Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Quilt As You Go

Quilting for a Very Good Cause

by

My daughter Sarah and I love to donate quilts to the CASA program for their Quilt Auction each November. We also use the auction to see and visit with quilters that we only see once a year – -at the auction! I look forward to seeing my pals Kathy Harte and Judy Wedemeyer and Ruth (who bought one of my quilts last year – -thanks Ruth!!).

This year my offerings are meager compared to last year, and I am not too happy about that. I am donating the quilt you see here, made with RJR Fabrics (donated by them and Thank You Very Much RJR!), featured in our book Crazy Shortcut Quilts, called Sweet Sixteen. It is 60″ x 60″ and very pretty, with bright colors.

I’ll also be donating a book called Fat Quarter Quilting and package of RJR Thimbleberries fat quarters and some batting too – -(almost) everything you need to make a quilt!

The Quilt Auction is on November 22 from 11am-2pm in downtown Anchorage at the Phillips/Arco building at 7th & G. I would love to see you there and I can’t wait to watch the bidding on all of the gorgeous quilts 🙂

Videooooooooooooo

by

I have been having both fun and absolute total frustration – what a combo! And what can cause that? Either quilting a perfect seam and then finding a pucker on the back (oh, yes that has happened to me many times) or a computer. Heh. So, I bought a video camera that I needed to learn to use, didn’t understand how to use the editing software; had a major computer crash while simultaneously uploading and downloading videos…well, you get the idea.

I have created an account at You Tube (my pal Trish has some vids there!) and so does Pat Sloan – -whom I greatly admire. http://www.youtube.com/user/CrazyShortcutQuilts and I’ve started uploading some things that I like to teach. I’ll be adding more in the next few weeks and any comments or advice is very welcome! This is all very new to me so I am learning as I go, but overall I am having fun! Oh, and the “Bobbin” video has some squares that I am going to start quilting – in the hopes of making a quilted vest or jacket. I saw some sweet patterns at Market that motivated me even more to “get the lead out” and get to work on this project!

Here’s a very short clip of my little pumpkin, Audrey (my granddaughter).

250 Quilties

by

…5″ square, give or take a quarter inch…. Sarah and I make these for Quilt Market, which we will be attending in less than a month. This year we will have a Take & Teach on Sunday morning as well as a few “in-booth” demos through the weekend and a Schoolhouse session on Thursday. Notice my blue foam quilting table? 🙂

I have enjoyed a wonderful fall weekend, full of sun, fabric and quilting, while Tom and his son have been building a shed for a friend. Tom is in his truck, answering a call and is son is inside the building…

Stitch Envy

by

Whenever Sarah does a demonstration of our Crazy Shortcut Quilt techniques she mentions “stitch envy”. It happens during class when the students are quilting their squares using the decorative stitches of their sewing machines. They look at the quilters next to them and the stitches they have on their machines, and well, you get the idea.

We teach a lot of ways to get the most from your machine no matter how many stitches it has and I’ve quilted on machines with just 5 or 6 stitches – changing width and stitch length just to get some variety.

Today I got an email from a really cool lady who couldn’t wait to show me what she’d stitched up after reading our book. “We inspired her” she said, “and be sure to look at that crown stitch” she said. So I looked at her photos and now I have stitch envy!

She has crowns!

I want crowns!

Look at those stitches. I am so broke that I just couldn’t ask what machine she has – – I’m afraid to ask! LOL I’ll be dreaming of stitches tonight….thanks to Sandra Wucher of the Stashbusters Group on Yahoo!

Funky Fuzzy Shortcut Quilt

by

This baby is my favorite – by far! I wanted to couch down some yarn instead of quilting my squares, and I dug through my stash and found this chunky funky fuzzy yarn – -isn’t it delicious?
I’ve been using a narrow zigzag stitch to couch it down and it’s going slower than I thought it would but that’s just because of the little fuzzy bubbles in the yarn and the fact that I get to sew for only a few hours a week. We are still doing maintenance and work on the boat and putting up fish for winter. If you are following along and want to make the quilt – – I’ll post the whole story on our website when I get the quilt finished. I am using the sizing from the book for “Easy to Go Crazy” and the cutting design from “Think Pink”. I am making a few adjustments as I go so be sure to check back for the final post about this quilt. 🙂

Crazy Shortcake Quilt finds a Home

by

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!

Crazy Shortcut Quilts Book

by

I have learned that our book has gone into a second printing!! I am so excited! Hurray for us all and a big thanks to Krause and all the shops that stock the book and all the quilters who want to use the decorative stitches on their sewing machines to quilt their own quilts!! Congrats to Sarah Raffuse too, from me, happy dancing in the living room!

Update 3/5/08 – a very considerate lady (Karol) let us know that everywhere she tried to buy the book it was sold out. That was the push I needed to get busy creating a shopping cart for our website. {Have I mentioned how much I don’t like my web program?} So, Sarah is digging into her hoard of books and selling them, via secure shopping cart and secure server, on our web site here, for $22.99 + $4.60 shipping. She’ll autograph the book to you personally or as you direct.