Simply Done
Here’s a scan from the Keepsake Quilting Catalog showing our book! Take a look at the “Going Mod” fabrics on the opposite page – aren’t they great! They would make a great crazy shortcut quilt.
Guess the first thing Sarah said when she saw the catalog……”I see they chose MY quilt to feature on the open page” with a very big grin 🙂
Well, the old 8 foot pool table is *GONE*! I can hardly believe it. Sometimes I go downstairs just to check that it really is gone! The pool room is cleaned up and clear of clutter, with new barstools – nice! Tom is going to build a small table to complement the barstools – we have the design all worked out but we need to wait for the logs to thaw for milling.
Tom had to completely knock out all of the stairs to get the slate out of the basement and when he put them back in he reinforced the treads from the underside. Then I started cleaning, sanding and priming. There used to be a closet door on the tall side (he took it off, frame and all) and the angled side used to be closed in with plywood, making the enclosed space virtually useless.
We are going to store all the canning supplies (about 12 cases of jars) way in the back, on rollers so they can be pulled out easily, and then Tom’s going to build some shelving. I’d like a small office area, just for typical desk clutter. He is happy just to get the jars out of the way!
I learn so much on the internet, and the tutorial and tips from Holly Knott really helped me a lot. I modified some of her hints, using things I had at home and I continue to work on my quilt photography skills every time I take a pic.
For the book I flew to Wisconsin to work with the staff photographers at Krause and what an experience! Those photographers must have had several hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, excellent professional training and the creative nature to do so many photos justice. I was in awe.
Because I wanted to submit a few of my own photos for the book I tried to learn as much as possible. So, here’s a little tour of my quiltroom/bunny room/photography studio.
The wall has a piece of rough textured fleece stapled to it; there’s a photography grey card pinned to that and all I usually do (for small scale photos – not full sized bed quilts) is smooth the fabric onto the fleece, or put it on with 3-4 pins. The poles that you see are from a rolling closet rack purchased at WalMart for about $11. I like this a lot because I can use it for storage too, when it’s not being used for lighting. Suspended from the ceiling are 2 cheap florescent lamp fixtures with daylight rated bulbs. Clamped to the rolling closet rack are 2 cheap clamp lamps with expensive daylight rated florescent bulbs. All this is connected to a power strip with an on/off switch so it’s only turned on right when I take a photo.
When I’m done with the pic, I unplug the clamp lamps and drape their cords over the top of the rack (remember, this is also the bunny room and bunnies chew cords) and roll it aside. You can see my Quilting Table in there too. The bins against the wall store my threads and the shelves on the wall have a few scrap bins.
Here’s an older top that I did using Dina Pappas’s method of fusing the fabric squares to a lightweight gridded stabilizer. She loves florals so that’s what we all (in her class) used.
I don’t love florals that much, so I tried Dina’s technique in batiks. This is still a pretty quilt and made even better with the addition of the two great borders (Sarah’s work again – what a great kid!)
Watercolor quilts are usually made from floral fabrics, but I hate florals, so I used batiks.
My friend, Dina Pappas, wrote a book about making watercolor quilts using a foundation stabilizer with gridded lines on it. I used her technique to make these quilts and what a breeze!! Even MY seams are straight – and that’s saying something!
I also hate doing borders so my daughter Sarah Raffuse put the fantastic borders on the quilts for me – now I just need to quilt them. What do you think about the 
batik v. floral?
Our book, Crazy Shortcut Quilts, is in the Keepsake Quilting Catalog!!!!! Yahooooooooo!!!!!!!! I LOVE those guys! They also bought my very first pattern years ago.
Here’s the linky, happy days, happy days!! Crazy Shortcut Quilts Book
Thank you, thank you Keepsake Quilting from Sarah Raffuse and Marguerita McManus!
Well, this one is a draw. After 2 days together they are getting used to each other, and seeing the benefits of friendship. Audrey realizes that if she doesn’t reach too fast, she gets to pet the bunny and bunny (not so dumb) quickly figured out who was leaving him small tokens of affection on the floor, like Corn Flakes and globs of banana. Hehehehe. He found them before I did!
So now he warily follows her around, at a safe distance, and she thinks she just added one more admirer to her posse. Happy Days for all of us!
When I picked up Audrey in Girdwood today (Sarah and I meet aprox. half way between Seward and Anchorage) I asked Sarah for her advice on fabrics for bindings for both the purple scraps quilt and the reproductions quilt. We talked for a few minutes and I agreed with her choice of a white-on-white for the reproductions, and then I commented that I would hopefully have it finished this weekend. Her laughter was loud and long, and I was slightly offended. Her thought was that if I thought that Audrey would leave me with energy or time to quilt, I was indeed, nuts. And she said so, out loud, between laughs.
I hate admitting that I am wrong, but at 10pm tonight (I drove away with Audrey at noonish) I believe that she may be right. How I managed to raise a child and her cousins being a single parent, I just can’t remember. I am exhausted. And bunny just came out of hiding.
Audrey finally fell asleep at 9:30 and the only nap she had was on the drive back to Seward. It was a gorgeous day! We had a fun drive and stopped at the property on the way home to feed the “free” bunnies – and I noticed for the second time that the eagles must have gotten one of the little ones.
At home, Audrey immediately sought out bunny, and found him in his usual spot, in our bedroom (he has his own room, which doubles as my quilting room). She stayed about 4 feet from him, and they had a staredown. She did her dance and he glared, giving me “the look”.
If you are a pet owner, you know “the look”. It’s what you get when you take them to the vet for shots or bring and infant into the home. The “why are you subjecting me to this torture?” look.
They left each other alone for about 4 hours and then had the showdown in the kitchen. Bunny came out to assert himself and he backed Audrey all the way up to the kitchen cabinets, where she squeeled and clung to my leg. Then she took action. When he got close enough (overconfident bunny!) she reached down like lightning and touched him on the back!! Whoooooooooeeeeee! He took off, halfway down the hall, and then stood his ground (they don’t call them dumb bunnies for nothing). She just toddled on over and did it again! Off he ran, to hide behind the bed, and Ding! Audrey is the winner of round three!
Gramma’s gonna collapse and re-prioritize her quilting and move a few deadlines back (don’t tell anyone!).
My daughter, Sarah Raffuse, my best friend Penny Herndon, and I all went to Quilt Market in Houston and I came away with these fabrics! I bought quite a variety!
The Earthtones are P & B Textiles.
The dark chocolate and periwinkle
blue are In the Beginning fabrics, called Bohemian Manor.
The milk chocolate and powder blues are Marcus Brothers
the stack of autumn colors are RJR;
the muted tonals with the rose is Transitions by Benartex.
The two photos of Kings Road Fat Quarter Packs (there are 4 of them)
are the exact same fat quarter packets, just reversed. On one side of the bundle you see 4
fabrics and on the other side (I just flipped them over in the same order when photographing) you see the other 4 FQ’s in the bundle.
I can’t wait to use them all!
I love scraps and save every sliver – I even save the ends of my decorative threads! I randomly pieced these scraps together and ended up with 4 squares. Check out the stitching – I am happy with it. I need to get it sashed and bound this week.
