What is she up to NOW?

As promised, with a quilt cave that is clean and organized, time to make a mess!

Picking just the right red scrap for a cherry...

Since I like to work on a few things as a time, I needed to start something to have some satisfying hand applique prep and hand stitching to do while watching Alabama and Auburn Football and other TV shows.

This original design has been on my mind for a while, and it was fun to take the rough sketches and turn them into nine blocks this week.  Every time I finished a block, I just giggled to myself.

Can you imagine these glue prepped motifs in the same project?!? 

A hint: they won't all be in the same block.  Above they are just positioned on a piece of paper for a picture.

Making the French fries isn't really that hard.  Just two rows with a little overlapping.  NO CALORIES!

I'm trying not to have the fries and burger look like a particular brand.

All of the colors in these pictures are darker and duller than they really are.  I love working with bright tone-on-tone fabrics, but my photo skills can't keep up with me.

Some of the blocks need embroidery details once they are stitched down to the backgrounds and the glue soaked out.

I really love using reverse applique to do the eyes, then find just the right sized black-on-white dot to peek through from the back.

No surprise, I had a pink fabric that looked like cupcake sprinkles.

Now I have to choose a background for the blocks...white or cream, tone-on-tone or speckled.  I hate choosing fabrics!  Scrappy makes things easy when making choices for the motifs, but for something unifying like the background or borders, I sort of freeze.

Fortunately, I have several more motifs to sort out and prep before I need to glue baste them to backgrounds.  Ah, procrastination...one of my best friends.



A hammer seriously?  You never know what I will put into a quilt.  Remember I put a piece of DNA in my last quilt...

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)

The big reveal!

Yippee, I think I am finally comfortable in the quilt cave!  It's all clean, shiny, and ready to drag all kinds of stuff out to play and make a mess!  It was a good time for pictures before I destroyed it.

It's still sort of a stained glass studio.  My cutting station is over the glass work table, there is glass equipment stuff behind the shelves at the end of the room, and all the larger pieces of glass are in their rolling wooden containers under where I rotary cut.

The wooden door connects my room to the walkout family room, the metal door goes outside. 

I have to close the wooden door to get to my "desk" to pick bits for applique or dig through patterns in my filing cabinets.  Having the door closed makes it harder to find me, hee hee.

The lighting was designed for doing stained glass, so the room is definitely bright enough.  I can open the blinds to a big picture window to let in natural light.  That softens things a bit.

I did buy the black plastic shelves from Lowe's, but most of my other fixtures are recycled, reclaimed items I collected when I lived in Michigan.  

The four wooden cubby hole structures were found among discarded items on garbage day (three of them cleaned up and cheered with a lick of paint), my chair and filing cabinets were plucked from the U of Michigan Property Disposition Center, my "door desk top" came from a second hand lumber yard, and my colorful, spongy child's mat on the floor under my cutting center came from a garage sale.
  

I like to sit at the "desk" to sort out the little bits for my applique.  I have small containers of little scraps, segregated by color, and containers that hold slightly larger pieces.

This allows me to chose bits for a scrappy applique project without dragging out bigger containers all the time.  I keep replenishing the containers as I need from my stash.

Steve mounted a plug strip to the wall and ran the cord over the door so I can use my mini iron (and charge my phone) right where I am working.  This is where I press down all those freezer paper patterns.

My Dad put so many plugs in this room when he built the house, but I managed to cover up the ones on this outside wall with my gigantic stack of fixtures, hence the need to have the extension cord snaked over the door.

Those of you that saw my posts about my Michigan quilt cave, or read through the organizational tutorials on my blog tool bar, recognize my fabric containers.  I collected all these over about 20 years of using my weekly JoAnn's coupons on plastic storage containers.

This is my cutting area, where I am also currently saving my batting scraps.  The wooden strips on the wall are a part of a storage system my Dad made for Mom's glass samples (for reordering.)  We took down all the others around the room and forgot these...now we can't reach them!

The glass fits well under the homemade glass work table.  The work surface is just the right height for cutting fabric as well as assembling glass.  

The cabinets and counter top were second-hand as well.  My Dad found them, installed them, and put in a huge, deep sink.  That is all the hidden storage I have for other crafts and quilting clutter. Visible storage is clear or opaque so I know where stuff is located.

The TV and blue ray player are a must!  There is no cable or network connection in there, but that is fine with me!  That means no commercials.  I am currently re-watching the 10th season of "The Big Bang Theory" before the new season starts next week.

I decided a long time ago that I was tired of maneuvering heavy plastic tubs of unsorted fabric.  That was hard on my back and hands.  I could never find what I was looking for.  It made me very cranky and wasted so much of my quilting time.  That is why I use multiple smaller containers...better on my back and hands, and I can find EVERYTHING!

It makes it look like I have more fabric than I do, but I like that the containers aren't so packed and crammed.  I can fondle the folded fabric with ease.

Of course, a large 3-person "quilter's garage sale" and moving out-of-state after 20 years culls the stash nicely.  I don't miss anything I got rid of, and I made lots of other quilters very happy.

I encourage everyone to realistically look at their stash and give away, donate, or throw away stuff you will never use.  It is very freeing (and then there is room for new purchases).

Everything has to have a place, or things will be perpetually cluttered.  I like to pull out stuff for a project so that it looks like a tornado blew through, then clean up and put things away before I move on to the next thing.

I am totally OCD!

Steve installed the nice blinds...the sun really intrudes late in the afternoon.

My sewing table is another fixture my dad built for stained glass work...it is so solid!

Flexible labeling is key and helps me target the correct container right from the start.  After new fabric is washed and folded, it is filed.

I would love to have this huge sink ANYWHERE but in this room. It is taking up precious counter space and there is a sink, in the bar area, in the next room if needed.  I have been storing things in it (the water line is turned off).

Steve cut me a sturdy scrap of plywood to cover it up, temporarily. I painted it with the paint I had left over from painting our exterior front door in Michigan, so it is a nice reminder...and it sort of matches the room.  Sigh.

I can't quite get everything in the room.  There is a utility/mechanical closet not far from my door where I store things I don't access every day.  It's kind of rough, but it reminds me of my unfinished basement quilt cave in Michigan.  Again, sigh.

I also store hand quilting hoops, hand quilting poles, backings, and newspaper print in here.  There is a chair in here...and a door.  I can hide in here as well, hee hee.

There used to be a huge mountain of quilty stuff that needed to be put away right outside the door of my quilting space.  Now there is only a table and a few stray things.  I hope to sort all that out this weekend, put the table away,  and put my design wall up, neatly, over that window...for now.  I don't know where else to put it.

Then I can stop using the top of the pool table for my design surface...

I always dreamed of having one of those huge, fancy quilt areas that you see in the quilt magazines from time to time.  I don't think that is going to be possible...I am here for the duration.  I am so very thankful for the space I have and it has been fun to make it happen in my parents' house as frugally as possible.  It is not fancy or brand new, but it is functional.  I think I can be happy in there.

Oh, and I put a FABULOUS reed diffuser in there...so it no longer smells like a workshop.  

AND, I have 2 of 4 outer borders on my Little Treasures top...including all those circles...

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)

Pictures from the AQS Fall Paducah Quilt Show...

It was a quick trip to the AQS Fall Paducah Quilt Show in Kentucky, but my first time to visit Paducah.

I was blown away by the number of quilts on display, in multiple buildings, both contest and exhibition.  What I saw and could take pictures of was merely a drop in the proverbial quilt bucket.  I currently have a bit of a gimpy foot, so my viewing was limited. Next time I need to stay more than one night!

I managed to get pictures of 40 quilts to share.  

One of the most impressive quilts was one I couldn't get anywhere near for even one picture..."Hawaiian Improv," by Cheryl See.  It won in the large quilts, hand quilted category.  (She also won a first prize in a second category.)  

Beautiful hand quilting!  It was one of the first place category winners which is involved in the voting for the super huge money prizes tonight.  You can see it on the AQS Fall Paducah web site. 

The maker was giving detailed tours of her quilt to small groups the whole time I was there.  The details were amazing, and voting for the best first place quilt was still going on...

Risking your fatigue, here is one more picture of my 2nd place, hand appliqued and hand quilted, 58 x 58 inch entry, live and in person.  

Enjoy my tiny version of this huge quilt show!  

(I followed the photo rules by displaying the names of the quiltmakers and not benefiting monetarily from them.  If you share these pictures, please do the same.)

The following quilt won first place in my category.

44 x 44 inches, packed with beautiful movable machine quilting.

The following quilt won third place in my category...loved the colors.

59 x 59 inches, stationary machine quilting.

60 x 60 inches, stationary machine quilted by Robin Hrabik (don't you think the quilter's name should be on the label if it is not the maker??  I know some shows don't accept quilts where the maker "pays" the quilter, so they are somewhat collaborators and they work it amongst themselves).

58 x 73, stationary machine quilting.

49 x 49 inches, movable machine quilted by Chong Kropik.

50 x 50 inches...my label picture was blurry...made by Sara DeTombe and Jennifer Rossi, Huntington, TN (I assume the second name is the stationary machine quilter).

Great name, beautiful bright colors...makes my Bride quilt look dull...62 x 87 inches and HAND QUILTED!

Darn, another blurry label.  I was trying to dart in and take pictures before people wandered in frame...

"Common Bride Autumn Wedding" made by Melanie Jane Mitchell, Gross Pointe Farms, MI.  85 x 84 inches, movable machine quilted by Ruth McCormick.

I have a pattern for this...on my bucket list...

Another blurry label..."Michigan Lighthouses" by Phyllis Jacobs, Big Rapids, MI, 93 x 93.  It was first place in the large quilt, pictorial category.  Movable quilted by Pam Dubbles.

Another first place winner...Gail Stepanek and Jan Hutchinson (movable machine quilter?), 74 x 74 inches.  I wish I could have gotten closer...half of the small diamonds were made up of teeny tiny diamonds.

78 X 79 inches, hand and stationary machine quilted.

82 x 82 inches, movable machine quilted.  Another first place winner.

78 x 78 inches, stationary machine quilted.

73 x 73 inches, "Tropical Punch," Ann Horton, Redwood Valley, CA, stationary machine quilted.

84 x 84 inches, Harumi Asada, Japan, HAND QUILTED!  Love the pieced trees in the corners...

99 x 99 inches, movable machine pieced.

86 x 86 inches, movable machine quilted.

91 x 91 inches, possibly movable machine quilted by Mary Christopher.

63 x 63 inches, HAND QUILTED! 

70 x 70 inches, movable machine quilted by Julia Rockwell.

77 x 86 inches, movable machine quilted by Heather Broehm.

87 x 101 inches, Marilyn Lidstrom Larson and Barb Simons (possible movable machine quilter), Willow City, ND.

104 x 104 inches, possibly HAND QUILTED by Marcia Zimmerman.

107 x 106 inches, Beth Nufer and Clem Buzick, Brookings, OR (possible movable machine quilter).

105 x 105 inches, Gloria Seibel, Millstadt, IL, movable machine quilted by Jacqulyn Mann and Jane Hair.

61 x 61 inches, movable machine quilted by Chong Kropik.

82 x 83 inches, movable machine quilted by Sylvia Smith.

70 x 70 inches, movable machine quilted.

60 x 69 inches, stationary machine quilted.  LOVE THIS!

I, too, bought this embroidery pattern from Crabapple Hill to hand applique instead of embroider.  Leslie beat me to it!  So Cool!

73 x 73 inches, movable machine quilted by Chong Kropik.

84 x 84 inches, Julee Prose, Otumwa, IA, beautifully HAND QUILTED!  

This might have been my favorite quilt.

Ola and Mary, does this next quilt look familiar??  (We kitted this block-of-the-month years ago when we worked at a shop.)

63 x 87 inches, possibly movable machine quilted by Irene Reising.

63 x 63 inches, stationary machine quilted.

88 x 115 inches, movable machine quilted.

48 x 57 inches, adorable, HAND QUILTED!  Very cute and whimsical!

69 x 69 inches, HAND QUILTED!

66 x 76 inches, HAND QUILTED!

48 x 60 inches, movable machine quilted.

37 x 37 inches, Cheryl L. See, Ashburn, VA, HAND QUILTED! 

41 x 51 inches, computer-aided quilted.

Well, that was fun!  Did any of you go to the show?  What were your impressions?

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)