Pillowcases: Fun With Fabric

If you know Sheldon Cooper, he has an excellent video podcast series called Fun With Flags. It's everything you'd ever want to know about flags and then some.

If I were like Sheldon, I'd have a podcast called Fun With Fabric, but we have to settle for this blog, instead.

I had a rather nasty flu and was abed for a week or so, with guest appearances on the sofa every once in a while. Drinking Lipton Noodle Soup was pretty much the high point of each day and the rest was just a blur. Several days ago I finally turned the corner, though, and needed to Do Something. I was going nuts!
A couple years ago a group of us had fun making pillowcases at Thread Bear, my local (around here local is 24 miles) quilt shop and in my improved health, I remembered some recent posts about O'Quilts' pillowcase sewing flurry and said, "Oh, yeah." So I did some searching, found this helpful video and zoomed full speed ahead.
I've been making two pillowcases a night and have the cutting and sewing down to forty-three minutes per case, the time it takes to watch one television show, like Sherlock or Hell's Kitchen. So far I've made eleven, and today I gifted two. Here's what I have right now. I am missing the beautiful bird pillowcases I gave away and think I might just need to make a couple more of them.

Matrushka dolls, Viking ships, dragon seas, constellations, stars, snowflakes, flowers, birds in trees (those are the ones gone), fleurs, bugs and fairies. I have one last pillowcase to make which will be all about nature and maybe a couple more that are tres elegante.

Each time I make one, I say, "This is my favorite!" Right now these two are my faves:

The one above is made of Bugaboo fabric from Northcott.

The one below is Dawn Fairies from Michael Miller.

I just hope the pillowcases don't keep the little kiddoes from sleeping. If these were for my younger self, I'd spend a lot of time just looking at the pictures instead of napping.

But then, I was also the one whose mom had to nail the window shut so I wouldn't escape nap time and end up at the corner gas station.

Cheers!

Black Stack

I've been sorting fabric and for some reason, these blacks just caught my eye. I have a small collection of black with white and white with black because Gwen and Freddy say those fabrics help the eye rest when you have a quilt with many fabrics and many colors.

 What would you make with them?

Quilty Pleasures-This String Quilt is Hot

It was cold when I started making this string quilt, so I must have been over compensating when I chose its colors. Those are definitely colors to make someone feel nice and warm! If you want to know more about how I picked the colors for this quilt, click this link.

Anyway, it's done and ready to be used as a model for the string quilt block workshop I'll be hosting at ThreadBear in Las Vegas on April 26.

String/strip quilt blocks are fun to make. They are a totally mindless endeavor, perfect when you want to make a quick quilt with little fuss.

I was going to use the sunflower fabric for borders, but when I auditioned it, the quilt looked way too busy, so it's part of the back along with a neato red batik I bought at ThreadBear.

This is the sunniest, warmest quilt I've made in a long time and it makes me happy just looking at it.

If you're interested in learning how to make quilt blocks like these, sign up for the class, because we're going to have some fun!

Quilty Pleasures-Mi Familia Part 2

There is more progress on the Mi Familia quilt and we are excited! This quilt has been a collaborative effort between Ann (owner of Thread-Bear in Las Vegas, NM) and me and we make quite a team!

Today we added the thin black print border, auditioned about 8 fabrics for the wide floral border, and eventually decided on this greenie one.

Here is a closer look at some of the details:

For the past three years or so that particular green has been my go-to color to make a quilt "pop." Love those half circles? Read the previous post to see how Ann made that inspired choice.

The black batik border is next, with the flying geese in opposite corners. The batik has streaks, some of which echo the colors used in the center panels.

While we are working on this project I just can't stop smiling. It's a friendly picker-upper. Maybe it's those grinning guys in the center, but it's just a happy quilt!

Quilty Pleasures: Locally Grown Giveaway

I'm all for locally grown foods: my garden (soon to be gardens), the Lazy Boys and our friends' chickens' eggs all contribute to our food chain here in Northern New Mexico. Once I find some pork and locally grown chickens, we should be in excellent shape.

But today we aren't talking food, but fabric--Locally Grown, a new collection from Andover Fabrics by Marisa and Creative Thursday.

Ann at Thread Bear in Las Vegas, NM, our local quilt shop, is giving away a fat quarter bundle of these cutecutecute fabrics with goats and sheep and fruits and chickens.  Oh, my!

You may enter the giveaway twice if you follow these rules:

1. Make a comment on this blog saying what foods you would like to buy or already buy that are locally grown.

2. Visit Thread Bear's website and after you've drooled over all the fabric there is to buy, come back and make a comment on this site telling us what fabric you liked the best.

So you may make two comments for two chances to win. Oh, yeah. Deadline for entries is Midnight, Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, June 6.

Just remember if you are a no reply blogger and don't leave any contact info, you won't be able to win!

And here is a neat idea:

Cover an empty oatmeal box with cute paper or fabric for a neato thread and scrap catcher in your sewing room.

Quilty Pleasures: ThreadBear Has a Website!

I have previously written about my local quilt shop, ThreadBear in Las Vegas, NM, but when their new website went live a couple weeks ago, I just had to do another post about them. Why? They are a small business in a small town and we all know that supporting small businesses makes our communities stronger. I hope you will visit the shop (where I teach quilting classes now and then) and if you aren't close, check out the cool stuff they have on their website. Click this link to see what they have.

When we moved to Northern New Mexico just a little over three years ago, I knew I was going to miss Recreational Shopping. You know, that hop into the car, drive a few miles, hop out and wander around where you really aren't looking for anything in particular, but the "isn't it nice to be out and about" kind of shopping?

Yeah, that kind of shopping. Nowadays, a shopping trip is a 50 or 100 or 200 mile one or two day expedition. It's important to have a list and to get everything on the list, so there is little aimless meandering. It's like those old westerns where we ride the buckboard into town with Paw to get supplies and want to linger over the ribbon counter at the general store. "C'mon, Sarah, it's time to go back to the ranch, now." And we hop into the wagon and ride back home.

Luckily, ThreadBear, the fabric and yarn shop in Las Vegas, NM, is close enough so I can visit every one or two weeks, wander around, see what's new, talk to Ann and Michael, ThreadBear's owners, and fondle the goods. I love to fondle fabric; it's good for the soul.

Here are Ann and Michael, standing in front of their comfy sitting area, where the knitters meet each week and hapless males recline while their wives shop.

The store is on the historic plaza in Old Town Las Vegas, just catty corner from the Plaza Hotel, where a bunch of film people will be staying in the next few months. Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep will be filming as will Seth Macfarlane. The tv show Longmire is filming again, too.

I love the bright, colorful fabric at ThreadBear. All my fave designers are here: Amy Butler, Malka Dubrawski and Kaffe Fassett. Fabric heaven, right here.

Alexander Henry fabric is everywhere. That's Paseo de los Muertos in turquoise on the top shelf along with other Hispanic designs. The bottom shelf holds something more sedate from the store's art nouveau collection.

The traditionalist isn't left out: they have my favorite 30's fabrics, plus Civil War, Victorian, Mid-Century Modern repros. One corner is all southwest style fabrics, another of my favorites.

 Each week the website features Our Favorite Fabric, where Ann and Michael each choose something they like, offer 20 percent off, and write about it. This week Michael has chosen one of my faves, Midnight Pastoral, by Alexander Henry.

Michael's fabric descriptions are almost literary, a peek into the origins of a particular fabric, connecting the fabric to other works of art and to history and showing, in this case, how the fabric plays with tradition and then socks you in the eye.

Ann writes about Botanica Journal by Jason Yenter. Her descriptions appeal to my love of color, design, and that question, "How can I use this fabric?" She also alludes to her fabric hoarding tendencies, which makes us sisters from another mister.

Here's Ann's gardening apron, Apple Cobbler by Mary Mulari Designs, an apron with the Botanica fabric.

A couple weeks ago I ordered some Favorite Fabric on sale and could have had it mailed it to me. Instead I picked it up, ready to go, the next time I went to the store. That's a good reason to visit, don't you think?



And don't forget the yarn! I am an inexpert knitter who once spent two years knitting a 12 hour afghan, but there is a vibrant knitting underground here in Las Vegas. Here's a shout out to the Thursday Afternoon Knitters, the cool kids on the block!

I've only touched on the basics here, so visit the website to see all the stuff ThreadBear has to offer. I haven't even mentioned the precuts and novelty prints, their batiks and their classes.
 
Just so you know, ThreadBear hasn't paid me to do this post; I just like their store!

I Won Some "Color Me Retro" Fabric!

Last week was lucky because I entered a fabric giveaway and I won! That doesn't happen too often. Only once before, in fact.

But I just felt lucky and I really wanted some of this fabric. So I entered and the rest is good luck history.

The package came from Tactile Fabrics, who sponsored the giveaway at Jeni Baker's blog, In Color Order.  So what does "Color Me Retro" look like?

You probably can't tell, but Tactile Fabrics sent fourteen fat quarters and I can't wait to do something with them just as soon as I bring in the skiploader to shovel out the layers of project detritus in the sewing room.

Color Me Retro is designed by Jeni Baker and makes me think of lying on a Southern California beach. These fabrics would make an excellent beach or picnic quilt.

Anyway, thanks to Jennifer at Tactile Fabrics and Jeni at In Color Order for the fabric. I will put it to good use.

Quilty Pleasures-Sewing Room Blues

The sun is thinking of peeking over the rimrock in the next half hour or so. In the distant mountains it's already there, and I'm drinking coffee in the sewing room, looking at a stack of miscellaneous fabric on the cutting table.

I should write a song called the Sewing Room Blues, about the mess, about all the fabric and so little time, about the many works in progress, the cat hair on the ironing board, the stacks of books on the floor and the dust bunnies scampering about underfoot.

I really need to deal with this. Yeah.

The fabric is stuff I pulled from the closet upstairs where I keep my stash along with some new purchases for projects that are just kind of dancing around at the periphery of my creative cortex. Is there a creative cortex? Hello, is it working?

The time spent in here lately has been used to finish the Los Muertos quilt which is now quilted. It needs a binding, so I must go "shopping" in the upstairs closet. The storekeeper should do a better job arranging her fabric, though. It's hard to find stuff!

I've also been spending time in here watching telly on the computer. I like Hulu's British comedy Rev. Usually British telly shows have their vicars working in bucolic country villages, but this one is set in the gritty inner city. So I get to see another side of England. Plus, it's funny and a bit raunchy, too.


Below is the fabric from the bottom of the stack, called Mod Garden by Michael Miller. I just had to have this because it would make an excellent focus fabric for something clean and modern.

So here's my question, folks: What should I make? Do you have any ideas? What fabrics to use with it? Any links to some cool photos? I think I need to abandon some works in progress to make a quilt with this fabric. I think it will help me get rid of the Quilting Blues!

Wish me luck tomorrow. I am going to be judging the quilts at a local county fair. It should be inspiring and motivating to be surrounded by a zillion quilts!

International Readers: Who Are You? A Giveaway Just For Friends Outside the U.S.

When I look at where the readers of The Nickel and Dime Ranch blog are from, I can't help but wonder how they ended up here.

American readers are the largest group, of course, but a significant number of you are from other countries.

I mean, Slovenia? Russia? How the heck did you find out about this blog?

To get to the bottom of this, I am offering a free giveaway, an assortment of fabrics from my ever expanding stash of quilting materials. How much? I don't know, but it will be enough to make a baby quilt or a lap quilt top, for sure.

To enter, just answer these two questions: 1. How did you find The Nickel and Dime Ranch blog? and 2. What would you like to see more of on the blog?

Write your answers in the comments section of the blog. There will be one winner, randomly selected from the folks who entered.

Entries will be accepted until Thursday, April 12 at midnight, Mountain Time.

U.S. readers? I haven't left you out. Check for a giveaway next week!

Quilty Pleasures Wednesday: Purl Warehouse in Tustin, CA

Time for a little color therapy, folks. Last month I had a chance to visit Purl in Tustin, CA, the mail order end of Purl Soho in New York City. It's worth a visit if you are in the area, but be advised that it's a warehouse,  chock full of yarn and fabrics to look at and fondle. Here are just a few photo highlights. I used my cell phone, so quality isn't totally primo.

There were rows and rows of yarn. Pattie chose some to make a cowl. I did, too, even though I don't know how to knit one.

I just thought this looked fascinating: Goodbye, crewel world!

A solid wall of solids.

And just a little more color for you: From Pattie's kitchen, a trivet. It looks like wrapped cord, sewn together. I love the splash of color on her island top.

Quilty Pleasures-Just a Few Purchases

When we moved from Corona to our place in Northern New Mexico,  I was surprised to see how much fabric I had stashed. It wasn't just fabric, but kits I had made and other kits I had purchased. When the sample quilt in the store was cute, I just couldn't resist a kit!  Lately I have been raiding the kits for quilt projects and it doesn't bother me one bit.

All that fabric and stuff filled up a zillion boxes, so I made a promise to dig into the stash before anything else. I've done a pretty good job and boxes packed to the brim a year and a half ago are now almost empty. I actually need to consolidate.

Of course I still bought fabric for special projects requiring certain colors, or for my small solid projects, or, let's face facts, just because I just loved it!

On my consulting trip to SoCal a couple weeks ago I stopped into a couple fabric stores, just to look, and you know how that usually turns out.

At Purl, the Tustin, CA warehouse component of Purl Soho in New York City, I picked up a few items. A pot growing operation next door was busted and gave them the opportunity to expand, so there is more to see and more to buy, too!

The fabric on the top left and the fat eighths across the bottom are Liberty of London prints, so ladylike and so vintage looking. The smaller pieces will find their way into a quilt and the larger yardage will be a blouse. The birds are from Cloud9 Fabrics, called Across the Pond-Heron. I like herons, the way they just stand in one place, still, just like this fabric.

Then Pattie took me to Sewing Party, a fairly new fabric store in Laguna Hills, Ca. Lots of happy choices here induced me to buy a couple more items:

The jelly roll across the bottom is called London and seems to fit with my earlier Liberty of London purchases. There seems to be a theme here. The layer cake at the top is the complete collection of Veranda by Amanda Murphy from Robert Kaufman.

All in all, a satisfying collection, don't you think?

BUT! That's it except for 1. Store credits  2. Gift cards  3. Free stuff

AND!! I realize I have to catch up with unfinished projects, so I am not starting anything new for a while.

YOU HEARD IT HERE AND I'M STICKING TO IT!

Quilty Pleasures: Day of the Dead Fabric

In Mexico it's the second day of Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, a time to pray for and memorialize friends and members of your familia who have passed away. November 1 is All Saints Day and November 2 is All Souls Day, both days celebrated in many parts of the world. I remember as a kid going to mass in the dark, since Daylight Savings Time hadn't kicked in yet. We didn't do anything special on All Souls' Day except pray at church.

In Mexican households altars are built to commemorate their loved ones, complete with foods they liked, favorite drinks, sugar skulls,  and marigolds. Mexican bakeries make bread in the shape of skulls to eat for breakfast. It looks a lot more fun than just going to church.

Cemeteries are central to Day of the Dead, with families hanging out at loved ones' graves to be with the souls of their departed. In some parts of Mexico people will spend the night there.

 Here's some neato fabric I've had stashed for quite a while. Some are Alexendar Henry from the Folklorico line.  All I know is they came in a neat little fat quarter bundle and I love it!

Have a great day and remember your dearly departed loved ones. Frida is watching.

Quilty Pleasures Wednesday-An Interesting Toile and Last Look at the Christmas Tree Skirt

It's a cool, gloomy day at the Nickel and Dime Ranch, but we were outside this morning setting a couple fence posts in concrete. The fence around the Growing Dome is finally getting started.

But today is Quilty Pleasures Wednesday, so I wanted to show you some fabric I bought--twice. Do you do this? You just loved it and had to buy it? And when you get it home you find the exact same fabric in one of your stash places? I do it with books, too, but not as often.

I love this toile because it is sneaky. On the bolt, a shopper could just pass it by and say, "Oh, boring toile again," (unless they love toile).

But at second glance you see these nifty little vignettes:

I have this fabric in mind for a very dear person's quilt. But I have to think about other fabrics to go with it. Because it's toile and so traditional, I am thinking about a traditional block style. If you have any ideas regarding colors or block pattern, let me know because I have Bubkis.  For folks interested in who makes this fabric, here you go:

And one more look at the Christmas tree skirt I made as a sample for a class to be held at Thread Bear in Las Vegas, NM. I quilted it in the ditch, but don't tell anyone that after I was all finished quilting it, I realized that the little lever on the walking foot wasn't hooked onto that screw dealie that holds in the needle. So it really wasn't walking!

Color on these last two photos is odd because I used the camera phone. Here's a look at the binding. I procrastinated like mad because I didn't know what to use. A scrappy binding wouldn't have looked good since it was already segmented on the edges, so I went with this brownish fabric with red, green, and tan stripes. While I sewed on the binding I watched a BBC telly show on hulu.com called Misfits. Loved it, but I'm warning you it's not for the proper person  unused to gross teenaged-boy humor and there's lots of shagging and wanking. (Sorry....just using their terms.)

That's it for Quilty Pleasures Wednesday. I'm excited because in a couple weeks I will be learning from Gwen Marston at her Beaver Island Quilt Retreat. Now that will be cool.

Quilty Pleasures Wednesday-Cottage Curtains, Stripes and Christmas is Coming

Sorry for the odd blog post title, but this week was a decidedly non-quilty one. Instead, I made curtains for MBB the MFA who has moved to a riverfront cottage on the Iowa River.  The pieced curtains for her bedroom have been mailed and received, but she still needed curtains for the living room and the kitchen. So I did some shopping in the fabric stash and found stuff that didn't exactly match but at least they came from the same color family.

On the right are the living room curtains,  peachy coral. One set wasn't long enough, so I added an Asian print to the bottom. On the left are the kitchen curtains. I absolutely love that yellow paisley print but hadn't found the right quilt idea, so yellow paisley has been languishing in the stash for about six years. It was time for that fabric to be put to use so I bit the bullet and made curtains. There's still some left, so someday a quilt will be made using that luscious paisley. Curtains are in the mail, winging their way to Iowa City. I hope her cottage doesn't look like Peewee's Playhouse after all the curtains are hung.

I went a little crazy and got these stripes at Thread Bear in Las Vegas, NM after seeing an awesome quilt (the top one) on Melody Johnson's blog, Fibermania. Actually I love all three of the quilts shown and find them truly inspiring. I hope to start playing around with all this stripey goodness in the next few weeks.

Yeah, I went a little nuts.

And yes, I know it's not Christmas yet and most of us don't want to be reminded right now, but I picked up some fabric for a tree skirt. It's for a class I will be teaching at Thread Bear and we needed a sample. The tree skirt needs to be done pretty soon, so hang on a bit and you'll see it here when it's ready. Take a look at the fabric I chose:

If all goes well, there should be some actual quilty stuff to look at next week. Stay tuned.

Quilty Pleasures Wednesday-Fabric Giveaway: Let's Celebrate!

I love this box. It's the one that holds most of my bright, crazy improvisational quilting fabrics.

Inside this box are treasures galore. I have so much fabric in here I forget what I have.  I bet there are plenty of you out there with the same (ahem) problem. When I start pawing through it, I make amazing discoveries. Making a quilt with these fabrics is an exciting journey because I don't know what fabric I will choose next.

Remember this quilt?
I was totally happy and thoroughly involved when making it. There's another one in the works after a couple obligations are met. They're addicting!

So let's get down to the giveaway: I am pleased to say that our new, three month old blog hit over 4000 visitors the other day! I don't know if that's good or not, but to me it's totally cool! (Sounding a little SoCal surfer chick, aren't I?)

It's time to share some of this awesome fabric with you, the people who have been visiting our blog.

I am putting together fabric packs that will include one Lady of Guadalupe panel, a fussy-cut Freda Kahlo, along with 20 fat quarters of assorted fabric you can use to make a small quilt of your own, or at least give you a start on a larger one! There will be two winners.


Here's how to enter: Leave a comment answering this question: Who is your favorite quilt designer?  I will randomly choose two winners from the comments. The contest will officially close Friday, July 1 at 7:00 pm, Mountain Time. Unfortunately we will only be able to send our fabric prizes to the United States. If you comment anonymously, I may have trouble contacting you if you win, so include your email address along with your comment if you anonymous folks want to enter.

Freda will be waiting for your comments!