Retro Clean

I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about a wonderful product called Retro Clean . Normally I wont push a product and I am not getting paid to do it now but this one I have to show you.

As I will tell you in a post I am in the process of composing, I collect vintage fabrics and quilts. Often when I receive these they are dingy an dirty from improper storage. I have tried everything, Woolite, dry cleaning, Dreft and on and on but nothing got them very clean. Yes, they might smell less musty and some of the grime might get removed but they never seemed truly clean. I stumbled upon a product at a local quilt shop and figured I had nothing to lose but a few dollars. I followed the directions and was amazed at the results. The whites were bright and it seemed to pull out age stains that no other method had. There have been some stains that even this product couldn't get out but on average it does a fantastic  job. If you have an old quilt or piece of fabric that needs some love, go get you some!

Treasure Map of Quilt Shops That I Love

Living in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area I am lucky to have access to some great quilt shops. If you are from this area or plan to visit, here are some must see shops. I also do a bit of traveling out of state on occasion and at the end of the California list I am adding two from my recent Missouri trip. If you are an owner and  don't see your shop listed here and want me to list it in a future blog post, then please send me the info and I will pay you a visit. I always love to explore and tell people of my travels.

New Pieces Quilt Store and Gallery This is a fun quilt shop nestled in Berkeley with a very helpful staff. They have all of their fabrics organized by type an pattern. Are you looking for that perfect fabric with fish? Chances are they have it in the animal section. Be sure to check out their area of Japanese fabrics.  They have a wide variety of classes and have samples of the quilts you can create hanging in the store.

Intrepid Thread This quilt shop was a huge surprise. From the outside you wont expect much but once you enter you will be in heaven! They specialize in modern quilting cottons and are happy to help you audition fabrics for the perfect quilt. Last time I visited with my mother we must have pulled 3 or 4 dozen fabrics for a project and they didn't bat an eye. These ladies are incredible!

Stone Mountain and Daughter This Berkeley shop has it all and is huge! This place has quilting fabrics, garment fabrics and even boat upholstery material. Give yourself some time to navigate your way through this shop and don't forget to visit the upstairs section. Their quilting fabrics are organized according to theme and line which makes it very easy to find coordinating material. They always have classes but they are primarily for clothing makers but sign up for their newsletter.

Eddie's Quilting Bee In Sunnyvale this is a pretty big shop with a fairly good selection. Their fabrics lean towards modern and are arranged by theme and color.

In Between Stitches A lovely Livermore quilt shop with a HUGE selection. Civil War, 1930's reproduction, moderns, and patterns galore. I only wish this place was closer to home for me. I think I would have to set up a tent right outside the front door and take my mail there.

Always Quilting Another must see shop in San Mateo. I could spend hours here. All of the fabrics are organized according to color and shade which I love. This is where I purchased the orange fabric for my Phyllis Quilt. The only downside is the lighting, they really do need to improve it. I found myself having to take my selections to the cutting table where the lighting was better or outside the front door.

Ladybug's Quilts This sweet little shop was a real surprise. It is small but the woman that works here is very helpful. They specialize in repro and civil war fabrics and have a huge selection of patterns.


Here are the two shops I was lucky enough to visit in Missouri last fall.

Appletree Quilting  A fantastic quilt shop in Columbia Missouri. They have a huge selection of 1930's repro fabrics. I would have loved to have spent hours here but the road was calling my name and my travel companion (not a quilter) was getting antsy. I ended up purchasing a 1930's repro fabric that I just cannot find here in California.  The staff is wonderful and they are happy to help you with any questions. They also do mail order, so awesome! I will be coming back here towards the end of the year.

The Quilted Fox This out of the way St Louis shop was wonderful. The selection is huge, the women that work here are helpful and the fabrics are easy to find. I bought a jelly roll here and am kicking myself that I didn't buy more.

Phyllis' quilt

Many years ago when I was in my early 20's my mother and I had the pleasure of working with a very special woman names Phyllis. What made her so special wasn't what she had or didn't have but it was her spirit.

She was born in the 1930's and upon her emergence into the world the prognosis was grim. The doctors at the time only gave her 3 years to live because she had Cerebral Palsy. I guess at the time little was known about it and the doctors didn't hold out hope for her to have a decent quality of life. How wrong they were! I guess they hadn't ever encountered people like her parents who were determined to raise Phyllis as a strong and  independent woman. Although non-verbal Phyllis had a voice as loud and in your face as her personality. While Phyllis couldn't care for herself she lived a full life writing copious letters with the assistance of a special shoe and typewriter her father and engineered, she traveled, she was an advocate for herself and others with physical disabilities, and above all else she was an amazing friend. Sadly Phyllis passed away some years ago but she is still with us in so many ways. What does this story have to do with quilting? Read on.......

A while back I purchased some fabric with a cream background and a gray and orange design.

Usually orange is one of those colors I rarely use but for some reason I had to have this fabric. I stashed it away as quilters are wont to do and didn't give it another thought. Just last weekend my husband and I were having a lazy weekend around the house and I got the itch to quilt. I went through my fabrics and found that weird orange fabric that I had forgotten about along with a complimentary fabric I had the foresight to purchase at the same time.

I wanted a simple pattern to showcase the fabric and because I truly wasn't in the mood to worry about precise corners, or perfect points I decided on a snowball block.

When I was finished I sent my mother a photo of my latest creation. She asked me what I was calling this quilt and I had no answer until she reminded me of something that made me smile. Phyllis' favorite color was orange.My mother has since claimed the quilt as hers upon completion. So now I present to you a quilt with a personality as bold as Phyllis was. "Phyllis' Quilt"

I started by cutting squares of the patterned fabric 6 1/2'' and squares of the orange fabric 2 1/2'' You will need 4 small squares for each larger square. For this tedious task I used one of my favorite tools the Shape Cut by June Tailor. If you do not have one of these, get one!

Once you have all of your squares cut it is time to mark and assemble.  I use a very light colored pencil for this step but you can use a disappearing fabric marker like this one made by Dritz.
Take your ruler and mark corner to corner with your fabric pen on each of the 2 1/2' blocks.

 Once marked you are ready to sew. Place the smaller square flush in the corner of the larger square with right sides together and sew corner to corner along your diagonal line.

I really should have used a thread with more contrast so it is easier to see but hopefully you get the idea. You will then add small squares to each corner of the larger squares until you have a bunch of blocks that look like this 

Now it is time for some cutting. I use a 1/4'' seam allowance and place my ruler along the diagonal stitched seam

As you can see the ruler is placed so that once cut you will keep that 1/4' seam. Do not cut on the seam itself or you will end up with a big old fabric mess. Now it is time to cut off the corners

You will have a bunch of small triangles left over like I did but I have saved mine for a project I have yet to think up.

You will now have a stack of blocks that look like this and it is time to press them. I always run my iron over each of the seams to set them prior to pressing the fabric open.

Once you've set your seam fold back each corner triangle and give it a good run with the iron. This is what you will end up with

At this stage you will square up the block using a 6 1/2'' ruler. Sadly at this stage I forgot to take photos since I was so excited to see the finished product. Once all of your blocks are squared you can sew your blocks together into strips and sew those strips together to make your quilt.

I have yet to have this piece quilted up but when I do I will be sure to post pics. 

Choose your own fabrics and make this quilt for yourself. If you have any questions at all feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email.

Happy Quilting!
Key

Hello 2014!

As 2013 was coming to a close I felt myself in a bit of a slump. I wanted something that I could pick up and take with me to work on when I was away from my sewing machine. I contemplated starting one of the bigger embroidery projects that I have been wanting to start and trust me I have a long list. Just the thought of having to get together all of the floss and various supplies seemed overwhelming with all of the holiday craziness.

Lets go back to a few months ago when my wonderful mother and I went on one of our road trips. These road trips have been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. When I was little she would ask me which direction I wanted to go, I would point and off we would go. We never had a destination in mind but would drive until something caught our eye and we wanted to stop. These trips more often than not took us North to the redwoods of northern California or South along coastal highway 1 to Solvang. I really treasure these memories with my mom and we are still creating more. Now that I am older these are trips are typically for shopping purposes. The last big trip we took we had plotted a couple of quilt shops that were new to us and we wanted to check out. We ended up all the way in Livermore which is further than we had expected to go. Along the way we visited some great quilt shops but on the drive home we stopped at one of our favorites Thimblecreek in Concord. They had just put out their selection of Halloween quilt patterns and I was having a very hard time deciding between two of them. I finally made my selection and mom and I checked out.

Fast forward 3 months to Christmas morning...........

There is one HUGE gift bag under the tree and it has my name on it. As I am pulling the tissue paper from the top of the bag I find a stack of cream and beige fat quarters, next I pull out boxes of embroidery floss, then two slim sided embroidery hoops and finally the pattern that I hadn't purchased from Thimblecreek. My mother had painstakingly assembled an entire quilt kit for me! Here is the pattern I have started and I am already so in love with it.

                                                     Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage
                                                         

It looks a bit intimidating but trust me it isn't so bad. The hard part for me to wrap my brain around is that you sew together some of the smaller blocks, add those to your larger piece of embroidery fabric and then embroider over the quilted blocks. I just started block 6, which doesn't require you to embroider over the quilt blocks. I will keep you all up on my progress but so far so good. What do you think?

And away we go....

As I said in my bio I re-discovered quilting in 2013.  About 15 years ago I took a couple quilting classes but it just didn't stick for me. My mother began quilting a few years ago and I admired her beautiful work but didn't think that I could do it. About a year ago in my travels I stumbled across a set of 1930's butterfly blocks. I bought them and figured I would pass them along to my dear mother to quilt up for me. My mom however had other ideas, she gave them right back an said "You do it". Even with that I still hemmed and hawed about doing it myself and thought I could convince her to do it. No dice! She dragged me out to buy the batting, binding, backing and all I would need to do it myself.

Over the next two days under my mothers guidance I plugged away squaring the blocks, sashing the blocks and eventually getting the blocks assembled. Trust me when I say there were many frustrations, a few choice words and at least once I threw up my hands. By the end of the second day I had a beautiful but wonky quilt top. I still have yet to finish the it but the top and backing are done. I think I will soon be finishing this piece by hand tying it.

                                                             Completed quilt top

                                                      A beautiful 1930's fabric

                                   Here is a closeup of the applique and my sashing selection

                                                Even my dogger Madeline likes this quilt.

I will be posting photos once I get it tied and bound. Keep checking for updates!