buzzville

Testing the water

I'm tip-toeing up to the water's edge to see if I still remember how to do this... this blog thing. It's been eons since I've posted, and so much has happened. After moving superbuzzy to California in early October, we fell into a whirlwind of activity - maneuvering through the bureaucracy to form a corporation and move business operations to California (note: doing business in Oregon involves much less red tape and $$$!), the onslaught of the holiday season (much quieter and mellow this year!), beginning all the things associated with the new year, and then a fantastic trip to Japan in January (more about that soon!). It has been so incredibly rewarding to set up the new superbuzzy space and then slowly integrate with the community here in Ventura. Walk-in customers are fantastic, and we have new and more people stop by every week - such fun! I'm feeling so connected to this little shop, and it makes every hour of work so rewarding and worthwhile.

Although these months have been completely dominated by work and work-related activities (I'm trying hard not to come in 7 days a week now...), I have ventured back into some sewing here and there. I recently finished a baby quilt for my little nephew William, born in October. The inspiration for the quilt was, quite honestly, the super-soft double gauze fabrics here at superbuzzy. I had never sewn with double gauze before, and I wondered whether or not it would be a devil to quilt - what with the 2 layers of gauze, batting, and backing. But, the light, airiness of the fabric was irresistible, so I forged ahead with the project. I have to say, this might just be my favorite quilt yet!

The overall color inspiration was blue and yellow, but I didn't want it to be too bold or too "match-y". The entire quilt is made with double gauze fabrics, except the main backing fabric and the binding. Here is the front:

and here is the back:

 

Photographing an entire quilt is so hard, and it was quite windy... tough to really get the feeling from those shots. But, here are some close-ups to show some of the fabrics and quilting:

 

I quilted a simple zig-zag pattern running from top to bottom, and I chose to bind it with bias binding to give it that extra strength and stability - great for a baby quilt. I washed it over the weekend, and it got that lovely crinkled look - plus, the fabrics got even softer than before! I've learned the hard way a thing or two about batting in past projects, and I held out for my favorite on this one: Quilter's Dream Cotton - Select. The result is a super-soft and "squishy" quilt - none of the stiffness I've experienced with other batts. I've sent the quilt off to little baby today, and it's great to have a finished project to report after so long!

return from Quilt Market!

Mariko and I just returned from the spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake City. It was a lot of fun, although both of us had an ailment of some kind while we were there. I came down with a rotten cold on day 2, which was less than perfect timing. Despite this, we had some fun, saw lots of fabric, and got to meet great people! It's been a while since I was last in Salt Lake City, but we enjoyed ourselves and the little reminders of where we were...

Bright orange flags are available to pedestrians on either side of the street so that you can hold one and (hopefully!) cross in safety!

Although I didn't get to meet Denyse Schmidt, I did see the new line of fabric for Free Spirit (recently acquired by Westminster), and the quilt for the new line, Katie Jump Rope (apologies for the pictures - they have horrible, bright shop lights on all of the quilts that make for terrible pictures!):

I did, however, get to meet both Heather Bailey and Anna Maria Horner and see both of their lines in person. Both were sweet and bubbly, which is particularly wonderful given that I talked to them on the last day of the show. They looked much better than I did, with my runny, pink nose and in my drugged (on Dayquil!) mental state! Here is the quilt for Anna Maria's new line:

 

I also chatted briefly with Joel Dewberry next to the gorgeous booth (it won a prize!) displaying his new line. I overheard him describing some of his inspiration for the line as a recent trip to Tuscany... here's a sneak peek:

Many of the displays were quite creative and fun, and it would seem that several (although not all!) of the fabric manufacturers are starting to pay some attention to the growing new generation of crafters. Here are some fun displays I snapped at Robert Kaufman:

I forgot to snap a picture, but Michael Miller was showing a great ironing themed fabric (not yet on the site) and they made a great display with an ironing board covered in the fabric - very cute!

Although Quilt Market is geared as a shopping spree for the trade they also have a small display of quilts and "wearable art" at the show. I took some quick shots of a few of the quilts and added them to my flickr page and the Quilt Festivals flickr group. Enjoy!

But, what news of superbuzzy fabrics?!? We met with many of our friends from Japan, did quite a bit of shopping, and came up with all sorts of grand schemes for the next year. There are too many pictures to post here, but check out the superbuzzy flickr group to see pictures of what is in the shop now, or soon to come! 

Racing Quilt for a Nephew

And here we have the third quilt on the third day! You didn't think I could do it, did you?!? Just 2 weeks ago I learned that my nephew, who just turned 2, is obsessed with Matchbox cars. We hadn't yet purchased a Christmas gift for him, so I started thinking about a play mat that he could use to play with his cars. Since I didn't have much time to work on any complicated patchwork or applique, I started looking for panels that might work. I found a Matchbox Hero City panel that was perfect, and a coordinating construction vehicle fabric for the backing.

I added a piece of geometric blue fabric to the backing, and basted the pieces together. Then I used free-motion quilting to outline all of the roads and the mountain range along the top of the panel. I also quilted around the black border (between the blue and the scene). I used a bias-cut black and white check fabric for the binding, thinking it would look something like those checkered flags they wave at car races. The entire project was very quick, and it worked really well. It's the first whole cloth quilt I've made, and it was quite satisfying to have something come together so quickly!

The sun was definitely not cooperating for these photos, but here is the front:

and here is the back:

and here is a detail of the back:

I'm hoping my nephew will have fun driving his cars along the roads and having his own car races. I'll try to get some pictures if my vision becomes a reality!

I've got to run - we're *trying* to get to Denver today as we're supposed to be spending Christmas with family in Colorado this year. Think good thoughts for us as we hope to be on one of the first flights in once they re-open the airport! I'll try to post while we're away, but if I'm not able to, I'll be back on the 30th.

Happy and safe holidays to everyone!

Silhouette Quilt

I guess it's no secret that retro, Victorian style silhouettes have been pretty trendy lately. When I saw the Michael Miller line of fabrics featuring fun silhouettes (part of the black & white collection), I had to get some. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it yet, but I definitely wanted to get some before it was gone. The wheels in my head started turning... although the silhouettes have traditionally been executed on paper, why not try the same thing with fabric? Although none of the techniques I used are revolutionary, I thought I'd go through each step in case anyone is wondering how I did it.

I started by taking some digital photos of Brynne's profile. Once I got one I was happy with, I pulled it into my photo editing software, masked the background and made it white and filled the shape of her profile in black. I did some simplification of the image (especially of her hair), and printed out a copy to the size I wanted for my quilt. Here is the photo I started with:

I decided which way I wanted her to face in the final quilt, and flipped my printout the opposite way. I then traced the reversed outline of the silhouette onto fusible (I like HeatnBond Lite). I cut out the fusible outline about 1/4" away from the outer edge of my tracing. Next, I cut away the inside of the fusible outline - cutting to within about 1/4" of the traced outline. (This step means that your fused fabric will only have the fusible along the outline and won't feel stiff all over.) I then ironed the fusible to the wrong side of the fabric I was using for the silhouette - in this case a solid black fabric. I then cut the fabric carefully along the traced line on my fusible (remember - the paper is still on one side of the fusible). Now I'm ready to start assembling the pieces!

I removed the paper backing from the fusible and ironed my black silhouette to the background fabric - a solid white fabric. To complete the applique, I decided to use a very narrow satin stitch in black thread, so as not to detract from the silhouette. I appliqued the silhouette with some stabilizer ironed to the back side (to prevent any tunneling or other distortion). I then cut the white background fabric to size and added 2 borders. I used a mitered joint for the outer border (a black moire fabric) and a butt joint for the inner border (a black/white print reminiscent of a foulard).

My inspiration fabric from Michael Miller became the backing. The quilting is very minimal - an outline of the silhouette, and then in-the-ditch around each border. I added a hanger sleeve matched to the backing fabric. I used our class Bernina to embroider the details on the hanger sleeve in red thread. I'm not crazy about the look of this alphabet, and normally I would do a label at home using Bubble Jet, but because I wanted the hanger sleeve to match the backing, I couldn't use this method (the Inkjet inks won't show up on black fabric). I finished the edge using the knife-edge technique again. (Per some questions to yesterday's post, I tried to get photos of this, but since both fabrics are black, the detail was lost... I'll try to get something up that explains the technique!)

The quilt is designed to hang on the wall, much like a framed, paper silhouette would be displayed. Here is the front:

and here are some detail shots (excuse the fuzz from the batting - I didn't go over it with a lint remover before I took the pictures - doh!):

and here's the back with the embroidery in red:

This wall-hanging is destined to be a Christmas gift for one of Brynne's grandmas. I hope she likes it!

A quilt a day?

Ok, I know that most of you probably won't believe me, but I've been crafting up a storm here at chez buzzville, and I have 3 (yes, 3!) finished quilts to share with you. I know, I know... I probably should have suggested you sit down before you read that outlandish claim! My plan is to post a quilt a day for 3 days in a row, and get all caught up with what I've been working on lately. Without further ado, I'll share the first of 3 quilts:

You may remember me posting about the quilt that I've been calling the pixelated quilt. It seems like ages since I started it, and it really didn't take all that long. The delay was that my quilting teacher actually started expecting us to try something different... can you imagine?!? So, instead of working away on the pixelated quilt, I had to put it aside to learn some other techniques. But, I'm thrilled to say that this long overdue gift is finally en route to it's tiny recipient (and her mom!). Even though I know it hasn't arrived yet, I'm going to post it here because it might not happen otherwise!

The concept of the quilt is from this book by Yoshiko Jinzenji. Here is a picture of her version:

 

Her quilt was constructed using reverse applique, but I didn't think that reverse applique would hold up well as a baby quilt. So, I decided to approach it from a piecing perspective. I pulled out a piece of graph paper and a red pen, and I just began coloring in squares (pixels) to achieve a similar effect. I didn't want to copy hers exactly, but I did like the way the red was basically a border around the white. After a couple of tries, I came up with something I was happy with. I selected the fabric and pre-washed the white and red together to make sure there wasn't any bleeding. Can you believe that the wonderful, red Kona cotton didn't bleed onto the white at all?!? I then rotary cut the fabric into 1.5" strips, since my grid was based on 1" finished pixels.

I divided the overall quilt into 9 unequal "blocks", and proceeded to assemble the blocks one at a time. As the quilters out there can imagine, this quilt involves a *lot* of seam matching. The block assembly didn't take too long, but once the blocks were finished and it was time to join blocks, that's when the real headaches began! Trying to achieve perfection by joining 2 adjacent blocks and matching the seams every inch was incredibly tough. I ripped and stitched, ripped and stitched. Invariably, I would rip to fix one junction, and then the next time a different one would be off! I got to a point where I was relatively satisfied, and then moved on.

The recipient's mom helped to select the fabric for the backing, so that helped with the decision making. I decided that the only way to quilt this would be in the ditch, and I also decided to use the knife-edge technique rather than adding binding. (This is quickly becoming a favorite technique of mine!) The in-the-ditch quilting went quickly, and then I hand-sewed the knife-edge closing. Here is the finished quilt:

You can see that mine has more red than the original, but I also think that the original was a much larger quilt. It does hang pretty square, despite what the photo is showing... I always find it so hard to take pictures of quilts! I realized after I had started on the quilt that the color scheme (red/white/black) is perfect for a little baby and her developing eyes. The design is also a bit of a Rorschach test - folks in my quilting class were seeing all sorts of things! Here is a detail of the front to show how each seam had to be matched:

The back doesn't really photograph well from a distance - the pattern gets lost - but here is a detail showing the fabric and quilting:

Even though I pre-washed all of the fabrics, the quilt still got a nice, puckered look because I didn't pre-wash the batting.

I really enjoyed making this quilt. Although the pattern was relatively simple, it is unusual and modern. And, the difficulty of the piecing added a challenge that I appreciated. I hope that mom and baby enjoy this quilt!

International Quilt Week Yokohama 2006

I've opted not to go chronologically with my superbuzzy trip coverage, but thematically instead. I'm going to try to get everything all posted before everything gets too oldy-moldy. I see that Mariko is tackling the trip posts as well!

We had already walked most of Japan (or at least my feet were feeling like it!) by the time we got to Yokohama for the Quilt Show on Thursda, so I wasn't sure I was ready for the hordes of people and the large exhibit hall we discovered getting off the train in Yokohama. The women bound for the show had been quite easy to spot on the train: they were carrying quilted bags and totes, and wearing incredible pieces of wearable art - much more modern and sophisticated than the quilted clothing I see in the US. There were scores of women lined up waiting to get into the hall as soon as it opened at 10am. I was surprised at the rush to see the quilt exhibit; later I realized the rush was to do some serious shopping - not necessarily to see the quilts!

Although we were interested in seeing the quilts, our priority of the day was to take care of superbuzzy business. Stefana was such a gem - she stuck with us the entire day, helping me communicate when needed, and just being an overall good sport! Once business was taken care of, we wandered through the vendor booths and the quilt exhibits. Stefana and I dragged Mariko around while we admired the quilts (wow!), and we even found a super eggplant!

There were lots of amazing quilts there, and I probably didn't take as many photos as I should, but here is one I wanted to share:

I was completely amazed at how this quilter used these striped fabrics - such a cool effect and such a great pallette! I've uploaded more pictures of my favorite quilts and the quilt show on flickr (including a tiny glimpse of Mt. Fuji!).

Although the quilt show was not overwhelming in size, it was pretty overwhelming with the sheer number of people there. I did not see as many non-Japanese as I had expected to see, and, not suprisingly, I could probably count the male attendees (not including vendors) on my fingers and toes! The Japanese women were shopping with a purpose, snatching up all kinds of fabric, notions, kits, and gift items - including loads of vintage American fabric, buttons, and trims. I was impressed at the wide variety of cool crafty kits available - just more evidence that the craft scene in Japan is more geared toward the modern crafter than it is in the US. There were also vendors selling vintage kimonos and kimono scraps for premium prices; several of the quilts we saw on display were made entirely of silk.

After a few hours of this, we were thrilled to discover a corner with a bunch of foot massagers lined up! We all sat down for an extended period, and our feet thanked us again and again! In fact, Mariko and I returned to the show again on Friday and made a second stop at the foot massage station! Although we didn't buy one (!), I can definitely endorse them! If I were on my feet all day on a regular basis, one of these would be a necessity!

More superbuzzy trip news to come! Please let me know if this gets boring!

Quilts, Santa Barbara style

Two weekends ago (yes, I'm really behind!) I went to the Coastal Quilter's Guild quilt show in Santa Barbara to see what folks are stitching up north. I had gone to the local guild show last year, and I was pretty disappointed in the overall lack of anything particularly modern or contemporary. The Coastal Quilter's show wasn't all that different, but I did take some pictures of a few I found interesting.

This small art quilt by Lorna Morck is called "Bird Talkers", and I thought the use of various materials (buttons, ribbons, yarn, etc.) was fun and out of the norm for this show.

Darilyn Kisch made this quilt and calls it "Kathie's Girls". Although I'm not so crazy about the execution of the quilt itself, I really like the little dress block, and I think it would be fun to use the block in a quilt with lots of sweet thirties prints for the little dresses. Or, it could be a fun way to use bits of fabric from Brynne's dresses - maybe a dress block for each year from a favorite dress of hers?

I was laughing inside when I read the description for this bed-size quilt... The quilter (and her name is unreadable thanks to my lousy flash...) made this for her husband on their 50th wedding anniversary. He is "intrigued by space and extraterrestrial life", so she made this quilt based on crop circle designs! Makes me wonder what sort of designs I'd have to use to make a similar quilt for my hubby... space invaders? commodore 64 graphics?

 

I was unable to get close enough to this quilt by Juli Shulem to get pictures of the quilting, but each leaf was quilted perfectly using incredible decorative stitches. In fact, the stitching was so perfect that the quilt is basically reversible - the backing is a dark fabric and the quilting is in gold thread, so there's an amazingly perfect outline of each leaf on the back. Really lovely quilting, and a nice overall fall color pallette.

This is a fun memory quilt made of vintage neckties and their labels. I like these sort of quilts because it seems like I see something new each time I look at them - definitely a nice way to remember a family member. Here's a closeup to see some of the detail:

In addition to the quilts made by guild members, there was also a special exhibition featuring quilts by Robbi Joy Eklow. Her quilts are certainly contemporary, but what I was most impressed with is her fantastic understanding of color (especially bright color!) and her incredible quilting. Here is an example of one of her quilts, and some closeups of the quilting (click on the close-ups to really see the intricate quilting patterns!):

Overall, I didn't find anything earth shattering at the show, but I did enjoy taking a close look at these quilts to see the techniques and details in person...

WIP Friday - pixelated

You will probably all have no trouble guessing who this little project is for just by the color pallette... it will be late (surprised? probably not...), but definitely made with love. The recipient knows something of the details, so I don't think I'm spoiling too much here. In fact, I'm thinking of involving her further in the process. Here is some of what has been completed thus far:

This quilt is an exercise in perfection. The strips are cut to 1.5", to be 1" when pieced, and each of the little joins must be done perfectly so that the illusion of continuous vertical strips is a success. I have ripped and resewn many times, and my teacher always points out when I'm 1/2 a stitch off. But, in some ways, this project may be just right for my anal tendencies... The piecing is actually going relatively quickly -  especially when there are no pesky points to match. It's really a very modern quilt - I think even more modern than my "Unfinished Business"... But I'm really fond of the red/white combination and all of the intended or unintended references to traditional American quilts. I'm still auditioning backing fabric for the quilt, including the 2 seen below. I'd love your votes on these - hate them both? like one more than the other? have something totally different in mind? I'd love to hear opinions, especially from the intended recipient (and you know who you are!). I'm liking these because of the softness and curves - in juxtaposition with the linear and ultra-graphic front.

 

More wip here.

(Un)Finished Business!

While working on my quilt for the Modern Quilt Along, I frequently wondered if the name for the project, Unfinished Business, was a curse. I knew that my husband had chosen the most difficult pattern in the book, but I'm a reasonably confident quilter, and the difficulty level didn't intimidate me... at first. Selecting the fabrics was somewhat challenging, largely because my chosen colors (greys) were not very common in any of the shops I visited. It was also a bit difficult for me to step away from buying only fabrics I *love*, and instead choosing fabrics because they would work with the pattern. For this quilt, I purchased and used many fabrics I didn't particularly like, placing my trust in the pattern itself and haivng faith that I would be happy with the end result.

Cutting the fabric strips and irregular shapes was easy, if time consuming, and beginning the piecing wasn't too bad. This was the calm before the storm... The real headaches with the pattern came when it was time to begin joining the "blocks" (and I use that word very loosely because these aren't blocks in the traditional sense - each one is totally unique). Because I wanted to be somewhat thrifty with my fabric, joining the pieces was like a giant puzzle. I tried to match pieces that would best fit together without a lot of fabric waste while also trying to keep a lot of variety (of fabrics, shapes, sizes) in each of the blocks. I cursed my way through the first "row" of the quilt, but learned some lessons along the way. The next rows came more and more quickly, and by the fourth row, I really felt as if I knew what I was doing.

Because the fabrics are not all joined parallel or perpendicular to the grain, this quilt is pretty squirrely to work with - lots of stretch and wiggling. Squaring up each row was scary (am I cutting "straight"?!?), and the moment of truth came when all the rows were joined... is it square? are the sides straight? Thanks to lots of double and triple and quadruple measuring, the finished top was pretty square.

I decided to quilt as it was shown in the book. I selected random, irregular "blocks" and free-motion quilted concentric rectangles within the block. I didn't try to quilt straight lines (really!), and I wanted them to be funky, irregularly spaced, and full of motion - much like the patchwork itself. I used 4 different color threads (in the bobbin too) to closely match the overall value of each row. But because I was using the same colors of thread on the front and back of the quilt, the quilting thread changes on the back and is more or less apparent depending on the area of the quilt. I didn't bind the quilt, but used the knife-edge technique to close the sides. Rather than topstitching by machine, I handstitched it closed using the ladder stitch.

front of quilt

quilt back is a fantastic fabric from Lonni Rossi's typospheres collection. I love the greys and flashes of metallic silver - perfect for this quilt! I pieced the back in 4 segments that match the 4 segments on the front.

Here are some detail shots:

So glad it's finally finished, and so pleased with the final results. This one has been a long time coming, and I learned a ton in the process. I feel so much more confident as a quilter now... but I think I'm going to work on something a bit simpler for a bit!

green

I signed up to participate in the Project Spectrum postcard swap for the month of May, and now that the postcard is off across the world, I'll post a little bit here. I must admit that I was more than a wee bit intimidated when I discovered my partner for the May swap was the incredible craft force that is Hilda of Planeta Hilda. I wasn't sure how I could possibly create something that would hold a candle to her beautiful stuffed and sewn creations. I finally decided to go forward with what I know and do best - sewing. I rummaged through many bags of green scraps and settled on an assortment of reproduction fabrics from the 1930s. I was hoping that their sweet, innocent aesthetic would appeal to Hilda.

Having gotten a lot of practice recently in improvisational piecing (thanks to the Unfinished Business quilt!), I decided to use that technique on a small scale for a postcard-sized mini quilt. Here is the finished quilt:

After piecing the top, I trimmed it and the backing fabric to size and then sandwiched a cardstock postcard between them. I stitched in the ditch through all 3 layers and then did an intentionally rough (for that homey look) satin stictch around the edges. Here is the back:

Now that it's done, I think that maybe I should have done the "quilting" through the top and postcard and then attached the back. I thought that the quilting lines would look interesting on the backing fabric, but now that I've seen the finished product, I'm not so sure. At any rate, this little green postcard quilt is on its way to Portugal.

P.S. I must give credit to the amazing work of Gerrie, Lisa and Stephanie's mom, for the inspiration on this project. Her quilted postcards are amazing! Can you imagine what it must be like to be from such an incredible, crafty family?!?