I've Moved

...but you guys didn't seem to move with me.
I have a brand new, beautiful website and I'm super excited about it, but I'm a wee bit lonely because I found out that all my wonderful followers here at blogger didn't have their feeds forwarded to my new site.
Anyway, I'm so glad to have the opportunity to welcome you all to my new space on the web.
All my patterns have been updated and are available there as downloadables and there are links to my shop and flickr and much, much more.
Even more importantly, I'm hosting a giveaway in my new space right now.
Mosey on over there, comment, and be entered to win a copy of this pattern:

My Klee's Trees pattern is ready to go and, along with the giveaway, I'm announcing a sew-along for this project starting the first week in June.
See, I told you, fun stuff.
So, click over to http://stitchindye.com/blog and, while you're there, subscribe to receive email updates from the blog. That way, we'll never be parted again.

...And more

My new little friend came back for more sewing fun and this time crafted a very large and colorful pillow.

She decided to tackle this project because she already had the 25" x 25" pillow form, but the cover had gotten stained. Apparently a ball point pen made its way onto the pillow cover and marred it. Now that she has joined the cult of sewers, she didn't see this as a problem, but an opportunity to craft something even better than a store-bought cover. And, based on the picture above, it's easy to see that she did just that.

She certainly seems very happy with her creation.

Wordless, Work-in-Progress Wednesday

Ain't alliteration awesome?

Don't let the pictures fool you...

... they have nothing to do with the text. This is not the first time I've posted about one topic and "illustrated" that post with unrelated pictures, so you all should be used to this. Sometimes I have a story to tell, but no pictures to accompany that story. As I hate to post without pictures, this is my solution.
Before I get into my topic, I want to caption the pictures by letting you know that they are of a new pillow featuring a new block design inspired by this photo.
OK. Here goes.

 As many of you know, I'm an avid runner. Well, yesterday, I ran what I would to date describe as the most amazing race of my running life. For the past few months I've been training for the Decker Challenge. This particular half marathon is considered one of the hardest around and that's primarily because of the hills that surround Decker Lake. I'm not going to lie to you, there have been a few times, especially in the last couple weeks, when I thought about skipping the event. I worried about whether or not I could deal with the hills and the infamous bad weather that has historically accompanied this race.

And, a couple weeks ago, it seemed that I had a ready-made excuse. I had gone to a "boot camp" style workout and woke up the following morning with a very sore left foot. I didn't run for a week after that. In fact, I didn't run again until the Tuesday before the race when for silly reasons I ended up running twice in the same day, both times about 5 miles. I then ran another 3 miles that Friday and made peace with the concept that what would be, would be.

I woke up yesterday morning and headed out to Decker Lake in my shorts and t-shirt, ready to brave the 40 degree temperature and light rain and, almost from the very start, knew this was going to be an amazing run. I don't know if it was my determination to be patient in the straightaways and not let my pace get out of control or my willingness to be present in the moment and just listen to the sound of all those feet hitting the pavement, but, what I thought would be drudgery turned into a string a magical moments. By mile 4, I knew I was on pace to set a new personal record and as each mile marker went by, I seemed to be running faster and stronger and feeling like I could conquer anything.
Those of you familiar with the course out at Decker Lake know that mile 10 features a long, steep hill which is made longer and steeper because it is so late in the race. I got to the hill at mile 10, ran up, and knew that I was about to finish the best race of my life.
I realize that my story is just about a run and that, in the scheme of things, it's not exactly monumental, but I do think there might be a bigger point here. Maybe that point is about not pre-judging a situation and bringing your whole self to an experience? Maybe it's also about how lucky we are to have a given experience and that we never really know whether the next thing we do may be truly magical?
Whatever the "point", whether I know it or not, I hope I bring these ideals along with me to the next race, the next project, the next moment.

Power to More Pillows

...or rather just pillow covers.

This time it's an improv version of the traditional pinwheels pattern, very similar to this mini quilt I made a few weeks back.
I had a few half-triangle squares leftover from that project and rather than find a completely different home for them, I opted to re-imagine the mini quilt as a pillow.

Add my go-to circular quilting and a little peak of selvedge from my a stitch in color fabrics and you've got one fun pillow top.

I love this typewriter fabric and have used it in several projects. It seems particularly appropriate here where the feel of this pillow is just a wee bit irreverent.
I added this little beauty to my shop yesterday, so I'm on track (so far) for regularly introducing new goodies to my store this month.

Cure For Writer's Block?

Pictures.

I had thought I'd post about how I'm determined to add new items to my shop as much as possible this month and to that end I've added this and this as well as created the pillow pictured.

I had thought I'd mention that this pillow was pieced improvisationally and loosely based on the traditional Drunkard's Path block.

I was hoping to touch on how much I like the circular quilting, especially for a top that features circles and how fun it is to bind a top that features lots of color with a simple, black and white, graphic print.I was going to say that if you check my store regularly this month, you'll see new items as well as some of the projects from my book and others.
I thought about saying all that, but I had a bout of writer's block, so....

Cool Story, bro

That's the often flippant remark my dear, sweet 17-year old daughter says after I've told her some semi-mundane story. Admittedly, the comment usually follows a tale about going to the dry cleaners or the price of a head of lettuce, but that's her response. And, lately, I say it as well. She tells me about her little sister borrowing some item of clothing and how annoying that is and I respond with, "Cool story, bro." It's actually a great diffuser of situations and maybe makes us realize how thankfully mundane some of our "problems" are.
Recently though I've come to view the phrase in a different, more positive, life-affirming light. And I think a recent project has been the reason for the turnaround in how I interpret, "Cool story, bro."
Several months ago I designed a project for the current and inaugural issue of Stitch Gifts. My project is a pair of pillows that I titled "Story Pillows". Actually, I think I originally titled them "Our Story Pillows", but somehow the our got dropped.

 Anyway, the pillows were inspired by a pair of embroideries that I purchased at Quilt Festival two years previous. The embroidered panels were crafted by a cooperative of women in South Africa and can be purchased online here. The embroideries give these women a chance to express their creativity, tell their story, as well as earn money for their families. It seemed amazingly appropriate for a publication that promotes gift-making during a holiday season that's also about helping others to design a project that encompassed both values.

The embroideries were so beautiful and compelling on their own that I was stumped for quite a while as to how to incorporate them into a project. Eventually I decided to make them the focal points of these pillows and surround them in a loose log-cabin style series of strips. I wanted, however, to add some text to the pillows because I felt that the embroideries had more of an overt story to tell and that it would be obscured by pretty pictures and colors. So, I went on the internet and found two African sayings that I felt rung true to the spirit in which these embroideries were made. The two proverbs were: "The Pillar of the Earth is Hope and "Knowledge is Better than Riches". How beautiful and deeply meaningful are those ideals?
Using my favorite transfer paper, I wrote both phrases on my fabric and free-motion machine quilted the text, then crafted both quilted tops into pillows with zippered backings.
Now that the magazine is out on the stands, the original pillows have made their way back to me and I think they look perfect on my couch.

Pretty cool story, huh, bro?

a stitch in color :: preview project #5 + baked goods

One of the great things about designing for Moda Fabrics is all the cute ways they package their fabrics. It's a smorgasbord of packaging possibilities: layer cakes, jelly rolls, fat quarter, fat eighth, and charm packs. I think packaging a collection in a variety of ways is more than just a marketing tool; it's a way to re-imagine a group of fabrics in a new and creative way.
The other day I had the opportunity to start re-imagining a project or two when I received yet another lovely box from Moda. 

This time the box was overflowing with my a stitch in color fabrics packaged in Moda's distinctive style. I'm thinking that the pre-cut strips in the jelly rolls would be perfect for a new version of this quilt.
I'm going to have to wait a few days before I really start playing with my Moda pre-cuts as I'm heading off tomorrow to teach my Improvisational Piecing class at CREATE in Chicago. For those playing along in the ever-popular Texas summer game, "how hot are we," I would note that the high in Chicago on Wednesday is predicted to be 90 degrees followed by a high of 80 degrees on Thursday while the highs here tomorrow and Thursday are 103 degrees. I wasn't planning on going running in Chicago, but I don't know if I can pass up a 67 degree low.
Another thing I couldn't pass up was remaking my Tuesday pillow, the featured project in my Improvisational Piecing class, in my a stitch in color fabrics.

That means the the folks in my class on Thursday will be the first to get to see these fabrics in person. I hope they like them.

a stitch in color :: preview project #1

I'd like to dedicate this post to the concept that everything takes twice as long to finish as you think it will. It always seems to work that way, yet I'm strangely also always astounded that whatever the task was took longer to accomplish than I thought it would.
In my own defense or rather in defense of my sense that I work quickly, I did change my mind three times regarding what my first project with my new fabrics would be. So, maybe I'm not that slow, just terribly fickle.
Anyway, personal quirks aside, I have finished my first project using my a stitch in color fabrics.

I decided to revisit a favorite pattern that I've made in the past using my hand dyed fabrics.

What amazes me about these fabrics is how much they look like the hand dyed originals I used as my "sketches".

I don't know how other fabric companies work, but I came to my meeting with Moda with a whole bunch of hand dyed cottons as my designs and that's what they sent off for the mill to work from.

Maybe having the original fabrics as a guide helped, maybe not, but these fabrics look amazingly like the originals.

Proof positive is that my first project using a stitch in color, the Shoo-fly Pillow, looks right at home with some of the projects I made for Fresh Quilting which include several of my hand dyes.

I like that pillow there. Maybe it should live there until it's Quilt Market time?

Winner and More

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner:
Sheetal said...what a fun cozy and a great tutorial Malka! I think this is going to make a great hostess gift for my coffee loving friends...
Yay!
Sheetal, if you would please email me, I'll pass your info onto Tammy and we'll get your gift certificate to you faster than you can fry an egg on your dashboard here in Texas where it has been over 100 degrees almost everyday for 6 weeks. That's pretty darn fast.
As for the more, how about some new little lovelies for my store.

 

Here's wishing you a super-fabulous weekend!

Blogger's Pillow Party

As I mentioned a few posts back, it's been my privilege this past month to be the judge for Blogger's Pillow Party hosted by the colorful and talented Rachel over at Stitched in Color. In keeping with the rules of this particular game I'm supposed to announce the winning pillow and feature it on my blog before the end of the month. Guess what? April is so missing a day, but despite that I'm ready to fulfill all my psuedo-contractual obligations and will not have to hand over my judge's tiara.
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Lemonade by Erica:

First off, I want to say there were quite a few super-lovely pillows this month at Blogger's Pillow party, so the decision was not an easy one. What I enjoyed about Erica's creation was its simplicity and use of intense colors. I like the way she varied the placement of her strips and that she threw in a surprise square to keep the composition interesting.
Well done, Erica and thanks Rachel for asking me to be April's judge.

World Peace at Hand

Eureka! I have it. I think I know how to get everyone, and I mean everyone to get along. And, to prove my point, I'm going to try this experiment in my own home.
If you have the current issue of Stitch magazine then you've seen the feel good pillows I designed. If not, here they are:

I plan to use these for more than just cushioning my couch. They will be part of a grand experiment. In keeping with the scientific method, my hypothesis is that once placed in my living room these pillows will subliminally work their magic and put an end to bickering about borrowed clothes, arguments meant to hash out whose turn it is to wash the dishes, and all other sibling based disputes that I am expected to referee. These pillows will bring about the very virtues they extol.
If my experiment works I propose we, sewers of the world, set about making and placing similar pillows in our homes, the halls of Congress(really needed there), the UN, and anywhere else people feel the need to gripe at each other.
Who's with me?!

Not Quite Done

...with reflecting on 2010.
But, before I go back, I've got to go forward and announce the winners of the giveaway:
 
DianeY said...
Really nice-love the colors you used!

and

bekki said...I love your work, your quilts look soo simpel but very beautiful

If you two will please email me at malka@stitchindye.com I'll get your PDFs over to you faster than Al Gore can re-invent the internet.

Now back to the past. It dawned on me the other day that if I had to pick one motif or shape that defined 2010 for me it would be the hexagon. My passion for this six-sided cutie probably started back in 2009 when I started re-purposing blocks from an old Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt into pillow tops. Then I discovered Y piecing and the world of machine sewing hexagons opened up for me. My new book includes two hexagon based quilts and a pillow sham that features a hexagon flower in the center. Add to that the supersized hexagon quilt I designed for Quilt Scene magazine and you've got a lot of hexagon action in my life.
To quote my mother, " The more things change, the more they stay the same," (I know she's not the first to say that, but let's credit that quote to her anyway) it looks like I'm not done with hexagons in 2011.

Looks like my first FO of 2011 includes hexagons.

 The center block is actually something I created for my Open Studios event at Quilt Festival. It sat around for a couple months before I decided that I didn't just want to admire at the bottom of a stack, but that I wanted to make something with it.

So, I bordered it with a solid in cotton in a pale gray, quilted it in concentric circles from the center out and backed it with this super graphic print I bought at festival.

 I think my favorite thing about this particular hexagon interpretation is the complexity that all the different prints give the block. I don't think such a variety of prints would work though if the palette wasn't limited to basically two colors, orange and gray.
The block itself is the same block I designed for the Modern Baby Quilt in my book with a bit of a twist in that I divided the center hexagon into six equal triangles and string pieced them.
I can definitely see a quilt top made this way. Who knows? Maybe 2011 will be as six-sided as 2010 was.

A Change of Pace

As much as I enjoy making quilts and dyeing fabric, I have to admit that the occasional out-of the ordinary custom order helps to keep things exciting.
Most times the request is related to something I already make, but involves a bit of a twist.
A while back, someone contacted me about making her a pillow cover. Now, that isn't unusual; I make pillow covers practically every day. It was the pillow she wanted to cover that made this a new and slightly challenging project. She had an already existing bench cushion that she wanted to brighten up. She selected the fabric on this pillow and requested that the sides of the bench cushion cover feature that fabric as well. She also wanted a coordinating hand dyed solid along the bottom and a contrasting edging for the sides.
Before I continue with the images I should mention that when I was in eighth grade I took an aptitude test where I scored well on standard academic pursuits like reading, writing, and math, but failed miserably in the section that determined whether you had a mind for engineering. Ever since then, whenever I manage to "engineer" something, I stick out my proverbial tongue at that stupid test. So, it is with great pleasure that I show off this bench seat cushion.




The customer also wanted a wee little round pillow to match the cushion.



The round pillow did not require any new engineering as it is a lot like this pillow.



I designed it for the Spring 2009 issue of Stitch. So, though it was fun to sew, I didn't have that chest-swelling feeling that comes from proving something wrong. But I did get to enjoy doing something just a little out the the ordinary.

Friday is the new Tuesday

or maybe just a good day to shoot a few pictures of another version of my Tuesday pillow design.




Whether it's Tuesday or Friday or any other day of the week, all those colors make me smile.