Wasatch Front Shop Hop 2005
Jun 26, 2005 Quilting
A week ago, my mom and I broke free from our mundane jobs as we participated in the Wasatch Front Shop Hop. This means we spent the whole day in quilt stores. A couple of years ago we went to all of the stores in the Shop Hop. It took 2 days. It was a lot of time in a car.
This year we decide to be a little more pratical. We’d take one day and just visit the stores in the Salt Lake Valley. While we missed a couple of stores that we really like, it was a lot more relaxing.
Store #1 Sew Sweet
Sew is actually in Tooele,about 20 miles to the west of Salt Lake. I like the store, but rarely visit because it is out of the way. So we made it our first store. The Shop Hop quilt was boring. I don’t have a picture to share. The theme is Celebrating Utah. I realize that it takes a lot of time to design, make, and quilt a Shop Hop quilt. However it wouldn’t be hard to be a little creative.
I did buy these batiks. In my Saturday quilt group, we are making blocks for each other. The blocks for this month are in batiks. Hopefully, I’ll finish mine over the holiday weekend.
Store #2 Threads of Time
Threads of Time use to be a very fun store. About a year ago it was sold. The new owner doesn’t have the vision. I don’t think she is cut out for the retail world. Now the store is kind of boring. It needs a fun personality. She doesn’t buy very many new fabrics. She needs new fabrics to keep people coming back.
I did buy something. I collected these yellow/orange fat quarters. A friend and I are making a baby quilt for a mutual friend. It is the Pineapple quilt in a Buggy Barn book It will be very cute.
Store #3 Quilter’s Haven
Quilter’s Haven has the honor of being the closest quilt store to my home. They satisify most of my emergency needs. So I wasn’t expecting to see any too new. The displays were familiar. The sale fabric was new. They had a lot of their baby flannel $4/yd. While I don’t need any baby flannel. I know a good deal when I see it. So I bought 1.5 yds. of 4 different fabrics. Which gives me enough fabric to make 2 baby blankets if I can’t think of anything else.
Store #4 Mormon Handicraft
Mormon Handicraft gets points for making a creative quilt. While I have no desire to make it myself. I love to look at it.
I made one purchase here, this pattern. It is cute, but doesn’t meet my expectations. We live in an age of advance desktop publishing. If I’m going to pay $7 for a pattern. I expect the pattern to be well done. Am I asking for too much?
Store #5 Piper’s Quilts
I bought nothing and I have no pictures. The displays are always beautiful. This is an eye candy store.
Store #6 Elaine’s
In general Elaine’s gets a lot of my quilting money. I’m not always fond of their displays. However when they buy a new line of fabric, they buy a lot of it. They’ve saved me on more than one occasion. I bought 2 more fat quarters for the pineapple quilt.
Store # 7 Gentler Times
Hands down, Gentler Times made the most creative shop hop quilt. Other shops should be envious of this beauty.
Store #8 Quilts, etc.
Quilts, etc. get points for enjoying the moment. In the classroom, they setup a western themed room. They fed their shoppers food, lemondade, and provided a nice place to rest. I wish I had a picture. Here is their quilt.
I had no plans of purchasing anything at this store. I had what I needed. Then I found this toile. I love toile. I can’t explain why. It is purely emotional. This toile is especially nice. It is a very small scale and it includes kids. While I love toile, I’m not a fan of hunting scenes. It isn’t me. This I like. Now I need a plan.
Store #9 Thimbles & Thread
I haven’t visited this store in 2 years. It is far from home. I don’t have a lot of reasons to drive to Draper. Now, I think I’m going to reform my thinking. Since my last visit the store is under new ownership. They carry a lot of more fabrics. Bolts I hadn’t seen before. I didn’t buy anything. I’m not worried. Next time I want to make a cheerful quilt. I’m going to Thimbles & Thread.
Store #10 Pine Needles
The last store! Pine Needles started out as a embroidery/stichery store. It grew into a quilt store. I love this store because the fabric selection is a little different, they carry every bolt of Amy Butler fabric, and it is surround by a lot of pleasant stores. Here is their quilt.
I did buy this book. During the shop hop I saw a lot of quilts from this book. I’m not sure which one to make first. Right now I’m leaning toward the Pumpkin/Cat quilt. I need more Halloween decorations.
During the shop hop I managed to accumulate a few free items.
- Fabric to make an apron. Courtesy of Sew Sweet
- a 120″ tape measure. A gift for spent $10+ at Quilts, etc.
- A little stitchery of Utah scenery
- A Halloween stiychery. Courtesy of Threads of Time.
- Material to make the Elaine’s block in the Shop Hop Quilt
Whew! I’m tired from just thinking about the trip. Until next year…
My First Socks
Jun 14, 2005 Knitting
At this moment, I’m rather pleased with myself. I’ve successfully finished my first pair of hand knitted socks.
Things I like about them:
- I completed both socks.
- The socks match. I mean they are both the same size.
- I love the yarn, Lorna’s Laces Shepard Yarn
Things I don’t like about them:
- The vargiated colors pooled.
- They are a little baggy in the instep.
I plan on making more socks. Next time, I going to use either a solid color or self-striping yarn. I don’t want to be distracted by misbehaving vargiated yarn. I’m considering following these instructions at knitty.com. I want a good fit around the instep. On the other hand, it is summertime. Anklets made out of Fixation sound awfully tempting.
So many projects, so little time. Really, I should start to think about Christmas. I have a niece and nephew that would love Gryffindor Scarves.
A moment of insanity
Jun 6, 2005 Dear Jane Quilt
A couple of years ago, I discovered the Dear Jane Quilt. For some unknown reason I was attracted to this quilt. I wanted to make my own. I thought about it for a year before I did anything.
In February 2004, I bought the Dear Jane software. I liked the idea of being able to print templates or foundation pieces. A few weeks later I bought 2 bolts of fabric. Why two bolts? I want to be different. Most quilters choose one background fabric to use through out the quilt. Then they use various reproduction fabrics for the block patterns. First of all I’m not a huge fan of reproduction fabrics. I like bright vivid colors. Also the thought of constantly looking for new fabrics for this quilt sounded like more work than fun. So I decided to use just two fabrics for the whole quilt, a background and a print fabric. My print fabric is a multi colored floral print. It is a timeless print.
Despite having everything I needed to make the quilt. I didn’t do anything until December 2004. After Christmas, I was making a list of my New Year’s Resolutions. I decided that I had to finish some of my unfinished projects. (I realize that every quilt has this resolution. So you’ll understand.)
Since I was on vacation I went to work. In a moment of insanity, I made a plan. If I sewed 8 blocks a month, I would finish the square blocks in 20 months. I don’t plan on making the triangle blocks. So with a little work I could have the top pieced in 2 years.
Now that sounds like a reasonable plan. Right? Wrong! First, I should mention that I decided to hand piece the blocks. I thought it would be therapeutic. Well it is therapeutic. However it takes forever. At best I could finish 2 blocks a week.
In January and February, I managed to stay on top of my goal. I finished eight blocks in January and eight in February. Then I decided I wanted to work on something else. I don’t even remember what diverted my attention. Regardless, I haven’t touched this quilt since the end of February. Here is one of my finished blocks.
Pictures of my finished Dear Jane blocks can be found HERE in my photo gallery. Enjoy viewing them!
What to do with scraps?
Jun 1, 2005 Quilting
Scrap quilts elude me. I should clarify. I’ve seen scrap quilts that amaze me. I just don’t have any idea how to make a masterpiece out of scraps. Why is this topic worth a blog entry? Despite not knowing what to do with scraps, I save them. My scrap collection grows and my ideas fail to develop. This behavior has to to stop. Two options: throw away scraps or use the scraps. I can’t stop saving my scraps. It seems so wasteful. I need an idea.
I’m going to start with scraps from my Irish Chain Quilt. I’m making these star points from whole squares.
I like this method. The bias remains under control. It makes quilting enjoyable. The con: it recreates a lot of waste. So I decided to sew another seam 1/2 from the original seam. When I cut, I get my star point and a half-square triangle.
I realize that this idea isn’t original. In fact I’m inspired by my own quilting mom. She is doing the same think with a quilt that she is making for my sister. None the less, I’m doing something with the scraps.
Now I have a bunch of half-square triangles. What’s next? When I trim them they are 1.5 inches square. When sewn to 3 other triangles, they make beautiful pinwheels.
I’m going to make each pinwheel with the same fabric. The scrappy quilter in me isn’t ready to mix up the fabric. Besides I think I would loose the pinwheel design if I mixed the red triangles with the blue triangles.
The end product is still a mystery. I need to see how many pinwheels I get. Right now my thoughts are leaning towards a border on pillows or pillow cases.
Progress Report for Irish Chain Quilt: The chain blocks are complete. I started the star blocks. All the pieces are cut out. Now I get to sew. Since I’m making the half-square triangles, the process is longer. I believe it is worth the effort.
