novamade

fifth day of novakkah (2012)

In the past, I have been known to take my birthday off from work.  My birthday is on Saturday this year; but, I am still technically taking the day off because it's finals week and I could have been working from noon till 10 at night, which is about as much fun as it sounds.  In any case, if I had a free day for my birthday this year, I would have spent the day quilting.  I just counted, I have 14 quilts in the "mostly done" or "pretty much done" stage.  It's pretty ridiculous.

Speaking of quilts, yeah, my segues are horrible this year, I know... today's big give/gift is a novamade quilt pattern.  The astute among you are probably thinking "but Nova, you don't have any quilt patterns..."  Well, yes and no.  I have been sitting on a quilt pattern for a few months now.  I am cleaning it up and will be releasing the pattern, let's say next week (if I say it, then it will be so?).  In any case, if you play the novakkah game today, you can win the pattern before you can buy it (hey, I sound like a radio station ad, no?).

It's my Interlocked pattern (yes!  I finally got around to it!).  It's been test quilted, I have made a few versions, and it's a great pattern (she says humbly).  It's beginner friendly, and fun (and pretty easy, too).  In any case... a pattern, and since a pattern with no fabric is no fun, I will throw in the accent squares for the quilt.  I will talk to the winner to get an idea of what size quilt you want to make (the pattern is written for three sizes) and the kind of fabric you'd like.  I am pretty sure I have most preferences covered.

To be considred for this prize today, please tell me: if you were given the gift of a "free day" for your next birthday, how would you spend the day?

I will take comments for this post, and all Novakkah posts, until 11:59 EST (or2359, should you prefer that), Saturday, May 12th. Please leave your responses on the appropriate post. One entry per post/person. I will show you what I have to gift each day and let you know what you need to tell me to try to get it. Giftees will be selected on the 13th and gifts sent out shortly thereafter.

xo(xo)

Okay, so the birthday quilt isn't done yet, but you know what is done?  This set of two baby quilts.

 

If you remember my string pillow from last year, then this should look familiar.  The funny thing here is, these quilts aren't even the main attraction, as it were.  These quilts were put together from leftover blocks that I didn't need for a twin-sized bed quilt (that one just needs binding--which is, honestly, becoming the story of my life).

 

I originally started these last year for a friend of mine with twins but her twins are too big for these now, they are toddlers.  These are "baby" baby-sized quilts (as in tiny!)--approximately 27 inches square.  Fortunately, another friend of mine has decided to accomodate my gift-giving needs and is having twins in two or three months.  So if she is reading this, when she opens these next month at the baby shower I am throwing her, she should just pretend to be surprised. Ahem.

I mixed strips from "vintage" linens (I have discussed this already, go clicky!) with some coordinating solids to make the string blocks.  I did an "x" and an "o" because I could; and, well, it seems like a good idea at the time. The quilting was done on my old trusty Kenmore, so it was basted properly and then quilted with straight lines...a little echo quilting action, but really, "a bunch of straight lines".

The baby quilts are infinitely cuter than the twin-sized quilt will be when it's done (it is a proven thing, small things or things in miniature are just cute); but, when I finish the bigger quilt, if you all could just ooh and ahh, a little, it will make me feel as though it was time well-spent.

(not so) little sir

I did not finish the birthday quilt in time for birthday gift-giving.  Little Sir said it was okay, apparently it was the outcome he was expecting (he knows me and my procrastinating ways so well).  Aside from not getting a fabulous quilt for his birthday, he had a really great celebration (hard not to when you are celebrating for a week).

He even lost his first tooth!  It was a big deal...I mean, there was a fairy and money involved, so....

So while I stew over the fact that I recently celebrated my 6th anniversary of  parenthood, I am going to throw a binding on this here birthday quilt. I have some serious catching up to do!

1/24 :: a test, and an explaination

Some of you are probably wondering where the sweaters and quilts are.  I have them (some), but today, let's talk about quilts since I haven't really done that and it's March.  The first quilt I am trotting out is a small test quilt I made (pretend like the quilt is on a white wall or that the background fabric is not the same color as my family room wall.  Apparently, beige is the color of my life right now).  It's a little wonky (the way the quilt is hung on the wall exacerbates the wonkiness) and has some minor imperfections.  It doesn't really matter.  The whole point of this quilt was to practice quilting on a quilting frame. 

I spent the last year buying a mid-arm quilt frame system.  Instead of buying a package like a normal person, I bought the components of my frame over the course of a year because...well, that's how I do things, apparently.

I bought the frame first...and then I stained it.  As quilting frames go, I have found Grace frames to be 1) affordable, 2) reliable, and 3) well supported (the customer service is beyond fantastic).  I think it does need to be said that I am in no way affiliated with the company (aside from being a customer), nor am I am paid endorser of the company or its products, okay, so now that that's out of the way...  The frame is sturdy.  It holds a sewing machine and it works!  Regarding equipment of any scale, I am  sort of like the Dyson man, I feel like th thing should just work.

The reason it took so long for me to get this thing operational is the sewing machine situation.  I thought I would use a machine I already owned on it...but then thought better of it, so bought another machine (a Juki--it's a workhorse), but then I needed a new carriage (the carriages are machine specific, fyi).  I was getting a new carriage at the same time as the Grace company started making aluminum pro carriages (as opposed to the wooden carriage)...so I ended up having to send a carriage back and getting  a new one (well, I didn't have to, but that's what the company offered to do for me...see, they are good like that).

And then I tested a Juki/frame set up at the International Quilt Festival last year and realized that my quilt-frame life would not be complete without a stitch regulator.  K got that for me for Christmas because he just became annoyed with the monster in the room.  Seriously, it's huge.  I have the queen set up (I now wish that I got the king set up (I bought this well before the new versions that can easily convert came out)--learn from my mistake.  If you can accommodate a king set up, get the king set up).

So I practiced.

And then I practiced some more.

 

And then I thought I would try a quilt.

I love this thing (the quilt frame...the quilt, like I said, was just a practice piece--I like it, but am not enamored).

And that's why I feel pretty confident that I will finish 24 (not 48) quilts this year.  They won't all be quilted on the frame...but well, most of them will.  I am okay with that. So one down, 23 to go.

big love

 
Are you amazed?  I am not going to go all falsely humble on you, this quilt is fantastic; but, feel free to drop comments of praise, should you feel so inclined (I always appreciate a heartfelt "attagirl").

Every year I make one thing that climbs the scale of "best thing ever?" and stays there refusing to be toppled, this might be the thing for this year.  Babette was 2009, Ruby was 2010 (though Starry Night, did give it a run for its money).  This year, it's probably going to be Big Love. 
This quilt was made for Little Sir's former Pre-School teacher.  She was a fabulous teacher and we consider her a friend, and well, my children love her.  So when Little Sir asked if "we" could make a quilt for her to give her as a wedding present, of course it was the best idea ever, and I said of course "we" could.  

Though I had an idea what I wanted to do back in April, I didn't start making the quilt until a week before the wedding in July.  What?  That's how I work--if you only have a minute (week) it only takes a minute (week).  I know, the philosophy is flawed, but it has worked well for me for at least two decades.  In any case, I wanted to do something modern, but yet harkening back to tradition, because, well, love...it's an old concept....and, well, it's a big deal, right?  

 
I was thinking of making a traditional Double Wedding Ring (DWR) quilt, but since I am not sure I love even myself enough to go through the pain and torture of all that curved piecing, I nixed that right away (or, I dragged my feet until I had to do something else, you pick).  Also, the traditional DWR quilt is just so....traditional.  And well, modernity, I am all about it for the most part.  So I began playing around with the idea of wedding rings.  And then I made them big, terribly modern, right?

 
At somepoint in the design process, I thought it would be a great idea to hand draft the arcs for the rings.  I am pretty sure that stroke of brilliance occured on a night where I slept very little because any quilter who has embraced technology will tell you that that is probably the stupidest thing ever thought.  But it seemed like a good idea at the time, so that's what I did.  

The handdrafting makes the arcs not so perfect, which, to be honest, I kind of like.  The piecing in the arcs was entirely improvisational, which is so modern, it kind of hurts.  This is the largest quilt I have ever free-motion quilted on my machine (it measures 63 inches square--I intended to make a throw, and I like 63"-65" for a throw).  

The quilting was meander stitched (some people call it stippling, my sources lead me to believe these people are wrong, but there you are) pretty tightly and then I pieced the continuous binding with bits and pieces of fabric used for the rings.  

Backing was remnants with blues and purples prominent (the giftees favorite colors) and after attaching the top of the binding by machine, I hand sewed the binding to the back.  No, you read right, I sewed it by hand--who am I?

 
I hope that the quilt is well used and well loved.  And while this quilt design drove the development of other designs, I think I can safely say that I will likely not be making this one ever again.  

 
Notice I did not say "never."  

 
Now I think I am going to go and knit something.  Cooler weather, it is around the corner, after all.

regarding wedding quilts

 
A long time ago (more than a decade) I started quilting.  Most novice quilters latch onto the concept of miniature quilts fairly early on.  Though impractical (I mean really, who is going to be kept warm with a 13-inch quilt?), miniature quilts give quilters an opportunity to play with design, quilt a smaller area on machine or by hand (as opposed to a huge quilt), and offers a chance to practice quilt binding techniques.  But mostly, due to its size, a miniature quilt is doable. 

 
To be perfectly honest, miniature quilts no longer appeal to me.  Since my goals are usually to produce something pretty and functional, that's where I throw my time.  But eleven years ago, shortly after I got married and relatively shortly after I learned to quilt, I became fascinated with wedding ring quilts.  At the time, I did not have the skill to make a pieced wedding ring quilt, so I opted to try a miniature one, with the rings fused onto the quilt using fusible interfacing (my first time working with that too).  I found the pattern in an old issue of Miniature Quilts Magazine (no longer published--print run 1990-2000/2001) that I picked up at a yard sale somewhere in Maine (where I was living at the time).  In any case, the mini-quilt top got "lost" which, is pretty understandable considering it was, basically, a 13-inch square of fabric.  I found it during our move and decided to finish it, because, well, it was a quilt eleven years in the making.

 
It's a miniature quilt, not terribly useful, but there you are. 

 
Speaking of wedding ring quilts, I am in the process of making a wedding quilt for Little Sir's teacher from pre-school.  She got married last month and, not surprisingly, I am running a little behind.  While I now have the skill to make a wedding ring quilt (at least I think I do...), honestly, I lack the patience for it.  I designed something more modern but the project has become the bane of my existence lately, but I need to cross it off the slate and move on, so you'll likely see that sooner rather than later.  No really, I am basting the quilt tonight...so that's something, right?

egg-static weekend report

 
I don't mean to brag (who am I kidding?), but I had a weekend that can best be described as "stellar", you know, like my name?  Oh, never mind.  It was a good weekend.  I got some quilting done; and, by "some" I mean quite a lot, actually.  Five quilts quilted.  That's not bad, all things considered. 
And of course there were the Easter doings. 

 
I dyed eggs (which made me want to dye fiber).  I had help of course (and all things are improved by the accoutrement of bunny ears).

I made an unseemly number of cupcakes for an Easter lunch with friends. 
I helped the Easter Bunny hide Easter eggs, apparently that's what one does when one has small children.

 
I watched egg hunting activities unfold.  The shenanigans of which were royally entertaining.

 

And yes, the Littles were all dressed up in their Easter finery. 

 
I think it only fitting to tell you that Little Sir picked their Easter outfits this year.  No, really.

i wish there were more of me

 
Do you ever think about how much your productivity would increase if only there were more of you to go around?  To say that I think about this a great deal would not be an exaggeration.  I wouldn't need that many more of me, really, I think an additional three would be sufficient.  If there were four of me running about, I could get so much done.

 
I have been doing some crafting here and there, but I have set things aside for the most part to, literally, get my house in order.  When your children become so accustomed to pulling their daily outfits from laundry bins in the hallway next to the washer and dryer instead of furniture purchased specifically for the purpose of storing clothes, perhaps it is time to re-think one's priorities (don't even get me started on th dust accumulation--coincidentally, I have noticed our new house gets dustier faster than the old one; or not, I could be making that up, but it seems like more dust to me and I find the whole thing irksome).

While I have been sneaking in knitting sporadically here and there.  Any significant time that I can devote to the art of making lately has gone into sewing, or really quilting, well, no, if we are being technically accurate, sewing. 

 

As I was cutting up squares to make a baby quilt, or two, really, it occurred to me that I have a total of fourteen quilts in process right now (not counting the two new baby quilts I started cutting squares for).  Most of those quilts are really just quilt tops in various stages of completion.  The tops need to be finished, and things need to be sandwiched and then things need to be quilted (and then binding applied, etcetera).

 
I am thinking that my sewing life will be greatly improved by the newest addition to my household (because as Little Sir so eloquently stated, "you really need a new sewing machine, Mommy." Of course, when he said it, it was probably infused with more sarcasm and less cuteness).  So while I don't have the ability to self-replicate.  Technology can, indeed, make my life easier...or at least, that's what they tell me.

If you are of the Easter-celebrating fold, Happy Easter.  I am anticipating egg-citing activities in my household this weekend, and then, it's back to the making of things...I do have fourteen (plus two) quilts in the works, afterall.

Happy Weekend!

form over function, sometimes it works

 
At some point last year, I noticed that all of my quilty friends on flickr were buying "vintage linens" and being one who does not like missing wagons, I decided to go to etsy and buy some "vintage linens" for myself.  Okay, let's be real here, vintage linens are basically old or used (and old) bedclothes. I suppose there could be tablecloths and kitchen towels too, but these things do not fall under my vintage umbrella today.  Today, I am talking about bedclothes.  My mother (and probably some of you) are wondering why on earth I (or any other quilter?) would want to purchase and make things out of old bedclothes when there is so much incredible fabric readily available to the home sewer/quilter today (that has not been slept on by other people that we will never know).  I can't speak for anyone else, but mostly, I did it because I could.  And I know the old adage of just because you can do something doesn't mean you should; but, honestly, when I see stuff like this, I think of my childhood.  And since my childhood was a happy one (I have found that crazy or eccentric parents, really help in the building of fond childhood memories category), I don't mind re-living it every now and again.

So, as I was saying, I bought this "vintage linen" (which you have to admit sounds much nicer than, "used bedclothes," really, and then I faced the quandary of what to do with all of it.  I bought a goodly number of fat quarters.  The colors were, well, reminiscent of the 1970s; and, their fiber content was questionable (1970s=textile manufacturing employing polyester in everything imaginable).  I knew if I threw in a solid of two, I would have enough for a quilt; but, I really had no idea what I wanted to do with this fabric. And since I have washed the fabric a couple of times (well, wouldn't you?), I had plenty of time to think about it. 

 
 And then I wondered, do I really want a quilt out of this fabric?  So I figured, let's do a quilt block and see how that goes, but I can't stand waste and I wanted to do something somewhat functional so I decided to make a pillow (an envelope pillow, specifically).  Okay, so not the most functional thing in the world, but it's cute and it helped answer my question.  Of course I want to make a quilt with this fabric.  So, yeah, let's do that.

 

smart solutions, brought to you by the number four

 
So you know how I advocated making two things (in my case, hats) when you are trying to appease siblings?  Turns out, this is a good rule to maintain peace in one's household in general.  I am not sure why I thought I could get away with making a quilt for one child and not the other, apparently, I missed that day in the Mother Tutelage Workshop series.  So now I am faced with the task of making another quilt,  in a manner that is more expeditious than my usual way of quilt making (which usually involve great lapses in time between start and finish) because the boys have come to fisticuffs over this quilt (especially now, since Little Sir has decided to keep the quilt at home--I am sure he is doing this just to cause discord.  You may think I am kidding, I'm not.  Sometimes he likes to get rough and tumbly, I think it's a brothers thing, I honestly have no idea).

 
When inquiring about a solution to this new problem (is it just me, or is my propensity for asking a four year old for advice about this sort of stuff, maybe, counter-productive?), Little Sir looked at me, like the fool I apprently am, shrugged and said, "well, you could just make another quilt, Mommy."  Maybe it was just the way he said it (patronizing, much?), but I have gained a better understanding of how my children/THE children (or at least the older one) thinks that I am made of time.  It's kind of cute that Little Sir thinks that I can just magically produce something of awesome proportions just because I will it to be so.  I mentioned that, "it's not as easy as all that.  These sorts of things take time and planning."  I have to plan and draw out a design, buy the fabric (let's just disregard the mountains of fabric currently at my disposal, trust me, fabric must be bought), cut the fabric, piece everything together, and then you know, there is the quilting and the binding and probably another cute signature block...  I am seeing hours dripping away from my life...but, it could be fun, so I am not complaining--I am simply making an observation here.

 

And when Little Sir offered to help, well, obviously I could not turn down this opportunity to collaborate with an artist of such renown.  I am finding that collaboration with such a diva (divo?) can be challenging.  He is feeling quite assured of his creative vision and is discounting my suggestions at the moment ("that's not feasible" means absolutely nothing to him).  But we are working on it.

 

So maybe in a month (or two?) we will see another maze quilt and a pattern to go with it around these parts (since so many of you inquired about one).  It will be my first foray into writing a pattern for a quilt, so, fun, right?  And obviously, there will be other stuff going on while that Maze Quilt 2.0 thing is going on.  Obviously, multiple craft disorder and all that.