Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Marguerita’s Blog

We made the Catalog Cover!

by

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!

Spring Quilt Market in Portland, Oregon

by

I am in Portland now, a city I truely enjoy visiting. This is my third Quilt Market in Portland and I stay in a different part of the city every time, using public transportation to get around. Yesterday I went to Powells Bookstore, the largest used bookstore in the nation. I walked for hours through old downtown Portland and it was just fun. The flowers are blooming here and I even got a bit of sun sitting outside the convention center waiting for the admin booths to open.

Fishing Season

by

It’s that time of year again. I’ve been on the boat, which is dry docked right now, cleaning and making her ready for another fishing season.

Here’s an older picture of me, when I worked on the boat as crew a couple of years ago. In the first photo I am surrounded by fish, hand pitching them for delivery. I am also very tired – lol! In this photo we have just caught the fish on the jitney and are transferring them to the big boat for icing and tendering.

We are incredibly careful with our fish because a good percentage will make it to your store as fresh Alaskan Red Salmon. That means frequent deliveries of heavily iced fish and “hand” handling, not pumped by machine. Here’s a photo of Tom’s seiner, the F/V Dolly B, at the dock for delivery. This is his photo, I was probably asleep in my bunk!

Crazy Shortcut Quilt

by

I just received an email that made a very sad day so much better! There was a tragic accident with some of my free roaming bunnies, and my heart has been heavy for days. Then I received this message and photo:

Marguerita,

I thought I’d share some pictures with you and Sarah on my first attempt at making one on the quilts in your book. I’m sure it won’t be the last. I had a blast!

Julie

I am going to put her photo on our website, along with quilts from Sarah’s recent class. Wasn’t it so sweet of Julie to send us her photo? Thanks Julie!

Quilt Room Photo

by

I just love having a cutting table that I can stand at and walk around! Sarah gave me this table and I use it all the time. The other thing that I really like is the pegboard that hangs next to it. I have the table shoved into a corner (no wobbling) and my rulers, rotary cutters and scissors hang from it along with a comfortable mish mash of stuff . My mess, take a peek.

That cute quilt on the wall is, I believe, the first quilt Sarah ever made…isn’t that sweet! She gave it to me!

Booties Part Three

by

I was in Anchorage for a few days and I spent some time with Audrey. I brought up a small bucket of the things she’s used to playing with when she is with me, and here’s how that went:

She dove into the bucket, first after her necklaces and then ended up dumping the whole bucket onto the coffee table. Then she went for the purse – and she knew exactly what she was fishing around for in there – her cell phone. No, she doesn’t have her own phone at the tender age of 1, I just slipped one of non-functioning phones that we have in the house that haven’t been recycled yet.

She grabs that thing every time and flings it right into place and wanders around jabbering at the top of her lungs. It’s hysterical. Especially when she gets her arms going – I can tell that her mother must gesture a lot when she’s on the phone.

I finally talked her into trying on the booties (way too big – what a surprise – lol) and she liked them. After a while she tossed them aside for the bigger version. I am afraid of taking her shoe shopping now….. what have I started?

Booties Part Two

by

Using the tracing that I took of Audrey’s feet and some quilted muslin from a machine quilting class, I cut out my estimation of the pieces. I love estimating and I do it all the time 🙂

I pinned the pieces together and I could tell right away that I had overestimated! I could put these things on a moose!

I unpinned and trimmed 3/4″ off the upper – all the way around except for the heel, which I had already sewn.

I re-pinned and then stitched, using a walking foot – which was a bad idea, it didn’t like the bulk, especially at the gathered bulk in the toe area.
I still think that the booties are too big, but I’ll wait and see how they fit on Audrey. I would like to inset some cuff material and make them into pull-on slippers. I have some fake suede for bottoms and maybe fleece for the uppers, with a cuff for snugness?

Booties

by

What happens when you try to hold steady a wiggly giggly baby with one hand and trace around her ticklish feet with the other hand? Chaos. And this kind of scribble:

Heather Bailey has a free pattern for baby booties that I want to try. I’ll make a tester first, to see how they fit, and then make a real pair for Audrey. Her feet are quite a bit bigger than the pattern that Heather offers, so I’ll modify as I go, using her basic design and tips for construction.

Almost Spring

by

I begin to believe that spring is almost here when the daffodils start coming up. We still have several feet of snow in the yard, but around the house it’s melting out.

The poor things have to fight their way through the masses of snow we received this winter – but up they come!

I can hardly believe that they push up through the snow pack!

There were even some dandelion shoots and I picked a few for bunny. His first spring treat 🙂 He just loves dandelions!