Hello, It's Me

 Isn't it fun to name your posts with song titles and then you can listen to the song while you read the post? (Yes, if you've got speakers or headphones, my blog does have musical accompaniment).

Today's been one of those melancholy days. A little feeling sorry for myself, a little tired, a little pissed off, a little unmotivated all rolled into one kind of day. I'm sure it will pass in a day or two. Too bad it's not a weekend or I could go work it off in the garden. Sigh.

The highlight of the weekend was the trip to Jinny Beyer with my sister. Jinny Beyer's shop is not the type of shop I'd visit more than a couple times a year. Don't get me wrong, it's a fabulous shop and she has lovely fabrics, but the shop only carries Jinny's line of fabrics, probably no more than a hundred bolts to choose from. I love her border prints, and her color palette, and the quilts she designs, but I can't imagine having a stash without a healthy dose of Kaffe Fassett, or anything Moda, or batiks, 1930s reproductions, strips, POLKA DOTS!!!

I went on a mission to  find a sophisticated inspiration/border print for a second Baltimore Album quilt. And I did...6 yards of this came home with me...borders, sashing and setting HSTs for an on-point 13-block quilt. I thought I'd need 3, but the woman cutting suggested that I might be a little 'off' in my calculations, and since this particular print isn't being reprinted, I might want to take that into consideration. (I did)

please excuse the colors...I have apparently transferred my current crankiness to my camera so it is not applying itself to it's best ability this evening. All of these colors are much, much more vibrant than you see.

I also found some hand dyed wool in lovely sherbet colors as well as  the perfect match border print  to use for an upcoming wool applique wall hanging which I'll be starting soon from Gretchen Gibbons Pennies from Heaven book (love it!)
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And this is another print I had to have, but I only picked up a fat quarter for now. There's a third fabric, but it will not photograph in this light. Both that and this FQ will be used for papercut blocks in the quilts, where a big print is an advantageous print.

I did get a tiny bit of sewing in over the weekend....for my sister. I quilted a quick and cute little table runner she had pieced as a gift for someone. Got to use my new stitch in the ditch sole on the walking foot for the piano key border and I pulled out the BSR and quilted starfish all over the center panel and the corners. It's perfect practice, and I'm finally over the horror of 'practicing' on someone else's work, as they seem to wind up liking what I've done (though it is FAR from perfect).

Today I spent a good amount of time perusing all of my applique books looking for patterns to use for the Album quilts. I had out my trusty proportion wheel, my ruler, my calculator, and I painstakingly copied patterns I wanted from each book and calculated their enlargement/reduction values to work on my 14" finished blocks (I'm looking to have the actual design span 10.5" so I'll have room to quilt them on a diagonal grid and you'll be able to see the grid stitching all around.) I've pretty much decided that baskets are out, though I could change my mind. I'm just afraid if I commit to 4 basket blocks per quilt I'll be making little bias strips to weave into baskets for the rest of the summer and won't get anything else done.

I also picked up another fun item at JoAnn on the return from Jinny Beyer......iron on glossy vinyl to laminate fabric. I just bought this Fossil purse that seems to be made from a laminated canvas print, and I was thinking what fun it might be to laminate some of my Indigo or the Australian prints and turn them into functional accessories. I'll keep you posted on how that turns out. I'm leery.....somehow the words 'iron on' and 'vinyl' don't exactly spell success to me.

Have a lovely day tomorrow. I'm sure you'll all be in better moods than I. Maybe I'll shake it off and get some stitching done after work. That might help..

Elly Sienkiewicz Rocks

Today was the workshop with Elly Sienkiewicz...Reigning Queen of Baltimore Album Quilts. And Elly herself, started the stitching on my block, to demonstrate a technique to the class...talk about thrilled....

What did I take away from this all day workshop?

• I learned how to do cutaway applique, which I had never even heard of prior to yesterday.
• I learned how to make ruched roses
• VERY IMPORTANT: I learned exactly how small an 8x8 finished block is --- it is VERY SMALL, and it is EVEN SMALLER when you have 48 leaves to needleturn applique that measure between 3/8" and 1/2" long (Can someone please send the applique fairy my way tonight...there's nothing I'd like better than to get up in the morning and find them all sewn on).
• I learned that good silk thread  and a #11 straw needle beats the heck out of any other thread. My stitches are INVISIBLE.
• I learned that you should forget about making your thread long and  once you thread the needle you should leave about a 4-5" tail and knot your silk thread at the end of the needle (as well as at the end of the thread). If the thread is knotted it won't slip out of the eye while you're sewing, and because it's just a single small knot under the eye, it won't impede your stitching.
• I learned that when stitching inside or outside corners, run the tip of your needle across a glue stick to help you push those little thread frays underneath and out of your way...they'll stick there while you stitch.

Elly is a lovely lady. She's always smiling and clearly loves teaching and the subject matter. I'm looking forward to having dinner with her tomorrow night, and following that, her lecture at our Guild meeting. (Where we will get to see her quilts, which we did not get to see today as we ran a bit late in class).

She graciously signed books (2 of mine....I brought along her two latest)

 I'll likely bring one of her older books to be signed tomorrow.

I was able to purchase her Baltimore Basics set of YLI silk thread in class (pictured below), but I have to say, I had my first opportunity to use the Superior Kimono Silk thread I won online and I'm very happy with the Superior thread and will likely order additional colors of that. Maybe they'll be at the Lancaster AQS show and I can just pick it up.

All in all, a very good day, even if it is snowing big, fat wet snowflakes this moment (Wait, was it not 60 degrees yesterday?)

Guess what Bailey found to snack on last Thursday?

Yep, that would be my handpainted Anuschka wallet that Bailey gifted me for Christmas to replace the painted Fossil wallet he chewed up. Again, he had to get my purse off the back of the chair, open it, root around inside, past the Prada makeup bag, the 2 packs of gum, the checkbook, the iPhone, in order to get this out and on the floor where he chewed off the strap, ingesting all but the snap. Something distracted him as I found it on the floor in my studio before he could do further damage. I contacted the company and was able to UPS it out to them on Friday where it will be sent with a shipment to India on Tuesday to be repaired. I'll have it back in 2-3 months (and no, it's not going to be cheap ...Bailey most certainly needs to find a job this Spring.)

And I think he needs to buy himself a dog bed, because I'm tired of finding this every night when I go up to bed

Have a great week. If you need a project, I've got some 3/8" leaves begging to be sewn to a block. :)