A Week Down Under

A little fun with the Post title since it doesn’t refer to traveling to Australia but to the time I spent in my sewing space which I named Studio UP (Underground Palace) which is the finished basement where most of my quilt joy happens. One of the disadvantages of sewing done under are the spiders who are not spinning me fabric but instead are annoying me with their nasty webs and sometime appearances. One of the ways I deal with these unwanted studio mates are with “Spider” Balls. After spending this past week down under,  I decided I needed to replenish my supply after I made two flimsies which you will see below. They’re quick and easy to make with the leftover skinny fabric strips made when die-cutting, which I hate to discard, and the never ending batting scraps. I fold a 2” batting square in quarters and then wrap at least a 20” x 1/4 wide strip around the batting square. I do add a spot of glue before and after wrapping to hold the strip in place and trim any fabric frays. They are not round as balls and remind me more of oyster crackers but naming them spider crackers just didn’t appeal to me. Like moth balls, my Spider Balls are repellants once I add a few drops of peppermint essential oil. I could use white cotton balls but these are way more prettier. I put the Spider Balls in glass jars, group them in lids or push one in a water bottle cap which would also make a compact pin cushion. I do have to refresh them with the peppermint essential oils every few days but I see it as exercise since they are placed all around my 20’x30’ studio and it does make my studio smell good. As you can see, my latest batch of Spider Balls  filled an empty oatmeal container and were made while watching TV upstairs. I will admit that the Spider Balls don’t deter the spiders entirely and in which case I have to use my voice activated Spider Man system which is my screaming and Hubby running down the stairs. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work when he’s not home.

The Spider Balls were made mostly from trimmings from Jen Kingwell (JK) fabrics, another reason for the reference to Down Under, used for the two flimsies finished this past week. The top quilt is the Wensleydale pattern designed by Jen Kingwell, the Down Under Quit Extraordinaire, a foundation pieced project, which I started last October and finished sewing all 60 sixty blocks in early June. The bottom quilt was made with a JK’s Fine and Sunny Jelly Roll plus some of her other fabric lines in order to make the Running Doe Quilts Mazed pattern larger which I’m definitely going to make again. Once these quilts are a finally finished I’ll do another Post. And to add to the Down Under vibe is while I was sewing these two flimsies, I was listening to one of my favorite authors, Kate Morton’s latest book Homecoming which is set in Australia.

We’re heading to the GP house where Hubby is finishing the basement and planning a studio space for me. I know when that happens I’ll definitely will make more Spider Balls which I already have the makings needed and way more courage since I still have not gone down under there still after four years. (For those who don’t know, the GP House is the Grandparent House which we purchased this 100 year old fixer-upper and is next door to the darling Granddaughter. It is our second home where we visit every other week. I have avoided the basement after Hubby found some meat hooks hanging around and I don’t like horror movies). I would rather fly to down under and I don’t like to fly despite claims from my menfolk that I fly on a broom, than go down to the GP basement.

Happy Sewing wherever you sew!

Celebrating My Country Threads Camraderie

Ever since I began quilting over twenty-five years ago, the Country Threads Quilt Shop (Country Threads) has been part of my quilting life. It started the good old fashioned way before the worldwide web when I received a catalogue around twenty-seven years ago from Quilt Farm, a shop or a mail-order company located in Minnesota and one of the first places I purchased fabric through the mail. Besides offering fabric and notions for sale in their catalog, they wrote tidbits and going-ons and mentioned that they were collecting blocks for a wedding quilt to be made for the then Mary Tindall for her upcoming marriage to Rick Etherington. But our friendship did not start with quilting, so I thought, but after subscribing to the Country Threads Goat Gazette, I was so smitten with Mary’s goat Susannah who was famous for her antics around the shop and most notably being caught inside the UPS truck. Fast forward to more than ten years later during which time, I purchased numerous Country Thread books and patterns, most notably made a Bulls-Eye Quilt, I finally met Mary at the Rosemont Quilt Show in early 2013(?) and did I talk to her about their lovely quilts, No,  it was all about Susannah. It was at that time I decided that I would one day visit her shop in Garner, Iowa which was a Quilters’ Mecca back then.

I finally met Susannah in August, 2013 and brought her many treats which she enjoyed very much. As I was preparing to write this Post and looking through photos, I was surprised to see  that my camraderie with Mary and Connie Tesene is less than ten years old. It seems like I’ve known them forever. The word Camraderie is defined as “mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together” which I think includes time spent online. Although I only visited Mary six times during the past ten years, we keep in touch almost every day through her Blog, emails or text messages. 

On several occasions we have exchanged fabric bombs and gifts through the mail or in person. On my recent visit in May, I brought Mary and Connie one of my feedsack mats in a wire basket (which I will write about someday) and I received a lovely pouch made by Connie who also makes the best rhubarb pie.

There is a “business” side to our Camraderie and that is my participation for the past three years in the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge which I listed twelve UFOs which mostly have been flimsies needed to be quilted. The Challenge starts in July and ends in June of the following year and I have been successful each year in finishing twelve quilts, one for each month and some of them being UFOs for over twenty years. I like to say that by participating in this Challenge, it has made me an honest quilter by making me work on projects I call “have to dos” and giving me some sort of focus. The 2022/23 Challenge was a little different than previous years whereby besides working on an UFO which was determined by the number drawn, you can now work on a project determined by a Color drawn for the month. I added something to the challenge with three more categories which included a Designer, Fabric Stash and Scraps which gave me a choice of sixty projects for the year. I thought I didn’t do to well but if you base it on only ten projects needed to be finished because we were off in January and February and that flimsies counted, I did pretty well because I finished thirteen quilts and made seven flimsies.

While I was on vacation during May/June and remembering that the old Challenge was ending and a new one beginning in July, I came up with my projects which I make a monthly photo collage so I know what was up when the number and color was drawn. I want to mention that I’m not doing a project based on color but am doing a true Bakers Dozen by coming up with thirteen months and five categories which are, Flimsies to be Quilted, UFO- Projects Started or Kits,  Fabric Designer, Fabric Stash and Scraps. This makes 65 projects to choose and it’s going to be a fun year. I’ve added the seven flimsies made from last year to this year’s Challenge. BTW, Mary added something different to this year’s Challenge by including another category called an Extra Credit Challenge which you can read about in this Post.

No. 7 was pulled for July and I am so excited because I have five projects to choose from: the FALLoween # 2 to be quilted, the Wensleydale blocks to be sewn together, the Fat Quarter Shop Razzle Dazzle pattern to be made with Ruby Star Fabrics, the Lucy June fabrics designed by Lila Tueller and scraps from Crazy Mom Good Neighbor fabric line. One of these projects will hopefully be a Post in July.

Now back to the fun part. Mary sent me a very lovely “exchange” several weeks ago which was her “Oh, Susannah” book and I waited to post until  today which is Mary’s birthday and she’s posted about this Book. It might not be unusual now to have a Goat in the House but back then it was and I made a friendship because of this. I love seeing the photos of Susannah and I should mention that I have several photos of her in my studio.The Master Quilt Holder who has been butted by Susannah and still complains about it was wondering why this wasn’t mentioned in the book. Mary said if she had listed everyone who Susannah bestowed this love tap too,  the book would have more pages, maybe the size of  a phone book—that’s a good old fashioned vision, isn’t it. Mary is selling Oh Susannah and you can order one for $20 which includes shipping and tax. You can send a check made out to Mary Etherington, 2345 Palm Ave., Garner, IA 50438 (this is not an affiliate link). I will be reading this book to the darling Granddaugher and I will be protecting it as she has a rather mean hand with a crayon.

Now that I realize that this year is a ten-year anniversary and needs to be celebrated, I’m going to have a Camraderie Chat with Mary. We were already planning on sewing an Ernie Quilt in September but maybe I need to do a two day visit in the Fall with sewing in the Shop, entertainment by the Master Quilt Holder and Mary’s sister Becky Rose who have formed a musical duo and maybe order Pizza from any place other than the last place we ordered. I mentioned earlier in this Post, that our friendship didn’t start with Quilting but maybe in a way it was prophetic because the wallhanging above was purchased for my Family Room at a craft fair in 1997. I did not find out until years later that this was a Country Threads pattern. It is a small world when Quilting is involved.