Finish Line in Sight

Race metaphor brought to you today because I ran the local Turkey trot last Thursday. I was super excited about my time...until I learned that the course was accidentally shortened by a half mile and was actually 4 1/2 miles rather than 5.
Today's finish line though is completely under my control. No pace car or confused policemen to screw this up. Today I'm off to the quilt this:

  It's a full size bed quilt for a customer across the globe. She had seen the version that I made my daughter several years ago and asked for one of her very own.

I've mentioned this before here and wrote about it in my new book, but I have to extol the pleasures and time saving nature of renting time on a long arm quilting machine. Quilting this entire top will take me 4-5 hours including "basting", a process that's a lot different and easier on you back/butt than taping the backing to the floor, layering the batting and top, and then proceeding to scoot around pinning the layers together. I'm telling you, long arming is the only civilized way to go.

 I'm hoping to have this bound and photographed for display in this space on Thursday. If I were y'all, I might just check back here then because 1. Thursday is a special day for me and 2. How fun would it be to share some of my special day with you lovely folks. Need I say more? :)

Shop Talk

I may have caught the Black Friday fever. I didn't venture out to the malls, but I did go in search of a couple specific fabrics at Joann's. People, that place is a madhouse. I ended up buying a couple spools of thread. Big, thousand yard spools that usually cost about $10.00 a piece, but today were buy one, get the second free. Then, the checker scanned some coupon that she had at the counter and the spools got even cheaper.
Though the craziness of the place convinced me that I should come back during the week to buy muslin, I was inspired by my Joann's experience to do something new in my shop.
(Imagine me speaking in a loud voice) For the first time ever, I'm offering my blog readers, that's you wonderful people, a special discount on the items available in my store. That's 10% off any purchases between now and next Tuesday. To use the coupon code, all you need to do is type in the phrase BLOGLOVE when you check out.
I've just updated the store with some new fabric bundles

 and a scrap bundle.

 I also have an array of pillow covers, patterns, hand dyed fabrics, coasters, quilts, and at least one or two other things I've forgotten.
If you've been thinking about buying one of the quilts or pillow covers I have listed, her's your chance to get it at a discount.
Just sayin. :)

In the Interest of Brevity: OMG

Years ago, before I ever thought about dyeing fabric or making quilts, back when I was still in art school, I knew about American Craft Magazine. Periodically, I would go to the bookstore to peruse the magazines I couldn't afford to buy and along with Art in America and Art News, I would read the latest craft news via American Craft.
Fast forward twenty some years and I get an email from a local writer, Shelley Seale, telling me that she has been commissioned by American Craft to write a story about me. Me?!!
And then, like icing on the cake, American Craft sends an amazing photographer, Michael O'Brien, to photograph me and my studio. Do you think I might be jumping up and down like a contestant on The Price is Right?

Absolutely!
I've had to keep this under wraps for a couple months, but I got my copy last week and I'm ready to shout it from the rooftops. I am so thrilled to be included in the Dec/Jan issue of American Craft!

Of Bags and Buckles

If you've watched the promotional video I made for my book, Fresh Quilting: Fearless Color, Design, and Inspiration, you've heard me describe the projects in this book as items I've wanted to design for a long time. Many of the projects are the result of ideas I've carried around for a long time. For instance I mentioned that the kitchen curtain that's featured in the book is a concept I've long wanted to play with. I'll often see something in a store or in a magazine and think it's interesting and then something about will just stick with me. That's the story behind one of the projects that was originally slated for the book, but, due to space constraints and the complexity of the project just didn't make the final cut.

 The impetus for this book bag was my desire to make a bag that had a bona fide, working buckle. This bag is all about that 3" buckle. Years ago I was at Hill Country Weavers and I saw a knitted bag with buckle on the cover of a Rowan magazine. I liked the bag, but I LOVED the buckle. What's more, I loved the concept of a bag with a buckle. I know that seems like a little detail to hone in on, but I put it in the back of my mind that one day I'd design a bag with a buckle.

The rest of the bag: the quilted interior and exterior, the placement of the flap, the binding encasing both the quilted flap and the interior seams, and all of the other details I had worked out in this previous design.

 But this was where I decided to add my buckle.
Interestingly, the bag that is in the book also has a design feature that I had in mind for years.

 This is my image of the Four Points Tote taken before the bag was sent off to Interweave Press last winter. The handles, however, were given to me by a friend several years back. At the time she was cleaning out her aged mother's house and found these wooden handles. She didn't know anything about them, but thought I could put them to good use. I set them on a shelf and there they sat and gathered dust. As I was planning the patchwork for the tote, I realized that I wanted to use those handles in the design. I checked to make sure they were a standard size so that folks could recreate the pattern without having to dig in some obscure place for similar handles and, once reassured, added them to my tote.

Now I have both bags in my home. The tote I've set aside until book promotion is over, but the buckled bag is already getting daily use. And, like a little kid, I am so loving buckling and unbuckling my bag.

Wanted: Guinea Pigs

Not the real kind. I actually have two Chinchillas that live in my house so I don't need any more rodents in my life. I mean sewing guinea pigs.
I'm working on a new quilt pattern and I'd like to ask a few of you skilled sewers to review the pattern for me and, if you'd like, sew a version of the quilt. You don't have to sew up the pattern to review it, just make sure that the directions make sense.

In return for your hard work and sage advice, you'll get the first draft PDF of the pattern and, eventually, the final draft PDF for free.

 I should warn you that this is a pretty large quilt measuring 69" x 69", so those who might want to sew the top as part of the review process should be aware of that.

 If you're interested, please email me directly at malka@stitchindye.com for additional details.

Edited to add: Wow! Eager beavers, I means guinea pigs. I have all the testers I need. Thanks everyone!

Two-fold Purpose

Obviously part of the focus of today's post is to announce the winner of the Quilt Scene magazine. Before I do that I want to reveal my very special method for picking a winner. my technique involves sitting in my favorite chair an calling out to one of my girls. Sometimes the one being called doesn't hear me or is, in fact, not home. They are teenagers after all and there have been a few times when after calling their name repeatedly, I set out in search for one only to discover that she's not home. Thank goodness they have phones and I know how to text.
Anyway, I usually continue to call until someone, anyone, responds. At that point I ask them to pick a number based on the number of comments I've received. They don't even know or ask why I want them to select a number between 1 and 131, they just pick one. It couldn't be anymore random than that. Today's number, courtesy of my sweet Rachel, is 113.
That makes Mathea our winner. She said:

The magazine looks wonderful, and I love your quilt, but oh, what I'd give to have real sunlight in November.. :-D

Congratulations! Please email me at malka@stitchindye.com with your mailing address and I will send the magazine super quick-like. Unfortunately USPS doesn't allow me to ship sunlight, so I can't help you with that.

My second purpose is to pass on a bit of quilt inspiration I happened to photograph at Quilt Festival the other week. As I was heading back to my car, I noticed two small buildings across the street from the George R. Brown Convention center.

 Both these little structures are located on a bit of park-like space.  They're very small, so I'm assuming that they're purpose has something to do with controlling the lights or some other technical aspect of the surrounding structures. If someone sees these images and knows what their point is, please chime in because I am curious. Anyway, they've been adorned with the blocks of warm and cool colors.
True confession: when I took the pictures I thought the buildings had been placed there exclusively for Festival. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that, but I figure it's just between you and me.

What does it mean...

when you find a package on your porch last night, realize it's from your publisher, but decide you're going to wait until the next day to open it, so you can take pictures of the contents as they emerge from the box?

And what does it mean when you're taking pictures and then notice the cool way the light is playing on the surface of the box and quilt and floor,

so you take one picture

 and then another

and then some more pictures of what is essentially the reflection of the slats of your dining room chairs? I have even more pictures, but people, even I have some kind of filter.

And what does it mean when the point of this post was not to show off pictures of sunlight or chair slats or even quilts, but to giveaway a copy of this year's Quilt Scene magazine and I'm this far in and only now getting to it?

 Answers. I'm going to need them. And your comments. You're going to want to leave them because this is a magazine worth owning. You know who has patterns in this magazine? How about Elizabeth Hartman.

and Ashley Newcomb,

 and Denyse Schmidt.

 

In all honesty, when I held the magazine, I actually thought it was heavy. There are loads of wonderful projects, so leave a comment. I'll pick a winner on Sunday night and announce him/her on Monday.

Good luck and have a fabulous weekend!