Busy, but not

I'm still here, my lovlies. I've been busy/hiding for a little bit. I do that - I hide. Kind of ironic for a blogger, eh?

I have so much show and tell for you, kids.

First and foremost, my husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage yesterday. TWENTY! I can honestly say that very few people thought we'd last a year, but we're here, 20 years later and looking forward to growing old and incontinent together.

So you know I had a big birfday at the end of April and I got some delicious goodies from my friends and family:

 

From the husband. New iron to replace my hated piece o'dung Rowenta. I like this Black and Decker - heats up fast, holds lots of water, good steam and nice weight. My hubby did his research.

 

 

FQ bundle of Glimma from my friend Julie, who picked this out all by herself, even though she had no idea what a fat quarter was.

 

 

 

A FQ bundle from my sweet friend fiberchick of Rashida Coleman-Hale's exotic and lovely line. Love this.

 

 

 

And I've not been super-busy sewing lately as I've had a little trouble with my lady parts that resulted in a little minor surgery last week. But I'm feeling back up to speed today and almost pain free. The most I've been doing is pulling fabric for projects. I do that a lot.

 

 

I have no business starting another project right now, but I can't help but want to make the St. Louis 16 Patch I keep seeing on Instagram. I pulled a bunch of pinks, blues and purples to see if I can come up with 20 FQs to pull this off. This isn't going to get done immediately, but I might just cut the strips and put them aside for later.

 

 

My sister-in-law lives in the Southwest and she just moved into a new house. I want to make her a housewarming gift and her colors are very....southwest. Greens, browns, turquoise and terra cotta. I think I'm going to make a cute little pillow with a simple design.

 

This is a work in progress. I'm writing a few patterns right now and this happens to be made from the "scraps" of one of the projects. 4" half-square triangles set on point make me happy. And the colors against the black essex linen (which is really pewter colored) make me a wanna smack my momma.

 

 

 

And this was really exciting. I've been emailing quilting legend and sweet potatuh Darlene Zimmerman and we talked about Kelly and me using some of her templates for some of our upcoming projects. So she sent us some! Kelly and I both want to make a Joseph's Coat and the Pickle Dish and Darlene generously sent them along for us to try. I'm pretty excited to try these out, but I have to say they have A LOT of pieces. A LOT. The great thing about these templates is everything is figured out for you - the fabric requirements for baby thru king size quilts are on the back and complete instructions for cutting and piecing are included. Not sure how I want to tackle this one, but I've been looking at Pickle Dish and Joseph's Coat quilts on the interwebz for a few days.

Pickle Dish:

Tenneseequilts.com                                                                pinterest.com

Joseph's Coat:

quiltindex


Hyacinthquiltdesigns.blogspot.com



And it's prom season, so I'm making bow ties for my son and a few friends. I still have a few more to go, but these are done. Not sure why someone wanted a pink and white elephant bow tie, but I ordered this fabric from Hawthorne Threads. So cute.

Quilt Block for CCHMC

I work in the Bone and Marrow Transplant unit in the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. It's a special place, y'all, and I feel very privileged to be providing care for patients and their families at a scary, stressful and sometimes very grim part of their lives. I don't always like my job, but I do feel like I'm supposed to be there.

So when the hospital announced that they were asking for quilt blocks from each unit for a quilt to be displayed in the main concourse, of course I had to volunteer to make the one from our unit.

My manager suggested that I include cells or blood elements in the design.

Um, no.

I wanted something cute and simple and to the point.

Transplant Awareness ribbons are green/bright green, so I wanted to use that element as the focal point.

I have Jenny Doak's paper piecing book, which is a great resource if you want basic designs.

This 6" block is in the book and I used the ribbon part of it and skipped the heart. I enlarged the ribbon to 8" and used a TOT green that had both green and bright green to cover my bases.

You can find this block on Carol Doak's website for download. You could use it for breast cancer, supporting the troops or any other awareness ribbon.

I. love. paper piecing!

Love it.

Sampler Pattern Winner!

 Nikki M.April 29, 2013 at 11:05 AM  Happy Birthday! I'd use Navy, Emerald, Aqua, and mint!

 

Nikki M - Congrats!

Email me at andiejohnsonsews @ gmail.com!

 



It'sMyBirthday Pattern Giveaway!

 

 

I'm forty years old today.

40.

It seems like just yesterday I was 17 and a size 4.

Sigh.

 

But I actually feel pretty good about this milestone. So let's have some fun, ok?

 

 

I'm giving away a copy of my new pattern!

 

 

Leave a comment telling me the color palette you'd use for this baby.

 

 

Winner chosen on Tuesday April 30.

 

 

 



New Pattern Available on Amazon

In November, I had the good fortune of this project kinda falling in my lap. This is a pattern released by David & Charles Publishers and is available on Amazon.

The 25 blocks are from three of Rosemary Youngs Civil War books (The Civil War Anniversary Quilts, The Civil War Love Letter Quilt, and The Civil War Diary Quilt). I made the cover quilt and wrote the quilt pattern instructions using the blocks from Rosemary's books.

Images for all of the blocks, plus complete instructions, are included. This pattern is for experienced quilters - probably not for beginners. I paper-pieced the blocks, but you could also trace each piece and cut each out individually and piece them.

I had so much fun putting the paper-pieced blocks together that I'm ready to make this quilt again! Love love love paper piecing. And the yummy DS Fabric that I used from Joann Fabrics make me seriously happy.

This is the finished quilt. I thought about selling it, but my daughter grabbed it and wrapped herself up in it the day I brought it home from the photo shoot and it's been wrapped around someone everyday since.

But I will make this quilt again. Oh yes. Maybe this time in some yummy Tilda or Liberty fabrics.

Yes.

Field Trip - Silk Road Textiles in Cincinnati

I had the pleasure of popping into Silk Road Textiles in the College Hill neighborhood a few weeks ago. I'm very familiar with this neighborhood as my childhood church where I was confirmed and where my babies were baptized, College Hill Presbyterian, is just down the street. Fond memories of this area for me. It was like coming home.

Let me tell you - you can't help but be inspired to sew/quilt/knit/eat chocolate and travel the world after visiting this shop!

Teresa, the owner, is a petite, well-spoken, passionate lady who has a very clear vision of the kind of business she wants to be running. She was in the Peace Corp and has traveled extensively.  Teresa wants to support women-owned businesses, especially ones that are operated by women in impoverished countries, and you can't help but admire her enthusiasm and vision.  Come along with me on this field trip and you'll see what I mean.

Ok, you all know how I feel about rainbow order, so of course this picture had to be first! This is Yara African Cotton Brocade and it comes with a waxy coating. Teresa says that after washing it it becomes very soft.

The store has a lot of light, which is so nice.

This is the lounge area in the front. So cozy.

I really love how the store is arranged - it's like a treasure hunt. Yarns are displayed with fabrics which are displayed with notions. To the far left are patterns and books moving down into hand-dyed yarns and Kona solid fabrics. There's also an amazing selection of handmade jewelry and bags - which of course are all women-made.

There are some pre-cut fabric bundles available as well as a few kits.

This is linen. And it's so delicious, you guys. It's so light it's almost sheer, but the colors are rich and it's incredibly soft. And it comes in metallics. Yes - metallic. Want that pink in the middle. Going back to get some.

This is a display at the back of the store, which is really the main entrance from the parking lot. The richness of this display made my tummy tickle. The saturated colors and the hand quilting of the pieces are beautiful.

Mmm hmm. That's some Liberty fabric on the left and some Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton on the top right. And of course I had to get some of both. The fabric on the middle shelves under the shot cotton is fabric from Japanese quilter and designer Yoko Saito.

Some more Indian cotton. It's handprinted and dyed - and it's sooo rich and beautiful.

This is one of my favorite shelves in the store - it's Australian fabric from M&S Textiles. This fabric is amazing. Uh - may - zing. The colors, the prints - sigh.

Madeline Tosh yarn, which apparently in the knitting world is kind of a big deal. I don't knit, but I aspire to knit, mostly because I love to look at yarn.

This is an interesting little nugget of info. Teresa did a test with several of her quilting and sewing friends in order to help her decide which thread to stock. She gave each person 5 different threads to use and then report back which one they preferred. Hands down, they all preferred this Presencia Thread . Every tester said they liked the weight, the silkiness and the fact that there was virtually no lint left in their machines after they used it. I bought a spool and haven't used it yet, but I'll give a full report when I do.

Another little display of floss,  patterns, jewelry, and notions.

Uh, and how smart is this shop owner? She has these beautifully packaged fair-trade chocolate bars at the counter. She knows her demographic.

This was, by far, my favorite find in the store. It's a wide cotton printed with these wonderful little color blocks on both front and back. It's really beautiful and could truly, on it's own, be a piece of artwork stretched over a frame. I'm going back to get a few yards. I need it. And it also comes in a black background, too. I forgot to write down the maker, but I'll report back about this beauty.

More yarn deliciousness.

Look at these, people.  They're hand-fired glass knitting needles. I die.

This is hand-dyed fabric from Cincinnati-based fiber artist and quilter Barbara Grothaus. She runs fabric dyeing workshops out of her home just down the street from this shop, which my Kelly has taken and really loved.

There's also a good selection of Marcia Derse, Kaffe Fassett, Dan Bennett and Brandon Mably fabrics as well as some Riley Blake, Amy Butler and Valori Wells prints.

This shop is a great resource for modern and art quilters as well as knitters/crocheters. Friendly, bright and happy and a very interesting little gem to explore worldy textiles and handmade goods.

Even if you can't make it in to Silk Road, it's fun to learn about products and textiles you didn't even know about.  Maybe they're available in your neck of the woods!

Loot

I visited Sewn Studios on Friday for their big sale and walked away with some pretty delicious loot.

What I got:

 Amy AND David Bulter FQ bundles.

Liberty FQs and yardage

 Art Gallery yardage (Carnaby and Indie)

2 charm packs of Kona solids

Some random FQs (AGF and Lecien mushrooms)

Those Liberty fabrics (plus a few more) will be used in a new pattern that I'll be releasing this summer - I can't wait to start sewing this project!

The charm squares are already cut up and sewn into a quilt that's almost done and then will be sent to the longarmer. This is the "before" of that project - Essex linen and Kona solids. Mmmm.

By the way - when you use Essex linen you must wash it first!!

It shrinks like crazy.

So any of you lovlies make any yummy fabric or notion purchases lately?

SCC Magazine and Bow Tie Kit Giveaway Winner

The winner of the Stitch+Craft+Create Magazine and the bow tie kit is.....

 

 

Gill wrote:

Gill   April 8, 2013 at 9:00 AM

I hope I can join in from England! In my day there was no such thing as a prom so no dress for me!

 

Gill - email me at andiejohnsonsews @ gmail. com!

 

 

 

Learning From One of the Best

I'm a big fan of Aussie quilters. I love their use of color and I'm kind of obsessed with their use of applique and folk themed designs. And I don't know of a quilting demographic that's more proficient in using Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably's fabrics.

I think I've mentioned here before that I want to push myself to overcome some....what's the word?....fear...of incorporating Kaffe's fabrics into my pieces. I gravitate toward geometrics and bright, clean colors. I rarely - and I mean rarely - buy anything with brown in it and I avoid complicated color pairings because even though I like them in other people's quilts, for some reason my eye doesn't ever seem as pleased with what I do.

I own Material Obsession II by Sarah Fielke and Kathy Doughty which is one of my favorite quilting books ever. I absolutely love the designs and the use of color in this book. And the photography is beautiful - not over styled or fluffy.

Forgive me for the picture quality here.

This is my favorite quilt in the book. I love Sarah's use of color and the clever way she set the blocks. And the hand quilting - good Lord in heaven.

 

This block in particular intrigues me. I love the prints that she uses - all small-scale prints but not really in the same family in terms of style. And the mixture of the oranges with the browns and blues - the stripes and the teeny tiny squirrels - the art-deco curves and the reproduction-style floral.....

Blows. My. Mind.

 

But here's where I get tripped up.

Why does this work?

What about this combination of color works?

I've seriously been thinking about this since I bought this book over 2 years ago.

 

 

And this middle one.

I would never have thought to pair that millefore Fassett print with pink!!

But it works.

 

 

 

And lastly, this sucker puts me over the edge.

 

Turquoise, pink, rusty brown and yellow.

Huh?

Who does this?

Who thinks - yes, this will look lovely?

I know who.

Sarah Freaking Fielke, that's who.

 

Sigh.

 

I'm planning on taking her Craftsy class because a good friend recommended it. And I'm going to continue to try and wrap my brain around the whys, hows and whats of what makes this quilt - and everything else that Fielke woman makes - so dang lovely.

 

Click picture to get to Craftsy's site.

 

 

This will be an ongoing story here, kids. I'm goin to pull some fabrics for the first block this weekend and see what I come up with.

Stitch+Craft+Create Magazine & Bow Tie Kit Giveaway

I'm giving away a copy of the Spring issue of Stitch+Craft+Create Magazine and a kit to make my bow tie and pocket square pattern that's in the magazine!

 Great for Prom season - how stinkin' cute would it be to coordinate the dress and the bow tie?

Stupid cute.

This magazine is beautifully designed and the projects are fun and very doable.

 

 

Make this bowtie for your little man or your grown up man.

 

Bow tie kit includes:

Fabric in your choice of color and style to make a tie and a pocket square

Hardware for the closure and adjuster

 

And you get the magazine! There are terrific projects from party plans to decorations to a wedding dress made from lace.

And there are a few articles about modern quilters like Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson.

And Kelly and Andie.

Hee hee.

 

 

Leave a comment telling me what color your prom dress was. (if you went!)

Winner will be chosen on Friday, April 12.