Thankful

Thank you everyone for all the congratulations and sweet wishes. Things are good over here. Our daughter Ellery is gaining weight fast. She loves being held all day so that's what we're doing. Hubby is back at work and we're figuring out how to keep mama and baby clean and fed all day. Thank goodness for slings and baby carriers.

My group of quilty friends made us a quilt! It's a science fiction quilt, because of my love for Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Firefly. Check out the little applique'd shapes along the border! My friend Sandra did that. Her free motion quilting is amazing. I'm so inspired and honored. I can't wait till we get the supplies and energy and focus to hang it over the changing table.

Finally, let me show off this pair of knitted baby socks. I finished them the day I went into labor. I had previously knit them in green and orange, but the yellow ones are my favorite. They were knit on size 4 needles, using Cascade Fixation yarn. It has a little bit of elastic in it, so it stays on baby feet maybe a little better than baby socks from other yarns. The stretch also hides tension problems, which is good for me. I used a pattern very similar to this one. It was the first time I've knitted socks, and it was much easier than I figured it would be!

Old MacDonald

This is the quilt back I'm working on for my friend's baby quilt. Uh. It's a group quilt that we originally intended to give at her shower and the kid's 7 months old. My first year out in the real world of being a nurse practitioner has required lots of energy and unfortunately, quilting has suffered. You may remember this picture of the quilt center, before it got borders:



Anyway, what had me stuck for a long time was what to do for the back. Of the dozens of fabrics in my stash, none seemed right. Of the few that I optimistically bought for the task, the same was true. I have never been more stuck on the backing! In some impressionable moment, though, one of you free-piecers of letters out there made me think "Hey!" And since the quilt is all about farm animals, I chose Old MacDonald. Luckily, my mama friend tells me they sing "Old MacDonald" every day and her son loves it! Hooray! Many thanks to Tonya for starting this craze. I really liked making letters and it went much faster than I would have thought. I especially liked using scraps in color groups to keep them from looking too perfect. You know how I dislike too much order!

My machine is still broken so who knows when I will finish this poor overdue quilt. I am pretty mistrustful of both repair stores I've taken my vintage Bernina to. One: "the motor's broken, why don't we show you some new machines?". Other: "It's either the carbon brushes or the pedal, but if you pay to repair it and it still doesn't work we'll give you a credit toward a new machine". I don't care for either of these answers, particularly because they don't match. And I don't want a new machine. I like these heavy, metal old workhorses. So while I scour craigslist and eBay for possible replacements, my grandfather, an electrical engineer, is trying to help me diagnose it over the phone. It seems this will require some "circuit testing" with a multimeter - what an adventure! In the meantime, I'm on the lookout for a place in Portland that repairs old sewing machines but doesn't sell new ones. A pipe dream? We'll see.

P.S. Anyone who went to the show in Sisters I hope you post lots of pictures. I woke up with a raging sore throat, sneezing my head off and had to pass...

How to make a group quilt

Let's be more specific: How to make a group quilt without losing all your friends when they learn what a crazy control freak you are. How to make a group quilt without going crazy or broke. How to make a group quilt without wanting to set fire to it afterwards.

Yes, fellow sewists (<-- I just learned this word! I'm 31!) I am here to show you how awesome, unrestrained and charming a group quilt can be. Most group quilt advice I've read says that you have to choose a color, or a block, or even, God help you, a fabric to tie all the blocks together. As a free spirit I suspected that such rules were pointless impediments to a truly joyful quilt. That theory was tested when a certain baby was due. And as luck would have it...



I was right. To fully appreciate the above picture, you should know that most of the contributors to the above quilt had never appliquéd before! The only rules we used were:
use all cotton
squares 9x9 inches
theme "living things"
bring me your scraps from each of the fabrics you've used

Using the scraps string pieced together for the borders meant that it didn't matter what different colors everyone used - they all blended together into a glorious riot of color.

Another baby was on the way and I tried to take away another rule - the same size rule. This time I gave the contributors a choice: 9x9, 11x8 or 13x7 "squares". Additional participants had been drawn and I wanted to use the scraps a different way.



Another success! In this fertile group yet another baby was due. Could there be another way to integrate the scraps from the various participants? Indeed! This time we went back to the squares for efficiency's sake and used a new theme: African animals.



So, what should you know about making a group quilt?

Be prepared for weird stuff. Have infinite patience.
People have brought me squares constructed of corduroy, flannel, glitter fabric (ugh). They made squares with floppy stuff that stuck out over the edges. They brought me paper pieced squares with the paper still attached. They brought me squares that were too small. They sewed it on with fishing line. They sewed it on with embroidery thread. They hardly sewed it on at all. This may have more to do with the experience level of the quilters I worked with, but I assure you, you will ask yourself "WHAT??!!" more than once during the project.

Be prepared to hate it vehemently when you first get all the squares.
This appears to be just a necessary step in the process. You will be overwhelmed with despair. You will be certain the squares are all too different, too weird, too whatever, to work together in the quilt. Start sewing it together anyway.

The most important part is coming up with the layout.
If you have a center square, like a nine patch layout, the most engaging, eye catching square should go there. Now swap all the other squares around to get the best balance. In other words, spread similar colors across the quilt. Spread the dark blocks, the light blocks, the strange blocks, across the quilt. Step back and stare at it. Rearrange it all again. Keep swapping blocks until you find an arrangement that brings all the quirky, different blocks together in a surprising harmony.

Sit down with the scraps
If you like the scrappy border just cut all the scraps into strips of a minimum length (try 6-8"). Then sew them together with abandon. Or, use the scraps however they appeal to you. Adding the scraps will bring the quilt to life.

Stay tuned for the latest group quilt coming to life right now in my sewing room....

Guerrilla quilting

Guerilla quilt, originally uploaded by wondertemp.

That was almost the title of this blog. Wasn't sure I could live up to it, though! Nevertheless, guerrilla quilting is a term that I use regularly and I am slightly shocked that it hasn't caught on yet. I use it to mean unconventional quilting that does not heed established ideas of what quilts are or how they should look. I use it to mean being resourceful and sometimes surprising. I use it to remind myself that small groups can make big change. When I'm quilting I am creating instead of consuming. When I resew small scraps instead of trashing them and buying new fabric, I am protecting my world. When I combine form and function I am nurturing the soul, which our world does not do enough. Quilting is my little act of rebellion, I guess.

The quilt shown above was guerrilla quilted out the scraps of another quilt for a new baby.