I think I am officially back now...thank you to everyone who has been so kind and patient towards me following the death of my mother on February 20.  I really have appreciated all the calls, cards, emails, prayers, and fabric/scrap intervention that I have received.  My mom was in a state of decline for so long that I am surprised at how all this has affected me.  I've pretty much lost interest in everything for the past 3-4 weeks.  I came back from Alabama with a calendar of things that were impossible to avoid, which I managed to stumble through, but other than that I have just been enjoying solitude, fabric, music and Jane Austen movies.

I spent time hand quilting and mindlessly piecing scraps together.  This blog is called 'fabric therapy' for a reason...it is my favorite escape.  This poor pineapple log cabin quilt has been on the shelf for a while, and it was just the project for mindless needling around...outline quilting with no marking required.  Ahhh...mindless fabric therapy.

I opened my scrap boxes containing bright, cheerful strips, chunks and bits and just started chain-piecing like crazy.  I made 160 of my 8.5 inch "X Marks the Block" squares, which I turned into two large quilts, one for my daughter and one for her best friend.  They are being quilted, then I will post them, along with a complete tutorial on how I made them, in anticipation of teaching a class in this technique in a couple of weeks.  They were very satisfying to complete, and since they were completely free-pieced without instructions, rules or rigidity, they were very easy and therapeutic to make.  This is what the blocks looked like.  I used brights and novelties, so it is really a kind of "I Spy" quilt.

With the narrow left-overs from that project, I added some MORE small brite bits and made these free-pieced and trimmed strips, or "sticks."

I used these freezer paper circles in multiple sizes to cut out and glue under edges to make the "stones" from even the tiniest bright little saved bits.

"Stick and Stones" is simmering on the back burner, awaiting some hand applique and border inspiration.  Here's a block or so.

 Do you see the little flower-looking pin in the top left-hand corner?

You can see the bead a little better in the close up.  I forget when I bought them and who makes them, but they are super!  They are alphabet beads that came with the large safety pins and they are for marking blocks so that I am assured to get them back in the right order after the circles have been appliqued and before I sew them together.

The beads are cool, but the following is one of my favorite methods to label blocks in progress.  I came up with this when doing a complicated project several years ago.  They are freezer paper squares labeled with row and block number.  I just place them on the block, press lightly, then peel them off (and save them to reuse another day!) when I am through piecing the blocks together.  They really work!  And the freezer paper is a great way to label pieces in kits that you purchase, then bury in your quilt cave until motivation hits you.

I really believe in "leaders and enders" (thank you Bonnie Hunter!), and have been putting together these random, sort-of-triangular-shaped scraps with the ultimate goal of a whole lot of scrappy HST's.  I keep a container by my machine, and piece a light and dark one together every time I start and stop sewing a chain of piecing.

When I get a pile sewn, I press them toward the darker triangle and put them in a project box, where I have been storing them until I have enough.

Ahhh...fabric therapy...I will square them up later.

And I have been joyfully contemplating THESE LOVELIES...
I see a scrappy quilt with white in the near future!

I've also been writing a weekly quilt shop newsletter, coordinating classes at the same shop, and teaching hand quilting and glue stick hand applique...maybe it was good that I couldn't clear my calendar.  The scheduled events kept me around people to a certain degree.

I am finding that the rest of the world doesn't stop, even when I want it to.

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Now THAT'S fabric therapy!

Love in the mail...that is what I found on my doorstep last night.  Kathie of Inspired by Antique Quilts sent me the most amazing care package.  Most of your know I lost my Mom 3 weeks ago, and I've been in a hard space.  I opened this large mailing parcel and pulled out a giant ziploc bag the size of VW bug.  I spent the first hour or so hugging it as if it was a teddy bear.  I am completely blown away by your generosity and thoughtfulness!  What is it about that fabric that is so therapeutic???  Especially when it comes in the mail from a kindred spirit many miles away...

When I stopped crying, curiosity got the better of me and I unzipped the bag.  WOW!  Look at all these lovely, bright and happy 2.5 inch strips!  I am overwhelmed!  These will make such a happy, healing quilt project!

I went to sleep last night dreaming about what to do with them.  It is so nice to be dreaming about quilt patterns and projects again.  I think that when I am sad, that feeling is like an 800-pound gorilla, sitting on my creativity.  When I opened the package, I was inwardly shouting, "monkey, be GONE!!!"  Thank you so much, Kathie!  I am truly touched!

I have been mindlessly sewing some scraps into strips for the past week or so.  I was hoping to use the Featherweight, but I couldn't find the bobbins for that little lovely...I've got to figure out where I put them "for safe keeping."  Lord, I miss my mind...

These little bits are tucked away until I get some time and inspiration.  I had an idea about a month ago of what to do with them, and I need to find my pencil-scratched "doodle" and get on with it.

I'm so touched...and inspired... by your gift, Kathie.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I am always surprised and delighted to discover just how wonderful blogland can be for finding and following quilting friends.  I just love quilting...


In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Sewing through the blues...and reds...and greens...

In Memory of Mildred Louise Schell Yielding

November 7, 1928 - February 20, 2012

I apologize for being out of communication and the "no-show" posting.  I owe many of you replies to your nice comments and emails.  My Mom just passed away after a long decline.  She is at peace now.  Thank you to everyone who sent good vibes and sentiments in my direction.  I am in dire need of some serious fabric therapy now that I am home from Alabama, and I intend to lose myself in the quilt cave.  

There is some mindless fabric manipulation in my immediate future...I think I need to pull out Mom's pale green Singer Featherweight, and put it through a work out...


Thank you,
Teresa

Design Wall schizophrenia...

Procrastination is a killer.  This scrappy Positive-Negative Chains quilt (ala Bonnie Hunter) has been snoozing on my design wall for months awaiting two borders.  I didn't want to unpin it and take it down until I was actually sewing borders on, then walking out the door with it, taking it to be machine-quilted.  It was such a bear to get pressed nicely with all those little scrappy pieces...

I finally prepared borders and off the wall it came; first a brick red stop border, followed by a dark blue outer border cut from a length of Moda "Renewal" that I had been saving for years.  Does anyone else out there "save" things?  Afraid to actually use fabric because then it will be used up?  Those fabric manufacturers have us right where they want us...LOL.

See all my careful pressing?!?  It is worth the time and effort to press carefully and thoughtfully as I go, trying to "nest" seams when I can so they will lie flat.  That is critical for either hand- or machine-quilting.

I'm glad I pushed myself to use the outer border fabric...it is just what this scrappy, busy quilt needed.  I really like the result.  The quilt has a nice border set AND it is off the design wall.    Why is it so hard to use our stashes sometimes??  We cannot possibly take it with us when we go...what am I saving stuff for?   I should have named this post "stash constipation" instead, huh.

I had gotten "stuck" with many OTHER projects just because I could not use my design wall to study the situations.  I am a visual person, and even though I can imagine things in my head, I still need to stand back and take the whole thing in at various points in the design process...especially when I am making it all up to begin with.  Cluttered head, cluttered design wall...what's a quilt cave troll to do?

I've been wanting to lay out these blocks for a few weeks now.  I just trimmed them down to 8.5 inches this week, and I am considering setting the blocks 8 blocks x 8 rows.  With borders, the quilt would end up about 76-80 inches square.  I made this block up a few weeks ago.  It is a great way to use up scraps and I do it WITHOUT PAPER FOUNDATIONS (because I hate removing those papers).  I think I will call it "X Marks the Block" because the black scraps form very obvious "X" figures (when I lay the blocks out right!).  How did I make the blocks?  Go here to see.

I will take these down, in order, so that I can start sewing them together.

Here are some of my Wonky Stars...it is fun to put them on the design wall to see how they twinkle!  I need to put some of the scrappy pieces for these in my leader/ender basket by my sewing machine.  It's amazing how fast these stars appear when randomly making units while piecing other things.

These pictures seem so dark for some reason.  The fabrics in the stars are very vibrant while the neutrals stay in the background.

I forgot all about this U.F.O.!!  This is my "Poultry in Motion" project...crazy-pieced blocks using chicken fabrics.  I only have 3 more blocks to finish and it will become a flimsy.  I already have the chicken fabric strips cut and in a box labeled "chicken strips" - that box always makes me hungry when my eyes pass over the label...yummmmmm...chicken strips...

Down come the chickens and up go some of my Blackbird baskets from that ongoing project.  I'm getting a little dizzy from my revolving door quilt design wall...it's fun to see how far I've come with these projects.  I still have more red, blue, pink,green, black and purple repro fabrics to make baskets from.  I think I need about 300 in total.

But this is the main reason I wanted to clear the design wall.  It was time to put all the Lori Smith "Folk Art Applique" blocks together to see how they look now that all the hand applique is finished.  Me likey!!  I need to audition some of the swags I've drawn to see which one I end up using for the border.  I am really happy with how these turned out, and I am looking forward to finishing the top so that I can start hand-quilting.

Putting things on the design wall for a while has helped to build a little fire under me to want to work on these projects.  These U.F.O.'s need oxygen and daylight every now and then to continue the creative process.

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Rx for January...work with bright fabrics!

 have my 12 center blocks hand appliqued for the Lori Smith's "Folk Art Applique" quilt.  Each block will finish at 9 inches.

This has been the perfect hand stitching pattern for this time of the year in Michigan...there are a lot of gloomy, cold days with linoleum skies.

The picture on the original pattern looked as if solid, saturated fabrics were used.  I decided to use tone-on-tone bright fabrics, hoping they would read as solids, but with more zing and pep.

It's time to play with the layout and order of the blocks, sew them together, and start thinking about a border.  I think I will come up with an original border design...perhaps a swag. 

 

Should I put eyes on the animals?  I think the original pattern gave eyes only to the chicken and bird...

I've enjoyed the simplicity of the design elements.  This pattern works up nicely using the glue stick method of hand applique.

I carefully trimmed the black background away from behind the larger applique shapes, especially the yellow ones.

I found I needed to stitch in good light because I soon discovered that the black background really magnified misplaced stitches!  I'm still loving the YLI silk thread for hand applique.

 

The sunflower block just may be my favorite...

 

I have trouble with January...anyone else in the same boat??  I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays.  I had such a good mojo going with the weight loss and exercise in 2012.  Now I am on a plateau.  Lots of walking and exercise would burn me past the plateau and get me on my way again.  But the January weather can be bad for walking...and for mojo.  Sometimes it is just dangerous to be out there due to the ice, snow, and/or cold.

I whipped up this little top as a sample for the shop.  It is called "We're Chicken," by Button Weeds.  I really liked making up the scrappy half square triangles.  I love scrappy...I don't have to make decisions about fabrics...they're ALL good!  Right now the chickens are running around blindly...I will add button eyes after it's quilted.  They have little prairie point wings...so plucky!

Good-bye January...I hope you take the doom and gloom with you!

In stitches,

Teresa   :o)