NEW ADDY FOR MY BLOG!

Hi Everyone!

Well my new updated (and still many more updates to be made) website has gone live!

The address is still www.mdquilts.com

But one of the best features is that my blog will now be hosted right on the front page.  This will make it easier for me to link information for all of you regarding all kinds of stuff.

So head over here now for a blog post about something new and exciting that will be released next month and to following my posts these next two weeks about what has been going on “behind the scenes”.

….come on….it’s as easy as clicking right here.

www.mdquilts.com

I’ll race ya over!

There’s something big goin’ on….

 

I have a huge (read into this queen size bed quilt) project that I have on the "TO DO" list with a very, very, very (read into this by the end of September) short deadline.   

 

 

 

 

I have made a goal calendar for where I should be every day when I close my eyes.  I am going hard on it with a stepped up due date of Sept 25th.  I work best when I leave wiggle room at the end. 

 

I can't wait to share this with all of you as I am loving it.  (read into it my Civil War Repros loving heart is singing).

 

I ask that you just hang in there with me and as soon as a cover is decided (oops there's a clue) and the nod is given for release I (and someone else...another clue)  will let you in on what we have been working on.

Now back to your regularly scheduled quilting.   Carry on.

Rollin out of Home Depot with this!

I’ve been doing a lot of errand running lately.   It just seems the days are filled with stopping here and there.

I really want to be in my studio as the new project I am working on has me so psyched up I was sewing to 2:30am last night.

Soon I can share.

Very soon.

But while out and about doing the aforementioned errands a stop to Home Depot was on the list.

Actually stops to Home Depot are ALWAYS on the list but that is another story.

This stop had me in the general hardware department to purchase some brand new hand clips to hang the benefit quilt at the Brews4Drew event this weekend.

While walking to the clips I spotted this new and nifty tool cart.  Well new to me. 

LOOK at how it cantilevers out!  And I know I can get my featherweight in the bottom container. 

And it’s on wheels with it’s own luggage-like handle!

I am loving this. 

And I have a whole bunch of driving gigs on the schedule next year.  This would be perfect for moving all my “stuff” into a hotel room in one fell swoop. 

Or how about for retreats. Or day sewing with a friend.

I do believe I will be back for one.

But there is gonna be some embellishing.   Basic black doesn’t not work for me.

It was $80.  I see a lot of Christmas list potential.

 

Another Road Warrior is born.

Where does time go?  Oh I know we have all heard this over and over again.

But truly this year just seems to be flying by.

I can hardly believe it is September already.

And I can hardly believe that the Holiday weekend is basically over.  Well at least for us.

It can’t be that just 72 hrs ago we were wild with anticipation for Em’s flight to come in at 6:50pm from Little Rock.  Well by the way of Baltimore.

 

 

 

And then the storms blew thru. 

And we all know what happens next.

 

 

And we eventually picked her up at 10:30pm.

So much for hanging together the first night.  Paul has had to work this entire weekend and well Em was just exhausted from her marathon travel day.

So we squeezed a whole lot of together time into Saturday and Sunday.

But I was also able to squeeze in some studio time.

Kitting up blocks for my next two projects.

One that I will be able to share with you starting later this month and well the other will most likely remain between me and the design board until late spring next year.

 

 

With Project #1 I decided to put a dent in my overflowing Civil War tubs of stash.

Going totally scrappy in this quilt so for 36 blocks I needed a minimum of 216 different fabrics. I lost count after 250.   Now keep in mind these are very small amounts of each fabric.  Some might appear as only a 4.5” square in the quilt. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was so happy I had this jelly roll (but cut at 3.5” x 20”) of shirtings in the stash.   I bought this earlier this year while out in Tucson, AZ.   Perfect for this project!  

So I sliced and diced and cut some more and now I have the “fixins” for 36 blocks to sew while out at Quilt Expo later this week.   

YES! Traveling up to Madison.  So that means I will get to see Pauli this week.  Oh my both kids in one week.  I am truly a lucky mom.

Project #2 involves my using the 4000+ 4” blocks of fabric that I used to use in my Coloriffic Workshop.  I have decided to retire this workshop after 12 years and it will be gone from the line up with the unveiling of my brand new All-Spiffed-Up website in about 10 days.

So I have conjured up an plan and it involves many 6” blocks.   So I started with making a bunch of half square triangles…and some other mystery pieces.  And then put all the pieces together for a block with a pin.  More things work on the road.

But for now I just dropped Emily off at the airport. 

Tomorrow she begins her life traveling for Hendrix College in the capacity of an Admission Counselor.   With just 14 days home from tomorrow until Halloween she most definitely will be a road warrior.   I have shared with her all the bits of wisdom I have compiled myself over the years of traveling. 

She makes her father and I so proud.   She and her brother make us look like great parents. 

I can hardly wait for her batch of road stories at Thanksgiving.

P.S. Please note I was forced to purge my personal Facebook Page and ask all of you to move over and join the Pieced Hexies with Mickey Depre professional page.  This will allow all of us to talk and share all aspects of quilting (and life) under one “roof”.  

Every Guy Needs Stuff

Back in March Paul and I found this gem on Craigslist and made a beeline to it.

On the way home we named the machine Kermit.  A nod to it’s green color and Paul’s insistance that every machine does not have to be a female.

Kermit sat in the studio for months.  Life just got in the way of doing anything with him.

Then one day we ran him thru his paces.  Oh my he sews like a dream.  

But back in the cabinet he went for another day.

Weeks passed.

Then I got a little tired of pushing the cabinet out of the way and since it was in such poor shape.  Well out Kermit came.

Then he sat on the studio counter. 

He needed detailing and a base box.

I purchase a box from Stitches In Time a vendor on ebay.  They deal in tons of vintage sewing machine parts, manuals, accessories.

Definitely a bookmark into your ebay vendor list.

Stitches in Time

 

 

The base box arrived last week.

 

Made of cherry wood, it is truly meant for a hand crank machine but it does the job for Kermit and the side tray can be used to hold “stuff”.  And everything has it’s own stuff.

 

 

 

Paul spent a few hours carefully detailing. 

 

 

And just look at Kermit now.

He is so handsome. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He now lives on the bookcase in the guest room.  His green color just adds spark to the dusty purple/grey décor.

 

 

 

 

(note Paul was sick with the flu when he took this pic for me on Tues…thus he placed Kermit in backwards.  I forgive him as he did such a great job cleaning him up on Sunday)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just look at his shine!

 

Hope Emily enjoys sharing his space when she visits this weekend. 

Can’t wait to hug my baby girl.

The Great Stash Bust!

I spent the last two days in the studio cleaning up. 

This meant I put away all the fabric I used in the next book.  I had been stacking all the used fabric pieces in a special bin…well bins by the time I was done.  So that I could guarantee that a fabric would only be used once during the making of all 84 commercial fabric samples for the next Pieced Hexies Book.  Each sample uses a minimum of 4 fabrics, with some designs up to 6 fabrics….so you can see a whole lot of fabrics were used.

So the goal was to straighten up everything.  Shoehorn all the fabric back into the appropriate bins.  And take a deep breath.  And sew.

While shoehorning I ran across some old friends which have lived in the fabric neighborhood for years.

It is time to move them out of the stash and into a quilt.

First group to be removed.  The hand marbled fabrics.

This collection has not been touched in 10 years minimum.  Time to take action.

 

 

 

 

 

I started by cutting the pieces into 2.5” strips. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I remembered the huge pile of black kona “odds–n-ends” left over from all the backings of the samples.

 

Guess what!?!  These fabrics are going to land up as some crazy 9 patches….maybe to go on to live as Sisters Choice blocks…or something else.

But it’s happening!  That marbled stash is beautiful..it needs to live in a quilt for all to see! 

I challenge you to take a good look at your stash and find the hidden treasure that you have held on to for ages and cut if up and start to “move it out”!.

There is more.

 

This is the Civil War and 30’s stash.  They are up next for “moving out”. 

 

 

And then it’s on to this stash. 

 

This is gonna take awhile.

One Raccoon, Two Raccoons, EIGHT!

One of the days spent at Quilt Villa in the mountains of NC with Bonnie Hunter we went out exploring.

The plan was to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway but mother nature had plans for pouring rain that late morning so we drove for a bit to the town of Boone.

What do two vintage loving quilters do when their scenic drive plans are rained out? 

They go antiquing.

And since we were freestyin’ this adventure we took what ever came our way via the road.

We landed up stopping at four Antique shops/malls that day and had a blast. 

But the first stop proved to the be the winner in oddities.

 

As soon as we walked it we knew we were in a “Man’s” antique shop.  Not just because we were the only females inside the walls but because there wasn’t a doily, apron, nor a quilt to be found.  Heck there where hardly any kitchen items at all. 

 

 

 

 

But there was taxidermy. 

Now let me preface this by saying I am married to a hunter (no not a relative of Bonnie’s).   Heck at my in-laws 9 extra sets of eyes watch tv with you in the rec room.  

 

 

 

 

It is an art.  But truly why would I want a family of four raccoons keeping an eye on me?

 

 

 

 

And then we turned into this booth. 

Now this taxidermist and I connect.

I could live with this as it makes me giggle.

 

 

 

But this piece turned those giggles into laughs.

Bonnie was playing look out while I snapped away.

I had to shoot (LOL…ok now laughing as I type) this one twice as the first pic was so blurry from laughing.

 

But this truly was the ONE.  This is the piece I want in my cabin someday.  We pretty much hightailed it out of there after this pic….laughing all the way to the van.

Life is better with laughter,

Tale of Two Cutting Tables

There is nothing better then be holed up in a cabin in the woods with a quilting friend, fabric, sewing machine, munchies and electricity.

So much fun was had during the 4 days Bonnie Hunter and I spent sewing.  

But around day 3 we realized we were bumping elbows at the shared cutting table and action was needed.

Bonnie whipped out another table from storage.  (truly it was like something out of James Bond with how this table materialized from the storage area with it’s own mat, rotary cutter, extra light, etc.)   That girl is good.

As soon as she got it all set up and was cutting away in BonnieLand….well I couldn’t help myself.

I needed to “reclaim” the space I had.

And in MickeyLand that means there is some …ummm….straightening up to do. 

I did this quietly.  Hoping Bonnie wouldn’t notice.

But she did.  And cracked up.

So while we are the best of friends, finishing each other sentences, laughing and crying together….well we are two different quilters when it comes to our cutting tables.

I bet that extra table comes out on day one of our next “quiltfest at QuiltVilla”. 

Wait to you see what I have to share tomorrow.

Brews4Drew Quilt is Done!

Thanks to everyone who sent in a block or two (or four!) for the Brews4Drew Quilt that will be auctioned off on September 8th at the Brews4Drew Fundraiser.

I am happy to say that Drew had his stem cell transplant yesterday and now he is on the flip side of this horrible nightmare called cancer.

He will be pretty much in isolation for the next few months so unfortunately he won’t be making an appearance at the fundraising event but if the reason is he is recovering and building strength we are good with that.

The quilt is awesome.  It measures 84x 84.  Much love and thanks to Cathy Boo for not only helping me put it all together but for also helping me binding it on Monday.

 

 

And to Debbie Van Kuiken/Warm & Tender Quilting of Oak Forest, Il for the spectacular freehand custom quilting job!  You rocked it Debbie and I will forever be grateful for your helping me out when time became an issue.

Here’s hoping that the Bears Fans at the fundraiser will go crazy for it!

 

I can’t believe I have been home already for a week from my adventure in North Carolina.  Still so many pics and stories to share.

I did return home to this this little beauty in the mail.  I was bidding on it on ebay while away, and when cellphone/internet coverage was not available the auction ended and I had lost.  But then two days later I got a second chance as the original buyer flaked out and the seller offered it to me at my highest bid….uummm YES!

And it beat me home. 

Isn’t she a beaut.

BLOCK: Improved Nine Patch

and it has been modernized into an english paper piecing pattern.

(Look here and see -scroll to the bottom of the page)

And that 30s bubble gum pink.

sigh.

 

 

 

 

 

The original maker didn’t finish one edge with pink melons so that actually makes my decision easier.

I will trim the entire quilt down to straight edges and add an inner and outer border.

 

I am thinking a turquoisey blue solid for the 1” inner border.   And another shade of pink or robin’s egg blue for the outer border.  In fact I think there might be a trip to buy the kona solid today.  hmmmmm…..

Enjoy the day,

Toadally Awesome Winnie Star

My good friend Brenda Esslinger sent me a picture of her version of the Pieced Hexie Star WINNIE to share!

Brenda is a very talented long arm quilter, quiltmaker,  author and teacher.

Her studio name is Toadally Awesome Quilting and she lives in Oklahoma City, OK.  

She also has a new book out called Fabulous Fractures.  Her publisher is Ashton Publications and you can find information about her book here.

You can find more of her work here in her Etsy shop.

And as always you can find the FREE PDFs for Pieced Hexie Star Patterns on the right hand side of this page.

Today is binding day here.  I hope to have the Brews4Drew quilt done and able to share it tomorrow or Wednesday.

Take Care,