Feeling the Heat

 I have now sewn all of the postage bits onto strips of neutral fabric (see the pile in the background). Then I iron  them open and fussy cut them apart so I get a pile of two patches (see foreground).

When I get tired of working with Mount Stripmore, I sew two patches into four patches, 

I am only allowed a limited amount of sewing time each day. We are fully into the summer months so the heated beds and pads are turned off. Buddy has taken to napping in a chair by the window while Molly has staked out my sewing chair. When I am in the sewing chair, she takes her place by the sewing machine, flicking her tail closer and closer to the needle.

Despite all of her best efforts, I did manage to finish off the spool of thread today. 

And I get the same disrespect when I cat sit. Here I am being told to return his people immediately and that he will not sign any waivers or nondisclosure agreements for whatever prank show I am affiliated with. He also says I smell like old cats.

I suspect I never got around to showing the fabric I picked up at a recent charity fabric sale. It was back in June some time, oh yeah, the day of the fabric-filled estate sale. The charity sale began at 8AM and the estate sale began at 10AM. 

Winners Announced

 We had a bit of a heat wave, so I only got in a bit of quilting. Happily, I found a whole new bin of bits and I cut postage stamps from them. Along with the heat wave, Buddy and Molly no longer have heated beds and mats to fight over, so Molly returned to full time supervision...that looks a lot like sleeping on my cutting mat. 

I did, however, cut fabric and pack up the giveaway fabric for the four winners:

1. Anonymous (first comment)

2. Cindy F

3. Cherie Moore

4. Susan

The packages were dropped off at the post office yesterday and should arrive either tomorrow or Monday.

To make up for a lack of quilting content, I would love to show you glamorous garden photos, but these scene stealers had a melt down during the heat wave.

And frankly, my garden has an eery, demented side so that it becomes challenging to crop photos to look glamorous and not make children cry. 

Starturday Success!

 It's a bit late in the season to be starting seeds, but that didn't stop me from starting Kaffe's Seed Packet quilt. I couldn't decide whether to make the red version or the blue, so I decided to make both and have a reversible quilt. I am going to consider this a low volume quilt...meaning I'm not going to put a lot of energy into it. As I encounter Kaffe floral fabric in my stash, I'll cut 8 inch squares or 4.5 inch squares depending on the pattern.

Meanwhile, I've tinkered a bit with block placement and think I am only a few tweaks away from starting to sew it together.

I also have been making progress going through the bit box for the postage stamp quilt. This version has a checkerboard of stamps and neutrals.

I sew the bits to neutral strips and then iron them. Next I will cut them down to a height of 1.25 inches.

Meanwhile, Molly decided that there would be FOUR winners...two requesting Japanese fabric and two regular winners. Staff is not allowed to announce the winners until we have heard back from all of them. Also, Molly says not to judge her for continuing to use her heated pad during a heat wave. Apparently hot house temperatures don't quite knock off the chill. Right now she is laying on the only bit of sun I'm letting in the house during our "heat wave" (as defined in Portland, OR terms.)

We explained the new fabric giveaway plan to Buddy but we think his brain stalled out at "Four."

More Fabric Displays

 The yukata cloth and the novelty prints that I showed previously are Japanese fabric printed by Japanese companies. There is also "Japanese style" fabric that were printed by companies such as Kona Bay and FreeSpirit around 2006 and 2007. There were lots of these in the estate sale bin as well.

For those of you who mentioned that you are interested in Japanese fabric for the giveaway, if you win, I will want to know your preference for yukata, novelty or floral (or a mix of all three).

For those of you asking for Buddy's help in choosing fabric, here is his fabric from the bin. As you probably already know, extremely ugly fabric attracts laser dots, so almost everyday Buddy attacks and beats out any laser dots in these fabrics. And I know that Bonnie Hunter says that you can cut an ugly fabric smaller, but some fabrics are so ugly you would have to fussy cut a one inch square and none of us have time for that. 

If you win and asked for Buddy's help, he will want to know if you want your fabrics pre-gash or with a gash. 

July Fabric Giveaway

 I think I have now sewn enough postage stamps to cover postage for the two (soon-to-be) winners of the July fabric giveaway.

Here is some more of the Japanese fabrics that were in the bin from the quilter's estate sale. And if you would like hunks from each of these, just leave a comment on this blog post telling me that. Or maybe you want yukata cloth. Or maybe you want squares from my bin of 2.5 inch squares. Or per chance some batiks, thirties, novelty, orange, or neutral (specify white, beige, grey). We have even devolved to the concept of Buddy picking randomly from the Elfa drawers where we store 1/2 yard or less cuts. Maybe you would like Molly to randomly pick from the flat folds. 

When you leave a comment on this blog post. include your email address if you are anonymous or no-reply. On July 5, at 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time, submissions are closed. I will notify the winners by email the next day asking for addresses and clarification about fabric preferences.

Unfortunately, due to the high cost of international shipping, the giveaway is limited to the USA.

Previous winners may enter again (and by the way, no one is keeping track.)

Another Starturday

 This is the third Starturday that I don't have a new quilting project to show. I am sure we share a mutual disappointment. I have excellent intentions but keep finding myself drawn to the same old projects. Here the Marmalade quilt from Kaffe's Quilts of Grandeur book has all its blocks constructed. I just put the blocks up and haven't yet moved any around...so we'll see how many quilts don't get started while I dink around moving blocks around.

And its been a couple of weeks since I've been to a massive quilter's estate sale. Of course, I still haven't finished showing the fabric from the last one. Here are the hunks of yukata cloth that came in the bin. It turns out I already had the grey, blue and white fabric on the far right. I bought it on a trip to Berkeley, CA sometime in the early 80s.

And yes there will be another fabric giveaway on July 1. This is part of the package that went to one of the winners from last month. As I recall she asked for "unexpected children's fabric." I may have leaned a bit heavily on unexpected.

Last but not least, here is the sky from last Starturday. I looked outside and saw this and ran outside to take a photo. Happily, as a young child I was told that the white fluff in the sky is called "clouds" so I was only moderately stunned by the beauty, not panicked. 

Unfinished Projects

 I discovered a few unfinished quilting projects in the estate sale bin...although to be fair, I don't know if these projects were completed and the plastic bags were extra pieces or an unfinished project. The package of fan blades had some sections sewn together by hand, each using different techniques. I sorted the blades by fabric and expect to harvest them into postage stamps and/or spools. But then again, a charm tumbler quilt might be in my future.

Some of the fabrics seem to be actual vintage 30s while others are 30s reproductions. But a lot of them are calicos from the early 80s.

And this was a total surprise...Kaffe fabric half-square triangles. I think they are intended to be 2.25 inches unfinished, but I suspect they would need to be trimmed to 2 inches for uniformity. I have an extreme allergy to half-square triangles and these are too small for me to harvest.

Miniature Sidetrack

Maybe it's a compulsion, maybe I'm making another spool quilt. As you might notice, I usually work with bright, wacky fabric, so when I encounter reproduction fabric/small prints my mind thinks mini spools (1.5 in finish). 

Inside the plastic bin of fabric I showed in the last post was a small baggy with these scraps. These are now spools, postage stamps and bits for the bit bin.

In the context of seeing the photos from the estate sale, the bin was a tiny bite of the apple.

And this photo shows her fabulous book collection (completely staked out by a book reseller), more fabric and yes, a bin of "scraps" under the table. There were at least four of these bins.

In looking through the fabric chunks and scraps in the bin, I recognized a lot of fabrics from the early eighties, back when the selection of cotton fabrics was quite limited (relatively). So there was a lot of "historical or reproduction fabrics" but there were also a lot of fabrics with a history of their own.

Weekend Bender Recovery: Fabric Edition

When you see an empty bin like this the day after an estate sale, you know that you not only over-indulged, but binged, sorting through too much fabric all at once.

When I go to a quilter's estate sale, I often look for the scrap basket...the container under the cutting table that takes the off cuts, failed projects, misplaced blocks etc. In contrast, this was more of a seamstress's estate sale and there were several miscellaneous tubs of fabric. It was very crowded so without digging into them, I just picked one and bought a mystery bin (of course within the context of knowing the quality and range of the extensive stash).

And let's start with first things first. As of today, I think this is my favorite hunk of fabric in the bin.

Here are most of the hunks of fabric in the bin that were similar to the giraffes. The largest piece shows birds transforming into fish and the selvedge says "Copyright Escher Heirs 1980."

A typical quilter scrap bin has scraps in squares and strips, but this had much larger hunks from a fat eighth to a fat quarter yard.  These were the yellow, green, red and pink hunks.

Here are the purples and blues and a weird tulip fabric (that I already have a yard of!)

Here are the browns (and grays). And so far, I have shown about a third of what was in the bin. Another third of the bin was Japanese fabric which I will show tomorrow. Not shown are holiday-themed novelty and solids. There were also a couple of deconstructed men's plaid shirts (who would do such a thing?).

And it may look like Molly and Buddy are recoiling in horror at all the fabric, but really they are huddled on a heated mat because their cruel staff turned off the heated beds in front of the picture window when outdoor temperatures went into the 80s. And with the house heat turned off they are fighting for their lives to survive indoor temperatures in the high 60s.

Funny, Ridiculous, Incredible

 Here are Molly and Buddy about 7 years ago when we moved to Portland. They were almost two years old and already world weary having moved across the country, lived in a hotel, then an apartment and finally their current address. At the apartment, Molly supervised children playing outside and when their screams got too shrill her ears would turn back. But she kept her focus.

Back to the here and now, I have finished going through the bit bin to cut bits into postage stamp pieces. I now have 1,500 postage stamps (where the design is going to be a checkerboard of  half print, half neutral). In my latest estimate, I need 2,500 postage stamps (print bits). I suspect that I will be able to collect all I need from this bin and won't need to pull out the bin of hunks (2.5 to 4.9 in).

And yes, my earlier estimate called for 4,000 or so print bits. I will keep making estimates until the quilt is finished when. I may be able to establish a more reliable count.

Weeds, Errands, Driving: Not Enough Sewing

 I assume that being this ridiculous is harder than it looks. 

But today I put aside distractions and made some progress...in particular, I got the June fabric giveaways cut and packaged so I can mail them off tomorrow.

And two of the highlights of too much driving today was seeing roses in full bloom working as highway landscaping and seeing Mt. Hood come out of hiding (while having been there all along).

To Undo Excessive Saturation

 I am trying to replicate a quilt top I saw about five years ago in a quilt guild meeting. Like this was, it was made with .75 inch finished squares with a pattern/neutral checkerboard. I also remember that it looked cohesive. I'm not sure why it looked cohesive...maybe the colors stayed in the midrange.

And of course, I rarely have that effect when I piece everything somewhat randomly. I usually end up with a chaos quilt (that I enjoy every second making). So when a comment mentioned bright colors, I realized that I had gone through the bin and taken all the bits that make retinas burn. So today I went through the bin again and picked colors/patterns I don't notice. After that foray, the bit bin is reduced by roughly a quarter to a third. I also cut down about three hundred of those bits to the size needed for piecing.

And I'm heading towards a quilt that is roughly 60 inches by 80 inches, but I won't know if that's the right size until I get a look at it on the design wall.

And I do a fair amount of fussy cutting along the way...first when I reduce the bit to 1.25 inches wide and about two inches long.

After the bit is sewn to a neutral strip and ironed, I have a second opportunity to fussy cut when I reduce the two patch to 1.25 inches tall.

After I start sewing the two patches together, the fox and the squirrel should still have their ears, if they are lucky and I'm sewing straight.

Moving On Now

 To cut the 1.25 rectangles for the postage stamp quilt, I pulled out my box of bits. In theory, these are pieces that are smaller than 2 inches by 6 inches, the requirement to make a microspool. But really, they tend to be less than 2.5 inches. I rummaged through this box pulling fabrics that could maintain some kind of identity as a .75 inch square. Unfortunately, I estimated that I will need about 4,000 bits (at least until I discover an error in my calculation that means I have to use a lot less or a lot more.

I counted and stacked the cut bits then grabbed a box to store them in before an errant cat disrupted the piles with her tail. Instead said cat measured the box and determined that it is the right size.

The box was confiscated by the authorities...

Here are roughly 900 bits, about 3,100 more to go. And yes, Molly's tail is out of frame in the upper right hand corner ready to sweep across the cutting mat. 

It's Sunnday

Of course, Sunnday is the day that one goes out and does Something Unbelievably Naughty/Nice. I chose to drive across town to a garage sale advertising a major fabric destash.

While the garage sale ad said that fabric would be sold in quarter, one yard and two yard increments, I couldn't help but notice the scrap bins at the top of the photo.  And sadly, when I arrived there were only hunks, not scraps. So completely out of character, I got up the nerve to ask if there were scraps available for sale. And yes, there were scrap bags that had been forgotten and these were brought out in a box. And the very naughty part was that since I was standing by the cashier, I grabbed the entire box and the devouring hoard at the fabric tables never knew what they were missing. (And as you can see by the photo, the scrap bags were a selection, not the entire stash.)

Here are the scraps laid out. And yes, there was one pieced block...yikes! It's as neat on the back as the front.

And these are some of the hunks I saved from the devouring hoard, I mean fellow quilters, while I got up my nerve to ask about the scraps.