Putting the Pizzazz in the Paper!

The art of hand sewing is not fading away for this group of women!

Each month, on the 2nd Tuesday, you will find them sitting down with needle and thread and an English paper piecing project.  Our Paper Pizzazz group has such talent and varied skills.  Some have known how to do the stitching for English paper piecing for a long time, some are newcomers to this.  Some like traditional, some like a little more whimsy and bright colors.  Some stitch fast, some stitch slowly, and there's no expiration date for how long a project can be "in the works"!

We enjoy the inspiration gained from each other, resurrecting old ideas and creating new ones.   Stitching by hand is such a fundamental form of the craft of quilting.  It's a very tactile aspect of what we do, very "in touch with" the fabric, thread, needle and the paper shapes.  We are always learning a little something new, whether it's how to combine shapes differently, how to baste the quickest and neatest way, what needles feel the best in our hand, what threads pull through the fabric smoothly, and how to keep it all organized!

Here are some examples of individual projects that are underway--

Jean's block partially assembled.

Lynette's hexagon medallion that keeps growing!

Deb's carefully planned and partially stitched hexies.

Pam's collection of hexagon "flowers" made from the remains of other quilts.

Andrea's nearly finished hexagons, which was the subject of much admiration
and discussion on finishing techniques.

Mary's "wheels" made of reproduction 1930's fabrics.

Our group is casual and open to anyone interested, no matter your skill level.  When Lynette started her medallion project shown above, she was a rookie at this.  But she was game to learn something new, and committed to using fabrics she already had on hand.  And look how far she's come!  That could be you!

So next time we get together, October 11 at 1 pm, maybe you can be there to pull up a chair and join us!  Last week we sampled a new recipe I had for a dip that is near and dear to my heart.  It's made with Cookie Butter, and if you haven't yet tasted Cookie Butter, just get yourself over to Trader Joe's and pick up a jar!  I am not kidding when I say that my day starts out best when I have Cookie Butter on my toast!  We sampled this dip on apples, pretzels and Bugles.  The Bugles make a good little scooper for the dip and still pop in the mouth in one bite!  Here's the recipe, which I found on this blog.

1/2 cup cookie butter
8 oz. cream cheese, warmed to room temp
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 T. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Whip it all up with a mixer so it gets some fluffiness.  And eat!  How simple is that!?

Fresh Fabric!

A little more enticement for you!  These are some fresh new fabrics on our shelves, just looking for a good home with you!

Please don't disappoint them!

I might be highly influenced by the hexagons in this group, I seem to be drawn to that shape!  But this is just the right blend of traditional and a little more contemporary influence.  That makes it just about right!

Beaujolais by Sue Daley for Penny Rose Fabrics

And another traditional group designed by Sue Daley, reflecting some civil war-era influence in both the colors and the style.

The Era of Jane Collection by Penny Rose Fabrics

And some bright, fresh prints for all kinds of uses!

Butterfly Garden by Dena Designs for Free Spirit Fabric

Do you know Cotton + Steel?

This is an off-shoot of RJR Fabrics, long known in the quilting fabric world back when they were all about Thimbleberries.  Now there's a blast from the past!  And, the good news is that Lynette Jensen, aka Queen of Thimbleberries, is coming out of retirement!

In the meantime, a new small group of gifted designers have combined talents to create some great new updated fabrics.  Please visit their website to learn about them!

We have had a small collection of fabrics from Cotton+Steel, and the plan is to expand that.  The bolts shown below are our newest acquisitions---

I love the fact that there is a range of blue in the picture, and I would love to put them all together in a quilt!  They have brought back some metallics in a tasteful way, the stripe that is second from the bottom is gold metallic.  What would you do with Cotton+Steel?

28, 29, 30, 31

The saga continues with blocks 28-31 of the City Sampler from Tula Pink's book 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.  Kristina has combined more interesting prints from her scrap bag (box/bin/room).  The theme of rectangles is present here.  So many combinations and arrangements of the simple rectangle!  One thing you see as we go through these blocks is that they are not highly complicated, but take some planning to get colors where you like them best.  The good news is that even if you end up with a color in a less desirable location, either you can let it be because there are so many blocks to look at, or you can do it over because it's just one block, not a whole quilt!

And onward with our tour of sewing rooms!  Thank you, Jeanne, for these pictures.  Only 1 thing missing--sewing machines!  Have you converted to hand work only?  I think not.  Jeanne works in our Bernina Sewing Center and teaches classes, both for the Sew Center on the machines, and for the Quilt Shop on quilts and techniques.  That's Jeanne, below, on the left, getting ready to demonstrate machines at the Minnesota Quilters' Show a year ago (or maybe 2).  And wouldn't you know, there's Carrie in the pinkish shirt doing a photo bomb!  She shows up everywhere!

And in the picture on the right, Jeanne is at one of our retreats and using the Bernina software on her laptop to give directions to her machine.

Jeanne's sewing area does double duty as a guest room, and the last time she had to clean it up for guests she snapped these pictures.  Shelving units full of organized fabrics and projects.  And the cabinet on the far right is a Murphy bed.

The slide-out baskets hold a lot of stuff and nothing gets lost in the back of the shelf.

 Something tells me there's a machine (or 2 or 3) in there somewhere, and I think Jeanne owes us a couple more pictures, right?  Jeanne helps facilitate our store machine embroidery retreats (read about them here and here)and does a fantastic job of answering 20 questions all at once.  She has been a godsend to me as I learn about machine embroidery, always patient with my questions and never making me feel like an idiot!  That's a special talent.

And just a little more inspiration!   A report on Works In Progress.  Kristina likes to do just a bit of English Paper Piecing, another good use for all of those little random scraps.  Just look at what she has made--

With the traditional little hexagon templates, she has been making these "flower" blocks.  This is the basis for the traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  I am not sure, but I think that Kristina's pieces are the 1" size, meaning that each of the straight sides of the individual hexagon measures 1".  Sometimes she works with smaller sizes.

A calm color palette

A more whimsical color palette.
And her little storage box with neatly filed little hexies ready to go.

6-pointed stars made from diamonds.  This is an entire kit, Diamonds in the Sky,
of conveniently pre-cut diamonds and papers.
There is a picture visible of the quilt pattern underneath.  

And non-paper-piecing related--

a great scrap quilt that is a log cabin variation, random strip widths added to reach the size that Kristina has chosen.  Bright and colorful!

Hexie Heaven

I have a little bit of temptation to share with you today!  I have been toiling away with a project that I plan to have ready for a series of classes that will start in the fall.  This was something that I loved immediately when I say it at Houston Quilt Market last October.  It is an 8 month series called This Goes With That designed by Sue Daley of Patchwork With Busy Fingers, an Australian company that focuses on English paper piecing.  I will be leading the class and passing on tips to make the 16 block variations in Sue's project. Below are pictures of some of my blocks as I was auditioning setting, border and binding fabrics yesterday.

As you can see, I am making this up in 2 different styles, because even though I love the traditional reproduction fabrics in the first 2 pictures, my heart also goes out to the more contemporary bright blocks.  Since I couldn't decide, I am making both!  I do have some fabric "starter kits" that include many of the fabrics shown here, but there also are some bits and pieces picked from my own stash mixed in.  And I will highly recommend that each person do the same to make the blocks uniquely yours.  Don't worry about all those little points sticking out, those won't be showing in the finished product.  This is also a project that can be as large or as small as you choose, depending on how many multiples of the blocks you want to make.  There isn't a formal quilt pattern from Sue but I will be bringing you ideas for ways to use your blocks each month.  And did I mention that all of the blocks are made by hand?  Oh yes!  There will be no hum of machines when this group gathers!  And no hauling around those machines, which makes this the perfect take-along project.  If this is something that you have questions about or need more information, you can check with me at the store and watch for our fall class listing due out in early September.  I already know of a few who are jumping on the EPP (English paper piecing) bandwagon, and each time I show these at work I get more interested folks.  I promise to share more pictures as things start coming together--

Pam