The Human Pinball (can you relate?)

What a busy day yesterday was! My minivan has 110,000+ miles on it and a permanent impression of my backside in the driver's seat. I felt like a pinball by the time I went to bed last night, but there was so much good stuff packed in to the day that I was a smiling pinball.

Bragging time: my day started off at my daughter's high school with a 7:00 breakfast in honor of those students who receive Student of the Month awards. She was nominated by her Latin teacher on behalf of the World Languages department and this is the 2nd time she has received the honor from that department having been nominated by her Spanish teacher in her freshman year. I'm so proud of all three of my children in so many ways. They are unique and special people that I'm honored to know. Maddy is such a bright, motivated and hardworking student. She ranks 7th in her class of almost 400, carries a massive courseload with four AP classes (her choice, not mine!) and a 4.0 GPA. It is my sincere hope that all of my blog friends stay healthy, but if you are in need of surgery 10 years or so from now, who knows? Maybe it will be my daughter performing it!

After that it was off to the orthodontist with my 14 year old son Kit where he spent a grueling hour in the chair getting his molars wrapped in metal and generally trying to imagine himself elsewhere. Last night was rough. Things are not right in there and he couldn't eat or talk for the wires jabbing into the inside of his cheeks. Guess where we're going this afternoon?

Yesterday was also "Lunch with a Friend" day at my youngest son Brett's school. He LOVES having mom bring him a special lunch (subway BLT and a cherry coke) and hang out with him in the cafeteria and I wouldn't miss it for the world, but we're barely 2 weeks out of summer vacation! I think it would have made a bit more sense to do it around February...

There's always some after school activity that has me driving back to the school to pick someone (usually Maddy) up, and yesterday was no exception. Of course, neither is today...

Then there was piano lessons last night. Are you getting what I mean by the pinball analogy?

Finally, I was able to sit down for our Wednesday night tradition: Comedy on ABC. Modern Family gets a lot of public attention and we love that show, but The Middle? That's pretty much us with a few variations, and it never fails to make me laugh HARD :) Sitting without a steering wheel in front of me allowed me to at last finish the quilt I've been working on--the one I featured in my How-To series. So I won't show you pictures of my daughter's breakfast, Kit's swollen and bleeding mouth, or Brett's luncheon, and I won't make you listen to piano, but here's a pic of the finished quilt:

Navy Blue, Yellow and Green Quilted Throw

by ScrappyTude

Like it?

Sexy French Fold Binding, Part 2

Yesterday I began a How To series on making french fold binding to finish a quilt. It was all about how to calculate how much fabric you will need for the binding and is geared toward the mathematically challenge (aka, my soulmates). If you didn't get a chance to read it I recommend you head back to it before digging in to the following instructions.

How To Make Your Sexy French Fold Quilt Binding (everybody say: ooo-la-la)--with accompanying soundtrack by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (see playlist in sidebar):

1) The first step to making any component of a quilt is to prewash and dry the fabric. It is important to minimize shrinkage and color bleed after affixing the binding to the quilt.

2) As always, you should iron your fabric before cutting it.

I have included this photo for those you who (like me)

 would not otherwise use this mysterious appliance.

After ironing it is important for some of us to rest because the next part involves numbers and I don't want you to wear out too quickly. Depending on the time of day you may want to pour a cup of coffee, tea or Cabernet Sauvignon...

3) Fold your fabric in half with the selvage edges together and lay out flat on your cutting mat. (See that little yellow thing with the shiny round end? That's a rotary cutter. It's VERY sharp, so if you chose the Cab for your little rest break you might want to try walking a straight line and reciting the alphabet backwards before proceeding.) Now cut the number of 2 1/2" strips that you calculated while reading my previous post.

4) The next step is mark your 2 1/2" strips in preparation for piecing them together. I could go all geometry on you here (well, actually I probably couldn't having barely passed the class about 30 years ago) but let's not make this harder than it needs to be. Quilting is usually a very precise art, but in this case it's ok to eyeball it. Put one strip on top of the other, right sides together with about 3/4" of excess fabric for each strip. Place a ruler on the top strip connecting the two points where the strips intersect as shown in the photo above, and draw a line. This will be your stitching line.

I probably didn't need to include this picture,

 but it came out pretty nice so I figured "What the heck!"

And who knows, maybe some of you need help envisioning stitching along the line you drew...

5) Now it's back to the cutting mat. If you took another Cab break, you should probably wait until tomorrow to do this...If you're still hanging with your coffee or tea, align the 1/4" mark of your ruler with the line you just stitched and cut off the excess fabric (leaving all fingers intact and attached).

6) Next you'll need to head to the ironing board and iron that seam open before attaching your next piece and repeating the first 5 steps until you run out of 2 1/2" strips. (I'm not sure what happened to the picture for this step, but I was only drinking water when I did this, HONEST!) It's important to me mention that you need to make sure you continue adding strips with the right sides together. This may seem pretty obvious but if you look at the fabric I'm using you'll notice that there's no difference between the right and wrong side. I have gotten to the final pressing of the strip and discovered that I had seams on BOTH sides of my binding (enter the handy-dandy seam ripper).

7) Once you have all your strips joined together with all the seams on the same side it's back to the ironing board where you will fold over about 1" of one end of the strip and press with hot iron (being careful to first remove your fingers). This will be where you start sewing the binding to the quilt.

8)The next step is to work your way down the entire length of the seemingly endless strip folding in half lengthwise and pressing it as you go. When you are done, you will have a long strip of about 1 1/4" width with one folded edge and one rough edge.

Don't worry if you don't have as many freckles as I do. I'm pretty sure it will still work, although I've never tried this without the freckles so I'm not making any guarantees...

That's it for today. Come back tomorrow when I show you how to attach the binding to the quilt.

Cheers!
Nancy

How To, With a Twist

I have been doing some thinking and reading about how to add value to my blog. What can I offer to my readers that might actually benefit them beyond entertainment? (Although I do hope you will always be entertained when you stop by!) I have considered a give-away, and one is in fact coming but not until October 1 when I unveil some exciting news...(intrigued? I hope so!) So instead, I've decided to run a three part How To series. I know that many of you are creative people who can't help but try every new craft that even slightly interests you, and even if you don't necessarily want to try it yourself you're likely interested in how it's done anyway. You're what I like to call creatively curious. So without further ado:

How To Make French Fold Quilt Binding When Numerically Challenged and Highly Distractable

I absolutely love to tell people that I use only French Fold Binding on my handmade quilts. It sounds both classy and sexy at the same time. Plus, if you know quilting you know it's a durable and easy way to finish off a quilt. For quilting newbies, the binding is the fabric that encases the edges of the quilt. This is the part of the quilt that tends to wear out first (especially if it's a silky edge and you have a thumb-sucker) so it's important to use high quality fabric. I also see it as the frame of the quilt--what pulls it together and completes it visually.

Collectible Art Card by DivineIguana

To calculate (I know, I hate that word too) how much fabric I need I have found that it is best to simplify the process. We have a joke in my house: Mom's so bad a math she should get a handicapped parking permit. Here's what I do know: most fabric is 44" wide with a selvage at either edge. These selvages vary, as does my mathematical accuracy, plus I like to work with numbers that end in zero or five, so I assume I have 40" of usable fabric width. The other thing I know is that I will be cutting the fabric into 2 1/2" strips for my binding.

Now it's time to get out your measuring weapon of choice. For me, it depends on the size of the quilt, my mood, and what color I'm wearing. I either go with a tape measure or the grid on my rotary cutting mat. Do you remember the concept of perimeter from elementary school? You know, the distance around a shape...That's what you need to find out. This involves some adding, and if you're really ambitious, mulitplication. Or, you could do what I do: I know I need x number of 40" long strips...about how many do I need to cover this sucker? Again, there is a lot of rounding up or down so that I'm working with numbers ending in zero or five. For example, if I have a quilt that 52" x 70", I need 3 40" strips to cover the two 52" sides, and four 40" strips to cover the two 70" sides. That's 7 strips total. Multiple that by 2.5 (for the 2 1/2" per strip) and you need 17 1/2" of binding. I round up again to 2/3 of a yard, but this time it has nothing to do with bad math. You just never know how straight the fabric will be cut at the store, if it has a flaw you missed and have to work around, or when your ruler is going to slip while cutting the strips. It's always nice to have a little extra...

And here's a little bonus tip: When I have a little leftover fabric I go ahead and cut it into 2 1/2" strips anyway and toss them into a bin I keep for just that pupose. When I have enough strips stashed away, I make a quilt something like this:

This one was a gift to someone very dear to me, but I'm sure there will be similar ones in my future so stop by the shop and take a look around...

Don't forget to come back tomorrow when we turn this fabric into one heck of long strip of binding...

The Cure for Blech...(who woulda thunk it?)

I was pretty sure today was going to blog-free for me. You see, on this the fifth day of back-to-school for my kids I woke up with nasty nausea and a pounding headache that not even my morning coffee could cure. It seems the invasion of the germs has begun and there was just no way I was going to be able to come up with something worth sharing with you. As the morning progressed, however, the symptoms started to ease a bit and I thought it might be worth getting a shower and taking a stab at a little lunch. What finally seems to have done the trick and delivered the cure: a combination of garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and roasted red pepper!

My Roasted Red Pepper Hummus (a.k.a., the cure)

Not only am I feeling better, but I was able to finish a quilt top! I've got a craft show coming up next weekend and have a lot of projects on my list to wrap up before then. So check one off!

NEXT!

Sunday Feature: Meet the Staff

It's a gloomy, post-Irene Sunday here at ScrappyTudeStudios. We weathered the storm and are grateful that Irene calmed herself down a bit before she made landfall in NJ.

I thought I'd launch a new feature today entitled "Meet the Staff". There's no way I could get all this creativity flowing without the invaluable assistance of my behind-the-scenes helpers, so without further ado meet the CNO of ScrappyTudeStudios:

Chip - Chief Nap Officer (CNO), ScrappyTudeStudios 

Chip's primary duties involve showering the owner of STS (me) with unconditional love, writing grant applications, and daily reminders that the answer to that post-lunch slump isn't always a cup of coffee. He has an MBA from Harvard and has worked at numerous Fortune 500 companies. When recently approached to replace Steve Jobs he was tempted to leave STS, but found the iron-clad contract impossible to break and Apple unable to match his current benefits package. Being a yorkie-poo makes him the perfect fit for STS as his allergy-free hair causes no issues for our clients.

Chip wanted me to be sure to give you all a sneak peek at the next quilt we'll be rolling out at STS. It's the perfect day to stay inside and work on a little applique...

Coming soon to an etsy shop near you!

Come back tomorrow when I will post an interview with a real person! ;-)

Challenges and Triumphs

What a morning! It seemed harmless enough when the alarm went off at 6:30...I mean, the auto-program on the coffee maker had my brew ready when I came down the stairs, the car started so I could get Maddy where she needed to be, the garage door opener worked and the sun came out enough that I could take the quilt pics I needed to take. Sounds pretty good, right? Yup. Right until I sat down at the computer and tried to start a Facebook Fan Page for my business. That's when things really started to go south. I'll spare you all the gorey details and just say that I clicked a few wrong buttons and wound up sending a whole bunch of people a friend request for a new personal page with my name (not my business) and no picture. There was no easy fix. I was embarassed and super frustrated. But that's life and I'm moving on!

Enter my new twitter account! I'm a 100% newbie to twitter, but it seems pretty easy even for me in my technologically challenged state. I'm shamelessly seeking followers, so if you're interested pop over and click all the right buttons to make it happen, and while you're there, wish me luck!

My other success this morning I owe in large part to God, who saw fit to let the sun shine enough for me to take the pictures I need to list my newly completed Fall Batik quilt that I mentioned in a previous post.

Pop over to my shop and take a better look! And head on over to my playlist for my song of the day. There's something about folk music that makes me feel all fallish :) so have a helping of Nick Drake to ease you into your day.

The Finishing Touch

At this point in my life (middle age...GULP!) it seems less than likely to me that I would suddenly wake up one day and be organized, efficient and have become a "finisher". I've learned that I am a great starter--I have a vision and tend to jump in with both feet--but a finisher? Not so much...Yet lo and behold, lately (the last year or two) this does in fact seem to be changing. I firmly believe that this is largely due to the fact that I've become a bit more restrained about what I start (for those of you who know me well, please notice the use of the phrase a bit). Not taking on every little thing that catches my interest has been a huge help! And that feeling of success and accomplishment that I've discovered comes with finishing is a pretty big incentive, too.

Last year, at the gentle and necessary urging of my husband, I completed a major endeavor. I finished my master's degree and earned my certification as a School Counselor. This was no small task at the age of 44 with 3 kids and a busy household to manage, but at least I wasn't trying to balance it with a job, as so many others students were...Of course, the next logical step would have been employment in my field. Enter the economic woes of our nation and the slashing pen of Governor Chris Christie, and exit any chance I had of realizing that next step. So now what? I faced a choice: hold on to the sense of accomplishment or see only the failure to obtain employment. Well, what would you choose?

Here I am a little over a year later embracing my love of fabric, color, texture and creating, and finding my voice through this blog. Today I will finish something. It's a lovely little fall quilt crafted from some of my favorite fall colors of brown, rusty orange and gold. I've used some of my beloved batiks in its making and am preparing to head over the sewing machine and quilt it.

A sneak peek at my fall batik quilt

The thread's loaded, and the machine's making that quiet little hum that beckons me...But before I go I thought you might want a preview of my next project...It's another quilt (after all, fall is rapidly approaching) and I'm pretty excited about the fabrics I found:

Ooooooo!!! Ahhhhhh!!!

But now, back to what I was saying above: The Finishing.

Come back in the next day or two to check out the finished fall quilt, or visit my etsy shop where it will be for sale!

Don't be a stranger!

Collaborative Quilting With Women of the Past

As promised in my previous post Tying on the Feed Bag, this post is all about my latest quilting project. While poking around my favorite auction website recently I discovered dozens of handpieced quilt tops made with my favorite: feedsack! The prices and condition of these quilt tops vary widely and it took a bit of vision to see what some of them might become, but I decided to take the plunge and buy a couple to experiment with.

Here's my first purchase:

I was instantly drawn to the bold patterns and "wonky" piecing that reminded me of a crazy quilt. When it arrived and I layed it out I was mystified however, as to what to do with such a skinny quilt. The blocks were coming apart in places and clearly it needed some love. But like an old house it had good bones and I knew that if I stared at it long enough, and walked away and thought about it, and ate little chocolate, and had a glass or two of wine, and slept on it a few times (the concept, not the quilt ;) inspiration would strike. And it did.

First I decided that I would need to separate the blocks and rearrange them into a more practical configuration. I had a lot of time to ponder my next steps as I sat with my trusty seam ripper (I'm designing a holster for it) and carefully took the quilt apart. Once the blocks were liberated from eachother, it was off to the ironing board & then the cutting mat where I squared up the blocks in preparation for putting it all back together. I knew I wanted to wind up with a touchable, usable quilt as a final product and that would require adding fabric. I chose a cheerful cheddar yellow to accent and brighten the feedsack. Then, I was off to the sewing machine...

And eventually, hours, weeks, days, years, decades after the feedsack had first been cut and handpieced by a woman of the past....The quilt was complete!

If you are interested in purchasing this quilt or seeing other pieces I've completed, visit my etsy shop at
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScrappyTudeStudios

Thanks for visiting!
Don't be a stranger!

Tying on the Feed Bag

I have a confession to make. I have an obsession with feedsack.

That may sound a bit strange, but I can assure you that I am not talking about the stuff the local farm gets their chicken feed in--well, not anymore at least. In the late 1800s through the early to mid 1900s however, that's exactly what it was. Cotton became cheap and plentiful and feed companies, as well as those selling flour, sugar, beans, etc. realized that it was more economical for them to ship their products in cotton sacks than the barrels they had been using. Initially, plain white cotton was imprinted with logos and the resourceful women of America began using this cloth to make quilts and clothing (try doing that with a barrel!). When manufacturers eventually caught on to how popular this "free" fabric was they started dying and eventually putting prints on the sacks. Trips to the feed & general store became almost competitive as women vied for their favorite prints. Feedsack frenzy reached it's zenith in the 1930s-40s during the Great Depression and tapered off as synthetic fabrics became more popular.

Now that you know what feedsack is, let me tell you a little about why I love it so much. Have you ever looked at something and felt transported--not just in space, but in time as well? That's what these fun, happy prints do for me. It's as if I'm suddenly in my grandmother's kitchen (the one who always had a bag of tootsie roll pops in the bottom drawer and ginger ale in the fridge). I get that feeling of being loved, treasured and spoiled right down to my toes. I also am filled with a sense of the peace that came with a simpler time in my life, which is how childhood usually seems in retrospect. But the time travel goes beyond that to a sense that I've been jettisoned into a whole other era and am suddenly planted firmly in the pre-WWII US. I know I'm idealizing an era, but these are the feelings that this practical textile evoke for me.

A sampling of my collection of reproduction feedsack...

One of my favorite pieces: vintage feedsack that my

grandmother used to make the kitchen curtains for the farmhouse

my mom lived in as a child. It now lines one of my favorite tote bags :)

Much to my delight I recently discovered that there are bunches of handpieced feedsack quilt tops out there just waiting for me to complete. Stop by later and see my first collaboration with a quilter I've never met who lived before I was born! I will be listing a reworked feedsack quilt top in my etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScrappyTudeStudios and blogging about my hand in it's completion.

Don't be a stranger!

nancy



You Have to Start Somewhere...

I have been toying with the idea of embarking on a journey into the blogosphere for a few years now, yet my insecurities about technology and attracting an audience kept me from venturing forth. I am a thinker and tend to spend a lot of time in my head now that my children are all in school and i can actually hear my own thoughts between the hours of 7:15 a.m. and 2:35 p.m. (pure luxury to anyone who's been home with their beauties for over 16 years!), and often wonder what others would think if they could follow the flotsam and jetsam of my stream of consciousness throughout the day. I've considered writing a book (hasn't everyone?), but that seems like a big commitment. I'm awfully good at starting big projects, but the finishing...not so much. A blog seemed like the perfect outlet, save the fears mentioned above. So I put it off. For years.

Enter the current season of my life...One year ago next month I completed my (drum roll, please!) masters degree in Counseling in Educational Settings. I was excited to be re-entering the workforce in a job I could sink my teeth into after so many years at home, but after major cuts to the education budget in my state (announced within weeks of graduation) I soon learned that there simply were no jobs. What now? I was ready to be engaged in a meaningful, rewarding professional activity and had no place to expend that energy! I knew that I needed to do something I loved, and turned to my crafting passions for a solution. My bff (who I am also blessed to call my sister-in-law) and I started making jewelry like two women possessed and began going to craft fairs. We decided that we simply had to open a bead shop together, which required one or both of us to relocate, and for a few months it looked like it would actually happen. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be and I again found myself searching for meaningful occupation.

Someday I will blog about what lead me back to my first craft-love of quilting, but in the interest of brevity (and not losing my audience when I've barely gotten started) I will simply say that I realized I wanted to turn my passion for quilting and bag-making into a business. Then I found etsy and was blown away by not only the business possibilities, but by the community of artisans and crafters sharing their stories, experiences and tips freely with newbies like myself. I had found a home and that home brought me full-circle back to blogging. It seems that blogging is a great way to promote such a business and help potential customers get to know you as a person. So here's the truth: I had the idea to start this blog primarily to promote my etsy shop, and hope that you will click on the link provided in my blog and fall in love with something I've made that you just have to buy. But honestly, this blog is about way more than that because I am about way more than that. This blog is about sharing life and interests like reading, music, family (including pets, cause they're family too), and humor (because what's life without it?).

So whether you visit my shop or not I hope you'll stop by regularly to see what's happening here in Eclectobohemia, and to share what's going on in your part of the world as well.