Journals Are Here!

I mentioned a while back that we were planning on making 

journal covers so here they are. 

I selected my favorite 2 to show off first. 

I just love this stamp fabric.  

• The interiors are finished with double fabric and no raw seams showing.
• The bookmark is sewn in so you'll never loose it.
• Quality lined paper in the hard back journal gives you a nice writing surface.

If your not the journal type, keep track of 

your favorite wines, exercise history or use as a address book. 

The journal is standard size of 5" x 8" and is easily replace when 
you have filled it with you important information. 

Earth-tone batik 

The quilted journal covers with hard back journal are

$18.00 (including shipping)

A good gift idea for people who still love the feel of a pen on paper.

See all the quilted journal and paperback book covers on our Etsy site.

Nashville Quilt Expo

AQS  08 Nashville Quilt Expo

Oh my we had such a wonderful time.

All those fabrics, threads, tools and the great things we learned.

If you are a quilter you know who's in the center of this photo...Eleanor Burns. I've been a big fan for years and seeing her was great. She was so sweet in person. It was the end of the last day of the show and we were dragging, but she was her sweet normal self, kidding with us and making us all laugh. 

The show was in the Opryland Hotel which is huge and the one thing I love about this show is it's all in one really big room. No stairs, no wandering around to find something, it's all so very organized. We visited half the vendor booths on Friday and then took in about half the quilts on display. There was some wonderful stuff there to see and I will be very inspired for a good while. I do regret I didn't take the time to write down the artist's names thinking I'd be able to read them in the photos, but I couldn't. I will not make this mistake again.

One thing they had that Paula took advantage of, was a quilt appraiser. She has an antique quilt and had no idea of it's history. She found out that it was worth a good deal more than she paid for it. It was made in 1895, and was made from silks, Victorian ladies garments, men's vests and vest lining, men's hat lining and other garments from that era. 

Finding out that ladies in that time had to use anything they could get there hands on for fabric even the lining of men's hats, was very interesting. They even used the samples that were sent out to sell fabrics. Oh, are we not the lucky ones with out endless sources of fabric. What would those ladies think of shopping on line. I guess one trip to Joann's would blow there minds.

There were so many quilts to look at too. Many guilds from across the country entered their guilds challenges and these were wonderful to see. How different artists interpret the challenge was very inspiring. Some quilts made you laugh and some made you look in wonder at how much work was in each stitch. Also seeing the handwork, something I don't do was amazing. My mantra is if you can't do it on the machine you don't do it. Hand quilting or piecing is beyond my patience level at this point. I may get where I do it at some point. Paula tried to teach me to hand quilt, but I just couldn't seem to get the rocking motion down. I'm sure I didn't give it the time needed to learn. 

This elephant quilt was one of the favs for all of us. 

I've never seen a white crazy quilt and my photo just does not do this justice at all. It's all white, not the tan/yellowish color in this photo. We stood and looked at this for a good while. The tiny detail was so well done.

I took 60+ photos and I'll put a few more on here very soon.

It was a great show.

Well I need to go put all my wonderful new stuff away.

08 Quilt Expo In Nashville

Well it's that time again and boy am I excited. We've been planning for weeks. We're so very lucky that it's here in our home town. I've talked with other quilters on line that will becoming from as far as Canada for this great event. Last year was my first time to go to the Nashville show. We'd gone to the one in KY before, but I liked this one much better. The layout of the vendor area is really nice and all the quilts to see are mind numbing. Your head is reeling when you leave. I made the mistake last year of only going for one day and I learned that their is just no way to see everything in a day, so I missed seeing a lot of the quilts and had to rush threw the vendor area. I'll not make that mistake again. I guess that's the reason the show is 4 days. 

Even if you are not a quilter I'd suggest you go to this show and just look at the wonderful craftsmanship in these works of art. When you think of quilts you may just see your grandmothers in your minds eye, but boy have things changed. The addition of the art quilt really broke open the quilt world to just about any thing goes. Seeing quilts from different regions of the country is very inspiring too. There are over 400 quilts to see and 450+ vendor booths. The wide variety of fabrics and notions found at this show is wonderful for garments too. Designer patterns, unique buttons and tons of stuff for the fiber artist are there.  

Visit this site and you'll see what a wide scope quilting has become today.

www.americanquilter.com/shows_contests/nashville/2008/video/ 

So break out the walking shoes and be ready to be inspired.

Show Information: 

www.americanquilter.com/shows_conests/nashville/2008/general_info/

And if this isn't enough to inspire you Nashville has a wide range of art galleries

just google nashville art galleries

Tomato Festival

Paula found some cool retro stuff at the show. 

I got several nice items for my sister who loves 50's stuff.

I got it for her for Christmas, but gave her part of it already.

Typical me.

There were craft booths and so much nice art to see. 

The gallery was packed ceiling to floor with tomato art. 

Must have been a huge job to get it all arranged. 

Everything looked so nice. The art was so good. 

Such a wide range of styles, some with humor but all with excellent talent. 

The craft booths were filled with beautiful items that tempted me. This jewelry booth had some very nice items. Everybody was sporting there tomato wear. Paula made our "cool" visors and big tomato button with google eyes which we got a lot of comments on and several folks stopped us and wanted to know where we got our visors cause they wanted them. Last year the weather was in the hi 90's and the humidity was a drag. This year it was 80 and we had a breeze. The day was wonderful. There are several nice shops in the area with all kinds of unique finds. One had antique/collectible quilts which we looked at in depth. Paula knows more about the traditional quilting than me, so I learn something each time we're out. One shop had tons of 50's stuff,  I've got to go back there, or should I...hum. Watch out wallet.

After tromping around and looking at arts/crafts one does work up a thirst. So we had a beer at one of the many nice restaurants in the area. Then we skipped over to another one I'd been wanting to try for lunch. It was seafood and great. We had a very nice day. 

Thanks Steve for taking the photos. 

Photos On Fabric

I  experimented with photos on fabric for months before I got it all figured out. I printed on cloth I'd purchased first and ironed it onto freezer paper. I ruined a printer doing that. One loose string and it was all over, making a white line on all my paper and fabric print-outs from that point on. Needed a new printer any way so that wasn't a huge drama. 

When I got the new printer thou a Espon C88 I didn't want a redo of this so I started trying commercially made fabrics for running threw the printer. I tried about 3 brands and far and above the rest is Printed Treasures by Milliken. It's not the cheapest, but I've had only a few non-perfect prints. The worst problem I did have was getting it to run threw my printer which is a vertical feed. The Printed Treasures isn't a stiff material and tended to get started off-centered or get a little fold on one corner. I called a few quilt shops and it seemed I was the only one having this problem? Well I fixed this by putting a sheet of card stock behind my Printed Treasures and putting a 5-6" long strip of tape on the leading edge. This solved all issues and I've never had a problem since. 

I really like this product and it washes well and I've had no fading. It also sews well once you get it to the machine. Another product I've used and liked is Jacquard Silk. I have had some problems getting the backing off after printing and found if you soak it in cold water it comes right off. The silk dries very quickly and you are back to sewing. I did notice it's easy to get a moire (pattern that can show up on your photo-not good) in large dark areas, but all in all it's very nice product. I've also noticed you should lighten your photos prior to printing them on either of these fabrics. Fabric absorbs color differently than paper and you should sacrifice a sheet for a test run. Just keep your test cause it will come in handy down the road. I printed my test on both paper and fabric so I could compare the two. Then later you will only need to print on paper to see what you will more than likely get on the printed fabric.

If you are a scrapbooker and like that look 

there is a site I just love called Designer Digitals 

http://www.designerdigitals.com

that has wonderful graphics to use with your photos. 

Check it out I think you might get hooked.

Little Sewing Helpers

It's sew easy to get all caught up in tools and gadgets for your hobbies. I try real hard to not get sidetracked into buying every new little thing that comes out, but it's not easy. One thing I had when I first started sewing was the little wrist pin cushion, you know the red plastic one that never fits your wrist comfortably. I did like the concept of it thou and used it a lot, but it just didn't fit my arm well. So I thought dudh, make one. So here is what I came up with. I have a basket of scraps, (don't we all) that has quilting experiments in it, along with small cuts that just can't be tossed. So I cut a strip from one of these and started playing around with it. I wanted it to Velcro on and be comfy and of course hold my pins.
So after a little tweaking this is what we came up with. I've been using this for several weeks and love it.