Around the World Blog Tour...

Welcome to the "Around the World Blog Tour!"  I was tagged by Karen of Quilts...Etc., who posted last Monday.  The idea of the tour is that featured blogs take turns posting and answering four main questions.

1)  What am I currently working on??  I have been a little distracted the last 5 months and my work is ALL OVER THE PLACE!  My design wall is cluttered with multiple projects, all wanting my attention.  

I always have multiple projects going so that I don't 'sit and spin' (sit idle while I am stumped...).  I simply jump to something else for a while.

Most recently, I have been working on "Miss Emilie's Garden" by Lori Smith.

I have just recently finished appliqueing the twenty-five 5-3/4 inch blocks and setting them with sashing and cornerstones.  So far, I have been a good girl and have not deviated from Lori's pattern.  

But now I am in a state of 'sitting and spinning' with this project as I decide to either finish it with her outer border design or come up with something original.

I have a bad habit of changing other people's patterns sometimes...bad, bad girl...

I call my blog Fabric Therapy because handling beautiful 100% cotton fabrics is therapy to me.  When I am in the most need of therapy (like the last 5 months), I like to use up scraps and do some mindless chain-piecing.

I have been fascinated watching the projects others have created using selvages and thought I would experiment a little myself.

The selvages from bright fabrics are so cheerful, and some of the fabric lines have fun names...I even got my name into the block below (thank you to Teresa Kogut, a fabric designer).

And thanks to Riley Blake, I got my daughter's name in the following block...

Some people use strictly the selvage edge with the little color dots, but these bright fabrics selvages are fun to use with a hint of the rest of the yardage...so colorful and happy...

SO much fun...

I am working on an outer border with even more selvages...CRAZY!  I am sewing them onto foundation paper to create my strippy borders and corner turn-arounds.

Another mindless scrappy, happy project involves some leftovers from a previous finished project (I save everything...).  I started with these leftover crazy-pieced strips...

Then I combined them with some leftover bright strips to make crazy 6-1/2 inch blocks.  I have not decided whether to sash between them yet, so while I am 'sitting and spinning' about that decision, I'm off to think about another project...

It never gets boring in the quilt cave...

I've got quite a nice stack of blocks finished, with the makings of a few more waiting patiently for their turn on my therapy merry-go-round way of working.

But as most of you know, hand applique is my favorite thing to do. Now that "Baltimore Rhapsody - Symphony" is finished and appearing around the country in shows, I have been thinking about other music blocks.  I'd like to make a smaller quilt containing four blocks employing music clefs and fermatas, the symbol for "hold."

Or maybe I want to make individual one-block projects with them...

The bottom two blocks, the F and G clefs,  are actually two of the first music blocks I finished.  Then I added the tenor (or alto) clef and the crocus block with fermatas.

I am at another 'sit and spin' point with this project as I contemplate whether to sash or not, and if so, how, or even decide if I like the four of them together after all.  Then there are outer borders to dream about...I hope my design mojo comes back SOON!  I miss it!

And "Belles and Blossoms" is still asking for the outer borders...

Yes, there is no shortage of things to work on...even some scratchings at something new...

2)  How does my work differ from others??  As I mostly work on hand applique, I would say the biggest difference in what I do centers around my chosen method of hand applique.  I use freezer paper on the right side of the fabric as a guide and the temporary use of glue to turn edges under and glue baste to backgrounds (which is soaked out later).

I find it much easier than needle turn and I get some great results. It is also portable at several stages of the process, which is important for me at this time.  This method also works great for me as I have started to design a lot of my own projects...it gives me a lot of freedom.

Here is some of the prep I did on the tuba block for my "Baltimore Rhapsody - Symphony" quilt...the "right" side...

The wrong side (with edges turned under and glued with a glue stick)...

Part of the assembly process...

These are some of my favorite tools for doing this method of applique...

Freezer paper, Elmer's disappearing purple glue stick, Elmer's washable school glue or Roxanne's Glue Baste, good Karen Kay Buckley scissors, a Clover stiletto, tweezers for handling tiny pieces of paper and fabric, pattern weights, and YLI silk thread and good needles for hand stitching.

If you are interested in more about this method, there is a 3-part tutorial accessible from my tool bar above.

3)  Why do I create??  I love quilts, especially antique applique quilts and I feel the call to make them.  I like doing things with my hands...I cannot stand to just sit or watch TV without DOING SOMETHING!  I love touching the 100% cotton fabrics and putting the colors and patterns together.

As I find it hard to make fabric decisions, I love to use a scrappy palette in my applique and piecing.  I like the way the scraps interact with each other and cause movement over the surface of the quilt, the eye darting back and forth, being distracted by this piece or that piece.

I also have OCD (Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder) so I get satisfaction out of using saved little scraps and working with fussy, hopelessly TINY pieces.

I sort some of my small scraps by color into small containers that are easily accessible when working on a project.

These little boxes are so much easier to deal with than getting out bigger boxes with really large pieces of folded fabrics.  I handle and sort through the scrappy giblets with my beading forceps, so my clumsy hands don't slow me down!

My Grandmother was a quilter, and I was a tomboy.  Even though I sewed, I never really thought to pay attention to what she was doing.  Then she asked me for some of my floral scraps when I was in college.  I thought I was just donating to the next quilt, not knowing it was for ME!  

She was dying of cancer, and she hand-pieced a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt for me, FROM MY SCRAPS, and the ladies in the community hand quilted it.  It was her last quilt.  I was 22 and I swore I would learn to quilt and carry on her tradition.  I've been quilting and creating for the 21 years since receiving that precious gift.

4)  How do I work??  Well, lately it seems like I work out of either a baggie of pieces or a small project box.  I have a fabulous quilt cave, in the basement, that calls to me, but I can't seem to spend much time in there ever since my parents' accident in early May.

Hand applique is so portable, and that has been great as I have been back and forth between Alabama and Michigan so much lately.  It has also allowed me to get things done as I have waited in the car for a teenage daughter.

When I get time to do some mindless machine piecing, I fill about a dozen bobbins and just let the machine go crazy!  I keep a "leader and ender" project by the machine (thank you, Bonnie Hunter!), which helps me reap better scrappy rewards for minimal time in the driver's seat of my sewing machine. 

Due to my OCD, I like things organized.  I hate spending quality sewing time looking for stuff...THAT makes me nuts and is super frustrating.

Because I flit around from project to project, I have to keep ongoing projects in boxes, labeled, and with a lot of details (like when I started it...).

And, I have to have the company of my constant quilting companion, Weasley.  He generally seeks out my warm chair when I stand up and sleeps...so I just roll him out of the way and grab another chair.

Next Monday (Oct 13) you are in for a treat, as Jill from the Happy 2 Sew blog will be posting on the "Around the World Blog Tour." She is always up to something interesting...piecing and hand quilting, costuming, knitting exciting golf club covers...you won't want to miss it!

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)

Last two Miss Emilie blocks DONE...

Finally, the last two "Miss Emilie's Garden" blocks are hand appliqued, soaked to remove the glue, cut to size, and pinned on the design wall. Twenty-five little jewels...now on to the sashing, borders, and a finish.  The red and green fabrics I have chosen for the setting should add a little needed zip to the blocks.

I sure am glad I had those 25 blocks prepped and ready to applique before starting all those road trips this summer.  It was comforting to have something portable in case I had the time or the will to stitch.

So, some of you have emailed me to ask if I did any shopping at the two AQS shows I have been to this summer.

Well...I invested in some hand-dyed fabrics to add to my stash of tone-on-tone pieces that I use for applique.

The directions that came with my purchases said to pre-wash them, even though many rinses were included in their making.  Wow!  I think I emptied the hot water heater 3 or 4 times while aggressively rinsing them...LOTS of unincorporated dye!  

After a very physical session of multiple hand rinses, I put them in the washer for a final hot water rinse and a spin.  I was pleased to see the water drain "clear" when finished.  Thank God we don't have to do that kind of hand washing anymore!  I used to think I was born in the wrong century, but I do like my washer and dryer!

Now to find storage space for all of them...or just leave them out and USE THEM!!

I have developed a Pinterest habit...one thing that is really fun to collect is pictures of old, antique quilts.  That way I can really study them.  I am really enchanted by antique appliqued album quilts, especially where each block in the quilt is different.  But lately, I have been fixating on a couple with multiples of one block.  Here's one that speaks to me that is a Rose of Sharon variation...

I showed it to Steve and his first comment was saying it looked like a swastika.  OK...point taken.  I have been drafting and re-drafting the block, adding some elements to make it look less like a swastika and more like just pretty flowers, vines, and leaves.

Now I am wondering if I have the attention span to make a quilt with nine identical blocks.  I really like the swag variation with flowers for the outer border and the flowers for the corners.

I am also drawn to the quilts of Susan McCord, many of which reside about 25 miles from me at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.  Lately I have been studying this one...

Mostly, I love the shape of the urn.  I have sketched that urn with some different flowers in an 18 inch block.  Again, do I love it enough to make nine identical blocks?  Hmm...

In stitches, 
Teresa   :o)