Thinking Outside the Box: That’s Not What You’re Supposed To Use That For

I remember being told I should color within the lines. It’s probably just as well I never was able to do that. I’m certainly not about to start now.

I’ve been totally hooked on paintstick rubbing. Like everything else, it’s a tool to be used with other tools. I’ve been exploring more and more how to incorporate different plates with each other in design. Here’s the latest batch.

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I love them. And I’ve recently found some iridescent paint sticks in colors that didn’t come in the kits.

There’s only one limit I don’t like. The plates tend to be small. You can repeat all you like. But they don’t lend themselves to larger pieces. Not to worry. I decided there needed to be a way. I went looking for more kinds of rubbing plates. The choices are limited.

I tried drawing with glue on placemats. I tried carving foam. I got desperate and bought some fondant plates. All too small or not quite enough. Or a huge mess. Not satisfactory.

Not everything that works marvelously was made for that purpose. Some of the best tools of the quilt world have been borrowed from some odd places. My favorite thread bags were originally worm bags for fishing. Rotary cutters started as carpet cutters, I’m told. Surgical seam rippers really are a surgical tool some brilliant nurse brought in to their quilting studio.

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So in that same spirit, I bought some ceiling tiles. They’re two feet by two feet. And beautiful! Stiff textured plastic. Exactly like a rubbing plate, only bigger.

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Here’s what they look like rubbed. I’m in love!

So I’m not supposed to use ceiling tiles that way? Isn’t a good thing I didn’t pay any attention to those rules? I think so.

Hello, My Darlings: You Are the Heart of My Art

There aren’t many times in your life when you bring home a new sewing machine. Even for those who work in the industry, it’s a red letter day.

Thursday, I brought home a new to me (gently used ) 770 Bernina from Feed Mill Fabrics and Quilting in Oneida, IL. Don took this picture of me having fallen into the machine sewing. Yes. Like that. I sew until the machine and I are one.

I’m not a high tech girl, and I’ve worked most of my life on mechanical machines. But there are things about this bemouth that are to love. The throat size. The quiet motor. The speed of it. The excellence of the stitch.

My 630 is gratefully on the side as a backup, but I can see this new machine is going to take center stage of my sewing. It’s just as well the dogs and cats are banned from the studio, because I think it could eat a cat solid. We just won’t go there.

You don’t just buy a sewing machine. You buy the ability of a sewing machine. You buy the ability it gives you. I don’t need the embroidery capability. But this is the kind of solid sewing I crave, and what I test out every day doing the crazy stitching I do.

So this is what I did the first day I brought it home. I stitched my ass off for an afternoon, 12,000 stitches according to the machine! It ran like a top.

It needs a moth, I think!

Most of all, I’m touched by the support I’ve had. Don has believed in me and given me more backing than I’ve known in my life. He gave me my studio and walked me into get this machine. He leaves me amazed. He sits in the studio and cheers me on day after day. I adore him.

We kind of crisped our plastic purchasing it, but it was possible at all because people like you bought quilts and made it possible. The quilts are all still on sale until Sept. 21, in case you would like one, or like to help.

But all of you who helped me, bought quilts, backed me up, went to my classes, read my blogs and have wished me well, Thank you! You’ve made it possible for me to follow my art. You are a part of my heart and my heart.

You can hear me with my heart beating in time with the machine. I’m in love.

No Place Like Home: Quilt Stores Make Our Community

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of doing a live Facebook show with Beth Rylander in her delightful shop, Feed Mill Fabrics and Quilting in Oneida, IL. I talked about free motion stitchery, and brouht in a small trunk show of work.

I’d visited Beth’s lovely shop, looking for a new Bernina. I believe I’ve found my machine, a lovely 770 that is coming in as an experienced machine someone has pre loved for me.

Today was so much fun! She does this every Saturday. She reaches out to her group by doing a live show weekly, so people can know what is new, fun, exciting and there for them.

Beth’s shop is stuffed stem to stern, and top to bottom with beautiful fabrics. And she not only sells Berninas, she has two lady mechanics. I’m impressed.

But her store bears something much more precious even that fabric. She has made a store in a feed mill in Oneida, that is a community for a huge circle of other women, like you and like I who love fabric, sewing, and each other’s company. What a quilting store does best is it makes community. Which is why all quilt stores are precious, and need our support. Because they support us all.

Here is the video we ran this morning.