Mini Spiderweb Top Finish

Well, I ran out of the blue material finally, so it was time to finish. After I sewed all the spiderweb blocks together I decided it needed a border, so I added one in a pink shade. Then I decided it needed another border, so I added a piano key border. I like piano key borders because they use a ton of scraps, and that was the point of this whole project!

I got this basted right away, and am going to work on quilting it in the next day or two. Now I'll have to figure out a new project for using up my tiny scraps!

Wall Basting

I have a big pile of finished quilt tops that need to get quilted. The thing that holds up the process for me is finding a good time to baste them. I have a good place - the empty conference rooms at work are fabulous...but that means toting all my supplies to work and staying late after work - and who wants to do that?

For smaller quilts, I can baste them on the floor in the house, but lately when I've tried to do that, this has happened:

There's two cats and a dog in this batting.

 So the other night when I was using my design wall, I started thinking about how nicely the fabric stuck to the batting, and how easy it was to get it all smoothed out and flat on there, and how great it would be if I could baste quilts like that.  Sticking safety pins in the foam insulation that my design wall is made out of wouldn't work very well...but what if I could do it on the actual wall?

I taped my backing up with masking tape, then spread out my batting. I was a little afraid it wouldn't stick to the material, but it did without a problem. So then I smoothed out my quilt top, and again everything stayed put. I pinned the whole thing in about 45 minutes, and voila! A painless and easy way to baste quilts. I got three more basted over the weekend.

I am so in love with this way of doing it! No more crawling around on the floor with achy knees, no more skulking around in empty conference rooms after work!

The only downsides I can think of to basting on the wall is that you need a blank wall, or one that could easily be blank. The one in my sewing room is big enough to baste up to a twin sized quilt, but for anything bigger I'd have to explore the house to see what would work. Also, it's possible that you might scrape up your wall a little putting the pins in. I checked, and there are a few tiny little marks from when I did it. You have to get up really close to see them, but if that concerns you, you maybe wouldn't want to do this in your living room or on a highly visible wall. 

With basting no longer being a barrier, I see lots of quilt finishes in my future.

Friday Finish: Modern Mini

This is the May Mini Quilt from Westwood Acres mini quilt club that I joined. I'm definiately a mini quilt convert, after having spent the last few years saying how silly they were - it turns out I was the silly one, which is often the case.

This was quick and easy and fun, which is the brilliant thing about mini quilts - you don't have time to get sick of them, and even if it's a tricky pattern (Like the last one with all the y-seams), it's over in a flash. I quilted it in a loopy figure 8 pattern. Isn't that red gingham backing the cutest?

A few thoughts on worth and value

I donated a quilt for a charity fundraiser last weekend. I'm happy to say it raised $180 for the charity...however, the piece was valued at $400, so it was purchased for less than half it's worth. This is a quandary.

On one hand, $180 is no small amount of money. I know I wouldn't be able to plonk down $180 for a quilt casually, let alone $400. Part of me thinks $180 is awesome and since it's all for charity, who really cares?

But the other part of me knows that the $400 value was fair. It was based on careful calculations and tracking of time and materials - I do this for all my quilts, and it's enlightening to see in cold hard numbers the cost of my craft in time and money. I thought about the quality of the quilt - that it was made with top-notch materials, constructed with precision (amazing for me, I know!), quilted intricately, blocked so that it hung straight and perfectly square, and had a hanging sleeve attached. The price was fair, so I decided to keep to that $400 and see what happened.

What happened is that it was valued in the eyes of consumers for less that half of that. I'm not personally offended by this - but it does make me wonder how to proceed in the future. I've generally dealt with this by not selling quilts. Problem solved! But this raises questions around how to value something - is straight up calculation of time spent the best way to go about it? If the world is not ready for $400 wall-hangings, is there a way to price things lower without undercutting those who are trying to make a living and actual profit from their craft?  How to you balance market value, desirability and subsequent product viability?  This is a discussion that makers are having all over the internet, and it's fraught with emotion and frustration. There are no easy answers.

Here's what I wrote about the quilt for the auction: "Moxie is retro slang for courage and determination. I found myself drawing on these qualities while working on this piece – from picking the bold colors to making some difficult personal decisions. The circular shape echoes a Tibetan healing mandala, a tool used for gaining wisdom and compassion. As I send this quilt out into the world, I hope it continues to inspire grace under pressure and bravery during difficult circumstances."

Those feelings continue to be true, no matter who buys the quilt and for how much.

Mini Spider Web Progress

I've made great progress on the Mini Spider Web - in fact, I think I'm just about finished with the blocks, mainly because I'm almost out of the blue material I'm using for the centers. I probably have enough for two or three more rows, and when that's gone, the quilt is done!

I think I'll add a scrappy border or two of some sort to make this a little bigger. Right now it'll probably finish at a decent sized lap quilt.

Mini Quilt of the Month: May

My second Mini Quilt Kit came in the mail a week or two ago, and I wanted to start working on it immediately, but held back until I finished the Bloom top. I did manage to open it and eat the homemade caramel right away though!

Finally, I was able to delve into it last night. It uses the cutest retro fabric line from Riley Blake called Strawberry Biscuit, and I started by making the four-patch units. These are mini quilts, so everything is on a small scale. The little fabric squares are 1 3/4 inches, and the four patches finish at 3 1/2 inches, so it's not too miniscule, but tinier than I'm used to.

Recipe Time: Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, my mom likes to go visit her mother along with her sisters, and this year I went too and made lunch for the whole crowd. Everything had to be gluten free and easy to chew, since my poor grandma is having a few teeth issues. Here's what I made:

Creamy Broccoli Soup: I used the recipe from Annie's Eats, and the only change I made was to stir in about 1/2 c. of cream at the end, because I'm a big believer in adding cream to things.

Carrot Ginger Soup

Zucchini Rice Gratin

Carrot Ginger Soup: The recipe was from America's Test Kitchen, and again, I added cream. I also used chicken broth instead of carrot juice, because I didn't want to clean my juicer. I'm lazy that way.

Zucchini Rice Gratin: I didn't want all my sides to be cold, and this Julia Child recipe looked pretty delicious. The only thing I changed was using cornstarch instead of flour to make it gluten free.

Date, Feta, and Red Cabbage Salad: This is a Smitten Kitchen recipe, and I didn't change a thing.

Roasted Red Peppers

Roasted Red Peppers with Mozzarella - Another one from the Smitten Kitchen! I have to say that I'd never roasted my own peppers before, and I loved her way of doing it. This was super easy and delicious. The only thing I changed was that I forgot to add the capers, but it was still good.

And finally, for dessert I made good old chocolate mousse, because how can you go wrong with that? The recipe is below, and it's a perfect combination of intense chocolate flavor, with a lovely light texture.

DARK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS:

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine (I used Ghirardelli 60%) 
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 5 tablespoons water 
• 1 tablespoon brandy 
• 2 large eggs, separated 
• 1 tablespoon sugar 
• 1/8 teaspoon table salt 
• 1 cup heavy cream, plus 2 additional tablespoons (chilled) 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt chocolate, cocoa powder, water, and brandy in medium heatproof bowl set over saucepan filled with 1 inch of barely simmering water, stirring frequently until smooth. Remove from heat. 
2. Whisk egg yolks, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, and salt in medium bowl until mixture lightens in color and thickens slightly, about 30 seconds. Pour melted chocolate into egg mixture and whisk until combined. Let cool until just warmer than room temperature, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. In clean bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium-low speed until frothy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, increase mixer speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form when whisk is lifted, about 1 minute. Detach whisk and bowl from mixer and whisk last few strokes by hand, making sure to scrape any unbeaten whites from bottom of bowl. 
4. Using whisk, stir about one-quarter of beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture to lighten it; gently fold in remaining egg whites with rubber spatula until a few white streaks remain.
5. In now-empty bowl, whip heavy cream at medium speed until it begins to thicken, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form when whisk is lifted, about 15 seconds more. 
6. Using rubber spatula, fold whipped cream into mousse until no white streaks remain. Pour into serving dish (or individual dishes) Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set and firm, at least 2 hours. (The mousse may be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours.)

Mini Spider Web

I've posted about the Mini Spider Web quilt before here and here, but I hadn't worked on it in a few months. I'm making this out of tiny little scraps I save, and that bin was getting pretty full, so I knew it was time to get this project out again.

I paper piece these on scraps of paper, and it's a fun mindless project. I don't put a whole lot of thought into what colors to use or placement - I just slap a strip of fabric down, sew it, and grab the next strip, all very willy-nilly.

One of these days I need to put all the finished blocks up on the design wall to see where things are at and how big it's getting. I have plenty of scraps, but I think I'll finish this up to be a lap-sized quilt.

Bloom Sew-Along: Row by Row

I've finished all the blocks in the Bloom quilt, and now I'm working on bordering each one with varying strips of fabric and four-patch cornerstone blocks. I have 3 rows sewn together so far, and am planning on finishing up this top over the weekend.

I'm going to try to get it basted and quilted right away - my drawer of finished quilts tops is full, and it's time to get some of those babies finished up!

A New Project

When I saw this quilt pattern called Anemone made by Stacey Day, I knew I wanted to make it! It's made from Heather Ross's fabric line called "Mendocino" that has just been reprinted. I just love this fabric - mermaids and sea horses and water weeds? Love it!

Heather writes about the inspiration for this collection on her blog: What seems like a million years ago, before I was an artist or a mother or a wife, I lived in a tiny cabin just north of the town of Mendocino, just steps from the cold, wild, and rough Pacific Ocean. I worked seasonally, as a naturalist for the State Parks during the school year and at a horsebarn in the summer and the fall. I led guided rides along a ten mile stretch of unpopulated beach, sometimes under a full moon. It seems, sometimes, to have all been a dream.
I managed to snag a kit for this quilt and got it in the mail yesterday. Of course, I have umpteen projects currently in the works, but something about these swimming mermaids is calling my name! We'll see how long I can resist...

Bloom Sew-Along, Blocks 13, 14, 15

I continue to plug along on my Bloom Sew-Along blocks, and completed three more. There's not a whole lot to say about these - I still think they're just the cutest things ever!

I have all the pieces cut out for the remaining five blocks, and my plan is to sew them together tonight. Then each block gets borders so that will be the next step. Almost finished!

Appliqueing Little Pieces

I mentioned in a previous post that I needed to research how to applique all the little flower pieces on the Jinny Beyer blocks. Well, I did do that and found a method that's been an absolute life saver!

I googled "How to applique little pieces", and came across the typical methods I knew about and had already ruled out, but finally I came across Teresa Rawson's blog "Fabric Therapy". and what she calls the Glue Stick Hand Applique Method. After reading through her tutorials carefully, I knew this would be perfect for my Jinny Beyer flowers - hooray!

Of course, I didn't follow the directions exactly...I didn't have a glue stick, so I'm just using glue. And Teresa's work is much more fastidious and better looking than mine, but I'm so happy with my results! I completed my first set of flowers, and they actually look almost like Jinny's! Applique will never be fast, but a set of flowers took me about 1 1/2 hours, and I think that's pretty good.

My hand appliqueing can use a little work - I'm not good enough yet to have invisible stitches, but I have three more of these to do, so I'm guessing I'll be pretty decent at it by the time it's all over.

I'm Back!

Hey there - I took a break from the blog and sewing while I was in Miami last week for a wonderful relaxing vacation. I've never been to Miami before, and completely fell in love.

There was lots of this:

And this:

And tons of this:

Most of all, NAPS!

So I have a head start on my summer tan, and am ready to dive into sewing again!