you all hanging would just be rude.

As always, the class started out by being ordered around by me to get themselves into pods of sewing areas, so there was some table moving, and some grumbling by one member whom I am certain thought I was crazy to believe it important to work in groups. But the #1 rule of this class being "To Make a Group Quilt, You Must Sit in a Group," I didn't let her get away with wanting to go rogue on me. All of ten minutes later we were BFFs forever and ever. I'm good that way.

I adore the first reveal of this class - seeing what everyone has brought as their center block.

Eileen's Funky Chicken

Anne's origami crane

Barb's fun flower

Judi's tapestry geese

Sherry's Pointfest Star

 There was also Linda's Curvy Chickadee, but of course I didn't take a good enough photo. Be patient, the quilt shows up later.

This being New England, I announced early Saturday morning on FB  that I would eat my shoe if at least one participant didn't do something in an autumnal theme, and I am here to inform you that Clark's loafers are disgusting.

Throughout the day we just made these puppies bigger, better, and more fantastic by the second.

Barb gets to play with the chicken. I loved Barb because she shares my "I'm just going to start sewing and see what happens" design philosophy. Here I caught her in a rare moment of actual measuring.

Linda, who is the inventor of The Learning Curve, used it in most of her rounds. While the theme for this first round was officially "half-square triangles", she was allowed (read: was going to do it anyway no matter what I thought) to put her own spin on it.

Judi made Sherry's star block explode a little more on this round.

I still swear my friend Alicia had a dress made of this rainbow fabric in 1978, but she isn't so sure.

The second round was to include a four patch or several. Eileen found this red and went for it.

At long last, the chickadee. It is important to note that this class is not about making the most elaborate borders. Sometimes the simple ones are what really sets the quilt off properly, as Sherry is doing here.

But sometimes, the elaborate is the way to go. I LOVE how this quilt looked after the second border, added by Learning Curve Lady Linda. Note that again she bent the four patch rules and it works so well!

The blue fabric was my favorite. Adding it back in was a brilliant move by Anne.

I just loved that these ladies Got It. Throughout the day I heard such soundbites as "It is so much fun to play with other peoples' fabrics!" and "I love that there will be so many different ideas in my quilt." and even "So if you think about it, if we're all leaving with a finished quilt at the end of the day, that means that any of us should be able to make a quilt this size on our own in six hours." We all agreed that yes, that was true in theory, but one of the beauties of this class was that it actually gets done, due to the combination of an absence of distractions and the presence of me cracking the whip. The only way to have such results at home is to rent me out to stand over you and remind you every 10 minutes that you only have 30, 20, or 10 minutes to go before time is up. Sounds delightful, huh?
 
The best part of the class is the Big Reveal at the end of the day. Because participants are set up in pods, each pod working on another pods' quilts, in theory no one should see their own quilt all day, although admittedly most of the time there is cheating. Quilters as a whole are known to be lovely people, but I am here to tell you that they also as a whole are a bunch of sneaky cheaters when put in this class. But huge props to Hands Across the Valley, the most honest group I've ever worked with, because every member stayed securely in their pod and that made the reveal at the end so much more exciting. Either they are really good actresses, or every one of my participants really was thrilled with the results.





As with any group project, the fun of seeing where your quilt went compared to what you envisioned might happen is a big part of the reveal in this class.

Sherry's quilt went from very traditional to very modern.

Barb wanted, and got, a perfect baby quilt. The butterfly was a last minute add-on and was one of her favorite parts.

Eileen just likes brights. She was not disappointed in the least.

I'm really just so proud of all of them.

Thank you so much to Hands Across the Valley for letting me run away from home and spend the weekend with you!

Now onto other news....perhaps you have heard that I can't find my sewing machine because it is buried under a massive pile of scraps. Sadly, this is only a slight exaggeration, and a couple of weeks ago I let my FB community know that I might well be forced to clean up soon and in doing so, would love to have others join me in an International Studio Cleanup if they liked.

This morning I tried to find a needle, and I came as close as I ever want to to acting out the whole needle in a haystack thing, and decided it was time to clean. And so was born the "Who Buried My Studio?" cleanup extravaganza.

Each day until my studio is liveable (I estimate a week), I'm going to choose one area of it to clean up. To make myself accountable to someone other than my dust bunnies (which are approaching life-sized bunny size) I'll post my progress on the "Who Buried My Studio" flickr page, and sometimes here, and if anyone wants to join in, just go right ahead and add yourself and your photos to the flickr.

It is important to admit to you that I am thoroughly and completely horrified by the state it is currently in, and I promise you will be as well. I also promise this is not even close to how bad it was two years ago, wherein a pre-Market fabric tornado almost completely decimated the entire room to the point where I seriously considered just throwing in a match and starting over. But in any case, I will be revealing to you a disaster of immense proportions. I am taking a chance that any respect for me that you may currently have will be shattered. I am thoroughly aware that you will be judging me, but I do hope that comments will fall short of "OMG you are a PIG!" even if you are thinking it, and you wouldn't be wrong to think it at the moment.

Without further ado, today I began in what we'll call the "Cozy Corner," which is the first thing one sees when walking down the stairs and into the creative wonderland that is EPQD. In this corner we have UFOs in a basket, a couch because we didn't know where else to put it and sometimes it's good to have a place to sit, and the shelf where all my unpackaged pattern stock is kept.

Before:

As with most homes, we have areas of the house that just tend to gather crap. This is corner is the trap for all things that need to go down to the studio and be dealt with in a timely manner. Unfortunately in this case, "timely" is often defined as "never."

What happens when a shelf throws up? This.

 After 30 minutes (That's all! Woo hoo!) and a severe dust-induced allergy attack which I thoroughly expect to recreate every day of this self-induced challenge:

Much more inviting and cozy. I even found 7 UFOs, all baby quilt sized and all sort of practice pieces as I was designing patterns, to donate to our guild Quilt Cupboard. It makes that basket so much better.

Just added proof that I removed and put away everything in that horrid pile in this corner.

Thirty Minutes! Do you have thirty minutes or so a day to clean up one portion of YOUR studio? If so, I really do invite you to join me. I almost want to go back down right now and do another 30, but I don't know if my nose can take it today.

Round Robin in a Day With the Seven Hour Wonderkinds of Amoskeag

This past Saturday I had the honor of running my "Round Robin in a Day" workshop for the fine ladies of Amoskeag Quilt Guild in Manchester NH. It was a seven hour odyssey of quilting craziness, and as always, I left completely inspired by the awesomeness of these ladies. They begged me to write a post about them (and by "begged" I of course mean "asked with great trepidation if I was going to mention them by name on my blog"), and being the people pleaser that I am, I of course said I would leave off last names.

I've taught in many locations - church halls, library meeting rooms, community centers, senior centers - but this one will likely go down as the most unique. It was a classroom at a nursing school, so we had a few students I wasn't expecting. They were pretty quiet, but man were they lazy.


There are no further words.

I have to say I was slightly freaked out by them at first, but I did manage to get beyond the weirdness. Since the members of this guild always have workshops here, they were used to it, although they did mention that there was one time they had to cover the dummies up completely as one class participant was pretty shaken by them. The whole thing was rather amusing, but I digress.

This is one of my favorite workshops because it proves one of my tenets of quilting, that when armed with six hours and hopped up on a triple espresso worth of caffiene, quilters can go from an 8" center block to a 30" wallhanging in one day. The short version is this: Everyone brings a center block they have created and about 4 yards worth of fabric from their stash that they would like to see in their quilt. The center block and fabric are given to someone in another "pod" (more on that below) so that they can't see what is going on with it, and a 4" border is added. Then after 1.5 hours, the quilt moves on to another quilter and a second 4" border is put on. Finally a third quilter puts a 6" border on, and then we do the big reveal and everyone goes home with a completed wall hanging.

The ladies were set up in three pods of quilters, and everyone started with a center block that came from another pod. Each block then moved about within that pod for the duration of the day. That way the quilters in the pod will, in a perfect world, be unable to see their own quilt all day. Of course people cheat (Danielle and Judy). And now and then you see things you shouldn't when you are at the ironing station (Diana). But most of the time you are too busy creating to worry about what is going on with your own quilt.


Pod #1 hard at work, Donna #3 dancing in the background.

When I run this class, if everyone doesn't seem stressed out enough over the time limits, I love to up the challenge by having them pull out of a basket (or in this particular case, a rubber glove box) an element or technique that needs to be included in the first two rounds. For the first 4" border, we drew "strip piecing", and I love how simple and elegant this strip piecing turned out.

Is it any surprise there were several fall-themed quilts in the New Hampshire bunch?

The strip piecing didn't have to be fancy, it just had to be strip piecing.

Nancy was thrilled that Donna #2 was able to use up the small amount of her orange/yellow/brown print in the first round as it was one of her favorite fabrics ever.

But Diana couldn't help herself and went a little crazy.


Two centers were bunnies. We put them in separate pods so as to avoid having four to eight by the end of the day.

The next round was to include half square triangles. People really had fun with this one, and once again HSTs proved themselves to be one of the most versatile blocks in quilt design.

The black just totally popped this quilt, which started out as Donna #1's simple NH-inspired panels and ended up crazy awesome.

Yvonne (not Y-vonne) was one of our newer quilters, but was always among the first ones done with each round and did a fantastic job. She was in the process of making her HSTs into a star pattern around the center when I snapped this photo of her mat and her foot.

It isn't your imagination, that fabric really does look like a dress my mother wore in the early 70s.

A truly great thing about this class is all the fabric sharing which goes on, especially once you get to the final border, which is quilter's choice and is meant to tie the entire project together. Cathy and I dug around everyone elses' fabrics and finally found the perfect orange for a skinny border strip.

Cathy's bedside manner is delightful, don't you think?

As the quilts were finished, we lay them on a bed. Because we could.

By 3:30, it didn't seem all that weird anymore.

Everyone was delighted with the final projects, which is great because I really hate when people start crying, gnashing teeth, and yelling "You RUINED my quilt!"

Judy was done first. Her simple borders were perfect for this quilt, which Danielle plans to add some applique onto for good measure.



The red border was borrowed from another quilter to "tone down" this quilt.

Picture the acorn right side up, and you will see one of my favorites as it is meant to be seen.

Love this. So much. I almost wanted to be Sandy so I could take it home.

Ten smiling quilters, all of whom survived my reign of terror and whip cracking and went home with a gorgeous creation. I am so proud of them all!

The Best Kind of Email part 2 - AKA "And they thought I forgot about them"

Several weeks ago (okay, maybe months) I asked/begged for photos of finished projects you have made from my designs. Because sometimes we designers just need a quick ego trip. And also I wanted to use them as the basis of my post on NEQDC's blog for June. The ego trip was nice, though, no doubt about it.

I was actually quite surprised to receive more than one photo. Not only did I get enough for the NEQDC site (Make a Designer's Day), but plenty for a post of my own (The Best Kind of Email). But the photos just kept coming, and I want to share some more today so that those quilters will also know how much I enjoy them and feel just as special and loved as they should.

First up is "Feelin' Hot Hot Pink", purchased as a kit by my non-quilting friend Lee Ann and given to her quilting mom Lorraine. (Side note, Lorraine is Greta's middle name and I never can remember if there are two r's or two n's in it. Ever. I apologize if I got it wrong here, Lee Ann's mom. Imagine how my own child feels.) Lee Ann loves bleeding hearts and was hopeful that by giving this kit to her mom for her birthday, she might get a little gift back for herself. Truly a gift that gives back. I love the addition of the pink piping border, and it especially makes me happy that she used one of my favorite cheapo tricks and used up the background fabrics to make a scrappy binding.

Nice work, Lor(r)ain(n)e!

This version of "Quite Contrary", made by Kyle M. of Texas, is to die for. Those fabrics make me want to grab a spoon and eat them.

Delish. And I love the fence used as backdrop. So quilty kitchsy fun.

This next woman slays me. Merlene T. was in the audience of my "Plays Well With Others" lecture at A Quilter's Sampler back in May. She became obsessed with the little quilt I made in the debut of my "Round Robin in a Day" workshop a couple of years ago. Now, hotties, this workshop is not for the faint of heart, as you have no idea what you will end up taking home, but it is way fun to create an entire quilt for every workshop participant in 6 hours. Anyway, I chose some terribly blendy fabrics for people to use on mine, so although the other quilters did some great stuff the fabrics were not their friends, but I show it anyway.

Well, Merlene loved the quilt so much she made a special trip down to the show the next day just so she could beg me in person to send her a photo so she could recreate it herself. How could I not send it to her? Less than a week later, she sent me a photo of her interpretation, which is way better than mine.

Seriously, hw awesome is she, and can I convince her to be president of my fan club?

I know I am not the only designer to be tickled when someone sends me a photo. Don't be shy - consider showing off what you made and I know they will thank you!