Wet Felting Tutorial!

I promised to deliver a picture tutorial of how I did my wet felting piece (see this post). Well, life keeps getting in the way, so I am forcing myself to finally sit down to write and post the tutorial today!

So first of all, I went to Suzanne Morgan's site and purchased her Everything Kit in the Glow colorway.  I was so happy when it arrived that I danced through the post office and out to my car.  As I sat in the car I opened my new treasure and was just taken with Suzanne's ability to put just the right items together to make this kit.  You would think that as soon as I got home I went into the kitchen and prepared my work area for some wet felting.  But, NO-O-O-O-O!  The package sat on the side table next to my bed for almost 2 weeks.  Every day I opened the package and fingered the silks and wool, wondering if I could actually do this without making a mess.  Part of me was not ready to undertake this new art form yet, afraid that I was going to mess it up.  But the artist part of me finally took over and I decided that there is really no way to screw this up.  So I took out my  supplies and started "the process".

OK, to do wet felting you need minimal supplies.  My list includes a large tray that will hold the project while it is being worked, a towel, organdy, bubble wrap, a little soapy water and the fibers that you will be wet fellting (the kit from Suzanne plus a some roving and hand-dyed locks from my own collection.

First, the tray was lined with an old towel that would be used to abosrb any water that escaped from the project.  For the tray, I used the boot tray from The Container Store (the only thing better than shopping there is working there and using your employee discount for your art projects!) On top of the towel  I layered a piece of the mini bubble wrap with the bubble side up, then a piece of organdy, and finally the fibers from the kit (prefelt first then cover that with the torn pieces of silk and the roving.)  I added some hand dyed purple roving and orange locks from my own collection - just because!

The next step was to add some fibers and glitz. I had no idea how this was all going to look when it was finished felting, so I just sort of went with my gut feeling.  When I finally figured out that this looked "pretty", everything was covered with another piece of organdy.  The purpose of the organdy is to hold everything together and keep it from all moving around during the felting process. Kinda  like the way bread in a sandwich holds all the pieces of your tuna salad together.

Finally, I got to add the soapy water - this told me I was finally going to be doing a piece of wet felting, baby!  Now, it only takes a little water, enough to get your prefelt, silk and fibers moist.  The last thing you need is a soggy mess, so remember, just use a little soapy water. It is easier to add more water than it is to take excess water out. Then  cover the whole thing with another piece of mini bubble wrap (this time the bubbles are facing down to agitate your fibers) and get ready to work!

Felting occurs when the cuticle of your wool roving opens up and catches other materials (such as the silk and other pieces of roving).  If you have ever accidentally (or not) thrown a wool sweater into a washing machine with some soap and hot water, you have seen the end result of felting.  Most people believe that it is the hot water that makes the felting process happen, but it is actually the agitation of the fibers that makes felt.  That is why the wet felting process here can be done with only warm or tepid water.  Here the felting occurs when you spend time agitating the fibers between the bubble wrap.  I found the easiest way to provide agitation was to wad up a plastic shopping bag and rub it vigorously over the top layer of bubble wrap. The soap in the water helps to make the fibers "slippery" and the whole process is much easier then.  Even so, it takes awhile to complete the whole process.

Every 10 minutes or so, I stopped agitating and carefully peeled off the top layer of  bubble wrap and organdy. This was to make sure that the organdy was not being caught by the fibers and becoming part of my felted fabric. Then everything was put back in place and the whole piece was flipped over so that I could check that the organdy on the bottom of my fabric was remaining separate, too. Wrap the whole thing back up, flip over again and start agitating again. This is what the "right side" of the piece looked like after 30 minutes of agitation.  I know it looks like you are looking through the bubble wrap on top, but it is gone.  The felted piece is retaining the indentations of the bubble wrap at this point.

So, finally, after a full hour of agitating and checking, my piece was finished!  How did  I know that it was completely felted and would not fall apart?  Simple - it is called the pinch test.  Each time  the top layer of bubble wrap and organza were removed, I would lightly pinch the top layer of fibers between my thumb and forefinger.  If the fibers separated, I knew the felting process was not complete.  Once I was unable to lift the fibers and all were bound together, I knew it was finished. The picture to the right shows my felt after a full hour of agitation,  It has shrunk by about 1/3 from it's original size.  So it was gently taken to the sink and run under clear running water until the water ran clear and all of the soap was out.  the my felt was laid out an a clean, dry towel to dry.  What amazes me the most is that the piece is so strong but so light in weight.


Well, that is all there is to the wet felting process.  My piece is not yet completed, because it still needs to be embellished with tons of stitches and beads.  Maybe even some of the glass beads I made last year in my lampwork bead class.  I will update you all as I work on the piece and you will definitely get to see it when it is finished!

All of You Free Motion Machine Quilters Out There Need to Look at This Blog!

Last week I subscribed to the new  In Stitches  e-magazine from Interweave.  I have had a chance to look through it, but did not make time to actually sit down at the computer and read it until today.  All I can say is WOW!  It is full of some wonderful fiber artists, samples of their work, instructions and patterns.

Today I made time to look at the article entitled "9 Free Motion Designs"  As a free motion machine quilter I know that there is a lot for me to learn.  Well, the article is about Lea Day, who has this amazing blog entitled "365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs ". Yes, she is producing 365 days of filler designs, and all of them are amazing.  My regret about finding this blog is that I only found it this morning, and she is already on day 200!  Thank goodness past blog entries are retained, and there is a link on the right side (near the top) that will allow you to see all of the designs she has posted so far.

If you are a machine quilter, you owe it to yourself to check this blog out!  I hope you enjoy looking at it as much  as I did.

Working Hard, Playing Hard

WOW!  I didn't forget about you all - really!  It is just that life has been extremely busy lately, and the blog is always the thing that suffers.  So sorry, will try to not have this happen again.

We have started a business, and it is taking enough of our time that I can consider it to be a full time job compared to my part-time sales job at The Container Store.  But it is fun to be building something along with your husband, especially when it makes money and opens up a whole new financial future.  I will tell you more about it in the coming weeks, but for now, I want to share my adventures in nuno felting.

Nuno felting is a wet felting process that bonds wool roving and (in my case) dupioni silk.  I have always wanted to do this, and have lots of colored wool roving from my spinning adventures, but no colored silk.  So I purchased a kit from Suzanne Morgan (click on her name to see her site),  Suzanne puts the most amazing kits together, which you can see by clicking here . I learned about Suzanne from Jane LaFazio's blog, Janeville.  You can see Jane's finished piece made from this kit here. Jane is best known as a machine felting artist, and you will see some amazing pieces if you peruse her blog. And to add to the fun of all this, I learned about Jane LaFazio from my good friends Judy and Ruth, who went off to Italy for a week to learn watercolor techniques from Jane.

 I purchased Suzanne's  GLOW Everything Kit, added some of my own wool and fibers, and then taught myself how nuno felt and to made this really great piece of felted fiber art.  It is not finished yet, because I still intend to embellish it with floss and silk ribbon embroidery.  It still has a long way to go, and I am not yet sure what it will be when it grows up - probably a framed wall hanging, or maybe a journal cover.  Finished size is 12 1/2" X 18 3/4", so it can't be anything too big when it is finished.  But I am thinking that it will be a lot of fun (but messy!) to make some long, nuno felted silk scarves!

In the next few days I will be posting a tutorial on how this piece was made, along with lots of photos.  It is a very simple process, just takes a lot of elbow grease and space where you can get messy if you want.

Paper Gypsy, Where Have You Been?

Many apologies to those of you who have sent me e-mails asking if I have fallen off the face of the earth.  I wish it were that simple an explanation.

No, I have been working on a family tree for my daughter.  We live a fair distance from any family (Arizona, Vancouver and South Africa), and I want my daughter to know as much as possible about her roots.  So last month I bought a 1 month subscription on the geneology website, Ancestry .com.  Documenting births, deaths, marriages and immigrations has been a lot of fun, but it has also become an obsession.  I find myself sitting at the computer after midnight, looking a census record and immigration passenger lists.  At present there are over 180 people in our tree, and finding out all I can about them has been "interesting", to say the least. It has been a chore to find information on the American side of the family, and the South African side has been next to impossible to find.

But this work has also kept me away from my quilts and my blog.  Instead of just leaving you all in the dark, I thought it was better to sign on here tonight and update you as to what is happening with this site.  And at the same time, I want to go ahead and share some very special photos with you.

The first photo is my parents' (Marge and Wesley Peterson) wedding in 1947, followed by maternal grandparents' (Joseph and Emma Jozwiak) wedding in 1918, and then my maternal great-grandparents' (Josef and Maria Vosmik) wedding in 1879 in Bohemia.

I am very fortunate that my mom and grandmother loved to tell family stories.  And I am especially blessed that they kept tons of photos, letters, prayer cards and obituary notices.  Unfortunately, there is only 1 birth certificate, no marriage certificates and no death certificates in any of the boxes of "stuff" that my mom left me.  The one birth certificate is for a female baby named Emily Clara, born to my maternal great grandmother. Now, I never heard anything about Emily Clara, who would have been my grandmother Emma's sister.  But while researching census documents, I found that Maria Vosmik gave birth to 12 children, and only 5 survived by 1900.  So I can only guess that Emily Clara was one of the 7 children who died as a young child.  It is so sad to think about, but then I remember stories about how hard life was for an immigrant Bohemian family over 100 years ago.

So, bear with me for a few more weeks here, and I promise to return with more news about projects that I will return to. In the mean time, you will find me at the computer, researching my heart out and putting tons of information into a family tree software package. And I will be remembering wonderful days of sitting on the sofa with my mom and grandma and listening to stories of their lives before I was born.

My African Wall Hanging is Finished!

Just want to share a newly finished project with all of you.  This started off as a handpainted wall hanging that was given to me by a very dear friend when I left South Africa.  It has been sitting in the "gotta do something wonderful with this"  pile since 1994.  Well, I have finally trimmed down the wall hanging, added borders and gotten it quilted.  It will hang in either our dining room or master bedroom, not sure which yet.

The birds are guinea fowl,and they are one of my favorite African animals (along with zebras and giraffes). The original wall hanging was 32" X 48" , and continued 4 " on each side of the present thin black border. But this area did not contain any design element, so it was cut off. The remaining original fabric is now the center of the quilt, and it is 24" X 40".  The total piece is 36" X52" with the addition of the 3 batik borders.

One of the hardest decisions was trying to figure out how to quilt this. My daughter looked at it and said, "Mom, they are African animals - that should be clue."  Brilliant!  The overall background quilting of the center is a meandering back and forth stripe - just like zebra stripes!  Among the guinea fowl and zebra stripes I also added a free motion elephant, and giraffe, and a rondavel - a traditional African hut. I am enclosing additional photos that show close -up images of these last 3 items. The first photo shows the elephant, the second shows the giraffe, and the last shows the rondavel.  You can click on any of the photos for a larger view.

As for the borders, the striped batik is quilted with a traditional African motif - triangles.  Geometric shapes are found in many African art forms, a good example is the art of the Ndebele people.  Their clothing and housing are all decorated in straight lined, geometric shapes.  You can see more of their work by clicking here and here.  I am especially enamored of the Ndebele style - I am fortunate to have brought back a beaded Ndebele apron and a beaded Ndebele doll from my time in South Africa.

The final border is quilted with straight lines, to mimic the shape of a frame around a piece of art.  Can't wait to get this hung.  And, I am happy to say, this has gotten me back to thinking about South Africa and my quilting friends there - it is time to reach out and contact them once again.  If you are interested in seeing some other quilts done by South African quilters , you can click here or else you can always mosey over to the links on the right side of this page and click on the link for the Quadrille Quilters under Other Blogs That I Read and Love For Inspiration.

PEEP, PEEP, PEEP!

Now, I can deal with jelly beans, chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs - they are like the true Easter candy.  I am NOT particularly fond of PEEPS, however.  The sugar coated, yellow marshmallow chickens were not part of my youth, and they seem like some sort of alien  food - all I have to do is look at them and my teeth start to hurt from the thought of all that sugar.  But my hubby loves them, especially when they get a little old and chewy. No, PEEPS were not part of his youth, either.  But nowadays he just loves the little critters. A couple of years ago a friend told me that you can "age" fresh PEEPS by putting them in the microwave and nuking them for 20 - 30 seconds.  The first time we tried this we ended up laughing our butts off as we watched these critters blow up to 3 times their size as the marshmallow heated and made jokes about the PEEPS that Clayton.

So imagine my joy when I found another novel recipe using PEEPS on the Facebook page of my friend Tina.  This is called a PEEPS Sunflower Cake, and is supposed to serve 12. But the recipe calls for 19 PEEPS, and how do you divide 19 PEEPS in 12 servings?  You can find the recipe here  on the Taste of Home website.

I guess you could change the flower up and make it a dahlia or mum by adding a second row of PEEPS on top to make more "petals" .  Then you could change the color of the frosting and the PEEPS as well, and use the pink or purple chickens.  Or you could just forget about it and make an angel food cake with rainbow sprinkles in the batter - at least that looks like Easter.

Do any of you readers have a PEEPS recipe that you would like to share with the rest of us? Just click on "comments" below and share.

Add This Quilt to the Finished Pile

Well, the quilt that was in my photos from my February 16th post - the entry about basting a quilt - is finally finished.  I so love the colors, although they do not appear to be as vibrant in this photo as in real life. Look at the post from February 16th to get a better idea as to the colors.  It only took a week to get this quilted and bound after it was basted.

The pattern is called Illuminata, and was purchased at The Pincushion Boutique quilt shop many years ago.  This is one of their Pressed for Time Patterns, which are designed specifically for use with their Sweet Treats.  I saw Pincushion Boutique at last week-end's quilt show (Guild of Quilters of Contra Costa County) and spent some time looking at their latest Sweet Treats.  I am madly in love with Crocodile Hunter because it has a very African look to it.  Unfortunately, I am counting pennies right now and had to pass.

Overall, I was disappointed in the quilt show this year even thought I won a door prize from Sew Ewe Quilt in Brentwood.  Nothing really grabbed my attention and made me say WOW! at the show, but a few ideas were hatched for using up some of my batik stash.  I just need to find the patterns now. I was also disappointed in the vendors this year. Fewer vendors with fabric meant fewer fabrics to fantasize and drool over. But I think the most disappointing part of the show was learning that The Pincushion Boutique is no longer a brick and mortar store in Davis, although it can still be found online.

So, back to the quilt.  It was marked for quilting with my favorite stencils for machine quilting - Full Line Stencils. The stencil that was used on this quilt is Loopy Square.  The full stencil was used in all of the blocks, and 1/2 of the stencil was used in all of the triangles.  I then did a mimic of the design in the outside border - tall and short loops).  I love these stencils because they are so easy to mark onto the quilt top using  Pounce Pads.  And the designs will then either iron or wash right out after quilting, depending upon the type of Pounce that is used.

OK, that is it for now!  Hopefully I will stay healthy long enough to keep updating this blog on a more regular timeline.  The cold that I had 3 weeks ago just really took a lot out of me.  But I am feeling much better (except for the stupid cough which is still hanging around), so here's hoping you hear from me over the week-end!

What's New?

Sorry to have been away for so long - life keeps getting in the way of letting me do want I want to do right now. 

But I have finished a few projects to share with you.  A few weeks ago my friends got together to celebrate the birthday of my good friend, Marilyn.  She is one of my best and oldest (not in age, but in years we have known one another) friends.  We go back to the "good days" at Siemens, when it was actually fun to work there and the company was still located in Walnut Creek. 

I love to make gifts for Marilyn because we love the same colors and we like the same style in our artsy-fartsy way.  So here is a look at the gifts I made for her this year.  First up is a coffee cup cuff made of different purple batik fabrics.  It is quilted and then decorated with fuschia rat tail cord and light teal fabric.This "personal coffee cup cuff" is a great gift for anyone who likes to stop and pick up coffee at Starbucks, Peet's or Seattle's Best.  The pattern was made by deconstructing a cardboard cuff from Peet's. There are 2 layers of lightweight fusible pellon batting in the middle.

The second gift was a crocheted bead bracelet in shades of teal.  I am still working on paring down my bead collection, but I ended up having to buy a few more beads in different shades of teal to finish this project.  I know that some of you are crocheteres, so I am going to provide you with directions to make a bracelet like this.

The finished bracelet was 7 1/2" long before sewing the ends together. These are the supplies needed to make a bracelet like this.
15 yards of size 10 Perle cotton
60 each of size 6 glass beads in however many different colors you want - I used 6 different colors
Size 7 steel crochet hook
Wire beading needle
Tapestry needle

DIRECTIONS:  Thread the beading needle with the Perle cotton.  Sort beads and place each color in a separate dish.  You will need to determine an order that is pleasing to your eye and string beads in that order.  The smaller the number of different beads (say, 5 different beads versus 6 or 7 different beads), the smaller the diameter of your bracelet will be.  I used 6 different beads for this bracelet.  They were strung in order - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on - until all beads were used up.

Now, take your crochet hook, and beginning with the last bead you strung (#6), chain 7 and join with a slip stitch to form a ring.  make sure you leave a tail of Perle cotton that is at least 6".
ROUND 1 - * Slide a bead next to work, single crochet in next chain (bead will be on right side of your hook). Repeat from * 5 times. Do not turn or join your rounds, you will continue to work into the next stitch and the beads will spiral on the outside of your work.
ROUND 2 - *Slide a bead next to work, insert hook under the thread that comes out from the left side of the next bead, make a single crocket. As you look down onto the work in your hand, this new bead will be to the left side of the same color bead in the row below. Make sure that you do not make a single crochet in the single crochet of the row below, but ensure that you are making your single crochet under the thread that is coming out of the right side of the bead.  Repeat from * around the rest of that row, until you have a  #6 color bead ready to crochet once again.

Repeat the last round until you have used all the beads, or until the bracelet is the desired length. Cut excess thread, leaving a tail of 12" or so, and pull the thread through the last stitch on your hook.  This will fasten off your last stitch.  Thread the end of this thread into a tapestry needle.  Bring the ends of the bracelet together and turn the ends of the bracelet so that the spirals line up. Sew the 2 ends together,  making sure that you maintain the integrity of the design. Run the extra thread through the center of the bracelet (the "tube") and pull the needle back out to the outstide.  Place a drop of clear nail polish on the thread where it exits the tube, and let dry.  Repeat with the other length of thread from the beginning of the bracelet.  When both drops of nail polish are dry, cut thread as close a possible to the bracelet.

Off to help my daughter study for her SAT exam next week. And finish sewing the binding on the quilt that I gave you a sneak peek of last time - yes, I finished quilting it but forgot to take pictures of the quilting process as I promised.  Will share machine quilting with you in the future!  And I am going to try my hand at dyeing some llama fiber with Easter egg dyes - won't that be a riot?  Stay tuned for a llama update, and you might want to listen to the llama song, at least once!

Basting Does Not Mean That You Are Cooking a Turkey

Megan is away for the week, and so it is eerily quiet around the house.  The weather is warming up, my daffodils are starting to bloom, and Max is spending more time outside.  Brian is spending the days working in his office. THE HOUSE IS MINE!!!!!

So this means that it is time to do some of those tasks that require commandeering large amounts of space.  This week, that means that I will be sandwiching and basting all of my finished quilt tops, and then they will be ready to put on the trusty Bernina in order get them quilted this year.  Now, a little bit about quilting those carefully pieced and colorful quilt tops. My grandmother taught me how to sew and quilt in when I was 9, so I did get a few quilts made in my early days, but finishing them was a very daunting task for me. I kept sewing, but gave up quilting for a long time. I started quilting again in the mid 1980s and learned to machine quilt from Harriet Hargraves, the mother of modern day machine quilting, when she came to give a lecture and workshop at an East Bay Heritage Quilters Guild meeting in the late 1980s.  I loved the fact that I no longer had to do hand quilting, and that my quilt could be finished in days instead of weeks or months. Lots of people send their quilts out to established quilters who use special quilting machines (called longarm quilting machines) to complete the task.  But I have always been a "process" kinda gal, who wants to control the entire endeavor from start to finish.  Since I don't have a longarm quilting machine, I use my regular sewing machine (an old Bernina 1260) to complete my task.  It is not ideal, but it works for me.

Before I can put a quilt under the needle of my machine, the quilt top (the "fancy" part that is made up of colorful fabric pieces) needs to be layered together with batting (the soft middle part of the quilt) and a backing (fabric that is the underside of the quilt).  This is called "sandwiching" a quilt  - think of the fabric as bread and the batting as the filling.  Once you have the pieces layered up, you need to figure out how to hold all the layers together.  I used to pin the layers together with safety pins but have turned to basting since my good friend Dorothy shared Sharon Schamber's basting technique with me.  I find that basting takes a bit longer, but it is fine because the rhythm of basting is almost meditative.  Also, basting holds the layers together better for me and less slipping of layers means the back of the quilt does not have fabric bunching up or forming folds and pleats.

Basting takes up the entired dining room.  After putting all of the leaves in the dining room table I lay the backing fabric (wrong side facing up) on the table, and cover it with the batting.  Everything is smoothed out by hand as I line up the top edges of the backing and batting.  Then I dig out my "basting boards"  - two 8 foot long pieces of wall moulding that came from the local Yardbirds store before it was closed by Home Depot  (Boo! Hiss!!!). One of the boards is lined up even with the previously noted top edges, and the quilt backing and batting are wound tighlty and smoothly around the board with about a foot of the bottom edges left unwound.  The the same thing is done with the quilt top - the top edge is lined up with the basting board and the quilt top is wound tightly and smoothly around the board with approximately a foot of the bottom left unwound.

Next, the loose bottom edges of the quilt top, batting and backing are lined up and the layers are smoothed out against one another.  The boards are carefully unwound, ensuring that the layers remain straight and smooth, until the sandwich covers the width of the table. Using a fine milliner's needle and size 20 DMC cotton, the basting begins in the lower left hand corner and travels away from me toward the basting boards.  When I get as close as I can to the boards, I move the next row of basting over to the left,  and start basting toward me again.  This zig-zag pattern continues until all of the unwound sandwich is basted.  Then I unwind more of the fabrics and batting so that unbasted materials once again cover the table.    The quilt top you see in these photos is 60" X 70", and it took 2 1/2 hours to baste.

When I get this quilt onto my machine, I will share some machine quilting photos and tips with you.

Because Everybody Needs a 9 Patch Quilt!

This is about the final quilt that was completed in the last year. The colorful block is called a 9 Patch, and that is because there are 9 squares (set in 3 rows of 3 squares) in the block. The 9 Patch blocks are set with an alternate square of fabric , which happens to be black with a small splash of gold. All of the blocks are set in an “on point” setting, which got its name from the fact that the blocks are set on their corners (points) rather than along a long edge. This is a VERY traditional quilt block and setting, just the fabrics are contemporary. Why did I choose this particular block? Because everybody needs a 9 Patch quilt in their collection.


Yet another quilt that was begun in the mid ‘90s, this quilt top began when I walked into my local quilt shops and saw riots of bright colors. One of the most influential fabric designers of the time was Patrice Lose, who made his name from his wonderful bright colors. These fabrics were leftover pieces from a baby quilt that I made for Agnes Rodriguez, one of the Applications Specialists at work. And like lots of my quilt tops, the reason it took so long to complete the silly thing was that it took a long time to find the right border fabrics.

The finished size is 56" X 72". The batting is Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 (80% cotton and 20% polyester), which is an absolute dream to machine quilt. The 9 Patch block is quilted with a serpentine stitch along the straight seams and there is a free-motion flower quilted in the middle of the black blocks. The first border is quilted with a serpentine running along the seams and the outside border is quilted in a double swag,

This is one of my favorite quilts because it is so bright and happy. No, wait, let me be honest – all of my quilts are my favorite quilts! Each one is lovingly pieced and quilted, with fabrics that are chosen to go together in a specific design. All quilts are truly labors, because they don’t “just happen”. But they are all labors of love.

It Is Not a Freddy Quilt, It Is a Pineapple Quilt

OK, one more of the quilts that was finished this last year.  The pattern is called the pineapple block, so I simply call this my Pineapple Quilt.  It was started (like a LOT of my projects, it seems) when I got back to California from South Africa.  I had always wanted to make a Pineapple Quilt, and there were lots of yummy bright-colored fabrics available to work with in 1994 and 1995.  Besides the bright fabrics in this quilt, there is a black fabric with white polka dots. The polka dotted fabric was a gift from Karen Matsumoto, and was just crying out to be used. Black is an obvious color to be used with brights, because it sets them off so nicely.  The polka dots were a direct contrast to the geometric lines of the block. I was happy with the materials, so what could be the problem?

The problem (at least in my mind) is that lots of people seem to think that I took my inspiration for this quilt from Freddy Moran.  Freddy is an amazing quilt artist and she makes wonderful quilts. She loves to mix bright fabrics with black and white fabrics, and I must say that she does have a knack for putting just the right fabrics together.  But I had not yet met or even heard of Freddy when I started my quilt.  So it kinda bothers me everytime somebody looks at my Pineapple Quilt and says "Oh, it's a Freddy quilt!" or "How lucky for you, you did a class with Freddy". Please take a look at this site to see more of Freddy Moran's work - you'll see that her work far surpasses mine.

Anyway, back to my Pineapple Quilt.  It was constructed using the Pineapple Rule from The Great American Quilt Factory. The finished size of this quilt is 62 X 52.  It was machine quilted on my trusty Bernina 1260 using a random running loop pattern with Warm and Natural Batting .

Tree Farm - Another Quilt From This Last Year

Here is another photo of a project that was finished this last year. This was a quick and fun quilt - quick because it was a kit and fun because it is came from Country Threads in Garner, Iowa.  The pattern is called Tree Farm, and can be found in the Country Threads book "We Made it Through the Winter". When I say quick I mean that the whole quilt took me 7 days from starting to cut and piece to completing the machine quilting and binding.  Like most projects, it just took me a while to get around to actually getting started.

I fell in love with the Country Threads "look" when I found the first Country Threads book (from the Quilt Shop Series) just before I left South Africa . After 4 years of African quilt overload, it reminded me of everything I loved about American quilts - the symmetry of traditional patterns, the subdued colors (well, subdued compared to African colors), and the appropriateness of the quilts for placing on a bed.  African quilts by comparison were more contemporary and "artsy", with free-form designs and use of lots of bright colors. They were not quilts that I would place on a bed, but that is probably my "quilt prejudice" creeping in.

During the remainder of the 1990s, my job afforded me lots of opportunities to travel.  Imagine my excitement to travel to see a vendor in Orange City, Iowa, knowing I was so danged close to Country Threads in Garner.  Orange City is in western Iowa, and Garner is way over there on the other side of the state.  No matter, it was a "short" 4 hour drive along perfectly flat countryside and lots of corn fields to cross the state, and I knew I could always fly home out of Mason City, which was another 30 minutes away. Parking next to the Country Threads barn was almost a religious experience, and I felt that I was trodding hallowed ground as I walked amongst the chickens, goats and dogs to the shop. I bought patterns, and kits, and yardage; I met Connie and Mary, the infamous proprietors.  And when I went back to my car with my treasures an hour later, I just KNEW that my suitcase was going to be over the weight restrictions.  But I was deleriously happy, and spent the night caressing the fabrics that were actually purchased at Country Threads, and they were ALL MINE!

The next morning I gladly paid the $10 for for overweight baggage (yep, it was only $10 back then) and flew home.  And I was able to visit Country Threads 3 more times, and each visit was just as wonderful as the first. I finally quit flying for business, and have not been back to Garner, Iowa since July, 1997. It is easy to remember this, not just because July in Iowa is miserably hot and humid, but because it was the day that Gianni Versace was killed.  Isn't it amazing what we remember?  Anyway, whether or not I ever get back there, Country Threads will always hold a special place in my heart as the first quilt shop that I truly fell in love with.

Edited to add:
Someone has asked me about the size of this quilt.  Thaks so much for taking the time to ask - because of this I will be adding relevant information for this and all future quilt postings.
Tree Farm is composed of 8" squares, so it is 72 1/2" X 56 1/2", including the binding.  It was machine quilted with a straight line pattern on my trusty Bernina, using Warm and Natural Batting.

What a Sweet Treat!

So last night I went to my Tuesday night quilting group (Karen's Kids)  and shared good times with my friends.  We were all working on different projects, and I was able to take pictures of 3 more of the quilts that I made last year.  Those will not be posted today, but will be seen here in the coming week.  Today I want to share the cutest bag pattern I have seen in a long time.

This is called a Sweet Treat, and was developed for use with Honey Bun strips of Moda  Fabrics.  Michele from Karen's Kids picked up the pattern and some strips as a kit at a local quilt shop, and brought the kit to class. The next thing you know, everyone is making Sweet Treat bags for themselves and for Christmas gifts.  Except for Sandi, who was still looking for just the right fabrics to go with THE BUTTON.  THE BUTTON was a birthday gift a few years ago from my good friend Karla.  I have been wanting to use THE BUTTON, but the pattern and fabrics had to be just right because I love THE BUTTON. 

So, I knew this would be the right pattern the minute I saw it - I just needed the right fabrics.  Of  course they  would have to be batiks, because those are my favorites.  And I knew that the teal and purple-y batiks would be in the purse.  But I needed a 5th fabric, and I just wasn't finding what I wanted. Yesterday I finally discovered the pale olive middle fabric in my stash, and knew that it was time to start my bag.

Unfortunately, I was not able to find my copy of the Sweet Treat Bag pattern this morning.  So I Googled the name and found that this is a free pattern on the Moda Fabrics web site.  You can find a copy of the pattern by clicking here.  The beauty of the bag is in the unique construction - the bag is automatically self-lined.

These are quite addictive to make, as they go together so quickly and are perfect for embellishing.  It would make a great make-up or toiletries bag to pack for a quick week-end qet away, then could double as an evening clutch if you went out for dinner.  I can see that there are going to be lots more of these in my future - now I just need to find additional perfect buttons to embellish them. Guess that means a trip to Stonemountain and Daughter in Berkeley!

Huli-Huli Vous?

I love barbecue in all of its variations. My dad was a great barbecue master, and his sauce was legendary in northeast Phoenix. Unfortunately for my brothers and me, Dad never shared his recipe (“It’s my secret, and if it is what makes you come home every couple of years, it will remain a secret”, he would laugh.) Dad’s recipe was never passed along to us and the closest I ever found to it was Everett and Jones Mild Sauce. Now, Everett and Jones is an East Bay institution, and it was where you would most likely find me and a cold beer on a Friday night when I lived in Oakland. Imagine my delight when I found Everett and Jones Sauce at my local Safeway a few weeks ago! I made my poor family eat ribs drenched in Everett and Jones until they could not look at another rib!

  

So what does that have to do with huli-huli? For that matter, what is huli-huli? In a few words, it is Hawaii’s own famous barbecue sauce. Huli is the Hawaiian word for turn, and huli-huli (turn, turn) chicken is one of the Oahu’s great delicacies. It became familiar as a fund raising tool on the island after Ernest Morgado came up with the recipe in the mid-1950s. He mixed up all the flavors of Hawaii (brown sugar, shoyu (soy sauce), pineapple, and ginger) and came up with a great marinade and basting sauce. In the early 1970s I would find huli-huli chicken stands wherever I drove around the island, functioning as a fundraiser for Little League, church choirs and just about any other activity that needed to raise money. Used to be that you would never find it on any restaurant menu, only in roadside stands where cooks lovingly cooked and sold their wares. Yum – it was one ono kaukua (delicious food).

So here is the huli-huli sauce recipe that I was given by a co-worked before I left Honolulu. My original recipe calls for ¼ of a pineapple, pureed. I have substituted ½ Cup of frozen pineapple juice concentrate – so much easier to work with, and the taste is almost identical.

Huli-Huli Chicken Marinade and Basting Sauce

• ½ Cup Catsup
• ½ Cup Shoyu (soy sauce)
• ½ Cup Dark Brown Sugar
• ½ Cup Frozen Pineapple Juice Concentrate
• ¾ Cup Sherry
• 2” Piece of Ginger Root, finely minced
• 2 – 3 cloves Garlic, mashed
• 2 – 3 cut up chickens 

Mix all ingredients together. You can marinate chicken pieces for a few hours before grilling or just brush sauce on chicken before placing on grill. Turn and baste frequently, until chicken is done, probably 30 – 40 minutes.

I Have A New Recipe To Share - Oreo Cookie Cake

I am very lucky to work with an amazing woman named Chris.  She always has a wonderful smile and just the sunniest disposition.  She also loves to bake and has a husband who is not particularly fond of sweets.  Every Sunday, Chris brings in the results of a new recipe that she found and just had to try.

2 weeks ago Chris brought in the most amazing Oreo cookie cake, which disappeared very quickly.  She kindly shared the recipe, citing that it was a quick cake to make up.

So here is Chris' recipe for the Oreo Cookie cake.  I haven't made it myself, but I can tell you that I have tasted it and it is very yummy. The recipe looks like it would be really easy to make.  Enjoy!

1 package  (18 1/4 oz.) white cake mix
16 Oreo cookes, coarsely crushed
1 pakage (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp. milk
2 C. heavy whipping cream
3/4C. powdered sugar
Additional Oreo Cookies for garnish

1. Prepare cake batter according to package directions, stir in crushed Ores.  Spoon mixture into a greased and floured 10" tube pan.

2. Bake at 350 degrees for 33 - 38 minutes or until a toothpick inserted neat the center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

3. In a small bowl, beat cream chees and milk until smooth.  Beat in cream until mixture begins to thicken.  Gradually add powdered sugar; beat until stiff peaks form.  Frost cooled cake. Garnish with additional cookies.  Refrigerate leftovers.

The Scarf, She is Finished!

So here are a couple of photos showing off the new scarf.  I think it is absolutely lovely, don't you?  The reason I am so excited about it is this is the first item I have knit from yarn I have spun myself. Let me share all the details, OK?

The yarn was spun from a Colonial roving (I originally thought it was a merino) which I purchased last October from Alpaca Direct in Brentwood.  This store just opened last year and has an amazing variety of yarns and rovings for spinning.  Anyway, the color is called Agate, and you can see more information about it here . If you follow that link and look at the roving, you will see that it is multi-color, not just "grey".  The blue swirl really adds to the finished product, and gives the yarn a very professional look.  The yarn was spun as a fine lace weight on my Cascade Mt. Shuksan drop spindle and knit on a size 5 bamboo needle.  4 ounces of roving resulted in enough  yarn to knit a 40" long  X 7" wide scarf.

The pattern was modified from a lace shawl pattern in order to get a narrower piece.  Here is the pattern, should you want to give it a try.  (Note, I am not a professional pattern writer, so I am writing this as I knit it.  If you are having troubles understanding or following the pattern, drop me an e-mail).

Pattern - a repeat of the following 2 rows:
Row 1 (right side): knit 4 stitches, knit 2 stitches together (3 times), knit 1 then yarn over (6 times), knit 2 stitches together (6 times), knit 1 then yarn over (6 times), knit 2 stitches together (6 times), knit 1 then yarn over (6 times), knit 2 stitches together (3 times), knit 4 stitches.  Turn.

Row 2 (wrong side) knit 4 stitches, purl to last 4 stitches (purl 54 stitches), knit 4 stitches. Turn.

To knit the scarf:

Cast on 62 stitches.

First edge (4 rows):
     Row 1: Work Row 1 of pattern
     Row 2: Knit  (62 stitches)
     Row 3: Work Row 1 of pattern
     Row 4 knit (62 stitches)

Body of scarf:
     Work Row 1 and Row 2 in pattern until scarf is desired length.  Leave enough yarn to knit last edge (4
     rows) plus bind off.

Last edge (4 rows):
     Row 1: Work Row 1 of pattern

     Row 2: Knit (62 stitches)
     Row 3: Work Row 1 of pattern
     Row 4 knit (62 stitches)

Bind off all stitches loosely, in knit stitch.

Please send me a photo if you decide to try this pattern,  I would love to put it up here on this blog and share your work with others.

So from start to finish, the scarf took almost 3 ADHD months.  It took far longer to spin the yarn than to knit up the scarf.  But it is finally complete and I love the fact that there was more to this than just knitting the yarn.  The next step in the process would be to dye my own roving, and that will happen with time.  Hmmmmm, I wonder how my husband would feel about sheep in the back yard.








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THIS is why I am a Paper Gypsy

Soon after I started my journey as a paper artist, I fell in love with making miniature books and albums.  My favorite place to take classes and get inspiration was My Daughter's Wish in Walnut Creek.  It was located on Broadway, next to Changes Salon and Day Spa.  When the owner of the building upped the cost of the lease for the store, My Daughter's Wish had to move from its wonderful site and classroom in Walnut Creek to an industrial complex in Pleasant Hill.  Although there was more room for all things paper and a larger classroom, there just wasn't enough foot traffic at the new site.  As a result, My Daughter's Wish became a casualty of the economy and closed its doors last year.  SO sad!

Now, what does this have to do with moi?  Well, at My Daughter's Wish I discovered a line of papers, ephemera, books and "junque" produced by a company known as 7 Gypsies.  The 7 Gypsies line drew me in like a moth to a flame, and WHAM! I was addicted to everything they produced.  My love of these items went along with all the other reasons I consider myself to be a gypsy (see the first post in the blog), so I became the Paper Gypsy.

Twice a year, when 7 Gypsies releases a new product catalog,  I am reminded why I am The Paper Gypsy.  The new catalog is absolutely amazing, and there are so many wonderful items in the new catalog that a hopeless Francophile can use when she is creating new art.  If you also enjoy looking at paper, ephemera, supplies for making miniature books, and really good junque, take a look at the new catalog here .

Also, the infamous scarf knitted of handspun wool was finished after I got home from work this evening!  Hooray!  I think it came out really well.  I will take pictures ASAP and post them for you to see on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Have a great evening!

You Need to See On The Razzle at Diablo Valley College

My daughter has just completed an arduous month of hunting for, borrowing and creating props for her college production of  "On The Razzle". As prop master, she was responsible for items that are used by the actors and used as set dressing.  Some props were easy to find, some took a bit of effort to locate - try to find geraniums in January or a set of bagpipes that needs to be playable.  For those items that were not easy to find or that were perishable food items - well, she just had to manufacture them herself.  She can make an awesome lobster thermidor out of foam, by the way.

The show is based on an Austrian play that was adapted by American author Thornton Wilder, and eventually became known as "The Matchmaker".  This, in turn, became the wonderful Broadway hit "Hello, Dolly!"  The DVC production was written by British playwright Tom Stoppard, and is an absolute hoot!  The entire production had the audience in stitches the whole night.  The actors are all amazing and the costumes are wonderful and the set shows how a few pieces can be adapted to many different settings. And why the plaids on the right, here?  Well, you need to see the show to understand.

If you are looking for an evening of great entertainment, I whole heartedly suggest that you get yourself over to DVC on a Friday or Saturday evening, or a Sunday afternoon before February 14th.   Curtain time is 8:00 for evening performances and Sunday matinees begin at 2:30.  For more information, visit dvcdrama.net

This is what I am working on today

The rain is coming down and the wind is blowing hard.  I keep watching the three, 30 foot tall white birch trees in my backyard sway back and forth, hoping that their roots are firmly planted in the ground.  I can deal with the branches falling off, but do not EVEN want to think about one or more huge trees in my family room.

So, weather like this means that it is a quilting day.  My "Tuesday morning, once a month" quilting group did not meet this morning, and I would not have been able to join them even if they did.  So I have next week to look forward to sewing, gabbing and laughing with my friends.  But I still need to "touch fabric" today.  So I have decided to sandwich and baste one of my tops that needs to be quilted.  This is another one of those "long time in the making" tops - the red and blue stars on cream backgrounds were started after we returned from South Africa in 1994.  I was feeling happy about being back home, so I figured a red, "white" and blue quilt was just the thing to celebrate with. 

I love the Sawtooth Star pattern and so pulled fabrics and started to cut and sew.  The blocks were started in 1994 and finally finished in 2009.  Once they were finished, I had to hurry up and add the sashing, posts and borders before life got in the way once more.  You see, it is not that I don't want to finish a project once it is started, it is just that other things (i.e., life) get in the way.  And OK, I guess I AM kind of ADHD when it comes to my projects.  It is easy to get me interested in lots of things at the same time, so there are always 5 or 6 different projects going.  They will all get done, just not right away and not in the order in which they were started.  That's just the way it is......

So the quilt will be ready in a few hours to put on my trusty Bernina for quilting - maybe later today, maybe later this week, maybe in a couple of weeks.  But I feel that some sort of progress has been made, at least.  So now do you understand why the scarf of the handspun yarn is not finished yet?

Attention Knitters - Have you seen THIS site?

I have found a website that I refer to whenever I have a knitting term that I do not understand. The beauty of this site is that it not only describes how to knit a particular stitch, but it also has videos that show you how to knit the stitch.  And wait - there's more!!!!  It shows you how to knit stitches in both the English and the Continental styles of knitting!  Now, to me, this is the best thing going out there.  My Grandmother taught me how to knit Continental style when I was 9, and all we got to was cast on, knit, purl and basic bind off before she passed away  There was still so much to learn, but no one to teach me.  And all of the knitters I knew only knit English style.  Let me tell you how exciting it was to be living in South Africa and have knitters there question what in the heck I was doing, since none of them knit Continental style.

So anyway, here is the site - knittinghelp.com .  Click on that link and it will take you directly to the glossary and the videos.

Going back to work on the lace scarf I am knitting from yarn that I spun.  If all goes well, I should be able to post the photo for you all in a few days.  Until then, stay safe and go well.

Sharing Another Quilt From This Last Year

I am busy knitting a scarf from some gorgeous merino yarn that I finished spinning for myself in November.  But it is not finished yet, so I will just share another one of my projects from this last year.

This is another one of my favorite scrap quilts.  The pattern is called Autumn Leaves and the colors come from leaves that I once saw in friend's yard while visiting her in Pennsylvania.  I ended up making 2 identical quilts - she owns one and I own the other.  They were both started about 8 years ago, and hers was finished in a very timely manner. So to be honest, only the pieced leaves are identical on the quilts. My quilt took a bit longer because I did not buy enough border fabric for both quilts, and then could not find the border fabric that I wanted on mine.  I finally finished my quilt this last year, and I LOVE it.  The colors go with absolutely NOTHING in my house, and I think that is the beauty of a scrap quilt.

Scrap quilts are my favorites to make and to look at.  I think it is because I own so danged much fabric in small pieces, and it needs to be used up. I am trying very hard to not buy more fabric because I am drowning in my current stash.  You quilters our there know exactly what I am talking about, don't you?  Sometimes we want to use special fabrics (like plaids, florals or kid prints) in a quilt, so we just might have to buy more fabric, but sometimes we just let our quilting friends know that we will be more than happy to take their scraps off their hands. As my friend Marilyn always says - FRIENDS SHARE!

OK, so much for today's fun - I am off to clean up the Tuesday night kitchen mess.  This weekly mess comes from my darling family's need to cook for themselves on Tuesday night while I go off to quilt.  Cleaning it up is a small price to pay for the joy I get from hanging with my friends for a couple of hours.

Ciao for now!

It was a longer than expected "mental health" break...

Hey there, world – I am back! And I do promise to be better about this blogging thing.

After a longer than usual hiatus, I have been cajoled and convinced by my good friends to come back to my blog. So, I am hoping to be a bit more diligent about it this time, updating at least a few times a week with news of what The Paper Gypsy is creating.

I am going to start off giving you a bit of an update on what has happened since my last entry. I fried my brain and got crispy around the edges with rubber stamping. I eventually crashed and burned when I realized that it was no longer fun because it became something I HAD to do, not just something I WANTED to do. Most of my stamps and stamping supplies have been sold off, although I have kept a lot of my paper crafting supplies and embellishments.

So where is my time spent now? I have returned to quilting with a vengeance, and have completed 6 quilts. I continue to work on my projects once a week with my good buddies, Karen’s Kids, at Main Street Quilts in Martinez. Our fearless leader (Karen Matsumoto, AKA the Color Goddess) is one of the most innovative quilters around, with the greatest sense of putting just the right colors together. And one Tuesday morning every month I meet with my other good buddies – my mini-group from Diablo Valley Quilters. This is a very creative but small group (only 5 if us) that really enjoys each other’s creativity and company.

I have also been doing some more beading this year, because those silly beads sitting in the containers in the corner of my craft room still know my name and scream to me, asking me to come play. But the high point of the year is that I finally taught myself how to spin yarn on my drop spindle! THIS has been an 11 year process, and I finally ”got it” after watching Abby Franquemont on a couple of YouTube videos.

I look forward to sharing a variety of projects with you in the coming years, and hope that someone is inspired by a color combination or bit of serendipity found on this blog.

The photo at the top of this post is of one of my favorite quilts from this last year - The Floor of the Senate Chamber on Atlantis. (Think broken mosaic tile floor lying on the bottom of the ocean.) The finished quilt is 54" X 54" and was made as a wall quilt for my family room,  The design is a modification of Patricia Pepe's original Venetian Tiles pattern.  You can find the pattern and X-Block ruler used in making this quilt here.