New Blog Address

My blog officially has been moved! It has taken longer than it should because it is in conjunction with completely redoing my entire site. This is the "soft" opening. Right now there are a lot of things that still need to be fixed. I didn't know how to fix them while the site was off-site. What I mean to say is please be patient with me while the kinx are getting worked out. Email me if you have any questions at kluckau@moosequilts.com. I will be having a Grand Re-Opening with lots of sales once I think everything is fixed. Until then, the blog is mostly working properly. The new blog address is:

http://www.moosequilts.com/blog

Nice and easy address. If you have suggestions about how to make that blog easier for you to follow, please let me know. I only know RSS, and I don't think that works for the wordpress platform that the new blog is in. I still receive comments made on this blog. Thank you for your help in this transition!

New Blog Address in Process

I am in the middle of redoing my website and blog. I have transferred my blog to the new site already, so I don't want to add new content here. I will post the new link here when it becomes active. I was hoping to get it finished this week, but with Thanksgiving, next week is more realistic. I have been posting on Facebook and Instagram. (If those links don't work, my name on social media is MooseQuilts.) I'd love to see you there!

Stay tuned for the new site because I will have some "Grand Reopening" prize giveaways!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Moda Bake Shop: Hallie's Hexi Stars

Today I have a post at Moda Bake Shop!

 

 

This is something new for me. I wanted to do something different with the hexagons that are all the rage. I cut them apart and sewed them together to make Hexi Stars. It was even more of a stretch because I hand pieced them - and I liked it!

 

I was really surprised that I liked it because I have tried hand work before. I don't enjoy hand applique. I only hand bind when I am not in a hurry, so that doesn't happen very often. I guess I am learning to appreciate slow arts. Last year I did some hand quilting (http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2012/07/obsession.html) and I did enjoy that. I think it is interesting that even though I like to do things quickly, there is some hand work that is quick enough that I don't get frustrated. The hand piecing wasn't as fiddly as applique. Even my large hands can find success hand piecing.

 

The best part about hand piecing a small project like this is the portability. I made this table topper while waiting for children in different places. It was great to be able to do something constructive with my time instead of just waiting.

 

I hope you will give hand piecing a try. This small project (about 24") was really fun!

Quilting in Space?!?

I just read a fun story about quilting in space!

 

Here's a link to the story about Astronaut Karen Nyberg: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-110113a.html There's an amazing video where Karen explains how it works to sew in space. (And she has a fabulous ponytail!)

 

This picture is from the article.

 

 

Then it gets better! Next year in Houston at the International Quilt Festival this block will be part of a quilt along with other star blocks that we can submit!

 

Here's a link to the details:

http://www.quilts.com/pressreleases/y2013/FQF13QuiltChallengeFlyer.pdf

 

 

Fall Market

After getting to the hotel at 3:00 yesterday morning and getting three hours of sleep, we are all set up for Market! For some reason Blogger won't let me post pictures from my mobile device, but I have figured out Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @moosequilts. See you there!

Quilt Featured at McCall's Quilting Blog FREE PATTERN

McCall's Quilting blog is featuring one of my favorite quilts that I have made, and I don't even have a picture of it! It's called Urban Neighborhood. It is a modern quilt made using a charm pack and three different shades of gray. I used Hope Valley, my favorite Denyse Schmidt line, for the color.

You can find a picture on their blog:
http://www.mccallsquilting.com/blogs/blog/2013/10/11/friday-freebie-urban-neighborhood-bed-quilt-pattern/

From their post, there is a link to the pattern FREE! The pattern features the quilt in a colorway perfect for fall!

FREE Paper Pieced Teapot Pattern

My friend from our local quilt shop, Gracie Lou's Quilt Shoppe, called me before shop hop and asked for my help. I love to help out when I can. She was making a pattern for shop hop. This is what we came up with:

 

 

She was looking for a paper pieced teapot. I designed one using EQ7. She made it up into a table runner. I am offering it to my gracious readers for FREE in case one of you can have fun with it.

 

Here's a link to the pattern:

http://www.moosequilts.com/FQ/teapot.pdf

 

It is a 6" finished block. One of these days I will post a paper piecing tutorial, but for now the pattern will have to do.

 

Happy Quilting!

Sewing Desk Makeover

Have you ever made up a project to keep one (or more) of your kids busy??? This one worked in my favor. My oldest has decided she likes to paint. These are our stools I let her paint not too long ago.

 

 

A couple days ago I was sitting at my old, drab sewing desk and a lightbulb came on in my head! I could let my daughter paint this desk! It would give it new life, and I wouldn't mind some color in my sewing room! In the rest of the house, I am pretty conservative with my color palatte because I don't have much sense of style when it comes to decorating a living space.

 

The secret to painting for me is to go to the mis-tints at my local paint shop. I have never not liked their paint. I have, however, often not like paint that I have spent hours picking the color.

 

Today I found this fun blue color, "Blue Mine" in the mis-tints. It was perfect!

 

One drawer was broken in the process. It is an old desk that I picked up at a second hand store years ago. We should be able to fix it.

 

Side note - I recently noticed that the drawers of the desk smell old. They have always smelled, but I had become accustomed to the smell. A few weeks ago, I put a bar of soap in each of the drawers, and they are smelling better already!

 

I can't wait until this dries enough to put it back in the corner of my sewing room!

Snow Kissed Star

I have received quite a few emails about my pattern Snow-Kissed Star that was on the cover of the Nov/Dec 2011 McCall's Quilting Magazine.

 

 

I think the reason is because of this fabulous recent Moda Bake Shop recipe:

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2013/09/bake-shop-basics-quilt-borders.html

 

I have recently made this quilt available to purchase as a single pattern!

 

 

I am in the middle of completely redoing my website (which is taking way to long because I only half know what I am doing). The pattern is not on my website yet.

 

If you want to purchase this pattern, you can send $8.95 to orders@moosequilts.com through PayPal. You do not need to have a PayPal account in order to do this. Just make sure you note that it is for this pattern and that your address in included. I will mail it to you.

 

This quilt was made with a jelly roll of Kate Spain's Christmas line Flurry. It isn't just for Christmas though. Here it is in Bonnie and Camille's Happy Go Lucky.

 

My local quilt shop made it up in American Jane. Here's her latest, Potluck:

 

 

I would love to make it in Lily Ashbury's High Street!

 

The other great thing about this pattern is that if you are careful, it only uses half of a jelly roll. That means you can make two quilts from one jelly roll! Or you can make it from a set of 2 1/2" strips from another manufacturer who makes them smaller!

 

I still love this pattern. Thank you for all the recent inquiries!

 

More of Grandpa's Treasures

After going back to my Grandpa's house a couple more times, I have no more guilt (see  http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2013/09/family-heirlooms.html) about keeping the quilts that I have. There were more than enough quilts to go around. I found enough that each of my children have a quilt and then found one more. I gave it to my sister. My sister loves red. This quilt has a red backing and is tied in red yarn.

 

 

It is big. It is also newer than the others which I have yet to take photos of.

 

I love this quilt! Isn't it fun to see how great just squares look!

 

Problem is, I don't know who made the quilt. It doesn't look like the quilts I know were made by the great grandmother who I knew. It may have been made by another great grandmother who I did not know. My aunts told me she sewed clothes for people and may have made quilts from the scraps. This quilt looks like clothing scraps to me. But it could easily have been given as a gift by someone I don't know. Another case for labeling quilts!

 

Fun Mail Day - Soap!

Not too long ago, I received a fun package in the mail. It contained soap!

 

I recently came back into contact with an old friend of mine. She is raising her family of seven children on the other side of the country making soap! Her soap is absolutely gorgeous! One of the soaps she sent me was called Clean Cotton. I took a picture of it, but I can't find the picture I took. I thought having picture on the computer would mean it wouldn't get lost. This picture is from Carrie's website:

http://simply7skincare.com//

 

 

I couldn't wait to try the soap, but at the same time, it was so nice it took me a couple days to open it. It felt luxurious being able to use something hand made so beautifully. Reading about the way she makes soap on her website and on facebook reminds me of making quilts. It is a creative process.

 

My husband now wants to make soap. I don't think so! I'll leave that to Carrie and and stick with quilts! I don't need to wear gloves and safety goggles to make quilts.

 

I wanted to share this because Carrie has agreed to let me give some of her soap away on my blog! It won't be today, but I will be giving away some of this beautiful soap in the near future!

 

Have you ever used home made soap? I hope those who use my quilts enjoy it as much as I enjoy this soap!

New Modern Quilt Guild

This Saturday will be the inagural meeting of a new modern quilt guild in south Utah County! 

Saturday, September 14th

 10:30 am

Gracie Lou's Quilt Shoppe

446 N State Road, Salem, Utah

 

Bring show and tell and ideas for the guild. See you there!

 

Family Heirlooms

Two quilts, family heirlooms, recently came into my possession. For some reason, I have mixed feelings about inheriting them.

 

My father and his siblings were going through their father's affects. My dad brought me these quilts. The first quilt was one I made my grandpa for his 90th birthday. All of the aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins' families made quilt squares. I sewed them together into a quilt and quilted it. This quilt is big!

 

 

I quilted it with trains. My grandpa liked trains.

 

I am sure my aunts wanted this quilt. They gave it to me because I made it. Someone has to end up with it. I guess it may as well be me. I feel unworthy to have it. For some reason, I don't know what to think.

 

The next quilt was made by my great-grandmother. I felt guilty taking this one until I found out that there were quite a few and my aunts and uncles got quilts too. This is a smaller, throw size quilt.

 

Isn't it fabulous! My dad says he remembers her sewing up scraps on a treadle machine. Don't you love this animal print! My dad and I guessed it was a women's coat. The fabrics are all heavy - wool and heavy poly. It is hand quilted.

 

This is actually the second quilt of my great grandmother's that I own. The other is even more fabulous except it is in terrible condition. This is truely a treasure!

 

Of course, it isn't labeled. I need to do that. This grandmother lived to be over 100. We never lived very close, so I only saw her occasionally. Even at the end, she always knew I was "David's oldest." We always called her "Little Grandma." She wasn't even five feet tall, at least when we knew her. When we went to her house when we were younger, she would pull out a tv tray and little wind up toys. We loved to wind up all the different little toys and watch them hop across the tray.

 

Have any family heirlooms come into your possession? What have you done to honor the trust without feeling guilty?

Auction Quilt

I don't often make auction or raffle quilts. I made an exception recently. My cousin is doing a fundraiser. I donated a quilt. I wanted to try to make something people would be more likely to bid on. I'm not sure it worked or not. When talking to his wife, she thought it would be good to make it red, white, and blue with quotes from President Lincoln.

 

Well, I didn't get started on the quote part right away, so I didn't have time. I have never been able to do iron on very well. Actually, I'm terrible at it. I was going to have the quotes printed at spoonflower.com, but I didn't have time.

 

On to Plan B. I was going to sew the quotes myself. After picking some good quotes, I realized that even the short ones were too long for my inexperience and short amount of time. On to Plan C. I decided to go for words instead of quotes. I picked words from the Republican Platform, something I knew the audience would be drawn to.

 

Then for the red, white and blue. I grabbed two charm packs of Friendship, one of Moda's Collections for a Cause. It is red, white, and blue, sort of. It is more red, tan, and blue. Then I made it brown by adding a brown border and snowball blocks. I like it. I'm sure it wasn't what they were thinking, but I hope people like it.

 

 

Here is a close up of some the words.

 

I used my friend's method to write the words. Here's a link to her tutorial:

http://april-makingendsmeet.blogspot.com/2013/03/raw-edge-free-motionish-applique.html

 

This is the first time I have tried it, so I don't do it as well. I think it turned out all right.

 

I still don't have high hopes for it. Maybe it's because I live in Utah. People around here would rather quilts themselves than buy them. Any of you found what works with auction and raffle quilts? I would love to know!

Sewing for a Cause

 

Next weekend a friend of mine, Ella, is having a sew-a-thon to make quilts to sell at an auction. The money is to help a historic church (whose claim to fame is being on the movie Foot Loose) get new windows. More information about the church and sew-a-thon is here:

 

https://www.facebook.com/#!/Footloosechurch

Ella has some things planned to encourage people to come and sew including:

 

Friday, Sept 6 at 1:00 trunk show by me while you sew

and

Friday, Sept 6 at 2:00 a beginning quilting class

 

The class I am teaching will be very different than most beginning quilting class. I am working up samples to show the difference between doing something "correctly" and doing something "incorrectly." AND - this part I am pretty excited about - I hope it is well received - I am going to talk about some times when it's okay to break the "rules."

 

Ella may not ask me back. I told her the contents of my class will be a surprise. (insert mildly evil laugh here)

 

If you will be in the area, come join us! (I heard Chick-fil-a is providing dinner Friday night!)

 

Quilting with Kids

I was happy to get an email the other day from one of you with this picture.

 

It is a quilt made by an 11 year old. This is her first quilt! Isn't it fabulous!

 

The pattern is called Square Dance from Simply Charming Kids:

http://www.moosequilts.com/shop/kids.html

 

 

It is called Simply Charming Kids for two reasons. First, it is a great book to introduce kids to quilting! Kids love charm packs as much as we seasoned quilters do. If they like the charm pack, they will love the quilt! The patterns in this book are kid friendly!

 

The other reason it is called Simply Charming Kids is because sometimes we want to make a quilt for a child. When I make a quilt for a child, I want them to use it. I want it to be a fort or a cape or a picnic blanket or a doll's quilt. I don't mind if it gets muddy or puked on or bloody. Because I hope that the quilt will be used, I want it to be a simpler quilt. One that is fun, but one that didn't take me forever. The quilts in this book fit that purpose.

 

 

There are certain stages in life when we want to make fast, fun quilts. Simply Charming Kids has 8 fast, fun patterns! I am so happy to see kids using it (with help from loving adult quilters)!

Knit & Purl Part Two

Now for the rest of the story! If you missed Part 1, you can find it here:
http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2013/08/Knit-&-Purl-in-Quiltmaker-Part-1.html

One thing you may have noticed from reading Part 1 is that I spell Knit & Purl differently than Quiltmaker does. Well, that isn't completely true. If you look on page 48 in the magazine, you will see they spelled it as I do. Funny! I write it as Knit & Purl because the quilt reminds me of knitting.

But back to the retreat. . . . With the help of Edyta's half square triangle paper, I did finish all of the half square triangles. There are also a few (120 I think) squares that are something I don't know the name of. If you used two HSTs, it would be an hourglass. That isn't the square. It pairs one HST with a square to make two blocks made up of three triangles. That isn't a good description. How about a picture.

Can you see it in the blue circle? Well, I finished those as well. That means that all I had to do was assemble the blocks. Sounds like all the hard work was done!

It should have meant that. It would have meant that. Except that shortly after I returned from the retreat, I ended up in the hospital with my daughter. Naively, I thought she would sleep a lot, or we would be sitting around watching tv. Under those circumstances, I could whip that puppy out like lightening! I even had a back up project in the car. Well, as many things, the hospital trip didn't go as planned. That story is here: http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2013/07/what-doesnt-kill-you.html

 

The nurses all had something to say about my sewing machine set up. (Don't you love the drapes! It's a children's hospital.)

They had never known anyone who was crazy enough to bring a sewing machine to the hospital before. I think I got the blocks done at the hospital. When my daughter would finally go to sleep at night, I would stay up sewing for an hour or two. Sometimes I would be able to sew one block during the day. Sometimes one is enough.

When we got home, it was just a matter of sewing blocks together. That really was the easy part. I knew exactly how to quilt this quilt. From the moment they asked me to make the quilt, it asked me to quilt it by echoing the design. Have you ever had a quilt tell you what to do? I never questioned the quilt, but it's choice was reinforced when I emailed one of the editors of Quiltmaker. She said she was thinking the same thing! The quilt talked to her too!

Here is another picture of my quilt. I decided not to crop the second picture so you could see part of my daughter in her wheelchair. Just keeping it real! (P.S. my daughter is in physical therapy now, and I love to see her getting stronger!)

am

Knit & Purl in Quiltmaker Part 1

I am excited to show you my new quilt in the latest Quiltmaker Magazine! Meet Knit and Purl!
http://www.quiltmaker.com/patterns/details.html?idx=15331. They are even offering kits here: http://www.quiltandsewshop.com/product/knit-purl-throw-quilt-kit/New-In-Quiltmaker
This is the beautiful picture from Quiltmaker!

This quilt started out as a block that I submitted to be in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. When I submitted it, I showed some fun variations putting the block into a quilt. So they asked me to make the quilt instead of a block. Of course I agreed! When I started sewing the quilt, I realized it had 960 half square triangles. That means it took a little longer than I was expecting.

I started sewing it on my Pennsylvania Retreat. (The icing on the retreat cake was that the dogwoods were in bloom! It's one of my favorite trees, and it doesn't grow in Utah very well.)

 

I expected to finish it at my retreat. That didn't happen.
Because I was making so many half square triangles, I decided to experiment with different ways of making them and see what I like better. The method I ended up using was Laundry Basket Quilts Triangle Paper by Edyta Sitar:
http://www.laundrybasketquilts.com/Shop/trianglepaper.htm

I LOVED this paper! I cut strips from my fabric and cut them in half so they were about 6 1/2" x 21". I pinned the paper on and sewed away. The thing I liked about this one compared to others I tried was the sewing. It seemed so logical that I was surprised it was the only one that sewed the triangles exactly this way. Others are similar, but this one is the best. After sewing, I cut each paper into 28 HSTs. It got tedious removing the paper, but it's one of those mindless things that I did watching a movie or at sewing group while talking.

One other thing I loved about Edyta's paper was it's size. 28 seems like an odd number, but it was the perfect size to use with a fat quarter or half of a full strip. The fabric was used economically. And just one more thing. . . this one is silly, but it helped me a lot. Because of the size of the strip, it didn't take too long to sew or cut apart, but it also made the quilt more managable. When I got tired of doing the same thing, I would take a few and tell myself for example, "I can count to seven." (I remember seven distinctly for some reason.) Seven was an easy number. If I can count it easily, then I surely could sew that many! However, seven papers made 196 HST! Not bad!

As you can see, this quilt has a story. Oh, and it gets better. Stay tuned until next time!

Update: Find Part 2 here: http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2013/08/knit-purl-part-two.html

Sea Pebbles Quilt Kit

I just found out that Keepsake Quilting is offering a kit for my Sea Pebbles Quilt!

 

 

Here's more about the quilt:

http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2013/06/sea-pebbles.html

 

You can order the kit at Keepsake Quilting:

http://www.keepsakequilting.com/productdetail/5194/---SEA-PEBBLES-QUILT-KIT.htm

The Good Thing About Cheap Fabric

The good thing about cheap fabric is that it is cheap. People who buy cheap fabric may not know that some fabric can cost more.

I went to a second hand shop a couple days ago and found this fabric:

It is a total of 4 yards of fabric. Two yards of the Americana postcards by Marcus Brothers and two yards of a homespun plaid. There wasn't a price on the fabric. I only wanted it if it was a good deal. I asked the price trying to look as though I didn't care. She said it would be $1 for one of the fabrics, and $1.50 for all of it. I'd say that's a price I can buy it even if I don't have anything in mind. I've always wanted to attend an estate sale of a quilter whose relatives didn't know what fabric is worth. I don't even know the first place to go to find out about an estate sale, and I don't really want to wish for the death of a quilter. 

Where have you found the best deals on fabric?

Sewing in Funny Places

The end of April I took a trip with a friend to a quilt retreat in Pennsylvania. I jumped at the opportunity of taking this "business" trip when I found out my daughter was going to have surgery during spring market.

 

One night we made reservations at a little motel that we hadn't seen first. It was a tiny little room that looked like my grandmother decorated it. There were little hand written notes left all over the room reminding us to make sure lights were turned all the way off, etc. I didn't get a good picture of the notes.

 

 

Don't  you love my bedspread!

 

 

 

This was my sewing spot. Good thing it wasn't the winter or the heater wouldn't have worked very well. The space was just wide enough for the sewing machine. Do you see my chair? It was one of those things you put your luggage on. I put a pillow on it so I didn't feel like I was going to fall through! 

 

Here's Machelle's sewing spot, the end table, not much bigger than mine.

 

For being so old, it was clean and the beds were reasonably comfortable. It was also just for one night, so we were able to enjoy a good laugh!

What Doesn't Kill You. . .

Makes you stronger. So the saying goes.

 

Is it true? If something doesn't kill you, but it leaves you a paraplegic or in a coma, are you stronger? Recovering from the brink of death should make you stronger mentally knowing that you can handle more than you thought you could. . . theoretically.

 

Even if it does make you stronger, it doesn't mean that the experience is one to be relished. It also doesn't mean it isn't extremely difficult during the experience and that you don't wonder if you will survive.

 

Mid-May my 14 year old daughter had major corrective hip surgery. She now has 4 pins keeping her hip in place. I can't believe what a common experience major surgery is and yet how traumatic. It has been two months and my daughter has just gotten clearance to start walking again. There were two parts that were scary for me as a mother.

 

The first worst part was right before the surgery someone was telling us about some of the possible complications. One of them was fatal bleeding. I hoped my daughter didn't know what that meant. I felt like laughing because it was in the middle of a list that included many not so threatening conditions. Well, she could have numbness that lasts a while or we could cut a major artery and she could bleed to death.

 

The second worst part was that during the four day stay at the hospital my daughter had some reactions to the pain medication that scared me. It felt like she was two weeks old again. I worried constantly and didn't even take a shower until the last day because I didn't want to leave her.

 

I think the worst part for her has been being patient with sitting around waiting for the healing process to take place. She has tried to be good. The surgery went well, and she is healing as quickly as can be expected. This was one of the reasons that I was MIA for a while. Thank you for your patience.

 

Brown Bag Quilt

I finished this year's Brown Bag Quilt a week or two ago.

 

You can read about past year's quilts here:

http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2011/07/brown-bag-challenge.html and here:

http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2011/07/quilt-show-part-ii.html and here:

http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2012/07/obsession.html.

 

Last year I loved the quilt I made. I wanted to love this one too. I was inspired by my friend's churn dash quilt and wanted to make one like it.

 

This is what I ended up with:

 

 

I am sad because I don't love it.

 

I think it would be better if it had more blocks, but I was tired of it by this time. I didn't want to spend more time with it.

 

I also wonder if the fabrics weren't crazy enough. I think I'm too close to these fabrics. The fabric in my friend's churn dash were older than I am, so it is a crazy that I like rather than a crazy that I don't like.

 

And I should have taken out the shamrock square - or cut it up. It is like my three year old child. It demands my undivided attention.

 

It was still a learning experience. I like the brown bag challenge for that reason. I experiment. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I don't.

Challenge Quilts

This is a follow up to my Quilting Peer Pressure post. These are the other quilts in the Challenge Quilt category at our local quilt show.

 

Here is my quilt, on the left, and another one.

 

 

This is made by a fairly new quilter. It's paper pieced. She has had it done for a while. As she was working on it, I thought for sure it would win the viewer's choice award.

 

 

 

 

This one was made by a young girl. I forget how old, 13 or 15.

 

This one was made by Marion. It got the Emily Herrick Award.  We took advantage of having a local fabric designer. She came down and picked a quilt to give an additional award to.

 

 

This quilt won viewer's choice award. It was made by a friend of mine. She had a neighbor draw out some designs on her cricket. She turned those into applique pieces and needleturned them.

 

I love this category in the quilt show!