Quilt Camp 2009 - The Second

Lessons learned at Quilt Camp this weekend: Take jeans to quilt camp because northern visitors can't handle the southern heat and will want to keep the ac at refrigerator temperatures, Some might go at the pace of a hare and some might go at the pace of a worm; but everyone gets a lot done, Mom really does cook sometimes, Stitch Regulators are really cool and addictive (and not cheating), Machingers are an absolute must-have for machine quilting (how did I ever sew without these?), Summer sewing and cocktails is endlessly entertaining (but really we already knew that).

Had a great time ladies! Hope to do it again soon.

The Chicken Knows

I think Angry Chicken should hire herself out as a personal shopper. I can think of at least three things that she has shown on her blog that I have purchased, and all of them I've been immensely happy with. She just really has a knack for finding cool stuff! The lastest purchase of mine was the totally cute cherry pitter that she featured last week in this post. Just the day before I had been ripping cherries apart to get the pits out for my oldest daughter aka the cherry addict. When The Chicken showed this adorable little pitter that my daughter could do herself, I hopped right over to Amazon and snatched one up. It doesn't disappoint, this thing is adorable AND effective, just look at all those cherry pits!


And now my white sink doesn't look like cherry carnage has recently taken place, bonus. Look, even the box is cute!

WWKIPD

I think I have a new favorite holiday, World Wide Knit In Public Day. Ok, so it isn't an official holiday, but it should be! My favorite metro Atlanta yarn store, The Whole Nine Yarns, hosted a knit in the park day this weekend (the park is located conveniently across the parking lot from the store) and had sale items that changed every hour. If you have any doubt that this is a great yarn store, know that we trek a solid 45 minutes from our homes on the other side of Atlanta to go to this one, when there are at least two other decent stores located much closer.

I spent the morning with my two favorite crazy knitters (my mom and my aunt) and a bunch of other delightful knitters (not pictured because I feel weird posting pics of people I don't know). I managed to make it through the sales with only one book purchased, and to top it all off someone brought their bunnies, angora bunnies!!!

I would seriously consider owning a few of these if bunnies weren't so stinky. Especially after the awesome spinning lesson we got from someone that set up their wheel and showed all us non-spinners the ins and outs of making your own yarn. I think she gave some very good advice: if you already have a love of fiber, don't start spinning unless you are ready to become completely addicted. I don't think my bank account can stand another addiciton at this time, so I am staying away. At least until my mom purchases her first spinning wheel.

I am still only at the beginning stages of my clapotis, I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to really get going on this thing. I think I've mentioned it before, but my mom and I started knitting this at the same time and hers was done weeks ago. sigh. Does seem a bit odd to be knitting a scarf-like object when it is 95 degrees, but I'm not about to knit something seasonally appropriate like a bathing suit!

Must be summer...

because we chopped a LOT of hair around here this week!

Unexpected Gift

I love getting to share how creative and talented my family members are. We had a family birthday party this weekend and among the birthday presents was a wedding present for me and Jay. My aunt used to do a lot of stained glass when I was a child, but she put it aside for many years. I'm so excited that she has taken it back up, especially since I have recently aquired two of her pieces: a Christmas star ornament that is so pretty that it remains hanging in our window year around and now this gorgeous piece of art...


It is going in a window next to our bed where we can see it every morning. I have always loved the changing light that comes through this window and really look forward watching it play with the glass.

I spent a good chunk of Sunday over at Melissa's sewing, I am revisiting a quilt that I have worked on a little bit each summer for the past 5 years. This is the year that it is going to be finished, and soon! I'm hoping to have the top complete and sandwiched before I go off to quilt camp weekend after next so that I can quilt my heart out while hanging out with other funny and inspiring quilters (bring your whip Audrey, I want to get this one done!).

Too Sunburned to Sew

Not a lot of crafty action going on around here... we took advantage of a childless weekend to jaunt up to the family lakehouse and lounge around on the dock (a little too long). I took some knitting but didn't even touch it. Just lake and sun and naps and candlelight dinners. This is why I love this man... he didn't one time say I was completely hairbrained when I told him I wanted to haul a quilt and candles down to the dock to eat dinner just like we were in a page out of the recent Anthropologie catalogue. Even though that meant he had to carry dinner down about 50 steps and a REALLY steep hill...

and over a gang plank (um, after wading knee deep in water because the other end of the walkway is presently submerged)...

It was worth it.

But then we had to carry it all back up. There are numerous stairs beyond the ones you can see here. Was still worth it.

(he also never called me a crackpot for wanting to put battery powered candles all down the stairs)

We wandered home Sunday and then went to see Bon Iver. He was beyond awesome. I wish this video did him the least bit of justice, but sadly my little camera has a super crappy microphone that can't handle any of the base or overwhelming noise of about 1500 people singing at the top of their lungs. But it makes me smile to remember, so here it is anyway.

Handmade Ring Bearer Pillows

I just realized today that I forgot to post the cute ring bearer pillows I made. So, I'm sorry, but here is yet another wedding post. I actually got started on the quilt from my wedding napkins today, but there is some debate about the design going on around here, so I'm not ready to post it yet.

I had the design of these pillows in mind long before the wedding, and I was absolutely set on the idea of combining knitting with fabric, but it wasn't until a few weeks before the wedding that I convinced my mom to knit the little lace squares I needed for the middle. For some reason she just smiled and did as she was told, and I finished making these two days before the wedding. They turned out just as I had imagined, which was pretty much a complete shock to me. I had done a prototype that I liked well enough, but I never did a second prototype with the changes I wanted to make to the original, I just dove in (it was down to a time crunch) and I thought they turned out just lovely. The knitted lace part was out of the most luxurious Ella Rae bamboo silk yarn, and it is really hard to resist just petting these little pillows and rubbing them against your face. Here's one in action, I wish I had a good shot of the younger child with hers, she was so serious about holding it up just right.

Perfect Day

Yesterday was wonderful. My only complaint is that it went too fast (I know, all brides say that, but there were so many moments I wanted to freeze time and just breathe it all in). Two of my best friends helped me get ready and drank champagne out of the bottle with me to calm my nerves. The ceremony was rich with detail and deeply meaningful to us both. The party in the vineyard was time spent with almost every person I love.

We laughed a lot. We cried a little. It sprinkled just enough for luck. We hula hooped. We ran through the grass. There was casual knitting with wine and conversation. There were quilts spread under the oak trees. My daughters were so beautiful my heart hurts to think about it. I married my best friend. Perfect.

I will link to a flickr album once I finish rounding up pictures from family and friends (for some reason we didn't take many ourselves). I do love these that Jay took as we ran around after almost all the guests were gone, with the shawl that was finished thanks to my mother dragging it out of my hands two days before the wedding.

Quilt Camp!

Quilt camp was so much fun that we have already scheduled two more for later this year. I only got to go a couple of days, but my mom, aunt and friend Audrey were at it for a week and got lots completed considering camp includes lots of vodka tonics and the occasional nap. My aunt finished her first two quilts, baby quilts for coworkers:

Audrey came with a suitcase full of uncut fabric and left with a quilt top! She had plenty of help deciding exactly how the blocks should be laid out and Rillion was there to help with pictures:

My mom made all the blocks for a quilt she started, and also put in some time on the neverending wedding shawl.

I finished the aforementioned napkins and put in some time on the shawl too, I really look forward to working on a non-wedding related project at the next quilt camp. Of course, I will probably be working on the quilt made from the napkins, so I guess that is still wedding related. We really did have a great time, and the beasts definitely did not want us to leave. Look at these pitiful pup faces trying to go home in the car with us!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

I think it is very important to point out to everyone that the wedding napkins have been done for a whole week, that's two weeks before the wedding people! I really thought I would be still sewing these the night before the wedding, but thanks to the help of many people, some of them complete strangers, they were done in plenty of time. My mom sewed a very large stack, and my friend Audrey flew through a stack of them last weekend at quilt camp (she would tell you it was thousands, but really it was about 15). And then about a week and a half ago I had one of the best mail days ever because all of the ones below arrived!

A fabulous box of napkins from Mary in Virginia, including wine charms in our wedding colors and a little kit to make fabric flowers, sooooo stinkin' cute!

And, her friend Sandy apparently joined the festivities too and included these lovelies:

And also Chris, from my neck of the woods, sent these along:

I really just kind of walk around with a goofey smile on my face whenever I think of these napkins and these ladies, they are like 19 little hugs and best wishes from the blogosphere, just awesome. Thank you all so much!

And here is what 70 finished cocktail napkins looks like... seems like that stack should look a lot taller, huh? But they are all there, I've counted several times.

I'm super excited to see them in use next weekend. Eek! Next weekend!

Signs of Summer Approaching

For me, a Dave Matthews show is a sure sign that summer is near. We missed his free show at Piedmont Park last year and were not about to miss his first show at the new Encore Park amphitheater near us. It was fantastic, as always, and the new amphitheater is quite lovely. Hopefully they will have lots of good musicians visting there soon. It feels like such an endulgence to only have to drive 20 minutes to see a show instead of over an hour.

I have been experiencing technical difficulties between my camera and my computer, but I think I have things figured out and have lots to post about, so more soon!

Quilt Festival

Around this time last year, I was totally green with envy that my mom was getting ready to jaunt off to Paducah for their annual quilt show without me, and so I hosted my own little quilt show. It just so happens that this year Amy over at Park City Girl is hosting a virtual quilt show asking people to post their favorite quilt. I have different quilts that are my favorite for all different reasons, but this one remains to be my all-time favorite because it is the one that first got me really excited about quilting and all the possibilites fabric as an art medium can hold.

I went through a major phase where I was obsessed with fabric folding. It sort of became a joke among my quilty friends because it was all I did or thought about. This quilt came out of that phase and I still love it. It hangs in my daughter's bedroom and I gaze at it from time to time and still wonder about the fact that it even exists. This quilt took a ton of focus, detrmination to make a design work, and is full of techniques that I learned just to make it and have probably since forgotten. It looks totally different in the changing light throughout the day and sometimes the batiks seem to just glow. This quilt will always be a symbol to me of my fascination with manipulating fabric and bringing to life something that has been knocking around in my head. Pics are from a few different angles to capture the variegated thread quilting and all those sequins I sewed on.

This year, instead of going to Paducah, my mom and aunt are hosting Quilt Camp to work on all the projects they bought at Paducah last year, and I'm thrilled to be able to go! It will be a great chance to get a lot of sewing and knitting done, something I haven't really had time to focus on lately. And there could possibly be the consumption of a few cocktails, you just never know what can happen when a bunch of wild quilters get together!

Yes, I'm supposed to be sewing napkins...

... but I got a gift card to the yarn shop for my birthday. And my lovely mom got me one of these:

and now it is just sooooo much fun to make these:

and she also happened to mention about how this yarn would make a lovely shawl for my wedding when it gets cool in the evening. So, it's true, now there is another wedding project. She actually told me I could leave the yarn at her house and she would work on it, but I had already dropped two other projects off at her house that day. Plus, how could I leave this yarn behind anywhere? Really, just a few more weeks and then I will find something to blog about besides wedding stuff. Really!

Really?

After I posted the first pics of my little wedding napkin project I got a comment from a reader suggesting that she and possibly others would be interested in contributing a napkin to my wedding. I thought to myself, nah, no one would want to do that. Then this reader posted on Sew Mama Sew and someone else showed interest. Then I had another comment. So, since this dear person named Mary, whom I have never met or even really talked to, planted this idea in my head I have spent a lot of time thinking about how gosh darn cool it would be to have actual real people who read my blog contribute to this. So I am shoving to the side my humble quiet nature and am just going to put the details out there. Even if I was only sent one little napkin I would be beside myself with excitement! If this is something you would like to participate in then hop on over to Mary's forum post and join in the chatter or leave a comment here (if she had a blog of course I would link but apparently she doesn't). The fabrics I am using are random ones that have a combination of turquoise/aqua/spring green. I have found these colors in the Amy Butler Daisy Chain line, the Moda Soiree line, some of Anna Maria Horners fabrics and others (a few samples shown in the pic). My squares are cut 9 inch square, put right sides together and sewn around the edge with a quarter inch seam. Of course I leave a hole to turn them right side out, press the unsewn fabric straight along the edge and sew a quarter inch seam aroung the edge again. Very basic. Oh, and I am using two different fabrics for the front and back. If you want to send one just email me at katebrid at gmail dot com and I will shamelessly send you my address.

Edited to Add: Forgot to mention two things... I clip the corners before turning them inside out and I don't wash my fabrics before sewing with them. I don't think it would make that much difference for the quilt I will eventually make out of these if some were prewashed, but I didn't want anyone to think that they needed to prewash the fabrics.

Mom Awesomeness

My mom (the one who likes to leave witty comments on my blog posts like, "what wedding?") is always a driving factor behind my sewing, knitting and crafting. She is the one that taught me to sew and knit orginally and the one that I ultimately go to when I am stuck on a project. Her advice, which usually starts with, "Now Kate, let's think about this..." has gotten me out of many a crafty jam, and just when I think I know it all about sewing or knitting she goes and learns something new and then happily shares whatever it is (because she knows I can't stand to not know how to do something) in her patient manner. She has finished two great projects lately, and since she has yet to venture into having her own blog I told her I was going to share her finished objects on mine. The shawl above is an example of how she can seriously rock some knitting needles, but it is the quilt below that shows the true depth of her skill and heart.

T-shirt quilts are a pain to make to begin with... the fabric is stretchy, it all has to be backed with stabilizer, you often have all different size squares from cutting around the t-shirt art and sewing it all together gets thick and hard to push through your machine. We both cringe at the thought of making t-shirt quilts, but this one is so special that there was no way she wasn't going to make it. We have a family friend that had a daughter recently lose a long battle with cystic fybrosis, and this quilt was made out of her t-shirts for her sister to take to college. My mom struggled with this quilt from conception to completion, not just because t-shirt quilts are challenging to make, but because the emotional investment and pressure to do a really great job was pretty intense. I am so proud of her for finishing this quilt and for how great it turned out. I know it was a journey for her, and I think it really shows how a quilt can be so much more than the time and fabric invested in it.