My Juki machine

Veronica has been sewing away on her beloved Juki sewing machine.  She started with a challenge last Wednesday.  Her friend Carol said they were going to use up some fabric!  Veronica told Carol she was in.  Veronica decided she wanted to get rid of her yellow fabric stash.  She doesn't like yellow, but she sure does have a ton of it.

So she cut cut yellow till she had over 100 2 1/2" strips for the pattern Carol said they were working on.  Then off she went to the sew-in that Dayton Quilt Guild had.  They sewed all day, they raced sewing fabric strips.  They were maniacs!  But they were having fun.  They talked about all the memories in these fabrics strips.  A few came from some friends who have passed away, but there were still some great memories of shopping trips and "what the heck possessed me to buy this fabric".  At night she came home to work on her mini stars.  She says they're a beast, she has so many seams using her tiny scraps, but her Juki sews right thru them like shes sewing butter.  Butter, Yum!  Sorry, this bear loves to eat.

She's been working on a lot of stuff, she even sewed mini yo-yos on the drive to Louisiana for her granddaughter's birthday party.  Then she worked on hexies going the other way.  Shes says she's cleaning up fabrics, using them up, putting them in quilts so they'll leave her house.  She does have a lot of fabric.  She's challenged herself to get it done. 

Shes' s got the orange challenge going with Mattie, Quiltsmart's owner. If you're interested in joining the Bitty Lone Star Challenge, you can find that on Bear Thread Design's Instagram at BTDQSFall Lone Star Challenge.  You've got time, it doesn't start till October 1st.  She's thinking of new challenges.  We'll see how long she keeps this up.  Stay tuned for more adventures with Veronica and Jaggie.

Sample making

Well, this may not be a subject that everyone is interested in, but I thought for those of you that are, I would sprinkle in a little advice.  Do you ever wonder where all the samples at your local quilt shop come from?  Sometimes the employees make them, sometimes customers make them.  Different shops have different formulas for calculating how you"get paid" for the samples. 

Some stores have you pay half of the cost, some give you the fabric and pattern, you make the quilt and after a certain amount of time, the sample is yours.  Sometimes the stores pay you to make them and the samples are theirs. 

Well, I've been making samples for local shops for years, probably 20 years or so.  I've never had a problem, I usually get the quilts after about 3 months, they like to rotate every quarter or so.  I agreed to make 6 quilts for a local shop that I had not made samples before, so I asked how long they would keep them.  I was told about 6 months or so.  That was fine, I was in no hurry to get them.  I guess I should have gotten that in writing. 

I delivered the quilts to them June 1, 2017.  Every time I asked for my "quilts", I was told I couldn't have them 'yet'. So yesterday was September 11, 2018, I thought it's been long enough, it's been 1 year, 3 months and 11 days.  I wanted my quilts, so I called and said we were coming to get them.  My daughter fell in love with 2 and so those were hers.  On the way out, my daughter was stopped and told that the quilts she had were not what me and the "person in charge had agreed on" me taking home. Apparently, we were only going to get half.  Huh?  Nope, too late! 

I will not name the shop or the "person in charge" who by the way is no the owner of the shop.  Not really sure what her position is, she acts like the person in charge, but I don't really think she is.  I will never make samples for this shop again.  I will get everything in writing from now on, I used to just believe that a persons word was their "word:. 

I've learned my lesson.

Artist Investigation: A Flurry of Floral Fantasy

Jaggie here! It's time for our Artist Investigation and I had so much fun playing in the flowers with this month's artist. Carol Morrissey, of O'Carol Designs,  is crazy about quilts and crazy about designing quilt patterns! (Her words! We're not calling her crazy!)

Carol's quilt designs brings the beauty of nature inside so you can enjoy it year-round. Her floral designs are a collage of bright colors! Earlier this week, I got to sit down with Carol and talk about her art and inspirations.

Jaggie: Tell us, how you got started in quilting?

Carol: I started quilting out of necessity. In 1985 or so, my close friend was expecting her first grandchild and I needed a special gift but couldn't really afford anything fancy so I thought, "I'll make a baby quilt." After all, I'd been sewing clothes since I was eleven, so I thought I could surely make a quilt. Looking back, it was pretty dreadful--big rectangles of pastel pinks and blues with an eyelet ruffle around the edge! But my friend loved it and so did the baby. After that first one, I made two more baby quilts, each with over 700 half-square triangles, so I guess I was officially hooked on quilting.

Jaggie: How did you transition into the applique and fusible applique arts?

Carol: When I began designing patterns, I saw a need for some large scale, dramatic flower designs, and since I didn't have the time or the inclination to do handwork, fusible applique was the answer.

Jaggie: Who influenced you artistically from the start and is there anyone you learned about later who has impacted your creativity?

Carol: My mother, who is 84, has always been artistic and she still oil paints. I remember her drawing with inks, pastels, charcoal, and pencils, so there were lots of supplies around when I was growing up. My mother and my grandmothers made quilts and sewed clothes, too, so I was always exposed to lots of creative expression in various media. I've always painted and drawn and studied art. There are so many people who have impacted my creativity, both in the quilting world and not, that it would be impossible for me to list them all. I'd have to say that my husband, Mike, has been the biggest influence because he has always encouraged me and appreciated my efforts.

 

Jaggie: I see that you like to do florals, when did you start creating patterns and what inspires you? Have you always gravitated towards nature, or did you try other themes first? Have you tried others since or are you comfortable with where the nature takes you?

Carol: I started my pattern company in 2004, although I had been creating original quilt designs for a number of years before that. Nature is a big part of my life and always has been. As a child, I loved to go exploring in the woods, gathering feathers, flowers, nests, bugs, butterflies--well, just about anything that wouldn't bite me. While I appreciate and enjoy traditional patchwork, I always seem to return to nature themes.

Wildflower Bouquet

 

Jaggie: What do you do to relax?

Carol: I'm a gardener and if it's not too hot, as it often is in Texas, I enjoy working in the yard. I'm also a photographer, and I often go outside in the mornings to photograph whatever is blooming in the yard. Naturally, I enjoy sewing and also quilting on my longarm.

Jaggie: If you could sit down and teach one celebrity or historical figure to quilt, who would it be?

Carol: Now that's a question that really made me think! I could name a dozen, but I'll go with Andy Warhol just because I'd like to see what he'd do. Yeah, definitely Andy Warhol ... or Mick Jagger ... or Benjamin Franklin.

Jaggie: What is your favorite color(s) to quilt with?

Carol: I am drawn to warm colors ~ yellow, orange and red ~ but I am trying to embrace blues and greens, especially since blue is the complement of orange, and green is the complement of red. I am still trying to give purple a chance, but it's hard.

Georgetown Poppies

 

Jaggie: What is one project you've maybe wanted to try but haven't?

Carol: An elaborately longarm quilted, hand-dyed, whole cloth quilt.

Jaggie: How has the Appliqué Pressing Sheet influenced your quilting/designing? How have you seen the Appliqué Pressing Sheet impact the quilting industry?

Carol: When I teach fusible applique workshops, there are usually a couple of people who admit that they have never used their Applique Pressing Sheet. Well, that's kind of what happened to me when I got mine. 

I saw it being demonstrated somewhere so I had to have it, but then I didn't really "get it" for a while. When I started designing fusible applique patterns, and I started using it, I realized how it simplified the assembly, particularly if there were a lot of little pieces in the pattern. People get excited when see how much easier it is to assemble multiple layers of fusible applique. 

When I write my pattern directions, I am thinking about the layering sequence and assembling the design in groups of pieces, and the process is so easy if the quilter uses the Applique Pressing Sheet rather than trying to fuse directly to the background fabric. I also use it to protect surfaces from fabric inks and paints.

Prickly Pear in Bloom

 It was so fun to sit down with this artist and learn more about her process and inspirations. And really, who doesn't love these flowers!?! You can learn more about Carol at her website. And remember, if you are working on, or have completed an O'Carol Designs project, post pictures on our Facebook page. We'd love to see them!

(Editor's Note: Blogger is still acting sluggish and wouldn't allow this to be posted yesterday, on schedule. Please be patient as we wait for Blogger to fix these issues.)

Maple Leaves Fall in Texas

Hi everybody, Jaggie here! Boy last month was very stressful for me. As you remember, I reported a couple of weeks ago that Veronica was trying to get some UFO's completed. She's been really busy chugging along to get some of them completed. Then last month she found 21 Maple Leaf blocks, I thought that sounded pretty tasty, but she informed be I was not to "taste" them. She did give me a real pretty blue one all for myself.
 

 

We both looked at them and studied them, she said they were from an exchange 20 years ago. That's a really long time, I wasn't around then. She said she never put them together because she wasn't sure what to do with them. I looked at the blocks she made and they were kinda' ugly. She agreed.
 

We took pictures of her 2 blocks and then some of the others. We pondered them and talked about what to do with them. She said she wished her freinds had stopped her and told her that her blocks were not the correct fabric, I think they were supposed to be leafy or with little flowers. She had some wild stuff she used. (See what I mean! Uh-Uh-Glee!! Even the camera didn't want to see them!)
 

 

 

Her blocks were wonky, that's the polite way of saying that they were not the correct size. After a while she started cutting strips of fabric and sewing around 2 sides. She had a great pattern from a magazine. She worked on 5 blocks a day and had the top done in 4 days. Some of the other blocks needed a little "tweaking" as well. She was sweating bullets over these blocks, that's why I was stressed. I kept thinking she was gonna grab my pretty blue block and put it in with the others, but I still have it. The top turned out really nice. Then on the next Monday we saw our friend Susan Cleveland. She has a great new tool, that Veronica wished she'd had when she made these blocks.
 

Veronica says that she wished that her friends had stopped her when she made the "wonky" blocks and explained to her the correct way to piece half square triangles, how to square them up instead of forcing them to fit, how she probaly should have pressed and measured them to make sure they were up to "snuff", then putting the individual squares together to make the blocks. She says she probably would have had this top together and we could be snuggling under it by now. So for all you seasoned quilters out there, take a few minutes to mentor beginners and get them off on the right foot. They'll thank you and you'll have a friend for life. And snuggly quilts instead of UFO's.

 

These are the other blocks she has ... a little more manageable! Stay tuned for a photo of the completed quilt.

The Adventures of Me, Jaggie!!

Hello All! It's me, Jaggie, with one more post from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival, in Loveland, Colorado, Aug. 17-19. I had to sneak in here to the computer to send you these photos!

 

Shh! Don't tell Veronica!

 

I had a lot of fun at the quilt festival. It was really busy, and between working 2 booths and teaching 2-3 classes, programs and lectures a day, Veronica, Michelle and Nancie were too busy to keep an eye on me, so I wandered off for a bit each day to see what adventures I could find.

 

There were times that I worked ... I help with demos of the Applique Pressing Sheet and other Bear Thread Designs products, and answered questions about patterns and such. But after a while, I got the urge to roam ...



 

 

After I figured out how to get around this huge complex, I snuck into a class or two to see what they were doing and got caught dancing on top of sewing machines in one class ...

 

And accessorized with thread and such in another. (Does this thread make my head look big!?!)

 

 

I wandered through the display area and found quite a few quilts that caught my eye ...

 

 

I tried to get upclose to some, but got caught when I tried to get a closer look at one and got tangled up. I was told that I couldn't snuggle with them.

 

 

I tried to sleep amongst the Hoffman Bali Batiks that looked so soft and inviting, but had my nap interrupted with so many people coming to buy some for projects!

 

 

The hotel bed was comfy, but I had so much to do and didn't want to waste time sleeping!!

 

 

I've heard that if you are in Colorado, you must go horseback riding ... so I tried it and loved it!

 

 

I also sat out and watched the sun come up before the day got started and things got hectic.

 

 

The trip home was uneventful, but Michelle and I had to fly back because there was no room for us in the van!!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my adventures! If so, join us for the Sew Fun Cruise in February!! It is set to lift anchor in New Orleans, LA, on February 16 for a week long adventure through the Caribbean stopping in ports such as Falmouth, Jamaica, Georgetown, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, Mexico on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas!

 

Just think of all the adventures you can have on a weeklong cruise!! Check back later to see what other things Bear Thread Designs has going on. We have some give-a-ways and raffles, upcoming trips and more!

 

 

Out & About: Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival: A Different Class of Flowers!

What a long week it has been for the team here at Bear Thread Designs following the Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival! Veronica, Michelle, and Nancie had such a wonderful time meeting all the quilters and crafters who stopped by our two booths.

 

Amid all that, Veronica and Nancie also had time to teach a few classes and give lectures. Once of the classes Veronica taught was 5 Golden Sunflowers, where she taught fusible applique using the Applique Pressing Sheet to create a sunflower wall hanging. Did you take that class? If so, send us a photo of your sunflowers. We'd love to see it!

 

Here are some photos from when I visited the class:

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, Nancie taught hand applique and made this pretty purple wallhanging ... or in my case, a warm blankie! They all gather around the table and had a good ol' fashioned quilting bee ... but I couldn't stay long, I was off on more adventures. (Don't worry, there are photos of my many antics!)

 

If you took this class, we'd love to see (and post photos) of your finished project!

 

 

 

Did you attend the Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival? What was your favorite parts? Did you take any classes? Was there a quilt on disply that stood out for you or one that inspired you? Tell us what adventures you had at the Rocky Mountain Quilt and come back to visit and see what trouble I may have gotten into along the way!