American Quilter Magazine: Jinny Beyer

One of the earliest influences on my quilting was this book by Jinny Beyer:

http://www.amazon.com/Quilters-Album-Blocks-Borders-Identification/dp/0914440926/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270182312&sr=1-4

I swiped that image off Amazon's website.  I bought the book back in the 80s. I used to buy her fabric. The first time I won anything, a gift certificate from a quilt shop, for $50, I spent it on long  quarters of Jinny Beyer's fabric. At that point, fabric was cheaper, so I got a lot of it.

American Quilter Magazine has a lovely article about Jinny, with a quick biography of her. And then an article about mixing two blocks in a quilt. I enjoyed seeing that very much. Jinny is interesting to me, because she was overseas, away from other quilters when someone introduced her to quilting. She had to pretty much find her own way, using Indian fabrics instead of American calicos. Her quilts are marvelous. I found my way to my current quilts through studying Amish quilts, and Jinny's quilts and all kinds of traditional quilts.  Jinny's still appeal to me very much, as do the Amish quilts.

Wonder-Under is more greener

The folks at Pellon are so good to me. Every year, they send me boltage of Wonder-Under to use for my own work and for my teaching. I love Wonder-Under and use it in all of my work. One thing that was annoying me was the plastic instruction sheet that is wound on the bolt along with the fusible. It annoys me to deal with it and it's plastic, something I'd rather limit to places I have to use it.

So, I'm very happy to see that now Wonder-Under instructions come on a lightweight recyclable paper printed with green ink.

Now I can start thinking of uses for the paper. I don't think it's will be usable as a cover sheet, the way the paper on the Wonder-Under itself can be, since they specifically prepare that, but it will come in handy for note taking while I work on quilts.

San Antonio/Kerrville Texax

I am now in Kerrville, getting ready to speak to the guild here tomorrow, Monday March 15. Oh no, that's the Ides of March... and apparently today was Pi Day. I was in San Antonio starting on Thursday. Great group on San Antonio.

I would show you a cute picture I took of two women from the guild, who took my class on Friday and completed their samples, but I forgot to ask their permission and get their names. So instead, I will show you a picture of the waffles I had yesterday morning. (And again today). Texans seem to be very proud of their state. Illini, not so much. I have never seen waffles the shape of Illinois.

How I bury knots

I haven't been very good at updating my blog. I'm sorry.

In any case, I posted the following to the Quiltart list and people keep asking me for it again. So here it is. I'll take some pictures the next time I'm in the basement at my longarm with a camera and then post it here.

1. I start and stop my lines of machine quilting by pulling the bobbin thread up to the top of the quilt and leaving tails that are several inches long.
2. I take a crewel needle or other hand stitching needle with a large eye.
3. I cut a piece of hand quilting thread or thick machine sewing thread about 24" long. The thread should be stronger than the thread you used to quilt the quilt. Let's call this the carrier thread.
4. I put both cut ends of the carrier thread through the eye of the crewel needle and pull them through a few inches, leaving a loop of thread on the other side. (If you have the clover needle thread, you can do this faster by just pulling on the loop.)  Let's call this thing the carrier.
5. Insert the needle of the carrier through the quilt exactly where the top thread came through the quilt. I take about a one inch stitch, going only through the top and batting, not coming out the back.
6. I grab all four carrier threads, the loop and the two ends, along with the needle and pull it just until the needle comes back out of the quilt.
7. There should still be a loop on top of the quilt, where you want to bury the thread. Put your hand through the loop, grab the threads you want to bury and pull on the needle, again, holding all layers of the carrier thread.  Let the carrier thread slide over your hand and catch the quilting threads. The carrier thread should disappear into the quilt, pulling the threads you want to bury along with it, and then the ends will all pop out on top where you ended the stitch. Pull on the buried threads to put them under tension and then trim them. The ends will disappear into the quilt.

I have found this to be much faster than threading a self threading needle over and over and it also will work when the thread you have to bury is only a quarter inch long.

My new chair

My pinkies have been numb since February. I thought it was carpel tunnel, so I got a new ergonomic keyboard. No change, and it seemed to be getting worse. I finally went to my doctor and he said "you lean on your elbows a lot don't you?" Why yes, I do. Apparently when you lean on your elbows too much, you can inflame the tissue around your ulnar nerve and your pinkies and the outer half of your ring fingers can go numb.

Here's the problem: my computer desk is too high. It's not really a computer desk, it's actually a library table from about 1930, made out of quartersawn oak, in the mission style. I found it in an antique shop in Richmond, IL about a decade ago. It was in good shape except the only drawer which had a bad bottom. I paid $100 for the desk, fixed the drawer and I really love the table.

Today I went to Crate and Barrel to see if they had a computer desk that I liked. I found a couple, took a catalog and then made my way home. I stopped at a Staples store to look for a desk chair. My current chair is a $20 piece of junk from Ikea. It's a kitchen table, sorta. It's really junky, but I haven't found something I really like. Remember dinettes? That's what I want. A kitchen set. Not another dining room set.

Anyway, at the Staples, I found a chair that was a knockoff of a very expensive ergonomic chair. It had a mesh back, arm rests that go up and down. The chair tilts forward and back, the seat back tilts back and forth. It has lumbar support. It was $150.  A light turned on in my head. IF I got a chair that raised me up high enough, I wouldn't have to buy a lower desk! And, I could put my feet on the shelf from the library table, or get a footstool. Since my legs are really short and they barely reach the ground when I sit on a regular chair. AND, if I had ARMRESTS, I'd have somewhere for my elbows to rest, besides on the DESK. I needed this chair.

But the only one they had had a box that looked like it was falling apart. I left.

Got home about six pm, and talked to my brother a while. Brian was out at a business dinner and I had to pick him up at the train station at 8:50pm. At 8:10, it dawned on me that I should go to the closest Office Max and see if THEY had a chair like the one from Staples. I would get there at precisely 8:20, and then have until 8:40 when I would have to leave. I didn't want Brian to be standing around the train station wondering if I forgot to come get him.

I walked swiftly into the store, looking for the chair. Didn't find it. But I found a LEATHER chair, with all the adjustable parts. But it was on a pedestal. And there was a sign saying not to climb on the pedestal. Luckily just then, a very nice salesclerk came by. I told her that I wanted to try out this chair, could she help me take it down?. She said "Well, you'll just have to climb on that pedestal." I pointed to the sign, she laughed, took the chair down and I sat right down on it. Then rolled myself over to a desk to test the height.  Perfect. AND it is made by Sealy, the bed people. AND it was on sale, $150, marked down from $205. Leather for $150 is much better than mesh for $150.

I told her I had to leave at 8:40 exactly, could she bring one to the counter and check me out in time? She could. And she did. And she helped me to the car.

And I got to the train station just as Brian was getting off the train.

We put together the chair and I'm sitting in it now. The desk is at the right height, my elbows are bent at the right angle. The chair is very cool, we played around tilting it in all directions, adjusting the armrests, etc. I love the chair. I feel like Captain Kirk on the bridge.

I'm all set to see what Apple announces tomorrow, on 9/9/09. My favorite number is 9. My birthday is April 9. which is the 99th day of the year, unless it's a leap year, then it's the 100th day. I should buy a lottery ticket.

Oh, and I stopped at the Apple store to buy Snow Leopard today. Tried to get the salesguy to tell me if they had boxes of new stuff waiting for tomorrow. No dice. Not even a smile about it. But he did answer all my questions about Snow Leopard compatibility with my current software, and he listened to me babble about how much I loved the shuffles that came in different colors, as opposed to the current version which is BORING.

what I'm knitting

Here is a block from the Lizard Ridge Afghan on the Knitty website. It took one skein of Noro Kureyon yarn.  The designer of the afghan adapted it from Barbara Walker's Learn to Knit Afghan Book. The block uses short rows to make the lumps. I can "knit back" from the right needle to the left, instead of turning the work, so I like doing stuff like this. Also, I'm not good enough to knit big stuff, so I like little projects. I figured I could knit the blocks for the afghan, it takes 20 or maybe 21, as I went along.

 I knitted two blocks and then found a knitting shop in Grayslake. My friend Kathleen and I went to a knitting party there, and of course, I had to buy some yarn from them to knit while we were there. It's the only way to be polite. The shop doesn't carry Noro, but they have a similiar yarn, Poems. I bought four skeins of that, in two different colorways. (So, two skeins of each color). I the pattern repeat is 14 stitches, with each block being 43 stitches across. I like to make bags, so I cast on 126 stitches (9 repeats) and knitted it in the round. I had to convert the pattern a bit, to knit in the round. 

Then when I was done, I felted it in my sink, by hand. All the bumps laid flat.

Here's what four skeins look like.  Of course, at this point,  I had to do it again, but bigger, and using Noro. I have a lot of skeins of Kureyon, in different colorways, in the bottom bag, I used 3 colorways, ten skeins altogether. And I knitted in a strap, since I never get around to sewing them on. I haven't felted the bag yet, here it is all big. I'm not sure the straps will end up working correctly, they are sitting in the middle of the front and back sides of the bag.

Now that I have mastered short rows, I think I'm ready to knit some socks.

replying to comments

I can't tell if my comments back on the comments left are actually appearing, I'm new to this, so bear with me if I haven't responded. I do read all the comments and I think it's really nice that you take the time to respond.

Love,
Robbi