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Sarah Raffuse

Cursed Fabric

July 5, 2010 by Marguerita

Sarah, my daughter, and I both make quilts. Lots of quilts. But, we seem to take turns – sort of. As she was packing her things to go back home this weekend, after staying overnight with us, she pushed the box of fabrics at me and then reached to take them back. We both laughed, but then things got serious.

“Are you keeping them?” she asked.

“No, you take them. Don’t you have something to make with them?” I asked back.

“No, but you never use them!” she said.

“Well…… I could make some thing if you leave them here………” was my reply.

“Who ever has this box never makes a quilt!” We both blurted out at the same time, and then laughed nervously, because we both suddenly realized it was true.

When she’s making quilt after quilt, updating her blog and Facebook with pictures of projects, I seem to be tied up with other (non-quilting) projects and all my fabrics are haphazardly stashed in bins and boxes.

When I’m head down and working, testing designs, fabrics and layouts, I can’t even get her to LOOK at a quilt with me. She’s busy with her daughter, her husband, her friends or all three and life in general. We NEVER work on quilts at the same time, and each one give the other one a hard time about it. There’s lots of snide remarks, mumbled comments and sticking out of tongues. Fabric snatching from the other person’s stash has been known to happen, as well as accusations of missing project pieces.

Maybe someday we will work on quilts together, but I am guessing not anytime soon. Meanwhile I have the cursed fabrics. That means she better get to quilting. 🙂

Filed Under: Quilts in the works, Sarah Raffuse

Our Art Quilt Project

May 28, 2009 by Marguerita

audrey-fabricsHehehehe.  A baby and a bucket of fabric scraps.  I’ll be picking them up for the next month!  What was I thinking!?

Well, let’s just say I was rushing things a bit.  The technique worked well but the materials I chose didn’t (not their fault, mine) and the child doesn’t quite have the attention span yet for a project this size.  I’ll try again, but smaller next time  🙂

We played outside for a while but after I took her home we both came down with colds  🙁  Oh well.  We are on the mend!  As I was leaving Audrey at home with her parents I was cooerced into taking one of Sarah’s quilts.  I have no idea why she wants ME to quilt this – she’s quilted several in the past few months and done just fine.  Another “oh, well”.

sarahs-quiltI hope to quilt this (and a few more) and make videos as I quilt them.  I love machine quilting art quilts (maybe that’s why she gave it to me to quilt?) and I now have the space to both quilt and take video, so these few that are waiting will be the test.

The red flowers are texured heavily, they are a product of Bella Nonna and Sarah just loves them. She has made several of their quilts. In fact, if you like it I think you should stop by Sarah’s Blog and tell her to make a video of her making one! Doesn’t that sound like fun?!?

Filed Under: Granddaughter Audrey, Just for Fun, Quilts in the works, Sarah Raffuse

New Fabric!

February 21, 2009 by Marguerita

Oh what a great trip to Anchorage! To visit my favorite quilt shop (Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe) and see the familiar faces and the new, gorgeous fabrics. Heaven!! Then Sarah arrived with granddaughter Audrey and the *real* fun began 🙂

Confession: I do not shop for fabric. I have asked (that being the polite way of saying ‘forced’) Sarah to pick my fabrics for me for years. Last time I went to Quilt Market I just gave her the cash and said “buy what you wanted but didn’t get”. She always picks the best stuff 🙂

When I buy fabrics and show my choices to people, they politely force a tight smile and whisper “oh, how nice ..” and turn away quickly. It’s true. Honest. I am a total loser at picking fabrics. That’s why I buy the fat quarter bundles or have someone do it for me. I relied upon Doris, my all time best quilt shop friend, and now Sarah. Hopefully Audrey will take after her mom and have a good eye for color too 🙂

So anyway, Audrey and I played with the shop toys while Sarah selected my sashing fabrics for the two projects I have in the works now.

The quilt shop owner, Maret, found a minute between class sessions to say “Hi” (she is a total sweetheart) and take a look at my projects and THEN I spied, hidden at the bottom of a rack, my most favorite thing of all – -scrap bags!! Yay! I *love* buying scrap bags! At the counter Sarah spied a bit of left over ribbon with bunnies on it so of course we had to have it. What a wonderful day!

Filed Under: Crazy Shortcut Quilts Book, Granddaughter Audrey, Just for Fun, Quilt As You Go, Quilts in the works, Sarah Raffuse Tagged With: Quilt As You Go

Design Options

July 24, 2008 by Marguerita

Sarah’s playing with some quilt design options on her blog. Take a peek and let her know which layout you like best. I’ve been cleaning and organizing stash and paperwork. Pulling out old notes, unfinished tops, stuff like that. My theory is that if I surround myself with unfinished works I’ll eventually finish something! 🙂

Filed Under: Sarah Raffuse

Saturday, June 21 in Anchorage, Alaska

June 20, 2008 by Marguerita

Sarah and I will be at Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe in the new location at the University Center Mall from noon to 3pm on Saturday. Please stop in and say “hi” and I’ll be bringing the bits of my Fuzzy Funky Crazy Shortcut Quilt too – I have a few squares “quilted” and you can check them out.

Maret, the owner of Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe, is a great gal and she used to be Sarah’s teacher in elementary school – how cool is that? She told us that she found a photo of Sarah curled up inside the bookcase in her classroom, reading a book. I can’t wait to see it.

I’ve been busy working on Tom’s property and I’ll post about it Sunday – with photos. I keep forgetting to take my camera when I head out there to work. Happy Solstice All!

Filed Under: Crazy Shortcut Quilts Book, Sarah Raffuse

Crazy Shortcake Quilt finds a Home

May 30, 2008 by Marguerita

While at Spring Quilt Market Sarah and I bumped into Maret from Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe in Anchorage several times! I love going all the way to Portland, Oregon to meet up with the Alaskans – lol!

We showed her the Shortcake Quilt and offered to let it go live in her newly relocated Shoppe and she took us up on it. I haven’t seen it there yet, I stole this pic from Sarah’s Blog 🙂

We will both be at Seams Like Home on June 21 for a book signing and hugging day. We end up seeing lots of quilters and giving and getting lots of hugs. How nice is that!

Filed Under: Crazy Shortcut Quilts Book, Just for Fun, Quilt As You Go, Quilts, Sarah Raffuse, Travel Alaska and more Tagged With: Quilt As You Go

We made the Catalog Cover!

May 19, 2008 by Marguerita

I am back from Quilt Market in Portland and what an experience! Sarah and I had an awesome time at Market and even though she did all the hard work (and she did a spectacular job!) I am the one who is exhausted! How did that happen? LOL

I am a behind-the-scenes kind of person so I did all the prep work for the demo and then Sarah does all the talking at the demo and she really makes the quilters happy. She received lots and lots of compliments about her demos and when we were all done showing off, we walked the aisles of Market together. She was looking specifically for organics and eco-friendly products and I was looking for info for another blog that I write called “Quilt News“. With only 2 exceptions, we were happily received by all. Sarah will be back tomorrow and will probably post about her finds on her blog. I’ll post again with photos of fabrics and a few other tidbits from Market.

We started off on Saturday morning with a bang when we realized that our publisher, Krause Publications, has a photo our our very own quilt on the cover of their Spring 2008 catalog. Yayyyyyy!

Filed Under: Crazy Shortcut Quilts Book, Nice things, Sarah Raffuse

Audrey’s Hat

March 12, 2008 by Marguerita

I’ve been working on a secret project….Audrey’s Hat. As you can see from Sarah’s blog, Audrey loves to put things on her head. Her favorite thing is a tupperware toy that she pretends is her hat. That made me think that maybe I should make her a hat.

This hat had no design or pattern in mind, just play and relief for me after refurbishing kitchen floors everyday. So each day for the past 4 days, I’ve cut a little, sewn, agonized over fabrics, tossed my stash around and played. I didn’t take photos of the process because I didn’t think it would work, but I believe that I have a really cute hat here, and I can’t wait to give it to Audrey.

It was hard to make it without her here, to test for size. I used the bear, but he’s just not the same as a baby girl – lol 🙂

So, this weekend I shall see Audrey and give her my gift to her, her very own hat. It’s a secret though, so if you see her, don’t tell!

I am going to make another one and I’ll take photos as I go on that one.

Filed Under: Granddaughter Audrey, Quilts in the works, Sarah Raffuse

Fun with Flickr

March 4, 2008 by Marguerita

I created a photo set (which can be viewed as a slideshow) on Flickr (click here to see it) of portions of quilts in our book – some photos are of 1 square of the quilt, some have 4 squares. The photos aren’t great and I hope to re-do them soon.

Flickr is a photo sharing site owned by Yahoo! and I am learning to like it. Sarah uploads photos of my granddaughter (125 miles away) and I can see them immediately~~~I really like that!

Filed Under: Crazy Shortcut Quilts Book, Sarah Raffuse

Sarah Raffuse Blogs!

March 4, 2008 by Marguerita

My daughter and co-author, Sarah Raffuse, has started a blog. Hehehehehe. I knew that if I stole her pictures enough she’d start blogging herself 🙂 <—-happy mom smile!

On her post today she shows off one of her most favorite quilts, made with the Bella Nonna pattern and silk flowers (check out their stuff here). Their patterns are cute, cute, cute! And they are nice people, we always say hi & chat at Quilt Market.

So stop on by Sarah Raffuse’s Blog and say hi or just take a peek!

Filed Under: Quilting By Machine, Quilts in the works, Sarah Raffuse

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